Guide 28
Version 2.0
Getting started with Usenet
News
Usenet News is a collection of discussion groups, called newsgroups. There
are currently over 20,000 newsgroups with subjects ranging from those that
are technical to those about lifestyles and hobbies. A discussion takes place
in a newsgroup by people (from all over the world) composing articles which
they post to the newsgroup.
Programs that enable you to read the discussions of a newsgroup and to post
articles to a newsgroup are called newsreaders. In the same way that there
are a variety of editors and mailers on the UNIX service, and people have their
favourites, there are numerous newsreaders. This Guide discusses how Pine,
trn, tan and xrn can be used to read Usenet News.
Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Introduction: What is Usenet News?
Newsgroups
Newsreaders
Using Pine to access Usenet News
The newsreader tin
50p
Document code:
Title:
Version:
Date:
Produced by:
Guide 28
Getting started with Usenet News
2.0
June 2006
University of Durham Information Technology Service
Copyright © 2006 University of Durham Information Technology Service
Conventions:
In this document, the following conventions are used:
•
•
•
•
•
•
A typewriter font is used for what you see on the screen.
A bold typewriter font is used to represent the actual characters you type at
the keyboard.
A slanted typewriter font is used for items such as filenames which you should
replace with particular instances.
A bold font is used to indicate named keys on the keyboard, for example,
Esc and Enter, represent the keys marked Esc and Enter, respectively.
A bold font is also used where a technical term or command name is used in
the text.
Where two keys are separated by a forward slash (as in Ctrl/B, for example),
press and hold down the first key (Ctrl), tap the second (B), and then release
the first key.
Contents
1
Introduction: What is Usenet News? ............................................................... 1
2
Newsgroups ....................................................................................................... 2
2.1 The names of newsgroups............................................................................. 2
2.2 Local newsgroups .......................................................................................... 3
2.3 Subscribing to newsgroups............................................................................ 3
2.3.1 Automatic subscription............................................................................ 3
2.3.2 Subscribing to particular newsgroups ..................................................... 4
2.3.3 What newsgroups are there?.................................................................. 4
3
Newsreaders....................................................................................................... 5
4
Using Pine to access Usenet News.................................................................. 5
4.1 How to configure Pine to enable access to Usenet news .............................. 5
4.2 Subscribing to newsgroups............................................................................ 6
4.2.1 Subscribing to an existing newsgroup .................................................... 6
4.2.2 Unsubscribing from a newsgroup ........................................................... 7
4.3 Reading news ................................................................................................ 7
4.3.1 Selecting a newsgroup ........................................................................... 7
4.3.2 Grouping related articles together .......................................................... 7
4.3.3 How to see articles that you've already deleted...................................... 8
4.3.4 Catching up in a newsgroup ................................................................... 8
4.4 Performing operations on an article ............................................................... 9
4.5 Posting an article on a new subject to a newsgroup...................................... 9
4.6 Responding to an article ................................................................................ 9
4.7 Other information ......................................................................................... 10
5
The newsreader tin .......................................................................................... 10
5.1 Entering and leaving tin ............................................................................... 11
5.2 Help and information about tin ..................................................................... 11
5.3 Subscribing to newsgroups.......................................................................... 11
5.3.1 Subscribing to a new newsgroup .......................................................... 11
5.3.2 Subscribing to an existing newsgroup .................................................. 11
5.3.3 Unsubscribing from a newsgroup ......................................................... 12
5.4 Reading news .............................................................................................. 12
5.4.1 Selecting a newsgroup ......................................................................... 12
5.4.2 Selecting a thread ................................................................................. 12
5.4.3 Leaving a thread ................................................................................... 12
5.4.4 Leaving a newsgroup............................................................................ 12
5.4.5 How to see threads that you've already read........................................ 12
5.4.6 Catching up on a newsgroup ................................................................ 12
5.5 Taking a copy of an article ........................................................................... 13
5.5.1 Saving an article in a file ....................................................................... 13
5.5.2 Printing an article .................................................................................. 13
5.6 Posting an article on a new subject to a newsgroup.................................... 14
5.7 Responding to articles ................................................................................. 14
5.7.1 Following-up an article of a newsgroup ................................................ 14
5.7.2 Replying to the sender of an article ...................................................... 15
Guide 28: Getting started with Usenet News
i
1
Introduction: What is Usenet News?
