This came up during the discussion of the future of the archives. The faq
servers files are not accessible from the net -- they're just used to decide
when and what to auto-post.
faq-server@rtfm.mit.edu with subject HELP:
The files the FAQ server keeps on hand to post are completely separate
from the files in the rtfm.mit.edu FTP archive. Sending an ADD or UPDATE
command to the FAQ server won't affect the FTP archive until the new
article is posted, just like any other approved posting.
So, you need a FORCE also.
I take the liberty of inflicting on everyone a copy of the HELP message below:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 5 Apr 1999 13:57:39 -0000
From: faqserv@penguin-lust.mit.edu
To: David Alex Lamb <dalamb@cs.queensu.ca>
Subject: Your help request to the news.answers FAQ server
Reply-To: faq-server@PENGUIN-LUST.MIT.EDU
The *.answers FAQ server allows you to submit Usenet periodic postings
by email and have the server automatically post them at an interval
you specify. This document describes the requirements for postings
submitted to the FAQ server, as well as how to use it.
If you have a question about the server after reading this
documentation, or if you need to report a problem with it, please send
e-mail to <news-answers-request@mit.edu>.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 0. CONTENTS
Subject: 1. Starting out
=========================
1.1 Quick-start guide
1.2 What the FAQ server does
1.3 Adding a new posting to the server
A. Approval
B. Formatting and headers
C. Sending in your posting: the ADD command
D. Common problems
1.4 Updating a FAQ at the server: the UPDATE command
Subject: 2. Other commands
===========================
2.1 Getting help
2.2 Changing the Archive-name
2.3 Changing a posting's frequency
2.4 Changing a posting's parent
2.5 Suspending posting for an article
2.6 Resuming posting an article
2.7 Posting an article as soon as possible
2.8 Removing a posting (family) entirely
2.9 Changing a posting's password
2.10 Checking a posting's status and getting a copy
2.11 Checking the order of several postings
2.12 Changing the order of several postings
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 1. Starting out
========================
1.1 Quick-start guide
Here's a brief summary of how to add your new single-part posting to
the FAQ server so it's posted automatically once each month. More
information on each of the steps, as well as what to do about
multi-part postings and other special cases, can be found below.
1. Get your posting approved by the *.answers moderators
2. Choose a password you'll remember, which you'll use when
sending future commands to the faq-server
3. Write email to <faq-server@rtfm.mit.edu> with
Subject: ADD passwd 30
where "passwd" is the password you chose. In the body of your
email, first put all the approved news headers, plus any
optional headers you want, then a blank line, the auxiliary
headers, a blank line, and finally the body of your FAQ. This
is the exact same format as the FAQ-checker mentioned in the
*.answers guidelines uses.
1.2 What the FAQ server does
In order to post to news.answers, you have to be able to add certain
special headers to your articles, and you have to keep some parts of
the headers consistent from one posting to the next. Some newsreaders
and ISPs make it difficult or impossible to add the necessary headers,
and in any case it can be convenient to automate the posting process
so you can focus on the content of your FAQ. The FAQ server accepts
postings sent by email, stores them, then posts them at an interval
you specify. It also accepts various other commands to report and
change the status of a posting. All commands to the FAQ server are
sent in the Subject: of email to <faq-server@rtfm.mit.edu>.
The files the FAQ server keeps on hand to post are completely separate
from the files in the rtfm.mit.edu FTP archive. Sending an ADD or UPDATE
command to the FAQ server won't affect the FTP archive until the new
article is posted, just like any other approved posting.
Each time you send a command to the FAQ server, it will (attempt to)
send a reply to the address in the Reply-To: or From: header of your
email. PLEASE NOTE that if you have "de-spammed" your address by
including extra text or changing it in some way, you will NOT receive
any reply to your commands. If some error in your file prevents your
ADD or UPDATE command from being processed properly, you'll never know
it. For this reason, we strongly recommend that you send commands
with a valid reply address.
1.3 Adding a new posting to the server
A. Approval
-----------
Articles you want the FAQ server to post for you must be approved
by the moderators of *.answers *before* they are submitted to the
FAQ server. If you have not submitted your posting(s) to the
*.answers moderators yet, please do so. If you don't know how to
do that, please read the "*.answers submission guidelines" posting
in news.answers. If that posting does not appear in news.answers
at your site, then send an e-mail message to
<mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu> with the command
"send usenet/news.answers/news-answers/guidelines" (without the
quotes) in its body.
