1 \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
2 @comment %**start of header (This is for running Texinfo on a region.)
4 @settitle Gnus 0.54 Manual
11 @setchapternewpage odd
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16 %\global\baselineskip 30pt % For printing in double spaces
21 This file documents Gnus, the GNU Emacs newsreader.
23 Copyright (C) 1995 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
25 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
26 this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
27 are preserved on all copies.
30 Permission is granted to process this file through Tex and print the
31 results, provided the printed document carries copying permission
32 notice identical to this one except for the removal of this paragraph
33 (this paragraph not being relevant to the printed manual).
36 Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
37 manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the
38 entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
39 permission notice identical to this one.
41 Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual
42 into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions.
48 @author by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
50 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
51 Copyright @copyright{} 1995 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
53 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
54 this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
55 are preserved on all copies.
57 Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
58 manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
59 entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
60 permission notice identical to this one.
62 Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual
63 into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions.
65 Cover art by Etienne Suvasa.
70 @top The Gnus Newsreader
72 You can read news (and mail) from within Emacs by using Gnus. The news
73 can be gotten by any nefarious means you can think of - @sc{nntp}, local
74 spool or your mbox file. All at the same time, if you want to push your
78 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
79 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
80 * Starting Up:: Finding news can be a pain.
81 * The Group Buffer:: Selecting, subscribing and killing groups.
82 * The Summary Buffer:: Reading, saving and posting articles.
83 * The Article Buffer:: Displaying and handling articles.
84 * The Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
85 * Various:: General purpose settings.
86 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
87 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
88 * The End:: Farewell, and goodbye.
89 * Index:: Variable, function and concept index.
90 * Key Index:: Key Index.
93 This manual hasn't been prperly proff-read yet, so typos abound, and
94 misleading information is sure to exist.
100 @sc{gnus} was written by Masanobu UMEDA. When autumn crept up in '94,
101 Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen grew bored and decided to rewrite Gnus.
103 The recommended pronounciation of the name this program is "ding
104 guh-noose", with "ding" being half-sung in a loud, high-pitched voice,
105 and "guh-noose" being grumbled and a disaffected fashion. Any
106 irritation and/or damage this name may cause you is not the
107 responsibility of the author, even though you might like to strangle him
110 If you want to investigate the person responsible for this outrage, you
111 can point your (feh!) web browser to
112 @file{http://www.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/}. This is also the primary
113 distribution point for the new and spiffy versions of Gnus, also know as
114 The Site That Destroys Newsrcs And Drives People Mad.
116 @dfn{(ding)}, is, of course, short for @dfn{ding is not Gnus}, which is
117 a total and utter lie, but who cares? (Besides, the "Gnus" in this
118 abbreviation should probably be pronounced "news" as UMEDA intended,
119 which makes it a more appropriate name, don't you think?)
122 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is (ding) Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
123 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
124 * Gnus & hilit:: Old hilit19 code will not work with (ding) Gnus.
125 * New Features:: A short description of all the new stuff in Gnus.
126 * Newest Features:: Features so new that they haven't been written yet.
130 @section Compatibility
132 @cindex compatability
133 (ding) Gnus was designed to be fully compatible with @sc{gnus}. Almost
134 all key bindings have been kept. More key bindings have been added, of
135 course, but only in one or two obscure cases have old bindings been
141 @center In a cloud bones of steel.
145 All commands have kept their names. Some internal functions have changed
148 The @code{gnus-uu} package has changed drastically. @xref{Decoding
151 One major compatibility question if the presence of several summary
152 buffers. All variables that are relevant while reading a group are
153 buffer-local to the summary buffer they belong in. Although most
154 important variables have their values copied into their global
155 counterparts whenever a command is executed in the summary buffer, this
156 change might lead to incorrect values being used unless you are careful.
158 All code that relies on knowledge of @sc{gnus} internals will probably
159 fail. To take two examples: Sorting @code{gnus-newsrc-assoc} (or
160 changing it in any way, as a matter of fact) is strictly verboten. Gnus
161 maintains a hash table that points to the entries in this assoc (which
162 speeds up many functions), and changing the assoc directly will lead to
167 Old hilit19 code does not work at all. In fact, you should probably
168 remove all hilit code from all Gnus hooks
169 (@code{gnus-group-prepare-hook}, @code{gnus-summary-prepare-hook} and
170 @code{gnus-summary-article-hook}). (Well, at the very least the first
171 two.) Gnus provides various integrated functions for highlighting.
172 These are faster and more accurate.
174 Packages like @code{expire-kill} will no longer work. As a matter of
175 fact, you should probably remove all old @sc{gnus} packages (and other
176 code) when you start using (ding) Gnus. More likely than not, (ding)
177 Gnus already does what you have written code to make @sc{gnus} do.
180 Even though old methods of doing things are still supported, only the
181 new methods are documented in this manual. If you detect a new method of
182 doing something while reading this manual, that does not mean you have
183 to stop doing it the old way.
185 (ding) Gnus understands all @sc{gnus} startup files.
188 Overall, a casual user who hasn't written much code that depends on
189 @sc{gnus} internals should suffer no problems. If problems occur,
190 please let me know (@kbd{M-x gnus-bug}).
192 Problems specific to GNU XEmacs can be reported to popineau@@ese-metz.fr
193 (Fabrice Popineau). I will just forward any such questions to him,
194 anyway, so you might have to wait longer if you mail XEmacs questions to
198 @section Contributors
201 The new Gnus version couldn't have been done without the help of all the
202 people on the (ding) mailing list. Every day for months I have gotten
203 tens of nice bug reports from them, filling me with joy, every single
204 one of them. Smooches. The people on the list have been tried beyond
205 endurance, what with my "oh, that's a neat idea <type type>, yup, I'll
206 release it right away <ship off> no wait, that doesn't work at all <type
207 type>, yup, I'll ship that one off right away <ship off> no, wait, that
208 absolutely does not work" policy for releases. Microsoft - bah. I'm
211 I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Academy for... oops,
216 Of course, GNUS was written by Masanobu UMEDA.
218 Many excellent functions, especially dealing with scoring and
219 highlighting (as well as the soon-to-come @sc{soup} support) was written
222 Innumerable bug fixes were written by Sudish Joseph.
224 I stole some pieces from the XGnus distribution by Felix Lee and JWZ.
226 nnfolder has been much enhanced by Scott Byer.
228 The orphan scoring was written by Peter Mutsaers.
230 GNU XEmacs support has been added by Fabrice Popineau.
232 Various bits and pieces, especially dealing with .newsrc files, was
233 suggested and added by Hallvard B Furuseth.
235 Brian Edmonds has written @code{gnus-bbdb}, as well as other bits and
238 Kevin Davidson came up with the name @dfn{ding}, so blame him.
240 Stainless Steel Rat, Jack Vinson, Daniel Quinlan, Ilja Weis and Andrew
241 Eskilsson have all contributed code and suggestions.
246 @section Gnus & hilit
249 @c Written by Sudish Joseph
251 @code{gnus-visual} can be used to highlight the summary buffer. It
252 offers far more flexibility than hilit (since it has access to more
253 data; eg. the article score) in deciding how to highlight a given
254 article. Also, hilit gets confused by the way Gnus manipulates the
255 summary buffer, leading to errors. Such errors may be detected by
256 looking for any hilit-specific functions in the @code{*Backtrace*}
257 buffer. If such a reference exists, you should be using the code below.
259 On the other hand, @code{gnus-visual} makes no attempt to highlight the
260 article buffer, while hilit does a very good job of this. There is a
261 compatibility problem here though, since hilit uses
262 @code{gnus-article-prepare-hook} to do its magic. This hook is executed
263 @emph{before} headers are hidden, via
264 @code{gnus-article-hide-headers-if-wanted} which is run from
265 @code{gnus-article-display-hook}. The act of hiding the headers undoes
266 all of the hilighting already done. A similar effect occurred in vanilla
267 @sc{gnus 4.1} if @code{gnus-show-mime} was set to @code{t}, since
268 @sc{mime} processing, too, is done after this hook is executed.
270 The solution here is to use @code{gnus-article-display-hook} for
271 highlighting (and for all purposes where you used
272 @code{gnus-article-prepare-hook} earlier). This hook is run after
273 @sc{mime} processing, and is the last thing done before actually
274 displaying the article. Add the code below to your @file{.gnus} file to
275 get the right functions onto the right hooks.
278 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook
280 ;; gnus-visual is far better for summary highlighting
281 ;; also, hilit cannot handle a (ding) summary and will
283 (remove-hook 'gnus-summary-prepare-hook
284 'hilit-rehighlight-buffer-quietly)
285 (remove-hook 'gnus-summary-prepare-hook 'hilit-install-line-hooks)
286 ;; this is too early for the purpose of highlighting
287 (remove-hook 'gnus-article-prepare-hook
288 'hilit-rehighlight-buffer-quietly)
289 ;; use this instead. note that the final t is *essential*,
290 ;; this must be the last thing done
291 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook
292 'hilit-rehighlight-buffer-quietly t)))
297 @section New Features
300 The look of all buffers can be changed by setting format-like variables.
302 Local spool and several @sc{nntp} servers can be used at once. Virtual
303 groups and private mail groups are featured.
305 Gnus can use various strategies for gathering threads that have lost
306 their roots (thereby gathering loose sub-threads in one thread) or it
307 can go back and retrieve enough headers to build a complete thread.
309 Killed groups can be displayed in the group buffer, and you can read
312 Gnus can do partial group updates - you do not have to retrieve the
313 entire active file just to check for new articles in a few groups.
315 Gnus implements a sliding scale of subscribedness to groups.
317 The approach to killing has been changed. Instead of simply killing or
318 not, you can score articles for easier reading.
320 @node Newest Features
321 @section Newest Features
324 Also known as the @dfn{todo list}. Sure to be implemented before the
329 Native @sc{mime} support is something that should be done. I was hoping
330 I could steal code from @code{Mew}, the @sc{mime} mail reader for Emacs,
331 but I'm not quite sure what the status of that project is. (ding) might
332 support @sc{mime} quite soon, and it might not.
334 Some form of caching would come in handy. Not only for those with
335 extremely slow @sc{nntp} connections, but as a more general way of
336 saving articles in a simple fashion. (You'd basically just mark an
337 article as @dfn{cached}. Gnus would put it in some local directory, and
338 each time you request that article from that group, Gnus would fetch the
339 local copy instead.) Lots of quite interesting stuff to be considered
340 (caching @sc{nov} headers or not?) before jumping into it. It would
341 require much twiddling of Gnus internals to make it work transparently.
343 When the user references the parent of an article, some sort of
344 re-threading should be done to build a proper tree. The same goes for
345 article expunging. However, as it stands, it's not a trivial issue to
346 re-generate parts of the summary buffer. Generating the entire buffer
347 is very easy, but slow.
357 This is what you are supposed to use this thing for - reading news.
358 News is generally fetched from a nearby @sc{nntp} server, and is
359 generally publicly available to everybody. If you post news, the entire
360 world is likely to read just what you have written, and they'll all
361 snigger mischievously. Behind your back.
364 Everything that's delivered to you personally is mail. Some news/mail
365 readers (like Gnus) blur the distinction between mail and news, but
366 there is a difference. Mail is private. News is public. Mailing is
367 not posting, and replying is not following up.
369 Send a mail to the person who has written what you are reading.
371 Post an article to the current newsgroup responding to the article you
374 Gnus gets fed articles from a number of backends, both news and mail
375 backends. Gnus does not handle the underlying media, so to speak - this
376 is all done by the backends.
378 Gnus will always use one method (and backend) as the @dfn{native}, or
379 default, way of getting news.
381 You can also have any number of foreign groups at the same time. These
382 are groups that use different backends for getting news.
385 The top part of an article, where administration information (etc.) is
389 The rest of an article. Everything that is not in the head is in the
393 A line from the head of an article.
396 A collection of such lines, or a collection of heads. Or even a
397 collection of @sc{nov} lines.
400 When Gnus enters a group, it asks the backend for the headers for all
401 the unread articles in the group. Most servers support the News OverView
402 format, which is much smaller and much faster to read than the normal
406 Each group is subscribed at some @dfn{level} or other (1-9). The ones
407 that have a lower level are "more" subscribed than the groups with a
408 higher level. In fact, groups on levels 1-5 are considered
409 @dfn{subscribed}; 6-7 are @dfn{unsubscribed}; 8 are @dfn{zombies}; and 9
410 are @dfn{killed}. Commands for listing groups and scanning for new
411 articles will all use the numeric prefix as @dfn{working level}.
413 @cindex killed groups
414 No information on killed groups is stored or updated, which makes killed
415 groups much easier to handle than subscribed groups.
417 @cindex zombie groups
418 Just like killed groups, only slightly less dead.
421 The news server has to keep track of what articles it carries, and what
422 groups exist. All this information in stored in the active file, which
423 is rather large, as you might surmise.
427 @chapter Starting Gnus
431 If your system administrator has set things up properly, starting Gnus
432 and reading news is extremely easy - you just type @kbd{M-x gnus}.
434 If things do not go smoothly at startup, you have to twiddle some
438 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
439 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
440 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
441 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
442 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files - @file{.newsrc}.
443 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
444 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
445 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
448 @node Finding the News
449 @section Finding the News
451 @vindex gnus-select-method
452 The @code{gnus-select-method} variable controls how Gnus finds news.
453 This variable should be a list where the first element says @dfn{how}
454 and the second element says @dfn{where}. This method is is your native
455 method. All groups that are not fetched with this method are foreign
458 For instance, if you want to get your daily dosage of news from the
459 @samp{news.somewhere.edu} @sc{nntp} server, you'd say:
462 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"))
465 If you want to read directly from the local spool, say:
468 (setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool ""))
471 If you can use a local spool, you probably should, as it will almost
472 certainly be much faster.
474 If this variable is not set, Gnus will take a look at the
475 @code{NNTPSERVER} environment variable. If that isn't set either, it
476 will try to use the machine that is running Emacs as an @sc{nntp}
479 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
480 If @code{gnus-nntp-server} is set, this variable will override
481 @code{gnus-select-method}. You should therefore set
482 @code{gnus-nntp-server} to @code{nil}, which is what it is by default.
484 @vindex gnus-secondary-servers
485 You can also make Gnus prompt you interactively for the name of an
486 @sc{nntp} server. If you give a non-numerical prefix to @code{gnus}
487 (ie. @kbd{C-u M-x gnus}), Gnus will let you choose between the servers
488 in the @code{gnus-secondary-servers} list (if any). You can also just
489 type in the name of any server you feel like visiting.
491 However, if you use one @sc{nntp} server regularly, and are just
492 interested in a couple of groups from a different server, you would be
493 better served by using the @code{gnus-group-browse-foreign-server}
494 command from the group buffer. It will let you have a look at what
495 groups are available, and you can subscribe to any of the groups you
496 want to. This also makes @file{.newsrc} maintenance much tidier.
497 @xref{Foreign Groups}.
499 @vindex gnus-secondary-select-methods
500 A slightly different approach to foreign groups is to set the
501 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} variable. The select methods
502 listed in this variable are in many ways just as native as the
503 @code{gnus-select-method} server. They will also be queried for active
504 files during startup (if that's required), and new newsgroups that
505 appear on these servers will be subscribed (or not) just as native
508 For instance, if you use the @code{nnmbox} backend to read you mail, you
509 would typically set this variable to
512 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnmbox "")))
516 @section The First Time
517 @cindex first time usage
519 If no startup files exist, Gnus will try to determine what groups should
520 be subscribed by default.
522 @vindex gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups
523 If the variable @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is set, Gnus
524 will subscribe you to just those groups in that list, leaving the rest
525 killed. Your system administrator should have set this variable to
528 Since she hasn't, Gnus will just subscribe you to a few randomly picked
529 groups (ie. @samp{*.newusers}). (@dfn{Random} is here defined as
530 "whatever Lars thinks you should read".)
532 You'll also be subscribed to the Gnus documentation group, which should
533 help you with most common problems.
535 If @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is @code{t}, Gnus will just
536 use the normal functions for handling new groups, and not do anything
539 @node The Server is Down
540 @section The Server is Down
541 @cindex server errors
543 If the default server is down, Gnus will understandably have some
544 problems starting. However, if you have some mail groups in addition to
545 the news groups, you may want to start Gnus anyway.
547 Gnus, being the trusting sort of program, will ask whether to proceed
548 without a native select method if that server can't be contacted. This
549 will happen whether the server doesn't actually exist (ie. you have
550 given the wrong address) or the server has just momentarily taken ill
551 for some reason or other.
553 If Gnus says "nntp server on <your server> can't be opened. Continue?",
554 you do not want to continue unless you have some foreign groups that you
555 want to read. Even if you don't, Gnus will let you continue, but you'll
556 find it difficult to actually do anything in the group buffer. But,
557 hey, that's your problem. Blllrph!
563 @vindex gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method
564 What Gnus does when it encounters a new group is determined by the
565 @code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} variable.
567 This variable should contain a function. Some handy pre-fab values
571 @item gnus-subscribe-randomly
572 @vindex gnus-subscribe-randomly
573 Subscribe all new groups randomly.
574 @item gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
575 @vindex gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
576 Subscribe all new groups alphabetically.
577 @item gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
578 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
579 Subscribe all new groups hierarchically.
580 @item gnus-subscribe-interactively
581 @vindex gnus-subscribe-interactively
582 Subscribe new groups interactively. This means that Gnus will ask
583 you about @strong{all} new groups.
584 @item gnus-subscribe-zombies
585 @vindex gnus-subscribe-zombies
586 Make all new groups zombies. You can browse the zombies later and
587 either kill them all off properly, or subscribe to them. This is the
591 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive
592 A closely related variable is
593 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. (That's quite a
594 mouthful.) If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will ask you in a
595 hierarchical fashion whether to subscribe to new groups or not. Gnus
596 will ask you for each sub-hierarchy whether you want to descend the
599 One common way to control which new newsgroups should be subscribed or
600 ignored is to put an @dfn{options} line at the start of the
601 @file{.newsrc} file. Here's an example:
604 options -n !alt.all !rec.all sci.all
607 @vindex gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method
608 This line obviously belongs to a serious-minded intellectual scientific
609 person (or she may just be plain old boring), because it says that all
610 groups that have names beginning with @samp{alt} and @samp{rec} should
611 be ignored, and all groups with names beginning with @samp{sci} should
612 be subscribed. Gnus will not use the normal subscription method for
613 subscribing these groups.
614 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method} is used instead. This
615 variable defaults to @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically}.
617 @vindex gnus-options-not-subscribe
618 @vindex gnus-options-subscribe
619 If you don't want to mess with your @file{.newsrc} file, you can just
620 set the two variables @code{gnus-options-subscribe} and
621 @code{gnus-options-not-subscribe}. These two variables do exactly the
622 same as the @file{.newsrc} options -n trick. Both are regexps, and if
623 the the new group matches the first, it will be unconditionally
624 subscribed, and if it matches the latter, it will be ignored.
626 @vindex gnus-check-new-newsgroups
627 If you are satisfied that you really never want to see any new groups,
628 you could set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil}. This will
629 also save you some time at startup. Even if this variable is
630 @code{nil}, you can always subscribe to the new groups just by pressing
631 @kbd{U} in the group buffer (@pxref{Group Maintenance}).
633 Gnus normally determines whether a group is new or not by comparing the
634 list of groups from the active file(s) with the lists of subscribed and
635 dead groups. This isn't a particularly fast method. If
636 @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} is @code{ask-server}, Gnus will ask the
637 server for new groups since the last time. This is both faster &
638 cheaper. This also means that you can get rid of the list of killed
639 groups altogether, so you may set @code{gnus-save-killed-list} to
640 @code{nil}, which will save time both at startup, at exit, and all over.
641 Saves disk space, too. Why isn't this the default, then?
642 Unfortunately, not all servers support this function.
644 This variable can also be a list of select methods. If so, Gnus will
645 issue an @code{ask-server} command to each of the select methods, and
646 subscribe them (or not) using the normal methods. This might be handy
647 if you are monitoring a few servers for new groups. A side effect is
648 that startup will take much longer, so you can meditate while waiting.
649 Use the mantra "dingnusdingnusdingnus" to achieve permanent happiness.
652 @section Startup Files
653 @cindex startup files
656 Now, you all know about the @file{.newsrc} file. All subscription
657 information is traditionally stored in this file.
659 Things got a bit more complicated with @sc{gnus}. In addition to
660 keeping the @file{.newsrc} file updated, it also used a file called
661 @file{.newsrc.el} for storing all the information that didn't fit into
662 the @file{.newsrc} file. (Actually, it duplicated everything in the
663 @file{.newsrc} file.) @sc{gnus} would read whichever one of these files
664 that were the most recently saved, which enabled people to swap between
665 @sc{gnus} and other newsreaders.
667 That was kinda silly, so (ding) Gnus went one better: In addition to the
668 @file{.newsrc} and @file{.newsrc.el} files, (ding) Gnus also has a file
669 called @file{.newsrc.eld}. It will read whichever of these files that
670 are most recent, but it will never write a @file{.newsrc.el} file.
672 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-file
673 You can also turn off writing the @file{.newsrc} file by setting
674 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-file} to @code{nil}, which means you can delete
675 the file and save some space, as well as making exit from Gnus faster.
676 However, this will make it impossible to use other newsreaders than
677 Gnus. But hey, who would want to, right?
679 @vindex gnus-save-killed-list
680 If @code{gnus-save-killed-list} is @code{nil}, Gnus will not save the
681 list of killed groups to the startup file. This will save both time
682 (when starting and quitting) and space (on disk). It will also means
683 that Gnus has no record of what groups are new or old, so the automatic
684 new groups subscription methods become meaningless. You should always
685 set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil} or @code{ask-server}
686 if you set this variable to @code{nil} (@pxref{New Groups}).
688 @vindex gnus-startup-file
689 The @code{gnus-startup-file} variable says where the startup files are.
690 The default value is @file{~/.newsrc}, with the Gnus (El Dingo) startup
691 file being whatever that one is with a @samp{.eld} appended.
693 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-hook
694 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-hook} is called before saving the @file{.newsrc}
702 Whenever you do something that changes the Gnus data (reading articles,
703 catching up, killing/subscribing groups), the change is added to a
704 special @dfn{dribble buffer}. This buffer is auto-saved the normal
705 Emacs way. If your Emacs should crash before you have saved the
706 @file{.newsrc} files, all changes you have made can be recovered from
709 If Gnus detects this file at startup, it will ask the user whether to
710 read it. The auto save file is deleted whenever the real startup file is
713 @vindex gnus-use-dribble-file
714 If @code{gnus-use-dribble-file} is @code{nil}, Gnus won't create and
715 maintain a dribble buffer.
717 @node The Active File
718 @section The Active File
720 @cindex ignored groups
722 When Gnus starts, or indeed whenever it tries to determine whether new
723 articles have arrived, it reads the active file. This is a very large
724 file that lists all the active groups and articles on the @sc{nntp}
727 @vindex gnus-ignored-newsgroups
728 Before examining the active file, Gnus deletes all lines that match the
729 regexp @code{gnus-ignored-newsgroups}. This is done primarily to reject
730 any groups with bogus names (eg. groups containing characters like
731 @samp{'[]"} and so on), but you can use this variable to make Gnus
732 ignore hierarchies you aren't ever interested in.
