NN News Reader: Setting up and Reading Newsgroups with nn

What is nn?

Nn is a news reader. When you use nn, you can decide which of the many news groups you are interested in, and you can unsub- scribe to those which don't interest you. nn will let you read the new (and old) articles in each of the groups you subscribe to using a menu based article selection prior to reading the articles in the news group.

When a news group is entered, nn will locate all the presently unread articles in the group, and extract their sender, subject, and other relevant information. This information is then rearranged, sorted, and marked in various ways to give it a pleasant format when it is presented on the screen.

This will be done very quickly, because nn uses its own database to maintain all the necessary information on a directly accessible form (this database is built and main- tained by the nnmaster(8) program).

Using nn

Two files govern nn's action when dealing with groups: .nn/init and .newsrc. .nn/init is used to set configuration variables and to tell nn what groups you want to read (and what groups you want to ignore). Use this file to specify which groups you never want to read. The other file, .newsrc, keeps track of what groups you are subscribed to and what articles in each group you have read. Use it to unsubscribe to particular gorups that have not been exclude3d in the init file.

1. If your home directory does not contain a subdirectory named .nn (you can check with ls -a .nn) create one with mkdir .nn while you are in your home directory.

2. Using the editor of your choice, create a file in the .nn directory named init (using the vi editor, give the command vi .nn/init). The contents of the file should look something like this:

   	sequence
   	!alt
   	!sci
   	!rec
   	!...(list as many groups as required)
   

   The first line must be the word "sequence." The next lines specify the groups that you never want to subscribe to. In this case, you are excluding any groups starting with alt, sci, or rec. You can add any amount of detail to get the job done. For example, if you don't care about any groups about sports that might pop up, you could add the lines:

   	!rec.sport
   

   When you have listed the groups you do not care about, save the file and exit the editor (in vi, issued the command wq). Of course, if you are a new netnews reader, you will not yet know which newsgroups you do not want, so you can skip this step.

3. Issue the nn command. When nn starts, immediately type Q. This quits nn, but not before it creates the file .newsrc. This file lists all the groups offered by the server you are using.

4. Edit .newsrc. (If you are using vi, use the command vi .newsrc). Your display should begin something like this:

   purdue.bio.announce:
   purdue.bio.general:
   purdue.bio.log:
   purdue.cc.agadpc:
   purdue.cc.consult:
   purdue.cc.consult.agad:
   purdue.cc.consult.enad:
   purdue.cc.nextadm:
   rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy:
   rec.games.trading-cards.marketplace:
   rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules:
   soc.culture.indian.kerala:
   rec.games.trading-cards.misc:
   soc.support.youth.gay-lesbian-bi:
   rec.games.trading-cards.magic.misc:
   purdue.class.biol495e:
   rec.arts.tv.soaps.abc:
   rec.arts.tv.soaps.cbs:
   rec.arts.tv.soaps.misc:
   talk.politics.libertarian:
   comp.sys.arm:
   comp.sys.atari.programmer:
   rec.music.promotional:
   sci.engr.metallurgy:
   soc.genealogy.jewish:
   soc.genealogy.surnames:
   

5. Issue a "global replace" command that turns all colons (:) into exclamation points (!). This unsubscribes you to everything by changing all colons to exclamation points (A : after the newsgroup name flags the group as subscribed, an ! as unsubscribed.) If you are using vi, give a :%s/:/!/ command.

6. Find the groups you WANT to participate in, either by using a search command if you know the groups name (/name for vi users), or by scrolling through the file (in vi key "j" is down, key "k" is up). When you find a group you want to subscribe to, change the exclamation point (!) following the name back to a colon (:). By changing the ! to a :, you are flagging that group as subscribed. Repeat as necessary. For vi users, position the cursor over the ! and type r:.

7. Save the file and exit the editing session (in vi, the command ZZ does both).

You are now subscribed to those groups whose names are followed by a colon (:) and that aren't listed in the .nn/init file as "don't care" groups.

If you do not know which groups you absolutely do not want, you can skip step number 2, in which you create a .init file. Or if you want to set up your current subscriptions correctly you can just do steps 3 through 7.

Reading News

The nn has two modes of operation: the selection phase and the reading phase. When you first enter into the .nn newsreader, you will be presented with a menu of news postings in a group you subscribe to. You then select the postings you want to read. Your screen should look something like this:

% nn
Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv.soaps.abc		Articles 544 of 544/1 NEW

a Cynthia Paley		19	AMC: TOM CUDAHY HATERS CLUB
b Lorraine Goods	16 	>>>>
c Erik			 6	-
d Cynthia Paley		11	AMC: Oh no, OJ starts 1-4??
e Cynthia Paley		20	OLTL: RJ
f Sage Lunsford		16 	>>
g Marisa SorBello	11	>janet and palmer
h Marisa SorBello	18	>&tgt;AMC: Janet Green
--- 13:51 -- SELECT -- help:? ---------Top 5%---------

There is a title line at the top, telling you what newsgroups you are currently looking at. The rightmost part of the line shows you Articles which is the number of articles you have not seen in this newsgroup. At the bottom of your screen you will see a status line.

The middle of the listing show entries for the selectable articles. You will see:

ID

A letter used to select (or deselect) a particular article for reading.

author

The name of the person who posted the article.

size

The number of lines of text in the article.

subject

The subject of the article, as typed by the submitted. Notice that some subject entries have text, and some only have one or more > characters in that field. The lines which have textual subjects are the original postings for their thread. Lines which have a > are reactions or follow-on postings to the original.

nn Commands

To mark a specific article for reading, type the letter next to it (in lower case). To mark a specific article and all of its responses, type the letter and an asterisk, for example:

a*

To un-select an article, type the letter next to it (again, in lower case).

C

Cancels an article (around the world) that you wrote.

F

To post a public response or follow-up. If selected while still on a newsgroup "page", asks you which article to follow up.

N

Goes to the next subscribed newsgroup with unread articles.

P

Goes to the previous subscribed newsgroup with unread articles.

G news.group

Goes to a specifc newsgroup. Can be used to subscribe to new newsgroups.

u

Goes to the group and shows only un-read articles.

a

Goes to the group and shows all articles, even ones you've already read.

s

Will show you only articles with a specific subject.

n

Will show you only articles from a specific person.

M

Mails a copy of the current article to somebody.

:post

Post an article. You will be asked for the name of the group.

Q

Quit, or exit, nn.

U

Un-subscribe from the current newsgroup.

R

Responds to an article via e-mail.

space

Hitting the space bar brings up the next page of articles.

X

If you have selected articles, this will show them to you and then take you to the next subscribed newsgorup with unread articles. If you do not have selected articles, it marks all articles as read and takes you to the next unread subscribed newsgroup.

=word

Finds and marks all articles in the newsgroup with a specific word in the "Subject:" line.

Z

Shows you selected articles and then returns you to current newsgroup.

?

Help menu.

<

Goes to the previous page in the newsgroup.

>

Goes to the next page in the newsgroup.

$

Goes to the last page in an article.

^

Goes to the first page in an article.