Simple NNTP client for Ubuntu

Question

I need to download a particular NNTP group.

I do not need to setup any crons, put group contents in /opt and other stuff.

Just run <fetch-nntp> <server> <group-name> <output-dir> and be done with it without putting a lot of garbage in the system.

If that <fetch-nntp> would not fetch the same messages on the second run — fine. But I can live without it.

All NNTP clients that I've looked at are trying to be a NNTP server as well.

Is there something simpler that is suitable for my needs?

Answer 1

The slrn newsreader comes with slrnpull, which is not exactly that simple but still can do what you describe. (It does store everything in a news spool directory, but you do not have to use /var/spool/news -- keeping it in ~/news is just as good.)

Answer 2

Following the links to similar packages from the Debian slrnpull package page also brings up suck and sinntp. If you really want to roll your own, there's always libnews-nntpclient-perl.