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- Path: bloom-beacon.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!faqserv
- From: Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com>
- Newsgroups: news.software.nn,news.answers
- Subject: NN Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) with Answers
- Supersedes: <nn-faq/part1_776882366@rtfm.mit.edu>
- Followup-To: poster
- Date: 21 Aug 1994 14:46:08 GMT
- Organization: Newt Software, Menlo Park, California, USA
- Lines: 1778
- Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu
- Expires: 4 Oct 1994 14:45:41 GMT
- Message-ID: <nn-faq/part1_777480341@rtfm.mit.edu>
- Reply-To: Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: bloom-picayune.mit.edu
- Summary: This document answers Frequently Asked Questions about NN, a
- menu-based, point and shoot, USENET news reader. It should
- be read by new NN users and news.software.nn readers and
- before posting to this newsgroup.
- Keywords: FAQ nn news question answer newsrc digest article nntp
- newsgroup cancel mail signature header netnews usenet kill
- X-Last-Updated: 1994/08/20
- Originator: faqserv@bloom-picayune.MIT.EDU
- Xref: bloom-beacon.mit.edu news.software.nn:3457 news.answers:24408
-
- Archive-name: nn-faq/part1
- Last-modified: $Date: 1994/08/20 21:34:57 $
- Version: $Revision: 94.8.1.2 $
- Posting-Frequency: monthly
-
- This is a living list of frequently asked questions on the Usenet
- news reader NN (No News is Good News). The point of this is to
- circulate existing information, and avoid rehashing old answers.
- Better to build on top than start again. Please read this document
- before ever posting to this newsgroup.
-
- This article is posted monthly. If it has already expired and
- you're not reading this, you can hope that you saved the last bit of
- question 1.3 so that you can get a copy yourself.
-
- Please do not post an answer when someone posts a frequently asked
- question, as I will always e-mail a reply. This ensures that
- everybody gets their question answered fully and eliminates
- unnecessary traffic in this newsgroup.
-
- Your comments, additions and fixes to this list are welcome: please
- send them to Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com>.
-
-
- Subject: Table of Contents
- From: Preface
-
- Legend: + new, - deleted, ! changed
- _______________
-
- 1. Introduction
-
- 1.1 Why should I use nn?
- 1.2 What is the current version/status of nn?
- !1.3 Where can I get nn?
- !1.4 What references exist for nn?
- 1.5 How should I report bugs?
- 1.6 How can I convert from rn to nn?
- !1.7 How can I make life simpler when starting nn for the first time?
- !1.8 Is there an X interface to nn?
- ______________
-
- 2. Building nn
-
- 2.1 What machines does nn run on?
- 2.2 Is it possible to restrict the groups that users have access to?
- 2.3 Unofficial patches for various bugs
- 2.4 Can I set up nn securely?
- ________________
-
- 3. Command Input
- _________________
-
- 4. Selection Mode
-
- 4.1 How come nn doesn't show the Lines count?
- 4.2 Why does nn crash when a letter one past the highest letter is selected?
- 4.3 How do I search for an author in a menu?
- ________________________
-
- 5. Reading Mode Commands
-
- 5.1 How can I see the original article with the current subject?
- 5.2 Why do articles without a Lines header appear empty?
- 5.3 Can the article viewer/pager be changed?
- 5.4 How can I read MIME (multi-media mail) articles?
- +5.5 How can I read HTML (world wide web, mosaic) articles?
- 5.6 Why am I reading cross-posted articles more than once?
- __________________
-
- 6. Saving Articles
-
- 6.1 How do I save files that I can read later with MH, elm, Mail, ...?
- 6.2 What's the best way to save multi-part articles?
- 6.3 When saving in +a/b/c keeps you from saving in +a/b.
- +6.4 How can I change the default name of a save file?
- +6.5 Can I save all unread articles non-interactively into a file?
- _____________________
-
- 7. Folder Maintenance
-
- 7.1 How can I remove old articles from folders?
- _____________________________________
-
- 8. Posting and Responding to Articles
-
- 8.1 How can I post prewritten articles with nn?
- 8.2 How can nn automatically append my signature?
- 8.3 How do I eliminate double signatures?
- 8.4 Can the signature come from a different file or program?
- 8.5 How do I save my posts and replies automatically?
- +8.6 Can I use my editor to edit posts and replies?
- 8.7 Can I use my mailer to send mail?
- 8.8 Can nn use aliases when sending mail?
- 8.9 How can I set a different Organization name?
- 8.10 How can I make mail replies go to a different machine?
- 8.11 How can I change how my real name appears?
- 8.12 How can I customize my mail headers for mail and posting?
- __________________________
-
- 9. Jumping to Other Groups
-
- 9.1 How can I see which newsgroups are available?
- ________________________________
-
- 10. Automatic Kill and Selection
-
- 10.1 Can all non-selected subjects be automatically placed in my kill file?
- 10.2 Can I automatically kill articles based on the Newsgroups header?
- 10.3 How can I find all articles having to do with a certain topic?
- 10.4 How can I select one article in a thread with auto-select-subject set?
- 10.5 Can one search for patterns in the entire article from the menu?
- 10.6 How come more articles get selected than I expect?
- 10.7 Any plans for trn-ish thread following?
- _______________________________
-
- 11. The Format of the Kill File
- __________________________
-
- 12. Miscellaneous Commands
-
- 12.1 Can I choose newsgroups as I do articles, ie. with a menu?
- 12.2 How do I unsubscribe to all groups?
- +12.3 How can I get nn to stop adding new newsgroups?
- __________________
-
- 13. The Init Files
-
- 13.1 +How do I customize nn or change nn's behavior?
- _________________________
-
- 14. Variables and Options
-
- 14.1 Setting new-group-action to "ask before adding" doesn't work.
- _____________________
-
- 15. Macro Definitions
-
- 15.1 Is there a library of macros and other nn features?
- ________________
-
- 16. Key Mappings
- __________________
-
- 17. Command Groups
- _______________________________
-
- 18. Group Presentation Sequence
- ____________
-
- 19. NN Maintenance & nnmaster
-
- 19.1 Why does nnmaster stop collecting articles at the "junk" group?
- 19.2 How do I cope with "Incomplete MASTER file"?
- 19.3 Why isn't nnmaster working?
- !19.4 Why did nnmaster stop working?
- 19.5 Why do I get ".../MASTER not found"?
- 19.6 Why do I get "cannot open 'x' file"
- 19.7 Why do I get "Lost connection to server foobar"
- +19.8 Why doesn't nn display messages when not using NNTP?
- +19.9 Why do I get "Notice: no news has arrived for the last n hours"?
- ________
-
- Appendix
-
- Glossary, Acknowledgements, Copyright and Warranty
- pack_date.c
- news.c
- nn-use-mh
- nn_elm
- nnalias
- +lynxify
-
-
- Subject: Viewing This Article
- From: Preface
-
- To skip to a particular question numbered xx, use "/^F.*xx" with most
- pagers. In GNU Emacs type "M-C-s ^F.*xx", (or C-r to search backwards),
- followed by ESC to end the search.
-
- To skip to new or changed questions, use "/^S.*[!+]" with most pagers and
- "M-C-s ^S.*[!+]" in GNU Emacs.
-
- This article is in digest format. Nn may have already broken this
- message into separate articles; if not, then type "G %". In rn, use
- ^G to skip sections.
-
- This article is treated as an outline when edited by GNU Emacs. Run
- "M-x describe-mode" to see available outline-mode commands. Useful
- commands are "M-x hide-body", "C-c C-s" (show-subtree) and "M-x
- show-all"
-
- Numbers in square brackets denote the month and year of the last
- update.
-
-
- Subject: ***** Introduction *****
- From: 1.
-
-
- Subject: Why should I use nn?
