Contents
Introduction
This document is intended to provide basic assistance in using
newsgroups on UNIX systems. News reading
programs allow you to engage in discussions with fellow computer
users on relevant issues. They allow users
to read and contribute news via Usenet, a network of
computers that share news data between
systems. Newsreaders present the data in an easily
accessible and readable format. Usenet news
consists of a variety of newsgroups, each on a different topic. A
newsgroup is a forum for people to
discuss and share information on a specific topic. Within the
newsgroup, discussions are conducted by people
from around the world posting comments, questions, or observations
on the topic of the newsgroup. These
articles are then read by anyone interested in that group,
sparking more conversation via
posting.
This document covers reading news with tin and Pine. The OIT news servers have been
consolidated onto one server, eliminating
the problems associated with maintaining and reading news from
multiple news servers. The newsreader(s) you
run on a particular system will point to this news server by
default.
As You Read this Document...
This document uses several different fonts to help clarify the
meaning of the text:
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bold fixed
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is used for commands you type
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fixed
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is used to indicate a computer
response
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italic fixed
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substituting a required variable
or command
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italic and boldface
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are used to illustrate keywords
and to emphasize text
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Using tin to Read Net News
Background on tin
The tin news reading program was designed mainly for
people with some computer experience -
particularly, with the UNIX operating system. You may want to
spend some time getting familiar with the UNIX
environment before diving into reading news. Your WAM or Glue
account gives you access to the UNIX
environment. Accounts on other UNIX machines are available for
class or research purposes.
Helpful "man" Pages
There is a set of UNIX manual pages available to explain
tin. Manual pages can be accessed by
typing man at the UNIX system prompt followed by
the name of the newsreader. So when you
type:
man tin
at the UNIX prompt, you will access manual pages for the
tin newsreader. You can access the
rn and trn newsreaders also by substituting
tin in the previous example with the name
of the desired newsreader.
- news.announce.newusers
- news.newusers.questions
The news.announce.newusers group contains very important
information regarding proper use of
newsgroups and Netiquette - a term meaning Internet
etiquettte or how to behave when using the
Internet. This group also contains a number of articles on
different aspects of Usenet, and every new user
should read through the articles. However,
news.announce.newusers is a newsgroup intended for reading
only; if you have questions about Usenet, they should be posted to
news.newusers.questions.
Starting tin
To invoke tin, type:
tin
at the UNIX prompt. The tin newsreader is an individual
UNIX program and has various levels or
modes of operation. Context-Sensitive Help is available at
each level.
The tin newsreader (unlike rn or trn) is a
full-screen newsreader that provides ease
in moving from one screen of information to the next. It is also a
threaded newsreader (like trn) so
following conversation threads is easy even if the subject
changes.
Typically, you will be greeted with introductory information
and if new newsgroups have been established,
you will be offered subscriptions. The computer response indicated below
will be displayed if you have subscribed to newsgroups before
using another newsreader or if you have a
.newsrc file in your directory.
Note: This response is commonly displayed if you
have subscribed to newsgroups using
another newsreader or if you have a .newsrc file in
your directory. Refer to
About the .newsrc file, later in
this document for more
information about this file.
Reading news active file ...
Subscribe to new group soc.genealogy.nordic
(y/n/q) [n]:
The above is an example of a subscription to the
soc.genealogy.nordic group. The group
name offered for a subscription will vary.
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If you type:
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Results:
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y (yes)
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Your subscription to the specific
newsgroup will be accepted and
if another newsgroup is available,
you will again be offered a
subscription.
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n (no)
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You will not have a subscription
to the newsgroup described. If
other subscriptions are available,
then offers are
given; otherwise, you will move on
to the next level in
tin, the Group Selection
Level.
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q (quit)
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Quits this screen of information
and moves to the next level that
will list all subscribed
newsgroups.
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Following your subscription to new newsgroups, you will enter
the Group Selection Level as verified
by the header at the top of the screen. If there are no new
newsgroups, tin will proceed directly to
the Group Selection Level. An example of this level is
illustrated below:
Group Selection (news.umd.edu 6 R) h=help
1 23 misc.forsale.computers.discussion Discussions only abou...
2 103 misc.forsale.computers.mac-specific.misc Other Macintosh equip...
3 243 misc.forsale.computers.other.software Software for other sy...
4 37 new.announce.newusers Explanatory postings...
n=set current to n, TAB=next unread, /=search patter,
c)atchup,
g)oto, j=line down, k=line up, h)elp, m)ove, q)uit, r=toggle
all/unread,
s)ubscribe, S)ub pattern, u)nsubscribe, U)nsub pattern, y)ank
in/out
*** End of Groups ***
Moving Around in tin
The tin program is easy to use and does not require
remembering obscure commands. The most
frequently used commands are displayed on the screen.
The first column represents newsgroup numbers in sequential
order. The second column indicates the total of
articles within the newsgroup and the third column displays the
title of the newsgroup. A description of the
newsgroup is displayed in the fourth column. The bottom portion of
the screen provides a list of commands. The
tin program makes available a convenient mini help list at
the bottom portion of your display screen
for most levels of operation. The help list will vary depending on
the level of operation. The
h (help) command provides a more extensive list of
commands to use.
Use the Spacebar (forward) or the b
(backward) key to page throughout the list of
newsgroups. The k (up) key and the j
(down) key will allow you to move up and
down each line in the listing. The up and down arrows will
perform this same function respectively. The
q (quit) command will return you to the previous
level of operation. There are several
commands listed in the mini help list that are important to
note. The y (yank) command will
display a list of newsgroups that you can subscribe to. The
s (subscribe) and u
(unsubscribe) commands will subscribe as well as unsubscribe
you to various newsgroups listed.
Use the up and down arrows (or the j and
k keys) to select a
group of interest. Then, press the Return key. This will
place you within the group domain as
indicated by the title of the group at the top of the screen. Note
that the left arrow will move back to a
previous level and the right arrow will move you forward one
level.
Below the title of the newsgroup is a list of articles
available for you to read. Each article
(thread) has an article number, title and author. All
unread articles in the listing will be preceded
with a plus (+) symbol before the title of the article. The
number following the plus symbol
indicates the total number of responses to the article.
Reading an Article in tin
To read an article simply press Return (or the right
arrow key) and then use the spacebar
to scroll through the article. You can also use the Tab key
to move to the next unread article or
group.
Note: Upon reading the end of a thread, you
cannot continue with the right arrow; the
Spacebar will page you to the next article in the
thread.
The header at the top of the article displays background
information on the article including a response
sequence number. If more than one response has been posted, simply
press the Spacebar to view each
page of responses. The bottom portion of the screen has a mini
menu with a set of commands for you to use
for your current level of operation.
Posting an Article in tin
The tin program allows you to post articles as well as
follow-up to articles already posted and
reply via e-mail to the author of an article. To post to an
article use the w command. The
w command will move you directly into the default
editor following the prompt illustrated
below:
Post subject [ <last subject posted>
]
Note that if you previously posted an article, the text of the
subject is displayed as the <last
subject posted>. After you save and exit the editor, you
must choose a (abort),
e (edit), or p (post this
article).
Tin uses the f and r
commands to reply/post to an article that has
already been posted. The f command will allow you
to post a follow-up article to an article
that has already been posted (including a copy of the original
article in the posting). The
r command can also be used to reply (via
e-mail) to the author of the article (including the
text of the original article).
Using an Editor
An editor is similar to a word processor, but it doesn't allow
you to use some of the tools available
with most word processing software (e.g., enhancing text for
boldface, underline, italic, etc.). As mentioned
throughout this document, a text editor is needed to compose
messages and to edit files in general. Several
files in your account control how the account operates; their
names all begin with a period. The
.environment and .login files (note the period at
the beginning of each file name) are the
most important, since they set up your account when you login
in. You should edit the .environment
file right away to add some lines that will make pico your
default editor. After you do this, any
time you use tin to compose messages, it will use
pico.
To add these lines, use the following command at the UNIX
prompt:
pico .environment
Then use the down arrow key to move to the end of the file. You
should be on a blank line. Then simply
type the following two lines:
setenv EDITOR /usr/local/bin/pico
setenv VISUAL /usr/local/bin/pico
pressing Return at the end of each line. When you have
finished, type
Control-x. You will be asked if you want to save
the changes. Type y. Then
you will be asked for a filename, and .environment will
appear as the default. Press Return
and the file will be saved and you will be back at the UNIX
command prompt. These changes won't take effect
until the next time you log on, so if you want pico to be
your default editor right away, log off and
log on again (or type source .environment). Pico's
features are accessible to you by
using the commands shown at the bottom of the screen. You can
always find out more about pico by
using Control-g for help.
