rick@seismo.UUCP (Rick Adams) (09/14/84)
if test ! -d doc then echo mkdir doc mkdir doc fi echo x - doc/howto sed 's/^X//' >doc/howto <<'*-*-END-of-doc/howto-*-*' X X X X X X X X X X How to Read the Network News X X X Mark R. Horton X X AT&T Bell Laboratories X Columbus, Ohio X X X Revised by Rick Adams for 2.10.2 X X X X X X X_W_h_a_t _i_s _t_h_e _N_e_t_w_o_r_k _N_e_w_s? X X USENET (Users' Network) is a bulletin board shared Xamong many computer systems around the world. USENET is a Xlogical network, sitting on top of several physical net- Xworks, including _u_u_c_p, _B_L_I_C_N, _B_e_r_k_n_e_t, _X._2_5, and the X_A_R_P_A_N_E_T. Sites on USENET include many universities, private Xcompanies and research organizations. Most of the members Xof USENET are either university Computer Science depart- Xments, or part of Bell Telephone Laboratories. Currently, Xmost USENET sites run the UNIX|- operating system. X X The network news, or simply _n_e_t_n_e_w_s, is the set of pro- Xgrams that provide access to the news, and transfer it from Xone machine to the next. Netnews was originally written at XDuke University, and has been modified extensively by the XUniversity of California at Berkeley. Netnews allows arti- Xcles to be posted for limited or very wide distribution. XThis document contains a list of newsgroups that were active Xat the time it was written, to assist you in determining Xwhich newsgroups you may want to subscribe to. When creat- Xing a new article, the level of distribution can be con- Xtrolled by use of the Distribution field. This will prevent Xnotices of apartments for rent in New Jersey from being Xbroadcast to California (or even Europe). X X Any user can post an article, which will be sent out to Xthe network to be read by persons interested in that topic. XA user can specify which topics he or she is interested in Xvia a _s_u_b_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n _l_i_s_t. Then, whenever he asks to read Xnews, he will be presented with all articles of interest Xthat he has not yet read. There are also facilities for X_________________________ X|- UNIX is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories. X X X X X September 13, 1984 X X X X X X - 2 - X X Xbrowsing through old news, posting follow-up articles, and Xsending direct electronic mail replies to the author of an Xarticle. X X This paper is a tutorial, aimed at the user who wants Xto read and possibly post news. The system administrator Xwho must install the software should see the companion docu- Xment _U_S_E_N_E_T _V_e_r_s_i_o_n _B _I_n_s_t_a_l_l_a_t_i_o_n. X X_W_h_y _U_S_E_N_E_T? X X USENET is useful in a number of ways. Someone wishing Xto announce a new program or product can reach a wide audi- Xence. A user can ask ``Does anyone have an _x?'' and will Xusually get several responses within a day or two. Bug Xreports and their fixes can be made quickly available Xwithout the usual overhead of sending out mass mailings. XDiscussions involving many people at different locations can Xtake place without having to get everyone together. X X Another facility with similar capabilities to _n_e_t_n_e_w_s Xis the _e_l_e_c_t_r_o_n_i_c _m_a_i_l_i_n_g _l_i_s_t. A mailing list is a collec- Xtion of electronic mailing addresses of users who are Xinterested in a particular topic. By sending electronic Xmail to the list, all users on the list receive a copy of Xthe article. While the mailing list facility is quite use- Xful, USENET offers a number of advantages not present in Xmailing lists. Getting yourself on a mailing list is not Xalways easy. You have to figure out who maintains the list Xand ask them to put you on it. Often these people are out Xof town or busy, and don't put you on the list for several Xdays. Sometimes you have to send mail to the entire mailing Xlist, hoping that one of the readers will tell you who main- Xtains the list. Once you are on the list, you often find Xyourself in the middle of a discussion. Netnews keeps old Xarticles around until they expire (usually about two weeks) Xso you can browse through old news to catch up on what you Xmissed. Similarly, referring to an old article is easy, Xwithout having to keep a personal file of all old mail to Xthe list. X X Another advantage is appreciated by the other users of Xthe system. There is less overhead in having only one copy Xof each message sent to each machine, instead of having Xseparate copies sent to each of several users on the same Xmachine. This cuts down on computer time to process the Xmessages, and on line costs for telephone calls to transfer Xmessages from one machine to another (when phone lines are Xused). Another advantage is in the disk space consumed. XWhen only one message is sent to each system, only one copy Xof the message is kept on disk. In a mailing