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  1. Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!HSNX.atgi.net!ra.nrl.navy.mil!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!dreaderd!not-for-mail
  2. Message-ID: <usenet/software/nn/faq/part1_1036237902@rtfm.mit.edu>
  3. Supersedes: <usenet/software/nn/faq/part1_10...@rtfm.mit.edu>
  4. Expires: 14 Dec 2002 11:51:42 GMT
  5. X-Last-Updated: 2002/07/16
  6. Newsgroups: news.software.nn,news.answers
  7. Subject: NN Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) with Answers
  8. Keywords: FAQ,nn,news,question,answer,newsrc,digest,article,NNTP,
  9. newsgroup,cancel,mail,signature,header,netnews,Usenet,kill
  10. Summary: This document answers Frequently Asked Questions about NN, a
  11. menu-based, point and shoot, USENET news reader. It should
  12. be read by new NN users and news.software.nn readers and
  13. before posting to this newsgroup.
  14. Followup-To: poster
  15. From: Sascha Geschwandtner <elfish...@gmx.de>
  16. Approved: news-answe...@MIT.EDU
  17. Organization: We all are one.
  18. Originator: faq...@penguin-lust.MIT.EDU
  19. Date: 02 Nov 2002 11:52:04 GMT
  20. Lines: 2293
  21. NNTP-Posting-Host: penguin-lust.mit.edu
  22. X-Trace: 1036237924 senator-bedfellow.mit.edu 3934 18.181.0.29
  23. Xref: archiver1.google.com news.software.nn:546 news.answers:46104
  24.  
  25. Archive-name: usenet/software/nn/faq/part1
  26. Last-modified: $Date: 2002/07/16 19:29:57 $
  27. Version: $Revision: 20020716.1 $
  28. Posting-Frequency: monthly
  29.  
  30. This is a living list of frequently asked questions on the Usenet
  31. news reader NN (No News is Good News). The point of this is to
  32. circulate existing information, and avoid rehashing old answers.
  33. Better to build on top than start again. Please read this document
  34. before ever posting to this newsgroup.
  35.  
  36. This article is posted monthly. If it has already expired and
  37. you're not reading this, you can hope that you saved the
  38. instructions to retrieve the FAQ (see "Where can I get nn") so that
  39. you can get a copy through other means.
  40.  
  41. Please do not post an answer when someone posts a frequently asked
  42. question; rather, email the relevant section of the FAQ to eliminate
  43. unnecessary traffic in this newsgroup.
  44.  
  45. This list depends on your comments, additions and fixes: please send
  46. them to Sascha Geschwandtner <mailto:s...@s.netic.de>.
  47.  
  48. Copyright 1991-1999 Bill Wohler
  49. 2000-2002 Sascha Geschwandtner
  50.  
  51. Permission to use, copy, distribute, and translate this document for
  52. any non-commercial purpose is hereby granted, provided that this
  53. copyright notice appears in all copies. Commercial distributions
  54. require prior written consent.
  55.  
  56. This article is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
  57. but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
  58. MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
  59.  
  60. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  61.  
  62. Subject: Table of Contents
  63. From: Sascha Geschwandtner <s...@s.netic.de>
  64. Date: 02 Jul 2002
  65.  
  66. Legend: + new, - deleted, ! changed
  67. __________________
  68.  
  69. 01.00 Introduction
  70.  
  71. 01.01 Why should I use nn?
  72. !01.02 What is the current version of nn?
  73. 01.03 Where can I get nn?
  74. 01.04 What references exist for nn?
  75. 01.05 How should I report bugs?
  76. 01.06 How can I convert from rn to nn?
  77. 01.07 How can I make life simpler when starting nn for the first time?
  78. 01.08 Is there an X interface to nn?
  79. 01.09 Can I connect to a remote news server?
  80. _________________
  81.  
  82. 02.00 Building nn
  83.  
  84. 02.01 What machines does nn run on?
  85. 02.02 Is it possible to restrict the groups that users have access to?
  86. 02.03 Can I set up nn securely?
  87. ___________________
  88.  
  89. 03.00 Command Input
  90. ____________________
  91.  
  92. 04.00 Selection Mode
  93.  
  94. 04.01 How come nn doesn't show the Lines count?
  95. 04.02 Why does nn crash when an invalid letter is selected?
  96. 04.03 How do I search for an author in a menu?
  97. 04.04 How do I select all articles in one fell swoop?
  98. ___________________________
  99.  
  100. 05.00 Reading Mode Commands
  101.  
  102. 05.01 How can I see the original article with the current subject?
  103. 05.02 Why do articles without a Lines header appear empty?
  104. 05.03 Can the article viewer/pager be changed?
  105. 05.04 How can I read MIME (multi-media mail) articles?
  106. 05.05 How can I read HTML (World Wide Web, Mosaic) articles?
  107. 05.06 Why am I reading cross-posted articles more than once?
  108. 05.07 Why do I get a "Canceled or expired" error?
  109. _____________________
  110.  
  111. 06.00 Saving Articles
  112.  
  113. 06.01 How do I save files that I can read later with MH, elm, Mail, ...?
  114. 06.02 What's the best way to save multi-part articles?
  115. 06.03 When saving in +a/b/c keeps you from saving in +a/b.
  116. 06.04 How can I change the default name of a save file?
  117. 06.05 Can I save all unread articles non-interactively into a file?
  118. 06.06 Can I download news to my PC?
  119. ________________________
  120.  
  121. 07.00 Folder Maintenance
  122.  
  123. 07.01 How can I remove old articles from folders?
  124. ________________________________________
  125.  
  126. 08.00 Posting and Responding to Articles
  127.  
  128. 08.01 How can I post prewritten articles with nn?
  129. 08.02 How can nn automatically append my signature?
  130. 08.03 How do I eliminate double signatures?
  131. 08.04 Can the signature come from a different file or program?
  132. 08.05 How do I save my posts and replies automatically?
  133. 08.06 Can I use my editor to edit posts and replies?
  134. 08.07 Can I use my mailer to send mail?
  135. 08.08 Can nn use aliases when sending mail?
  136. 08.09 How can I set a different Organization name?
  137. 08.10 How can I make mail replies go to a different machine?
  138. 08.11 How can I change how my real name appears?
  139. 08.12 How can I customize my mail headers for mail and posting?
  140. 08.13 How do I post locally?
  141. 08.14 Can I read my mail with nn?
  142. _____________________________
  143.  
  144. 09.00 Jumping to Other Groups
  145.  
  146. 09.01 How can I see which newsgroups are available?
  147. 09.02 Why do I get *NO*UPDATE* and what can I do about it?
  148. __________________________________
  149.  
  150. 10.00 Automatic Kill and Selection
  151.  
  152. 10.01 Can non-selected subjects be automatically placed in my kill file?
  153. 10.02 Can I automatically kill articles based on the Newsgroups header?
  154. 10.03 How can I find all articles having to do with a certain topic?
  155. 10.04 Can I select one article in a thread when auto-select-subject set?
  156. 10.05 Can one search for patterns in the entire article from the menu?
  157. 10.06 How come more articles get selected than I expect?
  158. 10.07 Any plans for trn-ish thread following?
  159. 10.08 Can one kill articles based on the number of lines?
  160. 10.09 Can one kill messages by Internet address?
  161. 10.10 Can I kill spam?
  162. _________________________________
  163.  
  164. 11.00 The Format of the Kill File
  165. ____________________________
  166.  
  167. 12.00 Miscellaneous Commands
  168.  
  169. 12.01 Can I choose newsgroups as I do articles, ie. with a menu?
  170. 12.02 How do I unsubscribe to all groups?
  171. 12.03 How can I get nn to stop adding new newsgroups?
  172. ____________________
  173.  
  174. 13.00 The Init Files
  175.  
  176. 13.01 How do I customize nn or change nn's behavior?
  177. 13.02 How can nn be used when multiple users share the same login?
  178. 13.03 Sample init files
  179. ___________________________
  180.  
  181. 14.00 Variables and Options
  182.  
  183. 14.01 Setting new-group-action to "ask before adding" doesn't work.
  184. _______________________
  185.  
  186. 15.00 Macro Definitions
  187.  
  188. 15.01 Is there a library of macros and other nn features?
  189. __________________
  190.  
  191. 16.00 Key Mappings
  192. ____________________
  193.  
  194. 17.00 Command Groups
  195. _________________________________
  196.  
  197. 18.00 Group Presentation Sequence
  198.  
  199. 18.01 How can I avoid seeing NEW groups?
  200. _______________________________
  201.  
  202. 19.00 NN Maintenance & nnmaster
  203.  
  204. 19.01 Why does nnmaster stop collecting articles at the "junk" group?
  205. 19.02 How do I cope with "Incomplete MASTER file"?
  206. 19.03 Why isn't nnmaster working?
  207. 19.04 Why did nnmaster stop working?
  208. 19.05 Why do I get ".../MASTER not found"?
  209. 19.06 Why do I get "cannot open 'x' file"
  210. 19.07 Why do I get "Lost connection to server foobar"
  211. 19.08 Why doesn't nn display messages when not using NNTP?
  212. 19.09 Why do I get "Notice: no news has arrived for the last n hours"?
  213. 19.10 How can I fix a "Master/GROUPS conflict"?
  214. 19.11 Why does expire take so long?
  215. 19.12 Why is nn so slow?
  216. ________
  217.  
  218. Appendix
  219.  
  220. Glossary & Acknowledgments
  221. nn-use-mh
  222. nn_elm
  223. nnalias
  224. nn-use-urlview
  225. nn-use-lynx
  226.  
  227. ------------------------------
  228.  
  229. Subject: Viewing This Article
  230. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  231. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  232.  
  233. To skip to a particular question with Subject or number xx, use
  234. "/^S.*xx" with most pagers. In GNU Emacs type "M-C-s ^S.*xx", (or
  235. C-r to search backwards), followed by ESC to end the search.
  236.  
  237. To skip to new or changed questions, use "/^S.*[!+]" with most pagers and
  238. "M-C-s ^S.*[!+]" in GNU Emacs.
  239.  
  240. This article is in digest format. nn may have already broken this
  241. message into separate articles; if not, then type "G %". In rn, use
  242. ^G to skip sections.
  243.  
  244. This article is treated as an outline when edited by GNU Emacs. Run
  245. "M-x describe-mode" to see available outline-mode commands. Useful
  246. commands are "M-x hide-body", "C-c C-s" (show-subtree) and "M-x
  247. show-all"
  248.  
  249. Check out the Usenet Hypertext FAQ Archive (see "What references
  250. exist for nn?"). Files available by ftp, man pages, and other Web
  251. pages, as well as cross-references like the one in this paragraph
  252. are just a click away.
  253.  
  254. A "Date" field whose time is 00:00:00 is approximate. The month and
  255. year in these fields represent the time they were added to the FAQ,
  256. rather than when they were contributed by the author, as is the case
  257. since November, 1995.
  258.  
  259. If you should need the Internet address, use nslookup or dig if you
  260. have them, or send mail to mailto:d...@grasp.insa-lyon.fr> with
  261. "help" for a Subject.
  262.  
  263. ------------------------------
  264.  
  265. Subject: 01.00 ***** Introduction *****
  266. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  267. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  268.  
  269. ------------------------------
  270.  
