Provided by: tin_2.6.5~20250409-1_amd64 
NAME
tin, rtin - related files
DESCRIPTION
This man page describes the various (config) files and their formats used by the tin(1) newsreader. All
files are expected to have unix style ('\n' aka LF) line endings.
FILES
$MAILCAPS
~/.mailcap
/etc/mailcap
/usr/etc/mailcap
/usr/local/etc/mailcap
/etc/mail/mailcap
mailcap(5) files as defined in RFC1524. The mailcap files are read by tin(1) to determine how to
display non-text messages at the local site. Any line that starts with "#" is a comment. Blank
lines are ignored. Otherwise, each line defines a single mailcap entry for a single content type.
Long lines may be continued by ending them with a backslash character, "\".
Each individual mailcap entry consists of a content-type specification, a command to execute, and
(possibly) a set of optional "flag" values.
The "type" field is simply any valid content type name. It is the string that will be matched
against the ''Content-Type:'' header to decide if this is the mailcap entry that matches the
current message. Additionally, the type field may specify a subtype or a wildcard to match all
subtypes.
The "command" field is any UNIX command and is used to specify the interpreter for the given type
of message. It will be passed to the shell via the system(3) facility.
Semicolons and backslashes within the command or any flag field must be quoted with backslashes.
If the field contains "%s", those two characters will be replaced by the name of a file that
contains the body of the message. If it contains "%t", those two characters will be replaced by
the content-type field, including the subtype, if any. If it contains "%{" followed by a
parameter name and a closing "}", then all those characters will be replaced by the value of the
named parameter, if any, from the ''Content-Type:'' header. Finally, if the field contains "\%",
those two characters will be replaced by a single "%" character.
Besides the type and command field the following "flags" are defined:
compose
The "compose" field may be used to specify a program that can be used to compose a new body
or body part in the given format. Its intended use is to support mail composing agents
that support the composition of multiple types of mail using external composing agents. As
with the view-command, the semantics of program execution are operating system dependent.
The result of the composing program may be data that is not yet suitable for mail transport
— that is, a Content-Transfer-Encoding may need to be applied to the data.
composetyped
The "composetyped" field is similar to the "compose" field, but is to be used when the
composing program needs to specify the ''Content-Type:'' header field to be applied to the
composed data. The "compose" field is simpler, and is preferred for use with existing
(non-mail-oriented) programs for composing data in a given format. The "composetyped"
field is necessary when the Content-Type information must include auxiliary parameters, and
the composition program must then know enough about mail formats to produce output that
includes the mail type information.
edit The "edit" field may be used to specify a program that can be used to edit a body or body
part in the given format. In many cases, it may be identical in content to the "compose"
field, and shares the operating-system dependent semantics for program execution.
print The "print" field may be used to specify a program that can be used to print a message or
body part in the given format. As with the view-command, the semantics of program
execution are operating system dependent.
test The "test" field may be used to test some external condition (e.g., the machine
architecture, or the window system in use) to determine whether or not the mailcap line
applies. It specifies a program to be run to test some condition. The semantics of
execution and of the value returned by the test program are operating system dependent. If
the test fails, a subsequent mailcap entry should be sought. Multiple test fields are not
permitted — since a test can call a program, it can already be arbitrarily complex.
needsterminal
The "needsterminal" field indicates that the view-command must be run on an interactive
terminal. This is needed to inform window-oriented user agents that an interactive
terminal is needed. (The decision is not left exclusively to the view-command because in
some circumstances it may not be possible for such programs to tell whether or not they are
on interactive terminals.) The needsterminal command should be assumed to apply to the
compose and edit commands, too, if they exist. Note that this is NOT a test – it is a
requirement for the environment in which the program will be executed, and should typically
cause the creation of a terminal window when not executed on either a real terminal or a
terminal window.
copiousoutput
The "copiousoutput" field indicates that the output from the view-command will be an
extended stream of output and is to be interpreted as advice to the UA (User Agent mail-
reading program) that the output should be either paged or made scroll-able. Note that it
is probably a mistake if needsterminal and copiousoutput are both specified.
description
The "description" field simply provides a textual description, optionally quoted, that
describes the type of data, to be used optionally by mail readers that wish to describe the
data before offering to display it.
textualnewlines
The "textualnewlines" field, if set to any nonzero value, indicates that this type of data
is line-oriented and that, if encoded in base64, all newlines should be converted to
canonical form (CRLF) before encoding, and will be in that form after decoding. In
general, this field is needed only if there is line-oriented data of some type other than
text/* or non-line-oriented data that is a subtype of text.
x11-bitmap
The "x11-bitmap" field names a file, in X11 bitmap (xbm) format, which points to an
appropriate icon to be used to visually denote the presence of this kind of data.
nametemplate
The "nametemplate" field gives a filename format, in which %s will be replaced by a short
unique string to give the name of the temporary file to be passed to the viewing command.
This is only expected to be relevant in environments where filename extensions are
meaningful, e.g., one could specify that a GIF file being passed to a gif viewer should
have a name ending in ".gif" by using "nametemplate=%s.gif".
tin(1) currently only respects the "test", "description", "nametemplate" and partly the
"needsterminal" flags, all other flags are internally ignored. It also can't handle the "%F" and
"%n" expansions yet.
Example:
# mailcap file example
image/*;\
xv -8 -geometry +0 '%s';\
description=%{name} %t-Image;\
test=test "$DISPLAY" != "";\
nametemplate=%s.IMAGE
message/rfc822;\
${PAGER:-"more"} '%s';\
edit=${EDITOR:-"vi"} '%s';\
compose=${EDITOR:-"vi"} '%s';\
print=a2ps '%s';\
needsterminal
/etc/news/server
default NNTP-server to read news from if not reading from the local spool. '-g server',
$NNTPSERVER have higher priority (in that order), the default server given at compile time has
lower priority.
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.cancelsecret
secret to be used for cancel-locks if tin(1) is built with support for it. An empty secret file
disables the cancel-lock creation in that case. This file should be readable only by the user.
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.mime.types
/etc/mime.types
/etc/tin/mime.types
mime type / filename extension pairs
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.newsauth
"nntpserver[:port] password [user]" pairs for NNTP servers that require authorization. If the
password contains a space or a tab it must be enclosed in double quotes ("). Usernames must not be
enclosed in double quotes and thus can't contain spaces or tabs. Any line that starts with "#" is
a comment. Blank lines are ignored. This file should be readable only for the user as it contains
the user's unencrypted password for reading news!
nntpserver
full qualified domain name of the news server. Additionally, a port can be specified by
appending :portnumber.
password
user's unencrypted password for reading news.
user username on the news server if it differs from the local login. This field is optional.
Example:
# sample .newsauth file
news.example.org secret
news.example.net arcane guest
news.example.com "top secret" james.bond@example.com
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.newsrc
"newsgroupflag [article[,article | -article]...]" lines.
newsgroup
the name of the newsgroup.
flag a flag indicating if the group is subscribed ':' or not '!'.
article
range of already read articles from that group; numbers separated by commas with sequential
numbers collapsed with hyphens. Empty lines and lines which start with "#" are ignored and
not written back.
Example:
# sample .newsrc file
news.software.b! 1–666,669
news.software.nntp: 1–13245,13247,13249
news.software.readers: 1–19567,19571–19597
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/$NNTPSERVER${NNTPPORT:+":$NNTPPORT"}/.oldnewsrc
backup of ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.newsrc
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.signature
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.Sig
signature
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.sigfixed
fixed part of a randomly generated signature, this will be added first
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/.inputhistory
history of last used strings
${TIN_INDEX_MAILDIR:-"${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin"}/.mail/
mailgroups index files
${TIN_INDEX_NEWSDIR:-"${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin"}/.news${NNTPSERVER:+"-$NNTPSERVER"}/
newsgroups index files
${TIN_INDEX_SAVEDIR:-"${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin"}/.save/
saved newsgroups index files
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/active.mail
active file ("mailgroupname maxnum minnum mailspool" quadruples) of user's mailgroups (requires
tin(1) to be built with mh-mail-handling support).
mailgroupname
must be the pathname of the mailbox relative to field #4 with '/' changed to '.'
maxnum just put a large number here, something higher than the highest message in the mailbox
minnum put 0 here
mailspool
path of mail spool directory. This must be the full pathname to the root of the mail folder
area.
Example:
Mail.inbox 12345 00000 /home/foo
Mail.outbox 23456 00000 /home/foo
This allows access to the 'inbox' and 'outbox' folders of user foo. They are accessed via
/home/foo/Mail/inbox and /home/foo/Mail/outbox
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/active.save
active file of user's saved newsgroups, used by tin -R.
/etc/tin/attributes
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/attributes
The group attributes files may be used to override some global settings from
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/tinrc on a per group basis. Order is important as last match counts;
this allows one to refine attributes for narrowed scopes. Note that the scope=<grouplist> line has
to be specified before the attributes are specified for that list and each attribute can only be
set once per scope section. All attributes are set to a reasonable default so you only have to
specify the attribute that you want to change. All toggle attributes are set by specifying ON/OFF.
Otherwise, they function exactly as their global equivalents. The following group attributes are
available:
scope This changes the list of groups to which the attributes that follow will be applied. See
the section NEWSGROUP LISTS & WILDCARDS in tin(1) for the types of pattern that can be used
here.
add_posted_to_filter
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
advertising
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
alternative_handling
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
ask_for_metamail
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
auto_cc_bcc
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
auto_list_thread
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
auto_select
Automatically perform the GroupMarkUnselArtRead ('X') command after entering the group.
batch_save
Can be used to override the global setting in tinrc on a per group basis. For more
information read section AUTOMATIC MAILING AND SAVING NEW NEWS in tin(1).
date_format
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
delete_tmp_files
If this is set to ON, then saved article files that have been post-processed will be
automatically deleted, otherwise the user will be asked whether to delete the post-
processed files. Automatic processing of marked articles using GroupAutoSave ('S') will
suppress prompting.
editor_format
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
extquote_handling
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
fcc Mailbox to save sent mails. The format of the mailbox is controlled via the tinrc
mailbox_format variable.
followup_to
Set ''Followup-To:'' header to the specified group(s).
from Identical to the tinrc variable mail_address
group_catchup_on_exit
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
group_format
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
mail_8bit_header
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
mail_mime_encoding
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
maildir
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
mailing_list
Used when a group is a mailing list. All responses to the group will be directed to this
email address instead
mark_ignore_tags
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
mark_saved_read
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
mime_forward
Determines whether usenet articles are forwarded as attachment or inline. When set to OFF,
the forwarded article will be included in the body of the mail, while setting this variable
to ON will cause the article to be attached as a separate MIME part. Enabling mime_forward
is particularly useful for articles consisting of multiple MIME parts such as PGP/MIME
signed messages or being encoded in a different character set than your local one. It is
also useful if the receiver should be able to operate on the entire forwarded article
(i.e., view or save it without your comments). On the other hand, if you want to forward
only some parts of the article or to insert 'inline' annotations, you might want to disable
this option. Currently mime_forward is forced if the article to be attached is a multipart
MIME article, this may change in a future version. Please note that for this option to
have effect, the tinrc variable interactive_mailer has to be set to 0 (which is the
default).
mime_types_to_save
A comma separated list of MIME major/minor Content-Types that will be saved when using the
view/save and save/autosave features. A single * can be used to wildcard the major and/or
minor type and a ! as the first character in an entry will negate it, eg:
image/*,!image/bmp,!text/html. Default is */*
news_headers_to_display
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
news_headers_to_not_display
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
news_quote_format
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
organization
This can be used to set the article header field ''Organization:''. It overrides the
setting (if any) of organization in /etc/tin/tin.defaults and $ORGANIZATION (or $NEWSORG on
Apollo DomainOS). If it points to a readable file a random line from that file will be
used. Note that some news servers might still overwrite the ''Organization:'' header.
pos_first_unread
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
post_8bit_header
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
post_mime_encoding
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
post_process_type
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
post_process_view
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
print_header
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
process_only_unread
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
prompt_followupto
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
quote_chars
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
savedir
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
savefile
show_art_score
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
show_author
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
show_only_unread_arts
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
show_signatures
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
sigdashes
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
sigfile
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
signature_repost
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
sort_article_type
Identical to the tinrc variable sort_article_type
sort_threads_type
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
tex2iso_conv
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
thread_articles
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
thread_catchup_on_exit
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
thread_format
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
thread_perc
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
trim_article_body
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
suppress_soft_hyphens
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
verbatim_handling
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
wrap_on_next_unread
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
x_body A piece of text that will be added at the start of a message body. If this string starts
with a / or ~ then it is assumed to be the name of a file containing the text to insert. If
the string starts with a ! then what follows is assumed to be the path to a program to be
executed to generate the content. %G is expanded to the current news.group.name and %P is
expanded to the news.group.name with all '.' replaced by '/'.
x_comment_to
Insert ''X-Comment-To:'' header, this is only useful in FIDO groups.
x_headers
A string including header-name and the contents of the header that will be automatically
added when posting. If the string starts with a / or ~ then it is assumed to be the name of
a file containing the header and its content to be inserted. If the string starts with a !
then what follows is assumed to be the path to a program to be executed to generate the
header and its content. %G is expanded to the current news.group.name and %P is expanded to
the news.group.name with all '.' replaced by '/'.
quick_kill_scope
A comma-separated list of newsgroup patterns (wildmat-style) to which groups the filter
rule added by QuickFilterKill will be applied. If unset the default from the tinrc
variable default_filter_kill_global will be used.
quick_kill_expire
Identical to the tinrc variable default_filter_kill_expire
quick_kill_case
Identical to the tinrc variable default_filter_kill_case
quick_kill_header
Identical to the tinrc variable default_filter_kill_header
quick_select_scope
A comma-separated list of newsgroup patterns (wildmat-style) to which groups the filter
rule added by QuickFilterSelect will be applied. If unset the default from the tinrc
variable default_filter_select_global will be used.
quick_select_expire
Identical to the tinrc variable default_filter_select_expire
quick_select_case
Identical to the tinrc variable default_filter_select_case
quick_select_header
Identical to the tinrc variable default_filter_select_header
ispell Path and options for ispell(1)-like spell-checker, e.g., "aspell --mode=email --dont-backup
check"
mm_network_charset
Identical to the tinrc variable of the same name
undeclared_charset
Assume (broken) articles without MIME charset declaration have this charset — default is
US-ASCII. This attribute works only on systems with working iconv(3) or ucnv_*(), others
might have to compile tin(1) with --disable-mime-strict-charset.
undeclared_cs_guess
Guess charset for (broken) articles without MIME charset declaration. This attribute works
only on systems with working iconv(3) or ucnv_*() and ucsdet_getName() from libicui18n. It
has no effect if undeclared_charset is also set.
Example:
# include extra headers
# assume ISO-8859-1 as charset if no charset is declared
# in all but fido7.* groups
scope=*,!fido7.*
x_headers=~/.tin/headers
undeclared_charset=ISO-8859-1
# in *sources* set post process type to shar only
scope=*sources*
post_process_type=1
# in *binaries* turn on full post processing,
# remove tmp files and set Followup-To: poster
scope=*binaries*
post_process_type=2
delete_tmp_files=ON
followup_to=poster
# in fido.* newsgroups change quote_chars
# and add X-Comment-To: line
scope=fido.*
quote_chars=%I>_
x_comment_to=ON
# in fido7.* newsgroups guess charset
scope=fido7.*
undeclared_cs_guess=ON
# in *.test newsgroups, don't append signature
# and preset Subject
scope=*.test
sigfile=--none
x_headers=Subject: test - ignore - no reply
# assume ISO-2022-JP-2 as charset
scope=fj.*,japan.*
undeclared_charset=ISO-2022-JP-2
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/filter
The filter file is used to assign scores to certain articles. Based on the score an article can be
filtered out (hidden) or marked hot. Empty lines or lines beginning with a '#' are ignored.
Multiple matching-rules in the same scope are all applied individually and not only when they all
hit at the same time (logical OR not AND).
comment
Every entry (rule) in the filter file might get a comment. Multiple lines are allowed (but
only for comments yet). Every line must start with the "comment=" keyword. Comments must
appear first in the rule. Comment lines placed within a rule will be moved to the begin of
the next rule. This might be changed in the future. Don't use '#' to mark comments as those
lines are ignored and your comments will get lost on the next write of the file.
group A comma-separated list of newsgroup patterns in wildmat-style to which groups the filter
rule will be applied. This line is mandatory!
case 0=case-sensitive, 1=case-insensitive
score Score value of the rule; can also be one of the magic words "kill" or "hot".
subj Match against ''Subject:''. The matching type used (wildmat or regex) depends on the
setting of the tinrc variable wildcard.
from Match against ''From:''. tin(1) converts the contents of the ''From:'' header to an old
style e-mail address, e.g., ''some@body.example (John Doe)'' instead of ''John Doe
<some@body.example>'', before trying to match the patterns in the filter rule. The matching
type used (wildmat or regex) depends on the setting of the tinrc variable wildcard.
msgid Match against ''Message-ID:'' and full ''References:''. The matching type used (wildmat or
regex) depends on the setting of the tinrc variable wildcard.
msgid_last
Match against ''Message-ID:'' and last ''References:'' entry (direct responses) only. The
matching type used (wildmat or regex) depends on the setting of the tinrc variable
wildcard.
msgid_only
Match against ''Message-ID:''. The matching type used (wildmat or regex) depends on the
setting of the tinrc variable wildcard.
refs_only
Match against ''References:''. The matching type used (wildmat or regex) depends on the
setting of the tinrc variable wildcard.
lines Match against ''Lines:'', <num matches less than, >num matches more than.
gnksa Match against ''From:'' address parser return codes. <num matches less than, >num matches
more than the returned numeric value. GNKSA_LOCAL_DOMAIN_LITERAL or GNKSA_INVALID_DOMAIN
are only returned if disable_gnksa_domain_check is set to false. As the built in domain
list is outdated this should be considered carefully.
