TIN

Section: LOCAL (1)
Updated: Version 1.1 PL3
Index Return to Main Contents
 

NAME

tin, rtin, tind - A threaded Netnews reader  

SYNOPSIS

tin/rtin/cdtin/tind [options] [newsgroups]  

DESCRIPTION

Tin is a full-screen threaded Netnews reader. It can read news locally (ie. /usr/spool/news) or remotely (rtin or tin -r option) via a NNTP (Network News Transport Protocol) server. A special version of tin called cdtin can also read locally active news and news archived on CD-ROM.

Tin has four newsreading levels: the newsgroup selection page, the group index page, the thread listing page and the article viewer. Use the 'h' (help) command to view a list of the commands available at a particular level.

On startup Tin will show a list of the newsgroups found in $HOME/.newsrc. An arrow '->' or highlighted bar will point to the first newsgroup. Move to a group by using the terminal arrow keys (ansi/at386/vt100 only) or 'j' and 'k'. Use PgUp/PgDn (ansi/at386/vt100 only) or Ctrl-U and Ctrl-D to page up/down. Enter a newsgroup by pressing RETURN.

The TAB key may be used to advance to the next newsgroup with unread articles and enter it.  

OPTIONS

-c
create/update index files for every group in $HOME/.newsrc or file specified by -f option and mark all articles as read.
-f file
use the specified file of subscribed to newsgroups in place of $HOME/.newsrc.
-h
help listing all command line options.
-H
brief introduction to tin that is also shown the first time it is started.
-I dir
directory to store newsgroup index files. Default is $HOME/.tin/.index.
-m dir
mailbox directory to use. Default is $HOME/Mail.
-M user
mail unread articles to specified user for later reading. For more information read section Automatic Mailing and Saving New News.
-n
notify the user of any newly created newsgroups since the last session.
-p file
print program with options..
-r
read news remotely from the default NNTP server specified in the environment variable NNTPSERVER or contained in the file /etc/nntpserver.
-R
read news saved by -S option (not yet implemented).
-s dir
save articles to directory. Default is $HOME/News.
-S
save unread articles for later reading by -R option. For more information read section Automatic Mailing and Saving New News.
-u
create/update index files for every group in $HOME/.newsrc or file specified by -f option. This option does not work if tin retrieves its index files via a NNTP server.
-U
start tin in the background to update index files while reading news in the foreground. This option does not work if tin retrieves its index files via a NNTP server.
-v
verbose mode for -c -M -S -u and -Z options.
-z
only start tin if there is any new/unread news. If there is news tin will position cursor at first group with unread news. Useful for putting in login file.
-Z
check if there is any new/unread news and exit with appropiate status. If -v option is specified the number of unread articles in each group is printed. An exit code 0 indicates no news, 1 that an error occurred and 2 that new/unread news exists. Useful for writing scripts.

Tin can also dynamically change its options by the 'M' menu command. Any changes are written to $HOME/.tin/tinrc.

The index daemon version Tind only supports the -f, -h and -v options.  

INDEX FILES

In order to keep track of threads, Tin maintains an index for each newsgroup. There are a number of methods in which index files can be created and updated.

The simplest method is that each user creates/updates there own index files that are stored in $HOME/.tin/.index. This has the advantage that any user can compile and install tin, but the disadvantage is that each user is going to be creating duplicate files and using precious disk space. A good way to keep index files updated is to start tin with the -U option that will update index files in the background while you are reading news in the foreground. You can also update index files via the system batcher cron with the -u option:

30 6 * * * /usr/local/bin/tin -u

A slightly better method is to set tin setuid news and have all index files created and updated in the news spool directory (ie. /usr/spool/news/.index). This has the advantage that there will only be one copy of the index files on each machine on your network, but the disadvantage is that you will have tin running setuid news and killing articles will change the central index file for a group for all users (Needs fixing!).