list environ- Xment, each user has a copy in his mailbox. X X X X X X September 13, 1984 X X X X X X - 3 - X X X_H_o_w _d_o _I _R_e_a_d _N_e_w_s? X X In the USENET jargon, interest topics are called _n_e_w_s_- X_g_r_o_u_p_s. A newsgroup list appears in a later section, Xcurrent as this paper was written. You have your own _s_u_b_- X_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n _l_i_s_t of newsgroups to which you are said to _s_u_b_- X_s_c_r_i_b_e. X X To read news, type the command X X _r_e_a_d_n_e_w_s X X(An alternative news reading program, _v_n_e_w_s, is described in Xthe appendix). Each newsgroup to which you subscribe will Xbe presented, one article at a time. As each article is Xpresented, you will be shown the _h_e_a_d_e_r (containing the name Xof the author, the subject, and the length of the article) Xand you will be asked if you want more. There are a number Xof possible choices you can make at this point. The three Xmost common (y, n, and q) are suggested by the program. (To Xsee a complete list of possible responses, type ``?'' for Xhelp.) You can type ``y'' for ``yes'' (or simply hit return) Xand the rest of the message will be displayed. (If the mes- Xsage is long, it may stop before it runs off the top of the Xscreen. Type space or return to see more of the message. XAnother choice you can make is ``n'' for ``no''. This means Xyou are not interested in the message - it will not be Xoffered to you again. A third option is ``q'' for ``quit''. XThis causes a record to be made of which articles you read X(or refused) and you will exit netnews. When you have read Xall the news, this happens automatically. The quit command Xis mainly useful if you are in a hurry and don't have time Xto read all the news right now. (Many users put a _r_e_a_d_n_e_w_s Xor _c_h_e_c_k_n_e_w_s command in their ._p_r_o_f_i_l_e or ._l_o_g_i_n files so Xthat they will see new news each time they log in.) X X If you are reading news for the first time, you may Xfind yourself swamped by the volume of unread news, espe- Xcially if the default subscription is ``all''. Don't let Xthis bother you. If you are getting newsgroups which you Xhave no interest, you can change your subscription list (see Xbelow). Also, bear in mind that what you see is probably at Xleast two weeks accumulation of news. If you want to just Xget rid of all old news and start anew, type X X readnews -p -n all > /dev/null & X Xwhich will throw away all old news, recording that you have Xseen it all. (The '&' puts it in the background; chances Xare that there is so much old news on your machine that you Xwon't want to wait for it all.) Or, you can use the ``K'' Xcommand to mark all articles in the current newsgroup as Xread. X X X X X September 13, 1984 X X X X X X - 4 - X X X Once you catch up with (or ignore) all the old news, Xthe news will come in daily at a more manageable rate. (If Xthe daily rate is still too much you may wish to unsubscribe Xto some of the higher volume newsgroups.) Finally, note that Xwhile an article is printing, you can hit your _I_N_T_E_R_R_U_P_T Xcharacter (usually Control-C or Delete), which will throw Xaway the rest of the article. X X Among the other commands you can type after seeing the Xheader of an article are: X Xx Exit readnews. This is different from _q_u_i_t X in that the quit command will update the X record of which articles you have read, but X the exit command will pretend you never X started readnews. X XN Go on to the next newsgroup. The remaining X articles in the current newsgroup are con- X sidered ``unread'' and will be offered to X you again the next time you read news. X Xs _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e The article is saved in a disk file with the X given name. In practice, what usually hap- X pens is that an article is printed, and then X _r_e_a_d_n_e_w_s goes on to print the header of the X next article before you get a chance to type X anything. So you usually want to write out X the _p_r_e_v_i_o_u_s message (the last one you have X read in full); in this case, use the form X ``s- _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e''. X Xe Erase the memory of having seen this arti- X cle. It will be offered to you again next X time, as though you had never seen it. The X ``e-'' case is useful for checking follow- X ups to see if anyone has already said what X you wanted to say. X Xr Reply to the author of the message. You X will be placed in the editor, with a set of X headers derived from the message you are X replying to. Type in your message after the X blank line. If you wish to edit the header X list, to add more recipients or send carbon X copies, for instance, you can edit the X header lines. Anyone listed on a line X beginning with ``To: '' or ``Cc: '' will X receive a copy of your