TRN

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

If you are already familiar with rn you will probably want to skip forward to the section on the Thread Selection Mode, then move on to read about the Tree Display, and finish with the summary of What's New? with trn. If you're impatient, just dive in and get started. All the regular commands are the same as those in rn, and the on-line help will give you a quick run-down of what new commands are available. Just type `h' from any prompt. I'd suggest using the command:

    trn -x -X

to make sure some of the best new features are turned on.  

Starting Trn

If no newsgroups are specified, all the newsgroups which have unread news are displayed, and then the user is asked for each one whether he wants to read it, in the order in which the newsgroups occur in the .newsrc file. With a list of newsgroups, trn will start up in ``add'' mode, using the list as a set of patterns to add new newsgroups and restrict which newsgroups are displayed. See the discussion of the `a' command on the newsgroup selection level.

Trn operates on four levels: the newsgroup selection level, the thread selection level, the article selection level, and the paging level. Each level has its own set of commands, and its own help menu. At the paging level (the bottom level), trn behaves much like the more(1) program. At the thread selection level, you are presented with the subjects and (optionally) authors associated with each discussion thread, and given a chance to choose which ones you wish to read now, save for later, or manipulate in some way. At the article selection level, you may read them in the default order (which follows the discussion of the articles and their replies), or jump around from one article to another. At the newsgroup selection level (the top level), you may specify which newsgroup you want next, or read them in the default order, which is the order that the newsgroups occur in your .newsrc file. (You will therefore want to rearrange your .newsrc file to put the most interesting newsgroups first. This can be done with the `m' command on the Newsgroup Selection level. WARNING: invoking readnews/vnews (the old user interface) in any way (including as a news checker in your login sequence!) will cause your .newsrc to be disarranged again.)

On any level, at ANY prompt, help is available in the form of a summary of available commands and what they do by typing an `h'. This is probably the most important command to remember, so don't you forget it.

Typing space to any question means to do the normal thing. You will know what that is because every prompt has a list of several plausible commands enclosed in square brackets. The first command in the list is the one which will be done if you type a space. (All input is done in cbreak mode, so carriage returns should not be typed to terminate anything except certain multi-character commands. Those commands will be obvious in the discussion below because they take an argument.)

Upon startup, trn will do several things:

1.

It will look for your .newsrc file, which is your list of subscribed-to newsgroups. If trn doesn't find a .newsrc, it will create one. If it does find one, it will back it up under the name ``.oldnewsrc''.

2.

It will input your .newsrc file, listing out the first several newsgroups with unread news.

3.

It will perform certain consistency checks on your .newsrc. If your .newsrc is out of date in any of several ways, trn will warn you and patch it up for you, but you may have to wait a little longer for it to start up.

4.

Trn will next check to see if any new newsgroups have been created, and give you the opportunity to add them to your .newsrc.

5.

Trn goes into the top prompt level---the newsgroup selection level.

Newsgroup Selection Level

******** 17 unread articles in talk.blurfl---read now? [ynq]

and the following commands may be given at this level:

y,SP

Do this newsgroup now.

.command

Do this newsgroup now, but execute command before displaying anything. The command will be interpreted as if given on the article selection level.

+

Enter this newsgroup through the thread selector.

=

Start this newsgroup, but list subjects before displaying articles.

U

Enter this newsgroup through the ``Set unread'' prompt.

t

Toggle the always-read-threaded flag for the current group.

n

Go to the next newsgroup with unread news.

N

Go to the next newsgroup.

p

Go to the previous newsgroup with unread news. If there is none, stay at the current newsgroup.

P

Go to the previous newsgroup.

-

Go to the previously displayed newsgroup (regardless of whether it is before or after the current one in the list).

1

Go to the first newsgroup.

^

Go to the first newsgroup with unread news.

$

Go to the end of the newsgroups list.

g newsgroup

Go to newsgroup. If it isn't currently subscribed to, you will be asked if you want to subscribe.

/pattern

Scan forward for a newsgroup matching pattern. Patterns do globbing like filenames, i.e., use ? to match a single character, * to match any sequence of characters, and [] to specify a list of characters to match. (``all'' may be used as a synonym for ``*''.) Unlike normal filename globbing, newsgroup searching is not anchored to the front and back of the filename, i.e. ``/ski'' will find rec.skiing. You may use ^ or $ to anchor the front or back of the search: ``/^test$'' will find newsgroup test and nothing else If you want to include newsgroups with 0 unread articles, append /r. If the newsgroup is not found between the current newsgroup and the last newsgroup, the search will wrap around to the beginning.

?pattern

Same as /, but search backwards.

u

Unsubscribe from the current newsgroup.

l string

List newsgroups not subscribed to which contain the string specified.

L

Lists the current state of the .newsrc, along with status information.

    Status    Meaning
    <number>  Count of unread articles in newsgroup.
    READ      No unread articles in newsgroup.
    UNSUB     Unsubscribed newsgroup.
    BOGUS     Bogus newsgroup.
    JUNK      Ignored line in .newsrc
(e.g. readnews ``options'' line).

(A bogus newsgroup is one that is not in the list of active newsgroups in the active file, which on most systems is /usr/lib/news/active unless you use NNTP.)

m name

Move the named newsgroup somewhere else in the .newsrc. If no name is given, the current newsgroup is moved. There are a number of ways to specify where you want the newsgroup---type h for help when it asks where you want to put it.

c

Catch up---mark all unread articles in this newsgroup as read.

o pattern

Only display those newsgroups whose name matches pattern. Patterns are the same as for the `/' command. Multiple patterns may be separated by spaces, just as on the command line. The restriction will remain in effect either until there are no articles left in the restricted set of newsgroups, or another restriction command is given. Since pattern is optional, `o' by itself will remove the restriction.

a pattern

Add new newsgroups matching pattern. Newsgroups which are already in your .newsrc file, whether subscribed to or not, will not be listed. If any new newsgroups are found, you will be asked for each one whether you would like to add it. If you want to add all new newsgroups, you can type `Y' and they will be added the the end of the .newsrc file and as groups you want to read. If you don't want to subscribe, all the new groups can be added by typing `N'. After any new newsgroups have been added, the `a' command also restricts the current set of newsgroups just like the `o' command does.

&

Print out the current status of command line switches and any newsgroup restrictions.

&switch {switch}

Set additional command line switches.

&&

Print out the current macro definitions.

&&keys commands

Define additional macros.

!command

Escape to a subshell. One exclamation mark (!) leaves you in your own news directory. A double exclamation mark (!!) leaves you in the spool directory for news, which on most systems is /usr/spool/news if NNTP is not being used. The environment variable SHELL will be used if defined. If command is null, an interactive shell is started.

q

Quit.

x

Quit, restoring .newsrc to its state at startup of trn. The .newsrc you would have had if you had exited with `q' will be called .newnewsrc, in case you didn't really want to type `x'.

^K

Edit the global KILL file. This is a file which contains /pattern/j commands (one per line) to be applied to every newsgroup as it is started up, that is, when it is selected on the newsgroup selection level. The purpose of a KILL file is to mark articles as read on the basis of some set of patterns. This saves considerable wear and tear on your `n' key. There is also a local KILL file for each newsgroup. Because of the overhead involved in searching for articles to kill, it is better if possible to use a local KILL file. Local KILL files are edited with a `^K' on the article selection level. There are also automatic ways of adding search commands to the local KILL file---see the `K' and `T' commands, and the K search modifier on the article selection level.

