MOD-ACTIVE(8)

💅 MOD-ACTIVE(8) 💅

InterNetNews Documentation ✨ — okay bestie, gather round, this one's about batch-processing newsgroup creation and removal commands.

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🌸 NAME 🌸

mod-active — batch processing of newsgroups creation and removal commands 🫶

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

mod-active [ctlinnd-command-file ...]

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

Okay so mod-active is a Perl script that updates the active file based on its input lines of ctlinnd newgroup, rmgroup, and changegroup commands. It pauses the server briefly while the existing active file is read and rewritten — and that not only keeps innd from updating the active file, it also locks against other instances of mod-active. Iconic behavior, honestly 💅

The script must be run as the news user. No cap.

The input to mod-active can come either from one or more ctlinnd-command-file files named on the command line, or from the standard input. Typically its input is the output from the docheckgroups or actsync commands.

Every line which contains the string ctlinnd newgroup, ctlinnd rmgroup, or ctlinnd changegroup, optionally preceded by whitespace and/or the path to ctlinnd, is noted for the update. Redundant commands, such as a newgroup directive for a group that already exists, are silently ignored. All other lines in the input are also silently ignored. Very demure, very mindful.

After the new active file has been generated, the existing one is renamed to active.old and the new one is moved into place. The script then displays the differences between the two files. Any groups that were added to the active file are also added to the active.times file with the string checkgroups-update. Slay 🎀

Please note that no syntax checking is performed on group names by mod-active. So yeah, it will absolutely let you cook unsupervised 🔥

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💀 BUGS 💀

Though innd is paused while mod-active works, it is not inconceivable that there could be a conflict if something else tries to update the active file during the relatively short time that mod-active is working.

The two most realistic ways for this to happen are either:

1. by an administrator concurrently doing a manual ctlinnd command, or
2. by innd receiving a control message, then mod-active pausing the server, then the control message handler script that innd forked running its own ctlinnd command while mod-active is working.

Note that such scenarios are very unlikely to happen. Lowkey a rare edge case, bestie 🙈

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👑 HISTORY 👑

Written by David C Lawrence <tale@isc.org> for InterNetNews. Converted to POD by Julien Elie.

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• active(5)
• active.times(5)
• actsync(8)
• ctlinnd(8)
• docheckgroups(8)
• innd(8)

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This page is from INN 2.7.4, dated 2023-03-07 — that's the footer tea, bestie, mwah 💋✨