reply. A _m_a_i_l com- X mand will then be started up, addressed to X the persons listed in the header. You are X then returned to readnews. The case _r- is X also useful to reply to the previous mes- X sage. Another variation on this is _r_d- X X X X September 13, 1984 X X X X X X - 5 - X X X which puts you in $MAILER (or ``mail'' by X default) to type in your reply directly. X Xf Post a follow-up message to the same news- X group. This posts an article on this news- X group with the same title as the original X article. Use common sense when posting X follow-ups; many follow-up articles should X have just been replies. You will be placed X in the editor - enter your message and exit. X The case _f- is also useful to follow up the X previous message. In each case, the editor X you are placed in will be _v_i unless you set X _E_D_I_T_O_R (in your environment) to some other X editor. You should enter the text of the X follow-up after the blank line. X X+ The article is skipped for now. The next X time you read news, you will be offered this X article again. X X- Go back to the previous article. This tog- X gles, so that two -'s get you the current X article. X Xb Back up one article in the current group. X This is not necessarily the previous arti- X cle. X XU Unsubscribe from this newsgroup. Your X .newsrc file will be edited to change the X ``:'' for that newsgroup to an ``!'', X preventing you from being shown that news- X group again. X X? If you type any unrecognized command a sum- X mary of valid commands will be printed. X X_C_h_a_n_g_i_n_g _y_o_u_r _S_u_b_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n _L_i_s_t X X If you take no special action you will subscribe to a Xdefault subscription list. This default varies locally. To Xfind out your local default, type X X readnews -s X XTypically this list will include all newsgroups ending in X``general'', such as _g_e_n_e_r_a_l, and _n_e_t._g_e_n_e_r_a_l. (As distri- Xbuted, the default is ``general,all.general''. Another Xpopular default is ``all''.) You can change this by creating Xa file in your home directory named ".newsrc" in which con- Xtains as its first line a line of the form: X X options -n newsgroup,newsgroup,newsgroup ... X X X X September 13, 1984 X X X X X X - 6 - X X XIf your lines get too long, you can continue them on subse- Xquent lines by beginning those lines with a space. (The Xnetnews system will put extra lines in this file to record Xwhich articles you have read. You should ignore these lines Xunless you want to edit them.) For example, if you are Xcreating a subscription list for the first time, and have Xalready read news, you will find some text already in your X._n_e_w_s_r_c file, recording which articles you have read. You Xshould put your _o_p_t_i_o_n_s line before the first line of the Xfile.) Thus, X X options -n general,net.general,fa.human-nets X Xwill subscribe to those three newsgroups. X X A ``!'' can be used to exclude certain newsgroups and Xthe word _a_l_l can be used as a wild card, representing any Xnewsgroup. You can also use _a_l_l as a prefix or suffix to Xmatch a class of newsgroups. For example, X X options -n all,!fa.all,!net.jokes,!all.unix-all X Xwill result in a subscription to all newsgroups except for XARPANET news, jokes, and any UNIX information. The meta- Xcharacter ``.'' is like ``/'' to the shell, and ``all'' is Xlike ``*''. X X A simpler way to subscribe to news is to subscribe to X``all'', and then use the ``U'' readnews command to unsub- Xscribe to newsgroups you don't want to read. This way you Xwill see new newsgroups that are created, get a chance to Xevaluate them, and then unsubscribe to those that don't Xinterest you. X X The order of the newsgroups in your .newsrc (after the Xoptions line) is the order in which newsgroups will be Xshown. If you want something other than the default, move Xthe lines around until you are satisfied with the order. Be Xcareful to keep the options line as the first line in the Xfile. X X_S_u_b_m_i_t_t_i_n_g _A_r_t_i_c_l_e_s X X To submit a new news article type X X _p_o_s_t_n_e_w_s X XFirst, it will ask you if this is a follow-up to an article. XAnswer yes or no. If yes, you really should have done an X``f'' from readnews, but it will try and figure out which Xarticle you are following up to. It will ask for the news- Xgroup you read the article in and the article number. If you Xcan't remember, go back to readnews and find out. It is Ximportant that discussions are kept together. It is very X X X X September 13, 1984 X X X X X X - 7 - X X Xfrustrating for someone to read a follow-up that says: "I Xagree. It's very dangerous to leave that program as distri- Xbuted.", and not have any idea what the poster was refering Xto. X X If you you answer no, postnews will ask you for the XSubject