A better method is to install the tind index file updating daemon and have it create and update index files for all groups in your active file at regular intervals in the news spool directory (ie. /usr/spool/news/.index). This has the advantage that there will only be one copy of the index files on each machine on your network and tin must not be setuid news, but the disadvantage is that you will have to have news permissions to install tind and root permissions to install an entry in the cron batcher system to have tind regularly update index files.

The best method is to install the tind index file updating daemon on your NNTP server and have it create and update index files for all groups in your active file at regular intervals in the news spool directory (ie. /usr/spool/news/.index). This has the advantage that there will only be one copy of the index files on the NNTP server for the whole of your network and tin clients must not be setuid news, but the disadvantage is that you will have to install my NNTP server patches to allow tin to retreive index file from your NNTP server and and you must install an entry in the cron batcher system to have tind regularly update index files (Note that this is the method we use on our network of 40-50 machines and have not had any problems).

Entering a group the first time tends to be slow because the index file must be built from scratch unless the tind update daemon is being used. Subsequent readings of a group will cause incremental updating of the index file.

If reading news remotely and locally updating index files operation will be somewhat slower because the articles must be retrieved from the NNTP server.  

NEWS ADMINISTRATION

Maintaining Netnews on large networks of machines can be a pretty time consuming job as I recently discovered when I was given the job of maintaining our news system and news users.

Tin is a News User Agent and so most of the users were always asking questions or doing things that could be frowned upon by there departments. To relieve news admins (and especially me) of this features have been added to Tin to make life easier.

If my NNTP XUSER patch has been applied to your NNTP server you will be able to log the username and machine to your NNTP logfile for usage statistics.

A user starting tin for the first time can be automatically subscribed to a list of newsgroups that are deemed appropiate by the news administrator. At our site the subscriptions file has 125 groups (our active file conatains over 400 groups with many only being marginally interesting to most people). The subscriptions file should be created in your news lib directory (ie. /usr/lib/news/subscriptions) and should have file permissions set to 0644. If reading news via NNTP my NNTP LIST SUBSCRIPTIONS patch will have to have been applied to your NNTP server.  

SCREEN FORMAT

Tin has five separate levels of operation: Group selection level, Spooldir selection level, Group level, Thread level and Article level.

At the Group Selection level the title displays the number of subscribed groups. The newsgroups are displayed on the left of the screen with the number of unread articles displayed on the same line in the middle of the screen.

<Selection Num> <Newsgroup> <Num of unread articles>

i.e., 1 alt.sources 10 2 comp.sources.misc 3 3 news.software.readers 12

At the Group level the title contains the name of the group, the number of conversation threads and total number of articles i.e., alt.sources (7 23). If the group has been setup not to thread articles (i.e., alt.sources is in $(HOME)/.tin/unthread) the title will be alt.sources (U 23). There are two possible display formats as shown below:

<Selection Num> <Unread> <Responses> <Subject> <Author>

i.e., 1 + 3 Bnews sources? iain@estevax.uucp 2 1 This question has ether@net
or <Selection Num> <Unread> <Responses> <Subject (longer)>
i.e., 1 + 3 Bnews sources? 2 1 This question has a longer subject line

At the Article level the page header has the following format:

<Date posted> <Newsgroup>    <Thread 1 of n>
<Article Num> <Subject>      <Num of responses in thread>
<Author>                     <Organization>

<Article body>

i.e., 24 Jul 15:20:03 GMT alt.sources Thread 1 of 2 Article 452 Bnews sources? 3 responses iain@anl433.uucp Organization name <Article boby>
 

COMMON MOVING KEYS

This table shows the common keys/commands for moving at all three levels within Tin.
                           ansi/at386/vt100  Other Terminals
Beginning of list/article  Home              1 (^R or g at article level)
End of list/article        End               $ (also G at article level)
Page Up                    PgUp              ^U or b 
Page Down                  PgDn              ^D or <SPACE>
Line Up                    Up arrow          k (not at article level)
Line Down                  Down arrow        j (not at article level)
 

COMMON EDITING COMMANDS

An emacs style editing package allows the easy editing of input strings. An history list allows the easy re-use of previously entered strings. The following commands are available when editing a string:

^A,^E
move to beginnning or end of line, respectively.
^F,^B
nondestructive move forward or back one location, respectively.
^D
delete the character currently under the cursor, or send EOF if no characters in the buffer.
^H,<DEL>
delete character left of the cursor.
^K
delete from cursor to end of line.
^P,^N
move through history, previous and next, respectively.
^L,^R
redraw the current line.
<CR>
places line on history list if nonblank, appends newline and returns to the caller.
<ESC>
aborts the present editing operation.
 