If either of the environment variables VISUAL or EDITOR is set, the specified editor will be invoked; otherwise a default editor (normally vi(1)) is invoked on the KILL file.

Thread Selection Level

The default is to display the long mode of the thread selector. In this mode, all the authors of the articles in the thread are summarized, one per line (authors of multiple articles are listed only once). The medium display mode groups multiple authors onto the same line, so that more threads can be displayed at one time. The short display mode does not display any author names, and can display more characters in the subject.

The following commands are available in the thread selector:

a-z,0-9

Select the discussion thread by its letter or number; press again to deselect. By default the letters h, k, n, p, q, and y are omitted to allow them to be typed as commands. See the variable SELECTCHARS to customize this.

SP

Perform the default command. This is usually > for most pages, and Z on the last page (although D and X are also quite popular).

CR

Read the current thread (if none are selected) or all the selected threads.

Z,TAB

Begin reading the selected threads. If none are are selected, read everything.

y, `.'

Toggle the current thread's selection (the one under the cursor).

k, `,'

Mark the current thread as killed.

m, \

Unmark the current thread.

-

Set a range, as in 2 - 5. Repeats the last marking action: selected, unselected, killed, or unmarked.

@

Toggle all visible article selections.

<

Go to previous page.

>

Go to next page.

p, [

Move up to the previous thread.

n, ]

Move down to the next thread.

^

Go to first page.

$

Go to last page.

X

Mark all unselected articles as read and start reading.

J

Mark all selected articles as read (useful after performing some action on them with the `:' command).

D

Mark unselected articles on the current page as read. Begin reading if articles are selected, otherwise go to the next page.

^K

Edit the local KILL file for this newsgroup. A detailed description of KILL files is found in the Article Selection section.

:command

Execute a command upon all the selected threads and their articles. If no threads are selected, all threads with unread articles are affected.

Applicable commands include `+' and `-' (select and unselect thread), `T' (trash the thread into the local KILL file), `t' (display article tree), ``s dest'' (save article to a destination), ``e dir'' (extract to directory), `E' (end partial uudecode), as well as: S, |, w, W, m, M, j, = and ','.

/pattern

Scan all articles for a subject containing pattern and select its thread.

/pattern/modifiers:command{:command}

Apply the commands listed to articles matching the search command (possibly with h, a, r, or K modifiers). The default action, if no command is specified, is to select the parent thread of the matching article (the `+' command). See the section on Regular Expressions, and the description of pattern searching in the Article Selection section.

One example: to scan all the unread articles looking for ``topic`` anywhere in the article and then select its thread and save the article to the files topic.1, topic.2, etc. use ``/topic/a:+:s topic.%#''.

N

Go to the next newsgroup with unread news.

P

Go to the previous newsgroup with unread news.

U

Switch between selecting read/unread articles.

L

Switch the current display mode between the long and medium modes (with authors) and the short mode. (See the -x option to select your favorite mode as the default.)

&

Display or set the current status of command line switches.

&&

Display or set the current macro definitions.

!command

Escape to a subshell.

q

Quit this group.

ESC,+

Quit the thread selector (back) to the article level.

Q

Quit the current newsgroup and return to the newsgroup selection prompt for this group.

Article Selection Level

On the article selection level you are not asked whether you want to read an article before the article is displayed; rather, trn simply displays the first page (or portion of a page, at low baud rates) of the article and asks if you want to continue. The normal article selection prompt comes at the END of the article (though article selection commands can be given from within the middle of the article (the pager level) also). The prompt at the end of an article looks like this:

End of article 248 (of 257)---what next? [npq]

The following are the options at this point:

n,SP

Scan forward for next unread article. (Note: the `n' (next) command when typed at the end of an article does not mark the article as read, since an article is automaticaly marked as read after the last line of it is printed. It is therefore possible to type a sequence such as `mn' and leave the article marked as unread. The fact that an article is marked as read by typing n, N, ^N, e, s, S, |, w, or W within the MIDDLE of the article is in fact a special case.)

N

Go to the next article.

^N

Scan forward for the next article with the same subject. If the group is unthreaded this also makes subject search mode (^N) the default.

p

Scan backward for previous unread article. If there is none, stay at the current article.

P

Go to the previous article.

-

Go to the previously displayed article (regardless of whether that article is before or after this article in the normal sequence).

^P

Scan backward for the previous article with the same subject. Makes subject search mode (^N) the default if the group is unthreaded.

<,>

Browse the previous/next selected thread. If no selections have been made, all the threads that had unread news when you entered the newsgroup (or last left the thread selector) are treated as selected. Entering an empty newsgroup makes all the already-read threads available for browsing.

[,]

Proceed to the left/right in the article tree. Visits already-read articles as well as empty nodes. If you attempt to go past the left/right edge of the tree, you are advanced to the previous/next line if available.

{,}

Go to the root/leaf of the article tree, even if the node is already read or empty. Proceeds to the very first/last node if you're already at a root/leaf in a multi-root thread.

t

Display the entire article tree and all its associated subjects. If the group is not currently threaded, it will be turned on and processed as needed.

^R

Restart the current article.

v

Restart the current article verbosely, displaying the entire header.

^L

Refresh the screen.

^X

Restart the current article, and decrypt as a rot13 message.

X

Refresh the screen, and decrypt as a rot13 message.

b

Back up one page.

q

Quit this newsgroup and go back to the newsgroup selection level.

^

Go to the first unread article.

$

Go to the last article (actually, one past the last article).

number

Go to the numbered article.

range{,range}:command{:command}

Apply a set of commands to a set of articles. A range consists of either <article number> or <article number>-<article number>. A dot `.' represents the current article, and a dollar sign `$' represents the last article.

Applicable commands include `m' (mark as unread), `M' (delayed mark as unread), `j' (mark as read), ``s dest'' (save to a destination), ``e dir"'' (extract to directory), ``!command'' (shell escape), ``='' (print the subject), `T' (trash the thread into the local KILL file), `+' (select the thread), `-' (deselect the thread), `C' (cancel), as well as S, |, w, W, and t.

:command

Apply a command to all selected threads and their articles. If no threads are selected, apply the command to all the unread threads. For applicable commands, see the discussion above for the range command.

j

Junk the current article---mark it as read. If this command is used from within an article, you are left at the end of the article, unlike `n', which looks for the next article.

m

Mark the current article as still unread. (If you are in subject search mode you probably want to use M instead of m. Otherwise the current article may be selected as the beginning of the next subject thread.)

M

Mark the current article as still unread, but not until the newsgroup is exited. Until then, the current article will be marked as read. This is useful for returning to an article in another session, or in another newsgroup.

/pattern

Scan forward for article containing pattern in the subject. See the Regular Expressions section. Together with the escape substitution facility described later, it becomes easy to search for various attributes of the current article, such as subject, article ID, author name, etc. The previous pattern can be recalled with ``<esc>/''. If pattern is omitted, the previous pattern is assumed.

/pattern/h

Scan forward for article containing pattern in the header.

/pattern/a

Scan forward for article containing pattern anywhere in article.

/pattern/r

Scan read articles also.

/pattern/c

Make search case sensitive. Ordinarily upper- and lower-case are considered the same.

