1slrn(1)                          User Manuals                          slrn(1)
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NAME

6       slrn - An easy to use NNTP / spool based newsreader.
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SYNOPSIS

9       slrn  [-aCdknmw] [-C-] [-Dname] [-f newsrc-file] [-i config-file] [-k0]
10       [--create] [--debug file] [--help] [--inews] [--kill-log file]  [--nntp
11       [-h server] [-p port]] [--show-config] [--spool] [--version]
12

DESCRIPTION

14       slrn is an easy to use but powerful NNTP / spool based newsreader.
15
16       It  is highly customizable, supports scoring, free key bindings and can
17       be extended using the embedded S-Lang interpreter.
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19       To use slrn, you either need to set the NNTPSERVER environment variable
20       to  the  server  you  want to read news from or specify a server on the
21       command line.  A newsrc file is needed, too.  In case you  do  not  yet
22       have one, you can create it using ``slrn -f ~/.jnewsrc --create''.
23
24       Inside slrn, online help is available via the '?' key.
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OPTIONS

27       The  following  options  can be used when calling slrn from the command
28       line.  They override both environment variables and settings in private
29       and global configuration files.
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31       -a     Read active file when checking for new news.
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33       -C     Use colors without checking if the terminal supports it.
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35       -C-    Don't use colors, even if the terminal supports it.
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37       -d     Get  group descriptions (taglines) from the news server.  Please
38              note that this may cause a download of several hundred kilobytes
39              and  thus  can take a long time.  The output is saved to a local
40              file, so you only need to do this once.  May not be specified in
41              combination with --create.
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43       -Dname Add  name  to the list of predefined preprocessing tokens, which
44              can be used in your slrnrc file  to  have  conditionally  inter‐
45              preted lines.  See the slrn reference manual for details.
46
47       -f newsrc-file
48              Use  file  as  the newsrc file for this session.  This is perma‐
49              nently set via the server configuration command.
50
51       -h host[:port]
52              Connect to the NNTP server on host, overriding  the  $NNTPSERVER
53              environment  variable.   If  no  port is given, the default NNTP
54              port (119) will be used.  This option  is  only  accepted  after
55              --nntp or when NNTP is the default mode.
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57       -i config-file
58              Read  file  as the initialization (slrnrc) file.  The default is
59              to use .slrnrc (or slrn.rc on VMS, OS/2  and  Windows)  in  your
60              home directory.
61
62       -k     Don't read the score file.
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64       -k0    Read  the  score  file, but inhibit expensive scoring. A scoring
65              rule is expensive if it  contains  header  lines  that  are  not
66              included  in  the  server's overview files.  This makes applying
67              them slow.
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69       -m     Force mouse support (without checking if it works on the current
70              terminal).
71
72       -n     Do  not  check  for  new  groups  (usually resulting in a faster
73              startup).
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75       -p N   Use port N to connect to the NNTP server.
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77       -w     Wait for a key before switching to full  screen  mode,  allowing
78              the user to read startup messages.
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80       --create
81              Read  the  active  file  (the  list of all groups) from the news
82              server to create an initial newsrc file.
83
84       --debug file
85              Write debugging output to file.
86
87       --help Show help for command line switches.
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89       --inews
90              Use an external inews program to post articles.
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92       --kill-log file
93              Keep a log of all articles that were killed by the scorefile  in
94              file.
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96       --nntp Use  builtin  NNTP  support for reading and posting (an external
97              program  is  used  to   post   if   slrn   was   compiled   with
98              --enable-force-inews).
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100       --pull Spool outgoing articles locally for slrnpull to send.
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102       --show-config
103              Print detailed information about slrn configuration.
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105       --spool
106              Read directly from spool.
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108       --version
109              Print version and some compile time settings.
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ENVIRONMENT

112       slrn  uses the following list of environment variables.  Note: environ‐
113       ment variables can be overridden by configuration files or command line
114       switches.
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116       COLORTERM
117              If  this  variable  is  set, slrn will assume that your terminal
118              supports ANSI color sequences.  It also enables a workaround for
119              a  problem  with the mouse reporting when running slrn inside of
120              an rxvt.
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122       DISPLAY
123              If set, slrn assumes that X11 is running.
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125       EDITOR See $SLRN_EDITOR.
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127       HOME   See $SLRNHOME.
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129       HOSTNAME
130              If no hostname is given, the value of this environment  variable
131              is used.
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133       LOGNAME
134              See $USER.
135
136       NAME   Set it to your realname, if slrn can't determine it otherwise.
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138       NNTPSERVER
139              You can use this variable to tell slrn which NNTP server to con‐
140              nect to.  It can be overridden by the command line option -h.
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142       ORGANIZATION
143              The name of your organization.
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145       PRINTER
146              On unix systems, slrn pipes the  current  article  to  ``lpr  -P
147              $PRINTER'' to print it.
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149       PWD    This  variable  is  only used on unix systems that don't support
150              getcwd(3).  In these cases, it should  be  set  to  the  current
151              directory  at the time slrn is invoked.  This is usually done by
152              the shell and nothing the user has to worry about.
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154       REPLYTO
155              The value of this variable is used as the default if you do  not
156              set replyto in your slrnrc file.
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158       SLANG_EDITOR
159              See $SLRN_EDITOR.
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161       SLRNHELP
162              You  can set this variable to a file slrn should read its online
163              help from.  This is only needed when the  default  key  bindings
164              have  been  changed  and  you  want the help function to reflect
165              this.  If unset, slrn looks for help.txt  in  the  configuration
166              directory.
167
168       SLRNHOME
169              When  interpreting filenames as relative to your home directory,
170              slrn uses this variable to find out what your home directory is.
171              If $SLRNHOME is unset, $HOME is used instead.
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173       SLRN_EDITOR
174              The  editor  to start for editing articles.  If this variable is
175              unset, slrn subsequently looks  at  $SLANG_EDITOR,  $EDITOR  and
176              $VISUAL.
177
178       SLRN_SLANG_DIR
179              If  set, slrn will search for slang macros here. If not set slrn
180              will search in the default path, which  is  defined  at  compile
181              time (usually share_dir/slang).
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183       TMP    Indicates  the  directory  in  which  slrn should save temporary
184              files.
185
186       TMPDIR See $TMP.
187
188       USER   Your username, if slrn can't get it from  the  system  by  other
189              means.
190
191       VISUAL See $SLRN_EDITOR.
192

FILES

194       $HOME/.slrnrc
195              User-specific configuration file.
196
197       config_dir/slrn.rc
198              System-wide  configuration  file.  config_dir  is set at compile
199              time (/usr/local/etc by default).
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201       $HOME/.jnewsrc
202              default newsrc file for slrn.
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204       $HOME/.jnewsrc.dsc
205              Per user newsgroups descriptions.
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207       share_dir/newsgroups.dsc
208              Global newsgroup descriptions. share_dir is set at compile  time
209              (/usr/local/share/slrn by default).
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SEE ALSO

212       The  documentation  that  comes with slrn, especially FIRST_STEPS, man‐
213       ual.txt, FAQ and score.txt.  If you  consider  writing  S-Lang  macros,
214       also look at README.macros and slrnfuns.txt.
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216       Recent  versions  of  the slrn manual and the FAQ as well as additional
217       information  can  also  be  found  on  slrn's   official   home   page:
218       http://slrn.sourceforge.net/
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220       Questions about slrn that are not covered by existing documentation may
221       be posted to the newsgroup news.software.readers  where  they  will  be
222       answered by knowledgeable users or the author of the program.  In addi‐
223       tion, announcements of new versions of slrn are posted there.
224
225       Links to the latest version of slrn may  be  found  at  http://www.jed
226       soft.org/slrn/
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AUTHOR

229       John E. Davis <jed@jedsoft.org>
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233Unix                             February 2008                         slrn(1)
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