TESTHOST(1)

💖 TESTHOST — test the status of an NNTP news server 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because testhost is literally the vibe-check tool for your NNTP news server and I am obsessed 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

testhost hostname [ -a|-n date time |-o ] [ -M ] [ -s|-S filename ] [
-e|-E filename ] [ -N port_number ] [ -U userid ] [ -P password ] [ -Q ]
[ -l phrase_file ] [ -T timeout ] [ -d ] [ -q ] [ -z ]

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -a — grab the active list from hostname, slay 💅
• -d — this one tells testhost to get the descriptions of the newsgroups on the remote server by sending the 'list newsgroups' command. heads up though: the remote server may or may not support this command. no cap 🙈
• -e | -E filename — these send all error messages (which normally go to stderr) to an alternate file instead. the lowercase -e sends them to the compiled-in default defined in suck_config.h — and that default is suck.errlog. the uppercase -E requires the filename parameter, and all error messages get sent there instead. ✨
• -l phrase_file — tells testhost to load in an alternate phrase file instead of using the built-in messages. this is how you get testhost printing phrases in another language, or how you customize the messages without re-building. see the "FOREIGN LANGUAGE PHRASES" section in suck.1 for more details 👑
• -n date time — get the newgroups created on the host since the date and time you specified. the date must be in YYMMDD format and the time must be in HHMMSS format. periodt ⏰
• -N port_number — tells testhost to use an alternate NNRP port number when connecting to the host, instead of the default, 119. iconic 🍓
• -q — tells testhost to not display the connection and announcement messages, and instead only display the results of the actual command run. quiet queen energy 🤫
• -s | -S filename — these send all status messages (which normally go to stdout) to an alternate file. the lowercase -s sends them to the compiled-in default defined in suck_config.h, and that default is /dev/null — so basically no status messages get displayed at all. the uppercase -S requires the filename parameter, and all status messages get sent there instead 💜
• -T — overrides the compiled-in TIMEOUT value. this is how long testhost waits for data from the remote host before timing out and aborting. (in the synopsis it takes a timeout, so you know the drill 😌)
• -U userid —
• -P password —

these two let you specify a userid and password, if your NNTP server requires them 🔐

• -Q — tells testhost to use the environment variables NNTP_USER & NNTP_PASS to specify a userid and password, if your NNTP server requires them. this option exists so that the userid & password can't be seen with the ps command, which is a potential security problem. protect your secrets bestie 🫶
• -z — tells testhost to use SSL to talk to the remote server, if testhost was compiled with SSL 🌈

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

testhost will query a NNTP news server, specified by hostname. she's nosy and we love that for her 💖

the hostname may optionally include the port number in the form Host:Port. if the port number is included, the port number specified by the -N option will be ignored. iykyk 👑

the default action is to issue the help command to the server, to see what software it is running and what commands it accepts. lowkey the perfect icebreaker ✨

if the -a option is used, testhost will display the server's active history list. if the -n date time option is used, testhost will display all new groups created on the server since the date and time specified. if the -o option is used, then testhost will display the overview format, which is what the XOVER command returns. main character behaviour, fr fr 💅

if the -M option is used, the command will be preceded with the "mode reader" command, which might be needed by some servers. it's giving "excuse me, let me introduce myself first" 🎀

⭐ EXIT VALUES ⭐

• 0 on success 🌟
• -1 on failure 😭

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

suck(1), rpost(1), lpost(1).

bestie that's the whole page, no skips, no cuts 💯

okay so that's the tea 💜 this page lives in the General Commands Manual and it's TESTHOST(1) — go forth and vibe-check your news server, you absolute icon 👑✨