TIN(1)

NAME
tin, rtin, cdtin, tind - A Netnews reader

SYNOPSIS
tin/rtin/cdtin/tind [ options ] [ newsgroups ]

DESCRIPTION
Tin is a full-screen easy to use Netnews reader. It can read news locally (i.e. /usr/spool/news) or remotely (rtin or tin -r option) via a NNTP (Network News Transport Protocol) server. Cdtin can read news locally and news archived on CD-ROM. It will automatically utilize nov (news overview) style index files if available locally or via the nntp xover command.

Tin has five separate levels of operation: Group selection level, Spooldir selection level, Group level, Thread level and Article level. Use the 'h' (help) command to view a list of the commands available at a particular level.

On startup tin will show a list of the newsgroups found in $HOME/.newsrc. An arrow '->' or highlighted bar will point to the first newsgroup. Move to a group by using the terminal arrow keys (terminal dependent) or 'j' and 'k'. Use PgUp/PgDn (terminal dependent) or Ctrl-U and Ctrl-D to page up/down. Enter a newsgroup by pressing RETURN.

The TAB key advances to the next newsgroup with unread articles and enters it.

OPTIONS

-c  create/update index files for every group in $HOME/.newsrc or file specified by -f option and mark all articles as read.

-f file
    use the specified file of subscribed to newsgroups in place of $HOME/.newsrc.

-h  help listing all command line options.

-H  brief introduction to tin that is also shown the first time it is started.

-I dir
    directory in which to store newsgroup index files. Default is $HOME/.tin/.index.

-m dir
    mailbox directory to use. Default is $HOME/Mail.

-M user
    mail unread articles to specified user for later reading. For more information read section Automatic Mailing and Saving New News.

-n  Only load groups from the active file that are also subscribed to in the users .newsrc. This allows a noticeable speedup when connecting via a slow line.

-p program
    print program with options.

-q  quick start without checking for new newsgroups.

-P  purge group index files of articles that no longer exist. Care should be taken when using this command as it stats each and every article in each group that is accessed. On a low speed connection this can have an undisirable effect and it also knocks the hell out of your filesystem.

-r  read news remotely from the default NNTP server specified in the environment variable NNTPSERVER or contained in the file /etc/nntpserver.

-R  read news saved by -S option (not yet implemented).

-s dir
    save articles to directory. Default is $HOME/News.

-S  save unread articles for later reading by -R option. For more information read section Automatic Mailing and Saving New News.

-u  create/update index files for every group in $HOME/.newsrc or file specified by -f option. This option is disabled if tin retreives its index files via a NNTP server.

-U  start tin in the background to update index files while reading news in the foreground. This option is disabled if tin retreives its index files via a NNTP server.

-v  verbose mode for -c -M -S -u and -Z options.

-w  quick mode to post an article and then exit.

-z  only start tin if there is any new/unread news. If there is news tin will position cursor at first group with unread news. Useful for putting in login file.

-Z  check if there is any new/unread news and exit with appropriate status. If -v option is specified the number of unread articles in each group is printed. An exit code 0 indicates no news, 1 that an error occurred and 2 that new/unread news exists. Useful for writing scripts.

Tin can also dynamically change its options by the 'M' menu command. Any changes are written to $HOME/.tin/tinrc.

The index daemon version, tind, only supports the -f, -h, -I and -v options.

INDEX FILES
In order to keep track of threads, tin maintains an index for each newsgroup. There are a number of methods in which index files can be created and updated.

The simplest method is that each user creates/updates there own index files that are stored in $HOME/.tin/.index. This has the advantage that any user can compile and install tin, but the disadvantage is that each user is going to be creating duplicate files and using precious disk space. A good way to keep index files updated is by doing a tin -U that will update index files in the background while you are reading news in the foreground. You can also update index files via the system batcher cron with the -u option:
    30 6 * * * /usr/local/bin/tin -u

A slightly better method is to set tin setuid news and have all index files created and updated in the news spool directory (i.e. /usr/spool/news/.index). This has the advantage that there will only be one copy of the index files on each machine on your network, but the disadvantage is that you will have tin running setuid news.

A better method is to install the tind index file updating daemon and have it create and update index files for all groups in your active file at regular intervals in the news spool directory (i.e. /usr/spool/news/.index). This has the advantage that there will only be one copy of the index files on each machine on your network and tin must not be setuid news, but the disadvantage is that you will have to have news permissions to install tind and root permissions to install an entry in the cron batcher system to have tind regularly update index files.

The best method is to install the tind index file updating daemon on your NNTP server and have it create and update index files for all groups in your active file at regular intervals in the news spool directory (i.e. /usr/spool/news/.index). This has the advantage that there will only be one copy of the index files on the NNTP server for the whole of your network, but the disadvantage is that you will have to install my NNTP server patches to allow tin to retreive index file from your NNTP server and and you must install an entry in the cron batcher system to have tind regularly update index files (note that this is the method we use on our network of 40-50 machines and have not had any problems).

Entering a group the first time tends to be slow because the index file must be built from scratch unless the tind update daemon is being used. To alleviate the slowness start tin to create all index files for the groups you subscribe to with tin -u -v and go for a coffee. Subsequent readings of a group will cause incremental updating of the index file.

If reading news remotely and locally updating index files operation will be somewhat slower because the articles must be retreived from the NNTP server.

NEWS ADMINISTRATION
Maintaining Netnews on large networks of machines can be a pretty time consuming job as I discovered when I was given the job of maintaining our news system and news users.

Tin is a News User Agent and so most of the users were always asking questions or doing things that could be frowned upon by there departments. To releive news admins (and especially me) of this features have been added to make life easier for news adminstrators.

When a user starts tin it is possible to inform them of any important changes/information concerning the news system by displaying a message of the day (motd) file. The motd file should be created in your news lib directory (i.e. /usr/lib/news/motd) and should have file permissions set to 0644. The motd file will only be displayed if its contents is newer than the last time the user started tin. If reading news via NNTP my XMOTD patch will have to have been applied to your NNTP server.

