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14 Copyright @copyright{} 1995--2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
17 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
18 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
19 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
20 Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU Manual'',
21 and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the license
22 is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
24 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have the freedom to copy and
25 modify this GNU manual.''
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308 \gnusauthor{by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen}
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323 @dircategory Emacs network features
325 * Gnus: (gnus). The newsreader Gnus.
334 @title Gnus Manual (DEVELOPMENT VERSION)
336 @ifclear WEBHACKDEVEL
340 @author by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
342 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
350 @top The Gnus Newsreader
354 You can read news (and mail) from within Emacs by using Gnus. The news
355 can be gotten by any nefarious means you can think of---@acronym{NNTP}, local
356 spool or your mbox file. All at the same time, if you want to push your
359 @c Adjust ../Makefile.in if you change the following line:
360 This manual corresponds to Ma Gnus v0.8
375 Gnus is the advanced, self-documenting, customizable, extensible
376 unreal-time newsreader for GNU Emacs.
378 Oops. That sounds oddly familiar, so let's start over again to avoid
379 being accused of plagiarism:
381 Gnus is a message-reading laboratory. It will let you look at just
382 about anything as if it were a newsgroup. You can read mail with it,
383 you can browse directories with it, you can @code{ftp} with it---you
384 can even read news with it!
386 Gnus tries to empower people who read news the same way Emacs empowers
387 people who edit text. Gnus sets no limits to what the user should be
388 allowed to do. Users are encouraged to extend Gnus to make it behave
389 like they want it to behave. A program should not control people;
390 people should be empowered to do what they want by using (or abusing)
393 @c Adjust ../Makefile.in if you change the following line:
394 This manual corresponds to Ma Gnus v0.8
396 @heading Other related manuals
398 @item Message manual: Composing messages
399 @item Emacs-MIME: Composing messages; @acronym{MIME}-specific parts.
400 @item Sieve: Managing Sieve scripts in Emacs.
401 @item EasyPG: @acronym{PGP/MIME} with Gnus.
402 @item SASL: @acronym{SASL} authentication in Emacs.
408 * Starting Up:: Finding news can be a pain.
409 * Group Buffer:: Selecting, subscribing and killing groups.
410 * Summary Buffer:: Reading, saving and posting articles.
411 * Article Buffer:: Displaying and handling articles.
412 * Composing Messages:: Information on sending mail and news.
413 * Select Methods:: Gnus reads all messages from various select methods.
414 * Scoring:: Assigning values to articles.
415 * Searching:: Mail and News search engines.
416 * Various:: General purpose settings.
417 * The End:: Farewell and goodbye.
418 * Appendices:: Terminology, Emacs intro, @acronym{FAQ}, History, Internals.
419 * GNU Free Documentation License:: The license for this documentation.
420 * Index:: Variable, function and concept index.
421 * Key Index:: Key Index.
423 Other related manuals
425 * Message:(message). Composing messages.
426 * Emacs-MIME:(emacs-mime). Composing messages; @acronym{MIME}-specific parts.
427 * Sieve:(sieve). Managing Sieve scripts in Emacs.
428 * EasyPG:(epa). @acronym{PGP/MIME} with Gnus.
429 * SASL:(sasl). @acronym{SASL} authentication in Emacs.
432 --- The Detailed Node Listing ---
436 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
437 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
438 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
439 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
440 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
441 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
442 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
443 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
444 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
445 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
449 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
450 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
451 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
455 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
456 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
457 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
458 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
459 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
460 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
461 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
462 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
463 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
464 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
465 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
466 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
467 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
468 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
469 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
470 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
471 * Non-ASCII Group Names:: Accessing groups of non-English names.
472 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
476 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
477 * Group Mode Line Specification:: The group buffer mode line.
478 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
482 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
483 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
484 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
485 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
486 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
490 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
491 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
492 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
493 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
494 * Sieve Commands:: Managing Sieve scripts.
498 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
499 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
500 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
501 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
502 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
503 * Delayed Articles:: Send articles at a later time.
504 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
505 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
506 * Threading:: How threads are made.
507 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
508 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
509 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
510 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
511 * Sticky Articles:: Article buffers that are not reused.
512 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
513 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
514 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
515 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
516 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
517 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
518 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
519 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
520 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
521 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
522 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
523 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
524 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
525 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
526 or reselecting the current group.
527 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
528 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
529 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
530 * Mailing List:: Mailing list minor mode.
532 Summary Buffer Format
534 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
535 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
536 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
537 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
541 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
542 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
544 Reply, Followup and Post
546 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
547 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
548 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
549 * Canceling and Superseding::
553 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
554 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
555 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
556 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
557 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
558 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
562 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
563 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
565 Customizing Threading
567 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
568 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
569 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
570 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over@dots{} but you were wrong!
574 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
575 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
576 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
577 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
578 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
579 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
583 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
584 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
585 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
589 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
590 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
591 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
592 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
593 * Article Header:: Doing various header transformations.
594 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
595 * Article Button Levels:: Controlling appearance of buttons.
596 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
597 * Article Display:: Display various stuff---X-Face, Picons, Smileys, Gravatars
598 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
599 * Article Miscellanea:: Various other stuff.
601 Alternative Approaches
603 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
604 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
606 Various Summary Stuff
608 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
609 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
610 * Summary Generation Commands::
611 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
615 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
616 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @acronym{MIME} before reading them.
617 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
618 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
619 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
623 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
624 * Posting Server:: What server should you post and mail via?
625 * POP before SMTP:: You cannot send a mail unless you read a mail.
626 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
627 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
628 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
629 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
630 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
631 * Signing and encrypting:: How to compose secure messages.
635 * Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
636 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
637 * Using IMAP:: Reading mail from @acronym{IMAP}.
638 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
639 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
640 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files.
641 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
642 * Email Based Diary:: Using mails to manage diary events in Gnus.
643 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
647 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
648 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
649 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
650 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
651 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
652 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
653 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
657 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @acronym{NNTP} server.
658 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
662 * Direct Functions:: Connecting directly to the server.
663 * Indirect Functions:: Connecting indirectly to the server.
664 * Common Variables:: Understood by several connection functions.
668 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
669 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
670 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
671 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
672 * Mail Back End Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
673 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
674 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
675 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
676 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
677 * Washing Mail:: Removing cruft from the mail you get.
678 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
679 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail back ends for reading other files.
680 * Choosing a Mail Back End:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
684 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
685 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
686 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
688 Choosing a Mail Back End
690 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
691 * Babyl:: Babyl was used by older versions of Rmail.
692 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
693 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like back end.
694 * Maildir:: Another one-file-per-message format.
695 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
696 * Comparing Mail Back Ends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
701 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
702 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
703 * Customizing W3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/W3 from Gnus.
707 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
708 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
709 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
710 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
711 * The Empty Backend:: The backend that never has any news.
715 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
719 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
723 * The NNDiary Back End:: Basic setup and usage.
724 * The Gnus Diary Library:: Utility toolkit on top of nndiary.
725 * Sending or Not Sending:: A final note on sending diary messages.
729 * Diary Messages:: What makes a message valid for nndiary.
730 * Running NNDiary:: NNDiary has two modes of operation.
731 * Customizing NNDiary:: Bells and whistles.
733 The Gnus Diary Library
735 * Diary Summary Line Format:: A nicer summary buffer line format.
736 * Diary Articles Sorting:: A nicer way to sort messages.
737 * Diary Headers Generation:: Not doing it manually.
738 * Diary Group Parameters:: Not handling them manually.
742 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
743 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
744 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
745 * Agent Visuals:: Ways that the agent may effect your summary buffer.
746 * Agent as Cache:: The Agent is a big cache too.
747 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
748 * Agent Regeneration:: How to recover from lost connections and other accidents.
749 * Agent and flags:: How the Agent maintains flags.
750 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with @acronym{IMAP}.
751 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
752 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
753 * Example Setup:: An example @file{~/.gnus.el} file for offline people.
754 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
755 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
759 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
760 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
761 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
765 * Group Agent Commands:: Configure groups and fetch their contents.
766 * Summary Agent Commands:: Manually select then fetch specific articles.
767 * Server Agent Commands:: Select the servers that are supported by the agent.
771 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
772 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
773 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
774 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
775 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
776 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
777 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
778 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
779 * Scoring On Other Headers:: Scoring on non-standard headers.
780 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
781 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
782 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
783 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
784 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
785 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
786 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
790 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
791 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
792 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
796 * nnir:: Searching with various engines.
797 * nnmairix:: Searching with Mairix.
801 * What is nnir?:: What does nnir do.
802 * Basic Usage:: How to perform simple searches.
803 * Setting up nnir:: How to set up nnir.
807 * Associating Engines:: How to associate engines.
811 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
812 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
813 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
814 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
815 * Window Layout:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
816 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
817 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
818 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
819 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
820 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
821 * Predicate Specifiers:: Specifying predicates.
822 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
823 * Image Enhancements:: Modern versions of Emacs/XEmacs can display images.
824 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
825 * Thwarting Email Spam:: Simple ways to avoid unsolicited commercial email.
826 * Spam Package:: A package for filtering and processing spam.
827 * The Gnus Registry:: A package for tracking messages by Message-ID.
828 * Other modes:: Interaction with other modes.
829 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
833 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
834 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
835 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
836 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
837 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
838 * Positioning Point:: Moving point to a position after an operation.
839 * Tabulation:: Tabulating your output.
840 * Wide Characters:: Dealing with wide characters.
844 * X-Face:: Display a funky, teensy black-and-white image.
845 * Face:: Display a funkier, teensier colored image.
846 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were
848 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what you're reading.
849 * Gravatars:: Display the avatar of people you read.
850 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
854 * The problem of spam:: Some background, and some solutions
855 * Anti-Spam Basics:: Simple steps to reduce the amount of spam.
856 * SpamAssassin:: How to use external anti-spam tools.
857 * Hashcash:: Reduce spam by burning CPU time.
861 * Spam Package Introduction::
862 * Filtering Incoming Mail::
863 * Detecting Spam in Groups::
864 * Spam and Ham Processors::
865 * Spam Package Configuration Examples::
867 * Extending the Spam package::
868 * Spam Statistics Package::
870 Spam Statistics Package
872 * Creating a spam-stat dictionary::
873 * Splitting mail using spam-stat::
874 * Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary::
878 * XEmacs:: Requirements for installing under XEmacs.
879 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
880 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
881 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
882 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
883 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
884 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
885 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
886 * Frequently Asked Questions:: The Gnus FAQ
890 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
891 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
892 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
893 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
894 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
895 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
896 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
897 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
901 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
902 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
903 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
904 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
905 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
906 * Oort Gnus:: It's big. It's far out. Gnus 5.10/5.11.
907 * No Gnus:: Very punny. Gnus 5.12/5.13
908 * Ma Gnus:: Celebrating 25 years of Gnus.
912 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
913 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
914 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
915 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
919 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
920 * Back End Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
921 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
922 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
923 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
924 * Group Info:: The group info format.
925 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
926 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
927 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
931 * Required Back End Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
932 * Optional Back End Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
933 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
934 * Writing New Back Ends:: Extending old back ends.
935 * Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
936 * Mail-like Back Ends:: Some tips on mail back ends.
940 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
941 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
945 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
946 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
952 @chapter Starting Gnus
955 If you haven't used Emacs much before using Gnus, read @ref{Emacs for
960 If your system administrator has set things up properly, starting Gnus
961 and reading news is extremely easy---you just type @kbd{M-x gnus} in
962 your Emacs. If not, you should customize the variable
963 @code{gnus-select-method} as described in @ref{Finding the News}. For a
964 minimal setup for posting should also customize the variables
965 @code{user-full-name} and @code{user-mail-address}.
967 @findex gnus-other-frame
968 @kindex M-x gnus-other-frame
969 If you want to start Gnus in a different frame, you can use the command
970 @kbd{M-x gnus-other-frame} instead.
972 If things do not go smoothly at startup, you have to twiddle some
973 variables in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file. This file is similar to
974 @file{~/.emacs}, but is read when Gnus starts.
976 If you puzzle at any terms used in this manual, please refer to the
977 terminology section (@pxref{Terminology}).
980 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
981 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
982 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
983 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
984 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
985 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
986 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
987 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
988 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
992 @node Finding the News
993 @section Finding the News
996 First of all, you should know that there is a special buffer called
997 @code{*Server*} that lists all the servers Gnus knows about. You can
998 press @kbd{^} from the Group buffer to see it. In the Server buffer,
999 you can press @kbd{RET} on a defined server to see all the groups it
1000 serves (subscribed or not!). You can also add or delete servers, edit
1001 a foreign server's definition, agentize or de-agentize a server, and
1002 do many other neat things. @xref{Server Buffer}.
1003 @xref{Foreign Groups}. @xref{Agent Basics}.
1005 @vindex gnus-select-method
1007 The @code{gnus-select-method} variable says where Gnus should look for
1008 news. This variable should be a list where the first element says
1009 @dfn{how} and the second element says @dfn{where}. This method is your
1010 native method. All groups not fetched with this method are
1011 secondary or foreign groups.
1013 For instance, if the @samp{news.somewhere.edu} @acronym{NNTP} server is where
1014 you want to get your daily dosage of news from, you'd say:
1017 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"))
1020 If you want to read directly from the local spool, say:
1023 (setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool ""))
1026 If you can use a local spool, you probably should, as it will almost
1027 certainly be much faster. But do not use the local spool if your
1028 server is running Leafnode (which is a simple, standalone private news
1029 server); in this case, use @code{(nntp "localhost")}.
1031 @vindex gnus-nntpserver-file
1033 @cindex @acronym{NNTP} server
1034 If this variable is not set, Gnus will take a look at the
1035 @env{NNTPSERVER} environment variable. If that variable isn't set,
1036 Gnus will see whether @code{gnus-nntpserver-file}
1037 (@file{/etc/nntpserver} by default) has any opinions on the matter.
1038 If that fails as well, Gnus will try to use the machine running Emacs
1039 as an @acronym{NNTP} server. That's a long shot, though.
1041 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
1043 However, if you use one @acronym{NNTP} server regularly and are just
1044 interested in a couple of groups from a different server, you would be
1045 better served by using the @kbd{B} command in the group buffer. It will
1046 let you have a look at what groups are available, and you can subscribe
1047 to any of the groups you want to. This also makes @file{.newsrc}
1048 maintenance much tidier. @xref{Foreign Groups}.
1050 @vindex gnus-secondary-select-methods
1052 A slightly different approach to foreign groups is to set the
1053 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} variable. The select methods
1054 listed in this variable are in many ways just as native as the
1055 @code{gnus-select-method} server. They will also be queried for active
1056 files during startup (if that's required), and new newsgroups that
1057 appear on these servers will be subscribed (or not) just as native
1060 For instance, if you use the @code{nnmbox} back end to read your mail,
1061 you would typically set this variable to
1064 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnmbox "")))
1069 @node The Server is Down
1070 @section The Server is Down
1071 @cindex server errors
1073 If the default server is down, Gnus will understandably have some
1074 problems starting. However, if you have some mail groups in addition to
1075 the news groups, you may want to start Gnus anyway.
1077 Gnus, being the trusting sort of program, will ask whether to proceed
1078 without a native select method if that server can't be contacted. This
1079 will happen whether the server doesn't actually exist (i.e., you have
1080 given the wrong address) or the server has just momentarily taken ill
1081 for some reason or other. If you decide to continue and have no foreign
1082 groups, you'll find it difficult to actually do anything in the group
1083 buffer. But, hey, that's your problem. Blllrph!
1085 @findex gnus-no-server
1086 @kindex M-x gnus-no-server
1088 If you know that the server is definitely down, or you just want to read
1089 your mail without bothering with the server at all, you can use the
1090 @code{gnus-no-server} command to start Gnus. That might come in handy
1091 if you're in a hurry as well. This command will not attempt to contact
1092 your primary server---instead, it will just activate all groups on level
1093 1 and 2. (You should preferably keep no native groups on those two
1094 levels.) Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
1098 @section Slave Gnusae
1101 You might want to run more than one Emacs with more than one Gnus at the
1102 same time. If you are using different @file{.newsrc} files (e.g., if you
1103 are using the two different Gnusae to read from two different servers),
1104 that is no problem whatsoever. You just do it.
1106 The problem appears when you want to run two Gnusae that use the same
1107 @file{.newsrc} file.
1109 To work around that problem some, we here at the Think-Tank at the Gnus
1110 Towers have come up with a new concept: @dfn{Masters} and
1111 @dfn{slaves}. (We have applied for a patent on this concept, and have
1112 taken out a copyright on those words. If you wish to use those words in
1113 conjunction with each other, you have to send $1 per usage instance to
1114 me. Usage of the patent (@dfn{Master/Slave Relationships In Computer
1115 Applications}) will be much more expensive, of course.)
1118 Anyway, you start one Gnus up the normal way with @kbd{M-x gnus} (or
1119 however you do it). Each subsequent slave Gnusae should be started with
1120 @kbd{M-x gnus-slave}. These slaves won't save normal @file{.newsrc}
1121 files, but instead save @dfn{slave files} that contain information only
1122 on what groups have been read in the slave session. When a master Gnus
1123 starts, it will read (and delete) these slave files, incorporating all
1124 information from them. (The slave files will be read in the sequence
1125 they were created, so the latest changes will have precedence.)
1127 Information from the slave files has, of course, precedence over the
1128 information in the normal (i.e., master) @file{.newsrc} file.
1130 If the @file{.newsrc*} files have not been saved in the master when the
1131 slave starts, you may be prompted as to whether to read an auto-save
1132 file. If you answer ``yes'', the unsaved changes to the master will be
1133 incorporated into the slave. If you answer ``no'', the slave may see some
1134 messages as unread that have been read in the master.
1141 @cindex subscription
1143 @vindex gnus-check-new-newsgroups
1144 If you are satisfied that you really never want to see any new groups,
1145 you can set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil}. This will
1146 also save you some time at startup. Even if this variable is
1147 @code{nil}, you can always subscribe to the new groups just by pressing
1148 @kbd{U} in the group buffer (@pxref{Group Maintenance}). This variable
1149 is @code{ask-server} by default. If you set this variable to
1150 @code{always}, then Gnus will query the back ends for new groups even
1151 when you do the @kbd{g} command (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
1154 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
1155 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
1156 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
1160 @node Checking New Groups
1161 @subsection Checking New Groups
1163 Gnus normally determines whether a group is new or not by comparing
1164 the list of groups from the active file(s) with the lists of
1165 subscribed and dead groups. This isn't a particularly fast method.
1166 If @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} is @code{ask-server}, Gnus will
1167 ask the server for new groups since the last time. This is both
1168 faster and cheaper. This also means that you can get rid of the list
1169 of killed groups (@pxref{Group Levels}) altogether, so you may set
1170 @code{gnus-save-killed-list} to @code{nil}, which will save time both
1171 at startup, at exit, and all over. Saves disk space, too. Why isn't
1172 this the default, then? Unfortunately, not all servers support this
1175 I bet I know what you're thinking now: How do I find out whether my
1176 server supports @code{ask-server}? No? Good, because I don't have a
1177 fail-safe answer. I would suggest just setting this variable to
1178 @code{ask-server} and see whether any new groups appear within the next
1179 few days. If any do, then it works. If none do, then it doesn't
1180 work. I could write a function to make Gnus guess whether the server
1181 supports @code{ask-server}, but it would just be a guess. So I won't.
1182 You could @code{telnet} to the server and say @code{HELP} and see
1183 whether it lists @samp{NEWGROUPS} among the commands it understands. If
1184 it does, then it might work. (But there are servers that lists
1185 @samp{NEWGROUPS} without supporting the function properly.)
1187 This variable can also be a list of select methods. If so, Gnus will
1188 issue an @code{ask-server} command to each of the select methods, and
1189 subscribe them (or not) using the normal methods. This might be handy
1190 if you are monitoring a few servers for new groups. A side effect is
1191 that startup will take much longer, so you can meditate while waiting.
1192 Use the mantra ``dingnusdingnusdingnus'' to achieve permanent bliss.
1195 @node Subscription Methods
1196 @subsection Subscription Methods
1198 @vindex gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method
1199 What Gnus does when it encounters a new group is determined by the
1200 @code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} variable.
1202 This variable should contain a function. This function will be called
1203 with the name of the new group as the only parameter.
1205 Some handy pre-fab functions are:
1209 @item gnus-subscribe-zombies
1210 @vindex gnus-subscribe-zombies
1211 Make all new groups zombies (@pxref{Group Levels}). This is the
1212 default. You can browse the zombies later (with @kbd{A z}) and either
1213 kill them all off properly (with @kbd{S z}), or subscribe to them
1216 @item gnus-subscribe-randomly
1217 @vindex gnus-subscribe-randomly
1218 Subscribe all new groups in arbitrary order. This really means that all
1219 new groups will be added at ``the top'' of the group buffer.
1221 @item gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1222 @vindex gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1223 Subscribe all new groups in alphabetical order.
1225 @item gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1226 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1227 Subscribe all new groups hierarchically. The difference between this
1228 function and @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} is slight.
1229 @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} will subscribe new groups in a strictly
1230 alphabetical fashion, while this function will enter groups into its
1231 hierarchy. So if you want to have the @samp{rec} hierarchy before the
1232 @samp{comp} hierarchy, this function will not mess that configuration
1233 up. Or something like that.
1235 @item gnus-subscribe-interactively
1236 @vindex gnus-subscribe-interactively
1237 Subscribe new groups interactively. This means that Gnus will ask
1238 you about @strong{all} new groups. The groups you choose to subscribe
1239 to will be subscribed hierarchically.
1241 @item gnus-subscribe-killed
1242 @vindex gnus-subscribe-killed
1243 Kill all new groups.
1245 @item gnus-subscribe-topics
1246 @vindex gnus-subscribe-topics
1247 Put the groups into the topic that has a matching @code{subscribe} topic
1248 parameter (@pxref{Topic Parameters}). For instance, a @code{subscribe}
1249 topic parameter that looks like
1255 will mean that all groups that match that regex will be subscribed under
1258 If no topics match the groups, the groups will be subscribed in the
1263 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive
1264 A closely related variable is
1265 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. (That's quite a
1266 mouthful.) If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will ask you in a
1267 hierarchical fashion whether to subscribe to new groups or not. Gnus
1268 will ask you for each sub-hierarchy whether you want to descend the
1271 One common mistake is to set the variable a few paragraphs above
1272 (@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method}) to
1273 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. This is an error. This
1274 will not work. This is ga-ga. So don't do it.
1277 @node Filtering New Groups
1278 @subsection Filtering New Groups
1280 A nice and portable way to control which new newsgroups should be
1281 subscribed (or ignored) is to put an @dfn{options} line at the start of
1282 the @file{.newsrc} file. Here's an example:
1285 options -n !alt.all !rec.all sci.all
1288 @vindex gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method
1289 This line obviously belongs to a serious-minded intellectual scientific
1290 person (or she may just be plain old boring), because it says that all
1291 groups that have names beginning with @samp{alt} and @samp{rec} should
1292 be ignored, and all groups with names beginning with @samp{sci} should
1293 be subscribed. Gnus will not use the normal subscription method for
1294 subscribing these groups.
1295 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method} is used instead. This
1296 variable defaults to @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically}.
1298 The ``options -n'' format is very simplistic. The syntax above is all
1299 that is supports: you can force-subscribe hierarchies, or you can
1300 deny hierarchies, and that's it.
1302 @vindex gnus-options-not-subscribe
1303 @vindex gnus-options-subscribe
1304 If you don't want to mess with your @file{.newsrc} file, you can just
1305 set the two variables @code{gnus-options-subscribe} and
1306 @code{gnus-options-not-subscribe}. These two variables do exactly the
1307 same as the @file{.newsrc} @samp{options -n} trick. Both are regexps,
1308 and if the new group matches the former, it will be unconditionally
1309 subscribed, and if it matches the latter, it will be ignored.
1311 @vindex gnus-auto-subscribed-groups
1312 Yet another variable that meddles here is
1313 @code{gnus-auto-subscribed-groups}. It works exactly like
1314 @code{gnus-options-subscribe}, and is therefore really superfluous,
1315 but I thought it would be nice to have two of these. This variable is
1316 more meant for setting some ground rules, while the other variable is
1317 used more for user fiddling. By default this variable makes all new
1318 groups that come from mail back ends (@code{nnml}, @code{nnbabyl},
1319 @code{nnfolder}, @code{nnmbox}, @code{nnmh}, @code{nnimap}, and
1320 @code{nnmaildir}) subscribed. If you don't like that, just set this
1321 variable to @code{nil}.
1323 @vindex gnus-auto-subscribed-categories
1324 As if that wasn't enough, @code{gnus-auto-subscribed-categories} also
1325 allows you to specify that new groups should be subscribed based on the
1326 category their select methods belong to. The default is @samp{(mail
1327 post-mail)}, meaning that all new groups from mail-like backends
1328 should be subscribed automatically.
1330 New groups that match these variables are subscribed using
1331 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method}.
1334 @node Changing Servers
1335 @section Changing Servers
1336 @cindex changing servers
1338 Sometimes it is necessary to move from one @acronym{NNTP} server to another.
1339 This happens very rarely, but perhaps you change jobs, or one server is
1340 very flaky and you want to use another.
1342 Changing the server is pretty easy, right? You just change
1343 @code{gnus-select-method} to point to the new server?
1347 Article numbers are not (in any way) kept synchronized between different
1348 @acronym{NNTP} servers, and the only way Gnus keeps track of what articles
1349 you have read is by keeping track of article numbers. So when you
1350 change @code{gnus-select-method}, your @file{.newsrc} file becomes
1353 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1354 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1355 You can use the @kbd{M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups}
1356 command to clear out all data that you have on your native groups.
1359 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data
1360 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
1361 Clear the data from the current group only---nix out marks and the
1362 list of read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
1364 After changing servers, you @strong{must} move the cache hierarchy away,
1365 since the cached articles will have wrong article numbers, which will
1366 affect which articles Gnus thinks are read.
1367 @code{gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups} will ask you if you want
1368 to have it done automatically; for @code{gnus-group-clear-data}, you
1369 can use @kbd{M-x gnus-cache-move-cache} (but beware, it will move the
1370 cache for all groups).
