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10 * Gnus: (gnus). The newsreader Gnus.
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268 \gnusauthor{by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen}
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277 Copyright \copyright{} 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000
278 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
281 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
282 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
283 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
284 Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
285 Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
286 license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
287 License'' in the Emacs manual.
289 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
290 this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
291 Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
293 This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
294 Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
295 separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
296 license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
304 This file documents Gnus, the GNU Emacs newsreader.
306 Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
308 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
309 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
310 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
311 Invariant Sections being none, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
312 Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
313 license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
314 License'' in the Emacs manual.
316 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
317 this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
318 Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
320 This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
321 Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
322 separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
323 license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
331 @author by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
334 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
335 Copyright @copyright{} 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
337 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
338 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
339 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
340 Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
341 Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
342 license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
343 License'' in the Emacs manual.
345 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
346 this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
347 Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
349 This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
350 Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
351 separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
352 license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
361 @top The Gnus Newsreader
365 You can read news (and mail) from within Emacs by using Gnus. The news
366 can be gotten by any nefarious means you can think of---@sc{nntp}, local
367 spool or your mbox file. All at the same time, if you want to push your
370 This manual corresponds to Oort Gnus v.
381 Gnus is the advanced, self-documenting, customizable, extensible
382 unreal-time newsreader for GNU Emacs.
384 Oops. That sounds oddly familiar, so let's start over again to avoid
385 being accused of plagiarism:
387 Gnus is a message-reading laboratory. It will let you look at just
388 about anything as if it were a newsgroup. You can read mail with it,
389 you can browse directories with it, you can @code{ftp} with it---you
390 can even read news with it!
392 Gnus tries to empower people who read news the same way Emacs empowers
393 people who edit text. Gnus sets no limits to what the user should be
394 allowed to do. Users are encouraged to extend Gnus to make it behave
395 like they want it to behave. A program should not control people;
396 people should be empowered to do what they want by using (or abusing)
402 * Starting Up:: Finding news can be a pain.
403 * Group Buffer:: Selecting, subscribing and killing groups.
404 * Summary Buffer:: Reading, saving and posting articles.
405 * Article Buffer:: Displaying and handling articles.
406 * Composing Messages:: Information on sending mail and news.
407 * Select Methods:: Gnus reads all messages from various select methods.
408 * Scoring:: Assigning values to articles.
409 * Various:: General purpose settings.
410 * The End:: Farewell and goodbye.
411 * Appendices:: Terminology, Emacs intro, FAQ, History, Internals.
412 * Index:: Variable, function and concept index.
413 * Key Index:: Key Index.
416 --- The Detailed Node Listing ---
420 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
421 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
422 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
423 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
424 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
425 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
426 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
427 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
428 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
429 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
430 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
434 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
435 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
436 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
440 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
441 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
442 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
443 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
444 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
445 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
446 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
447 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
448 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
449 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
450 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
451 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
452 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
453 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
454 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
455 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
456 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
460 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
461 * Group Modeline Specification:: The group buffer modeline.
462 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
466 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
467 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
468 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
469 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
470 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
474 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
475 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
476 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
477 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
481 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
482 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
483 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
484 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
485 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
487 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
488 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
489 * Threading:: How threads are made.
490 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
491 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
492 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
493 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
494 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
495 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
496 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
497 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
498 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
499 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
500 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
501 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
502 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
503 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
504 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
505 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
506 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
507 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
508 or reselecting the current group.
509 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
510 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
511 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
512 * Mailing List:: Mailing list minor mode.
514 Summary Buffer Format
516 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
517 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
518 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
519 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
523 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
524 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
526 Reply, Followup and Post
528 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
529 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
530 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
531 * Canceling and Superseding::
535 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
536 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
537 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
539 * Generic Marking Commands::
540 * Setting Process Marks::
544 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
545 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
546 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
550 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
551 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
553 Customizing Threading
555 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
556 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
557 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
558 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over... but you were wrong!
562 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
563 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
564 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
565 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
566 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
567 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
571 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
572 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
573 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
577 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
578 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
579 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
580 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
581 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
582 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
583 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
584 * Article Miscellania:: Various other stuff.
586 Alternative Approaches
588 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
589 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
591 Various Summary Stuff
593 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
594 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
595 * Summary Generation Commands::
596 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
600 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
601 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @sc{mime} before reading them.
602 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
603 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
604 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
608 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
609 * Posting Server:: What server should you post via?
610 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
611 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
612 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
613 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
614 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
615 * Using GPG:: How to use GPG and MML to sign and encrypt messages
619 * Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
620 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
621 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
622 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
623 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
624 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
625 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
629 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
630 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
631 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
632 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
633 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
634 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
635 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
639 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @sc{nntp} server.
640 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
644 * Direct Functions:: Connecting directly to the server.
645 * Indirect Functions:: Connecting indirectly to the server.
646 * Common Variables:: Understood by several connection functions.
650 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
651 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
652 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
653 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
654 * Mail Backend Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
655 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
656 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
657 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
658 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
659 * Washing Mail:: Removing gruft from the mail you get.
660 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
661 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail backends for reading other files.
662 * Choosing a Mail Backend:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
666 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
667 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
668 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
670 Choosing a Mail Backend
672 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
673 * Rmail Babyl:: Emacs programs use the rmail babyl format.
674 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
675 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like backend.
676 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
677 * Comparing Mail Backends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
681 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
682 * Slashdot:: Reading the Slashdot comments.
683 * Ultimate:: The Ultimate Bulletin Board systems.
684 * Web Archive:: Reading mailing list archived on web.
685 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
686 * Customizing w3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/w3 from Gnus.
690 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
691 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
692 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
693 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{soup} packets ``offline''.
694 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
695 * IMAP:: Using Gnus as a @sc{imap} client.
699 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
703 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
704 * SOUP Groups:: A backend for reading @sc{soup} packets.
705 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
709 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
710 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
711 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a "compress mailbox" button.
715 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
716 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
720 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
721 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
722 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
723 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
724 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with IMAP.
725 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
726 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
727 * Example Setup:: An example @file{.gnus.el} file for offline people.
728 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
729 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
733 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
734 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
735 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
739 * Group Agent Commands::
740 * Summary Agent Commands::
741 * Server Agent Commands::
745 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
746 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
747 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
748 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
749 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
750 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
751 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
752 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
753 * Scoring On Other Headers:: Scoring on non-standard headers.
754 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
755 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
756 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
757 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
758 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
759 * GroupLens:: Getting predictions on what you like to read.
760 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
761 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
765 * Using GroupLens:: How to make Gnus use GroupLens.
766 * Rating Articles:: Letting GroupLens know how you rate articles.
767 * Displaying Predictions:: Displaying predictions given by GroupLens.
768 * GroupLens Variables:: Customizing GroupLens.
772 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
773 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
774 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
778 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
779 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
780 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
781 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
782 * Window Layout:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
783 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
784 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
785 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
786 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
787 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
788 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
789 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
790 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
791 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
792 * XEmacs Enhancements:: There are more pictures and stuff under XEmacs.
793 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
794 * Thwarting Email Spam:: A how-to on avoiding unsolicited commercial email.
795 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
799 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
800 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
801 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
802 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
803 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
804 * Positioning Point:: Moving point to a position after an operation.
805 * Tabulation:: Tabulating your output.
806 * Wide Characters:: Dealing with wide characters.
810 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what your reading.
811 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
812 * Toolbar:: Click'n'drool.
813 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
817 * Picon Basics:: What are picons and How do I get them.
818 * Picon Requirements:: Don't go further if you aren't using XEmacs.
819 * Easy Picons:: Displaying Picons---the easy way.
820 * Hard Picons:: The way you should do it. You'll learn something.
821 * Picon Useless Configuration:: Other variables you can trash/tweak/munge/play with.
825 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
826 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
827 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
828 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
829 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
830 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
831 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
835 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
836 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
837 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
838 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
839 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
840 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
841 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
842 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
843 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
847 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
848 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
849 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
850 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
851 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
855 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
856 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
857 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
858 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
862 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
863 * Backend Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
864 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
865 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
866 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
867 * Group Info:: The group info format.
868 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
869 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
870 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
874 * Required Backend Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
875 * Optional Backend Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
876 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
877 * Writing New Backends:: Extending old backends.
878 * Hooking New Backends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
879 * Mail-like Backends:: Some tips on mail backends.
883 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
884 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
888 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
889 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
895 @chapter Starting Gnus
900 If your system administrator has set things up properly, starting Gnus
901 and reading news is extremely easy---you just type @kbd{M-x gnus} in
904 @findex gnus-other-frame
905 @kindex M-x gnus-other-frame
906 If you want to start Gnus in a different frame, you can use the command
907 @kbd{M-x gnus-other-frame} instead.
909 If things do not go smoothly at startup, you have to twiddle some
910 variables in your @file{~/.gnus} file. This file is similar to
911 @file{~/.emacs}, but is read when gnus starts.
913 If you puzzle at any terms used in this manual, please refer to the
914 terminology section (@pxref{Terminology}).
917 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
918 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
919 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
920 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
921 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
922 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
923 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
924 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
925 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
926 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
927 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
931 @node Finding the News
932 @section Finding the News
935 @vindex gnus-select-method
937 The @code{gnus-select-method} variable says where Gnus should look for
938 news. This variable should be a list where the first element says
939 @dfn{how} and the second element says @dfn{where}. This method is your
940 native method. All groups not fetched with this method are
943 For instance, if the @samp{news.somewhere.edu} @sc{nntp} server is where
944 you want to get your daily dosage of news from, you'd say:
947 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"))
950 If you want to read directly from the local spool, say:
953 (setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool ""))
956 If you can use a local spool, you probably should, as it will almost
957 certainly be much faster.
959 @vindex gnus-nntpserver-file
961 @cindex @sc{nntp} server
962 If this variable is not set, Gnus will take a look at the
963 @code{NNTPSERVER} environment variable. If that variable isn't set,
964 Gnus will see whether @code{gnus-nntpserver-file}
965 (@file{/etc/nntpserver} by default) has any opinions on the matter. If
966 that fails as well, Gnus will try to use the machine running Emacs as an @sc{nntp} server. That's a long shot, though.
968 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
969 If @code{gnus-nntp-server} is set, this variable will override
970 @code{gnus-select-method}. You should therefore set
971 @code{gnus-nntp-server} to @code{nil}, which is what it is by default.
973 @vindex gnus-secondary-servers
974 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
975 You can also make Gnus prompt you interactively for the name of an
976 @sc{nntp} server. If you give a non-numerical prefix to @code{gnus}
977 (i.e., @kbd{C-u M-x gnus}), Gnus will let you choose between the servers
978 in the @code{gnus-secondary-servers} list (if any). You can also just
979 type in the name of any server you feel like visiting. (Note that this
980 will set @code{gnus-nntp-server}, which means that if you then @kbd{M-x
981 gnus} later in the same Emacs session, Gnus will contact the same
984 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
986 However, if you use one @sc{nntp} server regularly and are just
987 interested in a couple of groups from a different server, you would be
988 better served by using the @kbd{B} command in the group buffer. It will
989 let you have a look at what groups are available, and you can subscribe
990 to any of the groups you want to. This also makes @file{.newsrc}
991 maintenance much tidier. @xref{Foreign Groups}.
993 @vindex gnus-secondary-select-methods
995 A slightly different approach to foreign groups is to set the
996 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} variable. The select methods
997 listed in this variable are in many ways just as native as the
998 @code{gnus-select-method} server. They will also be queried for active
999 files during startup (if that's required), and new newsgroups that
1000 appear on these servers will be subscribed (or not) just as native
1003 For instance, if you use the @code{nnmbox} backend to read your mail, you
1004 would typically set this variable to
1007 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnmbox "")))
1011 @node The First Time
1012 @section The First Time
1013 @cindex first time usage
1015 If no startup files exist, Gnus will try to determine what groups should
1016 be subscribed by default.
1018 @vindex gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups
1019 If the variable @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is set, Gnus
1020 will subscribe you to just those groups in that list, leaving the rest
1021 killed. Your system administrator should have set this variable to
1024 Since she hasn't, Gnus will just subscribe you to a few arbitrarily
1025 picked groups (i.e., @samp{*.newusers}). (@dfn{Arbitrary} is defined
1026 here as @dfn{whatever Lars thinks you should read}.)
1028 You'll also be subscribed to the Gnus documentation group, which should
1029 help you with most common problems.
1031 If @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is @code{t}, Gnus will just
1032 use the normal functions for handling new groups, and not do anything
1036 @node The Server is Down
1037 @section The Server is Down
1038 @cindex server errors
1040 If the default server is down, Gnus will understandably have some
1041 problems starting. However, if you have some mail groups in addition to
1042 the news groups, you may want to start Gnus anyway.
1044 Gnus, being the trusting sort of program, will ask whether to proceed
1045 without a native select method if that server can't be contacted. This
1046 will happen whether the server doesn't actually exist (i.e., you have
1047 given the wrong address) or the server has just momentarily taken ill
1048 for some reason or other. If you decide to continue and have no foreign
1049 groups, you'll find it difficult to actually do anything in the group
1050 buffer. But, hey, that's your problem. Blllrph!
1052 @findex gnus-no-server
1053 @kindex M-x gnus-no-server
1055 If you know that the server is definitely down, or you just want to read
1056 your mail without bothering with the server at all, you can use the
1057 @code{gnus-no-server} command to start Gnus. That might come in handy
1058 if you're in a hurry as well. This command will not attempt to contact
1059 your primary server---instead, it will just activate all groups on level
1060 1 and 2. (You should preferably keep no native groups on those two
1061 levels.) Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
1065 @section Slave Gnusae
1068 You might want to run more than one Emacs with more than one Gnus at the
1069 same time. If you are using different @file{.newsrc} files (e.g., if you
1070 are using the two different Gnusae to read from two different servers),
1071 that is no problem whatsoever. You just do it.
1073 The problem appears when you want to run two Gnusae that use the same
1074 @code{.newsrc} file.
1076 To work around that problem some, we here at the Think-Tank at the Gnus
1077 Towers have come up with a new concept: @dfn{Masters} and
1078 @dfn{slaves}. (We have applied for a patent on this concept, and have
1079 taken out a copyright on those words. If you wish to use those words in
1080 conjunction with each other, you have to send $1 per usage instance to
1081 me. Usage of the patent (@dfn{Master/Slave Relationships In Computer
1082 Applications}) will be much more expensive, of course.)
1084 Anyway, you start one Gnus up the normal way with @kbd{M-x gnus} (or
1085 however you do it). Each subsequent slave Gnusae should be started with
1086 @kbd{M-x gnus-slave}. These slaves won't save normal @file{.newsrc}
1087 files, but instead save @dfn{slave files} that contain information only
1088 on what groups have been read in the slave session. When a master Gnus
1089 starts, it will read (and delete) these slave files, incorporating all
1090 information from them. (The slave files will be read in the sequence
1091 they were created, so the latest changes will have precedence.)
1093 Information from the slave files has, of course, precedence over the
1094 information in the normal (i.e., master) @code{.newsrc} file.
1097 @node Fetching a Group
1098 @section Fetching a Group
1099 @cindex fetching a group
1101 @findex gnus-fetch-group
1102 It is sometimes convenient to be able to just say ``I want to read this
1103 group and I don't care whether Gnus has been started or not''. This is
1104 perhaps more useful for people who write code than for users, but the
1105 command @code{gnus-fetch-group} provides this functionality in any case.
1106 It takes the group name as a parameter.
1112 @cindex subscription
1114 @vindex gnus-check-new-newsgroups
1115 If you are satisfied that you really never want to see any new groups,
1116 you can set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil}. This will
1117 also save you some time at startup. Even if this variable is
1118 @code{nil}, you can always subscribe to the new groups just by pressing
1119 @kbd{U} in the group buffer (@pxref{Group Maintenance}). This variable
1120 is @code{ask-server} by default. If you set this variable to
1121 @code{always}, then Gnus will query the backends for new groups even
1122 when you do the @kbd{g} command (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
1125 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
1126 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
1127 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
1131 @node Checking New Groups
1132 @subsection Checking New Groups
1134 Gnus normally determines whether a group is new or not by comparing the
1135 list of groups from the active file(s) with the lists of subscribed and
1136 dead groups. This isn't a particularly fast method. If
1137 @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} is @code{ask-server}, Gnus will ask the
1138 server for new groups since the last time. This is both faster and
1139 cheaper. This also means that you can get rid of the list of killed
1140 groups altogether, so you may set @code{gnus-save-killed-list} to
1141 @code{nil}, which will save time both at startup, at exit, and all over.
1142 Saves disk space, too. Why isn't this the default, then?
1143 Unfortunately, not all servers support this command.
1145 I bet I know what you're thinking now: How do I find out whether my
1146 server supports @code{ask-server}? No? Good, because I don't have a
1147 fail-safe answer. I would suggest just setting this variable to
1148 @code{ask-server} and see whether any new groups appear within the next
1149 few days. If any do, then it works. If none do, then it doesn't
1150 work. I could write a function to make Gnus guess whether the server
1151 supports @code{ask-server}, but it would just be a guess. So I won't.
1152 You could @code{telnet} to the server and say @code{HELP} and see
1153 whether it lists @samp{NEWGROUPS} among the commands it understands. If
1154 it does, then it might work. (But there are servers that lists
1155 @samp{NEWGROUPS} without supporting the function properly.)
1157 This variable can also be a list of select methods. If so, Gnus will
1158 issue an @code{ask-server} command to each of the select methods, and
1159 subscribe them (or not) using the normal methods. This might be handy
1160 if you are monitoring a few servers for new groups. A side effect is
1161 that startup will take much longer, so you can meditate while waiting.
1162 Use the mantra ``dingnusdingnusdingnus'' to achieve permanent bliss.
1165 @node Subscription Methods
1166 @subsection Subscription Methods
1168 @vindex gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method
1169 What Gnus does when it encounters a new group is determined by the
1170 @code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} variable.
1172 This variable should contain a function. This function will be called
1173 with the name of the new group as the only parameter.
1175 Some handy pre-fab functions are:
1179 @item gnus-subscribe-zombies
1180 @vindex gnus-subscribe-zombies
1181 Make all new groups zombies. This is the default. You can browse the
1182 zombies later (with @kbd{A z}) and either kill them all off properly
1183 (with @kbd{S z}), or subscribe to them (with @kbd{u}).
1185 @item gnus-subscribe-randomly
1186 @vindex gnus-subscribe-randomly
1187 Subscribe all new groups in arbitrary order. This really means that all
1188 new groups will be added at ``the top'' of the group buffer.
1190 @item gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1191 @vindex gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1192 Subscribe all new groups in alphabetical order.
1194 @item gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1195 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1196 Subscribe all new groups hierarchically. The difference between this
1197 function and @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} is slight.
1198 @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} will subscribe new groups in a strictly
1199 alphabetical fashion, while this function will enter groups into its
1200 hierarchy. So if you want to have the @samp{rec} hierarchy before the
1201 @samp{comp} hierarchy, this function will not mess that configuration
1202 up. Or something like that.
1204 @item gnus-subscribe-interactively
1205 @vindex gnus-subscribe-interactively
1206 Subscribe new groups interactively. This means that Gnus will ask
1207 you about @strong{all} new groups. The groups you choose to subscribe
1208 to will be subscribed hierarchically.
1210 @item gnus-subscribe-killed
1211 @vindex gnus-subscribe-killed
1212 Kill all new groups.
1214 @item gnus-subscribe-topics
1215 @vindex gnus-subscribe-topics
1216 Put the groups into the topic that has a matching @code{subscribe} topic
1217 parameter (@pxref{Topic Parameters}). For instance, a @code{subscribe}
1218 topic parameter that looks like
1224 will mean that all groups that match that regex will be subscribed under
1227 If no topics match the groups, the groups will be subscribed in the
1232 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive
1233 A closely related variable is
1234 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. (That's quite a
1235 mouthful.) If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will ask you in a
1236 hierarchical fashion whether to subscribe to new groups or not. Gnus
1237 will ask you for each sub-hierarchy whether you want to descend the
1240 One common mistake is to set the variable a few paragraphs above
1241 (@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method}) to
1242 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. This is an error. This
1243 will not work. This is ga-ga. So don't do it.
1246 @node Filtering New Groups
1247 @subsection Filtering New Groups
1249 A nice and portable way to control which new newsgroups should be
1250 subscribed (or ignored) is to put an @dfn{options} line at the start of
1251 the @file{.newsrc} file. Here's an example:
1254 options -n !alt.all !rec.all sci.all
1257 @vindex gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method
1258 This line obviously belongs to a serious-minded intellectual scientific
1259 person (or she may just be plain old boring), because it says that all
1260 groups that have names beginning with @samp{alt} and @samp{rec} should
1261 be ignored, and all groups with names beginning with @samp{sci} should
1262 be subscribed. Gnus will not use the normal subscription method for
1263 subscribing these groups.
1264 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method} is used instead. This
1265 variable defaults to @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically}.
1267 @vindex gnus-options-not-subscribe
1268 @vindex gnus-options-subscribe
1269 If you don't want to mess with your @file{.newsrc} file, you can just
1270 set the two variables @code{gnus-options-subscribe} and
1271 @code{gnus-options-not-subscribe}. These two variables do exactly the
1272 same as the @file{.newsrc} @samp{options -n} trick. Both are regexps,
1273 and if the new group matches the former, it will be unconditionally
1274 subscribed, and if it matches the latter, it will be ignored.
1276 @vindex gnus-auto-subscribed-groups
1277 Yet another variable that meddles here is
1278 @code{gnus-auto-subscribed-groups}. It works exactly like
1279 @code{gnus-options-subscribe}, and is therefore really superfluous, but I
1280 thought it would be nice to have two of these. This variable is more
1281 meant for setting some ground rules, while the other variable is used
1282 more for user fiddling. By default this variable makes all new groups
1283 that come from mail backends (@code{nnml}, @code{nnbabyl},
1284 @code{nnfolder}, @code{nnmbox}, and @code{nnmh}) subscribed. If you
1285 don't like that, just set this variable to @code{nil}.
1287 New groups that match this regexp are subscribed using
1288 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method}.
1291 @node Changing Servers
1292 @section Changing Servers
1293 @cindex changing servers
1295 Sometimes it is necessary to move from one @sc{nntp} server to another.
1296 This happens very rarely, but perhaps you change jobs, or one server is
1297 very flaky and you want to use another.
1299 Changing the server is pretty easy, right? You just change
1300 @code{gnus-select-method} to point to the new server?
1304 Article numbers are not (in any way) kept synchronized between different
1305 @sc{nntp} servers, and the only way Gnus keeps track of what articles
1306 you have read is by keeping track of article numbers. So when you
1307 change @code{gnus-select-method}, your @file{.newsrc} file becomes
1310 Gnus provides a few functions to attempt to translate a @file{.newsrc}
1311 file from one server to another. They all have one thing in
1312 common---they take a looong time to run. You don't want to use these
1313 functions more than absolutely necessary.
1315 @kindex M-x gnus-change-server
1316 @findex gnus-change-server
1317 If you have access to both servers, Gnus can request the headers for all
1318 the articles you have read and compare @code{Message-ID}s and map the
1319 article numbers of the read articles and article marks. The @kbd{M-x
1320 gnus-change-server} command will do this for all your native groups. It
1321 will prompt for the method you want to move to.
1323 @kindex M-x gnus-group-move-group-to-server
1324 @findex gnus-group-move-group-to-server
1325 You can also move individual groups with the @kbd{M-x
1326 gnus-group-move-group-to-server} command. This is useful if you want to
1327 move a (foreign) group from one server to another.
1329 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1330 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1331 If you don't have access to both the old and new server, all your marks
1332 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use the @kbd{M-x
1333 gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups} command to clear out all data
1334 that you have on your native groups. Use with caution.
1336 After changing servers, you @strong{must} move the cache hierarchy away,
1337 since the cached articles will have wrong article numbers, which will
1338 affect which articles Gnus thinks are read.
1342 @section Startup Files
1343 @cindex startup files
1348 Now, you all know about the @file{.newsrc} file. All subscription
1349 information is traditionally stored in this file.
1351 Things got a bit more complicated with @sc{gnus}. In addition to
1352 keeping the @file{.newsrc} file updated, it also used a file called
1353 @file{.newsrc.el} for storing all the information that didn't fit into
1354 the @file{.newsrc} file. (Actually, it also duplicated everything in
1355 the @file{.newsrc} file.) @sc{gnus} would read whichever one of these
1356 files was the most recently saved, which enabled people to swap between
1357 @sc{gnus} and other newsreaders.
1359 That was kinda silly, so Gnus went one better: In addition to the
1360 @file{.newsrc} and @file{.newsrc.el} files, Gnus also has a file called
1361 @file{.newsrc.eld}. It will read whichever of these files that are most
1362 recent, but it will never write a @file{.newsrc.el} file. You should
1363 never delete the @file{.newsrc.eld} file---it contains much information
1364 not stored in the @file{.newsrc} file.
1366 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-file
1367 @vindex gnus-read-newsrc-file
1368 You can turn off writing the @file{.newsrc} file by setting
1369 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-file} to @code{nil}, which means you can delete
1370 the file and save some space, as well as exiting from Gnus faster.
1371 However, this will make it impossible to use other newsreaders than
1372 Gnus. But hey, who would want to, right? Similarly, setting
1373 @code{gnus-read-newsrc-file} to @code{nil} makes Gnus ignore the
1374 @file{.newsrc} file and any @file{.newsrc-SERVER} files, which is
1375 convenient if you have a tendency to use Netscape once in a while.
1377 @vindex gnus-save-killed-list
1378 If @code{gnus-save-killed-list} (default @code{t}) is @code{nil}, Gnus
1379 will not save the list of killed groups to the startup file. This will
1380 save both time (when starting and quitting) and space (on disk). It
1381 will also mean that Gnus has no record of what groups are new or old,
1382 so the automatic new groups subscription methods become meaningless.
1383 You should always set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil} or
1384 @code{ask-server} if you set this variable to @code{nil} (@pxref{New
1385 Groups}). This variable can also be a regular expression. If that's
1386 the case, remove all groups that do not match this regexp before
1387 saving. This can be useful in certain obscure situations that involve
1388 several servers where not all servers support @code{ask-server}.
1390 @vindex gnus-startup-file
1391 The @code{gnus-startup-file} variable says where the startup files are.
1392 The default value is @file{~/.newsrc}, with the Gnus (El Dingo) startup
1393 file being whatever that one is, with a @samp{.eld} appended.
1395 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-hook
1396 @vindex gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook
1397 @vindex gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook
1398 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-hook} is called before saving any of the newsrc
1399 files, while @code{gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook} is called just before
1400 saving the @file{.newsrc.eld} file, and
1401 @code{gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook} is called just before saving the
1402 @file{.newsrc} file. The latter two are commonly used to turn version
1403 control on or off. Version control is on by default when saving the
1404 startup files. If you want to turn backup creation off, say something like:
1407 (defun turn-off-backup ()
1408 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
1410 (add-hook 'gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1411 (add-hook 'gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1414 @vindex gnus-init-file
1415 When Gnus starts, it will read the @code{gnus-site-init-file}
1416 (@file{.../site-lisp/gnus} by default) and @code{gnus-init-file}
1417 (@file{~/.gnus} by default) files. These are normal Emacs Lisp files
1418 and can be used to avoid cluttering your @file{~/.emacs} and
1419 @file{site-init} files with Gnus stuff. Gnus will also check for files
1420 with the same names as these, but with @file{.elc} and @file{.el}
1421 suffixes. In other words, if you have set @code{gnus-init-file} to
1422 @file{~/.gnus}, it will look for @file{~/.gnus.elc}, @file{~/.gnus.el},
1423 and finally @file{~/.gnus} (in this order).
1429 @cindex dribble file
1432 Whenever you do something that changes the Gnus data (reading articles,
1433 catching up, killing/subscribing groups), the change is added to a
1434 special @dfn{dribble buffer}. This buffer is auto-saved the normal
1435 Emacs way. If your Emacs should crash before you have saved the
1436 @file{.newsrc} files, all changes you have made can be recovered from
1439 If Gnus detects this file at startup, it will ask the user whether to
1440 read it. The auto save file is deleted whenever the real startup file is
1443 @vindex gnus-use-dribble-file
1444 If @code{gnus-use-dribble-file} is @code{nil}, Gnus won't create and
1445 maintain a dribble buffer. The default is @code{t}.
1447 @vindex gnus-dribble-directory
1448 Gnus will put the dribble file(s) in @code{gnus-dribble-directory}. If
1449 this variable is @code{nil}, which it is by default, Gnus will dribble
1450 into the directory where the @file{.newsrc} file is located. (This is
1451 normally the user's home directory.) The dribble file will get the same
1452 file permissions as the @code{.newsrc} file.
1454 @vindex gnus-always-read-dribble-file
1455 If @code{gnus-always-read-dribble-file} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will
1456 read the dribble file on startup without querying the user.
1459 @node The Active File
1460 @section The Active File
1462 @cindex ignored groups
1464 When Gnus starts, or indeed whenever it tries to determine whether new
1465 articles have arrived, it reads the active file. This is a very large
1466 file that lists all the active groups and articles on the server.
1468 @vindex gnus-ignored-newsgroups
1469 Before examining the active file, Gnus deletes all lines that match the
1470 regexp @code{gnus-ignored-newsgroups}. This is done primarily to reject
1471 any groups with bogus names, but you can use this variable to make Gnus
1472 ignore hierarchies you aren't ever interested in. However, this is not
1473 recommended. In fact, it's highly discouraged. Instead, @pxref{New
1474 Groups} for an overview of other variables that can be used instead.
1477 @c @code{nil} by default, and will slow down active file handling somewhat
1478 @c if you set it to anything else.
1480 @vindex gnus-read-active-file
1482 The active file can be rather Huge, so if you have a slow network, you
1483 can set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{nil} to prevent Gnus from
1484 reading the active file. This variable is @code{some} by default.
1486 Gnus will try to make do by getting information just on the groups that
1487 you actually subscribe to.
1489 Note that if you subscribe to lots and lots of groups, setting this
1490 variable to @code{nil} will probably make Gnus slower, not faster. At
1491 present, having this variable @code{nil} will slow Gnus down
1492 considerably, unless you read news over a 2400 baud modem.
1494 This variable can also have the value @code{some}. Gnus will then
1495 attempt to read active info only on the subscribed groups. On some
1496 servers this is quite fast (on sparkling, brand new INN servers that
1497 support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command), on others this isn't fast
1498 at all. In any case, @code{some} should be faster than @code{nil}, and
1499 is certainly faster than @code{t} over slow lines.
1501 Some news servers (old versions of Leafnode and old versions of INN, for
1502 instance) do not support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group}. For these
1503 servers, @code{nil} is probably the most efficient value for this
1506 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will ask for group info in total
1507 lock-step, which isn't very fast. If it is @code{some} and you use an
1508 @sc{nntp} server, Gnus will pump out commands as fast as it can, and
1509 read all the replies in one swoop. This will normally result in better
1510 performance, but if the server does not support the aforementioned
1511 @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command, this isn't very nice to the server.
1513 If you think that starting up Gnus takes too long, try all the three
1514 different values for this variable and see what works best for you.
1516 In any case, if you use @code{some} or @code{nil}, you should definitely
1517 kill all groups that you aren't interested in to speed things up.
1519 Note that this variable also affects active file retrieval from
1520 secondary select methods.
1523 @node Startup Variables
1524 @section Startup Variables
1528 @item gnus-load-hook
1529 @vindex gnus-load-hook
1530 A hook run while Gnus is being loaded. Note that this hook will
1531 normally be run just once in each Emacs session, no matter how many
1532 times you start Gnus.
1534 @item gnus-before-startup-hook
1535 @vindex gnus-before-startup-hook
1536 A hook run after starting up Gnus successfully.
1538 @item gnus-startup-hook
1539 @vindex gnus-startup-hook
1540 A hook run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1542 @item gnus-started-hook
1543 @vindex gnus-started-hook
1544 A hook that is run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1547 @item gnus-setup-news-hook
1548 @vindex gnus-setup-news-hook
1549 A hook that is run after reading the @file{.newsrc} file(s), but before
1550 generating the group buffer.
1552 @item gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1553 @vindex gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1554 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will check for and delete all bogus groups at
1555 startup. A @dfn{bogus group} is a group that you have in your
1556 @file{.newsrc} file, but doesn't exist on the news server. Checking for
1557 bogus groups can take quite a while, so to save time and resources it's
1558 best to leave this option off, and do the checking for bogus groups once
1559 in a while from the group buffer instead (@pxref{Group Maintenance}).
1561 @item gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1562 @vindex gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1563 If non-@code{nil}, the startup message won't be displayed. That way,
1564 your boss might not notice as easily that you are reading news instead
1565 of doing your job. Note that this variable is used before
1566 @file{.gnus.el} is loaded, so it should be set in @code{.emacs} instead.
1568 @item gnus-no-groups-message
1569 @vindex gnus-no-groups-message
1570 Message displayed by Gnus when no groups are available.
1572 @item gnus-play-startup-jingle
1573 @vindex gnus-play-startup-jingle
1574 If non-@code{nil}, play the Gnus jingle at startup.
1576 @item gnus-startup-jingle
1577 @vindex gnus-startup-jingle
1578 Jingle to be played if the above variable is non-@code{nil}. The
1579 default is @samp{Tuxedomoon.Jingle4.au}.
1585 @chapter Group Buffer
1586 @cindex group buffer
1588 The @dfn{group buffer} lists all (or parts) of the available groups. It
1589 is the first buffer shown when Gnus starts, and will never be killed as
1590 long as Gnus is active.
1594 \gnusfigure{The Group Buffer}{320}{
1595 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=tmp/group.ps,height=9cm}}
1596 \put(120,37){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Buffer name}}
1597 \put(120,38){\vector(1,2){10}}
1598 \put(40,60){\makebox(0,0)[r]{Mode line}}
1599 \put(40,58){\vector(1,0){30}}
1600 \put(200,28){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Native select method}}
1601 \put(200,26){\vector(-1,2){15}}
1607 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
1608 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
1609 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
1610 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
1611 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
1612 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
1613 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
1614 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
1615 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
1616 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
1617 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
1618 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
1619 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
1620 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
1621 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
1622 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
1623 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
1627 @node Group Buffer Format
1628 @section Group Buffer Format
1631 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
1632 * Group Modeline Specification:: The group buffer modeline.
1633 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
1637 @node Group Line Specification
1638 @subsection Group Line Specification
1639 @cindex group buffer format
1641 The default format of the group buffer is nice and dull, but you can
1642 make it as exciting and ugly as you feel like.
1644 Here's a couple of example group lines:
1647 25: news.announce.newusers
1648 * 0: alt.fan.andrea-dworkin
1653 You can see that there are 25 unread articles in
1654 @samp{news.announce.newusers}. There are no unread articles, but some
1655 ticked articles, in @samp{alt.fan.andrea-dworkin} (see that little
1656 asterisk at the beginning of the line?).
1658 @vindex gnus-group-line-format
1659 You can change that format to whatever you want by fiddling with the
1660 @code{gnus-group-line-format} variable. This variable works along the
1661 lines of a @code{format} specification, which is pretty much the same as
1662 a @code{printf} specifications, for those of you who use (feh!) C.
1663 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
1665 @samp{%M%S%5y: %(%g%)\n} is the value that produced those lines above.
1667 There should always be a colon on the line; the cursor always moves to
1668 the colon after performing an operation. Nothing else is required---not
1669 even the group name. All displayed text is just window dressing, and is
1670 never examined by Gnus. Gnus stores all real information it needs using
1673 (Note that if you make a really strange, wonderful, spreadsheet-like
1674 layout, everybody will believe you are hard at work with the accounting
1675 instead of wasting time reading news.)
1677 Here's a list of all available format characters:
1682 An asterisk if the group only has marked articles.
1685 Whether the group is subscribed.
1688 Level of subscribedness.
1691 Number of unread articles.
1694 Number of dormant articles.
1697 Number of ticked articles.
1700 Number of read articles.
1703 Estimated total number of articles. (This is really @var{max-number}
1704 minus @var{min-number} plus 1.)
1706 Gnus uses this estimation because the NNTP protocol provides efficient
1707 access to @var{max-number} and @var{min-number} but getting the true
1708 unread message count is not possible efficiently. For hysterical
1709 raisins, even the mail backends, where the true number of unread
1710 messages might be available efficiently, use the same limited
1711 interface. To remove this restriction from Gnus means that the
1712 backend interface has to be changed, which is not an easy job. If you
1713 want to work on this, please contact the Gnus mailing list.
1716 Number of unread, unticked, non-dormant articles.
1719 Number of ticked and dormant articles.
1728 Newsgroup description.
1731 @samp{m} if moderated.
1734 @samp{(m)} if moderated.
1743 A string that looks like @samp{<%s:%n>} if a foreign select method is
1747 Indentation based on the level of the topic (@pxref{Group Topics}).
1750 @vindex gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels
1751 Short (collapsed) group name. The @code{gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels}
1752 variable says how many levels to leave at the end of the group name.
1753 The default is 1---this will mean that group names like
1754 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} will be shortened to @samp{g.e.gnus}.
1757 @vindex gnus-new-mail-mark
1759 @samp{%} (@code{gnus-new-mail-mark}) if there has arrived new mail to
1763 @samp{#} (@code{gnus-process-mark}) if the group is process marked.
1766 A string that says when you last read the group (@pxref{Group
1770 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
1771 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
1772 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
1773 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed a single dummy
1774 parameter as argument. The function should return a string, which will
1775 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
1780 All the ``number-of'' specs will be filled with an asterisk (@samp{*})
1781 if no info is available---for instance, if it is a non-activated foreign
1782 group, or a bogus native group.
1785 @node Group Modeline Specification
1786 @subsection Group Modeline Specification
1787 @cindex group modeline
1789 @vindex gnus-group-mode-line-format
1790 The mode line can be changed by setting
1791 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}). It
1792 doesn't understand that many format specifiers:
1796 The native news server.
1798 The native select method.
1802 @node Group Highlighting
1803 @subsection Group Highlighting
1804 @cindex highlighting
1805 @cindex group highlighting
1807 @vindex gnus-group-highlight
1808 Highlighting in the group buffer is controlled by the
1809 @code{gnus-group-highlight} variable. This is an alist with elements
1810 that look like @code{(@var{form} . @var{face})}. If @var{form} evaluates to
1811 something non-@code{nil}, the @var{face} will be used on the line.
1813 Here's an example value for this variable that might look nice if the
1817 (cond (window-system
1818 (setq custom-background-mode 'light)
1819 (defface my-group-face-1
1820 '((t (:foreground "Red" :bold t))) "First group face")
1821 (defface my-group-face-2
1822 '((t (:foreground "DarkSeaGreen4" :bold t))) "Second group face")
1823 (defface my-group-face-3
1824 '((t (:foreground "Green4" :bold t))) "Third group face")
1825 (defface my-group-face-4
1826 '((t (:foreground "SteelBlue" :bold t))) "Fourth group face")
1827 (defface my-group-face-5
1828 '((t (:foreground "Blue" :bold t))) "Fifth group face")))
1830 (setq gnus-group-highlight
1831 '(((> unread 200) . my-group-face-1)
1832 ((and (< level 3) (zerop unread)) . my-group-face-2)
1833 ((< level 3) . my-group-face-3)
1834 ((zerop unread) . my-group-face-4)
1835 (t . my-group-face-5)))
1838 Also @pxref{Faces and Fonts}.
1840 Variables that are dynamically bound when the forms are evaluated
1847 The number of unread articles in the group.
1851 Whether the group is a mail group.
1853 The level of the group.
1855 The score of the group.
1857 The number of ticked articles in the group.
1859 The total number of articles in the group. Or rather, MAX-NUMBER minus
1860 MIN-NUMBER plus one.
1862 When using the topic minor mode, this variable is bound to the current
1863 topic being inserted.
1866 When the forms are @code{eval}ed, point is at the beginning of the line
1867 of the group in question, so you can use many of the normal Gnus
1868 functions for snarfing info on the group.
1870 @vindex gnus-group-update-hook
1871 @findex gnus-group-highlight-line
1872 @code{gnus-group-update-hook} is called when a group line is changed.
1873 It will not be called when @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}. This hook
1874 calls @code{gnus-group-highlight-line} by default.
1877 @node Group Maneuvering
1878 @section Group Maneuvering
1879 @cindex group movement
1881 All movement commands understand the numeric prefix and will behave as
1882 expected, hopefully.
1888 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group
1889 Go to the next group that has unread articles
1890 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group}).
1896 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group
1897 Go to the previous group that has unread articles
1898 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group}).
1902 @findex gnus-group-next-group
1903 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
1907 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
1908 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
1912 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level
1913 Go to the next unread group on the same (or lower) level
1914 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level}).
1918 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level
1919 Go to the previous unread group on the same (or lower) level
1920 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level}).
1923 Three commands for jumping to groups:
1929 @findex gnus-group-jump-to-group
1930 Jump to a group (and make it visible if it isn't already)
1931 (@code{gnus-group-jump-to-group}). Killed groups can be jumped to, just
1936 @findex gnus-group-best-unread-group
1937 Jump to the unread group with the lowest level
1938 (@code{gnus-group-best-unread-group}).
1942 @findex gnus-group-first-unread-group
1943 Jump to the first group with unread articles
1944 (@code{gnus-group-first-unread-group}).
1947 @vindex gnus-group-goto-unread
1948 If @code{gnus-group-goto-unread} is @code{nil}, all the movement
1949 commands will move to the next group, not the next unread group. Even
1950 the commands that say they move to the next unread group. The default
1954 @node Selecting a Group
1955 @section Selecting a Group
1956 @cindex group selection
1961 @kindex SPACE (Group)
1962 @findex gnus-group-read-group
1963 Select the current group, switch to the summary buffer and display the
1964 first unread article (@code{gnus-group-read-group}). If there are no
1965 unread articles in the group, or if you give a non-numerical prefix to
1966 this command, Gnus will offer to fetch all the old articles in this
1967 group from the server. If you give a numerical prefix @var{N}, @var{N}
1968 determines the number of articles Gnus will fetch. If @var{N} is
1969 positive, Gnus fetches the @var{N} newest articles, if @var{N} is
1970 negative, Gnus fetches the @code{abs(@var{N})} oldest articles.
1972 Thus, @kbd{SPC} enters the group normally, @kbd{C-u SPC} offers old
1973 articles, @kbd{C-u 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 newest articles, and @kbd{C-u
1974 - 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 oldest ones.
1976 When you are in the group (in the Summary buffer), you can type
1977 @kbd{M-g} to fetch new articles, or @kbd{C-u M-g} to also show the old
1982 @findex gnus-group-select-group
1983 Select the current group and switch to the summary buffer
1984 (@code{gnus-group-select-group}). Takes the same arguments as
1985 @code{gnus-group-read-group}---the only difference is that this command
1986 does not display the first unread article automatically upon group
1990 @kindex M-RET (Group)
1991 @findex gnus-group-quick-select-group
1992 This does the same as the command above, but tries to do it with the
1993 minimum amount of fuzz (@code{gnus-group-quick-select-group}). No
1994 scoring/killing will be performed, there will be no highlights and no
1995 expunging. This might be useful if you're in a real hurry and have to
1996 enter some humongous group. If you give a 0 prefix to this command
1997 (i.e., @kbd{0 M-RET}), Gnus won't even generate the summary buffer,
1998 which is useful if you want to toggle threading before generating the
1999 summary buffer (@pxref{Summary Generation Commands}).
2002 @kindex M-SPACE (Group)
2003 @findex gnus-group-visible-select-group
2004 This is yet one more command that does the same as the @kbd{RET}
2005 command, but this one does it without expunging and hiding dormants
2006 (@code{gnus-group-visible-select-group}).
2009 @kindex M-C-RET (Group)
2010 @findex gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally
2011 Finally, this command selects the current group ephemerally without
2012 doing any processing of its contents
2013 (@code{gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally}). Even threading has been
2014 turned off. Everything you do in the group after selecting it in this
2015 manner will have no permanent effects.
2019 @vindex gnus-large-newsgroup
2020 The @code{gnus-large-newsgroup} variable says what Gnus should consider
2021 to be a big group. This is 200 by default. If the group has more
2022 (unread and/or ticked) articles than this, Gnus will query the user
2023 before entering the group. The user can then specify how many articles
2024 should be fetched from the server. If the user specifies a negative
2025 number (@code{-n}), the @code{n} oldest articles will be fetched. If it
2026 is positive, the @code{n} articles that have arrived most recently will
2029 @vindex gnus-select-group-hook
2030 @vindex gnus-auto-select-first
2031 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} control whether any articles are selected
2032 automatically when entering a group with the @kbd{SPACE} command.
2037 Don't select any articles when entering the group. Just display the
2038 full summary buffer.
2041 Select the first unread article when entering the group.
2044 Select the highest scored article in the group when entering the
2049 This variable can also be a function. In that case, that function will
2050 be called to place point on a subject line, and/or select some article.
2051 Useful functions include:
2054 @item gnus-summary-first-unread-subject
2055 Place point on the subject line of the first unread article, but
2056 don't select the article.
2058 @item gnus-summary-first-unread-article
2059 Select the first unread article.
2061 @item gnus-summary-best-unread-article
2062 Select the highest-scored unread article.
2066 If you want to prevent automatic selection in some group (say, in a
2067 binary group with Huge articles) you can set this variable to @code{nil}
2068 in @code{gnus-select-group-hook}, which is called when a group is
2072 @node Subscription Commands
2073 @section Subscription Commands
2074 @cindex subscription
2082 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group
2083 @c @icon{gnus-group-unsubscribe}
2084 Toggle subscription to the current group
2085 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group}).
2091 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-group
2092 Prompt for a group to subscribe, and then subscribe it. If it was
2093 subscribed already, unsubscribe it instead
2094 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-group}).
2100 @findex gnus-group-kill-group
2101 @c @icon{gnus-group-kill-group}
2102 Kill the current group (@code{gnus-group-kill-group}).
2108 @findex gnus-group-yank-group
2109 Yank the last killed group (@code{gnus-group-yank-group}).
2112 @kindex C-x C-t (Group)
2113 @findex gnus-group-transpose-groups
2114 Transpose two groups (@code{gnus-group-transpose-groups}). This isn't
2115 really a subscription command, but you can use it instead of a
2116 kill-and-yank sequence sometimes.
2122 @findex gnus-group-kill-region
2123 Kill all groups in the region (@code{gnus-group-kill-region}).
2127 @findex gnus-group-kill-all-zombies
2128 Kill all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-kill-all-zombies}).
2131 @kindex S C-k (Group)
2132 @findex gnus-group-kill-level
2133 Kill all groups on a certain level (@code{gnus-group-kill-level}).
2134 These groups can't be yanked back after killing, so this command should
2135 be used with some caution. The only time where this command comes in
2136 really handy is when you have a @file{.newsrc} with lots of unsubscribed
2137 groups that you want to get rid off. @kbd{S C-k} on level 7 will
2138 kill off all unsubscribed groups that do not have message numbers in the
2139 @file{.newsrc} file.
2143 Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
2153 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current
2154 @vindex gnus-group-catchup-group-hook
2155 @c @icon{gnus-group-catchup-current}
2156 Mark all unticked articles in this group as read
2157 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current}).
2158 @code{gnus-group-catchup-group-hook} is called when catching up a group from
2163 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current-all
2164 Mark all articles in this group, even the ticked ones, as read
2165 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current-all}).
2169 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
2170 Clear the data from the current group---nix out marks and the list of
2171 read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
2173 @item M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2174 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2175 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2176 If you have switched from one @sc{nntp} server to another, all your marks
2177 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use this command to
2178 clear out all data that you have on your native groups. Use with
2185 @section Group Levels
2189 All groups have a level of @dfn{subscribedness}. For instance, if a
2190 group is on level 2, it is more subscribed than a group on level 5. You
2191 can ask Gnus to just list groups on a given level or lower
2192 (@pxref{Listing Groups}), or to just check for new articles in groups on
2193 a given level or lower (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
2195 Remember: The higher the level of the group, the less important it is.
2201 @findex gnus-group-set-current-level
2202 Set the level of the current group. If a numeric prefix is given, the
2203 next @var{n} groups will have their levels set. The user will be
2204 prompted for a level.
2207 @vindex gnus-level-killed
2208 @vindex gnus-level-zombie
2209 @vindex gnus-level-unsubscribed
2210 @vindex gnus-level-subscribed
2211 Gnus considers groups from levels 1 to
2212 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (inclusive) (default 5) to be subscribed,
2213 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (exclusive) and
2214 @code{gnus-level-unsubscribed} (inclusive) (default 7) to be
2215 unsubscribed, @code{gnus-level-zombie} to be zombies (walking dead)
2216 (default 8) and @code{gnus-level-killed} to be killed (completely dead)
2217 (default 9). Gnus treats subscribed and unsubscribed groups exactly the
2218 same, but zombie and killed groups have no information on what articles
2219 you have read, etc, stored. This distinction between dead and living
2220 groups isn't done because it is nice or clever, it is done purely for
2221 reasons of efficiency.
2223 It is recommended that you keep all your mail groups (if any) on quite
2224 low levels (e.g. 1 or 2).
2226 Maybe the following description of the default behavior of Gnus helps to
2227 understand what these levels are all about. By default, Gnus shows you
2228 subscribed nonempty groups, but by hitting @kbd{L} you can have it show
2229 empty subscribed groups and unsubscribed groups, too. Type @kbd{l} to
2230 go back to showing nonempty subscribed groups again. Thus, unsubscribed
2231 groups are hidden, in a way.
2233 Zombie and killed groups are similar to unsubscribed groups in that they
2234 are hidden by default. But they are different from subscribed and
2235 unsubscribed groups in that Gnus doesn't ask the news server for
2236 information (number of messages, number of unread messages) on zombie
2237 and killed groups. Normally, you use @kbd{C-k} to kill the groups you
2238 aren't interested in. If most groups are killed, Gnus is faster.
2240 Why does Gnus distinguish between zombie and killed groups? Well, when
2241 a new group arrives on the server, Gnus by default makes it a zombie
2242 group. This means that you are normally not bothered with new groups,
2243 but you can type @kbd{A z} to get a list of all new groups. Subscribe
2244 the ones you like and kill the ones you don't want. (@kbd{A k} shows a
2245 list of killed groups.)
2247 If you want to play with the level variables, you should show some care.
2248 Set them once, and don't touch them ever again. Better yet, don't touch
2249 them at all unless you know exactly what you're doing.
2251 @vindex gnus-level-default-unsubscribed
2252 @vindex gnus-level-default-subscribed
2253 Two closely related variables are @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}
2254 (default 3) and @code{gnus-level-default-unsubscribed} (default 6),
2255 which are the levels that new groups will be put on if they are
2256 (un)subscribed. These two variables should, of course, be inside the
2257 relevant valid ranges.
2259 @vindex gnus-keep-same-level
2260 If @code{gnus-keep-same-level} is non-@code{nil}, some movement commands
2261 will only move to groups of the same level (or lower). In
2262 particular, going from the last article in one group to the next group
2263 will go to the next group of the same level (or lower). This might be
2264 handy if you want to read the most important groups before you read the
2267 If this variable is @code{best}, Gnus will make the next newsgroup the
2268 one with the best level.
2270 @vindex gnus-group-default-list-level
2271 All groups with a level less than or equal to
2272 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level} will be listed in the group buffer
2275 @vindex gnus-group-list-inactive-groups
2276 If @code{gnus-group-list-inactive-groups} is non-@code{nil}, non-active
2277 groups will be listed along with the unread groups. This variable is
2278 @code{t} by default. If it is @code{nil}, inactive groups won't be
2281 @vindex gnus-group-use-permanent-levels
2282 If @code{gnus-group-use-permanent-levels} is non-@code{nil}, once you
2283 give a level prefix to @kbd{g} or @kbd{l}, all subsequent commands will
2284 use this level as the ``work'' level.
2286 @vindex gnus-activate-level
2287 Gnus will normally just activate (i. e., query the server about) groups
2288 on level @code{gnus-activate-level} or less. If you don't want to
2289 activate unsubscribed groups, for instance, you might set this variable
2290 to 5. The default is 6.
2294 @section Group Score
2299 You would normally keep important groups on high levels, but that scheme
2300 is somewhat restrictive. Don't you wish you could have Gnus sort the
2301 group buffer according to how often you read groups, perhaps? Within
2304 This is what @dfn{group score} is for. You can have Gnus assign a score
2305 to each group through the mechanism described below. You can then sort
2306 the group buffer based on this score. Alternatively, you can sort on
2307 score and then level. (Taken together, the level and the score is
2308 called the @dfn{rank} of the group. A group that is on level 4 and has
2309 a score of 1 has a higher rank than a group on level 5 that has a score
2310 of 300. (The level is the most significant part and the score is the
2311 least significant part.))
2313 @findex gnus-summary-bubble-group
2314 If you want groups you read often to get higher scores than groups you
2315 read seldom you can add the @code{gnus-summary-bubble-group} function to
2316 the @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} hook. This will result (after
2317 sorting) in a bubbling sort of action. If you want to see that in
2318 action after each summary exit, you can add
2319 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank} or
2320 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score} to the same hook, but that will
2321 slow things down somewhat.
2324 @node Marking Groups
2325 @section Marking Groups
2326 @cindex marking groups
2328 If you want to perform some command on several groups, and they appear
2329 subsequently in the group buffer, you would normally just give a
2330 numerical prefix to the command. Most group commands will then do your
2331 bidding on those groups.
2333 However, if the groups are not in sequential order, you can still
2334 perform a command on several groups. You simply mark the groups first
2335 with the process mark and then execute the command.
2343 @findex gnus-group-mark-group
2344 Set the mark on the current group (@code{gnus-group-mark-group}).
2350 @findex gnus-group-unmark-group
2351 Remove the mark from the current group
2352 (@code{gnus-group-unmark-group}).
2356 @findex gnus-group-unmark-all-groups
2357 Remove the mark from all groups (@code{gnus-group-unmark-all-groups}).
2361 @findex gnus-group-mark-region
2362 Mark all groups between point and mark (@code{gnus-group-mark-region}).
2366 @findex gnus-group-mark-buffer
2367 Mark all groups in the buffer (@code{gnus-group-mark-buffer}).
2371 @findex gnus-group-mark-regexp
2372 Mark all groups that match some regular expression
2373 (@code{gnus-group-mark-regexp}).
2376 Also @pxref{Process/Prefix}.
2378 @findex gnus-group-universal-argument
2379 If you want to execute some command on all groups that have been marked
2380 with the process mark, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
2381 (@code{gnus-group-universal-argument}) command. It will prompt you for
2382 the command to be executed.
2385 @node Foreign Groups
2386 @section Foreign Groups
2387 @cindex foreign groups
2389 Below are some group mode commands for making and editing general foreign
2390 groups, as well as commands to ease the creation of a few
2391 special-purpose groups. All these commands insert the newly created
2392 groups under point---@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} is not
2399 @findex gnus-group-make-group
2400 @cindex making groups
2401 Make a new group (@code{gnus-group-make-group}). Gnus will prompt you
2402 for a name, a method and possibly an @dfn{address}. For an easier way
2403 to subscribe to @sc{nntp} groups, @pxref{Browse Foreign Server}.
2407 @findex gnus-group-rename-group
2408 @cindex renaming groups
2409 Rename the current group to something else
2410 (@code{gnus-group-rename-group}). This is valid only on some
2411 groups---mail groups mostly. This command might very well be quite slow
2417 @findex gnus-group-customize
2418 Customize the group parameters (@code{gnus-group-customize}).
2422 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-method
2423 @cindex renaming groups
2424 Enter a buffer where you can edit the select method of the current
2425 group (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method}).
2429 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-parameters
2430 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group parameters
2431 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-parameters}).
2435 @findex gnus-group-edit-group
2436 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group info
2437 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group}).
2441 @findex gnus-group-make-directory-group
2443 Make a directory group (@pxref{Directory Groups}). You will be prompted
2444 for a directory name (@code{gnus-group-make-directory-group}).
2449 @findex gnus-group-make-help-group
2450 Make the Gnus help group (@code{gnus-group-make-help-group}).
2454 @cindex (ding) archive
2455 @cindex archive group
2456 @findex gnus-group-make-archive-group
2457 @vindex gnus-group-archive-directory
2458 @vindex gnus-group-recent-archive-directory
2459 Make a Gnus archive group (@code{gnus-group-make-archive-group}). By
2460 default a group pointing to the most recent articles will be created
2461 (@code{gnus-group-recent-archive-directory}), but given a prefix, a full
2462 group will be created from @code{gnus-group-archive-directory}.
2466 @findex gnus-group-make-kiboze-group
2468 Make a kiboze group. You will be prompted for a name, for a regexp to
2469 match groups to be ``included'' in the kiboze group, and a series of
2470 strings to match on headers (@code{gnus-group-make-kiboze-group}).
2471 @xref{Kibozed Groups}.
2475 @findex gnus-group-enter-directory
2477 Read an arbitrary directory as if it were a newsgroup with the
2478 @code{nneething} backend (@code{gnus-group-enter-directory}).
2479 @xref{Anything Groups}.
2483 @findex gnus-group-make-doc-group
2484 @cindex ClariNet Briefs
2486 Make a group based on some file or other
2487 (@code{gnus-group-make-doc-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2488 command, you will be prompted for a file name and a file type.
2489 Currently supported types are @code{babyl}, @code{mbox}, @code{digest},
2490 @code{mmdf}, @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{clari-briefs},
2491 @code{rfc934}, @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{nsmail} and @code{forward}.
2492 If you run this command without a prefix, Gnus will guess at the file
2493 type. @xref{Document Groups}.
2497 @vindex gnus-useful-groups
2498 @findex gnus-group-make-useful-group
2499 Create one of the groups mentioned in @code{gnus-useful-groups}
2500 (@code{gnus-group-make-useful-group}).
2504 @findex gnus-group-make-web-group
2509 Make an ephemeral group based on a web search
2510 (@code{gnus-group-make-web-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2511 command, make a solid group instead. You will be prompted for the
2512 search engine type and the search string. Valid search engine types
2513 include @code{dejanews}, @code{altavista} and @code{reference}.
2514 @xref{Web Searches}.
2516 If you use the @code{dejanews} search engine, you can limit the search
2517 to a particular group by using a match string like
2518 @samp{~g alt.sysadmin.recovery shaving}.
2521 @kindex G DEL (Group)
2522 @findex gnus-group-delete-group
2523 This function will delete the current group
2524 (@code{gnus-group-delete-group}). If given a prefix, this function will
2525 actually delete all the articles in the group, and forcibly remove the
2526 group itself from the face of the Earth. Use a prefix only if you are
2527 absolutely sure of what you are doing. This command can't be used on
2528 read-only groups (like @code{nntp} group), though.
2532 @findex gnus-group-make-empty-virtual
2533 Make a new, fresh, empty @code{nnvirtual} group
2534 (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}). @xref{Virtual Groups}.
2538 @findex gnus-group-add-to-virtual
2539 Add the current group to an @code{nnvirtual} group
2540 (@code{gnus-group-add-to-virtual}). Uses the process/prefix convention.
2543 @xref{Select Methods}, for more information on the various select
2546 @vindex gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups
2547 If @code{gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups} is a positive number,
2548 Gnus will check all foreign groups with this level or lower at startup.
2549 This might take quite a while, especially if you subscribe to lots of
2550 groups from different @sc{nntp} servers. Also @pxref{Group Levels};
2551 @code{gnus-activate-level} also affects activation of foreign
2555 @node Group Parameters
2556 @section Group Parameters
2557 @cindex group parameters
2559 The group parameters store information local to a particular group.
2560 Here's an example group parameter list:
2563 ((to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")
2567 We see that each element consists of a "dotted pair"---the thing before
2568 the dot is the key, while the thing after the dot is the value. All the
2569 parameters have this form @emph{except} local variable specs, which are
2570 not dotted pairs, but proper lists.
2572 Some parameters have correspondant customizable variables, each of which
2573 is an alist of regexps and values.
2575 The following group parameters can be used:
2580 Address used by when doing followups and new posts.
2583 (to-address . "some@@where.com")
2586 This is primarily useful in mail groups that represent closed mailing
2587 lists---mailing lists where it's expected that everybody that writes to
2588 the mailing list is subscribed to it. Since using this parameter
2589 ensures that the mail only goes to the mailing list itself, it means
2590 that members won't receive two copies of your followups.
2592 Using @code{to-address} will actually work whether the group is foreign
2593 or not. Let's say there's a group on the server that is called
2594 @samp{fa.4ad-l}. This is a real newsgroup, but the server has gotten
2595 the articles from a mail-to-news gateway. Posting directly to this
2596 group is therefore impossible---you have to send mail to the mailing
2597 list address instead.
2599 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-address-alist}.
2603 Address used when doing @kbd{a} in that group.
2606 (to-list . "some@@where.com")
2609 It is totally ignored
2610 when doing a followup---except that if it is present in a news group,
2611 you'll get mail group semantics when doing @kbd{f}.
2613 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you have neither a
2614 @code{to-list} group parameter nor a @code{to-address} group parameter,
2615 then a @code{to-list} group parameter will be added automatically upon
2616 sending the message if @code{gnus-add-to-list} is set to @code{t}.
2617 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
2619 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you don't have a
2620 @code{to-list} group parameter, one will be added automatically upon
2621 sending the message.
2623 @findex gnus-mailing-list-mode
2624 @cindex Mail List Groups
2625 If this variable is set, @code{gnus-mailing-list-mode} is turned on when
2626 entering summary buffer.
2628 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-list-alist}.
2632 If the group parameter list has the element @code{(visible . t)},
2633 that group will always be visible in the Group buffer, regardless
2634 of whether it has any unread articles.
2636 @item broken-reply-to
2637 @cindex broken-reply-to
2638 Elements like @code{(broken-reply-to . t)} signals that @code{Reply-To}
2639 headers in this group are to be ignored. This can be useful if you're
2640 reading a mailing list group where the listserv has inserted
2641 @code{Reply-To} headers that point back to the listserv itself. This is
2642 broken behavior. So there!
2646 Elements like @code{(to-group . "some.group.name")} means that all
2647 posts in that group will be sent to @code{some.group.name}.
2651 If you have @code{(newsgroup . t)} in the group parameter list, Gnus
2652 will treat all responses as if they were responses to news articles.
2653 This can be useful if you have a mail group that's really a mirror of a
2658 If @code{(gcc-self . t)} is present in the group parameter list, newly
2659 composed messages will be @code{Gcc}'d to the current group. If
2660 @code{(gcc-self . none)} is present, no @code{Gcc:} header will be
2661 generated, if @code{(gcc-self . "string")} is present, this string will
2662 be inserted literally as a @code{gcc} header. This parameter takes
2663 precedence over any default @code{Gcc} rules as described later
2664 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
2668 If the group parameter has an element that looks like @code{(auto-expire
2669 . t)}, all articles read will be marked as expirable. For an
2670 alternative approach, @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
2672 See also @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups}.
2675 @cindex total-expire
2676 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2677 @code{(total-expire . t)}, all read articles will be put through the
2678 expiry process, even if they are not marked as expirable. Use with
2679 caution. Unread, ticked and dormant articles are not eligible for
2682 See also @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups}.
2686 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
2687 If the group parameter has an element that looks like @code{(expiry-wait
2688 . 10)}, this value will override any @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} and
2689 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} when expiring expirable messages.
2690 The value can either be a number of days (not necessarily an integer) or
2691 the symbols @code{never} or @code{immediate}.
2694 @cindex score file group parameter
2695 Elements that look like @code{(score-file . "file")} will make
2696 @file{file} into the current score file for the group in question. All
2697 interactive score entries will be put into this file.
2700 @cindex adapt file group parameter
2701 Elements that look like @code{(adapt-file . "file")} will make
2702 @file{file} into the current adaptive file for the group in question.
2703 All adaptive score entries will be put into this file.
2706 When unsubscribing from a mailing list you should never send the
2707 unsubscription notice to the mailing list itself. Instead, you'd send
2708 messages to the administrative address. This parameter allows you to
2709 put the admin address somewhere convenient.
2712 Elements that look like @code{(display . MODE)} say which articles to
2713 display on entering the group. Valid values are:
2717 Display all articles, both read and unread.
2720 Display the default visible articles, which normally includes unread and
2724 Display articles that satisfy a predicate.
2726 Here are some examples:
2730 Display only unread articles.
2733 Display everything except expirable articles.
2735 @item [and (not reply) (not expirable)]
2736 Display everything except expirable and articles you've already
2740 The available operators are @code{not}, @code{and} and @code{or}.
2741 Predicates include @code{tick}, @code{unsend}, @code{undownload},
2742 @code{unread}, @code{read}, @code{dormant}, @code{}, @code{}, @code{},
2743 @code{expire}, @code{reply}, @code{killed}, @code{bookmark},
2744 @code{score}, @code{save}, @code{cache}, @code{forward}, and
2751 Elements that look like @code{(comment . "This is a comment")}
2752 are arbitrary comments on the group. They are currently ignored by
2753 Gnus, but provide a place for you to store information on particular
2757 Elements that look like @code{(charset . iso-8859-1)} will make
2758 @code{iso-8859-1} the default charset; that is, the charset that will be
2759 used for all articles that do not specify a charset.
2761 See also @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}.
2763 @item ignored-charsets
2764 Elements that look like @code{(ignored-charsets x-known iso-8859-1)}
2765 will make @code{iso-8859-1} and @code{x-unknown} ignored; that is, the
2766 default charset will be used for decoding articles.
2768 See also @code{gnus-group-ignored-charsets-alist}.
2771 You can store additional posting style information for this group only
2772 here (@pxref{Posting Styles}). The format is that of an entry in the
2773 @code{gnus-posting-styles} alist, except that there's no regexp matching
2774 the group name (of course). Style elements in this group parameter will
2775 take precedence over the ones found in @code{gnus-posting-styles}.
2777 For instance, if you want a funky name and signature in this group only,
2778 instead of hacking @code{gnus-posting-styles}, you could put something
2779 like this in the group parameters:
2784 (signature "Funky Signature"))
2789 If it is set, the value is used as the method for posting message
2790 instead of @code{gnus-post-method}.
2793 An item like @code{(banner . "regex")} causes any part of an article
2794 that matches the regular expression "regex" to be stripped. Instead of
2795 "regex", you can also use the symbol @code{signature} which strips the
2796 last signature or any of the elements of the alist
2797 @code{gnus-article-banner-alist}.
2799 @item (@var{variable} @var{form})
2800 You can use the group parameters to set variables local to the group you
2801 are entering. If you want to turn threading off in @samp{news.answers},
2802 you could put @code{(gnus-show-threads nil)} in the group parameters of
2803 that group. @code{gnus-show-threads} will be made into a local variable
2804 in the summary buffer you enter, and the form @code{nil} will be
2805 @code{eval}ed there.
2807 This can also be used as a group-specific hook function, if you'd like.
2808 If you want to hear a beep when you enter a group, you could put
2809 something like @code{(dummy-variable (ding))} in the parameters of that
2810 group. @code{dummy-variable} will be set to the result of the
2811 @code{(ding)} form, but who cares?
2815 Use the @kbd{G p} or the @kbd{G c} command to edit group parameters of a
2816 group. (@kbd{G p} presents you with a Lisp-based interface, @kbd{G c}
2817 presents you with a Customize-like interface. The latter helps avoid
2818 silly Lisp errors.) You might also be interested in reading about topic
2819 parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}).
2821 Group parameters can be set via the @code{gnus-parameters} variable too.
2822 But some variables, such as @code{visible}, have no effect. For
2826 (setq gnus-parameters
2828 (gnus-show-threads nil)
2829 (gnus-use-scoring nil)
2830 (gnus-summary-line-format
2831 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%d:%ub%-23,23f%]%) %s\n")
2835 ("^nnimap:\\(foo.bar\\)$"
2839 (gnus-use-scoring t))
2843 (broken-reply-to . t))))
2846 String value of parameters will be subjected to regexp substitution, as
2847 the @code{to-group} example shows.
2850 @node Listing Groups
2851 @section Listing Groups
2852 @cindex group listing
2854 These commands all list various slices of the groups available.
2862 @findex gnus-group-list-groups
2863 List all groups that have unread articles
2864 (@code{gnus-group-list-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used, this
2865 command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default, it
2866 only lists groups of level five (i. e.,
2867 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level}) or lower (i.e., just subscribed
2874 @findex gnus-group-list-all-groups
2875 List all groups, whether they have unread articles or not
2876 (@code{gnus-group-list-all-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used,
2877 this command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default,
2878 it lists groups of level seven or lower (i.e., just subscribed and
2879 unsubscribed groups).
2883 @findex gnus-group-list-level
2884 List all unread groups on a specific level
2885 (@code{gnus-group-list-level}). If given a prefix, also list the groups
2886 with no unread articles.
2890 @findex gnus-group-list-killed
2891 List all killed groups (@code{gnus-group-list-killed}). If given a
2892 prefix argument, really list all groups that are available, but aren't
2893 currently (un)subscribed. This could entail reading the active file
2898 @findex gnus-group-list-zombies
2899 List all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-list-zombies}).
2903 @findex gnus-group-list-matching
2904 List all unread, subscribed groups with names that match a regexp
2905 (@code{gnus-group-list-matching}).
2909 @findex gnus-group-list-all-matching
2910 List groups that match a regexp (@code{gnus-group-list-all-matching}).
2914 @findex gnus-group-list-active
2915 List absolutely all groups in the active file(s) of the
2916 server(s) you are connected to (@code{gnus-group-list-active}). This
2917 might very well take quite a while. It might actually be a better idea
2918 to do a @kbd{A M} to list all matching, and just give @samp{.} as the
2919 thing to match on. Also note that this command may list groups that
2920 don't exist (yet)---these will be listed as if they were killed groups.
2921 Take the output with some grains of salt.
2925 @findex gnus-group-apropos
2926 List all groups that have names that match a regexp
2927 (@code{gnus-group-apropos}).
2931 @findex gnus-group-description-apropos
2932 List all groups that have names or descriptions that match a regexp
2933 (@code{gnus-group-description-apropos}).
2937 @findex gnus-group-list-cached
2938 List all groups with cached articles (@code{gnus-group-list-cached}).
2942 @findex gnus-group-list-dormant
2943 List all groups with dormant articles (@code{gnus-group-list-dormant}).
2947 @findex gnus-group-list-limit
2948 List groups limited within the current selection
2949 (@code{gnus-group-list-limit}).
2953 @findex gnus-group-list-flush
2954 Flush groups from the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-flush}).
2958 @findex gnus-group-list-plus
2959 List groups plus the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-plus}).
2963 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
2964 @cindex visible group parameter
2965 Groups that match the @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} regexp will
2966 always be shown, whether they have unread articles or not. You can also
2967 add the @code{visible} element to the group parameters in question to
2968 get the same effect.
2970 @vindex gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles
2971 Groups that have just ticked articles in it are normally listed in the
2972 group buffer. If @code{gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles} is
2973 @code{nil}, these groups will be treated just like totally empty
2974 groups. It is @code{t} by default.
2977 @node Sorting Groups
2978 @section Sorting Groups
2979 @cindex sorting groups
2981 @kindex C-c C-s (Group)
2982 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups
2983 @vindex gnus-group-sort-function
2984 The @kbd{C-c C-s} (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups}) command sorts the
2985 group buffer according to the function(s) given by the
2986 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable. Available sorting functions
2991 @item gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
2992 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
2993 Sort the group names alphabetically. This is the default.
2995 @item gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
2996 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
2997 Sort the group alphabetically on the real (unprefixed) group names.
2999 @item gnus-group-sort-by-level
3000 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-level
3001 Sort by group level.
3003 @item gnus-group-sort-by-score
3004 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-score
3005 Sort by group score. @xref{Group Score}.
3007 @item gnus-group-sort-by-rank
3008 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-rank
3009 Sort by group score and then the group level. The level and the score
3010 are, when taken together, the group's @dfn{rank}. @xref{Group Score}.
3012 @item gnus-group-sort-by-unread
3013 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-unread
3014 Sort by number of unread articles.
3016 @item gnus-group-sort-by-method
3017 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-method
3018 Sort alphabetically on the select method.
3020 @item gnus-group-sort-by-server
3021 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-server
3022 Sort alphabetically on the Gnus server name.
3027 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} can also be a list of sorting
3028 functions. In that case, the most significant sort key function must be
3032 There are also a number of commands for sorting directly according to
3033 some sorting criteria:
3037 @kindex G S a (Group)
3038 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet
3039 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by group name
3040 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
3043 @kindex G S u (Group)
3044 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread
3045 Sort the group buffer by the number of unread articles
3046 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread}).
3049 @kindex G S l (Group)
3050 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level
3051 Sort the group buffer by group level
3052 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level}).
3055 @kindex G S v (Group)
3056 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score
3057 Sort the group buffer by group score
3058 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3061 @kindex G S r (Group)
3062 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank
3063 Sort the group buffer by group rank
3064 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3067 @kindex G S m (Group)
3068 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method
3069 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by backend name
3070 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method}).
3074 All the commands below obey the process/prefix convention
3075 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3077 When given a symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}), all these
3078 commands will sort in reverse order.
3080 You can also sort a subset of the groups:
3084 @kindex G P a (Group)
3085 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet
3086 Sort the groups alphabetically by group name
3087 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet}).
3090 @kindex G P u (Group)
3091 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread
3092 Sort the groups by the number of unread articles
3093 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread}).
3096 @kindex G P l (Group)
3097 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level
3098 Sort the groups by group level
3099 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level}).
3102 @kindex G P v (Group)
3103 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score
3104 Sort the groups by group score
3105 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3108 @kindex G P r (Group)
3109 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank
3110 Sort the groups by group rank
3111 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3114 @kindex G P m (Group)
3115 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method
3116 Sort the groups alphabetically by backend name
3117 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method}).
3121 And finally, note that you can use @kbd{C-k} and @kbd{C-y} to manually
3125 @node Group Maintenance
3126 @section Group Maintenance
3127 @cindex bogus groups
3132 @findex gnus-group-check-bogus-groups
3133 Find bogus groups and delete them
3134 (@code{gnus-group-check-bogus-groups}).
3138 @findex gnus-group-find-new-groups
3139 Find new groups and process them (@code{gnus-group-find-new-groups}).
3140 With 1 @kbd{C-u}, use the @code{ask-server} method to query the server
3141 for new groups. With 2 @kbd{C-u}'s, use most complete method possible
3142 to query the server for new groups, and subscribe the new groups as
3146 @kindex C-c C-x (Group)
3147 @findex gnus-group-expire-articles
3148 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
3149 process (if any) (@code{gnus-group-expire-articles}). That is, delete
3150 all expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
3151 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3154 @kindex C-c M-C-x (Group)
3155 @findex gnus-group-expire-all-groups
3156 Run all expirable articles in all groups through the expiry process
3157 (@code{gnus-group-expire-all-groups}).
3162 @node Browse Foreign Server
3163 @section Browse Foreign Server
3164 @cindex foreign servers
3165 @cindex browsing servers
3170 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
3171 You will be queried for a select method and a server name. Gnus will
3172 then attempt to contact this server and let you browse the groups there
3173 (@code{gnus-group-browse-foreign-server}).
3176 @findex gnus-browse-mode
3177 A new buffer with a list of available groups will appear. This buffer
3178 will use the @code{gnus-browse-mode}. This buffer looks a bit (well,
3179 a lot) like a normal group buffer.
3181 Here's a list of keystrokes available in the browse mode:
3186 @findex gnus-group-next-group
3187 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
3191 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
3192 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
3195 @kindex SPACE (Browse)
3196 @findex gnus-browse-read-group
3197 Enter the current group and display the first article
3198 (@code{gnus-browse-read-group}).
3201 @kindex RET (Browse)
3202 @findex gnus-browse-select-group
3203 Enter the current group (@code{gnus-browse-select-group}).
3207 @findex gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group
3208 Unsubscribe to the current group, or, as will be the case here,
3209 subscribe to it (@code{gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group}).
3215 @findex gnus-browse-exit
3216 Exit browse mode (@code{gnus-browse-exit}).
3220 @findex gnus-browse-describe-briefly
3221 Describe browse mode briefly (well, there's not much to describe, is
3222 there) (@code{gnus-browse-describe-briefly}).
3227 @section Exiting Gnus
3228 @cindex exiting Gnus
3230 Yes, Gnus is ex(c)iting.
3235 @findex gnus-group-suspend
3236 Suspend Gnus (@code{gnus-group-suspend}). This doesn't really exit Gnus,
3237 but it kills all buffers except the Group buffer. I'm not sure why this
3238 is a gain, but then who am I to judge?
3242 @findex gnus-group-exit
3243 @c @icon{gnus-group-exit}
3244 Quit Gnus (@code{gnus-group-exit}).
3248 @findex gnus-group-quit
3249 Quit Gnus without saving the @file{.newsrc} files (@code{gnus-group-quit}).
3250 The dribble file will be saved, though (@pxref{Auto Save}).
3253 @vindex gnus-exit-gnus-hook
3254 @vindex gnus-suspend-gnus-hook
3255 @code{gnus-suspend-gnus-hook} is called when you suspend Gnus and
3256 @code{gnus-exit-gnus-hook} is called when you quit Gnus, while
3257 @code{gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook} is called as the final item when
3262 If you wish to completely unload Gnus and all its adherents, you can use
3263 the @code{gnus-unload} command. This command is also very handy when
3264 trying to customize meta-variables.
3269 Miss Lisa Cannifax, while sitting in English class, felt her feet go
3270 numbly heavy and herself fall into a hazy trance as the boy sitting
3271 behind her drew repeated lines with his pencil across the back of her
3277 @section Group Topics
3280 If you read lots and lots of groups, it might be convenient to group
3281 them hierarchically according to topics. You put your Emacs groups over
3282 here, your sex groups over there, and the rest (what, two groups or so?)
3283 you put in some misc section that you never bother with anyway. You can
3284 even group the Emacs sex groups as a sub-topic to either the Emacs
3285 groups or the sex groups---or both! Go wild!
3289 \gnusfigure{Group Topics}{400}{
3290 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=tmp/group-topic.ps,height=9cm}}
3301 2: alt.religion.emacs
3304 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3306 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3307 13: comp.sources.unix
3310 @findex gnus-topic-mode
3312 To get this @emph{fab} functionality you simply turn on (ooh!) the
3313 @code{gnus-topic} minor mode---type @kbd{t} in the group buffer. (This
3314 is a toggling command.)
3316 Go ahead, just try it. I'll still be here when you get back. La de
3317 dum... Nice tune, that... la la la... What, you're back? Yes, and now
3318 press @kbd{l}. There. All your groups are now listed under
3319 @samp{misc}. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy? Hot and
3322 If you want this permanently enabled, you should add that minor mode to
3323 the hook for the group mode:
3326 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
3330 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
3331 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
3332 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
3333 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
3334 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
3338 @node Topic Variables
3339 @subsection Topic Variables
3340 @cindex topic variables
3342 Now, if you select a topic, it will fold/unfold that topic, which is
3343 really neat, I think.
3345 @vindex gnus-topic-line-format
3346 The topic lines themselves are created according to the
3347 @code{gnus-topic-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
3360 Number of groups in the topic.
3362 Number of unread articles in the topic.
3364 Number of unread articles in the topic and all its subtopics.
3367 @vindex gnus-topic-indent-level
3368 Each sub-topic (and the groups in the sub-topics) will be indented with
3369 @code{gnus-topic-indent-level} times the topic level number of spaces.
3372 @vindex gnus-topic-mode-hook
3373 @code{gnus-topic-mode-hook} is called in topic minor mode buffers.
3375 @vindex gnus-topic-display-empty-topics
3376 The @code{gnus-topic-display-empty-topics} says whether to display even
3377 topics that have no unread articles in them. The default is @code{t}.
3380 @node Topic Commands
3381 @subsection Topic Commands
3382 @cindex topic commands
3384 When the topic minor mode is turned on, a new @kbd{T} submap will be
3385 available. In addition, a few of the standard keys change their
3386 definitions slightly.
3392 @findex gnus-topic-create-topic
3393 Prompt for a new topic name and create it
3394 (@code{gnus-topic-create-topic}).
3398 @findex gnus-topic-move-group
3399 Move the current group to some other topic
3400 (@code{gnus-topic-move-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3401 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3405 @findex gnus-topic-jump-to-topic
3406 Go to a topic (@code{gnus-topic-jump-to-topic}).
3410 @findex gnus-topic-copy-group
3411 Copy the current group to some other topic
3412 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3413 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3417 @findex gnus-topic-hide-topic
3418 Hide the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-hide-topic}). If given
3419 a prefix, hide the topic permanently.
3423 @findex gnus-topic-show-topic
3424 Show the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-show-topic}). If given
3425 a prefix, show the topic permanently.
3429 @findex gnus-topic-remove-group
3430 Remove a group from the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-remove-group}).
3431 This command is mainly useful if you have the same group in several
3432 topics and wish to remove it from one of the topics. You may also
3433 remove a group from all topics, but in that case, Gnus will add it to
3434 the root topic the next time you start Gnus. In fact, all new groups
3435 (which, naturally, don't belong to any topic) will show up in the root
3438 This command uses the process/prefix convention
3439 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3443 @findex gnus-topic-move-matching
3444 Move all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3445 (@code{gnus-topic-move-matching}).
3449 @findex gnus-topic-copy-matching
3450 Copy all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3451 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-matching}).
