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.TH VNEWS 1 "January 17, 1986"
.ds ]W  Version B 2.10.3
.SH NAME
vnews \- read news articles
.SH SYNOPSIS
.BR vnews " [ " \-a
.IR date " ] [ "
.B \-n
.IR newsgroups " ] [ "
.B \-t
.IR titles " ] [ "
.BR \-rxuc " ] "
.PP
.B "vnews \-s"
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Vnews 
is a program for reading USENET news. It is based
on
.IR readnews (1)
but has a CRT oriented interface.
The list of available commands is quite
similar, although since
.I vnews
is a \*(Lqvisual\*(Rq
interface, most
.I vnews
commands do not have to be terminated
by a newline.
.LP
.I Vnews
uses all but the last two lines of the screen to display
the current article. The next-to-last line is the secondary prompt line,
and is used to input string arguments to commands.  The last line
contains several fields.  The first field is the prompt
field. If
.I vnews
is at the end of an article, the prompt is
\&\*(Lqnext?\*(Rq; otherwise the prompt is \*(Lqmore?\*(Rq. The second field
is the newsgroup field, which displays the current newsgroup,
the number of the current article, and the number of
the last article in the newsgroup. The third field contains
the current time, and the last field contains the word
\&\*(Lqmail\*(Rq if you have mail. When you receive new mail, the bell
on the terminal is rung and the word \*(LqMAIL\*(Rq appears in capital
letters for 30 seconds.
.PP
.I Vnews 
without any arguments prints unread articles.
.PP
The following flags determine the selection of articles.
.TP 10
.BI "\-a " "\fR[\fP date \fR]\fP"
Select articles posted after the given
.I date
(in
.IR getdate (3)
format).
.TP 10
.BI "\-n " newsgroups
Select articles belonging to
.I newsgroups.
.TP 10
.BI "\-t " titles
Select articles whose titles contain one of the strings specified by
.I titles.
.TP 10
.B \-r
Print the articles in reverse order.
.TP 10
.B \-x
Ignore
.I .newsrc
file.  That is, select articles that have already been read as well as new ones.
.TP 10
.B \-u
Update the 
.I .newsrc
file every 5 minutes, as in the case of an unreliable system.
(Note that if the
.I .newsrc
file is updated, the
.B x
command will not restore it to its original contents.)
.PP
If the
.B \-c
flag is specified,
.I vnews
will print the first
page of the article, instead of just the header.
.PP
You can use the
.B \-s
flag to print the newsgroup subscription list.
.PP
.I Vnews
maintains a
.I .newsrc
file in the your home directory that specifies all news articles
already read.  It is updated at the end of each reading session
unless the
.BR \-x
option was specified.
If the environment variable
.B NEWSRC
is present, it should be the path
name of a file to be used in place of
.IR .newsrc \&.
.PP
If you wish, an options line may be placed in your
.I .newsrc
file.
This line starts with the word
.B options
(left justified) followed by the list of standard options just as
they would be typed on the command line.  Such a list may include:
the
.B \-n
flag along with a newsgroup list and/or
the
.B \-r
or
.B \-t
flag.  
Continuation lines begin with a space or tab character.
.SH ENVIRONMENT
Options can be specified in the
.B NEWSOPTS
environment parameter.  Where conflicts exist, options on the command
line take precedence, followed by the
.I .newsrc
.B options
line, and lastly the
.B NEWSOPTS
parameter.
.PP
When the user uses the reply command,
the environment parameter
.B MAILER
will be used to determine which mailer to use. The default is usually
.IR /bin/mail \&.
.PP
If the user so desires, he may specify a specific paging program
for articles.  The environment parameter
.B PAGER
should be set to the paging program.  The name of the article is referenced with
a
.Ch % ,
as in the
.B \-c
option.  If no
.Ch %
is present, the article will be piped to the program.
Paging may be disabled by setting
.B PAGER
to a null value.
.PP
If
.B EDITOR
is set, it will be used in place of the default editor on your system to
edit replies and follow-ups.
