![[BACK]](/cvsweb/icons/back.gif){kind=icon}
Return to howto CVS log ![[TXT]](/cvsweb/icons/text.gif){kind=icon}
![[DIR]](/cvsweb/icons/dir.gif){kind=icon}
Up to [Research Unix] / researchv10no / cmd / netnews / doc|
Return to howto CVS log | Up to [Research Unix] / researchv10no / cmd / netnews / doc |
researchv10 Norman
HHHHoooowwww ttttoooo RRRReeeeaaaadddd tttthhhheeee NNNNeeeettttwwwwoooorrrrkkkk NNNNeeeewwwwssss
Mark R. Horton
Bell Telephone Laboratories
Columbus, Ohio 43213
WWWWhhhhaaaatttt iiiissss tttthhhheeee NNNNeeeettttwwwwoooorrrrkkkk NNNNeeeewwwwssss????
USENET (Users' Network) is a bulletin board shared
among many computer systems in the computer science commun-
ity, around the United States and Canada. USENET is a logi-
cal network, sitting on top of several physical networks,
including uuuuuuuuccccpppp, BBBBLLLLIIIICCCCNNNN, BBBBeeeerrrrkkkknnnneeeetttt, and the AAAARRRRPPPPAAAANNNNEEEETTTT. Sites on
USENET include many universities, private companies and
research organizations. Most of the members of USENET are
either university Computer Science departments, or part of
Bell Telephone Laboratories. Currently, most USENET sites
run the UNIX* operating system.
The network news, or simply _n_e_t_n_e_w_s, is the set of pro-
grams that provide access to the news, and transfer it from
one machine to the next. Netnews was originally written at
Duke University, and has been modified extensively by the
University of California at Berkeley. Netnews allows arti-
cles to be posted for limited or very wide distribution.
This document contains a list of newsgroups that were active
at the time it was written, to assist you in determining
which newsgroups you may want to subscribe to. When creat-
ing a new article, the level of distribution is controlled
by specifying the newsgroup.
Any user can post an article, which will be sent out to
the network to be read by persons interested in that topic.
A user can specify which topics he or she is interested in
via a _s_u_b_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n _l_i_s_t. Then, whenever he asks to read
news, he will be presented with all articles of interest
that he has not yet read. There are also facilities for
browsing through old news, posting follow-up articles, and
sending direct electronic mail replies to the author of an
article.
This paper is a tutorial, aimed at the user who wants
__________________________
*UNIX is a Trademark of Bell Laboratories.
April 8, 1983
- 2 -
to read and possibly post news. The system administrator
who must install the software should see the companion docu-
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.
WWWWhhhhyyyy UUUUSSSSEEEENNNNEEEETTTT????
USENET is useful in a number of ways. Someone wishing
to announce a new program or product can reach a wide audi-
ence. A user can ask ``Does anyone have an _x?'' and will
usually get several responses within a day or two. Bug
reports and their fixes can be made quickly available
without the usual overhead of sending out mass mailings.
Discussions involving many people at different locations can
take place without having to get everyone together.
Another facility with similar capabilities to _n_e_t_n_e_w_s
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-
tion of electronic mailing addresses of users who are
interested in a particular topic. By sending electronic
mail to the list, all users on the list receive a copy of
the article. While the mailing list facility is quite use-
ful, USENET offers a number of advantages not present in
mailing lists. Getting yourself on a mailing list is not
always easy. You have to figure out who maintains the list
and ask them to put you on it. Often these people are out
of town or busy, and don't put you on the list for several
days. Sometimes you have to send mail to the entire mailing
list, hoping that one of the readers will tell you who main-
tains the list. Once you are on the list, you often find
yourself in the middle of a discussion. Netnews keeps old
articles around until they expire (usually about two weeks)
so you can browse through old news to catch up on what you
missed. Similarly, referring to an old article is easy,
without having to keep a personal file of all old mail to
the list.
Another advantage is appreciated by the other users of
the system. There is less overhead in having only one copy
of each message sent to each machine, instead of having
separate copies sent to each of several users on the same
machine. This cuts down on computer time to process the
messages, and on line costs for telephone calls to transfer
messages from one machine to another (when phone lines are
used). Another advantage is in the disk space consumed.
