This site will look much better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any browser or Internet device.

News readers »

There are a variety of newsreaders installed at ICS. Some of the more popular are described below. Further information about reading news can be found at:

The bbc Newsreader

The bbc program allows you to read news messages with an MH -like interface. To read a newsgroup, you type 

     bbc  newsgroup_name
bbc checks to see if there are new messages in the named newsgroup and if there are, it will start up msh so you can read them. The msh program allows you to use regular MH commands when reading newsgroups. Type show to see the current message, next to see the next message, and so on. Type quit to quit reading the current newsgroup. If you have listed more than one newsgroup on the command line, bbc will continue processing the next newsgroup in the list.

Here is an example of using bbc to read the ics.system newsgroup:

% bbc ics.system Reading ics.system, currently at message 1 of 22 (msh) show 

(Message 1, BBoard-ID: 1360)
BBoard-ID: 1360
BB-Posted: Wed, 29 Jan 86 15:36:39 PST
Received: from localhost by UCI.EDU id a006693; 29 Jan 86 15:20 PST
To: ics.system@ics.uci.edu
Subject: Imagen 24300
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 86 15:19:43 -0800
From: Joe Sysadmin <joesysadmin@UCI.EDU>

The Imagen 24300 is now operating normally.  It was broken down
due to the paper jammed in the drum.  Luckily, it didn't cause
any damage.

/joe
(msh) next 
(Message 4, BBoard-ID: 1363)
BBoard-ID: 1363
BB-Posted: Fri, 31 Jan 86 13:33:37 PST
Received: from localhost by UCI.EDU id a001631; 31 Jan 86 13:30 PST
To: ics.system@ics.uci.edu
Subject: uci.edu down 2/7/86 17:10 - 2/7/86 20:30
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 86 13:30:27 -0800
From: root@UCI.EDU
(msh) next 
(Message 4, BBoard-ID: 1363)
BBoard-ID: 1363
BB-Posted: Fri, 31 Jan 86 13:33:37 PST
Received: from localhost by UCI.EDU id a001631; 31 Jan 86 13:30 PST
To: ics.system@ics.uci.edu
Subject: uci.edu down 2/7/86 17:10 - 2/7/86 20:30
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 86 13:30:27 -0800
From: root@UCI.EDU

The uci.edu will be down from
	February  7,1986 17:10 till February  7,1986 20:30.
The reason for the downtime is:
Both, the Computing Facility and the Physical Sciences Dataswitches
will be unavailable from 5:10pm until 8:30pm on Friday, February 7th.
Therefore all the Computers attached to those switches and the
corresponding tandem link will be unavailable to users on
the specified time.              (RJ).

Downtime Scheduler
(msh) quit %

You can see a list of all the available newsgroups by typing:

% bbc -topics

For more information on the bbc program, see the UNIX manual page for bbc (man bbc).

The trn Newsreader

The trn newsreader has three modes:

Mode 1 - Selecting/Subscribing to Newsgroups
Mode 2 - Selecting Articles to Read
Mode 3 - Reading Articles

Selecting/Subscribing to Newsgroups

Some commands you should know:

g newsgroup
Jumps to newsgroup, and asks if you want to subscribe if you are not already subscribed.
+
Enters you into selecting article mode (Mode 2).
y
Begins reading the first article of the current newsgroup (Mode 3).
n
Skip to the next newsgroup.
a keyword
Prompt for subscribing to newsgroup(s) with keyword in it.
l keyword
List newsgroups with keyword contained in them.
q
Quit.
h
Help.

Example:

====== 1021 unread articles in ics.system -- read now? [+ynq]

In each mode the prompt contains common commands in []. Pressing the spacebar selects the command for the first character that is shown in the []. As shown in the above example, + would be the default key if you used the spacebar.

Selecting Articles to Read

a-z
Select/deselect the indicated item by its letter or number.
RETURN
Start reading. Selects the current item if nothing is selected.
Z,TAB
Start reading. If nothing is selected, read all unread articles.
L
Switch the display between a short style without authors and a medium or long style with authors.
U
Switch between selecting unread/read articles.
J
Junk all selected articles (mark them as read).
c
Catch up -- marks ALL articles as read.
N
Leave this group as-is and go on to the next one.
P
Leave this group as-is and go on to the previous one.
q
Quit the selector (return to Mode 1).
h
help

Example: 

   ics.system          13 articles (moderated)

   a    Peter Anteater      1  Downtime scheduled for icsnet
   ...
   z    Susie Anteater      1  Downtime scheduled for octavian and clyde

   -- Select threads (reverse date order) -- ALL [>Z] --

Select an article by typing the letter in front of the article, and the article will be marked with a "plus" (+) symbol. After selecting the articles you want to read, typing a Z will allow you to read the messages.

Reading Articles

Options in the pager are similar to the options of the more command.

SPACEBAR
Display the next page of message if the message is bigger than the size of screen.
RETURN
Display one more line.
b
Back up one page.
[control] L
Redraw the screen.
g pattern
Search forward within an article for pattern.
G
Search again for the same pattern
q
Quit the pager.
j
Junk this article (mark it read).
n
Scan forward for the next unread article.
N
Go to the next article.
[control] N
Scan forward for next the unread article with the same title.
p,P,[control] P
Same as n, N, [control] N, only going backwards.
--
Go to the previously displayed article.
h
Help.

Example output: 

ics.system (moderated) #1583 (0 + 1 more)                                  [1]
From: joesmith@octavian.ics.uci.edu
[1] ..subject..
Lines: 21
To: ics.system@binky.ICS.UCI.EDU
Date: Tue Sep 05 10:22:14 PDT 1995
...
message
...
--MORE--(80%)
Additional documentation on trn is from the trn Newsreader FAQ or see the trn manual page.

The nn Newsreader

nn is a menu based (point and shoot) netnews reader with a complete set of features to satisfy both the expert and the novice user. Since its first release in Denmark in 1984 (!), in Europe in 1988, and the global release in June 1989, it has replaced rn and other well-known news readers at many sites.

Some of the key features of nn are:

  • Menu-based article selection prior to reading the articles with the articles sorted according to subject and posting time. This significantly reduces the time spent on news reading. No keystrokes are wasted on articles you don't want to read, and only the articles selected on the menu will be read.

  • Full folder support: read, save, and delete individual articles.

  • Online help and manual pages.

  • Automatic kill & selection of articles based on subject or author.

  • User specified presentation sequence of news groups based on the news group hierarchy.

  • Whole classes of news groups can easily be unsubscribed permanently, e.g., talk.all and all.politics.

For more information about nn, see man nn or check out the NN FAQ.