A user starting tin for the first time can be automatically subscribed to a list of newsgroups that are deemed appropriate by the news administrator. At our site the subscriptions file has 125 groups (our active file contains over 400 groups with many only being marginally interesting to most people). The subscriptions file should be created in your news lib directory (i.e. /usr/lib/news/subscriptions) and should have file permissions set to 0644. If reading news via NNTP my LIST SUBSCRIPTIONS patch will have to have been applied to your NNTP server.

If my NNTP XUSER patch has been applied to your NNTP server you will be able to log the username and machine to your NNTP logfile for usage statistics.

SCREEN FORMAT
Tin has five separate levels of operation: Group selection level, Spooldir selection level, Group level, Thread level and Article level.

At the Group Selection level the title displays the number of subscribed groups. The newsgroups are displayed on the left of the screen with the number of unread articles displayed on the same line in the middle of the screen.
    <Selection Num> <Newsgroup> <Num of unread articles>
    i.e.,
    1	alt.sources			10
    2	comp.sources.misc		3
    3	news.software.readers		12

At the Group level the title contains the name of the group, the number of conversation threads and total number of articles i.e., alt.sources (7 23). If the group has been setup not to thread articles (i.e., alt.sources is in $(HOME)/.tin/unthread) the title will be alt.sources (U 23). There are two possible display formats as shown below:
    <Selection Num> <Unread> <Responses> <Subject> <Author>
    i.e.,
    1	+	3	Bnews sources?		iain@anl433.uucp
    2		1	This question has	ether@net
    or
    <Selection Num> <Unread> <Responses> <Subject (longer)>
    i.e.,
    1	+	3	Bnews sources?
    2		1	This question has a longer subject line

At the Article level the page header has the following format:
    <Date posted> <Newsgroup>	<Thread 1 of n>
    <Article Num> <Subject>	<Num of responses in thread>
    <Author>	<Organization>
    <Article body>
    i.e.,
    24 Jul 15:20:03 GMT	alt.sources	Thread 1 of 2
    Article 452	Bnews sources?	3 responses
    iain@anl433.uucp		Organization name
    <Article boby>

COMMON MOVING KEYS
This table shows the common keys/commands for moving at all five levels within tin.
    	ansi/at386/vt100	Other Terminals
    Beginning of list/article	Home	1 (^R or g at article level)
    End of list/article	End	$ (also G at article level)
    Page Up	PgUp	^U or ^B or b
    Page Down	PgDn	^D or ^F or <SPACE>
    Line Up	Up arrow	k (not at article level)
    Line Down	Down arrow	j (not at article level)

COMMON EDITING COMMANDS
An emacs style editing package allows the easy editing of input strings. An history list allows the easy reuse of previously entered strings. The following commands are available when editing a string:

^A,^E
    move to beginning or end of line, respectively.

^F,^B
    nondestructive move forward or back one location, respectively.

^D  delete the character currently under the cursor, or send EOF if no characters in the buffer.

^H,<DEL>
    delete character left of the cursor.

^K  delete from cursor to end of line.

^P,^N
    move through history, previous and next, respectively.

^L,^R
    redraw the current line.

<CR>
    places line on history list if nonblank, appends newline and returns to the caller.

<ESC>
    aborts the present editing operation.

NEWSGROUP SELECTION COMMANDS

4   Select group 4.

^K  Delete current group from $HOME/.newsrc file.

^L  Redraw page.

^R  Reset $HOME/.newsrc file.

<CR>
    Read current group.

<TAB>
    View next group with unread news. Will wrap around to the beginning of the group selection list looking for unread groups.

B   Mail a bug report or comment to the author. This is the best way of getting bugs fixed and features added/changed.

c   Mark current group as all read with confirmation and goto next group in group selection list.

C   Mark current group as all read and goto next unread group in group selection list.

d   Toggle display to show just the groupname or the groupname and the groups description.

g   Choose a new group by name. The position of the group within the group list will also be asked for. By entering '1' the new group will be the first group in the displayed list, by entering '8' the group will be the eighth group in the list etc. By entering '$' the group will be the last group displayed.

h   Help screen of newsgroup selection commands.

H   Toggle the display of help mini menu at the bottom of the screen.

I   Toggle inverse video.

l   List and allow selection of the available spool directories. This feature requires a special library to be linked with tin to create cdtin which can then read news from an active news feed and also from multiple CD-ROMs.

m   Move the current group within the group selection list. By entering '1' the group will become the first displayed group in the list, by entering '8' the eighth group in the list etc. By entering '$' the group will be the last group displayed.

M   User configurable options menu (for more information see section Options Menu).

q   Quit tin.

Q   Quit tin.

r   Toggle display of all subscribed to groups and just the subscribed to groups containing unread articles. Command has no effect if groups were read from the command line when tin was started.

s   Subscribe to current group.

S   Subscribe to groups matching user specified pattern.

u   Unsubscribe to current group.

U   Unsubscribe to groups matching user specified pattern.

v   Print tin version information.

w   Post an article to current group.

W   List articles posted by user. The date posted, the newsgroup and the subject are listed.

y   The first time this command is called it will yank in all groups from $LIBDIR/active that are not in $HOME/.newsrc. After any groups have been subscribed/unsubscribed to, this command if pressed again will reread $HOME/.newsrc and display only the subscribed groups.

Y   Reread the active file to see if any new news has arrived since starting tin.

z   Mark all articles in the current group as unread.

Z   Undelete previously deleted group by ^K command from $HOME/.newsrc.

/   Group forward search.

?   Group backward search.

SPOOL DIRECTORY SELECTION COMMANDS

4   Select spool directory 4.

^L  Redraw page.

<CR>
    Read news from selected spool directory.

B   Mail a bug report or comment to the author. This is the best way of getting bugs fixed and features added/changed.

h   Help screen of spool directory selection commands.

H   Toggle the display of help mini menu at the bottom of the screen.

I   Toggle inverse video.

q   Return to previous level.

Q   Quit tin.

v   Print tin version information.

GROUP INDEX COMMANDS

4   Select article 4.

^K  Kill current article (for more information read section Kill Article Menu).