734 @vindex gnus-read-active-file
735 The active file can be rather Huge, so if you have a slow network, you
736 can set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{nil} to prevent Gnus from
737 reading the active file.
739 Gnus will try to make do by just getting information on the groups
740 that you actually subscribe to.
742 Note that if you subscribe to lots and lots of groups, setting this
743 variable to @code{nil} will probably make Gnus slower, not faster. At
744 present, having this variable @code{nil} will slow Gnus down
745 considerably, unless you read news over a 2400 baud modem.
747 This variable can also have the value @code{some}. Gnus will then
748 attempt to read active info only on the subscribed groups. On some
749 servers this is quite fast (on sparkling, brand new INN servers that
750 support the @samp{LIST ACTIVE group} command), on others this is not
751 fast at all. In any case, @code{some} should be faster than @code{nil},
752 and is certainly faster than @code{t} over slow lines.
754 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will as for group info in total
755 lock-step, which isn't very fast. If it is @code{some} and you use an
756 NNTP server, Gnus will pump out commands as fast as it can, and read all
757 the replies in one swoop. This will normally result in better
758 performance, but if the server does not support the aforementioned
759 @samp{LIST ACTIVE group} command, this isn't very nice to the server.
761 In any case, if you use @code{some} or @code{nil}, you should kill all
762 groups that you aren't interested in.
764 @node Startup Variables
765 @section Startup Variables
768 @item gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
769 @vindex gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
770 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will check for and delete all bogus groups at
771 startup. A @dfn{bogus group} is a group that you have in your
772 @file{.newsrc} file, but doesn't exist on the news server. Checking for
773 bogus groups isn't very quick, so to save time and resources, it's best
774 to leave this option off, and instead do the checking for bogus groups
775 once in a while from the group buffer (@pxref{Group Maintenance}).
776 @item gnus-inhibit-startup-message
777 @vindex gnus-inhibit-startup-message
778 If non-@code{nil}, the startup message won't be displayed. That way,
779 your boss might not notice that you are reading news instead of doing
781 @item gnus-no-groups-message
782 @vindex gnus-no-groups-message
783 Message displayed by Gnus when no groups are available.
786 @node The Group Buffer
787 @chapter The Group Buffer
790 The @dfn{group buffer} lists all (or parts) of the available groups. It
791 is the first buffer shown when Gnus starts, and will never be killed as
792 long as Gnus is active.
795 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
796 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
797 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
798 * Group Subscribing:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
799 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
800 * Foreign Groups:: How to create foreign groups.
801 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
802 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
803 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
804 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what if has to offer.
805 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
806 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
809 @node Group Buffer Format
810 @section Group Buffer Format
811 @cindex group buffer format
813 The default format of the group buffer is nice and dull, but you can
814 make it as exciting and ugly as you feel like.
816 Here's a couple of example group lines:
819 25: news.announce.newusers
820 * 0: alt.fan.andrea-dworkin
825 You can see that there are 25 unread articles in
826 @samp{news.announce.newusers}. There are no unread articles, but some
827 ticked articles, in @samp{alt.fan.andrea-dworkin} (see that little
828 asterisk at the beginning of the line?)
830 @vindex gnus-group-line-format
831 You can fuck that up to your heart's delight by fiddling with the
832 @code{gnus-group-line-format} variable. This variable works along the
833 lines of a @code{format} specification, which is pretty much the same as
834 a @code{printf} specifications, for those of you who use (feh!) C.
836 In addition to the normal "padding" specs that @code{format} supports
837 (eg. @samp{%7d}), specifications like @samp{%7,12s} are allowed. A spec
838 of this type means that the field will be at least 7 characters long,
839 and never more that 12 characters long.
841 The default value that produced those lines above is
842 @samp{"%M%S%5y: %(%g%)\n"}.
844 There should always be a colon on the line; the cursor always moves to
845 the colon after performing an operation. Nothing else is required - not
846 even the group name. All displayed text is just window dressing, and is
847 never examined by Gnus. Gnus stores all real information it needs using
850 (Note that if you make a really strange, wonderful, spreadsheet-like
851 layout, everybody will believe you are hard at work with the accounting
852 instead of wasting time reading news.)
854 Here's a list of all available format characters:
858 Only marked articles.
860 Whether the group is subscribed.
862 Level of subscribedness.
864 Number of unread articles.
866 Number of dormant articles.
868 Number of ticked articles.
870 Number of read articles.
872 Total number of articles.
874 Number of unread, unticked, non-dormant articles.
876 Number of ticked and dormant articles.
882 Newsgroup description.
892 A string that looks like @samp{<%s:%n>} if a foreign select method is
895 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
896 be a letter. @sc{gnus} will call the function
897 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
898 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed the current headers as
899 argument. The function should return a string, which will be inserted
900 into the buffer just like information from any other specifier.
903 @vindex gnus-group-mode-line-format
904 The mode line can be changed by setting
905 (@code{gnus-group-mode-line-format}). It doesn't understand that many
912 Default select method.
915 @node Group Maneuvering
916 @section Group Maneuvering
917 @cindex group movement
919 All movement commands understand the numeric prefix and will behave as
925 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group
926 Go to the next group that has unread articles
927 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group}).
932 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group
933 Go to the previous group group that has unread articles
934 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group}).
937 @findex gnus-group-next-group
938 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
941 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
942 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
945 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level
946 Go to the next unread group on the same level (or lower)
947 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level}).
950 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level
951 Go to the previous unread group on the same level (or lower)
952 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level}).
955 Three commands for jumping to groups:
960 @findex gnus-group-jump-to-group
961 Jump to a group (and make it visible if it isn't already)
962 (@code{gnus-group-jump-to-group}). Killed groups can be jumped to, just
966 @findex gnus-group-best-unread-group
967 Jump to the unread group with the lowest level
968 (@code{gnus-group-best-unread-group}).
971 @findex gnus-group-first-unread-group
972 Jump to the first group with unread articles
973 (@code{gnus-group-first-unread-group}).
976 @node Selecting a Group
977 @section Selecting a Group
978 @cindex group selection
982 @kindex SPACE (Group)
983 @findex gnus-group-read-group
984 Select the current group, switch to the summary buffer and display the
985 first unread article (@code{gnus-group-read-group}). If there are no
986 unread articles in the group, or if you give a prefix to this command,
987 Gnus will offer to fetch all the old articles in this group from the
991 @findex gnus-group-select-group
992 Select the current group and switch to the summary buffer
993 (@code{gnus-group-select-group}). If you give a prefix to this command,
994 Gnus will fetch all available articles in this group.
997 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current
998 Mark all unticked articles in this group as read
999 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current}).
1002 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current-all
1003 Mark all articles in this group, even the ticked ones, as read
1004 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current-all}).
1007 @vindex gnus-large-newsgroup
1008 The @code{gnus-large-newsgroup} variable says what Gnus should consider
1009 to be a big group. If the group has more unread articles than this,
1010 Gnus will query the user before entering the group. The user can then
1011 specify how many articles should be fetched from the server. If the
1012 user specifies a negative number (@samp{-n}), the @samp{n} oldest
1013 articles will be fetched. If it is positive, the @samp{n} articles that
1014 have arrived most recently will be fetched.
1016 @vindex gnus-select-group-hook
1017 @vindex gnus-auto-select-newsgroup
1018 If @code{gnus-auto-select-newsgroup} is non-@code{nil}, the first unread
1019 article in the group will be displayed when you enter the group. If you
1020 want to prevent automatic selection in some group (say, in a binary
1021 group with Huge articles) you can set this variable to @code{nil} in
1022 @code{gnus-select-group-hook}, which is called when a group is selected.
1024 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score
1025 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-date
1026 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-score
1027 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
1028 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-author
1029 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-number
1030 @vindex gnus-thread-sort-functions
1031 If you are using a threaded summary display, you can sort the threads by
1032 setting @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, which is a list of functions.
1033 By default, sorting is done on article numbers. Ready-made sorting
1034 functions include @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number},
1035 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-author}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-subject},
1036 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-score},
1037 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score}.
1039 Each function takes two threads and return non-@code{nil} if the first
1040 thread should be sorted before the other. If you use more than one
1041 function, the primary sort key should be the last function in the list.
1043 If you would like to sort by score, then by subject, and finally by
1044 date, you could do something like:
1047 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
1048 '(gnus-thread-sort-by-date
1049 gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
1050 gnus-thread-sort-by-score))
1053 @vindex gnus-thread-score-function
1054 The function in the @code{gnus-thread-score-function} variable (default
1055 @code{+}) is used for calculating the total score of a thread. Useful
1056 functions might be @code{max}, @code{min}, or squared means, or whatever
1059 @node Group Subscribing
1060 @section Group Subscribing
1068 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group
1069 Toggle subscription to the current group
1070 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group}).
1075 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-group
1076 Prompt for a group to subscribe, and then subscribe it. If it was
1077 subscribed already, unsubscribe it instead
1078 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-group}).
1083 @findex gnus-group-kill-group
1084 Kill the current group (@code{gnus-group-kill-group}).
1089 @findex gnus-group-yank-group
1090 Yank the last killed group (@code{gnus-group-yank-group}).
1095 @findex gnus-group-kill-region
1096 Kill all groups in the region (@code{gnus-group-kill-region}).
1099 @findex gnus-group-kill-all-zombies
1100 Kill all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-kill-all-zombies}).
1104 @section Group Levels
1107 All groups have a level of @dfn{subscribedness}. For instance, if a
1108 group is on level 2, it is more subscribed than a group on level 5. You
1109 can ask Gnus to just list groups on a given level or lower
1110 (@pxref{Listing Groups}), or to just check for new articles in groups on
1111 a given level or lower (@pxref{Misc Group Stuff}).
1116 @findex gnus-group-set-current-level
1117 Set the level of the current group. If a numeric prefix is given, the
1118 next @var{n} groups will have their levels set. The user will be
1119 prompted for a level.
1122 @vindex gnus-level-killed
1123 @vindex gnus-level-zombie
1124 @vindex gnus-level-unsubscribed
1125 @vindex gnus-level-subscribed
1126 Gnus considers groups on between levels 1 and
1127 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (inclusive) to be subscribed,
1128 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (exclusive) and
1129 @code{gnus-level-unsubscribed} (inclusive) to be unsubscribed,
1130 @code{gnus-level-zombie} to be zombies (walking dead) and
1131 @code{gnus-level-killed} to be killed, completely dead. Gnus treats
1132 subscribed and unsubscribed groups exactly the same, but zombie and
1133 killed groups have no information on what articles you have read, etc,
1134 stored. This distinction between dead and living groups isn't done
1135 because it is nice or clever, it is done purely for reasons of
1138 It is recommended that you keep all your mail groups (if any) on quite
1139 low levels (eg. 1 or 2).
1141 If you want to play with the level variables, you should show some care.
1142 Set them once, and don't touch them ever again.
1144 @vindex gnus-level-default-unsubscribed
1145 @vindex gnus-level-default-subscribed
1146 Two closely related variables are @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}
1147 and @code{gnus-level-default-unsubscribed}, which are the levels that new
1148 groups will be put on if they are (un)subscribed. These two variables
1149 should, of course, be inside the relevant legal ranges.
1151 @vindex gnus-keep-same-level
1152 If @code{gnus-keep-same-level} is non-@code{nil}, some movement commands
1153 will only move to groups that are of the same level (or lower). In
1154 particular, going from the last article in one group to the next group
1155 will go to the next group of the same level (or lower). This might be
1156 handy if you want to read the most important groups before you read the
1159 @vindex gnus-group-default-list-level
1160 All groups with a level less than or equal to
1161 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level} will be listed in the group buffer
1164 @node Foreign Groups
1165 @section Foreign Groups
1166 @cindex foreign groups
1168 A @dfn{foreign group} is a group that is not read by the usual (or
1169 default) means. It could be, for instance, a group from a different
1170 @sc{nntp} server, it could be a virtual group, or it could be your own
1171 personal mail group.
1173 A foreign group (or any group, really) is specified by a @dfn{name} and
1174 a @dfn{select method}. To take the latter first, a select method is a
1175 list where the first element says what backend to use (eg. nntp,
1176 nnspool, nnml) and the second element is the @dfn{server name}. There
1177 may be additional elements in the select method, where the value may
1178 have special meaning for the backend in question.
1180 One could say that a select method defines a @dfn{virtual server} - so
1181 we do just that (@pxref{The Server Buffer}).
1183 The @dfn{name} of the group is the name the backend will recognize the
1186 For instance, the group @samp{soc.motss} on the @sc{nntp} server
1187 @samp{some.where.edu} will have the name @samp{soc.motss} and select
1188 method @code{(nntp "some.where.edu")}. Gnus will call this group, in
1189 all circumstances, @samp{nntp+some.where.edu:soc.motss}, even though the
1190 nntp backend just knows this group as @samp{soc.motss}.
1192 Here are some commands for making and editing general foreign groups,
1193 and some commands to ease the creation of some special-purpose groups:
1198 @findex gnus-group-make-group
1199 Make a new group (@code{gnus-group-make-group}). Gnus will prompt you
1200 for a name, a method and possibly an @dfn{address}. For an easier way
1201 to subscribe to @sc{nntp} groups, @xref{Browse Foreign Server}.
1204 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-method
1205 Enter a buffer where you can edit the select method of the current
1206 group (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method}).
1209 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-parameters
1210 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group parameters
1211 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-parameters}).
1214 @findex gnus-group-edit-group
1215 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group info
1216 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group}).
1219 @findex gnus-group-make-directory-group
1220 Make a directory group. You will be prompted for a directory name
1221 (@code{gnus-group-make-directory-group}).
1224 @findex gnus-group-make-help-group
1225 Make the (ding) Gnus help group (@code{gnus-group-make-help-group}).
1228 @findex gnus-group-make-archive-group
1229 @vindex gnus-group-archive-directory
1230 Make the (ding) Gnus archive group
1231 (@code{gnus-group-make-archive-group}). The archive group will be
1232 fetched from @code{gnus-group-archive-directory}.
1235 @findex gnus-group-make-kiboze-group
1236 Make a kiboze group. You will be prompted for a name, for a regexp to
1237 match groups to be "included" in the kiboze group, and a series of
1238 strings to match on headers (@code{gnus-group-make-kiboze-group}).
1241 The different methods all have their peculiarities, of course.
1244 * nntp:: Reading news from a different @sc{nntp} server.
1245 * nnspool:: Reading news from the local spool.
1246 * nnvirtual:: Combining articles from many groups.
1247 * nnkiboze:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
1248 * nndir:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
1249 * nndoc:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
1250 * nndigest:: Digests can be undigested and treated as a group.
1251 * Reading Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
1254 @vindex gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups
1255 If the @code{gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups} is a positive number,
1256 Gnus will check all foreign groups with this level or lower at startup.
1257 This might take quite a while, especially if you subscribe to lots of
1258 groups from different @sc{nntp} servers. It is @code{nil} by default,
1259 which means that you won't be told whether there are new articles in
1260 these groups. How many unread articles there are will be determined
1261 when, or if, you decide to enter them. You can also activate any group
1262 with @kbd{M-g} to see how many unread articles there are.
1268 Subscribing to a foreign group from an @sc{nntp} server is rather easy.
1269 You just specify @code{nntp} as method and the address of the @sc{nntp}
1270 server as the, uhm, address.
1272 If the @sc{nntp} server is located at a non-standard port, setting the
1273 third element of the select method to this port number should allow you
1274 to connect to the right port. You'll have to edit the group info for
1275 that (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
1277 The name of the foreign group can be the same as a native group. In
1278 fact, you can subscribe to the same group from as many different servers
1279 you feel like. There will be no name collisions.
1281 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nntp}
1285 @item nntp-server-opened-hook
1286 @vindex nntp-server-opened-hook
1287 @cindex @sc{mode reader}
1289 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
1290 @findex nntp-send-mode-reader
1291 @code{nntp-server-opened-hook} is run after a connection has been made.
1292 It can be used to send commands to the @sc{nntp} server after it has
1293 been contacted. By default is sends the command @samp{MODE READER} to
1294 the server with the @code{nntp-send-mode-reader} function. Another
1295 popular function is @code{nntp-send-authinfo}, which will prompt you for
1296 an @sc{nntp} password and stuff.
1298 @item nntp-maximum-request
1299 @vindex nntp-maximum-request
1300 If the @sc{nntp} server doesn't support @sc{nov} headers, this backend
1301 will collect headers by sending a series of @code{head} commands. To
1302 speed things up, the backend sends lots of these commands without
1303 waiting for reply, and then reads all the replies. This is controlled
1304 by the @code{nntp-maximum-request} variable, and is 400 by default. If
1305 your network is buggy, you should set this to 1.
1307 @item nntp-connection-timeout
1308 @vindex nntp-connection-timeout
1309 If you have lots of foreign @code{nntp} groups that you connect to
1310 regularly, you're sure to have problems with @sc{nntp} servers not
1311 responding properly, or being too loaded to reply within reasonable
1312 time. This is can lead to awkward problems, which can be helped
1313 somewhat by setting @code{nntp-connection-timeout}. This is an integer
1314 that says how many seconds the @code{nntp} backend should wait for a
1315 connection before giving up. If it is @code{nil}, which is the default,
1316 no timeouts are done.
1318 @item nntp-server-hook
1319 @vindex nntp-server-hook
1320 This hook is run as the last step when connecting to an @sc{nntp}
1323 @findex nntp-open-rlogin
1324 @findex nntp-open-network-stream
1325 @item nntp-open-server-function
1326 @vindex nntp-open-server-function
1327 This function is used to connect to the remote system. Two pre-made
1328 functions are @code{nntp-open-network-stream}, which is the default, and
1329 simply connects to some port or other on the remote system. The other
1330 is @code{nntp-open-rlogin}, which does an rlogin on the remote system,
1331 and then does a telnet to the @sc{nntp} server available there.
1333 @item nntp-rlogin-parameters
1334 @vindex nntp-rlogin-parameters
1335 If you use @code{nntp-open-rlogin} as the
1336 @code{nntp-open-server-function}, this list will be used as the
1337 parameter list given to @code{rsh}.
1339 @item nntp-rlogin-user-name
1340 @vindex nntp-rlogin-user-name
1341 User name on the remote system when using the @code{rlogin} connect
1345 @vindex nntp-address
1346 The address of the remote system running the @sc{nntp} server.
1348 @item nntp-port-number
1349 @vindex nntp-port-number
1350 Port number to connect to when using the @code{nntp-open-network-stream}
1353 @item nntp-buggy-select
1354 @vindex nntp-buggy-select
1355 Set this to non-@code{nil} if your select routine is buggy.
1357 @item nntp-nov-is-evil
1358 @vindex nntp-nov-is-evil
1359 If the @sc{nntp} server does not support @sc{nov}, you could set this
1360 variable to @code{t}, but @code{nntp} usually checks whether @sc{nov}
1361 can be used automatically.
1363 @item nntp-xover-commands
1364 @vindex nntp-xover-commands
1365 List of strings that are used as commands to fetch @sc{nov} lines from a
1366 server. The default value of this variable is @code{("XOVER"
1369 @item nntp-prepare-server-hook
1370 @vindex nntp-prepare-server-hook
1371 A hook run before attempting to connect to an @sc{nntp} server.
1373 @item nntp-async-number
1374 @vindex nntp-async-number
1375 How many articles should be pre-fetched when in asynchronous mode. If
1376 this variable is @code{t}, @code{nntp} will pre-fetch all the articles
1377 that it can without bound. If it is @code{nil}, no pre-fetching will be
1387 Subscribing to a foreign group from the local spool is extremely easy,
1388 and might be useful, for instance, to speed up reading groups like
1389 @samp{alt.binaries.pictures.furniture}.
1391 Anyways, you just specify @code{nnspool} as the method and @samp{""} (or
1392 anything else) as the address.
1394 If you have access to a local spool, you should probably use that as the
1395 native select method (@pxref{Finding the News}).
1398 @item nnspool-inews-program
1399 @vindex nnspool-inews-program
1400 Program used to post an article.
1402 @item nnspool-inews-switches
1403 @vindex nnspool-inews-switches
1404 Parameters given to the inews program when posting an article.
1406 @item nnspool-spool-directory
1407 @vindex nnspool-spool-directory
1408 Where nnspool looks for the articles. This is normally
1409 @file{/usr/spool/news/}.
1411 @item nnspool-nov-directory
1412 @vindex nnspool-nov-directory
1413 Where nnspool will look for @sc{nov} files. This is normally
1414 @file{/usr/spool/news/over.view/}.
1416 @item nnspool-lib-dir
1417 @vindex nnspool-lib-dir
1418 Where the news lib dir is (@file{/usr/lib/news/} by default).
1420 @item nnspool-active-file
1421 @vindex nnspool-active-file
1422 The path of the active file.
1424 @item nnspool-newsgroups-file
1425 @vindex nnspool-newsgroups-file
1426 The path of the group description file.
1428 @item nnspool-history-file
1429 @vindex nnspool-history-file
1430 The path of the news history file.
1432 @item nnspool-active-times-file
1433 @vindex nnspool-active-times-file
1434 The path of the active date file.
1436 @item nnspool-nov-is-evil
1437 @vindex nnspool-nov-is-evil
1438 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnspool} won't try to use any @sc{nov} files
1441 @item nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
1442 @vindex nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
1443 If non-@code{nil}, which is the default, use @code{sed} to get the
1444 relevant portion from the overview file. If nil, @code{nnspool} will
1445 load the entire file into a buffer and process it there.
1450 @subsection nnvirtual
1452 @cindex virtual groups
1454 An @dfn{nnvirtual group} is really nothing more than a collection of
1457 For instance, if you are tired of reading many small group, you can
1458 put them all in one big group, and then grow tired of reading one
1459 big, unwieldy group. The joys of computing!
1461 You specify @code{nnvirtual} as the method. The address should be a
1462 regexp to match component groups.
1464 All marks in the virtual group will stick to the articles in the
1465 component groups. So if you tick an article in a virtual group, the
1466 article will also be ticked in the component group from whence it came.
1467 (And vice versa - marks from the component groups will also be shown in
1470 Here's an example nnvirtual method that collects all Andrea Dworkin
1471 newsgroups into one, big, happy newsgroup:
1474 (nnvirtual "^alt\\.fan\\.andrea-dworkin$\\|^rec\\.dworkin.*")
1477 The component groups can be native or foreign; everything should work
1478 smoothly, but if your computer explodes, it was probably my fault.
1480 Collecting the same group from several servers might actually be a good
1481 idea if users have set the Distribution header to limit distribution.
1482 If you would like to read @samp{soc.motss} both from a server in Japan
1483 and a server in Norway, you could use the following as the group regexp:
1486 "^nntp+some.server.jp:soc.motss$\\|^nntp+some.server.no:soc.motss$"
1489 This should work kinda smoothly - all articles from both groups should
1490 end up in this one, and there should be no duplicates. Threading (and
1491 the rest) will still work as usual, but there might be problems with the
1492 sequence of articles. Sorting on date might be an option here
1493 (@pxref{Selecting a Group}.
1495 One limitation, however - all groups that are included in a virtual
1496 group has to be alive (ie. subscribed or unsubscribed). Killed or
1497 zombie groups can't be component groups for nnvirtual groups.