  271. Subject: 01.01 Why should I use nn?
  272. From: Kim Storm <st...@olicom.dk>
  273. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  274.  
  275. nn is a menu based (point and shoot) netnews reader with a complete
  276. set of features to satisfy both the expert and the novice user. Since
  277. its first release in Denmark in 1984 (!), in Europe in 1988, and the
  278. global release in June 1989, it has replaced rn and other well-known
  279. news readers at many sites.
  280.  
  281. Some of the key features of nn are:
  282.  
  283. * Menu-based article selection prior to reading the articles with the
  284. articles sorted according to subject and posting time.
  285.  
  286. This significantly reduces the time spent on news reading. No
  287. keystrokes are wasted on articles you don't want to read, and only
  288. the articles selected on the menu will be read.
  289.  
  290. * Release 6.4 uses standard .newsrc, and can leave individual
  291. articles unread.
  292.  
  293. * Digests are automatically split and presented as ordinary articles!
  294. You can transparently save and respond to individual sub-articles.
  295.  
  296. * Full folder support: read, save, and delete individual articles.
  297.  
  298. * Online help and manual.
  299.  
  300. * Built-in unshar and patch functions.
  301. * Built-in uudecode function which will automatically unpack,
  302. concatenate, and decode multi-part postings.
  303.  
  304. * Easy remapping of keys with advanced macro definition features.
  305.  
  306. * Automatic kill & selection of articles based on subject or author.
  307.  
  308. * User specified presentation sequence of news groups based on the
  309. news group hierarchy.
  310.  
  311. * Whole classes of news groups can easily be unsubscribed
  312. permanently, e.g., talk.all and all.politics
  313.  
  314. * Related groups can be merged and presented as a single group, e.g.
  315. comp.emacs and all gnu.emacs groups.
  316.  
  317. * Blindingly fast 'search for subject'. On my Texas S1500 system, nn
  318. uses less than 20 seconds to find all articles on a specific
  319. subject among 64000 articles in all groups!
  320.  
  321. * News collection and presentation is extremely fast, because nn uses
  322. its own database on top of the standard news system.
  323.  
  324. * In a distributed environment, the database can be shared among all
  325. hosts on the network. Only one daemon is needed on the news server
  326. for all hosts. This works in a heterogeneous environment as well.
  327.  
  328. * NNTP is also supported (using a local database for speed).
  329.  
  330. Because of the database, nn starts almost equally fast (in a few
  331. seconds), no matter whether you have 100 or 10000 unread articles!
  332. The database takes up some disk space, but dramatically improves speed
  333. and functionality. The amount of disk space consumed is approx. 1Mb
  334. per 10000 articles.
  335.  
  336. From: Nancy McGough <nan...@ii.com>, Tom Christiansen <tch...@mox.perl.com>
  337. Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  338.  
  339. Here's a comparison between nn and trn.
  340.  
  341. Notation
  342. + is an advantage
  343. o is neutral
  344. - is a disadvantage
  345. ? is something I don't know about
  346.  
  347. nn 6.4.16
  348. + Easier macro language.
  349. + More powerful kill/select abilities (ANDing, ORing).
  350. + Faster auto killing/selecting.
  351. + Can split/unsplit digests.
  352. + Dedicated newsgroup (news.software.nn) for discussion.
  353. + l command for flagging (with =) and leaving an article to deal
  354. with it later (this is better than trn's M command which just
  355. returns an article as unread next time).
  356. + Can easily mail a copy of a followup article to the author
  357. you're responding to.
  358. + Can easily mail articles you read/post to other addresses.
  359. + Incredibly customizable.
  360. + Can easily view and organize your folders (both mail and news) with nn.
  361. + Can merge newsgroups.
  362. + Can search all (or some) newsgroups for subject and/or author.
  363. + Can have spell check one of the options before posting/mailing article.
  364. + Can set default save directory for each newsgroup that is not
  365. necessarily. one of the interpreted strings (e.g., my default
  366. save dir for comp.editors is +vi)
  367. - Can only search on subject and/or author; also author is the
  368. "real name" . rather than full From line
  369. - Macro names limited to 2 characters (as far as I can tell).
  370. - Does not thread (yet).
  371. ? More powerful macro language.
  372.  
  373. trn 3.0
  374. + Newsgroup selection level is friendlier than nn's A/B
  375. (advance/back) commands (I like being able to see the list of
  376. newsgroups that I say no to).
  377. + True threading (uses References line).
  378. + Graphic view of thread ("article tree").
  379. + Uses NOV (new overview database) for fast searching of headers;
  380. also NOV is used by other newsreaders (eventually nn too).
  381. + Can search body of article.
  382. + Can search full header.
  383. + Can reorder subscription list from within TRN (using m).
  384. + Can have macro names longer than 2 characters.
  385. + Active participation by trn developer in newsgroup
  386. (news.software.readers).
  387. + Can modify the sort order (e.g., most recent at the top).
  388. + Intrinsic commands for going to root/leaf of a thread (in nn you
  389. need to do this with macros or a sequence of commands)
  390. + Intrinsic command for auto-selecting your articles.
  391. + Easy to change attribution line to whatever you want (using ATTRIBUTION).
  392. + When you post you get lots of blank headers (e.g., Followup-To)
  393. put into your editor.
  394. + Can easily mail articles you read/post to other addresses
  395. + Incredibly customizable.
  396. + Can have spell check one of the options before posting/mailing article.
  397. o Newsgroup (news.software.readers) for discussion but also
  398. contains lots of non-TRN discussion.
  399. - Harder macro language.
  400.  
  401. ------------------------------
  402.  
  403. Subject: 01.02 What is the current version of nn?
  404. From: Sascha Geschwandtner <s...@s.netic.de>
  405. Date: 02 Jul 2002
  406.  
  407. The current version of nn is 6.6.4, released on 28 Jun 2002.
  408.  
  409. The development of nn has been taken over by Michael T. Pins
  410. <mailto:mtp...@nndev.org>. Bug reports, fixes and suggestions
  411. should be sent to him.
  412.  
  413. All other discussion regarding nn is carried out in news:news.software.nn.
  414.  
  415. ------------------------------
  416.  
  417. Subject: 01.03 Where can I get nn?
  418. From: Sascha Geschwandtner <s...@s.netic.de>
  419. Date: 24 Feb 2002
  420.  
  421. The official master site for nn is http://www.nndev.org
  422.  
  423. via FTP:
  424. the latest version can be found below the following subdirectory:
  425. ftp://ftp.nndev.org/pub/nn-6.6/
  426.  
  427. In order to find older versions, have a look at the respective
  428. subdirectories in ftp://ftp.nndev.org/pub/.
  429.  
  430. Unofficial patches to nn can be found in
  431. http://www.math.fu-berlin.de/~guckes/nn/patches. They may later be
  432. incorporated into the source and released.
  433.  
  434. ------------------------------
  435.  
  436. Subject: 01.04 What references exist for nn?
  437. From: Sascha Geschwandtner <s...@s.netic.de>
  438. Date: 26 Sep 2000
  439.  
  440. On-line Documents:
  441. http://www.math.fu-berlin.de/~guckes/nn/
  442. http://www.ii.com/internet/messaging/nn/
  443. http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/software/nn/getting-started/
  444. ftp://ftp.halcyon.com/pub/ii/Internet/NN/
  445.  
  446. Usenet:
  447. news:news.software.nn
  448.  
  449. This document:
  450. via WWW
  451. http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/software/nn/faq/part1/preamble.html
  452. http://www.cs.ruu.nl/wais/html/na-dir/usenet/software/nn/faq/part1.html
  453.  
  454. via anonymous ftp:
  455. ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/usenet/software/nn/faq/part1
  456. ftp://ftp.uu.net/archive/usenet/news.answers/usenet/software/nn/faq/part1
  457. ftp://ftp.cs.ruu.nl/pub/NEWS.ANSWERS/usenet/software/nn/faq/part1
  458.  
  459. via mail:
  460. mailto:mail-...@rtfm.mit.edu
  461. as the body of the message:
  462. send /usenet/news.answers/usenet/software/nn/faq/part1
  463.  
  464. Signature, Finger, & Customized Headers FAQ:
  465. via WWW:
  466. http://www.faqs.org/faqs/signature_finger_faq/
  467.  
  468. via anonymous ftp:
  469. ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/signature_finger_faq
  470.  
  471. via mail:
  472. mailto:mail-...@rtfm.mit.edu
  473. as the body of the message:
  474. send /usenet/news.answers/signature_finger_faq
  475.  
  476. ------------------------------
  477.  
  478. Subject: 01.05 How should I report bugs?
  479. From: Sascha Geschwandtner <s...@s.netic.de>
  480. Date: 18 Oct 2001
  481.  
  482. Send them to mtp...@nndev.org.
  483.  
  484. ------------------------------
  485.  
  486. Subject: 01.06 How can I convert from rn to nn?
  487. From: Ian Taylor <i...@airs.com>
  488. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  489.  
  490. Why bother? On our system some people use nn and some people use
  491. rn. In fact, since they both use the same .newsrc format, it is
  492. perfectly possible to use both.
  493.  
  494. ------------------------------
  495.  
  496. Subject: 01.07 How can I make life simpler when starting nn for the first time?
  497. From: Peter Wemm <pe...@dialix.oz.au>
  498. Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1993 00:00:00 -0800
  499.  
  500. Use nnsub and eep. See the enclosed documentation to see which you
  501. prefer. [note: only available in 6.5.0 beta].
  502.  
  503. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  504. Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  505.  
  506. The standard method is to run:
  507.  
  508. nngrep -a | sed -e 's/ *$/!/' > .newsrc # add \ before ! in csh
  509.  
  510. and then edit .newsrc, replacing the '!' with a ':' for those
  511. groups you're interested in.
  512.  
  513. From: Joerg Napp <na...@uni-paderborn.de>
  514. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  515.  
  516. I think a nice way is to use the catch-up facility. Start nn -a0
  517. and let nn catch up automatically. After some hours restart nn and
  518. unsubscribe to uninteresting groups having news articles. Restart
  519. nn the following day and continue unsubscribing.
  520.  
  521. After one week, you have a nice .newsrc.
  522.  
  523. ------------------------------
  524.  
  525. Subject: 01.08 Is there an X interface to nn?
  526. From: Toivo Pedaste <to...@uniwa.uwa.edu.au>
  527. Date: Tue, 19 Nov 1996 23:54:41 -0800
  528.  
  529. NN-TK retains the basic structure of screen mode NN where you first
  530. select the articles in a group you want to read and then page
  531. through them. All the old NN commands should still work.
  532.  
  533. The TCL/TK code provides a GUI interface with command menus and
  534. buttons, the use of the mouse to select articles, a scrolling panel
  535. for displaying articles and group selection using either of
  536. scrolling panel or cascading menus. There is a panel that displays
  537. the Reference thread tree structure. If EXMH is available then there
  538. is also an internal editor for posting items and the ability to send
  539. and read MIME and PGP messages as well as to turn URL's into buttons
  540. for passing to NETSCAPE (or another WWW reader).
  541.  
  542. The source is in: ftp://ftp.uwa.edu.au/pub/nn/nn-tk.tar.gz 881k
  543.  
  544. and can be compiled into either nn or nn-tk. The nn version has a
  545. few advantages over the usual nn: there's a command for reloading
  546. the newsgroup info while running and an option for not reading the
  547. active file on startup (useful for slow NNTP connections). This
  548. version will compile under tcl7.6/tk4.2 (as well as 7.4/4.0).
