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Text File | 1994-06-07 | 20KB | 363 lines

This file will aquaint you with the user-visible changes in trn 3.x.

If you're upgrading from trn 2.x see the discussion of the -a option,
the 't' command (newsgroup selection level), and the 'T' command
(article level & in kill files) for slight incompatibilities between
trn 2.5 and trn 3.0.

Changes from trn 3.4.1 to trn 3.5:

   o    Enhanced the -p option to allow you to select how you'd like
    your postings to be selected.  The default (which works the same
    as before) is -p (select your posting and its replies).  Also
    available is -p+ (select all postings in the thread) and -pp
    (select the *parent* article and its replies).
   o    Added the forward (^F) command to forward an article via mail.
   o    Improved the tab command (skip cited text) to skip empty lines
    and choose the quotation character more intelligently.
   o    You can now junk an article in just the current group via
    a search command using 'x'.  E.g.  /subject/:x
   o    Included some code from Olaf Titz <[e-mail]>
    that allows you to tell trn to transform high-bit characters
    into their 7-bit ascii equivilents.  See the _C command and
    the -Q option.
   o    Added the back-scroll command: 'B'.
   o    Added the -J<n> option to allow you to join truncated subjects
    into a common thread.  The default for -J is 30 chars, not counting
    the Re: portion.  I have the lines "&-J27" and "X&+J" in my Babylon
    5 kill file to join all the Genie posts that get truncated into the
    proper thread.
   o    Added the -K option to keep a group static (no new articles) while
    you read it.  Useful for people who have a really slow kill file
    for a group -- use "&-K" and "X&+K" in such a kill file to make
    only that group stop growing until you exit the group and re-enter.
   o    Added optional mouse support in an xterm window.
   o    Added a new intrp (%q) to get the value of the last quoted input
    (%").  Useful for using elm for forwarding articles as it needs
    the answer to the question "To?" on the command line:
        -EFORWARDPOSTER="elm -i %h -s '%'[subject]' %q"
    (though you may wish to redefine the FORWARDHEADER variable too).
   o    Fixed bugs in the handling of thread kills in partially-threaded
    groups (Tj now works even if the -a option wasn't specified) and
    and in the handling of the subject-kill command (Aj).
   o    New files, HINTS.TRN is like HINTS but in a better format.
    (I renamed it to avoid conflicts with the directory "hints").
   o    Portability enhancements to Configure and the support scripts.
   o    Some fairly major and minor bugs fixed.

Changes from trn 3.3 to trn 3.4.1:

   o    Made the kill-file handling more consistent in how it
    deals with the THRU line.  It now only ignores the THRU
    line for all selection commands.  You can turn off this
    exception (and thus make all commands obey the THRU line)
    by turning off the -k option (using +k).  You can also
    specify the 'I' modifier or the 'N' modifier to killfile
    searches to have them either ignore or not-ignore the
    THRU line, respectively.
   o    Changed the %'s interp to not supply the leading and
    trailing single quotes to make it more useful.
   o    The NNTP trn attempts to reconnect to the news server
    after it times out.  If it is successful, trn continues.
   o    The command /subj/M no longer assumes you meant /subj/r:M.
   o    Automatically-generated killfile commands (e.g. the 'K'
    command) now escape a '/' that occurs in the subject string.
   o    The _+ command (select whole thread) now starts reading
    the thread from the first unread article.
   o    The -p self-matching code was improved to match a user's
    name more exactly so that people with short login names
    don't get improper matches.
   o    Pnews was enhanced to deal with Followup-To: poster better
    when you choose to post anyway -- it now puts the user's
    address into the Cc: header and automatically corrects the
    Newsgroups: line.
   o    Pnews returns to the prompt after an inews error instead of
    aborting.  You can still choose to 'a'bort, if you like.
   o    Speller now passes the ispell_options from Configure to
    spell, and Configure has been enhanced to prompt you for
    the options if either ispell or (new!) vspell can't be
    found.
   o    Added the file Policy.sh.SH that puts your policy choices
    from the config.sh file into hints/Policy.sh.  This allows
    you to use the Policy.sh file to prime the Configure choices
    on multiple machines or in the mthreads package without
    machine-specific selections getting in the way.
   o    Upgraded Configure to the latest metaconfig release.
   o    Fixed some MIME bugs and made the handling a little smarter.
   o    Nested comment warnings removed from various include files.
   o    Fixed several crash bugs and several nusiance bugs, including:
       *    the problem with the NNTP trn mangling the date of
        new news groups (which caused either groups to get missed
        or groups to be re-offered).
       *    the problem with the NNTP trn that caused it to think
        certain lines that begin with a '.' are the end of the
        list marker and quit when it got confused.
       *    and lots more...

