1tin(1) Usenet newsreader tin(1)
2
6 tin, rtin - Usenet newsreader
7
9 tin [[-h|-H|-V] | [[-a] [-dlnq|-Q] [-AkrTzxX]] [[-R|-S] -s News_dir]
10 [-cuvZ] [-4|-6] [-o|-w|-N|-M address] [-D debug_level] [-G arti‐
11 cle_limit] [-f newsrc_file] [-g server] [-m Mail_dir] [-p port] [-I in‐
12 dex_dir] [newsgroup[,...]]]
13
15 tin is a full-screen easy to use Usenet newsreader. It can read news
16 locally (e.g., /var/spool/news) or remotely (rtin or tin -r option) via
17 an NNTP (Network News Transport Protocol, RFC3977) or NNTPS (RFC8143)
18 server. It will automatically utilize NOV newsoverview(5) style index
19 files if available locally or via the NNTP [X]OVER command (RFC2980,
20 RFC3977).
21 tin has four separate levels of operation: Selection level, Group
23 level, Thread level and Article level. Use the Help ('h') command to
24 view a list of the commands available at a particular level.
25 On startup tin will show a list of the newsgroups found in ${TIN_HOME‐
27 DIR:-"$HOME"}/.newsrc. An arrow '->' or highlighted bar will point to
28 the first newsgroup. Move to a group by using the terminal arrow keys
29 (terminal dependent) or Down ('j') and Up ('k'). Use PgUp/PgDn (termi‐
30 nal dependent) or PageUp ('^U') (CTRL-U) and PageDown ('^D') (CTRL-D)
31 to page up/down. Enter a newsgroup by pressing '<CR>'.
32 The GroupNextUnreadArtOrGrp ('<TAB>') key enters the next newsgroup
34 with unread articles.
35
37 0 Successful program execution. No unread news available in batch
38 mode.
39 1 Usage, syntax, configuration file or network error.
41 2 Unread news available (batch mode (''-Z'') only).
43 3 NNTP error.
45
47 -4 Force connecting via IPv4 to the remote NNTP server. Only
48 available when built with IPv6 support.
49 -6 Force connecting via IPv6 to the remote NNTP server. Only
51 available when built with IPv6 support.
52 -a Toggle ANSI color (default is off).
54 -A Force authentication on initial connect. Only available
56 when reading via NNTP.
57 -c Create/update index files for every group in ${TIN_HOME‐
59 DIR:-"$HOME"}/.newsrc or file specified by the ''-f'' op‐
60 tion and mark all articles as read.
61 -d Don't load newsgroup descriptions and servers message of
63 the day (interactive mode).
64 -D debug-level
66 Enter debug-level (1 = NNTP, 2 = filter, 4 = newsrc, 8 =
67 threading, 16 = memory, 32 = attributes, 64 = misc, 128 =
68 remove existing debug files). For NNTP-level ''-v'' con‐
69 trols the verbosity of the output. Depending on the debug-
70 level various files may be written to $TMPDIR and/or on
71 screen output may be given. See also the "SECURITY" sec‐
72 tion!
73 -f file Use the specified file of subscribed to newsgroups in place
75 of ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.newsrc.
76 -g server Use the server and newsrc specified in ${TIN_HOME‐
78 DIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/newsrctable. Only available when reading
79 via NNTP.
80 -G article-limit
82 Limit the number of articles/group to retrieve from the
83 server. If article-limit is > 0 not more than the last ar‐
84 ticle-limit articles/group are fetched from the server. If
85 article-limit is < 0 tin will start fetching articles from
86 your first unread minus absolute value of article-limit.
87 Default is 0, which means no limit.
88 -h Help listing all command-line options.
90 -H Brief introduction to tin that is also shown the first time
92 it is started.
93 -I dir Directory in which to store newsgroup index files. Default
95 is ${TIN_INDEX_NEWSDIR:-"${TIN_HOME‐
96 DIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin"}/.news. This option has no effect if
97 tin retrieves its index files via NNTP and cache_over‐
98 view_files is turned off.
99 -k Skip the certificate verification step for NNTPS connec‐
101 tions and proceed without checking. This option implies
102 ''-T''.
103 -l Get number of articles per group from the ${TIN_LIB‐
105 DIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}"/"${TIN_ACTIVEFILE:-active} file. If read‐
106 ing via NNTP this is done with the LIST command (RFC3977).
107 This might result in incorrect article counts but is usu‐
108 ally faster than the default which is to read the
109 ${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}"/"${TIN_ACTIVEFILE:-active} file
110 (either directly or via LIST) and then check the article
111 count via NNTP GROUP command (RFC3977) ''-ln''. If reading
112 via NNTP and LIST COUNTS (RFC6048) is available that is
113 used instead as it gives more accurate article counts.
114 -m dir Mailbox directory to use. Default is ${TIN_HOME‐
116 DIR:-"$HOME"}/Mail.
117 -M user Mail unread articles to specified user for later reading.
119 For more information read section "AUTOMATIC MAILING AND
120 SAVING NEW NEWS".
121 -n Only load groups from the ${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIB‐
123 DIR}"/"${TIN_ACTIVEFILE:-active} file that are subscribed
124 to in the user's ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.newsrc. This al‐
125 lows a noticeable speedup when connecting via a slow line,
126 but tin may not be able detect which groups are moderated.
127 See also ''-l''.
128 -N Mail unread articles to yourself for later reading. For
130 more information read section "AUTOMATIC MAILING AND SAVING
131 NEW NEWS".
132 -o Quick post all postponed articles and exit. In order for
134 this to be really quick, it should be used with ''-n'' if
135 possible.
136 -p port Port to use if reading via NNTP (default is 119 or 563 if
138 NNTPS is enabled, see ''-T''). This also overrides the en‐
139 vironment variable $NNTPPORT if set. Only available when
140 reading via NNTP.
141 -q Don't check for new newsgroups and skip loading the servers
143 message of the day.
144 -Q Quick start. Start tin as quickly as possible. Currently
146 this is equivalent to ''-dnq''.
147 -r Read news remotely from the default NNTP server specified
149 in the environment variable $NNTPSERVER or contained in the
150 file /etc/nntpserver.
151 -R Read news saved by the ''-S'' option.
153 -s dir Save/read articles to/in directory. Default is ${TIN_HOME‐
155 DIR:-"$HOME"}/News.
156 -S Save unread articles for later reading by the ''-R'' op‐
158 tion. For more information read section "AUTOMATIC MAILING
159 AND SAVING NEW NEWS".
160 -T Enable NNTPS (NNTP over TLS). Only available when reading
162 via NNTP.
163 -u Create/update index files for every group in ${TIN_HOME‐
165 DIR:-"$HOME"}/.newsrc or file specified by the ''-f'' op‐
166 tion. This option is disabled if tin retrieves its index
167 files via an NNTP server and cache_overview_files is turned
168 off.
169 -v Verbose mode for ''-c'', ''-D'', ''-M'', ''-N'', ''-S'',
171 ''-u'' and ''-Z'' options. Can be used multiple times to
172 increase verbosity.
173 -V Print version information and compilation options.
175 -w Quick mode to post an article and then exit. This option
177 implies ''-d''. In order for this to be really quick, it
178 should be used with ''-n'' if possible.
179 -x No-posting mode. You cannot post articles if you use this
181 option.
182 -X No overwrite mode. ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.newsrc and
184 files in ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin will not be overwrit‐
185 ten but may be created if they don't exist.
186 -z Only start tin if there is any new/unread news. If there is
188 news tin will position cursor at first group with unread
189 news. Useful for putting in login file.
190 -Z Check if there is any new/unread news and exit with appro‐
192 priate status. If ''-v'' option is specified the number of
193 unread articles in each group is printed. An exit code 0
194 indicates no news, 1 that an error occurred and 2 that
195 new/unread news exists. Useful for writing scripts.
196 tin can also dynamically change its options by the OptionMenu ('M')
198 command. Any changes are written to ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/tinrc.
199 For more information see section "GLOBAL OPTIONS MENU AND TINRC CONFIG‐
200 URABLE VARIABLES" and tin(5).
201 A list of groups can be specified after the other command-line options.
203 This can be useful if you wish to yank in or subscribe to a hand-picked
204 subset of the active newsgroups. See the section "NEWSGROUP LISTS &
205 WILDCARDS" for the types of pattern that tin understands.
206 If you specify a single group-name, or a wildcard that matches a single
208 group, then you will automatically enter that group. Otherwise the nor‐
209 mal group selection screen will appear, but with all the matching
210 groups present too, as though you had yanked just those groups in.
211 With the ''-w'' flag a given group-name is used as default group to
213 post to. If more than one group or a wildcard is specified only the
214 first group respectively the first group that matches is used.
215 Once you use SelectYankActive ('y') to yank in all active groups, or
217 SelectToggleReadDisplay ('r') to toggle the read/unread status, then
218 the command-line groups will be gone. You can use SelectSyncWithActive
219 ('Y') to reread the ${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}"/"${TIN_ACTIVEFILE:-ac‐
220 tive} file and get them back.
221 NB: With the ''-n'' flag, only unsubscribed groups in the ${TIN_HOME‐
223 DIR:-"$HOME"}/.newsrc file (or the newsrc-file given by the ''-f'' com‐
224 mand-line switch or via ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/newsrctable) can
225 be matched.
226 Command-line options have higher priority than attributes and tinrc op‐
228 tions. Thus, command-line option takes precedence over configured val‐
229 ues.
230
232 NEWS ADMINISTRATION
233 Maintaining Netnews on large networks of machines can be a pretty time
234 consuming job as I discovered when I was given the job of maintaining
235 our news system and news users.
236 A user starting tin for the first time can be automatically subscribed
238 to a list of newsgroups that are deemed appropriate by the news admin‐
239 istrator. The subscriptions file should be created in your news lib di‐
240 rectory (i.e., ${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}/subscriptions) and should be
241 world readable. If you read news via NNTP, then your news server must
242 support the LIST SUBSCRIPTIONS command. It is part of the NNTP List Ex‐
243 tensions (RFC6048) and all modern servers should understand it.
244 SCREEN FORMAT
246 tin has four separate levels of operation: Selection level, Group
247 level, Thread level and Article level.
248 At the Selection level the title displays (the name of the news server
250 (with a "[T]"- or "[k]"-suffix if reading via NNTPS (insecurely)) and)
251 the number of subscribed groups (containing new unread articles). The
252 newsgroups are displayed in the middle of the screen usually with the
253 number of unread articles displayed on the same line in front, but it
254 can be customized via select_format.
255 ->M 1 2 comp.security.announce Announcements from the CERT abou
257 M 2 1 news.admin.announce Announcements for news adminstra
258 3 22 news.software.misc News-related software other than
259 4 1475 news.software.nntp The Network News Transfer Protoc
260 X 5 124 news.software.readers Discussion of software used to r
261 There may also be a character prefixing the line. An explanation fol‐
263 lows:
264 u This group is unsubscribed. To see only your subscribed
266 groups use the SelectToggleReadDisplay ('r') or SelectYankAc‐
267 tive ('y') toggle keys.
268 M This is a moderated group. Any posts you make will have to be
270 approved by the group administrator before it will be made
271 public. tin will ask for confirmation before you post to a
272 moderated group.
273 N This is a new newsgroup which has been created since you last
275 used tin. New newsgroups are not subscribed to by default
276 (However, see the $AUTOSUBSCRIBE / $AUTOUNSUBSCRIBE environ‐
277 ment variables). Subscribe to it in the normal way if you
278 wish the group to continue to appear in your Selection Menu.
279 Simply ignore new newsgroups and they will be gone the next
280 time you start tin. You will have to yank in all the groups
281 to find them in a later session.
282 D This group no longer exists. If you no longer wish to see
284 this group then unsubscribe from it in the normal way. This
285 flag will only appear if you have set strip_bogus to "ask" in
286 the Options Menu.
287 X You may no longer make posts to this group. Often a group
289 will be superseded by a more appropriately named one.
290 = This group has been renamed and you may no longer post to it.
292 If you do, then you will receive an error from your news
293 server telling you the correct group to post to.
294 At the Group level the title contains the name of the group, the number
296 of conversation threads, the abbreviated threading method (thread_arti‐
297 cles), the limit of articles to get (if set; getart_limit), the total
298 number of (unread) articles (art_marked_read or art_marked_unread), the
299 number of hot articles art_marked_selected, the number of read hot ar‐
300 ticles (if any; art_marked_read_selected), the number of recent arti‐
301 cles (art_marked_recent) and the number of killed articles
302 (art_marked_killed). I.e.:
303 alt.sources (5B -50/23+ 0* 3o 0K)
305 The characters after the numbers are depending to the configuration and
307 if your are in show_only_unread_arts mode or not. Some numbers could be
308 missing if the specific option is not enabled. It might also contain an
309 'M', 'X' or '=' (see above; doesn't work with the ''-n'' command-line
310 switch!) if the group is moderated, set to no posting or postings to it
311 get redirected.
312 If a thread has unread articles it is marked with art_marked_unread in
314 front of the total number of articles in the thread. If there are re‐
315 cent articles within the thread it might be marked with art_marked_re‐
316 cent in front of the total number of articles in the thread — this is
317 controlled by the recent_time option. If a thread has hot articles in
318 it (see also section "FILTERING ARTICLES") it's marked with
319 art_marked_selected in front of the total number of articles in the
320 thread. The number of lines of the first (unread) article in the thread
321 might also be shown right before the subject — this is controlled by
322 the show_info option. The display can be customized via group_format.
323 de.admin.net-abuse.announce (11B 13+ 1* 1o 0K) M
325 -> 1 + 3 108 bincancels in de.talk.sex Christopher Lueg <l
327 2 + 69 EMP/ECP gecancelt. xynx. BI= 10 Henning Weede <hwee
328 3 o 93 EMP gecancelt. SouthBeach/Palms Henning Weede <hwee
329 4 * 368 <1997-11-12> Fremdcancel-FAQ Thomas Roessler <ro
330 At the Thread level the screen usually (depends on the threading method
332 used) looks like this, but can be customized via thread_format:
333 -> 1 [ 7] What is this funny tree in the thr Robert F. Simmig
335 2 [ 12] +-> Sephan Wagner <s
336 3 [ 230] | `->Tin thread-level (was: What is Bob Johnson <bob
337 4 [ 22] `->tin threading menu Brian Richardson
338 At the Article level the page header has the following format:
341 Sun, 28 Dec 1997 21:21:01 de.admin.news.groups Thread 20 of 86
343 Lines 50 Re: EINSPRUCH zu RESULT:de.comm.mobil.ALL Article 47 of 59
344 Urs Janssen <urs@akk.org> at Arbeitskreis Kultur und Kommunikati
345 article-body
347 The look of the Selection, Group and Thread level can be customized.
349 See the section "CUSTOMIZING THE SCREEN FORMAT".
350 COMMON MOVING KEYS
352 This table shows the common keys used for moving around all levels
353 within tin.
354 ANSI/vt100 Other Terminals
355 Beg. of list/article Home FirstPage (^)
356 End of list/article End LastPage ($)
357 Page Up PgUp PageUp (u, ^U or ^B)
358 Page Down PgDn PageDown (^D or ^F or <SPACE>)
359 Line Up Up arrow Up (k or ^P)
360 Line Down Down arrow Down (j or ^N)
361 COMMON EDITING COMMANDS
363 An emacs(1) style editing package allows the easy editing of input
364 strings. A history list allows the easy reuse of previously entered
365 strings. In addition to the cursor keys, the following commands are
366 available when editing a string:
367 ^A, ^E move to beginning or end of line, respectively.
369 ^F, ^B non-destructive move forward or back one location, respec‐
371 tively.
372 ^D delete the character currently under the cursor, or send EOF
374 if no characters in the buffer.
375 ^H, <DEL> delete character left of the cursor.
377 ^K delete from cursor to end of line.
379 ^P, ^N move through history, previous and next, respectively.
381 ^L, ^R redraw the current line.
383 <CR> places line on history list if non-blank, appends newline and
385 returns to the caller.
386 <ESC> aborts the present editing operation.
388 GLOBAL COMMANDS
390 The following commands are available at all 4 menu levels and always
391 have the same effect.
392 ShellEscape '!'
394 Shell escape. ShellEscape by itself will launch a shell,
395 ShellEscape <command> will run an external <command>. This
396 facility may have been disabled by the System Administrator.
397 ToggleColor '&'
399 Toggle use of ANSI color.
400 RedrawScr '^L'
402 Redraw the current screen.
403 ScrollUp '<'
405 Scroll screen up by one line.
406 ScrollDown '>'
408 Scroll screen down by one line.
409 Postponed 'O' '^O'
411 Reload postponed article. If your system blocks the Postponed
412 key you must quote it by pressing '^V' (CTRL-V) first. The
413 postpone-menu offers the following actions: PromptYes ('y') =
414 reload and spawn editor; PostponeOverride ('Y') = post arti‐
415 cle (without spawning editor); PostponeAll ('A') = post all
416 postponed articles (without spawning editor); PromptNo ('n')
417 = skip this article; Quit ('q') = quit postponed menu. Cur‐
418 rently there is no 'simple' way to delete a postponed article
419 from the postponed-file, you have to use the following com‐
420 mand sequence instead: reload it with Postponed, enter editor
421 with PromptYes, quit editor, discard posting with Quit
422 ('^O''y''q'). See also ''-o'' command-line switch.
