Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!bbn!bbn.com!mesard
From: mesard@bbn.com (Wayne Mesard)
Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions
Subject: Re: KILL files
Message-ID: <44674@bbn.COM>
Date: 23 Aug 89 17:05:26 GMT
References: <KIRAVUO.89Aug23092730@kampi.hut.fi> <685@cbnewse.ATT.COM>
Sender: news@bbn.COM
Reply-To: mesard@BBN.COM (Wayne Mesard)
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Lines: 59

bonnie@cbnewse.ATT.COM (bonnie.l.prokopowicz) writes:
>Could someone post more about creating/editing KILL files?
>Specifically, how can I kill all articles whose subject 
>lines have "XXX" in them, for example?  What is the format
>of the kill file, and what is its name?

Not all news readers use KILL files and there are different ways of
implementing them.  If you're not using rn then this information does
not apply to you.

KILL files are thoroughly documented in the rn man page.  To access
this, type

                man rn

If that doesn't work, see your system administrator.  It's also a good
idea to keep a hard copy nearby, as even experienced users are always
finding new things to do with this complex program.  See your sysadmin
about getting printed copies of online man pages.

There is a global KILL file which applies to every newsgroup you read,
and then a local KILL file for each group.  The general format of each
line in a KILL file is:

   /pattern/modifiers:command

pattern is a regular expression (or simply a string) that you want to
search for.  By default, rn will look in the Subject line of each new
article.  If you include the "h" article it will look anywhere in the
header.  In KILL files the command is usually just "j" which junks the
article.  Examples:

   /IBM/j                        - Junk any article that contains the
                                   string "IBM" in the title.

   /: *Lemmings for sale/j       - Junk any article whose title begins
                                   with the string "Lemmings for sale".
                                   The ":" will match the colon at the
                                   end of "Subject:" and the " *" will
                                   match the zero or more space(s)
                                   between the colon and the start of
                                   the title.
   /^From:.*mesard/h:j           - Will junk any articles from me.  The
                                   "^" means look at the very beginning
                                   of the line and the ".*" will skip
                                   over all the characters between the
                                   colon and "mesard".  The "h" modifier
                                   tells rn to look at the whole header,
                                   not just the Subject: line.

To access the global or local KILL files, use the "K" and "Control-k"
commands at the newsgroup selection level and the article selection
level, respectively.  For details, see the man page, or use the "h" to
get help.

-- 
unsigned *Wayne_Mesard();    "Brain and brain!  What is brain?"
Mesard@BBN.COM               
BBN, Cambridge, MA                 -Kara, Leader of the Eymorgs