rpd@CS.CMU.EDU (Richard Draves) (04/25/88)
I was poking around on ucbvax (looking for the awm revision, actually, which I didn't find) and I came across an xrn man page and two binaries, which I couldn't run. It appears to be an X10 interface to NNTP news reading. Is there source available somewhere? Is it being converted to X11? etc, etc. Rich
ellen@ic.Berkeley.EDU (Ellen M. Sentovich) (04/26/88)
In article <YWQZ6Fy00hk=IFqn99@cs.cmu.edu>, rpd@CS.CMU.EDU (Richard Draves) writes: > I was poking around on ucbvax (looking for the awm revision, actually, which I > didn't find) and I came across an xrn man page and two binaries, which I > couldn't run. It appears to be an X10 interface to NNTP news reading. Is > there source available somewhere? Is it being converted to X11? etc, etc. > > Rich xrn is indeed an X10 interface to NNTP news reading. We had planned to release it in mid-summer, hence source will not be available until then (sorry). However, binaries can be found on ucbvax in ~ftp/pub/xrn.{sun3,ultrix,vaxbsd} and a man page in xrn.man. A sun4 binary will be available soon (~1 week). We plan to port to X11 around mid-summer as well. Bug reports/feature requests to xrn@eros.berkeley.edu. Check the man page for features that are currently not implemented but are planned for the official release in summer. A man page follows for those who don't have internet access. Ellen & Rick Rick L Spickelmier ricks@berkeley.edu Ellen M. Sentovich ellen@ic.berkeley.edu University of California, Berkeley XRN(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual XRN(1) NAME xrn - an X-based interface to the USENET news system that uses the NNTP remote news server SYNOPSIS xrn is an X-based interface to the USENET news system that uses the NNTP remote news server for accessing newsgroups and articles. By using the NNTP server, users can read news from personal workstations with the program accessing the news groups and articles from a central repository on the local area network. DESCRIPTION xrn [displayname] [=WxH+X+Y] [#+X+Y] [-fg color] [-bg color] [-ft font] [-nntpServer name] [-newsrcFile file] [- saveNewsrcFile file] [-saveDir directory] [-signatureFile file] [+/-infoLine] [-topLines number] [-saveMode mode] [- leaveHeaders list] [-stripHeaders list] [-deadLetters file] [-savePostings file] [-minLines number] [-maxLines number] [-mailer mailer] [-tmpDir directory] [+/-iconOnStart] [+/- subjectRead] [+/-confirmBox] [-calvin] [-editorCommand com- mand] BASIC OPERATION Don't let the size of this manual page alarm you. xrn is easy to learn on-line without reading the documentation. This manual page describes many features that may be obvious to the casual observer, along with a large section on cus- tomization (such as choosing colors and fonts). It also describes how to use scroll bars, buttons, and select text; if you have used an X toolkit application before, the sec- tion titled "BUTTONS, SCROLL BARS, and SELECTION" can be skipped. xrn uses the `.newsrc' file to determine what groups need to be read. If the `.newsrc' file does not exist, it is created, and the user is subscribed to the news group `news.announce.newusers'. The `.newsrc' file is kept con- stantly up to date. xrn has four modes of operation: Add, Newsgroup, All, and Article modes. Add mode will be entered on startup if there are any groups that the news system knows about that are not in the `.newsrc' file (i.e., new groups). In Add mode, the user is given a list of new groups. Groups can then be sub- scribed to and placed in the `.newsrc' file at the first position, the last position, or after a group already in the `.newsrc' file. When Add mode is exited, any remaining groups are added unsubscribed, so the user is not asked about them the next time xrn is started. On exit from Add mode, or on startup if there are no new groups, Newsgroup mode is entered. Newsgroup mode displays the subscribed to Printed 4/25/88 5 March 1988 1 XRN(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual XRN(1) groups that have unread articles and the range of available articles. The basic functions available in this mode allow the user to read a group, mark all articles in a group as read, unsubscribe from a group, move the cursor around the newsgroup window, change the order of the list of news- groups, re-visit the most recently visited group, and quit xrn. In addition, the user can subscribe to a group and specify its position in the `.newsrc' file, query the news server for new articles and groups, and go to groups that are either not subscribed to or currently have no unread articles (i.e., groups not displays on the screen). From Newsgroup mode the user can go into All mode. In All mode the user is presented with a sorted list of all known groups and their subscription status (subscribed or unsubscribed) and can change their status or location in the `.newsrc' file. On exiting All mode the user is placed back