of the new article. This should be as informative as Xpossible. For example, "Car for sale in New Jersey" is much Xbetter that "Car for sale" or even "For sale". It will then Xask which newsgroups you want the article posted in. If you Xare unsure, type ``?'' instead of a specific newsgroup and Xit will show you the list of currently available groups. XThen, you will be asked how far your article should be dis- Xtributed. It is important to keep this as small as possible Xto accomplish the purpose of your article. Remember that Xmany newsgroups are read in Europe, Australia and Asia in Xaddition to the United States and Canada. It does no good X(to use the previous example) to post a "Car for sale in New XJersey" article with a distribution of _w_o_r_l_d. There is Xalmost no chance that a person in Sweden or Korea would be Xinterested in buying your car. It is a waste of money and Xcomputer resources to transmit the article that far. For Xthis specific case, the appropriate distribution would be X"nj" or only in New Jersey. If there were no local distribu- Xtion available, at least it should be confined to "usa". If Xyou are unsure of the distributions available at your site, Xtype ``?'' instead of a distribution and you will receive a Xlist of distributions valid for your site. X X Then you will be placed in the editor. Enter the text Xof your article, after the blank line, and exit the editor. XThe article will be posted to the newsgroups specified. If Xyou change your mind about the headers while you are still Xin the editor, you can edit them as well. Extra headers can Xalso be added before the blank line. X X If you change you mind about posting the article, you Xcan hit your interrupt key, or if you are in the editor, Xeither delete all of the lines or do no write out the modi- Xfied file. In either case, the article will not be posted. X X_F_r_o_m _t_h_e _A_R_P_A_N_E_T X X You are not allowed to post to certain newsgroups. All Xof the _f_a (from the ARPANET) newsgroups are in this Xcategory. X X _f_a newsgroups are electronic mailing lists on the XARPANET. They are provided on a read-only basis as a cour- Xtesy to the USENET readers. The maintainers of these mailing Xlists do not feel able to handle the volume of traffic that Xwould result from allowing everyone to post to them. X X X X X X September 13, 1984 X X X X X X - 8 - X X X_B_r_o_w_s_i_n_g _t_h_r_o_u_g_h _O_l_d _N_e_w_s X X There are a number of command line options to the _r_e_a_d_- X_n_e_w_s command to help you find an old article you want to see Xagain. The -_n _n_e_w_s_g_r_o_u_p_s option restricts your search to Xcertain newsgroups. The -_x option arranges to ignore the Xrecord of articles read, which is kept in your ._n_e_w_s_r_c file. XThis will cause all articles in all newsgroups to which you Xsubscribe to be displayed, even those which you have already Xseen. It also causes _r_e_a_d_n_e_w_s to not update the ._n_e_w_s_r_c Xfile. The -_a _d_a_t_e option asks for news received since the Xgiven _d_a_t_e. Note that even with the -_a option, only arti- Xcles you have not already seen will be printed, unless you Xcombine it with the -_x option. (Articles are kept on file Xuntil they expire, typically after two weeks.) The -_t _k_e_y_- X_w_o_r_d_s option restricts the query to articles mentioning one Xof the _k_e_y_w_o_r_d_s in the title of the article. Thus, the com- Xmand X X readnews -n net.unix -x -a last thursday -t setuid X Xasks for all articles in newsgroup net.unix since last Xthursday about the setuid feature. (Be careful with the -t Xoption. The above example will not find articles about X``suid'', nor will it find articles with no title or whose Xauthor did not use the word ``setuid'' in the title.) X X Other useful options include the -_l option (which lists Xonly the headers of articles - a useful form for browsing Xthrough lots of messages). The -_p option prints the mes- Xsages without asking for any input; this is similar to some Xolder _n_e_w_s programs on many UNIX systems and is useful for Xdirecting output to a printer. The -_r option produces arti- Xcles in reverse order, from newest to oldest. X X_U_s_e_r _I_n_t_e_r_f_a_c_e_s X X The _u_s_e_r _i_n_t_e_r_f_a_c_e of a program is the face it presents Xto the user, that is, what it prints and what it allows you Xto type. Readnews has options allowing you to use different Xuser interfaces. The interface described above is called Xthe ``msgs'' interface because it mimics the style of the XBerkeley _m_s_g_s program. (This program, in turn, mimics a Xprogram at MIT of the same name.) The key element of the Xmsgs interface is that after printing the header, you are Xasked if you want the rest of the message. X X Another interface is available with the -_c option. In Xthis case, the entire message is