1500 @subsection nnkiboze
1504 @dfn{Kibozing} is defined by OED as "grepping through (parts of) the
1505 news feed". nnkiboze is a backend that will do this for you. Oh joy!
1506 Now you can grind any @sc{nntp} server down to a halt with useless
1507 requests! Oh happiness!
1509 The address field of the nnkiboze method is, as with nnvirtual, a regexp
1510 to match groups to be "included" in the nnkiboze group. There most
1511 similarities between nnkiboze and nnvirtual ends.
1513 In addition to this regexp detailing component groups, an nnkiboze group
1514 must have a score file to say what articles that are to be included in
1515 the group (@pxref{Score Files}).
1517 @kindex M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups
1518 @findex nnkiboze-generate-groups
1519 You must run @kbd{M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups} after creating the
1520 nnkiboze groups you want to have. This command will take time. Lots of
1521 time. Oodles and oodles of time. Gnus has to fetch the headers from
1522 all the articles in all the components groups and run them through the
1523 scoring process to determine if there are any articles in the groups
1524 that are to be part of the nnkiboze groups.
1526 Please limit the number of component groups by using restrictive
1527 regexps. Otherwise your sysadmin may become annoyed with you, and the
1528 @sc{nntp} site may throw you off and never let you back in again.
1529 Stranger things have happened.
1531 nnkiboze component groups do not have to be alive - they can be dead,
1532 and they can be foreign. No restrictions.
1534 @vindex nnkiboze-directory
1535 The generation of an nnkiboze group means writing two files in
1536 @code{nnkiboze-directory}, which is @file{~/News/} by default. One
1537 contains the @sc{nov} header lines for all the articles in the group,
1538 and the other is an additional @file{.newsrc} file to store information
1539 on what groups that have been searched through to find component
1542 Articles that are marked as read in the nnkiboze group will have their
1543 @sc{nov} lines removed from the @sc{nov} file.
1548 @cindex directory groups
1550 If you have a directory that has lots of articles in separate files in
1551 it, you might treat it as a newsgroup. The files have to have numerical
1554 This might be an opportune moment to mention ange-ftp, that most
1555 wonderful of all wonderful Emacs packages. When I wrote nndir, I didn't
1556 think much about it - a backend to read directories. Big deal.
1558 ange-ftp changes that picture dramatically. For instance, if you enter
1559 @file{"/ftp@@sina.tcamc.uh.edu:/pub/emacs/ding-list/"} as the the
1560 directory name, ange-ftp will actually allow you to read this directory
1561 over at @samp{sina} as a newsgroup. Distributed news ahoy!
1563 nndir will use @sc{nov} files if they are present.
1568 @cindex documentation group
1571 nndoc is a cute little thing that will let you read a single file as a
1572 newsgroup. The file has to be divided into articles by the use of Unix
1573 mbox @samp{From } lines. nndoc will not try to change the file or
1574 insert any extra headers into it - it will simply, like, let you use the
1575 file as the basis for a group. And that's it.
1578 @subsection nndigest
1580 @cindex digest groups
1582 nndigest is a bit odd. It will use a buffer containing a valid digest
1583 as the basis for a group.
1585 These nndigest groups are rather ephemeral. They will never store
1586 information on what articles you have read, and you can't really use
1587 them as foreign groups at all. The only way to reach an nndigest group
1588 is to type @kbd{V D} on a digest in the summary buffer.
1590 When you have finished reading the digest and press @kbd{q}, you will be
1591 returned to the group from whence you came instead of going to the group
1594 Odd all over, as you can see, but somewhat useful.
1597 @subsection Reading Mail
1598 @cindex reading mail
1601 Reading mail with a newsreader - isn't that just plain WeIrD? But of
1605 * Creating Mail Groups:: How to create mail groups.
1606 * Mail & Procmail:: Reading mail groups that procmail create.
1607 * Expiring Old Mail Articles:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
1608 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail backends for reading other files.
1611 Gnus will read the mail spool when you activate a mail group. The mail
1612 file is first copied to your home directory. What happens after that
1613 depends on what format you want to store your mail in.
1616 * nnmbox:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
1617 * nnbabyl:: Many Emacs programs use the rmail babyl format.
1618 * nnml:: Store your mail in a private spool?
1619 * nnmh:: An mhspool-like backend useful for procmail people.
1620 * nnfolder:: Having one file for each group.
1623 @vindex nnmail-read-incoming-hook
1624 The mail backends all call @code{nnmail-read-incoming-hook} after
1625 reading new mail. You can use this hook to notify any mail watch
1626 programs, if you want to.
1628 @vindex nnmail-spool-file
1629 @code{nnmail-spool-file} says where to look for new mail. If this
1630 variable is @code{nil}, the mail backends will never attempt to fetch
1631 mail by themselves. It is quite likely that Gnus supports POP-mail.
1632 Set this variable to begin with the string @samp{po:}, and everything
1633 should go smoothly, even though I have never tested this.
1635 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
1636 @code{nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook} is run in a buffer that holds all
1637 the new incoming mail, and can be used for, well, anything, really.
1639 @vindex nnmail-tmp-directory
1640 @code{nnmail-tmp-directory} says where to move the incoming mail to
1641 while processing it. This is usually done in the same directory that
1642 the mail backend habitates (ie. @file{~/Mail/}), but if this variable is
1643 non-@code{nil}, it will be used instead.
1645 Gnus gives you all the opportunity you could possibly want for shooting
1646 yourself in the foot. Let's say you create a group that will contain
1647 all the mail you get from your boss. And then you accidentally
1648 unsubscribe from the group. Gnus will still put all the mail from your
1649 boss in the unsubscribed group, and so, when your boss mails you "Have
1650 that report ready by Monday or you're fired!", you'll never see it and,
1651 come Tuesday, you'll still believe that you're gainfully employed while
1652 you really should be out collecting empty bottles to save up for next
1655 @node Creating Mail Groups
1656 @subsubsection Creating Mail Groups
1657 @cindex creating mail groups
1659 You can make Gnus read your personal, private, secret mail.
1661 You should first set @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} to, for
1662 instance, @code{((nnmbox ""))}. When you start up Gnus, Gnus will ask
1663 this backend for what groups it carries (@samp{mail.misc} by default)
1664 and subscribe it the normal way. (Which means you may have to look for
1665 it among the zombie groups, I guess, all depending on your
1666 @code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} variable.)
1668 @vindex nnmail-split-methods
1669 Then you should set the variable @code{nnmail-split-methods} to specify
1670 how the incoming mail is to be split into groups.
1673 (setq nnmail-split-methods
1674 '(("mail.junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
1675 ("mail.crazzy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
1679 This variable is a list of lists, where the first element of each of
1680 these lists is the name of the mail group (they do not have to be called
1681 something beginning with @samp{mail}, by the way), and the second
1682 element is a regular expression used on the header of each mail to
1683 determine if it belongs in this mail group.
1685 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
1686 called narrowed to the headers with the first element of the rule as the
1687 argument. It should return a non-@code{nil} value if it thinks that the
1688 mail belongs in that group.
1690 The last of these groups should always be a general one, and the regular
1691 expression should @emph{always} be @samp{""} so that it matches any
1692 mails that haven't been matched by any of the other regexps.
1694 If you like to tinker with this yourself, you can set this variable to a
1695 function of your choice. This function will be called without any
1696 arguments in a buffer narrowed to the headers of an incoming mail
1697 message. The function should return a list of groups names that it
1698 thinks should carry this mail message.
1700 @vindex nnmail-crosspost
1701 The mail backends all support cross-posting. If several regexps match,
1702 the mail will be "cross-posted" to all those groups.
1703 @code{nnmail-crosspost} says whether to use this mechanism or not.
1705 @node Mail & Procmail
1706 @subsubsection Mail & Procmail
1709 Many people use @code{procmail} to split incoming mail into groups. If
1710 you do that, you should set @code{nnmail-spool-file} to @code{nil} to
1711 make sure that the mail backends never ever try to fetch mail by
1714 This also means that you probably don't want to set
1715 @code{nnmail-split-methods} either, which has some, perhaps, unexpected
1718 When a mail backend is queried for what groups it carries, it replies
1719 with the contents of that variable, along with any groups it has figured
1720 out that it carries by other means. None of the backends (except
1721 @code{nnmh}) actually go out to the disk and check what groups actually
1722 exist. (It's not trivial to distinguish between what the user thinks is
1723 a basis for a newsgroup and what is just a plain old file or directory.)
1725 This means that you have to tell Gnus (and the backends) what groups
1728 Let's take the @code{nnfolder} backend as an example. (This backend
1729 uses one file as the basis of each group.)
1731 The folders are located in @code{nnfolder-directory}, say,
1732 @file{~/Mail/}. There are three folders, @file{foo}, @file{bar} and
1735 Go to the group buffer and type @kbd{M m}. When prompted, answer
1736 @samp{foo} for the name and @samp{nnfolder} for the method. Repeat
1737 twice for the two other groups, @samp{bar} and @samp{mail.baz}. Be sure
1738 to include all your mail groups.
1740 That's it. You are now set to read your mail. An active file for this
1741 method will be created automatically.
1743 @node Expiring Old Mail Articles
1744 @subsubsection Expiring Old Mail Articles
1745 @cindex article expiry
1747 Traditional mail readers have a tendency to remove mail articles when
1748 you mark them as read, in some way. Gnus takes a fundamentally
1749 different approach to mail reading.
1751 Gnus basically considers mail just to be news that has been received in
1752 a rather peculiar manner. It does not think that it has the power to
1753 actually change the mail, or delete any mail messages. If you enter a
1754 mail group, and mark articles as "read", or kill them in some other
1755 fashion, the mail articles will still exist on the system. I repeat:
1756 Gnus will not delete your old, read mail. Unless you ask it to, of
1759 To make Gnus get rid of your unwanted mail, you have to mark the
1760 articles as @dfn{expirable}. This does not mean that the articles will
1761 disappear right away, however. In general, a mail article will be
1762 deleted from your system if, 1) it is marked as expirable, AND 2) it is
1763 more than one week old. If you do not mark an article as expirable, it
1764 will remain on your system until hell freezes over. This bears
1765 repeating one more time, with some spurious capitalizations: IF you do
1766 NOT mark articles as EXPIRABLE, Gnus will NEVER delete those ARTICLES.
1768 @vindex gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
1769 You do not have to mark articles as expirable by hand. Groups that
1770 match the regular expression @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups} will
1771 have all articles that you read marked as expirable automatically. All
1772 articles that are marked as expirable have an @samp{E} in the first
1773 column in the summary buffer.
1775 Let's say you subscribe to a couple of mailing lists, and you want the
1776 articles you have read to disappear after a while:
1779 (setq gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
1780 "mail.nonsense-list\\|mail.nice-list")
1783 Another way to have auto-expiry happen is to have the element
1784 @code{auto-expire} in the select method of the group.
1786 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait
1787 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable supplies the default time an
1788 expirable article has to live. The default is seven days.
1790 Gnus also supplies a function that lets you fine-tune how long articles
1791 are to live, based on what group they are in. Let's say you want to
1792 have one month expiry period in the @samp{mail.private} group, a one day
1793 expiry period in the @samp{mail.junk} group, and a six day expiry period
1797 (setq nnmail-expiry-wait-function
1799 (cond ((string= group "mail.private")
1801 ((string= group "mail.junk")
1807 @vindex nnmail-keep-last-article
1808 If @code{nnmail-keep-last-article} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will never
1809 expire the final article in a mail newsgroup. This is to make life
1810 easier for procmail users.
1812 @node Not Reading Mail
1813 @subsubsection Not Reading Mail
1815 If you start using any of the mail backends, they have the annoying
1816 habit of assuming that you want to read mail with them. This might not
1817 be unreasonable, but it might not be what you want.
1819 If you set @code{nnmail-spool-file} to @code{nil}, none of the backends
1820 will ever attempt to read incoming mail, which should help.
1822 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
1823 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
1824 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
1825 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
1826 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
1827 This might be too much, if, for instance, you are reading mail quite
1828 happily with @code{nnml} and just want to peek at some old @sc{rmail}
1829 file you have stashed away with @code{nnbabyl}. All backends have
1830 variables called backend-@code{get-new-mail}. If you want to disable
1831 the @code{nnbabyl} mail reading, you just set
1832 @code{nnbabyl-get-new-mail} to @code{nil}.
1835 @subsubsection nnmbox
1837 @cindex unix mail box
1839 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
1840 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
1841 The @dfn{nnmbox} backend will use the standard Un*x mbox file to store
1842 mail. @code{nnmbox} will add extra headers to each mail article to say
1843 which group it belongs in.
1846 @item nnmbox-mbox-file
1847 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
1848 The name of the mail box in the user's home directory.
1850 @item nnmbox-active-file
1851 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
1852 The name of the active file for the mail box.
1854 @item nnmbox-get-new-mail
1855 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
1856 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmbox} will read incoming mail and split it
1861 @subsubsection nnbabyl
1865 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
1866 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
1867 The @dfn{nnbabyl} backend will use a babyl mail box to store mail.
1868 @code{nnbabyl} will add extra headers to each mail article to say which
1869 group it belongs in.
1872 @item nnbabyl-mbox-file
1873 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
1874 The name of the rmail mbox file.
1876 @item nnbabyl-active-file
1877 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
1878 The name of the active file for the rmail box.
1880 @item nnbabyl-get-new-mail
1881 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
1882 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnbabyl} will read incoming mail.
1888 @cindex mail @sc{nov} spool
1890 The @dfn{nnml} spool mail format isn't compatible with any other known
1891 format. It should be used with some caution.
1893 @vindex nnml-directory
1894 If you use this backend, Gnus will split all incoming mail into files;
1895 one file for each mail, and put the articles into the correct
1896 directories under the directory specified by the @code{nnml-directory}
1897 variable. The default value is @file{~/Mail/}.
1899 You do not have to create any directories beforehand; Gnus will take
1902 If you have a strict limit as to how many files you are allowed to store
1903 in your account, you should not use this backend. As each mail gets its
1904 own file, you might very well occupy thousands of inodes within a few
1905 weeks. If this is no problem for you, and it isn't a problem for you
1906 having your friendly systems administrator walking around, madly,
1907 shouting "Who is eating all my inodes?! Who? Who!?!", then you should
1908 know that this is probably the fastest format to use. You do not have
1909 to trudge through a big mbox file just to read your new mail.
1911 @code{nnml} is probably the slowest backend when it comes to article
1912 splitting. It has to create lots of files, and it also generates
1913 @sc{nov} databases for the incoming mails. This makes is the fastest
1914 backend when it comes to reading mail.
1917 @item nnml-directory
1918 @vindex nnml-directory
1919 All @code{nnml} directories will be placed under this directory.
1921 @item nnml-active-file
1922 @vindex nnml-active-file
1923 The active file for the @code{nnml} server.
1925 @item nnml-newsgroups-file
1926 @vindex nnml-newsgroups-file
1927 The @code{nnml} group description file.
1929 @item nnml-get-new-mail
1930 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
1931 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will read incoming mail.
1933 @item nnml-nov-is-evil
1934 @vindex nnml-nov-is-evil
1935 If non-@code{nil}, this backend will ignore any @sc{nov} files.
1937 @item nnml-nov-file-name
1938 @vindex nnml-nov-file-name
1939 The name of the @sc{nov} files. The default is @file{.overview}.
1943 @findex nnml-generate-nov-databases
1944 If your @code{nnml} groups and @sc{nov} files get totally out of whack,
1945 you can do a complete update by typing @kbd{M-x
1946 nnml-generate-nov-databases}. This command will trawl through the
1947 entire @code{nnml} hierarchy, looking at each and every article, so it
1948 might take a while to complete.
1953 @cindex mh-e mail spool
1955 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, except that is doesn't generate
1956 @sc{nov} databases and it doesn't keep an active file. This makes
1957 @code{nnmh} a @emph{much} slower backend than @code{nnml}, but it also
1958 makes it easier to write procmail scripts for.
1961 @item nnmh-directory
1962 All @code{nnmh} directories will be located under this directory.
1964 @item nnmh-get-new-mail
1965 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will read incoming mail.
1969 @subsubsection nnfolder
1971 @cindex mbox folders
1973 @code{nnfolder} is a backend for storing each mail group in a separate
1974 file. Each file is in the standard Un*x mbox format. @code{nnfolder}
1975 will add extra headers to keep track of article numbers and arrival
1979 @item nnfolder-directory
1980 All the @code{nnfolder} mail boxes will be stored under this directory.
1982 @item nnfolder-active-file
1983 The name of the active file.
1985 @item nnfolder-newsgroups-file
1986 The name of the group description file.
1988 @item nnfolder-get-new-mail
1989 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnfolder} will read incoming mail.
1992 @node Group Parameters
1993 @section Group Parameters
1994 @cindex group parameters
1996 Gnus stores all information on a group in a list that is usually known
1997 as the @dfn{group info}. This list has from three to six elements.
1998 Here's an example info.
2001 ("nnml:mail.ding" 3 ((1 . 232) 244 (256 . 270)) ((tick 246 249))
2002 (nnml "private") ((to-address . "ding@@ifi.uio.no")))
2005 The first element is the @dfn{group name}, as Gnus knows the group,
2006 anyway. The second element is the @dfn{subscription level}, which
2007 normally is a small integer. The third element is a list of ranges of
2008 read articles. The fourth element is a list of lists of article marks
2009 of various kinds. The fifth element is the select method (or virtual
2010 server, if you like). The sixth element is a list of @dfn{group
2011 parameters}, which is what this section is about.
2013 Any of the last three elements may be missing if they are not required.
2014 In fact, the vast majority of groups will normally only have the first
2015 three elements, which saves quite a lot of cons cells.
2017 At present, there's not much you can put in the group parameters list:
2022 If the group parameter list contains an element that looks like
2023 @samp{(to-address . "some@@where.com")}, that address will be used by
2024 the backend when doing followups and posts. This is primarily useful in
2025 mail groups that represent mailing lists. You just set this address to
2026 whatever the list address is.
2028 This trick will actually work whether the group is foreign or not.
2029 Let's say there's a group on the server that is called @samp{fa.4ad-l}.
2030 This is a real newsgroup, but the server has gotten the articles from a
2031 mail-to-news gateway. Posting directly to this group is therefore
2032 impossible - you have to send mail to the mailing list address instead.
2036 IF the group parameter list contains an element like @code{(to-group
2037 . "some.group.name")}, all posts will be sent to that groups.
2041 If this symbol is present in the group parameter list, all articles that
2042 are read will be marked as expirable. For an alternative approach,
2043 @xref{Expiring Old Mail Articles}.
2046 If you want to change the group parameters (or anything else of the
2047 group info) you can use the @kbd{M E} to edit enter a buffer where you
2048 can edit the group info.
2050 You usually don't want to edit the entire group info, so you'd be better
2051 off using the @kbd{M p} command to just edit the group parameters.
2053 @node Listing Groups
2054 @section Listing Groups
2055 @cindex group listing
2057 These commands all list various slices of the groups that are available.
2064 @findex gnus-group-list-groups
2065 List all groups that have unread articles
2066 (@code{gnus-group-list-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used, this
2067 command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default, it
2068 only lists groups of level five or lower (ie. just subscribed groups).
2073 @findex gnus-group-list-all-groups
2074 List all groups, whether they have unread articles or not
2075 (@code{gnus-group-list-all-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used,
2076 this command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default,
2077 it lists groups of level seven or lower (ie. just subscribed and
2078 unsubscribed groups).
2081 @findex gnus-group-list-killed
2082 List all killed groups (@code{gnus-group-list-killed}).
2085 @findex gnus-group-list-zombies
2086 List all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-list-zombies}).
2089 @findex gnus-group-list-matching
2090 List all subscribed groups with unread articles that match a regexp
2091 (@code{gnus-group-list-matching}).
2094 @findex gnus-group-list-all-matching
2095 List groups that match a regexp (@code{gnus-group-list-all-matching}).
2098 @node Group Maintenance
2099 @section Group Maintenance
2100 @cindex bogus groups
2105 @findex gnus-group-check-bogus-groups
2106 Find bogus groups and delete them
2107 (@code{gnus-group-check-bogus-groups}).
2110 @findex gnus-find-new-newsgroups
2111 Find new groups and process them (@code{gnus-find-new-newsgroups}).
2113 @kindex C-c C-x (Group)
2114 @findex gnus-group-expire-articles
2115 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
2116 process (if any) (@code{gnus-group-expire-articles}).
2118 @kindex C-c M-C-x (Group)
2119 @findex gnus-group-expire-all-groups
2120 Run all articles in all groups through the expiry process
2121 (@code{gnus-group-expire-all-groups}).
2123 @kindex C-c C-s (Group)
2124 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups
2125 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-level
2126 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-unread
2127 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
2128 @vindex gnus-group-sort-function
2129 Sort the groups according to the function given by the
2130 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable
2131 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups}). Available sorting functions include
2132 @code{gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet} (the default),
2133 @code{gnus-group-sort-by-unread} and @code{gnus-group-sort-by-level}.
2136 @node Browse Foreign Server
2137 @section Browse Foreign Server
2138 @cindex foreign servers
2139 @cindex browsing servers
2144 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
2145 You will be queried for a select method and a server name. Gnus will
2146 then attempt to contact this server and let you browse the groups there
2147 (@code{gnus-group-browse-foreign-server}).
2150 @findex gnus-browse-server-mode
2151 A new buffer with a list of available groups will appear. This buffer
2152 will be use the @code{gnus-browse-server-mode}. This buffer looks a bit
2153 (well, a lot) like a normal group buffer, but with one major difference
2154 - you can't enter any of the groups. If you want to read any of the
2155 news available on that server, you have to subscribe to the groups you
2156 think may be interesting, and then you have to exit this buffer. The
2157 new groups will be added to the group buffer, and then you can read them
2158 as you would any other group.
2160 Future versions of Gnus may possibly permit reading groups straight from
2163 Here's a list of keystrokes available in the browse mode:
2168 @findex gnus-group-next-group
2169 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
2172 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
2173 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
2176 @findex gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group
2177 Unsubscribe to the current group, or, as will be the case here,
2178 subscribe to it (@code{gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group}).
2183 @findex gnus-browse-exit
2184 Exit browse mode (@code{gnus-browse-exit}).
2187 @findex gnus-browse-describe-briefly
2188 Describe browse mode briefly (well, there's not much to describe, is
2189 there) (@code{gnus-browse-describe-briefly}).
2193 @section Exiting Gnus
2194 @cindex exiting Gnus
2196 Yes, Gnus is ex(c)iting.
2201 @findex gnus-group-suspend
2202 Suspend Gnus (@code{gnus-group-suspend}). This doesn't really exit Gnus,
2203 but it kills all buffers except the Group buffer. I'm not sure why this
2204 is a gain, but then who am I to judge?
2207 @findex gnus-group-exit
2208 Quit Gnus (@code{gnus-group-exit}).
2211 @findex gnus-group-quit
2212 Quit Gnus without saving any startup files (@code{gnus-group-quit}).
2215 @vindex gnus-exit-gnus-hook
2216 @vindex gnus-suspend-gnus-hook
2217 @code{gnus-suspend-gnus-hook} is called when you suspend Gnus and
2218 @code{gnus-exit-gnus-hook} is called when you quit Gnus.
