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1.1 root 1: .TH READNEWS 1
2: .SH NAME
3: readnews \- read news articles
4: .SH SYNOPSIS
5: .BR readnews " [ " \-a
6: .IR date " ] [ "
7: .B \-n
8: .IR newsgroups " ] [ "
9: .B \-t
10: .IR titles " ] [ "
11: .BR \-lprxhfuM " ] [ "
12: .BR \-c " [ "
13: .IR mailer " ] ]"
14: .PP
15: .B "readnews \-s"
16: .SH DESCRIPTION
17: .I readnews
18: without argument prints unread articles.
19: There are several interfaces available:
20: .TP 10
21: Flag
22: Interface
23: .TP 10
24: default
25: A
26: .IR msgs (1)
27: like interface.
28: .TP 10
29: .B \-M
30: An interface to
31: .IR Mail (1).
32: .TP 10
33: .B \-c
34: A
35: .IR /bin/mail (1)\-like
36: interface.
37: .TP 10
38: .BI "\-c " ``mailer''
39: All selected articles written to a temporary file. Then the mailer is
40: invoked. The name of the temporary file is referenced with a ``%''.
41: Thus, ``mail \-f %'' will invoke mail on a temporary file consisting of all
42: selected messages.
43: .TP 10
44: .B \-p
45: All selected articles are sent to the standard output. No questions asked.
46: .TP 10
47: .B \-l
48: Only the titles output. The
49: .I .newsrc
50: file will not be updated.
51: .LP
52: The
53: .B \-r
54: flag causes the articles to be printed in reverse order. The
55: .B \-f
56: flag prevents any followup articles from being printed. The
57: .B \-h
58: flag causes articles to be printed in a less verbose format,
59: and is intended for terminals running at 300 baud.
60: the
61: .B \-u
62: flag causes the
63: .B .newsrc
64: file to be updated every 5 minutes,
65: in case of an unreliable system.
66: (Note that if the newsrc file is updated,
67: the
68: .B x
69: command will not restore it to its original contents.)
70: .PP
71: The following flags determine the selection of articles.
72: .TP 10
73: .BI "\-n " newsgroups
74: Select all articles that belong to
75: .I newsgroups.
76: .TP 10
77: .BI "\-t " titles
78: Select all articles whose titles contain one of the strings specified by
79: .I titles.
80: .TP 10
81: .BI "\-a " "\fR[\fP date \fR]\fP"
82: Select all articles that were posted past the given
83: .I date
84: (in
85: .IR getdate (3)
86: format).
87: .TP 10
88: .B \-x
89: Ignore
90: .I .newsrc
91: file. That is, select articles that have already been read as well as new ones.
92: .PP
93: .I readnews
94: maintains a
95: .I .newsrc
96: file in the user's home directory that specifies all news articles
97: already read. It is updated at the end of each reading session in
98: which the
99: .BR \-x " or " \-l
100: options weren't specified.
101: If the environment variable NEWSRC is present, it should be the path
102: name of a file to be used in place of .newsrc.
103: .PP
104: If the user wishes, an options line may be placed in the
105: .I .newsrc
106: file.
107: This line starts with the word
108: .B options
109: (left justified) followed by the list of standard options just as
110: they would be typed on the command line. Such a list may include:
111: the
112: .B \-n
113: flag along with a newsgroup list; a favorite interface; and/or
114: the
115: .B \-r
116: or
117: .B \-t
118: flag. Continuation lines are specified by following lines
119: beginning with a space or tab character.
120: Similarly, options can be specified in the
121: .B NEWSOPTS
122: environment parameter. Where conflicts exist, option on the command
123: line take precedence, followed by the
124: .I .newsrc
125: .B options
126: line, and lastly the
127: .B NEWSOPTS
128: parameter.
129: .PP
130: .B readnews \-s
131: will print the newsgroup subscription list.
132: .PP
133: When the user uses the reply command of the
134: .IR msgs "(1) or " /bin/mail (1)
135: interfaces, the environment parameter
136: .B MAILER
137: will be used to determine
138: which mailer to use. The default is usually /bin/mail.
139: .PP
140: If the user so desires, he may specify a specific paging progam
141: for articles. The environment parameter
142: .B PAGER
143: should be set to
144: the paging program. The name of the article is referenced with
145: a `%', as in the
146: .B \-c
147: option. If no `%' is present, the article will be piped to the program.
148: Paging may be disabled by setting
149: .B PAGER
150: to a null value.
151: .SH "COMMANDS"
152: .PP
153: This section lists the commands you can type to the msgs and /bin/mail
154: interface prompts.
155: The msgs interface will suggest some common commands in brackets.
156: Just hitting return is the same as typing the first command.
157: For example, ``[ynq]'' means that the commands ``y'' (yes), ``n'' (no),
158: and ``q'' (quit) are common responses, and that ``y'' is the default.
159: .ta 2.5i
160: Command Meaning
161: .IP y
162: Yes. Prints current article and goes on to next.
163: .IP n
164: No. Goes on to next article without printing current one.
165: In the /bin/mail interface, this means ``go on to the next article'',
166: which will have the same effect as ``y'' or just hitting return.
167: .IP q
168: Quit. The .newsrc
169: file will be updated if \-l or \-x were not on the command line.
170: .IP c
171: Cancel the article. Only the author or the super user can do this.
172: .IP r
173: Reply. Reply to article's author via mail.