NEWSGROUP SELECTION COMMANDS

4
Select group 4.
^K
Delete current group from $HOME/.newsrc file.
^L
Redraw page.
^R
Reset $HOME/.newsrc file.
<CR>
Read current group.
<TAB>
View next unread group.
B
Mail a bug report or comment to the author. This is the best way of getting bugs fixed and features added/changed.
c
Mark current group as all read with confirmation and goto next group in group selection list.
C
Mark current group as all read and goto next unread group in group selection list.
g
Choose a new group by name. The position of the group within the group list will also be asked for. By entering '1' the new group will be the first group in the displayed list, by entering '8' the group will be the eighth group in the list etc. By entering '$' the group will be the last group displayed.
h
help screen of newsgroup selection commands.
I
Toggle inverse video.
l
List and allow selection of the available spool directories. This feature requires a special library to be linked with tin to create cdtin which can then read news from an active news feed and also from multiple CD-ROMs.
m
Move the current group within the group selection list. By entering '1' the group will become the first displayed group in the list, by entering '8' the eighth group in the list etc. By entering '$' the group will be the last group displayed.
M
User configurable options menu (for more information see section Options Menu).
q
Quit tin.
Q
Quit tin.
s
Subscribe to current group.
S
Subscribe to groups matching user specified pattern.
u
Unsubscribe to current group.
U
Unsubscribe to groups matching user specified pattern.
v
Print tin version information.
w
Post an article to current group.
W
List articles posted by user. The date posted, the newsgroup and the subject are listed.
y
The first time this command is called it will yank in all groups from $LIBDIR/active that are not in $HOME/.newsrc. After any groups have been subscribed/unsubscribed to, this command if pressed again will reread $HOME/.newsrc and display only the subscribed groups.
Y
Reread the active file to see if any new news has arrived since starting tin.
z
Mark all articles in the current group as unread.
Z
Undelete previously deleted group by ^K command from $HOME/.newsrc.
/
Group forward search.
?
Group backward search.
 

SPOOL DIRECTORY SELECTION COMMANDS

4
Select spool directory 4.
^L
Redraw page.
<CR>
Read news from selected spool directory.
B
Mail a bug report or comment to the author. This is the best way of getting bugs fixed and features added/changed.
h
help screen of spool directory selection commands.
I
Toggle inverse video. q Return to previous level.
Q
Quit tin.
v
Print tin version information.
 

GROUP INDEX COMMANDS

4
Select article 4.
^K
Kill current article (for more information read section Kill Article Menu).
^L
Redraw page.
<CR>
Read current article.
<TAB>
View next unread article or group.
a
Author forward search.
A
Author backward search.
B
Mail a bug report or comment to the author. This is the best way of getting bugs fixed and features added/changed.
c
Mark all articles as read with confirmation.
C
Cancel current article. It must have been posted by the same user. The cancel message can be seen in the newsgroup 'control'.
d
Toggle display to show just the subject or the subject and author.
g
Choose a new group by name.
h
help screen of group index commands.
I
Toggle inverse video.
K
Mark article/thread as read and advance to next unread article/thread.
l
List the author of each response in current thread and enter thread selection level.
m
Mail current article / thread / auto selected (hot) articles / articles matching pattern / tagged articles to someone.
M
User configurable options menu (for more information see section Options Menu).
n
Go to next group.
N
Go to next unread article.
o
Output current article / thread / auto selected (hot) articles / articles matching pattern / tagged articles to printer.
p
Go to previous group.
P
Go to previous unread article.
q
Return to previous level.
Q
Quit tin.
s
Save current article / thread / auto selected (hot) articles / articles matching pattern / tagged articles to file / files / mailbox. To save to a mailbox enter '=' or '=mailbox' when asked for filename to save to. To save in <newsgroup name>/<filename> format enter '+filename'. Environment variables are allowed within a filename (ie. $SOURCES/dir/filename).
T
Tag current article for mailing ('m') / piping ('|') / printing ('o') / saving ('s') / crossposting ('x').
u
Toggle display to show all articles as unthreaded or threaded.
U
Untag all articles that were tagged.
v
Print tin version information.
w
Post an article to current group.
W
List articles posted by user. The date posted, the newsgroup and the subject are listed.
x
Crosspost already posted current article / thread / auto selected (hot) articles / articles matching pattern / tagged articles to another newsgroup(s). Useful for reposting from global to local newsgroups.
z
Mark current article as unread.
Z
Mark current thread as unread.
/
Search forward for specified subject.
?
Search backward for specified subject.
-
Show last message.
|
Pipe current article / thread / auto selected (hot) articles / articles matching pattern / tagged articles into command.
 