in News- group mode. In order to read the articles in a particular group, the user goes from Newsgroup mode to Article mode. In Article mode the user can sequence through the articles in the group forward or backward, mark a group of articles as read or unread, mark all articles in the current group as read, unsubscribe to the current group, return to the last article visited, search forward or backward for an article subject (either for the exact subject or for a regular expression in the subject), locally kill all articles with a particular subject, and quit (saving all changes) or exit (leaving all articles marked unread). In addition, the user can save the current article in a file, post an article to the group, post a followup to the current article, mail a reply to the author of an article, and return to Newsgroup mode. NEWS SYSTEM The news system is a set of bulletins, discussion groups, program sources, and other bits of information distributed around the world under the name `USENET'. The information is generally called `news' and is broken up into `news- groups'. Each newsgroup deals with a subject or set of sub- jects. The subjects for newsgroups are varied: from dis- cussions about particular versions of UNIX to movie reviews, from information on the X window system to commentary on current social and political issues. For information on what newsgroups are available, answers to commonly asked questions, and newsgroup ediquette, read the articles in the newsgroup `news.announce.newsusers'. NEWS SERVER In order to run xrn on a machine, the machine must be run- ning an NNTP news server or be on a network that has a machine running an NNTP news server (the source for an NNTP server can be retrieved by anonymous ftp from the machine Printed 4/25/88 5 March 1988 2 XRN(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual XRN(1) `ucbvax.berkeley.edu' [128.32.137.3, 10.2.0.78]). Either the file `/usr/local/lib/rn/server' must contain the name of the server machine, the environment variable NNTPSERVER must be set to the name of the server machine, the nntpServer Xdefault must be set to the name of the server machine, or the `-server' flag must be specified on the command line (with the order of precedence being command line, Xdefault, environment variable, file). SCREEN LAYOUT The screen displayed by xrn consists of seven sections: a title bar, two scrollable text windows, two information bars, and two button boxes. The title bar displays the current version of the program. The top text window displays information based on the mode. In Add mode, the window displays all groups that are not currently in the `.newsrc' file, one per line. In Newsgroup mode, the window displays the groups containing unread articles; each group represented by a line of the form: Unread news in <group name> <num> article(s) [<first>,<last>] <group name> is the name of the group, <num> is the number of unread articles, and <first> and <last> are the numbers of the first and last available articles, respectively. In Article mode, the window displays a list of subjects for the articles in the current group, with each subject line being represented by a line of the form: [+u][S] <num> <subject of the article> where <num> is the article number, a `+' in the first posi- tion means that the article has been read, a `u' in the first position means that the article has been marked as unread, and a 'S' in the second position means that the article has been saved to a file. The top information bar displays information about the mode, the buttons in the top button box, and error messages. The top button box has but- tons that are specific to the mode and apply to the informa- tion in the top text window. The bottom text window displays articles in Article mode and a list of all known groups and their subscription status in All mode. The bot- tom information bar displays information about the mode, the buttons in the bottom button box, and error messages. The bottom button box has buttons that are specific to the mode and apply to the information in the bottom text window. BUTTONS, SCROLL BARS, AND SELECTION All button and text selection commands are done with the left mouse button. Single-line text selection is accom- plished by clicking the left mouse button on the desired line. Multiple-line selection is accomplished by clicking Printed 4/25/88 5 March 1988 3 XRN(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual XRN(1) the left mouse button on the first line, holding the button down, dragging the mouse to the last line, and releasing the mouse button. Multiple-line selection can also be accom- plished by left-clicking on the first line, and right- clicking on the last line. Selected lines appear in reverse video (the foreground and background colors are switched). The text windows are scrolled with the scroll bar on the left side of the window. Clicking the left mouse button in