  slrn - First Steps
  Felix Schueller <fschueller@netcologne.de>
  Peter J Ross <peadar.ruadh@gmail.com>
  Version pre1.0.0, November 2008

  This document explains the first things you have to do after having
  installed slrn. It doesn't matter how you installed slrn (from source
  or using a binary package), the first steps remain the same on any
  Unix system. If you installed slrn as a binary package, however, it is
  possible that your distributor has already done some work for you.
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Table of Contents

  1. Checking the ``rc'' file
  2. Choosing a newsserver
  3. Connecting for the first time
  4. Getting the newsgroups descriptions (optional)
  5. Choosing an editor
  6. Subscribing to newsgroups
  7. Getting more information
  8. About this document

  ______________________________________________________________________

  1.  Checking the ``rc'' file

  The first thing we want to do is to customize slrn's configuration
  file.

  If you installed slrn from source, you'll find an example slrn.rc at
  $INSTALL_PREFIX/share/doc/slrn/slrn.rc.

  If you installed slrn from a binary package, have a look whether your
  distributor has included a global slrn.rc and/or an example slrn.rc.
  If you cannot find a file named ``slrn.rc'' or any other file which
  seems to be a configuration file for slrn, you can get an example from
  <http://slrn.sourceforge.net/downloads/slrn.rc>.

  If a global configuration file exists, it will also be read before
  your personal one on each startup, so you might want to look at the
  default settings it makes for you.

  If you don't have a configuration file for slrn yet (check your home
  directory), you may copy the example configuration file and edit it
  with your favourite editor:

          cp /path/to/slrn.rc ~/.slrnrc
          vi ~/.slrnrc

  For the exact syntax and descriptions of all variables, have a look at
  the ``slrn reference manual'' which comes with slrn, named
  ``manual.txt''. An HTML version is also available from
  <http://slrn.sourceforge.net/docs/slrn-manual.html>.

  If your ``From:'' header cannot be generated from your local account,
  you should at least set the following variables:

          set hostname "doe.com"  % sets the domain of your address to
                                  %   ``doe.com''
          set username "john"     % sets the localpart of your address to
                                  %   ``john''
          set realname "John Doe" % sets your realname to ``John Doe''

  In this example, the resulting ``From:'' header is ``John Doe
  <john@doe.com>''.

  The sample slrn.rc file is well documented; feel free to make more
  changes to it if you like.

  2.  Choosing a newsserver

  The second thing we want to do is to choose a newsserver to connect
  to. The easiest way to tell slrn which server to use is to set the
  environment variable ``$NNTPSERVER'' to the hostname of your preferred
  newsserver. In most cases, this is a server on a machine you have a
  permanent network connection to (or even localhost, if you are running
  a local server like Leafnode).

  To set it permanently, add one of the following lines to the
  configuration file of your favourite shell:

          NNTPSERVER='server_name' && export NNTPSERVER   (for sh/ksh/bash/zsh)
          setenv NNTPSERVER 'server_name'                 (for csh/tcsh)

  If you want to use more than one newsserver set the $NNTPSERVER to
  your primary server and access the other server by starting slrn with
  ``slrn -h server.name''.

  Note: When using different servers, you need to specify separate
  newsrc files using the ``server'' configuration command or the ``-f''
  command line switch.

  If your newsserver requires authentication, you also need to use the
  ``nnrpaccess'' command. ``nnrpaccess'' and ``server'' are described in
  detail in the reference manual.

  3.  Connecting for the first time

  Run ``slrn --create'' at your shell prompt to start slrn and retrieve
  a list of all active newsgroups from the server. This can take some
  time if your connection is slow; future startups (without that flag)
  are much faster.

  Note: If using multiple servers, you will need to use the ``--create''
  option for each of them.

  When slrn switches to full screen mode, you can press ``q'' to exit it
  again.

  4.  Getting the newsgroups descriptions (optional)

  Note: You only need to do this if you want to see the newsgroup
  descriptions in slrn. It works only if your newsserver has the group
  descriptions in its database.

  Run ``slrn -d'' at your shell prompt and wait until slrn quits.  This
  usually results in a large download which takes even longer than the
  ``--create'' step described before.

  5.  Choosing an editor

  slrn has no builtin editor. That way, you can use any editor you like.
  There are two ways to tell slrn which editor it should use.

  If you want to use the same editor for all applications on your
  system, just set the enviroment variables ``$EDITOR'' and/or
  ``$VISUAL'' to your preferred editor (if you haven't done this
  already). slrn will heed this.

  If you want to use a special editor or just pass special arguments to
  it, set the variable ``editor_command'' in your .slrnrc, e.g.:

          set editor_command "vim '+set tw=72' +%d '%s'"

  starts vim with a textwidth of 72 columns and the cursor on the first
  line of the message's body. For a more detailed discussion of this,
  see the entry ``editor_command'' in the reference manual.

  6.  Subscribing to newsgroups

  Start slrn from your shellprompt. Some groups which are useful for
  Usenet / slrn beginners should already be subscribed. You can now
  subscribe to any group you are interested in:

  Press the ``L'' (capital-L!) key to list all groups matching a
  specified pattern, e.g. comp.*unix*; then, go through the list and use
  the ``s'' key to subscribe.

  Now, you can start reading your news. To see the online help, press
  ``?''.

  7.  Getting more information

  At first, you should have a look at the ``README'' file from the
  source distribution. It gives an overview of all the documentation
  distributed with slrn. If you cannot find this file,
  <http://slrn.sourceforge.net/documentation.html> is a good point to
  start.

  8.  About this document

  This document was written by Felix Schueller and has been updated for
  slrn versions 0.9.9+ and reformatted in SGML by Peter J Ross.

