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1.1 root 1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
8:
9:
10: HHHHoooowwww ttttoooo RRRReeeeaaaadddd tttthhhheeee NNNNeeeettttwwwwoooorrrrkkkk NNNNeeeewwwwssss
11:
12:
13: Mark R. Horton
14:
15: Bell Telephone Laboratories
16: Columbus, Ohio 43213
17:
18:
19:
20:
21:
22: WWWWhhhhaaaatttt iiiissss tttthhhheeee NNNNeeeettttwwwwoooorrrrkkkk NNNNeeeewwwwssss????
23:
24: USENET (Users' Network) is a bulletin board shared
25: among many computer systems in the computer science commun-
26: ity, around the United States and Canada. USENET is a logi-
27: cal network, sitting on top of several physical networks,
28: including uuuuuuuuccccpppp, BBBBLLLLIIIICCCCNNNN, BBBBeeeerrrrkkkknnnneeeetttt, and the AAAARRRRPPPPAAAANNNNEEEETTTT. Sites on
29: USENET include many universities, private companies and
30: research organizations. Most of the members of USENET are
31: either university Computer Science departments, or part of
32: Bell Telephone Laboratories. Currently, most USENET sites
33: run the UNIX* operating system.
34:
35: The network news, or simply _n_e_t_n_e_w_s, is the set of pro-
36: grams that provide access to the news, and transfer it from
37: one machine to the next. Netnews was originally written at
38: Duke University, and has been modified extensively by the
39: University of California at Berkeley. Netnews allows arti-
40: cles to be posted for limited or very wide distribution.
41: This document contains a list of newsgroups that were active
42: at the time it was written, to assist you in determining
43: which newsgroups you may want to subscribe to. When creat-
44: ing a new article, the level of distribution is controlled
45: by specifying the newsgroup.
46:
47: Any user can post an article, which will be sent out to
48: the network to be read by persons interested in that topic.
49: A user can specify which topics he or she is interested in
50: via a _s_u_b_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n _l_i_s_t. Then, whenever he asks to read
51: news, he will be presented with all articles of interest
52: that he has not yet read. There are also facilities for
53: browsing through old news, posting follow-up articles, and
54: sending direct electronic mail replies to the author of an
55: article.
56:
57: This paper is a tutorial, aimed at the user who wants
58: __________________________
59: *UNIX is a Trademark of Bell Laboratories.
60:
61:
62:
63:
64: April 8, 1983
65:
66:
67:
68:
69:
70: - 2 -
71:
72:
73: to read and possibly post news. The system administrator
74: who must install the software should see the companion docu-
75: ment _U_S_E_N_E_T _V_e_r_s_i_o_n _B _I_n_s_t_a_l_l_a_t_i_o_n.
76:
77: WWWWhhhhyyyy UUUUSSSSEEEENNNNEEEETTTT????
78:
79: USENET is useful in a number of ways. Someone wishing
80: to announce a new program or product can reach a wide audi-
81: ence. A user can ask ``Does anyone have an _x?'' and will
82: usually get several responses within a day or two. Bug
83: reports and their fixes can be made quickly available
84: without the usual overhead of sending out mass mailings.
85: Discussions involving many people at different locations can
86: take place without having to get everyone together.
87:
88: Another facility with similar capabilities to _n_e_t_n_e_w_s
89: is the _e_l_e_c_t_r_o_n_i_c _m_a_i_l_i_n_g _l_i_s_t. A mailing list is a collec-
90: tion of electronic mailing addresses of users who are
91: interested in a particular topic. By sending electronic
92: mail to the list, all users on the list receive a copy of
93: the article. While the mailing list facility is quite use-
94: ful, USENET offers a number of advantages not present in
95: mailing lists. Getting yourself on a mailing list is not
96: always easy. You have to figure out who maintains the list
97: and ask them to put you on it. Often these people are out
98: of town or busy, and don't put you on the list for several
99: days. Sometimes you have to send mail to the entire mailing
100: list, hoping that one of the readers will tell you who main-
101: tains the list. Once you are on the list, you often find
102: yourself in the middle of a discussion. Netnews keeps old
103: articles around until they expire (usually about two weeks)
104: so you can browse through old news to catch up on what you
105: missed. Similarly, referring to an old article is easy,
106: without having to keep a personal file of all old mail to
107: the list.
108:
109: Another advantage is appreciated by the other users of
110: the system. There is less overhead in having only one copy
111: of each message sent to each machine, instead of having
112: separate copies sent to each of several users on the same
113: machine. This cuts down on computer time to process the
114: messages, and on line costs for telephone calls to transfer
115: messages from one machine to another (when phone lines are
116: used). Another advantage is in the disk space consumed.
117: When only one message is sent to each system, only one copy
118: of the message is kept on disk. In a mailing list environ-
119: ment, each user has a copy in his mailbox.
120:
121: HHHHoooowwww ddddoooo IIII RRRReeeeaaaadddd NNNNeeeewwwwssss????