B. Formatting and headers
-------------------------
The FAQ server expects incoming articles to be in the exact same
format as the FAQ checker wants. If you used the FAQ checker to
make sure that your posting's headers met the *.answers
guidelines, then as soon as you receive final word from the
*.answers moderators and make any changes they require, you should
be able to send the same file to the FAQ server.
Otherwise, if you've followed the instructions in Section 1.3A
above and have gotten your posting approved for *.answers, it
should be mostly correct already. Just put all the required and
approved main headers at the top of the file, followed by a single
completely blank line, the auxiliary headers, another completely
blank line, and the body of your FAQ. Don't break long lines in
the main or auxiliary headers, except the Summary.
If a submitted posting does not contain a Followup-To line, then
"Followup-To: poster" will be added. If it does not contain a
From line, then the From line of the e-mail to the server will be
added to the article. If there isn't one already in the posting
header, the server will add a line to the header in the form
"X-Last-Updated: YYYY/MM/DD" indicating when it received the FAQ.
Finally, the FAQ server will take care of adding the appropriate
Expires and Supersedes lines at the time of the actual posting.
It will also take care of References lines for "child" postings
(see below).
If your posting does not have an Organization line in the header,
an Organization line with contents "none" will be added, so you
should probably add an Organization line. Note that if you put in
a blank Organization line, it will be replaced with the
Organization for the FAQ server's site, so you should say
*something* in the Organization line you specify (unless "none" is
OK with you, in which case you don't have to specify an
Organization line at all).
C. Sending in your posting: the ADD command
-------------------------------------------
To submit your new posting to the FAQ server, send email to
<faq-server@rtfm.mit.edu>. In the Subject of your email, put one
of the ADD commands described in this section. Put the FAQ file
(with all its main and auxiliary headers, as described in Section
1.3B above) in the body of the email message. That means that
your final message will have three sets of headers: the email
headers which tell it to go to the FAQ server and give the ADD
command, the main headers for your news posting, and the auxiliary
header which includes the Archive-name.
There are two forms of the ADD command, which is used to send a
brand new posting to the FAQ server and get it started posting
regularly. The first is used for a single-part posting, or for
part 1 (whatever its actual name) of a multi-part FAQ. The other
is used for the other parts of a multi-part FAQ, and makes them
"children" of the first part so they're posted whenever it is and
reference it in their headers.
In either case, include the posting in the body of your mail
message, in the format described above. You get to choose the
password "passwd," which you'll use in future commands to the FAQ
server, so don't forget it. However, faq-server passwords aren't
as secure as your Internet or email password, so don't use the
same thing! The FAQ server will find your posting's Archive-name
and all the other information it needs in the body of the message
you send.
1. Single-part and part 1 postings
----------------------------------
ADD passwd interval [irregular]
Submits a new independent posting to the FAQ server.
"interval" is the number of days you wish to elapse between
postings, e.g. 15, 30, 90, etc.. This number is approximate;
the actual posting may vary by a day or two depending on
server load.
The word "irregular" may optionally be specified after the
interval. If it is specified, then the posting will NOT be
posted regularly. Instead, the specified interval will be
used only to determine what to put in the Expires line of the
posting, i.e., it will not be used to determine when the
article is posted. In that case, you must send a FORCE
command to the server every time you want it to post the
article. See the documentation of the FORCE, SUSPEND and
RESUME commands below for more information about irregular
postings.
2. Other parts of multi-part postings
-------------------------------------
ADD passwd parent-archive-name
Submits a new posting to the FAQ server, making it the child
of a posting that has already been submitted to and accepted
by the FAQ server. "parent-archive-name" is the full
Archive-name of the parent posting, which is usually part 1 of
a multi-part posting.
The child article will be posted only when its parent is. For
example, even if you ADD a child posting when there are still
two weeks remaining before the parent is due to be posted, the
child will not be posted until the two weeks expire and the
parent is posted, at which point the child will be posted
along with it. Child postings also contain a References:
header which points to the parent article, so people using
threaded newsreaders will be able to manipulate the entire
series as a single thread, including (for example) saving the
entire thread to a file with one command.