When only one message is sent to each system, only one copy
of the message is kept on disk. In a mailing list environ-
ment, each user has a copy in his mailbox.
HHHHoooowwww ddddoooo IIII RRRReeeeaaaadddd NNNNeeeewwwwssss????
In the USENET jargon, interest topics are called _n_e_w_s_-
_g_r_o_u_p_s. A newsgroup list appears in a later section,
current as this paper was written. You have your own _s_u_b_-
_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n _l_i_s_t of newsgroups to which you are said to
April 8, 1983
- 3 -
_s_u_b_s_c_r_i_b_e.
To read news, type the command
rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss
Each newsgroup to which you subscribe will be presented, one
article at a time. As each article is presented, you will
be shown the _h_e_a_d_e_r (containing the name of the author, the
subject, and the length of the article) and you will be
asked if you want more. There are a number of possible
choices you can make at this point. The three most common
(y, n, and q) are suggested by the program. (To see a com-
plete list of possible responses, type ``????'' for help.) You
can type ``yyyy'' for ``yes'' (or simply hit return) and the
rest of the message will be displayed. (If the message is
long, it may stop before it runs off the top of the screen.
Type space or return to see more of the message. If _r_e_a_d_-
_n_e_w_s prints a ``:'' at the end of a long message, it's wait-
ing for you to finish reading the message. Hit return and
it will go on to the next message.) Another choice you can
make is ``nnnn'' for ``no''. This means you are not interested
in the message - it will not be offered to you again. A
third option is ``qqqq'' for ``quit''. This causes a record to
be made of which articles you read (or refused) and you will
exit netnews. When you have read all the news, this happens
automatically. The quit command is mainly useful if you are
in a hurry and don't have time to read all the news right
now. (Many users put a rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss or cccchhhheeeecccckkkknnnneeeewwwwssss command in
their ._p_r_o_f_i_l_e or ._l_o_g_i_n files so that they will see new
news each time they log in.)
If you are reading news for the first time, you may
find yourself swamped by the volume of unread news, espe-
cially if the default subscription is ``all''. Don't let
this bother you. If you are getting newsgroups which you
have no interest, you can change your subscription list (see
below). Also, bear in mind that what you see is probably at
least two weeks accumulation of news. If you want to just
get rid of all old news and start anew, type
readnews -p -n all > /dev/null &
which will throw away all old news, recording that you have
seen it all. (The '&' puts it in the background; chances
are that there is so much old news on your machine that you
won't want to wait for it all.)
Once you catch up (or ignore) all the old news, the
news will come in daily at a more manageable rate. (If the
daily rate is still too much you may wish to unsubscribe to
some of the high volume newsgroups.) Finally, note that
while an article is printing, you can hit DDDDEEEELLLLEEEETTTTEEEE which will
throw away the rest of the article.
April 8, 1983
- 4 -
Among the other commands you can type after seeing the
header of an article are:
xxxx Exit readnews. This is different from qqqquuuuiiiitttt
in that the quit command will update the
record of which articles you have read, but
the exit command will pretend you never
started readnews.
NNNN Go on to the next newsgroup. The remaining
articles in the current newsgroup are con-
sidered ``unread'' and will be offered to
you again the next time you read news.
ssss _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e The article is saved in a disk file with the
given name. In practice, what usually hap-
pens is that an article is printed, and then
_r_e_a_d_n_e_w_s goes on to print the header of the
next article before you get a chance to type
anything. So you usually want to write out
the _p_r_e_v_i_o_u_s message (the last one you have
read in full); in this case, use the form
``ssss---- _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e''.
eeee Erase the memory of having seen this arti-
cle. It will be offered to you again next
time, as though you had never seen it. The
``eeee----'' case is useful for checking followups
to see if anyone has already said what you
wanted to say.
rrrr Reply to the author of the message. You
will be placed in the editor, with a set of
headers derived from the message you are
replying to. Type in your message after the
blank line. If you wish to edit the header
list, to add more recipients or send carbon
copies, for instance, you can edit the
header lines. Anyone listed on a line
beginning with ``To: '' or ``Cc: '' will
receive a copy of your reply. A mmmmaaaaiiiillll com-
mand will then be started up, addressed to
the persons listed in the header. You are
then returned to readnews. The case rrrr---- is
also useful to reply to the previous mes-
sage. Another variation on this is rrrrdddd----
which puts you in $MAILER (or ``mail'' by
default) to type in your reply directly.
ffff Post a follow-up message to the same news-
group. This posts an article on this news-
group with the same title as the original
article. Use common sense when posting
follow-ups; many follow-up articles should
April 8, 1983
- 5 -
have just been replies. You will be placed
in the editor - enter your message and exit.
