           Configuring Debian GNU/Linux's tin package
                 June 1, 1995  Kenny Wickstrom

tin is a USENET newsreader program.  It has a powerful full screen text mode
user interface, where most actions are available at the press of a single
key.

tin will read news from a NNTP server or from the local file system.  The
default NNTP server is specified in /etc/news/server or can be defined
by the environment variable NNTPSERVER.  If NNTPSERVER is define, it will
override the server specified by /etc/news/server.

To read news from a local file system, the news must be in /usr/spool/news.

The file /etc/mailname is used to determine the mail host (portion of an 
email address after the '@') when posting or mailing from within tin.

If you used tin-1.22-[1|2], then the files /etc/nntpserver and
/etc/inews.gateway are obsolete.  

Some of the above was plagurized from Ian Jackson <iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk>,
thanks Ian.

The remainder of this document is the README file which is distributed with
the tin source, thanks Iain Lea <iain.lea@scn.de>.

----------- README ------------
This is version 1.3 PL0 (patchlevel 0) of the tin newsreader.

o  Compiles & runs on Unix, AmigaDOS, OS/2 (Not finished) & Windows/NT.
o  Based more on Notes and tass than rn type newreaders.
o  Full screen, easy to use with on-line help at all levels.
o  Reads news locally (ie. /usr/spool/news) and/or via NNTP/INN.
o  Supports the NOV/Xover news overview index file standard.
o  Threads on Subject: and/or Archive-name: mail headers.
o  Four different operating levels:
   -  Group selection level
   -  Thread selection level
   -  Article selection level
   -  Article viewer
o  Same interface to mail, pipe, print and save articles.
o  Auto unpacking of multi-part shar & uuencoded articles.
o  Killing and auto-selection (hot) of articles.
o  History of user posted articles.
o  Reposting of articles from one newsgroup to another.
o  Batch mode to mail/save new news when user is on holiday.
o  Random signature generator on a per newsgroup basis.
o  Builtin NNTP mini-inews (ie. 1 binary does everything).
o  NNTP 1.5.11 extensions XMOTD & XUSER to allow better admin.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Major improvements over tin 1.2 PL2 are the following:

