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NEWS-RECOVERY(8)					      NEWS-RECOVERY(8)

NAME
       makeactive,  makehistory,  newsrequeue  - tools to recover Usenet data‐
       bases

SYNOPSIS
       makeactive [ -m ] [ -o ]

       makehistory [ -b ] [ -f filename ] [ -i ] [ -n ] [ -o ] [  -r  ]	 [  -s
       size ] [ -T tmpdir ] [ -u [ -v ] ]

       newsrequeue  [ -a active ] [ -h history ] [ -d days ] [ -l ] [ -n news‐
       feeds ] [ input ]

DESCRIPTION
       Makeactive invokes find(1) to get a list of all directories in the news
       spool  tree,  /var/spool/news/spool.   It  discards  directories	 named
       lost+found as well as those that have a period in them.	It  scans  all
       other  directories for all-numeric filenames and determines the highest
       and lowest number.  The program's output is a  set  of  active(5)  file
       lines.  Because there is no way to know if a group is moderated or dis‐
       abled, the fourth field of all entries  will  be	 y.   Also,  mid-level
       directories that aren't newsgroups will also created as newsgroups with
       no entries (for example, there is a ``comp.sources.unix'' group, but no
       ``comp.sources'').

       If  the	``-o''	flag  is used, makeactive will read an existing active
       file for the list of group names and just renumber all groups.  It will
       preserve	 the  fourth field of the active file if one is present.  This
       is analogous  to	 the  ctlinnd(8)  ``renumber''	command,  except  that
       innd(8)	should	throttled  or  not running.  Do not use this flag with
       output redirected to the standard active file!

       If the ``-m'' flag is given, then makeactive will attempt to adjust the
       highest	and lowest article numbers wherever possible.  If articles are
       found in a newsgroup, the numbers will reflect what what was found.  If
       no articles are found in a newsgroup, the high number from the old file
       will be kept, and the low number will be set to one more then the  high
       number.	This flag may only be used if the ``-o'' flag is used.

       Makeactive exits with non-zero status if any problems occurred.	A typ‐
       ical way to use the program is with the following /bin/sh commands:
	      ctlinnd throttle "Rebuilding active file"
	      TEMP=${TMPDIR-/tmp}/act$$
	      if [ -f /var/spool/news/data/active ] ; then
		  if makeactive -o >${TEMP} ; then
		      mv ${TEMP} /var/spool/news/data/active
		  fi
	      else
		  if makeactive >${TEMP} ; then
		      # Edit to restore moderated
		      # and aliased groups.
		      ...
		      mv ${TEMP} /var/spool/news/data/active
		  fi
	      fi
	      ctlinnd reload active "New active file"
	      ctlinnd go ''

       Makehistory rebuilds the history(5) text file and the associated dbz(3)
       database.     The    default    name    of    the    text    file    is
       /var/spool/news/data/history; to specify	 a  different  name,  use  the
       ``-f''  flag.   Makehistory scans the active(5) file to determine which
       newsgroup     directories     within	the	 spool	    directory,
       /var/spool/news/spool,  should be scanned.  (If a group is removed, but
       its spool directory still exists, makehistory  will  ignore  it.)   The
       program reads each file found and writes a history line for it.	If the
       ``-b'' flag is used, then makehistory will remove any articles that  do
       not have valid Message-ID headers in them.

       After  the  text	 file is written, makehistory will build the dbz data‐
       base.  If the ``-f'' flag is used, then the database  files  are	 named
       file.dir	 and  file.pag.	 If the ``-f'' flag is not used, then a tempo‐
       rary link to the name history.n is made	and  the  database  files  are
       written	as  history.n.pag  and	history.n.dir.	 If the ``-o'' flag is
       used, then the link is not made and  any	 existing  history  files  are
       overwritten.   If  the  old database exists, makehistory will use it to
       determine the size of the new database.	To ignore the old database use
       the  ``-i''  flag.  Using the ``-o'' flag implies the ``-i'' flag.  The
       program will also ignore any old database if the ``-s'' flag is used to
       specify	the  approximate number of entries in the new database.	 Accu‐
       rately specifying the size is an optimization that will create  a  more
       efficient database.  (The size should be the estimated eventual size of
       the file, typically the size of the old file.)  For  more  information,
       see the discussion of dbzfresh and dbzsize in dbz(3).

