Using the rn Program Computer Science Center UNIX Handout No. 5 November 1991 How would you like to access some of the latest ideas and opinions on everything from molecular biology to travel? rn, a news reading program, can give you access to all that information and more. The rn program allows users to read and contribute news transmitted over Usenet, a network of computers that shares this news data between systems. The shared news data is arranged by topic. rn presents the data in an easily accessible and readable format. Usenet news consists of a variety of newsgroups, each on a different topic. A newsgroup is a forum for people to discuss and share information on a specific topic. Within the newsgroup, discussions are conducted by people from around the world posting (more on what posting is and how to do it later) comments, questions, or observations on the topic of the newsgroup. These articles are then read by anyone interested in that group, sparking more conversation via posting. On the Computer Science Center (CSC) systems, rn can be used from umd5 (one of the CSC UNIX mainframe computers) and the WAM NeXTstations. You can get a WAM NeXTstation account by filling out an application at the CSC Consulting Lab. Accounts on other CSC UNIX machines are only available for class or research purposes. (Please note: although the rn program is available on CSC's lucy, linus, and snoopy computers, only a very small number of newsgroups can be read on those machines.) The rn program was designed mainly for people with some computer experience; experience with the UNIX operating system is particularly helpful when using rn. If you feel uncomfortable with computers or with UNIX, you may want to spend some time getting familiar with the UNIX environment before diving into reading news. rn operates on three different levels, each with its own set of commands. The first level is the newsgroup selection level; this is the top level of rn, where you will find yourself every time you read news. This is the level where you choose which newsgroup(s) you would like to read. The next level of rn is the article selection level. Once you have selected the newsgroup you would like to read, you are placed at this level and can then pick and choose which articles you would like to read. The final (bottom) level of rn is the paging level. The paging level allows you to maneuver within a particular article when it is longer than a single screen. The paging level is similar to the UNIX more program. The commands for these different levels are not all the same, but the rn help command can be used at any time and on any level simply by typing h. The help command will list all the commands that can currently be executed and what each of those commands does. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Naming the Newsgroups The different newsgroups are named by a general topic, followed by one or more specific subtopics. The general topic is always listed first; the topics and subtopics are each separated by a . (period). Some of the main topics are: news, comp, sci, rec, soc, talk, and misc--a number of other topics also exist. An explanation of some of the different topics follows: um newsgroups for discussing topics of interest to the local University of Maryland community csc newsgroups maintained by the Computer Science Center to provide CSC computing information to the campus news newsgroups about Usenet news itself comp newsgroups on different topics in the field of computers that are of interest to both computer professionals and hobbyists sci newsgroups on topics in different established scientific fields rec newsgroups on topics about recreational activities and hobbies soc newsgroups on social issues and topics talk newsgroups on a variety of topics that tend to be debate-oriented misc miscellaneous topics that don't fit under any of the other general headings For example, under the general topic heading of sci, there are several newsgroups about mathematics. The newsgroup for discussing general math issues is sci.math. However, there are also more specific newsgroups for discussing sub-fields of math, such as sci.math.symbolic for the discussion of symbolic mathematics. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Getting started rn is executed by typing rn at the UNIX system prompt. The first time you use rn, several new files are created in your home directory. All of these files begin with a . (period) and have 'news' somewhere in their name. The most important of these files is the .newsrc--it contains the names of all of the newsgroups and keeps track of how many of the articles in each newsgroup have been read. The example below shows the computer's response when you use rn for the first time. % rn Trying to set up a .newsrc file--running newsetup... Creating .newsrc in /usr/users/research/elkins to be used by news programs. Done. If you have never used the news system before, you may find the articles in news.announce.newusers to be helpful. There is also a manual entry for rn. To get rid of newsgroups you aren't interested in, use the 'u' command. Type h for help at any time while running rn. After the new files are created, rn displays an introductory message on the screen and then lists the first five newsgroups in your .newsrc that have unread news articles. Unread news in comps 1 article Unread news in umd5.general 1 article Unread news in csc.general 1 article Unread news in csc.news 2 articles Unread news in csc.wam 1 article etc. ******** 1 unread article in comps--read now? [ynq] Please note: rn is case sensitive; you must type the commands listed in this handout exactly as they appear. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Newsgroup Selection Level The newsgroup selection level prompt lists the current newsgroup, asks if you want to read that newsgroup, and gives you three options: y, n and q (in brackets). Typing y, which stands for yes, will place you in the article selection level of the current newsgroup. If you choose the n option, which stands for next (not no), you will skip the current newsgroup and move on to the next newsgroup with unread news. Typing q (quit) will allow you to exit rn. Pressing the space bar will always select the first option listed, so in this case, the space bar is equivalent to typing y. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Selecting a newsgroup At the top level of rn there are three ways to select a newsgroup you wish to read: go directly to the newsgroup, browse through all of the newsgroups, or search for a particular topic in the listing of newsgroup names. The go (g) command will take you directly to a particular newsgroup. To use the go command you must know the exact name of the newsgroup you wish to access; type g followed by the newsgroup's name and press Return. For example, g rec.travel will take you directly to the recreational newsgroup on travel, and you can then choose to read the group by typing y or pressing the space bar. You can browse through the listing of newsgroups by using the next (n) command until you find a newsgroup that looks appropriate or interesting. You can then use the yes (y) command to read the articles in that newsgroup. Unfortunately, the list of newsgroups that are available can be quite lengthy and take a long time to browse through. That's where the third method of selecting a group to read comes in handy. By using the search (/) command to search for the occurrence of a word or phrase, you can search for a newsgroup on a specific subject without knowing its exact name. If you were interested in finding the newsgroup on AIDS, you could type /aids and press Return and the first newsgroup with the word AIDS in its name would be listed. From then on, if you wanted, you could use the go (g) command to go directly to the AIDS newsgroup (i.e., g sci.med.aids). Note: most rn commands are executed automatically when you type them (e.g., y, n, q), but commands that require you to enter some additional information (such as g and /) must be followed by pressing the Return key. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribing Because there are so many newsgroups available via Usenet, rn has a command that enables you to unsubscribe from newsgroups in which you are not interested. By typing u (short for unsubscribe) at the newsgroup selection level prompt, you unsubscribe yourself from the current newsgroup. The newsgroup will no longer be listed when you start the rn program. rn confirms that the group is no longer subscribed to with the following message: ******** 105 unread articles in comp.ai--read now? [ynq] u Unsubscribed to newsgroup comp.ai If you later change your mind and decide you would like to read an unsubscribed newsgroup, simply go (with the g command) to that newsgroup and you will be prompted with a message that will ask you if you wish to resubscribe. ******** 1 unread article in um.general--read now? [ynq] g comp.ai Newsgroup comp.ai is currently unsubscribed to--resubscribe? [yn] y ******** 105 unread articles in comp.ai--read now? [ynq] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Article Selection Level Now that you have selected the group you wish to read and are at the article selection level, how exactly do you access the available information? When you enter the article selection level, the first available article is displayed on the screen. Each article begins with a header of information that lists the article's number, sender, subject, date sent, number of lines, and other information. The very first line of the header lists the local article number and how many other articles are left to be read in that newsgroup. Article 123 (27 more) in talk.politics.misc: Following the header, the text of the article begins. If the article fits on a single screen, a message similar to the one below will appear at the end of the text: End of article 123 (of 150)--what next? [npq] Like the newsgroup selection level, the article selection level prompts you with three command options. Typing n (which once again stands for next) moves you on to the next unread article in the newsgroup. Selecting the p (previous) option displays the most recent unread article before the current article. The q option allows you to quit the current newsgroup and return to the newsgroup selection level. As at the newsgroup selection level, pressing the space bar at this level will select the first option listed in the brackets, in this case the next command. If the article does not fit on a single screen, you will be placed at the paging level and a --MORE-- message will appear at the bottom of the screen, followed by the percentage of the article that has already been displayed. From here, you can use the commands from the article selection level to go the next or previous article, or you can use the paging level commands that allow you to view the rest of the article. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Paging Level If you are familiar with UNIX, you will notice that the paging level of rn is very similar to the UNIX more filter. At the paging level, the three most commonly used keys are the space bar, the b key, and the q key. Hitting the space bar advances the article forward a screen (or page); by repeatedly hitting the space bar, you can page through the article until you reach the end and are placed back on the article selection level. The b (back) command allows you to go back a screen; by repeatedly typing b, you can page backwards to the beginning of the article. Finally, the q (quit) command allows you to quit out of the paging level and be put back in the article selection level without paging to the end of the article. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posting When you read a news article that you wish to respond to, or when you decide to start a new train of conversation in a newsgroup, do so by posting an article. Posting an article adds your article to the news data passed between the computers of Usenet. The article is passed from your local machine to all of the other machines at the University that receive news data, and to the different computers to which the University sends news data. Those computers in turn pass the data along, and your article is slowly spread across the Usenet network. The actual posting process is simple. However, there are rules of Usenet etiquette (known as 'netiquette') that you should be aware of first. Before you post an article to a newsgroup, you should read that newsgroup for a few weeks to get an idea of what the usual discussion topics of the group are. If you feel that your article would be an appropriate addition to the group's discussion, you should then read over the articles in the news.announce.newusers newsgroup and practice posting once or twice in one of the test groups (two good choices are um.test and alt.test). You should then be ready to post. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Replying to an article To post a reply to an article you have just read, enter one of the two follow-up commands, f or F, at the article selection level. The only difference between the two is that F includes the text of the article to which you are replying in the text of your article, while f does not. When you enter one of the follow-up commands, rn will verify that you really want to post an article and then prompt you for a prepared file to include. If you've written a response to the article before invoking rn, you can type the name of the file at the prompt and it will be included in your article; if you have nothing to include, press Return to proceed. You will then be in a text editor where you can type and edit your response. You will notice that you can also edit the header information of your article, including the article subject and distribution (distribution is detailed in the next section). An example of how rn will respond when you use the f/F commands is shown below. End of article 751 (of 768)--what next? [npq] f (leaving cbreak mode; cwd=/usr/users/research/elkins) Invoking command: Pnews -h /usr/users/research/elkins/.rnhead This program may post news to many machines. Are you absolutely sure that you want to do this? [ny] y Prepared file to include [none]: When you have finished typing your response, exit the text editor normally (see the CSC handouts on the vi and emacs editors for help). You will then be prompted with the following: Send, abort, edit, or list? If you are satisfied with your article, type send. The article will be posted and you will return to the article selection level. If you've decided not to send your article, use the abort command. The article will not be posted, though a temporary copy of the article will be stored, and you will return to the article selection level. If you would like to change your article, type edit and then proceed as above. Finally, if you would like one last look at your article before sending it, type list; your article will be displayed on the screen and the above prompt will reappear. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posting an original article If you wish to post an original article instead of replying to an article, the posting process is very similar. When you are at the article selection level of the target newsgroup, type $. This will take you to the end of the newsgroup; type either f or F (they both are identical in this case). You will then be prompted to enter the subject and distribution of your article. The distribution of an article dictates how far it is distributed on Usenet. The default distribution is worldwide, but if your article is not of interest on a worldwide level, you should pick a more limiting distribution. Some of the common distributions are: local the machine from which you are posting csc Computer Science Center computers um University of Maryland campus network dc Washington, D.C. area (this includes Maryland) usa United States na North America world all computers on the international Usenet network After entering your article's subject and distribution, the process is identical to the process for replying to an existing article described in Replying to an Article. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Where to Get Further Help on rn This document has only touched on the basics of the rn program. There are several resources available to help you become a more proficient rn user. First of all, there is a UNIX manual page available that explains rn in detail. This manual page can be accessed by typing man rn at the UNIX system prompt. rn itself has help available; help can be accessed at anytime you are using rn by typing h. Two newsgroups exist to help new Usenet participants become familiar with Usenet and its customs: * news.announce.newusers * news.newusers.questions News.announce.newusers contains a number of articles on different aspects of Usenet, and every new user should read through the articles. However, news.announce.newusers is a newsgroup intended for reading only; if you have questions about Usenet, they should be posted to news.newusers.questions. Finally, you can visit the consultants in CSC's Consulting Lab (CSC room 3326) or call them at 405-1500, Monday through Friday, 9 am to 4:30 pm. You can also contact the Consulting Lab by electronic mail at consult@umail.umd.edu.