2.9BSD/usr/contrib/notes/notes.8

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.TH notes 8 "University of Illinois"
.SH NAME
mknf,
rmnf,
nfxmit,
nfrcv,
nfarchive,
newsinput,
newsoutput \- notesfile utility programs
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B mknf
[
.B \-aon
]
.B "topic"
[
.B "..."
]
.PP
.B rmnf
[
.B \-f
]
.B "topic"
[
.B "..."
]
.PP
.B nfxmit
.B "-dsite"
[
.B "-r"
]
[
.B "-a"
]
[
.B "-f file"
]
.B "topic"
[
.B "..."
]
.PP
.B nfrcv
.B "topic"
.B "fromsystem"
.PP
.B nfarchive
[
.B "-n"
]
[
.B "-d"
]
[
.B "-f file"
]
.B topic
[
.B "..."
]
.PP
.B newsinput
.PP
.B bnewsinput
.PP
.B newsoutput
[
.B "-a"
]
[
.B "-f file"
]
.B "topic"
[
.B "..."
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I "mknf,"
.I "rmnf,"
.I "nfxmit,"
.I "nfrcv,"
.I "nfarchive,"
.I "newsinput,"
.I "bnewsinput,"
and
.I "newsoutput"
are the utility programs provided with the notesfile system.
They provide the capabilities to
create and remove notesfiles,
update intersystem notesfiles,
archive old notes,
and
perform gateway activity between news(I) and the notesfile system.
.PP
.I mknf
and 
.I rmnf
create and delete notesfiles respectively.
The same parameters apply for each: 
the `topic' is the name that the notesfile is known by.
As 
.I mknf
processes its arguements, creating new notesfiles, the name of each
new notesfile is echoed to the terminal.
The new notesfiles are closed and
the 
.I "notesfile owner"
is made the sole director.
He customarily turns control over to the user requesting the notesfile
by making that person a director.
The 
.I "-aon"
options apply to
.I "mknf"
only.
They signify that the notesfiles created are to permit anonymous notes,
be open, and be networked respectively.
.PP
.I rmnf
asks for verification of each notesfile before deleting it. 
The notesfile is deleted if the response line begins with a `y'.
If the 
.I "-f"
option is specified the verification is bypassed.
Only the 
.I "notesfile owner"
is allowed to run 
.I mknf
and
.I "rmnf."
.PP
Network transmission of notesfiles is accomplished using
.I nfxmit
and 
.I "nfrcv."
.I "Nfxmit"
sends the specified notesfiles to
.I "site."
The 
.I "-r"
option specifies that a request should be queued for the
remote site to transmit updates from its copies of the notesfiles
sent.
Specify 
.I "-a"
to have articles which originated in news(1) sent.
News(1)-originated articles will usually reach each system via the
news program.
A timestamp of the last transmission of each notesfile to each system is
maintained. This is used for determining the notes to send.
The 
.I "-r" 
option is used only if the other site does not automatically queue
updates of the notesfile.
.PP
Specify
.I "-f myfile"
on the command line to have
.I "nfxmit"
read 
.I "myfile" 
for a list of notesfiles to be sent.
This is useful if the number of notesfiles is too numerous to list on a 
single command line.
The shell meta-characters
.I "*, ?, [,"
and
.I "]"
are recognized in both the 
.I topic
parameter and the entries in
.I "myfile."
.PP
.I "Nfxmit"
uses uux(I) to invoke 
.I "nfrcv" 
on the remote system in order to process the incoming notes.
Non-uucp connections are also supported (e.g. rsh in 4.1c BSD).
.PP
.I "Nfarchive" 
is used to archive notes that have not been modified in a certain 
amount of time.
The 
.I "-n" 
parameter gives the number of days that a note must be unmodified before
being eligible for archival.
The archived notes are stored in
a `generic' format in a 
separate directory where they are available for later retrieval.
The 
.I "-f"
parameter is similar to that of the
.I nfxmit
parameter of the same name.
The 
.I "-d"
parameter tells 
.I "nfarchive"
that the eligible notes should be deleted only; they are not placed into
the archives.
.PP
To transfer from news(1) to notesfiles, arrange to have the news distribution
program forward articles it receives to 
.I "newsinput or bnewsinput."
.I "Newsinput"
parses the A news protocol for intersystem transfer.
.I "Bnewsinput"
parses the B news protocol.
See the
.ul
Notesfile Reference Manual
for more detail on how
to establish this connection.
.PP
.I "Newsoutput"
takes several arguments.
The
.I "-a"
option specifies that notesfile originated articles from other
systems can be sent to news; the default is that only locally written 
articles are passed to news.
Use the
.I "-f"
option to specify a file which contains a list of 
notesfiles to process.
The rest of the command line contains notesfiles whose new articles
are spooled to news.
.PP
The file `/usr/spool/notes/.utilities/newsgroups',
if present,
contains mapping functions between notesfiles and newsgroups.
The mapping permits several newsgroups to be
tied
to a notesfile.
The file format is:
.PP
	notesfile:newsgroup
.PP
More information on this feature can be found in 
.ul
The Notesfile Reference Manual.
.SH BUGS
The arciver does not have a matching unarchiver. To recover unarchived
notes, one has to feed the archive into the nfrcv program. 
.PP
If several systems sharing a common notesfile all decide to run
newsoutput with the -a option for that notesfile,
duplicate articles may appear in the news(1) system.
.PP
.I "Newsinput"
is naive about parsing author names. In particular it gets confused
with mixtures of UUCP and ARPA addressing.
.PP
The news/notes software puts lines into news articles which start
"#:". Some mail programs dislike this, even though it comes after
the blank line which separates the header from the text.
Once large numbers of the sites running news have the release which
passes unrecognized header lines, a change will be made to move the 
line into the headers.
This should make many people happier.
.SH FILES
.PD 0
.TP 25
/usr/spool/notes/.utilities
where most of these programs live.
.TP 25
/usr/spool/notes/.utilities/newsgroups
mapping between notesfiles and newsgroups
.TP 25
/usr/spool/notes/.utilities/net.how
specifies connection methods between systems
.TP 25
/usr/spool/notes/.utilities/net.alias
directory containing mapping of local and
remote notesfile names
.PD
.SH SEE ALSO
news(1),
notes(1),
nfcomment(3),
uucp(1),
.br
.ul
The Notesfile Reference Manual
.SH AUTHORS
Ray Essick (uiucdcs!essick, uiucdcs!notes)
.br
Rob Kolstad (uiucdcs!kolstad)
.br
Department of Computer Science
.br
222 Digital Computer Laboratory
.br
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
.br
1304 West Springfield Ave.
.br
Urbana, IL 61801