###############################################
# fetch and print usenet newsgroup postings
# from comp.lang.python via the nntplib module
# which really runs on top of sockets; nntplib 
# also supports posting new messages, etc.;
# note: posts not deleted after they are read;
###############################################

listonly = 0
showhdrs = ['From', 'Subject', 'Date', 'Newsgroups', 'Lines']
try:
    import sys
    servername, groupname, showcount = sys.argv[1:]
    showcount  = int(showcount)
except:
    servername = 'news.rmi.net'
    groupname  = 'comp.lang.python'          # cmd line args or defaults
    showcount  = 10                          # show last showcount posts

# connect to nntp server
print 'Connecting to', servername, 'for', groupname
from nntplib import NNTP
connection = NNTP(servername)
(reply, count, first, last, name) = connection.group(groupname)
print '%s has %s articles: %s-%s' % (name, count, first, last)

# get request headers only
fetchfrom = str(int(last) - (showcount-1))
(reply, subjects) = connection.xhdr('subject', (fetchfrom + '-' + last))

# show headers, get message hdr+body
for (id, subj) in subjects:                  # [-showcount:] if fetch all hdrs
    print 'Article %s [%s]' % (id, subj)
    if not listonly and raw_input('=> Display?') in ['y', 'Y']:
        reply, num, tid, list = connection.head(id)
        for line in list:
            for prefix in showhdrs:
                if line[:len(prefix)] == prefix:
                    print line[:80]; break
        if raw_input('=> Show body?') in ['y', 'Y']:
            reply, num, tid, list = connection.body(id)
            for line in list:
                print line[:80]
    print
print connection.quit()