---
name: "newsoverview"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "cnews"
version: "cr.g7-31"
release: "Debian 3.0 (Woody)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/newsoverview"
---

# newsoverview(8)

maintain netnews overview database

## NAME

initov, domkov, mkov, expov - maintain netnews overview database

## SYNOPSIS

**/usr/lib/news/nov/initov**

**/usr/lib/news/nov/domkov**

**/usr/lib/news/nov/mkov** \[ **-an** \] \[ **-o** stamp \] \[ file ... \]

**/usr/lib/news/nov/expov**

## DESCRIPTION

These programs keep the netnews overview database for newsreaders up to date.

*Initov* creates the database initially by reading all the articles under **/var/spool/news**. This takes a long time (on the order of 12 hours, in late 1992), and can be avoided by letting *domkov* incrementally generate a database for new articles as they arrive; after a week or so, most articles should be in the database. The news system should not be locked when *initov* is run; *initov* takes care of the necessary locking internally, and deals with articles that arrive while it is running (primarily by deferring their processing to *domkov*).

*Domkov* is run from *newsrun*(8CN). It updates the database files from the header stream produced by *relaynews*(8CN) for new articles.

*Mkov* normally reads a stream of RFC 1036 headers, with those of each article separated from those of its neighbours by an empty line, from *file*s (standard input if none) and writes a summary in the format of [*newsoverview*(5)](/newsoverview/5.md), but with a field containing the article's news spool directory name relative to **/usr/spool/news** prepended, on standard output. **-a** reads articles instead of a header stream (but ignores  *files*s which are directories or have names which do not resemble article names, i.e. do not have a leading digit on their last component). and omits the initial directory name field; **-n** requests the initial directory name *despite* **-a**; **-o** causes only articles older than the file *stamp* to be summarised.

*Expov* should be run after *expire*(8CN) (and is, by *doexpire*(8CN)) to delete database entries for missing articles.

## FILES

- **/var/spool/news/***group***/.overview**

  overview database

- **/var/lib/news/LOCKoverview**

  lock file for the database

- **/var/lib/news/headers**

  stream of headers from newly-arrived articles

- **/var/lib/news/active**

  active newsgroups

## SEE ALSO

[newsoverview(5)](/newsoverview/5.md), expire(8CN), relaynews(8CN)

## HISTORY

Written by Geoff Collyer, with minor contributions from Henry Spencer, as part of the C News project.

## BUGS

*mkov -o* is a blemish, but it really speeds up *initov*.