3455 @findex gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics
3456 Toggle hiding empty topics
3457 (@code{gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics}).
3461 @findex gnus-topic-mark-topic
3462 Mark all groups in the current topic with the process mark
3463 (@code{gnus-topic-mark-topic}).
3466 @kindex T M-# (Topic)
3467 @findex gnus-topic-unmark-topic
3468 Remove the process mark from all groups in the current topic
3469 (@code{gnus-topic-unmark-topic}).
3473 @kindex T TAB (Topic)
3475 @findex gnus-topic-indent
3476 ``Indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3477 previous topic (@code{gnus-topic-indent}). If given a prefix,
3478 ``un-indent'' the topic instead.
3481 @kindex M-TAB (Topic)
3482 @findex gnus-topic-unindent
3483 ``Un-indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3484 parent of its current parent (@code{gnus-topic-unindent}).
3488 @findex gnus-topic-select-group
3490 Either select a group or fold a topic (@code{gnus-topic-select-group}).
3491 When you perform this command on a group, you'll enter the group, as
3492 usual. When done on a topic line, the topic will be folded (if it was
3493 visible) or unfolded (if it was folded already). So it's basically a
3494 toggling command on topics. In addition, if you give a numerical
3495 prefix, group on that level (and lower) will be displayed.
3498 @kindex C-c C-x (Topic)
3499 @findex gnus-topic-expire-articles
3500 Run all expirable articles in the current group or topic through the
3501 expiry process (if any)
3502 (@code{gnus-topic-expire-articles}). (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3506 @findex gnus-topic-kill-group
3507 Kill a group or topic (@code{gnus-topic-kill-group}). All groups in the
3508 topic will be removed along with the topic.
3512 @findex gnus-topic-yank-group
3513 Yank the previously killed group or topic
3514 (@code{gnus-topic-yank-group}). Note that all topics will be yanked
3519 @findex gnus-topic-rename
3520 Rename a topic (@code{gnus-topic-rename}).
3523 @kindex T DEL (Topic)
3524 @findex gnus-topic-delete
3525 Delete an empty topic (@code{gnus-topic-delete}).
3529 @findex gnus-topic-list-active
3530 List all groups that Gnus knows about in a topics-ified way
3531 (@code{gnus-topic-list-active}).
3535 @findex gnus-topic-edit-parameters
3536 @cindex group parameters
3537 @cindex topic parameters
3539 Edit the topic parameters (@code{gnus-topic-edit-parameters}).
3540 @xref{Topic Parameters}.
3546 @subsection Topic Sorting
3547 @cindex topic sorting
3549 You can sort the groups in each topic individually with the following
3555 @kindex T S a (Topic)
3556 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet
3557 Sort the current topic alphabetically by group name
3558 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
3561 @kindex T S u (Topic)
3562 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread
3563 Sort the current topic by the number of unread articles
3564 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread}).
3567 @kindex T S l (Topic)
3568 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level
3569 Sort the current topic by group level
3570 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level}).
3573 @kindex T S v (Topic)
3574 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score
3575 Sort the current topic by group score
3576 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3579 @kindex T S r (Topic)
3580 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank
3581 Sort the current topic by group rank
3582 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3585 @kindex T S m (Topic)
3586 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method
3587 Sort the current topic alphabetically by backend name
3588 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method}).
3592 @xref{Sorting Groups}, for more information about group sorting.
3595 @node Topic Topology
3596 @subsection Topic Topology
3597 @cindex topic topology
3600 So, let's have a look at an example group buffer:
3606 2: alt.religion.emacs
3609 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3611 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3612 13: comp.sources.unix
3615 So, here we have one top-level topic (@samp{Gnus}), two topics under
3616 that, and one sub-topic under one of the sub-topics. (There is always
3617 just one (1) top-level topic). This topology can be expressed as
3622 (("Emacs -- I wuw it!" visible)
3623 (("Naughty Emacs" visible)))
3627 @vindex gnus-topic-topology
3628 This is in fact how the variable @code{gnus-topic-topology} would look
3629 for the display above. That variable is saved in the @file{.newsrc.eld}
3630 file, and shouldn't be messed with manually---unless you really want
3631 to. Since this variable is read from the @file{.newsrc.eld} file,
3632 setting it in any other startup files will have no effect.
3634 This topology shows what topics are sub-topics of what topics (right),
3635 and which topics are visible. Two settings are currently
3636 allowed---@code{visible} and @code{invisible}.
3639 @node Topic Parameters
3640 @subsection Topic Parameters
3641 @cindex topic parameters
3643 All groups in a topic will inherit group parameters from the parent (and
3644 ancestor) topic parameters. All valid group parameters are valid topic
3645 parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
3647 In addition, the following parameters are only valid as topic
3652 When subscribing new groups by topic (@pxref{Subscription Methods}), the
3653 @code{subscribe} topic parameter says what groups go in what topic. Its
3654 value should be a regexp to match the groups that should go in that
3659 Group parameters (of course) override topic parameters, and topic
3660 parameters in sub-topics override topic parameters in super-topics. You
3661 know. Normal inheritance rules. (@dfn{Rules} is here a noun, not a
3662 verb, although you may feel free to disagree with me here.)
3668 2: alt.religion.emacs
3672 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3674 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3675 13: comp.sources.unix
3679 The @samp{Emacs} topic has the topic parameter @code{(score-file
3680 . "emacs.SCORE")}; the @samp{Relief} topic has the topic parameter
3681 @code{(score-file . "relief.SCORE")}; and the @samp{Misc} topic has the
3682 topic parameter @code{(score-file . "emacs.SCORE")}. In addition,
3683 @* @samp{alt.religion.emacs} has the group parameter @code{(score-file
3684 . "religion.SCORE")}.
3686 Now, when you enter @samp{alt.sex.emacs} in the @samp{Relief} topic, you
3687 will get the @file{relief.SCORE} home score file. If you enter the same
3688 group in the @samp{Emacs} topic, you'll get the @file{emacs.SCORE} home
3689 score file. If you enter the group @samp{alt.religion.emacs}, you'll
3690 get the @file{religion.SCORE} home score file.
3692 This seems rather simple and self-evident, doesn't it? Well, yes. But
3693 there are some problems, especially with the @code{total-expiry}
3694 parameter. Say you have a mail group in two topics; one with
3695 @code{total-expiry} and one without. What happens when you do @kbd{M-x
3696 gnus-expire-all-expirable-groups}? Gnus has no way of telling which one
3697 of these topics you mean to expire articles from, so anything may
3698 happen. In fact, I hereby declare that it is @dfn{undefined} what
3699 happens. You just have to be careful if you do stuff like that.
3702 @node Misc Group Stuff
3703 @section Misc Group Stuff
3706 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
3707 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
3708 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
3709 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
3716 @findex gnus-group-enter-server-mode
3717 Enter the server buffer (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}).
3718 @xref{Server Buffer}.
3722 @findex gnus-group-post-news
3723 Post an article to a group (@code{gnus-group-post-news}). If given a
3724 prefix, the current group name will be used as the default.
3728 @findex gnus-group-mail
3729 Mail a message somewhere (@code{gnus-group-mail}).
3733 Variables for the group buffer:
3737 @item gnus-group-mode-hook
3738 @vindex gnus-group-mode-hook
3739 is called after the group buffer has been
3742 @item gnus-group-prepare-hook
3743 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
3744 is called after the group buffer is
3745 generated. It may be used to modify the buffer in some strange,
3748 @item gnus-group-prepared-hook
3749 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
3750 is called as the very last thing after the group buffer has been
3751 generated. It may be used to move point around, for instance.
3753 @item gnus-permanently-visible-groups
3754 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
3755 Groups matching this regexp will always be listed in the group buffer,
3756 whether they are empty or not.
3758 @item gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
3759 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
3760 An alist of method and the charset for group names. It is used to show
3761 non-ASCII group names.
3765 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
3766 '(((nntp "news.com.cn") . cn-gb-2312)))
3769 @item gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
3770 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
3771 An alist of regexp of group name and the charset for group names.
3772 It is used to show non-ASCII group names.
3776 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
3777 '(("\\.com\\.cn:" . cn-gb-2312)))
3782 @node Scanning New Messages
3783 @subsection Scanning New Messages
3784 @cindex new messages
3785 @cindex scanning new news
3791 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news
3792 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news}
3793 Check the server(s) for new articles. If the numerical prefix is used,
3794 this command will check only groups of level @var{arg} and lower
3795 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news}). If given a non-numerical prefix, this
3796 command will force a total re-reading of the active file(s) from the
3801 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group
3802 @vindex gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating
3803 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}
3804 Check whether new articles have arrived in the current group
3805 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}).
3806 @code{gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating} says whether this command is
3807 to move point to the next group or not. It is @code{t} by default.
3809 @findex gnus-activate-all-groups
3810 @cindex activating groups
3812 @kindex C-c M-g (Group)
3813 Activate absolutely all groups (@code{gnus-activate-all-groups}).
3818 @findex gnus-group-restart
3819 Restart Gnus (@code{gnus-group-restart}). This saves the @file{.newsrc}
3820 file(s), closes the connection to all servers, clears up all run-time
3821 Gnus variables, and then starts Gnus all over again.
3825 @vindex gnus-get-new-news-hook
3826 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is run just before checking for new news.
3828 @vindex gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook
3829 @code{gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook} is run after checking for new
3833 @node Group Information
3834 @subsection Group Information
3835 @cindex group information
3836 @cindex information on groups
3843 @findex gnus-group-fetch-faq
3844 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
3847 Try to fetch the FAQ for the current group
3848 (@code{gnus-group-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the FAQ from
3849 @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory on a
3850 remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories. In
3851 that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose
3852 between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp} (or @code{efs}) will be used
3853 for fetching the file.
3855 If fetching from the first site is unsuccessful, Gnus will attempt to go
3856 through @code{gnus-group-faq-directory} and try to open them one by one.
3860 @c @icon{gnus-group-describe-group}
3862 @kindex C-c C-d (Group)
3863 @cindex describing groups
3864 @cindex group description
3865 @findex gnus-group-describe-group
3866 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-group-describe-group}). If given
3867 a prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description from the server.
3871 @findex gnus-group-describe-all-groups
3872 Describe all groups (@code{gnus-group-describe-all-groups}). If given a
3873 prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description file from the server.
3880 @findex gnus-version
3881 Display current Gnus version numbers (@code{gnus-version}).
3885 @findex gnus-group-describe-briefly
3886 Give a very short help message (@code{gnus-group-describe-briefly}).
3889 @kindex C-c C-i (Group)
3892 @findex gnus-info-find-node
3893 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
3897 @node Group Timestamp
3898 @subsection Group Timestamp
3900 @cindex group timestamps
3902 It can be convenient to let Gnus keep track of when you last read a
3903 group. To set the ball rolling, you should add
3904 @code{gnus-group-set-timestamp} to @code{gnus-select-group-hook}:
3907 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook 'gnus-group-set-timestamp)
3910 After doing this, each time you enter a group, it'll be recorded.
3912 This information can be displayed in various ways---the easiest is to
3913 use the @samp{%d} spec in the group line format:
3916 (setq gnus-group-line-format
3917 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %d\n")
3920 This will result in lines looking like:
3923 * 0: mail.ding 19961002T012943
3924 0: custom 19961002T012713
3927 As you can see, the date is displayed in compact ISO 8601 format. This
3928 may be a bit too much, so to just display the date, you could say
3932 (setq gnus-group-line-format
3933 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %6,6~(cut 2)d\n")
3938 @subsection File Commands
3939 @cindex file commands
3945 @findex gnus-group-read-init-file
3946 @vindex gnus-init-file
3947 @cindex reading init file
3948 Re-read the init file (@code{gnus-init-file}, which defaults to
3949 @file{~/.gnus}) (@code{gnus-group-read-init-file}).
3953 @findex gnus-group-save-newsrc
3954 @cindex saving .newsrc
3955 Save the @file{.newsrc.eld} file (and @file{.newsrc} if wanted)
3956 (@code{gnus-group-save-newsrc}). If given a prefix, force saving the
3957 file(s) whether Gnus thinks it is necessary or not.
3960 @c @kindex Z (Group)
3961 @c @findex gnus-group-clear-dribble
3962 @c Clear the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-group-clear-dribble}).
3967 @node Summary Buffer
3968 @chapter Summary Buffer
3969 @cindex summary buffer
3971 A line for each article is displayed in the summary buffer. You can
3972 move around, read articles, post articles and reply to articles.
3974 The most common way to a summary buffer is to select a group from the
3975 group buffer (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
3977 You can have as many summary buffers open as you wish.
3980 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
3981 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
3982 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
3983 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
3984 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
3985 * Delayed Articles::
3986 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
3987 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
3988 * Threading:: How threads are made.
3989 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
3990 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
3991 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
3992 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
3993 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
3994 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
3995 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
3996 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
3997 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
3998 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
3999 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
4000 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
4001 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
4002 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
4003 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
4004 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
4005 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
4006 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
4007 or reselecting the current group.
4008 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
4009 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
4010 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
4011 * Mailing List:: Mailing list minor mode.
4015 @node Summary Buffer Format
4016 @section Summary Buffer Format
4017 @cindex summary buffer format
4021 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{180}{
4022 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary.ps,width=7.5cm}}
4023 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-article.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
4029 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
4030 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
4031 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
4032 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
4035 @findex mail-extract-address-components
4036 @findex gnus-extract-address-components
4037 @vindex gnus-extract-address-components
4038 Gnus will use the value of the @code{gnus-extract-address-components}
4039 variable as a function for getting the name and address parts of a
4040 @code{From} header. Two pre-defined functions exist:
4041 @code{gnus-extract-address-components}, which is the default, quite
4042 fast, and too simplistic solution; and
4043 @code{mail-extract-address-components}, which works very nicely, but is
4044 slower. The default function will return the wrong answer in 5% of the
4045 cases. If this is unacceptable to you, use the other function instead:
4048 (setq gnus-extract-address-components
4049 'mail-extract-address-components)
4052 @vindex gnus-summary-same-subject
4053 @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} is a string indicating that the current
4054 article has the same subject as the previous. This string will be used
4055 with those specs that require it. The default is @code{""}.
4058 @node Summary Buffer Lines
4059 @subsection Summary Buffer Lines
4061 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
4062 You can change the format of the lines in the summary buffer by changing
4063 the @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable. It works along the same
4064 lines as a normal @code{format} string, with some extensions
4065 (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
4067 There should always be a colon or a point position marker on the line;
4068 the cursor always moves to the point position marker or the colon after
4069 performing an operation. (Of course, Gnus wouldn't be Gnus if it wasn't
4070 possible to change this. Just write a new function
4071 @code{gnus-goto-colon} which does whatever you like with the cursor.)
4073 The default string is @samp{%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23n%]%) %s\n}.
4075 The following format specification characters are understood:
4081 Subject string. List identifiers stripped,
4082 @code{gnus-list-identifies}. @xref{Article Hiding}.
4084 Subject if the article is the root of the thread or the previous article
4085 had a different subject, @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} otherwise.
4086 (@code{gnus-summary-same-subject} defaults to @code{""}.)
4088 Full @code{From} header.
4090 The name (from the @code{From} header).
4092 The name, code @code{To} header or the @code{Newsgroups} header
4093 (@pxref{To From Newsgroups}).
4095 The name (from the @code{From} header). This differs from the @code{n}
4096 spec in that it uses the function designated by the
4097 @code{gnus-extract-address-components} variable, which is slower, but
4098 may be more thorough.
4100 The address (from the @code{From} header). This works the same way as
4103 Number of lines in the article.
4105 Number of characters in the article. This specifier is not supported in some
4106 methods (like nnfolder).
4108 Indentation based on thread level (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
4110 A complex trn-style thread tree, showing response-connecting trace lines.
4112 Nothing if the article is a root and lots of spaces if it isn't (it
4113 pushes everything after it off the screen).
4115 Opening bracket, which is normally @samp{[}, but can also be @samp{<}
4116 for adopted articles (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
4118 Closing bracket, which is normally @samp{]}, but can also be @samp{>}
4119 for adopted articles.
4121 One space for each thread level.
4123 Twenty minus thread level spaces.
4128 This misleadingly named specifier is the @dfn{secondary mark}. This
4129 mark will say whether the article has been replied to, has been cached,
4133 Score as a number (@pxref{Scoring}).
4135 @vindex gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz
4136 Zcore, @samp{+} if above the default level and @samp{-} if below the
4137 default level. If the difference between
4138 @code{gnus-summary-default-score} and the score is less than
4139 @code{gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz}, this spec will not be used.
4147 The @code{Date} in @code{DD-MMM} format.
4149 The @code{Date} in @var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS} format.
4155 Number of articles in the current sub-thread. Using this spec will slow
4156 down summary buffer generation somewhat.
4158 An @samp{=} (@code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark}) will be displayed if the
4159 article has any children.
4165 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
4166 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
4167 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
4168 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed the current header as
4169 argument. The function should return a string, which will be inserted
4170 into the summary just like information from any other summary specifier.
4173 The @samp{%U} (status), @samp{%R} (replied) and @samp{%z} (zcore) specs
4174 have to be handled with care. For reasons of efficiency, Gnus will
4175 compute what column these characters will end up in, and ``hard-code''
4176 that. This means that it is invalid to have these specs after a
4177 variable-length spec. Well, you might not be arrested, but your summary
4178 buffer will look strange, which is bad enough.
4180 The smart choice is to have these specs as far to the left as possible.
4181 (Isn't that the case with everything, though? But I digress.)
4183 This restriction may disappear in later versions of Gnus.
4186 @node To From Newsgroups
4187 @subsection To From Newsgroups
4191 In some groups (particularly in archive groups), the @code{From} header
4192 isn't very interesting, since all the articles there are written by
4193 you. To display the information in the @code{To} or @code{Newsgroups}
4194 headers instead, you need to decide three things: What information to
4195 gather; where to display it; and when to display it.
4199 @vindex gnus-extra-headers
4200 The reading of extra header information is controlled by the
4201 @code{gnus-extra-headers}. This is a list of header symbols. For
4205 (setq gnus-extra-headers
4206 '(To Newsgroups X-Newsreader))
4209 This will result in Gnus trying to obtain these three headers, and
4210 storing it in header structures for later easy retrieval.
4213 @findex gnus-extra-header
4214 The value of these extra headers can be accessed via the
4215 @code{gnus-extra-header} function. Here's a format line spec that will
4216 access the @code{X-Newsreader} header:
4219 "%~(form (gnus-extra-header 'X-Newsreader))@@"
4223 @vindex gnus-ignored-from-addresses
4224 The @code{gnus-ignored-from-addresses} variable says when the @samp{%f}
4225 summary line spec returns the @code{To}, @code{Newsreader} or
4226 @code{From} header. If this regexp matches the contents of the
4227 @code{From} header, the value of the @code{To} or @code{Newsreader}
4228 headers are used instead.
4232 @vindex nnmail-extra-headers
4233 A related variable is @code{nnmail-extra-headers}, which controls when
4234 to include extra headers when generating overview (@sc{nov}) files. If
4235 you have old overview files, you should regenerate them after changing
4238 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
4239 You also have to instruct Gnus to display the data by changing the
4240 @code{%n} spec to the @code{%f} spec in the
4241 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable.
4243 In summary, you'd typically put something like the following in
4247 (setq gnus-extra-headers
4249 (setq nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
4250 (setq gnus-summary-line-format
4251 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%) %s\n")
4252 (setq gnus-ignored-from-addresses
4256 Now, this is mostly useful for mail groups, where you have control over
4257 the @sc{nov} files that are created. However, if you can persuade your
4264 to the end of her @file{overview.fmt} file, then you can use that just
4265 as you would the extra headers from the mail groups.
4268 @node Summary Buffer Mode Line
4269 @subsection Summary Buffer Mode Line
4271 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-line-format
4272 You can also change the format of the summary mode bar (@pxref{Mode Line
4273 Formatting}). Set @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} to whatever you
4274 like. The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b [%A] %Z}.
4276 Here are the elements you can play with:
4282 Unprefixed group name.
4284 Current article number.
4286 Current article score.
4290 Number of unread articles in this group.
4292 Number of unread articles in this group that aren't displayed in the
4295 A string with the number of unread and unselected articles represented
4296 either as @samp{<%U(+%e) more>} if there are both unread and unselected
4297 articles, and just as @samp{<%U more>} if there are just unread articles
4298 and no unselected ones.
4300 Shortish group name. For instance, @samp{rec.arts.anime} will be
4301 shortened to @samp{r.a.anime}.
4303 Subject of the current article.
4305 User-defined spec (@pxref{User-Defined Specs}).
4307 Name of the current score file (@pxref{Scoring}).
4309 Number of dormant articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
4311 Number of ticked articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
4313 Number of articles that have been marked as read in this session.
4315 Number of articles expunged by the score files.
4319 @node Summary Highlighting
4320 @subsection Summary Highlighting
4324 @item gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
4325 @vindex gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
4326 This hook is run after selecting an article. It is meant to be used for
4327 highlighting the article in some way. It is not run if
4328 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
4330 @item gnus-summary-update-hook
4331 @vindex gnus-summary-update-hook
4332 This hook is called when a summary line is changed. It is not run if
4333 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
4335 @item gnus-summary-selected-face
4336 @vindex gnus-summary-selected-face
4337 This is the face (or @dfn{font} as some people call it) used to
4338 highlight the current article in the summary buffer.
4340 @item gnus-summary-highlight
4341 @vindex gnus-summary-highlight
4342 Summary lines are highlighted according to this variable, which is a
4343 list where the elements are of the format @code{(@var{form}
4344 . @var{face})}. If you would, for instance, like ticked articles to be
4345 italic and high-scored articles to be bold, you could set this variable
4348 (((eq mark gnus-ticked-mark) . italic)
4349 ((> score default) . bold))
4351 As you may have guessed, if @var{form} returns a non-@code{nil} value,
4352 @var{face} will be applied to the line.
4356 @node Summary Maneuvering
4357 @section Summary Maneuvering
4358 @cindex summary movement
4360 All the straight movement commands understand the numeric prefix and
4361 behave pretty much as you'd expect.
4363 None of these commands select articles.
4368 @kindex M-n (Summary)
4369 @kindex G M-n (Summary)
4370 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-subject
4371 Go to the next summary line of an unread article
4372 (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-subject}).
4376 @kindex M-p (Summary)
4377 @kindex G M-p (Summary)
4378 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject
4379 Go to the previous summary line of an unread article
4380 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject}).
4383 @kindex G g (Summary)
4384 @findex gnus-summary-goto-subject
4385 Ask for an article number and then go to the summary line of that article
4386 without displaying the article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-subject}).
4389 If Gnus asks you to press a key to confirm going to the next group, you
4390 can use the @kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p} keys to move around the group
4391 buffer, searching for the next group to read without actually returning
4392 to the group buffer.
4394 Variables related to summary movement:
4398 @vindex gnus-auto-select-next
4399 @item gnus-auto-select-next
4400 If you issue one of the movement commands (like @kbd{n}) and there are
4401 no more unread articles after the current one, Gnus will offer to go to
4402 the next group. If this variable is @code{t} and the next group is
4403 empty, Gnus will exit summary mode and return to the group buffer. If
4404 this variable is neither @code{t} nor @code{nil}, Gnus will select the
4405 next group, no matter whether it has any unread articles or not. As a
4406 special case, if this variable is @code{quietly}, Gnus will select the
4407 next group without asking for confirmation. If this variable is
4408 @code{almost-quietly}, the same will happen only if you are located on
4409 the last article in the group. Finally, if this variable is
4410 @code{slightly-quietly}, the @kbd{Z n} command will go to the next group
4411 without confirmation. Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
4413 @item gnus-auto-select-same
4414 @vindex gnus-auto-select-same
4415 If non-@code{nil}, all the movement commands will try to go to the next
4416 article with the same subject as the current. (@dfn{Same} here might
4417 mean @dfn{roughly equal}. See @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}
4418 for details (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).) If there are no more
4419 articles with the same subject, go to the first unread article.
4421 This variable is not particularly useful if you use a threaded display.
4423 @item gnus-summary-check-current
4424 @vindex gnus-summary-check-current
4425 If non-@code{nil}, all the ``unread'' movement commands will not proceed
4426 to the next (or previous) article if the current article is unread.
4427 Instead, they will choose the current article.
4429 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
4430 @vindex gnus-auto-center-summary
4431 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will keep the point in the summary buffer
4432 centered at all times. This makes things quite tidy, but if you have a
4433 slow network connection, or simply do not like this un-Emacsism, you can
4434 set this variable to @code{nil} to get the normal Emacs scrolling
4435 action. This will also inhibit horizontal re-centering of the summary
4436 buffer, which might make it more inconvenient to read extremely long
4439 This variable can also be a number. In that case, center the window at
4440 the given number of lines from the top.
4445 @node Choosing Articles
4446 @section Choosing Articles
4447 @cindex selecting articles
4450 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
4451 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
4455 @node Choosing Commands
4456 @subsection Choosing Commands
4458 None of the following movement commands understand the numeric prefix,
4459 and they all select and display an article.
4461 If you want to fetch new articles or redisplay the group, see
4462 @ref{Exiting the Summary Buffer}.
4466 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
4467 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
4468 Select the current article, or, if that one's read already, the next
4469 unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
4474 @kindex G n (Summary)
4475 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-article
4476 @c @icon{gnus-summary-next-unread}
4477 Go to next unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-article}).
4482 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-article
4483 @c @icon{gnus-summary-prev-unread}
4484 Go to previous unread article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-article}).
4489 @kindex G N (Summary)
4490 @findex gnus-summary-next-article
4491 Go to the next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-article}).
4496 @kindex G P (Summary)
4497 @findex gnus-summary-prev-article
4498 Go to the previous article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-article}).
4501 @kindex G C-n (Summary)
4502 @findex gnus-summary-next-same-subject
4503 Go to the next article with the same subject
4504 (@code{gnus-summary-next-same-subject}).
4507 @kindex G C-p (Summary)
4508 @findex gnus-summary-prev-same-subject
4509 Go to the previous article with the same subject
4510 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-same-subject}).
4514 @kindex G f (Summary)
4516 @findex gnus-summary-first-unread-article
4517 Go to the first unread article
4518 (@code{gnus-summary-first-unread-article}).
4522 @kindex G b (Summary)
4524 @findex gnus-summary-best-unread-article
4525 Go to the article with the highest score
4526 (@code{gnus-summary-best-unread-article}).
4531 @kindex G l (Summary)
4532 @findex gnus-summary-goto-last-article
4533 Go to the previous article read (@code{gnus-summary-goto-last-article}).
4536 @kindex G o (Summary)
4537 @findex gnus-summary-pop-article
4539 @cindex article history
4540 Pop an article off the summary history and go to this article
4541 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-article}). This command differs from the
4542 command above in that you can pop as many previous articles off the
4543 history as you like, while @kbd{l} toggles the two last read articles.
4544 For a somewhat related issue (if you use these commands a lot),
4545 @pxref{Article Backlog}.
4550 @kindex G j (Summary)
4551 @findex gnus-summary-goto-article
4552 Ask for an article number or @code{Message-ID}, and then go to that
4553 article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-article}).
4558 @node Choosing Variables
4559 @subsection Choosing Variables
4561 Some variables relevant for moving and selecting articles:
4564 @item gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
4565 @vindex gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
4566 All the movement commands will try to go to the previous (or next)
4567 article, even if that article isn't displayed in the Summary buffer if
4568 this variable is non-@code{nil}. Gnus will then fetch the article from
4569 the server and display it in the article buffer.
4571 @item gnus-select-article-hook
4572 @vindex gnus-select-article-hook
4573 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. By default it
4574 exposes any threads hidden under the selected article.
4576 @item gnus-mark-article-hook
4577 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
4578 @findex gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read
4579 @findex gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read
4580 @findex gnus-unread-mark
4581 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. It is intended to
4582 be used for marking articles as read. The default value is
4583 @code{gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read}, and will change the
4584 mark of almost any article you read to @code{gnus-unread-mark}. The
4585 only articles not affected by this function are ticked, dormant, and
4586 expirable articles. If you'd instead like to just have unread articles
4587 marked as read, you can use @code{gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read}
4588 instead. It will leave marks like @code{gnus-low-score-mark},
4589 @code{gnus-del-mark} (and so on) alone.
4594 @node Paging the Article
4595 @section Scrolling the Article
4596 @cindex article scrolling
4601 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
4602 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
4603 Pressing @kbd{SPACE} will scroll the current article forward one page,
4604 or, if you have come to the end of the current article, will choose the
4605 next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
4608 @kindex DEL (Summary)
4609 @findex gnus-summary-prev-page
4610 Scroll the current article back one page (@code{gnus-summary-prev-page}).
4613 @kindex RET (Summary)
4614 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-up
4615 Scroll the current article one line forward
4616 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-up}).
4619 @kindex M-RET (Summary)
4620 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-down
4621 Scroll the current article one line backward
4622 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-down}).
4626 @kindex A g (Summary)
4628 @findex gnus-summary-show-article
4629 @vindex gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
4630 (Re)fetch the current article (@code{gnus-summary-show-article}). If
4631 given a prefix, fetch the current article, but don't run any of the
4632 article treatment functions. This will give you a ``raw'' article, just
4633 the way it came from the server.
4635 If given a numerical prefix, you can do semi-manual charset stuff.
4636 @kbd{C-u 0 g cn-gb-2312 RET} will decode the message as if it were
4637 encoded in the @code{cn-gb-2312} charset. If you have
4640 (setq gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
4645 then you can say @kbd{C-u 1 g} to get the same effect.
4650 @kindex A < (Summary)
4651 @findex gnus-summary-beginning-of-article
4652 Scroll to the beginning of the article
4653 (@code{gnus-summary-beginning-of-article}).
4658 @kindex A > (Summary)
4659 @findex gnus-summary-end-of-article
4660 Scroll to the end of the article (@code{gnus-summary-end-of-article}).
4664 @kindex A s (Summary)
4666 @findex gnus-summary-isearch-article
4667 Perform an isearch in the article buffer
4668 (@code{gnus-summary-isearch-article}).
4672 @findex gnus-summary-select-article-buffer
4673 Select the article buffer (@code{gnus-summary-select-article-buffer}).
4678 @node Reply Followup and Post
4679 @section Reply, Followup and Post
4682 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
4683 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
4684 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
4685 * Canceling and Superseding::
4689 @node Summary Mail Commands
4690 @subsection Summary Mail Commands
4692 @cindex composing mail
4694 Commands for composing a mail message:
4700 @kindex S r (Summary)
4702 @findex gnus-summary-reply
4703 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-reply}
4704 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply}
4705 Mail a reply to the author of the current article
4706 (@code{gnus-summary-reply}).
4711 @kindex S R (Summary)
4712 @findex gnus-summary-reply-with-original
4713 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}
4714 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
4715 original message (@code{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}). This
4716 command uses the process/prefix convention.
4719 @kindex S w (Summary)
4720 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply
4721 Mail a wide reply to the author of the current article
4722 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{wide reply} is a reply that
4723 goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
4724 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers.
4727 @kindex S W (Summary)
4728 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original
4729 Mail a wide reply to the current article and include the original
4730 message (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original}). This command uses
4731 the process/prefix convention.
4734 @kindex S v (Summary)
4735 @findex gnus-summary-very-wide-reply
4736 Mail a very wide reply to the author of the current article
4737 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{very wide reply} is a reply
4738 that goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
4739 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers in all the process/prefixed
4740 articles. This command uses the process/prefix convention.
4744 @kindex S o m (Summary)
4745 @kindex C-c C-f (Summary)
4746 @findex gnus-summary-mail-forward
4747 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-forward}
4748 Forward the current article to some other person
4749 (@code{gnus-summary-mail-forward}). If no prefix is given, the message
4750 is forwarded according to the value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime})
4751 and (@code{message-forward-show-mml}); if the prefix is 1, decode the
4752 message and forward directly inline; if the prefix is 2, forward message
4753 as an rfc822 MIME section; if the prefix is 3, decode message and
4754 forward as an rfc822 MIME section; if the prefix is 4, forward message
4755 directly inline; otherwise, the message is forwarded as no prefix given
4756 but use the flipped value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}). By
4757 default, the message is decoded and forwarded as an rfc822 MIME section.
4762 @kindex S m (Summary)
4763 @findex gnus-summary-mail-other-window
4764 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-originate}
4765 Send a mail to some other person
4766 (@code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}).
4769 @kindex S D b (Summary)
4770 @findex gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail
4771 @cindex bouncing mail
4772 If you have sent a mail, but the mail was bounced back to you for some
4773 reason (wrong address, transient failure), you can use this command to
4774 resend that bounced mail (@code{gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail}). You
4775 will be popped into a mail buffer where you can edit the headers before
4776 sending the mail off again. If you give a prefix to this command, and
4777 the bounced mail is a reply to some other mail, Gnus will try to fetch
4778 that mail and display it for easy perusal of its headers. This might
4779 very well fail, though.
4782 @kindex S D r (Summary)
4783 @findex gnus-summary-resend-message
4784 Not to be confused with the previous command,
4785 @code{gnus-summary-resend-message} will prompt you for an address to
4786 send the current message off to, and then send it to that place. The
4787 headers of the message won't be altered---but lots of headers that say
4788 @code{Resent-To}, @code{Resent-From} and so on will be added. This
4789 means that you actually send a mail to someone that has a @code{To}
4790 header that (probably) points to yourself. This will confuse people.
4791 So, natcherly you'll only do that if you're really eVIl.
4793 This command is mainly used if you have several accounts and want to
4794 ship a mail to a different account of yours. (If you're both
4795 @code{root} and @code{postmaster} and get a mail for @code{postmaster}
4796 to the @code{root} account, you may want to resend it to
4797 @code{postmaster}. Ordnung muß sein!
4799 This command understands the process/prefix convention
4800 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
4803 @kindex S O m (Summary)
4804 @findex gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward
4805 Digest the current series (@pxref{Decoding Articles}) and forward the
4806 result using mail (@code{gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward}). This command
4807 uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
4810 @kindex S M-c (Summary)
4811 @findex gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint
4812 @cindex crossposting
4813 @cindex excessive crossposting
4814 Send a complaint about excessive crossposting to the author of the
4815 current article (@code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint}).
4817 @findex gnus-crosspost-complaint
4818 This command is provided as a way to fight back against the current
4819 crossposting pandemic that's sweeping Usenet. It will compose a reply
4820 using the @code{gnus-crosspost-complaint} variable as a preamble. This
4821 command understands the process/prefix convention
4822 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) and will prompt you before sending each mail.
4826 Also @pxref{(message)Header Commands} for more information.
4829 @node Summary Post Commands
4830 @subsection Summary Post Commands
4832 @cindex composing news
4834 Commands for posting a news article:
4840 @kindex S p (Summary)
4841 @findex gnus-summary-post-news
4842 @c @icon{gnus-summary-post-news}
4843 Post an article to the current group
4844 (@code{gnus-summary-post-news}).
4849 @kindex S f (Summary)
4850 @findex gnus-summary-followup
4851 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup}
4852 Post a followup to the current article (@code{gnus-summary-followup}).
4856 @kindex S F (Summary)
4858 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}
4859 @findex gnus-summary-followup-with-original
4860 Post a followup to the current article and include the original message
4861 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}). This command uses the
4862 process/prefix convention.
4865 @kindex S n (Summary)
4866 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail
4867 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
4868 message through mail (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail}).
4871 @kindex S N (Summary)
4872 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original
4873 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
4874 message through mail and include the original message
4875 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original}). This command uses
4876 the process/prefix convention.
4879 @kindex S o p (Summary)
4880 @findex gnus-summary-post-forward
4881 Forward the current article to a newsgroup
4882 (@code{gnus-summary-post-forward}).
4883 If no prefix is given, the message is forwarded according to the value
4884 of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}) and
4885 (@code{message-forward-show-mml}); if the prefix is 1, decode the
4886 message and forward directly inline; if the prefix is 2, forward message
4887 as an rfc822 MIME section; if the prefix is 3, decode message and
4888 forward as an rfc822 MIME section; if the prefix is 4, forward message
4889 directly inline; otherwise, the message is forwarded as no prefix given
4890 but use the flipped value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}). By
4891 default, the message is decoded and forwarded as an rfc822 MIME section.
4894 @kindex S O p (Summary)
4895 @findex gnus-uu-digest-post-forward
4897 @cindex making digests
4898 Digest the current series and forward the result to a newsgroup
4899 (@code{gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward}). This command uses the
4900 process/prefix convention.
4903 @kindex S u (Summary)
4904 @findex gnus-uu-post-news
4905 @c @icon{gnus-uu-post-news}
4906 Uuencode a file, split it into parts, and post it as a series
4907 (@code{gnus-uu-post-news}). (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
4910 Also @pxref{(message)Header Commands} for more information.
4913 @node Summary Message Commands
4914 @subsection Summary Message Commands
4918 @kindex S y (Summary)
4919 @findex gnus-summary-yank-message
4920 Yank the current article into an already existing Message composition
4921 buffer (@code{gnus-summary-yank-message}). This command prompts for
4922 what message buffer you want to yank into, and understands the
4923 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
4928 @node Canceling and Superseding
4929 @subsection Canceling Articles
4930 @cindex canceling articles
4931 @cindex superseding articles
4933 Have you ever written something, and then decided that you really,
4934 really, really wish you hadn't posted that?
4936 Well, you can't cancel mail, but you can cancel posts.
4938 @findex gnus-summary-cancel-article
4940 @c @icon{gnus-summary-cancel-article}
4941 Find the article you wish to cancel (you can only cancel your own
4942 articles, so don't try any funny stuff). Then press @kbd{C} or @kbd{S
4943 c} (@code{gnus-summary-cancel-article}). Your article will be
4944 canceled---machines all over the world will be deleting your article.
4945 This command uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
4947 Be aware, however, that not all sites honor cancels, so your article may
4948 live on here and there, while most sites will delete the article in
4951 Gnus will use the ``current'' select method when canceling. If you
4952 want to use the standard posting method, use the @samp{a} symbolic
4953 prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}).
4955 If you discover that you have made some mistakes and want to do some
4956 corrections, you can post a @dfn{superseding} article that will replace
4957 your original article.
4959 @findex gnus-summary-supersede-article
4961 Go to the original article and press @kbd{S s}
4962 (@code{gnus-summary-supersede-article}). You will be put in a buffer
4963 where you can edit the article all you want before sending it off the
4966 The same goes for superseding as for canceling, only more so: Some
4967 sites do not honor superseding. On those sites, it will appear that you
4968 have posted almost the same article twice.
4970 If you have just posted the article, and change your mind right away,
4971 there is a trick you can use to cancel/supersede the article without
4972 waiting for the article to appear on your site first. You simply return
4973 to the post buffer (which is called @code{*sent ...*}). There you will
4974 find the article you just posted, with all the headers intact. Change
4975 the @code{Message-ID} header to a @code{Cancel} or @code{Supersedes}
4976 header by substituting one of those words for the word
4977 @code{Message-ID}. Then just press @kbd{C-c C-c} to send the article as
4978 you would do normally. The previous article will be
4979 canceled/superseded.
4981 Just remember, kids: There is no 'c' in 'supersede'.
4983 @node Delayed Articles
4984 @section Delayed Articles
4985 @cindex delayed sending
4986 @cindex send delayed
4988 Sometimes, you might wish to delay the sending of a message. For
4989 example, you might wish to arrange for a message to turn up just in time
4990 to remind your about the birthday of your Significant Other. For this,
4991 there is the @code{gnus-delay} package. Setup is simple:
4994 (gnus-delay-initialize)
4997 @findex gnus-delay-article
4998 Normally, to send a message you use the @kbd{C-c C-c} command from
4999 Message mode. To delay a message, use @kbd{C-c C-j}
5000 (@code{gnus-delay-article}) instead. This will ask you for how long the
5001 message should be delayed. Possible answers are:
5005 A time span. Consists of an integer and a letter. For example,
5006 @code{42d} means to delay for 42 days. Available letters are @code{m}
5007 (minutes), @code{h} (hours), @code{d} (days), @code{w} (weeks), @code{M}
5008 (months) and @code{Y} (years).
5011 A specific date. Looks like @code{YYYYY-MM-DD}. The message will be
5012 delayed until that day, at a specific time (eight o'clock by default).
5013 See also @code{gnus-delay-default-hour}.
5016 A specific time of day. Given in @code{hh:mm} format, 24h, no am/pm
5017 stuff. The deadline will be at that time today, except if that time has
5018 already passed, then it's at the given time tomorrow. So if it's ten
5019 o'clock in the morning and you specify @code{11:15}, then the deadline
5020 is one hour and fifteen minutes hence. But if you specify @code{9:20},
5021 that means a time tomorrow.
5024 The action of the @code{gnus-delay-article} command is influenced by a
5025 couple of variables:
5028 @item gnus-delay-default-hour
5029 @vindex gnus-delay-default-hour
5030 When you specify a specific date, the message will be due on that hour
5031 on the given date. Possible values are integers 0 through 23.
5033 @item gnus-delay-default-delay
5034 @vindex gnus-delay-default-delay
5035 This is a string and gives the default delay. It can be of any of the
5036 formats described above.
5038 @item gnus-delay-group
5039 @vindex gnus-delay-group
5040 Delayed articles will be kept in this group on the drafts server until
5041 they are due. You probably don't need to change this. The default
5042 value is @code{"delayed"}.
5044 @item gnus-delay-header
5045 @vindex gnus-delay-header
5046 The deadline for each article will be stored in a header. This variable
5047 is a string and gives the header name. You probably don't need to
5048 change this. The default value is @code{"X-Gnus-Delayed"}.
5051 The way delaying works is like this: when you use the
5052 @code{gnus-delay-article} command, you give a certain delay. Gnus
5053 calculates the deadline of the message and stores it in the
5054 @code{X-Gnus-Delayed} header and puts the message in the
5055 @code{nndraft:delayed} group.
5057 And whenever you get new news, Gnus looks through the group for articles
5058 which are due and sends them. It uses the @code{gnus-delay-send-drafts}
5059 function for this. By default, this function is added to the hook
5060 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. But of course, you can change this.
5061 Maybe you want to use the demon to send drafts? Just tell the demon to
5062 execute the @code{gnus-delay-send-drafts} function.
5065 @item gnus-delay-initialize
5066 @findex gnus-delay-initialize
5067 By default, this function installs the @kbd{C-c C-j} key binding in
5068 Message mode and @code{gnus-delay-send-drafts} in
5069 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. But it accepts two optional arguments,
5070 @code{no-keymap} and @code{no-check}. If @code{no-keymap} is non-nil,
5071 the @kbd{C-c C-j} binding is not intalled. If @code{no-check} is
5072 non-nil, @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is not changed.
5074 For example, @code{(gnus-delay-initialize nil t)} means to change the
5075 keymap but not to change @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. Presumably, you
5076 want to use the demon for sending due delayed articles. Just don't
5077 forget to set that up :-)
5081 @node Marking Articles
5082 @section Marking Articles
5083 @cindex article marking
5084 @cindex article ticking
5087 There are several marks you can set on an article.
5089 You have marks that decide the @dfn{readedness} (whoo, neato-keano
5090 neologism ohoy!) of the article. Alphabetic marks generally mean
5091 @dfn{read}, while non-alphabetic characters generally mean @dfn{unread}.
5093 In addition, you also have marks that do not affect readedness.
5096 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
5097 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
5098 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
5100 * Generic Marking Commands::
5101 * Setting Process Marks::
5105 There's a plethora of commands for manipulating these marks:
5109 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
5110 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
5111 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
5115 @node Unread Articles
5116 @subsection Unread Articles
5118 The following marks mark articles as (kinda) unread, in one form or
5123 @vindex gnus-ticked-mark
5124 Marked as ticked (@code{gnus-ticked-mark}).
5126 @dfn{Ticked articles} are articles that will remain visible always. If
5127 you see an article that you find interesting, or you want to put off
5128 reading it, or replying to it, until sometime later, you'd typically
5129 tick it. However, articles can be expired (from news servers by the
5130 news server software, Gnus itself never expires ticked messages), so if
5131 you want to keep an article forever, you'll have to make it persistent
5132 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
5135 @vindex gnus-dormant-mark
5136 Marked as dormant (@code{gnus-dormant-mark}).
5138 @dfn{Dormant articles} will only appear in the summary buffer if there
5139 are followups to it. If you want to see them even if they don't have
5140 followups, you can use the @kbd{/ D} command (@pxref{Limiting}).
5141 Otherwise (except for the visibility issue), they are just like ticked
5145 @vindex gnus-unread-mark
5146 Marked as unread (@code{gnus-unread-mark}).
5148 @dfn{Unread articles} are articles that haven't been read at all yet.
5153 @subsection Read Articles
5154 @cindex expirable mark
5156 All the following marks mark articles as read.
5161 @vindex gnus-del-mark
5162 These are articles that the user has marked as read with the @kbd{d}
5163 command manually, more or less (@code{gnus-del-mark}).
5166 @vindex gnus-read-mark
5167 Articles that have actually been read (@code{gnus-read-mark}).
5170 @vindex gnus-ancient-mark
5171 Articles that were marked as read in previous sessions and are now
5172 @dfn{old} (@code{gnus-ancient-mark}).
5175 @vindex gnus-killed-mark
5176 Marked as killed (@code{gnus-killed-mark}).
5179 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mark
5180 Marked as killed by kill files (@code{gnus-kill-file-mark}).
5183 @vindex gnus-low-score-mark
5184 Marked as read by having too low a score (@code{gnus-low-score-mark}).
5187 @vindex gnus-catchup-mark
5188 Marked as read by a catchup (@code{gnus-catchup-mark}).
5191 @vindex gnus-canceled-mark
5192 Canceled article (@code{gnus-canceled-mark})
5195 @vindex gnus-souped-mark
5196 @sc{soup}ed article (@code{gnus-souped-mark}). @xref{SOUP}.
5199 @vindex gnus-sparse-mark
5200 Sparsely reffed article (@code{gnus-sparse-mark}). @xref{Customizing
5204 @vindex gnus-duplicate-mark
5205 Article marked as read by duplicate suppression
5206 (@code{gnus-duplicate-mark}). @xref{Duplicate Suppression}.
5210 All these marks just mean that the article is marked as read, really.
5211 They are interpreted differently when doing adaptive scoring, though.
5213 One more special mark, though:
5217 @vindex gnus-expirable-mark
5218 Marked as expirable (@code{gnus-expirable-mark}).
5220 Marking articles as @dfn{expirable} (or have them marked as such
5221 automatically) doesn't make much sense in normal groups---a user doesn't
5222 control expiring of news articles, but in mail groups, for instance,
5223 articles marked as @dfn{expirable} can be deleted by Gnus at
5229 @subsection Other Marks
5230 @cindex process mark
5233 There are some marks that have nothing to do with whether the article is
5239 You can set a bookmark in the current article. Say you are reading a
5240 long thesis on cats' urinary tracts, and have to go home for dinner
5241 before you've finished reading the thesis. You can then set a bookmark
5242 in the article, and Gnus will jump to this bookmark the next time it
5243 encounters the article. @xref{Setting Marks}.
5246 @vindex gnus-replied-mark
5247 All articles that you have replied to or made a followup to (i.e., have
5248 answered) will be marked with an @samp{A} in the second column
5249 (@code{gnus-replied-mark}).
5251 @vindex gnus-forwarded-mark
5252 All articles that you have forwarded will be marked with an @samp{F} in
5253 the second column (@code{gnus-forwarded-mark}).
5255 @vindex gnus-recent-mark
5256 Articles that are ``recently'' arrived in the group will be marked
5257 with an @samp{N} in the second column (@code{gnus-recent-mark}). Most
5258 backend doesn't support the mark, in which case it's not shown.
5261 @vindex gnus-cached-mark
5262 Articles stored in the article cache will be marked with an @samp{*} in
5263 the second column (@code{gnus-cached-mark}). @xref{Article Caching}.
5266 @vindex gnus-saved-mark
5267 Articles ``saved'' (in some manner or other; not necessarily
5268 religiously) are marked with an @samp{S} in the second column
5269 (@code{gnus-saved-mark}).
5272 @vindex gnus-unseen-mark
5273 Articles that haven't been seen by the user before are marked with a
5274 @samp{.} in the second column (@code{gnus-unseen-mark}).
5277 @vindex gnus-not-empty-thread-mark
5278 @vindex gnus-empty-thread-mark
5279 If the @samp{%e} spec is used, the presence of threads or not will be
5280 marked with @code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark} and
5281 @code{gnus-empty-thread-mark} in the third column, respectively.
5284 @vindex gnus-process-mark
5285 Finally we have the @dfn{process mark} (@code{gnus-process-mark}). A
5286 variety of commands react to the presence of the process mark. For
5287 instance, @kbd{X u} (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}) will uudecode and view
5288 all articles that have been marked with the process mark. Articles
5289 marked with the process mark have a @samp{#} in the second column.
5293 You might have noticed that most of these ``non-readedness'' marks
5294 appear in the second column by default. So if you have a cached, saved,
5295 replied article that you have process-marked, what will that look like?
5297 Nothing much. The precedence rules go as follows: process -> cache ->
5298 replied -> saved. So if the article is in the cache and is replied,
5299 you'll only see the cache mark and not the replied mark.
5303 @subsection Setting Marks
5304 @cindex setting marks
5306 All the marking commands understand the numeric prefix.
5311 @kindex M c (Summary)
5312 @kindex M-u (Summary)
5313 @findex gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward
5314 @cindex mark as unread
5315 Clear all readedness-marks from the current article
5316 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward}). In other words, mark the
5322 @kindex M t (Summary)
5323 @findex gnus-summary-tick-article-forward
5324 Tick the current article (@code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}).
5325 @xref{Article Caching}.
5330 @kindex M ? (Summary)
5331 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant
5332 Mark the current article as dormant
5333 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant}). @xref{Article Caching}.
5337 @kindex M d (Summary)
5339 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward
5340 Mark the current article as read
5341 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward}).
5345 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward
5346 Mark the current article as read and move point to the previous line
5347 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward}).
5352 @kindex M k (Summary)
5353 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select
5354 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read,
5355 and then select the next unread article
5356 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select}).
5360 @kindex M K (Summary)
5361 @kindex C-k (Summary)
5362 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject
5363 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read
5364 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject}).
5367 @kindex M C (Summary)
5368 @findex gnus-summary-catchup
5369 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup}
5370 Mark all unread articles as read (@code{gnus-summary-catchup}).
5373 @kindex M C-c (Summary)
5374 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all
5375 Mark all articles in the group as read---even the ticked and dormant
5376 articles (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all}).
5379 @kindex M H (Summary)
5380 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-to-here
5381 Catchup the current group to point (before the point)
5382 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-to-here}).
5385 @kindex M h (Summary)
5386 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-from-here
5387 Catchup the current group from point (after the point)
5388 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-from-here}).
5391 @kindex C-w (Summary)
5392 @findex gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read
5393 Mark all articles between point and mark as read
5394 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read}).
5397 @kindex M V k (Summary)
5398 @findex gnus-summary-kill-below
5399 Kill all articles with scores below the default score (or below the
5400 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-kill-below}).
5404 @kindex M e (Summary)
5406 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable
5407 Mark the current article as expirable
5408 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable}).
5411 @kindex M b (Summary)
5412 @findex gnus-summary-set-bookmark
5413 Set a bookmark in the current article
5414 (@code{gnus-summary-set-bookmark}).
5417 @kindex M B (Summary)
5418 @findex gnus-summary-remove-bookmark
5419 Remove the bookmark from the current article
5420 (@code{gnus-summary-remove-bookmark}).
5423 @kindex M V c (Summary)
5424 @findex gnus-summary-clear-above
5425 Clear all marks from articles with scores over the default score (or
5426 over the numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
5429 @kindex M V u (Summary)
5430 @findex gnus-summary-tick-above
5431 Tick all articles with scores over the default score (or over the
5432 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-tick-above}).
5435 @kindex M V m (Summary)
5436 @findex gnus-summary-mark-above
5437 Prompt for a mark, and mark all articles with scores over the default
5438 score (or over the numeric prefix) with this mark
5439 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
5442 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
5443 The @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} variable controls what action should
5444 be taken after setting a mark. If non-@code{nil}, point will move to
5445 the next/previous unread article. If @code{nil}, point will just move
5446 one line up or down. As a special case, if this variable is
5447 @code{never}, all the marking commands as well as other commands (like
5448 @kbd{SPACE}) will move to the next article, whether it is unread or not.
5449 The default is @code{t}.
5452 @node Generic Marking Commands
5453 @subsection Generic Marking Commands
5455 Some people would like the command that ticks an article (@kbd{!}) go to
5456 the next article. Others would like it to go to the next unread
5457 article. Yet others would like it to stay on the current article. And
5458 even though I haven't heard of anybody wanting it to go to the
5459 previous (unread) article, I'm sure there are people that want that as
5462 Multiply these five behaviors with five different marking commands, and
5463 you get a potentially complex set of variable to control what each
5466 To sidestep that mess, Gnus provides commands that do all these
5467 different things. They can be found on the @kbd{M M} map in the summary
5468 buffer. Type @kbd{M M C-h} to see them all---there are too many of them
5469 to list in this manual.
5471 While you can use these commands directly, most users would prefer
5472 altering the summary mode keymap. For instance, if you would like the
5473 @kbd{!} command to go to the next article instead of the next unread
5474 article, you could say something like:
5477 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'my-alter-summary-map)
5478 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
5479 (local-set-key "!" 'gnus-summary-put-mark-as-ticked-next))
5485 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
5486 (local-set-key "!" "MM!n"))
5490 @node Setting Process Marks
5491 @subsection Setting Process Marks
5492 @cindex setting process marks
5499 @kindex M P p (Summary)
5500 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-processable
5501 Mark the current article with the process mark
5502 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-processable}).
5503 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable
5507 @kindex M P u (Summary)
5508 @kindex M-# (Summary)
5509 Remove the process mark, if any, from the current article
5510 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable}).
5513 @kindex M P U (Summary)
5514 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable
5515 Remove the process mark from all articles
5516 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable}).
5519 @kindex M P i (Summary)
5520 @findex gnus-uu-invert-processable
5521 Invert the list of process marked articles
5522 (@code{gnus-uu-invert-processable}).
5525 @kindex M P R (Summary)
5526 @findex gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp
5527 Mark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
5528 expression (@code{gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp}).
5531 @kindex M P G (Summary)
5532 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp
5533 Unmark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
5534 expression (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp}).
5537 @kindex M P r (Summary)
5538 @findex gnus-uu-mark-region
5539 Mark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-mark-region}).
5542 @kindex M P t (Summary)
5543 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
5544 Mark all articles in the current (sub)thread
5545 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
5548 @kindex M P T (Summary)
5549 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
5550 Unmark all articles in the current (sub)thread
5551 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
5554 @kindex M P v (Summary)
5555 @findex gnus-uu-mark-over
5556 Mark all articles that have a score above the prefix argument
5557 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-over}).
5560 @kindex M P s (Summary)
5561 @findex gnus-uu-mark-series
5562 Mark all articles in the current series (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
5565 @kindex M P S (Summary)
5566 @findex gnus-uu-mark-sparse
5567 Mark all series that have already had some articles marked
5568 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-sparse}).
5571 @kindex M P a (Summary)
5572 @findex gnus-uu-mark-all
5573 Mark all articles in series order (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
5576 @kindex M P b (Summary)
5577 @findex gnus-uu-mark-buffer
5578 Mark all articles in the buffer in the order they appear
5579 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-buffer}).
5582 @kindex M P k (Summary)
5583 @findex gnus-summary-kill-process-mark
5584 Push the current process mark set onto the stack and unmark all articles
5585 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-process-mark}).
5588 @kindex M P y (Summary)
5589 @findex gnus-summary-yank-process-mark
5590 Pop the previous process mark set from the stack and restore it
5591 (@code{gnus-summary-yank-process-mark}).
5594 @kindex M P w (Summary)
5595 @findex gnus-summary-save-process-mark
5596 Push the current process mark set onto the stack
5597 (@code{gnus-summary-save-process-mark}).
5601 Also see the @kbd{&} command in @pxref{Searching for Articles} for how to
5602 set process marks based on article body contents.
5609 It can be convenient to limit the summary buffer to just show some
5610 subset of the articles currently in the group. The effect most limit
5611 commands have is to remove a few (or many) articles from the summary
5614 All limiting commands work on subsets of the articles already fetched
5615 from the servers. None of these commands query the server for
5616 additional articles.
5622 @kindex / / (Summary)
5623 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-subject
5624 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some subject
5625 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-subject}).
5628 @kindex / a (Summary)
5629 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-author
5630 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some author
5631 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-author}).
5634 @kindex / x (Summary)
5635 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-extra
5636 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match one of the ``extra''
5637 headers (@pxref{To From Newsgroups})
5638 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-extra}).
5642 @kindex / u (Summary)
5644 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-unread
5645 Limit the summary buffer to articles not marked as read
5646 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-unread}). If given a prefix, limit the
5647 buffer to articles strictly unread. This means that ticked and
5648 dormant articles will also be excluded.
5651 @kindex / m (Summary)
5652 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-marks
5653 Ask for a mark and then limit to all articles that have been marked
5654 with that mark (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-marks}).
5657 @kindex / t (Summary)
5658 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-age
5659 Ask for a number and then limit the summary buffer to articles older than (or equal to) that number of days
5660 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-age}). If given a prefix, limit to
5661 articles younger than that number of days.
5664 @kindex / n (Summary)
5665 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-articles
5666 Limit the summary buffer to the current article
5667 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-articles}). Uses the process/prefix
5668 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5671 @kindex / w (Summary)
5672 @findex gnus-summary-pop-limit
5673 Pop the previous limit off the stack and restore it
5674 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-limit}). If given a prefix, pop all limits off
5678 @kindex / v (Summary)
5679 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-score
5680 Limit the summary buffer to articles that have a score at or above some
5681 score (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-score}).
5685 @kindex M S (Summary)
5686 @kindex / E (Summary)
5687 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged
5688 Include all expunged articles in the limit
5689 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged}).
5692 @kindex / D (Summary)
5693 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant
5694 Include all dormant articles in the limit
5695 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant}).
5698 @kindex / * (Summary)
5699 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-cached
5700 Include all cached articles in the limit
5701 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-cached}).
5704 @kindex / d (Summary)
5705 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant
5706 Exclude all dormant articles from the limit
5707 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant}).
5710 @kindex / M (Summary)
5711 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks
5712 Exclude all marked articles (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks}).
5715 @kindex / T (Summary)
5716 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-thread
5717 Include all the articles in the current thread in the limit.
5720 @kindex / c (Summary)
5721 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant
5722 Exclude all dormant articles that have no children from the limit
5723 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant}).
5726 @kindex / C (Summary)
5727 @findex gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read
5728 Mark all excluded unread articles as read
5729 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read}). If given a prefix,
5730 also mark excluded ticked and dormant articles as read.
5738 @cindex article threading
5740 Gnus threads articles by default. @dfn{To thread} is to put responses
5741 to articles directly after the articles they respond to---in a
5742 hierarchical fashion.
5744 Threading is done by looking at the @code{References} headers of the
5745 articles. In a perfect world, this would be enough to build pretty
5746 trees, but unfortunately, the @code{References} header is often broken
5747 or simply missing. Weird news propagation exacerbates the problem,
5748 so one has to employ other heuristics to get pleasing results. A
5749 plethora of approaches exists, as detailed in horrible detail in
5750 @pxref{Customizing Threading}.
5752 First, a quick overview of the concepts:
5756 The top-most article in a thread; the first article in the thread.
5759 A tree-like article structure.
5762 A small(er) section of this tree-like structure.
5765 Threads often lose their roots due to article expiry, or due to the root
5766 already having been read in a previous session, and not displayed in the
5767 summary buffer. We then typically have many sub-threads that really
5768 belong to one thread, but are without connecting roots. These are
5769 called loose threads.
5771 @item thread gathering
5772 An attempt to gather loose threads into bigger threads.
5774 @item sparse threads
5775 A thread where the missing articles have been ``guessed'' at, and are
5776 displayed as empty lines in the summary buffer.
5782 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
5783 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
5787 @node Customizing Threading
5788 @subsection Customizing Threading
5789 @cindex customizing threading
5792 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
5793 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
5794 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
5795 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over... but you were wrong!
5800 @subsubsection Loose Threads
5803 @cindex loose threads
5806 @item gnus-summary-make-false-root
5807 @vindex gnus-summary-make-false-root
5808 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will gather all loose subtrees into one big tree
5809 and create a dummy root at the top. (Wait a minute. Root at the top?
5810 Yup.) Loose subtrees occur when the real root has expired, or you've
5811 read or killed the root in a previous session.
5813 When there is no real root of a thread, Gnus will have to fudge
5814 something. This variable says what fudging method Gnus should use.
5815 There are four possible values:
5819 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{390}{
5820 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-adopt.ps,width=7.5cm}}
5821 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-empty.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
5822 \put(0,400){\makebox(0,0)[tl]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-none.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
5823 \put(445,400){\makebox(0,0)[tr]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-dummy.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
5828 @cindex adopting articles
5833 Gnus will make the first of the orphaned articles the parent. This
5834 parent will adopt all the other articles. The adopted articles will be
5835 marked as such by pointy brackets (@samp{<>}) instead of the standard
5836 square brackets (@samp{[]}). This is the default method.
5839 @vindex gnus-summary-dummy-line-format
5840 Gnus will create a dummy summary line that will pretend to be the
5841 parent. This dummy line does not correspond to any real article, so
5842 selecting it will just select the first real article after the dummy
5843 article. @code{gnus-summary-dummy-line-format} is used to specify the
5844 format of the dummy roots. It accepts only one format spec: @samp{S},
5845 which is the subject of the article. @xref{Formatting Variables}.
5848 Gnus won't actually make any article the parent, but simply leave the
5849 subject field of all orphans except the first empty. (Actually, it will
5850 use @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} as the subject (@pxref{Summary
5854 Don't make any article parent at all. Just gather the threads and
5855 display them after one another.
5858 Don't gather loose threads.
5861 @item gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
5862 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
5863 Loose threads are gathered by comparing subjects of articles. If this
5864 variable is @code{nil}, Gnus requires an exact match between the
5865 subjects of the loose threads before gathering them into one big
5866 super-thread. This might be too strict a requirement, what with the
5867 presence of stupid newsreaders that chop off long subject lines. If
5868 you think so, set this variable to, say, 20 to require that only the
5869 first 20 characters of the subjects have to match. If you set this
5870 variable to a really low number, you'll find that Gnus will gather
5871 everything in sight into one thread, which isn't very helpful.
5873 @cindex fuzzy article gathering
5874 If you set this variable to the special value @code{fuzzy}, Gnus will
5875 use a fuzzy string comparison algorithm on the subjects (@pxref{Fuzzy
5878 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
5879 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
5880 This can either be a regular expression or list of regular expressions
5881 that match strings that will be removed from subjects if fuzzy subject
5882 simplification is used.
5884 @item gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
5885 @vindex gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
5886 If you set @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit} to something as low
5887 as 10, you might consider setting this variable to something sensible:
5889 @c Written by Michael Ernst <mernst@cs.rice.edu>
5891 (setq gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
5897 "wanted" "followup" "summary\\( of\\)?"
5898 "help" "query" "problem" "question"
5899 "answer" "reference" "announce"
5900 "How can I" "How to" "Comparison of"
5905 (mapconcat 'identity
5906 '("for" "for reference" "with" "about")
5908 "\\)?\\]?:?[ \t]*"))
5911 All words that match this regexp will be removed before comparing two
5914 @item gnus-simplify-subject-functions
5915 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-functions
5916 If non-@code{nil}, this variable overrides
5917 @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}. This variable should be a
5918 list of functions to apply to the @code{Subject} string iteratively to
5919 arrive at the simplified version of the string.
5921 Useful functions to put in this list include:
5924 @item gnus-simplify-subject-re
5925 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-re
5926 Strip the leading @samp{Re:}.
5928 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
5929 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
5932 @item gnus-simplify-whitespace
5933 @findex gnus-simplify-whitespace
5934 Remove excessive whitespace.
5937 You may also write your own functions, of course.
5940 @item gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
5941 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
5942 Since loose thread gathering is done on subjects only, that might lead
5943 to many false hits, especially with certain common subjects like
5944 @samp{} and @samp{(none)}. To make the situation slightly better,
5945 you can use the regexp @code{gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject} to say
5946 what subjects should be excluded from the gathering process.@*
5947 The default is @samp{^ *$\\|^(none)$}.
5949 @item gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
5950 @vindex gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
5951 Gnus gathers threads by looking at @code{Subject} headers. This means
5952 that totally unrelated articles may end up in the same ``thread'', which
5953 is confusing. An alternate approach is to look at all the
5954 @code{Message-ID}s in all the @code{References} headers to find matches.
5955 This will ensure that no gathered threads ever include unrelated
5956 articles, but it also means that people who have posted with broken
5957 newsreaders won't be gathered properly. The choice is yours---plague or
5961 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
5962 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
5963 This function is the default gathering function and looks at
5964 @code{Subject}s exclusively.
5966 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-references
5967 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-references
5968 This function looks at @code{References} headers exclusively.
5971 If you want to test gathering by @code{References}, you could say
5975 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
5976 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
5982 @node Filling In Threads
5983 @subsubsection Filling In Threads
5986 @item gnus-fetch-old-headers
5987 @vindex gnus-fetch-old-headers
5988 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will attempt to build old threads by fetching
5989 more old headers---headers to articles marked as read. If you
5990 would like to display as few summary lines as possible, but still
5991 connect as many loose threads as possible, you should set this variable
5992 to @code{some} or a number. If you set it to a number, no more than
5993 that number of extra old headers will be fetched. In either case,
5994 fetching old headers only works if the backend you are using carries
5995 overview files---this would normally be @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool} and
5996 @code{nnml}. Also remember that if the root of the thread has been
5997 expired by the server, there's not much Gnus can do about that.
5999 This variable can also be set to @code{invisible}. This won't have any
6000 visible effects, but is useful if you use the @kbd{A T} command a lot
6001 (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
6003 @item gnus-build-sparse-threads
6004 @vindex gnus-build-sparse-threads
6005 Fetching old headers can be slow. A low-rent similar effect can be
6006 gotten by setting this variable to @code{some}. Gnus will then look at
6007 the complete @code{References} headers of all articles and try to string
6008 together articles that belong in the same thread. This will leave
6009 @dfn{gaps} in the threading display where Gnus guesses that an article
6010 is missing from the thread. (These gaps appear like normal summary
6011 lines. If you select a gap, Gnus will try to fetch the article in
6012 question.) If this variable is @code{t}, Gnus will display all these
6013 ``gaps'' without regard for whether they are useful for completing the
6014 thread or not. Finally, if this variable is @code{more}, Gnus won't cut
6015 off sparse leaf nodes that don't lead anywhere. This variable is
6016 @code{nil} by default.
6018 @item gnus-read-all-available-headers
6019 @vindex gnus-read-all-available-headers
6020 This is a rather obscure variable that few will find useful. It's
6021 intended for those non-news newsgroups where the backend has to fetch
6022 quite a lot to present the summary buffer, and where it's impossible to
6023 go back to parents of articles. This is mostly the case in the
6024 web-based groups, like the @code{nnultimate} groups.
6026 If you don't use those, then it's safe to leave this as the default
6027 @code{nil}. If you want to use this variable, it should be a regexp
6028 that matches the group name, or @code{t} for all groups.
6033 @node More Threading
6034 @subsubsection More Threading
6037 @item gnus-show-threads
6038 @vindex gnus-show-threads
6039 If this variable is @code{nil}, no threading will be done, and all of
6040 the rest of the variables here will have no effect. Turning threading
6041 off will speed group selection up a bit, but it is sure to make reading
6042 slower and more awkward.
6044 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
6045 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-subtree
6046 If non-@code{nil}, all threads will be hidden when the summary buffer is
6049 @item gnus-thread-expunge-below
6050 @vindex gnus-thread-expunge-below
6051 All threads that have a total score (as defined by
6052 @code{gnus-thread-score-function}) less than this number will be
6053 expunged. This variable is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
6054 threads are expunged.
6056 @item gnus-thread-hide-killed
6057 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-killed
6058 if you kill a thread and this variable is non-@code{nil}, the subtree
6061 @item gnus-thread-ignore-subject
6062 @vindex gnus-thread-ignore-subject
6063 Sometimes somebody changes the subject in the middle of a thread. If
6064 this variable is non-@code{nil}, which is the default, the subject
6065 change is ignored. If it is @code{nil}, a change in the subject will
6066 result in a new thread.
6068 @item gnus-thread-indent-level
6069 @vindex gnus-thread-indent-level
6070 This is a number that says how much each sub-thread should be indented.
6073 @item gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
6074 @vindex gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
6075 Sometimes, particularly with mailing lists, the order in which mails
6076 arrive locally is not necessarily the same as the order in which they
6077 arrived on the mailing list. Consequently, when sorting sub-threads
6078 using the default @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number}, responses can end
6079 up appearing before the article to which they are responding to.
6080 Setting this variable to an alternate value
6081 (e.g. @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}), in a group's parameters or in an
6082 appropriate hook (e.g. @code{gnus-summary-generate-hook}) can produce a
6083 more logical sub-thread ordering in such instances.
6088 @node Low-Level Threading
6089 @subsubsection Low-Level Threading
6093 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
6094 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
6095 Hook run before parsing any headers.
6097 @item gnus-alter-header-function
6098 @vindex gnus-alter-header-function
6099 If non-@code{nil}, this function will be called to allow alteration of
6100 article header structures. The function is called with one parameter,
6101 the article header vector, which it may alter in any way. For instance,
6102 if you have a mail-to-news gateway which alters the @code{Message-ID}s
6103 in systematic ways (by adding prefixes and such), you can use this
6104 variable to un-scramble the @code{Message-ID}s so that they are more
6105 meaningful. Here's one example:
6108 (setq gnus-alter-header-function 'my-alter-message-id)
6110 (defun my-alter-message-id (header)
6111 (let ((id (mail-header-id header)))
6113 "\\(<[^<>@@]*\\)\\.?cygnus\\..*@@\\([^<>@@]*>\\)" id)
6115 (concat (match-string 1 id) "@@" (match-string 2 id))
6122 @node Thread Commands
6123 @subsection Thread Commands
6124 @cindex thread commands
6130 @kindex T k (Summary)
6131 @kindex M-C-k (Summary)
6132 @findex gnus-summary-kill-thread
6133 Mark all articles in the current (sub-)thread as read
6134 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}). If the prefix argument is positive,
6135 remove all marks instead. If the prefix argument is negative, tick
6140 @kindex T l (Summary)
6141 @kindex M-C-l (Summary)
6142 @findex gnus-summary-lower-thread
6143 Lower the score of the current (sub-)thread
6144 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-thread}).
6147 @kindex T i (Summary)
6148 @findex gnus-summary-raise-thread
6149 Increase the score of the current (sub-)thread
6150 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-thread}).
6153 @kindex T # (Summary)
6154 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
6155 Set the process mark on the current (sub-)thread
6156 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
6159 @kindex T M-# (Summary)
6160 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
6161 Remove the process mark from the current (sub-)thread
6162 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
6165 @kindex T T (Summary)
6166 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-threads
6167 Toggle threading (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-threads}).
6170 @kindex T s (Summary)
6171 @findex gnus-summary-show-thread
6172 Expose the (sub-)thread hidden under the current article, if any
6173 (@code{gnus-summary-show-thread}).
6176 @kindex T h (Summary)
6177 @findex gnus-summary-hide-thread
6178 Hide the current (sub-)thread (@code{gnus-summary-hide-thread}).
6181 @kindex T S (Summary)
6182 @findex gnus-summary-show-all-threads
6183 Expose all hidden threads (@code{gnus-summary-show-all-threads}).
6186 @kindex T H (Summary)
6187 @findex gnus-summary-hide-all-threads
6188 Hide all threads (@code{gnus-summary-hide-all-threads}).
6191 @kindex T t (Summary)
6192 @findex gnus-summary-rethread-current
6193 Re-thread the current article's thread
6194 (@code{gnus-summary-rethread-current}). This works even when the
6195 summary buffer is otherwise unthreaded.
6198 @kindex T ^ (Summary)
6199 @findex gnus-summary-reparent-thread
6200 Make the current article the child of the marked (or previous) article
6201 (@code{gnus-summary-reparent-thread}).
6205 The following commands are thread movement commands. They all
6206 understand the numeric prefix.
6211 @kindex T n (Summary)
6213 @kindex M-C-n (Summary)
6215 @kindex M-down (Summary)
6216 @findex gnus-summary-next-thread
6217 Go to the next thread (@code{gnus-summary-next-thread}).
6220 @kindex T p (Summary)
6222 @kindex M-C-p (Summary)
6224 @kindex M-up (Summary)
6225 @findex gnus-summary-prev-thread
6226 Go to the previous thread (@code{gnus-summary-prev-thread}).
6229 @kindex T d (Summary)
6230 @findex gnus-summary-down-thread
6231 Descend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-down-thread}).
6234 @kindex T u (Summary)
6235 @findex gnus-summary-up-thread
6236 Ascend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-up-thread}).
6239 @kindex T o (Summary)
6240 @findex gnus-summary-top-thread
6241 Go to the top of the thread (@code{gnus-summary-top-thread}).
6244 @vindex gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject
6245 If you ignore subject while threading, you'll naturally end up with
6246 threads that have several different subjects in them. If you then issue
6247 a command like `T k' (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}) you might not
6248 wish to kill the entire thread, but just those parts of the thread that
6249 have the same subject as the current article. If you like this idea,
6250 you can fiddle with @code{gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject}. If it
6251 is non-@code{nil} (which it is by default), subjects will be ignored
6252 when doing thread commands. If this variable is @code{nil}, articles in
6253 the same thread with different subjects will not be included in the
6254 operation in question. If this variable is @code{fuzzy}, only articles
6255 that have subjects fuzzily equal will be included (@pxref{Fuzzy
6259 @node Sorting the Summary Buffer
6260 @section Sorting the Summary Buffer
6262 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score
6263 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-date
6264 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-score
6265 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
6266 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-author
6267 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-number
6268 @vindex gnus-thread-sort-functions
6269 If you are using a threaded summary display, you can sort the threads by
6270 setting @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, which can be either a single
6271 function, a list of functions, or a list containing functions and
6272 @code{(not some-function)} elements.
6274 By default, sorting is done on article numbers. Ready-made sorting
6275 predicate functions include @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number},
6276 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-author}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-subject},
6277 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-score}, and
6278 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score}.
6280 Each function takes two threads and returns non-@code{nil} if the first
6281 thread should be sorted before the other. Note that sorting really is
6282 normally done by looking only at the roots of each thread.
6284 If you use more than one function, the primary sort key should be the
6285 last function in the list. You should probably always include
6286 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number} in the list of sorting
6287 functions---preferably first. This will ensure that threads that are
6288 equal with respect to the other sort criteria will be displayed in
6289 ascending article order.
6291 If you would like to sort by reverse score, then by subject, and finally
6292 by number, you could do something like:
6295 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
6296 '(gnus-thread-sort-by-number
6297 gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
6298 (not gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score)))
6301 The threads that have highest score will be displayed first in the
6302 summary buffer. When threads have the same score, they will be sorted
6303 alphabetically. The threads that have the same score and the same
6304 subject will be sorted by number, which is (normally) the sequence in
6305 which the articles arrived.
6307 If you want to sort by score and then reverse arrival order, you could
6311 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
6313 (not (gnus-thread-sort-by-number t1 t2)))
6314 gnus-thread-sort-by-score))
6317 @vindex gnus-thread-score-function
6318 The function in the @code{gnus-thread-score-function} variable (default
6319 @code{+}) is used for calculating the total score of a thread. Useful
6320 functions might be @code{max}, @code{min}, or squared means, or whatever
6323 @findex gnus-article-sort-functions
6324 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-date
6325 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-score
6326 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-subject
6327 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-author
6328 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-number
6329 If you are using an unthreaded display for some strange reason or other,
6330 you have to fiddle with the @code{gnus-article-sort-functions} variable.
6331 It is very similar to the @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, except that
6332 it uses slightly different functions for article comparison. Available
6333 sorting predicate functions are @code{gnus-article-sort-by-number},
6334 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-author}, @code{gnus-article-sort-by-subject},
6335 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-date}, and @code{gnus-article-sort-by-score}.
6337 If you want to sort an unthreaded summary display by subject, you could
6341 (setq gnus-article-sort-functions
6342 '(gnus-article-sort-by-number
6343 gnus-article-sort-by-subject))
6348 @node Asynchronous Fetching
6349 @section Asynchronous Article Fetching
6350 @cindex asynchronous article fetching
6351 @cindex article pre-fetch
6354 If you read your news from an @sc{nntp} server that's far away, the
6355 network latencies may make reading articles a chore. You have to wait
6356 for a while after pressing @kbd{n} to go to the next article before the
6357 article appears. Why can't Gnus just go ahead and fetch the article
6358 while you are reading the previous one? Why not, indeed.
6360 First, some caveats. There are some pitfalls to using asynchronous
6361 article fetching, especially the way Gnus does it.
6363 Let's say you are reading article 1, which is short, and article 2 is
6364 quite long, and you are not interested in reading that. Gnus does not
6365 know this, so it goes ahead and fetches article 2. You decide to read
6366 article 3, but since Gnus is in the process of fetching article 2, the
6367 connection is blocked.
6369 To avoid these situations, Gnus will open two (count 'em two)
6370 connections to the server. Some people may think this isn't a very nice
6371 thing to do, but I don't see any real alternatives. Setting up that
6372 extra connection takes some time, so Gnus startup will be slower.
6374 Gnus will fetch more articles than you will read. This will mean that
6375 the link between your machine and the @sc{nntp} server will become more
6376 loaded than if you didn't use article pre-fetch. The server itself will
6377 also become more loaded---both with the extra article requests, and the
6380 Ok, so now you know that you shouldn't really use this thing... unless
6383 @vindex gnus-asynchronous
6384 Here's how: Set @code{gnus-asynchronous} to @code{t}. The rest should
6385 happen automatically.
6387 @vindex gnus-use-article-prefetch
6388 You can control how many articles are to be pre-fetched by setting
6389 @code{gnus-use-article-prefetch}. This is 30 by default, which means
6390 that when you read an article in the group, the backend will pre-fetch
6391 the next 30 articles. If this variable is @code{t}, the backend will
6392 pre-fetch all the articles it can without bound. If it is
6393 @code{nil}, no pre-fetching will be done.
6395 @vindex gnus-async-prefetch-article-p
6396 @findex gnus-async-read-p
6397 There are probably some articles that you don't want to pre-fetch---read
6398 articles, for instance. The @code{gnus-async-prefetch-article-p} variable controls whether an article is to be pre-fetched. This function should
6399 return non-@code{nil} when the article in question is to be
6400 pre-fetched. The default is @code{gnus-async-read-p}, which returns
6401 @code{nil} on read articles. The function is called with an article
6402 data structure as the only parameter.
6404 If, for instance, you wish to pre-fetch only unread articles shorter than 100 lines, you could say something like:
6407 (defun my-async-short-unread-p (data)
6408 "Return non-nil for short, unread articles."
6409 (and (gnus-data-unread-p data)
6410 (< (mail-header-lines (gnus-data-header data))
6413 (setq gnus-async-prefetch-article-p 'my-async-short-unread-p)
6416 These functions will be called many, many times, so they should
6417 preferably be short and sweet to avoid slowing down Gnus too much.
6418 It's probably a good idea to byte-compile things like this.
6420 @vindex gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy
6421 Articles have to be removed from the asynch buffer sooner or later. The
6422 @code{gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy} says when to remove
6423 articles. This is a list that may contain the following elements:
6427 Remove articles when they are read.
6430 Remove articles when exiting the group.
6433 The default value is @code{(read exit)}.
6435 @c @vindex gnus-use-header-prefetch
6436 @c If @code{gnus-use-header-prefetch} is non-@code{nil}, prefetch articles
6437 @c from the next group.
6440 @node Article Caching
6441 @section Article Caching
6442 @cindex article caching
6445 If you have an @emph{extremely} slow @sc{nntp} connection, you may
6446 consider turning article caching on. Each article will then be stored
6447 locally under your home directory. As you may surmise, this could
6448 potentially use @emph{huge} amounts of disk space, as well as eat up all
6449 your inodes so fast it will make your head swim. In vodka.
6451 Used carefully, though, it could be just an easier way to save articles.
6453 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
6454 @vindex gnus-cache-directory
6455 @vindex gnus-use-cache
6456 To turn caching on, set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{t}. By default,
6457 all articles ticked or marked as dormant will then be copied
6458 over to your local cache (@code{gnus-cache-directory}). Whether this
6459 cache is flat or hierarchical is controlled by the
6460 @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable, as usual.
6462 When re-selecting a ticked or dormant article, it will be fetched from the
6463 cache instead of from the server. As articles in your cache will never
6464 expire, this might serve as a method of saving articles while still
6465 keeping them where they belong. Just mark all articles you want to save
6466 as dormant, and don't worry.