  549.  
  550. In nn-6.5.1, there is a simple text panel, with highlighting and
  551. mouse sensitivity within an xterm.
  552.  
  553. ------------------------------
  554.  
  555. Subject: 01.09 Can I connect to a remote news server?
  556. From: Joseph Guerrant <jg...@primenet.com>
  557. Date: 23 Apr 1996 08:50:01 -0700
  558.  
  559. Yes, as with other newsreaders just set the NNTPSERVER environment
  560. variable (in versions 6.5 and later). E.g.,
  561.  
  562. NNTPSERVER=news.primenet.com
  563. export NNTPSERVER
  564.  
  565. ------------------------------
  566.  
  567.  
  568. Subject: 02.00 ***** Building nn *****
  569. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  570. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  571.  
  572. ------------------------------
  573.  
  574. Subject: 02.01 What machines does nn run on?
  575. From: Sascha Geschwandtner <s...@s.netic.de>
  576. Date: 24 Feb 2002
  577.  
  578. Please send updates to mailto:s...@s.netic.de.
  579.  
  580. Operating systems:
  581.  
  582. NeXT 1.0 Linux
  583. AIX FreeBSD / NetBSD / OpenBSD
  584. A/UX 1.1, 3.0 Mac OS X
  585. SunOS Motorola System V/88 Release 3
  586. Texas Instruments System 1500 Interactive Unix on 386
  587. dnix 5.2 on DIAB DS90 NCR tower
  588. dnix 5.3 on DIAB DS90 ULTRIX systems
  589. Dynix 3.0 on Symmetry Mips running riscos 4.0 or greater
  590. Fortune 32:16 Riscos 4.5 and later
  591. HP-UX Microport Unix V.2
  592. Amdahl UTS 2.0 Xenix
  593. Dynix/PTX on Symmetry Tandy 68000/Xenix 3.2
  594. Pyramid (and Targon 35) OSF/1
  595. SCO Unix V on 386 Solaris 2.6 or newer
  596. IRIX Siemens SINIX
  597.  
  598. Hardware platforms:
  599.  
  600. Amdahl 5890 (big iron) Siemens MX300
  601. AT&T 3b2 Pyramid (and Targon 35)
  602. Convex IBM 6150
  603. DECstation 3100 Silicon Graphics 4D series
  604. Gould PN6000 SPARC processors
  605. HP9000 series 320 and 800 (at least) Sequent Symmetry
  606. Intel 80386 and newer (Pentium etc.) VAX family
  607. Motorola 68000 family Alpha
  608. Motorola 88000 risc MIPS processors
  609.  
  610. ------------------------------
  611.  
  612. Subject: 02.02 Is it possible to restrict the groups that users have access to?
  613. From: Alexis Rosen <ale...@panix.com>
  614. Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 00:00:00 -0800
  615.  
  616. Create a new group for the people who can read the special groups.
  617. Call it "privnews", for example. (In /etc/group put the user id of
  618. each person who's in that group on that group's line.) Then change
  619. the group of the spool directory which contains the restricted
  620. newsgroup to "privnews" (leaving the owner as news), and set the
  621. mode to 750.
  622.  
  623. From: Steve Simmons <s...@wotan.iti.org>
  624. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  625.  
  626. Note that this only works if you are not using NNTP to read news.
  627. There is currently no mechanism that will allow this to work with
  628. NNTP.
  629.  
  630. ------------------------------
  631.  
  632. Subject: 02.03 Can I set up nn securely?
  633. From: Greg Black <g...@werple.mira.net.au>
  634. Date: 26 Feb 1995 06:32:05 +1100
  635.  
  636. It would be trivial to hack nn to first look elsewhere for the
  637. user's init file--which would be owned by root with 644 permissions
  638. in a directory owned by root with 711 permissions. The init file
  639. would have the user's name so the right one would be chosen. If
  640. this special init file was found, then the `G' command could be
  641. disallowed.
  642.  
  643. Of course, unless the news spool is also protected, the users can
  644. read the articles with other tools, so you'd also need to make nn
  645. setgid and the news spool directories only accessible to that group.
  646. This avoids the problem of users building their own nn, since they
  647. can't make it setgid.
  648.  
  649. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  650. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  651.  
  652. Diffs are unfortunately not included, but this is what you can do:
  653.  
  654. o Set shell-restrictions in the setup file.
  655. o Set and lock *every* variable which is used to execute commands.
  656. o Modify the source to avoid display/save/print files above the
  657. home-directory if shell-restrictions is set (mainly in save.c).
  658. o Modify the source to avoid changing directories if shell-restrictions
  659. is set.
  660. o Modify the source to avoid showing the contents of locked variables.
  661.  
  662. In particular, the following variables should be locked:
  663.  
  664. backup-folder-path, backup-suffix, bug-report-address, decode-header-file,
  665. editor, folder, inews, mail, mail-record, mailer, news-record, newsrc,
  666. pager, patch-command, printer, record, spell-checker, unshar-header-file
  667.  
  668. ------------------------------
  669.  
  670. Subject: 03.00 ***** Command Input *****
  671. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  672. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  673.  
  674. ------------------------------
  675.  
  676. Subject: 04.00 ***** Selection Mode *****
  677. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  678. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  679.  
  680. ------------------------------
  681.  
  682. Subject: 04.01 How come nn doesn't show the Lines count?
  683. From: Karl Kleinpaste
  684. Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1993 00:00:00 -0800
  685.  
  686. C News sites can turn on Lines: header creation (we do here), but
  687. the default has it turned off. I wish more would turn it on, as
  688. several newsreaders put it to use, and it's the most easily
  689. available metric of article size when showing the user a menu of
  690. available articles.
  691.  
  692. From: Henry Spencer
  693. Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1993 00:00:00 -0800
  694.  
  695. We're unenthusiastic about Lines:, which is why it's off by default
  696. and little-documented. *The* most easily available metric of
  697. article size is not line count -- which is often slightly wrong, by
  698. the way -- but byte count, which is available without even parsing
  699. the headers.
  700.  
  701. You can tell C News to add Lines: headers to articles *posted*
  702. locally, but C News has no provision for adding headers to traffic
  703. coming in from other sites. [Specifically, search for the string
  704. "uncomment" in inews, and uncomment those lines. --bw]
  705.  
  706. From: Peter Wemm <pe...@dialix.oz.au>
  707. Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1993 00:00:00 -0800
  708.  
  709. You'll always get the lines header if you run INN.
  710.  
  711. ------------------------------
  712.  
  713. Subject: 04.02 Why does nn crash when an invalid letter is selected?
  714. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  715. Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 00:00:00 -0800
  716.  
  717. This is fixed in patch 17.
  718.  
  719. Your terminal modes will be screwed up after such an event, so
  720. you'll have to type ^J (or LINE-FEED) repeatedly until a prompt is
  721. seen, and then run
  722.  
  723. stty -sane^J
  724.  
  725. or
  726.  
  727. reset
  728.  
  729. ------------------------------
  730.  
  731. Subject: 04.03 How do I search for an author in a menu?
  732. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  733. Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 00:00:00 -0800
  734.  
  735. Add the following macro to your init file (~/.nn/init) and invoke
  736. via '_' (underscore).
  737.  
  738. # _ does search on sender (as = does a search on subject)
  739. map menu _ (
  740. :set select-on-sender
  741. find input
  742. :unset select-on-sender
  743. message
  744. )
  745.  
  746. ------------------------------
  747.  
  748. Subject: 04.04 How do I select all articles in one fell swoop?
  749. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  750. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  751.  
  752. Type "=.*" and hit return. The pattern ".*" matches all subject lines.
  753.  
  754. ------------------------------
  755.  
  756. Subject: 05.00 ***** Reading Mode Commands *****
  757. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  758. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  759.  
  760. ------------------------------
  761.  
  762. Subject: 05.01 How can I see the original article with the current subject?
  763. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  764. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  765.  
  766. While reading an article, use "G RET RET RET".
  767.  
  768. ------------------------------
  769.  
  770. Subject: 05.02 Why do articles without a Lines header appear empty?
  771. From: Gary Morris <ga...@telesoft.com>
  772. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  773.  
  774. This problem only shows up if you have header-lines set to a string
  775. that includes "L". It is suspected that having the line count patch
  776. sets something that makes nn think there is a Lines header and then
  777. the header-string is telling it to display the Lines header but
  778. there isn't one and things get messed up.
  779.  
  780. ------------------------------
  781.  
  782. Subject: 05.03 Can the article viewer/pager be changed?
  783. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  784. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  785.  
  786. No. And for good reason. There are too many commands in nn's pager
  787. that less, for example, doesn't know anything about.
  788.  
  789. ------------------------------
  790.  
  791. Subject: 05.04 How can I read MIME (multi-media mail) articles?
  792. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  793. Date: Sun, 1 May 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  794.  
  795. Using metamail, you can do one of the following:
  796.  
  797. "Print" the message. Use the "P" command and:
  798.  
  799. set printer metamail
  800.  
  801. "save" the message. Use "s" and specify "|metamail" as a filename.
  802.  
  803. metamail can be found at:
  804.  
  805. ftp://ftp.bellcore.com/pub/nsb/mm2.7.tar.Z
  806.  
  807. ------------------------------
  808.  
  809. Subject: 05.05 How can I read HTML (World Wide Web, Mosaic) articles?
  810. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  811. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  812.  
  813. Add the following to ~/.nn/init. The "lynxify" script is in the
  814. Appendix.
  815.  
  816. map show ^F (
  817. save-full "|lynxify"
  818. redraw
  819. )
  820.  
  821. When reading the article with HTML references, use C-f. Note that
  822. just "ftp://ftp.ii.com/pub/ii" won't be enough; you'd need to see
  823. something like <A HREF="ftp://ftp.ii.com/pub/ii">Nancy McGough,
  824. Infinite Ink</A> for lynx to pick it up.
  825.  
  826. ------------------------------
  827.  
  828. Subject: 05.06 Why am I reading cross-posted articles more than once?
  829. From: Richard Todd <rmt...@servalan.servalan.com>
  830. Date: Sun, 1 May 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  831.  
  832. If you're running INN, edit /usr/lib/news/overview.fmt and uncomment
  833. the line with 'Xref:full' in it. If you're running Cnews with the
  834. NOV patches, you'll have to edit mkov.c (I think) appropriately and
  835. recompile; the code for putting Xref: in the NOV database is in
  836. there, just commented out.
  837.  
  838. ------------------------------
  839.  
  840. Subject: 05.07 Why do I get a "Canceled or expired" error?
  841. From: Michael T Pins <mtp...@nndev.org>
  842. Date: 18 Jul 2001
  843.  
  844. For the newsgroup-articles menu, nn looks at the
  845. nnmaster/NOV database, and builds it's list from there.
  846. Only when it attempts to display an article does it try to
  847. open the actual file. If it's not there, it gives the above
  848. message (it has no way of knowing *why* it's not there).
  849.  
  850. ------------------------------
  851.  
  852. Subject: 06.00 ***** Saving Articles *****
  853. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  854. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  855.  
  856. ------------------------------
  857.  