1374 @section Startup Files
1375 @cindex startup files
1380 Most common Unix news readers use a shared startup file called
1381 @file{.newsrc}. This file contains all the information about what
1382 groups are subscribed, and which articles in these groups have been
1385 Things got a bit more complicated with @sc{gnus}. In addition to
1386 keeping the @file{.newsrc} file updated, it also used a file called
1387 @file{.newsrc.el} for storing all the information that didn't fit into
1388 the @file{.newsrc} file. (Actually, it also duplicated everything in
1389 the @file{.newsrc} file.) @sc{gnus} would read whichever one of these
1390 files was the most recently saved, which enabled people to swap between
1391 @sc{gnus} and other newsreaders.
1393 That was kinda silly, so Gnus went one better: In addition to the
1394 @file{.newsrc} and @file{.newsrc.el} files, Gnus also has a file called
1395 @file{.newsrc.eld}. It will read whichever of these files that are most
1396 recent, but it will never write a @file{.newsrc.el} file. You should
1397 never delete the @file{.newsrc.eld} file---it contains much information
1398 not stored in the @file{.newsrc} file.
1400 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-file
1401 @vindex gnus-read-newsrc-file
1402 You can turn off writing the @file{.newsrc} file by setting
1403 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-file} to @code{nil}, which means you can delete
1404 the file and save some space, as well as exiting from Gnus faster.
1405 However, this will make it impossible to use other newsreaders than
1406 Gnus. But hey, who would want to, right? Similarly, setting
1407 @code{gnus-read-newsrc-file} to @code{nil} makes Gnus ignore the
1408 @file{.newsrc} file and any @file{.newsrc-SERVER} files, which can be
1409 convenient if you use a different news reader occasionally, and you
1410 want to read a different subset of the available groups with that
1413 @vindex gnus-save-killed-list
1414 If @code{gnus-save-killed-list} (default @code{t}) is @code{nil}, Gnus
1415 will not save the list of killed groups to the startup file. This will
1416 save both time (when starting and quitting) and space (on disk). It
1417 will also mean that Gnus has no record of what groups are new or old,
1418 so the automatic new groups subscription methods become meaningless.
1419 You should always set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil} or
1420 @code{ask-server} if you set this variable to @code{nil} (@pxref{New
1421 Groups}). This variable can also be a regular expression. If that's
1422 the case, remove all groups that do not match this regexp before
1423 saving. This can be useful in certain obscure situations that involve
1424 several servers where not all servers support @code{ask-server}.
1426 @vindex gnus-startup-file
1427 @vindex gnus-backup-startup-file
1428 @vindex version-control
1429 The @code{gnus-startup-file} variable says where the startup files are.
1430 The default value is @file{~/.newsrc}, with the Gnus (El Dingo) startup
1431 file being whatever that one is, with a @samp{.eld} appended.
1432 If you want to keep multiple numbered backups of this file, set
1433 @code{gnus-backup-startup-file}. It respects the same values as the
1434 @code{version-control} variable.
1436 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-hook
1437 @vindex gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook
1438 @vindex gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook
1439 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-hook} is called before saving any of the newsrc
1440 files, while @code{gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook} is called just before
1441 saving the @file{.newsrc.eld} file, and
1442 @code{gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook} is called just before saving the
1443 @file{.newsrc} file. The latter two are commonly used to turn version
1444 control on or off. Version control is on by default when saving the
1445 startup files. If you want to turn backup creation off, say something like:
1448 (defun turn-off-backup ()
1449 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
1451 (add-hook 'gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1452 (add-hook 'gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1455 @vindex gnus-init-file
1456 @vindex gnus-site-init-file
1457 When Gnus starts, it will read the @code{gnus-site-init-file}
1458 (@file{.../site-lisp/gnus-init} by default) and @code{gnus-init-file}
1459 (@file{~/.gnus} by default) files. These are normal Emacs Lisp files
1460 and can be used to avoid cluttering your @file{~/.emacs} and
1461 @file{site-init} files with Gnus stuff. Gnus will also check for files
1462 with the same names as these, but with @file{.elc} and @file{.el}
1463 suffixes. In other words, if you have set @code{gnus-init-file} to
1464 @file{~/.gnus}, it will look for @file{~/.gnus.elc}, @file{~/.gnus.el},
1465 and finally @file{~/.gnus} (in this order). If Emacs was invoked with
1466 the @option{-q} or @option{--no-init-file} options (@pxref{Initial
1467 Options, ,Initial Options, emacs, The Emacs Manual}), Gnus doesn't read
1468 @code{gnus-init-file}.
1473 @cindex dribble file
1476 Whenever you do something that changes the Gnus data (reading articles,
1477 catching up, killing/subscribing groups), the change is added to a
1478 special @dfn{dribble buffer}. This buffer is auto-saved the normal
1479 Emacs way. If your Emacs should crash before you have saved the
1480 @file{.newsrc} files, all changes you have made can be recovered from
1483 If Gnus detects this file at startup, it will ask the user whether to
1484 read it. The auto save file is deleted whenever the real startup file is
1487 @vindex gnus-use-dribble-file
1488 If @code{gnus-use-dribble-file} is @code{nil}, Gnus won't create and
1489 maintain a dribble buffer. The default is @code{t}.
1491 @vindex gnus-dribble-directory
1492 Gnus will put the dribble file(s) in @code{gnus-dribble-directory}. If
1493 this variable is @code{nil}, which it is by default, Gnus will dribble
1494 into the directory where the @file{.newsrc} file is located. (This is
1495 normally the user's home directory.) The dribble file will get the same
1496 file permissions as the @file{.newsrc} file.
1498 @vindex gnus-always-read-dribble-file
1499 If @code{gnus-always-read-dribble-file} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will
1500 read the dribble file on startup without querying the user.
1503 @node The Active File
1504 @section The Active File
1506 @cindex ignored groups
1508 When Gnus starts, or indeed whenever it tries to determine whether new
1509 articles have arrived, it reads the active file. This is a very large
1510 file that lists all the active groups and articles on the server.
1512 @vindex gnus-ignored-newsgroups
1513 Before examining the active file, Gnus deletes all lines that match the
1514 regexp @code{gnus-ignored-newsgroups}. This is done primarily to reject
1515 any groups with bogus names, but you can use this variable to make Gnus
1516 ignore hierarchies you aren't ever interested in. However, this is not
1517 recommended. In fact, it's highly discouraged. Instead, @pxref{New
1518 Groups} for an overview of other variables that can be used instead.
1521 @c @code{nil} by default, and will slow down active file handling somewhat
1522 @c if you set it to anything else.
1524 @vindex gnus-read-active-file
1526 The active file can be rather Huge, so if you have a slow network, you
1527 can set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{nil} to prevent Gnus from
1528 reading the active file. This variable is @code{some} by default.
1530 Gnus will try to make do by getting information just on the groups that
1531 you actually subscribe to.
1533 Note that if you subscribe to lots and lots of groups, setting this
1534 variable to @code{nil} will probably make Gnus slower, not faster. At
1535 present, having this variable @code{nil} will slow Gnus down
1536 considerably, unless you read news over a 2400 baud modem.
1538 This variable can also have the value @code{some}. Gnus will then
1539 attempt to read active info only on the subscribed groups. On some
1540 servers this is quite fast (on sparkling, brand new INN servers that
1541 support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command), on others this isn't fast
1542 at all. In any case, @code{some} should be faster than @code{nil}, and
1543 is certainly faster than @code{t} over slow lines.
1545 Some news servers (old versions of Leafnode and old versions of INN, for
1546 instance) do not support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group}. For these
1547 servers, @code{nil} is probably the most efficient value for this
1550 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will ask for group info in total
1551 lock-step, which isn't very fast. If it is @code{some} and you use an
1552 @acronym{NNTP} server, Gnus will pump out commands as fast as it can, and
1553 read all the replies in one swoop. This will normally result in better
1554 performance, but if the server does not support the aforementioned
1555 @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command, this isn't very nice to the server.
1557 If you think that starting up Gnus takes too long, try all the three
1558 different values for this variable and see what works best for you.
1560 In any case, if you use @code{some} or @code{nil}, you should definitely
1561 kill all groups that you aren't interested in to speed things up.
1563 Note that this variable also affects active file retrieval from
1564 secondary select methods.
1567 @node Startup Variables
1568 @section Startup Variables
1572 @item gnus-load-hook
1573 @vindex gnus-load-hook
1574 A hook run while Gnus is being loaded. Note that this hook will
1575 normally be run just once in each Emacs session, no matter how many
1576 times you start Gnus.
1578 @item gnus-before-startup-hook
1579 @vindex gnus-before-startup-hook
1580 A hook called as the first thing when Gnus is started.
1582 @item gnus-before-resume-hook
1583 @vindex gnus-before-resume-hook
1584 A hook called as the first thing when Gnus is resumed after a suspend.
1586 @item gnus-startup-hook
1587 @vindex gnus-startup-hook
1588 A hook run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1590 @item gnus-started-hook
1591 @vindex gnus-started-hook
1592 A hook that is run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1595 @item gnus-setup-news-hook
1596 @vindex gnus-setup-news-hook
1597 A hook that is run after reading the @file{.newsrc} file(s), but before
1598 generating the group buffer.
1600 @item gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1601 @vindex gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1602 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will check for and delete all bogus groups at
1603 startup. A @dfn{bogus group} is a group that you have in your
1604 @file{.newsrc} file, but doesn't exist on the news server. Checking for
1605 bogus groups can take quite a while, so to save time and resources it's
1606 best to leave this option off, and do the checking for bogus groups once
1607 in a while from the group buffer instead (@pxref{Group Maintenance}).
1609 @item gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1610 @vindex gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1611 If non-@code{nil}, the startup message won't be displayed. That way,
1612 your boss might not notice as easily that you are reading news instead
1613 of doing your job. Note that this variable is used before
1614 @file{~/.gnus.el} is loaded, so it should be set in @file{.emacs} instead.
1616 @item gnus-no-groups-message
1617 @vindex gnus-no-groups-message
1618 Message displayed by Gnus when no groups are available.
1620 @item gnus-use-backend-marks
1621 @vindex gnus-use-backend-marks
1622 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will store article marks both in the
1623 @file{.newsrc.eld} file and in the backends. This will slow down
1624 group operation some.
1630 @chapter Group Buffer
1631 @cindex group buffer
1633 @c Alex Schroeder suggests to rearrange this as follows:
1635 @c <kensanata> ok, just save it for reference. I'll go to bed in a minute.
1636 @c 1. Selecting a Group, 2. (new) Finding a Group, 3. Group Levels,
1637 @c 4. Subscription Commands, 5. Group Maneuvering, 6. Group Data,
1638 @c 7. Group Score, 8. Group Buffer Format
1639 @c <kensanata> Group Levels should have more information on levels 5 to 9. I
1640 @c suggest to split the 4th paragraph ("Gnus considers groups...") as follows:
1641 @c <kensanata> First, "Gnus considers groups... (default 9)."
1642 @c <kensanata> New, a table summarizing what levels 1 to 9 mean.
1643 @c <kensanata> Third, "Gnus treats subscribed ... reasons of efficiency"
1644 @c <kensanata> Then expand the next paragraph or add some more to it.
1645 @c This short one sentence explains levels 1 and 2, therefore I understand
1646 @c that I should keep important news at 3 and boring news at 4.
1647 @c Say so! Then go on to explain why I should bother with levels 6 to 9.
1648 @c Maybe keep those that you don't want to read temporarily at 6,
1649 @c those that you never want to read at 8, those that offend your
1650 @c human rights at 9...
1653 The @dfn{group buffer} lists all (or parts) of the available groups. It
1654 is the first buffer shown when Gnus starts, and will never be killed as
1655 long as Gnus is active.
1659 \gnusfigure{The Group Buffer}{320}{
1660 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=ps/group,height=9cm}}
1661 \put(120,37){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Buffer name}}
1662 \put(120,38){\vector(1,2){10}}
1663 \put(40,60){\makebox(0,0)[r]{Mode line}}
1664 \put(40,58){\vector(1,0){30}}
1665 \put(200,28){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Native select method}}
1666 \put(200,26){\vector(-1,2){15}}
1672 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
1673 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
1674 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
1675 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
1676 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
1677 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
1678 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
1679 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
1680 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
1681 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
1682 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
1683 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
1684 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
1685 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
1686 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
1687 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
1688 * Non-ASCII Group Names:: Accessing groups of non-English names.
1689 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
1693 @node Group Buffer Format
1694 @section Group Buffer Format
1697 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
1698 * Group Mode Line Specification:: The group buffer mode line.
1699 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
1702 You can customize the Group Mode tool bar, see @kbd{M-x
1703 customize-apropos RET gnus-group-tool-bar}. This feature is only
1706 The tool bar icons are now (de)activated correctly depending on the
1707 cursor position. Therefore, moving around in the Group Buffer is
1708 slower. You can disable this via the variable
1709 @code{gnus-group-update-tool-bar}. Its default value depends on your
1712 @node Group Line Specification
1713 @subsection Group Line Specification
1714 @cindex group buffer format
1716 The default format of the group buffer is nice and dull, but you can
1717 make it as exciting and ugly as you feel like.
1719 Here's a couple of example group lines:
1722 25: news.announce.newusers
1723 * 0: alt.fan.andrea-dworkin
1728 You can see that there are 25 unread articles in
1729 @samp{news.announce.newusers}. There are no unread articles, but some
1730 ticked articles, in @samp{alt.fan.andrea-dworkin} (see that little
1731 asterisk at the beginning of the line?).
1733 @vindex gnus-group-line-format
1734 You can change that format to whatever you want by fiddling with the
1735 @code{gnus-group-line-format} variable. This variable works along the
1736 lines of a @code{format} specification, which is pretty much the same as
1737 a @code{printf} specifications, for those of you who use (feh!) C@.
1738 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
1740 @samp{%M%S%5y:%B%(%g%)\n} is the value that produced those lines above.
1742 There should always be a colon on the line; the cursor always moves to
1743 the colon after performing an operation. @xref{Positioning
1744 Point}. Nothing else is required---not even the group name. All
1745 displayed text is just window dressing, and is never examined by Gnus.
1746 Gnus stores all real information it needs using text properties.
1748 (Note that if you make a really strange, wonderful, spreadsheet-like
1749 layout, everybody will believe you are hard at work with the accounting
1750 instead of wasting time reading news.)
1752 Here's a list of all available format characters:
1757 An asterisk if the group only has marked articles.
1760 Whether the group is subscribed.
1763 Level of subscribedness.
1766 Number of unread articles.
1769 Number of dormant articles.
1772 Number of ticked articles.
1775 Number of read articles.
1778 Number of unseen articles.
1781 Estimated total number of articles. (This is really @var{max-number}
1782 minus @var{min-number} plus 1.)
1784 Gnus uses this estimation because the @acronym{NNTP} protocol provides
1785 efficient access to @var{max-number} and @var{min-number} but getting
1786 the true unread message count is not possible efficiently. For
1787 hysterical raisins, even the mail back ends, where the true number of
1788 unread messages might be available efficiently, use the same limited
1789 interface. To remove this restriction from Gnus means that the back
1790 end interface has to be changed, which is not an easy job.
1792 The nnml backend (@pxref{Mail Spool}) has a feature called ``group
1793 compaction'' which circumvents this deficiency: the idea is to
1794 renumber all articles from 1, removing all gaps between numbers, hence
1795 getting a correct total count. Other backends may support this in the
1796 future. In order to keep your total article count relatively up to
1797 date, you might want to compact your groups (or even directly your
1798 server) from time to time. @xref{Misc Group Stuff}, @xref{Server Commands}.
1801 Number of unread, unticked, non-dormant articles.
1804 Number of ticked and dormant articles.
1813 Group comment (@pxref{Group Parameters}) or group name if there is no
1814 comment element in the group parameters.
1817 Newsgroup description. You need to read the group descriptions
1818 before these will appear, and to do that, you either have to set
1819 @code{gnus-read-active-file} or use the group buffer @kbd{M-d}
1823 @samp{m} if moderated.
1826 @samp{(m)} if moderated.
1832 If the summary buffer for the group is open or not.
1838 A string that looks like @samp{<%s:%n>} if a foreign select method is
1842 Indentation based on the level of the topic (@pxref{Group Topics}).
1845 @vindex gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels
1846 Short (collapsed) group name. The @code{gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels}
1847 variable says how many levels to leave at the end of the group name.
1848 The default is 1---this will mean that group names like
1849 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} will be shortened to @samp{g.e.gnus}.
1852 @vindex gnus-new-mail-mark
1854 @samp{%} (@code{gnus-new-mail-mark}) if there has arrived new mail to
1858 @samp{#} (@code{gnus-process-mark}) if the group is process marked.
1861 A string that says when you last read the group (@pxref{Group
1865 The disk space used by the articles fetched by both the cache and
1866 agent. The value is automatically scaled to bytes(B), kilobytes(K),
1867 megabytes(M), or gigabytes(G) to minimize the column width. A format
1868 of %7F is sufficient for a fixed-width column.
1871 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
1872 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
1873 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
1874 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed a single dummy
1875 parameter as argument. The function should return a string, which will
1876 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
1881 All the ``number-of'' specs will be filled with an asterisk (@samp{*})
1882 if no info is available---for instance, if it is a non-activated foreign
1883 group, or a bogus native group.
1886 @node Group Mode Line Specification
1887 @subsection Group Mode Line Specification
1888 @cindex group mode line
1890 @vindex gnus-group-mode-line-format
1891 The mode line can be changed by setting
1892 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}). It
1893 doesn't understand that many format specifiers:
1897 The native news server.
1899 The native select method.
1903 @node Group Highlighting
1904 @subsection Group Highlighting
1905 @cindex highlighting
1906 @cindex group highlighting
1908 @vindex gnus-group-highlight
1909 Highlighting in the group buffer is controlled by the
1910 @code{gnus-group-highlight} variable. This is an alist with elements
1911 that look like @code{(@var{form} . @var{face})}. If @var{form} evaluates to
1912 something non-@code{nil}, the @var{face} will be used on the line.
1914 Here's an example value for this variable that might look nice if the
1918 (cond (window-system
1919 (setq custom-background-mode 'light)
1920 (defface my-group-face-1
1921 '((t (:foreground "Red" :bold t))) "First group face")
1922 (defface my-group-face-2
1923 '((t (:foreground "DarkSeaGreen4" :bold t)))
1924 "Second group face")
1925 (defface my-group-face-3
1926 '((t (:foreground "Green4" :bold t))) "Third group face")
1927 (defface my-group-face-4
1928 '((t (:foreground "SteelBlue" :bold t))) "Fourth group face")
1929 (defface my-group-face-5
1930 '((t (:foreground "Blue" :bold t))) "Fifth group face")))
1932 (setq gnus-group-highlight
1933 '(((> unread 200) . my-group-face-1)
1934 ((and (< level 3) (zerop unread)) . my-group-face-2)
1935 ((< level 3) . my-group-face-3)
1936 ((zerop unread) . my-group-face-4)
1937 (t . my-group-face-5)))
1940 Also @pxref{Faces and Fonts}.
1942 Variables that are dynamically bound when the forms are evaluated
1949 The number of unread articles in the group.
1953 Whether the group is a mail group.
1955 The level of the group.
1957 The score of the group.
1959 The number of ticked articles in the group.
1961 The total number of articles in the group. Or rather,
1962 @var{max-number} minus @var{min-number} plus one.
1964 When using the topic minor mode, this variable is bound to the current
1965 topic being inserted.
1968 When the forms are @code{eval}ed, point is at the beginning of the line
1969 of the group in question, so you can use many of the normal Gnus
1970 functions for snarfing info on the group.
1972 @vindex gnus-group-update-hook
1973 @findex gnus-group-highlight-line
1974 @code{gnus-group-update-hook} is called when a group line is changed.
1975 It will not be called when @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
1978 @node Group Maneuvering
1979 @section Group Maneuvering
1980 @cindex group movement
1982 All movement commands understand the numeric prefix and will behave as
1983 expected, hopefully.
1989 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group
1990 Go to the next group that has unread articles
1991 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group}).
1997 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group
1998 Go to the previous group that has unread articles
1999 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group}).
2003 @findex gnus-group-next-group
2004 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
2008 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
2009 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
2013 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level
2014 Go to the next unread group on the same (or lower) level
2015 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level}).
2019 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level
2020 Go to the previous unread group on the same (or lower) level
2021 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level}).
2024 Three commands for jumping to groups:
2030 @findex gnus-group-jump-to-group
2031 Jump to a group (and make it visible if it isn't already)
2032 (@code{gnus-group-jump-to-group}). Killed groups can be jumped to, just
2037 @findex gnus-group-best-unread-group
2038 Jump to the unread group with the lowest level
2039 (@code{gnus-group-best-unread-group}).
2043 @findex gnus-group-first-unread-group
2044 Jump to the first group with unread articles
2045 (@code{gnus-group-first-unread-group}).
2048 @vindex gnus-group-goto-unread
2049 If @code{gnus-group-goto-unread} is @code{nil}, all the movement
2050 commands will move to the next group, not the next unread group. Even
2051 the commands that say they move to the next unread group. The default
2054 @vindex gnus-summary-next-group-on-exit
2055 If @code{gnus-summary-next-group-on-exit} is @code{t}, when a summary is
2056 exited, the point in the group buffer is moved to the next unread group.
2057 Otherwise, the point is set to the group just exited. The default is
2060 @node Selecting a Group
2061 @section Selecting a Group
2062 @cindex group selection
2067 @kindex SPACE (Group)
2068 @findex gnus-group-read-group
2069 Select the current group, switch to the summary buffer and display the
2070 first unread article (@code{gnus-group-read-group}). If there are no
2071 unread articles in the group, or if you give a non-numerical prefix to
2072 this command, Gnus will offer to fetch all the old articles in this
2073 group from the server. If you give a numerical prefix @var{n}, @var{n}
2074 determines the number of articles Gnus will fetch. If @var{n} is
2075 positive, Gnus fetches the @var{n} newest articles, if @var{n} is
2076 negative, Gnus fetches the @code{abs(@var{n})} oldest articles.
2078 Thus, @kbd{SPC} enters the group normally, @kbd{C-u SPC} offers old
2079 articles, @kbd{C-u 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 newest articles, and @kbd{C-u
2080 - 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 oldest ones.
2082 When you are in the group (in the Summary buffer), you can type
2083 @kbd{M-g} to fetch new articles, or @kbd{C-u M-g} to also show the old
2088 @findex gnus-group-select-group
2089 Select the current group and switch to the summary buffer
2090 (@code{gnus-group-select-group}). Takes the same arguments as
2091 @code{gnus-group-read-group}---the only difference is that this command
2092 does not display the first unread article automatically upon group
2096 @kindex M-RET (Group)
2097 @findex gnus-group-quick-select-group
2098 This does the same as the command above, but tries to do it with the
2099 minimum amount of fuzz (@code{gnus-group-quick-select-group}). No
2100 scoring/killing will be performed, there will be no highlights and no
2101 expunging. This might be useful if you're in a real hurry and have to
2102 enter some humongous group. If you give a 0 prefix to this command
2103 (i.e., @kbd{0 M-RET}), Gnus won't even generate the summary buffer,
2104 which is useful if you want to toggle threading before generating the
2105 summary buffer (@pxref{Summary Generation Commands}).
2108 @kindex M-SPACE (Group)
2109 @findex gnus-group-visible-select-group
2110 This is yet one more command that does the same as the @kbd{RET}
2111 command, but this one does it without expunging and hiding dormants
2112 (@code{gnus-group-visible-select-group}).
2115 @kindex C-M-RET (Group)
2116 @findex gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally
2117 Finally, this command selects the current group ephemerally without
2118 doing any processing of its contents
2119 (@code{gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally}). Even threading has been
2120 turned off. Everything you do in the group after selecting it in this
2121 manner will have no permanent effects.
2125 @vindex gnus-large-newsgroup
2126 The @code{gnus-large-newsgroup} variable says what Gnus should
2127 consider to be a big group. If it is @code{nil}, no groups are
2128 considered big. The default value is 200. If the group has more
2129 (unread and/or ticked) articles than this, Gnus will query the user
2130 before entering the group. The user can then specify how many
2131 articles should be fetched from the server. If the user specifies a
2132 negative number (@var{-n}), the @var{n} oldest articles will be
2133 fetched. If it is positive, the @var{n} articles that have arrived
2134 most recently will be fetched.
2136 @vindex gnus-large-ephemeral-newsgroup
2137 @code{gnus-large-ephemeral-newsgroup} is the same as
2138 @code{gnus-large-newsgroup}, but is only used for ephemeral
2141 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-maximum-articles
2142 In groups in some news servers, there might be a big gap between a few
2143 very old articles that will never be expired and the recent ones. In
2144 such a case, the server will return the data like @code{(1 . 30000000)}
2145 for the @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command, for example. Even if there
2146 are actually only the articles 1--10 and 29999900--30000000, Gnus doesn't
2147 know it at first and prepares for getting 30000000 articles. However,
2148 it will consume hundreds megabytes of memories and might make Emacs get
2149 stuck as the case may be. If you use such news servers, set the
2150 variable @code{gnus-newsgroup-maximum-articles} to a positive number.
2151 The value means that Gnus ignores articles other than this number of the
2152 latest ones in every group. For instance, the value 10000 makes Gnus
2153 get only the articles 29990001--30000000 (if the latest article number is
2154 30000000 in a group). Note that setting this variable to a number might
2155 prevent you from reading very old articles. The default value of the
2156 variable @code{gnus-newsgroup-maximum-articles} is @code{nil}, which
2157 means Gnus never ignores old articles.
2159 @vindex gnus-select-group-hook
2160 @vindex gnus-auto-select-first
2161 @vindex gnus-auto-select-subject
2162 If @code{gnus-auto-select-first} is non-@code{nil}, select an article
2163 automatically when entering a group with the @kbd{SPACE} command.
2164 Which article this is controlled by the
2165 @code{gnus-auto-select-subject} variable. Valid values for this
2171 Place point on the subject line of the first unread article.
2174 Place point on the subject line of the first article.
2177 Place point on the subject line of the first unseen article.
2179 @item unseen-or-unread
2180 Place point on the subject line of the first unseen article, and if
2181 there is no such article, place point on the subject line of the first
2185 Place point on the subject line of the highest-scored unread article.
2189 This variable can also be a function. In that case, that function
2190 will be called to place point on a subject line.
