man(1) Manual page archive


     NEWS(5)                                                   NEWS(5)

     NAME
          news - USENET network news article, utility files

     DESCRIPTION
          There are two formats of news articles: A and B.  A format
          is the only format that version 1 netnews systems can read
          or write.  Systems running the version 2 netnews can read
          either format and there are provisions for the version 2
          netnews to write in A format.  A format looks like this:

          Aarticle-ID
          newsgroups
          path
          date
          title
          Body of article

          Only version 2 netnews systems can read and write B format.
          B format contains two extra pieces of information:  receival
          date and expiration date.  The basic structure of a B format
          file consists of a series of headers and then the body.  A
          header field is defined as a line with a capital letter in
          the 1st column and a colon somewhere on the line.  Unrecog-
          nized header fields are ignored.  News is stored in the same
          format transmitted, see ``Standard for the Interchange of
          USENET Messages'' for a full description.  The following
          fields are among those recognized:

          Header         Information

          From:          user@host.domain[.domain ...] (Full Name)

          Newsgroups:    Newsgroups

          Message-ID:    <Unique Identifier>

          Subject:       descriptive title

          Date:          Date Posted

          Date-Received: Date received on local machine

          Expires:       Expiration Date

          Reply-To:      Address for mail replies

          References:    Article ID of article this is

          Control:       Text of a control message

     NEWS(5)                                                   NEWS(5)

          Here is an example of an article:

          Relay-Version: B 2.10    2/13/83 cbosgd.UUCP
          Posting-Version: B 2.10  2/13/83 eagle.UUCP
          Path: cbosgd!mhuxj!mhuxt!eagle!jerry
          From: jerry@eagle.uucp (Jerry Schwarz)
          Newsgroups: net.general
          Subject: Usenet Etiquette -- Please Read
          Message-ID: <642@eagle.UUCP>
          Date: Friday, 19-Nov-82 16:14:55 EST
          Followup-To: net.news
          Expires: Saturday, 1-Jan-83 00:00:00 EST
          Date-Received: Friday, 19-Nov-82 16:59:30 EST
          Organization: Bell Labs, Murray Hill

          The body of the article comes here, after a blank line.

          A sys file line has four fields, each seperated by colons:

          system-name:subscriptions:flags:transmission command

          Of these fields, on the system-name and subscriptions need
          to be present.

          The system name is the name of the system being sent to.
          The subscriptions is the list of newsgroups to be transmit-
          ted to the system.  The flags are a set of letters describ-
          ing how the article should be transmitted.  The default is
          B.  Valid flags include A (send in A format), B (send in B
          format), N (use ihave/sendme protocol), U (use uux -c and
          the name of the stored article in a %s string).

          The transmission command is executed by the shell with the
          article to be transmitted as the standard input.  The
          default is uux - -z -r sysname!rnews.  Some examples:

          xyz:net.all
          oldsys:net.all,fa.all,to.oldsys:A
          berksys:net.all,ucb.all::/usr/lib/news/sendnews -b
          berksys:rnews
          arpasys:net.all,arpa.all::/usr/lib/news/sendnews -a
          rnews@arpasys
          old2:net.all,fa.all:A:/usr/lib/sendnews -o old2:rnews
          user:fa.sf-lovers::mail user

          Somewhere in a sys file, there must be a line for the host
          system.  This line has no flags or commands.  A # as the
          first character in a line denotes a comment.

          The history, active, and ngfile files have one line per
          item.

     NEWS(5)                                                   NEWS(5)

     SEE ALSO
          inews(8), postnews(1), sendnews(8), uurec(8), readnews(1)