  858. Subject: 06.01 How do I save files that I can read later with MH, elm, Mail, ...?
  859. From: Sven Guckes <guc...@math.fu-berlin.de>
  860. Date: Wed, 28 Feb 96 14:45 MET
  861.  
  862. Run the following (or add it to your init file) to prevent the
  863. addition of a `~' prefix in front each line of the header of saved
  864. messages.
  865.  
  866. :unset embedded-header-escape
  867.  
  868. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  869. Date: Mon, 27 Nov 1995 19:19:07 -0800
  870.  
  871. MH:
  872. Save your files with +$F/$N. For example, if you save message 10
  873. in news.software.nn in this way, you will create a file called
  874. ~/News/news/software/nn/10. If you have a symbolic link from
  875. ~/Mail/news to ~/News, then you can look at your saved nn
  876. messages with "scan +news/news/software/nn".
  877.  
  878. This method stands a small chance of overwriting existing
  879. messages if you add messages to these folders outside of news.
  880. You may also wish to run "folder -pack" occasionally to renumber
  881. the messages starting with 1. Brian's solution below avoids
  882. these problems.
  883.  
  884. Mail
  885. Add "set mail-format" to your init file.
  886.  
  887. From: Brian Exelbierd <b...@usa.net>
  888. Date: Sun, 12 Nov 1995 15:40:51 -0500
  889.  
  890. The following script allows the easy saving of articles into any MH
  891. folder, giving the article a message number one higher than the
  892. current highest messge. It deliberately does not provide group name
  893. defaulting.
  894.  
  895. Add the following to your init file:
  896.  
  897. set default-save-file |nnsave2mh
  898.  
  899.  
  900. Where nnsave2mh looks like:
  901.  
  902. if test $1; then
  903. cat <&0 > `mhpath new +$1`
  904. else
  905. cat <&0 > `mhpath new +news`
  906. fi
  907.  
  908. When you save in nn, you'll be prompted by "|nnsave2mh". Enter the
  909. name of the folder (minus the `+'); otherwise, the message will be
  910. saved in +news.
  911.  
  912. ------------------------------
  913.  
  914. Subject: 06.02 What's the best way to save multi-part articles?
  915. From: Kim Storm <st...@olicom.dk>
  916. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  917.  
  918. All you have to do is to save the articles from the menu, e.g.
  919.  
  920. W(rite) +file.* a b c d... <space>
  921.  
  922. where a b c d... are the articles on the menu you want to save. You
  923. can also save the selected articles on the menu with * (only on
  924. current page) or + (on all menu pages).
  925.  
  926. ------------------------------
  927.  
  928. Subject: 06.03 When saving in +a/b/c keeps you from saving in +a/b.
  929. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>, Andrew Swann <sw...@imada.ou.dk>
  930. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  931.  
  932. This happens when default-save-file is $F. Try changing
  933. default-save-file to $F/$N (my favorite) to get, for example,
  934. +news/software/nn/1022, or $G to put everything in
  935. +news.software.nn. Finally, if you really did want the behavior of
  936. +$F, a compromise would be to use +$F. (Andrew's favorite) instead
  937. (one can use anything other than '.').
  938.  
  939. From: Harry Herman <herman@corpane.uucp>
  940. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  941.  
  942. Alternatively, use +$F/$L, to place articles for news.software.nn in
  943. the file +/news/software/nn/nn. This has two advantages:
  944. 1) You can later read through the folder "nn" and save some of the
  945. articles under new folder names having to do with the topic. For
  946. example, you might save auto-select topics under +$F/auto-sel,
  947. that is, +/news/software/nn/auto-sel.
  948. 2) If at a later date, a new newsgroup is added below nn, articles
  949. can still be saved under that subgroup since +/news/software/nn is
  950. already a directory, not a folder.
  951.  
  952. ------------------------------
  953.  
  954. Subject: 06.04 How can I change the default name of a save file?
  955. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  956. Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  957.  
  958. The variable default-save-file controls how files are named. By
  959. default, the value of default-save-file is +$F (components of the
  960. newsgroup become directories, last component is the file name).
  961. This isn't a good idea (see also "When saving in +a/b/c keeps you
  962. from saving in +a/b"). However, most sites change that to +$G (file
  963. has the same name as the newsgroup) in the system init file.
  964.  
  965. From: Sven Guckes <guc...@inf.fu-berlin.de>
  966. Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  967.  
  968. You can also set default save files on a per-newsgroup level. To do
  969. this, add the default save file to the newsgroup in your sequence
  970. (in ~/.nn/init). For example,
  971.  
  972. news.software.nn +nn
  973.  
  974. From: Alex Martelli <al...@uqbar.cirfid.unibo.it>
  975. Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  976.  
  977. If you don't want to have any default at all, add
  978.  
  979. unset suggest-default-save
  980.  
  981. to ~/.nn/init.
  982.  
  983. ------------------------------
  984.  
  985. Subject: 06.05 Can I save all unread articles non-interactively into a file?
  986. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  987. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  988.  
  989. (See "Can I download news to my PC?").
  990.  
  991. From: Gerald Oskoboiny <ger...@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca>
  992. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  993.  
  994. Yes, use the nnbatch(1) program.
  995.  
  996. First, define an init file to select and save the articles. For example:
  997.  
  998. set flow-control false
  999. unset embedded-header-escape
  1000.  
  1001. on entry talk.bizarre
  1002. '=' "^" 'S' "~/collected/$N" '+'
  1003. end
  1004.  
  1005. sequence
  1006. talk.bizarre
  1007.  
  1008. Then use nnbatch with this init file:
  1009.  
  1010. nnbatch -Iinit2 talk.bizarre 2>&1 > /dev/null
  1011.  
  1012. The above setup saves the entire newsgroup, but you could easily
  1013. change it to use auto-selection with a killfile. Maybe:
  1014.  
  1015. on entry comp.*
  1016. 'S' "+$G/$N" '+'
  1017. end
  1018.  
  1019. ------------------------------
  1020.  
  1021. Subject: 06.06 Can I download news to my PC?
  1022. From: Sascha Geschwandtner
  1023. Date: 18 Oct 2001
  1024.  
  1025. There are suck, newsx and quite a few other programs out there you
  1026. may find worth looking at. Many of them are designed to fetch articles
  1027. via NNTP and to feed them to a local news server (INN, Diablo, etc.).
  1028.  
  1029. Some other programs, e.g. slrn-pull, are written with a newsreader
  1030. in mind that accesses the news spool - this is where the news articles
  1031. are usually stored - directly, not via a news server. Current versions
  1032. of nn can deal with this via nnmaster.
  1033. NOTE: This is not recommended, since future versions of nn will probably
  1034. not support this anymore, so you should use the method mentioned first.
  1035.  
  1036. (See also "Can I save all unread articles non-interactively into a
  1037. file?").
  1038.  
  1039. ------------------------------
  1040.  
  1041. Subject: 07.00 ***** Folder Maintenance *****
  1042. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1043. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1044.  
  1045. ------------------------------
  1046.  
  1047. Subject: 07.01 How can I remove old articles from folders?
  1048. From: Kim Storm <st...@olicom.dk>
  1049. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1050.  
  1051. Just open the folder in the usual way and C(ancel) the articles you
  1052. want to remove from the folder. When you leave the folder, nn will
  1053. rewrite the folder with the "cancel"ed articles removed.
  1054.  
  1055. ------------------------------
  1056.  
  1057. Subject: 08.00 ***** Posting and Responding to Articles *****
  1058. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1059. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1060.  
  1061. ------------------------------
  1062.  
  1063. Subject: 08.01 How can I post prewritten articles with nn?
  1064. From: Kim Storm <st...@olicom.dk>
  1065. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1066.  
  1067. nnpost will construct the header for the posted article, so it
  1068. requires several arguments to be specified before the article is
  1069. posted, e.g. a newsgroup name and a subject. If some arguments are
  1070. missing, nnpost will prompt for the missing arguments.
  1071.  
  1072. If your pre-written article includes a full header, then you should
  1073. not use nnpost; instead you should feed the article to "inews -h"
  1074. directly (which is what nnpost does after building the header from
  1075. the arguments).
  1076.  
  1077. ------------------------------
  1078.  
  1079. Subject: 08.02 How can nn automatically append my signature?
  1080. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1081. Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  1082.  
  1083. Put your signature in a file called .signature in your home
  1084. directory, and use:
  1085.  
  1086. set append-signature-post
  1087. set append-signature-mail # if desired
  1088. set query-signature # if you want confirmation.
  1089.  
  1090. (See also "How do I eliminate double signatures?") and (See also
  1091. "Can the signature come from a different file or program?") and the
  1092. Signature FAQ (see also "What references exist for nn?")
  1093.  
  1094. ------------------------------
  1095.  
  1096. Subject: 08.03 How do I eliminate double signatures?
  1097. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1098. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1099.  
  1100. Double signatures occur when both nn and inews append $HOME/.signature.
  1101.  
  1102. If you want just inews to append your signature, use:
  1103.  
  1104. unset append-signature-post
  1105.  
  1106. This is actually the default, but you can unset this variable if
  1107. your nn administrator has mistakenly turned it on.
  1108.  
  1109. If you want just nn to append your signature, move your signature to
  1110. some other place than $HOME/.signature (see also "Can the signature
  1111. come from a different file or program?").
  1112.  
  1113. ------------------------------
  1114.  
  1115. Subject: 08.04 Can the signature come from a different file or program?
  1116. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1117. Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  1118.  
  1119. If you want nn to append your .signature file, you can copy nn's aux
  1120. file (ie. /usr/local/lib/nn/aux) to your .nn directory and set the
  1121. mail-script and news-script variables to ~/.nn/aux. In your copy of
  1122. the aux script, you can either specify a different place for your
  1123. .signature file (like $HOME/.nn/signature) or you can get fancy: you
  1124. can use specific .signatures for certain groups (saved in variable
  1125. "G"), or use the output of a program.
  1126.  
  1127. See also the Signature FAQ (see also "What references exist for nn?").
  1128.  
  1129. From: Tom Christiansen <tch...@perl.com>
  1130. Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  1131.  
  1132. Tired of the same old signature? Want different signatures for
  1133. different newsgroups? Here's a program to help you out.
  1134.  
  1135. The way it works is to have .signature be a named pipe, so if you
  1136. don't have named points, just say 'n'.
  1137.  
  1138. The sigrand program then feeds stuff down the pipe everytime someone
  1139. wants to read it. That way it works for more than just news, but
  1140. for anything that wants to read your .signature, like a mailer.
  1141.  
  1142. You have your choice of three kinds of signatures:
  1143.  
  1144. 1) random (short) fortune from "fortune -s"; you get these if
  1145. you don't have a global sig file.
  1146. 2) random fortune from ~/News/SIGNATURES [global sig file]
  1147. 3) random fortune form ~/News/(newsgroup)/SIGNATURES [local sig files]
  1148.  
  1149. Send mail for more details.
  1150.  
  1151. ------------------------------
  1152.  
  1153. Subject: 08.05 How do I save my posts, followups and replies automatically?
  1154. From: Don Mullins <mul...@convex.com>
  1155. Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 00:00:00 -0800
  1156.  
  1157. In your nn init file, use the following lines:
  1158.  
  1159. set news-record file
  1160. set mail-record file
  1161.  
  1162. to place posts and followups in one file and replies in another, or
  1163. to put everything in a single file, use:
  1164.  
  1165. set record file
  1166.  
