newspost(1)

NAME

newspost - a usenet binary autoposter

SYNTAX

newspost [options [arguments]] <filenames>

DESCRIPTION

Newspost is a usenet binary autoposter. It will uuencode

or yencode files and post them to usenet newsgroups. In addition,

it can automatically generate and post .SFV checksum files and

.PAR parity files.

OPTIONS

-i <address>

The news server to post to. <address> must be ei

ther a hostname or an IP address. If the NNTPSERVER environment

variable is set, this is set to that value by default.

-z <number>

Sets the port on which to connect to <number>.

-u <string>

Sets your username on the news server to <string>.

-p <string>

Sets your password on the news server to <string>.

-f <address>

Your e-mail address. <address> must be a real e

mail address, or your posts may fail. If the USER and HOSTNAME

environment variables are set, this is set to $USER@$HOSTNAME by

default.

-F <string>

Sets your name in the From header line to <string>.

Please note: if your name has spaces in it, it should be enclosed

in quotes.

-o <string>

Sets the Organization header line to <string>.

Please note: if your organization has spaces in it, it should be

enclosed in quotes.

-n <string>

Sets the newsgroup to post to. <string> may also

be a comma separated list of newsgroups, but you may only post to

at most 5 newsgroups.

-s <string>

Sets <string> as the Subject header line. This

subject line is always appended with ' - filename (1/9)' (depend

ing on the filename, part number, and number of parts). Other

options may add or change information in the subject line (see

those options for details). Please note: if your subject has

spaces in it, it should be enclosed in quotes. See EXAMPLES for

more information.

-w <string>

Sets the Followup-To header line. <string> must be

a newsgroup.

-m <address>

Sets the Reply-To header line. <address> must be

an e-mail address.

-r <string>

Set the References header line. <string> must be a

message-ID or a comma-separated list of message-IDs.

-x By default all posts include the "X-No-Archive:

yes" header. This option DISABLES that behaviour.

-X <string>

Sets <string> as a complete header line. This op

tion may be specified multiple times to add more header lines.

Please note: do not use this feature unless you know exactly

what you are doing.

-q This specifies that ' - File 01 of 10: ' (depending

on the file number and number of files) will be added to the sub

ject line after text specified by the -s switch, and before the

file information. If the file being posted is a generated .SFV

file, then the string is ' - SFV File 1 of 1: '. If the file is

a generated .PAR file, the string is ' - PAR File 01 of 10: '

(depending on the .PAR file number and the number of .PAR files).

See EXAMPLES for more information.

-y Use yencoding instead of uuencoding. Yencoding re

sults in smaller, faster posts, but most news readers do not sup

port yencoding. When yencoding is enabled, ' - "filename" yEnc

(1/9)' is appended to the subject line instead of what is speci

fied above for the -s option. Please see http://www.yenc.org for

more information about yencoding.

-e <filename>

Posts <filename> as a text file (no encoding) be

fore the first file posted. This file is posted with the exact

subject line as the first file posted, except that (0/9) is dis

played as the part number (depending on the number of parts in

the first file posted). As an alternative, "-0" (zero, not 'O')

may be used instead of "-e".

-E Opens the editor set by the EDITOR environment

variable to create a temporary text file which is posted as a

prefix, like a file specified with the -e option. If EDITOR is

not set then vi is used.

-c <filename>

Generates and posts a .SFV checksum file named

<filename>. If <filename> does not end in '.sfv', it will auto

matically be appended to the filename. Note the change from

newspost 1.x, which used "-v" for this option; also, the .SFV

file is now posted first instead of last.

-a <filename>

Generates and posts .PAR files whose name is based

on <filename>. If <filename> does not end in '.par', it will au

tomatically be appended to the filename. The .PAR header will

end in '.par', and each .PAR volume will end in '.p01', '.p02',

etcetera. Please see http://parchive.sourceforge.net for more

information about .PAR files.