6468 When an article is marked as read, is it removed from the cache.
6470 @vindex gnus-cache-remove-articles
6471 @vindex gnus-cache-enter-articles
6472 The entering/removal of articles from the cache is controlled by the
6473 @code{gnus-cache-enter-articles} and @code{gnus-cache-remove-articles}
6474 variables. Both are lists of symbols. The first is @code{(ticked
6475 dormant)} by default, meaning that ticked and dormant articles will be
6476 put in the cache. The latter is @code{(read)} by default, meaning that
6477 articles marked as read are removed from the cache. Possibly
6478 symbols in these two lists are @code{ticked}, @code{dormant},
6479 @code{unread} and @code{read}.
6481 @findex gnus-jog-cache
6482 So where does the massive article-fetching and storing come into the
6483 picture? The @code{gnus-jog-cache} command will go through all
6484 subscribed newsgroups, request all unread articles, score them, and
6485 store them in the cache. You should only ever, ever ever ever, use this
6486 command if 1) your connection to the @sc{nntp} server is really, really,
6487 really slow and 2) you have a really, really, really huge disk.
6488 Seriously. One way to cut down on the number of articles downloaded is
6489 to score unwanted articles down and have them marked as read. They will
6490 not then be downloaded by this command.
6492 @vindex gnus-uncacheable-groups
6493 @vindex gnus-cacheable-groups
6494 It is likely that you do not want caching on all groups. For instance,
6495 if your @code{nnml} mail is located under your home directory, it makes no
6496 sense to cache it somewhere else under your home directory. Unless you
6497 feel that it's neat to use twice as much space.
6499 To limit the caching, you could set @code{gnus-cacheable-groups} to a
6500 regexp of groups to cache, @samp{^nntp} for instance, or set the
6501 @code{gnus-uncacheable-groups} regexp to @samp{^nnml}, for instance.
6502 Both variables are @code{nil} by default. If a group matches both
6503 variables, the group is not cached.
6505 @findex gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases
6506 @findex gnus-cache-generate-active
6507 @vindex gnus-cache-active-file
6508 The cache stores information on what articles it contains in its active
6509 file (@code{gnus-cache-active-file}). If this file (or any other parts
6510 of the cache) becomes all messed up for some reason or other, Gnus
6511 offers two functions that will try to set things right. @kbd{M-x
6512 gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases} will (re)build all the @sc{nov}
6513 files, and @kbd{gnus-cache-generate-active} will (re)generate the active
6517 @node Persistent Articles
6518 @section Persistent Articles
6519 @cindex persistent articles
6521 Closely related to article caching, we have @dfn{persistent articles}.
6522 In fact, it's just a different way of looking at caching, and much more
6523 useful in my opinion.
6525 Say you're reading a newsgroup, and you happen on to some valuable gem
6526 that you want to keep and treasure forever. You'd normally just save it
6527 (using one of the many saving commands) in some file. The problem with
6528 that is that it's just, well, yucky. Ideally you'd prefer just having
6529 the article remain in the group where you found it forever; untouched by
6530 the expiry going on at the news server.
6532 This is what a @dfn{persistent article} is---an article that just won't
6533 be deleted. It's implemented using the normal cache functions, but
6534 you use two explicit commands for managing persistent articles:
6540 @findex gnus-cache-enter-article
6541 Make the current article persistent (@code{gnus-cache-enter-article}).
6544 @kindex M-* (Summary)
6545 @findex gnus-cache-remove-article
6546 Remove the current article from the persistent articles
6547 (@code{gnus-cache-remove-article}). This will normally delete the
6551 Both these commands understand the process/prefix convention.
6553 To avoid having all ticked articles (and stuff) entered into the cache,
6554 you should set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{passive} if you're just
6555 interested in persistent articles:
6558 (setq gnus-use-cache 'passive)
6562 @node Article Backlog
6563 @section Article Backlog
6565 @cindex article backlog
6567 If you have a slow connection, but the idea of using caching seems
6568 unappealing to you (and it is, really), you can help the situation some
6569 by switching on the @dfn{backlog}. This is where Gnus will buffer
6570 already read articles so that it doesn't have to re-fetch articles
6571 you've already read. This only helps if you are in the habit of
6572 re-selecting articles you've recently read, of course. If you never do
6573 that, turning the backlog on will slow Gnus down a little bit, and
6574 increase memory usage some.
6576 @vindex gnus-keep-backlog
6577 If you set @code{gnus-keep-backlog} to a number @var{n}, Gnus will store
6578 at most @var{n} old articles in a buffer for later re-fetching. If this
6579 variable is non-@code{nil} and is not a number, Gnus will store
6580 @emph{all} read articles, which means that your Emacs will grow without
6581 bound before exploding and taking your machine down with you. I put
6582 that in there just to keep y'all on your toes.
6584 This variable is @code{nil} by default.
6587 @node Saving Articles
6588 @section Saving Articles
6589 @cindex saving articles
6591 Gnus can save articles in a number of ways. Below is the documentation
6592 for saving articles in a fairly straight-forward fashion (i.e., little
6593 processing of the article is done before it is saved). For a different
6594 approach (uudecoding, unsharing) you should use @code{gnus-uu}
6595 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
6597 @vindex gnus-save-all-headers
6598 If @code{gnus-save-all-headers} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will not delete
6599 unwanted headers before saving the article.
6601 @vindex gnus-saved-headers
6602 If the preceding variable is @code{nil}, all headers that match the
6603 @code{gnus-saved-headers} regexp will be kept, while the rest will be
6604 deleted before saving.
6610 @kindex O o (Summary)
6612 @findex gnus-summary-save-article
6613 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article}
6614 Save the current article using the default article saver
6615 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article}).
6618 @kindex O m (Summary)
6619 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-mail
6620 Save the current article in mail format
6621 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-mail}).
6624 @kindex O r (Summary)
6625 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-rmail
6626 Save the current article in rmail format
6627 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-rmail}).
6630 @kindex O f (Summary)
6631 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-file
6632 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article-file}
6633 Save the current article in plain file format
6634 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-file}).
6637 @kindex O F (Summary)
6638 @findex gnus-summary-write-article-file
6639 Write the current article in plain file format, overwriting any previous
6640 file contents (@code{gnus-summary-write-article-file}).
6643 @kindex O b (Summary)
6644 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-body-file
6645 Save the current article body in plain file format
6646 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-body-file}).
6649 @kindex O h (Summary)
6650 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-folder
6651 Save the current article in mh folder format
6652 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-folder}).
6655 @kindex O v (Summary)
6656 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-vm
6657 Save the current article in a VM folder
6658 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-vm}).
6662 @kindex O p (Summary)
6664 @findex gnus-summary-pipe-output
6665 Save the current article in a pipe. Uhm, like, what I mean is---Pipe
6666 the current article to a process (@code{gnus-summary-pipe-output}).
6669 @vindex gnus-prompt-before-saving
6670 All these commands use the process/prefix convention
6671 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). If you save bunches of articles using these
6672 functions, you might get tired of being prompted for files to save each
6673 and every article in. The prompting action is controlled by
6674 the @code{gnus-prompt-before-saving} variable, which is @code{always} by
6675 default, giving you that excessive prompting action you know and
6676 loathe. If you set this variable to @code{t} instead, you'll be prompted
6677 just once for each series of articles you save. If you like to really
6678 have Gnus do all your thinking for you, you can even set this variable
6679 to @code{nil}, which means that you will never be prompted for files to
6680 save articles in. Gnus will simply save all the articles in the default
6684 @vindex gnus-default-article-saver
6685 You can customize the @code{gnus-default-article-saver} variable to make
6686 Gnus do what you want it to. You can use any of the six ready-made
6687 functions below, or you can create your own.
6691 @item gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
6692 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
6693 @vindex gnus-rmail-save-name
6694 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
6695 This is the default format, @dfn{babyl}. Uses the function in the
6696 @code{gnus-rmail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
6697 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
6699 @item gnus-summary-save-in-mail
6700 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-mail
6701 @vindex gnus-mail-save-name
6702 Save in a Unix mail (mbox) file. Uses the function in the
6703 @code{gnus-mail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
6704 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
6706 @item gnus-summary-save-in-file
6707 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-file
6708 @vindex gnus-file-save-name
6709 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
6710 Append the article straight to an ordinary file. Uses the function in
6711 the @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
6712 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
6714 @item gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
6715 @findex gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
6716 Append the article body to an ordinary file. Uses the function in the
6717 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
6718 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
6720 @item gnus-summary-save-in-folder
6721 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-folder
6722 @findex gnus-folder-save-name
6723 @findex gnus-Folder-save-name
6724 @vindex gnus-folder-save-name
6727 Save the article to an MH folder using @code{rcvstore} from the MH
6728 library. Uses the function in the @code{gnus-folder-save-name} variable
6729 to get a file name to save the article in. The default is
6730 @code{gnus-folder-save-name}, but you can also use
6731 @code{gnus-Folder-save-name}, which creates capitalized names.
6733 @item gnus-summary-save-in-vm
6734 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-vm
6735 Save the article in a VM folder. You have to have the VM mail
6736 reader to use this setting.
6739 @vindex gnus-article-save-directory
6740 All of these functions, except for the last one, will save the article
6741 in the @code{gnus-article-save-directory}, which is initialized from the
6742 @code{SAVEDIR} environment variable. This is @file{~/News/} by
6745 As you can see above, the functions use different functions to find a
6746 suitable name of a file to save the article in. Below is a list of
6747 available functions that generate names:
6751 @item gnus-Numeric-save-name
6752 @findex gnus-Numeric-save-name
6753 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
6755 @item gnus-numeric-save-name
6756 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
6757 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
6759 @item gnus-Plain-save-name
6760 @findex gnus-Plain-save-name
6761 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin}.
6763 @item gnus-plain-save-name
6764 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
6765 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.
6767 @item gnus-sender-save-name
6768 @findex gnus-sender-save-name
6769 File names like @file{~/News/larsi}.
6772 @vindex gnus-split-methods
6773 You can have Gnus suggest where to save articles by plonking a regexp into
6774 the @code{gnus-split-methods} alist. For instance, if you would like to
6775 save articles related to Gnus in the file @file{gnus-stuff}, and articles
6776 related to VM in @code{vm-stuff}, you could set this variable to something
6780 (("^Subject:.*gnus\\|^Newsgroups:.*gnus" "gnus-stuff")
6781 ("^Subject:.*vm\\|^Xref:.*vm" "vm-stuff")
6782 (my-choosing-function "../other-dir/my-stuff")
6783 ((equal gnus-newsgroup-name "mail.misc") "mail-stuff"))
6786 We see that this is a list where each element is a list that has two
6787 elements---the @dfn{match} and the @dfn{file}. The match can either be
6788 a string (in which case it is used as a regexp to match on the article
6789 head); it can be a symbol (which will be called as a function with the
6790 group name as a parameter); or it can be a list (which will be
6791 @code{eval}ed). If any of these actions have a non-@code{nil} result,
6792 the @dfn{file} will be used as a default prompt. In addition, the
6793 result of the operation itself will be used if the function or form
6794 called returns a string or a list of strings.
6796 You basically end up with a list of file names that might be used when
6797 saving the current article. (All ``matches'' will be used.) You will
6798 then be prompted for what you really want to use as a name, with file
6799 name completion over the results from applying this variable.
6801 This variable is @code{((gnus-article-archive-name))} by default, which
6802 means that Gnus will look at the articles it saves for an
6803 @code{Archive-name} line and use that as a suggestion for the file
6806 Here's an example function to clean up file names somewhat. If you have
6807 lots of mail groups called things like
6808 @samp{nnml:mail.whatever}, you may want to chop off the beginning of
6809 these group names before creating the file name to save to. The
6810 following will do just that:
6813 (defun my-save-name (group)
6814 (when (string-match "^nnml:mail." group)
6815 (substring group (match-end 0))))
6817 (setq gnus-split-methods
6818 '((gnus-article-archive-name)
6823 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
6824 Finally, you have the @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable. If it is
6825 @code{nil}, all the preceding functions will replace all periods
6826 (@samp{.}) in the group names with slashes (@samp{/})---which means that
6827 the functions will generate hierarchies of directories instead of having
6828 all the files in the top level directory
6829 (@file{~/News/alt/andrea-dworkin} instead of
6830 @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.) This variable is @code{t} by default
6831 on most systems. However, for historical reasons, this is @code{nil} on
6832 Xenix and usg-unix-v machines by default.
6834 This function also affects kill and score file names. If this variable
6835 is a list, and the list contains the element @code{not-score}, long file
6836 names will not be used for score files, if it contains the element
6837 @code{not-save}, long file names will not be used for saving, and if it
6838 contains the element @code{not-kill}, long file names will not be used
6841 If you'd like to save articles in a hierarchy that looks something like
6845 (setq gnus-use-long-file-name '(not-save)) ; to get a hierarchy
6846 (setq gnus-default-article-saver
6847 'gnus-summary-save-in-file) ; no encoding
6850 Then just save with @kbd{o}. You'd then read this hierarchy with
6851 ephemeral @code{nneething} groups---@kbd{G D} in the group buffer, and
6852 the top level directory as the argument (@file{~/News/}). Then just walk
6853 around to the groups/directories with @code{nneething}.
6856 @node Decoding Articles
6857 @section Decoding Articles
6858 @cindex decoding articles
6860 Sometime users post articles (or series of articles) that have been
6861 encoded in some way or other. Gnus can decode them for you.
6864 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
6865 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
6866 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
6867 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
6868 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
6869 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
6873 @cindex article series
6874 All these functions use the process/prefix convention
6875 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) for finding out what articles to work on, with
6876 the extension that a ``single article'' means ``a single series''. Gnus
6877 can find out by itself what articles belong to a series, decode all the
6878 articles and unpack/view/save the resulting file(s).
6880 Gnus guesses what articles are in the series according to the following
6881 simplish rule: The subjects must be (nearly) identical, except for the
6882 last two numbers of the line. (Spaces are largely ignored, however.)
6884 For example: If you choose a subject called @samp{cat.gif (2/3)}, Gnus
6885 will find all the articles that match the regexp @samp{^cat.gif
6886 ([0-9]+/[0-9]+).*$}.
6888 Subjects that are non-standard, like @samp{cat.gif (2/3) Part 6 of a
6889 series}, will not be properly recognized by any of the automatic viewing
6890 commands, and you have to mark the articles manually with @kbd{#}.
6893 @node Uuencoded Articles
6894 @subsection Uuencoded Articles
6896 @cindex uuencoded articles
6901 @kindex X u (Summary)
6902 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu
6903 @c @icon{gnus-uu-decode-uu}
6904 Uudecodes the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}).
6907 @kindex X U (Summary)
6908 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save
6909 Uudecodes and saves the current series
6910 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
6913 @kindex X v u (Summary)
6914 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-view
6915 Uudecodes and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-view}).
6918 @kindex X v U (Summary)
6919 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view
6920 Uudecodes, views and saves the current series
6921 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view}).
6925 Remember that these all react to the presence of articles marked with
6926 the process mark. If, for instance, you'd like to decode and save an
6927 entire newsgroup, you'd typically do @kbd{M P a}
6928 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-all}) and then @kbd{X U}
6929 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
6931 All this is very much different from how @code{gnus-uu} worked with
6932 @sc{gnus 4.1}, where you had explicit keystrokes for everything under
6933 the sun. This version of @code{gnus-uu} generally assumes that you mark
6934 articles in some way (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}) and then press
6937 @vindex gnus-uu-notify-files
6938 Note: When trying to decode articles that have names matching
6939 @code{gnus-uu-notify-files}, which is hard-coded to
6940 @samp{[Cc][Ii][Nn][Dd][Yy][0-9]+.\\(gif\\|jpg\\)}, @code{gnus-uu} will
6941 automatically post an article on @samp{comp.unix.wizards} saying that
6942 you have just viewed the file in question. This feature can't be turned
6946 @node Shell Archives
6947 @subsection Shell Archives
6949 @cindex shell archives
6950 @cindex shared articles
6952 Shell archives (``shar files'') used to be a popular way to distribute
6953 sources, but it isn't used all that much today. In any case, we have
6954 some commands to deal with these:
6959 @kindex X s (Summary)
6960 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar
6961 Unshars the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar}).
6964 @kindex X S (Summary)
6965 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save
6966 Unshars and saves the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save}).
6969 @kindex X v s (Summary)
6970 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view
6971 Unshars and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view}).
6974 @kindex X v S (Summary)
6975 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view
6976 Unshars, views and saves the current series
6977 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view}).
6981 @node PostScript Files
6982 @subsection PostScript Files
6988 @kindex X p (Summary)
6989 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript
6990 Unpack the current PostScript series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript}).
6993 @kindex X P (Summary)
6994 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save
6995 Unpack and save the current PostScript series
6996 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save}).
6999 @kindex X v p (Summary)
7000 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view
7001 View the current PostScript series
7002 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view}).
7005 @kindex X v P (Summary)
7006 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view
7007 View and save the current PostScript series
7008 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view}).
7013 @subsection Other Files
7017 @kindex X o (Summary)
7018 @findex gnus-uu-decode-save
7019 Save the current series
7020 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-save}).
7023 @kindex X b (Summary)
7024 @findex gnus-uu-decode-binhex
7025 Unbinhex the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-binhex}). This
7026 doesn't really work yet.
7030 @node Decoding Variables
7031 @subsection Decoding Variables
7033 Adjective, not verb.
7036 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
7037 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
7038 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
7042 @node Rule Variables
7043 @subsubsection Rule Variables
7044 @cindex rule variables
7046 Gnus uses @dfn{rule variables} to decide how to view a file. All these
7047 variables are of the form
7050 (list '(regexp1 command2)
7057 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules
7058 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules
7060 This variable is consulted first when viewing files. If you wish to use,
7061 for instance, @code{sox} to convert an @samp{.au} sound file, you could
7064 (setq gnus-uu-user-view-rules
7065 (list '("\\\\.au$" "sox %s -t .aiff > /dev/audio")))
7068 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
7069 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
7070 This variable is consulted if Gnus couldn't make any matches from the
7071 user and default view rules.
7073 @item gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
7074 @vindex gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
7075 This variable can be used to say what commands should be used to unpack
7080 @node Other Decode Variables
7081 @subsubsection Other Decode Variables
7084 @vindex gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
7086 @item gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
7087 All functions in this list will be called right after each file has been
7088 successfully decoded---so that you can move or view files right away,
7089 and don't have to wait for all files to be decoded before you can do
7090 anything. Ready-made functions you can put in this list are:
7094 @item gnus-uu-grab-view
7095 @findex gnus-uu-grab-view
7098 @item gnus-uu-grab-move
7099 @findex gnus-uu-grab-move
7100 Move the file (if you're using a saving function.)
7103 @item gnus-uu-be-dangerous
7104 @vindex gnus-uu-be-dangerous
7105 Specifies what to do if unusual situations arise during decoding. If
7106 @code{nil}, be as conservative as possible. If @code{t}, ignore things
7107 that didn't work, and overwrite existing files. Otherwise, ask each
7110 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
7111 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
7112 Files with name matching this regular expression won't be viewed.
7114 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
7115 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
7116 Files with a @sc{mime} type matching this variable won't be viewed.
7117 Note that Gnus tries to guess what type the file is based on the name.
7118 @code{gnus-uu} is not a @sc{mime} package (yet), so this is slightly
7121 @item gnus-uu-tmp-dir
7122 @vindex gnus-uu-tmp-dir
7123 Where @code{gnus-uu} does its work.
7125 @item gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
7126 @vindex gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
7127 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} won't peek inside archives
7128 looking for files to display.
7130 @item gnus-uu-view-and-save
7131 @vindex gnus-uu-view-and-save
7132 Non-@code{nil} means that the user will always be asked to save a file
7135 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
7136 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
7137 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default viewing
7140 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
7141 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
7142 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default archive
7145 @item gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
7146 @vindex gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
7147 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will strip all carriage returns
7150 @item gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
7151 @vindex gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
7152 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will mark unsuccessfully
7153 decoded articles as unread.
7155 @item gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
7156 @vindex gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
7157 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will @emph{try} to fix
7158 uuencoded files that have had trailing spaces deleted.
7160 @item gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
7161 @vindex gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
7162 Hook run before sending a message to @code{uudecode}.
7164 @item gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
7165 @vindex gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
7167 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the viewing
7168 commands defined by the rule variables and just fudge a @sc{mime}
7169 content type based on the file name. The result will be fed to
7170 @code{metamail} for viewing.
7172 @item gnus-uu-save-in-digest
7173 @vindex gnus-uu-save-in-digest
7174 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu}, when asked to save without
7175 decoding, will save in digests. If this variable is @code{nil},
7176 @code{gnus-uu} will just save everything in a file without any
7177 embellishments. The digesting almost conforms to RFC 1153---no easy way
7178 to specify any meaningful volume and issue numbers were found, so I
7179 simply dropped them.
7184 @node Uuencoding and Posting
7185 @subsubsection Uuencoding and Posting
7189 @item gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
7190 @vindex gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
7191 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ask for a file to encode
7192 before you compose the article. If this variable is @code{t}, you can
7193 either include an encoded file with @kbd{C-c C-i} or have one included
7194 for you when you post the article.
7196 @item gnus-uu-post-length
7197 @vindex gnus-uu-post-length
7198 Maximum length of an article. The encoded file will be split into how
7199 many articles it takes to post the entire file.
7201 @item gnus-uu-post-threaded
7202 @vindex gnus-uu-post-threaded
7203 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will post the encoded file in a
7204 thread. This may not be smart, as no other decoder I have seen is able
7205 to follow threads when collecting uuencoded articles. (Well, I have
7206 seen one package that does that---@code{gnus-uu}, but somehow, I don't
7207 think that counts...) Default is @code{nil}.
7209 @item gnus-uu-post-separate-description
7210 @vindex gnus-uu-post-separate-description
7211 Non-@code{nil} means that the description will be posted in a separate
7212 article. The first article will typically be numbered (0/x). If this
7213 variable is @code{nil}, the description the user enters will be included
7214 at the beginning of the first article, which will be numbered (1/x).
7215 Default is @code{t}.
7221 @subsection Viewing Files
7222 @cindex viewing files
7223 @cindex pseudo-articles
7225 After decoding, if the file is some sort of archive, Gnus will attempt
7226 to unpack the archive and see if any of the files in the archive can be
7227 viewed. For instance, if you have a gzipped tar file @file{pics.tar.gz}
7228 containing the files @file{pic1.jpg} and @file{pic2.gif}, Gnus will
7229 uncompress and de-tar the main file, and then view the two pictures.
7230 This unpacking process is recursive, so if the archive contains archives
7231 of archives, it'll all be unpacked.
7233 Finally, Gnus will normally insert a @dfn{pseudo-article} for each
7234 extracted file into the summary buffer. If you go to these
7235 ``articles'', you will be prompted for a command to run (usually Gnus
7236 will make a suggestion), and then the command will be run.
7238 @vindex gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously
7239 If @code{gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously} is @code{nil}, Emacs will wait
7240 until the viewing is done before proceeding.
7242 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos
7243 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos} is @code{automatic}, Gnus will not insert
7244 the pseudo-articles into the summary buffer, but view them
7245 immediately. If this variable is @code{not-confirm}, the user won't even
7246 be asked for a confirmation before viewing is done.
7248 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos-separately
7249 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos-separately} is non-@code{nil}, one
7250 pseudo-article will be created for each file to be viewed. If
7251 @code{nil}, all files that use the same viewing command will be given as
7252 a list of parameters to that command.
7254 @vindex gnus-insert-pseudo-articles
7255 If @code{gnus-insert-pseudo-articles} is non-@code{nil}, insert
7256 pseudo-articles when decoding. It is @code{t} by default.
7258 So; there you are, reading your @emph{pseudo-articles} in your
7259 @emph{virtual newsgroup} from the @emph{virtual server}; and you think:
7260 Why isn't anything real anymore? How did we get here?
7263 @node Article Treatment
7264 @section Article Treatment
7266 Reading through this huge manual, you may have quite forgotten that the
7267 object of newsreaders is to actually, like, read what people have
7268 written. Reading articles. Unfortunately, people are quite bad at
7269 writing, so there are tons of functions and variables to make reading
7270 these articles easier.
7273 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
7274 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
7275 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
7276 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
7277 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
7278 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
7279 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
7280 * Article Miscellania:: Various other stuff.
7284 @node Article Highlighting
7285 @subsection Article Highlighting
7286 @cindex highlighting
7288 Not only do you want your article buffer to look like fruit salad, but
7289 you want it to look like technicolor fruit salad.
7294 @kindex W H a (Summary)
7295 @findex gnus-article-highlight
7296 @findex gnus-article-maybe-highlight
7297 Do much highlighting of the current article
7298 (@code{gnus-article-highlight}). This function highlights header, cited
7299 text, the signature, and adds buttons to the body and the head.
7302 @kindex W H h (Summary)
7303 @findex gnus-article-highlight-headers
7304 @vindex gnus-header-face-alist
7305 Highlight the headers (@code{gnus-article-highlight-headers}). The
7306 highlighting will be done according to the @code{gnus-header-face-alist}
7307 variable, which is a list where each element has the form
7308 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{name} @var{content})}.
7309 @var{regexp} is a regular expression for matching the
7310 header, @var{name} is the face used for highlighting the header name
7311 (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}) and @var{content} is the face for highlighting
7312 the header value. The first match made will be used. Note that
7313 @var{regexp} shouldn't have @samp{^} prepended---Gnus will add one.
7316 @kindex W H c (Summary)
7317 @findex gnus-article-highlight-citation
7318 Highlight cited text (@code{gnus-article-highlight-citation}).
7320 Some variables to customize the citation highlights:
7323 @vindex gnus-cite-parse-max-size
7325 @item gnus-cite-parse-max-size
7326 If the article size if bigger than this variable (which is 25000 by
7327 default), no citation highlighting will be performed.
7329 @item gnus-cite-max-prefix
7330 @vindex gnus-cite-max-prefix
7331 Maximum possible length for a citation prefix (default 20).
7333 @item gnus-cite-face-list
7334 @vindex gnus-cite-face-list
7335 List of faces used for highlighting citations (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}).
7336 When there are citations from multiple articles in the same message,
7337 Gnus will try to give each citation from each article its own face.
7338 This should make it easier to see who wrote what.
7340 @item gnus-supercite-regexp
7341 @vindex gnus-supercite-regexp
7342 Regexp matching normal Supercite attribution lines.
7344 @item gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
7345 @vindex gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
7346 Regexp matching mangled Supercite attribution lines.
7348 @item gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
7349 @vindex gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
7350 Minimum number of identical prefixes we have to see before we believe
7351 that it's a citation.
7353 @item gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
7354 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
7355 Regexp matching the beginning of an attribution line.
7357 @item gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
7358 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
7359 Regexp matching the end of an attribution line.
7361 @item gnus-cite-attribution-face
7362 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-face
7363 Face used for attribution lines. It is merged with the face for the
7364 cited text belonging to the attribution.
7370 @kindex W H s (Summary)
7371 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
7372 @vindex gnus-signature-face
7373 @findex gnus-article-highlight-signature
7374 Highlight the signature (@code{gnus-article-highlight-signature}).
7375 Everything after @code{gnus-signature-separator} (@pxref{Article
7376 Signature}) in an article will be considered a signature and will be
7377 highlighted with @code{gnus-signature-face}, which is @code{italic} by
7382 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to highlight articles automatically.
7385 @node Article Fontisizing
7386 @subsection Article Fontisizing
7388 @cindex article emphasis
7390 @findex gnus-article-emphasize
7391 @kindex W e (Summary)
7392 People commonly add emphasis to words in news articles by writing things
7393 like @samp{_this_} or @samp{*this*} or @samp{/this/}. Gnus can make
7394 this look nicer by running the article through the @kbd{W e}
7395 (@code{gnus-article-emphasize}) command.
7397 @vindex gnus-emphasis-alist
7398 How the emphasis is computed is controlled by the
7399 @code{gnus-emphasis-alist} variable. This is an alist where the first
7400 element is a regular expression to be matched. The second is a number
7401 that says what regular expression grouping is used to find the entire
7402 emphasized word. The third is a number that says what regexp grouping
7403 should be displayed and highlighted. (The text between these two
7404 groupings will be hidden.) The fourth is the face used for
7408 (setq gnus-emphasis-alist
7409 '(("_\\(\\w+\\)_" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-underline)
7410 ("\\*\\(\\w+\\)\\*" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-bold)))
7419 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline
7420 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold
7421 @vindex gnus-emphasis-italic
7422 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold
7423 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-italic
7424 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold-italic
7425 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic
7426 By default, there are seven rules, and they use the following faces:
7427 @code{gnus-emphasis-bold}, @code{gnus-emphasis-italic},
7428 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline}, @code{gnus-emphasis-bold-italic},
7429 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-italic},
7430 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold}, and
7431 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic}.
7433 If you want to change these faces, you can either use @kbd{M-x
7434 customize}, or you can use @code{copy-face}. For instance, if you want
7435 to make @code{gnus-emphasis-italic} use a red face instead, you could
7439 (copy-face 'red 'gnus-emphasis-italic)
7442 @vindex gnus-group-highlight-words-alist
7444 If you want to highlight arbitrary words, you can use the
7445 @code{gnus-group-highlight-words-alist} variable, which uses the same
7446 syntax as @code{gnus-emphasis-alist}. The @code{highlight-words} group
7447 parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) can also be used.
7449 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to fontize articles automatically.
7452 @node Article Hiding
7453 @subsection Article Hiding
7454 @cindex article hiding
7456 Or rather, hiding certain things in each article. There usually is much
7457 too much cruft in most articles.
7462 @kindex W W a (Summary)
7463 @findex gnus-article-hide
7464 Do quite a lot of hiding on the article buffer
7465 (@kbd{gnus-article-hide}). In particular, this function will hide
7466 headers, PGP, cited text and the signature.
7469 @kindex W W h (Summary)
7470 @findex gnus-article-hide-headers
7471 Hide headers (@code{gnus-article-hide-headers}). @xref{Hiding
7475 @kindex W W b (Summary)
7476 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
7477 Hide headers that aren't particularly interesting
7478 (@code{gnus-article-hide-boring-headers}). @xref{Hiding Headers}.
7481 @kindex W W s (Summary)
7482 @findex gnus-article-hide-signature
7483 Hide signature (@code{gnus-article-hide-signature}). @xref{Article
7487 @kindex W W l (Summary)
7488 @findex gnus-article-hide-list-identifiers
7489 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
7490 Strip list identifiers specified in @code{gnus-list-identifiers}. These
7491 are strings some mailing list servers add to the beginning of all
7492 @code{Subject} headers---for example, @samp{[zebra 4711]}. Any leading
7493 @samp{Re: } is skipped before stripping. @code{gnus-list-identifiers}
7494 may not contain @code{\\(..\\)}.
7498 @item gnus-list-identifiers
7499 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
7500 A regular expression that matches list identifiers to be removed from
7501 subject. This can also be a list of regular expressions.
7506 @kindex W W p (Summary)
7507 @findex gnus-article-hide-pgp
7508 @vindex gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook
7509 Hide @sc{pgp} signatures (@code{gnus-article-hide-pgp}). The
7510 @code{gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook} hook will be run after a @sc{pgp}
7511 signature has been hidden. For example, to automatically verify
7512 articles that have signatures in them do:
7514 ;;; Hide pgp cruft if any.
7516 (setq gnus-treat-strip-pgp t)
7518 ;;; After hiding pgp, verify the message;
7519 ;;; only happens if pgp signature is found.
7521 (add-hook 'gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook
7524 (set-buffer gnus-original-article-buffer)
7529 @kindex W W P (Summary)
7530 @findex gnus-article-hide-pem
7531 Hide @sc{pem} (privacy enhanced messages) cruft
7532 (@code{gnus-article-hide-pem}).
7535 @kindex W W B (Summary)
7536 @findex gnus-article-strip-banner
7539 @cindex stripping advertisements
7540 @cindex advertisements
7541 Strip the banner specified by the @code{banner} group parameter
7542 (@code{gnus-article-strip-banner}). This is mainly used to hide those
7543 annoying banners and/or signatures that some mailing lists and moderated
7544 groups adds to all the messages. The way to use this function is to add
7545 the @code{banner} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to the
7546 group you want banners stripped from. The parameter either be a string,
7547 which will be interpreted as a regular expression matching text to be
7548 removed, or the symbol @code{signature}, meaning that the (last)
7549 signature should be removed, or other symbol, meaning that the
7550 corresponding regular expression in @code{gnus-article-banner-alist} is
7554 @kindex W W c (Summary)
7555 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation
7556 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation}). Some variables for
7557 customizing the hiding:
7561 @item gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
7562 @itemx gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
7563 @vindex gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
7564 @vindex gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
7565 Gnus adds buttons to show where the cited text has been hidden, and to
7566 allow toggle hiding the text. The format of the variable is specified
7567 by these format-like variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}). These
7572 Starting point of the hidden text.
7574 Ending point of the hidden text.
7576 Number of characters in the hidden region.
7578 Number of lines of hidden text.
7581 @item gnus-cited-lines-visible
7582 @vindex gnus-cited-lines-visible
7583 The number of lines at the beginning of the cited text to leave
7584 shown. This can also be a cons cell with the number of lines at the top
7585 and bottom of the text, respectively, to remain visible.
7590 @kindex W W C-c (Summary)
7591 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe
7593 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe}) depending on the
7594 following two variables:
7597 @item gnus-cite-hide-percentage
7598 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-percentage
7599 If the cited text is of a bigger percentage than this variable (default
7600 50), hide the cited text.
7602 @item gnus-cite-hide-absolute
7603 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-absolute
7604 The cited text must have at least this length (default 10) before it
7609 @kindex W W C (Summary)
7610 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups
7611 Hide cited text in articles that aren't roots
7612 (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups}). This isn't very
7613 useful as an interactive command, but might be a handy function to stick
7614 have happen automatically (@pxref{Customizing Articles}).
7618 All these ``hiding'' commands are toggles, but if you give a negative
7619 prefix to these commands, they will show what they have previously
7620 hidden. If you give a positive prefix, they will always hide.
7622 Also @pxref{Article Highlighting} for further variables for
7623 citation customization.
7625 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to hide article elements
7629 @node Article Washing
7630 @subsection Article Washing
7632 @cindex article washing
7634 We call this ``article washing'' for a really good reason. Namely, the
7635 @kbd{A} key was taken, so we had to use the @kbd{W} key instead.
7637 @dfn{Washing} is defined by us as ``changing something from something to
7638 something else'', but normally results in something looking better.
7641 @xref{Customizing Articles}, if you want to change how Gnus displays
7642 articles by default.
7647 This is not really washing, it's sort of the opposite of washing. If
7648 you type this, you see the article exactly as it exists on disk or on
7652 @kindex W l (Summary)
7653 @findex gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking
7654 Remove page breaks from the current article
7655 (@code{gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking}). @xref{Misc Article}, for page
7659 @kindex W r (Summary)
7660 @findex gnus-summary-caesar-message
7661 @c @icon{gnus-summary-caesar-message}
7662 Do a Caesar rotate (rot13) on the article buffer
7663 (@code{gnus-summary-caesar-message}).
7664 Unreadable articles that tell you to read them with Caesar rotate or rot13.
7665 (Typically offensive jokes and such.)
7667 It's commonly called ``rot13'' because each letter is rotated 13
7668 positions in the alphabet, e. g. @samp{B} (letter #2) -> @samp{O} (letter
7669 #15). It is sometimes referred to as ``Caesar rotate'' because Caesar
7670 is rumored to have employed this form of, uh, somewhat weak encryption.
7674 @kindex W t (Summary)
7676 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-header
7677 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer
7678 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-header}).
7681 @kindex W v (Summary)
7682 @findex gnus-summary-verbose-header
7683 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer permanently
7684 (@code{gnus-summary-verbose-header}).
7687 @kindex W o (Summary)
7688 @findex gnus-article-treat-overstrike
7689 Treat overstrike (@code{gnus-article-treat-overstrike}).
7692 @kindex W d (Summary)
7693 @findex gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes
7694 @vindex gnus-article-dumbquotes-map
7696 @cindex M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s
7698 Treat M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s according to
7699 @code{gnus-article-dumbquotes-map}
7700 (@code{gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes}). Note that this function guesses
7701 whether a character is a sm*rtq**t* or not, so it should only be used
7704 Sm*rtq**t*s are M****s***'s unilateral extension to the character map in
7705 an attempt to provide more quoting characters. If you see something
7706 like @code{\222} or @code{\264} where you're expecting some kind of
7707 apostrophe or quotation mark, then try this wash.
7710 @kindex W w (Summary)
7711 @findex gnus-article-fill-cited-article
7712 Do word wrap (@code{gnus-article-fill-cited-article}).
7714 You can give the command a numerical prefix to specify the width to use
7718 @kindex W Q (Summary)
7719 @findex gnus-article-fill-long-lines
7720 Fill long lines (@code{gnus-article-fill-long-lines}).
7723 @kindex W C (Summary)
7724 @findex gnus-article-capitalize-sentences
7725 Capitalize the first word in each sentence
7726 (@code{gnus-article-capitalize-sentences}).
7729 @kindex W c (Summary)
7730 @findex gnus-article-remove-cr
7731 Translate CRLF pairs (i. e., @samp{^M}s on the end of the lines) into LF
7732 (this takes care of DOS line endings), and then translate any remaining
7733 CRs into LF (this takes care of Mac line endings)
7734 (@code{gnus-article-remove-cr}).
7737 @kindex W q (Summary)
7738 @findex gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable
7739 Treat quoted-printable (@code{gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable}).
7740 Quoted-Printable is one common @sc{mime} encoding employed when sending
7741 non-ASCII (i. e., 8-bit) articles. It typically makes strings like
7742 @samp{déjà vu} look like @samp{d=E9j=E0 vu}, which doesn't look very
7743 readable to me. Note that the this is usually done automatically by
7744 Gnus if the message in question has a @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding}
7745 header that says that this encoding has been done.
7746 If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
7749 @kindex W 6 (Summary)
7750 @findex gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable
7751 Treat base64 (@code{gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable}).
7752 Base64 is one common @sc{mime} encoding employed when sending non-ASCII
7753 (i. e., 8-bit) articles. Note that the this is usually done
7754 automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
7755 @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding} header that says that this encoding has
7757 If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
7760 @kindex W Z (Summary)
7761 @findex gnus-article-decode-HZ
7762 Treat HZ or HZP (@code{gnus-article-decode-HZ}). HZ (or HZP) is one
7763 common encoding employed when sending Chinese articles. It typically
7764 makes strings look like @samp{~@{<:Ky2;S@{#,NpJ)l6HK!#~@}}.
7767 @kindex W h (Summary)
7768 @findex gnus-article-wash-html
7769 Treat HTML (@code{gnus-article-wash-html}).
7770 Note that the this is usually done automatically by Gnus if the message
7771 in question has a @code{Content-Type} header that says that this type
7773 If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
7776 @kindex W f (Summary)
7778 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
7779 @findex gnus-article-x-face-command
7780 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-command
7781 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly
7788 Look for and display any X-Face headers
7789 (@code{gnus-article-display-x-face}). The command executed by this
7790 function is given by the @code{gnus-article-x-face-command} variable.
7791 If this variable is a string, this string will be executed in a
7792 sub-shell. If it is a function, this function will be called with the
7793 face as the argument. If the @code{gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly} (which
7794 is a regexp) matches the @code{From} header, the face will not be shown.
7795 The default action under Emacs is to fork off the @code{display}
7796 program@footnote{@code{display} is from the ImageMagick package. For the
7797 @code{uncompface} and @code{icontopbm} programs look for a package
7798 like `compface' or `faces-xface' on a GNU/Linux system.}
7799 to view the face. Under XEmacs or Emacs 21+ with suitable image
7800 support, the default action is to display the face before the
7801 @code{From} header. (It's nicer if XEmacs has been compiled with X-Face
7802 support---that will make display somewhat faster. If there's no native
7803 X-Face support, Gnus will try to convert the @code{X-Face} header using
7804 external programs from the @code{pbmplus} package and
7805 friends.@footnote{On a GNU/Linux system look for packages with names
7806 like @code{netpbm} or @code{libgr-progs}.}) If you
7807 want to have this function in the display hook, it should probably come
7811 @kindex W b (Summary)
7812 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons
7813 Add clickable buttons to the article (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons}).
7814 @xref{Article Buttons}.
7817 @kindex W B (Summary)
7818 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head
7819 Add clickable buttons to the article headers
7820 (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head}).
7823 @kindex W p (Summary)
7824 @findex gnus-article-verify-x-pgp-sig
7825 Verify a signed control message (@code{gnus-article-verify-x-pgp-sig}).
7826 Control messages such as @code{newgroup} and @code{checkgroups} are
7827 usually signed by the hierarchy maintainer. You need to add the PGP
7828 public key of the maintainer to your keyring to verify the
7829 message.@footnote{PGP keys for many hierarchies are available at
7830 @uref{ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/pgpcontrol/README.html}}
7833 @kindex W W H (Summary)
7834 @findex gnus-article-strip-headers-from-body
7835 Strip headers like the @code{X-No-Archive} header from the beginning of
7836 article bodies (@code{gnus-article-strip-headers-from-body}).
7839 @kindex W E l (Summary)
7840 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines
7841 Remove all blank lines from the beginning of the article
7842 (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines}).
7845 @kindex W E m (Summary)
7846 @findex gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines
7847 Replace all blank lines with empty lines and then all multiple empty
7848 lines with a single empty line.
7849 (@code{gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines}).
7852 @kindex W E t (Summary)
7853 @findex gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines
7854 Remove all blank lines at the end of the article
7855 (@code{gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines}).
7858 @kindex W E a (Summary)
7859 @findex gnus-article-strip-blank-lines
7860 Do all the three commands above
7861 (@code{gnus-article-strip-blank-lines}).
7864 @kindex W E A (Summary)
7865 @findex gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines
7866 Remove all blank lines
7867 (@code{gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines}).
7870 @kindex W E s (Summary)
7871 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-space
7872 Remove all white space from the beginning of all lines of the article
7873 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-space}).
7876 @kindex W E e (Summary)
7877 @findex gnus-article-strip-trailing-space
7878 Remove all white space from the end of all lines of the article
7879 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-trailing-space}).
7883 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to wash articles automatically.
7886 @node Article Buttons
7887 @subsection Article Buttons
7890 People often include references to other stuff in articles, and it would
7891 be nice if Gnus could just fetch whatever it is that people talk about
7892 with the minimum of fuzz when you hit @kbd{RET} or use the middle mouse
7893 button on these references.
7895 Gnus adds @dfn{buttons} to certain standard references by default:
7896 Well-formed URLs, mail addresses and Message-IDs. This is controlled by
7897 two variables, one that handles article bodies and one that handles
7902 @item gnus-button-alist
7903 @vindex gnus-button-alist
7904 This is an alist where each entry has this form:
7907 (REGEXP BUTTON-PAR USE-P FUNCTION DATA-PAR)
7913 All text that match this regular expression will be considered an
7914 external reference. Here's a typical regexp that matches embedded URLs:
7915 @samp{<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>}.
7918 Gnus has to know which parts of the matches is to be highlighted. This
7919 is a number that says what sub-expression of the regexp is to be
7920 highlighted. If you want it all highlighted, you use 0 here.
7923 This form will be @code{eval}ed, and if the result is non-@code{nil},
7924 this is considered a match. This is useful if you want extra sifting to
7925 avoid false matches.
7928 This function will be called when you click on this button.
7931 As with @var{button-par}, this is a sub-expression number, but this one
7932 says which part of the match is to be sent as data to @var{function}.
7936 So the full entry for buttonizing URLs is then
7939 ("<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>" 0 t gnus-button-url 1)
7942 @item gnus-header-button-alist
7943 @vindex gnus-header-button-alist
7944 This is just like the other alist, except that it is applied to the
7945 article head only, and that each entry has an additional element that is
7946 used to say what headers to apply the buttonize coding to:
7949 (HEADER REGEXP BUTTON-PAR USE-P FUNCTION DATA-PAR)
7952 @var{header} is a regular expression.
7954 @item gnus-button-url-regexp
7955 @vindex gnus-button-url-regexp
7956 A regular expression that matches embedded URLs. It is used in the
7957 default values of the variables above.
7959 @item gnus-article-button-face
7960 @vindex gnus-article-button-face
7961 Face used on buttons.
7963 @item gnus-article-mouse-face
7964 @vindex gnus-article-mouse-face
7965 Face used when the mouse cursor is over a button.
7969 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to buttonize articles automatically.
7973 @subsection Article Date
7975 The date is most likely generated in some obscure timezone you've never
7976 heard of, so it's quite nice to be able to find out what the time was
7977 when the article was sent.
7982 @kindex W T u (Summary)
7983 @findex gnus-article-date-ut
7984 Display the date in UT (aka. GMT, aka ZULU)
7985 (@code{gnus-article-date-ut}).
7988 @kindex W T i (Summary)
7989 @findex gnus-article-date-iso8601
7991 Display the date in international format, aka. ISO 8601
7992 (@code{gnus-article-date-iso8601}).
7995 @kindex W T l (Summary)
7996 @findex gnus-article-date-local
7997 Display the date in the local timezone (@code{gnus-article-date-local}).
8000 @kindex W T p (Summary)
8001 @findex gnus-article-date-english
8002 Display the date in a format that's easily pronounceable in English
8003 (@code{gnus-article-date-english}).
8006 @kindex W T s (Summary)
8007 @vindex gnus-article-time-format
8008 @findex gnus-article-date-user
8009 @findex format-time-string
8010 Display the date using a user-defined format
8011 (@code{gnus-article-date-user}). The format is specified by the
8012 @code{gnus-article-time-format} variable, and is a string that's passed
8013 to @code{format-time-string}. See the documentation of that variable
8014 for a list of possible format specs.
8017 @kindex W T e (Summary)
8018 @findex gnus-article-date-lapsed
8019 @findex gnus-start-date-timer
8020 @findex gnus-stop-date-timer
8021 Say how much time has elapsed between the article was posted and now
8022 (@code{gnus-article-date-lapsed}). It looks something like:
8025 X-Sent: 6 weeks, 4 days, 1 hour, 3 minutes, 8 seconds ago
8028 The value of @code{gnus-article-date-lapsed-new-header} determines
8029 whether this header will just be added below the old Date one, or will
8032 An advantage of using Gnus to read mail is that it converts simple bugs
8033 into wonderful absurdities.
8035 If you want to have this line updated continually, you can put
8038 (gnus-start-date-timer)
8041 in your @file{.gnus.el} file, or you can run it off of some hook. If
8042 you want to stop the timer, you can use the @code{gnus-stop-date-timer}
8046 @kindex W T o (Summary)
8047 @findex gnus-article-date-original
8048 Display the original date (@code{gnus-article-date-original}). This can
8049 be useful if you normally use some other conversion function and are
8050 worried that it might be doing something totally wrong. Say, claiming
8051 that the article was posted in 1854. Although something like that is
8052 @emph{totally} impossible. Don't you trust me? *titter*
8056 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to display the date in your
8057 preferred format automatically.
8060 @node Article Signature
8061 @subsection Article Signature
8063 @cindex article signature
8065 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
8066 Each article is divided into two parts---the head and the body. The
8067 body can be divided into a signature part and a text part. The variable
8068 that says what is to be considered a signature is
8069 @code{gnus-signature-separator}. This is normally the standard
8070 @samp{^-- $} as mandated by son-of-RFC 1036. However, many people use
8071 non-standard signature separators, so this variable can also be a list
8072 of regular expressions to be tested, one by one. (Searches are done
8073 from the end of the body towards the beginning.) One likely value is:
8076 (setq gnus-signature-separator
8077 '("^-- $" ; The standard
8078 "^-- *$" ; A common mangling
8079 "^-------*$" ; Many people just use a looong
8080 ; line of dashes. Shame!
8081 "^ *--------*$" ; Double-shame!
8082 "^________*$" ; Underscores are also popular
8083 "^========*$")) ; Pervert!
8086 The more permissive you are, the more likely it is that you'll get false
8089 @vindex gnus-signature-limit
8090 @code{gnus-signature-limit} provides a limit to what is considered a
8091 signature when displaying articles.
8095 If it is an integer, no signature may be longer (in characters) than
8098 If it is a floating point number, no signature may be longer (in lines)
8101 If it is a function, the function will be called without any parameters,
8102 and if it returns @code{nil}, there is no signature in the buffer.
8104 If it is a string, it will be used as a regexp. If it matches, the text
8105 in question is not a signature.
8108 This variable can also be a list where the elements may be of the types
8109 listed above. Here's an example:
8112 (setq gnus-signature-limit
8113 '(200.0 "^---*Forwarded article"))
8116 This means that if there are more than 200 lines after the signature
8117 separator, or the text after the signature separator is matched by
8118 the regular expression @samp{^---*Forwarded article}, then it isn't a
8119 signature after all.
8122 @node Article Miscellania
8123 @subsection Article Miscellania
8127 @kindex A t (Summary)
8128 @findex gnus-article-babel
8129 Translate the article from one language to another
8130 (@code{gnus-article-babel}).
8136 @section @sc{mime} Commands
8137 @cindex MIME decoding
8139 @cindex viewing attachments
8141 The following commands all understand the numerical prefix. For
8142 instance, @kbd{3 b} means ``view the third @sc{mime} part''.
8148 @kindex K v (Summary)
8149 View the @sc{mime} part.
8152 @kindex K o (Summary)
8153 Save the @sc{mime} part.
8156 @kindex K c (Summary)
8157 Copy the @sc{mime} part.
8160 @kindex K e (Summary)
8161 View the @sc{mime} part externally.
8164 @kindex K i (Summary)
8165 View the @sc{mime} part internally.
8168 @kindex K | (Summary)
8169 Pipe the @sc{mime} part to an external command.
8172 The rest of these @sc{mime} commands do not use the numerical prefix in
8177 @kindex K b (Summary)
8178 Make all the @sc{mime} parts have buttons in front of them. This is
8179 mostly useful if you wish to save (or perform other actions) on inlined
8183 @kindex K m (Summary)
8184 @findex gnus-summary-repair-multipart
8185 Some multipart messages are transmitted with missing or faulty headers.
8186 This command will attempt to ``repair'' these messages so that they can
8187 be viewed in a more pleasant manner
8188 (@code{gnus-summary-repair-multipart}).
8191 @kindex X m (Summary)
8192 @findex gnus-summary-save-parts
8193 Save all parts matching a @sc{mime} type to a directory
8194 (@code{gnus-summary-save-parts}). Understands the process/prefix
8195 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
8198 @kindex M-t (Summary)
8199 @findex gnus-summary-display-buttonized
8200 Toggle the buttonized display of the article buffer
8201 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-display-buttonized}).
8204 @kindex W M w (Summary)
8205 Decode RFC 2047-encoded words in the article headers
8206 (@code{gnus-article-decode-mime-words}).
8209 @kindex W M c (Summary)
8210 Decode encoded article bodies as well as charsets
8211 (@code{gnus-article-decode-charset}).
8213 This command looks in the @code{Content-Type} header to determine the
8214 charset. If there is no such header in the article, you can give it a
8215 prefix, which will prompt for the charset to decode as. In regional
8216 groups where people post using some common encoding (but do not include
8217 MIME headers), you can set the @code{charset} group/topic parameter to
8218 the required charset (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
8221 @kindex W M v (Summary)
8222 View all the @sc{mime} parts in the current article
8223 (@code{gnus-mime-view-all-parts}).
8230 @item gnus-ignored-mime-types
8231 @vindex gnus-ignored-mime-types
8232 This is a list of regexps. @sc{mime} types that match a regexp from
8233 this list will be completely ignored by Gnus. The default value is
8236 To have all Vcards be ignored, you'd say something like this:
8239 (setq gnus-ignored-mime-types
8243 @item gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
8244 @vindex gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
8245 This is a list of regexps. @sc{mime} types that match a regexp from
8246 this list won't have @sc{mime} buttons inserted unless they aren't
8247 displayed. The default value is @code{(".*/.*")}.
8249 @item gnus-article-mime-part-function
8250 @vindex gnus-article-mime-part-function
8251 For each @sc{mime} part, this function will be called with the @sc{mime}
8252 handle as the parameter. The function is meant to be used to allow
8253 users to gather information from the article (e. g., add Vcard info to
8254 the bbdb database) or to do actions based on parts (e. g., automatically
8255 save all jpegs into some directory).
8257 Here's an example function the does the latter:
8260 (defun my-save-all-jpeg-parts (handle)
8261 (when (equal (car (mm-handle-type handle)) "image/jpeg")
8263 (insert (mm-get-part handle))
8264 (write-region (point-min) (point-max)
8265 (read-file-name "Save jpeg to: ")))))
8266 (setq gnus-article-mime-part-function
8267 'my-save-all-jpeg-parts)
8270 @vindex gnus-mime-multipart-functions
8271 @item gnus-mime-multipart-functions
8272 Alist of @sc{mime} multipart types and functions to handle them.
8274 @vindex mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
8275 @item mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
8276 List of functions used for rewriting file names of @sc{mime} parts.
8277 Each function takes a file name as input and returns a file name.
8279 Ready-made functions include@*
8280 @code{mm-file-name-delete-whitespace},
8281 @code{mm-file-name-trim-whitespace},
8282 @code{mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace}, and
8283 @code{mm-file-name-replace-whitespace}. The later uses the value of
8284 the variable @code{mm-file-name-replace-whitespace} to replace each
8285 whitespace character in a file name with that string; default value
8286 is @code{"_"} (a single underscore).
8287 @findex mm-file-name-delete-whitespace
8288 @findex mm-file-name-trim-whitespace
8289 @findex mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace
8290 @findex mm-file-name-replace-whitespace
8291 @vindex mm-file-name-replace-whitespace
8293 The standard functions @code{capitalize}, @code{downcase},
8294 @code{upcase}, and @code{upcase-initials} may be useful, too.
8296 Everybody knows that whitespace characters in file names are evil,
8297 except those who don't know. If you receive lots of attachments from
8298 such unenlightened users, you can make live easier by adding
8301 (setq mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
8302 '(mm-file-name-trim-whitespace
8303 mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace
8304 mm-file-name-replace-whitespace))
8308 to your @file{.gnus} file.
8317 People use different charsets, and we have @sc{mime} to let us know what
8318 charsets they use. Or rather, we wish we had. Many people use
8319 newsreaders and mailers that do not understand or use @sc{mime}, and
8320 just send out messages without saying what character sets they use. To
8321 help a bit with this, some local news hierarchies have policies that say
8322 what character set is the default. For instance, the @samp{fj}
8323 hierarchy uses @code{iso-2022-jp-2}.
8325 @vindex gnus-group-charset-alist
8326 This knowledge is encoded in the @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}
8327 variable, which is an alist of regexps (use the first item to match full
8328 group names) and default charsets to be used when reading these groups.
8330 In addition, some people do use soi-disant @sc{mime}-aware agents that
8331 aren't. These blithely mark messages as being in @code{iso-8859-1} even
8332 if they really are in @code{koi-8}. To help here, the
8333 @code{gnus-newsgroup-ignored-charsets} variable can be used. The
8334 charsets that are listed here will be ignored. The variable can be set
8335 on a group-by-group basis using the group parameters (@pxref{Group
8336 Parameters}). The default value is @code{(unknown-8bit)}, which is
8337 something some agents insist on having in there.
8339 @vindex gnus-group-posting-charset-alist
8340 When posting, @code{gnus-group-posting-charset-alist} is used to
8341 determine which charsets should not be encoded using the @sc{mime}
8342 encodings. For instance, some hierarchies discourage using
8343 quoted-printable header encoding.
8345 This variable is an alist of regexps and permitted unencoded charsets
8346 for posting. Each element of the alist has the form @code{(}@var{test
8347 header body-list}@code{)}, where:
8351 is either a regular expression matching the newsgroup header or a
8354 is the charset which may be left unencoded in the header (@code{nil}
8355 means encode all charsets),
8357 is a list of charsets which may be encoded using 8bit content-transfer
8358 encoding in the body, or one of the special values @code{nil} (always
8359 encode using quoted-printable) or @code{t} (always use 8bit).
8366 @cindex coding system aliases
8367 @cindex preferred charset
8369 Other charset tricks that may be useful, although not Gnus-specific:
8371 If there are several @sc{mime} charsets that encode the same Emacs
8372 charset, you can choose what charset to use by saying the following:
8375 (put-charset-property 'cyrillic-iso8859-5
8376 'preferred-coding-system 'koi8-r)
8379 This means that Russian will be encoded using @code{koi8-r} instead of
8380 the default @code{iso-8859-5} @sc{mime} charset.
8382 If you want to read messages in @code{koi8-u}, you can cheat and say
8385 (define-coding-system-alias 'koi8-u 'koi8-r)
8388 This will almost do the right thing.
8390 And finally, to read charsets like @code{windows-1251}, you can say
8394 (codepage-setup 1251)
8395 (define-coding-system-alias 'windows-1251 'cp1251)
8399 @node Article Commands
8400 @section Article Commands
8407 @kindex A P (Summary)
8408 @vindex gnus-ps-print-hook
8409 @findex gnus-summary-print-article
8410 Generate and print a PostScript image of the article buffer
8411 (@code{gnus-summary-print-article}). @code{gnus-ps-print-hook} will be
8412 run just before printing the buffer.
8417 @node Summary Sorting
8418 @section Summary Sorting
8419 @cindex summary sorting
8421 You can have the summary buffer sorted in various ways, even though I
8422 can't really see why you'd want that.
8427 @kindex C-c C-s C-n (Summary)
8428 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-number
8429 Sort by article number (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-number}).
8432 @kindex C-c C-s C-a (Summary)
8433 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-author
8434 Sort by author (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-author}).
8437 @kindex C-c C-s C-s (Summary)
8438 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-subject
8439 Sort by subject (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-subject}).
8442 @kindex C-c C-s C-d (Summary)
8443 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-date
8444 Sort by date (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-date}).
8447 @kindex C-c C-s C-l (Summary)
8448 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-lines
8449 Sort by lines (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-lines}).
8452 @kindex C-c C-s C-c (Summary)
8453 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-chars
8454 Sort by article length (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-chars}).
8457 @kindex C-c C-s C-i (Summary)
8458 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-score
8459 Sort by score (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-score}).
8462 @kindex C-c C-s C-o (Summary)
8463 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-original
8464 Sort using the default sorting method
8465 (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-original}).
8468 These functions will work both when you use threading and when you don't
8469 use threading. In the latter case, all summary lines will be sorted,
8470 line by line. In the former case, sorting will be done on a
8471 root-by-root basis, which might not be what you were looking for. To
8472 toggle whether to use threading, type @kbd{T T} (@pxref{Thread
8476 @node Finding the Parent
8477 @section Finding the Parent
8478 @cindex parent articles
8479 @cindex referring articles
8484 @findex gnus-summary-refer-parent-article
8485 If you'd like to read the parent of the current article, and it is not
8486 displayed in the summary buffer, you might still be able to. That is,
8487 if the current group is fetched by @sc{nntp}, the parent hasn't expired
8488 and the @code{References} in the current article are not mangled, you
8489 can just press @kbd{^} or @kbd{A r}
8490 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-parent-article}). If everything goes well,
8491 you'll get the parent. If the parent is already displayed in the
8492 summary buffer, point will just move to this article.
8494 If given a positive numerical prefix, fetch that many articles back into
8495 the ancestry. If given a negative numerical prefix, fetch just that
8496 ancestor. So if you say @kbd{3 ^}, Gnus will fetch the parent, the
8497 grandparent and the grandgrandparent of the current article. If you say
8498 @kbd{-3 ^}, Gnus will only fetch the grandgrandparent of the current
8502 @findex gnus-summary-refer-references
8503 @kindex A R (Summary)
8504 Fetch all articles mentioned in the @code{References} header of the
8505 article (@code{gnus-summary-refer-references}).
8508 @findex gnus-summary-refer-thread
8509 @kindex A T (Summary)
8510 Display the full thread where the current article appears
8511 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-thread}). This command has to fetch all the
8512 headers in the current group to work, so it usually takes a while. If
8513 you do it often, you may consider setting @code{gnus-fetch-old-headers}
8514 to @code{invisible} (@pxref{Filling In Threads}). This won't have any
8515 visible effects normally, but it'll make this command work a whole lot
8516 faster. Of course, it'll make group entry somewhat slow.
8518 @vindex gnus-refer-thread-limit
8519 The @code{gnus-refer-thread-limit} variable says how many old (i. e.,
8520 articles before the first displayed in the current group) headers to
8521 fetch when doing this command. The default is 200. If @code{t}, all
8522 the available headers will be fetched. This variable can be overridden
8523 by giving the @kbd{A T} command a numerical prefix.
8526 @findex gnus-summary-refer-article
8527 @kindex M-^ (Summary)
8529 @cindex fetching by Message-ID
8530 You can also ask the @sc{nntp} server for an arbitrary article, no
8531 matter what group it belongs to. @kbd{M-^}
8532 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-article}) will ask you for a
8533 @code{Message-ID}, which is one of those long, hard-to-read thingies
8534 that look something like @samp{<38o6up$6f2@@hymir.ifi.uio.no>}. You
8535 have to get it all exactly right. No fuzzy searches, I'm afraid.
8538 The current select method will be used when fetching by
8539 @code{Message-ID} from non-news select method, but you can override this
8540 by giving this command a prefix.
8542 @vindex gnus-refer-article-method
8543 If the group you are reading is located on a backend that does not
8544 support fetching by @code{Message-ID} very well (like @code{nnspool}),
8545 you can set @code{gnus-refer-article-method} to an @sc{nntp} method. It
8546 would, perhaps, be best if the @sc{nntp} server you consult is the one
8547 updating the spool you are reading from, but that's not really
8550 It can also be a list of select methods, as well as the special symbol
8551 @code{current}, which means to use the current select method. If it
8552 is a list, Gnus will try all the methods in the list until it finds a
8555 Here's an example setting that will first try the current method, and
8556 then ask Deja if that fails:
8559 (setq gnus-refer-article-method
8561 (nnweb "refer" (nnweb-type dejanews))))
8564 Most of the mail backends support fetching by @code{Message-ID}, but do
8565 not do a particularly excellent job at it. That is, @code{nnmbox} and
8566 @code{nnbabyl} are able to locate articles from any groups, while
8567 @code{nnml} and @code{nnfolder} are only able to locate articles that
8568 have been posted to the current group. (Anything else would be too time
8569 consuming.) @code{nnmh} does not support this at all.
8572 @node Alternative Approaches
8573 @section Alternative Approaches
8575 Different people like to read news using different methods. This being
8576 Gnus, we offer a small selection of minor modes for the summary buffers.
8579 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
8580 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
8585 @subsection Pick and Read
8586 @cindex pick and read
8588 Some newsreaders (like @code{nn} and, uhm, @code{Netnews} on VM/CMS) use
8589 a two-phased reading interface. The user first marks in a summary
8590 buffer the articles she wants to read. Then she starts reading the
8591 articles with just an article buffer displayed.
8593 @findex gnus-pick-mode
8594 @kindex M-x gnus-pick-mode
8595 Gnus provides a summary buffer minor mode that allows
8596 this---@code{gnus-pick-mode}. This basically means that a few process
8597 mark commands become one-keystroke commands to allow easy marking, and
8598 it provides one additional command for switching to the summary buffer.
8600 Here are the available keystrokes when using pick mode:
8605 @findex gnus-pick-article-or-thread
8606 Pick the article or thread on the current line
8607 (@code{gnus-pick-article-or-thread}). If the variable
8608 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key selects the
8609 entire thread when used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise,
8610 it selects just the article. If given a numerical prefix, go to that
8611 thread or article and pick it. (The line number is normally displayed
8612 at the beginning of the summary pick lines.)
8615 @kindex SPACE (Pick)
8616 @findex gnus-pick-next-page
8617 Scroll the summary buffer up one page (@code{gnus-pick-next-page}). If
8618 at the end of the buffer, start reading the picked articles.
8622 @findex gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread.
8623 Unpick the thread or article
8624 (@code{gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread}). If the variable
8625 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key unpicks the
8626 thread if used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise it unpicks
8627 just the article. You can give this key a numerical prefix to unpick
8628 the thread or article at that line.
8632 @findex gnus-pick-start-reading
8633 @vindex gnus-pick-display-summary
8634 Start reading the picked articles (@code{gnus-pick-start-reading}). If
8635 given a prefix, mark all unpicked articles as read first. If
8636 @code{gnus-pick-display-summary} is non-@code{nil}, the summary buffer
8637 will still be visible when you are reading.
8641 All the normal summary mode commands are still available in the
8642 pick-mode, with the exception of @kbd{u}. However @kbd{!} is available
8643 which is mapped to the same function
8644 @code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}.
8646 If this sounds like a good idea to you, you could say:
8649 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
8652 @vindex gnus-pick-mode-hook
8653 @code{gnus-pick-mode-hook} is run in pick minor mode buffers.
8655 @vindex gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read
8656 If @code{gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read} is non-@code{nil}, mark
8657 all unpicked articles as read. The default is @code{nil}.
8659 @vindex gnus-summary-pick-line-format
8660 The summary line format in pick mode is slightly different from the
8661 standard format. At the beginning of each line the line number is
8662 displayed. The pick mode line format is controlled by the
8663 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting
8664 Variables}). It accepts the same format specs that
8665 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} does (@pxref{Summary Buffer Lines}).
8669 @subsection Binary Groups
8670 @cindex binary groups
8672 @findex gnus-binary-mode
8673 @kindex M-x gnus-binary-mode
8674 If you spend much time in binary groups, you may grow tired of hitting
8675 @kbd{X u}, @kbd{n}, @kbd{RET} all the time. @kbd{M-x gnus-binary-mode}
8676 is a minor mode for summary buffers that makes all ordinary Gnus article
8677 selection functions uudecode series of articles and display the result
8678 instead of just displaying the articles the normal way.
8681 @findex gnus-binary-show-article
8682 The only way, in fact, to see the actual articles is the @kbd{g}
8683 command, when you have turned on this mode
8684 (@code{gnus-binary-show-article}).
8686 @vindex gnus-binary-mode-hook
8687 @code{gnus-binary-mode-hook} is called in binary minor mode buffers.
8691 @section Tree Display
8694 @vindex gnus-use-trees
8695 If you don't like the normal Gnus summary display, you might try setting
8696 @code{gnus-use-trees} to @code{t}. This will create (by default) an
8697 additional @dfn{tree buffer}. You can execute all summary mode commands
8700 There are a few variables to customize the tree display, of course:
8703 @item gnus-tree-mode-hook
8704 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-hook
8705 A hook called in all tree mode buffers.
8707 @item gnus-tree-mode-line-format
8708 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-line-format
8709 A format string for the mode bar in the tree mode buffers (@pxref{Mode
8710 Line Formatting}). The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b %S %Z}. For a list
8711 of valid specs, @pxref{Summary Buffer Mode Line}.
8713 @item gnus-selected-tree-face
8714 @vindex gnus-selected-tree-face
8715 Face used for highlighting the selected article in the tree buffer. The
8716 default is @code{modeline}.
8718 @item gnus-tree-line-format
8719 @vindex gnus-tree-line-format
8720 A format string for the tree nodes. The name is a bit of a misnomer,
8721 though---it doesn't define a line, but just the node. The default value
8722 is @samp{%(%[%3,3n%]%)}, which displays the first three characters of
8723 the name of the poster. It is vital that all nodes are of the same
8724 length, so you @emph{must} use @samp{%4,4n}-like specifiers.
8730 The name of the poster.
8732 The @code{From} header.
8734 The number of the article.
8736 The opening bracket.
8738 The closing bracket.
8743 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
8745 Variables related to the display are:
8748 @item gnus-tree-brackets
8749 @vindex gnus-tree-brackets
8750 This is used for differentiating between ``real'' articles and
8751 ``sparse'' articles. The format is @code{((@var{real-open} . @var{real-close})
8752 (@var{sparse-open} . @var{sparse-close}) (@var{dummy-open} . @var{dummy-close}))}, and the
8753 default is @code{((?[ . ?]) (?( . ?)) (?@{ . ?@}) (?< . ?>))}.
8755 @item gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
8756 @vindex gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
8757 This is a list that contains the characters used for connecting parent
8758 nodes to their children. The default is @code{(?- ?\\ ?|)}.
8762 @item gnus-tree-minimize-window
8763 @vindex gnus-tree-minimize-window
8764 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will try to keep the tree
8765 buffer as small as possible to allow more room for the other Gnus
8766 windows. If this variable is a number, the tree buffer will never be
8767 higher than that number. The default is @code{t}. Note that if you
8768 have several windows displayed side-by-side in a frame and the tree
8769 buffer is one of these, minimizing the tree window will also resize all
8770 other windows displayed next to it.
8772 @item gnus-generate-tree-function
8773 @vindex gnus-generate-tree-function
8774 @findex gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
8775 @findex gnus-generate-vertical-tree
8776 The function that actually generates the thread tree. Two predefined
8777 functions are available: @code{gnus-generate-horizontal-tree} and
8778 @code{gnus-generate-vertical-tree} (which is the default).
8782 Here's an example from a horizontal tree buffer:
8785 @{***@}-(***)-[odd]-[Gun]
8795 Here's the same thread displayed in a vertical tree buffer:
8799 |--------------------------\-----\-----\
8800 (***) [Bjo] [Gun] [Gun]
8802 [odd] [Jan] [odd] (***) [Jor]
8804 [Gun] [Eri] [Eri] [odd]
8809 If you're using horizontal trees, it might be nice to display the trees
8810 side-by-side with the summary buffer. You could add something like the
8811 following to your @file{.gnus.el} file:
8814 (setq gnus-use-trees t
8815 gnus-generate-tree-function 'gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
8816 gnus-tree-minimize-window nil)
8817 (gnus-add-configuration
8821 (summary 0.75 point)
8826 @xref{Window Layout}.
8829 @node Mail Group Commands
8830 @section Mail Group Commands
8831 @cindex mail group commands
8833 Some commands only make sense in mail groups. If these commands are
8834 invalid in the current group, they will raise a hell and let you know.
8836 All these commands (except the expiry and edit commands) use the
8837 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
8842 @kindex B e (Summary)
8843 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles
8844 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
8845 process (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles}). That is, delete all
8846 expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
8847 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
8850 @kindex B M-C-e (Summary)
8851 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles-now
8852 Delete all the expirable articles in the group
8853 (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles-now}). This means that @strong{all}
8854 articles eligible for expiry in the current group will
8855 disappear forever into that big @file{/dev/null} in the sky.
8858 @kindex B DEL (Summary)
8859 @findex gnus-summary-delete-article
8860 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-delete}
8861 Delete the mail article. This is ``delete'' as in ``delete it from your
8862 disk forever and ever, never to return again.'' Use with caution.
8863 (@code{gnus-summary-delete-article}).
8866 @kindex B m (Summary)
8868 @findex gnus-summary-move-article
8869 @vindex gnus-preserve-marks
8870 Move the article from one mail group to another
8871 (@code{gnus-summary-move-article}). Marks will be preserved if
8872 @var{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
8875 @kindex B c (Summary)
8877 @findex gnus-summary-copy-article
8878 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-copy}
8879 Copy the article from one group (mail group or not) to a mail group
8880 (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}). Marks will be preserved if
8881 @var{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
8884 @kindex B B (Summary)
8885 @cindex crosspost mail
8886 @findex gnus-summary-crosspost-article
8887 Crosspost the current article to some other group
8888 (@code{gnus-summary-crosspost-article}). This will create a new copy of
8889 the article in the other group, and the Xref headers of the article will
8890 be properly updated.
8893 @kindex B i (Summary)
8894 @findex gnus-summary-import-article
8895 Import an arbitrary file into the current mail newsgroup
8896 (@code{gnus-summary-import-article}). You will be prompted for a file
8897 name, a @code{From} header and a @code{Subject} header.
8900 @kindex B r (Summary)
8901 @findex gnus-summary-respool-article
8902 Respool the mail article (@code{gnus-summary-respool-article}).
8903 @code{gnus-summary-respool-default-method} will be used as the default
8904 select method when respooling. This variable is @code{nil} by default,
8905 which means that the current group select method will be used instead.
8906 Marks will be preserved if @var{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil}
8907 (which is the default).
8911 @kindex B w (Summary)
8913 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article
8914 @kindex C-c C-c (Article)
8915 Edit the current article (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article}). To finish
8916 editing and make the changes permanent, type @kbd{C-c C-c}
8917 (@kbd{gnus-summary-edit-article-done}). If you give a prefix to the
8918 @kbd{C-c C-c} command, Gnus won't re-highlight the article.
8921 @kindex B q (Summary)
8922 @findex gnus-summary-respool-query
8923 If you want to re-spool an article, you might be curious as to what group
8924 the article will end up in before you do the re-spooling. This command
8925 will tell you (@code{gnus-summary-respool-query}).
8928 @kindex B t (Summary)
8929 @findex gnus-summary-respool-trace
8930 Similarly, this command will display all fancy splitting patterns used
8931 when repooling, if any (@code{gnus-summary-respool-trace}).
8934 @kindex B p (Summary)
8935 @findex gnus-summary-article-posted-p
8936 Some people have a tendency to send you "courtesy" copies when they
8937 follow up to articles you have posted. These usually have a
8938 @code{Newsgroups} header in them, but not always. This command
8939 (@code{gnus-summary-article-posted-p}) will try to fetch the current
8940 article from your news server (or rather, from
8941 @code{gnus-refer-article-method} or @code{gnus-select-method}) and will
8942 report back whether it found the article or not. Even if it says that
8943 it didn't find the article, it may have been posted anyway---mail
8944 propagation is much faster than news propagation, and the news copy may
8945 just not have arrived yet.
8949 @vindex gnus-move-split-methods
8950 @cindex moving articles
8951 If you move (or copy) articles regularly, you might wish to have Gnus
8952 suggest where to put the articles. @code{gnus-move-split-methods} is a
8953 variable that uses the same syntax as @code{gnus-split-methods}
8954 (@pxref{Saving Articles}). You may customize that variable to create
8955 suggestions you find reasonable. (Note that
8956 @code{gnus-move-split-methods} uses group names where
8957 @code{gnus-split-methods} uses file names.)
8960 (setq gnus-move-split-methods
8961 '(("^From:.*Lars Magne" "nnml:junk")
8962 ("^Subject:.*gnus" "nnfolder:important")
8963 (".*" "nnml:misc")))
8967 @node Various Summary Stuff
8968 @section Various Summary Stuff
8971 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
8972 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
8973 * Summary Generation Commands::
8974 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
8978 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-hook
8979 @item gnus-summary-mode-hook
8980 This hook is called when creating a summary mode buffer.
8982 @vindex gnus-summary-generate-hook
8983 @item gnus-summary-generate-hook
8984 This is called as the last thing before doing the threading and the
8985 generation of the summary buffer. It's quite convenient for customizing
8986 the threading variables based on what data the newsgroup has. This hook
8987 is called from the summary buffer after most summary buffer variables
8990 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-hook
8991 @item gnus-summary-prepare-hook
8992 It is called after the summary buffer has been generated. You might use
8993 it to, for instance, highlight lines or modify the look of the buffer in
8994 some other ungodly manner. I don't care.
8996 @vindex gnus-summary-prepared-hook
8997 @item gnus-summary-prepared-hook
8998 A hook called as the very last thing after the summary buffer has been
9001 @vindex gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
9002 @item gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
9003 When Gnus discovers two articles that have the same @code{Message-ID},
9004 it has to do something drastic. No articles are allowed to have the
9005 same @code{Message-ID}, but this may happen when reading mail from some
9006 sources. Gnus allows you to customize what happens with this variable.
9007 If it is @code{nil} (which is the default), Gnus will rename the
9008 @code{Message-ID} (for display purposes only) and display the article as
9009 any other article. If this variable is @code{t}, it won't display the
9010 article---it'll be as if it never existed.
9012 @vindex gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
9013 @item gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
9014 This function, which takes two parameters (the group name and the list
9015 of articles to be selected), is called to allow the user to alter the
9016 list of articles to be selected.
9018 For instance, the following function adds the list of cached articles to
9019 the list in one particular group:
9022 (defun my-add-cached-articles (group articles)
9023 (if (string= group "some.group")
9024 (append gnus-newsgroup-cached articles)
9031 @node Summary Group Information
9032 @subsection Summary Group Information
9037 @kindex H f (Summary)
9038 @findex gnus-summary-fetch-faq
9039 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
9040 Try to fetch the FAQ (list of frequently asked questions) for the
9041 current group (@code{gnus-summary-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the
9042 FAQ from @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory
9043 on a remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories.
9044 In that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose
9045 between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs} will probably
9046 be used for fetching the file.
9049 @kindex H d (Summary)
9050 @findex gnus-summary-describe-group
9051 Give a brief description of the current group
9052 (@code{gnus-summary-describe-group}). If given a prefix, force
9053 rereading the description from the server.
9056 @kindex H h (Summary)
9057 @findex gnus-summary-describe-briefly
9058 Give an extremely brief description of the most important summary
9059 keystrokes (@code{gnus-summary-describe-briefly}).
9062 @kindex H i (Summary)
9063 @findex gnus-info-find-node
9064 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
9068 @node Searching for Articles
9069 @subsection Searching for Articles
9074 @kindex M-s (Summary)
9075 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-forward
9076 Search through all subsequent (raw) articles for a regexp
9077 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-forward}).
9080 @kindex M-r (Summary)
9081 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-backward
9082 Search through all previous (raw) articles for a regexp
9083 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-backward}).
9087 @findex gnus-summary-execute-command
9088 This command will prompt you for a header, a regular expression to match
9089 on this field, and a command to be executed if the match is made
9090 (@code{gnus-summary-execute-command}). If the header is an empty
9091 string, the match is done on the entire article. If given a prefix,
9092 search backward instead.
9094 For instance, @kbd{& RET some.*string #} will put the process mark on
9095 all articles that have heads or bodies that match @samp{some.*string}.
9098 @kindex M-& (Summary)
9099 @findex gnus-summary-universal-argument
9100 Perform any operation on all articles that have been marked with
9101 the process mark (@code{gnus-summary-universal-argument}).
9104 @node Summary Generation Commands
9105 @subsection Summary Generation Commands
9110 @kindex Y g (Summary)
9111 @findex gnus-summary-prepare
9112 Regenerate the current summary buffer (@code{gnus-summary-prepare}).
9115 @kindex Y c (Summary)
9116 @findex gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles
9117 Pull all cached articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
9118 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles}).
9123 @node Really Various Summary Commands
9124 @subsection Really Various Summary Commands
9130 @kindex C-d (Summary)
9131 @kindex A D (Summary)
9132 @findex gnus-summary-enter-digest-group
9133 If the current article is a collection of other articles (for instance,
9134 a digest), you might use this command to enter a group based on the that
9135 article (@code{gnus-summary-enter-digest-group}). Gnus will try to
9136 guess what article type is currently displayed unless you give a prefix
9137 to this command, which forces a ``digest'' interpretation. Basically,
9138 whenever you see a message that is a collection of other messages of
9139 some format, you @kbd{C-d} and read these messages in a more convenient
9143 @kindex M-C-d (Summary)
9144 @findex gnus-summary-read-document
9145 This command is very similar to the one above, but lets you gather
9146 several documents into one biiig group
9147 (@code{gnus-summary-read-document}). It does this by opening several
9148 @code{nndoc} groups for each document, and then opening an
9149 @code{nnvirtual} group on top of these @code{nndoc} groups. This
9150 command understands the process/prefix convention
9151 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
9154 @kindex C-t (Summary)
9155 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-truncation
9156 Toggle truncation of summary lines
9157 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-truncation}). This will probably confuse the
9158 line centering function in the summary buffer, so it's not a good idea
9159 to have truncation switched off while reading articles.
9163 @findex gnus-summary-expand-window
9164 Expand the summary buffer window (@code{gnus-summary-expand-window}).
9165 If given a prefix, force an @code{article} window configuration.
9168 @kindex M-C-e (Summary)
9169 @findex gnus-summary-edit-parameters
9170 Edit the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
9171 group (@code{gnus-summary-edit-parameters}).
9174 @kindex M-C-a (Summary)
9175 @findex gnus-summary-customize-parameters
9176 Customize the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
9177 group (@code{gnus-summary-customize-parameters}).
9182 @node Exiting the Summary Buffer
9183 @section Exiting the Summary Buffer
9184 @cindex summary exit
9185 @cindex exiting groups
9187 Exiting from the summary buffer will normally update all info on the
9188 group and return you to the group buffer.
9194 @kindex Z Z (Summary)
9196 @findex gnus-summary-exit
9197 @vindex gnus-summary-exit-hook
9198 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook
9199 @c @icon{gnus-summary-exit}
9200 Exit the current group and update all information on the group
9201 (@code{gnus-summary-exit}). @code{gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook} is
9202 called before doing much of the exiting, which calls
9203 @code{gnus-summary-expire-articles} by default.
9204 @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} is called after finishing the exit
9205 process. @code{gnus-group-no-more-groups-hook} is run when returning to
9206 group mode having no more (unread) groups.
9210 @kindex Z E (Summary)
9212 @findex gnus-summary-exit-no-update
9213 Exit the current group without updating any information on the group
9214 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}).
