Usenet 1993 July/InfoMagic USENET CD-ROM July 1993.ISO/sources/unix/volume7/2.11news/part05

Internet Message Format | 1986-11-30 | 41.4 KB

Subject:  v07i045:  2.11 News Documentation and Conversion, Part05/08
Newsgroups: mod.sources
Approved: mirror!rs

Submitted by: seismo!rick (Rick Adams)
Mod.sources: Volume 7, Issue 45
Archive-name: 2.11news/Part05

# To extract, sh this file
#
#    news 2.11 documentation File 3 of 6
#
if test ! -d doc
then
    mkdir doc
fi
echo x - doc/howto.mn 1>&2
sed 's/.//' >doc/howto.mn <<'*-*-END-of-doc/howto.mn-*-*'
-.\" Modified 9/29/85 by Matt Bishop ([e-mail])
-.\" to work with the TROFF news document macros.
-.ds h0 "How to Read the Network News
-.ds h1
-.ds h2 %
-.ds f0 "\*(vr
-.ds f1
-.ds f2 "September 22, 1986
-.de Qp                    \" quoted command as hanging char
-.lp "\\f3\\$1\\f1" \\$2
-..
-.de Qc                    \" quoted command as hanging string
-.lp "\\f3<\\s-2\\$1\\s0>\\f1" \\$2
-..
-.de Op                    \" option as hanging string
-.lp "\\f3\\$1\\f1" \\$2
-..
-.mt
-How to Read the Network News
-.au
-Mark R. Horton
-.ai
-AT&T Bell Laboratories
-Columbus, OH  43213
-.au
-Revised by Rick Adams for 2.11
-.bt
-.hu
-What is the Network News?
-.pg
-USENET (Users' Network)
-is a bulletin board shared among many
-computer systems around the world.
-USENET is a logical network,
-sitting on top of several physical networks,
-including
-.i UUCP ,
-.i BLICN ,
-.i BERKNET ,
-.i X.25 ,
-and the
-.i ARPANET .
-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 AT&T.
-Currently, there are over 50,000 participants at over 2,000 USENET sites in
-the USA, Canada, Europe, Japan and Korea with more joining every day.
-Most are running the
-.ux
-operating system.
-.pg
-The network news,
-or simply
-.i netnews ,
-is the set of programs 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 and others.
-Netnews allows articles to be posted for limited or very wide distribution.
-This document contains a list of newsgroups
-that were active at the time the document was written.
-It exists
-to assist you in determining which newsgroups you may
-want to subscribe to.
-When creating a new article,
-the level of distribution can be controlled
-by use of the
-.cf Distribution
-field.
-This will prevent notices of apartments for rent in New Jersey
-being broadcast to California
-(or even Europe).
-.pg
-Any user can post an article,
-which will be sent out to the network
-to be read by persons interested in that topic.
-You can specify which topics are of interest to you by putting them in a
-.i "subscription list" .
-Then,
-whenever you ask to read news,
-the news reading program will present all unread articles of interest.
-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.
-.pg
-This paper is a tutorial,
-aimed at the user who wants to read and possibly post news.
-The system administrator who must install the software
-should see the companion document
-.i "USENET Version B Installation" .
-.hu
-Why USENET?
-.pg
-USENET is useful in a number of ways.
-Someone wishing to announce a new program or product can reach a wide audience.
-A user can ask \*(lqDoes anyone have an
-.i x ?\*(rq
-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.
-.pg
-Another facility with similar capabilities to
-.i netnews
-is the
-.i "electronic mailing list" .
-A mailing list is a collection 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 useful,
-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 maintains 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.
-.pg
-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,
-rather than 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 environment,
-each user has a copy in a mailbox.
-Of course, if the mailing list is small enough the overhead is less
-than an international newsgroup.
-.hu
-How do I Read News?
-.pg
-In the USENET jargon,
-interest topics are called
-.i newsgroups .
-A newsgroup list appears in a later section,
-current as this paper was written.
-You have your own
-.i "subscription list"
-of newsgroups to which you are said to
-.i subscribe .
-.pg
-The simplest way to read news is to type the command:
-.sd c
-readnews
-.ed
-Other possibilities include: a full-screen-oriented news reading program,
-.i vnews (1),
-(described in the Appendix,) the
-.i notesfile
-system, which can also be used for news (described in a separate paper,)
-and
-.i rn ,
-a very popular news reading program distributed separately from this package.
-Each newsgroup to which you subscribe will be presented,
-one article at a time.
-As each article is presented,
-you will be shown the
-.i header
-(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
-.qp y , (
-.qp n ,
-and
-.qp q )
-are suggested by the program.
-(To see a complete list of possible responses,
-type
-.qp ?
-for help.)
