news

PURPOSE

     Writes system news items to standard output.

SYNOPSIS
     news [ -a ] [ -n ] [ -s ] [ items ]


DESCRIPTION

     The news  command keeps  you informed of  news concerning
     the system.   Each news item  is contained in  a separate
     file  in directory  /usr/news.  Anyone  having read/write
     permission to this directory can create a news file.

     If you  run the news  command without any flags,  it dis-
     plays every  current file in /usr/news,  showing the most
     recent first.  Or you can specify the items you want dis-
     played.

     Each file is preceded by an appropriate header.  To avoid
     reporting old  news, news  stores a currency  time.  news
     considers your currency time  to be the modification time
     of the  file named $HOME/.news_time.  Each  time you read
     the news, the  modification time of this  file changes to
     that of the  reading.  Only news item  files posted after
     this time are considered current.

     Pressing INTERRUPT  (Alt-Pause) during  the display  of a
     news item stops  the display of that item  and starts the
     next.  Pressing INTERRUPT (Alt-Pause) again ends news.

     Most users  run news each  time they log in  by including
     the line:

       news  -n

     in  their   $HOME/.profile  file   or  in   the  system's
     /etc/profile.

FLAGS

     -a   Displays all news items,  regardless of the currency
          time.  The currency time does not change.
     -n   Reports the names of current news items without dis-
          playing their contents.  The  currency time does not
          change.
     -s   Reports  the number  of current  news items  without
          displaying  their names  or contents.   The currency
          time does not change.

EXAMPLES

     1.  To display the items that  have been posted since you
         last read the news:

           news

     2.  To display all the news items:

           news  -a  |  pg

         This displays  all the  news items a  page at  a time
         ("| pg") whether or not you have read them yet.
     3.  To list the names of the news items that you have not
         read yet:

           news  -n

         Each name is a file in the directory /usr/news.
     4.  To display specific news items:

           news  newusers  services

         This displays  news about "newusers"  and "services",
         which are names listed by news -n.
     5.  To display the number of news items that you have not
         read yet:

           news  -s

     6.  To post news for everyone to read:

           cp  schedule  /usr/news

         This copies the file  "schedule" into the system news
         directory,   "/usr/news",   to    create   the   file
         "/usr/news/schedule".  To do this you must have write
         permission for "/usr/news".

FILES

     /etc/profile
     /usr/news/*
     $HOME/.news_time

RELATED INFORMATION

     The following command:  "pg."

     The  profile file  and  environ special  facility in  AIX
     Operating System Technical Reference.