TESTHOST(1)TESTHOST(1)NAMEtesthost - test the status of an NNTP news server
SYNOPSIStesthost hostname [ -a|-n date time |-o ] [ -M ] [ -s|-S filename ] [
-e|-E filename ] [ -N port_number ] [ -U userid ] [ -P password ] [ -Q
] [ -l phrase_file ] [ -T timeout ] [ -d ] [ -q ] [ -z ]
OPTIONS-a Get the active list from hostname
-d
This option tells testhost get the descriptions of the newsgroups on
the remote server by sending the 'list newsgroups' command. The remote
server may or may not support this command.
-e | -E filename
These options will send all error messages (normally displayed on
stderr), to an alternate file. The lower case version, -e, will send
the error messages to the compiled-in default defined in suck_config.h.
The default is suck.errlog. The upper case version, -E, requires the
filename parameter. All error messages will then be sent to this file.
-l phrase_file
This option tells testhost to load in an alternate phrase file, instead
of using the built-in messages. This allows you to have testhost print
phrases in another language, or to allow you to customize the messages
without re-building. See the "FOREIGN LANGUAGE PHRASES" in suck.1 for
more details.
-n date time
Get the newgroups created on the host since the date and time speci‐
fied. The date must be in YYMMDD format and the time must be in HHMMSS
format.
-N port_number
This option will tell testhost to use an alternate NNRP port number
when connecting to the host, instead of the default, 119.
-q
This option tells testhost to not display the connection and announce‐
ment messages, rather only display the results of the actual command
run.
-s | -S filename
These options will send all status messages (normally displayed on std‐
out), to an alternate file. The lower case version, -s, will send the
status messages to the compiled-in default defined in suck_config.h.
The default is /dev/null, so no status messages will be displayed. The
upper case version, -S, requires the filename parameter. All status
messages will then be sent to this file.
-T
This option overrides the compiled-in TIMEOUT value. This is how long
testhost waits for data from the remote host before timing out and
aborting.
-U userid
-P password
These two options let you specify a userid and password, if your NNTP
server requires them.
-Q
This option tells testhost to use the environment variable NNTP_USER &
NNTP_PASS to specify a userid and password, if your NNTP server
requires them. This option is provided so that the userid & password
can't be seen with the ps command, a potential security problem.
-z
This options tells testhost to use SSL to talk to the remote server, if
testhost was compiled with SSL.
DESCRIPTION
Testhost will query a NNTP news server, specified by hostname.
The hostname may optionally include the port number in the form
Host:Port.Iftheportnumberisincluded,theportnumberspecified by the -N
option will be ignored.
The default action is to issue the help command to the server, to see
what software it is running and what commands it accepts.
If the -a option is used, testhost will display the server's active
history list. If the -n date time option is used, testhost will dis‐
play all new groups created on the server since the date and time spec‐
ified. If the -o option is used, then testhost will display the over‐
view format, which is what the XOVER command returns.
If the -M option is used, the command will be preceded with the "mode
reader" command, which might be needed by some servers.
EXIT VALUES
0 on success, -1 on failure.
SEE ALSOsuck(1), rpost(1), lpost(1).
TESTHOST(1)
