6.2.1.2 Indirect Functions

These functions are called indirect because they connect to an intermediate host before actually connecting to the NNTP server. All of these functions and related variables are also said to belong to the “via” family of connection: they’re all prefixed with “via” to make things cleaner. The behavior of these functions is also affected by commonly understood variables (see Common Variables).

nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat

Does an ‘rlogin’ on a remote system, and then uses netcat to connect to the real NNTP server from there. This is useful for instance if you need to connect to a firewall machine first.

nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat-specific variables:

nntp-via-rlogin-command

Command used to log in on the intermediate host. The default is ‘rsh’, but ‘ssh’ is a popular alternative.

nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches

List of strings to be used as the switches to nntp-via-rlogin-command. The default is nil. If you use ‘ssh’ for nntp-via-rlogin-command, you may set this to ‘("-C")’ in order to compress all data connections.

nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet

Does essentially the same, but uses telnet instead of ‘netcat’ to connect to the real NNTP server from the intermediate host. telnet is a bit less robust because of things like line-end-conversion, but sometimes netcat is simply not available.

nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet-specific variables:

nntp-telnet-command

Command used to connect to the real NNTP server from the intermediate host. The default is ‘telnet’.

nntp-telnet-switches

List of strings to be used as the switches to the nntp-telnet-command command. The default is ("-8").

nntp-via-rlogin-command

Command used to log in on the intermediate host. The default is ‘rsh’, but ‘ssh’ is a popular alternative.

nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches

List of strings to be used as the switches to nntp-via-rlogin-command. If you use ‘ssh’, you may need to set this to ‘("-t" "-e" "none")’ or ‘("-C" "-t" "-e" "none")’ if the telnet command requires a pseudo-tty allocation on an intermediate host. The default is nil.

Note that you may want to change the value for nntp-end-of-line to ‘\n’ (see Common Variables).

nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet

Does essentially the same, but uses ‘telnet’ instead of ‘rlogin’ to connect to the intermediate host.

nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet-specific variables:

nntp-via-telnet-command

Command used to telnet the intermediate host. The default is ‘telnet’.

nntp-via-telnet-switches

List of strings to be used as the switches to the nntp-via-telnet-command command. The default is ‘("-8")’.

nntp-via-user-password

Password to use when logging in on the intermediate host.

nntp-via-envuser

If non-nil, the intermediate telnet session (client and server both) will support the ENVIRON option and not prompt for login name. This works for Solaris telnet, for instance.

nntp-via-shell-prompt

Regexp matching the shell prompt on the intermediate host. The default is ‘bash\\|\$ *\r?$\\|> *\r?’.

Note that you may want to change the value for nntp-end-of-line to ‘\n’ (see Common Variables).

Here are some additional variables that are understood by all the above functions:

nntp-via-user-name

User name to use when connecting to the intermediate host.

nntp-via-address

Address of the intermediate host to connect to.