^L  Redraw page.

<CR>
    Read current article.

<TAB>
    View next unread article or group.

a   Author forward search.

A   Author backward search.

c   Mark all articles as read with confirmation.

C   Mark all articles as read and goto next group with unread news.

d   Toggle display to show just the subject or the subject and author.

g   Choose a new group by name.

h   Help screen of group index commands.

H   Toggle the display of help mini menu at the bottom of the screen.

I   Toggle inverse video.

K   Mark article/thread as read and advance to next unread article/thread.

l   List the author of each response in current thread and enter thread selection level.

m   Mail current article / thread / auto selected (hot) articles / articles matching pattern / tagged articles to someone.

M   User configurable options menu (for more information see section Options Menu).

n   Go to next group.

N   Go to next unread article.

o   Output current article / thread / auto selected (hot) articles / articles matching pattern / tagged articles to printer.

p   Go to previous group.

P   Go to previous unread article.

q   Return to previous level.

Q   Quit tin.

s   Save current article / thread / auto selected (hot) articles / articles matching pattern / tagged articles to file / files / mailbox. To save to a mailbox enter '=' or '=mailbox' when asked for filename to save to. To save in <newsgroup name>/<filename> format enter '+filename'. Environment variables are allowed within a filename (i.e. $SOURCES/dir/filename).

t   Tag current article / thread for mailing ('m') / piping ('|') / printing ('o') / saving ('s') / crossposting ('x').

u   Toggle display to show all articles as unthreaded or threaded.

U   Untag all articles that were tagged.

v   Print tin version information.

w   Post an article to current group.

W   List articles posted by user. The date posted, the newsgroup and the subject are listed.

x   Crosspost already posted current article / thread / auto selected (hot) articles / articles matching pattern / tagged articles to another newsgroup(s). Useful for reposting from global to local newsgroups.

X   Mark all unread articles that have not been selected as read, redo screen to reflect changes and put index at the first thread to begin reading. Pressing 'X' again will toggle back to the way it was before. See '~' command for clearing the toggle effect.

z   Mark current article as unread.

Z   Mark current thread as unread.

/   Search forward for specified subject.

?   Search backward for specified subject.

-   Show last message.

|   Pipe current article / thread / auto selected (hot) articles / articles matching pattern / tagged articles into command.

*   Select current thread for later processing.

.   Toggle selection of current thread. If at least one unread art, but not all unread arts, in thread is selected, then all unread arts become selected.

@   Reverse all selections on all articles.

~   Undo all selections on all articles. It clears the toggle effect of 'X' command. Thus after first doing a 'X', one can then do '~' to reset articles. Thus, one can iteratively whittle down uninteresting threads.

+   Perform auto-selection on current group.

;   For each thread in current group, if it at least one unread art is selected, all unread arts become selected. This is useful for auto-selection on author where reader wants to see entire thread.

=   Prompts for a pattern with which to match on. All threads whose subjects match the pattern will be selected. A pattern of "*" will match all subjects. Entering just <CR> will cause the previous pattern to be used.

THREAD LISTING COMMANDS

4   Select article 4 within thread.

^L  Redraw page.

<CR>
    Read current article within thread.

<TAB>
    View next unread article within thread.

B   Mail a bug report or comment to the author. This is the best way of getting bugs fixed and features added/changed.

c   Mark thread as read after confirmation and return to previous level.

d   Toggle display to show just the subject or the subject and author.

h   Help screen of thread listing commands.

H   Toggle the display of help mini menu at the bottom of the screen.

I   Toggle inverse video.

K   Mark thread as read and return to previous level.

q   Return to previous level.

Q   Quit tin.

r   Toggle display to show all articles or only unread articles.

B   Mail a bug report or comment to the author. This is the best way of getting bugs fixed and features added/changed.

t   Tag current article for mailing ('m') / piping ('|') / printing ('o') / saving ('s') / crossposting ('x').

T   Return to group index level.

v   Print tin version information.

z   Mark current article in thread as unread.

Z   Mark all articles in thread as unread.

ARTICLE VIEWER COMMANDS

0   Read the base article in this thread.

4   Read response 4 in this thread.

^H  Show all of the articles mail header.

^K  Kill current article (for more information read section Kill Article Menu).

^L  Redraw page.

<CR>
    Goto next base article.

<TAB>
    Goto next unread article.

a   Author forward search.

A   Author backward search.

c   Mark all articles as read with confirmation and return to group selection level.

C   Mark current group as all read and goto next unread group in group selection list.

d   Toggle rot-13 decoding for this article.

D   Delete current article. It must have been posted by the same user. The cancel message can be seen in the newsgroup 'control'.

f   Post a followup to the current article with a copy of the article included.

F   Post a followup to the current article.

h   Help screen of article page commands.

H   Toggle the display of help mini menu at the bottom of the screen.

I   Toggle inverse video.

k   Mark article as read and advance to next unread article.

K   Mark thread as read and advance to next unread thread.

m   Mail current article / thread / auto selected (hot) articles / articles matching pattern / tagged articles to someone.

M   User configurable options menu (for more information see section Options Menu).

n   Go to the next article.

N   Go to the next unread article.

o   Output current article / thread / auto selected (hot) articles / articles matching pattern / tagged articles to printer.

o   Output article/thread/tagged articles to printer.

p   Go to the previous article.

P   Go to the previous unread article.

q   Return to previous level.

Q   Quit tin.

r   Reply through mail to the author of the current article with a copy of the article included.

R   Reply through mail to the author of the current article.

s   Save current article / thread / auto selected (hot) articles / articles matching pattern / tagged articles to file / files / mailbox. To save to a mailbox enter '=' or '=mailbox' when asked for filename to save to. To save in <newsgroup name>/<filename> format enter '+filename'. Environment variables are allowed within a filename (i.e. $SOURCES/dir/filename).

t   Return to group selection level.

T   Tag current article for mailing ('m') / piping ('|') / printing ('o') / saving ('s') / crossposting ('x').

v   Print tin version information.

w   Post an article to current group.

