.TH snexpire,v0.3.8 8 "Harold Tay" "N.B." \" -*- nroff -*-
.SH NAME
snexpire \- expire news under the
.B sn
system.
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B snexpire
.RI [\- v ]
.RI [\- exp ]
.IR newsgroup
.RI [[\- exp ]
.IR newsgroup ]...
.br
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B snexpire
expires news in the
.B sn
news system, one article file (=10 articles, compile time default)
at a time.
.B snexpire
always leaves behind at least one article file, so that newly
entered articles will have numbers not overlapping previously used
numbers.  As an exception if the expiration age is set to 0,
then even this last file will be expired and subsequent article
numbers will start from the beginning.
You will need to be root or own /var/spool/sn to run
.BR snexpire .

.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.RB \- v
Output a line for each article expired.  The format of this line is
the same as for
.BR snscan .
.SH ARGUMENTS
.B snexpire
expires all
.IR newsgroup s
named on the command line.  Each newsgroup may be preceded by
.RI \- exp
to control the expiration age.
.I exp
is of the form
.IR # [ hdwmy ]
where
.I #
is a number, followed by one of the characters
.IR h , d , w , m , y
representing hours, days, weeks, months and years.  The default for
.RI \- exp
is a compile-time fixed.  Each
.RI [\- exp ]
applies to the next newsgroup only, any newsgroups after that one
get default treatment unless overridden by another
.RI [\- exp ].

.SH FILES MODIFIED
.RI /var/spool/sn/ newsgroup /.times,
.RI /var/spool/sn/ newsgroup /[0123456789]*,
/var/spool/sn/{.chain,.table}.

.SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
.TP
.B SNROOT
If this is set and is not empty, the value is used in place of
.BR /var/spool/sn ,
the default news spool directory.

.SH FILES
.TP
.RI /var/spool/sn/ newsgroup / .expire
If this exists, its contents are taken to be
.I exp 
if not overridden by 
.RI \- exp
on the command line.