printed, header and body, Xand you are prompted at the end of the message. The command Xoptions are the same as the msgs interface, but it is usu- Xally not necessary to use the ``-'' suffix on the reply, Xsave, or follow-up commands. This interface is called the X``/bin/mail'' (pronounced _b_i_n _m_a_i_l) interface, because it X X X X September 13, 1984 X X X X X X - 9 - X X Xmimics the UNIX program of that name. X X A third interface is the _M_a_i_l (pronounced _c_a_p _m_a_i_l) Xinterface, available with the -_M option. This invokes the X_M_a_i_l program directly, and allows you to read news with the Xsame commands as you read mail. (This interface may not Xwork on your system - it requires a special version of Mail Xwith a -_T option.) X X A fourth interface, if you have it, is the MH news pro- Xgram from Rand. That program can be used directly to read Xnetwork news. X X A fifth interface is _v_n_e_w_s and is described in the Xappendix. X X A sixth possibility is to use your favorite mail system Xas an interface. There are a number of different mail read- Xing programs, including /bin/mail, Mail, msg, and MH. Any Xmail system with an option to specify an alternative mailbox Xcan be used to read news. For example, to use Mail without Xthe -_M option, type X X readnews -c "Mail -f %" X XThe shell command in quotes is invoked as a child of _r_e_a_d_- X_n_e_w_s. The -f option to Mail names the alternative mailbox. XReadnews will put the news in a temporary file, and give the Xname of this file to the mailer in place of the ``%''. XThere is an important difference when using this kind of Xinterface. The mailers do not give any indication of which Xarticles you read and which ones you skipped. Readnews will Xassume you read _a_l_l the articles, even if you didn't, and Xmark them all read. By contrast, the -_M option uses the -_T Xoption to Mail, asking Mail to tell readnews which articles Xyou read. X X_G_e_t_t_i_n_g _N_e_w_s _w_h_e_n _y_o_u _L_o_g _I_n X X Most users like to be told when they first log in if Xthere is any news. This way they are reminded of news, but Xare not interrupted by it during the day. If you log in Xonce in the morning, you can think of getting the news as Xreading the morning newspaper. It is common to put a _c_h_e_c_k_- X_n_e_w_s or _r_e_a_d_n_e_w_s command in your ._p_r_o_f_i_l_e or ._l_o_g_i_n file of Xcommands that happen when you log in. X X Since there might not be any news, and since the _r_e_a_d_- X_n_e_w_s command goes to a considerable amount of work to find Xall unread news (assuming you are going to read it), there Xis another command, called _c_h_e_c_k_n_e_w_s, which tells you if Xthere is any news. The _c_h_e_c_k_n_e_w_s command is smaller and Xfaster than _r_e_a_d_n_e_w_s, and was designed especially for a Xlogin file. There are also options to be silent if there is X X X X September 13, 1984 X X X X X X - 10 - X X X(or is not) news, and to start up _r_e_a_d_n_e_w_s automatically if Xthere is news. X X The options to _c_h_e_c_k_n_e_w_s are: X X-y Print ``There is news'' if there is any X unread news. X X-v If -y is also given, instead of printing X ``There is news'', print ``News: _n_e_w_s_g_r_o_u_p X ...'' giving the name of the first newsgroup X containing unread news. If _g_e_n_e_r_a_l is the X first newsgroup presented, this can be used X to tell users whether the unread news is X important. X X-n Print ``No news'' if there is no unread X news. X X-e If there is any unread news, start up _r_e_a_d_- X _n_e_w_s. Any additional arguments after the -_e X will be passed to readnews. X X Thus, ``checknews -yn'' tells you whether there is any Xunread news. ``checknews -e -M'' starts up _r_e_a_d_n_e_w_s with Xthe Mail interface if there is news, and otherwise does Xnothing. ``checknews -y'' tells you if there is news, and Xis silent if there is no news. X X_C_r_e_a_t_i_n_g _N_e_w _N_e_w_s_g_r_o_u_p_s X X New newsgroups are created by the users. To create a Xnewsgroup, first make sure this is the right thing to do. XNormally a suggestion is first posted to Xnet.news.group,net.relatedgroup for a net newsgroup X(net.relatedgroup should be the group which you are propos- Xing to sub-divide. E.g. to propose creating net.tv.soaps, Xpost the original article to net.tv,net.news.group). Fol- Xlowups are made to net.news.group ONLY. (You can force this Xby putting the line: X X Followup-To: net.news.group X Xin the headers of your original posting). If it is esta- Xblished that there is general interest in such a group, and Xa name is agreed on, then ask your local netnews administra- Xtor to create the newsgroup. (It can actually be created by Xany netnews administrator anywhere on the net, within the Xscope of the newsgroup.) Once the newsgroup is created and Xthe first article has been posted, the newsgroup is