Newsboat: an RSS and Atom Feed Reader for the Linux Terminal

Updated: 28 September 2026 · Applies to: Newsboat 2.36 to 2.44 on Debian 13 and Ubuntu 26.04 (packages), and on any Linux with snap

Newsboat is an RSS and Atom feed reader that runs in the terminal. It follows blogs, news sites, release notes and security advisories in one list, and works well over SSH on a server. It replaced Newsbeuter, which is no longer maintained. The newest release is 2.44.

Install Newsboat

• Debian 13 and Ubuntu 26.04: from the normal repositories (Newsboat 2.36 and 2.38):

  apt install newsboat

• Ubuntu 24.04, AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux: there is no package in the repositories or in EPEL. Use the snap, which tracks the current release:

  apt install snapd                              # Ubuntu (usually installed)
  dnf install epel-release && dnf install snapd   # AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux
  systemctl enable --now snapd.socket
  snap install newsboat

  On AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux, log out and in once after installing snapd so /snap/bin is in your PATH.

Check the version with newsboat -v.

Add your feeds

1. Create the list of feed addresses, one per line. Newsboat reads ~/.newsboat/urls (or ~/.config/newsboat/urls):

   mkdir -p ~/.newsboat
   cat > ~/.newsboat/urls <<'EOF'
   https://www.kernel.org/feeds/kdist.xml "linux"
   https://www.debian.org/security/dsa "security"
   EOF

   Text in quotes after an address is a tag, used to group feeds.
2. Start it: newsboat
3. Press R to reload all feeds.

Keys you will use most

• Enter: open the selected feed or article
• q: go back, or quit
• n: next unread article
• o: open the article in a browser
• A: mark the feed as read
• /: search
• ?: show all keys

Import feeds from another reader

Export your subscriptions as an OPML file from the other reader, then run newsboat -i subscriptions.opml. newsboat -e > feeds.opml exports your list the other way.

Refresh automatically

Create ~/.newsboat/config with:

auto-reload yes
reload-time 60

Newsboat then fetches the feeds every 60 minutes while it runs. Run it inside tmux on a server to keep it going after you log out.

Official documentation: Newsboat manual.