flnews_post_proc ======================= Post-Processor for the flnews newsreader ------------------------------------------ **IMPORTANT** Please give priority to the documentation which is delivered with the gem file, as the markdown syntax plays tricks, sometimes, and I may not be quick enough to correct this file. This applies especially to the section [_Configuration_](#CONFIGURATION), below. The gem-file contains different formats of the man-page in English and French. See section [_Source Code_](Source-Code), below, for instructions to access these texts. Or see the same files [on the Web](https://www.uplawski.eu/div/flnews/). SYNOPSIS ======================= An article is piped-in to the post-processor. This is normally done automatically as soon as the variable “post_proc“ in the flnews configuration file is set to the flnews_post_proc executable, i.e.: **post_proc : /usr/local/bin/flnews_post_proc** Locally stored articles can be piped in to the post-processor, as needed for testing purposes, with a command-line like the following: **flnews_post_proc < article** INSTALLATION ============= You must have a Ruby interpreter installed (see [ruby-lang.org](https://www.ruby-lang.org) ). Your Linux distribution will probably let you choose one from its software resources. Use the package management utility of your choice. While you can download the current gem file for flnews_post_proc from *[rubygems.org](https://www.rubygems.org)*, it is probably best to use the “gem”-utility for the installation. It should be available from the same source as your Ruby interpreter. With the interpreter and the gem utility in place, the installation effort is reduced to a simple command: user@machine:~$ **sudo gem install flnews_post_proc** This way, the gem file will be downloaded from rubygems.org and installed in the designated path for ruby-gems. If the installation completes without errors, the command **flnews_post_proc** will become immediately available. For other uses of the gem utility, see the output of user@machine:~$ **gem --help** DESCRIPTION ======================= The flnews newsreader is sufficient for Usenet access, i.e. to receive and read articles from -, as well as to write and post articles to newsgroups. When you compare news-clients, you will always notice the differences and choose the software that you prefer. Flnews however, has the charm that you can influence how the program itself works but also modify posts that flnews produces, just before the program will transmit them to the chosen nntp-server. The flnews_post_proc can add and change details of a post, in ways that are currently not possible with flnews alone. As the program is configurable, it can probably respond to the needs of some Usenet users. You should, however, rather take it as an example for what can be done and an inspiration for your own creations. The limits of a basic newsreader — what the program can do ---------------------------------------------------------- While the articles that flnews creates, are complete and ready to be posted, some users may not always agree with the result and for arbitrary reasons: * There may be inconveniences when you post to different newsgroups in different languages, as an introductory line which refers to a previous post can only be set once in the flnews configuration. The consequence can be that your post to a french newsgroup begins with an introduction in English. The post-processor program can set an introductory line specifically chosen for one or several newsgroups. * The same conflict arises, when you have set a standard signature text and would like to replace it against another, based on the newsgroup you are about to post to. The post-processor program sets specific signatures as configured for one or several newsgroups. * Some custom headers may serve to convey additional information to interested readers of your post, like GnuPG key IDs, your language skills or the like. The signature may be a better choice than custom headers. You are free. I just mention face and x-face but prefer that you do not remember I did. Custom headers may be defined in the configuration file for the program and will then be added to each outgoing post. * The Archive- and X-No-Archive headers are sometimes set to avoid that an article be saved and stays available to search-engines (Google, notably). Test- postings, for example, do probably not justify at all that they would be referenced in search results. The post-processor program can impose the Archive- and X-No-Archive header for all posts