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1.1 root 1: .\" @(#)howto.mn 6.1 (Berkeley) 5/26/86
2: .\"
3: .\" Modified 9/29/85 by Matt Bishop ([email protected])
4: .\" to work with the TROFF news document macros.
5: .ds h0 "How to Read the Network News
6: .ds h1
7: .ds h2 USD:9-%
8: .ds f0 "\*(vr
9: .ds f1
10: .ds f2 "February 26, 1986
11: .de Qp \" quoted command as hanging char
12: .lp "\\f3\\$1\\f1" \\$2
13: ..
14: .de Qc \" quoted command as hanging string
15: .lp "\\f3<\\s-2\\$1\\s0>\\f1" \\$2
16: ..
17: .de Op \" option as hanging string
18: .lp "\\f3\\$1\\f1" \\$2
19: ..
20: .mt
21: How to Read the Network News
22: .au
23: Mark R. Horton
24: .ai
25: AT&T Bell Laboratories
26: Columbus, OH 43213
27: .au
28: Revised by Rick Adams for 2.10.3
29: .bt
30: .hu
31: What is the Network News?
32: .pg
33: USENET (Users' Network)
34: is a bulletin board shared among many
35: computer systems around the world.
36: USENET is a logical network,
37: sitting on top of several physical networks,
38: among them
39: .i UUCP ,
40: .i BLICN ,
41: .i BERKNET ,
42: .i X.25 ,
43: and the
44: .i ARPANET .
45: Sites on USENET include many universities,
46: private companies and research organizations.
47: Most of the members of USENET are either
48: university computer science departments
49: or part of AT&T.
50: Currently, there are over 2000 USENET sites in the USA, Canada, Europe, Japan
51: and Korea with more joining every day. Most are running the
52: .ux
53: operating system.
54: .pg
55: The network news,
56: or simply
57: .i netnews ,
58: is the set of programs that provide access to the news
59: and transfer it from one machine to the next.
60: Netnews was originally written at Duke University
61: and has been modified extensively by the University
62: of California at Berkeley and others.
63: Netnews allows articles to be posted for limited or very wide distribution.
64: This document contains a list of newsgroups
65: that were active at the time the document was written.
66: It exists
67: to assist you in determining which newsgroups you may
68: want to subscribe to.
69: When creating a new article,
70: the level of distribution can be controlled
71: by use of the
72: .cf Distribution
73: field.
74: This will prevent notices of apartments for rent in New Jersey
75: being broadcast to California
76: (or even Europe).
77: .pg
78: Any user can post an article,
79: which will be sent out to the network
80: to be read by persons interested in that topic.
81: You can specify which topics are of interest to you by putting them in a
82: .i "subscription list" .
83: Then,
84: whenever you ask to read news,
85: the news reading program will present all unread articles of interest.
86: There are also facilities for browsing through old news,
87: posting follow-up articles,
88: and sending direct electronic mail replies to the author of an article.
89: .pg
90: This paper is a tutorial,
91: aimed at the user who wants to read and possibly post news.
92: The system administrator who must install the software
93: should see the companion document
94: .i "USENET Version B Installation" .
95: .hu
96: Why USENET?
97: .pg
98: USENET is useful in a number of ways.
99: Someone wishing to announce a new program or product can reach a wide audience.
100: A user can ask \*(lqDoes anyone have an
101: .i x ?\*(rq
102: and will usually get several responses within a day or two.
103: Bug reports and their fixes can be made quickly available
104: without the usual overhead of sending out mass mailings.
105: Discussions involving many people at different locations
106: can take place without having to get everyone together.
107: .pg
108: Another facility with similar capabilities to
109: .i netnews
110: is the
111: .i "electronic mailing list" .
112: A mailing list is a collection of electronic mailing addresses of users
113: who are interested in a particular topic.
114: By sending electronic mail to the list,
115: all users on the list receive a copy of the article.
116: While the mailing list facility is quite useful,
117: USENET offers a number of advantages not present in mailing lists.
118: Getting yourself on a mailing list is not always easy.
119: You have to figure out who maintains the list and ask them to put you on it.
120: Often these people are out of town or busy,
121: and don't put you on the list for several days.
122: Sometimes you have to send mail to the entire mailing list,
123: hoping that one of the readers will tell you who maintains the list.
124: Once you are on the list,
125: you often find yourself in the middle of a discussion.
126: Netnews keeps old articles around until they expire (usually about two weeks)
127: so you can browse through old news to catch up on what you missed.
128: Similarly,
129: referring to an old article is easy,
130: without having to keep a personal file of all old mail to the list.
131: .pg
132: Another advantage is appreciated by the other users of the system.
133: There is less overhead in having only one copy of each message
134: sent to each machine,
135: rather than having separate copies sent
136: to each of several users on the same machine.
137: This cuts down on computer time to process the messages,
138: and on-line costs for telephone calls to transfer messages
139: from one machine to another (when phone lines are used).
140: Another advantage is in the disk space consumed.
141: When only one message is sent to each system,
142: only one copy of the message is kept on disk.
143: In a mailing list environment,
144: each user has a copy in a mailbox.
145: .hu
146: How do I Read News?
147: .pg
148: In the USENET jargon,
149: interest topics are called
150: .i newsgroups .
151: A newsgroup list appears in a later section,
152: current as this paper was written.
153: You have your own
154: .i "subscription list"
155: of newsgroups to which you are said to
156: .i subscribe .
157: .pg
158: The simplest way to read news is to type the command:
159: .sd c
160: readnews
161: .ed
162: Other possibilities include: a full-screen-oriented news reading program,
163: .i vnews (1),
164: (described in the Appendix) and the
165: .i notesfile
166: system, which can also be used for news (described in a separate paper.)