Changes from trn 3.2 to trn 3.3:

   o    Newsetup now looks for NEWSLIB/subscriptions for a default list
    of groups to subscribe the user to.  If the file doesn't exist
    the NNTP version will attempt to grab it via the LIST SUBSCRIPTIONS
    command (available in INN and some nntp patches).
    [HINT:  if you want your subscription file to default to all
    groups in the active file, link your subscription file to your
    active file -- trn will strip the info past the first space
    when it processes the .newsrc.]
   o    The file newsnews will now default to a simple version update
    message instead of a welcome-to trn message (which is now provided
    by the newsetup file when creating a new .newsrc for a user).
    I still encourage you to install your own custom newsnews
    when trn is updated (and trn still doesn't install newsnews
    automatically -- you have to make this decision for your self).
   o    Redirected and disabled groups (marked by '=' or 'x' in the active
    file) are now handled better, allowing you to read any remaining
    articles after a group gets redirected or disabled and warning you
    to either start using the new group name or that the group will
    not be receiving any new news.
   o    Mime support is now prompted for in Configure and your system's
    display/store commands are remembered.  We also handle a continued
    Content-Type header correctly now.
   o    The tick (') interp modifier will generate a tick-quoted string
    with all ticks inside the string quoted.  For example, %'s might
    generate (INCLUDING the "'"s)  'Ticks aren\'t a problem.'
   o    If the environment variable FAST_PNEWS == y Pnews skips the "Are
    you sure?" question and the "include file" prompt.  You can put
    -EFAST_PNEWS=y in the global INIT file, if you so desire.
   o    Various bug fixes.

Changes from trn 3.1 to trn 3.2:

   o    Configure and the include file structure has been improved to
    install easier on more systems.
   o    Fixed some non-portable test statements in Pnews.
   o    Added the -Z option to allow you to turn on/off support for the
    two different database formats (-Zt, -Zo, -Zot, or +Z).
   o    Configure now allows you set the default database support to
    thread files, overview files, both or none.
   o    Trn and its support scripts handle ~/dirs in the newslib or
    rnlib better.
   o    Various bug fixes.

Changes from trn 3.0 to trn 3.1:

   o    Added a new header-searching syntax:  /string/Hheader:cmd.
    This allows you to match a string on any header that trn
    knows about and is faster on the NNTP side than full-header
    matching.  Example:  /: .../Hlines:j  would junk all postings
    longer than 99 lines.
   o    Two new commands can be put into a group's kill file: *j
    (kill all articles from THRU to the end of the group) and *X
    (kill all unselected articles from THRU to the end of the group).
   o    Pnews (using artcheck) now checks the active file as well as
    the newsgroups file for each group on the Newsgroups line.  This
    lets you know whenever you specify a group that doesn't exist.
    Also, the NNTP version has been fixed to provide full checking.
   o    Pnews/Rnmail have been modified to allow you to type either upper
    or lower case for the response letters, and use "sp*ell" in addition
    to "c*heck" for the spelling checker ("s*end" is unchanged).
   o    Pnews/Rnmail each have a pre-edit signature appending option.
    If you use the file DOTDIR/.news_sig INSTEAD of .signature Pnews
    will append your signature before you edit the file.  Rnmail uses
    the file DOTDIR/.mail_sig.  Note also that the names may be
    customized with the environment variables NEWSSIGNATURE and
    MAILSIGNATURE, if desired (allowing a per-group signature).
   o    Added the modifiers '>' and ')' to interpreted strings.  For
    example:  %>f gives you the address only on the From line,
    while %)f gives you the real name portion.
   o    Added the 'O' command (newsgroup level) that works just like 'o'
    except that it does not visit empty groups.
   o    The killfile is fully saved before manual editing with Ctrl-K
    (message-id commands used to be saved only on exit from the group).
   o    The screen is now refreshed when the window size changes.
   o    Trn now makes use of stdlib.h, unistd.h (if available) and does a
    more intelligent inclusion of time.h & sys/time.h (as needed).
   o    Trn doesn't loop through the current thread if unread articles
    still exist in it.  Also fixed various problems with '>' & 'P'.
   o    The 'D' command in the selector no longer jumps back to the top.
   o    The NNTP version has a different new-article aquisition strategy.
    Your nntp server must send up-to-date information in response to
    the GROUP command (INN's nnrpd does) for a group to expand while
    you're in it.  Also, you can now set the minimum time for trn to
    wait (see -z) before it refetches the active file at the end of
    the newsgroups.  The default is 5 minutes.
   o    Optional metamail support pauses between the headers and the
    metamail-interpreted article.  Also, the 'v' command displays the
    raw article without metamail processing.
   o    Numerous portability changes and bug fixes.