/pattern/modifiers:command{:command}

Apply the commands listed to articles matching the search command (possibly with h, a, or r modifiers). Applicable commands include `m' (mark as unread), `M' (delayed mark as unread), `j' (mark as read), ``s dest'' (save to a destination), ``e dir"'' (extract to directory), ``!command'' (shell escape), ``='' (print the subject), `T' (trash the associated thread and put it in the local KILL file), `+' (select the associated thread), `-' deselect the associated thread), and `C' (cancel). If the first command is `m' or `M', modifier r is assumed. A K may be included in the modifiers (not the commands) to cause the entire command (sans K) to be saved to the local KILL file, where it will be applied to every article that shows up in the newsgroup.

For example, to save all articles in a given newsgroup to the line printer and mark them read, use ``/^/|lpr:j''. If you type ``/^/K|lpr:j'', this will happen every time you enter the newsgroup.

?pattern

Scan backward for article containing pattern in the subject. May be modified as the forward search is: ?pattern?modifiers[:commands]. It is likely that you will want an r modifier when scanning backward.

k

Mark as read all articles with the same subject as the current article. (Note: there is no single character command to temporarily mark as read (M command) articles matching the current subject. That can be done with ``/<esc>s/M'', however.)

,

Mark the current article and all its replies as read.

J

Junk all the articles in the thread, even if it contains multiple subjects.

K

Do the same as the k command, but also add a line to the local KILL file for this newsgroup to kill this subject every time the newsgroup is started up. For a discussion of KILL files, see the `^K' command below. See also the K modifier on searches above.

T

Kill the current thread, and also add a line to the local KILL file for this newsgroup to kill new articles attached to this thread every time the newsgroup is started up.

^K

Edit the local KILL file for this newsgroup. Each line of the KILL file should be a subject-killing command of the form /pattern/j or a thread killing command of the form T<number>. The thread killing commands are usually followed by a comment to let you know the primary subject of the numbered thread being killed. The first line in the KILL file has the form ``THRU <number>'', which tells trn the maximum article number that the KILL file has been applied to. (You may delete the THRU line to force a rescan of current articles.) You may also have reason to use the m, h, or a modifiers. Be careful with the M modifier in a kill file---there are more efficient ways to never read an article. You might have reason to use it if a particular series of articles is posted to multiple newsgroups. In this case, M would force you to view the article in a different newsgroup.

To see only newgroup articles in the control newsgroup, for instance, you might put

/^/j
/newgroup/m

which kills all subjects not containing ``newgroup''. You can add lines automatically via the K command and K search modifiers, but editing is the only way to remove lines. If either of the environment variables VISUAL or EDITOR is set, the specified editor will be invoked; otherwise a default editor (normally vi) is invoked on the KILL file.

The KILL file may also contain switch setting lines beginning with `&'. Additionally, any line beginning with `X' is executed on exit from the newsgroup rather than on entrance. This can be used to set switches back to a default value. One use for this capability is to set your save directory to a custom value upon entry to a newsgroup and set it back on exit using the -ESAVEDIR option. See also the -/ option for another solution to multiple save directories without using KILL files.

r

Reply through net mail. The environment variables MAILPOSTER and MAILHEADER may be used to modify the mailing behavior of trn (see environment section). If on a nonexistent article such as the ``End of newsgroup'' pseudo-article (which you can get to with a `$' command), invokes the mailer to nobody in particular.

R

Reply, including the current article in the header file generated. (See `F' command below). The YOUSAID environment variable controls the format of the attribution line.

f

Submit a followup article. If on a nonexistent article such as the ``End of newsgroup'' pseudo-article (which you can get to with a `$' command), posts an original article (basenote).

F

Submit a followup article, and include the old article, with lines prefixed either by ``>'' or by the argument to a -F switch. Trn will attempt to provide an attribution line in front of the quoted article, generated from the From: line of the article. Unfortunately, the From: line doesn't always contain the right name; you should double check it against the signature and change it if necessary, or you may have to apologize for quoting the wrong person. The environment variables NEWSPOSTER, NEWSHEADER and ATTRIBUTION may be used to modify the posting behavior of trn (see environment section).

If you are starting a new subject, move to the end of the newsgroup with the `$' command before pressing `f'. Otherwise you may have to do a lot of header editing, including removing the References line -- this is IMPORTANT to remember ONLY when starting a new subject. It is much simpler to remember ``$f'' for new subjects, and to allways leave the References line alone.

C

Cancel the current article, but only if you are the contributor or superuser.

z

Supersede the current article, but only if you are the contributor.

c

Catch up in this newsgroup; i.e., mark all articles as read.

U

Mark some or all articles as unread. You can choose to mark the current thread, sub-thread (the current article and its replies), all the articles, or start up the thread selector to choose specific threads to set unread.

u

Unsubscribe from this newsgroup.

s destination

Save to a filename or pipe using sh. If the first character of the destination is a vertical bar, the rest of the command is considered a shell command to which the article is passed through standard input. The command is subject to filename expansion. (See also the environment variable PIPESAVER.) If the destination does not begin with a vertical bar, the rest of the command is assumed to be a filename of some sort. An initial tilde `~' will be translated to the name of the home directory, and an initial environment variable substitution is also allowed. If only a directory name is specified, the environment variable SAVENAME is used to generate the actual name. If a non-absolute filename is specified, the environment variable SAVEDIR will be used to generate the actual directory. If nothing is specified, then obviously both variables will be used. Since the current directory for trn while doing a save command is your private news directory, typing ``s ./filename'' will force the file to your news directory. Save commands are also run through % interpretation, so that you can enter ``s %O/filename'' to save to the directory you were in when you ran trn, and ``s %t'' to save to a filename consisting of the Internet address of the sender.

After generating the full pathname of the file to save to, trn determines if the file exists already, and if so, appends to it. trn will attempt to determine if an existing file is a mailbox or a normal file, and save the article in the same format. If the output file does not yet exist, trn will by default ask you which format you want, or you can make it skip the question with either the -M or -N switch. If the article is to be saved in mailbox format, the command to do so is generated from the environment variable MBOXSAVER. Otherwise, NORMSAVER is used.

S destination

Save to a filename or pipe using a preferred shell, such as csh. Which shell is used depends first on what you have the environment variable SHELL set to, and in the absence of that, on what your news administrator set for the preferred shell when he or she installed trn.

| command

Shorthand for ``s | command''.

w destination

The same as ``s destination'', but saves without the header.

W destination

The same as ``S destination'', but saves without the header.

e directory

Extract a shell archive or uuencoded binary to the designated directory. The article is first scanned to try discover what type of data is encapsulated. If a ``cut here'' line is found, the first non-blank line after it must be either the start of a shar header, or the ``begin'' or ``table'' line of a uuencoded binary. The default for extracting shars is to send the data portion of the file to /bin/sh, but that can be overridden with the UNSHAR variable (see the ENVIRONMENT section). Uudecoding is done internally by a decoder that can handle the data being split up over multiple articles, and extracted one piece at a time. To decode a multi-article file, either execute the `e' command in each article in sequence, use an article range to execute the command, or use the ``:e'' command to repeat the command for each of the currently selected articles. When the `e' command is not followed by any arguments, it will repeat the arguments from the last extraction. All directory specifications are relative to the value of SAVEDIR, so you can use the command ``e .'' to force an extraction to SAVEDIR itself. If a uudecoding is in progress (i.e. the last piece wasn't extracted yet) and you exit the group, the partial file will be removed. This also occurs if you start to extract a new uuencoded file before the previous one was finished. See also the `E' command for ending a multi-part uudecoding manually.