-A <number>

Sets the number of .PAR volumes to create to

<number>. This is in addition to the .PAR header file. The -a

option must be used for this option to do anything.

-B <number>

Sets the number of .PAR volumes to create based on

the number of files. For every <number> files, newspost will

create one .PAR volume. This is in addition to the .PAR header

file. By default, newspost creates one .PAR volume for every ten

files posted.

-l <number>

Sets the number of lines per message to <number>.

Most people post messages which are between 5000 and 10000 lines

long. By default, this is set to 7500. Note: For uuencoded mes

sages, this is the actual number of lines in the body of the mes

sage; but for yencoded messages, it's used to determine the size

of each segment before encoding, by multiplying the specified

number of lines by 45 (which is the size of a uuencoded line be

fore encoding). Thus, the size of each segment before encoding is

the same for either method, but the actual line count for yencod

ed segments will vary.

-t When this option is specified, one file may be

posted as a plain text message. If no file is specified, EDITOR

(or vi) is opened to create the message.

-T <number>

Sets the time to wait before posting to <number>.

This number is interpreted in seconds by default, but you can

specify, for example, "3m" if you want 3 minutes, or "1h" if you

want 1 hour. This number can also be specified in hours:min

utes:seconds or minutes:seconds format. e.g. "5:30" if you want

to wait 5 minutes 30 seconds, or "4:0:0" if you want to wait 4

hours. This value is set to 10 seconds by default, and may not

be set to less than 3 seconds.

-k <dirname>

Sets the directory to be used for storing temporary

files to <dirname>. <dirname> must exist. If the TMPDIR environ

ment variable is set, this is set to that value by default. If

the TMP environment variable is set (and TMPDIR is not), this is

set to that value by default.

-d Sets the current options as default by saving them

to $HOME/.newspostrc. Only the following options may be saved as

default: -i, -z, -u, -p, -f, -F, -o, -n, -w, -m, -x, -q, -y, -B,

-l, -X, and -k.

-D <option>

This option disables or clears other options. When

y, q, or x is passed as <option>, it has the OPPOSITE effect of

either the -y, -q, or -x option, respectively. It will clear the

corresponding options for u, p, F, o, w, and m. It also takes X

as an argument, but it clears ALL extra headers set with the -X

option. This option may be specified multiple times with differ

ent values for <option>. Please note only options that are not

required can be cleared.

-v When this option is specified, newspost will be ex

tra verbose. (Note that "-v" was used for .SFV generation in

newspost 1.x.)

-V Print version information and exit.

-h Print help and exit. This is the default when

there are no arguments.

PARTIAL AND FAKE POSTING

Parts of files may be posted by specifying filenames in

the following format: 'filename:partnumbers'. Colons in the

first or second position (as after a drive letter) are ignored.

Partnumbers is a comma-separated list of parts to post. Each

item in the list may be any of three formats: '2' (a single

part), '2-5' (parts 2, 3, 4, and 5), or '2+' (part 2 and all

parts up to and including the last part). If, for example, you

want to post parts 2, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, and 12 of track01.mp3 (a

12 part file), you could specify the filename like this:

'track01.mp3:2,4-6,10+'. If there is no ':' in a specified file

name, newspost will post the entire file. If the number 0 is

specified after the colon, newspost will add the file to generat

ed .SFV and .PAR files, and preserve ' - File x of y: ' number

ing, but not actually post the file. See EXAMPLES for more in

formation. Please note: If your files did not post completely,

your file is much more likely to post properly if you repost the

entire file, or split the file into smaller parts and post them.

SPEED INDICATOR

While posting, Newspost shows the approximate upload speed

in bytes per second. This is measured by the total number of

encoded bytes sent to the server. In Newspost 1.x, the speed in

dicator was based on the number of unencoded bytes, so this speed

indicator will show a higher number, though the speed is the

same. If you are connecting to your news server via a compressed

link, you may see a difference in transfer rates when using uuen

coding vs. yencoding.

