man(1) Manual page archive


     READNEWS(1)                                           READNEWS(1)

     NAME
          checknews, readnews - read news articles

     SYNOPSIS
          checknews [ ynqve ] [ readnews-options ]

          readnews [ -a date ] [ -n newsgroup ] [ -t titles ] [
          -lprxhfuM ] [ -c [ mailer ] ]

          readnews -s

     DESCRIPTION
          Checknews reports whether there is news present.

          y    report only if news is present

          n    report only if news is absent

          q    turn off reports; nonzero exit status indicates news.

          v    alters the y message to show the name of the first
               newsgroup containing unread news.  Doubling v (e.g.
               vv) causes an explanation of any claim of new news, and
               is useful if checknews and readnews disagree.

          e    executes readnews(1) if there is news

          If there are no options, y is the default.

          Readnews without arguments prints unread articles.  There
          are several interfaces available besides the default:

          Flag      Interface

          -M        An interface to Mail(1).

          -c        A /bin/mail(1)-like interface.

          -c `mailer'
                    All selected articles written to a temporary file.
                    Then the mailer is invoked.  The name of the tem-
                    porary file is referenced with a `%'.  Thus, `mail
                    -f %' will invoke mail on a temporary file con-
                    sisting of all selected messages.

          -p        All selected articles are sent to the standard
                    output.  No questions asked.

          -l        Only the titles output.  The .newsrc file will not
                    be updated.

     READNEWS(1)                                           READNEWS(1)

          The -r flag causes the articles to be printed in reverse
          order.  The -f flag prevents any followup articles from
          being printed.  The -h flag causes articles to be printed in
          a less verbose format, and is intended for terminals running
          at 300 baud.  the -u flag causes the .newsrc file to be
          updated every 5 minutes, in case of an unreliable system.
          (Note that if the newsrc file is updated, the x command will
          not restore it to its original contents.)

          The following flags determine the selection of articles.

          -n newsgroups
                    Select all articles that belong to newsgroups.

          -t titles Select all articles whose titles contain one of
                    the strings specified by titles.

          -a [ date ]
                    Select all articles that were posted past the
                    given date.

          -x        Ignore .newsrc file.  That is, select articles
                    that have already been read as well as new ones.

          readnews maintains a .newsrc file in the user's home direc-
          tory that specifies all news articles already read.  It is
          updated at the end of each reading session in which the -x
          or -l options weren't specified.  If the environment vari-
          able NEWSRC is present, it should be the path name of a file
          to be used in place of .newsrc.

          If the user wishes, an options line may be placed in the
          .newsrc file.  This line starts with the word options (left
          justified) followed by the list of standard options just as
          they would be typed on the command line.  Such a list may
          include: the -n flag along with a newsgroup list; a favorite
          interface; and/or the -r or -t flag.  Continuation lines are
          specified by following lines beginning with a space or tab
          character.  Similarly, options can be specified in the
          NEWSOPTS environment parameter.  Where conflicts exist,
          option on the command line take precedence, followed by the
          .newsrc options line, and lastly the NEWSOPTS parameter.

          readnews -s will print the newsgroup subscription list.

          When  user uses the reply command of the default or mail
          interfaces, the environment parameter MAILER will be used to
          determine which mailer to use.  The default is usually
          /bin/mail.

          If the user so desires, he may specify a specific paging
          progam for articles.  The environment parameter PAGER should

     READNEWS(1)                                           READNEWS(1)

          be set to the paging program.  The name of the article is
          referenced with a `%', as in the -c option.  If no `%' is
          present, the article will be piped to the program.  Paging
          may be disabled by setting PAGER to a null value.

     COMMANDS
          This section lists the commands you can type to the msgs and
          /bin/mail interface prompts.  The msgs interface will sug-
          gest some common commands in brackets.  Just hitting return
          is the same as typing the first command.  For example,
          `[ynq]' means that the commands ``y'' (yes), ``n'' (no), and
          `q' (quit) are common responses, and that ``y'' is the
          default.  Command                  Meaning

          y    Yes.  Prints current article and goes on to next.

          n    No.  Goes on to next article without printing current
               one.  In the /bin/mail interface, this means `go on to
               the next article', which will have the same effect as
               `y' or just hitting return.

          q    Quit.  The .newsrc file will be updated if -l or -x
               were not on the command line.

