slrn(1)

NAME

   slrn - An easy to use NNTP / spool based newsreader.

SYNOPSIS

   slrn  [-aCdknmw] [-C-] [-Dname] [-f newsrc-file] [-i config-file] [-k0]
   [--create] [--debug file] [--help] [--inews] [--kill-log file]  [--nntp
   [-h server] [-p port]] [--show-config] [--spool] [--version]

DESCRIPTION

   slrn is an easy to use but powerful NNTP / spool based newsreader.

   It  is highly customizable, supports scoring, free key bindings and can
   be extended using the embedded S-Lang interpreter.

   To use slrn, you either need to set the NNTPSERVER environment variable
   to  the  server  you  want to read news from or specify a server on the
   command line.  A newsrc file is needed, too.  In case you  do  not  yet
   have one, you can create it using ``slrn -f ~/.jnewsrc --create''.

   Inside slrn, online help is available via the '?' key.

OPTIONS

   The  following  options  can be used when calling slrn from the command
   line.  They override both environment variables and settings in private
   and global configuration files.

   -a     Read active file when checking for new news.

   -C     Use colors without checking if the terminal supports it.

   -C-    Don't use colors, even if the terminal supports it.

   -d     Get  group descriptions (taglines) from the news server.  Please
          note that this may cause a download of several hundred kilobytes
          and  thus  can take a long time.  The output is saved to a local
          file, so you only need to do this once.  May not be specified in
          combination with --create.

   -Dname Add  name  to the list of predefined preprocessing tokens, which
          can  be  used  in  your  slrnrc  file  to   have   conditionally
          interpreted lines.  See the slrn reference manual for details.

   -f newsrc-file
          Use  file  as  the  newsrc  file  for  this  session.   This  is
          permanently set via the server configuration command.

   -h host[:port]
          Connect to the NNTP server on host, overriding  the  $NNTPSERVER
          environment  variable.   If  no  port is given, the default NNTP
          port (119) will be used.  This option  is  only  accepted  after
          --nntp or when NNTP is the default mode.

   -i config-file
          Read  file  as the initialization (slrnrc) file.  The default is
          to use .slrnrc (or slrn.rc on VMS, OS/2  and  Windows)  in  your
          home directory.

   -k     Don't read the score file.

   -k0    Read  the  score  file, but inhibit expensive scoring. A scoring
          rule is expensive if it  contains  header  lines  that  are  not
          included  in  the  server's overview files.  This makes applying
          them slow.

   -m     Force mouse support (without checking if it works on the current
          terminal).

   -n     Do  not  check  for  new  groups  (usually resulting in a faster
          startup).

   -p N   Use port N to connect to the NNTP server.

   -w     Wait for a key before switching to full  screen  mode,  allowing
          the user to read startup messages.

   --create
          Read  the  active  file  (the  list of all groups) from the news
          server to create an initial newsrc file.

   --debug file
          Write debugging output to file.

   --help Show help for command line switches.

   --inews
          Use an external inews program to post articles.

   --kill-log file
          Keep a log of all articles that were killed by the scorefile  in
          file.

   --nntp Use  builtin  NNTP  support for reading and posting (an external
          program  is  used  to   post   if   slrn   was   compiled   with
          --enable-force-inews).

   --pull Spool outgoing articles locally for slrnpull to send.

   --show-config
          Print detailed information about slrn configuration.

   --spool
          Read directly from spool.

   --version
          Print version and some compile time settings.

ENVIRONMENT

   slrn   uses   the  following  list  of  environment  variables.   Note:
   environment variables can  be  overridden  by  configuration  files  or
   command line switches.

   COLORTERM
          If  this  variable  is  set, slrn will assume that your terminal
          supports ANSI color sequences.  It also enables a workaround for
          a  problem  with the mouse reporting when running slrn inside of
          an rxvt.

   DISPLAY
          If set, slrn assumes that X11 is running.

   EDITOR See $SLRN_EDITOR.

   HOME   See $SLRNHOME.

   HOSTNAME
          If no hostname is given, the value of this environment  variable
          is used.

   LOGNAME
          See $USER.

   NAME   Set it to your realname, if slrn can't determine it otherwise.

   NNTPSERVER
          You  can  use  this  variable  to tell slrn which NNTP server to
          connect to.  It can be overridden by the command line option -h.

   ORGANIZATION
          The name of your organization.

   PRINTER
          On unix systems, slrn pipes the  current  article  to  ``lpr  -P
          $PRINTER'' to print it.

   PWD    This  variable  is  only used on unix systems that don't support
          getcwd(3).  In these cases, it should  be  set  to  the  current
          directory  at the time slrn is invoked.  This is usually done by
          the shell and nothing the user has to worry about.

   REPLYTO
          The value of this variable is used as the default if you do  not
          set replyto in your slrnrc file.

   SLANG_EDITOR
          See $SLRN_EDITOR.

   SLRNHELP
          You  can set this variable to a file slrn should read its online
          help from.  This is only needed when the  default  key  bindings
          have  been  changed  and  you  want the help function to reflect
          this.  If unset, slrn looks for help.txt  in  the  configuration
          directory.

   SLRNHOME
          When  interpreting filenames as relative to your home directory,
          slrn uses this variable to find out what your home directory is.
          If $SLRNHOME is unset, $HOME is used instead.

   SLRN_EDITOR
          The  editor  to start for editing articles.  If this variable is
          unset, slrn subsequently looks  at  $SLANG_EDITOR,  $EDITOR  and
          $VISUAL.

   SLRN_SLANG_DIR
          If  set, slrn will search for slang macros here. If not set slrn
          will search in the default path, which  is  defined  at  compile
          time (usually share_dir/slang).

   TMP    Indicates  the  directory  in  which  slrn should save temporary
          files.

   TMPDIR See $TMP.

   USER   Your username, if slrn can't get it from  the  system  by  other
          means.

   VISUAL See $SLRN_EDITOR.

FILES

   $HOME/.slrnrc
          User-specific configuration file.

   config_dir/slrn.rc
          System-wide  configuration  file.  config_dir  is set at compile
          time (/usr/local/etc by default).

   $HOME/.jnewsrc
          default newsrc file for slrn.

   $HOME/.jnewsrc.dsc
          Per user newsgroups descriptions.

   share_dir/newsgroups.dsc
          Global newsgroup descriptions. share_dir is set at compile  time
          (/usr/local/share/slrn by default).

SEE ALSO

   The   documentation  that  comes  with  slrn,  especially  FIRST_STEPS,
   manual.txt, FAQ and score.txt.  If you consider writing S-Lang  macros,
   also look at README.macros and slrnfuns.txt.

   Recent  versions  of  the slrn manual and the FAQ as well as additional
   information  can  also  be  found  on  slrn's   official   home   page:
   http://slrn.sourceforge.net/

   Questions about slrn that are not covered by existing documentation may
   be posted to the newsgroup news.software.readers  where  they  will  be
   answered  by  knowledgeable  users  or  the  author of the program.  In
   addition, announcements of new versions of slrn are posted there.

   Links   to   the   latest   version   of   slrn   may   be   found   at
   http://www.jedsoft.org/slrn/

AUTHOR

   John E. Davis <[email protected]>

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