Subject: How I cancelled my newsgroup article using pine (mostly)

From: Barry Couper <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 17 Aug 1996 22:49:52 -0400

I used pine 3.95, UNIX version.
 
Having searched via Dejanews and MetaCrawler (deep search) with
keywords 'pine news cancel' and finding little information, I 
reread the paragraph in the cancel FAQ that reveals the basics:
 
  << F. How are they issued?
        
        Cancel messages are sent out as a standard Usenet post, except
  they contain a "Control: cancel " header.  If a system that
  accepts cancels receives the message, the post with the specified
  message ID is deleted from that system.>>
 
After reviewing a number of cancel messages in newsgroup 'control',
I determined that 2 headers are necessary in the cancel post:
 
Control: cancel <message-ID>
Subject: cmsg cancel <message-ID>
(the <> brackets are necessary)
 
I posted a test message to newsgroup misc.test, looked at the headers
of my test-post, and copied its <message-ID> to my clipboard buffer.  
 
Then, for the cancel-post, I started another post to misc.test, and 
postponed it.
 
I suspended pine and edited the file 'postponed' in my mail directory
to insert the two headers, pasting in <message-ID> from my test-post.
 
I resumed pine and 'Compose', 'Continue', 'Yes' with the cancel-post,
which now contained the cancel headers.  After posting, I verified
that my test-post had disappeared from misc.test, and that my 
cancel-post was in the control newsgroup.
 
One could use 'Setup', 'Configure', 'customized-hdrs' 'A'dd to insert
the header Control: <message-ID>.  But then you have to remove the
Control: customized-hdr after posting the cancel-post.

Now that I've done it, it's obvious how I can cancel one of my
articles in a newsgroup using pine.  pine has such long message-IDs
that I'd hesitate to type them into the headers, but with a clipboard
to copy to & paste from, it's easy.  

It's easier still to use a newsreader with a 'cancel' key if you have
access to one.  If I've overlooked the obvious, please post easier
ways to cancel a news article using pine.

See RFC1036 (usenet), RFC822 (mail), and Cancel FAQ for background
information on headers and cancel messages.

Barry Couper
[email-masked]                      Barry Couper, Montague, MA USA
^^^^--for Duck Soup in honor of all Marxists of the Groucho persuasion

---

From: Joe Brennan <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 18 Aug 96 20:12:48 EDT

> pine news cancel

I wish Pine's Delete command deleted (cancelled) an article, and
reading an article marked it read.  The Pine developers have already
explained that the single state of news articles (namely read or not)
caused them trouble, when forcing mail and news into the same system.
I'd suggest there are other ways out than what was chosen: for
example, display only unread news articles when entering a newsgroup,
and have a command to toggle showing read articles also (and let the
same toggle work for mail, but default to showing all as it does now).

The thing is, cancelling one's own articles is an activity to be
recommended and made simple; it's a Good Thing for the net.  At least
on UNIX Pine, where we have authenticated the user by login, it should
be safe to allow cancelling.

Joseph Brennan     Academic Information Systems
                   Columbia University in the City of New York
                   [email-masked]