2223 Miss Lisa Cannifax, while sitting in English class, feels her feet go
2224 numbly heavy and herself fall into a hazy trance as the boy sitting
2225 behind her drew repeated lines with his pencil across the back of her
2229 @node Misc Group Stuff
2230 @section Misc Group Stuff
2235 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news
2236 Check server for new articles.
2237 If the numeric prefix is used, this command will check only groups of
2238 level ARG and lower (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news}).
2241 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group
2242 Check whether new articles have arrived in the current group
2243 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}).
2247 @findex gnus-group-enter-server-mode
2248 Enter the server buffer (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}). @xref{The
2253 @findex gnus-group-fetch-faq
2254 Try to fetch the FAQ for the current group
2255 (@code{gnus-group-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the FAQ from
2256 @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory on a
2257 remote machine. ange-ftp will be used for fetching the file.
2260 @findex gnus-group-restart
2261 Restart Gnus (@code{gnus-group-restart}).
2264 @findex gnus-group-read-init-file
2265 Read the init file (@code{gnus-init-file}, which defaults to
2266 @file{~/.gnus}) (@code{gnus-group-read-init-file}).
2269 @findex gnus-group-save-newsrc
2270 Save the @file{.newsrc.eld} file (and @file{.newsrc} if wanted)
2271 (@code{gnus-group-save-newsrc}).
2274 @findex gnus-group-clear-dribble
2275 Clear the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-group-clear-dribble}).
2278 @findex gnus-group-describe-group
2279 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-group-describe-group}). If given
2280 a prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description from the server.
2283 @findex gnus-group-apropos
2284 List all groups that have names that match a regexp
2285 (@code{gnus-group-apropos}).
2288 @findex gnus-group-description-apropos
2289 List all groups that have names or descriptions that match a regexp
2290 (@code{gnus-group-description-apropos}).
2293 @findex gnus-group-post-news
2294 Post an article to a group (@code{gnus-group-post-news}).
2297 @findex gnus-group-mail
2298 Mail a message somewhere (@code{gnus-group-mail}).
2300 @kindex C-x C-t (Group)
2301 @findex gnus-group-transpose-groups
2302 Transpose two groups (@code{gnus-group-transpose-groups}).
2305 @findex gnus-version
2306 Display current Gnus version numbers (@code{gnus-version}).
2309 @findex gnus-group-describe-all-groups
2310 Describe all groups (@code{gnus-group-describe-all-groups}). If given a
2311 prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description file from the server.
2314 @findex gnus-group-describe-briefly
2315 Give a very short help message (@code{gnus-group-describe-briefly}).
2317 @kindex C-c C-i (Group)
2318 @findex gnus-info-find-node
2319 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
2322 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
2323 @code{gnus-group-prepare-hook} is called after the group buffer is
2324 generated. It may be used to modify the buffer in some strange,
2327 @node The Summary Buffer
2328 @chapter The Summary Buffer
2329 @cindex summary buffer
2331 A line for each article is displayed in the summary buffer. You can
2332 move around, read articles, post articles and reply to articles.
2335 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
2336 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
2337 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
2338 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
2339 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
2340 * Cancelling and Superseding:: "Whoops, I shouldn't have called him that."
2341 * Ticking and Marking:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
2342 * Threading:: How threads are made.
2343 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
2344 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer.
2345 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
2346 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
2347 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
2348 * Various Article Stuff:: Various stuff dealing with articles.
2349 * Summary Sorting:: You can sort the summary buffer four ways.
2350 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
2351 * Score Files:: Maintaining a score file.
2352 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
2353 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
2356 @node Summary Buffer Format
2357 @section Summary Buffer Format
2358 @cindex summary buffer format
2361 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
2362 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
2365 @findex mail-extract-address-components
2366 @findex gnus-extract-address-components
2367 @vindex gnus-extract-address-components
2368 Gnus will use the value of the @code{gnus-extract-address-components}
2369 variable as a function for getting the name and address parts of a
2370 @code{From} header. Two pre-defined function exist:
2371 @code{gnus-extract-address-components}, which is the default, quite
2372 fast, and too simplistic solution, and
2373 @code{mail-extract-address-components}, which works very nicely, but is
2376 @vindex gnus-summary-same-subject
2377 @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} is a string indicating that the current
2378 article has the same subject as the previous. This string will be used
2379 with those specs that require it.
2381 @node Summary Buffer Lines
2382 @subsection Summary Buffer Lines
2384 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
2385 You can change the format of the lines in the summary buffer by changing
2386 the @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable. It works along the same
2387 lines a a normal @code{format} string, with some extensions.
2389 The default string is @samp{"%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-20,20n%]%) %s\n"}.
2391 The following format specification characters are understood:
2399 Subject if the article is the root, @code{gnus-summary-same-subject}
2402 Full @code{From} line.
2404 The name (from the @code{From} header).
2406 The address (from the @code{From} header).
2408 Number of lines in the article.
2410 Number of characters in the article.
2412 Indentation based on thread level (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
2414 Nothing if the article is a root and lots of spaces if it isn't (it
2415 pushes everything after it off the screen).
2417 Opening bracket, which is normally @samp{\[}, but can also be @samp{<}
2418 for adopted articles.
2420 Closing bracket, which is normally @samp{\]}, but can also be @samp{>}
2421 for adopted articles.
2423 One space for each thread level.
2425 Twenty minus thread level spaces.
2433 Zcore, @samp{+} if above the default level and @samp{-} if below the
2444 Number of articles in the current subthread. Using this spec will slow
2445 down summary buffer generation somewhat.
2447 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
2448 be a letter. @sc{gnus} will call the function
2449 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
2450 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed the current header as
2451 argument. The function should return a string, which will be inserted
2452 into the summary just like information from any other summary specifier.
2455 Text between @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} will be highlighted with
2456 @code{gnus-mouse-face} when the mouse point is placed inside the area.
2457 There can only be one such area.
2459 The @samp{%U} (status), @samp{%R} (replied) and @samp{%z} (zcore) specs
2460 have to be handled with care. For reasons of efficiency, Gnus will
2461 compute what column these characters will end up in, and "hard-code"
2462 that. This means that it is illegal to have these specs after a
2463 variable-length spec. Well, you might not be arrested, but your summary
2464 buffer will look strange, which is bad enough.
2466 The smart choice is to have these specs as far to the left as possible.
2467 (Isn't that the case with everything, though? But I digress.)
2469 This restriction may disappear in later versions of Gnus.
2471 @node Summary Buffer Mode Line
2472 @subsection Summary Buffer Mode Line
2474 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-line-format
2475 You can also change the format of the summary mode bar. Set
2476 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} to whatever you like. Here are the
2477 elements you can play with:
2483 Current article number.
2487 Number of unread articles in this group.
2489 Number of unselected articles in this group.
2491 A string with the number of unread and unselected articles represented
2492 either as @samp{<%U(+%u) more>} if there are both unread and unselected
2493 articles, and just as @samp{<%U more>} if there are just unread articles
2494 and no unselected ones.
2496 Shortish group name. For instance, @samp{rec.arts.anime} will be
2497 shortened to @samp{r.a.anime}.
2499 Subject of the current article.
2503 Name of the current score file.
2507 @node Summary Maneuvering
2508 @section Summary Maneuvering
2509 @cindex summary movement
2511 All the straight movement commands understand the numeric prefix and
2512 behave pretty much as you'd expect.
2514 None of these commands select articles.
2519 @kindex M-n (Summary)
2520 @kindex G M-n (Summary)
2521 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-subject
2522 Go to the next summary line of an unread article
2523 (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-subject}).
2526 @kindex M-p (Summary)
2527 @kindex G M-p (Summary)
2528 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject
2529 Go to the previous summary line of an unread article
2530 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject}).
2534 @kindex G g (Summary)
2535 @findex gnus-summary-goto-subject
2536 Ask for an article number and then go to this summary line
2537 (@code{gnus-summary-goto-subject}).
2540 @vindex gnus-auto-select-next
2541 If you are at the end of the group and issue one of the movement
2542 commands, Gnus will offer to go to the next group. If
2543 @code{gnus-auto-select-next} is @code{t} and the next group is empty,
2544 Gnus will exit summary mode and return to the group buffer. If this
2545 variable is neither @code{t} nor @code{nil}, Gnus will select the next
2546 group, no matter whether it has any unread articles or not. As a
2547 special case, if this variable is @code{quietly}, Gnus will select the
2548 next group without asking for confirmation. Also @xref{Group Levels}.
2550 If Gnus asks you to press a key to confirm going to the next group, you
2551 can use the @kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p} keys to move around the group
2552 buffer, searching for the next group to read without actually returning
2553 to the group buffer.
2555 @vindex gnus-auto-select-same
2556 If @code{gnus-auto-select-same} is non-@code{nil}, all the movement
2557 commands will try to go to the next article with the same subject as the
2558 current. This variable is not particularly useful if you use a threaded
2561 @vindex gnus-summary-check-current
2562 If @code{gnus-summary-check-current} is non-@code{nil}, all the "unread"
2563 movement commands will not proceed to the next (or previous) article if
2564 the current article is unread. Instead, they will choose the current
2567 @vindex gnus-auto-center-summary
2568 If @code{gnus-auto-center-summary} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will keep the
2569 point in the summary buffer centered at all times. This makes things
2570 quite tidy, but if you have a slow network connection, or simply do not
2571 like this un-Emacsism, you can set this variable to @code{nil} to get
2572 the normal Emacs scrolling action.
2574 @node Choosing Articles
2575 @section Choosing Articles
2576 @cindex selecting articles
2578 None of the following movement commands understand the numeric prefix,
2579 and they all select and display an article.
2583 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
2584 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
2585 Select the current article, or, if that one's read already, the next
2586 unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
2590 @kindex G n (Summary)
2591 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-article
2592 Go to next unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-article}).
2596 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-article
2597 Go to previous unread article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-article}).
2601 @kindex G N (Summary)
2602 @findex gnus-summary-next-article
2603 Go to the next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-article}).
2607 @kindex G P (Summary)
2608 @findex gnus-summary-prev-article
2609 Go to the previous article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-article}).
2611 @kindex G C-n (Summary)
2612 @findex gnus-summary-next-same-subject
2613 Go to the next article with the same subject
2614 (@code{gnus-summary-next-same-subject}).
2616 @kindex G C-p (Summary)
2617 @findex gnus-summary-prev-same-subject
2618 Go to the previous article with the same subject
2619 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-same-subject}).
2622 @kindex G f (Summary)
2624 @findex gnus-summary-first-unread-article
2625 Go to the first unread article
2626 (@code{gnus-summary-first-unread-article}).
2629 @kindex G b (Summary)
2631 Go to the article with the highest score
2632 (@code{gnus-summary-best-unread-article}).
2636 @kindex G l (Summary)
2637 @findex gnus-summary-goto-last-article
2638 Go to the previous article read (@code{gnus-summary-goto-last-article}).
2640 @kindex G p (Summary)
2641 @findex gnus-summary-pop-article
2642 Pop an article off the summary history and go to this article
2643 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-article}). This command differs from the
2644 command above in that you can pop as many previous articles off the
2645 history as you like.
2648 Some variables that are relevant for moving and selecting articles:
2651 @item gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
2652 @vindex gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
2653 All the movement commands will try to go to the previous (or next)
2654 article, even if that article isn't displayed in the Summary buffer if
2655 this variable is non-@code{nil}. Gnus will then fetch the article from
2656 the server and display it in the article buffer.
2657 @item gnus-select-article-hook
2658 @vindex gnus-select-article-hook
2659 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. By default it
2660 exposes any threads hidden under the selected article.
2661 @item gnus-mark-article-hook
2662 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
2663 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. It is intended to
2664 be used for marking articles as read.
2665 @item gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
2666 @vindex gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
2667 This hook is run after selecting an article. It is meant to be used for
2668 highlighting the article in some way. It is not run if
2669 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
2670 @item gnus-visual-summary-update-hook
2671 @vindex gnus-visual-summary-update-hook
2672 This hook is called when a summary line is changed. It is not run if
2673 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
2674 @item gnus-summary-selected-face
2675 @vindex gnus-summary-selected-face
2676 This is the face (or @dfn{font} as some people call it) that is used to
2677 highlight the current article in the summary buffer.
2678 @item gnus-visual-summary-highlight
2679 @vindex gnus-visual-summary-highlight
2680 Summary lines are highlighted according to this variable, which is a
2681 list where the elements are on the format @code{(FORM . FACE)}. If you
2682 would, for instance, like ticked articles to be italic and high-scored
2683 articles to be bold, you could set this variable to something like
2685 (((eq mark gnus-ticked-mark) . italic)
2686 ((> score default) . bold))
2688 As you may have guessed, if @var{FORM} returns a non-@code{nil} value,
2689 @var{FACE} will be applied to the line.
2692 @node Paging the Article
2693 @section Scrolling the Article
2694 @cindex article scrolling
2698 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
2699 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
2700 Pressing @kbd{SPACE} will scroll the current article forward one page,
2701 or, if you have come to the end of the current article, will choose the
2702 next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
2704 @kindex DEL (Summary)
2705 @findex gnus-summary-prev-page
2706 Scroll the current article back one page (@code{gnus-summary-prev-page}).
2708 @kindex RET (Summary)
2709 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-up
2710 Scroll the current article one line forward
2711 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-up}).
2715 @kindex A < (Summary)
2716 @findex gnus-summary-beginning-of-article
2717 Scroll to the beginning of the article
2718 (@code{gnus-summary-beginning-of-article}).
2722 @kindex A > (Summary)
2723 @findex gnus-summary-end-of-article
2724 Scroll to the end of the article (@code{gnus-summary-end-of-article}).
2727 @node Reply Followup and Post
2728 @section Reply, Followup and Post
2733 @kindex C-c C-c (Post)
2734 All the commands for posting and mailing will put you in a post or mail
2735 buffer where you can edit the article all you like, before you send the
2736 article by pressing @kbd{C-c C-c}. If you are in a foreign news group,
2737 and you wish to post the article using the foreign server, you can give
2738 a prefix to @kbd{C-c C-c} to make Gnus try to post using the foreign
2742 * Mail:: Mailing & replying.
2743 * Post:: Posting and following up.
2744 * Mail & Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
2750 Commands for composing a mail message:
2755 @kindex S r (Summary)
2757 @findex gnus-summary-reply
2758 Mail a reply to the author of the current article
2759 (@code{gnus-summary-reply}).
2763 @kindex S R (Summary)
2764 @findex gnus-summary-reply-with-original
2765 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
2766 original message (@code{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}).
2768 @kindex S o m (Summary)
2769 @findex gnus-summary-mail-forward
2770 Forward the current article to some other person
2771 (@code{gnus-summary-mail-forward}).
2773 @kindex S o p (Summary)
2774 @findex gnus-summary-post-forward
2775 Forward the current article to a newsgroup
2776 (@code{gnus-summary-post-forward}).
2780 @kindex S m (Summary)
2781 @findex gnus-summary-mail-other-window
2782 Send a mail to some other person
2783 (@code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}).
2785 @kindex S O m (Summary)
2786 @findex gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward
2787 Digest the current series and forward the result using mail
2788 (@code{gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward}). This command uses the
2789 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
2791 @kindex S O p (Summary)
2792 @findex gnus-uu-digest-post-forward
2793 Digest the current series and forward the result to a newsgroup
2794 (@code{gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward}).
2797 Variables for customizing outgoing mail:
2800 @item gnus-reply-to-function
2801 @vindex gnus-reply-to-function
2802 Gnus uses the normal methods to determine where replies are to go, but
2803 you can change the behaviour to suit your needs by fiddling with this
2806 If you want the replies to go to the @samp{Sender} instead of the
2807 @samp{From} in the group @samp{mail.stupid-list}, you could do something
2811 (setq gnus-reply-to-function
2813 (cond ((string= group "mail.stupid-list")
2814 (mail-fetch-field "sender"))
2819 This function will be called narrowed to the head of the article that is
2822 As you can see, this function should return a string if it has an
2823 opinion as to what the To header should be. If it does not, it should
2824 just return @code{nil}, and the normal methods for determining the To
2825 header will be used.
2827 This function can also return a list. In that case, each list element
2828 should be a cons, where the car should be the name of an header
2829 (eg. @samp{Cc}) and the cdr should be the header value
2830 (eg. @samp{larsi@@ifi.uio.no}). All these headers will be inserted into
2831 the head of the outgoing mail.
2833 @item gnus-mail-send-method
2834 @vindex gnus-mail-send-method
2835 This variable says how a mail should be mailed. It uses the function in
2836 the @code{send-mail-function} variable as the default.
2843 Commands for posting an article:
2849 @kindex S p (Summary)
2850 @findex gnus-summary-post-news
2851 Post an article to the current group
2852 (@code{gnus-summary-post-news}).
2856 @kindex S f (Summary)
2857 @findex gnus-summary-followup
2858 Post a followup to the current article (@code{gnus-summary-followup}).
2861 @kindex S F (Summary)
2863 @findex gnus-summary-followup-with-original
2864 Post a followup to the current article and include the original message
2865 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}).
2867 @kindex S u (Summary)
2868 @findex gnus-uu-post-news
2869 Uuencode a file, split it into parts, and post it as a series
2870 (@code{gnus-uu-post-news}) (@pxref{Uuencoding & Posting}).
2873 @vindex gnus-required-headers
2874 @code{gnus-required-headers} a list of header symbols. These headers
2875 will either be automatically generated, or, if that's impossible, they
2876 will be prompted for. The following symbols are legal:
2880 This required header will be filled out with the result of the
2881 @code{gnus-inews-user-name} function, which depends on the
2882 @code{gnus-user-from-line}, @code{gnus-user-login-name},
2883 @code{gnus-local-domain} and @code{user-mail-address} variables.
2885 This required header will be prompted for if not present already.
2887 This required header says which newsgroups the article is to be posted
2888 to. If it isn't present already, it will be prompted for.
2890 This optional header will be filled out depending on the
2891 @code{gnus-local-organization} variable.
2893 This optional header will be computed by Gnus.
2895 This required header will be generated by Gnus. A unique ID will be
2896 created based on date, time, user name and system name.
2898 This optional header will be filled out with the Gnus version numbers.
2901 In addition, you can enter conses into this list. The car of this cons
2902 should be a symbol who's name is the name of the header, and the cdr can
2903 either a string to be entered verbatim as the value of this header, or
2904 it can be a function to be called. This function should return a string
2905 to be inserted. For instance, if you want to insert @samp{Mime-Version:
2906 1.0}, you should enter @code{(Mime-Version . "1.0")} into the list. If
2907 you want to insert a funny quote, you could enter something like
2908 @code{(X-Yow . yow)} into the list. The function @code{yow} will then
2909 be called without any arguments.
2911 Other variables for customizing outgoing articles:
2914 @item gnus-post-method
2915 @vindex gnus-post-method
2916 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will use this method instead of the default
2917 select method when posting.
2919 @item nntp-news-default-headers
2920 @vindex nntp-news-default-headers
2921 If non-@code{nil}, this variable will override
2922 @code{mail-default-headers} when posting. This variable should then be
2923 a string. This string will be inserted, as is, in the head of all
2926 @item gnus-use-followup-to
2927 @vindex gnus-use-followup-to
2928 If @code{nil}, always ignore the Followup-To header. If it is @code{t},
2929 use its value, but ignore the special value @samp{poster}, which will
2930 send the followup as a reply mail to the person you are responding to.
2931 If it is neither @code{nil} nor @code{t}, always use the Followup-To
2934 @item gnus-followup-to-function
2935 @vindex gnus-followup-to-function
2936 This variable is most useful in mail groups, where "following up" really
2937 means sending a mail to a list address. Gnus uses the normal methods to
2938 determine where follow-ups are to go, but you can change the behaviour
2939 to suit your needs by fiddling with this variable.
2941 If you want the followups to go to the @samp{Sender} instead of the
2942 @samp{From} in the group @samp{mail.stupid-list}, you could do something
2946 (setq gnus-followup-to-function
2948 (cond ((string= group "mail.stupid-list")
2949 (mail-fetch-field "sender"))
2954 This function will be called narrowed to header of the article that is
2957 @item gnus-signature-function
2958 @vindex gnus-signature-function
2959 If non-@code{nil}, this variable should be a function that returns a
2960 signature file name. The function will be called with the name of the
2961 group being posted to. If the function returns a string that doesn't
2962 correspond to a file, the string itself is inserted. If the function
2963 returns @code{nil}, the @code{gnus-signature-file} variable will be used
2966 @item gnus-post-prepare-function
2967 @vindex gnus-post-prepare-function
2968 This function is called with the name of the current group after the
2969 post buffer has been initialized, and can be used for inserting a
2970 signature. Nice if you use different signatures in different groups.
2972 @item news-reply-header-hook
2973 @vindex news-reply-header-hook
2974 A related variable when following up and replying is this variable,
2975 which inserts the @dfn{quote line}. The default value is:
2978 (defvar news-reply-header-hook
2980 (insert "In article " news-reply-yank-message-id
2981 " " news-reply-yank-from " writes:\n\n")))
2984 This will create lines like:
2987 In article <zngay8jrql@@eyesore.no> Lars Mars <lars@@eyesore.no> writes:
2990 Having the @code{Message-Id} in this line is probably overkill, so I
2991 would suggest this hook instead:
2994 (setq news-reply-header-hook
2995 (lambda () (insert news-reply-yank-from " writes:\n\n")))
2998 @item gnus-prepare-article-hook
2999 @vindex gnus-prepare-article-hook
3000 This hook is called before the headers have been prepared. By default
3001 it inserts the signature specified by @code{gnus-signature-file}.
3003 @item gnus-inews-article-hook
3004 @vindex gnus-inews-article-hook
3005 This hook is called right before the article is posted. By default it
3006 handles FCC processing (ie. saving the article to a file.)
3008 @item gnus-inews-article-header-hook
3009 @vindex gnus-inews-article-header-hook
3010 This hook is called after inserting the required headers in an article
3011 to be posted. The hook is called from the @code{*post-news*} buffer,
3012 narrowed to the head, and is intended for people who would like to
3013 insert additional headers, or just change headers in some way or other.
3015 @item gnus-check-before-posting
3016 @vindex gnus-check-before-posting
3017 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will attempt to check the legality of the
3018 headers, as well as some other stuff, before posting.
3024 @subsection Mail & Post
3026 Commands for sending mail and post at the same time:
3030 @kindex S b (Summary)
3031 @findex gnus-summary-followup-and-reply
3032 Post a followup and send a reply to the current article
3033 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-and-reply}).
3035 @kindex S B (Summary)
3036 @findex gnus-summary-followup-and-reply-with-original
3037 Post a followup and send a reply to the current article and include the
3038 original message (@code{gnus-summary-followup-and-reply-with-original}).
3041 Here's a list of variables that are relevant to both mailing and
3045 @item gnus-signature-file
3046 @itemx mail-signature
3047 @vindex mail-signature
3048 @vindex gnus-signature-file
3049 @cindex double signature
3051 If @code{gnus-signature-file} is non-@code{nil}, it should be the name
3052 of a file containing a signature (@samp{~/.signature} by default). This
3053 signature will be appended to all outgoing post. Most people find it
3054 more convenient to use @code{mail-signature}, which does the same, but
3055 inserts the signature into the buffer before you start editing the post
3056 (or mail). So - if you have both of these variables set, you will get
3059 Note that RFC1036 says that a signature should be preceded by the three
3060 characters @samp{-- } on a line by themselves. This is to make it
3061 easier for the recipient to automatically recognize and process the
3062 signature. So don't remove those characters, even though you might feel
3063 that they ruin you beautiful design, like, totally.
