NAME¶
nntp - Tcl client for the NNTP protocol
SYNOPSIS¶
package require
Tcl 8.2
package require
nntp ?0.2.1?
::nntp::nntp ?
host? ?
port? ?
nntpName?
nntpName method ?
arg arg ...?
nntpName article ?
msgid?
nntpName authinfo ?
user? ?
pass?
nntpName body ?
msgid?
nntpName configure
nntpName configure option
nntpName configure option value ...
nntpName cget option
nntpName date
nntpName group ?
group?
nntpName head ?
msgid?
nntpName help
nntpName last
nntpName list
nntpName listgroup ?
group?
nntpName mode_reader
nntpName newgroups since
nntpName newnews
nntpName newnews since
nntpName newnews group ?
since?
nntpName next
nntpName post article
nntpName slave
nntpName stat ?
msgid?
nntpName quit
nntpName xgtitle ?
group_pattern?
nntpName xhdr field ?
range?
nntpName xover ?
range?
nntpName xpat field range ?
pattern_list?
DESCRIPTION¶
The package
nntp provides a simple Tcl-only client library for the NNTP
protocol. It works by opening the standard NNTP socket on the server, and then
providing a Tcl API to access the NNTP protocol commands. All server errors
are returned as Tcl errors (thrown) which must be caught with the Tcl
catch command.
COMMANDS¶
- ::nntp::nntp ?host? ?port?
?nntpName?
- The command opens a socket connection to the specified NNTP
server and creates a new nntp object with an associated global Tcl command
whose name is nntpName. This command may be used to access the
various NNTP protocol commands for the new connection. The default
port number is "119" and the default host is
"news". These defaults can be overridden with the environment
variables NNTPPORT and NNTPHOST respectively.
Some of the commands supported by this package are not part of the nntp rfc
977 ( http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc977.txt) and will not be
available (or implemented) on all nntp servers.
The access command nntpName has the following general form:
- nntpName method ?arg arg ...?
- Option and the args determine the exact
behavior of the command.
- nntpName article ?msgid?
- Query the server for article msgid from the current
group. The article is returned as a valid tcl list which contains the
headers, followed by a blank line, and then followed by the body of the
article. Each element in the list is one line of the article.
- nntpName authinfo ?user?
?pass?
- Send authentication information (username and password) to
the server.
- nntpName body ?msgid?
- Query the server for the body of the article msgid
from the current group. The body of the article is returned as a valid tcl
list. Each element in the list is one line of the body of the
article.
- nntpName configure
- nntpName configure option
- nntpName configure option value
...
- nntpName cget option
- Query and configure options of the nntp connection object.
Currently only one option is supported, -binary. When set articles
are retrieved as binary data instead of text. The only methods affected by
this are article and body.
One application of this option would be the download of articles containing
yEnc encoded images. Although encoded the data is still mostly binary and
retrieving it as text will corrupt the information.
See package yencode for both encoder and decoder of such data.
- nntpName date
- Query the server for the servers current date. The date is
returned in the format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.
- nntpName group ?group?
- Optionally set the current group, and retrieve information
about the currently selected group. Returns the estimated number of
articles in the group followed by the number of the first article in the
group, followed by the last article in the group, followed by the name of
the group.
- nntpName head ?msgid?
- Query the server for the headers of the article
msgid from the current group. The headers of the article are
returned as a valid tcl list. Each element in the list is one line of the
headers of the article.
- nntpName help
- Retrieves a list of the commands that are supported by the
news server that is currently attached to.
- nntpName last
- Sets the current article pointer to point to the previous
message (if there is one) and returns the msgid of that message.
- nntpName list
- Returns a tcl list of valid newsgroups and associated
information. Each newsgroup is returned as an element in the tcl list with
the following format:
- where <group> is the name of the newsgroup,
<last> is the number of the last known article currently in that
newsgroup, <first> is the number of the first article currently in
the newsgroup, and <p> is either 'y' or 'n' indicating whether
posting to this newsgroup is allowed ('y') or prohibited ('n').
The <first> and <last> fields will always be numeric. They may
have leading zeros. If the <last> field evaluates to less than the
<first> field, there are no articles currently on file in the
newsgroup.
- nntpName listgroup ?group?
- Query the server for a list of all the messages (message
numbers) in the group specified by the argument group or by the
current group if the group argument was not passed.
- nntpName mode_reader
- Query the server for its nntp 'MODE READER' response
string.
- nntpName newgroups since
- Query the server for a list of all the new newsgroups
created since the time specified by the argument since. The
argument since can be any time string that is understood by
clock scan. The tcl list of newsgroups is returned in a similar
form to the list of groups returned by the nntpName list command.
