XVNEWS(1)

NAME
xvnews - an OPEN LOOK news reader

SYNOPSIS
xvnews [ generic-tool-options ]

AVAILABILITY
xvnews is available for reading news using the intuitive OPEN LOOK interface. Regular updates of xvnews are available via FTP from either ftp.twi.tudelft.nl:/pub/news or from ftp.uu.net:/networking/news/readers/xvnews

SYNOPSIS
xvnews [ -snewsgroupname ] [ -u ]

DESCRIPTION
xvnews 2.3 is an OpenLook interface for reading Usenet news. It provides a menu-driven facility for reading, storing and sending news articles. It also provides mail functionality to reply to or forward news articles. Scrollable windows allow easy access to newsgroups and articles. The full editing capabilities of textedit(1) are available for modifying and composing news articles.

OPTIONS

-s newsgroup
    Start xvnews with the given newsgroup , and only allows reading this particular group.

-u  Pop up the Undelete window whenever there are killed articles in a group. The default is to just display a message in the footer of the article window. Previous versions of xvnews would always show the Undelete window.

USAGE
xvnews operates through the use of a set of command panel buttons, windows, menus and other components that conform to the OPEN LOOK Graphical User Interface Functional Specification. News articles are edited using the menus and commands of the textedit program. For more information about the general usage of OPEN LOOK software applications, see the OpenWindows User's Guide. An optional argument -s followed by a newsgroup name can be given. If this argument is present, xvnews will only read this particular group, and it will create a file .newsgroupname to store the article numbering. In the following sections the different panels containing buttons will be shown. Each panel is associated with a different type of operation.

  Subscribed Groups Panel Buttons
The xvnews group panel is shown when all the subscribed groups that have unread articles are shown.

Quit
    Used to update the users .newsrc file and exit xvnews.

Rescan
    Rescan the news server for new groups and if none are found, search for new articles in the user's subscribed groups.

Catchup
    Used to mark all articles in the selected newsgroup read. Confirmation is asked if you are in group mode.

Unsubscribe
    Unsubscribes the user from the group that is currently selected.

Update
    Update the user's .newsrc file.

Read Group
    Open the currently selected newsgroup and start reading unread articles.

View Groups >

    All Groups
        Obtain a list of all newsgroups available from the news server.

    All Subscribed
        Obtain a list of all the newsgroups the user is subscribed to.

    All Unsubscribed
        Obtain a list of all the newsgroups the user is not subscribed to.

    All Matching groups
        Obtain a list of all the newsgroups that match the regular expression.

Properties
    Allows the user to modify the resources associated with xvnews.

Post
    Brings up an article compose window and allows the user to post a new article. If the resource XVnews.postEditor is set to an alternate editor, this will be used for posting.

  Articles Panel Buttons
The xvnews articles panel is shown when a group is entered and there are unread articles. Drag and drop of articles is supported from the list of articles. To enable drag and drop, select a group and while holding down the select button, drag the article to another application that supports drops. The article display may be sorted in alphabetical order or message order (default) by setting the resource XVnews.sortSubjects available in the properties window, or by using the 'S' keyboard accelerator.

Done
    Returns to subscribed groups with unread articles. Updates .newsrc file by adding articles that were read to the list of articles.

Prev Art >
    The menu under prev art allows the user to select options for viewing previous articles to the one currently being read. A default for this menu can be selected by using the CTRL-right mouse button action. This default will be stored as the resource XVnews.PrevDefault when the apply button is used from the properties popup.

    Prev article
        Reads the article previous to the one currently selected. If the user is at the top of the scrolling list, a previously read article will be read in and displayed.

    Prev subject
        Finds an article with a subject that matches the current article being read. Confirmation will be asked before previously read articles are searched.

    Prev author
        Finds an article written by the same author as the article currently being read. Confirmation will be asked before previously read articles are searched.

Catchup >
    Allows the user to mark blocks of articles as read. Both options leave articles marked as unread alone. Both options also update the .newsrc and exit the newsgroup. This option is unavailable if goto group was selected.

    All Articles
        Marks all articles as read.

    Up to Article
        Marks articles up to current article as read.

Unsubscribe
    Unsubscribes the user from the group currently being read and returns to the list of subscribed groups with unread articles.

Kill >
    Allows user to delete articles that are from annoying authors or redundant subjects. Removes articles for this session only, unless the kill file is edited. If all articles are killed, xvnews returns to the group listing, marking all articles as read.

    Subject
        Removes all articles having the same subject.