- From: 1.1
-
- nn is a menu based (point and shoot) netnews reader with a complete
- set of features to satisfy both the expert and the novice user. Since
- its first release in Denmark in 1984 (!), in Europe in 1988, and the
- global release in June 1989, it has replaced rn and other well-known
- news readers at many sites.
-
- Some of the key features of nn are:
-
- * Menu-based article selection prior to reading the articles with the
- articles sorted according to subject and posting time.
-
- This significantly reduces the time spent on news reading. No
- keystrokes are wasted on articles you don't want to read, and only
- the articles selected on the menu will be read.
-
- * Release 6.4 uses standard .newsrc, and can leave individual
- articles unread.
-
- * Digests are automatically split and presented as ordinary articles!
- You can transparently save and respond to individual subarticles.
-
- * Full folder support: read, save, and delete individual articles.
-
- * Online help and manual.
-
- * Built-in unshar and patch functions.
- * Built-in uudecode function which will automatically unpack,
- concatenate, and decode multi-part postings.
-
- * Easy remapping of keys with advanced macro definition features.
-
- * Automatic kill & selection of articles based on subject or author.
-
- * User specified presentation sequence of news groups based on the
- news group hierarchy.
-
- * Whole classes of news groups can easily be unsubscribed
- permanently, e.g. talk.all and all.politics
-
- * Related groups can be merged and presented as a single group, e.g.
- comp.emacs and all gnu.emacs groups.
-
- * Blindingly fast 'search for subject'. On my Texas S1500 system, nn
- uses less than 20 seconds to find all articles on a specific
- subject among 64000 articles in all groups!
-
- * News collection and presentation is extremely fast, because nn uses
- its own database on top of the standard news system.
-
- * In a distributed environment, the database can be shared among all
- hosts on the network. Only one daemon is needed on the news server
- for all hosts. This works in a heterogenous environment as well.
-
- * NNTP is also supported (using a local database for speed).
-
- Because of the database, nn starts almost equally fast (in a few
- seconds), no matter whether you have 100 or 10000 unread articles!
- The database takes up some disk space, but dramatically improves speed
- and functionality. The amount of disk space consumed is approx. 1Mb
- per 10000 articles.
-
-
- Subject: What is the current version/status of nn?
- From: 1.2
-
- The current version of nn is 6.4.18.
-
- Note: The development of nn has been taken over by Peter Wemm
- <peter@dialix.oz.au>. Bug reports, fixes and suggestions should be
- sent to nn-bugs@dkuug.dk.
-
- Version 6.5.0 is in the final stages of beta testing. It will
- include many bug fixes, full NOV capability, a means of
- automatically killing threads of unread articles as well as
- automatically selecting subjects to articles that you've read, a
- mouse sensitive xterm interface, and the program nnsub to subscribe
- to newsgroups.
-
- The adventurous are invited to obtain the beta version. Please get
- the files README.FIRST and README.b3 in the beta directory, and
- report any bugs to Peter [Q1.3 "Where can I get nn"]. [10.93]
-
-
- Subject: !Where can I get nn?
- From: 1.3
-
- The current master site for nn is ftp.uwa.edu.au.
-
- If you should need the Internet address, use nslookup or dig if you
- have them, or send mail to dns@grasp.insa-lyon.fr with "help" for
- a Subject.
-
- via anonymous ftp: [5.94]
- ftp.uwa.edu.au /pub/nn/nn-6.4.18.tar.Z 590k
- /pub/nn/nn-6.4.18.tar.gz 405k
- /pub/nn/beta/nn-6.5.0.b3.tar.gz 515k
- nexus.yorku.ca /pub/linux/sources/news/nn-6.4.18.tar.Z
- ftp.uu.net /networking/news/readers/nn/
- nn-6.4.18.tar.Z
- qiclab.scn.rain.com /pub/news/nn-6.4.18.tar.Z
- gumby.dsd.trw.com /pub/news/newsreaders/unix/
- nn-6.4.18.tar.Z
- mcsun.eu.net /news/readers/nn/nn-6.4.18.tar.Z
- sun.rz.tu-clausthal.de /pub/unix/network/apps/news/nn/
- nn-6.4.18.tar.Z
- ftp.cs.ruu.nl /NN-6.4/nn-6.4.18.tar.gz
- chalmers.se /pub/unix/nn/nn6.4.18.tar.Z
- ftp.luth.se /pub/infosystems/news/readers/nn/
- nn-6.4.18.tar.Z
- grasp1.univ-lyon1.fr /pub/nfs-mounted/ftp.univ-lyon1.fr/
- mirrors/unix/nn/nn-6.4.18.tar.gz
- ftp.msen.com /pub/packages/news/nntp.1.5.11.tar.Z 210k
- ecs.soton.ac.uk /pub/news/nntp-1.5.11.tar.Z 210k
-
- via anonymous uucp:
- You can get the latest production release of NN via UUCP from UUNET.
- The file you would retrieve is:
-
- uunet!~/networking/news/readers/nn/nn.tar.Z
-
- This file is linked to the ftp.uu.net file listed above which
- should be the latest production release. Use the uucp command
- to queue the transfer (typically "uucp -d -r FILE DESTINATION").
- UUNET subscribers would call as they would normally for mail.
- Other sites in the continental U.S. can access UUNET's archive
- using anonymous UUCP through a 900 number (1-900-GOT-SRCS). The
- login name is "uucp" and there is no password requested. The
- following is an example Systems/L.sys entry:
-
- uunet Any ACU 19200 19004687727 "" \d\r ogin:-\d\r-ogin: uucp
-
- The modems on the 900 lines are Telebit WorldBlazers negotiating
- V.32bis, V.32, 2400, 1200, and last with (Turbo)PEP tones. The
- cost is 50 cents per minute (as of Jan 93) which will appear on on
- your next phone bill. For more info, retrieve uunet!~/help or
- e-mail help@uunet.uu.net (uunet!help). --Eric Ziegast
- <ziegast@uunet.uu.net> [8.94]
-
- via mail:
- Send a note to ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com whose body contains "help"
- on a line by itself get information on getting ftp sources by
- mail.
-
- Send a note to mail-server@nluug.nl with a body containing one or
- both of the following as desired:
-
- send news/nn/nn6.4.16.tar.Z <- old
- send news/nntp/nntp.1.5.11.tar.Z
-
- mini-inews:
-
- As well as bringing mini-inews up to date, modifications have been
- made to remove the need for MINI_INEWS_HEADERS when setting up nn.
- Mini-inews will now create whatever headers are required including
- if desired, a Lines header or an incremental Message-ID numbering
- capability. --Jim Jagielski <jim@jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov>
-
- jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov /pub/misc/NN-6.5.patches.tar.gz 43k
-
-
- Subject: !What references exist for nn?
- From: 1.4
-
- Book:
- The Whole Internet User's Guide & Catalog (2nd Ed), Chapter 8. Ed Krol.
- ISBN 1-56592-063-5. $24.95. 543 pages.
- O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
- Book Orders:
- US and Canada: 800-998-9938. Fax: 707-829-0104.
-
- To get a list of non-US distributors, send a note to
- nuts@ora.com or call +1-707-829-0515.
-
- Usenet:
- news.software.nn
-
- On-line Documents:
- Gopher (Host/Port/Menu)
- unlhelp.unl.edu/2001/Electronic Communications->Applications->nn [8.94]
-
- Mosaic
- gopher://unlhelp.unl.edu:2001/11/18menu/03menu/09menu [8.94]
-
- Papers:
- "Intro to nn"
- ftp.cso.uiuc.edu /doc/net/nn.<fmt>
- where <fmt> is one from doc(16k), ps(91k), tex(21k), jpn, and hqx.