2192 If you want to prevent automatic selection in some group (say, in a
2193 binary group with Huge articles) you can set the
2194 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} variable to @code{nil} in
2195 @code{gnus-select-group-hook}, which is called when a group is
2199 @node Subscription Commands
2200 @section Subscription Commands
2201 @cindex subscription
2203 The following commands allow for managing your subscriptions in the
2204 Group buffer. If you want to subscribe to many groups, it's probably
2205 more convenient to go to the @ref{Server Buffer}, and choose the
2206 server there using @kbd{RET} or @kbd{SPC}. Then you'll have the
2207 commands listed in @ref{Browse Foreign Server} at hand.
2215 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group
2216 @c @icon{gnus-group-unsubscribe}
2217 Toggle subscription to the current group
2218 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group}).
2224 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-group
2225 Prompt for a group to subscribe, and then subscribe it. If it was
2226 subscribed already, unsubscribe it instead
2227 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-group}).
2233 @findex gnus-group-kill-group
2234 @c @icon{gnus-group-kill-group}
2235 Kill the current group (@code{gnus-group-kill-group}).
2241 @findex gnus-group-yank-group
2242 Yank the last killed group (@code{gnus-group-yank-group}).
2245 @kindex C-x C-t (Group)
2246 @findex gnus-group-transpose-groups
2247 Transpose two groups (@code{gnus-group-transpose-groups}). This isn't
2248 really a subscription command, but you can use it instead of a
2249 kill-and-yank sequence sometimes.
2255 @findex gnus-group-kill-region
2256 Kill all groups in the region (@code{gnus-group-kill-region}).
2260 @findex gnus-group-kill-all-zombies
2261 Kill all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-kill-all-zombies}).
2264 @kindex S C-k (Group)
2265 @findex gnus-group-kill-level
2266 Kill all groups on a certain level (@code{gnus-group-kill-level}).
2267 These groups can't be yanked back after killing, so this command should
2268 be used with some caution. The only time where this command comes in
2269 really handy is when you have a @file{.newsrc} with lots of unsubscribed
2270 groups that you want to get rid off. @kbd{S C-k} on level 7 will
2271 kill off all unsubscribed groups that do not have message numbers in the
2272 @file{.newsrc} file.
2276 Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
2286 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current
2287 @vindex gnus-group-catchup-group-hook
2288 @c @icon{gnus-group-catchup-current}
2289 Mark all unticked articles in this group as read
2290 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current}).
2291 @code{gnus-group-catchup-group-hook} is called when catching up a group from
2296 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current-all
2297 Mark all articles in this group, even the ticked ones, as read
2298 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current-all}).
2302 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
2303 Clear the data from the current group---nix out marks and the list of
2304 read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
2306 @item M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2307 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2308 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2309 If you have switched from one @acronym{NNTP} server to another, all your marks
2310 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use this command to
2311 clear out all data that you have on your native groups. Use with
2318 @section Group Levels
2322 All groups have a level of @dfn{subscribedness}. For instance, if a
2323 group is on level 2, it is more subscribed than a group on level 5. You
2324 can ask Gnus to just list groups on a given level or lower
2325 (@pxref{Listing Groups}), or to just check for new articles in groups on
2326 a given level or lower (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
2328 Remember: The higher the level of the group, the less important it is.
2334 @findex gnus-group-set-current-level
2335 Set the level of the current group. If a numeric prefix is given, the
2336 next @var{n} groups will have their levels set. The user will be
2337 prompted for a level.
2340 @vindex gnus-level-killed
2341 @vindex gnus-level-zombie
2342 @vindex gnus-level-unsubscribed
2343 @vindex gnus-level-subscribed
2344 Gnus considers groups from levels 1 to
2345 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (inclusive) (default 5) to be subscribed,
2346 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (exclusive) and
2347 @code{gnus-level-unsubscribed} (inclusive) (default 7) to be
2348 unsubscribed, @code{gnus-level-zombie} to be zombies (walking dead)
2349 (default 8) and @code{gnus-level-killed} to be killed (completely dead)
2350 (default 9). Gnus treats subscribed and unsubscribed groups exactly the
2351 same, but zombie and killed groups store no information on what articles
2352 you have read, etc. This distinction between dead and living
2353 groups isn't done because it is nice or clever, it is done purely for
2354 reasons of efficiency.
2356 It is recommended that you keep all your mail groups (if any) on quite
2357 low levels (e.g., 1 or 2).
2359 Maybe the following description of the default behavior of Gnus helps to
2360 understand what these levels are all about. By default, Gnus shows you
2361 subscribed nonempty groups, but by hitting @kbd{L} you can have it show
2362 empty subscribed groups and unsubscribed groups, too. Type @kbd{l} to
2363 go back to showing nonempty subscribed groups again. Thus, unsubscribed
2364 groups are hidden, in a way.
2366 @cindex zombie groups
2367 Zombie and killed groups are similar to unsubscribed groups in that they
2368 are hidden by default. But they are different from subscribed and
2369 unsubscribed groups in that Gnus doesn't ask the news server for
2370 information (number of messages, number of unread messages) on zombie
2371 and killed groups. Normally, you use @kbd{C-k} to kill the groups you
2372 aren't interested in. If most groups are killed, Gnus is faster.
2374 Why does Gnus distinguish between zombie and killed groups? Well, when
2375 a new group arrives on the server, Gnus by default makes it a zombie
2376 group. This means that you are normally not bothered with new groups,
2377 but you can type @kbd{A z} to get a list of all new groups. Subscribe
2378 the ones you like and kill the ones you don't want. (@kbd{A k} shows a
2379 list of killed groups.)
2381 If you want to play with the level variables, you should show some care.
2382 Set them once, and don't touch them ever again. Better yet, don't touch
2383 them at all unless you know exactly what you're doing.
2385 @vindex gnus-level-default-unsubscribed
2386 @vindex gnus-level-default-subscribed
2387 Two closely related variables are @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}
2388 (default 3) and @code{gnus-level-default-unsubscribed} (default 6),
2389 which are the levels that new groups will be put on if they are
2390 (un)subscribed. These two variables should, of course, be inside the
2391 relevant valid ranges.
2393 @vindex gnus-keep-same-level
2394 If @code{gnus-keep-same-level} is non-@code{nil}, some movement commands
2395 will only move to groups of the same level (or lower). In
2396 particular, going from the last article in one group to the next group
2397 will go to the next group of the same level (or lower). This might be
2398 handy if you want to read the most important groups before you read the
2401 If this variable is @code{best}, Gnus will make the next newsgroup the
2402 one with the best level.
2404 @vindex gnus-group-default-list-level
2405 All groups with a level less than or equal to
2406 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level} will be listed in the group buffer
2408 This variable can also be a function. In that case, that function will
2409 be called and the result will be used as value.
2412 @vindex gnus-group-list-inactive-groups
2413 If @code{gnus-group-list-inactive-groups} is non-@code{nil}, non-active
2414 groups will be listed along with the unread groups. This variable is
2415 @code{t} by default. If it is @code{nil}, inactive groups won't be
2418 @vindex gnus-group-use-permanent-levels
2419 If @code{gnus-group-use-permanent-levels} is non-@code{nil}, once you
2420 give a level prefix to @kbd{g} or @kbd{l}, all subsequent commands will
2421 use this level as the ``work'' level.
2423 @vindex gnus-activate-level
2424 Gnus will normally just activate (i.e., query the server about) groups
2425 on level @code{gnus-activate-level} or less. If you don't want to
2426 activate unsubscribed groups, for instance, you might set this variable
2427 to 5. The default is 6.
2431 @section Group Score
2436 You would normally keep important groups on high levels, but that scheme
2437 is somewhat restrictive. Don't you wish you could have Gnus sort the
2438 group buffer according to how often you read groups, perhaps? Within
2441 This is what @dfn{group score} is for. You can have Gnus assign a score
2442 to each group through the mechanism described below. You can then sort
2443 the group buffer based on this score. Alternatively, you can sort on
2444 score and then level. (Taken together, the level and the score is
2445 called the @dfn{rank} of the group. A group that is on level 4 and has
2446 a score of 1 has a higher rank than a group on level 5 that has a score
2447 of 300. (The level is the most significant part and the score is the
2448 least significant part.))
2450 @findex gnus-summary-bubble-group
2451 If you want groups you read often to get higher scores than groups you
2452 read seldom you can add the @code{gnus-summary-bubble-group} function to
2453 the @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} hook. This will result (after
2454 sorting) in a bubbling sort of action. If you want to see that in
2455 action after each summary exit, you can add
2456 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank} or
2457 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score} to the same hook, but that will
2458 slow things down somewhat.
2461 @node Marking Groups
2462 @section Marking Groups
2463 @cindex marking groups
2465 If you want to perform some command on several groups, and they appear
2466 subsequently in the group buffer, you would normally just give a
2467 numerical prefix to the command. Most group commands will then do your
2468 bidding on those groups.
2470 However, if the groups are not in sequential order, you can still
2471 perform a command on several groups. You simply mark the groups first
2472 with the process mark and then execute the command.
2480 @findex gnus-group-mark-group
2481 Set the mark on the current group (@code{gnus-group-mark-group}).
2487 @findex gnus-group-unmark-group
2488 Remove the mark from the current group
2489 (@code{gnus-group-unmark-group}).
2493 @findex gnus-group-unmark-all-groups
2494 Remove the mark from all groups (@code{gnus-group-unmark-all-groups}).
2498 @findex gnus-group-mark-region
2499 Mark all groups between point and mark (@code{gnus-group-mark-region}).
2503 @findex gnus-group-mark-buffer
2504 Mark all groups in the buffer (@code{gnus-group-mark-buffer}).
2508 @findex gnus-group-mark-regexp
2509 Mark all groups that match some regular expression
2510 (@code{gnus-group-mark-regexp}).
2513 Also @pxref{Process/Prefix}.
2515 @findex gnus-group-universal-argument
2516 If you want to execute some command on all groups that have been marked
2517 with the process mark, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
2518 (@code{gnus-group-universal-argument}) command. It will prompt you for
2519 the command to be executed.
2522 @node Foreign Groups
2523 @section Foreign Groups
2524 @cindex foreign groups
2526 If you recall how to subscribe to servers (@pxref{Finding the News})
2527 you will remember that @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} and
2528 @code{gnus-select-method} let you write a definition in Emacs Lisp of
2529 what servers you want to see when you start up. The alternate
2530 approach is to use foreign servers and groups. ``Foreign'' here means
2531 they are not coming from the select methods. All foreign server
2532 configuration and subscriptions are stored only in the
2533 @file{~/.newsrc.eld} file.
2535 Below are some group mode commands for making and editing general foreign
2536 groups, as well as commands to ease the creation of a few
2537 special-purpose groups. All these commands insert the newly created
2538 groups under point---@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} is not
2541 Changes from the group editing commands are stored in
2542 @file{~/.newsrc.eld} (@code{gnus-startup-file}). An alternative is the
2543 variable @code{gnus-parameters}, @xref{Group Parameters}.
2549 @findex gnus-group-make-group
2550 @cindex making groups
2551 Make a new group (@code{gnus-group-make-group}). Gnus will prompt you
2552 for a name, a method and possibly an @dfn{address}. For an easier way
2553 to subscribe to @acronym{NNTP} groups (@pxref{Browse Foreign Server}).
2557 @findex gnus-group-read-ephemeral-group
2558 Make an ephemeral group (@code{gnus-group-read-ephemeral-group}). Gnus
2559 will prompt you for a name, a method and an @dfn{address}.
2563 @findex gnus-group-rename-group
2564 @cindex renaming groups
2565 Rename the current group to something else
2566 (@code{gnus-group-rename-group}). This is valid only on some
2567 groups---mail groups mostly. This command might very well be quite slow
2573 @findex gnus-group-customize
2574 Customize the group parameters (@code{gnus-group-customize}).
2578 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-method
2579 @cindex renaming groups
2580 Enter a buffer where you can edit the select method of the current
2581 group (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method}).
2585 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-parameters
2586 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group parameters
2587 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-parameters}).
2591 @findex gnus-group-edit-group
2592 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group info
2593 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group}).
2597 @findex gnus-group-make-directory-group
2599 Make a directory group (@pxref{Directory Groups}). You will be prompted
2600 for a directory name (@code{gnus-group-make-directory-group}).
2605 @findex gnus-group-make-help-group
2606 Make the Gnus help group (@code{gnus-group-make-help-group}).
2610 @findex gnus-group-enter-directory
2612 Read an arbitrary directory as if it were a newsgroup with the
2613 @code{nneething} back end (@code{gnus-group-enter-directory}).
2614 @xref{Anything Groups}.
2618 @findex gnus-group-make-doc-group
2619 @cindex ClariNet Briefs
2621 Make a group based on some file or other
2622 (@code{gnus-group-make-doc-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2623 command, you will be prompted for a file name and a file type.
2624 Currently supported types are @code{mbox}, @code{babyl},
2625 @code{digest}, @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward},
2626 @code{rfc934}, @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-parts},
2627 @code{standard-digest}, @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs},
2628 @code{nsmail}, @code{outlook}, @code{oe-dbx}, and @code{mailman}. If
2629 you run this command without a prefix, Gnus will guess at the file
2630 type. @xref{Document Groups}.
2634 @vindex gnus-useful-groups
2635 @findex gnus-group-make-useful-group
2636 Create one of the groups mentioned in @code{gnus-useful-groups}
2637 (@code{gnus-group-make-useful-group}).
2641 @findex gnus-group-make-web-group
2645 Make an ephemeral group based on a web search
2646 (@code{gnus-group-make-web-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2647 command, make a solid group instead. You will be prompted for the
2648 search engine type and the search string. Valid search engine types
2649 include @code{google}, @code{dejanews}, and @code{gmane}.
2650 @xref{Web Searches}.
2652 If you use the @code{google} search engine, you can limit the search
2653 to a particular group by using a match string like
2654 @samp{shaving group:alt.sysadmin.recovery}.
2658 @findex gnus-group-make-rss-group
2659 Make a group based on an @acronym{RSS} feed
2660 (@code{gnus-group-make-rss-group}). You will be prompted for an URL@.
2664 @kindex G DEL (Group)
2665 @findex gnus-group-delete-group
2666 This function will delete the current group
2667 (@code{gnus-group-delete-group}). If given a prefix, this function will
2668 actually delete all the articles in the group, and forcibly remove the
2669 group itself from the face of the Earth. Use a prefix only if you are
2670 absolutely sure of what you are doing. This command can't be used on
2671 read-only groups (like @code{nntp} groups), though.
2675 @findex gnus-group-make-empty-virtual
2676 Make a new, fresh, empty @code{nnvirtual} group
2677 (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}). @xref{Virtual Groups}.
2681 @findex gnus-group-add-to-virtual
2682 Add the current group to an @code{nnvirtual} group
2683 (@code{gnus-group-add-to-virtual}). Uses the process/prefix convention.
2686 @xref{Select Methods}, for more information on the various select
2689 @vindex gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups
2690 If @code{gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups} is a positive number,
2691 Gnus will check all foreign groups with this level or lower at startup.
2692 This might take quite a while, especially if you subscribe to lots of
2693 groups from different @acronym{NNTP} servers. Also @pxref{Group Levels};
2694 @code{gnus-activate-level} also affects activation of foreign
2698 The following commands create ephemeral groups. They can be called not
2699 only from the Group buffer, but in any Gnus buffer.
2702 @item gnus-read-ephemeral-gmane-group
2703 @findex gnus-read-ephemeral-gmane-group
2704 @vindex gnus-gmane-group-download-format
2705 Read an ephemeral group on Gmane.org. The articles are downloaded via
2706 HTTP using the URL specified by @code{gnus-gmane-group-download-format}.
2707 Gnus will prompt you for a group name, the start article number and an
2710 @item gnus-read-ephemeral-gmane-group-url
2711 @findex gnus-read-ephemeral-gmane-group-url
2712 This command is similar to @code{gnus-read-ephemeral-gmane-group}, but
2713 the group name and the article number and range are constructed from a
2714 given @acronym{URL}. Supported @acronym{URL} formats include:
2715 @url{http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.foo.bar/12300/focus=12399},
2716 @url{http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.foo.bar/12345/},
2717 @url{http://article.gmane.org/gmane.foo.bar/12345/},
2718 @url{http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.foo.bar/12345/}, and
2719 @url{http://news.gmane.org/group/gmane.foo.bar/thread=12345}.
2721 @item gnus-read-ephemeral-emacs-bug-group
2722 @findex gnus-read-ephemeral-emacs-bug-group
2723 Read an Emacs bug report in an ephemeral group. Gnus will prompt for a
2724 bug number. The default is the number at point. The @acronym{URL} is
2725 specified in @code{gnus-bug-group-download-format-alist}.
2727 @item gnus-read-ephemeral-debian-bug-group
2728 @findex gnus-read-ephemeral-debian-bug-group
2729 Read a Debian bug report in an ephemeral group. Analog to
2730 @code{gnus-read-ephemeral-emacs-bug-group}.
2733 Some of these command are also useful for article buttons, @xref{Article
2741 '("#\\([0-9]+\\)\\>" 1
2742 (string-match "\\<emacs\\>" (or gnus-newsgroup-name ""))
2743 gnus-read-ephemeral-emacs-bug-group 1))
2747 @node Group Parameters
2748 @section Group Parameters
2749 @cindex group parameters
2751 The group parameters store information local to a particular group.
2753 Use the @kbd{G p} or the @kbd{G c} command to edit group parameters of a
2754 group. (@kbd{G p} presents you with a Lisp-based interface, @kbd{G c}
2755 presents you with a Customize-like interface. The latter helps avoid
2756 silly Lisp errors.) You might also be interested in reading about topic
2757 parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}).
2758 Additionally, you can set group parameters via the
2759 @code{gnus-parameters} variable, see below.
2761 Here's an example group parameter list:
2764 ((to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")
2768 We see that each element consists of a ``dotted pair''---the thing before
2769 the dot is the key, while the thing after the dot is the value. All the
2770 parameters have this form @emph{except} local variable specs, which are
2771 not dotted pairs, but proper lists.
2773 Some parameters have correspondent customizable variables, each of which
2774 is an alist of regexps and values.
2776 The following group parameters can be used:
2781 Address used by when doing followups and new posts.
2784 (to-address . "some@@where.com")
2787 This is primarily useful in mail groups that represent closed mailing
2788 lists---mailing lists where it's expected that everybody that writes to
2789 the mailing list is subscribed to it. Since using this parameter
2790 ensures that the mail only goes to the mailing list itself, it means
2791 that members won't receive two copies of your followups.
2793 Using @code{to-address} will actually work whether the group is foreign
2794 or not. Let's say there's a group on the server that is called
2795 @samp{fa.4ad-l}. This is a real newsgroup, but the server has gotten
2796 the articles from a mail-to-news gateway. Posting directly to this
2797 group is therefore impossible---you have to send mail to the mailing
2798 list address instead.
2800 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-address-alist}.
2804 Address used when doing @kbd{a} in that group.
2807 (to-list . "some@@where.com")
2810 It is totally ignored
2811 when doing a followup---except that if it is present in a news group,
2812 you'll get mail group semantics when doing @kbd{f}.
2814 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you have neither a
2815 @code{to-list} group parameter nor a @code{to-address} group parameter,
2816 then a @code{to-list} group parameter will be added automatically upon
2817 sending the message if @code{gnus-add-to-list} is set to @code{t}.
2818 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
2820 @findex gnus-mailing-list-mode
2821 @cindex mail list groups
2822 If this variable is set, @code{gnus-mailing-list-mode} is turned on when
2823 entering summary buffer.
2825 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-list-alist}.
2830 @cindex Mail-Followup-To
2831 @findex gnus-find-subscribed-addresses
2832 If this parameter is set to @code{t}, Gnus will consider the
2833 to-address and to-list parameters for this group as addresses of
2834 mailing lists you are subscribed to. Giving Gnus this information is
2835 (only) a first step in getting it to generate correct Mail-Followup-To
2836 headers for your posts to these lists. The second step is to put the
2837 following in your @file{.gnus.el}
2840 (setq message-subscribed-address-functions
2841 '(gnus-find-subscribed-addresses))
2844 @xref{Mailing Lists, ,Mailing Lists, message, The Message Manual}, for
2845 a complete treatment of available MFT support.
2849 If the group parameter list has the element @code{(visible . t)},
2850 that group will always be visible in the Group buffer, regardless
2851 of whether it has any unread articles.
2853 This parameter cannot be set via @code{gnus-parameters}. See
2854 @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} as an alternative.
2856 @item broken-reply-to
2857 @cindex broken-reply-to
2858 Elements like @code{(broken-reply-to . t)} signals that @code{Reply-To}
2859 headers in this group are to be ignored, and for the header to be hidden
2860 if @code{reply-to} is part of @code{gnus-boring-article-headers}. This
2861 can be useful if you're reading a mailing list group where the listserv
2862 has inserted @code{Reply-To} headers that point back to the listserv
2863 itself. That is broken behavior. So there!
2867 Elements like @code{(to-group . "some.group.name")} means that all
2868 posts in that group will be sent to @code{some.group.name}.
2872 If you have @code{(newsgroup . t)} in the group parameter list, Gnus
2873 will treat all responses as if they were responses to news articles.
2874 This can be useful if you have a mail group that's really a mirror of a
2879 If @code{(gcc-self . t)} is present in the group parameter list, newly
2880 composed messages will be @code{Gcc}'d to the current group. If
2881 @code{(gcc-self . none)} is present, no @code{Gcc:} header will be
2882 generated, if @code{(gcc-self . "string")} is present, this string will
2883 be inserted literally as a @code{gcc} header. This parameter takes
2884 precedence over any default @code{Gcc} rules as described later
2885 (@pxref{Archived Messages}), with the exception for messages to resend.
2887 @strong{Caveat}: Adding @code{(gcc-self . t)} to the parameter list of
2888 @code{nntp} groups (or the like) isn't valid. An @code{nntp} server
2889 doesn't accept articles.
2893 @cindex expiring mail
2894 If the group parameter has an element that looks like @code{(auto-expire
2895 . t)}, all articles read will be marked as expirable. For an
2896 alternative approach, @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
2898 See also @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups}.
2901 @cindex total-expire
2902 @cindex expiring mail
2903 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2904 @code{(total-expire . t)}, all read articles will be put through the
2905 expiry process, even if they are not marked as expirable. Use with
2906 caution. Unread, ticked and dormant articles are not eligible for
2909 See also @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups}.
2913 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
2914 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2915 @code{(expiry-wait . 10)}, this value will override any
2916 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} and @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function}
2917 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}) when expiring expirable messages. The value
2918 can either be a number of days (not necessarily an integer) or the
2919 symbols @code{never} or @code{immediate}.
2922 @cindex expiry-target
2923 Where expired messages end up. This parameter overrides
2924 @code{nnmail-expiry-target}.
2927 @cindex score file group parameter
2928 Elements that look like @code{(score-file . "file")} will make
2929 @file{file} into the current score file for the group in question. All
2930 interactive score entries will be put into this file.
2933 @cindex adapt file group parameter
2934 Elements that look like @code{(adapt-file . "file")} will make
2935 @file{file} into the current adaptive file for the group in question.
2936 All adaptive score entries will be put into this file.
2939 @cindex admin-address
2940 When unsubscribing from a mailing list you should never send the
2941 unsubscription notice to the mailing list itself. Instead, you'd send
2942 messages to the administrative address. This parameter allows you to
2943 put the admin address somewhere convenient.
2947 Elements that look like @code{(display . MODE)} say which articles to
2948 display on entering the group. Valid values are:
2952 Display all articles, both read and unread.
2955 Display the last @var{integer} articles in the group. This is the same as
2956 entering the group with @kbd{C-u @var{integer}}.
2959 Display the default visible articles, which normally includes unread and
2963 Display articles that satisfy a predicate.
2965 Here are some examples:
2969 Display only unread articles.
2972 Display everything except expirable articles.
2974 @item [and (not reply) (not expire)]
2975 Display everything except expirable and articles you've already
2979 The available operators are @code{not}, @code{and} and @code{or}.
2980 Predicates include @code{tick}, @code{unsend}, @code{undownload},
2981 @code{unread}, @code{dormant}, @code{expire}, @code{reply},
2982 @code{killed}, @code{bookmark}, @code{score}, @code{save},
2983 @code{cache}, @code{forward}, and @code{unseen}.
2987 The @code{display} parameter works by limiting the summary buffer to
2988 the subset specified. You can pop the limit by using the @kbd{/ w}
2989 command (@pxref{Limiting}).
2993 Elements that look like @code{(comment . "This is a comment")} are
2994 arbitrary comments on the group. You can display comments in the
2995 group line (@pxref{Group Line Specification}).
2999 Elements that look like @code{(charset . iso-8859-1)} will make
3000 @code{iso-8859-1} the default charset; that is, the charset that will be
3001 used for all articles that do not specify a charset.
3003 See also @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}.
3005 @item ignored-charsets
3006 @cindex ignored-charset
3007 Elements that look like @code{(ignored-charsets x-unknown iso-8859-1)}
3008 will make @code{iso-8859-1} and @code{x-unknown} ignored; that is, the
3009 default charset will be used for decoding articles.
3011 See also @code{gnus-group-ignored-charsets-alist}.
3014 @cindex posting-style
3015 You can store additional posting style information for this group
3016 here (@pxref{Posting Styles}). The format is that of an entry in the
3017 @code{gnus-posting-styles} alist, except that there's no regexp matching
3018 the group name (of course). Style elements in this group parameter will
3019 take precedence over the ones found in @code{gnus-posting-styles}.
3021 For instance, if you want a funky name and signature in this group only,
3022 instead of hacking @code{gnus-posting-styles}, you could put something
3023 like this in the group parameters:
3028 ("X-Message-SMTP-Method" "smtp smtp.example.org 587")
3029 ("X-My-Header" "Funky Value")
3030 (signature "Funky Signature"))
3033 If you're using topics to organize your group buffer
3034 (@pxref{Group Topics}), note that posting styles can also be set in
3035 the topics parameters. Posting styles in topic parameters apply to all
3036 groups in this topic. More precisely, the posting-style settings for a
3037 group result from the hierarchical merging of all posting-style
3038 entries in the parameters of this group and all the topics it belongs
3044 If it is set, the value is used as the method for posting message
3045 instead of @code{gnus-post-method}.