-You can type
-.qp y
-for \*(lqyes\*(rq
-(or simply hit
-.qc 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
-.qc SPACE
-or
-.qc RETURN
-to see more of the message.
-Another choice you can make is
-.qp n
-for \*(lqno\*(rq.
-This means you are not interested in the message \-
-it will not be offered to you again.
-A third option is
-.qp q
-for \*(lqquit\*(rq.
-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
-.qp q
-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
-.i readnews (1)
-or
-.i checknews (1)
-command in their
-.i .profile
-or
-.i .login
-files so that they will see new news each time they log in.)
-.pg
-If you are reading news for the first time,
-you may find yourself swamped by the volume of unread news,
-especially if the default subscription is
-.ng all .
-Don't let this bother you.
-If you are getting newsgroups in 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
-.sd c
-readnews \-K \-n all
-.ed
-which will throw away all old news,
-recording that you have seen it all.
-Or,
-you can use the
-.qp K
-command to mark all articles in the current newsgroup as read.
-.pg
-Once you catch up with (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 higher volume, less useful newsgroups.)
-Finally,
-note that while an article is printing,
-you can hit
-your interrupt character
-(usually
-.qc CONTROL-C
-or
-.qc DELETE ),
-which will throw away the rest of the article.
-.pg
-Among the other commands you can type after seeing the header
-of an article are:
-.Qp x 13
-Exit
-.i readnews .
-This is different from
-.qp q
-in that the
-.qp q
-command
-will update the record of which articles you have read,
-but
-.qp x
-will pretend you never started
-.i readnews .
-.Qp N 13
-Go on to the next newsgroup.
-The remaining articles in the current newsgroup are considered
-.i unread ,
-and will be offered to you again the next time you read news.
-.Qp "s \f2file\fP" 13
-The article is saved in a disk file with the given name.
-In practice,
-what usually happens is that an article is printed,
-and then
-.i readnews
-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
-.i previous
-message
-(the last one you have read in full);
-in this case,
-use the form
-.qp s\-
-.i filename .
-.Qp e 13
-Erase the memory of having seen this article.
-It will be offered to you again next time,
-as though you had never seen it.
-The variation
-.qp e\-
-(erase  memory of the previously read article instead of
-the current article) is useful for checking follow-ups to see
-if anyone has already said what you wanted to say.
-.Qp r 13
-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
-.hf To
-or
-.hf Cc
-will receive a copy of your reply.
-Note that the path used to receive a piece of news may not be the fastest
-way to reply by mail. If speed is important and you know a faster way,
-edit it in place of what the reply command supplied.
-A mail command will then be started up,
-addressed to the persons listed in the header.
-You are then returned to
-.i readnews .
-The case
-.qp r\-
-is also useful to reply to the previous message.
-Another variation on this is
-.qp rd\-
-which puts you in
-.b $MAILER
-(or
-.i mail (1)
-by default)
-to type in your reply directly.
-.Qp f 13
-Post a follow-up message to the same newsgroup.
-This posts an article on this newsgroup
-with the same title as the original article.
-Use common sense when posting follow-ups. (Read Matt Bishop's paper
-\*(lqHow to use USENET Effectively\*(rq for extended discussion of when
-and when not to post -- many follow-up articles should have just been replies.)
-You will be placed in the editor. Enter your message and exit.
-The case
-.qp f\-
-is also useful to follow up the previous message.
-In each case,
-the editor you are placed in will be
-.i vi (1)
-unless you set
-.b EDITOR
-(in your environment) to some other editor.
-You should enter the text of the follow-up after the blank line.
-.Qp + 13
-The article is skipped for now.
-The next time you read news,
-you will be offered this article again.
-.Qp \- 13
-Go back to the previous article.
-This toggles,
-so that two
-.qp \- 's
-get you the current article.
-.Qp b 13
-Back up one article in the current group.
-This is not necessarily the previous article.
-.Qp U 13
-Unsubscribe from this newsgroup.
-Your
-.i \&.newsrc (5)
-file will be edited to change the
-.qp :
-for that newsgroup to an
-.qp !
-preventing you from being shown that newsgroup again.
-.Qp ? 13
-If you type any unrecognized command,
-a summary of valid commands will be printed.
-.hu
-Changing your Subscription List
-.pg
-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
-.sd c
-readnews \-s
-.ed
-Typically this list will include all newsgroups ending in \*(lqgeneral\*(rq
-or \*(lqannounce\*(rq,
-such as
-.ng general ,
-and
-.ng news.announce .
-(As distributed,
-the default is
-.ng general\f1,\fPall.announce .
-Another popular default is
-.ng all .)
-You can change this by creating a file in your home directory named
-.i .newsrc
-which contains as its first line a line of the form:
-.sd c
-options \-n newsgroup,newsgroup,newsgroup ...