The case ffff---- is also useful to follow up the
previous message. Another case, ffffdddd----, allows
you to directly type in the followup,
without the use of an editor. If you type
this by accident, hit DEL to abort the
follow-up. In each case, the editor you are
placed in will be vvvviiii unless you set EEEEDDDDIIIITTTTOOOORRRR
(in your environment) to some other editor.
You should enter the text of the followup
after the blank line.
++++ The article is skipped for now. The next
time you read news, you will be offered this
article again.
---- Go back to the previous article. This tog-
gles, so that two -'s get you the current
article.
UUUU Unsubscribe from this newsgroup. Your
.newsrc file will be edited to change the
``:'' for that newsgroup to an ``!'',
preventing you from being shown that news-
group again.
? If you type any unrecognized command a sum-
mary of valid commands will be printed.
CCCChhhhaaaannnnggggiiiinnnngggg yyyyoooouuuurrrr SSSSuuuubbbbssssccccrrrriiiippppttttiiiioooonnnn LLLLiiiisssstttt
If you take no special action you will subscribe to a
default subscription list. This default varies locally. To
find out your local default, type
rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss ----ssss
Typically this list will include all newsgroups ending in
``general'', such as ggggeeeennnneeeerrrraaaallll, and nnnneeeetttt....ggggeeeennnneeeerrrraaaallll. (At Duke,
the default is ``general''. As distributed by Berkeley, the
default is ``general,all.general''. The Columbus default is
``general,osg.general''. Another popular default is
``all''.) You can change this by creating a file in your
home directory named ".newsrc" in which contains as its
first line a line of the form:
options -n newsgroup newsgroup newsgroup ...
If your lines get too long, you can continue them on subse-
quent lines by beginning those lines with a space. (The
netnews system will put extra lines in this file to record
which articles you have read. You should ignore these lines
unless you want to edit them.) For example, if you are
April 8, 1983
- 6 -
creating a subscription list for the first time, and have
already read news, you will find some text already in your
._n_e_w_s_r_c file, recording which articles you have read. You
should put your ooooppppttttiiiioooonnnnssss line before the first line of the
file.) Thus,
options -n general net.general fa.human-nets
will subscribe to those three newsgroups.
A ``!'' can be used to exclude certain newsgroups and
the word aaaallllllll can be used as a wild card, representing any
newsgroup. You can also use aaaallllllll as a prefix or suffix to
match a class of newsgroups. For example,
options -n all !fa.all !net.jokes !all.unix-all
will result in a subscription to all newsgroups except for
arpanet news, jokes, and any UNIX information. The meta-
character ``.'' is like ``/'' to the shell, and ``all'' is
like ``*''.
A simpler way to subscribe to news it to subscribe to
``all'', and then use the ``U'' readnews command to unsub-
scribe to newsgroups you don't want to read. This way you
will see new newsgroups that are created, get a chance to
evaluate them, and then unsubscribe to those that don't
interest you.
SSSSuuuubbbbmmmmiiiittttttttiiiinnnngggg AAAArrrrttttiiiicccclllleeeessss
To submit a new news article type
ppppoooossssttttnnnneeeewwwwssss
You will be prompted for the newsgroup, title, and distribu-
tion on your terminal. Then you will be placed in the edi-
tor. Enter the text of your article, after the blank line,
and exit the editor. The article will be posted to the
newsgroups specified. If you change your mind about the
headers while you are still in the editor, you can edit them
as well. Extra headers can also be added before the blank
line.
The distribution line controls how widely your article
will be distributed. Often, you'll just hit return, causing
the article to go as far as the newsgroup name implies,
e.g., ``usa.general'' would be distributed to all USENET
sites in the USA. If you do want to change the distribu-
tion, type in the name of the newsgroup class you want it
distributed to. Although any newsgroup name can be used
here, ordinarily you'll just type the name of the newsgroup
class, e.g. ``usa'', ``net'', ``nj'', etc. (``net'' arti-
cles go to the entire world, not just the USA.) For example,
April 8, 1983
- 7 -
to post an announcement of a science fiction film festival
in New Jersey, you wouldn't want to send it out to the whole
world, or even the whole United States. You could post to
``net.sf-lovers'' with a distribution of ``nj''. When you
post something to the net, and you are prompted for the dis-
tribution, please think for a minute about who would be
interested in reading your message. Sending messages to
people who have no interest in them is one of the most
annoying problems on the net today.
