NNML::Server - a minimal NNTP server

NAME

NNML::Server - a minimal NNTP server

SUPPORTED PLATFORMS

This module is not included with the standard ActivePerl distribution. It is available as a separate download using PPM.

SYNOPSIS

  perl -MNNML::Server -e server
  perl -MNNML::Server -e unspool

DESCRIPTION

NNML::Server server implements a minimal NNTP server. It is (hope-) fully conformant to rfc977. In addition the commands XOVER and AUTHINFO are implemented.

Supported commands:

  ARTICLE, AUTHINFO, BODY, GROUP, HEAD, HELP, IHAVE, LAST, LIST,
  MODE, NEWGROUPS, NEWNEWS, NEXT, POST, QUIT, SLAVE, STAT
  XOVER, XHDR, LIST NEWSGROUPS ng-spec


The main reason for writing this was to synchronize my mail directories
across different hosts. The Mail directories are MH-Style with a F<.overview>
file in each folder and an F<active> file in the base
directory. These are maintained by the B<Emacs> B<Gnus> backend
B<NNML>. To get started, you can generate/update this files using the
B<overview> program. Upon C<POST> and C<IHAVE> commands this files
will also be updated.

To start from scratch use:

  touch /tmp/active;
  perl -MNNML::Server -e 'server(base => "/tmp", port => 3000)'

To export your mh-Mail use:

  perl overview -base ~/Mail
  perl -MNNML::Server -e 'server(base => "$ENV{HOME}/Mail", port => 3000)'

The command POST and IHAVE honour the Newsgroups header if not overwritten by the X-Nnml-Groups header. Articles will contain an appropriate X-Nnml-Groups header when retrieved by message-id.

When the client submits the SLAVE command, all forther post requests are spooled in $Config-spool> (usually ~/Mail/NNML.spool) for performance reasons. You can process the spooled articles by submitting the XUNSPOOL command or by calling

  perl -MNNML::Server -e unspool

Rejected articles will be saven in $Config-bad> (usually ~/Mail/NNML.bad)

AUTHORIZATION

To enable access restrictions use:

  perl -MNNML::Auth -e "NNML::Auth::add_user($ENV{LOGANME}, 'passwd', \
    'read', 'write', 'admin')"

If base/passwd exists, three levels of authorization are recognized:

admin
Users with permission admin may shut down the server using SHUT. Also these users may create new groups simply by posting to them. Permission admin is also required for the XUNSPOOL command.

write
Users with permission write may use the POST and IHAVE commands.

read
All other commands require the read permission.

FEATURES

Version 1.06 implements the MODE GZIP command. After submiting this commands, all articles, heads and bodies will be piped through gzip -cf | mimencode. The server will recognize post requeste using the same pipe automatically. This will speed up nnmirror if the line is sufficiant slow.

BUGS

The server handles multiple connections in a single thread. So a hung POST or IHAVE would block all connections. Therfore a post request is interrupted if the server could not read any bytes for 30 seconds. The Client is notified by message 441. If the client continues to send the article, it is interpreted by the command loop.

SEE ALSO

The overview(1) and nnmirror(1) manpages.

AUTHOR

Ulrich Pfeifer <pfeifer@ls6.informatik.uni-dortmund.de>

 NNML::Server - a minimal NNTP server