Ubuntu Manpage: nntp - Tcl client for the NNTP protocol

NAME

       nntp - Tcl client for the NNTP protocol

SYNOPSIS

       package require Tcl  8.2

       package require nntp  ?0.2.1?

       ::nntp::nntp ?host? ?port? ?nntpName?

       nntpName method ?arg arg ...?

       nntpName article ?msgid?

       nntpName authinfo ?user? ?pass?

       nntpName body ?msgid?

       nntpName configure

       nntpName configure option

       nntpName configure option value ...

       nntpName cget option

       nntpName date

       nntpName group ?group?

       nntpName head ?msgid?

       nntpName help

       nntpName last

       nntpName list

       nntpName listgroup ?group?

       nntpName mode_reader

       nntpName newgroups since

       nntpName newnews

       nntpName newnews since

       nntpName newnews group ?since?

       nntpName next

       nntpName post article

       nntpName slave

       nntpName stat ?msgid?

       nntpName quit

       nntpName xgtitle ?group_pattern?

       nntpName xhdr field ?range?

       nntpName xover ?range?

       nntpName xpat field range ?pattern_list?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

DESCRIPTION

       The  package  nntp  provides a simple Tcl-only client library for the NNTP protocol.  It works by opening
       the standard NNTP socket on the server, and then  providing  a  Tcl  API  to  access  the  NNTP  protocol
       commands.   All server errors are returned as Tcl errors (thrown) which must be caught with the Tcl catch
       command.

COMMANDS

::nntp::nntp ?host? ?port? ?nntpName?
The command opens a socket connection to the specified NNTP server and creates a new nntp object
with an associated global Tcl command whose name is nntpName. This command may be used to access
the various NNTP protocol commands for the new connection. The default port number is "119" and
the default host is "news". These defaults can be overridden with the environment variables
NNTPPORT and NNTPHOST respectively.

Some of the commands supported by this package are not part of the nntp rfc 977 (http://www.rfc-
editor.org/rfc/rfc977.txt) and will not be available (or implemented) on all nntp servers.

The access command nntpName has the following general form:

nntpName method ?arg arg ...?
Option and the args determine the exact behavior of the command.

nntpName article ?msgid?
Query the server for article msgid from the current group. The article is returned as a valid tcl
list which contains the headers, followed by a blank line, and then followed by the body of the
article. Each element in the list is one line of the article.

nntpName authinfo ?user? ?pass?
Send authentication information (username and password) to the server.

nntpName body ?msgid?
Query the server for the body of the article msgid from the current group. The body of the
article is returned as a valid tcl list. Each element in the list is one line of the body of the
article.

nntpName configure

nntpName configure option

nntpName configure option value ...

nntpName cget option
Query and configure options of the nntp connection object. Currently only one option is supported,
-binary. When set articles are retrieved as binary data instead of text. The only methods affected
by this are article and body.

One application of this option would be the download of articles containing yEnc encoded images.
Although encoded the data is still mostly binary and retrieving it as text will corrupt the
information.

See package yencode for both encoder and decoder of such data.

nntpName date
Query the server for the servers current date. The date is returned in the format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.

nntpName group ?group?
Optionally set the current group, and retrieve information about the currently selected group.
Returns the estimated number of articles in the group followed by the number of the first article
in the group, followed by the last article in the group, followed by the name of the group.

nntpName head ?msgid?
Query the server for the headers of the article msgid from the current group. The headers of the
article are returned as a valid tcl list. Each element in the list is one line of the headers of
the article.

nntpName help
Retrieves a list of the commands that are supported by the news server that is currently attached
to.

nntpName last
Sets the current article pointer to point to the previous message (if there is one) and returns
the msgid of that message.

nntpName list
Returns a tcl list of valid newsgroups and associated information. Each newsgroup is returned as
an element in the tcl list with the following format:

group last first p

where <group> is the name of the newsgroup, <last> is the number of the last known article
currently in that newsgroup, <first> is the number of the first article currently in the
newsgroup, and <p> is either 'y' or 'n' indicating whether posting to this newsgroup is allowed
('y') or prohibited ('n').

