---
name: "mergeactive"
section: "8cn"
platform: "linux"
package: "cnews"
version: "cr.g7-40.4"
release: "Debian 5.0 (Lenny)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/mergeactive/8cn"
---

# mergeactive(8cn)

bulk addition of newsgroups, merging in other site's active file

## NAME

mergeactive - bulk addition of newsgroups, merging in other site's active file

## SYNOPSIS

**mergeactive** \[ **-#** \] file ...

## DESCRIPTION

*Mergeactive* does mass addition of newsgroups to the *active* file, in the way that is usually most useful: it merges in an *active* file obtained from another host. The *file* argument(s) (standard input if none) are concatenated, checked for various inconsistencies, and then merged in.

The merging process preserves existing newsgroups in *active*, adding only ones not yet known on this host. The second and third fields of new newsgroups are initialized to 0000000000 and 00001 respectively.

The **-#** option suppresses the final substitution of the new files for the old ones, leaving the new *active* file as *active.tmp* and the new *active.times* file as *actimes.tmp*, for testing or debugging.

## SEE ALSO

[newsdb(5)](/newsdb/5.md), addgroup(8CN)

## HISTORY

Written at U of Toronto by Henry Spencer.

## BUGS

Does not check the new newsgroups to see whether they are in the *sys* file's subscription list for this site.

Possibly should be fussier about syntactic correctness of new newsgroup names; at present it only checks for a few glaring mistakes.