slrn - An easy to use NNTP / spool based newsreader.
SYNOPSIS
slrn [-aCdknmw] [-C-] [-Dname] [-f newsrc-file] [-i con
fig-file] [-k0] [--create] [-create] [--debug file]
[--help] [--inews] [--kill-log file] [--nntp [-h server]
[-p port]] [--spool] [--version]
DESCRIPTION
slrn is an easy to use but powerful NNTP / spool based
newsreader.
It is highly customizable, supports scoring, free key
bindings and can be extended using the s-lang macro lan
guage.
To use slrn, you either need to set the NNTPSERVER envi
ronment variable to the server you want to read news from
or specify a server on the command line. A newsrc file is
needed, too. In case you do not yet have one, you can
create it using ``slrn -f ~/.jnewsrc --create''.
Inside slrn, online help is available via the '?' key.
OPTIONS
The following options can be used when calling slrn from
the command line. They override both environment vari
ables and settings in private and global configuration
files.
-a Read active file when checking for new news.
-C Use colors without checking if the terminal sup
ports it.
-C- Don't use colors, even if the terminal supports it.
-d Get group descriptions (taglines) from the news
server. Please note that this may cause a download
of several hundred kilobytes and thus can take a
long time. The output is saved to a local file, so
you only need to do this once. May not be speci
fied in combination with --create.
-Dname Add name to the list of predefined preprocessing
tokens, which can be used in your slrnrc file to
have conditionally interpreted lines. See the slrn
reference manual for details.
-f newsrc-file
Use file as the newsrc file for this session. This
is permanently set via the server configuration
command.
Connect to the NNTP server on host, overriding the
$NNTPSERVER environment variable. If no port is
given, the default NNTP port (119) will be used.
This option is only accepted after --nntp or when
NNTP is the default mode.
-i config-file
Read file as the initialization (slrnrc) file. The
default is to use .slrnrc (or slrn.rc on VMS, OS/2
and Windows) in your home directory.
-k Don't read the score file.
-k0 Read the score file, but inhibit expensive scoring.
A scoring rule is expensive if it contains header
lines that are not included in the server's
overview files. This makes applying them slow.
-m Force mouse support (without checking if it works
on the current terminal).
-n Do not check for new groups (usually resulting in a
faster startup).
-p N Use port N to connect to the NNTP server.
-w Wait for a key before switching to full screen
mode, allowing the user to read startup messages.
--create
Read the active file (the list of all groups) from
the news server to create an initial newsrc file.
-create
Obsolete version of --create.
--debug file
Write debugging output to file.
--help Show help for command line switches.
--inews
Use an external inews program to post articles.
--kill-log file
Keep a log of all articles that were killed by the
scorefile in file.
--nntp Use builtin NNTP support for reading and posting
(an external program is used to post if slrn was
compiled with --enable-force-inews).
--pull Spool outgoing articles locally for slrnpull to
--spool
Read directly from spool.
--version
Print version and some compile time settings.
ENVIRONMENT
slrn uses the following list of environment variables.
Note: environment variables can be overridden by configu
ration files or command line switches.
COLORTERM
If this variable is set, slrn will assume that your
terminal supports ANSI color sequences. It also
enables a workaround for a problem with the mouse
reporting when running slrn inside of an rxvt.
DISPLAY
If set, slrn assumes that X11 is running.
EDITOR See $SLRN_EDITOR.
HOME See $SLRNHOME.
HOSTNAME
If no hostname is given, the value of this environ
ment variable is used.
LOGNAME
See $USER.
NAME Set it to your realname, if slrn can't determine it
otherwise.
NNTPSERVER
You can use this variable to tell slrn which NNTP
server to connect to. It can be overridden by the
command line option -h.
ORGANIZATION
The name of your organization.
PRINTER
On unix systems, slrn pipes the current article to
``lpr -P $PRINTER'' to print it.
PWD This variable is only used on unix systems that
don't support getcwd(3). In these cases, it should
be set to the current directory at the time slrn is
invoked. This is usually done by the shell and
nothing the user has to worry about.
The value of this variable is used as the default
if you do not set replyto in your slrnrc file.
SLANG_EDITOR
See $SLRN_EDITOR.
SLRNHELP
You can set this variable to a file slrn should
read its online help from. This is only needed
when the default key bindings have been changed and
you want the help function to reflect this.
SLRNHOME
When interpreting filenames as relative to your
home directory, slrn uses this variable to find out
what your home directory is. If $SLRNHOME is
unset, $HOME is used instead.
SLRNPULL_ROOT
If you want to use slrnpull, you need to define a
directory where it will look for its configuration
files and spool the articles. An absolute filename
is needed here.
SLRN_EDITOR
The editor to start for editing articles. If this
variable is unset, slrn subsequently looks at
$SLANG_EDITOR, $EDITOR and $VISUAL.
SLRN_LIB_DIR
This variable can be used to set the directory in
which slrn looks for its global configuration file
(slrn.rc) and newsgroup descriptions (news
groups.dsc).
TMP Indicates the directory in which slrn should save
temporary files.
TMPDIR See $TMP.
USER Your username, if slrn can't get it from the system
by other means.
VISUAL See $SLRN_EDITOR.
FILES
$HOME/.slrnrc
User-specific configuration file.
$SLRN_LIB_DIR/slrn.rc
System-wide configuration file.
default newsrc file for slrn.
$HOME/.jnewsrc.dsc
Per user newsgroups descriptions.
$SLRN_LIB_DIR/newsgroups.dsc
Global newsgroup descriptions.
SEE ALSO
The documentation that comes with slrn, especially man
ual.txt, FAQ, score.txt and SCORE_FAQ. If you consider
writing s-lang macros, also look at README.macros and
slrnfuns.txt.
Recent versions of the slrn manual and the FAQ as well as
additional information can also be found on slrn's offi
cial home page: http://slrn.sourceforge.net/
Questions about slrn that are not covered by existing doc
umentation may be posted to the newsgroup news.soft
ware.readers where they will be answered by knowledgeable
users or the author of the program. In addition,
announcements of new versions of slrn are posted there.
The latest version of slrn is available via anonymous ftp
from slrn.sourceforge.net in pub/slrn.
AUTHOR
John E. Davis <davis@space.mit.edu>
Please send any bug reports to the current maintainer,
Thomas Schultz <tststs@gmx.de>
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