the scroll bar will scroll the text down some fraction of a page; clicking the right mouse button in the scroll bar similarly scrolls up. Clicking the middle mouse button will scroll over larger areas: clicking at the top of the scroll bar will scroll to the top of the text, clicking in the mid- dle will scroll to the middle of the text, and clicking at the bottom will scroll to the bottom of the text. For those who like using the keyboard, hitting control-V while the mouse cursor is in a scrollable text window will cause the window to scroll down one page, meta-V will scroll up one page. Hitting the space bar (while the mouse cursor is in the top button box) will do the right thing; scroll the article text window when appropriate, go to the next article at the end of the current article, go to newsgroup mode when done with all articles in the current group, and go to the next group when in newsgroup mode. Hitting backspace (while the mouse cursor is in the top button box) will scroll the current article backwards. Hitting Control-C (while the mouse cursor is in the top button box) will abort searching commands. ADD MODE Add mode is entered when new groups have been detected (groups that the news system knows about but are not in the `.newsrc' file). quit Add remaining groups in the list to `.newsrc' as unsub- scribed; go to group mode. add first Add the current group(s) to the beginning of the `.newsrc' file and mark as subscribed. The current group is the selected group(s), or the group on the line containing the cursor. add last Add the current group(s) to the end of the `.newsrc' file and mark as subscribed. add after group Add the current group(s) after a group already in the `.newsrc'. A dialog box is used to allow the user to enter the name of the group to add the group after. The mouse cursor must be in the dialog box for xrn to Printed 4/25/88 5 March 1988 4 XRN(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual XRN(1) accept text (however, it does not have to be in the type-in area). The dialog box has two options: abort and add. No other buttons on the screen will work until the user has selected an option in the dialog box. Hitting carriage return is the same as clicking the add button (in all xrn dialog boxes hitting car- riage return is the same as clicking in the rightmost button of the dialog box). unsubscribe Add the current group(s) to the end of the `.newsrc' file and mark as unsubscribed. NEWSGROUP MODE Newsgroup mode informs the user of the groups with unread news and gives the user control over which groups are visited. quit quit xrn. read group Read the articles in the current group. The current group is either the one selected (if one is selected) or the one on the line containing the cursor. If all groups have been read, the user can still access groups by using the goto newsgroup command. Hitting the space bar with the cursor in the top button box will call this function. next Move the cursor to the next group, leaving the articles in the current group untouched. prev Move the cursor to the previous group, leaving the articles in the current group untouched. catch up Mark all articles in the current group as read. subscribe Subscribe to a group. A dialog box is used to allow the user to enter the name of the group. The dialog box has the following options: abort, last group (sub- scribe to the last group visited), first (put group in the beginning of the `.newsrc' file), last (put group in the end of the `.newsrc' file), and current position (put group at the position of the cursor). This com- mand can also be used to change the position of a sub- scribed group. Hitting carriage return after typing in the name is the same as clicking the current position button. unsubscribe Printed 4/25/88 5 March 1988 5 XRN(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual XRN(1) Unsubscribe from the current group. goto newsgroup Go to a group that is not currently displayed. The first unread article is displayed. If all articles in the group have been read, the last article in the group is displayed. all groups Display all of the groups that exist, their subscrip- tion status, and a set of buttons for changing the status. rescan Query the server for any new groups or articles. last group Re-visit the last group visited. select groups Records the groups currently selected. If no groups are selected, nothing is recorded. move Moves the groups previously selected with the select groups command to the current cursor position. If the cursor is currently inside the groups to be moved, no groups are moved. If any other button is invoked after select groups and before move, the selection is lost, and no groups are moved. ALL MODE All mode allows the user to change both the subscription status and the `.newsrc' file position of ANY available group. and moving around groups in the `.newsrc' file. All operations can apply to multiple groups. Thus, the