Innd(8)



INND(8)                   InterNetNews Documentation                   INND(8)

NAME
       innd - InterNetNews daemon

SYNOPSIS
       innd [-aCdfNrsSu] [-4 address] [-6 address] [-c days] [-H count] [-i
       count] [-l size] [-m mode] [-n flag] [-o count] [-P port] [-t timeout]
       [-T count] [-X seconds]

DESCRIPTION
       innd, the InterNetNews daemon, handles all incoming NNTP feeds,
       coordinates the storage, retransmission, and overview generation for
       all accepted articles, and manages the active(5) and history(5)
       databases.  It handles incoming connections on the NNTP port, and also
       creates and listens to a local Unix-domain stream socket in order to
       receive articles from local processes such as nnrpd(8) and rnews(1).

       As the master daemon, innd should generally be started at boot and be
       always running.  It listens to a Unix-domain datagram socket for
       commands to control its activities, commands that can be sent using
       ctlinnd(8).  The current status of innd can be obtained by running
       "ctlinnd mode", or for more detailed output, innstat(8).

       innd can be in one of three operating modes:  running, paused, or
       throttled.  Running is the normal mode; when the server is throttled,
       it closes connections and rejects new ones.  Paused is like a temporary
       throttle, suspending innd's activities but not causing the server to
       shut down existing connections.  The mode is normally changed via
       ctlinnd(8), either by various automated processes (such as nightly
       article expiration) or manually by the news administrator, but innd
       will also throttle itself if it encounters ENOSPC errors in writing
       data or an excessive number of I/O errors (among other problems).

       innd normally takes care of spawning nnrpd(8) to handle connections
       from news reading clients, but it can be run on a separate port from
       nnrpd(8) so that feed connections and news reading connections are
       handled separately (this can often be faster).  Normally, innd listens
       on port 119, the assigned port for NNTP; if it is desirable to run innd
       and nnrpd(8) on separate ports, it's recommended that nnrpd(8) be given
       port 119 (since many news reading clients connect only to that port)
       and that port 433 be used for innd.

       The primary configuration files that control innd's activities are
       incoming.conf, which specifies what remote sites innd will accept
       connections from, newsfeeds, which specifies what is to be done with
       incoming articles besides storing them, and inn.conf, which sets a wide
       variety of configuration parameters.  Some parameters in inn.conf(5)
       can also be set with command-line flags; for these, the command-line
       flags take precedence if used.

       innd must be run as the news user and news group.  It will check for
       this at startup and fail to start if not run properly.  Normally it
       should be started via rc.news(8) as part of the system boot up process.
       It relies on the setuid root helper program innbind(8) to listen on a
       privileged port (119, 433 or 563).

OPTIONS
       For the options below that override inn.conf settings, see inn.conf(5)
       for the default values if neither the inn.conf setting nor the command-
       line option is given.

       -4 address
           Normally, innd binds to all local IP addresses (unless bindaddress
           is set in inn.conf).  If this option is given, it specifies the IP
           address that INN should bind as.  This is only relevant for servers
           with multiple local IP addresses.  The IP address must be in
           dotted-quad ("nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn") format.

           If this option is specified, it's the same as setting bindaddress
           in inn.conf and may cause changes in whether INN binds to an IPv6
           address as well.  See inn.conf(5) for more details and also the -6
           flag for innd.

       -6 address
           Only applies when INN has been built with IPv6 support.  Normally
           innd binds to all local IP addresses (unless bindaddress6 is set in
           inn.conf).  If this option is given, it specifies the IPv6 address
           that INN should bind to.  The IPv6 address must be in colon-
           separated RFC 4291 format ("n:n:n:n:n:n:n:n").

           If this option is specified, it's the same as setting bindaddress6
           in inn.conf and may cause changes in whether INN binds to an IPv4
           address as well.  See inn.conf(5) for more details and also the -4
           flag for innd.

