73 lines
3.2 KiB
HTML
73 lines
3.2 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
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<!--Converted with LaTeX2HTML 96.1-c (Feb 29, 1996) by Nikos Drakos (nikos@cbl.leeds.ac.uk), CBLU, University of Leeds -->
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<TITLE>Newsreader Configuration</TITLE>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY LANG="EN">
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<A HREF="node1.html"><IMG WIDTH=65 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="contents" SRC="contents_motif.gif"></A> <BR>
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<B> Next:</B> <A HREF="node281.html">tin Configuration</A>
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<B>Up:</B> <A HREF="nag.html">The Network Administrators' Guide</A>
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<B> Previous:</B> <A HREF="node279.html">nntpd Interaction with C-News</A>
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<BR> <P>
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<H1><A NAME="SECTION0021000000">Newsreader Configuration</A></H1>
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<A NAME="newsreaders"></A>
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Newsreaders are intended to offer the user functionality that allows her
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to access the functions of the news system easily, like posting
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articles, or skimming the contents of a newsgroup in a comfortable way.
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The quality of this interface is subject of endless flame wars.
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<P>
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There are a couple of newsreaders available which have been ported to
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Linux. Below I will describe the basic setup for the three most
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popular ones, namely tin, trn, and nn.
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<P>
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One of the most effective newsreaders is
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<PRE>
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$ find /var/spool/news -name '[0-9]*' -exec cat {} \; | more
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</PRE>
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This is the way die-hards read their news.
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<P>
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The majority of newsreaders, however, are much more sophisticated.
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They usually offer a full-screen interface with separate levels for
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displaying all groups the user has subscribed to, for displaying an
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overview of all articles in one group. and for individual articles.
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<P>
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At the newsgroup level, most newsreaders display a list of articles,
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showing their subject line, and the author. In big groups, it is impossible
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for the user to keep track of articles relating to each other, although
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it is possible to identify responses to earlier articles.
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<P>
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A response usually repeats the original article's subject, prepending it
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with ``Re: ''. Additionally, the message id of the article it is
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a direct follow-up to may be given in the References: header
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line. Sorting articles by these two criteria generates small clusters
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(in fact, trees) of articles, which are called <em>threads</em>. One of the
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tasks in writing a newsreader is devising an efficient scheme of
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threading, because the time required for this is proportional to the
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square of the number of articles.
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<P>
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Here, we will not dig any further into how the user interfaces are
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built. All newsreaders currently available for have a good help
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function, so you ought to get along.
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<P>
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In the following, we will only deal with administrative tasks. Most of
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these relate to the creation of threads databases and accounting.
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<P>
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<BR> <HR>
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<UL>
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<LI> <A HREF="node281.html#SECTION0021100000">tin Configuration</A>
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<LI> <A HREF="node282.html#SECTION0021200000">trn Configuration</A>
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<LI> <A HREF="node283.html#SECTION0021300000">nn Configuration</A>
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</UL>
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<HR><A HREF="node1.html"><IMG WIDTH=65 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="contents" SRC="contents_motif.gif"></A> <BR>
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<B> Next:</B> <A HREF="node281.html">tin Configuration</A>
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<B>Up:</B> <A HREF="nag.html">The Network Administrators' Guide</A>
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<B> Previous:</B> <A HREF="node279.html">nntpd Interaction with C-News</A>
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<P><ADDRESS>
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<I>Andrew Anderson <BR>
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Thu Mar 7 23:22:06 EST 1996</I>
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</ADDRESS>
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</BODY>
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</HTML>
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