NAME
trn - threaded read news program
SYNOPSIS
trn [options] [newsgroups]
DESCRIPTION
Trn is a threaded version of rn, which is a replacement for
the readnews(1) program. Being "threaded" means that the
articles are interconnected in reply order. Each discussion
thread is a tree of articles where all the reply (child)
articles branch off from their respective originating
(parent) articles. A representation of this tree (or a por-
tion of it) is displayed in the article header as you are
reading news. This gives you a better feel for how all the
articles are related, and even lets you see at a glance when
an article has replies -- a good thing to check before post-
ing. In addition, trn has a thread selector that allows you
to quickly browse through a list of subjects and choose the
ones you find interesting. This thread selector sorts arti-
cles according to various criteria and can be switched into
various display modes that allows you to pick all the sub-
jects separately (threads can have multiple subjects) or
even pick individual articles. Any items you don't select
can be saved for reading later or marked as read with a sin-
gle keystroke.
If you are already familiar with trn you may just want to
read the WHAT'S NEW section. People upgrading from rn will
probably want to pay attention to the sections on The Selec-
tor, The Tree Display, and the aforementioned WHAT'S NEW.
If you're impatient, just dive in and get started. All the
regular commands will be familiar to an rn or trn user, and
the on-line help will give you a quick run-down of what com-
mands are available (just type 'h' from any prompt). I'd
also suggest using the command:
trn -x -X
to make sure some of the best features are turned on.
Starting Trn
If no newsgroups are specified, all the newsgroups which
have unread news will be presented to the user in the order
in which they occur in the .newsrc file. At the prompt for
each group you can choose to read it, skip it, move it, etc.
If a list of newsgroups is provided on the command line, trn
will start up in "add" mode, using the list as a set of pat-
terns to add new newsgroups and restrict which newsgroups
are displayed (see also the discussion of the 'a' command on
the newsgroup-selection level).
Trn operates on four levels: the newsgroup-selection level,
the thread selector, the article-reading level, and the pag-
ing level. Each level has its own set of commands, and its
own help menu. At the paging level (the bottom level) trn
behaves much like the more(1) program. At the article-
reading level articles are presented to you in the order of
their replies, with the subjects being ordered by the date
of the oldest unread article (though there are commands for
changing the default display order). In the thread selector
you are presented with the subjects and (usually) authors
associated with each discussion thread, and given a chance
to choose which ones you wish to read now, save for later,
or manipulate in some way. At the newsgroup-selection level
(the top level), you may specify which newsgroup you want
next, or read them in the default order, which is the order
that the newsgroups occur in your .newsrc file. (You will
therefore want to rearrange your .newsrc file to put the
most interesting newsgroups first. This can be done with
the 'm' command on the Newsgroup Selection level. WARNING:
invoking readnews/vnews (the old user interface) in any way
(including as a news checker in your login sequence!) will
cause your .newsrc to be disarranged again.)
On any level, at ANY prompt, help is available by typing an
'h'. This gives you a summary of available commands and
what they do. Remember this command, you'll need it.
Typing space to any question means to do the normal thing.
You will know what that is because every prompt has a list
of several plausible commands enclosed in square brackets.
The first command in the list is the one which will be done
if you type a space. (All input is done in cbreak mode, so
carriage returns should not be typed to terminate anything
except certain multi-character commands. Those commands
will be obvious in the discussion below because they take an
argument.)
Upon startup, trn will do several things:
1. It will look for your .newsrc file, which is your list
of subscribed-to newsgroups. If trn doesn't find a
.newsrc, it will create one. If it does find one, it
will back it up under the name ".oldnewsrc".
2. It will input your .newsrc file, listing out the first
several newsgroups with unread news.
3. It will perform certain consistency checks on your
.newsrc. If your .newsrc is out of date in any of
several ways, trn will warn you and patch it up for you,
but you may have to wait a little longer for it to start
up.
4. Trn will next check to see if any new newsgroups have
been created, and give you the opportunity to add them
to your .newsrc.
5. Trn goes into the top prompt level - - the newsgroup-
selection level.
Newsgroup Selection Level
In this section the words "next" and "previous" refer to the
ordering of the newsgroups in your .newsrc file. On the
newsgroup-selection level, the prompt looks like this:
====== 17 unread articles in talk.blurfl -- read now? [ynq]
unless the group is set for unthreaded reading, in which
case the first six characters are "******". The following
commands may be given at this level:
+ Enter this newsgroup through the selector.
y Begin reading this newsgroup now.
SP Enter the newsgroup by executing the default command
listed in []'s.
.command
Do this newsgroup now, but execute command before
displaying anything. The command will be inter-
preted as if typed on the article selection level.
= Start this newsgroup, but list subjects before
displaying articles.
U Enter this newsgroup through the "Set unread"
prompt.
t Toggle the newsgroup between threaded and unthreaded
reading. The default is threaded, and the current
setting is stored in your .newsrc.
n Go to the next newsgroup with unread news.
N Go to the next newsgroup.
p Go to the previous newsgroup with unread news. If
there is none, stay at the current newsgroup.
P Go to the previous newsgroup.
- Go to the previously displayed newsgroup (regard-
less of whether it is before or after the current
one in the list).
1 Go to the first newsgroup.
^ Go to the first newsgroup with unread news.
$ Go to the end of the newsgroups list.
g newsgroup
Go to newsgroup, which can be the group's name or a
zero-relative number of the groups in your .newsrc
(see the 'L' command to list your .newsrc). If it
isn't currently subscribed to, you will be asked if
you want to subscribe.
/pattern
Scan forward for a newsgroup matching pattern. Pat-
terns do globbing like filenames, i.e., use ? to
match a single character, * to match any sequence of
characters, and [] to specify a list of characters
to match. ("all" may be used as a synonym for "*".)
Unlike normal filename globbing, newsgroup-searching
is not anchored to the front and back of the
filename, i.e. "/ski" will find rec.skiing. You may
use ^ or $ to anchor the front or back of the
search: "/^test$" will find newsgroup test and
nothing else If you want to include newsgroups with
0 unread articles, append /r. If the newsgroup is
not found between the current newsgroup and the last
newsgroup, the search will wrap around to the begin-
ning.
?pattern
Same as /, but search backwards.
u Unsubscribe from the current newsgroup.
l string
List newsgroups not subscribed to which contain the
string specified.
L Lists the current state of the .newsrc, along with
status information.
Status Meaning
<number> Count of unread articles in newsgroup.
READ No unread articles in newsgroup.
UNSUB Unsubscribed newsgroup.
BOGUS Bogus newsgroup.
JUNK Ignored line in .newsrc
(e.g. readnews "options" line).
(A bogus newsgroup is one that is not in the list of
active newsgroups in the active file, which on most
systems is /usr/lib/news/active unless you use
NNTP.)
m {name}
Move the named newsgroup somewhere else in the
.newsrc. If no name is given, the current newsgroup
is moved. There are a number of ways to specify
where you want the newsgroup -- type h for help when
it asks where you want to put it.
c Catch up -- mark all unread articles in this news-
group as read.
A Abandon the changes made to the current newsgroup
since trn was started. Useful when you accidentally
mark a group as read.
o {pattern}
O {pattern}
Only display those newsgroups whose name matches
pattern. Patterns are the same as for the '/' com-
mand. Multiple patterns may be separated by spaces,
just as on the command line. The restriction will
remain in effect either until there are no articles
left in the restricted set of newsgroups, or another
restriction command is given. Since pattern is
optional, 'o' by itself will remove the restriction.
Using 'O' will omit empty groups from the cycle.
a pattern
Add unsubscribed newsgroups matching pattern. If
any matching newsgroups are found, you will be asked
for each one whether you would like to add it. If
you want to add all the newsgroups, you can type 'Y'
and they will be added the the end of the .newsrc
file. If you don't want to subscribe, all the
remaining groups can be ignored by typing 'N'.
After any new newsgroups have been added, the 'a'
command also restricts the current set of newsgroups
just like the 'O' command does.
& Print out the current status of command-line
switches and any newsgroup restrictions.
&switch {switch}
Set additional command-line switches.
&& Print out the current macro definitions.
&&keys commands
Define additional macros.
!command
Escape to a subshell. One exclamation mark (!)
leaves you in your own news directory. A double
exclamation mark (!!) leaves you in the spool direc-
tory for news, which is usually /usr/spool/news
unless you're using NNTP to read news. The environ-
ment variable SHELL will be used if defined. If
command is null, an interactive shell is started.
v Print the current version number and information on
where to send bug reports.
q Quit.
x Quit, restoring .newsrc to its state at startup of
trn. The .newsrc you would have had if you had
exited with 'q' will be called .newnewsrc, in case
you didn't really want to type 'x'.
^K Edit the global list of memorized commands (in the
global KILL file) that you wish to be performed in
every newsgroup as it is started up (that is, when
it is selected at the newsgroup-selection level).
This file contains commands (one per line) such as
/subject/:j or /author/f:+ to kill or select arti-
cles based on the indicated search criteria. There
is also a local list of commands for each newsgroup
that can contain kill/selection commands tailored
for each specific group. Because of the overhead
involved in searching for articles to kill, it is
better if possible to use a local list rather than
the global one. Local memorized commands are usu-
ally maintained by using the 'A' or 'T' commands
from the article/pager level or in the selector.
