rsalz@uunet.uu.net (Rich Salz) (06/09/88)
Submitted-by: Bob McQueer <rtech!bobm> Posting-number: Volume 15, Issue 53 Archive-name: vn.april.pch/part02 #! /bin/sh # This is a shell archive. Remove anything before this line, then unpack # it by saving it into a file and typing "sh file". To overwrite existing # files, type "sh file -c". You can also feed this as standard input via # unshar, or by typing "sh <file", e.g.. If this archive is complete, you # will see the following message at the end: # "End of shell archive." PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/ucb ; export PATH if test -f vn.man -a "${1}" != "-c" ; then echo shar: Will not over-write existing file \"vn.man\" else echo shar: Extracting \"vn.man\" \(24933 characters\) sed "s/^X//" >vn.man <<'END_OF_vn.man' X.TH VN 1 6/1/88 X.UC X.SH NAME Xvn - visual news reader X.SH SYNOPSIS X.I vn [options] X.SH DESCRIPTION X.I Vn Xis a news reader which uses the same X.B .newsrc Xfile as X.I readnews X(1), but displays and interacts differently. It is aimed at allowing Xyou to rapidly scan a large number of newsgroups, looking for something Xyou want to read. The major premise is that you will be interested in a Xsmall number of articles, but will be interested in keeping tabs on a large Xnumber of newsgroups which may contain something interesting from time to time. XIt also has the ability to unpackage digests. X.sp XAs with other readers, Xoptions may be given on the command line, in which case they will Xsupersede those given in the X.B .newsrc Xfile. X.SH OPTIONS X.I Vn Xsupports the -n, -x and -t options of X.I readnews X(specify newsgroup, read all articles, and specify title). XIn addition, there some other options: -U, -S, -%, -w, -t and some options Xbeginning with +. The "+" options are not recognized within the X.B .newsrc Xfile, only on the command line, and are intended for use in environments Xwith multiple NNTP installations. If you are not using an NNTP version, Xor only have one news installation accessible from a given machine, they Xare probably of little use. X.sp XThe -w (writer Xor author) option which works like -t, but is a search string to Xapply to the "From" header line rather than the subject. In the -n, -t Xand -w options, a leading "!" on the string is taken to mean negation. XThe rest of the string is a regular expression for the -w and -t options. X.sp XFor example: X.sp X-n net.dogs -w !fred -t [Bb]eagle X.sp XSelects articles in net.dogs about beagles written by somebody other Xthan fred. Multiple -w -t options are treated as follows: X.in +5 X.sp XIf the article satisfies any of the negations, you won't see it, Xregardless of the non-negated options. X.sp XMultiple -w options are logically "or'ed", as are multiple -t's. X.sp XIf both -w and -t are present, the article is seen only if it satisfies Xat least one of the -w's and at least one of the -t's, i.e. the results of the Xlogical "or's" of the -t's and of the -w's are logically "anded" together. X.sp X.in -5 XThe -n options allow the "all" convention, replacing ".all" by X".*" before using the regular expression calls. -n options are processed Xin the order given so that subsequent, more specific, -n's may partially Xundo the effect of previous "alls". Note that the -n option Xtreatment is slightly different than the X.I readnews Xtreatment which says that "foo" implies "foo.all". X.I Vn Xaccepts this incompatibility to allow you an easier way of saying JUST "foo" Xwithout any of its subgroups. X.sp XThe -S option is useful in conjunction with command line -n options. It is Xreally not useful in the X.B .newsrc Xfile, but existed before the "+" options were added. XFor command line -n options, the "!" unsubscriptions in X.B .newsrc Xare also ignored. This allows you to override all subscription information Xby command line specification. -S will modify this behavior. XIf you use an -S option on the command line, Xthe "!" unsubscriptions will still be used. X.sp XThe -% option initially gives you the results of a "%" Xcommand, rather than the page for the first newsgroup (see below). XThis allows you to see what newsgroups are available before viewing any. X.sp XThe -U option says that when your X.B .newsrc Xfile is updated via answering "yes" to the update query on Xexit or using control-W, newsgroups marked with "!" are to be updated too. XNormally, these groups are left alone, i.e. updated only to the number that Xwas already in your X.B .newsrc, Xor the lowest article number still around. XYou may get flooded should you decide to resubscribe. XIf you don't like this treatment, use -U. Then, control-W and "yes" to Xthe update on exit will update your unsubscribed newsgroups to the most Xrecent article. X.sp XThe "+" options mainly deal with NNTP. If you are not using Xan NNTP version (will be printed in the version message on startup, Xversion will either be "res" or "nntp"), the +l, +m and +t options Xare not recognized. X.sp XThe +n option must be followed by a filename, and directly specifies the X.B .newsrc Xfile in a manner similar to the NEWSRC variable, which it will override Xif defined. X.sp XThe +m option must be followed by a machine name, and specifies the Xmachine to talk the news installation on. This will normally default Xto some site-determined machine, and may also be set via the VNMACHINE Xvariable. The option overrides the variable, if defined. Note that Xthis is useful only if you have multiple news INSTALLATIONS accessible Xfrom your machine, ie. different spooling areas with possibly different Xsets of articles and different newsgroups based on which machine you Xcommunicate with to obtain the news. A majority of sites will not Xhave this situation, so if you find the explanation confusing, ignore it. X.sp XThe +l option makes an NNTP version behave in a non-NNTP fashion, ie. Xit directly reads the articles and newsgroup information, rather than Xcommunicating with NNTP. An empty string for VNMACHINE corresponds to Xthis. X.sp XThe +t option must be followed by a filename, and will cause a trace Xof the interaction with the NNTP server to be collected into it. XPrimarily useful for somebody installing the program. X.SH "USER INTERFACE" XWhen X.I vn Xis invoked, Xthere will be a pause (with an explanatory "reading" message and Xa series of newsgroup names) while X.I vn Xreads the news. The newsgroups listed Xare ones articles are actually being found in. XThe length of the pause depends Xon how much news there is. If there is a lot, Xit may take a long time to get through the reading phase. XIf this is the first time you are using X.I vn, Xor if you are starting with an empty X.B .newsrc Xfile, Xthis may take a X.I very Xlong time; Xthere is a X.I lot Xof news out there. X.sp XOnce the reading phase is over, interaction is rapid. XIf X.I vn Xis backgrounded, it suppresses the "reading" output, so Xthat it will not halt on tty output until it is ready to begin showing Xarticles. X.sp X.I Vn Xmay show you a list of newsgroups which were not mentioned in the X.B .newsrc Xfile. Records for these newsgroups will be added Xto your X.B .newsrc Xfile, whether Xthey were scanned for articles or not. The first time X.I vn Xis used, the list may be quite long and scroll off the screen. XThereafter, there should only be a list when new newsgroups are Xcreated. This display serves to let you know of their existence, Xor of something happening to your X.B .newsrc Xfile. X.sp XThe basic display is a "page" which shows a newsgroup and a list of Xtitles, number of Xlines, and authors for new articles. XArticles which have been updated in the X.B .newsrc Xfile are flagged with an underscore preceding the article number. XYou also have the ability to "mark" articles for the duration of a session; Xthis is Xshown with an asterisk. X(Columns 1 and 2 are reserved for asterisk and Xunderscore respectively. XIn normal usage they will be blank, so that the casual user will probably Xbe unaware of their use until marking and updating are invoked.) X.sp XThere is a help menu to go with this page. XYou may read articles, save them, or send them to the printer, either by cursor Xposition, the whole page, or in specified sets. Sets are specified either Xas a set of article numbers, a regular expression to match the subject / Xauthor / number of lines data on, or an asterisk to indicate the choice Xof a set of previously marked articles. Any of these methods also Xaccept a leading "!" to indicate negation. X.sp XWhen you read articles only a couple of the dozen or so Xheader lines are Xshown. There is an option to allow you to see all the Xheader lines when you read articles. The command controlling this toggles Xbetween the two states. X.sp XA similar toggle is used to support ROT13 encryption. X.sp X.I Vn Xis capable of manipulating digests. The "d" command unpacks a digest Xand presents you with a page showing the unpacked articles. XThese can then Xbe accessed the same way as articles on normal newsgroup pages. XWhen you leave the digest page(s), you reenter the normal flow of newsgroups. XDigests can also be read as normal articles, of course. X.sp XThe order of page presentation is determined by Xorder of the group lines in the X.B .newsrc Xfile. XNewsgroups which are not Xmentioned in X.B .newsrc Xwill be added, as mentioned previously, at then end of the file. XLines corresponding to non-existent newsgroups will be deleted. XYou will probably want to run X.I vn Xonce, then edit your X.B .newsrc Xfile Xto the desired order of presentation. X.sp XUpdating the data for X.B .newsrc Xis under user control. If you do Xno "W", "w", "^w", "o" or "O" commands, no updating takes place, Xand you'll see the Xarticles again the next time you read news. XIf you quit without updating, you will be prompted to make sure you Xthis is really what you Xwant to do. X.sp XNote that "updating what you've seen" to X.I vn Xmeans that you've seen the page presentation, not that you've read the Xarticle. This is consistent with the overall assumption that you don't Xwant to read most of what you are presented with. X.sp XBreaks result in a "really quit?" query, so you can recover from noisy Xlines and prompts for commands you didn't really mean. If you answer no, Xyou are simply jumped back to the page. Breaks while in the midst of scrolling Xout an article you are reading jump you to the end of the article to stop Xthe output. X.sp XCommands are single character (no return key required), except that Xthey may be preceded with numeric characters, which may have Xsome effect on their actions. Commands which require further input Xcause prompts for the information, this input being Xterminated by return. For prompted input, the erase and kill keys Xwork. X.sp X.ce 1 XCommand Menu For Page: X.sp X.nf X[...] = effect of optional number preceding command Xpipes are specified by filenames beginning with | Xarticles specified as a list of numbers, title search string, or X * to specify marked articles. ! may be used to negate any X X q - quit X k - (or up arrow) move up [number of lines] X j - (or down arrow) move down [number of lines] X <back sp> - (or left arrow) previous page [number of pages] X <return> - (or right arrow) next page [number of pages] X > - next newsgroup [number of newsgroups] X < - previous newsgroup [number of newsgroups] X d - unpack digest X H - top of page X L - bottom of page X G - bottom of page (alternate L) X M - middle of page X d - unpack digest X r - read article [number of articles] X <space> - read article (alternate 'r') X R - read all articles on page X control-r - specify articles to read X s - save or pipe article [number of articles] X S - save or pipe all articles on page X control-s - specify articles to save X control-t - specify articles to save (alternate ctl-s) X p - print article [number of articles] X P - print all article on page X control-p - specify articles to print X w - update .newsrc status to cursor X W - update .newsrc status for whole newsgroup X control-w - update .newsrc status for all pages displayed X o - recover original .newsrc status for newsgroup X O - recover all original .newsrc status X # - display count of groups and pages - shown and total X % - list newsgroups with new article, updated counts X n - specify newsgroup to display and/or resubscribe to X u - unsubscribe from group X x - mark/unmark article [number of articles] X * - mark/unmark article [number of articles] X X - erase marks on articles X control-x - specify articles to mark X h - toggle flag for display of headers when reading X z - toggle ROT13 mode for reading X<formfeed> - redraw screen X ! - escape to UNIX to execute a command X " - show vn version X ? - show this help menu X.fi X.sp XWhen you read articles there is another help menu for advancing through Xthe articles, replying, posting followups, and saving the Xarticles. Breaks may be used to Xstop the output of an article if you decide that you didn't really Xwant to read it. You can jump from the reading portion back to either Xpage you came from or the NEXT page. X.sp XFor replying and posting followups, you will be placed in an editor Xto create the reply or article. XThe article will be included in the file you are editing, marked with X"> "'s for excerpting in your reply or followup. After exiting the Xeditor you are prompted to make sure you still want to post or reply. X.sp XFor followups, your article is appended to "author_copy" for future Xreference. X(See CCFILE in the section on ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). X.sp XHeader lines for the mailer / news poster are present in the file Xyou are editing to allow you to modify them. Remember to leave a blank Xline between the header lines and your text. It may be OK if you Xdon't, but why tempt fate. X.sp XThe editor is determined by your EDITOR or VNEDITOR variable, as for X.I postnews. X(See the section on ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). XIf EDITOR is not set, you get X.I vi. X.sp X.ce 1 XReading menu: X.sp X.nf X n - next article, if any X q - quit reading articles, if any more to read X Q - quit reading, and turn to next page of articles X r - rewind article to beginning X <return> - next line X / - search for a pattern in the article X m - send mail to author of article X f - post followup to article X s - save article in a file X p - send article to the printer X ? - see this help menu X z - toggle rotation flag X h - toggle header suppression flag X X anything else to continue normal reading X.fi X.sp XWhen articles are saved from anywhere, a few special conventions apply. X.sp XIf the name begins with "|", you are specifying Xa pipe to feed the article(s) to, rather than a file. No other interpretation Xis done in this case. X.sp XIf you specify a name not beginning with "/", the article will be saved Xwith reference to your original directory, or with reference to the VNSAVE Xvariable (see below). X.sp XIf you embed a "%d" in the name, that Xwill be replaced with the article number, or the first number in a list Xof articles. X.sp XIf you prepend "w:" to the Xname, you can force an overwrite instead of an append. The colon prefix Xmay be used to open the file with any mode you please, actually. If you Xreally WANT a colon in the name, specify "a:" ahead of it. The colon Xprefix is stripped off before any other filename interpretation. X.sp XBoth the VNSAVE variable and the save name may use a leading "~" to Xindicate the user's home or "~name" for another user's home. It is assumed Xthat a slash will separate the tilde expression from the rest of VNSAVE, or Xthe rest of the file name if there are further directories. X.sp XWhen you are prompted for a savefile name, the last non-pipe Xname you used Xis presented, so you may use your erase/kill keys to edit it. X.sp XOld search strings / pattern match strings are also presented for edit in the Xsame manner. X.sp XIf you don't like the choice of command keys, you Xmay change them (default choices - basic control in article Xreader is ala X.I more Xof course, the "j" and "k" on the page presentation are X.I vi Xconvention, other page commands are somewhat X.I readnews Xcompatible). XIf you have a file named X.B .vnkey Xin your home directory this file will be read in order to obtain keystroke Xtranslation. The format is simple: X.sp XEach line begins with R or P indicating translation for the reader interaction, Xor the page interaction (r and p accepted also). Following the R or P is Xa character, followed by an "=", followed by another character. The character Xon the left hand side of the equals sign is what you wish to input, and the Xcharacter on the right hand side of the equals sign is what you wish to Xtranslate it to. No embedded spaces are allowed. XLines not beginning with the proper characters are simply Xignored, as are characters following the translated character. Eg: X.sp X.in +5 XPd=j X.br XPu=k X.in -5 X.sp Xuses "u" and "d" instead of "j" and "k" on the page layout (presumably, Xyou are also going to translate something else to "u" and "d" for the Xunsubscribe and digest commands). If you translate keys, it is up to you Xto see that all commands can still be reached, and that former command keys Xwhich are no longer used are mapped to something meaningless. In particular, Xyou are going to have difficulties if you make it impossible to input "q". The Xhelp menus will show the "new" keys, and bad mappings should show up as Xmultiple definitions for the same key, or alternate mappings not showing Xup on the help menu. X.sp XMapping the "=" key via "==" works. Any keys not mentioned in the file Xare translated to themselves. X.sp XControl keys are given as DECIMAL numbers with no backslashes or anything. XThe decimal number is the ASCII code for the character, eg: X.sp X.in +5 XP24=12 X.br XP12=? X.in -5 Xuses "control-x" for the "control-l (formfeed)" refresh key, and maps the Xcontrol-l to a "?". BTW, mapping all undefined keys to "?" will mean that you Xautomatically get the help display for any illegal key, should you wish for Xsuch a thing. The LAST one mapped will determine what key is given in Xthe "? for help" lines, and the help display itself. XRemembering that control-A through Xcontrol-Z are ASCII codes 1 through 26 and delete = 127 may keep you from Xhaving to consult an ASCII table. Remember also that some controls, such Xas control- C, Z, S or Q may be caught by the operating system for signal Xgeneration or terminal control, and are thus unavailable. X.sp XBecause of arrow keys and the ability to prefix commands with counts, Xnumeric characters and the escape key may not be used for page commands. XAttempts to use them will simply do nothing. X.sp XControl keys are not available for the reader, except for newline, Xbackspace, and tab. The reason controls are filtered here has to do Xwith nasty problems involving terminal mode switches on some systems, Xspecifically a UTS frontend early versions were being used on. X.sp XIn either interaction, "return" and "linefeed" are mapped to the "newline" Xcharacter at a level below the translation. If you don't know the XASCII for the "newline" char, it is recommended that you map both XASCII 10 and 13 if you wish to map "return" to something. X.SH FILES X.TP 24 X/usr/tmp/* XOne temporary file created by X.I tmpnam X(3), and immediately unlinked, Xremains open in update mode for duration of session. XDisk space freed by system close of file descriptor at exit. XCan be large, as this file contains the "page" displays. XTemporary files also created by X.I tmpnam X(3) for mailing replies, posting followups and creating digest "articles". X.TP 24 X(login directory)/.newsrc Xnews status file. Updated following session. See NEWSRC environment variable. X.TP 24 X(login directory)/author_copy XA copy of all articles posted using the followup command will be appended Xto this file in /bin/mail format. See CCFILE environment variable. X.TP 24 X(login directory)/.vnkey XKeystroke mapping file for changing command characters. X.TP 24 X(login directory)/*.vnXXXXXX XOne temporary file created by X.I tmpnam X(3) while updating the X.B .newsrc Xfile. If the update fails, you are informed, Xand this file Xmay be used to recover the last update. Unlinked following successful update. X.TP 24 X(spool directory)/* Xspooling directories containing articles. X.TP 24 X/usr/lib/news/active Xactive newsgroup list. X.SH "ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES" XFor all variables which do not begin with "VN", X.I vn Xwill accept an override Xby setting a variable VN<name> which will be preferred. For instance Xsetting VNEDITOR allows you to use a special editor for X.I vn Xwithout affecting Xuse of that variable by your shell, setting VNPS1 takes care of your Xnormal UNIX prompt having multiple lines, or setting VNNEWSRC allows you to Xuse X.I vn Xwithout disturbing your X.B .newsrc Xfor other readers. X.TP 24 XVNSAVE XUsed as a directory to place saved articles in. If it does not begin Xwith "/", it will be taken with respect to the users home directory. If Xit ends with "/%s", a separate directory will be created for each Xnewsgroup. X.TP 24 XPS1 XUsed to present prompt string for command on unix escape. XDefaults to "$ " X.TP 24 XEDITOR XEditor used for mailing replies and posting followups. XDefaults to X.I vi. X.TP 24 XPOSTER XPosting program for followups. Defaults to "inews -h". X.TP 24 XMAILER XUsed when mailing replies. Defaults to "sendmail -t". X.TP 24 XPRINTER XProgram used with the print commands for sending articles to Xthe printer. Defaults to "lpr". X.TP 24 XNEWSRC XIf set, can be used to override the choice of X.B .newsrc Xas the Xname for the status file. Name will still be used relative to Xthe login directory, unless it begins with "/". X.TP 24 XCCFILE XIf set, overrides the choice of "author_copy" as the name of the Xfile to CC all articles posted with the followup command. Name Xwill still be used relative to the login directory, unless it begins Xwith "/". X.TP 24 XVNKEY XIf set, overrides the choice of ".vnkey" as the name of the Xfile to map keys from. Name Xwill still be used relative to the login directory, unless it begins Xwith "/". X.TP 24 XVNMACHINE XApplies only to NNTP versions - sets the machine to talk to. See discussion Xof options, above. X.SH DIAGNOSTICS XUser error messages. Self explanatory. X.SH AUTHOR XBob McQueer. X.sp XSignificant enhancement / bugfixes / suggestions from: X.sp XLawrie Brown, John G Dobnick, Greg Earle, Rodney Goke, Andy Marrinson, XJay Maynard, Marius Olafsson, George Pavel, Dave Tallman, Larry Tepper, XKarl Williamson, Mark Wittenberg, Andrew Worsley X.sp XAnd undoubtedly some others who have been forgotten. My apologies. X.SH BUGS XNote that X.I readnews Xwill rearrange the order of X.B .newsrc. XIf you Xinterleave use of it with X.I vn, Xorder selection gets hosed. X.sp XIf you've really taken advantage of the ability of X.I readnews Xto skip Xarticles in the middle of the spooling numbers, be warned that X.I vn Xdoesn't have it, and will Xassume you've read the articles in the middle. X.sp XIf the X.B .newsrc Xfile indicates that you've read articles in a newsgroup with a higher Xnumber than the current spooling number for that newsgroup, X.I vn Xwill show you up to 60 old articles. This is intended for recovery in Xcases where article spooling has been reset, or to avoid missing articles Xbecause you just changed machines and didn't bother to edit your X.B .newsrc Xfile. Rather than miss stuff, you'll see some old stuff again. During Xthe reading phase, a warning message is printed that this is happening. X.sp XSometimes a "break" during reading an article will not only halt the Xarticle but suppress the prompt. A command character will work anyway. X.sp XIf a prompt to be displayed on the dialogue line Xcontains non-printing sequences, stuff on the Xline may not get erased when you are prompted, because X.I vn Xthinks the string is long enough to overprint its current contents. XThis usually comes up when you have escape sequences in your UNIX Xprompt, and do a "!" command. XThe "overprint" check is made to save a clear-line sequence (kludged in Xby overprinting to the end with blanks if the terminal doesn't Xhave one - annoying at 1200 baud). X.sp XOutput during the reading phase which was suppressed by backgrounding X.I vn Xdoes not get started by foregrounding it again without doing a Xcontrol-z and a second foreground (it doesn't figure out its background / Xforeground status on each output - only on startup and while handling Xthe SIGTSTP signal). Actually, this results in a method for having X.I vn Xdo its reading phase silently in the foreground without redirecting Xoutput, should such a thing be desired. X.sp XVery many -w or -t options cause SLOW reading phases. It is recommended Xthat these be used only when reading a few specific groups. X.sp XDigest extraction will split a single article into several if it contains Xembedded ---- lines, the normal separator between articles in digests. XThey will all have identical titles. XDigest extraction may not work with human built digests which don't Xuse the expected syntax for joining articles. Mod.computers.ibm-pc Xand mod.computers.mac were used as models for the feature. X.sp XThe data given by the % command represents the difference between the Xlast article number you've updated to in a newsgroup and the high Xarticle number. This may be significantly greater than the number of Xactual articles for a newsgroup you haven't been reading, and for Xnewsgroups that have had a lot of articles filtered out of them using Xthe -w and -t options. The numbers given for menu selection in the X % command are the order numbers from the X .B .newsrc, Xand have gaps for Xunsubscribed newsgroups. X.sp XThe key mapping capability doesn't handle function keys. Because of the Xuse of controls as commands, terminals whose arrow keys echo something Xother than a sequence beginning with escape can't use arrow keys. For Xthese terminals, a warning message is printed during the reading phase. END_OF_vn.man if test 24933 -ne `wc -c <vn.man`; then echo shar: \"vn.man\" unpacked with wrong size! fi # end of overwriting check fi echo shar: End of shell archive. exit 0 -- Please send comp.sources.unix-related mail to rsalz@uunet.uu.net.