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a87c02c8 C |
1 | .TH MKGRDATES 8C "26 October 1985" |
2 | .UC 4 | |
3 | .SH NAME | |
4 | mkgrdates \- Make the newsgroup creation date file | |
5 | for the NNTP server | |
6 | .SH SYNOPSIS | |
7 | .B /usr/spool/news/lib/mkgrdates | |
8 | .SH DESCRIPTION | |
9 | .I Mkgrdates | |
10 | maintains the newsgroup creation date file for the | |
11 | Network News Transfer Protocol server (which uses | |
12 | the newsgroup creation date file for the NEWGROUPS | |
13 | command). When executed, | |
14 | .I mkgrdates | |
15 | goes through the active file | |
16 | (usually | |
17 | .IR /usr/spool/news/lib/active ) | |
18 | and creates a file | |
19 | (usually | |
20 | .IR /usr/spool/news/lib/groupdates ) | |
21 | containing the creation dates and times of the | |
22 | newsgroups in the active file. The | |
23 | .I groupdates | |
24 | file has one line for each newsgroup, in the form | |
25 | ``date newsgroup'' where ``date'' is the newsgroup's | |
26 | creation time, in seconds since midnight, Jan. 1, | |
27 | 1970, GMT, | |
28 | and ``newsgroup'' is the name of the newsgroup in question. | |
29 | .PP | |
30 | Since generating the | |
31 | .I groupdates | |
32 | file is expensive, when | |
33 | .I mkgrdates | |
34 | is run it creates a file (usuaully | |
35 | .IR /usr/spool/news/lib/mkgdstats ) | |
36 | containing the length, in bytes, of the active file. | |
37 | The next time | |
38 | .I mkgrdates | |
39 | is invoked, it compares the contents of the | |
40 | .I mkgdstats | |
41 | file against the length of the active file, and | |
42 | exits if these lengths are the same. If the | |
43 | lengths are not the same, it rebuilds the | |
44 | .I groupdates | |
45 | file, and sets the | |
46 | .I mkgdstats | |
47 | file to the appropriate value. | |
48 | This scheme avoids a fair amount of what would | |
49 | essentially be wasted computing. | |
50 | .PP | |
51 | .I Mkgrdates | |
52 | should be run once or twice a day by an entry in | |
53 | .I /usr/lib/crontab | |
54 | .SH BUGS | |
55 | It would be good to get rid of this and have the | |
56 | news server do it, but nobody seems to be able | |
57 | to come up with an easy, inexpensive way. | |
58 | I'm certainly open to suggestions. | |
59 | .SH AUTHOR | |
60 | Phil Lapsley | |
61 | .SH SEE ALSO | |
62 | cron(1), | |
63 | nntpd(8C) |