READNEWS(1) — User’s Manual — Commands

NAME

readnews − read news articles

SYNOPSIS

readnews [ −a date ] [ −n newsgroups ] [ −t titles ] [ −lprxhf ] [ −c [ mailer ] ]

readnews −s

DESCRIPTION

Readnews without argument prints unread articles.

Readnews maintains a .newsrc file in the user’s home directory 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 variable NEWSRC is present, it should be the path name of a file to be used in place of .newsrc.

If the user wishes, he may place an options line in his .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.

As a special case, readnews −s prints the newsgroup subscription list.

When the user uses the reply command of the binmail(1) interface, the environment parameter MAILER will be used to determine which mailer to use. The default is usually binmail.

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

OPTIONS

There are several interfaces available for reading your news. Some of the option flags select from among these interfaces:

−M An interface to mail(1).

−c A binmail(1)−like interface.

−c “mailer”
All selected articles written to a temporary file. Then the mailer is invoked. The name of the temporary file is referenced with a “%”. Thus, “mail −f %” will invoke mail on a temporary file consisting of all selected messages.

Other options govern the behavior of readnews itself, as follows:

−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.

−r print the articles in reverse order.

−f prevent any followup articles from being printed.

−h print articles in a much less verbose format.

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.

COMMANDS

This section lists the commands you can type to the binmail(1) interface prompts. The msgs interface will suggest 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. CommandMeaning

yYes — print current article and go on to next.

nNo — go on to next article without printing current one. In the binmail interface, this means “go on to the next article”, which has the same effect as “y” or just hitting return.

qQuit — update the .newsrc file if −lor−x were not on the command line.

cCancel the article — only the author or the super-user can do this.

rReply — reply to article’s author via mail.

f [title]
Submit a follow up article. Normally you should leave off the title, since the system generates one for you. If the environment variable EDITOR is set to the full path name of your favorite text editor, you will be placed in that editor to compose your followup. Otherwise you should enter it from the terminal.

N [newsgroup]
Go to the next newsgroup or the named newsgroup if one is specified.

s [file]Save — append the article to the named file. The default filename 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.

#Report last article number in newsgroup.

eErase — forget that this article was read.

hPrint verbose header.

uUnsubscribe from this newsgroup. Also goes on to the next newsgroup.

vPrint 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.

−Go back to last article.

xExit — like quit except that .newsrc is not updated.

X system
Transmit article to the named system.

The commands c, f, r, e, h, and s can be followed by −’s to refer to the previous article. Thus, when replying to an article using the msgs interface, you should normally type “r−” since by the time you enter a command, you are being offerred the next article.

EXAMPLES

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 session.

FILES

/usr/spool/news/ newsgroup / numberNews articles
/usr/lib/news/activeActive newsgroups
~/.newsrcOptions and list of previously read articles

Museum

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