🐶 go-pugleaf

A modern NNTP server and web gateway for Usenet/NetNews built in Go

go-pugleaf provides a complete newsgroup platform with:

• Full NNTP server implementation (RFC 3977 compliant)
• Modern web interface for browsing (and posting TODO)
• Efficient article fetching and threading
• SQLite-based storage with per-group databases
• Spam flagging and moderation tools

🚀 Quick Start

Read BUGS.md first!

Prerequisites

• Go 1.24.3+ (for building from source)
• Linux/Unix system (Windows support not tested)
• At least 1-256GB RAM, 1-10000GB+ disk space

Installation

Option 1: Download pre-built binaries

Download the latest release for your platform from the releases page.

Option 2: Build from source

# Clone repository
useradd -m -s /bin/bash pugleaf
su pugleaf
cd /home/pugleaf
git clone https://github.com/go-while/go-pugleaf.git
cd go-pugleaf

# Warning: Nightly patches may be unstable or contain bugs
# Only switch to the testing branch if you understand the risks or a dev told you to test a Patch!
# git checkout testing-001
 git checkout main

# Build all binaries (outputs to ./build)
./build_ALL.sh && cp build/* .

# Start web server
./webserver -nntphostname your.domain.com
# needs the "web" folder with templates

# Open browser to http://localhost:11980

Initial Setup

1. Create admin account - Choose one of two methods:

• Web registration: First registered user becomes administrator
• Command line: Use the usermgr tool to create admin users directly

./build_usermgr.sh
mv build/usermgr .
./usermgr -create -username admin -email admin@example.com -display "Administrator" -admin

2. Secure your instance - Login → Statistics → Disable registrations
3. Add newsgroups - Admin → Add groups you want to follow

• Or bulk import newsgroups:

./webserver -import-active preload/active.txt -nntphostname your.domain.com
./webserver -update-descr preload/newsgroups.descriptions -nntphostname your.domain.com
./rslight-importer -data data -etc etc -spool spool -nntphostname your.domain.com

• rslight section import: see etc/menu.conf and creating sections aka folders in etc/ containing a groups.txt (e.g., etc/section/groups.txt)
• spool folder can be empty if you don't want to import rocksolid backups.

4. Configure provider - Admin → Providers (defaults works)

5. Limit Connections

• Please limit to max 50 connections at 81-171-22-215.pugleaf.net
• this is a free service and we want to keep it running for everyone.
• blueworldhosting and eternal-september have hardcoded limit of 3 conns!
• There is NO NEED to download all usenet from archives again!
• Unfiltered databases will be shared via torrent soon!

6. Fetch articles - Use pugleaf-fetcher to download articles from subscribed groups
7. Runtime Mode - Set connections to max 10 when your back filling is finished.

Fetching Articles

# estimate size
./nntp-analyze -group news.admin.peering -start-date 2023-01-01 -end-date 2024-12-31
./nntp-analyze -group alt.* -start-date 1990-01-01
# beware: nntp-analyze writes all overview to calculate size into data/cache !


# Initial fetch from a specific date
# This will fetch N articles (max-batch) per group and quit
# When first run is done: remove the flag '-download-start-date ...' and run again and again.
./pugleaf-fetcher -nntphostname your.domain.com \
  -download-start-date 2024-12-31 \
  -group news.admin.*

# Continuous fetching (run after initial fetch)
./pugleaf-fetcher -nntphostname your.domain.com \
  -group news.admin.*

# Fetch all subscribed groups in a loop
while true; do
  ./pugleaf-fetcher -nntphostname your.domain.com
  sleep 5m
done

# Fetch specific subscribed groups in a loop
while true; do
  ./pugleaf-fetcher -nntphostname your.domain.com \
    -group news.admin.*
  sleep 5m
done

# You can run multiple fetchers concurrently, each with another group.*
# but provider conns are not tracked via database, only inside the running fetcher.
# You need to make sure you don't exceed the max connections from your provider.
# If you set providers max conn to 10 and run 4 fetchers you'll use up to 40 conns.
# The fetcher scales connections automatically based on the number of articles to fetch.
# Every fetcher will use all available connections if there are as many articles to fetch.

