NN(1)NN(1)NAMEnn - efficient net news interface (No News is good news)
SYNOPSISnn [ options ] [ newsgroup | +folder | file ]...
nn-g [ -r ]
nn-a0 [ newsgroup ]...
DESCRIPTION
Net news is a world-wide information exchange service covering numerous
topics in science and every day life. Topics are organized in
news groups, and these groups are open for everybody to post articles
on a subject related to the topic of the group.
Nn is a `point-and-shoot' net news interface program, or a news reader
for short (not to be confused with the human news reader). When you
use nn, you can decide which of the many news groups you are interested
in, and you can unsubscribe to those which don't interest you. nn will
let you read the new (and old) articles in each of the groups you sub‐
scribe to using a menu based article selection prior to reading the
articles in the news group.
When a news group is entered, nn will locate all the presently unread
articles in the group, and extract their sender, subject, and other
relevant information. This information is then rearranged, sorted, and
marked in various ways to give it a pleasant format when it is pre‐
sented on the screen.
This will be done very quickly, because nn uses the NOV database via
the NNTP XOVER command. The news server to use can be overridden by
setting the environment variable $NNTPSERVER to the name of the system
(such as news.newserver.com), or by setting the variable nntp-server
(on the command line only, since it is looked at before the init file),
as "nntp-server=news.some.domain"). If you use multiple servers, you
probably want to set the nn-directory and newsrc variables on the com‐
mand line to an alternate names as well, since some of the data files
are server dependent. If you are using a slow tcp link (such as ppp
over a modem) and NNTP, see the NOTES section at the end of this man‐
ual.
When the article menu appears on the screen, nn will be in a mode
called selection mode. In this mode, the articles which seems to be
interesting can be selected by single keystrokes (using the keys a-z
and 0-9). When all the interesting articles among the ones presently
displayed have been selected, the space bar is hit, which causes nn to
enter reading mode.
In reading mode, each of the selected articles will be presented. You
use the space bar to go on to the next page of the current article, or
to the next article. Of course, there are all sorts of commands to
scroll text up and down, skip to the next article, responding to an
article, decrypt an article, and so on.
When all the selected articles in the current group have been read, the
last hit on the space bar will cause nn will continue to the next group
with unread articles, and enter selection mode on that group.
FREQUENTLY USED OPTIONSnn accepts a lot of command line options, but here only the frequently
used options are described. Options can also be set permanently by
including appropriate variable settings in the init file described
later. All options are described in the section on Command Line
Options towards the end of this manual.
The frequently used command line options are:
-a0 Catch up on unread articles and groups. See the section "Catch
up" below.
-g Prompt for the name of a news group or folder to be entered
(with completion).
-r Used with -g to repeatedly prompt for groups to enter.
-lN Print only the first N lines of the first page of each article
before prompting to continue. This is useful on slow terminals
and modem lines to be able to see the first few lines of longer
articles.
-sWORD Collect only articles which contain the string WORD in their
subject (case is ignored). This is normally combined with the
-x and -m options to find all articles on a specific subject.
-s/regexp
Collect only articles whose subject matches the regular expres‐
sion regexp. This is normally combined with the -x and -m
options to find all articles on a specific subject.
-nWORD or -n/regexp
Same as -s except that it matches on the sender's name instead
of the article's subject. This is normally combined with the -x
and -m options to find all articles from a specific author. It
cannot be mixed with the -s option!
-i Normally searches with -n and -s are case independent. Using
this option, the case becomes significant.
-m Merge all articles into one `meta group' instead of showing them
one group at a time. This is normally used together with the -x
and -s options to get all the articles on a specific subject
presented on a single menu (when you don't care about which
group they belong to). When -m is used, no articles will be
marked as read.
-x[N] Present (or scan) all (or the last N) unread as well as read
articles. When this option is used, nn will never mark unread
articles as read (i.e. .newsrc is not updated).
-X Read/scan unsubscribed groups also. Most useful when looking
for a specific subject in all groups, e.g.
nn-mxX -sSubject all
news.group or file or +folder
If none of these arguments are given, all subscribed news groups
will be used. Otherwise, only the specified news groups and/or
files will be collected and presented. In specifying a news
groups, the following `meta notation' can be used:
If the news group ends with a `.' (or `.all'), all subgroups of
the news group will be collected, e.g.
comp.sources.
If a news group starts with a `.' (or `all.'), all the matching
subgroups will be collected, e.g.
.sources.unix
The argument `all' identifies all (subscribed) news groups.
COMMAND INPUT
In general, nn commands consist of one or two key-strokes, and nn
reacts instantly to the commands you give it; you don't have to enter
return after each command (except where explicitly stated).
Some commands have more serious effects than others, and therefore nn
requests you to confirm the command. You confirm by hitting the the y
key, and reject by hitting the n key. Some `trivial' requests may also
be confirmed simply by hitting space. For example, to confirm the cre‐
ation of a save file, just hit space, but if one or more directories
also have to be created, you must enter y.
Many commands will require that you enter a line of text, e.g. a file
name or a shell command. If you enter space as the first character on
a line, the line will be filled with a default value (if one is
defined). For example, the default value for a file name is the last
file name you have entered, and the default shell command is your pre‐
vious shell command. You can edit this default value as well as a
directly typed text, using the following editing commands. The erase,
kill, and interrupt keys are the keys defined by the current tty set‐
tings. On systems without job control, the suspend key will be con‐
trol-Z while it is the current suspend character on system with job
control.
erase
Delete the last character on the line.
delete-word (normally ^W)
Delete the last word or component of the input.
kill
Delete all characters on the line.
interrupt and control-G
Cancel the command which needs the input.
suspend
Suspend nn if supported by the system. Otherwise, spawn an
interactive shell.
return
Terminate the line, and continue with the command.
Related variables: erase-key, flow-control, flush-typeahead, help-key,
kill-key, word-key.
BASIC COMMANDS
There are numerous commands in nn, and most of them can be invoked by a
single keystroke. The descriptions in this manual are based on the
standard bindings of the commands to the keys, but it is possible to
customize these using the map command described later. For each of the
keystroke commands described in this manual, the corresponding command
name will also be shown in curly braces, e.g. {command}.
The following commands work in both selection mode and in reading mode.
The notation ^X means `control X':
? {help}
Help. Gives a one page overview of the commands available in
the current mode.
^L {redraw}
Redraw screen.
^R {redraw}
Redraw screen (Same as ^L).
^P {message}
Repeat the last message shown on the message line. The command
can be repeated to successively show previous messages (the max‐
imum number of saved messages is controlled via the message-his‐
tory variable.)
! {shell}
Shell escape. The user is prompted for a command which is exe‐
cuted by your favorite shell (see the shell variable). Shell
escapes are described in detail later on.
Q {quit}
Quit nn. When you use this command, you neither lose unread
articles in the current group nor the selections you might have
made (unless the articles are expired in the meantime of
course).
V {version}
Print release and version information.
:command {command}
Execute the command by name. This form can be used to invoke
any of nn's commands, also those which cannot be bound to a key
(such as :coredump), or those which are not bound to a key by
default (such as post and unshar).
Related and basic variables: backup, backup-suffix, confirm-auto-quit,
expert, mail, message-history, new-group-action, newsrc, quick-count.
SELECTION MODE
In selection mode, the screen is divided into four parts: the header
line showing the name of the news group and the number of articles, the
menu lines which show the collected articles - one article per line,
the prompt line where you enter commands, and the message line where nn
prints various messages to you.
Each menu line begins with an article id which is a unique letter (or
digit if your screen can show more than 26 menu lines). To select an
articles for reading, you simply enter the corresponding id, and the
menu line will be high-lighted to indicate that the article is
selected. When you have selected all the interesting articles on the
present menu, you simply hit space.
If there are more articles collected for the current group than could
be presented on one screenful of text, you will be presented with the
next portion of articles to select from. When you have had the oppor‐
tunity to select among all the articles in the group, hitting space
will enter reading mode.
If no articles have been selected in the current group, hitting space
will enter selection mode on the next news group, or exit nn if the
current group was the last news group with unread articles. It is thus
possible to go through ALL unread articles (without reading any of
them) just by hitting space a few times.
The articles will be presented on the menu using one of the following
layouts:
0: x Name......... Subject.............. +123
1: x Name......... 123 Subject..............
2: x 123 Subject...................................
3: x Subject...........................................
4: x Subject........................................
Here x is the letter or digit that must be entered to select the arti‐
cle, Name is the real name of the sender (or the mail address if the
real name cannot be found), Subject is the contents of the "Subject:"
line in the article, and 123 is the number of lines in the article.
Layout 0 and 1 are just two ways to present the same information, while
layout 2 and 3 are intended for groups whose articles have very long
subject lines, e.g. comp.sources.
Layout 4 is a hybrid between layout 1 and 3. It will normally use lay‐
out 1, but it will use layout 3 (with a little indentation) for menu
lines where the subject is longer than the space available with layout
1.
Layout 1 is the default layout, and an alternative menu line layout is
selected using the -L option or by setting the layout variable. Once
nn is started the layout can be changed at any time using the " key
{layout}.
The Name is limited to 16 characters, and to make maximum use of this
space, nn will perform a series of simplifications on the name, e.g.
changing first names into initials, removing domain names from mail
addresses (if the real name is not found) etc. It does a good job, but
some people on the net put weird things into the From: field (or actu‐
ally into their password file) which result in nn producing quite cryp‐
tic, and sometimes funny "names".
One a usual 80 column terminal, the Subject is limited to about 60
characters (75 in layout 3) and is thus only an approximation to the
actual subject line which may be much longer. To get as much out of
this space, Re: prefixes (in various forms) are recognized and replaced
by a single `>' character (see the re-layout variable).
Since articles are sorted according to the subject, two or more adja‐
cent articles may share the same subject (ignoring any `>'s). In this
case, only the first article will show the subject of the article; the
rest will only show the `>' character in the subject field (or a `-' if
there is no `>' at the beginning of the line). A typical menu will
thus only show each subject once, saving a lot of time in scanning the
news articles.
If consolidated menus (see section below) are enabled, adjacent arti‐
cles sharing the same subject will be shown with a single line on the
menu corresponding to the first of the articles. The number of arti‐
cles with the same subject will be shown as a braketed number in front
of the subject, e.g. with layout 1:
x Name......... 123 [4] Subject..............
For further information see the section on consolidated menus below.
Related variables: collapse-subject, columns, confirm-entry, confirm-
entry-limit, entry-report-limit, fsort, kill, layout, limit, lines,
long-menu, re-layout, repeat, slow-mode, sort, sort-mode, split, sub‐
ject-match-limit, subject-match-offset, subject-match-parts, subject-
match-minimum.
ARTICLE ATTRIBUTES
While nn is running and between invocations, nn associates an attribute
with each article on your system. These attributes are used to differ‐
entiate between read and unread articles, selected articles, articles
marked for later treatment, etc. Depending on how nn is configured,
these attributes can be saved between invocations of nn, or some of
them may only be used while nn is running.
The attribute is shown on the menu using either a single character fol‐
lowing the article id or by high-lighting the menu line, depending on
the attribute and the capabilities of the terminal. You can also
change the attributes to your own taste (see the attributes variable).
The attribute of an article can be changed explicitly using the selec‐
tion mode commands described below, or it will change automatically for
example when you have read or saved a selected article. If a command
may change any article attributes, it will be noted in the description
of the command. The following descriptions of the attributes will only
mention the most important commands that may set (or preserve) the
attribute.
The following attributes may be associated with an article:
read Menu attribute "." - indicates that the article has been read or
saved. When you leave the group, these articles will be marked
permanently read, and are not presented the next time you enter
the group.
seen Menu attribute "," - indicates that the article is unread, but
that it has been presented on a menu. Depending on how nn is
configured, these articles will automatically be marked read
when you leave the group, they may remain seen, or they may just
be unread the next time you enter the group (see the auto-junk-
seen, confirm-junk-seen, and retain-seen-status variables).
Only the commands continue (space) and read-skip (X) will mark
unread articles on the current (or all) menu pages as seen when
they are used. Other commands that scroll through the menu
pages or enter reading mode will let unread articles remain
unread.
unread Menu attribute " " - indicates an unread article. These arti‐
cles were unread when you entered the group, and they may remain
unread when you leave the group, unless they have been marked
seen by the command that you used to leave the group or enter
reading mode.
selected
Menu line high-lighted (or menu attribute "*") - indicates that
you have selected the article. If you leave the group, the
selected articles will remain selected the next time you enter
the group. When you have read a selected article, the attribute
will automatically change to read.
auto-selected
These articles have the same appearance as selected articles on
the menu, and the only difference is that these articles have
been selected automatically via the auto-selection facility
rather than manually by you. Very few commands differentiate
between these attributes and if they do, it is explicitly stated
in this manual. The main difference is that these articles are
only marked as unread when you leave the group (supposing they
will also be auto-selected the next the group is entered). This
simplifies the house-keeping between invocations of nn.
leave Menu attribute "+" - indicates that the article is marked for
later treatment by the leave-article (l) command. These arti‐
cles may be selected (on demand) when you have read all selected
articles in a group. However, if you do not select them then
immediately, they are stored as the leave-next attribute
described below.
leave-next
Menu attribute "=" - indicates that the article is marked for
later treatment by the leave-next (L) command. This is a perma‐
nent attribute, which will remain on the article until you
either read the article, change the attribute, or it is expired.
So assinging this attribute to an article will effectively keep
it unread until you do something. If the variable select-leave-
next is set, nn will ask whether these articles should be
selected on entry to a group (but naturally, doing so will
change the leave-next attribute to select).
cancelled
Menu attribute "#" - indicates that the article has been can‐
celled. This is mainly useful when tidying a folder; it is set
by the cancel (C) command, and can be cleared by any command
that change attributes, e.g. you can select and deselect the
article.
killed Menu attribute "!" - indicates that the article has been killed
(e.g. by the K {kill-select} command). Killed articles are
immediately removed from the menu, so you should not normally
see articles with this attribute. If you do, report it as a
bug!
The attributes are saved in two files: .newsrc (read articles) and
.nn/select (other attributes). Plain unread articles are saved by not
occurring in either of these files. Both files are described in more
detail later on.
Related variables: attributes, auto-junk-seen, confirm-junk-seen,
retain-seen-status, select-leave-next.
SELECTION MODE COMMANDS
The primary purpose of the selection mode is of course to select the
articles to be read, but numerous other commands may also be performed
in this mode: saving of articles in files, replying and following up on
articles, mailing/forwarding articles, shell escapes etc.
As described above, the selected articles are marked either by showing
the corresponding menu line in standout mode (reverse video), or if the
terminal does not have this capability by placing an asterisk (*) after
the selection letter or digit.
Most commands which are used to select articles will work as toggle
commands. If the article is not already selected, the selectedat‐
tribute on the article(s), independent on the previous attribute. Oth‐
erwise, the article(s) will be deselected and marked unread. Conse‐
quently, any article can be marked unread simply be selecting and dese‐
lecting it.
During selection, the cursor will normally be placed on the article
following the last article whose attribute was changed (initially the
first article). The article pointed out by the cursor is called the
current article, and the following commands work relative to the cur‐
rent article and cursor position.
abc...z 01..9 {article N}
The article with the given identification letter or digit is
selected or deselected. The following article becomes the cur‐
rent article. If the variable auto-select-subject is set, all
articles with the same subject as the given article are
selected.
. {select}
Select or deselect the current article and move the cursor to
the next article.
, {line+1}
Move the cursor to the next article. You can use the down arrow
as well.
/ {line-1}
Move cursor to previous article. You can use the up arrow as
well.
* {select-subject}
Select or deselect all articles with same subject as current
article. This will work across several menu pages if necessary.
-x {select-range}
Select or deselect the range of articles between the current
article and the article specified by x. For example you can
select all articles from e to k by simply typing e-k.
The following commands may change the attributes on all articles on the
current menu page, or on all articles on all menu pages.
@ {select-invert}
Reverse selections. All selected articles on the current page
are deselected, and vice-versa. (Use the find command to select
all articles.)
~ {unselect-all}
Deselect all auto-selected articles in the group (this works
across all menu pages). If the command is executed twice, the
selected articles will also be deselected.
+ {select-auto}
Perform auto-selections in the group (see the section on "auto
kill/select" below).
= {find}
Prompts for a regular expression, and selects all articles on
the menu (all pages) which matches the regular expression.
Depending on the variable select-on-sender matching is performed
against the subject (default) or the sender of the articles. An
empty answer (= return) will reuse the previous expression.
Example: The command = . return will select all articles in the
group.
J {junk-articles}
This is a very versatile command which can be used to perform
all sorts of attribute changes, either on individual articles,
all articles on the current menu page, all articles with a spe‐
cific attribute, or all available articles. To access all the
functions of this command, the J key may have to be hit up to
four times, to loop through different one-line menus. The full
functionality of the junk-articles command is described in a
separate section below.
L {leave-next}
This is a specialized version of the generic J {junk-articles}
command to set the leave-next attribute on a subset of the arti‐
cles on the menu. It is also described further below.
The following commands move between the pages belonging to the same
news group when there are more articles than will fit on a single page.
These commands will not change any article attributes.
> {page+1}
Goto next menu page.
< {page-1}
Goto previous menu page, or to last menu page if on first menu
page.
$ {page=$}
Goto last menu page.
^ {page=1}
Goto first menu page.
The following commands are used to enter reading mode for the selected
articles, and to move between news groups (in selection mode). They
may change article attributes if noted below.
space {continue}
Continue to next menu page, or if on last menu page, read the
selected articles. If no articles have been selected, continue
to the next news group. The unread articles on the current menu
page will automatically be marked seen.
return {continue-no-mark}
Identical to the continue command, except that the unread arti‐
cles on the current menu page will remain unread. (The newline
key has the same effect).
Z {read-return}
Enter reading mode immediately with the currently selected arti‐
cles. When all articles have been read, return to selection
mode in the current group. It will mark selected articles read
as they are read, but unread articles are not normally changed
(can be controlled with the variable marked-by-read-return.)
X {read-skip}
Mark all unmarked articles seen on all menu pages (or the pages
defined by the marked-by-read-skip variable), and enter reading
mode immediately with the currently selected articles. As the
selected articles are read, they are marked read. When all
selected articles have been read, nn will enter selection mode
in the next news group. When no articles are selected, it goes
directly to the next group. This can be used to skip all the
articles in a large news group without having to go through all
the menu pages.
