=head1 NAME

motd.news - Message of the day information for feeders or readers

=head1 DESCRIPTION

Two files, found in I<pathetc>, contain local information for news feeders or
news readers in a free-form format.  The entire files are returned verbatim
to any client that issues the LIST MOTD command.  This might be used for
new information, notification of upcoming downtime, or similar purposes.

These files are named F<motd.innd> (for news feeders) and F<motd.nnrpd>
(for news readers); they are used by B<innd> and B<nnrpd>, respectively.

Make sure that these files are encoded in UTF-8.  They should also be
"dot-stuffed", that is to say that a line beginning with a dot should have
that dot doubled.

Be aware that use of the LIST MOTD command is not widespread (though
documented in S<RFC 6048>) and most news clients will never ask for
this file.

If one or both of these files are missing, it is not an error.  The server
will just send the client the appropriate response for an unmaintained
F<motd.innd> or F<motd.nnrpd> file.

On a fresh INN install, samples for these files are installed
in I<pathec>; you will therefore find in F<motd.innd.sample> and
F<motd.nnrpd.sample> a few examples of messages that can be communicated
to news clients.

=head1 HISTORY

Rewritten in POD by Russ Allbery <eagle@eyrie.org> for InterNetNews.

=head1 SEE ALSO

inn.conf(5).

=cut