W   List articles posted by user. The date posted, the newsgroup and the subject are listed.

x   Crosspost already posted current article / thread / auto selected (hot) articles / articles matching pattern / tagged articles to another newsgroup(s). Useful for reposting from global to local newsgroups.

z   Mark article as unread.

/   Article forward search.

?   Article backward search

|   Pipe current article / thread / auto selected (hot) articles / articles matching pattern / tagged articles into command.

<   Goto the first article in the current thread.

>   Goto the last article in the current thread.

*   Select current thread for later processing.

.   Toggle selection of current article.

@   Reverse article selections.

~   Undo all selections on current thread.

GLOBAL OPTIONS MENU
This menu is accessed by pressing 'M' at all levels. It allows the user to customize the behaviour of tin. The options are saved to the file $HOME/.tin/tinrc. Use <SPACE> to toggle the required option and <CR> to set.

Auto save
    Automatically save articles/threads by ``Archive-name:'' line in article header and post process them if process type is not set to None.

Editor offset
    Set ON if the editor used for posting, follow-ups and bug reports has the capability of starting and positioning the cursor at a specified line within a file.

Mark saved read
    Allows saved articles/threads to be automatically marked as read.

Confirm Command
    Allows certain commands (i.e. 'c' catchup) that require user confirmation to be executed immediately if set OFF.

Draw arrow
    Allows groups/articles to be selected by an arrow '->' if set ON or by an highlighted bar if set OFF.

Print header
    This allows the complete mail header or only the ``Subject:'' and ``From:'' fields to be output when printing articles.

Goto 1st unread
    This allows the cursor to be placed at the first / last unread article upon entering a newsgroup with unread news.

Scroll full page
    If set ON scrolling of groups/articles will be a full page at a time, otherwise half a page at a time.

Catchup on quit
    If set ON the user is asked when quitting if all groups read during the current session should be marked read.

Thread articles
    If set ON articles will be threaded in all groups (default), otherwise articles will be shown unthreaded. Threading/unthreading is possible on a per group basis by setting the group attribute variable 'thread_arts' to ON/OFF in the file $HOME/.tin/attributes.

Show only unread
    If set ON show only new/unread articles, otherwise show all articles.

Show description
    If set ON show a short descriptive text for each displayed newsgroup. The text used is taken from the $LIBDIR/newsgroups file.

Show Author
    If set 'None' only the ``Subject:'' line will be displayed. If set 'Addr' ``Subject:'' line & the address part of the ``From:'' line are displayed. If set 'Name' ``Subject:'' line & the authors full name part of the ``From:'' line are displayed. If set 'Both' ``Subject:'' line & all of the ``From:'' line are displayed.

Process type
    This specifies the default type of post processing to perform on saved articles. The following types of processing are allowed:
    —none.
    —unpacking of multi-part shell archives.
    —unpacking of multi-part uuencoded files.
    —unpacking of multi-part uuencoded files, which produce a *.zoo archive whose contents is listed.
    —unpacking of multi-part uuencoded files, which produce a *.zoo archive whose contents is extracted.
    —unpacking of multi-part uuencoded files, which produce a *.zip archive whose contents is listed.
    —unpacking of multi-part uuencoded files, which produce a *.zip archive whose contents is extracted.
    —unpacking of multi-part uuencoded files, which produce a *.lha archive whose contents is listed (AmigaDOS version only).
    —unpacking of multi-part uuencoded files, which produce a *.lha archive whose contents is extracted (AmigaDOS version only).

Sort articles by
    This specifies how articles should be sorted. The following sort types are allowed:
    —don't sort articles (default).
    —sort articles by ``Subject:'' field (ascending & descending).
    —sort articles by ``From:'' field (ascending & descending).
    —sort articles by ``Date:'' field (ascending & descending).

Save directory
    The directory where articles/threads are to be saved. Default is $HOME/News.

Mail directory
    The directory where articles/threads are to be saved in mailbox format. This feature is mainly for use with the Elm mail program. It allows the user to save articles/threads/groups simply by giving '=' as the filename to save to.

Printer
    The printer program with options that is to be used to print articles. Default is lpr for BSD machines and lp for SysV machines.

TINRC CONFIGURABLE VARIABLES
The following variables are user configurable by editing $HOME/.tin/tinrc directly. It is hoped to eventually provide a menu to allow the setting of the most common variables.

batch_save
    If set ON articles/threads will be saved in batch mode when save -S or mail -M is specified on the command line. Default is OFF.

beginner_level
    If set ON a mini menu of the most useful commands will be displayed at the bottom of the screen for each level. Default is ON.

display_reading_prompt
    The prompt ``Reading...'' will be displayed when reading an article from a NNTP server to provide feedback to the user. Default is ON.

force_screen_redraw
    Specifies whether a screen redraw should always be done after certain external commands. Default is OFF.

groupname_max_length
    Maximum length of the names of newsgroups to be displayed so that more of the newgroup description can be displayed. Default is 132.

default_sigfile
    The path that specifies the signature file to use when posting, following upto or replying to an article. If the path is a directory then the signature will be randomly generated from files that are in the specified directory. Default is $HOME/.Sig.

editor_format
    The format string used to create the editor start command with parameters. Default is '%E +%N %F' (i.e., /bin/vi +7 .article).

hot_art_mark
    The character used to show that an article/thread is auto-selected (hot). Default is '*'.

quote_chars
    The character used in quoting included text to article followups and mail replys. The '_' character represents a blank character and is replaced with ' ' when read. Default is ':_'.

reread_active_file_secs
    The news active file is reread at regular intervals to show if any new news has arrived. Default is 300 seconds.

return_art_mark
    The character used to show that an article will return. Default is '-'.

save_to_mmdf_mailbox
    Allows articles to be saved to a MMDF style mailbox instead of mbox format. Default is OFF unless reading news on SCO Unix which uses MMDF by default.

show_last_line_prev_page
    The last line of the previous page will be displayed as the first line of next page. Default is OFF.

slow_speed_terminal
    Strips the blanks from the end of each line therefore speeding up the display when reading on a slow terminal or via modem. Default is OFF.

tab_after_X_selection
    If enabled will automatically goto the first unread article after having selected all hot articles and threads with the 'X' command at group index level. Default is OFF.

tab_goto_next_unread
    If enabled pressing TAB at the article viewer level will goto the next unread article immediately instead of first paging through the current one. Default is ON.

unread_art_mark
    The character used to show that an article has not been read. Default is '+'.

use_builtin_inews
    Allows the builtin NNTP inews to be enabled/disabled. Default is ON (enabled).

use_keypad
    Allows the scroll keys on the keypad to be enabled/disabled on supported terminals. Default is OFF.

