NNTPFS(4)NNTPFS(4)NAME
nntpfs - network news transport protocol (NNTP) file system
SYNOPSIS
nntpfs [ -a ] [ -s service ] [ -m mountpoint ] [ system ]
DESCRIPTION
Nntpfs dials the TCP network news transport protocol (NNTP) port, 119,
on system (default '$nntp') and presents at mountpoint (default
/mnt/news) a file system corresponding to the news articles stored on
system.
If the -s option is given, the file system is posted as /srv/service.
If the -a option is given, nntpfs authenticates to the system with a
user name and password obtained from factotum(4). The key specifier is
proto=pass service=nntp server=server user? !password?
The file system contains a directory per newsgroup, with dots turned
into slashes, e.g., comp/os/plan9 for comp.os.plan9. Each newsgroup
directory contains one numbered directory per article. The directories
follow the numbering used by the server. Each article directory con‐
tains three files: article, header, and body. The article file con‐
tains the full text of the article, while header and body contain only
the header or body.
Each newsgroup directory contains a write-only post file that may be
used to post news articles. RFC1036-compliant articles should be writ‐
ten to it. The post file will only exist in a given newsgroup direc‐
tory if articles are allowed to be posted to it. Other than that, the
post file is not tied to its directory's newsgroup. The groups to
which articles are eventually posted are determined by the newsgroups:
header lines in the posted article, not by the location of the post
file in the file system.
The qid version of a newsgroup directory is the largest numbered arti‐
cle directory it contains (~0, if there are no articles).
The modification time on a newsgroup directory is the last time a new
article was recorded during this nntpfs session. To force a check for
new articles, stat(2) the newsgroup directory.
To force a check for new newsgroups, stat(2) the root directory. Note
that this causes the entire list of groups, which can be about a
megabyte, to be transferred.
To terminate the connection, unmount the mount point.
Nntpfs makes no effort to send ``keepalives'' so that servers do not
hang up on it. Instead, it redials as necessary when hangups are
detected.
EXAMPLE
Authenticate to a private news server:
% echo key proto=pass service=nntp server=nose.mit.edu \
user=rsc !password=secret >/mnt/factotum/ctl
% nntpfs -a nose.mit.edu
SOURCE
/sys/src/cmd/nntpfs.c
BUGS
Directories are presented for deleted articles; the files in them can‐
not be opened.
NNTPFS(4)