423 Help 'h' Help screen of commands available on the current menu. You
425 can use SearchSubjF ('/'), SearchSubjB ('?') and SearchRepeat
426 ('\') to search on this screen. Quit ('q') returns to the
427 menu.
428 ToggleHelpDisplay 'H'
430 Toggle the display of help mini menu at the bottom of the
431 screen and posting etiquette after composing an article (be‐
432 ginner_level).
433 DisplayPostHist 'W'
435 List articles posted by user. The date posted, the newsgroup
436 and the subject are listed. See the section "POSTING HISTORY
437 LISTING" for more information.
438 Version 'v'
440 Print tin version information.
441 NEWSGROUP SELECTION COMMANDS
443 4 Select group 4.
444 SelectResetNewsrc '^R'
446 Reset ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.newsrc file. This will destroy
447 all records of which articles have been read, so use this
448 carefully.
449 SetRange '#'
451 Choose a range of articles to be affected by the next com‐
452 mand. See the section "RANGES" for more information.
453 SelectSortActive '.'
455 Sort the list of newsgroups.
456 SearchRepeat '\'
458 Repeat the previous search.
459 SearchSubjF '/'
461 Search for a group by name and description (if displayed).
462 SearchSubjB '?'
464 Backward search through the group names and descriptions.
465 SelectReadGrp '^J' '<CR>'
467 Read current group.
468 SelectEnterNextUnreadGrp '<TAB>' 'n'
470 Enter next group with unread news. Will wrap around to the
471 beginning of the group selection list looking for unread
472 groups.
473 Catchup 'c'
475 Make current group as all read [after confirmation] and move
476 to the next group in the group selection list.
477 CatchupNextUnread 'C'
479 Mark current group as all read [after confirmation] and enter
480 the next unread group in the group selection list.
481 SelectToggleDescriptions 'd'
483 Toggle display to show just the group name or the group name
484 and the group descriptions.
485 EditFilter 'E'
487 Edit the filter file and reload it afterwards.
488 SelectGoto 'g'
490 Choose a new group by name. This command can be used to ac‐
491 cess any group, even those not currently yanked in.
492 ToggleInfoLastLine 'i'
494 Toggle the display of the description of the current news‐
495 group in the last line. This will not be available if tin was
496 started with the ''-d'' option.
497 ToggleInverseVideo 'I'
499 Toggle inverse video.
500 ConnectionInfo 'J'
502 Show details about current connection.
503 LookupMessage 'L'
505 Look up article by ''Message-ID:''. If none of the groups
506 listed in the ''Newsgroups:''-header of the referenced arti‐
507 cle is available, just the contents of the ''News‐
508 groups:''-header will be displayed in the last line. At this
509 level this command only works if reading via NNTP and the
510 server supports [X]HDR (RFC2980, RFC3977) or XPAT (RFC2980).
511 SelectMoveGrp 'm'
513 Move the current group within the group selection list. By
514 entering '1' the group will become the first displayed group
515 in the list, by entering '8' the eighth group in the list
516 etc. By entering '$' the group will be the last group dis‐
517 played.
518 OptionMenu 'M'
520 User configurable options menu (for more information see sec‐
521 tion "GLOBAL OPTIONS MENU AND TINRC CONFIGURABLE VARIABLES").
522 SelectNextUnreadGrp 'N'
524 Positions the cursor on the next group with unread articles
525 in it.
526 Quit 'q' Quit tin — ask the user to confirm if confirm_choice is set
528 accordingly.
529 QuitTin 'Q'
531 Quit tin — don't ask the user to confirm.
532 SelectToggleReadDisplay 'r'
534 Toggle display of all subscribed to groups and just those
535 groups containing unread articles. Command has no effect if
536 groups were specified on the command-line when tin was
537 started.
538 BugReport 'R'
540 Mail a bug report or comment to <tin-bugs@tin.org>. This is
541 the best way of getting bugs fixed and features
542 added/changed.
543 SelectSubscribe 's'
545 Subscribe to current group.
546 SelectSubscribePat 'S'
548 Subscribe to groups matching user specified pattern. See the
549 section "NEWSGROUP LISTS & WILDCARDS" for the types of pat‐
550 tern that tin understands.
551 SelectUnsubscribe 'u'
553 Unsubscribe to current group. This can be used to remove bo‐
554 gus groups. See strip_bogus in the "GLOBAL OPTIONS MENU AND
555 TINRC CONFIGURABLE VARIABLES" section.
556 SelectUnsubscribePat 'U'
558 Unsubscribe to groups matching user specified pattern. See
559 the section "NEWSGROUP LISTS & WILDCARDS" for the types of
560 pattern that tin understands.
561 Post 'w' Post an article to current group. If posting fails for some
563 reason, you'll get the chance to PostEdit ('e') the article
564 again, PostPostpone ('o') it for later processing (see also
565 ''-o'' command-line switch) or discard it via Quit ('q').
566 SelectQuitNoWrite 'X'
568 Quit tin without saving any changes to the configuration.
569 SelectYankActive 'y'
571 Yanks in all groups. Toggles the displayed groups between all
572 the groups in the ${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}"/"${TIN_ACTIVE‐
573 FILE:-active} file and just those that are subscribed to in
574 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.newsrc.
575 SelectSyncWithActive 'Y'
577 Reread the ${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}"/"${TIN_ACTIVEFILE:-ac‐
578 tive} file to see if any new news has arrived since starting
579 tin.
580 SelectMarkGrpUnread 'z' 'Z'
582 Mark all articles in the current group as unread.
583 GROUP INDEX COMMANDS
585 All searches in this level are limited to unread articles if in
586 show_only_unread_arts mode. GroupToggleReadUnread ('r') can be use tog‐
587 gle the setting right before/after the search.
588 4 Select article 4.
590 MenuFilterSelect '^A'
592 Auto select article(s) using a menu. Read the section "FIL‐
593 TERING ARTICLES" for more information.
594 MenuFilterKill '^K'
596 Kill article(s) using a menu. Read the section "FILTERING AR‐
597 TICLES" for more information.
598 MarkFeedRead '^X'
600 Mark current article, thread, range, auto-selected (hot) ar‐
601 ticles, articles matching pattern or tagged articles as read.
602 A prompt asks which type should be marked.
603 MarkFeedUnread '^W'
605 Mark current article, thread, range, auto-selected (hot) ar‐
606 ticles, articles matching pattern or tagged articles as un‐
607 read. A prompt asks which type should be marked.
608 SetRange '#'
610 Choose a range of articles to be affected by the next com‐
611 mand. See the section "RANGES" for more information.
612 LastViewed '-'
614 Re-enter the last message that was viewed.
615 SearchRepeat '\'
617 Repeat the previous search.
618 SearchSubjF '/'
620 Search forward for specified subject.
621 SearchSubjB '?'
623 Search backwards for specified subject.
624 GroupSelThd '*'
626 Select current thread for later processing.
627 GroupDoAutoSel '+'
629 Selects all threads in current group. It is a shortcut for
630 calling GroupSelPattern with a pattern of ''*''.
631 GroupToggleThdSel '.'
633 Toggle selection of current thread. If at least one unread
634 article, (but not every unread article) in the current thread
635 is selected, then all unread articles become selected.
636 GroupSelThdIfUnreadSelected ';'
638 For each thread in current group, if it at least one unread
639 article is selected, all unread articles become selected.
640 This is useful for auto-selection on author where reader
641 wants to see entire thread.
642 GroupSelPattern '='
644 Prompts for a pattern with which to match on. All threads
645 whose subjects match the pattern will be marked selected. A
646 pattern of ''*'' will match all subjects. Entering just
647 '<CR>' will re-use the last pattern that was entered.
648 GroupReverseSel '@'
650 Reverse all selections on all articles.
651 GroupUndoSel '~'
653 Undo all selections on all articles. It clears the toggle ef‐
654 fect of GroupMarkUnselArtRead ('X') command. Thus after first
655 doing a GroupMarkUnselArtRead, one can then do GroupUndoSel
656 to reset articles. Thus, one can iteratively whittle down un‐
657 interesting threads.
658 Pipe '|' Pipe current article / thread / auto-selected (hot) articles
660 / articles matching pattern / tagged articles into command.
661 See the section "MAILING PIPING PRINTING REPOSTING AND SAVING
662 ARTICLES" for more information.
663 QuickFilterSelect '['
665 Auto select article(s) with a single key [after confirma‐
666 tion]. The defaults used for selection are based upon the
667 following four tinrc config variables: default_filter_se‐
668 lect_case, default_filter_select_expire, default_filter_se‐
669 lect_global and default_filter_select_header. Read the sec‐
670 tion "GLOBAL OPTIONS MENU AND TINRC CONFIGURABLE VARIABLES"
671 for a full explanation of these variables and "FILTERING AR‐
672 TICLES" for more information on filtering.
673 QuickFilterKill ']'
675 Kill article(s) with a single key [after confirmation]. The
676 defaults used for killing are based upon the following four
677 tinrc config variables: default_filter_kill_case, de‐
678 fault_filter_kill_expire, default_filter_kill_global and de‐
679 fault_filter_kill_header. Read the section "GLOBAL OPTIONS
680 MENU AND TINRC CONFIGURABLE VARIABLES" for a full explanation
681 of these variables and "FILTERING ARTICLES" for more informa‐
682 tion on filtering.
683 GroupReadBasenote '^J' '<CR>'
685 Read current article.
686 GroupNextUnreadArtOrGrp '<TAB>'
688 View next unread article or group.
689 SearchAuthF 'a'
691 Author forward search. This searches for articles with a spe‐
692 cific ''From:'' line.
693 SearchAuthB 'A'
695 Author backward search. Otherwise, see SearchAuthF ('a')
696 above.
697 SearchBody 'B'
699 Search the body of all articles in group (can be slow). You
700 can abort the search using Quit ('q').
701 Catchup 'c'
703 Mark all articles as read [after confirmation] then return to
704 the group selection list. Move cursor to next group.
705 CatchupNextUnread 'C'
707 Mark all articles as read [after confirmation] and enter the
708 next group with unread news.
709 GroupToggleSubjDisplay 'd'
711 Cycle the display of the author through all the possible op‐
712 tions for the tinrc variable show_author.
713 GroupCancel 'D'
715 Cancel (delete) or supersede (overwrite) the current article.
716 It must have been posted by the same user. The cancel message
717 can be seen in the newsgroup 'control' or 'control.cancel'.
718 EditFilter 'E'
720 Edit the filter file and reload it afterwards.
721 GroupGoto 'g'
723 Choose a new group by name. This command can be used to ac‐
724 cess any group, even those not currently yanked in.
725 GroupToggleGetartLimit 'G'
727 Toggle article/group limit.
728 ToggleInfoLastLine 'i'
730 Display the subject of the first article in the current
731 thread in the last line.
732 ToggleInverseVideo 'I'
734 Toggle inverse video.
735 ConnectionInfo 'J'
737 Show details about current connection.
738 GroupMarkThdRead 'K'
740 Mark article/thread as read and move onto the next unread ar‐
741 ticle/thread. If a range of articles/threads is set, the
742 range will be marked as read instead of the current arti‐
743 cle/thread. When tagged articles/threads are present, a
744 prompt asks how to proceed.
745 GroupListThd 'l'
747 Open the thread under the current cursor position.
748 LookupMessage 'L'
750 Look up article by ''Message-ID:''.
751 GroupMail 'm'
753 Mail current article / thread / auto-selected (hot) articles
754 / articles matching pattern / tagged articles to someone. See
755 the section "MAILING PIPING PRINTING REPOSTING AND SAVING AR‐
756 TICLES" for more information.
757 OptionMenu 'M'
759 User configurable options menu (for more information see sec‐
760 tion "GLOBAL OPTIONS MENU AND TINRC CONFIGURABLE VARIABLES").
761 GroupNextGroup 'n'
763 Go to next group.
764 GroupNextUnreadArt 'N'
766 Go to the next unread article.
767 Print 'o' Send current article / thread / auto-selected (hot) articles
769 / articles matching pattern / tagged articles to printer. See
770 the section "MAILING PIPING PRINTING REPOSTING AND SAVING AR‐
771 TICLES" for more information.
772 GroupPrevGroup 'p'
774 Go to previous group.
775 GroupPrevUnreadArt 'P'
777 Go to previous unread article.
778 Quit 'q' Return to previous level.
780 QuitTin 'Q'
782 Quit tin — don't ask the user to confirm.
783 GroupToggleReadUnread 'r'
785 Toggle the display between all articles and unread articles.
786 BugReport 'R'
788 Mail a bug report or comment to <tin-bugs@tin.org>. This is
789 the best way of getting bugs fixed and features
790 added/changed.
791 GroupSave 's'
793 Save current article / thread / auto-selected (hot) articles
794 / articles matching pattern / tagged articles. See the sec‐
795 tion "MAILING PIPING PRINTING REPOSTING AND SAVING ARTICLES"
796 for more information.
797 GroupAutoSave 'S'
799 Save marked articles automatically without further prompting.
800 GroupTag 't'
802 Toggle tag-status of current article / thread for GroupMail
803 ('m') / Pipe ('|') / Print ('o') / GroupSave ('s') / GroupRe‐
804 post ('x').
805 GroupTagParts 'T'
807 Automatically tag/untag all the parts of the current multi-
808 part message in order.
809 GroupToggleThreading 'u'
811 Cycle the threading mode through no threading, threading by
812 subject, threading by references, threading on both subject
813 and references, group multipart articles into a thread
814 (''Subject:'' based).
815 GroupUntag 'U'
817 Untag all articles that were tagged.
818 Post 'w' Post an article to the current group. If posting fails for
820 some reason, you'll get the chance to edit the article again
821 via PostEdit ('e'), postpone it for later processing via
822 PostPostpone ('o') (see also ''-o'' command-line switch) or
823 discard it via Quit ('q').
824 GroupRepost 'x'
826 Repost an already posted article / thread / auto-selected
827 (hot) articles / articles matching pattern / tagged articles
828 to another newsgroup(s). Useful for reposting from global to
829 local newsgroups. Do not use this to crosspost your own arti‐
830 cles.
831 GroupMarkUnselArtRead 'X'
833 Mark all unread articles that have not been selected as read,
834 redraw screen to reflect changes and put index at the first
835 thread to begin reading. Pressing GroupMarkUnselArtRead
836 ('X') again will toggle back to the way it was before. See
837 GroupUndoSel ('~') command for clearing the toggle effect,
838 leaving the group will also clear the toggle effect and make
839 the changes permanent.
840 MarkArtUnread 'z'
842 Mark current article as unread.
843 MarkThdUnread 'Z'
845 Mark current thread as unread. If a range of threads is set,
846 the range will be marked as unread instead of the current
847 thread. When tagged threads are present, a prompt asks how to
848 proceed.
849 THREAD LISTING COMMANDS
851 4 Select article 4 within thread.
852 MenuFilterSelect '^A'
854 Auto select article(s) using a menu. Read the section "FIL‐
855 TERING ARTICLES" for more information.
856 MenuFilterKill '^K'
858 Kill article(s) using a menu. Read the section "FILTERING AR‐
859 TICLES" for more information.
860 MarkFeedRead '^X'
862 Mark current article, thread, range, auto-selected (hot) ar‐
863 ticles, articles matching pattern or tagged articles as read.
864 A prompt asks which type should be marked.
865 MarkFeedUnread '^W'
867 Mark current article, thread, range, auto-selected (hot) ar‐
868 ticles, articles matching pattern or tagged articles as un‐
869 read. A prompt asks which type should be marked.
870 SetRange '#'
872 Choose a range of articles to be affected by the next com‐
873 mand. See the section "RANGES" for more information.
874 LastViewed '-'
876 Re-enter the last message that was viewed.
877 SearchRepeat '\'
879 Repeat the previous search.
880 SearchSubjF '/'
882 Search forward for specified subject.
883 SearchSubjB '?'
885 Search backwards for specified subject.
886 ThreadSelArt '*'
888 Select current thread for later processing.
889 ThreadToggleArtSel '.'
891 Toggle selection of current article.
892 ThreadReverseSel '@'
894 Reverse article selections.
895 ThreadUndoSel '~'
897 Undo all selections on current thread.
898 Pipe '|' Pipe current article / thread / auto-selected (hot) articles
900 / articles matching pattern / tagged articles into command.
901 See the section "MAILING PIPING PRINTING REPOSTING AND SAVING
902 ARTICLES" for more information.
903 ThreadReadArt '^J' '<CR>'
905 Read current article within thread.
906 ThreadReadNextArtOrThread '<TAB>'
908 View next unread article within thread.
909 SearchAuthF 'a'
911 Author forward search. This searches for articles with a spe‐
912 cific ''From:'' line. The search will wrap over into the next
913 thread if nothing is found in the current one.