Note that even when postings are tied to a parent in this way
for the sake of controlling when they are posted, they are
still treated as independent entities by the FAQ server for
the sake of updating them (and for the sake of passwords --
each posting in a multi-part posting chain has its own
password, although you can certainly use the same password for
more than one posting if you wish). Therefore, you use the
normal UPDATE command (see below) to update parent and child
postings, one at a time, just as you would if they were not
linked.
D. Common problems
------------------
If the FAQ server complains that it can't find one or more of your
headers, or that there are unparseable lines in your file, your
mail software may be wrapping long lines automatically. Try
turning off that option. You might also be putting your header
lines in a nonstandard format, including extra blank spaces or
taking out spaces that are needed. Remember that each header
needs to start at the very left edge of the message, and that the
name of the header ("Subject" or "Archive-name", for instance)
should be followed by a colon and a space. If you continue to
have problems, try sending your file to the FAQ-checker described
in the submission guidelines, which provides more helpful
diagnostic replies.
Also, the FAQ server does not understand MIME encoding. FAQs must
be included within the main body of your message, not added as
attachments. Likewise, if your email is MIME-encoded between you
and the FAQ server, the latter won't be able to process it. (In
particular, it will likely complain that it couldn't find a From:
or Followup-To: header.) In that case, make every effort to turn
off MIME or "quoted-printable" encoding in your mail software and
remove any stray 8-bit characters (accents, "smart" quotes, em
dashes, etc.) from your file before trying again.
1.4 Updating a FAQ at the server: the UPDATE command
UPDATE password
Submits new text for a posting that has already been submitted to the
server. Include the posting, with all its headers, in the body of
your mail message, just as you did when you first ADDed it. Updating
a posting does not change its interval or relation to a parent, and it
still won't be posted until its interval expires. As long as your
Archive-name hasn't changed, the FAQ server will get the name from the
auxiliary header. If you're changing Archive-names, see Section 2.2.
------------------------------
Subject: 2. Other commands
==========================
2.1 Getting help
HELP
Returns this help message. A recent copy can also be obtained by
anonymous FTP from
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/faq-maintainers/faq-server-help
If you do not have access to anonymous FTP, you can get a copy by
sending email to <mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu> with the command "send
/pub/faq-maintainers/faq-server-help" in the message.
2.2 Changing the Archive-name
UPDATE password old-archive-name
Updates a posting and changes its archive name. This should only be
used when the updated posting's archive name is different from the
archive name it was last submitted to the FAQ server with, to indicate
that the FAQ server's database should be updated to list the new
archive name. It will get the new archive name from the Archive-name
auxiliary header.
NOTE: When a posting's archive name changes, the format of its message
ID changes, which means that the Supersedes header line will be
incorrect the next time it is posted. Therefore, if you change a
posting's archive name, and you are concerned that the previous
edition of the posting should go away immediately when the new edition
is posted, then you should send out a cancel message by hand for the
previous edition when the new one is posted by the server. If you
don't understand this paragraph, then don't worry about it.
2.3 Changing a posting's frequency
INTERVAL password archive-name interval [irregular]
Changes the posting interval of a posting that has already been
submitted to the server. The body of your mail message will be
ignored.
If the posting was previously a child article, it will no longer be,
and the specified interval will be used to determine when to post.
The server's idea of when the article was last posted is left intact
after an interval change. Therefore, for example, if your posting's
old interval was 30 days, and it was last posted 20 days ago, if you
change the interval to 14 days, it will be posted the next time the
server does a posting run, and if you change the interval to 60 days,
it will be posted 40 days from when you make the change.
If the optional keyword "irregular" is specified at the end of the
command, then the posting will be made irregular as described for the
ADD command above.
2.4 Changing a posting's parent
PARENT password archive-name parent-archive-name
Causes the interval to be removed for the specified posting, turning
it into a child posting of the posting with archive name
parent-archive-name. The body of your mail message will be ignored.
2.5 Suspending posting for an article
SUSPEND password archive-name
Tells the FAQ server to temporarily suspend the posting of this
posting. The body of your message will be ignored. The server will
post the posting again when it receives a RESUME or FORCE command for
it (see below). If you decide to stop using the FAQ server for a
posting altogether, please send a DELETE command for it (see Section
2.8), after making sure you have a copy.