o  Added support for Windows/NT.
o  Added more support for AmigaDOS machines.
o  Added more support for Apple AUX machines.
o  Added more support for Apollo machines.
o  Added more support for NeXT machines.
o  Added more support for Pyramid machines.
o  Added more support for QNX machines.
o  Added more support for Sequent machines.
o  Added NNTP support for AmigaDOS machines.
o  Added 'Introduction to tin' document for beginners.
o  Added 'Command reference to tin' document.
o  Added FAQ document for often asked questions I get in email.
o  Added new filtering routines for killing and auto-selecting articles.
o  Added new group attribute routines that allow attribute scoping.
o  Added ISO-8859-1 and german style TeX2ISO character support.
o  Added append/overwrite option when saving a message to a file that exists.
o  Added automatic saving of posted messages to mailbox $HOME/Mail/posted.
o  Added support for posting and followup-to's on gatewayed mailing lists.
o  Added support for AUTHINFO GENERIC posting authorization.
o  Added global attributes, filter and tinrc sitewide files.
o  Added automatic support for adding extra headers to message to be posted.
o  Added automatic support for adding bolilerplate text to message body.
o  Added NNTPPORT env var to allow setting tcp port to other than default 119.
o  Added Y/N when subscribing to new groups that will sub/unsub all new groups.
o  Added ~/.tin/headers file to allow user to add extra header lines easily.
o  Added '[' command to allow 1 key quick auto-selection (hot) filtering.
o  Added ']' command to allow 1 key quick kill filtering.
o  Added mailer format string (ie. 'elm -s %S %T < %F') via tinrc variable.
o  Added automatic support for ispell if running on Linux.
o  Added -C count articles command line option.
o  Added 'auto_list_thread=' tinrc variable to list thread with right arrow.
o  Added 'use_mouse=' tinrc variable to control mouse support in a xterm.
o  Added Lines: header to posted articles.
o  Added X-Comment-To: header support for FIDO gatewayed articles.
o  Added checks for valid From: line when posting an article.
o  Added automatic entry to group index if only 1 group matched from cmdline.
o  Added mailreading support of MH style mail folders (requires Procmail).
o  Added better support for mouse operation (ie. in xterm's).
o  Added german language manual page.
o  Changed threading algorithm from O(n^2) to O(n) for x8-x30 speedup.
o  Changed directory structure for source, includes and documentation.
o  Changed kill command to ^K and auto-selection (hot) command to ^A.
o  Changed group quit with left arrow key to also catchup group.
o  Changed nntpd server patch to be against nntp 1.5.11t5 version.
o  Changed index file support to read and write nov style index files.
o  Removed support for tin style XINDEX files.
o  Removed -p printer command line option.
o  Removed ^K & Z commands from group selection screen.
o  Removed USE_CLEARSCREEN and associated code.
o  Fixed xref support when reading news locally.
o  Fixed writing newsrc to a full filesystem.
o  Fixed checking of newsgroups that was causing multi-MByte images.
o  Fixed assertion error when killing an article at article viewer level.
o  Fixed auto subscribe function when starting the first time. 
o  Fixed a bug in the nntp speedup patch (that I accidentially added :().
o  Fixed checking for new newsgroups when reading from local spooldir.
o  Fixed 'c' group catchup command to return without marking group read.
o  Fixed 'd' command that could cause buffer corruption in screen display.
o  Fixed 't' tagging command that caused complete screen refresh.
o  Fixed 'S' command to subscribe against all groups not just newsrc ones.
o  Fixed 'u' unthread command to toggle at group index screen..
o  Fixed '=' commands help text to say that it matches specified patterns.
o  Fixed -w command line option when first group in active is moderated.
o  Fixed -P command line option for purging old articles.
o  Fixed 'n' when asked to reconnect to news server.
o  Fixed uudecod'ing of multiple articles saved to a single file.
o  Fixed newsgroup description reading code to strip out any tabs.
o  Fixed date formatting using strftime() on certain machines.
o  Fixed parsing of Reply-To: mail address field.
o  Fixed marking of articles as read & unread in certain cases.
o  Fixed group hashing routine that returned wrong group in *rare* cases.
o  Fixed mouse problems when suspended in an xterm window.
o  Fixed getopt() function in AmigaDOS & OS/2 code.
o  Fixed parsing of whitespace in subject lines.
o  Fixed typos in the manual page including 'R' being used for bug Reports.
o  Fixed Path: header generation in builtin nntp inews.
o  Fixed 'm' mail command when mailing a thread and q)uit is entered.
o  Fixed parsing of MET DST type dates.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For compilation and installation information read the INSTALL file.

For frequently asked questions read the ./doc/FAQ file.

For info. about the AmigaDOS port read the ./amiga/README file.

For info. about the OS/2 port read the ./os2/README file.

For more bug fixes, changes & additions read the CHANGES & TODO files.

For info. about my NNTP patches read the ./nntp/README & ./nntp/INSTALL files.

For ftp & non-ftp source & binary availability read the ./doc/HOWTOGET file.

For an internal overview of tin read the ./doc/HACKERS file.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanx to all the people that sent me bug fixes and comments especially:

    Thomas Dickey - newsrc routines and misc.
    Mark Tomlinson - Amiga port and misc.
    Markus Kuhn & Tilman Burmester - iso2asc routines
    Alan Silverstein - rewrote help screens
    Paul Kramer - tin introduction document

I still want to hear of any bug reports, gripes or comments that 
you have but *PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE* read the INSTALL, ./doc/FAQ, 
TODO and ./doc/tin.1 manual page before doing anything :-)!.

Also please make sure you have the newest release of tin before
reporting any  problems to me.  My time is limited  and I don't
want to have to backtrack to assist with an old problem when it 
may have already been fixed in the newest release.

I read & reply (time permitting) to questions that are posted to 
the newsgroup news.software.readers

Enjoy
	Iain  (iain.lea@erlm.siemens.de)
--------- End README ----------