914 SearchAuthB 'A'
916 Author backward search. Otherwise, see SearchAuthF ('a')
917 above.
918 SearchBody 'B'
920 Search the body of all articles in group (can be slow). You
921 can abort the search using Quit ('q').
922 Catchup 'c'
924 Mark thread as read [after confirmation] and return to the
925 group index page. Move cursor to next thread.
926 CatchupNextUnread 'C'
928 Mark thread as read [after confirmation] and enter the next
929 thread containing unread news.
930 ThreadToggleSubjDisplay 'd'
932 Cycle the display of the author through all the possible op‐
933 tions for the tinrc variable show_author.
934 ThreadCancel 'D'
936 Cancel (delete) or supersede (overwrite) the current article.
937 It must have been posted by the same user. The cancel message
938 can be seen in the newsgroup 'control' or 'control.cancel'.
939 EditFilter 'E'
941 Edit the filter file and reload it afterwards.
942 ToggleInfoLastLine 'i'
944 Display the subject of the current article in the last line.
945 ToggleInverseVideo 'I'
947 Toggle inverse video.
948 ConnectionInfo 'J'
950 Show details about current connection.
951 ThreadMarkArtRead 'K'
953 Mark article as read and move onto the next unread article.
954 If a range of articles is set, the range will be marked as
955 read instead of the current article. When tagged articles are
956 present, a prompt asks how to proceed.
957 LookupMessage 'L'
959 Look up article by ''Message-ID:''.
960 ThreadMail 'm'
962 Mail current article / thread / auto-selected (hot) articles
963 / articles matching pattern / tagged articles to someone. See
964 the section "MAILING PIPING PRINTING REPOSTING AND SAVING AR‐
965 TICLES" for more information.
966 Print 'o' Send current article / thread / auto-selected (hot) articles
968 / articles matching pattern / tagged articles to printer. See
969 the section "MAILING PIPING PRINTING REPOSTING AND SAVING AR‐
970 TICLES" for more information.
971 Quit 'q' Return to previous level.
973 QuitTin 'Q'
975 Quit tin — don't ask the user to confirm.
976 BugReport 'R'
978 Mail a bug report or comment to <tin-bugs@tin.org>. This is
979 the best way of getting bugs fixed and features
980 added/changed.
981 ThreadSave 's'
983 Save current article / thread / auto-selected (hot) articles
984 / articles matching pattern / tagged articles. See the sec‐
985 tion "MAILING PIPING PRINTING REPOSTING AND SAVING ARTICLES"
986 for more information.
987 ThreadAutoSave 'S'
989 Save marked articles automatically without further prompting.
990 ThreadTag 't'
992 Toggle tag status of current article for mailing, piping,
993 printing, saving or reposting.
994 ThreadTagParts 'T'
996 Automatically tag/untag all the parts of the current multi-
997 part message in order.
998 ThreadUntag 'U'
1000 Untag all tagged threads.
1001 Post 'w' Post an article to the current group. If posting fails for
1003 some reason, you'll get the chance to edit the article again
1004 via PostEdit ('e'), postpone it for later processing via
1005 PostPostpone ('o') (see also ''-o'' command-line switch) or
1006 discard it via Quit ('q').
1007 MarkArtUnread 'z'
1009 Mark current article in thread as unread. If a range of arti‐
1010 cles is set, the range will be marked as unread instead of
1011 the current article. When tagged articles are present, a
1012 prompt asks how to proceed.
1013 MarkThdUnread 'Z'
1015 Mark all articles in thread as unread.
1016 ARTICLE VIEWER COMMANDS
1018 0 Read the first (base) article in this thread.
1019 4 Read response 4 in this thread.
1021 MenuFilterSelect '^A'
1023 Auto select article(s) using a menu. Read the section "FIL‐
1024 TERING ARTICLES" for more information.
1025 PageReplyQuoteHeaders '^E'
1027 Reply through mail to the author of the current article with
1028 a copy of the article with all headers included.
1029 PagePGPCheckArticle '^G'
1031 Perform pgp(1) / gpg(1) operations on article. This expects
1032 inline pgp (RFC4880) and not MIME pgp (RFC3156).
1033 PageToggleRaw '^H'
1035 Toggles the display mode (raw including all headers vs.
1036 cooked).
1037 MenuFilterKill '^K'
1039 Kill article(s) using a menu. Read the section "FILTERING AR‐
1040 TICLES" for more information.
1041 PageToggleTabs '^T'
1043 Toggle the TAB width between 4 and 8 characters.
1044 PageFollowupQuoteHeaders '^W'
1046 Post a followup to the current article with a copy of the ar‐
1047 ticle with all headers included.
1048 PageToggleTex2iso '"'
1050 Toggle TeX to ISO decoding for current article. The default
1051 behavior is taken from the tex2iso_conv variable in the tinrc
1052 file.
1053 PageToggleAllHeaders '*'
1055 Toggles the display of all headers vs. headers in news_head‐
1056 ers_to_display.
1057 PageToggleRot '%'
1059 Toggle ROT-13 decoding for this article.
1060 PageToggleUue '('
1062 Toggle the display of uuencoded sections. The default behav‐
1063 ior is taken from the hide_uue variable in the tinrc file.
1064 PageReveal ')'
1066 The form feed character (^L) is often used to hide 'spoilers'
1067 that the reader may not initially wish to see when viewing an
1068 article. Any text after a formfeed is not displayed. This
1069 key-press acts like a reveal key and turns the hidden text
1070 back on. Scrolling down will also reveal the text, scrolling
1071 up will hide it again.
1072 LastViewed '-'
1074 Re-enter the last message that was viewed.
1075 SearchRepeat '\'
1077 Repeat the previous search.
1078 SearchSubjF '/'
1080 Forward search the text of this article.
1081 SearchSubjB '?'
1083 Backward search the text of this article.
1084 PageSkipIncludedText ':'
1086 Skip to the end of the next quoted text-block in this arti‐
1087 cle. Quoted text is everything which matches quote_regex,
1088 quote_regex2 or quote_regex3.
1089 PageTopThd '<'
1091 Go to the first article in the current thread.
1092 PageBotThd '>'
1094 Go to the last article in the current thread.
1095 PageToggleHighlight '_'
1097 Toggle word highlighting on/off.
1098 Pipe '|' Pipe current article / thread / auto-selected (hot) articles
1100 / articles matching pattern / tagged articles into command.
1101 See the section "MAILING PIPING PRINTING REPOSTING AND SAVING
1102 ARTICLES" for more information.
1103 QuickFilterSelect '['
1105 Auto select article(s) with a single key. The defaults used
1106 for selection are set based upon the following four tinrc
1107 config variables: default_filter_select_case, default_fil‐
1108 ter_select_expire, default_filter_select_global and de‐
1109 fault_filter_select_header Read the section "GLOBAL OPTIONS
1110 MENU AND TINRC CONFIGURABLE VARIABLES" for a full explanation
1111 of these variables and "FILTERING ARTICLES" for more informa‐
1112 tion on filtering.
1113 QuickFilterKill ']'
1115 Kill article(s) with a single key. The defaults used for
1116 killing are based upon the following four tinrc config vari‐
1117 ables: default_filter_kill_case, default_filter_kill_expire,
1118 default_filter_kill_global and default_filter_kill_header.
1119 Read the section "GLOBAL OPTIONS MENU AND TINRC CONFIGURABLE
1120 VARIABLES" for a full explanation of these variables and
1121 "FILTERING ARTICLES" for more information on filtering.
1122 PageNextThd '^J' '<CR>'
1124 Go to next base article.
1125 PageNextUnread '<TAB>'
1127 Go to next unread article. If the tinrc variable
1128 goto_next_unread doesn't contain PageNextUnread, then this
1129 key will first page through the current article.
1130 SearchAuthF 'a'
1132 Author forward search.
1133 SearchAuthB 'A'
1135 Author backward search.
1136 SearchBody 'B'
1138 Search the body of all articles in group (can be slow). You
1139 can abort the search using Quit ('q').
1140 Catchup 'c'
1142 Mark the current thread as read [after confirmation] and re‐
1143 turn to the previous menu. Move cursor to next item.
1144 CatchupNextUnread 'C'
1146 Mark the rest of the current thread as read [after confirma‐
1147 tion] and enter the next thread with unread articles.
1148 PageCancel 'D'
1150 Cancel (delete) or supersede (overwrite) the current article.
1151 It must have been posted by the same user. The cancel message
1152 can be seen in the newsgroup 'control' or 'control.cancel'.
1153 PageEditArticle 'e'
1155 Edit the current article. This is restricted to mailgroups
1156 and saved news.
1157 EditFilter 'E'
1159 Edit the filter file and reload it afterwards.
1160 PageFollowupQuote 'f'
1162 Post a followup to the current article with a copy of the ar‐
1163 ticle included.
1164 PageFollowup 'F'
1166 Post a followup to the current article without including a
1167 copy of the article.
1168 PageFirstPage 'g'
1170 Go to the start of the article.
1171 PageLastPage 'G'
1173 Go to the end of the article.
1174 ToggleInfoLastLine 'i'
1176 Display the subject of the current article in the last line.
1177 ToggleInverseVideo 'I'
1179 Toggle inverse video.
1180 ConnectionInfo 'J'
1182 Show details about current connection.
1183 PageKillThd 'K'
1185 Mark rest of thread as read and move onto the next unread
1186 thread.
1187 PageListThd 'l'
1189 Show the thread menu that the current article is a part of.
1190 LookupMessage 'L'
1192 Look up article by ''Message-ID:''.
1193 PageMail 'm'
1195 Mail current article / thread / auto-selected (hot) articles
1196 / articles matching pattern / tagged articles to someone. See
1197 the section "MAILING PIPING PRINTING REPOSTING AND SAVING AR‐
1198 TICLES" for more information.
1199 OptionMenu 'M'
1201 User configurable options menu (for more information see sec‐
1202 tion "GLOBAL OPTIONS MENU AND TINRC CONFIGURABLE VARIABLES").
1203 PageNextArt 'n'
1205 Go to the next article.
1206 PageNextUnreadArt 'N'
1208 Go to the next unread article.
1209 Print 'o' Send current article / thread / auto-selected (hot) articles
1211 / articles matching pattern / tagged articles to printer. See
1212 the section "MAILING PIPING PRINTING REPOSTING AND SAVING AR‐
1213 TICLES" for more information.
1214 PagePrevArt 'p'
1216 Go to the previous article.
1217 PagePrevUnreadArt 'P'
1219 Go to the previous unread article.
1220 Quit 'q' Return to the previous level.
1222 QuitTin 'Q'
1224 Quit tin — don't ask the user to confirm.
1225 PageReplyQuote 'r'
1227 Reply through mail to the author of the current article with
1228 a copy of the article included.
1229 PageReply 'R'
1231 Reply through mail to the author of the current article with‐
1232 out including the original article.
1233 PageSave 's'
1235 Save current article / thread / auto-selected (hot) articles
1236 / articles matching pattern / tagged articles. See the sec‐
1237 tion "MAILING PIPING PRINTING REPOSTING AND SAVING ARTICLES"
1238 for more information.
1239 PageAutoSave 'S'
1241 Save marked articles automatically without further prompting.
1242 PageTag 't'
1244 Toggle tag status of current article for mailing, piping,
1245 printing, saving or reposting.
1246 PageGroupSel 'T'
1248 Return to group selection level.
1249 PageGotoParent 'u'
1251 Go to parent article.
1252 PageViewUrl 'U'
1254 Display a list of URLs in the current article. See the sec‐
1255 tion "URL LISTING" for more information.
1256 PageViewAttach 'V'
1258 Display a list of attachments of the current article. See the
1259 section "ATTACHMENT LISTING" for more information.
1260 Post 'w' Post an article to the current group. If posting fails for
1262 some reason, you'll get the chance to edit the article again
1263 via PostEdit ('e'), postpone it for later processing via
1264 PostPostpone ('o') (see also ''-o'' command-line switch) or
1265 discard it via Quit ('q').
1266 PageRepost 'x'
1268 Repost an already posted article / thread / auto-selected
1269 (hot) articles / articles matching pattern / tagged articles
1270 to another newsgroup(s). Useful for reposting from global to
1271 local newsgroups. Do not use this to crosspost your own arti‐
1272 cles.
1273 MarkArtUnread 'z'
1275 Mark article as unread.
1276 MarkThdUnread 'Z'
1278 Mark the current thread as unread.
1279 URL LISTING
1281 PageViewUrl ('U') displays a list of URLs in the current article. Be‐
1282 sides the common moving keys, the following commands are available:
1283 UrlSelect '^J' '<CR>'
1285 The current URL will be prompted and opened using the
1286 url_handler. '<ESC>' or no input will skip the URL.
1287 SearchSubjF '/'
1289 URL forward search.
1290 SearchSubjB '?'
1292 URL backward search.
1293 SearchRepeat '\'
1295 Repeat the previous search.
1296 ShellEscape '!'
1298 Shell escape.
1299 ToggleInfoLastLine 'i'
1301 Toggle the display of the current URL in the last line.
1302 Help 'h' Help screen of commands available.
1304 ToggleHelpDisplay 'H'
1306 Toggle the display of help mini menu at the bottom of the
1307 screen and posting etiquette after composing an article
1308 (beginner_level).
1309 ATTACHMENT LISTING
1311 PageViewAttach ('V') displays a list of attachments of the current ar‐
1312 ticle. Besides the common moving keys, the following commands are
1313 available:
1314 AttachPipe 'p'
1316 Pipe attachment into command.
1317 AttachSave 's'
1319 Save current attachment / tagged attachments to disk.
1320 AttachSelect '^J' '<CR>'
1322 View attachment.
1323 AttachTag 't'
1325 Tag one or more attachments for saving.
1326 AttachTagPattern '='
1328 Prompts for a pattern to match. All attachments whose
1329 name/description or content type/transfer encoding match
1330 the pattern will be tagged.
1331 AttachToggleTagged '@'
1333 Reverse tagging of all attachments.
1334 AttachUntag 'U'
1336 Untag all tagged attachments.
1337 SearchSubjF '/'
1339 Attachment forward search.
1340 SearchSubjB '?'
1342 Attachment backward search.
1343 SearchRepeat '\'
1345 Repeat the previous search.
1346 GlobalPipe '|'
1348 Pipe attachment into command. Uses the raw attachment, no
1349 decoding is done.
1350 ShellEscape '!'
1352 Shell escape.
1353 ToggleInfoLastLine 'i'
1355 Toggle the display of the name/description of the current
1356 attachment in the last line.
1357 Help 'h' Help screen of commands available.
1359 ToggleHelpDisplay 'H'
1361 Toggle the display of help mini menu at the bottom of the
1362 screen and posting etiquette after composing an article
1363 (beginner_level).
1364 POSTING HISTORY LISTING
1366 DisplayPostHist ('W') displays a list of all previous posted articles
1367 stored in ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/posted. The following informa‐
1368 tion is shown: a time stamp in "dd-mm-yy"-format, a single letter indi‐
1369 cating the action which initiated the message, the group names (eventu‐
1370 ally shortened, see also abbreviate_groupname) or a mail address the
1371 message was sent to and the subject of the message. Besides the common
1372 moving keys, the following commands are available:
1373 PostedArticlesSelect '^J' '<CR>'
1375 The article with the current ''Message-ID:'' will be
1376 opened if available. Note that this requires that the
1377 ''Message-ID:'' of the article was recorded in
1378 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/posted which may not always
1379 be the case. If using NNTP and the internal inews (in‐
1380 ews_prog set to "--internal") and either the server pro‐
1381 poses a ''Message-ID:'' during the POST (RFC3977) command
1382 or tin is built to generate ''Message-ID:'' this should
1383 be the case. With an external inews (and reading from lo‐
1384 cal spool) it is not.
1385 SearchSubjF '/'
1387 URL forward search.
1388 SearchSubjB '?'
1390 URL backward search.
1391 SearchRepeat '\'
1393 Repeat the previous search.
1394 ShellEscape '!'
1396 Shell escape.
1397 ToggleInfoLastLine 'i'
1399 Toggle the display of the current ''Message-ID:'' in the
1400 last line.
1401 Help 'h' Help screen of commands available.
1403 ToggleHelpDisplay 'H'
1405 Toggle the display of help mini menu at the bottom of the
1406 screen and posting etiquette after composing an article
1407 (beginner_level).
1408 GLOBAL OPTIONS MENU AND TINRC CONFIGURABLE VARIABLES
1410 At startup, tin reads in the configuration files (see also tin(5)).
1411 They contain a list of variables that can be used to configure the way
1412 tin works. If it exists, the global configuration file, /etc/tin/tinrc
1413 is read. After that, the user's own configuration file is read from
1414 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/tinrc. The global file is useful for dis‐
1415 tributing system-wide defaults to new users who have no private tinrc
1416 yet.
