NEWSPOST(1)NEWSPOST(1)NAMEnewspost - a usenet binary autoposter
SYNTAXnewspost [options [arguments]] <filenames>
DESCRIPTION
Newspost is a usenet binary autoposter. It will uuencode or yencode
files and post them to usenet newsgroups. In addition, it can automati‐
cally generate and post .SFV checksum files and .PAR parity files.
OPTIONS-i <address>
The news server to post to. <address> must be either a hostname
or an IP address. If the NNTPSERVER environment variable is
set, this is set to that value by default.
-z <number>
Sets the port on which to connect to <number>.
-u <string>
Sets your username on the news server to <string>.
-p <string>
Sets your password on the news server to <string>.
-f <address>
Your e-mail address. <address> must be a real e-mail address,
or your posts may fail. If the USER and HOSTNAME environment
variables are set, this is set to $USER@$HOSTNAME by default.
-F <string>
Sets your name in the From header line to <string>. Please
note: if your name has spaces in it, it should be enclosed in
quotes.
-o <string>
Sets the Organization header line to <string>. Please note: if
your organization has spaces in it, it should be enclosed in
quotes.
-n <string>
Sets the newsgroup to post to. <string> may also be a comma
separated list of newsgroups, but you may only post to at most 5
newsgroups.
-s <string>
Sets <string> as the Subject header line. This subject line is
always appended with ' - filename (1/9)' (depending on the file‐
name, part number, and number of parts). Other options may add
or change information in the subject line (see those options for
details). Please note: if your subject has spaces in it, it
should be enclosed in quotes. See EXAMPLES for more informa‐
tion.
-w <string>
Sets the Followup-To header line. <string> must be a newsgroup.
-m <address>
Sets the Reply-To header line. <address> must be an e-mail
address.
-r <string>
Set the References header line. <string> must be a message-ID
or a comma-separated list of message-IDs.
-x By default all posts include the "X-No-Archive: yes" header.
This option DISABLES that behaviour.
-X <string>
Sets <string> as a complete header line. This option may be
specified multiple times to add more header lines. Please note:
do not use this feature unless you know exactly what you are
doing.
-q This specifies that ' - File 01 of 10: ' (depending on the file
number and number of files) will be added to the subject line
after text specified by the -s switch, and before the file
information. If the file being posted is a generated .SFV file,
then the string is ' - SFV File 1 of 1: '. If the file is a
generated .PAR file, the string is ' - PAR File 01 of 10: '
(depending on the .PAR file number and the number of .PAR
files). See EXAMPLES for more information.
-y Use yencoding instead of uuencoding. Yencoding results in
smaller, faster posts, but most news readers do not support yen‐
coding. When yencoding is enabled, ' - "filename" yEnc (1/9)'
is appended to the subject line instead of what is specified
above for the -s option. Please see http://www.yenc.org for
more information about yencoding.
-e <filename>
Posts <filename> as a text file (no encoding) before the first
file posted. This file is posted with the exact subject line as
the first file posted, except that (0/9) is displayed as the
part number (depending on the number of parts in the first file
posted). As an alternative, "-0" (zero, not 'O') may be used
instead of "-e".
-E Opens the editor set by the EDITOR environment variable to cre‐
ate a temporary text file which is posted as a prefix, like a
file specified with the -e option. If EDITOR is not set then vi
is used.
-c <filename>
Generates and posts a .SFV checksum file named <filename>. If
<filename> does not end in '.sfv', it will automatically be
appended to the filename. Note the change from newspost 1.x,
which used "-v" for this option; also, the .SFV file is now
posted first instead of last.
-a <filename>
Generates and posts .PAR files whose name is based on <file‐
name>. If <filename> does not end in '.par', it will automati‐
cally be appended to the filename. The .PAR header will end in
'.par', and each .PAR volume will end in '.p01', '.p02',
etcetera. Please see http://parchive.sourceforge.net for more
information about .PAR files.
