Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!gatech!udel!rochester!bbn!bbn.com!mesard
From: mesard@bbn.com (Wayne Mesard)
Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions
Subject: Re: rn with '-h'
Message-ID: <43642@bbn.COM>
Date: 1 Aug 89 22:51:34 GMT
References: <757@madnix.UUCP>
Sender: news@bbn.COM
Reply-To: mesard@BBN.COM (Wayne Mesard)
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Lines: 72

In article <757@madnix.UUCP> zaphod@madnix.UUCP (Ron Bean) writes:
>   I've been using 'rn' with the '-h' switch to save a little
>time reading the news. This gives me the subject, newsgroups, and
>the first few lines of the message, then stops and gives me the
>"(MORE)" prompt, so I can skip stuff I'm not interested 
[...]
>I think it would make more sense to see the Newsgroups:, Subject:,
>Summary:, and From: lines. Is there any way to do this?

One look at the 20+ page man entry for rn will tell you how
customizeable it is.  So answers to question such as this are almost
always Yes.

The -h switch controls what headers will be shown.

By itself, -h turns off everything but the subject line (and the
newsgroups line unless there article was cross-posted <--don't reread
that, it's only there so that no one corrects me:-)

But you can have -h suppress specific headers.  For example:

   rn -hreferences

Will prevent the References: field from being shown.

-h (like most rn command line switches) has a counterpart called +h
which turns headers on.  So, putting this all together.  The following
command should do what you want:

   rn -h +hsummary +hfrom

In other words, turn everything off, then selectively turn some things
back on.

When you're working at a high baud rate, you may wnat to see all the
headers.  But when dialing up over a 1200 baud modem, you may want to
limit them.  Rn allows you to conditionalize every command line switch
according to your baud rate.  So the switches in the following example
would only take effect when you login over a 1200 baud line:


   rn -1200-h -1200+hsummary -1200+hfrom

In order to save typing and sanity, you can put command line switches in
an environment variable called RNINIT.  So if you use the C Shell you'd
put something like the following in your ~/.login file:

   setenv RNINIT 'rn -1200-h -1200+hsummary -1200+hfrom'

Bourne shell users would put this in their $HOME/.profile:

   RNINIT = 'rn -1200-h -1200+hsummary -1200+hfrom'; export RNINIT


then you'll only have to type "rn" and you'll get a newsreader
customized to your tastes.  (Of course, this won't take effect until the
next time you login, unless you get the shell to reread the file.  But
that's a story for another day.)

Other rn options you might consider include (my personal favorites):

    -m -N -S -1200-e.

See the man page for details.  Remember these are case-sensitive (IOW,
"-m" is not the same thing as "-M").

Disclaimer:  None of the above has been tested.  Caveat emptor.

-- 
unsigned *Wayne_Mesard();       Private eye.  Cats found, fictitious documents
Mesard@BBN.COM                  discovered.  Special this week: Two for one on
BBN, Cambridge, MA              arson investigations.