man(1) Manual page archive


     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 authenti-
          cates 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 num-
          bered 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 contains 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 written to it.  The post file will only
          exist in a given newsgroup directory 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 num-
          bered article 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 direc-
          tory.  Note that this causes the entire list of groups,
          which can be about a megabyte, to be transferred.

     NNTPFS(4)                                               NNTPFS(4)

          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 neces-
          sary 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 cannot be opened.