There is also a K search modifier that appends any
search command you desire to add. It is also possi-
ble to manually edit the file with the '^K' command
from anywhere inside a newsgroup. If either of the
environment variables VISUAL or EDITOR is set, the
specified editor will be invoked; otherwise a
default editor is invoked on the KILL file.
The Selector
Most people who don't have all day to read news will want to
enter a newsgroup by way of the selector. This is accom-
plished by using the '+' command at the newsgroup-selection
or article/pager levels. In fact, this may be the default
command for entering a newsgroup, depending on how your
version of trn was configured and your use of the -X option.
The selector displays a list of articles by their subjects
and (usually) authors. The articles are grouped into
threads by default (which may list multiple subjects per
selectable item if the subject has changed during the dis-
cussion) and ordered by the date of their oldest unread
article. Thread or subject groups are also shown with a
count of the number of articles in each group. Each select-
able item is preceded by a letter or number that can be
typed to toggle its selection. Items that are selected are
flagged with a '+' after their letter. Groups that have
only some of their articles selected are flagged with a '*'.
You can change the selector's mode (to pick each subject
separately or pick individual articles), order the list by a
variety of sort criteria, and switch the author display
between its long, medium and short styles using the commands
detailed below.
The following commands are available in the selector:
a-z,0-9,A-Z
Select/deselect the indicated item by its letter or
number. There are quite a few letters omitted from
the alpha characters to be typed as commands -- see
below. Also, the variable SELECTCHARS is available
to customize which characters you want to be used as
selection letters, overriding their command func-
tion.
SP Perform the default command. This is usually > for
most pages, and Z on the last page (although D and X
are also quite popular).
CR Begin reading. If no articles are selected, the
current item is selected (unless you've marked it as
killed).
Z,TAB Begin reading. If no articles are selected, read
all unread articles.
'.' Toggle the current item's selection (the one under
the cursor).
* Same as '.' except that it affects all articles with
the same subject (useful in the article selector).
# Make an overriding selection that reads the current
item only, temporarily ignoring all other selec-
tions.
k, ',' Mark the current item as killed.
m, \ Unmark the current item.
- Set a range, as in a - k. Repeats the last marking
action: selection, deselection, killing, or unmark-
ing.
@ Toggle all visible selections.
M Mark the current item's article(s) to return on
newsgroup exit and kill the item.
Y Yank back and select the marked-to-return articles,
clearing their to-return status.
E Exclude all unselected items from the selection list
(narrow the display). Press it again to pick from
all available items.
n, ] Move down to the next item (try the down-arrow
keypad key also).
p, [ Move up to the previous item (try the up-arrow
keypad key also).
< Go to previous page (try the left-arrow keypad key
also).
> Go to next page (try the right-arrow keypad key
also).
^ Go to the first page.
$ Go to the last page.
S Set the items the selector displays: threads, sub-
jects or articles. If the group is unthreaded set-
ting this to threads will thread the group.
= Switch between the article selector and the
subject/thread selector.
O Pick the order for the items: date, subject, author,
item count (for thread/subject groups), and a
subject-date grouping of individual articles. Typ-
ing the selection in lower-case will sort the arti-
cles in the default direction, while using upper-
case will reverse the sort. There is a separate
default sort order for the subject/thread selector
and the article selector. See the -O option to set
your favorite selector mode and sort order as the
default.
R Reverse the current sort order.
L Switch the selector's display between the long,
medium and short display styles. See the -x option
to set your favorite style as the default.
U Switch between selecting unread/read articles.
X Mark all unselected articles as read and start read-
ing.
D Mark unselected articles on the current page as read
and begin reading if articles are selected, other-
wise go to the next page.
J Mark all selected articles as read (useful after
performing some action on them with the ':' com-
mand).
c Catch up -- marks ALL articles as read without
affecting their cross-posted counterparts.
A Add a subject-search command to the memorized list
(a.k.a. a KILL file) for this group. You are
prompted to choose selection (+), junking (j),
selection including all replies (.) or junking
including all replies (,). If the thread has more
than one subject the first subject is the one chosen
for the memorized command.
T Add a thread-oriented command to the memorized list
for this group. You are prompted to choose select-
ing the thread (+), junking the thread (j), or
clearing the auto-selection/junking for the thread
(c). (Note: there are three other options ('.',
',', and 'C') on the article-reading level -- look
there for an explanation of their use.)
^K Edit the local list of memorized commands (a.k.a. a
KILL file) for this newsgroup. A detailed descrip-
tion of memorized commands is found in the Article
Selection section.
:command
Apply a command to all selected articles. If noth-
ing is selected, nothing is done.
Applicable commands include '+'/'-' (select/deselect
an article), "++"/"--" (select/deselect a thread),
"T+" (auto-select the entire thread), "Tj" (auto-
junk the entire thread), 't' (display article tree),
"s dest" (save article to a destination), "e dir"
(extract to directory), 'E' (end partial uudecode),
as well as: S, |, w, W, m, M, j, = and ','.
/pattern
Scan all articles for a subject containing pattern
and select it.
/pattern/modifiers:command{:command}
Apply the commands listed to articles matching the
search command (possibly with h, a, r, or K modif-
iers). The default action, if no command is speci-
fied, is to select the article's item in the selec-
tor (e.g. the entire thread ("++") in the thread
selector). See the section on Regular Expressions
and the description of pattern searching in the
Article Selection section.
One example: to scan all the unread articles looking
for "topic" anywhere in the article and then select
its group and save the articles to the files
topic.1, topic.2, etc. use "/topic/a:++:s topic.%#".
N Go to the next newsgroup with unread news.
P Go to the previous newsgroup with unread news.
& Display or set the current status of command-line
switches.
&& Display or set the current macro definitions.
!command
Escape to a subshell.
q Quit this group.
ESC,+ Quit the selector to the article level. Note: ESC
won't work if trn has mapped your arrow keys with
default macros and the first character that your
arrow keys send is an ESC.
Q Quit the current newsgroup and return to the
newsgroup-selection prompt for this group.
Article-Reading Level
On the article-reading level, trn displays unread articles
in thread sequence (reading each article and its replies
before going on to another topic) unless threads are dis-
abled for a particular group, in which case the default
order is the order they arrived at your site (numeric
sequence). In either case if you use the subject-search
command (^N) you will switch to reading the articles in date
order within each matching subject. (Making selections in
the subject selector or using the -S switch will automati-
cally turn subject search mode on in an unthreaded group.)
On the article-reading level you are not asked whether you
want to read an article before the article is displayed;
rather, trn simply displays the first page (or portion of a
page, at low baud rates) of an article and asks if you want
to continue. The normal article-reading prompt comes at the
END of an article (although article-reading commands can
also be given from within the middle of an article in addi-
tion to the pager level commands). The prompt at the end of
an article looks like this:
End of article 248 (of 257) -- what next? [npq]
The following are the options at this point:
n,SP Scan forward for next unread article. (Note: the
'n' (next) command when typed at the end of an arti-
cle does not mark the article as read, since an
article is automatically marked as read after the
last line of it is printed. It is therefore possi-
ble to type a sequence such as 'mn' and leave the
article marked as unread. The fact that an article
is marked as read by typing n, N, ^N, e, s, S, |, w,
or W within the MIDDLE of the article is in fact a
special case.)
N Go to the next article.
^N Find the next article with the same subject in date
order. This also makes subject search mode (^N) the
default command at the end of an article.
p Scan backward for previous unread article. If there
is none, stay at the current article.
P Go to the previous article.
- Go to the previously displayed article (regardless
of whether that article is before or after this
article in the normal sequence).
^P Find the previous article with the same subject in
date order. Makes subject search mode (^N) the
default.
_N Go to the next article in numeric sequence.
_P Go to the previous article in numeric sequence.
<, > Browse the previous/next selected thread/subject.
If no selections have been made, all the threads
that had unread news when you entered the newsgroup
(or last left the selector) are treated as selected.
Entering an empty newsgroup makes all the already-
read threads available for browsing.
[, ] Proceed to the left/right in the article tree.
Visits already-read articles as well as empty nodes.
Try using the left-/right-arrow keys also.
{, } Go to the root/leaf of the article tree, even if the
node is already read or empty. Proceeds to the very
first/last node if you're already at a root/leaf in
a multi-root thread.
(, ) Go to the previous/next sibling in the thread,
including "cousin" siblings. Try using the up-
/down-arrow keys also.
t Display the entire article tree and all its associ-
ated subjects. If the group is not currently
threaded, it will become threaded to process this
command.
^R Restart the current article.
v Restart the current article verbosely, displaying
the entire header.
^L Refresh the screen.
^X Restart the current article, and decrypt as a rot13
message.
X Refresh the screen, and decrypt as a rot13 message.
b Back up one page.
q Quit this newsgroup and go back to the newsgroup-
selection level.
^ Go to the first unread article.
$ Go to the last article (actually, one past the last
article).
number Go to the numbered article.
range{,range}:command{:command}
Apply a set of commands to a set of articles. A
range consists of either <article number> or
<article number> - <article number>. A dot '.'
represents the current article, and a dollar sign
'$' represents the last article.
Applicable commands include 'm' (mark as unread),
'M' (mark as read-until-exit), 'j' (mark as read),
"s dest" (save to a destination), "e dir" (extract
to directory), "!command" (shell escape), "=" (print
the subject), '+'/'-' (select/deselect the article),
'T+' (auto-select the entire thread), 'Tj' (auto-
junk the entire thread), "++"/"--" (select/deselect
the associated thread), 'C' (cancel), as well as S,
|, w, W, and t.