9218 @kindex Z c (Summary)
9220 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit
9221 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}
9222 Mark all unticked articles in the group as read and then exit
9223 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}).
9226 @kindex Z C (Summary)
9227 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit
9228 Mark all articles, even the ticked ones, as read and then exit
9229 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit}).
9232 @kindex Z n (Summary)
9233 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group
9234 Mark all articles as read and go to the next group
9235 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group}).
9238 @kindex Z R (Summary)
9239 @findex gnus-summary-reselect-current-group
9240 Exit this group, and then enter it again
9241 (@code{gnus-summary-reselect-current-group}). If given a prefix, select
9242 all articles, both read and unread.
9246 @kindex Z G (Summary)
9247 @kindex M-g (Summary)
9248 @findex gnus-summary-rescan-group
9249 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-get}
9250 Exit the group, check for new articles in the group, and select the
9251 group (@code{gnus-summary-rescan-group}). If given a prefix, select all
9252 articles, both read and unread.
9255 @kindex Z N (Summary)
9256 @findex gnus-summary-next-group
9257 Exit the group and go to the next group
9258 (@code{gnus-summary-next-group}).
9261 @kindex Z P (Summary)
9262 @findex gnus-summary-prev-group
9263 Exit the group and go to the previous group
9264 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-group}).
9267 @kindex Z s (Summary)
9268 @findex gnus-summary-save-newsrc
9269 Save the current number of read/marked articles in the dribble buffer
9270 and then save the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-summary-save-newsrc}). If
9271 given a prefix, also save the @file{.newsrc} file(s). Using this
9272 command will make exit without updating (the @kbd{Q} command) worthless.
9275 @vindex gnus-exit-group-hook
9276 @code{gnus-exit-group-hook} is called when you exit the current group
9277 with an ``updating'' exit. For instance @kbd{Q}
9278 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}) does not call this hook.
9280 @findex gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead
9281 @findex gnus-dead-summary-mode
9282 @vindex gnus-kill-summary-on-exit
9283 If you're in the habit of exiting groups, and then changing your mind
9284 about it, you might set @code{gnus-kill-summary-on-exit} to @code{nil}.
9285 If you do that, Gnus won't kill the summary buffer when you exit it.
9286 (Quelle surprise!) Instead it will change the name of the buffer to
9287 something like @samp{*Dead Summary ... *} and install a minor mode
9288 called @code{gnus-dead-summary-mode}. Now, if you switch back to this
9289 buffer, you'll find that all keys are mapped to a function called
9290 @code{gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead}. So tapping any keys in a dead
9291 summary buffer will result in a live, normal summary buffer.
9293 There will never be more than one dead summary buffer at any one time.
9295 @vindex gnus-use-cross-reference
9296 The data on the current group will be updated (which articles you have
9297 read, which articles you have replied to, etc.) when you exit the
9298 summary buffer. If the @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} variable is
9299 @code{t} (which is the default), articles that are cross-referenced to
9300 this group and are marked as read, will also be marked as read in the
9301 other subscribed groups they were cross-posted to. If this variable is
9302 neither @code{nil} nor @code{t}, the article will be marked as read in
9303 both subscribed and unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}).
9306 @node Crosspost Handling
9307 @section Crosspost Handling
9311 Marking cross-posted articles as read ensures that you'll never have to
9312 read the same article more than once. Unless, of course, somebody has
9313 posted it to several groups separately. Posting the same article to
9314 several groups (not cross-posting) is called @dfn{spamming}, and you are
9315 by law required to send nasty-grams to anyone who perpetrates such a
9316 heinous crime. You may want to try NoCeM handling to filter out spam
9319 Remember: Cross-posting is kinda ok, but posting the same article
9320 separately to several groups is not. Massive cross-posting (aka.
9321 @dfn{velveeta}) is to be avoided at all costs, and you can even use the
9322 @code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint} command to complain about
9323 excessive crossposting (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
9325 @cindex cross-posting
9328 One thing that may cause Gnus to not do the cross-posting thing
9329 correctly is if you use an @sc{nntp} server that supports @sc{xover}
9330 (which is very nice, because it speeds things up considerably) which
9331 does not include the @code{Xref} header in its @sc{nov} lines. This is
9332 Evil, but all too common, alas, alack. Gnus tries to Do The Right Thing
9333 even with @sc{xover} by registering the @code{Xref} lines of all
9334 articles you actually read, but if you kill the articles, or just mark
9335 them as read without reading them, Gnus will not get a chance to snoop
9336 the @code{Xref} lines out of these articles, and will be unable to use
9337 the cross reference mechanism.
9339 @cindex LIST overview.fmt
9340 @cindex overview.fmt
9341 To check whether your @sc{nntp} server includes the @code{Xref} header
9342 in its overview files, try @samp{telnet your.nntp.server nntp},
9343 @samp{MODE READER} on @code{inn} servers, and then say @samp{LIST
9344 overview.fmt}. This may not work, but if it does, and the last line you
9345 get does not read @samp{Xref:full}, then you should shout and whine at
9346 your news admin until she includes the @code{Xref} header in the
9349 @vindex gnus-nov-is-evil
9350 If you want Gnus to get the @code{Xref}s right all the time, you have to
9351 set @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{t}, which slows things down
9356 For an alternative approach, @pxref{Duplicate Suppression}.
9359 @node Duplicate Suppression
9360 @section Duplicate Suppression
9362 By default, Gnus tries to make sure that you don't have to read the same
9363 article more than once by utilizing the crossposting mechanism
9364 (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}). However, that simple and efficient
9365 approach may not work satisfactory for some users for various
9370 The @sc{nntp} server may fail to generate the @code{Xref} header. This
9371 is evil and not very common.
9374 The @sc{nntp} server may fail to include the @code{Xref} header in the
9375 @file{.overview} data bases. This is evil and all too common, alas.
9378 You may be reading the same group (or several related groups) from
9379 different @sc{nntp} servers.
9382 You may be getting mail that duplicates articles posted to groups.
9385 I'm sure there are other situations where @code{Xref} handling fails as
9386 well, but these four are the most common situations.
9388 If, and only if, @code{Xref} handling fails for you, then you may
9389 consider switching on @dfn{duplicate suppression}. If you do so, Gnus
9390 will remember the @code{Message-ID}s of all articles you have read or
9391 otherwise marked as read, and then, as if by magic, mark them as read
9392 all subsequent times you see them---in @emph{all} groups. Using this
9393 mechanism is quite likely to be somewhat inefficient, but not overly
9394 so. It's certainly preferable to reading the same articles more than
9397 Duplicate suppression is not a very subtle instrument. It's more like a
9398 sledge hammer than anything else. It works in a very simple
9399 fashion---if you have marked an article as read, it adds this Message-ID
9400 to a cache. The next time it sees this Message-ID, it will mark the
9401 article as read with the @samp{M} mark. It doesn't care what group it
9405 @item gnus-suppress-duplicates
9406 @vindex gnus-suppress-duplicates
9407 If non-@code{nil}, suppress duplicates.
9409 @item gnus-save-duplicate-list
9410 @vindex gnus-save-duplicate-list
9411 If non-@code{nil}, save the list of duplicates to a file. This will
9412 make startup and shutdown take longer, so the default is @code{nil}.
9413 However, this means that only duplicate articles read in a single Gnus
9414 session are suppressed.
9416 @item gnus-duplicate-list-length
9417 @vindex gnus-duplicate-list-length
9418 This variable says how many @code{Message-ID}s to keep in the duplicate
9419 suppression list. The default is 10000.
9421 @item gnus-duplicate-file
9422 @vindex gnus-duplicate-file
9423 The name of the file to store the duplicate suppression list in. The
9424 default is @file{~/News/suppression}.
9427 If you have a tendency to stop and start Gnus often, setting
9428 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{t} is probably a good idea. If
9429 you leave Gnus running for weeks on end, you may have it @code{nil}. On
9430 the other hand, saving the list makes startup and shutdown much slower,
9431 so that means that if you stop and start Gnus often, you should set
9432 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{nil}. Uhm. I'll leave this up
9433 to you to figure out, I think.
9438 Gnus is able to verify PGP or S/MIME signed messages or decrypt PGP
9443 To verify or decrypt PGP messages, you have to install mailcrypt or
9449 @item mm-verify-option
9450 @vindex mm-verify-option
9451 Option of verifying signed parts. @code{never}, not verify;
9452 @code{always}, always verify; @code{known}, only verify known
9453 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
9455 @item mm-decrypt-option
9456 @vindex mm-decrypt-option
9457 Option of decrypting encrypted parts. @code{never}, no decryption;
9458 @code{always}, always decrypt @code{known}, only decrypt known
9459 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
9464 @section Mailing List
9466 Gnus understands some mailing list fields of RFC 2369.
9471 @kindex C-c C-n h (Summary)
9472 @findex gnus-mailing-list-help
9473 Send a message to fetch mailing list help, if List-Help field exists.
9476 @kindex C-c C-n s (Summary)
9477 @findex gnus-mailing-list-subscribe
9478 Send a message to subscribe the mailing list, if List-Subscribe field exists.
9481 @kindex C-c C-n u (Summary)
9482 @findex gnus-mailing-list-unsubscribe
9483 Send a message to unsubscribe the mailing list, if List-Unsubscribe
9487 @kindex C-c C-n p (Summary)
9488 @findex gnus-mailing-list-post
9489 Post to the mailing list, if List-Post field exists.
9492 @kindex C-c C-n o (Summary)
9493 @findex gnus-mailing-list-owner
9494 Send a message to the mailing list owner, if List-Owner field exists.
9497 @kindex C-c C-n a (Summary)
9498 @findex gnus-mailing-list-owner
9499 Browse the mailing list archive, if List-Archive field exists.
9503 @node Article Buffer
9504 @chapter Article Buffer
9505 @cindex article buffer
9507 The articles are displayed in the article buffer, of which there is only
9508 one. All the summary buffers share the same article buffer unless you
9509 tell Gnus otherwise.
9512 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
9513 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @sc{mime} before reading them.
9514 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
9515 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
9516 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
9520 @node Hiding Headers
9521 @section Hiding Headers
9522 @cindex hiding headers
9523 @cindex deleting headers
9525 The top section of each article is the @dfn{head}. (The rest is the
9526 @dfn{body}, but you may have guessed that already.)
9528 @vindex gnus-show-all-headers
9529 There is a lot of useful information in the head: the name of the person
9530 who wrote the article, the date it was written and the subject of the
9531 article. That's well and nice, but there's also lots of information
9532 most people do not want to see---what systems the article has passed
9533 through before reaching you, the @code{Message-ID}, the
9534 @code{References}, etc. ad nauseum---and you'll probably want to get rid
9535 of some of those lines. If you want to keep all those lines in the
9536 article buffer, you can set @code{gnus-show-all-headers} to @code{t}.
9538 Gnus provides you with two variables for sifting headers:
9542 @item gnus-visible-headers
9543 @vindex gnus-visible-headers
9544 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, it should be a regular expression
9545 that says what headers you wish to keep in the article buffer. All
9546 headers that do not match this variable will be hidden.
9548 For instance, if you only want to see the name of the person who wrote
9549 the article and the subject, you'd say:
9552 (setq gnus-visible-headers "^From:\\|^Subject:")
9555 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
9558 @item gnus-ignored-headers
9559 @vindex gnus-ignored-headers
9560 This variable is the reverse of @code{gnus-visible-headers}. If this
9561 variable is set (and @code{gnus-visible-headers} is @code{nil}), it
9562 should be a regular expression that matches all lines that you want to
9563 hide. All lines that do not match this variable will remain visible.
9565 For instance, if you just want to get rid of the @code{References} line
9566 and the @code{Xref} line, you might say:
9569 (setq gnus-ignored-headers "^References:\\|^Xref:")
9572 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
9575 Note that if @code{gnus-visible-headers} is non-@code{nil}, this
9576 variable will have no effect.
9580 @vindex gnus-sorted-header-list
9581 Gnus can also sort the headers for you. (It does this by default.) You
9582 can control the sorting by setting the @code{gnus-sorted-header-list}
9583 variable. It is a list of regular expressions that says in what order
9584 the headers are to be displayed.
9586 For instance, if you want the name of the author of the article first,
9587 and then the subject, you might say something like:
9590 (setq gnus-sorted-header-list '("^From:" "^Subject:"))
9593 Any headers that are to remain visible, but are not listed in this
9594 variable, will be displayed in random order after all the headers listed in this variable.
9596 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
9597 @vindex gnus-boring-article-headers
9598 You can hide further boring headers by setting
9599 @code{gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers} to @code{head}. What this function
9600 does depends on the @code{gnus-boring-article-headers} variable. It's a
9601 list, but this list doesn't actually contain header names. Instead is
9602 lists various @dfn{boring conditions} that Gnus can check and remove
9605 These conditions are:
9608 Remove all empty headers.
9610 Remove the @code{Followup-To} header if it is identical to the
9611 @code{Newsgroups} header.
9613 Remove the @code{Reply-To} header if it lists the same address as the
9616 Remove the @code{Newsgroups} header if it only contains the current group
9619 Remove the @code{To} header if it only contains the address identical to
9620 the current groups's @code{to-address} parameter.
9622 Remove the @code{Date} header if the article is less than three days
9625 Remove the @code{To} header if it is very long.
9627 Remove all @code{To} headers if there are more than one.
9630 To include these three elements, you could say something like;
9633 (setq gnus-boring-article-headers
9634 '(empty followup-to reply-to))
9637 This is also the default value for this variable.
9641 @section Using @sc{mime}
9644 Mime is a standard for waving your hands through the air, aimlessly,
9645 while people stand around yawning.
9647 @sc{mime}, however, is a standard for encoding your articles, aimlessly,
9648 while all newsreaders die of fear.
9650 @sc{mime} may specify what character set the article uses, the encoding
9651 of the characters, and it also makes it possible to embed pictures and
9652 other naughty stuff in innocent-looking articles.
9654 @vindex gnus-display-mime-function
9655 @findex gnus-display-mime
9656 Gnus pushes @sc{mime} articles through @code{gnus-display-mime-function}
9657 to display the @sc{mime} parts. This is @code{gnus-display-mime} by
9658 default, which creates a bundle of clickable buttons that can be used to
9659 display, save and manipulate the @sc{mime} objects.
9661 The following commands are available when you have placed point over a
9665 @findex gnus-article-press-button
9667 @itemx BUTTON-2 (Article)
9668 Toggle displaying of the @sc{mime} object
9669 (@code{gnus-article-press-button}).
9671 @findex gnus-mime-view-part
9672 @item M-RET (Article)
9674 Prompt for a method, and then view the @sc{mime} object using this
9675 method (@code{gnus-mime-view-part}).
9677 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-as-type
9679 View the @sc{mime} object as if it were a different @sc{mime} media type
9680 (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-as-type}).
9682 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-as-charset
9684 Prompt for a charset, and then view the @sc{mime} object using this
9685 charset (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-as-charset}).
9687 @findex gnus-mime-save-part
9689 Prompt for a file name, and then save the @sc{mime} object
9690 (@code{gnus-mime-save-part}).
9692 @findex gnus-mime-save-part-and-strip
9694 Prompt for a file name, then save the @sc{mime} object and strip it from
9695 the article. Then proceed to article editing, where a reasonable
9696 suggestion is being made on how the altered article should look
9697 like. The stripped @sc{mime} object will be referred via the
9698 message/external-body @sc{mime} type.
9699 (@code{gnus-mime-save-part-and-strip}).
9701 @findex gnus-mime-copy-part
9703 Copy the @sc{mime} object to a fresh buffer and display this buffer
9704 (@code{gnus-mime-copy-part}).
9706 @findex gnus-mime-inline-part
9708 Insert the contents of the @sc{mime} object into the buffer
9709 (@code{gnus-mime-inline-part}) as text/plain. If given a prefix, insert
9710 the raw contents without decoding. If given a numerical prefix, you can
9711 do semi-manual charset stuff (see
9712 @code{gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist} in @pxref{Paging the
9715 @findex gnus-mime-internalize-part
9717 View the @sc{mime} object with an internal viewer. If no internal
9718 viewer is available, use an external viewer
9719 (@code{gnus-mime-internalize-part}).
9721 @findex gnus-mime-externalize-part
9723 View the @sc{mime} object with an external viewer.
9724 (@code{gnus-mime-externalize-part}).
9726 @findex gnus-mime-pipe-part
9728 Output the @sc{mime} object to a process (@code{gnus-mime-pipe-part}).
9730 @findex gnus-mime-action-on-part
9732 Interactively run an action on the @sc{mime} object
9733 (@code{gnus-mime-action-on-part}).
9737 Gnus will display some @sc{mime} objects automatically. The way Gnus
9738 determines which parts to do this with is described in the Emacs MIME
9741 It might be best to just use the toggling functions from the article
9742 buffer to avoid getting nasty surprises. (For instance, you enter the
9743 group @samp{alt.sing-a-long} and, before you know it, @sc{mime} has
9744 decoded the sound file in the article and some horrible sing-a-long song
9745 comes screaming out your speakers, and you can't find the volume button,
9746 because there isn't one, and people are starting to look at you, and you
9747 try to stop the program, but you can't, and you can't find the program
9748 to control the volume, and everybody else in the room suddenly decides
9749 to look at you disdainfully, and you'll feel rather stupid.)
9751 Any similarity to real events and people is purely coincidental. Ahem.
9753 Also see @pxref{MIME Commands}.
9756 @node Customizing Articles
9757 @section Customizing Articles
9758 @cindex article customization
9760 A slew of functions for customizing how the articles are to look like
9761 exist. You can call these functions interactively, or you can have them
9762 called automatically when you select the articles.
9764 To have them called automatically, you should set the corresponding
9765 ``treatment'' variable. For instance, to have headers hidden, you'd set
9766 @code{gnus-treat-hide-headers}. Below is a list of variables that can
9767 be set, but first we discuss the values these variables can have.
9769 Note: Some values, while valid, make little sense. Check the list below
9770 for sensible values.
9774 @code{nil}: Don't do this treatment.
9777 @code{t}: Do this treatment on all body parts.
9780 @code{head}: Do the treatment on the headers.
9783 @code{last}: Do this treatment on the last part.
9786 An integer: Do this treatment on all body parts that have a length less
9790 A list of strings: Do this treatment on all body parts that are in
9791 articles that are read in groups that have names that match one of the
9792 regexps in the list.
9795 A list where the first element is not a string:
9797 The list is evaluated recursively. The first element of the list is a
9798 predicate. The following predicates are recognized: @code{or},
9799 @code{and}, @code{not} and @code{typep}. Here's an example:
9803 (typep "text/x-vcard"))
9808 You may have noticed that the word @dfn{part} is used here. This refers
9809 to the fact that some messages are @sc{mime} multipart articles that may
9810 be divided into several parts. Articles that are not multiparts are
9811 considered to contain just a single part.
9813 @vindex gnus-article-treat-types
9814 Are the treatments applied to all sorts of multipart parts? Yes, if you
9815 want to, but by default, only @samp{text/plain} parts are given the
9816 treatment. This is controlled by the @code{gnus-article-treat-types}
9817 variable, which is a list of regular expressions that are matched to the
9818 type of the part. This variable is ignored if the value of the
9819 controlling variable is a predicate list, as described above.
9821 The following treatment options are available. The easiest way to
9822 customize this is to examine the @code{gnus-article-treat} customization
9823 group. Values in parenthesis are suggested sensible values. Others are
9824 possible but those listed are probably sufficient for most people.
9827 @item gnus-treat-highlight-signature (t, last)
9828 @item gnus-treat-buttonize (t, integer)
9829 @item gnus-treat-buttonize-head (head)
9830 @item gnus-treat-emphasize (t, head, integer)
9831 @item gnus-treat-fill-article (t, integer)
9832 @item gnus-treat-strip-cr (t, integer)
9833 @item gnus-treat-hide-headers (head)
9834 @item gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers (head)
9835 @item gnus-treat-hide-signature (t, last)
9836 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation (t, integer)
9837 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation-maybe (t, integer)
9838 @item gnus-treat-strip-pgp (t, last, integer)
9839 @item gnus-treat-x-pgp-sig (head)
9840 @item gnus-treat-strip-pem (t, last, integer)
9841 @item gnus-treat-highlight-headers (head)
9842 @item gnus-treat-highlight-citation (t, integer)
9843 @item gnus-treat-highlight-signature (t, last, integer)
9844 @item gnus-treat-date-ut (head)
9845 @item gnus-treat-date-local (head)
9846 @item gnus-treat-date-english (head)
9847 @item gnus-treat-date-lapsed (head)
9848 @item gnus-treat-date-original (head)
9849 @item gnus-treat-date-iso8601 (head)
9850 @item gnus-treat-date-user-defined (head)
9851 @item gnus-treat-strip-headers-in-body (t, integer)
9852 @item gnus-treat-strip-trailing-blank-lines (t, last, integer)
9853 @item gnus-treat-strip-leading-blank-lines (t, integer)
9854 @item gnus-treat-strip-multiple-blank-lines (t, integer)
9855 @item gnus-treat-overstrike (t, integer)
9856 @item gnus-treat-display-xface (head)
9857 @item gnus-treat-display-smileys (t, integer)
9858 @item gnus-treat-display-picons (head)
9859 @item gnus-treat-capitalize-sentences (t, integer)
9860 @item gnus-treat-fill-long-lines (t, integer)
9861 @item gnus-treat-play-sounds
9862 @item gnus-treat-translate
9865 @vindex gnus-part-display-hook
9866 You can, of course, write your own functions to be called from
9867 @code{gnus-part-display-hook}. The functions are called narrowed to the
9868 part, and you can do anything you like, pretty much. There is no
9869 information that you have to keep in the buffer---you can change
9873 @node Article Keymap
9874 @section Article Keymap
9876 Most of the keystrokes in the summary buffer can also be used in the
9877 article buffer. They should behave as if you typed them in the summary
9878 buffer, which means that you don't actually have to have a summary
9879 buffer displayed while reading. You can do it all from the article
9882 A few additional keystrokes are available:
9887 @kindex SPACE (Article)
9888 @findex gnus-article-next-page
9889 Scroll forwards one page (@code{gnus-article-next-page}).
9892 @kindex DEL (Article)
9893 @findex gnus-article-prev-page
9894 Scroll backwards one page (@code{gnus-article-prev-page}).
9897 @kindex C-c ^ (Article)
9898 @findex gnus-article-refer-article
9899 If point is in the neighborhood of a @code{Message-ID} and you press
9900 @kbd{C-c ^}, Gnus will try to get that article from the server
9901 (@code{gnus-article-refer-article}).
9904 @kindex C-c C-m (Article)
9905 @findex gnus-article-mail
9906 Send a reply to the address near point (@code{gnus-article-mail}). If
9907 given a prefix, include the mail.
9911 @findex gnus-article-show-summary
9912 Reconfigure the buffers so that the summary buffer becomes visible
9913 (@code{gnus-article-show-summary}).
9917 @findex gnus-article-describe-briefly
9918 Give a very brief description of the available keystrokes
9919 (@code{gnus-article-describe-briefly}).
9922 @kindex TAB (Article)
9923 @findex gnus-article-next-button
9924 Go to the next button, if any (@code{gnus-article-next-button}). This
9925 only makes sense if you have buttonizing turned on.
9928 @kindex M-TAB (Article)
9929 @findex gnus-article-prev-button
9930 Go to the previous button, if any (@code{gnus-article-prev-button}).
9936 @section Misc Article
9940 @item gnus-single-article-buffer
9941 @vindex gnus-single-article-buffer
9942 If non-@code{nil}, use the same article buffer for all the groups.
9943 (This is the default.) If @code{nil}, each group will have its own
9946 @vindex gnus-article-decode-hook
9947 @item gnus-article-decode-hook
9949 Hook used to decode @sc{mime} articles. The default value is
9950 @code{(article-decode-charset article-decode-encoded-words)}
9952 @vindex gnus-article-prepare-hook
9953 @item gnus-article-prepare-hook
9954 This hook is called right after the article has been inserted into the
9955 article buffer. It is mainly intended for functions that do something
9956 depending on the contents; it should probably not be used for changing
9957 the contents of the article buffer.
9959 @item gnus-article-mode-hook
9960 @vindex gnus-article-mode-hook
9961 Hook called in article mode buffers.
9963 @item gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
9964 @vindex gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
9965 Syntax table used in article buffers. It is initialized from
9966 @code{text-mode-syntax-table}.
9968 @vindex gnus-article-mode-line-format
9969 @item gnus-article-mode-line-format
9970 This variable is a format string along the same lines as
9971 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}). It
9972 accepts the same format specifications as that variable, with two
9977 The @dfn{wash status} of the article. This is a short string with one
9978 character for each possible article wash operation that may have been
9981 The number of @sc{mime} parts in the article.
9984 @vindex gnus-break-pages
9986 @item gnus-break-pages
9987 Controls whether @dfn{page breaking} is to take place. If this variable
9988 is non-@code{nil}, the articles will be divided into pages whenever a
9989 page delimiter appears in the article. If this variable is @code{nil},
9990 paging will not be done.
9992 @item gnus-page-delimiter
9993 @vindex gnus-page-delimiter
9994 This is the delimiter mentioned above. By default, it is @samp{^L}
9999 @node Composing Messages
10000 @chapter Composing Messages
10001 @cindex composing messages
10004 @cindex sending mail
10010 @kindex C-c C-c (Post)
10011 All commands for posting and mailing will put you in a message buffer
10012 where you can edit the article all you like, before you send the
10013 article by pressing @kbd{C-c C-c}. @xref{Top, , Top, message, The
10014 Message Manual}. Where the message will be posted/mailed to depends
10015 on your setup (@pxref{Posting Server}).
10018 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
10019 * Posting Server:: What server should you post via?
10020 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
10021 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
10022 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
10023 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
10024 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
10025 * Using GPG:: How to use GPG and MML to sign and encrypt messages
10028 Also see @pxref{Canceling and Superseding} for information on how to
10029 remove articles you shouldn't have posted.
10035 Variables for customizing outgoing mail:
10038 @item gnus-uu-digest-headers
10039 @vindex gnus-uu-digest-headers
10040 List of regexps to match headers included in digested messages. The
10041 headers will be included in the sequence they are matched.
10043 @item gnus-add-to-list
10044 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
10045 If non-@code{nil}, add a @code{to-list} group parameter to mail groups
10046 that have none when you do a @kbd{a}.
10051 @node Posting Server
10052 @section Posting Server
10054 When you press those magical @kbd{C-c C-c} keys to ship off your latest
10055 (extremely intelligent, of course) article, where does it go?
10057 Thank you for asking. I hate you.
10059 @vindex gnus-post-method
10061 It can be quite complicated. Normally, Gnus will post using the same
10062 select method as you're reading from (which might be convenient if
10063 you're reading lots of groups from different private servers).
10064 However. If the server you're reading from doesn't allow posting,
10065 just reading, you probably want to use some other server to post your
10066 (extremely intelligent and fabulously interesting) articles. You can
10067 then set the @code{gnus-post-method} to some other method:
10070 (setq gnus-post-method '(nnspool ""))
10073 Now, if you've done this, and then this server rejects your article, or
10074 this server is down, what do you do then? To override this variable you
10075 can use a non-zero prefix to the @kbd{C-c C-c} command to force using
10076 the ``current'' server, to get back the default behavior, for posting.
10078 If you give a zero prefix (i.e., @kbd{C-u 0 C-c C-c}) to that command,
10079 Gnus will prompt you for what method to use for posting.
10081 You can also set @code{gnus-post-method} to a list of select methods.
10082 If that's the case, Gnus will always prompt you for what method to use
10085 Finally, if you want to always post using the native select method,
10086 you can set this variable to @code{nil}.
10089 @node Mail and Post
10090 @section Mail and Post
10092 Here's a list of variables relevant to both mailing and
10096 @item gnus-mailing-list-groups
10097 @findex gnus-mailing-list-groups
10098 @cindex mailing lists
10100 If your news server offers groups that are really mailing lists
10101 gatewayed to the @sc{nntp} server, you can read those groups without
10102 problems, but you can't post/followup to them without some difficulty.
10103 One solution is to add a @code{to-address} to the group parameters
10104 (@pxref{Group Parameters}). An easier thing to do is set the
10105 @code{gnus-mailing-list-groups} to a regexp that matches the groups that
10106 really are mailing lists. Then, at least, followups to the mailing
10107 lists will work most of the time. Posting to these groups (@kbd{a}) is
10108 still a pain, though.
10112 You may want to do spell-checking on messages that you send out. Or, if
10113 you don't want to spell-check by hand, you could add automatic
10114 spell-checking via the @code{ispell} package:
10117 @findex ispell-message
10119 (add-hook 'message-send-hook 'ispell-message)
10122 If you want to change the @code{ispell} dictionary based on what group
10123 you're in, you could say something like the following:
10126 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook
10130 "^de\\." (gnus-group-real-name gnus-newsgroup-name))
10131 (ispell-change-dictionary "deutsch"))
10133 (ispell-change-dictionary "english")))))
10136 Modify to suit your needs.
10139 @node Archived Messages
10140 @section Archived Messages
10141 @cindex archived messages
10142 @cindex sent messages
10144 Gnus provides a few different methods for storing the mail and news you
10145 send. The default method is to use the @dfn{archive virtual server} to
10146 store the messages. If you want to disable this completely, the
10147 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable should be @code{nil}, which
10150 @vindex gnus-message-archive-method
10151 @code{gnus-message-archive-method} says what virtual server Gnus is to
10152 use to store sent messages. The default is:
10155 (nnfolder "archive"
10156 (nnfolder-directory "~/Mail/archive")
10157 (nnfolder-active-file "~/Mail/archive/active")
10158 (nnfolder-get-new-mail nil)
10159 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t))
10162 You can, however, use any mail select method (@code{nnml},
10163 @code{nnmbox}, etc.). @code{nnfolder} is a quite likable select method
10164 for doing this sort of thing, though. If you don't like the default
10165 directory chosen, you could say something like:
10168 (setq gnus-message-archive-method
10169 '(nnfolder "archive"
10170 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t)
10171 (nnfolder-active-file "~/News/sent-mail/active")
10172 (nnfolder-directory "~/News/sent-mail/")))
10175 @vindex gnus-message-archive-group
10177 Gnus will insert @code{Gcc} headers in all outgoing messages that point
10178 to one or more group(s) on that server. Which group to use is
10179 determined by the @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable.
10181 This variable can be used to do the following:
10185 Messages will be saved in that group.
10187 Note that you can include a select method in the group name, then the
10188 message will not be stored in the select method given by
10189 @code{gnus-message-archive-method}, but in the select method specified
10190 by the group name, instead. Suppose @code{gnus-message-archive-method}
10191 has the default value shown above. Then setting
10192 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{"foo"} means that outgoing
10193 messages are stored in @samp{nnfolder+archive:foo}, but if you use the
10194 value @code{"nnml:foo"}, then outgoing messages will be stored in
10196 @item a list of strings
10197 Messages will be saved in all those groups.
10198 @item an alist of regexps, functions and forms
10199 When a key ``matches'', the result is used.
10201 No message archiving will take place. This is the default.
10206 Just saving to a single group called @samp{MisK}:
10208 (setq gnus-message-archive-group "MisK")
10211 Saving to two groups, @samp{MisK} and @samp{safe}:
10213 (setq gnus-message-archive-group '("MisK" "safe"))
10216 Save to different groups based on what group you are in:
10218 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
10219 '(("^alt" "sent-to-alt")
10220 ("mail" "sent-to-mail")
10221 (".*" "sent-to-misc")))
10224 More complex stuff:
10226 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
10227 '((if (message-news-p)
10232 How about storing all news messages in one file, but storing all mail
10233 messages in one file per month:
10236 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
10237 '((if (message-news-p)
10239 (concat "mail." (format-time-string "%Y-%m")))))
10242 (XEmacs 19.13 doesn't have @code{format-time-string}, so you'll have to
10243 use a different value for @code{gnus-message-archive-group} there.)
10245 Now, when you send a message off, it will be stored in the appropriate
10246 group. (If you want to disable storing for just one particular message,
10247 you can just remove the @code{Gcc} header that has been inserted.) The
10248 archive group will appear in the group buffer the next time you start
10249 Gnus, or the next time you press @kbd{F} in the group buffer. You can
10250 enter it and read the articles in it just like you'd read any other
10251 group. If the group gets really big and annoying, you can simply rename
10252 if (using @kbd{G r} in the group buffer) to something
10253 nice---@samp{misc-mail-september-1995}, or whatever. New messages will
10254 continue to be stored in the old (now empty) group.
10256 That's the default method of archiving sent messages. Gnus offers a
10257 different way for the people who don't like the default method. In that
10258 case you should set @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{nil};
10259 this will disable archiving.
10262 @item gnus-outgoing-message-group
10263 @vindex gnus-outgoing-message-group
10264 All outgoing messages will be put in this group. If you want to store
10265 all your outgoing mail and articles in the group @samp{nnml:archive},
10266 you set this variable to that value. This variable can also be a list of
10269 If you want to have greater control over what group to put each
10270 message in, you can set this variable to a function that checks the
10271 current newsgroup name and then returns a suitable group name (or list
10274 This variable can be used instead of @code{gnus-message-archive-group},
10275 but the latter is the preferred method.
10277 @item gnus-inews-mark-gcc-as-read
10278 @vindex gnus-inews-mark-gcc-as-read
10279 If non-@code{nil}, automatically mark @code{Gcc} articles as read.
10284 @node Posting Styles
10285 @section Posting Styles
10286 @cindex posting styles
10289 All them variables, they make my head swim.
10291 So what if you want a different @code{Organization} and signature based
10292 on what groups you post to? And you post both from your home machine
10293 and your work machine, and you want different @code{From} lines, and so
10296 @vindex gnus-posting-styles
10297 One way to do stuff like that is to write clever hooks that change the
10298 variables you need to have changed. That's a bit boring, so somebody
10299 came up with the bright idea of letting the user specify these things in
10300 a handy alist. Here's an example of a @code{gnus-posting-styles}
10305 (signature "Peace and happiness")
10306 (organization "What me?"))
10308 (signature "Death to everybody"))
10309 ("comp.emacs.i-love-it"
10310 (organization "Emacs is it")))
10313 As you might surmise from this example, this alist consists of several
10314 @dfn{styles}. Each style will be applicable if the first element
10315 ``matches'', in some form or other. The entire alist will be iterated
10316 over, from the beginning towards the end, and each match will be
10317 applied, which means that attributes in later styles that match override
10318 the same attributes in earlier matching styles. So
10319 @samp{comp.programming.literate} will have the @samp{Death to everybody}
10320 signature and the @samp{What me?} @code{Organization} header.
10322 The first element in each style is called the @code{match}. If it's a
10323 string, then Gnus will try to regexp match it against the group name.
10324 If it is the symbol @code{header}, then Gnus will look for header (the
10325 next element in the match) in the original article , and compare that to
10326 the last regexp in the match. If it's a function symbol, that function
10327 will be called with no arguments. If it's a variable symbol, then the
10328 variable will be referenced. If it's a list, then that list will be
10329 @code{eval}ed. In any case, if this returns a non-@code{nil} value,
10330 then the style is said to @dfn{match}.
10332 Each style may contain a arbitrary amount of @dfn{attributes}. Each
10333 attribute consists of a @code{(@var{name} @var{value})} pair. The
10334 attribute name can be one of @code{signature}, @code{signature-file},
10335 @code{organization}, @code{address}, @code{name} or @code{body}. The
10336 attribute name can also be a string. In that case, this will be used as
10337 a header name, and the value will be inserted in the headers of the
10338 article; if the value is @code{nil}, the header name will be removed.
10339 If the attribute name is @code{eval}, the form is evaluated, and the
10340 result is thrown away.
10342 The attribute value can be a string (used verbatim), a function with
10343 zero arguments (the return value will be used), a variable (its value
10344 will be used) or a list (it will be @code{eval}ed and the return value
10345 will be used). The functions and sexps are called/@code{eval}ed in the
10346 message buffer that is being set up. The headers of the current article
10347 are available through the @code{message-reply-headers} variable.
10349 If you wish to check whether the message you are about to compose is
10350 meant to be a news article or a mail message, you can check the values
10351 of the @code{message-news-p} and @code{message-mail-p} functions.
10353 @findex message-mail-p
10354 @findex message-news-p
10356 So here's a new example:
10359 (setq gnus-posting-styles
10361 (signature-file "~/.signature")
10363 ("X-Home-Page" (getenv "WWW_HOME"))
10364 (organization "People's Front Against MWM"))
10366 (signature my-funny-signature-randomizer))
10367 ((equal (system-name) "gnarly")
10368 (signature my-quote-randomizer))
10370 (signature my-news-signature))
10371 (header "to" "larsi.*org"
10372 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
10373 ((posting-from-work-p)
10374 (signature-file "~/.work-signature")
10375 (address "user@@bar.foo")
10376 (body "You are fired.\n\nSincerely, your boss.")
10377 (organization "Important Work, Inc"))
10379 (From (save-excursion
10380 (set-buffer gnus-article-buffer)
10381 (message-fetch-field "to"))))
10383 (signature-file "~/.mail-signature"))))
10386 The @samp{nnml:.*} rule means that you use the @code{To} address as the
10387 @code{From} address in all your outgoing replies, which might be handy
10388 if you fill many roles.
10395 If you are writing a message (mail or news) and suddenly remember that
10396 you have a steak in the oven (or some pesto in the food processor, you
10397 craaazy vegetarians), you'll probably wish there was a method to save
10398 the message you are writing so that you can continue editing it some
10399 other day, and send it when you feel its finished.
10401 Well, don't worry about it. Whenever you start composing a message of
10402 some sort using the Gnus mail and post commands, the buffer you get will
10403 automatically associate to an article in a special @dfn{draft} group.
10404 If you save the buffer the normal way (@kbd{C-x C-s}, for instance), the
10405 article will be saved there. (Auto-save files also go to the draft
10409 @vindex nndraft-directory
10410 The draft group is a special group (which is implemented as an
10411 @code{nndraft} group, if you absolutely have to know) called
10412 @samp{nndraft:drafts}. The variable @code{nndraft-directory} says where
10413 @code{nndraft} is to store its files. What makes this group special is
10414 that you can't tick any articles in it or mark any articles as
10415 read---all articles in the group are permanently unread.
10417 If the group doesn't exist, it will be created and you'll be subscribed
10418 to it. The only way to make it disappear from the Group buffer is to
10421 @c @findex gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft
10422 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Mail)
10423 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Post)
10424 @c @findex gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft
10425 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Mail)
10426 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Post)
10427 @c If you're writing some super-secret message that you later want to
10428 @c encode with PGP before sending, you may wish to turn the auto-saving
10429 @c (and association with the draft group) off. You never know who might be
10430 @c interested in reading all your extremely valuable and terribly horrible
10431 @c and interesting secrets. The @kbd{C-c M-d}
10432 @c (@code{gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft}) command does that for you.
10433 @c If you change your mind and want to turn the auto-saving back on again,
10434 @c @kbd{C-c C-d} (@code{gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft} does that.
10436 @c @vindex gnus-use-draft
10437 @c To leave association with the draft group off by default, set
10438 @c @code{gnus-use-draft} to @code{nil}. It is @code{t} by default.
10440 @findex gnus-draft-edit-message
10441 @kindex D e (Draft)
10442 When you want to continue editing the article, you simply enter the
10443 draft group and push @kbd{D e} (@code{gnus-draft-edit-message}) to do
10444 that. You will be placed in a buffer where you left off.
10446 Rejected articles will also be put in this draft group (@pxref{Rejected
10449 @findex gnus-draft-send-all-messages
10450 @findex gnus-draft-send-message
10451 If you have lots of rejected messages you want to post (or mail) without
10452 doing further editing, you can use the @kbd{D s} command
10453 (@code{gnus-draft-send-message}). This command understands the
10454 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). The @kbd{D S}
10455 command (@code{gnus-draft-send-all-messages}) will ship off all messages
10458 If you have some messages that you wish not to send, you can use the
10459 @kbd{D t} (@code{gnus-draft-toggle-sending}) command to mark the message
10460 as unsendable. This is a toggling command.
10463 @node Rejected Articles
10464 @section Rejected Articles
10465 @cindex rejected articles
10467 Sometimes a news server will reject an article. Perhaps the server
10468 doesn't like your face. Perhaps it just feels miserable. Perhaps
10469 @emph{there be demons}. Perhaps you have included too much cited text.
10470 Perhaps the disk is full. Perhaps the server is down.
10472 These situations are, of course, totally beyond the control of Gnus.
10473 (Gnus, of course, loves the way you look, always feels great, has angels
10474 fluttering around inside of it, doesn't care about how much cited text
10475 you include, never runs full and never goes down.) So Gnus saves these
10476 articles until some later time when the server feels better.
10478 The rejected articles will automatically be put in a special draft group
10479 (@pxref{Drafts}). When the server comes back up again, you'd then
10480 typically enter that group and send all the articles off.
10486 Gnus has an ALPHA support to GPG that's provided by @file{gpg.el}. See
10487 @code{mm-verify-option} and @code{mm-decrypt-option} to enable Gnus to
10488 verify or decrypt messages accordingly.
10490 To use this correctly with GPG, you'll need the following lisp code in your
10491 @file{~/.emacs} or @file{~/.gnus}:
10495 (setq mml2015-use 'gpg)
10496 (setq gpg-temp-directory (expand-file-name "~/.gnupg/tmp"))
10499 The @code{gpg-temp-directory} need to point to a directory with permissions set
10500 to 700, for your own safety.
10502 If you want to benefit of PGP2.6 compatibility, you might create a script named
10503 @file{gpg-2comp} with these instructions:
10507 exec gpg --rfc1991 "$@@"
10510 If you don't want to use such compatibility, you can add the following line to
10511 your @file{~/.emacs} or @file{~/.gnus}:
10514 (setq gpg-command-default-alist (quote ((gpg . "gpg") (gpg-2comp . "gpg"))))
10517 To sign or encrypt your message you may choose to use the MML Security
10518 menu or @kbd{C-c C-m s p} to sign your message using PGP/MIME, @kbd{C-c
10519 C-m s s} to sign your message using S/MIME. There's also @kbd{C-c C-m c
10520 p} to encrypt your message with PGP/MIME and @kbd{C-c C-m c s} to
10521 encrypt using S/MIME.
10523 Gnus will ask for your passphrase and then it will send your message, if
10524 you've typed it correctly.
10526 @node Select Methods
10527 @chapter Select Methods
10528 @cindex foreign groups
10529 @cindex select methods
10531 A @dfn{foreign group} is a group not read by the usual (or
10532 default) means. It could be, for instance, a group from a different
10533 @sc{nntp} server, it could be a virtual group, or it could be your own
10534 personal mail group.
10536 A foreign group (or any group, really) is specified by a @dfn{name} and
10537 a @dfn{select method}. To take the latter first, a select method is a
10538 list where the first element says what backend to use (e.g. @code{nntp},
10539 @code{nnspool}, @code{nnml}) and the second element is the @dfn{server
10540 name}. There may be additional elements in the select method, where the
10541 value may have special meaning for the backend in question.
10543 One could say that a select method defines a @dfn{virtual server}---so
10544 we do just that (@pxref{Server Buffer}).
10546 The @dfn{name} of the group is the name the backend will recognize the
10549 For instance, the group @samp{soc.motss} on the @sc{nntp} server
10550 @samp{some.where.edu} will have the name @samp{soc.motss} and select
10551 method @code{(nntp "some.where.edu")}. Gnus will call this group
10552 @samp{nntp+some.where.edu:soc.motss}, even though the @code{nntp}
10553 backend just knows this group as @samp{soc.motss}.
10555 The different methods all have their peculiarities, of course.
10558 * Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
10559 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
10560 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
10561 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
10562 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
10563 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
10564 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
10568 @node Server Buffer
10569 @section Server Buffer
10571 Traditionally, a @dfn{server} is a machine or a piece of software that
10572 one connects to, and then requests information from. Gnus does not
10573 connect directly to any real servers, but does all transactions through
10574 one backend or other. But that's just putting one layer more between
10575 the actual media and Gnus, so we might just as well say that each
10576 backend represents a virtual server.
10578 For instance, the @code{nntp} backend may be used to connect to several
10579 different actual @sc{nntp} servers, or, perhaps, to many different ports
10580 on the same actual @sc{nntp} server. You tell Gnus which backend to
10581 use, and what parameters to set by specifying a @dfn{select method}.
10583 These select method specifications can sometimes become quite
10584 complicated---say, for instance, that you want to read from the
10585 @sc{nntp} server @samp{news.funet.fi} on port number 13, which
10586 hangs if queried for @sc{nov} headers and has a buggy select. Ahem.
10587 Anyway, if you had to specify that for each group that used this
10588 server, that would be too much work, so Gnus offers a way of naming
10589 select methods, which is what you do in the server buffer.
10591 To enter the server buffer, use the @kbd{^}
10592 (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}) command in the group buffer.
10595 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
10596 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
10597 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
10598 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
10599 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
10600 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
10601 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
10604 @vindex gnus-server-mode-hook
10605 @code{gnus-server-mode-hook} is run when creating the server buffer.
10608 @node Server Buffer Format
10609 @subsection Server Buffer Format
10610 @cindex server buffer format
10612 @vindex gnus-server-line-format
10613 You can change the look of the server buffer lines by changing the
10614 @code{gnus-server-line-format} variable. This is a @code{format}-like
10615 variable, with some simple extensions:
10620 How the news is fetched---the backend name.
10623 The name of this server.
10626 Where the news is to be fetched from---the address.
10629 The opened/closed/denied status of the server.
10632 @vindex gnus-server-mode-line-format
10633 The mode line can also be customized by using the
10634 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format} variable (@pxref{Mode Line
10635 Formatting}). The following specs are understood:
10645 Also @pxref{Formatting Variables}.
10648 @node Server Commands
10649 @subsection Server Commands
10650 @cindex server commands
10656 @findex gnus-server-add-server
10657 Add a new server (@code{gnus-server-add-server}).
10661 @findex gnus-server-edit-server
10662 Edit a server (@code{gnus-server-edit-server}).
10665 @kindex SPACE (Server)
10666 @findex gnus-server-read-server
10667 Browse the current server (@code{gnus-server-read-server}).
10671 @findex gnus-server-exit
10672 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-server-exit}).
10676 @findex gnus-server-kill-server
10677 Kill the current server (@code{gnus-server-kill-server}).
10681 @findex gnus-server-yank-server
10682 Yank the previously killed server (@code{gnus-server-yank-server}).
10686 @findex gnus-server-copy-server
10687 Copy the current server (@code{gnus-server-copy-server}).
10691 @findex gnus-server-list-servers
10692 List all servers (@code{gnus-server-list-servers}).
10696 @findex gnus-server-scan-server
10697 Request that the server scan its sources for new articles
10698 (@code{gnus-server-scan-server}). This is mainly sensible with mail
10703 @findex gnus-server-regenerate-server
10704 Request that the server regenerate all its data structures
10705 (@code{gnus-server-regenerate-server}). This can be useful if you have
10706 a mail backend that has gotten out of sync.
10711 @node Example Methods
10712 @subsection Example Methods
10714 Most select methods are pretty simple and self-explanatory:
10717 (nntp "news.funet.fi")
10720 Reading directly from the spool is even simpler:
10726 As you can see, the first element in a select method is the name of the
10727 backend, and the second is the @dfn{address}, or @dfn{name}, if you
10730 After these two elements, there may be an arbitrary number of
10731 @code{(@var{variable} @var{form})} pairs.
10733 To go back to the first example---imagine that you want to read from
10734 port 15 on that machine. This is what the select method should
10738 (nntp "news.funet.fi" (nntp-port-number 15))
10741 You should read the documentation to each backend to find out what
10742 variables are relevant, but here's an @code{nnmh} example:
10744 @code{nnmh} is a mail backend that reads a spool-like structure. Say
10745 you have two structures that you wish to access: One is your private
10746 mail spool, and the other is a public one. Here's the possible spec for
10750 (nnmh "private" (nnmh-directory "~/private/mail/"))
10753 (This server is then called @samp{private}, but you may have guessed
10756 Here's the method for a public spool:
10760 (nnmh-directory "/usr/information/spool/")
10761 (nnmh-get-new-mail nil))
10767 If you are behind a firewall and only have access to the @sc{nntp}
10768 server from the firewall machine, you can instruct Gnus to @code{rlogin}
10769 on the firewall machine and telnet from there to the @sc{nntp} server.
10770 Doing this can be rather fiddly, but your virtual server definition
10771 should probably look something like this:
10775 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet)
10776 (nntp-via-address "the.firewall.machine")
10777 (nntp-address "the.real.nntp.host")
10778 (nntp-end-of-line "\n"))
10781 If you want to use the wonderful @code{ssh} program to provide a
10782 compressed connection over the modem line, you could add the following
10783 configuration to the example above:
10786 (nntp-via-rlogin-command "ssh")
10789 If you're behind a firewall, but have direct access to the outside world
10790 through a wrapper command like "runsocks", you could open a socksified
10791 telnet connection to the news server as follows:
10795 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
10796 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-telnet)
10797 (nntp-address "the.news.server")
10798 (nntp-end-of-line "\n"))
10801 This means that you have to have set up @code{ssh-agent} correctly to
10802 provide automatic authorization, of course. And to get a compressed
10803 connection, you have to have the @samp{Compression} option in the
10804 @code{ssh} @file{config} file.
10807 @node Creating a Virtual Server
10808 @subsection Creating a Virtual Server
10810 If you're saving lots of articles in the cache by using persistent
10811 articles, you may want to create a virtual server to read the cache.
10813 First you need to add a new server. The @kbd{a} command does that. It
10814 would probably be best to use @code{nnspool} to read the cache. You
10815 could also use @code{nnml} or @code{nnmh}, though.
10817 Type @kbd{a nnspool RET cache RET}.
10819 You should now have a brand new @code{nnspool} virtual server called
10820 @samp{cache}. You now need to edit it to have the right definitions.
10821 Type @kbd{e} to edit the server. You'll be entered into a buffer that
10822 will contain the following:
10832 (nnspool-spool-directory "~/News/cache/")
10833 (nnspool-nov-directory "~/News/cache/")
10834 (nnspool-active-file "~/News/cache/active"))
10837 Type @kbd{C-c C-c} to return to the server buffer. If you now press
10838 @kbd{RET} over this virtual server, you should be entered into a browse
10839 buffer, and you should be able to enter any of the groups displayed.
10842 @node Server Variables
10843 @subsection Server Variables
10845 One sticky point when defining variables (both on backends and in Emacs
10846 in general) is that some variables are typically initialized from other
10847 variables when the definition of the variables is being loaded. If you
10848 change the "base" variable after the variables have been loaded, you
10849 won't change the "derived" variables.
10851 This typically affects directory and file variables. For instance,
10852 @code{nnml-directory} is @file{~/Mail/} by default, and all @code{nnml}
10853 directory variables are initialized from that variable, so
10854 @code{nnml-active-file} will be @file{~/Mail/active}. If you define a
10855 new virtual @code{nnml} server, it will @emph{not} suffice to set just
10856 @code{nnml-directory}---you have to explicitly set all the file
10857 variables to be what you want them to be. For a complete list of
10858 variables for each backend, see each backend's section later in this
10859 manual, but here's an example @code{nnml} definition:
10863 (nnml-directory "~/my-mail/")
10864 (nnml-active-file "~/my-mail/active")
10865 (nnml-newsgroups-file "~/my-mail/newsgroups"))
10869 @node Servers and Methods
10870 @subsection Servers and Methods
10872 Wherever you would normally use a select method
10873 (e.g. @code{gnus-secondary-select-method}, in the group select method,
10874 when browsing a foreign server) you can use a virtual server name
10875 instead. This could potentially save lots of typing. And it's nice all
10879 @node Unavailable Servers
10880 @subsection Unavailable Servers
10882 If a server seems to be unreachable, Gnus will mark that server as
10883 @code{denied}. That means that any subsequent attempt to make contact
10884 with that server will just be ignored. ``It can't be opened,'' Gnus
10885 will tell you, without making the least effort to see whether that is
10886 actually the case or not.
10888 That might seem quite naughty, but it does make sense most of the time.
10889 Let's say you have 10 groups subscribed to on server
10890 @samp{nephelococcygia.com}. This server is located somewhere quite far
10891 away from you and the machine is quite slow, so it takes 1 minute just
10892 to find out that it refuses connection to you today. If Gnus were to
10893 attempt to do that 10 times, you'd be quite annoyed, so Gnus won't
10894 attempt to do that. Once it has gotten a single ``connection refused'',
10895 it will regard that server as ``down''.
10897 So, what happens if the machine was only feeling unwell temporarily?
10898 How do you test to see whether the machine has come up again?
10900 You jump to the server buffer (@pxref{Server Buffer}) and poke it
10901 with the following commands:
10907 @findex gnus-server-open-server
10908 Try to establish connection to the server on the current line
10909 (@code{gnus-server-open-server}).
10913 @findex gnus-server-close-server
10914 Close the connection (if any) to the server
10915 (@code{gnus-server-close-server}).
10919 @findex gnus-server-deny-server
10920 Mark the current server as unreachable
10921 (@code{gnus-server-deny-server}).
10924 @kindex M-o (Server)
10925 @findex gnus-server-open-all-servers
10926 Open the connections to all servers in the buffer
10927 (@code{gnus-server-open-all-servers}).
10930 @kindex M-c (Server)
10931 @findex gnus-server-close-all-servers
10932 Close the connections to all servers in the buffer
10933 (@code{gnus-server-close-all-servers}).
10937 @findex gnus-server-remove-denials
10938 Remove all marks to whether Gnus was denied connection from any servers
10939 (@code{gnus-server-remove-denials}).
10945 @section Getting News
10946 @cindex reading news
10947 @cindex news backends
10949 A newsreader is normally used for reading news. Gnus currently provides
10950 only two methods of getting news---it can read from an @sc{nntp} server,
10951 or it can read from a local spool.
10954 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @sc{nntp} server.
10955 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
10960 @subsection @sc{nntp}
10963 Subscribing to a foreign group from an @sc{nntp} server is rather easy.
10964 You just specify @code{nntp} as method and the address of the @sc{nntp}
10965 server as the, uhm, address.
10967 If the @sc{nntp} server is located at a non-standard port, setting the
10968 third element of the select method to this port number should allow you
10969 to connect to the right port. You'll have to edit the group info for
10970 that (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
10972 The name of the foreign group can be the same as a native group. In
10973 fact, you can subscribe to the same group from as many different servers
10974 you feel like. There will be no name collisions.
10976 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nntp}
10981 @item nntp-server-opened-hook
10982 @vindex nntp-server-opened-hook
10983 @cindex @sc{mode reader}
10985 @cindex authentification
10986 @cindex nntp authentification
10987 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
10988 @findex nntp-send-mode-reader
10989 is run after a connection has been made. It can be used to send
10990 commands to the @sc{nntp} server after it has been contacted. By
10991 default it sends the command @code{MODE READER} to the server with the
10992 @code{nntp-send-mode-reader} function. This function should always be
10993 present in this hook.
10995 @item nntp-authinfo-function
10996 @vindex nntp-authinfo-function
10997 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
10998 @vindex nntp-authinfo-file
10999 This function will be used to send @samp{AUTHINFO} to the @sc{nntp}
11000 server. The default function is @code{nntp-send-authinfo}, which looks
11001 through your @file{~/.authinfo} (or whatever you've set the
11002 @code{nntp-authinfo-file} variable to) for applicable entries. If none
11003 are found, it will prompt you for a login name and a password. The
11004 format of the @file{~/.authinfo} file is (almost) the same as the
11005 @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file, which is defined in the @code{ftp}
11006 manual page, but here are the salient facts:
11010 The file contains one or more line, each of which define one server.
11013 Each line may contain an arbitrary number of token/value pairs.
11015 The valid tokens include @samp{machine}, @samp{login}, @samp{password},
11016 @samp{default}. In addition Gnus introduces two new tokens, not present
11017 in the original @file{.netrc}/@code{ftp} syntax, namely @samp{port} and
11018 @samp{force}. (This is the only way the @file{.authinfo} file format
11019 deviates from the @file{.netrc} file format.) @samp{port} is used to
11020 indicate what port on the server the credentials apply to and
11021 @samp{force} is explained below.
11025 Here's an example file:
11028 machine news.uio.no login larsi password geheimnis
11029 machine nntp.ifi.uio.no login larsi force yes
11032 The token/value pairs may appear in any order; @samp{machine} doesn't
11033 have to be first, for instance.
11035 In this example, both login name and password have been supplied for the
11036 former server, while the latter has only the login name listed, and the
11037 user will be prompted for the password. The latter also has the
11038 @samp{force} tag, which means that the authinfo will be sent to the
11039 @var{nntp} server upon connection; the default (i.e., when there is not
11040 @samp{force} tag) is to not send authinfo to the @var{nntp} server
11041 until the @var{nntp} server asks for it.
11043 You can also add @samp{default} lines that will apply to all servers
11044 that don't have matching @samp{machine} lines.
11050 This will force sending @samp{AUTHINFO} commands to all servers not
11051 previously mentioned.
11053 Remember to not leave the @file{~/.authinfo} file world-readable.
11055 @item nntp-server-action-alist
11056 @vindex nntp-server-action-alist
11057 This is a list of regexps to match on server types and actions to be
11058 taken when matches are made. For instance, if you want Gnus to beep
11059 every time you connect to innd, you could say something like:
11062 (setq nntp-server-action-alist
11063 '(("innd" (ding))))
11066 You probably don't want to do that, though.
11068 The default value is
11071 '(("nntpd 1\\.5\\.11t"
11072 (remove-hook 'nntp-server-opened-hook
11073 'nntp-send-mode-reader)))
11076 This ensures that Gnus doesn't send the @code{MODE READER} command to
11077 nntpd 1.5.11t, since that command chokes that server, I've been told.
11079 @item nntp-maximum-request
11080 @vindex nntp-maximum-request
11081 If the @sc{nntp} server doesn't support @sc{nov} headers, this backend
11082 will collect headers by sending a series of @code{head} commands. To
11083 speed things up, the backend sends lots of these commands without
11084 waiting for reply, and then reads all the replies. This is controlled
11085 by the @code{nntp-maximum-request} variable, and is 400 by default. If
11086 your network is buggy, you should set this to 1.
11088 @item nntp-connection-timeout
11089 @vindex nntp-connection-timeout
11090 If you have lots of foreign @code{nntp} groups that you connect to
11091 regularly, you're sure to have problems with @sc{nntp} servers not
11092 responding properly, or being too loaded to reply within reasonable
11093 time. This is can lead to awkward problems, which can be helped
11094 somewhat by setting @code{nntp-connection-timeout}. This is an integer
11095 that says how many seconds the @code{nntp} backend should wait for a
11096 connection before giving up. If it is @code{nil}, which is the default,
11097 no timeouts are done.
11099 @c @item nntp-command-timeout
11100 @c @vindex nntp-command-timeout
11101 @c @cindex PPP connections
11102 @c @cindex dynamic IP addresses
11103 @c If you're running Gnus on a machine that has a dynamically assigned
11104 @c address, Gnus may become confused. If the address of your machine
11105 @c changes after connecting to the @sc{nntp} server, Gnus will simply sit
11106 @c waiting forever for replies from the server. To help with this
11107 @c unfortunate problem, you can set this command to a number. Gnus will
11108 @c then, if it sits waiting for a reply from the server longer than that
11109 @c number of seconds, shut down the connection, start a new one, and resend
11110 @c the command. This should hopefully be transparent to the user. A
11111 @c likely number is 30 seconds.
11113 @c @item nntp-retry-on-break
11114 @c @vindex nntp-retry-on-break
11115 @c If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you can also @kbd{C-g} if Gnus
11116 @c hangs. This will have much the same effect as the command timeout
11117 @c described above.
11119 @item nntp-server-hook
11120 @vindex nntp-server-hook
11121 This hook is run as the last step when connecting to an @sc{nntp}
11124 @item nntp-buggy-select
11125 @vindex nntp-buggy-select
11126 Set this to non-@code{nil} if your select routine is buggy.
11128 @item nntp-nov-is-evil
11129 @vindex nntp-nov-is-evil
11130 If the @sc{nntp} server does not support @sc{nov}, you could set this
11131 variable to @code{t}, but @code{nntp} usually checks automatically whether @sc{nov}
11134 @item nntp-xover-commands
11135 @vindex nntp-xover-commands
11138 List of strings used as commands to fetch @sc{nov} lines from a
11139 server. The default value of this variable is @code{("XOVER"
11143 @vindex nntp-nov-gap
11144 @code{nntp} normally sends just one big request for @sc{nov} lines to
11145 the server. The server responds with one huge list of lines. However,
11146 if you have read articles 2-5000 in the group, and only want to read
11147 article 1 and 5001, that means that @code{nntp} will fetch 4999 @sc{nov}
11148 lines that you will not need. This variable says how
11149 big a gap between two consecutive articles is allowed to be before the
11150 @code{XOVER} request is split into several request. Note that if your
11151 network is fast, setting this variable to a really small number means
11152 that fetching will probably be slower. If this variable is @code{nil},
11153 @code{nntp} will never split requests. The default is 5.
11155 @item nntp-prepare-server-hook
11156 @vindex nntp-prepare-server-hook
11157 A hook run before attempting to connect to an @sc{nntp} server.
11159 @item nntp-warn-about-losing-connection
11160 @vindex nntp-warn-about-losing-connection
11161 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, some noise will be made when a
11162 server closes connection.
11164 @item nntp-record-commands
11165 @vindex nntp-record-commands
11166 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nntp} will log all commands it sends to the
11167 @sc{nntp} server (along with a timestamp) in the @samp{*nntp-log*}
11168 buffer. This is useful if you are debugging a Gnus/@sc{nntp} connection
11169 that doesn't seem to work.
11171 @item nntp-open-connection-function
11172 @vindex nntp-open-connection-function
11173 It is possible to customize how the connection to the nntp server will
11174 be opened. If you specify an @code{nntp-open-connection-function}
11175 parameter, Gnus will use that function to establish the connection.
11176 Five pre-made functions are supplied. These functions can be grouped in
11177 two categories: direct connection functions (three pre-made), and
11178 indirect ones (two pre-made).
11182 * Direct Functions:: Connecting directly to the server.
11183 * Indirect Functions:: Connecting indirectly to the server.
11184 * Common Variables:: Understood by several connection functions.
11188 @node Direct Functions
11189 @subsubsection Direct Functions
11190 @cindex direct connection functions
11192 These functions are called direct because they open a direct connection
11193 between your machine and the @sc{nntp} server. The behavior of these
11194 functions is also affected by commonly understood variables
11195 (@pxref{Common Variables}).
11198 @findex nntp-open-network-stream
11199 @item nntp-open-network-stream
11200 This is the default, and simply connects to some port or other on the
11203 @findex nntp-open-ssl-stream
11204 @item nntp-open-ssl-stream
11205 Opens a connection to a server over a @dfn{secure} channel. To use this
11206 you must have SSLay installed
11207 (@uref{ftp://ftp.psy.uq.oz.au/pub/Crypto/SSL}, and you also need
11208 @file{ssl.el} (from the W3 distribution, for instance). You then
11209 define a server as follows:
11212 ;; Type `C-c C-c' after you've finished editing.
11214 ;; "snews" is port 563 and is predefined in our /etc/services
11216 (nntp "snews.bar.com"
11217 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-ssl-stream)
11218 (nntp-port-number "snews")
11219 (nntp-address "snews.bar.com"))
11222 @findex nntp-open-telnet-stream
11223 @item nntp-open-telnet-stream
11224 Opens a connection to an @sc{nntp} server by simply @samp{telnet}'ing
11225 it. You might wonder why this function exists, since we have the
11226 default @code{nntp-open-network-stream} which would do the job. (One
11227 of) the reason(s) is that if you are behind a firewall but have direct
11228 connections to the outside world thanks to a command wrapper like
11229 @code{runsocks}, you can use it like this:
11233 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
11234 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-telnet-stream)
11235 (nntp-address "the.news.server"))
11238 With the default method, you would need to wrap your whole Emacs
11239 session, which is not a good idea.
11243 @node Indirect Functions
11244 @subsubsection Indirect Functions
11245 @cindex indirect connection functions
11247 These functions are called indirect because they connect to an
11248 intermediate host before actually connecting to the @sc{nntp} server.
11249 All of these functions and related variables are also said to belong to
11250 the "via" family of connection: they're all prefixed with "via" to make
11251 things cleaner. The behavior of these functions is also affected by
11252 commonly understood variables (@pxref{Common Variables}).
11255 @item nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet
11256 @findex nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet
11257 Does an @samp{rlogin} on a remote system, and then does a @samp{telnet}
11258 to the real @sc{nntp} server from there. This is useful for instance if
11259 you need to connect to a firewall machine first.
11261 @code{nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet}-specific variables:
11264 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command
11265 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command
11266 Command used to log in on the intermediate host. The default is
11267 @samp{rsh}, but @samp{ssh} is a popular alternative.
11270 @item nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet
11271 @findex nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet
11272 Does essentially the same, but uses @samp{telnet} instead of
11273 @samp{rlogin} to connect to the intermediate host.
11275 @code{nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet}-specific variables:
11278 @item nntp-via-telnet-command
11279 @vindex nntp-via-telnet-command
11280 Command used to @code{telnet} the intermediate host. The default is
11283 @item nntp-via-telnet-switches
11284 @vindex nntp-via-telnet-switches
11285 List of strings to be used as the switches to the
11286 @code{nntp-via-telnet-command} command. The default is @samp{("-8")}.
11288 @item nntp-via-user-password
11289 @vindex nntp-via-user-password
11290 Password to use when logging in on the intermediate host.
11292 @item nntp-via-envuser
11293 @vindex nntp-via-envuser
11294 If non-@code{nil}, the intermediate @code{telnet} session (client and
11295 server both) will support the @code{ENVIRON} option and not prompt for
11296 login name. This works for Solaris @code{telnet}, for instance.
11298 @item nntp-via-shell-prompt
11299 @vindex nntp-via-shell-prompt
11300 Regexp matching the shell prompt on the intermediate host. The default
11301 is @samp{bash\\|\$ *\r?$\\|> *\r?}.
11308 Here are some additional variables that are understood by all the above
11313 @item nntp-via-user-name
11314 @vindex nntp-via-user-name
11315 User name to use when connecting to the intermediate host.
11317 @item nntp-via-address
11318 @vindex nntp-via-address
11319 Address of the intermediate host to connect to.
11324 @node Common Variables
11325 @subsubsection Common Variables
11327 The following variables affect the behavior of all, or several of the
11328 pre-made connection functions. When not specified, all functions are
11333 @item nntp-pre-command
11334 @vindex nntp-pre-command
11335 A command wrapper to use when connecting through a non native connection
11336 function (all except @code{nntp-open-network-stream} and
11337 @code{nntp-open-ssl-stream}. This is where you would put a @samp{SOCKS}
11338 wrapper for instance.
11341 @vindex nntp-address
11342 The address of the @sc{nntp} server.
11344 @item nntp-port-number
11345 @vindex nntp-port-number
11346 Port number to connect to the @sc{nntp} server. The default is @samp{nntp}.
11348 @item nntp-end-of-line
11349 @vindex nntp-end-of-line
11350 String to use as end-of-line marker when talking to the @sc{nntp}
11351 server. This is @samp{\r\n} by default, but should be @samp{\n} when
11352 using a non native connection function.
11354 @item nntp-telnet-command
11355 @vindex nntp-telnet-command
11356 Command to use when connecting to the @sc{nntp} server through
11357 @samp{telnet}. This is NOT for an intermediate host. This is just for
11358 the real @sc{nntp} server. The default is @samp{telnet}.
11360 @item nntp-telnet-switches
11361 @vindex nntp-telnet-switches
11362 A list of switches to pass to @code{nntp-telnet-command}. The default
11369 @subsection News Spool
11373 Subscribing to a foreign group from the local spool is extremely easy,
11374 and might be useful, for instance, to speed up reading groups that
11375 contain very big articles---@samp{alt.binaries.pictures.furniture}, for
11378 Anyway, you just specify @code{nnspool} as the method and @code{""} (or
11379 anything else) as the address.
11381 If you have access to a local spool, you should probably use that as the
11382 native select method (@pxref{Finding the News}). It is normally faster
11383 than using an @code{nntp} select method, but might not be. It depends.
11384 You just have to try to find out what's best at your site.
11388 @item nnspool-inews-program
11389 @vindex nnspool-inews-program
11390 Program used to post an article.
11392 @item nnspool-inews-switches
11393 @vindex nnspool-inews-switches
11394 Parameters given to the inews program when posting an article.
11396 @item nnspool-spool-directory
11397 @vindex nnspool-spool-directory
11398 Where @code{nnspool} looks for the articles. This is normally
11399 @file{/usr/spool/news/}.
11401 @item nnspool-nov-directory
11402 @vindex nnspool-nov-directory
11403 Where @code{nnspool} will look for @sc{nov} files. This is normally
11404 @file{/usr/spool/news/over.view/}.
11406 @item nnspool-lib-dir
11407 @vindex nnspool-lib-dir
11408 Where the news lib dir is (@file{/usr/lib/news/} by default).
11410 @item nnspool-active-file
11411 @vindex nnspool-active-file
11412 The path to the active file.
11414 @item nnspool-newsgroups-file
11415 @vindex nnspool-newsgroups-file
11416 The path to the group descriptions file.
11418 @item nnspool-history-file
11419 @vindex nnspool-history-file
11420 The path to the news history file.
11422 @item nnspool-active-times-file
11423 @vindex nnspool-active-times-file
11424 The path to the active date file.
11426 @item nnspool-nov-is-evil
11427 @vindex nnspool-nov-is-evil
11428 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnspool} won't try to use any @sc{nov} files
11431 @item nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
11432 @vindex nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
11434 If non-@code{nil}, which is the default, use @code{sed} to get the
11435 relevant portion from the overview file. If nil, @code{nnspool} will
11436 load the entire file into a buffer and process it there.
11442 @section Getting Mail
11443 @cindex reading mail
11446 Reading mail with a newsreader---isn't that just plain WeIrD? But of
11450 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
11451 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
11452 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
11453 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
11454 * Mail Backend Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
11455 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
11456 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
11457 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
11458 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
11459 * Washing Mail:: Removing gruft from the mail you get.
11460 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
11461 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail backends for reading other files.
11462 * Choosing a Mail Backend:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
11466 @node Mail in a Newsreader
11467 @subsection Mail in a Newsreader
11469 If you are used to traditional mail readers, but have decided to switch
11470 to reading mail with Gnus, you may find yourself experiencing something
11471 of a culture shock.
11473 Gnus does not behave like traditional mail readers. If you want to make
11474 it behave that way, you can, but it's an uphill battle.
11476 Gnus, by default, handles all its groups using the same approach. This
11477 approach is very newsreaderly---you enter a group, see the new/unread
11478 messages, and when you read the messages, they get marked as read, and
11479 you don't see them any more. (Unless you explicitly ask for them.)
11481 In particular, you do not do anything explicitly to delete messages.
11483 Does this mean that all the messages that have been marked as read are
11484 deleted? How awful!
11486 But, no, it means that old messages are @dfn{expired} according to some
11487 scheme or other. For news messages, the expire process is controlled by
11488 the news administrator; for mail, the expire process is controlled by
11489 you. The expire process for mail is covered in depth in @pxref{Expiring
11492 What many Gnus users find, after using it a while for both news and
11493 mail, is that the transport mechanism has very little to do with how
11494 they want to treat a message.
11496 Many people subscribe to several mailing lists. These are transported
11497 via SMTP, and are therefore mail. But we might go for weeks without
11498 answering, or even reading these messages very carefully. We may not
11499 need to save them because if we should need to read one again, they are
11500 archived somewhere else.
11502 Some people have local news groups which have only a handful of readers.
11503 These are transported via @sc{nntp}, and are therefore news. But we may need
11504 to read and answer a large fraction of the messages very carefully in
11505 order to do our work. And there may not be an archive, so we may need
11506 to save the interesting messages the same way we would personal mail.
11508 The important distinction turns out to be not the transport mechanism,
11509 but other factors such as how interested we are in the subject matter,
11510 or how easy it is to retrieve the message if we need to read it again.
11512 Gnus provides many options for sorting mail into ``groups'' which behave
11513 like newsgroups, and for treating each group (whether mail or news)
11516 Some users never get comfortable using the Gnus (ahem) paradigm and wish
11517 that Gnus should grow up and be a male, er, mail reader. It is possible
11518 to whip Gnus into a more mailreaderly being, but, as said before, it's
11519 not easy. People who prefer proper mail readers should try @sc{vm}
11520 instead, which is an excellent, and proper, mail reader.
11522 I don't mean to scare anybody off, but I want to make it clear that you
11523 may be required to learn a new way of thinking about messages. After
11524 you've been subjected to The Gnus Way, you will come to love it. I can
11525 guarantee it. (At least the guy who sold me the Emacs Subliminal
11526 Brain-Washing Functions that I've put into Gnus did guarantee it. You
11527 Will Be Assimilated. You Love Gnus. You Love The Gnus Mail Way.
11531 @node Getting Started Reading Mail
11532 @subsection Getting Started Reading Mail
11534 It's quite easy to use Gnus to read your new mail. You just plonk the
11535 mail backend of your choice into @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods},
11536 and things will happen automatically.
11538 For instance, if you want to use @code{nnml} (which is a "one file per
11539 mail" backend), you could put the following in your @file{.gnus} file:
11542 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
11545 Now, the next time you start Gnus, this backend will be queried for new
11546 articles, and it will move all the messages in your spool file to its
11547 directory, which is @code{~/Mail/} by default. The new group that will
11548 be created (@samp{mail.misc}) will be subscribed, and you can read it
11549 like any other group.
11551 You will probably want to split the mail into several groups, though:
11554 (setq nnmail-split-methods
11555 '(("junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
11556 ("crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
11560 This will result in three new @code{nnml} mail groups being created:
11561 @samp{nnml:junk}, @samp{nnml:crazy}, and @samp{nnml:other}. All the
11562 mail that doesn't fit into the first two groups will be placed in the
11565 This should be sufficient for reading mail with Gnus. You might want to
11566 give the other sections in this part of the manual a perusal, though.
11567 Especially @pxref{Choosing a Mail Backend} and @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
11570 @node Splitting Mail
11571 @subsection Splitting Mail
11572 @cindex splitting mail
11573 @cindex mail splitting
11575 @vindex nnmail-split-methods
11576 The @code{nnmail-split-methods} variable says how the incoming mail is
11577 to be split into groups.
11580 (setq nnmail-split-methods
11581 '(("mail.junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
11582 ("mail.crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
11583 ("mail.other" "")))
11586 This variable is a list of lists, where the first element of each of
11587 these lists is the name of the mail group (they do not have to be called
11588 something beginning with @samp{mail}, by the way), and the second
11589 element is a regular expression used on the header of each mail to
11590 determine if it belongs in this mail group. The first string may
11591 contain @samp{\\1} forms, like the ones used by @code{replace-match} to
11592 insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For instance:
11595 ("list.\\1" "From:.* \\(.*\\)-list@@majordomo.com")
11598 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
11599 called narrowed to the headers with the first element of the rule as the
11600 argument. It should return a non-@code{nil} value if it thinks that the
11601 mail belongs in that group.
11603 The last of these groups should always be a general one, and the regular
11604 expression should @emph{always} be @samp{} so that it matches any mails
11605 that haven't been matched by any of the other regexps. (These rules are
11606 processed from the beginning of the alist toward the end. The first
11607 rule to make a match will "win", unless you have crossposting enabled.
11608 In that case, all matching rules will "win".)
11610 If you like to tinker with this yourself, you can set this variable to a
11611 function of your choice. This function will be called without any
11612 arguments in a buffer narrowed to the headers of an incoming mail
11613 message. The function should return a list of group names that it
11614 thinks should carry this mail message.
11616 Note that the mail backends are free to maul the poor, innocent,
11617 incoming headers all they want to. They all add @code{Lines} headers;
11618 some add @code{X-Gnus-Group} headers; most rename the Unix mbox
11619 @code{From<SPACE>} line to something else.
11621 @vindex nnmail-crosspost
11622 The mail backends all support cross-posting. If several regexps match,
11623 the mail will be ``cross-posted'' to all those groups.
11624 @code{nnmail-crosspost} says whether to use this mechanism or not. Note
11625 that no articles are crossposted to the general (@samp{}) group.
11627 @vindex nnmail-crosspost-link-function
11630 @code{nnmh} and @code{nnml} makes crossposts by creating hard links to
11631 the crossposted articles. However, not all file systems support hard
11632 links. If that's the case for you, set
11633 @code{nnmail-crosspost-link-function} to @code{copy-file}. (This
11634 variable is @code{add-name-to-file} by default.)
11636 @kindex M-x nnmail-split-history
11637 @kindex nnmail-split-history
11638 If you wish to see where the previous mail split put the messages, you
11639 can use the @kbd{M-x nnmail-split-history} command. If you wish to see
11640 where re-spooling messages would put the messages, you can use
11641 @code{gnus-summary-respool-trace} and related commands (@pxref{Mail
11644 Gnus gives you all the opportunity you could possibly want for shooting
11645 yourself in the foot. Let's say you create a group that will contain
11646 all the mail you get from your boss. And then you accidentally
11647 unsubscribe from the group. Gnus will still put all the mail from your
11648 boss in the unsubscribed group, and so, when your boss mails you ``Have
11649 that report ready by Monday or you're fired!'', you'll never see it and,
11650 come Tuesday, you'll still believe that you're gainfully employed while
11651 you really should be out collecting empty bottles to save up for next
11652 month's rent money.
11656 @subsection Mail Sources
11658 Mail can be gotten from many different sources---the mail spool, from a
11659 POP mail server, from a procmail directory, or from a maildir, for
11663 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
11664 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
11665 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
11669 @node Mail Source Specifiers
11670 @subsubsection Mail Source Specifiers
11672 @cindex mail server
11675 @cindex mail source
11677 You tell Gnus how to fetch mail by setting @code{mail-sources}
11678 (@pxref{Fetching Mail}) to a @dfn{mail source specifier}.
11683 (pop :server "pop3.mailserver.com" :user "myname")
11686 As can be observed, a mail source specifier is a list where the first
11687 element is a @dfn{mail source type}, followed by an arbitrary number of
11688 @dfn{keywords}. Keywords that are not explicitly specified are given
11691 The following mail source types are available:
11695 Get mail from a single file; typically from the mail spool.
11701 The path of the file. Defaults to the value of the @code{MAIL}
11702 environment variable or @file{/usr/mail/spool/user-name}.
11705 An example file mail source:
11708 (file :path "/usr/spool/mail/user-name")
11711 Or using the default path:
11717 If the mail spool file is not located on the local machine, it's best to
11718 use POP or @sc{imap} or the like to fetch the mail. You can not use ange-ftp
11719 file names here---it has no way to lock the mail spool while moving the
11722 If it's impossible to set up a proper server, you can use ssh instead.
11726 '((file :prescript "ssh host bin/getmail >%t")))
11729 The @samp{getmail} script would look something like the following:
11733 # getmail - move mail from spool to stdout
11736 MOVEMAIL=/usr/lib/emacs/20.3/i386-redhat-linux/movemail
11738 rm -f $TMP; $MOVEMAIL $MAIL $TMP >/dev/null && cat $TMP
11741 Alter this script to fit find the @samp{movemail} you want to use.
11745 Get mail from several files in a directory. This is typically used when
11746 you have procmail split the incoming mail into several files. Setting
11747 @code{nnmail-scan-directory-mail-source-once} to non-nil forces Gnus to
11748 scan the mail source only once. This is particularly useful if you want
11749 to scan mail groups at a specified level.
11755 The path of the directory where the files are. There is no default
11759 Only files ending with this suffix are used. The default is
11763 Only files that have this predicate return non-@code{nil} are returned.
11764 The default is @code{identity}. This is used as an additional
11765 filter---only files that have the right suffix @emph{and} satisfy this
11766 predicate are considered.
11770 Script run before/after fetching mail.
11774 An example directory mail source:
11777 (directory :path "/home/user-name/procmail-dir/"
11782 Get mail from a POP server.
11788 The name of the POP server. The default is taken from the
11789 @code{MAILHOST} environment variable.
11792 The port number of the POP server. This can be a number (eg,
11793 @samp{:port 1234}) or a string (eg, @samp{:port "pop3"}). If it is a
11794 string, it should be a service name as listed in @file{/etc/services} on
11795 Unix systems. The default is @samp{"pop3"}. On some systems you might
11796 need to specify it as @samp{"pop-3"} instead.
11799 The user name to give to the POP server. The default is the login
11803 The password to give to the POP server. If not specified, the user is
11807 The program to use to fetch mail from the POP server. This should be
11808 a @code{format}-like string. Here's an example:
11811 fetchmail %u@@%s -P %p %t
11814 The valid format specifier characters are:
11818 The name of the file the mail is to be moved to. This must always be
11819 included in this string.
11822 The name of the server.
11825 The port number of the server.
11828 The user name to use.
11831 The password to use.
11834 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
11835 corresponding keywords.