-A <number>
Sets the number of .PAR volumes to create to <number>. This is
in addition to the .PAR header file. The -a option must be used
for this option to do anything.
-B <number>
Sets the number of .PAR volumes to create based on the number of
files. For every <number> files, newspost will create one .PAR
volume. This is in addition to the .PAR header file. By
default, newspost creates one .PAR volume for every ten files
posted.
-l <number>
Sets the number of lines per message to <number>. Most people
post messages which are between 5000 and 10000 lines long. By
default, this is set to 7500. Note: For uuencoded messages,
this is the actual number of lines in the body of the message;
but for yencoded messages, it's used to determine the size of
each segment before encoding, by multiplying the specified num‐
ber of lines by 45 (which is the size of a uuencoded line before
encoding). Thus, the size of each segment before encoding is the
same for either method, but the actual line count for yencoded
segments will vary.
-t When this option is specified, one file may be posted as a plain
text message. If no file is specified, EDITOR (or vi) is opened
to create the message.
-T <number>
Sets the time to wait before posting to <number>. This number
is interpreted in seconds by default, but you can specify, for
example, "3m" if you want 3 minutes, or "1h" if you want 1 hour.
This number can also be specified in hours:minutes:seconds or
minutes:seconds format. e.g. "5:30" if you want to wait 5 min‐
utes 30 seconds, or "4:0:0" if you want to wait 4 hours. This
value is set to 10 seconds by default, and may not be set to
less than 3 seconds.
-k <dirname>
Sets the directory to be used for storing temporary files to
<dirname>. <dirname> must exist. If the TMPDIR environment
variable is set, this is set to that value by default. If the
TMP environment variable is set (and TMPDIR is not), this is set
to that value by default.
-d Sets the current options as default by saving them to
$HOME/.newspostrc. Only the following options may be saved as
default: -i, -z, -u, -p, -f, -F, -o, -n, -w, -m, -x, -q, -y, -B,
-l, -X, and -k.
-D <option>
This option disables or clears other options. When y, q, or x
is passed as <option>, it has the OPPOSITE effect of either the
-y, -q, or -x option, respectively. It will clear the corre‐
sponding options for u, p, F, o, w, and m. It also takes X as
an argument, but it clears ALL extra headers set with the -X
option. This option may be specified multiple times with dif‐
ferent values for <option>. Please note only options that are
not required can be cleared.
-v When this option is specified, newspost will be extra verbose.
(Note that "-v" was used for .SFV generation in newspost 1.x.)
-V Print version information and exit.
-h Print help and exit. This is the default when there are no
arguments.
PARTIAL AND FAKE POSTING
Parts of files may be posted by specifying filenames in the following
format: 'filename:partnumbers'. Colons in the first or second position
(as after a drive letter) are ignored. Partnumbers is a comma-sepa‐
rated list of parts to post. Each item in the list may be any of three
formats: '2' (a single part), '2-5' (parts 2, 3, 4, and 5), or '2+'
(part 2 and all parts up to and including the last part). If, for
example, you want to post parts 2, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, and 12 of
track01.mp3 (a 12 part file), you could specify the filename like this:
'track01.mp3:2,4-6,10+'. If there is no ':' in a specified filename,
newspost will post the entire file. If the number 0 is specified after
the colon, newspost will add the file to generated .SFV and .PAR files,
and preserve ' - File x of y: ' numbering, but not actually post the
file. See EXAMPLES for more information. Please note: If your files
did not post completely, your file is much more likely to post properly
if you repost the entire file, or split the file into smaller parts and
post them.
SPEED INDICATOR
While posting, Newspost shows the approximate upload speed in bytes per
second. This is measured by the total number of encoded bytes sent to
the server. In Newspost 1.x, the speed indicator was based on the num‐
ber of unencoded bytes, so this speed indicator will show a higher num‐
ber, though the speed is the same. If you are connecting to your news
server via a compressed link, you may see a difference in transfer
rates when using uuencoding vs. yencoding.
