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PC Yarn User Manual - version 0.88
PC Yarn - offline news storage and reading system
Copyright 1995 by Chin Huang
Permission to copy and distribute this material for any purpose and
without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice
and this permission notice appear in all copies. The author makes no
representations about the accuracy or suitability of this material for
any purpose. It is provided "as is", without any express or implied
warranties. The author will assume no liability for damages either from
the direct use of this product or as a consequence of the use of this
product.
INTRODUCTION
PC Yarn is a suite of programs for your personal computer, used to store
and read USENET news and mail downloaded from a USENET host.
FEATURES
- An import program inserts USENET articles into a "news base" from
Simple Offline USENET Packet (SOUP) format. For each newsgroup, you
specify the number of days to keep articles, after which, an expire
program deletes them. However, articles containing an Expires: header
are deleted on the date specified in the header.
- The news base stores only one copy of a cross-posted article. The
news base implementation stores multiple articles per file.
- A mail filter moves incoming mail to specific folders or deletes
incoming mail based on user defined rules.
- The Yarn news reader presents articles in threads arranged by
Message-ID and References headers. The reader program generates SOUP
reply packets.
- Score files contain rules to score articles based on matching text
found in the article. The reader can be set up to not show articles
having scores below a certain threshold.
- Multiple users are supported by storing separate configuration files
for each user.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
- MS-DOS 3.0 or higher
- compression software such as PKZIP and PKUNZIP
- 80186 compatible CPU or better. An 80386 compatible CPU or better is
required to run the 32-bit DOS extender programs.
- a lot of hard disk storage, depending on how much news you want to
keep. For example, the author subscribes to 120 newsgroups including
some binaries and sources groups, keeping most articles for 7 days.
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The amount of disk space used is 40 megabytes.
INSTALLATION
INSTALL YARN DIRECTORY
Unpack the files from the Yarn distribution into a directory. Run the
command
english [drive:]directory
where [drive:]directory specifies where to install the Yarn data
directory. This directory is created if it doesn't already exist.
Choose a disk drive with a lot of free space because the news base will
be stored here. In this document, this directory will be called the
%YARN% directory.
SET UP USER DIRECTORY
To set up a user directory where Yarn will store your user information,
run the command
adduser
A form appears in which you fill in the required user information.
+ Add User ------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Home directory: C:\JIM |
| |
| User ID: jsmith |
| |
| Host system: netcom.com |
| |
| User's full name: Jim Smith |
| |
| Editor program: edit |
| |
| Reply packet file: C:\UPLOAD\IOXR.ZIP |
| |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Home directory
Specify the directory where Yarn will store your user information.
This directory is created if it doesn't already exist. In this
document, this directory will be called the %HOME% directory.
User ID
Set this to your login name on the host from which you download and
upload USENET news.
Host system
Set this to the full domain name of your host.
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User's full name
Set this to your full name. This is the name that appears in
parentheses on the From: header in messages you send.
Editor program
Set the name of the editor program to run when you send messages.
Reply packet file
Specify the full path of the SOUP reply packet file where your
outgoing messages are stored. If the reply packet file does not
exist, it is created when you post an article or send a mail message
from the reader program. When you exit the reader program, the
reply packet is ready to upload to your host.
The program writes the user information to a configuration file named
%HOME%\yarn\config. This document refers to other configuration settings
also stored in this file. If you want to change those settings, you have
to edit the configuration file with a text editor.
SET TIME ZONE
Set the environment variable TZ to your time zone. The format of the TZ
string is
zzz[+/-]h[h][ddd]
zzz is a three character field representing the name of the time zone.
[+/-]h[h] is an optionally signed number representing the local time
zone's difference from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in hours. Positive
numbers adjust westward from GMT. Negative numbers adjust eastward from
GMT.
ddd is an optional three character field that represents the name of the
local time zone's daylight saving time.
If no TZ environment variable is set, a default TZ=EST5EDT is assumed.
