---
name: "nncheck"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "nn"
version: "6.7.3-16"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/nncheck"
---

# nncheck(1)

check for unread articles

## NAME

nncheck - check for unread articles

## SYNOPSIS

**nncheck** \[ -Q -r -t \]  \[ -f format \]

## DESCRIPTION

*nncheck* will report if there are some articles on the system which you have not read.

Without options, *nncheck* will simply print a message reporting the number of unread articles with the following format:\
\
 	There are 327 unread articles in 25 groups\
 and when there are no unread articles, the following message will be printed:\
\
 	No News (is good news)

*nncheck* will exit with a value of 0 if there are unread articles, and 99 if there is no news (see the exception for the -r option.)

It is important to notice that even though unread articles have been reported by *nncheck*, the actual number of unread articles may be much lower (or even zero) when *nn* is invoked to read the articles.  This is because the calculation of the number of unread articles is only based on recorded article number intervals.  Invoking *nn* to read the articles may reveal that the articles have previously been read in another news group, have been expired, or are *killed* using the *auto-kill* facility.

The following options are used to modify the amount and format of the output from *nncheck*:

- **-Q**

  Quiet operation.  No output is produced, only the exit status indicate whether there is unread news.

- **-t**

  Print the name of each group with unread articles, and how many unread articles there are (not counting split digests!).

- **-r**

  Output a single integer value specifying the number of unread articles, and exit with a 0 status (somebody told me this would be useful).

- \-**f** *format*

  Output the number of unread articles using the specified format.  The format is a text that may contain the following %-escapes:

  ```
  	%-code	resulting output

  	%u	"uuu unread articles"
  	%g	"ggg groups"
  	%i	"is" if 1 unread article, else "are"
  	%U	"uuu"
  	%G	"ggg"
  ```

  where *uuu* is the number of unread articles, and *ggg* is the number of groups with unread articles.

  For example, the default output format is\
  \
   	"There %i %u in %g"\
   which I prefer to the following less perfect format:\
  \
   	"There are %U unread article(s) in %G group(s)"

## FILES

\~/.newsrc	The record of read articles\
 $db/MASTER	The database master index

## SEE ALSO

[nn(1)](/nn/1.md), [nngoback(1)](/nngoback/1.md), [nngrab(1)](/nngrab/1.md), [nngrep(1)](/nngrep/1.md), [nnpost(1)](/nnpost/1.md), [nntidy(1)](/nntidy/1.md)\
 nnadmin(1M), nnusage(1M), nnmaster(1M)

## AUTHOR

Kim F. Storm, Texas Instruments A/S, Denmark\
 E-mail: storm@texas.dk