                          control-archive 1.8.0
          (processing and archiving of Netnews control messages)
               Maintained by Russ Allbery <eagle@eyrie.org>

  Copyright 2002-2004, 2007-2014, 2016-2018 Russ Allbery
  <eagle@eyrie.org>.  Copyright 2001 Marco d'Itri.  Copyright 1996 UUNET
  Technologies, Inc..  This software is distributed under a BSD-style
  license.  Please see the section LICENSE below for more information.

BLURB

  This software generates an INN control.ctl configuration file from
  hierarchy configuration fragments, verifies control messages using GnuPG
  where possible, processes new control messages to update a newsgroup
  list, archives new control messages, and exports the list of newsgroups
  in a format suitable for synchronizing the newsgroup list of a Netnews
  news server.  It is the software that maintains the control message and
  newsgroup lists available from ftp.isc.org.

DESCRIPTION

  This package contains three major components:

  * All of the configuration used to generate a control.ctl file for INN
    and the PGPKEYS and README.html files distributed with pgpcontrol,
    along with the script to generate those files.

  * Software to process control messages, verify them against that
    authorization information, and maintain a control message archive and
    list of active newsgroups.  Software is also included to generate
    reports of recent changes to the list of active newsgroups.

  * The documentation files included in the control message archive and
    newsgroup lists on ftp.isc.org.

  Manual changes to the canonical newsgroup list are supported in a way
  that generates the same log messages and uses the same locking structure
  so that they can co-exist with automated changes and be included in the
  same reports.

  This is the software that generates the active newsgroup lists [1] and
  control message archive [2] hosted on ftp.isc.org, and the source of the
  control.ctl file provided with INN.

  [1] ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/CONFIG/
  [2] ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/control/

  For a web presentation of the information recorded here, as well as
  other useful information about Usenet hierarchies, please see the list
  of Usenet managed hierarchies [3].

  [3] http://usenet.trigofacile.com/hierarchies/

REQUIREMENTS

  Perl 5.6 or later plus the following additional Perl modules are
  required:

  * Compress::Zlib (included in Perl 5.10 and later)
  * Date::Parse (part of TimeDate)
  * Net::NNTP (included in Perl 5.8 and later)
  * Text::Template

  gzip [1] and bzip2 [2] are required.  Both are generally available with
  current operating systems, possibly as supplemental packages.

  [1] https://www.gnu.org/software/gzip/
  [2] http://www.bzip.org/

  process-control expects to be fed file names and message IDs of control
  messages on standard input and therefore needs to be run from a news
  server or some other source of control messages.  A minimalist news
  server like tinyleaf is suitable for this (I wrote tinyleaf, available
  as part of INN [3], for this purpose).

  [3] https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/software/inn/

VERSIONING

  This package uses a three-part version number.  The first number will be
  incremented for major changes, major new functionality, incompatible
  changes to the configuration format (more than just adding new keys), or
  similar disruptive changes.  For lesser changes, the second number will
  be incremented for any change to the code or functioning of the
  software.  A change to the third part of the version number indicates a
  release with changes only to the configuration, PGP keys, and
  documentation files.

LAYOUT

  The configuration data is in one file per hierarchy in the config
  directory.  Each file has the format specified in FORMAT and is designed
  to be readable by INN's new configuration parser in case this can be
  further automated down the road.  The config/special directory contains
  overrides, raw control.ctl fragments that should be used for particular
  hierarchies instead of automatically-generated entries (usually for
  special comments).  Eventually, the format should be extended to handle
  as many of these cases as possible.

  The keys directory contains the PGP public keys for every hierarchy that
  has one.  The user IDs on these keys must match the signer expected by
  the configuration data for the corresponding hierarchy.

  The forms directory contains the basic file structure for the three
  generated files.

  The scripts directory contains all the software that generates the
  configuration and documentation files, processes control messages,
  updates the database, creates the newsgroup lists, and generates
  reports.  Most scripts in that directory have POD documentation included
  at the end of the script, viewable by running perldoc on the script.

