1slrn(1) User Manuals slrn(1)
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7 slrn - An easy to use NNTP / spool based newsreader.
8
10 slrn [-aCdknmw] [-C-] [-Dname] [-f newsrc-file] [-i config-file] [-k0]
11 [--create] [--debug file] [--help] [--inews] [--kill-log file] [--nntp
12 [-h server] [-p port]] [--show-config] [--spool] [--version]
13
15 slrn is an easy to use but powerful NNTP / spool based newsreader.
16 It is highly customizable, supports scoring, free key bindings and can
18 be extended using the embedded S-Lang interpreter.
19 To use slrn, you either need to set the NNTPSERVER environment variable
21 to the server you want to read news from or specify a server on the
22 command line. A newsrc file is needed, too. In case you do not yet
23 have one, you can create it using ``slrn -f ~/.jnewsrc --create''.
24 Inside slrn, online help is available via the '?' key.
26
28 The following options can be used when calling slrn from the command
29 line. They override both environment variables and settings in private
30 and global configuration files.
31 -a Read active file when checking for new news.
33 -C Use colors without checking if the terminal supports it.
35 -C- Don't use colors, even if the terminal supports it.
37 -d Get group descriptions (taglines) from the news server. Please
39 note that this may cause a download of several hundred kilobytes
40 and thus can take a long time. The output is saved to a local
41 file, so you only need to do this once. May not be specified in
42 combination with --create.
43 -Dname Add name to the list of predefined preprocessing tokens, which
45 can be used in your slrnrc file to have conditionally inter‐
46 preted lines. See the slrn reference manual for details.
47 -f newsrc-file
49 Use file as the newsrc file for this session. This is perma‐
50 nently set via the server configuration command.
51 -h host[:port]
53 Connect to the NNTP server on host, overriding the $NNTPSERVER
54 environment variable. If no port is given, the default NNTP
55 port (119) will be used. This option is only accepted after
56 --nntp or when NNTP is the default mode.
57 -i config-file
59 Read file as the initialization (slrnrc) file. The default is
60 to use .slrnrc (or slrn.rc on VMS, OS/2 and Windows) in your
61 home directory.
62 -k Don't read the score file.
64 -k0 Read the score file, but inhibit expensive scoring. A scoring
66 rule is expensive if it contains header lines that are not
67 included in the server's overview files. This makes applying
68 them slow.
69 -m Force mouse support (without checking if it works on the current
71 terminal).
72 -n Do not check for new groups (usually resulting in a faster
74 startup).
75 -p N Use port N to connect to the NNTP server.
77 -w Wait for a key before switching to full screen mode, allowing
79 the user to read startup messages.
80 --create
82 Read the active file (the list of all groups) from the news
83 server to create an initial newsrc file.
84 --debug file
86 Write debugging output to file.
87 --help Show help for command line switches.
89 --inews
91 Use an external inews program to post articles.
92 --kill-log file
94 Keep a log of all articles that were killed by the scorefile in
95 file.
96 --nntp Use builtin NNTP support for reading and posting (an external
98 program is used to post if slrn was compiled with
99 --enable-force-inews).
100 --pull Spool outgoing articles locally for slrnpull to send.
102 --show-config
104 Print detailed information about slrn configuration.
105 --spool
107 Read directly from spool.
108 --version
110 Print version and some compile time settings.
111
113 slrn uses the following list of environment variables. Note: environ‐
114 ment variables can be overridden by configuration files or command line
115 switches.
116 COLORTERM
118 If this variable is set, slrn will assume that your terminal
119 supports ANSI color sequences. It also enables a workaround for
120 a problem with the mouse reporting when running slrn inside of
121 an rxvt.
122 DISPLAY
124 If set, slrn assumes that X11 is running.
125 EDITOR See $SLRN_EDITOR.
127 HOME See $SLRNHOME.
129 HOSTNAME
131 If no hostname is given, the value of this environment variable
132 is used.
133 LOGNAME
135 See $USER.
136 NAME Set it to your realname, if slrn can't determine it otherwise.
138 NNTPSERVER
140 You can use this variable to tell slrn which NNTP server to con‐
141 nect to. It can be overridden by the command line option -h.
142 ORGANIZATION
144 The name of your organization.
145 PRINTER
147 On unix systems, slrn pipes the current article to ``lpr -P
148 $PRINTER'' to print it.
149 PWD This variable is only used on unix systems that don't support
151 getcwd(3). In these cases, it should be set to the current
152 directory at the time slrn is invoked. This is usually done by
153 the shell and nothing the user has to worry about.
154 REPLYTO
156 The value of this variable is used as the default if you do not
157 set replyto in your slrnrc file.
158 SLANG_EDITOR
160 See $SLRN_EDITOR.
161 SLRNHELP
163 You can set this variable to a file slrn should read its online
164 help from. This is only needed when the default key bindings
165 have been changed and you want the help function to reflect
166 this. If unset, slrn looks for help.txt in the configuration
167 directory.
168 SLRNHOME
170 When interpreting filenames as relative to your home directory,
171 slrn uses this variable to find out what your home directory is.
172 If $SLRNHOME is unset, $HOME is used instead.
173 SLRN_EDITOR
175 The editor to start for editing articles. If this variable is
176 unset, slrn subsequently looks at $SLANG_EDITOR, $EDITOR and
177 $VISUAL.
178 SLRN_SLANG_DIR
180 If set, slrn will search for slang macros here. If not set slrn
181 will search in the default path, which is defined at compile
182 time (usually share_dir/slang).
183 TMP Indicates the directory in which slrn should save temporary
185 files.
186 TMPDIR See $TMP.
188 USER Your username, if slrn can't get it from the system by other
190 means.
191 VISUAL See $SLRN_EDITOR.
193
195 $HOME/.slrnrc
196 User-specific configuration file.
197 config_dir/slrn.rc
199 System-wide configuration file. config_dir is set at compile
200 time (/usr/local/etc by default).
201 $HOME/.jnewsrc
203 default newsrc file for slrn.
204 $HOME/.jnewsrc.dsc
206 Per user newsgroups descriptions.
207 share_dir/newsgroups.dsc
209 Global newsgroup descriptions. share_dir is set at compile time
210 (/usr/local/share/slrn by default).
211
213 The documentation that comes with slrn, especially FIRST_STEPS, man‐
214 ual.txt, FAQ and score.txt. If you consider writing S-Lang macros,
215 also look at README.macros and slrnfuns.txt.
216 Recent versions of the slrn manual and the FAQ as well as additional
218 information can also be found on slrn's official home page:
219 http://slrn.sourceforge.net/
220 Questions about slrn that are not covered by existing documentation may
222 be posted to the newsgroup news.software.readers where they will be
223 answered by knowledgeable users or the author of the program. In addi‐
224 tion, announcements of new versions of slrn are posted there.
225 The latest version of slrn is available from http://prdownloads.source‐
227 forge.net/slrn/
228
230 John E. Davis <jed@jedsoft.org>
231Unix February 2008 slrn(1)