    Author
        Removes all articles having the same author.

    Kill File
        Brings up the kill popup and allows editing of the kill files.

    Undelete
        Brings up the undelete popup if there were any articles killed in this group.

Search >
    Provides a mechanism for searching for articles that match the current article being read. A default menu item can be selected for this menu by using the CTRL-right mouse button and then hitting apply button in the properties popup. This default will be stored as the resource XVnews.SearchDefault.

    Subject Next
        Searches for the next article whose subject matches the one that is currently being read.

    Subject Previous
        Searches for an article previous to the one that is currently being read with a subject that matches. If no matches are found that are unread, previously read articles will be checked as well.

    Author Next
        Searches for the next article written by the same author as the currently read article.

    Author Previous
        Searches for an article previous to the one that is currently being read that was written by the same author. If no matches are found that are unread, previously read articles will be checked as well.

    Search
        Brings up the search window and allows article headers to be searched using regular expressions similar to ed(1).

Save >
    Provides a way to save articles edited or unedited from the text window.

    Save
        Saves the article, as it resides in the text window, to either the users SAVEDIR directory, or if the file saver is active, the filename specified there.

    Filter
        Opens a pipe to the command defined by the resource XVnews.saveFilter and prints the edited article through this command.

    File
        Brings up the file saver and allows the user to save an article, as it resides in the text window, to a filename.

Next Art >
    The menu under next art allows the user to select options for viewing articles that appear after the article currently being read. A default item for this menu can be selected by using the CTRL-right mouse button. This default will then be stored as the resource XVnews.NextDefault when the apply button is used from the properties popup.

    Next article
        Reads the next available article. If no more articles are available, xvnews exits the current group.

    Next unread
        Finds the next unread article. If no more articles are available, xvnews exits the current group.

    Next subject
        Finds the next article that has a subject that matches the article currently being read. If no matches are found, the next unread article is retrieved.

    Next author
        Finds the next article that has an author that matches the article currently being read. If no matches are found, the next unread article is retrieved.

All Articles
    Retrieves all of the articles available in the current group.

Print
    Prints the article as it resides in the text window, to the command specified in the properties popup.

Mark Unread
    Marks the article currently selected as unread. Article will show up next time group is selected. When using goto group, this will add this article back to to unread list as well.

Post/Email >
    Provides the user with the functionality to post, followup, reply to, or forward an article. Drag and drop is supported into the window with an option of uuencoding and compressing. If the article is included, it will be prefixed by the indent string specified in the properties window. The load file option brings up a popup window similar to the file saver and allows the user to include files into the article. You will be prompted if you would like to included the file as text or compressed and uuencoded. You will also be informed of how many lines were included from this file. If the resource XVnews.postEditor is set to an alternate editor (eg 'shelltool vi'), this editor will be used instead of the standard xvnews posting window.

    Post to group
        Brings up a post window and allows the user to compose a news article.

    Post followup
        Brings up a followup window and allows posting to current newsgroup.

    Reply to Sender
        Brings up an e-mail reply window and allows replying to the author of the article.

    Forward article
        Allows the user to forward an article via e-mail. The current article will be included.

  News Groups/View Groups Panel
The news groups/view groups panel is shown when either new newsgroups are available from the news server or when the user selects an option under view newsgroups. When a user selects a group, if there is a description available from the news server of that group, the description and total number of available articles will be displayed. The user can select multiple newsgroups to subscribe/unsubscribe, but only one group may be selected to goto.

Done
    Returns the user to the subscribed newsgroups listing.

Sort Newsrc
    Sorts the .newsrc file in alphabetical order.

Unsubscribe
    Unsubscibes a user to the selected newsgroups. Multiple newsgroups may be selected. If the user is already unsubscribed, no change is made to that group.

Goto group
    Retrieves all available articles for the selected group. This button will be inactive if multiple newsgroups are selected. Kill entries are not processed when a group is entered by using goto. The .newsrc file will not be updated with changes from this session unless mark unread is used. In effect, goto is a read-only browse feature.

Subscribe
    Subscibes a user to the selected newsgroups. Multiple newsgroups may be selected. If the user is already subscribed, no change is made to that group.

Properties
    Allows the user to modify the resources associated with xvnews.

  Miscellaneous Windows

The File Saver
    The file saver window allows the user to save an article to a specified file. If the file exists, the article will be appended to the existing file. The article is saved in it's edited or unedited mode from the article window. Unedited the article will save in mail format. Article are saved when a file is entered in the Name line or a file is double clicked on.

The Post/Email window
    The post/email window allows the user to either post a new article to a newsgroup, post a followup article to a newsgroup, reply to the author of an article, or forward an article. Drag and drop is supported into the window and the user will be prompted if he would like the drop uuencoded and compressed, or loaded as plain text. If the user is posting or forwarding an article, there will be a menu available to select a distribution for this article. Distributions vary from news server to news server and determine where the posted article will be transmitted. A brief description of the distribution will also be given. The option of including the article is available with followup and reply to sender, article is automatically included with the forward option. Be defining the resource XVnews.logFile, you can save outgoing postings to this file in mail format.

The Search Window
    The search window allows the user to search any single line of the header for a regular expression which the user enters. Searching will be done on all available article previous or after the current article that is selected. If an error occurs decoding the regular expression, a message will be printed describing the error. xvnews supports a limited form of regular-expression notation similar to that of ed(1). Support is included for searching the entire article text for a regular expression, select or insert "article text". Support is also included for searching the entire header, select or insert "entire header".

The Properties Window
    The properties window allows the user to set and store the resources associated with xvnews.

The Kill File Editor
    The kill file editior popup allows the user to edit the kill file for either this group, or the global kill file. By default, the kill files are stored in $SAVEDIR/group/name. The global kill file is $SAVEDIR/KILL. There is a menu available for kill string that allows the user to choose to kill a subject or author that match the current article. There is also a crossposts option that allows the user to kill all articles posted to multiple groups, or crossposted to a certain group. To add this regular expression to a kill file, push either the add group kill, or the add global kill button. The difference is that adding an entry to the group kill file only operates on those articles that match this string in this group. Adding an entry to the global kill file operates on those articles that match this string in every group that is read. See the kill file section for a more in-depth description of kill file entries. By having the process kill entry for this session checked, the kill entry that you added will process the articles shown in this group. Another part of the kill file editor is the scrolling list that actually allows editing of kill files. To edit either the group kill file or the global kill file, select either from the edit menu and if the file is found, it will be loaded into the scrolling list. To delete an entry, select one or more entries from the list and hit the delete button. Deletes are pending until the save button is selected. Commented lines start with #.

The Undelete Popup
    The undelete popup allows the user to bring back articles that have been killed. This window is only available if articles were killed in this session. To undelete an article, just select an article from the list and hit the undelete button. Multiple articles may be chosen to undelete.

KEYBOARD ACCELERATORS
Keyboard accelerators are available for certain functions. Make sure that keyboard focus is in the center button panel and accelerators can be used for:

Subscribed Groups:

    n   next group

    p   previous group

    L3  Properties popup

Unread Articles:

    n   next article

    space
        scroll/next article/next group

    p   previous article

    f   scroll text one page forward/next article

    b   scroll text one page backward

    h   toggle header for this article only

    s   save current article

    k   kill the current subject

    q   update newsrc, exit this group

    S   toggle the sort subjects option for this group

    L3  Properties popup

    L9  Find next subject

KILL FILES
In xvnews, there is a useful feature called the KILL file, which allows you to kill (skip over) articles that you don't want to see. KILL files come in two forms:

Global
    In your $SAVEDIR directory, you will have the file KILL.

Local
    In your $SAVEDIR directory, the kill file for group foo.bar is foo/bar/KILL.

The difference between the two is that there can be one kill file for each group (the local kill file), and that kill file affects only the particular newsgroup (foo/bar/KILL affects only foo.bar). The global kill file affects all newsgroups. If there is both a global and local kill file, the global file is processed first, and then the local file. The general style for building a kill entry is:
    /regular expression/modifiers:command

Modifiers:

    c   Ignore case during regular expression matching.

    h   Look through the entire header of the article for the expression. If no modifier appears before the colon, only the subject line of the article is searched.
Note: xvnews does not support 'a' as a valid modifier. Some readers use 'a' as a modifier to search the entire article, which is very slow.

Commands:

    j   Mark article as read.

    m   Mark article as unread.
To kill a general subject, put in the entry:
    /foo/:j
If you decided that you wanted to read all article written by joe@schmo, even if the subject was foo, you could put:
    /foo/:j /^From: joe@schmo/h:m
Note that the order of these entries is important. First, we kill all subjects that match foo. Then we mark unread all articles written by joe@schmo. Finally, an example of an entry which works with the case-insensitive flag, which would kill all articles about version 4.x.x of SunOS:
    /SunOS 4.1.[123]/c:j
Also take note that the relationship between the global kill file and the local kill file is important. The global kill file is processed first, then the local kill file. If an article is marked unread in the global file, but marked as read in the local file, the local file takes precedence and the article is marked as read. The regular expression routines that xvnews uses are case sensitive by default, unlike some other news programs. For a further discussion of regular expressions, see the man page for ed(1). Articles that are read will automatically have the cross posted article (if one exists) killed. This is only when the article is read and not when catchup is used.