122:
123: In the USENET jargon, interest topics are called _n_e_w_s_-
124: _g_r_o_u_p_s. A newsgroup list appears in a later section,
125: current as this paper was written. You have your own _s_u_b_-
126: _s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n _l_i_s_t of newsgroups to which you are said to
127:
128:
129:
130: April 8, 1983
131:
132:
133:
134:
135:
136: - 3 -
137:
138:
139: _s_u_b_s_c_r_i_b_e.
140:
141: To read news, type the command
142:
143: rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss
144:
145: Each newsgroup to which you subscribe will be presented, one
146: article at a time. As each article is presented, you will
147: be shown the _h_e_a_d_e_r (containing the name of the author, the
148: subject, and the length of the article) and you will be
149: asked if you want more. There are a number of possible
150: choices you can make at this point. The three most common
151: (y, n, and q) are suggested by the program. (To see a com-
152: plete list of possible responses, type ``????'' for help.) You
153: can type ``yyyy'' for ``yes'' (or simply hit return) and the
154: rest of the message will be displayed. (If the message is
155: long, it may stop before it runs off the top of the screen.
156: Type space or return to see more of the message. If _r_e_a_d_-
157: _n_e_w_s prints a ``:'' at the end of a long message, it's wait-
158: ing for you to finish reading the message. Hit return and
159: it will go on to the next message.) Another choice you can
160: make is ``nnnn'' for ``no''. This means you are not interested
161: in the message - it will not be offered to you again. A
162: third option is ``qqqq'' for ``quit''. This causes a record to
163: be made of which articles you read (or refused) and you will
164: exit netnews. When you have read all the news, this happens
165: automatically. The quit command is mainly useful if you are
166: in a hurry and don't have time to read all the news right
167: now. (Many users put a rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss or cccchhhheeeecccckkkknnnneeeewwwwssss command in
168: their ._p_r_o_f_i_l_e or ._l_o_g_i_n files so that they will see new
169: news each time they log in.)
170:
171: If you are reading news for the first time, you may
172: find yourself swamped by the volume of unread news, espe-
173: cially if the default subscription is ``all''. Don't let
174: this bother you. If you are getting newsgroups which you
175: have no interest, you can change your subscription list (see
176: below). Also, bear in mind that what you see is probably at
177: least two weeks accumulation of news. If you want to just
178: get rid of all old news and start anew, type
179:
180: readnews -p -n all > /dev/null &
181:
182: which will throw away all old news, recording that you have
183: seen it all. (The '&' puts it in the background; chances
184: are that there is so much old news on your machine that you
185: won't want to wait for it all.)
186:
187: Once you catch up (or ignore) all the old news, the
188: news will come in daily at a more manageable rate. (If the
189: daily rate is still too much you may wish to unsubscribe to
190: some of the high volume newsgroups.) Finally, note that
191: while an article is printing, you can hit DDDDEEEELLLLEEEETTTTEEEE which will
192: throw away the rest of the article.
193:
194:
195:
196: April 8, 1983
197:
198:
199:
200:
201:
202: - 4 -
203:
204:
205: Among the other commands you can type after seeing the
206: header of an article are:
207:
208: xxxx Exit readnews. This is different from qqqquuuuiiiitttt
209: in that the quit command will update the
210: record of which articles you have read, but
211: the exit command will pretend you never
212: started readnews.
213:
214: NNNN Go on to the next newsgroup. The remaining
215: articles in the current newsgroup are con-
216: sidered ``unread'' and will be offered to
217: you again the next time you read news.
218:
219: ssss _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e The article is saved in a disk file with the
220: given name. In practice, what usually hap-
221: pens is that an article is printed, and then
222: _r_e_a_d_n_e_w_s goes on to print the header of the
223: next article before you get a chance to type
224: anything. So you usually want to write out
225: the _p_r_e_v_i_o_u_s message (the last one you have
226: read in full); in this case, use the form
227: ``ssss---- _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e''.
228:
229: eeee Erase the memory of having seen this arti-
230: cle. It will be offered to you again next
231: time, as though you had never seen it. The
232: ``eeee----'' case is useful for checking followups
233: to see if anyone has already said what you
234: wanted to say.
235:
236: rrrr Reply to the author of the message. You
237: will be placed in the editor, with a set of
238: headers derived from the message you are
239: replying to. Type in your message after the
240: blank line. If you wish to edit the header
241: list, to add more recipients or send carbon
242: copies, for instance, you can edit the
243: header lines. Anyone listed on a line
244: beginning with ``To: '' or ``Cc: '' will
245: receive a copy of your reply. A mmmmaaaaiiiillll com-
246: mand will then be started up, addressed to
247: the persons listed in the header. You are
248: then returned to readnews. The case rrrr---- is
249: also useful to reply to the previous mes-
250: sage. Another variation on this is rrrrdddd----
251: which puts you in $MAILER (or ``mail'' by
252: default) to type in your reply directly.
