2001-04-26 18:44:39 +00:00
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<!doctype linuxdoc system>
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<article>
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<title>News Leafsite mini-HOWTO
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<author>Florian Kuehnert, <tt>sutok@gmx.de</tt>
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2001-12-01 14:57:26 +00:00
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<date>v0.4, 2001-12-01
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2001-04-26 18:44:39 +00:00
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<abstract>
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This HOWTO will help you to configure a small leafsite for Usenet News
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using the free software package Leafnode. For any questions,
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suggestions and comments, please write to Florian Kuehnert
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(sutok@gmx.de). Please send any bugs you found in this document to me
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as well. (C) 1998 by Florian Kuehnert.
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</abstract>
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<sect>Why to use Leafnode?
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<p>
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In normal cases if you want to read news offline on your local computer
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you have to install a news server software like INN or CNews. Also you
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are in the need for an nntp or uucp connection to your newsfeed. In
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fact that such packages contain much more features than you need, you
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run better by installing Leafnode.<p>
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Leafnode is much simpler to use and very small but there are some
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disadvantages: Leafnode is slow and loses news in about any error
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situation. That's why you shouldn't use it for a big news server,
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nevertheless, it<69>s appropriate for private users who don<6F>t want spend
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much time configuring INN.<p>
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<sect>Where to get Leafnode?
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<p>
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Leafnode is available at <url url="ftp://ftp.troll.no/pub/freebies/"
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name="ftp://ftp.troll.no/pub/freebies/"> and has been developed by
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Arnt Gulbrandsen, an employee of Troll Tech AS. The recent version is
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1.4 and in some distributions (for example Debian), Leafnode is
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included. However, be sure to use at least version
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1.4 as several critical bugs were fixed.<p>
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<sect> How do I install it?
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<p>
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A small installation help comes with the package, but let's do it
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together :-) -- If Leafnode >=1.4 is shipped with your distribution,
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it would be the wisest to use the pre-compiled version and leave out
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the steps 1 to 4.<p>
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1.) Be sure that there is no other news server running on your
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computer. When you type<newline>
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<bf/$ telnet localhost nntp/
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<newline>
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you should get an error message. If you get a connection get back to the
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prompt of your shell, you should uninstall INN, CNews or whatever you're
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running now and comment out the nntp-line in your /etc/inetd.conf.
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<p>
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2.) Make sure that there is a user called "news", check in
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/etc/password for the name. If there isn't, create one (either typing
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<newline>
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<bf/$ adduser news/
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<newline>
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or using a tool shipped with your distribution).
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<p>
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3.) Unpack the sources:
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<newline>
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<bf/$ tar xfz leafnode-1.4.tar.gz/
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<newline>
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and change into the source directory
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<newline>
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<bf/$ cd leafnode-1.4/
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<p>
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4.) Compile the program and install it
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<newline>
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<bf/$ make; make install/
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<newline><p>
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5.) Edit /usr/lib/leafnode/config (it may be on any other place like
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/etc/leafnode when you use a pre-compiled version of your Linux
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distribution). The line "server =" should point to the news server of
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your ISP.
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<p>
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6.) Edit /etc/nntpserver. It should include your local hostname
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(localhost or whatever your computer name is, the command hostname
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should help you). If in some startup file like /etc/profile or
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~/.bash_profile the environment variable is defined, you should
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adjust to your computer<65>s name as well.
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<p>
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7.) Edit the /etc/inetd.conf: Make sure that there is no line beginning
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with "nntp". If there is such a line, comment it out putting a "#"
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before it. Then add the following line:
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<newline>
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<bf>nntp stream tcp nowait news /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/local/sbin/leafnode</bf>
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<newline>
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When someone (for example you :-) connects to your computer on the
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NNTP port, leafnode is started as server process.
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<p>
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8.) Go online and run the program "fetch" as root or news. The first time
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fetch is started, it will download a list of your ISP's newsgroups. This
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may take some time depending on the speed on your connection and the
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number of groups your ISP has in its active-File.
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<p>
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9.) Start your favorite newsreader (slrn, (r)tin and knews are not a
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bad start) and subscribe to all your groups you read. Be careful not
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just to subscribe these groups, but also to enter them, even when
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they're empty.
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<p>
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10.) Start fetch again to download all the news of the groups want to
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get.<p> <sect> How do I maintain leafnode?