If your article is related to a previous article, you
should use the ``f'' (followup) command to readnews, instead
of posting a new article. This creates an article with
references to the previous article, so that persons unin-
terested in the topic can shut it off. Postnews should only
be used to start a new discussion.
FFFFrrrroooommmm tttthhhheeee AAAARRRRPPPPAAAANNNNEEEETTTT
Certain newsgroups have different conventions for post-
ing news. Rather than using iiiinnnneeeewwwwssss, ppppoooossssttttnnnneeeewwwwssss, or the ffffoooollll----
lllloooowwwwuuuupppp command, the convention is to send mail to a particu-
lar electronic mailing address. All the ffffaaaa (from the
ARPANET) newsgroups are in this category. Although it is
possible to post news directly to the newsgroup, you should
not do this. The reason is the nature of the distribution.
ffffaaaa newsgroups are electronic mailing lists on the
ARPANET. A number of people on the ARPANET get the mailings
directly from the mailing lists. One entry on each mailing
list is of the form ``ppppoooosssstttt----_n_e_w_s_g_r_o_u_p@@@@BBBBeeeerrrrkkkkeeeelllleeeeyyyy'' which is fed
into a program that posts the article on newsgroup
``ffffaaaa...._n_e_w_s_g_r_o_u_p''. From there it is distributed to the other
sites on USENET.
If you post an article directly to the newsgroup, you
will reach all the readers of that newsgroup on USENET, but
you will miss all the people getting the direct mailing on
the ARPANET. The correct way to post news to an ffffaaaa news-
group is to send electronic mail to the address listed in
the header of an article on this newsgroup (often an ARPANET
address). To follow up an ffffaaaa article, use the rrrreeeeppppllllyyyy command
of rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss, not the ffffoooolllllllloooowwww----uuuupppp command. This will insure
that ARPANET members also see the reply. Replying directly
to the author is difficult, and requires that you have the
capability to send ARPANET mail. The return address of the
author (on the ARPANET) is usually in the first line of the
article.
BBBBrrrroooowwwwssssiiiinnnngggg tttthhhhrrrroooouuuugggghhhh OOOOlllldddd NNNNeeeewwwwssss
There are a number of command line options to the rrrreeeeaaaadddd----
nnnneeeewwwwssss command to help you find an old article you want to see
again. The ----nnnn _n_e_w_s_g_r_o_u_p_s option restricts your search to
April 8, 1983
- 8 -
certain newsgroups. The ----xxxx option arranges to ignore the
record of articles read, which is kept in your ._n_e_w_s_r_c file.
This will cause all articles in all newsgroups to which you
subscribe to be displayed, even those which you have already
seen. It also causes rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss to not update the ._n_e_w_s_r_c
file. The ----aaaa _d_a_t_e option asks for news received since the
given _d_a_t_e. Note that even with the ----aaaa option, only arti-
cles you have not already seen will be printed, unless you
combine it with the ----xxxx option. (Articles are kept on file
until they expire, typically after two weeks.) The ----tttt _k_e_y_-
_w_o_r_d_s option restricts the query to articles mentioning one
of the _k_e_y_w_o_r_d_s in the title of the article. Thus, the com-
mand
rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss ----nnnn net.unix-wizards ----xxxx ----aaaa last thursday ----tttt setuid
asks for all articles in newsgroup net.unix-wizards since
last thursday about the setuid feature. (Be careful with
the -t option. The above example will not find articles
about ``suid'', nor about ``Setuid'', nor will it find arti-
cles with no title or whose author did not use the word
``setuid'' in the title.)
Other useful options include the ----llll option (which lists
only the headers of articles - a useful form for browsing
through lots of messages). The ----pppp option prints the mes-
sages without asking for any input; this is similar to some
older nnnneeeewwwwssss programs on many UNIX systems and is useful for
directing output to a printer. The ----rrrr option produces arti-
cles in reverse order, from newest to oldest.