Usenet News is a collection of discussion groups called newsgroups.
Each newsgroup has a name which describes its subject matter, such as
rec.music.folk. There are currently over 20 000newsgroups with subjects
ranging from those that are technical to those about lifestyles and hobbies.
You can decide which newsgroups you want to read by subscribing to the
ones in which you are interested.
A discussion takes place in a newsgroup by people (from all over the world)
composing articles which they post to the newsgroup. Some newsgroups
are very popular and receive several hundred posted articles every day;
other newsgroups are less active with only a few postings a day. Some are
dormant, that is, they have had no postings for several weeks.
Programs that enable you to read the discussions of a newsgroup and to
post articles to a newsgroup are called newsreaders. In the same way that
there are a variety of editors and mailers on the UNIX service, and people
have their favourites, there are numerous newsreaders. On the Durham
UNIX service, these include Pine, rn, trn, tin and xrn.
Whenever you use a newsreader, it will offer to display the latest articles
posted to the newsgroups to which you are subscribed. It is up to you to
decide how much you read, and how often you read a newsgroup. Some
newsgroups may be important to you, and you will probably want to read
every article that is posted to these newsgroups. Other newsgroups may be
less important: you may just want to look at the articles of these
newsgroups when you have time, to see what the latest discussions are
about.
Within a newsgroup, several different topics will be being discussed. For
example, in the rec.music.folk newsgroup, there might be articles about
the range of the notes of the Spanish harp, the music on the new Woody
Guthrie CD, the dates of the Winter 1994 tour by Fairport Convention, and
so on. The set of articles on each of these different topics is called a thread.
Some newsreaders present a list of the articles of a newsgroup in the order
that they were received (by the local computer) and so articles on many
topics will appear in the same list, interspersed with each other. Other
newsreaders divide the articles of a newsgroup into the various threads and
you are able to choose which thread(s) you want to read.
An enormous amount of information is available within the newsgroups of
Usenet News. Currently, about 100 million characters of new information is
received each day (and this figure is rapidly increasing). Because of the
limitations of disk space, each site taking Usenet News is only able to keep
the most recent articles. At Durham, we currently keep the articles of some
newsgroups for 3 days and those of more important newsgroups for 6 days.
These expiry dates may be changed from time to time.
Because the information comes and goes so quickly, people often post
questions that have been answered on a previous occasion. To avoid this,
some newsgroups have a person that keeps a list of frequently asked
Guide 28: Getting started with Usenet News
1
questions (FAQ) and their answers, and this list is posted to the newsgroup
regularly (often once a month). Each FAQ is also posted to the newsgroup
news.answers: this newsgroup is a repository of all FAQs.
The computer being used at Durham for storing the newsgroups of Usenet
News is the computer nntphost.dur.ac.uk. However, it is not necessary for
you to login to this machine. Instead, whenever you use a newsreader on a
UNIX computer in Durham, the newsreader will contact nntphost.dur.ac.uk
for you using a protocol called NNTP.
The Information Technology Service will use its best endeavours to provide
Usenet News. However, there may be times when it is unavailable because
of operational difficulties, such as a temporary lack of disk space. In
addition, we cannot guarantee to provide every article that has been posted
to a newsgroup.
2
2.1
Newsgroups
The names of newsgroups
The major newsgroups are divided into seven broad categories - comp,
sci, soc, talk, news, rec and misc - according to the broad area of interest
of the subjects under discussion. Each of these categories is organized into
groups and subgroups according to topic. Newsgroups have structured
names which reflects this organisation of topics.
The seven major categories cover the following areas:
2
comp
Topics of interest to both computer professionals and
hobbyists, including topics in computer science,
software source, and information on hardware and
software systems. Examples are: comp.ai.neural-nets
and comp.lang.modula2.
sci
Discussions marked by special and usually practical
knowledge, relating to research in or application of the
established sciences. Examples are:
sci.bio.technology and sci.optics.
soc
Groups primarily addressing social issues and
socializing. Examples are: soc.culture.greek and
soc.feminism.
talk
Groups largely debate-oriented and tending to feature
long discussions without resolution and without
appreciable amounts of generally useful information.