253:
254: ffff Post a follow-up message to the same news-
255: group. This posts an article on this news-
256: group with the same title as the original
257: article. Use common sense when posting
258: follow-ups; many follow-up articles should
259:
260:
261:
262: April 8, 1983
263:
264:
265:
266:
267:
268: - 5 -
269:
270:
271: have just been replies. You will be placed
272: in the editor - enter your message and exit.
273: The case ffff---- is also useful to follow up the
274: previous message. Another case, ffffdddd----, allows
275: you to directly type in the followup,
276: without the use of an editor. If you type
277: this by accident, hit DEL to abort the
278: follow-up. In each case, the editor you are
279: placed in will be vvvviiii unless you set EEEEDDDDIIIITTTTOOOORRRR
280: (in your environment) to some other editor.
281: You should enter the text of the followup
282: after the blank line.
283:
284: ++++ The article is skipped for now. The next
285: time you read news, you will be offered this
286: article again.
287:
288: ---- Go back to the previous article. This tog-
289: gles, so that two -'s get you the current
290: article.
291:
292: UUUU Unsubscribe from this newsgroup. Your
293: .newsrc file will be edited to change the
294: ``:'' for that newsgroup to an ``!'',
295: preventing you from being shown that news-
296: group again.
297:
298: ? If you type any unrecognized command a sum-
299: mary of valid commands will be printed.
300:
301: CCCChhhhaaaannnnggggiiiinnnngggg yyyyoooouuuurrrr SSSSuuuubbbbssssccccrrrriiiippppttttiiiioooonnnn LLLLiiiisssstttt
302:
303: If you take no special action you will subscribe to a
304: default subscription list. This default varies locally. To
305: find out your local default, type
306:
307: rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss ----ssss
308:
309: Typically this list will include all newsgroups ending in
310: ``general'', such as ggggeeeennnneeeerrrraaaallll, and nnnneeeetttt....ggggeeeennnneeeerrrraaaallll. (At Duke,
311: the default is ``general''. As distributed by Berkeley, the
312: default is ``general,all.general''. The Columbus default is
313: ``general,osg.general''. Another popular default is
314: ``all''.) You can change this by creating a file in your
315: home directory named ".newsrc" in which contains as its
316: first line a line of the form:
317:
318: options -n newsgroup newsgroup newsgroup ...
319:
320: If your lines get too long, you can continue them on subse-
321: quent lines by beginning those lines with a space. (The
322: netnews system will put extra lines in this file to record
323: which articles you have read. You should ignore these lines
324: unless you want to edit them.) For example, if you are
325:
326:
327:
328: April 8, 1983
329:
330:
331:
332:
333:
334: - 6 -
335:
336:
337: creating a subscription list for the first time, and have
338: already read news, you will find some text already in your
339: ._n_e_w_s_r_c file, recording which articles you have read. You
340: should put your ooooppppttttiiiioooonnnnssss line before the first line of the
341: file.) Thus,
342:
343: options -n general net.general fa.human-nets
344:
345: will subscribe to those three newsgroups.
346:
347: A ``!'' can be used to exclude certain newsgroups and
348: the word aaaallllllll can be used as a wild card, representing any
349: newsgroup. You can also use aaaallllllll as a prefix or suffix to
350: match a class of newsgroups. For example,
351:
352: options -n all !fa.all !net.jokes !all.unix-all
353:
354: will result in a subscription to all newsgroups except for
355: arpanet news, jokes, and any UNIX information. The meta-
356: character ``.'' is like ``/'' to the shell, and ``all'' is
357: like ``*''.
358:
359: A simpler way to subscribe to news it to subscribe to
360: ``all'', and then use the ``U'' readnews command to unsub-
361: scribe to newsgroups you don't want to read. This way you
362: will see new newsgroups that are created, get a chance to
363: evaluate them, and then unsubscribe to those that don't
364: interest you.
365:
366: SSSSuuuubbbbmmmmiiiittttttttiiiinnnngggg AAAArrrrttttiiiicccclllleeeessss
367:
368: To submit a new news article type
369:
370: ppppoooossssttttnnnneeeewwwwssss
371:
372: You will be prompted for the newsgroup, title, and distribu-
373: tion on your terminal. Then you will be placed in the edi-
374: tor. Enter the text of your article, after the blank line,
375: and exit the editor. The article will be posted to the
376: newsgroups specified. If you change your mind about the
377: headers while you are still in the editor, you can edit them
378: as well. Extra headers can also be added before the blank
379: line.
380:
381: The distribution line controls how widely your article
382: will be distributed. Often, you'll just hit return, causing
383: the article to go as far as the newsgroup name implies,
384: e.g., ``usa.general'' would be distributed to all USENET
385: sites in the USA. If you do want to change the distribu-
386: tion, type in the name of the newsgroup class you want it
387: distributed to. Although any newsgroup name can be used
388: here, ordinarily you'll just type the name of the newsgroup
389: class, e.g. ``usa'', ``net'', ``nj'', etc. (``net'' arti-
390: cles go to the entire world, not just the USA.) For example,
391:
392:
393:
394: April 8, 1983
395:
396:
397:
398:
399:
400: - 7 -
401:
402:
403: to post an announcement of a science fiction film festival
404: in New Jersey, you wouldn't want to send it out to the whole
405: world, or even the whole United States. You could post to
406: ``net.sf-lovers'' with a distribution of ``nj''. When you
407: post something to the net, and you are prompted for the dis-
408: tribution, please think for a minute about who would be
409: interested in reading your message. Sending messages to
410: people who have no interest in them is one of the most
411: annoying problems on the net today.