UPDATE SYSTEM FILES
Ensure the FILES setting in the CONFIG.SYS file is set to
FILES=20
or higher. If there is no FILES setting, then add it.
Put these SET commands in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file to ensure the environment
settings persist after the next time you reboot your system. (If you are
installing Yarn for OS/2, put the SET commands in the CONFIG.SYS file
instead.) Use the settings determined above for the values appearing to
the right of the equal signs.
SET YARN=C:\YARN
SET HOME=C:\JIM
SET TZ=EST5EDT
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SET UP OTHER USERS
To set up another user, run the adduser command, and specify a different
home directory. To run Yarn as that user, set the HOME environment
variable to the user's home directory.
ENVIRONMENT
These enviroment variables modify the behaviour of Yarn if they are set.
EDITOR Specifies the external editor program, overriding the editor
specified in the configuration file.
LOGDIR Sets the user's home directory. If LOGDIR is not set, the home
directory is set from the HOME environment variable.
TMP Specifies a directory where temporary working files are stored.
The default is %YARN%\temp.
YARNRC Specifies an alternate configuration file to read instead of
the default %HOME%\yarn\config.
HOW TO ADD MIME SUPPORT
Yarn supports the decoding of Multimedia Internet Mail Extension (MIME)
messages by running an external MIME processing program. One such
program is metamail. A DOS port of metamail is available from
ftp://thumper.bellcore.com/pub/nsb/
An OS/2 port of metamail is available from
ftp://ftp-os2.nmsu.edu/os2/unix/
Put this setting in the Yarn configuration file, assuming you installed
the metamail executable in a directory in your PATH:
decode-mime=metamail %f
HOW TO ADD PGP SUPPORT
Yarn contains hooks to external cryptographic programs. The standard
Yarn distribution is set up to run Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). Ensure
that the PGP executable is in the execution PATH. Uncomment the "secret-
sign", "encrypt", "decrypt" and "decrypt-view" lines in the Yarn
configuration file. Yarn is now configured to use the PGP privacy and
authentication functions.
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OPERATION
IMPORT NEWS AND MAIL
To import messages from SOUP format, run
import <file>
where <file> is the path of the SOUP file. The import program takes
these options.
-n Do not delete the packet file.
-q Operate in quiet mode. Do not list the imported newsgroup
names.
-r Import rnews batch or UNIX mailbox files instead of SOUP files.
-u [directory]
Assume the files from a SOUP packet have already been unpacked
into the current directory and import messages from those
files. If the optional directory is specified, then import
from the files in that directory.
SET EXPIRY OF NEWSGROUPS
Two settings are associated with each newsgroup. One is the number of
days that articles in the newsgroup will be kept before the expire
program deletes them. The other is the absolute maximum number of days
that articles with an Expires: header will be kept. The Expires: header
may contain a date far in the future, but the article will be kept only
for the specified number of days.
When the import program finds a newsgroup in the packet that is not
already in the news base, it adds the newsgroup with keep days and
maximum keep days settings specified from the configuration file. The
"keep" and "max-keep" settings specify the keep days and maximum keep
days respectively. For example, if the configuration file contains the
settings
keep=7
max-keep=30
then articles are normally kept in the newsgroup for 7 days and
absolutely not more than 30 days.
You can set the keep days of individual newsgroups. Run the command
newgroup <name> <keepDays> [<maxDays>]
where <name> is the newsgroup name and <keepDays> is the number of days
that articles in the newsgroup will be kept before the expire program
deletes them. The optional parameter <maxDays> is the absolute maximum
number of days that articles containing an Expires: header will be kept.
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Instead of naming a newsgroup on the command line, you can specify a text
file containing a list of newsgroup names. Every newsgroup listed in the
file is assigned the keep days value.
newgroup @<file> <keepDays> [<maxDays>]
EXPIRE NEWS
Periodically run the expire program to delete old articles from the news
base. To expire old articles from all newsgroups, run the command
expire -o
To expire old articles from specific newsgroups, list the newsgroups on
the command line. For example:
expire -o comp.answers news.answers
To delete all read articles in all newsgroups, run
expire -r
To delete read articles from specific newsgroups, run expire with the -r
option and list the newsgroups on the command line. For example:
expire -r comp.answers news.answers
The program may expire newsgroups in addition to the newsgroups you
specified if an expired article was crossposted to multiple newsgroups.