:command
Apply a command to all selected articles. If noth-
ing is selected, nothing is done. For applicable
commands, see the discussion above for the range
command.
j Junk the current article (i.e. mark it as read). If
this command is used from within an article, you are
left at the end of the article, unlike 'n', which
looks for the next article.
m Mark the current article as still unread. (If you
don't want to see this article for a while you're
probably better off using M instead of m, otherwise
this article might get picked again as the first
available article sooner than you'd like.)
M Mark the current article to return on newsgroup
exit. Until then, the current article will be
marked as read. This is useful for returning to an
article in another session.
Y Yank back the marked-to-return articles, clearing
their to-return status. If you are reading selected
articles, the yanked articles come back selected.
/pattern
Scan forward for article containing pattern in the
subject. See the Regular Expressions section.
Together with the escape substitution facility
described later, it becomes easy to search for vari-
ous attributes of the current article, such as sub-
ject, article ID, author name, etc. The previous
pattern can be recalled with ESC. If pattern is
omitted, the previous pattern is assumed.
/pattern/f
Scan forward for article containing pattern in the
from line. If you are using thread files the arti-
cle data you are matching against MAY contain only
the real name of the user. If you want to always
match the full from line, see the following header-
matching option that will read in the full from-line
data if it is not already available.
/pattern/Hheader
Scan forward for article containing pattern in the
indicated
header
Because we scan the entire string up to the end of the
modifiers, this modifier must be the last one. For example,
"/jsmoe@somesite.com/rHfrom:m+" will mark all articles from
"jsmoe@somesite.com" as unread and select them. Note that
if the header line isn't one that trn recognizes in its
header parser, you'll have to use the following full-header
matching.
/pattern/h
Scan forward for article containing pattern in the
header.
/pattern/a
Scan forward for article containing pattern anywhere
in the article.
/pattern/r
Scan read articles also.
/pattern/c
Make search case sensitive. Ordinarily upper- and
lower-case are considered the same.
/pattern/I
Force the search to ignore the THRU line when exe-
cuted as a memorized command. If the command por-
tion is a selection command (i.e. it starts with a
'+' or a '.') this is the default behavior.
/pattern/N
Force the search to NOT ignore the THRU line when
executed as a memorized command (useful on selection
commands -- see also -k).
/pattern/modifiers:command{:command}
Apply the commands listed to articles matching the
search command (possibly with h, a, or r modifiers).
Applicable commands include 'm' (mark as unread),
'M' (mark as read-until-exit), 'j' (mark as read),
"s dest" (save to a destination), "e dir" (extract
to directory), "!command" (shell escape), "=" (print
the subject), '+' (select the article), '-' deselect
the article, 'T+' (auto-select the entire thread),
'Tj' (auto-junk the entire thread), "++" (select the
associated thread), "--" deselect the associated
thread), and 'C' (cancel). If the first command is
'm' or 'M', modifier r is assumed. A K may be
included in the modifiers (not the commands) to
cause the entire command (sans K) to be saved to the
local KILL file, where it will be applied to every
article that shows up in the newsgroup.
For example, to save all articles in a given news-
group to the line printer and mark them read, use
"/^/|lpr:j". If you type "/^/K|lpr:j", this will
happen every time you enter the newsgroup.
?pattern
Scan backward for article containing pattern in the
subject. May be modified as the forward search is:
?pattern?modifiers[:commands]. It is likely that
you will want an r modifier when scanning backward.
k Mark as read all articles with the same subject as
the current article. (Note: there is no single
character command to temporarily mark as read (M
command) articles matching the current subject.
That can be done with "/<ESC>s/M", however.)
, Mark the current article and all its replies as
read.
J Junk all the articles in the current thread, even if
it contains multiple subjects.
A Add a subject-search command to the memorized list
for this group (in the KILL file). You are prompted
to choose selection (+), junking (j), selection
including all replies (.) or junking including all
replies (,).
K This is a synonym for the command "Aj" which adds a
command to junk the current subject to the memorized
commands for the group. See also the K modifier on
searches above.
T Add a thread-oriented command to the memorized list
for this group. You are prompted to choose selec-
tion of entire thread (+), junking of entire thread
(j), selection of an article and its replies (.),
junking of an article and its replies (,), clearing
the auto-selection/junking for this thread (c), or
clearing the auto-selection/junking for an article
and its replies (C).
^K Edit the local list of memorized commands (a.k.a. a
KILL file) for this newsgroup. Each line of the
KILL file is either a subject-affecting command of
the form /pattern/x or a thread-affecting command of
the form <message-id> Tx. The first line in the
KILL file has the form "THRU <number>", which tells
trn the maximum article number that the KILL file
has been applied to. The THRU value is usually only
used to keep header or article searches from happen-
ing multiple times. Subject and from-line searches
are quite fast if the group has cached data around
(e.g. a .thread or .overview file). If it doesn't,
the THRU line is used to set a lower boundary on the
search to keep the startup time as short as possi-
ble. If trn skipped some selections (or you're not
sure), wait for the group to finish being cached
(e.g. visiting the selector forces the caching of
all unread articles), quit the group, and re-enter.
To see only newgroup articles in the control news-
group, for instance, you might include the line
/newgroup/:+
which selects all subjects containing "newgroup".
You can add lines automatically via the A and T com-
mands as well as the K search modifier, but editing
is the only way to remove subject commands (thread
commands die automatically as the thread dies). If
either of the environment variables VISUAL or EDITOR
is set, the specified editor will be invoked; other-
wise a default editor (normally vi) is invoked on
the KILL file.
The KILL file may also contain switch-setting lines
beginning with '&' (see the section on "Options")
and special commands beginning with '*'. There are
two such commands at the moment: "*j" (junk all
articles from THRU to the end of the group) and "*X"
(junk all unselected articles from THRU to the end
of the group). Additionally, any line beginning
with 'X' is executed on exit from the newsgroup
rather than on entrance. This can be used to set
switches back to a default value. One use for this
capability is to set your save directory to a custom
value upon entry to a newsgroup and set it back on
exit using the -ESAVEDIR option. See also the - /
option for another solution to multiple save direc-
tories without using KILL files.
r Reply through net mail. The environment variables
MAILPOSTER and MAILHEADER may be used to modify the
mailing behavior of trn (see the environment sec-
tion). If the current article does not exist (such
as the "End of newsgroup" pseudo-article you can get
to with a '$' command), invokes the mailer to nobody
in particular.
R Reply, including the current article in the header
file generated. (See 'F' command below). The YOU-
SAID environment variable controls the format of the
attribution line.
f Submit a follow-up article. If the current article
does not exist (such as the "End of newsgroup"
pseudo-article you can get to with a '$' command),
posts an original (root) article.
F Submit a follow-up article, and include the old
article, with lines prefixed either by ">" or by the
argument to the -F switch. Trn will attempt to pro-
vide an attribution line in front of the quoted
article, generated from the From: line of the arti-
cle. Unfortunately, the From: line doesn't always
contain the right name; you should double check it
against the signature and change it if necessary, or
you may have to apologize for quoting the wrong per-
son. The environment variables NEWSPOSTER, NEWS-
HEADER and ATTRIBUTION may be used to modify the
posting behavior of trn (see environment section).
C Cancel the current article, but only if you are the
contributor or superuser.
z Supersede the current article, but only if you are
the contributor.
Z Same as the 'z' command, but you start with a copy
of the original article to work with.
c Catch up in this newsgroup; i.e., mark all articles
as read.
U Mark some or all articles as unread. You can choose
to mark the current thread, sub-thread (the current
article and its replies), all the articles, or start
up the selector to choose specific articles to set
unread.
u Unsubscribe from this newsgroup.
s destination
Save to a filename or pipe using sh. If the first
character of the destination is a vertical bar, the
rest of the command is considered a shell command to
which the article is passed through standard input.
The command is subject to filename expansion. (See
also the environment variable PIPESAVER.) If the
destination does not begin with a vertical bar, the
rest of the command is assumed to be a filename of
some sort. An initial tilde '~' will be translated
to the name of the home directory, and an initial
environment variable substitution is also allowed.
If only a directory name is specified, the environ-
ment variable SAVENAME is used to generate the
actual name. If a non-absolute filename is speci-
fied, the environment variable SAVEDIR will be used
to generate the actual directory. If nothing is
specified, then obviously both variables will be
used. Since the current directory for trn while
doing a save command is your private news directory,
typing "s ./filename" will force the file to your
news directory. Save commands are also run through
% interpretation, so that you can enter "s
%O/filename" to save to the directory you were in
when you ran trn, and "s %t" to save to a filename
consisting of the Internet address of the sender.
After generating the full pathname of the file to
save to, trn determines if the file exists already,
and if so, appends to it. trn will attempt to
determine if an existing file is a mailbox or a nor-
mal file, and save the article in the same format.
If the output file does not yet exist, trn will by
default ask you which format you want, or you can
make it skip the question with either the -M or -N
switch. If the article is to be saved in mailbox
format, the command to do so is generated from the
environment variable MBOXSAVER. Otherwise, NORM-
SAVER is used.
S destination
Save to a filename or pipe using a preferred shell,
such as csh. Which shell is used depends first on
what you have the environment variable SHELL set to,
and in the absence of that, on what your news
administrator set for the preferred shell when he or
she installed trn.
| command
Shorthand for "s | command".
w destination
The same as "s destination", but saves without the
header.