0 GNKSA_OK
1 GNKSA_INTERNAL_ERROR
100 GNKSA_LANGLE_MISSING
101 GNKSA_LPAREN_MISSING
102 GNKSA_RPAREN_MISSING
103 GNKSA_ATSIGN_MISSING
104 GNKSA_RANGLE_MISSING
200 GNKSA_SINGLE_DOMAIN
201 GNKSA_INVALID_DOMAIN
202 GNKSA_ILLEGAL_DOMAIN
203 GNKSA_UNKNOWN_DOMAIN
204 GNKSA_INVALID_FQDN_CHAR
205 GNKSA_ZERO_LENGTH_LABEL
206 GNKSA_ILLEGAL_LABEL_LENGTH
207 GNKSA_ILLEGAL_LABEL_HYPHEN
208 GNKSA_ILLEGAL_LABEL_BEGNUM
209 GNKSA_BAD_DOMAIN_LITERAL
210 GNKSA_LOCAL_DOMAIN_LITERAL
211 GNKSA_RBRACKET_MISSING
300 GNKSA_LOCALPART_MISSING
301 GNKSA_INVALID_LOCALPART
302 GNKSA_ZERO_LENGTH_LOCAL_WORD
400 GNKSA_ILLEGAL_UNQUOTED_CHAR
401 GNKSA_ILLEGAL_QUOTED_CHAR
402 GNKSA_ILLEGAL_ENCODED_CHAR
403 GNKSA_BAD_ENCODE_SYNTAX
404 GNKSA_ILLEGAL_PAREN_CHAR
405 GNKSA_INVALID_REALNAME
406 GNKSA_MISSING_REALNAME
xref Match against ''Xref:'' line. Before any matching is done the line is turned into the same
format ''Newsgroups:'' has that is it is turned into a comma separated newsgroup list with
all other information (i.e., the article counter) removed. The matching type used (wildmat
or regex) depends on the setting of the tinrc variable wildcard.
path Match against ''Path:'' line. This may not work on some servers. The matching type used
(wildmat or regex) depends on the setting of the tinrc variable wildcard.
time time_t value when rule expires
Example:
comment=mark all articles about tin, rtin,
comment=tind, ktin or cdtin as hot
group=*
case=1
score=hot
subj=\b(cd|[rk]?)?tin(d|pre)?[-.0–9]*\b
comment=downscore postings in nsr from google based on
comment=message-id or path, if both hit they end up with
comment=a score of -66 which is enough to mark them killed
group=news.software.readers
case=1
score=-33
path=.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail$
msgid_only=@googlegroups.com>
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/keymap${${LC_ALL:-"${LC_MESSAGES:-"${LC_CTYPE:-"$LANG"}"}"}:+".${LC_ALL:
-"${LC_MESSAGES:-"${LC_CTYPE:-"$LANG"}"}"}"}
/etc/tin/keymap${${LC_ALL:-"${LC_MESSAGES:-"${LC_CTYPE:-"$LANG"}"}"}:+".${LC_ALL:-"${LC_MESSAGES:
-"${LC_CTYPE:-"$LANG"}"}"}"}
Keymap-file, containing "keyname value [value]" pairs separated by spaces or tabs. If the keymap-
file named with full specified locale(5) is not found, less specific ones are looked for. Various
parts will be stripped off the name, in the following order codeset, normalized codeset, territory
and modifier when looking for the keymap-file. Below is a list of all rebindable keynames and
their defaults. If a keyname is bound to NULL it is unassigned.
ShellEscape !
SetRange #
LastPage $
ToggleColor &
LastViewed -
SearchRepeat \
SearchSubjF /
SearchSubjB ?
SearchAuthB A
SearchBody B
CatchupNextUnread C
EditFilter E
ToggleHelpDisplay H
ToggleInverseVideo I
ConnectionInfo J
LookupMessage L
OptionMenu M
Postponed O ^O
QuitTin Q
BugReport R
DisplayPostHist W
MarkThrUnread Z
FirstPage ^
SearchAuthF a
Catchup c
Help h
ToggleInfoLastLine i
Down j ^N
Up k ^P
Print o
Quit q
Version v
Post w
MarkArtUnread z
QuickFilterSelect [
QuickFilterKill ]
Pipe |
ScrollUp <
ScrollDown >
PageUp b ^B ^U
PageDown ^D ^F SPACE
RedrawScr ^L
Postponed ^O
MenuFilterSelect ^A
MenuFilterKill ^K
MarkFeedRead ^X
MarkFeedUnread ^W
AttachSelect ^J ^M
AttachPipe p
AttachSave s
AttachTag t
AttachUntag U
AttachTagPattern =
AttachToggleTagged @
ConfigToggleAttrib TAB
ConfigSelect ^J ^M
ConfigLastPage G
ConfigNoSave Q
ConfigScopeMenu S
ConfigFirstPage g
ConfigResetAttrib r
FeedTag T
FeedArt a
FeedHot h
FeedPat p
FeedRepost r
FeedSupersede s
FeedThd t
FilterEdit e
FilterSave s
GroupNextUnreadArtOrGrp TAB
GroupReadBasenote ^J ^M
GroupSelThd *
GroupDoAutoSel +
GroupToggleThdSel .
GroupSelThdIfUnreadSelected ;
GroupSelPattern =
GroupReverseSel @
GroupCancel D
GroupToggleGetartLimit G
GroupMarkThdRead K
GroupNextUnreadArt N
GroupPrevUnreadArt P
GroupAutoSave S
GroupTagParts T
GroupUntag U
GroupMarkUnselArtRead X
GroupToggleSubjDisplay d
GroupGoto g
GroupListThd l
GroupMail m
GroupNextGroup n
GroupPrevGroup p
GroupToggleReadUnread r
GroupSave s
GroupTag t
GroupToggleThreading u
GroupRepost x
GroupUndoSel ~
HelpLastPage G
HelpFirstPage g
PageReplyQuoteHeaders ^E
PagePGPCheckArticle ^G
PageToggleRaw ^H
PageNextUnread TAB
PageNextThd ^J ^M
PageToggleTabs ^T
PageFollowupQuoteHeaders ^W
PageToggleTex2iso "
PageToggleAllHeaders *
PageArticleInfo '
PageToggleRot %
PageToggleUue (
PageReveal )
PageSkipIncludedText :
PageTopThd <
PageBotThd >
PageCancel D
PageFollowup F
PageLastPage G
PageKillThd K
PageNextUnreadArt N
PagePrevUnreadArt P
PageReply R
PageAutoSave S
PageGroupSel T
PageViewUrl U
PageViewAttach V
PageToggleHighlight _
PageToggleVerbatim ,
PageEditArticle e
PageFollowupQuote f
PageFirstPage g
PageListThd l
PageMail m
PageNextArt n
PagePrevArt p
PageReplyQuote r
PageSave s
PageTag t
PageGotoParent u
PageRepost x
PgpEncSign b
PgpEncrypt e
PgpIncludekey i
PgpSign s
PostAbort a
PostContinue c
PostCancel d
PostEdit e
PostPGP g
PostIspell i
PostIgnore i
PostMail m
PostPostpone o
PostPost p y
PostSupersede s
PostSend s y
PostedArticlesSelect ^J ^M
PostponeOverride Y
PostponeAll A
PromptYes y Y
PromptNo n N
PProcNone n
PProcShar s
PProcYes y
SaveAppendFile a
SaveOverwriteFile o
SelectEnterNextUnreadGrp TAB n
SelectReadGrp ^J ^M
SelectResetNewsrc ^R
SelectSortActive .
SelectNextUnreadGrp N
SelectSubscribePat S
SelectUnsubscribePat U
SelectQuitNoWrite X
SelectSyncWithActive Y
SelectToggleDescriptions d
SelectGoto g
SelectMoveGrp m
SelectToggleReadDisplay r
SelectSubscribe s
SelectUnsubscribe u
SelectYankActive y
SelectMarkGrpUnread z Z
ScopeSelect ^J ^M
ScopeEditAttributesFile E
ScopeAdd a
ScopeDelete d
ScopeMove m
ScopeRename r
ThreadReadNextArtOrThread TAB
ThreadReadArt ^J ^M
ThreadSelArt *
ThreadToggleArtSel .
