NAME

       filechan - file-writing backend for InterNetNews

SYNOPSIS

       filechan [ -d directory ] [ -f num_fields ] [ -m mapfile ] [ -p pidfile ]

DESCRIPTION

       Filechan reads lines from standard input and copies certain fields in each line into files named by other
       fields  within  the  line.  Filechan is intended to be called by innd(8) as a channel feed.  (It is not a
       full exploder and does not accept commands; see newsfeeds(5) for a description  of  the  difference,  and
       buffchan(8) for an exploder program.)

       Filechan  input  is  interpreted  as  a  sequence of lines.  Each line contains a fixed number of initial
       fields, followed by a variable number of filename  fields.   All  fields  in  a  line  are  separated  by
       whitespace.  The default number of initial fields is one.

       For  each  line  of  input, filechan writes the initial fields, separated by whitespace and followed by a
       newline, to each of the files named in the filename fields.  When writing to a file, filechan opens it in
       append mode and tries to lock it and change the ownership to the user and group who  owns  the  directory
       where the file is being written.

       Because the time window in which a file is open is very small, complicated flushing and locking protocols
       are not needed; a mv(1) followed by a sleep(1) for a couple of seconds is sufficient.

OPTIONS

       -f num_fields
              The ``-f'' flag may be used to specify a different number of initial fields.

       -d directory
              By  default, filechan writes its output into the directory <pathoutgoing in inn.conf>.  The ``-d''
              flag may be used to specify a directory the program should change to before starting.

       -p pidfile
              If the ``-p'' flag is used, the program will write a line containing its process ID (in  text)  to
              the specified file.

       -m mapfile
              A  map  file  may  be  specified  by using the ``-m'' flag.  Blank lines and lines starting with a
              number sign (``#'') are ignored.  All other lines should have two host names separated by a colon.
              The first field is the name that may appear in the input stream; the second field names  the  file
              to  be  used when the name in the first field appears.  For example, the following map file may be
              used to map the short names used in the example below to the full domain names:

              # This is a comment
              uunet:news.uu.net
              foo:foo.com
              munnari:munnari.oz.au

EXAMPLES

       If filechan is invoked with ``-f 2'' and given the following input:

              news/software/b/132 <1643@munnari.oz.au> foo uunet
              news/software/b/133 <102060@litchi.foo.com> uunet munnari
              comp/sources/unix/2002 <999@news.foo.com> foo uunet munnari

       Then the file foo will have these lines:

              news/software/b/132 <1643@munnari.oz.au>
              comp/sources/unix/2002 <999@news.foo.com>

       the file munnari will have these lines:

              news/software/b/133 <102060@litchi.foo.com>
              comp/sources/unix/2002 <999@news.foo.com>

       and the file uunet will have these lines:

              news/software/b/132 <1643@munnari.oz.au>
              news/software/b/133 <102060@litchi.foo.com>
              comp/sources/unix/2002 <999@news.foo.com>

HISTORY

       Written by Robert Elz <kre@munnari.oz.au>, flags  added  by  Rich  $alz  <rsalz@uunet.uu.net>.   This  is
       revision 5909, dated 2002-12-03.

SEE ALSO

       buffchan(8), inn.conf(5), innd(8), newsfeeds(5).

                                                                                                     FILECHAN(8)