DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / inn / inn.conf.5.en
INN.CONF(5) File Formats Manual INN.CONF(5)

inn.conf - configuration data for InterNetNews programs

The file /etc/news/inn.conf is used to determine various parameters. Blank lines and lines starting with a number sign (``#'') are ignored. All other lines specify parameters that may be read, and should be of the following form:

name : [optional whitespace] value
Everything after the whitespace and up to the end of the line is taken as the value; multi-word values should not be put in quotes. The case of names is significant — server is not the same as Server or SERVER.

Some parameters specified in the file may be overridden by environment variables, and some file parameters may be used to mask real data, such as when hiding a cluster of hosts behind a single electronic mail hostname. The current set of parameters is as follows:

This is the name of the host to use when building the From header line. The default is the fully-qualified domain name of the local host. The value of the FROMHOST environment variable, if it exists, overrides this.
This names the default machine that contains forwarding aliases for all moderated groups. It is only used if the moderators(5) file doesn't exist, or if the group is not matched by that file. The value is interpreted as a pattern match; see moderators(5).
This specifies what to put in the Organization header if it is blank. The value of the ORGANIZATION environment variable, if it exists, overrides this.
This specifies how to name the local site when building the Path header line. The default is the fully-qualified domain name of the local host.
This specifies the name of the NNTP server to which an article should be posted. The value of the NNTPSERVER environment variable, if it exists, overrides this.
This should be the domain name of the local host. It should not have a leading period, and it should not be a full host address. It is used only if the GetFQDN routine in libinn(3) cannot get the fully-qualified domain name by using either the gethostname(2) or gethostbyname(3) calls. The check is very simple; if either routine returns a name with a period in it, then it is assumed to have the full domain name.
This is the TCP port INN is accepting connections on. This can be changed, for example if you want to run in.nnrpd from inetd on port 119. The default value is ``119.''
When this parameter is enabled (``yes''), nnrpd will try using the actived program. The default value is ``no''.

The inewsport parameter is only used by inews when posting an article.

Three parameters are used only by nnrpd when accepting postings from clients:

If this parameter is present, then nnrpd will add the necessary MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) headers to all any articles that do not have a Mime-Version header. This parameter specifies the MIME version, and should normally be ``1.0''.
If MIME headers are being added, this parameter specifies the value of the Content-Type header. The default value is ``text/plain; charset=US-ASCII.''
If MIME headers are being added, this parameter specifies the value of the Content-Transfer-Encoding header. The default value is ``7bit.''

Note that this file can be identical on all machines in an organization.

fromhost:	foo.com
moderatormailer:	%s@uunet.uu.net
organization:	Foo, Incorporated
#pathhost -- use FQDN.
server:	news.foo.com
domain: foo.com

This file is intended to be fairly static; any changes made to it are typically not reflected until a program restarts.

Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews. This is revision 1.16, dated 1996/09/06.

libinn(3), moderators(5).