ThreadReverseSel @
ThreadCancel D
ThreadFollowup F
ThreadMarkArtRead K
ThreadAutoSave S
ThreadUntag U
ThreadToggleSubjDisplay d
ThreadFollowupQuote f
ThreadMail m
ThreadSave s
ThreadTag t
ThreadTagParts T
ThreadUndoSel ~
UrlSelect ^J ^M
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/mailgroups
This file provides short descriptions of each mailgroup. (requires tin(1) to be built with mh-
mail-handling support). Each line consist of two tab-separated fields "mailgroupname one-line
description".
mailgroupname
is the name of the newsgroup
description
is a short single-line description of the group
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/newsrctable
"nntpserver[:port] newsrc [shortname [...]]" pairs to use with the ''-g'' command-line switch.
The matching is case-insensitive and any line that starts with "#", ";" or " " is treated as a
comment. This is only available if reading via NNTP.
nntpserver
full qualified domain name of the news server. Plain IPv6 address must be enclosed in
square brackets. Additionally, a port can be specified by appending :portnumber. Be aware
that if a port is given it will override any port given with ''-g'' or ''-p'' or implied by
''-T'' or ''-k'' or set via $NNTPPORT. The string "default" or "*" acts as wildcard to
match any name, such a line should be placed last.
newsrc related newsrc. A file specified via ''-f'' has a higher priority.
shortname
nickname(s) for the nntpserver. Nicknames must not contain ":" and must be unique.
Example:
# sample newsrctable file
news.tin.org .newsrc-tin.org tinorg
news.example.org /tmp/nrc-ex example ex
[::1]:1119 /tmp/localhost6–1119 lh6
# catch all rules should go last
# with the more specific one on top
*:563 ~/.tin/newsrcs/${NNTPSERVER-localhost}:563/newsrc
* ~/.tin/newsrcs/${NNTPSERVER-localhost}/newsrc
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/posted
Posting history. The file is written by tin(1) and used by DisplayPostHist ('W') command. It
should not be altered manually. Any line that starts with "#" is a comment. Blank lines are
ignored. All other lines shall consist of at least four pipe-separated fields, starting with a
time stamp "dd-mm-yy", a single letter indicating the action which initiated the message, a group
name or a mail address the message was sent to, the subject of the message and optionally the
messages ''Message-ID'' if known.
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/Mail/posted
Copy of all posted articles in mbox(5) format. The filename can be changed by setting
posted_articles_file.
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/postponed.articles
Pool of postponed articles. This file is in mbox(5) format.
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/$NNTPSERVER${NNTPPORT:+":$NNTPPORT"}/motd
This file is a copy of the servers message of the day (MOTD) message. It is automatically created
on startup except when using the ''-Q'' command-line option and is unlinked on exit.
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/$NNTPSERVER${NNTPPORT:+":$NNTPPORT"}/msglog
File to store $NNTPSERVER and $NNTPPORT related info- and error-messages. The file is overwritten
on startup and meant for debugging.
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/$NNTPSERVER${NNTPPORT:+":$NNTPPORT"}/newsgroups
This file is a copy of the servers newsgroups file which provides short descriptions of each
newsgroup. It is automatically updated on startup except when using the ''-X''or ''-q'' command-
line option and an old copy exists. Each line consist of two tab-separated fields
"group.name one-line description".
group.name
is the name of the newsgroup
one-line description
is a short single-line description of the group
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/$NNTPSERVER${NNTPPORT:+":$NNTPPORT"}/serverrc
File to store $NNTPSERVER and $NNTPPORT related data via a list of "variable=value" pairs.
Currently there are only a few variables, all are not meant to be changed by the user.
version
Internal version number.
motd_hash
Internal hash of the servers MOTD, so displaying it can be skipped if it is unchanged.
last_newnews
Internal timestamp used by tin(1) to keep track of new newsgroups on the server.
/etc/tin/tinrc
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/tinrc
At startup, tin(1) reads in the configuration file. This contains a list of "variable=value" pairs
that can be used to configure the way tin(1) works. value strings are limited to 1022 chars and
will be discarded if exceeding this limit. If it exists, the global configuration file,
${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}/tinrc is read first. After that, the user's own configuration file
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/tinrc is read. The global file is useful for distributing system-wide
defaults to new users who have no private tinrc yet (see also /etc/tin/tin.defaults).
abbreviate_groupname
If ON abbreviate long newsgroup names at group selection level and article level (if
necessary) like this: news.software.readers → n.software.readers → n.s.readers → n.s.r.
Default is OFF.
add_posted_to_filter
If ON add posted articles which start a new thread to filter for highlighting follow-ups.
Default is ON.
advertising
Turn ON advertising in header (''User-Agent:''). Default is ON.
alternative_handling
If ON strip multipart/alternative messages automatically. Default is ON.
art_marked_deleted
The character used to show that an article was deleted. Default is 'D'.
art_marked_inrange
The character used to show that an article is in a range. Default is '#'.
art_marked_return
The character used to show that an article will return as an unread article when the group
is next entered. Default is '-'.
art_marked_selected
The character used to show that an article/thread is auto-selected (hot). Default is '*'.
art_marked_recent
The character used to show that an article/thread is recent (not older than X days). See
also recent_time. Default is 'o'.
art_marked_unread
The character used to show that an article has not been read. Default is '+'.
art_marked_read
The character used to show that an article was read. Default is ' '.
art_marked_killed
The character used to show that an article was killed. Default is 'K'. kill_level must be
set accordingly.
art_marked_read_selected
The character used to show that an article was hot before it was read. Default is ':'.
kill_level must be set accordingly.
Ask before using MIME viewer (ask_for_metamail)
If ON tin(1) will ask before using a MIME viewer (metamail_prog) to display MIME messages.
This only occurs if a MIME viewer is set. Default is OFF.
attachment_format
Format string tin(1) uses for Attachment level representation. Default is "%t%s%e%c%d".
auto_cc_bcc
Automatically put your name in the ''Cc:'' and/or ''Bcc:'' field when mailing an article.
Default is No.
auto_list_thread
If ON automatically list thread when entering it using right arrow key. Default is ON.
auto_reconnect
Reconnect to server automatically. Default is OFF.
batch_save
If set ON articles/threads will be saved in batch mode when save ''-S'' or mail ''-M, -N''
is specified on the command line. Default is ON.
beginner_level
If set ON a mini menu of the most useful commands will be displayed at the bottom of the
screen for each level. Also a short posting etiquette will be displayed after composing an
article. Default is ON.
cache_overview_files
If ON, create local copies of NNTP overview files. This can be used to considerably speed
up accessing large groups when using a slow connection. Default is OFF.
compress_overview_files
If ON, locally cached NNTP overview files (cache_overview_files) are saved in compressed
form (RFC1952). Useful to reduce local disk space used. Default is OFF.
cancel_lock_algo
Use this hash algorithm for cancel-locks. Only available when built with cancel-lock
support. none disables the generation of cancel-locks. Valid values are none, sha1, sha256
and sha512. Default is sha1.
catchup_read_groups
If set ON the user is asked when quitting if all groups read during the current session
should be marked read. Default is OFF.
col_back
Standard background color
col_extquote
Color of quoted text from external sources
col_from
Color of sender (From:)
col_head
Color of header-lines
col_help
Color of help pages
col_invers_bg
Color of background for inverse text
col_invers_fg
Color of foreground for inverse text
col_markdash
Color of words emphasized like _this_. See also word_h_display_marks and word_highlight.
col_markslash
Color of words emphasized like /this/. See also word_h_display_marks and word_highlight.
col_markstar
Color of words emphasized like *this*. See also word_h_display_marks and word_highlight.
col_markstroke
Color of words emphasized like -this-. See also word_h_display_marks and word_highlight.
col_message
Color of status messages in last line
col_minihelp
Color of mini help menu
col_newsheaders
Color of actual news header fields
col_normal
Standard foreground color
col_quote
Color of quoted lines
col_quote2
Color of twice quoted lines
col_quote3
Color of >=3 times quoted lines
col_response
Color of response counter. This is the text that says "Response x of y" in the article
viewer.
col_signature
Color of signatures
col_score_neg
Color of negative score
col_score_pos
Color of positive score
col_urls
Color of urls highlight
col_verbatim
Color of verbatim blocks
col_subject
Color of article subject
col_text
Color of text-lines
col_title
Color of help/mail sign
confirm_choice
tin(1) can ask for manual confirmation to protect the user. Available choices:
commands: Ask for confirmation before executing certain dangerous commands (e.g.,
Catchup ('c')). Commands that this affects are marked in this manual with '[after
confirmation]'.
quit: You'll be asked to confirm that you wish to exit tin(1) when you use the Quit
('q') command.
select: Ask for confirmation before marking all not selected (with
GroupMarkUnselArtRead ('X') command) articles as read.
