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From: interran@Shasta.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.unix
Subject: Re: how to make rn "catch up"?
Message-ID: <1613@Shasta.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 3-Jan-86 02:18:49 EST
Article-I.D.: Shasta.1613
Posted: Fri Jan  3 02:18:49 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Jan-86 05:37:06 EST
References: <1607@Shasta.ARPA>
Reply-To: interran@Shasta.UUCP (John Interrante)
Distribution: net
Organization: Stanford University
Lines: 31

There IS an easier way to use rn to mark all newsgroups as read. 

You predefine a macro, &&c cy, so that "c" marks a newsgroup as read.  You
make the macro a part of rn's initialization by defining the csh environment
variable RNMACRO like this to point to a macro definitions file:

% setenv RNMACRO $HOME/.rnmacros

The .rnmacros file contains one macro definition per line like this:

# this is the "c" macro
c	cy
etc.

Then to blast all newsgroups to oblivion you simply type

% yes c | rn 

at the shell prompt.  yes repeatedly outputs "c", and rn acts upon "c" as a
command for each succeeding unread newsgroup.  When all the newsgroups have
been marked, rn loops endlessly at the end so you have to hit ^C to
interrupt it.  Then the next time you invoke rn all the newsgroups will have
been read unless some news has come in already.

This won't work if rn finds a new newsgroup and asks you if you want it to
be added to your .newsrc file.  It'd be a good idea to run rn first to get
any such prompts out of the way, then "q" out of it and type yes c | rn.
-- 

--
John Interrante/ interran@su-shasta.arpa/ decwrl!Glacier!Shasta!interran