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

# nngrab(1)

news retrieval by keyword (nn)

## NAME

nngrab - news retrieval by keyword (nn)

## SYNOPSIS

**nngrab** \[ -**c** \] *keyword*

## DESCRIPTION

*nngrab* invokes *nn* on all USENET articles whose subject (or keyword) field(s) contain an instance of *keyword*.  *nngrab* is a fast equivalent for:

	nn -mxX -s/*keyword* all

For example,

	nngrab tesla

will retrieve items concerning Nikola Tesla.

Keyword case is ignored unless -**c** is specified, and the *keyword* can be a regular expressions (escaped to avoid conflicts with the shell).  For example,

	nngrab "n.\*tesla"

The range of search includes all newsgroups on the system, including ones which are unsubscribed.

## FILES

$db/subjects	subject database

## SEE ALSO

[nn(1)](/nn/1.md), [nnspew(8)](/nnspew/8.md), [egrep(1)](/egrep/1.md)

## NOTES

*nngrab* *can be* much faster than the equivalent command shown above, if the tertiary news subject database generated by the [*nnspew*(8)](/nnspew/8.md) daemon exists.  To enable the faster operation, *nnspew* must be executed regularly by cron.

*nngrab* uses [*egrep*(1)](/egrep/1.md) to scan the subject database, so if you are not running *fast* egrep (GNU-style) this is all for naught.

*nngrab* will use a subject database generated by *nnspew* independent of its age.  Thus, if you stop running *nnspew*, remember to remove the subjects file as well.

## BUGS

Under version 6.4 onwards, search of the "Keywords:" field is not supported.\
 Search on name is not possible either.

## AUTHOR

James A. Woods, NASA Ames Research Center\
 E-mail: jaw@ames.arc.nasa.gov