Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!phavl!rob
From: rob@phavl.UUCP (Robert Ransbottom)
Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions
Subject: Re: basic questions
Summary: Corrections for vnews of news 2.11
Message-ID: <264@phavl.UUCP>
Date: 31 Jul 89 23:55:25 GMT
References: <3025@blake.acs.washington.edu>
Organization: General Supply & Metals, Inc., New Bedford, MA
Lines: 83

If you want to play w/ vnews, first get all caught up on your reading.
Then remove ".newsrc" from your home directory.  Go back to vnews
and play.  After play, use "ug" and 'K' to "unsubscribe" and "ketchup"
on the groups.  The news you can lose is any that becomes available
between the time you removed ".newrc" and the initialization of "vnews".

In article <3025@blake.acs.washington.edu>, by wiml@blake.acs.washington.edu (William Lewis) offers MISINFORMATION in response to:

> article <758@soleil.UUCP> eam@soleil.UUCP (Ed A. Mills):

>>... working with "vnews", so maybe some of
>>you experts could give me a few pointers.  Please respond to each question

Wm. Lewis may be talking about "vn" or just forgotten the differences
between his "rn" and "vnews".  The following corrections apply to vnews
as distributed w/ News 2.11.

>>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?
> 
>     Do you mean 'k' or 'K'? 
Vnews has no 'k' command.  'K' marks all HIGHER numbered messages 
in the group as read.  You will not see those messages again.  You will
still be in the group and be shown new messages as the arrive.  'K' is
the complement of 'N'. 
   'N' =  "i don't want to read the rest of this group _Now_"
   'K' =  "i _Knever_ want to read the rest of this group"

>>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?
> 
To unsubscribe, type "ug". 
   "ug" = "_Ugh_!  this group is _Garbage_"
To resubscribe you need to edit the line in your home directory ".newsrc".
Change the '!' to a ':'.

>>3.  Is there a newsgroup for instructions?  ...
>     This one, I suppose.

There is also news.software.b when you want to ask more
esoteric questions.  And news.admin gives some good info but it is
from the administrator's perspective.

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

New groups are added.

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

Edit ".newrc" to put the lines in the order you desire.  If that doesn't
work I'd be very surprised.

>>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.
> 
>     Two ways. 's' saves the current article to a file named after the current
> newsgroup.

's' saves to "Articles" as the default.

>'w' does the same thing, but strips off the headers first. Appending
> a file-name to either command will make it save to that particular file.

I believe 'w' does the same without headers.  Don't rush to dump headers,
if its worth saving its probably worth knowing where it came from.  Also
you may wish to use filenames like "n.n.q" for "news.newusers.quewstions",
"c.l.c" for "comp.lang.c"

>>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.
> 
You hit the right key but the ownership had already passed to the
news-admin account.  'c' will work for root.

'c' = "don't cancel, exercise _Care_"
-- 
 ...!uunet!phavl!rob              Robert Ransbottom