11838 A script to be run before fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
11839 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
11842 A script to be run after fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
11843 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
11846 The function to use to fetch mail from the POP server. The function is
11847 called with one parameter---the name of the file where the mail should
11850 @item :authentication
11851 This can be either the symbol @code{password} or the symbol @code{apop}
11852 and says what authentication scheme to use. The default is
11857 If the @code{:program} and @code{:function} keywords aren't specified,
11858 @code{pop3-movemail} will be used.
11860 Here are some examples. Fetch from the default POP server, using the
11861 default user name, and default fetcher:
11867 Fetch from a named server with a named user and password:
11870 (pop :server "my.pop.server"
11871 :user "user-name" :password "secret")
11874 Use @samp{movemail} to move the mail:
11877 (pop :program "movemail po:%u %t %p")
11881 Get mail from a maildir. This is a type of mailbox that is supported by
11882 at least qmail and postfix, where each file in a special directory
11883 contains exactly one mail.
11889 The path of the directory where the mails are stored. The default is
11890 taken from the @code{MAILDIR} environment variable or
11893 The subdirectories of the Maildir. The default is
11894 @samp{("new" "cur")}.
11896 @c If you sometimes look at your mail through a pop3 daemon before fetching
11897 @c them with Gnus, you may also have to fetch your mails from the
11898 @c @code{cur} directory inside the maildir, like in the first example
11901 You can also get mails from remote hosts (because maildirs don't suffer
11902 from locking problems).
11906 Two example maildir mail sources:
11909 (maildir :path "/home/user-name/Maildir/"
11910 :subdirs ("cur" "new"))
11914 (maildir :path "/user@@remotehost.org:~/Maildir/"
11919 Get mail from a @sc{imap} server. If you don't want to use @sc{imap}
11920 as intended, as a network mail reading protocol (ie with nnimap), for
11921 some reason or other, Gnus let you treat it similar to a POP server
11922 and fetches articles from a given @sc{imap} mailbox. @xref{IMAP}, for
11929 The name of the @sc{imap} server. The default is taken from the
11930 @code{MAILHOST} environment variable.
11933 The port number of the @sc{imap} server. The default is @samp{143}, or
11934 @samp{993} for SSL connections.
11937 The user name to give to the @sc{imap} server. The default is the login
11941 The password to give to the @sc{imap} server. If not specified, the user is
11945 What stream to use for connecting to the server, this is one of the
11946 symbols in @code{imap-stream-alist}. Right now, this means
11947 @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{ssl} or the default @samp{network}.
11949 @item :authentication
11950 Which authenticator to use for authenticating to the server, this is one
11951 of the symbols in @code{imap-authenticator-alist}. Right now, this
11952 means @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{cram-md5}, @samp{anonymous} or the default
11956 When using the `shell' :stream, the contents of this variable is
11957 mapped into the `imap-shell-program' variable. This should be a
11958 @code{format}-like string (or list of strings). Here's an example:
11964 The valid format specifier characters are:
11968 The name of the server.
11971 User name from `imap-default-user'.
11974 The port number of the server.
11977 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
11978 corresponding keywords.
11981 The name of the mailbox to get mail from. The default is @samp{INBOX}
11982 which normally is the mailbox which receive incoming mail.
11985 The predicate used to find articles to fetch. The default, @samp{UNSEEN
11986 UNDELETED}, is probably the best choice for most people, but if you
11987 sometimes peek in your mailbox with a @sc{imap} client and mark some
11988 articles as read (or; SEEN) you might want to set this to @samp{nil}.
11989 Then all articles in the mailbox is fetched, no matter what. For a
11990 complete list of predicates, see RFC 2060 §6.4.4.
11993 How to flag fetched articles on the server, the default @samp{\Deleted}
11994 will mark them as deleted, an alternative would be @samp{\Seen} which
11995 would simply mark them as read. These are the two most likely choices,
11996 but more flags are defined in RFC 2060 §2.3.2.
11999 If non-nil, don't remove all articles marked as deleted in the mailbox
12000 after finishing the fetch.
12004 An example @sc{imap} mail source:
12007 (imap :server "mail.mycorp.com"
12009 :fetchflag "\\Seen")
12013 Get mail from a webmail server, such as www.hotmail.com,
12014 webmail.netscape.com, www.netaddress.com, www.my-deja.com.
12016 NOTE: Now mail.yahoo.com provides POP3 service, so @sc{pop} mail source
12019 NOTE: Webmail largely depends cookies. A "one-line-cookie" patch is
12020 required for url "4.0pre.46".
12022 WARNING: Mails may lost. NO WARRANTY.
12028 The type of the webmail server. The default is @code{hotmail}. The
12029 alternatives are @code{netscape}, @code{netaddress}, @code{my-deja}.
12032 The user name to give to the webmail server. The default is the login
12036 The password to give to the webmail server. If not specified, the user is
12040 If non-nil, only fetch unread articles and don't move them to trash
12041 folder after finishing the fetch.
12045 An example webmail source:
12048 (webmail :subtype 'hotmail
12050 :password "secret")
12055 @item Common Keywords
12056 Common keywords can be used in any type of mail source.
12062 If non-nil, fetch the mail even when Gnus is unplugged. If you use
12063 directory source to get mail, you can specify it as in this example:
12067 '((directory :path "/home/pavel/.Spool/"
12072 Gnus will then fetch your mail even when you are unplugged. This is
12073 useful when you use local mail and news.
12078 @subsubsection Function Interface
12080 Some of the above keywords specify a Lisp function to be executed.
12081 For each keyword @code{:foo}, the Lisp variable @code{foo} is bound to
12082 the value of the keyword while the function is executing. For example,
12083 consider the following mail-source setting:
12086 (setq mail-sources '((pop :user "jrl"
12087 :server "pophost" :function fetchfunc)))
12090 While the function @code{fetchfunc} is executing, the symbol @code{user}
12091 is bound to @code{"jrl"}, and the symbol @code{server} is bound to
12092 @code{"pophost"}. The symbols @code{port}, @code{password},
12093 @code{program}, @code{prescript}, @code{postscript}, @code{function},
12094 and @code{authentication} are also bound (to their default values).
12096 See above for a list of keywords for each type of mail source.
12099 @node Mail Source Customization
12100 @subsubsection Mail Source Customization
12102 The following is a list of variables that influence how the mail is
12103 fetched. You would normally not need to set or change any of these
12107 @item mail-source-crash-box
12108 @vindex mail-source-crash-box
12109 File where mail will be stored while processing it. The default is
12110 @file{~/.emacs-mail-crash-box}.
12112 @item mail-source-delete-incoming
12113 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
12114 If non-@code{nil}, delete incoming files after handling them.
12116 @item mail-source-directory
12117 @vindex mail-source-directory
12118 Directory where files (if any) will be stored. The default is
12119 @file{~/Mail/}. At present, the only thing this is used for is to say
12120 where the incoming files will be stored if the previous variable is
12123 @item mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
12124 @vindex mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
12125 Prefix for file name for storing incoming mail. The default is
12126 @file{Incoming}, in which case files will end up with names like
12127 @file{Incoming30630D_} or @file{Incoming298602ZD}. This is really only
12128 relevant if @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is @code{nil}.
12130 @item mail-source-default-file-modes
12131 @vindex mail-source-default-file-modes
12132 All new mail files will get this file mode. The default is 384.
12137 @node Fetching Mail
12138 @subsubsection Fetching Mail
12140 @vindex mail-sources
12141 @vindex nnmail-spool-file
12142 The way to actually tell Gnus where to get new mail from is to set
12143 @code{mail-sources} to a list of mail source specifiers
12144 (@pxref{Mail Source Specifiers}).
12146 If this variable (and the obsolescent @code{nnmail-spool-file}) is
12147 @code{nil}, the mail backends will never attempt to fetch mail by
12150 If you want to fetch mail both from your local spool as well as a POP
12151 mail server, you'd say something like:
12156 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
12157 :password "secret")))
12160 Or, if you don't want to use any of the keyword defaults:
12164 '((file :path "/var/spool/mail/user-name")
12165 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
12168 :password "secret")))
12172 When you use a mail backend, Gnus will slurp all your mail from your
12173 inbox and plonk it down in your home directory. Gnus doesn't move any
12174 mail if you're not using a mail backend---you have to do a lot of magic
12175 invocations first. At the time when you have finished drawing the
12176 pentagram, lightened the candles, and sacrificed the goat, you really
12177 shouldn't be too surprised when Gnus moves your mail.
12181 @node Mail Backend Variables
12182 @subsection Mail Backend Variables
12184 These variables are (for the most part) pertinent to all the various
12188 @vindex nnmail-read-incoming-hook
12189 @item nnmail-read-incoming-hook
12190 The mail backends all call this hook after reading new mail. You can
12191 use this hook to notify any mail watch programs, if you want to.
12193 @vindex nnmail-split-hook
12194 @item nnmail-split-hook
12195 @findex article-decode-encoded-words
12196 @findex RFC 1522 decoding
12197 @findex RFC 2047 decoding
12198 Hook run in the buffer where the mail headers of each message is kept
12199 just before the splitting based on these headers is done. The hook is
12200 free to modify the buffer contents in any way it sees fit---the buffer
12201 is discarded after the splitting has been done, and no changes performed
12202 in the buffer will show up in any files.
12203 @code{gnus-article-decode-encoded-words} is one likely function to add
12206 @vindex nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
12207 @vindex nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
12208 @item nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
12209 @itemx nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
12210 These are two useful hooks executed when treating new incoming
12211 mail---@code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook} (is called just before
12212 starting to handle the new mail) and
12213 @code{nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook} (is called when the mail handling
12214 is done). Here's and example of using these two hooks to change the
12215 default file modes the new mail files get:
12218 (add-hook 'nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
12219 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 511)))
12221 (add-hook 'nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
12222 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 551)))
12225 @item nnmail-use-long-file-names
12226 @vindex nnmail-use-long-file-names
12227 If non-@code{nil}, the mail backends will use long file and directory
12228 names. Groups like @samp{mail.misc} will end up in directories
12229 (assuming use of @code{nnml} backend) or files (assuming use of
12230 @code{nnfolder} backend) like @file{mail.misc}. If it is @code{nil},
12231 the same group will end up in @file{mail/misc}.
12233 @item nnmail-delete-file-function
12234 @vindex nnmail-delete-file-function
12235 @findex delete-file
12236 Function called to delete files. It is @code{delete-file} by default.
12238 @item nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
12239 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
12240 If non-@code{nil}, put the @code{Message-ID}s of articles imported into
12241 the backend (via @code{Gcc}, for instance) into the mail duplication
12242 discovery cache. The default is @code{nil}.
12247 @node Fancy Mail Splitting
12248 @subsection Fancy Mail Splitting
12249 @cindex mail splitting
12250 @cindex fancy mail splitting
12252 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy
12253 @findex nnmail-split-fancy
12254 If the rather simple, standard method for specifying how to split mail
12255 doesn't allow you to do what you want, you can set
12256 @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy}. Then you can
12257 play with the @code{nnmail-split-fancy} variable.
12259 Let's look at an example value of this variable first:
12262 ;; Messages from the mailer daemon are not crossposted to any of
12263 ;; the ordinary groups. Warnings are put in a separate group
12264 ;; from real errors.
12265 (| ("from" mail (| ("subject" "warn.*" "mail.warning")
12267 ;; Non-error messages are crossposted to all relevant
12268 ;; groups, but we don't crosspost between the group for the
12269 ;; (ding) list and the group for other (ding) related mail.
12270 (& (| (any "ding@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "ding.list")
12271 ("subject" "ding" "ding.misc"))
12272 ;; Other mailing lists...
12273 (any "procmail@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "procmail.list")
12274 (any "SmartList@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "SmartList.list")
12275 ;; Both lists below have the same suffix, so prevent
12276 ;; cross-posting to mkpkg.list of messages posted only to
12277 ;; the bugs- list, but allow cross-posting when the
12278 ;; message was really cross-posted.
12279 (any "bugs-mypackage@@somewhere" "mypkg.bugs")
12280 (any "mypackage@@somewhere\" - "bugs-mypackage" "mypkg.list")
12282 (any "larsi@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "people.Lars_Magne_Ingebrigtsen"))
12283 ;; Unmatched mail goes to the catch all group.
12287 This variable has the format of a @dfn{split}. A split is a (possibly)
12288 recursive structure where each split may contain other splits. Here are
12289 the five possible split syntaxes:
12294 @samp{group}: If the split is a string, that will be taken as a group
12295 name. Normal regexp match expansion will be done. See below for
12299 @code{(@var{field} @var{value} @code{[-} @var{restrict}
12300 @code{[@dots{}]}@code{]} @var{split})}: If the split is a list, the
12301 first element of which is a string, then store the message as
12302 specified by @var{split}, if header @var{field} (a regexp) contains
12303 @var{value} (also a regexp). If @var{restrict} (yet another regexp)
12304 matches some string after @var{field} and before the end of the
12305 matched @var{value}, the @var{split} is ignored. If none of the
12306 @var{restrict} clauses match, @var{split} is processed.
12309 @code{(| @var{split}@dots{})}: If the split is a list, and the first
12310 element is @code{|} (vertical bar), then process each @var{split} until
12311 one of them matches. A @var{split} is said to match if it will cause
12312 the mail message to be stored in one or more groups.
12315 @code{(& @var{split}@dots{})}: If the split is a list, and the first
12316 element is @code{&}, then process all @var{split}s in the list.
12319 @code{junk}: If the split is the symbol @code{junk}, then don't save
12320 this message. Use with extreme caution.
12323 @code{(: @var{function} @var{arg1} @var{arg2} @dots{})}: If the split is
12324 a list, and the first element is @code{:}, then the second element will
12325 be called as a function with @var{args} given as arguments. The
12326 function should return a @var{split}.
12329 For instance, the following function could be used to split based on the
12330 body of the messages:
12333 (defun split-on-body ()
12335 (set-buffer " *nnmail incoming*")
12336 (goto-char (point-min))
12337 (when (re-search-forward "Some.*string" nil t)
12341 The @samp{" *nnmail incoming*"} is narrowed to the message in question
12342 when the @code{:} function is run.
12345 @code{(! @var{func} @var{split})}: If the split is a list, and the first
12346 element is @code{!}, then SPLIT will be processed, and FUNC will be
12347 called as a function with the result of SPLIT as argument. FUNC should
12351 @code{nil}: If the split is @code{nil}, it is ignored.
12355 In these splits, @var{field} must match a complete field name.
12356 @var{value} must match a complete word according to the fundamental mode
12357 syntax table. You can use @code{.*} in the regexps to match partial
12358 field names or words. In other words, all @var{value}'s are wrapped in
12359 @samp{\<} and @samp{\>} pairs.
12361 @vindex nnmail-split-abbrev-alist
12362 @var{field} and @var{value} can also be lisp symbols, in that case they
12363 are expanded as specified by the variable
12364 @code{nnmail-split-abbrev-alist}. This is an alist of cons cells, where
12365 the @code{car} of a cell contains the key, and the @code{cdr} contains the associated
12368 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table
12369 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table} is the syntax table in effect
12370 when all this splitting is performed.
12372 If you want to have Gnus create groups dynamically based on some
12373 information in the headers (i.e., do @code{replace-match}-like
12374 substitutions in the group names), you can say things like:
12377 (any "debian-\\b\\(\\w+\\)@@lists.debian.org" "mail.debian.\\1")
12380 In this example, messages sent to @samp{debian-foo@@lists.debian.org}
12381 will be filed in @samp{mail.debian.foo}.
12383 If the string contains the element @samp{\&}, then the previously
12384 matched string will be substituted. Similarly, the elements @samp{\\1}
12385 up to @samp{\\9} will be substituted with the text matched by the
12386 groupings 1 through 9.
12388 @findex nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent
12389 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} is a function which allows you to
12390 split followups into the same groups their parents are in. Sometimes
12391 you can't make splitting rules for all your mail. For example, your
12392 boss might send you personal mail regarding different projects you are
12393 working on, and as you can't tell your boss to put a distinguishing
12394 string into the subject line, you have to resort to manually moving the
12395 messages into the right group. With this function, you only have to do
12396 it once per thread.
12398 To use this feature, you have to set @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} to a
12399 non-nil value. And then you can include
12400 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} using the colon feature, like so:
12402 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
12403 '(| (: nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent)
12404 ;; other splits go here
12408 This feature works as follows: when @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} is
12409 non-nil, Gnus records the message id of every message it sees in the
12410 file specified by the variable @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file},
12411 together with the group it is in (the group is omitted for non-mail
12412 messages). When mail splitting is invoked, the function
12413 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} then looks at the References (and
12414 In-Reply-To) header of each message to split and searches the file
12415 specified by @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file} for the message ids.
12416 When it has found a parent, it returns the corresponding group name
12417 unless the group name matches the regexp
12418 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent-ignore-groups}. It is recommended
12419 that you set @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length} to a somewhat higher
12420 number than the default so that the message ids are still in the cache.
12421 (A value of 5000 appears to create a file some 300 kBytes in size.)
12422 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
12423 When @code{nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus
12424 also records the message ids of moved articles, so that the followup
12425 messages goes into the new group.
12428 @node Group Mail Splitting
12429 @subsection Group Mail Splitting
12430 @cindex mail splitting
12431 @cindex group mail splitting
12433 @findex gnus-group-split
12434 If you subscribe to dozens of mailing lists but you don't want to
12435 maintain mail splitting rules manually, group mail splitting is for you.
12436 You just have to set @var{to-list} and/or @var{to-address} in group
12437 parameters or group customization and set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to
12438 @code{gnus-group-split}. This splitting function will scan all groups
12439 for those parameters and split mail accordingly, i.e., messages posted
12440 from or to the addresses specified in the parameters @var{to-list} or
12441 @var{to-address} of a mail group will be stored in that group.
12443 Sometimes, mailing lists have multiple addresses, and you may want mail
12444 splitting to recognize them all: just set the @var{extra-aliases} group
12445 parameter to the list of additional addresses and it's done. If you'd
12446 rather use a regular expression, set @var{split-regexp}.
12448 All these parameters in a group will be used to create an
12449 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split, in which the @var{field} is @samp{any},
12450 the @var{value} is a single regular expression that matches
12451 @var{to-list}, @var{to-address}, all of @var{extra-aliases} and all
12452 matches of @var{split-regexp}, and the @var{split} is the name of the
12453 group. @var{restrict}s are also supported: just set the
12454 @var{split-exclude} parameter to a list of regular expressions.
12456 If you can't get the right split to be generated using all these
12457 parameters, or you just need something fancier, you can set the
12458 parameter @var{split-spec} to an @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split. In
12459 this case, all other aforementioned parameters will be ignored by
12460 @code{gnus-group-split}. In particular, @var{split-spec} may be set to
12461 @code{nil}, in which case the group will be ignored by
12462 @code{gnus-group-split}.
12464 @vindex gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group
12465 @code{gnus-group-split} will do cross-posting on all groups that match,
12466 by defining a single @code{&} fancy split containing one split for each
12467 group. If a message doesn't match any split, it will be stored in the
12468 group named in @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}, unless
12469 some group has @var{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all}, in which case
12470 that group is used as the catch-all group. Even though this variable is
12471 often used just to name a group, it may also be set to an arbitrarily
12472 complex fancy split (after all, a group name is a fancy split), and this
12473 may be useful to split mail that doesn't go to any mailing list to
12474 personal mail folders. Note that this fancy split is added as the last
12475 element of a @code{|} split list that also contains a @code{&} split
12476 with the rules extracted from group parameters.
12478 It's time for an example. Assume the following group parameters have
12483 ((to-address . "bar@@femail.com")
12484 (split-regexp . ".*@@femail\\.com"))
12486 ((to-list . "foo@@nowhere.gov")
12487 (extra-aliases "foo@@localhost" "foo-redist@@home")
12488 (split-exclude "bugs-foo" "rambling-foo")
12489 (admin-address . "foo-request@@nowhere.gov"))
12491 ((split-spec . catch-all))
12494 Setting @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{gnus-group-split} will
12495 behave as if @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been selected and variable
12496 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been set as follows:
12499 (| (& (any "\\(bar@@femail\\.com\\|.*@@femail\\.com\\)" "mail.bar")
12500 (any "\\(foo@@nowhere\\.gov\\|foo@@localhost\\|foo-redist@@home\\)"
12501 - "bugs-foo" - "rambling-foo" "mail.foo"))
12505 @findex gnus-group-split-fancy
12506 If you'd rather not use group splitting for all your mail groups, you
12507 may use it for only some of them, by using @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
12511 (: gnus-mlsplt-fancy GROUPS NO-CROSSPOST CATCH-ALL)
12514 @var{groups} may be a regular expression or a list of group names whose
12515 parameters will be scanned to generate the output split.
12516 @var{no-crosspost} can be used to disable cross-posting; in this case, a
12517 single @code{|} split will be output. @var{catch-all} is the fallback
12518 fancy split, used like @var{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}.
12519 If @var{catch-all} is @code{nil}, or if @var{split-regexp} matches the
12520 empty string in any selected group, no catch-all split will be issued.
12521 Otherwise, if some group has @var{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all},
12522 this group will override the value of the @var{catch-all} argument.
12524 @findex gnus-group-split-setup
12525 Unfortunately, scanning all groups and their parameters can be quite
12526 slow, especially considering that it has to be done for every message.
12527 But don't despair! The function @code{gnus-group-split-setup} can be
12528 used to enable @code{gnus-group-split} in a much more efficient way. It
12529 sets @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy} and sets
12530 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} to the split produced by
12531 @code{gnus-group-split-fancy}. Thus, the group parameters are only
12532 scanned once, no matter how many messages are split.
12534 @findex gnus-group-split-update
12535 However, if you change group parameters, you'd have to update
12536 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} manually. You can do it by running
12537 @code{gnus-group-split-update}. If you'd rather have it updated
12538 automatically, just tell @code{gnus-group-split-setup} to do it for
12539 you. For example, add to your @file{.gnus}:
12542 (gnus-group-split-setup AUTO-UPDATE CATCH-ALL)
12545 If @var{auto-update} is non-@code{nil}, @code{gnus-group-split-update}
12546 will be added to @code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook}, so you won't ever
12547 have to worry about updating @code{nnmail-split-fancy} again. If you
12548 don't omit @var{catch-all} (it's optional, equivalent to @code{nil}),
12549 @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group} will be set to its
12552 @vindex gnus-group-split-updated-hook
12553 Because you may want to change @code{nnmail-split-fancy} after it is set
12554 by @code{gnus-group-split-update}, this function will run
12555 @code{gnus-group-split-updated-hook} just before finishing.
12557 @node Incorporating Old Mail
12558 @subsection Incorporating Old Mail
12559 @cindex incorporating old mail
12560 @cindex import old mail
12562 Most people have lots of old mail stored in various file formats. If
12563 you have set up Gnus to read mail using one of the spiffy Gnus mail
12564 backends, you'll probably wish to have that old mail incorporated into
12567 Doing so can be quite easy.
12569 To take an example: You're reading mail using @code{nnml}
12570 (@pxref{Mail Spool}), and have set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to a
12571 satisfactory value (@pxref{Splitting Mail}). You have an old Unix mbox
12572 file filled with important, but old, mail. You want to move it into
12573 your @code{nnml} groups.
12579 Go to the group buffer.
12582 Type `G f' and give the path to the mbox file when prompted to create an
12583 @code{nndoc} group from the mbox file (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
12586 Type `SPACE' to enter the newly created group.
12589 Type `M P b' to process-mark all articles in this group's buffer
12590 (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
12593 Type `B r' to respool all the process-marked articles, and answer
12594 @samp{nnml} when prompted (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
12597 All the mail messages in the mbox file will now also be spread out over
12598 all your @code{nnml} groups. Try entering them and check whether things
12599 have gone without a glitch. If things look ok, you may consider
12600 deleting the mbox file, but I wouldn't do that unless I was absolutely
12601 sure that all the mail has ended up where it should be.
12603 Respooling is also a handy thing to do if you're switching from one mail
12604 backend to another. Just respool all the mail in the old mail groups
12605 using the new mail backend.
12608 @node Expiring Mail
12609 @subsection Expiring Mail
12610 @cindex article expiry
12612 Traditional mail readers have a tendency to remove mail articles when
12613 you mark them as read, in some way. Gnus takes a fundamentally
12614 different approach to mail reading.
12616 Gnus basically considers mail just to be news that has been received in
12617 a rather peculiar manner. It does not think that it has the power to
12618 actually change the mail, or delete any mail messages. If you enter a
12619 mail group, and mark articles as ``read'', or kill them in some other
12620 fashion, the mail articles will still exist on the system. I repeat:
12621 Gnus will not delete your old, read mail. Unless you ask it to, of
12624 To make Gnus get rid of your unwanted mail, you have to mark the
12625 articles as @dfn{expirable}. This does not mean that the articles will
12626 disappear right away, however. In general, a mail article will be
12627 deleted from your system if, 1) it is marked as expirable, AND 2) it is
12628 more than one week old. If you do not mark an article as expirable, it
12629 will remain on your system until hell freezes over. This bears
12630 repeating one more time, with some spurious capitalizations: IF you do
12631 NOT mark articles as EXPIRABLE, Gnus will NEVER delete those ARTICLES.
12633 @vindex gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
12634 You do not have to mark articles as expirable by hand. Groups that
12635 match the regular expression @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups} will
12636 have all articles that you read marked as expirable automatically. All
12637 articles marked as expirable have an @samp{E} in the first
12638 column in the summary buffer.
12640 By default, if you have auto expiry switched on, Gnus will mark all the
12641 articles you read as expirable, no matter if they were read or unread
12642 before. To avoid having articles marked as read marked as expirable
12643 automatically, you can put something like the following in your
12646 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
12648 (remove-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook
12649 'gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read)
12650 (add-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook 'gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read)
12653 Note that making a group auto-expirable doesn't mean that all read
12654 articles are expired---only the articles marked as expirable
12655 will be expired. Also note that using the @kbd{d} command won't make
12656 articles expirable---only semi-automatic marking of articles as read will
12657 mark the articles as expirable in auto-expirable groups.
12659 Let's say you subscribe to a couple of mailing lists, and you want the
12660 articles you have read to disappear after a while:
12663 (setq gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
12664 "mail.nonsense-list\\|mail.nice-list")
12667 Another way to have auto-expiry happen is to have the element
12668 @code{auto-expire} in the group parameters of the group.
12670 If you use adaptive scoring (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}) and
12671 auto-expiring, you'll have problems. Auto-expiring and adaptive scoring
12672 don't really mix very well.
12674 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait
12675 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable supplies the default time an
12676 expirable article has to live. Gnus starts counting days from when the
12677 message @emph{arrived}, not from when it was sent. The default is seven
12680 Gnus also supplies a function that lets you fine-tune how long articles
12681 are to live, based on what group they are in. Let's say you want to
12682 have one month expiry period in the @samp{mail.private} group, a one day
12683 expiry period in the @samp{mail.junk} group, and a six day expiry period
12686 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
12688 (setq nnmail-expiry-wait-function
12690 (cond ((string= group "mail.private")
12692 ((string= group "mail.junk")
12694 ((string= group "important")
12700 The group names this function is fed are ``unadorned'' group
12701 names---no @samp{nnml:} prefixes and the like.
12703 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable and
12704 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} function can either be a number (not
12705 necessarily an integer) or one of the symbols @code{immediate} or
12708 You can also use the @code{expiry-wait} group parameter to selectively
12709 change the expiry period (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
12711 @vindex nnmail-expiry-target
12712 The normal action taken when expiring articles is to delete them.
12713 However, in some circumstances it might make more sense to move them to
12714 other groups instead of deleting them. The variable @code{nnmail-expiry-target}
12715 (and the @code{expiry-target} group parameter) controls this. The
12716 variable supplies a default value for all groups, which can be
12717 overridden for specific groups by the group parameter.
12718 default value is @code{delete}, but this can also be a string (which
12719 should be the name of the group the message should be moved to), or a
12720 function (which will be called in a buffer narrowed to the message in
12721 question, and with the name of the group being moved from as its
12722 parameter) which should return a target -- either a group name or
12725 Here's an example for specifying a group name:
12727 (setq nnmail-expiry-target "nnml:expired")
12731 @vindex nnmail-keep-last-article
12732 If @code{nnmail-keep-last-article} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will never
12733 expire the final article in a mail newsgroup. This is to make life
12734 easier for procmail users.
12736 @vindex gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups
12737 By the way: That line up there, about Gnus never expiring non-expirable
12738 articles, is a lie. If you put @code{total-expire} in the group
12739 parameters, articles will not be marked as expirable, but all read
12740 articles will be put through the expiry process. Use with extreme
12741 caution. Even more dangerous is the
12742 @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups} variable. All groups that match
12743 this regexp will have all read articles put through the expiry process,
12744 which means that @emph{all} old mail articles in the groups in question
12745 will be deleted after a while. Use with extreme caution, and don't come
12746 crying to me when you discover that the regexp you used matched the
12747 wrong group and all your important mail has disappeared. Be a
12748 @emph{man}! Or a @emph{woman}! Whatever you feel more comfortable
12751 Most people make most of their mail groups total-expirable, though.
12753 @vindex gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire
12754 If @code{gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire} is non-@code{nil}, user marking
12755 commands will not mark an article as expirable, even if the group has
12756 auto-expire turned on.
12760 @subsection Washing Mail
12761 @cindex mail washing
12762 @cindex list server brain damage
12763 @cindex incoming mail treatment
12765 Mailers and list servers are notorious for doing all sorts of really,
12766 really stupid things with mail. ``Hey, RFC 822 doesn't explicitly
12767 prohibit us from adding the string @code{wE aRe ElItE!!!!!1!!} to the
12768 end of all lines passing through our server, so let's do that!!!!1!''
12769 Yes, but RFC 822 wasn't designed to be read by morons. Things that were
12770 considered to be self-evident were not discussed. So. Here we are.
12772 Case in point: The German version of Microsoft Exchange adds @samp{AW:
12773 } to the subjects of replies instead of @samp{Re: }. I could pretend to
12774 be shocked and dismayed by this, but I haven't got the energy. It is to
12777 Gnus provides a plethora of functions for washing articles while
12778 displaying them, but it might be nicer to do the filtering before
12779 storing the mail to disc. For that purpose, we have three hooks and
12780 various functions that can be put in these hooks.
12783 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
12784 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
12785 This hook is called before doing anything with the mail and is meant for
12786 grand, sweeping gestures. It is called in a buffer that contains all
12787 the new, incoming mail. Functions to be used include:
12790 @item nnheader-ms-strip-cr
12791 @findex nnheader-ms-strip-cr
12792 Remove trailing carriage returns from each line. This is default on
12793 Emacs running on MS machines.
12797 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
12798 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
12799 This hook is called narrowed to each header. It can be used when
12800 cleaning up the headers. Functions that can be used include:
12803 @item nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
12804 @findex nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
12805 Clear leading white space that ``helpful'' listservs have added to the
12806 headers to make them look nice. Aaah.
12808 @item nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
12809 @findex nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
12810 Some list servers add an identifier---for example, @samp{(idm)}---to the
12811 beginning of all @code{Subject} headers. I'm sure that's nice for
12812 people who use stone age mail readers. This function will remove
12813 strings that match the @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} regexp, which can
12814 also be a list of regexp. @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} may not contain
12817 For instance, if you want to remove the @samp{(idm)} and the
12818 @samp{nagnagnag} identifiers:
12821 (setq nnmail-list-identifiers
12822 '("(idm)" "nagnagnag"))
12825 This can also be done non-destructively with
12826 @code{gnus-list-identifiers}, @xref{Article Hiding}.
12828 @item nnmail-remove-tabs
12829 @findex nnmail-remove-tabs
12830 Translate all @samp{TAB} characters into @samp{SPACE} characters.
12832 @item nnmail-fix-eudora-headers
12833 @findex nnmail-fix-eudora-headers
12835 Eudora produces broken @code{References} headers, but OK
12836 @code{In-Reply-To} headers. This function will get rid of the
12837 @code{References} headers.
12841 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
12842 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
12843 This hook is called narrowed to each message. Functions to be used
12847 @item article-de-quoted-unreadable
12848 @findex article-de-quoted-unreadable
12849 Decode Quoted Readable encoding.
12856 @subsection Duplicates
12858 @vindex nnmail-treat-duplicates
12859 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-length
12860 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-file
12861 @cindex duplicate mails
12862 If you are a member of a couple of mailing lists, you will sometimes
12863 receive two copies of the same mail. This can be quite annoying, so
12864 @code{nnmail} checks for and treats any duplicates it might find. To do
12865 this, it keeps a cache of old @code{Message-ID}s---
12866 @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}, which is @file{~/.nnmail-cache} by
12867 default. The approximate maximum number of @code{Message-ID}s stored
12868 there is controlled by the @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length}
12869 variable, which is 1000 by default. (So 1000 @code{Message-ID}s will be
12870 stored.) If all this sounds scary to you, you can set
12871 @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} to @code{warn} (which is what it is by
12872 default), and @code{nnmail} won't delete duplicate mails. Instead it
12873 will insert a warning into the head of the mail saying that it thinks
12874 that this is a duplicate of a different message.
12876 This variable can also be a function. If that's the case, the function
12877 will be called from a buffer narrowed to the message in question with
12878 the @code{Message-ID} as a parameter. The function must return either
12879 @code{nil}, @code{warn}, or @code{delete}.
12881 You can turn this feature off completely by setting the variable to
12884 If you want all the duplicate mails to be put into a special
12885 @dfn{duplicates} group, you could do that using the normal mail split
12889 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
12890 '(| ;; Messages duplicates go to a separate group.
12891 ("gnus-warning" "duplicat\\(e\\|ion\\) of message" "duplicate")
12892 ;; Message from daemons, postmaster, and the like to another.
12893 (any mail "mail.misc")
12900 (setq nnmail-split-methods
12901 '(("duplicates" "^Gnus-Warning:.*duplicate")
12906 Here's a neat feature: If you know that the recipient reads her mail
12907 with Gnus, and that she has @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} set to
12908 @code{delete}, you can send her as many insults as you like, just by
12909 using a @code{Message-ID} of a mail that you know that she's already
12910 received. Think of all the fun! She'll never see any of it! Whee!
12913 @node Not Reading Mail
12914 @subsection Not Reading Mail
12916 If you start using any of the mail backends, they have the annoying
12917 habit of assuming that you want to read mail with them. This might not
12918 be unreasonable, but it might not be what you want.
12920 If you set @code{mail-sources} and @code{nnmail-spool-file} to
12921 @code{nil}, none of the backends will ever attempt to read incoming
12922 mail, which should help.
12924 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
12925 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
12926 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
12927 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
12928 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
12929 This might be too much, if, for instance, you are reading mail quite
12930 happily with @code{nnml} and just want to peek at some old @sc{rmail}
12931 file you have stashed away with @code{nnbabyl}. All backends have
12932 variables called backend-@code{get-new-mail}. If you want to disable
12933 the @code{nnbabyl} mail reading, you edit the virtual server for the
12934 group to have a setting where @code{nnbabyl-get-new-mail} to @code{nil}.
12936 All the mail backends will call @code{nn}*@code{-prepare-save-mail-hook}
12937 narrowed to the article to be saved before saving it when reading
12941 @node Choosing a Mail Backend
12942 @subsection Choosing a Mail Backend
12944 Gnus will read the mail spool when you activate a mail group. The mail
12945 file is first copied to your home directory. What happens after that
12946 depends on what format you want to store your mail in.
12948 There are five different mail backends in the standard Gnus, and more
12949 backends are available separately. The mail backend most people use
12950 (because it is the fastest and most flexible) is @code{nnml}
12951 (@pxref{Mail Spool}).
12954 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
12955 * Rmail Babyl:: Emacs programs use the rmail babyl format.
12956 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
12957 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like backend.
12958 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
12959 * Comparing Mail Backends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
12963 @node Unix Mail Box
12964 @subsubsection Unix Mail Box
12966 @cindex unix mail box
12968 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
12969 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
12970 The @dfn{nnmbox} backend will use the standard Un*x mbox file to store
12971 mail. @code{nnmbox} will add extra headers to each mail article to say
12972 which group it belongs in.
12974 Virtual server settings:
12977 @item nnmbox-mbox-file
12978 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
12979 The name of the mail box in the user's home directory. Default is
12982 @item nnmbox-active-file
12983 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
12984 The name of the active file for the mail box. Default is
12985 @file{~/.mbox-active}.
12987 @item nnmbox-get-new-mail
12988 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
12989 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmbox} will read incoming mail and split it
12990 into groups. Default is @code{t}.
12995 @subsubsection Rmail Babyl
12999 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
13000 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
13001 The @dfn{nnbabyl} backend will use a babyl mail box (aka. @dfn{rmail
13002 mbox}) to store mail. @code{nnbabyl} will add extra headers to each
13003 mail article to say which group it belongs in.
13005 Virtual server settings:
13008 @item nnbabyl-mbox-file
13009 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
13010 The name of the rmail mbox file. The default is @file{~/RMAIL}
13012 @item nnbabyl-active-file
13013 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
13014 The name of the active file for the rmail box. The default is
13015 @file{~/.rmail-active}
13017 @item nnbabyl-get-new-mail
13018 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
13019 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnbabyl} will read incoming mail. Default is
13025 @subsubsection Mail Spool
13027 @cindex mail @sc{nov} spool
13029 The @dfn{nnml} spool mail format isn't compatible with any other known
13030 format. It should be used with some caution.
13032 @vindex nnml-directory
13033 If you use this backend, Gnus will split all incoming mail into files,
13034 one file for each mail, and put the articles into the corresponding
13035 directories under the directory specified by the @code{nnml-directory}
13036 variable. The default value is @file{~/Mail/}.
13038 You do not have to create any directories beforehand; Gnus will take
13041 If you have a strict limit as to how many files you are allowed to store
13042 in your account, you should not use this backend. As each mail gets its
13043 own file, you might very well occupy thousands of inodes within a few
13044 weeks. If this is no problem for you, and it isn't a problem for you
13045 having your friendly systems administrator walking around, madly,
13046 shouting ``Who is eating all my inodes?! Who? Who!?!'', then you should
13047 know that this is probably the fastest format to use. You do not have
13048 to trudge through a big mbox file just to read your new mail.
13050 @code{nnml} is probably the slowest backend when it comes to article
13051 splitting. It has to create lots of files, and it also generates
13052 @sc{nov} databases for the incoming mails. This makes it the fastest
13053 backend when it comes to reading mail.
13055 Virtual server settings:
13058 @item nnml-directory
13059 @vindex nnml-directory
13060 All @code{nnml} directories will be placed under this directory.
13061 The default is the value of `message-directory' (whose default value is
13064 @item nnml-active-file
13065 @vindex nnml-active-file
13066 The active file for the @code{nnml} server. The default is
13067 @file{~/Mail/active"}.
13069 @item nnml-newsgroups-file
13070 @vindex nnml-newsgroups-file
13071 The @code{nnml} group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
13072 Format}. The default is @file{~/Mail/newsgroups"}.
13074 @item nnml-get-new-mail
13075 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
13076 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will read incoming mail. The default is
13079 @item nnml-nov-is-evil
13080 @vindex nnml-nov-is-evil
13081 If non-@code{nil}, this backend will ignore any @sc{nov} files. The
13082 default is @code{nil}
13084 @item nnml-nov-file-name
13085 @vindex nnml-nov-file-name
13086 The name of the @sc{nov} files. The default is @file{.overview}.
13088 @item nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
13089 @vindex nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
13090 Hook run narrowed to an article before saving.
13094 @findex nnml-generate-nov-databases
13095 If your @code{nnml} groups and @sc{nov} files get totally out of whack,
13096 you can do a complete update by typing @kbd{M-x
13097 nnml-generate-nov-databases}. This command will trawl through the
13098 entire @code{nnml} hierarchy, looking at each and every article, so it
13099 might take a while to complete. A better interface to this
13100 functionality can be found in the server buffer (@pxref{Server
13105 @subsubsection MH Spool
13107 @cindex mh-e mail spool
13109 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, except that is doesn't generate
13110 @sc{nov} databases and it doesn't keep an active file. This makes
13111 @code{nnmh} a @emph{much} slower backend than @code{nnml}, but it also
13112 makes it easier to write procmail scripts for.
13114 Virtual server settings:
13117 @item nnmh-directory
13118 @vindex nnmh-directory
13119 All @code{nnmh} directories will be located under this directory. The
13120 default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default is
13123 @item nnmh-get-new-mail
13124 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
13125 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will read incoming mail. The default is
13129 @vindex nnmh-be-safe
13130 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will go to ridiculous lengths to make
13131 sure that the articles in the folder are actually what Gnus thinks they
13132 are. It will check date stamps and stat everything in sight, so
13133 setting this to @code{t} will mean a serious slow-down. If you never
13134 use anything but Gnus to read the @code{nnmh} articles, you do not have
13135 to set this variable to @code{t}. The default is @code{nil}.
13140 @subsubsection Mail Folders
13142 @cindex mbox folders
13143 @cindex mail folders
13145 @code{nnfolder} is a backend for storing each mail group in a separate
13146 file. Each file is in the standard Un*x mbox format. @code{nnfolder}
13147 will add extra headers to keep track of article numbers and arrival
13150 Virtual server settings:
13153 @item nnfolder-directory
13154 @vindex nnfolder-directory
13155 All the @code{nnfolder} mail boxes will be stored under this directory.
13156 The default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default is
13159 @item nnfolder-active-file
13160 @vindex nnfolder-active-file
13161 The name of the active file. The default is @file{~/Mail/active}.
13163 @item nnfolder-newsgroups-file
13164 @vindex nnfolder-newsgroups-file
13165 The name of the group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
13166 Format}. The default is @file{~/Mail/newsgroups"}
13168 @item nnfolder-get-new-mail
13169 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
13170 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnfolder} will read incoming mail. The default
13173 @item nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
13174 @vindex nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
13175 @cindex backup files
13176 Hook run before saving the folders. Note that Emacs does the normal
13177 backup renaming of files even with the @code{nnfolder} buffers. If you
13178 wish to switch this off, you could say something like the following in
13179 your @file{.emacs} file:
13182 (defun turn-off-backup ()
13183 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
13185 (add-hook 'nnfolder-save-buffer-hook 'turn-off-backup)
13188 @item nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
13189 @vindex nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
13190 Hook run in a buffer narrowed to the message that is to be deleted.
13191 This function can be used to copy the message to somewhere else, or to
13192 extract some information from it before removing it.
13194 @item nnfolder-nov-is-evil
13195 @vindex nnfolder-nov-is-evil
13196 If non-@code{nil}, this backend will ignore any @sc{nov} files. The
13197 default is @code{nil}.
13202 @findex nnfolder-generate-active-file
13203 @kindex M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file
13204 If you have lots of @code{nnfolder}-like files you'd like to read with
13205 @code{nnfolder}, you can use the @kbd{M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file}
13206 command to make @code{nnfolder} aware of all likely files in
13207 @code{nnfolder-directory}. This only works if you use long file names,
13210 @node Comparing Mail Backends
13211 @subsubsection Comparing Mail Backends
13213 First, just for terminology, the @dfn{backend} is the common word for a
13214 low-level access method---a transport, if you will, by which something
13215 is acquired. The sense is that one's mail has to come from somewhere,
13216 and so selection of a suitable backend is required in order to get that
13217 mail within spitting distance of Gnus.
13219 The same concept exists for Usenet itself: Though access to articles is
13220 typically done by @sc{nntp} these days, once upon a midnight dreary, everyone
13221 in the world got at Usenet by running a reader on the machine where the
13222 articles lay (the machine which today we call an @sc{nntp} server), and
13223 access was by the reader stepping into the articles' directory spool
13224 area directly. One can still select between either the @code{nntp} or
13225 @code{nnspool} backends, to select between these methods, if one happens
13226 actually to live on the server (or can see its spool directly, anyway,
13229 The goal in selecting a mail backend is to pick one which
13230 simultaneously represents a suitable way of dealing with the original
13231 format plus leaving mail in a form that is convenient to use in the
13232 future. Here are some high and low points on each:
13237 UNIX systems have historically had a single, very common, and well-
13238 defined format. All messages arrive in a single @dfn{spool file}, and
13239 they are delineated by a line whose regular expression matches
13240 @samp{^From_}. (My notational use of @samp{_} is to indicate a space,
13241 to make it clear in this instance that this is not the RFC-specified
13242 @samp{From:} header.) Because Emacs and therefore Gnus emanate
13243 historically from the Unix environment, it is simplest if one does not
13244 mess a great deal with the original mailbox format, so if one chooses
13245 this backend, Gnus' primary activity in getting mail from the real spool
13246 area to Gnus' preferred directory is simply to copy it, with no
13247 (appreciable) format change in the process. It is the ``dumbest'' way
13248 to move mail into availability in the Gnus environment. This makes it
13249 fast to move into place, but slow to parse, when Gnus has to look at
13254 Once upon a time, there was the DEC-10 and DEC-20, running operating
13255 systems called TOPS and related things, and the usual (only?) mail
13256 reading environment was a thing called Babyl. I don't know what format
13257 was used for mail landing on the system, but Babyl had its own internal
13258 format to which mail was converted, primarily involving creating a
13259 spool-file-like entity with a scheme for inserting Babyl-specific
13260 headers and status bits above the top of each message in the file.
13261 RMAIL was Emacs' first mail reader, it was written by Richard Stallman,
13262 and Stallman came out of that TOPS/Babyl environment, so he wrote RMAIL
13263 to understand the mail files folks already had in existence. Gnus (and
13264 VM, for that matter) continue to support this format because it's
13265 perceived as having some good qualities in those mailer-specific
13266 headers/status bits stuff. RMAIL itself still exists as well, of
13267 course, and is still maintained by Stallman.
13269 Both of the above forms leave your mail in a single file on your
13270 filesystem, and they must parse that entire file each time you take a
13275 @code{nnml} is the backend which smells the most as though you were
13276 actually operating with an @code{nnspool}-accessed Usenet system. (In
13277 fact, I believe @code{nnml} actually derived from @code{nnspool} code,
13278 lo these years ago.) One's mail is taken from the original spool file,
13279 and is then cut up into individual message files, 1:1. It maintains a
13280 Usenet-style active file (analogous to what one finds in an INN- or
13281 CNews-based news system in (for instance) @file{/var/lib/news/active},
13282 or what is returned via the @samp{NNTP LIST} verb) and also creates
13283 @dfn{overview} files for efficient group entry, as has been defined for
13284 @sc{nntp} servers for some years now. It is slower in mail-splitting,
13285 due to the creation of lots of files, updates to the @code{nnml} active
13286 file, and additions to overview files on a per-message basis, but it is
13287 extremely fast on access because of what amounts to the indexing support
13288 provided by the active file and overviews.
13290 @code{nnml} costs @dfn{inodes} in a big way; that is, it soaks up the
13291 resource which defines available places in the filesystem to put new
13292 files. Sysadmins take a dim view of heavy inode occupation within
13293 tight, shared filesystems. But if you live on a personal machine where
13294 the filesystem is your own and space is not at a premium, @code{nnml}
13297 It is also problematic using this backend if you are living in a
13298 FAT16-based Windows world, since much space will be wasted on all these
13303 The Rand MH mail-reading system has been around UNIX systems for a very
13304 long time; it operates by splitting one's spool file of messages into
13305 individual files, but with little or no indexing support -- @code{nnmh}
13306 is considered to be semantically equivalent to ``@code{nnml} without
13307 active file or overviews''. This is arguably the worst choice, because
13308 one gets the slowness of individual file creation married to the
13309 slowness of access parsing when learning what's new in one's groups.
13313 Basically the effect of @code{nnfolder} is @code{nnmbox} (the first
13314 method described above) on a per-group basis. That is, @code{nnmbox}
13315 itself puts *all* one's mail in one file; @code{nnfolder} provides a
13316 little bit of optimization to this so that each of one's mail groups has
13317 a Unix mail box file. It's faster than @code{nnmbox} because each group
13318 can be parsed separately, and still provides the simple Unix mail box
13319 format requiring minimal effort in moving the mail around. In addition,
13320 it maintains an ``active'' file making it much faster for Gnus to figure
13321 out how many messages there are in each separate group.
13323 If you have groups that are expected to have a massive amount of
13324 messages, @code{nnfolder} is not the best choice, but if you receive
13325 only a moderate amount of mail, @code{nnfolder} is probably the most
13326 friendly mail backend all over.
13331 @node Browsing the Web
13332 @section Browsing the Web
13334 @cindex browsing the web
13338 Web-based discussion forums are getting more and more popular. On many
13339 subjects, the web-based forums have become the most important forums,
13340 eclipsing the importance of mailing lists and news groups. The reason
13341 is easy to understand---they are friendly to new users; you just point
13342 and click, and there's the discussion. With mailing lists, you have to
13343 go through a cumbersome subscription procedure, and most people don't
13344 even know what a news group is.
13346 The problem with this scenario is that web browsers are not very good at
13347 being newsreaders. They do not keep track of what articles you've read;
13348 they do not allow you to score on subjects you're interested in; they do
13349 not allow off-line browsing; they require you to click around and drive
13350 you mad in the end.
13352 So---if web browsers suck at reading discussion forums, why not use Gnus
13355 Gnus has been getting a bit of a collection of backends for providing
13356 interfaces to these sources.
13359 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
13360 * Slashdot:: Reading the Slashdot comments.
13361 * Ultimate:: The Ultimate Bulletin Board systems.
13362 * Web Archive:: Reading mailing list archived on web.
13363 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
13364 * Customizing w3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/w3 from Gnus.
13367 All the web sources require Emacs/w3 and the url library to work.
13369 The main caveat with all these web sources is that they probably won't
13370 work for a very long time. Gleaning information from the @sc{html} data
13371 is guesswork at best, and when the layout is altered, the Gnus backend
13372 will fail. If you have reasonably new versions of these backends,
13373 though, you should be ok.
13375 One thing all these Web methods have in common is that the Web sources
13376 are often down, unavailable or just plain too slow to be fun. In those
13377 cases, it makes a lot of sense to let the Gnus Agent (@pxref{Gnus
13378 Unplugged}) handle downloading articles, and then you can read them at
13379 leisure from your local disk. No more World Wide Wait for you.
13383 @subsection Web Searches
13387 @cindex InReference
13388 @cindex Usenet searches
13389 @cindex searching the Usenet
13391 It's, like, too neat to search the Usenet for articles that match a
13392 string, but it, like, totally @emph{sucks}, like, totally, to use one of
13393 those, like, Web browsers, and you, like, have to, rilly, like, look at
13394 the commercials, so, like, with Gnus you can do @emph{rad}, rilly,
13395 searches without having to use a browser.
13397 The @code{nnweb} backend allows an easy interface to the mighty search
13398 engine. You create an @code{nnweb} group, enter a search pattern, and
13399 then enter the group and read the articles like you would any normal
13400 group. The @kbd{G w} command in the group buffer (@pxref{Foreign
13401 Groups}) will do this in an easy-to-use fashion.
13403 @code{nnweb} groups don't really lend themselves to being solid
13404 groups---they have a very fleeting idea of article numbers. In fact,
13405 each time you enter an @code{nnweb} group (not even changing the search
13406 pattern), you are likely to get the articles ordered in a different
13407 manner. Not even using duplicate suppression (@pxref{Duplicate
13408 Suppression}) will help, since @code{nnweb} doesn't even know the
13409 @code{Message-ID} of the articles before reading them using some search
13410 engines (DejaNews, for instance). The only possible way to keep track
13411 of which articles you've read is by scoring on the @code{Date}
13412 header---mark all articles posted before the last date you read the
13415 If the search engine changes its output substantially, @code{nnweb}
13416 won't be able to parse it and will fail. One could hardly fault the Web
13417 providers if they were to do this---their @emph{raison d'être} is to
13418 make money off of advertisements, not to provide services to the
13419 community. Since @code{nnweb} washes the ads off all the articles, one
13420 might think that the providers might be somewhat miffed. We'll see.
13422 You must have the @code{url} and @code{w3} package installed to be able
13423 to use @code{nnweb}.
13425 Virtual server variables:
13430 What search engine type is being used. The currently supported types
13431 are @code{dejanews}, @code{dejanewsold}, @code{altavista} and
13435 @vindex nnweb-search
13436 The search string to feed to the search engine.
13438 @item nnweb-max-hits
13439 @vindex nnweb-max-hits
13440 Advisory maximum number of hits per search to display. The default is
13443 @item nnweb-type-definition
13444 @vindex nnweb-type-definition
13445 Type-to-definition alist. This alist says what @code{nnweb} should do
13446 with the various search engine types. The following elements must be
13451 Function to decode the article and provide something that Gnus
13455 Function to create an article number to message header and URL alist.
13458 Function to send the search string to the search engine.
13461 The address the aforementioned function should send the search string
13465 Format string URL to fetch an article by @code{Message-ID}.
13472 @subsection Slashdot
13476 Slashdot (@uref{http://slashdot.org/}) is a popular news site, with
13477 lively discussion following the news articles. @code{nnslashdot} will
13478 let you read this forum in a convenient manner.
13480 The easiest way to read this source is to put something like the
13481 following in your @file{.gnus.el} file:
13484 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
13485 '((nnslashdot "")))
13488 This will make Gnus query the @code{nnslashdot} backend for new comments
13489 and groups. The @kbd{F} command will subscribe each new news article as
13490 a new Gnus group, and you can read the comments by entering these
13491 groups. (Note that the default subscription method is to subscribe new
13492 groups as zombies. Other methods are available (@pxref{Subscription
13495 If you want to remove an old @code{nnslashdot} group, the @kbd{G DEL}
13496 command is the most handy tool (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
13498 When following up to @code{nnslashdot} comments (or posting new
13499 comments), some light @sc{html}izations will be performed. In
13500 particular, text quoted with @samp{> } will be quoted with
13501 @code{blockquote} instead, and signatures will have @code{br} added to
13502 the end of each line. Other than that, you can just write @sc{html}
13503 directly into the message buffer. Note that Slashdot filters out some
13506 The following variables can be altered to change its behavior:
13509 @item nnslashdot-threaded
13510 Whether @code{nnslashdot} should display threaded groups or not. The
13511 default is @code{t}. To be able to display threads, @code{nnslashdot}
13512 has to retrieve absolutely all comments in a group upon entry. If a
13513 threaded display is not required, @code{nnslashdot} will only retrieve
13514 the comments that are actually wanted by the user. Threading is nicer,
13515 but much, much slower than untreaded.
13517 @item nnslashdot-login-name
13518 @vindex nnslashdot-login-name
13519 The login name to use when posting.
13521 @item nnslashdot-password
13522 @vindex nnslashdot-password
13523 The password to use when posting.
13525 @item nnslashdot-directory
13526 @vindex nnslashdot-directory
13527 Where @code{nnslashdot} will store its files. The default is
13528 @samp{~/News/slashdot/}.
13530 @item nnslashdot-active-url
13531 @vindex nnslashdot-active-url
13532 The @sc{url} format string that will be used to fetch the information on
13533 news articles and comments. The default is
13534 @samp{http://slashdot.org/search.pl?section=&min=%d}.
13536 @item nnslashdot-comments-url
13537 @vindex nnslashdot-comments-url
13538 The @sc{url} format string that will be used to fetch comments. The
13540 @samp{http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=%s&threshold=%d&commentsort=%d&mode=flat&startat=%d}.
13542 @item nnslashdot-article-url
13543 @vindex nnslashdot-article-url
13544 The @sc{url} format string that will be used to fetch the news article. The
13546 @samp{http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=%s&mode=nocomment}.
13548 @item nnslashdot-threshold
13549 @vindex nnslashdot-threshold
13550 The score threshold. The default is -1.
13552 @item nnslashdot-group-number
13553 @vindex nnslashdot-group-number
13554 The number of old groups, in addition to the ten latest, to keep
13555 updated. The default is 0.
13562 @subsection Ultimate
13564 @cindex Ultimate Bulletin Board
13566 The Ultimate Bulletin Board (@uref{http://www.ultimatebb.com/}) is
13567 probably the most popular Web bulletin board system used. It has a
13568 quite regular and nice interface, and it's possible to get the
13569 information Gnus needs to keep groups updated.
13571 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnultimate} is to say
13572 something like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{B nnultimate RET
13573 http://www.tcj.com/messboard/ubbcgi/ RET}. (Substitute the @sc{url}
13574 (not including @samp{Ultimate.cgi} or the like at the end) for a forum
13575 you're interested in; there's quite a list of them on the Ultimate web
13576 site.) Then subscribe to the groups you're interested in from the
13577 server buffer, and read them from the group buffer.
13579 The following @code{nnultimate} variables can be altered:
13582 @item nnultimate-directory
13583 @vindex nnultimate-directory
13584 The directory where @code{nnultimate} stores its files. The default is
13585 @samp{~/News/ultimate/}.
13590 @subsection Web Archive
13592 @cindex Web Archive
13594 Some mailing lists only have archives on Web servers, such as
13595 @uref{http://www.egroups.com/} and
13596 @uref{http://www.mail-archive.com/}. It has a quite regular and nice
13597 interface, and it's possible to get the information Gnus needs to keep
13600 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnwarchive} is to say
13601 something like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{M-x
13602 gnus-group-make-warchive-group RET an_egroup RET egroups RET
13603 www.egroups.com RET your@@email.address RET}. (Substitute the
13604 @sc{an_egroup} with the mailing list you subscribed, the
13605 @sc{your@@email.address} with your email address.), or to browse the
13606 backend by @kbd{B nnwarchive RET mail-archive RET}.
13608 The following @code{nnwarchive} variables can be altered:
13611 @item nnwarchive-directory
13612 @vindex nnwarchive-directory
13613 The directory where @code{nnwarchive} stores its files. The default is
13614 @samp{~/News/warchive/}.
13616 @item nnwarchive-login
13617 @vindex nnwarchive-login
13618 The account name on the web server.
13620 @item nnwarchive-passwd
13621 @vindex nnwarchive-passwd
13622 The password for your account on the web server.
13630 Some sites have RDF site summary (RSS)
13631 @uref{http://purl.org/rss/1.0/spec}. It has a quite regular and nice
13632 interface, and it's possible to get the information Gnus needs to keep
13635 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnrss} is to say something
13636 like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{B nnrss RET RET}, then
13639 The following @code{nnrss} variables can be altered:
13642 @item nnrss-directory
13643 @vindex nnrss-directory
13644 The directory where @code{nnrss} stores its files. The default is
13645 @samp{~/News/rss/}.
13649 The following code may be helpful, if you want to show the description in
13650 the summary buffer.
13653 (add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers nnrss-description-field)
13654 (setq gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-15,15f%]%) %s%uX\n")
13656 (defun gnus-user-format-function-X (header)
13658 (assq nnrss-description-field (mail-header-extra header))))
13659 (if descr (concat "\n\t" (cdr descr)) "")))
13662 The following code may be useful to open an nnrss url directly from the
13665 (require 'browse-url)
13667 (defun browse-nnrss-url( arg )
13669 (let ((url (assq nnrss-url-field
13672 (assq (gnus-summary-article-number)
13673 gnus-newsgroup-data))))))
13675 (browse-url (cdr url))
13676 (gnus-summary-scroll-up arg))))
13678 (eval-after-load "gnus"
13679 #'(define-key gnus-summary-mode-map
13680 (kbd "<RET>") 'browse-nnrss-url))
13681 (add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers nnrss-url-field)
13684 @node Customizing w3
13685 @subsection Customizing w3
13691 Gnus uses the url library to fetch web pages and Emacs/w3 to display web
13692 pages. Emacs/w3 is documented in its own manual, but there are some
13693 things that may be more relevant for Gnus users.
13695 For instance, a common question is how to make Emacs/w3 follow links
13696 using the @code{browse-url} functions (which will call some external web
13697 browser like Netscape). Here's one way:
13700 (eval-after-load "w3"
13702 (fset 'w3-fetch-orig (symbol-function 'w3-fetch))
13703 (defun w3-fetch (&optional url target)
13704 (interactive (list (w3-read-url-with-default)))
13705 (if (eq major-mode 'gnus-article-mode)
13707 (w3-fetch-orig url target)))))
13710 Put that in your @file{.emacs} file, and hitting links in w3-rendered
13711 @sc{html} in the Gnus article buffers will use @code{browse-url} to
13715 @node Other Sources
13716 @section Other Sources
13718 Gnus can do more than just read news or mail. The methods described
13719 below allow Gnus to view directories and files as if they were
13723 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
13724 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
13725 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
13726 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{soup} packets ``offline''.
13727 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
13728 * IMAP:: Using Gnus as a @sc{imap} client.
13732 @node Directory Groups
13733 @subsection Directory Groups
13735 @cindex directory groups
13737 If you have a directory that has lots of articles in separate files in
13738 it, you might treat it as a newsgroup. The files have to have numerical
13741 This might be an opportune moment to mention @code{ange-ftp} (and its
13742 successor @code{efs}), that most wonderful of all wonderful Emacs
13743 packages. When I wrote @code{nndir}, I didn't think much about it---a
13744 backend to read directories. Big deal.
13746 @code{ange-ftp} changes that picture dramatically. For instance, if you
13747 enter the @code{ange-ftp} file name
13748 @file{/ftp.hpc.uh.edu:/pub/emacs/ding-list/} as the directory name,
13749 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs} will actually allow you to read this
13750 directory over at @samp{sina} as a newsgroup. Distributed news ahoy!
13752 @code{nndir} will use @sc{nov} files if they are present.
13754 @code{nndir} is a ``read-only'' backend---you can't delete or expire
13755 articles with this method. You can use @code{nnmh} or @code{nnml} for
13756 whatever you use @code{nndir} for, so you could switch to any of those
13757 methods if you feel the need to have a non-read-only @code{nndir}.
13760 @node Anything Groups
13761 @subsection Anything Groups
13764 From the @code{nndir} backend (which reads a single spool-like
13765 directory), it's just a hop and a skip to @code{nneething}, which
13766 pretends that any arbitrary directory is a newsgroup. Strange, but
13769 When @code{nneething} is presented with a directory, it will scan this
13770 directory and assign article numbers to each file. When you enter such
13771 a group, @code{nneething} must create ``headers'' that Gnus can use.
13772 After all, Gnus is a newsreader, in case you're forgetting.
13773 @code{nneething} does this in a two-step process. First, it snoops each
13774 file in question. If the file looks like an article (i.e., the first
13775 few lines look like headers), it will use this as the head. If this is
13776 just some arbitrary file without a head (e.g. a C source file),
13777 @code{nneething} will cobble up a header out of thin air. It will use
13778 file ownership, name and date and do whatever it can with these
13781 All this should happen automatically for you, and you will be presented
13782 with something that looks very much like a newsgroup. Totally like a
13783 newsgroup, to be precise. If you select an article, it will be displayed
13784 in the article buffer, just as usual.
13786 If you select a line that represents a directory, Gnus will pop you into
13787 a new summary buffer for this @code{nneething} group. And so on. You can
13788 traverse the entire disk this way, if you feel like, but remember that
13789 Gnus is not dired, really, and does not intend to be, either.
13791 There are two overall modes to this action---ephemeral or solid. When
13792 doing the ephemeral thing (i.e., @kbd{G D} from the group buffer), Gnus
13793 will not store information on what files you have read, and what files
13794 are new, and so on. If you create a solid @code{nneething} group the
13795 normal way with @kbd{G m}, Gnus will store a mapping table between
13796 article numbers and file names, and you can treat this group like any
13797 other groups. When you activate a solid @code{nneething} group, you will
13798 be told how many unread articles it contains, etc., etc.
13803 @item nneething-map-file-directory
13804 @vindex nneething-map-file-directory
13805 All the mapping files for solid @code{nneething} groups will be stored
13806 in this directory, which defaults to @file{~/.nneething/}.
13808 @item nneething-exclude-files
13809 @vindex nneething-exclude-files
13810 All files that match this regexp will be ignored. Nice to use to exclude
13811 auto-save files and the like, which is what it does by default.
13813 @item nneething-include-files
13814 @vindex nneething-include-files
13815 Regexp saying what files to include in the group. If this variable is
13816 non-@code{nil}, only files matching this regexp will be included.
13818 @item nneething-map-file
13819 @vindex nneething-map-file
13820 Name of the map files.
13824 @node Document Groups
13825 @subsection Document Groups
13827 @cindex documentation group
13830 @code{nndoc} is a cute little thing that will let you read a single file
13831 as a newsgroup. Several files types are supported:
13838 The babyl (rmail) mail box.
13843 The standard Unix mbox file.
13845 @cindex MMDF mail box
13847 The MMDF mail box format.
13850 Several news articles appended into a file.
13853 @cindex rnews batch files
13854 The rnews batch transport format.
13855 @cindex forwarded messages
13858 Forwarded articles.
13861 Netscape mail boxes.
13864 MIME multipart messages.
13866 @item standard-digest
13867 The standard (RFC 1153) digest format.
13870 Non-standard digest format---matches most things, but does it badly.
13873 You can also use the special ``file type'' @code{guess}, which means
13874 that @code{nndoc} will try to guess what file type it is looking at.
13875 @code{digest} means that @code{nndoc} should guess what digest type the
13878 @code{nndoc} will not try to change the file or insert any extra headers into
13879 it---it will simply, like, let you use the file as the basis for a
13880 group. And that's it.
13882 If you have some old archived articles that you want to insert into your
13883 new & spiffy Gnus mail backend, @code{nndoc} can probably help you with
13884 that. Say you have an old @file{RMAIL} file with mail that you now want
13885 to split into your new @code{nnml} groups. You look at that file using
13886 @code{nndoc} (using the @kbd{G f} command in the group buffer
13887 (@pxref{Foreign Groups})), set the process mark on all the articles in
13888 the buffer (@kbd{M P b}, for instance), and then re-spool (@kbd{B r})
13889 using @code{nnml}. If all goes well, all the mail in the @file{RMAIL}
13890 file is now also stored in lots of @code{nnml} directories, and you can
13891 delete that pesky @file{RMAIL} file. If you have the guts!
13893 Virtual server variables:
13896 @item nndoc-article-type
13897 @vindex nndoc-article-type
13898 This should be one of @code{mbox}, @code{babyl}, @code{digest},
13899 @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward}, @code{rfc934},
13900 @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-parts}, @code{standard-digest},
13901 @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs}, @code{nsmail} or @code{guess}.
13903 @item nndoc-post-type
13904 @vindex nndoc-post-type
13905 This variable says whether Gnus is to consider the group a news group or
13906 a mail group. There are two valid values: @code{mail} (the default)
13911 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
13915 @node Document Server Internals
13916 @subsubsection Document Server Internals
13918 Adding new document types to be recognized by @code{nndoc} isn't
13919 difficult. You just have to whip up a definition of what the document
13920 looks like, write a predicate function to recognize that document type,
13921 and then hook into @code{nndoc}.
13923 First, here's an example document type definition:
13927 (article-begin . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n")
13928 (body-end . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n"))
13931 The definition is simply a unique @dfn{name} followed by a series of
13932 regexp pseudo-variable settings. Below are the possible
13933 variables---don't be daunted by the number of variables; most document
13934 types can be defined with very few settings:
13937 @item first-article
13938 If present, @code{nndoc} will skip past all text until it finds
13939 something that match this regexp. All text before this will be
13942 @item article-begin
13943 This setting has to be present in all document type definitions. It
13944 says what the beginning of each article looks like.
13946 @item head-begin-function
13947 If present, this should be a function that moves point to the head of
13950 @item nndoc-head-begin
13951 If present, this should be a regexp that matches the head of the
13954 @item nndoc-head-end
13955 This should match the end of the head of the article. It defaults to
13956 @samp{^$}---the empty line.
13958 @item body-begin-function
13959 If present, this function should move point to the beginning of the body
13963 This should match the beginning of the body of the article. It defaults
13966 @item body-end-function
13967 If present, this function should move point to the end of the body of
13971 If present, this should match the end of the body of the article.
13974 If present, this should match the end of the file. All text after this
13975 regexp will be totally ignored.
13979 So, using these variables @code{nndoc} is able to dissect a document
13980 file into a series of articles, each with a head and a body. However, a
13981 few more variables are needed since not all document types are all that
13982 news-like---variables needed to transform the head or the body into
13983 something that's palatable for Gnus:
13986 @item prepare-body-function
13987 If present, this function will be called when requesting an article. It
13988 will be called with point at the start of the body, and is useful if the
13989 document has encoded some parts of its contents.
13991 @item article-transform-function
13992 If present, this function is called when requesting an article. It's
13993 meant to be used for more wide-ranging transformation of both head and
13994 body of the article.
13996 @item generate-head-function
13997 If present, this function is called to generate a head that Gnus can
13998 understand. It is called with the article number as a parameter, and is
13999 expected to generate a nice head for the article in question. It is
14000 called when requesting the headers of all articles.
14004 Let's look at the most complicated example I can come up with---standard
14009 (first-article . ,(concat "^" (make-string 70 ?-) "\n\n+"))
14010 (article-begin . ,(concat "\n\n" (make-string 30 ?-) "\n\n+"))
14011 (prepare-body-function . nndoc-unquote-dashes)
14012 (body-end-function . nndoc-digest-body-end)
14013 (head-end . "^ ?$")
14014 (body-begin . "^ ?\n")
14015 (file-end . "^End of .*digest.*[0-9].*\n\\*\\*\\|^End of.*Digest *$")
14016 (subtype digest guess))
14019 We see that all text before a 70-width line of dashes is ignored; all
14020 text after a line that starts with that @samp{^End of} is also ignored;
14021 each article begins with a 30-width line of dashes; the line separating
14022 the head from the body may contain a single space; and that the body is
14023 run through @code{nndoc-unquote-dashes} before being delivered.
14025 To hook your own document definition into @code{nndoc}, use the
14026 @code{nndoc-add-type} function. It takes two parameters---the first is
14027 the definition itself and the second (optional) parameter says where in
14028 the document type definition alist to put this definition. The alist is
14029 traversed sequentially, and @code{nndoc-TYPE-type-p} is called for a given type @code{TYPE}. So @code{nndoc-mmdf-type-p} is called to see whether a document
14030 is of @code{mmdf} type, and so on. These type predicates should return
14031 @code{nil} if the document is not of the correct type; @code{t} if it is
14032 of the correct type; and a number if the document might be of the
14033 correct type. A high number means high probability; a low number means
14034 low probability with @samp{0} being the lowest valid number.
14042 In the PC world people often talk about ``offline'' newsreaders. These
14043 are thingies that are combined reader/news transport monstrosities.
14044 With built-in modem programs. Yecchh!
14046 Of course, us Unix Weenie types of human beans use things like
14047 @code{uucp} and, like, @code{nntpd} and set up proper news and mail
14048 transport things like Ghod intended. And then we just use normal
14051 However, it can sometimes be convenient to do something that's a bit
14052 easier on the brain if you have a very slow modem, and you're not really
14053 that interested in doing things properly.
14055 A file format called @sc{soup} has been developed for transporting news
14056 and mail from servers to home machines and back again. It can be a bit
14059 First some terminology:
14064 This is the machine that is connected to the outside world and where you
14065 get news and/or mail from.
14068 This is the machine that you want to do the actual reading and responding
14069 on. It is typically not connected to the rest of the world in any way.
14072 Something that contains messages and/or commands. There are two kinds
14076 @item message packets
14077 These are packets made at the server, and typically contain lots of
14078 messages for you to read. These are called @file{SoupoutX.tgz} by
14079 default, where @var{x} is a number.
14081 @item response packets
14082 These are packets made at the home machine, and typically contains
14083 replies that you've written. These are called @file{SoupinX.tgz} by
14084 default, where @var{x} is a number.
14094 You log in on the server and create a @sc{soup} packet. You can either
14095 use a dedicated @sc{soup} thingie (like the @code{awk} program), or you
14096 can use Gnus to create the packet with its @sc{soup} commands (@kbd{O
14097 s} and/or @kbd{G s b}; and then @kbd{G s p}) (@pxref{SOUP Commands}).
14100 You transfer the packet home. Rail, boat, car or modem will do fine.
14103 You put the packet in your home directory.
14106 You fire up Gnus on your home machine using the @code{nnsoup} backend as
14107 the native or secondary server.
14110 You read articles and mail and answer and followup to the things you
14111 want (@pxref{SOUP Replies}).
14114 You do the @kbd{G s r} command to pack these replies into a @sc{soup}
14118 You transfer this packet to the server.
14121 You use Gnus to mail this packet out with the @kbd{G s s} command.
14124 You then repeat until you die.
14128 So you basically have a bipartite system---you use @code{nnsoup} for
14129 reading and Gnus for packing/sending these @sc{soup} packets.
14132 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
14133 * SOUP Groups:: A backend for reading @sc{soup} packets.
14134 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
14138 @node SOUP Commands
14139 @subsubsection SOUP Commands
14141 These are commands for creating and manipulating @sc{soup} packets.
14145 @kindex G s b (Group)
14146 @findex gnus-group-brew-soup
14147 Pack all unread articles in the current group
14148 (@code{gnus-group-brew-soup}). This command understands the
14149 process/prefix convention.
14152 @kindex G s w (Group)
14153 @findex gnus-soup-save-areas
14154 Save all @sc{soup} data files (@code{gnus-soup-save-areas}).
14157 @kindex G s s (Group)
14158 @findex gnus-soup-send-replies
14159 Send all replies from the replies packet
14160 (@code{gnus-soup-send-replies}).
14163 @kindex G s p (Group)
14164 @findex gnus-soup-pack-packet
14165 Pack all files into a @sc{soup} packet (@code{gnus-soup-pack-packet}).
14168 @kindex G s r (Group)
14169 @findex nnsoup-pack-replies
14170 Pack all replies into a replies packet (@code{nnsoup-pack-replies}).
14173 @kindex O s (Summary)
14174 @findex gnus-soup-add-article
14175 This summary-mode command adds the current article to a @sc{soup} packet
14176 (@code{gnus-soup-add-article}). It understands the process/prefix
14177 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
14182 There are a few variables to customize where Gnus will put all these
14187 @item gnus-soup-directory
14188 @vindex gnus-soup-directory
14189 Directory where Gnus will save intermediate files while composing
14190 @sc{soup} packets. The default is @file{~/SoupBrew/}.
14192 @item gnus-soup-replies-directory
14193 @vindex gnus-soup-replies-directory
14194 This is what Gnus will use as a temporary directory while sending our
14195 reply packets. @file{~/SoupBrew/SoupReplies/} is the default.
14197 @item gnus-soup-prefix-file
14198 @vindex gnus-soup-prefix-file
14199 Name of the file where Gnus stores the last used prefix. The default is
14200 @samp{gnus-prefix}.
14202 @item gnus-soup-packer
14203 @vindex gnus-soup-packer
14204 A format string command for packing a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
14205 @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupout%d.tgz}.
14207 @item gnus-soup-unpacker
14208 @vindex gnus-soup-unpacker
14209 Format string command for unpacking a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
14210 @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
14212 @item gnus-soup-packet-directory
14213 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-directory
14214 Where Gnus will look for reply packets. The default is @file{~/}.
14216 @item gnus-soup-packet-regexp
14217 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-regexp
14218 Regular expression matching @sc{soup} reply packets in
14219 @code{gnus-soup-packet-directory}.
14225 @subsubsection @sc{soup} Groups
14228 @code{nnsoup} is the backend for reading @sc{soup} packets. It will
14229 read incoming packets, unpack them, and put them in a directory where
14230 you can read them at leisure.
14232 These are the variables you can use to customize its behavior:
14236 @item nnsoup-tmp-directory
14237 @vindex nnsoup-tmp-directory
14238 When @code{nnsoup} unpacks a @sc{soup} packet, it does it in this
14239 directory. (@file{/tmp/} by default.)
14241 @item nnsoup-directory
14242 @vindex nnsoup-directory
14243 @code{nnsoup} then moves each message and index file to this directory.
14244 The default is @file{~/SOUP/}.
14246 @item nnsoup-replies-directory
14247 @vindex nnsoup-replies-directory
14248 All replies will be stored in this directory before being packed into a
14249 reply packet. The default is @file{~/SOUP/replies/"}.
14251 @item nnsoup-replies-format-type
14252 @vindex nnsoup-replies-format-type
14253 The @sc{soup} format of the replies packets. The default is @samp{?n}
14254 (rnews), and I don't think you should touch that variable. I probably
14255 shouldn't even have documented it. Drats! Too late!
14257 @item nnsoup-replies-index-type
14258 @vindex nnsoup-replies-index-type
14259 The index type of the replies packet. The default is @samp{?n}, which
14260 means ``none''. Don't fiddle with this one either!
14262 @item nnsoup-active-file
14263 @vindex nnsoup-active-file
14264 Where @code{nnsoup} stores lots of information. This is not an ``active
14265 file'' in the @code{nntp} sense; it's an Emacs Lisp file. If you lose
14266 this file or mess it up in any way, you're dead. The default is
14267 @file{~/SOUP/active}.
14269 @item nnsoup-packer
14270 @vindex nnsoup-packer
14271 Format string command for packing a reply @sc{soup} packet. The default
14272 is @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupin%d.tgz}.
14274 @item nnsoup-unpacker
14275 @vindex nnsoup-unpacker
14276 Format string command for unpacking incoming @sc{soup} packets. The
14277 default is @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
14279 @item nnsoup-packet-directory
14280 @vindex nnsoup-packet-directory
14281 Where @code{nnsoup} will look for incoming packets. The default is
14284 @item nnsoup-packet-regexp
14285 @vindex nnsoup-packet-regexp
14286 Regular expression matching incoming @sc{soup} packets. The default is
14289 @item nnsoup-always-save
14290 @vindex nnsoup-always-save
14291 If non-@code{nil}, save the replies buffer after each posted message.
14297 @subsubsection SOUP Replies
14299 Just using @code{nnsoup} won't mean that your postings and mailings end
14300 up in @sc{soup} reply packets automagically. You have to work a bit
14301 more for that to happen.
14303 @findex nnsoup-set-variables
14304 The @code{nnsoup-set-variables} command will set the appropriate
14305 variables to ensure that all your followups and replies end up in the
14308 In specific, this is what it does:
14311 (setq message-send-news-function 'nnsoup-request-post)
14312 (setq message-send-mail-function 'nnsoup-request-mail)
14315 And that's it, really. If you only want news to go into the @sc{soup}
14316 system you just use the first line. If you only want mail to be
14317 @sc{soup}ed you use the second.
14320 @node Mail-To-News Gateways
14321 @subsection Mail-To-News Gateways
14322 @cindex mail-to-news gateways
14325 If your local @code{nntp} server doesn't allow posting, for some reason
14326 or other, you can post using one of the numerous mail-to-news gateways.
14327 The @code{nngateway} backend provides the interface.
14329 Note that you can't read anything from this backend---it can only be
14335 @item nngateway-address
14336 @vindex nngateway-address
14337 This is the address of the mail-to-news gateway.
14339 @item nngateway-header-transformation
14340 @vindex nngateway-header-transformation
14341 News headers often have to be transformed in some odd way or other
14342 for the mail-to-news gateway to accept it. This variable says what
14343 transformation should be called, and defaults to
14344 @code{nngateway-simple-header-transformation}. The function is called
14345 narrowed to the headers to be transformed and with one parameter---the
14348 This default function just inserts a new @code{To} header based on the
14349 @code{Newsgroups} header and the gateway address.
14350 For instance, an article with this @code{Newsgroups} header:
14353 Newsgroups: alt.religion.emacs
14356 will get this @code{From} header inserted:
14359 To: alt-religion-emacs@@GATEWAY
14362 The following pre-defined functions exist:
14364 @findex nngateway-simple-header-transformation
14367 @item nngateway-simple-header-transformation
14368 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
14369 @var{newsgroup}@@@code{nngateway-address}.
14371 @findex nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
14373 @item nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
14374 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
14375 @code{nngateway-address}.
14380 (setq gnus-post-method
14382 "mail2news@@replay.com"
14383 (nngateway-header-transformation
14384 nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation)))
14392 So, to use this, simply say something like:
14395 (setq gnus-post-method '(nngateway "GATEWAY.ADDRESS"))
14401 @subsection @sc{imap}
14405 @sc{imap} is a network protocol for reading mail (or news, or ...),
14406 think of it as a modernized @sc{nntp}. Connecting to a @sc{imap}
14407 server is much similar to connecting to a news server, you just
14408 specify the network address of the server.
14410 @sc{imap} has two properties. First, @sc{imap} can do everything that
14411 POP can, it can hence be viewed as POP++. Secondly, @sc{imap} is a
14412 mail storage protocol, similar to @sc{nntp} being a news storage
14413 protocol. (@sc{imap} offers more features than @sc{nntp} because news
14414 is more or less read-only whereas mail is read-write.)
14416 If you want to use @sc{imap} as POP++, use an imap entry in
14417 mail-sources. With this, Gnus will fetch mails from the @sc{imap}
14418 server and store them on the local disk. This is not the usage
14419 described in this section. @xref{Mail Sources}.
14421 If you want to use @sc{imap} as a mail storage protocol, use an nnimap
14422 entry in gnus-secondary-select-methods. With this, Gnus will
14423 manipulate mails stored on the @sc{imap} server. This is the kind of
14424 usage explained in this section.