W destination
The same as "S destination", but saves without the
header.
e directory
Extract a shell archive or uuencoded binary to the
designated directory. The article is first scanned
to try discover what type of data is encapsulated.
If a "cut here" line is found, the first non-blank
line after it must be either the start of a shar
header, or the "begin" or "table" line of a uuen-
coded binary. The default for extracting shars is
to send the data portion of the file to /bin/sh, but
that can be overridden with the UNSHAR variable (see
the ENVIRONMENT section). Uudecoding is done inter-
nally by a decoder that can handle the data being
split up over multiple articles, and extracted one
piece at a time. To decode a multi-article file,
either execute the 'e' command in each article in
sequence, use an article range to execute the com-
mand, or use the ":e" command to repeat the command
for each of the currently selected articles. When
the 'e' command is not followed by any arguments, it
will repeat the arguments from the last extraction.
All directory specifications are relative to the
value of SAVEDIR, so you can use the command "e ."
to force an extraction to SAVEDIR itself. If a
uudecoding is in progress (i.e. the last piece
wasn't extracted yet) and you exit the group, the
partial file will be removed. This also occurs if
you start to extract a new uuencoded file before the
previous one was finished. See also the 'E' command
for ending a multi-part uudecoding manually.
There is one special case that is handled dif-
ferently: if the first file in a recognizable shar
file is a uuencoded binary that was packed with
lines starting with an 'X', we will not unshar the
file but instead uudecode it. If this causes prob-
lems, you can override the default extraction method
by following the directory with an explicit command
to execute, as described below.
e directory|command
This form of the 'e' command allows you to extract
other data formats than shar or uuencoded files or
to override the decisions made by the automatic
extraction selection described above. In normal
operation, all data following what we recognize as a
"cut here" line will be sent to the specified com-
mand. Additionally, the distinctive beginning of a
shell archive is also recognized without a preceding
cut line. When the command is run, the default
directory will be set to the specified directory, or
the value of SAVEDIR if unspecified. Entering the
'e' command without arguments will repeat your pre-
vious extract command. You can use the command "e
dir|" to extract to a new directory using the
previously-specified command.
E This command ends any multi-part uuencoded file
extraction that you began, but are unable (or unwil-
ling) to complete. The partially extracted file is
removed.
& Print out the current status of command-line
switches.
&switch {switch}
Set additional command-line switches.
&& Print out current macro definitions.
&&keys commands
Define an additional macro.
!command
Escape to a subshell. One exclamation mark (!)
leaves you in your own news directory. A double
exclamation mark (!!) leaves you in the spool direc-
tory of the current newsgroup. The environment
variable SHELL will be used if defined. If command
is null, an interactive shell is started.
You can use escape key substitutions described later
to get to many run-time values. The command is also
run through % interpretation, in case it is being
called from a range or search command.
+ Start the selector in the last-used mode. If the
newsgroup is unthreaded and the default selector
mode is threads, we temporarily switch to subject
selection unless manually overridden.
_a Start the selector in article mode.
_s Start the selector in subject mode.
_t Start the selector in thread mode.
_T Start the selector in thread mode unless the group
isn't threaded, in which case we settle for the sub-
ject selector.
= List subjects of unread articles.
# Print last article number.
_+ Select the entire thread associated with the current
article.
_- Deselect the entire thread associated with the
current article.
Pager Level
At the pager level (within an article), the prompt looks
like this:
--MORE--(17%)
and a number of commands may be given:
SP Display next page.
x Display next page and decrypt as a rot13 message.
d Display half a page more.
CR Display one more line.
q Go to the end of the current article (don't mark it
either read or unread). Leaves you at the "What
next?" prompt.
j Junk the current article. Mark it read and go to
the end of the article.
^L Refresh the screen.
X Refresh the screen and decrypt as a rot13 message.
b Back up one page.
t Display the entire article tree, including its asso-
ciated subjects, and continue reading. If the group
is not currently threaded, it will be threaded
first.
gpattern
Goto (search forward for) pattern within current
article. Note that there is no space between the
command and the pattern. If the pattern is found,
the page containing the pattern will be displayed.
Where on the page the line matching the pattern goes
depends on the value of the -g switch. By default
the matched line goes at the top of the screen.
G Search for g pattern again.
^G This is a special version of the 'g' command that is
for skipping articles in a digest. It is equivalent
to setting "-g4" and then executing the command
"g^Subject:".
TAB This is another special version of the 'g' command
that is for skipping inclusions of older articles.
It is equivalent to setting "-g4" and then executing
the command "g^[^c]", where c is the first character
of the last line on the screen. It searches for the
first line that doesn't begin with the same charac-
ter as the last line on the screen.
!command
Escape to a subshell.
The following commands skip the rest of the current article,
then behave just as if typed to the "What next?" prompt at
the end of the article. See the documentation at the arti-
cle selection level for these commands.
# $ & / = ? A c C f F k K T ^K J , m M r R ^R u U v Y ^
p P ^P - < > [ ] { } number
range{,range} command{:command}
The following commands also skip to the end of the article,
but have the additional effect of marking the current arti-
cle as read:
n N ^N e s S | w W
Miscellaneous facts about commands
An 'n' typed at either the "Last newsgroup" prompt or a
"Last article" prompt will cycle back to the top of the
newsgroup or article list, whereas a 'q' will quit the
level. (Note that 'n' does not mean "no", but rather
"next".) A space will of course do whatever is shown as the
default, which will vary depending on whether trn thinks you
have more articles or newsgroups to read.
The 'b' (backup page) command may be repeated until the
beginning of the article is reached. If trn is suspended
(via a ^Z), then when the job is resumed, a refresh (^L)
will automatically be done (Berkeley-type systems only). If
you type a command such as '!' or 's' which takes you from
the middle of the article to the end, you can always get
back into the middle by typing '^L'.
In multi-character commands such as '!', 's', '/', etc, you
can interpolate various run-time values by typing escape and
a character. To find out what you can interpolate, type
escape and 'h', or check out the single character % substi-
tutions for environment variables in the Interpretation and
Interpolation section, which are the same. Additionally,
typing a double escape will cause any % substitutions in the
string already typed in to be expanded.
The Tree Display
When reading a threaded newsgroup, trn displays a character
representation of the article tree in the upper right corner
of the header. For example, consider the following display:
(1)+-(1)--(2)--[2]
|-(1)+-<3>
| \-[1]
\-(1)+-[1]--[1]
\-[1]
This tree represents an initial article that has three
direct replies (the second column with three (1)'s). Each
reply has further replies branching off from them. In two
cases the subject line was altered in the reply, as indi-
cated by the increasing numbers.
The third subject is not selected for reading, as indicated
by the <>'s. Note you can always forcefully visit an
unselected article with 'N' and 'P' as well as the thread-
navagation commands (which are typically macro'ed to the
arrow keys on your keypad).
When there is only one subject associated with a thread, all
the nodes are marked with the number 1. When the first sub-
ject change arrives, it is marked with the number 2, and so
on. If you were to look at this thread in the thread selec-
tor, the three subjects associated with it would be listed
in the same order as the ascending digits. In those rare
cases where more than 9 subjects are associated with each
thread, the nodes are marked with the letters A-Z, and then
by a-z.
The articles that have already been read are enclosed in
()'s, Unread articles are displayed in []'s, and unread-
but-unselected articles are displayed in <>'s. The
currently displayed article has its entire node highlighted
in the display. The previously displayed article has only
its number highlighted. If the group has not been com-
pletely threaded yet, some articles will appear as (?) until
trn can determine if the referenced article truly exists or
not. If you visit such an article and wait for trn to fin-
ish threading the group, the screen will refresh as soon as
the presence or absence of the article is determined.
Options
Trn has a nice set of options to allow you to tailor the
interaction to your liking. (You might like to know that
the author swears by "-x6ms -e +m -S -XX -N -B -p".) These
options may be set on the command line, via the TRNINIT
environment variable, via a file pointed to by the TRNINIT
variable, or from within trn via the & command. Options may
generally be unset by typing "+switch". Options include:
-a causes trn to always thread the unread articles on
entry to a group. Without this option trn may enter a
group in a partially-threaded state and process the
unthreaded articles in the background. The down side
of this is that the tree display may not be complete
when it is first displayed and you may start out at an
odd position in the first thread's article tree.
-A tells trn to attempt to create some default macros
that will map your arrow keys to useful trn functions
(this is the default). Use +A to turn this behavior
off.
-b will force trn to read each thread in a breadth-first
order, rather than depth-first.
-B will turn on a spinner that twirls when trn is doing
background article-processing. A gizmo for those
interested in what's going on behind the scenes.
-c checks for news without reading news. If a list of
newsgroups is given on the command line, only those
newsgroups will be checked; otherwise all subscribed-to
newsgroups are checked. Whenever the -c switch is
specified, a non-zero exit status from trn means that
there is unread news in one of the checked newsgroups.
The - c switch does not disable the printing of
newsgroups with unread news; this is controlled by the
-s switch. (The -c switch is not meaningful when given
via the & command.)
-C<number>
tells trn how often to checkpoint the .newsrc, in arti-
cles read. Actually, this number says when to start
thinking about doing a checkpoint if the situation is
right. If a reasonable check-pointing situation
doesn't arise within 10 more articles, the .newsrc is
check-pointed willy-nilly.