-
- "A Short Guide to nn"
- ftp.unl.edu /pub/crc/docs/UNLINFO.GUIDE/UNLINFO.06.nn.<fmt>
- where <fmt> is one from txt(57k), ps(1.17M), rtf(68k) and hqx(65k). [8.94]
-
- "nn Helpsheets"
- ftp.unl.edu /pub/crc/docs/UNLINFO.HELPSHEETS/nn.<fmt>
- where <fmt> is one from 1.ps(636k), 2.ps(549k), hqx(209k). [8.94]
-
- This document:
- via anonymous ftp:
- rtfm.mit.edu /pub/usenet/news.answers/nn-faq
- ftp.uu.net /archive/usenet/news.answers/nn-faq.Z
- ftp.cs.ruu.nl /pub/NEWS.ANSWERS/nn-faq
-
- via uucp:
- uunet!/archive/usenet/news.answers/nn-faq.Z
-
- via mail:
- Each of the following addresses is following by commands which
- should be included as the body of the message.
-
- mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu
- send /usenet/news.answers/nn-faq
-
- mail-server@cs.ruu.nl
- send /pub/NEWS.ANSWERS/nn-faq
-
- Mailing list:
- A mailing list for nn developers is nn@uniwa.uwa.edu.au. To join,
- please send a message to nn-request@uniwa.uwa.edu.au.
-
- NN mailing list archives:
-
-
- Subject: How should I report bugs?
- From: 1.5
-
- Send them to nn-bugs@dkuug.dk. [10.93]
-
-
- Subject: How can I convert from rn to nn?
- From: 1.6
-
- Why bother? On our system some people use nn and some people use
- rn. In fact, since they both use the same .newsrc format, it is
- perfectly possible to use both. --Ian Taylor <ian@airs.com>
-
-
- Subject: !How can I make life simpler when starting nn for the first time?
- From: 1.7
-
- Use nnsub and eep. See the enclosed documentation to see which you
- prefer. [note: only available in 6.5.0 beta] --Peter Wemm
- <peter@dialix.oz.au> [10.93]
-
- The standard method is to run:
-
- nngrep -a | sed -e 's/ *$/!/' > .newsrc # add \ before ! in csh
-
- and then edit .newsrc, replacing the '!' with a ':' for those
- groups you're interested in. --Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com> [8.94]
-
- I think a nice way is to use the catch-up facility. Start nn -a0
- and let nn catch up automatically. After some hours restart nn and
- unsubscribe to uninteresting groups having news articles. Restart
- nn the following day and continue unsubscribing.
-
- After one week, you have a nice .newsrc. --Joerg Napp
- <napp@uni-paderborn.de>
-
-
- Subject: !Is there an X interface to nn?
- From: 1.8
-
- This is an X version of nn that uses TCL and TK to provide the user
- interface. It adds two separate methods of newsgroup choice (list
- and cascading menus) as well as buttons, menus and selection using
- the mouse, but all the keyboard commands still work as well.
-
- It's still in alpha version, but all the nn functionality is there,
- if not in its final form. Tcl v7 and TK v3 are required to compile
- it. --Toivo Pedaste <toivo@uniwa.uwa.edu.au> [8.94]
-
- ftp.uwa.edu.au /pub/nn/contrib/nn-tk.alpha.tar.Z 935k
-
- In nn-6.5.0beta, there is a simple text panel, with highlighting and
- mouse sensitivity within an xterm. [10.93]
-
-
- Subject: ***** Building nn *****
- From: 2.
-
-
- Subject: What machines does nn run on?
- From: 2.1
-
- Please send updates to nn-bugs@dkuug.edu. [10.93]
-
- Operating systems:
-
- 3b1 (UNIX-pc) with GCC SunOS 3
- NeXT 1.0 SunOS 4.0
- AIX 2.2.1 SunOS 4.1 SysV environment
- A/UX 1.1 System V
- 4.2 BSD and Ultrix systems Motorola System V/88 Release 3
- 4.3 BSD systems Texas Instruments System 1500
- dnix 5.2 on DIAB DS90 NCR tower
- dnix 5.3 on DIAB DS90 ULTRIX systems (4.2 based)
- Dynix 3.0 on Symmetry Mips running riscos 4.0 or greater
- Fortune 32:16 Riscos 4.5 and later
- HPUX (series 300) Microport UNIX V.2
- HPUX 2.1 (series 800) Amdahl UTS 2.0
- HPUX 3.0 (series 800) SCO Xenix 2.2.1 (286) -- terminfo
- HPUX 6.5 or newer (series 300) SCO Xenix 286 -- termcap
- HPUX 7.0 Xenix386 [termcap version]
- Interactive UNIX on 386 Xenix386 2.3.2 w/development system
- Dynix/PTX on symmetry Tandy 68000/Xenix 3.2
- Pyramid (and Targon 35)
- SCO UNIX V on 386
- IRIX 3.1/3.2
- Siemens SINIX
-
- Hardware platforms:
-
- 3b1 with GCC [no networking] MIPS processors
- Amdahl 5890 (big iron) Siemens MX300
- AT&T 3b2 Pyramid (and Targon 35)
- Convex IBM 6150
- DECstation 3100 Silicon Graphics 4D series
- Gould PN6000 SPARC processors
- HP9000 series 320 and 800 (at least) 80386 based SUNs [have network support]
- Intel 80286 [no networking] Sequent Symmetry
- Intel 80386 [no networking] VAX family
- Motorola 68000 family
- Motorola 88000 risc
-
-
- Subject: Is it possible to restrict the groups that users have access to?
- From: 2.2
-
- Create a new group for the people who can read the special groups.
- Call it "privnews", for example. (In /etc/group put the userid of
- each person who's in that group on that group's line.) Then change
- the group of the spool directory which contains the restricted
- newsgroup to "privnews" (leaving the owner as news), and set the
- mode to 750. --Alexis Rosen <alexis@panix.com>
-
- Note that this only works if you are not using NNTP to read news.
- There is currently no mechanism that will allow this to work with
- NNTP. --Steve Simmons <scs@wotan.iti.org> [1.93]
-
-
- Subject: Unofficial patches for various bugs
- From: 2.3
-
- Several bugs have been reported and fixed and the patches are
- available here for those not patient enough to wait until the next
- release.
-
- Remember, these are *unofficial* patches so back them out before
- patching in the next release of nn. You do not have to strip the
- two leading spaces before these patches. In fact you can run "patch
- -s -N < this-entire-faq", within the newsreader even!
-
- The patch in Appendix "pack_date.c" fixes NN dateline parsing.
- Also, NN mishandles non-GMT time zones near short month boundaries
- due to NN's, er, somewhat unusual time stamp encoding. It is
- included in nn version 6.5.0. --Paul Eggert <eggert@twinsun.com>
- [10.93]
-
-
- Subject: Can I set up nn securely?
- From: 2.4
-
- Diffs are unfortunately not included, but this is what you can do:
-
- o Set shell-restrictions in the setup file.
- o Set and lock *every* variable which is used to execute commands.
- o Modify the source to avoid display/save/print files above the
- home-directory if shell-restrictions is set (mainly in save.c).
- o Modify the source to avoid changing directories if shell-restrictions
- is set.
- o Modify the source to avoid showing the contents of locked variables.
-
- In particular, the following variables should be locked:
-
- backup-folder-path, backup-suffix, bug-report-address, decode-header-file,
- editor, folder, inews, mail, mail-record, mailer, news-record, newsrc,
- pager, patch-command, printer, record, spell-checker, unshar-header-file
-
-
- Subject: ***** Command Input *****
- From: 3.
-
-
- Subject: ***** Selection Mode *****
- From: 4.
-
-
- Subject: How come nn doesn't show the Lines count?
