Go to the previous, next section.
Finally we're ready to experiment with nn! There are three
common ways to invoke nn:
nn nn -g nn -anumber
For starters, simply type nn. This normally sequences you
through all of the groups that you are subscribed to. Initially
you are subscribed to all groups.
This is the only time you'll have to do this. Now type nn. You
will see that it displays one of the newsgroups that you selected.
From here you should be able to use this handout to experiment with
nn.
The `-g' option is used when you wish to go to a specific group.
You can also use G from within nn to do the same thing.
nn will prompt you for the group name. nn will ask
`number of articles?' after you enter the newsgroup name. At
this point enter the number of articles which you would like to read
or a to see all articles. If you use G then you should answer
jump instead of all.
The `-aN' is used to limit the display to a maximum of N articles. For example, the following will display the last 10 articles in each newsgroup:
nn -a10
This is handy for getting up to date if you have not read netnews for a while.
One other command that you will find handy is the U command.
This is given from within nn and it will unsubscribe you to the
current group.
In order to subscribe to a group, use either the `-g' option when
invoking nn, or use the G command from within nn
to go to the group. This will jump to the group. From within this
group use the U command and nn will resubscribe you to
that group.
I'd like to leave you with an advanced command that shows the power of
nn. nn provides a way to search all newsgroups for a
particular subject or a particular author! You cannot do this in other
newsreaders (such as rn).
The format of the command is:
nn -mxX -sSubject all or nn -mxX -nName all
For example, to search for all article posted about pizza, type:
nn -mxX -spizza all
The `-n' and `-s' options cannot be used together. The meaning of the various option flags is left as an exercise for you.
That's it! Experiment with nn and practice posting to a test
newsgroup. If you're feeling particularly adventuresome, you may want
to try to tackle the manual page for nn (its about 80 pages!).
Go to the previous, next section.