-d<directory name>
sets the default save directory to something other than
~/News. The directory name will be globbed (via csh)
if necessary (and if possible). Articles saved by trn
may be placed in the save directory or in a subdirec-
tory thereof depending on the command that you give and
the state of the environment variables SAVEDIR and
SAVENAME. Any KILL files (see the K command in the
Article Selection section) also reside in this direc-
tory and its subdirectories, by default. In addition,
shell escapes leave you in this directory.
-D<flags>
enables debugging output. See common.h for flag
values. Warning: normally trn attempts to restore your
.newsrc when an unexpected signal or internal error
occurs. This is disabled when any debugging flags are
set.
-e causes each page within an article to be started at
the top of the screen, not just the first page. (It is
similar to the -c switch of more(1).) You never have
to read scrolling text with this switch. This is help-
ful especially at certain baud rates because you can
start reading the top of the next page without waiting
for the whole page to be printed. It works nicely in
conjunction with the -m switch, especially if you use
half-intensity for your highlight mode. See also the -
L switch.
-E<name>=<val>
sets the environment variable <name> to the value
specified. Within trn, "&-ESAVENAME=%t" is similar to
"setenv SAVENAME '%t'" in csh, or "SAVENAME='%t';
export SAVENAME" in sh. Any environment variables set
with -E will be inherited by subprocesses of trn.
-f will make trn avoid various sleep calls and the prompt
after the processing of the memorized commands that are
intended to allow you time to read a message before the
screen clears. This allows the advanced user to cruise
along a little faster at the expense of readability.
The - t (terse) option turns on -f by default, but you
can override this by specifying +f after the -t option.
-F<string>
sets the prefix string for the 'F' follow-up command to
use in prefixing each line of the quoted article. For
example, "-F<tab>" inserts a tab on the front of each
line (which will cause long lines to wrap around,
unfortunately), "-F>>>>" inserts ">>>>" on every line,
and " - F" by itself causes nothing to be inserted, in
case you want to reformat the text, for instance. The
initial default prefix is ">".
-g<line>
tells trn which line of the screen you want searched-
for strings to show up on when you search with the 'g'
command within an article. The lines are numbered
starting with 1. The initial default is "-g1", meaning
the first line of the screen. Setting the line to less
than 1 or more than the number of lines on the screen
will set it to the last line of the screen.
-G selects the "fuzzy" processing on the go command when
you don't type in a valid group name. With this option
on trn will attempt to find the group you probably
meant to type, but it can be a little slow about it, so
it's not on by default.
-h<string>
hides (disables the printing of) all header lines
beginning with string that trn recognizes. For
instance, - hexp will disable the printing of the
"Expires:" line. Case is insignificant. Headers
unknown to trn cannot be disabled except by turning
them all off ( - h without a string will disable all
headers except the Subject) and then using +h to select
those lines you want to see. You may wish to use the
baud-rate switch modifier below to hide more lines at
lower baud rates.
-H<string>
works just like -h except that instead of setting the
hiding flag for a header line, it sets the magic flag
for that header line. Certain header lines have magic
behavior that can be controlled this way. At present,
the following actions are caused by the flag for the
particular line: the Date line prints the date in
local time if the group is threaded; the From line will
only print the commented portion of the user name; the
Newsgroups line will only print when there are multiple
newsgroups; the Subject line will be underlined and
(when threaded) the keyword 'Subject:' is replaced by
its subject number (e.g. [1]); and the Expires line
will always be suppressed if there is nothing on it.
In fact, all of these actions are the default, and you
must use +H to undo them.
-i=<number>
specifies how long (in lines) to consider the initial
page of an article - - normally this is determined
automatically depending on baud rate. (Note that an
entire article header will always be printed regardless
of the specified initial page length. If you are work-
ing at low baud rate and wish to reduce the size of the
headers, you may hide certain header lines with the h
switch.)
-I tells trn to append all new, unsubscribed groups to
the end of the .newsrc.
-j forces trn to leave control characters unmolested in
messages.
-k tells trn to ignore the THRU line when processing
selection searches (i.e. searches with a command por-
tion that starts with a '+' or a '.') in the memorized
commands (aka kill files). This is turned on by
default, so use +k if you want to turn it off.
-l disables the clearing of the screen at the beginning
of each article, in case you have a bizarre terminal.
-L tells trn to leave information on the screen as long
as possible by not blanking the screen between pages,
and by using clear to end-of-line. (The more(1) pro-
gram does this.) This feature works only if you have
the requisite termcap capabilities. The switch has no
effect unless the -e switch is set.
-m=<mode>
enables the marking of the last line of the previous
page printed, to help the user see where to continue
reading. This is most helpful when less than a full
page is going to be displayed. It may also be used in
conjunction with the -e switch, in which case the page
is erased, and the first line (which is the last line
of the previous page) is highlighted. If - m=s is
specified, the standout mode will be used, but if -m=u
is specified, underlining will be used. If neither =s
or =u is specified, standout is the default. Use +m to
disable highlighting.
-M forces mailbox format in creating new save files.
Ordinarily you are asked which format you want.
-N forces normal (non-mailbox) format in creating new
save files. Ordinarily you are asked which format you
want.
-o will act like old versions of trn and not junk cross-
referenced articles when using thread commands to junk
articles in the current group (such as the selector's
'X' command).
-O<mode>{<order>}
specifies the selector's mode and (optionally) the sort
order. The modes are 'a'rticle, 's'ubject, or
't'hread. The orders are 'd'ate, 's'ubject, 'a'uthor,
article 'c'ount per group, or subject-date 'g'roups.
The order can be capitalized to reverse the indicated
order. For example, to choose the article selector in
subject order specify "-Oas".
-p tells trn to auto-select your postings and their
replies as it encounters them in the various groups you
read. For each article it finds it executes the com-
mand "T." on it (which tells trn to memorize the auto-
selection of this article and all its replies).
-q bypasses the automatic check for new newsgroups when
starting trn.
-r causes trn to restart in the last newsgroup read dur-
ing a previous session with trn. It is equivalent to
starting up normally and then getting to the newsgroup
with a g command.
-s with no argument suppresses the initial listing of
newsgroups with unread news, whether -c is specified or
not. Thus -c and -s can be used together to test
"silently" the status of news from within your .login
file. If -s is followed by a number, the initial list-
ing is suppressed after that many lines have been
listed. Presuming that you have your .newsrc sorted
into order of interest, -s5 will tell you the 5 most
interesting newsgroups that have unread news. This is
also a nice feature to use in your .login file, since
it not only tells you whether there is unread news, but
also how important the unread news is, without having
to wade through the entire list of unread newsgroups.
If no -s switch is given -s5 is assumed, so just put-
ting "rn -c" into your .login file is fine.
-S<number>
causes trn to enter subject search mode (^N) automati-
cally whenever an unthreaded newsgroup is started up
with <number> unread articles or more. Additionally,
it causes any 'n' typed while in subject search mode to
be interpreted as '^N' instead. (To get back out of
subject search mode, the best command is probably '^'.)
If <number> is omitted, 3 is assumed.
-t puts trn into terse mode. This is more cryptic but
useful for low baud rates. (Note that your system
administrator may have compiled trn with either verbose
or terse messages only to save memory.) You may wish
to use the baud-rate switch modifier below to enable
terse mode only at lower baud rates.
-T allows you to type ahead of trn. Ordinarily trn will
eat typeahead to prevent your autorepeating space bar
from doing a very frustrating thing when you acciden-
tally hold it down. If you don't have a repeating
space bar, or you are working at low baud rate, you can
set this switch to prevent this behavior. You may wish
to use the baud-rate switch modifier below to disable
typeahead only at lower baud rates.
-u sets the unbroken-subject-line mode in the selector,
which simply truncates subjects that are too long
instead of dumping the middle portion prior to the last
two words of the subject.
-U tells trn to not write the .newsrc file out after
visiting each group. While this is "unsafe" it can be
faster if you have a really huge .newsrc.
-v sets verification mode for commands. When set, the
command being executed is displayed to give some feed-
back that the key has actually been typed. Useful when
the system is heavily loaded and you give a command
that takes a while to start up.
-x{<number>}{<list>}
Enable the extended (threaded) features of trn beyond
the rn compatibility mode (this may be the default on
your system, use +x if you yearn for the good ol'
days). The <number> is the maximum number of article-
tree lines (from 0 to 11) you want displayed in your
header. Use the <list> to choose which thread selector
styles you like ('s'hort, 'm'edium, or 'l'ong), and in
what order they are selected with the 'L' command. For
example, use -xms to start with the medium display mode
and only switch between it and the short mode. You can
omit either or both of the parameters, in which case a
default of -x6lms is assumed.
-X{<number>}{<commands>}
If you like using the selector, you'll probably want to
use this option to make the selector command (+) the
default when a newsgroup is started up with at least
<number> unread articles. (Your installer may have
chosen to make -X1 the default on your system.) It is
also used to select which commands you want to be the
defaults while using the thread selector. For example,
-X2XD will make the thread selector the default command
for entering a newsgroup with at least 2 unread arti-
cles, and set the default command for the LAST page of
the thread selector to be the X command and the default
command for all other pages to be the D command.
Either or both parameters can be omitted, as well as
the second default command (e.g. -XX would change the
default newsgroup entry to use the selector and the
default command for the last page of the selector to be
'X'). The default is -X1Z> if just - X is specified.
To set the default selector commands without having '+'
be the default entry into a newsgroup, specify a high
number, like 9999.
-z sets the minimum number of minutes that must elaps
before the active file is refetched to look for new
articles. A value of 0 or using +z turns this off.
