3 public-inbox-overview - an overview of public-inbox
7 public-inbox consists of many pieces which may be used
8 independently or in conjunction of each other for:
14 Mirroring existing public-inboxes.
18 Mirroring mailing lists.
22 Hosting standalone inboxes.
26 =head2 Mirroring existing public-inboxes
28 Mirroring existing public-inboxes is the easiest way to get
29 started. Your mirror will remain dependent on the REMOTE_URL
30 you are mirroring and you only need to use two new commands in
31 addition to common L<git(1)> commands.
33 Instructions are different depending on whether the inbox
34 is L<public-inbox-v1-format(5)> or L<public-inbox-v2-format(5)>.
35 See the "Archives are clonable:" part of the WWW interface
36 of a given inbox for cloning instructions specific to
37 that inbox. The instructions are roughly:
40 git clone --mirror URL INBOX_DIR
42 # for v2 inboxes (each epoch needs to be cloned):
43 git clone --mirror URL/EPOCH INBOX_DIR/git/EPOCH.git
45 # The following should create the necessary entry in
46 # ~/.public-inbox/config, use "-V2" only for v2 inboxes:
47 public-inbox-init [-V2] NAME INBOX_DIR MY_URL LIST_ADDRESS
49 # Optional but strongly recommended for hosting HTTP
50 # (and required for NNTP)
51 # enable overview (requires DBD::SQLite) and, if Search::Xapian is
53 public-inbox-index INBOX_DIR
55 # Periodically fetch the repo using git-fetch(1)
57 git --git-dir=INBOX_DIR fetch
59 # for v2 (in most cases, only the newest epoch needs to be fetched):
60 git --git-dir=INBOX_DIR/git/EPOCH.git fetch
62 # index new messages after fetching:
63 public-inbox-index INBOX_DIR
65 See L</"Serving public-inboxes"> below for info on how to expose
66 your mirror to other readers.
68 =head2 Mirroring mailing lists
70 Mirroring mailing lists may be done by any reader
71 of a mailing list using L<public-inbox-watch(1)>.
73 # This will create a new v2 inbox:
74 public-inbox-init -V2 NAME INBOX_DIR MY_URL LIST_ADDRESS
76 Then, see the L<public-inbox-watch(1)> manual for configuring
77 C<watch>, C<watchheader>, C<listid> and the optional C<spamcheck>
78 and C<watchspam> entries.
80 You will need to leave L<public-inbox-watch(1)> running to
81 keep the mailbox up-to-date as messages are delivered to
84 Running L<public-inbox-index(1)> to create search indices
85 is recommended. L<public-inbox-watch(1)> will automatically
86 maintain the indices if they were created by
87 L<public-inbox-index(1)>
89 public-inbox-index INBOX_DIR
91 Instead of using L<public-inbox-watch(1)>, using
92 L<public-inbox-mda(1)> with the C<--no-precheck> option and
93 relying on the C<listid> directive in L<public-inbox-config(5)>
96 =head2 Hosting standalone inboxes
98 Using L<public-inbox-init(1)> to initialize the inbox as in the
99 other methods is recommended. See L<public-inbox-mda(1)> for
100 more details; but this also requires MTA-specific knowledge.
102 =head2 Serving public-inboxes
104 Since public-inboxes are git repositories, they may be served to
105 remote clients via L<git-daemon(1)> as well as specialized HTTP
106 and NNTP daemons distributed with public-inbox.
108 See L<public-inbox-httpd(1)> and L<public-inbox-nntpd(1)>
109 for more information on using these daemons.
111 Hosting a public-inbox over HTTP or NNTP will never require
112 write access to any files in the inbox directory.
114 Users familiar with PSGI and L<Plack> may also use
115 L<PublicInbox::WWW> with the preferred server instead of
116 L<public-inbox-httpd(1)>
120 Feedback welcome via plain-text mail to L<mailto:meta@public-inbox.org>
122 The mail archives are hosted at L<https://public-inbox.org/meta/> and
123 L<http://4uok3hntl7oi7b4uf4rtfwefqeexfzil2w6kgk2jn5z2f764irre7byd.onion/meta/>
127 Copyright 2016-2021 all contributors L<mailto:meta@public-inbox.org>
129 License: AGPL-3.0+ L<https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.txt>