NAME

mkgrdates - Make the newsgroup creation date file for the NNTP server

SYNOPSIS

/usr/public/lib/news/mkgrdates

NOTICE

Mkgrdates is no longer used, and does not need to be run from crontab. It is included only for completeness and backward compatibility. For more information, see the manual page for nntpd.

DESCRIPTION

Mkgrdates maintains the newsgroup creation date file for the Network News Transfer Protocol server, which uses it for the NEWGROUPS command. When executed, mkgrdates goes through the active file, /usr/public/lib/news/active, and creates the file /usr/public/lib/news/groupdates containing the creation dates and times of the newsgroups in the active file. The groupdates file has one line for each newsgroup, in the form ``date newsgroup'' where ``date'' is the newsgroup's creation time, in seconds since midnight, Jan. 1, 1970, GMT, and ``newsgroup'' is the name of the newsgroup in question.

Since generating the groupdates file is expensive, when mkgrdates is run it creates the file /usr/public/lib/news/mkgdstats containing the length, in bytes, of the active file. The next time mkgrdates is invoked, it compares the contents of the mkgdstats file against the length of the active file, and exits if these lengths are the same. If the lengths are not the same, it rebuilds the groupdates file, and sets the mkgdstats file to the appropriate value. This scheme avoids a fair amount of what would be wasted computing.

Mkgrdates should be run once or twice a day by an entry in /usr/lib/crontab

BUGS

It's a crock; mkgrdates' function needs to be done by the news system. NNTP version 1.4 does not use this program at all, and decides whether a group is ``new'' or not by a (rather poor) heuristic.

AUTHOR

Phil Lapsley

SEE ALSO

cron(1), nntpd(8C)