All configuration is done using the file /etc/news/leafnode/config, which may include a filter
description file, filterfile for short, as described below.
For the purposes of this section, whitespace shall be defined as an arbitrary sequence consisting of one
or more SPACE or HTAB characters, ASCII positions 32 and 9, respectively.
The configuration file is strictly line-oriented with LF or CRLF as line terminator.
Empty lines and lines consisting of only whitespace, possibly followed by a comment (introduced by a hash
mark (#) and extending through the end of the line), are skipped.
All other lines have exactly three mandatory fields, a plain text parameter, an assignment character (=)
optionally surrounded by whitespace and a value. The value is either plain text or – new since leafnode
v1.11 – a string in double quotes with trivial backslash escape (see below).
Plain text starts at the first non-whitespace character and extends through the last non-whitespace
character on the line that is not a comment. A trailing comment on a line is skipped.
Quoted strings are enclosed in double quote characters ("). The backslash character (\) is skipped, but
it copies the immediately following character verbatim, so that you can specify the backslash itself by
doubling it (\\) or a double quote character as part of the string by preceding it with a backslash (\");
the hash mark has no special meaning as command introducer inside quoted strings. Text after the end of
the string is silently ignored (this may change in future versions). Comments after quoted strings are
ignored.
MANDATORYPARAMETERS
These parameters must be specified for leafnode to work.
server = news02.example.com
"server" is used by fetchnews (8) to select what NNTP server(s) to retrieve news from and to post
your articles to. You can specify more than one news server; in that case, the servers will be
queried from the top down. If you want to post articles, at least one of your servers should allow
you to post. In the example above, news02.example.com is the news server.
This parameter can be given more than once. Each server starts with a fresh set of default
configuration options, no inheritance takes place from the previous server definition. Only
options explicitly marked "server-specific" can be set on a per server basis, "general" options
are set for all servers at the same time.
expire = 5
"expire" is the number of days an article should be kept around. In the example, five days after
the article has last been read, it is deleted by texpire (8). This value MUST be at least 1. This
parameter is global, see the introductory paragraph of the following GENERALOPTIONPARAMETERS
section to find out what this means.
GENERALOPTIONALPARAMETERS
These options can only be configured once in the configuration file, and take effect for leafnode as a
whole. It does not matter where these are specified relative to server= options, but for clarity, you are
encouraged to place these before the first server= line. Specifying each of the global options more than
once lets the last copy take effect, but may cause errors in the future.
hostname = host.domain.country
By default, leafnode tries hard to figure the host name of your computer, skipping inadequate
(non-unique) names if possible. It will look up your computer's host name with gethostname(3) and
then try to qualify the name with gethostbyname(3) if necessary. Common sources for the full name
therefore are /etc/hosts, NIS and DNS, but consult your system documentation for details.
If leafnode fails to determine the host name, this is usually a hint that your system is not
configured properly, or it has a hostname that is unsuitable for the domain part of a Message-ID,
for example, "localhost.localdomain", and you should fix the name service configuration. Adding a
unique fully-qualified host name to /etc/hosts is usually sufficient. Please see README-FQDN for
more details.
You can configure the unique fully-qualified host name here as well, but this is not recommended
and discouraged.
create_all_links = 1
Normally, fetchnews will store articles only in the newsgroups which it considers interesting.
With this option set, fetchnews will create hardlinks for all newsgroups in the Newsgroups: header
that it knows about. This may be of interest if you want to apply a score- or killfile to the
local Xref: line.
maxfetch = 1000
"maxfetch" specifies the maximum number of articles fetchnews (8) should fetch from the upstream
server in each group. Its use is not advised, because if you use it you will not see all the
traffic in a group. By default there is no limit.
initialfetch = 1
"initialfetch" defines how many articles from a newly subscribed group should be fetched. The
default is to fetch all old articles, which can get quite time-consuming when subscribing to a
very busy group. This is equivalent to setting initialfetch to zero. If you want to get no old
articles when subscribing to a new group, you should set initialfetch to one, as in the example
above.
groupexpire very.crowded.group = 1
groupexpire very.crowded.hierarchy.* = 1
"groupexpire" makes it possible to adjust expiry times for individual groups. Expiry times are
given in days. 0 means "use the default", negative values prevent the expire process for this
group altogether (you can consider this an archive mode). This value is used by texpire (8). You
can specify as many groupexpire lines as you like. It is possible to specify glob (7)-like
wildcard expressions.
maxage = 10
If an article turns up on your upstream news server which is older than "maxage" days it will not
been fetched even if you do not have it yet. This is useful if your upstream server gets
occasional "hiccups". The default is set to 10. If you want to switch this feature off, set maxage
to some very large value, such as 20000 (this is equivalent to roughly 54 years).
maxold = 10
Is synonymous to maxage, see above.
maxlines = 2000
If you want to avoid receiving very large articles, you may set the "maxlines" parameter to the
maximal number of lines an article should have. By default, this feature is switched off.