RESOURCES
The resources for xvnews are stored in the user's ~/.Xdefaults.

XVnews.background
    Specifies the background color for xvnews. Default is NULL.

XVnews.textcolor
    Specifies the color of the text in xvnews. Default is NULL.

XVnews.textback
    Specifies the color of the background of the text window for xvnews. Default is NULL.

XVnews.highlight
    Specifies the color of the scrolling list for xvnews. Default is NULL.

XVnews.textfont
    Specifies the font for xvnews. Default is NULL.

XVnews.textfontsize
    Specifies the size of the font used for xvnews. Default is NULL.

XVnews.Indent
    Specifies the string to be used by xvnews when articles are included in a post or e-mail window. Default is "> ".

XVnews.displaysize
    Specifies the number of rows to be used by xvnews for the scrolling list. Default is 9.

XVnews.Print
    Specifies the command to print articles through. Default is $OPENWINHOME/bin/mp | lpr.

XVnews.saveFilter
    Specifies the filter to pipe an article through. Default is NULL.

XVnews.logFile
    Defines the file that outgoing postings should be logged to. Defaults to $SAVEDIR/news.record.

XVnews.Rescan
    Specifies the time in minutes, 5-60, between rescans for unread articles. Default is 15. Most NNTP servers are set to timeout after 2 hours of socket inactivity.

XVnews.Header
    Specifies if article headers should be shown in full or abbreviated. Default is abbreviated.

XVnews.SearchDefault
    Sets the menu default item for the search button. Default is 2.

XVnews.NextDefault
    Sets the menu default item for the next article button. Default is 2.

XVnews.PrevDefault
    Sets the menu default item for the prev article button. Default is 2.

XVnews.sortSubjects
    Whether to automatically sort the subjects for a group in alphabetical order or not. Default is to sort in message order.

XVnews.postEditor
    Name of an editor to use for posting/email, eg 'shelltool vi'. Default is xvnews internal posting window.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
xvnews makes use of certain environment varibiables similar to other news readers. The NNTPSERVER variable needs to be set to a valid NNTP news server for xvnews to run. Consult your local system administrator if you have any questions on valid news servers. The DOMAIN variable may be set to the default domain of the system you are on. This is used for your the domain for the post/e-mail window. If DOMAIN is not set, xvnews makes a programmatic assumption of your domain. The ORGANIZATION variable may be set to your company name. If it is unset, xvnews uses the default which is determined at installation time. The NAME variable can be set to your real name that will appear in parentheses after user@systemname. If unset, xvnews uses the value from the passwd file. The MAIL_ALIAS variable can be set to the portion of your e-mail address that is placed before the @ in user@systemname. Setting this variable will result in an address like $MAIL_ALIAS@systemnameinstead. If unser, xvnews uses the username. The DOTDIR variable specifies what directory your .newsrc resides in. If this is unset, xvnews defaults to $HOME. The ability to have different .newsrc files for different servers is built into xvnews. xvnews looks for .newsrc-$NNTPSERVER first, and if this file is not present, defaults to .newsrc. The variable SAVEDIR is for specifying the default directory for xvnews to save article as well as look for an save KILL files. Default is ~/News.

FILES
xvnews uses /tmp/.xvnews.file.getpid() as a temorary storing place for articles, one at a time, as they are being read. xvnews uses the .signature file to place the users signature at the bottom of posts and email. xvnews looks for a ~/.signature file after it searches the $SAVEDIR/group/name directory for a .signature. This is handy if you want to have different .signatures for different news groups. If I wanted a different .signature for sci.military than every other group, I could put a .signature file in $SAVEDIR/sci/military and xvnews would read this instead of the default ~/.signature.

SEE ALSO
textedit(1), ed(1), OpenWindows User's Guide

AVAILABILITY
xvnews is available for Sun-4 machines running either SunOS 4.x or SunOS 5.x, and Linux. It should be portable to any Unix system with the XView libraries.

BUGS
xvnews currently contains a small number of bugs, as listed on top of the TODO file in the distribution. These bugs will be fixed in subsequent releases.