Amiga Plus 1995 #2/Amiga Plus CD - 1995 - No. 2.iso/internet/faq/englisch/news.software.readers-trn

Text File | 1995-04-11 | 81.0 KB | 1,822 lines

Posted-By: auto-faq 3.1.1.2
Archive-name: usenet/software/trn-faq/part1
Posting-Frequency: Posted on the 11th and 26th of each month.
Last-Modified: February 26, 1995
Version: 3.3 (of FAQ)
Changes-This-Version: Wayne Davison's preferred address is <[e-mail]>.

These articles summarize some frequently-asked questions (and answers)
about the trn newsreader and associated programs such as Pnews and
Rnmail. Trn was written by Wayne Davison <[e-mail]> who often
answers questions about it in news.software.readers. As he describes it,
"Trn is Threaded RN -- a newsreader that uses an article's references to
order the discussions in a very natural, reply-ordered sequence called
threads. Having the replies associated with their parent articles not
only makes following the discussion easier, but also makes it easy to
backtrack and (re-)read a specific discussion from the beginning. Trn
also has a visual representation of the current thread in the upper right
corner of the header, a thread/subject/article selector, etc. It is based
on rn, so it has all of rn's power and extensibility and a lot more."

Part 1 deals with basic questions on configuring and using trn; Part 2
has information on more advanced usage questions. You may also be
interested in the "rn KILL file FAQ" (See Subject: OODA below to find
it) for information regarding killfiles. Trn calls killfiles "memorized
commands" as it extends the capability quite beyond simply killing
undesired subjects.

This FAQ is maintained by Peter J. Kappesser <[e-mail]> and
is archived at <URL:ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.software.readers/>.

OVERVIEW
> Subject: OWDB: Where do I begin?
> Subject: OODA: What other documentation is available?
> Subject: OCNN: How does trn compare to other popular newsreaders like nn?
> Subject: OLVW: What's the latest version of trn and where can I get it?
> Subject: OPFV: What's planned for future versions?

CONFIGURATION AND OPTIONS
> Subject: CUCF: How do I use a configuration file for trn?
> Subject: CSKF: I hate the way trn saves its killfiles! How can I change it?
> Subject: CSNG: How can I configure trn to keep from asking me to subscribe
>         to new newsgroups?
> Subject: CSRP: Can I get rid of the "hit return" prompts?
> Subject: CCHL: How can I customize my header lines?
> Subject: CWHT: Where can I find some hints and configuration examples?
> Subject: CVNF: How can I use various .newsrc with trn?
> Subject: CMLV: How can I make Pnews and Rnmail less verbose?
> Subject: CSGD: How can I set a save directory for a group that's not the
>         same as the name of the group?

USAGE
> Subject: URJA: Whoops, I hit "n" before I was done reading an article. How
>         can I see it again?
> Subject: UGNG: Is there a way to go to a particular newsgroup more easily
>         than typing "g incredibly.long.newsgroup.name"?
> Subject: UAST: How can I automagically SELECT a thread instead of KILLING it?
> Subject: USMR: How can I keep track of replies to my posts?
> Subject: USST: Is there an easy way to save a specific thread, without
>         saving others I've also selected but haven't read yet?
> Subject: USPW: How can I select articles which contain a particular word
>         in the body?
> Subject: USSP: How to select based on my script that processes an article?
> Subject: USNA: How can I see only the new articles in trn?
> Subject: USNF: My .newsrc is huge, and I only read a couple dozen groups!
>         How can I cut it down?
> Subject: UJCA: What happens when I junk a crossposted article?
> Subject: USSS: How can I automatically select ONLY articles with
>         specific subjects?

------------------------------

Subject: OWDB: Where do I begin?
Contributor: <[e-mail]> (Jon Bell)

If you use trn, you may be interested in my "Introduction to Usenet News
and the 'trn' Newsreader". It covers the basics of reading and posting
articles, signature files, crossposting, etc., and is about 40 pages
long.

There are versions for trn 2.5, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4 and 3.5 (dated
August 15, 1994); and for trn 3.6 (dated January 4, 1995).  They share the
same text, except for the sections which discuss features that differ from
one version of trn to another.

You can find out which version of trn you are using by typing 'v' (lower
case!) at the newsgroup selection prompt ('read now?').

This document is available in four formats:

    1. as a Macintosh WriteNow 3.0/4.0 document;
    2. as a Microsoft Rich Text Format file which can be opened by
MS Word 4.0 (or later) for the Mac and by other word processors for Mac,
DOS and Windows;
    3. as a PostScript file which can be printed (I hope) on any
PostScript printer;
    4. as a plain ASCII text file which lacks all the font information
and most of the formatting (use this as a last resort).

Format #1 is in the form of a BinHexed Stuffit archive (*.sit.hqx).  The
other formats are text files which have been compressed using GNU zip
(*.gz).

You can get this document either (a) by anonymous ftp from cs1.presby.edu,
directory pub/trn-intro; or (b) from the Presbyterian College gopher server
(gopher.presby.edu, port 70; or somewhere in your "Other Gophers" menu), in
the directory "Internet Resources".

(a) <URL:ftp://cs1.presby.edu/pub/trn-intro/>
(b) <URL:gopher://gopher.presby.edu>

If you have neither ftp nor gopher, I'll be happy to send you a copy via
e-mail.  Please specify which version of trn you have and which format
(WriteNow, RTF, PS or text) you want.

[Editor's Note: request this from Jon Bell <[e-mail]>]

------------------------------

Subject: OODA: What other documentation is available?
Contributor: Larry W. Virden <[e-mail]>

Here is a list of the documentation for trn that I have found useful:

1. We start with the trn man page - while quite large, it has a lot
of useful info.  There are also smaller man pages for Pnews, Rnmail,
newsetup, and newsgroups.  I don't know if they are up to date with
relationship to things like FAST_PNEWS, etc.

2. There are also 2 text files that folk find useful: NEW and HINTS.TRN.
These detail the changes in trn as well as a set of hints on things
that one can do with it. These have both been incorporated into this
FAQ, under Subjects OLVW and CWHT in Part 1, and OVTC in Part 2.

3. There is the intro to trn document written by Jon Bell
<[e-mail]> mentioned above. This gives one a gentle
introduction to the use of the command to the first time user.

There is also an html version of Version 3.3 at
<URL:http://www.wimsey.com/wimsey/trnint-3.3.html> or
<URL:http://ocf.berkeley.edu/help/usenet/trnint-3.3.html>

It is also available on
<URL:gopher://cs1.presby.edu/11/net-resources/trn-intro>.

