READNEWS(7) (alice,research) READNEWS(7)
NAME
checknews, readnews - read netnews articles
SYNOPSIS
readnews [ -a date ] [ -n newsgroup ... ] [ -t title ... ] [
-lprxhfuM ] [ -c [ command ] ]
readnews -s
checknews [ ynqve ] [ readnews-options ]
DESCRIPTION
Readnews prints unread articles that have arrived via the
informal, worldwide `netnews' network. Without arguments it
prints unread articles from newsgroups to which you sub-
scribe. The options are:
-M An interface to Mail(A). A mail(1)-like interface.
-c command
Articles are written to a temporary `mailbox' and
the command (e.g. `mail -f %') invoked, with the
mailbox in place of `%'. A missing command gets
something like mail(1).
-p Articles are sent to the standard output, no ques-
tions asked.
-l Titles only. The file will not be updated.
-r Print articles in reverse order.
-f No followup articles.
-h Printed in a briefer format.
-u Update file every 5 minutes.
-n newsgroup ...
Select articles that belong to newsgroups.
-t titles
Select articles whose titles contain one of the
title strings.
-a date Select articles that were posted since date; a miss-
ing date means the beginning of time.
-x Ignore select previously read as well as unread
articles.
-s Print subscription list.
The file or a file specified by environment variable NEWSRC,
tells what topics you are interested in and what you have
read. If contains a line starting with options (left justi-
fied, continued by trailing `\'), or if the environment
variable NEWSOPTS is present, options are taken from there
as well as the command line. In case of conflict, an option
on the command line take precedence, followed by and finally
NEWSOPTS.
READNEWS(7) (alice,research) READNEWS(7)
Readnews invokes some other programs to perform services.
To reply to a news item it uses mail(1) or an alternate in
environment parameter MAILER. It paginates with p(1), or an
alternate in PAGER. PAGER is a command, perhaps containing
`%' as in option -c, or empty for no pagination.
The default and mail interfaces support the following com-
mands, and prompt with common alternatives: a newline
accepts the first one. For example, `[ynq]' proposes yes,
no, and quit; newline gets yes.
y Yes. Print current article and go on to next.
n No. Skip the current article. (In mail interface, it
means y.)
q Quit; update
c Cancel the article. Only the author or the super-user
can do this.
r Reply. Reply to article's author via mail. You are
placed in mail, or an alternate in environment parame-
ter EDITOR, with a header constructed from the article.
You may change or add headers. Add your reply after
the blank line. Upon exit the message is mailed.
rd Reply directly. You are placed in MAILER (mail by
default). Type the text of the reply and then
control-D.
f title
Submit a followup article. If you omit the title,
readnews generates an appropriate one. You will be
placed in your EDITOR to compose the followup.
fd Follow up directly. This is like f, but does not con-
struct headers.
N newsgroup
Go to the named newsgroup, or the next newsgroup if
none is named
s file
Save. Append the article to file. The default is If
file is not a full pathname, it is taken relative to
HOME, overridden by environment parameter NEWSBOX. If
the first character of file is `|', the rest is taken
as the name of a program, into which the article is
piped.
# Report the name and size of the newsgroup.
e Erase. Forget that this article was read.
h Print a more verbose header.
H Print a very verbose, complete header.
U Unsubscribe from this newsgroup and go on to the next.
d Read a digest. Presents a digest as separate articles.
D number
Decrypt a Caesar cipher (usually used to obscure off-
color material in `net.jokes'). The rotation is nor-
mally determined line-by-line from character frequen-
cies. If this fails, an explicit number (usually 13)
READNEWS(7) (alice,research) READNEWS(7)
may be given.
v Print the current version of the news software.
! Shell escape.
number
Go to article number.
+-n Skip n articles, 1 by default. The articles skipped
are recorded as `unread'.
- Go back to last article. This is a toggle, typing it
twice returns you to the original article.
x Exit. Like q except that is not updated.
X system
Transmit article to the named system.
A `-' following c, f, fd, r, rd, e, h, H, or s refers to the
previous article: `r -' is the normal way to reply to a
just-read article when the next one is being offered.
Checknews reports whether there is news present, with
options:
y Report only if news is present (default).
n Report only if news is absent.
q Turn off reports; nonzero exit status indicates news.
v Show the name of the first newsgroup containing unread
news.
vv Explain any claim of new news, useful if checknews and
readnews disagree.
e Execute readnews if there is news.
EXAMPLES
readnews
Read all unread articles.
readnews -n net.langs.c -a last thursday
Print every unread article about C since last Thursday.
readnews -p >/dev/null &
Discard all unread news: useful after returning from a
long trip.
readnews -c "ed %" -l
Invoke ed(1) on a file containing the titles of all
unread articles.
FILES
/usr/spool/news/newsgroup/number News articles
Active newsgroups and numbers of articles
Help file for default interface
files in