NAME

       filechan - file-writing backend for InterNetNews

SYNOPSIS

       filechan [ -d directory ] [ -f fields ] [ -m mapfile ] [ -p pidfile ]

DESCRIPTION

       Filechan reads lines from standard input and copies certain fields in each line into files named by other
       fields  within  the  line.  Filechan is intended to be called by innd(8) as a channel feed.  (It is not a
       full exploder and does not accept commands; see newsfeeds(5) for a  description  of  the  difference  and
       buffchan(8) for an exploder program.)

       Filechan  input  is  interpreted as a set of lines.  Each line contains a fixed number of initial fields,
       followed by a variable number of filename fields.  All fields in a line are separated by whitespace.  The
       default number of initial fields is one.

       For each line of input, filechan writes the initial fields, separated by whitespace  and  followed  by  a
       newline, to each of the files named in the filename fields.  When writing to a file, filechan opens it in
       append  mode  and  tries to lock it and change the ownership to the user and group who owns the directory
       where the file is being written.

OPTIONS

       -f     The ``-f'' flag may be used to specify a different number of fields.

       -d     By default, filechan writes its  arguments  into  the  directory  /var/spool/news/out.going.   The
              ``-d'' flag may be used to specify a directory the program should change to before starting.

       -p     If  the  ``-p'' flag is used, the program will write a line containing its process ID (in text) to
              the specified file.

       If filechan is invoked with ``-f 2'' and given the following input:
              news/software/b/132 <1643@munnari.oz.au> foo uunet
              news/software/b/133 <102060@litchi.foo.com> uunet munnari
              comp/sources/unix/2002 <999@news.foo.com> foo uunet munnari

       Then the file foo will have these lines:
              news/software/b/132 <1643@munnari.oz.au>
              comp/sources/unix/2002 <999@news.foo.com>

       the file munnari will have these lines:
              news/software/b/133 <102060@litchi.foo.com>
              comp/sources/unix/2002 <999@news.foo.com>

       and the file uunet will have these lines:
              news/software/b/132 <1643@munnari.oz.au>
              news/software/b/133 <102060@litchi.foo.com>
              comp/sources/unix/2002 <999@news.foo.com>

       Because the time window in which a file is open is very small, complicated flushing and locking protocols
       are not needed; a mv(1) followed by a sleep(1) for a couple of seconds is sufficient.

       -m     A map file may be specified by using the ``-m'' flag.  Blank  lines  and  lines  starting  with  a
              number sign (``#'') are ignored.  All other lines should have two host names separated by a colon.
              The  first  field is the name that may appear in the input stream; the second field names the file
              to be used when the name in the first field appears.  For example, the following map file  may  be
              used to map the short names above to the full domain names:
              # This is a comment
              uunet:news.uu.net
              foo:foo.com
              munnari:munnari.oz.au

HISTORY

       Written  by  Robert  Elz  <kre@munnari.oz.au>,  flags  added  by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net>.  This is
       revision 1.19, dated 1996/10/29.

SEE ALSO

       buffchan(8), innd(8), newsfeeds(5).

                                                                                                     FILECHAN(8)