NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

The bbc program has three action switches which direct its operation:

The `-read' switch invokes the msh program on the named BBoards. If you also specify the `-archive' switch, then bbc will invoke the msh program on the archives of the named BBoards. If no BBoards are given on the command line, and you specified `-archive', bbc will not read your `bboards' profile entry, but will read the archives of the "system" BBoard instead.

The `-check' switch types out status information for the named BBoards. bbc can print one of several messages depending on the status of both the BBoard and the user's reading habits. As with each of these messages, the number given is the item number of the last item placed in the BBoard. This number (which is marked in the messages as the "BBoard-Id") is ever increasing. Hence, when bbc says "n items", it really means that the highest BBoard-Id is "n". There may, or may not actually be "n" items in the BBoard. Some common messages are:

BBoard -- n items unseen
This message tells how many items the user has not yet seen. When invoked with the `-quiet' switch, this is the only informative line that bbc will possibly print out.

BBoard -- empty
The BBoard is empty.

BBoard -- n items (none seen)
The BBoard has items in it, but the user hasn't seen any.

BBoard -- n items (all seen)
The BBoard is non-empty, and the user has seen everything in it.

BBoard -- n items seen out of m
The BBoard has at most m-n items that the user has not seen.

The `-topics' switch directs bbc to print three items about the named BBoards: it's official name, the number of items present, and the date and time of the last update. If no BBoards are named, then all BBoards are listed. If the `-verbose' switch is given, more information is output.

The `-quiet' switch specifies that bbc should be silent if no BBoards are found with new information. The `-verbose' switch specifies that bbc is to consider you to be interested in BBoards that you've already seen everything in.

To override the default mshproc and the profile entry, use the `-mshproc program' switch. Any arguments not understood by bbc are passed to this program. The `-protocol' switch tells bbc that your mshproc knows about the special bbc protocol for reporting back information. msh (1), the default mshproc, knows all about this.

The `-file BBoardsfile' switch tells bbc to use a non-standard BBoards file when performing its calculations. Similarly, the `-user BBoardsuser' switch tells bbc to use a non-standard username. Both of these switches are useful for debugging a new BBoards or POP file.

If the local host is configured as an NNTP BBoards client, or if the `-host host' switch is given, then bbc will query the NNTP service host as to the status of the BBoards. For NNTP BBoards clients, the `-user user' and the `-rpop' switches are ignored.

The .bbrc file in the user's $HOME directory is used to keep track of what messages have been read. The `-rcfile rcfile' switch overrides the use of .bbrc for this purpose. If the value given to the switch is not absolute, (i.e., does not begin with a / ), it will be presumed to start from the current working directory. If this switch is not given (or the `-norcfile' switch is given), then bbc consults the envariable MHBBRC, and honors it similarly.

FILES

$HOME/.mh_profile	The user profile
$HOME/.bbrc	BBoard "current" message information

PROFILE COMPONENTS

Path:	To determine the user's MH directory


bboards:	To specify interesting BBoards


mshproc:	Program to read a given BBoard

SEE ALSO

DEFAULTS

`-read'


`-noarchive'


`-protocol'


`bboards' defaults to "system"


`-file /BBoards'


`-user bboards'

CONTEXT

BUGS