There is one special case that is handled differently: if the first file in a recognizable shar file is a uuencoded binary that was packed with lines starting with an `X', we will not unshar the file but instead uudecode it. If this causes problems, you can override the default extraction method by following the directory with an explicit command to execute, as described below.

e directory|command

This form of the `e' command allows you to extract other data formats than shar or uuencoded files or to override the decisions made by the automatic extraction selection described above. In normal operation, all data following what we recognize as a ``cut here'' line will be sent to the specified command. Additionally, the distinctive beginning of a shell archive is also recognized without a preceding cut line. When the command is run, the default directory will be set to the specified directory, or the value of SAVEDIR if unspecified. Entering the `e' command without arguments will repeat your previous extract command. You can use the command ``e dir|'' to extract to a new directory using the previously-specified command.

E

This command ends any multi-part uuencoded file extraction that you began, but are unable (or unwilling) to complete. The partially extracted file is removed.

&

Print out the current status of command line switches.

&switch {switch}

Set additional command line switches.

&&

Print out current macro definitions.

&&keys commands

Define an additional macro.

!command

Escape to a subshell. One exclamation mark (!) leaves you in your own news directory. A double exclamation mark (!!) leaves you in the spool directory of the current newsgroup. The environment variable SHELL will be used if defined. If command is null, an interactive shell is started.

You can use escape key substitutions described later to get to many run-time values. The command is also run through % interpretation, in case it is being called from a range or search command.

+

Start the thread selector. If the newsgroup is unthreaded, the subject lister is called instead.

=

List subjects of unread articles.

#

Print last article number.

Pager Level

---MORE---(17%)

and a number of commands may be given:

SP

Display next page.

x

Display next page and decrypt as a rot13 message.

d

Display half a page more.

CR

Display one more line.

q

Go to the end of the current article (don't mark it either read or unread). Leaves you at the ``What next?'' prompt.

j

Junk the current article. Mark it read and go to the end of the article.

^L

Refresh the screen.

X

Refresh the screen and decrypt as a rot13 message.

b

Back up one page.

t

Display the entire article tree, including its associated subjects, and continue reading. If the group is not currently threaded, it will be turned on and processed as needed.

gpattern

Goto (search forward for) pattern within current article. Note that there is no space between the command and the pattern. If the pattern is found, the page containing the pattern will be displayed. Where on the page the line matching the pattern goes depends on the value of the -g switch. By default the matched line goes at the top of the screen.

G

Search for g pattern again.

^G

This is a special version of the `g' command that is for skipping articles in a digest. It is equivalent to setting ``-g4'' and then executing the command ``g^Subject:''.

TAB

This is another special version of the `g' command that is for skipping inclusions of older articles. It is equivalent to setting ``-g4'' and then executing the command ``g^[^c]'', where c is the first character of the last line on the screen. It searches for the first line that doesn't begin with the same character as the last line on the screen.

!command

Escape to a subshell.

The following commands skip the rest of the current article, then behave just as if typed to the ``What next?'' prompt at the end of the article. See the documentation at the article selection level for these commands.

    # $ & / = ? c C f F k K T ^K J , m M r R ^R u U v Y ^

    p P ^P - < > [ ] { } number

    range{,range} command{:command}

The following commands also skip to the end of the article, but have the additional effect of marking the current article as read:

    n N ^N e s S | w W

Miscellaneous facts about commands

The `b' (backup page) command may be repeated until the beginning of the article is reached. If trn is suspended (via a ^Z), then when the job is resumed, a refresh (^L) will automatically be done (Berkeley-type systems only). If you type a command such as `!' or `s' which takes you from the middle of the article to the end, you can always get back into the middle by typing `^L'.

In multi-character commands such as `!', `s', `/', etc, you can interpolate various run-time values by typing escape and a character. To find out what you can interpolate, type escape and `h', or check out the single character % substitutions for environment variables in the Interpretation and Interpolation section, which are the same. Additionally, typing a double escape will cause any % substitutions in the string already typed in to be expanded.  

The Tree Display

    (1)+-(1)--(2)--[2]
       |-(1)+-[3]
       |    \-[1]
       \-(1)+-[1]--[1]
            \-[1]

This tree represents an initial article that has three direct replies (the second column with three (1)'s). Each reply has further replies branching off from them. In two cases the subject line was altered in the reply, as indicated by the increasing numbers. When there is only one subject associated with a thread, all the nodes are marked with the number 1. When the first subject change arrives, it is marked with the number 2, and so on. If you were to look at this thread in the thread selector, the three subjects associated with it would be listed in the same order as the ascending digits. In those rare cases where more than 9 subjects are associated with each thread, the nodes are marked with the letters A-Z, and then by a-z. The articles that have already been read are enclosed in ()'s. Unread articles are displayed in []'s. The currently displayed article has its entire node highlighted in the display. The previously displayed article has only its number highlighted.  

Options

-a

causes trn to always thread a group that doesn't have a pre-created thread file. Without this option you have to toggle each group with the `t' command at the newsgroup prompt to force it to be read threaded even if no thread file for the group exists.

-c

checks for news without reading news. If a list of newsgroups is given on the command line, only those newsgroups will be checked; otherwise all subscribed-to newsgroups are checked. Whenever the -c switch is specified, a non-zero exit status from trn means that there is unread news in one of the checked newsgroups. The -c switch does not disable the printing of newsgroups with unread news; this is controlled by the -s switch. (The -c switch is not meaningful when given via the & command.)

-C<number>

tells trn how often to checkpoint the .newsrc, in articles read. Actually, this number says when to start thinking about doing a checkpoint if the situation is right. If a reasonable checkpointing situation doesn't arise within 10 more articles, the .newsrc is checkpointed willy-nilly.

-d<directory name>

sets the default save directory to something other than ~/News. The directory name will be globbed (via csh) if necessary (and if possible). Articles saved by trn may be placed in the save directory or in a subdirectory thereof depending on the command that you give and the state of the environment variables SAVEDIR and SAVENAME. Any KILL files (see the K command in the Article Selection section) also reside in this directory and its subdirectories, by default. In addition, shell escapes leave you in this directory.

-D<flags>

enables debugging output. See common.h for flag values. Warning: normally trn attempts to restore your .newsrc when an unexpected signal or internal error occurs. This is disabled when any debugging flags are set.

-e

causes each page within an article to be started at the top of the screen, not just the first page. (It is similar to the -c switch of more(1).) You never have to read scrolling text with this switch. This is helpful especially at certain baud rates because you can start reading the top of the next page without waiting for the whole page to be printed. It works nicely in conjunction with the -m switch, especially if you use half-intensity for your highlight mode. See also the -L switch.

-E<name>=<val>

sets the environment variable <name> to the value specified. Within trn, ``&-ESAVENAME=%t'' is similar to ``setenv SAVENAME '%t''' in csh, or ``SAVENAME='%t'; export SAVENAME'' in sh. Any environment variables set with -E will be inherited by subprocesses of trn.