THREAD LISTING COMMANDS

4
Select article 4 within thread.
^L
Redraw page.
<CR>
Read current article within thread.
<TAB>
View next unread article within thread.
B
Mail a bug report or comment to the author. This is the best way of getting bugs fixed and features added/changed.
c
Mark thread as read after confirmation and return to previous level.
d
Toggle display to show just the subject or the subject and author.
h
help screen of thread listing commands.
I
Toggle inverse video.
K
Mark thread as read and return to previous level.
q
Return to previous level.
Q
Quit tin.
r
Toggle display to show all articles or only unread articles.
t
Return to group index level.
T
Tag current article for mailing ('m') / piping ('|') / printing ('o') / saving ('s') / crossposting ('x').
v
Print tin version information.
z
Mark current article in thread as unread.
Z
Mark all articles in thread as unread.
 

ARTICLE VIEWER COMMANDS

0
Read the base article in this thread.
4
Read response 4 in this thread.
^H
Show all of the articles mail header.
^K
Kill current article (for more information read section Kill Article Menu).
^L
Redraw page.
<CR>
Goto next base article.
<TAB>
Goto next unread article.
a
Author forward search.
A
Author backward search.
B
Mail a bug report or comment to the author. This is the best way of getting bugs fixed and features added/changed.
c
Mark all articles as read with confirmation.
d
Toggle rot-13 decoding for this article.
f
Post a followup to current article.
F
Post a followup with a copy of the current article included.
h
Help screen of article page commands.
I
Toggle inverse video.
k
Mark article as read and advance to next unread article.
K
Mark thread as read and advance to next unread thread.
m
Mail current article / thread / auto selected (hot) articles / articles matching pattern / tagged articles to someone.
M
User configurable options menu (for more information see section Options Menu).
n
Go to the next article.
N
Go to the next unread article.
o
Output current article / thread / auto selected (hot) articles / articles matching pattern / tagged articles to printer.
o
Output article/thread/tagged articles to printer.
p
Go to the previous article.
P
Go to the previous unread article.
q
Return to previous level.
Q
Quit tin.
r
Reply through mail to author.
R
Reply through mail to author with a copy of the current article included.
s
Save current article / thread / auto selected (hot) articles / articles matching pattern / tagged articles to file / files / mailbox. To save to a mailbox enter '=' or '=mailbox' when asked for filename to save to. To save in <newsgroup name>/<filename> format enter (ie. $SOURCES/dir/filename).
t
Return to group selection level.
T
Tag current article for mailing ('m') / piping ('|') / printing ('o') / saving ('s') / crossposting ('x').
v
Print tin version information.
w
Post an article to current group.
W
List articles posted by user. The date posted, the newsgroup and the subject are listed.
x
Crosspost already posted current article / thread / auto selected (hot) articles / articles matching pattern / tagged articles to another newsgroup(s). Useful for reposting from global to local newsgroups.
z
Mark article as unread.
/
Article forward search.
?
Article backward search
|
Pipe current article / thread / auto selected (hot) articles / articles matching pattern / tagged articles into command.
<
Goto the first article in the current thread.
>
Goto the last article in the current thread.
 