user should never have to use a text editor on the `.newsrc' file. Hitting the space bar with the cursor in the top but- ton box will scroll the bottom text window. quit Update the `.newsrc' file and return to group mode. subscribe Subscribe to the current group, leaving it at its current position in the `.newsrc' file. subscribe first Subscribe to the current group and add it to the begin- ning of the `.newsrc' file. subscribe last Subscribe to the current group and add it to the end of the `.newsrc' file. Printed 4/25/88 5 March 1988 6 XRN(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual XRN(1) subscribe after group Subscribe to the current group and add it after a par- ticular group in the `.newsrc' file (which is entered with the use of a dialog box). unsubscribe Unsubscribe the current group. ARTICLE MODE Article mode is used for reading and manipulating articles in a single group. When a group is entered, the list of article subjects displayed contains those from the first unread article to the last available article. Previous articles can be obtained by using the prev or subject previ- ous commands. Hitting the space bar with the cursor in the top button box in Article mode will ``do the right thing''; it will scroll an article if there is more of the article to see and call the next unread function if there is no more of the article to see. quit Update the `.newsrc' file and return to group mode. next unread Display the selected article if it is unread; other- wise, display the first unread article AFTER the cursor position. If no unread articles exist, xrn returns to Newsgroup mode. next Display the selected article, if any; otherwise, display the next article in the current group. Return to Newsgroup mode after the last article has been reached. prev Display the selected article, if any; otherwise, display the previous article in the current group. last Display the last article accessed before the currently displayed one. This command only keeps track of one previously accessed article, so invoking it repeatedly simply toggles the display between two articles. catch up Mark all articles in the current group as read; return to Newsgroup mode. unsubscribe Unsubscribe from the current group; return to Newsgroup mode. mark read Mark an article (or group of articles) as read. This command marks either the selected article(s) or the Printed 4/25/88 5 March 1988 7 XRN(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual XRN(1) article the cursor is on, and leaves the cursor at its current position. mark unread Mark an article (or group of articles) and unread. This command marks either the selected article(s) or the article the cursor is on, and leaves the cursor at its current position. When an article is marked as unread, a 'u' is placed in the far left column next to the article's subject. The next, prev, subject next, and subject prev buttons will all display this article if they come across it, but the next unread button will not. The only way to mark an article as read once it has been marked with a 'u' is to use the mark read function. subject next Find and display the next article with the same subject as the current article (stripping the '[rR][eE]: ' and '([wW]as: ..)' garbage). If there are no more articles with the current subject and there are more unread articles, the first unread article is selected. If there are no more articles with the current subject and there are no more unread articles, Article mode is exited. subject previous Find and display the previous article with the same subject as the current article. When the program must go to the server to get old articles, the top informa- tion line will display the number of the article being fetched. subject kill Mark all articles with the same subject as the current one as read. subject search Begin a regular expression subject search. When this button is invoked, a window pops up querying the user for a regular expression (of the form used in ed), and a direction in which to search. If a regular expres- sion is not typed in, the last regular expression is used, and the search direction is the one specified in the dialog box (this can be used to switch the direc- tion of the search without retyping the expression). continue Continue the last regular expression search by search- ing for the same regular expression in the same direc- tion. Printed 4/25/88 5 March 1988 8 XRN(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual XRN(1) post Post an article to the current group. A scrollable, editable text window will appear with a header and the user's `~/.signature' file included. An appropriate header will be generated with a number of blank header fields that if left blank will be deleted from the posting. The editor is the standard Xtoolkit editor (similar to emacs). The basic commands include the following (note that there are no searching commands): ^F forward a