4. There is the KILL file FAQ - killfile-faq - found at places like:
<URL:gopher://depot.cis.ksu.edu/00/Frequently%20Asked%20Questions%20%28FAQs%29/killfile-faq>
or
<URL:http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/killfile-faq/faq.html>

5. Of course there is strn - the scoring/scanning/super trn research
project. See Subject: OSTR in Part 2 of this FAQ.

------------------------------

Subject: OCNN: How does trn compare to other popular newsreaders like nn?
Contributors: Nancy McGough <[e-mail]>,
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>,
        Tom Christiansen <[e-mail]>,
        Lazlo Nibble <[e-mail]>

Notation
========
 + is an advantage
 o is neutral
 - is a disadvantage
 ? is open to debate

NN 6.4.16
=========
+ easier macro language
+ more powerful kill/select abilities (ANDing, ORing)
+ dedicated newsgroup (news.software.nn) for discussion
+ l command for flagging (with =) and leaving an article to deal with it later
  (this is better than trn's M command which just returns an article as unread
  next time)
+ incredibly customizable
+ more robust on-the-fly killfile entry construction
+ configurable "instant" entry creation ("Kill subject 30 days?")
+ any kill/select can be set to expire
+ can easily view and organize your folders (both mail and news) with nn
+ can merge newsgroups
+ can search all (or some) newsgroups for subject and/or author
o faster auto killing/selecting
  [Davison: "I don't believe that nn is any faster at auto-killing than trn."]
o can split/unsplit digests
  [Davison: "If you are running the NOV-compatible version of nn this doesn't
  work."]
- does not thread
- not very active participation by developer(s) in newsgroup (news.software.nn)
- can only search on subject and/or author; also author is the "real name"
  rather than full From line
- macro names limited to 2 characters (as far as I can tell)
? more powerful macro language

TRN 3.6
=======
+ newsgroup selection level is friendlier than nn's A/B (advance/back)
  commands (I like being able to see the list of newsgroups that I
  say no to)
+ true threading (uses References line)
+ graphic view of thread ("article tree")
+ uses NOV (new overview database) for fast searching of headers; also
  NOV is used by other newsreaders (eventually nn too)
+ can search body of article
+ can search full header
+ can reorder subscription list from within TRN (using m)
+ can have macro names longer than 2 characters
+ active participation by trn developer in newsgroup (news.software.readers)
+ can reverse the sort order (e.g., most recent at the top)
+ intrinsic commands for going to root/leaf of a thread (in nn you
  need to do this with macros or a sequence of commands)
+ intrinsic command for auto-selecting your articles
+ easy to change attribution line to whatever you want (using ATTRIBUTION)
+ when you post you get lots of blank headers (e.g., Followup-To) put
  into your editor
o newsgroup (news.software.readers) for discussion but also contains lots
  of non-TRN discussion.
? harder macro language

This is certainly not a complete list.

------------------------------

Subject: OLVW: What's the latest version of trn and where can I get it?
Contributor: Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>

Trn 3.6 was released in November, 1994. One place to get it:

<URL:ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/news/readers/trn/trn-3.6.tar.gz>

The patch to turn 3.5 into 3.6 is there as well:

<URL:ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/news/readers/trn/trn-3.5-3.6.diff.gz>

There are .Z versions of the latest source available as well, and
mthreads resides in the same spot, if you need it.

Changes from trn 3.5 to trn 3.6:

   o    Added support for slow network connections by: (1) making use
    of the LIST ACTIVE <group.name> extension (if available),
    (2) beginning to display the received article as it is received
    from nntp, and (3) making the Pnews (posting) script query the
    group info more efficiently.
   o    Changed nntplist's command-line syntax slightly so that it is
        more orthogonal and so that it can pass an argument to LIST
    ACTIVE or LIST NEWSGROUPS.  ** If you use nntplist in your own
    scripts you'll need to switch them over to using the -o (output)
    option. **
   o    Added :p command to post from the selector.
   o    Added the Ctrl-E command to display the end of the current article.
   o    Enhanced the ':' command to operate on non-selected thread/articles
    (use ::cmd) or to operate on just the current thread (use :.cmd or
    ::.cmd).
   o    Added a 't' modifier for the search command to start the search
    at the top of the group.  E.g.:  /subject string/t:+
    The default for searches in the selector has always been the top
    of the group, so this only affects the command while reading
    articles.
   o    Improved the catchup command to allow you to specify an article
    count to leave unread in the group.
   o    Added a new sort order for the article selector -- by 'n'umber.
   o    Enhanced the %( arg = regex ? : ) syntax to allow a % expansion
    in the regex portion of the comparison.
   o    Enhanced xref code to not go sub-optimal on C news's single-group
    xref lines.
   o    Added support for generic authentification (available in the
    reference NNTP 1.5.12 and INN 1.5).
   o    Fixed an elusive crash bug that would not let some people run
    trn from cron.
   o    Other misc. bug fixes.

For those wishing to take advantage of the slow-network enhancements,
look for nntp-1.5.12, ask Wayne Davison <[e-mail]> for a
minor patch to INN 1.4, or wait for INN 1.5 (ask Rich Salz when that
will be).

------------------------------

Subject: OPFV: What's planned for future versions?
Contributor: Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>

Trn 4.0 will allow multiple, simultaneous news sources to be open at the
same time (both local and remote) with full control over what
servers/local-directories are to be used available to each user (each
source needs its own .newsrc file).  You may either switch from server
to server, or have multiple newsrcs open at the same time (if a group is
available from multiple sources, it is read from the first newsrc that
has it available).  It even allows you to use a remote news source and a
local (or nfs-mounted) active file, all configurable at run-time.

Trn 4.0 also has a newsgroup selector and an add-group selector working,
but still needs some finishing touches.  The author is also talking with
Cliff Adams about integrating strn into trn for version 4.0, but we'll
see what kind of time frame this will require and how soon the rest of
the code gets finished up.

Trn 4.0 will also run under MSDOS, and OS/2.

------------------------------

Subject: CUCF: How do I use a configuration file for trn?
Contributors: Mark McLeod <[e-mail]>,
        Peter J. Kappesser <[e-mail]>

Set the environment variable TRNINIT to the name you want to use for the
configuration file (most people use $HOME/.trninit). The file itself can
contain option flag settings and environment variable assignments, using
the trn command syntax. See the example in Subject: CWHT below.

------------------------------

Subject: CSKF: I hate the way trn saves its killfiles! How can I change it?
Contributors: Peter J. Kappesser <[e-mail]>,
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>,
        Leanne Phillips <[e-mail]>
        [Adapted from the rn KILL file FAQ and HINTS.TRN]

By default trn saves killfiles for each newsgroup in a file named KILL
in a subdirectory built from the name of the newsgroup, e.g.
~/News/news/software/readers/KILL. It is possible to change the
locations of your KILL files, by setting the environment variables
KILLGLOBAL and KILLLOCAL.  The most popular method is to put all the
files in one directory using the group name as the file name:

    KILLLOCAL="%p/Kill/%C"
        KILLGLOBAL="%p/Kill/Global"

Where %p is your news directory, usually ~/News, and %C is the full
name of the group, like sci.bio.  This means the kill file for sci.bio
is in ~/News/Kill/sci.bio instead of ~/News/sci/bio/KILL.  Think about
this next time you subscribe to alt.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork :-) The
global kill file is in the same directory, with the name "Global".

Note that you need a file system that allows long file names to make
this work.

------------------------------

Subject: CSNG: How can I configure trn to keep from asking me to subscribe
        to new newsgroups?
Contributors: Robert Adelman <[e-mail]>,
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>

You can use the -q option, either from the command line or in your
.trninit file. If -q isn't what you want, always type 'N' at the
new-group prompt and trn will skip them all.