-Z is used to select what style of database you want trn
to access. Use -Zt for thread files, -Zo for overview
files, and +Z for none. The default is whatever your
newsadmin compiled into trn, and can be -Zot to try to
access either one.
-/ sets SAVEDIR to "%p/%c" and SAVENAME to "%a", which
means that by default articles are saved in a subdirec-
tory of your private news directory corresponding to
the name of the the current newsgroup, with the
filename being the article number. +/ sets SAVEDIR to
"%p" and SAVENAME to "%^C", which by default saves
articles directly to your private news directory, with
the filename being the name of the current newsgroup,
first letter capitalized. (Either +/ or - / may be
default on your system, depending on the feelings of
your news administrator when he, she or it installed
trn.) You may, of course, explicitly set SAVEDIR and
SAVENAME to other values - - see discussion in the
environment section.
Any switch may be selectively applied according to the
current baud-rate. Simply prefix the switch with +speed to
apply the switch at that speed or greater, and - speed to
apply the switch at that speed or less. Examples: -1200-
hposted suppresses the Posted line at 1200 baud or less;
+9600-m enables marking at 9600 baud or more. You can apply
the modifier recursively to itself also: +300-1200 - t sets
terse mode from 300 to 1200 baud.
Similarly, switches may be selected based on terminal type:
-=vt100+T set +T on vt100
-=tvi920-ETERM=mytvi get a special termcap entry
-=tvi920-ERNMACRO=%./.rnmac.tvi
set up special key-mappings
+=paper-v set verify mode if not hardcopy
Some switch arguments, such as environment variable values,
may require spaces in them. Such spaces should be quoted
via ", ', or \ in the conventional fashion, even when passed
via TRNINIT or the & command.
Regular Expressions
The patterns used in article searching are regular expres-
sions such as those used by ed(1). In addition, \w matches
an alphanumeric character and \W a non-alphanumeric. Word
boundaries may be matched by \b, and non-boundaries by \B.
The bracketing construct \( ... \) may also be used, and
\digit matches the digit'th substring, where digit can range
from 1 to 9. \0 matches whatever the last bracket match
matched. Up to 10 alternatives may given in a pattern,
separated by \|, with the caveat that \( ... \| ... \) is
illegal.
Interpretation and Interpolation
Many of the strings that trn handles are subject to
interpretations of several types. Under filename expansion,
an initial "~/" is translated to the name of your home
directory, and "~name" is translated to the login directory
for the user specified. Filename expansion will also expand
an initial environment variable, and also does the
backslash, caret and percent expansion mentioned below.
All interpreted strings go through backslash, caret and per-
cent interpretation. The backslash escapes are the normal
ones (such as \n, \t, \033, etc.). The caret escapes indi-
cate control codes (such as ^i, ^l, etc.). If you wish to
pass through a backslash or a caret it must be escaped with
a backslash. The special percent escapes are similar to
printf percent escapes. These cause the substitution of
various run-time values into the string. The following are
currently recognized:
%a Current article number.
%A Full name of current article (%P/%c/%a).
%b Destination of last save command, often a mailbox.
%B The byte offset to the beginning of the part of the
article to be saved, set by the save command. The
's' and 'S' commands set it to 0, and the 'w' and
'W' commands set it to the byte offset of the body
of the article.
%c Current newsgroup, directory form.
%C Current newsgroup, dot form.
%d Full name of newsgroup directory (%P/%c).
%D "Distribution:" line from the current article.
%e The last command executed to extract data from an
article.
%E The last directory where an extracted file went.
%f "From:" line from the current article, or the
"Reply-To:" line if there is one. This differs
from %t in that comments (such as the full name) are
not stripped out with %f.
%F "Newsgroups:" line for a new article, constructed
from "Newsgroups:" and "Followup-To:" lines of
current article.
%h Name of the header file to pass to the mail or news
poster, containing all the information that the
poster program needs in the form of a message
header. It may also contain a copy of the current
article. The format of the header file is con-
trolled by the MAILHEADER and NEWSHEADER environment
variables.
%H Host name (your machine's name).
%i "Message-I.D.:" line from the current article, with
<> guaranteed.
%I The reference indication mark (see the -F switch.)
%l The news administrator's login name, if any.
%L Login name (yours).
%m The current mode of trn, for use in conditional mac-
ros.
i Initializing.
n Newsgroup-selection level.
f end (Finis) of newsgroup-selection level.
t the Thread/subject/article selector.
a Article level (What next?).
e End of the article level.
p Pager level (MORE prompt).
u Set-unread prompt.
d selector moDe prompt.
o selector Order prompt.
m Memorize thread command prompt.
r memoRize subject command prompt.
k processing memorized (KILL file) commands.
A Add this newsgroup?
B aBandon confirmation.
C Catchup confirmation.
D Delete bogus newsgroups?
F Is follow-up a new topic?
M Use mailbox format?
R Resubscribe to this newsgroup?
Note that yes/no questions are all upper-case modes.
If, for example, you wanted to disallow defaults on
all yes/no questions, you could define the following
macro:
\040 %(%m=[A-Z]?h: )
%M The number of articles marked to return via the 'M'
command. If the same article is Marked multiple
times, "%M" counts it multiple times in the current
implementation.
%n "Newsgroups:" line from the current article.
%N Full name (yours).
%o Organization (yours).
%O Original working directory (where you ran trn from).
%p Your private news directory, normally ~/News.
%P Public news spool directory, normally
/usr/spool/news on systems that don't use NNTP.
%r Last reference on references line of current article
(parent article id).
%R References list for a new article, constructed from
the references and article ID of the current arti-
cle.
%s Subject, with all Re's and (nf)'s stripped off.
%S Subject, with one "Re:" stripped off.
%t "To:" line derived from the "From:" and "Reply-To:"
lines of the current article. This always returns
an Internet format address.
%T "To:" line derived from the "Path:" line of the
current article to produce a uucp path.
%u The number of unread articles in the current news-
group.
%U The number of unread articles in the current news-
group, not counting the the current article. When
threads are selected, this count reflects only
selected articles.
%v The number of unselected articles, not counting the
current article if it is unselected.
%w The directory where mthreads keeps its tmp files.
%W The directory where thread files are placed.
%x The news library directory.
%X The trn library directory.
%z The length of the current article in bytes.
%Z The number of selected threads.
%~ Your home directory.
%. The directory containing your dot files, which is
your home directory unless the environment variable
DOTDIR is defined when trn is invoked.
%# The current count for a multi-file save, starting
with 1. This value is incremented by one for each
file saved or extracted within a single command.
%$ Current process number.
%/ Last search string.
%? A space unless the current interp string is > 79
characters, at which point it turns into a newline.
%% A percent sign.
%{name} or %{name-default}
The environment variable "name".
%[name] The value of header line "Name:" from the current
article. The "Name: " is not included. For example
"%D" and "%[distribution]" are equivalent. The name
must be spelled out in full.
%`command`
Inserts the output of the command, with any embedded
newlines translated to space.
%"prompt"
Prints prompt on the terminal, then inputs one
string, and inserts it.
%(test_text=pattern?then_text:else_text)
If test_text matches pattern, has the value
then_text, otherwise else_text. The ":else_text" is
optional, and if absent, interpolates the null
string. The = may be replaced with != to negate the
test. To quote any of the meta-characters ('=',
'?', ':', or ')'), precede with a backslash.
%digit The digits 1 through 9 interpolate the string
matched by the nth bracket in the last pattern match
that had brackets. If the last pattern had alterna-
tives, you may not know the number of the bracket
you want -- %0 will give you the last bracket
matched.
Modifiers: to capitalize the first letter, insert '^':
"%^C" produces something like "Rec.humor". Inserting '_'
causes the first letter following the last '/' to be capi-
talized: "%_c" produces "rec/Humor".
Inserting '\' will insert a backslash before any characters
that would be magic in a regular expression, including '%':
"%\C" produces "rec\.humor".
Inserting "'" will single-quote the entire result and insert
a backslash before any single-quotes in the result itself:
"%'s" might produce "'I\'m a subject'".
Inserting ":FMT" will format the result according to the
printf-style FMT string: "%:-50.50s" left-justifies the sub-
ject into a 50 character field.
ENVIRONMENT
The following environment variables are paid attention to by
trn. In general the default values assumed for these vari-
ables by trn are reasonable, so if you are using trn for the
first time, you can safely ignore this section. Note that
the defaults below may not correspond precisely to the
defaults on your system. To find the actual defaults you
would need to look in config.h and common.h in the trn
source directory, and the file INIT in the trn library
directory.
Those variables marked (%) are subject to % interpolation,
and those marked (~) are subject to both % interpolation and
~ interpretation.
ATTRIBUTION (%)
Gives the format of the attribution line in front of
the quoted article included by an F command.
Default: In article %i,%?%)f <%>f> wrote:
AUTOSUBSCRIBE
When trn is checking for new newsgroups and finds
one matching one of the patterns in AUTOSUBSCRIBE,
the new group is automatically added to the end of
the .newsrc, subscribed. Newsgroups not matching
this or AUTOUNSUBSCRIBE, below, are offered to the
user.
AUTOSUBSCRIBE is a comma separated list of newsgroup
patterns ala 'o', '/', etc. It can also include
"but not" entries preceded by '!'. "a,b,!c,d" is
read as "matching a or b, unless it also matches c;
matching d regardless". Another way to look at it
is "(((a or b) and not c) or d)". To automatically
subscribe to all local groups but be choosy about
non-local groups, one might say "*,!*.*".
