MAKEACTIVE(8)

NAME
       makeactive - tool to recover Usenet active file.

SYNOPSIS
       makeactive [ -m ] [ -o ]

DESCRIPTION
       Makeactive  invokes  find(1) to get a list of all directo-
       ries in the news spool tree, /var/spool/news.  It discards
       directories  named lost+found as well as those that have a
       period in them.  It scans all other directories  for  all-
       numeric  filenames  and  determines the highest and lowest
       number.  The program's output is a set of  active(5)  file
       lines.  Because there is no way to know if a group is mod-
       erated or disabled, the fourth field of all  entries  will
       be  y.  Also, mid-level directories that aren't newsgroups
       will also created as newsgroups with no entries (for exam-
       ple,  there  is  a  ``comp.sources.unix''  group,  but  no
       ``comp.sources'').

OPTIONS
       -m     If the ``-m'' flag is given, then  makeactive  will
              attempt  to  adjust  the highest and lowest article
              numbers wherever possible.  If articles  are  found
              in  a newsgroup, the numbers will reflect what what
              was found.  If no articles are  found  in  a  news-
              group,  the  high  number from the old file will be
              kept, and the low number will be set  to  one  more
              then  the  high number.  This flag may only be used
              if the ``-o'' flag is used.

       -o     If the ``-o'' flag is used, makeactive will read an
              existing  active  file  for the list of group names
              and just renumber all groups.  It will preserve the
              fourth  field of the active file if one is present.
              This is analogous to  the  ctlinnd(8)  ``renumber''
              command,  except  that  innd(8) should throttled or
              not running.  Do not  use  this  flag  with  output
              redirected to the standard active file!

EXIT STATUS
       Makeactive  exits  with  non-zero  status  if any problems
       occurred.

EXAMPLES
       A typical way to use the program  is  with  the  following
       /bin/sh commands:
              ctlinnd throttle "Rebuilding active file"
              TEMP=${TMPDIR-/tmp}/act$$
              if [ -f /var/lib/news/active ] ; then
                  if makeactive -o >${TEMP} ; then
                      mv ${TEMP} /var/lib/news/active
                  fi
              else
                  if makeactive >${TEMP} ; then
                      # Edit to restore moderated
                      # and aliased groups.
                      ...
                      mv ${TEMP} /var/lib/news/active
                  fi
              fi
              ctlinnd reload active "New active file"
              ctlinnd go ''

HISTORY
       Written  by  Rich  $alz lt;rsalz@uunet.uu.net for InterNet-
       News.  This is revision 1.3, dated 1996/10/29.

SEE ALSO
       active(5) ctlinnd(8) dbz(3) filechan(8) history(5) 
       innd(8) newsfeeds(5) makehistory(8) newsrequeue(8).