MOTD.NEWS(5)

💌 MOTD.NEWS(5) — motd.news 💌

okay so bestie, this is an InterNetNews Documentation page, and it’s all about the message-of-the-day files for news feeders and readers. very niche, very demure, very “iykyk” 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

motd.news — message of the day information for feeders or readers 🎀

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

Two files live in pathetc, and they contain local info for news feeders or news readers in a free-form format. The entire files are returned verbatim to any client that issues the LIST MOTD command. That’s giving “new info drop”, “upcoming downtime notice”, or just a similar little heads-up. ✨

The files are named:

• motd.innd — for news feeders, used by innd 🧚
• motd.nnrpd — for news readers, used by nnrpd 🦋

Make sure these files are encoded in UTF-8. They should also be “dot-stuffed”, meaning a line beginning with a dot should have that dot doubled. yes, literally double the dot, no cap. 🫶

⚠️ Be aware that use of the LIST MOTD command is not widespread — though it is documented in RFC 6048 — and most news clients will never ask for this file. lowkey tragic, but true. 💀

If one or both of these files are missing, it is not an error. The server will just send the client the appropriate response for an unmaintained motd.innd or motd.nnrpd file. so no meltdown needed. 😭

On a fresh INN install, samples for these files are installed in pathetc; you will therefore find in motd.innd.sample and motd.nnrpd.sample a few examples of messages that can be communicated to news clients. cute little starter pack, fr fr. 💖

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🦋 HISTORY 🦋

Rewritten in POD by Russ Allbery <eagle@eyrie.org> for InterNetNews. iconic behavior, honestly. 👑

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

inn.conf(5). go read it, bestie. 📚

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This page is from INN 2.7.4, dated 2023-03-07 — bye bestie, slay the motd 💅💖