-F<string>

sets the prefix string for the `F' followup command to use in prefixing each line of the quoted article. For example, ``-F<tab>'' inserts a tab on the front of each line (which will cause long lines to wrap around, unfortunately), ``-F>>>>'' inserts ``>>>>'' on every line, and ``-F'' by itself causes nothing to be inserted, in case you want to reformat the text, for instance. The initial default prefix is ``>''.

-g<line>

tells trn which line of the screen you want searched-for strings to show up on when you search with the `g' command within an article. The lines are numbered starting with 1. The initial default is ``-g1'', meaning the first line of the screen. Setting the line to less than 1 or more than the number of lines on the screen will set it to the last line of the screen.

-h<string>

hides (disables the printing of) all header lines beginning with string. For instance, -hexp will disable the printing of the ``Expires:'' line. Case is insignificant. If <string> is null, all header lines except Subject are hidden, and you may then use +h to select those lines you want to see. You may wish to use the baud-rate switch modifier below to hide more lines at lower baud rates.

-H<string>

works just like -h except that instead of setting the hiding flag for a header line, it sets the magic flag for that header line. Certain header lines have magic behavior that can be controlled this way. At present, the following actions are caused by the flag for the particular line: the Date line prints the date in local time if the group is threaded; the From line will only print the commented portion of the user name; the Newsgroups line will only print when there are multiple newsgroups; the Subject line will be underlined and (when threaded) the keyword `Subject:' is replaced by its subject number (e.g. [1]); and the Expires line will always be suppressed if there is nothing on it. In fact, all of these actions are the default, and you must use +H to undo them.

-i=<number>

specifies how long (in lines) to consider the initial page of an article---normally this is determined automatically depending on baud rate. (Note that an entire article header will always be printed regardless of the specified initial page length. If you are working at low baud rate and wish to reduce the size of the headers, you may hide certain header lines with the bsh switch.)

-l

disables the clearing of the screen at the beginning of each article, in case you have a bizarre terminal.

-L

tells trn to leave information on the screen as long as possible by not blanking the screen between pages, and by using clear to end-of-line. (The more(1) program does this.) This feature works only if you have the requisite termcap capabilities. The switch has no effect unless the -e switch is set.

-m=<mode>

enables the marking of the last line of the previous page printed, to help the user see where to continue reading. This is most helpful when less than a full page is going to be displayed. It may also be used in conjunction with the -e switch, in which case the page is erased, and the first line (which is the last line of the previous page) is highlighted. If -m=s is specified, the standout mode will be used, but if -m=u is specified, underlining will be used. If neither =s or =u is specified, standout is the default. Use +m to disable highlighting.

-M

forces mailbox format in creating new save files. Ordinarily you are asked which format you want.

-N

forces normal (non-mailbox) format in creating new save files. Ordinarily you are asked which format you want.

-o

will act like old versions of trn and not chase xrefs when junking articles via thread commands. Using -o2 will also disable the database lookup for all article-junking commands. This slows down the junking of non-xrefed articles, but enables trn 2.0 to be run using a database from a pre-2.0 mthreads.

-q

bypasses the automatic check for new newsgroups when starting trn.

-r

causes trn to restart in the last newsgroup read during a previous session with trn. It is equivalent to starting up normally and then getting to the newsgroup with a g command.

-s

with no argument suppresses the initial listing of newsgroups with unread news, whether -c is specified or not. Thus -c and -s can be used together to test ``silently'' the status of news from within your .login file. If -s is followed by a number, the initial listing is suppressed after that many lines have been listed. Presuming that you have your .newsrc sorted into order of interest, -s5 will tell you the 5 most interesting newsgroups that have unread news. This is also a nice feature to use in your .login file, since it not only tells you whether there is unread news, but also how important the unread news is, without having to wade through the entire list of unread newsgroups. If no -s switch is given -s5 is assumed, so just putting ``rn -c'' into your .login file is fine.

-S<number>

causes trn to enter subject search mode (^N) automatically whenever an unthreaded newsgroup is started up with <number> unread articles or more. Additionally, it causes any `n' typed while in subject search mode to be interpreted as `^N' instead. (To get back out of subject search mode, the best command is probably `^'.) If <number> is omitted, 3 is assumed.

-t

puts trn into terse mode. This is more cryptic but useful for low baud rates. (Note that your system administrator may have compiled trn with either verbose or terse messages only to save memory.) You may wish to use the baud-rate switch modifier below to enable terse mode only at lower baud rates.

-T

allows you to type ahead of rn. Ordinarily rn will eat typeahead to prevent your autorepeating space bar from doing a very frustrating thing when you accidentally hold it down. If you don't have a repeating space bar, or you are working at low baud rate, you can set this switch to prevent this behavior. You may wish to use the baud-rate switch modifier below to disable typeahead only at lower baud rates.

-v

sets verification mode for commands. When set, the command being executed is displayed to give some feedback that the key has actually been typed. Useful when the system is heavily loaded and you give a command that takes a while to start up.

-x<number><list>

Enable the extended (threaded) features of trn beyond the traditional rn compatibility mode. (This may be the default on your system, use +x if you yearn for the good ol' days.) The <number> is the maximum number of article-tree lines (from 0 to 11) you want displayed in your header. Use the <list> to choose which thread selector modes you like (s - short, m - medium, or l - long), and in what order they are selected with the `L' command. For example, use -xls to start with the long display mode and only switch between it and the short mode. You can omit either or both of the parameters, in which case a default of -x6lsm is assumed.

-X<number><commands>

If you like using the thread selector, you'll probably want to use this option to make the thread selector command (+) the default when a newsgroup is started up with at least <number> unread articles. (Your installer may have chosen to make -X1 the default on your system.) It is also used to select which commands you want to be the defaults while using the thread selector. For example, -X2XD will make the thread selector the default command for entering a newsgroup with at least 2 unread articles, and set the default command for the LAST page of the thread selector to be the X command and the default command for all other pages to be the D command. Either or both parameters can be omitted, as well as the second default command (e.g. -XX would change the default newsgroup entry to use the selector and the default command for the last page of the selector to be `X'). The default is -X1Z> if just -X is specified. To set the default selector commands without affecting the default entry into a newsgroup, specify a high number, like 9999.

-/

sets SAVEDIR to ``%p/%c'' and SAVENAME to ``%a'', which means that by default articles are saved in a subdirectory of your private news directory corresponding to the name of the the current newsgroup, with the filename being the article number. +/ sets SAVEDIR to ``%p'' and SAVENAME to ``%^C'', which by default saves articles directly to your private news directory, with the filename being the name of the current newsgroup, first letter capitalized. (Either +/ or -/ may be default on your system, depending on the feelings of your news administrator when he, she or it installed trn.) You may, of course, explicitly set SAVEDIR and SAVENAME to other values---see discussion in the environment section.

Any switch may be selectively applied according to the current baud-rate. Simply prefix the switch with +speed to apply the switch at that speed or greater, and -speed to apply the switch at that speed or less. Examples: -1200-hposted suppresses the Posted line at 1200 baud or less; +9600-m enables marking at 9600 baud or more. You can apply the modifier recursively to itself also: +300-1200-t sets terse mode from 300 to 1200 baud.

Similarly, switches may be selected based on terminal type:

     -=vt100+T               set +T on vt100

       -=tvi920-ETERM=mytvi    get a special termcap entry

       -=tvi920-ERNMACRO=%./.rnmac.tvi

                               set up special keymappings

       +=paper-v               set verify mode if not hardcopy

Some switch arguments, such as environment variable values, may require spaces in them. Such spaces should be quoted via ", ', or \ in the conventional fashion, even when passed via TRNINIT or the & command.  

