zaphod@madnix.UUCP (Ron Bean) (08/01/89)
I've been using 'rn' with the '-h' switch to save a little time reading the news. This gives me the subject, newsgroups, and the first few lines of the message, then stops and gives me the "(MORE)" prompt, so I can skip stuff I'm not interested in without having to read the whole first screenful at 1200 baud. I think it would make more sense to see the Newsgroups:, Subject:, Summary:, and From: lines. Is there any way to do this? (As an aside, I've avoided using 'kill files' because uninteresting discussions sometimes take an interesting turn, and people don't edit the "Subject:" line. But they often DO use the "Summary:" line.) BTW, two books I found very useful are the "Quick Reference Guide to Xenix Mail" (Microsoft Press, 44 pages, $4.95) and "UNIX Communications" (SAMS/The Waite Group, 542 pages, $26.95). I got both of these at a local bookstore that stocks computer-related books. The "Xenix Mail" pamphlet does not cover usenet, but is a good quick reference to 'mail' and 'vi'.
mesard@bbn.com (Wayne Mesard) (08/02/89)
In article <757@madnix.UUCP> zaphod@madnix.UUCP (Ron Bean) writes: > I've been using 'rn' with the '-h' switch to save a little >time reading the news. This gives me the subject, newsgroups, and >the first few lines of the message, then stops and gives me the >"(MORE)" prompt, so I can skip stuff I'm not interested [...] >I think it would make more sense to see the Newsgroups:, Subject:, >Summary:, and From: lines. Is there any way to do this? One look at the 20+ page man entry for rn will tell you how customizeable it is. So answers to question such as this are almost always Yes. The -h switch controls what headers will be shown. By itself, -h turns off everything but the subject line (and the newsgroups line unless there article was cross-posted <--don't reread that, it's only there so that no one corrects me:-) But you can have -h suppress specific headers. For example: rn -hreferences Will prevent the References: field from being shown. -h (like most rn command line switches) has a counterpart called +h which turns headers on. So, putting this all together. The following command should do what you want: rn -h +hsummary +hfrom In other words, turn everything off, then selectively turn some things back on. When you're working at a high baud rate, you may wnat to see all the headers. But when dialing up over a 1200 baud modem, you may want to limit them. Rn allows you to conditionalize every command line switch according to your baud rate. So the switches in the following example would only take effect when you login over a 1200 baud line: rn -1200-h -1200+hsummary -1200+hfrom In order to save typing and sanity, you can put command line switches in an environment variable called RNINIT. So if you use the C Shell you'd put something like the following in your ~/.login file: setenv RNINIT 'rn -1200-h -1200+hsummary -1200+hfrom' Bourne shell users would put this in their $HOME/.profile: RNINIT = 'rn -1200-h -1200+hsummary -1200+hfrom'; export RNINIT then you'll only have to type "rn" and you'll get a newsreader customized to your tastes. (Of course, this won't take effect until the next time you login, unless you get the shell to reread the file. But that's a story for another day.) Other rn options you might consider include (my personal favorites): -m -N -S -1200-e. See the man page for details. Remember these are case-sensitive (IOW, "-m" is not the same thing as "-M"). Disclaimer: None of the above has been tested. Caveat emptor. -- unsigned *Wayne_Mesard(); Private eye. Cats found, fictitious documents Mesard@BBN.COM discovered. Special this week: Two for one on BBN, Cambridge, MA arson investigations.
dkrause@orion.cf.uci.edu (Doug Krause) (08/02/89)
In article <757@madnix.UUCP> zaphod@madnix.UUCP (Ron Bean) writes: >without having to read the whole first screenful at 1200 baud. I >think it would make more sense to see the Newsgroups:, Subject:, >Summary:, and From: lines. Is there any way to do this? If you use rn -i=1 it tells it that the first page should be 1 line long, however rn will always show the entire header. So this way the article stops at the end of the header and you can decide what to do from there. Douglas Krause One yuppy can ruin your whole day. --------------------------------------------------------------------- University of California, Irvine Internet: dkrause@orion.cf.uci.edu Welcome to Irvine, Yuppieland USA BITNET: DJKrause@ucivmsa