See also the AUTOUNSUBSCRIBE environment variable. There's a companion
AUTOSUBSCRIBE function too.  For example, to automatically unsubscribe
all NEW alt groups, use ^alt.*.  More dramatic, to unsubscribe to
everything BUT certain groups, use "*,!^local.*,!^comp.*", for example.
If you're REALLY tired of them, use -q to tell trn to not even check for
new groups at all.

------------------------------

Subject: CSRP: Can I get rid of the "hit return" prompts?
Contributors: Michael C Tiernan <[e-mail]>,
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>

Use -f (for fast) option or try using the -t (terse) option, to both
reduce the output and turn on the -f option (by default).

------------------------------

Subject: CCHL: How can I customize my header lines?
Contributors: Stan Ryckman <[e-mail]>,
        Steven King, Software Archaeologist <[e-mail]>,
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>,
        Peter J. Kappesser <[e-mail]>

> I would like to have trn add a header line of my choice, such as:
> "X-Disclaimer: Even I put no faith in what I write."

Look for the "NEWSHEADER" or "MAILHEADER" environment variables. The
best thing to do is to put it in your .trninit file (and point the
TRNINIT environment variable at the file if you haven't already done
so). Then, use the default definition as mentioned in the man page (or
copy it out of the common.h source file, if you have access to it), and
tweak the value as you desire.

The following lines represent trn's default headers for posting an
article.  If you want to customize your header copy this to your
.trninit file and modify it (and _don't_ use Pnews directly to post,
use trn -- the ".f" command from newsgroup prompt works well for this).
[Caution: Lines have been quoted with "> " to conform to FAQ minimal
digest format, which forbids "Subject:" at the beginning of a line in
the body of a section; and, the first line is longer than 80 columns.]

> -ENEWSHEADER="%(%[followup-to]=^$?:%(%[followup-to]=^%n$?:X-ORIGINAL-NEWSGROUPS: %n
> ))Newsgroups: %(%F=^$?%C:%F)
> Subject: %(%S=^$?%\"
>
> Subject: \":Re: %S)
> Summary:
> Expires:
> %(%R=^$?:References: %R
> )Sender:
> Followup-To:
> %(%{REPLYTO}=^$?:Reply-To: %{REPLYTO}
> )Distribution: %(%i=^$?%\"Distribution: \":%D)
> Organization: %o
> Keywords: %[keywords]
> Cc: %(%F=poster?%t:%(%F!=@?:%F))
>
> "

------------------------------

Subject: CWHT: Where can I find some hints and configuration examples?
Contributors: Peter J. Kappesser <[e-mail]>,
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>

Well, you could ftp the latest version of trn, uncompress and de-tar the
HINTS.TRN file... or I could just insert most of it here (the sections
not otherwise discussed in more depth elsewhere in this FAQ).

======================================================================
Certain environment variables, like RNINIT, must be set in your shell
(how else does trn know to look there for the rest?).  Others, like
REPLYTO may be useful in other programs, so you could consider putting
that in your shell startup file too. But most of them are specific, like
MAILHEADER, so you might as well set them in the init file with the -E
option.  That's why most of them look like -EMAILHEADER=xx rather than
MAILHEADER=xx -- to remind you.

Helpful hints:
  o Two new and useful flags are the -p and -G flags.  -p means automatically
    select any thread that you have posted a message to.  This makes it very
    easy to track replies to your insightful comments :-) (to automatically
    select other threads, try the 'T' command).  -G tells the 'g' command
    to use a loose match algorithm on groups it can't find.  So if you type
    "g news.softwre.raeders.genrl", it will assume that you meant to type
    news.software.readers and take you there.  It is usually easier to type
    "/reader" than using a 'g' command, but use -G too.

  o The 'X' command in the selector (kinda like catchup/yes) can be made the
    default action on the last page of selections by using the command-line
    option:  -XX.  This lets you browse all the pages, making selections as
    you go, and then mark everything that was not selected as read when you
    press space at the last page.

  o If you like to select a little, read a little, and then select a little
    more, try using the command-line option:  -XDD.  This makes the 'D'
    command the default on all pages of the selector.  Thus you can select
    the things you want to read on the current page, press space, and you
    will read the selected articles immediately (if there were any).  All
    other articles on the current page will be marked as read.

  o To use mush to send all R)eplies:
    -EMAILPOSTER="mush -h %h"

  o To use elm to send all R)eplies:
    -EMAILHEADER="\\000"
    -EMAILPOSTER="elm -i %h -s '%'s' %t"

  o To tailor the time field:
    A good example is -ELOCALTIMEFMT="%A, %B %e %Y, %r %Z" which becomes:
    Date: Saturday, June 12 1993, 08:15:32 PM PDT.  (The default is
    "%a %b %e %X %Z %Y", which is like the date(1) command).  See the
    strftime(3C) man page for more details on other % characters.

  o To tailor the "In article <blahblahblah>, joe@user (Joe User)" line:
    person's name only: %)f
    person's address only: %>f
    For example: -EATTRIBUTION='According to %)f <%>f>:'

  o If you want replies to your postings to go to a machine other than the
    machine you're posting from, set the REPLYTO environment variable.  For
    example, you might set this if you were trn's author:
    -EREPLYTO="[e-mail] (Wayne Davison)"

  o You might like to redefine the 'u' keys in the following way:  'u' visits
    the "Set unread?" prompt (except in the thread selector), 'U' goes
    directly to the already-read article selector, and Ctrl-U unsubscribes
    from the group (even while in the thread selector).  Put the following
    3 macros in your .rnmac file to accomplish this (or change TRNMACROS to
    .trnmac and put them there):

    u    %(%m=[aefnp]?U:u)
    U    %(%m=[aefnp]?U+:U)
    ^U    %(%m=t?+u:u)

  o If you like to be able to move forward/backward by article number more
    often than you need to search by subject, redefine ^N and ^P to be _N
    and _P by putting these lines into your macro file:

    ^P    %(%m=[aep]?_P:^P)
    ^N    %(%m=[aep]?_N:^N)

  o If you like the way that 'q' worked in the thread selector in trn 1.x,
    put the following macro in your macro file:

    q    %(%m=t?+:q)

  o If you would like the 'f' command to always answer yes to the "Are you
    starting an unrelated topic?" question, put this line into your macro
    file:

    f    %(%m=[ap]?fy^m:f)

  o If you want to be able to save your shar headers in a file as they are
    extracted and you have access to "unshar" (a program that can extract
    shar files while saving the headers in UNSHAR.HDR), twiddle the external
    extract command to send the entire article:

    -EEXSAVER="%e <%A"

    and then point the UNSHAR variable at unshar instead of /bin/sh:

    -EUNSHAR="unshar -s"

    Note that this assumes that any other commands you execute with
    "e dir|command" can also handle the entire article as input
    (uuencoded and shipped files are not affected).