OPTIONS MENU

This menu is accessed by pressing 'M' at all levels. It allows the user to customize the behaviour of tin. The options are saved to the file $HOME/.tin/tinrc. Use <SPACE> to toggle the required option and <CR> to set.
Auto save
Automatically save articles/threads by Archive-name: line in article header and post process them if process type is not set to None.
Editor offset
Set ON if the editor used for posting, follow-ups and bug reports has the capability of starting and positioning the cursor at a specified line within a file.
Mark saved read
Allows saved articles/threads to be automatically marked as read.
Confirm Command
Allows certain commands (ie. 'c' catchup) that require user confirmation to be executed immediately if set OFF.
Draw arrow
Allows groups/articles to be selected by an arrow '->' if set ON or by an highlighted bar if set OFF.
Print header
This allows the complete mail header or only the Siubject: and From: fields to be output when printing articles.
Goto 1st unread
This allows the cursor to be placed at the first / last unread article upon entering a newsgroup with unread news.
Scroll full page
If set ON scrolling of groups/articles will be a full page at a time, otherwise half a page at a time.
Catchup on quit
If set ON the user is asked when quitting if all groups read during the current session should be marked read.
Thread articles
If set ON articles will be threaded in all groups (default), otherwise articles will be shown unthreaded. If set ON but certain user specified groups are in $HOME/.tin/unthread, the specified groups will be unthreaded and the rest will be threaded.
Show only unread
If set ON show only new/unread articles, otherwise show all articles.
Show Author
If set 'None' only the Subject: line will be displayed. If set 'Addr' Subject: line & the address part of the From: line are displayed. If set 'Name' Subject: line & the authors full name part of the From: line are displayed. If set 'Both' Subject: line & all of the From: line are displayed.
Process type
This specifies the default type of post processing to perform on saved articles. The following types of processing are allowed:
---none.
---unpacking of multi-part shell archives.
---unpacking of multi-part uuencoded files.
---unpacking of multi-part uuencoded files that produce a *.zoo archive whose contents is listed.
---unpacking of multi-part uuencoded files that produce a *.zoo archive whose contents is extracted.
Sort articles by
This specifies how articles should be sorted. The following sort types are allowed:
---don't sort articles (default).
---sort articles by Subject: field (ascending & descending).
---sort articles by From: field (ascending & descending).
---sort articles by Date: field (ascending & descending).
Save directory
The directory where articles/threads are to be saved. Default is $HOME/News.
Mail directory
The directory where articles/threads are to be saved in mailbox format. This feature is mainly for use with the Elm mail program. It allows the user to save articles/threads/groups simply by giving '=' as the filename to save to.
Printer
The printer program with options that is to be used to print articles. Default is lpr for BSD machines and lp for SysV machines.
 

KILL ARTICLE MENU

This menu is accessed by pressing '^K' at the group and page levels. It allows the user to kill an article that matches the current Subject: line, From: line or a string entered by the user. The user entered string can be applied to the Subject: or From: lines of an article. The kill description can be limited to the current newsgroup or it can apply to all newsgroups. Once entered the user can abort the command and not save the kill description, edit the kill file or save the kill description.

On starting tin the users killfile $HOME/.tin/kill is read and on entering a newsgroup any kill descriptions are applied. Articles that match a kill description are marked killed and are not displayed.  

POSTING ARTICLES

Tin allows posting of articles, follow-up to already posted articles and replying direct through mail to the author of an article.

Use the 'w' command to post an article to a newsgroup. After entering the post subject the default editor (ie. vi) or the editor specified by the $VISUAL environment variable will be started and the article can be entered. To crosspost articles simply add a comma and the name of the newsgroup(s) to the end of the Newsgroups: line at the beginning of the article. After saving and exiting the editor you are asked if you wish to a)bort posting the article, e)dit the article again or p)ost the article to the specified newsgroup(s).