  1167. Replace "file" with the absolute path (~ == home directory ok) of
  1168. your desired file. All files are saved in mailbox format.
  1169.  
  1170. ------------------------------
  1171.  
  1172. Subject: 08.06 Can I use my editor to edit posts and replies?
  1173. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1174. Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  1175.  
  1176. Yes. Set the environment variable EDITOR as desired. If you like
  1177. emacs:
  1178.  
  1179. $ EDITOR=emacs; export EDITOR # sh, ksh, bash
  1180. % setenv EDITOR emacs # csh, tcsh.
  1181.  
  1182. Alternatively, you can add:
  1183.  
  1184. set editor emacs
  1185.  
  1186. to ~/.nn/init.
  1187.  
  1188. From: eps...@ta6.cs.uiuc.edu (Milt Epstein)
  1189. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1190.  
  1191. If you need to pass arguments to your editor, create a script which
  1192. contains your editor and desired arguments. For example:
  1193.  
  1194. #!/bin/sh
  1195. /local/all/emacs -nw ${1+"$@"}
  1196.  
  1197. Then set your EDITOR or editor variables, as above, to this script.
  1198.  
  1199. ------------------------------
  1200.  
  1201. Subject: 08.07 Can I use my mailer to send mail?
  1202. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1203. Date: Thu, 1 Dec 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  1204.  
  1205. Yes. See the variables mail-script, mailer, and mailer-pipe-input.
  1206. The following show how you can have nn use elm and MH to deliver
  1207. mail. Note that you are not placed "in" your mailer--the mailer is
  1208. merely used to deliver a message that you've already completed.
  1209.  
  1210. The original idea of using MH (namely, comp) to send mail from nn
  1211. came from Jaap Vermeulen <mailto:ja...@sequent.com>, but he wouldn't
  1212. recognize what I did to it. I also used suggestions from John
  1213. Romine <mailto:jro...@ics.uci.edu>, Tom McCain
  1214. <mailto:t...@dynamo.ecn.purdue.edu>, and Brian Exelbierd
  1215. <mailto:b...@usa.net>.
  1216.  
  1217. Add
  1218.  
  1219. set mail-script nn-use-mh
  1220.  
  1221. to your init file. See Appendix "nn-use-mh" for the script.
  1222.  
  1223. In addition, you can contact Ray Davis <mailto:rda...@convex.com>
  1224. for some scripts that sort of turn nn into a MH front end by
  1225. providing macros to save, delete and refile articles in MH folders.
  1226.  
  1227. To use elm to send the messages, add the following to ~/.nn/init:
  1228.  
  1229. set mailer nn_elm
  1230. unset mailer-pipe-input
  1231.  
  1232. and see Appendix "nn_elm" for the script.
  1233.  
  1234. ------------------------------
  1235.  
  1236. Subject: 08.08 Can nn use aliases when sending mail?
  1237. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1238. Date: Thu, 1 Dec 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  1239.  
  1240. Yes. See the variable mail-alias-expander, and use the script in
  1241. Appendix "nnalias." You don't need to bother though if you've set
  1242. the "mailer" variable to a mail program that handles aliases
  1243. already.
  1244.  
  1245. ------------------------------
  1246.  
  1247. Subject: 08.09 How can I set a different Organization name?
  1248. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1249. Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 00:00:00 -0800
  1250.  
  1251. (See "How can I customize my mail headers for mail and
  1252. posting?")
  1253.  
  1254. ------------------------------
  1255.  
  1256. Subject: 08.10 How can I make mail replies go to a different machine?
  1257. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1258. Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 00:00:00 -0800
  1259.  
  1260. (See "How can I customize my mail headers for mail and
  1261. posting?")
  1262.  
  1263. ------------------------------
  1264.  
  1265. Subject: 08.11 How can I change how my real name appears?
  1266. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1267. Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 00:00:00 -0800
  1268.  
  1269. On BSD Unix systems, you can run the command chfn(1) to change your
  1270. real name. If you don't want to do this, or can't, please (see also
  1271. "How can I customize my mail headers for mail and posting?")
  1272.  
  1273. ------------------------------
  1274.  
  1275. Subject: 08.12 How can I customize my mail headers for mail and posting?
  1276. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1277. Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 00:00:00 -0800
  1278.  
  1279. Headers can be modified or appended to by creating the variables
  1280. mail-header (for replies) and news-header (for posts and followups)
  1281. in the init file. You can include any headers that you want;
  1282. separate multiple headers with semi-colons. For example:
  1283.  
  1284. set mail-header From: Joe Smith <j...@cc.edu>;Reply-To: j...@cc.edu;
  1285. Organization: CC University
  1286. set news-header From: Joe Smith <j...@cc.edu>;Reply-To: j...@cc.edu;
  1287. Organization: CC University
  1288.  
  1289. Note that these lines are split for readability--the value of these
  1290. variables must appear on a single line. In addition, do not insert a
  1291. space between semi-colons and the next header.
  1292.  
  1293. A Reply-To header is useful when your system generates either an
  1294. unwanted or blatantly wrong return address for you. If this header
  1295. is present, then mailers use it instead of the system generated From
  1296. header.
  1297.  
  1298. A From header is useful when you want to change how your real name
  1299. appears to nn readers, but you don't want to change it (or can't) on
  1300. your system. Warning: only do this if you're sure you can create a
  1301. RFC 822 compliant From header.
  1302.  
  1303. ------------------------------
  1304.  
  1305. Subject: 08.13 How do I post locally?
  1306. From: Sven Guckes <guc...@inf.fu-berlin.de>
  1307. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1308.  
  1309. Post to local news hierarchies.
  1310.  
  1311. The "Distribution:" header field is often ignored these days.
  1312.  
  1313. ------------------------------
  1314.  
  1315. Subject: 08.14 Can I read my mail with nn?
  1316. From: Bob MacDowell <bob...@netcom.com>
  1317. Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 00:00:00 -0800
  1318.  
  1319. Yes. Move your mbox into mbox.1, for example, since nn does not
  1320. handle file locking. Then:
  1321.  
  1322. nn mbox.1
  1323.  
  1324. Here's an example ~/.nn/init file that will accomplish this:
  1325.  
  1326. set header-lines *CAnW
  1327. map show m next-article
  1328. sequence
  1329. NEW RC
  1330.  
  1331. You can also use 'nn -f mbox.1 in which case it'll not sort them at
  1332. all; just show them in the sequence it finds them in the file.
  1333. Sometimes this is handy.
  1334.  
  1335. Another *neat* trick is that you can compress mail-files with nn:
  1336.  
  1337. nn elbows.1 open the mail-file
  1338. = select by Subject
  1339. ^ RET select all articles (with a beginning)
  1340. O output to file, but strip most of the headers
  1341. mbox.1a RET y specify filename, and yes, create it
  1342. + output all selected articles
  1343.  
  1344. This procedure results in a 20-40% reduction in file size, by
  1345. tossing all the "Received:", "Errors-To:", "X-Mailer:",
  1346. "NNTP-Posting-Host:", etc. header fields.
  1347.  
  1348. ------------------------------
  1349.  
  1350. Subject: 09.00 ***** Jumping to Other Groups *****
  1351. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1352. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1353.  
  1354. ------------------------------
  1355.  
  1356. Subject: 09.01 How can I see which newsgroups are available?
  1357. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1358. Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1993 00:00:00 -0800
  1359.  
  1360. Also try using '?' when going to a group with the 'G' command. Note
  1361. that successive '?'s will display more groups when there is not
  1362. enough room to display all choices at once. Group completion is
  1363. achieved with ' ' (space).
  1364.  
  1365. Finally, the programs "nnsub" or "eep" can be used to easily view
  1366. newsgroup names and descriptions and also to subscribe to groups.
  1367. These programs are in the "contrib" area of the sources in 6.5.0.
  1368.  
  1369. From: Sven Guckes <guc...@math.fu-berlin.de>
  1370. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1371.  
  1372. To see a list of all news groups with a short description, use the
  1373. command ":post" and type '?'. To list groups that match a regular
  1374. expression (ie. pattern), use "/pattern" instead of '?'.
  1375.  
  1376. ------------------------------
  1377.  
  1378. Subject: 09.02 Why do I get *NO*UPDATE* and what can I do about it?
  1379. From: Sven Guckes <guc...@inf.fu-berlin.de>
  1380. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1381.  
  1382. When entering a group with a search command nn does not do updates
  1383. as it assumes you are only "visiting" this group to look up some
  1384. text. In this case, nn enters a new "level" of information
  1385. retrieval, indicated by "<level 2>". It also tells you that there
  1386. won't be any updates by the "*NO*UPDATE*" on the top of the menu.
  1387.  
  1388. If you want to go to a group and *read* it (that is, you want nn to
  1389. remember which articles you have read, selected, or left for
  1390. reading) then you must *jump* to it. Use the 'G' command followed
  1391. by the 'j' (jump) subcommand.
  1392.  
  1393. ------------------------------
  1394.  
  1395. Subject: 10.00 ***** Automatic Kill and Selection *****
  1396. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1397. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1398.  
  1399. ------------------------------
  1400.  
  1401. Subject: 10.01 Can non-selected subjects be automatically placed in my kill file?
  1402. From: Keld J|rn Simonsen <ke...@dkuug.dk>
  1403. Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 00:00:00 -0800
  1404.  
  1405. The two variables, ignore-re and auto-select-rw, accomplish this
  1406. task. They are available in version 6.5.0. In the meantime,
  1407. patches may be obtained from ftp://dkuug.dk/pub/nn6.4/nn6.4.killunread.
  1408.  
  1409. ------------------------------
  1410.  
  1411. Subject: 10.02 Can I automatically kill articles based on the Newsgroups header?
  1412. From: Richard M. Mathews <ric...@locus.com>, Dave Shaver <sha...@convex.com>
  1413. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1414.  
  1415. This is how one can automatically kill crossposted articles, etc.
  1416.  
  1417. First, manually either add the following to your .newsrc to mark all
  1418. articles read forever:
  1419.  
  1420. alt.flame: 1-2147483647
  1421.  
  1422. or add the following to your .nn/kill file to kill all articles in
  1423. the group:
  1424.  
  1425. alt.flame:!s/:^
  1426.  
  1427. The former method may break down if you ever use nngoback to reset
  1428. numbers in your .newsrc. The latter method could cause difficulty
  1429. if you ever actually want to read articles in that group.
  1430.  
  1431. Near the top of your sequence in your init file put
  1432.  
  1433. !alt.flame.
  1434. alt.flame
  1435.  
  1436. This makes alt.flame, but not its subgroups, be included as the first
  1437. thing in your sequence; so all articles in it are killed before they
  1438. appear in any other groups. You might want to put NEW above this so
  1439. you can see if new groups are getting off to a bad start with lots of
  1440. alt.flame crossposting. Later in the sequence put
  1441.  
  1442. % alt %
  1443.  
  1444. This allows the rest of the alt hierarchy, including subgroups such
  1445. as alt.flame.spelling (if you subscribe to it), to get included at
  1446. that point in the sequence.
  1447.  
  1448. Along with using the default settings of cross-filter-seq=true and
  1449. cross-post=false, this works fine to nuke the crossposted articles.
  1450.  
  1451. ------------------------------
  1452.  
  1453. Subject: 10.03 How can I find all articles having to do with a certain topic?
  1454. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1455. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1456.  