If you're curious, trn's author has the following .trninit file:
======================================================================
-XX -B -N -f -x11ms "-F> " -pp -G -u +e -mu
-hunrecognized
-ELOCALTIMEFMT="%A, %B %e %Y, %r %Z"
-ESELECTCHARS="abdefgijlmorstuvwxyz1234567890BCFGHIKVW"
-EKILLLOCAL="%p/Kill/%C"
-EKILLGLOBAL="%p/Kill/Global"
-EMAILPOSTER="elm -i %h -s '%'s' %t"
-EFORWARDPOSTER="elm -i %h -s '%'[subject]' %q"
-EATTRIBUTION="According to %)f <%>f>:"
======================================================================

and the following .trnmac file:
======================================================================
u    %(%m=[aenp]?U:u)
U    %(%m=[aenp]?U+:U)
^U    %(%m=t?+u:u)
o    %(%m=[nf]?O:o)
O    %(%m=[nf]?o:O)
~T    s ~/Mail/trn
~M    | /bin/mail davison
^[^[    ^[
======================================================================

------------------------------

Subject: CVNF: How can I use various .newsrc with trn?
Contributor: Steven King <[e-mail]>

Make a separate directory for each .newsrc you want, then set the DOTDIR
environment variable to point to the proper directory.  See the trn man
page for more information.

Alternately, you can make separate .newsrc files in your home directory
(say, .newsrc-1, .newsrc-2, etc.) and softlink the appropriate one to
.newsrc.  (This may cause a problem with other dot files, like .rnsoft
and .rnlast.  I think I'd recommend the DOTDIR method, actually.)  For
information about making softlinks, see the man page for "ln".  The
basic syntax is "ln -s .newsrc-1 .newsrc".

------------------------------

Subject: CMLV: How can I make Pnews and Rnmail less verbose?
Contributors: Matt Foley <[e-mail]>,
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>

> How do I get rid of the "you'll be spending money if you post this"
> message, as well as the rest of the defaults?  I would like to be able
> to hit r, R, f, or F and have trn jump into vi with the signature file
> already attached.

Make sure you're running a modern version of trn with the latest Pnews
installed and set the environment variable FAST_PNEWS=y either in a
.trninit file or in a .login/.profile shell script and the prompts for
posting vanish.  To have a signature file already attached, use
~/.news_sig instead of ~/.signature (see the Pnews man page).

For a small site it also works to put "-EFAST_PNEWS=y" in the INIT
file for the entire site.  I suggest not doing this for a large site,
as the extra questions might help a new user understand where their
postings are going.

For the reply-side, if you have a smart mailer you can by-pass the
Rnmail script completely.  I have the following definitions in my
.trninit file to call elm directly with the correct info:

-EMAILPOSTER="elm -i %h -s '%'s' %t"
-EFORWARDPOSTER="elm -i %h -s '%'[subject]' %q"

In this case you'll have to use elm's signature-handling, since
this by-passes the Rnmail script completely (i.e. ~/.mail_sig
handling is done in this script).

Alternately, you could tweak the Rnmail script and use the modified
version.  See the default definitions for MAILPOSTER and FORWARDPOSTER
in the trn man page for what to plug into these variables to use a
modified script.

------------------------------

Subject: CSGD: How can I set a save directory for a group that's not the
        same as the name of the group?
Contributor: Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>

This requires some environment variable tweaking in the memorized commands
for the group:

&-ESAVEDIR=%p/custom_dir
X&-ESAVEDIR=%p

The first line is executed on entry to the group, setting the default
save directory to ~/News/custom_dir.  The second line is executed on
group exit and sets the save directory back to ~/News.

------------------------------

Subject: URJA: Whoops, I hit "n" before I was done reading an article. How
        can I see it again?
Contributors: Mike Castle <[e-mail]>,
        Peter J. Kappesser <[e-mail]>,
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>

'-' toggles between the last two entered articles, read or not. If you
know the subject line, or even part of it, type:

/searchstring/m

and that will mark the article as unread so you can read it again.
If you happen to know the number of the article, simply typing the
number would have taken you to that article. Or, in the article
selector, type "U" to select from articles marked as read.

'<' goes back to the previous subject/thread that you just killed.  If
this was the last one before jumping back into the selector, type '+' to
quit the selector instead and you'll be at the article you read last.

Once you're in the already-read thread you can use "Ut" if you want to
mark it as unread and just 'n' your way through it again.  OR use the
arrow keys to navigate the tree to the spot you left off and use "Us"
to set just a sub-thread unread. OR you might find it more convient
to just use 'N' to navigate through the already-read articles.

Finally, if you accidentally lose a whole bunch of articles (like you
pressed 'X' in the selector accidentally) you can restore the group's
state to what it was when you started trn by using the 'A' (abandon)
command at the newsgroup prompt for the group.

------------------------------

Subject: UGNG: Is there a way to go to a particular newsgroup more easily
        than typing "g incredibly.long.newsgroup.name"?
Contributors: Nancy McGough <[e-mail]>,
        Peter J. Kappesser <[e-mail]>,
        Tim Pierce <[e-mail]>
        Steven King, Software Archaeologist <[e-mail]>

At the newsgroup selection level just type:

  /string

and it will prompt you with the next newsgroup in your .newsrc that
contains "string", which can contain wildcards like filenames. So,
"/long*name" would go to the first group that matched that pattern.
Unlike filename globbing, the pattern is not anchored: e.g., "/fur" will
find "alt.fan.furry." You may use ^ or $ to anchor to the front or back
of the string, such as "/^misc" to find a group in the misc.* hierarchy
but avoid any *.*.misc groups.

If you want to read several groups matching the same pattern, use the
"o" command, e.g. "o ^rec" to see only the rec.* groups in your .newsrc.
To get back to normal operation and read other groups, type "o" alone;
the restriction is automatically removed when there are no articles left
in the matching set of newsgroups.

Trn also has a "fuzzy" newsgroup name-matching option. If you can
remember something close to the newsgroup name, trn will figure it out.
This is activated with the -G option in your .trninit file, or set from
the command line with &-G. It does make name matching a bit slower, so
it's not on by default.

------------------------------

Subject: UAST: How can I automagically SELECT a thread instead of KILLING it?
Contributors: Logan Shaw <kronos.arc.nasa.gov>,
        Paul Tomblin <[e-mail]>,
        Peter J. Kappesser <[e-mail]>,
        Jon Bell <[e-mail]>

> What I want is to be able to select a thread, and then have trn
> -remember- that the thread was selected and automagically select it in
> the next session.  This would be like the opposite of killing a thread.

Check out the 'T' command in the man page. From the selector, you may
select the thread (+), junk the thread (j), or clear the auto-selection/
junking for the thread (c). On the article level, you may also select an
article and its replies (.), junk an article and its replies (,), or
clear the auto-selection/junking for an article and its replies (C).

Here're two ways to use it:

(1) While reading a thread, hit 'T', then hit '+' at the prompt which
follows.  This dumps the message-ID's of all the articles in the thread
into your killfile as "followup-selection" commands, so that all
follow-ups to them will be selected automatically in the future.  As the
articles expire, so do the corresponding selection commands, so you don't
have to worry about cleaning out your killfile.

(2) After selecting one or more threads in the thread selector, type
':T+' and hit 'return' or 'enter'.  This does something similar to the
above.

