bsdnews(1L)	  MISC. REFERENCE MANUAL PAGES	      bsdnews(1L)

NAME
     bsdnews - user interface to *BSD news archive

SYNOPSIS
     bsdnews

DESCRIPTION
     bsdnews is a user interface to a  *BSD  news  archive.   The
     interface allows you to search the subject lines of the news
     for keywords, and then to read some/all of the articles  you
     found.

     The user accesses the program  by telnetting  to the  machine
     minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au,  logging  in	 as  bsdnews.  She/he then 
     interacts with it by giving it lines of commands. The follow-
     ing commands are available:

     help [command]
	 - gives explicit help on the named command, or	 a  short
	 synopsis of the available commands.

     ? [command]
	 - the same as help.

     grep [-i] egrep_pattern
	 - search the *BSD news subject lines for the given egrep
	 pattern.  The	result	is  displayed  on the screen with
	 either less or cat, depending on the value of the  PAGER
	 variable; see Environment Variables for more details.

     mail email_address
	 - mail the result of the last grep or read to the  given
	 email address.

     prog [-i] egrep_pattern
	 - the same as grep.

     read article
	 - read the contents of the requested article. The  arti-
	 cle  is  a decimal number, given in the left-most column
	 of the grep results. The  result  is  displayed  on  the
	 screen	 with  either less or cat, depending on the value
	 of the PAGER variable.

     quit
	 - exit the program.

     set [variable [value] ]
	 - set the named variable to  the  given  value.  If  the
	 value	is  not given, the value 1 is used. If both vari-
	 able and value are omitted, the list  of  variables  and
	 their values is printed.

     unset variable
	 - remove the named variable from the list of  set  vari-
	 ables.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
     The operation of bsdnews is affected  by  certain	variables
     and their values. These variables are:

     PATH
	 - the path used to find the following	programs:  egrep,
	 sed, cat, cp, sort, rm, gunzip, tar and the pager used.

     PAGER
	 - if unset, the  result  of  a	 grep  or  read	 is  sent
	 directly  to the screen. If set, a pager is used to show
	 the result one page at a  time;  the  default	pager  is
	 less.

     LESS
	 - if less is the default pager, this  variable	 controls
	 its  operation.  See  the  manual page for less for more
	 details.

     TERM
	 - most pagers need to know the type  of  terminal  being
	 used. This variable should be set to your terminal type.

     LAST
	 - if set, and you have done a grep and then a read,  the
	 grep  is redisplayed after you have finished reading the
	 article. This allows you to  continue	browsing  through
	 your search after reading each article.

     SORT
	 - this variable takes one of two values, date	and  sub-
	 ject.	If  unset or set to subject, the result of a grep
	 is sorted according to the contents of the subject lines
	 found.	 If  set  to date, the result of a grep is sorted
	 according to the article numbers found,  which	 gives	a
	 roughly chronological sorting.

SEE ALSO
     last(1L), egrep(1)