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.IX Title "OVERCHAN 8"
.TH OVERCHAN 8 2022-07-10 "INN 2.7.4" "InterNetNews Documentation"
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.nh
.SH NAME
overchan \- Batch update the INN overview database
.SH SYNOPSIS
.IX Header "SYNOPSIS"
\&\fBoverchan\fR [\fIfile\fR ...]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.IX Header "DESCRIPTION"
\&\fBoverchan\fR reads overview data from the specified files or from standard
input if no files are specified, and writes that data into the INN
overview database.  (The file \f(CW\*(C`\-\*(C'\fR means to read data from standard input
as well.)
.PP
Normally, overview data is stored by \fBinnd\fR for articles as they're
accepted.  For performance, however, it's sometimes useful to have
overview data written by a separate process.  To do this, set
\&\fIuseoverchan\fR to true in \fIinn.conf\fR to tell \fBinnd\fR to not write
overview data directly and then add an \fBoverchan\fR channel in
\&\fInewsfeeds\fR:
.PP
.Vb 1
\&    overview!:*:Tc,WnteO:<pathbin>/overchan
.Ve
.PP
where <pathbin> is \fIpathbin\fR in \fIinn.conf\fR.  Additionally, \fBoverchan\fR
can be used to bulk-load overview data from appropriately formatted batch
files (such as overflow files from an \fBoverchan\fR channel).
.PP
Each line of input should have the following format:
.PP
.Vb 1
\&    <token> <arrived> <expires> <data>
.Ve
.PP
where <token> is the storage API token of the article in textual form
(surrounded by \f(CW\*(C`@\*(C'\fR characters), <arrived> is the arrival timestamp of the
article in seconds since epoch, <expires> is the expiration time of the
article in seconds since epoch or 0 if there is none, and <data> is the
tab-separated overview data.  Each of these fields must be separated by a
single space.
.SH HISTORY
.IX Header "HISTORY"
Written by Rob Robertson <rob@violet.berkeley.edu> and Rich $alz
<rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews.  Man page rewritten in POD by Russ
Allbery <eagle@eyrie.org>.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.IX Header "SEE ALSO"
inn.conf(5), innd(8), newsfeeds(5)