to certain newsgroups. **ATTN** As of 2024, the X-No-Archive has lost most of its utility and it is the decision of server operators to honor it or not. * If a news post contains many references to either other posts or Web pages, the text can be cluttered with URLs. The post-processor can identify marked text fragments and transform them into footnotes, which will be attached as a list at the bottom of the post. This works almost like the references-link in Wikipedia, but the delimiter can be determined in the configuration file. Example (with %=): _This is an object %=and this becomes the footnote, describing the object further=%_ * The program can attempt to correct ill formatted references. This is an option, you can disable it by setting the option VFY_URLS to “no” in the configuration. Beware that mailto: links are not recognized and cannot be corrected. See the explanations for VFY_URLS, below. Dialog to override settings --------------------------- You can have a dialog displayed just before the post-processor is invoked, to **disable** some configuration options. Provided that either YAD, Zenity, Whiptail or only xterm are available on your computer, you can choose from the following options. You **cannot** use the dialog to enable options which have not yet been set in the configuration. * Signatures, as set in the configuration **can be ignored**. Either a default signature will appear as set in flnews or none. * Custom Headers, if configured, can be **omitted**. * Archive- and X-No-Archive headers, if set for the current newsgroup, **can be ignored**. * The verification & correction of references **can be disabled**. * Logging can be **switched off**, if set. Pushing Esc or the cancle-button of the dialog interrupts the process, flnews will not post the article. You can disable the dialog, which ensures that all configured options will be applied, without the need for further interaction (see below, option OVERRIDE_CONFIG). CONFIGURATION =============== On first execution of the program, a copy of the original configuration file is created in */home/[user]/.flnews_post_proc.conf* It is this file which is used from then on. If you delete it, it will be recreated, on the next occasion, but your own changes will be lost. The configuration file is in YAML syntax and full of explanations. The variables defined in this file can be classified as belonging to one of two categories: * Variables describing values originally set by flnews, which should be used or replaced. The important elements are usually matched in a capture group. * Variables defining the new or altered content. **FUP_NAME** A Regular Expression, describing the string which contains the name of previous poster who is the author of a quoted post. This string is recognized in the original article and may be used with the fitting element rom *GROUP_INTRO*, below. The Regexp format is that of the Regexp class in Ruby, noted as a String. Beware to mask a backslash '\\' by another one, ike in the example. A capture-group '()' serves to extract the name from the match result. Leave this field empty to keep the default from the FLNews configuration intact. CONTENT: A String equivalent of a regular expression. DEFAULT: EMPTY EXAMPLE1: _"On \\d+.\\d+.\\d{2,4} at \\d+:\\d+ **(.*)** wrote:"_ EXAMPLE2: _"**(.*)** wrote:"_ **FUP_GROUP** A Regular Expression, describing the string which contains the newsgroup where the previous post, that you are referring to in the followup, had been published. Leave this field empty to ignore the precise group. CONTENT: A String equivalent of a regular expression. DEFAULT: EMPTY EXAMPLE: "wrote in **(.*)**:" **GROUP_INTROS** Introductory strings, referring to the previous poster who is the author of a quoted post. If you match the newsgroup of the post (see FUP_GROUP), you can use these variables in the result. Currently only %fup_name% and %fup_group% are reproduced in the resulting introductory string. CONTENT: A newsgroup or regexp per line, followed by a colon, a space and a String DEFAULT: As configured in FLNews EXAMPLE: _alt.test: "Thus spoke #\{fup_name\} on that baleful #\{fup_date\}:"_ **GROUP_SIGS** A signature line per Newsgroup. ATTN! In multi line signatures, you have to use \r\n for line breaks. CONTENT: A newsgroup or regexp per line, followed by a colon, a space and a String. DEFAULT: As configured in flnews EXAMPLE: alt.test: _"Signature for alt.test\\\\r\\\\nsecond line"_ **CUSTOM_HEADERS** Additional headers for the outgoing article CONTENT: 1 line per header : a dash and space, then a String, comprising the name of the header, ending in a colon and the value of the header. DEFAULT: undefined EXAMPLE (2 headers): _\- 'X-My-Header: nothing fancy'_ _\- 'X-Another-Header: care not!'