If you don't want to read the current group now, but want to keep it
for later, you can use the following commands which will only mark seen
and read articles as read. Currently selected articles will still be
selected the next time you enter the group. None of these commands
will change any attributes themselves (by default).
N {next-group}
Go forward to the next group in the presentation sequence. If
the variable marked-by-next-group is set articles on the menu
can optionally be marked seen
P {previous}
Go back to the previous group. This command will enter selec‐
tion mode on the last active group (two P commands in sequence
will bring you to the current group). If there are still some
unread articles in the group, only those articles will be shown.
Otherwise, all the articles which were unread when nn was
invoked will be shown marked with the read attribute (which can
be changed as usual).
As described in the "Article Attributes" section, the read and seen
articles will normally be marked read when you leave the group, and
these articles are not shown the next time you enter the group.
In all releases prior to release 6.4, it was impossible to have indi‐
vidual articles in a group marked unread when you left a group, and the
default behaviour of release 6.4 onwards will closely match the tradi‐
tional behaviour. This means that the seen and read articles are
treated alike for most practical purposes with the default variable
settings.
If you don't like nn to silently mark the seen articles read, you can
set the variable confirm-junk-seen to get nn to prompt you for confir‐
mation before doing this, or you can unset the variable auto-junk-seen
to simply keep the seen articles for the next time you enter the group.
You then have to use the J {junk-articles} to mark articles read.
Using return {continue-no-mark} will also allow you to keep articles
unread rather than marking them seen when scrolling through the menu
pages and entering reading mode. If this is your preferred reading
style, you can remap space to this command.
Related variables: auto-junk-seen, auto-preview-mode, auto-select-sub‐
ject, case-fold-search, confirm-auto-quit, confirm-entry, confirm-junk-
seen, marked-by-next-group, marked-by-read-return, marked-by-read-skip,
retain-seen-status, select-on-sender.
CONSOLIDATED MENUS
Normally, nn will use one menu line for each article, so if there are
many articles with identical subjects, each menu page will only contain
a few different subjects. To have each subject occur only once on the
menu, nn can operate with consolidated menus by setting the variable
consolidated-menu.
When consolidated menus are used, nn operates with two kinds of sub‐
jects: open and closed.
An open subject is a subject which is shown in the traditional way with
one menu line for each article with the given subject. In other words,
when consolidated menus are not used, all subjects are open (by
default).
A closed subject is a multi-article subject which is presented by a
single menu line. This line will be the normal menu line for the first
(oldest) article with the subject, but with the subject field annotated
with a bracketed number showing the number of articles with that sub‐
ject, e.g.
a Kim F. Storm 12 [4] Future plans for nn
b.Kim F. Storm 43 [3] More plans for nn
In this example, there are four unread articles with subject `a' of
which the first is posted by me and has 12 lines. The rest of the
articles are hidden, and will only be shown on request. The `.'
marker on subject `b' shows that all three articles within that subject
have been read (or seen).
To select (or deselect) ALL the articles within a closed subject, sim‐
ply select the article shown on the menu; this will automatically
select (or deselect) the rest (see auto-select-closed). When all the
unread articles within a closed subject are selected, the menu line
will be high-lighted.
If you want to view the individual articles in a subject (maybe to
select individual articles), you can open the subject with the com‐
mands:
(x Open subject x on menu.
(( Open current subject.
When you have completed viewing the opened subject, you can close it
again using the commands:
)x Close subject x on menu (x is any article with the subject).
)) Close current subject.
In the basic layout of the menu line for a closed subject as shown
above, ALL articles in the closed subject are supposed to be either:
unread The menu line is not high-lighted.
selected
Menu line is fully high-lighted (if all UNREAD are selected).
read/seen
There is a `.' (read attribute) following the article id.
If neither of these cases apply, i.e. there is a mixture of unread,
selected, and seen/read articles, the bracketed number will have one of
the following formats:
[U:T] There are U unread articles of T total (U<T).
[S/T] There are S selected articles of T total (S<U=T).
[S/U:T]
There are S selected of U unread of T total (S<U<T).
If there are any selected articles (S>0), the information between the
brackets will be high-lighted (to show that something is selected, but
not all the unread articles).
Notice: Consolidated menus only work with the `subject' and `lexical'
sorting methods.
Variables related to consolidated menus are: auto-select-closed, con‐
solidated-menu, counter-delim-left, counter-delim-right, counter-pad‐
ding, save-closed-mode.
THE JUNK-ARTICLES AND LEAVE-NEXT COMMANDS
The J {junk-articles} command is a very flexible command which can per‐
form all sorts of attribute changes, either on individual articles, all
articles on the current menu page, all articles with a specific
attribute, or all available articles.
To access all the functions of this command, the J key may have to be
hit up to four times, to loop through different one-line menus:
Mark Read
This submenu allows you to mark articles read.
Unmark This submenu allows you to mark articles unread.
Select This submenu allows you to select articles based on their
attribute.
Kill This submenu allows you to mark articles read and remove them
from the menu based on their attribute.
The L {leave-next} command is an extension of the J command with a
fifth menu:
Leave This menu allows you to mark articles for later handling with
the leave-next attribute which will keep the article unread
until you explicitly change the attribute (e.g. by reading it)
or it is expired.
For each of these submenus, nn will list the most plausible choices you
may use, but all of the following answers can be used at all submenus.
When you have entered a choice, nn will afterward ask whether the
change should be made to all menu pages or only the current page.
J Show next submenu.
L Change attribute on all leave articles.
N Change attribute on all leave-next articles.
R Change attribute on all read articles.
S Change attribute on all seen articles.
U Change attribute on all unmarked (i.e. unread) articles.
A Change attribute on all articles no matter their current
attribute.
* Change attribute on all selected articles on the current page.
+ Change attribute on all selected articles on all pages.
a-z0-9 Change attribute on one or more specific articles on the current
page. You end the list of articles by a space or by using one
of the other choices described above.
. Change attribute on current article.
, / Move the current article down or up the menu without changing
any attributes.
READING MODE COMMANDS
In reading mode, the selected articles are presented one page at a
time. To get the next page of an article, simply hit space, and when
you are on the last page of an article, hit space to get to the next
selected article. Articles are normally marked read when you go to the
next article, while going back to the menu, quitting nn, etc. will
retain the attribute on the current article.
When you are on the last page of the last article, hit space to enter
selection mode on the next group (or the current group if reading mode
was entered using the Z command).
To read an article, the following text scrolling commands are avail‐
able:
space {continue}
Scroll one page forward or continue with the next article or
group as described above.
backspace / delete {page-1}
Go one page backwards in article.
d {page+1/2}
Scroll one half page forward.
u {page-1/2}
Go one half page backwards.
return {line+1}
Scroll one line forward in the article.
tab {skip-lines}
Skip over lines starting with the same character as the last
line on the current page. This is useful to skip over included
text or to the next file in a shell archive.
^ {page=1}
Move to the first page (excluding the header) of the article.
$ {page=$}
Move to the last page of the article.
gN {line=@}
Move to line N in the article.
/regexp {find}
Search forward for text matching the regular expression regexp
in the article. If a matching text is found, it will be high-
lighted.
. {find-next}
Repeat search for last regular expression.
h {page=0}
Show the header of the article, and continue from the top of the
article.
H {full-digest}
If the current article is extracted from a digest, show the
entire digest article including its header. Another H command
will return to the current subarticle.
D {rot13}
Turn rot13 (caesar) decryption on and off for the current arti‐
cle, and redraw current page. If the article is saved while it
is decrypted on the screen, it will be saved in decrypted form
as well!
c {compress}
Turn compression on and off for the current article and redraw
current page. With compression turned on, multiple spaces and
tabs are shown as a single space. This makes it much easier to
read right justified text which separate words with several spa‐
ces. (See also the compress variable)
The following commands are used to move among the selected articles.
n {next-article}
Move to next selected article. This command skips the rest of
the current article, marks it read, and jumps directly to the
first page of the next selected article (or to the next group if
it was the last selected article).
l {leave-article}
Mark the current article with the leave attribute and continue
with the next selected article. When all the selected articles
in the current group have been read, these left over articles
can be automatically selected and shown once more, or the treat‐
ment can be postponed to the next time you enter the group.
This is particularly useful if you see an article which you
may want to respond to unless one the following articles is
already saying what you intended to say.
L {leave-next}
Mark the current article with the leave-next attribute and con‐
tinue with the next selected article.
p {previous}
Goto previous article.
k {next-subject}
Kill subject. Skips rest of current article, and all following
articles with the same subject. The skipped articles are marked
read. To kill a subject permanently use the K command.
* {select-subject}
Show next article with same subject (even if it is not
selected). This command will select all following articles with
the same subject as the current article (similar to the `*' com‐
mand in selection mode). This can be used to select only the
first article on a subject in selection mode, and then select
all follow-ups in reading mode if you find the article interest‐
ing.
a {advance-article}
Goto the following article on the menu even if it is not
selected. This command skips the rest of the current article
and jumps directly to the first page of the next article (it
will not skip to the next group if it is the last article). The
attribute on the current article will be restored, except for
the unread attribute which will be changed to seen.
b {back-article}
Goto the article before current article on the menu even if it
is not selected. This is similar to the a command, except for
the direction.
The following commands perform an immediate return from reading mode to
selection mode in the current group or skip to the next group.
= {goto-menu}
Return to selection mode in the current group (think of = as the
"icon" of the selection menu). The articles read so far will be
marked read.
N {next-group}
Skip the rest of the selected and unread articles in the current
group and go directly to the next group. Only the read (and
seen) articles in the current group are marked as read.
X {read-skip}
Mark all articles in the current group as read and go directly
to the next group. (You will be asked to confirm this command.)
Related variables: case-fold-search, charset, compress, data-bits,
date, header-lines, mark-overlap, monitor, overlap, scroll-clear-page,
stop, trusted-escape-codes, wrap-header-margin.
PREVIEWING ARTICLES IN SELECTION MODE
In selection mode, it is possible to read a specific article on the
menu without entering reading mode for all the selected articles on the
menu. Using the commands described below will enter reading mode for
one article only, and then return to the menu mode immediately after
(depending on the setting of the preview-continuation variable).
If there are more than 5 free lines at the bottom of the menu screen,
nn will use that space to show the article (a minimal preview window
can be permanently allocated with the window variable). Otherwise, the
screen will be cleared to show the article.
After previewing an article, it will be marked read (if the preview-
mark-read variable is set), and the following article will become the
current article.
%x {preview}
Preview article x.
%% {preview}
Preview the current article.
When the article is being shown, the following reading mode commands
are very useful:
= {goto-menu}
Skip the rest of the current article, and return to menu mode.
n {next-article}
Skip the rest of the current article, and preview the next arti‐
cle.
l {leave-article}
Mark the article as selected (!) on the menu for handling later
on. Then skip the rest of the current article, and preview the
next article.
%y {preview}
Preview article y .
If the variable auto-preview-mode is set, just hitting the article id
in menu mode will enter preview mode on the specified article.
Related variables: auto-preview-mode, min-window, preview-continuation,
preview-mark-read, window.
SAVING ARTICLES
The following commands are used to save articles in files, unpack ar‐
chives, decode binaries, etc. It is possible to use the commands in
both reading mode to save the current article and in selection mode to
save one or more articles on the menu.
The saved articles will be appended to the specified file(s) followed
by an empty line each. Both files and directories will be created as
needed. When an article has been saved in a file, a message reporting
the number of lines saved will be shown if the save-report variable is
set (default on).
S {save-full}
Save articles including the full article header.
O {save-short}
Save articles with a short header containing only the name of
the sender, the subject, and the posting date of the article.
E {save-header}
Save only the header of the articles.
W {save-body}
Write article without a header.
:print {print}
Print article. Instead of a file name, this command will prompt
for the print command to which the current article will be
piped. The default print command is specified at compile time,
but it can be changed by setting the printer variable. The out‐
put will be identical to that of the O command.
:patch {patch}
Send articles through patch(1) (or the program defined in the
patch-command variable). Instead of a file name, you will be
prompted for the name of a directory in which you want the patch
command to be executed. nn will then pipe the body of the arti‐
cle through the patch command.
The output from the patch process will be shown on the screen
and also appended to a file named Patch.Result in the patch
directory.
:unshar {unshar}
Unshar articles. You will be prompted for the name of a direc‐
tory in which you want nn to unshar the articles. nn will then
pipe the proper parts of the article body into a Bourne Shell
whose working directory will be set to the specified directory.
During the unpacking, the normal output from the unshar
process will appear on the screen, and the menu or article text
will be redrawn when the process is finished.
The output is also appended to a file named Unshar.Result in
the unshar directory.
The file specified in unshar-header-file (default
"Unshar.Headers") in the unshar directory will contain the
header and initial text (before the shar data) from the article.
You can use the `G' {goto-group} command to look at the
Unshar.Headers file.
:decode {decode}
Decode uuencoded articles into binary files. You will be
prompted for the name of a directory in which you want nn to
place the decoded binary files (the file names are taken from
the uuencoded data).
nn will combine several articles into single files as needed,
and you can even decode unrelated packages (into the same direc‐
tory) with one decode command.
To be able to decode a binary file which spans several arti‐
cles, nn may have to ignore lines which fail the normal sanity
checks on uuencoded data instead of treating them as transmis‐
sion errors. Consequently, it is strongly recommended to check
the resulting decoded file using the checksum which is normally
contained in the original article. (Actually, you are also sup‐
posed to do this after decoding with a stand-alone uudecode pro‐
gram).
The header and initial information in the decoded articles are
saved in the file specified in decode-header-file (default
"Decode.Headers") in the same directory as the decoded files.
If decode-skip-prefix is non-null, :decode will attempt to
ignore up to that many characters on each line to find the
encoded data. This is particularly useful in some binaries
groups where files are both uuencoded and packed with shar; nn
will ignore the prefix added to each line by shar, and thus be
able to unshar, concatenate, and decode multi-part postings
automatically.
In reading mode, the following keys can also be used to invoke the save
commands:
s Same as S.
o Same as O.
w Same as W.
P Same as :print.
The save commands will prompt for a file name which is expanded accord‐
ing to the rules described in the section on file name expansion below.
For each group, it is possible to specify a default save file in the
init file, either in connection with the group presentation sequence or
in a separate save-files section (see below). If a default save file
is specified for the group, nn will show this on the prompt line when
it prompts for the file name. You can edit this name as usual, but if
you kill the entire name immediately, nn will replace the default name
with the last file name you entered. If you kill this as well, nn will
leave you with a blank line.
If the quick-save variable is set, nn will only prompt for a save file
name when the current article is inside a folder; otherwise, the
default save file defined in the init file will be used uncondition‐
ally.
If the file (and directories in the path) does not exist, nn will ask
whether the file (and the directories) should be created.
If the file name contains an asterisk, e.g.
part*.shar
nn will save each of the articles in uniquely named files constructed
by replacing the asterisk by numbers from the sequence 1, 2, 3, etc.
The format of the string that replaces the * can be changed with the
save-counter variable, and the first number to use can be changed via
save-counter-offset.
In selection mode, nn will prompt you for the identifier of one or more
articles you want to save. When you don't want to save more articles,
just hit space. The saved articles will be marked read.
If you enter an asterisk `*' when you are prompted for an article to
save, nn will automatically save all the selected articles on the cur‐
rent menu page and mark them read.
Likewise, if you enter a plus `+', nn will save all the selected arti‐
cles on all menu pages and mark them read.
This is very useful to unpack an entire package using the :unshar and
:decode commands. It can also be used in combination with the save
selected articles feature to save a selection of articles in separate,
successively numbered files. But do not confuse these two concepts!
The S* and S+ commands can be used to save the selected articles in a
single file as well as in separate files, and the save in separate
files feature can be used also when saving individual articles, either
in the selection mode, or in the article reading mode.
When articles are saved in a file with a full or partial header, any
header lines in the body of the article will be escaped by a tilde
(e.g. ~From: ...) to enable nn to split the folder into separate arti‐
cles. The escape string can be redefined via the embedded-header-
escape variable.
Articles can optionally be saved in MAIL or MMDF compatible format by
setting the mail-format and mmdf-format variables. These variables
only specify the format used when creating a new folder, while append‐
ing to an existing folder will be done in the format of the folder
(unless folder-format-check is false).
Related variables: confirm-append, confirm-create, decode-header-file,
decode-skip-prefix, default-save-file, folder-save-file, edit-patch-
command, edit-print-command, edit-unshar-command, folder, folder-for‐
mat-check, mail-format, mmdf-format, patch-command, printer, quick-
save, save-counter, save-counter-offset, save-report, suggest-default-
save, unshar-command, unshar-header-file.
FOLDER MAINTENANCE
When more than one article is saved in a folder, nn is able to split
the folder, and each article in the folder can be treated like a sepa‐
rate article.
This means that you can save, decode, reply, follow-up, etc. just as
with the original article.
You can also cancel (delete) individual articles in a folder using the
normal C {cancel} command described later. When you quit from the
folder, you will then be given the option to remove the cancelled arti‐
cles from the folder.
The original folder is saved in a file named `BackupFolder~' in the .nn
directory (see the backup-folder-path variable) by renaming or copying
the old folder as appropriate. When the folder has been compressed,
the backup folder will be removed unless the variable keep-backup-
folder is set.
If all articles in a folder are cancelled, the folder will be removed
or truncated to zero length (whatever is allowed by directory and file
permissions). In this case no backup folder is retained even when
keep-backup-folder is set!
If the variable trace-folder-packing is set, nn will show which arti‐
cles are kept and which are removed as the folder is rewritten.
Folders are rewritten in the format of the original folder, i.e. the
mail-format and mmdf-format variables are ignored.
Related variables: backup-folder-path, keep-backup-folder, trace-
folder-packing.
FILE NAME EXPANSION
When the save commands prompts for a file name, the following file name
expansions are performed on the file name you enter:
+folder
The + is replaced by the contents of the folder variable
(default value "~/News/") resulting in the name of a file in the
folder directory. Examples:
+emacs, +nn, +sources/shar/nn
+ A single plus is replaced by the expansion of the file name con‐
tained in the default-save-file variable (or by folder-save-file
when saving from a folder).
~/file The ~ is replaced by the contents of the environment variable
HOME, i.e. the path name of your home directory. Examples:
~/News/emacs, ~/News/nn, ~/src/shar/nn
~user/file
The ~user part is replaced by the user's home directory as
defined in the /etc/passwd file.
|command-line
Instead of writing to a file, the articles are piped to the
given shell (/bin/sh) command-line. Each save or write command
will create a separate pipe, but all articles saved or written
in one command (in selection mode) are given as input to the
same shell command. Example:
| pr | lp
This will print the articles on the printer after they have been
piped through pr.
It is possible to create separate pipes for each saved arti‐
cle by using a double pipe symbol in the beginning of the com‐
mand, e.g.
|| cd ~/src/nn ; patch
The following symbols are expanded in a file name or command:
$F will be expanded to the name of the current group with the peri‐
ods replaced by slashes, e.g. rec/music/synth.
$G will be expanded to the name of the current group.
$L will be expanded to the last component of the name of the cur‐
rent group. You may use this to create default save file names
like +src/$L in the comp.sources groups.
$N will be expanded to the (local) article number, e.g. 1099. In
selection mode it is only allowed at the end of the file name!
$(VAR) is replaced by the string value of the environment variable VAR.
Using these symbols, a simple naming scheme for `default folder name'
is +$G which will use the group name as folder name. Another possibil‐
ity is +$F/$N.
As mentioned above, you can also instruct nn to save a series of files
in separate, unique files. All that is required is that the file name
contains an asterisk, e.g.
+src/hype/part*.shar
This will cause each of the articles to be saved in separate, unique
files named part1.shar, part2.shar, and so on, always choosing a part
number that results in a unique file name (i.e. if part1.shar did
already exist, the first article would be saved in part2.shar, the next
in part3.shar, and so on).
Related variables: default-save-file, folder, folder-save-file, save-
counter, save-counter-offset.
FILE AND GROUP NAME COMPLETION
When entering a file name or a news group name, a simple completion
feature is available using the space, tab, and ? keys.
Hitting space anywhere during input will complete the current component
of the file name or group name with the first available possibility.
If this possibility is not the one you want, keep on hitting space
until it appears.
When the right completion has appeared, you can just continue typing
the file or group name, or you can hit tab to fix the current compo‐
nent, and get the first possibility for the next component, and then
use space to go through the other possible completions.
The ? key will produce a list of the possible completions of the cur‐
rent component. If the list is too long for the available space on
screen, the key can be repeated to get the next part of the list.
The current completion can be deleted with the erase key.
The default value for a file name is the last file name you have
entered, so if you enter a space as the first character after the
prompt, the last file name will be repeated (and you can edit it if you
like). In some cases, a string will already be written for you in the
prompt line, and to get the default value in these cases, use the kill
key. This also means that if you neither want the initial value, nor
the default value, you will have to hit the kill twice to get a clean
prompt line.
Related variables: comp1-key, comp2-key, help-key, suggest-default-
save.
POSTING AND RESPONDING TO ARTICLES
In both selection mode and reading mode you can post new articles, post
follow-ups to articles, send replies to the author of an article, and
you can send mail to another user with the option of including an arti‐
cle in the letter. In reading mode, a response is made to the current
article, while in selection mode you will be prompted for an article to
respond to.
The following commands are available (the lower-case equivalents are
also available in reading mode):
R {reply}
Reply through mail to the author of the article. This is the
preferred way to respond to an article unless you think your
reply is of general interest.
F {follow}
Follow-up with an article in the same newsgroup (unless an
alternative group is specified in the article header). The dis‐
tribution of the follow-up is normally the same as the original
article, but this can be modified via the follow-distribution
variable.
M {mail}
Mail a letter or forward an article to a single recipient. In
selection mode, you will be prompted for an article to include
in your letter, and in reading mode you will be asked if the
current article should be included in the letter. You will then
be prompted for the recipient of the letter (default recipient
is yourself) and the subject of the letter (if an article is
included, you may hit space to get the default subject which is
the subject of the included article).
The header of the article is only included in the posted let‐
ter if it is forwarded (i.e. not edited), or if the variable
include-full-header is set.
:post {post}
Post a new article to any newsgroup. This command will prompt
you for a comma-separated list of newsgroups to post to (you
cannot enter a space because space is used for group name com‐
pletion as described below).
If you enter ? {help-key} as the first key, nn will show you a
list of all available news groups and their purpose. While pag‐
ing through this list, you can enter q to quit looking at the
list. You can also enter / followed by a regular expression
(typically a single word) which will cause nn to show a (much
shorter) list containing only the lines matching the regular
expression.
Normally, you will be prompted for the distribution of the
article with the default take from default-distribution, but
this can be changed via the post-distribution variable.
Generally, nn will construct a file with a suitable header, optionally
include a copy of the article in the file with each non-empty line pre‐
fixed by a `>' character (except in mail mode), and invoke an editor of
your choice (using the EDITOR environment variable) on this file, posi‐
tioning you on the first line of the body of the article (if it knows
the editor).
When you have completed editing the message, it will compare it to the
unedited file, and if they are identical (i.e. you did not make any
changes to the file), or it is empty, the operation is cancelled. Oth‐
erwise you will be prompted for an action to take on the constructed
article (enter first letter followed by return, or just return to take
the default action):
a)bort c)c e)dit h)old i)spell m)ail p)ost r)eedit s)end v)iew w)rite 7)bit
Action: (post article)
You now have the opportunity to perform one of the following actions:
a throw the response away (will ask for confirmation),
c mail a copy of a follow-up to the poster of the article,
e edit the file again,
h hold response for later completion,
i run an (interactive) spell-checker on the text,
m mail a (blind) copy to a specified recipient,
n same as abort (no don't post),
p post article (same as send),
r throw away the edited text and edit the original text,
s send the article or letter,
v view the article (through the pager),
w append it to a file (before you send it),
y confirm default answer (e.g. yes post it), or
7 strip the high-order bit from all characters in the message
If you have selected a 7-bit character set (this is determined by the
values of the charset and data-bits variables), nn will not allow you
to post an article or send a letter whose body contains characters with
the high-order bit set. It will warn you after you have first edited
the message and disable the c)c, m)ail, p)ost, s)end and y)es actions.
You can then either e)dit the message to delete those characters, use
7)bit to strip the high-order bits, a)bort the message, or h)old it and
select an 8-bit character set from nn.
To complete an unfinished response saved by the h)old command, simply
enter any response action, e.g. R {reply}. This will notice the unfin‐
ished response and ask you whether you want to complete it now. Only
one unfinished response can exist at a time. Notice that the $A envi‐
ronment variable may no longer be valid as a path to the original arti‐
cle when the response is completed.
If your message contains 8-bit characters, the charset variable is not
set to "unknown" and the message does not already have a MIME-Version
or Content-XXX header, nn will add the following headers to your mes‐
sage before sending it:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=charset
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
It must be noted that sending 8-bit characters over the current news
and mail networks is risky at best; although large parts of the network
will pass through such characters unchanged, high-order bits may occa‐
sionally be stripped. Although the MIME standard provides solutions for
this by encoding the characters, this is not yet supported by nn.
Adding the above headers is an interim solution that is compatible with
current practice and is much better than just sending the message with‐
out any hints about the character set used.
Related variables: append-signature-mail, append-signature-post,
charset, data-bits, default-distribution, follow-distribution, post-
distribution, edit-response-check, editor, include-art-id, include-
full-header, included-mark, mail-header, mail-record, mail-script,
mailer, mailer-pipe-input, news-header, news-record, news-script, orig-
to-include-mask, pager, query-signature, record, response-check-pause,
response-default-answer, save-counter, save-counter-offset, save-
report, spell-checker.
JUMPING TO OTHER GROUPS
By default nn will present the news groups in a predefined sequence
(see the section on Presentation Sequence later on). To override this
sequence and have a look at any other group the G {goto-group} command
available in both selection and reading mode enables you to move freely
between all the newsgroups.
Furthermore, the G command enables you to open folders and other files,
to read old articles you have read before, and to grep for a specific
subject in a group.
It is important to notice that normally the goto command is recursive,
i.e. a new menu level is created when the specified group or folder is
presented, and when it has been read, nn will continue the activity in
the group that was presented before the goto command was executed.
However, if there are unread articles in the target group you can avoid
entering a new menu level by using the j reply described below. The
current menu level (i.e. number of nested goto commands) will be shown
in the prompt line as "<N>" (in reverse video).
The goto command is very powerful, but unfortunately also a little bit
tricky at first sight, because the facilities it provides depend on the
context in which the command is used.
When executed, the goto command will prompt you for the name of the
newsgroup, folder, or file to open. It will use the first letter you
enter to distinguish these three possibilities:
return An empty answer is equivalent to the current newsgroup.
letter The answer is taken to be the name of a newsgroup. If a news
group with the given name does not exist, nn will treat the
answer as a regular expression and locate the first group in the
presentation sequence (or among all groups) whose name matches
the expression.
+
The answer is taken to be the name of a folder. If only `+' is
entered, it is equivalent to the default save file for the cur‐
rent group.
/ or ./ or ~/
The answer is taken to be the name of a file, either relative to
the current directory, relative to your home directory, or an
absolute path name for the file.
% In reading mode, this reply corresponds to reading the current
article (and splitting it as a digest). In selection mode, it
will prompt for an article on the menu to read.
@ This choice is equivalent to the archive file for the current
group.
= and number
These answers are equivalent to the same answers described below
applied to the current group (e.g. G return = and G = are equiv‐
alent).
Specifying a folder, a file, or an article (with %) will cause nn to
treat the file like a digest and split it into separate articles (not
physically!) which are then presented on a menu in the usual way,
allowing you to read or save individual subarticles from the folder.
When you enter a group name, nn will ask you how many articles in the
group you want to see on the menu. You can give the following answers:
a number N
In this case you will get the newest N articles in the group, or
if you specified the current group (by hitting return to the
group name prompt or entering the number directly), you will get
that many extra articles included on the same menu (without cre‐
ating a new menu level).
j This answer can only be given if there are unread articles in
the group. It will instruct nn to jump directly to the speci‐
fied group in the presentation sequence without creating a new
menu level.
u This instructs nn to present the unread articles in the group
(if there are any). If you have already read the group (in the
current invocation of nn), the u answer will instruct nn to
present the articles that were unread when you entered nn.
a This instruct nn to present all articles in the group.
sword or =word
This instructs nn to search all articles in the groups, but only
present the articles containing the word word in the subject.
Notice that case is ignored when searching for the word in the
subject lines.
nword Same as the s form except that it searched for articles where
the sender name matches word.
eword Same as the s form except that it Psearched for articles where
either the subject or the sender name matches word.
word = /regexp
When the first character of the word specified with the s, n,
and e forms is a slash `/', the rest of the input is interpreted
as a regular expression to search for. Notice that regular
expression matching is case insensitive when case-fold-search is
set (default).
return The meaning of an empty answer depends on the context: if there
are unread articles in the specified group the unread articles
will be presented, otherwise all articles in the group will be
included in the menu.
If you specified the current group, and the menu already contains all
the available articles, nn will directly prompt for a word to search
for in the subject of all articles (the prompt will be an equal sign.)
When the goto command creates a new menu level, nn will not perform
auto kill or selection in the group. You can use the + command in menu
mode to perform the auto-selections.
There are three commands in the goto family:
G {goto-group}
This is the general goto command described above.
B {back-group}
Backup one or more groups. You can hit this key one or more
times to go back in the groups already presented (including
those without new articles); when you have found the group you
are looking for, hit space to enter it.
A {advance-group}
Advance one or more groups. This command is similar to the B
command, but operates in the opposite direction.
N {next-group}
When used within an A or B command, it skips forward to the next
group in the sequence with unread articles or which has previ‐
ously been visited.
P {previous}
When used within an A or B command, it skips backwards to the
preceding group in the sequence with unread articles or which
has previously been visited.
Once you have entered an A or Bcommand, you can freely mix the A, B, P,
and N commands to find the group you want, and you can also use the G
command to be prompted for a group name.
To show the use of the goto command some typical examples on its use
are given below:
Present the unread articles in the dk.general group
G dk.general return u
Jump directly to the gnu.emacs group and continue from there
G gnu.emacs return j
Include the last 10 READ articles in the current group menu
G 10 return
Find all articles in rec.music.misc on the subject Floyd
G rec.music.misc return
= floyd return
Open the folder +nn
G +nn return
Split current article as a digest (in reading mode)
G %
Related variables: case-fold-search, default-save-file, folder-save-
file
AUTOMATIC KILL AND SELECTION
When there is a subject or an author which you are either very inter‐
ested in, or find completely uninteresting, you can easily instruct nn
to auto-select or auto-kill articles with specific subjects or from
specific authors. These instructions are stored in a kill file, and
the most common types of entries can be created using the following
command:
K {kill-select}
Create an entry in your personal kill file. The contents of the
entry is specified during a short dialog that is described in
details below. This command is available in both selection and
reading mode.
Entries in the kill file may apply to a single newsgroup or to all
newsgroups. Furthermore, entries may be permanent or they may be
expired a given number of days after their entry.
To increase performance, nn uses a compiled version of the kill file
which is read in when nn is invoked. The compiled kill file will auto‐
matically be updated if the normal kill file has been modified.
The following dialog is used to build the kill file entry:
AUTO (k)ill or (s)elect (CR => Kill subject 30 days)
If you simply want nn to kill all articles with the subject of
the current article (in reading mode) or a specific article
(which nn will prompt for in selection mode), just hit return.
This will cause nn to create an entry in the kill file to kill
the current (or specified) subject in the current group for a
period of 30 days (which should be enough for the discussion to
die out).
You can control the default kill period, or change it into a
"select" period via the default-kill-select variable.
If this "default behaviour" is not what you want, just answer
either k or s to kill or select articles, respectively, which
will bring you on to the rest of the questions.
AUTO SELECT on (s)ubject or (n)ame (s)
(The SELECT will be substituted with KILL depending on the pre‐
vious answer). Here you specify whether you want the kill or
select to depend on the subject of the article (s or space), or
on the name of the author (n).
SELECT NAME:
(Again SELECT may be substituted with KILL and SUBJECT may
replace NAME). You must now enter a name (or subject) to select
(or kill). In reading mode, you may just hit return (or %) to
use the name (or subject) of the current article. In selection
mode, you can use the name (or subject) from an article on the
menu by answering with % followed by the corresponding article
identifier.
When the name or subject is taken from an article (the current
or one from the menu), nn will only select or kill articles
where the name or subject matches the original name or subject
exactly including case.
If the first character typed at the prompt is a slash `/', the
rest of the line is used as a regular expression which is used
to match the name or subject (case insensitive).
Otherwise, nn will select or kill articles which contain the
specified string anywhere in the name or subject (ignoring
case).
SELECT in (g)roup `dk.general' or in (a)ll groups (g)
You must now specify whether the selection or kill should apply
to the current group only (g or space) or to all groups (a).
Lifetime of entry in days (p)ermanent (30)
You can now specify the lifetime of the entry, either by enter‐
ing a number specifying the number of days the entry should be
active, or p to specify the entry as a permanent entry. An
empty reply is equivalent to 30 days.
CONFIRM SELECT ....
Finally, you will be asked to confirm the entry, and you should
especially note the presence or absence of the word exact which
specify whether an exact match applies for the entry.
Related variables: default-kill-select, kill.
THE FORMAT OF THE KILL FILE
The kill file consists of one line for each entry. Empty lines and
lines starting with a # character are ignored. nn automatically places
a # character in the first position of expired entries when it compiles
the kill file. You can then edit the kill file manually from time to
time to clean out these entries.
Each line has the following format
[expire time :] [group name] : flags : string [: string]...
Permanent entries have no expire time (in which case the colon is omit‐
ted as well!). Otherwise, the expire time defines the time (as a
time_t value) when the entry should be expired.
The group name field can have three forms:
news.group.name
If it is the name of a single news group (e.g. comp.unix), the
entry applies to that group only.
/regular expression
If it starts with a slash `/' followed by a regular expression
(e.g. /^news\..*), the entry applies to all groups whose name
are matched by the regular expression.
empty An empty group field will apply the entry to all groups.
The flags field consists of a list of characters which identifies the
type of entry, and the interpretation of each string field. When used,
the flag characters must be used in the order in which they are
described below:
~ (optional)
When this flag is present on any of the entries for a specific
group, it causes all entires which are not auto-selected to be
killed. This is a simple way to say: I'm interested in this and
that, but nothing else.
+ or ! (optional)
Specify an auto-select + or an auto-kill ! entry, respectively.
If neither are used, the article is neither selected nor killed
which is useful in combination with the `~' flag.
> (optional)
When used with a subject (flag s), the kill entry only matches
follow-ups to that subject (i.e. where the Subject: line starts
with Re:). For example, to kill all "Re:"'s in rec.humor use
the following kill entry: rec.humor:!>s/:.
< (optional)
When used with a subject (flag s), the kill entry only matches
base articles with that subject (i.e. where the Subject: line
does not start with Re:). For example, to kill all articles
asking for help (but not follow-ups) in the tex group, add this
to your kill file:
comp.text.tex:!s</:^HELP
n or s or a (mandatory)
Specify whether the corresponding string applies to the name n
or to the subject s of an article. If flag a is used, the cor‐
responding string is ignored (but must be present), and the
entry applies to articles with a non-empty References: line.
/ (optional)
Specifies that the corresponding string is a regular expression
which the sender or subject is matched against. If not speci‐
fied, a simple string match is performed using the given string.
= (optional)
Specifies that the match against the name or subject is case
sensitive. Furthermore, when regular expression matching is not
used, the name or subject must be of the same length of the
string to match. Otherwise, the match will be case insensitive,
and a string may occur anywhere in the name or subject to match.
| or & (mandatory if multiple strings)
If more than one string is specified, the set of flags corre‐
sponding to each string must be separated by either an or opera‐
tor `|' or an and operator `&'. The and operator has a higher
precedence than the or operator, e.g. a complex match expres‐
sion a|b&c|d will succeed if either of a, b&c, or d matches.
The string field in the entry is the name, subject or regular expres‐
sion that will be matched against the name or subject of each article
in the group (or all groups). Colons and backslashes must be escaped
with a backslash in the string.
Example 1: Auto-select articles from `Tom Collins' (exact) on subject
`News' in all groups:
:+n=&s:Tom Collins:News
Example 2: Kill all articles which are neither from `Tom' or `Eve' in
some.group. Select only articles from Eve:
some.group:~n:Tom
some.group:+n:Eve
The second example can also be written as a single entry with an or
operator (in this case, the select/kill attribute only applies to the
succeeding strings):
some.group:~n|+n:Tom:Eve
To remove expired entries, to "undo" a K command, and to make the more
advanced entries with more than one string, you will have to edit the
kill file manually. To recompile the file, you can use the :compile
command. When you invoke nn, it will also recompile the kill file if
the compiled version is out of date.
SHELL ESCAPES
The ! commands available in selection and reading mode are identical
in operation (with one exception). When you enter the shell escape
command, you will be prompted for a shell command. This command will
be fed to the shell specified in the shell variable (default loaded
from the SHELL environment variable or /bin/sh) after the following
substitutions have been performed on the command:
File name expansion
The earlier described file name expansions will be performed on
all arguments.
$G will be substituted with the name of the current news group.
$L will be substituted with the last component of the name of the
current news group.
$F will be substituted with the name of the current news group with
the periods replaced by slashes.
$N will be substituted with the (local) article number (only
defined in reading mode).
$A is replaced by the full path name of the file containing the
current article (only defined in reading mode).
% Same as $A.
$(VAR) is replaced by the string value of the environment variable VAR.
When the shell command is completed, you will be asked to hit any key
to continue. If you hit the ! key again, you will be prompted for a
new shell command. Any other key will redraw the screen and return you
to the mode you came from.
Related variables: shell, shell-restrictions.
MISCELLANEOUS COMMANDS
Below are more useful commands which are available in both selection
and reading modes.
U {unsub}
Unsubscribe to the current group. You will not see this group
any more unless you explicitly request it. If the variable
unsubscribe-mark-read is set, all articles in the group will be
marked read when you unsubscribe.
If the variable keep-unsubscribed is not set, the group will
be removed from .newsrc. If you are not subscribing to the
group, you will be given the possibility to resubscribe to the
group! This may be used in connection with the G command to
resubscribe a group.
C {cancel}
Cancel (delete) an article in the current group or folder. Can‐
celling articles in a folder will cause the folder to be rewrit‐
ten when it is closed. In selection mode, you will be prompted
for the identifier of the article to cancel. Normal users can
only cancel their own articles. See also the section on folder
maintenance.
Y {overview}
Provide an overview of the groups with unread articles.
" {layout}
Change menu layout in selection mode. The menu will be redrawn
using the next layout (cycling through ..., 2, 3, 4, 0, 1, ...)
Most of the commands in nn are bound to a key and can be activated by a
single keystroke. However, there are a few commands that cannot be
bound to a key directly.
As shown in the keystroke command descriptions, all commands have a
name, and it is possible to activate a command by name with the
extended command key (:). Hitting this key will prompt you for the
name of a command (and parameters). For example, an alternative to
hitting the R key to reply to an article is to enter the extended com‐
mand :reply followed by return. The :post and :unshar commands
described earlier can also be bound to a key. The complete list of
commands which can be bound to keys is provided in the section on Key
Mappings below.
The following extended commands cannot be bound to a key, mainly
because they require additional parameters on the prompt line, or
because it should not be possible to activate them too easily.
:admin Enter administrative mode. This is identical in operation to
the nnadmin(1M) program.
:bug Prepare and send a bug report to the nn-bugs mailing address.
:cd [ directory ]
Change current working directory. If the directory argument is
not provided, nn will prompt for it.
:clear Clear the screen (without redraw). This may be useful at the
beginning of the init file (possibly guarded by "on program
nn"), or in some macros.
:compile
Recompile the kill file. This is not necessary under normal
operation since nn automatically compiles the file on start-up
if it has changed, but it can be used if you modify the kill
file while nn is suspended.
:coredump
Abort with a core dump. For debugging purposes only.
:define macro
Define macro number macro as described in the Macro Definition
section below. If macro is omitted, the next free macro number
will be chosen.
:dump table
Same as the :show command described below.
:help [ subject ]
Provide online help on the specified subject. If you omit the
subject, a list of the available topics will be given.
:load [ file ]
Load the specified file. If the file argument is omitted, the
init file is reloaded. The sequence part (if present) is
ignored.
:local variable [ value ]
Make the variable local to the current group. Subsequent
changes to the variable will only be effective until the current
group is left. If a value is specified, it will be assigned to
the local variable. To assign a new value to a boolean vari‐
able, the values on and off must be used.
:lock variable
Lock the specified variable so it cannot be modified.
:man Call up the online manual. The manual is presented as a normal
folder with the program name in the `From' field and the section
title in the `subject' field. All the normal commands related
to a folder works for the online manual as well, e.g. you can
save and print sections of the manual.
:map arguments
This is the command used for binding commands to the keys. It
is fully described in the Key Mapping section below.
:mkdir [ directory ]
Create the directory (and the directories in its path). It will
prompt for at directory name if the argument is omitted.
:motd Show the message of the day (maintained by the news administra‐
tor in the file "motd" in the lib directory. This file is auto‐
matically displayed on start-up whenever it changes if the motd
variable is set.
:pwd Print path name of current working directory on message line.
:q Has no effect besides redrawing the screen if necessary. If an
extended command (one which is prefixed by a :) produces any
output requirering the screen to be redrawn, the screen will not
be redrawn immediately if the variable delay-redraw is set (use‐
ful on slow terminals). Instead another : prompt is shown to
allow you to enter a new extended command immediately. It is
sufficient to hit return to redraw the screen, but it has been
my experience that entering q return in this situation happens
quite often, so it was made a no-op.
:q! Quit nn without updating the .newsrc file.
:Q Quit nn. This is equivalent to the normal Q command.
:rmail Open your mailbox (see the mail variable) as a folder to read
the incoming messages. This is not a full mail interface
(depending on the nn configuration, you may not be able to
delete messages, add cc: on replies, etc), but it can give you a
quick glance at new mail without leaving nn.
:set variable [ value ]
Set a boolean variable to true or assign the value to a string
or integer variable. The :set command is described in details
in the section on VARIABLES.
:sh Suspend nn, or if that is not possible, spawn an interactive
shell.
:show groups mode
Show the total number or the number of unread articles in the
current group, depending on mode: all (list the number of unread
articles in all groups including groups which you have unsub‐
scribed to), total (list the total number of articles in all
existing groups), sequence (list unread groups in presentation
sequence order), subscr (list all subscribed groups), unsub
(list unsubscribed groups only). Any other mode results in a
listing of the number of unread articles in all subscribed
groups including those you have suppressed with the `!' symbol
in the group presentation sequence. To get just the currently
unread groups in the presentation sequence, use the `Y' {over‐
view} command.
:show kill
Show the kill entries that applies to the current group and to
all groups.
:show rc [ group ]
Show the .newsrc and select file entries for the current or the
specified group.
:show map [ mode ]
Show the key bindings in the current or specified mode.
:sort [ mode ]
Reorder the articles on the menu according to mode or if omitted
to the default sort-mode. The following sorting modes are
available:
arrival: list articles by local article number which will be the
same as the order in which they arrived on the system (unless
groups are merged),
subject: articles with identical subjects are grouped and
ordered after age of the oldest article in the group,
lexical: subjects in lexicographical order,
age: articles ordered after posting date only,
sender: articles ordered after sender's name.
:toggle variable
Toggle a boolean variable.
:unread [ group ] [ articles ]
Mark the current (or specified) group as unread. If the arti‐
cles argument is omitted, the number of unread articles in the
group will be set to the number of unread articles when nn was
invoked. Otherwise, the argument specifies the number of unread
articles.
:unset variable
Set a boolean variable to false or clear an integer variable.
:x Quit nn and mark all articles in the current group as read!
Related variables: backup, bug-report-address, delay-redraw, keep-
unsubscribed, unsubscribe-mark-read, mail, pager, sort-mode.
CATCH UP
If you have not read news for some time, there are probably more news
than you can cope with. Using the option -a0nn will put you into
catch-up mode.
The first question you will get is whether to catch up interactively or
automatically. If you instruct nn to catch up automatically, it will
simply mark all articles in all groups as read, thus bringing you com‐
pletely up-to-date.
If you choose the interactive mode, nn will locate all groups with
unread articles, and for each group it will prompt you for an action to
take on the group. An action is selected using a single letter fol‐
lowed by return. The following actions are available:
y Mark all articles as read in current group.
n Do not update group (this is the default action if you just hit
return).
r Enter reading mode to read the group.
U Unsubscribe to the group.
? Give a list of actions.
q Quit. When you quit, nn will ask whether the rest of the groups
should be updated unconditionally or whether they should remain
unread.
VARIABLES AND OPTIONS
It is possible to control the behaviour of nn through the setting (and
unsetting) of the variables described below. There are several ways of
setting variables:
- Through command line options when nn is invoked.
- Through assignments on the command line when nn is invoked.
- Through global set commands in the init file.
- Through set or local commands executed from entry macros.
- Through the :set extended command when you run nn.
There are four types of variables:
- Boolean variables
- Integer variables
- String variables
- Key variables
Boolean variables control a specific function in nn, e.g. whether the
current time is shown in the prompt line. A boolean variable is set to
true with the command
set variable
and it is set to false with either of the following (equivalent) com‐
mands:
unset variable
set novariable
You can also toggle the value of a boolean variable using the command:
toggle variable
For example:
set time
unset time
set notime
toggle time
Integer variables control an amount e.g. the size of the preview win‐
dow, or the maximum number of articles to read in each group. They are
set with the following command:
set variable value
In some cases, not setting an integer value has a special meaning, for
example, not having a minimal preview window or reading all articles in
the groups no matter how many there are. The special meaning can be
re-established by the following command:
unset variable
For example:
set window 7
unset limit
String variables may specify directory names, default values for
prompts, etc. They are set using the command
set variable string
Normally, the string value assigned to the variable value starts at the
first non-blank character after the variable name and ends with the
last non-blank character (excluding comments) on the line. To include
leading or trailing blanks, or the comment start symbol, #, in the
string they must be escaped using a backslash `\', e.g. to set
included-mark to the string " # ", the following assignment can be
used:
set included-mark \ \#\ # blank-#-blank
To include a backslash in the string, it must be duplicated `\\'. A
backslash may also be used to include the following special characters
in the string: \a=alarm, \b=backspace, \e=escape, \f=form-feed, \n=new-
line, \r=return, \t=tab.
Key variables control the keys used to control special functions during
user input such as line editing and completion. They are set using the
command
set variable key-name
A variable can be locked which makes further modification of the vari‐
able impossible:
lock variable
This can be used in the setup init file which is loaded unconditionally
to enforce local conventions or restrictions. For example, to fix the
included-mark variable to the string ">", the following commands can be
placed in the setup file:
set included-mark >
lock included-mark
Some variables only make sense when set on the command line, since they
are examined early in startup, before the init files are read. The
syntax for setting variables on the command line is:
variable=value
The value may need to be quoted if it contains white space or special
characters. They can be intermixed with other options, and are exam‐
ined prior to other argument parsing.
The current variable settings can be shown with the :set command:
:set (without arguments)
This will give a listing of the variables which have been set in
either the init file or interactively.
:set all
This will give a listing of all variables. Modified variables
will be marked with a `*' and local variables will be marked
with a `>'. A locked variable is marked with a `!'.
:set /regexp
This will give a listing of all variables whose name matches the
given regular expression.
:set partial-name space
The space (comp1-key) key will complete the variable name as
usual, but as a side effect it will display the variable's cur‐
rent value in the message line.
Variables are global by default, but a local instantiation of the vari‐
able can be created using the :local command. The local variable will
overlay the global variable as long as the current group is active,
i.e. the global variable will be used again when you exit the current
group. The initial value of the local variable will be the same as the
global variable, unless a new value is specified in the :local command:
:local variable [ value ]
The following variables are available:
also-full-digest (boolean, default false)
When a digest is split, the digest itself is not normally
included on the menu, and as such the initial adminstrative
information is not available. Setting also-full-digest will
cause the (unsplit) digest to be included on the menu. These
articles are marked with a @ at the beginning of the subject.
also-subgroups (boolean, default true)
When set, a group name in the presentation sequence will also
cause all the subgroups of the group to be included, for exam‐
ple, comp.unix will also include comp.unix.questions, etc. When
also-subgroups is not set, subgroups are only included if the
group name is followed by a `.' in which case the main group is
not included, i.e. `comp.unix' is not included when
`comp.unix.' is specified in the presentation sequence, and
vice-versa. Following a group name by an asterisk `*', e.g.
comp.unix*, will include the group as well as all subgroups
independently of the setting of also-subgroups.
append-signature-mail (boolean, default false)
When false, it is assumed that the .signature file is automati‐
cally appended to responses sent via E-mail. If true, .signa‐
ture will be appended to the letter (see query-signature).
append-signature-post (boolean, default false)
When false, it is assumed that the .signature file is automati‐
cally appended to posted articles. If true, .signature will
explicitly be appended to posted articles (see query-signature).
attributes symbols (string, default ....)
Each element in this string represents a symbol used to repre‐
sent an article attribute when displayed on the screen. See the
section on Marking Articles and Attributes.
auto-junk-seen (boolean, default true)
When set, articles which have the seen attribute (,) will be
marked read when the current group is left. If not set, these
articles will still be either unread or marked seen the next
time the group is entered (see also confirm-junk-seen and
retain-seen-status).
auto-preview-mode (boolean, default false)
Enables Auto Preview Mode. In this mode, selecting an article
on the menu using its article id (letter a-z) will enter preview
mode on that article immediately. Furthermore, the `n' {next-
article} command will preview the next article on the menu only
if it has the same subject as the current article; otherwise, it
will return to the menu with the cursor placed on the next arti‐
cle. The continue command at the end of the article and the `='
{goto-menu} returns to the menu immediately as usual.
auto-read-mode-limit N (integer, default 0)
When operating in auto reading mode, nn will auto-select all
unread articles in the group, skip the article selection phase,
and enter reading mode directly after entry to the group.
Auto reading mode is disabled when auto-read-mode-limit is
zero; it is activated unconditionally if the value is negative,
and conditionally if the value is greater than zero and the num‐
ber of unread articles in the current group does not exceed the
given value.
auto-select-closed mode (integer, default 1)
Normally, selecting a closed subject (usually in consolidated
menu mode) will select (or deselect) all unread articles with
the given subject (or all articles if they are all read). This
behaviour can be changed via the value of this variable as fol‐
lows:
0: select only the first article with the subject (shown on menu).
1: select only the unread articles with the subject.
2: select all available articles with the subject.
auto-select-rw (boolean, default false)
If set, a subject of an article read or posted is automatically
used for subsequent auto-selecting (if not already selected).
This is the most efficient way to see your own posts automati‐
cally.
auto-select-subject (boolean, default false)
When set, selecting an article from the menu using the article
id (a-z), all articles on the menu with the same subject will
automatically be selected as well.
backup (boolean, default true)
When set, a copy of the initial .newsrc and select files will
save be the first time they are changed. nn remembers the ini‐
tial contents of these files internally, so the backup variable
can be set any time if not set on start-up.
backup-folder-path file (string, default "BackupFolder~")
When removing deleted articles from a folder, this variable
defines the name of the file where a (temporary) copy of the
original folder is saved. If the file name doesn't contain a
`/', the file will be located in the .nn directory. Otherwise
the file name is used directly as the relative or full path name
of the backup file. If possible, the old folder will be renamed
to the backup folder name; otherwise the old folder is copied to
the backup folder.
backup-suffix suffix (string, default ".bak")
The suffix appended to file names to make the corresponding
backup file name (see backup).
bug-report-address address (string, default mtpins@nndev.org)
The mail address to which bug reports created with the :bug com‐
mand are sent.
case-fold-search (boolean, default true)
When set, string and regular expression matching will be case
independent. This is related to all commands matching on names
or subjects, except in connection with auto-kill and auto-select
where the individual kill file entries specifies this property.
charset charset (string, default "us-ascii")
The character set in use on your terminal. Legal values are "us-
ascii", "iso-8859-X", where X is a nonzero digit, and "unknown".
Setting this variable also sets the data-bits variable to the
default bit width of the character set (7 for "us-ascii" and
"unknown", 8 for the "iso-8859-X" sets).
The value of this variable also determines wether nn allows
8-bit characters in the body of articles being posted and let‐
ters being mailed (unless the value is "unknown", in which case
this is determined by the value of the data-bits variable). If
necessary, nn will add extra headers to the message indicating
its the character set.
check-group-access (boolean, default false)
When set, nn will perform a check on the readability of a
group's readability before showing the menu for that group.
Normally, this is not necessary since all users traditionally
have access to all news groups. Setting (and locking) this
variable may be used to limit access to a news group via the
permissions and ownership of the group's spool directory (this
will only work for non-NNTP sites).
collapse-subject offset (integer, default 25)
When set (non-negative), subject lines which are too long to be
presented in full on the menus will be "collapsed" by removing a
sufficient number of characters from the subject starting at the
given offset in the subject. This is useful in source groups
where the "Part (01/10)" string sometimes disappears from the
menu. When not set (or negative), the subjects are truncated.
columns col (integer, default screen width)
This variable contains the screen width i.e. character positions
per line.
comp1-key key (key, default space)
The key which gives the first/next completion, and the default
value when nn is prompting for a string, e.g. a file name.
comp2-key key (key, default tab)
The key which ends the current completion and gives the first
completion for the next component when nn is prompting for a
string, e.g. a file name.
compress (boolean, default false)
This variable controls whether text compression (see the com‐
press command) is turned on or off when an article is shown.
The compression is still toggled for the current article with
the compress command key.
confirm-append (boolean, default false)
When set, nn will ask for confirmation before appending an arti‐
cle to an existing file (see also confirm-create).
confirm-auto-quit (boolean, default false)
When set, nn will ask for confirmation before quitting after
having read the last group. If not confirmed, nn will recycle
the presentation sequence looking for groups that were skipped
with the `N' {next-group} command. But it will not look for new
articles arrived since the invocation of nn.
confirm-create (boolean, default true)
When set, nn will ask for confirmation before creating a new
file or directory when saving or unpacking an article (see also
confirm-append).
confirm-entry (boolean, default false)
When set, nn will ask for confirmation before entering a group
with more than confirm-entry-limit unread articles (on the first
menu level). It is useful on slow terminals if you don't want
to wait until nn has drawn the first menu to be able to skip the
group.
Answering no to the "Enter?" prompt will cause nn to skip to
the next group without marking the current group as read. If
you answer by hitting interrupt, nn will ask the question "Mark
as read?" which allows you to mark the current group as read
before going to the next group. If this second question is also
answered by hitting interrupt, nn will quit immediately.
confirm-entry-limit articles (integer, default 0)
Specifies the minimum number of unread articles in a group for
which the confirm-entry functionality is activated.
confirm-junk-seen (boolean, default false)
When set, nn will require confirmation before marking seen arti‐
cles as read when auto-junk-seen is set.
confirm-messages (boolean, default false)
In some cases, nn will sleep one second (or more) when it has
shown a message to the user, e.g. in connection with macro
debugging. Setting confirm-messages will cause nn to wait for
you to confirm all messages by hitting any key. (It will show
the symbol <> to indicate that it is awaiting confirmation.)
consolidated-manual (boolean, default false)
When set, the online manual will be presented with one menu line
for each program in the nn package.
consolidated-menu (boolean, default false)
When set, nn will automatically close all multi-article subjects
on entry to a group, so that each subject only occur once on the
menu page.
counter-delim-left (string, default "[")
The delimiter string output to the left of the article counter
in a closed subject's menu line.
counter-delim-right (string, default "] ")
The delimiter string output to the right of the article counter
in a closed subject's menu line.
counter-padding pad (integer, default 5)
On a consolidated menu, the subjects may not be very well
aligned because the added [...] counters have varying length.
To (partially) remedy this, all counters (and subjects without
counters) are prefixed by up to pad spaces to get better align‐
ment. Increasing it further may yield practially perfect align‐
ment at the cost of less space for the subject itself.
cross-filter-seq (boolean, default true)
When set, cross posted articles will be presented in the first
possible group, i.e. according to the current presentation
sequence (cross-post filtering on sequence). The article is
automatically marked read in the other cross posted groups
unless you unsubscribe to the first group in which it was shown
before reading the other groups. Likewise, it is sufficient to
leave the article unread in the first group to keep it for later
handling.
If not set, cross-postings are shown in the first group occur‐
ring on the Newsgroups: line which the user subscribes to (i.e.
you let the poster decide which group is most appropriate to
read his posting).
cross-post (boolean, default false)
Normally, nn will only show cross-posted articles in the first
subscribed group on the Newsgroups: line. When cross-post is
set, nn will show cross-posted articles in all subscribed groups
to which they are posted.
cross-post-limit N (integer, default 0)
If this variable is set to a value other than 0, then any arti‐
cles posted to more than N newsgroups are automatically skipped.
A value of 5 is pretty good for discarding ``spam'' articles.
data-bits bits (integer, default 7)
When set to 7, nn will display characters with the 8th bit set
using a meta-notation M-7bit-char. If set to 8, these charac‐
ters are sent directly to the screen (unless monitor is set).
Setting the charset variable also sets this variable to the
default bit width of character set.
It also controls whether keyboard input is 7 or 8 bits, and thus
whether key maps contain 127 or 255 entries. See the key map‐
ping section for more details.
If the charset has value "unknown", the value of data-bits also
determines wether nn allows 8-bit characters in the body of
articles being posted and letters being mailed (this is normally
determined directly by the charset variable).
date (boolean, default true)
If set nn will show the article posting date when articles are
read.
debug mask (integer, default 0)
Look in the source if you are going to use this.
decode-header-file file (string, default "Decode.Headers")
The name of the file in which the header and initial text of
articles decoded with the :decode command is saved. Unless the
file name starts with a `/', the file will be created in the
same directory as the decoded files. The information is not
saved if this variable is not set.
decode-skip-prefix N (integer, default 2)
When non-null, the :decode command will automatically skip upto
N characters at the beginning of each line to find valid uuen‐
coded data. This allows nn to automatically decode (multi-part)
postings which are both uuencoded and packed with shar.
default-distribution distr (string, default "world")
The distribution to use as the default suggestion when posting
articles using the follow and post commands if the corresponding
follow-distribution or post-distribution variable contains the
default option.
default-kill-select [1]days (number, default 30)
Specifies the default action for the K {kill-select} command if
the first prompt is answered by return. It contains the number
of days to keep the kill or select entry in the kill file (1-99
days). If it has the value days+100 (e.g. 130), it denotes that
the default action is to select rather than kill on the subject
for the specified period.
default-save-file file (string, default +$F)
The default save file used when saving articles in news groups
where no save file has been specified in the init file (either
in a save-files section or in the presentation sequence). It
can also be specified using the abbreviation "+" as the file
name when prompted for a file name even in groups with their own
save file.
delay-redraw (boolean, default false)
Normally, nn will redraw the screen after extended commands
(:cmd) that clear the screen. When delay-redraw is set nn will
prompt for another extended command instead of redrawing the
screen (hit return to redraw).
echo-prefix-key (boolean, default true)
When true, hitting a prefix key (see the section on key mapping
below) will cause the prefix key to be echoed in the message
line to indicate that another key is expected.
edit-patch-command (boolean, default true)
When true, the :patch command will show the current patch-com‐
mand and give you a chance to edit it before applying it to the
articles.
edit-print-command (boolean, default true)
When true, the print command will show the current printer com‐
mand and give you a chance to edit it before printing the arti‐
cles. Otherwise the articles are just printed using the current
printer command.
edit-response-check (boolean, default true)
When editing a response to an article, it normally does not have
any meaning to send the initial file prepared by nn unaltered,
since it is either empty or only contains included material.
When this variable is set, exiting the editor without having
changed the file will automatically abort the response action
without confirmation.
edit-unshar-command (boolean, default false)
When true, the :unshar command will show the current unshar-com‐
mand and give you a chance to edit it before applying it to the
articles.
editor command (string, default not set)
When set, it will override the current EDITOR environment vari‐
able when editing responses and new articles.
embedded-header-escape string (string, default '~')
When saving an article to a file, header lines embedded in the
body of the article are escaped using this string to make it
possible for nn to split the folder correctly afterwards.
Header lines are not escaped if this variable is not set.
enter-last-read-mode mode (integer, default 1)
Normally, nn will remember which group is active when you quit,
and offer to jump directly to this group when you start nn the
next time. This variable is used to control this behaviour.
The following mode values are recognized:
0: Ignore the remembered group (r.g.).
1: Enter r.g. if the group is unread (with user confirmation)
2: Enter r.g. or first unread group after it in the sequence (w/conf).
3: Enter r.g. if the group is unread (no confirmation)
4: Enter r.g. or first unread group after it in the sequence (no conf).
entry-report-limit articles (integer, default 300)
Normally, nn will just move the cursor to the upper left corner
of the screen while it is reading articles from the database on
entry to a group. For large groups this may take more than a
fraction of a second, and nn can then report what it is doing.
If it must read more articles than the number specified by this
variable, nn will report which group and how many articles it is
reading.
erase-key key (key, default tty erase key)
The key which erases the last input character when nn is prompt‐
ing for a string, e.g. a file name.
expert (boolean, default false)
If set nn will use slightly shorter prompts (e.g. not tell you
that ? will give you help), and be a bit less verbose in a few
other cases (e.g. not remind you that posted articles are not
available instantly).
expired-message-delay pause (integer, default 1)
If a selected article is found to have been expired, nn will
normally give a message about this and sleep for a number of
seconds specified by this variable. Setting this variable to
zero will still make nn give the message without sleeping after‐
wards. Setting it to -1 will cause the message not to be shown
at all.
flow-control (boolean, default true)
When set, nn will turn on xon/xoff flow-control before writing
large amounts of text to the screen. This should guard against
lossage of output, but in some network configurations it has had
the opposite effect, losing several lines of the output. This
variable is always true on systems with CBREAK capabilities
which can do single character reads without disabling flow con‐
trol.
flush-typeahead (boolean, default false)
When true, nn will flush typeahead prior to reading commands
from the keyboard. It will not flush typeahead while reading
parameters for a command, e.g. file names etc.
folder directory (string, default ~/News)
The full pathname of the folder directory which will replace the
+ in folder names. It will be initialized from the FOLDER envi‐
ronment variable if it is not set in the init file.
folder-format-check (boolean, default true)
When saving an article with a full or partial header in an
existing folder, nn will check the format of the folder to be
able to append the article in the proper format. If this vari‐
able is not set, folders are assumed to be in the format speci‐
fied via the mmdf-format and mail-format variables, and articles
are saved in that format without checking. Otherwise, the
*-format variables are only used to determine the format for new
folders.
folder-save-file file (string, default not set)
The default save file used when saving articles from a folder.
follow-distribution words (string, default see below)
This variable controls how the Distribution: header is con‐
structed for a follow-up to an original article. Its value is a
list of words selected from the following list:
[ [ always ] same ] [ ask ] [ default | distribution ]
This is interpreted in two steps:
- First the default distribution is determined. If same is
specified and the original article has a Distribution: header,
that header is used. Else if default is specified (or distribu‐
tion is omitted), the value of default-distribution is used.
And finally, if only a distribution (any word) is specified that
is used as the default.
- Then if ask is specified, the user will be asked to confirm
the default distribution or provide another distribution. How‐
ever, if always (and same) is specified, and the default was
taken from the original article's distribution, the original
distribution is used without confirmation.
The default value of follow-distribution is always same default,
i.e. use either the original distribution or the default-distri‐
bution without confirmation in either case.
from-line-parsing strictness (integer, default 2)
Specifies how strict nn must parse a "From " line in a folder to
recognize it as a mail format message separator line. The fol‐
lowing strictness values determine whether a line starting with
"From " will be recognized as a separator line:
0: Always.
1: Line must have at least 8 fields.
2: Line must contain a valid date and time (ctime style).
fsort (boolean, default true)
When set, folders are sorted alphabetically according to the
subject (and age). Otherwise, the articles in a folder will be
presented in the sequence in which they were saved.
guard-double-slash (boolean, default false)
Normally, when entering a file name, entering two slashes `//'
in a row (or following a slash by a plus `/+') will cause nn to
erase the entire line and replace it with the `/' (or `+'). On
some systems, two slashes are used in network file names, and on
those systems guard-double-slash can be set; that will cause nn
to require three slashes in a row to clear the input.
header-lines list (string, no default)
When set, it determines the list of header fields that are shown
when an article is read instead of the normal one line header
showing the author and subject. See the full description in the
section on Customized Article Headers below.
help-key key (key, default ?)
The key which ends the current completion and gives a list of
possible completions for the next component when nn is prompting
for a string, e.g. a file name.
ignore-re (boolean, default false)
If set, articles with subjects already seen in a previous invo‐
cation of nn or another newsreader - and not auto-selected - are
automatically killed. A great way to read even less news!
ignore-xon-xoff (boolean, default false)
Normally, nn will ignore ^S and ^Q in the input from the termi‐
nal (if they are not handled in the tty driver). Setting this
variable will treat these characters as normal input.
include-art-id (boolean, default false)
The first line in a response with included material normally
reads "...somebody... writes:" without a reference to the spe‐
cific article from which the quotation was taken (this is found
in the References: line). When this variable is set, the line
will also include the article id of the referenced article: "In
...article... ... writes:".
include-full-header (boolean, default false)
When set, the mail (M) command will always include the full
header of the original article. If it is not set, it only
includes the header when the article is forwarded without being
edited.
include-mark-blank-lines (boolean, default false)
When set, the included-mark is placed on blank lines in included
articles. Otherwise, blank lines are left blank (to make it
easy to delete whole paragraphs with `d}' in vi and `C-@ M-] C-
W' in emacs).
included-mark string (string, default ">")
This string is prefixed to all lines in the original article
that are included in a reply or a follow-up. (Now you have the
possibility to change it, but please don't. Lines with a mix‐
ture of prefixes like
: orig-> <> } ] #- etc.
are very difficult to comprehend. Let's all use the standard
folks! (And hack inews if it is the 50% rule that bothers you.)
inews shell-command (string, default "INEWS_PATH -h")
The program which is invoked by nn to deliver an article to the
news transport. The program will be given a complete article
including a header containing the newsgroups to which the arti‐
cle is to be posted. See also inews-pipe-input. It is not used
when cancelling an article!
inews-pipe-input (boolean, default true)
When set, the article to be posted will be piped into the inews
program. Otherwise, the file containing the article will be
given as the first (and only) argument to the inews command.
initial-newsrc-file file (string, default '.defaultnewsrc')
Defines the name of a file which is used as the initial .newsrc
file for new users. The name may be a full path name, or as the
default a file name which will be looked for in a number of
places: in the standard news lib directory (where it can be
shared with other news readers), in nn's lib directory, and in
the database directory. Groups which are not present in the
initial .newsrc file will be automatically unsubscribed provided
new-group-action is set to a value allowing unsubscribed groups
to be omitted from .newsrc.
keep-backup-folder (boolean, default false)
When set, the backup folder (see backup-folder-path) created
when removing deleted articles from a folder is not removed.
Notice that a backup folder is not created if all articles are
removed from a folder!
keep-unsubscribed (boolean, default true)
When set, unsubscribed groups are kept in .newsrc. If not set,
nn will automatically remove all unsubscribed from .newsrc if
tidy-newsrc is set. See also unsubscribe-mark-read.
kill (boolean, default true)
If set, nn performs automatic kill and selection based on the
kill file.
kill-debug (boolean, default false)
When set, nn will display a trace of the auto-kill/select
process on entry to a group. It is automatically turned off if
`q' is entered as the answer to a "hit any key" prompt during
the debug output.
kill-key key (key, default tty kill key)
The key which deletes the current line when nn is prompting for
a string, e.g. a file name.
kill-reference-count N (integer, default 0)
When this variable is non-zero, all articles which have N or
more references on the References: line (corresponding to the
number of >>'s on the menu line) will be auto-killed if they are
not auto-selected (or preserved) via an entry in the kill file.
It should probably not be used globally for all groups, but can
be set on a per-group via the entry macros.
layout number (integer, default 1)
Set the menu layout. The argument must be a number between 0
and 4.
limit max-articles (integer, default infinite)
Limit the maximum number of articles presented in each group to
max-articles. The default is to present all unread articles no
matter how many there are. Setting this variable, only the most
recent max-articles articles will be presented, but all the
articles will still be marked as read. This is useful to get
up-to-date quickly if you have not read news for a longer
period.
lines lin (integer, default screen height)
This variable contains the screen height i.e. number of lines.
long-menu (boolean, default false)
If set nn will not put an empty line after the header line and
an empty line before the prompt line; this gives you two extra
menu lines.
macro-debug (boolean, default false)
If set nn will trace the execution of all macros. Prior to the
execution of each command or operation in a macro, it will show
the name of the command or the input string or key stroke at the
bottom of the screen.
mail file (string, default not set)
file must be a full path name of a file. If defined, nn will
check for arrival of new mail every minute or so by looking at
the specified file.
mail-alias-expander program (string, default not set)
When set, aliases used in mail responses may be expanded by the
specified program. The program will be given the completed
response in a file as its only argument, and the aliases should
be expanded directly in this file (of course the program may use
temporary files and other means to expand the aliases as long
the the result is stored in the provided file).
Notice: currently there are no alias expanders delivered with
nn.
Warning: Errors in the expansion process may lead to the
response not being sent.
mail-format (boolean, default false)
When set, nn will save articles in a format that is compatible
with normal mail folders. Unless folder-format-check is false,
it is only used to specify the format used when new folders are
created. This variable is ignored if mmdf-format is set.
mail-header headers (string, default not set)
The headers string specifies one or more extra header lines
(separated by semi-colons `;') which are added to the header of
mail sent from nn using the reply and mail commands. For exam‐
ple:
set mail-header Reply-To: storm@texas.dk;Organization: TI - DK
To include a semicolon `;' in a header, precede it by a back‐
slash (which must be doubled because of the conventions for
entering strings).
mail-record file (string, default not set)
file must be a full path name of a file. If defined, all
replies and mail will be saved in this file in standard mailbox
format, i.e. you can use you favourite mailer (and nn) to look
at the file.
mail-script file (string, default not set)
When set, nn will use the specified file instead of the standard
aux script when executing the reply and mail commands.
mailer shell-command (string, default REC_MAIL)
The program which is invoked by nn to deliver a message to the
mail transport. The program will be given a complete mail mes‐
sage including a header containing the recipient's address. See
also mailer-pipe-input.
mailer-pipe-input (boolean, default true)
When set, the message to be sent will be piped into the mailer
program. Otherwise, the file containing the message will be
given as the first (and only) argument to the mailer command.
marked-by-next-group N (integer, default 0)
Specifies the amount of (unmarked) articles on the menu marked
seen by the N {next-group} command in selection mode. See
marked-by-read-skip for possible values of N.
marked-by-read-return N (integer, default 0)
Specifies the amount of (unmarked) articles on the menu marked
seen by the Z {read-return} command in selection mode. See
marked-by-read-skip for possible values of N.
marked-by-read-skip N (integer, default 4)
Specifies the amount of (unmarked) articles on the menu marked
seen by the X {read-skip} command in selection mode. The fol‐
lowing values of N are recognized:
0: No articles are marked seen
1: Current page is marked seen
2: Previous pages are marked seen
3: Previous and current pages are marked seen
4: All pages are marked seen
mark-overlap (boolean, default false)
When set, nn will draw a line (using the underline capabilities
of the terminal if possible) to indicate the end of the overlap
(see the overlap variable).
mark-overlap-shading (boolean, default false)
When set, nn will shade overlapping lines (see the overlap vari‐
able) using the attributes defined by the shading-on and shad‐
ing-off variables (of if not set, with the underline attribute).
This is typically used to give overlapping lines a different
colour on terminals which have this capability.
menu-spacing mode (integer, default 0)
When mode is a non-zero number as described below, nn will add
blank lines between the lines on the menu to increase readabil‐
ity at the cost of presenting fewer articles on each page. The
following values of mode are recognized:
0: Don't add blank lines between menu lines.
1: Add a blank line between articles with different subjects.
2: Add a blank line between all articles.
merge-report-rate rate (integer, default 1)
When nn is invoked with the -m option (directly or via nngrap),
a status report of the merging process is displayed and updated
on the screen every rate seconds. The report contains the time
used so far and an estimate of the time needed to complete the
merge.
message-history N (integer, default 15)
Specifies the maximum number, N, of older messages which can be
recalled with the ^P {message} command.
min-window size (integer, default 7)
When the window variable is not set, nn will clear the screen to
preview an article if there are less than size unused lines at
the bottom of the menu screen.
mmdf-format (boolean, default false)
When set, nn will save articles in MMDF format. Unless folder-
format-check is false, it is only used to specify the format
used when new folders are created.
monitor (boolean, default false)
When set, nn will show all characters in the received messages
using a "cat -v" like format. Otherwise, only the printable
characters are shown (default).
motd (boolean, default true)
When set, nn will display the message of the day on start-up if
it has changed since it was last shown. The message is taken
from the file "motd" in the lib directory. It can also be shown
(again) using the :motd command.
multi-key-guard-time timeout (integer, default 2)
When reading a multi-key sequence from the keyboard, nn will
expect the characters constituting the multi-key to arrive
"quickly" after each other. When a partial multi-key sequence
is read, nn will wait (at least) timeout tenths of a second for
each of the following characters to arrive to complete the
multi-key sequence. If the multi-key sequence is not completed
within this period, nn will read the partial multi-key sequence
as individual characters instead. This way it is still possible
to use for example the ESC key on a terminal with vt100 like
arrow keys. When nn is used via an rlogin connection, you may
have to increase the timeout to get reliable recognition of
multi-keys.
new-group-action action (integer, default 3)
This variable controls how new groups are treated by nn. It is
an integer variable, and the following values can be used. Some
of these actions (marked with an *) will only work when keep-
unsubscribed is set, since the presence of a group in .newsrc is
the only way to recognize it as an old group:
0) Ignore groups which are not in .newsrc. This will obviously
include new groups, and therefore you must explictly add any new
groups that you care about (by editting the .newsrc file, or
using the G menu command and then subscribing to the group).
When NNTP is being used, this setting prevents the active.times
data from being read from the server; this can be helpful when
using a slow link, since the data can often be hundreds of
KBytes long.
1*) Groups not in .newsrc are considered to be new, and are
inserted at the beginning of the .newsrc file.
2*) Groups not in .newsrc are considered to be new, and are
appended to the end of the .newsrc file.
3) New groups are recognized via a time-stamp saved in the file
.nn/LAST and in the database, i.e. it is not dependent on the
groups currently in .newsrc. The new groups are automatically
appended to .newsrc with subscription. Old groups not present
in .newsrc will be considered to be unsubscribed.
4) As 3, but the user is asked to confirm that the new group
should be appended to .newsrc. If rejected, the group will not
be appended to .newsrc, and thus be regarded as unsubscribed.
5) As 4, except that the information is stored in a format com‐
patible with the rn news reader (.rnlast). This needs to be
tested!
new-style-read-prompt (boolean, default true)
When set, the reading mode prompt line includes the group name
and the number of selected articles in the group.
news-header headers (string, default not set)
The headers string specifies one or more extra header lines
(separated by semi-colons `;') which are added to the header of
articles posted from nn using the follow and post commands. See
mail-header for an example.
news-record file (string, default not set)
Save file for follow-ups and postings. Same rules and format as
the mail-record variable.
news-script file (string, default not set)
When set, nn will use the specified file instead of the standard
aux script when executing the follow and post commands.
newsrc file (string, default "~/.newsrc") Specifies the
file used by nn to register which groups and articles have been
read. The default setting corresponds to the .newsrc file used
by other news readers. Notice that nn release 6.4 onwards does
allow individual articles to be marked unread, and some articles
marked unread, and thus no longer messes up .newsrc for other
news readers! Also see nntp-server.
nn-directory directory (string, default "~/.nn")
It only makes sense to set this variable on the command line,
e.g. "nn-directory=$HOME/.nn2" since it is looked at before the
init file is read. It must be set to a full pathname. Usually
set when using multiple servers; see newsrc above and nntp-
server below.
nntp-cache-dir directory (string, default "~/.nn")
When NNTP is used, nn needs to store articles temporarily on
disk. This variable specifies which directory nn will use to
hold these files. The default value may be changed during con‐
figuration. This variable can only be set in the init file.
nntp-cache-size size (integer, default 10, maximum 10)
Specifies the number of temporary files in the nntp cache. The
default and maximum values may be changed during configuration.
nntp-debug (boolean, default false)
When set, a trace of the nntp related traffic is displayed in
the message line on the screen.
nntp-server hostname or filename (string)
It only makes sense to set this variable on the command line,
e.g. "nntp-server=news.some.domain", since it is looked at
before the init file, If you use multiple servers, you probably
want to set the nn-directory and newsrc variables on the command
line to alternate names as well, since some of the data files
are server dependent.
old [max-articles] (integer, default not set)
When old is set, nn will present (or scan) all (or the last max-
articles) unread as well as read articles. While old is set, nn
will never mark any unread articles as read.
old-packname (boolean, default false)
When set, nn display names identically to nn-6.6.5 (and ear‐
lier). Only set this if you have a large number of entries in
your killfile that no longer work due to the new behaviour.
Note that in the long run, this option will go away, so it's
best to update your killfile rather than set this.
orig-to-include-mask N (integer, default 3)
When replying to an article, nn will include some of the header
lines which may be used to construct a proper mail address for
the poster of the original article. These addresses are placed
on Orig-To: lines in the reply header and will automatically be
removed before the letter is sent. This variable specifies
which headers from the article are included; its value N is the
sum of the following values:
1: Reply-To:
2: From:
4: Path:
overlap lines (integer, default 2)
Specifies the number of overlapping lines from one page to the
next when paging through an article in reading mode. The last
line from the previous page will be underlined if the terminal
has that capability.
pager shell-command (string, default $PAGER)
This is the pager used by the :admin command (and nnadmin) when
it executes certain commands, e.g. grepping in the Log file.
patch-command shell-command (string, default "patch -p0")
This is the command which is invoked by the :patch command.
post-distribution words (string, default see below)
This variable controls how the Distribution: header is con‐
structed when posting an original article. Its value is a list
of words selected from the following list:
[ ask ] [ default | distribution ]
This is interpreted in two steps:
- First the default distribution is determined. If default is
specified (or distribution is omitted), the value of default-
distribution is used. Otherwise, the specified distribution
(any word) is used as the default.
- Then if ask is specified, the user will be asked to confirm
the default distribution or provide another distribution.
The default value of post-distribution is ask default, i.e. use
the default-distribution with confirmation from the user.
preview-continuation cond (integer, default 12)
This variable determines on what terms the following article
should be automatically shown when previewing an article, and
the next-article command is used, or continue is used at the end
of the article. The following values can be used:
0 - never show the next article (return to the menu).
1 - always show the next article (use 'q' to return to the
menu).
2 - show the next article if it has the same subject as the cur‐
rent article, else return to the menu.
The value should be the sum of two values: one for the action
after using continue on the last page of the article, and one
for the action performed when the next-article command is used
multiplied by 10.
preview-mark-read (boolean, default true)
When set, previewing an article will mark the article as read.
previous-also-read (boolean, default true)
When set, going back to the previously read group with P {previ‐
ous} will include articles read in the current invocation of nn
even if there are still unread articles in the group.
print-header-lines fields (string, default "FDGS")
Specifies the list of header fields that are output when an
article is printed via the :print command and print-header-type
is 1 (short header). The fields specification is desctribed in
the section on Customized Article Headers below.
print-header-type N (integer, default 1)
Specifies what kind of header is printed by the :print command,
corresponding to the three save-* commands: 0 prints only the
article body (no header), 1 prints a short header, and 2 prints
the full article header.
printer shell-command (string, default is system dep.)
This is the default value for the print command. It should
include an option which prevents the spooler from echoing a job-
id or similar to the terminal to avoid problems with screen han‐
dling (e.g. lp -s on System V).
query-signature (boolean, default ...)
Will cause nn to require confirmation before appending the .sig‐
nature file to out-going mail or news if the corresponding
append-sig-... variable is set.
quick-count (boolean, default true)
When set, calculating the total number of unread articles at
start-up is done by simple subtracting the first unread article
number from the total number of articles in each group. This is
very fast, and fairly accurate but it may be a bit too large.
If not set, each line in .newsrc will be interpreted to count
every unread article, thus giving a very accurate number. This
variable is also used by nncheck.
quick-save (boolean, default false)
When set, nn will not prompt for a file name when an article is
saved (unless it belongs to a folder). Instead it uses the save
file specified for the current group in the init file or the
default save file.
re-layout N (integer, default 0)
Normally on the menu, nn will prefix the subject a number of
`>'s corresponding to the number of references on the Refer‐
ences: line. The re-layout variable may be set to use a differ‐
ent prefix on the subjects:
0: One `>' per reference is shown (default).
1: A single `>' is shown if the Subject contains Re:.
2: The number of references is shown as `n>'
3: A single Re: is shown.
4: If any references use layout 0, else layout 1.
re-layout-read N (integer, default -1)
When the header-lines variable is not set, or contains the "*"
field specifier, a line similar to the menu line will be used as
the header of the article in reading mode, including the
sender's name and the article's subject. When this variable is
negative, the subject on this header line will be prefixed
according to the re-layout variable. Otherwise, it will define
the format of the "Re:" prefix to be used instead of the re-lay‐
out used on the menu.
read-return-next-page (boolean, default false)
When set, the Z {read-return} command will return to the next
menu page rather than the current menu page.
record file (string, no default)
Setting this pseudo variable will set both the mail-record and
the news-record variables to the specified pathname.
repeat (boolean, default false)
When set, nn will not eliminate duplicated subject lines on
menus (I cannot imagine why anyone should want that, but....)
repeat-group-query (boolean, default false)
When set, invoking nn with the -g option will always repeat the
query for a group to enter until you quit explicitly. (Same as
setting the -r option permanently).
report-cost (boolean, default true)
This variable is ignored unless nn is running with accounting
enabled (see nnacct). When set, nn will report the cost of the
current session and the total on exit.
response-check-pause pause (integer, default 2)
Specifies the number of seconds to wait after posting an article
to see whether the action *might* have failed. Some commands
run in the background and may thus not have completed during
this period, so even when nn says "Article posted", it may still
fail (in which case you are informed via mail).
response-default-answer action (string, default "send")
The default action to be taken when hitting return to the
"response action" prompt (abort, edit, send, view, write). If
it is unset, no default action is defined.
retain-seen-status (boolean, default false)
Normally, seen articles will just be unread the next time the
group is entered (unless they were marked read by auto-junk-
seen). If retain-seen-status is set, the seen attribute on the
articles will survive to the next time the group is entered.
(This is not recommended because it may result in very large
select files).
retry-on-error times (integer, default 0)
When set, nn will try the specified number of times to open an
article before reporting that the article does not exist any
more. This may be necessary in some network environments.
save-closed-mode mode (integer, default 13)
When saving an article in selection mode (i.e. by selecting it
from the menu), nn will simply save the specified article if the
article's subject is open. When the selected menu entry is a
closed subject, the save-closed-mode variable determines how
many articles among the closed articles should be saved:
0: save root article (the one on the menu) only
1: save selected articles within subject
2: save unread (excl selected) articles within subject
3: save selected+unread articles within subject
4: save all articles within subject
If `10' is added to the above values, nn will not save the
selected subject immediately; instead it will ask which articles
to save using the above value as the default answer.
save-counter format (string, default "%d")
This is the printf-format which nn uses to create substitution
string for the trailing * in save file names. You can set this
to more complex formats if you like, but be sure that it will
produce different strings for different numbers. An alternative
format which seems to be popular is ".%02d" .
save-counter-offset N (integer, default 0)
Normally, file names created with the part.* form will substi‐
tute the * with successive numbers starting from one. Setting
this variable will cause these numbers to start from N+1.
save-header-lines fields (string, default "FDNS")
Specifies the list of header fields that are saved when an arti‐
cle is saved via the O {save-short} command. The fields speci‐
fication is desctribed in the section on Customized Article
Headers below.
save-report (boolean, default true)
When set, a message reporting the number of lines written is
shown after saving an article. Since messages are shown for a
few seconds, this may slow down the saving of many articles
(e.g. using the S* command).
scroll-clear-page (boolean, default true)
Determines whether nn clears the screen before showing each new
page of an article.
scroll-last-lines N (integer, default 0)
Normally, nn will show each new page of an article from the top
of the screen (with proper marking of the overlap). When this
variable is set to a negative value, nn will scroll the text of
the new pages from the bottom of the screen instead. If it is
set to a positive value, nn will show pages from the top as
usual, but switch to scrolling when there are less than the
specified number of lines left in the article.
select-leave-next (boolean, default false)
When set, you will be asked whether to select articles with the
leave-next attribute on entry to a group with left over arti‐
cles.
select-on-sender (boolean, default false)
Specifies whether the find (=) command in article selection mode
will match on the subject or the sender.
shading-on code... (control string, default not set)
Specifies the escape code to be sent to the terminal to cause
"shading" of the following output to the screen. This is used
if the mark-overlap-shading is set, and by the `+' attribute in
the header-lines variable.
shading-off code... (control string, default not set)
Specifies the escape code to be sent to the terminal to turn off
the shading defined by shading-on. Shading will typically be
done by changing the foreground colour to change, e.g.
on term ti924-colour
set shading-on ^[ [ 3 2 m
set shading-off ^[ [ 3 7 m
set mark-overlap-shading
unset mark-overlap
end
shell program (string, default $SHELL)
The shell program used to execute shell escapes.
shell-restrictions (boolean, default false)
When set (in the init file), nn will not allow the user to
invoke the shell in any way, including saving on pipes. It also
prevents the user from changing certain variables containing
commands.
show-purpose-mode N (integer, default 1)
Normally, nn will show the purpose of a group the first time it
is read, provided a purpose is known. Setting this variable,
this behaviour can be changed as follows:
0: Never show the purpose.
1: Show the purpose for new groups only.
2: Show the purpose for all groups.
When NNTP is being used, a setting of 0 prevents the newsgroups
purpose data from being read from the server; this can be help‐
ful when using a slow link, since the data can often be hundreds
of KBytes long.
sign-type (string, default pgp)
What program nn will use to sign messages via the Sign command.
Only pgp and gpg are currently valid.
silent (boolean, default false)
When set, nn won't print the logo or "No News" if there are no
unread articles. Only useful to set in the init file or with
the -Q option.
slow-mode (boolean, default false)
When set, nn will cut down on the screen output to give better
response time at low speed. Normally, nn will use standout mode
(if possible) to mark selected articles on the menu, but when
slow-mode is set, nn will just put an asterisk `*' next to the
article identifier on selected articles. Also when slow-mode is
set nn will avoid redrawing the screen in the following cases:
After a goto-group command an empty menu is shown (hit space to
make it appear), and after responding to an article, only the
prompt line is shown (use ^L to redraw the screen). To avoid
redrawing the screen after an extended command, set the delay-
redraw variable as well.
slow-speed speed (integer, default 1200)
If the terminal is running at this baud rate or lower, the on
slow (see the section on init files) condition will be true, and
the on fast will be false (and vice-versa).
sort (boolean, default true)
When set, nn will sort articles according to the current sort-
mode on entry to a group. Otherwise, articles will be presented
in order of arrival. If not set on entry to a menu for merged
groups, the articles from each group will be kept together on
the menu. If sort is unset while merged groups are presented on
the menu, the articles will be reordered by local article number
(which may not keep articles from the same group together).
sort-mode mode (integer, default 1)
The default sort algorithm used to sort the articles on entry to
a news group. It is a numeric value corresponding to one of the
sorting methods described in connection with the :sort command:
0 - arrival (ordered by article number)
1 - subject (subjects ordered after age of first article)
2 - lexical (subjects in lexicographical order)
3 - age (articles ordered after posting date only)
4 - sender (articles ordered after sender's name)
spell-checker shell-command (string, default not set)
When set, responses can be checked for spelling mistakes via the
(i)spell action. The command to perform the spelling is given
the file containing the full article including header as its
only argument. If the spell checker can fix spelling mistakes,
it must apply the changes directly to this file.
split (boolean, default true)
When set, digests will automatically and silently be split into
sub-articles which are then handled transparently as normal
articles. Otherwise, digests are presented as one article
(which you can split on demand with the G command).
stop lines (integer, default not set)
When stop is set, nn will only show the first lines lines of the
of each article before prompting you to continue. This is use‐
ful on slow terminals and modem lines to be able to see the
first few lines of longer articles (and skipping the rest with
the n command).
subject-match-limit length (integer, default 256)
Subjects will be considered identical if their first length
characters match. Setting this uncritically to a low value may
cause unexpected results!
subject-match-offset offset (integer, default 0)
When set to a positive number, that many characters at the
beginning of the subject will be ignored when comparing subjects
for ordering and equality purposes.
subject-match-parts (boolean, default false)
When set, two subjects will be considered equal if they are
identical up to the first (differing) digit. Together with the
subject-match-offset variable, this can be used in source groups
where the subject often has a format like:
vXXXXXX: Name of the package (Part 01/04)
Setting subject-match-offset to 8 and subject-match-parts to
true will make nn consider all four parts of the package having
the same subject (and thus be selectable with `*').
Notice that changing the subject-match-... variables manually
will not have an immediate effect. To reorder the menu, an
explicit :sort command must be performed. These variables are
mainly intended to be set using the :local command in on entry
macros for source and binary groups (entry macros are evaluated
before the menu is collected and sorted).
subject-match-minimum characters (integer, default 4)
When set to a positive number, that many characters at the
beginning of the subject must match before the subject-match-
parts option comes into affect. This is important, because the
part matching causes the rest of the line to be ignored after
the first digit pair is discovered. This begins after any sub‐
ject-match-offset has been applied.
suggest-default-save (boolean, default true)
When set, nn will present the default-save-file when prompting
for a save file name in a group without a specific save file, or
folder-save-file when saving from a folder. When not set, no
file name is presented, and to use the default save file, a sin‐
gle + must be specified.
tidy-newsrc (boolean, default false)
When set, nn will automatically remove lines from .newsrc which
represent groups not found in the active file or unsubscribed
groups if keep-unsubscribed is not set.
time (boolean, default true)
When set, nn will show the current time in the prompt line.
This is useful on systems without a sysline (1) utility.
trace-folder-packing (boolean, default true)
When set, a trace of the retained and deleted messages is
printed when a folder is rewritten.
trusted-escape-codes codes (string, default none)
When set to a list of one or more characters, nn will trust and
output escape characters in an article if it is followed by one
of the characters in the list. For example, to switch to or
from kanji mode, control codes like "esc $" and "esc ( J" may be
present in the text. To allow these codes, use the following
command:
set trusted-escape-codes ($
You can also set it to all to pass all espace codes through to
the screen. Notice that nn thinks all characters (including
esc) output to the screen as occupy one column.
unshar-command shell-command (string, default "/bin/sh")
This is the command which is invoked by the unshar command.
unshar-header-file file (string, default "Unshar.Headers")
The name of the file in which the header and initial text of
articles unpacked with the :unshar command is saved. Unless the
file name starts with a `/', the file will be created in the
same directory as the unpacked files. The information is not
saved if this variable is not set. Setting it to
"Unshar.Result" will cause the headers and the results from the
unpacking process to be merged in a meaningful way (unless mmdf-
format is set).
unsubscribe-mark-read (boolean, default true)
When set, unsubscribing to a group will automatically mark all
current articles read; this is recommended to keep the size of
.newsrc down. Otherwise, unread articles in the unsubscribe
groups are kept in .newsrc. If keep-unsubscribed is false, this
variable has no effect.
update-frequency (integer, default 1)
Specifies how many changes need to be done to the .newsrc or
select files before they are written back to disk. The default
setting causes .newsrc to be updated every time a group has been
read.
use-editor-line (boolean, default true)
Most editors accept arguments of the form:
editor [-arguments] +n filename
where editor is the name of the editor, and n is the line number
to put the cursor upon entering the file. If use-editor-line is
false, it will not add the "+n" to the arguments.
use-path-in-from (boolean, default false)
When mail-format is set, saved articles will be preceded by a
specially formatted "From " line:
From origin date
Normally, the origin will be the name of the news group where
the article appeared, but if use-path-in-from is set, the con‐
tents of the "Path:" header will be used as the origin.
use-selections (boolean, default true)
When set, nn uses the selections and other article attributes
saved last time nn was used. If not set, nn ignores the select
file.
visible-bell (boolean, default true)
When set, nn will flash the screen instead of "ringing the bell"
if the visible bell (flash) capability is defined in the term‐
cap/terminfo database.
window size (integer, default not set)
When set, nn will reserve the last size lines of the menu screen
for a preview window. If not set, nn will clear the screen to
preview an article if there are less than min-window lines at
the bottom of the screen. As a side effect, it can also be used
to reduce the size of the menus, which may be useful on slow
terminals.
word-key key (key, default ^W)
The key which erases the last input component or word when nn is
prompting for a string, e.g. the last name in a path name.
wrap-header-margin size (integer, default 6)
When set (non-negative), the customized header fields specified
in header-lines will be split across several lines if they don't
fit on one line. When size is greater than zero, lines will be
split at the first space occurring in the last size columns of
the line. If not set (or negative), long header lines will be
truncated if they don't fit on a single line.
CUSTOMIZED ARTICLE HEADER PRESENTATION
Normally, nn will just print a (high-lighted) single line header con‐
taining the author, subject, and date (optional) of the article when it
is read.
By setting the header-lines variable as described below, it is possible
to get a more informative multi line header with optional high-lighting
and underlining.
The header-lines variable is set to a list of header line identifiers,
and the customized headers will then contain exactly these header lines
in the specified order.
The same specifications are also used by the :print and save-short com‐
mands via the print-header-lines and save-header-lines variables.
The following header line identifiers are recognized in the header-
lines, print-header-lines, and save-header-lines variables:
A Approved:
a Spool-File:(path of spool file containing the article)
B Distribution:
C Control:
D Date:
d Date-Received:
F From:
f Sender:
G Newsgroup:(current group)
g Newsgroup:(current group if cross-posted or merged)
I Message-Id:
K Keywords:
L Lines:
N Newsgroups:
n Newsgroups: (but only if cross posted)
O Organization:
P Path:
R Reply-To:
S Subject:
v Save-File:(the default save file for this article)
W Followup-To:
X References:
x Back-References:
Y Summary:
The 'G' and 'g' fields will include the local article number if it is
known, e.g.
Newsgroup: news.software.nn/754
The following special symbols are recognized in the header-lines vari‐
able (and ignored otherwise):
Preceding the identifier with an equal sign "=" or an underscore "_"
will cause the header field contents to be high-lighted or underlined.
A plus sign "+" will use the shading attribute defined by shading-on
and shading-off to high-light the field contents. If no shading
attribute is defined it will underline the field instead.
Including an asterisk "*" in the list will produce the standard one
line header at that point.
Example: The following setting of the header-lines variable will show
the author (underlined), organization, posting date, and subject (high-
lighted) when articles are read:
set header-lines _FOD=S
COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
Some of the command line options have already been described, but below
we provide a complete list of the effect of each option by showing the
equivalent set, unset, or toggle command.
Besides the options described below, you can set any of nn's variables
directly on the command line via an argument of the following format:
variable=value
To set or unset a boolean variable, the value can be specified as on or
off (t and f will also work).
Notice that the init files are read before the options are parsed
(unless you use the -I option). Therefore, the options which are
related to boolean variables set in the init file will toggle the value
set there, rather than the default value. Consequently, the meaning of
the options are also user-defined.
The explanations below describe the effect related to the default set‐
ting of the variables, with the `reverse' effect in square brackets.
-aN {set limit N}
Limit the maximum number of articles presented in each group to
N. This is useful to get up-to-date quickly if you have not
read news for a longer period.
-a0 Mark all unread articles as read. See the full explanation at
the beginning of this manual.
-B {toggle backup}
Do not [do] backup the rc file.
-d {toggle split}
Do not [do] split digests into separate articles.
-f {toggle fsort}
Do not [do] sort folders according to the subject (present the
articles in a folder in the sequence in which they were saved).
-g Prompt for the name of a news group or folder to be entered
-i {toggle case-fold-search}
Normally searches with -n and -s are case independent. Using
this option, the case becomes significant.
-I Do not read the init file. This must be the first option!! The
global setup file is still read.
-Ifile-list
Specifies an alternate list of init files to be loaded instead
of the standard global and private init files. The list is a
comma-separated list of file names. Names which does not con‐
tain a `/' are looked for in the ~/.nn directory. An empty ele‐
ment in the list is interpreted as the global init file. The
list of init files must not be separated from the -I option by
blanks, and it must be the first option. Example: The default
behaviour corresponds to using -I,init (first the global file,
then the file ~/.nn/init). The global setup file is still read
as the first init file independently of the -I option used.
-k {toggle kill}
Do not [do] perform automatic kill and selection of articles.
-lN {set stop N}
Stop after printing the first N lines of each article. This is
useful on slow terminals.
-L[f] {set layout f}
Select alternative menu layout f (0 to 4). If f is omitted,
menu layout 3 is selected.
-m {no corresponding variable}
Merge all articles into one `meta group' instead of showing them
one group at a time. When -m is used, no articles will be
marked as read.
-nWORD Collect only articles which contain the string WORD in the
sender's name (case is ignored). If WORD starts with a slash
`/', the rest of the argument is used as a regular expression
instead of a fixed string.
-N {no corresponding variable}
Disable updating of the rc file. This includes not recording
that groups have been read or unsubscribed to (although nn will
think so until you quit).
-q {toggle sort}
Do not [do] sort the articles (q means quick, but it isn't any
quicker in practice!)
-Q {toggle silent}
Quiet mode - don't [do] print the logo or "No News" messages.
-r {toggle repeat-group-query}
Make -g repeat query for a group to enter.
-sWORD Collect only articles which contain the string WORD in their
subject (case is ignored). If WORD starts with a slash `/', the
rest of the argument is used as a regular expression instead of
a fixed string.
-S {toggle repeat}
Do not [do] eliminate duplicated subject lines on menus.
-T {toggle time}
Do not [do] show the current time in the prompt line.
-w[N] {set window N}
Reserve N lines of the menu screen for a preview window. If N
is omitted, the preview window is set to 5 lines.
-W {toggle confirm-messages}
[Don't] Wait for confirmation on all messages.
-x[N] {set old N}
Present (or scan) all (or the last N) unread as well as read
articles. This will never mark unread articles as read.
-X {no corresponding variable}
Read/scan unsubscribed groups also. Most useful when looking
for a specific subject in all groups, e.g.
nn-mxX -sSubject all
MACRO DEFINITIONS
Practically any combination of commands and key strokes can be defined
as a macro which can be bound to a single key in menu and/or reading
mode.
The macro definition must specify a sequence of commands and key
strokes as if they were typed directly from the keyboard. For example,
a string specifying a file name must follow a save command. This man‐
ual does not give a complete specification of all the input required by
the various commands; it is recommended to execute the desired command
sequence from the keyboard prior to defining the macro to get the exact
requirements of each command.
Although it is possible to define temporary macros interactively using
the :define command, macro definitions are normally placed in the init
file. Macros are numbered from 0 to 100, i.e. it is possible to define
a total of 101 different macros (implicit macros defined with the map
command uses internal numbers from 101 to 200).
To define macro number M, the following construction is used (the line
breaks are mandatory):
define M
body
end
The body consists of a sequence of tokens separated by white space
(blanks or newlines). However, certain tokens continue to the end of
the current line.
The following tokens may occur in the macro body:
Comments
Empty lines and text following a # character (preceded by white
space) is ignored.
Command Names
Any command name listed in the key mapping section can be
included in a macro causing that command to be invoked when the
macro is executed.
Extended Commands
All the extended commands which can be executed through the com‐
mand command (normally bound to the : key) can also be executed
in a macro. An extended command starts with a colon (:) and
continues to the end of the current line. Example:
:show groups total
Key Strokes
A key stroke (which is normally mapped into a command depending
on the current mode) is specified as a key name enclosed in sin‐
gle quotes. Examples (A-key, left arrow key, RETURN key):
'A' 'left' '^M'
Shell Commands
External commands can be invoked as part of a macro execution.
There are two forms of shell command invocations available
depending on whether a command may produce output or require
user input, or it is guaranteed to complete without input or
output to the terminal. The difference is that in the latter
case, nn does not prepare the terminal to be used by another
program. When the command completes, the screen is not redrawn
automatically; you should use the redraw command to do that.
The tho forms are:
:!echo this command uses the terminal
:!!echo this command does not > /tmp/file
Strings
Input to commands prompting for a string, e.g. a file name, can
be specified in a macro as a double quoted string. Example
(save without prompting for a file name):
save-short "+$G"
Conditionals
Conditionals may occur anywhere in a macro; a conditional is
evaluated when the macro is executed, and if the condition is
false the rest of the current line is ignored. The following
conditionals are available:
?menu True in menu mode
?show True in reading mode
?folder True when looking at a folder
?group True when looking at a news group
?yes Query user, true if answer is yes
?no Query user, true if answer is no
Example (stop macro execution if user rejects to continue):
prompt "continue? " ?no break
In addition to these conditionals, it is possible to test the
current value of boolean and integer variables using the follow‐
ing form:
?variable=value
This conditional will be true (1) if the variable is an integer
variable whose current value is the one specified, or (2) if the
variable is a boolean variable which is either on or off. Exam‐
ples:
?layout=3 :set layout 1
?monitor=on break
?sort=off :sort age
break Terminate macro execution completely. This includes nested
macros. Example (stop if looking at a folder):
?folder break
return Terminate execution of current macro. If the current macro is
called from another macro, execution of that macro continues
immediately.
input Query the user for a key stroke or a string, for example a file
name. Example (prompt the user for a file name in the usual
way):
save-short input
yes Confirm unconditionally if a command requires confirmation. It
is ignored if the command does not require confirmation. Exam‐
ple (confirm creation of new files):
save-short "+$G" yes
no Terminate execution of current macro if a command requires con‐
firmation; otherwise ignore it. If neither yes nor no is speci‐
fied when a command requires confirmation, the user must answer
the question as usual - if the user confirms the action execu‐
tion continues normally; otherwise the execution of the current
macro is terminated. Example (do not create new files):
save-short "+$L/misc" no
prompt string
Print the string in the prompt line (highlighted). The string
must be enclosed in double quotes. Example:
prompt "Enter recipient name"
When the macro terminates, the original prompt shown on entry to
the macro will automatically be redrawn. If this is not desir‐
able (e.g. if the macro goes from selection to reading mode),
the redrawing of the prompt can be disabled by using a prompt
command with an empty string (""). Example:
prompt "Enter reading mode?" # old prompt is saved
?no return # and old prompt is restored
read-skip # changes the prompt
prompt "" # so forget old prompt
echo string
Display the string in the prompt line for a short period. Exam‐
ple:
?show echo "Cannot be used in reading mode" break
puts string-to-end-of-line
The rest of the line is output directly to the terminal without
interpretation.
macro M
Invoke macro number M. The maximum macro nesting level is five
(also catches macro loops).
I use the following macro to quickly save all the selected files in a
file whose name is entered as usual. It also works in reading mode
(saving just the current article).
define 1
:unset save-report
save-short input yes
?menu '+'
:set save-report
end
KEY MAPPINGS
The descriptions of the keys and commands provided in this manual
reflects the default key mappings in nn. However, you can easily
change these mappings to match your personal demands, and it is also
possible to remap keys depending on the terminal in use. Permanent
remapping of keys must be done through the init file, while temporary
changes (for the duration of the current invocation of nn) can be made
with the :map command.
The binding and mapping of keys are controlled by four tables:
The multikey definition table
This table is used for mapping multicharacter key sequences into
single characters. By default the table contains the mappings
for the four cursor keys, and there is room for 10 user-defined
multikeys. The fourteen multikeys are named: up, down, right,
left (the four arrow keys), and #0 through #9 for the user-
defined keys.
Multikey #i (where i is a digit or an arrow key name) is defined
using the following command:
map #i key-sequence
where the sequence is a list of 7-bit character names (see
below) separated by spaces. For example, if the HOME key sends
the sequence ESC [ H, you can define multikey #0 to be the home
key using the command:
map #0 ^[ [ H
The input key mapping table
All characters that are read from the keyboard will be mapped
through the input mapping table. Consequently, you can globally
remap one key to produce any other key value. By default all
keys are mapped into themselves.
An entry in the input key mapping table to map input-key into
new-key is made with the command
map key input-key new-key
For example, to make your ESC key function as interrupt you can
use the command
map key ^[ ^G
The selection mode key binding table
This table defines for each key which command should be invoked
when that key is pressed in selection mode, i.e. when the arti‐
cle menu is shown. The command to bind a key to a command in
selection mode is:
map menu key command
For example, to have the HOME key defined as multikey #0 above
bound to the select command, the following command is used:
map menu #0 select
To remap a key to select a specific article on the menu (which
the `a' through `z' keys do by default), the command must be
specified as `article N' where N is the entry number on the menu
counted from zero (i.e. a=0, b=1, ..., z=25, 0=26, ..., 9=35).
For example, to map `J' to select article `j', the following
command is used:
map menu J article 9
The reading mode key binding table
This table defines for each key which command should be invoked
when that key is pressed in reading mode, i.e. when the article
text is shown. The command to bind a key to a command in read‐
ing mode is:
map show key command
In addition to the direct mappings described above, the following vari‐
ations of the map command are available:
User defined keymaps
Additional keymaps can be defined using the command
make map newmap
This will create a new keymap which can initialized using normal
map commands, e.g.
map newmap key command
To activate a user-defined keymap, it must be bound to a prefix
key:
map base-map prefix-key prefix newmap
When used, the prefix key itself does not activate a command,
but instead it require another key to be entered and then exe‐
cute the command bound to that key in the keymap which is bound
to the prefix key.
For example, to let the key sequence "^X i" execute macro num‐
ber 10 in both modes, the following commands can be used:
make map ctl-x
map ctl-x i macro 10
map both ^X prefix ctl-x
Mapping keys in both modes
Using the pseudo-keymap `both', it is possible to map a key to a
command in both selection and reading mode at once. For exam‐
ple, to map the home key to macro number 5 in both modes, the
following command can be used:
map both #0 macro 5
Aliasing
A key can also be mapped directly to the command currently bound
to another key. Later remapping of the other key will not
change the mapping of the `aliased' key. This is done using the
following command:
map keymap new-key as old-key
Binding macros to keys
A previously defined macro can be bound to a key using the com‐
mand:
map keymap key macro macro-number
Implicit macro definitions
An implicit macro can also be defined directly in connection
with the map command:
map keymap key (
body...
)
Keys and character names are specified using the following notation:
C A single printable character represents the key or character
itself.
^C This notation represents a control key or character. DEL is
written as ^?
125, 0175, 0x7D
Characters and keys can be specified by their ordinal value in
decimal, octal, and hexadecimal notation.
up, down, right, left
These names represent the cursor keys.
#0 through #9
These symbols represent the ten user-defined multikeys.
If the variable data-bits is 7, key maps can specify binding of all
keys in the range 0x00 to 0x7F, and the 8th bit will be stripped in all
keyboard input. If the variable data-bits is 8, the 8th bit is not
cleared, and key maps are extended to allow binding of keys in the
range 0xA0 to 0xFE (corresponding to the national characters defined by
the ISO 8859 character sets). Binding commands to these keys can be
done either by using their numeric value, or directly specifying the 8
bit character in the map command, e.g.
map menu 0xC8 macro 72
map key e %
To show the current contents of the four tables, the following versions
of the :map command are available:
:map Show the current mode's key bindings.
:map menu
Show the selection mode key bindings.
:map show
Show the reading mode key bindings.
:map # Show the multikey definition table.
:map key
Show the input key mapping table.
STANDARD KEY BINDINGS
Below is a list of all the commands that can be bound to keys, either
in selection mode, in reading mode, or both. For each command the
default command key bindings in both modes are shown. If the key is
not bound in one of the modes, but it can be bound, the corresponding
part will just be empty. If the command cannot be bound in one of the
modes, that mode will contain the word nix.
Function Selection mode Reading mode
advance-article nix a
advance-group A A
article N a-z0-9 nix
back-article nix b
back-group B B
cancel C C
command : :
compress nix c
continue space space
continue-no-mark return nix
decode
find = /
find-next nix .
follow F fF
full-digest nix H
goto-group G G
goto-menu nix = Z
help ? ?
junk-articles J nix
kill-select K K
layout " nix
leave-article nix l
leave-next L L
line+1 , down return
line-1 / nix
line=@ nix g
macro M
mail M m M
message ^P ^P
next-article nix n
next-group N N
next-subject nix k
nil
overview Y Y
page+1 > nix
page+1/2 nix d
page-1 < delete backspace
page-1/2 nix u
page=0 nix h
page=1 ^ ^
page=$ $ $
patch
post
preview % %
previous P p
print P
quit Q Q
read-return Z nix
read-skip X X
redraw ^L ^R ^L ^R
reply R r R
rot13 nix D
save-full S s S
save-short O o O
save-header E e E
save-body W w W
select . nix
select-auto + nix
select-invert @ nix
select-range - nix
select-subject * *
shell ! !
skip-lines nix tab
unselect-all ~ nix
unshar
unsub U U
version V V
See the descriptions of the default bindings for a description of the
commands. The pseudo command nil is used to unbind a key.
THE INIT FILES
The init files are used to customize nn's behaviour to local conven‐
tions and restrictions and to satisfy each user's personal taste.
Normally, nn reads upto three init files on start-up if they exist (all
init files are optional):
$LIB/setup
A system-wide file located in the library directory. This file
is always loaded before any other init file (even when the -I
option is specified). It cannot contain a group presentation
sequence.