  1457. nngrab invokes nn on all articles whose subject or keyword fields
  1458. contain a desired keyword. This shows one how important it is to
  1459. use descriptive subjects and keywords when posting articles. For
  1460. more information, read the manual page.
  1461.  
  1462. ------------------------------
  1463.  
  1464. Subject: 10.04 Can I select one article in a thread when auto-select-subject set?
  1465. From: Steven Grady <gr...@fx.com>
  1466. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1467.  
  1468. Define the following macro to toggle auto-select-subject.
  1469.  
  1470. map menu A (
  1471. :local auto-select-subject
  1472. :toggle auto-select-subject
  1473. ?auto-select-subject=on echo "Auto-select on"
  1474. ?auto-select-subject=off echo "Auto-select off"
  1475. )
  1476.  
  1477. Use the '.' command.
  1478.  
  1479. ------------------------------
  1480.  
  1481. Subject: 10.05 Can one search for patterns in the entire article from the menu?
  1482. From: Peter Wemm <pe...@dialix.oz.au>
  1483. Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1993 00:00:00 -0800
  1484.  
  1485. No. However, in 6.5.0, there will be an additional option under the
  1486. 'G' command to create a submenu containing articles that contain the
  1487. desired string. As it is not yet well tested, it will be a compile
  1488. time feature.
  1489.  
  1490. ------------------------------
  1491.  
  1492. Subject: 10.06 How come more articles get selected than I expect?
  1493. From: Dave Hayes <da...@elxr.jpl.nasa.gov>
  1494. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1495.  
  1496. Check the setting of subject-match-parts. If this is on, then your subjects
  1497. are considered matched if they match up to the first digit. For example
  1498. if subject-match-parts is on, the subjects:
  1499.  
  1500. someprogram Part 1/5
  1501. someprogram Part 2/5
  1502.  
  1503. are considered matches. So are
  1504.  
  1505. v12345: someprogram Part 1/5
  1506. v12346: anotherprogram Part 1/23
  1507.  
  1508. as the "v" is identical up to the first digit. If you want to use
  1509. subject-match-parts in a "comp.sources" type group, set
  1510. subject-match-offset (the character position that matches are
  1511. started from) to be beyond any digits that might appear in the first
  1512. part of the subject.
  1513.  
  1514. ------------------------------
  1515.  
  1516. Subject: 10.07 Any plans for trn-ish thread following?
  1517. From: John Henders <jhen...@bogon.com>
  1518. Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 03:47:28 -0700
  1519.  
  1520. tk-nn supports this with a nice window (assuming you like the gui it
  1521. provides), but even better for long-time nn fans, if you compile
  1522. tk-nn without the tk options enabled, there's as new sort-mode 5
  1523. that threads the articles quite well. It still seems to suffer from
  1524. NN's confusion over various timezone headers, but it's a definate
  1525. improvement over the old sort mode.
  1526.  
  1527. ------------------------------
  1528.  
  1529. Subject: 10.08 Can one kill articles based on the number of lines?
  1530. From: Toivo Pedaste <to...@uniwa.uwa.edu.au>
  1531. Date: 20 Apr 1997 09:21:21 GMT
  1532.  
  1533. The nn-tk version (which can also be compiled as normal character-
  1534. based nn) can do that. (See also "Is there an X interface to nn?")
  1535.  
  1536. ------------------------------
  1537.  
  1538. Subject: 10.09 Can one kill messages by Internet address?
  1539. From: Sven Guckes <guc...@math.fu-berlin.de>
  1540. Date: 23 Aug 1995 14:38:22 GMT
  1541.  
  1542. No, not with NN.
  1543.  
  1544. ------------------------------
  1545.  
  1546. Subject: 10.10 Can I kill spam?
  1547. From: Kristian Koehntopp <kr...@koehntopp.de>
  1548. Date: 17 Jan 1997 10:42:11 GMT
  1549.  
  1550. Christian Weisgerber suggested
  1551.  
  1552. :!s/=:^[^a-z][^a-z]*$
  1553.  
  1554. to kill any subject that doesn't have any lowercase letters in it
  1555. and being careful not to kill empty subjects.
  1556.  
  1557. ------------------------------
  1558.  
  1559. Subject: 11.00 ***** The Format of the Kill File *****
  1560. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1561. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1562.  
  1563. ------------------------------
  1564.  
  1565. Subject: 12.00 ***** Miscellaneous Commands *****
  1566. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1567. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1568.  
  1569. ------------------------------
  1570.  
  1571. Subject: 12.01 Can I choose newsgroups as I do articles, ie. with a menu?
  1572. From: Peter Wemm <pe...@dialix.oz.au>
  1573. Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1993 00:00:00 -0800
  1574.  
  1575. No, not yet. Sorry. However, progress in this direction has been
  1576. made--if you care to finish the work, please contact me.
  1577.  
  1578. Outside of nn, you may wish to check out eep which is in the
  1579. contributed area in 6.5.0.
  1580.  
  1581. (See also "How can see which newsgroups are available?")
  1582.  
  1583. ------------------------------
  1584.  
  1585. Subject: 12.02 How do I unsubscribe to all groups?
  1586. From: Sven Guckes <guc...@math.fu-berlin.de>
  1587. Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1993 00:00:00 -0800
  1588.  
  1589. The file .newsrc in your home directory contains the information
  1590. about the newsgroups, their subscription status and the numbers of
  1591. the read articles. A colon (':') indicates a subscribed group, and
  1592. an exclamation mark ('!') indicates an unsubscribed group. All you
  1593. need to do for unsubscribing to all newsgroups is to edit .newsrc.
  1594. You can do this with your favourite editor, or
  1595.  
  1596. sed -e 's/:/!/' $HOME/.newsrc > foo
  1597. mv foo .newsrc
  1598.  
  1599. If you use csh, you have to escape the '!' with a '\'.
  1600.  
  1601. ------------------------------
  1602.  
  1603. Subject: 12.03 How can I get nn to stop adding new newsgroups?
  1604. From: Jason A Chase <jch...@netcom.com>
  1605. Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  1606.  
  1607. Add
  1608.  
  1609. set new-group-action 0
  1610.  
  1611. to ~/.nn/init.
  1612.  
  1613. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1614. Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  1615.  
  1616. However, what you might want to do instead is not see new groups in
  1617. selected hierarchies. I've added the following to my sequence (in
  1618. ~/.nn/init):
  1619.  
  1620. # Don't bother with new groups in these hierarchies.
  1621. !:N alt,de,u3b,vmsnet,eunet,bionet,bit,biz,trial,psi,k12,nirvana
  1622.  
  1623. The key one is alt!
  1624.  
  1625. ------------------------------
  1626.  
  1627. Subject: 13.00 ***** The Init Files *****
  1628. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1629. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1630.  
  1631. ------------------------------
  1632.  
  1633. Subject: 13.01 How do I customize nn or change nn's behavior?
  1634. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1635. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1636.  
  1637. Modify the file ~/.nn/init. See the section "The Init Files" in the
  1638. man page for more details. So that you know what else might be
  1639. affecting nn, here's the beginning of that chapter:
  1640.  
  1641. The init files are used to customize nn's behavior to local
  1642. conventions and restrictions and to satisfy each user's personal
  1643. taste. Normally, nn reads up to three init files on start-up if
  1644. they exist (all init files are optional):
  1645.  
  1646. $LIB/setup
  1647. A system-wide file located in the library directory. This file
  1648. is always loaded before any other init file (even when the -I
  1649. option is specified). It cannot contain a group presentation
  1650. sequence.
  1651.  
  1652. $LIB/init
  1653. Another system-wide (global) init file located in the library
  1654. directory. This file may be ignored via the -I option.
  1655.  
  1656. ~/.nn/init
  1657. The private init file located in the user's .nn directory. It
  1658. is read after the global init file to allow the user to change
  1659. the default setup.
  1660.  
  1661. ------------------------------
  1662.  
  1663. Subject: 13.02 How can nn be used when multiple users share the same login?
  1664. From: Nancy McGough <nan...@ii.com>, Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1665. Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  1666.  
  1667. Create aliases of the form:
  1668.  
  1669. alias nn-userN 'nn -I$HOME/.nn/init-userN' # csh
  1670. alias nn-userN='nn -I$HOME/.nn/init-userN' # bash, ksh
  1671.  
  1672. Where $HOME/.nn/init-userN are separate init files for the users (or
  1673. different environments). Ensure that the following variables are
  1674. different between the files:
  1675.  
  1676. newsrc
  1677. news-header
  1678. news-record
  1679. mail-header
  1680. mail-record
  1681. folder
  1682. sequence
  1683.  
  1684. ------------------------------
  1685.  
  1686. Subject: 13.03 Sample init files
  1687. From: Sven Guckes <guc...@math.fu-berlin.de>
  1688. Date: Wed, 29 Nov 1995 01:39:09 +0100
  1689.  
  1690. http://www.math.fu-berlin.de/~guckes/setup/init
  1691. http://www.math.fu-berlin.de/~guckes/setup/seq
  1692.  
  1693. ------------------------------
  1694.  
  1695.  
  1696. Subject: 14.00 ***** Variables and Options *****
  1697. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1698. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1699.  
  1700. ------------------------------
  1701.  
  1702. Subject: 14.01 Setting new-group-action to "ask before adding" doesn't work.
  1703. From: Peter Wemm <pe...@dialix.oz.au>
  1704. Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1993 00:00:00 -0800
  1705.  
  1706. Take NEW out of your sequence--it's redundant.
  1707.  
  1708. There was also a small bug (fixed in 6.5.0) which caused it to
  1709. not to work in certain situations.
  1710.  
  1711. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1712. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1713.  
  1714. By the way, if you find that taking NEW out of your sequence has no
  1715. effect, it may be that you're being affected by the system init file
  1716. (usually in /usr/local/lib/nn/init). If this is the case, add "@"
  1717. to the beginning of your sequence, like this, which causes the
  1718. system init file to be ignored:
  1719.  
  1720. sequence
  1721. @
  1722.  
  1723. ------------------------------
  1724.  
  1725. Subject: 15.00 ***** Macro Definitions *****
  1726. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1727. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1728.  
  1729. ------------------------------
  1730.  
  1731. Subject: 15.01 Is there a library of macros and other nn features?
  1732. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1733. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1734.  
  1735. When complete, it will be a companion posting to this one. If you
  1736. have not mailed me <mailto:woh...@newt.com> your init file, or you
  1737. have made substantial changes since the last time, please send it
  1738. in. If anyone is handy in perl or awk and would like to write some
  1739. scripts to reduce multiple init files to variable summaries (like
  1740. the one I posted a long time ago), macro definitions and
  1741. presentation sequence tricks, I would like to talk to you.
  1742.  
  1743. From: Nancy McGough <nan...@ii.com>
  1744. Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  1745.  
  1746. In the meantime, check out ftp://ftp.ii.com/pub/ii/Internet/NN.
  1747.  
  1748. ------------------------------
  1749.  
  1750. Subject: 16.00 ***** Key Mappings *****
  1751. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1752. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1753.  
  1754. ------------------------------
  1755.  
  1756. Subject: 17.00 ***** Command Groups *****
  1757. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1758. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1759.  
  1760. ------------------------------
  1761.  
  1762. Subject: 18.00 ***** Group Presentation Sequence *****
  1763. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1764. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1765.  