Default is commands & quit.
date_format
Format string used for date representation. A description of the different format options
can be found at strftime(3). tin(1) uses strftime(3) when available and supports most
format options in his fallback code. Default is "%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S".
default_art_search
default_author_search
default_config_search
The last article/author/config option that was searched for.
default_filter_days
Default is 28.
default_filter_kill_case
Default for quick (1 key) kill filter case. ON = filter case sensitive, OFF = ignore case.
Default is OFF.
default_filter_kill_expire
Default for quick (1 key) kill filter expire. ON = limit to default_filter_days, OFF =
don't ever expire. Default is OFF.
default_filter_kill_global
Default for quick (1 key) kill filter global. ON=apply to all groups, OFF=apply to current
group. Default is ON.
default_filter_kill_header
Default for quick (1 key) kill filter header.
0 ''Subject:'' (case sensitive)
1 ''Subject:'' (ignore case)
2 ''From:'' (case sensitive)
3 ''From:'' (ignore case)
4 ''Message-ID:'' & full ''References:'' line
5 ''Message-ID:'' & last ''References:'' entry only
6 ''Message-ID:'' entry only
7 ''Lines:''
default_filter_select_case
Default for quick (1 key) auto-selection filter case. ON=filter case sensitive, OFF=ignore
case. Default is OFF.
default_filter_select_expire
Default for quick (1 key) auto-selection filter expire. ON = limit to default_filter_days,
OFF = don't ever expire. Default is OFF.
default_filter_select_global
Default for quick (1 key) auto-selection filter global. ON=apply to all groups, OFF=apply
to current group. Default is ON.
default_filter_select_header
Default for quick (1 key) auto-selection filter header.
0 ''Subject:'' (case sensitive)
1 ''Subject:'' (ignore case)
2 ''From:'' (case sensitive)
3 ''From:'' (ignore case)
4 ''Message-ID:'' & full ''References:'' line
5 ''Message-ID:'' & last ''References:'' entry only
6 ''Message-ID:'' entry only
7 ''Lines:''
default_goto_group
default_group_search
default_mail_address
default_move_group
default_pattern
default_pipe_command
default_post_newsgroups
default_post_subject
default_range_group
default_range_select
default_range_thread
default_repost_group
default_save_file
default_save_mode
default_select_pattern
default_shell_command
default_subject_search
dont_break_words
Do not break long lines inside a word. This applies to the body except for verbatim blocks.
See also wrap_column. Default is OFF.
draw_arrow
Allows groups/articles to be selected by an arrow '→' if set ON or by a highlighted bar if
set OFF. Default is OFF.
editor_format
The format string used to create the editor start command with parameters. Default is '%E
+%N %F' with %E=Editor, %N=Linenumber and %F=Filename (e.g., /bin/vi +7 .article). See also
$VISUAL and $EDITOR under "ENVIRONMENT" in tin(1)
extquote_handling
If ON quotes from external sources will be detected. Default is OFF.
extquote_regex
A regular expression that will be applied when reading articles. All matching lines are
shown in col_extquote. If extquote_regex is blank, then tin(1) uses a built-in default.
force_screen_redraw
Specifies whether a screen redraw should always be done after certain external commands.
Default is OFF.
getart_limit
If getart_limit is > 0 not more than the last getart_limit articles/group are fetched from
the server. If getart_limit is < 0 tin(1) will start fetching articles from your first
unread minus absolute value of getart_limit. Default is 0, which means no limit.
goto_next_unread
Which keys tin(1) should accept to jump to the next unread article. Possible is any
combination of PageDown and PageNextUnread. When PageDown is set tin(1) jumps to the next
article at the end of the current one. When PageNextUnread is set tin(1) jumps immediately
to the next article when PageNextUnread ('<TAB>') is pressed. Default is PageNextUnread.
group_catchup_on_exit
If ON catchup group when leaving with the left arrow key. Default is ON.
group_format
The format string used for the Group level. Default is "%n %m %R %L %s %F". The following
substitutions are supported:
%D date
%F from, name and/or address
%I initials
%L line count
%M message-id
%R number of responses in thread
%S score
%m article marks
%n current thread number
%s subject
%% %
hide_uue
If set to 'No' then raw uuencoded data is displayed. If set to 'Yes' then sections of
uuencoded data will be shown with a single tag line showing the size and filename (much the
same as a MIME attachment). If set to 'Hide all' then any line that looks like uuencoded
data will be folded into a tag line. This is useful when uuencoded data is split across
more than one article but can also lead to false positives. This setting can also be
toggled in the article viewer. Default is 'No'.
inews_prog
Path, name and options of external inews(1). If you are reading via NNTP the default value
is "--internal" (use built-in NNTP inews), else it is "inews -h". The article is passed to
inews_prog on STDIN via '< article'.
info_in_last_line
If ON, show current group description or article subject in the last line (not in the pager
and global menu) — ToggleInfoLastLine ('i') toggles setting. This facility is useful as the
full width of the screen is available to display long subjects. Default is OFF.
interactive_mailer
If greater than 0 your mailreader will be invoked earlier for reply so you can use more of
its features (e.g., MIME, pgp, ...). 1 means include headers, 2 means don't include headers
(old use_mailreader_i=ON option). 0 turns off usage. This option has to suit mailer_format.
Default is 0.
inverse_okay
If ON use inverse video for page headers and URL highlighting. Default is ON.
keep_dead_articles
If ON keep all failed postings in ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/dead.articles besides keeping the
last failed posting in ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/dead.article. Default is ON.
kill_level
This option controls the processing and display of articles that are killed. There are 3
options, default is 0 (Kill only unread arts).
0 Kill only unread arts is the 'traditional' behavior of tin(1). Only unread articles
are killed once only by marking them read. As filtering only happens on unread
articles with kill_level set to 0, art_marked_killed and art_marked_read_selected are
only shown once. When you reenter the group the mark will be gone.
1 Kill all arts & show with K will process all articles in the group and therefore
there is a processing overhead when using this option. Killed articles are threaded
as normal but they will be marked with art_marked_killed.
2 Kill all arts and never show will process all articles in the group and therefore
there is a processing overhead when using this option. Killed articles simply does
not get displayed at all.
mail_8bit_header
Allows 8-bit characters unencoded in the header of mail message. Default is OFF. Turning it
ON is effective only if mail_mime_encoding is also set to 8bit. Leaving it OFF is safe for
most users and compliant to Internet Mail Standard (RFC5322 and RFC2047). Default is OFF.
mail_address
User's mail address (and full name), if not username@host. This is used when creating
articles, sending mail and when pgp(1) signing.
mail_mime_encoding
MIME encoding of the body in mail message, if necessary (8bit, base64, quoted-printable,
7bit). Default is quoted-printable.
mail_quote_format
Format of quote line when replying (via mail) to an article (%A=Address, %D=Date,
%F=Fullname+Address, %G=Groupname, %M=Message-ID, %N=Fullname, %C=Firstname, %I=Initials).
If the article has multiple addresses only the first is evaluated. Default is "In article
%M you wrote:"
mailbox_format
Select one of the following mailbox-formats: MBOXO (default, except on SCO), MBOXRD or MMDF
(default on SCO). See mbox(5) and RFC4155 for more details on MBOXO and MBOXRD and mmdf(5)
for more details about MMDF.
maildir
The directory where articles/threads are to be saved in mbox(5) format. This feature is
mainly for use with the mutt(1) mail program. It allows the user to save
articles/threads/groups simply by giving '=' as the filename to save to. Default is
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/Mail.
mailer_format
The format string used to create the mailer command with parameters that is used for
mailing articles to other people. Default is '%M "%T" < %F' (e.g., /bin/mail "iain" <
~/.article). The flexible format allows other mailers with different command line
parameters to be used such as
sendmail -oem -t < %F
mutt -H %F
claws-mail --compose "mailto:%T?subject=%S&insert=%F"
interactive_mailer must be set adequate. The following substitutions are supported:
%F filename
%M default_mailer
%S subject-field
%T to-filed
%U username
%% %
mark_saved_read
If ON mark articles that are saved as read. Default is ON.
mark_ignore_tags
When this is ON, the GroupMarkThdRead ('K'), ThreadMarkArtRead ('K'), MarkThdUnread ('Z')
at Group level and MarkArtUnread ('z') at Thread level functions mark just the current
article or thread, ignoring other tagged, (un)read articles. When OFF, the same function
presents a menu with choices of the current thread or article, all tagged, unread articles,
or nothing.
metamail_prog
Path, name and options of external metamail(1) program used to view non-textual parts of
articles. To use the built-in viewer, set to --internal. This is the default value when
metamail(1) is not installed. Leave it blank if you don't want any automatic viewing of
non-textual attachments. The PageViewAttach ('V') command can always be used to manually
view any attachments. See also ask_for_metamail.
