Q: Can I use threads in the Pine newsreader?
A: Threads are hierarchical nests of replies to postings, e.g.,
o Hang-Gliding in Winter
o Jones: Re: Hang-Gliding in Winter
o Smith: Re: Hang-Gliding in Winter
o Ling: Re: Hang-Gliding in Winter
o Mike: Re: Hang-Gliding in Winter
o Todd: Re: Hang-Gliding in Winter
While Pine cannot really display threads, it can often simulate them by sorting the messages by "OrderedSubj" so that all replies to a single posting are grouped together and in the correct arrival sequence. To sort the replies, type: "$O", where "$" activates the sort, and "O" determines the type of sort. (this works as long as the responders have not altered the text of the subject line).
Q: Can I post news without having it always ask me if I really want to post?
A: Yes. Enter the SETUP CONFIGURATION mode from the MAIN MENU by typing "S" followed by "C". Then search for and mark the field:
[ ] compose-sets-newsgroup-without-confirm
by typing "X" in the square brackets (if the "X" is already there just leave it alone). Note that you must exit Pine and then re-enter it before such newly marked fields become active.
Q: I recall that somewhere in the list of 437 messages in one group there were mentions of "lemonade", but they did not appear in the subject line. Is there a way to find them?
A: Yes. Pine has a powerful feature called "aggregate" commands which you activate by typing a semi-colon ";". In this case, if you type:
;ta string
where "string" is some text string, Pine marks all messages which contain the "string" with an "X" (Pine actually prompts you for each part of the command separately, that is, after the ";", the "t", the "a", etc., but you can type it rapidly as one continuous string). For example:
;ta lemonade
marks all messages that contain the string "lemonade". If you then type "Z" (zoom) it displays *only* those messages marked with an "X".
In order for this feature to work, however, you must enter the SETUP CONFIGURATION mode from the MAIN MENU by typing "S" followed by "C". Then search for and mark the field:
[ ] enable-aggregate-command-set
by typing "X" in the square brackets (if the "X" is already there just leave it alone). Note that you must exit Pine and then re-enter it before such newly marked fields become active.
Q: My postings using SLIP/PPP lines are rather slow. Can I speed them up?
A: Yes you can. Enter the SETUP CONFIGURATION mode from the MAIN MENU by typing "S" followed by "C". Then search for and mark the field:
[ ] news-post-without-validation
by typing "X" in the square brackets (if the "X" is already there just
leave it alone). Note that you must exit Pine and then re-enter it before
such newly marked fields become active.
Q: Can I specify the order in which my newsgroups
appear?
A: Yes. In your main directory there is a file named: ".newsrc" which contains all of your newsgroups. Sort the groups however you wish them to appear and then enter the Pine SETUP CONFIGURATION from the MAIN MENU by typing "S" followed by "C". Then search for and mark the field:
[ ] news-read-in-newsrc-order
by typing "X" in the square brackets (if the "X" is already there just leave it alone). Note that you must exit Pine and then re-enter it before such newly marked fields become active.
Q: Help! I just marked 233 articles as deleted (D), but after exiting Pine I realize that I need to refer to some of them again. What can I do?
A: Inside the newsgroup, type: "&" and all that you have deleted will re-appear.
Q: Can I mark a place in a list of messages to indicate where I last stopped reading?
A: Yes. Enter the SETUP CONFIGURATION mode from the MAIN MENU by typing "S" followed by "C". Then search for and mark the field:
[ ] news-approximates-new-status
by typing "X" in the square brackets (if the "X" is already there just leave it alone). Note that you must exit Pine and then re-enter it before such newly marked fields become active.
Q: I sure get tired of subscribing or unsubscribing to groups one at a time -- is there a way to subscribe/unsubscribe to a whole bunch in one fell swoop?
A: Yes. There is a file named ".newsrc" in your main directory which contains entries that look like this:
... alt.agriculture.fruit: 1-643 alt.agriculture.misc! 1-3746 alt.aldus.freehand: 1-1614 alt.aldus.misc 1-231 ...
Entries that end with a ":" before the number range indicate that you are subscribed to that group, whereas entries that end with a "!", or just a blank, mean that you are not. In the above example, you are subscribed to alt.agriculture.fruit and alt.aldus.freehand but not to alt.agriculture.misc or alt.aldus.misc. You can edit that file and change any number of "!"s to ":"s or vice-versa in order to subscribe or unsubscribe to groups.
Q: How can I get a list of all the available USENET newsgroups?
A: You can use a utility named "nntplist" which lists out all active groups, or all active groups relating to a specific topic. For example,
saul% nntplist -x '*pets*' active > news.pets
writes all of the currently active groups that deal with "pets" to the file "news.pets", whereas:
saul% nntplist active > news.all
writes all active news groups to the file "news.all".
Q: How can I control where my news post will go?
A: By default, it goes to the whole world, but you can restrict it to smaller regions by making use of something called the "distribution" entry in the message header.
To do this, you first have to configure Pine to let you have this entry in your message header, and then you have to use the entry when you post.
To configure Pine, go to the MAIN MENU, and type "S" followed by "C". Then:
Now when you compose a message to a newsgroup, if you press ^R while the cursor is in the header field, a new field named "Distribu:" appears. You can type in one of the following values which control the distribution of your post:
| Value | Where it goes |
| uwash | University of Washington |
| seattle | Seattle area |
| pnw | Pacific Northwest region |
| usa | Everywhere in the USA |
| na | Everywhere in North America |
| world | Everywhere on Usenet in the world |
By the way, you can get the most current distribution list by using the utility "nntplist" with the argument "distributions", e.g.,
saul3% nntplist distributions
Source: L. Gales / Pine Team