UUUUsssseeeerrrr IIIInnnntttteeeerrrrffffaaaacccceeeessss
The _u_s_e_r _i_n_t_e_r_f_a_c_e of a program is the face it presents
to the user, that is, what it prints and what it allows you
to type. Readnews has options allowing you to use different
user interfaces. The interface described above is called
the ``msgs'' interface because it mimics the style of the
Berkeley mmmmssssggggssss program. (This program, in turn, mimics a
program at MIT of the same name.) The key element of the
msgs interface is that after printing the header, you are
asked if you want the rest of the message.
Another interface is available with the ----cccc option. In
this case, the entire message is printed, header and body,
and you are prompted at the end of the message. The command
options are the same as the msgs interface, but it is usu-
ally not necessary to use the ``----'' suffix on the reply,
save, or followup commands. This interface is called the
``/bin/mail'' (pronounced _b_i_n_n _m_a_i_l) interface, because it
mimics the UNIX program of that name.
A third interface is the _M_a_i_l (pronounced _c_a_p _m_a_i_l)
interface, available with the ----MMMM option. This invokes the
April 8, 1983
- 9 -
MMMMaaaaiiiillll program directly, and allows you to read news with the
same commands as you read mail. (This interface may not
work on your system - it requires a special version of Mail
with a ----TTTT option.)
A fourth interface, if you have it, is the MH news pro-
gram from Rand. That program can be used directly to read
network news.
A fifth possibility is to use your favorite mail system
as an interface. There are a number of different mail read-
ing programs, including /bin/mail, Mail, msg, and MH. Any
mail system with an option to specify an alternative mailbox
can be used to read news. For example, to use Mail without
the ----MMMM option, type
rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss ----cccc "Mail -f %"
The shell command in quotes is invoked as a child of rrrreeeeaaaadddd----
nnnneeeewwwwssss.... The -f option to Mail names the alternative mailbox.
Readnews will put the news in a temporary file, and give the
name of this file to the mailer in place of the ``%''.
There is an important difference when using this kind of
interface. The mailers do not give any indication of which
articles you read and which ones you skipped. Readnews will
assume you read _a_l_l the articles, even if you didn't, and
mark them all read. By contrast, the ----MMMM option uses the ----TTTT
option to Mail, asking Mail to tell readnews which articles
you read.
GGGGeeeettttttttiiiinnnngggg NNNNeeeewwwwssss wwwwhhhheeeennnn yyyyoooouuuu LLLLoooogggg IIIInnnn
Most users like to be told when they first log in if
there is any news. This way they are reminded of news, but
are not interrupted by it during the day. If you log in
once in the morning, you can think of getting the news as
reading the morning newspaper. It is common to put a cccchhhheeeecccckkkk----
nnnneeeewwwwssss or rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss command in your ._p_r_o_f_i_l_e or ._l_o_g_i_n file of
commands that happen when you log in.
Since there might not be any news, and since the rrrreeeeaaaadddd----
nnnneeeewwwwssss command goes to a considerable amount of work to find
all unread news (assuming you are going to read it), there
is another command, called cccchhhheeeecccckkkknnnneeeewwwwssss, which tells you if
there is any news. The cccchhhheeeecccckkkknnnneeeewwwwssss command is smaller and
faster than rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss, and was designed especially for a
login file. There are also options to be silent if there is
(or is not) news, and to start up rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss automatically if
there is news.
The options to cccchhhheeeecccckkkknnnneeeewwwwssss are:
April 8, 1983
- 10 -
----yyyy Print ``There is news'' if there is any
unread news.
----vvvv If ----yyyy is also given, instead of printing
``There is news'', print ``News: _n_e_w_s_g_r_o_u_p
...'' giving the name of the first newsgroup
containing unread news. If ggggeeeennnneeeerrrraaaallll is the
first newsgroup presented, this can be used
to tell users whether the unread news is
important.
----nnnn Print ``No news'' if there is no unread
news.
----eeee If there is any unread news, start up rrrreeeeaaaadddd----
nnnneeeewwwwssss.... Any additional arguments after the ----eeee
will be passed to readnews.