An example is: talk.origins.
news
Groups concerned with Usenet News and its software.
An example is: news.announce.newusers.
Guide 28: Getting started with Usenet News
rec
Groups oriented towards the arts, hobbies and
recreational activities. Examples are rec.aquaria and
rec.arts.books.tolkien.
misc
Groups addressing themes not easily classified under
misc.fitness.
Besides the seven major groups, there are many other categories. These
include:
2.2
alt
Groups that discuss alternative ways of looking at
things. Examples are: alt.fan.douglas-adams and
alt.guitar.bass.
bionet
Groups that are of interest to biologists. Examples are:
bionet.molbio.genome-program and bionet.plants.
biz
Groups that allow commercial activities such as articles
that are advertisements or other marketing materials.
An example is: biz.books.technical.
gnu
Groups discussing the work of the Free Software
Foundation and the GNU project. Examples are:
gnu.announce and gnu.emacs.help.
ieee
Groups with discussions related to the Institute of
Electronic and Electrical Engineers. An example is:
ieee.announce.
uk
Groups discussing items of interest to those in the UK.
Examples are: uk.bcs.announce and
uk.jobs.wanted.
Local newsgroups
In addition to the above universal newsgroups, there are a few local
newsgroups, which are only available to people reading Usenet News
whilst logged on to a Durham computer. These include:
dur.general
Miscellaneous discussions by Durham users
dur.news.announce Durham announcements about Usenet News
dur.test
Local group for sending test messages
Any suggestions for a new local newsgroup should be sent to
[email protected] by electronic mail.
2.3
2.3.1
Subscribing to newsgroups
Automatic subscription
When you first use Usenet News, you will automatically be subscribed to a
small number of newsgroups including dur.news.announce, dur.test and
news.announce.newusers.
Guide 28: Getting started with Usenet News
3
The dur.news.announce newsgroup is used by the ITS to announce any
changes to Durham's Usenet News system. The dur.test newsgroup exists
in order to receive people's experiments in posting. So, if you want to see
what happens when you post an article, try posting to the dur.test
newsgroup. The newsgroups uk.test and alt.test can also be used for this
purpose.
The news.announce.newusers newsgroup contains a number of articles
that are of interest to a new user of Usenet News. Perhaps the most
important article is the one with the subject A Primer on How to Work with
the USENET Community. It is a guide to using Usenet News "politely,
effectively and efficiently". The article Rules for posting to Usenet contains
similar material. Recommendations about things you should not do is
contained in the article Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on
Netiquette.
Long lists of the newsgroups that are available are given in the following
articles of the newsgroup news.announce.newusers:
List of Active Newsgroups, Part I
List of Active Newsgroups, Part II
Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part I
Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part II
2.3.2
Subscribing to particular newsgroups
Newly-created newsgroups will be offered to you each time you read the
news. The method used to subscribe to existing newsgroups depends on
which newsreader you are using (see later, Sections 4.2.1, 5.3.2, 6.3.2, and
7.2.2).
2.3.3
What newsgroups are there?
To find out which newsgroups exist, to which you are not already
subscribed:
1
Type the UNIX command
newsgroups
This will produce a long list. You can restrict the output to a list of those
unsubscribed newsgroups having a name containing a particular string by
passing the string as a parameter to this command. For example, to find
out which newsgroups exist with the string sound as part of their name:
1
Type
newsgroups sound
4
Guide 28: Getting started with Usenet News
3
Newsreaders
Pine, tin, trn and rn are available on all of the ITS's UNIX workstations and
timesharing computers, and xrn is available if you are working in an X
Window System on a workstation. Although the choice of a newsreader is a
matter of personal preference, we would not recommend that you use rn.
It is also possible to run newsreaders on PCs and Macintoshes: the ITS will
be making recommendations about which newsreader to choose on these
platforms later.
No matter which newsreader you use you will probably have a file which
contains information about the newsgroups to which you are currently
subscribed and which articles you have read in these newsgroups. On UNIX
computers, a file in your home directory called .newsrc is used to store this
information. Although this file could be edited with any text editor, it is rarely
necessary to do this.
You should not have problems if you switch from using one newsreader to
using another one.