          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 your EDITOR with a header specifying To, Sub-
               ject, and References lines taken from the message.  You
               may change or add headers, as appropriate.  You add the
               text of the reply after the blank line, and then exit
               the editor.  The resulting message is mailed to the
               author of the article.

          rd   Reply directly.  You are placed in $MAILER (`mail' by
               default) in reply to the author.  Type the text of the
               reply and then control-D.

          f [title]
               Submit a follow up article.  Normally you should leave
               off the title, since the system will generate one for
               you.  You will be placed in your EDITOR to compose the
               text of the followup.

          fd   Followup directly, without edited headers.  This is
               like f, but the headers of the article are not included
               in the editor buffer.

          N [newsgroup]
               Go to the next newsgroup or named newsgroup.

     READNEWS(1)                                           READNEWS(1)

          s [file]
               Save.  The article is appended to the named file.  The
               default is `Articles'.  If the first character of the
               file name is `|', the rest of the file name is taken as
               the name of a program, which is executed with the text
               of the article as standard input.  If the first charac-
               ter of the file name is `/', it is taken as a full path
               name of a file.  If $NEWSBOX (in the environment) is
               set to a full path name, and the file contains no `/',
               the file is saved in $NEWSBOX.  Otherwise, it is saved
               relative to $HOME.

          #    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 header, containing all known
               information about the article.

          U    Unsubscribe from this newsgroup.  Also goes on to the
               next newsgroup.

          d    Read a digest.  Breaks up a digest into separate arti-
               cles and permits you to read and reply to each piece.

          D [number]
               Decrypt.  Invokes a Caesar decoding program on the body
               of the message.  This is used to decrypt rotated jokes
               posted to net.jokes, to avoid possible offense to unin-
               terested readers.  The title of the joke should indi-
               cate the nature of the problem, enabling people to
               decide whether to decrypt it or not.

          Normally the Caesar program does a character frequency count
          on each line of the article separately, so that lines which
          are not rotated will be shown in plain text.  This works
          well unless the line is short, in which case it sometimes
          gets the wrong rotation.  An explicit number rotation (usu-
          ally 13) may be given to force a particular shift.

          v    Print the current version of the news software.

          !    Shell escape.

          number
               Go to number.

          +[n] Skip n articles.  The articles skipped are recorded as
               `unread' and will be offered to you again the next time
               you read news.

     READNEWS(1)                                           READNEWS(1)

          -    Go back to last article.  This is a toggle, typing it
               twice returns you to the original article.

          x    Exit.  Like quit except that .newsrc is not updated.

          X [system]
               Transmit article to the named system.

          The commands c, f, fd, r, rd, e, h, H, and s can be followed
          by -'s to refer to the previous article.  Thus, when reply-
          ing to an article using the msgs interface, you should nor-
          mally type `r-' (or ``re-'') since by the time you enter a
          command, you are being offerred the next article.

     EXAMPLES
          readnews  Read all unread articles using the msgs interface.
                    The .newsrc file is updated at the end of the ses-
                    sion.

          readnews -c ``ed %'' -l
                    Invoke the ed(1) text editor on a file containing
                    the titles of all unread articles.  The .newsrc
                    file is not updated at the end of the session.

          readnews -n all !fa.all -M -r
                    Read all unread articles except articles whose
                    newsgroups begin with "fa." via Mail(1) in reverse
                    order.  The .newsrc file is updated at the end of
                    the session.

          readnews -p -n all -a last thursday
                    Print every unread article since last Thursday.
                    The .newsrc file is updated at the end of the ses-
                    sion.

          readnews -p > /dev/null &
                    Discard all unread news.  This is useful after
                    returning from a long trip.

     FILES
          /usr/spool/news/newsgroup/number
                                   News articles
          /usr/lib/news/active     Active newsgroups and numbers of
                                   articles
          /usr/lib/news/help       Help file for msgs interface
          ~/.newsrc                Options and list of previously read
                                   articles

     SEE ALSO
          postnews(1) mail(1),

     BUGS

     READNEWS(1)                                           READNEWS(1)

          Netnews and readnews use the same text in different
          churches.