412:
413: If your article is related to a previous article, you
414: should use the ``f'' (followup) command to readnews, instead
415: of posting a new article. This creates an article with
416: references to the previous article, so that persons unin-
417: terested in the topic can shut it off. Postnews should only
418: be used to start a new discussion.
419:
420: FFFFrrrroooommmm tttthhhheeee AAAARRRRPPPPAAAANNNNEEEETTTT
421:
422: Certain newsgroups have different conventions for post-
423: ing news. Rather than using iiiinnnneeeewwwwssss, ppppoooossssttttnnnneeeewwwwssss, or the ffffoooollll----
424: lllloooowwwwuuuupppp command, the convention is to send mail to a particu-
425: lar electronic mailing address. All the ffffaaaa (from the
426: ARPANET) newsgroups are in this category. Although it is
427: possible to post news directly to the newsgroup, you should
428: not do this. The reason is the nature of the distribution.
429:
430: ffffaaaa newsgroups are electronic mailing lists on the
431: ARPANET. A number of people on the ARPANET get the mailings
432: directly from the mailing lists. One entry on each mailing
433: list is of the form ``ppppoooosssstttt----_n_e_w_s_g_r_o_u_p@@@@BBBBeeeerrrrkkkkeeeelllleeeeyyyy'' which is fed
434: into a program that posts the article on newsgroup
435: ``ffffaaaa...._n_e_w_s_g_r_o_u_p''. From there it is distributed to the other
436: sites on USENET.
437:
438: If you post an article directly to the newsgroup, you
439: will reach all the readers of that newsgroup on USENET, but
440: you will miss all the people getting the direct mailing on
441: the ARPANET. The correct way to post news to an ffffaaaa news-
442: group is to send electronic mail to the address listed in
443: the header of an article on this newsgroup (often an ARPANET
444: address). To follow up an ffffaaaa article, use the rrrreeeeppppllllyyyy command
445: of rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss, not the ffffoooolllllllloooowwww----uuuupppp command. This will insure
446: that ARPANET members also see the reply. Replying directly
447: to the author is difficult, and requires that you have the
448: capability to send ARPANET mail. The return address of the
449: author (on the ARPANET) is usually in the first line of the
450: article.
451:
452: BBBBrrrroooowwwwssssiiiinnnngggg tttthhhhrrrroooouuuugggghhhh OOOOlllldddd NNNNeeeewwwwssss
453:
454: There are a number of command line options to the rrrreeeeaaaadddd----
455: nnnneeeewwwwssss command to help you find an old article you want to see
456: again. The ----nnnn _n_e_w_s_g_r_o_u_p_s option restricts your search to
457:
458:
459:
460: April 8, 1983
461:
462:
463:
464:
465:
466: - 8 -
467:
468:
469: certain newsgroups. The ----xxxx option arranges to ignore the
470: record of articles read, which is kept in your ._n_e_w_s_r_c file.
471: This will cause all articles in all newsgroups to which you
472: subscribe to be displayed, even those which you have already
473: seen. It also causes rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss to not update the ._n_e_w_s_r_c
474: file. The ----aaaa _d_a_t_e option asks for news received since the
475: given _d_a_t_e. Note that even with the ----aaaa option, only arti-
476: cles you have not already seen will be printed, unless you
477: combine it with the ----xxxx option. (Articles are kept on file
478: until they expire, typically after two weeks.) The ----tttt _k_e_y_-
479: _w_o_r_d_s option restricts the query to articles mentioning one
480: of the _k_e_y_w_o_r_d_s in the title of the article. Thus, the com-
481: mand
482:
483: rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss ----nnnn net.unix-wizards ----xxxx ----aaaa last thursday ----tttt setuid
484:
485: asks for all articles in newsgroup net.unix-wizards since
486: last thursday about the setuid feature. (Be careful with
487: the -t option. The above example will not find articles
488: about ``suid'', nor about ``Setuid'', nor will it find arti-
489: cles with no title or whose author did not use the word
490: ``setuid'' in the title.)
491:
492: Other useful options include the ----llll option (which lists
493: only the headers of articles - a useful form for browsing
494: through lots of messages). The ----pppp option prints the mes-
495: sages without asking for any input; this is similar to some
496: older nnnneeeewwwwssss programs on many UNIX systems and is useful for
497: directing output to a printer. The ----rrrr option produces arti-
498: cles in reverse order, from newest to oldest.