mm_charset
Charset supported locally, which is also used for MIME header (charset parameter and
charset name in header encoding) in mail and news postings. If MIME_STRICT_CHARSET is
defined at compile time, text in charset other than the value of this parameter is
considered not displayable and represented as '?'. Otherwise, all character sets are
regarded as compatible with the display. If it's not set, the value of the environment
variable $MM_CHARSET is used. US-ASCII or compile-time default is used in case neither of
them is defined. If your system supports iconv(3) or ucnv_*(), this option is disabled and
you should use mm_network_charset instead.
mm_network_charset
Charset used for posting and MIME headers; replaces mm_charset. Conversion between
mm_network_charset and local charset (determined via nl_langinfo(3)) is done via iconv(3)
or ucnv_*(). If none of these functions are available on your system this option is
disabled and you have to use mm_charset instead. mm_network_charset is limited to one of
the following charsets:
US-ASCII, ISO-8859-{1,2,3,4,5,7,9,10,13,14,15,16}, KOI8-{R,U,RU} EUC-{CN,JP,KR,TW},
ISO-2022-{CN,CN-EXT,JP,JP-1,JP-2}, Big5, UTF-8
Not all values might work on your system, see iconv_open(3) for more details. If it's not
set, the value of the environment variable $MM_CHARSET is used. US-ASCII or compile-time
default is used in case neither of them is defined.
mono_markdash
Character attribute of words emphasized like _this_. It depends on your terminal which
attributes are usable. See also word_h_display_marks and word_highlight.
mono_markslash
Character attribute of words emphasized like /this/. It depends on your terminal which
attributes are usable. See also word_h_display_marks and word_highlight.
mono_markstar
Character attribute of words emphasized like *this*. It depends on your terminal which
attributes are usable. See also word_h_display_marks and word_highlight.
mono_markstroke
Character attribute of words emphasized like -this-. It depends on your terminal which
attributes are usable. See also word_h_display_marks and word_highlight.
newnews
These are internal timers used by tin(1) to keep track of new newsgroups. Do not change
them unless you understand what they are for.
news_headers_to_display
Which news headers you wish to see. If you want to see _all_ the headers, place an '*' as
this value. This is the only way a wildcard can be used. If you enter 'X-' as the value,
you will see all headers beginning with 'X-' (like X-Alan or X-Pape). You can list more
than one by delimiting with spaces. Not defining anything turns off this option.
news_headers_to_not_display
Same as news_headers_to_display except it denotes the opposite. An example of using both
options might be if you thought 'X-' headers were A Good Thing(tm), but thought Alan and
Pape were miscreants... well then you would do something like this:
news_headers_to_display=X- news_headers_to_not_display=X-Alan X-Pape Not defining anything
turns off this option.
news_quote_format
Format of quote line when posting/following up an article (%A=Address, %D=Date,
%F=Fullname+Address, %G=Groupname, %M=Message-ID, %N=Fullname, %C=Firstname, %I=Initials).
If the article has multiple addresses only the first is evaluated. Default is "%F wrote:".
nntp_read_timeout_secs
Time in seconds to wait for a response from the server. Default is 120.
normalization_form
The normalization form which should be used to normalize unicode input. The possible
values are:
0 None: no normalization
1 NFKC: Compatibility Decomposition, followed by Canonical Composition
2 NFKD: Compatibility Decomposition
3 NFC: Canonical Decomposition, followed by Canonical Composition
4 NFD: Canonical Decomposition
5 NFKC_CF: Compatibility Decomposition, followed by Canonical Composition and Case
Folding
Some normalization modes are only available if they are supported by the library tin(1) uses to do
the normalization. NFC should be used if possible (RFC5198).
page_mime_format
Format string tin(1) uses for mime header at Page level. Default is "[--
%T%S%*n%z%*l%!c%!d%*e --]".
page_uue_format
Format string tin(1) uses for uue header at Page level. Default is "[-- %T%S%*n%I%!d%*e
--]".
pos_first_unread
If ON put cursor at first unread article in group otherwise at last article. Default is ON.
post_8bit_header
Allows 8-bit characters unencoded in the header of a news article, if set this also
disables the generation of MIME-headers when they are usually required. Default is OFF.
Only enacted if post_mime_encoding is also set to 8bit. In a number of local hierarchies
where 8-bit characters are used, using unencoded (raw) 8-bit characters in header is
acceptable and sometimes even recommended so that you need to check the convention adopted
in the local hierarchy of your interest to determine what to do with this and
post_mime_encoding.
post_mime_encoding
MIME encoding of the body in news message, if necessary. (8bit, base64, quoted-printable,
7bit). Default is 8bit, which leads to no encoding. base64 and quoted-printable are
usually undesired on usenet.
post_process_view
If ON, then tin(1) will start an appropriate viewer program to display any files that were
post processed and uudecoded. The program is determined using the mailcap(5) file. Default
is ON.
post_process_type
This specifies whether to perform post processing on saved articles. Because the shell
archive may contain commands you may not want to be executed, be careful when extracting
shell archives. The following values are allowed:
0 No (default), no post processing is done.
1 Shell archives, unpacking of multi-part shar(1) files only.
2 Yes, binary attachments and data will be decoded and saved.
posted_articles_file
Keep posted articles in given file. If the given filename does not contain any expandable
strings it will be prefixed with ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/Mail/. If no filename is set then
postings will not be saved. See the section "MAILING PIPING PRINTING REPOSTING AND SAVING
ARTICLES" for more information about the various expansion characters. Default is 'posted'.
print_header
If ON, then the full article header is sent to the printer. Otherwise only the ''Subject:''
and ''From:'' fields are output. Default is OFF.
printer
The printer program with options that is to be used to print articles. The default is
lpr(1) for BSD machines and lp(1) for SysV machines. Printing from tin(1) may have been
disabled by the System Administrator.
process_only_unread
If ON only save/print/pipe/mail unread articles (tagged articles excepted). Default is
OFF.
prompt_followupto
If ON show empty ''Followup-To:'' header when editing an article. Default is OFF.
quote_chars
The character used in quoting included text to article followups and mail replies. The '_'
character represents a blank character and is replaced with ' ' when read, %I is replaced
by author's initials. If the article has multiple addresses only the first is evaluated.
Default is '>_'.
quote_style
This bit coded integer value controls how articles are to be quoted when following up or
replying to them. Any of the following options can be combined by adding all relevant
values. Default is 5, which means that quote characters are compressed and empty lines are
quoted.
0 Nothing special Non empty lines are quoted.
1 Compress quotes Compress quote characters together when quoting multiple times (for
example, '> > >' will be turned into '>>>'). This option is on by default.
2 Quote Signatures This option is off by default. Signatures are always quoted
regardless of this option when you are viewing an article in raw mode PageToggleRaw
('^H') and followup or reply to it. Signatures are never quoted regardless of this
option when show_signatures is off.
4 Quote empty lines This option is on by default.
quote_regex
A regular expression that will be applied when reading articles. All matching lines are
shown in col_quote. If quote_regex is blank, then tin(1) uses a built-in default.
quote_regex2
A regular expression that will be applied when reading articles. All matching lines are
shown in col_quote2. If quote_regex2 is blank, then tin(1) uses a built-in default.
quote_regex3
A regular expression that will be applied when reading articles. All matching lines are
shown in col_quote3. If quote_regex3 is blank, then tin(1) uses a built-in default.
recent_time
If set to 0, this feature is deactivated, otherwise it means the number of days. Default is
2.
render_bidi
If ON tin(1) does the rendering of bi-directional text. If OFF tin(1) leaves the rendering
of bi-directional text to the terminal. Default is OFF.
reread_active_file_secs
The news ${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}"/"${TIN_ACTIVEFILE:-active} file is reread at regular
intervals to show if any new news has arrived. Default is 1200. Setting this to 0 will
disable this feature.
savedir
Directory where articles/threads are saved. Default is ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/News.
score_limit_kill
If the score of an article is below or equal this value the article gets marked as killed.
score_limit_select
If the score of an article is above or equal this value the article gets marked as hot.
score_kill
Score of an article which should be killed, this must be <= score_limit_kill.
score_select
Score of an article which should be marked hot, this must be >= score_limit_select.
scroll_lines
The number of lines that will be scrolled up/down in the article pager when using cursor-
up/down. The default is 1 (line-by-line). Set to 0 to get traditional tin(1) page-by-page
scrolling. Set to -1 to get page-by-page scrolling where the top/bottom line is carried
over onto the next page. This setting supersedes show_last_line_prev_page=ON. Set to -2 to
get half-page scrolling. This setting supersedes full_page_scroll=OFF.
select_format
The format string used for the Selection level. Default is "%f %n %U %G %d". The
following substitutions are supported:
%G group name
%U unread count
%d description
%f group flag
%n current group number
%% %
sort_function
Function used for sorting articles. Default is 0.
0 Use qsort(3) for sorting.
1 Use heapsort(3) for sorting. This might be faster in large groups with long threads
(somewhat presorted data).
show_author
Which information about the author should be shown. Default is 2, authors full name.