3049 If it is set, and the setting of @code{mail-sources} includes a
3050 @code{group} mail source (@pxref{Mail Sources}), the value is a
3051 mail source for this group.
3055 An item like @code{(banner . @var{regexp})} causes any part of an article
3056 that matches the regular expression @var{regexp} to be stripped. Instead of
3057 @var{regexp}, you can also use the symbol @code{signature} which strips the
3058 last signature or any of the elements of the alist
3059 @code{gnus-article-banner-alist}.
3063 This parameter contains a Sieve test that should match incoming mail
3064 that should be placed in this group. From this group parameter, a
3065 Sieve @samp{IF} control structure is generated, having the test as the
3066 condition and @samp{fileinto "group.name";} as the body.
3068 For example, if the @samp{INBOX.list.sieve} group has the @code{(sieve
3069 address "sender" "sieve-admin@@extundo.com")} group parameter, when
3070 translating the group parameter into a Sieve script (@pxref{Sieve
3071 Commands}) the following Sieve code is generated:
3074 if address "sender" "sieve-admin@@extundo.com" @{
3075 fileinto "INBOX.list.sieve";
3079 To generate tests for multiple email-addresses use a group parameter
3080 like @code{(sieve address "sender" ("name@@one.org" else@@two.org"))}.
3081 When generating a sieve script (@pxref{Sieve Commands}) Sieve code
3082 like the following is generated:
3085 if address "sender" ["name@@one.org", "else@@two.org"] @{
3086 fileinto "INBOX.list.sieve";
3090 See @pxref{Sieve Commands} for commands and variables that might be of
3091 interest in relation to the sieve parameter.
3093 The Sieve language is described in RFC 3028. @xref{Top, Emacs Sieve,
3094 Top, sieve, Emacs Sieve}.
3096 @item (agent parameters)
3097 If the agent has been enabled, you can set any of its parameters to
3098 control the behavior of the agent in individual groups. See Agent
3099 Parameters in @ref{Category Syntax}. Most users will choose to set
3100 agent parameters in either an agent category or group topic to
3101 minimize the configuration effort.
3103 @item (@var{variable} @var{form})
3104 You can use the group parameters to set variables local to the group you
3105 are entering. If you want to turn threading off in @samp{news.answers},
3106 you could put @code{(gnus-show-threads nil)} in the group parameters of
3107 that group. @code{gnus-show-threads} will be made into a local variable
3108 in the summary buffer you enter, and the form @code{nil} will be
3109 @code{eval}ed there.
3111 Note that this feature sets the variable locally to the summary buffer
3112 if and only if @var{variable} has been bound as a variable. Otherwise,
3113 only evaluating the form will take place. So, you may want to bind the
3114 variable in advance using @code{defvar} or other if the result of the
3115 form needs to be set to it.
3117 But some variables are evaluated in the article buffer, or in the
3118 message buffer (of a reply or followup or otherwise newly created
3119 message). As a workaround, it might help to add the variable in
3120 question to @code{gnus-newsgroup-variables}. @xref{Various Summary
3121 Stuff}. So if you want to set @code{message-from-style} via the group
3122 parameters, then you may need the following statement elsewhere in your
3123 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
3126 (add-to-list 'gnus-newsgroup-variables 'message-from-style)
3129 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
3130 A use for this feature is to remove a mailing list identifier tag in
3131 the subject fields of articles. E.g., if the news group
3134 nntp+news.gnus.org:gmane.text.docbook.apps
3137 has the tag @samp{DOC-BOOK-APPS:} in the subject of all articles, this
3138 tag can be removed from the article subjects in the summary buffer for
3139 the group by putting @code{(gnus-list-identifiers "DOCBOOK-APPS:")}
3140 into the group parameters for the group.
3142 This can also be used as a group-specific hook function. If you want to
3143 hear a beep when you enter a group, you could put something like
3144 @code{(dummy-variable (ding))} in the parameters of that group. If
3145 @code{dummy-variable} has been bound (see above), it will be set to the
3146 (meaningless) result of the @code{(ding)} form.
3148 Alternatively, since the VARIABLE becomes local to the group, this
3149 pattern can be used to temporarily change a hook. For example, if the
3150 following is added to a group parameter
3153 (gnus-summary-prepared-hook
3154 (lambda nil (local-set-key "d" (local-key-binding "n"))))
3157 when the group is entered, the 'd' key will not mark the article as
3162 @vindex gnus-parameters
3163 Group parameters can be set via the @code{gnus-parameters} variable too.
3164 But some variables, such as @code{visible}, have no effect (For this
3165 case see @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} as an alternative.).
3169 (setq gnus-parameters
3171 (gnus-show-threads nil)
3172 (gnus-use-scoring nil)
3173 (gnus-summary-line-format
3174 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%d:%ub%-23,23f%]%) %s\n")
3178 ("^nnimap:\\(foo.bar\\)$"
3182 (gnus-use-scoring t))
3186 (broken-reply-to . t))))
3189 All clauses that matches the group name will be used, but the last
3190 setting ``wins''. So if you have two clauses that both match the
3191 group name, and both set, say @code{display}, the last setting will
3194 Parameters that are strings will be subjected to regexp substitution,
3195 as the @code{to-group} example shows.
3197 @vindex gnus-parameters-case-fold-search
3198 By default, whether comparing the group name and one of those regexps
3199 specified in @code{gnus-parameters} is done in a case-sensitive manner
3200 or a case-insensitive manner depends on the value of
3201 @code{case-fold-search} at the time when the comparison is done. The
3202 value of @code{case-fold-search} is typically @code{t}; it means, for
3203 example, the element @code{("INBOX\\.FOO" (total-expire . t))} might be
3204 applied to both the @samp{INBOX.FOO} group and the @samp{INBOX.foo}
3205 group. If you want to make those regexps always case-sensitive, set the
3206 value of the @code{gnus-parameters-case-fold-search} variable to
3207 @code{nil}. Otherwise, set it to @code{t} if you want to compare them
3208 always in a case-insensitive manner.
3210 You can define different sorting to different groups via
3211 @code{gnus-parameters}. Here is an example to sort an @acronym{NNTP}
3212 group by reverse date to see the latest news at the top and an
3213 @acronym{RSS} group by subject. In this example, the first group is the
3214 Debian daily news group @code{gmane.linux.debian.user.news} from
3215 news.gmane.org. The @acronym{RSS} group corresponds to the Debian
3216 weekly news RSS feed
3217 @url{http://packages.debian.org/unstable/newpkg_main.en.rdf},
3223 '(("nntp.*gmane\\.debian\\.user\\.news"
3224 (gnus-show-threads nil)
3225 (gnus-article-sort-functions '((not gnus-article-sort-by-date)))
3226 (gnus-use-adaptive-scoring nil)
3227 (gnus-use-scoring nil))
3229 (gnus-show-threads nil)
3230 (gnus-article-sort-functions 'gnus-article-sort-by-subject)
3231 (gnus-use-adaptive-scoring nil)
3232 (gnus-use-scoring t)
3233 (gnus-score-find-score-files-function 'gnus-score-find-single)
3234 (gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z%d %I%(%[ %s %]%)\n"))))
3238 @node Listing Groups
3239 @section Listing Groups
3240 @cindex group listing
3242 These commands all list various slices of the groups available.
3250 @findex gnus-group-list-groups
3251 List all groups that have unread articles
3252 (@code{gnus-group-list-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used, this
3253 command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default, it
3254 only lists groups of level five (i.e.,
3255 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level}) or lower (i.e., just subscribed
3262 @findex gnus-group-list-all-groups
3263 List all groups, whether they have unread articles or not
3264 (@code{gnus-group-list-all-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used,
3265 this command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default,
3266 it lists groups of level seven or lower (i.e., just subscribed and
3267 unsubscribed groups).
3271 @findex gnus-group-list-level
3272 List all unread groups on a specific level
3273 (@code{gnus-group-list-level}). If given a prefix, also list the groups
3274 with no unread articles.
3278 @findex gnus-group-list-killed
3279 List all killed groups (@code{gnus-group-list-killed}). If given a
3280 prefix argument, really list all groups that are available, but aren't
3281 currently (un)subscribed. This could entail reading the active file
3286 @findex gnus-group-list-zombies
3287 List all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-list-zombies}).
3291 @findex gnus-group-list-matching
3292 List all unread, subscribed groups with names that match a regexp
3293 (@code{gnus-group-list-matching}).
3297 @findex gnus-group-list-all-matching
3298 List groups that match a regexp (@code{gnus-group-list-all-matching}).
3302 @findex gnus-group-list-active
3303 List absolutely all groups in the active file(s) of the
3304 server(s) you are connected to (@code{gnus-group-list-active}). This
3305 might very well take quite a while. It might actually be a better idea
3306 to do a @kbd{A M} to list all matching, and just give @samp{.} as the
3307 thing to match on. Also note that this command may list groups that
3308 don't exist (yet)---these will be listed as if they were killed groups.
3309 Take the output with some grains of salt.
3313 @findex gnus-group-apropos
3314 List all groups that have names that match a regexp
3315 (@code{gnus-group-apropos}).
3319 @findex gnus-group-description-apropos
3320 List all groups that have names or descriptions that match a regexp
3321 (@code{gnus-group-description-apropos}).
3325 @findex gnus-group-list-cached
3326 List all groups with cached articles (@code{gnus-group-list-cached}).
3330 @findex gnus-group-list-dormant
3331 List all groups with dormant articles (@code{gnus-group-list-dormant}).
3335 @findex gnus-group-list-ticked
3336 List all groups with ticked articles (@code{gnus-group-list-ticked}).
3340 @findex gnus-group-list-limit
3341 Further limit groups within the current selection
3342 (@code{gnus-group-list-limit}). If you've first limited to groups
3343 with dormant articles with @kbd{A ?}, you can then further limit with
3344 @kbd{A / c}, which will then limit to groups with cached articles,
3345 giving you the groups that have both dormant articles and cached
3350 @findex gnus-group-list-flush
3351 Flush groups from the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-flush}).
3355 @findex gnus-group-list-plus
3356 List groups plus the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-plus}).
3360 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
3361 @cindex visible group parameter
3362 Groups that match the @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} regexp will
3363 always be shown, whether they have unread articles or not. You can also
3364 add the @code{visible} element to the group parameters in question to
3365 get the same effect.
3367 @vindex gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles
3368 Groups that have just ticked articles in it are normally listed in the
3369 group buffer. If @code{gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles} is
3370 @code{nil}, these groups will be treated just like totally empty
3371 groups. It is @code{t} by default.
3374 @node Sorting Groups
3375 @section Sorting Groups
3376 @cindex sorting groups
3378 @kindex C-c C-s (Group)
3379 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups
3380 @vindex gnus-group-sort-function
3381 The @kbd{C-c C-s} (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups}) command sorts the
3382 group buffer according to the function(s) given by the
3383 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable. Available sorting functions
3388 @item gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
3389 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
3390 Sort the group names alphabetically. This is the default.
3392 @item gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
3393 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
3394 Sort the group alphabetically on the real (unprefixed) group names.
3396 @item gnus-group-sort-by-level
3397 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-level
3398 Sort by group level.
3400 @item gnus-group-sort-by-score
3401 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-score
3402 Sort by group score. @xref{Group Score}.
3404 @item gnus-group-sort-by-rank
3405 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-rank
3406 Sort by group score and then the group level. The level and the score
3407 are, when taken together, the group's @dfn{rank}. @xref{Group Score}.
3409 @item gnus-group-sort-by-unread
3410 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-unread
3411 Sort by number of unread articles.
3413 @item gnus-group-sort-by-method
3414 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-method
3415 Sort alphabetically on the select method.
3417 @item gnus-group-sort-by-server
3418 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-server
3419 Sort alphabetically on the Gnus server name.
3424 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} can also be a list of sorting
3425 functions. In that case, the most significant sort key function must be
3429 There are also a number of commands for sorting directly according to
3430 some sorting criteria:
3434 @kindex G S a (Group)
3435 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet
3436 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by group name
3437 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
3440 @kindex G S u (Group)
3441 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread
3442 Sort the group buffer by the number of unread articles
3443 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread}).
3446 @kindex G S l (Group)
3447 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level
3448 Sort the group buffer by group level
3449 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level}).
3452 @kindex G S v (Group)
3453 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score
3454 Sort the group buffer by group score
3455 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3458 @kindex G S r (Group)
3459 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank
3460 Sort the group buffer by group rank
3461 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3464 @kindex G S m (Group)
3465 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method
3466 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by back end name@*
3467 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method}).
3470 @kindex G S n (Group)
3471 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-real-name
3472 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by real (unprefixed) group name
3473 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-real-name}).
3477 All the commands below obey the process/prefix convention
3478 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3480 When given a symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}), all these
3481 commands will sort in reverse order.
3483 You can also sort a subset of the groups:
3487 @kindex G P a (Group)
3488 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet
3489 Sort the groups alphabetically by group name
3490 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet}).
3493 @kindex G P u (Group)
3494 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread
3495 Sort the groups by the number of unread articles
3496 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread}).
3499 @kindex G P l (Group)
3500 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level
3501 Sort the groups by group level
3502 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level}).
3505 @kindex G P v (Group)
3506 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score
3507 Sort the groups by group score
3508 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3511 @kindex G P r (Group)
3512 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank
3513 Sort the groups by group rank
3514 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3517 @kindex G P m (Group)
3518 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method
3519 Sort the groups alphabetically by back end name@*
3520 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method}).
3523 @kindex G P n (Group)
3524 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-real-name
3525 Sort the groups alphabetically by real (unprefixed) group name
3526 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-real-name}).
3529 @kindex G P s (Group)
3530 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups
3531 Sort the groups according to @code{gnus-group-sort-function}.
3535 And finally, note that you can use @kbd{C-k} and @kbd{C-y} to manually
3539 @node Group Maintenance
3540 @section Group Maintenance
3541 @cindex bogus groups
3546 @findex gnus-group-check-bogus-groups
3547 Find bogus groups and delete them
3548 (@code{gnus-group-check-bogus-groups}).
3552 @findex gnus-group-find-new-groups
3553 Find new groups and process them (@code{gnus-group-find-new-groups}).
3554 With 1 @kbd{C-u}, use the @code{ask-server} method to query the server
3555 for new groups. With 2 @kbd{C-u}'s, use most complete method possible
3556 to query the server for new groups, and subscribe the new groups as
3560 @kindex C-c C-x (Group)
3561 @findex gnus-group-expire-articles
3562 @cindex expiring mail
3563 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
3564 process (if any) (@code{gnus-group-expire-articles}). That is, delete
3565 all expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
3566 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3569 @kindex C-c C-M-x (Group)
3570 @findex gnus-group-expire-all-groups
3571 @cindex expiring mail
3572 Run all expirable articles in all groups through the expiry process
3573 (@code{gnus-group-expire-all-groups}).
3578 @node Browse Foreign Server
3579 @section Browse Foreign Server
3580 @cindex foreign servers
3581 @cindex browsing servers
3586 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
3587 You will be queried for a select method and a server name. Gnus will
3588 then attempt to contact this server and let you browse the groups there
3589 (@code{gnus-group-browse-foreign-server}).
3592 @findex gnus-browse-mode
3593 A new buffer with a list of available groups will appear. This buffer
3594 will use the @code{gnus-browse-mode}. This buffer looks a bit (well,
3595 a lot) like a normal group buffer.
3597 Here's a list of keystrokes available in the browse mode:
3602 @findex gnus-group-next-group
3603 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
3607 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
3608 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
3611 @kindex SPACE (Browse)
3612 @findex gnus-browse-read-group
3613 Enter the current group and display the first article
3614 (@code{gnus-browse-read-group}).
3617 @kindex RET (Browse)
3618 @findex gnus-browse-select-group
3619 Enter the current group (@code{gnus-browse-select-group}).
3623 @findex gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group
3624 @vindex gnus-browse-subscribe-newsgroup-method
3625 Unsubscribe to the current group, or, as will be the case here,
3626 subscribe to it (@code{gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group}). You
3627 can affect the way the new group is entered into the Group buffer
3628 using the variable @code{gnus-browse-subscribe-newsgroup-method}. See
3629 @pxref{Subscription Methods} for available options.
3635 @findex gnus-browse-exit
3636 Exit browse mode (@code{gnus-browse-exit}).
3640 @findex gnus-browse-describe-group
3641 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-browse-describe-group}).
3645 @findex gnus-browse-describe-briefly
3646 Describe browse mode briefly (well, there's not much to describe, is
3647 there) (@code{gnus-browse-describe-briefly}).
3650 @kindex DEL (Browse)
3651 @findex gnus-browse-delete-group
3652 This function will delete the current group
3653 (@code{gnus-browse-delete-group}). If given a prefix, this function
3654 will actually delete all the articles in the group, and forcibly
3655 remove the group itself from the face of the Earth. Use a prefix only
3656 if you are absolutely sure of what you are doing.
3661 @section Exiting Gnus
3662 @cindex exiting Gnus
3664 Yes, Gnus is ex(c)iting.
3669 @findex gnus-group-suspend
3670 Suspend Gnus (@code{gnus-group-suspend}). This doesn't really exit Gnus,
3671 but it kills all buffers except the Group buffer. I'm not sure why this
3672 is a gain, but then who am I to judge?
3676 @findex gnus-group-exit
3677 @c @icon{gnus-group-exit}
3678 Quit Gnus (@code{gnus-group-exit}).
3682 @findex gnus-group-quit
3683 Quit Gnus without saving the @file{.newsrc} files (@code{gnus-group-quit}).
3684 The dribble file will be saved, though (@pxref{Auto Save}).
3687 @vindex gnus-exit-gnus-hook
3688 @vindex gnus-suspend-gnus-hook
3689 @vindex gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook
3690 @code{gnus-suspend-gnus-hook} is called when you suspend Gnus and
3691 @code{gnus-exit-gnus-hook} is called when you quit Gnus, while
3692 @code{gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook} is called as the final item when
3698 Miss Lisa Cannifax, while sitting in English class, felt her feet go
3699 numbly heavy and herself fall into a hazy trance as the boy sitting
3700 behind her drew repeated lines with his pencil across the back of her
3706 @section Group Topics
3709 If you read lots and lots of groups, it might be convenient to group
3710 them hierarchically according to topics. You put your Emacs groups over
3711 here, your sex groups over there, and the rest (what, two groups or so?)
3712 you put in some misc section that you never bother with anyway. You can
3713 even group the Emacs sex groups as a sub-topic to either the Emacs
3714 groups or the sex groups---or both! Go wild!
3718 \gnusfigure{Group Topics}{400}{
3719 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=ps/group-topic,height=9cm}}
3730 2: alt.religion.emacs
3733 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3735 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3736 13: comp.sources.unix
3739 @findex gnus-topic-mode
3741 To get this @emph{fab} functionality you simply turn on (ooh!) the
3742 @code{gnus-topic} minor mode---type @kbd{t} in the group buffer. (This
3743 is a toggling command.)
3745 Go ahead, just try it. I'll still be here when you get back. La de
3746 dum@dots{} Nice tune, that@dots{} la la la@dots{} What, you're back?
3747 Yes, and now press @kbd{l}. There. All your groups are now listed
3748 under @samp{misc}. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy?
3751 If you want this permanently enabled, you should add that minor mode to
3752 the hook for the group mode. Put the following line in your
3753 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
3756 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
3760 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
3761 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
3762 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
3763 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
3764 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
3768 @node Topic Commands
3769 @subsection Topic Commands
3770 @cindex topic commands
3772 When the topic minor mode is turned on, a new @kbd{T} submap will be
3773 available. In addition, a few of the standard keys change their
3774 definitions slightly.
3776 In general, the following kinds of operations are possible on topics.
3777 First of all, you want to create topics. Secondly, you want to put
3778 groups in topics and to move them around until you have an order you
3779 like. The third kind of operation is to show/hide parts of the whole
3780 shebang. You might want to hide a topic including its subtopics and
3781 groups, to get a better overview of the other groups.
3783 Here is a list of the basic keys that you might need to set up topics
3790 @findex gnus-topic-create-topic
3791 Prompt for a new topic name and create it
3792 (@code{gnus-topic-create-topic}).
3796 @kindex T TAB (Topic)
3798 @findex gnus-topic-indent
3799 ``Indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3800 previous topic (@code{gnus-topic-indent}). If given a prefix,
3801 ``un-indent'' the topic instead.
3804 @kindex M-TAB (Topic)
3805 @findex gnus-topic-unindent
3806 ``Un-indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3807 parent of its current parent (@code{gnus-topic-unindent}).
3811 The following two keys can be used to move groups and topics around.
3812 They work like the well-known cut and paste. @kbd{C-k} is like cut and
3813 @kbd{C-y} is like paste. Of course, this being Emacs, we use the terms
3814 kill and yank rather than cut and paste.
3820 @findex gnus-topic-kill-group
3821 Kill a group or topic (@code{gnus-topic-kill-group}). All groups in the
3822 topic will be removed along with the topic.
3826 @findex gnus-topic-yank-group
3827 Yank the previously killed group or topic
3828 (@code{gnus-topic-yank-group}). Note that all topics will be yanked
3831 So, to move a topic to the beginning of the list of topics, just hit
3832 @kbd{C-k} on it. This is like the ``cut'' part of cut and paste. Then,
3833 move the cursor to the beginning of the buffer (just below the ``Gnus''
3834 topic) and hit @kbd{C-y}. This is like the ``paste'' part of cut and
3835 paste. Like I said---E-Z.
3837 You can use @kbd{C-k} and @kbd{C-y} on groups as well as on topics. So
3838 you can move topics around as well as groups.
3842 After setting up the topics the way you like them, you might wish to
3843 hide a topic, or to show it again. That's why we have the following
3850 @findex gnus-topic-select-group
3852 Either select a group or fold a topic (@code{gnus-topic-select-group}).
3853 When you perform this command on a group, you'll enter the group, as
3854 usual. When done on a topic line, the topic will be folded (if it was
3855 visible) or unfolded (if it was folded already). So it's basically a
3856 toggling command on topics. In addition, if you give a numerical
3857 prefix, group on that level (and lower) will be displayed.
3861 Now for a list of other commands, in no particular order.
3867 @findex gnus-topic-move-group
3868 Move the current group to some other topic
3869 (@code{gnus-topic-move-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3870 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3874 @findex gnus-topic-jump-to-topic
3875 Go to a topic (@code{gnus-topic-jump-to-topic}).
3879 @findex gnus-topic-copy-group
3880 Copy the current group to some other topic
3881 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3882 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3886 @findex gnus-topic-hide-topic
3887 Hide the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-hide-topic}). If given
3888 a prefix, hide the topic permanently.
3892 @findex gnus-topic-show-topic
3893 Show the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-show-topic}). If given
3894 a prefix, show the topic permanently.
3898 @findex gnus-topic-remove-group
3899 Remove a group from the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-remove-group}).
3900 This command is mainly useful if you have the same group in several
3901 topics and wish to remove it from one of the topics. You may also
3902 remove a group from all topics, but in that case, Gnus will add it to
3903 the root topic the next time you start Gnus. In fact, all new groups
3904 (which, naturally, don't belong to any topic) will show up in the root
3907 This command uses the process/prefix convention
3908 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3912 @findex gnus-topic-move-matching
3913 Move all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3914 (@code{gnus-topic-move-matching}).
3918 @findex gnus-topic-copy-matching
3919 Copy all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3920 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-matching}).
3924 @findex gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics
3925 Toggle hiding empty topics
3926 (@code{gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics}).
3930 @findex gnus-topic-mark-topic
3931 Mark all groups in the current topic with the process mark
3932 (@code{gnus-topic-mark-topic}). This command works recursively on
3933 sub-topics unless given a prefix.
3936 @kindex T M-# (Topic)
3937 @findex gnus-topic-unmark-topic
3938 Remove the process mark from all groups in the current topic
3939 (@code{gnus-topic-unmark-topic}). This command works recursively on
3940 sub-topics unless given a prefix.
3943 @kindex C-c C-x (Topic)
3944 @findex gnus-topic-expire-articles
3945 @cindex expiring mail
3946 Run all expirable articles in the current group or topic through the
3947 expiry process (if any)
3948 (@code{gnus-topic-expire-articles}). (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3952 @findex gnus-topic-rename
3953 Rename a topic (@code{gnus-topic-rename}).
3956 @kindex T DEL (Topic)
3957 @findex gnus-topic-delete
3958 Delete an empty topic (@code{gnus-topic-delete}).
3962 @findex gnus-topic-list-active
3963 List all groups that Gnus knows about in a topics-ified way
3964 (@code{gnus-topic-list-active}).
3967 @kindex T M-n (Topic)
3968 @findex gnus-topic-goto-next-topic
3969 Go to the next topic (@code{gnus-topic-goto-next-topic}).
3972 @kindex T M-p (Topic)
3973 @findex gnus-topic-goto-previous-topic
3974 Go to the previous topic (@code{gnus-topic-goto-previous-topic}).
3978 @findex gnus-topic-edit-parameters
3979 @cindex group parameters
3980 @cindex topic parameters
3982 Edit the topic parameters (@code{gnus-topic-edit-parameters}).
3983 @xref{Topic Parameters}.
3988 @node Topic Variables
3989 @subsection Topic Variables
3990 @cindex topic variables
3992 The previous section told you how to tell Gnus which topics to display.
3993 This section explains how to tell Gnus what to display about each topic.
3995 @vindex gnus-topic-line-format
3996 The topic lines themselves are created according to the
3997 @code{gnus-topic-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
4010 Number of groups in the topic.
4012 Number of unread articles in the topic.
4014 Number of unread articles in the topic and all its subtopics.
4017 @vindex gnus-topic-indent-level
4018 Each sub-topic (and the groups in the sub-topics) will be indented with
4019 @code{gnus-topic-indent-level} times the topic level number of spaces.
4022 @vindex gnus-topic-mode-hook
4023 @code{gnus-topic-mode-hook} is called in topic minor mode buffers.
4025 @vindex gnus-topic-display-empty-topics
4026 The @code{gnus-topic-display-empty-topics} says whether to display even
4027 topics that have no unread articles in them. The default is @code{t}.