avail- Xable for all interested persons to post to. X X X X X X X September 13, 1984 X X X X X X - 11 - X X X_L_i_s_t _o_f _N_e_w_s_g_r_o_u_p_s X X This section lists the newsgroups that are currently Xactive. It is intended to help you decide what you want to Xsubscribe to. Note that the list is constantly changing. XNote also that this list only describes those groups avail- Xable on a network wide basis. It is recommended that other Xinstallations edit the list of local newsgroups to fit their Xinstallation before distributing this document to their Xusers. If this is not possible, a local appendix can be Xcreated. X X_L_o_c_a_l X X Local groups are kept on the current machine only. XLocal names can be identified by the lack of a prefix, that Xis, there are no periods in local newsgroup names. X Xgeneral News to be read by everyone on the local machine. X For example: The system will be down Monday morn- X ing for PM. Or, a new version of program x has X been installed. This newsgroup is usually manda- X tory - you are required to subscribe to this news- X group. (The list of mandatory newsgroups varies X locally.) This requirement assures that important X announcements reach all users. (Formerly _m_s_g_s.) X X_N_e_t_w_o_r_k _W_i_d_e X X These are the groups as of the last editing of this Xmanual. The list is undoubtably already out of date. A Xcurrent list can be obtained by typing ``?'' to the News- Xgroups? prompt in postnews. X X Xfa.arms-d Arms discussion digest. Xfa.arpa-bboard ARPANET bulletin board. Xfa.bitgraph The BBN bitgraph terminal. Xfa.digest-p Digest-people digest. Xfa.editor-p Editor-people digest. Xfa.energy Energy programs, conservation, etc. Xfa.human-nets Computer aided communications digest. Xfa.info-mac The Apple Macintosh computer. Xfa.info-terms All sorts of terminals. Xfa.info-vax DEC's VAX line of computers. Xfa.info-vlsi Very large scale integrated circuits. Xfa.laser-lovers Laser printers, hardware and software. Xfa.poli-sci Politics and/versus science. Xfa.railroad Real and model trains. Xfa.sf-lovers Science fiction lovers. Xfa.tcp-ip TCP and IP network protocols. Xfa.telecom Telecommunications digest. Xfa.teletext Teletext digest. Xmod.ber Summaries of discussions from other groups. X X X X September 13, 1984 X X X X X X - 12 - X X Xnet.abortion Abortion. Xnet.adm.site Automatic maintenance of the USENET directory. Xnet.ai Artificial intelligence. Xnet.analog Analog design developments, ideas, and components. Xnet.announce General announcements of interest to all. Xnet.announce.newusers General announcements for new users. Xnet.arch Computer architecture. Xnet.astro Astronomy. Xnet.astro.expert Astronomy for experts. Xnet.audio High fidelity audio. Xnet.auto Automobiles, automotive products and laws. Xnet.aviation Aviation rules, means, and methods. Xnet.bicycle Bicycles, related products and laws. Xnet.bio Biology and related sciences. Xnet.books Books of all genres, shapes, and sizes. Xnet.bugs General bug reports and fixes. Xnet.bugs.2bsd UNIX version 2BSD related bugs. Xnet.bugs.4bsd UNIX version 4BSD related bugs. Xnet.bugs.usg USG UNIX (System III, V, etc.) related bugs. Xnet.bugs.uucp UUCP related bugs. Xnet.bugs.v7 UNIX V7 related bugs. Xnet.chess Chess and computer chess. Xnet.cog-eng Cognitive engineering. Xnet.college College, college activities, campus life, etc. Xnet.columbia The space shuttle and the STS program. Xnet.comics The funnies, old and new. Xnet.consumers Consumer interests, product reviews, etc. Xnet.cooks Food, cooking, cookbooks, and recipes. Xnet.crypt Different methods of data en/decryption. Xnet.cse Computer science education. Xnet.cycle Motorcycles and related products and laws. Xnet.dcom Data communications hardware and software. Xnet.decus DEC User's Society newsgroup. Xnet.emacs EMACS editors of different flavors. Xnet.eunice The Eunice system. Xnet.flame Flaming on any topic. Xnet.followup Follow-ups to articles in net.general. Xnet.games Games and computer games. Xnet.games.emp The computer game Empire. Xnet.games.frp Fantasy Role Playing games. Xnet.games.go Go. Xnet.games.pbm Play by Mail games. Xnet.games.rogue Rogue. Xnet.games.trivia Trivia. Xnet.games.video Video games. Xnet.garden Gardening, methods and results. Xnet.general *Important* and timely announcements of interest to all. Xnet.graphics Computer graphics, art, and animation. Xnet.ham-radio Amateur Radio practices, contests, events, rules, etc. Xnet.info-terms All sorts of terminals. Xnet.invest Investments and the handling of money. Xnet.jobs Job announcements, requests, etc. Xnet.jokes Jokes and other humor. Some may be offensive. Xnet.jokes.d Discussions on the content of net.jokes. X X X X September 13, 1984 X X X X X X - 13 - X X Xnet.kids Children, their behavior and activities. Xnet.lan Local area network