.TH noffle 1
.\" $Id: noffle.1 387 2002-06-26 13:15:44Z bears $
.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
\-D | \-\-delete <newsgroup name>
.br
.B noffle
\-e | \-\-expire
.br
.B noffle
\-f | \-\-fetch [server pattern]
.br
.B noffle
\-g | \-\-groups
.br
.B noffle
\-h | \-\-help
.br
.B noffle
\-l | \-\-list
.br
.B noffle
\-m | \-\-modify desc <newsgroup name> <group description>
.br
.B noffle
\-m | \-\-modify post <local newsgroup name> (y|n)
.br
.B noffle
\-n | \-\-online
.br
.B noffle
\-o | \-\-offline
.br
.B noffle
\-p | \-\-post
.br
.B noffle
\-q | \-\-query groups|desc [server pattern]
.br
.B noffle
\-B | \-\-rebuild
.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 to avoid shell
interpretation of '<' 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 \-D, \-\-delete <newsgroup name>
Delete the newsgroup with the given name. All articles that only
belong to the group are deleted as well.

.TP
.B \-e, \-\-expire
Delete all articles that have not been accessed recently from the
database.
Should be run regularily from
.BR crond (8).
.br
The default expire period is 14 days. This can be changed and
custom expiry periods set for individual newsgroups or sets of
newsgroups in
.B /etc/noffle.conf.

.TP
.B \-f, \-\-fetch [server pattern]
Get new newsfeed from the remote servers.
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).
 If a
.B server
.B pattern
is specified, new articles will only be fetched from matching servers
from the list in noffle.conf. Please see
.B noffle.conf (5)
for careful seeting of the settings
.B getgroups
and
.B omitgroups.

 

.TP
.B \-g, \-\-groups
List all groups available at remote server.
.br
Format (fields separated by tabs):
.br
<name> <server> <first> <last> <remote next> <post allowed> <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 \-m | \-\-modify desc <newsgroup name> <group description>
Modify the description of the named newsgroup.

.TP
.B \-m | \-\-modify post <local newsgroup name> <permission>
Modify the posting permission on a local newsgroup. <permission> must
be either 'y' (yes, posting allowed), 'm' (moderated, posting allowed
only if article has 'Approved:' header) or 'n' (no, posting not allowed).
Attempts to post to a newsgroup with posting disallowed will be rejected.

.TP
.B \-n, \-\-online
Put
.B NOFFLE
to online status. Requested articles or overviews of selected
groups are immediately fetched from the remote server. Groups are
not automatically subscribed to while in online mode, making online
mode ideal for tasting the content of unfamiliar groups without
subscribing to them.
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 \-p, \-\-post
Read a news article from standard input and post it.
Posting always observes the group post permission flag.
If a local group is marked 'm' (moderated), the article must
have an 'Approved:' header to be posted.

.TP
.B \-q, \-\-query groups|desc [server pattern]
Query information about all groups from the remote servers 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. If a
.B server
.B pattern
is specified, only matching servers from noffle.conf will be queried.

.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 \-B, \-\-rebuild
Rebuild the article database. This build a fresh copy of the
.B NOFFLE
article database. All locally held groups are scanned, and all articles
currently active in those groups are copied from the old article
database to the new one. The new one then replaces the old one.
This can be useful in cases of article database corruption.

.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 NOTES

If the
.I noffle
prgram sees the name under which it is executed is
.IR inews ,
it changes its behaviour to that described in
.BR inews (1).

.SH FILES

.B NOFFLE
takes its configuration from a configuration file, by default
.I /etc/noffle.conf.
For a description of this file, see
.BR noffle.conf(5).

.B NOFFLE
keeps all its data files in a spool directory.
.I /var/spool/noffle
is the default location.

.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 inews (1),
.BR noffle.conf (5),
.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>
.br
Jim Hague <jim.hague@acm.org>
.br
Uwe Hermann <uh1763@bingo-ev.de>

1998-2000.