Default: (none)
AUTOUNSUBSCRIBE
AUTOUNSUBSCRIBE is very similar to AUTOSUBSCRIBE,
above, but new newsgroups matching it are automati-
cally added to the end of the .newsrc file, unsub-
scribed. If a newsgroup matches AUTOSUBSCRIBE,
AUTOUNSUBSCRIBE is not consulted.
Default: (none)
CANCEL (~)
The shell command used to cancel an article.
Default: inews -h < %h
CANCELHEADER (%)
The format of the file to pass to the CANCEL command
in order to cancel an article.
Default:
Newsgroups: %n
Subject: cmsg cancel %i
References: %R
Reply-To: %L@%H (%N)
Distribution: %D
Organization: %o
%i cancelled from trn.
DOTDIR Where to find your dot files, if they aren't in your
home directory. Can be interpolated using "%.".
Default: $HOME
EDITOR (~)
The name of your editor, if VISUAL is undefined.
Default: whatever your news administrator compiled
in, usually vi.
EXSAVER (%)
The shell command to execute in order to extract
data to either /bin/sh or a user-specified command.
Default: tail +%Bc %A | %e
FIRSTLINE (%)
Controls the format of the line displayed at the top
of an article. Warning: this may go away.
The default (ignoring the Marked to return display
in unthreaded groups) is approximately:
%C #%a%(%Z=^0$?%(%U!=^0$? (%U more\)): (%U + %v
more\))
HIDELINE
If defined, contains a regular expression which
matches article lines to be hidden, in order, for
instance, to suppress quoted material. A recom-
mended string for this purpose is "^>...", which
doesn't hide lines with only '>', to give some indi-
cation that quoted material is being skipped. If
you want to hide more than one pattern, you can use
"|" to separate the alternatives. You can view the
hidden lines by restarting the article with the 'v'
command.
There is some overhead involved in matching each
line of the article against a regular expression.
You might wish to use a baud-rate modifier to enable
this feature only at low baud rates.
Default: undefined
HOME Your home directory. Affects ~ interpretation, and
the location of your dot files if DOTDIR is not
defined.
Default: $LOGDIR
KILLGLOBAL (~)
Where to find the KILL file to apply to every news-
group. See the '^K' command at the newsgroup-
selection level.
Default: %p/KILL
KILLLOCAL (~)
Where to find the KILL file for the current news-
group. See the commands 'K' and '^K' at the article
selection level, and the search modifier 'K'.
Default: %p/%c/KILL
LOGDIR Your home directory if HOME is undefined. Affects ~
interpretation, and the location of your dot files
if DOTDIR is not defined.
Default: none.
Explanation: you must have either $HOME or $LOGDIR.
LOGNAME Your login name, if USER is undefined. May be
interpolated using "%L".
Default: value of getlogin().
LOCALTIMEFMT
The format used by strftime() to print the local
time. The Date line is only displayed in local time
if the group is threaded (see the -H option for more
information on Date).
Default: %a %b %e %X %Z %Y
which is the same format as the date(1) command.
MAILCALL (~)
What to say when there is new mail.
Default: (Mail)
MAILFILE (~)
Where to check for mail.
Default: /usr/spool/mail/%L
MAILHEADER (%)
The format of the header file for replies. See also
MAILPOSTER.
Default:
To: %t
Subject: %(%i=^$?:Re: %S
Newsgroups: %n
In-Reply-To: %i)
%(%[references]!=^$?References\: %[references]
)Organization: %o
Cc:
Bcc: \n\n
MAILPOSTER (~)
The shell command to be used by the reply commands
(r and R) in order to allow you to enter and deliver
the response. trn will not itself call upon an edi-
tor for replies -- this is a function of the program
called by trn. See also MAILHEADER.
Default: QUOTECHARS=%I Rnmail -h %h
MBOXSAVER (~)
The shell command to save an article in mailbox for-
mat.
Default: %X/mbox.saver %A %P %c %a %B %C "%b" \
"From %t %`date`"
Explanation: the first seven arguments are the same
as for NORMSAVER. The eighth argument to the shell
script is the new From line for the article, includ-
ing the posting date, derived either directly from
the Posted: line, or not-so-directly from the Date:
line. Header munging at its finest.
MODSTRING
The string to insert in the group summary line,
which heads each article, for a moderated group.
See also NOPOSTRING.
Default: " (moderated)"
NAME Your full name. May be interpolated using "%N".
Default: name from /etc/passwd, or ~/.fullname.
NEWSHEADER (%)
The format of the header file for follow-ups. See
also NEWSPOSTER.
Default:
%(%[followup-to]=^$?:X-ORIGINAL-NEWSGROUPS: %n
)Newsgroups: %(%F=^$?%C:%F)
Subject: %(%S=^$?%"\n\nSubject: ":Re: %S)
Summary:
Expires:
%(%R=^$?:References: %R
)Sender:
Followup-To:
%(%{REPLYTO}=^$?:Reply-To: %{REPLYTO}
)Distribution: %(%i=^$?%"Distribution: ":%D)
Organization: %o
Keywords: %[keywords]
Cc: \n\n
NEWSORG Either the name of your organization, or the name of
a file containing the name of your organization.
(For use at sites where the ORGANIZATION environmen-
tal variable is already in use. NEWSORG will over-
ride ORGANIZATION if both are present.) May be
interpolated using "%o".
Default: whatever your news administrator compiled
in.
NEWSPOSTER (~)
The shell command to be used by the follow-up com-
mands (f and F) in order to allow you to enter and
post a follow-up news article. trn will not itself
call upon an editor for follow-ups -- this is a
function of the program called by trn. See also
NEWSHEADER.
Default: QUOTECHARS=%I Pnews -h %h
NEWSRC Your newsgroup subscription list.
Default: $HOME/.newsrc
NNTPSERVER
The hostname of your NNTPSERVER. [This does not
apply unless you are running the NNTP version of
trn.]
Default: the hostname listed in the server file,
usually /usr/local/lib/rn/server.
NOPOSTRING
The string to insert in the group summary line,
which heads each article, for a group to which local
posting is not allowed. See also MODSTRING.
Default: " (no posting)"
NORMSAVER (~)
The shell command to save an article in the normal
(non-mailbox) format.
Default: %X/norm.saver %A %P %c %a %B %C "%b"
ORGANIZATION
Either the name of your organization, or the name of
a file containing the name of your organization.
(If NEWSORG is set, it will override ORGANIZATION.)
May be interpolated using "%o".
Default: whatever your news administrator compiled
in.
PAGESTOP
If defined, contains a regular expression which
matches article lines to be treated as form-feeds.
There are at least two things you might want to do
with this. To cause page breaks between articles in
a digest, you might define it as "^--------". To
force a page break before a signature, you could
define it as "^-- $". (Then, when you see "--" at
the bottom of the page, you can skip the signature
if you so desire by typing 'n' instead of space.)
To do both, you could use "^--". If you want to
break on more than one pattern, you can use "|" to
separate the alternatives.
There is some overhead involved in matching each
line of the article against a regular expression.
You might wish to use a baud-rate modifier to enable
this feature only at low baud rates.
Default: undefined
PIPESAVER (%)
The shell command to execute in order to accomplish
a save to a pipe ("s | command" or "w | command").
The command typed by the user is substituted in as
%b.
Default: %(%B=^0$?<%A:tail +%Bc %A |) %b
Explanation: if %B is 0, the command is "<%A %b",
otherwise the command is "tail +%Bc %A | %b".
REPLYTO The value of the "Reply-To:" header, if needed.
RNINIT This variable is used when initializing trn in rn-
compatibility mode (see the -x switch) or when the
TRNINIT variable isn't defined. See the TRNINIT
variable for a description.
RNMACRO (~)
The name of the file containing macros and key map-
pings when running trn as rn. See also the TRNMACRO
variable and the CUSTOM MACROS section.
Default: %./.rnmac
SAVEDIR (~)
The name of the directory to save to, if the save
command does not specify a directory name.
Default:
If -/ is set: %p/%c
If +/ is set: %p
SAVENAME (%)
The name of the file to save to, if the save command
contains only a directory name.
Default:
If -/ is set: %a
If +/ is set: %^C
SELECTCHARS
The characters used by the thread selector to select
the associated thread of discussion. You can
specify up to 64 visible characters, including
upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and many
punctuation characters. Selection characters over-
ride command characters in the selector, but are not
excluded from macro expansion, so be careful.
Default: abdefgijlorstuvwxyz1234567890BCFGHIKMVW
(You'll notice various characters are omitted to
allow them to be typed as commands in the selector.)
SHELL The name of your preferred shell. It will be used
by the '!', 'S' and 'W' commands.
Default: whatever your news administrator compiled
in.
SUBJLINE (%)
Controls the format of the lines displayed by the
'=' command at the article selection level.
Default: %s
SUPERSEDEHEADER (%)
The format of the header file for a supersede arti-
cle.
Default:
From: %L@%H (%N)
Newsgroups: %n
Subject: %S
Distribution: %D
Organization: %o
Supersedes: %i
TERM Determines which termcap entry to use, unless
TERMCAP contains the entry.
TERMCAP Holds either the name of your termcap file, or a
termcap entry.
Default: /etc/termcap, normally.
TRNINIT Default values for switches may be passed to trn by
placing them in the TRNINIT variable (or RNINIT if
you're starting trn in rn-compatibility mode). Any
switch that is set in this way may be overruled on
the command line, or via the '&' command from within
trn. Binary-valued switches that are set with "-
switch" may be unset using "+switch".