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<p>
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Now you have got a working news system up and running, but there are
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still some things to do. You may edit the file /usr/lib/leafnode/config
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to set the expire dates of your groups. This number means, when old
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messages should be deleted. The standard time of 20 days is much often
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too long if you read some groups with much traffic, 4 days or a week
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are in most cases a good time for your system. You may change the value
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for all groups ("expire = n" to hold all groups n days), but you tell
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leafnode to change this time for some separate groups writing
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<newline>
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groupexpire foo.bar n
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<newline>
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to set the expire time for the group foo.bar to n days.
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<p>
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This setting alone won't make leafnode deleting old messages, a
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separate program is responsible for this: texpire. It may be started
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as a cron job or by command line. If your computer is up all the time,
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you may want to add the following line to news' crontab file (to edit
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it, log in as news and type "crontab -e" or as type root "crontab -u
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news -e"):
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<newline>
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0 19 * * * /usr/local/sbin/texpire
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<newline>
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This line causes the cron daemon to star texpire every day at
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19:00. Check the crontab manual page for further adjustment. If
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your computer is not regularly switched on, you may start texpire
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just from time to time, when you notice that fetch gets slower. It
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works fine as with the "cron-method".
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<p>
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<sect> How does it work?
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<p>
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Leafnode is a "real" NNTP server, which means that you can also login
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from a different computer (via Internet, the local network
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etc.). Every time you enter a group in your newsreader, your reader
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sends the information to leafnode and requests it. If the group does
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not exist, leafnode will create an empty file
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/var/spool/news/interesting.groups, named like the group. When you run
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fetch the next time, it will fetch the messages of the group. If a
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newsgroup has not been visited for a certain time, leafnode will stop
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to fetch its articles and delete its name in
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/var/spool/news/interesting.groups. So if you just subscribed to a
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high traffic newsgroup by accident, you may delete its file there by
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hand for that you won't have to download all the postings there for
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the next week.
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<p>
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A week is not enough for you? You want to go on holiday for three weeks
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and still get news? Unfortunately, there is no option in leafnode to
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change it. But you can edit the file leafnode.h and recompile it. The
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#defined constants are TIMEOUT_LONG and TIMEOUT_SHORT, just set the
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time in seconds up. Another, simpler solution is to define a cron-job
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that does "touch /var/spool/news/interesting.groups/*" every night.
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<p>
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If you want to get a list of all avaible groups, look into the file
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/usr/lib/leafnode/groupinfo, where you will find a short description
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on the group.
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<p>
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If you want to re-read the list of newsgroups from your newsfeed (for
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example when you want to read a new group), just delete the file
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/var/spool/news/active.read. Fetch will create it the next time and
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get the new list. Fetch will also re-read the grouplist from time to
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time, so you don't have to do it by hand.
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<p>
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<sect>What newsreader should I use?
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<p>
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There is not *the* newsreader for Linux, like there is not *the*
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editor. My favourite newsreader is emacs in gnus mode which is the
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most configurable reader for Linux. Many people are using slrn and
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tin on a terminal, many people use knews under X. There are also trn,
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nn and a lot more reader, so just try what you like. The only reader
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you shouldn't use is Netscape, it is big, feature-less, unstable, and
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it creates sometimes broken postings. However, it is your personal
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decision.
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<p>
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Anyway, knews is no bad idea for your first experiences as it is very
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user-friendly and easy to understand.
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<p>
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<sect> Where do I get more information?
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<p>
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Some documentation is provided with the Leafnode package (read the
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files INSTALL and README, the sources are also quite interesting). If
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you want to know more about "professional" and "big" news servers,
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check the INN FAQ (they are provided with the INN package). To get
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information about your newsreader, type man "name of your newsreader"
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or check for other files in /usr/doc.
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<p>
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If you have any questions concerning the news system, just ask in an
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appropriate newsgroup (look in the news.software.ALL hierarchy).
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<p>
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If you have any question, comments or corrections concerning this
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HOWTO, just write to me (sutok@gmx.de).
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<p>
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2001-12-01 14:57:26 +00:00
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<sect>Copyright, License, Thanks
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<p>
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This document is Copyright(c) 1995, Florian Keuhnert.
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<p>
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It is distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License, which you
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should have received with it. You can also read it at
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2016-01-17 22:10:44 +00:00
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<url url="http://www.fsf.org/licenses/fdl.html">.
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2001-04-26 18:44:39 +00:00
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<p>
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I would like to thank Michael Schulz (michaels@home.on-luebeck.de)
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for his help concerning some language problems and Cornelius Krasel
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(krasel@wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de) for his "touch *"-trick.
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</article>
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