3 expire.ctl - Configuration file for article expiration
7 The file I<pathetc>/expire.ctl is the default configuration file for
8 B<expire> and B<expireover>, which read it at start-up. It serves two
9 purposes: it defines how long history entries for expired or rejected
10 articles are remembered, and it determines how long articles stored on the
13 Normally, if all of the storage methods used by the server are
14 self-expiring (such as CNFS), all lines except the C</remember/> setting
15 (described below) are ignored. This can be changed with the B<-N> option
16 to B<expire> or B<expireover>.
18 Black lines and lines beginning with a number sign (C<#>) are ignored.
19 All other lines should be in one of two formats. The order of the file is
20 significant, and the last matching entry will be used.
22 The first format specifies how long to keep history entries for articles
23 that aren't present in the news spool. These are articles that have
24 either already expired, or articles which the server rejected (when
25 I<remembertrash> is set to true in F<inn.conf>). There should be one and
26 only one line in this format, which looks like:
30 where <days> is a decimal number that specifies the minimum number of days
31 a history record for a given message ID is retained, regardless of whether
32 the article is present in the spool. (History entries for articles still
33 present in the spool are always retained.)
35 The primary reason to retain a record of old articles is in case a peer
36 offers old articles that were previously accepted but have already
37 expired. Without a history record for such articles, the server would
38 accept the article again and readers would see duplicate articles.
39 Articles older than a certain number of days won't be accepted by the
40 server at all (see I<artcutoff> in inn.conf(5) and the B<-c> flag in
41 innd(8)), and this setting should probably match that time period (10 days
42 by default) to ensure that the server never accepts duplicates.
44 Most of the lines in this file will be in the second format, which
45 consists of either four or five colon-separated fields:
47 <pattern>:<flag>:<min>:<default>:<max>
49 if I<groupbaseexpiry> is true in F<inn.conf> (the default), and otherwise:
51 <classnum>:<min>:<default>:<max>
53 All lines must be in the correct format given the current setting of
54 I<groupbaseexpiry>, and therefore the two formats cannot co-exist in the
57 Normally, a rule matches a newsgroup through the combination of the
58 <pattern> and <flag> fields. <pattern> is a uwildmat(3)-style pattern,
59 specifying the newsgroups to which the line is applied. Note that the
60 last matching entry will be used, so general patterns (such as defaults
61 for all groups where <pattern> is C<*>) should appear at the beginning of
62 the file before more specific settings.
64 The <flag> field can be used to further limit newsgroups to which the line
65 applies, and should be chosen from the following set:
67 M Only moderated groups
68 U Only unmoderated groups
70 X Remove the article from all groups it appears in
72 One of M, U, or A must be specified. X should be used in combination with
73 one of the other letters, not by itself.
75 An expiration policy is applied to every article in a newsgroup it
76 matches. There is no way to set an expiration policy for articles
77 crossposted to groups you don't carry that's different than other articles
78 in the same group. Normally, articles are not completely deleted until
79 they expire out of every group to which they were posted, but if an
80 article is expired following a rule where <flag> contains X, it is deleted
81 out of all newsgroups to which it was posted immediately.
83 If I<groupbaseexpiry> is instead set to false, there is no <pattern> and
84 <flag> field and the above does not apply. Instead, there is a single
85 <classnum> field, which is either a number matching the storage class
86 number specified in F<storage.conf> or C<*> to specify a default for all
87 storage classes. All articles stored in a storage class will be expired
88 following the instructions in the line with a matching <classnum>, and
89 when articles are expired, they're always removed from all groups to which
92 The remaining three fields are the same in either format, and are used to
93 determine how long an article should be kept. Each field should be either
94 a decimal number of days (fractions like C<8.5> are allowed, but remember
95 that articles are only removed when B<expire> or B<expireover> is run,
96 normally once a day by B<news.daily>) or the word C<never>.
98 The middle field, <default>, will be used as the expiration period for
99 most articles. The other two fields, <min> and <max>, only come into
100 play if the article requests a particular expiration date with an Expires
101 header. Articles with an Expires header will be expired at the date given
102 in that header, subject to the constraints that they will be retained at
103 least <min> days and no longer than <max> days.
105 If <min> is set to C<never>, no article matching that line will ever be
106 expired. If <default> is set to C<never>, no article matching that line
107 without an explicit Expires header will ever be expired. If <max> is
108 set to C<never>, Expires headers will be honored no matter how far into
111 One should think of the fields as a lower bound, the default, and an upper
112 bound. Since most articles do not have an Expires header, the second
113 field is the most important and most commonly applied.
115 Articles that do not match any expiration rule will not be expired, but
116 this is considered an error and will result in a warning. There should
117 always be a default line (a line with a <pattern> of C<*> and <flag> of
118 C<A>, or a line with a <classnum> of C<*>), which can explicitly state
119 that articles should never expire by default if that's the desired
120 configuration. The default line should generally be the first line of the
121 file (except for C</remember/>) so that other expiration rules can
124 It is often useful to honor the Expires header in articles, especially
125 those in moderated groups. To do this, set <min> to zero, <default> to
126 whatever normal expiration you wish, and <max> to C<never> or some large
127 number, like 365 days for a maximum article life of a year.
129 To ignore any Expires header, set all three fields to the same value.
133 When I<groupbaseexpiry> is true (the default):
135 # Keep expired article history for 10 days, matching artcutoff.
138 # Most articles stay for two weeks, ignoring Expires.
141 # Accept Expires headers in moderated groups for up to a year and
142 # retain moderated groups for a bit longer.
145 # Keep local groups for a long time and local project groups forever.
147 example.project.*:A:never:never:never
149 When I<groupbaseexpiry> is false, for class-based expiration:
151 # Keep expired article history for 10 days, matching artcutoff.
154 # Set a default expiration of seven days.
157 # Class 0 is retained for two weeks.
162 Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews. Converted to
163 POD by Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu>.
165 $Id: expire.ctl.pod 7207 2005-04-11 18:18:40Z rra $
169 expire(8), expireover(8), inn.conf(5), innd(8), news.daily(8),
170 storage.conf(5), uwildmat(3)