  The templates directory contains templates for the control-summary
  script.  These are the templates I use myself.  Other installations
  should customize them.

  The docs directory contains the extra documentation files that are
  distributed from ftp.isc.org in the control message archive and
  newsgroup list directories, plus the DocKnot metadata for this package.

INSTALLATION

  This software is set up to run from /srv/control.  To use a different
  location, edit the paths at the beginning of each of the scripts in the
  scripts directory to use different paths.  By default, copying all the
  files from the distribution into a /srv/control directory is almost all
  that's needed.  An install rule is provided to do this.  To install the
  software, run:

      make install

  You will need write access to /srv/control or permission to create it.

  process-control and generate-files need a GnuPG keyring containing all
  of the honored hierarchy keys.  To generate this keyring, run make
  install or:

      mkdir keyring
      gpg --homedir=keyring --allow-non-selfsigned-uid --import keys/*

  from the top level of this distribution.  process-control also expects a
  control.ctl file in /srv/control/control.ctl, which can be generated
  from the files included here (after creating the keyring as described
  above) by running make install or:

      scripts/generate-files

  Both of these are done automatically as part of make install.
  process-control expects /srv/control/archive to exist and archives
  control messages there.  It expects /srv/control/tmp to exist and uses
  it for temporary files for GnuPG control message verification.

  To process incoming control messages, you need to run process-control on
  each message.  process-control expects to receive, on standard input,
  lines consisting of a path to a file, a space, and a message ID.  This
  input format is designed to work with the tinyleaf server that comes
  with INN 2.5 and later, but it should also work as a channel feed from
  pre-storage-API versions of INN (1.x).  It will not work without
  modification via a channel feed from a current version of INN, since it
  doesn't understand the storage API and doesn't know how to retrieve
  articles by tokens.  This could be easily added; I just haven't needed
  it.

  If you're using tinyleaf, here is the setup process:

  1. Create a directory that tinyleaf will use to store incoming articles
     temporarily, the archive directory, and the logs directory and
     install the software:

         make install

  2. Run tinyleaf on some port, configuring it to use that directory and
     to run process-control.  A typical tinyleaf command line would be:

         tinyleaf /srv/control/spool /srv/control/scripts/process-control

     I run tinyleaf using systemd, but any inetd implementation should
     work equally well.

  3. Set up a news feed to the system running tinyleaf that sends control
     messages of interest.  You should be careful not to send cancel
     control messages or you'll get a ton of junk in your logs.  The INN
     newsfeeds entry I use is:

         isc-control:control,control.*,!control.cancel:Tf,Wnm:

     combined with nntpsend to send the articles.

  That should be all there is to it.  Watch the logs directory to see what
  happens for incoming messages.

  scripts/process-control just maintains a database file.  To export that
  data in a format that's useful for other software, run
  scripts/export-control.  This expects a /srv/control/export directory
  into which it stores active and newsgroups files, a copy of the
  control.ctl file, and all of the logs in a LOGS subdirectory.  This
  export directory can then be made available on the web, copied to
  another system, or whatever else is appropriate.  Generally,
  scripts/export-control should be run periodically from cron.

  Reports can be generated using scripts/control-summary.  This script
  needs configuration before running; see the top of the script and its
  included POD documentation.  There is a sample template in the templates
  directory, and scripts/weekly-report shows a sample cron job for sending
  out a regular report.

BOOTSTRAPPING

  This package is intended to provide all of the tools, configuration, and
  information required to duplicate the ftp.isc.org control message
  archive and newsgroup list service if you so desire.  To set up a
  similar service based on that service, however, you will also want to
  bootstrap from the existing data.  Here is the procedure for that:

  1. Be sure that you're starting from the latest software and set of
     configuration files.  I will generally try to make a new release
     after committing a batch of changes, but I may not make a new release
     after every change.  See the sections below for information about the
     Git repository in which this package is maintained.  You can always
     clone that repository to get the latest configuration (and then merge
     or cherry-pick changes from my repository into your repository as you
     desire).

