NAME
    slrn - An easy to use NNTP / spool based newsreader.

SYNOPSIS
    slrn [-aCdknmw] [-C-] [-Dname] [-f newsrc-file] [-i config-file] [-k0]
    [--create] [-create] [--debug file] [--help] [--inews] [--kill-log
    file] [--nntp [-h server] [-p port]] [--spool] [--version]

DESCRIPTION
    slrn is an easy to use but powerful NNTP / spool based newsreader.

    It is highly customizable, supports scoring, free key bindings and can
    be extended using the s-lang macro language.

    To use slrn, you either need to set the NNTPSERVER environment variable
    to the server you want to read news from or specify a server on the
    command line. A newsrc file is needed, too. In case you do not yet
    have one, you can create it using ``slrn -f ~/.jnewsrc --create''.

    Inside slrn, online help is available via the '?' key.

OPTIONS
    The following options can be used when calling slrn from the command
    line. They override both environment variables and settings in private
    and global configuration files.

    -a   Read active file when checking for new news.

    -C   Use colors without checking if the terminal supports it.

    -C-  Don't use colors, even if the terminal supports it.

    -d   Get group descriptions (taglines) from the news server. Please
    note that this may cause a download of several hundred kilobytes
    and thus  can take a long time. The output is saved to a local
    file, so you only need to do this once. May not be specified in
    combination with --create.

    -Dname Add name  to the list of predefined preprocessing tokens, which
    can be used in your slrnrc file to have  conditionally inter-
    preted lines. See the slrn reference manual for details.

    -f newsrc-file
    Use file  as the newsrc file for this session. This is perma-
    nently set via the server configuration command.

    -h host[:port]
    Connect to the NNTP server on host, overriding the $NNTPSERVER
    environment variable.  If no port is given, the default NNTP
    port (119) will be used. This option is  only accepted  after
    --nntp or when NNTP is the default mode.

    -i config-file
    Read file as the initialization (slrnrc) file. The default is
    to use .slrnrc (or slrn.rc on VMS, OS/2 and Windows) in your
    home directory.

    -k   Don't read the score file.

    -k0  Read the  score file, but inhibit expensive scoring. A scoring
    rule is expensive if it contains  header  lines that are not
    included in the  server's overview files. This makes applying
    them slow.

    -m   Force mouse support (without checking if it works on the current
    terminal).

    -n   Do not check for new groups (usually resulting in a faster
    startup).

    -p N  Use port N to connect to the NNTP server.

    -w   Wait for a key before switching to full screen mode, allowing
    the user to read startup messages.

    --create
    Read the  active  file (the list of all groups) from the news
    server to create an initial newsrc file.

    -create
    Obsolete version of --create.

    --debug file
    Write debugging output to file.

    --help Show help for command line switches.

    --inews
    Use an external inews program to post articles.

    --kill-log file
    Keep a log of all articles that were killed by the scorefile in
    file.

    --nntp Use builtin NNTP support for reading and posting (an external
    program is used to post if slrn was compiled with --enable-
    force-inews).

    --pull Spool outgoing articles locally for slrnpull to send.

    --spool
    Read directly from spool.

    --version
    Print version and some compile time settings.

ENVIRONMENT
    slrn uses the following list of environment variables. Note: environ-
    ment variables can be overridden by configuration files or command line
    switches.

    COLORTERM
    If this variable is set, slrn will assume that your terminal
    supports ANSI color sequences. It also enables a workaround for
    a  problem with the mouse reporting when running slrn inside of
    an rxvt.

    DISPLAY
    If set, slrn assumes that X11 is running.

    EDITOR See $SLRN_EDITOR.

    HOME  See $SLRNHOME.

    HOSTNAME
    If no hostname is given, the value of this environment variable
    is used.

    LOGNAME
    See $USER.

    NAME  Set it to your realname, if slrn can't determine it otherwise.

    NNTPSERVER
    You can use this variable to tell slrn which NNTP server to con-
    nect to. It can be overridden by the command line option -h.

    ORGANIZATION
    The name of your organization.

    PRINTER
    On unix systems, slrn pipes the current article  to ``lpr -P
    $PRINTER'' to print it.

    PWD  This variable is only used on unix systems that don't support
    getcwd(3). In these cases, it should be  set to the current
    directory  at the time slrn is invoked. This is usually done by
    the shell and nothing the user has to worry about.

    REPLYTO
    The value of this variable is used as the default if you do not
    set replyto in your slrnrc file.

    SLANG_EDITOR
    See $SLRN_EDITOR.

    SLRNHELP
    You can set this variable to a file slrn should read its online
    help from. This is only needed when the default  key bindings
    have been changed and you want the help function to reflect
    this. If unset, slrn looks for help.txt in the  configuration
    directory.

    SLRNHOME
    When interpreting filenames as relative to your home directory,
    slrn uses this variable to find out what your home directory is.
    If $SLRNHOME is unset, $HOME is used instead.

    SLRN_EDITOR
    The editor to start for editing articles. If this variable is
    unset, slrn subsequently looks at $SLANG_EDITOR, $EDITOR and
    $VISUAL.

    TMP  Indicates  the directory  in which slrn should save temporary
    files.

    TMPDIR See $TMP.

    USER  Your username, if slrn can't get it from the system by  other
    means.

    VISUAL See $SLRN_EDITOR.

FILES
    $HOME/.slrnrc
    User-specific configuration file.

    config_dir/slrn.rc
    System-wide configuration file.  config_dir is set at compile
    time (/usr/local/etc by default).

    $HOME/.jnewsrc
    default newsrc file for slrn.

    $HOME/.jnewsrc.dsc
    Per user newsgroups descriptions.

    share_dir/newsgroups.dsc
    Global newsgroup descriptions. share_dir is set at compile time
    (/usr/local/share/slrn by default).

SEE ALSO
    The documentation that  comes with slrn, especially manual.txt, FAQ,
    score.txt and SCORE_FAQ.  If you consider writing s-lang  macros, also
    look at README.macros and slrnfuns.txt.

    Recent versions  of the slrn manual and the FAQ as well as additional
    information can  also be found on slrn's  official  home  page:
    http://slrn.sourceforge.net/

    Questions about slrn that are not covered by existing documentation may
    be posted to the newsgroup news.software.readers  where they will be
    answered by knowledgeable users or the author of the program. In addi-
    tion, announcements of new versions of slrn are posted there.

    The latest version of slrn is available from http://prdownloads.source-
    forge.net/slrn/

AUTHOR
    John E. Davis <davis@space.mit.edu>

    Please send any bug reports to the current maintainer, Thomas Schultz
    <tststs@gmx.de>