- From: 4.1
-
- Karl Kleinpaste writes:
- C News sites can turn on Lines: header creation (we do here), but
- the default has it turned off. I wish more would turn it on, as
- several newsreaders put it to use, and it's the most easily
- available metric of article size when showing the user a menu of
- available articles.
-
- Henry Spencer replies:
- We're unenthusiastic about Lines:, which is why it's off by default
- and little-documented. *The* most easily available metric of
- article size is not line count -- which is often slightly wrong, by
- the way -- but byte count, which is available without even parsing
- the headers.
-
- You can tell C News to add Lines: headers to articles *posted*
- locally, but C News has no provision for adding headers to traffic
- coming in from other sites. [Specifically, search for the string
- "uncomment" in inews, and uncomment those lines. --bw]
-
- But Paul Eggert <eggert@twinsun.com> and Luc Rooijakkers
- <lwj@cs.kun.nl> provide a solution:
-
- Remember, these are *unofficial* patches so back them out before
- patching in the next release of nn. You do not have to strip the
- two leading spaces before these patches. In fact you can run
- "patch -s -N < this-entire-faq", within the newsreader even! A
- variation of this patch is included in nn version 6.5.0. See
- Appendix "news.c" [10.93]
-
- Finally, Peter Wemm <peter@dialix.oz.au> says that you'll always get
- the lines header if you run INN.
-
-
- Subject: Why does nn crash when a letter one past the highest letter is selected?
- From: 4.2
-
- This is fixed in patch 17. [9.92]
-
- Your terminal modes will be screwed up after such an event, so
- you'll have to type ^J (or LINE-FEED) repeatedly until a prompt is
- seen, and then run
-
- stty -sane^J
-
- or
-
- reset
-
-
- Subject: How do I search for an author in a menu?
- From: 4.3
-
- Add the following macro to your init file (~/.nn/init) and invoke
- via '_' (underscore).
-
- # _ does search on sender (as = does a search on subject)
- map menu _ (
- :set select-on-sender
- find input
- :unset select-on-sender
- message
- )
-
- [1.93]
-
-
- Subject: ***** Reading Mode Commands *****
- From: 5.
-
-
- Subject: How can I see the original article with the current subject?
- From: 5.1
-
- While reading an article, use "G RET RET RET".
-
-
- Subject: Why do articles without a Lines header appear empty?
- From: 5.2
-
- This problem only shows up if you have header-lines set to a string
- that includes "L". It is suspected that having the line count patch
- sets something that makes nn think there is a Lines header and then
- the header-string is telling it to display the Lines header but
- there isn't one and things get messed up. --Gary Morris
- <garym@telesoft.com>
-
-
- Subject: Can the article viewer/pager be changed?
- From: 5.3
-
- No. And for good reason. There are too many commands in nn's pager
- that less, for example, doesn't know anything about.
-
-
- Subject: How can I read MIME (multi-media mail) articles?
- From: 5.4
-
- Using metamail, you can do one of the following:
-
- "Print" the message. Use the "P" command and:
-
- set printer metamail
-
- "save" the message. Use "s" and specify "|metamail" as a filename.
-
- metamail can be found at:
-
- thumper.bellcore.com /pub/nsb/mm2.7.tar.Z
-
- [5.94]
-
-
- Subject: +How can I read HTML (world wide web, mosaic) articles?
- From: 5.5
-
- Add the following to ~/.nn/init. The "lynxify" script is in the
- Appendix.
-
- map show ^F (
- save-full "|lynxify"
- redraw
- )
-
- When reading the article with HTML references, use C-f. Note that
- just "ftp://ftp.ii.com/pub/ii" won't be enough; you'd need to see
- something like <A HREF="ftp://ftp.ii.com/pub/ii">Nancy McGough,
- Infinite Ink</A> for lynx to pick it up.
-
-
- Subject: Why am I reading cross-posted articles more than once?
- From: 5.6
-
- If you are using nnmaster and the cross-post detection is broken,
- then something's wrong that I'm not aware of.
-
- If you are using the NOV .overview database, and are not storing the
- full Xref header, then that will cause it. --Peter Wemm
- <peter@DIALix.oz.au> [5.94]
-
- If you're running INN, edit /usr/lib/news/overview.fmt and uncomment
- the line with 'Xref:full' in it. If you're running Cnews with the
- NOV patches, you'll have to edit mkov.c (I think) appropriately and
- recompile; the code for putting Xref: in the NOV database is in
- there, just commented out. --Richard Todd
- <rmtodd@servalan.servalan.com> [5.94]
-
-
- Subject: ***** Saving Articles *****
- From: 6.
-
-
- Subject: How do I save files that I can read later with MH, elm, Mail, ...?
- From: 6.1
-
- MH:
- Save your files with +$F/$N. For example, if you save message 10
- in news.software.nn in this way, you will create a file called
- ~/News/news/software/nn/10. If you have a symbolic link from
- ~/Mail/news to ~/News, then you can look at your saved nn
- messages with "scan +news/news/software/nn".
-
- Mail
- Add "set mail-format" to your init file.
-
-
- Subject: What's the best way to save multi-part articles?
- From: 6.2
-
- All you have to do is to save the articles from the menu, e.g.
-
- W(rite) +file.* a b c d... <space>
-
- where a b c d... are the articles on the menu you want to save. You
- can also save the selected articles on the menu with * (only on
- current page) or + (on all menu pages). --Kim Storm <storm@olicom.dk>
-
-
- Subject: When saving in +a/b/c keeps you from saving in +a/b.
- From: 6.3
-
- This happens when default-save-file is $F. Try changing
- default-save-file to $F/$N (my favorite) to get, for example,
- +news/software/nn/1022, or $G to put everything in
- +news.software.nn. Finally, if you really did want the behavior of
- +$F, a compromise would be to use +$F. (Andrew's favorite) instead
- (one can use anything other than '.'). --Bill Wohler
- <wohler@newt.com> & Andrew Swann <swann@imada.ou.dk>
-
- Alternatively, use +$F/$L, to place articles for news.software.nn in
- the file +/news/software/nn/nn. This has two advantages:
- 1) You can later read through the folder "nn" and save some of the
- articles under new folder names having to do with the topic. For
- example, you might save auto-select topics under +$F/auto-sel,
- that is, +/news/software/nn/auto-sel.
- 2) If at a later date, a new newsgroup is added below nn, articles
- can still be saved under that subgroup since +/news/software/nn is
- already a directory, not a folder. --Harry Herman <herman@corpane.uucp>
-
-
- Subject: +How can I change the default name of a save file?
- From: 6.4
-
- The variable default-save-file controls how files are named. By
- default, the value of default-save-file is +$F (components of the
- newsgroup become directories, last component is the file name--[Q6.3
- When saving in +a/b/c keeps you from saving in +a/b] discusses why
- this isn't a good idea). However, most sites change that to +$G
- (file has the same name as the newsgroup) in the system init file.
- --Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com> [8.94]
-
- You can also set default save files on a per-newsgroup level. To do
- this, add the default save file to the newsgroup in your sequence
- (in ~/.nn/init). For example,
-
- news.software.nn +nn
-
- --Sven Guckes <guckes@inf.fu-berlin.de> [8.94]
-
- If you don't want to have any default at all, add
-
- unset suggest-default-save
-
- to ~/.nn/init. --Alex Martelli <alex@uqbar.cirfid.unibo.it> [8.94]
-
-
- Subject: +Can I save all unread articles non-interactively into a file?
- From: 6.5
-
- rn has some options to do this. See the man page for details.
-
- Henrik Roseno <hero@login.dkuug.dk> writes that
- alt.usenet.offline-reader provides some programs that are designed
- just for this purpose. Uqwk gathers the articles (into a SOUP or
- BlueWave packet ?), and Yarn is a program that lets you read them
- once you've downloaded them to your PC. Use archie to find them
- nearby. --Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com> [8.94]
-
-
- Subject: ***** Folder Maintenance *****
- From: 7.