  2. Download the current newsgroup list from:

         ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/CONFIG/newsgroups.bz2

     and then bootstrap the database from it:

         bzip2 -dc newsgroups.bz2 | scripts/update-control bulkload

  3. If you want the log information so that your reports will include
     changes made in the ftp.isc.org archive before you created your own,
     copy the contents of ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/CONFIG/LOGS/ into
     /srv/control/logs.

  4. If you want to start with the existing control message repository,
     download the contents of ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/control/ into
     /srv/control/archive.  You can do this using a recursive download
     tool that understands FTP, such as wget, but please use the options
     that add delays and don't hammer the server to death.

  After finishing those steps, you will have a copy of the ftp.isc.org
  archive and can start processing control messages, possibly with
  different configuration choices.  You can generate the files that are
  found in ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/CONFIG/ by running
  scripts/export-control as described above.

MAINTENANCE

  To add a new hierarchy, add a configuration fragment in the config
  directory named after the hierarchy, following the format of the
  existing files, and run scripts/generate-files to create a new
  control.ctl file.  See the documentation in scripts/generate-files for
  details about the supported configuration keys.

  If the hierarchy uses PGP-signed control messages, also put the PGP key
  into the keys directory in a file named after the hierarchy.  Then, run:

      gpg --homedir=keyring --import keys/<hierarchy>

  to add the new key to the working keyring.

  The first user ID on the key must match the signer expected by the
  configuration data for the corresponding hierarchy.  If a hierarchy
  administrator sets that up wrong (usually by putting additional key IDs
  on the key), this can be corrected by importing the key into a keyring
  with GnuPG, using gpg --edit-key to remove the offending user ID, and
  exporting the key again with gpg --export --ascii.

  When adding a new hierarchy, it's often useful to bootstrap the
  newsgroup list by importing the current checkgroups.  To do this, obtain
  the checkgroups as a text file (containing only the groups without any
  news headers) and run:

      scripts/update-control checkgroups <hierarchy> < <checkgroups>

  where <hierarchy> is the hierarchy the checkgroups is for and
  <checkgroups> is the path to the checkgroups file.

SUPPORT

  The control-archive web page at:

      https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/software/control-archive/

  will always have the current version of this package, the current
  documentation, and pointers to any additional resources.

  Configuration updates should be sent to usenet-config@isc.org.

  For bug tracking, use the issue tracker on GitHub:

      https://github.com/rra/control-archive/issues

  Please be aware that I tend to be extremely busy and work projects often
  take priority.  I'll save your report and get to it as soon as I can,
  but it may take me a couple of months.

SOURCE REPOSITORY

  control-archive is maintained using Git.  You can access the current
  source on GitHub at:

      https://github.com/rra/control-archive

  or by cloning the repository at:

      https://git.eyrie.org/git/usenet/control-archive.git

  or view the repository via the web at:

      https://git.eyrie.org/?p=usenet/control.archive.git

  The eyrie.org repository is the canonical one, maintained by the author,
  but using GitHub is probably more convenient for most purposes.  Pull
  requests are gratefully reviewed and normally accepted.

LICENSE

  The control-archive package as a whole is covered by the following
  copyright statement and license:

    Copyright 2002-2004, 2007-2014, 2016-2018
        Russ Allbery <eagle@eyrie.org>
    Copyright 2001 Marco d'Itri
    Copyright 1996 UUNET Technologies, Inc.

    Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
    a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
    "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
    without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
    distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
    permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
    the following conditions:

    The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
    included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

    THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
    EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
    MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
    IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
    CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
    TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
    SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

    This product includes software developed by UUNET Technologies, Inc.

  Some files in this distribution are individually released under
  different licenses, all of which are compatible with the above general
  package license but which may require preservation of additional
  notices.  All required notices, and detailed information about the
  licensing of each file, are recorded in the LICENSE file.

  Files covered by a license with an assigned SPDX License Identifier
  include SPDX-License-Identifier tags to enable automated processing of
  license information.  See https://spdx.org/licenses/ for more
  information.

  For any copyright range specified by files in this package as YYYY-ZZZZ,
  the range specifies every single year in that closed interval.
