PUBLIC-INBOX-OVERVIEW(7)   public-inbox user manual   PUBLIC-INBOX-OVERVIEW(7)

NAME
       public-inbox-overview - an overview of public-inbox

DESCRIPTION
       public-inbox consists of many pieces which may be used independently or
       in conjunction of each other for:

       1.  Mirroring existing public-inboxes.

       2.  Mirroring mailing lists.

       3.  Hosting standalone inboxes.

   Mirroring existing public-inboxes
       Mirroring existing public-inboxes is the easiest way to get started.
       Your mirror will remain dependent on the REMOTE_URL you are mirroring
       and you only need to use two new commands in addition to common git(1)
       commands.

       Instructions are different depending on whether the inbox is
       public-inbox-v1-format(5) or public-inbox-v2-format(5).  See the
       "Archives are clonable:" part of the WWW interface of a given inbox for
       cloning instructions specific to that inbox.  The instructions are
       roughly:

         # for v1 inboxes:
         git clone --mirror URL INBOX_DIR

         # for v2 inboxes (each epoch needs to be cloned):
         git clone --mirror URL/EPOCH INBOX_DIR/git/EPOCH.git

         # The following should create the necessary entry in
         # ~/.public-inbox/config, use "-V2" only for v2 inboxes:
         public-inbox-init [-V2] NAME INBOX_DIR MY_URL LIST_ADDRESS

         # Optional but strongly recommended for hosting HTTP
         # (and required for NNTP)
         # enable overview (requires DBD::SQLite) and, if Search::Xapian is
         # available, search:
         public-inbox-index INBOX_DIR

         # Periodically fetch the repo using git-fetch(1)
         # for v1 inboxes:
         git --git-dir=INBOX_DIR fetch

         # for v2 (in most cases, only the newest epoch needs to be fetched):
         git --git-dir=INBOX_DIR/git/EPOCH.git fetch

         # index new messages after fetching:
         public-inbox-index INBOX_DIR

       See "Serving public-inboxes" below for info on how to expose your
       mirror to other readers.

   Mirroring mailing lists
       Mirroring mailing lists may be done by any reader of a mailing list
       using public-inbox-watch(1).

               # This will create a new v2 inbox:
               public-inbox-init -V2 NAME INBOX_DIR MY_URL LIST_ADDRESS

       Then, see the public-inbox-watch(1) manual for configuring "watch",
       "watchheader", "listid" and the optional "spamcheck" and "watchspam"
       entries.

       You will need to leave public-inbox-watch(1) running to keep the
       mailbox up-to-date as messages are delivered to the mailing list.

       Running public-inbox-index(1) to create search indices is recommended.
       public-inbox-watch(1) will automatically maintain the indices if they
       were created by public-inbox-index(1)

               public-inbox-index INBOX_DIR

       Instead of using public-inbox-watch(1), using public-inbox-mda(1) with
       the "--no-precheck" option and relying on the "listid" directive in
       public-inbox-config(5) is also an option.

   Hosting standalone inboxes
       Using public-inbox-init(1) to initialize the inbox as in the other
       methods is recommended.  See public-inbox-mda(1) for more details; but
       this also requires MTA-specific knowledge.

   Serving public-inboxes
       Since public-inboxes are git repositories, they may be served to remote
       clients via git-daemon(1) as well as specialized HTTP and NNTP daemons
       distributed with public-inbox.

       See public-inbox-httpd(1) and public-inbox-nntpd(1) for more
       information on using these daemons.

       Hosting a public-inbox over HTTP or NNTP will never require write
       access to any files in the inbox directory.

       Users familiar with PSGI and Plack may also use PublicInbox::WWW with
       the preferred server instead of public-inbox-httpd(1)

CONTACT
       Feedback welcome via plain-text mail to <mailto:meta@public-inbox.org>

       The mail archives are hosted at <https://public-inbox.org/meta/> and
       <http://4uok3hntl7oi7b4uf4rtfwefqeexfzil2w6kgk2jn5z2f764irre7byd.onion/meta/>

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright 2016-2021 all contributors <mailto:meta@public-inbox.org>

       License: AGPL-3.0+ <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.txt>

public-inbox.git                  1993-10-02          PUBLIC-INBOX-OVERVIEW(7)