Introduction

OIT/NBCS supports the nn news reader, a powerful, menu-driven interface to Netnews. With nn, you can read individual articles in newsgroups, respond through electronic mail to authors of articles, remail articles to other users, and post your own articles for local or more widespread distribution. In addition, special nn configuration files allow you to customize the nn environment to suit your own needs and interests.

How Files Are Named in nn

When you execute one of nn's save commands, you will see a prompt:

Save on (+~|)

If you have the variable suggest-default-savedescribed in the NBCS document, Customizing the nn Newsreader (UNX01401)*set to on, the prompt will look like:

Save on (+~|) +rec/music/beatles

The prompt presents a default filename (based on the name of the current newsgroup) that you can confirm by pressing <RETURN>, or you can backspace over the default name and enter a new one. In the above example, accepting the default filename would create a file called beatles in a directory called News/rec/music beneath your home directory (the one you log into). The abbreviation +, in this case, is expanded to home directory/News, and the names of the directories created in News are derived by replacing the periods in the current newsgroup name with slashes.

nn normally displays and accepts filenames using the abbreviations + and ~/ , which are expanded when the actual file is written. Regardless of whether you decide to accept the default filename or enter a new name, it is important to understand how nn uses filename abbreviations, because they will ultimately determine the directory location of the files you save.

Abbreviation	Meaning
+	The plus sign is normally expanded to home directory/News,. This abbreviation, which is always used with the default filename, makes it easy to save all Netnews articles in or beneath your News directory.Accepting the default filename provided by nn will result in the creation of a hierarchy of directories beneath your News directory that correspond directly to the newsgroup hierarchies (the periods in the original newsgroup name are simply replaced with slashes). Some users may find it easier to locate saved articles if they are organized in a manner similar to the newsgroup hierarchies. If you would prefer not to accept the default filename but still want to save the selected files in your News directory, you can backspace over the default filename leaving the + intact, and type in your preferred path and filename. For example, Abbreviated Name Actual Filename Written +cats News/cats +animals/cats News/animals/cats +/animals/cats News/animals/cats (result is identical to above)
~/	The tilde followed immediately by a forward slash signifies your home directory. This abbreviation should be used if you want to save a file in a directory location other than beneath your News directory. For example, if you wanted to store articles about Apple's System 7 operating system in a directory called macinfo, you could back up over the entire default filename and replace it with ~/macinfo/system7. Additional examples are given below: Abbreviated Name Actual Filename Written ~/cats cats ~/animals/cats animals/cats ~/News/animals/cats News/animals/cats Note: If you forget to follow the tilde with a forward slash, nn will attempt write the file to the home directory of another user, interpreting the name following the tilde as a login id. In most cases this will generate an error message.
(none)	If a filename is entered without using one of the abbreviations above, the file will be written to the current default directory. For example, if when prompted for a filename, you simply entered beatles.txt, the file beatles.txt would be saved in whatever directory you were in when you started nn. If you were in your home directory, the file would be saved in your home directory; if you were in News, it would be saved in News and so on. Several examples are given below. The left-hand column lists the default directory at the time nn was started, the middle column shows the filename entered when nn prompts for a filename, and the rightmost column shows where the file is actually written based on the default directory and user-specified filename. Default Directory Filename Actual Filename Written News cats News/cats News animals/cats News/animals/cats Home cats cats Home& animals/cats animals/cats
|	The vertical bar directs the message, not into a file, but into a program. (The bar is sometimes called a "pipe''.) This option is not often used.

Using nn to View Saved Articles

If one or several articles were saved with the S or O command, nn can treat the saved file as a news folder which can then be viewed with the G (go to) command. To view the folder within nn, follow these steps:

1. In selection or reading mode, type G.
   
2. You will be prompted to enter a newsgroup name or a folder name. Instead of entering a group name, enter the name of a file you saved in nn using the file naming conventions described above in "How Files Are Named in nn''. For example, to view the articles saved in the file News/rec/music/classical, type +rec/music/classical and then press the <RETURN> key.
   
3. You will enter selection mode, and the articles saved in the folder will be displayed in the selection mode menu format. You can select and read these articles just as you would any other Netnews articles. Messages you choose not to read will not be deleted from the folder.
   
4. When you leave the group, you will be returned to the menu or article you were viewing at the time you executed the G command.
   
   

For More Information

Questions on nn should be directed to the OIT/NBCS Help Desk (732-445-HELP). You can also send electronic mail to the address help on any OIT system (e.g., help@eden.rutgers.edu or help@rci.rutgers.edu) or post a message to the newsgroup ru.comp.qa.news .