-.ed
-If your lines get too long,
-you can continue them on subsequent 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 creating a subscription list for the first time,
-and have already read news,
-you will find some text already in your
-.i .newsrc
-file,
-recording which articles you have read.
-You should put your
-.b options
-line before the first line of the file.)
-Thus,
-.sd c
-options \-n general,news.announce,comp.human-nets
-.ed
-will subscribe to those three newsgroups.
-.pg
-An
-.qp !
-can be used to exclude certain newsgroups and the word
-.ng all
-can be used as a wild card,
-representing any newsgroup.
-You can also use
-.ng all
-as a prefix or suffix to match a class of newsgroups.
-For example,
-.sd c
-options \-n all,!talk,!rec.humor,!all.unix
-.ed
-will result in a subscription to all newsgroups except for \*(lqtalk\*(rq group,
-jokes,
-and any
-.ux
-information.
-The metacharacter
-.qp .
-is like
-.qp /
-to the shell,
-and
-.ng all
-is like
-.qp * .
-.pg
-A simpler way to subscribe to news is to subscribe to
-.ng all ,
-and then use the
-.qp U
-.i readnews
-command to unsubscribe 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.
-.pg
-The order of the newsgroups in your
-.i .newsrc
-(after the options line)
-is the order in which newsgroups will be shown.
-If you want something other than the default,
-move the lines around until you are satisfied with the order.
-Be careful to keep the options line as the first line in the file.
-.hu
-Submitting Articles
-.pg
-To submit a new news article type
-.sd c
-postnews
-.ed
-First,
-it will ask you if this is a follow-up to an article.
-Answer
-.b yes
-or
-.b no .
-If
-.b yes ,
-you really should have done an
-.qp f
-from
-.i readnews ,
-but it will try and figure out which article you are following up to.
-It will ask for the newsgroup in which you read the article
-and the article number.
-If you can't remember,
-go back to
-.i readnews
-and find out.
-It is important that discussions are kept together.
-It is very frustrating for someone to read a follow-up that says:
-\&\*(lqI agree.
-It's very dangerous to leave that program as distributed.\*(rq
-and not have any idea what the poster was referring to.
-.pg
-If you answer
-.b no ,
-.i postnews (1)
-will ask you for the subject of the new article.
-This should be as informative as possible.
-For example,
-.cf "'67 Porsche for sale in New Jersey"
-is much better than
-.cf "Car for sale"
-or even
-.cf "For sale" .
-It will then ask which newsgroups you want the article posted in.
-If you are unsure,
-type
-.qp ?
-instead of a specific newsgroup
-and it will show you the list of currently available groups.
-Then,
-you will be asked how far your article should be distributed.
-It is important to keep this as small as possible
-to accomplish the purpose of your article.
-Remember that many newsgroups are read in Europe,
-Australia,
-and Asia in addition to the United States and Canada.
-It does no good
-(to use the previous example)
-to post a
-.cf "Car for sale in New Jersey"
-article with a distribution of
-.ng world .
-There is almost no chance that a person in Sweden or Korea
-would be interested in buying your car (even if it is a Porsche).
-It is a waste of money and computer resources
-to transmit the article that far.
-For this specific case,
-the appropriate distribution would be
-.ng nj
-or only in New Jersey.
-If there were no local distribution available,
-at least it should be confined to
-.ng usa .
-If you are unsure of the distributions available at your site,
-type
-.qp ?
-instead of a distribution
-and you will receive a list of distributions valid for your site.
-If the distribution is
-.ng world ,
-your article will be read (perhaps with disgust)
-by thousands of people around the world.
-.pg
-Then you will be placed in the editor.
-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.
-.hu
-Browsing through Old News
-.pg
-There are a number of command line options to the
-.i readnews
-command to help you find an old article you want to see again.
-The
-.op \-n
-.i newsgroups
-option restricts your search to certain newsgroups.
-The
-.op \-x
-option arranges to ignore the record of articles read,
-which is kept in your
-.i \&.newsrc
-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
-.i readnews
-to not update the
-.i \&.newsrc
-file.
-The
-.op \-a
-.i date
-option asks for news received after the given
-.i date .
-Note that even with the
-.op \-a
-option, only articles you have not already seen will be printed,
-unless you combine it with the
-.op \-x
-option.
-(Articles are kept on file until they expire,
-typically after two weeks.)
-The
-.op \-t
-.i keywords
-option restricts the query to articles mentioning one of the
-.i keywords
-in the title of the article.
-Thus,
-the command
-.sd c
-readnews \-n comp.unix \-x \-a last thursday \-t setuid
-.ed
-asks for all articles in newsgroup
-.ng comp.unix
-since last Thursday about the setuid feature.
-(Be careful with the
-.op \-t
-option.
