Provided by: inn2_2.7.3-1_amd64 
NAME
expire - Usenet article and history expiration program
SYNOPSIS
expire [-iNnptx] [-d dir] [-f file] [-g file] [-h file] [-r reason] [-s size] [-v level] [-w number] [-z
file] [expire.ctl]
DESCRIPTION
expire scans the history(5)-format text file pathdb/history and uses the information recorded in it to
purge itself of old news articles. Its behaviour depends on the setting of groupbaseexpiry in inn.conf.
When groupbaseexpiry is false, article expiration is primarily done by expire based on the expiration
rules in expire.ctl that match the storage class of each article. The articles and the history entries
are removed by expire, and then expireover does the additional cleanup of removing the overview database
entries. History entries of expired articles are removed only if they are older than the number of days
specified in the "/remember/" line in expire.ctl. Articles stored using a storage method that has self-
expire functionality like CNFS are by default not affected by expire's primary behaviour (but see the -N
flag to disable this).
When groupbaseexpiry is true, article expiration is primarily done by expireover based on the expiration
rules in expire.ctl that match each newsgroup. Articles are removed from the news spool by expireover,
and then expire does some additional cleanup to remove old history database entries.
For articles in self-expiring storage methods when groupbaseexpiry is set to false in inn.conf and the -N
flag is not given, or for all articles when groupbaseexpiry is set to true, expire.ctl is ignored except
the "/remember/" line; expire then only probes to see if the article still exists, and purges the
relevant history entries if appropriate.
Regardless the setting of groupbaseexpiry, expireover should be run along with expire, usually via
news.daily out of cron.
Note that expire never purges articles which do not match any entry in expire.ctl.
Also note that if groupbaseexpiry is true, the server needs an overview database in order to expire
articles in storage backends that are not self-expiring. If you do not plan to have an overview
database, it would then be better to only use self-expiring backends like CNFS, as the history entries
will still get cleaned up by expire when it detects that an article no longer exists in that backend.
OPTIONS
-d dir
If the -d flag is used, then the new history file and database is created in the specified directory
dir. This is useful when the filesystem does not have sufficient space to hold both the old and new
history files. When this flag is used, expire leaves the server paused and creates a zero-length
file named after the new history file, with an extension of ".done" to indicate that it has
successfully completed the expiration. The calling script should install the new history file and
unpause the server. The -r flag should be used with this flag.
-f file
To specify an alternate history file, use the -f flag. This flag is valid when used with the -d
flag, and the output will be written to the specified file. The default without -f is "history".
-g file
If the -g flag is given, then a one-line summary equivalent to the output of -v 1, except preceded by
the current time, will be appended to the specified file.
-h file
To specify an alternate input text history file, use the -h flag. expire uses the old dbz database
to determine the size of the new one. (If the -d flag is not used, the output filename will be the
same as the input filename with an extension of ".n".)
The default without the -h flag is pathdb/history.
-i To ignore the old database, use the -i flag.
-N The control file is normally ignored for articles in storage methods which have self-expire
functionality. If the -N flag is used, expire still uses the control file for these articles.
This parameter is only useful when groupbaseexpiry is set to false in inn.conf.
-n If innd is not running, use the -n flag and expire will not send the "pause" or "go" commands. (For
more details on the commands, see ctlinnd(8)). Note that expire only needs exclusive access for a
very short time -- long enough to see if any new articles arrived since it first hit the end of the
file, and to rename the new files to the working files.
-p expire makes its decisions on the time the article arrived, as found in the history file. This means
articles are often kept a little longer than with other expiration programs that base their decisions
on the article's posting date. To use the article's posting date, use the -p flag.
-r reason
expire normally sends a "pause" command to the local innd daemon when it needs exclusive access to
the history file, using the string "Expiring" as the reason. To give a different reason, use the -r
flag. The process ID will be appended to the reason. When expire is finished and the new history
file is ready, it sends a "go" command. See also the -n flag.
-s size
expire determines the optimal size of the new history file from the size of the old one. In case you
want to force a specific size, use this flag to optimize the new history database for approximately
size key-value pairs (i.e. lines in history). Accurately specifying the size will create a more
efficient database. (The size should be the estimated eventual number of articles, typically the
size of the old history file, in lines.)
-t If the -t flag is used, then expire will generate a list of the tokens that should be removed on its
standard output, and the new history file will be left in history.n, history.n.dir, history.n.index
and history.n.hash. This flag is useful for debugging when used with the -n flag. Note that if the
-f flag is used, then the name specified with that flag will be used instead of history.
-v level
The -v flag is used to increase the verbosity of the program, generating messages to standard output.
The level should be a number, where higher numbers result in more output. Level one will print
totals of the various actions done (not valid if a new history file is not written), level two will
print a report on each individual file, while level five results in multiple lines of output for
every history line processed.
-w number
Use the -w flag to "warp" time so that expire thinks it is running at some time other than the
current time. The value should be a signed floating point number indicating the number of days to
use as the offset.
-x If the -x flag is used, then expire will not create any new history files. This is most useful when
combined with the -n and -t flags to see how different expiration policies would change the amount of
disk space used.
-z file
If the -z flag is used, then articles are not removed, but their names are appended to the specified
file. See the description of delayrm in news.daily(8). If a filename is specified, it is taken as
the control file and parsed according to the rules in expire.ctl. A single dash ("-") may be used to
read the file from standard input. If no file is specified, the file pathetc/expire.ctl is read.
HISTORY
Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews. Converted to POD by Julien Elie.
SEE ALSO
ctlinnd(8), expire.ctl(5), expireover(8), history(5), inn.conf(5), innd(8), libinn_dbz(3),
libinn_inndcomm(3), news.daily(8).
INN 2.7.3 2025-05-19 EXPIRE(8)