DragonFly On-Line Manual Pages

Search: Section:  

NEWSOVERVIEW(5)          DragonFly File Formats Manual         NEWSOVERVIEW(5)


NAME

       newsoverview - netnews overview files


SYNOPSIS

       /var/news/group/.overview


DESCRIPTION

       Each newsgroup directory contains a file named `.overview', containing
       one-line summaries of articles in that group.  Fields are separated by
       tabs, and any tabs or newlines in the original articles headers have
       been replaced with spaces.  The fields are, in order:

       1. article number (file name)

       2. subject

       3. author

       4. date

       5. message-id

       6. references

       7. byte count

       8. line count

       9...
          optionally other headers, as arranged locally (none are supplied by
          the database maintenance software, as shipped).

       The line-count and references fields may be empty.  If the optional
       other headers are present, they include their header keyword and colon;
       if they are absent entirely, the tab after the line-count field may
       also be absent.

       The file is maintained in numerical order, by article number.

       At the time of writing (late 1992), the lines in an overview file are
       typically 150-300 characters long, and an overview file for a typically
       busy group is often 30,000 bytes to 60,000 bytes long, with notable
       exceptions exceeding 500,000 bytes.


EXAMPLES

       A few lines from one overview file, with tabs displayed as `|' and
       lines continued after `\'.
              8870|strange message id's: <something>QUIT|schmitz@scd.hp.com (John Schmitz)\
              |18 Sep 1992 19:57:16 GMT|<19dcasINNce@hpscdf.scd.hp.com>||821|
              8871|Re: BNF rule for newsgroup names?|kris@tpki.toppoint.de (Kristian Koehntopp)\
              |Fri, 18 Sep 1992 17:51:09 GMT|<1992Sep18.175109.21999@tpki.toppoint.de>\
              |<43GQBM4D@cc.swarthmore.edu> <BuLB9y.7Dp@world.std.com>\
               <BuLG5A.xH@cs.psu.edu> <339@blars.UUCP>|926||Supersedes: <1234@foovax>


FILES

       /var/news/group/.overview


SEE ALSO

       newsdb(5)


HISTORY

       Written by Geoff Collyer as part of the C News project.


BUGS

       The contents of the line-count field should not be believed and are
       really pretty worthless yet popular.

       There is some confusion about whether the order and content of the
       first eight fields is a local decision, or a standard.  It's intended
       to be a standard; please do not mess with it.  All, repeat all, local
       variations should be done by adding the optional fields at the end, and
       those fields must include their header keywords (and colons) to make
       them self-identifying.

                                  28 Aug 1994                  NEWSOVERVIEW(5)

Search: Section: