leech@zeta.cs.unc.edu (Jonathan Leech) (01/07/89)
It would be nice if rn could apply kill files in 'batch mode' (run
rn so it would remove all the articles matching your kill files from
.newsrc, *without* human intervention). Has anyone thought about
doing this (is there some convenient way to do it now?) I looked at
the rn manual and saw no obvious way.
--
Jon Leech (leech@cs.unc.edu) __@/
"Enhanced 386... Runs Unit, Zenix, 0s/s & DOS..."
- Competitive Computer Components Ad, Computer Shopper 1/89msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) (08/26/89)
Wayne Mesard, in an excellent introduction to KILL files in the rn news- reader, writes in news.newusers.questions: > The general format of each line in a KILL file is: > /pattern/modifiers:command > ... In KILL files the command is usually just "j" which junks the article. There is actually one important addition to note here, which is that the syntax also allows the ":command" part to be repeated. In particular, you can say something like /spoiler/:=:j which will display all subject lines containing the word "spoiler" and then junk each of the articles. For instance, you might see: 20955 The Abyss (spoilers) Junked 20956 Re: The Abyss (spoilers) Junked 20958 The Abyss (non-spoiler review) Junked 20960 Re: The Abyss (spoilers) Junked 20963 How to write a review (was: Re: The Abyss (spoilers)) Junked This will tell you that your KILL file had a "false hit" on 20958, and perhaps also 20963, and you actually do want to read those articles (which, since we're talking about rn, you can do by typing the numbers explicitly one by one, or by doing "20958,20963m" and then beginning reading as usual. There are some newsgroups where I read so few articles that I actually have /./:=:j in my KILL file, so I still see what's there but never have to explicitly kill it. (Of course the "." matches any non-null subject.) Oh yes. rn is actually not strict about that ":" before each command, and there are many cases where you can leave it out. As this is NOT a documented feature (as far as I know), it's safer to leave it in. This article is cross-posted, with followups directed to news.newusers.- questions. This article is in the public domain. -- Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto "Suspicion breeds confidence." utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com -- BRAZIL