Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utcsrgv.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsrgv!dave From: dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) Newsgroups: net.news,net.unix Subject: Re: readnews questions Message-ID: <3480@utcsrgv.UUCP> Date: Thu, 8-Mar-84 12:00:38 EST Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.3480 Posted: Thu Mar 8 12:00:38 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 8-Mar-84 13:33:04 EST References: <346@denelcor.UUCP> Organization: The Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto Lines: 49 ~| From: neal@denelcor.UUCP (Neal Weidenhofer) ~| 1. Why does "U" (unsubscribe) take so long -- sometimes ~| > 25 min (on a moderately loaded pdp-11/44)? It doesn't. I suspect what's happening is that after the U, you're moving on to a newsgroup where, for one reason or another (e.g., new user, faulty .newsrc), readnews is trying to start at a low numbered article while the next valid article is high-numbered (in a busy newsgroup). It tries to open every consecutively numbered file until it finds one which works. Hence the delay. An easy fix (for you) is to change your .newsrc. There has also been a fix posted to the net. ~| 2. I am trying to split my news reading into two parts -- ~| "work" and "personal". To do this, I created a couple ~| shell scripts that look like: ~| cp x .newsrc ~| readnews ~| cp .newsrc x ~| The problem is that the second cp USUALLY doesn't work -- ~| after I exit readnews and get my prompt back, x is ~| unchanged. About one time in ten, x is updated properly. There's a much better way. I use it so my wife can read a few newsgroups. Create a file in your bin (call it "pnews" for personal news if you like) which contains: echo Personal news coming up... HOME=/u4/dave/pnews NEWSRC=/u4/dave/pnews/.newsrc NEWSBOX=/u4/dave/pnews NAME="" export HOME NAME NEWSBOX NEWSRC readnews Then create a subdirectory pnews. Presto - you have a directory in which you can run separate news. As an added bonus, all saved articles will go into that directory, so you can isolate your personal from work-related files. Now run pnews, and unsubscribe to all work-related groups. In your regular readnews, unsubscribe to all non-work-related groups. Hope this helps. Let me know if it works for you. Dave Sherman Toronto -- {allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsrgv!dave