.TH READNEWS 1
.SH NAME
checknews, readnews \- read news articles
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B checknews
[
.B ynqve
] [ readnews-options ]
.PP
.B readnews
[
.B \-a
date ] [
.B \-n
newsgroup ] [
.B \-t
titles ] [
.B \-lprxhfuM 
] [
.BR \-c
[ mailer ] ]
.PP
.B readnews \-s
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I checknews
reports whether there is news present.
.TP
.B y
report only if news is present
.TP
.B n
report only if news is absent
.TP
.B q
turn off reports; nonzero exit status indicates news.
.TP
.B v
alters the
.B y
message to show the name of the first newsgroup containing unread news.
Doubling
.B v
(e.g.
.BR vv )
causes an explanation of
.I any
claim of new news,
and is useful if
.B checknews
and
.B readnews
disagree.
.TP
.B e
executes
.IR readnews (1)
if there is news
.PP
If there are no options,
.B y
is the default.
.PP
.I readnews
without arguments prints unread articles.
There are several interfaces available besides the default:
.TP 10
Flag
Interface
.TP 10
.B \-M
An interface to
.IR Mail (1).
.TP 10
.B \-c
A
.IR /bin/mail (1)\-like
interface.
.TP 10
.BI "\-c " `mailer'
All selected articles written to a temporary file.
Then the mailer is
invoked.
The name of the temporary file is referenced with a `%'.
Thus, `mail \-f %' will invoke mail on a temporary file consisting of all
selected messages.
.TP 10
.B \-p
All selected articles are sent to the standard output.
No questions asked.
.TP 10
.B \-l
Only the titles output.
The
.I .newsrc
file will not be updated.
.LP
The
.B \-r
flag causes the articles to be printed in reverse order.
The
.B \-f
flag prevents any followup articles from being printed.
The
.B \-h
flag causes articles to be printed in a less verbose format,
and is intended for terminals running at 300 baud.
the
.B \-u
flag causes the
.B .newsrc
file to be updated every 5 minutes,
in case of an unreliable system.
(Note that if the newsrc file is updated,
the
.B x
command will not restore it to its original contents.)
.PP
The following flags determine the selection of articles.
.TP 10
.BI "\-n " newsgroups
Select all articles that belong to
.I newsgroups.
.TP 10
.BI "\-t " titles
Select all articles whose titles contain one of the strings specified by
.I titles.
.TP 10
.BI "\-a " "\fR[\fP date \fR]\fP"
Select all articles that were posted past the given
.I date.
.TP 10
.B \-x
Ignore
.I .newsrc
file.
That is, select articles that have already been read as well as new ones.
.PP
.I readnews
maintains a
.I .newsrc
file in the user's home directory that specifies all news articles
already read.
It is updated at the end of each reading session in
which the
.BR \-x " or " \-l
options weren't specified.
If the environment variable NEWSRC is present, it should be the path
name of a file to be used in place of .newsrc.
.PP
If the user wishes, an options line may be placed in the
.I .newsrc
file.
This line starts with the word
.B options
(left justified) followed by the list of standard options just as
they would be typed on the command line.
Such a list may include:
the
.B \-n
flag along with a newsgroup list; a favorite interface; and/or
the
.B \-r
or
.B \-t
flag.
Continuation lines are specified by following lines
beginning with a space or tab character.
Similarly, options can be specified in the
.B NEWSOPTS
environment parameter.
Where conflicts exist, option on the command
line take precedence, followed by the
.I .newsrc
.B options
line, and lastly the
.B NEWSOPTS
parameter.
.PP
.B readnews \-s
will print the newsgroup subscription list.
.PP
When  user uses the reply command of the
default or mail
interfaces, the environment parameter
.B MAILER
will be used to determine
which mailer to use.
The default is usually /bin/mail.
.PP
If the user so desires, he may specify a specific paging progam
for articles.
The environment parameter
.B PAGER
should be set to
the paging program.
The name of the article is referenced with
a `%', as in the
.B \-c
option.
If no `%' is present, the article will be piped to the program.
Paging may be disabled by setting
.B PAGER
to a null value.
.SH "COMMANDS"
.PP
This section lists the commands you can type to the msgs and /bin/mail
interface prompts.
The msgs interface will suggest some common commands in brackets.
Just hitting return is the same as typing the first command.
For example, `[ynq]' means that the commands ``y'' (yes), ``n'' (no),
and `q' (quit) are common responses, and that ``y'' is the default.
.ta 2.5i
Command		Meaning
.IP y
Yes.
Prints current article and goes on to next.
.IP n
No.
Goes on to next article without printing current one.
