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.IX Title "DISTRIBUTIONS 5"
.TH DISTRIBUTIONS 5 2024-04-01 "INN 2.7.2" "InterNetNews Documentation"
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.SH NAME
distributions \- Recommended values for the Distribution header field
.SH DESCRIPTION
.IX Header "DESCRIPTION"
The file \fIpathetc\fR/distributions contains a list of relevant
distributions and their descriptions.  It provides local information
for posters who wish to add a Distribution header field to their articles
so as to restrict their propagation, although it does not guarantee
that such articles will not leak elsewhere because of a misconfiguration
of a news server to which they are fed.  See newsfeeds(5) for more
information about how a news server handles the Distribution header field.
.PP
Each line of this file consists of a distribution area followed by
its description (encoded in UTF\-8) after at least a whitespace.  For
instance:
.PP
.Vb 4
\&    fr      Local to France.
\&    local   Local to this news server.
\&    nj      Local to New Jersey.
\&    usa     Local to the United States of America.
.Ve
.PP
Blank lines and lines beginning with a number sign (\f(CW\*(C`#\*(C'\fR) are ignored.
.PP
Any client that issues the LIST DISTRIBUTIONS command obtain these
recommended values, if available.  However, be aware that use of the LIST
DISTRIBUTIONS command is not widespread (though documented in RFC\ 6048)
and most news clients will never ask for this file.
.PP
If this file is empty, it is not an error.  The server will just send
the client an empty response.  And if the file is missing, the server
will also send the client an appropriate response to indicate that
the distributions list is not maintained on the server.
.PP
The Distribution header field can also be automatically set by \fBnnrpd\fR
if distrib.pats(5) is correctly configured.
.SH HISTORY
.IX Header "HISTORY"
Written by Julien Elie for InterNetNews.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.IX Header "SEE ALSO"
distrib.pats(5), newsfeeds(5), nnrpd(8).