.PP
If
.B NAME
is set, it will be used as your full name when posting news or
submitting a follow-up. If it is not set, the name will be taken
from the file
.I .name
in your home directory. If this file is not present, the name will
be taken from
.IR /etc/passwd .
.PP
If
.B NEWSARCHIVE
is set, a copy of any articles you post or follow-up to, will be saved
in the specified file. If it is the null string, they will be
copied in 
.I author_copy
in your home directory.
.PP
If
.B NEWSBOX
is set, the filename you specify when you save or write a file
will be prepended with
.B NEWSBOX
unless the filename is an absolute pathname.
.PP
If
.B NEWSRC
is set, it will be used in place of the
.I .newsrc
file in your home directory.
.PP
If
.B ORGANIZATION
is set, it will be used as the name of your organization whenever you
post an article. The default is compiled in and is usually correct.
Typically, you would only use this if you were reading news at a
site other than normal. (Or if you are trying to be cute.)
.SH "COMMANDS"
.PP
Each
.I vnews
command may be preceded by a count.  Some
commands use the count; others ignore it. If count is omitted,
it defaults to one. Some commands prompt for an argument
on the second line from the bottom of the screen.  Standard UNIX erase
and kill processing is done on this argument.  The argument is
terminated by a return. An interrupt
(\s-2DEL\s0 or \s-2BREAK\s0) gets you out of any partially entered command. 
.sp
In the following table, ^B is used as a shorthand for Control-B.
.sp
.ta 2.5i
Command		Meaning
.IP \fB\s-2CR\s0\fP
A carriage return prints more of the current article,
or goes on to the next article if you are at the end of
the current article. A \fB\s-2SPACE\s0\fP is equivalent to \fB\s-2CR\s0\fP.
.IP \fB^B\fP
Go backwards
.I count
pages.
.IP \fB^F\fP
Go forward
.I count
pages.
.IP \fB^D\fP
Go forwards half a page.
.IP \fB^U\fP
Go backwards half a page.
.IP \fB^Z\fP
Go forwards
.I count
lines.
.IP \fB^E\fP
Go backwards
.I count
lines.
.IP \fB^L\fP
Redraw the screen. \fB^L\fP may be typed at any time.
.IP \fBb\fP
Back up one article in the current group.
.IP \fBc\fP
Cancel the article.  Only the author of the article or the super user
can do this.
.IP \fBd\fP
Read a digest.  Breaks up a digest into separate articles
and permits you to read and reply to each piece.
.IP \fBe\fP
Erase.  Forget that this article was read.
.IP \fBf\fP
Submit a follow-up article.
You will be placed in your
.B EDITOR
to compose the text of the follow-up.
.IP \fBh\fP
Go back to the top of the article and display only the
header.
.IP \fBl\fP
Redisplay the article after you have sent a follow-up or reply.
.IP \fBm\fP
Move on to the next item in a digest.
.IP \fBn\fP
No.  Go on to the next article without printing current one. 
.B \&.
is equivalent to
.BR n .
This is convenient if your terminal
has a keypad.
.IP \fBp\fP
Show the parent article (the article that the
current article is a follow-up to). This doesn't work
if the current article was posted by A-news or notesfiles.  To
switch between the current and parent articles, use the
.B \-
command. Unfortunately, if you use several
.B p
commands
to trace the discussion back further, there is no command to return
to the original level.
.IP \fBq\fP
Quit.  The
.I .newsrc
file will be updated unless
.B \-x
was on the command line.
.IP \fBr\fP
Reply.  Reply to article's author via mail.
You are placed in your
.B EDITOR
with a header specifying
\&\*(LqTo\*(Rq, \*(LqSubject\*(Rq, and \*(LqReferences\*(Rq
lines taken from the message.
You may change or add headers, as appropriate.
Add the text of the reply after the blank line, and then exit
the editor.  The resulting message is mailed to the author of the article.
.IP \fBR\fP
This is the same as \fBr\fP except the body of the article is included
in your mail message for you.