499:
500: UUUUsssseeeerrrr IIIInnnntttteeeerrrrffffaaaacccceeeessss
501:
502: The _u_s_e_r _i_n_t_e_r_f_a_c_e of a program is the face it presents
503: to the user, that is, what it prints and what it allows you
504: to type. Readnews has options allowing you to use different
505: user interfaces. The interface described above is called
506: the ``msgs'' interface because it mimics the style of the
507: Berkeley mmmmssssggggssss program. (This program, in turn, mimics a
508: program at MIT of the same name.) The key element of the
509: msgs interface is that after printing the header, you are
510: asked if you want the rest of the message.
511:
512: Another interface is available with the ----cccc option. In
513: this case, the entire message is printed, header and body,
514: and you are prompted at the end of the message. The command
515: options are the same as the msgs interface, but it is usu-
516: ally not necessary to use the ``----'' suffix on the reply,
517: save, or followup commands. This interface is called the
518: ``/bin/mail'' (pronounced _b_i_n_n _m_a_i_l) interface, because it
519: mimics the UNIX program of that name.
520:
521: A third interface is the _M_a_i_l (pronounced _c_a_p _m_a_i_l)
522: interface, available with the ----MMMM option. This invokes the
523:
524:
525:
526: April 8, 1983
527:
528:
529:
530:
531:
532: - 9 -
533:
534:
535: MMMMaaaaiiiillll program directly, and allows you to read news with the
536: same commands as you read mail. (This interface may not
537: work on your system - it requires a special version of Mail
538: with a ----TTTT option.)
539:
540: A fourth interface, if you have it, is the MH news pro-
541: gram from Rand. That program can be used directly to read
542: network news.
543:
544: A fifth possibility is to use your favorite mail system
545: as an interface. There are a number of different mail read-
546: ing programs, including /bin/mail, Mail, msg, and MH. Any
547: mail system with an option to specify an alternative mailbox
548: can be used to read news. For example, to use Mail without
549: the ----MMMM option, type
550:
551: rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss ----cccc "Mail -f %"
552:
553: The shell command in quotes is invoked as a child of rrrreeeeaaaadddd----
554: nnnneeeewwwwssss.... The -f option to Mail names the alternative mailbox.
555: Readnews will put the news in a temporary file, and give the
556: name of this file to the mailer in place of the ``%''.
557: There is an important difference when using this kind of
558: interface. The mailers do not give any indication of which
559: articles you read and which ones you skipped. Readnews will
560: assume you read _a_l_l the articles, even if you didn't, and
561: mark them all read. By contrast, the ----MMMM option uses the ----TTTT
562: option to Mail, asking Mail to tell readnews which articles
563: you read.
564:
565: GGGGeeeettttttttiiiinnnngggg NNNNeeeewwwwssss wwwwhhhheeeennnn yyyyoooouuuu LLLLoooogggg IIIInnnn
566:
567: Most users like to be told when they first log in if
568: there is any news. This way they are reminded of news, but
569: are not interrupted by it during the day. If you log in
570: once in the morning, you can think of getting the news as
571: reading the morning newspaper. It is common to put a cccchhhheeeecccckkkk----
572: nnnneeeewwwwssss or rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss command in your ._p_r_o_f_i_l_e or ._l_o_g_i_n file of
573: commands that happen when you log in.
574:
575: Since there might not be any news, and since the rrrreeeeaaaadddd----
576: nnnneeeewwwwssss command goes to a considerable amount of work to find
577: all unread news (assuming you are going to read it), there
578: is another command, called cccchhhheeeecccckkkknnnneeeewwwwssss, which tells you if
579: there is any news. The cccchhhheeeecccckkkknnnneeeewwwwssss command is smaller and
580: faster than rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss, and was designed especially for a
581: login file. There are also options to be silent if there is
582: (or is not) news, and to start up rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss automatically if
583: there is news.
584:
585: The options to cccchhhheeeecccckkkknnnneeeewwwwssss are:
586:
587:
588:
589:
590:
591:
592: April 8, 1983
593:
594:
595:
596:
597:
598: - 10 -
599:
600:
601: ----yyyy Print ``There is news'' if there is any
602: unread news.
603:
604: ----vvvv If ----yyyy is also given, instead of printing
605: ``There is news'', print ``News: _n_e_w_s_g_r_o_u_p
606: ...'' giving the name of the first newsgroup
607: containing unread news. If ggggeeeennnneeeerrrraaaallll is the
608: first newsgroup presented, this can be used
609: to tell users whether the unread news is
610: important.
611:
612: ----nnnn Print ``No news'' if there is no unread
613: news.
614:
615: ----eeee If there is any unread news, start up rrrreeeeaaaadddd----
616: nnnneeeewwwwssss.... Any additional arguments after the ----eeee
617: will be passed to readnews.
618:
619: Thus, ``cccchhhheeeecccckkkknnnneeeewwwwssss ----yyyynnnn'' tells you whether there is any
620: unread news. ``cccchhhheeeecccckkkknnnneeeewwwwssss ----eeee ----MMMM'' starts up rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss with
621: the Mail interface if there is news, and otherwise does
622: nothing. ``cccchhhheeeecccckkkknnnneeeewwwwssss ----yyyy'' tells you if there is news, and
623: is silent if there is no news.
