chguest@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (Charles J. Guest) (08/02/89)
I tried to run rn on our system and I got a message about the command not found. What's going on here?
stacy@ccnysci.UUCP (Stacy Weaver) (08/16/89)
In article <4611@eos.UUCP>, chguest@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (Charles J. Guest) writes: > > I tried to run rn on our system and I got a message about the command > not found. What's going on here? have you tried typing news at the prompt?
epsilon@wet.UUCP (Eric P. Scott) (08/18/89)
In article <2661@ccnysci.UUCP> stacy@ccnysci.UUCP (Stacy Weaver) writes: >[quote of a forged message] > > have you tried typing news at the prompt? [ This description is for System V; other variants are similar ] The UNIX "news" program (and its associated directory, /usr/news) has absolutely nothing to do with usenet. "news" can be used as an extension of the /etc/motd (message of the day) file; while motd is displayed each time you log in, news topics are only displayed once. The zero-length file $HOME/.news_time maintains the date and time of the last message read. A system administrator will typically put a news -n (display names) or news -s (display count of unread news items) in a shell profile. news with no arguments displays all items you haven't read. BSD has a similar "bboard" style program called msgs. Network News is what you're reading now. The software package is generically called netnews, and the machines that exchange Network News are known collectively as usenet. netnews is not an AT&T product, and not an official part of UNIX (although often distributed with UNIX as "contributed software.") Netnews software is also available for non-UNIX systems as well--don't assume that what you read here originates on a UNIX system or that other readers are in UNIX environments! Also, the hardest thing to explain to the stubborn: usenet is not uucp, and uucp is not usenet. Each can exist quite happily in the absence of the other. People do not have "usenet addresses"--they have addresses on uucp, Internet, etc. You cannot mail to someone through usenet. If you reply to a usenet article, your reply travels through conventional electronic mail. If you follow up to a usenet article, your followup travels through usenet. It's not addressed to anyone in particular--it goes to one or more newsgroups. -=EPS=-
edhew@xenitec.uucp (Ed Hew) (08/20/89)
In article <2661@ccnysci.UUCP> stacy@ccnysci.UUCP (Stacy Weaver) writes: >In article <4611@eos.UUCP>, chguest@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (Charles J. Guest) writes: >> I tried to run rn on our system and I got a message about the command >> not found. What's going on here? > > have you tried typing news at the prompt? This suggest that the original poster either: 1/ doesn't have a path to rn, hence can't find it. 2/ has a sysadmin who changed the name (it's not lack of execute perms, as the stderr explicitly states "not found") In either case, contacting the sysadmin at that site is probably the most expedient solution. [general comment to all new users:] Almost all sites are different, especially where the site is managed by a "creative" sysadmin. :-) What will often happen is that a sysadmin will hack a nice little chunk of code to wrap utilities for the user, install additional non-distribution packages (there are *thousands* of very good sources available on the 'NET), or simply mv a command to avoid a conflict with something else he/she may have installed on that site. If things don't work the way you expect them to ("well it works right everywhere else, but here it doesn't"), then ask the person in charge of the system. They can usually tell you what the difference is. Occasionally, you'll even be doing them a favour, by telling them something is suddenly broken, thereby giving them a chance to fix it. It happens. Summary: Ask the sysadmin(s) on your site. They should know. If they don't then it's time to ask here. Ed. A. Hew Authorized Technical Trainer Xeni/Con Corporation work: edhew@xenicon.uucp -or- ..!{uunet!}utai!lsuc!xenicon!edhew ->home: edhew@egvideo.uucp -or- ..!{uunet!}watmath!egvideo!edhew ->home: changing to: edhew@xenitec.uucp [but be patient for new maps]
gints@NCoast.ORG (Steve Juhasz) (08/24/89)
In article <4611@eos.UUCP>, chguest@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (Charles J. Guest) writes: > > I tried to run rn on our system and I got a message about the command > not found. What's going on here? If you running rn under a UNIX operating system (Which most likely you are), then you must check the directory that the rn command is found in. For instance, on my system the rn command is found in a directory: /usr/local/bin, and can not be accessed from my home directory. The way to get around this is to use the SET PATH command (preferably set up in a .login file so you don't have to type the command every time you log on). Find out about this, and your problems should be solved. -Steve ----------------------------------------------------------------- Steve Juhasz gints@NCoast.ORG -----------------------------------------------------------------