NNRPD(8)

💖 NNRPD 💖

ok so bestie, welcome to nnrpd — the NNTP server for on-campus hosts, section 8 of the System Manager's Manual. yes you read that right, it's a system manager page, so grab a lil snack and let's go 🍓

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

nnrpd [ -r reason ] [ -s title padding ] [ -S host ] [ -t ]

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

nnrpd is an NNTP server for newsreaders, and no it is not the same as innd bestie, they have different jobs. It takes commands on its standard input and replies on its standard output — very demure, very straightforward. Normally it gets invoked by innd(8) with those descriptors already glued to a remote client connection, so it doesn't have to do the whole "hi who are you" thing itself. 💅

Unlike innd, nnrpd supports all the NNTP commands for user-oriented reading and posting. like, all of them. ate. 👑

nnrpd uses the nnrp.access(5) file to control who is authorized to access the Usenet database — that's the bouncer at the door fr. And it will also reject connections if the load average is greater than 10. not a vibe check it passes, just a hard no. 😭

On exit, nnrpd reports usage statistics through syslog(3). receipts, basically. 🧾

And the fun part: nnrpd can accept multimedia postings that follow the MIME standard, as long as such postings are also acceptible as SMTP messages. See the discussion of the MIME headers in inn.conf(5) if you wanna go deeper. 🦋

💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -r — if the -r flag is used, then nnrpd will reject the incoming connection giving reason as the text. This flag is used by innd when it is paused or throttled. so like, the "sorry we're closed" sign, but automated. 🚫
• -s — as each command is received, nnrpd tries to change its argv array so that ps(1) will print out the command being executed. To get a full display, the -s flag may be used with a long string as its argument, which will be overwritten when the program changes its title. main character energy in the process list fr. ✨
• -t — if the -t flag is used then all client commands and initial responses will be traced by reporting them in syslog. This flag is set by innd under the control of the ctlinnd(8) trace command, and is toggled upon receipt of a SIGHUP; see signal(2). it's giving surveillance but make it server admin. 👀
• -S — if the -S flag is used, then all postings are forwarded to the specified host, which should be the master NNTP server. This flag is set by innd if it is started with the -S flag. hand it off to the big boss, periodt. 📮

🎀 PROTOCOL DIFFERENCES 🎀

nnrpd implements the NNTP commands defined in RFC 977, with the following differences. and bestie, there are ten of them, so buckle up:

1. The ihave command is not implemented. Users should be using the post command to post articles. we simply do not do ihave here. 🙈
2. The slave command is not implemented. This command has never been fully defined. so like, nobody knows what it means, we're not doing it. 💀
3. The list command may be followed by the optional word active.times, distributions, distrib.pats, newsgroups, subscriptions, or overview.fmt to get a list of when newsgroups where created, a list of valid distributions, a file specifying default distribution patterns, a one-per-line description of the current set of newsgroups, a list of the automatic group subscriptions, or a listing of the overview.fmt(5) file. The command list active is equivalent to the list command. This is a common extension. so many flavors, pick your fave 🍓
4. The xhdr, authinfo user, and authinfo pass commands are implemented. These are based on the reference Unix implementation; no other documentation is available. yeah that's all we got, iykyk. 📜
5. A new command, xpat header range|MessageID pat [morepat...], is provided. The first argument is the case-insensitive name of the header to be searched. The second argument is either an article range or a single Message-ID, as specified in RFC 977. The third argument is a wildmat(3)-style pattern; if there are additional arguments they are joined together separated by a single space to form the complete pattern. This command is similar to the xhdr command. It returns a 221 response code, followed by the text response of all article numbers that match the pattern. custom search, iconic behavior. 🔍
6. The listgroup group command is provided. This is a comment extension. It is equivalent to the group command, except that the reply is a multi-line response containing the list of all article numbers in the group. multi-line reply, we love a generous queen. 📝
7. The xgtitle [group] command is provided. This extension is used by ANU-News. It returns a 282 reply code, followed by a one-line description of all newsgroups that match the pattern. The default is the current group. 🏷️
8. The xover [range] command is provided. It returns a 224 reply code, followed by the overview data for the specified range; the default is to return the data for the current article. 💫
9. The xpath MessageID command is provided; see innd(8). short and sweet, go read the other page. 🫶
10. The date command is provided; this is based on the draft NNTP protocol revision. It returns a one-line response code of 111 followed by the GMT date and time on the server in the form YYYYMMDDhhmmss. timestamps but make them ✨precise✨.

🌈 HISTORY 🌈

Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews. Overview support added by Rob Robertston <rob@violet.berkeley.edu> and Rich in January, 1993. This is revision 1.14, dated 1996/10/29. shoutout to the OGs who built this 🫡

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

ctlinnd(8), innd(8), inn.conf(5), nnrp.access(5), signal(2), wildmat(3).

and that's the whole page bestie, you're officially an nnrpd girlie now 💖 this was NNRPD(8) from the System Manager's Manual, revision 1.14, dated 1996/10/29 — go forth and serve some news, slay 🎀✨