---
name: "testhost"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "suck"
version: "4.3.5-5"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/testhost"
---

# testhost(1)

test the status of an NNTP news server

## NAME

testhost - test the status of an NNTP news server

## SYNOPSIS

*testhost* **hostname** \[ **-a***\|***-n** date time **\|***-o* \] \[ **-M** \] \[ **-s***\|***-S** filename \] \[ **-e***\|***-E** filename \] \[ **-N** port\_number \] \[ **-U** userid \] \[ **-P** password \] \[ **-Q** \] \[ **-l** phrase\_file \] \[ **-T** timeout \] \[ **-d** \] \[ **-q** \] \[ **-z** \]

## OPTIONS

\-a     Get the active list from hostname

\-d

This option tells testhost get the descriptions of the newsgroups on the remote server by sending the 'list newsgroups' command.  The remote server may or may not support this command.

\-e \| -E filename

These options will send all error messages (normally displayed on stderr), to  an alternate file.  The lower case version, -e, will send the error messages to the compiled-in default defined in suck\_config.h.  The default is suck.errlog. The upper case version, -E, requires the filename parameter.  All error messages will then be sent to this file.

\-l phrase\_file

This option tells testhost to load in an alternate phrase file, instead of using the built-in messages.  This allows you to have testhost print phrases in another language, or to allow you to customize the messages without re-building. See the "FOREIGN LANGUAGE PHRASES" in suck.1 for more details.

\-n date time

Get the newgroups created on the host since the date and time specified. The date must be in YYMMDD format and the time must be in HHMMSS format.

\-N port\_number

This option will tell testhost to use an alternate NNRP port number when connecting to the host, instead of the default, 119.

\-q

This option tells testhost to not display the connection and announcement messages, rather only display the results of the actual command run.

\-s \| -S filename

These options will send all status messages (normally displayed on stdout), to an alternate file.  The lower case version, -s, will send the status messages to the compiled-in default defined in suck\_config.h.  The default is /dev/null, so no status messages will be displayed.  The upper case version, -S, requires the filename parameter.  All status messages will then be sent to this file.

\-T

This option overrides the compiled-in TIMEOUT value. This is how long testhost waits for data from the remote host before timing out and aborting.

\-U userid

\-P password

These two options let you specify a userid and password, if your NNTP server requires them.

\-Q

This option tells testhost to use the environment variable NNTP\_USER & NNTP\_PASS to specify a userid and password, if your NNTP server requires them.  This option is provided so that the userid & password can't be seen with the ps command, a potential security problem.

\-z

This options tells testhost to use SSL to talk to the remote server, if testhost was compiled with SSL.

## DESCRIPTION

*Testhost* will query a NNTP news server, specified by *hostname.*

The hostname may optionally include the port number in the form **Host:Port.***If***the***port***number***is***included,***the***port***number***specified** by the -N option will be ignored.

The default action is to issue the  *help* command to the server, to see what software it is running and what commands it accepts.

If the *-a* option is used, testhost will display the server's active history list.  If the  *-n date time* option is used, testhost will display all new groups created on the server since the date and time specified.  If the *-o* option is used, then testhost will display the overview format, which is what the XOVER command returns.

If the *-M* option is used, the command will be preceded with the "mode reader" command, which might be needed by some servers.

## EXIT VALUES

0 on success, -1 on failure.

## SEE ALSO

[suck(1)](/suck/1.md), [rpost(1)](/rpost/1.md), [lpost(1)](/lpost/1.md).