Thus, ``cccchhhheeeecccckkkknnnneeeewwwwssss ----yyyynnnn'' tells you whether there is any
unread news. ``cccchhhheeeecccckkkknnnneeeewwwwssss ----eeee ----MMMM'' starts up rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss with
the Mail interface if there is news, and otherwise does
nothing. ``cccchhhheeeecccckkkknnnneeeewwwwssss ----yyyy'' tells you if there is news, and
is silent if there is no news.
CCCCrrrreeeeaaaattttiiiinnnngggg NNNNeeeewwww NNNNeeeewwwwssssggggrrrroooouuuuppppssss
New newsgroups are created by the users. To create a
newsgroup, first post an article an appropriate ggggeeeennnneeeerrrraaaallll
newsgroup suggesting the new newsgroup, (for example, for a
new nnnneeeetttt or ffffaaaa newsgroup, post to nnnneeeetttt....ggggeeeennnneeeerrrraaaallll, for a new
local newsgroup, post to ggggeeeennnneeeerrrraaaallll) with another copy to
nnnneeeetttt....nnnneeeewwwwssss....ggggrrrroooouuuupppp, for example:
postnews
Subject: suggested new newsgroup on literature
Newsgroups: net.general,net.news.group
Other users will follow-up to net.news.group, giving opin-
ions about whether the suggested newsgroup makes sense,
should have a different name, etc.
When agreement is reached and it is established that
there is interest in the topic, ask your local netnews
administrator to create the newsgroup. (It can actually be
created by any netnews administrator anywhere on the net,
within the scope of the newsgroup.) Once the newsgroup is
created and the first article has been posted, the newsgroup
is available for all interested persons to post to.
LLLLiiiisssstttt ooooffff NNNNeeeewwwwssssggggrrrroooouuuuppppssss
This section lists the newsgroups that are currently
active. It is intended to help you decide what you want to
subscribe to. Note that the list is constantly changing.
April 8, 1983
- 11 -
New newsgroups are created at the rate of about five per
month, and old newsgroups often fall into disuse. Note also
that this list is specially tailored for the Berkeley sites.
It is recommended that other installations edit the list of
local newsgroups to fit their installation before distribut-
ing this document to their users. If this is not possible,
a local appendix can be created.
LLLLooooccccaaaallll
Local groups are kept on the current machine only.
Local names can be identified by the lack of a prefix, that
is, there are no periods in local newsgroup names.
general News to be read by everyone on the local
machine. For example: The system will be
down Monday morning for PM. Or, a new ver-
sion of program x has been installed. This
newsgroup is usually mandatory - you are
required to subscribe to this newsgroup.
(The list of mandatory newsgroups varies
locally.) This requirement assures that
important announcements reach all users.
(Formerly mmmmssssggggssss.)
uuuuccccbbbb
Ucb groups are sent to all USENET machines at Berkeley.
ucb.general Read by everyone on all ucb machines.
(Formerly aaaallllllllmmmmssssggggssss.) For example: ASUC elec-
tions are Tuesday: everyone be sure to vote!
ucb.eats Contributions to the U. C. Berkeley Eats
guide to local restaurants.
ucb.cs Topics of interest to the Computer Science
Division, such as new class offerings.
(Formerly ccccssssmmmmssssggggssss.)
ucb.talks Announcements of seminars, talks, and spe-
cial classes to be held on campus.
ucb.su-talks Announcements of seminars to be held at
Stanford. (This could be from the group
su.talks at Stanford, for example.)
ucb.bboard An electronic bulletin board. For example:
``Apartment for rent'', ``where can I get my
car fixed'', ``does anyone know of someone
who rents terminals to students''.
April 8, 1983
- 12 -
ucb.jobs Job offerings in the area.
ucb.prelims Discussion of EECS preliminary exams for the
Ph.D.
ffffaaaa
FA groups are "from the arpanet" and are mostly copies
of mailing lists or ``digests'' distributed on that network.
(A digest is a collection of mail put together by an editor
and sent out every so often. It is much like a newsletter.)