GROUP ATTRIBUTES
Tin allows certain attributes to be set on a per group basis. These group attributes are read from the file $HOME/.tin/attributes. A later version will provide a menu interface to set all the attributes. At present you will have to edit the file with your editor :-(. The following group attributes are available:
    newsgroup=alt.sources
    maildir=/usr/iain/Mail/sources
    savedir=/usr/iain/News/alt.sources
    sigfile=/usr/iain/.funny_sig
    organization=Wacky Bits Inc.
    followup_to=alt.sources.d
    printer=/usr/local/bin/a2ps -nn | /bin/lpr
    auto_save=ON
    batch_save=OFF
    delete_tmp_files=ON
    show_only_unread=OFF
    thread_arts=ON
    show_author=1
    sort_art_type=5
    post_proc_type=1
Note that the ''newsgroup=<groupname>'' line has to be specified before the attributes are specified for that group.

All attributes are set to a reasonable default so you only have to specify the attribute that you want to change (i.e., savedir).

All toggle attributes are set by specifying ON/OFF.

The show_author attribute is specified by a number from the following range: 0=none, 1=username, 2=network address, 3=both.

The sort_art_type attribute is specified by a number from the following range: 0=none, 1=subject descending, 2=subject ascending, 3=from descending, 4=from ascending, 5=date descending, 6=date ascending.

The post_proc_type attribute is specified by a number from the following range: 0=none, 1=unshar, 2=uudecode, 3=uudecode & list zoo archive, 4=uudecode & extract zoo archive, 5=uudecode & list zip archive, 6=uudecode & extract zip archive. (note: if running on AmigaDOS the zoo options are replaced by there corresponding lha archiver options).

AUTOMATIC KILL AND SELECTION
When there is a subject or an author which you are either very interested in, or find completely uninteresting, you can easily instruct tin to auto-select or auto-kill articles with specific subjects or from specific authors. These instructions are stored in a kill file.

This menu is accessed by pressing '^K' at the group and page levels. It allows the user to kill or select an article that matches the current ``Subject:'' line, ``From:'' line or a string entered by the user. The user entered string can be applied to the ``Subject:'' or ``From:'' lines of an article. The kill description can be limited to the current newsgroup or it can apply to all newsgroups. Once entered the user can abort the command and not save the kill description, edit the kill file or save the kill description.

On starting tin the users killfile $HOME/.tin/kill is read and on entering a newsgroup any kill or select descriptions are applied.

Articles that match a kill description are marked killed and are not displayed. Articles that match an auto-select description are marked with a ''*'' when displayed.

POSTING ARTICLES
Tin allows posting of articles, follow-up to already posted articles and replying direct through mail to the author of an article.

Use the 'w' command to post an article to a newsgroup. After entering the post subject the default editor (i.e. vi) or the editor specified by the $VISUAL environment variable will be started and the article can be entered. To crosspost articles simply add a comma and the name of the newsgroup(s) to the end of the ``Newsgroups:'' line at the beginning of the article. After saving and exiting the editor you are asked if you wish to a)bort posting the article, e)dit the article again or p)ost the article to the specified newsgroup(s).

Use the 'W' command to display a history of the articles you have posted. The date the article was posted, which newsgroups the article was posted to and the articles subject line are displayed.

Use the 'f' / 'F' command to post a follow-up article to an already posted article. The 'f' command will copy the text of the original article into the editor. The editing procedure is the same as when posting an article with the 'w' command.

Use the 'r' / 'R' command to reply direct through mail to the author of an already posted article. The 'r' command will copy the text of the original article into the editor. The editing procedure is the same as when posting an article with the 'w' command. After saving and exiting the editor you are asked if you wish to a)bort sending the article, e)dit the article again or s)end the article to the author.

CUSTOMIZING THE ARTICLE QUOTE STRING
When posting a followup to an article or replying direct to the author of an article via email the text of the article can be quoted. The beginning of the quoted text can contain information about the quoted article (i.e., Name and the Message Id of the article). To allow for different situations certain information from the article can be used in the quoted string. The following variables are expanded if found in the tinrc variables 'mail_quote_format=' or 'news_quote_format=':
    %A	Address (Email)
    %D	Date
    %F	Full address (%N (%A))
    %G	Groupname
    %M	Message Id
    %N	Name of user
i.e.,
    mail_quote_format=On %D in %G you wrote:
    news_quote_format=In %M, %F wrote:
would expand when used to:
    On 21 Jul 1992 09:45:51 -0400 in alt.sources you wrote:
    In <abcINN123@anl433.uucp>, Iain Lea (iain@erlm.siemens.de) wrote:

MAILING PIPING PRINTING REPOSTING AND SAVING ARTICLES
The command interface to mail ('m'), pipe ('|'), print ('o'), crosspost ('x') and save ('s') articles is the same for ease of use.

The initial command will ask you to select which a)rticle, t)hread, h)ot (auto selected) r)egex pattern, t)agged articles you wish to mail, pipe etc.

Tagged articles must have already been tagged with the 'T' command. All tagged articles can be untagged by the 'U' untag command.

If regex pattern matching is selected you are asked to enter a regular expression (i.e. to match all articles subject lines containing 'net News' you must enter '*net News*'). Any articles that match the entered expression will be mailed, piped etc.

To save articles to a mailbox with the name of the current newsgroup (i.e. Alt.sources) enter '=' or '=<mailbox name>' when asked for the save filename.

