slrn
(1)
Name
slrn - An easy to use NNTP / spool based newsreader.
Synopsis
slrn [-aCdknmw] [-C-] [-Dname] [-f newsrc-file] [-i config-
file] [-k0] [--create] [--debug file] [--help] [--inews]
[--kill-log file] [--nntp [-h server] [-p port]] [--show-
config] [--spool] [--version]
Description
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User Manuals slrn(1)
NAME
slrn - An easy to use NNTP / spool based newsreader.
SYNOPSIS
slrn [-aCdknmw] [-C-] [-Dname] [-f newsrc-file] [-i config-
file] [-k0] [--create] [--debug file] [--help] [--inews]
[--kill-log file] [--nntp [-h server] [-p port]] [--show-
config] [--spool] [--version]
DESCRIPTION
slrn is an easy to use but powerful NNTP / spool based news-
reader.
It is highly customizable, supports scoring, free key bind-
ings and can be extended using the embedded S-Lang inter-
preter.
To use slrn, you either need to set the NNTPSERVER environ-
ment variable to the server you want to read news from or
specify a server on the command line. A newsrc file is
needed, too. In case you do not yet have one, you can cre-
ate it using ``slrn -f ~/.jnewsrc --create''.
Inside slrn, online help is available via the '?' key.
OPTIONS
The following options can be used when calling slrn from the
command line. They override both environment variables and
settings in private and global configuration files.
-a Read active file when checking for new news.
-C Use colors without checking if the terminal supports
it.
-C- Don't use colors, even if the terminal supports it.
-d Get group descriptions (taglines) from the news server.
Please note that this may cause a download of several
hundred kilobytes and thus can take a long time. The
output is saved to a local file, so you only need to do
this once. May not be specified in combination with
--create.
-Dname
Add name to the list of predefined preprocessing
tokens, which can be used in your slrnrc file to have
conditionally interpreted lines. See the slrn refer-
ence manual for details.
-f newsrc-file
Use file as the newsrc file for this session. This is
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permanently set via the server configuration command.
-h host[:port]
Connect to the NNTP server on host, overriding the
$NNTPSERVER environment variable. If no port is given,
the default NNTP port (119) will be used. This option
is only accepted after --nntp or when NNTP is the
default mode.
-i config-file
Read file as the initialization (slrnrc) file. The
default is to use .slrnrc (or slrn.rc on VMS, OS/2 and
Windows) in your home directory.
-k Don't read the score file.
-k0 Read the score file, but inhibit expensive scoring. A
scoring rule is expensive if it contains header lines
that are not included in the server's overview files.
This makes applying them slow.
-m Force mouse support (without checking if it works on
the current terminal).
-n Do not check for new groups (usually resulting in a
faster startup).
-p N Use port N to connect to the NNTP server.
-w Wait for a key before switching to full screen mode,
allowing the user to read startup messages.
--create
Read the active file (the list of all groups) from the
news server to create an initial newsrc file.
--debug file
Write debugging output to file.
--help
Show help for command line switches.
--inews
Use an external inews program to post articles.
--kill-log file
Keep a log of all articles that were killed by the
scorefile in file.
--nntp
Use builtin NNTP support for reading and posting (an
external program is used to post if slrn was compiled
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with --enable-force-inews).
--pull
Spool outgoing articles locally for slrnpull to send.
--show-config
Print detailed information about slrn configuration.
--spool
Read directly from spool.
--version
Print version and some compile time settings.
ENVIRONMENT
slrn uses the following list of environment variables.
Note: environment variables can be overridden by configura-
tion files or command line switches.
COLORTERM
If this variable is set, slrn will assume that your
terminal supports ANSI color sequences. It also
enables a workaround for a problem with the mouse
reporting when running slrn inside of an rxvt.
DISPLAY
If set, slrn assumes that X11 is running.
EDITOR
See $SLRN_EDITOR.
HOME See $SLRNHOME.
HOSTNAME
If no hostname is given, the value of this environment
variable is used.
LOGNAME
See $USER.
NAME Set it to your realname, if slrn can't determine it
otherwise.
NNTPSERVER
You can use this variable to tell slrn which NNTP
server to connect to. It can be overridden by the com-
mand line option -h.
ORGANIZATION
The name of your organization.
PRINTER
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On unix systems, slrn pipes the current article to
``lpr -P $PRINTER'' to print it.
PWD This variable is only used on unix systems that don't
support getcwd(3). In these cases, it should be set to
the current directory at the time slrn is invoked.
This is usually done by the shell and nothing the user
has to worry about.
REPLYTO
The value of this variable is used as the default if
you do not set replyto in your slrnrc file.
SLANG_EDITOR
See $SLRN_EDITOR.
SLRNHELP
You can set this variable to a file slrn should read
its online help from. This is only needed when the
default key bindings have been changed and you want the
help function to reflect this. If unset, slrn looks
for help.txt in the configuration directory.
SLRNHOME
When interpreting filenames as relative to your home
directory, slrn uses this variable to find out what
your home directory is. If $SLRNHOME is unset, $HOME
is used instead.
SLRN_EDITOR
The editor to start for editing articles. If this
variable is unset, slrn subsequently looks at
$SLANG_EDITOR, $EDITOR and $VISUAL.
SLRN_SLANG_DIR
If set, slrn will search for slang macros here. If not
set slrn will search in the default path, which is
defined at compile time (usually share_dir/slang).
TMP Indicates the directory in which slrn should save tem-
porary files.
TMPDIR
See $TMP.
USER Your username, if slrn can't get it from the system by
other means.
VISUAL
See $SLRN_EDITOR.
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FILES
$HOME/.slrnrc
User-specific configuration file.
config_dir/slrn.rc
System-wide configuration file. config_dir is set at
compile time (/usr/local/etc by default).
$HOME/.jnewsrc
default newsrc file for slrn.
$HOME/.jnewsrc.dsc
Per user newsgroups descriptions.
share_dir/newsgroups.dsc
Global newsgroup descriptions. share_dir is set at com-
pile time (/usr/local/share/slrn by default).
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following
attributes:
+---------------+-------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+-------------------+
|Availability | network/nntp/slrn |
+---------------+-------------------+
|Stability | Uncommitted |
+---------------+-------------------+
SEE ALSO
The documentation that comes with slrn, especially
FIRST_STEPS, manual.txt, FAQ and score.txt. If you consider
writing S-Lang macros, also look at README.macros and slrn-
funs.txt.
Recent versions of the slrn manual and the FAQ as well as
additional information can also be found on slrn's official
home page: http://slrn.sourceforge.net/
Questions about slrn that are not covered by existing docu-
mentation may be posted to the newsgroup news.software.read-
ers where they will be answered by knowledgeable users or
the author of the program. In addition, announcements of
new versions of slrn are posted there.
The latest version of slrn is available from http://prdown-
loads.sourceforge.net/slrn/
AUTHOR
John E. Davis <jed@jedsoft.org>
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NOTES
This software was built from source available at
https://java.net/projects/solaris-userland. The original
community source was downloaded from
ftp://space.mit.edu/pub/davis/slrn/slrn-0.9.9p1.tar.gz
Further information about this software can be found on the
open source community website at http://slrn.source-
forge.net/.
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