       -a  By default, if a host connects to innd but is not listed in
           incoming.conf, the connection is handed off to nnrpd (or rejected
           if noreader is set in inn.conf).  If -a is given, incoming.conf is
           ignored and any host can connect and transfer articles.  This flag
           should never be used with an accessible server connected to Usenet;
           it would open the server up for all sorts of abuse.

       -c days
           innd normally rejects any article that is older (in days) than the
           value of artcutoff in inn.conf.  This option, if given, overrides
           the value of that setting.  If days is 0, this check is suppressed
           and innd will accept articles regardless of how old they are.

       -C  This flag tells innd to accept and propagate but not actually
           process cancel or supersedes messages.  This is intended for sites
           concerned about abuse of cancels, or that wish to use another
           cancel mechanism with stronger authentication.

       -d, -f
           innd normally puts itself into the background, points its standard
           output and error to log files, and disassociates itself from the
           terminal.  Using -d prevents all of this, resulting in log messages
           being written to standard output; this is generally useful only for
           debugging.  Using -f prevents the backgrounding and disassociation
           but still redirects output; it may be useful if you want to monitor
           innd with a program that would be confused by forks.

       -H count, -T count, -X seconds
           These flags control the number of connections per seconds seconds
           that are allowed.  This code is meant to protect your server from
           newsreader clients that make too many connections per minute (and
           therefore these flags are probably only useful when innd is
           spawning nnrpd).  You probably should not use these options unless
           you're having problems.  The table used for this check is fixed at
           128 entries and is used as a ring; the size was chosen to make
           calculating the index easy and to be fairly sure that it won't run
           out of space.  In practice, it is unlikely that even half the table
           will be used at any given moment.

           The -H flag limits the number of times a host is allowed to connect
           to the server per the time interval given by -X.  The default is 2.

           The -T flag limits the total number of incoming connections per the
           time interval given by -X.  The maximum value is 128, and the
           default is 60.

           Note that the time interval given by -X is set to 0 by default,
           that is to say no control is done on the number of connections.

       -i count
           innd normally allows a maximum number of concurrent NNTP
           connections given by the value of maxconnections in inn.conf.  This
           option, if given, overrides the value of that setting.  If count is
           0, this check is suppressed.

       -l size
           innd normally rejects any article larger than the value of
           maxartsize in inn.conf.  This option, if given, overrides the value
           of that setting and specifies a maximum article size of size.  If
           size is 0, this check is suppressed.

       -m mode
           Normally, innd starts in the "running" mode.  If this option is
           given, it specifies what mode innd should start in.  mode should
           begin with one of "g", "p", or "t", and the starting mode will be
           set to "running", "paused", or "throttled", respectively, based on
           that initial letter.  ("g" is short for "go".)

       -N  If this option is given, any filters (Perl or Python) are disabled
           before innd starts (normally, filters default to being enabled).
           The filters can be enabled after innd has started with ctlinnd(8).

       -n flag
           Whether innd allows (and hands off to nnrpd) reader connections
           while paused or throttled is normally determined by the value of
           readerswhenstopped in inn.conf.  This option, if given, overrides
           that value.  If flag is "n", innd will not allow readers if it is
           paused or throttled.  If flag is "y", readers will be allowed
           regardless of innd's operating mode.

       -o count
           This flag limits the number of file descriptors that are available
           for outgoing file feeds.  The default is the number of available
           file descriptors minus some reserved for internal use (which could
           potentially starve innd of descriptors to use for accepting new
           connections).  If innd has more file feeds than count, some of them
           will be buffered and only written out periodically.

           Normally you never need to use this option, since the number of
           outgoing feeds is fixed, being the number of file feeds configured
           in newsfeeds, and is generally small (particularly given that
           innfeed(8) is now used for most outgoing feeds at large sites).

       -P port
           The port innd should listen on is normally given by the value of
           port in inn.conf.  This option, if given, overrides that value and
           specifies the port that innd should bind to.

