last update: Sat Dec 18 1999

This is an excerpt from the Hnews-manual Hnews.ps which is part of the regular Hnews-distribution. It only contains the directions for the installation - which include unpacking the archive and thereby give you access to the full manual - and the hard- and software requirements, so that you do not even need to bother unpacking the archive if you find that the program will not run on your computer anyway.
Once you have unpacked the archive, continue the installation as described in the regular manual, Hnews.ps.
(The ending .ps declares a PostScript document. Under UNIX-based systems, for which Hnews is intended, you will generally have several readers for PostScript documents installed, e.g. GhostView.)


Installation

How to proceed

Hnews is normally distributed as a tar- or zip-archive. Both tar and (un)zip should be installed on any UNIX-based operating system. If you do not have either of them on your system, do a search for them on the web, there are several pages, depending on the operating system you use, which have them, or ask your system administrator or the distributer of your system software.
Create the directory in which you want Hnews to reside, copy the archive into that directory and change into it. Then unpack the archive by typing:
tar xzvf Hnews-23.tgz 
or
gtar xzvf Hnews-23.tgz 
for a tar-gzip-archive or
unzip Hnews-23.zip 
for a zip-archive. The directory will then contain the files listed in the introduction (see Hnews.ps) -- if not, you received a damaged archive.
Next, you have to figure out which news-server you are using, since you will have to present that information to Hnews. If you do not know this, start the news-reader you have been using so far and try to find out which news-server that program uses. For Netscape for example, you have to look under ``Options'' --- ``Mail and News Preferences'' --- ``Servers'' where the current server name will be given in the ``News (NNTP) server:'' field in the ``News'' section of that sheet. If you cannot find out which server you have to use, ask your system administrator.
Once you have figured out the correct news-server, you can install Hnews by running Install with the news-server as command-line parameter. E.g. to install Hnews such that is uses the server ``my.server.edu'' type:
Install my.server.edu 

If Install terminates normally, Hnews is now ready for use. Otherwise it will print out detailed error information. In the latter case, unless you are able to resolve the problem yourself, email me both the output produced by Install and the file Hnews.h and I will try to locate and solve the problem.

Hard- and software requirements

Hnews comes as C++ - source code and has to be compiled on the computer on which it is going to be used. The code has been written in such a way as to maximize platform independence. It has been successfully compiled and used under Sun-OS 4.1.3 and newer, FreeBSD, Digital UNIX, IRIX and Linux on Sun workstations and PCs.
Required -- of course -- is an Internet connection, either by direct Ethernet access or via PPP or equivalent protocols.
Hnews does not use/require Xwindow, it is a pure text application. The text window in which it operates has to be vt100-compatible. Most Unix-based text windows are, most non-Unix-based ones are at least able to emulate that compatibility. If yours for some reason should not be (which is unlikely), you will recognize it: the output produced by Hnews is going to be jumbled, but apart from that it is going to work just fine.
If you encounter problems when trying to compile Hnews on your computer, the installation script will give you instructions as to how and where to get help.

Download the Hnews-archive (ZIP, TGZ) or go back to the Unix section ?



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