You can specify a text file containing a list of newsgroups to expire.
Run expire with the argument
@<file>
on the command line, where <file> is the file path.
The expire program accepts these options:
-d <n> Assume it is <n> days in the future. Use this option to expire
articles before they normally would have been expired.
-n Do not actually delete any articles. Used for testing.
-o Delete old articles.
-q Operate in quiet mode. Display fewer messages than usual.
-r Delete read articles.
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REMOVE NEWSGROUP
To remove a newsgroup from the news base, run the command
rmgroup <name>
where <name> is the newsgroup name.
USING THE MAIL FILTER
The mail filter looks at incoming mail messages and processes the
messages based on a set of rules you define. You can set up a rule that
automatically moves messages you receive from a mailing list to a
specific folder. Or, you can automatically delete messages from a
specific user so that you don't even see messages from that user.
Run the filter program to set up the filter rules. A list of filter
rules appears. To add a filter rule, press the [Ins] key. The mail rule
form appears.
+ Mail Rule ----------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Rule name: Yarn Mailing List |
| |
| Search in: ( ) From Search for: yarn-list |
| (*) To Match case: No |
| ( ) Subject |
| ( ) Header |
| ( ) Body |
| ( ) Header and body |
| |
| Action: (*) Move to folder/newsgroup: list.yarn |
| ( ) Delete |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
Rule name
Enter a name for the rule. Filter rules are processed in sorted
order by rule name. Each rule is checked in turn until a match is
found. If no rules match, the message is moved to the INBOX folder.
Search in
Select where to search. If you select "To", then the To: and Cc:
headers are searched.
Search for
Enter the string to search for in the selected header.
Match case
Set the field to Yes if you want the search to be case sensitive.
Action
Select "Move to folder/newsgroup" if you want to move the message to
a specific folder or newsgroup. If the specified name is a
newsgroup in the news base, the message is moved to the newsgroup,
otherwise the message is moved to the named folder. Select "Delete"
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if you want to automatically delete the message.
The mail filter allows you to automatically transfer messages from a
mailing list into a newsgroup. You can also set up Yarn to send any
posts you make to that newsgroup back to the mailing list. For example,
suppose you want to filter messages from the Yarn mailing list into a
newsgroup. Run the command
newgroup list.yarn 7 30 yarn-list@lists.colorado.edu
to create a newsgroup named list.yarn. Set up a mail filter rule to move
messages from the mailing list into the newsgroup. Now when you post a
message to the list.yarn newsgroup, it is mailed to the list address
yarn-list@lists.colorado.edu.
READ NEWS
Run the yarn program to read news and mail. The yarnx program uses a DOS
extender, which uses the CPU's memory management functions to give the
program access to much more memory than conventional DOS programs. It
requires an 80386 compatible CPU or better. With more available memory,
the program can list much more articles in a newsgroup.
The reader program operates in several modes -- the newsgroup selection
level, the article selection level, and the article reading level.
In the newsgroup selection level, yarn displays a window listing the
newsgroups you are subscribed to along with the number of unread articles
in each newsgroup. You can subscribe, unsubscribe or rearrange the order
of newsgroups in this list. Press the [Ins] key to subscribe to a
newsgroup. This brings up a list of unsubscribed newsgroups. To make a
selection, use the arrow keys to move the highlight to the newsgroup, and
then press the [Enter] key. The selected newsgroup is inserted into the
subscribed newsgroup list. Press the [Del] key to unsubscribe from the
highlighted newsgroup. To move a newsgroup in the list, press the [Del]
key to remove it, position the highlight to the desired location, then
press the [Ins] key and reinsert the newsgroup.