14426 A server configuration in @code{~/.gnus} with a few @sc{imap} servers
14427 might look something like this:
14430 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
14431 '((nnimap "simpleserver") ; no special configuration
14432 ; perhaps a ssh port forwarded server:
14434 (nnimap-address "localhost")
14435 (nnimap-server-port 1430))
14436 ; a UW server running on localhost
14438 (nnimap-server-port 143)
14439 (nnimap-address "localhost")
14440 (nnimap-list-pattern ("INBOX" "mail/*")))
14441 ; anonymous public cyrus server:
14442 (nnimap "cyrus.andrew.cmu.edu"
14443 (nnimap-authenticator anonymous)
14444 (nnimap-list-pattern "archive.*")
14445 (nnimap-stream network))
14446 ; a ssl server on a non-standard port:
14448 (nnimap-address "vic20.somewhere.com")
14449 (nnimap-server-port 9930)
14450 (nnimap-stream ssl))))
14453 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nnimap}
14458 @item nnimap-address
14459 @vindex nnimap-address
14461 The address of the remote @sc{imap} server. Defaults to the virtual
14462 server name if not specified.
14464 @item nnimap-server-port
14465 @vindex nnimap-server-port
14466 Port on server to contact. Defaults to port 143, or 993 for SSL.
14468 Note that this should be a integer, example server specification:
14471 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
14472 (nnimap-server-port 4711))
14475 @item nnimap-list-pattern
14476 @vindex nnimap-list-pattern
14477 String or list of strings of mailboxes to limit available groups to.
14478 This is used when the server has very many mailboxes and you're only
14479 interested in a few -- some servers export your home directory via
14480 @sc{imap}, you'll probably want to limit the mailboxes to those in
14481 @file{~/Mail/*} then.
14483 The string can also be a cons of REFERENCE and the string as above, what
14484 REFERENCE is used for is server specific, but on the University of
14485 Washington server it's a directory that will be concatenated with the
14488 Example server specification:
14491 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
14492 (nnimap-list-pattern ("INBOX" "Mail/*" "alt.sex.*"
14493 ("~friend/Mail/" . "list/*"))))
14496 @item nnimap-stream
14497 @vindex nnimap-stream
14498 The type of stream used to connect to your server. By default, nnimap
14499 will detect and automatically use all of the below, with the exception
14500 of SSL. (SSL is being replaced by STARTTLS, which can be automatically
14501 detected, but it's not widely deployed yet).
14503 Example server specification:
14506 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
14507 (nnimap-stream ssl))
14510 Please note that the value of @code{nnimap-stream} is a symbol!
14514 @dfn{gssapi:} Connect with GSSAPI (usually kerberos 5). Requires the
14515 @samp{imtest} program.
14517 @dfn{kerberos4:} Connect with kerberos 4. Requires the @samp{imtest} program.
14519 @dfn{starttls:} Connect via the STARTTLS extension (similar to
14520 SSL). Requires the external library @samp{starttls.el} and program
14523 @dfn{ssl:} Connect through SSL. Requires OpenSSL (the
14524 program @samp{openssl}) or SSLeay (@samp{s_client}).
14526 @dfn{shell:} Use a shell command to start @sc{imap} connection.
14528 @dfn{network:} Plain, TCP/IP network connection.
14531 @vindex imap-kerberos4-program
14532 The @samp{imtest} program is shipped with Cyrus IMAPD. If you're
14533 using @samp{imtest} from Cyrus IMAPD < 2.0.14 (which includes version
14534 1.5.x and 1.6.x) you need to frob @code{imap-process-connection-type}
14535 to make @code{imap.el} use a pty instead of a pipe when communicating
14536 with @samp{imtest}. You will then suffer from a line length
14537 restrictions on IMAP commands, which might make Gnus seem to hang
14538 indefinitely if you have many articles in a mailbox. The variable
14539 @code{imap-kerberos4-program} contain parameters to pass to the imtest
14542 @vindex imap-ssl-program
14543 For SSL connections, the OpenSSL program is available from
14544 @uref{http://www.openssl.org/}. OpenSSL was formerly known as SSLeay,
14545 and nnimap support it too - altough the most recent versions of
14546 SSLeay, 0.9.x, are known to have serious bugs making it
14547 useless. Earlier versions, especially 0.8.x, of SSLeay are known to
14548 work. The variable @code{imap-ssl-program} contain parameters to pass
14551 @vindex imap-shell-program
14552 @vindex imap-shell-host
14553 For @sc{imap} connections using the @code{shell} stream, the variable
14554 @code{imap-shell-program} specify what program to call.
14556 @item nnimap-authenticator
14557 @vindex nnimap-authenticator
14559 The authenticator used to connect to the server. By default, nnimap
14560 will use the most secure authenticator your server is capable of.
14562 Example server specification:
14565 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
14566 (nnimap-authenticator anonymous))
14569 Please note that the value of @code{nnimap-authenticator} is a symbol!
14573 @dfn{gssapi:} GSSAPI (usually kerberos 5) authentication. Require
14574 external program @code{imtest}.
14576 @dfn{kerberos4:} Kerberos authentication. Require external program
14579 @dfn{digest-md5:} Encrypted username/password via DIGEST-MD5. Require
14580 external library @code{digest-md5.el}.
14582 @dfn{cram-md5:} Encrypted username/password via CRAM-MD5.
14584 @dfn{login:} Plain-text username/password via LOGIN.
14586 @dfn{anonymous:} Login as `anonymous', supplying your emailadress as password.
14589 @item nnimap-expunge-on-close
14591 @vindex nnimap-expunge-on-close
14592 Unlike Parmenides the @sc{imap} designers has decided that things that
14593 doesn't exist actually does exist. More specifically, @sc{imap} has
14594 this concept of marking articles @code{Deleted} which doesn't actually
14595 delete them, and this (marking them @code{Deleted}, that is) is what
14596 nnimap does when you delete a article in Gnus (with @kbd{G DEL} or
14599 Since the articles aren't really removed when we mark them with the
14600 @code{Deleted} flag we'll need a way to actually delete them. Feel like
14601 running in circles yet?
14603 Traditionally, nnimap has removed all articles marked as @code{Deleted}
14604 when closing a mailbox but this is now configurable by this server
14607 The possible options are:
14612 The default behavior, delete all articles marked as "Deleted" when
14615 Never actually delete articles. Currently there is no way of showing
14616 the articles marked for deletion in nnimap, but other @sc{imap} clients
14617 may allow you to do this. If you ever want to run the EXPUNGE command
14618 manually, @xref{Expunging mailboxes}.
14620 When closing mailboxes, nnimap will ask if you wish to expunge deleted
14625 @item nnimap-importantize-dormant
14626 @vindex nnimap-importantize-dormant
14628 If non-nil, marks dormant articles as ticked (as well), for other IMAP
14629 clients. Within Gnus, dormant articles will naturally still (only) be
14630 marked as ticked. This is to make dormant articles stand out, just
14631 like ticked articles, in other IMAP clients. (In other words, Gnus has
14632 two ``Tick'' marks and IMAP has only one.)
14634 Probably the only reason for frobing this would be if you're trying
14635 enable per-user persistant dormant flags, using something like:
14638 (setcdr (assq 'dormant nnimap-mark-to-flag-alist)
14639 (format "gnus-dormant-%s" (user-login-name)))
14640 (setcdr (assq 'dormant nnimap-mark-to-predicate-alist)
14641 (format "KEYWORD gnus-dormant-%s" (user-login-name)))
14644 In this case, you would not want the per-user dormant flag showing up
14645 as ticked for other users.
14647 @item nnimap-expunge-search-string
14649 @vindex nnimap-expunge-search-string
14651 This variable contain the IMAP search command sent to server when
14652 searching for articles eligible for expiring. The default is
14653 @code{"UID %s NOT SINCE %s"}, where the first @code{%s} is replaced by
14654 UID set and the second @code{%s} is replaced by a date.
14656 Probably the only useful value to change this to is
14657 @code{"UID %s NOT SENTSINCE %s"}, which makes nnimap use the Date: in
14658 messages instead of the internal article date. See section 6.4.4 of
14659 RFC 2060 for more information on valid strings.
14661 @item nnimap-authinfo-file
14662 @vindex nnimap-authinfo-file
14664 A file containing credentials used to log in on servers. The format is
14665 (almost) the same as the @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file. See the
14666 variable @code{nntp-authinfo-file} for exact syntax; also see
14672 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
14673 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
14674 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a "compress mailbox" button.
14679 @node Splitting in IMAP
14680 @subsubsection Splitting in @sc{imap}
14681 @cindex splitting imap mail
14683 Splitting is something Gnus users has loved and used for years, and now
14684 the rest of the world is catching up. Yeah, dream on, not many
14685 @sc{imap} server has server side splitting and those that have splitting
14686 seem to use some non-standard protocol. This means that @sc{imap}
14687 support for Gnus has to do it's own splitting.
14691 Here are the variables of interest:
14695 @item nnimap-split-crosspost
14696 @cindex splitting, crosspost
14698 @vindex nnimap-split-crosspost
14700 If non-nil, do crossposting if several split methods match the mail. If
14701 nil, the first match in @code{nnimap-split-rule} found will be used.
14703 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-crosspost}.
14705 @item nnimap-split-inbox
14706 @cindex splitting, inbox
14708 @vindex nnimap-split-inbox
14710 A string or a list of strings that gives the name(s) of @sc{imap}
14711 mailboxes to split from. Defaults to nil, which means that splitting is
14715 (setq nnimap-split-inbox
14716 '("INBOX" ("~/friend/Mail" . "lists/*") "lists.imap"))
14719 No nnmail equivalent.
14721 @item nnimap-split-rule
14722 @cindex Splitting, rules
14723 @vindex nnimap-split-rule
14725 New mail found in @code{nnimap-split-inbox} will be split according to
14728 This variable contains a list of lists, where the first element in the
14729 sublist gives the name of the @sc{imap} mailbox to move articles
14730 matching the regexp in the second element in the sublist. Got that?
14731 Neither did I, we need examples.
14734 (setq nnimap-split-rule
14736 "^Sender: owner-nnimap@@vic20.globalcom.se")
14737 ("INBOX.junk" "^Subject:.*MAKE MONEY")
14738 ("INBOX.private" "")))
14741 This will put all articles from the nnimap mailing list into mailbox
14742 INBOX.nnimap, all articles containing MAKE MONEY in the Subject: line
14743 into INBOX.junk and everything else in INBOX.private.
14745 The first string may contain `\\1' forms, like the ones used by
14746 replace-match to insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For
14750 ("INBOX.lists.\\1" "^Sender: owner-\\([a-z-]+\\)@@")
14753 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
14754 called with the first element of the rule as the argument, in a buffer
14755 containing the headers of the article. It should return a non-nil value
14756 if it thinks that the mail belongs in that group.
14758 Nnmail users might recollect that the last regexp had to be empty to
14759 match all articles (like in the example above). This is not required in
14760 nnimap. Articles not matching any of the regexps will not be moved out
14761 of your inbox. (This might affect performance if you keep lots of
14762 unread articles in your inbox, since the splitting code would go over
14763 them every time you fetch new mail.)
14765 These rules are processed from the beginning of the alist toward the
14766 end. The first rule to make a match will "win", unless you have
14767 crossposting enabled. In that case, all matching rules will "win".
14769 This variable can also have a function as its value, the function will
14770 be called with the headers narrowed and should return a group where it
14771 thinks the article should be split to. See @code{nnimap-split-fancy}.
14773 The splitting code tries to create mailboxes if it need too.
14775 To allow for different split rules on different virtual servers, and
14776 even different split rules in different inboxes on the same server,
14777 the syntax of this variable have been extended along the lines of:
14780 (setq nnimap-split-rule
14781 '(("my1server" (".*" (("ding" "ding@@gnus.org")
14782 ("junk" "From:.*Simon")))
14783 ("my2server" ("INBOX" nnimap-split-fancy))
14784 ("my[34]server" (".*" (("private" "To:.*Simon")
14785 ("junk" my-junk-func)))))
14788 The virtual server name is in fact a regexp, so that the same rules
14789 may apply to several servers. In the example, the servers
14790 @code{my3server} and @code{my4server} both use the same rules.
14791 Similarly, the inbox string is also a regexp. The actual splitting
14792 rules are as before, either a function, or a list with group/regexp or
14793 group/function elements.
14795 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
14797 @item nnimap-split-predicate
14799 @vindex nnimap-split-predicate
14801 Mail matching this predicate in @code{nnimap-split-inbox} will be
14802 split, it is a string and the default is @samp{UNSEEN UNDELETED}.
14804 This might be useful if you use another @sc{imap} client to read mail in
14805 your inbox but would like Gnus to split all articles in the inbox
14806 regardless of readedness. Then you might change this to
14809 @item nnimap-split-fancy
14810 @cindex splitting, fancy
14811 @findex nnimap-split-fancy
14812 @vindex nnimap-split-fancy
14814 It's possible to set @code{nnimap-split-rule} to
14815 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} if you want to use fancy
14816 splitting. @xref{Fancy Mail Splitting}.
14818 However, to be able to have different fancy split rules for nnmail and
14819 nnimap backends you can set @code{nnimap-split-rule} to
14820 @code{nnimap-split-fancy} and define the nnimap specific fancy split
14821 rule in @code{nnimap-split-fancy}.
14826 (setq nnimap-split-rule 'nnimap-split-fancy
14827 nnimap-split-fancy ...)
14830 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-split-fancy}.
14834 @node Editing IMAP ACLs
14835 @subsubsection Editing @sc{imap} ACLs
14836 @cindex editing imap acls
14837 @cindex Access Control Lists
14838 @cindex Editing @sc{imap} ACLs
14840 @findex gnus-group-nnimap-edit-acl
14842 ACL stands for Access Control List. ACLs are used in @sc{imap} for
14843 limiting (or enabling) other users access to your mail boxes. Not all
14844 @sc{imap} servers support this, this function will give an error if it
14847 To edit a ACL for a mailbox, type @kbd{G l}
14848 (@code{gnus-group-edit-nnimap-acl}) and you'll be presented with a ACL
14849 editing window with detailed instructions.
14851 Some possible uses:
14855 Giving "anyone" the "lrs" rights (lookup, read, keep seen/unseen flags)
14856 on your mailing list mailboxes enables other users on the same server to
14857 follow the list without subscribing to it.
14859 At least with the Cyrus server, you are required to give the user
14860 "anyone" posting ("p") capabilities to have "plussing" work (that is,
14861 mail sent to user+mailbox@@domain ending up in the @sc{imap} mailbox
14865 @node Expunging mailboxes
14866 @subsubsection Expunging mailboxes
14870 @cindex Manual expunging
14872 @findex gnus-group-nnimap-expunge
14874 If you're using the @code{never} setting of @code{nnimap-expunge-on-close},
14875 you may want the option of expunging all deleted articles in a mailbox
14876 manually. This is exactly what @kbd{G x} does.
14878 Currently there is no way of showing deleted articles, you can just
14883 @node Combined Groups
14884 @section Combined Groups
14886 Gnus allows combining a mixture of all the other group types into bigger
14890 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
14891 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
14895 @node Virtual Groups
14896 @subsection Virtual Groups
14898 @cindex virtual groups
14899 @cindex merging groups
14901 An @dfn{nnvirtual group} is really nothing more than a collection of
14904 For instance, if you are tired of reading many small groups, you can
14905 put them all in one big group, and then grow tired of reading one
14906 big, unwieldy group. The joys of computing!
14908 You specify @code{nnvirtual} as the method. The address should be a
14909 regexp to match component groups.
14911 All marks in the virtual group will stick to the articles in the
14912 component groups. So if you tick an article in a virtual group, the
14913 article will also be ticked in the component group from whence it came.
14914 (And vice versa---marks from the component groups will also be shown in
14915 the virtual group.)
14917 Here's an example @code{nnvirtual} method that collects all Andrea Dworkin
14918 newsgroups into one, big, happy newsgroup:
14921 (nnvirtual "^alt\\.fan\\.andrea-dworkin$\\|^rec\\.dworkin.*")
14924 The component groups can be native or foreign; everything should work
14925 smoothly, but if your computer explodes, it was probably my fault.
14927 Collecting the same group from several servers might actually be a good
14928 idea if users have set the Distribution header to limit distribution.
14929 If you would like to read @samp{soc.motss} both from a server in Japan
14930 and a server in Norway, you could use the following as the group regexp:
14933 "^nntp\\+server\\.jp:soc\\.motss$\\|^nntp\\+server\\.no:soc\\.motss$"
14936 (Remember, though, that if you're creating the group with @kbd{G m}, you
14937 shouldn't double the backslashes, and you should leave off the quote
14938 characters at the beginning and the end of the string.)
14940 This should work kinda smoothly---all articles from both groups should
14941 end up in this one, and there should be no duplicates. Threading (and
14942 the rest) will still work as usual, but there might be problems with the
14943 sequence of articles. Sorting on date might be an option here
14944 (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
14946 One limitation, however---all groups included in a virtual
14947 group have to be alive (i.e., subscribed or unsubscribed). Killed or
14948 zombie groups can't be component groups for @code{nnvirtual} groups.
14950 @vindex nnvirtual-always-rescan
14951 If the @code{nnvirtual-always-rescan} is non-@code{nil},
14952 @code{nnvirtual} will always scan groups for unread articles when
14953 entering a virtual group. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
14954 default) and you read articles in a component group after the virtual
14955 group has been activated, the read articles from the component group
14956 will show up when you enter the virtual group. You'll also see this
14957 effect if you have two virtual groups that have a component group in
14958 common. If that's the case, you should set this variable to @code{t}.
14959 Or you can just tap @code{M-g} on the virtual group every time before
14960 you enter it---it'll have much the same effect.
14962 @code{nnvirtual} can have both mail and news groups as component groups.
14963 When responding to articles in @code{nnvirtual} groups, @code{nnvirtual}
14964 has to ask the backend of the component group the article comes from
14965 whether it is a news or mail backend. However, when you do a @kbd{^},
14966 there is typically no sure way for the component backend to know this,
14967 and in that case @code{nnvirtual} tells Gnus that the article came from a
14968 not-news backend. (Just to be on the safe side.)
14970 @kbd{C-c C-t} in the message buffer will insert the @code{Newsgroups}
14971 line from the article you respond to in these cases.
14975 @node Kibozed Groups
14976 @subsection Kibozed Groups
14980 @dfn{Kibozing} is defined by @sc{oed} as ``grepping through (parts of)
14981 the news feed''. @code{nnkiboze} is a backend that will do this for
14982 you. Oh joy! Now you can grind any @sc{nntp} server down to a halt
14983 with useless requests! Oh happiness!
14985 @kindex G k (Group)
14986 To create a kibozed group, use the @kbd{G k} command in the group
14989 The address field of the @code{nnkiboze} method is, as with
14990 @code{nnvirtual}, a regexp to match groups to be ``included'' in the
14991 @code{nnkiboze} group. That's where most similarities between @code{nnkiboze}
14992 and @code{nnvirtual} end.
14994 In addition to this regexp detailing component groups, an @code{nnkiboze} group
14995 must have a score file to say what articles are to be included in
14996 the group (@pxref{Scoring}).
14998 @kindex M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups
14999 @findex nnkiboze-generate-groups
15000 You must run @kbd{M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups} after creating the
15001 @code{nnkiboze} groups you want to have. This command will take time. Lots of
15002 time. Oodles and oodles of time. Gnus has to fetch the headers from
15003 all the articles in all the component groups and run them through the
15004 scoring process to determine if there are any articles in the groups
15005 that are to be part of the @code{nnkiboze} groups.
15007 Please limit the number of component groups by using restrictive
15008 regexps. Otherwise your sysadmin may become annoyed with you, and the
15009 @sc{nntp} site may throw you off and never let you back in again.
15010 Stranger things have happened.
15012 @code{nnkiboze} component groups do not have to be alive---they can be dead,
15013 and they can be foreign. No restrictions.
15015 @vindex nnkiboze-directory
15016 The generation of an @code{nnkiboze} group means writing two files in
15017 @code{nnkiboze-directory}, which is @file{~/News/} by default. One
15018 contains the @sc{nov} header lines for all the articles in the group,
15019 and the other is an additional @file{.newsrc} file to store information
15020 on what groups have been searched through to find component articles.
15022 Articles marked as read in the @code{nnkiboze} group will have
15023 their @sc{nov} lines removed from the @sc{nov} file.
15026 @node Gnus Unplugged
15027 @section Gnus Unplugged
15032 @cindex Gnus Unplugged
15034 In olden times (ca. February '88), people used to run their newsreaders
15035 on big machines with permanent connections to the net. News transport
15036 was dealt with by news servers, and all the newsreaders had to do was to
15037 read news. Believe it or not.
15039 Nowadays most people read news and mail at home, and use some sort of
15040 modem to connect to the net. To avoid running up huge phone bills, it
15041 would be nice to have a way to slurp down all the news and mail, hang up
15042 the phone, read for several hours, and then upload any responses you
15043 have to make. And then you repeat the procedure.
15045 Of course, you can use news servers for doing this as well. I've used
15046 @code{inn} together with @code{slurp}, @code{pop} and @code{sendmail}
15047 for some years, but doing that's a bore. Moving the news server
15048 functionality up to the newsreader makes sense if you're the only person
15049 reading news on a machine.
15051 Using Gnus as an ``offline'' newsreader is quite simple.
15055 First, set up Gnus as you would do if you were running it on a machine
15056 that has full connection to the net. Go ahead. I'll still be waiting
15060 Then, put the following magical incantation at the end of your
15061 @file{.gnus.el} file:
15068 That's it. Gnus is now an ``offline'' newsreader.
15070 Of course, to use it as such, you have to learn a few new commands.
15073 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
15074 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
15075 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
15076 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
15077 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with IMAP.
15078 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
15079 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
15080 * Example Setup:: An example @file{.gnus.el} file for offline people.
15081 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
15082 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
15087 @subsection Agent Basics
15089 First, let's get some terminology out of the way.
15091 The Gnus Agent is said to be @dfn{unplugged} when you have severed the
15092 connection to the net (and notified the Agent that this is the case).
15093 When the connection to the net is up again (and Gnus knows this), the
15094 Agent is @dfn{plugged}.
15096 The @dfn{local} machine is the one you're running on, and which isn't
15097 connected to the net continuously.
15099 @dfn{Downloading} means fetching things from the net to your local
15100 machine. @dfn{Uploading} is doing the opposite.
15102 Let's take a typical Gnus session using the Agent.
15107 You start Gnus with @code{gnus-unplugged}. This brings up the Gnus
15108 Agent in a disconnected state. You can read all the news that you have
15109 already fetched while in this mode.
15112 You then decide to see whether any new news has arrived. You connect
15113 your machine to the net (using PPP or whatever), and then hit @kbd{J j}
15114 to make Gnus become @dfn{plugged} and use @kbd{g} to check for new mail
15115 as usual. To check for new mail in unplugged mode, see (@pxref{Mail
15116 Source Specifiers}).
15119 You can then read the new news immediately, or you can download the news
15120 onto your local machine. If you want to do the latter, you press @kbd{g}
15121 to check if there are any new news and then @kbd{J
15122 s} to fetch all the eligible articles in all the groups. (To let Gnus
15123 know which articles you want to download, @pxref{Agent Categories}.)
15126 After fetching the articles, you press @kbd{J j} to make Gnus become
15127 unplugged again, and you shut down the PPP thing (or whatever). And
15128 then you read the news offline.
15131 And then you go to step 2.
15134 Here are some things you should do the first time (or so) that you use
15140 Decide which servers should be covered by the Agent. If you have a mail
15141 backend, it would probably be nonsensical to have it covered by the
15142 Agent. Go to the server buffer (@kbd{^} in the group buffer) and press
15143 @kbd{J a} the server (or servers) that you wish to have covered by the
15144 Agent (@pxref{Server Agent Commands}). This will typically be only the
15145 primary select method, which is listed on the bottom in the buffer.
15148 Decide on download policy. @xref{Agent Categories}.
15155 @node Agent Categories
15156 @subsection Agent Categories
15158 One of the main reasons to integrate the news transport layer into the
15159 newsreader is to allow greater control over what articles to download.
15160 There's not much point in downloading huge amounts of articles, just to
15161 find out that you're not interested in reading any of them. It's better
15162 to be somewhat more conservative in choosing what to download, and then
15163 mark the articles for downloading manually if it should turn out that
15164 you're interested in the articles anyway.
15166 The main way to control what is to be downloaded is to create a
15167 @dfn{category} and then assign some (or all) groups to this category.
15168 Groups that do not belong in any other category belong to the
15169 @code{default} category. Gnus has its own buffer for creating and
15170 managing categories.
15173 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
15174 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
15175 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
15179 @node Category Syntax
15180 @subsubsection Category Syntax
15182 A category consists of two things.
15186 A predicate which (generally) gives a rough outline of which articles
15187 are eligible for downloading; and
15190 a score rule which (generally) gives you a finer granularity when
15191 deciding what articles to download. (Note that this @dfn{download
15192 score} is not necessarily related to normal scores.)
15195 A predicate in its simplest form can be a single predicate such as
15196 @code{true} or @code{false}. These two will download every available
15197 article or nothing respectively. In the case of these two special
15198 predicates an additional score rule is superfluous.
15200 Predicates of @code{high} or @code{low} download articles in respect of
15201 their scores in relationship to @code{gnus-agent-high-score} and
15202 @code{gnus-agent-low-score} as described below.
15204 To gain even finer control of what is to be regarded eligible for
15205 download a predicate can consist of a number of predicates with logical
15206 operators sprinkled in between.
15208 Perhaps some examples are in order.
15210 Here's a simple predicate. (It's the default predicate, in fact, used
15211 for all groups that don't belong to any other category.)
15217 Quite simple, eh? This predicate is true if and only if the article is
15218 short (for some value of ``short'').
15220 Here's a more complex predicate:
15229 This means that an article should be downloaded if it has a high score,
15230 or if the score is not low and the article is not long. You get the
15233 The available logical operators are @code{or}, @code{and} and
15234 @code{not}. (If you prefer, you can use the more ``C''-ish operators
15235 @samp{|}, @code{&} and @code{!} instead.)
15237 The following predicates are pre-defined, but if none of these fit what
15238 you want to do, you can write your own.
15242 True iff the article is shorter than @code{gnus-agent-short-article}
15243 lines; default 100.
15246 True iff the article is longer than @code{gnus-agent-long-article}
15247 lines; default 200.
15250 True iff the article has a download score less than
15251 @code{gnus-agent-low-score}; default 0.
15254 True iff the article has a download score greater than
15255 @code{gnus-agent-high-score}; default 0.
15258 True iff the Gnus Agent guesses that the article is spam. The
15259 heuristics may change over time, but at present it just computes a
15260 checksum and sees whether articles match.
15269 If you want to create your own predicate function, here's what you have
15270 to know: The functions are called with no parameters, but the
15271 @code{gnus-headers} and @code{gnus-score} dynamic variables are bound to
15274 For example, you could decide that you don't want to download articles
15275 that were posted more than a certain number of days ago (e.g. posted
15276 more than @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} ago) you might write a function
15277 something along the lines of the following:
15280 (defun my-article-old-p ()
15281 "Say whether an article is old."
15282 (< (time-to-days (date-to-time (mail-header-date gnus-headers)))
15283 (- (time-to-days (current-time)) gnus-agent-expire-days)))
15286 with the predicate then defined as:
15289 (not my-article-old-p)
15292 or you could append your predicate to the predefined
15293 @code{gnus-category-predicate-alist} in your @file{~/.gnus.el} or
15294 wherever. (Note: this would have to be at a point *after*
15295 @code{gnus-agent} has been loaded via @code{(gnus-agentize)})
15298 (setq gnus-category-predicate-alist
15299 (append gnus-category-predicate-alist
15300 '((old . my-article-old-p))))
15303 and simply specify your predicate as:
15309 If/when using something like the above, be aware that there are many
15310 misconfigured systems/mailers out there and so an article's date is not
15311 always a reliable indication of when it was posted. Hell, some people
15312 just don't give a damn.
15314 The above predicates apply to *all* the groups which belong to the
15315 category. However, if you wish to have a specific predicate for an
15316 individual group within a category, or you're just too lazy to set up a
15317 new category, you can enter a group's individual predicate in it's group
15318 parameters like so:
15321 (agent-predicate . short)
15324 This is the group parameter equivalent of the agent category default.
15325 Note that when specifying a single word predicate like this, the
15326 @code{agent-predicate} specification must be in dotted pair notation.
15328 The equivalent of the longer example from above would be:
15331 (agent-predicate or high (and (not low) (not long)))
15334 The outer parenthesis required in the category specification are not
15335 entered here as, not being in dotted pair notation, the value of the
15336 predicate is assumed to be a list.
15339 Now, the syntax of the download score is the same as the syntax of
15340 normal score files, except that all elements that require actually
15341 seeing the article itself are verboten. This means that only the
15342 following headers can be scored on: @code{Subject}, @code{From},
15343 @code{Date}, @code{Message-ID}, @code{References}, @code{Chars},
15344 @code{Lines}, and @code{Xref}.
15346 As with predicates, the specification of the @code{download score rule}
15347 to use in respect of a group can be in either the category definition if
15348 it's to be applicable to all groups in therein, or a group's parameters
15349 if it's to be specific to that group.
15351 In both of these places the @code{download score rule} can take one of
15358 This has the same syntax as a normal gnus score file except only a
15359 subset of scoring keywords are available as mentioned above.
15365 Category specification
15369 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
15375 Group Parameter specification
15378 (agent-score ("from"
15379 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
15384 Again, note the omission of the outermost parenthesis here.
15390 These score files must *only* contain the permitted scoring keywords
15397 Category specification
15400 ("~/News/agent.SCORE")
15406 ("~/News/agent.SCORE" "~/News/agent.group.SCORE")
15410 Group Parameter specification
15413 (agent-score "~/News/agent.SCORE")
15416 Additional score files can be specified as above. Need I say anything
15421 Use @code{normal} score files
15423 If you don't want to maintain two sets of scoring rules for a group, and
15424 your desired @code{downloading} criteria for a group are the same as your
15425 @code{reading} criteria then you can tell the agent to refer to your
15426 @code{normal} score files when deciding what to download.
15428 These directives in either the category definition or a group's
15429 parameters will cause the agent to read in all the applicable score
15430 files for a group, *filtering out* those sections that do not
15431 relate to one of the permitted subset of scoring keywords.
15435 Category Specification
15442 Group Parameter specification
15445 (agent-score . file)
15450 @node Category Buffer
15451 @subsubsection Category Buffer
15453 You'd normally do all category maintenance from the category buffer.
15454 When you enter it for the first time (with the @kbd{J c} command from
15455 the group buffer), you'll only see the @code{default} category.
15457 The following commands are available in this buffer:
15461 @kindex q (Category)
15462 @findex gnus-category-exit
15463 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-category-exit}).
15466 @kindex k (Category)
15467 @findex gnus-category-kill
15468 Kill the current category (@code{gnus-category-kill}).
15471 @kindex c (Category)
15472 @findex gnus-category-copy
15473 Copy the current category (@code{gnus-category-copy}).
15476 @kindex a (Category)
15477 @findex gnus-category-add
15478 Add a new category (@code{gnus-category-add}).
15481 @kindex p (Category)
15482 @findex gnus-category-edit-predicate
15483 Edit the predicate of the current category
15484 (@code{gnus-category-edit-predicate}).
15487 @kindex g (Category)
15488 @findex gnus-category-edit-groups
15489 Edit the list of groups belonging to the current category
15490 (@code{gnus-category-edit-groups}).
15493 @kindex s (Category)
15494 @findex gnus-category-edit-score
15495 Edit the download score rule of the current category
15496 (@code{gnus-category-edit-score}).
15499 @kindex l (Category)
15500 @findex gnus-category-list
15501 List all the categories (@code{gnus-category-list}).
15505 @node Category Variables
15506 @subsubsection Category Variables
15509 @item gnus-category-mode-hook
15510 @vindex gnus-category-mode-hook
15511 Hook run in category buffers.
15513 @item gnus-category-line-format
15514 @vindex gnus-category-line-format
15515 Format of the lines in the category buffer (@pxref{Formatting
15516 Variables}). Valid elements are:
15520 The name of the category.
15523 The number of groups in the category.
15526 @item gnus-category-mode-line-format
15527 @vindex gnus-category-mode-line-format
15528 Format of the category mode line (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}).
15530 @item gnus-agent-short-article
15531 @vindex gnus-agent-short-article
15532 Articles that have fewer lines than this are short. Default 100.
15534 @item gnus-agent-long-article
15535 @vindex gnus-agent-long-article
15536 Articles that have more lines than this are long. Default 200.
15538 @item gnus-agent-low-score
15539 @vindex gnus-agent-low-score
15540 Articles that have a score lower than this have a low score. Default
15543 @item gnus-agent-high-score
15544 @vindex gnus-agent-high-score
15545 Articles that have a score higher than this have a high score. Default
15551 @node Agent Commands
15552 @subsection Agent Commands
15554 All the Gnus Agent commands are on the @kbd{J} submap. The @kbd{J j}
15555 (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-plugged} command works in all modes, and
15556 toggles the plugged/unplugged state of the Gnus Agent.
15560 * Group Agent Commands::
15561 * Summary Agent Commands::
15562 * Server Agent Commands::
15565 You can run a complete batch fetch from the command line with the
15566 following incantation:
15568 @cindex gnus-agent-batch-fetch
15570 $ emacs -batch -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-agent-batch-fetch
15575 @node Group Agent Commands
15576 @subsubsection Group Agent Commands
15580 @kindex J u (Agent Group)
15581 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-groups
15582 Fetch all eligible articles in the current group
15583 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-groups}).
15586 @kindex J c (Agent Group)
15587 @findex gnus-enter-category-buffer
15588 Enter the Agent category buffer (@code{gnus-enter-category-buffer}).
15591 @kindex J s (Agent Group)
15592 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-session
15593 Fetch all eligible articles in all groups
15594 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-session}).
15597 @kindex J S (Agent Group)
15598 @findex gnus-group-send-drafts
15599 Send all sendable messages in the draft group
15600 (@code{gnus-group-send-drafts}). @xref{Drafts}.
15603 @kindex J a (Agent Group)
15604 @findex gnus-agent-add-group
15605 Add the current group to an Agent category
15606 (@code{gnus-agent-add-group}). This command understands the
15607 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
15610 @kindex J r (Agent Group)
15611 @findex gnus-agent-remove-group
15612 Remove the current group from its category, if any
15613 (@code{gnus-agent-remove-group}). This command understands the
15614 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
15617 @kindex J Y (Agent Group)
15618 @findex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
15619 Synchronize flags changed while unplugged with remote server, if any.
15625 @node Summary Agent Commands
15626 @subsubsection Summary Agent Commands
15630 @kindex J # (Agent Summary)
15631 @findex gnus-agent-mark-article
15632 Mark the article for downloading (@code{gnus-agent-mark-article}).
15635 @kindex J M-# (Agent Summary)
15636 @findex gnus-agent-unmark-article
15637 Remove the downloading mark from the article
15638 (@code{gnus-agent-unmark-article}).
15641 @kindex @@ (Agent Summary)
15642 @findex gnus-agent-toggle-mark
15643 Toggle whether to download the article (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-mark}).
15646 @kindex J c (Agent Summary)
15647 @findex gnus-agent-catchup
15648 Mark all undownloaded articles as read (@code{gnus-agent-catchup}).
15651 @kindex J u (Agent Summary)
15652 @findex gnus-agent-summary-fetch-group
15653 Download all downloadable articles in the current group
15654 (@code{gnus-agent-summary-fetch-group}).
15659 @node Server Agent Commands
15660 @subsubsection Server Agent Commands
15664 @kindex J a (Agent Server)
15665 @findex gnus-agent-add-server
15666 Add the current server to the list of servers covered by the Gnus Agent
15667 (@code{gnus-agent-add-server}).
15670 @kindex J r (Agent Server)
15671 @findex gnus-agent-remove-server
15672 Remove the current server from the list of servers covered by the Gnus
15673 Agent (@code{gnus-agent-remove-server}).
15679 @subsection Agent Expiry
15681 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-days
15682 @findex gnus-agent-expire
15683 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-expire
15684 @cindex Agent expiry
15685 @cindex Gnus Agent expiry
15688 @code{nnagent} doesn't handle expiry. Instead, there's a special
15689 @code{gnus-agent-expire} command that will expire all read articles that
15690 are older than @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} days. It can be run
15691 whenever you feel that you're running out of space. It's not
15692 particularly fast or efficient, and it's not a particularly good idea to
15693 interrupt it (with @kbd{C-g} or anything else) once you've started it.
15695 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-all
15696 if @code{gnus-agent-expire-all} is non-@code{nil}, this command will
15697 expire all articles---unread, read, ticked and dormant. If @code{nil}
15698 (which is the default), only read articles are eligible for expiry, and
15699 unread, ticked and dormant articles will be kept indefinitely.
15702 @node Agent and IMAP
15703 @subsection Agent and IMAP
15705 The Agent work with any Gnus backend, including nnimap. However,
15706 since there are some conceptual differences between @sc{nntp} and
15707 @sc{imap}, this section (should) provide you with some information to
15708 make Gnus Agent work smoother as a @sc{imap} Disconnected Mode client.
15710 The first thing to keep in mind is that all flags (read, ticked, etc)
15711 are kept on the @sc{imap} server, rather than in @code{.newsrc} as is the
15712 case for nntp. Thus Gnus need to remember flag changes when
15713 disconnected, and synchronize these flags when you plug back in.
15715 Gnus keep track of flag changes when reading nnimap groups under the
15716 Agent by default. When you plug back in, by default Gnus will check if
15717 you have any changed any flags and ask if you wish to synchronize these
15718 with the server. This behavior is customizable with
15719 @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags}.
15721 @vindex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
15722 If @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} is @code{nil}, the Agent will
15723 never automatically synchronize flags. If it is @code{ask}, the
15724 default, the Agent will check if you made any changes and if so ask if
15725 you wish to synchronize these when you re-connect. If it has any other
15726 value, all flags will be synchronized automatically.
15728 If you do not wish to automatically synchronize flags when you
15729 re-connect, this can be done manually with the
15730 @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} command that is bound to @kbd{J Y}
15731 in the group buffer by default.
15733 Some things are currently not implemented in the Agent that you'd might
15734 expect from a disconnected @sc{imap} client, including:
15739 Copying/moving articles into nnimap groups when unplugged.
15742 Creating/deleting nnimap groups when unplugged.
15746 Technical note: the synchronization algorithm does not work by "pushing"
15747 all local flags to the server, but rather incrementally update the
15748 server view of flags by changing only those flags that were changed by
15749 the user. Thus, if you set one flag on a article, quit the group and
15750 re-select the group and remove the flag; the flag will be set and
15751 removed from the server when you "synchronize". The queued flag
15752 operations can be found in the per-server @code{flags} file in the Agent
15753 directory. It's emptied when you synchronize flags.
15756 @node Outgoing Messages
15757 @subsection Outgoing Messages
15759 When Gnus is unplugged, all outgoing messages (both mail and news) are
15760 stored in the draft groups (@pxref{Drafts}). You can view them there
15761 after posting, and edit them at will.
15763 When Gnus is plugged again, you can send the messages either from the
15764 draft group with the special commands available there, or you can use
15765 the @kbd{J S} command in the group buffer to send all the sendable
15766 messages in the draft group.
15770 @node Agent Variables
15771 @subsection Agent Variables
15774 @item gnus-agent-directory
15775 @vindex gnus-agent-directory
15776 Where the Gnus Agent will store its files. The default is
15777 @file{~/News/agent/}.
15779 @item gnus-agent-handle-level
15780 @vindex gnus-agent-handle-level
15781 Groups on levels (@pxref{Group Levels}) higher than this variable will
15782 be ignored by the Agent. The default is @code{gnus-level-subscribed},
15783 which means that only subscribed group will be considered by the Agent
15786 @item gnus-agent-plugged-hook
15787 @vindex gnus-agent-plugged-hook
15788 Hook run when connecting to the network.
15790 @item gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
15791 @vindex gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
15792 Hook run when disconnecting from the network.
15797 @node Example Setup
15798 @subsection Example Setup
15800 If you don't want to read this manual, and you have a fairly standard
15801 setup, you may be able to use something like the following as your
15802 @file{.gnus.el} file to get started.
15805 ;;; Define how Gnus is to fetch news. We do this over @sc{nntp}
15806 ;;; from your ISP's server.
15807 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.your-isp.com"))
15809 ;;; Define how Gnus is to read your mail. We read mail from
15810 ;;; your ISP's POP server.
15811 (setq mail-sources '((pop :server "pop.your-isp.com")))
15813 ;;; Say how Gnus is to store the mail. We use nnml groups.
15814 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
15816 ;;; Make Gnus into an offline newsreader.
15820 That should be it, basically. Put that in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file,
15821 edit to suit your needs, start up PPP (or whatever), and type @kbd{M-x
15824 If this is the first time you've run Gnus, you will be subscribed
15825 automatically to a few default newsgroups. You'll probably want to
15826 subscribe to more groups, and to do that, you have to query the
15827 @sc{nntp} server for a complete list of groups with the @kbd{A A}
15828 command. This usually takes quite a while, but you only have to do it
15831 After reading and parsing a while, you'll be presented with a list of
15832 groups. Subscribe to the ones you want to read with the @kbd{u}
15833 command. @kbd{l} to make all the killed groups disappear after you've
15834 subscribe to all the groups you want to read. (@kbd{A k} will bring
15835 back all the killed groups.)
15837 You can now read the groups at once, or you can download the articles
15838 with the @kbd{J s} command. And then read the rest of this manual to
15839 find out which of the other gazillion things you want to customize.
15842 @node Batching Agents
15843 @subsection Batching Agents
15845 Having the Gnus Agent fetch articles (and post whatever messages you've
15846 written) is quite easy once you've gotten things set up properly. The
15847 following shell script will do everything that is necessary:
15851 emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -f gnus-agent-batch >/dev/null
15855 @node Agent Caveats
15856 @subsection Agent Caveats
15858 The Gnus Agent doesn't seem to work like most other offline
15859 newsreaders. Here are some common questions that some imaginary people
15863 @item If I read an article while plugged, do they get entered into the
15868 @item If I read an article while plugged, and the article already exists
15869 in the Agent, will it get downloaded once more?
15875 In short, when Gnus is unplugged, it only looks into the locally stored
15876 articles; when it's plugged, it only talks to your ISP.
15883 Other people use @dfn{kill files}, but we here at Gnus Towers like
15884 scoring better than killing, so we'd rather switch than fight. They do
15885 something completely different as well, so sit up straight and pay
15888 @vindex gnus-summary-mark-below
15889 All articles have a default score (@code{gnus-summary-default-score}),
15890 which is 0 by default. This score may be raised or lowered either
15891 interactively or by score files. Articles that have a score lower than
15892 @code{gnus-summary-mark-below} are marked as read.
15894 Gnus will read any @dfn{score files} that apply to the current group
15895 before generating the summary buffer.
15897 There are several commands in the summary buffer that insert score
15898 entries based on the current article. You can, for instance, ask Gnus to
15899 lower or increase the score of all articles with a certain subject.
15901 There are two sorts of scoring entries: Permanent and temporary.
15902 Temporary score entries are self-expiring entries. Any entries that are
15903 temporary and have not been used for, say, a week, will be removed
15904 silently to help keep the sizes of the score files down.
15907 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
15908 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
15909 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
15910 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
15911 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
15912 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
15913 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
15914 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
15915 * Scoring On Other Headers:: Scoring on non-standard headers.
15916 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
15917 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
15918 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
15919 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
15920 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
15921 * GroupLens:: Getting predictions on what you like to read.
15922 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
15923 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
15927 @node Summary Score Commands
15928 @section Summary Score Commands
15929 @cindex score commands
15931 The score commands that alter score entries do not actually modify real
15932 score files. That would be too inefficient. Gnus maintains a cache of
15933 previously loaded score files, one of which is considered the
15934 @dfn{current score file alist}. The score commands simply insert
15935 entries into this list, and upon group exit, this list is saved.
15937 The current score file is by default the group's local score file, even
15938 if no such score file actually exists. To insert score commands into
15939 some other score file (e.g. @file{all.SCORE}), you must first make this
15940 score file the current one.
15942 General score commands that don't actually change the score file:
15947 @kindex V s (Summary)
15948 @findex gnus-summary-set-score
15949 Set the score of the current article (@code{gnus-summary-set-score}).
15952 @kindex V S (Summary)
15953 @findex gnus-summary-current-score
15954 Display the score of the current article
15955 (@code{gnus-summary-current-score}).
15958 @kindex V t (Summary)
15959 @findex gnus-score-find-trace
15960 Display all score rules that have been used on the current article
15961 (@code{gnus-score-find-trace}).
15964 @kindex V R (Summary)
15965 @findex gnus-summary-rescore
15966 Run the current summary through the scoring process
15967 (@code{gnus-summary-rescore}). This might be useful if you're playing
15968 around with your score files behind Gnus' back and want to see the
15969 effect you're having.
15972 @kindex V c (Summary)
15973 @findex gnus-score-change-score-file
15974 Make a different score file the current
15975 (@code{gnus-score-change-score-file}).
15978 @kindex V e (Summary)
15979 @findex gnus-score-edit-current-scores
15980 Edit the current score file (@code{gnus-score-edit-current-scores}).
15981 You will be popped into a @code{gnus-score-mode} buffer (@pxref{Score
15985 @kindex V f (Summary)
15986 @findex gnus-score-edit-file
15987 Edit a score file and make this score file the current one
15988 (@code{gnus-score-edit-file}).
15991 @kindex V F (Summary)
15992 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
15993 Flush the score cache (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}). This is useful
15994 after editing score files.
15997 @kindex V C (Summary)
15998 @findex gnus-score-customize
15999 Customize a score file in a visually pleasing manner
16000 (@code{gnus-score-customize}).
16004 The rest of these commands modify the local score file.
16009 @kindex V m (Summary)
16010 @findex gnus-score-set-mark-below
16011 Prompt for a score, and mark all articles with a score below this as
16012 read (@code{gnus-score-set-mark-below}).
16015 @kindex V x (Summary)
16016 @findex gnus-score-set-expunge-below
16017 Prompt for a score, and add a score rule to the current score file to
16018 expunge all articles below this score
16019 (@code{gnus-score-set-expunge-below}).
16022 The keystrokes for actually making score entries follow a very regular
16023 pattern, so there's no need to list all the commands. (Hundreds of
16026 @findex gnus-summary-increase-score
16027 @findex gnus-summary-lower-score
16031 The first key is either @kbd{I} (upper case i) for increasing the score
16032 or @kbd{L} for lowering the score.
16034 The second key says what header you want to score on. The following
16035 keys are available:
16039 Score on the author name.
16042 Score on the subject line.
16045 Score on the @code{Xref} line---i.e., the cross-posting line.
16048 Score on the @code{References} line.
16054 Score on the number of lines.
16057 Score on the @code{Message-ID} header.
16060 Score on followups---this matches the author name, and adds scores to
16061 the followups to this author. (Using this key leads to the creation of
16062 @file{ADAPT} files.)
16071 Score on thread. (Using this key leads to the creation of @file{ADAPT}
16077 The third key is the match type. Which match types are valid depends on
16078 what headers you are scoring on.
16090 Substring matching.
16093 Fuzzy matching (@pxref{Fuzzy Matching}).
16122 Greater than number.
16127 The fourth and final key says whether this is a temporary (i.e., expiring)
16128 score entry, or a permanent (i.e., non-expiring) score entry, or whether
16129 it is to be done immediately, without adding to the score file.
16133 Temporary score entry.
16136 Permanent score entry.
16139 Immediately scoring.
16144 So, let's say you want to increase the score on the current author with
16145 exact matching permanently: @kbd{I a e p}. If you want to lower the
16146 score based on the subject line, using substring matching, and make a
16147 temporary score entry: @kbd{L s s t}. Pretty easy.
16149 To make things a bit more complicated, there are shortcuts. If you use
16150 a capital letter on either the second or third keys, Gnus will use
16151 defaults for the remaining one or two keystrokes. The defaults are
16152 ``substring'' and ``temporary''. So @kbd{I A} is the same as @kbd{I a s
16153 t}, and @kbd{I a R} is the same as @kbd{I a r t}.
16155 These functions take both the numerical prefix and the symbolic prefix
16156 (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}). A numerical prefix says how much to lower
16157 (or increase) the score of the article. A symbolic prefix of @code{a}
16158 says to use the @file{all.SCORE} file for the command instead of the
16159 current score file.
16161 @vindex gnus-score-mimic-keymap
16162 The @code{gnus-score-mimic-keymap} says whether these commands will
16163 pretend they are keymaps or not.
16166 @node Group Score Commands
16167 @section Group Score Commands
16168 @cindex group score commands
16170 There aren't many of these as yet, I'm afraid.
16175 @kindex W f (Group)
16176 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
16177 Gnus maintains a cache of score alists to avoid having to reload them
16178 all the time. This command will flush the cache
16179 (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}).
16183 You can do scoring from the command line by saying something like:
16185 @findex gnus-batch-score
16186 @cindex batch scoring
16188 $ emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-batch-score
16192 @node Score Variables
16193 @section Score Variables
16194 @cindex score variables
16198 @item gnus-use-scoring
16199 @vindex gnus-use-scoring
16200 If @code{nil}, Gnus will not check for score files, and will not, in
16201 general, do any score-related work. This is @code{t} by default.
16203 @item gnus-kill-killed
16204 @vindex gnus-kill-killed
16205 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will never apply score files to
16206 articles that have already been through the kill process. While this
16207 may save you lots of time, it also means that if you apply a kill file
16208 to a group, and then change the kill file and want to run it over you
16209 group again to kill more articles, it won't work. You have to set this
16210 variable to @code{t} to do that. (It is @code{t} by default.)
16212 @item gnus-kill-files-directory
16213 @vindex gnus-kill-files-directory
16214 All kill and score files will be stored in this directory, which is
16215 initialized from the @code{SAVEDIR} environment variable by default.
16216 This is @file{~/News/} by default.
16218 @item gnus-score-file-suffix
16219 @vindex gnus-score-file-suffix
16220 Suffix to add to the group name to arrive at the score file name
16221 (@samp{SCORE} by default.)
16223 @item gnus-score-uncacheable-files
16224 @vindex gnus-score-uncacheable-files
16225 @cindex score cache
16226 All score files are normally cached to avoid excessive re-loading of
16227 score files. However, if this might make your Emacs grow big and
16228 bloated, so this regexp can be used to weed out score files unlikely to be needed again. It would be a bad idea to deny caching of
16229 @file{all.SCORE}, while it might be a good idea to not cache
16230 @file{comp.infosystems.www.authoring.misc.ADAPT}. In fact, this
16231 variable is @samp{ADAPT$} by default, so no adaptive score files will
16234 @item gnus-save-score
16235 @vindex gnus-save-score
16236 If you have really complicated score files, and do lots of batch
16237 scoring, then you might set this variable to @code{t}. This will make
16238 Gnus save the scores into the @file{.newsrc.eld} file.
16240 If you do not set this to @code{t}, then manual scores (like those set
16241 with @kbd{V s} (@code{gnus-summary-set-score})) will not be preserved
16242 across group visits.
16244 @item gnus-score-interactive-default-score
16245 @vindex gnus-score-interactive-default-score
16246 Score used by all the interactive raise/lower commands to raise/lower
16247 score with. Default is 1000, which may seem excessive, but this is to
16248 ensure that the adaptive scoring scheme gets enough room to play with.
16249 We don't want the small changes from the adaptive scoring to overwrite
16250 manually entered data.
16252 @item gnus-summary-default-score
16253 @vindex gnus-summary-default-score
16254 Default score of an article, which is 0 by default.
16256 @item gnus-summary-expunge-below
16257 @vindex gnus-summary-expunge-below
16258 Don't display the summary lines of articles that have scores lower than
16259 this variable. This is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
16260 articles will be hidden. This variable is local to the summary buffers,
16261 and has to be set from @code{gnus-summary-mode-hook}.
16263 @item gnus-score-over-mark
16264 @vindex gnus-score-over-mark
16265 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score over the
16266 default. Default is @samp{+}.
16268 @item gnus-score-below-mark
16269 @vindex gnus-score-below-mark
16270 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score below the
16271 default. Default is @samp{-}.
16273 @item gnus-score-find-score-files-function
16274 @vindex gnus-score-find-score-files-function
16275 Function used to find score files for the current group. This function
16276 is called with the name of the group as the argument.
16278 Predefined functions available are:
16281 @item gnus-score-find-single
16282 @findex gnus-score-find-single
16283 Only apply the group's own score file.
16285 @item gnus-score-find-bnews
16286 @findex gnus-score-find-bnews
16287 Apply all score files that match, using bnews syntax. This is the
16288 default. If the current group is @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}, for instance,
16289 @file{all.emacs.all.SCORE}, @file{not.alt.all.SCORE} and
16290 @file{gnu.all.SCORE} would all apply. In short, the instances of
16291 @samp{all} in the score file names are translated into @samp{.*}, and
16292 then a regexp match is done.
16294 This means that if you have some score entries that you want to apply to
16295 all groups, then you put those entries in the @file{all.SCORE} file.
16297 The score files are applied in a semi-random order, although Gnus will
16298 try to apply the more general score files before the more specific score
16299 files. It does this by looking at the number of elements in the score
16300 file names---discarding the @samp{all} elements.
16302 @item gnus-score-find-hierarchical
16303 @findex gnus-score-find-hierarchical
16304 Apply all score files from all the parent groups. This means that you
16305 can't have score files like @file{all.SCORE}, but you can have
16306 @file{SCORE}, @file{comp.SCORE} and @file{comp.emacs.SCORE} for each
16310 This variable can also be a list of functions. In that case, all these
16311 functions will be called with the group name as argument, and all the
16312 returned lists of score files will be applied. These functions can also
16313 return lists of score alists directly. In that case, the functions that
16314 return these non-file score alists should probably be placed before the
16315 ``real'' score file functions, to ensure that the last score file
16316 returned is the local score file. Phu.
16318 For example, to do hierarchical scoring but use a non-server-specific
16319 overall score file, you could use the value
16321 (list (lambda (group) ("all.SCORE"))
16322 'gnus-score-find-hierarchical)
16325 @item gnus-score-expiry-days
16326 @vindex gnus-score-expiry-days
16327 This variable says how many days should pass before an unused score file
16328 entry is expired. If this variable is @code{nil}, no score file entries
16329 are expired. It's 7 by default.
16331 @item gnus-update-score-entry-dates
16332 @vindex gnus-update-score-entry-dates
16333 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, matching score entries will have
16334 their dates updated. (This is how Gnus controls expiry---all
16335 non-matching entries will become too old while matching entries will
16336 stay fresh and young.) However, if you set this variable to @code{nil},
16337 even matching entries will grow old and will have to face that oh-so
16340 @item gnus-score-after-write-file-function
16341 @vindex gnus-score-after-write-file-function
16342 Function called with the name of the score file just written.
16344 @item gnus-score-thread-simplify
16345 @vindex gnus-score-thread-simplify
16346 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, article subjects will be simplified
16347 for subject scoring purposes in the same manner as with
16348 threading---according to the current value of
16349 gnus-simplify-subject-functions. If the scoring entry uses
16350 @code{substring} or @code{exact} matching, the match will also be
16351 simplified in this manner.
16356 @node Score File Format
16357 @section Score File Format
16358 @cindex score file format
16360 A score file is an @code{emacs-lisp} file that normally contains just a
16361 single form. Casual users are not expected to edit these files;
16362 everything can be changed from the summary buffer.
16364 Anyway, if you'd like to dig into it yourself, here's an example:
16368 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" -10000)
16370 ("larsi\\|lmi" -50000 nil R))
16372 ("Ding is Badd" nil 728373))
16374 ("alt.politics" -1000 728372 s))
16379 (mark-and-expunge -10)
16383 (files "/hom/larsi/News/gnu.SCORE")
16384 (exclude-files "all.SCORE")
16385 (local (gnus-newsgroup-auto-expire t)
16386 (gnus-summary-make-false-root empty))
16390 This example demonstrates most score file elements. For a different
16391 approach, see @pxref{Advanced Scoring}.
16393 Even though this looks much like lisp code, nothing here is actually
16394 @code{eval}ed. The lisp reader is used to read this form, though, so it
16395 has to be valid syntactically, if not semantically.
16397 Six keys are supported by this alist:
16402 If the key is a string, it is the name of the header to perform the
16403 match on. Scoring can only be performed on these eight headers:
16404 @code{From}, @code{Subject}, @code{References}, @code{Message-ID},
16405 @code{Xref}, @code{Lines}, @code{Chars} and @code{Date}. In addition to
16406 these headers, there are three strings to tell Gnus to fetch the entire
16407 article and do the match on larger parts of the article: @code{Body}
16408 will perform the match on the body of the article, @code{Head} will
16409 perform the match on the head of the article, and @code{All} will
16410 perform the match on the entire article. Note that using any of these
16411 last three keys will slow down group entry @emph{considerably}. The
16412 final ``header'' you can score on is @code{Followup}. These score
16413 entries will result in new score entries being added for all follow-ups
16414 to articles that matches these score entries.
16416 Following this key is a arbitrary number of score entries, where each
16417 score entry has one to four elements.
16421 The first element is the @dfn{match element}. On most headers this will
16422 be a string, but on the Lines and Chars headers, this must be an
16426 If the second element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{score
16427 element}. This number should be an integer in the neginf to posinf
16428 interval. This number is added to the score of the article if the match
16429 is successful. If this element is not present, the
16430 @code{gnus-score-interactive-default-score} number will be used
16431 instead. This is 1000 by default.
16434 If the third element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{date
16435 element}. This date says when the last time this score entry matched,
16436 which provides a mechanism for expiring the score entries. It this
16437 element is not present, the score entry is permanent. The date is
16438 represented by the number of days since December 31, 1 BCE.
16441 If the fourth element is present, it should be a symbol---the @dfn{type
16442 element}. This element specifies what function should be used to see
16443 whether this score entry matches the article. What match types that can
16444 be used depends on what header you wish to perform the match on.
16447 @item From, Subject, References, Xref, Message-ID
16448 For most header types, there are the @code{r} and @code{R} (regexp), as
16449 well as @code{s} and @code{S} (substring) types, and @code{e} and
16450 @code{E} (exact match), and @code{w} (word match) types. If this
16451 element is not present, Gnus will assume that substring matching should
16452 be used. @code{R}, @code{S}, and @code{E} differ from the others in
16453 that the matches will be done in a case-sensitive manner. All these
16454 one-letter types are really just abbreviations for the @code{regexp},
16455 @code{string}, @code{exact}, and @code{word} types, which you can use
16456 instead, if you feel like.
16459 These two headers use different match types: @code{<}, @code{>},
16460 @code{=}, @code{>=} and @code{<=}.
16462 These predicates are true if
16465 (PREDICATE HEADER MATCH)
16468 evaluates to non-@code{nil}. For instance, the advanced match
16469 @code{("lines" 4 <)} (@pxref{Advanced Scoring}) will result in the
16476 Or to put it another way: When using @code{<} on @code{Lines} with 4 as
16477 the match, we get the score added if the article has less than 4 lines.
16478 (It's easy to get confused and think it's the other way around. But
16479 it's not. I think.)
16481 When matching on @code{Lines}, be careful because some backends (like
16482 @code{nndir}) do not generate @code{Lines} header, so every article ends
16483 up being marked as having 0 lines. This can lead to strange results if
16484 you happen to lower score of the articles with few lines.
16487 For the Date header we have three kinda silly match types:
16488 @code{before}, @code{at} and @code{after}. I can't really imagine this
16489 ever being useful, but, like, it would feel kinda silly not to provide
16490 this function. Just in case. You never know. Better safe than sorry.
16491 Once burnt, twice shy. Don't judge a book by its cover. Never not have
16492 sex on a first date. (I have been told that at least one person, and I
16493 quote, ``found this function indispensable'', however.)
16497 A more useful match type is @code{regexp}. With it, you can match the
16498 date string using a regular expression. The date is normalized to
16499 ISO8601 compact format first---@var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS}. If
16500 you want to match all articles that have been posted on April 1st in
16501 every year, you could use @samp{....0401.........} as a match string,
16502 for instance. (Note that the date is kept in its original time zone, so
16503 this will match articles that were posted when it was April 1st where
16504 the article was posted from. Time zones are such wholesome fun for the
16507 @item Head, Body, All
16508 These three match keys use the same match types as the @code{From} (etc)
16512 This match key is somewhat special, in that it will match the
16513 @code{From} header, and affect the score of not only the matching
16514 articles, but also all followups to the matching articles. This allows
16515 you e.g. increase the score of followups to your own articles, or
16516 decrease the score of followups to the articles of some known
16517 trouble-maker. Uses the same match types as the @code{From} header
16518 uses. (Using this match key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT}
16522 This match key works along the same lines as the @code{Followup} match
16523 key. If you say that you want to score on a (sub-)thread started by an
16524 article with a @code{Message-ID} @var{x}, then you add a @samp{thread}
16525 match. This will add a new @samp{thread} match for each article that
16526 has @var{x} in its @code{References} header. (These new @samp{thread}
16527 matches will use the @code{Message-ID}s of these matching articles.)
16528 This will ensure that you can raise/lower the score of an entire thread,
16529 even though some articles in the thread may not have complete
16530 @code{References} headers. Note that using this may lead to
16531 undeterministic scores of the articles in the thread. (Using this match
16532 key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT} files.)
16536 @cindex Score File Atoms
16538 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
16539 lower than this number will be marked as read.
16542 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
16543 lower than this number will be removed from the summary buffer.
16545 @item mark-and-expunge
16546 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
16547 lower than this number will be marked as read and removed from the
16550 @item thread-mark-and-expunge
16551 The value of this entry should be a number. All articles that belong to
16552 a thread that has a total score below this number will be marked as read
16553 and removed from the summary buffer. @code{gnus-thread-score-function}
16554 says how to compute the total score for a thread.
16557 The value of this entry should be any number of file names. These files
16558 are assumed to be score files as well, and will be loaded the same way
16561 @item exclude-files
16562 The clue of this entry should be any number of files. These files will
16563 not be loaded, even though they would normally be so, for some reason or
16567 The value of this entry will be @code{eval}el. This element will be
16568 ignored when handling global score files.
16571 Read-only score files will not be updated or saved. Global score files
16572 should feature this atom (@pxref{Global Score Files}). (Note:
16573 @dfn{Global} here really means @dfn{global}; not your personal
16574 apply-to-all-groups score files.)
16577 The value of this entry should be a number. Articles that do not have
16578 parents will get this number added to their scores. Imagine you follow
16579 some high-volume newsgroup, like @samp{comp.lang.c}. Most likely you
16580 will only follow a few of the threads, also want to see any new threads.
16582 You can do this with the following two score file entries:
16586 (mark-and-expunge -100)
16589 When you enter the group the first time, you will only see the new
16590 threads. You then raise the score of the threads that you find
16591 interesting (with @kbd{I T} or @kbd{I S}), and ignore (@kbd{C y}) the
16592 rest. Next time you enter the group, you will see new articles in the
16593 interesting threads, plus any new threads.
16595 I.e.---the orphan score atom is for high-volume groups where a few
16596 interesting threads which can't be found automatically by ordinary
16597 scoring rules exist.
16600 This entry controls the adaptive scoring. If it is @code{t}, the
16601 default adaptive scoring rules will be used. If it is @code{ignore}, no
16602 adaptive scoring will be performed on this group. If it is a list, this
16603 list will be used as the adaptive scoring rules. If it isn't present,
16604 or is something other than @code{t} or @code{ignore}, the default
16605 adaptive scoring rules will be used. If you want to use adaptive
16606 scoring on most groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
16607 @code{t}, and insert an @code{(adapt ignore)} in the groups where you do
16608 not want adaptive scoring. If you only want adaptive scoring in a few
16609 groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to @code{nil}, and
16610 insert @code{(adapt t)} in the score files of the groups where you want
16614 All adaptive score entries will go to the file named by this entry. It
16615 will also be applied when entering the group. This atom might be handy
16616 if you want to adapt on several groups at once, using the same adaptive
16617 file for a number of groups.
16620 @cindex local variables
16621 The value of this entry should be a list of @code{(VAR VALUE)} pairs.
16622 Each @var{var} will be made buffer-local to the current summary buffer,
16623 and set to the value specified. This is a convenient, if somewhat
16624 strange, way of setting variables in some groups if you don't like hooks
16625 much. Note that the @var{value} won't be evaluated.
16629 @node Score File Editing
16630 @section Score File Editing
16632 You normally enter all scoring commands from the summary buffer, but you
16633 might feel the urge to edit them by hand as well, so we've supplied you
16634 with a mode for that.
16636 It's simply a slightly customized @code{emacs-lisp} mode, with these
16637 additional commands:
16642 @kindex C-c C-c (Score)
16643 @findex gnus-score-edit-done
16644 Save the changes you have made and return to the summary buffer
16645 (@code{gnus-score-edit-done}).
16648 @kindex C-c C-d (Score)
16649 @findex gnus-score-edit-insert-date
16650 Insert the current date in numerical format
16651 (@code{gnus-score-edit-insert-date}). This is really the day number, if
16652 you were wondering.
16655 @kindex C-c C-p (Score)
16656 @findex gnus-score-pretty-print
16657 The adaptive score files are saved in an unformatted fashion. If you
16658 intend to read one of these files, you want to @dfn{pretty print} it
16659 first. This command (@code{gnus-score-pretty-print}) does that for
16664 Type @kbd{M-x gnus-score-mode} to use this mode.
16666 @vindex gnus-score-mode-hook
16667 @code{gnus-score-menu-hook} is run in score mode buffers.
16669 In the summary buffer you can use commands like @kbd{V f} and @kbd{V
16670 e} to begin editing score files.
16673 @node Adaptive Scoring
16674 @section Adaptive Scoring
16675 @cindex adaptive scoring
16677 If all this scoring is getting you down, Gnus has a way of making it all
16678 happen automatically---as if by magic. Or rather, as if by artificial
16679 stupidity, to be precise.
16681 @vindex gnus-use-adaptive-scoring
16682 When you read an article, or mark an article as read, or kill an
16683 article, you leave marks behind. On exit from the group, Gnus can sniff
16684 these marks and add score elements depending on what marks it finds.
16685 You turn on this ability by setting @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
16686 @code{t} or @code{(line)}. If you want score adaptively on separate
16687 words appearing in the subjects, you should set this variable to
16688 @code{(word)}. If you want to use both adaptive methods, set this
16689 variable to @code{(word line)}.
16691 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
16692 To give you complete control over the scoring process, you can customize
16693 the @code{gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist} variable. For instance, it
16694 might look something like this:
16697 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
16698 '((gnus-unread-mark)
16699 (gnus-ticked-mark (from 4))
16700 (gnus-dormant-mark (from 5))
16701 (gnus-del-mark (from -4) (subject -1))
16702 (gnus-read-mark (from 4) (subject 2))
16703 (gnus-expirable-mark (from -1) (subject -1))
16704 (gnus-killed-mark (from -1) (subject -3))
16705 (gnus-kill-file-mark)
16706 (gnus-ancient-mark)
16707 (gnus-low-score-mark)
16708 (gnus-catchup-mark (from -1) (subject -1))))
16711 As you see, each element in this alist has a mark as a key (either a
16712 variable name or a ``real'' mark---a character). Following this key is
16713 a arbitrary number of header/score pairs. If there are no header/score
16714 pairs following the key, no adaptive scoring will be done on articles
16715 that have that key as the article mark. For instance, articles with
16716 @code{gnus-unread-mark} in the example above will not get adaptive score
16719 Each article can have only one mark, so just a single of these rules
16720 will be applied to each article.
16722 To take @code{gnus-del-mark} as an example---this alist says that all
16723 articles that have that mark (i.e., are marked with @samp{D}) will have a
16724 score entry added to lower based on the @code{From} header by -4, and
16725 lowered by @code{Subject} by -1. Change this to fit your prejudices.
16727 If you have marked 10 articles with the same subject with
16728 @code{gnus-del-mark}, the rule for that mark will be applied ten times.
16729 That means that that subject will get a score of ten times -1, which
16730 should be, unless I'm much mistaken, -10.
16732 If you have auto-expirable (mail) groups (@pxref{Expiring Mail}), all
16733 the read articles will be marked with the @samp{E} mark. This'll
16734 probably make adaptive scoring slightly impossible, so auto-expiring and
16735 adaptive scoring doesn't really mix very well.
16737 The headers you can score on are @code{from}, @code{subject},
16738 @code{message-id}, @code{references}, @code{xref}, @code{lines},
16739 @code{chars} and @code{date}. In addition, you can score on
16740 @code{followup}, which will create an adaptive score entry that matches
16741 on the @code{References} header using the @code{Message-ID} of the
16742 current article, thereby matching the following thread.
16744 You can also score on @code{thread}, which will try to score all
16745 articles that appear in a thread. @code{thread} matches uses a
16746 @code{Message-ID} to match on the @code{References} header of the
16747 article. If the match is made, the @code{Message-ID} of the article is
16748 added to the @code{thread} rule. (Think about it. I'd recommend two
16749 aspirins afterwards.)
16751 If you use this scheme, you should set the score file atom @code{mark}
16752 to something small---like -300, perhaps, to avoid having small random
16753 changes result in articles getting marked as read.
16755 After using adaptive scoring for a week or so, Gnus should start to
16756 become properly trained and enhance the authors you like best, and kill
16757 the authors you like least, without you having to say so explicitly.
16759 You can control what groups the adaptive scoring is to be performed on
16760 by using the score files (@pxref{Score File Format}). This will also
16761 let you use different rules in different groups.
16763 @vindex gnus-adaptive-file-suffix
16764 The adaptive score entries will be put into a file where the name is the
16765 group name with @code{gnus-adaptive-file-suffix} appended. The default
16768 @vindex gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit
16769 When doing adaptive scoring, substring or fuzzy matching would probably
16770 give you the best results in most cases. However, if the header one
16771 matches is short, the possibility for false positives is great, so if
16772 the length of the match is less than
16773 @code{gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit}, exact matching will be used. If
16774 this variable is @code{nil}, exact matching will always be used to avoid
16777 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
16778 As mentioned above, you can adapt either on individual words or entire
16779 headers. If you adapt on words, the
16780 @code{gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist} variable says what score
16781 each instance of a word should add given a mark.
16784 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
16785 `((,gnus-read-mark . 30)
16786 (,gnus-catchup-mark . -10)
16787 (,gnus-killed-mark . -20)
16788 (,gnus-del-mark . -15)))
16791 This is the default value. If you have adaption on words enabled, every
16792 word that appears in subjects of articles marked with
16793 @code{gnus-read-mark} will result in a score rule that increase the
16794 score with 30 points.
16796 @vindex gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words
16797 @vindex gnus-ignored-adaptive-words
16798 Words that appear in the @code{gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words} list
16799 will be ignored. If you wish to add more words to be ignored, use the
16800 @code{gnus-ignored-adaptive-words} list instead.
16802 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-length-limit
16803 Some may feel that short words shouldn't count when doing adaptive
16804 scoring. If so, you may set @code{gnus-adaptive-word-length-limit} to
16805 an integer. Words shorter than this number will be ignored. This
16806 variable defaults til @code{nil}.
16808 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table
16809 When the scoring is done, @code{gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table} is the
16810 syntax table in effect. It is similar to the standard syntax table, but
16811 it considers numbers to be non-word-constituent characters.
16813 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-minimum
16814 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} is set to a number, the adaptive
16815 word scoring process will never bring down the score of an article to
16816 below this number. The default is @code{nil}.
16818 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words
16819 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words} is set to @code{t}, gnus
16820 won't adaptively word score any of the words in the group name. Useful
16821 for groups like @samp{comp.editors.emacs}, where most of the subject
16822 lines contain the word @samp{emacs}.
16824 After using this scheme for a while, it might be nice to write a
16825 @code{gnus-psychoanalyze-user} command to go through the rules and see
16826 what words you like and what words you don't like. Or perhaps not.
16828 Note that the adaptive word scoring thing is highly experimental and is
16829 likely to change in the future. Initial impressions seem to indicate
16830 that it's totally useless as it stands. Some more work (involving more
16831 rigorous statistical methods) will have to be done to make this useful.
16834 @node Home Score File
16835 @section Home Score File
16837 The score file where new score file entries will go is called the
16838 @dfn{home score file}. This is normally (and by default) the score file
16839 for the group itself. For instance, the home score file for
16840 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} is @file{gnu.emacs.gnus.SCORE}.
16842 However, this may not be what you want. It is often convenient to share
16843 a common home score file among many groups---all @samp{emacs} groups
16844 could perhaps use the same home score file.
16846 @vindex gnus-home-score-file
16847 The variable that controls this is @code{gnus-home-score-file}. It can
16852 A string. Then this file will be used as the home score file for all
16856 A function. The result of this function will be used as the home score
16857 file. The function will be called with the name of the group as the
16861 A list. The elements in this list can be:
16865 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{file-name})}. If the @var{regexp} matches the
16866 group name, the @var{file-name} will be used as the home score file.
16869 A function. If the function returns non-nil, the result will be used as
16870 the home score file.
16873 A string. Use the string as the home score file.
16876 The list will be traversed from the beginning towards the end looking
16881 So, if you want to use just a single score file, you could say:
16884 (setq gnus-home-score-file
16885 "my-total-score-file.SCORE")
16888 If you want to use @file{gnu.SCORE} for all @samp{gnu} groups and
16889 @file{rec.SCORE} for all @samp{rec} groups (and so on), you can say:
16891 @findex gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file
16893 (setq gnus-home-score-file
16894 'gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file)
16897 This is a ready-made function provided for your convenience.
16898 Other functions include
16901 @item gnus-current-home-score-file
16902 @findex gnus-current-home-score-file
16903 Return the ``current'' regular score file. This will make scoring
16904 commands add entry to the ``innermost'' matching score file.
16908 If you want to have one score file for the @samp{emacs} groups and
16909 another for the @samp{comp} groups, while letting all other groups use
16910 their own home score files:
16913 (setq gnus-home-score-file
16914 ;; All groups that match the regexp "\\.emacs"
16915 '(("\\.emacs" "emacs.SCORE")
16916 ;; All the comp groups in one score file
16917 ("^comp" "comp.SCORE")))
16920 @vindex gnus-home-adapt-file
16921 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file} works exactly the same way as
16922 @code{gnus-home-score-file}, but says what the home adaptive score file
16923 is instead. All new adaptive file entries will go into the file
16924 specified by this variable, and the same syntax is allowed.
16926 In addition to using @code{gnus-home-score-file} and
16927 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file}, you can also use group parameters
16928 (@pxref{Group Parameters}) and topic parameters (@pxref{Topic
16929 Parameters}) to achieve much the same. Group and topic parameters take
16930 precedence over this variable.
16933 @node Followups To Yourself
16934 @section Followups To Yourself
16936 Gnus offers two commands for picking out the @code{Message-ID} header in
16937 the current buffer. Gnus will then add a score rule that scores using
16938 this @code{Message-ID} on the @code{References} header of other
16939 articles. This will, in effect, increase the score of all articles that
16940 respond to the article in the current buffer. Quite useful if you want
16941 to easily note when people answer what you've said.
16945 @item gnus-score-followup-article
16946 @findex gnus-score-followup-article
16947 This will add a score to articles that directly follow up your own
16950 @item gnus-score-followup-thread
16951 @findex gnus-score-followup-thread
16952 This will add a score to all articles that appear in a thread ``below''
16956 @vindex message-sent-hook
16957 These two functions are both primarily meant to be used in hooks like
16958 @code{message-sent-hook}, like this:
16960 (add-hook 'message-sent-hook 'gnus-score-followup-thread)
16964 If you look closely at your own @code{Message-ID}, you'll notice that
16965 the first two or three characters are always the same. Here's two of
16969 <x6u3u47icf.fsf@@eyesore.no>
16970 <x6sp9o7ibw.fsf@@eyesore.no>
16973 So ``my'' ident on this machine is @samp{x6}. This can be
16974 exploited---the following rule will raise the score on all followups to
16979 ("<x6[0-9a-z]+\\.fsf\\(_-_\\)?@@.*eyesore\\.no>"
16983 Whether it's the first two or first three characters that are ``yours''
16984 is system-dependent.
16987 @node Scoring On Other Headers
16988 @section Scoring On Other Headers
16989 @cindex scoring on other headers
16991 Gnus is quite fast when scoring the ``traditional''
16992 headers---@samp{From}, @samp{Subject} and so on. However, scoring
16993 other headers requires writing a @code{head} scoring rule, which means
16994 that Gnus has to request every single article from the backend to find
16995 matches. This takes a long time in big groups.
16997 Now, there's not much you can do about this for news groups, but for
16998 mail groups, you have greater control. In the @pxref{To From
16999 Newsgroups} section of the manual, it's explained in greater detail what
17000 this mechanism does, but here's a cookbook example for @code{nnml} on
17001 how to allow scoring on the @samp{To} and @samp{Cc} headers.
17003 Put the following in your @file{.gnus.el} file.
17006 (setq gnus-extra-headers '(To Cc Newsgroups Keywords)
17007 nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
17010 Restart Gnus and rebuild your @code{nnml} overview files with the
17011 @kbd{M-x nnml-generate-nov-databases} command. This will take a long
17012 time if you have much mail.
17014 Now you can score on @samp{To} and @samp{Cc} as ``extra headers'' like
17015 so: @kbd{I e s p To RET <your name> RET}.
17021 @section Scoring Tips
17022 @cindex scoring tips
17028 @cindex scoring crossposts
17029 If you want to lower the score of crossposts, the line to match on is
17030 the @code{Xref} header.
17032 ("xref" (" talk.politics.misc:" -1000))
17035 @item Multiple crossposts
17036 If you want to lower the score of articles that have been crossposted to
17037 more than, say, 3 groups:
17040 ("[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+"
17044 @item Matching on the body
17045 This is generally not a very good idea---it takes a very long time.
17046 Gnus actually has to fetch each individual article from the server. But
17047 you might want to anyway, I guess. Even though there are three match
17048 keys (@code{Head}, @code{Body} and @code{All}), you should choose one
17049 and stick with it in each score file. If you use any two, each article
17050 will be fetched @emph{twice}. If you want to match a bit on the
17051 @code{Head} and a bit on the @code{Body}, just use @code{All} for all
17054 @item Marking as read
17055 You will probably want to mark articles that have scores below a certain
17056 number as read. This is most easily achieved by putting the following
17057 in your @file{all.SCORE} file:
17061 You may also consider doing something similar with @code{expunge}.
17063 @item Negated character classes
17064 If you say stuff like @code{[^abcd]*}, you may get unexpected results.
17065 That will match newlines, which might lead to, well, The Unknown. Say
17066 @code{[^abcd\n]*} instead.
17070 @node Reverse Scoring
17071 @section Reverse Scoring
17072 @cindex reverse scoring
17074 If you want to keep just articles that have @samp{Sex with Emacs} in the
17075 subject header, and expunge all other articles, you could put something
17076 like this in your score file:
17080 ("Sex with Emacs" 2))
17085 So, you raise all articles that match @samp{Sex with Emacs} and mark the
17086 rest as read, and expunge them to boot.
17089 @node Global Score Files
17090 @section Global Score Files
17091 @cindex global score files
17093 Sure, other newsreaders have ``global kill files''. These are usually
17094 nothing more than a single kill file that applies to all groups, stored
17095 in the user's home directory. Bah! Puny, weak newsreaders!
17097 What I'm talking about here are Global Score Files. Score files from
17098 all over the world, from users everywhere, uniting all nations in one
17099 big, happy score file union! Ange-score! New and untested!
17101 @vindex gnus-global-score-files
17102 All you have to do to use other people's score files is to set the
17103 @code{gnus-global-score-files} variable. One entry for each score file,
17104 or each score file directory. Gnus will decide by itself what score
17105 files are applicable to which group.
17107 To use the score file
17108 @file{/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE} and
17109 all score files in the @file{/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score} directory,
17113 (setq gnus-global-score-files
17114 '("/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE"
17115 "/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score/"))
17118 @findex gnus-score-search-global-directories
17120 Simple, eh? Directory names must end with a @samp{/}. These
17121 directories are typically scanned only once during each Gnus session.
17122 If you feel the need to manually re-scan the remote directories, you can
17123 use the @code{gnus-score-search-global-directories} command.
17125 Note that, at present, using this option will slow down group entry
17126 somewhat. (That is---a lot.)
17128 If you want to start maintaining score files for other people to use,
17129 just put your score file up for anonymous ftp and announce it to the
17130 world. Become a retro-moderator! Participate in the retro-moderator
17131 wars sure to ensue, where retro-moderators battle it out for the
17132 sympathy of the people, luring them to use their score files on false
17133 premises! Yay! The net is saved!
17135 Here are some tips for the would-be retro-moderator, off the top of my
17141 Articles heavily crossposted are probably junk.
17143 To lower a single inappropriate article, lower by @code{Message-ID}.
17145 Particularly brilliant authors can be raised on a permanent basis.
17147 Authors that repeatedly post off-charter for the group can safely be
17148 lowered out of existence.
17150 Set the @code{mark} and @code{expunge} atoms to obliterate the nastiest
17151 articles completely.
17154 Use expiring score entries to keep the size of the file down. You
17155 should probably have a long expiry period, though, as some sites keep
17156 old articles for a long time.
17159 ... I wonder whether other newsreaders will support global score files
17160 in the future. @emph{Snicker}. Yup, any day now, newsreaders like Blue
17161 Wave, xrn and 1stReader are bound to implement scoring. Should we start
17162 holding our breath yet?