  1766. ------------------------------
  1767.  
  1768. Subject: 18.01 How can I avoid seeing NEW groups?
  1769. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1770. Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 00:00:00 -0800
  1771.  
  1772. Use the !:N entry in the init file sequence.
  1773.  
  1774. # Don't bother with new groups in these hierarchies.
  1775. !:N alt,u3b,vmsnet,bionet,bit,biz,trial,psi,k12,nirvana,seattle,courts
  1776.  
  1777. ------------------------------
  1778.  
  1779. Subject: 19.00 ***** NN Maintenance & nnmaster *****
  1780. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1781. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1782.  
  1783. ------------------------------
  1784.  
  1785. Subject: 19.01 Why does nnmaster stop collecting articles at the "junk" group?
  1786. From: Kim Storm <st...@olicom.dk>
  1787. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1788.  
  1789. This can occur when you access news via NNTP. Older nntp servers
  1790. have a limitation of 4000 articles in a group, and junk may easily
  1791. exceed this which makes the nntp server crash.
  1792.  
  1793. To overcome the problem, edit the GROUPS file to add the X flag on
  1794. the junk group, run nnmaster -G, and then nnmaster will ignore the
  1795. junk group.
  1796.  
  1797. From: Mark Rawling <Mark.R...@mel.dit.csiro.au>
  1798. Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1993 00:00:00 -0800
  1799.  
  1800. In nntp_dir/common/conf.h, you can either increase MAX_GROUPS
  1801. (normally 4096) or you can set #define DYNAMIC_ART_ARRAY (normally
  1802. #undefed). In either case, you obviously have to recompile nntp.
  1803.  
  1804. Normally, new groups are added as they come in, but the news
  1805. administrator should monitor the junk newsgroup and either make new
  1806. newsgroups for the orphan messages, or ensure that the feed stops
  1807. sending bogus messages.
  1808.  
  1809. ------------------------------
  1810.  
  1811. Subject: 19.02 How do I cope with "Incomplete MASTER file"?
  1812. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1813. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1814.  
  1815. (See "Why isn't nnmaster working?")
  1816.  
  1817. ------------------------------
  1818.  
  1819. Subject: 19.03 Why isn't nnmaster working?
  1820. From: "R. Stewart Ellis" <el...@nova.gmi.edu>
  1821. Date: 12 Nov 1996 03:16:40 GMT
  1822.  
  1823. I have solved the problem for once and for all: I no longer run
  1824. nnmaster, but depend on the much more standard NOV database. I have
  1825. also been one of the people encouraging the new maintainer of the
  1826. code to expunge all the nnmaster cruft. That will definitely fix
  1827. nnmaster.
  1828.  
  1829. From: Stew Ellis <el...@nova.gmi.edu>
  1830. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1831.  
  1832. After the make, did you remember to:
  1833.  
  1834. Run ./inst <options> to install the files?
  1835. Run ./inst INIT to initialize the database?
  1836.  
  1837. Nnmaster mails error messages to the user who owns him (typically
  1838. "news"). Check this mailbox for clues.
  1839.  
  1840. If nnmaster -r or -D did not work, then neither did nnmaster -I (or
  1841. ./inst INIT from the install directory). Once you fix the
  1842. permissions (see Paul's answer below), you need to rerun the
  1843. initialization step.
  1844.  
  1845. From: David R. Hieb <David....@magi.rootgroup.com>
  1846. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1847.  
  1848. If nnmaster dies and updates the Log file with "Incomplete MASTER
  1849. file", it could be you're not running the latest version.
  1850.  
  1851. From: Paul Bickerstaff <pbic...@tamaluit.phys.uidaho.edu>
  1852. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1853.  
  1854. If, when you start your nnmaster, it just exits quietly, it could be
  1855. that your permissions are incorrect. Ensure that all directories in
  1856. the nn library are owned by news (or the owner that you configured
  1857. nn with).
  1858.  
  1859. From: Jim Jagielski <j...@jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov>
  1860. Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 00:00:00 -0800
  1861.  
  1862. Make sure that there is a 'news' entry in passwd and group since
  1863. nnmaster is run setuid/setgid to news and the files and directories
  1864. that nnmaster needs to access are owned and writable by news.
  1865.  
  1866. Another problem could be in the way it is started. Two related
  1867. solutions are presented.
  1868.  
  1869. From: David B. Thomas <d...@yenta.alb.nm.us>
  1870. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1871.  
  1872. /etc/rc exits before the child has had the chance to setpgrp().
  1873. Putting "sleep 5" at the end of /etc/rc fixed it.
  1874.  
  1875. From: Jeffery Small <je...@cjsa.wa.com>
  1876. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1877.  
  1878. Another similar solution involved inserting a "sleep 10" at the
  1879. beginning of /etc/daemons/nnmaster.init file.
  1880.  
  1881. From: David R. Hieb <David....@magi.rootgroup.com>
  1882. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  1883.  
  1884. It could be you're not running the latest version.
  1885.  
  1886. ------------------------------
  1887.  
  1888. Subject: 19.04 Why did nnmaster stop working?
  1889. From: Phil Howard <p...@netcom.com>
  1890. Date: Sun, 1 May 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  1891.  
  1892. Perhaps you have a corrupted database that can't be fixed. In this
  1893. case, run "./inst INIT" from the installation procedure.
  1894.  
  1895. From: Stew Ellis <el...@nova.gmi.edu>
  1896. Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  1897.  
  1898. nnmaster may exit when it encounters a corrupt header in an article
  1899. from a nntpserver. Restart nnmaster in debug mode (nnmaster -D) to
  1900. see which group contains the offending article. Ignore this group
  1901. until the offending article has expired by editing the GROUPS file,
  1902. adding the `X' flag to the newsgroup and running "nnmaster -G".
  1903. Restart collection of the newsgroup by removing the `X' flag and
  1904. running "nnmaster -G".
  1905.  
  1906. (See also "Why isn't nnmaster working?")
  1907.  
  1908. ------------------------------
  1909.  
  1910. Subject: 19.05 Why do I get ".../MASTER not found"?
  1911. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1912. Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 00:00:00 -0800
  1913.  
  1914. The problem of the NN port to the Atari ST is, that you have to
  1915. build an "active" file (NN format, not HERMES-like!!) in
  1916. /usr/lib/news before running nnadmin -I.
  1917.  
  1918. You can build this file by using the included "buildact.tos."
  1919. Buildact.tos creates a Unix-like /usr/lib/news/active from
  1920. /usr/lib/hermes/active.
  1921.  
  1922. ------------------------------
  1923.  
  1924. Subject: 19.06 Why do I get "cannot open 'x' file"
  1925. From: Sami Tikka <Sami....@hut.fi>
  1926. Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 00:00:00 -0800
  1927.  
  1928. If you get a message like,
  1929.  
  1930. Fatal system error:
  1931. alt.activism (6): cannot open 'x' file (mode=82, errno=2)
  1932.  
  1933. you haven't initialized your database. As root, run the following
  1934. command "./inst INIT" in the nn source directory. See the file
  1935. INSTALLATION for more information.
  1936.  
  1937. ------------------------------
  1938.  
  1939. Subject: 19.07 Why do I get "Lost connection to server foobar"
  1940. From: Jeff Beckley <bec...@qualcomm.com>
  1941. Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1993 00:00:00 -0800
  1942.  
  1943. It's possible that the two database files for a newsgroup (nnn.x and
  1944. nnn.d) don't exist. Go into nnadmin and force a recollect of the
  1945. newsgroup. Most of the newsgroups (which are missing nnn.x and
  1946. nnn.d files) after the first problem newsgroup might be
  1947. automatically collected without a problem. If there are a large
  1948. number of these problem groups, it might be easier just to rebuild
  1949. the whole database: kill nnmaster, run "./inst INIT" as root in the
  1950. source directory and restart nnmaster.
  1951.  
  1952. If the group in question has too many articles (>4000), it will
  1953. cause older NNTP implementations to choke (see "Why does nnmaster
  1954. stop collecting articles at the "junk" group?" for a fix).
  1955.  
  1956. From: Darren Hosking <d...@tusc.com.au>
  1957. Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  1958.  
  1959. These are not relevant if you use NOV and not nnmaster.
  1960.  
  1961. ------------------------------
  1962.  
  1963. Subject: 19.08 Why doesn't nn display messages when not using NNTP?
  1964. From: Michael Masterson <m...@thumper.progcons.com>
  1965. Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  1966.  
  1967. If the database was built with NNTP, then nn has to use NNTP to read
  1968. the messages. This is not true in the other direction: nn clients
  1969. can use NNTP to read the messages from a database built via NFS.
  1970. The moral: build the database via NFS if you intend to use nn with
  1971. either NFS or NNTP.
  1972.  
  1973. ------------------------------
  1974.  
  1975. Subject: 19.09 Why do I get "Notice: no news has arrived for the last n hours"?
  1976. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  1977. Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  1978.  
  1979. (See "Why did nnmaster stop working?").
  1980.  
  1981. ------------------------------
  1982.  
  1983. Subject: 19.10 How can I fix a "Master/GROUPS conflict"?
  1984. From: Guan-Hsong Hsu <gh...@unstable.nswc.navy.mil>
  1985. Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 00:00:00 -0800
  1986.  
  1987. Run "nnmaster -G".
  1988.  
  1989. ------------------------------
  1990.  
  1991. Subject: 19.11 Why does expire take so long?
  1992. From: "Eric M. Boehm" <boe...@rcs000.sch.ge.com>
  1993. Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 00:00:00 -0800
  1994.  
  1995. Use the -E2 flag with nnmaster(8) to use a faster expiration
  1996. strategy.
  1997.  
  1998. ------------------------------
  1999.  
  2000. Subject: 19.12 Why is nn so slow?
  2001. From: David B Funk <dbf...@icaen.uiowa.edu>
  2002. Date: 7 Jun 1994 03:31:36 GMT
  2003.  
  2004. If it takes a long time to read data from a newsgroup when changing
  2005. groups, it sounds like nn is not getting NOV data from your news
  2006. server or your news server does not have a complete NOV database. If
  2007. nn has been built to use NOV and your news server does not support
  2008. it, nn will do the threading "on the fly" (it it will get the
  2009. headers for each article and build the threads info before it returns
  2010. to you). If your news server is built to support NOV but the
  2011. .overview files do not have complete data, the news server will
  2012. build the NOV data "on the fly" in response to each XOVER
  2013. command. Either way, you will see that kind of behaivor (slow group
  2014. entry).
  2015.  
  2016. If you have just started up NOV on your news system, its database will be
  2017. incomplete. You need to run 'expireover' with the '-a' command to build the
  2018. initial database.
  2019.  
  2020. To debug the situation, turn on nnrpd tracing for a newsreading
  2021. session. Fire up 'nn' then on the news server identify your 'nnrpd'
  2022. process and hit it with a "SIGHUP" signal (see nnrpd man page) to
  2023. turn on tracing. Then do a 'tail -f' on your "nntp" syslog file to
  2024. see the logged commands. In particular watch for 'XOVER' commands
  2025. and see how long they take.
  2026.  
  2027. Alternatively, telnet to the "nntp" port on your news server, do a
  2028. "group" command to a known newsgroup, then do a "xover 1-99999" and
  2029. watch the output. You should get almost instant output with one line
  2030. for each article in the group. If that is fast, then 'nn' is at
  2031. fault, if that is slow, then the server has problems.
