---
name: "procbatch"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "inn"
version: "2.7.4-4"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/procbatch"
---

# procbatch(8)

Process an INN funnel file or innfeed-dropped file

## NAME

procbatch - Process an INN funnel file or innfeed-dropped file

## SYNOPSIS

**procbatch** \[**-hquv**\] \[**-c** \[**-s** *spooldir*\]\] \[**-d** *outdir*\] \[**-e** *peer*\] \[**-m** \[**-t** *backlogdir*\]\] *batchfile*

## DESCRIPTION

**procbatch** will take an INN funnel or *innfeed-dropped* file and split it up by host for direct processing with **innfeed** or **innxmit**.

While funnel files will normally only be of interest after a crash, **innfeed** may drop articles for a variety of reasons, not all of which indicate a fundamental problem.  For example, **innfeed** may drop articles when started and stopped in quick succession while INN processes a large number of control messages (a temporary indisposition), or when INN feeds it articles for a site that isn't in *innfeed.conf* (a misconfiguration).

Every running **innfeed** opens a file named *innfeed-dropped.\<id\>*, which should normally always be zero length and deleted on exit. If there are non-zero length files, **innfeed** has dropped some articles, and those dropped article files have to be processed or those articles will never be sent to peers.  Though **news.daily** automatically process these files (invoking **procbatch**), it is also possible to do that manually. First make sure that the file doesn't correspond to a currently running **innfeed**, for example by calling `"ctlinnd flush innfeed!"`.

An INN funnel file, or an *innfeed-dropped* file, will usually be of the format:

```
    pathname message-id peer1 peer2 peer3 ...
```

where *pathname* can alternatively be a storage API token.

**procbatch** will break this file up into files named *peer1.tmp*, *peer2.tmp*, *peer3.tmp*, etc. of the format:

```
    pathname message-id
```

These tape files will be sorted and stripped of duplicate entries.  Simply renaming them to *peer1*, *peer2*, *peer3*, etc. in a running **innfeed**'s backlog directory will cause them to be picked up automatically by **innfeed** every *backlog-newfile-period* seconds (as set in *innfeed.conf*). Use the **-m** flag to have **procbatch** rename and move them into place automatically.

After running **procbatch**, you may want to make sure that every generated backlog file has a corresponding `".lock"` file.  Otherwise, **innfeed** doesn't have that site configured as a peer, meaning your *innfeed.conf* may need fixing.

## OPTIONS

- **-c**

  Check for the existence of an article before writing references to it to the tape files.  Currently, this option can only be used with a tradspool article store.  Using it with any other spool format will lead to all articles being dropped.

- **-d** *outdir*

  Put the output file(s) into the directory *outdir* (defaults to *pathtmp* as set in *inn.conf*).  When also specifying **-m**, the temporary output files will still be put here before being moved into their final location.

- **-e** *peer*

  Only process entries for *peer*.

- **-h**

  Display a short help screen.

- **-m**

  Directly append to tape files in **innfeed**'s backlog directory.

- **-q**

  Quiet mode: only display error messages.

- **-s** *spooldir*

  Use *spooldir* as the location of the article spool (defaults to *patharticles* as set in *inn.conf*).  This option has an effect only on a tradspool storage system when also specifying **-c**.

- **-t** *backlogdir*

  Use *backlogdir* as the location of the **innfeed** backlog directory (the directory where the created tape files will be put).  Defaults to *pathspool*/innfeed.  This option has an effect only when also specifying **-m**.

- **-u**

  Unlink the input batchfile after processing.

- **-v**

  Add verbosity.

## EXAMPLES

Take the file *innfeed-dropped.B012345*, process its lines appending to tapefiles in **innfeed**'s backlog directory, and remove it when done. Be verbose while doing so:

```
    procbatch -umv innfeed-dropped.B012345
```

Go through *innfeed-dropped.B012345* saving entries for `"peer1"` in */tmp/peer1.tmp*, but only if the articles are still available in the local tradspool:

```
    procbatch -e peer1 -d /tmp -c innfeed-dropped.B012345
```

## BUGS

**procbatch** should be able to check for the existence of articles with any kind of article store, possibly using **grephistory**.

## HISTORY

**procbatch** was written by James Brister and improved for speed by Clayton O'Neill.

This manual page was written by Florian Schlichting, with the help of a memo by Russ Allbery.

## SEE ALSO

[innfeed(8)](/innfeed/8.md), [innxmit(8)](/innxmit/8.md), [news.daily(8)](/news.daily/8.md).