Adding new phlog 020.txt - gopherhole - My website source code.
(DIR) Log
(DIR) Files
(DIR) Refs
---
(DIR) commit 9921b87ef67044b9cdb728de93cebc7f63718ca0
(DIR) parent 7c373a98f6d783375864cec42deafe27d6a03eaa
(HTM) Author: Jay Scott <me@jay.scot>
Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2023 22:23:10 +0100
Adding new phlog 020.txt
Diffstat:
M index.gph | 1 +
A phlog/020.txt | 158 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
2 files changed, 159 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
---
(DIR) diff --git a/index.gph b/index.gph
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
PHLOG
+[0|2023-07-03 ... Getting to grips with slrn|phlog/020.txt|server|port]
[0|2023-06-19 ... My Beelink U59 running OpenBSD kicked the bucket!|phlog/019.txt|server|port]
[0|2023-04-30 ... The lack of time for geeky tasks!|phlog/018.txt|server|port]
[0|2023-03-11 ... Checking out gaming on OpenBSD|phlog/017.txt|server|port]
(DIR) diff --git a/phlog/020.txt b/phlog/020.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,158 @@
+[jay.scot]
+[020]
+
+
+--[ Getting to grips with slrn.
+
+
+Until a few weeks ago, I occasionally visited Usenet using the Lynx
+browser's built-in NNTP handler. It's a basic tool that served its
+purpose for browsing a few groups. However, Lynx couldn't handle
+killfiles, and the abundance of spam on Usenet nowadays made it very
+discouraging, looking at you google groups!. Recently, my other computer
+stopped working, which gave me a clean slate, so I decided to invest
+more time into finding a better solution. I remember using Pan back in
+the day, towards the end of Usenets hayday, but I wanted something CLI
+based so that's why I ended up going with slrn.
+
+
+When I used Lynx, I had an old Usenet block account that I purchased
+about three years ago from usenet.farm, honestly it wasn't for
+backfilling binaries! It worked fine for reading, and I rarely posted so
+wasn't and issue on that front. This time, though, I went to
+eternal-september.org and created a new account there.
+
+
+At first, I set up slrn in NNTP mode, which means it interacts with the
+news server remotely. However, this quickly became inconvenient for
+several reasons. Loading groups by connecting directly to the server
+every time I started up slrn felt sluggish. Moreover, I couldn't find
+a good way to separate my authentication credentials and store the slrn
+configuration in Git. In the slrn config file, I had to define the
+credentials explicitly, without the ability to call an external password
+manager or encrypted file, like so:
+
+
+ nnrpaccess "snews://news.eternal-september.org:563" "my-user" "my-pass"
+ set force_authentication 1
+
+
+After some research over on the slrn homepage, I discovered that slrn
+comes with another tool called slrnpull. As the name suggests, it pulls
+all news articles to a local spool, which can then be viewed in slrn.
+Setting this up was a breeze, and with this method, I was able to
+separate my authentication credentials into a single file called
+"authinfo," which I could easily add to my Gitignore. I am now setup and
+good to go, looking forward to being more involved with Usenet!
+
+
+Below, I've included my configuration, which should serve as a good
+starting point for anyone wanting to use slrn. All files are relative to
+~/.config/slrn
+
+
+ slrnpull -d ~/.config/slrn/ # pull posts
+ slrn -i ~/.config/slrn/config # read posts
+
+
+--[ config
+
+
+% user
+set username "jay.scot"
+set hostname "me@invalid"
+set generate_message_id 0
+
+% apps
+set editor_command "vim '+set tw=72' +%d '%s'"
+set Xbrowser "firefox '%s' &"
+
+% attrib
+set followup_string "On %D, %r <%f> wrote:"
+set reply_string "In %n, you wrote:"
+
+% paths
+set spool_inn_root "~/.config/slrn/"
+set spool_root "~/.config/slrn/news"
+set spool_nov_root "~/.config/slrn/news"
+set read_active 1
+set use_slrnpull 1
+set server_object "spool"
+
+set scorefile ".config/slrn/score"
+
+% mime
+charset display utf8
+charset outgoing utf8
+
+% display
+set confirm_actions 0
+set sorting_method 9
+set uncollapse_threads 1
+set top_status_line " %n"
+set group_status_line "%D %-20g -- %L (%P)"
+set header_status_line "%p [%r/%t] %-20g -- %L (%P)"
+set art_status_line "%p %s %-20g -- %L (%P)"
+set overview_date_format "%d %b %Y %H:%M"
+
+visible_headers "Date:,From:,Newsgroups:,Subject:"
+header_display_format 0 "%F%B %21r %T%s %-26g %D %-5c"
+
+% keybinds
+setkey group "set_prefix_argument(4); () = select_group();" "
+setkey article create_score "K"
+
+
+--[ slrnpull.conf
+
+
+# NAME | MAX_ARTICLES | DAYS_BEFORE_EXPIRE | FETCH_HEADERS_ONLY
+default 0 0 0
+
+eternal-september.info
+eternal-september.newusers
+eternal-september.talk
+alt.gopher
+uk.radio.amateur
+
+
+--[ score
+
+
+% : Logical AND ie all tests must be passed (Conjunction)
+% :: Logical OR ie any of the tests are passed (Disjunction)
+% ~ Logical NOT ie an exception from the score rule (Negation)
+% = Stop score processing and award the score if the test is passed
+% * Wild card character
+
+[*]
+ Score:: -9999
+
+ % Kill all articles which are uppercase and contain $ sign
+ Subject: \$
+ ~Subject: \c[a-z]
+
+ % Google groups are a source of, basically, all spam
+ Message-ID: googlegroups
+
+ % Known spam remailer
+ From: nobody@dizum\.com
+
+ % Prolific spammer
+ From: doctor@doctor\.nl2k\.ab\.ca
+
+[eternal-september.*]
+ Score:: -9999
+ From: Tigerbrother
+ From: Dragonbrother
+
+
+
+--[ authinfo
+
+
+username
+password
+
+
+.EOF