3065 Also note that no signature should be more than four lines long.
3066 Including ASCII graphics is an efficient way to get everybody to believe
3067 that you are silly and have nothing important to say.
3069 @item mail-yank-prefix
3070 @vindex mail-yank-prefix
3073 When you are replying to or following up an article, you normally want
3074 to quote the person you are answering. Inserting quoted text is done by
3075 @dfn{yanking}, and each quoted line you yank will have
3076 @code{mail-yank-prefix} prepended to it. This is @samp{ } by default,
3077 which isn't very pretty. Most everybody prefers that lines are
3078 prepended with @samp{> }, so @code{(setq mail-yank-prefix "> ")} in your
3081 @item mail-yank-ignored-headers
3082 @vindex mail-yank-ignored-headers
3083 When you yank a message, you do not want to quote any headers, so
3084 @code{(setq mail-yank-ignored-headers ":")}.
3086 @item user-mail-address
3087 @vindex user-mail-address
3088 If all of @code{gnus-user-login-name}, @code{gnus-use-generic-from} and
3089 @code{gnus-local-domain} are @code{nil}, Gnus will use
3090 @code{user-mail-address} as the address part of the @code{From} header.
3092 @item gnus-user-from-line
3093 @vindex gnus-user-from-line
3094 Your full, complete e-mail address. This variable overrides the other
3095 Gnus variables if it is non-@code{nil}.
3097 Here are two example values of this variable: @samp{"larsi@@ifi.uio.no
3098 (Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen)"} and @samp{"Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
3099 <larsi@@ifi.uio.no>"}. The latter version is recommended, but the name
3100 has to be quoted if it contains non-alphanumerical characters -
3101 @samp{"\"Lars M. Ingebrigtsen\" <larsi@@ifi.uio.no>"}.
3103 @item mail-default-headers
3104 @vindex mail-default-headers
3105 This is a string that will be inserted into the header of all outgoing
3106 mail messages and news articles. Convenient to use to insert standard
3107 headers. If @code{nntp-news-default-headers} is non-@code{nil}, that
3108 variable will override this one when posting articles.
3110 @item gnus-auto-mail-to-author
3111 @vindex gnus-auto-mail-to-author
3112 If @code{ask}, you will be prompted for whether you want to send a mail
3113 copy to the author of the article you are following up. If
3114 non-@code{nil} and not @code{ask}, Gnus will send a mail with a copy of
3115 all follow-ups to the authors of the articles you follow up. It's nice
3116 in one way - you make sure that the person you are responding to gets
3117 your response. Other people loathe this method and will hate you dearly
3118 for it, because it means that they will first get a mail, and then have
3119 to read the same article later when they read the news. It is
3120 @code{nil} by default.
3122 @item gnus-mail-courtesy-message
3123 @vindex gnus-mail-courtesy-message
3124 This is a string that will be prepended to all mails that are the result
3125 of using the variable described above.
3129 You may want to do spell-checking on messages that you send out. Or, if
3130 you don't want to spell-check by hand, you could add automatic
3131 spell-checking via the @code{ispell} package:
3134 (add-hook 'news-inews-hook 'ispell-message) ;For news posts
3135 (add-hook 'mail-send-hook 'ispell-message) ;for mail posts via sendmail
3138 @node Cancelling and Superseding
3139 @section Cancelling Articles
3140 @cindex cancelling articles
3141 @cindex superseding articles
3143 Have you ever written something, and then decided that you really,
3144 really, really wish you hadn't posted that?
3146 Well, you can't cancel mail, but you can cancel posts.
3148 @findex gnus-summary-cancel-article
3150 Find the article you wish to cancel (you can only cancel your own
3151 articles, so don't try any funny stuff). Then press @kbd{C} or @kbd{S
3152 c} (@code{gnus-summary-cancel-article}). Your article will be
3153 cancelled - machines all over the world will be deleting your article.
3155 Be aware, however, that not all sites honor cancels, so your article may
3156 live on here and there, while most sites will delete the article in
3159 If you discover that you have made some mistakes and want to do some
3160 corrections, you can post a @dfn{superseding} article that will replace
3161 your original article.
3163 @findex gnus-summary-supersede-article
3165 Go to the original article and press @kbd{S s}
3166 (@code{gnus-summary-supersede-article}). You will be put in a buffer
3167 where you can edit the article all you want before sending it off the
3170 The same goes for superseding as for cancelling, only more so: Some
3171 sites do not honor superseding. On those sites, it will appear that you
3172 have posted almost the same article twice.
3174 If you have just posted the article, and change your mind right away,
3175 there is a trick you can use to cancel/supersede the article without
3176 waiting for the article to appear on your site first. You simply return
3177 to the post buffer (which is called @code{*post-buf*}). There you will
3178 find the article you just posted, with all the headers intact. Change
3179 the @samp{Message-ID} header to a @samp{Cancel} or @samp{Supersedes}
3180 header by substituting one of those words for @samp{Message-ID}. Then
3181 just press @kbd{C-c C-c} to send the article as you would do normally.
3182 The previous article will be cancelled/superseded.
3184 Just remember, kids: There is no 'c' in 'supersede'.
3186 @node Ticking and Marking
3187 @section Ticking and Marking
3188 @cindex article marking
3189 @cindex article ticking
3191 There are several marks you can set on an article.
3193 You have marks that decide the @dfn{readed-ness} (whoo, neato-keano
3194 neologism ohoy!) of the article. Alphabetic marks generally mean
3195 @dfn{read}, while non-alphabetic characters generally mean @dfn{unread}.
3197 In addition, you also have marks that do not affect readedness.
3200 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
3201 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
3202 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
3206 There's a plethora of commands for manipulating these marks:
3210 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
3211 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
3214 @node Unread Articles
3215 @subsection Unread Articles
3217 The following marks mark articles as unread, in one form or other.
3219 @vindex gnus-dormant-mark
3220 @vindex gnus-ticked-mark
3223 @dfn{Ticked articles} are articles that will remain visible always. If
3224 you see an article that you find interesting, or you want to put off
3225 reading it, or replying to it, until sometime later, you'd typically
3226 tick it. However, articles can be expired, so if you want to keep an
3227 article forever, you'll have to save it. Ticked articles have a
3228 @samp{!} (@code{gnus-ticked-mark}) in the first column.
3230 A @dfn{dormant} article is marked with a @samp{?}
3231 (@code{gnus-dormant-mark}), and will only appear in the summary buffer
3232 if there are followups to it.
3234 An @dfn{unread} article is marked with a @samp{SPC}
3235 (@code{gnus-unread-mark}). These are articles that haven't been read at
3240 @subsection Read Articles
3241 @cindex expirable mark
3243 All the following marks mark articles as read.
3247 Articles that are marked as read. They have a @samp{D}
3248 (@code{gnus-del-mark}) in the first column. These are articles that the
3249 user has marked as read more or less manually.
3251 Articles that are actually read are marked with @samp{d}
3252 (@code{gnus-read-mark}).
3254 Articles that were marked as read in previous sessions are now
3255 @dfn{ancient} and marked with @samp{A} (@code{gnus-ancient-mark}).
3257 Marked as killed (@code{gnus-killed-mark}).
3259 Marked as killed by kill files (@code{gnus-kill-file-mark}).
3261 Marked as read by having a too low score (@code{gnus-low-score-mark}).
3263 Marked as read by a catchup (@code{gnus-catchup-mark}).
3265 Cancelled article (@code{gnus-cancelled-mark})
3268 All these marks just mean that the article is marked as read, really.
3269 They are interpreted differently by the adaptive scoring scheme,
3272 One more special mark, though:
3276 You can also mark articles as @dfn{expirable} (or have them marked as
3277 such automatically). That doesn't make much sense in normal groups,
3278 because a user does not control the expiring of news articles, but in
3279 mail groups, for instance, articles that are marked as @dfn{expirable}
3280 can be deleted by Gnus at any time. Expirable articles are marked with
3281 @samp{E} (@code{gnus-expirable-mark}).
3285 @subsection Other Marks
3286 @cindex process mark
3289 There are some marks that have nothing to do with whether the article is
3292 You can set a bookmark in the current article. Say you are reading a
3293 long thesis on cat's urinary tracts, and have to go home for dinner
3294 before you've finished reading the thesis. You can then set a bookmark
3295 in the article, and Gnus will jump to this bookmark the next time it
3296 encounters the article.
3298 All articles that you have replied to or made a followup to will be
3299 marked with an @samp{R} in the second column (@code{gnus-replied-mark}).
3301 @vindex gnus-not-empty-thread-mark
3302 @vindex gnus-empty-thread-mark
3303 It the @samp{%e} spec is used, the presence of threads or not will be
3304 marked with @code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark} and
3305 @code{gnus-empty-thread-mark}, respectively.
3307 @vindex gnus-process-mark
3308 Finally we have the @dfn{process mark} (@code{gnus-process-mark}. A
3309 variety of commands react to the presence of the process mark. For
3310 instance, @kbd{X u} (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}) will uudecode and view
3311 all articles that have been marked with the process mark. Articles
3312 marked with the process mark have a @samp{#} in the second column.
3315 @subsection Setting Marks
3316 @cindex setting marks
3318 All the marking commands understand the numeric prefix.
3324 @kindex M t (Summary)
3325 @findex gnus-summary-tick-article-forward
3326 Tick the current article (@code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}).
3330 @kindex M ? (Summary)
3331 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant
3332 Mark the current article as dormant
3333 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant}).
3336 @kindex M d (Summary)
3338 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward
3339 Mark the current article as read
3340 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward}).
3344 @kindex M k (Summary)
3345 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select
3346 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read,
3347 and then select the next unread article
3348 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select}).
3351 @kindex M K (Summary)
3352 @kindex C-k (Summary)
3353 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject
3354 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read
3355 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject}).
3357 @kindex M C (Summary)
3358 @findex gnus-summary-catchup
3359 Catchup the current group (@code{gnus-summary-catchup}).
3361 @kindex M C-c (Summary)
3362 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all
3363 Catchup all articles in the current group (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all}).
3365 @kindex M H (Summary)
3366 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-to-here
3367 Catchup the current group to point
3368 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-to-here}).
3370 @kindex C-w (Summary)
3371 @findex gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read
3372 Mark all articles between point and mark as read
3373 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read}).
3376 @kindex M c (Summary)
3377 @kindex M-u (Summary)
3378 @findex gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward
3379 Clear all readedness-marks from the current article
3380 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward}).
3383 @kindex M e (Summary)
3385 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable
3386 Mark the current article as expirable
3387 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable}).
3389 @kindex M b (Summary)
3390 @findex gnus-summary-set-bookmark
3391 Set a bookmark in the current article
3392 (@code{gnus-summary-set-bookmark}).
3394 @kindex M B (Summary)
3395 @findex gnus-summary-remove-bookmark
3396 Remove the bookmark from the current article
3397 (@code{gnus-summary-remove-bookmark}).
3400 @kindex M M-r (Summary)
3401 @kindex M-d (Summary)
3402 @findex gnus-summary-remove-lines-marked-as-read
3403 Expunge all deleted articles from the summary buffer
3404 (@code{gnus-summary-remove-lines-marked-as-read}).
3406 @kindex M M-C-r (Summary)
3407 @findex gnus-summary-remove-lines-marked-with
3408 Ask for a mark and then expunge all articles that have been marked with
3409 that mark (@code{gnus-summary-remove-lines-marked-with}).
3411 @kindex M S (Summary)
3412 @findex gnus-summary-show-all-expunged
3413 Display all expunged articles (@code{gnus-summary-show-all-expunged}).
3415 @kindex M D (Summary)
3416 @findex gnus-summary-show-all-dormant
3417 Display all dormant articles (@code{gnus-summary-show-all-dormant}).
3419 @kindex M M-D (Summary)
3420 @findex gnus-summary-hide-all-dormant
3421 Hide all dormant articles (@code{gnus-summary-hide-all-dormant}).
3423 @kindex M s k (Summary)
3424 @findex gnus-summary-kill-below
3425 Kill all articles with scores below the default score (or below the
3426 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-kill-below}).
3428 @kindex M s c (Summary)
3429 @findex gnus-summary-clear-above
3430 Clear all marks from articles with scores over the default score (or
3431 over the numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
3433 @kindex M s u (Summary)
3434 @findex gnus-summary-tick-above
3435 Tick all articles with scores over the default score (or over the
3436 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-tick-above}).
3438 @kindex M s m (Summary)
3439 @findex gnus-summary-mark-above
3440 Prompt for a mark, and mark all articles with scores over the default
3441 score (or over the numeric prefix) with this mark
3442 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
3445 @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread}
3446 The @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} variable controls what action should
3447 be taken after setting a mark. If non-@code{nil}, point will move to
3448 the next/previous unread article. If @code{nil}, point will just move
3449 one line up or down.
3451 @node Setting Process Marks
3452 @subsection Setting Process Marks
3453 @cindex setting process marks
3459 @kindex M p p (Summary)
3460 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-processable
3461 Mark the current article with the process mark
3462 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-processable}).
3463 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable
3466 @kindex M p u (Summary)
3467 @kindex M-# (Summary)
3468 Remove the process mark, if any, from the current article
3469 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable}).
3471 @kindex M p U (Summary)
3472 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable
3473 Remove the process mark from all articles
3474 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable}).
3476 @kindex M p R (Summary)
3477 @findex gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp
3478 Mark articles by a regular expression (@code{gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp}).
3480 @kindex M p r (Summary)
3481 @findex gnus-uu-mark-region
3482 Mark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-mark-region}).
3484 @kindex M p t (Summary)
3485 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
3486 Mark all articles in the current (sub)thread
3487 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
3489 @kindex M p s (Summary)
3490 @findex gnus-uu-mark-series
3491 Mark all articles in the current series (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
3493 @kindex M p S (Summary)
3494 @findex gnus-uu-mark-sparse
3495 Mark all series that have already had some articles marked
3496 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-sparse}).
3498 @kindex M p a (Summary)
3499 @findex gnus-uu-mark-all
3500 Mark all articles in series order (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
3506 @cindex article threading
3508 Gnus threads articles by default. @dfn{To thread} is to put replies to
3509 articles directly after the articles they reply to - in a hierarchical
3513 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
3514 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
3517 @node Customizing Threading
3518 @subsection Customizing Threading
3519 @cindex customizing threading
3522 @item gnus-show-threads
3523 @vindex gnus-show-threads
3524 If this variable is @code{nil}, no threading will be done, and all of
3525 the rest of the variables here will have no effect. Turning threading
3526 off will speed group selection up a bit, but it is sure to make reading
3527 slower and more awkward.
3528 @item gnus-fetch-old-headers
3529 @vindex gnus-fetch-old-headers
3530 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will attempt to build old threads by fetching
3531 more old headers - headers to articles that are marked as read. If you
3532 would like to display as few summary lines as possible, but still
3533 connect as many loose threads as possible, you should set this variable
3534 to @code{some}. In either case, fetching old headers only works if the
3535 select method you are using supports @sc{xover}. Also remember that if
3536 the root of the thread has been expired by the server, there's not much
3537 Gnus can do about that.
3538 @item gnus-gather-loose-threads
3539 @vindex gnus-gather-loose-threads
3540 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will gather all loose subtrees into one big tree
3541 and create a dummy root at the top. (Wait a minute. Root at the top?
3542 Yup.) Loose subtrees occur when the real root has expired, or you've
3543 read or killed the root in a previous session.
3544 @item gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
3545 Loose threads are gathered by comparing subjects of articles. If this
3546 variable is @code{nil}, Gnus requires an exact match between the
3547 subjects of the loose threads before gathering them into one big
3548 super-thread. This might be too strict a requirement, what with the
3549 presence of stupid newsreaders that chop off long subjects lines. If
3550 you think so, set this variable to, say, 20 to require that only the
3551 first 20 characters of the subjects have to match. If you set this
3552 variable to a real low number, you'll find that Gnus will gather
3553 everything in sight into one thread, which isn't very helpful.
3555 @cindex fuzzy article gathering
3556 If you set this variable to the special value @code{fuzzy}, Gnus will
3557 use a fuzzy string comparison algorithm on the subjects.
3559 @item gnus-summary-make-false-root
3560 @vindex gnus-summary-make-false-root
3561 When there is no real root of a thread, Gnus will have to fudge
3562 something. This variable says what fudging method Gnus should use.
3563 There are four possible values:
3567 Gnus will make the first of the orphaned articles the parent. This
3568 parent will adopt all the other articles. The adopted articles will be
3569 marked as such by pointy brackets instead of the standard square
3570 brackets. This is the default method.
3572 Gnus will create a dummy summary line that will pretend to be the
3573 parent. This dummy line does not correspond to any real article, so
3574 selecting it will just select the first real article after the dummy
3577 Gnus won't actually make any article the parent, but simply leave the
3578 subject field of all orphans except the first empty. (Actually, it will
3579 use @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} as the subject (@pxref{Summary
3582 Don't make any article parent at all. Just gather the threads and
3583 display them after one another.
3586 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
3587 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-subtree
3588 If non-@code{nil}, all threads will be hidden when the summary buffer is
3590 @item gnus-thread-hide-killed
3591 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-killed
3592 if you kill a thread and this variable is non-@code{nil}, the subtree
3594 @item gnus-thread-ignore-subject
3595 @vindex gnus-thread-ignore-subject
3596 Sometimes somebody changes the subject in the middle of a thread. If
3597 this variable is non-@code{nil}, the subject change is ignored. If it
3598 is @code{nil}, which is the default, a change in the subject will result
3600 @item gnus-thread-indent-level
3601 @vindex gnus-thread-indent-level
3602 This is a number that says how much each subthread should be indented.
3603 The default is @samp{4}.
3606 @node Thread Commands
3607 @subsection Thread Commands
3608 @cindex thread commands
3613 @kindex T k (Summary)
3614 @kindex M-C-k (Summary)
3615 @findex gnus-summary-kill-thread
3616 Mark all articles in the current subthread as read
3617 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}). If the prefix argument is positive,
3618 remove all marks instead. If the prefix argument is negative, tick
3622 @kindex T l (Summary)
3623 @kindex M-C-l (Summary)
3624 @findex gnus-summary-lower-thread
3625 Lower the score of the current thread
3626 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-thread}).
3628 @kindex T i (Summary)
3629 @findex gnus-summary-raise-thread
3630 Increase the score of the current thread
3631 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-thread}).
3633 @kindex T # (Summary)
3634 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
3635 Mark the current thread with the process mark
3636 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
3638 @kindex T T (Summary)
3639 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-threads
3640 Toggle threading (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-threads}).
3642 @kindex T s (Summary)
3643 @findex gnus-summary-show-thread
3644 Expose the thread hidden under the current article, if any
3645 (@code{gnus-summary-show-thread}).
3647 @kindex T h (Summary)
3648 @findex gnus-summary-hide-thread
3649 Hide the current (sub)thread (@code{gnus-summary-hide-thread}).
3651 @kindex T S (Summary)
3652 @findex gnus-summary-show-all-threads
3653 Expose all hidden threads (@code{gnus-summary-show-all-threads}).
3655 @kindex T H (Summary)
3656 @findex gnus-summary-hide-all-threads
3657 Hide all threads (@code{gnus-summary-hide-all-threads}).
3660 The following commands are thread movement commands. They all
3661 understand the numeric prefix.
3665 @kindex T n (Summary)
3666 @findex gnus-summary-next-thread
3667 Go to the next thread (@code{gnus-summary-next-thread}).
3669 @kindex T p (Summary)
3670 @findex gnus-summary-prev-thread
3671 Go to the previous thread (@code{gnus-summary-prev-thread}).
3673 @kindex T d (Summary)
3674 @findex gnus-summary-down-thread
3675 Descend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-down-thread}).
3677 @kindex T u (Summary)
3678 @findex gnus-summary-up-thread
3679 Ascend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-up-thread}).
3682 @node Asynchronous Fetching
3683 @section Asynchronous Article Fetching
3684 @cindex asynchronous article fetching
3686 If you read your news from an @sc{nntp} server that's far away, the
3687 network latencies may make reading articles a chore. You have to way
3688 for a while after pressing @kbd{n} to go to the next article before the
3689 article appears. Why can't Gnus just go ahead and fetch the article
3690 while you are reading the previous one? Why not, indeed.
3692 First, some caveats. There are some pitfalls to using asynchronous
3693 article fetching, especially the way Gnus does it.
3695 Let's say you are reading article 1, which is short, and article 2 is
3696 quite long, and you are not interested in reading that. Gnus does not
3697 know this, so it goes ahead and fetches article 2. You decide to read
3698 article 3, but since Gnus is in the process of fetching article 2, the
3699 connection is blocked.
3701 To avoid these situations, Gnus will open two (count 'em two)
3702 connections to the server. Some people may think this isn't a very nice
3703 thing to do, but I don't see any real alternatives. Setting up that
3704 extra connection takes some time, so Gnus startup will be slower.
3706 Gnus will fetch more articles than you will read. This will mean that
3707 the link between your machine and the @sc{nntp} server will become more
3708 loaded than if you didn't use article pre-fetch. The server itself will
3709 also become more loaded - both with the extra article requests, and the
3712 Ok, so now you know that you shouldn't really use this thing... unless
3715 @vindex gnus-asynchronous
3716 Here's how: Set @code{gnus-asynchronous} to @code{t}. The rest should
3717 happen automatically.
3719 @vindex nntp-async-number
3720 You can control how many articles that are to be pre-fetched by setting
3721 @code{nntp-async-number}. This is five by default, which means that when
3722 you read an article in the group, @code{nntp} will pre-fetch the next
3723 five articles. If this variable is @code{t}, @code{nntp} will pre-fetch
3724 all the articles that it can without bound. If it is @code{nil}, no
3725 pre-fetching will be made.
3727 @vindex gnus-asynchronous-article-function
3728 You may wish to create some sort of scheme for choosing which articles
3729 that @code{nntp} should consider as candidates for pre-fetching. For
3730 instance, you may wish to pre-fetch all articles with high scores, and
3731 not pre-fetch low-scored articles. You can do that by setting the
3732 @code{gnus-asynchronous-article-function}, which will be called with an
3733 alist where the keys are the article numbers. Your function should
3734 return an alist where the articles you are not interested in have been
3735 removed. You could also do sorting on article score and the like.
3737 @node Exiting the Summary Buffer
3738 @section Exiting the Summary Buffer
3739 @cindex summary exit
3741 Exiting from the summary buffer will normally update all info on the
3742 group and return you to the group buffer.
3747 @kindex Z Z (Summary)
3749 @findex gnus-summary-exit
3750 Exit the current group and update all information on the group
3751 (@code{gnus-summary-exit}).
3754 @kindex Z E (Summary)
3756 @findex gnus-summary-exit-no-update
3757 Exit the current group without updating any information on the group
3758 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}).
3761 @kindex Z c (Summary)
3763 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit
3764 Mark all unticked articles in the group as read and then exit
3765 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}).
3767 @kindex Z C (Summary)
3768 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit
3769 Mark all articles, even the ticked ones, as read and then exit
3770 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit}).
3772 @kindex Z n (Summary)
3773 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group
3774 Mark all articles as read and go to the next group
3775 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group}).