167: Each newsgroup to which you subscribe will be presented,
168: one article at a time.
169: As each article is presented,
170: you will be shown the
171: .i header
172: (containing the name of the author,
173: the subject,
174: and the length of the article)
175: and you will be asked if you want more.
176: There are a number of possible choices you can make at this point.
177: The three most common
178: .qp y , (
179: .qp n ,
180: and
181: .qp q )
182: are suggested by the program.
183: (To see a complete list of possible responses,
184: type
185: .qp ?
186: for help.)
187: You can type
188: .qp y
189: for \*(lqyes\*(rq
190: (or simply hit
191: .qc RETURN )
192: and the rest of the message will be displayed.
193: (If the message is long,
194: it may stop before it runs off the top of the screen.
195: Type
196: .qc SPACE
197: or
198: .qc RETURN
199: to see more of the message.
200: Another choice you can make is
201: .qp n
202: for \*(lqno\*(rq.
203: This means you are not interested in the message \-
204: it will not be offered to you again.
205: A third option is
206: .qp q
207: for \*(lqquit\*(rq.
208: This causes a record to be made of which articles you read
209: (or refused)
210: and you will exit netnews.
211: When you have read all the news,
212: this happens automatically.
213: The
214: .qp q
215: command is mainly useful if you are in a hurry
216: and don't have time to read all the news right now.
217: (Many users put a
218: .i readnews (1)
219: or
220: .i checknews (1)
221: command in their
222: .i .profile
223: or
224: .i .login
225: files so that they will see new news each time they log in.)
226: .pg
227: If you are reading news for the first time,
228: you may find yourself swamped by the volume of unread news,
229: especially if the default subscription is
230: .ng all .
231: Don't let this bother you.
232: If you are getting newsgroups in which you have no interest,
233: you can change your subscription list
234: (see below).
235: Also,
236: bear in mind that what you see
237: is probably at least two weeks' accumulation of news.
238: If you want to just get rid of all old news and start anew,
239: type
240: .sd c
241: readnews \-p \-n all > /dev/null &
242: .ed
243: which will throw away all old news,
244: recording that you have seen it all.
245: (The
246: .qp &
247: puts it in the background;
248: chances are that there is so much old news on your machine
249: that you won't want to wait for it all.)
250: Or,
251: you can use the
252: .qp K
253: command to mark all articles in the current newsgroup as read.
254: .pg
255: Once you catch up with (or ignore) all the old news,
256: the news will come in daily at a more manageable rate.
257: (If the daily rate is still too much
258: you may wish to unsubscribe to some of the higher volume, less useful newsgroups.)
259: Finally,
260: note that while an article is printing,
261: you can hit
262: your interrupt character
263: (usually
264: .qc CONTROL-C
265: or
266: .qc DELETE ),
267: which will throw away the rest of the article.
268: .pg
269: Among the other commands you can type after seeing the header
270: of an article are:
271: .Qp x 13
272: Exit
273: .i readnews .
274: This is different from
275: .qp q
276: in that the
277: .qp q
278: command
279: will update the record of which articles you have read,
280: but
281: .qp x
282: will pretend you never started
283: .i readnews .
284: .Qp N 13
285: Go on to the next newsgroup.
286: The remaining articles in the current newsgroup are considered
287: .i unread ,
288: and will be offered to you again the next time you read news.
289: .Qp "s \f2file\fP" 13
290: The article is saved in a disk file with the given name.
291: In practice,
292: what usually happens is that an article is printed,
293: and then
294: .i readnews
295: goes on to print the header of the next article
296: before you get a chance to type anything.
297: So you usually want to write out the
298: .i previous
299: message
300: (the last one you have read in full);
301: in this case,
302: use the form
303: .qp s\-
304: .i filename .
305: .Qp e 13
306: Erase the memory of having seen this article.
307: It will be offered to you again next time,
308: as though you had never seen it.
309: The
310: .qp e\-
311: case variation (erase memory of the previously read article instead of
312: the current article)
313: is useful for checking follow-ups to see
314: if anyone has already said what you wanted to say.
315: .Qp r 13
316: Reply to the author of the message.
317: You will be placed in the editor,
318: with a set of headers derived from the message you are replying to.
319: Type in your message after the blank line.
320: If you wish to edit the header list
321: to add more recipients or send carbon copies,
322: for instance,
323: you can edit the header lines.
324: Anyone listed on a line beginning with
325: .hf To
326: or
327: .hf Cc
328: will receive a copy of your reply.
329: Note that the path used to receive a piece of news may not be the fastest
330: way to reply by mail. If speed is important and you know a faster way,
331: edit it in place of what the reply command supplied.
332: A mail command will then be started up,
333: addressed to the persons listed in the header.
334: You are then returned to
335: .i readnews .
336: The case
337: .qp r\-
338: is also useful to reply to the previous message.
339: Another variation on this is
340: .qp rd\-
341: which puts you in
342: .b $MAILER
343: (or
344: .i mail (1)
345: by default)
346: to type in your reply directly.
347: .Qp f 13
348: Post a follow-up message to the same newsgroup.
349: This posts an article on this newsgroup
350: with the same title as the original article.
351: Use common sense when posting follow-ups. (Read Matt Bishop's paper
352: \*(lqHow to use USENET Effectively\*(rq for extended discussion of when
353: and when not to post -- many follow-up articles should have just been replies.)
354: You will be placed in the editor. Enter your message and exit.
355: The case
356: .qp f\-
357: is also useful to follow up the previous message.
358: In each case,
359: the editor you are placed in will be
360: .i vi (1)
361: unless you set
362: .b EDITOR
363: (in your environment) to some other editor.
