.TH noffle 1
.\" $Id: noffle.1 32 2000-04-29 14:45:56Z enz $
.SH NAME
noffle \- Usenet package optimized for dialup connections.

.SH SYNOPSIS

.B noffle
\-a | \-\-article <message id>|all
.br
.B noffle
\-c | \-\-cancel <message id>
.br
.B noffle
\-C | \-\-create <local newsgroup name>
.br
.B noffle
\-d | \-\-database
.br
.B noffle
\-e | \-\-expire <days>
.br
.B noffle
\-f | \-\-fetch
.br
.B noffle
\-g | \-\-groups
.br
.B noffle
\-h | \-\-help
.br
.B noffle
\-l | \-\-list
.br
.B noffle
\-n | \-\-online
.br
.B noffle
\-o | \-\-offline
.br
.B noffle
\-q | \-\-query groups|desc|times
.br
.B noffle
\-R | \-\-requested
.br
.B noffle
\-r | \-\-server
.br
.B noffle
\-s | \-\-subscribe-over <group>
.br
.B noffle
\-S | \-\-subscribe-full <group>
.br
.B noffle
\-t | \-\-subscribe-thread <group>
.br
.B noffle
\-u | \-\-unsubscribe <group>

.SH DESCRIPTION

.B NOFFLE
is an Usenet package optimized for low speed dialup Internet connections
and few users.
The
.B noffle
program is used for running and steering of the proxy news server,
for retrieving new articles from the remote server and for
expiring old articles from the database.
.B NOFFLE
can fetch newsgroups in one of the following modes:
.TP
.B full
fetch full articles,
.TP
.B over
fetch only article overviews by default. Opening an article marks it
for download next time online,
.TP
.B thread
like
.B over,
but download articles full if an article of the same thread already has
been downloaded.

.PP
.B NOFFLE
also offers limited support for local news groups. Articles
posted to these appear in full in the database for the local group(s)
immediately. They are expired in the usual way.
.PP
If an article is cross-posted to a local group and a remote group, it
appears in the local group immediately and in the remote group after
the next fetch from the remove server.
.PP
Note that
.B NOFFLE
cannot exchange the contents of local groups with other news servers.

.SH OPTIONS

.TP
.B \-a, \-\-article <message id>|all
Write article <message id> to standard output. Message Id must contain
the leading '<' and trailing '>' (quote the argument with single quotes to
avoid shell interpretation of characters like '<' and '>' and '$').
.br
If "all" is given as message Id, all articles are shown. 

.TP
.B \-c, \-\-cancel <message id>
Cancel the article from the database and remove it from the queue of
outbound messages if it has not already been sent. Message Id must
contain the leading '<' and trailing '>' (quote the argument to avoid
shell interpretation of '<' and '>').

.TP
.B \-C, \-\-create <local newsgroup name>
Create a new local newsgroup with the given name. The name should
conform to the usual newsgroup naming rules to avoid confusing
newsreaders.

.TP
.B \-d, \-\-database
Write the complete content of the article database to standard output.

.TP
.B \-e, \-\-expire <days>
Delete all articles older than <days> days from the database.
Should be run regularily from
.BR crond (8).

.TP
.B \-f, \-\-fetch
Get new newsfeed from the remote server.
Updates the list of the existing newsgroups,
fetches new articles overviews or full articles from subscribed
groups (see
.B fetchlist
),
delivers all posted articles to the remote server,
and retrieves all articles marked for download.
.B noffle --fetch
should be run in the
.B ip-up
script of
.BR pppd (8).

.TP
.B \-g, \-\-groups
List all groups available at remote server.
.br
Format (fields separated by tabs):
.br
<name> <server> <first> <last> <remote next> <created> <last access> <desc>

.TP
.B \-h, \-\-help
Print a list of all options.

.TP
.B \-l, \-\-list
List all groups that are presently to be fetched and their fetch mode.
.br
Format: <groupname> <server> full|thread|over

.TP
.B \-n, \-\-online
Put
.B NOFFLE
to online status. Requested articles or overviews of selected
groups are immediately fetched from the remote server.
Should be run in the
.B ip-up
script of
.BR pppd (8).

.TP
.B \-o, \-\-offline
Put
.B NOFFLE
to offline status. Requested articles not already in the
database are marked for download.
Should be run in the
.B ip-down
script of
.BR pppd (8).

.TP
.B \-q, \-\-query groups|desc|times
Query information about all groups from the remote server and merge it to
the
.B groupinfo
file. This must be run after installing 
.B noffle
or sometimes after a change of the remote news server or corruption
of the file. It can take some time on slow connections.
.B groups
retrieves the list of the existing newsgroups
(resets all local article counters),
.B desc
retrieves all newsgroup descriptions,
.B times
retrieves the creation times of the newsgroups.