----------------------------

Subject: USMR: How can I keep track of replies to my posts?
Contributors: Michael C Tiernan <[e-mail]>,
        Mike Castle <[e-mail]>,
        Paul Tomblin <[e-mail]>

> Can trn show me or select for me any articles that were posted
> to a newsgroup in reply to one of my messages?  This way, when I
> come to a group, I can automagically follow a discussion without
> having to try to remember what it was that I was involved in?

Use the -p option, which tells trn to auto-select your postings and
their replies as it encounters them in the various groups you read.
The -pp option selects the article you're replying to, and any replies
to it including your own. Very handy. The man page explains various
other options.

If it seems some threads with your posts aren't getting selected when
you first enter a newsgroup (especially if you crossposted a followup),
you may also want to set the -a option. Without -a, trn enters a group
with the minimum processing necessary, and that doesn't include scanning
already-read articles (that's what the -a option is for). In such a
case, the crossposted group doesn't have an auto-select command for your
posting until after it scans all of the already-read articles in the
group and finds that there's a posting from you that it should be
processing. At this point the selector has already been displayed and so
you probably don't see the fact that some followups just got selected.

------------------------------

Subject: USST: Is there an easy way to save a specific thread, without
        saving others I've also selected but haven't read yet?
Contributors: Neklan <[e-mail]>,
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>,
        Ian T. Zimmerman <[e-mail]>, Mike Castle <[e-mail]>

> Say you are reading a news group, and you've selected thread A with 4
> posts and thread B with 6 posts and thread C with 7 posts. You read A,
> and don't want to keep it... fine. Then you read a couple of articles in
> B and realize you want to archive the entire thread.
>
> If I went back to the thread selector and did :s file.name  I'd also
> wind up saving thread C.  But at that point I'm not sure if I want to
> archive that thread!
>
> Is there a way to archive the particular thread that you are currently
> on without also getting other threads that happened to be selected at
> the time?

Not without some extra work.  You have a couple options, if you find the
thread savable, go on to the next threads via '>', and after reading it
you will eventually be returned to thread 'B', at which point you know
that only the threads you decided to leave with '>' are left, and you
can use :s right from the article prompt.

Alternately, visit the selector, press 'E' to exclude all non-selected
threads, and press 'M' on each thread that you don't want to save.
After using :s to save the threads you do want, press 'Y' to yank back
the other threads.

Trn 3.6 has a single-thread command similar to ":cmd" that makes this easy.

Unfortunately, if you exhaust all the articles in B (read them to the
end) before deciding on saving that thread, they're marked as read, and
you have to use 'U' to get them back. You could design a macro to help
by automating the retrieval keystrokes, though it's possible that if you
read the same thread the next day, you'll save the same messages twice.

------------------------------

Subject: USPW: How can I select articles which contain a particular word
        in the body?
Contributors: Perry Hutchison <[e-mail]>,
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>

> I want to select any articles in a particular group which mention
> "oregon" in the body or subject.  The obvious solution is
>
>       /oregon/a+

One thing you can do is to put \b before and after a word you wish to
match (\b matches a word boundary):

        /\boregon\b/a+

This would keep it from matching uoregon but would not stop it from
matching a sitename of just oregon in the path, if such a site exists.

If you want to disregard the header in your search, try:

   /search string/b:+

Using the 'b' modifier only searches the body of the article, and it
stops searching at the "-- \n" line which most(?) people still use to
delimit their signature.  This will let you find something in the body
of the article without hitting a header and without hitting (most)
signatures. [It will not ignore attribution lines, however.]

------------------------------

Subject: USSP: How to select based on my script that processes an article?
Contributors: Larry W. Virden <[e-mail]>,
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>

> Trn has the ability within the KILL file to indicate that an article
> matching a regular expression should be piped into a program.
>
> What I would like is for the _return code_ of the program on the end
> of the pipe to determine whether an article was marked as selected,
> junked or left alone. What I want to do is be able to say things like:
>
> /nonsense/:|mycheck
>
> and then have mycheck be something like:
>
> #! /bin/sh
> grep -s 'morestuff' >> /dev/null
> return $?
>
> so that now I can do operations on the news article, and have the return
> code determine whether the item deserves to be selected or not.

Here's something that should help you out:

    /subject search/:%(%`fgrep -c trn %A`=^0?-:+)

This works quite well on a local trn since %A points to the real article
even when you are doing subject searches.  The command portion uses the
if-then-else operator -- %( = ? : ) -- to run a program via the execute
operator -- %`cmd` -- and compare the output to 0 (it's a regex compare,
so make sure to anchor it via '^').  Based on the result of this it either
deselects or selects the article (-/+).  Substitute a shell script for
the fgrep and have it echo 0 or 1 and you're all set.

If you are using an NNTP version, %A may not have the correct article
text in it (trn only fetches one article at a time).  This seems to be
a bug in the %A expansion (which should force the article to be fetched
when you reference it -- it's fixed in version 3.6), so with older
versions you'll have to force trn to fetch each article before it runs
the command by using something like this with the 'a' modifier on the
search:

    /^[^A-Z]./ca:%(%`fgrep -c trn %A`=^0?-:+)

The search portion of this is an attempt to match past the header, since
trn doesn't bother to read the whole article until it fails to match the
header portion.  In version 3.6 you don't have to jump through this hoop
to get this to work.

------------------------------

Subject: USNA: How can I see only the new articles in trn?
Contributor: Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>

There are ways to force trn to do something like this, but you might not
need this as much as you think.

When new articles arrive trn automatically selects the ones that show
up in the threads that you selected this session, so if the articles
show up and they aren't selected you either already rejected them
or they will be listed at the end of the selector in date order.
Press '$' to get to the last page if you aren't already there.

If you still have that urge to see the newly-arrived articles, there are
a couple things you can do in trn 3.6 to facilitate this:

Press '=' to switch into the article selector, press "ON" to switch
the order to reverse numeric and look at the subjects it lists for
the first x articles.

Alternately, if 5 new articles have arrived, type 'c' (catchup) 5
to mark all but the last 5 articles as read.  What's left in the
selector will be the new articles.

If you don't have 3.6, you have to do some math and use the article
mode.  Type '+' to get out of the selector (if you're in it) and press
'#' to see the last article number.  If the output is 10762 and there
are 5 new articles you'd type "10758-10762 +" to select all the
newly-arrived articles and then either read them or press '+' to get
back into the selector and 'E' to see only the selected subjects.  Yuck.

------------------------------

Subject: USNF: My .newsrc is huge, and I only read a couple dozen groups!
        How can I cut it down?
Contributors: Peter J. Kappesser <[e-mail]>,
        Mike Castle <[e-mail]>

You can edit the .newsrc with any text editor. Subscribed groups are
indicated with a ":", unsubscribed with a "!". So, find and delete any
line with a "!" to eliminate unsubscribed newsgroups. From a Unix shell
prompt, the easy way is:

cp .newsrc .newsbak ; grep ":" .newsbak > .newsrc

The only disadvantage I've seen so far is when I subscribe to a
(previously) completely unsubscribed newsgroup, I may see some
crossposted articles I'd seen before. Big deal.

