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rn

rn is the program that is used to read news about a variety of subjects that are posted to USENET. In order to run rn, all you need to do is to type rn(2)

You can also specify the newsgroup you want to read, like rn rec.arts.startrek.current.

If no newsgroup name is specified then the rn program goes through your `.newsrc' file, which has a list of all the newsgroups. If a `.newsrc' file does not exist in your home directory, then rn creates one in your directory (using the newsetup program).

If you type the name of the newsgroup like `rec.humor' in the example above, then rn directly takes you to that newsgroup and you can start reading articles in that newsgroup.

rn operates on three levels:

paging

This is the bottom level and at this level rn operates very much like the utility more which is basically for a screen-oriented display.

selection

In this level you can specify which articles you want and in what order.

newsgroup selection

This is the top level in which you can select which newsgroups to view. The newsgroups are given to you in the order specified in your .newsrc.

On any level, and at any prompt you can type h for a list of available commands. This command will be very useful as you try to do more and more operations in rn. Typing space when rn prompts you for input will make it do the normal thing. Every prompt will have a set of options which can be typed and so at this point you can either type space (for first option) or something else as specified.

Upon startup, rn does the following:

1. looks in your directory for a `.newsrc' which gives a list of the newsgroups you have subscribed to. If a `.newsrc' does not exist then it creates one for you.

2. performs consistency checks on your `.newsrc' to see if it is consistent. If it is not it will patch it for you.

3. checks to see if any new newsgroups have been created and it asks you whether you want to add these new newsgroups to your `.newsrc'. This checking can be disabled with the (locally added) option `-n'.

Then it goes into the top level, the newsgroup selection level.

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