1417 The variables are user configurable by editing ${TIN_HOME‐
1419 DIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/tinrc directly. Most of them can also be set in the
1420 GLOBAL OPTIONS MENU which is accessed by pressing OptionMenu ('M') at
1421 all levels. It allows the user to customize the behavior of tin. The
1422 options are saved to the file ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/tinrc when
1423 you exit tin so don't edit the file directly whilst tin is running.
1424 In the options menu use the cursor keys in the usual way to move
1426 around. Use ConfigSelect ('^J' or '<CR>') to 'open' the option you wish
1427 to change. You will need to enter a new value or use '<SPACE>' to tog‐
1428 gle the available options. ConfigSelect will save the new value,
1429 '<ESC>' will abort without saving changes.
1430 As with the other menus, RedrawScr ('^L') will redraw the screen. You
1432 can use SearchSubjF ('/'), SearchSubjB ('?') and SearchRepeat ('\') to
1433 search for a specific option. Use Quit ('q') to exit the option menu
1434 and keep your changes. Use QuitTin ('Q') to exit without keeping your
1435 changes.
1436 The options menu provides access to the attributes menu for the current
1438 group by the ConfigToggleAttrib ('<TAB>') command. Pressing ConfigTog‐
1439 gleAttrib again toggles back to the options menu. For more information
1440 see section "ATTRIBUTES MENU AND GROUP ATTRIBUTES".
1441 The ConfigScopeMenu ('S') command brings up the scopes menu. For more
1443 information see section "SCOPES MENU".
1444 Here is a full list of all the available variables. The name in braces
1446 is the name of the corresponding setting in ${TIN_HOME‐
1447 DIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/tinrc.
1448 Abbreviate long newsgroup names (abbreviate_groupname)
1450 If ON abbreviate long newsgroup names at group selection level and
1451 article level (if necessary) like this: news.software.readers ->
1452 n.software.readers -> n.s.readers -> n.s.r. Default is OFF.
1453 Add posted articles to filter (add_posted_to_filter)
1455 If ON add posted articles which start a new thread to filter for
1456 highlighting follow-ups. Default is ON.
1457 Insert 'User-Agent:'-header (advertising)
1459 Turn ON advertising in header (''User-Agent:''). Default is ON.
1460 Skip multipart/alternative parts (alternative_handling)
1462 If ON strip multipart/alternative messages automatically. Default
1463 is ON.
1464 Character to show deleted articles (art_marked_deleted)
1466 The character used to show that an article was deleted. Default is
1467 'D'.
1468 Character to show inrange articles (art_marked_inrange)
1470 The character used to show that an article is in a range. Default
1471 is '#'.
1472 Character to show returning arts (art_marked_return)
1474 The character used to show that an article will return as an unread
1475 article when the group is next entered. Default is '-'.
1476 Character to show selected articles (art_marked_selected)
1478 The character used to show that an article/thread is auto-selected
1479 (hot). Default is '*'.
1480 Character to show recent articles (art_marked_recent)
1482 The character used to show that an article/thread is recent (not
1483 older than X days). See also recent_time. Default is 'o'.
1484 Character to show unread articles (art_marked_unread)
1486 The character used to show that an article has not been read. De‐
1487 fault is '+'.
1488 Character to show read articles (art_marked_read)
1490 The character used to show that an article was read. Default is '
1491 '.
1492 Character to show killed articles (art_marked_killed)
1494 The character used to show that an article was killed. Default is
1495 'K'. kill_level must be set accordingly.
1496 Character to show read selected arts (art_marked_read_selected)
1498 The character used to show that an article was hot before it was
1499 read. Default is ':'. kill_level must be set accordingly.
1500 Ask before using MIME viewer (ask_for_metamail)
1502 If ON tin will ask before using a MIME viewer (metamail_prog) to
1503 display MIME messages. This only occurs if a MIME viewer is set.
1504 Default is OFF.
1505 Send you a cc and/or bcc automatically (auto_cc_bcc)
1507 Automatically put your name in the ''Cc:'' and/or ''Bcc:'' field
1508 when mailing an article. Default is No.
1509 List thread using right arrow key (auto_list_thread)
1511 If ON automatically list thread when entering it using right arrow
1512 key. Default is ON.
1513 Reconnect to server automatically (auto_reconnect)
1515 Default is OFF.
1516 Save articles in batch mode (batch_save)
1518 If set ON articles/threads will be saved in batch mode when save
1519 ''-S'' or mail ''-M, -N'' is specified on the command line. Default
1520 is ON.
1521 Show mini menu & posting etiquette (beginner_level)
1523 If set ON a mini menu of the most useful commands will be displayed
1524 at the bottom of the screen for each level. Also a short posting
1525 etiquette will be displayed after composing an article. Default is
1526 ON.
1527 Cache NNTP overview files locally (cache_overview_files)
1529 If ON, create local copies of NNTP overview files. This can be used
1530 to considerably speed up accessing large groups when using a slow
1531 connection. See also "INDEX FILES". Default is OFF.
1532 Hash algorithm for cancel-locks (cancel_lock_algo)
1534 Use this hash algorithm for cancel-locks. Only available when built
1535 with cancel-lock support. none disables the generation of cancel-
1536 locks. Valid values are none, sha1, sha256 and sha512. Default is
1537 sha1.
1538 Catchup read groups when quitting (catchup_read_groups)
1540 If set ON the user is asked when quitting if all groups read during
1541 the current session should be marked read. Default is OFF.
1542 Standard background color (col_back)
1544 Standard background color
1545 Color of quoted text from external sources (col_extquote)
1547 Color of quoted text from external sources
1548 Color of sender (From:) (col_from)
1550 Color of sender (From:)
1551 Color of article header lines (col_head)
1553 Color of header-lines
1554 Color of help text (col_help)
1556 Color of help pages
1557 Color for inverse text (background) (col_invers_bg)
1559 Color of background for inverse text
1560 Color for inverse text (foreground) (col_invers_fg)
1562 Color of foreground for inverse text
1563 Color of status messages (col_message)
1565 Color of status messages in last line
1566 Color of highlighting with _dash_ (col_markdash)
1568 Color of words emphasized like _this_. See also word_h_dis‐
1569 play_marks and word_highlight.
1570 Color of highlighting with /slash/ (col_markslash)
1572 Color of words emphasized like /this/. See also word_h_dis‐
1573 play_marks and word_highlight.
1574 Color of highlighting with *stars* (col_markstar)
1576 Color of words emphasized like *this*. See also word_h_dis‐
1577 play_marks and word_highlight.
1578 Color of highlighting with -stroke- (col_markstroke)
1580 Color of words emphasized like -this-. See also word_h_dis‐
1581 play_marks and word_highlight.
1582 Color of mini help menu (col_minihelp)
1584 Color of mini help menu
1585 Color of actual news header fields (col_newsheaders)
1587 Color of actual news header fields
1588 Standard foreground color (col_normal)
1590 Standard foreground color
1591 Color of quoted lines (col_quote)
1593 Color of quoted lines
1594 Color of twice quoted line (col_quote2)
1596 Color of twice quoted lines
1597 Color of =>3 times quoted line (col_quote3)
1599 Color of >=3 times quoted lines
1600 Color of response counter (col_response)
1602 Color of response counter. This is the text that says "Response x
1603 of y" in the article viewer.
1604 Color of signatures (col_signature)
1606 Color of signatures
1607 Color of urls highlight (col_urls)
1609 Color of urls highlight
1610 Color of verbatim blocks (col_verbatim)
1612 Color of verbatim blocks
1613 Color of article subject lines (col_subject)
1615 Color of article subject
1616 Color of text lines (col_text)
1618 Color of text-lines
1619 Color of help/mail sign (col_title)
1621 Color of help/mail sign
1622 Which actions require confirmation (confirm_choice)
1624 Ask for manual confirmation to protect the user.
1625 • commands Ask for confirmation before executing certain danger‐
1627 ous commands (e.g., Catchup ('c')). Commands that this affects
1628 are marked in this manual with '[after confirmation]'. Default
1629 is commands & quit.
1630 • quit You'll be asked to confirm that you wish to exit tin when
1632 you use the Quit ('q') command.
1633 • select Ask for confirmation before marking all not selected
1635 (with GroupMarkUnselArtRead ('X') command) articles as read.
1636 Format string for display of dates (date_format)
1638 Format string tin uses for date representation. A description of
1639 the different format options can be found at strftime(3). tin uses
1640 strftime(3) when available and supports most format options in his
1641 fallback code. Default is "%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S".
1642 (default_art_search)
1644 (default_author_search)
1646 (default_config_search)
1648 The last article/author/config option that was searched for.
1649 (default_filter_days)
1651 Default is 28.
1652 (default_filter_kill_case)
1654 Default for quick (1 key) kill filter case. ON = filter case sen‐
1655 sitive, OFF = ignore case. Default is OFF.
1656 (default_filter_kill_expire)
1658 Default for quick (1 key) kill filter expire. ON = limit to de‐
1659 fault_filter_days, OFF = don't ever expire. Default is OFF.
1660 (default_filter_kill_global)
1662 Default for quick (1 key) kill filter global. ON=apply to all
1663 groups, OFF=apply to current group. Default is ON.
1664 (default_filter_kill_header)
1666 Default for quick (1 key) kill filter header.
1667 0 ''Subject:'' (case sensitive)
1669 1 ''Subject:'' (ignore case)
1671 2 ''From:'' (case sensitive)
1673 3 ''From:'' (ignore case)
1675 4 ''Message-ID:'' & full ''References:'' line
1677 5 ''Message-ID:'' & last ''References:'' entry only
1679 6 ''Message-ID:'' entry only
1681 7 ''Lines:''
1683 (default_filter_select_case)
1685 Default for quick (1 key) auto-selection filter case. ON=filter
1686 case sensitive, OFF=ignore case. Default is OFF.
1687 (default_filter_select_expire)
1689 Default for quick (1 key) auto-selection filter expire. ON = limit
1690 to default_filter_days, OFF = don't ever expire. Default is OFF.
1691 (default_filter_select_global)
1693 Default for quick (1 key) auto-selection filter global. ON=apply
1694 to all groups, OFF=apply to current group. Default is ON.
1695 (default_filter_select_header)
1697 Default for quick (1 key) auto-selection filter header.
1698 0 ''Subject:'' (case sensitive)
1700 1 ''Subject:'' (ignore case)
1702 2 ''From:'' (case sensitive)
1704 3 ''From:'' (ignore case)
1706 4 ''Message-ID:'' & full ''References:'' line
1708 5 ''Message-ID:'' & last ''References:'' entry only
1710 6 ''Message-ID:'' entry only
1712 7 ''Lines:''
1714 (default_goto_group)
1716 (default_group_search)
1718 (default_mail_address)
1720 (default_move_group)
1722 (default_pattern)
1724 (default_pipe_command)
1726 (default_post_newsgroups)
1728 (default_post_subject)
1730 (default_range_group)
1732 (default_range_select)
1734 (default_range_thread)
1736 (default_repost_group)
1738 (default_save_file)
1740 (default_save_mode)
1742 (default_select_pattern)
1744 (default_shell_command)
1746 (default_subject_search)
1748 Draw -> instead of highlighted bar (draw_arrow)
1750 Allows groups/articles to be selected by an arrow '->' if set ON or
1751 by a highlighted bar if set OFF. Default is OFF.
1752 Invocation of your editor (editor_format)
1754 The format string used to create the editor start command with pa‐
1755 rameters. Default is '%E +%N %F' with %E=Editor, %N=Linenumber and
1756 %F=Filename (e.g., /bin/vi +7 .article). See also $VISUAL and $EDI‐
1757 TOR under "ENVIRONMENT".
1758 Detection of external quotes (extquote_handling)
1760 If ON quotes from external sources will be detected. Default is
1761 OFF.
1762 Regex used to show external quotes (extquote_regex)
1764 A regular expression that will be applied when reading articles.
1765 All matching lines are shown in col_extquote. If extquote_regex is
1766 blank, then tin uses a built-in default.
1767 Force redraw after certain commands (force_screen_redraw)
1769 Specifies whether a screen redraw should always be done after cer‐
1770 tain external commands. Default is OFF.
1771 Number of articles to get (getart_limit)
1773 If getart_limit is > 0 not more than the last getart_limit arti‐
1774 cles/group are fetched from the server. If getart_limit is < 0 tin
1775 will start fetching articles from your first unread minus absolute
1776 value of getart_limit. Default is 0, which means no limit.
1777 Catchup group using left key (group_catchup_on_exit)
1779 If ON catchup group when leaving with the left arrow key. Default
1780 is ON.
1781 Format string for the Group level (group_format)
1783 Format string tin uses for Group level representation. See the sec‐
1784 tion "CUSTOMIZING THE SCREEN FORMAT". Default is
1785 "%n %m %R %L %s %F".
1786 Go to the next unread article with (goto_next_unread)
1788 Which keys tin should accept to jump to the next unread article.
1789 Possible is any combination of PageDown and PageNextUnread. When
1790 PageDown is set tin jumps to the next article at the end of the
1791 current one. When PageNextUnread is set tin jumps immediately to
1792 the next article when PageNextUnread ('<TAB>') is pressed. Default
1793 is PageNextUnread.
1794 Display uue data as an attachment (hide_uue)
1796 If set to 'No' then raw uuencoded data is displayed. If set to
1797 'Yes' then sections of uuencoded data will be shown with a single
1798 tag line showing the size and filename (much the same as a MIME at‐
1799 tachment). If set to 'Hide all' then any line that looks like
1800 uuencoded data will be folded into a tag line. This is useful when
1801 uuencoded data is split across more than one article but can also
1802 lead to false positives. This setting can also be toggled in the
1803 article viewer. Default is 'No'.
1804 External inews (inews_prog)
1806 Path, name and options of external inews(1). If you are reading
1807 via NNTP the default value is "--internal" (use built-in NNTP in‐
1808 ews), else it is "inews -h". The article is passed to inews_prog on
1809 STDIN via '< article'.
1810 (info_in_last_line)
1812 If ON, show current group description or article subject in the
1813 last line (not in the pager and global menu) — ToggleInfoLastLine
1814 ('i') toggles setting. This facility is useful as the full width of
1815 the screen is available to display long subjects. Default is OFF.
1816 Use interactive mail reader (interactive_mailer)
1818 Interactive mailreader: if greater than 0 your mailreader will be
1819 invoked earlier for reply so you can use more of its features (e.g.
1820 MIME, pgp, ...). 1 means include headers, 2 means don't include
1821 headers (old use_mailreader_i=ON option). 0 turns off usage. This
1822 option has to suit mailer_format. Default is 0.
1823 Use inverse video for page headers (inverse_okay)
1825 If ON use inverse video for page headers and URL highlighting. De‐
1826 fault is ON.
1827 Keep failed arts in ~/dead.articles (keep_dead_articles)
1829 If ON keep all failed postings in ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/dead.ar‐
1830 ticles besides keeping the last failed posting in ${TIN_HOME‐
1831 DIR:-"$HOME"}/dead.article. Default is ON.
1832 Filter which articles (kill_level)
1834 This option controls the processing and display of articles that
1835 are killed. There are 3 options:
1836 0 Kill only unread arts is the 'traditional' behavior of tin.
1838 Only unread articles are killed once only by marking them read.
1839 As filtering only happens on unread articles with kill_level
1840 set to 0, art_marked_killed and art_marked_read_selected are
1841 only shown once. When you reenter the group the mark will be
1842 gone.
1843 1 Kill all arts & show with K will process all articles in the
1845 group and therefore there is a processing overhead when using
1846 this option. Killed articles are threaded as normal but they
1847 will be marked with art_marked_killed.
1848 2 Kill all arts and never show will process all articles in the
1850 group and therefore there is a processing overhead when using
1851 this option. Killed articles simply does not get displayed at
1852 all.
1853 Default is 0 (Kill only unread arts).
1854 Use 8bit characters in mail headers (mail_8bit_header)
1856 Allows 8bit characters unencoded in the header of mail message. De‐
1857 fault is OFF. Turning it ON is effective only if mail_mime_encoding
1858 is also set to 8bit. Leaving it OFF is safe for most users and com‐
1859 pliant to Internet Mail Standard (RFC5322 and RFC2047). Default is
1860 OFF.
1861 Mail address (mail_address)
1863 User's mail address (and full name), if not username@host. This is
1864 used when creating articles, sending mail and when pgp(1) / gpg(1)
1865 signing (RFC4880).
1866 MIME encoding in mail messages (mail_mime_encoding)
1868 MIME encoding of the body in mail message, if necessary (8bit,
1869 base64, quoted-printable, 7bit). Default is quoted-printable.
1870 Quote line when mailing (mail_quote_format)
1872 Format of quote line when replying (via mail) to an article (%A=Ad‐
1873 dress, %D=Date, %F=Fullname+Address, %G=Groupname, %M=Message-ID,
1874 %N=Fullname, %C=Firstname, %I=Initials). Default is "In article %M
1875 you wrote:"
1876 Format of the mailbox (mailbox_format)
1878 Select one of the following mailbox-formats: MBOXO (default, except
1879 on SCO), MBOXRD or MMDF (default on SCO). See mbox(5) and RFC4155
1880 for more details on MBOXO and MBOXRD and mmdf(5) for more details
1881 about MMDF.
