nnrpd(8)



NNRPD(8)                  InterNetNews Documentation                  NNRPD(8)

NAME
       nnrpd - NNTP server for reader clients

SYNOPSIS
       nnrpd [-DfnoSt] [-4 address] [-6 address] [-b address] [-c configfile]
       [-i initial] [-I instance] [-p port] [-P prefork] [-r reason] [-s
       padding]

DESCRIPTION
       nnrpd is an NNTP server for newsreaders.  It accepts commands on its
       standard input and responds on its standard output.  It is normally
       invoked by innd(8) with those descriptors attached to a remote client
       connection.  nnrpd also supports running as a standalone daemon.

       Unlike innd(8), nnrpd supports all NNTP commands for user-oriented
       reading and posting.  nnrpd uses the readers.conf file to control who
       is authorized to access the Usenet database.

       On exit, nnrpd will report usage statistics through syslog(3).

       nnrpd only reads config files (both readers.conf and inn.conf) when it
       is spawned.  You can therefore never change the behavior of a client
       that's already connected.  If nnrpd is run from innd (the default) or
       from inetd(8), xinetd(8), or some equivalent, a new nnrpd process is
       spawned for every connection and therefore any changes to configuration
       files will be immediately effective for all new connections.  If you
       are instead running nnrpd with the -D option, any configuration changes
       won't take effect until nnrpd is restarted.

       The inn.conf setting nnrpdflags can be used to pass any of the options
       below to instances of nnrpd that are spawned directly from innd.  Many
       options only make sense when -D is used, so these options should not be
       used with nnrpdflags.  See also the discussion of nnrpdflags in
       inn.conf(5).

       When nnrpdloadlimit in inn.conf is not 0, it will also reject
       connections if the load average is greater than that value (typically
       16).  nnrpd can also prevent high-volume posters from abusing your
       resources.  See the discussion of exponential backoff in inn.conf(5).

OPTIONS
       -4 address
           The -4 parameter instructs nnrpd to bind to the specified IPv4
           address when started as a standalone daemon using the -D flag.
           This has to be a valid IPv4 address belonging to an interface of
           the local host.  It can also be 0.0.0.0, saying to bind to all
           addresses (this is the default).

       -6 address
           The -6 parameter instructs nnrpd to bind to the specified IPv6
           address when started as a standalone daemon using the -D flag.
           This has to be a valid IPv6 address belonging to an interface of
           the local host.  It can also be "::0", saying to bind to all IPv6
           addresses.

           By default, nnrpd in daemon mode listens to both IPv4 and IPv6
           addresses.  With this option, it will listen only to the specified
           IPv6 addresses.  On some systems however, a value of "::0" will
           cause it to listen to all IPv4 addresses as well.

       -b address
           Similar to the -4 flag.  -b is kept for backwards compatibility.

       -c configfile
           By default, nnrpd reads the readers.conf to determine how to
           authenticate connections.  The -c flag specifies an alternate file
           for this purpose.  If the file name isn't fully qualified, it is
           taken to be relative to pathetc in inn.conf.  (This is useful to
           have several instances of nnrpd running on different ports or IP
           addresses with different settings.)

       -D  If specified, this parameter causes nnrpd to operate as a daemon.
           That is, it detaches itself and runs in the background, forking a
           process for every connection.  By default, nnrpd listens on the
           NNTP port (119), so either innd(8) has to be started on another
           port or the -p parameter used.  Note that with this parameter,
           nnrpd continues running until killed.  This means that it reads
           inn.conf once on startup and never again until restarted.  nnrpd
           should therefore be restarted if inn.conf is changed.

           When started in daemon mode, nnrpd will write its PID into a file
           in the pathrun directory.  The file will be named nnrpd.pid if
           nnrpd listens on port 119 (default), or nnrpd-%d.pid, where %d is
           replaced with the port that nnrpd is configured to listen on (-p
           option is given and its argument is not 119).

       -f  If specified, nnrpd does not detach itself and runs in the
           foreground when started as a standalone daemon using the -D flag.

       -i initial
           Specify an initial command to nnrpd.  When used, initial is taken
           as if it were the first command received by nnrpd.  After having
           responded, nnrpd will close the connection.

       -I instance
           If specified, instance is used as an additional static portion
           within message-IDs generated by nnrpd; typically this option would
           be used where a cluster of machines exist with the same virtual
           hostname and must be disambiguated during posts.

       -n  The -n flag turns off resolution of IP addresses to names.  If you
           only use IP-based restrictions in readers.conf and can handle IP
           addresses in your logs, using this flag may result in some
           additional speed.

       -o  The -o flag causes all articles to be spooled instead of sending
           them to innd(8).  rnews with the -U flag should be invoked from
           cron on a regular basis to take care of these articles.  This flag
           is useful if innd(8) is accepting articles and nnrpd is started
           standalone or using inetd(8).

       -p port
           The -p parameter instructs nnrpd to listen on port when started as
           a standalone daemon using the -D flag.

       -P prefork
           The -P parameter instructs nnrpd to prefork prefork children
           awaiting connections when started as a standalone daemon using the
           -D flag.

       -r reason
           If the -r flag is used, then nnrpd will reject the incoming
           connection giving reason as the text.  This flag is used by innd(8)
           when it is paused or throttled.  reason should be encoded in UTF-8.

       -s padding
           As each command is received, nnrpd tries to change its "argv" array
           so that ps(1) will print out the command being executed.  To get a
           full display, the -s flag may be used with a long string as its
           argument, which will be overwritten when the program changes its
           title.

       -S  If specified, nnrpd will start a negotiation for a TLS session as
           soon as connected.  To use this flag, the OpenSSL SSL and crypto
           libraries must have been found at configure time, or --with-openssl
           specified at configure time.  For more information on running nnrpd
           with TLS support, see "TLS SUPPORT".

