LIST DISTRIB.PATS

    The distrib.pats file is maintained by some news transport
    systems to contain default values for the Distribution:
    line in a news article header when posting to particular
    news groups. This information could be used to provide a
    default value for the Distribution: line in the header when
    posting an article. The information returned involves three
    fields separated by colons. The first column is a weight.
    The second is a group name or a pattern that can be used
    to match a group name in the wildmat format. The third is
    the value of the Distribution:  line that should be used
    when the group name matches and the weight value is the
    highest. All this processing is done by the news posting
    client and not by the server itself. The server just provides
    this information to the client for it to use or ignore as
    it chooses. When executed, the information is displayed
    following the 215 response.  When display is completed,
    the server will send a period on a line by itself. If the
    information is not available, the server will return the
    503 error response. This command first appeared in INN.

2.1.5.1 Responses

        215 information follows
        503 program error, function not performed