4031 @subsection Topic Sorting
4032 @cindex topic sorting
4034 You can sort the groups in each topic individually with the following
4040 @kindex T S a (Topic)
4041 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet
4042 Sort the current topic alphabetically by group name
4043 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
4046 @kindex T S u (Topic)
4047 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread
4048 Sort the current topic by the number of unread articles
4049 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread}).
4052 @kindex T S l (Topic)
4053 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level
4054 Sort the current topic by group level
4055 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level}).
4058 @kindex T S v (Topic)
4059 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score
4060 Sort the current topic by group score
4061 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
4064 @kindex T S r (Topic)
4065 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank
4066 Sort the current topic by group rank
4067 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
4070 @kindex T S m (Topic)
4071 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method
4072 Sort the current topic alphabetically by back end name
4073 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method}).
4076 @kindex T S e (Topic)
4077 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-server
4078 Sort the current topic alphabetically by server name
4079 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-server}).
4082 @kindex T S s (Topic)
4083 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups
4084 Sort the current topic according to the function(s) given by the
4085 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable
4086 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups}).
4090 When given a prefix argument, all these commands will sort in reverse
4091 order. @xref{Sorting Groups}, for more information about group
4095 @node Topic Topology
4096 @subsection Topic Topology
4097 @cindex topic topology
4100 So, let's have a look at an example group buffer:
4107 2: alt.religion.emacs
4110 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
4112 8: comp.binaries.fractals
4113 13: comp.sources.unix
4117 So, here we have one top-level topic (@samp{Gnus}), two topics under
4118 that, and one sub-topic under one of the sub-topics. (There is always
4119 just one (1) top-level topic). This topology can be expressed as
4124 (("Emacs -- I wuw it!" visible)
4125 (("Naughty Emacs" visible)))
4129 @vindex gnus-topic-topology
4130 This is in fact how the variable @code{gnus-topic-topology} would look
4131 for the display above. That variable is saved in the @file{.newsrc.eld}
4132 file, and shouldn't be messed with manually---unless you really want
4133 to. Since this variable is read from the @file{.newsrc.eld} file,
4134 setting it in any other startup files will have no effect.
4136 This topology shows what topics are sub-topics of what topics (right),
4137 and which topics are visible. Two settings are currently
4138 allowed---@code{visible} and @code{invisible}.
4141 @node Topic Parameters
4142 @subsection Topic Parameters
4143 @cindex topic parameters
4145 All groups in a topic will inherit group parameters from the parent
4146 (and ancestor) topic parameters. All valid group parameters are valid
4147 topic parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}). When the agent is
4148 enabled, all agent parameters (See Agent Parameters in @ref{Category
4149 Syntax}) are also valid topic parameters.
4151 In addition, the following parameters are only valid as topic
4156 When subscribing new groups by topic (@pxref{Subscription Methods}), the
4157 @code{subscribe} topic parameter says what groups go in what topic. Its
4158 value should be a regexp to match the groups that should go in that
4161 @item subscribe-level
4162 When subscribing new groups by topic (see the @code{subscribe} parameter),
4163 the group will be subscribed with the level specified in the
4164 @code{subscribe-level} instead of @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}.
4168 Group parameters (of course) override topic parameters, and topic
4169 parameters in sub-topics override topic parameters in super-topics. You
4170 know. Normal inheritance rules. (@dfn{Rules} is here a noun, not a
4171 verb, although you may feel free to disagree with me here.)
4178 2: alt.religion.emacs
4182 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
4184 8: comp.binaries.fractals
4185 13: comp.sources.unix
4190 The @samp{Emacs} topic has the topic parameter @code{(score-file
4191 . "emacs.SCORE")}; the @samp{Relief} topic has the topic parameter
4192 @code{(score-file . "relief.SCORE")}; and the @samp{Misc} topic has the
4193 topic parameter @code{(score-file . "emacs.SCORE")}. In addition,
4194 @* @samp{alt.religion.emacs} has the group parameter @code{(score-file
4195 . "religion.SCORE")}.
4197 Now, when you enter @samp{alt.sex.emacs} in the @samp{Relief} topic, you
4198 will get the @file{relief.SCORE} home score file. If you enter the same
4199 group in the @samp{Emacs} topic, you'll get the @file{emacs.SCORE} home
4200 score file. If you enter the group @samp{alt.religion.emacs}, you'll
4201 get the @file{religion.SCORE} home score file.
4203 This seems rather simple and self-evident, doesn't it? Well, yes. But
4204 there are some problems, especially with the @code{total-expiry}
4205 parameter. Say you have a mail group in two topics; one with
4206 @code{total-expiry} and one without. What happens when you do @kbd{M-x
4207 gnus-expire-all-expirable-groups}? Gnus has no way of telling which one
4208 of these topics you mean to expire articles from, so anything may
4209 happen. In fact, I hereby declare that it is @dfn{undefined} what
4210 happens. You just have to be careful if you do stuff like that.
4213 @node Non-ASCII Group Names
4214 @section Accessing groups of non-English names
4215 @cindex non-ascii group names
4217 There are some news servers that provide groups of which the names are
4218 expressed with their native languages in the world. For instance, in a
4219 certain news server there are some newsgroups of which the names are
4220 spelled in Chinese, where people are talking in Chinese. You can, of
4221 course, subscribe to such news groups using Gnus. Currently Gnus
4222 supports non-@acronym{ASCII} group names not only with the @code{nntp}
4223 back end but also with the @code{nnml} back end and the @code{nnrss}
4226 Every such group name is encoded by a certain charset in the server
4227 side (in an @acronym{NNTP} server its administrator determines the
4228 charset, but for groups in the other back ends it is determined by you).
4229 Gnus has to display the decoded ones for you in the group buffer and the
4230 article buffer, and needs to use the encoded ones when communicating
4231 with servers. However, Gnus doesn't know what charset is used for each
4232 non-@acronym{ASCII} group name. The following two variables are just
4233 the ones for telling Gnus what charset should be used for each group:
4236 @item gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4237 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4238 An alist of select methods and charsets. The default value is
4239 @code{nil}. The names of groups in the server specified by that select
4240 method are all supposed to use the corresponding charset. For example:
4243 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4244 '(((nntp "news.com.cn") . cn-gb-2312)))
4247 Charsets specified for groups with this variable are preferred to the
4248 ones specified for the same groups with the
4249 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist} variable (see below).
4251 A select method can be very long, like:
4255 (nntp-address "news.gmane.org")
4256 (nntp-end-of-line "\n")
4257 (nntp-open-connection-function
4258 nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet)
4259 (nntp-via-rlogin-command "ssh")
4260 (nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
4261 ("-C" "-t" "-e" "none"))
4262 (nntp-via-address @dots{}))
4265 In that case, you can truncate it into @code{(nntp "gmane")} in this
4266 variable. That is, it is enough to contain only the back end name and
4269 @item gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4270 @cindex UTF-8 group names
4271 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4272 An alist of regexp of group name and the charset for group names.
4273 @code{((".*" . utf-8))} is the default value if UTF-8 is supported,
4274 otherwise the default is @code{nil}. For example:
4277 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4278 '(("\\.com\\.cn:" . cn-gb-2312)
4282 Note that this variable is ignored if the match is made with
4283 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist}.
4286 Those two variables are used also to determine the charset for encoding
4287 and decoding non-@acronym{ASCII} group names that are in the back ends
4288 other than @code{nntp}. It means that it is you who determine it. If
4289 you do nothing, the charset used for group names in those back ends will
4290 all be @code{utf-8} because of the last element of
4291 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist}.
4293 There is one more important variable for non-@acronym{ASCII} group
4297 @item nnmail-pathname-coding-system
4298 @vindex nnmail-pathname-coding-system
4299 The value of this variable should be a coding system or @code{nil}. The
4300 default is @code{nil} in Emacs, or is the aliasee of the coding system
4301 named @code{file-name} (a certain coding system of which an alias is
4302 @code{file-name}) in XEmacs.
4304 The @code{nnml} back end, the @code{nnrss} back end, the agent, and
4305 the cache use non-@acronym{ASCII} group names in those files and
4306 directories. This variable overrides the value of
4307 @code{file-name-coding-system} which specifies the coding system used
4308 when encoding and decoding those file names and directory names.
4310 In XEmacs (with the @code{mule} feature), @code{file-name-coding-system}
4311 is the only means to specify the coding system used to encode and decode
4312 file names. On the other hand, Emacs uses the value of
4313 @code{default-file-name-coding-system} if @code{file-name-coding-system}
4314 is @code{nil} or it is bound to the value of
4315 @code{nnmail-pathname-coding-system} which is @code{nil}.
4317 Normally the value of @code{default-file-name-coding-system} in Emacs or
4318 @code{nnmail-pathname-coding-system} in XEmacs is initialized according
4319 to the locale, so you will need to do nothing if the value is suitable
4320 to encode and decode non-@acronym{ASCII} group names.
4322 The value of this variable (or @code{default-file-name-coding-system})
4323 does not necessarily need to be the same value that is determined by
4324 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist} and
4325 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist}.
4327 If @code{default-file-name-coding-system} or this variable is
4328 initialized by default to @code{iso-latin-1} for example, although you
4329 want to subscribe to the groups spelled in Chinese, that is the most
4330 typical case where you have to customize
4331 @code{nnmail-pathname-coding-system}. The @code{utf-8} coding system is
4332 a good candidate for it. Otherwise, you may change the locale in your
4333 system so that @code{default-file-name-coding-system} or this variable
4334 may be initialized to an appropriate value.
4337 Note that when you copy or move articles from a non-@acronym{ASCII}
4338 group to another group, the charset used to encode and decode group
4339 names should be the same in both groups. Otherwise the Newsgroups
4340 header will be displayed incorrectly in the article buffer.
4343 @node Misc Group Stuff
4344 @section Misc Group Stuff
4347 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
4348 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
4349 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
4350 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
4351 * Sieve Commands:: Managing Sieve scripts.
4358 @cindex keys, reserved for users (Group)
4359 The key @kbd{v} is reserved for users. You can bind it to some
4360 command or better use it as a prefix key. For example:
4363 (define-key gnus-group-mode-map (kbd "v j d")
4366 (gnus-group-jump-to-group "nndraft:drafts")))
4369 On keys reserved for users in Emacs and on keybindings in general
4370 @xref{Keymaps, Keymaps, , emacs, The Emacs Editor}.
4374 @findex gnus-group-enter-server-mode
4375 Enter the server buffer (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}).
4376 @xref{Server Buffer}.
4380 @findex gnus-group-post-news
4381 Start composing a message (a news by default)
4382 (@code{gnus-group-post-news}). If given a prefix, post to the group
4383 under the point. If the prefix is 1, prompt for a group to post to.
4384 Contrary to what the name of this function suggests, the prepared
4385 article might be a mail instead of a news, if a mail group is specified
4386 with the prefix argument. @xref{Composing Messages}.
4390 @findex gnus-group-mail
4391 Mail a message somewhere (@code{gnus-group-mail}). If given a prefix,
4392 use the posting style of the group under the point. If the prefix is 1,
4393 prompt for a group name to find the posting style.
4394 @xref{Composing Messages}.
4398 @findex gnus-group-news
4399 Start composing a news (@code{gnus-group-news}). If given a prefix,
4400 post to the group under the point. If the prefix is 1, prompt
4401 for group to post to. @xref{Composing Messages}.
4403 This function actually prepares a news even when using mail groups.
4404 This is useful for ``posting'' messages to mail groups without actually
4405 sending them over the network: they're just saved directly to the group
4406 in question. The corresponding back end must have a request-post method
4407 for this to work though.
4411 @findex gnus-group-compact-group
4413 Compact the group under point (@code{gnus-group-compact-group}).
4414 Currently implemented only in nnml (@pxref{Mail Spool}). This removes
4415 gaps between article numbers, hence getting a correct total article
4420 Variables for the group buffer:
4424 @item gnus-group-mode-hook
4425 @vindex gnus-group-mode-hook
4426 is called after the group buffer has been
4429 @item gnus-group-prepare-hook
4430 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
4431 is called after the group buffer is
4432 generated. It may be used to modify the buffer in some strange,
4435 @item gnus-group-prepared-hook
4436 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
4437 is called as the very last thing after the group buffer has been
4438 generated. It may be used to move point around, for instance.
4440 @item gnus-permanently-visible-groups
4441 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
4442 Groups matching this regexp will always be listed in the group buffer,
4443 whether they are empty or not.
4447 @node Scanning New Messages
4448 @subsection Scanning New Messages
4449 @cindex new messages
4450 @cindex scanning new news
4456 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news
4457 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news}
4458 Check the server(s) for new articles. If the numerical prefix is used,
4459 this command will check only groups of level @var{arg} and lower
4460 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news}). If given a non-numerical prefix, this
4461 command will force a total re-reading of the active file(s) from the
4466 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group
4467 @vindex gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating
4468 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}
4469 Check whether new articles have arrived in the current group
4470 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}).
4471 @code{gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating} says whether this command is
4472 to move point to the next group or not. It is @code{t} by default.
4474 @findex gnus-activate-all-groups
4475 @cindex activating groups
4477 @kindex C-c M-g (Group)
4478 Activate absolutely all groups (@code{gnus-activate-all-groups}).
4483 @findex gnus-group-restart
4484 Restart Gnus (@code{gnus-group-restart}). This saves the @file{.newsrc}
4485 file(s), closes the connection to all servers, clears up all run-time
4486 Gnus variables, and then starts Gnus all over again.
4490 @vindex gnus-get-new-news-hook
4491 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is run just before checking for new news.
4493 @vindex gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook
4494 @code{gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook} is run after checking for new
4498 @node Group Information
4499 @subsection Group Information
4500 @cindex group information
4501 @cindex information on groups
4508 @c @icon{gnus-group-describe-group}
4510 @kindex C-c C-d (Group)
4511 @cindex describing groups
4512 @cindex group description
4513 @findex gnus-group-describe-group
4514 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-group-describe-group}). If given
4515 a prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description from the server.
4519 @findex gnus-group-describe-all-groups
4520 Describe all groups (@code{gnus-group-describe-all-groups}). If given a
4521 prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description file from the server.
4528 @findex gnus-version
4529 Display current Gnus version numbers (@code{gnus-version}).
4533 @findex gnus-group-describe-briefly
4534 Give a very short help message (@code{gnus-group-describe-briefly}).
4537 @kindex C-c C-i (Group)
4540 @findex gnus-info-find-node
4541 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
4545 @node Group Timestamp
4546 @subsection Group Timestamp
4548 @cindex group timestamps
4550 It can be convenient to let Gnus keep track of when you last read a
4551 group. To set the ball rolling, you should add
4552 @code{gnus-group-set-timestamp} to @code{gnus-select-group-hook}:
4555 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook 'gnus-group-set-timestamp)
4558 After doing this, each time you enter a group, it'll be recorded.
4560 This information can be displayed in various ways---the easiest is to
4561 use the @samp{%d} spec in the group line format:
4564 (setq gnus-group-line-format
4565 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %d\n")
4568 This will result in lines looking like:
4571 * 0: mail.ding 19961002T012943
4572 0: custom 19961002T012713
4575 As you can see, the date is displayed in compact ISO 8601 format. This
4576 may be a bit too much, so to just display the date, you could say
4580 (setq gnus-group-line-format
4581 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %6,6~(cut 2)d\n")
4584 If you would like greater control of the time format, you can use a
4585 user-defined format spec. Something like the following should do the
4589 (setq gnus-group-line-format
4590 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %ud\n")
4591 (defun gnus-user-format-function-d (headers)
4592 (let ((time (gnus-group-timestamp gnus-tmp-group)))
4594 (format-time-string "%b %d %H:%M" time)
4598 To see what variables are dynamically bound (like
4599 @code{gnus-tmp-group}), you have to look at the source code. The
4600 variable names aren't guaranteed to be stable over Gnus versions,
4605 @subsection File Commands
4606 @cindex file commands
4612 @findex gnus-group-read-init-file
4613 @vindex gnus-init-file
4614 @cindex reading init file
4615 Re-read the init file (@code{gnus-init-file}, which defaults to
4616 @file{~/.gnus.el}) (@code{gnus-group-read-init-file}).
4620 @findex gnus-group-save-newsrc
4621 @cindex saving .newsrc
4622 Save the @file{.newsrc.eld} file (and @file{.newsrc} if wanted)
4623 (@code{gnus-group-save-newsrc}). If given a prefix, force saving the
4624 file(s) whether Gnus thinks it is necessary or not.
4627 @c @kindex Z (Group)
4628 @c @findex gnus-group-clear-dribble
4629 @c Clear the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-group-clear-dribble}).
4634 @node Sieve Commands
4635 @subsection Sieve Commands
4636 @cindex group sieve commands
4638 Sieve is a server-side mail filtering language. In Gnus you can use
4639 the @code{sieve} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to specify
4640 sieve rules that should apply to each group. Gnus provides two
4641 commands to translate all these group parameters into a proper Sieve
4642 script that can be transferred to the server somehow.
4644 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
4645 @vindex gnus-sieve-region-start
4646 @vindex gnus-sieve-region-end
4647 The generated Sieve script is placed in @code{gnus-sieve-file} (by
4648 default @file{~/.sieve}). The Sieve code that Gnus generate is placed
4649 between two delimiters, @code{gnus-sieve-region-start} and
4650 @code{gnus-sieve-region-end}, so you may write additional Sieve code
4651 outside these delimiters that will not be removed the next time you
4652 regenerate the Sieve script.
4654 @vindex gnus-sieve-crosspost
4655 The variable @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} controls how the Sieve script
4656 is generated. If it is non-@code{nil} (the default) articles is
4657 placed in all groups that have matching rules, otherwise the article
4658 is only placed in the group with the first matching rule. For
4659 example, the group parameter @samp{(sieve address "sender"
4660 "owner-ding@@hpc.uh.edu")} will generate the following piece of Sieve
4661 code if @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} is @code{nil}. (When
4662 @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} is non-@code{nil}, it looks the same
4663 except that the line containing the call to @code{stop} is removed.)
4666 if address "sender" "owner-ding@@hpc.uh.edu" @{
4667 fileinto "INBOX.ding";
4672 @xref{Top, Emacs Sieve, Top, sieve, Emacs Sieve}.
4678 @findex gnus-sieve-generate
4679 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
4680 @cindex generating sieve script
4681 Regenerate a Sieve script from the @code{sieve} group parameters and
4682 put you into the @code{gnus-sieve-file} without saving it.
4686 @findex gnus-sieve-update
4687 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
4688 @cindex updating sieve script
4689 Regenerates the Gnus managed part of @code{gnus-sieve-file} using the
4690 @code{sieve} group parameters, save the file and upload it to the
4691 server using the @code{sieveshell} program.
4696 @node Summary Buffer
4697 @chapter Summary Buffer
4698 @cindex summary buffer
4700 A line for each article is displayed in the summary buffer. You can
4701 move around, read articles, post articles and reply to articles.
4703 The most common way to a summary buffer is to select a group from the
4704 group buffer (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
4706 You can have as many summary buffers open as you wish.
4708 You can customize the Summary Mode tool bar, see @kbd{M-x
4709 customize-apropos RET gnus-summary-tool-bar}. This feature is only
4713 @cindex keys, reserved for users (Summary)
4714 The key @kbd{v} is reserved for users. You can bind it to some
4715 command or better use it as a prefix key. For example:
4717 (define-key gnus-summary-mode-map (kbd "v -") "LrS") ;; lower subthread
4721 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
4722 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
4723 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
4724 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
4725 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
4726 * Delayed Articles:: Send articles at a later time.
4727 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
4728 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
4729 * Threading:: How threads are made.
4730 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
4731 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
4732 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
4733 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
4734 * Sticky Articles:: Article buffers that are not reused.
4735 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
4736 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
4737 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
4738 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
4739 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
4740 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
4741 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
4742 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
4743 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
4744 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
4745 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
4746 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
4747 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
4748 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
4749 or reselecting the current group.
4750 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
4751 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
4752 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
4753 * Mailing List:: Mailing list minor mode.
4757 @node Summary Buffer Format
4758 @section Summary Buffer Format
4759 @cindex summary buffer format
4763 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{180}{
4764 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=ps/summary,width=7.5cm}}
4765 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-article,width=7.5cm}}}
4771 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
4772 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
4773 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
4774 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
4777 @findex mail-extract-address-components
4778 @findex gnus-extract-address-components
4779 @vindex gnus-extract-address-components
4780 Gnus will use the value of the @code{gnus-extract-address-components}
4781 variable as a function for getting the name and address parts of a
4782 @code{From} header. Two pre-defined functions exist:
4783 @code{gnus-extract-address-components}, which is the default, quite
4784 fast, and too simplistic solution; and
4785 @code{mail-extract-address-components}, which works very nicely, but is
4786 slower. The default function will return the wrong answer in 5% of the
4787 cases. If this is unacceptable to you, use the other function instead:
4790 (setq gnus-extract-address-components
4791 'mail-extract-address-components)
4794 @vindex gnus-summary-same-subject
4795 @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} is a string indicating that the current
4796 article has the same subject as the previous. This string will be used
4797 with those specs that require it. The default is @code{""}.
4800 @node Summary Buffer Lines
4801 @subsection Summary Buffer Lines
4803 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
4804 You can change the format of the lines in the summary buffer by changing
4805 the @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable. It works along the same
4806 lines as a normal @code{format} string, with some extensions
4807 (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
4809 There should always be a colon or a point position marker on the line;
4810 the cursor always moves to the point position marker or the colon after
4811 performing an operation. (Of course, Gnus wouldn't be Gnus if it wasn't
4812 possible to change this. Just write a new function
4813 @code{gnus-goto-colon} which does whatever you like with the cursor.)
4814 @xref{Positioning Point}.
4816 The default string is @samp{%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%) %s\n}.
4818 The following format specification characters and extended format
4819 specification(s) are understood:
4825 Subject string. List identifiers stripped,
4826 @code{gnus-list-identifiers}. @xref{Article Hiding}.
4828 Subject if the article is the root of the thread or the previous article
4829 had a different subject, @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} otherwise.
4830 (@code{gnus-summary-same-subject} defaults to @code{""}.)
4832 Full @code{From} header.
4834 The name (from the @code{From} header).
4836 The name, @code{To} header or the @code{Newsgroups} header (@pxref{To
4839 The name (from the @code{From} header). This differs from the @code{n}
4840 spec in that it uses the function designated by the
4841 @code{gnus-extract-address-components} variable, which is slower, but
4842 may be more thorough.
4844 The address (from the @code{From} header). This works the same way as
4847 Number of lines in the article.
4849 Number of characters in the article. This specifier is not supported
4850 in some methods (like nnfolder).
4852 Pretty-printed version of the number of characters in the article;
4853 for example, @samp{1.2k} or @samp{0.4M}.
4855 Indentation based on thread level (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
4857 A complex trn-style thread tree, showing response-connecting trace
4858 lines. A thread could be drawn like this:
4871 You can customize the appearance with the following options. Note
4872 that it is possible to make the thread display look really neat by
4873 replacing the default @acronym{ASCII} characters with graphic
4874 line-drawing glyphs.
4876 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-root
4877 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-root
4878 Used for the root of a thread. If @code{nil}, use subject
4879 instead. The default is @samp{> }.
4881 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root
4882 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root
4883 Used for the false root of a thread (@pxref{Loose Threads}). If
4884 @code{nil}, use subject instead. The default is @samp{> }.
4886 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent
4887 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent
4888 Used for a thread with just one message. If @code{nil}, use subject
4889 instead. The default is @samp{}.
4891 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical
4892 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical
4893 Used for drawing a vertical line. The default is @samp{| }.
4895 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-indent
4896 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-indent
4897 Used for indenting. The default is @samp{ }.
4899 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other
4900 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other
4901 Used for a leaf with brothers. The default is @samp{+-> }.
4903 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf
4904 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf
4905 Used for a leaf without brothers. The default is @samp{\-> }
4910 Nothing if the article is a root and lots of spaces if it isn't (it
4911 pushes everything after it off the screen).
4913 Opening bracket, which is normally @samp{[}, but can also be @samp{<}
4914 for adopted articles (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
4916 Closing bracket, which is normally @samp{]}, but can also be @samp{>}
4917 for adopted articles.
4919 One space for each thread level.
4921 Twenty minus thread level spaces.
4923 Unread. @xref{Read Articles}.
4926 This misleadingly named specifier is the @dfn{secondary mark}. This
4927 mark will say whether the article has been replied to, has been cached,
4928 or has been saved. @xref{Other Marks}.
4931 Score as a number (@pxref{Scoring}).
4933 @vindex gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz
4934 Zcore, @samp{+} if above the default level and @samp{-} if below the
4935 default level. If the difference between
4936 @code{gnus-summary-default-score} and the score is less than
4937 @code{gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz}, this spec will not be used.
4945 The @code{Date} in @code{DD-MMM} format.
4947 The @code{Date} in @var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS} format.
4953 Number of articles in the current sub-thread. Using this spec will slow
4954 down summary buffer generation somewhat.
4956 An @samp{=} (@code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark}) will be displayed if the
4957 article has any children.
4963 Desired cursor position (instead of after first colon).
4965 Age sensitive date format. Various date format is defined in
4966 @code{gnus-user-date-format-alist}.
4968 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
4969 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
4970 @code{gnus-user-format-function-@var{x}}, where @var{x} is the letter
4971 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed the current header as
4972 argument. The function should return a string, which will be inserted
4973 into the summary just like information from any other summary specifier.
4976 Text between @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} will be highlighted with
4977 @code{gnus-mouse-face} when the mouse point is placed inside the area.
4978 There can only be one such area.
4980 The @samp{%U} (status), @samp{%R} (replied) and @samp{%z} (zcore) specs
4981 have to be handled with care. For reasons of efficiency, Gnus will
4982 compute what column these characters will end up in, and ``hard-code''
4983 that. This means that it is invalid to have these specs after a
4984 variable-length spec. Well, you might not be arrested, but your summary
4985 buffer will look strange, which is bad enough.
4987 The smart choice is to have these specs as far to the left as possible.
4988 (Isn't that the case with everything, though? But I digress.)