       -r  Instructs innd to renumber the active file after starting, just as
           if a "ctlinnd renumber" command were sent.

       -s  Just check the syntax of the newsfeeds file and exit.  innd will
           exit with a non-zero status if any errors are found; the actual
           errors will be reported via syslog(3).

       -S  Report errors found in incoming.conf via syslog(3) and exit
           normally.  (Yes, this is less useful than it should be.)

       -t seconds
           Normally, innd will flush any changes to history and the active
           file after 300 seconds of inactivity.  This option changes that
           timeout to seconds.

       -u  The news log (the trace information for every article accepted by
           innd) is normally buffered.  This option changes the log to be
           unbuffered.

CONTROL MESSAGES
       Arriving articles that have a Control: header are called "control
       messages".  Except for cancel messages, these messages are handled by
       controlchan(8) via a feed set up in newsfeeds.

       (Cancel messages update the history database, so they must be handled
       internally; the cost of syncing, locking, then unlocking would be too
       high given the number of cancel messages that are received.  Note that
       if an article is cancelled before it is received by the news server, it
       will be rejected when it arrives since the history database has been
       updated; it is useful for rejecting spam before it arrives.)

       The distribution of control messages is different than that of standard
       articles.  Control messages are normally filed into the pseudo-
       newsgroup named "control" regardless of which newsgroup they were
       actually posted to.  If, however, a "control."command newsgroup exists
       that matches the control command, the control message will be filed
       into that group instead.  For example, a newgroup control message will
       be filed in "control.newgroup" if that group exists; otherwise, it will
       be filed in "control".

       If you want to specifically feed all control messages to a given site
       regardless of whether the control messages would affect the newsgroups
       you're feeding that site, you can put the appropriate control newsgroup
       in the subscription list.  For example, to feed all cancel messages to
       a given remote site (normally a bad idea), add "control.cancel" to its
       subscription list.  Normally it's best to exclude the control
       newsgroups from feeds to keep from sending your peers more control
       messages than they care about.  That's why the newsfeeds pattern
       "!control,!control.*"  is as often as not specified (adding this
       pattern do not prevent control messages which affect the newsgroups fed
       to a site from being sent to it).

       checkgroups, newgroup and rmgroup control messages receive additional
       special treatment.  If one of these control messages is approved and
       posted to the newsgroup being created or removed (or to the admin group
       to which the checkgroups is posted), the message will be sent to all
       sites whose subscription patterns would cause them to receive articles
       posted to that group.  For example, if a newgroup control message for a
       nonexistent newsgroup "news.admin.meow" is received, it will be sent to
       any site whose subscription pattern would cause it to receive
       "news.admin.meow" if that newsgroup existed (such as a pattern of
       "news.admin.*").  For this reason, it is correct to post newgroup
       messages to the newsgroup that the control message would create.  It is
       not generally correct to crosspost newgroup messages to some "well-
       propagated" newsgroup; not only will this not actually improve their
       propagation to sites that want such control messages, but it will also
       cause sites that do not want those control messages to receive them.
       Therefore, assuming that a newgroup control message is sent to the
       group "news.admin.meow" (specified in the Newsgroups: header) in order
       to create the group "news.admin.meow", the sites with the following
       subscription patterns will receive it:

           *,@news.*
           news.*
           news.*,!control,!control.*
           control,control.*

       As a matter of fact, for the first pattern, "control.newgroup" (or
       "control") is included in "*".  However, the sites with the following
       subscription patterns will not receive it:

           *,@news.*,!control,!control.*
           comp.*,@news.*

       If a control message is posted to a group whose name ends with the four
       characters ".ctl", this suffix is stripped off and the control message
       is propagated as if it were posted to the base group.  For example, a
       cancel message posted to "news.admin.ctl" will be sent to all sites
       that subscribe to "control.cancel" (or "control" if that newsgroup
       doesn't exist) or "news.admin".  This behavior is present for
       historical compatibility reasons and should be considered obsolete;
       support for the ".ctl" suffix may be removed in a future version of
       INN.