In the /bin/mail interface, this means `go on to the next article',
which will have the same effect as `y' or just hitting return.
.IP q
Quit.
The .newsrc
file will be updated if \-l or \-x were not on the command line.
.IP c
Cancel the article.
Only the author or the super user can do this.
.IP r
Reply.
Reply to article's author via mail.
You are placed in your EDITOR with a header specifying
To, Subject, and References lines taken from the message.
You may change or add headers, as appropriate.
You add the text of the reply after the blank line, and then exit
the editor.
The resulting message is mailed to the author of the article.
.IP rd
Reply directly.
You are placed in $MAILER (`mail' by default) in reply to the author.
Type the text of the reply and then control-D.
.IP "f [\fItitle\fP]"
Submit a follow up article.
Normally you should leave off the title, since the system will generate
one for you.
You will be placed in your EDITOR to compose the text of the followup.
.IP "fd"
Followup directly, without edited headers.
This is like
.IR f ,
but the headers of the article are not included in the editor buffer.
.TP
.RI "N [" newsgroup ]
Go to the next newsgroup or named newsgroup.
.TP
.RI "s [" file ]
Save.
The article is appended to the named file.
The default is `Articles'.
If the first character of the file name is `|',
the rest of the file name is taken as the name of a program,
which is executed with the text of the article as standard input.
If the first character of the file name is `/', it is
taken as a full path name of a file.
If $NEWSBOX (in the environment) is set to a full path name,
and the file contains no `/', the file is saved in $NEWSBOX.
Otherwise, it is saved relative to $HOME.
.IP #
Report the name and size of the newsgroup.
.IP e
Erase.
Forget that this article was read.
.IP h
Print a more verbose header.
.IP H
Print a very verbose header, containing all known information
about the article.
.IP U
Unsubscribe from this newsgroup.
Also goes on to the next newsgroup.
.IP d
Read a digest.
Breaks up a digest into separate articles
and permits you to read and reply to each piece.
.TP
.RI "D [" number ]
Decrypt.
Invokes a Caesar decoding program on the body of the message.
This is used to decrypt rotated jokes posted to net.jokes,
to avoid possible offense to uninterested readers.
The title of the joke should indicate the nature of the problem,
enabling people to decide whether to decrypt it or not.
.PP
Normally the Caesar program does a character frequency count on
each line of the article separately, so that lines which are not
rotated will be shown in plain text.
This works well unless the line is short, in which case it sometimes
gets the wrong rotation.
An explicit
.I number
rotation (usually 13) may be given to force a particular shift.
.IP v
Print the current version of the news software.
.IP !
Shell escape.
.TP
.I number
Go to
.I number.
.TP
.RI +[ n ]
Skip
.I n
articles.
The articles skipped are recorded as `unread' and will be
offered to you again the next time you read news.
.IP \-
Go back to last article.
This is a toggle, typing it twice returns you to the original article.
.IP x
Exit.
Like quit except that .newsrc is not updated.
.TP
.RI "X [" system ]
Transmit article to the named system.
.PP
The commands
c, f, fd, r, rd, e, h, H, and s
can be followed by \-'s to refer to the previous article.
Thus, when replying to an article using the msgs interface,
you should normally type `r\-' (or ``re-'') since by the time you enter
a command, you are being offerred the next article.
.SH EXAMPLES
.TP 10
.B readnews
Read all unread articles using the
msgs interface.
The
.I .newsrc
file is updated at the end of the session.
.TP 10
.B readnews \-c ``ed %'' \-l
Invoke the
.IR ed (1)
text editor on a file containing the titles of all unread articles.
The
.I .newsrc
file is
.B not
updated at the end of the session.
.TP 10
.B readnews \-n all !fa.all \-M \-r
Read all unread articles except articles whose newsgroups begin with
"fa." via
.IR Mail (1)
in reverse order.
The
.I .newsrc
file is updated at the end of the session.
.TP 10
.B "readnews \-p \-n all \-a last thursday"
Print every unread article since last Thursday.
The
.I .newsrc
file is
updated at the end of the session.
.TP 10
.B "readnews \-p > /dev/null &"
Discard all unread news.
This is useful after returning from a long trip.
.SH FILES
.PD 0
.TP 25
.RI /usr/spool/news/ newsgroup / number
News articles
.TP 25
/usr/lib/news/active
Active newsgroups and numbers of articles
.TP 25
/usr/lib/news/help
Help file for
msgs interface
.TP 25
~/.newsrc
Options and list of previously read articles
.PD
.SH SEE ALSO
postnews(1)
mail(1),
.SH BUGS
.I netnews
and
.I readnews
use the same text in different churches.