17166 @section Kill Files
17169 Gnus still supports those pesky old kill files. In fact, the kill file
17170 entries can now be expiring, which is something I wrote before Daniel
17171 Quinlan thought of doing score files, so I've left the code in there.
17173 In short, kill processing is a lot slower (and I do mean @emph{a lot})
17174 than score processing, so it might be a good idea to rewrite your kill
17175 files into score files.
17177 Anyway, a kill file is a normal @code{emacs-lisp} file. You can put any
17178 forms into this file, which means that you can use kill files as some
17179 sort of primitive hook function to be run on group entry, even though
17180 that isn't a very good idea.
17182 Normal kill files look like this:
17185 (gnus-kill "From" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
17186 (gnus-kill "Subject" "ding")
17190 This will mark every article written by me as read, and remove the
17191 marked articles from the summary buffer. Very useful, you'll agree.
17193 Other programs use a totally different kill file syntax. If Gnus
17194 encounters what looks like a @code{rn} kill file, it will take a stab at
17197 Two summary functions for editing a GNUS kill file:
17202 @kindex M-k (Summary)
17203 @findex gnus-summary-edit-local-kill
17204 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-local-kill}).
17207 @kindex M-K (Summary)
17208 @findex gnus-summary-edit-global-kill
17209 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-global-kill}).
17212 Two group mode functions for editing the kill files:
17217 @kindex M-k (Group)
17218 @findex gnus-group-edit-local-kill
17219 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-local-kill}).
17222 @kindex M-K (Group)
17223 @findex gnus-group-edit-global-kill
17224 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-global-kill}).
17227 Kill file variables:
17230 @item gnus-kill-file-name
17231 @vindex gnus-kill-file-name
17232 A kill file for the group @samp{soc.motss} is normally called
17233 @file{soc.motss.KILL}. The suffix appended to the group name to get
17234 this file name is detailed by the @code{gnus-kill-file-name} variable.
17235 The ``global'' kill file (not in the score file sense of ``global'', of
17236 course) is just called @file{KILL}.
17238 @vindex gnus-kill-save-kill-file
17239 @item gnus-kill-save-kill-file
17240 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will save the
17241 kill file after processing, which is necessary if you use expiring
17244 @item gnus-apply-kill-hook
17245 @vindex gnus-apply-kill-hook
17246 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored
17247 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file
17248 A hook called to apply kill files to a group. It is
17249 @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file)} by default. If you want to ignore the
17250 kill file if you have a score file for the same group, you can set this
17251 hook to @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored)}. If you don't want
17252 kill files to be processed, you should set this variable to @code{nil}.
17254 @item gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
17255 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
17256 A hook called in kill-file mode buffers.
17261 @node Converting Kill Files
17262 @section Converting Kill Files
17264 @cindex converting kill files
17266 If you have loads of old kill files, you may want to convert them into
17267 score files. If they are ``regular'', you can use
17268 the @file{gnus-kill-to-score.el} package; if not, you'll have to do it
17271 The kill to score conversion package isn't included in Gnus by default.
17272 You can fetch it from
17273 @uref{http://www.stud.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/ding-various/gnus-kill-to-score.el}.
17275 If your old kill files are very complex---if they contain more
17276 non-@code{gnus-kill} forms than not, you'll have to convert them by
17277 hand. Or just let them be as they are. Gnus will still use them as
17285 GroupLens is a collaborative filtering system that helps you work
17286 together with other people to find the quality news articles out of the
17287 huge volume of news articles generated every day.
17289 To accomplish this the GroupLens system combines your opinions about
17290 articles you have already read with the opinions of others who have done
17291 likewise and gives you a personalized prediction for each unread news
17292 article. Think of GroupLens as a matchmaker. GroupLens watches how you
17293 rate articles, and finds other people that rate articles the same way.
17294 Once it has found some people you agree with it tells you, in the form
17295 of a prediction, what they thought of the article. You can use this
17296 prediction to help you decide whether or not you want to read the
17300 * Using GroupLens:: How to make Gnus use GroupLens.
17301 * Rating Articles:: Letting GroupLens know how you rate articles.
17302 * Displaying Predictions:: Displaying predictions given by GroupLens.
17303 * GroupLens Variables:: Customizing GroupLens.
17307 @node Using GroupLens
17308 @subsection Using GroupLens
17310 To use GroupLens you must register a pseudonym with your local Better
17312 @uref{http://www.cs.umn.edu/Research/GroupLens/bbb.html} is the only
17313 better bit in town at the moment.
17315 Once you have registered you'll need to set a couple of variables.
17319 @item gnus-use-grouplens
17320 @vindex gnus-use-grouplens
17321 Setting this variable to a non-@code{nil} value will make Gnus hook into
17322 all the relevant GroupLens functions.
17324 @item grouplens-pseudonym
17325 @vindex grouplens-pseudonym
17326 This variable should be set to the pseudonym you got when registering
17327 with the Better Bit Bureau.
17329 @item grouplens-newsgroups
17330 @vindex grouplens-newsgroups
17331 A list of groups that you want to get GroupLens predictions for.
17335 That's the minimum of what you need to get up and running with GroupLens.
17336 Once you've registered, GroupLens will start giving you scores for
17337 articles based on the average of what other people think. But, to get
17338 the real benefit of GroupLens you need to start rating articles
17339 yourself. Then the scores GroupLens gives you will be personalized for
17340 you, based on how the people you usually agree with have already rated.
17343 @node Rating Articles
17344 @subsection Rating Articles
17346 In GroupLens, an article is rated on a scale from 1 to 5, inclusive.
17347 Where 1 means something like this article is a waste of bandwidth and 5
17348 means that the article was really good. The basic question to ask
17349 yourself is, "on a scale from 1 to 5 would I like to see more articles
17352 There are four ways to enter a rating for an article in GroupLens.
17357 @kindex r (GroupLens)
17358 @findex bbb-summary-rate-article
17359 This function will prompt you for a rating on a scale of one to five.
17362 @kindex k (GroupLens)
17363 @findex grouplens-score-thread
17364 This function will prompt you for a rating, and rate all the articles in
17365 the thread. This is really useful for some of those long running giant
17366 threads in rec.humor.
17370 The next two commands, @kbd{n} and @kbd{,} take a numerical prefix to be
17371 the score of the article you're reading.
17376 @kindex n (GroupLens)
17377 @findex grouplens-next-unread-article
17378 Rate the article and go to the next unread article.
17381 @kindex , (GroupLens)
17382 @findex grouplens-best-unread-article
17383 Rate the article and go to the next unread article with the highest score.
17387 If you want to give the current article a score of 4 and then go to the
17388 next article, just type @kbd{4 n}.
17391 @node Displaying Predictions
17392 @subsection Displaying Predictions
17394 GroupLens makes a prediction for you about how much you will like a
17395 news article. The predictions from GroupLens are on a scale from 1 to
17396 5, where 1 is the worst and 5 is the best. You can use the predictions
17397 from GroupLens in one of three ways controlled by the variable
17398 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring}.
17400 @vindex gnus-grouplens-override-scoring
17401 There are three ways to display predictions in grouplens. You may
17402 choose to have the GroupLens scores contribute to, or override the
17403 regular gnus scoring mechanism. override is the default; however, some
17404 people prefer to see the Gnus scores plus the grouplens scores. To get
17405 the separate scoring behavior you need to set
17406 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring} to @code{'separate}. To have the
17407 GroupLens predictions combined with the grouplens scores set it to
17408 @code{'override} and to combine the scores set
17409 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring} to @code{'combine}. When you use
17410 the combine option you will also want to set the values for
17411 @code{grouplens-prediction-offset} and
17412 @code{grouplens-score-scale-factor}.
17414 @vindex grouplens-prediction-display
17415 In either case, GroupLens gives you a few choices for how you would like
17416 to see your predictions displayed. The display of predictions is
17417 controlled by the @code{grouplens-prediction-display} variable.
17419 The following are valid values for that variable.
17422 @item prediction-spot
17423 The higher the prediction, the further to the right an @samp{*} is
17426 @item confidence-interval
17427 A numeric confidence interval.
17429 @item prediction-bar
17430 The higher the prediction, the longer the bar.
17432 @item confidence-bar
17433 Numerical confidence.
17435 @item confidence-spot
17436 The spot gets bigger with more confidence.
17438 @item prediction-num
17439 Plain-old numeric value.
17441 @item confidence-plus-minus
17442 Prediction +/- confidence.
17447 @node GroupLens Variables
17448 @subsection GroupLens Variables
17452 @item gnus-summary-grouplens-line-format
17453 The summary line format used in GroupLens-enhanced summary buffers. It
17454 accepts the same specs as the normal summary line format (@pxref{Summary
17455 Buffer Lines}). The default is @samp{%U%R%z%l%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23n%]%)
17458 @item grouplens-bbb-host
17459 Host running the bbbd server. @samp{grouplens.cs.umn.edu} is the
17462 @item grouplens-bbb-port
17463 Port of the host running the bbbd server. The default is 9000.
17465 @item grouplens-score-offset
17466 Offset the prediction by this value. In other words, subtract the
17467 prediction value by this number to arrive at the effective score. The
17470 @item grouplens-score-scale-factor
17471 This variable allows the user to magnify the effect of GroupLens scores.
17472 The scale factor is applied after the offset. The default is 1.
17477 @node Advanced Scoring
17478 @section Advanced Scoring
17480 Scoring on Subjects and From headers is nice enough, but what if you're
17481 really interested in what a person has to say only when she's talking
17482 about a particular subject? Or what if you really don't want to
17483 read what person A has to say when she's following up to person B, but
17484 want to read what she says when she's following up to person C?
17486 By using advanced scoring rules you may create arbitrarily complex
17490 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
17491 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
17492 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
17496 @node Advanced Scoring Syntax
17497 @subsection Advanced Scoring Syntax
17499 Ordinary scoring rules have a string as the first element in the rule.
17500 Advanced scoring rules have a list as the first element. The second
17501 element is the score to be applied if the first element evaluated to a
17502 non-@code{nil} value.
17504 These lists may consist of three logical operators, one redirection
17505 operator, and various match operators.
17512 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
17513 one that evaluates to @code{false}, and then it'll stop. If all arguments
17514 evaluate to @code{true} values, then this operator will return
17519 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
17520 one that evaluates to @code{true}. If no arguments are @code{true},
17521 then this operator will return @code{false}.
17526 This logical operator only takes a single argument. It returns the
17527 logical negation of the value of its argument.
17531 There is an @dfn{indirection operator} that will make its arguments
17532 apply to the ancestors of the current article being scored. For
17533 instance, @code{1-} will make score rules apply to the parent of the
17534 current article. @code{2-} will make score rules apply to the
17535 grandparent of the current article. Alternatively, you can write
17536 @code{^^}, where the number of @code{^}s (carets) says how far back into
17537 the ancestry you want to go.
17539 Finally, we have the match operators. These are the ones that do the
17540 real work. Match operators are header name strings followed by a match
17541 and a match type. A typical match operator looks like @samp{("from"
17542 "Lars Ingebrigtsen" s)}. The header names are the same as when using
17543 simple scoring, and the match types are also the same.
17546 @node Advanced Scoring Examples
17547 @subsection Advanced Scoring Examples
17549 Let's say you want to increase the score of articles written by Lars
17550 when he's talking about Gnus:
17554 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
17555 ("subject" "Gnus"))
17561 When he writes long articles, he sometimes has something nice to say:
17565 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
17572 However, when he responds to things written by Reig Eigil Logge, you
17573 really don't want to read what he's written:
17577 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
17578 (1- ("from" "Reig Eigir Logge")))
17582 Everybody that follows up Redmondo when he writes about disappearing
17583 socks should have their scores raised, but only when they talk about
17584 white socks. However, when Lars talks about socks, it's usually not
17591 ("from" "redmondo@@.*no" r)
17592 ("body" "disappearing.*socks" t)))
17593 (! ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen"))
17594 ("body" "white.*socks"))
17598 The possibilities are endless.
17601 @node Advanced Scoring Tips
17602 @subsection Advanced Scoring Tips
17604 The @code{&} and @code{|} logical operators do short-circuit logic.
17605 That is, they stop processing their arguments when it's clear what the
17606 result of the operation will be. For instance, if one of the arguments
17607 of an @code{&} evaluates to @code{false}, there's no point in evaluating
17608 the rest of the arguments. This means that you should put slow matches
17609 (@samp{body}, @samp{header}) last and quick matches (@samp{from},
17610 @samp{subject}) first.
17612 The indirection arguments (@code{1-} and so on) will make their
17613 arguments work on previous generations of the thread. If you say
17624 Then that means "score on the from header of the grandparent of the
17625 current article". An indirection is quite fast, but it's better to say:
17631 ("subject" "Gnus")))
17638 (1- ("from" "Lars"))
17639 (1- ("subject" "Gnus")))
17644 @section Score Decays
17645 @cindex score decays
17648 You may find that your scores have a tendency to grow without
17649 bounds, especially if you're using adaptive scoring. If scores get too
17650 big, they lose all meaning---they simply max out and it's difficult to
17651 use them in any sensible way.
17653 @vindex gnus-decay-scores
17654 @findex gnus-decay-score
17655 @vindex gnus-decay-score-function
17656 Gnus provides a mechanism for decaying scores to help with this problem.
17657 When score files are loaded and @code{gnus-decay-scores} is
17658 non-@code{nil}, Gnus will run the score files through the decaying
17659 mechanism thereby lowering the scores of all non-permanent score rules.
17660 The decay itself if performed by the @code{gnus-decay-score-function}
17661 function, which is @code{gnus-decay-score} by default. Here's the
17662 definition of that function:
17665 (defun gnus-decay-score (score)
17667 This is done according to `gnus-score-decay-constant'
17668 and `gnus-score-decay-scale'."
17671 (* (if (< score 0) 1 -1)
17673 (max gnus-score-decay-constant
17675 gnus-score-decay-scale)))))))
17678 @vindex gnus-score-decay-scale
17679 @vindex gnus-score-decay-constant
17680 @code{gnus-score-decay-constant} is 3 by default and
17681 @code{gnus-score-decay-scale} is 0.05. This should cause the following:
17685 Scores between -3 and 3 will be set to 0 when this function is called.
17688 Scores with magnitudes between 3 and 60 will be shrunk by 3.
17691 Scores with magnitudes greater than 60 will be shrunk by 5% of the
17695 If you don't like this decay function, write your own. It is called
17696 with the score to be decayed as its only parameter, and it should return
17697 the new score, which should be an integer.
17699 Gnus will try to decay scores once a day. If you haven't run Gnus for
17700 four days, Gnus will decay the scores four times, for instance.
17707 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
17708 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
17709 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
17710 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
17711 * Window Layout:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
17712 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
17713 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
17714 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
17715 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
17716 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
17717 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
17718 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
17719 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
17720 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
17721 * XEmacs Enhancements:: There are more pictures and stuff under XEmacs.
17722 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
17723 * Thwarting Email Spam:: A how-to on avoiding unsolicited commercial email.
17724 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
17728 @node Process/Prefix
17729 @section Process/Prefix
17730 @cindex process/prefix convention
17732 Many functions, among them functions for moving, decoding and saving
17733 articles, use what is known as the @dfn{Process/Prefix convention}.
17735 This is a method for figuring out what articles the user wants the
17736 command to be performed on.
17740 If the numeric prefix is N, perform the operation on the next N
17741 articles, starting with the current one. If the numeric prefix is
17742 negative, perform the operation on the previous N articles, starting
17743 with the current one.
17745 @vindex transient-mark-mode
17746 If @code{transient-mark-mode} in non-@code{nil} and the region is
17747 active, all articles in the region will be worked upon.
17749 If there is no numeric prefix, but some articles are marked with the
17750 process mark, perform the operation on the articles marked with
17753 If there is neither a numeric prefix nor any articles marked with the
17754 process mark, just perform the operation on the current article.
17756 Quite simple, really, but it needs to be made clear so that surprises
17759 Commands that react to the process mark will push the current list of
17760 process marked articles onto a stack and will then clear all process
17761 marked articles. You can restore the previous configuration with the
17762 @kbd{M P y} command (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
17764 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
17765 One thing that seems to shock & horrify lots of people is that, for
17766 instance, @kbd{3 d} does exactly the same as @kbd{d} @kbd{d} @kbd{d}.
17767 Since each @kbd{d} (which marks the current article as read) by default
17768 goes to the next unread article after marking, this means that @kbd{3 d}
17769 will mark the next three unread articles as read, no matter what the
17770 summary buffer looks like. Set @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} to
17771 @code{nil} for a more straightforward action.
17773 Many commands do not use the process/prefix convention. All commands
17774 that do explicitly say so in this manual. To apply the process/prefix
17775 convention to commands that do not use it, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
17776 command. For instance, to mark all the articles in the group as
17777 expirable, you could say `M P b M-& E'.
17781 @section Interactive
17782 @cindex interaction
17786 @item gnus-novice-user
17787 @vindex gnus-novice-user
17788 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you are either a newcomer to the
17789 World of Usenet, or you are very cautious, which is a nice thing to be,
17790 really. You will be given questions of the type ``Are you sure you want
17791 to do this?'' before doing anything dangerous. This is @code{t} by
17794 @item gnus-expert-user
17795 @vindex gnus-expert-user
17796 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you will seldom be asked any
17797 questions by Gnus. It will simply assume you know what you're doing, no
17798 matter how strange.
17800 @item gnus-interactive-catchup
17801 @vindex gnus-interactive-catchup
17802 Require confirmation before catching up a group if non-@code{nil}. It
17803 is @code{t} by default.
17805 @item gnus-interactive-exit
17806 @vindex gnus-interactive-exit
17807 Require confirmation before exiting Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
17812 @node Symbolic Prefixes
17813 @section Symbolic Prefixes
17814 @cindex symbolic prefixes
17816 Quite a lot of Emacs commands react to the (numeric) prefix. For
17817 instance, @kbd{C-u 4 C-f} moves point four characters forward, and
17818 @kbd{C-u 9 0 0 I s s p} adds a permanent @code{Subject} substring score
17819 rule of 900 to the current article.
17821 This is all nice and well, but what if you want to give a command some
17822 additional information? Well, what most commands do is interpret the
17823 ``raw'' prefix in some special way. @kbd{C-u 0 C-x C-s} means that one
17824 doesn't want a backup file to be created when saving the current buffer,
17825 for instance. But what if you want to save without making a backup
17826 file, and you want Emacs to flash lights and play a nice tune at the
17827 same time? You can't, and you're probably perfectly happy that way.
17829 @kindex M-i (Summary)
17830 @findex gnus-symbolic-argument
17831 I'm not, so I've added a second prefix---the @dfn{symbolic prefix}. The
17832 prefix key is @kbd{M-i} (@code{gnus-symbolic-argument}), and the next
17833 character typed in is the value. You can stack as many @kbd{M-i}
17834 prefixes as you want. @kbd{M-i a M-C-u} means ``feed the @kbd{M-C-u}
17835 command the symbolic prefix @code{a}''. @kbd{M-i a M-i b M-C-u} means
17836 ``feed the @kbd{M-C-u} command the symbolic prefixes @code{a} and
17837 @code{b}''. You get the drift.
17839 Typing in symbolic prefixes to commands that don't accept them doesn't
17840 hurt, but it doesn't do any good either. Currently not many Gnus
17841 functions make use of the symbolic prefix.
17843 If you're interested in how Gnus implements this, @pxref{Extended
17847 @node Formatting Variables
17848 @section Formatting Variables
17849 @cindex formatting variables
17851 Throughout this manual you've probably noticed lots of variables called
17852 things like @code{gnus-group-line-format} and
17853 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}. These control how Gnus is to
17854 output lines in the various buffers. There's quite a lot of them.
17855 Fortunately, they all use the same syntax, so there's not that much to
17858 Here's an example format spec (from the group buffer): @samp{%M%S%5y:
17859 %(%g%)\n}. We see that it is indeed extremely ugly, and that there are
17860 lots of percentages everywhere.
17863 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
17864 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
17865 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
17866 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
17867 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
17868 * Positioning Point:: Moving point to a position after an operation.
17869 * Tabulation:: Tabulating your output.
17870 * Wide Characters:: Dealing with wide characters.
17873 Currently Gnus uses the following formatting variables:
17874 @code{gnus-group-line-format}, @code{gnus-summary-line-format},
17875 @code{gnus-server-line-format}, @code{gnus-topic-line-format},
17876 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format},
17877 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format},
17878 @code{gnus-article-mode-line-format},
17879 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format}, and
17880 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format}.
17882 All these format variables can also be arbitrary elisp forms. In that
17883 case, they will be @code{eval}ed to insert the required lines.
17885 @kindex M-x gnus-update-format
17886 @findex gnus-update-format
17887 Gnus includes a command to help you while creating your own format
17888 specs. @kbd{M-x gnus-update-format} will @code{eval} the current form,
17889 update the spec in question and pop you to a buffer where you can
17890 examine the resulting lisp code to be run to generate the line.
17894 @node Formatting Basics
17895 @subsection Formatting Basics
17897 Each @samp{%} element will be replaced by some string or other when the
17898 buffer in question is generated. @samp{%5y} means ``insert the @samp{y}
17899 spec, and pad with spaces to get a 5-character field''.
17901 As with normal C and Emacs Lisp formatting strings, the numerical
17902 modifier between the @samp{%} and the formatting type character will
17903 @dfn{pad} the output so that it is always at least that long.
17904 @samp{%5y} will make the field always (at least) five characters wide by
17905 padding with spaces to the left. If you say @samp{%-5y}, it will pad to
17908 You may also wish to limit the length of the field to protect against
17909 particularly wide values. For that you can say @samp{%4,6y}, which
17910 means that the field will never be more than 6 characters wide and never
17911 less than 4 characters wide.
17914 @node Mode Line Formatting
17915 @subsection Mode Line Formatting
17917 Mode line formatting variables (e.g.,
17918 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}) follow the same rules as other,
17919 buffer line oriented formatting variables (@pxref{Formatting Basics})
17920 with the following two differences:
17925 There must be no newline (@samp{\n}) at the end.
17928 The special @samp{%%b} spec can be used to display the buffer name.
17929 Well, it's no spec at all, really---@samp{%%} is just a way to quote
17930 @samp{%} to allow it to pass through the formatting machinery unmangled,
17931 so that Emacs receives @samp{%b}, which is something the Emacs mode line
17932 display interprets to mean ``show the buffer name''. For a full list of
17933 mode line specs Emacs understands, see the documentation of the
17934 @code{mode-line-format} variable.
17939 @node Advanced Formatting
17940 @subsection Advanced Formatting
17942 It is frequently useful to post-process the fields in some way.
17943 Padding, limiting, cutting off parts and suppressing certain values can
17944 be achieved by using @dfn{tilde modifiers}. A typical tilde spec might
17945 look like @samp{%~(cut 3)~(ignore "0")y}.
17947 These are the valid modifiers:
17952 Pad the field to the left with spaces until it reaches the required
17956 Pad the field to the right with spaces until it reaches the required
17961 Cut off characters from the left until it reaches the specified length.
17964 Cut off characters from the right until it reaches the specified
17969 Cut off the specified number of characters from the left.
17972 Cut off the specified number of characters from the right.
17975 Return an empty string if the field is equal to the specified value.
17978 Use the specified form as the field value when the @samp{@@} spec is
17982 Let's take an example. The @samp{%o} spec in the summary mode lines
17983 will return a date in compact ISO8601 format---@samp{19960809T230410}.
17984 This is quite a mouthful, so we want to shave off the century number and
17985 the time, leaving us with a six-character date. That would be
17986 @samp{%~(cut-left 2)~(max-right 6)~(pad 6)o}. (Cutting is done before
17987 maxing, and we need the padding to ensure that the date is never less
17988 than 6 characters to make it look nice in columns.)
17990 Ignoring is done first; then cutting; then maxing; and then as the very
17991 last operation, padding.
17993 If you use lots of these advanced thingies, you'll find that Gnus gets
17994 quite slow. This can be helped enormously by running @kbd{M-x
17995 gnus-compile} when you are satisfied with the look of your lines.
17996 @xref{Compilation}.
17999 @node User-Defined Specs
18000 @subsection User-Defined Specs
18002 All the specs allow for inserting user defined specifiers---@samp{u}.
18003 The next character in the format string should be a letter. Gnus
18004 will call the function @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where
18005 @samp{X} is the letter following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed
18006 a single parameter---what the parameter means depends on what buffer
18007 it's being called from. The function should return a string, which will
18008 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
18009 specifier. This function may also be called with dummy values, so it
18010 should protect against that.
18012 You can also use tilde modifiers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting} to achieve
18013 much the same without defining new functions. Here's an example:
18014 @samp{%~(form (count-lines (point-min) (point)))@@}. The form
18015 given here will be evaluated to yield the current line number, and then
18019 @node Formatting Fonts
18020 @subsection Formatting Fonts
18022 There are specs for highlighting, and these are shared by all the format
18023 variables. Text inside the @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} specifiers will get
18024 the special @code{mouse-face} property set, which means that it will be
18025 highlighted (with @code{gnus-mouse-face}) when you put the mouse pointer
18028 Text inside the @samp{%@{} and @samp{%@}} specifiers will have their
18029 normal faces set using @code{gnus-face-0}, which is @code{bold} by
18030 default. If you say @samp{%1@{}, you'll get @code{gnus-face-1} instead,
18031 and so on. Create as many faces as you wish. The same goes for the
18032 @code{mouse-face} specs---you can say @samp{%3(hello%)} to have
18033 @samp{hello} mouse-highlighted with @code{gnus-mouse-face-3}.
18035 Text inside the @samp{%<} and @samp{%>} specifiers will get the special
18036 @code{balloon-help} property set to @code{gnus-balloon-face-0}. If you
18037 say @samp{%1<}, you'll get @code{gnus-balloon-face-1} and so on. The
18038 @code{gnus-balloon-face-*} variables should be either strings or symbols
18039 naming functions that return a string. Under @code{balloon-help-mode},
18040 when the mouse passes over text with this property set, a balloon window
18041 will appear and display the string. Please refer to the doc string of
18042 @code{balloon-help-mode} for more information on this.
18044 Here's an alternative recipe for the group buffer:
18047 ;; Create three face types.
18048 (setq gnus-face-1 'bold)
18049 (setq gnus-face-3 'italic)
18051 ;; We want the article count to be in
18052 ;; a bold and green face. So we create
18053 ;; a new face called `my-green-bold'.
18054 (copy-face 'bold 'my-green-bold)
18056 (set-face-foreground 'my-green-bold "ForestGreen")
18057 (setq gnus-face-2 'my-green-bold)
18059 ;; Set the new & fancy format.
18060 (setq gnus-group-line-format
18061 "%M%S%3@{%5y%@}%2[:%] %(%1@{%g%@}%)\n")
18064 I'm sure you'll be able to use this scheme to create totally unreadable
18065 and extremely vulgar displays. Have fun!
18067 Note that the @samp{%(} specs (and friends) do not make any sense on the
18068 mode-line variables.
18070 @node Positioning Point
18071 @subsection Positioning Point
18073 Gnus usually moves point to a pre-defined place on each line in most
18074 buffers. By default, point move to the first colon character on the
18075 line. You can customize this behaviour in three different ways.
18077 You can move the colon character to somewhere else on the line.
18079 @findex gnus-goto-colon
18080 You can redefine the function that moves the point to the colon. The
18081 function is called @code{gnus-goto-colon}.
18083 But perhaps the most convenient way to deal with this, if you don't want
18084 to have a colon in your line, is to use the @samp{%C} specifier. If you
18085 put a @samp{%C} somewhere in your format line definition, Gnus will
18090 @subsection Tabulation
18092 You can usually line up your displays by padding and cutting your
18093 strings. However, when combining various strings of different size, it
18094 can often be more convenient to just output the strings, and then worry
18095 about lining up the following text afterwards.
18097 To do that, Gnus supplies tabulator specs--@samp{%=}. There are two
18098 different types---@dfn{hard tabulators} and @dfn{soft tabulators}.
18100 @samp{%50=} will insert space characters to pad the line up to column
18101 50. If the text is already past column 50, nothing will be inserted.
18102 This is the soft tabulator.
18104 @samp{%-50=} will insert space characters to pad the line up to column
18105 50. If the text is already past column 50, the excess text past column
18106 50 will be removed. This is the hard tabulator.
18109 @node Wide Characters
18110 @subsection Wide Characters
18112 Proportional fonts in most countries have characters of the same width.
18113 Some countries, however, use Latin characters mixed with wider
18114 characters---most notable East Asian countries.
18116 The problem is that when formatting, Gnus assumes that if a string is 10
18117 characters wide, it'll be 10 Latin characters wide on the screen. In
18118 these coutries, that's not true.
18120 @vindex gnus-use-correct-string-widths
18121 To help fix this, you can set @code{gnus-use-correct-string-widths} to
18122 @code{t}. This makes buffer generation slower, but the results will be
18123 prettieer. The default value is @code{nil}.
18127 @node Window Layout
18128 @section Window Layout
18129 @cindex window layout
18131 No, there's nothing here about X, so be quiet.
18133 @vindex gnus-use-full-window
18134 If @code{gnus-use-full-window} non-@code{nil}, Gnus will delete all
18135 other windows and occupy the entire Emacs screen by itself. It is
18136 @code{t} by default.
18138 Setting this variable to @code{nil} kinda works, but there are
18139 glitches. Use at your own peril.
18141 @vindex gnus-buffer-configuration
18142 @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} describes how much space each Gnus
18143 buffer should be given. Here's an excerpt of this variable:
18146 ((group (vertical 1.0 (group 1.0 point)
18147 (if gnus-carpal (group-carpal 4))))
18148 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
18152 This is an alist. The @dfn{key} is a symbol that names some action or
18153 other. For instance, when displaying the group buffer, the window
18154 configuration function will use @code{group} as the key. A full list of
18155 possible names is listed below.
18157 The @dfn{value} (i.e., the @dfn{split}) says how much space each buffer
18158 should occupy. To take the @code{article} split as an example -
18161 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
18165 This @dfn{split} says that the summary buffer should occupy 25% of upper
18166 half of the screen, and that it is placed over the article buffer. As
18167 you may have noticed, 100% + 25% is actually 125% (yup, I saw y'all
18168 reaching for that calculator there). However, the special number
18169 @code{1.0} is used to signal that this buffer should soak up all the
18170 rest of the space available after the rest of the buffers have taken
18171 whatever they need. There should be only one buffer with the @code{1.0}
18172 size spec per split.
18174 Point will be put in the buffer that has the optional third element
18175 @code{point}. In a @code{frame} split, the last subsplit having a leaf
18176 split where the tag @code{frame-focus} is a member (i.e. is the third or
18177 fourth element in the list, depending on whether the @code{point} tag is
18178 present) gets focus.
18180 Here's a more complicated example:
18183 (article (vertical 1.0 (group 4)
18184 (summary 0.25 point)
18185 (if gnus-carpal (summary-carpal 4))
18189 If the size spec is an integer instead of a floating point number,
18190 then that number will be used to say how many lines a buffer should
18191 occupy, not a percentage.
18193 If the @dfn{split} looks like something that can be @code{eval}ed (to be
18194 precise---if the @code{car} of the split is a function or a subr), this
18195 split will be @code{eval}ed. If the result is non-@code{nil}, it will
18196 be used as a split. This means that there will be three buffers if
18197 @code{gnus-carpal} is @code{nil}, and four buffers if @code{gnus-carpal}
18200 Not complicated enough for you? Well, try this on for size:
18203 (article (horizontal 1.0
18208 (summary 0.25 point)
18213 Whoops. Two buffers with the mystery 100% tag. And what's that
18214 @code{horizontal} thingie?
18216 If the first element in one of the split is @code{horizontal}, Gnus will
18217 split the window horizontally, giving you two windows side-by-side.
18218 Inside each of these strips you may carry on all you like in the normal
18219 fashion. The number following @code{horizontal} says what percentage of
18220 the screen is to be given to this strip.
18222 For each split, there @emph{must} be one element that has the 100% tag.
18223 The splitting is never accurate, and this buffer will eat any leftover
18224 lines from the splits.
18226 To be slightly more formal, here's a definition of what a valid split
18230 split = frame | horizontal | vertical | buffer | form
18231 frame = "(frame " size *split ")"
18232 horizontal = "(horizontal " size *split ")"
18233 vertical = "(vertical " size *split ")"
18234 buffer = "(" buf-name " " size *[ "point" ] *[ "frame-focus"] ")"
18235 size = number | frame-params
18236 buf-name = group | article | summary ...
18239 The limitations are that the @code{frame} split can only appear as the
18240 top-level split. @var{form} should be an Emacs Lisp form that should
18241 return a valid split. We see that each split is fully recursive, and
18242 may contain any number of @code{vertical} and @code{horizontal} splits.
18244 @vindex gnus-window-min-width
18245 @vindex gnus-window-min-height
18246 @cindex window height
18247 @cindex window width
18248 Finding the right sizes can be a bit complicated. No window may be less
18249 than @code{gnus-window-min-height} (default 1) characters high, and all
18250 windows must be at least @code{gnus-window-min-width} (default 1)
18251 characters wide. Gnus will try to enforce this before applying the
18252 splits. If you want to use the normal Emacs window width/height limit,
18253 you can just set these two variables to @code{nil}.
18255 If you're not familiar with Emacs terminology, @code{horizontal} and
18256 @code{vertical} splits may work the opposite way of what you'd expect.
18257 Windows inside a @code{horizontal} split are shown side-by-side, and
18258 windows within a @code{vertical} split are shown above each other.
18260 @findex gnus-configure-frame
18261 If you want to experiment with window placement, a good tip is to call
18262 @code{gnus-configure-frame} directly with a split. This is the function
18263 that does all the real work when splitting buffers. Below is a pretty
18264 nonsensical configuration with 5 windows; two for the group buffer and
18265 three for the article buffer. (I said it was nonsensical.) If you
18266 @code{eval} the statement below, you can get an idea of how that would
18267 look straight away, without going through the normal Gnus channels.
18268 Play with it until you're satisfied, and then use
18269 @code{gnus-add-configuration} to add your new creation to the buffer
18270 configuration list.
18273 (gnus-configure-frame
18277 (article 0.3 point))
18285 You might want to have several frames as well. No prob---just use the
18286 @code{frame} split:
18289 (gnus-configure-frame
18292 (summary 0.25 point frame-focus)
18294 (vertical ((height . 5) (width . 15)
18295 (user-position . t)
18296 (left . -1) (top . 1))
18301 This split will result in the familiar summary/article window
18302 configuration in the first (or ``main'') frame, while a small additional
18303 frame will be created where picons will be shown. As you can see,
18304 instead of the normal @code{1.0} top-level spec, each additional split
18305 should have a frame parameter alist as the size spec.
18306 @xref{Frame Parameters, , Frame Parameters, elisp, The GNU Emacs Lisp
18307 Reference Manual}. Under XEmacs, a frame property list will be
18308 accepted, too---for instance, @code{(height 5 width 15 left -1 top 1)}
18310 The list of all possible keys for @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} can
18311 be found in its default value.
18313 Note that the @code{message} key is used for both
18314 @code{gnus-group-mail} and @code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}. If
18315 it is desirable to distinguish between the two, something like this
18319 (message (horizontal 1.0
18320 (vertical 1.0 (message 1.0 point))
18322 (if (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer)
18327 One common desire for a multiple frame split is to have a separate frame
18328 for composing mail and news while leaving the original frame intact. To
18329 accomplish that, something like the following can be done:
18334 (if (not (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer))
18335 (car (cdr (assoc 'group gnus-buffer-configuration)))
18336 (car (cdr (assoc 'summary gnus-buffer-configuration))))
18337 (vertical ((user-position . t) (top . 1) (left . 1)
18338 (name . "Message"))
18339 (message 1.0 point))))
18342 @findex gnus-add-configuration
18343 Since the @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} variable is so long and
18344 complicated, there's a function you can use to ease changing the config
18345 of a single setting: @code{gnus-add-configuration}. If, for instance,
18346 you want to change the @code{article} setting, you could say:
18349 (gnus-add-configuration
18350 '(article (vertical 1.0
18352 (summary .25 point)
18356 You'd typically stick these @code{gnus-add-configuration} calls in your
18357 @file{.gnus.el} file or in some startup hook---they should be run after
18358 Gnus has been loaded.
18360 @vindex gnus-always-force-window-configuration
18361 If all windows mentioned in the configuration are already visible, Gnus
18362 won't change the window configuration. If you always want to force the
18363 ``right'' window configuration, you can set
18364 @code{gnus-always-force-window-configuration} to non-@code{nil}.
18366 If you're using tree displays (@pxref{Tree Display}), and the tree
18367 window is displayed vertically next to another window, you may also want
18368 to fiddle with @code{gnus-tree-minimize-window} to avoid having the
18371 @subsection Example Window Configurations
18375 Narrow left hand side occupied by group buffer. Right hand side split
18376 between summary buffer (top one-sixth) and article buffer (bottom).
18391 (gnus-add-configuration
18394 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
18396 (summary 0.16 point)
18399 (gnus-add-configuration
18402 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
18403 (vertical 1.0 (summary 1.0 point)))))
18409 @node Faces and Fonts
18410 @section Faces and Fonts
18415 Fiddling with fonts and faces used to be very difficult, but these days
18416 it is very simple. You simply say @kbd{M-x customize-face}, pick out
18417 the face you want to alter, and alter it via the standard Customize
18422 @section Compilation
18423 @cindex compilation
18424 @cindex byte-compilation
18426 @findex gnus-compile
18428 Remember all those line format specification variables?
18429 @code{gnus-summary-line-format}, @code{gnus-group-line-format}, and so
18430 on. Now, Gnus will of course heed whatever these variables are, but,
18431 unfortunately, changing them will mean a quite significant slow-down.
18432 (The default values of these variables have byte-compiled functions
18433 associated with them, while the user-generated versions do not, of
18436 To help with this, you can run @kbd{M-x gnus-compile} after you've
18437 fiddled around with the variables and feel that you're (kind of)
18438 satisfied. This will result in the new specs being byte-compiled, and
18439 you'll get top speed again. Gnus will save these compiled specs in the
18440 @file{.newsrc.eld} file. (User-defined functions aren't compiled by
18441 this function, though---you should compile them yourself by sticking
18442 them into the @code{.gnus.el} file and byte-compiling that file.)
18446 @section Mode Lines
18449 @vindex gnus-updated-mode-lines
18450 @code{gnus-updated-mode-lines} says what buffers should keep their mode
18451 lines updated. It is a list of symbols. Supported symbols include
18452 @code{group}, @code{article}, @code{summary}, @code{server},
18453 @code{browse}, and @code{tree}. If the corresponding symbol is present,
18454 Gnus will keep that mode line updated with information that may be
18455 pertinent. If this variable is @code{nil}, screen refresh may be
18458 @cindex display-time
18460 @vindex gnus-mode-non-string-length
18461 By default, Gnus displays information on the current article in the mode
18462 lines of the summary and article buffers. The information Gnus wishes
18463 to display (e.g. the subject of the article) is often longer than the
18464 mode lines, and therefore have to be cut off at some point. The
18465 @code{gnus-mode-non-string-length} variable says how long the other
18466 elements on the line is (i.e., the non-info part). If you put
18467 additional elements on the mode line (e.g. a clock), you should modify
18470 @c Hook written by Francesco Potorti` <pot@cnuce.cnr.it>
18472 (add-hook 'display-time-hook
18473 (lambda () (setq gnus-mode-non-string-length
18475 (if line-number-mode 5 0)
18476 (if column-number-mode 4 0)
18477 (length display-time-string)))))
18480 If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the default), the mode line
18481 strings won't be chopped off, and they won't be padded either. Note
18482 that the default is unlikely to be desirable, as even the percentage
18483 complete in the buffer may be crowded off the mode line; the user should
18484 configure this variable appropriately for her configuration.
18487 @node Highlighting and Menus
18488 @section Highlighting and Menus
18490 @cindex highlighting
18493 @vindex gnus-visual
18494 The @code{gnus-visual} variable controls most of the Gnus-prettifying
18495 aspects. If @code{nil}, Gnus won't attempt to create menus or use fancy
18496 colors or fonts. This will also inhibit loading the @file{gnus-vis.el}
18499 This variable can be a list of visual properties that are enabled. The
18500 following elements are valid, and are all included by default:
18503 @item group-highlight
18504 Do highlights in the group buffer.
18505 @item summary-highlight
18506 Do highlights in the summary buffer.
18507 @item article-highlight
18508 Do highlights in the article buffer.
18510 Turn on highlighting in all buffers.
18512 Create menus in the group buffer.
18514 Create menus in the summary buffers.
18516 Create menus in the article buffer.
18518 Create menus in the browse buffer.
18520 Create menus in the server buffer.
18522 Create menus in the score buffers.
18524 Create menus in all buffers.
18527 So if you only want highlighting in the article buffer and menus in all
18528 buffers, you could say something like:
18531 (setq gnus-visual '(article-highlight menu))
18534 If you want highlighting only and no menus whatsoever, you'd say:
18537 (setq gnus-visual '(highlight))
18540 If @code{gnus-visual} is @code{t}, highlighting and menus will be used
18541 in all Gnus buffers.
18543 Other general variables that influence the look of all buffers include:
18546 @item gnus-mouse-face
18547 @vindex gnus-mouse-face
18548 This is the face (i.e., font) used for mouse highlighting in Gnus. No
18549 mouse highlights will be done if @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
18553 There are hooks associated with the creation of all the different menus:
18557 @item gnus-article-menu-hook
18558 @vindex gnus-article-menu-hook
18559 Hook called after creating the article mode menu.
18561 @item gnus-group-menu-hook
18562 @vindex gnus-group-menu-hook
18563 Hook called after creating the group mode menu.
18565 @item gnus-summary-menu-hook
18566 @vindex gnus-summary-menu-hook
18567 Hook called after creating the summary mode menu.
18569 @item gnus-server-menu-hook
18570 @vindex gnus-server-menu-hook
18571 Hook called after creating the server mode menu.
18573 @item gnus-browse-menu-hook
18574 @vindex gnus-browse-menu-hook
18575 Hook called after creating the browse mode menu.
18577 @item gnus-score-menu-hook
18578 @vindex gnus-score-menu-hook
18579 Hook called after creating the score mode menu.
18590 Those new-fangled @dfn{mouse} contraptions is very popular with the
18591 young, hep kids who don't want to learn the proper way to do things
18592 these days. Why, I remember way back in the summer of '89, when I was
18593 using Emacs on a Tops 20 system. Three hundred users on one single
18594 machine, and every user was running Simula compilers. Bah!
18598 @vindex gnus-carpal
18599 Well, you can make Gnus display bufferfuls of buttons you can click to
18600 do anything by setting @code{gnus-carpal} to @code{t}. Pretty simple,
18601 really. Tell the chiropractor I sent you.
18606 @item gnus-carpal-mode-hook
18607 @vindex gnus-carpal-mode-hook
18608 Hook run in all carpal mode buffers.
18610 @item gnus-carpal-button-face
18611 @vindex gnus-carpal-button-face
18612 Face used on buttons.
18614 @item gnus-carpal-header-face
18615 @vindex gnus-carpal-header-face
18616 Face used on carpal buffer headers.
18618 @item gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
18619 @vindex gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
18620 Buttons in the group buffer.
18622 @item gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
18623 @vindex gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
18624 Buttons in the summary buffer.
18626 @item gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
18627 @vindex gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
18628 Buttons in the server buffer.
18630 @item gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
18631 @vindex gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
18632 Buttons in the browse buffer.
18635 All the @code{buttons} variables are lists. The elements in these list
18636 are either cons cells where the @code{car} contains a text to be displayed and
18637 the @code{cdr} contains a function symbol, or a simple string.
18645 Gnus, being larger than any program ever written (allegedly), does lots
18646 of strange stuff that you may wish to have done while you're not
18647 present. For instance, you may want it to check for new mail once in a
18648 while. Or you may want it to close down all connections to all servers
18649 when you leave Emacs idle. And stuff like that.
18651 Gnus will let you do stuff like that by defining various
18652 @dfn{handlers}. Each handler consists of three elements: A
18653 @var{function}, a @var{time}, and an @var{idle} parameter.
18655 Here's an example of a handler that closes connections when Emacs has
18656 been idle for thirty minutes:
18659 (gnus-demon-close-connections nil 30)
18662 Here's a handler that scans for PGP headers every hour when Emacs is
18666 (gnus-demon-scan-pgp 60 t)
18669 This @var{time} parameter and than @var{idle} parameter work together
18670 in a strange, but wonderful fashion. Basically, if @var{idle} is
18671 @code{nil}, then the function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
18673 If @var{idle} is @code{t}, then the function will be called after
18674 @var{time} minutes only if Emacs is idle. So if Emacs is never idle,
18675 the function will never be called. But once Emacs goes idle, the
18676 function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
18678 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is a number, the function will
18679 be called every @var{time} minutes only when Emacs has been idle for
18680 @var{idle} minutes.
18682 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is @code{nil}, the function
18683 will be called once every time Emacs has been idle for @var{idle}
18686 And if @var{time} is a string, it should look like @samp{07:31}, and
18687 the function will then be called once every day somewhere near that
18688 time. Modified by the @var{idle} parameter, of course.
18690 @vindex gnus-demon-timestep
18691 (When I say ``minute'' here, I really mean @code{gnus-demon-timestep}
18692 seconds. This is 60 by default. If you change that variable,
18693 all the timings in the handlers will be affected.)
18695 So, if you want to add a handler, you could put something like this in
18696 your @file{.gnus} file:
18698 @findex gnus-demon-add-handler
18700 (gnus-demon-add-handler 'gnus-demon-close-connections 30 t)
18703 @findex gnus-demon-add-nocem
18704 @findex gnus-demon-add-scanmail
18705 @findex gnus-demon-add-rescan
18706 @findex gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps
18707 @findex gnus-demon-add-disconnection
18708 Some ready-made functions to do this have been created:
18709 @code{gnus-demon-add-nocem}, @code{gnus-demon-add-disconnection},
18710 @code{gnus-demon-add-nntp-close-connection},
18711 @code{gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps}, @code{gnus-demon-add-rescan}, and
18712 @code{gnus-demon-add-scanmail}. Just put those functions in your
18713 @file{.gnus} if you want those abilities.
18715 @findex gnus-demon-init
18716 @findex gnus-demon-cancel
18717 @vindex gnus-demon-handlers
18718 If you add handlers to @code{gnus-demon-handlers} directly, you should
18719 run @code{gnus-demon-init} to make the changes take hold. To cancel all
18720 daemons, you can use the @code{gnus-demon-cancel} function.
18722 Note that adding daemons can be pretty naughty if you over do it. Adding
18723 functions that scan all news and mail from all servers every two seconds
18724 is a sure-fire way of getting booted off any respectable system. So
18733 @dfn{Spamming} is posting the same article lots and lots of times.
18734 Spamming is bad. Spamming is evil.
18736 Spamming is usually canceled within a day or so by various anti-spamming
18737 agencies. These agencies usually also send out @dfn{NoCeM} messages.
18738 NoCeM is pronounced ``no see-'em'', and means what the name
18739 implies---these are messages that make the offending articles, like, go
18742 What use are these NoCeM messages if the articles are canceled anyway?
18743 Some sites do not honor cancel messages and some sites just honor cancels
18744 from a select few people. Then you may wish to make use of the NoCeM
18745 messages, which are distributed in the @samp{alt.nocem.misc} newsgroup.
18747 Gnus can read and parse the messages in this group automatically, and
18748 this will make spam disappear.
18750 There are some variables to customize, of course:
18753 @item gnus-use-nocem
18754 @vindex gnus-use-nocem
18755 Set this variable to @code{t} to set the ball rolling. It is @code{nil}
18758 @item gnus-nocem-groups
18759 @vindex gnus-nocem-groups
18760 Gnus will look for NoCeM messages in the groups in this list. The
18761 default is @code{("news.lists.filters" "news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins"
18762 "alt.nocem.misc" "news.admin.net-abuse.announce")}.
18764 @item gnus-nocem-issuers
18765 @vindex gnus-nocem-issuers
18766 There are many people issuing NoCeM messages. This list says what
18767 people you want to listen to. The default is @code{("Automoose-1"
18768 "clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" "cosmo.roadkill" "SpamHippo"
18769 "hweede@@snafu.de")}; fine, upstanding citizens all of them.
18771 Known despammers that you can put in this list are listed at
18772 @uref{http://www.xs4all.nl/~rosalind/nocemreg/nocemreg.html}.
18774 You do not have to heed NoCeM messages from all these people---just the
18775 ones you want to listen to. You also don't have to accept all NoCeM
18776 messages from the people you like. Each NoCeM message has a @dfn{type}
18777 header that gives the message a (more or less, usually less) rigorous
18778 definition. Common types are @samp{spam}, @samp{spew}, @samp{mmf},
18779 @samp{binary}, and @samp{troll}. To specify this, you have to use
18780 @code{(@var{issuer} @var{conditions} @dots{})} elements in the list.
18781 Each condition is either a string (which is a regexp that matches types
18782 you want to use) or a list on the form @code{(not @var{string})}, where
18783 @var{string} is a regexp that matches types you don't want to use.
18785 For instance, if you want all NoCeM messages from Chris Lewis except his
18786 @samp{troll} messages, you'd say:
18789 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" ".*" (not "troll"))
18792 On the other hand, if you just want nothing but his @samp{spam} and
18793 @samp{spew} messages, you'd say:
18796 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" (not ".*") "spew" "spam")
18799 The specs are applied left-to-right.
18802 @item gnus-nocem-verifyer
18803 @vindex gnus-nocem-verifyer
18805 This should be a function for verifying that the NoCeM issuer is who she
18806 says she is. The default is @code{mc-verify}, which is a Mailcrypt
18807 function. If this is too slow and you don't care for verification
18808 (which may be dangerous), you can set this variable to @code{nil}.
18810 If you want signed NoCeM messages to be verified and unsigned messages
18811 not to be verified (but used anyway), you could do something like:
18814 (setq gnus-nocem-verifyer 'my-gnus-mc-verify)
18816 (defun my-gnus-mc-verify ()
18824 This might be dangerous, though.
18826 @item gnus-nocem-directory
18827 @vindex gnus-nocem-directory
18828 This is where Gnus will store its NoCeM cache files. The default is
18829 @file{~/News/NoCeM/}.
18831 @item gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
18832 @vindex gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
18833 The number of days before removing old NoCeM entries from the cache.
18834 The default is 15. If you make it shorter Gnus will be faster, but you
18835 might then see old spam.
18837 @item gnus-nocem-check-from
18838 @vindex gnus-nocem-check-from
18839 Non-@code{nil} means check for valid issuers in message bodies.
18840 Otherwise don't bother fetching articles unless their author matches a
18841 valid issuer; that is much faster if you are selective about the
18844 @item gnus-nocem-check-article-limit
18845 @vindex gnus-nocem-check-article-limit
18846 If non-@code{nil}, the maximum number of articles to check in any NoCeM
18847 group. NoCeM groups can be huge and very slow to process.
18851 Using NoCeM could potentially be a memory hog. If you have many living
18852 (i. e., subscribed or unsubscribed groups), your Emacs process will grow
18853 big. If this is a problem, you should kill off all (or most) of your
18854 unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Subscription Commands}).
18861 It is very useful to be able to undo actions one has done. In normal
18862 Emacs buffers, it's easy enough---you just push the @code{undo} button.
18863 In Gnus buffers, however, it isn't that simple.
18865 The things Gnus displays in its buffer is of no value whatsoever to
18866 Gnus---it's all just data designed to look nice to the user.
18867 Killing a group in the group buffer with @kbd{C-k} makes the line
18868 disappear, but that's just a side-effect of the real action---the
18869 removal of the group in question from the internal Gnus structures.
18870 Undoing something like that can't be done by the normal Emacs
18871 @code{undo} function.
18873 Gnus tries to remedy this somewhat by keeping track of what the user
18874 does and coming up with actions that would reverse the actions the user
18875 takes. When the user then presses the @code{undo} key, Gnus will run
18876 the code to reverse the previous action, or the previous actions.
18877 However, not all actions are easily reversible, so Gnus currently offers
18878 a few key functions to be undoable. These include killing groups,
18879 yanking groups, and changing the list of read articles of groups.
18880 That's it, really. More functions may be added in the future, but each
18881 added function means an increase in data to be stored, so Gnus will
18882 never be totally undoable.
18884 @findex gnus-undo-mode
18885 @vindex gnus-use-undo
18887 The undoability is provided by the @code{gnus-undo-mode} minor mode. It
18888 is used if @code{gnus-use-undo} is non-@code{nil}, which is the
18889 default. The @kbd{M-C-_} key performs the @code{gnus-undo}
18890 command, which should feel kinda like the normal Emacs @code{undo}
18895 @section Moderation
18898 If you are a moderator, you can use the @file{gnus-mdrtn.el} package.
18899 It is not included in the standard Gnus package. Write a mail to
18900 @samp{larsi@@gnus.org} and state what group you moderate, and you'll
18903 The moderation package is implemented as a minor mode for summary
18907 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-moderate)
18910 in your @file{.gnus.el} file.
18912 If you are the moderator of @samp{rec.zoofle}, this is how it's
18917 You split your incoming mail by matching on
18918 @samp{Newsgroups:.*rec.zoofle}, which will put all the to-be-posted
18919 articles in some mail group---for instance, @samp{nnml:rec.zoofle}.
18922 You enter that group once in a while and post articles using the @kbd{e}
18923 (edit-and-post) or @kbd{s} (just send unedited) commands.
18926 If, while reading the @samp{rec.zoofle} newsgroup, you happen upon some
18927 articles that weren't approved by you, you can cancel them with the
18931 To use moderation mode in these two groups, say:
18934 (setq gnus-moderated-list
18935 "^nnml:rec.zoofle$\\|^rec.zoofle$")
18939 @node XEmacs Enhancements
18940 @section XEmacs Enhancements
18943 XEmacs is able to display pictures and stuff, so Gnus has taken
18947 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what your reading.
18948 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
18949 * Toolbar:: Click'n'drool.
18950 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
18963 So@dots{} You want to slow down your news reader even more! This is a
18964 good way to do so. Its also a great way to impress people staring
18965 over your shoulder as you read news.
18968 * Picon Basics:: What are picons and How do I get them.
18969 * Picon Requirements:: Don't go further if you aren't using XEmacs.
18970 * Easy Picons:: Displaying Picons---the easy way.
18971 * Hard Picons:: The way you should do it. You'll learn something.
18972 * Picon Useless Configuration:: Other variables you can trash/tweak/munge/play with.
18977 @subsubsection Picon Basics
18979 What are Picons? To quote directly from the Picons Web site:
18988 @dfn{Picons} is short for ``personal icons''. They're small,
18989 constrained images used to represent users and domains on the net,
18990 organized into databases so that the appropriate image for a given
18991 e-mail address can be found. Besides users and domains, there are picon
18992 databases for Usenet newsgroups and weather forecasts. The picons are
18993 in either monochrome @code{XBM} format or color @code{XPM} and
18994 @code{GIF} formats.
18997 @vindex gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
18998 If you have a permanent connection to the Internet you can use Steve
18999 Kinzler's Picons Search engine by setting
19000 @code{gnus-picons-piconsearch-url} to the string @*
19001 @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/search.html}.
19003 @vindex gnus-picons-database
19004 Otherwise you need a local copy of his database. For instructions on
19005 obtaining and installing the picons databases, point your Web browser at @*
19006 @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/ftp/index.html}. Gnus expects
19007 picons to be installed into a location pointed to by
19008 @code{gnus-picons-database}.
19011 @node Picon Requirements
19012 @subsubsection Picon Requirements
19014 To have Gnus display Picons for you, you must be running XEmacs
19015 19.13 or greater since all other versions of Emacs aren't yet able to
19018 Additionally, you must have @code{x} support compiled into XEmacs. To
19019 display color picons which are much nicer than the black & white one,
19020 you also need one of @code{xpm} or @code{gif} compiled into XEmacs.
19022 @vindex gnus-picons-convert-x-face
19023 If you want to display faces from @code{X-Face} headers, you should have
19024 the @code{xface} support compiled into XEmacs. Otherwise you must have
19025 the @code{netpbm} utilities installed, or munge the
19026 @code{gnus-picons-convert-x-face} variable to use something else.
19030 @subsubsection Easy Picons
19032 To enable displaying picons, simply put the following line in your
19033 @file{~/.gnus} file and start Gnus.
19036 (setq gnus-use-picons t)
19037 (setq gnus-treat-display-picons t)
19040 and make sure @code{gnus-picons-database} points to the directory
19041 containing the Picons databases.
19043 Alternatively if you want to use the web piconsearch engine add this:
19046 (setq gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
19047 "http://www.cs.indiana.edu:800/piconsearch")
19052 @subsubsection Hard Picons
19060 Gnus can display picons for you as you enter and leave groups and
19061 articles. It knows how to interact with three sections of the picons
19062 database. Namely, it can display the picons newsgroup pictures,
19063 author's face picture(s), and the authors domain. To enable this
19064 feature, you need to select where to get the picons from, and where to
19069 @item gnus-picons-database
19070 @vindex gnus-picons-database
19071 The location of the picons database. Should point to a directory
19072 containing the @file{news}, @file{domains}, @file{users} (and so on)
19073 subdirectories. This is only useful if
19074 @code{gnus-picons-piconsearch-url} is @code{nil}. Defaults to
19075 @file{/usr/local/faces/}.
19077 @item gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
19078 @vindex gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
19079 The URL for the web picons search engine. The only currently known
19080 engine is @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu:800/piconsearch}. To
19081 workaround network delays, icons will be fetched in the background. If
19082 this is @code{nil} 'the default), then picons are fetched from local
19083 database indicated by @code{gnus-picons-database}.
19085 @item gnus-picons-display-where
19086 @vindex gnus-picons-display-where
19087 Where the picon images should be displayed. It is @code{picons} by
19088 default (which by default maps to the buffer @samp{*Picons*}). Other
19089 valid places could be @code{article}, @code{summary}, or
19090 @samp{*scratch*} for all I care. Just make sure that you've made the
19091 buffer visible using the standard Gnus window configuration
19092 routines---@pxref{Window Layout}.
19094 @item gnus-picons-group-excluded-groups
19095 @vindex gnus-picons-group-excluded-groups
19096 Groups that are matched by this regexp won't have their group icons
19101 Note: If you set @code{gnus-use-picons} to @code{t}, it will set up your
19102 window configuration for you to include the @code{picons} buffer.
19104 Now that you've made those decision, you need to add the following
19105 functions to the appropriate hooks so these pictures will get displayed
19108 @vindex gnus-picons-display-where
19110 @item gnus-article-display-picons
19111 @findex gnus-article-display-picons
19112 Looks up and displays the picons for the author and the author's domain
19113 in the @code{gnus-picons-display-where} buffer.
19115 @item gnus-picons-article-display-x-face
19116 @findex gnus-article-display-picons
19117 Decodes and displays the X-Face header if present.
19123 @node Picon Useless Configuration
19124 @subsubsection Picon Useless Configuration
19132 The following variables offer further control over how things are
19133 done, where things are located, and other useless stuff you really
19134 don't need to worry about.
19138 @item gnus-picons-news-directories
19139 @vindex gnus-picons-news-directories
19140 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picons-database} for
19141 newsgroups faces. @code{("news")} is the default.
19143 @item gnus-picons-user-directories
19144 @vindex gnus-picons-user-directories
19145 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picons-database} for user
19146 faces. @code{("local" "users" "usenix" "misc")} is the default.
19148 @item gnus-picons-domain-directories
19149 @vindex gnus-picons-domain-directories
19150 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picons-database} for
19151 domain name faces. Defaults to @code{("domains")}. Some people may
19152 want to add @samp{"unknown"} to this list.
19154 @item gnus-picons-convert-x-face
19155 @vindex gnus-picons-convert-x-face
19156 If you don't have @code{xface} support builtin XEmacs, this is the
19157 command to use to convert the @code{X-Face} header to an X bitmap
19158 (@code{xbm}). Defaults to @code{(format "@{ echo '/* Width=48,
19159 Height=48 */'; uncompface; @} | icontopbm | pbmtoxbm > %s"
19160 gnus-picons-x-face-file-name)}
19162 @item gnus-picons-x-face-file-name
19163 @vindex gnus-picons-x-face-file-name
19164 Names a temporary file to store the @code{X-Face} bitmap in. Defaults
19165 to @code{(format "/tmp/picon-xface.%s.xbm" (user-login-name))}.
19167 @item gnus-picons-has-modeline-p
19168 @vindex gnus-picons-has-modeline-p
19169 If you have set @code{gnus-picons-display-where} to @code{picons}, your
19170 XEmacs frame will become really cluttered. To alleviate this a bit you
19171 can set @code{gnus-picons-has-modeline-p} to @code{nil}; this will
19172 remove the mode line from the Picons buffer. This is only useful if
19173 @code{gnus-picons-display-where} is @code{picons}.
19175 @item gnus-picons-refresh-before-display
19176 @vindex gnus-picons-refresh-before-display
19177 If non-nil, display the article buffer before computing the picons.
19178 Defaults to @code{nil}.
19180 @item gnus-picons-display-as-address
19181 @vindex gnus-picons-display-as-address
19182 If @code{t} display textual email addresses along with pictures.
19183 Defaults to @code{t}.
19185 @item gnus-picons-file-suffixes
19186 @vindex gnus-picons-file-suffixes
19187 Ordered list of suffixes on picon file names to try. Defaults to
19188 @code{("xpm" "gif" "xbm")} minus those not builtin your XEmacs.
19190 @item gnus-picons-setup-hook
19191 @vindex gnus-picons-setup-hook
19192 Hook run in the picon buffer, if that is displayed.
19194 @item gnus-picons-display-article-move-p
19195 @vindex gnus-picons-display-article-move-p
19196 Whether to move point to first empty line when displaying picons. This
19197 has only an effect if `gnus-picons-display-where' has value `article'.
19199 If @code{nil}, display the picons in the @code{From} and
19200 @code{Newsgroups} lines. This is the default.
19202 @item gnus-picons-clear-cache-on-shutdown
19203 @vindex gnus-picons-clear-cache-on-shutdown
19204 Whether to clear the picons cache when exiting gnus. Gnus caches every
19205 picons it finds while it is running. This saves some time in the search
19206 process but eats some memory. If this variable is set to @code{nil},
19207 Gnus will never clear the cache itself; you will have to manually call
19208 @code{gnus-picons-clear-cache} to clear it. Otherwise the cache will be
19209 cleared every time you exit Gnus. Defaults to @code{t}.
19220 @subsection Smileys
19225 \gnusfig{-3cm}{0.5cm}{\epsfig{figure=tmp/BigFace.ps,height=20cm}}
19230 @dfn{Smiley} is a package separate from Gnus, but since Gnus is
19231 currently the only package that uses Smiley, it is documented here.
19233 In short---to use Smiley in Gnus, put the following in your
19234 @file{.gnus.el} file:
19237 (setq gnus-treat-display-smileys t)
19240 Smiley maps text smiley faces---@samp{:-)}, @samp{:-=}, @samp{:-(} and
19241 the like---to pictures and displays those instead of the text smiley
19242 faces. The conversion is controlled by a list of regexps that matches
19243 text and maps that to file names.
19245 @vindex smiley-nosey-regexp-alist
19246 @vindex smiley-deformed-regexp-alist
19247 Smiley supplies two example conversion alists by default:
19248 @code{smiley-deformed-regexp-alist} (which matches @samp{:)}, @samp{:(}
19249 and so on), and @code{smiley-nosey-regexp-alist} (which matches
19250 @samp{:-)}, @samp{:-(} and so on).
19252 The alist used is specified by the @code{smiley-regexp-alist} variable,
19253 which defaults to the value of @code{smiley-deformed-regexp-alist}.
19255 The first item in each element is the regexp to be matched; the second
19256 element is the regexp match group that is to be replaced by the picture;
19257 and the third element is the name of the file to be displayed.
19259 The following variables customize where Smiley will look for these
19260 files, as well as the color to be used and stuff:
19264 @item smiley-data-directory
19265 @vindex smiley-data-directory
19266 Where Smiley will look for smiley faces files.
19268 @item smiley-flesh-color
19269 @vindex smiley-flesh-color
19270 Skin color. The default is @samp{yellow}, which is really racist.
19272 @item smiley-features-color
19273 @vindex smiley-features-color
19274 Color of the features of the face. The default is @samp{black}.
19276 @item smiley-tongue-color
19277 @vindex smiley-tongue-color
19278 Color of the tongue. The default is @samp{red}.
19280 @item smiley-circle-color
19281 @vindex smiley-circle-color
19282 Color of the circle around the face. The default is @samp{black}.
19284 @item smiley-mouse-face
19285 @vindex smiley-mouse-face
19286 Face used for mouse highlighting over the smiley face.
19292 @subsection Toolbar
19302 @item gnus-use-toolbar
19303 @vindex gnus-use-toolbar
19304 If @code{nil}, don't display toolbars. If non-@code{nil}, it should be
19305 one of @code{default-toolbar}, @code{top-toolbar}, @code{bottom-toolbar},
19306 @code{right-toolbar}, or @code{left-toolbar}.
19308 @item gnus-group-toolbar
19309 @vindex gnus-group-toolbar
19310 The toolbar in the group buffer.
19312 @item gnus-summary-toolbar
19313 @vindex gnus-summary-toolbar
19314 The toolbar in the summary buffer.
19316 @item gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
19317 @vindex gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
19318 The toolbar in the summary buffer of mail groups.
19324 @subsection Various XEmacs Variables
19327 @item gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
19328 @vindex gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
19329 This is where Gnus will look for pictures. Gnus will normally
19330 auto-detect this directory, but you may set it manually if you have an
19331 unusual directory structure.
19333 @item gnus-xmas-logo-color-alist
19334 @vindex gnus-xmas-logo-color-alist
19335 This is an alist where the key is a type symbol and the values are the
19336 foreground and background color of the splash page glyph.
19338 @item gnus-xmas-logo-color-style
19339 @vindex gnus-xmas-logo-color-style
19340 This is the key used to look up the color in the alist described above.
19341 Valid values include @code{flame}, @code{pine}, @code{moss},
19342 @code{irish}, @code{sky}, @code{tin}, @code{velvet}, @code{grape},
19343 @code{labia}, @code{berry}, @code{neutral}, and @code{september}.
19345 @item gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
19346 @vindex gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
19347 A glyph displayed in all Gnus mode lines. It is a tiny gnu head by
19361 @node Fuzzy Matching
19362 @section Fuzzy Matching
19363 @cindex fuzzy matching
19365 Gnus provides @dfn{fuzzy matching} of @code{Subject} lines when doing
19366 things like scoring, thread gathering and thread comparison.
19368 As opposed to regular expression matching, fuzzy matching is very fuzzy.
19369 It's so fuzzy that there's not even a definition of what @dfn{fuzziness}
19370 means, and the implementation has changed over time.
19372 Basically, it tries to remove all noise from lines before comparing.
19373 @samp{Re: }, parenthetical remarks, white space, and so on, are filtered
19374 out of the strings before comparing the results. This often leads to
19375 adequate results---even when faced with strings generated by text
19376 manglers masquerading as newsreaders.
19379 @node Thwarting Email Spam
19380 @section Thwarting Email Spam
19384 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
19386 In these last days of the Usenet, commercial vultures are hanging about
19387 and grepping through news like crazy to find email addresses they can
19388 foist off their scams and products to. As a reaction to this, many
19389 people have started putting nonsense addresses into their @code{From}
19390 lines. I think this is counterproductive---it makes it difficult for
19391 people to send you legitimate mail in response to things you write, as
19392 well as making it difficult to see who wrote what. This rewriting may
19393 perhaps be a bigger menace than the unsolicited commercial email itself
19396 The biggest problem I have with email spam is that it comes in under
19397 false pretenses. I press @kbd{g} and Gnus merrily informs me that I
19398 have 10 new emails. I say ``Golly gee! Happy is me!'' and select the
19399 mail group, only to find two pyramid schemes, seven advertisements
19400 (``New! Miracle tonic for growing full, lustrous hair on your toes!'')
19401 and one mail asking me to repent and find some god.
19405 The way to deal with this is having Gnus split out all spam into a
19406 @samp{spam} mail group (@pxref{Splitting Mail}).
19408 First, pick one (1) valid mail address that you can be reached at, and
19409 put it in your @code{From} header of all your news articles. (I've
19410 chosen @samp{larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no}, but for many addresses on the form
19411 @samp{larsi+usenet@@ifi.uio.no} will be a better choice. Ask your
19412 sysadmin whether your sendmail installation accepts keywords in the local
19413 part of the mail address.)
19416 (setq message-default-news-headers
19417 "From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no>\n")
19420 Then put the following split rule in @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
19421 (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}):
19426 (to "larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no"
19427 (| ("subject" "re:.*" "misc")
19428 ("references" ".*@@.*" "misc")
19434 This says that all mail to this address is suspect, but if it has a
19435 @code{Subject} that starts with a @samp{Re:} or has a @code{References}
19436 header, it's probably ok. All the rest goes to the @samp{spam} group.
19437 (This idea probably comes from Tim Pierce.)
19439 In addition, many mail spammers talk directly to your @code{smtp} server
19440 and do not include your email address explicitly in the @code{To}
19441 header. Why they do this is unknown---perhaps it's to thwart this
19442 thwarting scheme? In any case, this is trivial to deal with---you just
19443 put anything not addressed to you in the @samp{spam} group by ending
19444 your fancy split rule in this way:
19449 (to "larsi" "misc")
19453 In my experience, this will sort virtually everything into the right
19454 group. You still have to check the @samp{spam} group from time to time to
19455 check for legitimate mail, though. If you feel like being a good net
19456 citizen, you can even send off complaints to the proper authorities on
19457 each unsolicited commercial email---at your leisure.
19459 If you are also a lazy net citizen, you will probably prefer complaining
19460 automatically with the @file{gnus-junk.el} package, available FOR FREE
19461 at @* @uref{http://stud2.tuwien.ac.at/~e9426626/gnus-junk.html}.
19462 Since most e-mail spam is sent automatically, this may reconcile the
19463 cosmic balance somewhat.
19465 This works for me. It allows people an easy way to contact me (they can
19466 just press @kbd{r} in the usual way), and I'm not bothered at all with
19467 spam. It's a win-win situation. Forging @code{From} headers to point
19468 to non-existent domains is yucky, in my opinion.
19471 @node Various Various
19472 @section Various Various
19478 @item gnus-home-directory
19479 All Gnus path variables will be initialized from this variable, which
19480 defaults to @file{~/}.
19482 @item gnus-directory
19483 @vindex gnus-directory
19484 Most Gnus storage path variables will be initialized from this variable,
19485 which defaults to the @samp{SAVEDIR} environment variable, or
19486 @file{~/News/} if that variable isn't set.
19488 Note that Gnus is mostly loaded when the @file{.gnus.el} file is read.
19489 This means that other directory variables that are initialized from this
19490 variable won't be set properly if you set this variable in
19491 @file{.gnus.el}. Set this variable in @file{.emacs} instead.
19493 @item gnus-default-directory
19494 @vindex gnus-default-directory
19495 Not related to the above variable at all---this variable says what the
19496 default directory of all Gnus buffers should be. If you issue commands
19497 like @kbd{C-x C-f}, the prompt you'll get starts in the current buffer's
19498 default directory. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
19499 default), the default directory will be the default directory of the
19500 buffer you were in when you started Gnus.
19503 @vindex gnus-verbose
19504 This variable is an integer between zero and ten. The higher the value,
19505 the more messages will be displayed. If this variable is zero, Gnus
19506 will never flash any messages, if it is seven (which is the default),
19507 most important messages will be shown, and if it is ten, Gnus won't ever
19508 shut up, but will flash so many messages it will make your head swim.
19510 @item gnus-verbose-backends
19511 @vindex gnus-verbose-backends
19512 This variable works the same way as @code{gnus-verbose}, but it applies
19513 to the Gnus backends instead of Gnus proper.
19515 @item nnheader-max-head-length
19516 @vindex nnheader-max-head-length
19517 When the backends read straight heads of articles, they all try to read
19518 as little as possible. This variable (default 4096) specifies
19519 the absolute max length the backends will try to read before giving up
19520 on finding a separator line between the head and the body. If this
19521 variable is @code{nil}, there is no upper read bound. If it is
19522 @code{t}, the backends won't try to read the articles piece by piece,
19523 but read the entire articles. This makes sense with some versions of
19524 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs}.
19526 @item nnheader-head-chop-length
19527 @vindex nnheader-head-chop-length
19528 This variable (default 2048) says how big a piece of each article to
19529 read when doing the operation described above.
19531 @item nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
19532 @vindex nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
19534 @cindex invalid characters in file names
19535 @cindex characters in file names
19536 This is an alist that says how to translate characters in file names.
19537 For instance, if @samp{:} is invalid as a file character in file names
19538 on your system (you OS/2 user you), you could say something like:
19541 (setq nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
19545 In fact, this is the default value for this variable on OS/2 and MS
19546 Windows (phooey) systems.
19548 @item gnus-hidden-properties
19549 @vindex gnus-hidden-properties
19550 This is a list of properties to use to hide ``invisible'' text. It is
19551 @code{(invisible t intangible t)} by default on most systems, which
19552 makes invisible text invisible and intangible.
19554 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
19555 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
19556 A hook called before parsing headers. It can be used, for instance, to
19557 gather statistics on the headers fetched, or perhaps you'd like to prune
19558 some headers. I don't see why you'd want that, though.
19560 @item gnus-shell-command-separator
19561 @vindex gnus-shell-command-separator
19562 String used to separate two shell commands. The default is @samp{;}.
19564 @item gnus-invalid-group-regexp
19565 @vindex gnus-invalid-group-regexp
19567 Regexp to match ``invalid'' group names when querying user for a group
19568 name. The default value catches some @strong{really} invalid group
19569 names who could possibly mess up Gnus internally (like allowing
19570 @samp{:} in a group name, which is normally used to delimit method and
19573 @sc{imap} users might want to allow @samp{/} in group names though.
19582 Well, that's the manual---you can get on with your life now. Keep in
19583 touch. Say hello to your cats from me.
19585 My @strong{ghod}---I just can't stand goodbyes. Sniffle.
19587 Ol' Charles Reznikoff said it pretty well, so I leave the floor to him:
19593 Not because of victories @*
19596 but for the common sunshine,@*
19598 the largess of the spring.
19602 but for the day's work done@*
19603 as well as I was able;@*
19604 not for a seat upon the dais@*
19605 but at the common table.@*
19610 @chapter Appendices
19613 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
19614 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
19615 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
19616 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
19617 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
19618 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
19619 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
19620 * Frequently Asked Questions::
19628 @sc{gnus} was written by Masanobu @sc{Umeda}. When autumn crept up in
19629 '94, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen grew bored and decided to rewrite Gnus.
19631 If you want to investigate the person responsible for this outrage,
19632 you can point your (feh!) web browser to
19633 @uref{http://quimby.gnus.org/}. This is also the primary
19634 distribution point for the new and spiffy versions of Gnus, and is
19635 known as The Site That Destroys Newsrcs And Drives People Mad.
19637 During the first extended alpha period of development, the new Gnus was
19638 called ``(ding) Gnus''. @dfn{(ding)} is, of course, short for
19639 @dfn{ding is not Gnus}, which is a total and utter lie, but who cares?
19640 (Besides, the ``Gnus'' in this abbreviation should probably be
19641 pronounced ``news'' as @sc{Umeda} intended, which makes it a more
19642 appropriate name, don't you think?)
19644 In any case, after spending all that energy on coming up with a new and
19645 spunky name, we decided that the name was @emph{too} spunky, so we
19646 renamed it back again to ``Gnus''. But in mixed case. ``Gnus'' vs.
19647 ``@sc{gnus}''. New vs. old.
19650 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
19651 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
19652 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
19653 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
19654 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
19655 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
19656 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
19657 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
19658 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
19662 @node Gnus Versions
19663 @subsection Gnus Versions
19664 @cindex Pterodactyl Gnus
19666 @cindex September Gnus
19667 @cindex Quassia Gnus
19669 The first ``proper'' release of Gnus 5 was done in November 1995 when it
19670 was included in the Emacs 19.30 distribution (132 (ding) Gnus releases
19671 plus 15 Gnus 5.0 releases).
19673 In May 1996 the next Gnus generation (aka. ``September Gnus'' (after 99
19674 releases)) was released under the name ``Gnus 5.2'' (40 releases).
19676 On July 28th 1996 work on Red Gnus was begun, and it was released on
19677 January 25th 1997 (after 84 releases) as ``Gnus 5.4'' (67 releases).
19679 On September 13th 1997, Quassia Gnus was started and lasted 37 releases.
19680 If was released as ``Gnus 5.6'' on March 8th 1998 (46 releases).
19682 Gnus 5.6 begat Pterodactyl Gnus on August 29th 1998 and was released as
19683 ``Gnus 5.8'' (after 99 releases and a CVS repository) on December 3rd
19686 On the 26th of October 2000, Oort Gnus was begun.
19688 If you happen upon a version of Gnus that has a prefixed name --
19689 ``(ding) Gnus'', ``September Gnus'', ``Red Gnus'', ``Quassia Gnus'',
19690 ``Pterodactyl Gnus'', ``Oort Gnus'' -- don't panic. Don't let it know
19691 that you're frightened. Back away. Slowly. Whatever you do, don't
19692 run. Walk away, calmly, until you're out of its reach. Find a proper
19693 released version of Gnus and snuggle up to that instead.
19696 @node Other Gnus Versions
19697 @subsection Other Gnus Versions
19700 In addition to the versions of Gnus which have had their releases
19701 coordinated by Lars, one major development has been Semi-gnus from
19702 Japan. It's based on a library called @sc{semi}, which provides
19703 @sc{mime} capabilities.
19705 These Gnusae are based mainly on Gnus 5.6 and Pterodactyl Gnus.
19706 Collectively, they are called ``Semi-gnus'', and different strains are
19707 called T-gnus, ET-gnus, Nana-gnus and Chaos. These provide powerful
19708 @sc{mime} and multilingualization things, especially important for
19715 What's the point of Gnus?
19717 I want to provide a ``rad'', ``happening'', ``way cool'' and ``hep''
19718 newsreader, that lets you do anything you can think of. That was my
19719 original motivation, but while working on Gnus, it has become clear to
19720 me that this generation of newsreaders really belong in the stone age.
19721 Newsreaders haven't developed much since the infancy of the net. If the
19722 volume continues to rise with the current rate of increase, all current
19723 newsreaders will be pretty much useless. How do you deal with
19724 newsgroups that have thousands of new articles each day? How do you
19725 keep track of millions of people who post?
19727 Gnus offers no real solutions to these questions, but I would very much
19728 like to see Gnus being used as a testing ground for new methods of
19729 reading and fetching news. Expanding on @sc{Umeda}-san's wise decision
19730 to separate the newsreader from the backends, Gnus now offers a simple
19731 interface for anybody who wants to write new backends for fetching mail
19732 and news from different sources. I have added hooks for customizations
19733 everywhere I could imagine it being useful. By doing so, I'm inviting
19734 every one of you to explore and invent.
19736 May Gnus never be complete. @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-emacs} and
19737 @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-xemacs}.
19740 @node Compatibility
19741 @subsection Compatibility
19743 @cindex compatibility
19744 Gnus was designed to be fully compatible with @sc{gnus}. Almost all key
19745 bindings have been kept. More key bindings have been added, of course,
19746 but only in one or two obscure cases have old bindings been changed.
19751 @center In a cloud bones of steel.
19755 All commands have kept their names. Some internal functions have changed
19758 The @code{gnus-uu} package has changed drastically. @xref{Decoding
19761 One major compatibility question is the presence of several summary
19762 buffers. All variables relevant while reading a group are
19763 buffer-local to the summary buffer they belong in. Although many
19764 important variables have their values copied into their global
19765 counterparts whenever a command is executed in the summary buffer, this
19766 change might lead to incorrect values being used unless you are careful.
19768 All code that relies on knowledge of @sc{gnus} internals will probably
19769 fail. To take two examples: Sorting @code{gnus-newsrc-alist} (or
19770 changing it in any way, as a matter of fact) is strictly verboten. Gnus
19771 maintains a hash table that points to the entries in this alist (which
19772 speeds up many functions), and changing the alist directly will lead to
19776 @cindex highlighting
19777 Old hilit19 code does not work at all. In fact, you should probably
19778 remove all hilit code from all Gnus hooks
19779 (@code{gnus-group-prepare-hook} and @code{gnus-summary-prepare-hook}).
19780 Gnus provides various integrated functions for highlighting. These are
19781 faster and more accurate. To make life easier for everybody, Gnus will
19782 by default remove all hilit calls from all hilit hooks. Uncleanliness!
19785 Packages like @code{expire-kill} will no longer work. As a matter of
19786 fact, you should probably remove all old @sc{gnus} packages (and other
19787 code) when you start using Gnus. More likely than not, Gnus already
19788 does what you have written code to make @sc{gnus} do. (Snicker.)
19790 Even though old methods of doing things are still supported, only the
19791 new methods are documented in this manual. If you detect a new method of
19792 doing something while reading this manual, that does not mean you have
19793 to stop doing it the old way.
