tin is a user-friendly menu-driven interface to the News. It is said to be threaded because it keeps all articles from the same thread together (a more typical newsreader reads the articles in the order they came in).
To invoke it, issue
tin
When tin is started for the first time, it will display a screenfull of helpful advice. Pressing any key will then subscribe the user to all newsgroups distributed by the newsserver.
At this point, it is better to unsubscribe to all groups by pressing
Utin will then ask for a regex (regular expression) to enter. Enter
*to specify ``all newsgroups".
You are now unsubscribed from all groups. You may also scan the group names using the arrow keys and issue
sto subscribe to any you wish to.
Whenever tin is started, a new newsgroup may be added by pressing
g(goto newsgroup) and enter the newsgroup's name. That newsgroup will be automatically subscribed.
Next time you start tin, only groups for which you subscribe will be displayed.
There are three main levels:
The numbers on the left side tell you how many unread articles are in each of the newsgroups.
The TAB key automatically displays (if at the articles level) the next unread article. If not at the articles level, it invokes the next sublevel.
qwill bring back the next higher level, until exiting tin.
Once last option worth of mention is
yThis option (used at the newsgroups level) brings in all unsubscribed newsgroups, allowing you to scan them at your leisure. Issuing the option another time will ``yank" out all unsubscribed groups.
There are numerous other options within tin. "h" within tin will bring two help screens of commands to use.
Once in tin, the screen layout will appear as in figure 13.4.
Figure 13.4: tin layout, newsgroup level.