624:
625: CCCCrrrreeeeaaaattttiiiinnnngggg NNNNeeeewwww NNNNeeeewwwwssssggggrrrroooouuuuppppssss
626:
627: New newsgroups are created by the users. To create a
628: newsgroup, first post an article an appropriate ggggeeeennnneeeerrrraaaallll
629: newsgroup suggesting the new newsgroup, (for example, for a
630: new nnnneeeetttt or ffffaaaa newsgroup, post to nnnneeeetttt....ggggeeeennnneeeerrrraaaallll, for a new
631: local newsgroup, post to ggggeeeennnneeeerrrraaaallll) with another copy to
632: nnnneeeetttt....nnnneeeewwwwssss....ggggrrrroooouuuupppp, for example:
633:
634: postnews
635: Subject: suggested new newsgroup on literature
636: Newsgroups: net.general,net.news.group
637:
638: Other users will follow-up to net.news.group, giving opin-
639: ions about whether the suggested newsgroup makes sense,
640: should have a different name, etc.
641:
642: When agreement is reached and it is established that
643: there is interest in the topic, ask your local netnews
644: administrator to create the newsgroup. (It can actually be
645: created by any netnews administrator anywhere on the net,
646: within the scope of the newsgroup.) Once the newsgroup is
647: created and the first article has been posted, the newsgroup
648: is available for all interested persons to post to.
649:
650: LLLLiiiisssstttt ooooffff NNNNeeeewwwwssssggggrrrroooouuuuppppssss
651:
652: This section lists the newsgroups that are currently
653: active. It is intended to help you decide what you want to
654: subscribe to. Note that the list is constantly changing.
655:
656:
657:
658: April 8, 1983
659:
660:
661:
662:
663:
664: - 11 -
665:
666:
667: New newsgroups are created at the rate of about five per
668: month, and old newsgroups often fall into disuse. Note also
669: that this list is specially tailored for the Berkeley sites.
670: It is recommended that other installations edit the list of
671: local newsgroups to fit their installation before distribut-
672: ing this document to their users. If this is not possible,
673: a local appendix can be created.
674:
675: LLLLooooccccaaaallll
676:
677: Local groups are kept on the current machine only.
678: Local names can be identified by the lack of a prefix, that
679: is, there are no periods in local newsgroup names.
680:
681: general News to be read by everyone on the local
682: machine. For example: The system will be
683: down Monday morning for PM. Or, a new ver-
684: sion of program x has been installed. This
685: newsgroup is usually mandatory - you are
686: required to subscribe to this newsgroup.
687: (The list of mandatory newsgroups varies
688: locally.) This requirement assures that
689: important announcements reach all users.
690: (Formerly mmmmssssggggssss.)
691:
692: uuuuccccbbbb
693:
694: Ucb groups are sent to all USENET machines at Berkeley.
695:
696: ucb.general Read by everyone on all ucb machines.
697: (Formerly aaaallllllllmmmmssssggggssss.) For example: ASUC elec-
698: tions are Tuesday: everyone be sure to vote!
699:
700: ucb.eats Contributions to the U. C. Berkeley Eats
701: guide to local restaurants.
702:
703: ucb.cs Topics of interest to the Computer Science
704: Division, such as new class offerings.
705: (Formerly ccccssssmmmmssssggggssss.)
706:
707: ucb.talks Announcements of seminars, talks, and spe-
708: cial classes to be held on campus.
709:
710: ucb.su-talks Announcements of seminars to be held at
711: Stanford. (This could be from the group
712: su.talks at Stanford, for example.)
713:
714: ucb.bboard An electronic bulletin board. For example:
715: ``Apartment for rent'', ``where can I get my
716: car fixed'', ``does anyone know of someone
717: who rents terminals to students''.
718:
719:
720:
721:
722:
723:
724: April 8, 1983
725:
726:
727:
728:
729:
730: - 12 -
731:
732:
733: ucb.jobs Job offerings in the area.
734:
735: ucb.prelims Discussion of EECS preliminary exams for the
736: Ph.D.
737:
738: ffffaaaa
739:
740: FA groups are "from the arpanet" and are mostly copies
741: of mailing lists or ``digests'' distributed on that network.
742: (A digest is a collection of mail put together by an editor
743: and sent out every so often. It is much like a newsletter.)
744: A special convention applies to submissions to FA news-
745: groups. As previously described, you should not post
746: directly to the newsgroup, since this will be seen by people
747: on USENET but not by the people on the arpanet who get the
748: list directly mailed to them. Instead, send mail to the
749: return address on any article, by using the reply command to
750: rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss. For example, to post to ffffaaaa....hhhhuuuummmmaaaannnn----nnnneeeettttssss, the reply
751: command might mail to cccchhhhiiiiccccoooo!!!!uuuuccccbbbbvvvvaaaaxxxx!!!!CCCC77770000::::hhhhuuuummmmaaaannnn----nnnneeeettttssss (if chico
752: is the proper route to get to ucbvax - this route varies
753: depending on your system). FA groups and their correspond-
754: ing mailing lists can reach a very large user community,
755: including USENET sites on UUCP, Berknet, BLN, and the
756: ARPANET, as well as sites on the ARPANET which are not on
757: USENET, who get the news via direct electronic mailing.