FILES

$HOME/.newspostrc is an optional file used to store de

faults. Newspost will also read (but not write) the old-style

.newspost file if it is present and .newspostrc is not.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

HOME Specifies your home directory. Newspost will not

work properly if this is not set.

NNTPSERVER

Specifies the hostname or IP address of your news

server.

USER Used in creating the default from address if HOST

NAME is set.

HOSTNAME

Used in creating the default from address if USER

is set.

TMPDIR Specifies the directory used for creating temporary

files.

TMP Specifies the directory used for creating temporary

files if TMPDIR is not set.

EDITOR Specifies the text editor to use.

EXAMPLES

Save your news server, e-mail address, and name as

default:

newspost -d -i news.myisp.com -f newspost@sdf.lon

estar.org -F 'Jim Faulkner'

Post some files to alt.binaries.test:

newspost -n alt.binaries.test -s 'Here are some

songs' /nfs/music/*.mp3

A subject line from the above post may look like this:

Here are some songs - track01.mp3 (01/15)

Post some files to alt.binaries.test.yenc using yencoding:

newspost -y -n alt.binaries.test.yenc -s 'Here are

some more songs' /nfs/music/*.mp3

A subject line from the above post may look like this:

Here are some more songs - "track01.mp3" yEnc

(01/12)

Include "File x of y" in the subject:

newspost -q -y -n alt.binaries.test.yenc -s 'Here

are some more songs' track01.mp3 track02.mp3 track03.mp3

A subject line from the above post may look like this:

Here are some more songs - File 1 of 3:

"track01.mp3" yEnc (01/12)

Make yencode and "File x of y" the default:

newspost -d -q -y

Add extra headers to every post by default:

newspost -d -X 'X-My-Stupid-Header-1' -X 'X-My

Stupid-Header-2'

Clear extra headers and "File x of y", set uuencode,

default:

newspost -d -DX -Dq -Dy

Generate and include an SFV file:

newspost -c checksum.sfv -n alt.binaries.test -s

'Here are some songs' /nfs/music/*.mp3

Generate and include PAR files:

newspost -a parfile.par -n alt.binaries.test -s

'Here are some songs' /nfs/music/*.mp3

Create a PAR volume for every 7 files posted by default:

newspost -d -B 7

Post with 3 PAR volumes:

newspost -q -a parfile.par -A 3 -n alt.bina

ries.test -s 'Here are some songs' /nfs/music/*.mp3

A subject line from the above post may look like this:

Here are some songs - PAR File 1 of 4: parfile.par

(1/1)

Post parts 3, 4, and 5 of track01.mp3 to

alt.binaries.test:

newspost -n alt.binaries.test -s 'Here are some

songs' track01.mp3:3-5

Post all of track01.mp3, parts of track02.mp3 and

track03.mp3:

newspost -n alt.binaries.test -s 'Here are some

songs' track01.mp3 track02.mp3:11+ track03.mp3:1,3,6-8

Resume a broken post at Track02.mp3 preserving -q

numbering:

newspost -q -s '2 songs' Track01.mp3:0 Track02.mp3

A subject line from the above post may look like this:

2 songs - File 2 of 2: Track02.mp3 (1/8)

Post an .SFV file and Track02.mp3, but include Track01.mp3

in the .SFV file:

newspost -c songs.SFV -s '2 songs' Track01.mp3:0

Track01.mp3

AUTHORS

Mostly written by Jim Faulkner <newspost@sdf.lones

tar.org>, with some help from William McBrine <wm

cbrine@users.sf.net>. Portions borrowed from cksfv by Bryan Call,

and parchive by Willem Monsuwe.

AVAILABILITY

The most recent version of newspost is available at

http://newspost.unixcab.org/

Jim Faulkner 2.1.1

NEWSPOST(1)