364: You should enter the text of the follow-up after the blank line.
365: .Qp + 13
366: The article is skipped for now.
367: The next time you read news,
368: you will be offered this article again.
369: .Qp \- 13
370: Go back to the previous article.
371: This toggles,
372: so that two
373: .qp \- 's
374: get you the current article.
375: .Qp b 13
376: Back up one article in the current group.
377: This is not necessarily the previous article.
378: .Qp U 13
379: Unsubscribe from this newsgroup.
380: Your
381: .i \&.newsrc (5)
382: file will be edited to change the
383: .qp :
384: for that newsgroup to an
385: .qp !
386: preventing you from being shown that newsgroup again.
387: .Qp ? 13
388: If you type any unrecognized command,
389: a summary of valid commands will be printed.
390: .hu
391: Changing your Subscription List
392: .pg
393: If you take no special action you will subscribe to a default subscription list.
394: This default varies locally.
395: To find out your local default,
396: type
397: .sd c
398: readnews \-s
399: .ed
400: Typically this list will include all newsgroups ending in \*(lqgeneral\*(rq,
401: such as
402: .ng general ,
403: and
404: .ng net.general .
405: (As distributed,
406: the default is
407: .ng general\f1,\fPall.general .
408: Another popular default is
409: .ng all .)
410: You can change this by creating a file in your home directory named
411: .i .newsrc
412: which contains as its first line a line of the form:
413: .sd c
414: options \-n newsgroup,newsgroup,newsgroup ...
415: .ed
416: If your lines get too long,
417: you can continue them on subsequent lines
418: by beginning those lines with a space.
419: (The netnews system will put extra lines in this file
420: to record which articles you have read.
421: You should ignore these lines unless you want to edit them.)
422: For example,
423: if you are creating a subscription list for the first time,
424: and have already read news,
425: you will find some text already in your
426: .i .newsrc
427: file,
428: recording which articles you have read.
429: You should put your
430: .b options
431: line before the first line of the file.)
432: Thus,
433: .sd c
434: options \-n general,net.general,mod.human-nets
435: .ed
436: will subscribe to those three newsgroups.
437: .pg
438: An
439: .qp !
440: can be used to exclude certain newsgroups and the word
441: .ng all
442: can be used as a wild card,
443: representing any newsgroup.
444: You can also use
445: .ng all
446: as a prefix or suffix to match a class of newsgroups.
447: For example,
448: .sd c
449: options \-n all,!mod.all,!net.jokes,!all.unix-all
450: .ed
451: will result in a subscription to all newsgroups except for ARPANET news,
452: jokes,
453: and any
454: .ux
455: information.
456: The metacharacter
457: .qp .
458: is like
459: .qp /
460: to the shell,
461: and
462: .ng all
463: is like
464: .qp * .
465: .pg
466: A simpler way to subscribe to news is to subscribe to
467: .ng all ,
468: and then use the
469: .qp U
470: .i readnews
471: command to unsubscribe to newsgroups you don't want to read.
472: This way you will see new newsgroups that are created,
473: get a chance to evaluate them,
474: and then unsubscribe to those that don't interest you.
475: .pg
476: The order of the newsgroups in your
477: .i .newsrc
478: (after the options line)
479: is the order in which newsgroups will be shown.
480: If you want something other than the default,
481: move the lines around until you are satisfied with the order.
482: Be careful to keep the options line as the first line in the file.
483: .hu
484: Submitting Articles
485: .pg
486: To submit a new news article type
487: .sd c
488: postnews
489: .ed
490: First,
491: it will ask you if this is a follow-up to an article.
492: Answer
493: .b yes
494: or
495: .b no .
496: If
497: .b yes ,
498: you really should have done an
499: .qp f
500: from
501: .i readnews ,
502: but it will try and figure out which article you are following up to.
503: It will ask for the newsgroup in which you read the article
504: and the article number.
505: If you can't remember,
506: go back to
507: .i readnews
508: and find out.
509: It is important that discussions are kept together.
510: It is very frustrating for someone to read a follow-up that says:
511: \&\*(lqI agree.
512: It's very dangerous to leave that program as distributed.\*(rq
513: and not have any idea what the poster was referring to.
514: .pg
515: If you answer
516: .b no ,
517: .i postnews (1)
518: will ask you for the subject of the new article.
519: This should be as informative as possible.
520: For example,
521: .cf "'67 Porsche for sale in New Jersey"
522: is much better than
523: .cf "Car for sale"
524: or even
525: .cf "For sale" .
526: It will then ask which newsgroups you want the article posted in.
527: If you are unsure,
528: type
529: .qp ?
530: instead of a specific newsgroup
531: and it will show you the list of currently available groups.
532: Then,
533: you will be asked how far your article should be distributed.
534: It is important to keep this as small as possible
535: to accomplish the purpose of your article.
536: Remember that many newsgroups are read in Europe,
537: Australia,
538: and Asia in addition to the United States and Canada.
539: It does no good
540: (to use the previous example)
541: to post a
542: .cf "Car for sale in New Jersey"
543: article with a distribution of
544: .ng world .
545: There is almost no chance that a person in Sweden or Korea
546: would be interested in buying your car (even if it is a Porsche).
547: It is a waste of money and computer resources
548: to transmit the article that far.
549: For this specific case,
550: the appropriate distribution would be
551: .ng nj
552: or only in New Jersey.
553: If there were no local distribution available,
554: at least it should be confined to
555: .ng usa .
556: If you are unsure of the distributions available at your site,
557: type
558: .qp ?
559: instead of a distribution
560: and you will receive a list of distributions valid for your site.
561: If the distribution is
562: .ng world ,
563: your article will be read (perhaps with disgust)
564: by thousands of people around the world.
