Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site lsuc.UUCP Path: utzoo!lsuc!msb From: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader) Newsgroups: net.news Subject: Re: wanted enhancement to vnews programs Message-ID: <895@lsuc.UUCP> Date: Mon, 4-Nov-85 13:22:38 EST Article-I.D.: lsuc.895 Posted: Mon Nov 4 13:22:38 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 4-Nov-85 18:57:42 EST References: <2431@sunybcs.UUCP> <882@lsuc.UUCP> <2675@brl-tgr.ARPA> Reply-To: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader) Distribution: net Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto Lines: 51 Summary: How to use SUBJLINE with = in rn David Sherman (lsuc!dave) wrote: > >You can use the '=' key in rn to get this. It can be customized > >to show as many as you like (normally a screen-ful) and to show > >what information you want (normally the Subject: line). One person > >here (lsuc!msb) has set it up to show author, part of the Subject > >line, and number of lines of each unread article. And a couple of people have asked by news or mail how this is done. Well, actually, dave wasn't quite right; you can only do part of this. You use the environment variable SUBJLINE. The manual says: SUBJLINE (%) Controls the format of the lines displayed by the '=' command at the article selection level. Default: %s Actually, I think the default is %[Subject], not %s. The latter strips the Re: field. So if you want the number of lines and the subject, you define SUBJLINE as "%[Lines] %s". As usual, if you have an rninit file (see the manual) and you don't want to put SUBJLINE in your environment, you could put -ESUBJLINE="%[Lines] %s" in your rninit file. Or if you want the unmodified subject, use %[Subject] instead of %s. Now, what you *can't* do is get *part* of the subject line. *You* can't, but *I* can, and that's what fooled dave. I made some local modifications to rn so that I could get field width limits into a %-format, and so that I could get %f with the real name first and net address second (I called this %w). My SUBJLINE actually is: "%>-15<15w (%>3[Lines]) %<52[Subject]". The closest you can come is "%f %[Lines] %[Subject]". I'm not releasing the modifications. I mailed them to Larry Wall, but due to a mail glitch I didn't get his mail requesting a different syntax until after I'd written it that way. My modification is for my use only, in the interests of keeping rn maintenance coordinated. I only mentioned it because dave posted that item. Oh: %[ takes some time to execute, because the file has to be reread. I consider it worthwhile, because the lines still come up faster than I can read them, unless the system is dragging. On a busy machine you may want to stay with the default. Anyway, once you have one %[ in your SUBJLINE, a second one is cheap. If you don't have SUBJLINE, you have an old version of rn. Mark Brader - lsuc!msb "I'm a little worried about the bug-eater," she said. "We're embedded in bugs, have you noticed?" -- Niven, "The Integral Trees"