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Top Document: Usenet Hierarchies: Config Files FAQ.
Previous Document: 3.4 Creating a new hierarchy.
Next Document: 4.0 Credits


3.5 Adding a Hierarchy to this list.



In order to add a hierarchy to this FAQ I need various information in 
order to construct a control.ctl and moderators file entry. Below is a 
sample entry for each followed by explanations of each line. Other 
references for these entries are those already in the FAQ and the 
documentation that comes with news server software.

(A) Sample control.ctl entry:

## EXAMPLE (Example of a Hierarchy Entry)
# Contact: admin@example.com
# URL: http://www.example.com/news/
# Syncable server: news.example.com (contact admin@example.com for access)
# Key fingerprint = F7 AB 96 D8 94 3F 7E 84  02 0C 33 9A DB 8F EB B8
# Key URL: http://www.example.com/news/key.txt
# *PGP*   See comment at top of file.
checkgroups:admin@example.com:example.*:verify-example-config=miscctl
newgroup:admin@example.com:example.*:verify-example-config=newgroup
rmgroup:admin@example.com:example.*:verify-example-config=rmgroup


Explanation of each line:

(1) ## EXAMPLE (Example of a Hierarchy Entry)

The name of the hierarchy and a quick title. The title is normally what
organisation the hierarchy is for or the regional area it covers.

(2) # Contact: admin@example.com

The contact email address is one that people can mail with queries about
the hierarchy, it should be read by a human rather than being some sort of
automatically reply address. 

(3) # URL: http://www.example.com/news/

This should point to a Web page with information about the group, this should
have a list of all the current groups and might have other information like 
group descriptions and creation/removal policy.

(4) # Syncable server: news.example.com (contact admin@example.com for
      access)

This is a nntp server that people can connect to and download (using the 
"list active" or "list newsgroups" command ) an uptodate and correct list
of groups. 

(5) # Key fingerprint = F7 AB 96 D8 94 3F 7E 84  02 0C 33 9A DB 8F EB B8

This is the fingerprint generated by PGP which can be used by someone to
quickly check they have the correct key without needing to have a complete
copy to the key to compare it with.

(6) # Key URL: http://www.example.com/news/key.txt

This is the URL that the public half of the key used to sign any control
messages is kept.

(7) # *PGP*   See comment at top of file.

This line is inserted with any entries that use PGP so that people can
quickly find these entries.


(8) checkgroups:admin@example.com:example.*:verify-example-config=miscctl
    newgroup:admin@example.com:example.*:verify-example-config=newgroup
    rmgroup:admin@example.com:example.*:verify-example-config=rmgroup

These lines say how sites should respond to each type of control message
for that hierarchy. The above entries for the "example" hierarchy say that
all control messages are sent by "admin@example.com" and that the key of
"example-config" is used to verify these. The name at the end after the
"=" symbol is where the server should log these control messages after it
processes them.



(B) Sample moderators entry

(1) example.*:%s@news.example.com

This says that all posts to moderated example.* groups should be forwarded
by email to an address at news.example.com. The address is the same as the
group name with the dots in the newsgroup name replaced by dashes. 
ie posts to example.test.moderated are forwarded to: 

example-test-moderated@news.example.com




Top Document: Usenet Hierarchies: Config Files FAQ.
Previous Document: 3.4 Creating a new hierarchy.
Next Document: 4.0 Credits

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