NAME

    yapfaq - Post Usenet FAQs *(yet another postfaq)*

SYNOPSIS

    yapfaq [-Vhvpd] [-t *newsgroups* | CONSOLE] [-f *project name*] [-s
    *program*] [-c *.rc file*]

REQUIREMENTS

    - Perl 5.8 or later

    - Net::NNTP

    - Date::Calc

    - Getopt::Std

    Furthermore you need access to a news server to actually post FAQs.

DESCRIPTION

    yapfaq posts (one or more) FAQs to Usenet with a certain posting
    frequency (every n days, weeks, months or years), adding all necessary
    headers as defined in its config file (by default yapfaq.cfg).

  Configuration

    yapfaq.cfg consists of one or more blocks, separated by "=====" on a
    single line, each containing the configuration for one FAQ as a set of
    definitions in the form of *param = value*. Everything after a "#" sign
    is ignored so you may comment your configuration file.

    Name = *project name*
        A name referring to your FAQ, also used for generation of a
        Message-ID.

        This value must be set.

    File = *file name*
        A file containing the message body of your FAQ and all pseudo
        headers (subheaders in the news.answers style).

        This value must be set.

    Posting-frequency = *time period*
        The posting frequency defines how often your FAQ will be posted.
        yapfaq will only post your FAQ if this period of time has passed
        since the last posting.

        You can declare that time period either in *days* or *wweeks* or
        *months* or *years*.

        This value must be set.

    Expires = *time period* (optional)
        The period of time after which your message will expire. An Expires
        header will be calculated adding this time period to today's date.

        You can declare this time period either in *days* or *wweeks* or
        *months* or *years*.

        This setting is optional; the default is 3 months.

    From = *author*
        The author of your FAQ as it will appear in the From header of the
        message.

        This value must be set.

    Subject = *subject*
        The title of your FAQ as it will appear in the Subject header of the
        message.

        You may use the special string %LM which will be replaced with the
        contents of the Last-Modified subheader in your *File*.

        This value must be set.

    NGs = *newsgroups*
        A comma-separated list of newsgroup(s) to post your FAQ to as it
        will appear in the Newsgroups header of the message.

        This value must be set.

    Fup2 = *newsgroup | poster* (optional)
        A comma-separated list of newsgroup(s) or the special string
        *poster* as it will appear in the Followup-To header of the message.

        This setting is optional.

    MID-Format = *pattern* (optional)
        A pattern from which the message ID is generated as it will appear
        in the Message-ID header of the message.

        You may use the special strings %n for the *Name* of your project,
        %d for the date the message is posted, %m for the month, %y for the
        year and %t for a time stamp (number of seconds since the epoch),
        respectively.

        This setting is optional; the default is '<%n-%y-%m-%d@*YOURHOST*>'
        where *YOURHOST* is the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the
        host yapfaq is running on. Obviously that will only work if you have
        defined a reasonable hostname that the hostfqdn() function of
        Net::Domain can return.

    Supersede = *yes* (optional)
        Add Supersedes header to the message containing the Message-ID
        header of the last posting.

        This setting is optional; you should set it to yes or leave it out.

    ExtraHeader = *additional headers* (optional)
        The contents of *ExtraHeader* is added verbatim to the headers of
        your message so you can add custom headers like Approved.

        This setting is optional.

   Example configuration file

        # name of your project
        Name = 'testpost'
        
    # file to post (complete body and pseudo-headers)
        # ($File.cfg contains data on last posting and last MID)
        File = 'test.txt'
        
    # how often your project should be posted
        # use (d)ay OR (w)eek OR (m)onth OR (y)ear
        Posting-frequency = '1d'
        
    # time period after which the posting should expire
        # use (d)ay OR (w)eek OR (m)onth OR (y)ear
        # Expires = '3m'
        
    # header "From:"
        From = 'test@domain.invalid'
        
    # header "Subject:"
        # (may contain "%LM" which will be replaced by the contents of the
        #  Last-Modified pseudo header).
        Subject = 'test noreply ignore'
        