-The above example will not find articles about
-.cf suid ,
-nor will it find articles with no title or
-whose author did not use the word
-.cf setuid
-in the title.)
-.pg
-Other useful options include the
-.op \-l
-option (which lists only the headers of articles \-
-a useful form for browsing through lots of messages.)
-The
-.op \-p
-option prints the messages without asking for any input;
-this is similar to some older news programs on many
-.ux
-systems and is useful for directing output to a printer.
-The
-.op \-r
-option produces articles in reverse order,
-from newest to oldest.
-.hu
-User Interfaces
-.pg
-The
-.i "user interface"
-of a program is the view it presents to the user,
-that is,
-what it prints and what it allows you to type.
-.i Readnews
-has options allowing you to use different user interfaces.
-The interface described above is called the \*(lqmsgs\*(rq interface
-because it mimics the style of the Berkeley
-.i msgs (1)
-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.
-.pg
-Another interface is available with the
-.op \-c
-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 usually not necessary to use the
-.qp \-
-suffix on the
-.qp r ,
-.qp s ,
-or
-.qp f
-commands.
-This interface is called the \*(lq/bin/mail\*(rq
-(pronounced \*(lqbin mail\*(lq)
-interface,
-because it mimics the
-.ux
-program of that name.
-.pg
-A third interface is the
-.i Mail (1)
-(pronounced \*(lqcap mail\*(rq) interface,
-available with the
-.op \-M
-option.
-This invokes the
-.i Mail
-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
-.i Mail
-with a
-.qp \-T
-option.)
-.pg
-A fourth interface, is the MH news/mail program from Rand.
-That program can be used directly to read network news.
-.pg
-A fifth interface,
-.i vnews ,
-which works well on display terminals, is described in the Appendix.
-.pg
-A sixth possibility is the
-.i notesfile
-system, described in a separate paper.  It is also display-oriented.
-.pg
-A seventh interface is
-.i rn .
-It is quite powerful and reminiscent of the EMACS text editor.
-.pg
-An eighth possibility is to use your favorite mail system as an interface.
-There are a number of different mail reading programs, including
-.i /bin/mail (1),
-.i Mail ,
-.i msg (1),
-and MH.
-Any mail system with an option to specify an alternative mailbox
-can be used to read news.
-For example,
-to use
-.i Mail
-without the
-.qp \-M
-option,
-type
-.sd c
-readnews \-c "Mail \-f %"
-.ed
-The shell command in quotes is invoked as a child of
-.i readnews.
-The
-.qp \-f
-option to
-.i Mail
-names the alternative mailbox.
-.i Readnews
-will put the news in a temporary file,
-and give the name of this file to the mailer in place of the
-.qp % .
-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.
-.i Readnews
-will assume you read
-.i all
-the articles,
-even if you didn't,
-and mark them all read.
-By contrast,
-the
-.op \-M
-option uses the
-.op \-T
-option to
-.i Mail ,
-asking
-.i Mail
-to tell
-.i readnews
-which articles you read.
-.hu
-Getting News when you Log In
-.pg
-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
-.i checknews
-or
-.i readnews
-command in your
-.i .profile
-or
-.i .login
-file of commands that are executed when you log in.
-.pg
-Since there might not be any news,
-and since the
-.i readnews
-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
-.i checknews ,
-which tells you if there is any news.
-The
-.i checknews
-command is smaller and faster than
-.i readnews ,
-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
-.i readnews
-automatically if there is news.
-.pg
-The options to
-.i checknews
-are:
-.Op \-y 10
-Print \*(lqThere is news\*(rq if there is any unread news.
-.Op \-v 10
-If
-.op \-y
-is also given,
-instead of printing \*(lqThere is news\*(rq,
-prints \*(lqNews: \fInewsgroup\fP ...\*(rq
-giving the name of the first newsgroup containing unread news.
-If
-.ng general
-is the first newsgroup presented,
-this can be used to tell users whether the unread news is important.
-.Op \-n 10
-Print \*(lqNo news\*(rq if there is no unread news.
-.Op \-e 10
-If there is any unread news,
-start up
-.i readnews.
-Any additional arguments after the
-.op \-e
-will be passed to readnews.
-.pg
-Thus,
-.sd c
-checknews \-yn
-.ed
-tells you whether there is any unread news.
-.sd c
-checknews \-e \-M
-.ed
-starts up
-.i readnews
-with the
-.i Mail
-interface if there is news,
-and otherwise does nothing.
-.sd c
-checknews \-y
-.ed
-tells you if there is news,
-and is silent if there is no news.
-.hu
-Creating New Newsgroups
-.pg
-New newsgroups are proposed by the users and created by site administrators.
-To create a newsgroup,
-first make sure this is the right thing to do.
