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EXPIRE.CTL(5)
NAME
  expire.ctl - control file for Usenet article expiration

DESCRIPTION
  The file <pathetc in inn.conf>/expire.ctl is the default control file for
  the expire(8) or expireover(8) program, which read it at start-up.  It
  serves two purposes: it defines how long history entries for expired or
  rejected articles are retained, and it determines how long articles not
  stored in a self-expiring storage method are retained.  If all of the
  storage methods used by the server are self-expiring (such as CNFS), only
  the ``/remember/'' setting described below is necessary or used.

  Blank lines and lines beginning with a number sign (``#'') are ignored.
  All other lines should be in one of two formats.

  The first format specifies how long to keep history entries for articles
  that aren't present in the news spool.  These are articles which have
  either already expired out of spool or which the server rejected (and
  ``remembertrash'' was set to true in inn.conf(5)).  There should only be
  one line in this format, which looks like:
       /remember/:days
  where days is a floating-point number that specifies the minimum number of
  days a history record of a given message ID is retained, regardless of
  whether the article has expired.  (History entries are always retained at
  least until an article fully expires.)

  The reason to retain a record of an old articles is to handle the case
  where a peer offers old articles that were previously accepted and then
  expired.  Without a setting like this, the server would accept the article
  again and readers would see duplicate articles.  Articles older than a
  certain number of days won't be accepted by the server at all (see the ``-
  c'' flag of innd(8)), and this setting should probably match that time
  period (14 days by default) to ensure the server never accepts duplicates.

  This setting does not affect article expirations.

  Most of the lines in this file will be in the second format, either four or
  five colon-separated fields as follows:
       classnum:keep:default:purge
  or
       pattern:modflag:keep:default:purge
  The former is used for class based expiry which means ``groupbaseexpiry''
  in inn.conf(5) is ``false'', and the latter is used for group based expiry
  which means ``groupbaseexpiry'' in inn.conf is ``true''.  Both formats can
  not coexist each other.

  Where classnum field used for class based expiry is the number that you
  specified in storage.conf(5).

  The pattern field used for group based expiry is a list of wildmat(3)-style
  patterns, separated by commas.  This field specifies the newsgroups to
  which the line is applied.  Note that the file is interpreted in order and
  the last line that matches will be used, so general patterns (like a single
  asterisk to set the defaults) should appear at the beginning of the file,
  before more specific settings.

  The modflag field used for group based expiry can be used to further limit
  newsgroups to which the line applies, and should be chosen from the
  following set:
       M       Only moderated groups
       U       Only unmoderated groups
       A       All groups
       X       Removes the article from all groups that it appears in
  (The X flag is special; normally articles are not completely deleted until
  they expire out of every group they were posted to, but if an article is
  expired by a line with an X, it is deleted out of all newsgroups it was
  posted to immediately.)

  The rest of three fields are used to determine how long an article should
  be kept.  Each field should be either a number of days (fractions like
  ``8.5'' are allowed) or the word ``never.'' The most common use is to
  specify the default value for how long an article should be kept.  The
  first and third fields - keep and purge - specify the boundaries within
  which an Expires header will be honored.  They are ignored if an article
  has no Expires header.  (In other words, if an article does not have an
  Expires header, only default field is used and the Date header is be
  honored to expire.  But if an article has an Expires header, default is not
  used, and articles are expired no faster than the time set with keep and
  kept no longer than the time specified with purge regardless of Expires
  headers).  One should think of the fields as ``lower-bound default upper-
  bound.'' Since most articles do not have an Expires header, the second
  field tends to be the most important and most commonly applied one.

  The keep field specifies how many days an article should be kept before it
  will be removed.  No article in the matching newsgroups or class will be
  removed if it has been received for less than keep days, regardless of
  Expires header.  If this field is the word ``never,'' no article in the
  matching newsgroups or class will ever be expired.

  The default field specifies how long to keep an article if no Expires
  header is present.  If this field is the word ``never'' then articles
  without explicit expiration dates will never be expired.

  The purge field specifies the upper bound on how long an article can be
  kept.	 No article will be kept longer then the number of days specified by
  this field.  All articles will be removed after then have been kept for
  purge days.  If purge is the word ``never'' then the article will never be
  deleted.

  If the line for classnum is not defined, keep, default and purge are
  assumed to be all ``0''.  (See below for default definition.)

  It is often useful to honor the Expires header in articles, especially
  those in moderated groups.  To do this, set keep to zero, default to
  whatever value you wish, and purge to never (or alternately set purge to
  some large number, like 365 days for a maximum article life of a year).  To
  ignore any Expires header, set all three fields to the same value.

  For group based expiry, there must be exactly one line with a pattern of
  ``*'' and a modflags of ``A'' - this matches all groups and is used to set
  the expiration default.  And for class base expiry, there can be exactly
  one line with a class of ``255'' - this matches all class and can be used
  to set the expiration default.  In either case, it should be the first
  expiration line.

EXAMPLES
  For class based expiry;
       ##  How long to keep expired history
       /remember/:5
       ##  class 0 stay for two weeks
       0:14:14:14
  For group based expiry;
       ##  How long to keep expired history
       /remember/:5
       ##  Most things stay for two weeks
       *:A:14:14:14
       ##  Believe expiration dates in moderated groups,
       ##  up to six weeks
       *:M:1:30:42
       ##  Keep local stuff for a long time
       foo.*:A:30:30:30

HISTORY
  Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews.  This is
  revision 1.15.2.1, dated 2000/08/17.

SEE ALSO
  expire(8), expireover(8), inn.conf(5), storage.conf(5), wildmat(3).

Index for Section 5

Alphabetical listing for E

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