makehistory(8)
NAME
makehistory - tools to recover Usenet history database.
SYNOPSIS
makehistory [ -A oldtmp ] [ -a active ] [ -b ] [ -f filename ] [ -i ] [ -n ] [ -o ] [ -r ] [ -s size ] [ -T tmpdir ] [ -u [ -v ] ]
DESCRIPTION
Makehistory rebuilds the history(5) text file and the associated dbz(3) database. The default name of the text file is /var/lib/news/history; to specify a different name, use the ``-f'' flag. Makehistory scans the active(5) file to determine which newsgroup directories within the spool directory, /var/spool/news, should be scanned. (If a group is removed, but its spool directory still exists, makehistory will ignore it.) The program reads each file found and writes a history line for it. After the text file is written, makehistory will build the dbz database.
OPTIONS
-A If the ``-A'' flag is used then the argument given is the
pathname makehistory can use to store a copy of the history file
as it's being built. It will be appended to, so existing data
will not be lost (and so should be valid history entries).
-a If the ``-a'' flag is given then the argument is the active file
to use rather than the default one of /var/lib/news/active.
-b If the ``-b'' flag is used, then makehistory will remove any
articles that do not have valid Message-ID headers in them.
-f If the ``-f'' flag is used, then the database files are named
file.dir and file.pag. If the ``-f'' flag is not used, then a
temporary link to the name history.n is made and the database
files are written as history.n.pag and history.n.dir.
-o If the ``-o'' flag is used, then the link is not made and any
existing history files are overwritten. If the old database
exists, makehistory will use it to determine the size of the new
database.
-i To ignore the old database use the ``-i'' flag. Using the
``-o'' flag implies the ``-i'' flag.
-s The program will also ignore any old database if the ``-s'' flag
is used to specify the approximate number of entries in the new
database. Accurately specifying the size is an optimization
that will create a more efficient database. (The size should be
the estimated eventual size of the file, typically the size of
the old file.) For more information, see the discussion of
dbzfresh and dbzsize in dbz(3).
-u If the ``-u'' flag is given, then makehistory assumes that innd
is running. It will pause the server while scanning, and then
send ``addhist'' commands (see ctlinnd(8)) to the server for any
article that is not found in the dbz database. The command
``makehistory -bu'' is useful after a system crash, to delete
any mangled articles and bring the article database back into a
more consistent state.
-v If the ``-v'' flag is used with the ``-u'' flag, then
makehistory will put a copy of all added lines on its standard
output.
-n To scan the spool directory without rebuilding the dbz files,
use the ``-n'' flag. If used with ``-u'', the server will not
be paused while scanning.
-r To just build the dbz files from an existing text file, use the
``-r'' flag. The ``-i'' or ``-s'' flags can be useful if there
are no valid dbz files to use.
-T Makehistory needs to create a temporary file that contains one
line for each article it finds, which can become very large.
This file is created in the /var/spool/news/in.coming/tmp
directory. The ``TMPDIR'' environment variable may be used to
specify a different directory. Alternatively, the ``-T'' flag
may be used to specify a temporary directory. In addition, the
sort(1) that is invoked during the build writes large temporary
files (often to /var/tmp but see your system manpages). If the
``-T'' flag is used, then the flag and its value will be passed
to sort. On most systems this will change the temporary
directory that sort uses. if used, this flag and its value will
be passed on to the sort(1) command that is invoked during the
build.
EXAMPLES
A typical way to use this program is with the following /bin/sh
commands:
ctlinnd throttle "Rebuilding history file"
cd /var/lib/news
if makehistory -n -f history.n ; then
:
else
echo Error creating history file!
exit 1
fi
# The following line can be used to retain expired history
# It is not necessary for the history file to be sorted.
# awk 'NF==2 { print; }' <history >>history.n
# View history file for mistakes.
if makehistory -r -s `wc -l <history` -f history.n; then
mv history.n history
mv history.n.dir history.dir
mv history.n.pag history.pag
fi
ctlinnd go ''
BUGS AND LIMITATIONS
Makehistory does not handle symbolic links. If the news spool area is
split across multiple partitions, the following commands should
probably be run before the database is regenerated:
cd /var/spool/news
find . -type l -name '[1-9]*' -print | xargs -t rm
Make sure to run the command on all the appropriate partitions!
HISTORY
Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews. This is revision 1.3, dated 1996/11/26.
SEE ALSO
active(5), ctlinnd(8), dbz(3), filechan(8), history(5), innd(8), newsfeeds(5), makeactive(8), newsrequeue(8). MAKEHISTORY(8)
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