0 None, only the ''Subject:'' line will be displayed.
1 Address, ''Subject:'' line & the address part of the ''From:'' line are displayed.
2 Full Name, ''Subject:'' line & the authors full name part of the ''From:'' line are
displayed (default).
3 Address and Name, ''Subject:'' line & all of the ''From:'' line are displayed.
show_art_score
If ON show article score in the lower left corner when displaying articles. Default is
OFF. See also col_score_neg and col_score_pos.
show_description
If ON show a short group description text after newsgroup name at the group selection
level. The ''-d'' command-line flag will override the setting and turn descriptions off.
The text used is taken from the ${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}/newsgroups file and if supported
(requires tin(1) to be built with mh-mail-handling support) from
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/mailgroups for mailgroups. Default is ON.
show_help_mail_sign
Allows you to select whether tin(1) shows a help indication, a new mail indication, both,
or neither in the various level titles. Default is 3.
0 Don't show help or mail sign.
1 Show only help sign.
2 Show only mail sign if new mail, show only the mail sign, and only if new mail has
arrived.
3 Show mail if new mail else help s., show mail sign if new mail has arrived otherwise
show help sign.
show_only_unread_arts
If ON show only new/unread articles otherwise show all articles. Default is ON.
show_only_unread_groups
If ON show only subscribed groups that contain unread articles. Default is OFF.
show_signatures
If OFF don't show signatures when displaying articles. Default is ON.
sigdashes
If ON prepend the signature with sigdashes. Default is ON.
sigfile
The path that specifies the signature file to use when posting, following up to or replying
to an article. If the path is a directory then the signature will be randomly generated
from files that are in the specified directory. If a file named .sigfixed does exist in
that dir or ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.sigfixed does exist it will be prepended to the chosen
signature (first match counts). If the path starts with a ! the program the path points to
will be executed to generate a signature. In order to pass the group name to the program,
%G can be specified. This will be replaced by the name of the current newsgroup. --none
will suppress any signature. Default is ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.Sig. See also
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.sigfixed.
signature_repost
If ON add signature to reposted articles. Default is ON.
slashes_regex
A regular expression that will be applied when reading articles. All matching words are
shown in col_markslash or mono_markslash. If slashes_regex is blank, then tin(1) uses a
built-in default.
sort_article_type
This specifies how articles should be sorted. Sort by ascending Date (6) is the default.
The following sort types are allowed:
0 Nothing, don't sort articles.
1 Subject: (descending), sort articles by ''Subject:'' field descending.
2 Subject: (ascending), sort articles by ''Subject:'' field ascending.
3 From: (descending), sort articles by ''From:'' field descending.
4 From: (ascending), sort articles by ''From:'' field ascending.
5 Date: (descending), sort articles by ''Date:'' field descending.
6 Date: (ascending), sort articles by ''Date:'' field ascending (default).
7 Score (descending), sort articles by filtering score descending.
8 Score (ascending), sort articles by filtering score ascending.
9 Lines: (descending), sort articles by ''Lines:'' field descending.
10 Lines: (ascending), sort articles by ''Lines:'' field ascending.
sort_threads_type
This specifies how threads will be sorted. Sort by descending Score (1) is the default. The
following sort types are allowed:
0 Nothing, don't sort threads.
1 Score (descending), sort threads by filtering score descending (default).
2 Score (ascending), sort threads by filtering score ascending.
3 Last posting date (descending), sort threads by date of last posting descending.
4 Last posting date (ascending), sort threads by date of last posting ascending.
spamtrap_warning_addresses
Set this option to a list of comma-separated strings to be warned if you are replying to an
article by mail where the e-mail address contains one of these strings. The matching is
case-insensitive. Example:
spam,delete,remove
stars_regex
A regular expression that will be applied when reading articles. All matching words are
shown in col_markstar or mono_markstar. If stars_regex is blank, then tin(1) uses a built-
in default.
strip_blanks
Strips the blanks from the end of each line therefore speeding up the display when reading
on a slow terminal or via modem. Default is ON.
strip_bogus
Bogus groups are groups that are present in your ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.newsrc file that
no longer exist on the news server. There are 3 options. 0 means do nothing & always keep
bogus groups. 1 means bogus groups will be permanently removed. 2 means that bogus groups
will appear on the Group Selection Menu, prefixed with a 'D'. This allows you to
unsubscribe from them as and when you wish. Default is 0 (Always Keep).
strip_newsrc
If ON, then unsubscribed groups will be permanently removed from your
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.newsrc file. Default is OFF.
strip_re_regex
A regular expression to find Subject prefixes like "Re:" to remove. If strip_re_regex is
blank, then tin(1) uses a built-in default.
strip_was_regex
A regular expression to find Subject suffixes like "(was:" to remove. If strip_was_regex
is blank, then tin(1) uses a built-in default.
strokes_regex
A regular expression that will be applied when reading articles. All matching words are
shown in col_markstroke or mono_markstroke. If strokes_regex is blank, then tin(1) uses a
built-in default.
tex2iso_conv
Decode German style TeX umlaut codes to ISO If ON, show "a as Umlaut-a, etc. Default is
OFF. This behavior can also be toggled in the article viewer via PageToggleTex2iso ('"').
thread_articles
Defines which threading method to use. The choices are:
0 Don't thread
1 Thread on Subject only
2 Thread on References only
3 Thread on References then Subject (default)
4 Thread multipart articles on Subject
5 Thread on Percentage Match of the Subjects
It's also possible to set the threading type on a per group basis by setting the group attribute
variable thread_articles to 0 – 5 in the file ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/attributes.
thread_format
The format string used for the Thread level. Default is "%n %m [%L] %T %F". The
following substitutions are supported:
%D date
%F from, name and/or address
%I initials
%L line count
%M message-id
%S score
%T thread tree
%m article marks
%n current article number
%% %
thread_perc
Defines how close the subjects must match while threading by Percentage Match for threads
to be considered part of a single thread. This value is in the range 0 to 100. The default
is 75.
thread_catchup_on_exit
If ON catchup group/thread when leaving with the left arrow key. Default is ON.
thread_score
How the total score of a thread is computed. Default is 0, the maximum score in this
thread.
0 Max, the maximum score in this thread.
1 Sum, the sum of all scores in this thread.
2 Average, the average score in this thread.
tls_ca_cert_file
The name of file containing all trusted CA certificates used for NNTPS (RFC8143)
connections. If left empty the system default will be used.
translit
If ON append //TRANSLIT to the first argument of iconv_open(3) to enable transliteration.
This means that when a character cannot be represented in the target character set, it can
be approximated through one or several similarly looking characters. On systems where this
extension doesn't exist, this option is disabled. Default is OFF.
trim_article_body
Allows you to select how tin(1) treats blank lines in article bodies. Default is 0. This
option does not affect lines within verbatim blocks.
0 Don't trim article body, do nothing.
1 Skip leading blank lines.
2 Skip trailing blank lines.
3 Skip leading and trailing blank l., skip leading and trailing blank lines.
4 Compact multiple between text, replace multiple blank lines between text blocks with
one blank line.
5 Compact multiple and skip leading, 4 + 1
6 Compact multiple and skip trailing, 4 + 2
7 Compact mltpl., skip lead. & trai., 4 + 3
suppress_soft_hyphens
If ON remove soft hyphens (U+00AD) from non verbatim blocks when displaying articles.
Default is OFF.
underscores_regex
A regular expression that will be applied when reading articles. All matching words are
shown in col_markdash or mono_markdash. If underscores_regex is blank, then tin(1) uses a
built-in default.
unlink_article
If ON remove ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.article after posting. Default is ON.
url_handler
The program that will be run when launching URLs in the article viewer using PageViewUrl
('U'). The actual URL will be appended. Default is url_handler.pl.
url_highlight
Enable highlighting URLs in message body. Default is ON.
use_color
If enabled tin(1) uses ANSI-colors. Default is OFF.
use_keypad
Use scroll keys on keypad. Default is OFF.
use_mouse
Allows the mouse button support in an xterm(1x) to be enabled/disabled. Default is OFF.
use_slrnface
If enabled slrnface(1) will be used to interpret the ''X-Face:'' header. For this option to
have any effect, tin(1) must be running in an xterm(1x) and slrnface(1) must be in your
$PATH. Default is OFF.
utf8_graphics
If ON use UTF-8 characters for indicator ('→'), thread/attachment tree and ellipsis
('...'). Default is OFF.
verbatim_begin_regex
A regular expression that tin(1) will use to find the begin of a verbatim block. Default is
#v+
verbatim_end_regex
A regular expression that tin(1) will use to find the end of a verbatim block. Default is
#v-
verbatim_handling
Allows you to select how tin(1) treats verbatim blocks in article bodies. Default is 1.
0 Don't detect verbatim blocks. Do nothing.
1 Detect and show verbatim blocks. Detect and show verbatim blocks, including begin and
end marks.