Regular Expressions

Interpretation and Interpolation

All interpreted strings go through backslash, uparrow and percent interpretation. The backslash escapes are the normal ones (such as \n, \t, \nnn, etc.). The uparrow escapes indicate control codes in the normal fashion. Backslashes or uparrows to be passed through should be escaped with backslash. The special percent escapes are similar to printf percent escapes. These cause the substitution of various run-time values into the string. The following are currently recognized:

%a

Current article number.

%A

Full name of current article (%P/%c/%a).

%b

Destination of last save command, often a mailbox.

%B

The byte offset to the beginning of the part of the article to be saved, set by the save command. The `s' and `S' commands set it to 0, and the `w' and `W' commands set it to the byte offset of the body of the article.

%c

Current newsgroup, directory form.

%C

Current newsgroup, dot form.

%d

Full name of newsgroup directory (%P/%c).

%D

``Distribution:'' line from the current article.

%e

The last command executed to extract data from an article.

%E

The last directory where an extracted file went.

%f

``From:'' line from the current article, or the ``Reply-To:'' line if there is one. This differs from %t in that comments (such as the full name) are not stripped out with %f.

%F

``Newsgroups:'' line for a new article, constructed from ``Newsgroups:'' and ``Followup-To:'' lines of current article.

%h

Name of the header file to pass to the mail or news poster, containing all the information that the poster program needs in the form of a message header. It may also contain a copy of the current article. The format of the header file is controlled by the MAILHEADER and NEWSHEADER environment variables.

%H

Host name (your machine's name).

%i

``Message-I.D.:'' line from the current article, with <> guaranteed.

%I

The reference indication mark (see the -F switch.)

%l

The news administrator's login name, if any.

%L

Login name (yours).

%m

The current mode of trn, for use in conditional macros.

        i       Initializing.
        n       Newsgroup selection level.
        t       Thread selection level.
        a       Article selection level (What next?).
        p       Pager level (MORE prompt).
        u       Set unread? prompt.
        A       Add this newsgroup?
        B       aBandon confirmation.
        C       Catchup confirmation.
        D       Delete bogus newsgroups?
        F       Is followup a new topic?
        M       Use mailbox format?
        R       Resubscribe to this newsgroup?

Note that yes/no questions are all upper-case modes. If, for example, you wanted to disallow defaults on all yes/no questions, you could define the following macro:

\040    %(%m=[A-Z]?h: )

%M

The number of articles marked to return via the `M' command. If the same article is Marked multiple times, ``%M'' counts it multiple times in the current implementation.

%n

``Newsgroups:'' line from the current article.

%N

Full name (yours).

%o

Organization (yours).

%O

Original working directory (where you ran rn from).

%p

Your private news directory, normally ~/News.

%P

Public news spool directory, normally /usr/spool/news on systems that don't use NNTP.

%r

Last reference on references line of current article (parent article id).

%R

References list for a new article, constructed from the references and article ID of the current article.

%s

Subject, with all Re's and (nf)'s stripped off.

%S

Subject, with one ``Re:'' stripped off.

%t

``To:'' line derived from the ``From:'' and ``Reply-To:'' lines of the current article. This always returns an Internet format address.

%T

``To:'' line derived from the ``Path:'' line of the current article to produce a uucp path.

%u

The number of unread articles in the current newsgroup.

%U

The number of unread articles in the current newsgroup, not counting the the current article. When threads are selected, this count reflects only selected articles.

%v

The number of unselected articles, not counting the current article if it is unselected.

%w

The directory where mthreads keeps its tmp files.

%W

The directory where thread files are placed.

%x

The news library directory.

%X

The rn library directory.

%z

The length of the current article in bytes.

%Z

The number of selected threads.

%~

Your home directory.

%.

The directory containing your dot files, which is your home directory unless the environment variable DOTDIR is defined when rn is invoked.

%#

The current count for a multi-file save, starting with 1. This value is incremented by one for each file saved or extracted within a single command.

%$

Current process number.

%/

Last search string.

%%

A percent sign.

%{name} or %{name-default}

The environment variable ``name''.

%[name]

The value of header line ``Name:'' from the current article. The ``Name: '' is not included. For example ``%D'' and ``%[distribution]'' are equivalent. The name must be spelled out in full.

%`command`

Inserts the output of the command, with any embedded newlines translated to space.

%prompt

Prints prompt on the terminal, then inputs one string, and inserts it.

%(test_text=pattern?then_text:else_text)

If test_text matches pattern, has the value then_text, otherwise else_text. The ``:else_text'' is optional, and if absent, interpolates the null string. The = may be replaced with != to negate the test. To quote any of the metacharacters (`=', `?', `:', or `)'), precede with a backslash.

%digit

The digits 1 through 9 interpolate the string matched by the nth bracket in the last pattern match that had brackets. If the last pattern had alternatives, you may not know the number of the bracket you want---%0 will give you the last bracket matched.

Modifiers: to capitalize the first letter, insert `^': ``%^C'' produces something like ``Net.jokes''. Inserting `_' causes the first letter following the last `/' to be capitalized: ``%_c'' produces ``net/Jokes''.

Inserting `\' will insert a backslash before any characters that would be magic in a regular expression: "%\C'' produces ``net\.jokes''. This is called regexp quoting.  

ENVIRONMENT

Those variables marked (%) are subject to % interpolation, and those marked (~) are subject to both % interpolation and ~ interpretation.

ATTRIBUTION (%)

Gives the format of the attribution line in front of the quoted article included by an F command.

Default: In article %i %f writes:

AUTOSUBSCRIBE

When trn is checking for new newsgroups and finds one matching one of the patterns in AUTOSUBSCRIBE, the new group is automatically added to the end of the .newsrc, subscribed. Newsgroups not matching this or AUTOUNSUBSCRIBE, below, are offered to the user.

AUTOSUBSCRIBE is a comma separated list of newsgroup patterns ala `o', `/', etc. It can also include ``but not'' entries preceded by `!'. ``a,b,!c,d'' is read as ``matching a or b, unless it also matches c; matching d regardless''. Another way to look at it is ``(((a or b) and not c) or d)''. To automatically subscribe to all local groups but be choosy about non-local groups, one might say ``*,!*.*''.

Default: (none)

AUTOUNSUBSCRIBE

AUTOUNSUBSCRIBE is very similar to AUTOSUBSCRIBE, above, but new newsgroups matching it are automatically added to the end of the .newsrc file, unsubscribed. If a newsgroup matches AUTOSUBSCRIBE, AUTOUNSUBSCRIBE is not consulted.

Default: (none)

CANCEL (~)

The shell command used to cancel an article.

Default: inews -h < %h

CANCELHEADER (%)

The format of the file to pass to the CANCEL command in order to cancel an article.

Default:
Newsgroups: %n
Subject: cmsg cancel %i
References: %R
Reply-To: %L@%H (%N)
Distribution: %D
Organization: %o

%i cancelled from rn.

DOTDIR

Where to find your dot files, if they aren't in your home directory. Can be interpolated using ``%.''.

Default: $HOME

EDITOR (~)

The name of your editor, if VISUAL is undefined.