3777 @kindex Z R (Summary)
3778 @findex gnus-summary-reselect-current-group
3779 Exit this group, and then enter it again
3780 (@code{gnus-summary-reselect-current-group}). If given a prefix, select
3781 all articles, both read and unread.
3784 @kindex Z G (Summary)
3785 @kindex M-g (Summary)
3786 @findex gnus-summary-rescan-group
3787 Exit the group, check for new articles in the group, and select the
3788 group (@code{gnus-summary-rescan-group}). If given a prefix, select all
3789 articles, both read and unread.
3792 @vindex gnus-exit-group-hook
3793 @code{gnus-exit-group-hook} is called when you exit the current
3796 @vindex gnus-use-cross-reference
3797 The data on the current group will be updated (which articles you have
3798 read, which articles you have replied to, etc.) when you exit the
3799 summary buffer. If the @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} variable is
3800 @code{t}, articles that are cross-referenced to this group and are
3801 marked as read, will also be marked as read in the other subscribed
3802 groups they were cross-posted to. If this variable is neither
3803 @code{nil} nor @code{t}, the article will be marked as read in both
3804 subscribed and unsubscribed groups.
3806 Marking cross-posted articles as read ensures that you'll never have to
3807 read the same article more than once. Unless, of course, somebody has
3808 posted it to several groups separately. Posting the same article to
3809 several groups (not cross-posting) is called @dfn{spamming}, and you are
3810 by law required to send nasty-grams to anyone who perpetrates such a
3813 Remember: Cross-posting is kinda ok, but posting the same article
3814 separately to several groups is not.
3816 One thing that may cause Gnus to not do the cross-posting thing
3817 correctly is if you use an @sc{nntp} server that supports @sc{xover}
3818 (which is very nice, because it speeds things up considerably) which
3819 does not include the @code{Xref} header in its @sc{nov} lines. This is
3820 Evil, but all too common, alas, alack. Gnus tries to Do The Right Thing
3821 even with @sc{xover} by registering the @code{Xref} lines of all
3822 articles you actually read, but if you kill the articles, or just mark
3823 them as read without reading them, Gnus will not get a chance to snoop
3824 the @code{Xref} lines out of these articles, and will be unable to use
3825 the cross reference mechanism.
3827 @vindex gnus-nov-is-evil
3828 If you want Gnus to get the @code{Xref}s right all the time, you have to
3829 set @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{t}, which slows things down
3834 @node Process/Prefix
3835 @section Process/Prefix
3836 @cindex process/prefix convention
3838 Many functions, among them functions for moving, decoding and saving
3839 articles, use what is known as the @dfn{Process/Prefix convention}.
3841 This is a method for figuring out what articles that the user wants the
3842 command to be performed on.
3846 If the numeric prefix is N, perform the operation on the next N
3847 articles, starting with the current one. If the numeric prefix is
3848 negative, perform the operation on the previous N articles, starting
3849 with the current one.
3851 If there is no numeric prefix, but some articles are marked with the
3852 process mark, perform the operation on the articles that are marked with
3855 If there is neither a numeric prefix nor any articles marked with the
3856 process mark, just perform the operation on the current article.
3858 Quite simple, really, but it needs to be made clear so that surprises
3861 @node Saving Articles
3862 @section Saving Articles
3863 @cindex saving articles
3865 Gnus can save articles in a number of ways. Below is the documentation
3866 for saving articles in a fairly straight-forward fashion (ie. little
3867 processing of the article is done before it is saved). For a different
3868 approach (uudecoding, unsharing) you should use @code{gnus-uu}
3869 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
3871 @vindex gnus-save-all-headers
3872 If @code{gnus-save-all-headers} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will not delete
3873 unwanted headers before saving the article.
3878 @kindex O o (Summary)
3880 @findex gnus-summary-save-article
3881 Save the current article using the default article saver
3882 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article}).
3884 @kindex O m (Summary)
3885 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-mail
3886 Save the current article in mail format
3887 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-mail}).
3889 @kindex O r (Summary)
3890 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-mail
3891 Save the current article in rmail format
3892 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-rmail}).
3894 @kindex O f (Summary)
3895 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-file
3896 Save the current article in plain file format
3897 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-file}).
3899 @kindex O h (Summary)
3900 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-folder
3901 Save the current article in mh folder format
3902 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-folder}).
3904 @kindex O p (Summary)
3905 @findex gnus-summary-pipe-output
3906 Save the current article in a pipe. Uhm, like, what I mean is - Pipe
3907 the current article to a process (@code{gnus-summary-pipe-output}).
3910 All these commands use the process/prefix convention
3911 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3913 @vindex gnus-default-article-saver
3914 You can customize the @code{gnus-default-article-saver} variable to make
3915 Gnus do what you want it to. You can use any of the four ready-made
3916 functions below, or you can create your own.
3919 @item gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
3920 @vindex gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
3921 This is the default format, @dfn{babyl}. Uses the function in the
3922 @code{gnus-rmail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
3923 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
3924 @item gnus-summary-save-in-mail
3925 @vindex gnus-summary-save-in-mail
3926 Save in a Unix mail (mbox) file. Uses the function in the
3927 @code{gnus-mail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
3928 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
3929 @item gnus-summary-save-in-file
3930 @vindex gnus-summary-save-in-file
3931 Append the article straight to an ordinary file. Uses the function in
3932 the @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
3933 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
3934 @item gnus-summary-save-in-folder
3935 @vindex gnus-summary-save-in-folder
3936 Save the article to an MH folder using @code{rcvstore} from the MH
3940 All of these functions, except for the last one, will save the article
3941 in the @code{gnus-article-save-directory}, which is initialized from the
3942 @samp{SAVEDIR} environment variable.
3944 As you can see above, the functions use different functions to find a
3945 suitable name of a file to save the article in. Below is a list of
3946 available functions that generate names:
3949 @item gnus-Numeric-save-name
3950 @findex gnus-Numeric-save-name
3951 Generates file names that look like @samp{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
3952 @item gnus-numeric-save-name
3953 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
3954 Generates file names that look like @samp{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
3955 @item gnus-Plain-save-name
3956 @findex gnus-Plain-save-name
3957 Generates file names that look like @samp{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin}.
3958 @item gnus-plain-save-name
3959 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
3960 Generates file names that look like @samp{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.
3963 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
3964 Finally, you have the @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable. If it is
3965 @code{nil}, all the preceding functions will replace all periods
3966 (@samp{.}) in the group names with slashes (@samp{/}) - which means that
3967 the functions will generate hierarchies of directories instead of having
3968 all the files in the toplevel directory
3969 (@samp{~/News/alt/andrea-dworkin} instead of
3970 @samp{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.)
3972 This function also affects kill and score file names. If this variable
3973 is a list, and the list contains the element @code{not-score}, long file
3974 names will not be used for score files, if it contains the element
3975 @code{not-save}, long file names will not be used for saving, and if it
3976 contains the element @code{not-kill}, long file names will not be used
3979 @node Decoding Articles
3980 @section Decoding Articles
3981 @cindex decoding articles
3983 Sometime users post articles (or series of articles) that have been
3984 encoded in some way or other. Gnus can decode them for you.
3987 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
3988 * Shared Articles:: Unshar articles.
3989 * PostScript Files:: Split PoscScript.
3992 All these functions use the process/prefix convention
3993 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) for finding out what articles to work on, with
3994 the extension that a "single article" means "a single series". Gnus can
3995 find out by itself what articles belong to a series, decode all the
3996 articles and unpack/view/save the resulting file(s).
3998 Gnus guesses what articles are in the series according to the following
3999 simplish rule: The subjects must be (nearly) identical, except for the
4000 last two numbers of the line. (Spaces are largely ignored, however.)
4002 For example: If you choose a subject called @samp{cat.gif (2/3)}, Gnus
4003 will find all the articles that match the regexp @samp{^cat.gif
4004 ([0-9]+/[0-9]+).*$}.
4006 Subjects that are nonstandard, like @samp{cat.gif (2/3) Part 6 of a
4007 series}, will not be properly recognized by any of the automatic viewing
4008 commands, and you have to mark the articles manually with @key{#}.
4011 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
4012 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
4015 @node Uuencoded Articles
4016 @subsection Uuencoded Articles
4018 @cindex uuencoded articles
4022 @kindex X u (Summary)
4023 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu
4024 Uudecodes the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}).
4026 @kindex X U (Summary)
4027 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save
4028 Uudecodes and saves the current series
4029 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
4031 @kindex X v u (Summary)
4032 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-view
4033 Uudecodes and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-view}).
4035 @kindex X v U (Summary)
4036 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view
4037 Uudecodes, views and saves the current series
4038 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view}).
4041 Remember that these all react to the presence of articles marked with
4042 the process mark. If, for instance, you'd like to uncode and save an
4043 entire newsgroup, you'd typically do @kbd{M p a}
4044 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-all}) and then @kbd{X U}
4045 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
4047 All this is very much different from how @code{gnus-uu} worked with
4048 @sc{gnus 4.1}, where you had explicit keystrokes for everything under
4049 the sun. This version of @code{gnus-uu} generally assumes that you mark
4050 articles in some way (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}) and then press
4053 Note: When trying to decode articles that have names matching
4054 @code{gnus-uu-notify-files}, which is hard-coded to
4055 @samp{[Cc][Ii][Nn][Dd][Yy][0-9]+.\\(gif\\|jpg\\)}, @code{gnus-uu} will
4056 automatically post an article on @samp{comp.unix.wizards} saying that
4057 you have just viewed the file in question. This feature can't be turned
4060 @node Shared Articles
4061 @subsection Shared Articles
4063 @cindex shared articles
4067 @kindex X s (Summary)
4068 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar
4069 Unshars the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar}).
4071 @kindex X S (Summary)
4072 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save
4073 Unshars and saves the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save}).
4075 @kindex X v s (Summary)
4076 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view
4077 Unshars and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view}).
4079 @kindex X v S (Summary)
4080 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view
4081 Unshars, views and saves the current series
4082 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view}).
4085 @node PostScript Files
4086 @subsection PostScript Files
4091 @kindex X p (Summary)
4092 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript
4093 Unpack the current PostScript series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript}).
4095 @kindex X P (Summary)
4096 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save
4097 Unpack and save the current PostScript series
4098 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save}).
4100 @kindex X v p (Summary)
4101 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view
4102 View the current PostScript series
4103 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view}).
4105 @kindex X v P (Summary)
4106 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view
4107 View and save the current PostScript series
4108 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view}).
4111 @node Decoding Variables
4112 @subsection Decoding Variables
4114 Adjective, not verb.
4117 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
4118 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
4119 * Uuencoding & Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
4122 @node Rule Variables
4123 @subsubsection Rule Variables
4124 @cindex rule variables
4126 Gnus uses @dfn{rule variables} to decide how to view a file. All these
4127 variables are on the form
4130 (list '(regexp1 command2)
4136 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules
4137 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules
4138 This variable is consulted first when viewing files. If you wish to use,
4139 for instance, @code{sox} to convert an @samp{.au} sound file, you could
4142 (setq gnus-uu-user-view-rules
4143 (list '(\"\\\\.au$\" \"sox %s -t .aiff > /dev/audio\")))
4145 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
4146 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
4147 This variable is consulted if Gnus couldn't make any matches from the
4148 user and default view rules.
4149 @item gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
4150 @vindex gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
4151 This variable can be used to say what commands should be used to unpack
4155 @node Other Decode Variables
4156 @subsubsection Other Decode Variables
4159 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
4160 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
4161 Files with name matching this regular expression won't be viewed.
4163 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
4164 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
4165 Files with a @sc{mime} type matching this variable won't be viewed.
4166 Note that Gnus tries to guess what type the file is based on the name.
4167 @code{gnus-uu} is not a @sc{mime} package (yet), so this is slightly
4170 @item gnus-uu-tmp-dir
4171 @vindex gnus-uu-tmp-dir
4172 Where @code{gnus-uu} does its work.
4174 @item gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
4175 @vindex gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
4176 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} won't peek inside archives
4177 looking for files to display.
4179 @item gnus-uu-view-and-save
4180 @vindex gnus-uu-view-and-save
4181 Non-@code{nil} means that the user will always be asked to save a file
4184 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
4185 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
4186 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default viewing
4189 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
4190 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
4191 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default archive
4194 @item gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
4195 @vindex gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
4196 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will strip all carriage returns
4199 @item gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
4200 @vindex gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
4201 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will mark articles that were
4202 unsuccessfully decoded as unread.
4204 @item gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
4205 @vindex gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
4206 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will @emph{try} to fix
4207 uuencoded files that have had trailing spaces deleted.
4209 @item gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
4210 @vindex gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
4211 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the viewing
4212 commands defined by the rule variables and just fudge a @sc{mime}
4213 content type based on the file name. The result will be fed to
4214 @code{metamail} for viewing.
4216 @item gnus-uu-save-in-digest
4217 @vindex gnus-uu-save-in-digest
4218 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu}, when asked to save without
4219 decoding, will save in digests. If this variable is @code{nil},
4220 @code{gnus-uu} will just save everything in a file without any
4221 embellishments. The digesting almost conforms to RFC1153 - no easy way
4222 to specify any meaningful volume and issue numbers were found, so I
4223 simply dropped them.
4227 @node Uuencoding & Posting
4228 @subsubsection Uuencoding & Posting
4232 @item gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
4233 @vindex gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
4234 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ask for a file to encode
4235 before you compose the article. If this variable is @code{t}, you can
4236 either include an encoded file with @key{C-c C-i} or have one included
4237 for you when you post the article.
4239 @item gnus-uu-post-length
4240 @vindex gnus-uu-post-length
4241 Maximum length of an article. The encoded file will be split into how
4242 many articles it takes to post the entire file.
4244 @item gnus-uu-post-threaded
4245 @vindex gnus-uu-post-threaded
4246 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will post the encoded file in a
4247 thread. This may not be smart, as no other decoder I have seen are able
4248 to follow threads when collecting uuencoded articles. (Well, I have
4249 seen one package that does that - @code{gnus-uu}, but somehow, I don't
4250 think that counts...) Default is @code{nil}.
4252 @item gnus-uu-post-separate-description
4253 @vindex gnus-uu-post-separate-description
4254 Non-@code{nil} means that the description will be posted in a separate
4255 article. The first article will typically be numbered (0/x). If this
4256 variable is @code{nil}, the description the user enters will be included
4257 at the beginning of the first article, which will be numbered (1/x).
4258 Default is @code{t}.
4263 @subsection Viewing Files
4264 @cindex viewing files
4265 @cindex pseudo-articles
4267 After decoding, if the file is some sort of archive, Gnus will attempt
4268 to unpack the archive and see if any of the files in the archive can be
4269 viewed. For instance, if you have a gzipped tar file @file{pics.tar.gz}
4270 containing the files @file{pic1.jpg} and @file{pic2.gif}, Gnus will
4271 uncompress and detar the main file, and then view the two pictures.
4272 This unpacking process is recursive, so if the archive contains archives
4273 of archives, it'll all be unpacked.
4275 Finally, Gnus will normally insert a @dfn{pseudo-article} for each
4276 extracted file into the summary buffer. If you go to these "articles",
4277 you will be prompted for a command to run (usually Gnus will make a
4278 suggestion), and then the command will be run.
4280 @vindex gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously
4281 If @code{gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously} is @code{nil}, Emacs will wait
4282 until the viewing is done before proceeding.
4284 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos
4285 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos} is @code{automatic}, Gnus will not insert
4286 the pseudo-articles into the summary buffer, but view them
4287 immediately. If this variable is @code{not-confirm}, the user won't even
4288 be asked for a confirmation before viewing is done.
4290 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos-separately
4291 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos-separately} is non-@code{nil}, one
4292 pseudo-article will be created for each file to be viewed. If
4293 @code{nil}, all files that use the same viewing command will be given as
4294 a list of parameters to that command.
4296 So; there you are, reading your @emph{pseudo-articles} in your
4297 @emph{virtual newsgroup} from the @emph{virtual server}; and you think:
4298 Why isn't anything real anymore? How did we get here?
4300 @node Various Article Stuff
4301 @section Various Article Stuff
4305 @kindex A w (Summary)
4306 @findex gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking
4307 Remove page breaks from the current article
4308 (@code{gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking}).
4310 @kindex A s (Summary)
4311 @findex gnus-summary-isearch-article
4312 Perform an isearch in the article buffer
4313 (@code{gnus-summary-isearch-article}).
4315 @kindex A c (Summary)
4316 @findex gnus-summary-caesar-message
4317 Do a Caesar rotate (rot13) on the article buffer
4318 (@code{gnus-summary-caesar-message}).
4320 @kindex A g (Summary)
4321 @findex gnus-summary-show-article
4322 Select the current article (@code{gnus-summary-show-article}).
4324 @kindex A t (Summary)
4325 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-header
4326 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer
4327 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-header}).
4329 @kindex A m (Summary)
4330 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-mime
4331 Toggle whether to run the article through @sc{mime} before displaying
4332 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-mime}).
4335 There's a battery of commands for washing the article buffer:
4339 @kindex W h (Summary)
4340 @findex gnus-article-hide-headers
4341 Hide headers (@code{gnus-article-hide-headers}).
4343 @kindex W s (Summary)
4344 @findex gnus-article-hide-signature
4345 Hide signature (@code{gnus-article-hide-signature}).
4347 @kindex W c (Summary)
4348 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation
4349 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation}).
4351 @kindex W o (Summary)
4352 @findex gnus-article-treat-overstrike
4353 Treat overstrike (@code{gnus-article-treat-overstrike}).
4355 @kindex W w (Summary)
4356 @findex gnus-article-word-wrap
4357 Do word wrap (@code{gnus-article-word-wrap}).
4359 @kindex W d (Summary)
4360 @findex gnus-article-remove-cr
4361 Remove CR (@code{gnus-article-remove-cr}).
4363 @kindex W q (Summary)
4364 @findex gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable
4365 Treat quoted-printable (@code{gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable}).
4367 @kindex W f (Summary)
4368 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
4369 @findex gnus-article-x-face-command
4370 Look for and display any X-Face headers
4371 (@code{gnus-article-display-x-face}). The command executed by this
4372 function is given by the @code{gnus-article-x-face-command} variable.
4373 If this variable is a string, this string will be executed in a
4374 sub-shell. If it is a function, this function will be called with the
4375 face as the argument.
4378 @node Summary Sorting
4379 @section Summary Sorting
4380 @cindex summary sorting
4382 You can have the summary buffer sorted in various ways, even though I
4383 can't really see why you'd want that.
4387 @kindex V s n (Summary)
4388 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-number
4389 Sort by article number (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-number}).
4391 @kindex V s a (Summary)
4392 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-author
4393 Sort by author (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-author}).
4395 @kindex V s s (Summary)
4396 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-subject
4397 Sort by subject (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-subject}).
4399 @kindex V s d (Summary)
4400 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-date
4401 Sort by date (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-date}).
4404 These functions will work both when you use threading and when you don't
4405 use threading. In the latter case, all summary lines will be sorted,
4406 line by line. In the former case, sorting will be done on a
4407 root-by-root basis, which might not be what you were looking for. To
4408 toggle whether to use threading, type @kbd{T T} (@pxref{Thread
4411 @node Finding the Parent
4412 @section Finding the Parent
4413 @cindex parent articles
4414 @cindex referring articles
4416 @findex gnus-summary-refer-parent-article
4418 If you'd like to read the parent of the current article, and it is not
4419 displayed in the article buffer, you might still be able to. That is,
4420 if the current group is fetched by @sc{nntp}, the parent hasn't expired
4421 and the @code{References} in the current article are not mangled, you
4422 can just press @kbd{^} or @kbd{A r}
4423 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-parent-article}). If everything goes well,
4424 you'll get the parent. If the parent is already displayed in the
4425 summary buffer, point will just move to this article.
4427 @findex gnus-summary-refer-article
4428 @kindex M-^ (Summary)
4429 You can also ask the @sc{nntp} server for an arbitrary article, no
4430 matter what group it belongs to. @kbd{V r}
4431 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-article}) will ask you for a
4432 @code{Message-Id}, which is one of those long thingies that look
4433 something like @samp{<38o6up$6f2@@hymir.ifi.uio.no>}. You have to get
4434 it all exactly right. No fuzzy searches, I'm afraid.
4436 @vindex gnus-refer-article-method
4437 If the group you are reading is located on a backend that does not
4438 support fetching by @code{Message-Id} very well (like @code{nnspool}),
4439 you can set @code{gnus-refer-article-method} to an @sc{nntp} method. It
4440 would, perhaps, be best if the @sc{nntp} server you consult is the same
4441 as the one that keeps the spool you are reading from updated, but that's
4442 not really necessary.
4445 @section Score Files
4448 Other people use @dfn{kill files}, but we here at (ding) Gnus Towers
4449 like scoring better than killing, so we'd rather switch than fight. They
4450 do something completely different as well, so sit up straight and pay
4453 @vindex gnus-summary-mark-below
4454 All articles have a default score (@code{gnus-summary-default-score}).
4455 This score may be raised or lowered either interactively or by score
4456 files. Articles that have a score lower than
4457 @code{gnus-summary-mark-below} are marked as read.
4459 Gnus will read any @dfn{score files} that apply to the current group
4460 before generating the summary buffer.
4462 There are several commands in the summary buffer that inserts score
4463 entries based on the current article. You can, for instance, ask Gnus
4464 to lower or increase the score of all articles with a certain subject.
4466 There are two sorts of scoring entries: Permanent and temporary.
4467 Temporary score entries are self-expiring entries. Any entries that are
4468 temporary and have not been used for, say, a week, will be removed
4469 silently to help keep the sizes of the score files down.
4472 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score commands to the score file.
4473 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
4474 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
4475 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
4476 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus *knows* what you read.
4477 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
4478 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
4479 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
4480 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
4483 @node Summary Score Commands
4484 @subsection Summary Score Commands
4485 @cindex score commands
4487 The score commands that alter score entries do not actually modify real
4488 score files. That would be too inefficient. Gnus maintains a cache of
4489 previously loaded score files, one of which is considered the
4490 @dfn{current score file alist}. The score commands simply insert
4491 entries into this list, and upon group exit, this list is saved.
4493 The current score file is by default the group's local score file, even
4494 if no such score file actually exists. To insert score commands into
4495 some other score file (eg. @file{all.SCORE}), you must first make this
4496 score file the current one.
4498 General score commands that don't actually change the score file:
4502 @kindex V S s (Summary)
4503 @findex gnus-summary-set-score
4504 Set the score of the current article (@code{gnus-summary-set-score}).
4506 @kindex V S c (Summary)
4507 @findex gnus-score-change-score-file
4508 Make a different score file the current
4509 (@code{gnus-score-change-score-file}).
4511 @kindex V S e (Summary)
4512 @findex gnus-score-edit-alist
4513 Edit the current score file (@code{gnus-score-edit-alist}). You will be
4514 popped into a @code{gnus-score-mode} buffer (@pxref{Score File
4517 @kindex V S f (Summary)
4518 @findex gnus-score-edit-file
4519 Edit a score file and make this score file the current one
4520 (@code{gnus-score-edit-file}).
4522 @kindex I C-i (Summary)
4523 @findex gnus-summary-raise-score
4524 Increase the score of the current article
4525 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-score}).