       Finally, articles posted to newsgroups beginning with "to." are treated
       specially.  Provided that either that newsgroup exists in the active
       file or mergetogroups is set in inn.conf, the remainder of the
       newsgroup is taken to be a site name, as configured in newsfeeds, and
       the article is sent to that site.  If mergetogroups is set, the article
       will be filed in the group named "to" (which must exist in the active
       file).  For example, with mergetogroups set, an article posted to
       "to.uunet" will be filed in "to" and sent to the site "uunet".

PROTOCOL DIFFERENCES
       innd implements the NNTP commands defined in RFC 3977 (NNTP), RFC 4643
       (NNTP authentication), RFC 4644 (streaming NNTP feeds) and RFC 6048
       (NNTP LIST additions) with the following differences:

       1.  A batch transfer command, XBATCH byte-count, is provided.  This
           command will read byte-count bytes and store them for later
           processing by rnews(1) (which must be run separately, probably from
           cron).  See innxbatch(8) and sendxbatches for more details on this
           extension.

       2.  As INN is a mode-switching news server, innd implements a limited
           subset of the protocol useful for transferring news.  The remaining
           commands are mostly only useful for readers and are implemented by
           nnrpd(8).  Use of the MODE READER command will cause innd to pass
           the connection to nnrpd.

       3.  innd allows a wider syntax for wildmats.

       4.  Three commands (IHAVE, CHECK and TAKETHIS) will continue, for
           interoperability reasons, to return a reject code (respectively
           435, 438 and 439) when the command contains a syntax error (which
           normally leads to 501).

HEADER MODIFICATIONS
       innd modifies as few article headers as possible, although it could be
       better in this area.

       Empty headers and headers that consist of nothing but whitespace are
       dropped.

       The local site's name (as set with the pathhost parameter in inn.conf)
       and an exclamation point are prepended to the Path: header, provided
       the first site name in the Path: header is different from the local
       one.  In addition, pathalias and pathcluster may be similarly
       respectively prepended and appended to the Path: header; see
       inn.conf(5) for the details.

       The Xref: header is removed and a new one created.

       innd does not rewrite incorrect headers.  For example, it will not
       replace an incorrect Lines: header, though it may reject such an
       article depending on the value of linecountfuzz in inn.conf.

CANCEL FEEDS
       In order to efficiently apply a large number of local cancels (such as
       from processing NoCeMs or from some other external source), INN
       supports a special feed mode available only to connections to the local
       Unix-domain socket (not to connections to any network sockets).

       To enter this mode, connect to the Unix-domain socket (pathrun/nntpin)
       and send the command MODE CANCEL.  The response will have code 284.
       Every subsequent line sent on that connection should consist of a
       single message-ID.  An attempt will be made to cancel that message-ID,
       and the server will reply 289 for success or 484 for failure.  (Failure
       can occur, for example, if the server is paused or throttled, or the
       message-ID is corrupt.  Failure does not occur if the article to be
       cancelled does not exist.)

LOGGING
       innd reports all incoming articles in its log file (pathlog/news).
       This is a text file with a variable number of space-separated fields in
       one of the following formats:

           mon dd hh:mm:ss.mmm + feed <message-id> site ...
           mon dd hh:mm:ss.mmm j feed <message-id> site ...
           mon dd hh:mm:ss.mmm c feed <message-id> Cancelling <message-id>
           mon dd hh:mm:ss.mmm - feed <message-id> reason
           mon dd hh:mm:ss.mmm ? feed <message-id> reason

       There may also be hostname and/or size fields after the message-ID
       depending on the settings of nntplinklog and logartsize in inn.conf.

       The first three fields are the date and time to millisecond resolution.
       The fifth field is the site that sent the article (based on the Path:
       header) and the sixth field is the article's message-ID; they will be a
       question mark if the information is not available.

