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Yarn User Manual - version 0.58 Yarn - offline news storage and reading system Copyright (c) 1994 Chin Huang Permission to copy and distribute this material for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies. THE AUTHOR MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE ACCURACY OR SUITABILITY OF THIS MATERIAL FOR ANY PURPOSE. IT IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES. THE AUTHOR WILL ASSUME NO LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES EITHER FROM THE DIRECT USE OF THIS PRODUCT OR AS A CONSEQUENCE OF THE USE OF THIS PRODUCT. INTRODUCTION Yarn is a suite of programs for your personal computer, used to store and read USENET news downloaded from a USENET host. FEATURES - An import program inserts USENET articles into a "news base" from Simple Offline USENET Packet (SOUP) format. - For each newsgroup, you specify the number of days to keep articles, after which, an expire program deletes them. However, articles containing an Expires: header are deleted on the date specified in the header. - The news base stores only one copy of a cross-posted article. The news base implementation stores multiple articles per file. - The Yarn news reader presents articles in threads arranged by Message- ID and References. The reader program generates SOUP reply packets. - Multiple users are supported by storing separate configuration files for each user. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS - MS-DOS 3.0 or higher - 80386 compatible CPU or better to run the 32-bit DOS extender version of the reader program. A real mode version of the reader is also included for non-386 systems. - a lot of hard disk storage, depending on how much news you want to keep. For example, the author subscribes to 120 newsgroups including some binaries and sources groups, keeping most articles for 7 days. The amount of disk space used is 40 megabytes. 1 Yarn User Manual - version 0.58 INSTALLATION INSTALL YARN DIRECTORY Unpack the files from the Yarn package into a directory. Run the command install [drive:]directory where [drive:]directory specifies where to install the Yarn data directory. This directory is created if it doesn't already exist. Choose a disk drive with a lot of free space because the news base will be stored here. This directory will be called the <yarn> directory. SET UP USER DIRECTORY To set up a user directory where Yarn will store your user information, run the command adduser The program displays a form in which you fill in the required user information. Home directory Specify the directory where Yarn will store your user information. This directory is created if it doesn't already exist. This directory will be called the <home> directory. User ID Set this to your login name on the host from which you download and upload USENET news. Host system Set this to the full domain name of your host. User's full name Set this to your full name. This is the name that appears in parentheses on the From: header in messages you send. Editor program Set the name of the editor program to run when you send messages. The program must be in your PATH. Reply packet file Specify the full path of the SOUP reply packet file where your outgoing messages are stored. If the reply packet file does not exist, it is created when you post an article or send a mail message from the reader program. When you exit the reader program, the reply packet is ready to upload to your host. The program writes the user information to a configuration file named <home>\yarn\config. This document refers to other configuration settings also stored in this file. If you want to change those settings, you have to edit the configuration file with a text editor. 2 Yarn User Manual - version 0.58 SET TIME ZONE Set the environment variable TZ to your time zone. The format of the TZ string is zzz[+/-]h[h][ddd] zzz is a three character field representing the name of the time zone. [+/-]h[h] is an optionally signed number representing the local time zone's difference from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in hours. Positive numbers adjust westward from GMT. Negative numbers adjust eastward from GMT. ddd is an optional three character field that represents the name of the local time zone's daylight saving time. If no TZ environment variable is set, a default TZ=EST5EDT is assumed. UPDATE SYSTEM FILES Put these SET commands in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file to ensure the environment settings persist after the next time you reboot your system. (If you are installing Yarn for OS/2, put the SET commands in your CONFIG.SYS file instead.) Use the settings determined above for the values appearing to the right of the equal signs. SET YARN=<yarn> SET HOME=<home> SET TZ=<tz> SET UP MAIL ALIASES A mail alias is a word representing one or more mail addresses. If a mail alias appears in a To:, Cc:, or Bcc: header, it is replaced with the corresponding address list when the message is sent. Create a file named <home>\yarn\aliases. A mail alias is defined in the file with the statement <name>=<addresses> where <name> is the name of the alias and <addresses> is a list of one or more addresses. You can specify an alternate aliases file by using the statement aliases=<file> in the configuration file, where <file> is the full path of the aliases file. 3 Yarn User Manual - version 0.58 SET UP OTHER USERS To set up another user, run the adduser command, and specify a different home directory. To run Yarn as that user, set the HOME environment variable to the user's home directory. ENVIRONMENT These enviroment variables modify the behaviour of Yarn if they are set. EDITOR Specifies the external editor program, overriding the editor specified in the configuration file. YARNRC This is the path of an alternate configuration file to read instead of the default one. CREATE LIST OF ACTIVE NEWSGROUPS You must inform Yarn of every newsgroup you will be importing by running the command newgroup <name> <keepDays> [<maxDays>] where <name> is the newsgroup name and <keepDays> is the