Changes from trn 2.5 to trn 3.0:

   o    Trn is now capable of reading more news database formats.  It
    currently supports news overview (.overview files), mthreads
    (.thread files), and direct threading of the articles.  The
    NNTP version supports the XTHREAD and XOVER NNTP extensions.
    If you compile trn with support for both formats it will figure
    out which groups (or which server) has which type of data and
    act accordingly.
   o    Mthreads is now a separate package from trn since not everyone
    will need to use it.  Look for it in the same place you found
    trn.
   o    Trn attempts to build some useful default macros for your
    terminal's arrow keys.  On the article level they move around
    in the thread; in the selector they change pages (left/right)
    and switch selections (up/down); on the newsgroup level they
    move by group (up/down) and enter a group (right).  If you
    don't like this, turn it off with the +A option.
   o    There's a new search scope -- the from line.  For example:
    use /author/f+ to search for and select 'author's articles.
   o    The thread selector has been extended to be a subject and
    article selector.  Use the 'S'et selector command to change
    modes or use '=' to toggle between the article selector and
    the subject/thread selector (whichever was last in use).
   o    The selector can now be sorted in a variety of ways:  by date,
    subject, author, article count (in the subject/thread selector),
    or a combination of subject and date (in the article selector).
    The default is date order of the oldest unread article in a thread.
    Use the 'O'rder command to pick a new one or use 'R' to reverse
    the sort.  See also the "-O<mode><order>" option to set your
    favorite mode and order.  You can even put a "&-Oas" command (for
    example) into a group's kill file to set a per-group default.
   o    The selector allows you to exclude all the non-selected articles
    from the display (i.e. narrow it) -- use 'E' to toggle this mode.
   o    The selector has two new selection commands:  '*' is used to select
    (or deselect) the current item and all other items with the same
    subject (useful in the article selector); '#' is used to make an
    overriding selection that immediately reads the current item
    ignoring all other selections.
   o    You can now type 'M' in the selector to mark the current item's
    articles as read-but-returning and press 'Y' to yank back and
    select these articles before exiting the group.
   o    Selections via searches are article-oriented (/subj/+) or
    thread-/subject-oriented (/subj/++).  The article selector's
    default command is "+", while the thread/subject selector's is
    "++".  In other words doing a "/subj" search with no specified
    command selects whatever type of object you're looking at in the
    selector.
   o    If you specify the "-p" option, your postings and any replies to
    them are auto-selected whenever trn encounters them.
   o    The '+' command in a non-threaded group visits the subject selector.
    You can also use "_a", "_s", "_t" or "_T" to force the article,
    subject, thread, or thread-but-I'll-settle-for-subject selector.
   o    The selector displays subjects/threads that are partially-selected
    with a '*'.  Fully-selected items are marked with a '+', as before.
    Use the article selector (possibly with 'E'xclusive set) to see
    which articles are selected in a partially-selected group (or just
    read them).
   o    The selector remembers which subjects you selected (and didn't kill)
    and marks any newly-arriving articles in these subjects as selected
    until you exit the group.
   o    The medium display mode of the thread selector has been improved
    to make it more readable.
   o    The selector will leave out the middle portion of a subject that is
    too long to display the last two words of the subject.  If you don't
    like this, use the -u option to leave them unbroken.
   o    'T'hread KILL commands now use message-ids to either junk
    or select articles.  The 'T' command has been extended to be
    more flexible on the article level and has been added to the
    selector.
   o    Another new command 'A'dds selection or kill commands to the KILL
    file, and works from both the article level and the selector.
   o    The tree display has been updated to display unread-but-not-
    selected articles as <x>.  Other unread articles are still [x],
    while read articles still display as (x).
   o    Trn can enter a group without thread information available and
    thread it in the background while you read.  Articles that have
    references that may or may not exist show up as "(?)".  If you
    visit an article like this and wait there, the screen will update
    when we know for sure one way or the other (after processing more
    of the group).
   o    The -a option is used to tell trn to thread all of the
    articles on entry to the group.  If you don't specify this
    option a group may have a few (or many) articles that get
    threaded in the background and won't show up on the tree
    display until trn processes them.
   o    Pressing "_+" on the article level will select the entire thread
