newscache.conf(5)

Configuration Options

ConfigVersion version

Specifies the syntax version of the configuration file. This manual page describes version 3. This allows NewsCache to detect a configuration file of an older NewsCache version. If specified, it should be specified as the first configuration option.

ServerType type

This may be either standalone for a standalone server or inetd if NewsCache is started from inetd. A standalone server has the advantage that the configuration file will be read once only, for the cost of an extra process running all the time. Usually, you use a standalone server, if NewsCache is frequently accessed.

PidFile filename

On startup NewsCache will write its PID to the given file. This can then be used by system scripts to gracefully stop NewsCache by sending a SIGTERM to the parent process.

Username username

Change the user id to username as soon as NewsCache has bound to CachePort.

Groupname groupname

Change the group id to groupname as soon as NewsCache has bound to CachePort.

Admin email-address

The email address of this NewsCache's administrator.

NewsServerList { ServerSpec ServerSpec ... }

Defines a list of news servers and the newsgroups to retrieve from which news server. ServerSpec may be either

Server news.host Service { Read GroupSpec PostTo GroupSpec GroupTimeout seconds Options flags }

to specify what newsgroups have to be retrived from which news server and which articles have to be submitted to which news server or ServerSpec may be:

NoServer { Read GroupSpec PostTo GroupSpec }

to specify what newsgroup has to be retrieved by no news server and to which newsgroups no articles should be posted to.

news.host is the name of the news server and Service indicates the port, where the news server is listening for connections.

GroupSpec is a comma seperated list of newsgroups, where the last part of newsgroup may be substituted by * standing for any string. Each newsgroup is retrieved from the news server with the longest match.

GroupTimeout seconds indicates the time after which the newsgroup will be checked for new articles.

flags specifies a list of options that should be turned on or off. not-offline, semioffline and offline indicates, whether the news server may be contacted or not on an article miss. If the news server is switched to offline, the articles have to be retrieved using updatenews. not-setpostflag, setpostflag indicates whether the postflag of newsgroups on servers without posting permission should be set to `n'. not-cached, cached indicate, whether groups from this server should be cached or not.

Timeouts list group-description

Timeouts for the retrieval of the active database, the description of the newsgroups.

ClientTimeout t

Terminate the connection after t seconds inactivity.

SpoolDirectory directory

The directory, where the cached newsgroups and articles should be stored.

Spoolsize KBytes

The maximum size of the spool area. This is controlled by the cacheclean(8) script.

LogDirectory directory

Directory, where all the log-files should go.

LogStyle [strict-inn][hostname][ip-address]

StrictINN style logging; log client's hostname and or IP-address.

CachePort port

Listen on port for incoming requests. Port may be a valid service-name (Ususally, listed in /etc/services) or a port number preceded by a #-sign. This directive is uneffective if NewsCache is started from inetd.

Retries number

Specifies the number of retries for connecting to the news server. If this limit is exceded NewsCache assumes that the news server is unreachable.

PrefetchFile filename

Specifies the filename, where updatenews(8) finds the newsgroups that have to be prefetched. The newsgroups that have to be prefetched are listed in the form newsgroup fst lst, where fst stands for the first and last for the last article prefetched from the current newsgroup.