FILECHAN(8)							   FILECHAN(8)

NAME
       filechan - file-writing backend for InterNetNews

SYNOPSIS
       filechan [ -d directory ] [ -f fields ] [ -m mapfile ] [ -p pidfile ]

DESCRIPTION
       Filechan	 reads	lines from standard input and copies certain fields in
       each line into files named by other fields within the  line.   Filechan
       is  intended  to	 be called by innd(8) as a channel feed.  (It is not a
       full exploder and does not  accept  commands;  see  newsfeeds(5)forade‐
       scriptionofthedifferenceand buffchan(8)foranexploderprogram.)

       Filechan	 input is interpreted as a set of lines.  Each line contains a
       fixed number of initial fields, followed by a variable number of	 file‐
       name  fields.   All  fields in a line are separated by whitespace.  The
       default number of initial fields is one; the ``-f'' flag may be used to
       specify a different number of fields.

       For  each  line of input, filechan writes the initial fields, separated
       by whitespace and followed by a newline, to each of the files named  in
       the  filename  fields.	When  writing  to a file, filechan opens it in
       append mode and tries to lock it and change the ownership to  the  user
       and group who owns the directory where the file is being written.

       By   default,   filechan	  writes  its  arguments  into	the  directory
       /var/spool/news/out.going.  The ``-d'' flag may be used	to  specify  a
       directory the program should change to before starting.

       If  the	``-p''	flag is used, the program will write a line containing
       its process ID (in text) to the specified file.

       If filechan is invoked with ``-f 2'' and given the following input:
	      news/software/b/132 <1643@munnari.oz.au> foo uunet
	      news/software/b/133 <102060@litchi.foo.com> uunet munnari
	      comp/sources/unix/2002 <999@news.foo.com> foo uunet munnari

       Then the file foo will have these lines:
	      news/software/b/132 <1643@munnari.oz.au>
	      comp/sources/unix/2002 <999@news.foo.com>

       the file munnari will have these lines:
	      news/software/b/133 <102060@litchi.foo.com>
	      comp/sources/unix/2002 <999@news.foo.com>

       and the file uunet will have these lines:
	      news/software/b/132 <1643@munnari.oz.au>
	      news/software/b/133 <102060@litchi.foo.com>
	      comp/sources/unix/2002 <999@news.foo.com>

       Because the time window in which a file is open is very small,  compli‐
       cated  flushing	and locking protocols are not needed; a mv(1) followed
       by a sleep(1) for a couple of seconds is sufficient.

       A map file may be specified by using the ``-m'' flag.  Blank lines  and
       lines starting with a number sign (``#'') are ignored.  All other lines
       should have two host names separated by a colon.	 The  first  field  is
       the  name  that	may appear in the input stream; the second field names
       the file to be used when the name in  the  first	 field	appears.   For
       example,	 the  following	 map  file  may be used to map the short names
       above to the full domain names:
	      #	  This	 is   a	   comment    uunet:news.uu.net	   foo:foo.com
	      munnari:munnari.oz.au

HISTORY
       Written	by  Robert  Elz	 <kre@munnari.oz.au>, flags added by Rich $alz
       <rsalz@uunet.uu.net>.  This is revision 1.14, dated 1993/03/18.

SEE ALSO
       buffchan(8), innd(8), newsfeeds(5).

								   FILECHAN(8)

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