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.\" ========================================================================
.\"
.IX Title "MAILPOST 8"
.TH MAILPOST 8 "2023-03-07" "INN 2.7.2" "InterNetNews Documentation"
.\" For nroff, turn off justification.  Always turn off hyphenation; it makes
.\" way too many mistakes in technical documents.
.if n .ad l
.nh
.SH "NAME"
mailpost \- Feed an e\-mail message into a newsgroup
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.IX Header "SYNOPSIS"
\&\fBmailpost\fR [\fB\-hn\fR] [\fB\-a\fR \fIaddr\fR] [\fB\-b\fR \fIdatabase\fR] [\fB\-c\fR \fIwait-time\fR]
[\fB\-d\fR \fIdistribution\fR] [\fB\-f\fR \fIaddr\fR] [\fB\-m\fR \fImailing-list\fR]
[\fB\-o\fR \fIoutput-command\fR] [\fB\-p\fR \fIport\fR] [\fB\-r\fR \fIaddr\fR] [\fB\-t\fR \fItempdir\fR]
[\fB\-x\fR \fIheader\fR[\fB:\fR\fIheader\fR...]] [\fB\-z\fR \fIheader\fR[\fB:\fR\fIheader\fR...]]
\&\fInewsgroups\fR
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.IX Header "DESCRIPTION"
The \fBmailpost\fR program reads a properly formatted e\-mail message from stdin
and feeds it to \fBinews\fR for posting to a news server.  \fInewsgroups\fR is a
whitespace-separated list of group names to which to post the article
(at least one newsgroup must be specified).
.PP
Before feeding the article to \fBinews\fR, it checks that the article has
not been seen before, and it changes some header fields (cleaning up some
address header fields, removing a few ones like X\-Complaints-To and X\-Trace,
and putting \f(CW\*(C`X\-\*(C'\fR in front of unknown header fields).  The Received and *\-To
header fields are also altered to prevent spamming the gateway (the name
of the news server or the domain name set in \fIfromhost\fR, \fIpathhost\fR and
\&\fIdomain\fR in \fIinn.conf\fR are removed).
.PP
If the article has been seen before (\fBmailpost\fR records the message-ID of
each article it handles), then the article will be dropped with a non-zero
error status.  Other errors will cause the article to be mailed to the
newsmaster (selected at configure time and defaulting to \f(CW\*(C`usenet\*(C'\fR).
.PP
Normally, \fBmailpost\fR is run by \fBsendmail\fR\|(8) via an alias entry:
.PP
.Vb 2
\&    local\-mail\-wreck\-bikes: "|<pathbin in inn.conf>/mailpost
\&        \-b /var/spool/mailpost \-t /tmp \-d local local.bicycles.racing"
.Ve
.PP
The \fB\-b\fR and \fB\-t\fR flags are useful to change the directories used by
\&\fBmailpost\fR by default.  As a matter of fact, though it is recommended to
run \fBmailpost\fR as the news user, it is as often as not run as another user,
notably the mail user.  Therefore, you should make sure to create and set to
be writable by the user that \fBmailpost\fR runs as the directories where to put
the database and the temporary files.  Also, \fBmailpost\fR must be executable by
that user.
.PP
Instead of \fI/var/spool/mailpost\fR, the mail spool directory can be specified,
or any other directory where the \fBmailpost\fR process has write access.
.PP
A common practice to gateway a newsgroup to a mailing-list is to create a
moderated newsgroup (running for instance the command \f(CW\*(C`ctlinnd newgroup
local.bicycles.racing m\*(C'\fR) and set the moderation address for this newsgroup
in the \fImoderators\fR file in \fIpathetc\fR to the mailing-list address.  If you
add an \fB\-a\fR flag in the above example, then on the one hand, when a message
is sent to the mailing-list, \fBmailpost\fR will be run, mark it as approved,
and the message will directly reach the newsgroup.  On the other hand, when
a message is posted to the newsgroup, it normally does not have an Approved
header field, so it will be sent (by \fBnnrpd\fR) to the mailing-list address
configured in the \fImoderators\fR file, which means the message reaches the
mailing-list and, like any other messages posted to the mailing-list, it will
be processed by \fBmailpost\fR, approved, and finally reach the newsgroup.
.SH "OPTIONS"
.IX Header "OPTIONS"
.IP "\fB\-a\fR \fIaddr\fR" 4
.IX Item "-a addr"
If the \fB\-a\fR flag is used, \fIaddr\fR (which is usually the e\-mail address of
the poster) is added to the article as the body of an Approved header field.
It is useful if one of the newsgroup to which the article should be posted is
moderated.  (Of course, this flag should be added only if you are supposed to
auto-approve your posts.)
.Sp
Be sure that the reader connection made by \fBinews\fR to post the article
is allowed to post approved articles (see the \f(CW\*(C`A\*(C'\fR letter in the \fIaccess\fR
parameter of access blocks in \fIreaders.conf\fR).
.IP "\fB\-b\fR \fIdatabase\fR" 4
.IX Item "-b database"
If the \fB\-b\fR flag is used, then it defines the location of the persistent
database used to store the message-IDs of articles sent on.  This is to
prevent articles looping around if a news-to-mail gateway sends them back
here.  This option may be required if the \fBmailpost\fR process does not have
write access to the news database directory (notably when it is executed as
the mail user).  The default value is \fIpathdb\fR as set in \fIinn.conf\fR.