       If the ``-u'' flag is given, then makehistory assumes that innd is run‐
       ning.   It  will	 pause	the  server  while  scanning,  and  then  send
       ``addhist''  commands  (see  ctlinnd(8))	 to the server for any article
       that is not found in the dbz database.  The command ``makehistory -bu''
       is  useful  after  a  system  crash, to delete any mangled articles and
       bring the article database back into a more consistent state.   If  the
       ``-v''  flag  is used with the ``-u'' flag, then makehistory will put a
       copy of all added lines on its standard output.

       To scan the spool directory without rebuilding the dbz files,  use  the
       ``-n''  flag.  If used with ``-u'', the server will not be paused while
       scanning.  To just build the dbz files from an existing text file,  use
       the ``-r'' flag.	 The ``-i'' or ``-s'' flags can be useful if there are
       no valid dbz files to use.  A typical way to use this program  is  with
       the following /bin/sh commands:
	      ctlinnd throttle "Rebuilding history file"
	      cd /var/spool/news/data
	      if makehistory -n -f history.n ; then
		  :
	      else
		  echo Error creating history file!
		  exit 1
	      fi
	      # The following line can be used to retain expired history
	      # It is not necessary for the history file to be sorted.
	      # awk 'NF==2 { print; }' <history >>history.n
	      # View history file for mistakes.
	      if makehistory -r -s `wc -l <history` -f history.n; then
		  mv history.n history
		  mv history.n.dir history.dir
		  mv history.n.pag history.pag
	      fi
	      ctlinnd go ''

       Makehistory needs to create a temporary file that contains one line for
       each article it finds, which can become very large.  This file is  cre‐
       ated in the /tmp directory.  The ``TMPDIR'' environment variable may be
       used to specify a different directory.  Alternatively, the ``-T''  flag
       may be used to specify a temporary directory.  In addition, the sort(1)
       that is invoked during the build writes large temporary files (often to
       /var/tmp	 but  see  your system manpages).  If the ``-T'' flag is used,
       then the flag and its value will be passed to sort.   On	 most  systems
       this will change the temporary directory that sort uses.	 if used, this
       flag and its value will be passed on to the  sort(1)  command  that  is
       invoked during the build.

       Makehistory  does not handle symbolic links.  If the news spool area is
       split across multiple partitions, the following commands should	proba‐
       bly be run before the database is regenerated:
	      cd /var/spool/news/spool
	      find . -type l -name '[1-9]*' -print | xargs -t rm
       Make sure to run the command on all the appropriate partitions!

       Newsrequeue can be used to rewrite batchfiles after a system crash.  It
       operates in two modes.  In the first mode, it first  reads  the	active
       and  newsfeeds(5) files to determine where the different newsgroups are
       to be distributed.  To specify alternate locations for these files, use
       the  ``-a''  or	``-n'' flags.  It then opens the history database.  To
       specify a different file, use the ``-h'' flag

       Once the files are opened, newsrequeue reads from the  specified	 input
       file, or standard input if no file is specified.	 Each line should have
       a single Message-ID, surrounded in angle brackets; any  other  text  on
       the line is ignored.  For example, the history file (or trailing subset
       of it) is acceptable input to the program operating in this  mode.   If
       the  ``-d''  flag is used, then only articles that were received within
       the specified number of days will be processed.

       Newsrequeue uses the first two fields of the newsfeed entry — the site‐
       name  and  the excludes field, and the patterns and distribs field.  It
       ignores all flags in the third field except for the  ``N''  field,  and
       also ignores the fourth field altogether.

       The  second  mode is used if the ``-l'' flag is used.  In this mode, it
       reads from the specified input file, or standard input if  no  file  is
       specified.   Each  line	should look like an innd log entry.  It parses
       entries for accepted articles, looks up the Message-ID in  the  history
       database to get the filename, and then scans the list of sites.

       In either mode, the output of newsrequeue consists of one line for each
       article that should be forwarded.  Each such line contains the Message-
       ID,  the	 filename, and the list of sites that should receive the arti‐
       cle.  The output is suitable for piping into filechan(8).

HISTORY
       Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for  InterNetNews.   This  is
       revision 1.14, dated 1993/03/18.

SEE ALSO
       active(5),  ctlinnd(8), dbz(3), filechan(8), history(5), innd(8), news‐
       feeds(5).

							      NEWS-RECOVERY(8)
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