NEWSCNT

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: LOCAL
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NAME

newscnt - count unread network news based on user's newsgroup choices

SYNOPSIS

newscnt [ -{sta} ] [ -x ] [ -f alt_.newsrc ] [ -n newsgrp ...]

DESCRIPTION

Newscnt provides a count of unread network news. By default, the user's .newsrc file is examined to determine a list of newsgroups. These newsgroups are then matched against the list of articles that the user has read and a count of available unread news articles is determined. The program writes to stdout either "No news." if there are no unread news articles, or "nnn news articles." to indicate the number of unread articles. Options are provided for altering the format in which the count(s) are returned and the inputs the program works from. The following options are supported:

-{sta}

These three options, only one of which may be specified at a time, affect the output format of the program.

s: The silent option -- nothing is written to stdout. Only the program's normal return codes are provided, e.g. a 1 if there is no unread news, a 0 if there is unread news, or a -1 if there was an error in the processing.
t: The terse option -- only the total number of unread news articles (including zero if there are no unread news articles) is written to stdout. No other text is written.
a: The all option -- in addition to a report of the total number of unread news articles, the program writes a line of the form "newsgroup: nnn articles" for each newsgroup having one or more unread news articles.

-x

This flag causes the program to ignore the articles that the user has already read in each newsgroup and report the total number of articles available in the newsgroup. The effect is similar to the -x flag on most news reading programs.

-f alt_.newsrc

When this option is specified, the file alt_.newsrc is used instead of the user's $HOME/.newsrc file.

-n newsgrps ...

When this option is specified, the newsgrps specified on the command line are reported on. By default, the program searches through the specified or default .newsrc file for a line that begins with the word options. This options line is parsed for the list of newsgrps following a -n argument. Any newsgrp, either from the command line or from the .newsrc file, prefaced with an exclamation point will be specifically excluded from the computation. This is useful for excluding "embedded" newsgroups. (NOTE: A newsgrp is taken as the "prefix" to a set of newsgroups and all newsgroups with that prefix are automatically included in the count.)

FILES

/usr/lib/news/active
$HOME/.newsrc

CAVEATS

This program makes use of the /usr/lib/news/active file to determine the available news items and not the actual news directory's contents. Consequently, its answers may be off slightly if the active file does not accurately track the available news articles. If you are told you have unusually large amounts of unread news, use the -a option to pinpoint the newsgroup(s) with unusual counts and then check to see if there are unexpired articles causing an unusually large "range" in the active file. The .newsrc format is interpreted according to the author's understanding of that file's format. Variations in how this file is interpreted may exist.

AUTHOR

Glen A. Taylor
AT&T (Consumer Products Divsion)
May 1986

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Time: 21:51:53 GMT, February 02, 2023