1882 Mail directory (maildir)
1884 The directory where articles/threads are to be saved in mbox(5)
1885 format. This feature is mainly for use with the mutt(1) mail pro‐
1886 gram. It allows the user to save articles/threads/groups simply by
1887 giving '=' as the filename to save to. Default is ${TIN_HOME‐
1888 DIR:-"$HOME"}/Mail.
1889 Invocation of your mail command (mailer_format)
1891 The format string used to create the mailer command with parameters
1892 that is used for mailing articles to other people. Default is '%M
1893 "%T" < %F' (e.g., /bin/mail "iain" < ~/.article). The flexible for‐
1894 mat allows other mailers with different command line parameters to
1895 be used such as
1896 sendmail -oem -t < %F
1897 mutt -s "%S" -- "%T" < %F
1898 mutt -H %F
1899 claws-mail --compose "mailto:%T?subject=%S&insert=%F"
1900 interactive_mailer must be set adequate. The following substitu‐
1901 tions are supported:
1902 %F filename
1903 %M default_mailer
1904 %S subject-field
1905 %T to-filed
1906 %U username
1907 %% %
1908 'Mark as (un)read' ignores tags (mark_ignore_tags)
1910 When this is ON, the GroupMarkThdRead ('K'), ThreadMarkArtRead
1911 ('K'), MarkThdUnread ('Z') at Group level and MarkArtUnread ('z')
1912 at Thread level functions mark just the current article or thread,
1913 ignoring other tagged, (un)read articles. When OFF, the same func‐
1914 tion presents a menu with choices of the current thread or article,
1915 all tagged, unread articles, or nothing.
1916 Mark saved articles/threads as read (mark_saved_read)
1918 If ON mark articles that are saved as read. Default is ON.
1919 Viewer program for MIME articles (metamail_prog)
1921 Path, name and options of external metamail(1) program used to view
1922 non-textual parts of articles. To use the built-in viewer, set to
1923 --internal. This is the default value when metamail(1) is not in‐
1924 stalled. Leave it blank if you don't want any automatic viewing of
1925 non-textual attachments. The PageViewAttach ('V') command can al‐
1926 ways be used to manually view any attachments. See also
1927 ask_for_metamail.
1928 MM_CHARSET (mm_charset)
1930 Charset supported locally, which is also used for MIME header
1931 (charset parameter and charset name in header encoding) in mail and
1932 news postings. If MIME_STRICT_CHARSET is defined at compile time,
1933 text in charset other than the value of this parameter is consid‐
1934 ered not displayable and represented as '?'. Otherwise, all charac‐
1935 ter sets are regarded as compatible with the display. If it's not
1936 set, the value of the environment variable $MM_CHARSET is used. US-
1937 ASCII or compile-time default is used in case neither of them is
1938 defined. If your system supports iconv(3), this option is disabled
1939 and you should use mm_network_charset instead.
1940 MM_NETWORK_CHARSET (mm_network_charset)
1942 Charset used for posting and MIME headers; replaces mm_charset.
1943 Conversion between mm_network_charset and local charset (determined
1944 via nl_langinfo(3)) is done via iconv(3), if this function is not
1945 available on your system this option is disabled and you have to
1946 use mm_charset instead. mm_network_charset is limited to one of the
1947 following charsets:
1948 US-ASCII, ISO-8859-{1,2,3,4,5,7,9,10,13,14,15,16}, KOI8-{R,U,RU}
1949 EUC-{CN,JP,KR,TW}, ISO-2022-{CN,CN-EXT,JP,JP-1,JP-2}, Big5,
1950 UTF-8
1951 Not all values might work on your system, see iconv_open(3) for
1952 more details. If it's not set, the value of the environment vari‐
1953 able $MM_CHARSET is used. US-ASCII or compile-time default is used
1954 in case neither of them is defined.
1955 Attribute of highlighting with _dash_ (mono_markdash)
1957 Character attribute of words emphasized like _this_. It depends on
1958 your terminal which attributes are usable. See also word_h_dis‐
1959 play_marks and word_highlight.
1960 Attribute of highlighting with /slash/ (mono_markslash)
1962 Character attribute of words emphasized like /this/. It depends on
1963 your terminal which attributes are usable. See also word_h_dis‐
1964 play_marks and word_highlight.
1965 Attribute of highlighting with *stars* (mono_markstar)
1967 Character attribute of words emphasized like *this*. It depends on
1968 your terminal which attributes are usable. See also word_h_dis‐
1969 play_marks and word_highlight.
1970 Attribute of highlighting with -stroke- (mono_markstroke)
1972 Character attribute of words emphasized like -this-. It depends on
1973 your terminal which attributes are usable. See also word_h_dis‐
1974 play_marks and word_highlight.
1975 (newnews)
1977 These are internal timers used by tin to keep track of new news‐
1978 groups. Do not change them unless you understand what they are
1979 for.
1980 Display these header fields (or *) (news_headers_to_display)
1982 Which news headers you wish to see. If you want to see _all_ the
1983 headers, place an '*' as this value. This is the only way a wild‐
1984 card can be used. If you enter 'X-' as the value, you will see all
1985 headers beginning with 'X-' (like X-Alan or X-Pape). You can list
1986 more than one by delimiting with spaces. Not defining anything
1987 turns off this option.
1988 Do not display these header fields (news_headers_to_not_display)
1990 Same as news_headers_to_display except it denotes the opposite. An
1991 example of using both options might be if you thought 'X-' headers
1992 were A Good Thing(tm), but thought Alan and Pape were miscreants...
1993 well then you would do something like this: news_headers_to_dis‐
1994 play=X- news_headers_to_not_display=X-Alan X-Pape Not defining any‐
1995 thing turns off this option.
1996 Quote line when following up (news_quote_format)
1998 Format of quote line when posting/following up an article (%A=Ad‐
1999 dress, %D=Date, %F=Fullname+Address, %G=Groupname, %M=Message-ID,
2000 %N=Fullname, %C=Firstname, %I=Initials). Default is "%F wrote:".
2001 NNTP read timeout in seconds (nntp_read_timeout_secs)
2003 Time in seconds to wait for a response from the server. Default is
2004 120. Setting this to 0 means no timeout.
2005 Unicode normalization form (normalization_form)
2007 The normalization form tin should use to normalize unicode input.
2008 The possible values are:
2009 0 None: no normalization
2011 1 NFKC: Compatibility Decomposition, followed by Canonical Compo‐
2013 sition
2014 2 NFKD: Compatibility Decomposition
2016 3 NFC: Canonical Decomposition, followed by Canonical Composition
2018 4 NFD: Canonical Decomposition
2020 5 NFKC_CF: Compatibility Decomposition, followed by Canonical
2022 Composition and Case Folding
2023 Some normalization modes are only available if they are supported by
2024 the library tin uses to do the normalization. NFC should be used if
2025 possible.
2026 Go to first unread article in group (pos_first_unread)
2028 If ON put cursor at first unread article in group otherwise at last
2029 article. Default is ON.
2030 Use 8bit characters in news headers (post_8bit_header)
2032 Allows 8bit characters unencoded in the header of a news article,
2033 if set this also disables the generation of MIME-headers when they
2034 are usually required. Default is OFF. Only enacted if post_mime_en‐
2035 coding is also set to 8bit. In a number of local hierarchies where
2036 8bit characters are used, using unencoded (raw) 8bit characters in
2037 header is acceptable and sometimes even recommended so that you
2038 need to check the convention adopted in the local hierarchy of your
2039 interest to determine what to do with this and post_mime_encoding.
2040 MIME encoding in news messages (post_mime_encoding)
2042 MIME encoding of the body in news message, if necessary. (8bit,
2043 base64, quoted-printable, 7bit). Default is 8bit, which leads to no
2044 encoding. base64 and quoted-printable are usually undesired on
2045 usenet.
2046 View post-processed files (post_process_view)
2048 If ON, then tin will start an appropriate viewer program to display
2049 any files that were post processed and uudecoded. The program is
2050 determined using the mailcap(5) file. Default is ON.
2051 Post process saved articles (post_process_type)
2053 This specifies whether to perform post processing on saved arti‐
2054 cles. Because the shell archive may contain commands you may not
2055 want to be executed, be careful when extracting shell archives.
2056 The following values are allowed:
2057 0 No (default), no post processing is done.
2059 1 Shell archives, unpacking of multi-part shar(1) files only.
2061 2 Yes, binary attachments and data will be decoded and saved.
2063 Filename to be used for storing posted articles (posted_articles_file)
2065 Keep posted articles in given file. If the given filename does not
2066 contain any expandable strings it will be prefixed with ${TIN_HOME‐
2067 DIR:-"$HOME"}/Mail/. If no filename is set then postings will not
2068 be saved. See the section "MAILING PIPING PRINTING REPOSTING AND
2069 SAVING ARTICLES" for more information about the various expansion
2070 characters. Default is 'posted'.
2071 Print all headers when printing (print_header)
2073 If ON, then the full article header is sent to the printer. Other‐
2074 wise only the ''Subject:'' and ''From:'' fields are output. Default
2075 is OFF.
2076 Printer program with options (printer)
2078 The printer program with options that is to be used to print arti‐
2079 cles. The default is lpr(1) for BSD machines and lp(1) for SysV
2080 machines. Printing from tin may have been disabled by the System
2081 Administrator.
2082 Process only unread articles (process_only_unread)
2084 If ON only save/print/pipe/mail unread articles (tagged articles
2085 excepted). Default is OFF.
2086 Show empty Followup-To in editor (prompt_followupto)
2088 If ON show empty ''Followup-To:'' header when editing an article.
2089 Default is OFF.
2090 Characters used as quote-marks (quote_chars)
2092 The character used in quoting included text to article followups
2093 and mail replies. The '_' character represents a blank character
2094 and is replaced with ' ' when read, %I is replaced by author's ini‐
2095 tials. Default is '>_'.
2096 Quoting behavior (quote_style)
2098 How articles should be quoted when following up or replying to
2099 them. There are a number of things that can be done: empty lines
2100 can be quoted, signatures can be quoted and quote_chars can be com‐
2101 pressed when quoting multiple times (for example, '> > >' will be
2102 turned into '>>>'). The default is to compress quotes, and to quote
2103 empty lines.
2104 When you are viewing an article in raw mode ('^H'), and follow up
2105 or reply to it, the signature will be quoted even if it would oth‐
2106 erwise not be. If show_signatures is off, then the signature will
2107 never be quoted.
2108 Regex used to show quoted lines (quote_regex)
2110 A regular expression that will be applied when reading articles.
2111 All matching lines are shown in col_quote. If quote_regex is blank,
2112 then tin uses a built-in default.
2113 Regex used to show twice quoted l. (quote_regex2)
2115 A regular expression that will be applied when reading articles.
2116 All matching lines are shown in col_quote2. If quote_regex2 is
2117 blank, then tin uses a built-in default.
2118 Regex used to show >= 3 times q.l. (quote_regex3)
2120 A regular expression that will be applied when reading articles.
2121 All matching lines are shown in col_quote3. If quote_regex3 is
2122 blank, then tin uses a built-in default.
2123 Article recentness time limit (recent_time)
2125 If set to 0, this feature is deactivated, otherwise it means the
2126 number of days. Default is 2.
2127 Render BiDi (render_bidi)
2129 If ON tin does the rendering of bi-directional text. If OFF tin
2130 leaves the rendering of bi-directional text to the terminal. De‐
2131 fault is OFF.
2132 Interval in seconds to reread active (reread_active_file_secs)
2134 The news ${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}"/"${TIN_ACTIVEFILE:-active} file
2135 is reread at regular intervals to show if any new news has arrived.
2136 Default is 1200. Setting this to 0 will disable this feature.
2137 Directory to save arts/threads in (savedir)
2139 Directory where articles/threads are saved. Default is ${TIN_HOME‐
2140 DIR:-"$HOME"}/News.
2141 Score limit (kill) (score_limit_kill)
2143 If the score of an article is below or equal this value the article
2144 gets marked as killed.
2145 Score limit (select) (score_limit_select)
2147 If the score of an article is above or equal this value the article
2148 gets marked as hot.
2149 Default score to kill articles (score_kill)
2151 Score of an article which should be killed, this must be <=
2152 score_limit_kill.
2153 Default score to select articles (score_select)
2155 Score of an article which should be marked hot, this must be >=
2156 score_limit_select.
2157 Number of lines to scroll in pager (scroll_lines)
2159 The number of lines that will be scrolled up/down in the article
2160 pager when using cursor-up/down. The default is 1 (line-by-line).
2161 Set to 0 to get traditional tin page-by-page scrolling. Set to -1
2162 to get page-by-page scrolling where the top/bottom line is carried
2163 over onto the next page. This setting supersedes
2164 show_last_line_prev_page=ON. Set to -2 to get half-page scrolling.
2165 This setting supersedes full_page_scroll=OFF.
2166 Format string for the Selection level (select_format)
2168 Format string tin uses for Selection level representation. See the
2169 section "CUSTOMIZING THE SCREEN FORMAT". Default is
2170 "%f %n %U %G %d".
2171 In group and thread level, show author by (show_author)
2173 Which information about the author should be shown. Default is 2,
2174 authors full name.
2175 0 None, only the ''Subject:'' line will be displayed.
2177 1 Address, ''Subject:'' line & the address part of the ''From:''
2179 line are displayed.
2180 2 Full Name, ''Subject:'' line & the authors full name part of
2182 the ''From:'' line are displayed (default).
2183 3 Address and Name, ''Subject:'' line & all of the ''From:'' line
2185 are displayed.
2186 Show description of each newsgroup (show_description)
2188 If ON show a short group description text after newsgroup name at
2189 the group selection level. The ''-d'' command-line flag will over‐
2190 ride the setting and turn descriptions off. The text used is taken
2191 from the ${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}/newsgroups file and if supported
2192 (requires tin to be built with mh-mail-handling support) from
2193 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/mailgroups for mailgroups. Default is
2194 ON.
2195 Function for sorting articles (sort_function)
2197 Function used for sorting articles. Default is 0.
2198 0 Use qsort(3) for sorting.
2200 1 Use heapsort(3) for sorting. This might be faster in large
2202 groups with long threads (somewhat presorted data).
2203 Show help/mail sign in level titles (show_help_mail_sign)
2205 Allows you to select whether tin shows a help indication, a new
2206 mail indication, both, or neither in the various level titles. De‐
2207 fault is 3.
2208 0 Don't show help or mail sign.
2210 1 Show only help sign.
2212 2 Show only mail sign if new mail, show only the mail sign, and
2214 only if new mail has arrived.
2215 3 Show mail if new mail else help s., show mail sign if new mail
2217 has arrived otherwise show help sign.
2218 Show lines/score in listings (show_info)
2220 Which information about the thread or article should be shown. De‐
2221 fault is 1, show only the line count.
2222 0 None, no information will be displayed.
2224 1 Lines, in article listing the line count of an article will be
2226 displayed and in thread listing the line count of first (un‐
2227 read) article will be displayed.
2228 2 Score, in article listing the score of an article will be dis‐
2230 played and in thread listing the score of the thread will be
2231 displayed — see also thread_score.
2232 3 Lines & Score, display line count and score.
2234 Show only unread articles (show_only_unread_arts)
2236 If ON show only new/unread articles otherwise show all articles.
2237 Default is ON.
2238 Show only groups with unread arts (show_only_unread_groups)
2240 If ON show only subscribed groups that contain unread articles. De‐
2241 fault is OFF.
2242 Display signatures (show_signatures)
2244 If OFF don't show signatures when displaying articles. Default is
2245 ON.
2246 Prepend signature with '\n-- \n' (sigdashes)
2248 If ON prepend the signature with sigdashes. Default is ON.
2249 Create signature from path/command (sigfile)
2251 The path that specifies the signature file to use when posting,
2252 following up to or replying to an article. If the path is a direc‐
2253 tory then the signature will be randomly generated from files that
2254 are in the specified directory. If the path starts with a ! the
2255 program the path points to will be executed to generate a signa‐
2256 ture. In order to pass the group name to the program, %G can be
2257 specified. This will be replaced by the name of the current news‐
2258 group. --none will suppress any signature. Default is ${TIN_HOME‐
2259 DIR:-"$HOME"}/.Sig.
2260 Add signature when reposting (signature_repost)
2262 If ON add signature to reposted articles. Default is ON.
2263 Regex used to highlight /slashes/ (slashes_regex)
2265 A regular expression that will be applied when reading articles.
2266 All matching words are shown in col_markslash or mono_markslash. If
2267 slashes_regex is blank, then tin uses a built-in default.
2268 Sort articles by (sort_article_type)
2270 This specifies how articles should be sorted. Sort by ascending
2271 Date (6) is the default. The following sort types are allowed:
2272 0 Nothing, don't sort articles.
2274 1 Subject: (descending), sort articles by ''Subject:'' field de‐
2276 scending.
2277 2 Subject: (ascending), sort articles by ''Subject:'' field as‐
2279 cending.
2280 3 From: (descending), sort articles by ''From:'' field descend‐
2282 ing.