4527 @kindex L C-l (Summary)
4528 @findex gnus-summary-lower-score
4529 Lower the score of the current article
4530 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-score}).
4533 The rest of these commands modify the local score file.
4537 @kindex V S m (Summary)
4538 @findex gnus-score-set-mark-below
4539 Prompt for a score, and mark all articles with a score below this as
4540 read (@code{gnus-score-set-mark-below}).
4542 @kindex V S E (Summary)
4543 @findex gnus-score-set-expunge-below
4544 Expunge all articles with a score below the default score (or the
4545 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-score-set-expunge-below}).
4548 Commands for increasing the score:
4552 @kindex I s t (Summary)
4553 @findex gnus-summary-temporarily-raise-by-subject
4554 Increase the current subject temporarily
4555 (@code{gnus-summary-temporarily-raise-by-subject}).
4557 @kindex I s p (Summary)
4558 @findex gnus-summary-raise-by-subject
4559 Increase the current subject permanently
4560 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-by-subject}).
4562 @kindex I a t (Summary)
4563 @findex gnus-summary-temporarily-raise-by-author
4564 Increase the current author temporarily
4565 (@code{gnus-summary-temporarily-raise-by-author}).
4567 @kindex I a p (Summary)
4568 @findex gnus-summary-raise-by-author
4569 Increase the current author permanently
4570 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-by-author}).
4572 @kindex I b t (Summary)
4573 @findex gnus-summary-temporarily-raise-by-body
4574 Increase based on a match on the body of an article temporarily
4575 (@code{gnus-summary-temporarily-raise-by-body}). This is a very slow
4578 @kindex I b p (Summary)
4579 @findex gnus-summary-raise-by-body
4580 Increase based on a match on the body of an article
4581 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-by-body}). This is a very slow operation
4583 @kindex I i t (Summary)
4584 @findex gnus-summary-temporarily-raise-by-id
4585 Increase the current message-id temporarily
4586 (@code{gnus-summary-temporarily-raise-by-id}).
4588 @kindex I i p (Summary)
4589 @findex gnus-summary-raise-by-id
4590 Increase the current message-id permanently
4591 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-by-id}).
4593 @kindex I t t (Summary)
4594 @findex gnus-summary-temporarily-raise-by-thread
4595 Increase the current thread temporarily
4596 (@code{gnus-summary-temporarily-raise-by-thread}).
4598 @kindex I t p (Summary)
4599 @findex gnus-summary-raise-by-thread
4600 Increase the current thread permanently
4601 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-by-thread}).
4603 @kindex I x t (Summary)
4604 @findex gnus-summary-temporarily-raise-by-xref
4605 Increase the current xref temporarily
4606 (@code{gnus-summary-temporarily-raise-by-xref}).
4608 @kindex I x p (Summary)
4609 @findex gnus-summary-raise-by-xref
4610 Increase the current xref permanently
4611 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-by-xref}).
4613 @kindex I f t (Summary)
4614 @findex gnus-summary-temporarily-raise-followups-to-author
4615 Increase followups to the current author temporarily
4616 (@code{gnus-summary-temporarily-raise-followups-to-author}).
4618 @kindex I f p (Summary)
4619 @findex gnus-summary-raise-followups-to-author
4620 Increase followups to the current author permanently
4621 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-followups-to-author}).
4624 Commands for lowering the score:
4628 @kindex L s t (Summary)
4629 @findex gnus-summary-temporarily-lower-by-subject
4630 Lower the current subject temporarily
4631 (@code{gnus-summary-temporarily-lower-by-subject}).
4633 @kindex L s p (Summary)
4634 @findex gnus-summary-lower-by-subject
4635 Lower the current subject permanently
4636 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-by-subject}).
4638 @kindex L a t (Summary)
4639 @findex gnus-summary-temporarily-lower-by-author
4640 Lower the current author temporarily
4641 (@code{gnus-summary-temporarily-lower-by-author}).
4643 @kindex L a p (Summary)
4644 @findex gnus-summary-lower-by-author
4645 Lower the current author permanently
4646 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-by-author}).
4648 @kindex L b t (Summary)
4649 @findex gnus-summary-temporarily-lower-by-body
4650 Lower based on a match on the article body
4651 (@code{gnus-summary-temporarily-lower-by-body}). This is a very slow
4654 @kindex L b p (Summary)
4655 @findex gnus-summary-lower-by-body
4656 Lower based on a match on the article body
4657 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-by-body}). This is a very slow operation.
4659 @kindex L i t (Summary)
4660 @findex gnus-summary-temporarily-lower-by-id
4661 Lower the current message-id temporarily
4662 (@code{gnus-summary-temporarily-lower-by-id}).
4664 @kindex L i p (Summary)
4665 @findex gnus-summary-lower-by-id
4666 Lower the current message-id permanently
4667 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-by-id}).
4669 @kindex L t t (Summary)
4670 @findex gnus-summary-temporarily-lower-by-thread
4671 Lower the current thread temporarily
4672 (@code{gnus-summary-temporarily-lower-by-thread}).
4674 @kindex L t p (Summary)
4675 @findex gnus-summary-lower-by-thread
4676 Lower the current thread permanently
4677 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-by-thread}).
4679 @kindex L x t (Summary)
4680 @findex gnus-summary-temporarily-lower-by-xref
4681 Lower the current xref temporarily
4682 (@code{gnus-summary-temporarily-lower-by-xref}).
4684 @kindex L x p (Summary)
4685 @findex gnus-summary-lower-by-xref
4686 Lower the current xref permanently
4687 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-by-xref}).
4689 @kindex L f t (Summary)
4690 @findex gnus-summary-temporarily-lower-followups-to-author
4691 Lower followups to the current author temporarily
4692 (@code{gnus-summary-temporarily-lower-followups-to-author}).
4694 @kindex L f p (Summary)
4695 @findex gnus-summary-lower-followups-to-author
4696 Lower followups to the current author permanently
4697 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-followups-to-author}).
4700 @node Score Variables
4701 @subsection Score Variables
4702 @cindex score variables
4705 @item gnus-kill-killed
4706 @vindex gnus-kill-killed
4707 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will never apply score files to
4708 articles that have already been through the kill process. While this
4709 may save you lots of time, it also means that if you apply a kill file
4710 to a group, and then change the kill file and want to run it over you
4711 group again to kill more articles, it won't work. You have to set this
4712 variable to @code{t} to do that.
4713 @item gnus-kill-files-directory
4714 @vindex gnus-kill-files-directory
4715 All kill and score files will be stored in this directory, which is
4716 initialized from the @samp{SAVEDIR} environment variable by default.
4717 @item gnus-score-file-suffix
4718 @vindex gnus-score-file-suffix
4719 Suffix to add to the group name to arrive at the score file name
4720 (@samp{SCORE} by default.)
4721 @item gnus-score-interactive-default-score
4722 @vindex gnus-score-interactive-default-score
4723 Score used by all the interactive raise/lower commands to raise/lower
4724 score with. Default is 1000, which may seem excessive, but this is to
4725 ensure that the adaptive scoring scheme gets enough room to play with.
4726 We don't want the small changes from the adaptive scoring to overwrite
4727 manually entered data.
4728 @item gnus-summary-default-score
4729 @vindex gnus-summary-default-score
4730 Default score of an article, which is 0 by default.
4731 @item gnus-score-over-mark
4732 @vindex gnus-score-over-mark
4733 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score over the
4734 default. Default is @samp{+}.
4735 @item gnus-score-below-mark
4736 @vindex gnus-score-below-mark
4737 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score below the
4738 default. Default is @samp{-}.
4739 @item gnus-score-find-score-files-function
4740 @vindex gnus-score-find-score-files-function
4741 Function used to find score files for the current group. This function
4742 is called with the name of the group as the argument.
4744 Predefined functions available are:
4746 @item gnus-score-find-single
4747 @findex gnus-score-find-single
4748 Only apply the group's own score file.
4749 @item gnus-score-find-bnews
4750 @findex gnus-score-find-bnews
4751 Apply all score files that match, using bnews syntax. For instance, if
4752 the current group is @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}, @samp{all.emacs.all.SCORE},
4753 @samp{not.alt.all.SCORE} and @samp{gnu.all.SCORE} would all apply. In
4754 short, the instances of @samp{all} in the score file names are
4755 translated into @samp{.*}, and then a regexp match is done.
4756 @item gnus-score-find-hierarchical
4757 @findex gnus-score-find-hierarchical
4758 Apply all score files from all the parent groups.
4760 This variable can also be a list of functions. In that case, all these
4761 functions will be called, and all the returned lists of score files will
4762 be applied. These functions can also return lists of score alists
4763 directly. In that case, the functions that return these non-file score
4764 alists should probably be placed before the "real" score file functions,
4765 to ensure that the last score file returned is the local score file.
4767 @item gnus-kill-expiry-days
4768 @vindex gnus-kill-expiry-days
4769 This variable says how many days should pass before an unused score file
4770 entry is expired. The default is 7.
4773 @node Score File Format
4774 @subsection Score File Format
4775 @cindex score file format
4777 A score file is an @code{emacs-lisp} file that normally contains just a
4778 single form. Casual users are not expected to edit these files;
4779 everything can be changed from the summary buffer.
4781 Anyway, if you'd like to dig into it yourself, here's an example:
4785 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" -10000)
4787 ("larsi\\|lmi" -50000 nil R))
4789 ("Ding is Badd" nil 728373))
4791 ("alt.politics" -1000 728372 s))
4796 (mark-and-expunge -10)
4800 (files "/hom/larsi/News/gnu.SCORE")
4804 This example demonstrates absolutely everything about a score file.
4806 Even though this looks much like lisp code, nothing here is actually
4807 @code{eval}ed. The lisp reader is used to read this form, though, so it
4808 has to be legal syntactically, if not semantically.
4810 Six keys are supported by this alist:
4814 If the key is a string, it is the name of the header to perform the
4815 match on. Scoring can only be performed on these eight headers:
4816 @samp{From}, @samp{Subject}, @samp{References}, @samp{Message-ID},
4817 @samp{Xref}, @samp{Lines}, @samp{Chars} and @samp{Date}. In addition to
4818 these headers, there are three strings to tell Gnus to fetch the entire
4819 article and do the match on larger parts of the article: @samp{Body}
4820 will perform the match on the body of the article, @samp{Head} will
4821 perform the match on the head of the article, and @samp{All} will
4822 perform the match on the entire article. Note that using any of these
4823 last three keys will slow down group entry @emph{considerably}.
4825 Following this key is a random number of score entries, where each score
4826 entry has one to four elements.
4829 The first element is the @dfn{match element}. On most headers this will
4830 be a string, but on the Lines and Chars headers, this must be an
4833 If the second element is present, it should be a number - the @dfn{score
4834 element}. This number should be an integer in the neginf to posinf
4835 interval. This number is added to the score of the article if the match
4836 is successful. If this element is not present, the
4837 @code{gnus-score-interactive-default-score} number will be used instead.
4839 If the third element is present, it should be a number - the @dfn{date
4840 element}. This date says when the last time this score entry matched,
4841 which provides a mechanism for expiring the score entries. It this
4842 element is not present, the score entry is permanent. The date is
4843 represented by the number of days since December 31, 1 ce.
4845 If the fourth element is present, it should be a symbol - the @dfn{type
4846 element}. This element specifies what function should be used to see
4847 whether this score entry matches the article. What match types that can
4848 be used depends on what header you wish to perform the match on.
4850 @item From, Subject, References, Xref, Message-ID
4851 For most header types, there are the @code{r} and @code{R} (regexp) as
4852 well as @code{s} and @code{S} (substring) types and @code{e} and
4853 @code{E} (exact match) types. If this element is not present, Gnus will
4854 assume that substring matching should be used. @code{R} and @code{S}
4855 differ from the other two in that the matches will be done in a
4856 case-sensitive manner. All these one-letter types are really just
4857 abbreviations for the @code{regexp}, @code{string} and @code{exact}
4858 types, which you can use instead, if you feel like.
4860 These two headers use different match types: @code{<}, @code{>},
4861 @code{=}, @code{>=} and @code{<=}.
4863 For the Date header we have three match types: @code{before}, @code{at}
4864 and @code{after}. I can't really imagine this ever being useful, but,
4865 like, it would feel kinda silly not to provide this function. Just in
4866 case. You never know. Better safe than sorry. Once burnt, twice shy.
4867 Don't judge a book by its cover. Never not have sex on a first date.
4868 @item Head, Body, All
4869 These three match keys use the same match types as the @code{From} (etc)
4872 This match key will add a score entry on all articles that followup to
4873 some author. Uses the same match types as the @code{From} header uses.
4878 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
4879 lower than this number will be marked as read.
4881 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
4882 lower than this number will be removed from the summary buffer.
4883 @item mark-and-expunge
4884 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
4885 lower than this number will be marked as read and removed from the
4888 The value of this entry should be any number of file names. These files
4889 are assumed to be score files as well, and will be loaded the same way
4892 The clue of this entry should be any number of files. This files will
4893 not be loaded, even though they would normally be so, for some reason or
4896 The value of this entry will be @code{eval}el. This element will be
4897 ignored when handling global score files.
4899 Read-only score files will not be updated or saved. Global score files
4900 should feature this atom (@pxref{Global Score Files}).
4902 The value of this entry should be a number. Articles that do not have
4903 parents will get this number added to their scores.
4905 This entry controls the adaptive scoring. If it is @code{t}, the
4906 default adaptive scoring rules will be used. If it is @code{ignore}, no
4907 adaptive scoring will be performed on this group. If it is a list, this
4908 list will be used as the adaptive scoring rules.
4911 @node Score File Editing
4912 @subsection Score File Editing
4914 You normally enter all scoring commands from the summary buffer, but you
4915 might feel the urge to edit them by hand as well, so we've supplied you
4916 with a mode for that.
4918 It's simply a slightly customized @code{emacs-lisp} mode, with these
4919 additional commands:
4923 @kindex C-c C-c (Score)
4924 @findex gnus-score-edit-done
4925 Save the changes you have made and return to the summary buffer
4926 (@code{gnus-score-edit-done}).
4928 @kindex C-c C-d (Score)
4929 @findex gnus-score-edit-insert-date
4930 Insert the current date in numerical format
4931 (@code{gnus-score-edit-insert-date}). This is really the day number, if
4935 @node Adaptive Scoring
4936 @subsection Adaptive Scoring
4937 @cindex adaptive scoring
4939 If all this scoring is getting you down, Gnus has a way of making it all
4940 happen automatically - as if by magic. Or rather, as if by artificial
4941 stupidity, to be precise.
4943 @vindex gnus-use-adaptive-scoring
4944 When you read an article, or mark an article as read, or kill an
4945 article, you leave marks behind. On exit from the group, Gnus can sniff
4946 these marks and add score elements depending on what marks it finds.
4947 You turn on this ability by setting @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
4950 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
4951 To give you complete control over the scoring process, you can customize
4952 the @code{gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist} variable. By default, it
4953 looks something like this:
4956 (defvar gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
4957 '((gnus-unread-mark)
4958 (gnus-ticked-mark (from 4))
4959 (gnus-dormant-mark (from 5))
4960 (gnus-del-mark (from -4) (subject -1))
4961 (gnus-read-mark (from 4) (subject 2))
4962 (gnus-expirable-mark (from -1) (subject -1))
4963 (gnus-killed-mark (from -1) (subject -3))
4964 (gnus-kill-file-mark)
4965 (gnus-catchup-mark (from -1) (subject -1))))
4968 As you see, each element in this alist has a mark as a key (either a
4969 variable name or a "real" mark - a character). Following this key is a
4970 random number of header/score pairs.
4972 To take @code{gnus-del-mark} as an example - this alist says that all
4973 articles that have that mark (ie. are marked with @samp{D}) will have a
4974 score entry added to lower based on the @code{From} header by -4, and
4975 lowered by @code{Subject} by -1. Change this to fit your prejudices.
4977 If you use this scheme, you should set @code{mark-below} to something
4978 small - like -300, perhaps, to avoid having small random changes result
4979 in articles getting marked as read.
4981 After using adaptive scoring for a week or so, Gnus should start to
4982 become properly trained and enhance the authors you like best, and kill
4983 the authors you like least, without you having to say so explicitly.
4985 You can control what groups the adaptive scoring is to be performed on
4986 by using the score files (@pxref{Score File Format}). This will also
4987 let you use different rules in different groups.
4990 @subsection Scoring Tips
4991 @cindex scoring tips
4995 If you want to lower the score of crossposts, the line to match on is
4996 the @code{Xref} header.
4998 ("xref" (" talk.politics.misc:" -1000))
5000 @item Multiple crossposts
5001 If you want to lower the score of articles that have been crossposted to
5002 more than, say, 3 groups:
5004 ("xref" (" +[^ ]+:[0-9]+ +[^ ]+:[0-9]+ +[^ ]+:[0-9]+" -1000 nil r))
5006 @item Matching on the body
5007 This is generally not a very good idea - it takes a very long time.
5008 Gnus actually has to fetch each individual article from the server. But
5009 you might want to anyway, I guess. Even though there are three match
5010 keys (@code{Head}, @code{Body} and @code{All}), you should choose one
5011 and stick with it in each score file. If you use any two, each article
5012 will be fetched @emph{twice}. If you want to match a bit on the
5013 @code{Head} and a bit on the @code{Body}, just use @code{All} for all
5015 @item Marking as read
5016 You will probably want to mark articles that has a score below a certain
5017 number as read. This is most easily achieved by putting the following
5018 in your @file{all.SCORE} file:
5022 You may also consider doing something similar with @code{expunge}.
5025 @node Reverse Scoring
5026 @subsection Reverse Scoring
5027 @cindex reverse scoring
5029 If you want to keep just articles that have @samp{Sex with Emacs} in the
5030 subject header, and expunge all other articles, you could put something
5031 like this in your score file:
5035 ("Sex with Emacs" 2))
5040 So, you raise all articles that match @samp{Sex with Emacs} and mark the
5041 rest as read, and expunge them to boot.
5043 @node Global Score Files
5044 @subsection Global Score Files
5045 @cindex global score files
5047 Sure, other newsreaders have "global kill files". These are usually
5048 nothing more than a single kill file that applies to all groups, stored
5049 in the user's home directory. Bah! Puny, weak newsreaders!
5051 What I'm talking about here are Global Score Files. Score files from
5052 all over the world, from users everywhere, uniting all nations in one
5053 big, happy score file union! Ange-score! New and untested!
5055 @vindex gnus-global-score-files
5056 All you have to do to use other people's score files is to set the
5057 @code{gnus-global-score-files} variable. One entry for each score file,
5058 or each score file directory. Gnus will decide by itself what score
5059 files are applicable to which group.
5061 Say you want to use all score files in the
5062 @file{/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score} directory and the single score
5063 file @file{/ftp@@ftp.ifi.uio.no:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE}:
5066 (setq gnus-global-score-files
5067 '("/ftp@@ftp.ifi.uio.no:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE"
5068 "/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score/"))
5071 @findex gnus-score-search-global-directories
5072 Simple, eh? Directory names must end with a @samp{/}. These
5073 directories are typically scanned only once during each Gnus session.
5074 If you feel the need to manually re-scan the remote directories, you can
5075 use the @code{gnus-score-search-global-directories} command.
5077 Note that, at present, using this option will slow down group entry
5078 somewhat. (That is - a lot.)
5080 If you want to start maintaining score files for other people to use,
5081 just put your score file up for anonymous ftp and announce it to the
5082 world. Become a retro-moderator! Participate in the retro-moderator
5083 wars sure to ensue, where retro-moderators battle it out for the
5084 sympathy of the people, luring them to use their score files on false
5085 premises! Yay! The net is saved!
5087 Here are some tips for the would-be retro-moderator, off the top of my
5092 Articles that are heavily crossposted are probably junk.
5094 To lower a single inappropriate article, lower by @code{Message-Id}.
5096 Particularly brilliant authors can be raised on a permanent basis.
5098 Authors that repeatedly post off-charter for the group can safely be
5099 lowered out of existence.
5101 Set the @code{mark} and @code{expunge} atoms to obliterate the nastiest
5102 articles completely.
5104 Use expiring score entries to keep the size of the file down. You
5105 should probably have a long expiry period, though, as some sites keep
5106 old articles for a long time.
5109 ... I wonder whether other newsreaders will support global score files
5110 in the future. @emph{Snicker}. Yup, any day now, newsreaders like Blue
5111 Wave, xrn and 1stReader are bound to implement scoring. Should we start
5112 holding our breath yet?
5115 @subsection Kill Files
5118 (ding) Gnus still supports those pesky old kill files. In fact, the
5119 kill file entries can now be expiring, which is something I wrote before
5120 Per thought of doing score files, so I've left the code in there.
5122 In short, kill processing is a lot slower (and I do mean @emph{a lot})
5123 than score processing, so it might be a good idea to rewrite your kill
5124 files into score files.
5126 Anyway, a kill file is a normal @code{emacs-lisp} file. You can put any
5127 forms into this file, which means that you can use kill files as some
5128 sort of primitive hook function to be run on group entry, even though
5129 that isn't a very good idea.
5131 Normal kill files look like this:
5134 (gnus-kill "From" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
5135 (gnus-kill "Subject" "ding")
5139 This will mark every article written by me as read, and remove them from
5140 the summary buffer. Very useful, you'll agree.
5142 Two functions for entering kill file editing:
5146 @kindex V k (Summary)
5147 @findex gnus-summary-edit-local-kill
5148 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-local-kill}).
5150 @kindex V K (Summary)
5151 @findex gnus-summary-edit-global-kill
5152 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-global-kill}).
5155 @vindex gnus-kill-file-name
5156 A kill file for the group @samp{soc.motss} is normally called
5157 @file{soc.motss.KILL}. The suffix appended to the group name to get
5158 this file name is detailed by the @code{gnus-kill-file-name} variable.
5159 The "global" kill file (not in the score file sense of "global", of
5160 course) is called just @file{KILL}.
5163 @node Mail Group Commands
5164 @section Mail Group Commands
5165 @cindex mail group commands
5167 Some commands only make sense in mail groups. If these commands are
5168 illegal in the current group, they will raise a hell and let you know.
5170 All these commands (except the expiry and edit commands) use the
5171 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5175 @kindex B e (Summary)
5176 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles
5177 Expire all expirable articles in the group
5178 (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles}).
5180 @kindex B DEL (Summary)
5181 @findex gnus-summary-delete-articles
5182 Delete the mail article. This is "delete" as in "delete it from your
5183 disk forever and ever, never to return again." Use with caution.
5184 (@code{gnus-summary-delete-article}).
5186 @kindex B m (Summary)
5187 @findex gnus-summary-move-article
5188 Move the article from one mail group to another
5189 (@code{gnus-summary-move-article}).
5191 @kindex B c (Summary)
5192 @findex gnus-summary-copy-article
5193 Copy the article from one group (mail group or not) to a mail group
5194 (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}).
5196 @kindex B r (Summary)
5197 @findex gnus-summary-respool-article
5198 Respool the mail article (@code{gnus-summary-move-article}).
5201 @kindex B w (Summary)
5203 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article
5204 @kindex C-c C-c (Article)
5205 Edit the current article (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article}). To finish
5206 editing and make the changes permanent, type @kbd{C-c C-c}
5207 (@kbd{gnus-summary-edit-article-done}).