To save articles in <newsgroup name>/<filename> format enter '+<filename>'.

When saving articles you can specify whether the saved files should be post processed (i.e. unshar shell archive, uudecode multiple parts etc). A default process type can be set by the 'Process type:' in the 'M' options menu.

AUTOMATIC MAILING AND SAVING NEW NEWS
Tin allows new/unread news articles to be mailed (-M option)/saved (-S option) in batch mode for later reading. Useful when going on holiday and you don't want to return and find that expire has removed a whole load of unread articles. Best to run from crontab everyday while away, after which you will be mailed a report of which articles were mailed/saved from which newsgroups and the total number of articles mailed/saved. Articles are saved in a private news structure under your <savedir> directory (default is $HOME/News). Be careful of using this option if you read a lot of groups because you could overflow your filesystem. If you only want to save a few groups it would be best to backup your full $HOME/.newsrc and create a new one that only contains the newsgroups you want to mail/save. Saved news can be read later by tin -R.

tin -M iain -c -f newsrc.mail
    (mail any unread articles in newgroups specified in file newsrc.mail)

tin -S -c -f newsrc.save
    (save any unread articles in newgroups specified in file newsrc.save)

tin -R
    (read any articles saved by tin -S)

SIGNATURES
Tin will recognize a signature in either $HOME/.signature or $HOME/.Sig. If $HOME/.signature exists, then the signature will be pulled into the editor for mail commands. A signature in $HOME/.signature will not be pulled into the editor for posting commands since inews will append the signature itself.

A signature in $HOME/.Sig will be pulled into the editor for both posting and mailing commands.

The following is an example of a $HOME/.Sig file:
    NAMES  Iain Lea    iain.lea@erlm.siemens.de
    SNAIL  Bruecken Strasse 12, 8500 Nuernberg 90, Germany
    PHONE  +49-911-331963 (home)  +49-911-3089-407 (work)
Tin also has the capability to generate random signatures on a per newsgroup basis if so desired. The way to accomplish this is to specify the default signature or the group attribute sigfile as a directory. If for example the sigfile path is /usr/iain/.sigs and .sigs is a directory then tin will select a random signature from any file that is in the directory .sigs (note: one signature per numbered file). A random signature can also consist of a fixed part signature that can contain your name, address etc. followed by the random sig. The fixed part of the random sig is read from the file $HOME/.sigfixed.

ENVIROMENT VARIABLES

TINRC
    Define this variable if you want to specify command line options that tin should be started with to save typing them each time it is started. The contents of the environment variable are added to the front of the command line options before it is parsed therefore allowing an option specified on the command line to override the same option specified in the environment.

TIN_HOMEDIR
    Define this variable if you do not want the .tin directory in $HOME/.tin. (i.e. if you want all tin's private files in /tmp/.tin you would set TINDIR to /tmp.

TIN_INDEXDIR
    Define this variable if you do not want the .index directory in $HOME/.tin/.index. (i.e. if you want all tin's index files in /tmp/.index you would set TIN_INDEXDIR to /tmp.

TIN_LIBDIR
    Define this variable if you want to override the LIBDIR path that was compiled into the tin binary via the Makefile.

TIN_SPOOLDIR
    Define this variable if you want to override the SPOOLDIR path that was compiled into the tin binary via the Makefile.

TIN_NOVROOTDIR
    Define this variable if you want to override the NOVROOTDIR path that was compiled into the tin binary via the Makefile.

TIN_ACTIVEFILE
    Define this variable if you want to override the LIBDIR/active path that was compiled into the tin binary via the Makefile.

NNTPSERVER
    The default NNTP server to remotely read news from. This variable only needs to be set if the -r command line option is specified and the file /etc/nntpserver does not exist.

DISTRIBUTION
    Set the article header field ``Distribution:'' to the contents of the variable instead of the system default.

ORGANIZATION
    Set the article header field ``Organization:'' to the contents of the variable instead of the system default. This variable has precedence over the file $HOME/.tin/organization that may also contain an organization string. If reading news on an Apollo DomainOS machine the environment variable NEWSORG has to be used instead of ORGANIZATION.

REPLYTO
    Set the article header field ``Reply-To:'' to the return address specified by the variable. This is useful if the machine is not registered in the UUCP mail maps or if you wish to receive replies at a different machine. This variable has precedence over the file $HOME/.tin/replyto that may also contain a return address.

ADD_ADDRESS
    This can contain an address to append to the return address when replying directly through mail to somebody whose mail address is not directly recognized by the local host. For example say the return address is user@bigvax, but bigvax is not recognized by your host, so therefore the mail will not reach user. But the host littevax is known to recognize your host and bigvax, so if ADD_ADDRESS is set (i.e. 'setenv ADD_ADDRESS @littevax' for csh or 'set ADD_ADDRESS @littevax' and 'export ADD_ADDRESS' for sh) the address user@bigvax@littlevax will be used and the mail will reach user@bigvax. This variable has precedence over the file $HOME/.tin/add_address that may also contain an address.

BUG_ADDRESS
    If the 'B' command bug report mail address is not correct this variable should be set to the correct mail address. This variable has precedence over the file $HOME/.tin/bug_address that may also contain a mail address.

MAILER
    This variable has precedence over the default mailer that is used in all mailing operations within tin (i.e. replying 'rR', and bug reports 'B').

VISUAL
    This variable has precedence over the default editor (i.e. vi) that is used in all editing operations within tin (i.e. posting 'w', replying 'rR', follow-ups 'fF' and bug reports 'B').

AUTOSUBSCRIBE
    tin interprets this variable similarly to rn. It contains a list of patterns, separated by commas and possibly prefixed with exclamation points. A new group is checked against the list of patterns; if it matches, tin subscribes the user to the group without further query. An exclamation point negates the meaning of a match on this pattern, and can be used to cancel certain matches. For example, setting AUTOSUBSCRIBE=comp.os.unix.*,talk.*,!talk.politics.* will automatically subscribe the user to all new groups in the comp.os.unix hierarchy, and all talk groups other than talk.politics groups (which will be queried for as usual.)