Default: whatever your news administrator compiled in, usually vi.

EXSAVER (%)

The shell command to execute in order to extract data to either /bin/sh or a user-specified command.

Default: tail +%Bc %A | %e

EDITOR (~)

The name of your editor, if VISUAL is undefined.

Default: whatever your news administrator compiled in, usually vi.

FIRSTLINE (%)

Controls the format of the line displayed at the top of an article. Warning: this may go away.

The default in an unthreaded group is approximately:

Article %a %(%U%M!=^00$?(%U more%(%M!=^0$? + %M Marked to return)\) )in %C:

While the default in a threaded group is almost:

%C #%a%(%Z=^0$?%(%U!=^0$? (%U more\)): (%U + %v more\))

HIDELINE

If defined, contains a regular expression which matches article lines to be hidden, in order, for instance, to suppress quoted material. A recommended string for this purpose is ``^>...'', which doesn't hide lines with only `>', to give some indication that quoted material is being skipped. If you want to hide more than one pattern, you can use ``|'' to separate the alternatives. You can view the hidden lines by restarting the article with the `v' command.

There is some overhead involved in matching each line of the article against a regular expression. You might wish to use a baud-rate modifier to enable this feature only at low baud rates.

Default: undefined

HOME

Your home directory. Affects ~ interpretation, and the location of your dot files if DOTDIR is not defined.

Default: $LOGDIR

KILLGLOBAL (~)

Where to find the KILL file to apply to every newsgroup. See the `^K' command at the newsgroup selection level.

Default: %p/KILL

KILLLOCAL (~)

Where to find the KILL file for the current newsgroup. See the commands `K' and `^K' at the article selection level, and the search modifier `K'.

Default: %p/%c/KILL

LOGDIR

Your home directory if HOME is undefined. Affects ~ interpretation, and the location of your dot files if DOTDIR is not defined.

Default: none.

Explanation: you must have either $HOME or $LOGDIR.

LOGNAME

Your login name, if USER is undefined. May be interpolated using ``%L''.

Default: value of getlogin().

LOCALTIMEFMT

The format used by strftime() to print the local time. The Date line is only displayed in local time if the group is threaded (see the -H option for more information on Date).

Default: %a %b %e %X %Z %Y

which is the same format as the date(1) command.

MAILCALL (~)

What to say when there is new mail.

Default: (Mail)

MAILFILE (~)

Where to check for mail.

Default: /usr/spool/mail/%L

MAILHEADER (%)

The format of the header file for replies. See also MAILPOSTER.

Default:

To: %T
Subject: %(%i=^$?:Re: %S
Newsgroups: %n
In-Reply-To: %i)
%(%[references]!=^$?References\: %[references]
)Organization: %o
Cc:
Bcc: \n\n

MAILPOSTER (~)

The shell command to be used by the reply commands (r and R) in order to allow you to enter and deliver the response. trn will not itself call upon an editor for replies---this is a function of the program called by trn. See also MAILHEADER.

Default: Rnmail -h %h

MBOXSAVER (~)

The shell command to save an article in mailbox format.

Default: %X/mbox.saver %A %P %c %a %B %C "%b" \
"From: %T %`date`"

Explanation: the first seven arguments are the same as for NORMSAVER. The eighth argument to the shell script is the new From: line for the article, including the posting date, derived either directly from the Posted: line, or not-so-directly from the Date: line. Header munging at its finest.

MODSTRING

The string to insert in the group summary line, which heads each article, for a moderated group. See also NOPOSTRING.

Default: " (moderated)"

NAME

Your full name. May be interpolated using ``%N''.

Default: name from /etc/passwd, or ~/.fullname.

NEWSHEADER (%)

The format of the header file for followups. See also NEWSPOSTER.

Default:

Newsgroups: %(%F=^$?%C:%F)
Subject: %(%S=^$?%"\n\nSubject: ":Re: %S)
Summary:
Expires:
%(%R=^$?:References: %R
)Sender:
Reply-To: %L@%H (%N)
Followup-To:
Distribution: %(%i=^$?%"\nDistribution: ":%D)
Organization: %o
Keywords: \n\n

NEWSORG

Either the name of your organization, or the name of a file containing the name of your organization. (For use at sites where the ORGANIZATION environmental variable is already in use. NEWSORG will override ORGANIZATION if both are present.) May be interpolated using ``%o''.

Default: whatever your news administrator compiled in.

NEWSPOSTER (~)

The shell command to be used by the followup commands (f and F) in order to allow you to enter and post a followup news article. trn will not itself call upon an editor for followups---this is a function of the program called by trn. See also NEWSHEADER.

Default: Pnews -h %h

NEWSRC

Your newsgroup subscription list.

Default: $HOME/.newsrc

NNTPSERVER

The hostname of your NNTPSERVER. [This does not apply unless you are running the NNTP version of rn.]

Default: the hostname listed in the server file, usually /usr/local/lib/rn/server.

NOPOSTRING

The string to insert in the group summary line, which heads each article, for a group to which local posting is not allowed. See also MODSTRING.

Default: " (no posting)"

NORMSAVER (~)

The shell command to save an article in the normal (non-mailbox) format.

Default: %X/norm.saver %A %P %c %a %B %C "%b"

ORGANIZATION

Either the name of your organization, or the name of a file containing the name of your organization. (If NEWSORG is set, it will override ORGANIZATION.) May be interpolated using ``%o''.

Default: whatever your news administrator compiled in.

PAGESTOP

If defined, contains a regular expression which matches article lines to be treated as form-feeds. There are at least two things you might want to do with this. To cause page breaks between articles in a digest, you might define it as ``^--------''. To force a page break before a signature, you could define it as ``^-- $''. (Then, when you see ``--'' at the bottom of the page, you can skip the signature if you so desire by typing `n' instead of space.) To do both, you could use ``^--''. If you want to break on more than one pattern, you can use ``|'' to separate the alternatives.

There is some overhead involved in matching each line of the article against a regular expression. You might wish to use a baud-rate modifier to enable this feature only at low baud rates.

Default: undefined

PIPESAVER (%)

The shell command to execute in order to accomplish a save to a pipe (``s | command'' or ``w | command''). The command typed by the user is substituted in as %b.

Default: %(%B=^0$?<%A:tail +%Bc %A |) %b

Explanation: if %B is 0, the command is ``<%A %b'', otherwise the command is ``tail +%Bc %A | %b''.

REPLYTO

The value of the ``Reply-To:'' header, if needed.

RNINIT

Default values for switches may be passed to trn by placing them in either RNINIT or TRNINIT. RNINIT is used when in rn-compatibility mode or if TRNINIT isn't found. Any switch that is set in this way may be overruled on the command line, or via the `&' command from within trn. Binary-valued switches that are set with ``-switch'' may be unset using ``+switch''.

If RNINIT begins with a `/' it is assumed to be the name of a file containing switches. If you want to set many environment variables but don't want to keep them all in your environment, or if the use of any of these variables conflicts with other programs, you can use this feature along with the -E switch to set the environment variables upon startup.

Default: `` ''.

RNMACRO (~)

The name of the file containing macros and key mappings. See the MACROS section.

Default: %./.rnmac

SAVEDIR (~)

The name of the directory to save to, if the save command does not specify a directory name.

Default:

   If -/ is set: %p/%c

   If +/ is set: %p

SAVENAME (%)

The name of the file to save to, if the save command contains only a directory name.

