Important notes:
1. This distribution uses Unix domain sockets. It
absolutely positively will not work properly under any Linux kernel
prior to 1.3. The distribution was built on a system running Linux
kernel version 2.0.14. I recommend that you use a 2.0 level kernel
with this distribution.
2. This distribution relies on a number of common
packages being in the $PATH of the news user. Those are: gawk,
sed, egrep, gzip and perl. Be sure those are installed before
proceeding.
3. Unlike some of the previous binary distributions
of INN for Linux, this distribution does not alter the installation
directories specified in the INN distribution. That means it will
not install in the same directories as some of the previous binary
releases. Most of the binaries, the active file, and the history
files will live in /usr/local/news. The partition holding that
directory should have several hundred megabytes of free space
(ideally). History files become very large. The innd server itself,
and a few other pieces, go in /usr/local/etc. The manual pages
go in /usr/local/man. The "rnews" utility (for UUCP)
goes in /bin. The logfiles go in /var/log/news. The news spool
is assumed to be /var/spool/news. Symlinks may be used to reorganize
this as desired. If you really need to change many of the paths,
you should obtain the source and build it to suit your tastes.
Otherwise things will tend to become confusing.
4. This is an all ELF-format distribution. If your kernel
doesn't support ELF, you need to build a kernel that does.
5. I am not an INN helpdesk. Please read the FAQs
and submit your questions to the addresses and newsgroups you
find there. The FAQs are included for you to read. That means
you should read them.
Installation instructions:
1. Create your news user and group. The news
user should have a UID of 8. The news group should have a GID
of 13. That is, unless you want to take responsibility for changing
the ownerships of the files as they are unpacked from the tar
file. That's up to you.
2. Unpack the distribution.
cd / tar -xvpf /path/to/inn-dist.tar
3. Edit /etc/syslog.conf and add these lines. Be
sure to use tabs instead of spaces in /etc/syslog.conf. Never
use spaces in /etc/syslog.conf.
news.notice /var/log/news/news.notice news.err /var/log/news/news.err news.crit /var/log/news/news.crit
4. Restart syslogd
kill -HUP `cat /var/run/syslogd.pid`
5. Install an active file. This is a list of all the newsgroups that you will accept. You should probably get the active file from your service provider. If for some reason you can't, fetch one from ftp://ftp.uu.net/uunet-info/active. Remember that big active files cost memory and performance. It's best to remove any hierarchies from the active file that you don't wish to carry. You should also tell your provider which hierarchies you wish to carry and which ones you don't. Most providers will respond favorably to this. Some will not alter the feed in any way. They tend to have a variety of lame excuses and it's probably not worth arguing over it. No provider that I know of will tolerate receiving a list of every newsgroup you want to carry (or don't want to carry). You need to keep it at the hierarchy level. In other words, tell them that you want alt.* but not alt.binaries.*, no comp.* except for comp.os.linux.*, etc. But don't say "I want alt.sex.bestiality, alt.sex.pedophilia, alt.sex.fetish, but not alt.sex.fetish.diapers" ad nauseum down a list of 10,000 newsgroups. That's unreasonable. Put the active file in /usr/local/news.
6. Make your history database:
su news cd /usr/local/news makehistory mv history.n.dir history.dir mv history.n.pag history.pag
7. Edit hosts.nntp. Put the hostname of the machine
that will be feeding you (presumably your service provider's news
server) in this file. Do not use this file to define the hostnames
of client machines that will read news from your server. This
file is only for servers that will feed you.
8. Edit inn.conf. Fill in your organization. If you
want your pathname to be different from the fully-qualified hostname
of your machine, set the pathname appropriately. For example,
if your server is called server.your.domain but you want
it to appear to be news.your.domain, you would put down
news.your.domain as the pathhost.
9. Edit newsfeeds. Change isp.example.com
to the hostname of your news provider's server, if you intend
to feed your locally generated postings back to them.
10. Edit nnrp.access. Define your domain name (and
optionally your network addresses) that should be permitted to
read from your server.
11. Edit nntpsend.ctl. Change isp.example.com
to the hostname of your news provider's server, if you intend
to feed your locally generated postings back to them.
12. Create a crontab for the news user. Generally
you'll do this by running "crontab -e". The crontab
file should contain:
0 2 * * * /usr/local/news/bin/news/bin/news.daily delayrm expireover 0,15,30,45 * * * * /usr/local/news/bin/nntpsend
13. Start the server.
su news sh /usr/local/etc/rc.news
Remember, if you have problems with the server, there are five places you should go before you send a message to me about it:
1. The manual pages.
2. The FAQs.
3. The current installation page for this distribution, which is here.
4. Post to news.software.nntp (if you can).
5. Send a message to inn-questions@pilhuhn.de.
This will automatically post your question to news.software.nntp,
if you are unable to do so.
If you have gone that far through the documentation and posted questions to news.software.nntp that don't get answered, then send a message to linux-inn@etext.org.