4.4BSD/usr/src/contrib/news/trn3/HINTS

Here's some helpful hints for getting the most out of trn:

The 'X' command in the selector (kinda like catchup/yes) can be made the
default action on the last page of selections by using the command-line
option:  -XX.  This lets you browse all the pages, making selections as you
go, and then mark everything that was not selected as read when you press
space at the last page.
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If you like to select a little, read a little, and then select a little
more, try using the command-line option:  -XDD.  This makes the 'D' command
the default on all pages of the selector.  Thus you can select the things
you want to read on the current page, press space, and you will read the
selected articles immediately (if there were any).  All other articles on
the current page will be marked as read.
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Keep in mind that you can create a file called .trninit and point trn at
it by definining the environment variable TRNINIT.  Depending on your shell,
you might use "setenv TRNINIT ~/.trninit" or some other type of assignment
(put the definition in your shell's rc file).  Then put all your command-line
options in this file.
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I like to redefine the 'u' keys in the following way:  'u' visits the "Set
unread?" prompt (except in the thread selector), 'U' goes directly to the
already-read article selector, and Ctrl-U unsubscribes from the group (even
while in the thread selector).  Put the following 3 macros in your .rnmac
file to accomplish this (or change RNMACROS to .trnmac and put them there):

u	%(%m=[aefnp]?U:u)
U	%(%m=[aefnp]?U+:U)
^U	%(%m=t?+u:u)
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I like to have the '=' command start the article selector and the '+'
command to start the thread selector (or subject selector if the group
isn't threaded).  You can accomplish this by adding the following macros
to your .rnmac file:

=	%(%m=[aep]?_a:=)
+	%(%m=[aep]?_T:+)
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If you like to be able to move forward/backward by article number more
often than you need to search by subject, redefine ^N and ^P to be _N
and _P by putting these lines into your .rnmac file:

^P	%(%m=[aep]?_P:^P)
^N	%(%m=[aep]?_N:^N)
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If you like the way that 'q' worked in the thread selector in trn 1.x, put
the following macro in your .rnmac file:

q	%(%m=t?+:q)
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If you would like the 'f' command to always answer yes to the "Are you start-
ing an unreleated topic?" question, put this line into your .rnmac file:

f	%(%m=[ap]?fy^m:f)
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If you want to be able to save your shar headers in a file as they are
extracted and you have access to "unshar" (a program that can extract
shar files while saving the headers in UNSHAR.HDR), twiddle the external
extract command to send the entire article:

-EEXSAVER="%e <%A"

and then point the UNSHAR variable at unshar instead of /bin/sh:

-EUNSHAR="unshar -s"

Note that this assumes that any other commands you execute with "e dir|command"
can also handle the entire article as input (uuencoded and shipped files are
not affected).
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