slrn

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slrn is a text-based news client. It runs through a textual user interface and is highly customizable. It uses the S-Lang library.

Installation

Install the slrn^AUR package.

Configuration

To run slrn, you will have to set up an environment variable with the newsgroups server you wish to use (it is a good idea to put it into your .bashrc so you do not have to export it again for each session):

NNTPSERVER='my.news.server' && export NNTPSERVER

Two important slrn configuration files are .slrnrc for basic configuration and .jnewsrc that contains the list of newsgroups.

To create .slrnrc from a sample startup file for slrn:

# cp /usr/share/doc/slrn/examples/slrn.rc.gz ~/.
# gunzip -c ~/.slrn >~/.slrn.rc

After creating .slrnrc you should configure the user account and then create .jnewsrc:

# slrn -f ~/.jnewsrc --create

User account

To set up your newsgroup account, you have to set up the following parameters in .slrnrc

set username "desired_username"
set hostname "desired_hostname"
set replyto "some_name <email@example.com>"

Signature

To set up a signature uncomment the following line in .slrnrc:

set signature ".signature"

Also, you have to create .signature file in your home folder and put your signature in it.

Encoding

To set up encoding (i.e. utf8) uncomment the following lines in .slrnrc:

charset display utf8
charset outgoing utf8

Displaying all posts

By default slrn will only shows unread posts. If you are used to having all posts listed in a certain newsgroup, this will be a big change for you. To have all posts listed add the following to your .slrnrc:

setkey group "set_prefix_argument(4); () = select_group();" " "

Managing usergroups

You can manage usergroups directly through slrn or by editing .jnewsrc file. If you decide to manage them using .jnewsrc file, you can do it by changing the ! and : at the end of each newsgroup.

Unsubscribed group example:

misc.test! 1-210917

Subscribed group example:

misc.test: 1-210917