-Normally a suggestion is first posted to
-.ng news.groups\f1,\fPwhatever.relatedgroup
-for a world wide newsgroup
-.ng whatever.relatedgroup "" (
-should be the group which you are proposing to subdivide.)
-For example,
-to propose creating
-.ng rec.arts.tv.soaps ,
-post the original article to
-.ng rec.arts.tv\f1,\fPnews.groups ).
-Followups are made to
-.ng news.groups
-.i only .
-(You can force this by putting the line:
-.sd c
-Followup-To: news.groups
-.ed
-in the headers of your original posting).
-If it is established that there is general interest in such a group,
-and a name is agreed on,
-then 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.
-.hu
-List of Newsgroups
-.pg
-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.
-Note also that this list only describes those groups available
-on a network-wide basis. Since not all installations choose to receive all
-newsgroups, it is recommended that each installation edit the list of local
-newsgroups to be correct before distributing this document to their users.
-If this is not possible,
-a local appendix can be created.
-.hu 2
-Local
-.pg
-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.
-.lp general 10
-News to be read by everyone on the local machine.
-For example:
-\&\*(lqThe system will be down Monday morning for PM.\*(rq
-Or,
-\&\*(lqA new version of program
-.i x
-has been installed.\*(rq
-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
-.i msgs .)
-.hu 2
-Network Wide
-.pg
-These are the groups as of the last editing of this manual.
-The list is undoubtably already out of date.
-A current list can be obtained by typing
-.qp ?
-to the \*(lqNewsgroups? \*(rq prompt in postnews.
-.nf
-.ta \w'comp.protocols.appletalk     'u
-comp.ai    Artificial intelligence discussions.
-comp.ai.digest    Arpanet Artificial Intelligence Digest. (Moderated)
-comp.arch    Computer architecture.
-comp.bugs.2bsd    Reports of UNIX* version 2BSD related bugs.
-comp.bugs.4bsd    Reports of UNIX version 4BSD related bugs.
-comp.bugs.misc    General bug reports and fixes.
-comp.bugs.sys5    Reports of AT&T System 5 (and System 3) related bugs.
-comp.cog-eng    Cognitive engineering.
-comp.compilers    Compiler construction, etc. (Moderated)
-comp.databases    Database and data management issues and theory.
-comp.dcom.lans    Local area network hardware and software.
-comp.dcom.modems    Data communications hardware and software.
-comp.dcom.telecom    Telecommunications digest. (Moderated)
-comp.doc    Public-domain documentation. (Moderated)
-comp.doc.techreports    Announcements and lists of technical reports.(Moderated)
-comp.edu    Computer science education.
-comp.emacs    EMACS editors of different flavors.
-comp.graphics    Computer graphics, art, animation, image processing,
-comp.graphics.digest    Arpanet Digest on Computer Graphics. (Moderated)
-comp.lang.ada    The computer language Ada*.
-comp.lang.apl    The computer language APL.
-comp.lang.c    The computer language C.
-comp.lang.c++    The object-oriented computer language C++.
-comp.lang.forth    The computer language Forth.
-comp.lang.fortran    The computer language FORTRAN.
-comp.lang.lisp    The computer language LISP.
-comp.lang.misc    Other computer languages.
-comp.lang.modula2    The computer language Modula-2.
-comp.lang.pascal    The computer language Pascal.
-comp.lang.prolog    The computer language PROLOG.
-comp.lang.smalltalk    The computer language Smalltalk 80.
-comp.laser-printers    Laser printers, hardware and software. (Moderated)
-comp.lsi    Large scale integrated circuits.
-comp.mail.headers    Arpanet header-people mailnig list.
-comp.mail.maps    Various maps, including UUCP maps. (Moderated)
-comp.mail.uucp    Proposed uucp mail/network standards.
-comp.newprod    Announcements of new products (Moderated)
-comp.org.decus    DEC* Users' Society newsgroup.
-comp.org.usenix    USENIX Association events and announcements.
-comp.os.cpm    The CP/M operating system.
-comp.os.eunice    The SRI Eunice system.
-comp.os.os9    The os9 operating system. (Moderated)
-comp.os.vms    DEC's VMS Operating System    (Moderated)
-comp.periphs    Peripheral devices.
-comp.protocols    File Transfer Protocol discussions.    (Moderated)
-comp.protocols.appletalk    Applebus hardware & software. (Moderated)
-comp.protocols.kermit    Information about the Kermit package.    (Moderated)
-comp.protocols.tcp-ip    TCP and IP network protocols.    (Moderated)
-comp.sources.amiga    Public Domain Software for the Amiga.    (Moderated)
-comp.sources.bugs    Bugs and fixes for comp.sources postings (Moderated)
-comp.sources.d    Any discussion on comp.sources postings.
