Title: How do I use Pine to read and post Internet newsgroup articles?
Question: What are the capabilities of Pine as a news reader and how do
I use them?
Answer:
The current version of Pine lets you read, post, and subscribe to Internet
newsgroups (aka Usenet). Pine is much easier to use than many older
newsreaders, and has many convenient and powerful features.
Here's how this document is arranged:
If you wish to: | Read this:
------------------------------------|--------------------------------
o Read news on a C&C Uniform | "Reading News on a C&C Computer"
Access computer |
|
o Read news on a PC or other | "Reading News on a non-C&C Computer"
non-C&C computer |
|
o Deal with difficulties accessing | "Problems with Accessing Usenet on
Usenet on non-C&C Computers | non-C&C Computers"
|
o Post messages to a newsgroup | "Posting News Messages"
|
o Use advanced features of the | "Advanced Features of the Pine
newsreader, such as: | Newsreader"
|
. simulating threads |
. reducing verbosity |
. searching for text in messages |
. speeding up posting |
. controlling newsgroup order |
. restoring deleted messages |
. subscribing to many news groups |
. getting a list of all groups |
. controlling where your post goes|
Reading News on a C&C Computer
==============================
On C&C computers the proper connection to the newsgroups is usually already
established for you. When you invoke pine and move to the FOLDER LIST you
are presented with a screen which should look something like this:
PINE 3.91j FOLDER LIST Folder: INBOX 0 Messages
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Folder-collection ** Default for Saves ** (Local)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[ Select Here to See Expanded List ]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
News-collection (Remote)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[ Select Here to See Expanded List ]
(Note: if for some reason your screen does not contain the
"News-collection
or . The bottom of your screen then looks like this:
? Help M Main Menu P PrevFldr - PrevPage D UnSbscrbe R Rename
O OTHER CMDS V [ViewFldr] N NextFldr Spc NextPage A Subscribe
If you know the exact name of a newsgroup, type "A" (Subscribe) followed by
the name of the newsgroup and a , and that group will appear under
the News collection.
If you don't know the exact name of the group, or wish to explore the
groups available, type "A" as before and then type "^T" (that is, hold the
key down while typing the letter "T"), and Pine presents you with
a long list of groups. You can search these groups with the "W" (WhereIs)
command, or subscribe to one by highlighting it and typing "S" (Subscribe)
followed by .
You read the contents of these groups as ordinary Pine folders.
Reading News on a non-C&C Computer
==================================
On non-C&C computers you are not guaranteed that your system manager has
configured Pine so that everyone on the system automatically has access to
news. You can check this by looking for a news folder collection at the
end of your FOLDER LIST screen. If it's not there, you need to tell Pine
the name of your local news server. Here are the steps for using this
facility:
1. Type "S" (Setup) in the MAIN MENU.
2. Type "C" (Config)
3. Use the down-arrow-key to select the option "nntp-server".
4. Press "A" to Add a value to this option. Type in the name of the
news server for your site, then press . You need to get
this information from your local support staff. A typical news
server name might be: "news.nowhere.edu".
5. Return to the MAIN MENU by pressing "E".
6. Press "Q" to quit Pine; then restart Pine. This is necessary to
have the above configuration change take effect.
Now you are set to read the newsgroups as described in the section labeled
"Reading News on a C&C Computer" above.
Problems with Accessing Usenet on non-C&C Computers
===================================================
In most cases, the only thing you need to do to enable news reading/posting
is to set the "nntp-server" variable, as described above. For some
configurations, such as reading news from the same machine Pine is running
on, you also need to set the "news-collections" variable. Use the
context-sensitive help in the Setup/Config screen to see an example of this
case.
You may specify a list of hosts for the nntp-server variable. In the
absence of an explicit news-collection setting, the first nntp-server
listed is used for reading news. Any other hosts listed are used for
posting messages if the first host is unavailable.
PC-Pine users, take note! PC-Pine normally looks for your news
configuration file (NEWSRC) first in your PC home directory (typically
C:\NEWSRC) and if it doesn't find it there it looks in the same directory
where your PINERC file is. You may set the "newsrc-path" variable (PC-Pine
only) to specify a different path if you prefer. This may be helpful for
compatibility with other PC news readers.
Posting News Messages
=====================
To post a message to a newsgroup, highlight the group by moving to it with
the arrow-keys, enter it by pressing , and type "C" to compose.
The title of the newsgroup appears in the "Newsgrps:" part of the header
allowing you to compose and send the message as ordinary email.
You reply to a news message by typing "R" as you would for any Pine email
message. It normally asks you the question:
Post follow-up message to news group(s)?
If you say "n", it sends the message only to the person who sent the
message, otherwise it posts your reply only to the news group and not the
person who originated the message, unless you specifically add the person
to the "To:" or "Cc:" fields.
Advanced Features of the Pine Newsreader
========================================
o Question: can I use threads in the Pine newsreader?
Answer: threads are hierarchical nests of replies to postings, e.g.,
o Hang-Gliding in Winter
o Jones: Re: Hang-Gliding in Winter
o Smith: Re: Hang-Gliding in Winter
o Ling: Re: Hang-Gliding in Winter
o Mike: Re: Hang-Gliding in Winter
o Todd: Re: Hang-Gliding in Winter
While Pine cannot really display threads, it can often simulate them by
sorting the messages by "OrderedSubj" so that all replies to a single
posting are grouped together and in the correct arrival sequence. To
sort the replies, type: "$O", where "$" activates the sort, and "O"
determines the type of sort. (this works as long as the responders have
not altered the text of the subject line).
o Can I post news without having it always ask me if I really want to post?