character ^B backward a character ^N next line ^P previous line ^D delete next character ^H delete previous character ^A start of line ^E end of line ^K delete to end of line (if empty, deletes the line) ^W delete selection Meta-Y yank the cut buffer Meta-< beginning of file Meta-> end of file Meta-I insert a file (a dialog box appears to accept a filename, no `~' processing) The mouse buttons can be used to select text in this window (which can then be placed in a file, for exam- ple). There are four buttons at the bottom of the window: abort, send (to post the article), save (to save the article in a file), and include (include the text of the article in the reply or followup). Only one post (or followup or reply) window can be active at a time. exit Exit article mode, marking all articles listed in the top window as unread. save Save the current article in a file, or use the current article as standard input to a command. The save com- mand will pop up a dialog box for the filename. The dialog box has two buttons: abort and save. If the filename begins with a `|', the article will be sent to the command specified after the `|'. Otherwise, the article will be appended to the file specified. If the name is relative (does not begin with `/' or `~'), it will be prepended by `~/News/'. If no name is speci- fied, it will be saved in `~/News/<groupname>', where `<groupname>' is the name of the current group with the first letter capitalized (follows the rn article saving conventions). reply Printed 4/25/88 5 March 1988 9 XRN(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual XRN(1) Reply (by mail) to the author of the current article. See post for a description of how to create and send a message. followup Post a followup article to the current article. See post for a description of how to create and send an article. cancel Cancel the current article. rot-13 Decrypt a encrypted article. In the newsgroup `rec.humor', occasionally articles are submitted that may offend certain people or groups of people. In order to minimize the offense, these articles are posted in an encrypted form. This button will decrypt them. toggle Show the full text of an article, including the full header. CUSTOMIZING XRN Colors, fonts, and other xrn options can be specified on the command line or in the `~/.Xdefaults' file. All options can be specified in the `~/.Xdefaults' file (with the exception of the display name), only a subset can be specified on the command line. Options specified on the command line take precedence over those specified in the `~/.Xdefaults' file. COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS Here are the current command line arguments (the Xdefaults for the non-display options have the same names and values as the command line arguments): =WxH+X+Y specification of the xrn window size and location. #+X+Y specification of the initial xrn icon location. The initial icon location will default to the mouse position when the iconification is requested. -fg color the default foreground color, can be a color name or an rgb value. -bg color the default background color, can be a color name or an rgb value. -ft font the default font. Printed 4/25/88 5 March 1988 10 XRN(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual XRN(1) -nntpServer hostname the NNTP server to use. -newsrcFile file the newsrc file to use. Defaults to `~/.newsrc'. -saveNewsrcFile file the saved `.newsrc' filename. Before the `.newsrc' file is modified on startup, it is saved in a backup file. Defaults to `~/.oldnewsrc'. -saveDir dir the article saving directory. Defaults to `~/News'. -signatureFile file the signature file to use. Defaults to `~/.signa- ture'. +/-infoLine turn on/off the information lines. When the mouse is moved into a button, the information line that corresponds to that button will display what the button does. -topLines number the number of lines to be used for the top text window (where the unread groups and article sub- jects are listed). -saveMode mode the mode for saving articles; a comma seperated list of options. The options can be `mailbox' or `normal', and `headers' or `noheaders'. The default is `normal,headers'. -leaveHeaders list the header fields to leave in the article; a comma seperated case-insensitive list of field names (i.e., subject,from,organization). This option takes precedence over `stripHeaders'. -stripHeaders list the header fields to strip from the article; a comma seperated case-insensitive list of field names (i.e., keywords,message-id). -deadLetters file the name of the file to save failed postings and messages. Defaults to `~/dead.letters'. -savePostings file Printed 4/25/88 5 March 1988 11 XRN(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual XRN(1) the name of the file to save postings and messages (via the `save' button in the composition window) -minLines number the minimum number of lines above the cursor in the subject