       -t  If the -t flag is used, then all client commands and initial
           responses will be traced by reporting them in syslog.  This flag is
           set by innd(8) under the control of the ctlinnd(8) "trace" command,
           and is toggled upon receipt of a SIGHUP; see signal(2).

TLS SUPPORT
       If INN is built with --with-openssl or if the OpenSSL SSL and crypto
       libraries are found at configure time, nnrpd will support news reading
       over TLS (also known as SSL).  For clients that use the STARTTLS
       command, no special configuration is needed beyond creating a TLS/SSL
       certificate for the server.  You should do this in exactly the same way
       that you would generate a certificate for a web server.

       If you're happy with a self-signed certificate (which will generate
       warnings with some news reader clients), you can create and install one
       in the default path by running "make cert" after "make install" when
       installing INN, or by running the following commands:

           umask 077
           openssl req -new -x509 -nodes -out <pathetc>/cert.pem \
               -days 366 -keyout <pathetc>/key.pem
           chown news:news <pathetc>/cert.pem
           chmod 640 <pathetc>/cert.pem
           chown news:news <pathetc>/key.pem
           chmod 600 <pathetc>/key.pem

       Replace the paths with something appropriate to your INN installation.
       This will create a self-signed certificate that will expire in a year.
       The openssl program will ask you a variety of questions about your
       organization.  Enter the fully qualified domain name of your news
       service (either the server canonical name or a dedicated alias for the
       news service) as the name the certificate is for.

       You then have to set these inn.conf parameters with the right paths:

           tlscapath:      <pathetc>
           tlscertfile:    <pathetc>/cert.pem
           tlskeyfile:     <pathetc>/key.pem

       Note that unlike Apache's SSLCertificateFile directive, tlscertfile
       should not contain a concatenation of certificates.  Instead, if you
       have a certificate authority root certificate, set tlscafile to its
       path.

       There are two common ways for a news client to negotiate a TLS
       connection:  either via the use of a dedicated port (usually 563) on
       which TLS is immediately negotiated upon connection, or via the now
       discouraged way (per RFC 8143) to use the STARTTLS command on the usual
       NNTP port (119) to dynamically upgrade from unencrypted to TLS-
       protected traffic during an NNTP session.  innd does not, however, know
       how to listen for connections to that separate port (563).  You will
       therefore need to arrange for nnrpd to listen on that port through some
       other means.  This can be done with the -D flag along with "-p 563" and
       put into your init scripts:

           su news -s /bin/sh -c '<pathbin>/nnrpd -D -p 563 -S'

       but the easiest way is probably to add a line like:

           nntps stream tcp nowait news <pathbin>/nnrpd nnrpd -S

       to /etc/inetd.conf or the equivalent on your system and let inetd run
       nnrpd.  (Change the path to nnrpd to match your installation.)  You may
       need to replace "nntps" with 563 if "nntps" isn't defined in
       /etc/services on your system.

       Optionally, you may set the tlsciphers, tlsciphers13, tlscompression,
       tlseccurve, tlspreferserverciphers, and tlsprotocols parameters in
       inn.conf to fine-tune the behaviour of the TLS/SSL negotiation whenever
       a new attack on the TLS protocol or some supported cipher suite is
       discovered.

PROTOCOL DIFFERENCES
       nnrpd implements the NNTP commands defined in RFC 3977 (NNTP), RFC 4642
       updated by RFC 8143 (TLS/NNTP), RFC 4643 (NNTP authentication),
       RFC 6048 (NNTP LIST additions) and RFC 8054 (NNTP compression) with the
       following differences:

       1.  The XGTITLE [wildmat] command is provided.  This extension is used
           by ANU-News and documented in RFC 2980.  It returns a 282 reply
           code, followed by a one-line description of all newsgroups that
           match the pattern.  The default is the current group.

           Note that LIST NEWSGROUPS should be used instead of XGTITLE.

       2.  The XHDR header [message-ID|range] command is implemented.  It
           returns a 221 reply code, followed by specific headers for the
           specified range; the default is to return the data for the current
           article.  See RFC 2980.

           Note that HDR should be used instead of XHDR.

       3.  The XOVER [range] command is provided.  It returns a 224 reply
           code, followed by the overview data for the specified range; the
           default is to return the data for the current article.  See
           RFC 2980.

           Note that OVER should be used instead of XOVER.

       4.  A new command, XPAT header message-ID|range pattern [pattern ...],
           is provided.  The first argument is the case-insensitive name of
           the header to be searched.  The second argument is either an
           article range or a single message-ID, as specified in RFC 2980.
           The third argument is a uwildmat(3)-style pattern; if there are
           additional arguments, they are joined together separated by a
           single space to form the complete pattern.  This command is similar
           to the XHDR command.  It returns a 221 response code, followed by
           the text response of all article numbers that match the pattern.

       5.  A newsgroup name is case-sensitive for nnrpd.

       6.  If IHAVE has been advertised, it will not necessarily be advertised
           for the entire session (contrary to section 3.4.1 of RFC 3977).
           nnrpd only advertises the IHAVE capability when it is really
           available.

       7.  nnrpd allows a wider syntax for wildmats and ranges (especially "-"
           and "-article-number").

HISTORY
       Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews.  Overview
       support added by Rob Robertston <rob@violet.berkeley.edu> and Rich in
       January, 1993.  Exponential backoff (for posting) added by Dave Hayes
       in Febuary 1998.

       $Id: nnrpd.pod 10373 2020-05-21 21:00:33Z iulius $

SEE ALSO
       ctlinnd(8), innd(8), inn.conf(5), readers.conf(5), signal(2),
       uwildmat(3).

INN 2.6.4                         2020-05-22                          NNRPD(8)

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