AUTOUNSUBSCRIBE
    tin interprets this variable similarly to rn. It is handled like the AUTOSUBSCRIBE variable, but groups matching the list are unsubscribed from without further query. For example, setting AUTOUNSUBSCRIBE=alt.flame.*,u*,!uk.* will automatically unsubscribe the user from all new alt.flame groups and all groups starting with u (university groups) other than UK groups (which will be queried for as usual.)

TIPS AND TRICKS

Tin can be pretty much be navigated by using the four cursor keys. The left arrow key goes up a level, the right arrow key goes down a level, the up arrow key goes up a line (page at article viewer level) and the down arrow key goes down a line (page at article viewer level).

The following newsgroups provide useful information concerning news software:
—news.software.readers (info. about news user agents tin,rn,nn,vn etc.)
—news.software.nntp (info. about NNTP)
—news.software.b (info. about news transport agents Bnews,Cnews and INN)
—news.answers (Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about many different themes)

Many prompts (i.e. 'Mark everything as read? (y/n): y') within tin offer a default choice that the cursor is positioned on. By pressing <CR> the default value is taken.

Many prompts (i.e. 'Post subject []>') within tin can be aborted by pressing ESC.

When tin is run in an xterm window it will resize itself each time the xterm is resized.

Tin will reread the active file at set intervals to show any newly arrived news.

XTERM BUTTONS

If the environment variable TERM is set to xterm, then button pressing can be used to select groups and articles.

In the group selection menu, if the mouse is pointing before the groups listing region the previous page is selected (just like b). If the mouse is pointing after the groups listing region the next page is selected (just like space). If the mouse is pointing at a group then:

left button
    moves to the group pointed at.

other buttons
    moves to and selects the group pointed at. Just like <CR>.

In the article menu, if the mouse is pointing before the article listing region the previous page is selected (just like b). If the mouse is pointing after the article listing region the next page is selected (just like space). If the mouse is pointing at an article then:

left button
    moves to the article pointed at.

centre button
    reads next unread article from that pointed at. Just like <TAB>.

right button
    reads article pointed at. Just like <CR>.

In the thread menu, if the mouse is pointing before the article listing region the previous page is selected (just like b). If the mouse is pointing after the article listing region the next page is selected (just like space). If the mouse is pointing at an article then:

left button
    moves to the article pointed at.

centre button
    reads next unread article from that pointed at. Just like <TAB>.

right button
    reads article pointed at. Just like <CR>.

In the spool selection menu, if the mouse is pointing before the spool listing region the previous page is selected (just like b). If the mouse is pointing after the spool listing region the next page is selected (just like space). If the mouse is pointing at a spool selection then:

left button
    moves to the spool pointed at.

other buttons
    moves to and selects the spool pointed at. Just like <CR>.

In other menus and areas button pressing reverts back to usual cut and paste of xterm, but after one click of any button.

FILES

$HOME/.newsrc
    subscribed to newgroups.

$HOME/.newsauth
    ``nntpserver password'' pairs for NNTP servers that require authorization.

$HOME/.tin/tinrc
    options.

$HOME/.tin/attributes
    contains user specified group attributes.

$HOME/.tin/.index
    newsgroups index files directory.

$HOME/.tin/.mailidx
    mailgroups index files directory.

$HOME/.tin/.saveidx
    saved newsgroups index files directory.

$HOME/.tin/active.mail
    active file of users mailgroups.

$HOME/.tin/active.save
    active file of users saved newsgroups.

$HOME/.tin/add_address
    address to add to when replying through mail.

$HOME/.tin/bug_address
    address to send bug reports to.

$HOME/.tin/kill
    article kill and auto-selection file.

$HOME/.tin/organization
    string to replace default organization.

$HOME/.tin/posted
    history of articles posted by user.

$HOME/.tin/replyto
    host address to use in ``Reply-To:'' mail header.

$HOME/.signature
    signature.

$HOME/.Sig
    signature.

$HOME/.sigfixed
    fixed part of a randomly generated signature.

/usr/lib/news/motd
    News message of the day file.

/usr/lib/news/newsgroups
    Short description of all newsgroups.

/usr/lib/news/subscriptions
    List of newsgroups to subscribe first time user to.

BUGS
There are bugs somewhere among the creeping featurism. Any bugs found should be reported by the 'B' (bug report) command.

Coredumps when setting certain toggle options from the options menu at article viewer level.

Coredumps when killing last article in a thread at article viewer level.

HISTORY
Based on the tass newsreader that was developed by Rich Skrenta and posted to alt.sources in March 1991. Tass was itself heavily influenced by NOTES which was developed at the University of Illinois by Ray Essick and Rob Kolstad in 1982.

v1.0 PL0 (full) was posted in 8 parts to alt.sources on 23 Aug 1991.
v1.0 PL1 (full) was posted in 8 parts to alt.sources on 03 Sep 1991.
v1.0 PL2 (full) was posted in 9 parts to alt.sources on 24 Sep 1991.
v1.0 PL3 (patch) was posted in 4 parts to alt.sources on 30 Sep 1991.
v1.0 PL4 (patch) was posted in 2 parts to alt.sources on 02 Oct 1991.
v1.0 PL5 (patch) was posted in 4 parts to alt.sources on 17 Oct 1991.
v1.0 PL6 (patch) was posted in 5 parts to alt.sources on 27 Nov 1991.
v1.0 PL7 (patch) was posted in 2 parts to alt.sources on 27 Nov 1991.
v1.1 PL0 (full) was posted in 11 parts to alt.sources on 13 Feb 1992.
v1.1 PL1 (full) was posted in 12 parts to alt.sources on 24 Mar 1992.
v1.1 PL2 (patch) was posted in 4 parts to alt.sources on 30 Mar 1992.
v1.1 PL3 (full) was posted in 15 parts to alt.sources on 13 May 1992.
v1.1 PL4 (full) was posted in 15 parts to alt.sources on 22 Jun 1992.
v1.1 PL5 (patch) was posted in 7 parts to alt.sources on 11 Aug 1992.
v1.1 PL6 (full) was posted in 15 parts to alt.sources on 14 Sep 1992.
v1.1 PL7 (patch) was posted in 10 parts to alt.sources on 15 Nov 1992.
v1.1 PL8 (patch) was posted in 6 parts to alt.sources on 06 Dec 1992.
v1.1 PL9 (patch) was posted in 3 parts to alt.sources on 20 Mar 1993.
v1.2 PL0 (full) was posted in 14 parts to alt.sources on 25 May 1993.
v1.2 PL1 (patch) was posted in 8 parts to alt.sources on 14 Jul 1993.
v1.2 PL2 (patch) was posted in ?? parts to alt.sources on ?? Sep 1993.

