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*                                   *
* Newsbeuter is a console-based rss * 
* reader and podcatcher             *
*                                   *
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Well, it's a lovely Saturday morning 
and it seems like a great time to 
discuss newsbeuter[1]. The project is 
abandoned but still works well. 
Newsboat[2] is a more up to date fork, 
but I haven't used it yet. It appears 
from the documentation that little has 
changed from the end-user perspective 
and I suspect (but don't know for 
sure) that everything below applies to 
newsboat as well.

Watch this space for an update when I 
ultimately do install newsboat.


Installation and Configuration
==============================

Newsbeuter is in Debian's 
repositories, so a quick "apt-get 
install newsbeuter" will do the trick 
if you use Debian.

After installation, you should find a 
.newsbeuter directory inside your home 
directory.

Inside the .newsbeuter directory is a 
"urls" file. "urls" is your list of 
rss feeds. Find feeds and add them 
with any editor you like. There's no 
special syntax. Just put each of the 
feeds on a new line. If you prefer, 
you can edit the urls file from within 
the newsbeuter program by pressing the 
capital "E" key.

You can also create a file called 
"config" inside the .newsbeuter 
directory and add in your 
configuration preferences.

Mine looks like this:

browser lynx
player mplayer

More on those options in a moment.


Operation
=========

Starting newsbeuter is as easy as 
typing "newsbeuter." That's not a lot 
of fun though, so I've aliased it as 
"rss" in my .bashrc file.

Navigation:

Up and down arrows -- move up and down 
your list of feeds or list of 
items/articles.

Enter -- open a feed or item/article.

q -- go back. Basically, you quit your 
way back out of everything.

o -- open an article in a browser. If 
you don't create the config 
file and specify the browser, 
newsbeuter will use your system 
default.

If you define lynx as your browser, a 
"q" will close the browser and return 
you to newsbeuter, which makes 
navigation kind of seamless. q-q-q 
back to where you want to be.

At any time, you can press the "?" key 
to open the help screen, which 
provides a comprehensive list of 
commands.


Podcasts 
========

Newsbeuter also handles podcasts!

Add the podcasts to your urls list. 
Navigate through them as usual. If you 
want to listen to an episode, press 
"e" to enqueue the episode for 
download.

You don't actually listen to the 
podcast in newsbeuter itself.

Exit newsbeuter -- or just open 
another terminal if you want to read 
feeds and listen to podcasts at the 
same time -- and type "podbeuter". 

Podbeuter is automatically installed 
with newsbeuter. When it opens, your 
download queue will appear. This is 
the list of episodes that you've 
enqueued for download in newsbeuter.

Navigate to an episode with the arrow 
keys.

Pressing the "d" key will download the 
episode.

Pressing the "p" key will play the 
episode.

Note that podbeuter will only play the 
episode if you have defined a player 
in your config file.

I've aliased podbeuter to "pod" on my 
machine to minimize keystrokes.



--------

[1] The newsbeuter website is at 
https://www.newsbeuter.org/

[2] Newsboat can be found at
https://newsboat.org/

[3] Obligatory k.mandla link:
https://inconsolation.wordpress.com/2013/04/17/newsbeuter-a-simple-and-clean-news-reader/