  2032.  
  2033. ------------------------------
  2034.  
  2035. Subject: Glossary
  2036. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>,
  2037. Richard Mathews <ric...@astro.West.Sun.COM>
  2038. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  2039.  
  2040. MIME "Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions" (see RFC 1521).
  2041. Allows for transmission of binary data and of text using
  2042. international character sets.
  2043.  
  2044. NNTP "Network News Transport Protocol" (see RFC 977). Used
  2045. when transmitting news between servers or between reader
  2046. and server.
  2047.  
  2048. C News A news server. Successor to A News and B News.
  2049.  
  2050. INN "Inter-Network News". Another news server.
  2051.  
  2052. NOV "News OverView". A feature of INN and an add-on package
  2053. to C News which allows saving "overview" files summarizing
  2054. the contents of each newsgroup.
  2055.  
  2056. XOVER An extension to NNTP to allow access to "overview"
  2057. information.
  2058.  
  2059. ------------------------------
  2060.  
  2061. Subject: Acknowledgments
  2062. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  2063. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  2064.  
  2065. I'd like to thank the following people for providing ideas on the
  2066. layout of this article:
  2067.  
  2068. Joe Wells <j...@bigbird.bu.edu> Richard M. Stallman <r...@gnu.ai.mit.edu>
  2069. David Elliott <d...@smsc.sony.com> Tom Christiansen <tch...@perl.com>
  2070. Eugene N. Miya <eug...@nas.nasa.gov>
  2071.  
  2072. We are also grateful to Sven Guckes <guc...@math.fu-berlin.de> and the
  2073. folks mentioned in the text of this document who have provided answers
  2074. or other information to make this a better document. I regret that it
  2075. is possible that some names have been accidently omitted. I would
  2076. also like to thank all the readers of news.software.nn.
  2077.  
  2078. I'd also like to thank Kim F. Storm <st...@olicom.dk> for writing nn,
  2079. Peter Wemm <pe...@dialix.oz.au> for maintaining nn from ??? to 1996,
  2080. Michael T. Pins <mtp...@visi.com> for maintaining nn from 1996
  2081. to the present, and Nancy McGough <nan...@ii.com> for writing "Getting
  2082. Started With News and the nn News Reader."
  2083.  
  2084. ------------------------------
  2085.  
  2086. Subject: nn-use-mh
  2087. From: Bill Wohler <woh...@newt.com>
  2088. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  2089.  
  2090. #!/bin/sh
  2091.  
  2092. # Obtain value of $WORK and $RECORD
  2093. . ${HOME}/.nn/.param
  2094.  
  2095. # Append Fcc: +folder to headers. The folder is specified in
  2096. # mail-record.
  2097. if [ "$RECORD" != "" ]; then
  2098. awk '
  2099. {
  2100. if ($0 == "" && !done) {
  2101. print "Fcc: +'$RECORD'";
  2102. done = 1;
  2103. }
  2104. print;
  2105. }' $WORK > /tmp/aux.$$ && mv /tmp/aux.$$ $WORK
  2106. fi
  2107.  
  2108. # Compose and send the mail
  2109. if [ "$FIRST_ACTION" = "send" ]; then
  2110. send $WORK
  2111. rm -f ,$WORK
  2112. else
  2113. # Compose and send the mail
  2114. comp -form $WORK
  2115. rm -f $WORK
  2116. fi
  2117.  
  2118. ------------------------------
  2119.  
  2120. Subject: nn_elm
  2121. From: Phil Kernick <ph...@ringo.ssn.flinders.edu.au>
  2122. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  2123.  
  2124. #!/bin/sh
  2125. #
  2126. # nn_elm
  2127. #
  2128. # 07 Aug 91 V1.0
  2129. #
  2130. # Massage a mail message from nn into a form that elm can use
  2131. # (c) 1991 Phil Kernick <ph...@ringo.ssn.flinders.edu.au> Wizard Software
  2132. #
  2133. # 10 Nov 94 V1.1 Escape quotes in subject -- Dave Wolfe
  2134.  
  2135. eval `awk '
  2136. BEGIN {
  2137.  
  2138. FS = ":";
  2139. dq = sprintf("%c", 34);
  2140. bs = sprintf("%c", 92);
  2141.  
  2142. headers = 0;
  2143. to = "";
  2144. subject = "";
  2145. }
  2146.  
  2147. /^.*: / {
  2148.  
  2149. headers++;
  2150. if($1 == "To")
  2151. to = dq substr($0, 5) dq;
  2152. if($1 == "Subject") {
  2153. subject = substr($0, 10);
  2154. gsub(/\"/, bs dq, subject);
  2155. subject = dq subject dq;
  2156. }
  2157. }
  2158.  
  2159. /^$/ {
  2160.  
  2161. printf("tail +%d %s | elm -s %s %s > /dev/null\n", headers+2, mail, subject,
  2162. to);
  2163. exit;
  2164. }' mail=$1 $1`
  2165.  
  2166. exit $?
  2167.  
  2168. ------------------------------
  2169.  
  2170. Subject: nnalias
  2171. From: Scott Hannahs <s...@slipknot.mit.edu>
  2172. Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 21:56:45 -0700
  2173.  
  2174. #!/bin/sh
  2175. #
  2176. # nnalias -- expands aliases from ~/.mailrc file for nn.
  2177. #
  2178. # To use, put the following in your ~/.nn/init file:
  2179. #
  2180. # set mail-alias-expander nnalias
  2181. # and put this file somewhere in your path, making it executable. I use
  2182. # set mail-alias-expander /usr/local/lib/nnalias
  2183. # but the choice is up to you.
  2184. #
  2185. # Written by Scott Hannahs, Bitter National Magnet Lab, MIT, August 1991
  2186. # Complaints, comments, ideas to s...@slipknot.mit.edu
  2187. # Tested on Silicon Graphics, IRIX 3.3.1
  2188. #
  2189. # Minor banging by <rre...@nexus.yorku.ca> to handle alias value fields
  2190. # which contain doublequote characters, e.g.
  2191. #
  2192. # alias Foo "Foobar the Great <f...@bar.com>"
  2193. #
  2194. # (the doublequotes are stripped in the expansion), and to handle multiple
  2195. # spaces after the token "alias".
  2196. #
  2197. # Also added some error detection and signal traps; tested on SunOS 4.1.1.
  2198. #
  2199. # Exit codes: 0 -- normal termination
  2200. # 1 -- parm error
  2201. # 2 -- file does not exist
  2202. # 3 -- trap
  2203. #
  2204. # Thanks to bug reports from
  2205. # Andy Jacobs and others
  2206. #
  2207. if [ z$1 = z ]; then
  2208. myname=`basename $0`
  2209. echo "$myname: usage is $myname workfile"
  2210. exit 1
  2211. fi
  2212.  
  2213. if [ ! -f $1 ]; then
  2214. myname=`basename $0`
  2215. echo "$myname: $1 does not exist or is a directory"
  2216. exit 2
  2217. fi
  2218.  
  2219. TMP_DIR=/usr/tmp
  2220.  
  2221. trap "rm -f ${TMP_DIR}/nn.alias.$$ ; exit 3" 0 1 2 3 15
  2222.  
  2223. ALIAS_LIST=""
  2224. ADDRESS_LIST="`head -1 $1 | sed -e s/To://`"
  2225. until [ "$ALIAS_LIST" = "$ADDRESS_LIST" ] ; do
  2226. ALIAS_LIST="`echo "$ADDRESS_LIST"| sed -e 's/,/ /g' `"
  2227. ADDRESS_LIST=""
  2228. for ALIAS in $ALIAS_LIST ; do
  2229. ADDRESS=`grep '^[ ]*alias[ ][ ]*'"$ALIAS"'[ ]' ${HOME}/.mailrc |\
  2230. sed -e s/'^[ ]*alias[ ][ ]*'"$ALIAS"'[ ][ ]*'// |\
  2231. sed -e s/'"'//g`
  2232. if [ "$ADDRESS" ] ; then
  2233. ADDRESS_LIST="$ADDRESS_LIST $ADDRESS"
  2234. else
  2235. ADDRESS_LIST="$ADDRESS_LIST $ALIAS"
  2236. # for elm alias expansion use the following line instead of the previous.
  2237. # ADDRESS_LIST="$ADDRESS_LIST "`elm -c "$ALIAS" | cut -f3 -d\ `
  2238. fi
  2239. done
  2240. done
  2241. echo "To:${ADDRESS_LIST}" > ${TMP_DIR}/nn.alias.$$
  2242. tail +2 $1 >> ${TMP_DIR}/nn.alias.$$
  2243. mv -f ${TMP_DIR}/nn.alias.$$ $1
  2244.  
  2245. exit 0
  2246.  
  2247. ------------------------------
  2248.  
  2249. Subject: nn-use-urlview
  2250. From: Sascha Geschwandtner <s...@s.netic.de>
  2251. Date: 30 Aug 2001
  2252.  
  2253. You can use urlview with nn. Add the following to ~/.nn/init:
  2254.  
  2255. map show ^U (
  2256. save-full "| urlview"
  2257. redraw
  2258. )
  2259.  
  2260. You have to press Ctrl-U when viewing an article then.
  2261.  
  2262. ------------------------------
  2263.  
  2264. Subject: nn-use-lynx
  2265. From: Brian Exelbierd <b...@usa.net>
  2266. Date: Sun, 06 Jul 1997 14:46:04 -0400
  2267.  
  2268. #!/bin/sh
  2269. #
  2270. # This script implements viewing news articles through lynx, allowing lynx
  2271. # to expand all probable WWW references as it sees fit. To accomplish this
  2272. # the Message-ID is grabbed from the article (a more efficient method would
  2273. # be greatly appreciated) and lynx is told to pull the article down again
  2274. # from the server. This allows lynx to realize it is a news article and
  2275. # interpret the body as such.
  2276. #
  2277. # In laymans terms this means that with the newer versions of lynx
  2278. # http://www.whatever.com will be interepreted, even if it is not in an
  2279. # <a href>
  2280. #
  2281. # The script will accept one argument, a news server name to override the
  2282. # default set below for one invocation.
  2283. #
  2284. # Suggested usage:
  2285. #
  2286. # Add this to your init file:
  2287. # map show ^F (
  2288. # save-full "|nn-use-lynx"
  2289. # redraw
  2290. # )
  2291. #
  2292. # to override the default, just do a save to the following:
  2293. # ||nn-use-lynx server_to_use_now
  2294. #
  2295. # By Brian Exelbierd (b...@usa.net) - 7/5/97
  2296.  
  2297. #Set this to your default news server ...
  2298. DEFAULT_NEWS_SERVER=frito
  2299.  
  2300. ##
  2301.  
  2302. IDLINE=`cat <&0 | grep Message-ID: `
  2303. ID=`echo $IDLINE | cut -f2 -d' '`
  2304.  
  2305. if test $1
  2306. then
  2307. lynx "news://$1/$ID" < /dev/tty
  2308. else
  2309. lynx "news://$DEFAULT_NEWS_SERVER/$ID" < /dev/tty
  2310. fi
  2311. exit
  2312.  
  2313. Local Variables:
  2314. mode: outline
  2315. outline-regexp: "^Subject:"
  2316. fill-prefix: " "
  2317. End:
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