-
-
- Subject: How can I remove old articles from folders?
- From: 7.1
-
- Just open the folder in the usual way and C(ancel) the articles you
- want to remove from the folder. When you leave the folder, nn will
- rewrite the folder with the "cancel"ed articles removed. --Kim
- Storm <storm@olicom.dk>
-
-
- Subject: ***** Posting and Responding to Articles *****
- From: 8.
-
-
- Subject: How can I post prewritten articles with nn?
- From: 8.1
-
- nnpost will construct the header for the posted article, so it
- requires several arguments to be specified before the article is
- posted, e.g. a newsgroup name and a subject. If some arguments are
- missing, nnpost will prompt for the missing arguments.
-
- If your pre-written article includes a full header, then you should
- not use nnpost; instead you should feed the article to "inews -h"
- directly (which is what nnpost does after building the header from
- the arguments). --Kim Storm <storm@olicom.dk>
-
-
- Subject: How can nn automatically append my signature?
- From: 8.2
-
- Put your signature in a file called .signature in your home
- directory, and use:
-
- set append-signature-post
- set append-signature-mail # if desired
- set query-signature # if you want confirmation.
-
- See also [Q8.3 "How do I eliminate double signatures?"] and [Q8.4
- "Can the signature come from a different file or program?"] [3.93]
-
-
- Subject: How do I eliminate double signatures?
- From: 8.3
-
- Double signatures occur when both nn and inews append $HOME/.signature.
-
- If you want just inews to append your signature, use:
-
- unset append-signature-post
-
- This is actually the default, but you can unset this variable if
- your nn administrator has mistakenly turned it on.
-
- If you want just nn to append your signature, move your signature to
- some other place than $HOME/.signature. Then see, [Q8.4 "Can the
- signature come from a different file or program?"]
-
-
- Subject: Can the signature come from a different file or program?
- From: 8.4
-
- If you want nn to append your .signature file, you can copy nn's aux
- file (ie. /usr/local/lib/nn/aux) to your .nn directory and set the
- mail-script and news-script variables to ~/.nn/aux. In your copy of
- the aux script, you can either specify a different place for your
- .signature file (like $HOME/.nn/signature) or you can get fancy: you
- can use specific .signatures for certain groups (saved in variable
- "G"), or use the output of a program. --Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com>
-
- Tired of the same old signature? Want different signatures for
- different newsgroups? Here's a program to help you out.
-
- The way it works is to have .signature be a named pipe, so if you
- don't have named points, just say 'n'.
-
- The sigrand program then feeds stuff down the pipe everytime someone
- wants to read it. That way it works for more than just news, but
- for anything that wants to read your .signature, like a mailer.
-
- You have your choice of three kinds of signatures:
-
- 1) random (short) fortune from "fortune -s"; you get these if
- you don't have a global sig file.
- 2) random fortune from ~/News/SIGNATURES [global sig file]
- 3) random fortune form ~/News/(newsgroup)/SIGNATURES [local sig files]
-
- Ask Tom Christiansen <tchrist@convex.com> for more details.
-
-
- Subject: How do I save my posts, followups and replies automatically?
- From: 8.5
-
- In your nn init file, use the following lines:
-
- set news-record file
- set mail-record file
-
- to place posts and followups in one file and replies in another, or
- to put everything in a single file, use:
-
- set record file
-
- Replace "file" with the absolute path (~ == home directory ok) of
- your desired file. All files are saved in mailbox format. --Don
- Mullins <mullins@convex.com> [9.92]
-
-
- Subject: +Can I use my editor to edit posts and replies?
- From: 8.6
-
- Yes. Set the environment variable EDITOR as desired. If you like
- emacs:
-
- $ EDITOR=emacs; export EDITOR # sh, ksh, bash
- % setenv EDITOR emacs # csh, tcsh.
-
- Alternatively, you can add:
-
- set editor emacs
-
- to ~/.nn/init. --Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com> [8.94]
-
-
- Subject: Can I use my mailer to send mail?
- From: 8.7
-
- Yes. See the variables mail-script, mailer, and mailer-pipe-input.
- The following show how you can have nn use elm and MH to mail
- messages. Note that this does not replace the internal mailer: the
- message is passed on to the selected mailer for further delivery. [5.94]
-
- The original idea of using MH (namely, comp) to send mail from nn
- came from Jaap Vermeulen <jaap@sequent.com>, but he wouldn't
- recognize what I did to it. I also used a suggestion from John
- Romine <jromine@ics.uci.edu> and Tom McCain <tom@dynamo.ecn.purdue.edu>.
-
- Add
-
- set mail-script nn-use-mh
-
- to your init file. See Appendix "nn-use-mh" for the script.
-
- In addition, you can contact Ray Davis <rdavis@convex.com> for some
- scripts that sort of turn nn into a MH front end by providing macros
- to save, delete and refile articles in MH folders.
-
- To use elm to send the messages, add the following to ~/.nn/init:
-
- set mailer nn_elm
- unset mailer-pipe-input
-
- and see Appendix "nn_elm" for the script. [1.93]
-
-
- Subject: Can nn use aliases when sending mail?
- From: 8.8
-
- Yes. See the variable mail-alias-expander, and use the script in
- Appendix "nnalias." [1.93]
-
-
- Subject: How can I set a different Organization name?
- From: 8.9
-
- See [Q8.11 "How can I customize my mail headers for mail and
- posting?"] [9.92]
-
-
- Subject: How can I make mail replies go to a different machine?
- From: 8.10
-
- See [Q8.11 "How can I customize my mail headers for mail and
- posting?"] [9.92]
-
-
- Subject: How can I change how my real name appears?
- From: 8.11
-
- On BSD UNIX systems, you can run the command chfn(1) to change your
- real name. If you don't want to do this, or can't, please see [Q8.11
- "How can I customize my mail headers for mail and posting?"] [9.92]
-
-
- Subject: How can I customize my mail headers for mail and posting?
- From: 8.12
-
- Headers can be modified or appended to by creating the variables
- mail-header (for replies) and news-header (for posts and followups)
- in the init file. You can include any headers that you want;
- separate multiple headers with semi-colons. For example:
-
- set mail-header From: Joe Smith <js@cc.edu>;Reply-To: js@cc.edu;
- Organization: CC University
- set news-header From: Joe Smith <js@cc.edu>;Reply-To: js@cc.edu;
- Organization: CC University
-
- Note that these lines are split for readability--the value of these
- variables must appear on a single line. In addition, do not insert a
- space between semi-colons and the next header.
-
- A Reply-To header is useful when your system generates either an
- unwanted or blatantly wrong return address for you. If this header
- is present, then mailers use it instead of the system generated From
- header.
-
- A From header is useful when you want to change how your real name
- appears to nn readers, but you don't want to change it (or can't) on
- your system. Warning: only do this if you're sure you can create a
- RFC 822 compliant From header. [9.92]
-
-
- Subject: ***** Jumping to Other Groups *****
- From: 9.
-
-
- Subject: How can I see which newsgroups are available?
- From: 9.1
-
- To see a list of all news groups with a short description, use the
- command ":post" and type '?'. To list groups that match a regular
- expression (ie. pattern), use "/pattern" instead of '?'. --<Sven
- Guckes> guckes@math.fu-berlin.de
-
- Also try using '?' when going to a group with the 'G' command. Note
- that successive '?'s will display more groups when there is not
- enough room to display all choices at once. Group completion is
- achieved with ' ' (space).
-
- Finally, the programs "nnsub" or "eep" can be used to easily view
- newsgroup names and descriptions and also to subscribe to groups.
- These programs are in the "contrib" area of the sources in 6.5.0.