Use the 'W' command to display a history of the articles you have posted. The date the article was posted, which newsgroups the article was posted to and the articles subject line are displayed.

Use the 'f' / 'F' command to post a follow-up article to an already posted article. The 'F' command will copy the text of the original article into the editor. The editing procedure is the same as when posting an article with the 'w' command.

Use the 'r' / 'R' command to reply direct through mail to the author of an already posted article. The 'R' command will copy the text of the original article into the editor. The editing procedure is the same as when posting an article with the 'w' command. After saving and exiting the editor you are asked if you wish to a)bort sending the article, e)dit the article again or s)end the article to the author.  

MAILING PIPING PRINTING REPOSTING AND SAVING ARTICLES

The command interface to mail ('m'), pipe ('|'), print ('o'), crosspost ('x') and save ('s') articles is the same for ease of use.

The initial command will ask you to select which a)rticle, t)hread, h)ot (auto selected) r)egex pattern, t)agged articles you wish to mail, pipe etc.

Tagged articles must have already been tagged with the 'T' command. All tagged articles can be untagged by the 'U' untag command.

If regex pattern matching is selected you are asked to enter a regular expression (ie. to match all articles subject lines containing 'net News' you must enter '*net News*'). Any articles that match the entered expression will be mailed, piped etc.

To save articles to a mailbox with the name of the current newsgroup (ie. Alt.sources) enter '=' or '=<mailbox name>' when asked for the save filename.

To save articles in <newsgroup name>/<filename> format enter '+<filename>'.

When saving articles you can specify whether the saved files should be post processed (ie. unshar shell archive, uudecode multiple parts etc). A default process type can be set by the 'Process type:' in the 'M' options menu.  

AUTOMATIC MAILING AND SAVING NEW NEWS

Tin allows new/unread news articles to be mailed (-M option)/saved (-S option) in batch mode for later reading. Useful when going on holiday and you don't want to return and find that expire has removed a whole load of unread articles. Best to run from crontab everyday while away, after which you will be mailed a report of which articles were mailed/saved from which newsgroups and the total number of articles mailed/saved. Articles are saved in a private news structure under your <savedir> directory (default is $HOME/News). Be careful of using this option if you read a lot of groups because you could overflow your filesystem. If you only want to save a few groups it would be best to backup your full $HOME/.newsrc and create a new one that only contains the newsgroups you want to mail/save. Saved news can be read later by starting tin with the -R option.

tin -M iain -f newsrc.mail (mail any unread articles in newgroups specified in file newsrc.mail)

tin -S -f newsrc.save (save any unread articles in newgroups specified in file newsrc.save)

tin -R (read any unread articles saved by tin -S option)  

SIGNATURES

Tin will recognize a signature in either $HOME/.signature or $HOME/.Sig. If $HOME/.signature exists, then the signature will be pulled into the editor for Tin mail commands. A signature in $HOME/.signature will not be pulled into the editor for posting commands since the inews program will append the signature itself.

A signature in $HOME/.Sig will be pulled into the editor for both posting and mailing commands.

The following is an example of a $HOME/.Sig file:

NAME   Iain Lea
EMAIL  iain%anl433.uucp@Germany.EU.net
SNAIL  Bruecken Strasse 12, 8500 Nuernberg 90, Germany
PHONE  +49-911-331963 (home)  +49-911-3089-407 (work)
 

