The File Menu
Create Groups
The Create Groups command is used to create groups in RumorMill by reading an existing text file of group names. Text files created by hand should have one group name per line. Files created by the Save Groups have a more complex format and add information such as group description and moderated groups's EMail submission address.
Save Groups
Save Groups writes a text file containing the current groups in RumorMill's database. The file written also contains group descriptions, EMail submission addresses for moderated groups, etc. so that the group database can be fully restored using the Create Groups command.
Create Users
The Create Users command is used to restore the user database from a file written by the Save Users command.
Save Users
The Save Users command writes a TEXT file can be used with the Create Users command to restore the user database.
Execute Deferred Articles
Some posted articles contain information that news servers use to maintain or convey directives between servers. Such articles contain headers such as Control:, Also-Control:, or Supersedes:. RumorMill is capable of interpreting some of these directives, particularly those that will add or remove groups, supersede older messages, and cancel messages (SPAM or otherwise). Depending upon various preference settings, RumorMill may not take immediate action on the directives when they first arrive. The Execute Deferred Messages command will cause RumorMill to process the directives and, in some cases, present the articles to the user and ask whether the directive should be performed, deferred, or discarded.
Possible actions for deferred control articles
Execute Perform the function described in the article shown. Defer Perform no action at this time, but retain the article. Forget Peform no action on this article and do not consider the article again. Stop Discontinue processing deferred articles.
Expire Database
RumorMill normally performs database expiration at a regularly scheduled time. However, there maybe times when the System Administrator would like to force the expiration process to happen immediately. The Expire Database command is provided for that purpose.
Compact Database
RumorMill databases are only periodically compacted. RumorMill will reuse the disk space, but it will not immediately release the space to be used for other files. The Compact Database command will walk through each selected database reading each active record and copy it to a new file. When the copy process is completed, the old database will be deleted and the new copy renamed to replace the original database. This process does release unused disk making it available for other uses.
However, the Compact Database command requires sufficient disk space to create a second copy of each database selected for compaction (in series, not all at once). If disk space is exhausted, or some other error occurs, the compaction process will be aborted and the database currently being processed will remain as it was before compaction started.
If sufficient disk space is available, RumorMill will periodically (on average, about every fourth day) compact the database when performing its normal expiration process. However, if you're using RumorMill as a private server and never allow expiration to take place, using the Compact Database command will be useful to limit the size of the RumorMill database.
Discard Existing Database
The Discard Existing Database command deletes all current databases. The command will offer the opportunity to save user and group information before the databases are discarded. It is necessary to restart RumorMill after using this command.
Enable/Disable Detailed Logging
This menu item allows the user to temporarily enable or disable detailed logging. Detailed logging writes extra information to the RumorMill Log file that can be very useful when attempting to debug a problem using RumorMill. Using this command only has effect during the current session (that is, until RumorMill is restarted).
Start Pull
Upstream servers can be marked as "Pull," and periodically RumorMill will attempt to contact the server to retrieve articles. The Start Pull command will immediately attempt to connect to "Pull"s servers rather than waiting for the next scheduled interval.
Quit
The Quit command will exit from RumorMill. This command will cause all existing connections to RumorMill to be disconnected.
The Windows Menu
Status Window
The visibility of the status window is controlled by this menu item. A check mark will appear beside this item when the status window is visible.