OVERVIEW.FMT(5)

💖 OVERVIEW.FMT — the vibe of the news overview database 💖

okay bestie, sit down, because we're talking about overview.fmt, a file format manual page from the File Formats Manual era, and honestly? it's giving infrastructure realness. no cap.

✨ NAME ✨

overview.fmt — the format of the news overview database 🗂️

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so the file /etc/news/overview.fmt is the one that specifies the organization of the news overview database. like, it's the blueprint, the moodboard, the little planner that tells everyone where things go. 💅

blank lines? ignored. lines that begin with a number sign (`#`)? also ignored. literally just skipped, no drama. and listen — the order of lines in this file is important; it determines the order in which the fields will appear in the database. so don't go shuffling them around like it's a playlist, because it is not a playlist. 🫶

most lines are gonna consist of an article header name, optionally followed by a colon. that's it, that's the whole vibe. but here's the cute part: a trailing set of lines can have the word `full` appear after the colon — and that means the header should appear as well as its value. so not just the value, bestie, the whole thing. icon behavior. 👑

⚠️ real talk: if this file is changed, it is usually necessary to rebuild the existing overview database using expireover(8) after removing all existing overview files. like, all of them. don't skip steps, don't improvise, this is not a "we'll figure it out" situation. 😭

the default file, shown below, is compatible with Geoff Collyer's `nov` package. and it's literally this:

Subject:
From:
Date:
Message-ID:
References:
Bytes:
Lines:
##  Some newsreaders get better performance if Xref is present
#Xref:full

see that ## line? ignored (starts with #). see that #Xref:full line? also ignored, but it's there whispering about performance, and if you un-comment it, the Xref header shows up with its value. chef's kiss. ✨

🦋 HISTORY 🦋

written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews. intended to be compatible with the nov package written by Geoff Collyer <geoff@world.std.com>. this is revision 1.6, dated 1996/09/06. a classic, an OG, a true ancestor. 💜

🎀 sign-off 🎀

and that's the whole page, bestie — OVERVIEW.FMT(5), living under the File Formats Manual umbrella, revision 1.6, dated 1996/09/06. go forth, configure your overview database, and remember: order matters, # means ignore, and full means the header and the value. slay. 💅🌈⭐