4990 This restriction may disappear in later versions of Gnus.
4993 @node To From Newsgroups
4994 @subsection To From Newsgroups
4998 In some groups (particularly in archive groups), the @code{From} header
4999 isn't very interesting, since all the articles there are written by
5000 you. To display the information in the @code{To} or @code{Newsgroups}
5001 headers instead, you need to decide three things: What information to
5002 gather; where to display it; and when to display it.
5006 @vindex gnus-extra-headers
5007 The reading of extra header information is controlled by the
5008 @code{gnus-extra-headers}. This is a list of header symbols. For
5012 (setq gnus-extra-headers
5013 '(To Newsgroups X-Newsreader))
5016 This will result in Gnus trying to obtain these three headers, and
5017 storing it in header structures for later easy retrieval.
5020 @findex gnus-extra-header
5021 The value of these extra headers can be accessed via the
5022 @code{gnus-extra-header} function. Here's a format line spec that will
5023 access the @code{X-Newsreader} header:
5026 "%~(form (gnus-extra-header 'X-Newsreader))@@"
5030 @vindex gnus-ignored-from-addresses
5031 The @code{gnus-ignored-from-addresses} variable says when the @samp{%f}
5032 summary line spec returns the @code{To}, @code{Newsreader} or
5033 @code{From} header. If this regexp matches the contents of the
5034 @code{From} header, the value of the @code{To} or @code{Newsreader}
5035 headers are used instead.
5037 To distinguish regular articles from those where the @code{From} field
5038 has been swapped, a string is prefixed to the @code{To} or
5039 @code{Newsgroups} header in the summary line. By default the string is
5040 @samp{-> } for @code{To} and @samp{=> } for @code{Newsgroups}, you can
5041 customize these strings with @code{gnus-summary-to-prefix} and
5042 @code{gnus-summary-newsgroup-prefix}.
5046 @vindex nnmail-extra-headers
5047 A related variable is @code{nnmail-extra-headers}, which controls when
5048 to include extra headers when generating overview (@acronym{NOV}) files.
5049 If you have old overview files, you should regenerate them after
5050 changing this variable, by entering the server buffer using @kbd{^},
5051 and then @kbd{g} on the appropriate mail server (e.g., nnml) to cause
5054 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
5055 You also have to instruct Gnus to display the data by changing the
5056 @code{%n} spec to the @code{%f} spec in the
5057 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable.
5059 In summary, you'd typically put something like the following in
5063 (setq gnus-extra-headers
5065 (setq nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
5066 (setq gnus-summary-line-format
5067 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%) %s\n")
5068 (setq gnus-ignored-from-addresses
5072 (The values listed above are the default values in Gnus. Alter them
5075 A note for news server administrators, or for users who wish to try to
5076 convince their news server administrator to provide some additional
5079 The above is mostly useful for mail groups, where you have control over
5080 the @acronym{NOV} files that are created. However, if you can persuade your
5081 nntp admin to add (in the usual implementation, notably INN):
5087 to the end of her @file{overview.fmt} file, then you can use that just
5088 as you would the extra headers from the mail groups.
5091 @node Summary Buffer Mode Line
5092 @subsection Summary Buffer Mode Line
5094 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-line-format
5095 You can also change the format of the summary mode bar (@pxref{Mode Line
5096 Formatting}). Set @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} to whatever you
5097 like. The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b [%A] %Z}.
5099 Here are the elements you can play with:
5105 Unprefixed group name.
5107 Current article number.
5109 Current article score.
5113 Number of unread articles in this group.
5115 Number of unread articles in this group that aren't displayed in the
5118 A string with the number of unread and unselected articles represented
5119 either as @samp{<%U(+%e) more>} if there are both unread and unselected
5120 articles, and just as @samp{<%U more>} if there are just unread articles
5121 and no unselected ones.
5123 Shortish group name. For instance, @samp{rec.arts.anime} will be
5124 shortened to @samp{r.a.anime}.
5126 Subject of the current article.
5128 User-defined spec (@pxref{User-Defined Specs}).
5130 Name of the current score file (@pxref{Scoring}).
5132 Number of dormant articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
5134 Number of ticked articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
5136 Number of articles that have been marked as read in this session.
5138 Number of articles expunged by the score files.
5142 @node Summary Highlighting
5143 @subsection Summary Highlighting
5147 @item gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
5148 @vindex gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
5149 This hook is run after selecting an article. It is meant to be used for
5150 highlighting the article in some way. It is not run if
5151 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
5153 @item gnus-summary-update-hook
5154 @vindex gnus-summary-update-hook
5155 This hook is called when a summary line is changed. It is not run if
5156 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
5158 @item gnus-summary-selected-face
5159 @vindex gnus-summary-selected-face
5160 This is the face (or @dfn{font} as some people call it) used to
5161 highlight the current article in the summary buffer.
5163 @item gnus-summary-highlight
5164 @vindex gnus-summary-highlight
5165 Summary lines are highlighted according to this variable, which is a
5166 list where the elements are of the format @code{(@var{form}
5167 . @var{face})}. If you would, for instance, like ticked articles to be
5168 italic and high-scored articles to be bold, you could set this variable
5171 (((eq mark gnus-ticked-mark) . italic)
5172 ((> score default) . bold))
5174 As you may have guessed, if @var{form} returns a non-@code{nil} value,
5175 @var{face} will be applied to the line.
5179 @node Summary Maneuvering
5180 @section Summary Maneuvering
5181 @cindex summary movement
5183 All the straight movement commands understand the numeric prefix and
5184 behave pretty much as you'd expect.
5186 None of these commands select articles.
5191 @kindex M-n (Summary)
5192 @kindex G M-n (Summary)
5193 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-subject
5194 Go to the next summary line of an unread article
5195 (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-subject}).
5199 @kindex M-p (Summary)
5200 @kindex G M-p (Summary)
5201 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject
5202 Go to the previous summary line of an unread article
5203 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject}).
5206 @kindex G g (Summary)
5207 @findex gnus-summary-goto-subject
5208 Ask for an article number and then go to the summary line of that article
5209 without displaying the article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-subject}).
5212 If Gnus asks you to press a key to confirm going to the next group, you
5213 can use the @kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p} keys to move around the group
5214 buffer, searching for the next group to read without actually returning
5215 to the group buffer.
5217 Variables related to summary movement:
5221 @vindex gnus-auto-select-next
5222 @item gnus-auto-select-next
5223 If you issue one of the movement commands (like @kbd{n}) and there are
5224 no more unread articles after the current one, Gnus will offer to go to
5225 the next group. If this variable is @code{t} and the next group is
5226 empty, Gnus will exit summary mode and return to the group buffer. If
5227 this variable is neither @code{t} nor @code{nil}, Gnus will select the
5228 next group with unread articles. As a special case, if this variable
5229 is @code{quietly}, Gnus will select the next group without asking for
5230 confirmation. If this variable is @code{almost-quietly}, the same
5231 will happen only if you are located on the last article in the group.
5232 Finally, if this variable is @code{slightly-quietly}, the @kbd{Z n}
5233 command will go to the next group without confirmation. Also
5234 @pxref{Group Levels}.
5236 @item gnus-auto-select-same
5237 @vindex gnus-auto-select-same
5238 If non-@code{nil}, all the movement commands will try to go to the next
5239 article with the same subject as the current. (@dfn{Same} here might
5240 mean @dfn{roughly equal}. See @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}
5241 for details (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).) If there are no more
5242 articles with the same subject, go to the first unread article.
5244 This variable is not particularly useful if you use a threaded display.
5246 @item gnus-summary-check-current
5247 @vindex gnus-summary-check-current
5248 If non-@code{nil}, all the ``unread'' movement commands will not proceed
5249 to the next (or previous) article if the current article is unread.
5250 Instead, they will choose the current article.
5252 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
5253 @vindex gnus-auto-center-summary
5254 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will keep the point in the summary buffer
5255 centered at all times. This makes things quite tidy, but if you have a
5256 slow network connection, or simply do not like this un-Emacsism, you can
5257 set this variable to @code{nil} to get the normal Emacs scrolling
5258 action. This will also inhibit horizontal re-centering of the summary
5259 buffer, which might make it more inconvenient to read extremely long
5262 This variable can also be a number. In that case, center the window at
5263 the given number of lines from the top.
5265 @item gnus-summary-stop-at-end-of-message
5266 @vindex gnus-summary-stop-at-end-of-message
5267 If non-@code{nil}, don't go to the next article when hitting
5268 @kbd{SPC}, and you're at the end of the article.
5273 @node Choosing Articles
5274 @section Choosing Articles
5275 @cindex selecting articles
5278 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
5279 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
5283 @node Choosing Commands
5284 @subsection Choosing Commands
5286 None of the following movement commands understand the numeric prefix,
5287 and they all select and display an article.
5289 If you want to fetch new articles or redisplay the group, see
5290 @ref{Exiting the Summary Buffer}.
5294 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
5295 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
5296 Select the current article, or, if that one's read already, the next
5297 unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
5299 If you have an article window open already and you press @kbd{SPACE}
5300 again, the article will be scrolled. This lets you conveniently
5301 @kbd{SPACE} through an entire newsgroup. @xref{Paging the Article}.
5306 @kindex G n (Summary)
5307 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-article
5308 @c @icon{gnus-summary-next-unread}
5309 Go to next unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-article}).
5314 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-article
5315 @c @icon{gnus-summary-prev-unread}
5316 Go to previous unread article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-article}).
5321 @kindex G N (Summary)
5322 @findex gnus-summary-next-article
5323 Go to the next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-article}).
5328 @kindex G P (Summary)
5329 @findex gnus-summary-prev-article
5330 Go to the previous article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-article}).
5333 @kindex G C-n (Summary)
5334 @findex gnus-summary-next-same-subject
5335 Go to the next article with the same subject
5336 (@code{gnus-summary-next-same-subject}).
5339 @kindex G C-p (Summary)
5340 @findex gnus-summary-prev-same-subject
5341 Go to the previous article with the same subject
5342 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-same-subject}).
5346 @kindex G f (Summary)
5348 @findex gnus-summary-first-unread-article
5349 Go to the first unread article
5350 (@code{gnus-summary-first-unread-article}).
5354 @kindex G b (Summary)
5356 @findex gnus-summary-best-unread-article
5357 Go to the unread article with the highest score
5358 (@code{gnus-summary-best-unread-article}). If given a prefix argument,
5359 go to the first unread article that has a score over the default score.
5364 @kindex G l (Summary)
5365 @findex gnus-summary-goto-last-article
5366 Go to the previous article read (@code{gnus-summary-goto-last-article}).
5369 @kindex G o (Summary)
5370 @findex gnus-summary-pop-article
5372 @cindex article history
5373 Pop an article off the summary history and go to this article
5374 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-article}). This command differs from the
5375 command above in that you can pop as many previous articles off the
5376 history as you like, while @kbd{l} toggles the two last read articles.
5377 For a somewhat related issue (if you use these commands a lot),
5378 @pxref{Article Backlog}.
5383 @kindex G j (Summary)
5384 @findex gnus-summary-goto-article
5385 Ask for an article number or @code{Message-ID}, and then go to that
5386 article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-article}).
5391 @node Choosing Variables
5392 @subsection Choosing Variables
5394 Some variables relevant for moving and selecting articles:
5397 @item gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
5398 @vindex gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
5399 All the movement commands will try to go to the previous (or next)
5400 article, even if that article isn't displayed in the Summary buffer if
5401 this variable is non-@code{nil}. Gnus will then fetch the article from
5402 the server and display it in the article buffer.
5404 @item gnus-select-article-hook
5405 @vindex gnus-select-article-hook
5406 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. The default is
5407 @code{nil}. If you would like each article to be saved in the Agent as
5408 you read it, putting @code{gnus-agent-fetch-selected-article} on this
5411 @item gnus-mark-article-hook
5412 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
5413 @findex gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read
5414 @findex gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read
5415 @findex gnus-unread-mark
5416 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. It is intended to
5417 be used for marking articles as read. The default value is
5418 @code{gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read}, and will change the
5419 mark of almost any article you read to @code{gnus-read-mark}. The only
5420 articles not affected by this function are ticked, dormant, and
5421 expirable articles. If you'd instead like to just have unread articles
5422 marked as read, you can use @code{gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read}
5423 instead. It will leave marks like @code{gnus-low-score-mark},
5424 @code{gnus-del-mark} (and so on) alone.
5429 @node Paging the Article
5430 @section Scrolling the Article
5431 @cindex article scrolling
5436 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
5437 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
5438 Pressing @kbd{SPACE} will scroll the current article forward one page,
5439 or, if you have come to the end of the current article, will choose the
5440 next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
5442 @vindex gnus-article-boring-faces
5443 @vindex gnus-article-skip-boring
5444 If @code{gnus-article-skip-boring} is non-@code{nil} and the rest of
5445 the article consists only of citations and signature, then it will be
5446 skipped; the next article will be shown instead. You can customize
5447 what is considered uninteresting with
5448 @code{gnus-article-boring-faces}. You can manually view the article's
5449 pages, no matter how boring, using @kbd{C-M-v}.
5452 @kindex DEL (Summary)
5453 @findex gnus-summary-prev-page
5454 Scroll the current article back one page (@code{gnus-summary-prev-page}).
5457 @kindex RET (Summary)
5458 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-up
5459 Scroll the current article one line forward
5460 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-up}).
5463 @kindex M-RET (Summary)
5464 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-down
5465 Scroll the current article one line backward
5466 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-down}).
5470 @kindex A g (Summary)
5472 @findex gnus-summary-show-article
5473 @vindex gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
5474 (Re)fetch the current article (@code{gnus-summary-show-article}). If
5475 given a prefix, show a completely ``raw'' article, just the way it
5476 came from the server. If given a prefix twice (i.e., @kbd{C-u C-u
5477 g'}), fetch the current article, but don't run any of the article
5478 treatment functions.
5480 @cindex charset, view article with different charset
5481 If given a numerical prefix, you can do semi-manual charset stuff.
5482 @kbd{C-u 0 g cn-gb-2312 RET} will decode the message as if it were
5483 encoded in the @code{cn-gb-2312} charset. If you have
5486 (setq gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
5491 then you can say @kbd{C-u 1 g} to get the same effect.
5496 @kindex A < (Summary)
5497 @findex gnus-summary-beginning-of-article
5498 Scroll to the beginning of the article
5499 (@code{gnus-summary-beginning-of-article}).
5504 @kindex A > (Summary)
5505 @findex gnus-summary-end-of-article
5506 Scroll to the end of the article (@code{gnus-summary-end-of-article}).
5510 @kindex A s (Summary)
5512 @findex gnus-summary-isearch-article
5513 Perform an isearch in the article buffer
5514 (@code{gnus-summary-isearch-article}).
5518 @findex gnus-summary-select-article-buffer
5519 Select the article buffer (@code{gnus-summary-select-article-buffer}).
5524 @node Reply Followup and Post
5525 @section Reply, Followup and Post
5528 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
5529 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
5530 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
5531 * Canceling and Superseding::
5535 @node Summary Mail Commands
5536 @subsection Summary Mail Commands
5538 @cindex composing mail
5540 Commands for composing a mail message:
5546 @kindex S r (Summary)
5548 @findex gnus-summary-reply
5549 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-reply}
5550 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply}
5551 Mail a reply to the author of the current article
5552 (@code{gnus-summary-reply}).
5557 @kindex S R (Summary)
5558 @findex gnus-summary-reply-with-original
5559 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}
5560 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
5561 original message (@code{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}). This
5562 command uses the process/prefix convention.
5565 @kindex S w (Summary)
5566 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply
5567 Mail a wide reply to the author of the current article
5568 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{wide reply} is a reply that
5569 goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
5570 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers. If @code{Mail-Followup-To} is
5571 present, that's used instead.
5574 @kindex S W (Summary)
5575 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original
5576 Mail a wide reply to the current article and include the original
5577 message (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original}). This command uses
5578 the process/prefix convention, but only uses the headers from the
5579 first article to determine the recipients.
5582 @kindex S L (Summary)
5583 @findex gnus-summary-reply-to-list-with-original
5584 When replying to a message from a mailing list, send a reply to that
5585 message to the mailing list, and include the original message
5586 (@code{gnus-summary-reply-to-list-with-original}).
5589 @kindex S v (Summary)
5590 @findex gnus-summary-very-wide-reply
5591 Mail a very wide reply to the author of the current article
5592 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{very wide reply} is a reply
5593 that goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
5594 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers in all the process/prefixed
5595 articles. This command uses the process/prefix convention.
5598 @kindex S V (Summary)
5599 @findex gnus-summary-very-wide-reply-with-original
5600 Mail a very wide reply to the author of the current article and include the
5601 original message (@code{gnus-summary-very-wide-reply-with-original}). This
5602 command uses the process/prefix convention.
5605 @kindex S B r (Summary)
5606 @findex gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to
5607 Mail a reply to the author of the current article but ignore the
5608 @code{Reply-To} field (@code{gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to}).
5609 If you need this because a mailing list incorrectly sets a
5610 @code{Reply-To} header pointing to the list, you probably want to set
5611 the @code{broken-reply-to} group parameter instead, so things will work
5612 correctly. @xref{Group Parameters}.
5615 @kindex S B R (Summary)
5616 @findex gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to-with-original
5617 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
5618 original message but ignore the @code{Reply-To} field
5619 (@code{gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to-with-original}).
5623 @kindex S o m (Summary)
5624 @kindex C-c C-f (Summary)
5625 @findex gnus-summary-mail-forward
5626 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-forward}
5627 Forward the current article to some other person
5628 (@code{gnus-summary-mail-forward}). If no prefix is given, the message
5629 is forwarded according to the value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime})
5630 and (@code{message-forward-show-mml}); if the prefix is 1, decode the
5631 message and forward directly inline; if the prefix is 2, forward message
5632 as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME} section; if the prefix is 3, decode message and
5633 forward as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME} section; if the prefix is 4, forward message
5634 directly inline; otherwise, the message is forwarded as no prefix given
5635 but use the flipped value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}). By
5636 default, the message is decoded and forwarded as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME}
5642 @kindex S m (Summary)
5643 @findex gnus-summary-mail-other-window
5644 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-originate}
5645 Prepare a mail (@code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}). By default, use
5646 the posting style of the current group. If given a prefix, disable that.
5647 If the prefix is 1, prompt for a group name to find the posting style.
5650 @kindex S i (Summary)
5651 @findex gnus-summary-news-other-window
5652 Prepare a news (@code{gnus-summary-news-other-window}). By default,
5653 post to the current group. If given a prefix, disable that. If the
5654 prefix is 1, prompt for a group to post to.
5656 This function actually prepares a news even when using mail groups.
5657 This is useful for ``posting'' messages to mail groups without actually
5658 sending them over the network: they're just saved directly to the group
5659 in question. The corresponding back end must have a request-post method
5660 for this to work though.
5663 @kindex S D b (Summary)
5664 @findex gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail
5665 @cindex bouncing mail
5666 If you have sent a mail, but the mail was bounced back to you for some
5667 reason (wrong address, transient failure), you can use this command to
5668 resend that bounced mail (@code{gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail}). You
5669 will be popped into a mail buffer where you can edit the headers before
5670 sending the mail off again. If you give a prefix to this command, and
5671 the bounced mail is a reply to some other mail, Gnus will try to fetch
5672 that mail and display it for easy perusal of its headers. This might
5673 very well fail, though.
5676 @kindex S D r (Summary)
5677 @findex gnus-summary-resend-message
5678 Not to be confused with the previous command,
5679 @code{gnus-summary-resend-message} will prompt you for an address to
5680 send the current message off to, and then send it to that place. The
5681 headers of the message won't be altered---but lots of headers that say
5682 @code{Resent-To}, @code{Resent-From} and so on will be added. This
5683 means that you actually send a mail to someone that has a @code{To}
5684 header that (probably) points to yourself. This will confuse people.
5685 So, natcherly you'll only do that if you're really eVIl.
5687 This command is mainly used if you have several accounts and want to
5688 ship a mail to a different account of yours. (If you're both
5689 @code{root} and @code{postmaster} and get a mail for @code{postmaster}
5690 to the @code{root} account, you may want to resend it to
5691 @code{postmaster}. Ordnung muss sein!
5693 This command understands the process/prefix convention
5694 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5697 @kindex S D e (Summary)
5698 @findex gnus-summary-resend-message-edit
5700 Like the previous command, but will allow you to edit the message as
5701 if it were a new message before resending.
5704 @kindex S O m (Summary)
5705 @findex gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward
5706 Digest the current series (@pxref{Decoding Articles}) and forward the
5707 result using mail (@code{gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward}). This command
5708 uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5711 @kindex S M-c (Summary)
5712 @findex gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint
5713 @cindex crossposting
5714 @cindex excessive crossposting
5715 Send a complaint about excessive crossposting to the author of the
5716 current article (@code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint}).
5718 @findex gnus-crosspost-complaint
5719 This command is provided as a way to fight back against the current
5720 crossposting pandemic that's sweeping Usenet. It will compose a reply
5721 using the @code{gnus-crosspost-complaint} variable as a preamble. This
5722 command understands the process/prefix convention
5723 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) and will prompt you before sending each mail.
5727 Also @xref{Header Commands, ,Header Commands, message, The Message
5728 Manual}, for more information.
5731 @node Summary Post Commands
5732 @subsection Summary Post Commands
5734 @cindex composing news
5736 Commands for posting a news article:
5742 @kindex S p (Summary)
5743 @findex gnus-summary-post-news
5744 @c @icon{gnus-summary-post-news}
5745 Prepare for posting an article (@code{gnus-summary-post-news}). By
5746 default, post to the current group. If given a prefix, disable that.
5747 If the prefix is 1, prompt for another group instead.
5752 @kindex S f (Summary)
5753 @findex gnus-summary-followup
5754 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup}
5755 Post a followup to the current article (@code{gnus-summary-followup}).
5759 @kindex S F (Summary)
5761 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}
5762 @findex gnus-summary-followup-with-original
5763 Post a followup to the current article and include the original message
5764 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}). This command uses the
5765 process/prefix convention.
5768 @kindex S n (Summary)
5769 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail
5770 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
5771 message through mail (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail}).
5774 @kindex S N (Summary)
5775 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original
5776 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
5777 message through mail and include the original message
5778 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original}). This command uses
5779 the process/prefix convention.
5782 @kindex S o p (Summary)
5783 @findex gnus-summary-post-forward
5784 Forward the current article to a newsgroup
5785 (@code{gnus-summary-post-forward}).
5786 If no prefix is given, the message is forwarded according to the value
5787 of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}) and
5788 (@code{message-forward-show-mml}); if the prefix is 1, decode the
5789 message and forward directly inline; if the prefix is 2, forward message
5790 as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME} section; if the prefix is 3, decode message and
5791 forward as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME} section; if the prefix is 4, forward message
5792 directly inline; otherwise, the message is forwarded as no prefix given
5793 but use the flipped value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}). By
5794 default, the message is decoded and forwarded as an rfc822 @acronym{MIME} section.
5797 @kindex S O p (Summary)
5798 @findex gnus-uu-digest-post-forward
5800 @cindex making digests
5801 Digest the current series and forward the result to a newsgroup
5802 (@code{gnus-uu-digest-post-forward}). This command uses the
5803 process/prefix convention.
5806 @kindex S u (Summary)
5807 @findex gnus-uu-post-news
5808 @c @icon{gnus-uu-post-news}
5809 Uuencode a file, split it into parts, and post it as a series
5810 (@code{gnus-uu-post-news}). (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
5813 Also @xref{Header Commands, ,Header Commands, message, The Message
5814 Manual}, for more information.
5817 @node Summary Message Commands
5818 @subsection Summary Message Commands
5822 @kindex S y (Summary)
5823 @findex gnus-summary-yank-message
5824 Yank the current article into an already existing Message composition
5825 buffer (@code{gnus-summary-yank-message}). This command prompts for
5826 what message buffer you want to yank into, and understands the
5827 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5832 @node Canceling and Superseding
5833 @subsection Canceling Articles
5834 @cindex canceling articles
5835 @cindex superseding articles
5837 Have you ever written something, and then decided that you really,
5838 really, really wish you hadn't posted that?
5840 Well, you can't cancel mail, but you can cancel posts.
5842 @findex gnus-summary-cancel-article
5844 @c @icon{gnus-summary-cancel-article}
5845 Find the article you wish to cancel (you can only cancel your own
5846 articles, so don't try any funny stuff). Then press @kbd{C} or @kbd{S
5847 c} (@code{gnus-summary-cancel-article}). Your article will be
5848 canceled---machines all over the world will be deleting your article.
5849 This command uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5851 Be aware, however, that not all sites honor cancels, so your article may
5852 live on here and there, while most sites will delete the article in
5855 Gnus will use the ``current'' select method when canceling. If you
5856 want to use the standard posting method, use the @samp{a} symbolic
5857 prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}).
5859 Gnus ensures that only you can cancel your own messages using a
5860 @code{Cancel-Lock} header (@pxref{Canceling News, Canceling News, ,
5861 message, Message Manual}).
5863 If you discover that you have made some mistakes and want to do some
5864 corrections, you can post a @dfn{superseding} article that will replace
5865 your original article.
5867 @findex gnus-summary-supersede-article
5869 Go to the original article and press @kbd{S s}
5870 (@code{gnus-summary-supersede-article}). You will be put in a buffer
5871 where you can edit the article all you want before sending it off the
5874 The same goes for superseding as for canceling, only more so: Some
5875 sites do not honor superseding. On those sites, it will appear that you
5876 have posted almost the same article twice.
5878 If you have just posted the article, and change your mind right away,
5879 there is a trick you can use to cancel/supersede the article without
5880 waiting for the article to appear on your site first. You simply return
5881 to the post buffer (which is called @code{*sent ...*}). There you will
5882 find the article you just posted, with all the headers intact. Change
5883 the @code{Message-ID} header to a @code{Cancel} or @code{Supersedes}
5884 header by substituting one of those words for the word
5885 @code{Message-ID}. Then just press @kbd{C-c C-c} to send the article as
5886 you would do normally. The previous article will be
5887 canceled/superseded.