565: .pg
566: Then you will be placed in the editor.
567: Enter the text of your article,
568: after the blank line,
569: and exit the editor.
570: The article will be posted to the newsgroups specified.
571: If you change your mind about the headers while you are still in the editor,
572: you can edit them as well.
573: Extra headers can also be added before the blank line.
574: .hu
575: Browsing through Old News
576: .pg
577: There are a number of command line options to the
578: .i readnews
579: command to help you find an old article you want to see again.
580: The
581: .op \-n
582: .i newsgroups
583: option restricts your search to certain newsgroups.
584: The
585: .op \-x
586: option arranges to ignore the record of articles read,
587: which is kept in your
588: .i \&.newsrc
589: file.
590: This will cause all articles in all newsgroups to which you
591: subscribe to be displayed,
592: even those which you have already seen.
593: It also causes
594: .i readnews
595: to not update the
596: .i \&.newsrc
597: file.
598: The
599: .op \-a
600: .i date
601: option asks for news received after the given
602: .i date .
603: Note that even with the
604: .op \-a
605: option, only articles you have not already seen will be printed,
606: unless you combine it with the
607: .op \-x
608: option.
609: (Articles are kept on file until they expire,
610: typically after two weeks.)
611: The
612: .op \-t
613: .i keywords
614: option restricts the query to articles mentioning one of the
615: .i keywords
616: in the title of the article.
617: Thus,
618: the command
619: .sd c
620: readnews \-n net.unix \-x \-a last thursday \-t setuid
621: .ed
622: asks for all articles in newsgroup
623: .ng net.unix
624: since last Thursday about the setuid feature.
625: (Be careful with the
626: .op \-t
627: option.
628: The above example will not find articles about
629: .cf suid ,
630: nor will it find articles with no title or
631: whose author did not use the word
632: .cf setuid
633: in the title.)
634: .pg
635: Other useful options include the
636: .op \-l
637: option (which lists only the headers of articles \-
638: a useful form for browsing through lots of messages.)
639: The
640: .op \-p
641: option prints the messages without asking for any input;
642: this is similar to some older news programs on many
643: .ux
644: systems and is useful for directing output to a printer.
645: The
646: .op \-r
647: option produces articles in reverse order,
648: from newest to oldest.
649: .hu
650: User Interfaces
651: .pg
652: The
653: .i "user interface"
654: of a program is the view it presents to the user,
655: that is,
656: what it prints and what it allows you to type.
657: .i Readnews
658: has options allowing you to use different user interfaces.
659: The interface described above is called the \*(lqmsgs\*(rq interface
660: because it mimics the style of the Berkeley
661: .i msgs (1)
662: program.
663: (This program,
664: in turn,
665: mimics a program at MIT of the same name.)
666: The key element of the msgs interface is that after printing the header,
667: you are asked if you want the rest of the message.
668: .pg
669: Another interface is available with the
670: .op \-c
671: option.
672: In this case,
673: the entire message is printed,
674: header and body,
675: and you are prompted at the end of the message.
676: The command options are the same as the msgs interface,
677: but it is usually not necessary to use the
678: .qp \-
679: suffix on the
680: .qp r ,
681: .qp s ,
682: or
683: .qp f
684: commands.
685: This interface is called the \*(lq/bin/mail\*(rq
686: (pronounced \*(lqbin mail\*(lq)
687: interface,
688: because it mimics the
689: .ux
690: program of that name.
691: .pg
692: A third interface is the
693: .i Mail (1)
694: (pronounced \*(lqcap mail\*(rq) interface,
695: available with the
696: .op \-M
697: option.
698: This invokes the
699: .i Mail
700: program directly,
701: and allows you to read news with the same commands as you read mail.
702: (This interface may not work on your system \-
703: it requires a special version of
704: .i Mail
705: with a
706: .qp \-T
707: option.)
708: .pg
709: A fourth interface, is the MH news/mail program from Rand.
710: That program can be used directly to read network news.
711: .pg
712: A fifth interface,
713: .i vnews ,
714: which works well on display terminals, is described in the Appendix.
715: .pg
716: A sixth possibility is the
717: .i notesfile
718: system, described in a separate paper. It is also display-oriented.
719: .pg
720: A seventh possibility is to use your favorite mail system as an interface.
721: There are a number of different mail reading programs, including
722: .i /bin/mail (1),
723: .i Mail ,
724: .i msg (1),
725: and MH.
726: Any mail system with an option to specify an alternative mailbox
727: can be used to read news.
728: For example,
729: to use
730: .i Mail
731: without the
732: .qp \-M
733: option,
734: type
735: .sd c
736: readnews \-c "Mail \-f %"
737: .ed
738: The shell command in quotes is invoked as a child of
739: .i readnews.
740: The
741: .qp \-f
742: option to
743: .i Mail
744: names the alternative mailbox.
745: .i Readnews
746: will put the news in a temporary file,
747: and give the name of this file to the mailer in place of the
748: .qp % .
749: There is an important difference when using this kind of interface.
750: The mailers do not give any indication of which articles you read
751: and which ones you skipped.
752: .i Readnews
753: will assume you read
754: .i all
755: the articles,
756: even if you didn't,
757: and mark them all read.
758: By contrast,
759: the
760: .op \-M
761: option uses the
762: .op \-T
763: option to
764: .i Mail ,
765: asking
766: .i Mail
767: to tell
768: .i readnews
769: which articles you read.
770: .hu
771: Getting News when you Log In
772: .pg
773: Most users like to be told when they first log in if there is any news.
774: This way they are reminded of news,
775: but are not interrupted by it during the day.