You may need to run trn with the -q option if your news server does not
support an accurate NEWGROUPS command -- i.e. if you get prompted to add
all of those unsubscribed newsgroups. Your sysadmin may need to
reinstall trn to enable this, after which you won't have to run trn with
the -q option, you'll maintain a smaller .newsrc file, and still be
informed of new groups as they're created.

------------------------------

Subject: UJCA: What happens when I junk a crossposted article?
Contributors: David Lee Brown <[e-mail]>,
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>

> If I put
>         /,/Hnewsgroups:k
> in a local KILL file, will it delete all occurances of the article, or
> all of them but the one in the newsgroup?

If you tell trn to junk an article then it gets junked in all groups.  If
you wanted to kill it in all other groups but this one, you could junk it
and then mark it as unread:

    /,/Hnewsgroups:jm

In trn 3.6 there's a command to junk an article only in the current
group (/search/:x) so to do the opposite of what you want, you'd use
/,/Hnewsgroups:x.

Some people use this to weed out discussions in a group without affecting
a topic that is cross-posted to a more interesting group.

------------------------------

Subject: USSS: How can I automatically select ONLY articles with
        specific subjects?
Contributors: Ian T Zimmerman <[e-mail]>,
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>, Goran Edvardsson <[e-mail]>

> In some newsgroups, I want to only read articles with specific subjects.
> So I have put the following in the killfiles for these groups:
>
> /^/j
> /foo/m
> /bar/m
>
> It works OK, except that trn seems _never_ to prepend a THRU line and so
> I keep getting month old articles on foo & bar back! what's the deal?

As mentioned in the command help, the 'm' command implies an 'r' modifier,
thus the commands are actually /foo/r:m and /bar/r:m -- both of which are
supposed to ignore the THRU line. Instead, with older versions of trn,
use:

/foo/-:M
/bar/-:M
/^/j

Newer versions make it simpler:

/foo/+
/bar/+
*X

This selects the items you're interested in and then (if you so desire)
the *X command tells trn to junk everything that isn't selected.  If you
leave it off you can read all of the selected articles first and then
browse through the remaining articles at your leisure. (Versions before
3.6 kept the remaining articles selected; but with 3.6, since you just
killed all non-selected articles there's no need to keep them selected.
If you just want to read them, press TAB (or 'Z').  Otherwise it is now
easier to browse through the remaining articles and select only the ones
you *really* want to read.)

[In general, the '*' kill file commands in later versions make it easier
to do certain article-killing things.  One such command is *j which
junks all of the unread articles, and the other is *X which junks all
but the selected articles.]

In other cases where you're selecting articles based on a pattern, you
may need to unset the -k switch (put "+k" in your .trninit). This tells
trn to observe the THRU line when processing selection searches (i.e.
searches with a command portion that starts with a '+' or a '.') in the
memorized commands (aka kill files). By default, trn runs with this
option set (-k), ignoring the THRU line for selection searches.

------------------------------
End of trn newsreader FAQ, part 1/2.
Posted-By: auto-faq 3.1.1.2
Archive-name: usenet/software/trn-faq/part2
Posting-Frequency: Posted on the 11th and 26th of each month.
Last-Modified: February 26, 1995
Version: 3.3 (of FAQ)
Changes-This-Version: Wayne Davison's preferred address is <[e-mail]>.

These articles summarize some frequently-asked questions (and answers)
about the trn newsreader and associated programs such as Pnews and Rnmail.

Part 2 has information on more advanced usage questions and bug workarounds.
This FAQ is maintained by Peter J. Kappesser <[e-mail]> and
is archived at <URL:ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.software.readers/>.

> Subject: ATKS: I want to set up a simple news archive. How can I run TRN
>         non-interactively (e.g. as a cron job)?
> Subject: ICAU: If I read an article in one group, then mark it unread, how
>         can it still appear as unread in groups to which it is crossposted?
> Subject: MDCX: Is there a command similar to 'D' that marks everything on the
>         current page as read, but without chasing xrefs?
> Subject: KDHF: In a killfile, what's the difference between
>         /@domain-pattern/f:command and /@domain-pattern/Hfrom:command?
> Subject: MPAS: How do I write a macro to easily reply to the current article
>         with some canned piece of text (e.g., instructions for getting FAQs)?
> Subject: ADCU: In rn-compatibility mode, trn dumps core when I Unread
>         killed subjects.
> Subject: INLS: Is it possible to build trn so that it can use either nntp
>         or a local spool depending on the newsgroup concerned?
> Subject: BASP: Article selection problem in trn 3.4.1
> Subject: ASUS: Slow performance with trn using SLIP
> Subject: KIBF: trn 3.4.1 ignores some lines in big killfile
> Subject: ACNB: Trn thinks certain newsgroups are bogus; TIN doesn't
> Subject: APNU: Why might trn 3.6 prompt newsgroups with 0 unread articles?
> Subject: OSTR: What's strn?
> Subject: OVTC: I have an old version of trn. What changes have been made?

------------------------------

Subject: ATKS: I want to set up a simple news archive. How can I run TRN
        non-interactively (e.g. as a cron job)?
Contributors: Michael Owings <[e-mail]>,
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>,
        Peter J. Kappesser <[e-mail]>

Run the "trnkill" script included below from cron and it will enter
every subscribed group you have just long enough to run the kill file,
and then exit.

---8<------8<------8<------8<---cut here--->8------>8------>8------>8---
#!/bin/sh
# trnkill - shell script to apply trn KILL files in the background
# 14 Mar 89  created for rn by Jim Olsen <[e-mail]>
# 10 Sep 93  modified for trn 3 (or 2) by Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>
# Options: -d    debug mode -- you see all gory action as it happens.

# Visit all newsgroups (if trn asks about anything else, just say no)
export TRNINIT TRNMACRO RNMACRO
TRNINIT='-q -s -T -t -x +X'
TRNMACRO=/tmp/trnkill$$

# support for trn 2.x
RNMACRO=$TRNMACRO

# support for versions older than 3.6 on some systems
TERM=dumb ; export TERM

trap 'rm -f $TRNMACRO; exit' 1 2 3 15
cat >$TRNMACRO <<'EOF'
z  %(%m=[nf]?.q^J:n)^(z^)
^m ^(z^)
^j ^(z^)
EOF
if test X$1 = X-d; then
    echo "z" | trn
else
    echo "z" | trn >/dev/null 2>&1
fi
rm -f $TRNMACRO
exit 0
---8<------8<------8<------8<---cut here--->8------>8------>8------>8---

If trn crashes when you try to run it as a cron job, it's a problem with
no terminal being set in the cron-run environment, which is confusing
trn.  Trn 3.6 fixes this problem by assuming that if you don't have TERM
set in your environment that your terminal is "dumb". The commands
"TERM=dumb" and "export TERM" in the trnkill script gets this to work
with older trns.

One application of this is to run trnkill in the background when you
login, so it will "pre-kill" all your newsgroups and you won't have to
wait as long for trn to process the killfiles when you're actually
reading news, especially in high-volume, high-noise newsgroups. (Read
your mail first, since you won't be able to run trn until trnkill
finishes; or set up a cron job to run shortly before you usually login.)

