RKIVE

Section: File Formats (5)
Index Return to Main Contents

NAME

rkive.cf - USENET Source Archiver Configuration File.

DESCRIPTION

rkive.cf allows the administrator to configure the way in which USENET sources are archived.

The configuration file is used to indicate where the archives are to be located, who will own the archive members, etc. The configuration file is divided into two sections, a global section and the individual newsgroup specifications.

The syntax of the individual line types are as follows:

Global Variable Line: Variable = value
Newsgroup Identifier: $$comp.source.whatever
Newsgroup Variable Line: Variable : value

Note that the '=' is used to designate a global variable and that the ':' is used to determine a newsgroup variable.

The global variables are divided up into variables that pertain to all archiving as well as defaults to be used in the event that the archive administrator has not set a specific value for a "defaultable" variable.

GLOBAL VARIABLES

SPOOLDIR =: This is the base directory for the news subsystem.
PROBLEMS =: The name of the base directory used to store any duplicate or "problem" articles that rkive(1) cannot deal with. All articles are stored under this directory in a newsgroup / volume directory structure.
LOG =: The location of the master log in which actions are logged. If this variable is not set, no logging takes place.
LOG_FORMAT =: The format of the records of the master log file. This variable only pertains to the global log file format. The actual format specification must be enclosed in "". See article(1) for a discussion of the available selection format capabilities.
INDEX =: The location of the master index file (if one is to be kept). The index can be used to interface with the netlib source retrieval software facility.
INDEX_FORMAT =: The format of the records of the master index file. The actual format specification must be enclosed in "". See article(1) for a discussion of the available selection format capabilities.
MAIL =: If specified, logged actions are mailed to the users listed. The user names are a comma separated list. It is not necessary to specify any users.

The following values are used if the administrator has not set a value for a corresponding newsgroup configuration item.

TYPE =

This is the default archive type. There are 3 possible ways in which to archive USENET sources,

: Volume-Issue, Archive-Name or Article Number.

These are used to determine if you wish the articles archived in a

: /basedir/amiga/Volume1/v001i22 or /basedir/amiga/Volume1/sitonit or /basedir/amiga/Volume1/44 format.

PATCHES =

This variable determines the way in which patches are installed into the archive. If the PATCHES entry is not defined either globally or within the newsgroup, the article is handled as a regular article and is stored according to the specified parameters of the newsgroup. The following are the valid possible values for the PATCHES variable:

PATCHES=Historical: This is the same as if no PATCHES entry existed at all. It is useful if Historical patches archiving is the default but there are certain newsgroups that have it specified differently.
PATCHES=Package: Package patches archiving allows the inbound patch to be placed with the directory with the initially posted articles. In this manner all parts and fixes of a package are together making it easier for software retrieval by uucp requests and mail request facilities such as netlib.

OWNER =

The owner of the archive files after they are stored in the archive.

GROUP =

The group ownership of the archive files after they are stored in the archive.

MODE =

The default modes of the files residing in the archive.

COMPRESS =

The location of the compression utility if the files are to be reduced. If this variable is specified, it must contain the full path to the command used to perform the compression.

The following is a sample global variable section.

SPOOLDIR=/usr/spool/news      
PROBLEMS=/usenet/problems
LOG=/usenet/archive.log
LOG_FORMAT= "%O %T %l" 
INDEX= /usenet/index
INDEX_FORMAT= "%a %T" 
MAIL=kent,rick,chris
TYPE= Archive-Name
PATCHES= Package
OWNER=src
GROUP=archive
MODE=0444
#COMPRESS=/usr/lbin/compress
In the above sample, if any of the individual newsgroups had not
had the type of the archive specified, the type would have defaulted
to an Archive-Name (if the newsgroup had the auxiliary headers required
to support Archive-Name). By default, no compression was to be done. All
results would have been mailed to the accounts of kent, rick and chris.
If a newsgroup had not specified the ownership and modes of the destination
archive members, the values specified in the global OWNER, GROUP, and MODE
would have been used.

NEWSGROUP SPECIFICATIONS

An individual newsgroup entry is identified by a $$ as the first two characters of the line. The name of the newsgroup (in newsgroup format) follows such as

: $$comp.sources.unix

BASEDIR :

This is the base directory for the archive.

LOG :

The location of the log file in which actions are logged. If this variable is not set, no logging takes place.

LOG_FORMAT :

The format of the records of the log file. The actual format specification must be enclosed in "". See article(1) for a discussion of the available selection format capabilities.

INDEX :

The location of the index file (if one is to be kept). The index can be used to interface with the netlib source retrieval software facility.

INDEX_FORMAT :

The format of the records of the index file. The actual format specification must be enclosed in "". See article(1) for a discussion of the available selection format capabilities.

MAIL :

If specified, logged actions are mailed to the list of users specified. The user names are a comma separated list. It is not necessary to specify any users.

TYPE :

This is the archive type. There are 3 possible ways in which to archive USENET sources,

: Volume-Issue, Archive-Name or Article Number.

PATCHES =

This variable determines the way in which patches are installed into the newsgroup's archive. If the PATCHES entry is not defined either globally or within the newsgroup, the article is handled as a regular article and is stored according to the specified parameters of the newsgroup. The following are the valid possible values for the PATCHES variable:

PATCHES: Historical: This is the same as if no PATCHES entry existed at all. It is useful if Historical patches archiving is the default but there are certain newsgroups that have it specified differently.
PATCHES: Package: Package patches archiving allows the inbound patch to be placed with the directory with the initially posted articles. In this manner all parts and fixes of a package are together making it easier for software retrieval by uucp requests and mail request facilities such as netlib.

OWNER :

The the owner of the files after they are stored in the archive directory for the newsgroup.

GROUP :

The group ownership of the archive files after they are stored in the archive directory for the newsgroup.

MODE :

The default modes of the files residing in the archive directory.

COMPRESS :

The location of the compression utility if the files are to be reduced. If this variable is specified, it must contain the full path to the command used to perform the compression.

A sample entry for comp.sources.unix might look like:

$$comp.sources.unix             
        BASEDIR: /usenet/unix 
        TYPE: Volume-Issue
        PATCHES: Historical
        OWNER: kent
        GROUP: support
        MODE: 0664
        INDEX: /usenet/unix/index
        INDEX_FORMAT: "%O %a %S" 
        COMPRESS: /usr/lbin/compress
        MAIL: kent,bob,sally
In the above sample, comp.sources.unix would be archived in /usenet/unix.
The individual volume directories would be created there. All files would
be owned by kent and the group support. The files would be writable by the
group as well as the owner. (Not a smart idea but just for examples sake.)
Logging is not being done although an index entry is being generated for
each article archived. All files stored in the archive for this newsgroup
are to be compressed using the compress program in /usr/lbin. Mail is sent 
to kent, bob and sally when the archiving of comp.sources.unix has been
completed.