ENVIROMENT VARIABLES

TINDIR
Define this variable if you do not want tin's .tin directory in $HOME/.tin. (ie. if you want all tin's private files in /tmp/.tin you would set TINDIR to contain /tmp.
NNTPSERVER
The default NNTP server to remotely read news from. This variable only needs to be set if the -r command line option is specified and the file /etc/nntpserver does not exist.
DISTRIBUTION
Set the article header field Distribution: to the contents of the variable instead of the system default.
ORGANIZATION
Set the article header field Organization: to the contents of the variable instead of the system default. This variable has precedence over the file $HOME/.tin/organization that may also contain an organization string. If reading news on an Apollo DomainOS machine the environment variable NEWSORG has to be used instead of ORGANIZATION.
REPLYTO
Set the article header field Reply-To: to the return address specified by the variable. This is useful if the machine is not registered in the UUCP mail maps or if you wish to recieve replies at a different machine. This variable has precedence over the file $HOME/.tin/replyto that may also contain a return address.
ADD_ADDRESS
This can contain an address to append to the return address when replying directly through mail to somebody whose mail address is not directly recognized by the local host. For example say the return address is user@bigvax, but bigvax is not recognized by your host, so therfore the mail will not reach user. But the host littevax is known to recognize your host and bigvax, so if ADD_ADDRESS is set (ie. 'setenv ADD_ADDRESS @littevax' for csh or 'set ADD_ADDRESS @littevax' and 'export ADD_ADDRESS' for sh) the address user@bigvax@littlevax will be used and the mail will reach user@bigvax. This variable has precedence over the file $HOME/.tin/add_address that may also contain an address.
BUG_ADDRESS
If the 'B' command bug report mail address is not correct this variable should be set to the correct mail address. This variable has precedence over the file $HOME/.tin/bug_address that may also contain a mail address.
MAILER
This variable has precedence over the default mailer that is used in all mailing operations within tin (ie. replying 'rR', and bug reports 'B').
VISUAL
This variable has precedence over the default editor (ie. vi) that is used in all editing operations within tin (ie. posting 'w', replying 'rR', follow-ups 'fF' and bug reports 'B').
 

TIPS AND TRICKS

The following newsgroups provide useful information concerning news software:
---news.software.readers (info. about news user agents tin,rn,nn,vn etc.)
---news.software.nntp (info. about NNTP)
---news.software.b (info. about news transport agents Bnews & Cnews)
---news.answers (Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about many different themes)

Many prompts (ie. 'Mark everything as read? (y/n): y') within tin offer a default choice that the cursor is positioned on. By pressing <CR> the default value is taken.

When tin is run in an xterm window it will resize itself each time the xterm is resized.

Tin will reread the active file at set intervals to show any new news.  

FILES

$HOME/.newsrc               subscribed to newgroups.
$HOME/.tin/tinrc            options.
$HOME/.tin/.index           newsgroup index files directory.
$HOME/.tin/add_address      address to add to when replying through mail.
$HOME/.tin/active           used by -n option for notifying user of new groups.
$HOME/.tin/bug_address      address to send bug reports to.
$HOME/.tin/kill             kill file.
$HOME/.tin/organization     string to replace default organization.
$HOME/.tin/posted           history of articles posted by user.
$HOME/.tin/replyto          host address to use in Reply-To: mail header.
$HOME/.tin/unthread         contains groups that are not to be threaded.
$HOME/.signature            signature.
$HOME/.Sig                  signature.
 

BUGS

There are bugs somewhere among the creeping featurism. Any bugs found should be reported by the 'B' (bug report) command.

Will not uudecode some of the images in alt.binaries.pictures because more than one image is in the multi-part file to uudecode. Only the first image will be uudecoded.

Does not yet handle Xref: headers for cross-posted articles.  

HISTORY

Based on the tass newsreader that was developed by Rich Skrenta and posted to alt.sources in March 1991. Tass was itself heavily infleuenced by NOTES which was developed at the University of Illinois by Ray Essick and Rob Kolstad in 1982.

Tin v1.00 (full distribution) was posted in 8 parts to alt.sources on 23 Aug 1991.
Tin v1.0 PL1 (full distribution) was posted in 8 parts to alt.sources on 03 Sep 1991.
Tin v1.0 PL2 (full distribution) was posted in 9 parts to alt.sources on 24 Sep 1991.
Tin v1.0 PL3 (patch) was posted in 4 parts to alt.sources on 30 Sep 1991.
Tin v1.0 PL4 (patch) was posted in 2 parts to alt.sources on 02 Oct 1991.
Tin v1.0 PL5 (patch) was posted in 4 parts to alt.sources on 17 Oct 1991.
Tin v1.0 PL6 (patch) was posted in 5 parts to alt.sources on 27 Nov 1991.
Tin v1.0 PL7 (patch) was posted in 2 parts to alt.sources on 27 Nov 1991.
Tin v1.1 PL0 (full distribution) was posted in 11 parts to alt.sources on 13 Feb 1992.
Tin v1.1 PL1 (full distribution) was posted in 12 parts to alt.sources on 24 Mar 1992.
Tin v1.1 PL2 (patch) was posted in 4 parts to alt.sources on 30 Mar 1992.
Tin v1.1 PL3 (full distribution) was posted in ?? parts to alt.sources on 13 May 1992.  

