The inn source package provides a script suitable for starting inn at boot time. The script is usually called /usr/lib/news/bin/rc.news. The script reads arguments from another script, usually called /usr/lib/news/innshellvars, which contains definitions of the filenames and filepaths that inn will use to locate components it needs. It is generally considered a good idea to execute inn with the permissions of a non-root user, such as news.
To ensure that inn is started at boot time, you should check that /usr/lib/news/innshellvars is configured correctly and then call the /usr/lib/news/bin/rc.news script from a script executed at boot time.
Additionally, there are administrative tasks that must be performed periodically. These tasks are usually configured to be executed by the cron command. The best way to do this is to add the appropriate commands to your /etc/crontab file, or even better, create a file suitable for the /etc/cron.d directory, if your distribution provides one. An example of such a file might look like:
# Example /etc/cron.d/inn file, as used in the Debian distribution. # SHELL=/bin/sh PATH=/usr/lib/news/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin # Expire old news and overview entries nightly, generate reports. 15 0 * * * news news.daily expireover lowmark delayrm # Every hour, run an rnews -U. This is not only for UUCP sites, but # also to process queued up articles put there by in.nnrpd in case # innd wasn't accepting any articles. 10 * * * * news rnews -U |
These commands will ensure that old news is automatically expired each day, and that any queued articles are processed each hour. Note also that they are executed with the permissions of the news user.