Leafnode-1.10.8

Introduction to Leafnode

Leafnode is an NNTP server designed for small sites to provide a local USENET spool.

Package information

Download (HTTP): http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/leafnode/leafnode-1.10.8.rel.tar.bz2
Download (FTP): ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/mirrors/sunsite/system/news/transport/leafnode-1.10.8.rel.tar.bz2
Download MD5 sum: 1d8d27673780ba49fcb69883c2cabdec
Download size: 385 KB
Estimated disk space required: 6.3 MB
Estimated build time: 0.10 SBU

Leafnode dependencies

Required

PCRE-5.0 and tcpwrappers-7.6

Installation of Leafnode

Create the group and user news, if not present:

groupadd news &&
useradd -c "Leafnode News Server" -d /var/spool/news -g news news

Install Leafnode by running the following commands:

./configure --prefix=/usr \
    --localstatedir=/var --sysconfdir=/etc/leafnode \
    --with-lockfile=/var/lock/leafnode/fetchnews.lck &&
make

Now, as the root user:

make install

Installation command explanations

--localstatedir=/var: Change the default spool directory of /usr/var.

--sysconfdir=/etc/leafnode: Leafnode reads its configuration data from a file called config which will be created in /etc/leafnode to avoid any potential conflict with other packages.

make update: Run this command if you are upgrading from a very old version of Leafnode.

Configuring Leafnode

Config files

/etc/leafnode/config, /etc/nntpserver, /etc/xinetd.conf or /etc/inetd.conf and /etc/sysconfig/createfiles

Configuration commands

The /etc/leafnode/config file must be edited to reflect the name of the upstream NNTP provider. Copy the example configuration file to /etc/leafnode/config and save the original for reference:

cp /etc/leafnode/config.example /etc/leafnode/config

Change the

server =

entry to reflect your news provider.

The /etc/nntpserver file must contain 127.0.0.1 to prevent news clients from reading news from the upstream feed. Create this file using the following command:

cat > /etc/nntpserver << "EOF"
127.0.0.1

EOF

The /etc/rc.d/init.d/cleanfs script, part of the LFS bootscript package, will remove the /var/lock/leafnode directory during the system boot sequence. Install the following line in the /etc/sysconfig/createfiles file to re-create the directory:

/var/lock/leafnode   dir   2775   news   news

Leafnode may be configured to use inetd by adding an entry to the /etc/inetd.conf file with the following command:

echo "nntp stream tcp nowait news /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/sbin/leafnode" \
>> /etc/inetd.conf

Issue a killall -HUP inetd to reread the changed inetd.conf file.

Alternatively, Leafnode may be configured to use xinetd by adding an entry to the /etc/xinetd.conf file with the following command:

cat >> /etc/xinetd.conf << "EOF"
        service nntp
        {
           flags           = NAMEINARGS NOLIBWRAP
           socket_type     = stream
           protocol        = tcp
           wait            = no
           user            = news
           server          = /usr/sbin/tcpd
           server_args     = /usr/sbin/leafnode
           instances       = 7
           per_source      = 3
        }
EOF

Issue a killall -HUP xinetd to reread the changed xinetd.conf file.

Add entries to the root or news user's crontab to run the fetchnews and texpire commands at the desired time intervals.

applyfilter: filters newsgroup articles according to regular expressions.
checkgroups: inserts newsgroup titles into the newsgroup database.
fetchnews: sends posted articles to and retrieves new articles from an upstream news server.
leafnode: is an NNTP server daemon.
leafnode-version: prints the Leafnode version.
newsq: shows articles waiting to be sent upstream.
texpire: expires old articles and unread groups.

Beyond Linux From Scratch - Version 6.0

Chapter 22. Other Server Software