CREDITS

Rich Skrenta
author of tass v3.2 which this newsreader used as its base.
Dave Taylor
author of curses.c from the elm mailreader.
Rich Salz
author of wildmat.c pattern matching routine.
Chris Thewalt
author of getline.c emacs style editing routine.
Dieter Becker
for generously posting certain versions and patches for me when my net connection was removed by a group of very short sighted people.

I wish to thank the following people for supplying patchs:

Anton Aylward, Dieter Becker, Dan Berry, Marc Boucher, Leila Burrell-Davis, Robert Claeson, Steven Cogswell, Ned Danieley, Brent Ermlick, Carl Hage, Paul Halsema, Ed Hanway, Torsten Homeyer, Nelson Kading, Fritz Kleeman, Karl-Koenig Koenigsson, Kris Kugel, Hakan Lennestal, Clifford Luke, Michael Faurot, David MacKenzie, Bill Poitras, Jim Robinson, Stephen Roseman, Nickolay Saukh, Rich Salz, John Sauter, Bart Sears, Karl-Olav Serrander, Doug Sewell, Cliff Stanford, Steve Starck, Michael Traub, Adri Verhoef, Cary Whitney, Lloyd Wright

I wish to thank the following people for bug reports/comments:

Klaus Arzig, Scott Babb, Reiner Balling, Preston Bannister, Bill de Beabien, Volker Beyer, Etienne Bido, Roger Binns, Georg Biehler, Jean-Marc Bonnaudet, Ian Brown, Andreas Brosig, Tom Czarnik, David Donovan, Peter Dressler, Gerhard Ermer, Hugh Fader, Joachim Feld, Paul Fox, Bernhard Gmelch, Viet Hoang, Andy Jackson, Joe Johnson, Cyrill Jung, Kuo-Chein Kai, Hans-Juergen Knopp, Bernhard Kroenung, Murray Laing, Per Lindqvist, Bob Lukas, Kazushi Marukawa, Phillip Molloy, Toni Metz, Greg Miller, Klaus Neuberger, Otto Niesser, Reiner Oelhaf, Wolf Paul, John Palkovic, Andrew Phillips, Stefan Rathmann, Jonas Rwgmyr, Ted Richards, Daemon Schaefer, Klamer Schutte, Fredy Schwatz, Bernd Schwerin, Chris Smith, Daniel Smith, Steve Spearman, Hironobu Takahashi, Sven Werner, G. Woodbury, Orest Zboroski  

AUTHOR

Iain Lea
(iain%anl433.uucp@Germany.EU.net)


 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
INDEX FILES
NEWS ADMINISTRATION
SCREEN FORMAT
COMMON MOVING KEYS
COMMON EDITING COMMANDS
NEWSGROUP SELECTION COMMANDS
SPOOL DIRECTORY SELECTION COMMANDS
GROUP INDEX COMMANDS
THREAD LISTING COMMANDS
ARTICLE VIEWER COMMANDS
OPTIONS MENU
KILL ARTICLE MENU
POSTING ARTICLES
MAILING PIPING PRINTING REPOSTING AND SAVING ARTICLES
AUTOMATIC MAILING AND SAVING NEW NEWS
SIGNATURES
ENVIROMENT VARIABLES
TIPS AND TRICKS
FILES
BUGS
HISTORY
CREDITS
AUTHOR

This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 00:48:27 GMT, March 26, 2025