776: If you log in once in the morning,
777: you can think of getting the news as reading the morning newspaper.
778: It is common to put a
779: .i checknews
780: or
781: .i readnews
782: command in your
783: .i .profile
784: or
785: .i .login
786: file of commands that are executed when you log in.
787: .pg
788: Since there might not be any news,
789: and since the
790: .i readnews
791: command goes to a considerable amount of work to find all unread news
792: (assuming you are going to read it),
793: there is another command,
794: called
795: .i checknews ,
796: which tells you if there is any news.
797: The
798: .i checknews
799: command is smaller and faster than
800: .i readnews ,
801: and was designed especially for a login file.
802: There are also options to be silent if there is (or is not) news,
803: and to start up
804: .i readnews
805: automatically if there is news.
806: .pg
807: The options to
808: .i checknews
809: are:
810: .Op \-y 10
811: Print \*(lqThere is news\*(rq if there is any unread news.
812: .Op \-v 10
813: If
814: .op \-y
815: is also given,
816: instead of printing \*(lqThere is news\*(rq,
817: prints \*(lqNews: \fInewsgroup\fP ...\*(rq
818: giving the name of the first newsgroup containing unread news.
819: If
820: .ng general
821: is the first newsgroup presented,
822: this can be used to tell users whether the unread news is important.
823: .Op \-n 10
824: Print \*(lqNo news\*(rq if there is no unread news.
825: .Op \-e 10
826: If there is any unread news,
827: start up
828: .i readnews.
829: Any additional arguments after the
830: .op \-e
831: will be passed to readnews.
832: .pg
833: Thus,
834: .sd c
835: checknews \-yn
836: .ed
837: tells you whether there is any unread news.
838: .sd c
839: checknews \-e \-M
840: .ed
841: starts up
842: .i readnews
843: with the
844: .i Mail
845: interface if there is news,
846: and otherwise does nothing.
847: .sd c
848: checknews \-y
849: .ed
850: tells you if there is news,
851: and is silent if there is no news.
852: .hu
853: Creating New Newsgroups
854: .pg
855: New newsgroups are proposed by the users and created by site administrators.
856: To create a newsgroup,
857: first make sure this is the right thing to do.
858: Normally a suggestion is first posted to
859: .ng net.news.group\f1,\fPnet.relatedgroup
860: for a net newsgroup
861: .ng net.relatedgroup "" (
862: should be the group which you are proposing to subdivide.)
863: For example,
864: to propose creating
865: .ng net.tv.soaps ,
866: post
867: the original article to
868: .ng net.tv\f1,\fPnet.news.group ).
869: Followups are made to
870: .ng net.news.group
871: .i only .
872: (You can force this by putting the line:
873: .sd c
874: Followup-To: net.news.group
875: .ed
876: in the headers of your original posting).
877: If it is established that there is general interest in such a group,
878: and a name is agreed on,
879: then ask your local netnews administrator to create the newsgroup.
880: (It can actually be created by any netnews administrator anywhere on the net,
881: within the scope of the newsgroup.)
882: Once the newsgroup is created and the first article has been posted,
883: the newsgroup is available for all interested persons to post to.
884: .hu
885: List of Newsgroups
886: .pg
887: This section lists the newsgroups that are currently active.
888: It is intended to help you decide what you want to subscribe to.
889: Note that the list is constantly changing.
890: Note also that this list only describes those groups available
891: on a network-wide basis. Since not all installations choose to receive all
892: newsgroups, it is recommended that each installation edit the list of local
893: newsgroups to be correct before distributing this document to their users.
894: If this is not possible,
895: a local appendix can be created.
896: .hu 2
897: Local
898: .pg
899: Local groups are kept on the current machine only.
900: Local names can be identified by the lack of a prefix,
901: that is, there are no periods in local newsgroup names.
902: .lp general 10
903: News to be read by everyone on the local machine.
904: For example:
905: \&\*(lqThe system will be down Monday morning for PM.\*(rq
906: Or,
907: \&\*(lqA new version of program
908: .i x
909: has been installed.\*(rq
910: This newsgroup is usually mandatory \-
911: you are required to subscribe to this newsgroup.
912: (The list of mandatory newsgroups varies locally.)
913: This requirement assures that important announcements reach all users.
914: (Formerly
915: .i msgs .)
916: .hu 2
917: Network Wide
918: .pg
919: These are the groups as of the last editing of this manual.
920: The list is undoubtably already out of date.
921: A current list can be obtained by typing
922: .qp ?
923: to the \*(lqNewsgroups? \*(rq prompt in postnews.
924: .nf
925: .ta 2.5i
926: net.abortion All sorts of discussions on abortion.
927: net.ai Artificial intelligence discussions.
928: net.analog Analog design developments, ideas, and components.
929: net.announce Moderated, general announcements of interest to all.
930: net.announce.newusers Moderated, explanatory postings for new users.
931: net.announce.arpa-internet Announcements from the Arpa world.
932: net.arch Computer architecture.
933: net.astro Astronomy discussions and information.
934: net.astro.expert Discussion by experts in astronomy.
935: net.audio High fidelity audio.
936: net.auto Automobiles, automotive products and laws.
937: net.auto.tech Technical aspects of automobiles, et. al.
938: net.aviation Aviation rules, means, and methods.
939: net.bicycle Bicycles, related products and laws.
940: net.bio Biology and related sciences.
941: net.books Books of all \fIgenres\fP, shapes, and sizes.
942: net.bugs General bug reports and fixes.
943: net.bugs.2bsd Reports of UNIX* version 2BSD related bugs.
944: net.bugs.4bsd Reports of UNIX version 4BSD related bugs.
945: net.bugs.usg Reports of USG (System III, V, etc.) bugs.