.TP
.B \-r, \-\-server
Run as NNTP server on standard input and standard output. This is
intended to be called by
.BR inetd (8)
and should be registered in
.B /etc/inetd.conf.
Error and logging messages are put to the
.BR syslogd (8)
daemon which is usually configured to write them to
.B /var/log/news.
A list of the NNTP commands that are understood by
.B noffle
can be retrieved by running the server and typing
.B HELP.

.TP
.B \-R, \-\-requested
List articles that are marked for download.

Format: <message-id> <server>

.TP
.B \-s, \-\-subscribe-over <group>
Add group with name <group> to list of groups that are presently to be fetched
(in over mode).

.TP
.B \-S, \-\-subscribe-full <group>
Add group with name <group> to list of groups that are presently to be fetched
(in full mode).

.TP
.B \-t, \-\-subscribe-thread <group>
Add group with name <group> to list of groups that are presently to be fetched
(in thread mode).

.TP
.B \-u, \-\-unsubscribe <group>
Remove group with name <group> from list of groups that are presently to
be fetched.

.SH FILES

There exists a spool directory (default
.I /var/spool/noffle),
and a config file (default
.I /etc/noffle.conf).

.PP

.TP
.B <config file>
Configuration file. Comment lines begin with
.I #.
Definition lines may contain:
.br
.B server <hostname>[:<port>] [<user> <pass>]
Name of the remote server. If no port is given, port 119 is used.
Username and password for servers that need authentication
(Original AUTHINFO). The password may not contain white-spaces.
If there are multiple server entries in the config file, all of them are
used for getting groups. In this case the first server should be
the one of your main provider. Note that you must always run
"noffle --query groups" after making changes to the server entries.
.br
.B max-fetch <n>
Never get more than <n> articles. If there are more, the oldest ones
are discarded.
.br
Default: 300
.br
.B mail-to <address>
Receiver of failed postings. If empty then failed postings are returned
to the sender (taking the address from the article's Sender, X-Sender or
From field, in this order).
.br
Default: <empty string>
.br
.B auto-unsubscribe yes|no
Automatically remove groups from fetch list if they have not been
accessed for a number of days.
.br
Default: no
.br
.B auto-unsubscribe-days <n>
Number of days used for auto-unsubscribe option.
.br
Default: 30
.br
.B thread-follow-time <n>
Automatically mark articles for download in thread mode, if they
are referencing an article that has been opened by a reader within the last
<n> days.
.br
Default: 7
.br
.B connect-timeout <n>
Timeout for connecting to remote server in seconds.
.br
Default: 30
.br
.B auto-subscribe yes|no
Automatically put groups on fetch list if someone reads them.
<mode> can be full, over, thread (depending on the fetch mode) or
off (do not subscribe automatically). Condition for putting a group
on the list is that an article is opened. For this reason there is
always a pseudo article visible in groups that are not on the fetch list.
.br
Default: no
.br
.B auto-subscribe-mode full|thread|over
Mode for auto-subscribe option.
.br
Default: over
.br
.B remove-messageid yes|no
Remove Message-ID from posted articles. Some remote servers can generate
Message-IDs.
.br
Default: no
.br
.B replace-messageid yes|no
Replace Message-ID of posted articles by a Message-ID generated by
NOFFLE. Some news readers generate Message-IDs that are not accepted by
some servers. For generating Message-IDs, the domain name of your system should
be a valid domain name. If you are in a local domain, set it to your
provider's domain name.
.br
Default: yes
.br

.TP
.B <spool dir>/fetchlist
List of newsgroups that are presently to be fetched.
.br

.TP
.B <spool dir>/data/groupinfo.gdbm
Database with groups in
.BR gdbm(3)
format.

.TP
.B <spool dir>/data/articles.gdbm
Database with articles in
.BR gdbm(3)
format.

.TP
.B <spool dir>/lock/
Lock files and files indicating online/offline status.

.TP
.B <spool dir>/outgoing/
Posted articles to be delivered to the remote server.

.TP
.B <spool dir>/overview/
Text file per group with article overviews.

.TP
.B <spool dir>/requested/
Message IDs of articles marked for download.


.SH SEE ALSO

.BR crond (8)
.BR inetd (8),
.BR pppd (8),
.br
.B RFC 977,
.B RFC 1036,
.br
.B IETF drafts on common NNTP extensions:
.br
.B http://www.karlsruhe.org/
.br
.B NOFFLE home page:
.br
.B http://home.t-online.de/home/markus.enzenberger/noffle.html

.SH AUTHORS

Markus Enzenberger <markus.enzenberger@t-online.de>
.br
Volker Wysk <volker.wysk@student.uni-tuebingen.de>

1998-1999.