You can set up a simple news archive by setting the envariables DOTDIR,
KILLGLOBAL and KILLLOCAL to point to a directory with a special-purpose
.newsrc and killfiles. The killfiles contain commands to select and save
the desired articles. (See Subject: CVNF and Subject: CSKF in Part 1 of
this FAQ.) The maintainer of this FAQ uses this method to archive all
articles that mention trn in news.software.readers.

------------------------------

Subject: ICAU: If I read an article in one group, then mark it unread, how
        can it still appear as unread in groups to which it is crossposted?
Contributors: David Joslin <[e-mail]>,
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>

This is the MCHASE compile option in the common.h file.  I turned
this off in trn ages ago because I couldn't stand it.  If I use
'M' to set an article as unread in a group, I want it to be there
when I get back, even if I visit a group to which it is cross-
posted and 'X' the whole group.  With MCHASE on I have to be
careful to always 'M' it in every cross-posted group I read until
I actually finish with it.

------------------------------

Subject: MDCX: Is there a command similar to 'D' that marks everything on the
        current page as read, but without chasing xrefs?
Contributors: David Joslin <[e-mail]>,
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>,
        Mike Castle <[e-mail]>, Paul Clark <[e-mail]>,
        Steven King, Software Archaeologist <[e-mail]>

One thing you can do is to turn off the chasing of xrefs in both
the D and the X command via the -o switch.  You could even do this
via some macros (put them in your .trnmac file):

D    %(%m=t?&+o^JD:D)
X    %(%m=t?&+o^JX:X)
*D    %(%m=t?&-o^JD:)
*X    %(%m=t?&-o^JX:)

How they work:

When "D" is hit, if current mode (%m) is thread selector (t) then
do the following (&+ocontrol-jD) else do (D)

In short, if  you press "D" in thread selector, it acts as if you
had pressed the keys "&+o^JD", other wise it acts like you
pressed the "D" key by itself. The ones for "X" work analagously.

in pseudo code:

 when "D" is pressed
  if mode=thread_selector then
     pretend "&+o^JD" was hit
  else
     pretend "D" was hit

(These are in fact sideways pictures of gorillas in clown outfits in
four different states of inebriation.  The fact that they make trn do
something weird and wonderful is a particular piece of brilliance on Mr.
Davison's part  ;-) Just like in the Olden Days when your name performed
some magical sequence of operations in TECO, we can feed the smiley
dictionary to trn's macro processor and see what different smiley faces
evoke strange and useful behavior. "I didn't like to use smilies at
all," says Jethro Bodine of Beverly Hills, CA, "until I found that the
sideways grinning cheshire cat smoking a cigar smiley actually causes
trn to kill all posts mentioning Dave Rhodes.  Great work, Mr. Davison!")

------------------------------

Subject: KDHF: In a killfile, what's the difference between
        /@domain-pattern/f:command and /@domain-pattern/Hfrom:command?
Contributor: Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>

You're matching an Internet address. The Hfrom: form ensures that trn
has the full address, even if you're using a an mthreads database that
only caches the real name.  For non-mthreads-using people, use either
one, but the rule is simple: /Hfrom: always matches the full From: line
while /f matches whatever is cached by your database (if you don't have
a database then the full From: line is all you have).

------------------------------

Subject: MPAS: How do I write a macro to easily reply to the current article
        with some canned piece of text (e.g., instructions for getting FAQs)?
Contributors: Jamshid Afshar <[e-mail]>,
        Jeffrey Hurwit <[e-mail]>,
        Peter J. Kappesser <[e-mail]>

If you have formail (part of the procmail mail filter package) at your
site, you can use the "|" command to stuff the article into the front
end of a pipeline such as:

| (formail -rk; cat canned.text.file) | /usr/lib/sendmail -t

In your .trnmac file, assign this string to the key of your choice,
substituting the correct location for sendmail your site. If you don't
have formail, you can write a script, perhaps using perl, which will at
least eat the piped-in article, change Reply-To: (if it exists,
otherwise change From:) to To:, tack it on to your canned.text.file
(which should have the Subject: and From: headers), and pipe the result
to sendmail.

------------------------------

Subject: ADCU: In rn-compatibility mode, trn dumps core when I Unread
        killed subjects.
Contributors:
Steven M. Schultz <[e-mail]>,
Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>

> Here's the scenario:
>
>       rn  # which is a hard link to trn 3.6
>       (enter a group)
>       =
>       read an article
>       k   # to kill the subject
>       U   # oops, I changed my mind
>       (get the "+tasn" prompt)
>       t
>       <dump!>
>
>The "SIGSEGV, restoring .newsrc" message is given.

The "Ut" command erroneously assumes that the group is threaded.  Tell
your rn users to be brave and start running "rn -X -x" or "rn -X +x" and
all will be well.  :-)

Alternatively, the following patch should fix the problem (the line number
may well be wrong -- this is based on something newer than 3.6):

Index:ng.c
@@ -540,5 +540,8 @@
         return AS_ASK;
     else if (*buf == 't' && u_help_thread != nullstr) {
-        unkill_thread(artp->subj->thread);
+        if (artp->subj->thread)
+        unkill_thread(artp->subj->thread);
+        else
+        unkill_subject(artp->subj);
         if ((artp = first_art(artp->subj)) != NULL)
         art = article_num(artp);

------------------------------

Subject: INLS: Is it possible to build trn so that it can use either nntp
        or a local spool depending on the newsgroup concerned?
Contributors: David West <[e-mail]>,
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>

No, it's not yet possible. For now what you need to do is to Configure
it once to read things locally, compile it and save the trn executable
under some other name. Then Configure it for NNTP access and compile and
install that (the NNTP scripts are usable locally but not visa versa, so
this order is important).  Finally, rename the installed trn executable
trrn and move the saved-off local version to trn.

Once you've done that you'll need to create a directory for your local
newsrc that is in a different place than your NNTP newsrc and use the
DOTDIR environment variable to tell trn which directory to use.  A
simple alias or a shell file in your local bin dir will take care of
all the details.

Trn 4.0 will allow multiple, simultaneous news sources to be open at the
same time (both local and remote) with full control over what
servers/local-directories are to be used available to each user (each
source needs its own .newsrc file).  You may either switch from server
to server, or have multiple newsrcs open at the same time (if a group is
available from multiple sources, it is read from the first newsrc that
has it available).  It even allows you to use a remote news source and a
local (or nfs-mounted) active file, all configurable at run-time.

------------------------------

Subject: BASP: Article selection problem in trn 3.4.1
Contributors: Jesus R. Aguillon <[e-mail]>,
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>

> When I do an article selection with 'A' and then '+' using trn 3.3 I get
> the following in my kill-file:
>
> /: *test/:++
>
> Assuming the title is "test". When I enter the newsgroup it does the
> selection properly. With trn 3.4.1 I get:
>
> /: *test/:I:++
>
> When I enter the newsgroup I get:
>
> Processing memorized commands...
>
> /: *test/:I:++
>
> 9220    ???I:++
>
> (Interrupted at article 9220)
>
> And no articles get selected.  If I remove the :I then it works just like
> trn 3.3.  Is there something different in this case between 3.3 and 3.4.1?