-comp.sources.games    Postings of recreational software    (Moderated)
-comp.sources.mac    Public Domain Software for the Macintosh (Moderated)
-comp.sources.unix    Public Domain Software for Unix systems (Moderated)
-comp.sources.wanted    Requests for software, termcap entries, etc.
-comp.std.c    C language standards    (Moderated)
-comp.std.internat    International standards
-comp.std.mumps    The X11.1 committee on Mumps (Moderated)
-comp.std.unix    The P1003 committee on UNIX (Moderated)
-comp.sys.amiga    Commodore Amiga computers -- info, uses, no programs.
-comp.sys.apollo    Apollo computer systems.    (Moderated)
-comp.sys.apple    Apple computers.
-comp.sys.atari.8bit    8 bit Atari computers.
-comp.sys.atari.st    16 bit Atari computers.
-comp.sys.att    AT&T computers.
-comp.sys.cbm    Commodore computers.
-comp.sys.dec    DEC computers.
-comp.sys.hp    Hewlett/Packard computers
-comp.sys.ibm.pc    IBM personal computers.
-comp.sys.ibm.pc.digest    Arpanet Digest on the IBM PC family.    (Moderated)
-comp.sys.intel    Intel computers.
-comp.sys.m6809    Motorola 6809's.
-comp.sys.m68k    Motorola 68000, 68010, 68020 based computers
-comp.sys.m68k.digest    Arpanet Digest on 68000-based systems.    (Moderated)
-comp.sys.mac    The Apple Macintosh & Lisa
-comp.sys.mac.digest    Arpanet Digest on Apple Macintosh computers (Moderated)
-comp.sys.masscomp    Masscomp computers.    (Moderated)
-comp.sys.misc    Other types of computers.
-comp.sys.nsc    National Semiconductor Computers and chips.
-comp.sys.pyramid    Pyramid 90x computers.    (Moderated)
-comp.sys.ridge    Ridge 32 computers and ROS.    (Moderated)
-comp.sys.sequent    Sequent systems, (esp. Balance 8000).    (Moderated)
-comp.sys.sun    Sun "workstation" computers    (Moderated)
-comp.sys.tandy    Tandy/Radio Shack computers
-comp.sys.ti    Texas Instruments computers.
-comp.sys.workstations    Various workstation-type computers.    (Moderated)
-comp.terminals    All sorts of terminals.
-comp.text    Text processing.
-comp.unix    UNIX* features and bugs.    (Moderated)
-comp.unix.questions    General questions on UNIX.
-comp.unix.wizards    Expert discussions, bug reports, and fixes for UNIX.
-misc.consumers    Consumer interests, product reviews, etc.
-misc.consumers.house    Owning and maintaining a house.
-misc.invest    Investments and the handling of money.
-misc.jobs    Job announcements, requests, etc.
-misc.kids    Children, their behavior and activities.
-misc.legal    Legalities and the ethics of law.
-misc.misc    Various discussions too short-lived for other groups.
-misc.psi    ESP,PSI, etc (Moderated)
-misc.taxes    Tax laws and advice.
-misc.test    Testing of network software. Very boring.
-misc.wanted    Requests for things that are needed.
-news.admin    Comments directed to news administrators.
-news.announce    General announcements of interest to all. (Moderated)
-news.announce.conferences Upcoming conferences (Moderated)
-news.announce.newusers    Explanatory postings for new users. (Moderated)
-news.config    Postings of system down times and interruptions.
-news.groups    Discussions and lists of newsgroups
-news.lists    News-related statistics and lists    (Moderated)
-news.misc    Discussions of USENET itself.
-news.newsites    Postings of new site announcements.
-news.software.b    B news software.
-news.software.notes    Notesfile software from the Univ. of Illinois.
-news.stargate    Satellite transmission of news.
-news.sysadmin    Comments directed to system administrators.
-rec.arts.books    Books of all genres, shapes, and sizes.
-rec.arts.comics    The funnies, old and new.
-rec.arts.drwho    Dr. Who.
-rec.arts.misc    Other arts related topics.
-rec.arts.movies    Reviews and discussions of movies.
-rec.arts.poems    Poetry.
-rec.arts.sf-lovers    Science fiction lovers' newsgroup.
-rec.arts.startrek    Star Trek, the TV show and the movies.
-rec.arts.tv    The boob tube, its history, and past and current shows.
-rec.arts.tv.soaps    Postings about TV soap operas.
-rec.audio    High fidelity audio.
-rec.autos    Automobiles, automotive products and laws.
-rec.autos.tech    Technical aspects of automobiles, et. al.
-rec.aviation    Aviation rules, means, and methods.
-rec.bicycles    Bicycles, related products and laws.
-rec.birds    Hobbyists interested in bird watching.
-rec.boats    Hobbyists interested in boating.