By selecting a newsgroup, you go to the article selection level, where
yarn presents a list of the subjects of each article. A subject
beginning with the greater than (>) symbol indicates an article belonging
to the thread above it in the list, but the author of the article changed
the subject. You can select an article to read from this list, taking
you to the article reading level.
USING SCORE FILES
Score files contain rules used to automatically calculate a numeric rank,
called a score, for news articles. You can set up the reader so it
doesn't show articles having scores less than a threshold score. A
global score file contains rules applied in all newsgroups. Each
newsgroup can have a separate score file containing rules that are also
applied in that newsgroup.
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A rule in a score file has the format
<points> <where> <string>
where
<points>
is the number of points added or subtracted if the rule matches the
article. It is a positive or negative number. An article's score
is the total points of all matching rules in the global score file
and the newsgroup score file.
<where>
names an article header to search, such as "From:", "Subject:" or
"Message-ID:". You can name any header that might appear in an
article header. You can also specify two special options. The
"Header" option searches the entire article header. The "Body"
option searches the article body. Searching the "From:", "Subject:"
and "Message-ID:" fields is significantly faster than the other
search options.
<string>
is the string to search for. All searches are case-insensitive. If
the optional keyword "pattern" appears between <points> and <where>,
the string is interpreted as a regular expression.
A score file entry in the form
killthreshold <n>
sets the kill threshold to <n> points. The default kill threshold is 0.
Articles having scores less that this threshold are marked as already
read, and you normally will not see them.
Blank lines and lines beginning with the # character are ignored.
Here is an example score file that the author uses for the
alt.usenet.offline-reader newsgroup.
# I have little interest in Forte Agent.
-1 Subject: Agent
-1 Subject: Forte
-1 pattern Subject: \bFA\b
# But I am interested in Yarn and SOUP.
10 Subject: Yarn
5 Subject: SOUP
Press [Shift-E] at the newsgroup selection level to edit the global score
file. This starts your configured editor program on the global score
file. Press [Shift-E] while inside a newsgroup to edit the score file
specific to the newsgroup.
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NEWSGROUP SELECTION LEVEL
These commands are available in the newsgroup selection level.
Down Arrow, Ctrl-N
Move to the next newsgroup.
Up Arrow, Ctrl-P
Move to the previous newsgroup.
Tab, N
Move to the next newsgroup that contains unread articles.
Shift-Tab, P
Move to the previous newsgroup that contains unread articles.
Home Move to first newsgroup.
End Move to last newsgroup.
/ Search forward for newsgroup name containing matching text.
? Search backward for newsgroup name containing matching text.
; Continue forward search.
: Continue backward search.
Space, Right Arrow
Go to the article selection level, listing only unread articles.
Enter
Go to the article selection level, listing all articles.
Ins, +
Subscribe to a newsgroup and insert the newsgroup at the current
position.
Del, -
Unsubscribe from the highlighted newsgroup.
A Post an article to the highlighted newsgroup.
M Send mail message.
C Mark all articles in the highlighted newsgroup as read.
E Edit the global score file.
O Save unread articles in the highlighted newsgroup to a folder.
S Save unread articles in the highlighted newsgroup to a file. The
program prompts for a file name. If you don't give a full path
name, the file is stored in the directory %HOME%\news.
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W Same as the 'S' command, except omit the article headers.
! Run command shell. Type "exit" to return to Yarn.
F2, Ctrl-L
List address book.
Esc Exit program
ARTICLE SELECTION LEVEL
These commands are available in the article selection level.
Down Arrow, Ctrl-N
Move to the next article.
Up Arrow, Ctrl-P
Move to the previous article.
Tab, N
Move to the first article of the next thread.
Shift-Tab, P
Move backwards to the previous article beginning a thread.
Home Move to first article.
End Move to last article.
/ Search forward for article containing matching text.
? Search backward for article containing matching text.
; Continue forward search.
: Continue backward search.
Space, Right Arrow
Read the article.