⚠️ Important: Stop the fetcher before adding new groups, or it will download all from scratch.

👥 User Management

go-pugleaf provides both web-based and command-line user management tools.

Web Interface

• User registration and login via the web interface
• Admin panel for user management (accessible to administrators)
• First registered user automatically becomes administrator

Command Line Tool (usermgr)

The usermgr tool provides complete command-line user management:

# Build the usermgr tool
go build -o build/usermgr ./cmd/usermgr
mv build/usermgr .

# Create a new user
./usermgr -create -username john -email john@example.com -display "John Doe"

# Create a new admin user
./usermgr -create -username admin -email admin@example.com -display "Administrator" -admin

# List all users (shows admin status)
./usermgr -list

# Delete a user
./usermgr -delete -username john

# Update a user's password
./usermgr -update -username john

The usermgr tool is particularly useful for:

• Creating the initial administrator account before first web access
• Batch user management and automation
• Managing users when web interface is unavailable

📖 For complete documentation of all 19 available binaries and their flags, see Binary Documentation below.

Building individual tools

Each command in cmd/* has a matching build script in the repo root that produces a binary in ./build:

• Core: build_webserver.sh, build_nntp-server.sh
• NNTP: build_fetcher.sh, build_analyze.sh, build_test-nntp.sh
• Users: build_usermgr.sh, build_nntpmgr.sh
• Import: build_rslight_importer.sh, build_import_flat-files.sh, build_merge-active.sh, build_merge-descriptions.sh
• Database: build_expire-news.sh, build_recover-db.sh, build_fix-references.sh, build_fix-thread-activity.sh, build_history-rebuild.sh

Or build a single tool manually, e.g.:

go build -o build/usermgr ./cmd/usermgr

Building and Release

Build all binaries:

# Build all binaries (automatically generates checksums)
./build_ALL.sh

Generate checksums manually:

# Generate SHA256 checksums for all executables in build/
./createChecksums.sh

Build and create release package:

# Build all binaries and create release package with checksums
./build_ALL.sh update

This creates:

• checksums.sha256 - SHA256 hashes for all individual executables (with build/ paths)
• checksums.sha256.archive - SHA256 hashes with relative paths for archive inclusion
• update.tar.gz - Compressed archive of all binaries including checksums.sha256
• .update - SHA256 hash of the tar.gz file

Verify checksums:

# Verify all executable checksums (from repository root)
sha256sum -c checksums.sha256

# Verify checksums after extracting release archive
tar -xzf update.tar.gz
cd extracted-directory/
sha256sum -c checksums.sha256  # Verify all executables in release

📚 Binary Documentation

go-pugleaf includes command-line applications for various newsgroup management tasks.

• Below is comprehensive documentation for all available binaries and their flags.

Core Applications

webserver (cmd/web)

Main web interface

./webserver -nntphostname your.domain.com

Required Flags:

• -nntphostname string - Your hostname must be set

SSL/TLS Configuration:

• -webssl - Enable SSL for web interface
• -websslcert string - SSL certificate file (/path/to/fullchain.pem)
• -websslkey string - SSL key file (/path/to/privkey.pem)
• -nntpcertfile string - NNTP TLS certificate file (/path/to/fullchain.pem)
• -nntpkeyfile string - NNTP TLS key file (/path/to/privkey.pem)

Server Configuration:

• -webport int - Web server port (default: 11980 (no ssl) or 19443 (webssl))
• -nntptcpport int - NNTP TCP port
• -nntptlsport int - NNTP TLS port

Cache Configuration:

• -maxsanartcache int - Maximum number of cached sanitized articles (default: 10000)
• -maxsanartcacheexpiry int - Expiry of cached sanitized articles in minutes (default: 30)
• -maxngpagecache int - Maximum number of cached newsgroup pages (default: 4096)
• -maxngpagecacheexpiry int - Expiry of cached newsgroup pages in minutes (default: 5)
• -maxarticlecache int - Maximum number of cached articles (default: 10000)
• -maxarticlecacheexpiry int - Expiry of cached articles in minutes (default: 60)

