Installation

This chapter provides a guide on how to install WendzelNNTPd 2.x.

Linux/*nix/BSD from source

To install WendzelNNTPd from source you can either download the provided archive file of a stable version (e.g., v-2.x.y.tar.gz) and extract it1 or you can clone the current WendzelNNTPd development repository. Afterwards, run ./configure. Please note that configure indicates missing libraries and packages that you may first need to install using the package system of your operating system.

# 1. Unpack the content of the tarball (or: use git clone).
$ tar -xzf v2.2.0.tar.gz

# 2. Switch into the unpacked directory (the name of the
#    directory could be different on your system, e.g.,
#    cdpxe-WendzelNNTPd-17d557d.
$ cd wendzelnntpd

# 3. Run the configure script:
$ ./configure
...

Please Note: If you wish to compile WITHOUT MySQL or WITHOUT SQLite support, then run ./configure --disable-mysql or ./configure --disable-sqlite, respectively.

Please Note: Run configure as well as make in the bash shell (under some BSDs you first need to install bash).*

Please Note: If you wish to compile WITHOUT TLS support, then run ./configure --disable-tls.

Dependencies

WendzelNNTPd depends on some programs and libraries. ./configure will inform you about missing dependencies. Here is a list of packages for some distributions which provide the dependencies. The list may omit some packages which are already installed by default. Dependencies for the experimental PostgreSQL support are in brackets:

  • Debian/Ubuntu: gcc flex bison sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev libmariadb-dev-compat ca-certificates libmariadb-dev libmhash-dev make openssl libssl-dev (libpq-dev)
  • Fedora: gcc flex bison sqlite sqlite-devel mariadb-connector-c-devel ca-certificates mhash-devel make openssl openssl-devel (libpq-devel)
  • openSUSE Leap: gcc flex bison sqlite3 sqlite3-devel libmariadb-devel ca-certificates mhash-devel make openssl libopenssl-devel (postgresql-devel)
  • Arch Linux: gcc flex bison sqlite mariadb-libs ca-certificates mhash make openssl (postgresql-libs)
  • FreeBSD 14: bash sqlite3 bison mhash mariadb114-client (postgresql17-client)
  • OpenBSD: bash bison mhash mariadb-client (postgresql-client)
  • NetBSD 10: bash bison mhash mariadb-client (postgresql17-client)
Compiling WendzelNNTPd

After configure has finished, run make:

$ make
...
Installing WendzelNNTPd

To install WendzelNNTPd on your system, you need superuser access. Run make install to install it to the default location /usr/local/*.

$ sudo make install

Please Note (Upgrades): Run sudo make upgrade instead of sudo make install for an upgrade. Please cf. Section Upgrading.

Please Note (MySQL): If you plan to run MySQL, then no database was set up during make install. Please refer to Section Basic Configuration to learn how to generate the MySQL database.

Generating SSL certificates

TLS is enabled by default in wendzelnntpd.conf as long as WendzelNNTPd has not been compiled without TLS support. make install generates a self-signed certificate for usage on localhost so that TLS can be used out-of-the-box.

If you want to generate an SSL certificate, which is signed by Let's Encrypt, or a new self-signed certificate, you can use the helper script create_certificate:

$ sudo create_certificate \
    --environment letsencrypt \
    --email <YOUR-EMAIL> \
    --domain <YOUR-DOMAIN>

For the parameter --environment, "local" is also a valid value. In that case, the certificate is generated only for usage on localhost and is self-signed. The location of the generated certificates can be adjusted with the parameter --targetdir. You also need to adjust the paths in wendzelnntpd.conf if you use a non-default location (check Section Encrypted connections over TLS).

Automatic startup

There is an init script and a systemd service unit in the directory scripts/startup for automatic startup of wendzelnntpd. More information can be found in Automating Start, Stop, and Restart

Packages for Linux and BSD

WendzelNNTPd is available as a package for some Linux and BSD distributions. You can use them to install WendzelNNTPd instead of installing it from source. Please consult the documentation of your distribution for further information about package installation. Here is a list of known packages:

Docker image for Linux

WendzelNNTPd is available as a Docker image on Docker Hub.