-
- [10.93]
-
-
- Subject: ***** Automatic Kill and Selection *****
- From: 10.
-
-
- Subject: Can all non-selected subjects be automatically placed in my kill file?
- From: 10.1
-
- The two variables, ignore-re and auto-select-rw, accomplish this
- task. They are available in version 6.5.0. In the meantime,
- patches may be obtained from dkuug.dk:/pub/nn6.4/nn6.4.killunread.
- --Keld J|rn Simonsen <keld@dkuug.dk>. [1.93]
-
-
- Subject: Can I automatically kill articles based on the Newsgroups header?
- From: 10.2
-
- This is how one can automatically kill crossposted articles, etc.
-
- First, manually either add the following to your .newsrc to mark all
- articles read forever:
-
- alt.flame: 1-2147483647
-
- or add the following to your .nn/kill file to kill all articles in
- the group:
-
- alt.flame:!s/:^
-
- The former method may break down if you ever use nngoback to reset
- numbers in your .newsrc. The latter method could cause difficulty
- if you ever actually want to read articles in that group.
-
- Near the top of your sequence in your init file put
-
- !alt.flame.
- alt.flame
-
- This makes alt.flame, but not its subgroups, be included as the first
- thing in your sequence; so all articles in it are killed before they
- appear in any other groups. You might want to put NEW above this so
- you can see if new groups are getting off to a bad start with lots of
- alt.flame crossposting. Later in the sequence put
-
- % alt %
-
- This allows the rest of the alt hierarchy, including subgroups such
- as alt.flame.spelling (if you subscribe to it), to get included at
- that point in the sequence.
-
- Along with using the default settings of cross-filter-seq=true and
- cross-post=false, this works fine to nuke the crossposted articles.
- --Richard M. Mathews <richard@locus.com> & Dave Shaver <shaver@convex.com>
-
-
- Subject: How can I find all articles having to do with a certain topic?
- From: 10.3
-
- nngrab invokes nn on all articles whose subject or keyword fields
- contain a desired keyword. This shows one how important it is to
- use descriptive subjects and keywords when posting articles. For
- more information, read the manual page.
-
-
- Subject: How can I select one article in a thread with auto-select-subject set?
- From: 10.4
-
- Define the following macro to toggle auto-select-subject. --Steven
- Grady <grady@fx.com>
-
- map menu A (
- :local auto-select-subject
- :toggle auto-select-subject
- ?auto-select-subject=on echo "Auto-select on"
- ?auto-select-subject=off echo "Auto-select off"
- )
-
- Use the '.' command.
-
-
- Subject: Can one search for patterns in the entire article from the menu?
- From: 10.5
-
- No. However, in 6.5.0, there will be an additional option under the
- 'G' command to create a submenu containing articles that contain the
- desired string. As it is not yet well tested, it will be a compile
- time feature. --Peter Wemm <peter@dialix.oz.au> [10.93]
-
-
- Subject: How come more articles get selected than I expect?
- From: 10.6
-
- Check the setting of subject-match-parts. If this is on, then your subjects
- are considered matched if they match up to the first digit. For example
- if subject-match-parts is on, the subjects:
-
- someprogram Part 1/5
- someprogram Part 2/5
-
- are considered matches. So are
-
- v12345: someprogram Part 1/5
- v12346: anotherprogram Part 1/23
-
- as the "v" is identical up to the first digit. If you want to use
- subject-match-parts in a "comp.sources" type group, set
- subject-match-offset (the character position that matches are
- started from) to be beyond any digits that might appear in the first
- part of the subject. --Dave Hayes <dave@elxr.jpl.nasa.gov>
-
-
- Subject: Any plans for trn-ish thread following?
- From: 10.7
-
- "Yes, it's planned." --Peter Wemm <peter@dialix.oz.au> [10.93]
-
-
- Subject: ***** The Format of the Kill File *****
- From: 11.
-
-
- Subject: ***** Miscellaneous Commands *****
- From: 12.
-
-
- Subject: Can I choose newsgroups as I do articles, ie. with a menu?
- From: 12.1
-
- No, not yet. Sorry. However, progress in this direction has been
- made--if you care to finish the work, please contact Peter Wemm
- <peter@dialix.oz.au>. [12.92]
-
- See also [Q9.1 "How can see which newsgroups are available?"] [1.93]
-
- Outside of nn, you may wish to check out eep which is in the
- contributed area in 6.5.0. --Peter Wemm <peter@dialix.oz.au> [10.93]
-
-
- Subject: How do I unsubscribe to all groups?
- From: 12.2
-
- The file .newsrc in your home directory contains the information
- about the newsgroups, their subscription status and the numbers of
- the read articles. A colon (':') indicates a subscribed group, and
- an exclamation mark ('!') indicates an unsubscribed group. All you
- need to do for unsubscribing to all newsgroups is to edit .newsrc.
- You can do this with your favourite editor, or
-
- sed -e 's/:/!/' $HOME/.newsrc > foo
- mv foo .newsrc
-
- If you use csh, you have to escape the '!' with a '\'. --Sven
- Guckes <guckes@math.fu-berlin.de> [3.93]
-
-
- Subject: +How can I get nn to stop adding new newsgroups?
- From: 12.3
-
- Add
-
- set new-group-action 0
-
- to ~/.nn/init. --Jason A Chase <jchase@netcom.com> [8.94]
-
- However, what you might want to do instead is not see new groups in
- selected hierarchies. I've added the following to my sequence (in
- ~/.nn/init):
-
- # Don't bother with new groups in these hierarchies.
- !:N alt,de,u3b,vmsnet,eunet,bionet,bit,biz,trial,psi,k12,nirvana
-
- The key one is alt! --Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com> [8.94]
-
-
- Subject: ***** The Init Files *****
- From: 13.
-
-
- Subject: +How do I customize nn or change nn's behavior?
- From: 13.1
-
- Modify the file ~/.nn/init. See the section "The Init Files" in the
- man page for more details. So that you know what else might be
- affecting nn, here's the beginning of that chapter:
-
- The init files are used to customize nn's behaviour to local
- conventions and restrictions and to satisfy each user's personal
- taste. Normally, nn reads up to three init files on start-up if
- they exist (all init files are optional):
-
- $LIB/setup
- A system-wide file located in the library directory. This file
- is always loaded before any other init file (even when the -I
- option is specified). It cannot contain a group presentation
- sequence.
-
- $LIB/init
- Another system-wide (global) init file located in the library
- directory. This file may be ignored via the -I option.
-
- ~/.nn/init
- The private init file located in the user's .nn directory. It
- is read after the global init file to allow the user to change
- the default setup.
-
-
- Subject: ***** Variables and Options *****
- From: 14.
-
-
- Subject: Setting new-group-action to "ask before adding" doesn't work.
- From: 14.1
-
- Take NEW out of your sequence--it's redundant.
-
- There was also a small bug (fixed in 6.5.0) which caused it to
- not to work in certain situations. --Peter Wemm <peter@dialix.oz.au>
- [10.93]
-
-
- Subject: ***** Macro Definitions *****
- From: 15.
-
-
- Subject: Is there a library of macros and other nn features?
- From: 15.1
-
- When complete, it will be a companion posting to this one. If you
- have not mailed me <wohler@newt.com> your init file, or you have
- made substantial changes since the last time, please send it in. If
- anyone is handy in perl or awk and would like to write some scripts
- to reduce multiple init files to variable summaries (like the one I
- posted a long time ago), macro definitions and presentation sequence
- tricks, I would like to talk to you.
-
-
- Subject: ***** Key Mappings *****
- From: 16.
-
-
- Subject: ***** Command Groups *****
- From: 17.
-
-
- Subject: ***** Group Presentation Sequence *****
- From: 18.