Data Management:

• -import-active string - Import newsgroups from NNTP active file
• -import-desc string - Import newsgroups from descriptions file
• -import-create - Create missing newsgroups when importing
• -write-active-file string - Write NNTP active file to specified path
• -write-active-only - Use with -write-active-file (false writes only non active groups!) (default: true)
• -update-descr - Update newsgroup descriptions from file
• -repair-watermarks - Repair corrupted newsgroup watermarks
• -update-newsgroup-activity - Update newsgroup activity timestamps
• -update-newsgroups-hide-futureposts - Hide articles posted > 48h in future
• -compare-active string - Compare active file with database and show missing groups (format: groupname highwater lowwater status)
• -compare-active-min-articles int64 - Use with -compare-active: only show groups with more than N articles (calculated as high-low)
• -rsync-inactive-groups string - Path to new data dir, uses rsync to copy all inactive group databases to new data folder
• -rsync-remove-source - Use with -rsync-inactive-groups. If set, removes source files after moving inactive groups (default: false)

Bridge Features: (NOT WORKING!)

• -enable-fediverse - Enable Fediverse bridge
• -fediverse-domain string - Fediverse domain (e.g. example.com)
• -fediverse-baseurl string - Fediverse base URL (e.g. https://example.com)
• -enable-matrix - Enable Matrix bridge
• -matrix-homeserver string - Matrix homeserver URL
• -matrix-accesstoken string - Matrix access token
• -matrix-userid string - Matrix user ID

Advanced Options:

• -useshorthashlen int - Short hash length for history storage (2-7, default: 7) - NOTE: cannot be changed once set!

Disabled Options (commented out in code):

• # -withnntp - Start NNTP server with default ports 1119/1563
• # -withfetch - Enable internal Cronjob to fetch new articles
• # -isleep int - Sleeps in fetch routines (default: 300 seconds = 5min)
• # -ignore-initial-tiny-groups int - Ignore tiny groups with fewer articles (default: 0)

pugleaf-fetcher (cmd/nntp-fetcher)

Article fetcher from NNTP providers

./pugleaf-fetcher -nntphostname your.domain.com -group news.admin.*

Required Flags:

• -nntphostname string - Your hostname must be set!

Fetching Options:

• -group string - Newsgroup to fetch (empty = all groups or wildcard like rocksolid.*)
• -download-start-date string - Start downloading from date (YYYY-MM-DD format)
• -fetch-active-only - Fetch only active newsgroups (default: true)

Performance Configuration:

• -max-batch int - Maximum articles per batch (default: 128, recommended: 100)
• -max-batch-threads int - Concurrent newsgroup batches (default: 16)
• -max-loops int - Loop a group this many times (default: 1)
• -max-queue int - Limit db_batch to have max N articles queued over all newsgroups (default: 16384)
• -download-max-par int - Groups in parallel (default: 1, can consume memory!)
• -useshorthashlen int - Short hash length for history (2-7, default: 7)

Advanced Options:

• -ignore-initial-tiny-groups int64 - Ignore tiny groups with fewer articles during initial fetch (default: 0)
• -update-newsgroups-from-remote string - Fetch remote newsgroup list and add new groups (empty = disabled, use "group.*" or "$all")
• -xover-copy - Copy xover data from remote server (default: false)
• -test-conn - Test connection and exit (default: false)
• -help - Show usage examples and exit

pugleaf-nntp-server (cmd/nntp-server)

Standalone NNTP server

./pugleaf-nntp-server -nntphostname your.domain.com -nntptcpport 1119

Required Flags:

• -nntphostname string - Your hostname must be set!