Yes. Enter the SETUP CONFIGURATION mode from the MAIN MENU by typing "S"
followed by "C". Then search for and mark the field:
[ ] compose-sets-newsgroup-without-confirm
by typing "X" in the square brackets (if the "X" is already there just
leave it alone). Note that you must exit Pine and then re-enter it
before such newly marked fields become active.
o I recall that somewhere in the list of 437 messages in one group there
were mentions of "lemonade", but they did not appear in the subject line.
Is there a way to find them?
Yes. Pine has a powerful feature called "aggregate" commands which you
activate by typing a semi-colon ";". In this case, if you type:
;ta string
where "string" is some text string, Pine marks all messages which contain
the "string" with an "X" (Pine actually prompts you for each part of the
command separately, that is, after the ";", the "t", the "a", etc., but
you can type it rapidly as one continuous string). For example:
;ta lemonade
marks all messages that contain the string "lemonade". If you then type
"Z" (zoom) it displays *only* those messages marked with an "X".
In order for this feature to work, however, you must enter the SETUP
CONFIGURATION mode from the MAIN MENU by typing "S" followed by "C".
Then search for and mark the field:
[ ] enable-aggregate-command-set
by typing "X" in the square brackets (if the "X" is already there just
leave it alone). Note that you must exit Pine and then re-enter it
before such newly marked fields become active.
o My postings using SLIP/PPP lines are rather slow. Can I speed them up?
Yes you can. Enter the SETUP CONFIGURATION mode from the MAIN MENU by
typing "S" followed by "C". Then search for and mark the field:
[ ] news-post-without-validation
by typing "X" in the square brackets (if the "X" is already there just
leave it alone). Note that you must exit Pine and then re-enter it
before such newly marked fields become active.
o Can I specify the order in which my newsgroups appear?
Yes. In your main directory there is a file named: ".newsrc" which
contains all of your newsgroups. Sort the groups however you wish them
to appear and then enter the Pine SETUP CONFIGURATION from the MAIN MENU
by typing "S" followed by "C". Then search for and mark the field:
[ ] news-read-in-newsrc-order
by typing "X" in the square brackets (if the "X" is already there just
leave it alone). Note that you must exit Pine and then re-enter it
before such newly marked fields become active.
o Help! I just marked 233 articles as deleted (D), but after exiting
Pine I realize that I need to refer to some of them again. What can I
do?
Inside the newsgroup, type: "&" and all that you have deleted will
re-appear.
o Can I mark a place in a list of messages to indicate where I last
stopped reading?
Yes. Enter the SETUP CONFIGURATION mode from the MAIN MENU by typing "S"
followed by "C". Then search for and mark the field:
[ ] news-approximates-new-status
by typing "X" in the square brackets (if the "X" is already there just
leave it alone). Note that you must exit Pine and then re-enter it
before such newly marked fields become active.
o I sure get tired of subscribing or unsubscribing to groups one at a
time -- is there a way to subscribe/unsubscribe to a whole bunch in one
fell swoop?
Yes. There is a file named ".newsrc" in your main directory which
contains entries that look like this:
...
alt.agriculture.fruit: 1-643
alt.agriculture.misc! 1-3746
alt.aldus.freehand: 1-1614
alt.aldus.misc 1-231
...
Entries that end with a ":" before the number range indicate that you
are subscribed to that group, whereas entries that end with a "!", or
just a blank, mean that you are not. In the above example, you are
subscribed to alt.agriculture.fruit and alt.aldus.freehand but not to
alt.agriculture.misc or alt.aldus.misc. You can edit that file and
change any number of "!"s to ":"s or vice-versa in order to subscribe or
unsubscribe to groups.
o How can I get a list of all the available USENET newsgroups?
You can use a utility named "nntplist" which lists out all active
groups, or all active groups relating to a specific topic. For example,
saul% nntplist -x '*pets*' active > news.pets
writes all of the currently active groups that deal with "pets"
to the file "news.pets", whereas:
saul% nntplist active > news.all
writes all active news groups to the file "news.all".
o How can I control where my news post will go?
By default, it goes to the whole world, but you can restrict it to
smaller regions by making use of something called the "distribution"
entry in the message header.
To do this, you first have to configure Pine to let you have this entry
in your message header, and then you have to use the entry when you
post.
To configure Pine, go to the MAIN MENU, and type "S" followed by "C".
Then:
1. Page down in the configuration screen and highlight the
"customized-hdrs" line.
2. Press "a" to add a value.
3. Add the value: Distribution:
4. Press
5. Press "E" to return to the MAIN MENU
6. Exit Pine and then restart Pine in order to update the new value
Now when you compose a message to a newsgroup, if you press ^R while the
cursor is in the header field, a new field named "Distribu:" appears.
You can type in one of the following values which control the
distribution of your post:
Value Where it goes
-------- ------------------------------
uwash University of Washington
seattle Seattle area
pnw Pacific Northwest region
usa Everywhere in the USA
na Everywhere in North America
world Everywhere on Usenet in the world
By the way, you can get the most current distribution list by using
the utility "nntplist" with the argument "distributions", e.g.,
saul3% nntplist distributions
Date: 01/96 Author: L. Gales / Pine Team