-rec.food.cooking    Food, cooking, cookbooks, and recipes.
-rec.food.drink    Wines and spirits.
-rec.food.recipes    A "distributed cookbook" of recipes.    (Moderated)
-rec.food.veg    Vegetarians.
-rec.games.board    Board games.
-rec.games.bridge    Hobbyists interested in bridge.
-rec.games.chess    Chess & computer chess.
-rec.games.empire    The computer game Empire.
-rec.games.frp    Fantasy Role Playing games.
-rec.games.go    Go.
-rec.games.hack    The computer game Hack.
-rec.games.misc    Other games and computer games.
-rec.games.pbm    Play by Mail games.
-rec.games.rogue    The computer game Rogue.
-rec.games.trivia    Trivia.
-rec.games.video    Video games.
-rec.gardens    Gardening, methods and results.
-rec.guns    Firearms    (Moderated)
-rec.ham-radio    Amateur Radio practices, contests, events, rules, etc.
-rec.ham-radio.packet    Packet radio setups.
-rec.humor    Jokes and the like. May be somewhat offensive.
-rec.humor.d    The content of net.jokes articles
-rec.mag    Magazine summaries, tables of contents, etc.
-rec.mag.otherrealms    A science fiction and fantasy "magazine". (Moderated)
-rec.misc    Other Recreational/participant sports.
-rec.motorcycles    Motorcycles and related products and laws.
-rec.music    Reviews and discussion of things musical (Moderated)
-rec.music.classical    Classical music.
-rec.music.folk    Folks discussing folk music of various sorts
-rec.music.gaffa    Kate Bush lovers. (Moderated)
-rec.music.gdead    A group for (Grateful) Dead-heads
-rec.music.misc    Other music related topics.
-rec.music.synth    Synthesizers and computer music
-rec.nude    Hobbyists interested in naturist/nudist activities.
-rec.pets    Pets, pet care, and household animals in general.
-rec.photo    Hobbyists interested in photography.
-rec.puzzles    Puzzles, problems, and quizzes.
-rec.railroad    Real and model train fans' newsgroup.
-rec.scuba    Hobbyists interested in SCUBA diving.
-rec.skiing    Hobbyists interested in skiing.
-rec.sport.baseball    Professional baseball.
-rec.sport.basketball    Professional basketball.
-rec.sport.football    Professional football.
-rec.sport.hockey    Professional hockey.
-rec.sport.misc    Other spectator sports.
-rec.travel    Traveling all over the world.
-rec.video    Video and video components.
-rec.woodworking    Hobbyists interested in woodworking.
-sci.astro    Astronomy discussions and information.
-sci.bio    Biology and related sciences.
-sci.crypt    Different methods of data en/decryption.
-sci.electronics    Electronic design developments, ideas, and components.
-sci.lang    Natural languages.
-sci.math    Mathematical discussions and puzzles.
-sci.math.stat    Statistics discussion.
-sci.math.symbolic    Symbolic algebra discussion.
-sci.med    Medicine and its related products and regulations.
-sci.misc    General purpose scientific discussions.
-sci.physics    Physical laws, properties, etc.
-sci.research    Research and computer research.
-sci.space    Space, space programs, space related research, etc.
-sci.space.shuttle    The space shuttle and the STS program.
-soc.college    College, college activities, campus life, etc.
-soc.comp    Computers and Society (Moderated)
-soc.culture.african    Africa & things African
-soc.culture.celtic    Celtics culture.
-soc.culture.greek    Greeks culture.
-soc.culture.indian    India & things Indian
-soc.culture.jewish    Information and discussion about Judaism.
-soc.human-nets    Computer aided communications digest.    (Moderated)
-soc.misc    Other Social topics
-soc.motss    Issues pertaining to homosexuality.
-soc.net-people    Announcements, requests, etc. about people on the net.
-soc.risks    Risks to the public from computers (Moderated)
-soc.roots    Genealogical matters.
-soc.singles    Newsgroup for single people, their activities, etc.
-soc.women    Women's rights, discrimination, etc.
-talk.abortion    Abortion.
-talk.origins    Evolution versus creationism (sometimes hot!).
-talk.philosophy    Philosophical discussions (Moderated)
-talk.philosophy.misc    Philosophical discussions.
-talk.philosophy.tech    Philosphy and technology (Moderated)
-talk.politics    Political problems, systems, solutions. (Moderated)
-talk.politics.arms-d    Arms discussion digest.    (Moderated)
-talk.politics.misc    Political discussions. Could get hot.
-talk.politics.theory    Theory of politics and political systems.
-talk.religion.christian    The form and nature of Christianity (Moderated)
-talk.religion.misc    Religious, ethical, and moral implications of actions.
-talk.rumors    For the posting of rumors.