A special convention applies to submissions to FA news-
groups. As previously described, you should not post
directly to the newsgroup, since this will be seen by people
on USENET but not by the people on the arpanet who get the
list directly mailed to them. Instead, send mail to the
return address on any article, by using the reply command to
rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss. For example, to post to ffffaaaa....hhhhuuuummmmaaaannnn----nnnneeeettttssss, the reply
command might mail to cccchhhhiiiiccccoooo!!!!uuuuccccbbbbvvvvaaaaxxxx!!!!CCCC77770000::::hhhhuuuummmmaaaannnn----nnnneeeettttssss (if chico
is the proper route to get to ucbvax - this route varies
depending on your system). FA groups and their correspond-
ing mailing lists can reach a very large user community,
including USENET sites on UUCP, Berknet, BLN, and the
ARPANET, as well as sites on the ARPANET which are not on
USENET, who get the news via direct electronic mailing.
fa.arms-d People worried about nukes.
fa.arpa-bboard Announcements that are posted to all arpanet
bboards are also fed into this newsgroup.
fa.digest-p People who deal with digests. Mostly the
people who moderate them.
fa.editor-p Interest group in computer editors, both
text and program.
fa.energy Topics relating to alternate energy produc-
tion, conservation, etc.
fa.human-nets A daily moderated digest with discussions of
computer-aided human-to-human communica-
tions. Probably the most widely read
ARPANET publication.
fa.info-cpm CP/M and other operating systems for micro
computers.
fa.info-micro Micro processor discussions.
fa.info-terms Opinions/queries about what's a good/bad
computer terminal.
April 8, 1983
- 13 -
fa.info-vax VAX interest group. Seems to be mostly VMS
issues, but some hardware discussions too.
fa.poli-sci Political Science discussions digest.
fa.sf-lovers Science Fiction book/movie reviews, etc.
fa.space Digest containing comments on the space pro-
gram and outer space in general.
fa.tcp-ip Digest relating to the TCP and IP network
protocols.
fa.telecom Technical topics relating to telecommunica-
tions, especially the telephone system. A
digest recently spun off from fa.human-nets.
fa.teletext Teletext discusses all aspects of ``eso-
teric'' data systems. This includes
teletext, viewdata, closed-captioning, and
digicasting.
fa.unix-cpm CPM/UNIX discussions.
fa.works Interest group on personal workstations
(e.g. Apollo, Perq, Xerox Star, etc).
nnnneeeetttt
Net groups are intended to be available to all people
on the entire network who read netnews. This does not mean
they go to every machine, since some machines restrict the
volume of news that comes in. It is assumed that users of
such restricted machines can read news on another machine on
which they have a login. Net groups reach all of USENET
(including USENET sites on the ARPANET) but do not reach any
sites that are not on USENET. That is, USENET is defined as
all sites that nnnneeeetttt....ggggeeeennnneeeerrrraaaallll reaches.
This list is already out of date. An up to date list
is posted to newsgroup net.news periodically. See the docu-
mentation file ``doc/nglist'' for a more recent list.
net.general Articles to be read by everyone on the whole
net.
net.applic Functional programming (applicative)
languages.
net.auto Notes of interest to owners of particular
cars. Main subgroup is nnnneeeetttt....aaaauuuuttttoooo....vvvvwwww for own-
ers of Volkswagon Rabbits.
April 8, 1983
- 14 -
net.aviation Private pilots.
net.bugs Bug reports and fixes. Subscribing to
nnnneeeetttt....bbbbuuuuggggssss gets all bug reports, but bugs are
normally posted to one of nnnneeeetttt....bbbbuuuuggggssss....2222bbbbssssdddd,
nnnneeeetttt....bbbbuuuuggggssss....4444bbbbssssdddd, nnnneeeetttt....bbbbuuuuggggssss....vvvv7777, or nnnneeeetttt....bbbbuuuuggggssss....uuuussssgggg,
(for the 2nd and 4th Berkeley Software Dis-
tribution, Version 7, or UNIX system III &
V,) as appropriate.
net.chess Interest group for computer chess. This
newsgroup is gatewayed into an ARPANET mail-
ing list but appears as a normal newsgroup
to USENET, so it is called nnnneeeetttt....cccchhhheeeessssssss instead
of ffffaaaa....cccchhhheeeessssssss.
net.columbia Newswire items and comments on the Space
Shuttle, and on the space program in gen-
eral.
net.cooks Food, cooking, cookbooks, and recipies.
net.cycle Motorcycle interest group.
net.eunice Topics of interest to sites running SRI's
Eunice system, which simulates UNIX on VMS.