       The fourth field indicates whether the article was accepted or not.  If
       it is a plus sign, then the article was accepted.  If it is the letter
       "j", then the article was accepted, providing all of the newsgroups to
       which the article was posted were set to status "j" in the active file
       (or not listed in the active file and wanttrash was set in inn.conf),
       and then the article was filed into the "junk" newsgroup.  In both of
       these cases, the article has been accepted and the "site ..." field
       contains the space-separated list of sites to which the article is
       being sent.

       If the fourth field is the letter "c", then a cancel message was
       accepted before the original article arrived, and a history entry for
       the cancelled message was created so that innd will reject that message
       if it arrives later.

       If the fourth field is a minus sign, then the article was rejected.
       The reasons for rejection generated by innd include:

           "%s" header too long
           Article exceeds local limit of %s bytes
           Article posted in the future -- "%s"
           Bad "%s" header
           Can't write history
           Duplicate
           Duplicate "%s" header
           EOF in headers
           Linecount %s != %s +- %s
           Missing %s header
           No body
           No colon-space in "%s" header
           No matching newsgroups in cancel <%s>
           No space
           Space before colon in "%s" header
           Too old -- "%s"
           Unapproved for "%s"
           Unwanted newsgroup "%s"
           Unwanted distribution "%s"
           Whitespace in "Newsgroups" header -- "%s"

       where %s, above, is replaced by more specific information.  (The Perl
       and Python filters, if used, may reject articles with other reasons.)

       If the fourth field is the letter "?", the article contains strange
       strings, such as CR without LF or LF without CR.  (These characters
       should never occur in isolation, only together as CRLF to indicate the
       end of a line.)  This log message is just informational, to give an
       idea of how widespread such articles are; innd does not reject such
       articles.

       Note that when wanttrash is set to true in inn.conf and an article is
       received that isn't posted to any valid newsgroups, it will be accepted
       and logged with two lines, a "j" line and a minus sign line, unless the
       logtrash parameter is set to false (in which case only the "j" line is
       written).

       innd also makes extensive reports through syslog(3).  The first word of
       the log message will be the name of the site if the entry is site-
       specific (such as a "connected" message).  The first word will be
       "SERVER" if the message relates to the server itself, such as when a
       read error occurs.

       If the second word is the four letters "cant", then an error is being
       reported.  (The absence of an apostrophe is intentional; it makes it
       easier to grep from the command line and easier to find error messages
       in FAQs using a search engine.  However, "can't" is also used at a few
       places.)  In this case, the next two words generally name the system
       call or library routine that failed and the object upon which the
       action was being performed.  The rest of the line may contain other
       information.

       In other cases, the second word attempts to summarize what change has
       been made, while the rest of the line gives more specific information.
       The word "internal" generally indicates an internal logic error.

SIGNALS
       innd will catch SIGTERM and SIGHUP and shut down.  If -d is used,
       SIGINT will also be caught and will result in an orderly shutdown.

       innd will catch the SIGUSR1 signal and recreate the control channel
       used by ctlinnd(8).

BUGS
       innd normally attempts to strip IP options from incoming connections,
       since it uses IP-based authentication and source routing can confuse
       that.  However, this doesn't work on all systems, and it doesn't work
       at all in the presence of IPv6 support (and is disabled in that case).
       Hence, if using innd with IPv6 support, make sure that your kernel or
       router disables source routing.

HISTORY
       Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews.

       $Id: innd.pod 10175 2017-09-18 19:48:24Z iulius $

SEE ALSO
       active(5), ctlinnd(8), dbz(3), history(5), incoming.conf(5),
       inn.conf(5), innbind(8), innfeed(8), innstat(8), newsfeeds(5),
       nnrpd(8), rnews(1), syslog(3).

INN 2.6.4                         2017-09-19                           INND(8)

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