mdw@git.distorted.org.uk Git - sgt/utils/blob - nntpid/nntpid.but

   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
  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
  15 \c nntpid [ -v ] -a newsgroup-name
  16 \e bbbbbb   bb   bb iiiiiiiiiiiiii
  17
  18 \U DESCRIPTION
  19
  20 \cw{nntpid} makes a connection to a news server, retrieves one or
  21 more articles, and displays it.
  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
  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
  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
  47 The location of the news server is obtained by reading the
  48 environment variable \cw{NNTPSERVER}, or failing that the file
  49 \cw{/etc/nntpserver}.
  50
  51 \U ARGUMENTS
  52
  53 If you specify one argument, \cw{nntpid} assumes it is a Message-ID.
  54 The angle brackets that usually delimit Message-IDs are optional;
  55 \cw{nntpid} will strip them off if it sees them, and will not
  56 complain if it does not.
  57
  58 If you specify two arguments, \cw{nntpid} will interpret the first
  59 as a newsgroup name, and the second as an article number.
  60
  61 \U OPTIONS
  62
  63 \dt \cw{-v}
  64
  65 \dd Verbose mode. In this mode, \cw{nntpid} will log its entire
  66 conversation with the news server on standard error.
  67
  68 \dt \cw{-d}
  69
  70 \dd Direct output. In this mode, \cw{nntpid} will write the article
  71 straight to standard output without bothering to try using a pager.
  72
  73 \dt \cw{-a}
  74
  75 \dd Retrieve all articles from the given newsgroup. In this mode,
  76 \cw{nntpid} will always write straight to standard output (so the
  77 \cw{-d} option is unnecessary).
  78
  79 \U AUTHENTICATION
  80
  81 Currently, the only form of authentication supported by \cw{nntpid}
  82 is \cw{AUTHINFO GENERIC}, using the environment variable
  83 \cw{NNTPAUTH}. It will only attempt this if it receives a 480
  84 response from the news server; if your news server never sends 480
  85 then \cw{nntpid} will never even look at \cw{NNTPAUTH}.
  86
  87 \U LICENCE
  88
  89 \cw{nntpid} is free software, distributed under the MIT licence.
  90 Type \cw{nntpid --licence} to see the full licence text.
  91
  92 \versionid $Id$