Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!bbn!oliveb!tymix!epimass!jbuck
From: jbuck@epimass.EPI.COM (Joe Buck)
Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions
Subject: Re: basic questions
Keywords: articles, newsgroups, foolish questions
Message-ID: <3470@epimass.EPI.COM>
Date: 31 Jul 89 19:22:06 GMT
References: <758@soleil.UUCP>
Reply-To: jbuck@epimass.EPI.COM (Joe Buck)
Organization: Entropic Processing, Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 149

In article <758@soleil.UUCP> eam@soleil.UUCP (Ed A. Mills) writes:
>1.  what is uunet?  how about usenet?  is vnews a subset of these things,
>    or do they exist just for vnews?

uunet is a computer, a Sequent Balance machine in Falls Church, VA.
UUNET Communications Services is a nonprofit organization that
provides UUCP connections, mail and news feeds, and has large archives
of freely redistributable software.

Usenet is a collection of computers on various networks that pass text
around in the form of "news articles" (like this one).  There are a
variety of "newsreader" programs that you can use to read "news";
vnews is one.  I use rn (which is probably the must popular).  Others
include readnews (does anyone actually use this still?), nn, Gnews,
GNUS, and notes (notes is actually in a separate category altogether).

I'll answer your questions on vnews, though I recommend that you
switch to rn if your site has it.

>2.  Exactly what is the function of "K"?  Does it have the same effect
>    if I am reading an article at the end of a group as it would at
>    the beginning?  What happens if new articles are added to a group
>    after I "K" the group?  Do I still get to see them?

I've noticed someone answered you as if you were running rn.  Folks,
he's not, he's running vnews.  The vnews 'K' command is like the rn 'c'
command -- it "catches you up".  All articles currently on disk are
marked as if you had read them.  You still get to see new articles.

>3.  Is there a newsgroup for instructions?  man vnews is the usual cryptic
>    unix drivel.

It may be "unix drivel", but it answers almost all your questions!

Read news.announce.newusers.  Lots of info is posted once a month.  You
don't get to post to it though.

Ask your news administrator for the document "How to read the Network News"
which he or she should have received with the news software.  Tell him or
her to look for a file named "howto.mn" in the documentation directory
that came with the news software.  Warning!  It's out of date with
respect to what groups are available.

>4.  What is the difference between 'l' and 'L'?  These usually seem to have
>    the same effect, which is usually about 10,000,000 articles when I only
>    want to see a certain one.

'l' lists articles you haven't read yet.  'L' lists all articles.

>5.  How do I unsubscribe to a group?  Can I later resubscribe?  How can I
>    see what groups I am unsubscribed to?  For that matter, how can I see
>    what groups I'm subscribed to without paging through all of them?

Type "ug".  See the next question.  try "vnews -s".

>6.  What does the .newsrc file in my directory do?  What do the numbers
>    mean after the newsgroups?  What do the !'s mean?  If I edit this
>    file, does it change how vnews starts up?

The .newsrc file keeps track of what you've read.  The ! means you've
unsubscribed to that group.  The numbers are article numbers.  If you
edit the file, be sure you know what you're doing.  Changing the ! to
a : will resubscribe you to a group.  The "options" line gives your
subscription list.

>7.  When new newsgroups are added to the network, are they automatically
>    included in my groups, or do I have to add them somehow?

This depends on how your news administrator runs things.  If the NONEWGROUPS
parameter is set, the news administrator must manually add a group.
If he or she adds a group and your "options" line gives a pattern that
includes the group, it will be added.

>8.  Is there a way to order the groups as I please?  Maybe by rearranging
>    the .newsrc file mentioned above?

Yes, just sort your .newsrc.

>9.  Can I go the the first group in a hierarchy?  For instance, say I want
>    to see all of the comp groups?  Can I go the the first group in
>    level n of the hierarchy?

No.

>10. What's the beef with hierarchies?  For example, in
>    vegtables.green.good-tasting.nutritious.beans are there certain
>    terms for each of the levels?  Would this be newsgroup vegtables,
>    subgroup green, and so on... or what?  Is there a way to get a list 
>    of a hierarchy under each level (kind of like cd vegtables.green;ls)?

No, vnews doesn't support this.

>11. Are there other newsgroups that have to be added or accessed specially
>    by request?  Are there other nets with entirely new groups?  If so,
>    how can I find out what they are and how to access them?  

There are alternate newsgroup hierarchies.  Your news administrator
would have to make arrangements to get them on your machine.

>12. How can I extract an article to a file?  I seem to have done this
>    accidently a few times,  but it would be useful to know how to do
>    it on purpose.

The "s" command saves articles to files.

>13. How can I reverse order articles so I see the new ones first? 

You can't with vnews.

>14. What are moderated groups?  Who modertates them?   Are postings
>    postponed until the moderator decides to include them, or are
>    they included but later deleted if he(she) decides he(she) doesn't
>    like them?

With moderated groups, attempts to post are converted to mail messages
that are sent to the moderator.  The moderator may accept or reject
your article based on the criteria for that group.  The list of
moderators is posted every month to news.announce.newusers and other groups.

>15. If I postnews to a non-existent group, will it be created?

No, your article will be rejected.

>16. Can I 'unpost' an article that I posted?  I tried this once, but it
>    said I didn't own it, even though I had just posted it.

This is a sign that your news system is not set up correctly.

>17. Where and what is the host system for vnews?  If distributed, does
>    each system with access serve part of the groups?

There is no central site.  It's an anarchy.  Your local news
administrator set it up on your site.

>18.  I noticed that sometimes when I select a group with no articles, I
>     am immediately kicked out of vnews.  This used to happen frequently 
>     when I accessed comp.lang.apl, but now it seems to go to the next
>     group instead. Was this a recently fixed bug maybe?  

Hard to tell.  It may have been fixed long ago and your guru just
installed the new software.

>Sorry about the volume of questions, but I guess this is the perfect group
>for them.  

Sounds like you're badly in need of some local assistance.  Mail to
"usenet" on your local machine and see who answers.
-- 
-- Joe Buck	jbuck@epimass.epi.com, uunet!epimass.epi.com!jbuck