Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!netsys!lamc!wet!epsilon From: epsilon@wet.UUCP (Eric P. Scott) Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions Subject: Re: Newsreader problem Summary: "UNIX news" is not the same as "Network News" Keywords: UNIX news netnews usenet uucp mail Message-ID: <438@wet.UUCP> Date: 18 Aug 89 09:11:40 GMT References: <4611@eos.UUCP> <2661@ccnysci.UUCP> Reply-To: epsilon@wet.UUCP (Eric P. Scott) Organization: Wetware Diversions Public Access UNIX, San Francisco Lines: 35 In article <2661@ccnysci.UUCP> stacy@ccnysci.UUCP (Stacy Weaver) writes: >[quote of a forged message] > > have you tried typing news at the prompt? [ This description is for System V; other variants are similar ] The UNIX "news" program (and its associated directory, /usr/news) has absolutely nothing to do with usenet. "news" can be used as an extension of the /etc/motd (message of the day) file; while motd is displayed each time you log in, news topics are only displayed once. The zero-length file $HOME/.news_time maintains the date and time of the last message read. A system administrator will typically put a news -n (display names) or news -s (display count of unread news items) in a shell profile. news with no arguments displays all items you haven't read. BSD has a similar "bboard" style program called msgs. Network News is what you're reading now. The software package is generically called netnews, and the machines that exchange Network News are known collectively as usenet. netnews is not an AT&T product, and not an official part of UNIX (although often distributed with UNIX as "contributed software.") Netnews software is also available for non-UNIX systems as well--don't assume that what you read here originates on a UNIX system or that other readers are in UNIX environments! Also, the hardest thing to explain to the stubborn: usenet is not uucp, and uucp is not usenet. Each can exist quite happily in the absence of the other. People do not have "usenet addresses"--they have addresses on uucp, Internet, etc. You cannot mail to someone through usenet. If you reply to a usenet article, your reply travels through conventional electronic mail. If you follow up to a usenet article, your followup travels through usenet. It's not addressed to anyone in particular--it goes to one or more newsgroups. -=EPS=-