Child articles cannot be suspended independent of their parents, but
if you suspend a parent article, all of its children are suspended as
well. An irregular posting (see the documentation for the ADD
command, above) can only be suspended if it has been FORCEd and not
posted since the FORCE command was issued. In other words, for
irregular postings, the SUSPEND command is used to cancel an earlier
FORCE command.
2.6 Resuming posting an article
RESUME password archive-name
Start regularly posting an FAQ that has previously been SUSPENDed, at
whatever interval was specified when it was first ADDed. The body of
your message will be ignored.
Note that this will override both previous SUSPEND commands and
previous FORCE commands. Therefore, if you send the server a FORCE
command and then change your mind, you can undo it with a RESUME
command. Note further that after a RESUME command, the server will
wait until the posting's interval has expired before posting it again,
i.e., it does not behave like a FORCE command.
Child articles cannot be resumed, but are resumed implicitly if their
parent is resumed.
If an irregular posting (see the documentation for the ADD command,
above) is RESUMEd, it is no longer treated as an irregular posting.
In other words, after an irregular posting is resumed, it will be
posted automatically as dictated by its posting interval.
2.7 Posting an article as soon as possible
FORCE password archive-name
Forces the posting with the specified archive name to be posted as
soon as possible, usually that night. The body of your mail message
will be ignored. Note that it is not possible to force a child
article, and that forcing a parent will cause all of its children to
be posted.
After an article has been force-posted, the interval until the next
posting of it is reset; for example, if you have an article with a
30-day interval, and you force it to be posted 15 days after the last
time it was posted, the next time it will be posted after that will be
30 days after the forced posting, not 15.
A FORCE command overrides a SUSPEND command, i.e., a FORCE command
will cause a suspended posting to be RESUMEd and posted as soon as
possible.
Sending a FORCE command for an irregular posting (see the
documentation for the ADD command, above) will cause the posting to be
posted once and then suspended again.
2.8 Removing a posting (family) entirely
DELETE password archive-name
Deletes the posting with the specified archive name from the server.
The body of your mail message will be ignored.
BEWARE: If the specified posting is a parent of other postings in the
archive, they will be deleted as well. Deleting the posting from the
FAQ server does not affect any editions of it that have already spread
on the USENET, i.e., it does not post cancel messages for them or
delete archived copies or anything like that.
2.9 Changing a posting's password
PASSWORD old-password archive-name new-password
Changes the password associated with the specified posting. The body
of your mail message will be ignored. The old password is specified
to verify that it's really you changing the password.
2.10 Checking a posting's status and getting a copy
STATUS password archive-name
Finds out the status of the named posting, including the last time it
was posted, the current interval (or what its parent posting is), any
child postings it has, when it is next due to be posted, and what its
text is. The body of your mail message will be ignored.
2.11 Checking the order of several postings
ORDER
Finds out the order in which a list of postings is posted by the FAQ
server. The body of your mail message should contain a list of
passwords and postings, like this (although not indented):
password1 archive-name1 password2 archive-name2 etc.
You will receive a mail message in response indicating the order in
which the postings are posted.
NOTE: If the postings have never actually been posted, the ORDER
command won't work. It will return an empty list of postings. Wait
until the FAQ server has posted your files once, and then send the
command.
2.12 Changing the order of several postings
REORDER
Changes the order in which a list of postings is posted by the FAQ
server, subject to the restriction that a child cannot be posted
before its parent (e.g., if foo/part2 is a child of foo/part1, and you
specify that foo/part2 should be posted before foo/part1, the posting
order of the two postings will not change). The body of your mail
message should contain a list of passwords and postings as with the
ORDER command, in the new order you want. You will receive a mail
message in response indicating the new order of the postings.
NOTES: If the postings have never actually been posted, the REORDER
command will still change their order, but it won't return a list
indicating the new order. Also, due to the vagaries of the news
system, the postings may not arrive at your site in the same order
they were posted; compare the Date: headers to see the actual order.
----------------
The FAQ server is maintained by the *.answers moderation team
<news-answers-request@mit.edu>.
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