Run WendzelNNTPd in a Docker container
$ docker run --name wendzelnntpd -d -p 119:119 -p 563:563 cdpxe/wendzelnntpd
Specify volumes for the database and configuration files
$ docker run --name my-wendzelnntpd -d -p 119:119 -p 563:563 \
    -v wendzelnntpd_config:/usr/local/etc/wendzelnntpd \
    -v wendzelnntpd_data:/var/spool/news/wendzelnntpd \
    cdpxe/wendzelnntpd
Administration with wendzelnntpadm
$ docker run --rm -v wendzelnntpd_config:/usr/local/etc/wendzelnntpd \
    -v wendzelnntpd_data:/var/spool/news/wendzelnntpd \
     cdpxe/wendzelnntpd wendzelnntpadm

Find further information regarding the administration of WendzelNNTPd in Running.

Create new certificates
$ docker run --rm -v wendzelnntpd_config:/usr/local/etc/wendzelnntpd \
    cdpxe/wendzelnntpd create_certificate

Further information in Generating SSL certificates.

Get the configuration file

Copy the default configuration file from the image to the host:

$ docker run --rm --entrypoint=cat cdpxe/wendzelnntpd \
    /usr/local/etc/wendzelnntpd/wendzelnntpd.conf \
    > /home/youruser/wendzelnntpd.conf

Or copy the current configuration file from your container:

$ docker cp my-wendzelnntpd:/usr/local/etc/wendzelnntpd/wendzelnntpd.conf \
    /home/youruser/wendzelnntpd.conf
Edit the configuration file

Find further information regarding the configuration of WendzelNNTPd in Configuration.

Provide the configuration file to the container

Copy the configuration file back to the container:

$ docker cp /home/youruser/wendzelnntpd.conf \
    my-wendzelnntpd:/usr/local/etc/wendzelnntpd/wendzelnntpd.conf

Or bind mount the configuration file (the file needs to be owned by root in this case):

$ sudo chown 0:0 /home/youruser/wendzelnntpd.conf
$ docker run --name wendzelnntpd -d -p 119:119 -p 563:563 \
    -v wendzelnntpd_config:/usr/local/etc/wendzelnntpd \
    -v wendzelnntpd_data:/var/spool/news/wendzelnntpd \
    -v /home/youruser/wendzelnntpd.conf:\
/usr/local/etc/wendzelnntpd/wendzelnntpd.conf:ro \
     -d cdpxe/wendzelnntpd

Or build a new image with your configuration file:

FROM cdpxe/wendzelnntpd
COPY wendzelnntpd.conf /usr/local/etc/wendzelnntpd/wendzelnntpd.conf
Create the Docker image from source

You can also build the Docker image from source instead of using the pre-built image from Docker Hub. Therefore, you need to get the source code of WendzelNNTPd like explained in Linux/*nix/BSD from source. After that you can build the image with make:

$ make docker-build

Unofficial Note: Mac OS X

A user reported WendzelNNTPd-2.0.0 is installable under Mac OS X 10.5.8. The only necessary change was to add the flag -arch x86_64 to compile the code on a 64 bit system. However, I never tried to compile WendzelNNTPd on a Mac.

Windows

Not supported.

Installed files

This documentation assumes that you have installed WendzelNNTPd with default paths to /usr/local. The installation prefix as well as the path for the subdirectories like sbin or share/man/man8 can be changed when calling ./configure or make install. Please consult ./configure --help for a list of available options. Here is an overview of the installed files as well as files which are created during runtime:

Path Description
/usr/local/etc/wendzelnntpd/wendzelnntpd.conf Cofiguration file
/usr/local/etc/wendzelnntpd/ssl/* SSL certificates for encrypted connections over TLS
/usr/local/sbin/create_certificate Script for generating SSL certificates
/usr/local/sbin/wendzelnntpadm Administration tool
/usr/local/sbin/wendzelnntpd The Usenet server
/usr/local/share/doc/wendzelnntpd/* Various documentation files
/usr/local/share/man/man5/* Man pages for configuration files
/usr/local/share/man/man8/* Man pages for commands
/usr/local/share/wendzelnntpd/mysql_db_struct.sql SQL file to create the database schema of the MySQL database
/usr/local/share/wendzelnntpd/openssl.cnf openssl config for create_certificate
/usr/local/share/wendzelnntpd/usenet.db_struct SQL file to create the database schema of the SQLite database
/var/log/wendzelnntpd Logfile
/var/spool/news/wendzelnntpd/cdp* Message bodies of the postings
/var/spool/news/wendzelnntpd/nextmsgid Next unique message id
/var/spool/news/wendzelnntpd/usenet.db SQLite database

  1. On some *nix-like operating systems you need to first run gzip -d wendzelnntpd-VERSION.tgz and then tar -xf wendzelnntpd-VERSION.tar instead of letting tar do the whole job as in the listing. ↩