hardware and software. Xnet.lang Computer languages in general. Xnet.lang.ada The computer language Ada. Xnet.lang.apl The computer language APL. Xnet.lang.c The computer language C. Xnet.lang.f77 The computer language FORTRAN. Xnet.lang.forth The computer language Forth. Xnet.lang.lisp The computer language LISP. Xnet.lang.mod2 The computer language Modula-2. Xnet.lang.pascal The computer language Pascal. Xnet.lang.prolog The computer language PROLOG. Xnet.lang.st80 The computer language Smalltalk 80. Xnet.legal Legalities and the ethics of law. Xnet.lsi Large scale integrated circuits. Xnet.mag Magazine summaries, tables of contents, etc. Xnet.mail Proposed new mail/network standards. Xnet.mail.headers The ARPA header-people list. Xnet.mail.msggroup The ARPA MsgGroup list. Xnet.math Mathematical discussions and puzzles. Xnet.math.stat Statistics. Xnet.med Medicine and its related products and regulations. Xnet.micro Micro computers of all kinds. Xnet.micro.16k National 16000 & 32000 processors. Xnet.micro.432 Intel 432 processors. Xnet.micro.6809 Motorola 6809 processors. Xnet.micro.68k Motorola 68000 processors. Xnet.micro.apple Apple computers. Xnet.micro.atari Atari computers. Xnet.micro.cbm Commodore computers. Xnet.micro.cpm The CP/M operating system. Xnet.micro.hp Hewlett/Packard computers. Xnet.micro.pc IBM personal computers. Xnet.micro.ti Texas Instruments processors. Xnet.micro.trs-80 TRS-80 computers. Xnet.micro.zx Sinclair zx computers. Xnet.misc Miscellaneous discussions that don't belong elsewhere. Xnet.motss Issues pertaining to homosexuality. Xnet.movies Reviews and discussions of movies. Xnet.movies.sw Subgroup for the Star Wars saga(s). Xnet.music Music lovers. Xnet.music.classical Classical music lovers. Xnet.net-people Announcements, etc. concerning people on the net. Xnet.news Discussions of USENET itself. Xnet.news.adm For news administrators. Xnet.news.b B news software. Xnet.news.config Computer down times and network interruptions. Xnet.news.group Discussions and lists of newsgroups. Xnet.news.map Connectivity maps. Xnet.news.newsite New site announcements. Xnet.news.sa For system administrators. Xnet.nlang Natural languages, cultures, heritages, etc. Xnet.nlang.celts The Celtic culture. Xnet.nlang.greek The Greek culture. X X X X September 13, 1984 X X X X X X - 14 - X X Xnet.notes Notesfile software from the University of Illinois. Xnet.origins Evolution versus creationism. Xnet.periphs Peripheral devices. Xnet.pets Pets, pet care, and household animals in general. Xnet.philosophy Philosophical discussions. Xnet.physics Physical laws, properties, etc. Xnet.poems For the posting of poems. Xnet.politics Political discussions. Xnet.puzzle Puzzles, problems, and quizzes. Xnet.railroad Real and model trains. Xnet.rec Recreational/participant sports. Xnet.rec.birds Bird watching. Xnet.rec.boat Boating. Xnet.rec.bridge Bridge. Xnet.rec.coins Coin collecting. Xnet.rec.disc Disc activities (Frisbee, etc). Xnet.rec.nude Naturalist/nudist activities. Xnet.rec.photo Photography. Xnet.rec.scuba SCUBA diving. Xnet.rec.ski Skiing. Xnet.rec.skydive Skydiving. Xnet.rec.wood Woodworking. Xnet.religion Religious, ethical, and moral implications of actions. Xnet.religion.jewish Judaism. Xnet.research Research and computer research. Xnet.roots Genealogical matters. Xnet.rumor Rumors. Xnet.sci General purpose scientific discussions. Xnet.sf-lovers Science fiction lovers. Xnet.singles Single people, their activities, etc. Xnet.social Social activities. Xnet.sources Submission of Software packages. Xnet.space Space, space programs, space related research, etc. Xnet.sport Spectator sports. Xnet.sport.baseball Baseball. Xnet.sport.football Football. Xnet.sport.hockey Hockey. Xnet.sport.hoops Basketball. Xnet.startrek Star Trek, the TV show and the movies. Xnet.std All sorts of standards. Xnet.suicide Suicide, laws, ethics, and its causes and effects. Xnet.taxes Tax laws and advice. Xnet.test Testing of network software. Xnet.text Text processing. Xnet.travel Traveling all over the world. Xnet.tv The boob tube, its history, and past and current shows. Xnet.tv.drwho The TV show Dr. Who. Xnet.tv.soaps Soap operas. Xnet.unix UNIX neophytes group. Xnet.unix-wizards Discussions, bug reports, and fixes on and for UNIX. Xnet.usenix USENIX Association events and announcements. Xnet.usoft Universal (public domain) software packages. Xnet.veg Vegetarians. Xnet.video Video and video components. X X X X September 13, 1984 X X X X X X - 15 - X X Xnet.vvs The Vortex Video System for digitized video images. Xnet.wanted Requests for things that are needed. Xnet.wines Wines and spirits. Xnet.wobegon "The Prairie Home Companion" radio show. Xnet.women Women's rights, discrimination, etc. Xnet.women.only Postings by women only (read by all). Xnet.works