Install tin with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• metamutt
• opt-case.pl
• rtin
• tin
• tinews.pl
• url_handler.pl
• w2r.pl

Project history

The official tin history says tin was based on tass, Rich Skrenta's newsreader, and that tass was itself inspired by the public-domain Unix notesfiles implementation of PLATO Notes. The tin 1.0 PL0 release appeared on August 23, 1991, only months after tass 3.2 added NNTP support.

The early release tree shows rapid patch-level development through 1991 and 1992, followed by long-lived stable and development branches. The tin.org site records pre-1.4 development, the 1.4 and 1.5 branches around 1999 and 2000, a 2.0.0 twentieth-anniversary release in 2011, 2.4.0 as the twenty-fifth-anniversary release in 2016, and 2.6.0 as the thirtieth-anniversary release in 2021.

Adoption history

tin belongs to the era when a newsreader was a normal Unix workstation and shell-account tool. Its homepage still describes it as a threaded NNTP and spool-based UseNet newsreader for a variety of platforms, and it maintains manpages, a stable branch code browser, FTP downloads, mailing-list archives, and translation-project integration.

The supplied package-manager facts show tin packaged in Homebrew, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora/dnf, Alpine, MacPorts, and zypper ecosystems. That spread matches its role as a portable terminal utility kept available for users who still read Usenet or maintain news infrastructure.

How it is used

tin is used interactively in a terminal to read and post Usenet articles, either from a local news spool or remotely through NNTP. Its package metadata and curated configuration paths show the expected Unix workflow: a global NNTP server file, per-user tinrc and newsrc files, attributes, filters, and a separate authentication file.

For package nerds, tin is interesting because it is both historical and still maintained. Its release cadence and old-fashioned distribution surfaces show how pre-Git, pre-web Unix software survived into modern packaging systems without changing its core role.

Why package nerds care

tin is a preservation-grade package: a 1991 command-line network client that still has current stable releases and package-manager entries. It is the sort of tool package maintainers keep alive because it anchors old protocols, old workflows, and old user expectations.

Its file layout is also archetypal Unix software: small executable, manpages, dotfiles, NNTP server configuration, and optional credentials. That makes it useful when comparing how package managers carry legacy network clients forward.

Timeline

• 1991: tass 3.2 added NNTP support on April 23, and tin 1.0 PL0 followed on August 23.
• 1997: tin.org's web and FTP presence went online during pre-1.4 development.
• 2011: tin 2.0.0 was released as the twentieth-anniversary edition.
• 2016: tin 2.4.0 was released as the twenty-fifth-anniversary edition.
• 2021: tin 2.6.0 was released as the thirtieth-anniversary edition.
• 2025: tin.org announced TIN 2.6.5 stable on December 24.

Related projects

• tass is tin's direct ancestor according to the official history page.
• notesfiles and PLATO Notes are part of the lineage described by tin.org.
• Other terminal newsreaders such as trn and nn occupy the same Unix Usenet niche.

Sources

• http://bzr.tin.org/: official stable branch code browser linked from tin.org.
• https://www.tin.org/: official description, latest stable announcement, manpage and code-browser links.
• https://www.tin.org/history.html: official ancestry and release chronology.
• source_facts.package-manager: package availability across OS package managers.