news(1) (Essential Utilities) news(1)
NAME
news - print news items
SYNOPSIS
news [ -a ] [ -n ] [ -s ] [ items ]
DESCRIPTION
news is used to keep the user informed of current events. By
convention, these events are described by files in the directory
/var/news.
When invoked without arguments, news prints the contents of all
current files in /var/news, most recent first, with each preceded by
an appropriate header. news stores the ``currency'' time as the
modification date of a file named .newstime in the user's home
directory (the identity of this directory is determined by the
environment variable $HOME); only files more recent than this
currency time are considered ``current.''
-a option causes news to print all items, regardless of currency.
In this case, the stored time is not changed.
-n option causes news to report the names of the current items
without printing their contents, and without changing the
stored time.
-s option causes news to report how many current items exist,
without printing their names or contents, and without changing
the stored time. It is useful to include such an invocation of
news in one's .profile file, or in the system's /etc/profile.
All other arguments are assumed to be specific news items that are to
be printed.
If a delete is typed during the printing of a news item, printing
stops and the next item is started. Another delete within one second
of the first causes the program to terminate.
FILES
/etc/profile
/var/news/*
$HOME/.newstime
SEE ALSO
profile(4), environ(5) in the Programmer's Reference Manual.
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