Workstations in general. Xnet.works.apollo Apollo workstations. X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X September 13, 1984 X X X X X X - 16 - X X X_A_p_p_e_n_d_i_x _1 X X_O_v_e_r_v_i_e_w X X Vnews is a program for reading USENET news. It is based Xon readnews but has a CRT oriented user interface. The com- Xmand line options are identical. The list of available com- Xmands is quite similar, although since vnews is a "visual" Xinterface, most vnews commands do not have to be terminated Xby a newline. X X Vnews uses the first 22 lines of the screen to display Xthe current article. Line 23 is the secondary prompt line, Xand is used to input string arguments to commands. Line 24 Xcontains several fields. The first field is the prompt Xfield. If vnews is at the end of an article, the prompt is X"next?"; otherwise the prompt is "more?". The second field Xis the newsgroup field, which displays the current news- Xgroup, the number of the current article, and the number of Xthe last article in the newsgroup. The third field contains Xthe current time, and the last field contains the word X"mail" if you have mail. When you receive new mail, the bell Xon the terminal is rung and the word mail appears in capital Xletters for 30 seconds. X X_C_o_m_m_a_n_d_s X X Most of the readnews commands have vnews counterparts Xand vice versa. Some differences are: X X- It lacks a digest command. This would be nice to have, X but it does not seem to be a major deficiency since you X can move around in the article with vnews commands. X X- To get to the previous group, use the N command with a X '-' argument. X X- Vnews has commands commands for moving around in the X article which readnews does not have since they aren't X applicable. X X- It has a parent command which will go to the article X that the current article is a follow-up to, and a write X command that writes out the body of an article without X the header. X X- You can refer to the current article from the shell or X while writing a follow-up as $A. X X- The decrypt command always does rot 13; rot 13 seems to X be the default standard and the readnews version occa- X sionally gets confused. X X X X X X September 13, 1984 X X X X X X - 17 - X X X_C_o_m_m_a_n_d_s _t_h_a_t _d_i_f_f_e_r _f_r_o_m _r_e_a_d_n_e_w_s X X Each vnews command may be preceded by a count. Some Xcommands use the count; others ignore it. If count is omit- Xted, it defaults to one. Some commands prompt for an argu- Xment on the second to the bottom line of the screen. Stan- Xdard UNIX erase and kill processing is done on this argu- Xment. The argument is terminated by a return. An interrupt X(delete or break) gets you out of any partially entered com- Xmand. X X ^B means Control-B X XCR A carriage return prints more of the current article, X or goes on to the next article if you are at the end of X the current article. X X^B Goes backwards count pages. X X^F Goes forward count pages. X X^N or ^Y Go forwards count lines. X X^P or ^Z Go backwards count lines. X X^D Go forwards half a page. X X^U Go backwards half a page. X Xh Go back to the top of the article and display only the X header. X Xug Unsubscribe to the current group. This is a two charac- X ter command to ensure that it is not typed accidentally X and to leave room for other types of unsubscribes (e. X g. unsubscribe to discussion). X X! Passes the rest of the command line to the shell. The X environment variable $A is set to the name of the file X containing the current article. If the last character X of the command is a "&", then the "&" is deleted and X the command is run in the background with stdin, stdout X and stderr redirected to /dev/null. If the command is X missing, the shell is invoked. Use the l command (or X essentially any other command) to turn on the display X after the program terminates. X XN Go to a different newsgroup. You are prompted for a X newsgroup name. A null newsgroup name gets the next X group, the name "-" gets the previous group. X X^L Rewrites the screen. CONTROL-L may be typed at any X time. X X X X X September 13, 1984 X X X X X X - 18 - X X XD Decrypts a joke. It only handles rot 13 jokes. The D X command is a toggle; typing another D re- encrypts the X joke. X X< Prompts for an article ID or the rest of a message ID. X It will display the article if it exists. X Xp Gets you the parent article (the article that the X current article is a follow-up to). This doesn't work X if the current article was posted by A news or notes- X file. To get back to from the parent article, use the - X command. Unfortunately, if you use several p commands X to trace the discussion back further, there is no com- X mand to get you back, X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X September 13, 1984 X X *-*-END-of-doc/howto-*-* exit