XVNEWS(1)

NAME
xvnews - An OpenLook news reader

SYNOPSIS
xvnews [ generic-tool-options ]

AVAILABILITY
xvnews is available for reading news using the intuitive OpenLook interface. Regular updates of xvnews are posted to the server export.lcs.mit.edu.

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

USAGE
xvnews operates through the use of a set of command panel buttons, windows, menus and other components that conform to the OpenLook 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. For more information about textedit conventions, see the textedit(1) man page. 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, searches for new articles in the users 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 users .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:       Retrieve all the newsgroups the
           user is subscribed to.
    All Unsubscribed: Retrieve all the newsgroups
      the user is not subscribed to.
    All Matching groups: Retrieve all the newsgroups
                  that match the reg. 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. ARTICLES PANEL BUTTONS The xvnews articles panel is shown when have entered a group and are reading 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. 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 control - 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. Options unavailable if goto group was selected.
    All Articles:   Marks all articles as read.
Up to Article: Marks articles read up to current article. Unsubscribe Unsubscribes the user from the current group that is being read and returns to 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.
    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 new groups / view groups panel is shown when either new newsgroups are available from the newserver or when the user selects an option under view newsgroups. When a user selects a group, if there is a description available from the newserver 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 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
    ' ' --  scroll/next article/next group
    'p'  -- previous article
    'f'  -- scroll text one page forward/next article
    'h'  -- toggle header
    'b'  -- scroll text one page backward
    's'  -- save current article
    'k'  -- kill the current subject
    'q'  -- exit reading articles
    '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 killfile for group foo.bar is foo/bar/KILL. The difference between the two is that there can be one killfile for each group (the local killfile), and that killfile affects only the particular newsgroup (foo/bar/KILL affects only foo.bar. The global killfile 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:
    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. 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. Now lets say that you wanted to kill all articles in this group that were crossposted to another group (foo.foo):
    /^Newsgroups: .*,foo.foo/h:j
This kill file entry will mark all article read that were crossposted to the group foo.foo. This is useful because some groups get many articles posted to them that are crossposted to other groups that you plan on reading. This way you will only read these articles in one group. This should not be confused with other news readers that allow you to view the article once and then remove all other copies. If you mark it as read if it was crossposted to foo.foo and you are not subscribed to foo.foo, you will not have an opportunity to read this article. For a further discussion of regular expressions, see the man page for ed(1).

RESOURCES
The resources for xvnews are stored in the users ~/.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.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 $HOME/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 art button. Default is 2. XVnewsPrevDefault Sets the menu default item for the prev art button. Default is 2.

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 Sun Microsystems. 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 passwd file. The DOTDIR variable specifies what directory your .newsrc resides in. If thisis 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.

BUGS
xvnews is only available for Sun4 machines running Sun O/S 4.1 or greater.