-
-
- Subject: ***** NN Maintenance & nnmaster *****
- From: 19.
-
-
- Subject: Why does nnmaster stop collecting articles at the "junk" group?
- From: 19.1
-
- This can occur when you access news via NNTP. Older nntp servers
- have a limitation of 4000 articles in a group, and junk may easily
- exceed this which makes the nntp server crash.
-
- To overcome the problem, edit the GROUPS file to add the X flag on
- the junk group, run nnmaster -G, and then nnmaster will ignore the
- junk group. --Kim Storm <storm@olicom.dk>
-
- In nntp_dir/common/conf.h, you can either increase MAX_GROUPS
- (normally 4096) or you can set #define DYNAMIC_ART_ARRAY (normally
- #undefed). In either case, you obviously have to recompile nntp.
-
- Normally, new groups are added as they come in, but the news
- administrator should monitor the junk newsgroup and either make new
- newsgroups for the orphan messages, or ensure that the feed stops
- sending bogus messages. --Mark Rawling
- <Mark.Rawling@mel.dit.csiro.au> [3.93]
-
-
- Subject: How do I cope with "Incomplete MASTER file"?
- From: 19.2
-
- See [Q19.3 "Why isn't nnmaster working?"]
-
-
- Subject: Why isn't nnmaster working?
- From: 19.3
-
- After the make, did you remember to:
-
- Run ./inst <options> to install the files?
- Run ./inst INIT to initialize the database?
-
- Nnmaster mails error messages to the user who owns him (typically
- "news"). Check this mailbox for clues.
-
- If nnmaster -r or -D did not work, then neither did nnmaster -I (or
- ./inst INIT from the install directory). Once you fix the
- permissions (see Paul's answer below), you need to rerun the
- initialization step. --Stew Ellis <ellis@nova.gmi.edu>
-
- If nnmaster dies and updates the Log file with "Incomplete MASTER
- file", it could be you're not running the latest version. --David
- R. Hieb <David.R.Hieb@magi.rootgroup.com>
-
- If, when you start your nnmaster, it just exits quietly, it could be
- that your permissions are incorrect. Ensure that all directories in
- the nn library are owned by news (or the owner that you configured
- nn with). --Paul Bickerstaff <pbickers@tamaluit.phys.uidaho.edu>
-
- Make sure that there is a 'news' entry in passwd and group since
- nnmaster is run setuid/setgid to news and the files and directories
- that nnmaster needs to access are owned and writable by news. --Jim
- Jagielski <jim@jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov> [9.92]
-
- Another problem could be in the way it is started. Two related
- solutions are presented.
-
- /etc/rc exits before the child has had the chance to setpgrp().
- Putting "sleep 5" at the end of /etc/rc fixed it. --David B. Thomas
- <dt@yenta.alb.nm.us>
-
- Another similar solution involved inserting a "sleep 10" at the
- beginning of /etc/daemons/nnmaster.init file.
- --Jeffery Small <jeff@cjsa.wa.com>
-
- It could be you're not running the latest version. --David R. Hieb
- <David.R.Hieb@magi.rootgroup.com>
-
-
- Subject: !Why did nnmaster stop working?
- From: 19.4
-
- Perhaps you have a corrupted database that can't be fixed. In this
- case, run "./inst INIT" from the installation procedure. --Phil
- Howard <pdh@netcom.com> [5.94]
-
- nnmaster may exit when it encounters a corrupt header in an article
- from a nntpserver. Restart nnmaster in debug mode (nnmaster -D) to
- see which group contains the offending article. Ignore this group
- until the offending article has expired by editing the GROUPS file,
- adding the `X' flag to the newsgroup and running "nnmaster -G".
- Restart collection of the newsgroup by removing the `X' flag and
- running "nnmaster -G". --Stew Ellis <ellis@nova.gmi.edu> [8.94]
-
- See also [Q19.3 "Why isn't nnmaster working?"]
-
-
- Subject: Why do I get ".../MASTER not found"?
- From: 19.5
-
- The problem of the NN port to the Atari ST is, that you have to
- build an "active" file (NN format, not HERMES-like!!) in
- /usr/lib/news before running nnadmin -I.
-
- You can build this file by using the included "buildact.tos."
- Buildact.tos creates a UNIX-like /usr/lib/news/active from
- /usr/lib/hermes/active. [9.92]
-
-
- Subject: Why do I get "cannot open 'x' file"
- From: 19.6
-
- If you get a message like,
-
- Fatal system error:
- alt.activism (6): cannot open 'x' file (mode=82, errno=2)
-
- you haven't initialized your database. As root, run the following
- command "./inst INIT" in the nn source directory. See the file
- INSTALLATION for more information. --Sami Tikka <Sami.Tikka@hut.fi>
- [1.93]
-
-
- Subject: Why do I get "Lost connection to server foobar"
- From: 19.7
-
- It's possible that the two database files for a newsgroup (nnn.x and
- nnn.d) don't exist. Go into nnadmin and force a recollect of the
- newsgroup. Most of the newsgroups (which are missing nnn.x and
- nnn.d files) after the first problem newsgroup might be
- automatically collected without a problem. If there are a large
- number of these problem groups, it might be easier just to rebuild
- the whole database: kill nnmaster, run "./inst INIT" as root in the
- source directory and restart nnmaster. --Jeff Beckley
- <beckley@qualcomm.com>
-
- If the group in question has too many articles (>4000), it will
- cause older NNTP implementations to choke. See [Q19.1 "Why does
- nnmaster stop collecting articles at the "junk" group?"] for a
- fix. [3.93]
-
-
- Subject: +Why doesn't nn display messages when not using NNTP?
- From: 19.8
-
- If the database was built with NNTP, then nn has to use NNTP to read
- the messages. This is not true in the other direction: nn clients
- can use NNTP to read the messages from a database built via NFS.
- The moral: build the database via NFS if you intend to use nn with
- either NFS or NNTP. --Michael Masterson <mjm@thumper.progcons.com>
- [8.94]
-
-
- Subject: +Why do I get "Notice: no news has arrived for the last n hours"?
- From: 19.9
-
- See [Q19.4 "Why did nnmaster stop working?"]. [8.94]
-
-
- Subject: Glossary
- From: Appendix
-
- MIME Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions (see RFC ?)
- NNTP Network News Transport Protocol (see RFC 977)
- INN Inter-Network News
-
-
- Subject: Acknowledgements
- From: Appendix
-
- I'd like to thank the following people for providing ideas on the
- layout of this article:
-
- Joe Wells <jbw@bigbird.bu.edu> Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.ai.mit.edu>
- David Elliott <dce@smsc.sony.com> Tom Christiansen <tchrist@convex.com>
- Eugene N. Miya <eugene@nas.nasa.gov>
-
-
- We are also grateful to the individuals mentioned below and in the
- text of this document who have provided answers or other information
- to make this a better document. I regret that it is possible that
- some names have been accidently omitted. I would also like to thank
- all the readers of news.software.nn.
-
- Kim Storm <storm@olicom.dk> Sven Guckes <guckes@math.fu-berlin.de>
-
-
- Subject: Copyright and Warranty
- From: Appendix
-
- Copyright 1994 Bill Wohler
-
- This article is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
- the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
- Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later
- version.
-
- This article is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
- but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
- MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
- GNU General Public License for more details which can be found
- in prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/COPYING.
-
-
- Subject: pack_date.c
- From: Appendix
-
- *** old/pack_date.c Wed Apr 17 01:32:40 1991
- --- new/pack_date.c Thu Jun 4 20:03:02 1992
- ***************
- *** 4,9 ****
- --- 4,11 ----
- * Calculate an approximate "time_stamp" value for a date
- * string. The actual value is not at all critical,
- * as long as the "ordering" is ok.