Server Configuration:

• -nntptcpport int - NNTP TCP port
• -nntptlsport int - NNTP TLS port
• -nntpcertfile string - NNTP TLS certificate file
• -nntpkeyfile string - NNTP TLS key file
• -maxconnections int - Maximum authenticated connections (default: 500)
• -useshorthashlen int - Short hash length for history (2-7, default: 7)

Analysis and Monitoring

nntp-analyze (cmd/nntp-analyze)

Analyze newsgroup content and estimate storage requirements

./nntp-analyze -group alt.test -start-date 2024-01-01 -end-date 2024-12-31

Connection Configuration:

• -host string - NNTP hostname (default: "81-171-22-215.pugleaf.net")
• -port int - NNTP port (default: 563)
• -username string - NNTP username (default: "read")
• -password string - NNTP password (default: "only")
• -ssl - Use SSL/TLS connection (default: true)
• -timeout int - Connection timeout in seconds (default: 30)

Analysis Options:

• -group string - Newsgroup to analyze (required, supports $all or alt.*)
• -groups-file string - Path to active file containing newsgroups
• -start-date string - Start date for analysis (YYYY-MM-DD)
• -end-date string - End date for analysis (YYYY-MM-DD)
• -export string - Export results (json|csv)

Cache Management:

• -force-refresh - Force refresh cached analysis data
• -validate-cache - Validate cache integrity
• -clear-cache - Clear cached data
• -cache-stats - Show cache statistics
• -help - Show usage examples and exit

Database Management

recover-db (cmd/recover-db)

Database consistency checking and repair

./recover-db -db data -group alt.test -repair

Required Flags:

• -db string - Data path to main data directory (default: "data")
• -group string - Newsgroup name (default: "$all" for all groups)

Operation Modes:

• -repair - Attempt to repair detected inconsistencies
• -parsedates - Check date parsing differences
• -rewritedates - Rewrite incorrect dates (requires -parsedates)
• -v - Verbose output (default: true)

fix-references (cmd/fix-references)

Fix broken References headers in articles

./fix-references -db data -group alt.test -dry-run

Required Flags:

• -db string - Data path to main data directory (default: "data")
• -group string - Newsgroup name (default: "$all" for all groups)

Operation Options:

• -dry-run - Show what would be fixed without making changes
• -limit int - Limit number of articles to process (0 = no limit)
• -batch-size int - Articles per batch (default: 10000)
• -rebuild-threads - Rebuild thread relationships after fixing
• -v - Verbose output

fix-thread-activity (cmd/fix-thread-activity)

Fix thread activity timestamps

./fix-thread-activity -group alt.test

Options:

• -group string - Newsgroup name to fix (empty = fix all groups)

history-rebuild (cmd/history-rebuild)

Rebuild article history databases

./history-rebuild -nntphostname your.domain.com

Required Flags:

• -nntphostname string - NNTP hostname for proper article processing

Operation Modes:

• -validate-only - Only validate existing history
• -clear-first - Clear existing history before rebuild
• -analyze-only - Only analyze existing history databases

Configuration:

• -batch-size int - Articles per batch (default: 5000, deprecated)
• -progress int - Show progress every N articles (default: 2500)
• -useshorthashlen int - Short hash length (2-7, default: 7)
• -verbose - Enable verbose logging
• -show-collisions - Show collision details (use with -analyze-only)
• -pprof string - Enable pprof HTTP server (e.g., ':6060')

User and Security Management

nntpmgr (cmd/nntpmgr)

NNTP user management

./nntpmgr -create -username reader1 -password secret123 -maxconns 3

User Operations:

• -create - Create a new NNTP user
• -list - List all NNTP users
• -delete - Delete an NNTP user
• -update - Update an NNTP user

User Configuration:

• -username string - Username for operations (default: "random" for 10-20 chars)
• -password string - Password (default: "random" for 10-20 chars, bcrypt hashed)
• -maxconns int - Maximum concurrent connections (default: 1)
• -posting - Allow posting (default: read-only)

Tools:

• -rescan-db string - Rescan database for newsgroup (default: alt.test)

usermgr (cmd/usermgr)

Web user management

./usermgr -create -username admin -email admin@example.com -admin

User Operations:

• -create - Create a new user
• -list - List all users
• -delete - Delete a user
• -update - Update a user's password

User Configuration:

• -username string - Username for operations
• -email string - Email for user creation
• -display string - Display name for user creation
• -admin - Grant admin permissions to user

Data Import and Export

rslight-importer (cmd/rslight-importer)

Import from legacy RockSolid Light installations

./rslight-importer -data ./data -etc /etc/rslight -spool /old/spool -nntphostname your.domain.com

Required Flags:

• -nntphostname string - Your hostname must be set

Path Configuration:

• -data string - Directory for NEW database files (default: "./data")
• -etc string - Path to legacy RockSolid Light configs
• -spool string - Path to legacy spool directory with *.db3 files

Operation Options:

• -threads int - Parallel import threads (default: 1)
• -useshorthashlen int - Short hash length (2-7, default: 7)
• -YESresetallgroupsYES - DANGER: Reset ALL newsgroups and articles

import-flat-files (cmd/import-flat-files)

Import articles from flat file format

./import-flat-files -head /mnt/xfshead -body /mnt/xfsbody -db ./imported_articles

Path Configuration:

• -head string - Path to head files directory (default: "/mnt/xfshead")
• -body string - Path to body files directory (default: "/mnt/xfsbody")
• -db string - Path for SQLite database files (default: "./imported_articles")

Operation Options:

• -resume - Resume from where we left off
• -dry-run - Don't write to database, just scan files
• -verbose - Verbose logging
• -update - Update mode: only import missing articles

merge-active (cmd/merge-active)

Merge NNTP active files

./merge-active -filter input.active
./merge-active -overview

Operation Modes:

• -filter - Filter malformed group names and write to active.file.new
• -overview - Process overview files for groups with <100 messages

merge-descriptions (cmd/merge-descriptions)

Merge newsgroup description files

./merge-descriptions

Maintenance and Cleanup

expire-news (cmd/expire-news)

Article expiration and cleanup

./expire-news -nntphostname your.domain.com -group alt.test -days 30 -force

Required Flags:

• -nntphostname string - Your hostname (required)

Target Selection:

• -group string - Newsgroup ('$all', specific group, or wildcard like news.*)

Expiration Options:

• -days int - Delete articles older than N days (0 = use per-group settings)
• -respect-expiry - Use per-group expiry_days settings from database
• -prune - Remove oldest articles to respect max_articles limit per group

Operation Control:

• -dry-run - Show what would be deleted without deleting
• -force - Actually perform deletions (required for non-dry-run)
• -batch-size int - Articles per batch (default: 1000)
• -help - Show usage examples and exit

Testing and Development

test-MsgIdItemCache (cmd/test-MsgIdItemCache)

Test message ID cache performance

./test-MsgIdItemCache -items 100000 -workers 4 -concurrent

Test Configuration:

• -items int - Number of message IDs to test (default: 100000)
• -workers int - Number of concurrent workers (default: 1)
• -concurrent - Run concurrent stress test

Additional Tools

Several other binaries are available but don't have extracted flags (likely no command-line options):

• benchmark_hash - Hash function benchmarking
• extract_hierarchies - Extract newsgroup hierarchies
• history-demo - History system demonstration
• parsedates - Date parsing utilities
• test-nntp - NNTP protocol testing

Common Flag Patterns

Hostname Configuration: Most network-related tools require -nntphostname your.domain.com to identify your server.

Database Paths: Database tools typically use -db data to specify the data directory.

Batch Processing: Many tools support -batch-size for processing large datasets efficiently.

Dry Run Mode: Tools that modify data support -dry-run to preview changes without applying them.

Verbose Output: Most tools support -v or -verbose for detailed logging.

History Configuration: Tools that work with article history use -useshorthashlen (2-7, default: 7) - this cannot be changed once set!

🤝 Contributing

This project is in active development. We welcome contributions! Areas of focus:

• RFC compliance improvements
• Web UI enhancements
• Performance optimization
• Documentation
• Testing

📄 License

GPL v2 - see LICENSE

🙏 Acknowledgements

This project is inspired by the work of Thomas "Retro Guy" Miller and the original RockSolid Light project.

-- the pugleaf.net development team -