minlines = 2
Sometimes newsgroups are spammed with empty postings. To reject these postings, you can set the
"minlines" parameter. Setting minlines to a value larger 4 is probably not a good idea since you
will also start to kill "real" postings then. By default, this feature is switched off.
maxbytes = 100000
If you want to avoid receiving very large articles, instead of using the "maxlines" parameter you
can also use the "maxbytes" parameter. By default, this feature is switched off.
maxcrosspost = 5
If you want to combat spam, you can filter out all postings that are posted to more than a certain
number of newsgroups. The number is defined by setting "maxcrosspost". Setting this parameter to
very low values is probably a bad idea. This feature is switched off by default.
maxgroups = 5
Synonymous for maxcrosspost. See above.
filterfile = /etc/news/leafnode/filters
Leafnode can filter the input headers for arbitrary regular expressions. These are stored in a
file designated "filterfile". The format of "filterfile" is very simple: one perl-compatible
regular expression per line. If one of the regular expressions fits to a header to be downloaded,
the body of that article will be rejected. This feature is switched off by default. The format of
the regular expressions is described in pcre(3).
timeout_short = 2
By default, a group that has been accidentally touched is being fetched for two days. You can
change this time by changing timeout_short.
timeout_long = 7
By default, a group that has not been read at all is being fetched for seven days before being
unsubscribed. This interval can be changed by setting timeout_long to a different value.
timeout_active = 90
By default, active files from the upstream servers are re-read every 90 days. This interval can be
changed by setting timeout_active to a different value. Be aware that reading an active file
transfers about one MB of information if the server that you are using carries a reasonable number
of groups (i. e. around 20,000).
timeout_client = 900 (since v1.9.23)
By default, leafnode will drop the connection 900 seconds (15 minutes) after seeing the last
command from the client. You can change the timeout here. Setting it too low (like below 5
minutes) will annoy your users and consume more system resources for re-reading all the files.
timeout_fetchnews = 300 (since v1.9.52)
Fetchnews will, since v1.9.52, assume the upstream server has become wedged after waiting for a
reply for 300 seconds. You can change the timeout here.
timeout_lock = 5 (since v1.9.54)
Configure how many seconds the leafnode programs (applyfilter, checkgroups, fetchnews, texpire)
will wait for the lock file before aborting. Setting this to 0 means to wait indefinitely. NOTE:
you can override this by setting the environment variable LN_LOCK_TIMEOUT (note it is not
LN_TIMEOUT_LOCK). The default is 5 seconds.
delaybody = 1
With this option set, fetchnews (8) fetches only the headers of an article for visual inspection.
Only when the headers have been read, the bodies of the articles will be retrieved the next time
fetchnews (8) is called. This can save a huge amount of download time and disk space.
delaybody_in_situ = 1 (since v1.9.41)
This is only applicable with delaybody=1.
By default, leafnode will give the full downloaded article a new article number so they appear as
new in your newsreader. This does not work for all newsreaders. With this option set, leafnode
will retain the original article number. You'll have to figure out how to tell your newsreader to
show old articles. This option defaults to 0. It is highly recommended to leave it unset.
debugmode = 1
With this option set, fetchnews (8), texpire (8) and leafnode (8) will start to log lots of
debugging output via syslog (8) at facility news and priority debug. Use it for tracking down
problems with your feed. debugmode should be left at 0 for regular use because it can log enormous
amounts of data. The higher the number, the more will be logged. Choosing a figure greater than 3
will not make a difference at the moment.
allow_8bit_headers = 1 (since v1.9.25)
By default, leafnode rejects local posts that have 8-bit characters in their headers, because they
violate relevant standards, particularly RFC-2822 (which RFC-1036 is based on) that demands that
Usenet news headers (as mail headers) must be pure 7-bit US-ASCII, with only whitespace allowed
from the control characters.
However, as UTF-8 is to come, and some national hierarchies, particularly the Norwegian and Danish
(no.*, dk.*) seem to have agreed on preferring just-send-eight over RFC-2047, you can set this
option to allow 8-bit data in headers. Leafnode will however add a warning header if 8-bit data is
present, stating that the site administrator allowed this.