The <first> and <last> fields will always be numeric. They may have leading zeros. If the <last>
field evaluates to less than the <first> field, there are no articles currently on file in the
newsgroup.

nntpName listgroup ?group?
Query the server for a list of all the messages (message numbers) in the group specified by the
argument group or by the current group if the group argument was not passed.

nntpName mode_reader
Query the server for its nntp 'MODE READER' response string.

nntpName newgroups since
Query the server for a list of all the new newsgroups created since the time specified by the
argument since. The argument since can be any time string that is understood by clock scan. The
tcl list of newsgroups is returned in a similar form to the list of groups returned by the
nntpName list command. Each element of the list has the form:

group last first p

nntpName newnews
Query the server for a list of new articles posted to the current group in the last day.

nntpName newnews since
Query the server for a list of new articles posted to the current group since the time specified
by the argument since. The argument since can be any time string that is understood by clock
scan.

nntpName newnews group ?since?
Query the server for a list of new articles posted to the group specified by the argument group
since the time specified by the argument since (or in the past day if no since argument is passed.
The argument since can be any time string that is understood by clock scan.

nntpName next
Sets the current article pointer to point to the next message (if there is one) and returns the
msgid of that message.

nntpName post article
Posts an article of the form specified in RFC 1036 (http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1036.txt,
successor to RFC 850) to the current news group.

nntpName slave
Identifies a connection as being made from a slave nntp server. This might be used to indicate
that the connection is serving multiple people and should be given priority. Actual use is
entirely implementation dependent and may vary from server to server.

nntpName stat ?msgid?
The stat command is similar to the article command except that no text is returned. When
selecting by message number within a group, the stat command serves to set the current article
pointer without sending text. The returned acknowledgment response will contain the message-id,
which may be of some value. Using the stat command to select by message-id is valid but of
questionable value, since a selection by message-id does NOT alter the "current article pointer"

nntpName quit
Gracefully close the connection after sending a NNTP QUIT command down the socket.

nntpName xgtitle ?group_pattern?
Returns a tcl list where each element is of the form:

newsgroup description

If a group_pattern is specified then only newsgroups that match the pattern will have their name
and description returned.

nntpName xhdr field ?range?
Returns the specified header field value for the current message or for a list of messages from
the current group. field is the title of a field in the header such as from, subject, date, etc.
If range is not specified or is "" then the current message is queried. The command returns a
list of elements where each element has the form of:

msgid value

Where msgid is the number of the message and value is the value set for the queried field. The
range argument can be in any of the following forms:

"" The current message is queried.

msgid1-msgid2
All messages between msgid1 and msgid2 (including msgid1 and msgid2) are queried.

msgid1 msgid2
All messages between msgid1 and msgid2 (including msgid1 and msgid2) are queried.

nntpName xover ?range?
Returns header information for the current message or for a range of messages from the current
group. The information is returned in a tcl list where each element is of the form:

msgid subject from date idstring bodysize headersize xref

If range is not specified or is "" then the current message is queried. The range argument can be
in any of the following forms:

"" The current message is queried.

msgid1-msgid2
All messages between msgid1 and msgid2 (including msgid1 and msgid2) are queried.

msgid1 msgid2
All messages between msgid1 and msgid2 (including msgid1 and msgid2) are queried.

nntpName xpat field range ?pattern_list?
Returns the specified header field value for a specified message or for a list of messages from
the current group where the messages match the pattern(s) given in the pattern_list. field is the
title of a field in the header such as from, subject, date, etc. The information is returned in a
tcl list where each element is of the form:

msgid value

Where msgid is the number of the message and value is the value set for the queried field. The
range argument can be in any of the following forms:

msgid The message specified by msgid is queried.

msgid1-msgid2
All messages between msgid1 and msgid2 (including msgid1 and msgid2) are queried.

msgid1 msgid2
All messages between msgid1 and msgid2 (including msgid1 and msgid2) are queried.

EXAMPLE

       A bigger example for posting a single article.

                  package require nntp
                  set n [nntp::nntp NNTP_SERVER]
                  $n post "From: USER@DOMAIN.EXT (USER_FULL)
                  Path: COMPUTERNAME!USERNAME
                  Newsgroups: alt.test
                  Subject: Tcl test post -ignore
                  Message-ID: <[pid][clock seconds]
                  @COMPUTERNAME>
                  Date: [clock format [clock seconds] -format "%a, %d %
                  b %y %H:%M:%S GMT" -gmt true]

                  Test message body"

BUGS, IDEAS, FEEDBACK

       This  document,  and  the package it describes, will undoubtedly contain bugs and other problems.  Please
       report such in the category nntp of the Tcllib Trackers  [http://core.tcl.tk/tcllib/reportlist].   Please
       also report any ideas for enhancements you may have for either package and/or documentation.

       When proposing code changes, please provide unified diffs, i.e the output of diff -u.

       Note  further  that  attachments  are strongly preferred over inlined patches. Attachments can be made by
       going to the Edit form of the ticket immediately after its creation, and then using the left-most  button
       in the secondary navigation bar.

KEYWORDS

       news, nntp, nntpclient, rfc 1036, rfc 977

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

COMMANDS

EXAMPLE

BUGS, IDEAS, FEEDBACK

KEYWORDS

CATEGORY