5210 @node Various Summary Stuff
5211 @section Various Summary Stuff
5214 * Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
5215 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
5216 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
5219 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-hook
5220 @code{gnus-summary-prepare-hook} is called after the summary buffer has
5221 been generated. You might use it to, for instance, highlight lines or
5222 modify the look of the buffer in some other ungodly manner. I don't
5225 @node Group Information
5226 @subsection Group Information
5230 @kindex H f (Summary)
5231 @findex gnus-summary-fetch-faq
5232 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
5233 Try to fetch the FAQ (list of frequently asked questions) for the
5234 current group (@code{gnus-summary-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the
5235 FAQ from @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory
5236 on a remote machine. @code{ange-ftp} will be used for fetching the file.
5238 @kindex H d (Summary)
5239 @findex gnus-summary-describe-group
5240 Give a brief description of the current group
5241 (@code{gnus-summary-describe-group}). If given a prefix, force
5242 rereading the description from the server.
5244 @kindex H h (Summary)
5245 @findex gnus-summary-describe-briefly
5246 Give a very brief description of the most important summary keystrokes
5247 (@code{gnus-summary-describe-briefly}).
5249 @kindex H i (Summary)
5250 @findex gnus-info-find-node
5251 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
5254 @node Searching for Articles
5255 @subsection Searching for Articles
5259 @kindex V C-s (Summary)
5260 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-forward
5261 Search through all subsequent articles for a regexp
5262 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-forward}).
5264 @kindex V C-r (Summary)
5265 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-backward
5266 Search through all previous articles for a regexp
5267 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-backward}).
5269 @kindex V & (Summary)
5270 @findex gnus-summary-execute-command
5271 This command will prompt you for a header field, a regular expression to
5272 match on this field, and a command to be executed if the match is made
5273 (@code{gnus-summary-execute-command}).
5275 @kindex V u (Summary)
5276 @findex gnus-summary-universal-argument
5277 Perform any operation on all articles that have been marked with
5278 the process mark (@code{gnus-summary-universal-argument}).
5281 @node Really Various Summary Commands
5282 @subsection Really Various Summary Commands
5286 @kindex V D (Summary)
5287 @findex gnus-summary-enter-digest-group
5288 If the current article is a digest, you might use this command to enter
5289 you into a group based on the current digest to ease reading
5290 (@code{gnus-summary-enter-digest-group}). @xref{nndigest}.
5292 @kindex V T (Summary)
5293 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-truncation
5294 Toggle truncation of summary lines (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-truncation}).
5296 @kindex V e (Summary)
5297 @findex gnus-summary-expand-window
5298 Expand the summary buffer window (@code{gnus-summary-expand-window}).
5301 @node The Article Buffer
5302 @chapter The Article Buffer
5303 @cindex article buffer
5305 The articles are displayed in the article buffer, of which there is only
5306 one. All the summary buffer share the same article buffer.
5309 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
5310 * Using Mime:: Pushing articles through @sc{mime} before reading them.
5311 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
5312 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer
5313 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
5316 @node Hiding Headers
5317 @section Hiding Headers
5318 @cindex hiding headers
5319 @cindex deleting headers
5321 The top section of each article is the @dfn{head}. (The rest is the
5322 @dfn{body}, but you may have guessed that already.)
5324 @vindex gnus-show-all-headers
5325 There is a lot of useful information in the head: the name of the person
5326 who wrote the article, the date it was written and the subject of the
5327 article. That's well and nice, but there's also lots of information
5328 most people do not want to see - what systems the article has passed
5329 through before reaching you, the @code{Message-Id}, the
5330 @code{References}, etc. ad nauseum - and you'll probably want to get rid
5331 of some of those lines. If you want to keep all those lines in the
5332 article buffer, you can set @code{gnus-show-all-headers} to @code{t}.
5334 Gnus provides you with two variables for sifting headers:
5337 @item gnus-visible-headers
5338 @vindex gnus-visible-headers
5339 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, it should be a regular expression
5340 that says what headers you wish to keep in the article buffer. All
5341 headers that do not match this variable will be hidden.
5343 For instance, if you only want to see the name of the person who wrote
5344 the article and the subject, you'd say:
5347 (setq gnus-visible-headers "^From:\\|^Subject:")
5350 @item gnus-ignored-headers
5351 @vindex gnus-ignored-headers
5352 This variable is the reverse of @code{gnus-visible-headers}. If this
5353 variable is set (and @code{gnus-visible-headers} is @code{nil}), it
5354 should be a regular expression that matches all lines that you want to
5355 hide. All lines that do not match this variable will remain visible.
5357 For instance, if you just want to get rid of the @code{References} line
5358 and the @code{Xref} line, you might say:
5361 (setq gnus-ignored-headers "^References:\\|^Xref:")
5364 Note that if @code{gnus-visible-headers} is non-@code{nil}, this
5365 variable will have no effect.
5368 @vindex gnus-sorted-header-list
5369 Gnus can also sort the headers for you. (It does this by default.) You
5370 can control the sorting by setting the @code{gnus-sorted-header-list}
5371 variable. It is a list of regular expressions that says in what order
5372 the headers are to be displayed.
5374 For instance, if you want the name of the author of the article first,
5375 and then the subject, you might say something like:
5378 (setq gnus-sorted-header-list '("^From:" "^Subject:"))
5381 Any headers that are to remain visible, but are not listed in this
5382 variable, will be displayed in random order after all the headers that
5383 are listed in this variable.
5389 Mime is a standard for waving your hands through the air, aimlessly,
5390 while people stand around yawning.
5392 @sc{mime}, however, is a standard for encoding your articles, aimlessly,
5393 while all newsreaders die of fear.
5395 @sc{mime} may specify what character set the article uses, the encoding
5396 of the characters, and it also makes it possible to embed pictures and
5397 other naughty stuff in innocent-looking articles.
5399 @vindex gnus-show-mime
5400 @vindex gnus-show-mime-method
5401 Gnus handles @sc{mime} by shoving the articles through
5402 @code{gnus-show-mime-method}, which is @code{metamail-buffer} by
5403 default. Set @code{gnus-show-mime} to @code{t} if you want to use
5404 @sc{mime} all the time; it might be best to just use the toggling
5405 functions from the summary buffer to avoid getting nasty surprises. (For
5406 instance, you enter the group @samp{alt.sing-a-long} and, before you
5407 know it, @sc{mime} has decoded the sound file in the article and some
5408 horrible sing-a-long song comes streaming out out your speakers, and you
5409 can't find the volume button, because there isn't one, and people are
5410 starting to look at you, and you try to stop the program, but you can't,
5411 and you can't find the program to control the volume, and everybody else
5412 in the room suddenly decides to look at you disdainfully, and you'll
5413 feel rather stupid.)
5415 Any similarity to real events and people is purely coincidental. Ahem.
5417 @node Customizing Articles
5418 @section Customizing Articles
5419 @cindex article customization
5421 @vindex gnus-article-display-hook
5422 The @code{gnus-article-display-hook} is called after the article has
5423 been inserted into the article buffer. It is meant to handle all
5424 treatment of the article before it is displayed. By default it contains
5425 @code{gnus-article-hide-headers}, which hides unwanted headers.
5427 @findex gnus-article-subcite
5428 @findex gnus-article-hide-signature
5429 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation
5430 Other useful functions you might add to this hook is
5431 @code{gnus-article-hide-citation} (which hides all cited text);
5432 @code{gnus-article-hide-signature} (which, umn, hides the signature);
5433 @code{gnus-article-subcite} (which tries to clean up the mess supercite
5434 makes in The Hands Of The Mad); @code{gnus-article-treat-overstrike}
5435 (which treats @samp{^H_} in a reasonable manner);
5436 @code{gnus-article-remove-cr} (which removes trailing carriage returns);
5437 @code{gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable} (which does a naive decoding of
5438 articles encoded with Quoted-Printable); and
5439 @code{gnus-article-display-x-face} (which displays any X-Face headers).
5441 You can, of course, write your own functions. The functions are called
5442 from the article buffer, and you can do anything you like, pretty much.
5443 There is no information that you have to keep in the buffer - you can
5444 change everything. However, you shouldn't delete any headers. Instead
5445 make them invisible if you want to make them go away.
5447 @node Article Keymap
5448 @section Article Keymap
5450 Most of the keystrokes in the summary buffer can also be used in the
5451 article buffer. They should behave as if you typed them in the summary
5452 buffer, which means that you don't actually have to have a summary
5453 buffer displayed while reading. You can do it all from the article
5456 A few additional keystrokes are available:
5460 @kindex SPACE (Article)
5461 @findex gnus-article-next-page
5462 Scroll forwards one page (@code{gnus-article-next-page}).
5464 @kindex DEL (Article)
5465 @findex gnus-article-prev-page
5466 Scroll backwards one page (@code{gnus-article-prev-page}).
5468 @kindex C-c ^ (Article)
5469 @findex gnus-article-refer-article
5470 If point is in the neighborhood of a @code{Message-Id} and you press
5471 @kbd{r}, Gnus will try to get that article from the server
5472 (@code{gnus-article-refer-article}).
5474 @kindex C-c C-m (Article)
5475 @findex gnus-article-mail
5476 Send a reply to the address near point (@code{gnus-article-mail}).
5478 @kindex C-c C-M (Article)
5479 @findex gnus-article-mail-with-original
5480 Send a reply to the address near point and include the original article
5481 (@code{gnus-article-mail-with-original}).
5484 @findex gnus-article-show-summary
5485 Reconfigure the buffers so that the summary buffer becomes visible
5486 (@code{gnus-article-show-summary}).
5489 @findex gnus-article-describe-briefly
5490 Give a very brief description of the available keystrokes
5491 (@code{gnus-article-describe-briefly}).
5495 @section Misc Article
5498 @vindex gnus-article-prepare-hook
5499 @item gnus-article-prepare-hook
5500 This hook is called right after the article has been inserted into the
5501 article buffer. It is mainly intended for functions that do something
5502 depending on the contents; it should probably not be used for changing
5503 the contents of the article buffer.
5504 @vindex gnus-article-display-hook
5505 @item gnus-article-display-hook
5506 This hook is called as the last thing when displaying an article, and is
5507 intended for modifying the contents of the buffer, doing highlights,
5508 hiding headers, and the like.
5509 @vindex gnus-article-mode-line-format
5510 @item gnus-article-mode-line-format
5511 This variable is a format string along the same lines as
5512 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}. It accepts exactly the same
5513 format specifications as that variable.
5514 @vindex gnus-break-pages
5515 @item gnus-break-pages
5516 Controls whether @dfn{page breaking} is to take place. If this variable
5517 is non-@code{nil}, the articles will be divided into pages whenever a
5518 page delimiter appears in the article. If this variable is @code{nil},
5519 paging will not be done.
5520 @item gnus-page-delimiter
5521 @vindex gnus-page-delimiter
5522 This is the delimiter mentioned above. By default, it is @samp{^L}
5526 @node The Server Buffer
5527 @chapter The Server Buffer
5529 Traditionally, a @dfn{server} is a machine or a piece of software that
5530 one connects to, and then requests information from. Gnus does not
5531 connect directly to any real servers, but does all transactions through
5532 one backend or other. But that's just putting one layer more between
5533 the actual media and Gnus, so we might just as well say that each
5534 backend represents a virtual server.
5536 For instance, the @code{nntp} backend may be used to connect to several
5537 different actual nntp servers, or, perhaps, to many different ports on
5538 the same actual nntp server. You tell Gnus which backend to use, and
5539 what parameters to set by specifying a @dfn{select method}.
5541 These select methods specifications can sometimes become quite
5542 complicated - say, for instance, that you want to read from the nntp
5543 server @samp{news.funet.fi} on port number @samp{13}, which hangs if
5544 queried for @sc{nov} headers and has a buggy select. Ahem. Anyways, if
5545 you had to specify that for each group that used this server, that would
5546 be too much work, so Gnus offers a way of putting names to methods,
5547 which is what you do in the server buffer.
5550 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
5551 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
5552 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
5553 * Servers & Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
5556 @node Server Buffer Format
5557 @section Server Buffer Format
5558 @cindex server buffer format
5560 @vindex gnus-server-line-format
5561 You can change the look of the server buffer lines by changing the
5562 @code{gnus-server-line-format} variable. This is a @code{format}-like
5563 variable, with some simple extensions:
5567 How the news is fetched - the backend name.
5569 The name of this server.
5571 Where the news is to be fetched from - the address.
5574 @node Server Commands
5575 @section Server Commands
5576 @cindex server commands
5580 Browse the current server (@code{gnus-server-read-server}).
5582 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-server-exit}).
5584 List all servers (@code{gnus-server-list-servers}).
5586 Kill the current server (@code{gnus-server-kill-server}).
5588 Yank the previously killed server (@code{gnus-server-yank-server}).
5590 Copy the current server (@code{gnus-server-copy-server}).
5592 Add a new server (@code{gnus-server-add-server}).
5594 Edit a server (@code{gnus-server-edit-server}).
5597 @node Example Methods
5598 @section Example Methods
5600 Most select methods are pretty simple and self-explanatory:
5603 (nntp "news.funet.fi")
5606 Reading directly from the spool is even simpler:
5612 As you can see, the first element in a select method is the name of the
5613 backend, and the second is the @dfn{address}, or @dfn{name}, if you
5616 After these two elements, there may be a random number of @var{(variable
5619 To go back to the first example - imagine that you want to read from
5620 port @code{15} from that machine. This is what the select method should
5624 (nntp "news.funet.fi" (nntp-port-number 15))
5627 You should read the documentation to each backend to find out what
5628 variables are relevant, but here's an @code{nnmh} example.
5630 @code{nnmh} is a mail backend that reads a spool-like structure. Say
5631 you have two structures that you wish to access: One is your private
5632 mail spool, and the other is a public one. Here's the possible spec for
5636 (nnmh "private" (nnmh-directory "~/private/mail/"))
5639 (This server is then called @samp{private}, but you may have guessed
5642 Here's the method for the public spool:
5646 (nnmh-directory "/usr/information/spool/")
5647 (nnmh-get-new-mail nil))
5650 @node Servers & Methods
5651 @section Servers & Methods
5659 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
5660 * Windows Configuration:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
5661 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
5665 @section Interactive
5669 @item gnus-novice-user
5670 @vindex gnus-novice-user
5671 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you are either a newcomer to the
5672 World of Usenet, or you are very cautious, which is a nice thing to be,
5673 really. You will be given questions of the type "Are you sure you want
5674 to do this?" before doing anything dangerous.
5675 @item gnus-expert-user
5676 @vindex gnus-expert-user
5677 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you will never ever be asked any
5678 questions by Gnus. It will simply assume you know what your are doing,
5679 no matter how strange.
5680 @item gnus-interactive-catchup
5681 @vindex gnus-interactive-catchup
5682 Require confirmation before catching up a group if non-@code{nil}.
5683 @item gnus-interactive-post
5684 @vindex gnus-interactive-post
5685 If non-@code{nil}, the user will be prompted for a group name when
5687 @item gnus-interactive-exit
5688 @vindex gnus-interactive-exit
5689 Require confirmation before exiting Gnus.
5692 @node Windows Configuration
5693 @section Windows Configuration
5694 @cindex windows configuration
5696 No, there's nothing here about X, so be quiet.
5699 @item gnus-use-full-window
5700 @vindex gnus-use-full-window
5701 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will delete all other windows and occupy the
5702 entire Emacs screen by itself. It is @code{t} by default.
5703 @item gnus-window-configuration
5704 @vindex gnus-window-configuration
5705 This variable describes how much space each Gnus buffer should be given,
5706 compared to the other Gnus buffers. Here's an example:
5709 (setq gnus-window-configuration
5712 (article (0 3 10))))
5715 This variable is a list of lists, where each of these small lists is on
5716 the form @var{(action (g s a))}. As you can see, there are three
5717 possible @var{action}s - @code{group} (which is what happens when
5718 you first start Gnus, or returns from the summary buffer),
5719 @code{summary} (which is what happens when there are no unread articles
5720 in the group, and @code{article} (which is what happens when there
5721 is an unread article in the group).
5723 We see that in the first two actions, the respective buffers will fill
5724 the screen, and in the last, the article buffer will take ten lines for
5725 each three the summary buffer gets.
5727 @findex gnus-window-configuration-split
5728 This variable can also have a function as its value. In that case,
5729 whenever Gnus tries to configure the Gnus buffers, that function will be
5730 called with the @var{action} as its parameter. There is one pre-made
5731 function supplied, @code{gnus-window-configuration-split}, which may be
5732 suitable if you have a very wide Emacs window, and want to have the
5733 summary buffer and the article buffer side by side.
5736 @node Various Various
5737 @section Various Various
5742 @item gnus-updated-mode-lines
5743 @vindex gnus-updated-mode-lines
5744 This is a list of buffers that should keep their mode lines updated.
5745 The list may contain the symbols @code{group}, @code{article} and
5746 @code{summary}. If the corresponding symbol is present, Gnus will keep
5747 that mode line updated with information that may be pertinent. If this
5748 variable is @code{nil}, screen refresh may be quicker.
5750 @item gnus-mode-non-string-length
5751 @vindex gnus-mode-non-string-length
5752 By default, Gnus displays information on the current article in the mode
5753 lines of the summary and article buffers. The information Gnus wishes
5754 to display (eg. the subject of the article) is often longer than the
5755 mode lines, and therefore have to be cut off at some point. This
5756 variable says how long the other elements on the line is (ie. the
5757 non-info part). If you put additional elements on the mode line (eg. a
5758 clock), you should modify this variable:
5759 @c Hook written by Keinonen Kari <kk85613@cs.tut.fi>.
5761 (add-hook 'display-time-hook
5763 (setq gnus-mode-non-string-length
5764 (+ 21 (length display-time-string)))))
5769 If @code{nil}, Gnus won't attempt to create menus or use fancy colours
5770 or fonts. This will also inhibit loading the @file{gnus-visual.el}
5772 @item gnus-mouse-face
5773 @vindex gnus-mouse-face
5774 This is the face (ie. font) used for mouse highlighting in Gnus. No
5775 mouse highlights will be done if @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
5779 @chapter Customization
5780 @cindex general customization
5782 All variables are properly documented elsewhere in this manual. This
5783 section is designed to give general pointers on how to customize Gnus
5784 for some quite common situations.
5787 * Slow @sc{nntp} Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
5788 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
5789 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
5790 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
5793 @node Slow @sc{nntp} Connection
5794 @section Slow @sc{nntp} Connection
5796 If you run Emacs on a machine locally, and get your news from a machine
5797 over some very thin strings, you want to cut down on the amount of data
5798 Gnus has to get from the @sc{nntp} server.
5801 @item gnus-read-active-file
5802 Set this to @code{nil}, which will inhibit Gnus from requesting the
5803 entire active file from the server. This file is often v. large. You
5804 also have to set @code{gnus-check-new-news} and
5805 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make sure that Gnus
5806 doesn't suddenly decide to fetch the active file anyway.
5807 @item gnus-nov-is-evil
5808 This one has to be @code{nil}. If not, grabbing article headers from
5809 the @sc{nntp} server will not be very fast. Not all @sc{nntp} servers
5810 support @sc{xover}; Gnus will detect this by itself.
5813 @node Slow Terminal Connection
5814 @section Slow Terminal Connection
5816 Let's say you use your home computer for dialing up the system that
5817 runs Emacs and Gnus. If your modem is slow, you want to reduce the
5818 amount of data that is sent over the wires as much as possible.
5821 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
5822 Set this to @code{nil} to inhibit Gnus from recentering the summary
5823 buffer all the time.
5824 @item gnus-visible-headers
5825 Cut down on the headers that are included in the articles to the
5826 minimum. You can, in fact, make do without them altogether - most of the
5827 useful data is in the summary buffer, anyway. Set this variable to
5828 @samp{"^NEVVVVER"} or @samp{"From:"}, or whatever you feel you need.
5829 @item gnus-article-display-hook
5830 Set this hook to all the available hiding commands:
5832 (setq gnus-article-display-hook
5833 '(gnus-article-hide-headers gnus-article-hide-signature
5834 gnus-article-hide-citation))
5836 @item gnus-use-full-window
5837 By setting this to @code{nil}, you can make all the windows smaller.
5838 While this doesn't really cut down much generally, it means that you
5839 have to see smaller portions of articles before deciding that you didn't
5840 want to read them anyway.
5841 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
5842 If this is non-@code{nil}, all threads in the summary buffer will be
5844 @item gnus-updated-mode-lines
5845 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not put information in the buffer mode
5846 lines, which might save some time.
5849 @node Little Disk Space
5850 @section Little Disk Space
5852 The startup files can get rather large, so you may want to cut their
5853 sizes a bit if you are running out of space.
5856 @item gnus-save-newsrc-file
5857 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never save @file{.newsrc} - it will
5858 only save @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
5859 use any other newsreaders than Gnus.
5860 @item gnus-save-killed-list
5861 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not save the list of dead groups. You
5862 should also set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{ask-server}
5863 and @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} if you set this
5864 variable to @code{nil}.
5868 @section Slow Machine
5870 If you have a slow machine, or are just really impatient, there are a
5871 few things you can do to make Gnus run faster.
5873 Set@code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
5874 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make startup faster.
5876 Set @code{gnus-show-threads}, @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} and
5877 @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{nil} to make entering and exiting the
5878 summary buffer faster.
5880 Set @code{gnus-article-display-hook} to @code{nil} to make article
5881 processing a bit faster.
5883 @node Troubleshooting
5884 @chapter Troubleshooting
5885 @cindex troubleshooting
5887 (ding) Gnus works @emph{so} well straight out of the box - I can't
5888 imagine any problems, really.
5894 Make sure your computer is switched on.
5896 Make sure that you really load the current Gnus version. If you have
5897 been running @sc{gnus}, you need to exit Emacs and start it up again before
5900 Try doing an @kbd{M-x gnus-version}. If you get something that looks
5901 like @samp{(ding) Gnus v0.46; nntp 4.0} you have the right files loaded.
5902 If, on the other hand, you get something like @samp{NNTP 3.x} or
5903 @samp{nntp flee}, you have some old @file{.el} files lying around.
5906 Read the help group (@kbd{M h} in the group buffer) for a FAQ and a
5910 If all else fails, report the problem as a bug,
5913 @cindex reporting bugs
5915 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
5917 If you find a bug in (ding) Gnus, you can report it with the @kbd{M-x
5918 gnus-bug} command. @code{(setq debug-on-error t)}, and send me the
5919 backtrace. I will fix bugs, but I can only fix them if you send me a
5920 precise description as to how to reproduce the bug.
5922 @c If you just need help, you are better off asking on
5923 @c @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}.
5928 Well, that's the manual - you can get on with your life now. Keep in
5929 touch. Say hello to your cats from me.
5931 My @strong{ghod} - I just can't stand goodbyes. Sniffle.
5933 Ol' Chuck Reznikoff said it pretty well, so I leave the floor to him:
5938 Not because of victories @*
5941 but for the common sunshine,@*
5943 the largess of the spring.
5946 but for the day's work done@*
5947 as well as I was able;@*
5948 not for a seat upon the dais@*
5949 but at the common table.@*
5966 @c outline-regexp: "@chap\\|@\\(sub\\)*section\\|@appendix \\|@appendix\\(sub\\)*sec\\|\^L"