946: net.bugs.uucp Reports of UUCP related bugs.
947: net.bugs.v7 Reports of UNIX V7 related bugs.
948: net.cog-eng Cognitive engineering.
949: net.college College, college activities, campus life, etc.
950: net.columbia The space shuttle and the STS program.
951: net.comics The funnies, old and new.
952: net.consumers Consumer interests, product reviews, etc.
953: net.cooks Food, cooking, cookbooks, and recipes.
954: net.crypt Different methods of data en/decryption.
955: net.cse Computer science education.
956: net.cycle Motorcycles and related products and laws.
957: net.database Database and data management issues and theory.
958: net.dcom Data communications hardware and software.
959: net.decus DEC* Users' Society newsgroup.
960: net.emacs EMACS editors of different flavors.
961: net.eunice The SRI Eunice system.
962: net.followup Followups to articles in net.general.
963: net.games Games and computer games.
964: net.games.board Discussion and hints on board games.
965: net.games.chess Chess & computer chess.
966: net.games.emp Discussion and hints about Empire.
967: net.games.frp Discussion about Fantasy Role Playing games.
968: net.games.go Discussion about Go.
969: net.games.hack Discussion, hints, etc. about the Hack game.
970: net.games.pbm Discussion about Play by Mail games.
971: net.games.rogue Discussion and hints about Rogue.
972: net.games.trivia Discussion about trivia.
973: net.games.video Discussion about video games.
974: net.garden Gardening, methods and results.
975: net.general *Important* and timely announcements of interest to all.
976: net.graphics Computer graphics, art, animation, image processing.
977: net.ham-radio Amateur Radio practices, contests, events, rules, etc.
978: net.ham-radio.packet Discussion about packet radio setups.
979: net.info-terms All sorts of terminals.
980: net.internat Discussion about international standards
981: net.invest Investments and the handling of money.
982: net.jobs Job announcements, requests, etc.
983: net.jokes Jokes and the like. May be somewhat offensive.
984: net.jokes.d Discussions on the content of net.jokes articles
985: net.kids Children, their behavior and activities.
986: net.lan Local area network hardware and software.
987: net.lang Different computer languages.
988: net.lang.ada Discussion about Ada*.
989: net.lang.apl Discussion about APL.
990: net.lang.c Discussion about C.
991: net.lang.f77 Discussion about FORTRAN.
992: net.lang.forth Discussion about Forth.
993: net.lang.lisp Discussion about LISP.
994: net.lang.mod2 Discussion about Modula-2.
995: net.lang.pascal Discussion about Pascal.
996: net.lang.prolog Discussion about PROLOG.
997: net.lang.st80 Discussion about Smalltalk 80.
998: net.legal Legalities and the ethics of law.
999: net.lsi Large scale integrated circuits.
1000: net.mag Magazine summaries, tables of contents, etc.
1001: net.mail Proposed new mail/network standards.
1002: net.mail.headers Gatewayed from the ARPA header-people list.
1003: net.math Mathematical discussions and puzzles.
1004: net.math.stat Statistics discussion.
1005: net.math.symbolic Symbolic algebra discussion.
1006: net.med Medicine and its related products and regulations.
1007: net.micro Micro computers of all kinds.
1008: net.micro.16k National Semiconductor 32000 series chips
1009: net.micro.6809 Discussion about 6809's.
1010: net.micro.68k Discussion about 68k's.
1011: net.micro.apple Discussion about Apple micros.
1012: net.micro.amiga Talk about the new Amiga micro.
1013: net.micro.atari Discussion about Atari micros.
1014: net.micro.att Discussions about AT&T microcomputers .
1015: net.micro.cbm Discussion about Commodore micros.
1016: net.micro.cpm Discussion about the CP/M operating system.
1017: net.micro.hp Discussion about Hewlett/Packard's.
1018: net.micro.mac Material about the Apple Macintosh & Lisa.
1019: net.micro.pc Discussion about IBM personal computers.
1020: net.micro.ti Discussion about Texas Instruments.
1021: net.micro.trs-80 Discussion about TRS-80's.
1022: net.misc Various discussions too short-lived for other groups.
1023: net.motss Issues pertaining to homosexuality.
1024: net.movies Reviews and discussions of movies.
1025: net.music Music lovers' group.
1026: net.music.classical Discussion about classical music.
1027: net.music.folk Folks discussing folk music of various sorts.
1028: net.music.gdead A group for (Grateful) Dead-heads.
1029: net.music.synth Synthesizers and computer music.
1030: net.net-people Announcements, requests, etc. about people on the net.
1031: net.news Discussions of USENET itself.
1032: net.news.adm Comments directed to news administrators.
1033: net.news.b Discussion about B news software.
1034: net.news.config Postings of system down times and interruptions.
1035: net.news.group Discussions and lists of newsgroups
1036: net.news.newsite Postings of new site announcements.
1037: net.news.notes Notesfile software from the Univ. of Illinois.
1038: net.news.sa Comments directed to system administrators.
1039: net.news.stargate Discussion about satellite transmission of news.
1040: net.nlang Natural languages, cultures, heritages, etc.
1041: net.nlang.africa Discussions about Africa & things African.
1042: net.nlang.celts Group about Celtics.
1043: net.nlang.greek Group about Greeks.
1044: net.nlang.india Group for discussion about India & things Indian
1045: net.origins Evolution versus creationism (sometimes hot!).
1046: net.periphs Peripheral devices.
1047: net.pets Pets, pet care, and household animals in general.
1048: net.philosophy Philosophical discussions.
1049: net.physics Physical laws, properties, etc.
1050: net.poems For the posting of poems.
1051: net.politics Political discussions. Could get hot.