2283 4 From: (ascending), sort articles by ''From:'' field ascending.
2285 5 Date: (descending), sort articles by ''Date:'' field descend‐
2287 ing.
2288 6 Date: (ascending), sort articles by ''Date:'' field ascending
2290 (default).
2291 7 Score (descending), sort articles by filtering score descend‐
2293 ing.
2294 8 Score (ascending), sort articles by filtering score ascending.
2296 9 Lines: (descending), sort articles by ''Lines:'' field descend‐
2298 ing.
2299 10 Lines: (ascending), sort articles by ''Lines:'' field ascend‐
2301 ing.
2302 Sort threads by (sort_threads_type)
2304 This specifies how threads will be sorted. Sort by descending Score
2305 (1) is the default. The following sort types are allowed:
2306 0 Nothing, don't sort threads.
2308 1 Score (descending), sort threads by filtering score descending
2310 (default).
2311 2 Score (ascending), sort threads by filtering score ascending.
2313 3 Last posting date (descending), sort threads by date of last
2315 posting descending.
2316 4 Last posting date (ascending), sort threads by date of last
2318 posting ascending.
2319 Spamtrap warning address parts (spamtrap_warning_addresses)
2321 Set this option to a list of comma-separated strings to be warned
2322 if you are replying to an article by mail where the e-mail address
2323 contains one of these strings. The matching is case-insensitive.
2324 Example:
2325 spam,delete,remove
2327 Regex used to highlight *stars* (stars_regex)
2329 A regular expression that will be applied when reading articles.
2330 All matching words are shown in col_markstar or mono_markstar. If
2331 stars_regex is blank, then tin uses a built-in default.
2332 Strip blanks of end of lines (strip_blanks)
2334 Strips the blanks from the end of each line therefore speeding up
2335 the display when reading on a slow terminal or via modem. Default
2336 is ON.
2337 Remove bogus groups from newsrc (strip_bogus)
2339 Bogus groups are groups that are present in your ${TIN_HOME‐
2340 DIR:-"$HOME"}/.newsrc file that no longer exist on the news server.
2341 There are 3 options. 0 means do nothing & always keep bogus groups.
2342 1 means bogus groups will be permanently removed. 2 means that bo‐
2343 gus groups will appear on the Group Selection Menu, prefixed with a
2344 'D'. This allows you to unsubscribe from them as and when you wish.
2345 Default is 0 (Always Keep).
2346 No unsubscribed groups in newsrc (strip_newsrc)
2348 If ON, then unsubscribed groups will be permanently removed from
2349 your ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.newsrc file. Default is OFF.
2350 Regex with Subject prefixes (strip_re_regex)
2352 A regular expression to find Subject prefixes like "Re:" to remove.
2353 If strip_re_regex is blank, then tin(1) uses a built-in default.
2354 Regex with Subject suffixes (strip_was_regex)
2356 A regular expression to find Subject suffixes like "(was:" to re‐
2357 move. If strip_was_regex is blank, then tin(1) uses a built-in de‐
2358 fault.
2359 Regex used to highlight -strokes- (strokes_regex)
2361 A regular expression that will be applied when reading articles.
2362 All matching words are shown in col_markstroke or mono_markstroke.
2363 If strokes_regex is blank, then tin uses a built-in default.
2364 Wrap around threads on next unread (wrap_on_next_unread)
2366 If enabled a search for the next unread article will wrap around
2367 all articles to find also previous unread articles. If disabled the
2368 search stops at the end of the thread list. Default is ON.
2369 Display "a as Umlaut-a (tex2iso_conv)
2371 If ON, show "a as Umlaut-a, etc. Default is OFF. This behavior can
2372 also be toggled in the article viewer via PageToggleTex2iso ('"').
2373 Thread articles by (thread_articles)
2375 Defines which threading method to use. It's possible to set the
2376 threading type on a per group basis by setting the group attribute
2377 variable thread_arts to 0 – 4 in the file ${TIN_HOME‐
2378 DIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/attributes. (See also "GROUP ATTRIBUTES".) The
2379 default is Both Subject and References. The choices are:
2380 0 None, don't thread.
2382 1 Subject, thread on ''Subject:'' only.
2384 2 References, thread on ''References:'' only.
2386 3 Both Subject and References, thread on ''References:'' then
2388 ''Subject:'' (default).
2389 4 Multipart Subject, thread multipart articles on ''Subject:''.
2391 5 Percentage Match, thread base upon a partial character match on
2393 ''Subject:''.
2394 Catchup thread by using left key (thread_catchup_on_exit)
2396 If ON catchup group/thread when leaving with the left arrow key.
2397 Default is ON.
2398 Format string for the Thread level (thread_format)
2400 Format string tin uses for Thread level representation. See the
2401 section "CUSTOMIZING THE SCREEN FORMAT". Default is
2402 "%n %m [%L] %T %F".
2403 Matchingness of a thread (thread_perc)
2405 How closely the subjects must match for two threads to be consid‐
2406 ered part of the same thread. This is a percentage and the default
2407 if 75%.
2408 Score of a thread (thread_score)
2410 How the total score of a thread is computed. Default is 0, the max‐
2411 imum score in this thread.
2412 0 Max, the maximum score in this thread.
2414 1 Sum, the sum of all scores in this thread.
2416 2 Average, the average score in this thread.
2418 CA certificate file (tls_ca_cert_file)
2420 The name of file containing all trusted CA certificates used for
2421 NNTPS (RFC8143) connections. If left empty the system default
2422 will be used.
2423 Transliteration (translit)
2425 If ON append //TRANSLIT to the first argument of iconv_open(3) to
2426 enable transliteration. This means that when a character cannot be
2427 represented in the target character set, it can be approximated
2428 through one or several similarly looking characters. On systems
2429 where this extension doesn't exist, this option is disabled. De‐
2430 fault is OFF.
2431 How to treat blank lines (trim_article_body)
2433 Allows you to select how tin treats blank lines in article bodies.
2434 Default is 0. This option does not affect lines within verbatim
2435 blocks.
2436 0 Don't trim article body, do nothing.
2438 1 Skip leading blank lines.
2440 2 Skip trailing blank lines.
2442 3 Skip leading and trailing blank l., skip leading and trailing
2444 blank lines.
2445 4 Compact multiple between text, replace multiple blank lines be‐
2447 tween text blocks with one blank line.
2448 5 Compact multiple and skip leading, 4 + 1
2450 6 Compact multiple and skip trailing, 4 + 2
2452 7 Compact mltpl., skip lead. & trai., 4 + 3
2454 Suppress soft hyphens (suppress_soft_hyphens)
2456 If ON remove soft hyphens in non verbatim blocks of articles in
2457 UTF-8 when they are displayed in a UTF-8 locale. The character SOFT
2458 HYPHEN (U+00AD) is an invisible format character that merely indi‐
2459 cates a preferred intraword line break position. However, some ter‐
2460 minal emulators display a space or a hyphen, for example, in the
2461 place of the soft hyphen. This setting can be used to improve the
2462 display of those articles. Default is OFF.
2463 Regex used to highlight _underline_ (underscores_regex)
2465 A regular expression that will be applied when reading articles.
2466 All matching words are shown in col_markdash or mono_markdash. If
2467 underscores_regex is blank, then tin uses a built-in default.
2468 Remove ~/.article after posting (unlink_article)
2470 If ON remove ~/.article after posting. Default is ON.
2471 Program that opens URLs (url_handler)
2473 The program that will be run when launching URLs in the article
2474 viewer using PageViewUrl ('U'). The actual URL will be appended.
2475 Default is url_handler.pl.
2476 URL highlighting in message body (url_highlight)
2478 Enable highlighting URLs in message body. Default is ON.
2479 Use ANSI color (use_color)
2481 If enabled tin uses ANSI-colors. Default is OFF.
2482 Use scroll keys on keypad (use_keypad)
2484 Default is OFF.
2485 Use mouse in xterm (use_mouse)
2487 Allows the mouse button support in an xterm(1x) to be enabled/dis‐
2488 abled. Default is OFF.
2489 Use slrnface to show ''X-Face:''s (use_slrnface)
2491 If enabled tin uses slrnface(1) to interpret the ''X-Face:''
2492 header. For this option to have any effect, tin must be running in
2493 an xterm(1x) and slrnface(1) must be in your $PATH. Default is OFF.
2494 Use UTF-8 graphics (utf8_graphics)
2496 If ON use UTF-8 characters for indicator ('->'), thread/attachment
2497 tree and ellipsis ('...'). Default is OFF.
2498 Regex for begin of a verbatim block (verbatim_begin_regex)
2500 A regular expression that tin will use to find the begin of a ver‐
2501 batim block.
2502 Regex for end of a verbatim block (verbatim_end_regex)
2504 A regular expression that tin will use to find the end of a verba‐
2505 tim block.
2506 Detection of verbatim blocks (verbatim_handling)
2508 If ON verbatim blocks will be detected. Default is ON.
2509 Wildcard matching (wildcard)
2511 Allows you to select how tin matches strings. The default is 0 and
2512 uses the wildmat(3) notation, which is how this has traditionally
2513 been handled. Setting this to 1 allows you to use perl(1) compati‐
2514 ble regular expressions pcre(3) or pcre2(3) (see also perlre(1) and
2515 pcrepattern(3) or pcre2pattern(3)). You will probably want to up‐
2516 date your filter file if you use this regularly. NB: Newsgroup
2517 names will always be matched using the wildmat(3) notation.
2518 What to display instead of mark (word_h_display_marks)
2520 Should the leading and ending stars, slashes, strokes and dashes
2521 also be displayed, even when they are highlighting marks?
2522 0 no
2524 1 yes, display mark
2526 2 print a space instead
2528 Word highlighting in message body (word_highlight)
2530 Enable word highlighting. See word_h_display_marks for the options
2531 available. If use_color is enabled the colors specified in
2532 col_markdash, col_markslash, col_markstar and col_markstroke are
2533 used for word highlighting else the character attributes specified
2534 in mono_markdash, mono_markslash, mono_markstar and mono_markstroke
2535 are used. Default is ON.
2536 Page line wrap column (wrap_column)
2538 Sets the column at which a displayed article body should be
2539 wrapped. If this value is equal to 0, it defaults to the current
2540 screen width. If this value is greater than your current screen
2541 width the part off-screen is not displayed. Thus setting this op‐
2542 tion to a large value can be used to disable wrapping. If this
2543 value is negative the wrap margin is the current screen width plus
2544 the given value (as long as the result is still positive, otherwise
2545 it will fall back to the current screen width). Default is 0, wrap‐
2546 ping at the current screen width.
2547 Quote line when crossposting (xpost_quote_format)
2549 Format is the same as for news_quote_format, this is used when an‐
2550 swering to a crossposting to several groups with no ''Fol‐
2551 lowup-To:'' set.
2552 ATTRIBUTES MENU AND GROUP ATTRIBUTES
2554 tin allows certain attributes to be set on a per group basis. If it ex‐
2555 ists, the global attributes file, ${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}/attributes
2556 is read. After that, the user's own attributes file ${TIN_HOME‐
2557 DIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/attributes is read. The global attributes file is
2558 useful for distributing system-wide defaults to new users who have no
2559 private attributes file yet.
2560 Note that the scope=<grouplist> line has to be specified before the at‐
2562 tributes are specified for that list. All attributes are set to a rea‐
2563 sonable default so you only have to specify the attribute that you want
2564 to change (e.g., savedir). All toggle attributes are set by specifying
2565 ON/OFF. Otherwise, these function exactly the same as their global
2566 equivalents. For more details see tin(5).
2567 Attributes can also be changed from the attributes menu which can be
2569 accessed by ConfigToggleAttrib ('<TAB>') from the options menu or
2570 ScopeSelect ('^J' or '<CR>') from the scopes menu. The attributes menu
2571 looks and behaves very similar to the options menu. The title shows the
2572 current scope. Attributes set in the current scope are marked with '+'
2573 to the left of the attributes number.
2574 Besides the keys for moving around and changing values known from the
2576 options menu the attributes menu provides the following command: Confi‐
2577 gResetAttrib ('r') which resets an attribute to a default value.
2578 SCOPES MENU
2580 The scopes menu (accessible from the options menu with ConfigScopeMenu
2581 ('S')) shows all scopes read from the global and local attributes file.
2582 Scopes from the global attributes file are marked with '!' to the left
2583 of the scope number. Delete/rename/move are not possible with those
2584 scopes.
2585 In addition to the common moving keys the following commands are avail‐
2587 able: ScopeSelect ('^J' or '<CR>') enter the attributes menu for the
2588 current scope, ScopeEditAttributesFile ('E') edit the local attributes
2589 file, ScopeAdd ('a') add a new scope, ScopeDelete ('d') delete the cur‐
2590 rent scope, ScopeMove ('m') move the current scope to a new position,
2591 ScopeRename ('r') rename the current scope. ToggleHelpDisplay ('H')
2592 toggles the help mini menu at the bottom of the screen and posting eti‐
2593 quette after composing an article (beginner_level).
2594 FILTERING ARTICLES
2596 When there is a subject or an author which you are either very inter‐
2597 ested in, or find completely uninteresting, you can easily instruct tin
2598 to auto-select or auto-kill articles that match rules that you specify.
2599 This can be anything from the name of the author to the number of lines
2600 in an article.
2601 When tin starts up the user's kill-file ${TIN_HOME‐
2603 DIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/filter (see also tin(5)) is read. Each time a news‐
2604 group is entered the rules are applied and articles killed or selected
2605 when they meet certain criteria.
2606 The degree to which rules are applied depend on the kill_level tinrc
2608 setting. By default killed articles will only be marked read. Adjust
2609 kill_level for more aggressive processing. Articles that match an auto-
2610 selection rule are marked with a ''*''.
2611 Filtering rules can be manually entered into ${TIN_HOME‐
2613 DIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/filter (but don't do this whilst running tin else
2614 you will lose your changes) or by using an on-screen menu within tin.
2615 The filtering capabilities of tin have been significantly enhanced over
2617 previous versions to include scoring and better pattern matching. It is
2618 recommended that you read the file filtering in the tin documentation
2619 directory. This file can also be read online at
2620 <http://www.tin.org/filtering.txt>.
2621 The on-screen filtering menu is accessed by pressing MenuFilterKill
2623 ('^K') or MenuFilterSelect ('^A') at the Group and Article levels. It
2624 allows the user to kill or select an article that matches the current
2625 ''Subject:'' line, ''From:'' line or a string entered by the user. The
2626 user entered string can be applied to the ''Subject:'' or ''From:''
2627 line of an article. The filter can be limited to the current newsgroup
2628 or it can apply to all newsgroups. Once entered the user can abort the
2629 command and not save the new filter, edit the full filter file or save
2630 filter.
2631 POSTING ARTICLES
2633 tin allows posting of articles, follow-up to already posted articles
2634 and replying direct through mail to the author of an article.
2635 Use the Post ('w') command to post an article to a newsgroup. After
2637 entering the post subject the default editor (i.e., vi(1)) or the edi‐
2638 tor specified by the $VISUAL or $EDITOR environment variable will be
2639 started and the article can be entered. To crosspost articles simply
2640 add a comma and the name of the newsgroup(s) to the end of the ''News‐
2641 groups:'' line at the beginning of the article. After saving and exit‐
2642 ing the editor you are asked if you wish to a)bort posting the article,
2643 e)dit the article again or p)ost the article to the specified news‐
2644 group(s).
2645 Use the DisplayPostHist ('W') command to display a history of the arti‐
2647 cles you have posted. The date the article was posted, which newsgroups
2648 the article was posted to and the articles subject line are displayed.
2649 See the section "POSTING HISTORY LISTING" for more information.
2650 Use the PageFollowupQuote ('f'), PageFollowup ('F') or PageFol‐
2652 lowupQuoteHeaders ('^W') command to post a follow-up article to an al‐
2653 ready posted article. The PageFollowupQuote command will copy the text
2654 of the original article into the editor. The PageFollowupQuoteHeaders
2655 command will copy the text and all headers of the original article into
2656 the editor. The editing procedure is the same as when posting an arti‐
2657 cle with the Post ('w') command.
2658 Use the PageReplyQuote ('r'), PageReply ('R') or PageReplyQuoteHeaders
2660 ('^E') command to reply direct through mail to the author of an already
2661 posted article. The PageReplyQuote command will copy the text of the
2662 original article into the editor. The PageReplyQuoteHeaders command
2663 will copy the text and all headers of the original article into the ed‐
2664 itor. The editing procedure is the same as when posting an article with
2665 the Post ('w') command. After saving and exiting the editor you are
2666 asked if you wish to abort sending the article via PostAbort ('a'),
2667 edit the article again via PostEdit ('e') or send the article to the
2668 author via PostSend ('s').
