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1 | \cfg{man-identity}{nntpid}{1}{2004-11-21}{Simon Tatham}{Simon Tatham} |
2 | |
3 | \title Man page for \cw{nntpid} |
4 | |
5 | \U NAME |
6 | |
7 | \cw{nntpid} - retrieve a single article from a news server |
8 | |
9 | \U SYNOPSIS |
10 | |
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11 | \c nntpid [ -v ] [ -d ] message-id |
12 | \e bbbbbb bb bb iiiiiiiiii |
13 | \c nntpid [ -v ] [ -d ] newsgroup-name article-number |
14 | \e bbbbbb bb bb iiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiii |
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15 | \c nntpid [ -v ] -a newsgroup-name |
16 | \e bbbbbb bb bb iiiiiiiiiiiiii |
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17 | |
18 | \U DESCRIPTION |
19 | |
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20 | \cw{nntpid} makes a connection to a news server, retrieves one or |
21 | more articles, and displays it. |
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22 | |
23 | You can specify the article you want by either: |
24 | |
25 | \b giving its Message-ID. Message-IDs are globally unique, so you |
26 | don't need to know which newsgroup the article was in. Also, they do |
27 | not vary between news servers. |
28 | |
29 | \b giving a newsgroup name and an article number within that |
30 | newsgroup. Article numbers are assigned internally by a particular |
31 | news server, so they will be different on other servers carrying the |
32 | same group. |
33 | |
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34 | By default, \cw{nntpid} will try to display the article using a |
35 | pager (\cw{more}(1), unless you have specified an alternative in the |
36 | environment variable \cw{PAGER}). This is partly for convenience, |
37 | and partly a mild security measure: it gives you some protection |
38 | against the news article potentially containing control sequences |
39 | that cause unexpected behaviour in your terminal. If \cw{nntpid} |
40 | detects that its standard output is not a terminal, however, it will |
41 | bypass the pager and just write out the article directly. |
42 | |
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43 | There is a third mode of operation, enabled by the \cw{-a} option, |
44 | in which \cw{nntpid} retrieves \e{all} available articles in the |
45 | group and writes them to standard output in \cw{mbox} format. |
46 | |
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47 | \U ARGUMENTS |
48 | |
49 | If you specify one argument, \cw{nntpid} assumes it is a Message-ID. |
50 | The angle brackets that usually delimit Message-IDs are optional; |
51 | \cw{nntpid} will strip them off if it sees them, and will not |
52 | complain if it does not. |
53 | |
54 | If you specify two arguments, \cw{nntpid} will interpret the first |
55 | as a newsgroup name, and the second as an article number. |
56 | |
57 | \U OPTIONS |
58 | |
59 | \dt \cw{-v} |
60 | |
61 | \dd Verbose mode. In this mode, \cw{nntpid} will log its entire |
62 | conversation with the news server on standard error. |
63 | |
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64 | \dt \cw{-d} |
65 | |
66 | \dd Direct output. In this mode, \cw{nntpid} will write the article |
67 | straight to standard output without bothering to try using a pager. |
68 | |
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69 | \dt \cw{-a} |
70 | |
71 | \dd Retrieve all articles from the given newsgroup. In this mode, |
72 | \cw{nntpid} will always write straight to standard output (so the |
73 | \cw{-d} option is unnecessary). |
74 | |
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75 | \U AUTHENTICATION |
76 | |
77 | Currently, the only form of authentication supported by \cw{nntpid} |
78 | is \cw{AUTHINFO GENERIC}, using the environment variable |
79 | \cw{NNTPAUTH}. It will only attempt this if it receives a 480 |
80 | response from the news server; if your news server never sends 480 |
81 | then \cw{nntpid} will never even look at \cw{NNTPAUTH}. |
82 | |
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83 | \U LICENCE |
84 | |
85 | \cw{nntpid} is free software, distributed under the MIT licence. |
86 | Type \cw{nntpid --licence} to see the full licence text. |
87 | |
88 | \versionid $Id$ |