 
		    POSTIT - An NNTP client for posting
		    ===================================

			      Version 1.0
		       Written by Egil Kvaleberg
				    
				 ------
IMPORTANT NOTE: This will probably be the last version of Postit. An 
extended version of this program, implementing news fetching as well as
posting will appear in the near future under the name NewsX.

Postit is an NNTP client for Unix. It will connect to a remote NNTP server
and post outgoing articles batched by the news system.

It provides the NNTP capabilities required for small local news spools on
installations with NNTP access only through limited ISP accounts. Works well
via a dialup SLIP/PPP connection.

- Compatible with Cnews. Should work with INN too.

- Error recovery. In the event of an error occurring while articles are
  being posted, the message IDs of failed articles are maintained in 
  the spool file. 

- Little user configuration required.

- Logging to syslog of the number of successfully posted, missing and
  duplicate articles at the end of a session plus, if desired, the
  transfer speed of the article posting stage.

- Optional log file for actual articles posted, and collection of posted
  articles in folders.

Postit was written in C under Linux, and should be fairly portable.

--------

In this archive you should find the following files:

README		To you what "Drink Me" was to Alice.
HISTORY 	Versions.
configure	For making "Makefile"
Makefile.in	Input to configure
postit.8	Postit manpage
postit		Postit executable for Linux ELF
postitconf.h	Configuration file: You "might" need to modify this
postit.h	General header
nntp.h		NNTP header
proto.h 	Function prototypes
news.h		News system filename conventions
main.c		Main program
despool.c	Routines for reading the outgoing batch 
putarticle.c	Routines for actually posting articles
socket.c	Socket interface
server.c	For socket.c 
logmsg.c	Log messages 
lock.c		Lock file handling
postit.man	Postit manpage source
check.sh	For testing
configure.in	For autoconf
configure	For autoconf
config.h.in	For autoconf
postit.lsm	Postit summary for sunsite
IAFA-PACKAGE	Alternative summary


COMPILATION AND INSTALLATION
----------------------------

To install the supplied binary, simply go directly to step 4.

1. First, type './configure' to produce a suitable "Makefile".

2. The directory names in first part of "Makefile" may require 
   changes. A standard Linux system may keep it as it is.

3. Type 'make' and hopefully you will get the postit executable.

4. Type 'su' to become root, and then 'make install' to install the
   executables and the manual page.



QUICK START
-----------

We assume that you already have Cnews up and running. As a quick
start all you need to do is:

1. Do all maintenance of the news system as user "news". Ensure 
   that the ".profile" of this user defines a path that includes
   "/usr/lib/newsbin". E.g.:

	export PATH="$PATH:/usr/lib/newsbin"

2. Ensure that an outgoing batch has been configured in
   "/usr/lib/news/sys". . If the NNTP host is named "news.acme.net", a
   minimum configuration might be:

	ME:all/all::
	acme/acme.net:all,!junk/all:FL:

   The outgoing batch will be named "foo". The "acme.net" is the string
   that this NNTP site places in the beginning of the "Path:" of each
   news article it sends. The L-flag is a double insurance that only
   local postings will be batched.

3. Using a newsreader, "tin" for instance, post an article to a
   suitable test group. If possible, use a group local to the NNTP
   server you are using.

   If you haven't done so already, the group must be in the "active"
   file:
	addgroup acme.test y

   If you are running C News, the next time that newsrun is invoked
   (e.g. from crontab), the articles will be output to the spool file
   /var/spool/news/out.going/foo/togo specified in the /usr/lib/news/sys
   file.  

4. Run 'postit -dddn news.acme.net acme' to do a "dry test" to ensure
   that everything is set up correctly. No external connection is required.

5. Now, fire up the connection and do it for real:

	postit -d news.acme.net acme

   Check that everything runs smoothly. The "-d" may be removed when you are
   sure everything works as expected. To maintain a log of posted
   articles, as well as a folder containing all articles, you can do:

	postit -l posted.log -f posted news.acme.net acme

6. For more information about how to set up news and other subjects related
   to use of ordinary ISP accounts, you might want to try:

	ftp://ftp.sn.no/user/egilk/ISP-Hookup-HOWTO.txt


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
----------------

The inspiration for Postit came the NNTPLINK package, written by David
Alden, and from from Slurp, written by Stephen Hebditch.

Thanks to the following for comments and improvements:
	Greg Wooledge <wooledge@kellnet.com>
	Riku Saikkonen <rjs@isil.lloke.dna.fi>
	Simon J Mudd <sjmudd@bitmailer.net>
	Laurent Frigault <frigault@isicom.fr>
	Gerhard Zuber <zuber@berlin.snafu.de>


CONTACT INFORMATION
-------------------

All comments, changes you had to make for specific systems, bug 
reports, bug fixes, etc. should be sent to:
	egilk@sn.no