There is no way to make leafnode accept non-whitespace control characters in headers.
allowSTRANGERS = MAGIC (since v1.9.23)
By default, leafnode refuses connections from outside your LANs. Check config.example for how to
use this parameter to let strangers connect to your leafnode. Instead of MAGIC, you have to write
a number as mentioned in config.example. Note that capitalization matters.
linebuffer = 1
By default, stdout and sometimes stderr of applications are set to "fully buffered" unless
connected to terminals. Use this option to explicitly request line buffered mode for stdout and
stderr.
clamp_maxage = 0
By default, leafnode will derive a "maxage" argument from the expire time that is applicable to
the group (groupexpire if set, expire otherwise), to prevent fetching articles again that were
once there and then cleared by texpire(8). Set clamp_maxage=0 to get rid of this behaviour.
article_despite_filter = 1 (since v1.9.33)
By default, fetchnews will request HEAD and BODY separately if a filter file is defined and
delaybody is off. For high latency, high throughput links (such as interleaved DSL or satellite
links), it may be faster to request head and body together with an ARTICLE command and ignore the
body if the filters apply (though it may not be cheaper if you pay per MByte), enabling this
option will force leafnode to use the ARTICLE command in spite of filters being defined. (Note
that in delaybody mode, HEAD and BODY will ALWAYS be requested separately.)
newsadmin = news@leafnode.example.org (since v1.9.47)
This option sets the From: address for the placeholder article, it should be the news
administrator's mail address. It defaults to news@HOSTNAME, where HOSTNAME is leafnode's
hostname.
SERVER-SPECIFICOPTIONALPARAMETERS
These options can only be placed after the server= line of the server to which you would like these to
apply, and they always pertain to the preceding server= line. Specifying them before the first server=
line is an error.
username = myname
If any of your news servers requires authentication, you can enter your username on that server
here. This field may occur multiple times, once after each server definition. See the introduction
of this CONFIGURATION section for information on how to quote myname.
password = mypassword
If any of your news servers requires authentication, you can enter your password on that server
here. This field may occur multiple times, once after each server definition. Since the password
is available in clear text, it is recommended that you set the rights on the config file as
restrictive as possible, otherwise other users of your computer will be able to get your
password(s) from that file. See the introduction of this CONFIGURATION section for information on
how to quote mypassword.
port = 8000
By default, fetchnews tries to connect to its upstream news servers on the NNTP port (119). If
your servers run on a different port, you can specify those here. This field may occur multiple
times, once after each server definition.
Note: to modify the port your own leafnode servers listens on, change the inetd.conf or
xinetd.conf configuration file. leafnode does not set up its listen port itself.
timeout = 30
By default, leafnode tries to connect for 10 seconds to a server and then gives up. If you have a
slow server, you can try for a longer time by setting the timeout higher (in this example, 30
seconds). The timeout can be tuned individually for each server.
noactive = ANYTHING (v1.9.25 ... v1.11.4)
noactive = 1 (since v1.11.5)
If this parameter is set, the active file is never downloaded from this server. Use this for very
slow servers unless they carry groups that other servers do not offer. Leafnode versions 1.9.25 to
1.11.4 would always assume that "ANYTHING" had been 1. "noactive = 0" is supported since v1.11.5.
nodesc = ANYTHING (until v1.11.4)
nodesc = 1 (since v1.11.5)
Some servers do not deliver news groups descriptions correctly because they cannot parse the
XGTITLE and LIST NEWSGROUPS commands. In that case, put this line after the "server" line.
Leafnode versions up to v1.11.4 would always assume that "ANYTHING" had been 1. "nodesc = 0" is
supported since v1.11.5.
nopost = 1 (since v1.9.23)
Prevent posting to this server. You can use this if the upstream will not let you post but still
greet leafnode with 200 or if the upstream does not forward your postings reliably.
noread = 1 (since v1.9.33)
Prevent fetching news articles or active files from this server. You can use this if the upstream
is good to post, but too slow to fetch news from.
noxover = 1 (since v1.9.47)
Prevent the use of XOVER on the current server. Fetchnews will use XHDR instead.
only_groups_match_all = 1 (since v1.9.52)
Usually, when cross-posting an article, fetchnews will post the article if ANY group listed in the
Newsgroups: header is matched by the PCRE. With this option on, ALL groups listed in the
Newsgroups: header must match. This can be used to avoid "poison" groups when you have multiple
upstream servers.
only_groups_pcre = PCRE (since v1.9.28)
This parameter lists the Perl-compatible regular expression of groups that are fetched or posted
to this server. The PCRE is automatically anchored at the left hand side, so you can omit the
leading ^. Remember to escape dots, as in:
de\.comp\.|de\.comm\.
If this parameter is omitted, all groups are fetched from and posted to this server.
Note: you must run fetchnews with the -f option after changing, adding or removing any
only_groups_pcre option.
Hint: you can use something like this to check your only_groups_pcre settings:
cut -f1 -d" " @spooldir@/leaf.node/groupinfo \
| pcregrep 'PATTERN'
post_anygroup = 1 (since v1.9.37)
This parameter makes leafnode post on this server without checking if it carries the group an
article is posted to. The default is post_anygroup = 0, which means that leafnode will check with
a "GROUP" command if the server carries the group the articles is posted into. Use this on post-
only servers that do not allow the "GROUP" command. Note: inconsiderate use of this parameter may
cause articles to end up in the failed.postings directory.
OBSOLETEPARAMETERS
supplement
is synonymous to server. Do not use it on new installations.
fqdn is synonymous to hostname. Do not use it on new installations.
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