    associated with the current article -- useful if you've selected
    individual articles and wish to read the rest of the discussion.
    Use "_-" to deselect the current thread.
   o    The commands _N and _P move to the next and previous article
    in numberical (arrival) order (article level).  Thus, you can
    use the command "._P" on the newsgroup level to start reading
    a group from the very last article to arrive.
   o    The 't' command on the newsgroup level now turns OFF reading a
    group with threads (this setting is stored in the .newsrc file,
    so it is remembered from session to session).  Trn 2.x used this
    to force threading to be turned ON, but it wasn't usually needed
    for normal operation.  To temporarily turn threads on once inside
    a non-threaded group, use the 't' or "_t" commands (article level)
    or the "St" command (selector).
   o    Trn now checks for the environment variable TRNMACRO on startup
    (which defaults to DOTDIR/.trnmac) before checking for the usual
    RNMACRO (DOTDIR/.rnmac) file.  If you're running trn in its rn-
    compatible mode, only RNMACRO is tried.
   o    The threaded and non-threaded data in a group has been unified,
    resulting in more cached information on the non-threaded side
    (such as the from line) and more efficient handling of missing
    articles, just to name two benefits.
   o    The newsgroup information is freed when we enter a new group,
    not when we exit the current group.  This means that if you
    quit out of a group (even accidentally), you can go back in
    and everything is still there except the selections, which
    get cleared on group exit.
   o    KILL file processing will now ignore the THRU line as much as
    possible without slowing down the handling of KILL files.
    If you have really slow searches (header or article searches)
    or you use trn without a database it will use the THRU line
    to only search an article one time (as it would in rn).  This
    means that if you have subject-oriented selection commands you
    don't have to worry about missing articles if you don't read all
    of them the first time you enter a group after they arrive.  This
    also means that you won't have to edit your local kill file to
    remove the THRU line to force a re-scan -- this is now unnecessary.
   o    Header parsing is now done in-memory, making threading and
    caching of articles much faster.  This especially helps out
    NNTP users because trn used to write a tmp file for every
    header parse.
   o    Several new mode letters (accessed by %m in macros) were added.
    The most significant are 'f' for the end (Finis) of the newsgroup
    selection level (instead of 'n') and 'e' for the end of the article
    reading level (instead of 'a').
   o    A new % modifier has been introduced: "%:FMTx".  This allows you
    to apply a printf-style column format to a regular %x expansion.
    For example, %:-50.50s would left-justify the subject into 50
    characters, exactly.
   o    The -f option will make trn go a little faster by getting rid of the
    delay/prompt after kill file processing, printing the "skipping
    article" message, and printing the "Depositing KILL command" message.
    This is the default if -t (terse) is specified, but can be overriden
    by specifying +f after the -t option.
   o    A new option for the gadget-conscious (-B) displays a spinner when
    trn is processing articles in the background.
   o    Added the -G option to make the newsgroup 'g'o command look for
    near matches (for those typing mistakes).
   o    New newsgroups that are left unsubscribed are not appended to the
    .newsrc unless you use the -I option or you're running an NNTP
    version that does not use the NEWGROUPS code.
   o    Support for metamail's mime handling is now built into the code --
    see the METAMAIL define in common.h.
   o    Pnews does more checking of your article before posting, has a
    spelling-check option, and allows the Cc: header to be used to
    send mail while posting the article.

Changes from trn 1.0.3 to trn 2.5:

   o    Added the '(' and ')' commands (article level) to move to an
    article's previous/next sibling, including "cousin" siblings.
   o    The 'A'bandon command (newsgroup level) forgets all changes to the
    current newsgroup since you first started trn.
   o    The thread selector now allows you type type 'c'/'y' to catchup
    the group without chasing cross-references.
   o    Added 'z' and 'Z' commands (article level) supersede the current
    article ('Z' also including the original text).
   o    The g command (newsgroup level) will go to a newsgroup by number
    where the the number corresponds to that shown in the 'L'ist
    command.
   o    Added the "-o" option to use the old method of junking articles in
    the thread commands (they didn't chase cross-references in trn 1.x)
   o    Added the "-b" option to read articles in a breadth-first descent
    of the article tree.  You can specify this command at runtime to
    switch from breadth-first (type "&-b") to depth-first ("&+b).
   o    Added the "-j" option to tell trn to pass control characters through
    the pager unharmed.