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/etc/mtools.conf
/etc/mtools. This is for backwards compatibility only and is only parsed if mtools.conf doesn't exist.
~/.mtoolsrc
Options described in the later files override those described in the earlier files. Drives defined in earlier files persist if they are not overridden in the later files. For instance, drives A and B may be defined in /etc/mtools.conf and drives C and D may be defined in ~/.mtoolsrc. However, if ~/.mtoolsrc also defines drive A, this new description would override the description of drive A in /etc/mtools.conf instead of adding to it. If you want to add a new description to a drive already described in an earlier file, you need to use either the +drive or drive+ keywords.
BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY
The syntax described herein is new for version mtools 2.5.4. The old line-oriented syntax is still supported. Each line beginning with a single letter is considered to be a drive description using the old syntax. Old style and new style drive sections may be mixed within the same configuration file to make upgrading easier. Support for the old syntax will be phased out eventually, and to discourage its use, I purposefully omit its description here.
FILES
/etc/mtools.conf ~/.mtoolsrc
SEE ALSO
mtools(1)
5 December 1995
newsfeeds—Determine where Usenet articles get sent.
DESCRIPTION
The file /news/lib/newsfeeds specifies how incoming articles should be distributed to other sites. It is parsed by the InterNetNews server innd(8) when it starts up or when directed to by ctlinnd(8).
The file is interpreted as a set of lines according to the following rules. If a line ends with a backslash, then the backslash, the newline, and any whitespace at the start of the next line is deleted. This is repeated until the entire "logical" line is collected. If the logical line is blank or starts with a number sign (#), it is ignored.
All other lines are interpreted as feed entries. An entry should consist of four colon-separated fields; two of the fields may have optional subfields, marked off by a slash. Fields or subfields that take multiple parameters should be separated by a comma. Extra whitespace can cause problems. Except for the site names, case is significant. The format of an entry is
sitename[/exclude,exclude,...]\ :pattern,pattern...[/distrib,distrib...]\ :flag,flag...\ :param
Each field is described below.
The sitename is the name of the site to which a news article can be sent. It is used for writing log entries and for determining if an article should be forwarded to a site. If sitename already appears in the article's Path header, then the article will not be sent to the site. The name is usually whatever the remote site uses to identify itself in the Path line but can be almost any word that makes sense; special local entries (such as archivers or gateways) should probably end with an exclamation point to make sure that they do not have the same name as any real site. For example, gateway is an obvious name for the local entry that forwards articles out to a mailing list. If a site with the name gateway posts an article, when the local site receives the
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article, it will see the name in the Path and not send the article to its own gateway entry. If an entry has an exclusion subfield, then the article will not be sent to that site if any of the names specified as excludes appear in the Path header. The same sitename can be used more than once; the appropriate action will be taken for each site that should receive the article, regardless of the name, although this is recommended only for program feeds to avoid confusion. Case is not significant in site names.
The patterns specify which groups to send to the site and are interpreted to build a "subscription list" for the site. The default subscription is to get all groups. The patterns in the field are wildmat(3)-style patterns and are matched in order against the list of newsgroups that the local site receives. If the first character of a pattern is an exclamation mark, then any groups matching the pattern are removed from the subscription; otherwise, any matching groups are added. For example, to receive all comp groups but only comp.sources.unix within the sources newsgroups, the following set of patterns can be used:
comp.*,!comp.sources.*,comp.sources.unix
There are three things to note about this example. The first is that the trailing .* is required. The second is that, again, the result of the last match is the most important. The third is that comp.sources.* could be written as comp.sources*, but this would not have the same effect if there were a comp.sources-only group.
See innd(8) for details on the propagation of control messages.
A subscription can be further modified by specifying "distributions" that the site should or should not receive. The default is to send all articles to all sites that subscribe to any of the groups where it has been posted, but if an article has a Distribution header and any distribs are specified, then they are checked according to the following rules:
If an article has more than one distribution specified, then each one is evaluated according to the preceding rules. If any of the specified distributions indicate that the article should be sent, it is. If none do, it is not sent: The rules are used as a "logical or." It is almost definitely a mistake to have a single feed that specifies distributions that start with an exclamation point along with some that don't.
Distributions are text words, not patterns; it is usually a mistake to have entries like * or all there.
The flags parameter specifies miscellaneous parameters. They may be specified in any order; flags that take values should have the value immediately after the flag letter with no whitespace. The valid flags are
| < size | An article will only be sent to the site if it is less than size bytes long. The default is no limit. |
| A checks | An article will only be sent to the site if it meets the requirements specified in the checks, which should be chosen from the following set: |
d Distribution header required p Do not check Path header before propagating. | |
| B high/low | If a site is being fed by a file, channel, or exploder, the server will usually start trying to write the information as soon as possible. Providing a buffer may give better system performance and help smooth out overall load if a large batch of news comes in. The value of the this flag should be two numbers separated by a slash. The first specifies the point at which the server can start draining the feed's I/O buffer, and the second specifies when to stop writing and begin buffering again; the units are bytes. The default is to do no buffering, sending output as soon as it is possible to do so. |
| F name | This flag specifies the name of the file that should be used if it is necessary to begin spooling for the site. If name is not an absolute pathname, it is taken to be relative to /news/spool/out.going. Then, if the destination is a directory, the file to go in that directory will be used as filename. |