Each element of the list has the form:
- where <group> is the name of the newsgroup,
<last> is the number of the last known article currently in that
newsgroup, <first> is the number of the first article currently in
the newsgroup, and <p> is either 'y' or 'n' indicating whether
posting to this newsgroup is allowed ('y') or prohibited ('n').
- nntpName newnews
- Query the server for a list of new articles posted to the
current group in the last day.
- nntpName newnews since
- Query the server for a list of new articles posted to the
current group since the time specified by the argument since. The
argument since can be any time string that is understood by
clock scan.
- nntpName newnews group
?since?
- Query the server for a list of new articles posted to the
group specified by the argument group since the time specified by
the argument since (or in the past day if no since argument
is passed. The argument since can be any time string that is
understood by clock scan.
- nntpName next
- Sets the current article pointer to point to the next
message (if there is one) and returns the msgid of that message.
- nntpName post article
- Posts an article of the form specified in RFC 1036 (
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1036.txt, successor to RFC 850) to
the current news group.
- nntpName slave
- Identifies a connection as being made from a slave nntp
server. This might be used to indicate that the connection is serving
multiple people and should be given priority. Actual use is entirely
implementation dependent and may vary from server to server.
- nntpName stat ?msgid?
- The stat command is similar to the article command except
that no text is returned. When selecting by message number within a group,
the stat command serves to set the current article pointer without sending
text. The returned acknowledgment response will contain the message-id,
which may be of some value. Using the stat command to select by message-id
is valid but of questionable value, since a selection by message-id does
NOT alter the "current article pointer"
- nntpName quit
- Gracefully close the connection after sending a NNTP QUIT
command down the socket.
- nntpName xgtitle ?group_pattern?
- Returns a tcl list where each element is of the form:
- If a group_pattern is specified then only newsgroups
that match the pattern will have their name and description returned.
- nntpName xhdr field
?range?
- Returns the specified header field value for the current
message or for a list of messages from the current group. field is
the title of a field in the header such as from, subject, date, etc. If
range is not specified or is "" then the current message
is queried. The command returns a list of elements where each element has
the form of:
- Where msgid is the number of the message and value is the
value set for the queried field. The range argument can be in any
of the following forms:
- ""
- The current message is queried.
- msgid1-msgid2
- All messages between msgid1 and msgid2
(including msgid1 and msgid2) are queried.
- msgid1 msgid2
- All messages between msgid1 and msgid2
(including msgid1 and msgid2) are queried.
- nntpName xover ?range?
- Returns header information for the current message or for a
range of messages from the current group. The information is returned in a
tcl list where each element is of the form:
msgid subject from date idstring bodysize headersize xref
- If range is not specified or is "" then
the current message is queried. The range argument can be in any of
the following forms:
- ""
- The current message is queried.
- msgid1-msgid2
- All messages between msgid1 and msgid2
(including msgid1 and msgid2) are queried.
- msgid1 msgid2
- All messages between msgid1 and msgid2
(including msgid1 and msgid2) are queried.
- nntpName xpat field range
?pattern_list?
- Returns the specified header field value for a specified
message or for a list of messages from the current group where the
messages match the pattern(s) given in the pattern_list. field is
the title of a field in the header such as from, subject, date, etc. The
information is returned in a tcl list where each element is of the
form:
- Where msgid is the number of the message and value is the
value set for the queried field. The range argument can be in any
of the following forms:
- msgid
- The message specified by msgid is queried.
- msgid1-msgid2
- All messages between msgid1 and msgid2
(including msgid1 and msgid2) are queried.
- msgid1 msgid2
- All messages between msgid1 and msgid2
(including msgid1 and msgid2) are queried.
EXAMPLE¶
A bigger example for posting a single article.
package require nntp
set n [nntp::nntp NNTP_SERVER]
$n post "From: USER@DOMAIN.EXT (USER_FULL)
Path: COMPUTERNAME!USERNAME
Newsgroups: alt.test
Subject: Tcl test post -ignore
Message-ID: <[pid][clock seconds]
@COMPUTERNAME>
Date: [clock format [clock seconds] -format "%a, %d %
b %y %H:%M:%S GMT" -gmt true]
Test message body"
BUGS, IDEAS, FEEDBACK¶
This document, and the package it describes, will undoubtedly contain bugs and
other problems. Please report such in the category
nntp of the
Tcllib SF Trackers [
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=12883].
Please also report any ideas for enhancements you may have for either package
and/or documentation.
KEYWORDS¶
news, nntp, nntpclient, rfc 1036, rfc 977
CATEGORY¶
Networking