line display. If negative, the sub- ject line display scrolls only at the bottom and only one line at a time. -maxLines number the maximum number of lines above the cursor in the subject line display. If negative, the sub- ject line scrolls only at the bottom and only one line at a time. -mailer mailer the command to use for mailing replies. This com- mand must take all of it's input from stardard input (xrn will not build a command line). The default is ``/usr/lib/sendmail -oi -t''. -tmpDir directory the directory to use for the temporary storage of articles fetched from the server. If this option and the corresponding Xdefault do not exist, xrn will look for the environment variable TMPDIR. The default is ``/tmp''. +/-iconOnStart start up xrn as an icon/start up xrn normally, not as an icon. +/-subjectRead use "subject read" mode, which means switch the buttons next unread and subject next in Article mode. Also, when using the space bar to scroll, when an article is finished, the space-bar scrol- ling invokes subject next instead of next unread. +/-confirmBox turn the confirmation boxes on/off. These boxes pop up to ask the user to verify the invokation of "dangerous" actions (catch up and unsubscribe in both Article and Newsgroup modes. -calvin use a picture of Calvin, from Calvin and Hobbes, as the icon. -editorCommand command use an alternate editor creating postings, follow- ups, and replies. the file name should be placed. Examples are: Printed 4/25/88 5 March 1988 12 XRN(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual XRN(1) xterm -e vi %s xterm -e microEmacs %s emacsclient %s The resulting command should handle all editing and windowing. host:number specification of the display for xrn. X DEFAULTS xrn takes a number of specifications for colors, fonts, border widths, and other program options. They are stored in a file called `~/.Xdefaults' in the home directory of the user. The format for an xrn entry in the `~/.Xdefaults' file is: xrn.x.y....z.a: value Where x.y....z specifies the path from the top level of xrn to a particular item (think of xrn as a hierarchical collec- tion of windows, panes, and buttons, and x.y....z is a path from the top of the hierarchy to a node in the hierarchy), a is the type of default (i.e., font, border, foreground, background, borderWidth), and value is the value of the default (i.e,. a color name or hex representation, a font name, a numeric value). Specifying a default for a item at some point in the hierarchy will set that default for all items from that point down in the hierarchy. A higher level default can be overridden by specifying a default at a lower level directly. NOTE: The X defaults package is case insensitive, but the X toolkit defaults package is not; so xrn.Background is not interchangeable with the correct xrn.background. Examples of defaults are: # # In the following examples, `xrn' is the name that the program is called. # If the program is called by some other name, defaults will be needed with # that name # # position and size defaults xrn.iconPos: #+247+491 xrn.geometry: =750x800+10+20 # #xrn.reverseVideo: on # # non-display options xrn.infoLine: on xrn.saveDir: ~/News xrn.newsrcFile: ~/.newsrc Printed 4/25/88 5 March 1988 13 XRN(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual XRN(1) xrn.nntpServer: cad xrn.signatureFile: ~/.signature xrn.topLines: 10 xrn.saveMode: mailbox,noheaders xrn.leaveHeaders: Subject,From,Date #xrn.stripHeaders: Message-ID, Reply-To, Keywords xrn.deadLetters: ~/dead.letters xrn.savePostings: ~/Articles xrn.minLines: 4 xrn.maxLines: 7 xrn.confirmBox: on # # specify alternate bindings (see the toolkit documentation for more info) # xrn.Command.eventBindings: .Xtkbindings # # example bindings file to make all buttons activate the xrn buttons # (strip the leading '# '): # # <BtnDown>left: set # <BtnUp>left: notify unset # <BtnDown>middle: set # <BtnUp>middle: notify unset # <BtnDown>right: set # <BtnUp>right: notify unset # <EnterWindow>: highlight # <LeaveWindow>: unhighlight unset # xrn.background: wheat xrn.foreground: Black xrn.font: 9x15 # # text window (displays groups and articles) xrn.Text.background: DarkSlateGray xrn.Text.foreground: White xrn.ScrollBar.foreground: yellow xrn.ScrollBar.border: White xrn.ScrollBarMgr.thickness: 25 # title and information bars xrn.Label.font: 9x15b xrn.Label.background: cyan # buttons xrn.Command.background: coral xrn.Command.font: timrom12b # # a specific setting for the article mode `quit' button # the entire set of button names is: # # ADD mode buttons: # addQuit, addAddFirst, addAddLast, addAddAfterGroup, addUnsubscribed # # NEWSGROUP mode buttons: Printed 4/25/88 5 March 1988 14 XRN(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual XRN(1) # ngQuit, ngReadGroup, ngNext, ngPrev, ngCatchUp, ngSubscribe, # ngUnSubscribe, ngGoto, ngAllGroups, ngRescan, ngLastGroup, # ngSelectGroups, ngMove # # ARTICLE mode buttons (top box): # artQuit, artNext, artNextUnread, artPrev, artLast, artCatchUp, # artUnSubscribe, artMarkRead, artMarkUnread, artSubNext, # artSubPrev, artKill, artSubSearch, artContinuePost, artPost, # artExit # # ARTICLE mode buttons (bottom box): # artSave, artReply, artFollowup, artCancel, artRot13, # artToggleHeader # # ALL mode buttons: # allQuit, allSub, allFirst, allLast, allAfter, allUnsub # xrn.buttonBox.artQuit.foreground: Black xrn.buttonBox.artQuit.background: red # # dialog boxes xrn.Form.Label.background: wheat xrn.Form.Command.foreground: Black xrn.Form.Command.background: yellow DIFFERENCES FROM OTHER NEWS READERS In xrn, as soon as an article is displayed, it is marked as read. Thus if a group is quit at a particular article, when the group is reentered, the next article will be displayed. In rn, the article that was quit from will be displayed upon reentry. xrn will only run with an NNTP news server. Even if a local news system exists, the NNTP news server will still have to be running. FILES ~/.newsrc description of the groups and the articles read in each group ~/.oldnewsrc backup of ~/.newsrc ~/.signature users signature for use when sending messages ~/News directory where articles are saved ~/Articles where 'saved' postings and messages are stored ~/dead.letter where failed postings and messages are stored ~/.Xdefaults location of color, font, and other default information /usr/local/lib/rn/server location of the news server host- name /usr/lib/sendmail default mailer Printed 4/25/88 5 March 1988 15 XRN(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual XRN(1) ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES NNTPSERVER name of the news server hostname TMPDIR temporary directory SEE ALSO readnews(1), rn(1), vnews(1), X(1), nntpd(8) COMMENTS Clicking a mouse button in the title bar will iconify the xrn window. Clicking in the xrn icon will deiconify the xrn window. xrn catches signals and X errors and will clean up on error exit (remove temporary files, update the newsrc file). The cleanup will be done and then a death notifier box will be posted (if the signal is HUP, the death notifier will be skipped and the program will exit). The "click to exit" button must be pressed in the death notifier box for the program to exit. XREFS are handled by xrn, however only articles that are actually read (not marked as read by 'catchup' or 'mark as read') have their XREFS chased and only groups that are currently subscribed to have XREFed articles marked as read. The default specifications for color and fonts can be confusing (close to 200 different Xdefaults can be specified for xrn, no two users' xrn displays need to be the same). xrn uses the XHDR command of the Berkeley NNTP news server (XHDR is not part of the protocol defined by RFC 977). Since the NNTP protocol does not define a unique response code for server timeout, timeout recovery may not work if the format of the timeout error message changes. Uses X version 10 release 4 (needs XStippleFill). xrn assumes a `smart' or `lucky' mailer. xrn locks the `.newsrc' file in an attempt to stop multiple xrns from running. Unfortunately, file locking does not work across NFS. xrn notices that the `.newsrc' file has been updated by another program while xrn is running and informs the user (and gives the user the option to quit without updating the `.newsrc' or to continue on). Article temporary files can be removed and xrn will recover. xrn strips `<character>^H' from articles (the current X Printed 4/25/88 5 March 1988 16 XRN(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual XRN(1) toolkit does not currently support multiple fonts). BUGS Meta-< does not work in the text windows (an Xtoolkit bug). Carriage return does not activate any of the dialog box but- tons in the 'Meta-I' (include file) dialog box while in the toolkit editor. Resizing the main window while a dialog box is up will cause the dialog box to be buried. If the dialog box is moded, you will be stuck (you must kill xrn). If you rebind your mouse buttons such that the left one no longer activates command buttons, hitting carriage return in a dialog box will do the right thing, but not highlight the button. FUTURE PLANS Adding kill files, not hard to do. Keep running if the server dies and reconnect when it comes back up. Allow some of the options to be changed at run-time. xrn will be converted to X11 when X11 and the X11 toolkit settle down (xrn currently uses a bug-fixed and slightly modified X10 toolkit). Report bugs and requests for features to `xrn@eros.berkeley.edu' (...!ucbvax!eros!xrn). Requests to be placed on the xrn users mailing list should be sent to `xrn-users-request@eros.berkeley.edu' (...!ucbvax!eros!xrn-users-request). AUTHORS Ellen M Sentovich (UC Berkeley, ellen@ic.berkeley.edu, ...!ucbvax!ic!ellen) Rick L Spickelmier (UC Berkeley, ricks@berkeley.edu, ...!ucbvax!ricks) Printed 4/25/88 5 March 1988 17