2669 CUSTOMIZING THE ARTICLE QUOTE STRING
2671 When posting a followup to an article or replying direct to the author
2672 of an article via email the text of the article can be quoted. The be‐
2673 ginning of the quoted text can contain information about the quoted ar‐
2674 ticle (e.g., Name and the Message-ID of the article). To allow for dif‐
2675 ferent situations certain information from the article can be used in
2676 the quoted string. The following variables are expanded if found in the
2677 tinrc variables mail_quote_format, news_quote_format or
2678 xpost_quote_format:
2679 %A Address (Email)
2680 %D Date (uses date_format)
2681 %F Full address (%N <%A>)
2682 %G Groupname
2683 %M Message-ID
2684 %N Fullname of author
2685 %C Firstname of author
2686 %I Initials of author
2687 e.g.,
2688 mail_quote_format=On %D in %G you wrote:
2689 news_quote_format=In %M, %F wrote:
2690 would expand to:
2691 On 21 Sep 1993 09:45:51 -0400 in alt.sources you wrote:
2692 In <abcINN123@example.org>, Joe Bar <joe@example.org> wrote:
2693 The quoted text section of an article is marked by a preceding quote
2694 string at the beginning of each quoted line. The default quote string
2695 is set to '>_'. The default can be changed by setting the tinrc vari‐
2696 able quote_chars to ones own preference. (Note that '_' underline is
2697 used to represent a space).
2698 MAILING PIPING PRINTING REPOSTING AND SAVING ARTICLES
2700 The command interface to GroupMail, PageMail, PostMail or ThreadMail
2701 ('m'), Pipe ('|'), Print ('o'), PageRepost or GroupRepost ('x') and
2702 GroupSave, PageSave or ThreadSave ('s' and GroupAutoSave, PageAutoSave
2703 or ThreadAutoSave 'S') articles is the same for ease of use.
2704 Auto-saving with *AutoSave ('S') is a special case and operates only on
2706 marked articles. They will processed without any further prompting ac‐
2707 cording to the default save parameters defined in tinrc or by any at‐
2708 tributes set for the current group.
2709 Otherwise, the initial prompt will ask you to select which article,
2711 thread, hot (auto-selected), regular expression pattern, tagged arti‐
2712 cles you wish to mail, pipe etc.
2713 Tagged articles must have already been tagged with a *Tag ('t') com‐
2715 mand. All tagged articles can be untagged by a *Untag ('U') untag com‐
2716 mand.
2717 If a regular expression pattern is selected you are asked to enter a
2719 pattern (e.g., to match all articles subject lines containing 'net
2720 News' you enter "net News"). Any articles that match the entered ex‐
2721 pression will be mailed, piped etc. See also the wildcard tinrc vari‐
2722 able for advanced pattern matching options.
2723 Various expansion characters are recognized when entering the directory
2725 and file to save to. Environment variables (prefixed with '$') and user
2726 home directories (prefixed by '~' or '~username') can be specified.
2727 Environment variables can themselves contain other special characters.
2728 To save articles to a mailbox enter '=<mailbox name>' when asked for
2730 the save filename. If you enter just '=' then articles will be saved to
2731 a mailbox with the name of the current newsgroup (eg, alt.sources).
2732 See maildir.
2733 To save in savedir/<news.group.name>/<filename> format enter '+<file‐
2735 name>'. See savedir. Like '+' %G is expanded to the current
2736 news.group.name but without savedir prefixed. %P is expanded to the
2737 news.group.name with all '.' replaced by '/'.
2738 If saving multiple files at once the filename (if not referring to a
2740 mailbox) will be extended by ".num" where "num" is at least 3 digit
2741 number counting up from 1. Environment variables are allowed within a
2742 filename (e.g., $SOURCES/dir/filename).
2743 When saving articles you can specify whether the saved files should be
2745 post processed. A default process type can be set via
2746 post_process_type.
2747 AUTOMATIC MAILING AND SAVING NEW NEWS
2749 tin allows new/unread news articles to be mailed (''-M'' and ''-N'' op‐
2750 tion) or saved (''-S'' option) in batch mode for later reading. Useful
2751 when going on holiday and you don't want to return and find that expire
2752 has removed a whole load of unread articles. Best to run via cron(8)
2753 everyday while away, after which you will be mailed a report of which
2754 articles were mailed/saved from which newsgroups and the total number
2755 of articles mailed/saved. Articles are saved in a private news struc‐
2756 ture under your savedir directory (default is ${TIN_HOME‐
2757 DIR:-"$HOME"}/News). Be careful of using this option if you read a lot
2758 of groups because you could overflow your file system.
2759 When using ''-S'' together with a given directory to save to (''-s''
2761 option), the same directory must be specified when reading the articles
2762 by ''-R''.
2763 If you only want to save some of your groups use the batch_save tinrc
2765 variable. Set to ON or OFF in tinrc to enable/disable saving of all
2766 groups and then use the batch_save attribute to fine tune which groups
2767 you want to have saved. For example, if you want to save most of your
2768 groups, then set batch_save to ON in tinrc and selectively turn off the
2769 ones you don't want using attributes.
2770 tin -M iain -c -f newsrc.mail
2772 (mail any unread articles in newsgroups specified
2773 in file newsrc.mail to the local user iain and mark
2774 them as read)
2775 tin -S -c -f newsrc.save
2777 (save any unread articles in newsgroups specified
2778 in file newsrc.save and mark them as read)
2779 tin -R (read any articles saved by tin -S)
2781 RANGES
2783 A range is simply a group of items marked using the SetRange ('#') key.
2784 Certain tin commands will operate on a range if one exists rather than
2785 just the current item. A range is an expression of the form
2786 <min>–<max>, e.g. 10–15 will highlight items 10 through 15 on the cur‐
2787 rent screen. Other than absolute numeric positions, '.' can be used in
2788 place of the current cursor position and '$' can be used to mean the
2789 highest number available. Currently the only commands that understand
2790 ranges are GroupMarkThdRead ('K'), MarkArtUnread ('z') and MarkThdUn‐
2791 read ('Z').
2792 NEWSGROUP LISTS & WILDCARDS
2794 Several places in tin allow you to specify a list of newsgroups. These
2795 include command-line groups, (un)subscribe groups, the AUTO[UN]SUB‐
2796 SCRIBE mechanism. The scope= attributes file tag and the filter file
2797 group= tag also use the same syntax. tin interprets this variable simi‐
2798 larly to rn(1). It contains a list of patterns, separated by commas
2799 and possibly prefixed with exclamation points. An exclamation point
2800 negates the meaning of a match on this pattern, and can be used to can‐
2801 cel certain matches. See wildmat(3) for details about the understood
2802 patterns. Some examples:
2803 alt.config,news.*,!news.test
2805 Matches alt.config and everything in the 'news' hierarchy except
2807 news.test
2808 See the explanation for the $AUTOSUBSCRIBE and $AUTOUNSUBSCRIBE vari‐
2810 ables for further examples.
2811 SIGNATURES
2813 tin will recognize a signature in either ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.sig‐
2814 nature or ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.Sig. If ${TIN_HOME‐
2815 DIR:-"$HOME"}/.signature exists, then the signature will be pulled into
2816 the editor for mail commands only. A signature in ${TIN_HOME‐
2817 DIR:-"$HOME"}/.signature will not be pulled into the editor for posting
2818 commands since inews(1) will append the signature itself.
2819 A signature in ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.Sig will be pulled into the ed‐
2821 itor for both posting and mailing commands.
2822 The following is an example of a .Sig file:
2824 NAMES Joe Bar <joe@example.org>
2825 SNAIL Musterweg 12, 99999 Notreal, Germany
2826 tin also has the capability to generate random signatures on a per
2828 newsgroup basis if so desired. The way to accomplish this is to specify
2829 the default signature or the group attribute sigfile as a directory. If
2830 for example the sigfile path is /usr/iain/.sigs and .sigs is a direc‐
2831 tory then tin will select a random signature from any file that is in
2832 the directory .sigs (note: one signature per numbered file). A random
2833 signature can also consist of a fixed part signature that can contain
2834 your name, address etc. followed by the random sig. The fixed part of
2835 the random sig is read from the file $HOME/.sigfixed.
2836 CUSTOMIZING THE SCREEN FORMAT
2838 The look of the Selection, Group and Thread level can be customized via
2839 format strings. These format strings define the content and the posi‐
2840 tion of each element on the screen. Variables are used within the for‐
2841 mat strings as placeholders. The following variables are available:
2842 %D date
2844 %F from, name and/or address
2845 %G newsgroup name
2846 %I initials
2847 %L line count
2848 %M message-id
2849 %R number of responses in thread
2850 %S score
2851 %T thread tree
2852 %U unread count
2853 %d newsgroup description
2854 %f newsgroup flag
2855 %m article marks
2856 %n current group/thread/article number
2857 %s subject
2858 %% %
2859 Not all variables can be used in each level. The following table pro‐
2861 vides an overview:
2862 select_format group_format thread_format
2864 %D X X
2865 %F X X
2866 %G X
2867 %I X X
2868 %L X X
2869 %M X X
2870 %R X
2871 %S X X
2872 %T X
2873 %U X
2874 %d X
2875 %f X
2876 %m X X
2877 %n X X X
2878 %s X
2879 %% X X X
2880 Defaults for the format strings:
2882 select_format: "%f %n %U %G %d"
2884 group_format: "%n %m %R %L %s %F"
2885 thread_format: "%n %m [%L] %T %F"
2886 show_description controls whether the newsgroup description is shown or
2888 not. The description can also be toggled with SelectToggleDescriptions
2889 ('d').
2890 The information displayed with '%F' depends on the value of show_au‐
2892 thor. GroupToggleSubjDisplay resp. ThreadToggleSubjDisplay ('d')
2893 switches through all available options.
2894 For date representation '%D' uses date_format. It is possible to spec‐
2896 ify a different date format in round brackets (e.g. '%(%d %b %y
2897 %H:%M)D'). See date_format for more details.
2898 The length of each item (except '%%') can be defined with a positive
2900 number after the '%'. The following example displays the score in the
2901 thread level 10 characters wide: '%10S'.
2902 If the newsgroup name is displayed together with the newsgroup descrip‐
2904 tion, the width of the newsgroup name can be controlled via an optional
2905 comma separated second value (e.g. '%60,20G'). It is valid to omit the
2906 first value (e.g. ('%,20G')). If no second value is given, tin uses a
2907 default value of 32.
2908 Some variables do have a default width which may lead to truncation.
2910 Truncation for variables which contain only numbers happens by dividing
2911 the value with a sufficient power of ten and adding a SI suffix to the
2912 result, that is the variable holds a value of 54321 and the width for
2913 the variable is 4 the result will be "54 k". If that's undesired you
2914 have to specify a larger width manually, e.g. '%6n'. Here is an over‐
2915 view of the defaults:
2916 Variable width
2918 %I 3
2919 %L 4
2920 %M 10
2921 %R 3
2922 %S 6
2923 %U 5
2924 %n 4
2925 If no length is given for '%D', the length is determined by the format
2927 string for the date and the date of the current day. If the date format
2928 string contains weekdays or months names it may happen that the date is
2929 longer than determined in the first pass. In this case, the date is
2930 truncated before display. This occurs, for example, if the current
2931 month is May and the article to which the date is displayed was posted
2932 in December. In such cases it might useful to determine the maximum
2933 length manually and specify the length in the format string.
2934 In case the format string contains '%G' and '%d' and no length are
2936 given, tin determines the longest newsgroup name and uses this length
2937 for '%G'. The remaining space will used for '%d'.
2938 When the format string contains the specifier '%F' and '%s' resp. '%T'
2940 and no length are given, '%F' will use one third and '%s' resp. '%T'
2941 will use two third of the available space.
2942 In addition, a minimum screen width can be defined for each item (ex‐
2944 cept '%%'). In this case, the item will only be displayed when the
2945 screen is wider than specified. This comes in handy to not overload a
2946 small screen but have maximum information on a large screen. The mini‐
2947 mum screen width has to be specified by a positive number preceded by
2948 an '>'. In the following example tin will display the score only if the
2949 screen is wider than 100 characters: '%>100S'.
2950 If both the length and the minimum screen width should be specified for
2952 an item, the length must be the first parameter and the minimum screen
2953 width must be the second one. The following example displays the score
2954 with a length of 10 characters only if the screen is wider than 100
2955 characters: '%10>100S'.
2956 TIPS AND TRICKS
2958 tin can be pretty much be navigated by using the four cursor keys. The
2959 left arrow key goes up a level, the right arrow key goes down a level,
2960 the up arrow key goes up a line and the down arrow key goes down a
2961 line.
2962 The following newsgroups provide useful information concerning news
2964 software:
2965 —news.software.readers (info. about news user agents tin, rn, nn,
2966 slrn etc.)
2967 —news.software.nntp (info. about NNTP)
2968 —news.answers (Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about many differ‐
2969 ent themes)
2970 Many prompts within tin offer a default choice that the cursor is posi‐
2972 tioned on. By pressing '<CR>' the default value is taken. Most prompts
2973 can be aborted by pressing '<ESC>'.
2974 When tin is run in an xterm(1x) it will resize itself each time the
2976 xterm(1x) is resized.
2977 tin will reread the ${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}"/"${TIN_ACTIVEFILE:-ac‐
2979 tive} file at set intervals (reread_active_file_secs) to show any newly
2980 arrived news.
2981 If you find large number of new newsgroups cluttering up your screen,
2983 pressing SelectToggleReadDisplay ('r') will make them go away.
2984 XTERM BUTTONS
2986 If the environment variable $TERM is set to xterm(1x), then button
2987 pressing can be used to select groups and articles. In this discussion,
2988 the buttons are assumed to be assigned conventionally (i.e., Button1 is
2989 the left button).
2990 In general (i.e., for the group, thread and article menus),
2992 Button1 (left)
2994 enters next (lower) level if you click on an article, other‐
2995 wise pages down.
2996 Button2 (center)
2998 returns to the previous (upper) level if you click on an ar‐
2999 ticle, otherwise pages up.
3000 Button3 (right)
3002 positions on the article line under mouse cursor, or pages
3003 down if you've clicked outside the list of articles.
3004 In the group selection menu, if the mouse is pointing at a group then:
3006 left button
3008 moves to and selects the group pointed at, just like Selec‐
3009 tReadGrp ('<CR>').
3010 center button
3012 quits the program, just like Quit ('q').
3013 right button
3015 moves to the group pointed at.
3016 In the article menu, if the mouse is pointing at an article (or thread)
3018 then:
3019 left button
3021 reads the article pointed at, just like GroupReadBasenote
3022 ('<CR>'), or the thread, just like GroupListThd ('l').
3023 center button
3025 exits the menu, catching up on the group if you have
3026 group_catchup_on_exit set in your configuration, just like
3027 Quit ('q').
3028 right button
3030 moves to the article (or thread) pointed at.
3031 In the thread menu, if the mouse is pointing at an article then:
3033 left button
3035 reads article pointed at, just like ThreadReadArt ('<CR>').
3036 center button
3038 exits the menu, catching up on the thread if you have
3039 thread_catchup_on_exit set in your configuration, just like
3040 Quit ('q').
3041 right button
3043 moves to the article pointed at.
3044 In other menus and areas button pressing reverts back to usual cut and
3046 paste of xterm(1x), but after one click of any button.
3047 INDEX FILES
3049 If your news server supports NOV index files (see newsoverview(5), most
3050 modern installations will) and you have a fast connection to your news
3051 server then this section can be ignored.
3052 If your news server doesn't support NOV index files or you have a very
3054 slow connection to your news server then tin can cache the index for
3055 each newsgroup if cache_overview_files is set to ON. Note that this
3056 cache can use up large amounts of disk space if you read a lot of
3057 groups and/or high traffic groups.
3058 Each user creates/updates his/her own index files that are stored in
3060 ${TIN_INDEX_NEWSDIR:-"${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin"}/.news/. If you are
3061 reading via NNTP then the news server name will be appended to keep the
3062 indexes for different servers separate. If you are reading off the lo‐
3063 cal spool and local overview files already exist then turning on
3064 caching will have no effect. Likewise unless you see significant delays
3065 entering a group when reading via NNTP then turning on caching will
3066 have little or no effect.
3067 Entering a group the first time tends to be slow because the index file
3069 must be built from scratch. To alleviate the slowness start tin to cre‐
3070 ate all index files for the groups you subscribe to with tin -u -v and
3071 go for a coffee. Subsequent readings of a group will only need to do
3072 incremental updating of the index file and will be much faster as only
3073 new articles will need to be cached.