4
Using Pine to access Usenet News
If you are familiar with the electronic mail program called Pine, you may find
that Pine is the easiest way for you to access Usenet News. This section
assumes that you are familiar with the basic ideas of Pine, as described in
Course Notes 16: An Introduction to Electronic Mail using Pine.
4.1
How to configure Pine to enable access to Usenet news
If you want to access Usenet News from within Pine, you first have to
configure Pine to enable access to Usenet News. In Pine 3.9x, you can
configure Pine by using the Config Screen. To find this screen:
1
Go to the Pine Main Menu.
2
Press S (meaning Setup).
3
Press C (meaning Config).
You should get a screen headed SETUP CONFIGURATION.
4
Move the cursor down to the line starting nntp-server.
5
Press A (meaning Add Text).
6
At the Enter text to add prompt, type:
nntphost.dur.ac.uk
7
Press the Enter key.
Note: it is not necessary to set the news-collections variable.
8
Move the cursor down to the line:
Guide 28: Getting started with Usenet News
5
[ ] compose-sets-newsgroup-without-confirm
9
10
If there is no X between the [ and ], press X.
Move the cursor down to the line:
[ ] expanded-view-of-folders
11
If there is no X between the [ and ], press X.
In order for some of these new settings to have any effect, it is necessary to
leave Pine, and re-start it.
4.2
4.2.1
12
Press E to return to the Main Menu.
13
Press Q to leave Pine.
14
Then restart Pine in the usual way.
Subscribing to newsgroups
Subscribing to an existing newsgroup
To subscribe to a newsgroup, first get Pine to display a list of what folders
you have. To do this:
1
Press L.
2
Move the cursor into the section headed News-collection.
In order to subscribe to a newsgroup:
3
Press A.
4
Type in the name of the newsgroup, for example,
rec.music.folk
5
Press the Enter key.
If you are uncertain about the name, then you can get Pine to list the
names of the newsgroups using the following instructions
1
After pressing A, press Ctrl/T.
2
Press W to find out the name of a newsgroup whose name contains
a particular string.
You can use the cursor-moving keys to move around the list. When you
have the chosen newsgroup highlighted:
3
Press S.
Pine will then output a prompt asking you to confirm that you want to
subscribe to this newsgroup.
4
6
Press the Enter key.
Guide 28: Getting started with Usenet News
Once you have subscribed to the newsgroups which you think you may be
interested in, you can use them just like mail folders (see below).
4.2.2
Unsubscribing from a newsgroup
To unsubscribe from a newsgroup, first get Pine to display a list of what
folders you have. To do this:
1
Press L.
2
Then move the cursor into the section headed News-collection.
To choose the newsgroup and unsubscribe from it:
3
Use the cursor-moving keys to highlight the newsgroup.
4
Press D.
Pine will then output a prompt asking you to confirm that you want to
unsubscribe from this newsgroup.
5
4.3
4.3.1
Press Y.
Reading news
Selecting a newsgroup
To select a newsgroup, first get Pine to display a list of what folders you
have. To do this:
1
Press L.
2
Move the cursor into the section headed News-collection.
3
Use the cursor-moving keys to highlight the chosen newsgroup.
4
Press V (or the Enter key).
Pine will then display the folder index of the articles in this newsgroup.
When you have read an article:
5
Press D
and Pine will record the fact that you have seen it. This fact is also stored in
the .newsrc file. In this way, the article will not be presented to you the next
time you read Usenet News.
4.3.2
Grouping related articles together
Although Pine does not provide a sophisticated form of threading, you can
arrange for Pine to present the articles of a folder index sorted into groups
of related articles. To do this:
1
Ensure that the folder index of the newsgroup is displayed.
Guide 28: Getting started with Usenet News
7
2
Press $.
3
Press O.
Note: this only has an effect on the folder index: it does not actually alter
the folder. A future version of Pine will contain better facilities for threading.
4.3.3
How to see articles that you've already deleted
Articles which you have already deleted may still be available to you; but
remember that articles are only kept on the Usenet News computer for a
few days.
1
Ensure that the folder index of the newsgroup displayed.
2
Press &.
At the prompt which says something like:
UNexclude 42 messages in rec.music.folk?
3
Press Y (or the Enter key).
Any articles that you have previously deleted will reappear in the folder
index.
