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How to open a news URL

  • 7 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Paskiausią atsakymą parašė rsx11m

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The command { thunderbird 'news:news.answers'; } should show the Usenet group news.answers using the default Usenet news server but it does not; it has no effect.

The command { thunderbird 'news:news.answers'; } should show the Usenet group news.answers using the default Usenet news server but it does not; it has no effect.

All Replies (7)

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The command { thunderbird 'news:news.answers'; }

I have no idea what you're talking about.

You'll need to create a news account for the news server of your choice. Then subscribe to the group(s) you're interested in.

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I am talking about launching Thunderbird from the command line.

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That URL is wrong, news URL do not have the authority part. The semantic of this URL is to open the group in the default Usenet server. The command { thunderbird -news 'news:news.answers'; } opens Thunderbird but does not show the group.

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The command line is handled the code in nsMailNewsCommandHandler.js; the expression (neckoURL.messageHeader) causes an invalid value exception, probably because it expects a message reference, not a group reference (represented by msgKey == -1 in nsMsgDatabase::GetMsgHdrForKey). It looks unimplemented.

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Reported as bug 1096355

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According to the examples in the applicable standards document RFC 3986 Section 1.1.2, "news:comp.infosystems.www.servers.unix" is a valid URL. Thus,

  • thunderbird news:comp.infosystems.www.servers.unix

should work similar to

  • thunderbird mailto:John.Doe@example.com

The command-line syntax is the internal syntax, but without the "-news" switch, you'd expect the URL passed as argument to be parsed.

Modified by rsx11m