newsstats/doc/INSTALL

NewsStats 0.1  (c) 2010-2013 Thomas Hochstein <thh@inter.net>

NewsStats is a software package used to gather statistical information
from a live Usenet feed and for its subsequent examination.

This script package is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation.

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INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

1) Install the scripts

   * Download the current version of NewsStats from
     <http://th-h.de/download/scripts.php>.

   * Untar it into a directory of your choice:

     # tar -xzf newsstats-nn.tar.gz

     Scripts in this path - at least feedlog.pl - should be executable by the
     news user.

2) Configuration

   * Copy the sample configuration file newsstats.conf.sample to
     newsstats.conf and modify it for your purposes:

     # cp etc/newsstats.conf.sample etc/newsstats.conf
     # vim etc/newsstats.conf

   a) Mandatory configuration options

   * DBDriver = mysql
     Database driver used; currently only mysql is supported.

   * DBHost = localhost
     The host your mysql server is running on.

   * DBUser =
     The username to connect to the database server.

   * DBPw =
     Matching password for your username.

   * DBDatabase = newsstats
     Database name.

   NewsStats will use those credentials to connect to your mysql
   installation.

   * DBTableRaw = raw_de
     Table holding raw statistical data.

   * DBTableGrps = groups_de
     Table holding data on postings per group.

   b) Optional configuration options

   * TLH = de
     Limit examination to that top-level hierarchy.

3) Database (mysql) setup

   * Setup your database server with a username, password and
     database matching the NewsStats configuration (see 2 a).

   * Start the installation script:

     # install/install.pl

     It will setup the necessary database tables and display some
     information on the next steps.

4) Feed (INN) setup

   You have to setup an INN feed to feedlog.pl.

   * Edit your 'newsfeeds' file and insert something like

     ## gather statistics for NewsStats
     newsstats!\
             :!*,de.*\
             :Tc,WmtfbsPNH,Ac:/path/to/feedlog.pl

   * You should only feed that hierarchy (those hierarchies ...) to
     feedlog.pl you'll want to cover with your statistical
     examination. It may be a good idea to setup different feeds (to
     different databases ...) for different hierarchies.

   * Please double check that your path to feedlog.pl is correct and
     feedlog.pl can be executed by the news user

   * Check your 'newsfeeds' syntax:

     # ctlinnd checkfile

   * Reload 'newsfeeds':

     # ctlinnd reload newsfeeds 'Adding newsstats! feed'

   * Watch your 'news.notice' and 'errlog' files:

     # tail -f /var/log/news/news.notice
     ...
     # tail -f /var/log/news/errlog

   Everything should be going smoothly now.

   * If INN is spewing error messages to 'errlog' or reporting
     continous respawns of feedlog.pl to 'news.notice', stop your feed:

     # ctlinnd drop 'newsstats!'

     and investigate. 'errlog' may be helpful here.

   * You can restart the feed with

     # ctlinnd begin 'newsstats!'

     later.

You should be done now.

Just have a look at your raw data (DBTableRaw). It should now start to
fill up.