This is a slight botch in 3.4.1 that got fixed in version 3.5 --
the 'I' is a modifier to ignore the THRU line and should have read:
"/: *test/I:++", but an extra ':' got stuck in there.

------------------------------

Subject: ASUS: Slow performance with trn using SLIP
Contributors: Jim Kaufman <[e-mail]>,
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>

> I am running a Linux system that occassionally connects to the
> University's machine so I can read news or mail. This is a 14.4Kbps
> SLIP connection.
>
> I notice that when trn starts up it reads the entire active file,
> which is over 400K long. Also, when I then post news, the Pnews
> script seems to want to do the same thing, as well as read the
> newsgroups file. Is there some way to avoid this? Maybe point
> trn at an older active file (or is this a really bad idea?)

Yeah, this is a drag over a slip line.  Version 3.6 supports a new
server command to grab the active file in smaller chunks (as small as
one newsgroup) which will improve this if your server upgrades their
nntp server to either nntp-1.5.12 (scheduled for release soon), INN 1.5
(ask Rich Salz for a release date), or a slightly-patched INN 1.4 (ask
Wayne Davison <[e-mail]> for the patch).

If you post from within trn Pnews should be sharing the active file that
trn grabbed.  If it's not, you probably have a trn/Pnews combination
that is either too old or out of sync.

As for the newsgroups file, people on a slip line would do well to
modify Pnews to point to a local copy that they update from time to time
(at least through version 3.5).

Trn 3.6 has an improved Pnews that defaults to not grabbing the files
(instead getting the info in an interactive session), but since this is
_slower_ over a fast net connection there is an option to do things the
old way that each user can specify.

------------------------------

Subject: KIBF: trn 3.4.1 ignores some lines in big killfile
Contributors: James Buster <[e-mail]>,
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>, Larry W. Virden <[e-mail]>

> I have a local killfile for news.answers, which is 772 lines long. It seems
> that two or three patterns in the killfile are ignored each time that I
> read news.answers (I read it once per day, usually). Exactly which
> patterns is different each time, but the result is that I must (K)ill
> that subject again, producing a duplicate entry in news/answers/KILL.
> I use sort and uniq on the killfile to help me identify and delete those
> duplicate entries. This on a Sun running SunOS Release 4.1.3_U1.
> Is this a known bug that's been fixed in later releases?

[Davison:]
I've never heard of this problem before.  Using 'K' to deposit the kill
commands in the killfile puts a fairly specific version of the subject
into the kill file -- are you sure that the subjects aren't changing
slightly, maybe in spacing or something minor so that the kill commands
look similar but aren't quite the same?

One thing you might do is to modify your kill file to make it more
generic on the subjects you want to kill.  Another option is to switch
to using "Tj" (if you are using trn 3.5) to kill the subjects by thread
instead of subject.  This is useful if you're trying to weed out all the
stuff you're not interested in in news.answers because the thread-kill
commands automatically expire after the discussion dies.

[Virden:]
What COULD be done is to split the kills up between all the smaller
*.answer groups so that no kill file is so large.  After you get done
doing all the comp.answers, rec.answers , etc. then you can go into
news.answers and see what is left.

------------------------------

Subject: ACNB: Trn thinks certain newsgroups are bogus; TIN doesn't
Contributors: Daniel Jacobs <[e-mail]>,
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>

> I have a user who just switched to trn from tin. Some groups that show
> up fine in tin, trn calls bogus and marks them as unsubscribed in
> .newsrc, so if he goes back into tin after not being able to read them
> in trn, he has to resubscribe again. Any ideas?

What version of trn are you using?  In older versions trn used to
complain about redirected newsgroups as bogus (those with '=' in the 4th
field of the active file), but a modern trn reports the redirection and
allows the user to finish reading the remaining articles before they
expire.  It might be that the groups are on their last legs.

The only other thing I can think of is that you're not using the same
server for both tin and trn, but then you'd REALLY be messed up using
the same .newsrc file due to the lack of a common numbering system.

------------------------------

Subject: APNU: Why might trn 3.6 prompt newsgroups with 0 unread articles?
Contributors: Fletcher Mattox <[e-mail]>
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>,
        Mike Iglesias <[e-mail]>

> If you specify a restriction on the command line, trn 3.6 prompts you
> to read a newsgroup even when there are no unread articles in it.
> Trn 3.5 didn't do this.  Is there any way to get the old behavior?

This is a restoration of the old behavior. Instead of typing "trn group"
start trn and type "O group" (capital O). Another solution is to
reinstall trn, removing the only line in sw.c that sets "emptyOnly" to
TRUE. Here's the patch in case someone needs it, from Mike Iglesias:

*** sw.c.dist    Fri Nov 18 22:01:26 1994
--- sw.c    Thu Dec  8 22:27:48 1994
***************
*** 164,170 ****
  #endif
      if (*s != '-' && *s != '+') {    /* newsgroup pattern */
      setngtodo(s);
-     emptyOnly = TRUE;
      }
      else {                /* normal switch */
      bool upordown = *s == '-' ? TRUE : FALSE;
--- 164,169 ----

------------------------------

Subject: OSTR: What's strn?
Contributor: Clifford A. Adams <[e-mail]>

Strn was written by Clifford A. Adams <[e-mail]>. It's
based on trn 3.4.1, but adds many new capabilities to trn, such as a
newsgroup browser, virtual newsgroups, scoring/rating of articles, and
easy configuration menus. Strn has been developed and tested over the
past year with the help of more than 50 alpha testers. The beta release
is intended to make the current version more widely available, test out
some of the new concepts (such as index-moderation using virtual
newsgroups), and gather suggestions for improvement.

Strn is still under development, although most of its planned features
are implemented. Future versions of strn will mainly improve the
documentation, scoring ease-of-use, and configurability of the program.
Version 1.0 release is expected in a finite amount of time.

More information, as well as source code for the beta-test version
0.9.2, is available from the following FTP sites:
(North America, Eastern US): <URL:ftp://ftp.uu.net/news/trn/strn/>
                             <URL:ftp://ftp.digex.net/pub/news/>
(North America, Southwest US): <URL:ftp://perseus.unm.edu/pub/strn/>
(United Kingdom):
        <URL:ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/computing/news/software/readers/trn/strn/>
(Europe, Netherlands): <URL:ftp://ftp.twi.tudelft.nl/pub/news/>
(South Africa): <URL:ftp://ftp.ee.und.ac.za/pub/news/strn/>

------------------------------

Subject: OVTC: I have an old version of trn. What changes have been made?
Contributors: Peter J. Kappesser <[e-mail]>,
        Wayne Davison <[e-mail]>

Well, you could find out by ftp'ing the latest version of trn, uncompressing
and de-tar-ing the NEW file... or I could just append most of it here.
(Changes from trn 3.5 to 3.6 are listed in Part 1, Subject: OLVW.)

======================================================================
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.

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End of trn newsreader FAQ, part 2/2.