If TRNINIT begins with a '/' it is assumed to be the
name of a file containing switches. You can put
comments in this file by preceding them with a '#'
as long as this is the first character on a line or
it follows some white-space (which delimits the
switches in the file). If you want to set many
environment variables but don't want to keep them
all in your environment, or if the use of any of
these variables conflicts with other programs, you
can use this feature along with the -E switch to set
the environment variables upon startup.
Default: " ".
TRNMACRO (~)
The name of the file containing macros and key map-
pings. If the file is not found, the RNMACRO vari-
able is used to look for your rn macros. For infor-
mation on what to put into this file, see the CUSTOM
MACROS section.
Default: %./.trnmac
UNSHAR (~)
The shell command to execute in order to accomplish
the unshar'ing of a shell archive.
Default: /bin/sh
USER Your login name. May be interpolated using "%L".
Default: $LOGNAME
VISUAL (~)
The name of your editor.
Default: $EDITOR
YOUSAID (%)
Gives the format of the attribution line in front of
the quoted article included by an R command.
Default: In article %i you write:
AUTOMATIC MACROS
On startup trn attempts to build a set of macros that map
your keypad arrow keys to useful functions. These default
actions are mentioned in the prior description of each
level's commands. If you don't like this (or trn gets it
wrong), you can disable the automatic macros by using the -A
option.
CUSTOM MACROS
When trn starts up it looks for a file containing macro
definitions (see environment variables TRNMACRO and
RNMACRO). Any sequence of commands may be bound to any
sequence of keys, so you could re-map your entire keyboard
if you desire. Blank lines or lines beginning with # in the
macro file are considered comments; otherwise trn looks for
two fields separated by white space. The first field gives
the sequence of keystrokes that trigger the macro, and the
second field gives the sequence of commands to execute.
Both fields are subject to % interpolation, which will also
translate backslash and caret sequences. (The keystroke
field is interpreted at startup time, but the command field
is interpreted at macro execution time so that you may refer
to % values in a macro.) For example, if you want to
reverse the roles of carriage return and space in trn
^J \040
^M \040
\040 ^J
will do just that. By default, all characters in the com-
mand field are interpreted as the canonical trn characters,
i.e. no macro expansion is done. Otherwise the above pair
of macros would cause an infinite loop. To force macro
expansion in the command field, enclose the macro call with
^( ... ^) thusly:
@s |mysavescript
@w w^(@s^)
You can use the %() conditional construct to construct mac-
ros that work differently under different circumstances. In
particular, the current mode (%m) of trn could be used to
make a command that only works at a particular level. This
is particularly vital for the selector which uses most of
the lower-case letters to select the associated item in its
display. For example,
a %(%m=t?a:s art.hold\n)
will return the original letter (a) in the selector, and the
command "s art.hold\n" everywhere else.
%(%{TERM}=vt100?^[[O) /^J
will do the binding only if the terminal type is vt100,
though if you have many of these it would be better to have
separate files for each terminal.
If you want to bind a macro to a function key that puts a
common garbage character after the sequence (such as the
carriage return on the end of Televideo 920 function
sequences), DO NOT put the carriage return into all the
sequences or you will waste a CONSIDERABLE amount of inter-
nal storage. Instead of "^AF^M", put "^AF+1", which indi-
cates to trn that it should gobble up one character after
the F.
WHAT'S NEW
Here's a quick run-down of trn's features and commands aimed
at the knowledgeable rn or trn user.
The addition of true reference-line threading is one of the
biggest improvements over rn. This threading allows you to
read a discussion in reply order with an article's replies
being attached to the article that inspired them. Threads
will encompass multiple subjects whenever a reply to an
article in the thread arrives with a different subject.
This is usually done to better indicate the topic in the
reply when it diverges from the original subject.
Another big improvement is the selector, which is bound to
the '+' key. The selector displays a list of threads, sub-
jects, or individual articles to allow you to select the
topics that interest you by typing their associated letter.
The difference between the thread and the subject selector
is that the subject selector displays all subjects with a
separate selection letter, even those tied together via
their references. This can be quite useful if you select
some threads and desire to weed out some extraneous discus-
sions: you could switch the selector into exclusive mode
('E' shows only selected threads) and then into subject mode
('Ss') to separate the threads into their component subjects
and deselect or kill the subjects you don't care about. You
don't have to go to all this trouble using the selector if
you prefer to just hit the 'k' key when you start reading a
subject you're not interested in. The selector can also
switch between showing unread articles and articles that
have already been read, allowing you to selectively re-read
discussions (this is the 'U' command in the selector).
Another threaded addition is the article-tree display in the
upper-right corner of the header. Looking at the tree gives
you a feel for how the articles you are reading relate to
each other, allowing you to see at a glance when there are
lots of replies and decide if you want to junk an unin-
teresting set of replies or perhaps tough it out.
The header display has also been modified to hide a few more
lines by default (e.g. References), but, as always, you can
override these with -h. There is also some more "magic" in
the header: the From header can be trimmed to be just the
comment portion (if available), and the Date header is
displayed in local time (by default). Use -H and +H to turn
header magic on and off.
Once you begin reading articles, use the regular movement
commands (n, N, p, P, etc.) as you normally would. You'll
find that these commands track the reply order shown in the
tree display. Then try using ^N and ^P, which follow a sub-
ject in the order the articles were posted. Finally, check
out the [, ], (, ), {, and } commands to move around in the
article tree a bit more directly. The first four commands
should also be bound to your keypad's arrow keys, making
them easier to type. For example, typing '[' (left) takes
you to your parent article, even if it was already read,
which is very useful for tracking down the cited portion of
the article in its original context.
There are additional kill commands for the entire thread (J)
and the current article and all its replies (,).
The KILL files have been extended and the commands inside
them are now referred to memorized commands, since they are
often used for selection rather than killing of articles.
There are new, easier ways to add memorized commands using
the 'A'dd and 'T'hread commands. The 'A' command is
subject-oriented, while the 'T' command is article-oriented
(meaning they affect a specific set of articles rather than
any article that happens to have a matching subject). They
both prompt you for what kind of command you want to add,
making both auto-killing and auto-selecting just as easy.
There is also an easy way to skip around among the various
threads with the < and > commands. Use them if you want to
skip a set of article and read them later instead of junking
them.
Note: your news administrator has the option of turning
thread processing off for individual groups, and thus it is
possible for some groups to not have any pre-processed
thread information available for use. When trn encounters
such a group, it generates the thread information on the fly
while entering the group. For really large groups (or
really slow systems), this can take an appreciable amount of
time. If you can't talk your news administrator into pre-
threading the group, you can turn off the threading on a
group-by-group basis using the 't' command at the
newsgroup-selection level. Groups turned off in this way
are read in the rn style -- articles arranged in arrival
order unless you specify the - S option, which reads the
articles in date order by subject.
Take note of the "e dir" command, which is used to extract a
shell archive or uuencoded file into the specified direc-
tory. It is even possible to extract other data formats if
you specify the appropriate filter command (e.g. "e
dir|cmd".
Also, if you plan to use macro definitions, it is good to
keep in mind that the selector uses most of the lower-case
letters for selection, and thus it is a good idea to expli-
citly set the mode(s) in which a macro applies. For exam-
ple, if you want to press 'f' from the article
pager/selector to forward the current article to the user
"smith", you could define:
f %(%m=[pa]?|mail smith\n:f)
This checks the current mode (%m) and if it is 'p' or 'a' it
expands it to the string "|mail smith\n", otherwise it
returns the letter 'f'. In some cases, you may simply wish
to exclude the selector from a macro with the conditional
"%m!=t".
Finally, you'll probably want to use the new options, -x and
-X to ensure that all the newest features are available for
use. These options might be on by default, depending on how
your administrator decided to install trn.
AUTHORS
Rn was created by Larry Wall <lwall@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov>
and is now under the direction of Stan Barber
<sob@bcm.tmc.edu>.
Threaded version by Wayne Davison <davison@borland.com>
(Mail all bug reports for trn to Wayne.)
Regular expression routines are borrowed from emacs, by
James Gosling.
FILES
%./.newsrc status of your news reading
%./.oldnewsrc
backup copy of your .newsrc from start of ses-
sion
%./.rnlock lock file so you don't screw up your .newsrc
%./.rnlast info from last run of trn
%./.rnsoft soft pointers into /usr/lib/news/active to speed
startup, synchronous with .newsrc
%./.rnhead temporary header file to pass to a mailer or
news poster
%./.[t]rnmacmacro and keymap definitions
%p your news save directory, usually ~/News
%x/active the list of active newsgroups, usually
/usr/lib/news/active on systems that don't use
NNTP
%P the public news spool directory, usually
/usr/spool/news on systems that don't use NNTP
%X/INIT system-wide default switches
SEE ALSO
newsrc(5), more(1), readnews(1), Pnews(1), Rnmail(1)
DIAGNOSTICS
Generally self-documenting, as they say.
BUGS
The -h switch can only hide header lines that trn knows
about.
The '-' command doesn't cross newsgroup boundaries, and only
undoes the last article selection.
If you edit your .newsrc while trn is running, trn will hap-
pily wipe out your changes when it decides to write out the
.newsrc file.
Marking of duplicate articles as read in cross-referenced
newsgroups will not work unless the Xref patch is installed
in inews.
If you get carried away with % or escape substitutions, you
can overflow buffers.