    # comma-separated list of newsgroup(s) to post to
        # (header "Newsgroups:")
        NGs = 'de.test'
        
    # header "Followup-To:"
        # Fup2 = 'poster'
        
    # Message-ID ("%n" is $Name)
        # MID-Format = '<%n-%d.%m.%y@domain.invalid>'
        
    # Supersede last posting?
        Supersede = yes
        
    # extra headers (appended verbatim)
        # use this for custom headers like "Approved:"
        ExtraHeader = 'Approved: moderator@domain.invalid
        X-Header: Some text'
        
    # other projects may follow separated with "====="
        =====
        
    Name = 'othertest'
        File = 'test.txt'
        Posting-frequency = '2m'
        From = 'My Name <my.name@domain.invalid>'
        Subject = 'Test of yapfag <%LM>'
        NGs = 'de.test,de.alt.test'
        Fup2 = 'de.test'
        MID-Format = '<%n-%m.%y@domain.invalid>'
        Supersede = yes

   Status Information

    Information about the last post and about how to form message IDs for
    posts is stored in a file named *project name*.cfg which will be
    generated if it does not exist. Each of those status files will contain
    two lines, the first being the date of the last time the FAQ was posted
    and the second being the message ID of that incarnation.

  Runtime Configuration

    Apart from configuring which FAQ(s) to post you may (re)set some runtime
    configuration variables via the .rcfile (by default .yapfaqrc).
    .yapfaqrc must contain one definition in the form of *param = value* on
    each line; everything after a "#" sign is ignored.

    If you omit some settings they will be set to default values hardcoded
    in yapfaq.pl.

    Please note that all parameter names are case-sensitive!

    NNTPServer = *NNTP server* (mandatory)
        Host name of the NNTP server to post to. Must be set (or omitted;
        the default is "localhost"); if set to en empty string, yapfaq falls
        back to Perl's build-in defaults (contents of environment variables
        NNTPSERVER and NEWSHOST; if not set, default from Net::Config; if
        not set, "news" is used).

    NNTPUser = *user name* (optional)
        User name used for authentication with the NNTP server (*AUTHINFO
        USER*).

        This setting is optional; if it is not set, *NNTPPass* is ignored
        and no authentication is tried.

    NNTPPass = *password* (optional)
        Password used for authentication with the NNTP server (*AUTHINFO
        PASS*).

        This setting is optional; it must be set if *NNTPUser* is present.

    Sender = *Sender header* (optional)
        The Sender header that will be added to every posted message.

        This setting is optional.

    ConfigFile = *configuration file* (mandatory)
        The configuration file defining the FAQ(s) to post. Must be set (or
        omitted; the default is "yapfaq.cfg").

    Program = *file name* (optional)
        A program the article is piped to instead of posting it to Usenet.
        See option "-f" below (which takes preference).

        This setting is optional.

   Example runtime configuration file

        NNTPServer = 'localhost'
        NNTPUser   = ''
        NNTPPass   = ''
        Sender     = ''
        ConfigFile = 'yapfaq.cfg'
        Program    = ''

   Using more than one runtime configuration

    You may use more than one runtime configuration file with the -c option
    (see below).

OPTIONS

    -V (version)
       Print out version and copyright information on yapfaq and exit.

    -h (help)
       Print this man page and exit.

    -v (verbose)
       Print out status information while running to STDOUT.

    -p (post unconditionally)
       Post (all) FAQs unconditionally ignoring the posting frequency
       setting.

       You may want to use this with the -f option (see below).

    -d (dry run)
       Start yapfaq in simulation mode, i.e. don't post anything and don't
       update any status information.

    -t *newsgroup(s) | CONSOLE* (test)
       Don't post to the newsgroups defined in yqpfaq.cfg, but to the (test)
       newsgroup(s) given after -t as a comma-separated list or print the
       FAQs to STDOUT separated by lines of dashes if the special string
       "CONSOLE" is given. This can be used to preview what yapfaq would do
       without embarassing yourself on Usenet.