.Sp
Make sure the specified location exists and is writable by the user
\&\fBmailpost\fR runs as.
.IP "\fB\-c\fR \fIwait-time\fR" 4
.IX Item "-c wait-time"
The \fB\-c\fR flag indicates a length of time to sleep before posting.
If duplicate messages are received in this interval (by any instance of
\&\fBmailpost\fR using the same database), the article is only posted once,
but with Newsgroups header field body modified to crosspost the article
to all indicated groups.  The units for \fIwait-time\fR are seconds;
a reasonable value may be anywhere from tens to hundreds of seconds,
or even higher, depending on how long mail can be delayed on its way
to your system.
.IP "\fB\-d\fR \fIdistribution\fR" 4
.IX Item "-d distribution"
If the \fB\-d\fR flag is used, the value given is added to the article as the body
of the Distribution header field.
.IP "\fB\-f\fR \fIaddr\fR" 4
.IX Item "-f addr"
The \fB\-f\fR flag is a synonym for the \fB\-r\fR flag.
.IP "\fB\-h\fR" 4
.IX Item "-h"
Print usage information and exit.
.IP "\fB\-m\fR \fImailing-list\fR" 4
.IX Item "-m mailing-list"
If the \fB\-m\fR flag is used, the value given is added to the article in
a List-ID header field, if such a header field doesn't already exist.
.IP "\fB\-n\fR" 4
.IX Item "-n"
If the \fB\-n\fR flag is used, neither an article is posted nor a mail is sent
in case an error occurs.  Everything is written to the standard output.
.IP "\fB\-o\fR \fIoutput-command\fR" 4
.IX Item "-o output-command"
Specifies the program to which the resulting article processed by \fBmailpost\fR
should be sent.  For debugging purpose, \f(CW\*(C`\-o cat\*(C'\fR can be used.  The default
value is \f(CW\*(C`inews \-S \-h\*(C'\fR.
.IP "\fB\-p\fR \fIport\fR" 4
.IX Item "-p port"
Specifies the port on which \fBnnrpd\fR is listening, used for article posting.
If given, \fB\-p\fR is passed along to \fBinews\fR.
.IP "\fB\-r\fR \fIaddr\fR" 4
.IX Item "-r addr"
A heuristic is used to determine a reasonable value for the Path header
field body.  The \fB\-r\fR flag indicates what to use if no other value
can be determined.
.IP "\fB\-t\fR \fItempdir\fR" 4
.IX Item "-t tempdir"
If the \fB\-t\fR flag is used, then it defines the location of the directory to
use to temporarily store error messages that are sent to the newsmaster.  This
option may be required if the default value refers to a path that does not
exist or the \fBmailpost\fR process does not have write access to (notably when
it is executed as the mail user).  Two paths are tried by default: \fIpathtmp\fR
as set in \fIinn.conf\fR, and then \fI/var/tmp\fR if \fIpathtmp\fR is not writable.
.Sp
Make sure the specified location exists and is writable by the user
\&\fBmailpost\fR runs as.
.IP "\fB\-x\fR \fIheader\fR[\fB:\fR\fIheader\fR...]" 4
.IX Item "-x header[:header...]"
A colon-separated list of additional header fields which should be
treated as known header fields; these header fields will be passed
through to \fBinews\fR without having \f(CW\*(C`X\-\*(C'\fR prepended.
.Sp
By default, known header fields are:
.Sp
.Vb 10
\&    Archive
\&    Archived\-At
\&    Comments
\&    Content\-*
\&    Date
\&    Distribution
\&    From
\&    Injection\-Date
\&    Keywords
\&    List\-ID
\&    Message\-ID
\&    MIME\-*
\&    Organization
\&    References
\&    Return\-Path
\&    Sender
\&    Subject
\&    Summary
.Ve
.IP "\fB\-z\fR \fIheader\fR[\fB:\fR\fIheader\fR...]" 4
.IX Item "-z header[:header...]"
A colon-separated list of additional header fields which should be removed.
.Sp
By default, removed header fields are:
.Sp
.Vb 2
\&    X\-Complaints\-To
\&    X\-Trace
.Ve
.SH "FILES"
.IX Header "FILES"
.IP "\fIpathbin\fR/mailpost" 4
.IX Item "pathbin/mailpost"
The Perl script itself used to feed an e\-mail message to a newsgroup.
.IP "\fIpathdb\fR/mailpost\-msgid.dir and \fIpathdb\fR/mailpost\-msgid.pag" 4
.IX Item "pathdb/mailpost-msgid.dir and pathdb/mailpost-msgid.pag"
The default database files which record previously seen message-IDs.
.SH "HISTORY"
.IX Header "HISTORY"
Written by Paul Vixie long ago and then hacked up by James Brister for \s-1INN\s0
integration.  Documentation improved by Julien Elie.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.IX Header "SEE ALSO"
\&\fBinews\fR\|(1), \fBinn.conf\fR\|(5), \fBlibinn_uwildmat\fR\|(3), \fBmoderators\fR\|(5), \fBnnrpd\fR\|(8),
\&\fBreaders.conf\fR\|(5).