"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"

There are quite a few methods of reading Usenet postings. A conventional newsreader will log on to your remote server, download headers of the new messages in groups you want to follow, then allow you to tag the messages you want to read. These messages are then fetched for you. All of this happens while online, and the time can mount up.

Another approach is one used by Suck and Leafnode, among others. These programs are designed to be used non-interactively and usually are set up to deposit fetched postings into a local spool-directory. Suck requires that you have an active news-server, such as INN or CNEWS, on your machine. Leafnode doesn't need the news-server (it has its own), but both programs are designed for multiple users and might be overkill for single-user machines.

Slrn is a popular text-mode newsreader, written by John Davis at MIT. It originally belonged to the first category above, but recently Davis has been working on an extension for Slrn which will pull down messages from a server and store them locally. The messages can then be read offline with Slrn. The extension is called Slrnpull, and it comes with the most recent beta version of Slrn.

If you have the S-lang library on your system, you can compile Slrn and Slrnpull from the source, which is available (along with the S-lang library source) from this site. A binary, statically-linked version may be in the /pub/Linux/Incoming directory at sunsite.unc.edu by the time you read this. If you prefer a certain location for the news-spool directory (which can get large) the slrnfeat.h file in the /slrn/src directory can be edited.

Slrn uses a configure script which should enable it to be compiled on most Linux systems. Once you've put the executables in a directory on your path, create the spool directory (/var/spool/news/slrnpull or whatever you've defined it to be), then copy the supplied sample script slrnpull.conf to the new directory. This needs to be edited before you start Slrnpull for the first time. The format is not complicated; here are John Davis' comments from the sample file:

# The syntax of the file is very simple.  
# Any line that is blank or begins with a '#' character will be ignored by 
# slrnpull.  The remaining lines consist of 1-3 fields separated by 
# whitespace:
#
#   NEWSGROUP_NAME  MAX_ARTICLES_TO_RETRIEVE   NUMBER_OF_DAYS_BEFORE_EXPIRE
#
# The first field must contain the name of a newsgroup.  
# 
# The second field denotes the number of articles to retrieve for the 
# newsgroup; if its value is 0, all available articles will
# be retrieved.
#
# The third field indicates the number of days after an article is retrieved
# before it will be eligible for deletion.  If this value is 0, articles from
# this group will not expire.
#
#
# If a field is blank, or contains the single character '*', default values
# will apply to the field.  Defaults may be set by a line whose newsgroup
# field is 'default'.  Such a line will denote default values to be applied to 
# the lines following it or until another default is established.

# For example:
default                                20        14
# indicates a default value of 20 articles to be retrieved from the server and
# that such an article will expire after 14 days.
comp.os.linux.misc        50        7
comp.os.linux.x         20        7
comp.os.linux.announce        *        *

This is easier to set up than some news programs I've used!

Assuming you have the $NNTPSERVER variable set to your news-server's IP address in your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.cshenv file, Slrnpull should be ready to try out. The first time you start it up it will create a subdirectory for each news-group you have specified. Then it will log on to your server and download messages, displaying the connection speed and number of articles on your terminal screen.

You probably subscribe to certain groups for which you want all of the new messages. For certain others you may want to be more selective in what you download. A kill-file can be created in the spool directory which specifies, on a per-group basis, which messages you would prefer be left on the server.

Starting up Slrn with the switch --spool will cause it to load the contents of your newly-filled spool-file. Reading messages this way is fast, and any which you delete will then be invisible in the newsreader, though they remain on the disk until they are expired. Any follow-up postings which you might write are stored in a subdirectory of the spool. The next time you run Slrnpull it will upload them to the server before retrieving new messages.

Slrnpull keeps a log of all transactions to the server; these messages are displayed on the screen as the program runs, but the idea of this program is that you don't need to be sitting there watching. The log is useful for checking to see if your postings have been accepted by the server.

Periodically Slrnpull should be run with the --expire switch, which will remove all messages you've marked for deletion while reading news with Slrn. This could be run every night as a cron job.

It will take some fine-tuning of the slrnpull.conf file, but eventually you will have the program retrieving just the messages you want. It might seem like a waste to be downloading all of the junk messages along with the worthwhile ones, but it's a continuous process and doesn't take long. I've found that running Slrnpull while browsing the web or receiving an FTP file works well.

The sample .slrnrc file included with the program has an if/then statement which causes Slrn to read the local active file when run in spool mode, while keeping Slrn in standard mode from retrieving the bulky remote active file each time a connection is made. This lets you read news directly from your server when desired.

The sample file includes some new entries in order for Slrn to make use of the spooled messages. These are:

      set spool_inn_root        "/var/spool/news/slrnpull"
      set spool_root                "/var/spool/news/slrnpull/news"
      set spool_nov_root        "/var/spool/news/slrnpull"
      set use_slrnpull 1
      hostname "your.host.name"
      username "your_user_name"

The remainder of the .slrnrc file is the same as in previous Slrn versions, so if you already have one customized to your liking the Slrnpull-specific sections can be lifted from the sample and pasted in.

I initially had some trouble convincing slrnpull to talk to my news-server. I asked John Davis for help and he sent me a patch for one source file which caused slrnpull to generate a debugging log; from the logfile he determined that the problem was with the proprietary Dnews server software which my provider uses. The currently available version has this patch included.

If you want to find out what software your news-server uses, just telnet into the news machine:

    telnet [IP address] :nntp

The server will identify itself when you log in.

Slrnpull is probably most useful with low-volume newsgroups, such as comp.os.linux.announce. You would most likely want to see all of the messages anyway in such a group and Slrnpull will fetch them all. High-volume groups, such as comp.os.linux.advocacy, typically have a high chaff-to-wheat ratio, and in these a quick scan of the headers for the few of interest (while online) might be more efficient. Slrnpull is also effective for obtaining a quick idea of the the flavor and tone of a group: just tell it to suck down the most recent twenty messages in the group, and see what you think.

If you have never used Slrn, I highly recommend this program, especially if you read news over a PPP or SLIP connection. It's fast and efficient, and its behaviour can be easily molded to your needs. Users of the Emacs news interface Gnus will find the transition painless, as most of the keystroke commands are identical. Gnus has many more features but it's slower to use over a network and is much more demanding of system resources.

Last modified: Thu Feb 27 18:39:52 CST 1997