number of days that articles in the newsgroup will be kept before the expire program deletes them. If you later want to change the number of keep days, run this command again, specifying the new keep days value. The optional parameter <maxDays> is the absolute maximum number of days an article will be kept. Some articles may have an Expires: header which contains a date far in the future. Normally the article will be kept until that date, but if you set this parameter to a value greater than zero, the article will be kept only for the specified number of days. Instead of naming a newsgroup on the command line, you can specify a text file containing a list of newsgroup names. Every newsgroup listed in the file is assigned the keep days value. newgroup @<file> <keepDays> [<maxDays>] REMOVE NEWSGROUP FROM ACTIVE LIST To remove a newsgroup from the active newsgroup list, run the command rmgroup <name> where <name> is the newsgroup name. 4 Yarn User Manual - version 0.58 OPERATION IMPORT NEWS AND MAIL To import messages from SOUP format, run import <file> where <file> is the path of the SOUP file. The import program takes these options. -n Do not delete the packet file. -q Operate in quiet mode. Do not list imported article numbers. -r Import rnews batches instead of SOUP files. If the import program finds a newsgroup in the packet that is not in the active newsgroup list, it adds the newsgroup to the active list. The keep days and maximum keep days for the added newsgroup are specified by the "keep" and "max-keep" settings respectively in the configuration file. For example, if the configuration file contains the settings keep=7 max-keep=30 then articles are normally kept in the newsgroup for 7 days and absolutely not more than 30 days. EXPIRE NEWS Periodically run the expire program to delete old articles from the news base. The program accepts these options: -d<n> Assume it is <n> days in the future. Use this option to expire articles before they normally would have been expired. -n Do not actually delete any articles. Used for testing. READ NEWS Run the yarn program to read news and mail. The yarn-x program is a version of the reader with a 32-bit DOS extender and it can list much more articles in a newsgroup. It requires an 80386 compatible CPU or better. The reader program operates in several modes -- the newsgroup selection level, the article selection level, and the article reading level. In the newsgroup selection level, yarn displays a window listing the newsgroups you are subscribed to along with the number of unread articles in each newsgroup. You can subscribe, unsubscribe or rearrange the order of newsgroups in this list. Press the [Ins] key to subscribe to a newsgroup. This brings up a list of unsubscribed newsgroups. To make a selection, use the arrow keys to move the highlight to the newsgroup, and then press the [Enter] key. The selected newsgroup is inserted into the subscribed newsgroup list. Press the [Del] key to unsubscribe from the 5 Yarn User Manual - version 0.58 highlighted newsgroup. To move a newsgroup in the list, press the [Del] key to remove it, position the highlight to the desired location, then press the [Ins] key and reinsert the newsgroup. By selecting a newsgroup, you go to the article selection level, where yarn presents a list of the subjects of each article. You can select an article to read from this list, taking you to the article reading level. NEWSGROUP SELECTION LEVEL These commands are available in the newsgroup selection level. Down Arrow Move to the next newsgroup. Up Arrow Move to the previous newsgroup. Tab, Alt-N Move to the next newsgroup that contains unread articles. Shift-Tab, Alt-P Move to the previous newsgroup that contains unread articles. Home Move to first newsgroup. End Move to last newsgroup. / Search forward for newsgroup name containing matching text. ? Search backward for newsgroup name containing matching text. ; Continue forward search. : Continue backward search. Space Go to the article selection level, listing only unread articles. Enter Go to the article selection level, listing all articles. Ins, Alt-S Subscribe to a newsgroup and insert the newsgroup at the current position. Del, Alt-U Unsubscribe from the highlighted newsgroup. Alt-A Post an article to the highlighted newsgroup. Alt-C Mark all articles in the highlighted newsgroup as read. 6 Yarn User Manual - version 0.58 ! Run command shell. Type "exit" to return to Yarn. Esc Exit program ARTICLE SELECTION LEVEL These commands are available in the article selection level. Down Arrow Move to the next article. Up Arrow Move to the previous article. Tab Move to the first article of the next thread. Shift-Tab Move backwards to the previous article beginning a thread. Home Move to first article. End Move to last article. / Search forward for article containing matching text. ? Search backward for article containing matching text. ; Continue forward search. : Continue backward search. Space, Enter Read the article. Del Mark the article as read and go to the next unread article. Ins Mark the article as unread. Alt-O Save the current article through to the last article in the thread to a folder. Alt-S Save the current article through to the last article in the thread to a file. If the file already exists, the articles are appended to the file. The program prompts for a file name. If you don't give a full path name, the file is stored in the directory <home>/News. Alt-W Same at Alt-S, except omit the article headers. Alt-K Mark the current article through to the last article in the thread as read. 7 Yarn User Manual - version 0.58 Alt-U Mark the current article through to the last article in the thread as unread. Alt-C Mark all articles in the newsgroup as read. Alt-A Post an article to the newsgroup. ! Run command shell. Type "exit" to return to Yarn. Esc Return to the newsgroup selection level. ARTICLE READING LEVEL These commands are available in the article reading level. Down Arrow, Enter Scroll one line down. Up Arrow Scroll one line up. PgDn, Space Show next page. PgUp, b Show previous page. Home Go to top of article. g Search article for matching text. G Continue search in article. / Search forward for article containing matching text. ? Search backward for article containing matching text. ; Continue forward search. : Continue backward search. n Mark the article as read and show the next unread article. N Show next article. p Show previous unread article. P Show previous article. a, Alt-A Post an article to the newsgroup. 