758:
759: fa.arms-d People worried about nukes.
760:
761: fa.arpa-bboard Announcements that are posted to all arpanet
762: bboards are also fed into this newsgroup.
763:
764: fa.digest-p People who deal with digests. Mostly the
765: people who moderate them.
766:
767: fa.editor-p Interest group in computer editors, both
768: text and program.
769:
770: fa.energy Topics relating to alternate energy produc-
771: tion, conservation, etc.
772:
773: fa.human-nets A daily moderated digest with discussions of
774: computer-aided human-to-human communica-
775: tions. Probably the most widely read
776: ARPANET publication.
777:
778: fa.info-cpm CP/M and other operating systems for micro
779: computers.
780:
781: fa.info-micro Micro processor discussions.
782:
783: fa.info-terms Opinions/queries about what's a good/bad
784: computer terminal.
785:
786:
787:
788:
789:
790: April 8, 1983
791:
792:
793:
794:
795:
796: - 13 -
797:
798:
799: fa.info-vax VAX interest group. Seems to be mostly VMS
800: issues, but some hardware discussions too.
801:
802: fa.poli-sci Political Science discussions digest.
803:
804: fa.sf-lovers Science Fiction book/movie reviews, etc.
805:
806: fa.space Digest containing comments on the space pro-
807: gram and outer space in general.
808:
809: fa.tcp-ip Digest relating to the TCP and IP network
810: protocols.
811:
812: fa.telecom Technical topics relating to telecommunica-
813: tions, especially the telephone system. A
814: digest recently spun off from fa.human-nets.
815:
816: fa.teletext Teletext discusses all aspects of ``eso-
817: teric'' data systems. This includes
818: teletext, viewdata, closed-captioning, and
819: digicasting.
820:
821: fa.unix-cpm CPM/UNIX discussions.
822:
823: fa.works Interest group on personal workstations
824: (e.g. Apollo, Perq, Xerox Star, etc).
825:
826: nnnneeeetttt
827:
828: Net groups are intended to be available to all people
829: on the entire network who read netnews. This does not mean
830: they go to every machine, since some machines restrict the
831: volume of news that comes in. It is assumed that users of
832: such restricted machines can read news on another machine on
833: which they have a login. Net groups reach all of USENET
834: (including USENET sites on the ARPANET) but do not reach any
835: sites that are not on USENET. That is, USENET is defined as
836: all sites that nnnneeeetttt....ggggeeeennnneeeerrrraaaallll reaches.
837:
838: This list is already out of date. An up to date list
839: is posted to newsgroup net.news periodically. See the docu-
840: mentation file ``doc/nglist'' for a more recent list.
841:
842: net.general Articles to be read by everyone on the whole
843: net.
844:
845: net.applic Functional programming (applicative)
846: languages.
847:
848: net.auto Notes of interest to owners of particular
849: cars. Main subgroup is nnnneeeetttt....aaaauuuuttttoooo....vvvvwwww for own-
850: ers of Volkswagon Rabbits.
851:
852:
853:
854:
855:
856: April 8, 1983
857:
858:
859:
860:
861:
862: - 14 -
863:
864:
865: net.aviation Private pilots.
866:
867: net.bugs Bug reports and fixes. Subscribing to
868: nnnneeeetttt....bbbbuuuuggggssss gets all bug reports, but bugs are
869: normally posted to one of nnnneeeetttt....bbbbuuuuggggssss....2222bbbbssssdddd,
870: nnnneeeetttt....bbbbuuuuggggssss....4444bbbbssssdddd, nnnneeeetttt....bbbbuuuuggggssss....vvvv7777, or nnnneeeetttt....bbbbuuuuggggssss....uuuussssgggg,
871: (for the 2nd and 4th Berkeley Software Dis-
872: tribution, Version 7, or UNIX system III &
873: V,) as appropriate.
874:
875: net.chess Interest group for computer chess. This
876: newsgroup is gatewayed into an ARPANET mail-
877: ing list but appears as a normal newsgroup
878: to USENET, so it is called nnnneeeetttt....cccchhhheeeessssssss instead
879: of ffffaaaa....cccchhhheeeessssssss.
880:
881: net.columbia Newswire items and comments on the Space
882: Shuttle, and on the space program in gen-
883: eral.
884:
885: net.cooks Food, cooking, cookbooks, and recipies.
886:
887: net.cycle Motorcycle interest group.
888:
889: net.eunice Topics of interest to sites running SRI's
890: Eunice system, which simulates UNIX on VMS.
891:
892: net.games Discussion of computer games (of the
893: /usr/games/variety). Subgroups include
894: nnnneeeetttt....ggggaaaammmmeeeessss....rrrroooogggguuuueeee, nnnneeeetttt....ggggaaaammmmeeeessss....ffffrrrrpppp (for fantasy
895: role playing games,) and nnnneeeetttt....ggggaaaammmmeeeessss....ttttrrrriiiivvvviiiiaaaa.
