Newsbeuter is an RSS feed reader for the text console. Newsbeuter's look should be pretty familiar to users of the mailer 'mutt' and the newsreader 'slrn'.
Newsbeuter supports OPML import/exports, HTML rendering, podcasts (via podbeuter), offline reading, searching and storing articles to your filesystem, and much more. All commands in the interface can be changed by key binding which allows to assign every internal function to any key or even key sequence.
NEWSBEUTER - "the mutt of feed readers". RSS/Atom feed reader for terminals. newsbeuter 1.4 [2009-02-08] newsbeuter 1.3 [2008-12-06] Home: http://www.newsbeuter.org/ Blog: http://newsbeuter.wordpress.com/ ;-) Docs: http://www.newsbeuter.org/doc/newsbeuter.html Group: http://groups.google.com/group/newsbeuter BTS: http://code.google.com/p/newsbeuter/issues/list Intro: http://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/newsbeuter (in German) Maintainer: Andreas Krennmaier ak(at)newsbeuter(dot)org Dependencies: curl ruby sqlite3
BUG: Article Index: HOME+END do not move the cursor at all. -> STFL
BUG: Article Index: PgDn+PgUp move to the first item after the current page -
but with PgDn the current item is always at the bottom of the page. -> STFL
BUG: The "Tab" key can't be bound due to technical limitations of STFL. :-(
BUG: CommandLine: a DEL deletes backwards (like BackSpace should)
while a BackSpace does not delete anything at all.
AK says it's a problem with Gnu screen. :-/
BUG: When you update the current internals by ":source ~/.newsbeuter/config"
then the news keybindings (bind-key) are not loaded... hmm..
(should be fixed now... see next upgrade)
Q+A input: Abort input with CTRL-G. Delete previous char with CTRL-H. Delete previous word with CTRL-W. Delete complete line with CTRL-U. Delete rest of line with CTRL-K. When user issues CTRL-C - ask user for confirmation on aborting program: "Abort Newsbeuter? (y/N)" add commands to place the current item: H high first line M middle middle line L low last lime change sorting to include reversing of the current sort order: Sort [(r)everse] by (d)ate/(t)itle/(f)lags/(a)uthor/(l)ink/(g)uid? allow binding of TAB, eg to "next-unread".
Display: Predefined Color Sets :color set -> source ~/.newsbeuter/set like the :colorscheme command in vim it enables you to load a color set which changes most colors. a default one with no colors at all, one for a dark background - and one for a light background. this is also nice to show the color capabilities of the program. Color Attributes: Q: what are the attributes "invis" and "protect"?
Add tab expansion for option names and option values. example: :set foo[TAB]=[TAB] this expands to: :set foobar-format="%a %b %c ... %z"
Display: Split view for article+index. This shows both the article and a part of the index to give a context for the articles around the current one. Help Line: condense the command words. allows to add "view:": "q:Quit ENTER:Open s:Save n:Next Unread o:Open in Browser e:Enqueue ?:Help 73 %" "q:Quit ENTER:Open s:Save n:NextUnread o:OpenInBrowser e:Enqueue ?:Help view:73%"
sort commands by function, eg group all jump commands (those which move the cursor). also show the generic keybindings and the unbound commands/functions. also groups these with the output of the :dumpconfig command. Show all currently active color definitions.
show the menu name at the title, so the context is clear - especially with screen shots. this makes bug reports and problem descriptions easier, too. (index menu, article view,..)
let the Makefile produce errors for missing libraries
and give sample URLs for a possible download.
example:
ERROR4711: could not find the library "libxml2".
Suggestion: point at an installed version of it
using the parameter XYZ - or download the archive
file from the following page and install it:
HomePage: http://xmlsoft.org/
Download: ftp://xmlsoft.org/libxml2/LATEST_LIBXML2
add a newsbeuter logo (SVG!), a newsbeuter twitter feed, and a facebook group.