1052: net.politics.theory Theory of politics and political systems.
1053: net.puzzle Puzzles, problems, and quizzes.
1054: net.railroad Real and model train fans' newsgroup.
1055: net.rec Recreational/participant sports.
1056: net.rec.birds Hobbyists interested in bird watching.
1057: net.rec.boat Hobbyists interested in boating.
1058: net.rec.bridge Hobbyists interested in bridge.
1059: net.rec.nude Hobbyists interested in naturist/nudist activities.
1060: net.rec.photo Hobbyists interested in photography.
1061: net.rec.scuba Hobbyists interested in SCUBA diving.
1062: net.rec.ski Hobbyists interested in skiing.
1063: net.rec.skydive Hobbyists interested in skydiving.
1064: net.rec.wood Hobbyists interested in woodworking.
1065: net.religion Religious, ethical, and moral implications of actions.
1066: net.religion.christian Discussion about form and nature of Christianity
1067: net.religion.jewish Information and discussion about Judaism.
1068: net.research Research and computer research.
1069: net.roots Genealogical matters.
1070: net.rumor For the posting of rumors.
1071: net.sci General purpose scientific discussions.
1072: net.sf-lovers Science fiction lovers' newsgroup.
1073: net.singles Newsgroup for single people, their activities, etc.
1074: net.social Like net.singles, but for everyone.
1075: net.sources For the posting of software packages & documentation.
1076: net.sources.bugs For bug fixes and features discussion.
1077: net.sources.games Postings of recreational software.
1078: net.sources.mac Software for the Apple Macintosh.
1079: net.space Space, space programs, space related research, etc.
1080: net.sport Spectator sports.
1081: net.sport.baseball Discussion about baseball.
1082: net.sport.football Discussion about football.
1083: net.sport.hockey Discussion about hockey.
1084: net.sport.hoops Discussion about basketball.
1085: net.startrek Star Trek, the TV show and the movies.
1086: net.suicide Suicide, laws, ethics, and its causes and effects (!).
1087: net.taxes Tax laws and advice.
1088: net.test For testing of network software. Very boring.
1089: net.text Text processing.
1090: net.travel Traveling all over the world.
1091: net.tv The boob tube, its history, and past and current shows.
1092: net.tv.drwho Discussion about Dr. Who.
1093: net.tv.soaps Postings about soap operas.
1094: net.unix UNIX neophytes group.
1095: net.unix-wizards Discussions, bug reports, and fixes on and for UNIX.
1096: net.usenix USENIX Association events and announcements.
1097: net.veg Vegetarians.
1098: net.video Video and video components.
1099: net.wanted Requests for things that are needed.
1100: net.wanted.sources Requests for software, termcap entries, etc.
1101: net.wines Wines and spirits.
1102: net.wobegon "A Prairie Home Companion" radio show discussion.
1103: net.women Women's rights, discrimination, etc.
1104: net.works Assorted workstations.
1105: mod.ai Discussions about Artificial Intelligence
1106: mod.compilers Discussion about compiler construction, theory, etc.
1107: mod.computers Discussion about various computers and related.
1108: mod.computers.apollo Apollo computer systems.
1109: mod.computers.ibm-pc The IBM PC, PC-XT, and PC-AT.
1110: mod.computers.laser-printers Laser printers, hardware and software.
1111: mod.computers.macintosh Apple Macintosh micros.
1112: mod.computers.pyramid Pyramid 90x computers.
1113: mod.computers.ridge Ridge 32 computers and ROS.
1114: mod.computers.sequent Sequent systems, (esp. Balance 8000).
1115: mod.computers.sun Sun "workstation" computers
1116: mod.computers.vax DEC's VAX* line of computers & VMS.
1117: mod.computers.workstations Various workstation-type computers.
1118: mod.graphics Graphics software, hardware, theory, etc.
1119: mod.human-nets Computer aided communications digest.
1120: mod.legal Discussions of computers and the law.
1121: mod.map Various maps, including UUCP maps.
1122: mod.motss Moderated newsgroup on gay issues and topics.
1123: mod.movies Moderated reviews and discussion of movies.
1124: mod.music Moderated reviews and discussion of things musical.
1125: mod.newprod Announcements of new products of interest to readers.
1126: mod.newslists Postings of news-related statistics and lists.
1127: mod.os Disussions about operating systems and related areas.
1128: mod.os.os9 Discussions about the os9 operating system.
1129: mod.os.unix Moderated discussion of Unix* features and bugs.
1130: mod.politics Discussions on political problems, systems, solutions.
1131: mod.politics.arms-d Arms discussion digest.
1132: mod.protocols Various forms and types of FTP protocol discussions.
1133: mod.protocols.appletalk Applebus hardware & software discussion.
1134: mod.protocols.kermit Information about the Kermit package.
1135: mod.protocols.tcp-ip TCP and IP network protocols.
1136: mod.rec Discussions on pastimes (not currently active).
1137: mod.rec.guns Discussions about firearms.
1138: mod.recipes A "distributed cookbook" of screened recipes.
1139: mod.risks Risks to the public from computers & users.
1140: mod.sources Moderated postings of public-domain sources.
1141: mod.sources.doc Archived public-domain documentation.
1142: mod.std Moderated discussion about various standards.
1143: mod.std.c Discussion about C language standards.
1144: mod.std.mumps Discussion for the X11.1 committee on Mumps.
1145: mod.std.unix Discussion for the P1003 committee on Unix.
1146: mod.techreports Announcements and lists of technical reports.
1147: mod.telecom Telecommunications digest.
1148: mod.test Testing of moderated newsgroups -- no moderator.
1149: mod.vlsi Very large scale integrated circuits.