5889 Just remember, kids: There is no 'c' in 'supersede'.
5891 @node Delayed Articles
5892 @section Delayed Articles
5893 @cindex delayed sending
5894 @cindex send delayed
5896 Sometimes, you might wish to delay the sending of a message. For
5897 example, you might wish to arrange for a message to turn up just in time
5898 to remind your about the birthday of your Significant Other. For this,
5899 there is the @code{gnus-delay} package. Setup is simple:
5902 (gnus-delay-initialize)
5905 @findex gnus-delay-article
5906 Normally, to send a message you use the @kbd{C-c C-c} command from
5907 Message mode. To delay a message, use @kbd{C-c C-j}
5908 (@code{gnus-delay-article}) instead. This will ask you for how long the
5909 message should be delayed. Possible answers are:
5913 A time span. Consists of an integer and a letter. For example,
5914 @code{42d} means to delay for 42 days. Available letters are @code{m}
5915 (minutes), @code{h} (hours), @code{d} (days), @code{w} (weeks), @code{M}
5916 (months) and @code{Y} (years).
5919 A specific date. Looks like @code{YYYY-MM-DD}. The message will be
5920 delayed until that day, at a specific time (eight o'clock by default).
5921 See also @code{gnus-delay-default-hour}.
5924 A specific time of day. Given in @code{hh:mm} format, 24h, no am/pm
5925 stuff. The deadline will be at that time today, except if that time has
5926 already passed, then it's at the given time tomorrow. So if it's ten
5927 o'clock in the morning and you specify @code{11:15}, then the deadline
5928 is one hour and fifteen minutes hence. But if you specify @code{9:20},
5929 that means a time tomorrow.
5932 The action of the @code{gnus-delay-article} command is influenced by a
5933 couple of variables:
5936 @item gnus-delay-default-hour
5937 @vindex gnus-delay-default-hour
5938 When you specify a specific date, the message will be due on that hour
5939 on the given date. Possible values are integers 0 through 23.
5941 @item gnus-delay-default-delay
5942 @vindex gnus-delay-default-delay
5943 This is a string and gives the default delay. It can be of any of the
5944 formats described above.
5946 @item gnus-delay-group
5947 @vindex gnus-delay-group
5948 Delayed articles will be kept in this group on the drafts server until
5949 they are due. You probably don't need to change this. The default
5950 value is @code{"delayed"}.
5952 @item gnus-delay-header
5953 @vindex gnus-delay-header
5954 The deadline for each article will be stored in a header. This variable
5955 is a string and gives the header name. You probably don't need to
5956 change this. The default value is @code{"X-Gnus-Delayed"}.
5959 The way delaying works is like this: when you use the
5960 @code{gnus-delay-article} command, you give a certain delay. Gnus
5961 calculates the deadline of the message and stores it in the
5962 @code{X-Gnus-Delayed} header and puts the message in the
5963 @code{nndraft:delayed} group.
5965 @findex gnus-delay-send-queue
5966 And whenever you get new news, Gnus looks through the group for articles
5967 which are due and sends them. It uses the @code{gnus-delay-send-queue}
5968 function for this. By default, this function is added to the hook
5969 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. But of course, you can change this.
5970 Maybe you want to use the demon to send drafts? Just tell the demon to
5971 execute the @code{gnus-delay-send-queue} function.
5974 @item gnus-delay-initialize
5975 @findex gnus-delay-initialize
5976 By default, this function installs @code{gnus-delay-send-queue} in
5977 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. But it accepts the optional second
5978 argument @code{no-check}. If it is non-@code{nil},
5979 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is not changed. The optional first
5980 argument is ignored.
5982 For example, @code{(gnus-delay-initialize nil t)} means to do nothing.
5983 Presumably, you want to use the demon for sending due delayed articles.
5984 Just don't forget to set that up :-)
5987 When delaying an article with @kbd{C-c C-j}, Message mode will
5988 automatically add a @code{"Date"} header with the current time. In
5989 many cases you probably want the @code{"Date"} header to reflect the
5990 time the message is sent instead. To do this, you have to delete
5991 @code{Date} from @code{message-draft-headers}.
5994 @node Marking Articles
5995 @section Marking Articles
5996 @cindex article marking
5997 @cindex article ticking
6000 There are several marks you can set on an article.
6002 You have marks that decide the @dfn{readedness} (whoo, neato-keano
6003 neologism ohoy!) of the article. Alphabetic marks generally mean
6004 @dfn{read}, while non-alphabetic characters generally mean @dfn{unread}.
6006 In addition, you also have marks that do not affect readedness.
6009 There's a plethora of commands for manipulating these marks.
6013 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
6014 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
6015 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
6016 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
6017 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
6018 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
6022 @node Unread Articles
6023 @subsection Unread Articles
6025 The following marks mark articles as (kinda) unread, in one form or
6030 @vindex gnus-ticked-mark
6031 Marked as ticked (@code{gnus-ticked-mark}).
6033 @dfn{Ticked articles} are articles that will remain visible always. If
6034 you see an article that you find interesting, or you want to put off
6035 reading it, or replying to it, until sometime later, you'd typically
6036 tick it. However, articles can be expired (from news servers by the
6037 news server software, Gnus itself never expires ticked messages), so if
6038 you want to keep an article forever, you'll have to make it persistent
6039 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
6042 @vindex gnus-dormant-mark
6043 Marked as dormant (@code{gnus-dormant-mark}).
6045 @dfn{Dormant articles} will only appear in the summary buffer if there
6046 are followups to it. If you want to see them even if they don't have
6047 followups, you can use the @kbd{/ D} command (@pxref{Limiting}).
6048 Otherwise (except for the visibility issue), they are just like ticked
6052 @vindex gnus-unread-mark
6053 Marked as unread (@code{gnus-unread-mark}).
6055 @dfn{Unread articles} are articles that haven't been read at all yet.
6060 @subsection Read Articles
6061 @cindex expirable mark
6063 All the following marks mark articles as read.
6068 @vindex gnus-del-mark
6069 These are articles that the user has marked as read with the @kbd{d}
6070 command manually, more or less (@code{gnus-del-mark}).
6073 @vindex gnus-read-mark
6074 Articles that have actually been read (@code{gnus-read-mark}).
6077 @vindex gnus-ancient-mark
6078 Articles that were marked as read in previous sessions and are now
6079 @dfn{old} (@code{gnus-ancient-mark}).
6082 @vindex gnus-killed-mark
6083 Marked as killed (@code{gnus-killed-mark}).
6086 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mark
6087 Marked as killed by kill files (@code{gnus-kill-file-mark}).
6090 @vindex gnus-low-score-mark
6091 Marked as read by having too low a score (@code{gnus-low-score-mark}).
6094 @vindex gnus-catchup-mark
6095 Marked as read by a catchup (@code{gnus-catchup-mark}).
6098 @vindex gnus-canceled-mark
6099 Canceled article (@code{gnus-canceled-mark})
6102 @vindex gnus-sparse-mark
6103 Sparsely reffed article (@code{gnus-sparse-mark}). @xref{Customizing
6107 @vindex gnus-duplicate-mark
6108 Article marked as read by duplicate suppression
6109 (@code{gnus-duplicate-mark}). @xref{Duplicate Suppression}.
6113 All these marks just mean that the article is marked as read, really.
6114 They are interpreted differently when doing adaptive scoring, though.
6116 One more special mark, though:
6120 @vindex gnus-expirable-mark
6121 Marked as expirable (@code{gnus-expirable-mark}).
6123 Marking articles as @dfn{expirable} (or have them marked as such
6124 automatically) doesn't make much sense in normal groups---a user doesn't
6125 control expiring of news articles, but in mail groups, for instance,
6126 articles marked as @dfn{expirable} can be deleted by Gnus at
6132 @subsection Other Marks
6133 @cindex process mark
6136 There are some marks that have nothing to do with whether the article is
6142 You can set a bookmark in the current article. Say you are reading a
6143 long thesis on cats' urinary tracts, and have to go home for dinner
6144 before you've finished reading the thesis. You can then set a bookmark
6145 in the article, and Gnus will jump to this bookmark the next time it
6146 encounters the article. @xref{Setting Marks}.
6149 @vindex gnus-replied-mark
6150 All articles that you have replied to or made a followup to (i.e., have
6151 answered) will be marked with an @samp{A} in the second column
6152 (@code{gnus-replied-mark}).
6155 @vindex gnus-forwarded-mark
6156 All articles that you have forwarded will be marked with an @samp{F} in
6157 the second column (@code{gnus-forwarded-mark}).
6160 @vindex gnus-cached-mark
6161 Articles stored in the article cache will be marked with an @samp{*} in
6162 the second column (@code{gnus-cached-mark}). @xref{Article Caching}.
6165 @vindex gnus-saved-mark
6166 Articles ``saved'' (in some manner or other; not necessarily
6167 religiously) are marked with an @samp{S} in the second column
6168 (@code{gnus-saved-mark}).
6171 @vindex gnus-unseen-mark
6172 Articles that haven't been seen before in Gnus by the user are marked
6173 with a @samp{.} in the second column (@code{gnus-unseen-mark}).
6176 @vindex gnus-downloaded-mark
6177 When using the Gnus agent (@pxref{Agent Basics}), articles may be
6178 downloaded for unplugged (offline) viewing. If you are using the
6179 @samp{%O} spec, these articles get the @samp{+} mark in that spec.
6180 (The variable @code{gnus-downloaded-mark} controls which character to
6184 @vindex gnus-undownloaded-mark
6185 When using the Gnus agent (@pxref{Agent Basics}), some articles might
6186 not have been downloaded. Such articles cannot be viewed while you
6187 are unplugged (offline). If you are using the @samp{%O} spec, these
6188 articles get the @samp{-} mark in that spec. (The variable
6189 @code{gnus-undownloaded-mark} controls which character to use.)
6192 @vindex gnus-downloadable-mark
6193 The Gnus agent (@pxref{Agent Basics}) downloads some articles
6194 automatically, but it is also possible to explicitly mark articles for
6195 download, even if they would not be downloaded automatically. Such
6196 explicitly-marked articles get the @samp{%} mark in the first column.
6197 (The variable @code{gnus-downloadable-mark} controls which character to
6201 @vindex gnus-not-empty-thread-mark
6202 @vindex gnus-empty-thread-mark
6203 If the @samp{%e} spec is used, the presence of threads or not will be
6204 marked with @code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark} and
6205 @code{gnus-empty-thread-mark} in the third column, respectively.
6208 @vindex gnus-process-mark
6209 Finally we have the @dfn{process mark} (@code{gnus-process-mark}). A
6210 variety of commands react to the presence of the process mark. For
6211 instance, @kbd{X u} (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}) will uudecode and view
6212 all articles that have been marked with the process mark. Articles
6213 marked with the process mark have a @samp{#} in the second column.
6217 You might have noticed that most of these ``non-readedness'' marks
6218 appear in the second column by default. So if you have a cached, saved,
6219 replied article that you have process-marked, what will that look like?
6221 Nothing much. The precedence rules go as follows: process -> cache ->
6222 replied -> saved. So if the article is in the cache and is replied,
6223 you'll only see the cache mark and not the replied mark.
6227 @subsection Setting Marks
6228 @cindex setting marks
6230 All the marking commands understand the numeric prefix.
6235 @kindex M c (Summary)
6236 @kindex M-u (Summary)
6237 @findex gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward
6238 @cindex mark as unread
6239 Clear all readedness-marks from the current article
6240 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward}). In other words, mark the
6246 @kindex M t (Summary)
6247 @findex gnus-summary-tick-article-forward
6248 Tick the current article (@code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}).
6249 @xref{Article Caching}.
6254 @kindex M ? (Summary)
6255 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant
6256 Mark the current article as dormant
6257 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant}). @xref{Article Caching}.
6261 @kindex M d (Summary)
6263 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward
6264 Mark the current article as read
6265 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward}).
6269 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward
6270 Mark the current article as read and move point to the previous line
6271 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward}).
6276 @kindex M k (Summary)
6277 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select
6278 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read,
6279 and then select the next unread article
6280 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select}).
6284 @kindex M K (Summary)
6285 @kindex C-k (Summary)
6286 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject
6287 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read
6288 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject}).
6291 @kindex M C (Summary)
6292 @findex gnus-summary-catchup
6293 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup}
6294 Mark all unread articles as read (@code{gnus-summary-catchup}).
6297 @kindex M C-c (Summary)
6298 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all
6299 Mark all articles in the group as read---even the ticked and dormant
6300 articles (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all}).
6303 @kindex M H (Summary)
6304 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-to-here
6305 Catchup the current group to point (before the point)
6306 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-to-here}).
6309 @kindex M h (Summary)
6310 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-from-here
6311 Catchup the current group from point (after the point)
6312 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-from-here}).
6315 @kindex C-w (Summary)
6316 @findex gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read
6317 Mark all articles between point and mark as read
6318 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read}).
6321 @kindex M V k (Summary)
6322 @findex gnus-summary-kill-below
6323 Kill all articles with scores below the default score (or below the
6324 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-kill-below}).
6328 @kindex M e (Summary)
6330 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable
6331 Mark the current article as expirable
6332 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable}).
6335 @kindex M b (Summary)
6336 @findex gnus-summary-set-bookmark
6337 Set a bookmark in the current article
6338 (@code{gnus-summary-set-bookmark}).
6341 @kindex M B (Summary)
6342 @findex gnus-summary-remove-bookmark
6343 Remove the bookmark from the current article
6344 (@code{gnus-summary-remove-bookmark}).
6347 @kindex M V c (Summary)
6348 @findex gnus-summary-clear-above
6349 Clear all marks from articles with scores over the default score (or
6350 over the numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
6353 @kindex M V u (Summary)
6354 @findex gnus-summary-tick-above
6355 Tick all articles with scores over the default score (or over the
6356 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-tick-above}).
6359 @kindex M V m (Summary)
6360 @findex gnus-summary-mark-above
6361 Prompt for a mark, and mark all articles with scores over the default
6362 score (or over the numeric prefix) with this mark
6363 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
6366 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
6367 The @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} variable controls what action should
6368 be taken after setting a mark. If non-@code{nil}, point will move to
6369 the next/previous unread article. If @code{nil}, point will just move
6370 one line up or down. As a special case, if this variable is
6371 @code{never}, all the marking commands as well as other commands (like
6372 @kbd{SPACE}) will move to the next article, whether it is unread or not.
6373 The default is @code{t}.
6376 @node Generic Marking Commands
6377 @subsection Generic Marking Commands
6379 Some people would like the command that ticks an article (@kbd{!}) go to
6380 the next article. Others would like it to go to the next unread
6381 article. Yet others would like it to stay on the current article. And
6382 even though I haven't heard of anybody wanting it to go to the
6383 previous (unread) article, I'm sure there are people that want that as
6386 Multiply these five behaviors with five different marking commands, and
6387 you get a potentially complex set of variable to control what each
6390 To sidestep that mess, Gnus provides commands that do all these
6391 different things. They can be found on the @kbd{M M} map in the summary
6392 buffer. Type @kbd{M M C-h} to see them all---there are too many of them
6393 to list in this manual.
6395 While you can use these commands directly, most users would prefer
6396 altering the summary mode keymap. For instance, if you would like the
6397 @kbd{!} command to go to the next article instead of the next unread
6398 article, you could say something like:
6402 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'my-alter-summary-map)
6403 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
6404 (local-set-key "!" 'gnus-summary-put-mark-as-ticked-next))
6412 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
6413 (local-set-key "!" "MM!n"))
6417 @node Setting Process Marks
6418 @subsection Setting Process Marks
6419 @cindex setting process marks
6421 Process marks are displayed as @code{#} in the summary buffer, and are
6422 used for marking articles in such a way that other commands will
6423 process these articles. For instance, if you process mark four
6424 articles and then use the @kbd{*} command, Gnus will enter these four
6425 articles into the cache. For more information,
6426 @pxref{Process/Prefix}.
6433 @kindex M P p (Summary)
6434 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-processable
6435 Mark the current article with the process mark
6436 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-processable}).
6437 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable
6441 @kindex M P u (Summary)
6442 @kindex M-# (Summary)
6443 Remove the process mark, if any, from the current article
6444 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable}).
6447 @kindex M P U (Summary)
6448 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable
6449 Remove the process mark from all articles
6450 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable}).
6453 @kindex M P i (Summary)
6454 @findex gnus-uu-invert-processable
6455 Invert the list of process marked articles
6456 (@code{gnus-uu-invert-processable}).
6459 @kindex M P R (Summary)
6460 @findex gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp
6461 Mark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
6462 expression (@code{gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp}).
6465 @kindex M P G (Summary)
6466 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp
6467 Unmark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
6468 expression (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp}).
6471 @kindex M P r (Summary)
6472 @findex gnus-uu-mark-region
6473 Mark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-mark-region}).
6476 @kindex M P g (Summary)
6477 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-region
6478 Unmark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-region}).
6481 @kindex M P t (Summary)
6482 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
6483 Mark all articles in the current (sub)thread
6484 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
6487 @kindex M P T (Summary)
6488 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
6489 Unmark all articles in the current (sub)thread
6490 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
6493 @kindex M P v (Summary)
6494 @findex gnus-uu-mark-over
6495 Mark all articles that have a score above the prefix argument
6496 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-over}).
6499 @kindex M P s (Summary)
6500 @findex gnus-uu-mark-series
6501 Mark all articles in the current series (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
6504 @kindex M P S (Summary)
6505 @findex gnus-uu-mark-sparse
6506 Mark all series that have already had some articles marked
6507 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-sparse}).
6510 @kindex M P a (Summary)
6511 @findex gnus-uu-mark-all
6512 Mark all articles in series order (@code{gnus-uu-mark-all}).
6515 @kindex M P b (Summary)
6516 @findex gnus-uu-mark-buffer
6517 Mark all articles in the buffer in the order they appear
6518 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-buffer}).
6521 @kindex M P k (Summary)
6522 @findex gnus-summary-kill-process-mark
6523 Push the current process mark set onto the stack and unmark all articles
6524 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-process-mark}).
6527 @kindex M P y (Summary)
6528 @findex gnus-summary-yank-process-mark
6529 Pop the previous process mark set from the stack and restore it
6530 (@code{gnus-summary-yank-process-mark}).
6533 @kindex M P w (Summary)
6534 @findex gnus-summary-save-process-mark
6535 Push the current process mark set onto the stack
6536 (@code{gnus-summary-save-process-mark}).
6540 Also see the @kbd{&} command in @ref{Searching for Articles}, for how to
6541 set process marks based on article body contents.
6548 It can be convenient to limit the summary buffer to just show some
6549 subset of the articles currently in the group. The effect most limit
6550 commands have is to remove a few (or many) articles from the summary
6553 Limiting commands work on subsets of the articles already fetched from
6554 the servers. These commands don't query the server for additional
6561 @kindex / / (Summary)
6562 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-subject
6563 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some subject
6564 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-subject}). If given a prefix, exclude
6568 @kindex / a (Summary)
6569 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-author
6570 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some author
6571 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-author}). If given a prefix, exclude
6575 @kindex / R (Summary)
6576 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-recipient
6577 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some recipient
6578 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-recipient}). If given a prefix, exclude
6582 @kindex / A (Summary)
6583 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-address
6584 Limit the summary buffer to articles in which contents of From, To or Cc
6585 header match a given address (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-address}). If
6586 given a prefix, exclude matching articles.
6589 @kindex / S (Summary)
6590 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-singletons
6591 Limit the summary buffer to articles that aren't part of any displayed
6592 threads (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-singletons}). If given a prefix,
6593 limit to articles that are part of displayed threads.
6596 @kindex / x (Summary)
6597 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-extra
6598 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match one of the ``extra''
6599 headers (@pxref{To From Newsgroups})
6600 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-extra}). If given a prefix, exclude
6605 @kindex / u (Summary)
6607 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-unread
6608 Limit the summary buffer to articles not marked as read
6609 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-unread}). If given a prefix, limit the
6610 buffer to articles strictly unread. This means that ticked and
6611 dormant articles will also be excluded.
6614 @kindex / m (Summary)
6615 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-marks
6616 Ask for a mark and then limit to all articles that have been marked
6617 with that mark (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-marks}).
6620 @kindex / t (Summary)
6621 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-age
6622 Ask for a number and then limit the summary buffer to articles older than (or equal to) that number of days
6623 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-age}). If given a prefix, limit to
6624 articles younger than that number of days.
6627 @kindex / n (Summary)
6628 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-articles
6629 With prefix @samp{n}, limit the summary buffer to the next @samp{n}
6630 articles. If not given a prefix, use the process marked articles
6631 instead. (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-articles}).
6634 @kindex / w (Summary)
6635 @findex gnus-summary-pop-limit
6636 Pop the previous limit off the stack and restore it
6637 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-limit}). If given a prefix, pop all limits off
6641 @kindex / . (Summary)
6642 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-unseen
6643 Limit the summary buffer to the unseen articles
6644 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-unseen}).
6647 @kindex / v (Summary)
6648 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-score
6649 Limit the summary buffer to articles that have a score at or above some
6650 score (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-score}).
6653 @kindex / p (Summary)
6654 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-display-predicate
6655 Limit the summary buffer to articles that satisfy the @code{display}
6656 group parameter predicate
6657 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-display-predicate}). @xref{Group
6658 Parameters}, for more on this predicate.
6661 @kindex / r (Summary)
6662 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-replied
6663 Limit the summary buffer to replied articles
6664 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-replied}). If given a prefix, exclude
6669 @kindex M S (Summary)
6670 @kindex / E (Summary)
6671 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged
6672 Include all expunged articles in the limit
6673 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged}).
6676 @kindex / D (Summary)
6677 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant
6678 Include all dormant articles in the limit
6679 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant}).
6682 @kindex / * (Summary)
6683 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-cached
6684 Include all cached articles in the limit
6685 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-cached}).
6688 @kindex / d (Summary)
6689 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant
6690 Exclude all dormant articles from the limit
6691 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant}).
6694 @kindex / M (Summary)
6695 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks
6696 Exclude all marked articles (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks}).
6699 @kindex / T (Summary)
6700 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-thread
6701 Include all the articles in the current thread in the limit.
6704 @kindex / c (Summary)
6705 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant
6706 Exclude all dormant articles that have no children from the limit@*
6707 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant}).
6710 @kindex / C (Summary)
6711 @findex gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read
6712 Mark all excluded unread articles as read
6713 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read}). If given a prefix,
6714 also mark excluded ticked and dormant articles as read.
6717 @kindex / b (Summary)
6718 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-bodies
6719 Limit the summary buffer to articles that have bodies that match a
6720 certain regexp (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-bodies}). If given a
6721 prefix, reverse the limit. This command is quite slow since it
6722 requires selecting each article to find the matches.
6725 @kindex / h (Summary)
6726 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-headers
6727 Like the previous command, only limit to headers instead
6728 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-headers}).
6733 The following commands aren't limiting commands, but use the @kbd{/}
6738 @kindex / N (Summary)
6739 @findex gnus-summary-insert-new-articles
6740 Insert all new articles in the summary buffer. It scans for new emails
6741 if @var{back-end}@code{-get-new-mail} is non-@code{nil}.
6744 @kindex / o (Summary)
6745 @findex gnus-summary-insert-old-articles
6746 Insert all old articles in the summary buffer. If given a numbered
6747 prefix, fetch this number of articles.
6755 @cindex article threading
6757 Gnus threads articles by default. @dfn{To thread} is to put responses
6758 to articles directly after the articles they respond to---in a
6759 hierarchical fashion.
6761 Threading is done by looking at the @code{References} headers of the
6762 articles. In a perfect world, this would be enough to build pretty
6763 trees, but unfortunately, the @code{References} header is often broken
6764 or simply missing. Weird news propagation exacerbates the problem,
6765 so one has to employ other heuristics to get pleasing results. A
6766 plethora of approaches exists, as detailed in horrible detail in
6767 @ref{Customizing Threading}.
6769 First, a quick overview of the concepts:
6773 The top-most article in a thread; the first article in the thread.
6776 A tree-like article structure.
6779 A small(er) section of this tree-like structure.
6782 Threads often lose their roots due to article expiry, or due to the root
6783 already having been read in a previous session, and not displayed in the
6784 summary buffer. We then typically have many sub-threads that really
6785 belong to one thread, but are without connecting roots. These are
6786 called loose threads.
6788 @item thread gathering
6789 An attempt to gather loose threads into bigger threads.
6791 @item sparse threads
6792 A thread where the missing articles have been ``guessed'' at, and are
6793 displayed as empty lines in the summary buffer.
6799 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
6800 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
6804 @node Customizing Threading
6805 @subsection Customizing Threading
6806 @cindex customizing threading
6809 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
6810 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
6811 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
6812 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over@dots{} but you were wrong!
6817 @subsubsection Loose Threads
6820 @cindex loose threads
6823 @item gnus-summary-make-false-root
6824 @vindex gnus-summary-make-false-root
6825 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will gather all loose subtrees into one big tree
6826 and create a dummy root at the top. (Wait a minute. Root at the top?
6827 Yup.) Loose subtrees occur when the real root has expired, or you've
6828 read or killed the root in a previous session.
6830 When there is no real root of a thread, Gnus will have to fudge
6831 something. This variable says what fudging method Gnus should use.
6832 There are four possible values:
6836 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{390}{
6837 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-adopt,width=7.5cm}}
6838 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-empty,width=7.5cm}}}
6839 \put(0,400){\makebox(0,0)[tl]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-none,width=7.5cm}}}
6840 \put(445,400){\makebox(0,0)[tr]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-dummy,width=7.5cm}}}
6845 @cindex adopting articles
6850 Gnus will make the first of the orphaned articles the parent. This
6851 parent will adopt all the other articles. The adopted articles will be
6852 marked as such by pointy brackets (@samp{<>}) instead of the standard
6853 square brackets (@samp{[]}). This is the default method.
6856 @vindex gnus-summary-dummy-line-format
6857 @vindex gnus-summary-make-false-root-always
6858 Gnus will create a dummy summary line that will pretend to be the
6859 parent. This dummy line does not correspond to any real article, so
6860 selecting it will just select the first real article after the dummy
6861 article. @code{gnus-summary-dummy-line-format} is used to specify the
6862 format of the dummy roots. It accepts only one format spec: @samp{S},
6863 which is the subject of the article. @xref{Formatting Variables}.
6864 If you want all threads to have a dummy root, even the non-gathered
6865 ones, set @code{gnus-summary-make-false-root-always} to @code{t}.