Default:

   If -/ is set: %a

   If +/ is set: %^C

SELECTCHARS

The characters used by the thread selector to select the associated thread of discussion. You can specify up to 64 visible characters, including upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and many punctuation characters. Selection characters override command characters in the selector, but are not excluded from macro expansion, so be careful.
Default: abcdefgijlorstuvwxz1234567890
(h, k, n, p, q, and y are omitted to allow them to be typed as commands).

SHELL

The name of your preferred shell. It will be used by the `!', `S' and `W' commands.

Default: whatever your news administrator compiled in.

SUBJLINE (%)

Controls the format of the lines displayed by the `=' command at the article selection level.

Default: %s

SUPERSEDEHEADER (%)

The format of the header file for a supersede article.

Default:

From: %L@%H (%N)
Newsgroups: %n
Subject: %S
Distribution: %D
Organization: %o
Supersedes: %i

TERM

Determines which termcap entry to use, unless TERMCAP contains the entry.

TERMCAP

Holds either the name of your termcap file, or a termcap entry.

Default: /etc/termcap, normally.

TRNINIT

Trn's version of the RNINIT environment variable. See RNINIT for a description.

UNSHAR (~)

The shell command to execute in order to accomplish the unshar'ing of a shell archive.

Default: /bin/sh

USER

Your login name. May be interpolated using ``%L''.

Default: $LOGNAME

VISUAL (~)

The name of your editor.

Default: $EDITOR

YOUSAID (%)

Gives the format of the attribution line in front of the quoted article included by an R command.

Default: In article %i you write:

MACROS

^J   \040

^M     \040

\040   ^J

will do just that. By default, all characters in the command field are interpreted as the canonical trn characters, i.e. no macro expansion is done. Otherwise the above pair of macros would cause an infinite loop. To force macro expansion in the command field, enclose the macro call with ^( ... ^) thusly:

@s   |mysavescript

@w     w^(@s^)

You can use the %() conditional construct to construct macros that work differently under different circumstances. In particular, the current mode (%m) of trn could be used to make a command that only works at a particular level. This is particularly vital for the thread selector, which uses most of the lower-case letters to select the associated thread of discussion. For example,

a    %(%m=t?a:s art.hold\n)

will return the original letter (a) in the thread selector, and the command ``s art.hold\n'' everywhere else.

%(%{TERM}=vt100?^[[O)        /^J

will do the binding only if the terminal type is vt100, though if you have many of these it would be better to have separate files for each terminal.

If you want to bind a macro to a function key that puts a common garbage character after the sequence (such as the carriage return on the end of Televideo 920 function sequences), DO NOT put the carriage return into all the sequences or you will waste a CONSIDERABLE amount of internal storage. Instead of ``^AF^M'', put ``^AF+1'', which indicates to trn that it should gobble up one character after the F.  

WHAT'S NEW?

One of the biggest improvements is the Thread Selector, which is bound to the `+' key. The selector displays a list of subject threads and (by default) authors to allow you to select the topics that interest you by typing their associated letter. The thread selector can also be used to browse articles that have already been read, to selectively re-read discussions (use the `U' command).

Another big improvement is the thread-ordered display of articles. While reading each topic, trn displays each article and its replies in the order of their parent/child relationship. This lets you follow the flow of the discussion better, instead of jumping around from idea to idea or even reading a reply before the original article.

Along this same line is the addition of the article-tree display in the upper-right corner of the header. Glancing at the tree gives you a better feel for how the articles you are reading relate to each other.

The header has also been modified to hide a few more header-lines by default (e.g. References), but, as always, you can override these with -h. There is also some new ``magic'' in the header: the From header is trimmed to be just the comment portion (if available), and the Date header is displayed in local time (in threaded groups). Override these defaults with +H.

Once you begin reading articles, use the regular movement commands (n, N, p, P, etc.) as you normally would. Then, check out the [, ], {, and } commands to move around in the article tree a bit more directly. For example, the `[' command takes you to your parent article, even if it was already read, which is very useful for tracking down the cited portion of the article in its original context.

There are additional kill commands for the entire thread (J) and the current article and all its replies (,). The KILL files have been extended to allow killing by thread (T), which will kill a topic even if people fine-tune the subject along the way.

There is also an easy way to skip around among the various threads with the < and > commands.

Note: your news administrator has the option of turning thread processing off for individual groups, and thus it is possible for some groups to not have any pre-processed thread information available for use. When trn encounters such a group, it generates the thread information on the fly while entering the group. For really large groups (or really slow systems), this can take an appreciable amount of time. If you can't talk your news administrator into pre-threading the group, you can turn off the thread database on a group-by-group basis using the `t' command at the newsgroup selection level. Groups turned off in this way are read in the traditional rn fashion---articles arranged in arrival order with optional subject searching and no thread selector.

There is a new command, ``e dir'', that extracts a shell archive or uuencoded file into the specified directory. It is even possible to extract other data formats if you specify the appropriate filter command (e.g. ``e dir|cmd''.

Also, if you plan to use macro definitions, it is good to keep in mind that the thread selector uses most of the lower-case letters for thread selection, and thus it is a good idea to explicitly set the mode(s) in which a macro applies. For example, if you want to press 'f' from the article pager/selector to forward the current article to the user ``smith'', you could define:

        f       %(%m=[pa]?|mail smith\n:f)

This checks the current mode (%m) and if it is `p' or `a' it expands it to the string ``|mail smith\n'', otherwise it returns the letter `f'. In some cases, you may simply wish to exclude the thread selector from a macro with the conditional ``%m!=t''.

Finally, you'll probably want to use the new options, -x and -X to ensure that all the newest features are available for use. These options might be on by default, depending on how your administrator decided to install trn.  

AUTHORS

FILES

%./.newsrc

status of your news reading

%./.oldnewsrc

backup copy of your .newsrc from start of session

%./.rnlock

lock file so you don't screw up your .newsrc

%./.rnlast

info from last run of rn

%./.rnsoft

soft pointers into /usr/lib/news/active to speed startup, synchronous with .newsrc

%./.rnhead

temporary header file to pass to a mailer or news poster

%./.rnmac

macro and keymap definitions

%p

your news save directory, usually ~/News

%x/active

the list of active newsgroups, usually /usr/lib/news/active on systems that don't use NNTP

%P

the public news spool directory, usually /usr/spool/news on systems that don't use NNTP

%X/INIT

system-wide default switches

SEE ALSO

DIAGNOSTICS

BUGS

The `-' command doesn't cross newsgroup boundaries, and only undoes the last article selection.

If you edit your .newsrc while trn is running, trn will happily wipe out your changes when it decides to write out the .newsrc file.

Marking of duplicate articles as read in cross-referenced newsgroups will not work unless the Xref patch is installed in inews.

If you get carried away with % or escape substitutions, you can overflow buffers.

There should be no fixed limit on the number of newsgroups.

Some of the more esoteric features may be missing on machines with limited address space.

Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

Starting Trn

Newsgroup Selection Level

Thread Selection Level

Article Selection Level

Pager Level

Miscellaneous facts about commands

The Tree Display

Options

Regular Expressions

Interpretation and Interpolation

ENVIRONMENT

MACROS

WHAT'S NEW?

AUTHORS

FILES

SEE ALSO

DIAGNOSTICS

BUGS