.IP \fBESC-r\fP
Reply directly.  You are placed in your
.B MAILER
as if you had run it specifying
the author of the article as the recipient of a letter.
.IP "\fBs\fP [\fIfile\fP]"
Save.  The article is appended to the named file.
The default is
.IR Articles .
If the first character of the file name is
.Ch | ,
the rest of the file name is taken as the name of a program,
which is executed with the text of the article as standard input.
If the first character of the file name is
.Ch / ,
it is
taken as the full pathname of a file.
If
.B NEWSBOX
(in the environment) is set to a full pathname,
and the file contains no
.Ch / ,
the file is saved in
.BR NEWSBOX .
Otherwise, it is saved relative to
.BR HOME .
.IP \fBug\fP
Unsubscribe to the current group. This is a two character
command to ensure that it is not typed accidentally
and to leave room for other types of unsubscribes (e.g. 
unsubscribe to discussion).
.IP \fBv\fP
Print the current version of the news software.
.IP \fBw\fP
Write. Like save
.BR s ,
except that the headers are not written out.
.IP \fBx\fP
Exit.  Like quit except that
.I .newsrc
is not updated.
.IP \fBy\fP
Yes.  Print the current article and go to the next.
.IP [\fIn\fP]\fBA\fP
Go to article number \fIn\fP in the current newsgroup.
.IP \fBD\fP
Decrypts a joke. It only handles rot 13 jokes.   The
.B D
command is a toggle; typing another
.B D
re-encrypts the
joke.
.IP \fBH\fP
Print a very verbose header, containing all known information
about the article.
.IP \fBK\fP
Kill (mark as read) the rest of the articles in the current group. 
This is useful if you can't keep up with the volume in the newsgroup,
but don't want to unsubscribe.
.IP "\fBN\fP [\fInewsgroup\fP]"
Go to the next newsgroup or named newsgroup.
.IP [\fIn\fP]\fB+\fP
Skip
.I n
articles.
The articles skipped are recorded as ``unread'' and will be
offered to you again the next time you read news.
.IP \fB\-\fP
Go back to last article.
This is a toggle; typing it twice returns you to the original article.
.IP \fB<\fP
Prompt for an article ID or the rest of a message ID.
It will display the article if it exists.
.IP \fB#\fP
Report the name and size of the newsgroup.
.IP \fB?\fP
Print an short help message.
.IP \fB!\fP
Passes the rest of the command line to the shell.  The
environment variable
.B A
is set to the name of the file
containing the current article.  If the last character
of the command is a
.BR & ,
then the
.B &
is deleted and
the command is run in the background with stdin, stdout
and stderr redirected to
.IR /dev/null .
If the command is
missing, the shell is invoked. Use the
.B l
command (or
essentially any other command) to turn on the display
after the program terminates.
.SH EXAMPLES
.TP 10
.B vnews
Read all unread articles using the
.IR visual
interface.  The
.I .newsrc
file is updated at the end of the session.
.TP 10
.B vnews \-n all !mod.all \-r
Read all unread articles except articles whose newsgroups begin with
.B mod.
in reverse order.  The
.I .newsrc
file is updated at the end of the session.
.TP 10
.B "vnews \-n all \-a last thursday"
Print every unread article since last Thursday.  The
.I .newsrc
file is
updated at the end of the session.
.TP 10
.B "vnews \-p > /dev/null &"
Discard all unread news.
This is useful after returning from a long trip.
.SH FILES
.PD 0
.TP 40
.RI /usr/spool/news/ newsgroup / number
News articles
.TP 40
/usr/lib/news/active
Active newsgroups
.TP 40
/usr/lib/news/vnews.help
Help file for
.IR visual
interface
.TP 40
~/.newsrc
Options and list of previously read articles
.PD
.SH SEE ALSO
checknews(1),
inews(1),
postnews(1),
readnews(1),
vnews(1),
getdate(3),
news(5),
newsrc(5),
expire(8),
recnews(8),
sendnews(8),
uurec(8)