1150: .fi
1151: .bp
1152: .hu
1153: Appendix \- How to use vnews
1154: .hu 2
1155: Overview
1156: .pg
1157: .i Vnews
1158: is a program for reading USENET news.
1159: It is based on
1160: .i readnews
1161: but has a CRT-oriented (full screen) user interface.
1162: The command line options are identical.
1163: The list of available commands is quite similar,
1164: although since
1165: .i vnews
1166: is a
1167: .i visual
1168: interface,
1169: most
1170: .i vnews
1171: commands do not have to be terminated by a newline.
1172: .pg
1173: .i Vnews
1174: uses all but the last two lines of the screen to display the current article.
1175: The next to the last line is the secondary prompt line,
1176: and is used to input string arguments to commands.
1177: The last line contains several fields.
1178: The first field is the prompt field.
1179: If
1180: .i vnews
1181: is at the end of an article,
1182: the prompt is
1183: .cf next? ;
1184: otherwise the prompt is
1185: .cf more? .
1186: The second field is the newsgroup field,
1187: which displays the current newsgroup,
1188: the number of the current article,
1189: and the number of the last article in the newsgroup.
1190: The third field contains the current time,
1191: and the last field contains the word
1192: .cf mail
1193: if you have mail.
1194: When you receive new mail,
1195: the bell on the terminal is rung and the word
1196: .cf MAIL
1197: appears in capital letters for 30 seconds.
1198: .hu 2
1199: Commands
1200: .pg
1201: Most of the
1202: .i readnews
1203: commands have
1204: .i vnews
1205: counterparts and vice versa.
1206: Some differences are:
1207: .si
1208: .lp \(bu 5
1209: It lacks a \*(lqdigest\*(rq command (to deal specially with collections
1210: of articles bundled together).
1211: This would be nice to have,
1212: but it does not seem to be a major deficiency
1213: since you can move around in the digest with
1214: .i vnews
1215: commands.
1216: .lp \(bu 5
1217: To get to the previous group,
1218: use the
1219: .qp N
1220: command with a
1221: .qp \-
1222: argument.
1223: .lp \(bu 5
1224: .i Vnews
1225: has commands for moving around in the article which
1226: .i readnews
1227: does not have since they aren't applicable.
1228: .lp \(bu 5
1229: It has a \*(lqparent\*(rq command which will go to the article
1230: that the current article is a follow-up to,
1231: and a \*(lqwrite\*(rq
1232: command that writes out the body of an article without the header.
1233: .lp \(bu 5
1234: You can refer to the current article from the shell or
1235: while writing a follow-up as
1236: .b $A .
1237: .lp \(bu 5
1238: The \*(lqdecrypt\*(rq command (for decoding possibly offensive
1239: material) always does
1240: .i rot13
1241: which seems to be the default standard but the
1242: .i readnews
1243: version of it occasionally gets confused.
1244: .ei
1245: .hu 2
1246: Commands that differ from
1247: .bi readnews
1248: .pg
1249: Each
1250: .i vnews
1251: command may be preceded by a
1252: .i count .
1253: Some commands use the count; others ignore it.
1254: If
1255: .i count
1256: is omitted,
1257: it defaults to one.
1258: Some commands prompt for an argument
1259: on the second line from the bottom of the screen.
1260: Standard
1261: .ux
1262: erase and kill processing is done on this argument.
1263: The argument is terminated by a return.
1264: An interrupt
1265: .qc DELETE "" (
1266: or
1267: .qc BREAK )
1268: gets you out of any partially entered command.
1269: .Qc CR
1270: A carriage return prints more of the current article,
1271: or goes on to the next article if you are at the end of the current article.
1272: A
1273: .qc SPACE
1274: is equivalent to
1275: .qc CR .
1276: .Qc CONTROL-B
1277: Go backwards
1278: .i count
1279: pages.
1280: .Qc CONTROL-F
1281: Go forward
1282: .i count
1283: pages.
1284: .Qc CONTROL-D
1285: Go forwards half a page.
1286: .Qc CONTROL-U
1287: Go backwards half a page.
1288: .Qc CONTROL-N
1289: Go forwards
1290: .i count
1291: lines.
1292: .Qc CONTROL-Z
1293: Go backwards
1294: .i count
1295: lines.
1296: .Qc CONTROL-L
1297: Redraw the screen.
1298: .qc CONTROL-L
1299: may be typed at any time.
1300: .Qp b
1301: Back up one article in the current group.
1302: .Qp l
1303: Redisplay the article after you have sent a follow-up or reply.
1304: .Qp n
1305: Move on to the next item in a digest.
1306: .qp \*(lq\&.\*(rq
1307: is equivalent to
1308: .qp n .
1309: This is convenient if your terminal has a keypad.
1310: .Qp p
1311: Show the parent article
1312: (the article that the current article is a follow-up to).
1313: This doesn't work if the current article was posted by A-news or notesfiles.
1314: To switch between the current and parent articles,
1315: use the
1316: .qp \-
1317: command.
1318: Unfortunately,
1319: if you use several
1320: .qp p
1321: commands
1322: to trace the discussion back further,
1323: there is no command to return to the original level.
1324: .Qp ug
1325: Unsubscribe to the current group.
1326: This is a two character command to ensure that it is not typed accidentally
1327: and to leave room for other types of unsubscribes
1328: .i e\f1.\fPg ., (
1329: unsubscribe to discussion).
1330: .Qp v
1331: Print the current version of the news software.
1332: .Qp D
1333: Decrypts a joke.
1334: It only handles
1335: .pa rot13
1336: jokes.
1337: The
1338: .qp D
1339: command is a toggle;
1340: typing another
1341: .qp D
1342: re-encrypts the joke.
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