.TH snscan,v0.3.8 8 "Harold Tay" "N.B." \" -*- nroff -*-
.SH NAME
snscan \- display information on articles in the spool
.br
sncat \- display articles in the spool
.br
sncancel \- cancel articles in the spool

.SH SYNOPSIS
.B snscan
.RI [ options ]
.IR articlespec ...
.br
.B sncat
.RI [ options ]
.IR articlespec ...
.br
.B sncancel
.RI [ options ]
.IR articlespec ...
.br
.IR options :
.RI [- n ]
.RI [- s
.IR since ]
.RI [- o
.IR outputfile ]
.br
.SH DESCRIPTION
.TP
.B snscan
displays information on all articles specified by
.IR articlespec ,
in the form
.br
.I newsgroup serial id
.br
on a line, one line per article matched.  This output is suitable
for feeding to
.BR snprimedb .
.TP
.B sncat
displays the articles specified by
.IR articlespec .
.TP
.B sncancel
marks articles specified by
.I articlespec
as canceled, so they become unavailable to
.B sn
programs.


.SH ARGUMENTS
.I articlespec
defines a broad pattern for articles.  It takes two mutually exclusive
forms.
.TP
.B Specify by newsgroup and serial number
Here
.I articlespec
is
.br
.IR newsgroup [: range [, range ]...]
.br
where each
.I range
is
.br
.IR serial [-[ toserial ]]
.br
(where
.I toserial
is greater than
.IR serial ).
If
.I toserial
is omitted, then all articles after
.I serial
are matched.  If both
.I serial
and
.I toserial
are empty, then only the first and last articles are matched.

.TP
.B Specify by articles message ID
Here
.I articlespec is
.RI - i
.IR id ...
.br
where each
.I id
is a message ID, angle brackets optional.

.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.RB - n
This option weeds out articles that are aliases.
If an article is crossposted,
there will be an original copy, the others will be aliases to it.
This option prevents information being displayed if it is not from
the original copy.

.TP
.IB - s since
This option weeds out articles that were obtained before
.IR since .
.I since
is in the format
.IR year / month / day [: hour : minute ]
where each is a number.
.I year
may be 2 or 4 digits, and
.B /
and
.B :
can be any non-digit character.

.TP
.IB - o outputfile
Write output to
.I outputfile
instead of descriptor 1.  Sometimes you just don't feel like using
the shell.

.SH EXAMPLES
.TP
sncancel linux.lemmings:12
Cancel article 12 from linux.lemmings.
.TP
snscan linux.lemmings:4,12-
Display information on article 4, and also articles 12 to the most
recent article, from linux.lemmings.
.TP
sncat -n -s 1998/4/1 linux.lemmings
Display all articles that are not aliases, and which
were entered after April 1 1998, from linux.lemmings.
.TP
snscan -i '123@myhost'
Display information on the article whose ID is
.BR <123@myhost> ,
in whichever newsgroup it is found.

.SH FILES
Each
.I articlespec
or
.I id
on the command line refers to articles in the news spool
located in
.BR /var/spool/sn.

.SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
.TP
.B SNROOT
If this is set and is not empty, the value is used in place of
.BR /var/spool/sn ,
the default news spool directory.

.SH EXIT CODES
.B snscan
exits 0 on success, 1 on usage error, 2 on system error, and 3 on
other errors.
It is not an error to specify an article that does
not exist, or which does not meet the
.I since
criterion.

.SH SEE ALSO
snprimedb(8)