-.fi
-.bp
-.hu
-Appendix \- How to use vnews
-.hu 2
-Overview
-.pg
-.i Vnews
-is a program for reading USENET news.
-It is based on
-.i readnews
-but has a CRT-oriented (full screen) user interface.
-The command line options are identical.
-The list of available commands is quite similar,
-although since
-.i vnews
-is a
-.i visual
-interface,
-most
-.i vnews
-commands do not have to be terminated by a newline.
-.pg
-.i Vnews
-uses all but the last two lines of the screen to display the current article.
-The next to the last line is the secondary prompt line,
-and is used to input string arguments to commands.
-The last line contains several fields.
-The first field is the prompt field.
-If
-.i vnews
-is at the end of an article,
-the prompt is
-.cf next? ;
-otherwise the prompt is
-.cf more? .
-The second field is the newsgroup field,
-which displays the current newsgroup,
-the number of the current article,
-and the number of the last article in the newsgroup.
-The third field contains the current time,
-and the last field contains the word
-.cf mail
-if you have mail.
-When you receive new mail,
-the bell on the terminal is rung and the word
-.cf MAIL
-appears in capital letters for 30 seconds.
-.hu 2
-Commands
-.pg
-Most of the
-.i readnews
-commands have
-.i vnews
-counterparts and vice versa.
-Some differences are:
-.si
-.lp \(bu 5
-It lacks a \*(lqdigest\*(rq command (to deal specially with collections
-of articles bundled together).
-This would be nice to have,
-but it does not seem to be a major deficiency
-since you can move around in the digest with
-.i vnews
-commands.
-.lp \(bu 5
-To get to the previous group,
-use the
-.qp N
-command with a
-.qp \-
-argument.
-.lp \(bu 5
-.i Vnews
-has commands for moving around in the article which
-.i readnews
-does not have since they aren't applicable.
-.lp \(bu 5
-It has a \*(lqparent\*(rq command which will go to the article
-that the current article is a follow-up to,
-and a \*(lqwrite\*(rq
-command that writes out the body of an article without the header.
-.lp \(bu 5
-You can refer to the current article from the shell or
-while writing a follow-up as
-.b $A .
-.lp \(bu 5
-The \*(lqdecrypt\*(rq command (for decoding possibly offensive
-material) always does
-.i rot13
-which seems to be the default standard but the
-.i readnews
-version of it occasionally gets confused.
-.ei
-.hu 2
-Commands that differ from
-.bi readnews
-.pg
-Each
-.i vnews
-command may be preceded by a
-.i count .
-Some commands use the count; others ignore it.
-If
-.i count
-is omitted,
-it defaults to one.
-Some commands prompt for an argument
-on the second line from the bottom of the screen.
-Standard
-.ux
-erase and kill processing is done on this argument.
-The argument is terminated by a return.
-An interrupt
-.qc DELETE "" (
-or
-.qc BREAK )
-gets you out of any partially entered command.
-.Qc CR
-A carriage return prints more of the current article,
-or goes on to the next article if you are at the end of the current article.
-A
-.qc SPACE
-is equivalent to
-.qc CR .
-.Qc CONTROL-B
-Go backwards
-.i count
-pages.
-.Qc CONTROL-F
-Go forward
-.i count
-pages.
-.Qc CONTROL-D
-Go forwards half a page.
-.Qc CONTROL-U
-Go backwards half a page.
-.Qc CONTROL-N
-Go forwards
-.i count
-lines.
-.Qc CONTROL-Z
-Go backwards
-.i count
-lines.
-.Qc CONTROL-L
-Redraw the screen.
-.qc CONTROL-L
-may be typed at any time.
-.Qp b
-Back up one article in the current group.
-.Qp l
-Redisplay the article after you have sent a follow-up or reply.
-.Qp n
-Move on to the next item in a digest.
-.qp \*(lq\&.\*(rq
-is equivalent to
-.qp n .
-This is convenient if your terminal has a keypad.
-.Qp p
-Show the parent article
-(the article that the current article is a follow-up to).
-This doesn't work if the current article was posted by A-news or notesfiles.
-To switch between the current and parent articles,
-use the
-.qp \-
-command.
-Unfortunately,
-if you use several
-.qp p
-commands
-to trace the discussion back further,
-there is no command to return to the original level.
-.Qp ug
-Unsubscribe to the current group.
-This is a two character command to ensure that it is not typed accidentally
-and to leave room for other types of unsubscribes
-.i e\f1.\fPg ., (
-unsubscribe to discussion).
-.Qp v
-Print the current version of the news software.
-.Qp D
-Decrypts a joke.
-It only handles
-.pa rot13
-jokes.
-The
-.qp D
-command is a toggle;
-typing another
-.qp D
-re-encrypts the joke.
*-*-END-of-doc/howto.mn-*-*
exit