Del, -
Mark the article as read and go to the next unread article.
Ins, +
Mark the article as unread.
O Save the current article through to the last article in the thread
to a folder.
S Save the current article through to the last article in the thread
to a file. The program prompts for a file name. If you don't give
a full path name, the file is stored in the directory %HOME%\news.
W Same as the 'S' command, except omit the article headers.
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B Extract uuencoded file from the current article.
K Mark the current article through to the last article in the thread
as read.
U Mark the current article through to the last article in the thread
as unread.
C Mark all articles in the newsgroup as read.
E Edit the newsgroup score file.
A Post an article to the newsgroup.
M Send mail message.
L Toggle short, medium or long subject list.
T Sort articles by arrival, subject or score order.
V Toggle listing of all articles or unread articles.
! Run command shell. Type "exit" to return to Yarn.
| Run a program, piping the article into the program's standard input.
If you put %f on the command line, it is replaced with the name of a
temporary file containing the article, and the article will not be
piped into the standard input.
F2, Ctrl-L
List address book.
F3, Ctrl-A
Add the author of the current message to the address book.
Esc, Left Arrow
Return to the newsgroup selection level.
ARTICLE READING LEVEL
These commands are available in the article reading level.
Down Arrow, Enter
Scroll one line down.
Up Arrow
Scroll one line up.
PgDn Show next page.
Space
Show next page. If at the end of an article, go to the next unread
article.
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PgUp, b
Show previous page.
Home Go to top of article.
g Search article for matching text.
G Continue search in article.
Ctrl-G
Search for the next line beginning with "Subject:". You can use
this command to search for the next message in a message digest.
/ Search forward for article containing matching text.
? Search backward for article containing matching text.
; Continue forward search.
: Continue backward search.
n, Right Arrow
Mark the article as read and show the next unread article.
N Show next article.
p Show previous unread article.
P Show previous article.
a, A Post an article to the newsgroup.
f Post a followup article.
F Post a followup article, quoting the original article.
r Mail a reply to the author of the article.
R Mail a reply, quoting the original article.
m Mail (forward) the article to someone.
M Compose a mail message.
o Save the article to a folder.
s Save the article to a file. The program prompts for a file name.
If you don't give a full path name, the file is stored in the
directory %HOME%\news.
w Same as the 's' command, except omit article headers.
B Extract uuencoded file from the article.
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x ROT13 decrypt the article.
X Decrypt the article by running the external cryptography program
specified in the Yarn configuration.
k, Del
Mark the article as read.
K Mark this article and the rest of the articles in the thread as
read.
u, Ins
Mark the article as unread.
U Mark this article and the rest of the articles in the thread as
unread.
C Mark all the articles in the newsgroup as read.
E Edit the newsgroup score file.
v Toggle verbose headers.
c Cancel the article. You must be the author to be able to cancel the
article.
z Supersede the article. You must be the author to be able to
supersede the article.
Z Same as the 'z' command, except you start with a copy of the
original article in the editor.
! Run command shell. Type "exit" to return to Yarn.
| Run a program, piping the article into the program's standard input.
If you put %f on the command line, it is replaced with the name of a
temporary file containing the article, and the article will not be
piped into the standard input.
F2, Ctrl-L
List address book.
F3, Ctrl-A
Add the author of the current message to the address book.
Esc, Left Arrow
Return to the article selection level.
q Return to the newsgroup selection level.
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READ MAIL
To list your incoming mail messages, press [Shift-I] at the newsgroup
selection level.
You can send new mail by pressing [Shift-M]. A form pops up, asking you
to enter the destination mail address and subject for the message you
want to send. If you press the [F2] key while the cursor is in the mail
address field, the address book pops up. You can select an entry from
the address book by moving the highlight with the arrow keys and pressing
the [Enter] key.
Press [Shift-F] at the newsgroup selection level to bring up a list of
folders. You can select a folder to read from this list.
If you start yarn with the -m option, you go directly to reading your
received mail and skip reading news. If you start yarn with the -f
option, you go directly to the folder list and skip reading news.