3074 As indexing might take some time you may want to run tin from the sys‐
3076 tem batcher cron(8) with the ''-u'' option:
3077 30 6 * * * /usr/local/bin/tin -u
3079 If you are low on local disk space you should consider to manually
3081 purge cached data for groups you are not reading anymore with something
3082 like:
3083 find ${TIN_INDEX_NEWSDIR:-"${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin"}/.news* \
3085 -type f -name "[0-9]*.[0-9]" -atime +28 | xargs rm -f
3086
3088 For a detailed description see tin(5).
3089 $MAILCAPS
3091 ~/.mailcap
3092 /etc/mailcap
3093 /usr/etc/mailcap
3094 /usr/local/etc/mailcap
3095 /etc/mail/mailcap
3096 /etc/nntpserver
3098 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.cancelsecret
3100 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.mime.types
3102 /etc/mime.types
3103 /etc/tin/mime.types
3104 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.newsauth
3106 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.newsrc
3108 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/$NNTPSERVER${NNTPPORT:+":$NNTPPORT"}/.oldnewsrc
3110 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.signature
3112 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.Sig
3113 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.sigfixed
3115 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/.inputhistory
3117 ${TIN_INDEX_MAILDIR:-"${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin"}/.mail/
3119 ${TIN_INDEX_NEWSDIR:-"${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin"}/.news${NNTPSERVER:+"-$NNTPSERVER"}/
3121 ${TIN_INDEX_SAVEDIR:-"${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin"}/.save/
3123 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/active.mail
3125 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/active.save
3127 /etc/tin/attributes
3129 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/attributes
3130 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/filter
3132 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/keymap${${LC_ALL:-"${LC_CTYPE:-"${LC_MESSAGES:-"$LANG"}"}"}:+".${LC_ALL:-"${LC_CTYPE:-"${LC_MESSAGES:-"$LANG"}"}"}"}
3134 /etc/tin/keymap${${LC_ALL:-"${LC_CTYPE:-"${LC_MESSAGES:-"$LANG"}"}"}:+".${LC_ALL:-"${LC_CTYPE:-"${LC_MESSAGES:-"$LANG"}"}"}"}
3135 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/mailgroups
3137 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/newsrctable
3139 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/posted
3141 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/Mail/posted
3143 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/postponed.articles
3145 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/$NNTPSERVER${NNTPPORT:+":$NNTPPORT"}/newsgroups
3147 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/$NNTPSERVER${NNTPPORT:+":$NNTPPORT"}/serverrc
3149 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/$NNTPSERVER${NNTPPORT:+":$NNTPPORT"}/msglog
3151 /etc/tin/tinrc
3153 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/tinrc
3154 /etc/tin/tin.defaults
3156 /usr/local/share/locale/${LC_MESSAGES}/LC_MESSAGES/tin.mo
3158 ${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}"/"${TIN_ACTIVEFILE:-active}
3160 ${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}/active.times
3162 ${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}/newsgroups
3164 ${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}/organization
3166 ${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}/overview.fmt
3168 ${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}/subscriptions
3170
3172 TINRC Define this variable if you want to specify command-line options
3173 that tin should be started with to save typing them each time it
3174 is started. The contents of the environment variable are added
3175 to the front of the command-line options before it is parsed
3176 therefore allowing an option specified on the command-line to
3177 override the same option specified in the environment.
3178 TIN_HOMEDIR
3180 Define this variable if you do not want the .tin directory in
3181 $HOME/. E.g., if you want all tin's private files in /tmp/.tin
3182 you would set $TIN_HOMEDIR to /tmp.
3183 TIN_INDEX_NEWSDIR
3185 Define this variable if you do not want the .news directory in
3186 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/. E.g., if you want all tin's news
3187 index files in /tmp/.news you would set $TIN_INDEX_NEWSDIR to
3188 /tmp.
3189 TIN_INDEX_MAILDIR
3191 Define this variable if you do not want the .mail directory in
3192 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/. E.g., if you want all tin's mail
3193 index files in /tmp/.mail you would set $TIN_INDEX_MAILDIR to
3194 /tmp.
3195 TIN_INDEX_SAVEDIR
3197 Define this variable if you do not want the .save directory in
3198 ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/. E.g., if you want all tin's save
3199 index files in /tmp/.save you would set $TIN_INDEX_SAVEDIR to
3200 /tmp.
3201 TIN_LIBDIR
3203 Define this variable if you want to override the NEWSLIBDIR path
3204 that was compiled into the tin binary, default is /usr/lib/news.
3205 If tin is running in NNTP mode setting this variable has no ef‐
3206 fect.
3207 TIN_SPOOLDIR
3209 Define this variable if you want to override the SPOOLDIR path
3210 that was compiled into the tin binary, default is
3211 /var/spool/news. If tin is running in NNTP mode setting this
3212 variable has no effect.
3213 TIN_NOVROOTDIR
3215 Define this variable if you want to override the NOVROOTDIR path
3216 that was compiled into the tin binary, default is SPOOLDIR (see
3217 above). If tin is running in NNTP mode setting this variable has
3218 no effect.
3219 TIN_NOVFILENAME
3221 Define this variable if you want to override the OVERVIEW_FILE
3222 filename that was compiled into the tin binary, default is
3223 .overview. If tin is running in NNTP mode setting this variable
3224 has no effect.
3225 TIN_ACTIVEFILE
3227 Define this variable if you want to override the NEWSLIBDIR/ac‐
3228 tive path that was compiled into the tin binary. If tin is run‐
3229 ning in NNTP mode setting this variable has no effect. If
3230 $TIN_LIBDIR is set it is prepended to $TIN_ACTIVEFILE.
3231 NNTPSERVER
3233 The default NNTP server to remotely read news from. This vari‐
3234 able only needs to be set if the ''-r'' command-line option is
3235 specified and the file /etc/nntpserver does not exist. The
3236 ''-g'' command line option overrides $NNTPSERVER.
3237 NNTPPORT
3239 The NNTP TCP-port to read news from. This variable only needs to
3240 be set if the TCP-port is not 119 (the default). The ''-p''
3241 command-line option overrides $NNTPPORT.
3242 DISTRIBUTION
3244 Set the article header field ''Distribution:'' to the contents
3245 of the variable instead of the system default.
3246 ISO2ASC
3248 Set the ISO to ASCII charset decoding table character to use in
3249 decoding an article text. Values can range from -1 to 6.
3250 -1 no conversion
3252 0 universal table for many languages
3254 1 single-spacing universal table
3256 2 table for Danish, Dutch, German, Norwegian and Swedish
3258 3 table for Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish using the
3260 appropriate ISO 646 variant
3261 4 table with RFC1345 codes in brackets
3263 5 table for printers that allow overstriking with backspace
3265 6 table for IBM PC character set (code page 437)
3267 ORGANIZATION
3269 Set the article header field ''Organization:'' to the contents
3270 of the variable instead of the system default. If reading news
3271 on an Apollo DomainOS machine the environment variable $NEWSORG
3272 has to be used instead of $ORGANIZATION.
3273 NEWSORG (DomainOS)
3275 DomainOS specific, same as $ORGANIZATION on other OSs (see
3276 above).
3277 REPLYTO
3279 Set the article header field ''Reply-To:'' to the return address
3280 specified by the variable. This is useful if you wish to receive
3281 replies at a different address.
3282 NAME Overrides the full name given in the gecos-field in /etc/passwd,
3284 see also mail_address.
3285 REALNAME
3287 Same as $NAME.
3288 HOME Pathname of the user's home directory. See environ(5) for more
3290 info.
3291 MAILER This variable has precedence over the default mailer that is
3293 used in all mailing operations within tin.
3294 MAIL Full path to the user's mailbox.
3296 VISUAL This variable has precedence over the default editor (i.e.,
3298 vi(1)) that is used in all editing operations within tin (e.g.,
3299 posting, replying, follow-ups, ...). Evaluation order is ${VIS‐
3300 UAL:-"${EDITOR:-vi}"}. See environ(5) for more info.
3301 EDITOR If $VISUAL is unset, then this variable is looked up for a de‐
3303 fault editor. If $EDITOR and $VISUAL are both unset, tin uses
3304 the systems default editor (i.e. vi(1) on UNIX-systems). See
3305 environ(5) for more info.
3306 AUTOSUBSCRIBE
3308 A new group is checked against the list of patterns; if it
3309 matches, tin subscribes the user to the group without further
3310 query. See the section "NEWSGROUP LISTS & WILDCARDS" for an ex‐
3311 planation of the valid syntax. For example, setting
3312 AUTOSUBSCRIBE=comp.os.unix.*,talk.*,!talk.politics.*
3314 will automatically subscribe the user to all new groups in the
3316 comp.os.unix hierarchy, and all talk groups other than talk.pol‐
3317 itics groups (which will be queried for as usual). Of course
3318 this does not work if tin is started with the ''-X'' command-
3319 line switch.
3320 AUTOUNSUBSCRIBE
3322 Is handled like the $AUTOSUBSCRIBE variable, but groups matching
3323 the list are unsubscribed from without further query. For exam‐
3324 ple, setting
3325 AUTOUNSUBSCRIBE=alt.flame.*,u*,!uk.*
3327 will automatically unsubscribe the user from all new alt.flame
3329 groups and all groups starting with u (university groups) other
3330 than UK groups (which will be queried for as usual).
3331 TMPDIR A pathname of a directory made available for tin to create tem‐
3333 porary files.
3334 MAILCAPS
3336 This variable can be used to override the default path search
3337 for mailcap(5) files. See also tin(5).
3338 NOMETAMAIL
3340 Set this variable to disable the use of metamail(1) or a re‐
3341 placement (e.g. metamutt).
3342 MM_CHARSET
3344 MIME character set used if not configured via the tinrc variable
3345 mm_charset.
3346 ISPELL Set this variable to point to ispell(1) or a replacement and its
3348 cmd-line options.
3349 PGPOPTS
3351 Define any additional options that you wish to pass to your
3352 pgp(1) or gpg(1) program.
3353 PGPPATH
3355 Override the name of the pgp(1) directory in $HOME that holds
3356 your keys etc..
3357 GNUPGHOME
3359 Override the name of the gpg(1) directory in $HOME that holds
3360 your keys etc..
3361 LC_CTYPE
3363 This variable determines the locale(5) category for character
3364 handling functions. Usually it determines the character classes
3365 for pattern matching character classification and case conver‐
3366 sion. Currently this is not true for tin (which temporary unsets
3367 $LC_CTYPE right before any match is done to avoid confusion).
3368 Its value should be of the form language[_territory][.code‐
3369 set][@modifier]. See environ(5) for more information.
3370 LC_MESSAGES
3372 Formats of informative and diagnostic messages and interactive
3373 responses. Its value should be of the form language[_terri‐
3374 tory][.codeset][@modifier]. See locale(5) and environ(5) for
3375 more information.
3376 LC_TIME
3378 Date and time formats. Its value should be of the form lan‐
3379 guage[_territory][.codeset][@modifier]. See locale(5) and
3380 environ(5) for more information.
3381 LC_ALL This variable overrides the value of the $LANG variable and any
3383 other $LC_ variable. Its value should be of the form lan‐
3384 guage[_territory][.codeset]. See locale(5) and environ(5) for
3385 more information.
3386 LANG This variable determines the locale(5) category for any category
3388 not specifically selected with a variable starting with $LC_.
3389 Its value should be of the form language[_territory][.codeset].
3390 See environ(5) for more information.
3391 LANGUAGE
3393 This variable defines a priority list for translations. Whenever
3394 a translation is not available in the language selected via
3395 $LC_ALL or $LANG the next language from the list is tried. Its
3396 value should be of the form language:language[:language]. See
3397 environ(5) for more information.
3398 COLUMNS
3400 A decimal integer > 0 used to indicate the user's preferred
3401 width in column positions for the terminal screen or window. If
3402 this variable is unset or null, the implementation determines
3403 the number of columns, appropriate for the terminal or window.
3404 When $COLUMNS is set, any terminal-width information implied by
3405 $TERM will be overridden. Users and portable applications should
3406 not set $COLUMNS unless they wish to override the system selec‐
3407 tion and produce output unrelated to the terminal characteris‐
3408 tics.
3409 LINES A decimal integer > 0 used to indicate the user's preferred num‐
3411 ber of lines on a page or the vertical screen or window size in
3412 lines. A line in this case is a vertical measure large enough to
3413 hold the tallest character in the character set being displayed.
3414 If this variable is unset or null, the implementation determines
3415 the number of lines, appropriate for the terminal or window.
3416 When $LINES is set, any terminal-height information implied by
3417 $TERM will be overridden. Users and portable applications should
3418 not set $LINES unless they wish to override the system selec‐
3419 tion.
3420 TERM The type of terminal in use. This is used when looking up term‐
3422 cap sequences. See environ(5) for more information.
3423 DISPLAY
3425 Display name, pointing to the X server; required for xface.
3426 WINDOWID
3428 Used for determining terminal's X window id; required for xface.
3429 Should be set by the terminal emulator.
3430 SHELL The pathname of the user's login shell. Used to set de‐
3432 fault_shell_command.
3433 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
3435 The pathname of the user's dir to put non-essential run time
3436 files into.
3437
3439 tin handles a couple of signals:
3440 SIGHUP Terminate gracefully.
3442 SIGTERM
3444 Terminate gracefully.
3445 SIGUSR1
3447 Terminate gracefully but do not restore terminal (tty).
3448 SIGUSR2
3450 Write out ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.newsrc-file.
3451
3453 If tin is started in debug mode (''-D n'') it will create world read‐
3454 able files in $TMPDIR which may contain the users NNTP password in
3455 cleartext. On multiuser-systems $TMPDIR should be set to a safe loca‐
3456 tion before starting tin in debug mode (e.g. TMPDIR=$HOME tin -D 1).
3457 Using the ''-k'' option to skip certificate verification makes the ses‐
3459 sion insecure as the server's certificate is not checked; avoid this
3460 option whenever possible.
3461
3463 tin does conform to the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std
3464 1003.1-2008, Section 12, Utility Conventions (Utility Argument Syntax,
3465 Utility Syntax Guidelines).
3466
3468 Regular expression support is provided by the PCRE library package
3469 pcre(3) or pcre2(3) which is open source software, written by Philip
3470 Hazel, and copyright © by the University of Cambridge, England.
3471 <https://www.pcre.org/>
3472
3474 CNews NNTPd, noffle(1) (<= V1.0-pre5) and NewsCache (<= V1.1.91) can't
3475 handle pipelined GROUP commands (RFC3977). If you run into trouble
3476 with any of the mentioned historical servers define DISABLE_PIPELINING
3477 in include/autoconf.h and recompile.
3478 Before mailing a bug-report to <tin-bugs@tin.org> please check if you
3479 are using the latest (stable) release, and if not, please upgrade
3480 first! Have a look at the doc/TODO file for known bugs. If you still
3481 think you've found a bug, please use the BugReport ('R') function and
3482 write in English. Please do NOT enclose a core-file in your bug-report
3483 until we request it.
3484
3486 tin is based on the tass(1) newsreader that was developed by Rich
3487 Skrenta and posted to alt.sources in March 1991; its first version was
3488 released on August 23rd 1991. tass(1) itself was heavily influenced by
3489 notesfiles a public domain UNIX version of PLATO Notes, developed at
3490 the University of Illinois by Ray Essick and Rob Kolstad in 1982. For a
3491 version overview see
3492 <http://www.tin.org/history.html>.
3493
3495 Rich Skrenta
3496 author of tass(1) v3.2 which this newsreader used as its base.
3497 Bill Davidsen
3499 author of envarg.c environment variable reading routine.
3500 Mike Gleason
3502 author of sigfile.c random signature generation routines.
3503 Markus Kuhn <Markus.Kuhn@cl.cam.ac.uk>
3505 author of langinfo.c, charset.c and iso2asc.txt ISO-8859-1 docu‐
3506 mentation.
3507 Arnold Robbins
3509 author of strftime.c date formatting routine.
3510 Rich Salz
3512 author of wildmat.c pattern matching and parsdate.y date parsing
3513 routines.
3514 Dave Taylor
3516 author of curses.c from the elm(1) mailreader.
3517 Chris Thewalt
3519 author of getline.c emacs(1) style editing routine.
3520 Steven Madsen
3522 for adding pgp(1) (Pretty Good Privacy) support.
3523 Philip Hazel <ph10@cam.ac.uk>
3525 for pcre(3), pcre2(3) (Perl-compatible regular expression li‐
3526 brary).
3527 Patrick Powell <papowell@astart.com>
3529 for snprintf(3) and vsnprintf(3) fallbacks.
3530
3532 Iain Lea <iain@bricbrac.de>
3533
3535 Urs Janssen <urs@tin.org>
3536
3538 elm(1), emacs(1), gpg(1), inews(1), ispell(1), lp(1), lpr(1),
3539 metamail(1), mutt(1), noffle(1), perl(1), perlre(1), pgp(1), rn(1),
3540 sendmail(1), shar(1), slrnface(1), tass(1), unshar(1), uudecode(1),
3541 vi(1), xterm(1x), heapsort(3), iconv(3), iconv_open(3), nl_langinfo(3),
3542 pcre(3), pcre2(3), pcrepattern(3), pcre2pattern(3), qsort(3),
3543 snprintf(3), strftime(3), vsnprintf(3), wildmat(3), environ(5),
3544 locale(5), mailcap(5), mbox(5), mmdf(5), newsoverview(5), tin(5),
3545 cron(8), RFC1345, RFC1524, RFC2045, RFC2046, RFC2047, RFC2048, RFC2231,
3546 RFC2980, RFC3156, RFC3977, RFC4155, RFC4643, RFC4880, RFC5322, RFC5536,
3547 RFC5537, RFC6048, RFC8143
35482.6.2 December 24th, 2022 tin(1)