174: You are placed in your EDITOR with a header specifying
175: To, Subject, and References lines taken from the message.
176: You may change or add headers, as appropriate.
177: You add the text of the reply after the blank line, and then exit
178: the editor. The resulting message is mailed to the author of the article.
179: .IP rd
180: Reply directly.
181: You are placed in $MAILER (``mail'' by default) in reply to the author.
182: Type the text of the reply and then control-D.
183: .IP "f [\fItitle\fP]"
184: Submit a follow up article.
185: Normally you should leave off the title, since the system will generate
186: one for you.
187: You will be placed in your EDITOR to compose the text of the followup.
188: .IP "fd"
189: Followup directly, without edited headers. This is like
190: .IR f ,
191: but the headers of the article are not included in the editor buffer.
192: .IP "N [\fInewsgroup\fP]"
193: Go to the next newsgroup or named newsgroup.
194: .IP "s [\fIfile\fP]"
195: Save. The article is appended to the named file.
196: The default is ``Articles''.
197: If the first character of the file name is `|',
198: the rest of the file name is taken as the name of a program,
199: which is executed with the text of the article as standard input.
200: If the first character of the file name is `/', it is
201: taken as a full path name of a file.
202: If $NEWSBOX (in the environment) is set to a full path name,
203: and the file contains no `/', the file is saved in $NEWSBOX.
204: Otherwise, it is saved relative to $HOME.
205: .IP #
206: Report the name and size of the newsgroup.
207: .IP e
208: Erase. Forget that this article was read.
209: .IP h
210: Print a more verbose header.
211: .IP H
212: Print a very verbose header, containing all known information
213: about the article.
214: .IP U
215: Unsubscribe from this newsgroup.
216: Also goes on to the next newsgroup.
217: .IP d
218: Read a digest. Breaks up a digest into separate articles
219: and permits you to read and reply to each piece.
220: .IP D [\fInumber\fP]
221: Decrypt. Invokes a Caesar decoding program on the body of the message.
222: This is used to decrypt rotated jokes posted to net.jokes.
223: Such jokes are usually obscene or otherwise offensive to some
224: groups of people, and so are rotated to avoid accidental
225: decryption by people who would be offended.
226: The title of the joke should indicate the nature of the problem,
227: enabling people to decide whether to decrypt it or not.
228: .PP
229: Normally the Caesar program does a character frequency count on
230: each line of the article separately, so that lines which are not
231: rotated will be shown in plain text.
232: This works well unless the line is short, in which case it sometimes
233: gets the wrong rotation.
234: An explicit
235: .I number
236: rotation (usually 13) may be given to force a particular shift.
237: .IP v
238: Print the current version of the news software.
239: .IP !
240: Shell escape.
241: .IP \fInumber\fP
242: Go to \fInumber\fP.
243: .IP +[\fIn\fP]
244: Skip n articles.
245: The articles skipped are recorded as ``unread'' and will be
246: offered to you again the next time you read news.
247: .IP \-
248: Go back to last article.
249: This is a toggle, typing it twice returns you to the original article.
250: .IP x
251: Exit. Like quit except that .newsrc is not updated.
252: .IP "X \fIsystem\fP"
253: Transmit article to the named system.
254: .PP
255: The commands
256: c, f, fd, r, rd, e, h, H, and s
257: can be followed by \-'s to refer to the previous article.
258: Thus, when replying to an article using the msgs interface,
259: you should normally type ``r\-'' (or ``re-'') since by the time you enter
260: a command, you are being offerred the next article.
261: .SH EXAMPLES
262: .TP 10
263: .B readnews
264: Read all unread articles using the
265: .IR msgs (1)
266: interface. The
267: .I .newsrc
268: file is updated at the end of the session.
269: .TP 10
270: .B readnews \-c ``ed %'' \-l
271: Invoke the
272: .IR ed (1)
273: text editor on a file containing the titles of all unread articles. The
274: .I .newsrc
275: file is
276: .B not
277: updated at the end of the session.
278: .TP 10
279: .B readnews \-n all !fa.all \-M \-r
280: Read all unread articles except articles whose newsgroups begin with
281: "fa." via
282: .IR Mail (1)
283: in reverse order. The
284: .I .newsrc
285: file is updated at the end of the session.
286: .TP 10
287: .B "readnews \-p \-n all \-a last thursday"
288: Print every unread article since last Thursday. The
289: .I .newsrc
290: file is
291: updated at the end of the session.
292: .TP 10
293: .B "readnews \-p > /dev/null &"
294: Discard all unread news.
295: This is useful after returning from a long trip.
296: .SH FILES
297: .PD 0
298: .TP 25
299: .RI /usr/spool/news/ newsgroup / number
300: News articles
301: .TP 25
302: /usr/lib/news/active
303: Active newsgroups and numbers of articles
304: .TP 25
305: /usr/lib/news/help
306: Help file for
307: .IR msgs (1)
308: interface
309: .TP 25
310: ~/.newsrc
311: Options and list of previously read articles
312: .PD
313: .SH SEE ALSO
314: checknews(1),
315: inews(1),
316: sendnews(8),
317: recnews(8),
318: uurec(8),
319: msgs(1),
320: Mail(1),
321: mail(1),
322: news(5),
323: newsrc(5)
324: .SH AUTHORS
325: Matt Glickman
326: .br
327: Mark Horton
328: .br
329: Stephen Daniel
330: .br
331: Tom R. Truscott
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