net.games Discussion of computer games (of the
/usr/games/variety). Subgroups include
nnnneeeetttt....ggggaaaammmmeeeessss....rrrroooogggguuuueeee, nnnneeeetttt....ggggaaaammmmeeeessss....ffffrrrrpppp (for fantasy
role playing games,) and nnnneeeetttt....ggggaaaammmmeeeessss....ttttrrrriiiivvvviiiiaaaa.
net.ham-radio Topics of interest to amateur radio opera-
tors.
net.jokes The latest good joke you've heard. Jokes
are expected to be kept clean and unoffen-
sive. Offensive jokes can be posted
``encrypted'', by rotating each letter 13
places in the alphabet, and mentioning the
reason for encryption in the subject. This
prevents people from accidently decrypting
something that will offend them. (The tr
program or /usr/lib/news/caesar can be used
to rotate a joke.)
net.lan Local area network interest group.
net.lsi Large Scale Integrated Circuit discussions.
net.misc Miscellaneous discussions that start in
net.general but are not permanent enough for
their own newsgroup.
April 8, 1983
- 15 -
net.movies Movie reviews by members of USENET.
net.music Computer generated music.
net.news Discussion of netnews itself. Subgroups
discuss or post various aspects of netnews,
including nnnneeeetttt....nnnneeeewwwwssss....bbbb for the B version of
netnews, nnnneeeetttt....nnnneeeewwwwssss....ggggrrrroooouuuupppp for discussions
about proposed new newsgroups, nnnneeeetttt....nnnneeeewwwwssss....mmmmaaaapppp
to post maps of USENET or
additions/corrections to previously posted
maps, nnnneeeetttt....nnnneeeewwwwssss....nnnneeeewwwwssssiiiitttteeee to announce a new
site. nnnneeeetttt....nnnneeeewwwwssss itself is used for discus-
sions relating to USENET policies and the
like, rather than any specific software.
net.oa Office Automation/Word Processing interest
group.
net.periphs Queries and discussions about particular
peripherals. (``Does anyone have a driver
for a framus-11?'')
net.rec Recreational games. This differs from
nnnneeeetttt....ssssppppoooorrrrtttt in that nnnneeeetttt....rrrreeeecccc discusses games
where one generally participates, but
nnnneeeetttt....ssssppppoooorrrrtttt is for spectator sports.
nnnneeeetttt....ggggaaaammmmeeeessss is for computer type games. Sub-
groups of nnnneeeetttt....rrrreeeecccc include nnnneeeetttt....rrrreeeecccc....bbbbrrrriiiiddddggggeeee for
contract bridge discussions, nnnneeeetttt....rrrreeeecccc....ssssccccuuuubbbbaaaa
for scuba divers, and nnnneeeetttt....rrrreeeecccc....sssskkkkiiii for
skiers.
net.records Discussions of phonograph records, albums,
record stores, etc.
net.rumor For posting of rumors.
net.sources Large bulky items are distributed here.
People don't usually want to read this news-
group, rather it is used for software dis-
tribution.
net.space Undigested, immediate distribution version
of fa.space.
net.sport Spectator sports. Subgroups include
nnnneeeetttt....ssssppppoooorrrrtttt....bbbbaaaasssseeeebbbbaaaallllllll, nnnneeeetttt....ssssppppoooorrrrtttt....ffffoooooooottttbbbbaaaallllllll, and
nnnneeeetttt....ssssppppoooorrrrtttt....hhhhoooocccckkkkeeeeyyyy.
net.taxes Tax advice and queries.
April 8, 1983
- 16 -
net.test Test messages are posted here. Generally
this is not interesting to ordinary readers.
If you must post something here, please
explain why in the message, and please use
the smallest distribution newsgroup (e.g.
test or ucb.test) possible.
net.travel Requests, suggestions, and opinions about
traveling.
net.ucds Circuit drawing system.
net.unix-wizardsARPANET mailing list for UNIX Wizards. Any-
thing and everything relating to UNIX is
discussed here. This list is gatewayed to
the ARPANET mailing list but appears like a
regular nnnneeeetttt newsgroup to USENET.
net.wines Information and recommendations about wines
and alcoholic beverages.
April 8, 1983
This archive runs on limited infrastructure. Preserving old code on modern bandwidth. Automated agents are requested to crawl responsibly.