8 Yarn User Manual - version 0.58 f Post a followup article. F Post a followup article, quoting the original article. r Mail a reply to the author of the article. R Mail a reply, quoting the original article. m Mail the article to someone. o Save the article to a folder. s Save the article to a file. If the file already exists, the article is appended to the file. The program prompts for a file name. If you don't give a full path name, the file is stored in the directory <home>/News. w Same as s except omit article headers. x ROT13 decrypt the article. k, Del Mark the article as read. K, Alt-K Mark this article and the rest of the articles in the thread as read. u, Ins Mark the article as unread. U, Alt-U Mark this article and the rest of the articles in the thread as unread. Alt-C Mark all the articles in the newsgroup as read. v Toggle verbose headers. C Cancel the article. You must be the author to be able to cancel the article. S Supersede the article. You must be the author to be able to supersede the article. =, q Return to the article selection level. ! Run command shell. Type "exit" to return to Yarn. Esc Return to the newsgroup selection level. 9 Yarn User Manual - version 0.58 READ MAIL To read mail, press [Alt-M] at the newsgroup selection level. This brings up a list of mail messages you received. If you have no mail, you are given the opportunity to send mail. Press [Alt-F] at the newsgroup selection level to bring up a list of folders. You can select a folder to read from this list. If you start yarn with the -m option, you go directly to reading your received mail and skip reading news. If you start yarn with the -f option, you go directly to the folder list and skip reading news. EDIT REPLIES The Yarn reader allows you to edit the messages in the reply packet. At the newsgroup selection level, press [Alt-R] to display a list of folders in the reply packet. The reply packet may contain up to two folders, ``mail'' which holds outgoing mail messages, and ``news'' which holds outgoing USENET articles. By selecting a folder, you go to the message selection level, where the program lists the messages in the folder. Press the [Del] key to delete the currently highlighted message. Press [Alt-E] to edit the message. To view a message, select it from the message selection level. While a message is displayed, pressing the 'd' key deletes the message. Press the 'e' key to edit the message. If you start yarn with the -r option, you go directly to the replies list and skip reading news. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ``How do I create SOUP files on my UNIX host?'' The uqwk program creates and processes SOUP files on your UNIX host. It is available by anonymous FTP from ftp.gte.com in the /pub/uqwk directory. To create a SOUP download packet, named "down.zip" in this example, run these commands on your UNIX host: uqwk +n +L zip down.zip AREAS *.MSG Download the down.zip file to your PC. Run this command on your PC to insert the messages into the Yarn news base: import down.zip When you send mail or post articles, the Yarn reader creates a SOUP reply packet, named "up.zip" in this example. Upload the up.zip file to your UNIX host. Run these commands on your UNIX host to send the messages in the reply packet: 10 Yarn User Manual - version 0.58 unzip -U up.zip uqwk -m -n +L -RREPLIES ``Sometimes when I select a newsgroup by pressing the space bar from the newsgroup selection level, yarn lists less articles than the number of unread articles shown.'' This occurs if the newsgroup you selected contains cross-posted articles that you already read in another newsgroup. The program marks these articles as read and updates the count of unread articles when you select the newsgroup. ``After running expire, I reduced the keep days for a newsgroup and ran expire again, but it didn't delete any more articles.'' Each article is assigned an expiry date after which it is deleted. The expire program deletes articles having an expiry date older than the current date. The article storage scheme requires that an article's expiry date be set when the article is imported into the news base. Once imported, the article's expiry date cannot be changed. When you change the keep days for a newsgroup, you only change how long you keep subsequently imported articles. You don't affect the expiry dates of articles already in the news base. ``What is the junk newsgroup?'' When the import program finds an article that doesn't belong to any of the groups in the active newsgroup list, it tosses the article into the junk newsgroup. This usually shouldn't happen with properly configured software. ``I configured Yarn for OS/2 to run the DOS version of PKZIP and PKUNZIP. Now the import program reports unpack failed.'' To use PKZIP and PKUNZIP, put these settings in your configuration file, adjusting the drive and path appropriately. compress=c:\os2\cmd.exe /c c:\path\pkzip -m %f %d\*.* uncompress=c:\os2\cmd.exe /c c:\path\pkunzip -o %f %d FILES <home>\mail Folder directory <home>\news Default save directory <home>\replies Reply work directory <home>\yarn User configuration directory <home>\yarn\aliases Mail aliases file <home>\yarn\config User configuration file <home>\yarn\newsrc Newsgroup subscription file <home>\yarn\readart.* Read cross-posted article lookup table <yarn>\active Active newsgroup file <yarn>\history.* Article history lookup table <yarn>\index Article index directory 11 Yarn User Manual - version 0.58 <yarn>\news Article file directory ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This product uses the SPAWNO routines by Ralf Brown to minimize memory use while shelling to DOS and running other programs. 12