System First Last Nick URL Archlinux: Sven Pfleiderer pfleidi http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=9551 Debian: Nico Golde nion http://packages.debian.org/newsbeuter Gentoo: Thomas Anderson gentoofan23 http://packages.gentoo.org/package/net-news/newsbeuter FreeBSD: Tilmann Linneweh arved http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/ports.cgi?query=newsbeuter&stype=all Slackware: --- --- slakmagik http://slackbuilds.org/repository/12.2/network/newsbeuter/ jsun@freeshell.org NetBSD: (not possible due to incompatibility of iconv) OpenSolaris: any takers? OpenBSD: any takers? RedHat: any takers? SuSE: any takers? Fink/Macports: any takers?
save on exit of command line and search histories (DONE: 1.4)
WISH: Drop the dash within the "bind-key" command.
A transition can be done using aliases, of course.
so - there's another reason for creating the
possibility for aliases.
WISH: Add sorting by time (of latest feed update). WISH: Add sorting by name (of feed). WISH: Add sorting by url (of feed). WISH: Add sorting by WISH: Add sorting by reverse.
WISH: long options "--help" and "--version"
(when you run out of single letters options, that is)
WISH: use option "-v" for version output
(and not to clean up the cache)
[version output changed to "-vv"]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- newsbeuter 1.4 - Articles in feed 'newthinking' (16 unread, 16 total) - http://store.newthinking.de/t --------------------------------------------------------------------------- this is too verbose. shorter header line, eg shorten Newsbeuter to "NB", and the number of unread and total articles to "(u/t)": --------------------------------------------------------------------------- NB1.4 "newthinking" (16/16) http://store.newthinking.de/t... --------------------------------------------------------------------------- and generally: make the header and footer line configurable.
this needs to go into the documentation: DONE: New command ":dumpconfig" to create a setup file with current config. DONE: CommandLine: Reset option to its default value. (vim: "set opt&")
Q: Article View: How do you change the date to "YYYY-MM-DD"? Q: Article Index: The default order seems to be "latest news first". How can you change the order to "olderst first"? Q: Article View: How do i bind 'i' (think: "index") to "quit" in reading mode? Q: Article View: How do i bind ' ' (space) to "open" in the index? why does each link end with "(link)"? isnt that redundant? Links: [1]: http://www.re-publica.de/09/prepublica/ (link) [2]: http://www.newthinking-store.de/Veranstaltung (link) [3]: http://www.newthinking-store.de/files/factsheet_newthinking_store.pdf (link) [4]: http://www.newthinking-store.de/workshop/zope/20090319 (link) [5]: http://www.newthinking-store.de/Veranstaltung/ (link) [6]: http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/products/new-in-sugar.html (link) [7]: mailto:info@newthinking.de (link)
combination with other programs: combine newsbeuter with screen and xterm by sending an escape sequence to change screen's/xterm's window title. DONE: notification fo xterm already exists.
Add a command line for changing current values - and more! (no texttool is complete without it! ;) DONE!
add color: coloring requires changes in STFL.
ignore/killfile: allow some way to ignore some feeds (esp on planets). DONE: ignore-article
a flag categorizes message in another way. a flag should be as simple as a letter, ie a-z and A-Z, allowing for 52 categories. flags should also be selectable as a pattern. "~f a ~f b ! ~f x ! ~f z". additonal points for allowing a shorter syntax of "~f ab!xz ".
no indentation necessary. add internal function names, too. allow searching with help text and highlight all matches on current page. cool: show the matching lines *only*. DONE!
allow jump to messages by index number. DONE! add a limit command to show only matching entries/items/messages. DONE! a pattern language like within mutt would be very welcome! show the size of messages in characters and/or lines.
Key Binding exists. but are different bindings for each menu possible? yes! DONE!
some menus are missing a title. show a title for *each* menu: "Newsbeuter 1.2.3 [YYYY-MM-DD] - MenuName".
package description: the decription of the packages needs an update!
In the save dialog suggest filenames only consisting of letters, dashes+digits+dots, and underscores.
Allow synchronization between accounts via "newsrc", ie it only contain the info about the message itself (perhaps by md5sum) and its status "read" or "unread".
tags define the categories about a message. there can be multiple tags for each message. however, "tag-limit" allows only one tag. multiple tags should be possible!