896:
897: net.ham-radio Topics of interest to amateur radio opera-
898: tors.
899:
900: net.jokes The latest good joke you've heard. Jokes
901: are expected to be kept clean and unoffen-
902: sive. Offensive jokes can be posted
903: ``encrypted'', by rotating each letter 13
904: places in the alphabet, and mentioning the
905: reason for encryption in the subject. This
906: prevents people from accidently decrypting
907: something that will offend them. (The tr
908: program or /usr/lib/news/caesar can be used
909: to rotate a joke.)
910:
911: net.lan Local area network interest group.
912:
913: net.lsi Large Scale Integrated Circuit discussions.
914:
915: net.misc Miscellaneous discussions that start in
916: net.general but are not permanent enough for
917: their own newsgroup.
918:
919:
920:
921:
922: April 8, 1983
923:
924:
925:
926:
927:
928: - 15 -
929:
930:
931: net.movies Movie reviews by members of USENET.
932:
933: net.music Computer generated music.
934:
935: net.news Discussion of netnews itself. Subgroups
936: discuss or post various aspects of netnews,
937: including nnnneeeetttt....nnnneeeewwwwssss....bbbb for the B version of
938: netnews, nnnneeeetttt....nnnneeeewwwwssss....ggggrrrroooouuuupppp for discussions
939: about proposed new newsgroups, nnnneeeetttt....nnnneeeewwwwssss....mmmmaaaapppp
940: to post maps of USENET or
941: additions/corrections to previously posted
942: maps, nnnneeeetttt....nnnneeeewwwwssss....nnnneeeewwwwssssiiiitttteeee to announce a new
943: site. nnnneeeetttt....nnnneeeewwwwssss itself is used for discus-
944: sions relating to USENET policies and the
945: like, rather than any specific software.
946:
947: net.oa Office Automation/Word Processing interest
948: group.
949:
950: net.periphs Queries and discussions about particular
951: peripherals. (``Does anyone have a driver
952: for a framus-11?'')
953:
954: net.rec Recreational games. This differs from
955: nnnneeeetttt....ssssppppoooorrrrtttt in that nnnneeeetttt....rrrreeeecccc discusses games
956: where one generally participates, but
957: nnnneeeetttt....ssssppppoooorrrrtttt is for spectator sports.
958: nnnneeeetttt....ggggaaaammmmeeeessss is for computer type games. Sub-
959: groups of nnnneeeetttt....rrrreeeecccc include nnnneeeetttt....rrrreeeecccc....bbbbrrrriiiiddddggggeeee for
960: contract bridge discussions, nnnneeeetttt....rrrreeeecccc....ssssccccuuuubbbbaaaa
961: for scuba divers, and nnnneeeetttt....rrrreeeecccc....sssskkkkiiii for
962: skiers.
963:
964: net.records Discussions of phonograph records, albums,
965: record stores, etc.
966:
967: net.rumor For posting of rumors.
968:
969: net.sources Large bulky items are distributed here.
970: People don't usually want to read this news-
971: group, rather it is used for software dis-
972: tribution.
973:
974: net.space Undigested, immediate distribution version
975: of fa.space.
976:
977: net.sport Spectator sports. Subgroups include
978: nnnneeeetttt....ssssppppoooorrrrtttt....bbbbaaaasssseeeebbbbaaaallllllll, nnnneeeetttt....ssssppppoooorrrrtttt....ffffoooooooottttbbbbaaaallllllll, and
979: nnnneeeetttt....ssssppppoooorrrrtttt....hhhhoooocccckkkkeeeeyyyy.
980:
981: net.taxes Tax advice and queries.
982:
983:
984:
985:
986:
987:
988: April 8, 1983
989:
990:
991:
992:
993:
994: - 16 -
995:
996:
997: net.test Test messages are posted here. Generally
998: this is not interesting to ordinary readers.
999: If you must post something here, please
1000: explain why in the message, and please use
1001: the smallest distribution newsgroup (e.g.
1002: test or ucb.test) possible.
1003:
1004: net.travel Requests, suggestions, and opinions about
1005: traveling.
1006:
1007: net.ucds Circuit drawing system.
1008:
1009: net.unix-wizardsARPANET mailing list for UNIX Wizards. Any-
1010: thing and everything relating to UNIX is
1011: discussed here. This list is gatewayed to
1012: the ARPANET mailing list but appears like a
1013: regular nnnneeeetttt newsgroup to USENET.
1014:
1015: net.wines Information and recommendations about wines
1016: and alcoholic beverages.
1017:
1018:
1019:
1020:
1021:
1022:
1023:
1024:
1025:
1026:
1027:
1028:
1029:
1030:
1031:
1032:
1033:
1034:
1035:
1036:
1037:
1038:
1039:
1040:
1041:
1042:
1043:
1044:
1045:
1046:
1047:
1048:
1049:
1050:
1051:
1052:
1053:
1054: April 8, 1983
1055:
1056:
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