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RN USER COMMANDS 12-Jul-1991
NAME
rn - new read news program
SYNOPSIS
rn
DESCRIPTION
All the newsgroups which have unread news are displayed, and
then the user is asked for each one whether he wants to read
it, in the order in which the newsgroups occur in the .newsrc
file.
Rn operates on three levels: the newsgroup selection level,
the article selection level, and the paging level. Each
level has its own set of commands, and its own help menu. At
the paging level (the bottom level), rn behaves much like the
more program. At the article selection level, you may
specify which article you want next, or read them in the
default order, which is either in order of arrival on your
system, or by subject threads. At the newsgroup selection
level (the top level), you may specify which newsgroup you
want next, or read them in the default order, which is the
order that the newsgroups occur in your .newsrc file. You
can also change setting with the e-command and sort the
groups alphabetically.
On any level, at ANY prompt, an 'h' may be typed for a list
of available commands. This is probably the most important
command to remember, so don't you forget it. Typing space to
any question means to do the normal thing. Carriage returns
should not be typed to terminate anything except certain
commands. Those commands will be obvious in the discussion
below because they ask for an argument.)
Upon startup, rn will do several things:
1. It will look for your .newsrc file, which is your list of
newsgroups. If rn doesn't find a newsrc, it will create
one.
2. Rn will see if you have a .rnprefs file. If there isn't
one, it will be created with default settings according to
the term-variable.
3. Rn will next check to see if any new newsgroups have been
created, and add them to your .newsrc.
4. Rn will check to see if any of the newsgroups in your
newsrc are removed from the system and will remove them.
5. It will check the groups for unread articles, listing out
the first several newsgroups with unread news.
6. Rn goes into the top prompt level--the newsgroup selection
level.
Newsgroup Selection Level
In this section the words "next" and "previous" refer to the
ordering of the newsgroups in your .newsrc file. On the
newsgroup selection level, the prompt looks like this:
******** 17 unread articles in talk.blurfl--read now? [ynq]
and the following commands may be given at this level:
q Quit Readnews.
n Go to the next newsgroup with unread news.
N Go to the next newsgroup.
p Go to the previous newsgroup with unread news.
P Go to the previous newsgroup.
g Go to newsgroup. If the entered group isn't currently
subscribed to, it will be resubscribed.
y,SP Do this newsgroup now.
l Lists the current state of the .newsrc, along with
status information.
Status Meaning
<number> Count of unread articles
READ No unread articles
s Sort the groups alphabetically.
G Grab - collect messages to a file
e Edit settings, colors etc.
a Add new newsgroup. This command is allowed only to
privileged and superuser level users.
r Remove newsgroups. Allowed only to superuser level.
These commands may also be given from the group selection
level, but are actually executed in article selection level.
c Catch up - mark all unread articles in this newsgroup
as read.
o Mark articles read, except newest ones (user is asked)
u Unsubscribe from current newsgroup.
= List subjects before displaying articles.
Editing settings
You need at least 22 rows on your terminal to enter the prefs
editor. The editor will display all available ansi color
combinations and VT100 graphic modes. You can move the
asterix up and down using the cursor keys. To change an
entry, press return or "e". You will be prompted with a
"Select a definition". Now press the appropriate symbol that
is displayed appropriately. For example, if you want
italics, push "+", or if you want colors, pick an alphabet ..
There is also on/off selections, you can select full headers,
or just add Date: and Organization: lines. Quoted text can
also be hidden, but I admit that it is not really a very
useful option. Press q to return to the main level.
Article Selection Level
On the article selection level, rn selects (by default)
unread articles in numerical order (the order in which
articles have arrived at your site).
On the article selection level you are not asked whether you
want to read an article before the article is displayed;
rather, rn simply displays the first page (or portion of a
page, at low baud rates) of the article and asks if you want
to continue. The normal article selection prompt comes at
the END of the article (though article selection commands can
be given from within the middle of the article (the pager
level) also). The prompt at the end of an article looks like
this:
End of article 248 (of 257)--what next? [npq]
The following are the options at this point:
n,SP Scan forward for next unread article.
n Go to the next unread article.
p Go to the previous unread article.
N Go to the next article.
P Go to the previous article.
^n Go to the next unread article with the same subject.
^p Go to the previous unread article w/ the same subject.
^r Restart the current article.
^x Restart in rot-13 mode
q Quit this newsgroup and go back to the newsgroup
selection level.
num Go to the numbered article.
k Mark as read all articles with the same subject as
the current article.
r Reply through netmail.
R Reply through netmail and include the original article.
^f Submit a new article.
f Submit a followup article.
F Submit a followup article , and include the old
article, with lines prefixed by ">". Rn will attempt
to provide an attribution line in front of the quoted
article, generated from the From: line of the
article. Unfortunately, the From: line doesn't
always contain the right name; you should double
check it against the signature and change it if
necessary, or you may have to apologize for quoting
the wrong person.
c Catch up in this newsgroup; i.e.,mark all articles as
read.
o Only: mark all articles as read and then the specified
number of newest articles as unread.
u Unsubscribe to this newsgroup.
s destination
Save to a filename. After generating the full
pathname of the file to save to, rn determines if the
file exists already, and if so, appends to it.
Files are saved to a News-subdirectory.
= List subjects of unread articles.
Pager Level
At the pager level (within an article), the prompt looks
like this:
--MORE--(17%)
and a number of commands may be given:
SP Display next page.
d Display half a page more.
CR Display one more line.
q Go to the end of the current article. Leaves you at the
"What next?" prompt.
. Display the rest of the article without pausing.
Miscellaneous facts about commands
An 'n' typed at either the "Last newsgroup" prompt or a
"Last article" prompt will cycle back to the top of the
newsgroup or article list, whereas a 'q' will quit the
level. (Note that 'n' does not mean "no", but rather
"next".) A space will of course do whatever is shown as the
default, which will vary depending on whether rn thinks you
have more articles or newsgroups to read.
UUCP &
CNEWS
Rn can also be used with UUCP and CNews news systems, when
configured correctly. See the AXshAdmManual for details.
AUTHOR
Pasi 'Albert' Ojala, E-mail: po87553@cs.tut.fi
FILES
$home/.rnnewsrc News group and read article info
$home/.rnprefs Settings for rn.
$home/News Directory for saved articles
/bin/rn Readnews program
/spool/news Directory for news system
/etc/rc Global setup defines the location of the news system
/etc/rc.news Special news configuration file
SEE ALSO
mail , editor, AXshAdmManual
BUGS
If you edit your .rnnewsrc while rn is running, rn will happily
wipe out your changes when it decides to write out the file.