"Official" documents of the slrn newsreader

This page allows you to view the more important of the documentation that usually comes with the slrn tarball. It is presented here as plain text, HTML and where available the SGML source. In a slight change from the previous versions of this web site the Reference Manual and FAQs can now also be sourced from this page.

Please note that much of this documentation is currently being rewritten in a project headed by Peter J Ross in readiness for the release of slrn 0.9.9. These updated documents can be found at the Slrn Documentation Project.

Reference documentation

The two documents are considered here as seminal reference documents for slrn. The slrn reference manual gives a detailed explanation of every configuration option in slrn and it is highly recommended reading:

  1. Slrn Reference Manual This is the HTML version of the slrn reference manual which gives a detailed explanation of every configuration option in slrn and it is highly recommended reading. Also available in plain text and sgml.
  2. The intrinsic function reference manual This is the HTML version of a manual that contains a complete list of the intrinsic functions slrn offers for use in S-Lang. If you want to extend slrn using this powerful macro language, you will find this very useful. Also available in plain text.

The slrn Reference Manual is one of the documents being extensively revised for slrn 0.9.9 but the version linked here is the older version suitable for the current release version 0.9.8.1. For the newer version see PJR's site.

Guides for users

The four documents included here very useful for those starting out with slrn as well as more experienced users.

  1. Slrn FAQs Certain questions come up again and again - this document answers some of them. It is highly recommended reading before emailing questions or posting to Usenet. This is the HTML version also available in text and sgml.
  2. FIRST_STEPS This text document shows the "first steps" required after installing slrn. It guides you through the configuration until you can successfully use it for the first time.
  3. score.txt This text document is a brief guide on scoring with slrn which contains an example score file which you might find helpful as a starting point.
  4. slrn.rc This text document is an extensively commented sample slrn.rc file that can serve as basis for the creation of your own .slrnrc file.

All four documents will be updated for slrn 0.9.9 with much of the work already having been done. However the version linked here is the older version suitable for the current release version 0.9.8.1.

Information on slrnpull

slrnpull is a small "companion" program that comes with slrn. slrnpull pulls a small newsfeed from an NNTP server from which slrn will subsequently read. Below are two of the documents that discuss slrnpull.

  1. README A general discussion on slrnpull, why it was created and how it works.
  2. README.offline Describes how you can use slrn and slrnpull for "true offline reading", i.e. getting only the article headers first and selecting the article bodies you want to download.

Documentation for slrnpull is found in the /doc/slrnpull/ directory of the slrn tarball.

The Remaining Documentation

Below is a comprehensive listing of all the other documentation that comes with the slrn tarball. This documentation comes in plain text format.

  1. README.multiuser Please read these notes if you want to set up slrn for multiple users.
  2. README.macros This document helps you to get started using the S-Lang macro language to extend slrn. It also contains a complete reference of the "hooks" slrn offers.
  3. README.SSL Explains how to compile slrn with support for SSL and how to use it with secure servers afterwards.
  4. README.offline Describes how you can use slrn and slrnpull for "true offline reading", i.e. getting only the article headers first and selecting the article bodies you want to download.
  5. INSTALL.unix A short explanation of how to build and install slrn from sourcecode on Unix-like systems. This includes a full reference of available configure options.
  6. INSTALL.w32 Some brief notes about how to install / compile slrn on Windows. Please note that they expect that you have some understanding about how both slrn and Windows work.
  7. INSTALL.os2 This file gives instructions about how to set up slrn on OS/2 and provides general information about the OS/2 port.
  8. INSTALL.vms Describes the steps necessary to build slrn on VMS.
  9. README.GroupLens Some notes about the optional GroupLens support in slrn. Please note that this is likely to be removed from slrn in a future version.