Identify the program with name+version, eg "Newsbeuter 1.2.3". no "alpha" or "beta", please, and certainly no "pre". just three numbers, divided by two dots. a release date date might come in handy, too. "Newsbeuter 1.2.3 [YYYY-MM-DD]". $ newsbeuter -V Warning: program compiled against libxml 207 using older 206 newsbeuter 1.4 - http://www.newsbeuter.org/ Copyright (C) 2006-2009 Andreas Krennmair System: Linux 2.6.18-6-xen-amd64 (x86_64) Compiler: g++ 4.2.3 20071123 (prerelease) (Debian 4.2.2-4) ncurses: ncurses 5.6.20071215 (compiled with 5.6) libcurl: libcurl/7.17.1 OpenSSL/0.9.8g zlib/1.2.3.3 libidn/1.1 libssh2/0.17 (compiled with 7.19.3) SQLite: 3.5.9 (compiled with 3.5.9) libxml2: compiled with 2.7.3
Current help Layout: newsbeuter 1.4 - Help ENTER open Open feed/article q quit Return to previous dialog/Quit r reload Reload currently selected feed R reload-all Reload all feeds A mark-feed-read Mark feed read C mark-all-feeds-read Mark all feeds read n next-unread Go to next unread article p prev-unread Go to previous unread article ^K random-unread Go to a random unread article o open-in-browser Open article in browser ? help Open help dialog l toggle-show-read-feeds Toggle show read feeds/articles ^T clear-tag Clear current tag t set-tag Select tag / open-search Open search dialog ^L redraw Redraw screen : cmdline Open the commandline F set-filter Set a filter f select-filter Select a predefined filter ^F clear-filter Clear currently set filter , macro-prefix Call a macro E edit-urls Edit subscribed URLs v view-dialogs View list of open dialogs ^V next-dialog Go to next dialog ^G prev-dialog Go to previous dialog
NEW Help Layout newsbeuter 1.4 - Help Generic: q quit Return to previous dialog/Quit ? help Open help dialog Misc: ENTER open-article-cur Open the current article/feed SPACE open-article-cur Open the current article/feed ^L redraw Redraw screen E edit-urls Edit subscribed URLs o open-article-in-browser Open the current article in browser , macro-prefix Call a macro : cmdline Open the commandline / open-search Open search dialog Dialogs: v dialog-view View list of open dialogs ^G dialog-prev Go to previous dialog ^V dialog-next Go to next dialog Filter: f filter-select Select a predefined filter F filter-set Set a filter ^F filter-clear Clear currently set filter Jumps: ^K jump-art-unread-random Jump to a random unread article n jump-unread-next Go to next unread article p jump-unread-prev Go to previous unread article Load: r reload-feed-cur Reload the currently selected feed R reload-feed-all Reload all feeds Marks: A mark-read-cur Mark the current feed as "read" C mark-read-all Mark all feeds as "read" Tags: l toggle-show-read-feeds Toggle show read feeds/articles ^T tag-cur-clear Clear current tag t tag-select Select articles by a tag
2009-02-18 guckes@kudu:~> newsbeuter Warning: program compiled against libxml 207 using older 206 Starting newsbeuter 1.4... Error: an instance of newsbeuter is already running (PID: 31992) zsh: segmentation fault nb why does newsbeuter segfault here at all? why does newsbeuter use libxml-206 instead of libxml-207? does newsbeuter really check whether the PID in the lock file is still running? if so, can newbeuter also show to which (pseudo) terminal it is connected to?
2009-02-20 koan is Koen Vervloesem hi, I have a feed from a webserver which has a redirect loop, when newsbeuter tries to read the feed it keeps trying I wonder if it's possible for newsbeuter to detect this loop, like Firefox does, and then stop trying I have version 0.9.1-1+lenny3 on Debian
2009-03-09 when reading an article - how can you toggle the numbering of links? index: how to show the date+time of the last update to each feed? how to show how many more new articles have been added with the last update. after an update of all feeds i would really like to see how many new articles have been added - so.. "#new|#unread|#read" how can i bind 'F' to flag messages as read? vim speak: :map F >c-e<A<cr> mutt speak: :macro index F \EA\n
2009-05-27 http://debaday.debian.net/2007/09/16/newsbeuter-rss-feed-reader-for-the-text-console/EOF