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slrn(1)                    User Manuals                   slrn(1)


NAME
       slrn - An easy to use NNTP / spool based newsreader.

SYNOPSIS
       slrn  [-aCdknmw] [-C-] [-Dname] [-f newsrc-file] [-i config-file] [-k0]
       [--create] [--debug file] [--help] [--inews] [--kill-log file]  [--nntp
       [-h server] [-p port]] [--show-config] [--spool] [--version]

DESCRIPTION
       slrn is an easy to use but powerful NNTP / spool based newsreader.

       It  is highly customizable, supports scoring, free key bindings and can
       be extended using the embedded S-Lang interpreter.

       To use slrn, you either need to set the NNTPSERVER environment variable
       to  the  server  you  want to read news from or specify a server on the
       command line.  A newsrc file is needed, too.  In case you  do  not  yet
       have one, you can create it using ``slrn -f ~/.jnewsrc --create''.

       Inside slrn, online help is available via the '?' key.

OPTIONS
       The  following  options  can be used when calling slrn from the command
       line.  They override both environment variables and settings in private
       and global configuration files.

       -a     Read active file when checking for new news.

       -C     Use colors without checking if the terminal supports it.

       -C-    Don't use colors, even if the terminal supports it.

       -d     Get  group descriptions (taglines) from the news server.  Please
              note that this may cause a download of several hundred kilobytes
              and  thus  can take a long time.  The output is saved to a local
              file, so you only need to do this once.  May not be specified in
              combination with --create.

       -Dname Add  name  to the list of predefined preprocessing tokens, which
              can be used in your slrnrc file  to  have  conditionally  inter-
              preted lines.  See the slrn reference manual for details.

       -f newsrc-file
              Use  file  as  the newsrc file for this session.  This is perma-
              nently set via the server configuration command.

       -h host[:port]
              Connect to the NNTP server on host, overriding  the  $NNTPSERVER
              environment  variable.   If  no  port is given, the default NNTP
              port (119) will be used.  This option  is  only  accepted  after
              --nntp or when NNTP is the default mode.

       -i config-file
              Read  file  as the initialization (slrnrc) file.  The default is



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slrn(1)                    User Manuals                   slrn(1)


              to use .slrnrc (or slrn.rc on VMS, OS/2  and  Windows)  in  your
              home directory.

       -k     Don't read the score file.

       -k0    Read  the  score  file, but inhibit expensive scoring. A scoring
              rule is expensive if it  contains  header  lines  that  are  not
              included  in  the  server's overview files.  This makes applying
              them slow.

       -m     Force mouse support (without checking if it works on the current
              terminal).

       -n     Do  not  check  for  new  groups  (usually resulting in a faster
              startup).

       -p N   Use port N to connect to the NNTP server.

       -w     Wait for a key before switching to full  screen  mode,  allowing
              the user to read startup messages.

       --create
              Read  the  active  file  (the  list of all groups) from the news
              server to create an initial newsrc file.

       --debug file
              Write debugging output to file.

       --help Show help for command line switches.

       --inews
              Use an external inews program to post articles.

       --kill-log file
              Keep a log of all articles that were killed by the scorefile  in
              file.

       --nntp Use  builtin  NNTP  support for reading and posting (an external
              program  is  used  to   post   if   slrn   was   compiled   with
              --enable-force-inews).

       --pull Spool outgoing articles locally for slrnpull to send.

       --show-config
              Print detailed information about slrn configuration.

       --spool
              Read directly from spool.

       --version
              Print version and some compile time settings.

ENVIRONMENT
       slrn   uses   the  following  list  of  environment  variables.   Note:



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slrn(1)                    User Manuals                   slrn(1)


       environment variables can be overridden by configuration files or  com-
       mand line switches.

       COLORTERM
              If  this  variable  is  set, slrn will assume that your terminal
              supports ANSI color sequences.  It also enables a workaround for
              a  problem  with the mouse reporting when running slrn inside of
              an rxvt.

       DISPLAY
              If set, slrn assumes that X11 is running.

       EDITOR See $SLRN_EDITOR.

       HOME   See $SLRNHOME.

       HOSTNAME
              If no hostname is given, the value of this environment  variable
              is used.

       LOGNAME
              See $USER.

       NAME   Set it to your realname, if slrn can't determine it otherwise.

       NNTPSERVER
              You can use this variable to tell slrn which NNTP server to con-
              nect to.  It can be overridden by the command line option -h.

       ORGANIZATION
              The name of your organization.

       PRINTER
              On unix systems, slrn pipes the  current  article  to  ``lpr  -P
              $PRINTER'' to print it.

       PWD    This  variable  is  only used on unix systems that don't support
              getcwd(3).  In these cases, it should  be  set  to  the  current
              directory  at the time slrn is invoked.  This is usually done by
              the shell and nothing the user has to worry about.

       REPLYTO
              The value of this variable is used as the default if you do  not
              set replyto in your slrnrc file.

       SLANG_EDITOR
              See $SLRN_EDITOR.

       SLRNHELP
              You  can set this variable to a file slrn should read its online
              help from.  This is only needed when the  default  key  bindings
              have  been  changed  and  you  want the help function to reflect
              this.  If unset, slrn looks for help.txt  in  the  configuration
              directory.



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slrn(1)                    User Manuals                   slrn(1)


       SLRNHOME
              When  interpreting filenames as relative to your home directory,
              slrn uses this variable to find out what your home directory is.
              If $SLRNHOME is unset, $HOME is used instead.

       SLRN_EDITOR
              The  editor  to start for editing articles.  If this variable is
              unset, slrn subsequently looks  at  $SLANG_EDITOR,  $EDITOR  and
              $VISUAL.

       SLRN_SLANG_DIR
              If  set, slrn will search for slang macros here. If not set slrn
              will search in the default path, which  is  defined  at  compile
              time (usually share_dir/slang).

       TMP    Indicates  the  directory  in  which  slrn should save temporary
              files.

       TMPDIR See $TMP.

       USER   Your username, if slrn can't get it from  the  system  by  other
              means.

       VISUAL See $SLRN_EDITOR.

FILES
       $HOME/.slrnrc
              User-specific configuration file.

       config_dir/slrn.rc
              System-wide  configuration  file.  config_dir  is set at compile
              time (/usr/local/etc by default).

       $HOME/.jnewsrc
              default newsrc file for slrn.

       $HOME/.jnewsrc.dsc
              Per user newsgroups descriptions.

       share_dir/newsgroups.dsc
              Global newsgroup descriptions. share_dir is set at compile  time
              (/usr/local/share/slrn by default).

SEE ALSO
       The  documentation  that  comes with slrn, especially FIRST_STEPS, man-
       ual.txt, FAQ and score.txt.  If you  consider  writing  S-Lang  macros,
       also look at README.macros and slrnfuns.txt.

       Recent  versions  of  the slrn manual and the FAQ as well as additional
       information  can  also  be  found  on  slrn's   official   home   page:
       http://slrn.sourceforge.net/

       Questions about slrn that are not covered by existing documentation may
       be posted to the newsgroup news.software.readers  where  they  will  be



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slrn(1)                    User Manuals                   slrn(1)


       answered by knowledgeable users or the author of the program.  In addi-
       tion, announcements of new versions of slrn are posted there.

       The latest version of slrn is available from http://prdownloads.source-
       forge.net/slrn/

AUTHOR
       John E. Davis <jed@jedsoft.org>

















































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