.\" $Revision: 6491 $
.TH BATCHER 8
.SH NAME
batcher \- article-batching backend for InterNetNews
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B batcher
[
.BI \-a " arts"
]
[
.BI \-A " total_arts"
]
[
.BI \-b " size"
]
[
.BI \-B " total_size"
]
[
.BI \-i " string"
]
[
.BI \-N " num_batches"
]
[
.BI \-p " process"
]
[
.B \-r
]
[
.BI \-s " separator"
]
[
.BI \-S " alt_spool"
]
[
.B \-v
]
.I host
[
.I input
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Batcher
reads uses a list of files to prepare news batches for the specified
.IR host .
It is normally invoked by a script run out of
.IR cron (8)
that uses
.IR shlock (1)
to lock the host name, followed by a
.IR ctlinnd (8)
command to flush the batchfile.
.PP
.I Batcher
reads the named
.I input
file, or standard input if no file is given.
Relative pathnames are interpreted from the
.I <pathoutgoing in inn.conf>
directory.
The input is taken as a sequence of lines;
blank lines and lines starting with a number sign (``#'') are ignored.
All other lines should consist of one or two fields separated by a single space.
The first field is either the storage token of an article or the
name of a file holding an article; if it is not an an absolute
pathname or storage token, it is taken relative to
.IR <patharticles\ in\ inn.conf> .
The second field, if present, specifies the size of the article in bytes.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B \-S alt_spool
The ``\-S'' flag may be used to specify an alternate spool directory to
use if the article is not found; this would perhaps be an NFS-mounted
spool directory of a master server with longer expiration times.
.TP
.B \-r
By default, the program reports errors to
.IR <pathlog\ in\ inn.conf>/errlog .
To suppress this redirection and report errors to standard error,
use the ``\-r'' flag.
.TP
.B \-v
Upon exit,
.I batcher
reports statistics via
.IR syslog (3).
If the ``\-v'' flag is used, they will also be printed on the standard
output.
.TP
.B \-b size
.I Batcher
collects the text of the named articles into batches.
To limit the size of each batch, use the ``\-b'' flag.
The default size is 60 kilobytes.
Using ``\-b\ 0'' allows unlimited batch sizes.
.TP
.B \-a arts
To limit the number of articles in each batch, use the ``\-a'' flag.
The default is no limit.
A new batch will be started when either the byte count or number of
articles written exceeds the specified limits.
.TP
.B \-B total_size
To limit the total number of bytes written for all batches, use the ``\-B''
flag.
.TP
.B \-A total_arts
To limit the total number of articles that can be batched use the ``\-A''
flag.
.TP
.B \-N num_batches
To limit the total number of batches that should be created use the ``\-N''
flag.
.IP
In all three of the above cases, the default is zero, that is, no limit.
.TP
.B \-i string
A batch starts with an identifying line to specify the unpacking method
to be used on the receiving end.
When the ``\-i'' flag is used, the initial string,
.IR string ,
followed by a newline, will be output at the start of every batch.
The default is to have no initial string.
.TP
.B \-s separator
Each article starts with a separator line to indicate the size of the article.
To specify the separator use the ``\-s'' flag.
This is a
.IR sprintf (3)
format string which can have a single ``%ld'' parameter which will be given
the size of the article.
If the separator is not empty, then the string and a newline will be output
before every article.
The default separator is ``#!\ rnews\ %ld''.
.TP
.B \-p process
By default, batches are written to standard output, which
is not useful when more than one output batch is created.
Use the ``\-p'' flag to specify the shell command that should be
created (via
.IR popen (3))
whenever a new batch is started.
The process is a
.IR sprintf (3)
format string which can have a single ``%s'' parameter which will be given
the host name.
A common value is:
.PP
.RS
.nf
( echo '#! cunbatch' ; exec compress ) | uux \- \-r \-z %s!rnews
.fi
.RE
.SH EXIT STATUS
.PP
If the input is exhausted,
.I batcher
will exit with a zero status.
If any of the limits specified with the ``\-B'', ``\-A'', or ``\-N'' flags
is reached, or if there is an error writing the batch, then
.I batcher
will try to spool the remaining input, copying it to a file.
If there was no input filename, standard input will be copied to
.I <pathoutgoing in inn.conf>/host
and the program will exit.
If an input filename was given, the input will be copied to 
a temporary file named
.IR input .bch
(if
.I input
is an absolute pathname)
or
.I <pathoutgoing in inn.conf>/input.bch
(if the filename does not begin with a slash).
Once the input is copied,
.I batcher
will try to rename this temporary file to be the name of the input file,
and then exit.
.PP
Upon receipt of an interrupt or termination signal,
.I batcher
will finish sending the current article, close the batch, and then
rewrite the batchfile according as described in the previous paragraph.
.SH HISTORY
Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews.
.de R$
This is revision \\$3, dated \\$4.
..
.R$ $Id: batcher.8 6491 2003-10-18 05:56:37Z rra $
.SH "SEE ALSO"
ctlinnd(8),
inn.conf(5),
newsfeeds(5),
shlock(1).