19795 Gnus understands all @sc{gnus} startup files.
19797 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
19799 @cindex reporting bugs
19801 Overall, a casual user who hasn't written much code that depends on
19802 @sc{gnus} internals should suffer no problems. If problems occur,
19803 please let me know by issuing that magic command @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}.
19805 @vindex gnus-bug-create-help-buffer
19806 If you are in the habit of sending bug reports @emph{very} often, you
19807 may find the helpful help buffer annoying after a while. If so, set
19808 @code{gnus-bug-create-help-buffer} to @code{nil} to avoid having it pop
19813 @subsection Conformity
19815 No rebels without a clue here, ma'am. We conform to all standards known
19816 to (wo)man. Except for those standards and/or conventions we disagree
19823 There are no known breaches of this standard.
19827 There are no known breaches of this standard, either.
19829 @item Son-of-RFC 1036
19830 @cindex Son-of-RFC 1036
19831 We do have some breaches to this one.
19837 These are considered to be ``vanity headers'', while I consider them
19838 to be consumer information. After seeing so many badly formatted
19839 articles coming from @code{tin} and @code{Netscape} I know not to use
19840 either of those for posting articles. I would not have known that if
19841 it wasn't for the @code{X-Newsreader} header.
19846 USEFOR is an IETF working group writing a successor to RFC 1036, based
19847 on Son-of-RFC 1036. They have produced a number of drafts proposing
19848 various changes to the format of news articles. The Gnus towers will
19849 look into implementing the changes when the draft is accepted as an RFC.
19853 If you ever notice Gnus acting non-compliant with regards to the texts
19854 mentioned above, don't hesitate to drop a note to Gnus Towers and let us
19859 @subsection Emacsen
19865 Gnus should work on :
19873 XEmacs 20.4 and up.
19877 This Gnus version will absolutely not work on any Emacsen older than
19878 that. Not reliably, at least. Older versions of Gnus may work on older
19881 There are some vague differences between Gnus on the various
19882 platforms---XEmacs features more graphics (a logo and a toolbar)---but
19883 other than that, things should look pretty much the same under all
19887 @node Gnus Development
19888 @subsection Gnus Development
19890 Gnus is developed in a two-phased cycle. The first phase involves much
19891 discussion on the @samp{ding@@gnus.org} mailing list, where people
19892 propose changes and new features, post patches and new backends. This
19893 phase is called the @dfn{alpha} phase, since the Gnusae released in this
19894 phase are @dfn{alpha releases}, or (perhaps more commonly in other
19895 circles) @dfn{snapshots}. During this phase, Gnus is assumed to be
19896 unstable and should not be used by casual users. Gnus alpha releases
19897 have names like ``Red Gnus'' and ``Quassia Gnus''.
19899 After futzing around for 50-100 alpha releases, Gnus is declared
19900 @dfn{frozen}, and only bug fixes are applied. Gnus loses the prefix,
19901 and is called things like ``Gnus 5.6.32'' instead. Normal people are
19902 supposed to be able to use these, and these are mostly discussed on the
19903 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} newsgroup.
19906 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
19907 Some variable defaults differ between alpha Gnusae and released Gnusae.
19908 In particular, @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} defaults to @code{nil} in
19909 alpha Gnusae and @code{t} in released Gnusae. This is to prevent
19910 lossage of mail if an alpha release hiccups while handling the mail.
19912 The division of discussion between the ding mailing list and the Gnus
19913 newsgroup is not purely based on publicity concerns. It's true that
19914 having people write about the horrible things that an alpha Gnus release
19915 can do (sometimes) in a public forum may scare people off, but more
19916 importantly, talking about new experimental features that have been
19917 introduced may confuse casual users. New features are frequently
19918 introduced, fiddled with, and judged to be found wanting, and then
19919 either discarded or totally rewritten. People reading the mailing list
19920 usually keep up with these rapid changes, while people on the newsgroup
19921 can't be assumed to do so.
19926 @subsection Contributors
19927 @cindex contributors
19929 The new Gnus version couldn't have been done without the help of all the
19930 people on the (ding) mailing list. Every day for over a year I have
19931 gotten billions of nice bug reports from them, filling me with joy,
19932 every single one of them. Smooches. The people on the list have been
19933 tried beyond endurance, what with my ``oh, that's a neat idea <type
19934 type>, yup, I'll release it right away <ship off> no wait, that doesn't
19935 work at all <type type>, yup, I'll ship that one off right away <ship
19936 off> no, wait, that absolutely does not work'' policy for releases.
19937 Micro$oft---bah. Amateurs. I'm @emph{much} worse. (Or is that
19938 ``worser''? ``much worser''? ``worsest''?)
19940 I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Academy for... oops,
19946 Masanobu @sc{Umeda}---the writer of the original @sc{gnus}.
19949 Shenghuo Zhu---uudecode.el, mm-uu.el, rfc1843.el, webmail.el,
19950 nnwarchive and many, many other things connected with @sc{mime} and
19951 other types of en/decoding, as well as general bug fixing, new
19952 functionality and stuff.
19955 Per Abrahamsen---custom, scoring, highlighting and @sc{soup} code (as
19956 well as numerous other things).
19959 Luis Fernandes---design and graphics.
19962 Justin Sheehy--the FAQ maintainer.
19965 Erik Naggum---help, ideas, support, code and stuff.
19968 Wes Hardaker---@file{gnus-picon.el} and the manual section on
19969 @dfn{picons} (@pxref{Picons}).
19972 Kim-Minh Kaplan---further work on the picon code.
19975 Brad Miller---@file{gnus-gl.el} and the GroupLens manual section
19976 (@pxref{GroupLens}).
19979 Sudish Joseph---innumerable bug fixes.
19982 Ilja Weis---@file{gnus-topic.el}.
19985 Steven L. Baur---lots and lots and lots of bugs detections and fixes.
19988 Vladimir Alexiev---the refcard and reference booklets.
19991 Felix Lee & Jamie Zawinski---I stole some pieces from the XGnus
19992 distribution by Felix Lee and JWZ.
19995 Scott Byer---@file{nnfolder.el} enhancements & rewrite.
19998 Peter Mutsaers---orphan article scoring code.
20001 Ken Raeburn---POP mail support.
20004 Hallvard B Furuseth---various bits and pieces, especially dealing with
20008 Brian Edmonds---@file{gnus-bbdb.el}.
20011 David Moore---rewrite of @file{nnvirtual.el} and many other things.
20014 Kevin Davidson---came up with the name @dfn{ding}, so blame him.
20017 François Pinard---many, many interesting and thorough bug reports, as
20018 well as autoconf support.
20022 This manual was proof-read by Adrian Aichner, with Ricardo Nassif, Mark
20023 Borges, and Jost Krieger proof-reading parts of the manual.
20025 The following people have contributed many patches and suggestions:
20034 Jason L. Tibbitts, III,
20038 Also thanks to the following for patches and stuff:
20048 Alexei V. Barantsev,
20063 Massimo Campostrini,
20068 Jae-you Chung, @c ?
20069 James H. Cloos, Jr.,
20073 Andrew J. Cosgriff,
20076 Geoffrey T. Dairiki,
20082 Michael Welsh Duggan,
20087 Enami Tsugutomo, @c Enami
20091 Nelson Jose dos Santos Ferreira,
20099 Arne Georg Gleditsch,
20101 Michelangelo Grigni,
20105 Kenichi Handa, @c Handa
20107 Yoshiki Hayashi, @c ?
20109 Hisashige Kenji, @c Hisashige
20116 François Felix Ingrand,
20117 Tatsuya Ichikawa, @c ?
20118 Ishikawa Ichiro, @c Ishikawa
20120 Iwamuro Motonori, @c Iwamuro
20131 Peter Skov Knudsen,
20132 Shuhei Kobayashi, @c Kobayashi
20134 Koseki Yoshinori, @c Koseki
20135 Thor Kristoffersen,
20138 Seokchan Lee, @c Lee
20156 Morioka Tomohiko, @c Morioka
20157 Erik Toubro Nielsen,
20164 Masaharu Onishi, @c Onishi
20169 Jens-Ulrik Holger Petersen,
20173 John McClary Prevost,
20179 Lars Balker Rasmussen,
20184 Christian von Roques,
20187 Wolfgang Rupprecht,
20194 Philippe Schnoebelen,
20196 Randal L. Schwartz,
20210 Kiyokazu Suto, @c Suto
20215 Tozawa Akihiko, @c Tozawa
20231 Katsumi Yamaoka @c Yamaoka
20236 For a full overview of what each person has done, the ChangeLogs
20237 included in the Gnus alpha distributions should give ample reading
20238 (550kB and counting).
20240 Apologies to everybody that I've forgotten, of which there are many, I'm
20243 Gee, that's quite a list of people. I guess that must mean that there
20244 actually are people who are using Gnus. Who'd'a thunk it!
20248 @subsection New Features
20249 @cindex new features
20252 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
20253 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
20254 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
20255 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
20256 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
20259 These lists are, of course, just @emph{short} overviews of the
20260 @emph{most} important new features. No, really. There are tons more.
20261 Yes, we have feeping creaturism in full effect.
20264 @subsubsection (ding) Gnus
20266 New features in Gnus 5.0/5.1:
20271 The look of all buffers can be changed by setting format-like variables
20272 (@pxref{Group Buffer Format} and @pxref{Summary Buffer Format}).
20275 Local spool and several @sc{nntp} servers can be used at once
20276 (@pxref{Select Methods}).
20279 You can combine groups into virtual groups (@pxref{Virtual Groups}).
20282 You can read a number of different mail formats (@pxref{Getting Mail}).
20283 All the mail backends implement a convenient mail expiry scheme
20284 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
20287 Gnus can use various strategies for gathering threads that have lost
20288 their roots (thereby gathering loose sub-threads into one thread) or it
20289 can go back and retrieve enough headers to build a complete thread
20290 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
20293 Killed groups can be displayed in the group buffer, and you can read
20294 them as well (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
20297 Gnus can do partial group updates---you do not have to retrieve the
20298 entire active file just to check for new articles in a few groups
20299 (@pxref{The Active File}).
20302 Gnus implements a sliding scale of subscribedness to groups
20303 (@pxref{Group Levels}).
20306 You can score articles according to any number of criteria
20307 (@pxref{Scoring}). You can even get Gnus to find out how to score
20308 articles for you (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
20311 Gnus maintains a dribble buffer that is auto-saved the normal Emacs
20312 manner, so it should be difficult to lose much data on what you have
20313 read if your machine should go down (@pxref{Auto Save}).
20316 Gnus now has its own startup file (@file{.gnus}) to avoid cluttering up
20317 the @file{.emacs} file.
20320 You can set the process mark on both groups and articles and perform
20321 operations on all the marked items (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
20324 You can grep through a subset of groups and create a group from the
20325 results (@pxref{Kibozed Groups}).
20328 You can list subsets of groups according to, well, anything
20329 (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
20332 You can browse foreign servers and subscribe to groups from those
20333 servers (@pxref{Browse Foreign Server}).
20336 Gnus can fetch articles, asynchronously, on a second connection to the
20337 server (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
20340 You can cache articles locally (@pxref{Article Caching}).
20343 The uudecode functions have been expanded and generalized
20344 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
20347 You can still post uuencoded articles, which was a little-known feature
20348 of @sc{gnus}' past (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
20351 Fetching parents (and other articles) now actually works without
20352 glitches (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
20355 Gnus can fetch FAQs and group descriptions (@pxref{Group Information}).
20358 Digests (and other files) can be used as the basis for groups
20359 (@pxref{Document Groups}).
20362 Articles can be highlighted and customized (@pxref{Customizing
20366 URLs and other external references can be buttonized (@pxref{Article
20370 You can do lots of strange stuff with the Gnus window & frame
20371 configuration (@pxref{Window Layout}).
20374 You can click on buttons instead of using the keyboard
20380 @node September Gnus
20381 @subsubsection September Gnus
20385 \gnusfig{-28cm}{0cm}{\epsfig{figure=tmp/september.ps,height=20cm}}
20389 New features in Gnus 5.2/5.3:
20394 A new message composition mode is used. All old customization variables
20395 for @code{mail-mode}, @code{rnews-reply-mode} and @code{gnus-msg} are
20399 Gnus is now able to generate @dfn{sparse} threads---threads where
20400 missing articles are represented by empty nodes (@pxref{Customizing
20404 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
20408 Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server
20409 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
20412 Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
20416 Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions (@pxref{GroupLens}).
20419 Picons (personal icons) can be displayed under XEmacs (@pxref{Picons}).
20422 A @code{trn}-like tree buffer can be displayed (@pxref{Tree Display}).
20425 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
20429 An @code{nn}-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
20430 buffers (@pxref{Pick and Read}).
20433 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
20437 In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode (@pxref{Binary
20441 Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy (@pxref{Group
20445 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
20449 Gnus can re-send and bounce mail (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
20452 Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
20453 is possible (@pxref{Group Score}).
20456 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
20460 Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
20461 groups of groups (@pxref{Marking Groups}).
20464 Caching is possible in virtual groups.
20467 @code{nndoc} now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews
20468 news batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything
20469 else (@pxref{Document Groups}).
20472 Gnus has a new backend (@code{nnsoup}) to create/read SOUP packets
20476 The Gnus cache is much faster.
20479 Groups can be sorted according to many criteria (@pxref{Sorting
20483 New group parameters have been introduced to set list-addresses and
20484 expiry times (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
20487 All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used
20488 (@pxref{Formatting Fonts}).
20491 There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on process
20492 marked articles on the @kbd{M P} submap (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
20495 The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
20496 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
20497 bound to keys on the @kbd{/} submap (@pxref{Limiting}).
20500 Articles can be made persistent with the @kbd{*} command
20501 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
20504 All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
20507 Article headers can be buttonized (@pxref{Article Washing}).
20510 All mail backends support fetching articles by @code{Message-ID}.
20513 Duplicate mail can now be treated properly (@pxref{Duplicates}).
20516 All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
20517 buffer (@pxref{Article Keymap}).
20520 Frames can be part of @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} (@pxref{Window
20524 Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process (@pxref{Daemons}).
20527 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=tmp/fseptember.ps,height=5cm}]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/fseptember.ps,height=5cm}}
20532 Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to weed out spam (@pxref{NoCeM}).
20535 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
20539 Groups can be made permanently visible (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
20542 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
20546 Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
20549 Gnus respects the @code{Mail-Copies-To} header.
20552 Threads can be gathered by looking at the @code{References} header
20553 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
20556 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
20557 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
20561 Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
20562 refetching (@pxref{Article Backlog}).
20565 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
20569 A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
20570 buffer to allow easier treatment.
20573 Gnus can suggest where to save articles (@pxref{Saving Articles}).
20576 Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving (@pxref{Saving
20580 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
20584 @code{gnus-uu} can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
20585 articles (@pxref{Other Decode Variables}).
20588 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
20592 Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text
20593 (@pxref{Article Washing}).
20596 Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
20597 cited text to hide is now customizable (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
20600 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
20604 Boring headers can be hidden (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
20607 Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
20610 Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
20616 @subsubsection Red Gnus
20618 New features in Gnus 5.4/5.5:
20622 \gnusfig{-5.5cm}{-4cm}{\epsfig{figure=tmp/red.ps,height=20cm}}
20629 @file{nntp.el} has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
20632 Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
20633 Gnus (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
20636 Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like @code{and},
20637 @code{or}, @code{not}, and parent redirection (@pxref{Advanced
20641 Article washing status can be displayed in the
20642 article mode line (@pxref{Misc Article}).
20645 @file{gnus.el} has been split into many smaller files.
20648 Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID can be done
20649 (@pxref{Duplicate Suppression}).
20652 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
20656 New variables for specifying what score and adapt files are to be
20657 considered home score and adapt files (@pxref{Home Score File}) have
20661 @code{nndoc} was rewritten to be easily extendable (@pxref{Document
20662 Server Internals}).
20665 Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics (@pxref{Topic
20669 Article editing has been revamped and is now actually usable.
20672 Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions
20673 (@pxref{Article Signature}).
20676 Summary pick mode has been made to look more @code{nn}-like. Line
20677 numbers are displayed and the @kbd{.} command can be used to pick
20678 articles (@code{Pick and Read}).
20681 Commands for moving the @file{.newsrc.eld} from one server to
20682 another have been added (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
20685 There's a way now to specify that ``uninteresting'' fields be suppressed
20686 when generating lines in buffers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting}).
20689 Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with @kbd{M-C-_}
20693 Scoring can be done on words using the new score type @code{w}
20694 (@pxref{Score File Format}).
20697 Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis
20698 (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
20701 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
20705 Scores can be decayed (@pxref{Score Decays}).
20708 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
20712 Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The Date is
20713 normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first (@pxref{Score File Format}).
20716 A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
20717 the native server (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
20720 A new command for reading collections of documents
20721 (@code{nndoc} with @code{nnvirtual} on top) has been added---@kbd{M-C-d}
20722 (@pxref{Really Various Summary Commands}).
20725 Process mark sets can be pushed and popped (@pxref{Setting Process
20729 A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post even when the @sc{nntp}
20730 server doesn't allow posting (@pxref{Mail-To-News Gateways}).
20733 A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
20734 (@dfn{DejaNews}, @dfn{Alta Vista}, @dfn{InReference}) has been added
20735 (@pxref{Web Searches}).
20738 Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard sorting
20739 functions, and each topic can be sorted independently (@pxref{Topic
20743 Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently (@code{Sorting
20747 Cached articles can be pulled into the groups (@pxref{Summary Generation
20751 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=tmp/fred.ps,width=3cm}]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/fred.ps,width=3cm}}
20756 Score files are now applied in a more reliable order (@pxref{Score
20760 Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated (@pxref{Splitting
20764 More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk from incoming
20765 mail before saving the mail (@pxref{Washing Mail}).
20768 Emphasized text can be properly fontisized:
20774 @subsubsection Quassia Gnus
20776 New features in Gnus 5.6:
20781 New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
20782 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See
20783 @pxref{Gnus Unplugged} for the full story.
20786 The @code{nndraft} backend has returned, but works differently than
20787 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the @code{nndraft}
20788 group, which is created automatically.
20791 @code{gnus-alter-header-function} can now be used to alter header
20795 @code{gnus-summary-goto-article} now accept Message-ID's.
20798 A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
20799 outside the region: @kbd{C-c C-v}.
20802 You can now post to component group in @code{nnvirtual} groups with
20806 @code{nntp-rlogin-program}---new variable to ease customization.
20809 @code{C-u C-c C-c} in @code{gnus-article-edit-mode} will now inhibit
20810 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
20813 New element in @code{gnus-boring-article-headers}---@code{long-to}.
20816 @kbd{M-i} symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
20817 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
20820 @kbd{L} and @kbd{I} in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
20821 @kbd{a} to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
20824 @code{gnus-simplify-subject-functions} variable to allow greater
20825 control over simplification.
20828 @kbd{A T}---new command for fetching the current thread.
20831 @kbd{/ T}---new command for including the current thread in the
20835 @kbd{M-RET} is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
20838 @samp{\\1}-expressions are now valid in @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
20841 The @code{custom-face-lookup} function has been removed.
20842 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
20843 rewrite them to use @code{face-spec-set} instead.
20846 Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
20847 @kbd{a} forces normal posting method.
20850 New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper
20854 For easier debugging of @code{nntp}, you can set
20855 @code{nntp-record-commands} to a non-@code{nil} value.
20858 @code{nntp} now uses @file{~/.authinfo}, a @file{.netrc}-like file, for
20859 controlling where and how to send @sc{authinfo} to @sc{nntp} servers.
20862 A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
20866 A history of where mails have been split is available.
20869 A new article date command has been added---@code{article-date-iso8601}.
20872 Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
20873 @code{gnus-score-thread-simplify}.
20876 A new function for citing in Message has been
20877 added---@code{message-cite-original-without-signature}.
20880 @code{article-strip-all-blank-lines}---new article command.
20883 A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
20887 A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
20888 @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} variable.
20891 The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
20892 updated by the @code{gnus-start-date-timer} command.
20895 Web listserv archives can be read with the @code{nnlistserv} backend.
20898 Old dejanews archives can now be read by @code{nnweb}.
20902 @node Pterodactyl Gnus
20903 @subsubsection Pterodactyl Gnus
20905 New features in Gnus 5.8:
20909 @item The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
20910 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
20912 If you used procmail like in
20915 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
20916 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
20917 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
20918 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
20921 this now has changed to
20925 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
20929 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
20930 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
20932 @item Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
20933 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
20935 @item Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too
20936 many parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables.
20938 @item @code{gnus-auto-select-first} can now be a function to be
20939 called to position point.
20941 @item The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
20942 summary buffers and NOV files.
20944 @item @code{gnus-article-display-hook} has been removed. Instead, a number
20945 of variables starting with @code{gnus-treat-} have been added.
20947 @item The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now works in a
20948 subtly different manner.
20950 @item New web-based backends have been added: @code{nnslashdot},
20951 @code{nnwarchive} and @code{nnultimate}. nnweb has been revamped,
20952 again, to keep up with ever-changing layouts.
20954 @item Gnus can now read IMAP mail via @code{nnimap}.
20962 @section The Manual
20966 This manual was generated from a TeXinfo file and then run through
20967 either @code{texi2dvi}
20969 or my own home-brewed TeXinfo to \LaTeX\ transformer,
20970 and then run through @code{latex} and @code{dvips}
20972 to get what you hold in your hands now.
20974 The following conventions have been used:
20979 This is a @samp{string}
20982 This is a @kbd{keystroke}
20985 This is a @file{file}
20988 This is a @code{symbol}
20992 So if I were to say ``set @code{flargnoze} to @samp{yes}'', that would
20996 (setq flargnoze "yes")
20999 If I say ``set @code{flumphel} to @code{yes}'', that would mean:
21002 (setq flumphel 'yes)
21005 @samp{yes} and @code{yes} are two @emph{very} different things---don't
21006 ever get them confused.
21010 Of course, everything in this manual is of vital interest, so you should
21011 read it all. Several times. However, if you feel like skimming the
21012 manual, look for that gnu head you should see in the margin over
21013 there---it means that what's being discussed is of more importance than
21014 the rest of the stuff. (On the other hand, if everything is infinitely
21015 important, how can anything be more important than that? Just one more
21016 of the mysteries of this world, I guess.)
21022 @node On Writing Manuals
21023 @section On Writing Manuals
21025 I guess most manuals are written after-the-fact; documenting a program
21026 that's already there. This is not how this manual is written. When
21027 implementing something, I write the manual entry for that something
21028 straight away. I then see that it's difficult to explain the
21029 functionality, so I write how it's supposed to be, and then I change the
21030 implementation. Writing the documentation and writing the code goes
21033 This, of course, means that this manual has no, or little, flow. It
21034 documents absolutely everything in Gnus, but often not where you're
21035 looking for it. It is a reference manual, and not a guide to how to get
21038 That would be a totally different book, that should be written using the
21039 reference manual as source material. It would look quite differently.
21044 @section Terminology
21046 @cindex terminology
21051 This is what you are supposed to use this thing for---reading news.
21052 News is generally fetched from a nearby @sc{nntp} server, and is
21053 generally publicly available to everybody. If you post news, the entire
21054 world is likely to read just what you have written, and they'll all
21055 snigger mischievously. Behind your back.
21059 Everything that's delivered to you personally is mail. Some news/mail
21060 readers (like Gnus) blur the distinction between mail and news, but
21061 there is a difference. Mail is private. News is public. Mailing is
21062 not posting, and replying is not following up.
21066 Send a mail to the person who has written what you are reading.
21070 Post an article to the current newsgroup responding to the article you
21075 Gnus gets fed articles from a number of backends, both news and mail
21076 backends. Gnus does not handle the underlying media, so to speak---this
21077 is all done by the backends.
21081 Gnus will always use one method (and backend) as the @dfn{native}, or
21082 default, way of getting news.
21086 You can also have any number of foreign groups active at the same time.
21087 These are groups that use non-native non-secondary backends for getting
21092 Secondary backends are somewhere half-way between being native and being
21093 foreign, but they mostly act like they are native.
21097 A message that has been posted as news.
21100 @cindex mail message
21101 A message that has been mailed.
21105 A mail message or news article
21109 The top part of a message, where administrative information (etc.) is
21114 The rest of an article. Everything not in the head is in the
21119 A line from the head of an article.
21123 A collection of such lines, or a collection of heads. Or even a
21124 collection of @sc{nov} lines.
21128 When Gnus enters a group, it asks the backend for the headers of all
21129 unread articles in the group. Most servers support the News OverView
21130 format, which is more compact and much faster to read and parse than the
21131 normal @sc{head} format.
21135 Each group is subscribed at some @dfn{level} or other (1-9). The ones
21136 that have a lower level are ``more'' subscribed than the groups with a
21137 higher level. In fact, groups on levels 1-5 are considered
21138 @dfn{subscribed}; 6-7 are @dfn{unsubscribed}; 8 are @dfn{zombies}; and 9
21139 are @dfn{killed}. Commands for listing groups and scanning for new
21140 articles will all use the numeric prefix as @dfn{working level}.
21142 @item killed groups
21143 @cindex killed groups
21144 No information on killed groups is stored or updated, which makes killed
21145 groups much easier to handle than subscribed groups.
21147 @item zombie groups
21148 @cindex zombie groups
21149 Just like killed groups, only slightly less dead.
21152 @cindex active file
21153 The news server has to keep track of what articles it carries, and what
21154 groups exist. All this information in stored in the active file, which
21155 is rather large, as you might surmise.
21158 @cindex bogus groups
21159 A group that exists in the @file{.newsrc} file, but isn't known to the
21160 server (i.e., it isn't in the active file), is a @emph{bogus group}.
21161 This means that the group probably doesn't exist (any more).
21164 @cindex activating groups
21165 The act of asking the server for info on a group and computing the
21166 number of unread articles is called @dfn{activating the group}.
21167 Un-activated groups are listed with @samp{*} in the group buffer.
21171 A machine one can connect to and get news (or mail) from.
21173 @item select method
21174 @cindex select method
21175 A structure that specifies the backend, the server and the virtual
21178 @item virtual server
21179 @cindex virtual server
21180 A named select method. Since a select method defines all there is to
21181 know about connecting to a (physical) server, taking the thing as a
21182 whole is a virtual server.
21186 Taking a buffer and running it through a filter of some sort. The
21187 result will (more often than not) be cleaner and more pleasing than the
21190 @item ephemeral groups
21191 @cindex ephemeral groups
21192 Most groups store data on what articles you have read. @dfn{Ephemeral}
21193 groups are groups that will have no data stored---when you exit the
21194 group, it'll disappear into the aether.
21197 @cindex solid groups
21198 This is the opposite of ephemeral groups. All groups listed in the
21199 group buffer are solid groups.
21201 @item sparse articles
21202 @cindex sparse articles
21203 These are article placeholders shown in the summary buffer when
21204 @code{gnus-build-sparse-threads} has been switched on.
21208 To put responses to articles directly after the articles they respond
21209 to---in a hierarchical fashion.
21213 @cindex thread root
21214 The first article in a thread is the root. It is the ancestor of all
21215 articles in the thread.
21219 An article that has responses.
21223 An article that responds to a different article---its parent.
21227 A collection of messages in one file. The most common digest format is
21228 specified by RFC 1153.
21234 @node Customization
21235 @section Customization
21236 @cindex general customization
21238 All variables are properly documented elsewhere in this manual. This
21239 section is designed to give general pointers on how to customize Gnus
21240 for some quite common situations.
21243 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
21244 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
21245 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
21246 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
21250 @node Slow/Expensive Connection
21251 @subsection Slow/Expensive @sc{nntp} Connection
21253 If you run Emacs on a machine locally, and get your news from a machine
21254 over some very thin strings, you want to cut down on the amount of data
21255 Gnus has to get from the @sc{nntp} server.
21259 @item gnus-read-active-file
21260 Set this to @code{nil}, which will inhibit Gnus from requesting the
21261 entire active file from the server. This file is often v. large. You
21262 also have to set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
21263 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make sure that Gnus
21264 doesn't suddenly decide to fetch the active file anyway.
21266 @item gnus-nov-is-evil
21267 This one has to be @code{nil}. If not, grabbing article headers from
21268 the @sc{nntp} server will not be very fast. Not all @sc{nntp} servers
21269 support @sc{xover}; Gnus will detect this by itself.
21273 @node Slow Terminal Connection
21274 @subsection Slow Terminal Connection
21276 Let's say you use your home computer for dialing up the system that runs
21277 Emacs and Gnus. If your modem is slow, you want to reduce (as much as
21278 possible) the amount of data sent over the wires.
21282 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
21283 Set this to @code{nil} to inhibit Gnus from re-centering the summary
21284 buffer all the time. If it is @code{vertical}, do only vertical
21285 re-centering. If it is neither @code{nil} nor @code{vertical}, do both
21286 horizontal and vertical recentering.
21288 @item gnus-visible-headers
21289 Cut down on the headers included in the articles to the
21290 minimum. You can, in fact, make do without them altogether---most of the
21291 useful data is in the summary buffer, anyway. Set this variable to
21292 @samp{^NEVVVVER} or @samp{From:}, or whatever you feel you need.
21294 Set this hook to all the available hiding commands:
21296 (setq gnus-treat-hide-headers 'head
21297 gnus-treat-hide-signature t
21298 gnus-treat-hide-citation t)
21301 @item gnus-use-full-window
21302 By setting this to @code{nil}, you can make all the windows smaller.
21303 While this doesn't really cut down much generally, it means that you
21304 have to see smaller portions of articles before deciding that you didn't
21305 want to read them anyway.
21307 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
21308 If this is non-@code{nil}, all threads in the summary buffer will be
21311 @item gnus-updated-mode-lines
21312 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not put information in the buffer mode
21313 lines, which might save some time.
21317 @node Little Disk Space
21318 @subsection Little Disk Space
21321 The startup files can get rather large, so you may want to cut their
21322 sizes a bit if you are running out of space.
21326 @item gnus-save-newsrc-file
21327 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never save @file{.newsrc}---it will
21328 only save @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
21329 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
21332 @item gnus-read-newsrc-file
21333 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never read @file{.newsrc}---it will
21334 only read @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
21335 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
21338 @item gnus-save-killed-list
21339 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not save the list of dead groups. You
21340 should also set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{ask-server}
21341 and @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} if you set this
21342 variable to @code{nil}. This variable is @code{t} by default.
21348 @subsection Slow Machine
21349 @cindex slow machine
21351 If you have a slow machine, or are just really impatient, there are a
21352 few things you can do to make Gnus run faster.
21354 Set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
21355 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make startup faster.
21357 Set @code{gnus-show-threads}, @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} and
21358 @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{nil} to make entering and exiting the
21359 summary buffer faster.
21363 @node Troubleshooting
21364 @section Troubleshooting
21365 @cindex troubleshooting
21367 Gnus works @emph{so} well straight out of the box---I can't imagine any
21375 Make sure your computer is switched on.
21378 Make sure that you really load the current Gnus version. If you have
21379 been running @sc{gnus}, you need to exit Emacs and start it up again before
21383 Try doing an @kbd{M-x gnus-version}. If you get something that looks
21384 like @samp{Gnus v5.46; nntp 4.0} you have the right files loaded. If,
21385 on the other hand, you get something like @samp{NNTP 3.x} or @samp{nntp
21386 flee}, you have some old @file{.el} files lying around. Delete these.
21389 Read the help group (@kbd{G h} in the group buffer) for a FAQ and a
21393 @vindex max-lisp-eval-depth
21394 Gnus works on many recursive structures, and in some extreme (and very
21395 rare) cases Gnus may recurse down ``too deeply'' and Emacs will beep at
21396 you. If this happens to you, set @code{max-lisp-eval-depth} to 500 or
21397 something like that.
21400 If all else fails, report the problem as a bug.
21403 @cindex reporting bugs
21405 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
21407 If you find a bug in Gnus, you can report it with the @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}
21408 command. @kbd{M-x set-variable RET debug-on-error RET t RET}, and send
21409 me the backtrace. I will fix bugs, but I can only fix them if you send
21410 me a precise description as to how to reproduce the bug.
21412 You really can never be too detailed in a bug report. Always use the
21413 @kbd{M-x gnus-bug} command when you make bug reports, even if it creates
21414 a 10Kb mail each time you use it, and even if you have sent me your
21415 environment 500 times before. I don't care. I want the full info each
21418 It is also important to remember that I have no memory whatsoever. If
21419 you send a bug report, and I send you a reply, and then you just send
21420 back ``No, it's not! Moron!'', I will have no idea what you are
21421 insulting me about. Always over-explain everything. It's much easier
21422 for all of us---if I don't have all the information I need, I will just
21423 mail you and ask for more info, and everything takes more time.
21425 If the problem you're seeing is very visual, and you can't quite explain
21426 it, copy the Emacs window to a file (with @code{xwd}, for instance), put
21427 it somewhere it can be reached, and include the URL of the picture in
21431 If you would like to contribute a patch to fix bugs or make
21432 improvements, please produce the patch using @samp{diff -u}.
21434 If you just need help, you are better off asking on
21435 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}. I'm not very helpful.
21437 @cindex gnu.emacs.gnus
21438 @cindex ding mailing list
21439 You can also ask on the ding mailing list---@samp{ding@@gnus.org}.
21440 Write to @samp{ding-request@@gnus.org} to subscribe.
21444 @node Gnus Reference Guide
21445 @section Gnus Reference Guide
21447 It is my hope that other people will figure out smart stuff that Gnus
21448 can do, and that other people will write those smart things as well. To
21449 facilitate that I thought it would be a good idea to describe the inner
21450 workings of Gnus. And some of the not-so-inner workings, while I'm at
21453 You can never expect the internals of a program not to change, but I
21454 will be defining (in some details) the interface between Gnus and its
21455 backends (this is written in stone), the format of the score files
21456 (ditto), data structures (some are less likely to change than others)
21457 and general methods of operation.
21460 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
21461 * Backend Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
21462 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
21463 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
21464 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
21465 * Group Info:: The group info format.
21466 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
21467 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
21468 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
21472 @node Gnus Utility Functions
21473 @subsection Gnus Utility Functions
21474 @cindex Gnus utility functions
21475 @cindex utility functions
21477 @cindex internal variables
21479 When writing small functions to be run from hooks (and stuff), it's
21480 vital to have access to the Gnus internal functions and variables.
21481 Below is a list of the most common ones.
21485 @item gnus-newsgroup-name
21486 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-name
21487 This variable holds the name of the current newsgroup.
21489 @item gnus-find-method-for-group
21490 @findex gnus-find-method-for-group
21491 A function that returns the select method for @var{group}.
21493 @item gnus-group-real-name
21494 @findex gnus-group-real-name
21495 Takes a full (prefixed) Gnus group name, and returns the unprefixed
21498 @item gnus-group-prefixed-name
21499 @findex gnus-group-prefixed-name
21500 Takes an unprefixed group name and a select method, and returns the full
21501 (prefixed) Gnus group name.
21503 @item gnus-get-info
21504 @findex gnus-get-info
21505 Returns the group info list for @var{group}.
21507 @item gnus-group-unread
21508 @findex gnus-group-unread
21509 The number of unread articles in @var{group}, or @code{t} if that is
21513 @findex gnus-active
21514 The active entry for @var{group}.
21516 @item gnus-set-active
21517 @findex gnus-set-active
21518 Set the active entry for @var{group}.
21520 @item gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
21521 @findex gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
21522 Adds the current buffer to the list of buffers to be killed on Gnus
21525 @item gnus-continuum-version
21526 @findex gnus-continuum-version
21527 Takes a Gnus version string as a parameter and returns a floating point
21528 number. Earlier versions will always get a lower number than later
21531 @item gnus-group-read-only-p
21532 @findex gnus-group-read-only-p
21533 Says whether @var{group} is read-only or not.
21535 @item gnus-news-group-p
21536 @findex gnus-news-group-p
21537 Says whether @var{group} came from a news backend.
21539 @item gnus-ephemeral-group-p
21540 @findex gnus-ephemeral-group-p
21541 Says whether @var{group} is ephemeral or not.
21543 @item gnus-server-to-method
21544 @findex gnus-server-to-method
21545 Returns the select method corresponding to @var{server}.
21547 @item gnus-server-equal
21548 @findex gnus-server-equal
21549 Says whether two virtual servers are equal.
21551 @item gnus-group-native-p
21552 @findex gnus-group-native-p
21553 Says whether @var{group} is native or not.
21555 @item gnus-group-secondary-p
21556 @findex gnus-group-secondary-p
21557 Says whether @var{group} is secondary or not.
21559 @item gnus-group-foreign-p
21560 @findex gnus-group-foreign-p
21561 Says whether @var{group} is foreign or not.
21563 @item group-group-find-parameter
21564 @findex group-group-find-parameter
21565 Returns the parameter list of @var{group}. If given a second parameter,
21566 returns the value of that parameter for @var{group}.
21568 @item gnus-group-set-parameter
21569 @findex gnus-group-set-parameter
21570 Takes three parameters; @var{group}, @var{parameter} and @var{value}.
21572 @item gnus-narrow-to-body
21573 @findex gnus-narrow-to-body
21574 Narrows the current buffer to the body of the article.
21576 @item gnus-check-backend-function
21577 @findex gnus-check-backend-function
21578 Takes two parameters, @var{function} and @var{group}. If the backend
21579 @var{group} comes from supports @var{function}, return non-@code{nil}.
21582 (gnus-check-backend-function "request-scan" "nnml:misc")
21586 @item gnus-read-method
21587 @findex gnus-read-method
21588 Prompts the user for a select method.
21593 @node Backend Interface
21594 @subsection Backend Interface
21596 Gnus doesn't know anything about @sc{nntp}, spools, mail or virtual
21597 groups. It only knows how to talk to @dfn{virtual servers}. A virtual
21598 server is a @dfn{backend} and some @dfn{backend variables}. As examples
21599 of the first, we have @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool} and @code{nnmbox}. As
21600 examples of the latter we have @code{nntp-port-number} and
21601 @code{nnmbox-directory}.
21603 When Gnus asks for information from a backend---say @code{nntp}---on
21604 something, it will normally include a virtual server name in the
21605 function parameters. (If not, the backend should use the ``current''
21606 virtual server.) For instance, @code{nntp-request-list} takes a virtual
21607 server as its only (optional) parameter. If this virtual server hasn't
21608 been opened, the function should fail.
21610 Note that a virtual server name has no relation to some physical server
21611 name. Take this example:
21615 (nntp-address "ifi.uio.no")
21616 (nntp-port-number 4324))
21619 Here the virtual server name is @samp{odd-one} while the name of
21620 the physical server is @samp{ifi.uio.no}.
21622 The backends should be able to switch between several virtual servers.
21623 The standard backends implement this by keeping an alist of virtual
21624 server environments that they pull down/push up when needed.
21626 There are two groups of interface functions: @dfn{required functions},
21627 which must be present, and @dfn{optional functions}, which Gnus will
21628 always check for presence before attempting to call 'em.
21630 All these functions are expected to return data in the buffer
21631 @code{nntp-server-buffer} (@samp{ *nntpd*}), which is somewhat
21632 unfortunately named, but we'll have to live with it. When I talk about
21633 @dfn{resulting data}, I always refer to the data in that buffer. When I
21634 talk about @dfn{return value}, I talk about the function value returned by
21635 the function call. Functions that fail should return @code{nil} as the
21638 Some backends could be said to be @dfn{server-forming} backends, and
21639 some might be said not to be. The latter are backends that generally
21640 only operate on one group at a time, and have no concept of ``server''
21641 -- they have a group, and they deliver info on that group and nothing
21644 Gnus identifies each message by way of group name and article number. A
21645 few remarks about these article numbers might be useful. First of all,
21646 the numbers are positive integers. Secondly, it is normally not
21647 possible for later articles to `re-use' older article numbers without
21648 confusing Gnus. That is, if a group has ever contained a message
21649 numbered 42, then no other message may get that number, or Gnus will get
21650 mightily confused.@footnote{See the function
21651 @code{nnchoke-request-update-info}, @ref{Optional Backend Functions}.}
21652 Third, article numbers must be assigned in order of arrival in the
21653 group; this is not necessarily the same as the date of the message.
21655 The previous paragraph already mentions all the `hard' restrictions that
21656 article numbers must fulfill. But it seems that it might be useful to
21657 assign @emph{consecutive} article numbers, for Gnus gets quite confused
21658 if there are holes in the article numbering sequence. However, due to
21659 the `no-reuse' restriction, holes cannot be avoided altogether. It's
21660 also useful for the article numbers to start at 1 to avoid running out
21661 of numbers as long as possible.
21663 In the examples and definitions I will refer to the imaginary backend
21666 @cindex @code{nnchoke}
21669 * Required Backend Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
21670 * Optional Backend Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
21671 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
21672 * Writing New Backends:: Extending old backends.
21673 * Hooking New Backends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
21674 * Mail-like Backends:: Some tips on mail backends.
21678 @node Required Backend Functions
21679 @subsubsection Required Backend Functions
21683 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-headers ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FETCH-OLD)
21685 @var{articles} is either a range of article numbers or a list of
21686 @code{Message-ID}s. Current backends do not fully support either---only
21687 sequences (lists) of article numbers, and most backends do not support
21688 retrieval of @code{Message-ID}s. But they should try for both.
21690 The result data should either be HEADs or NOV lines, and the result
21691 value should either be @code{headers} or @code{nov} to reflect this.
21692 This might later be expanded to @code{various}, which will be a mixture
21693 of HEADs and NOV lines, but this is currently not supported by Gnus.
21695 If @var{fetch-old} is non-@code{nil} it says to try fetching "extra
21696 headers", in some meaning of the word. This is generally done by
21697 fetching (at most) @var{fetch-old} extra headers less than the smallest
21698 article number in @code{articles}, and filling the gaps as well. The
21699 presence of this parameter can be ignored if the backend finds it
21700 cumbersome to follow the request. If this is non-@code{nil} and not a
21701 number, do maximum fetches.
21703 Here's an example HEAD:
21706 221 1056 Article retrieved.
21707 Path: ifi.uio.no!sturles
21708 From: sturles@@ifi.uio.no (Sturle Sunde)
21709 Newsgroups: ifi.discussion
21710 Subject: Re: Something very droll
21711 Date: 27 Oct 1994 14:02:57 +0100
21712 Organization: Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
21714 Message-ID: <38o8e1$a0o@@holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no>
21715 References: <38jdmq$4qu@@visbur.ifi.uio.no>
21716 NNTP-Posting-Host: holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no
21720 So a @code{headers} return value would imply that there's a number of
21721 these in the data buffer.
21723 Here's a BNF definition of such a buffer:
21727 head = error / valid-head
21728 error-message = [ "4" / "5" ] 2number " " <error message> eol
21729 valid-head = valid-message *header "." eol
21730 valid-message = "221 " <number> " Article retrieved." eol
21731 header = <text> eol
21734 If the return value is @code{nov}, the data buffer should contain
21735 @dfn{network overview database} lines. These are basically fields
21739 nov-buffer = *nov-line
21740 nov-line = 8*9 [ field <TAB> ] eol
21741 field = <text except TAB>
21744 For a closer look at what should be in those fields,
21748 @item (nnchoke-open-server SERVER &optional DEFINITIONS)
21750 @var{server} is here the virtual server name. @var{definitions} is a
21751 list of @code{(VARIABLE VALUE)} pairs that define this virtual server.
21753 If the server can't be opened, no error should be signaled. The backend
21754 may then choose to refuse further attempts at connecting to this
21755 server. In fact, it should do so.
21757 If the server is opened already, this function should return a
21758 non-@code{nil} value. There should be no data returned.
21761 @item (nnchoke-close-server &optional SERVER)
21763 Close connection to @var{server} and free all resources connected
21764 to it. Return @code{nil} if the server couldn't be closed for some
21767 There should be no data returned.
21770 @item (nnchoke-request-close)
21772 Close connection to all servers and free all resources that the backend
21773 have reserved. All buffers that have been created by that backend
21774 should be killed. (Not the @code{nntp-server-buffer}, though.) This
21775 function is generally only called when Gnus is shutting down.
21777 There should be no data returned.
21780 @item (nnchoke-server-opened &optional SERVER)
21782 If @var{server} is the current virtual server, and the connection to the
21783 physical server is alive, then this function should return a
21784 non-@code{nil} vlue. This function should under no circumstances
21785 attempt to reconnect to a server we have lost connection to.
21787 There should be no data returned.
21790 @item (nnchoke-status-message &optional SERVER)
21792 This function should return the last error message from @var{server}.
21794 There should be no data returned.
21797 @item (nnchoke-request-article ARTICLE &optional GROUP SERVER TO-BUFFER)
21799 The result data from this function should be the article specified by
21800 @var{article}. This might either be a @code{Message-ID} or a number.
21801 It is optional whether to implement retrieval by @code{Message-ID}, but
21802 it would be nice if that were possible.
21804 If @var{to-buffer} is non-@code{nil}, the result data should be returned
21805 in this buffer instead of the normal data buffer. This is to make it
21806 possible to avoid copying large amounts of data from one buffer to
21807 another, while Gnus mainly requests articles to be inserted directly
21808 into its article buffer.
21810 If it is at all possible, this function should return a cons cell where
21811 the @code{car} is the group name the article was fetched from, and the @code{cdr} is
21812 the article number. This will enable Gnus to find out what the real
21813 group and article numbers are when fetching articles by
21814 @code{Message-ID}. If this isn't possible, @code{t} should be returned
21815 on successful article retrieval.
21818 @item (nnchoke-request-group GROUP &optional SERVER FAST)
21820 Get data on @var{group}. This function also has the side effect of
21821 making @var{group} the current group.
21823 If @var{fast}, don't bother to return useful data, just make @var{group}
21826 Here's an example of some result data and a definition of the same:
21829 211 56 1000 1059 ifi.discussion
21832 The first number is the status, which should be 211. Next is the
21833 total number of articles in the group, the lowest article number, the
21834 highest article number, and finally the group name. Note that the total
21835 number of articles may be less than one might think while just
21836 considering the highest and lowest article numbers, but some articles
21837 may have been canceled. Gnus just discards the total-number, so
21838 whether one should take the bother to generate it properly (if that is a
21839 problem) is left as an exercise to the reader.
21842 group-status = [ error / info ] eol
21843 error = [ "4" / "5" ] 2<number> " " <Error message>
21844 info = "211 " 3* [ <number> " " ] <string>
21848 @item (nnchoke-close-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
21850 Close @var{group} and free any resources connected to it. This will be
21851 a no-op on most backends.
21853 There should be no data returned.
21856 @item (nnchoke-request-list &optional SERVER)
21858 Return a list of all groups available on @var{server}. And that means
21861 Here's an example from a server that only carries two groups:
21864 ifi.test 0000002200 0000002000 y
21865 ifi.discussion 3324 3300 n
21868 On each line we have a group name, then the highest article number in
21869 that group, the lowest article number, and finally a flag.
21872 active-file = *active-line
21873 active-line = name " " <number> " " <number> " " flags eol
21875 flags = "n" / "y" / "m" / "x" / "j" / "=" name
21878 The flag says whether the group is read-only (@samp{n}), is moderated
21879 (@samp{m}), is dead (@samp{x}), is aliased to some other group
21880 (@samp{=other-group}) or none of the above (@samp{y}).
21883 @item (nnchoke-request-post &optional SERVER)
21885 This function should post the current buffer. It might return whether
21886 the posting was successful or not, but that's not required. If, for
21887 instance, the posting is done asynchronously, it has generally not been
21888 completed by the time this function concludes. In that case, this
21889 function should set up some kind of sentinel to beep the user loud and
21890 clear if the posting could not be completed.
21892 There should be no result data from this function.
21897 @node Optional Backend Functions
21898 @subsubsection Optional Backend Functions
21902 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-groups GROUPS &optional SERVER)
21904 @var{groups} is a list of groups, and this function should request data
21905 on all those groups. How it does it is of no concern to Gnus, but it
21906 should attempt to do this in a speedy fashion.
21908 The return value of this function can be either @code{active} or
21909 @code{group}, which says what the format of the result data is. The
21910 former is in the same format as the data from
21911 @code{nnchoke-request-list}, while the latter is a buffer full of lines
21912 in the same format as @code{nnchoke-request-group} gives.
21915 group-buffer = *active-line / *group-status
21919 @item (nnchoke-request-update-info GROUP INFO &optional SERVER)
21921 A Gnus group info (@pxref{Group Info}) is handed to the backend for
21922 alterations. This comes in handy if the backend really carries all the
21923 information (as is the case with virtual and imap groups). This
21924 function should destructively alter the info to suit its needs, and
21925 should return the (altered) group info.
21927 There should be no result data from this function.
21930 @item (nnchoke-request-type GROUP &optional ARTICLE)
21932 When the user issues commands for ``sending news'' (@kbd{F} in the
21933 summary buffer, for instance), Gnus has to know whether the article the
21934 user is following up on is news or mail. This function should return
21935 @code{news} if @var{article} in @var{group} is news, @code{mail} if it
21936 is mail and @code{unknown} if the type can't be decided. (The
21937 @var{article} parameter is necessary in @code{nnvirtual} groups which
21938 might very well combine mail groups and news groups.) Both @var{group}
21939 and @var{article} may be @code{nil}.
21941 There should be no result data from this function.
21944 @item (nnchoke-request-set-mark GROUP ACTION &optional SERVER)
21946 Set/remove/add marks on articles. Normally Gnus handles the article
21947 marks (such as read, ticked, expired etc) internally, and store them in
21948 @code{~/.newsrc.eld}. Some backends (such as @sc{imap}) however carry
21949 all information about the articles on the server, so Gnus need to
21950 propagate the mark information to the server.
21952 ACTION is a list of mark setting requests, having this format:
21955 (RANGE ACTION MARK)
21958 RANGE is a range of articles you wish to update marks on. ACTION is
21959 @code{add} or @code{del}, used to add marks or remove marks
21960 (preserving all marks not mentioned). MARK is a list of marks; where
21961 each mark is a symbol. Currently used marks are @code{read},
21962 @code{tick}, @code{reply}, @code{expire}, @code{killed},
21963 @code{dormant}, @code{save}, @code{download}, @code{unsend},
21964 @code{forward} and @code{recent}, but your backend should, if
21965 possible, not limit itself to these.
21967 Given contradictory actions, the last action in the list should be the
21968 effective one. That is, if your action contains a request to add the
21969 @code{tick} mark on article 1 and, later in the list, a request to
21970 remove the mark on the same article, the mark should in fact be removed.
21972 An example action list:
21975 (((5 12 30) 'del '(tick))
21976 ((10 . 90) 'add '(read expire))
21977 ((92 94) 'del '(read)))
21980 The function should return a range of articles it wasn't able to set the
21981 mark on (currently not used for anything).
21983 There should be no result data from this function.
21985 @item (nnchoke-request-update-mark GROUP ARTICLE MARK)
21987 If the user tries to set a mark that the backend doesn't like, this
21988 function may change the mark. Gnus will use whatever this function
21989 returns as the mark for @var{article} instead of the original
21990 @var{mark}. If the backend doesn't care, it must return the original
21991 @var{mark}, and not @code{nil} or any other type of garbage.
21993 The only use for this I can see is what @code{nnvirtual} does with
21994 it---if a component group is auto-expirable, marking an article as read
21995 in the virtual group should result in the article being marked as
21998 There should be no result data from this function.
22001 @item (nnchoke-request-scan &optional GROUP SERVER)
22003 This function may be called at any time (by Gnus or anything else) to
22004 request that the backend check for incoming articles, in one way or
22005 another. A mail backend will typically read the spool file or query the
22006 POP server when this function is invoked. The @var{group} doesn't have
22007 to be heeded---if the backend decides that it is too much work just
22008 scanning for a single group, it may do a total scan of all groups. It
22009 would be nice, however, to keep things local if that's practical.
22011 There should be no result data from this function.
22014 @item (nnchoke-request-group-description GROUP &optional SERVER)
22016 The result data from this function should be a description of
22020 description-line = name <TAB> description eol
22022 description = <text>
22025 @item (nnchoke-request-list-newsgroups &optional SERVER)
22027 The result data from this function should be the description of all
22028 groups available on the server.
22031 description-buffer = *description-line
22035 @item (nnchoke-request-newgroups DATE &optional SERVER)
22037 The result data from this function should be all groups that were
22038 created after @samp{date}, which is in normal human-readable date
22039 format. The data should be in the active buffer format.
22042 @item (nnchoke-request-create-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
22044 This function should create an empty group with name @var{group}.
22046 There should be no return data.
22049 @item (nnchoke-request-expire-articles ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FORCE)
22051 This function should run the expiry process on all articles in the
22052 @var{articles} range (which is currently a simple list of article
22053 numbers.) It is left up to the backend to decide how old articles
22054 should be before they are removed by this function. If @var{force} is
22055 non-@code{nil}, all @var{articles} should be deleted, no matter how new
22058 This function should return a list of articles that it did not/was not
22061 There should be no result data returned.
22064 @item (nnchoke-request-move-article ARTICLE GROUP SERVER ACCEPT-FORM
22067 This function should move @var{article} (which is a number) from
22068 @var{group} by calling @var{accept-form}.
22070 This function should ready the article in question for moving by
22071 removing any header lines it has added to the article, and generally
22072 should ``tidy up'' the article. Then it should @code{eval}
22073 @var{accept-form} in the buffer where the ``tidy'' article is. This
22074 will do the actual copying. If this @code{eval} returns a
22075 non-@code{nil} value, the article should be removed.
22077 If @var{last} is @code{nil}, that means that there is a high likelihood
22078 that there will be more requests issued shortly, so that allows some
22081 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
22082 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
22084 There should be no data returned.
22087 @item (nnchoke-request-accept-article GROUP &optional SERVER LAST)
22089 This function takes the current buffer and inserts it into @var{group}.
22090 If @var{last} in @code{nil}, that means that there will be more calls to
22091 this function in short order.
22093 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
22094 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
22096 There should be no data returned.
22099 @item (nnchoke-request-replace-article ARTICLE GROUP BUFFER)
22101 This function should remove @var{article} (which is a number) from
22102 @var{group} and insert @var{buffer} there instead.
22104 There should be no data returned.
22107 @item (nnchoke-request-delete-group GROUP FORCE &optional SERVER)
22109 This function should delete @var{group}. If @var{force}, it should
22110 really delete all the articles in the group, and then delete the group
22111 itself. (If there is such a thing as ``the group itself''.)
22113 There should be no data returned.
22116 @item (nnchoke-request-rename-group GROUP NEW-NAME &optional SERVER)
22118 This function should rename @var{group} into @var{new-name}. All
22119 articles in @var{group} should move to @var{new-name}.
22121 There should be no data returned.
22126 @node Error Messaging
22127 @subsubsection Error Messaging
22129 @findex nnheader-report
22130 @findex nnheader-get-report
22131 The backends should use the function @code{nnheader-report} to report
22132 error conditions---they should not raise errors when they aren't able to
22133 perform a request. The first argument to this function is the backend
22134 symbol, and the rest are interpreted as arguments to @code{format} if
22135 there are multiple of them, or just a string if there is one of them.
22136 This function must always returns @code{nil}.
22139 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "You did something totally bogus")
22141 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "Could not request group %s" group)
22144 Gnus, in turn, will call @code{nnheader-get-report} when it gets a
22145 @code{nil} back from a server, and this function returns the most
22146 recently reported message for the backend in question. This function
22147 takes one argument---the server symbol.
22149 Internally, these functions access @var{backend}@code{-status-string},
22150 so the @code{nnchoke} backend will have its error message stored in
22151 @code{nnchoke-status-string}.
22154 @node Writing New Backends
22155 @subsubsection Writing New Backends
22157 Many backends are quite similar. @code{nnml} is just like
22158 @code{nnspool}, but it allows you to edit the articles on the server.
22159 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, but it doesn't use an active file,
22160 and it doesn't maintain overview databases. @code{nndir} is just like
22161 @code{nnml}, but it has no concept of ``groups'', and it doesn't allow
22164 It would make sense if it were possible to ``inherit'' functions from
22165 backends when writing new backends. And, indeed, you can do that if you
22166 want to. (You don't have to if you don't want to, of course.)
22168 All the backends declare their public variables and functions by using a
22169 package called @code{nnoo}.
22171 To inherit functions from other backends (and allow other backends to
22172 inherit functions from the current backend), you should use the
22178 This macro declares the first parameter to be a child of the subsequent
22179 parameters. For instance:
22182 (nnoo-declare nndir
22186 @code{nndir} has declared here that it intends to inherit functions from
22187 both @code{nnml} and @code{nnmh}.
22190 This macro is equivalent to @code{defvar}, but registers the variable as
22191 a public server variable. Most state-oriented variables should be
22192 declared with @code{defvoo} instead of @code{defvar}.
22194 In addition to the normal @code{defvar} parameters, it takes a list of
22195 variables in the parent backends to map the variable to when executing
22196 a function in those backends.
22199 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
22200 "Where nndir will look for groups."
22201 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
22204 This means that @code{nnml-current-directory} will be set to
22205 @code{nndir-directory} when an @code{nnml} function is called on behalf
22206 of @code{nndir}. (The same with @code{nnmh}.)
22208 @item nnoo-define-basics
22209 This macro defines some common functions that almost all backends should
22213 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
22217 This macro is just like @code{defun} and takes the same parameters. In
22218 addition to doing the normal @code{defun} things, it registers the
22219 function as being public so that other backends can inherit it.
22221 @item nnoo-map-functions
22222 This macro allows mapping of functions from the current backend to
22223 functions from the parent backends.
22226 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
22227 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
22228 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0))
22231 This means that when @code{nndir-retrieve-headers} is called, the first,
22232 third, and fourth parameters will be passed on to
22233 @code{nnml-retrieve-headers}, while the second parameter is set to the
22234 value of @code{nndir-current-group}.
22237 This macro allows importing functions from backends. It should be the
22238 last thing in the source file, since it will only define functions that
22239 haven't already been defined.
22245 nnmh-request-newgroups)
22249 This means that calls to @code{nndir-request-list} should just be passed
22250 on to @code{nnmh-request-list}, while all public functions from
22251 @code{nnml} that haven't been defined in @code{nndir} yet should be
22256 Below is a slightly shortened version of the @code{nndir} backend.
22259 ;;; nndir.el --- single directory newsgroup access for Gnus
22260 ;; Copyright (C) 1995,96 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
22264 (require 'nnheader)
22268 (eval-when-compile (require 'cl))
22270 (nnoo-declare nndir
22273 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
22274 "Where nndir will look for groups."
22275 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
22277 (defvoo nndir-nov-is-evil nil
22278 "*Non-nil means that nndir will never retrieve NOV headers."
22281 (defvoo nndir-current-group ""
22283 nnml-current-group nnmh-current-group)
22284 (defvoo nndir-top-directory nil nil nnml-directory nnmh-directory)
22285 (defvoo nndir-get-new-mail nil nil nnml-get-new-mail nnmh-get-new-mail)
22287 (defvoo nndir-status-string "" nil nnmh-status-string)
22288 (defconst nndir-version "nndir 1.0")
22290 ;;; Interface functions.
22292 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
22294 (deffoo nndir-open-server (server &optional defs)
22295 (setq nndir-directory
22296 (or (cadr (assq 'nndir-directory defs))
22298 (unless (assq 'nndir-directory defs)
22299 (push `(nndir-directory ,server) defs))
22300 (push `(nndir-current-group
22301 ,(file-name-nondirectory
22302 (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
22304 (push `(nndir-top-directory
22305 ,(file-name-directory (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
22307 (nnoo-change-server 'nndir server defs))
22309 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
22310 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
22311 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
22312 (nnmh-request-group nndir-current-group 0 0)
22313 (nnmh-close-group nndir-current-group 0))
22317 nnmh-status-message
22319 nnmh-request-newgroups))
22325 @node Hooking New Backends Into Gnus
22326 @subsubsection Hooking New Backends Into Gnus
22328 @vindex gnus-valid-select-methods
22329 Having Gnus start using your new backend is rather easy---you just
22330 declare it with the @code{gnus-declare-backend} functions. This will
22331 enter the backend into the @code{gnus-valid-select-methods} variable.
22333 @code{gnus-declare-backend} takes two parameters---the backend name and
22334 an arbitrary number of @dfn{abilities}.
22339 (gnus-declare-backend "nnchoke" 'mail 'respool 'address)
22342 The abilities can be:
22346 This is a mailish backend---followups should (probably) go via mail.
22348 This is a newsish backend---followups should (probably) go via news.
22350 This backend supports both mail and news.
22352 This is neither a post nor mail backend---it's something completely
22355 It supports respooling---or rather, it is able to modify its source
22356 articles and groups.
22358 The name of the server should be in the virtual server name. This is
22359 true for almost all backends.
22360 @item prompt-address
22361 The user should be prompted for an address when doing commands like
22362 @kbd{B} in the group buffer. This is true for backends like
22363 @code{nntp}, but not @code{nnmbox}, for instance.
22367 @node Mail-like Backends
22368 @subsubsection Mail-like Backends
22370 One of the things that separate the mail backends from the rest of the
22371 backends is the heavy dependence by the mail backends on common
22372 functions in @file{nnmail.el}. For instance, here's the definition of
22373 @code{nnml-request-scan}:
22376 (deffoo nnml-request-scan (&optional group server)
22377 (setq nnml-article-file-alist nil)
22378 (nnmail-get-new-mail 'nnml 'nnml-save-nov nnml-directory group))
22381 It simply calls @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} with a few parameters,
22382 and @code{nnmail} takes care of all the moving and splitting of the
22385 This function takes four parameters.
22389 This should be a symbol to designate which backend is responsible for
22392 @item exit-function
22393 This function should be called after the splitting has been performed.
22395 @item temp-directory
22396 Where the temporary files should be stored.
22399 This optional argument should be a group name if the splitting is to be
22400 performed for one group only.
22403 @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} will call @var{backend}@code{-save-mail} to
22404 save each article. @var{backend}@code{-active-number} will be called to
22405 find the article number assigned to this article.
22407 The function also uses the following variables:
22408 @var{backend}@code{-get-new-mail} (to see whether to get new mail for
22409 this backend); and @var{backend}@code{-group-alist} and
22410 @var{backend}@code{-active-file} to generate the new active file.
22411 @var{backend}@code{-group-alist} should be a group-active alist, like
22415 (("a-group" (1 . 10))
22416 ("some-group" (34 . 39)))
22420 @node Score File Syntax
22421 @subsection Score File Syntax
22423 Score files are meant to be easily parseable, but yet extremely
22424 mallable. It was decided that something that had the same read syntax
22425 as an Emacs Lisp list would fit that spec.
22427 Here's a typical score file:
22431 ("win95" -10000 nil s)
22438 BNF definition of a score file:
22441 score-file = "" / "(" *element ")"
22442 element = rule / atom
22443 rule = string-rule / number-rule / date-rule
22444 string-rule = "(" quote string-header quote space *string-match ")"
22445 number-rule = "(" quote number-header quote space *number-match ")"
22446 date-rule = "(" quote date-header quote space *date-match ")"
22448 string-header = "subject" / "from" / "references" / "message-id" /
22449 "xref" / "body" / "head" / "all" / "followup"
22450 number-header = "lines" / "chars"
22451 date-header = "date"
22452 string-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
22453 space date [ "" / [ space string-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
22454 score = "nil" / <integer>
22455 date = "nil" / <natural number>
22456 string-match-t = "nil" / "s" / "substring" / "S" / "Substring" /
22457 "r" / "regex" / "R" / "Regex" /
22458 "e" / "exact" / "E" / "Exact" /
22459 "f" / "fuzzy" / "F" / "Fuzzy"
22460 number-match = "(" <integer> [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
22461 space date [ "" / [ space number-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
22462 number-match-t = "nil" / "=" / "<" / ">" / ">=" / "<="
22463 date-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
22464 space date [ "" / [ space date-match-t ] ] ] ] ")"
22465 date-match-t = "nil" / "at" / "before" / "after"
22466 atom = "(" [ required-atom / optional-atom ] ")"
22467 required-atom = mark / expunge / mark-and-expunge / files /
22468 exclude-files / read-only / touched
22469 optional-atom = adapt / local / eval
22470 mark = "mark" space nil-or-number
22471 nil-or-number = "nil" / <integer>
22472 expunge = "expunge" space nil-or-number
22473 mark-and-expunge = "mark-and-expunge" space nil-or-number
22474 files = "files" *[ space <string> ]
22475 exclude-files = "exclude-files" *[ space <string> ]
22476 read-only = "read-only" [ space "nil" / space "t" ]
22477 adapt = "adapt" [ space "ignore" / space "t" / space adapt-rule ]
22478 adapt-rule = "(" *[ <string> *[ "(" <string> <integer> ")" ] ")"
22479 local = "local" *[ space "(" <string> space <form> ")" ]
22480 eval = "eval" space <form>
22481 space = *[ " " / <TAB> / <NEWLINE> ]
22484 Any unrecognized elements in a score file should be ignored, but not
22487 As you can see, white space is needed, but the type and amount of white
22488 space is irrelevant. This means that formatting of the score file is
22489 left up to the programmer---if it's simpler to just spew it all out on
22490 one looong line, then that's ok.
22492 The meaning of the various atoms are explained elsewhere in this
22493 manual (@pxref{Score File Format}).
22497 @subsection Headers
22499 Internally Gnus uses a format for storing article headers that
22500 corresponds to the @sc{nov} format in a mysterious fashion. One could
22501 almost suspect that the author looked at the @sc{nov} specification and
22502 just shamelessly @emph{stole} the entire thing, and one would be right.
22504 @dfn{Header} is a severely overloaded term. ``Header'' is used in
22505 RFC 1036 to talk about lines in the head of an article (e.g.,
22506 @code{From}). It is used by many people as a synonym for
22507 ``head''---``the header and the body''. (That should be avoided, in my
22508 opinion.) And Gnus uses a format internally that it calls ``header'',
22509 which is what I'm talking about here. This is a 9-element vector,
22510 basically, with each header (ouch) having one slot.
22512 These slots are, in order: @code{number}, @code{subject}, @code{from},
22513 @code{date}, @code{id}, @code{references}, @code{chars}, @code{lines},
22514 @code{xref}, and @code{extra}. There are macros for accessing and
22515 setting these slots---they all have predictable names beginning with
22516 @code{mail-header-} and @code{mail-header-set-}, respectively.
22518 All these slots contain strings, except the @code{extra} slot, which
22519 contains an alist of header/value pairs (@pxref{To From Newsgroups}).
22525 @sc{gnus} introduced a concept that I found so useful that I've started
22526 using it a lot and have elaborated on it greatly.
22528 The question is simple: If you have a large amount of objects that are
22529 identified by numbers (say, articles, to take a @emph{wild} example)
22530 that you want to qualify as being ``included'', a normal sequence isn't
22531 very useful. (A 200,000 length sequence is a bit long-winded.)
22533 The solution is as simple as the question: You just collapse the
22537 (1 2 3 4 5 6 10 11 12)
22540 is transformed into
22543 ((1 . 6) (10 . 12))
22546 To avoid having those nasty @samp{(13 . 13)} elements to denote a
22547 lonesome object, a @samp{13} is a valid element:
22550 ((1 . 6) 7 (10 . 12))
22553 This means that comparing two ranges to find out whether they are equal
22554 is slightly tricky:
22557 ((1 . 5) 7 8 (10 . 12))
22563 ((1 . 5) (7 . 8) (10 . 12))
22566 are equal. In fact, any non-descending list is a range:
22572 is a perfectly valid range, although a pretty long-winded one. This is
22579 and is equal to the previous range.
22581 Here's a BNF definition of ranges. Of course, one must remember the
22582 semantic requirement that the numbers are non-descending. (Any number
22583 of repetition of the same number is allowed, but apt to disappear in
22587 range = simple-range / normal-range
22588 simple-range = "(" number " . " number ")"
22589 normal-range = "(" start-contents ")"
22590 contents = "" / simple-range *[ " " contents ] /
22591 number *[ " " contents ]
22594 Gnus currently uses ranges to keep track of read articles and article
22595 marks. I plan on implementing a number of range operators in C if The
22596 Powers That Be are willing to let me. (I haven't asked yet, because I
22597 need to do some more thinking on what operators I need to make life
22598 totally range-based without ever having to convert back to normal
22603 @subsection Group Info
22605 Gnus stores all permanent info on groups in a @dfn{group info} list.
22606 This list is from three to six elements (or more) long and exhaustively
22607 describes the group.
22609 Here are two example group infos; one is a very simple group while the
22610 second is a more complex one:
22613 ("no.group" 5 ((1 . 54324)))
22615 ("nnml:my.mail" 3 ((1 . 5) 9 (20 . 55))
22616 ((tick (15 . 19)) (replied 3 6 (19 . 3)))
22618 ((auto-expire . t) (to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")))
22621 The first element is the @dfn{group name}---as Gnus knows the group,
22622 anyway. The second element is the @dfn{subscription level}, which
22623 normally is a small integer. (It can also be the @dfn{rank}, which is a
22624 cons cell where the @code{car} is the level and the @code{cdr} is the
22625 score.) The third element is a list of ranges of read articles. The
22626 fourth element is a list of lists of article marks of various kinds.
22627 The fifth element is the select method (or virtual server, if you like).
22628 The sixth element is a list of @dfn{group parameters}, which is what
22629 this section is about.
22631 Any of the last three elements may be missing if they are not required.
22632 In fact, the vast majority of groups will normally only have the first
22633 three elements, which saves quite a lot of cons cells.
22635 Here's a BNF definition of the group info format:
22638 info = "(" group space ralevel space read
22639 [ "" / [ space marks-list [ "" / [ space method [ "" /
22640 space parameters ] ] ] ] ] ")"
22641 group = quote <string> quote
22642 ralevel = rank / level
22643 level = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
22644 rank = "(" level "." score ")"
22645 score = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
22647 marks-lists = nil / "(" *marks ")"
22648 marks = "(" <string> range ")"
22649 method = "(" <string> *elisp-forms ")"
22650 parameters = "(" *elisp-forms ")"
22653 Actually that @samp{marks} rule is a fib. A @samp{marks} is a
22654 @samp{<string>} consed on to a @samp{range}, but that's a bitch to say
22657 If you have a Gnus info and want to access the elements, Gnus offers a
22658 series of macros for getting/setting these elements.
22661 @item gnus-info-group
22662 @itemx gnus-info-set-group
22663 @findex gnus-info-group
22664 @findex gnus-info-set-group
22665 Get/set the group name.
22667 @item gnus-info-rank
22668 @itemx gnus-info-set-rank
22669 @findex gnus-info-rank
22670 @findex gnus-info-set-rank
22671 Get/set the group rank (@pxref{Group Score}).
22673 @item gnus-info-level
22674 @itemx gnus-info-set-level
22675 @findex gnus-info-level
22676 @findex gnus-info-set-level
22677 Get/set the group level.
22679 @item gnus-info-score
22680 @itemx gnus-info-set-score
22681 @findex gnus-info-score
22682 @findex gnus-info-set-score
22683 Get/set the group score (@pxref{Group Score}).
22685 @item gnus-info-read
22686 @itemx gnus-info-set-read
22687 @findex gnus-info-read
22688 @findex gnus-info-set-read
22689 Get/set the ranges of read articles.
22691 @item gnus-info-marks
22692 @itemx gnus-info-set-marks
22693 @findex gnus-info-marks
22694 @findex gnus-info-set-marks
22695 Get/set the lists of ranges of marked articles.
22697 @item gnus-info-method
22698 @itemx gnus-info-set-method
22699 @findex gnus-info-method
22700 @findex gnus-info-set-method
22701 Get/set the group select method.
22703 @item gnus-info-params
22704 @itemx gnus-info-set-params
22705 @findex gnus-info-params
22706 @findex gnus-info-set-params
22707 Get/set the group parameters.
22710 All the getter functions take one parameter---the info list. The setter
22711 functions take two parameters---the info list and the new value.
22713 The last three elements in the group info aren't mandatory, so it may be
22714 necessary to extend the group info before setting the element. If this
22715 is necessary, you can just pass on a non-@code{nil} third parameter to
22716 the three final setter functions to have this happen automatically.
22719 @node Extended Interactive
22720 @subsection Extended Interactive
22721 @cindex interactive
22722 @findex gnus-interactive
22724 Gnus extends the standard Emacs @code{interactive} specification
22725 slightly to allow easy use of the symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic
22726 Prefixes}). Here's an example of how this is used:
22729 (defun gnus-summary-increase-score (&optional score symp)
22730 (interactive (gnus-interactive "P\ny"))
22735 The best thing to do would have been to implement
22736 @code{gnus-interactive} as a macro which would have returned an
22737 @code{interactive} form, but this isn't possible since Emacs checks
22738 whether a function is interactive or not by simply doing an @code{assq}
22739 on the lambda form. So, instead we have @code{gnus-interactive}
22740 function that takes a string and returns values that are usable to
22741 @code{interactive}.
22743 This function accepts (almost) all normal @code{interactive} specs, but
22748 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbol
22749 The current symbolic prefix---the @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol}
22753 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbols
22754 A list of the current symbolic prefixes---the
22755 @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol} variable.
22758 The current article number---the @code{gnus-summary-article-number}
22762 The current article header---the @code{gnus-summary-article-header}
22766 The current group name---the @code{gnus-group-group-name}
22772 @node Emacs/XEmacs Code
22773 @subsection Emacs/XEmacs Code
22777 While Gnus runs under Emacs, XEmacs and Mule, I decided that one of the
22778 platforms must be the primary one. I chose Emacs. Not because I don't
22779 like XEmacs or Mule, but because it comes first alphabetically.
22781 This means that Gnus will byte-compile under Emacs with nary a warning,
22782 while XEmacs will pump out gigabytes of warnings while byte-compiling.
22783 As I use byte-compilation warnings to help me root out trivial errors in
22784 Gnus, that's very useful.
22786 I've also consistently used Emacs function interfaces, but have used
22787 Gnusey aliases for the functions. To take an example: Emacs defines a
22788 @code{run-at-time} function while XEmacs defines a @code{start-itimer}
22789 function. I then define a function called @code{gnus-run-at-time} that
22790 takes the same parameters as the Emacs @code{run-at-time}. When running
22791 Gnus under Emacs, the former function is just an alias for the latter.
22792 However, when running under XEmacs, the former is an alias for the
22793 following function:
22796 (defun gnus-xmas-run-at-time (time repeat function &rest args)
22800 (,function ,@@args))
22804 This sort of thing has been done for bunches of functions. Gnus does
22805 not redefine any native Emacs functions while running under XEmacs---it
22806 does this @code{defalias} thing with Gnus equivalents instead. Cleaner
22809 In the cases where the XEmacs function interface was obviously cleaner,
22810 I used it instead. For example @code{gnus-region-active-p} is an alias
22811 for @code{region-active-p} in XEmacs, whereas in Emacs it is a function.
22813 Of course, I could have chosen XEmacs as my native platform and done
22814 mapping functions the other way around. But I didn't. The performance
22815 hit these indirections impose on Gnus under XEmacs should be slight.
22818 @node Various File Formats
22819 @subsection Various File Formats
22822 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
22823 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
22827 @node Active File Format
22828 @subsubsection Active File Format
22830 The active file lists all groups available on the server in
22831 question. It also lists the highest and lowest current article numbers
22834 Here's an excerpt from a typical active file:
22837 soc.motss 296030 293865 y
22838 alt.binaries.pictures.fractals 3922 3913 n
22839 comp.sources.unix 1605 1593 m
22840 comp.binaries.ibm.pc 5097 5089 y
22841 no.general 1000 900 y
22844 Here's a pseudo-BNF definition of this file:
22847 active = *group-line
22848 group-line = group spc high-number spc low-number spc flag <NEWLINE>
22849 group = <non-white-space string>
22851 high-number = <non-negative integer>
22852 low-number = <positive integer>
22853 flag = "y" / "n" / "m" / "j" / "x" / "=" group
22856 For a full description of this file, see the manual pages for
22857 @samp{innd}, in particular @samp{active(5)}.
22860 @node Newsgroups File Format
22861 @subsubsection Newsgroups File Format
22863 The newsgroups file lists groups along with their descriptions. Not all
22864 groups on the server have to be listed, and not all groups in the file
22865 have to exist on the server. The file is meant purely as information to
22868 The format is quite simple; a group name, a tab, and the description.
22869 Here's the definition:
22873 line = group tab description <NEWLINE>
22874 group = <non-white-space string>
22876 description = <string>
22881 @node Emacs for Heathens
22882 @section Emacs for Heathens
22884 Believe it or not, but some people who use Gnus haven't really used
22885 Emacs much before they embarked on their journey on the Gnus Love Boat.
22886 If you are one of those unfortunates whom ``@kbd{M-C-a}'', ``kill the
22887 region'', and ``set @code{gnus-flargblossen} to an alist where the key
22888 is a regexp that is used for matching on the group name'' are magical
22889 phrases with little or no meaning, then this appendix is for you. If
22890 you are already familiar with Emacs, just ignore this and go fondle your
22894 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
22895 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
22900 @subsection Keystrokes
22904 Q: What is an experienced Emacs user?
22907 A: A person who wishes that the terminal had pedals.
22910 Yes, when you use Emacs, you are apt to use the control key, the shift
22911 key and the meta key a lot. This is very annoying to some people
22912 (notably @code{vi}le users), and the rest of us just love the hell out
22913 of it. Just give up and submit. Emacs really does stand for
22914 ``Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift'', and not ``Editing Macros'', as you
22915 may have heard from other disreputable sources (like the Emacs author).
22917 The shift keys are normally located near your pinky fingers, and are
22918 normally used to get capital letters and stuff. You probably use it all
22919 the time. The control key is normally marked ``CTRL'' or something like
22920 that. The meta key is, funnily enough, never marked as such on any
22921 keyboard. The one I'm currently at has a key that's marked ``Alt'',
22922 which is the meta key on this keyboard. It's usually located somewhere
22923 to the left hand side of the keyboard, usually on the bottom row.
22925 Now, us Emacs people don't say ``press the meta-control-m key'',
22926 because that's just too inconvenient. We say ``press the @kbd{M-C-m}
22927 key''. @kbd{M-} is the prefix that means ``meta'' and ``C-'' is the
22928 prefix that means ``control''. So ``press @kbd{C-k}'' means ``press
22929 down the control key, and hold it down while you press @kbd{k}''.
22930 ``Press @kbd{M-C-k}'' means ``press down and hold down the meta key and
22931 the control key and then press @kbd{k}''. Simple, ay?
22933 This is somewhat complicated by the fact that not all keyboards have a
22934 meta key. In that case you can use the ``escape'' key. Then @kbd{M-k}
22935 means ``press escape, release escape, press @kbd{k}''. That's much more
22936 work than if you have a meta key, so if that's the case, I respectfully
22937 suggest you get a real keyboard with a meta key. You can't live without
22943 @subsection Emacs Lisp
22945 Emacs is the King of Editors because it's really a Lisp interpreter.
22946 Each and every key you tap runs some Emacs Lisp code snippet, and since
22947 Emacs Lisp is an interpreted language, that means that you can configure
22948 any key to run any arbitrary code. You just, like, do it.
22950 Gnus is written in Emacs Lisp, and is run as a bunch of interpreted
22951 functions. (These are byte-compiled for speed, but it's still
22952 interpreted.) If you decide that you don't like the way Gnus does
22953 certain things, it's trivial to have it do something a different way.
22954 (Well, at least if you know how to write Lisp code.) However, that's
22955 beyond the scope of this manual, so we are simply going to talk about
22956 some common constructs that you normally use in your @file{.emacs} file
22959 If you want to set the variable @code{gnus-florgbnize} to four (4), you
22960 write the following:
22963 (setq gnus-florgbnize 4)
22966 This function (really ``special form'') @code{setq} is the one that can
22967 set a variable to some value. This is really all you need to know. Now
22968 you can go and fill your @code{.emacs} file with lots of these to change
22971 If you have put that thing in your @code{.emacs} file, it will be read
22972 and @code{eval}ed (which is lisp-ese for ``run'') the next time you
22973 start Emacs. If you want to change the variable right away, simply say
22974 @kbd{C-x C-e} after the closing parenthesis. That will @code{eval} the
22975 previous ``form'', which is a simple @code{setq} statement here.
22977 Go ahead---just try it, if you're located at your Emacs. After you
22978 @kbd{C-x C-e}, you will see @samp{4} appear in the echo area, which
22979 is the return value of the form you @code{eval}ed.
22983 If the manual says ``set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{some}'',
22987 (setq gnus-read-active-file 'some)
22990 On the other hand, if the manual says ``set @code{gnus-nntp-server} to
22991 @samp{nntp.ifi.uio.no}'', that means:
22994 (setq gnus-nntp-server "nntp.ifi.uio.no")
22997 So be careful not to mix up strings (the latter) with symbols (the
22998 former). The manual is unambiguous, but it can be confusing.
23001 @include gnus-faq.texi
23022 % LocalWords: Backend BNF mucho Backends backends detailmenu cindex kindex kbd
23023 % LocalWords: findex Gnusae vindex dfn dfn samp nntp setq nnspool nntpserver
23024 % LocalWords: nnmbox backend newusers Blllrph NEWGROUPS dingnusdingnusdingnus
23025 % LocalWords: pre fab rec comp nnslashdot regex ga ga sci nnml nnbabyl nnmh
23026 % LocalWords: nnfolder emph looong eld newsreaders defun init elc pxref