_ **NO_ARCHIVE_GROUPS** The newsgroups, where the headers “Archive: no” and “X-No-Archive: YES” shall be set. CONTENT: a dash and space, then a String, containing the name of the group or a regexp. DEFAULT: empty EXAMPLE (1 group, 1 hierarchy): _\- "alt.test"_ _\- "^news.*"_ **DEBUG_LOG** The name of a file, where debug messages are written. Setting this variable will enable the log. Leave empty to disable logging. CONTENT: The name of a writable file, which will be created if inexistent and overwritten if need be. DEFAULT: empty EXAMPLE: _'/tmp/a_log-file.txt'_ **LOG LEVEL** One of debug, fatal, error, info, warn **REFERENCES_SEPARATOR** A sequence of 2 or more symbols marking the end of the message-body and the beginning of a list of “references” or “footnotes”. It will only appear, if the original message-body contains text marked for use as such a footnote. See *REFERENCES_DELIMITER*. If the option is not defined or empty, the list of footnotes will appear below the last line of the message body and no separator will be inserted. CONTENT: A quoted symbol or sequence of symbols. DEFAULT: empty EXAMPLE: _'---------'_ **REFERENCES_DELIMITER** A symbol or sequence of symbols marking the beginning of a text which will serve as footnote (or reference). The **reversed sequence** musst be used to mark the end of the text. The presence of this sequence or symbol in the original message body will cause the enclosed text to be moved below the message body. The *REFERENCES_SEPARATOR*, if defined, will separate the message from the list of footnotes. If this option is not defined or empty, footnotes are not created. CONTENT a quoted symbol or sequence of symbols. DEFAULT: none/empty EXAMPLE: _'%?'_ **REFERENCE_FORMAT** A format-string, using %s for a number, replacing the reference text in the message body. DEFAULT: " %s)" -> becomes 1) ... 2) ... 3) EXAMPLE: _"(%s)" -> becomes (1) ... (2) ... (3)_ **VFY_URLS** A Boolean constant. It determines if the program shall verify and possibly try to correct URLs. Even if URLs are identified as such, only a few manipulations are attempted : * Angular brackets '<' and '>' are added, if missing * Article-references are prepended with "news:", if missing * Slashes are added, if they are found missing after "http(s):" ATTN! The program is unable to discern "mailto:" and "news:" references. If neither is given, but '@' is present, "news:" is automatically prepended. If the variable is not set, a value 'yes' is assumed. CONTENT: One of YES, yes, NO, no, and other variations of case. DEFAULT: yes EXAMPLE: ... I let you guess. **OVERRIDE_CONFIG** GROUP_SIGS, XNAY_GROUPS, CUSTOM_HEADERS and DEBUG_LOG. A dialog may be displayed which allows you to disable any of these four options, so that the defaults from flnews prevail. ATTN! Canceling the dialog or pushing the Esc-key does interrupt the process. Flnews will not post the article. Set this option to no, NO or similar to disable the dialog. DEFAULT: yes EXAMPLE: No Other Information ================= Testing ------- The effects that the execution of the program will have on a posting can be verified in two ways: 1. By piping-in a post that had previously been saved to a file: **:~$ /usr/local/bin/[post-processor] < [test-article]** This will show the resulting new version of the article on screen, but you can also pipe the output into another file. This is a great way to test a program during development or to test your own configuration of the program. 2. By posting directly into a test-newsgroup (like alt.test or similar). This is mandatory before you really post to thematic newsgroups and when the settings of the post-processor will affect the article. Source-Code ----------- The gem-file that you get with the gem-utility or from rubygems.org contains all the code of the program and some documentation (this page notably). To read its content, you must 1. untar the gem-file with tar _-xf flnews_post_proc-0.1.gem_ 2. uncompress the data.gz archive: _gunzip data.gz_ 3. untar the resultig data.tar archive: _tar -xf data.tar_ This creates the directories bin, doc and lib. License ------- flnews_post_proc is distributed under the conditions of the WTFPL-2.0 or later License (see http://www.wtfpl.net/txt/copying/ or license-text in the doc directory of the gem-file). Author ----- flnews_post_proc has been developed by Michael Uplawski Ω ==