2 Detect, hide begin and end marks. Detect and show verbatim blocks, hide begin and end
marks.
3 Don't show verbatim blocks. Detect verbatim blocks and hide them completely.
wildcard
Allows you to select how tin(1) matches strings. The default is 0 and uses the wildmat(3)
notation, which is how this has traditionally been handled. Setting this to 1 allows you
to use perl(1) compatible regular expressions pcre(3) or pcre2(3). (see also perlre(1) and
pcrepattern(3) or pcre2pattern(3)). You will probably want to update your filter file if
you use this regularly. NB: Newsgroup names will always be matched using the wildmat(3)
notation.
word_h_display_marks
Should the leading and ending stars, slashes, strokes and dashes also be displayed, even
when they are highlighting marks?
0 no
1 yes, display mark
2 print a space instead
word_highlight
Enable word highlighting. See word_h_display_marks for the options available. If use_color
is enabled the colors specified in col_markdash, col_markslash, col_markstar and
col_markstroke are used for word highlighting else the character attributes specified in
mono_markdash, mono_markslash, mono_markstar and mono_markstroke are used. Default is ON.
wrap_column
Sets the column at which a displayed article body should be wrapped. If this value is
equal to 0, it defaults to the current screen width. If this value is greater than your
current screen width and dont_break_words is unset the part off-screen is not displayed.
Thus setting this option to a large value can be used to disable wrapping. If this value
is negative the wrap margin is the current screen width plus the given value (as long as
the result is still positive, otherwise it will fall back to the current screen width).
Default is 0, wrapping at the current screen width.
wrap_on_next_unread
If enabled a search for the next unread article will wrap around all articles to find also
previous unread articles. If disabled the search stops at the end of the thread list.
Default is ON.
xpost_quote_format
Format is the same as for news_quote_format, this is used when answering to a crossposting
to several groups with no ''Followup-To:'' set.
/etc/tin/tin.defaults
Yet another global configuration file with "variable=value" pairs. This one is for the more
general options which usually can't be controlled via ${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}/tinrc and/or
${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.tin/tinrc like resetting (to override the built-in default) the
newslibdir.
domainname
Sets a global domain name used in From lines
organization
Defines the name of your organization. $ORGANIZATION overrides any specified value.
newslibdir
Defines the default place for some configuration files, common values are /usr/lib/news,
/var/lib/news, /usr/local/lib/news or /news/db. $TIN_LIBDIR overrides any specified value.
bugaddress
Defines the email address to which users can send bug reports using a built-in function.
The default points to a developers mailing list located at tin.org. You might want to
change this address to one of your local administration if you want to deal with your
lusers problems on your own.
inewsdir
Defines the directory containing the inews(1) executable.
mm_charset
Default charset to be used in MIME's ''Content-Type:'' header. $MM_CHARSET overrides any
specified value.
post_mime_encoding
Default encoding scheme used in MIME articles. 8bit might be the best value.
mail_mime_encoding
Default encoding scheme used in MIME letters. quoted-printable is a good choice here.
disable_gnksa_domain_check
Allow unregistered top level domains. As the list of valid TLDs is no longer actively
maintained the default was changed to ON starting with tin(1) version 2.1.5
disable_sender
Don't generate a ''Sender:'' header. This has an effect only if inews_prog is set to
--internal.
spooldir
Base of your newsspool (Bnews, Cnews and INN traditional spool style), common values are
/var/spool/news, /usr/spool/news, /news/spool. $TIN_SPOOLDIR overrides any specified
value.
overviewdir
Base of your NOV database newsoverview(5) (tradspool style; might be the same dir as
spooldir), common values are /var/spool/overview, /usr/spool/overview, /news/overview.
$TIN_NOVROOTDIR overrides any specified value.
overviewfile
Name of a single overview file, common values are .overview or over.view. $TIN_NOVFILENAME
overrides any specified value.
overviewfmtfile
Full pathname of your newssystem's overview.fmt file; usually the file resides in
newslibdir and is named overview.fmt, so you only have to change this setting if your
configuration differs.
activefile
Full pathname of your newssystem's active file; usually the file resides in newslibdir and
is named active, so you only have to change this setting if your configuration differs.
$TIN_ACTIVEFILE overrides any specified value.
activetimesfile
Full pathname of your newssystem's active.times file; usually the file resides in
newslibdir and is named active.times, so you only have to change this setting if your
configuration differs.
newsgroupsfile
Full pathname of your newssystem's newsgroups file; usually the file resides in newslibdir
and is named newsgroups, so you only have to change this setting if your configuration
differs.
subscriptionsfile
Full pathname of your newssystem's subscriptions file; usually the file resides in
newslibdir and is named subscriptions, so you only have to change this setting if your
configuration differs.
/usr/local/share/locale/$LC_MESSAGES/LC_MESSAGES/tin.mo
translation into language specified in $LC_ALL, $LC_MESSAGES or $LANG
${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}"/"${TIN_ACTIVEFILE:-active}
This file lists the newsgroups that the local site receives. Each newsgroup should be listed only
once. Each line specifies one group; within each newsgroup, articles are assigned unique names,
which are monotonically increasing numbers.
If an article is posted to newsgroups not mentioned in this file, those newsgroups are ignored.
If no valid newsgroups are specified, the article is rejected.
Each line consists of four space-separated fields "name highmark lowmark flags".
name is the name of the newsgroup
highmark
is the highest article number that has been used in that newsgroup
lowmark
is the lowest article number in the group; this number is not guaranteed to be accurate,
and should only be taken to be a hint. Note that because of article cancellations, there
may be gaps in the numbering sequence. If the lowest article number is greater than the
highest article number, then there are no articles in the newsgroup.
flags can be one of those
y local postings are allowed
n no local postings are allowed, only remote ones
m the group is moderated and all postings must be approved
j articles in this group are not kept, but only passed on
x articles cannot be posted to this newsgroup
=foo.bar
articles are locally filed into the ''foo.bar'' group
tin(1) only tries to read the file if you read directly from the local spool, if you read news via
NNTP, tin(1) uses the LIST (RFC3977) or LIST COUNTS (RFC6048) command instead.
${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}/active.times
This file provides a chronological record of when newsgroups are created. It is normally updated
by the local news server (e.g., innd(8)) whenever a new group is created. Each line consist of
three space-separated fields "name time creator".
name is the name of the newsgroup
time is the time when the group was created, expressed as the number of seconds since the Epoch.
creator
is the electronic mail address of the person who created the group.
tin(1) only tries to read the file if you read directly from the local spool, if you read news via
NNTP, tin(1) uses the NEWGROUPS (RFC3977) command instead.
${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}/newsgroups
This file provides short descriptions of each newsgroup. It is normally updated by the local news
server (e.g., innd(8)) whenever a new group is created. Each line consist of two tab-separated
fields "group.name one-line description".
group.name
is the name of the newsgroup
one-line description
is a short single-line description of the group
tin(1) only tries to read the file if you read directly from the local spool, if you read news via
NNTP, tin(1) uses the LIST NEWSGROUPS (RFC3977) command instead.
${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}/organization
This file might hold a default organization to be used in the ''Organization:'' header.
$ORGANIZATION has a higher priority if set.
${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}/overview.fmt
This file specifies the organization of the news overview database (see also newsoverview(5)).
The order of lines in this file is important; it determines the order in which the fields will
appear in the database. See also overview.fmt(5). tin(1) only tries to read the file if you read
directly from the local spool, if you read news via NNTP, tin(1) uses the LIST OVERVIEW.FMT (RFC‐
3977) command instead.
${TIN_LIBDIR:-NEWSLIBDIR}/subscriptions
This file contains a list of newsgroups — one per line — which the client should subscribe to when
the user has no ${TIN_HOMEDIR:-"$HOME"}/.newsrc for the news server. tin(1) only tries to read
the file if you read directly from the local spool, if you read news via NNTP, tin(1) uses the
LIST SUBSCRIPTIONS (RFC6048) command instead.
SEE ALSO
inews(1), ispell(1), lp(1), lpr(1), metamail(1), mutt(1), perl(1), perlre(1), pgp(1), rn(1), shar(1),
slrnface(1), tin(1), xterm(1x), heapsort(3), iconv(3), iconv_open(3), nl_langinfo(3), pcre(3), pcre2(3),
pcrepattern(3), pcre2pattern(3), qsort(3), strftime(3), system(3), active(5), mailcap(5), mbox(5),
mmdf(5), newsoverview(5), overview.fmt(5), innd(8), RFC1524, RFC1952, RFC2045, RFC2046, RFC2047, RFC2231,
RFC2980, RFC3977, RFC4155, RFC4643, RFC5198, RFC5322, RFC5536, RFC5537, RFC6048, RFC6838, RFC8143
2.6.5 2025-02-17 TIN(5)