       The status files are not updated when this option is given.

       When this option is used to post to some other newsgroup(s),
       a(nother) timestamp is added to the Message-ID header and the
       Supersedes header is replaced by a special X-Supersedes header.

       You may want to use this with the -f option (see below).

    -f *project name*
       Just deal with one FAQ only.

       By default yapfaq will work on all FAQs that are defined in
       yapfaq.cfg, check whether they are due for posting and - if they are
       - post them. Consequently when the -p option is set all FAQs will be
       posted unconditionally. That may not be what you want to achieve, so
       you can limit the operation of yapfaq to the named FAQ only.

    -s *program* (pipe to script)
       Instead of posting the article(s) to Usenet pipe them to the external
       *program* on STDIN (which may post the article(s) then). A return
       value of 0 will be considered success.

       For example, you may want to use the *inews* utility from the INN
       package or the much more powerful replacement *tinews.pl* from
       *ftp://ftp.tin.org/tin/tools/tinews.pl* which is able to sign
       postings.

       If *Program* is also defined in the runtime configuration file (by
       default .yapfaqrc), -s takes preference.

    -c *.rc file*
       Load another runtime configuration file (.rc file) than .yaofaq.rc.

       You may for example define another usenet server to post your FAQ(s)
       to or load another configuration file defining (an)other FAQ(s).

INSTALLATION

    Just copy the contents of the tarball in some directory and get started.

    You can post your first test with

        yapfaq -c .yapfaqrc.sample

    or copy .yapfaqrc.sample to .yapfaqrc and yapfaq.cfg.sample to
    yapfaq.cfg, edit those files and get really started!

EXAMPLES

    Post all FAQs that are due for posting:

        yapfaq

    Do a dry run, showing which FAQs would be posted:

        yapfaq -dv

    Do a test run and print on STDOUT what the FAQ *myfaq* would look like
    when posted, regardless whether it is due for posting or not:

        yapfaq -pt CONSOLE -f myfaq

    Do a "real" test run and post the FAQ *myfaq* to *de.test*, but only if
    it is due:

        yapfaq -t de.test -f myfaq

    Post all FAQs (that are due for posting) using inews from INN:

        yapfaq -s inews

    Do a dry run using a runtime configuration from .alternaterc, showing
    which FAQs would be posted:

        yapfaq -dvc .alternaterc

ENVIRONMENT

    NNTPSERVER
        The default NNTP server to post to, used by the Net::NNTP module.
        You can also specify the server using the runtime configuration file
        (by default .yapfaqrc).

FILES

    yapfaq.pl
        The script itself.

    .yapfaqrc
        Runtime configuration file for yapfaq.

    yapfaq.cfg
        Configuration file for yapfaq.

    *.cfg
        Status data on FAQs.

        The status files will be created on successful posting if they don't
        already exist. The first line of the file will be the date of the
        last time the FAQ was posted and the second line will be the message
        ID of the last post of that FAQ.

BUGS

    Please report any bugs or feature request to the author or use the bug
    tracker at <http://bugs.th-h.de/>!

SEE ALSO

    <http://th-h.de/download/scripts.php> will have the current version of
    this program.

    This program is maintained using the Git version control system. You may
    clone <git://code.th-h.de/usenet/yapfaq.git> to check out the current
    development tree or browse it on the web via
    <http://code.th-h.de/?p=usenet/yapfaq.git>.

AUTHOR

    Thomas Hochstein <thh@inter.net>

    Original author (up to version 0.5b, dating from 2003): Marc
    Brockschmidt <marc@marcbrockschmidt.de>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

    Copyright (c) 2003 Marc Brockschmidt <marc@marcbrockschmidt.de>

    Copyright (c) 2010 Thomas Hochstein <thh@inter.net>

    This program is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it
    under the same terms as Perl itself.

POD ERRORS

    Hey! The above document had some coding errors, which are explained
    below:

    Around line 762:
        =back without =over