EDIT REPLIES
The Yarn reader allows you to edit the messages in the reply packet. At
the newsgroup selection level, press [Shift-R] to display a list of
folders in the reply packet. The reply packet may contain up to two
folders, ``mail'' which holds outgoing mail messages, and ``news'' which
holds outgoing USENET articles.
By selecting a folder, you go to the message selection level, where the
program lists the messages in the folder. Press the [Del] key to delete
the currently highlighted message. Press [Shift-E] to edit the message.
To view a message, select it from the message selection level. While a
message is displayed, pressing the 'd' key deletes the message. Press
the 'e' key to edit the message.
If you start yarn with the -r option, you go directly to the replies list
and skip reading news.
USING THE ADDRESS BOOK
The address book is used to conveniently retrieve mail addresses. An
address book entry consists of an alias and an address. An alias is a
word representing a address or a list of addresses. If an alias appears
in a To:, Cc:, or Bcc: header, it is replaced with the corresponding
address(es) when the message is sent.
To list the address book, press [F2] at the newsgroup selection level.
To add an address book entry, press the [Ins] key. A form appears in
which you enter the alias and address. To specify a list of addresses,
enter the addresses in the Address: field, separating them with a comma.
While you are reading a message, you can capture the mail address of the
message author and add it to the address book by pressing the [F3] key.
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YARN OPTION SUMMARY
The yarn program accepts these options:
-b Output to the display using BIOS calls instead of direct screen
writes.
-f List folders. Do not read news.
-m List mail. Do not read news.
-r List replies. Do not read news.
-s Disable the '!' run shell command.
REGULAR EXPRESSIONS
The search functions use regular expressions to specify the pattern to
match.
A \b matches a word boundary.
A ^ matches the beginning of the buffer.
A $ matches the end of the buffer.
A . matches any character.
A single character with no special meaning matches that character.
A string enclosed in brackets [] matches any single character in that
string. Ranges of ASCII character codes may be abbreviated as 'a-z0-9'.
A left bracket ] may occur only as the first character of the string. A
literal - must be placed where it can't be mistaken as a range indicator.
If the first character is the caret ^ then any character not in the
string will match.
A regular expression followed by * matches a sequence of 0 or more
matches of the regular expression.
A regular expression followed by + matches a sequence of 1 or more
matches of the regular expression.
A regular expression followed by ? matches a sequence of 0 or 1 matches
of the regular expression.
Two adjacent (concatenated) regular expressions match a match of the
first followed by a match of the second.
Two regular expressions separated by | match either a match for the first
or a match for the second.
A regular expression enclosed in parentheses matches a match for the
regular expression.
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The order of precedence of operators at the same parenthesis level is []
then *+? then concatenation then |.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
------------------------------
Subject: How do I create SOUP files on my UNIX host?
The uqwk program creates and processes SOUP files on your UNIX host. It
is available by anonymous FTP from ftp.gte.com in the /pub/uqwk
directory.
To create a SOUP download packet, named "down.zip" in this example, run
these commands on your UNIX host:
uqwk +n +x +L
zip -m down.zip AREAS *.MSG
Download the down.zip file to your PC. Run this command on your PC to
insert the messages into the Yarn news base:
import down.zip
When you send mail or post articles, the Yarn reader creates a SOUP reply
packet, named "up.zip" in this example. Upload the up.zip file to your
UNIX host. Run these commands on your UNIX host to send the messages in
the reply packet:
unzip -U up.zip
uqwk -m -n +L -RREPLIES
------------------------------
Subject: The newsgroup selection list showed a number of the unread articles
in a newsgroup. When I selected the newsgroup by pressing the space bar,
the article selection list had less articles than that number.
When you read an article that was cross-posted to multiple newsgroups,
that article is marked as read in all the newsgroups to which it was
cross-posted. The newsgroup you selected contains cross-posted articles
that you already read in another newsgroup. The program counts the true
number of unread articles when you select the newsgroup.