$LIB/init
Another system-wide (global) init file located in the library
directory. This file may be ignored via the -I option.
~/.nn/init
The private init file located in the user's .nn directory. It
is read after the global init file to allow the user to change
the default setup.
The init file is parsed one line at a time. If a line ends with a
backslash `\', the backslash is ignored, and the following line is
appended to the current line.
The init file may contain the following types of commands (and data):
Comments
Empty lines and lines with a # character as the first non-blank
character are ignored. Except where # has another meaning
defined by the command syntax (e.g. multi-keys are named #n),
trailing comments on input lines are ignored.
Variable settings
You can set (or unset) all the variables described earlier to
change nn's behaviour permanently. The set and unset commands
you can use in the init file have exactly the same format as the
:set and :unset commands described earlier (except that the :
prefix is omitted.)
Variables can also be locked via the lock command; this is typi‐
cally done in the setup file to enforce local policies.
Key mappings
You can use all the versions of the map command in the init
file.
Macro Definitions
You can define sequences of commands and key strokes using the
define...end construction, which can then be bound to single
keys with the map command.
Load terminal specific files
You can load a terminal specific file using the
load file
The character @ in the file will be replaced by the terminal
type defined in the TERM environment variable. nn silently
ignores the load command if the file does not exist (so you
don't have to have a specific init file for terminals which does
not require remapping). If the file is not specified by an
absolute pathname, it must reside in your ~/.nn directory.
Examples:
# load local customizations
load /usr/lib/nninit
# load personal terminal specific customizations
load init.@
Switch to loading a different init file
You can skip the rest of the current init file and start loading
a different init file with the following command:
chain file
If this occur in the private or global init file, the chained
init file may contain a sequence part which will replace the
private or global presentation sequence respectively.
Stop loading current init file
You can skip the rest of the current init file with the follow‐
ing command:
stop
Give error messages and/or terminate
If an error is detected in the init file, the following commands
can be used to print an error message and/or terminate execu‐
tion:
error fatal error message...
Print the message and terminate execution.
echo warning message...
Print the message and continue.
exit [ status ]
Terminate nn with the specified exit status or 0 if omit‐
ted.
Change working directory of nn
You can use the cd command to change the working directory when‐
ever you enter nn. Example:
# Use folder directory as working directory inside nn
cd ~/News
Command groups
The init file can contain groups of commands which are executed
under special conditions. The command groups are described in
the section on command groups below.
One or more save-files sections
A save-files section is used to assign default save files to
specific groups:
save-files
group-name (pattern) file-name
...
end
The group name (patterns) and save file names are specified in
the same way as in the presentation sequence (see below). Exam‐
ple:
save-files
news* +news/$L
comp.sources* /u/src/$L/
end
The news group presentation sequence
The last part of the init file may specify the sequence in which
you want the news groups to be presented. This part starts with
the command sequence and continues to the end of the init file.
Both init files may contain a presentation sequence. In this case, the
global sequence is appended to the private sequence.
COMMAND GROUPS
Command groups may only occur in the init file, and they provide a way
to have series of commands executed at certain points during news read‐
ing.
In release 6.4 onwards, these possibilities are still rather rudimen‐
tary, and a mixture of normal init file syntax and macro syntax is used
depending on whether the command group is only executed on start-up or
several times during the nn session.
A command group begins with the word on and ends with the word end.
The following command groups are conditionally executed during the
parsing of the init file if the specified condition is true. They may
also have an optional else part which is executed if the condition is
false:
on condition
commands
[ else
commands ]
end
The following conditional command groups may be used in the init file
to be executed at start-up:
on [ test ]
The commands (init file syntax) in the group are executed only
if the specified test is true. A shell is spawned to execute
the command "[ test ]", so all the options of the test(1) com‐
mand is available. For example, to unset the flow-control vari‐
able if the tty is a pseudo-tty, the following conditional can
be used:
on [ -n "`tty | grep ttyp`" ]
unset flow-control
end
on !shell command
The command group is executed if the given shell command exits
with 0 status (success). Care should be taken that the command
does not produce any output, e.g. by redirecting its output to
/dev/null. For example, to prevent people from reading news if
load is above a specific level, the following conditional might
be placed in the global setup file.
on !load-above 5
error load is too high, try again later.
end
on `shell command` string...
The command group is executed if the first output line from exe‐
cuting the specified shell command is listed among the specified
string values. The shell command can be omitted on subsequent
occurrences of this conditional, in which case the output from
the last shell command is used. For example, the following con‐
ditional can be used to switch to an init file which has a lim‐
ited sequence for news reading during working hours, evenings,
and nights:
on `date +%H` 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
chain init.work
end
on `` 17 18 19 20 21
chain init.evening
else
chain init.night
end
on `` string...
This is equivalent to the previous form except that instead of
executing a shell command, the output from the previous
on $variable [ value ]
If no value strings are specified, the command group is executed
if the given variable is defined in the environment. Otherwise,
the command group is executed only if the value of the variable
occur in the value list. For example, if you want nn to look
for mail in whatever $MAIL is set to - if it is set - you can
use the following code:
on $MAIL
set mail $(MAIL)
end
on slow
The commands (init file syntax) in the group are executed only
if the current terminal output speed is less than or equal to
the baud rate set in the slow-speed variable. This can be used
to optimize the user-interface for slow terminals by setting
suitable variables:
on slow
set confirm-entry
set slow-mode
set delay-redraw
unset visible-bell
set compress
unset header-lines
set stop 5
set window 10
end
on fast
Same as on slow except that the commands are only executed when
the terminal is running at a speed above the slow-speed value.
on term term-type...
The commands are executed if one of the term-type names is iden‐
tical to value of the TERM environment variable.
on host host-name...
The commands are executed if the local host's name occur in the
host-name list.
on program program-name...
The commands are executed if the current program (nn, nncheck,
etc) in the program-name list.
The following on command groups are really macros which may be executed
during nn's normal processing, and as such they cannot have an else
part.
on entry [ group list ]
These commands (macro format!) are executed every time nn enters
a news group. If a group list is not specified, the commands
are associated with all groups which don't have its own entry
macro specified in the group sequence. Otherwise, the entry
macro will be associated with the groups in the list. The group
list is specified using the meta-notations described in the pre‐
sentation sequence section.
All `:' commands at the beginning of the command group are exe‐
cuted before nn collects the articles in the group, so it is
possible to set or unset variables like cross-post and auto-
read-mode-limit before any articles are collected and the menu
is (not) shown.
The non-`:' commands, and `:' commands that follows a command
of another type will be executed immediately after the first
menu page is presented. The execution of a `:' command can be
postponed by using a double `::' as the command prefix.
on entry comp.sources* alt.sources
:set cross-post on # set before collection
:local auto-read-mode-limit -1 # set before showing menu
::unset cross-post # set after collection
end
on start-up
These `:' commands (macro format!) are executed on start-up just
before nn enters the first news group. However, postponed com‐
mands (i.e. non-`:' commands) will not be executed until the
first group is shown (it works like an entry macro).
GROUP PRESENTATION SEQUENCE
News groups are normally presented in the sequence defined in the sys‐
tem-wide init file in nn's library directory.
You can personalize the presentation sequence by specifying an alterna‐
tive sequence in the private init file. The sequence in the private
init file is used before the global presentation sequence, and need
only describe the deviations from the default presentation sequence.
The presentation sequence must start with the word
sequence
followed by a list of the news group names in the order you want them
to be presented. The group names must be separated by white space.
The sequence list must be the last part of the init file (the parsing
of commands from the init file stops when the word sequence is encoun‐
tered).
You may use a full group name like "comp.unix.questions", or just the
name of a main group or subgroup, e.g. "comp" or "comp.unix". However,
if "comp" precedes "comp.unix.questions" in the list, this subgroup
will be placed in the normal alphabetic sequence during the collection
of all the "comp" groups.
Groups which are not explicitly mentioned in any of the sequence files
will be placed after the mentioned groups, unless `!!' is used and it
has not been disabled (as described below).
Each group name may be followed by a file or folder name (must start
with either of `/' `~' or `+') which will specify the default save file
for that group (and its subgroups). A single `+' following the group
name is an abbreviation for the last save file name used. For example,
the following two sequences are equivalent:
group1 +file group2 +file group3 +file
group1 +file group2 + group3 +
When an article is saved, the default save name will be used as the
initial contents of the file name prompt for further editing. It
therefore does not need to be be a complete file name (unless you use
the quick save mode).
Each group name may also be associated with a so-called entry action.
This is basically an (unnamed) macro which is invoked on entry to the
group (following the same rules as the `on entry' command group related
to :set and :unset commands).
The entry action begins with a left parenthesis `(' and ends with a
right parenthesis `)' on an otherwise empty line:
comp.sources. +src/$L/ (
:set cross-post
)
The last entry action can be repeated by specifying an empty set of
parenthesis, e.g.
comp.unix. +unix ()
The entry action of a preceding group in the sequence can be associated
with the current group(s) by specifying the name of the group in the
parentheses instead of the commands, e.g.
comp.unix. +unix (comp.sources.unix)
A macro can also be associated with the entry action by specifying its
number in the same way as the group name above, e.g.
rec.music. +music (30)
Notice that it is the current definition of the macro which is associ‐
ated with the group, so if the macro is later redefined with the
`:define' command, it will not have any effect on the entry action.
Group names can be specified using the following notations:
group.name
Append the group (if it exists) to the presentation sequence
list. If also-subgroups is set (default), all subscribed sub‐
groups of the group will be included as well (if there are any).
Examples: "comp", "comp.unix", "comp.unix.questions". If the
group does not exits (e.g. "comp"), the subgroups will be
included even when also-subgroups is not set, i.e. "comp" is
equivalent to "comp.".
group.name.
Append the subgroups of the specified group to the presentation
sequence. The group itself (if it exists) is not included.
Examples: "comp.", "comp.unix.".
Append the groups whose name ends with the specified name to the
sequence. Example: ".test".
group.name*
Append the group and its subgroups to the presentation sequence
list (even when also-subgroups is not set). Example:
"comp.unix*".
The following meta notation can be used in a sequence file. The
group.name can be specified using any of the forms described above:
! groups
Completely ignore the group or groups specified unless they are
already in the presentation sequence (i.e. has been explicitly
mentioned earlier in the sequence).
!:code groups
Ignore a selection of groups based on the given code letter (see
below), unless they are already included in the sequence.
Notice that these forms only excludes groups from the presenta‐
tion sequence, i.e. they do not include the remaining groups at
this point; that must be done explicitly elsewhere.
!:U groups
Ignore unsubscribed groups, i.e. if they are neither new, nor
present and subscribed in .newsrc. This is useful to ignore a
whole hierarchy except for a few groups which are explicitly
mentioned in .newsrc and still see new groups as they are cre‐
ated.
!:X groups
Ignore unsubscribed and new groups, i.e. if they are not cur‐
rently present and subscribed in .newsrc. This is useful to
ignore a whole hierarchy except for a few groups which are
explicitly mentioned in .newsrc. New groups in the hierarchy
are ignored unless `NEW' occurs earlier in the sequence.
!:O groups
Ignore old groups, i.e. unless they are new. This is useful to
ignore a whole hierarchy but still see new groups which are cre‐
ated in the hierarchy (it might become interesting some day).
Individual groups can still be included in the sequence if they
are specified before the `!:O' entry.
!:N groups
Ignore new groups in the hierarchy.
!! Stop building the presentation sequence. This eliminates all
groups that are not already in the presentation sequence.
NEW This is a pseudo group name which matches all new groups; you
could place this symbol early in your presentation sequence to
see new groups `out of sequence' (to attract your attention to
them).
RC This is a pseudo group name which matches all groups occurring
in the .newsrc file. It will cause the groups in .newsrc to be
appended to the presentation sequence in the sequence in which
they are listed in .newsrc.
RC:number
Similar to the RC entry, but limited to the first number lines
of the .newsrc file. Example: RC:10 (use 10 lines of .newsrc).
RC:string
Similar to the RC entry, but limited to the lines up to (and
including) the first line (i.e. group) starting with the given
string. For example: RC:alt.sources
< group.name
Place the group (and its subgroups) at the beginning of the pre‐
sentation sequence. Notice that each `<' entry will place the
group(s) at the beginning of the current sequence, i.e. < A < B
< C will generate the sequence C B A.
> group.name
Place the group (and its subgroups) after all other groups that
are and will be entered into the presentation sequence.
@ Disable the `!!' command. This can be included in the personal
presentation sequence if the global sequence file contains a !!
entry (see example 1 below).
% .... %
Starts and ends a region of the sequence where it is possible to
include groups which has been eliminated earlier. This may be
useful to alter the sequence of some groups, e.g. to place
comp.sources.bugs after all other source groups, the following
sequence can be used:
! comp.sources.bugs comp.sources* % comp.sources.bugs %
Example 1: In a company where ordinary users only should read the local
news groups, and ignore the rest (including new news groups which are
otherwise always subscribed to initially), can use the following global
presentation sequence:
general
follow
! local.test
local
!!
The "expert" users in the company must put the @ command somewhere in
their private sequence to avoid losing news groups which they have not
explicitly mentioned in their init file.
Example 2: This is the global sequence for systems with heavy news
addicts who setup their own sequences anyway.
# all must read the general news first
< general
# test is test, and junk is junk,
# so it is placed at the very end
> test
> .test
> junk
# this is the standard sequence which everybody may
# change to their own liking
local # our local groups
dk # the Danish groups
eunet.general # to present it before eunet.followup
eunet # the other European groups
comp # the serious groups
news # news on news
sci # other serious groups
rec # not really that important (don't quote me)
misc # well, it must be somewhere
# the groups that are not listed above goes here
Notice the use of comments in the sequence where they are allowed at
the end of non-empty lines as well.
Example 3: My own presentation sequence (in the init file) simply lists
my favourite groups and the corresponding default save files:
sequence
!:U alt* # ignore unsubscribed alt groups
news.software.nn +nn
comp.sys.ti* +ti/$L
NEW # show new groups here
news*
rec.music.synth +synth/
comp.emacs*,gnu.emacs +emacs/misc
comp.risks +risks
eunet.sources +src/unix/
comp.sources* +src/$L/
The presentation sequence is not used when nn is called with one or
more news group names on the command line; it is thus possible to read
ignored groups (on explicit request) wihtout changing the init file.
(Of course, you can also use the G command to read ignored groups).
MERGING NEWS GROUPS
The third example above contains the following line:
comp.emacs*,gnu.emacs +emacs/misc
This is the syntax used to merge groups. When two or more groups are
merged, all new articles in these groups are presented together as if
they were one group. To merge groups, their names must be listed
together in the sequence, and only separated by a single comma. To
merge the groups resulting from a single group pattern (e.g.
comp.emacs*), the group pattern must be followed by a comma and a blank
(e.g. comp.emacs*, ...).
Merged groups are presented as the first group in the "list", and the
word "MERGED" will be shown after the group name. The Y {overview}
command will still show merged groups as individual groups, but they
will be annotated with the symbol `&' on the first of the groups, and a
`+' on the rest of the groups.
In the current version, the concept of the current group in connection
with merged groups is a bit fuzzy. This should only be noticeable with
the G command, which will take the most recently used group among the
merged groups as the current group. So things like G = ... may not
always work as expected.
ENVIRONMENT
The following environment variables are used by nn:
EDITOR. The editor invoked when editing replies, follow-ups, and com‐
posing mail. nn knows about the following editors: vi, ded, GNU emacs,
and micro-emacs, and will try to position the cursor on the first line
following the header, i.e. after the blank line which must not be
deleted! If an article has been included, the cursor is placed on the
first line of the included text (to allow you to delete sections eas‐
ily).
LOGNAME. This is taken as the login name of the current user. It is
used by nn to return failed mail. If it is not defined, nn will use
the value of USER, or if that is not defined either, nn will use the
call `who am i' to get this information. If all attempts fail, the
failed mail is dropped in the bit bucket.
PAGER. This is used as the initial value of the pager variable.
SHELL. This is the shell which is spawned if the system cannot suspend
nn, and it will be used to execute the shell escapes.
TERM. The terminal type.
NOTES
When NNTP is being used over a slow link (as with the ppp protocol and
a modem), it may be desirable to suppress the retrieval of the informa‐
tion about new newsgroups, and their purpose, since they can be hun‐
dreds of KBytes in size. To do this, the new-group-action and show-
purpose-mode variables should be set to 0 in your init file. See the
descriptions of those variables for more info.
Unfortunately, the list of active newsgroups is still fetched, since nn
uses it to determine which groups to check for new articles. Even this
could be avoided, but the cost would be checking for new articles in
every group, which might well be slower overall, although startup would
be faster.
FILES
~/.newsrc The record of read articles.
~/.nn/select The record of selected and seen articles.
~/.nn/init Personal configuration and presentation sequence.
~/.nn/kill The automatic kills and selections.
~/.nn/KILL.COMP The compiled kill file.
~/.nn/LAST The time stamp of the last new news group we have
seen.
~/.nn/NEXTG Active group last time nn was quit.
~/.nn/.param Parameter file for the aux script
$lib/setup System-wide setup - always read first.
$lib/init System-wide setup and presentation sequence.
$lib/aux The response edit and send script.
$lib/routes Mapping rules for mail addresses (on non-domain sys‐
tems).
$db/* The news data base.
/etc/termcap Terminal data base [BSD].
/usr/lib/terminfo/*Terminal data base [SysV].
/usr/local/lib/nntp_serverName of remote nntp server, if not changed by
setting the environment variable NNTPSERVER or the nntp-server variable
on the command line.
The name $lib and $db are the directories used for the auxiliary files
and the news data base respectively. Their name and location is
defined at compile time. Common choices are /usr/local/lib/nn or
/usr/lib/news/nn for $lib and /usr/spool/nn or /usr/spool/news/.nn for
$db.
SEE ALSO
Other netnews documentation.
RFC 1341, MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
nncheck(1), nngoback(1), nngrab(1), nngrep(1), nnpost(1), nntidy(1)nnusage(1M), nnspew(8)ORIGINAL AUTHOR
Kim F. Storm, Texas Instruments A/S, Denmark
CURRENT MAINTAINER
Michael T Pins mtpins@nndev.org
The NNTP support was designed and implemented by Rene Seindal, Insti‐
tute of Datalogy, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
The news.software.nn group is used for discussion on all subjects
related to the nn news reader. This includes, but is not limited to,
questions, answers, ideas, hints, information from the development
group, patches, etc.
4th Berkeley Distribution Release 6.6 NN(1)