About the .newsrc File
The .newsrc file is a text file that lists those
newsgroups to which you can subscribe. You can
use the UNIX more command to view the contents of
the .newsrc file:
more .newsrc
Press the Spacebar to scroll throughout the
file. Additionally, you can use the UNIX
grep command to list only the newsgroups featuring
discussions on specific topics. For
example, to search for newsgroups relating to pets, type:
grep pets .newsrc
at the UNIX prompt.
The illustration below is a sample of the results from the
grep command above:
rec.pets! 1-41
rec.pets.birds!
rec.pets.cats:
alt.tv.muppets!
The grep command will show all occurrences of
pets in the .newsrc
file. Subscribed groups have a colon (:), while
unsubscribed groups have an exclamation point
(!).
Quick List of tin Commands
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s
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subscribe to a selected newsgroup
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u
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unsubscribe from the selected
newsgroup
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w
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post a message
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r
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replies to the author including
the text of the original article
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f
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to post a follow-up article to an
article that has already been
posted (including a copy of the
original article)
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j
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moves down
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k
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moves up
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b
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moves back one page at a time
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p
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moves to the previous group in the
thread select mode or moves
to the previous article in the
article pager mode
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n
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moves to the next group in the
thread select mode or moves to the
next article in the article pager
mode. If you have not reached
the end of a thread, n will move
you to the first article in the
next sequential thread.
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q
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quits to the previous level
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h
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gives you help
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Spacebar
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moves between screens of data in
any mode
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Tab
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moves to the next unread article
(same as n in the article pager
mode)
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/
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allows you to search forward in
the body of an article for a particular
pattern when in the article pager
mode (otherwise searching is restricted to
threads and group). For example,
typing /david will find
david in the body of an
article. Note the /? command
will search backwards.
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Using Pine to Read Usenet News
Getting Started
Pine is not recommended for reading Usenet news. It is
best to use tin,
SeaMonkey
or Outlook Express.
If you wish to read/post news from Pine, you must
configure Pine to see newsgroups. Go to
http://www.helpdesk.umd.edu/topics/applications/news/pine to
learn how to configure your account.
Reading and Posting Mail
To read/post news with Pine, at the UNIX prompt,
type:
pine
At the Main Menu, select Folder List and press
Enter. Once you are in Folder
List, select News-collection... (Remote) and press
Enter. All available newsgroups are
shown. Select a newsgroup and press Enter to begin
reading. The
list of articles is displayed. To view the contents of an
article, select the article you wish to read and
press Enter.
If you wish to respond to an article you are reading, you have
two options. You can either respond using
their original text or post a separate response. If you wish to
include the original text, you must save
the article first.
To save an article you are viewing, type
s. When asked for a filename, type:
~/filename
where filename is the name you want to call the saved
article. The prefix ~/ places the
file in your home directory (otherwise the file is placed in your
~/mail subdirectory.
To post a message to a newsgroup, type c when
reading an article. You will be asked if
you wish to post a message to the current group; type
y. You are then placed in the editor
of the outgoing article. Enter the subject of the article in the
Subject: field.
If you want to quote a previous article you have saved, type
Ctrl-r in the body of the
message to read in the saved file. You will be prompted to enter a
filename from the home directory. To
retrieve a file, type:
filename
To retrieve a file from the ~/mail subdirectory,
type:
mail/filename
Once the previous message is included, delete any unnecessary
text and edit in your reply. If no
message is saved and retrieved, enter your text in the body of the
article.
When you are finished editing your message, type
Ctrl-x to post it. You will be asked
to verify that you want to send the post, type
y. You will then be asked "Really
post?", type y again. The article will then
be posted. It may take some time for
the article to appear on your local news server, longer on
others.
More Information
At the bottom of the screen are some commonly used commands for
navigation and other such features when
using the Pine news reader. Type ? for
help in using them. Type q
to quit using Pine and return to the UNIX prompt.
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