------------------------------
Subject: After running "expire -o", I reduced the keep days for a newsgroup
and ran "expire -o" again, but it didn't delete any more articles.
Each article is assigned an expiry date after which it is deleted. The
"expire -o" command deletes articles having an expiry date older than the
current date. The article storage scheme requires that an article's
expiry date be set when the article is imported into the news base. Once
imported, the article's expiry date cannot be changed. When you change
the keep days for a newsgroup, you only change how long you keep
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subsequently imported articles. You don't affect the expiry dates of
articles already in the news base.
------------------------------
Subject: What is the junk newsgroup?
When the import program finds an article that doesn't belong to any of
the newsgroups in the news base, it tosses the article into the junk
newsgroup. This usually shouldn't happen with properly configured
software.
------------------------------
Subject: How do I configure Yarn for OS/2 to run the MS-DOS version of PKZIP
and PKUNZIP?
Put these settings in your configuration file, adjusting the drive and
path appropriately.
compress=cmd.exe /c c:\path\pkzip -m %f %d\*.*
uncompress=cmd.exe /c c:\path\pkunzip -o %f %d
------------------------------
Subject: How do I configure Yarn to use InfoZip's zip and unzip programs?
Put these settings in the configuration file.
compress=zip -kjm %f %d/*
uncompress=unzip -o %f
------------------------------
Subject: How do I print an article from the reader program?
Use the save to file command. When prompted for a file name, enter the
name
prn
------------------------------
Subject: How do I cross-post an article to more than one newsgroup?
While you are editing the article, add the newsgroups where you want to
cross-post to the Newsgroups: line. Separate the newsgroups with commas.
Do not put any spaces between the newsgroups.
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Subject: The program aborted with the error message "history file is corrupt".
The history file is an critical part of the news base. It contains the
location where each article is stored. If the history file becomes
corrupted, some articles may become inaccessible.
The rebuild program is a utility that rebuilds the history file by
scanning all the articles in the news base. If the files containing the
articles are intact, rebuild should restore the links to every article in
the news base. To repair the history file, first run the chkdsk command
to fix any file system errors, then run the command
rebuild -h
------------------------------
Subject: The program aborted with the error message "dbm file is corrupt:
%YARN%\supersed" or "dbm file is corrupt: %HOME%\yarn\readart".
These files aren't so critical and can be deleted if they become
corrupted. First run the chkdsk command to fix any file system errors,
then delete the supersed.* files in the %YARN% directory or delete the
readart.* files in the %HOME%\yarn directory respectively.
------------------------------
Subject: Is there a Yarn mailing list?
Yes, to subscribe to the mailing list, mail a message to
listproc@lists.colorado.edu. The body of the message should be the line
subscribe yarn-list Your Full Name
assuming Your Full Name is your full name. If it isn't, substitute your
own name.
FILES
%HOME%\mail Folder directory
%HOME%\news Default save directory
%HOME%\replies Reply work directory
%HOME%\yarn User configuration directory
%HOME%\yarn\scores Score file directory
%HOME%\yarn\scores\global Global score file
%HOME%\yarn\addrbook Address book file
%HOME%\yarn\config User configuration file
%HOME%\yarn\filter Mail filter configuration file
%HOME%\yarn\newsrc Newsgroup subscription file
%HOME%\yarn\readart.* Read cross-posted article lookup table
%YARN%\active Active newsgroup file
%YARN%\global System-wide configuration file
%YARN%\history.* Article history lookup table
%YARN%\supersed.* Superseded article lookup table
%YARN%\overview Article overview directory
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PC Yarn User Manual - version 0.88
%YARN%\news Article spool file directory
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The MS-DOS yarn.exe program uses the SPAWNO routines by Ralf Brown to
minimize memory use while shelling to DOS and running other programs.
The MS-DOS yarnx.exe program uses PMODE for Watcom C/C++, a DOS extender
written by Charles Scheffold and Thomas Pytel.
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