4.3.4
Catching up in a newsgroup
To mark all the articles of a newsgroup as deleted is known as catching up
on a newsgroup. Although Pine does not have a command to catch up on a
newsgroup, you can use Pine's aggregate command set to do this. In order
to use the aggregate commands, you will need to have enable-aggregatecommand-set included in the setting of the feature-list variable. To do
this:
1
Go to the Config Screen (see Section 4.1).
2
Move the cursor down to the line:
[ ] enable-aggregate-command-set
8
3
If there is no X between the [ and ], press X.
4
Press E to exit the Config Screen.
5
Press I to return to the folder index of the current newsgroup.
6
Press ; (which means execute the select command).
7
Press A (meaning all articles of the current folder).
8
Press A (which means execute the apply command).
9
Press D (meaning delete).
Guide 28: Getting started with Usenet News
This will cause all the articles in the current newsgroup to be marked as
deleted. So these articles will not be shown the next time you enter the
newsgroup.
Note: only steps 6 to 9 need to be executed when you next want to do a
catch-up.
4.4
Performing operations on an article
The usual Pine commands can be used on an article. Examples are:
•
•
•
•
4.5
use the F command to forward an article to someone;
use the S command to save an article in a folder;
use the Y command to print an article;
use the E command to export an article to a file.
Posting an article on a new subject to a newsgroup
Use the following steps if you wish to post an article on a new subject to a
newsgroup:
1
go to the folder index of the newsgroup (see Section 4.3.1).
2
Press C (which means compose an article for this newsgroup).
Pine will then place a template for your article on the screen.
3
Fill in the Subject line and type in the body of the article.
When you have finished composing the article:
4
Press Ctrl/X.
At the prompt:
Posted message may go to thousands of readers. Really post?
5
Press Y.
Sometime later your article will appear in the newsgroup. When you post an
article to a newsgroup, a message will be sent back to you by electronic
mail to confirm that your request has been received by the computer
nntphost.dur.ac.uk.
4.6
Responding to an article
You may want to comment on an article that you have just read. To do this:
1
Get to the folder index of the newsgroup (see Section 4.3.1).
2
Move the cursor so that the article to which you wish to respond is
highlighted.
3
Press R.
Pine will prompt:
Guide 28: Getting started with Usenet News
9
Include original message in Reply?
4
It is probably best to press Y.
Pine will then prompt with:
Press Y to follow-up message to newsgroup(s) or N to reply to sender?
There are two possibilities: you may wish to send your comment to the
newsgroup (called a follow-up) or you may just wish to send a message to
the sender of the article.
If you want to send a follow-up to the newsgroup:
1
Press Y.
Pine will then place a template for your article on the screen.
2
Proceed as for posting an article on a new subject (see Section 4.5).
If instead you want to send a reply (by e-mail) just to the sender of the
article, at the prompt:
Press Y to follow-up message to newsgroup(s) or N to reply to sender?
1
Press N.
Pine will then place a template for your message on the screen.
4.7
2
Type in the body of your reply.
3
Press Ctrl/X to send your reply.
Other information
When Pine displays a list of the newsgroups to which you are subscribed, it
normally displays this list in alphabetical order. If you want your subscribed
newsgroups to be displayed in some other order, you will have to set the
news-read-in-newsrc-order feature. To do this:
1
Go to the Config Screen (see Section 4.1).
2
Move the cursor down to the line containing
[ ] news-read-in-newsrc-order.
3
If there is no X between the [ and ], press X.
4
Press E to return to the Main Menu.
You also need to edit your .newsrc file so that the lines appear in the order
that you want the newsgroups to appear.
5
The newsreader tin
The newsreader tin is a threaded newsreader.
10
Guide 28: Getting started with Usenet News
5.1
Entering and leaving tin
To start tin, at the UNIX prompt:
1
Type the command:
tin
To leave tin:
1
Press Q at any prompt.
Note that the newsreader tin is case-sensitive. ‘Press Q’ means ‘Press
Shift/q’.
5.2
Help and information about tin
To get online help whilst in tin:
1
Press h at any prompt.
For further information about tin:
1
At a UNIX prompt, type:
man tin
5.3
5.3.1
Subscribing to newsgroups
Subscribing to a new newsgroup
If any new newsgroups have been created since you last used tin, you will
be asked when you start tin whether you want to subscribe to each of
these new newsgroups.