- + * The current algorithm mishandles non-GMT time zones near
- + * short month boundaries, but this is rare in real news.
- *
- * The result is NOT a time_t value, i.e. ctime() will
- * not produce the original Date string.
- ***************
- *** 256,262 ****
- res *= 24 * 60;
- res += (hour * 60) + min;
-
- ! return res + tzone(date);
- }
-
-
- --- 258,264 ----
- res *= 24 * 60;
- res += (hour * 60) + min;
-
- ! return res - tzone(date);
- }
-
-
- Subject: news.c
- From: Appendix
-
- RCS file: news.c,v
- retrieving revision 1.1
- diff -c2 -r1.1 news.c
- *** news.c 1990/10/23 21:37:38 1.1
- --- news.c 1992/06/19 23:17:05
- ***************
- *** 231,235 ****
- char *parse_header();
- struct stat statb;
- ! int retry;
- FILE *f;
- #ifdef NNTP
- --- 231,235 ----
- char *parse_header();
- struct stat statb;
- ! int c, retry;
- FILE *f;
- #ifdef NNTP
- ***************
- *** 300,309 ****
- body = parse_header(f, art_hdr_field, modes, buffer1);
-
- - news.ng_lines = news.ng_xlines ? atoi(news.ng_xlines) : -1;
- if (news.ng_from == NULL) news.ng_from = news.ng_sender;
-
- ! if (modes & FILL_OFFSETS) {
- art->fpos = news.ng_fpos = ftell(f);
-
- fseek(f, (off_t)0, 2);
- news.ng_lpos = ftell(f);
- --- 300,328 ----
- body = parse_header(f, art_hdr_field, modes, buffer1);
-
- if (news.ng_from == NULL) news.ng_from = news.ng_sender;
-
- ! if (modes & FILL_OFFSETS)
- art->fpos = news.ng_fpos = ftell(f);
-
- + if (news.ng_xlines)
- + news.ng_lines = atoi(news.ng_xlines);
- + else {
- + #ifdef NNTP
- + if (use_nntp && lazy) {
- + off_t fpos = ftell(f);
- + fclose(f);
- + f = nntp_get_article(art->a_number, 2);
- + if (f == NULL) return NULL;
- + lazy = 0;
- + fseek(f, fpos, 0);
- + }
- + #endif
- + news.ng_lines = 0;
- + while ((c = getc(f)) != EOF)
- + if (c == '\n')
- + news.ng_lines++;
- + }
- +
- + if (modes & FILL_OFFSETS) {
- fseek(f, (off_t)0, 2);
- news.ng_lpos = ftell(f);
-
-
- Subject: nn-use-mh
- From: Appendix
-
- #!/bin/sh
-
- # Obtain value of $WORK and $RECORD
- . ${HOME}/.nn/.param
-
- # Append Fcc: +folder to headers. The folder is specified in
- # mail-record.
- if [ "$RECORD" != "" ]; then
- awk '
- {
- if ($0 == "" && !done) {
- print "Fcc: +'$RECORD'";
- done = 1;
- }
- print;
- }' $WORK > /tmp/aux.$$ && mv /tmp/aux.$$ $WORK
- fi
-
- # Compose and send the mail
- comp -form $WORK
-
-
- Subject: nn_elm
- From: Appendix
-
- #!/bin/sh
- #
- # nn_elm
- #
- # 07 Aug 91 V1.0
- #
- # Massage a mail message from nn into a form that elm can use
- # (c) 1991 Phil Kernick <phil@ringo.ssn.flinders.edu.au> Wizard Software
- #
-
- eval `awk '
- BEGIN {
- FS = ":";
- dq = sprintf("%c", 34);
-
- headers = 0;
- to = "";
- subject = "";
- }
-
- /^.*: / {
- headers++;
- if($1 == "To")
- to = dq substr($0, 5) dq;
- if($1 == "Subject")
- subject = dq substr($0, 10) dq;
- }
-
- /^$/ {
- printf("tail +%d %s | elm -s %s %s > /dev/null\n", headers+2, mail, subject, to);
- exit;
- }' mail=$1 $1`
-
- exit $?
-
-
- Subject: nnalias
- From: Appendix
-
- #!/bin/sh
- #
- # nnalias -- expands aliases from ~/.mailrc file for nn.
- #
- # To use, put the following in your ~/.nn/init file:
- #
- # set mail-alias-expander nnalias
- # and put this file somewhere in your path, making it executable. I use
- # set mail-alias-expander /usr/local/lib/nnalias
- # but the choice is up to you.
- #
- # Written by Scott Hannahs, Bitter National Magnet Lab, MIT, August 1991
- # Complaints, comments, ideas to sth@slipknot.mit.edu
- # Tested on Silicon Graphics, IRIX 3.3.1
- #
- # Minor banging by <rreiner@nexus.yorku.ca> to handle alias value fields
- # which contain doublequote characters, e.g.
- #
- # alias Foo "Foobar the Great <foo@bar.com>"
- #
- # (the doublequotes are stripped in the expansion), and to handle multiple
- # spaces after the token "alias".
- #
- # Also added some error detection and signal traps; tested on SunOS 4.1.1.
- #
- # Exit codes: 0 -- normal termination
- # 1 -- parm error
- # 2 -- file does not exist
- # 3 -- trap
- #
- # Thanks to bug reports from
- # Andy Jacobs and others
- #
- if [ z$1 = z ]; then
- myname=`basename $0`
- echo "$myname: usage is $myname workfile"
- exit 1
- fi
-
- if [ ! -f $1 ]; then
- myname=`basename $0`
- echo "$myname: $1 does not exist or is a directory"
- exit 2
- fi
-
- TMP_DIR=/usr/tmp
-
- trap "rm -f ${TMP_DIR}/nn.alias.$$ ; exit 3" 0 1 2 3 15
-
- ALIAS_LIST=""
- ADDRESS_LIST="`head -1 $1 | sed -e s/To://`"
- until [ "$ALIAS_LIST" = "$ADDRESS_LIST" ] ; do
- ALIAS_LIST="`echo "$ADDRESS_LIST"| sed -e 's/,/ /g' `"
- ADDRESS_LIST=""
- for ALIAS in $ALIAS_LIST ; do
- ADDRESS=`grep '^[ ]*alias[ ][ ]*'"$ALIAS"'[ ]' ${HOME}/.mailrc |\
- sed -e s/'^[ ]*alias[ ][ ]*'"$ALIAS"'[ ][ ]*'// |\
- sed -e s/'"'//g`
- if [ "$ADDRESS" ] ; then
- ADDRESS_LIST="$ADDRESS_LIST $ADDRESS"
- else
- ADDRESS_LIST="$ADDRESS_LIST $ALIAS"
- # for elm alias expansion use the following line instead of the previous.
- # ADDRESS_LIST="$ADDRESS_LIST "`elm -c "$ALIAS" | cut -f3 -d\ `
- fi
- done
- done
- echo "To:${ADDRESS_LIST}" > ${TMP_DIR}/nn.alias.$$
- tail +2 $1 >> ${TMP_DIR}/nn.alias.$$
- mv -f ${TMP_DIR}/nn.alias.$$ $1
-
- exit 0
-
-
- Subject: +lynxify
- From: Appendix
-
- #!/bin/sh
- # Author: Dr. Richard Botting <rbotting@wiley.csusb.edu>
- # Posted to comp.infosystems.www.users on 9 June 94
- # Prepare input with embedded html tags for lynx and then view it
-
- file=/tmp/mailynx.${$}.html
- (echo "<pre>" ; cat ; echo "</pre>" )> $file
- lynx $file < /dev/tty
- rm $file
-
-
- Local Variables:
- mode: outline
- outline-regexp: "^Subject:"
- fill-prefix: " "
- End:
-