CREDITS

Rich Skrenta
    author of tass v3.2 which this newsreader used as its base.

Bill Davidsen
    author of envarg.c environment variable reading routine.

Mike Gleason
    author of sigfile.c random signature generation routines. Arnold Robbins author of strftime.c date formatting routine.

Jim Robinson
    co-author of kill.c article kill and auto-selection routines.

Rich Salz
    author of wildmat.c pattern matching and parsedate.y date parsing routines.

Dave Taylor
    author of curses.c from the elm mailreader.

Chris Thewalt
    author of getline.c emacs style editing routine.

Mark Tomlinson
    for porting tin to the AmigaDOS operating system.

Andreas Wrede
    for porting tin to the OS/2 operating system.

Dieter Becker
    for generously posting certain releases for me when my net connection was removed by a group of very short sighted people.

I wish to thank the following people for supplying patches:

David Abbott, Earle Ake, Joachim Astel, Anton Aylward, George Baltz, Paul Bauwens, Dieter Becker, Dan Berry, David Binderman, Fokke de Boer, Mark Boucher, Herman ten Brugge, Leila Burrell-Davis, Peter Castro, Robert Claeson, Steven Cogswell, Don Costello, Bryan Curnutt, Ned Danieley, Chris Davies, John Davis, Tom Dickey, Bryan Dongray, Craig Durland, Kirk Edson, Stefan Elf, Rob Engle, Brent Ermlick, Olle Eriksson, Michael Faurot, Werner Fleck, Callum Gibson, Mike Glendinning, Philippe Goujard, Carl Hage, Paul Halsema, Ed Hanway, Scott Hauck, Per Headland, Daniel Hermans, Jose Herrero, Tom Hite, Torsten Homeyer, Tommy Hsieh, Steve Hunt, Pieter Immelman, Robbin Johnson, Nelson Kading, Fritz Kleeman, Dwarven Knight, Karl-Koenig Koenigsson, Martin Kraemer, Kris Kugel, Geoff Lane, Alex Lange, Alain Lasserre, Marty Leisner, Hakan Lennestal, Otto Lind, Richard Lloyd, Clifford Luke, David MacKenzie, Hugh Mahon, Kazushi Marukawa, Owen Medd, Soren Moller, Sergio Morales, Michael Morrell, Klaus Mueller, Udo Munk, James Nugen, Jeb Palmer, Neil Parker, Tom Parry, Jim Patterson, Walter Pelissero, Colin Perkins, Eric Peterson, Tim Pierce, Bill Poitras, Wolfgang Prediger, Ted Richards, Ollivier Robert, Jim Robinson, Stephen Roseman, Clifton Royston, Nickolay Saukh, Rich Salz, Gary Sanders, John Sauter, Christopher Sawtell, John Schmitz, Bart Sears, Karl-Olav Serrander, Doug Sewell, Philip Shearer, Mark Smith, Steve Spearman, Cliff Stanford, Steve Starck, Jason Steiner, Ed Sznyter, Derek Terveer, Julian Thompson, Andry Timonin, Mark Tomlin, Michael Traub, Adri Verhoef, Paul Vickers, Cary Whitney, Greg Woods, Lloyd Wright

I wish to thank the following people for bug reports/comments:

Jack Applin, Klaus Arzig, Scott Babb, Reiner Balling, Preston Bannister, Bill de Beabien, Volker Beyer, Etienne Bido, Roger Binns, Georg Biehler, Jean-Marc Bonnaudet, Eric Bowles, Sean Brady, Ian Brown, Andreas Brosig, Craig Bruce, Brett Carver,Tom Czarnik, Dave Datta, Mat Davis, Karl Denninger, Klaus Dimmler, David Donovan, Peter Dressler, Gerhard Ermer, Hugh Fader, Miguel Farah, Joachim Feld, Paul Fox, Jay Geertsen, Herschel Gelman, Bernhard Gmelch, Jason Haar, Viet Hoang, Andy Jackson, Joe Johnson, Ralph Jud, Cyrill Jung, Kuo-Chein Kai, Tonis Kelder, Hans-Juergen Knopp, Sridhar Komandur, Tom Kovar, Bernhard Kroenung, Murray Laing, Per Lindqvist, Eric Litman, Bob Lukas, Michael Marshall, Kazushi Marukawa, Olaf Mittelstaedt, Phillip Molloy, Phil Molyneux, Toni Metz, Greg Miller, Deeptendu Majumder, Klaus Neuberger, Otto Niesser, Reiner Oelhaf, Alex Pakter, John Palkovic, Dave Pascoe, Wolf Paul, Andrew Phillips, Stefan Rathmann, Jon Robinson, David Ross, Jonas Rwgmyr, Malkani Sanjay, Daemon Schaefer, Dean Schrimpf, Klamer Schutte, Fredy Schwatz, Dave Schweisguth, Bernd Schwerin, Don Sheythe, Chris Smith, Daniel Smith, Richard Stanton, Ralf Stephan, Hironobu Takahashi, Ken Taylor, Tony Travis, Paul Verket, Sven Werner, Dick Wexelblat, Paul Wood, Gregory Woodbury, Norm Yamane, Blair Zajac, Orest Zboroski, Thomas Ziegler

AUTHOR

Iain Lea
    (iain.lea@erlm.siemens.de)