5.3.2
Subscribing to an existing newsgroup
From the first screen (headed Group Selection):
1
Press g.
You will get the prompt:
Goto newsgroup []>
2
Type in the name of a newsgroup, for example,
rec.music.folk
3
Press the Enter key.
You will get a prompt like:
Position rec.music.folk in group list (1,2,..,$) [3]>
4
Press the Enter key.
Guide 28: Getting started with Usenet News
11
5.3.3
Unsubscribing from a newsgroup
On the first screen:
1
Position the cursor on the name of the unwanted newsgroup.
2
Press u.
In due course, the newsgroup will be removed from your list of newsgroups.
5.4
5.4.1
Reading news
Selecting a newsgroup
On the first screen:
5.4.2
1
Position the cursor on the name of the newsgroup.
2
Press the Enter key.
Selecting a thread
1
First select the newsgroup.
2
Position the cursor on the required thread.
3
Press the Enter key.
You will then be presented with the articles of the thread a screenful at a
time.
4
5.4.3
Leaving a thread
1
5.4.4
Press q.
Leaving a newsgroup
1
5.4.5
Press the spacebar to get the next screenful.
Press q.
How to see threads that you've already read
Threads which you have already read may still be available to you; but
remember that articles are only kept on the Usenet News computer for a
few days.
1
5.4.6
Press r whilst in the index of the newsgroup.
Catching up on a newsgroup
To mark all the unread articles in a newsgroup as read, use the Catch up
facility.
12
Guide 28: Getting started with Usenet News
On the first screen:
1
Position the cursor on the name of the newsgroup, for example,
dur.test
2
Press c.
You will get a prompt like:
Mark group dur.test as read? (y/n):
3
5.5
5.5.1
Press y.
Taking a copy of an article
Saving an article in a file
1
Select the article.
2
Press s.
3
Press a.
4
Type in a filename.
5
Press the Enter key.
6
Press n.
The article will be saved in a subdirectory (of your home directory) called
News.
If you save the article in a file which already contains one or more Usenet
News articles, you will be asked whether you want the latest article to be
appended to the existing articles; tin will not overwrite the file.
5.5.2
Printing an article
1
Select the article.
2
Press o.
You will get a prompt like:
Print a)rticle, t)hread, h)ot, p)attern, T)agged articles, q)uit:
3
Press a.
In order for this to work, you must have set the LPDEST environment
variable before entering tin. For details about setting this variable, type the
command:
help printing
at a UNIX prompt.
Guide 28: Getting started with Usenet News
13
5.6
Posting an article on a new subject to a newsgroup
On the first screen:
1
Position the cursor on the name of the newsgroup, for example,
dur.test
2
Press w.
You will get the prompt:
Post subject []>
3
Type in the subject of your article, for example,
test message
4
Press the Enter key.
You will then be put into the Pico editor (unless you have set the EDITOR
environment variable).
5
Type in the body of your article.
Ensure that there is a blank line between the headers of the article and the
body of the article.
6
Press Ctrl/x.
You will get the prompt:
q)uit, e)dit, p)ost:
7
Press p.
Sometime later your article will appear in the newsgroup.
If you post an article to a newsgroup, a message will be sent back to you by
electronic mail to confirm that your request has been received by the
computer nntphost.dur.ac.uk.
5.7
Responding to articles
You may want to comment on an article that you have just read. There are
two possibilities: you may wish to send your comment to the newsgroup
(called a follow-up) or you may just wish to send a message to the sender
of the article.
5.7.1
Following-up an article of a newsgroup
1
Select the article on which you wish to post a follow-up.
2
Press f.
You will then be put into the Pico editor (unless you have set the EDITOR
environment variable).
14
Guide 28: Getting started with Usenet News
3
5.7.2
Proceed as for posting an article (see Section 5.6).
Replying to the sender of an article
1
Select the article for which you want to e-mail the sender of the
article.
2
Press r.
You will then be put into the Pico editor (unless you have set the EDITOR
environment variable).
3
Type in the text of the message that you want to send.
Ensure that there is a blank line between the headers of the message and
the body of the message.
4
Press Ctrl/x.
You will get the prompt:
q)uit, e)dit, s)end:
5
Press s.
Guide 28: Getting started with Usenet News
15