FILES
$HOME/.newspostrc is an optional file used to store defaults. Newspost
will also read (but not write) the old-style .newspost file if it is
present and .newspostrc is not.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
HOME Specifies your home directory. Newspost will not work properly
if this is not set.
NNTPSERVER
Specifies the hostname or IP address of your news server.
USER Used in creating the default from address if HOSTNAME is set.
HOSTNAME
Used in creating the default from address if USER is set.
TMPDIR Specifies the directory used for creating temporary files.
TMP Specifies the directory used for creating temporary files if
TMPDIR is not set.
EDITOR Specifies the text editor to use.
EXAMPLES
Save your news server, e-mail address, and name as default:
newspost-d -i news.myisp.com -f newspost@sdf.lonestar.org -F
'Jim Faulkner'
Post some files to alt.binaries.test:
newspost-n alt.binaries.test -s 'Here are some songs'
/nfs/music/*.mp3
A subject line from the above post may look like this:
Here are some songs - track01.mp3 (01/15)
Post some files to alt.binaries.test.yenc using yencoding:
newspost-y -n alt.binaries.test.yenc -s 'Here are some more
songs' /nfs/music/*.mp3
A subject line from the above post may look like this:
Here are some more songs - "track01.mp3" yEnc (01/12)
Include "File x of y" in the subject:
newspost-q -y -n alt.binaries.test.yenc -s 'Here are some more
songs' track01.mp3 track02.mp3 track03.mp3
A subject line from the above post may look like this:
Here are some more songs - File 1 of 3: "track01.mp3" yEnc
(01/12)
Make yencode and "File x of y" the default:
newspost-d -q -y
Add extra headers to every post by default:
newspost-d -X 'X-My-Stupid-Header-1' -X 'X-My-Stupid-Header-2'
Clear extra headers and "File x of y", set uuencode, default:
newspost-d -DX -Dq -Dy
Generate and include an SFV file:
newspost-c checksum.sfv -n alt.binaries.test -s 'Here are some
songs' /nfs/music/*.mp3
Generate and include PAR files:
newspost-a parfile.par -n alt.binaries.test -s 'Here are some
songs' /nfs/music/*.mp3
Create a PAR volume for every 7 files posted by default:
newspost-d -B 7
Post with 3 PAR volumes:
newspost-q -a parfile.par -A 3 -n alt.binaries.test -s 'Here
are some songs' /nfs/music/*.mp3
A subject line from the above post may look like this:
Here are some songs - PAR File 1 of 4: parfile.par (1/1)
Post parts 3, 4, and 5 of track01.mp3 to alt.binaries.test:
newspost-n alt.binaries.test -s 'Here are some songs'
track01.mp3:3-5
Post all of track01.mp3, parts of track02.mp3 and track03.mp3:
newspost-n alt.binaries.test -s 'Here are some songs'
track01.mp3 track02.mp3:11+ track03.mp3:1,3,6-8
Resume a broken post at Track02.mp3 preserving -q numbering:
newspost-q -s '2 songs' Track01.mp3:0 Track02.mp3
A subject line from the above post may look like this:
2 songs - File 2 of 2: Track02.mp3 (1/8)
Post an .SFV file and Track02.mp3, but include Track01.mp3 in the .SFV
file:
newspost-c songs.SFV -s '2 songs' Track01.mp3:0 Track01.mp3
AUTHORS
Mostly written by Jim Faulkner <newspost@sdf.lonestar.org>, with some
help from William McBrine <wmcbrine@users.sf.net>. Portions borrowed
from cksfv by Bryan Call, and parchive by Willem Monsuwe.
AVAILABILITY
The most recent version of newspost is available at http://news‐
post.unixcab.org/
Jim Faulkner 2.1.1 NEWSPOST(1)
