--- name: "public-inbox-init" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "public-inbox" version: "1.9.0-1" release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/public-inbox-init" --- # public-inbox-init(1) create or reinitialize a public-inbox ## NAME public-inbox-init - create or reinitialize a public-inbox ## SYNOPSIS **public-inbox-init** \[OPTIONS\] NAME INBOX\_DIR HTTP\_URL ADDRESS \[ADDRESS..\] ## DESCRIPTION Creates an empty public-inbox or reinitializes an existing one. It updates `"~/.public-inbox/config"` by creating a `"[publicinbox "NAME"]"` section where `"publicinbox.NAME.inboxdir"` is `"INBOX_DIR"`, `"publicinbox.NAME.url"` is `"HTTP_URL"`, and `"publicinbox.NAME.address"` is `"ADDRESS"`. Multiple addresses may be specified for inboxes with multiple addresses. ## OPTIONS - \-V FORMAT\_VERSION - \--version FORMAT\_VERSION Specify `2` here to use the scalable [**public-inbox-v2-format**(5)](/public-inbox-v2-format/5.md) if you have DBD::SQLite installed. The default is `1` for the old [**public-inbox-v1-format**(5)](/public-inbox-v1-format/5.md), but `2` is strongly recommended for scalability if you have DBD::SQLite. Default: `1` - \-L \ - \--indexlevel \ Controls the indexing level for [**public-inbox-index**(1)](/public-inbox-index/1.md) See [**public-inbox-config**(5)](/public-inbox-config/5.md) for more information. Default: `"full"` - \--ng NEWSGROUP - \--newsgroup NEWSGROUP The NNTP group name for use with **public-inbox-nntpd**(8). This may be any newsgroup name with hierarchies delimited by `"."`. For example, the newsgroup for \ is: `"inbox.comp.mail.public-inbox.meta"` This may be set after-the-fact via `"publicinbox.$NAME.newsgroup"` in the configuration file. See [**public-inbox-config**(5)](/public-inbox-config/5.md) for more info. Available in public-inbox 1.6.0+. Default: none. - \-c KEY=VALUE Allow setting arbitrary configs as `"publicinbox.$NAME.$KEY"`. This is idempotent for the same `"VALUE"`, but allows setting multiple values for keys such as `"publicinbox.$NAME.url"` and `"publicinbox.$NAME.watch"`. - \--skip-artnum This option allows archivists to publish incomplete archives with only new mail while allowing NNTP article numbers to be reserved for yet-to-be-archived old mail. This is mainly intended for users of `"--skip-epoch"` (documented below) but may be of use to [**public-inbox-v1-format**(5)](/public-inbox-v1-format/5.md) users. There is no automatic way to use reserved NNTP article numbers when old mail is found, yet. Available in public-inbox 1.6.0+. Default: unset, no NNTP article numbers are skipped - \-S - \--skip-epoch For `"-V2"` ([**public-inbox-v2-format**(5)](/public-inbox-v2-format/5.md)) inboxes only, this option allows archivists to publish incomplete archives with newer mail while allowing "0.git" (or "1.git" and so on) epochs to be added-after-the-fact (without affecting "git clone" followers). Available since public-inbox 1.2.0. Default: unset, no epochs are skipped - \-j JOBS - \--jobs=JOBS Control the number of Xapian index shards in a `"-V2"` ([**public-inbox-v2-format**(5)](/public-inbox-v2-format/5.md)) inbox. It can be useful to use a single shard (`"-j1"`) for inboxes on high-latency storage (e.g. rotational HDD) unless the system has enough RAM to cache 5-10x the size of the git repository. Another approach for HDDs is to use the "publicInbox.indexSequentialShard" in [**public-inbox-index**(1)](/public-inbox-index/1.md) option and many shards, so each shard may fit into the kernel page cache. Unfortunately, excessive shards slows down read-only query performance. For fast storage, it is generally not useful to specify higher values than the default due to the top-level producer process being a bottleneck. Default: the number of online CPUs, up to 4 (3 shard workers, 1 producer) - \--skip-docdata Do not store document data in Xapian, reducing Xapian storage overhead by around 1.5%. Warning: this option prevents rollbacks to public-inbox 1.5.0 and earlier. Available in public-inbox 1.6.0+. ## ENVIRONMENT - PI\_CONFIG Used to override the default `"~/.public-inbox/config"` value. ## LIMITATIONS Some of the options documented in [**public-inbox-config**(5)](/public-inbox-config/5.md) require editing the config file. Old versions lack the `"--ng"`/`"--newsgroup"` parameter See [**public-inbox-config**(5)](/public-inbox-config/5.md) for all the options which may be applied to a given inbox. ## CONTACT Feedback welcome via plain-text mail to \ The mail archives are hosted at \ and \ ## COPYRIGHT Copyright 2019-2021 all contributors \ License: AGPL-3.0+ \ ## SEE ALSO [**git-init**(1)](/git-init/1.md), [**git-config**(1)](/git-config/1.md), [**public-inbox-v1-format**(5)](/public-inbox-v1-format/5.md), [**public-inbox-v2-format**(5)](/public-inbox-v2-format/5.md)