6868 Gnus won't actually make any article the parent, but simply leave the
6869 subject field of all orphans except the first empty. (Actually, it will
6870 use @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} as the subject (@pxref{Summary
6874 Don't make any article parent at all. Just gather the threads and
6875 display them after one another.
6878 Don't gather loose threads.
6881 @item gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
6882 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
6883 Loose threads are gathered by comparing subjects of articles. If this
6884 variable is @code{nil}, Gnus requires an exact match between the
6885 subjects of the loose threads before gathering them into one big
6886 super-thread. This might be too strict a requirement, what with the
6887 presence of stupid newsreaders that chop off long subject lines. If
6888 you think so, set this variable to, say, 20 to require that only the
6889 first 20 characters of the subjects have to match. If you set this
6890 variable to a really low number, you'll find that Gnus will gather
6891 everything in sight into one thread, which isn't very helpful.
6893 @cindex fuzzy article gathering
6894 If you set this variable to the special value @code{fuzzy}, Gnus will
6895 use a fuzzy string comparison algorithm on the subjects (@pxref{Fuzzy
6898 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
6899 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
6900 This can either be a regular expression or list of regular expressions
6901 that match strings that will be removed from subjects if fuzzy subject
6902 simplification is used.
6904 @item gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
6905 @vindex gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
6906 If you set @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit} to something as low
6907 as 10, you might consider setting this variable to something sensible:
6909 @c Written by Michael Ernst <mernst@cs.rice.edu>
6911 (setq gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
6917 "wanted" "followup" "summary\\( of\\)?"
6918 "help" "query" "problem" "question"
6919 "answer" "reference" "announce"
6920 "How can I" "How to" "Comparison of"
6925 (mapconcat 'identity
6926 '("for" "for reference" "with" "about")
6928 "\\)?\\]?:?[ \t]*"))
6931 All words that match this regexp will be removed before comparing two
6934 @item gnus-simplify-subject-functions
6935 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-functions
6936 If non-@code{nil}, this variable overrides
6937 @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}. This variable should be a
6938 list of functions to apply to the @code{Subject} string iteratively to
6939 arrive at the simplified version of the string.
6941 Useful functions to put in this list include:
6944 @item gnus-simplify-subject-re
6945 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-re
6946 Strip the leading @samp{Re:}.
6948 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
6949 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
6952 @item gnus-simplify-whitespace
6953 @findex gnus-simplify-whitespace
6954 Remove excessive whitespace.
6956 @item gnus-simplify-all-whitespace
6957 @findex gnus-simplify-all-whitespace
6958 Remove all whitespace.
6961 You may also write your own functions, of course.
6964 @item gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
6965 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
6966 Since loose thread gathering is done on subjects only, that might lead
6967 to many false hits, especially with certain common subjects like
6968 @samp{} and @samp{(none)}. To make the situation slightly better,
6969 you can use the regexp @code{gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject} to say
6970 what subjects should be excluded from the gathering process.@*
6971 The default is @samp{^ *$\\|^(none)$}.
6973 @item gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
6974 @vindex gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
6975 Gnus gathers threads by looking at @code{Subject} headers. This means
6976 that totally unrelated articles may end up in the same ``thread'', which
6977 is confusing. An alternate approach is to look at all the
6978 @code{Message-ID}s in all the @code{References} headers to find matches.
6979 This will ensure that no gathered threads ever include unrelated
6980 articles, but it also means that people who have posted with broken
6981 newsreaders won't be gathered properly. The choice is yours---plague or
6985 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
6986 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
6987 This function is the default gathering function and looks at
6988 @code{Subject}s exclusively.
6990 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-references
6991 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-references
6992 This function looks at @code{References} headers exclusively.
6995 If you want to test gathering by @code{References}, you could say
6999 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
7000 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
7006 @node Filling In Threads
7007 @subsubsection Filling In Threads
7010 @item gnus-fetch-old-headers
7011 @vindex gnus-fetch-old-headers
7012 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will attempt to build old threads by fetching
7013 more old headers---headers to articles marked as read. If you would
7014 like to display as few summary lines as possible, but still connect as
7015 many loose threads as possible, you should set this variable to
7016 @code{some} or a number. If you set it to a number, no more than that
7017 number of extra old headers will be fetched. In either case, fetching
7018 old headers only works if the back end you are using carries overview
7019 files---this would normally be @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool},
7020 @code{nnml}, and @code{nnmaildir}. Also remember that if the root of
7021 the thread has been expired by the server, there's not much Gnus can
7024 This variable can also be set to @code{invisible}. This won't have any
7025 visible effects, but is useful if you use the @kbd{A T} command a lot
7026 (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
7028 The server has to support @acronym{NOV} for any of this to work.
7030 @cindex Gmane, gnus-fetch-old-headers
7031 This feature can seriously impact performance it ignores all locally
7032 cached header entries. Setting it to @code{t} for groups for a server
7033 that doesn't expire articles (such as news.gmane.org), leads to very
7034 slow summary generation.
7036 @item gnus-fetch-old-ephemeral-headers
7037 @vindex gnus-fetch-old-ephemeral-headers
7038 Same as @code{gnus-fetch-old-headers}, but only used for ephemeral
7041 @item gnus-build-sparse-threads
7042 @vindex gnus-build-sparse-threads
7043 Fetching old headers can be slow. A low-rent similar effect can be
7044 gotten by setting this variable to @code{some}. Gnus will then look at
7045 the complete @code{References} headers of all articles and try to string
7046 together articles that belong in the same thread. This will leave
7047 @dfn{gaps} in the threading display where Gnus guesses that an article
7048 is missing from the thread. (These gaps appear like normal summary
7049 lines. If you select a gap, Gnus will try to fetch the article in
7050 question.) If this variable is @code{t}, Gnus will display all these
7051 ``gaps'' without regard for whether they are useful for completing the
7052 thread or not. Finally, if this variable is @code{more}, Gnus won't cut
7053 off sparse leaf nodes that don't lead anywhere. This variable is
7054 @code{nil} by default.
7056 @item gnus-read-all-available-headers
7057 @vindex gnus-read-all-available-headers
7058 This is a rather obscure variable that few will find useful. It's
7059 intended for those non-news newsgroups where the back end has to fetch
7060 quite a lot to present the summary buffer, and where it's impossible to
7061 go back to parents of articles. This is mostly the case in the
7064 If you don't use those, then it's safe to leave this as the default
7065 @code{nil}. If you want to use this variable, it should be a regexp
7066 that matches the group name, or @code{t} for all groups.
7071 @node More Threading
7072 @subsubsection More Threading
7075 @item gnus-show-threads
7076 @vindex gnus-show-threads
7077 If this variable is @code{nil}, no threading will be done, and all of
7078 the rest of the variables here will have no effect. Turning threading
7079 off will speed group selection up a bit, but it is sure to make reading
7080 slower and more awkward.
7082 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
7083 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-subtree
7084 If non-@code{nil}, all threads will be hidden when the summary buffer is
7087 This can also be a predicate specifier (@pxref{Predicate Specifiers}).
7088 Available predicates are @code{gnus-article-unread-p} and
7089 @code{gnus-article-unseen-p}.
7094 (setq gnus-thread-hide-subtree
7095 '(or gnus-article-unread-p
7096 gnus-article-unseen-p))
7099 (It's a pretty nonsensical example, since all unseen articles are also
7100 unread, but you get my drift.)
7103 @item gnus-thread-expunge-below
7104 @vindex gnus-thread-expunge-below
7105 All threads that have a total score (as defined by
7106 @code{gnus-thread-score-function}) less than this number will be
7107 expunged. This variable is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
7108 threads are expunged.
7110 @item gnus-thread-hide-killed
7111 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-killed
7112 if you kill a thread and this variable is non-@code{nil}, the subtree
7115 @item gnus-thread-ignore-subject
7116 @vindex gnus-thread-ignore-subject
7117 Sometimes somebody changes the subject in the middle of a thread. If
7118 this variable is non-@code{nil}, which is the default, the subject
7119 change is ignored. If it is @code{nil}, a change in the subject will
7120 result in a new thread.
7122 @item gnus-thread-indent-level
7123 @vindex gnus-thread-indent-level
7124 This is a number that says how much each sub-thread should be indented.
7127 @item gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
7128 @vindex gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
7129 Sometimes, particularly with mailing lists, the order in which mails
7130 arrive locally is not necessarily the same as the order in which they
7131 arrived on the mailing list. Consequently, when sorting sub-threads
7132 using the default @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number}, responses can end
7133 up appearing before the article to which they are responding to.
7134 Setting this variable to an alternate value
7135 (e.g., @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}), in a group's parameters or in an
7136 appropriate hook (e.g., @code{gnus-summary-generate-hook}) can produce a
7137 more logical sub-thread ordering in such instances.
7142 @node Low-Level Threading
7143 @subsubsection Low-Level Threading
7147 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
7148 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
7149 Hook run before parsing any headers.
7151 @item gnus-alter-header-function
7152 @vindex gnus-alter-header-function
7153 If non-@code{nil}, this function will be called to allow alteration of
7154 article header structures. The function is called with one parameter,
7155 the article header vector, which it may alter in any way. For instance,
7156 if you have a mail-to-news gateway which alters the @code{Message-ID}s
7157 in systematic ways (by adding prefixes and such), you can use this
7158 variable to un-scramble the @code{Message-ID}s so that they are more
7159 meaningful. Here's one example:
7162 (setq gnus-alter-header-function 'my-alter-message-id)
7164 (defun my-alter-message-id (header)
7165 (let ((id (mail-header-id header)))
7167 "\\(<[^<>@@]*\\)\\.?cygnus\\..*@@\\([^<>@@]*>\\)" id)
7169 (concat (match-string 1 id) "@@" (match-string 2 id))
7176 @node Thread Commands
7177 @subsection Thread Commands
7178 @cindex thread commands
7184 @kindex T k (Summary)
7185 @kindex C-M-k (Summary)
7186 @findex gnus-summary-kill-thread
7187 Mark all articles in the current (sub-)thread as read
7188 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}). If the prefix argument is positive,
7189 remove all marks instead. If the prefix argument is negative, tick
7194 @kindex T l (Summary)
7195 @kindex C-M-l (Summary)
7196 @findex gnus-summary-lower-thread
7197 Lower the score of the current (sub-)thread
7198 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-thread}).
7201 @kindex T i (Summary)
7202 @findex gnus-summary-raise-thread
7203 Increase the score of the current (sub-)thread
7204 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-thread}).
7207 @kindex T # (Summary)
7208 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
7209 Set the process mark on the current (sub-)thread
7210 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
7213 @kindex T M-# (Summary)
7214 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
7215 Remove the process mark from the current (sub-)thread
7216 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
7219 @kindex T T (Summary)
7220 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-threads
7221 Toggle threading (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-threads}).
7224 @kindex T s (Summary)
7225 @findex gnus-summary-show-thread
7226 Expose the (sub-)thread hidden under the current article, if any@*
7227 (@code{gnus-summary-show-thread}).
7230 @kindex T h (Summary)
7231 @findex gnus-summary-hide-thread
7232 Hide the current (sub-)thread (@code{gnus-summary-hide-thread}).
7235 @kindex T S (Summary)
7236 @findex gnus-summary-show-all-threads
7237 Expose all hidden threads (@code{gnus-summary-show-all-threads}).
7240 @kindex T H (Summary)
7241 @findex gnus-summary-hide-all-threads
7242 Hide all threads (@code{gnus-summary-hide-all-threads}).
7245 @kindex T t (Summary)
7246 @findex gnus-summary-rethread-current
7247 Re-thread the current article's thread
7248 (@code{gnus-summary-rethread-current}). This works even when the
7249 summary buffer is otherwise unthreaded.
7252 @kindex T ^ (Summary)
7253 @findex gnus-summary-reparent-thread
7254 Make the current article the child of the marked (or previous) article
7255 (@code{gnus-summary-reparent-thread}).
7258 @kindex T M-^ (Summary)
7259 @findex gnus-summary-reparent-children
7260 Make the current article the parent of the marked articles
7261 (@code{gnus-summary-reparent-children}).
7265 The following commands are thread movement commands. They all
7266 understand the numeric prefix.
7271 @kindex T n (Summary)
7273 @kindex C-M-n (Summary)
7275 @kindex M-down (Summary)
7276 @findex gnus-summary-next-thread
7277 Go to the next thread (@code{gnus-summary-next-thread}).
7280 @kindex T p (Summary)
7282 @kindex C-M-p (Summary)
7284 @kindex M-up (Summary)
7285 @findex gnus-summary-prev-thread
7286 Go to the previous thread (@code{gnus-summary-prev-thread}).
7289 @kindex T d (Summary)
7290 @findex gnus-summary-down-thread
7291 Descend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-down-thread}).
7294 @kindex T u (Summary)
7295 @findex gnus-summary-up-thread
7296 Ascend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-up-thread}).
7299 @kindex T o (Summary)
7300 @findex gnus-summary-top-thread
7301 Go to the top of the thread (@code{gnus-summary-top-thread}).
7304 @vindex gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject
7305 If you ignore subject while threading, you'll naturally end up with
7306 threads that have several different subjects in them. If you then issue
7307 a command like @kbd{T k} (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}) you might not
7308 wish to kill the entire thread, but just those parts of the thread that
7309 have the same subject as the current article. If you like this idea,
7310 you can fiddle with @code{gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject}. If it
7311 is non-@code{nil} (which it is by default), subjects will be ignored
7312 when doing thread commands. If this variable is @code{nil}, articles in
7313 the same thread with different subjects will not be included in the
7314 operation in question. If this variable is @code{fuzzy}, only articles
7315 that have subjects fuzzily equal will be included (@pxref{Fuzzy
7319 @node Sorting the Summary Buffer
7320 @section Sorting the Summary Buffer
7322 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score
7323 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-date
7324 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-score
7325 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
7326 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-author
7327 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-recipient
7328 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-number
7329 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-random
7330 @vindex gnus-thread-sort-functions
7331 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-number
7332 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-date
7333 If you are using a threaded summary display, you can sort the threads by
7334 setting @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, which can be either a single
7335 function, a list of functions, or a list containing functions and
7336 @code{(not some-function)} elements.
7338 By default, sorting is done on article numbers. Ready-made sorting
7339 predicate functions include @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number},
7340 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-author}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-recipient},
7341 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-subject},
7342 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date},
7343 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-score},
7344 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-number},
7345 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-date},
7346 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-random} and
7347 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score}.
7349 Each function takes two threads and returns non-@code{nil} if the first
7350 thread should be sorted before the other. Note that sorting really is
7351 normally done by looking only at the roots of each thread. Exceptions
7352 to this rule are @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-number} and
7353 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-date}.
7355 If you use more than one function, the primary sort key should be the
7356 last function in the list. You should probably always include
7357 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number} in the list of sorting
7358 functions---preferably first. This will ensure that threads that are
7359 equal with respect to the other sort criteria will be displayed in
7360 ascending article order.
7362 If you would like to sort by reverse score, then by subject, and finally
7363 by number, you could do something like:
7366 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
7367 '(gnus-thread-sort-by-number
7368 gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
7369 (not gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score)))
7372 The threads that have highest score will be displayed first in the
7373 summary buffer. When threads have the same score, they will be sorted
7374 alphabetically. The threads that have the same score and the same
7375 subject will be sorted by number, which is (normally) the sequence in
7376 which the articles arrived.
7378 If you want to sort by score and then reverse arrival order, you could
7382 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
7383 '((not gnus-thread-sort-by-number)
7384 gnus-thread-sort-by-score))
7387 @vindex gnus-thread-score-function
7388 The function in the @code{gnus-thread-score-function} variable (default
7389 @code{+}) is used for calculating the total score of a thread. Useful
7390 functions might be @code{max}, @code{min}, or squared means, or whatever
7393 @findex gnus-article-sort-functions
7394 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-date
7395 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-most-recent-date
7396 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-score
7397 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-subject
7398 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-author
7399 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-random
7400 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-number
7401 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-most-recent-number
7402 If you are using an unthreaded display for some strange reason or
7403 other, you have to fiddle with the @code{gnus-article-sort-functions}
7404 variable. It is very similar to the
7405 @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, except that it uses slightly
7406 different functions for article comparison. Available sorting
7407 predicate functions are @code{gnus-article-sort-by-number},
7408 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-author},
7409 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-subject}, @code{gnus-article-sort-by-date},
7410 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-random}, and
7411 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-score}.
7413 If you want to sort an unthreaded summary display by subject, you could
7417 (setq gnus-article-sort-functions
7418 '(gnus-article-sort-by-number
7419 gnus-article-sort-by-subject))
7422 You can define group specific sorting via @code{gnus-parameters},
7423 @xref{Group Parameters}.
7426 @node Asynchronous Fetching
7427 @section Asynchronous Article Fetching
7428 @cindex asynchronous article fetching
7429 @cindex article pre-fetch
7432 If you read your news from an @acronym{NNTP} server that's far away, the
7433 network latencies may make reading articles a chore. You have to wait
7434 for a while after pressing @kbd{n} to go to the next article before the
7435 article appears. Why can't Gnus just go ahead and fetch the article
7436 while you are reading the previous one? Why not, indeed.
7438 First, some caveats. There are some pitfalls to using asynchronous
7439 article fetching, especially the way Gnus does it.
7441 Let's say you are reading article 1, which is short, and article 2 is
7442 quite long, and you are not interested in reading that. Gnus does not
7443 know this, so it goes ahead and fetches article 2. You decide to read
7444 article 3, but since Gnus is in the process of fetching article 2, the
7445 connection is blocked.
7447 To avoid these situations, Gnus will open two (count 'em two)
7448 connections to the server. Some people may think this isn't a very nice
7449 thing to do, but I don't see any real alternatives. Setting up that
7450 extra connection takes some time, so Gnus startup will be slower.
7452 Gnus will fetch more articles than you will read. This will mean that
7453 the link between your machine and the @acronym{NNTP} server will become more
7454 loaded than if you didn't use article pre-fetch. The server itself will
7455 also become more loaded---both with the extra article requests, and the
7458 Ok, so now you know that you shouldn't really use this thing@dots{} unless
7461 @vindex gnus-asynchronous
7462 Here's how: Set @code{gnus-asynchronous} to @code{t}. The rest should
7463 happen automatically.
7465 @vindex gnus-use-article-prefetch
7466 You can control how many articles are to be pre-fetched by setting
7467 @code{gnus-use-article-prefetch}. This is 30 by default, which means
7468 that when you read an article in the group, the back end will pre-fetch
7469 the next 30 articles. If this variable is @code{t}, the back end will
7470 pre-fetch all the articles it can without bound. If it is
7471 @code{nil}, no pre-fetching will be done.
7473 @vindex gnus-async-prefetch-article-p
7474 @findex gnus-async-unread-p
7475 There are probably some articles that you don't want to pre-fetch---read
7476 articles, for instance. The @code{gnus-async-prefetch-article-p}
7477 variable controls whether an article is to be pre-fetched. This
7478 function should return non-@code{nil} when the article in question is
7479 to be pre-fetched. The default is @code{gnus-async-unread-p}, which
7480 returns @code{nil} on read articles. The function is called with an
7481 article data structure as the only parameter.
7483 If, for instance, you wish to pre-fetch only unread articles shorter
7484 than 100 lines, you could say something like:
7487 (defun my-async-short-unread-p (data)
7488 "Return non-nil for short, unread articles."
7489 (and (gnus-data-unread-p data)
7490 (< (mail-header-lines (gnus-data-header data))
7493 (setq gnus-async-prefetch-article-p 'my-async-short-unread-p)
7496 These functions will be called many, many times, so they should
7497 preferably be short and sweet to avoid slowing down Gnus too much.
7498 It's probably a good idea to byte-compile things like this.
7500 @vindex gnus-async-post-fetch-function
7501 @findex gnus-html-prefetch-images
7502 After an article has been prefetched, this
7503 @code{gnus-async-post-fetch-function} will be called. The buffer will
7504 be narrowed to the region of the article that was fetched. A useful
7505 value would be @code{gnus-html-prefetch-images}, which will prefetch
7506 and store images referenced in the article, so that you don't have to
7507 wait for them to be fetched when you read the article. This is useful
7508 for @acronym{HTML} messages that have external images.
7510 @vindex gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy
7511 Articles have to be removed from the asynch buffer sooner or later. The
7512 @code{gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy} says when to remove
7513 articles. This is a list that may contain the following elements:
7517 Remove articles when they are read.
7520 Remove articles when exiting the group.
7523 The default value is @code{(read exit)}.
7525 @c @vindex gnus-use-header-prefetch
7526 @c If @code{gnus-use-header-prefetch} is non-@code{nil}, prefetch articles
7527 @c from the next group.
7530 @node Article Caching
7531 @section Article Caching
7532 @cindex article caching
7535 If you have an @emph{extremely} slow @acronym{NNTP} connection, you may
7536 consider turning article caching on. Each article will then be stored
7537 locally under your home directory. As you may surmise, this could
7538 potentially use @emph{huge} amounts of disk space, as well as eat up all
7539 your inodes so fast it will make your head swim. In vodka.
7541 Used carefully, though, it could be just an easier way to save articles.
7543 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
7544 @vindex gnus-cache-directory
7545 @vindex gnus-use-cache
7546 To turn caching on, set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{t}. By default,
7547 all articles ticked or marked as dormant will then be copied
7548 over to your local cache (@code{gnus-cache-directory}). Whether this
7549 cache is flat or hierarchical is controlled by the
7550 @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable, as usual.
7552 When re-selecting a ticked or dormant article, it will be fetched from the
7553 cache instead of from the server. As articles in your cache will never
7554 expire, this might serve as a method of saving articles while still
7555 keeping them where they belong. Just mark all articles you want to save
7556 as dormant, and don't worry.
7558 When an article is marked as read, is it removed from the cache.
7560 @vindex gnus-cache-remove-articles
7561 @vindex gnus-cache-enter-articles
7562 The entering/removal of articles from the cache is controlled by the
7563 @code{gnus-cache-enter-articles} and @code{gnus-cache-remove-articles}
7564 variables. Both are lists of symbols. The first is @code{(ticked
7565 dormant)} by default, meaning that ticked and dormant articles will be
7566 put in the cache. The latter is @code{(read)} by default, meaning that
7567 articles marked as read are removed from the cache. Possibly
7568 symbols in these two lists are @code{ticked}, @code{dormant},
7569 @code{unread} and @code{read}.
7571 @findex gnus-jog-cache
7572 So where does the massive article-fetching and storing come into the
7573 picture? The @code{gnus-jog-cache} command will go through all
7574 subscribed newsgroups, request all unread articles, score them, and
7575 store them in the cache. You should only ever, ever ever ever, use this
7576 command if 1) your connection to the @acronym{NNTP} server is really, really,
7577 really slow and 2) you have a really, really, really huge disk.
7578 Seriously. One way to cut down on the number of articles downloaded is
7579 to score unwanted articles down and have them marked as read. They will
7580 not then be downloaded by this command.
7582 @vindex gnus-uncacheable-groups
7583 @vindex gnus-cacheable-groups
7584 It is likely that you do not want caching on all groups. For instance,
7585 if your @code{nnml} mail is located under your home directory, it makes no
7586 sense to cache it somewhere else under your home directory. Unless you
7587 feel that it's neat to use twice as much space.
7589 To limit the caching, you could set @code{gnus-cacheable-groups} to a
7590 regexp of groups to cache, @samp{^nntp} for instance, or set the
7591 @code{gnus-uncacheable-groups} regexp to @samp{^nnml}, for instance.
7592 Both variables are @code{nil} by default. If a group matches both
7593 variables, the group is not cached.
7595 @findex gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases
7596 @findex gnus-cache-generate-active
7597 @vindex gnus-cache-active-file
7598 The cache stores information on what articles it contains in its active
7599 file (@code{gnus-cache-active-file}). If this file (or any other parts
7600 of the cache) becomes all messed up for some reason or other, Gnus
7601 offers two functions that will try to set things right. @kbd{M-x
7602 gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases} will (re)build all the @acronym{NOV}
7603 files, and @kbd{gnus-cache-generate-active} will (re)generate the active
7606 @findex gnus-cache-move-cache
7607 @code{gnus-cache-move-cache} will move your whole
7608 @code{gnus-cache-directory} to some other location. You get asked to
7609 where, isn't that cool?
7611 @node Persistent Articles
7612 @section Persistent Articles
7613 @cindex persistent articles
7615 Closely related to article caching, we have @dfn{persistent articles}.
7616 In fact, it's just a different way of looking at caching, and much more
7617 useful in my opinion.
7619 Say you're reading a newsgroup, and you happen on to some valuable gem
7620 that you want to keep and treasure forever. You'd normally just save it
7621 (using one of the many saving commands) in some file. The problem with
7622 that is that it's just, well, yucky. Ideally you'd prefer just having
7623 the article remain in the group where you found it forever; untouched by
7624 the expiry going on at the news server.
7626 This is what a @dfn{persistent article} is---an article that just won't
7627 be deleted. It's implemented using the normal cache functions, but
7628 you use two explicit commands for managing persistent articles:
7634 @findex gnus-cache-enter-article
7635 Make the current article persistent (@code{gnus-cache-enter-article}).
7638 @kindex M-* (Summary)
7639 @findex gnus-cache-remove-article
7640 Remove the current article from the persistent articles
7641 (@code{gnus-cache-remove-article}). This will normally delete the
7645 Both these commands understand the process/prefix convention.
7647 To avoid having all ticked articles (and stuff) entered into the cache,
7648 you should set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{passive} if you're just
7649 interested in persistent articles:
7652 (setq gnus-use-cache 'passive)
7655 @node Sticky Articles
7656 @section Sticky Articles
7657 @cindex sticky articles
7659 When you select an article the current article buffer will be reused
7660 according to the value of the variable
7661 @code{gnus-single-article-buffer}. If its value is non-@code{nil} (the
7662 default) all articles reuse the same article buffer. Else each group
7663 has its own article buffer.
7665 This implies that it's not possible to have more than one article buffer
7666 in a group at a time. But sometimes you might want to display all the
7667 latest emails from your mother, your father, your aunt, your uncle and
7668 your 17 cousins to coordinate the next Christmas party.
7670 That's where sticky articles come in handy. A sticky article buffer
7671 basically is a normal article buffer, but it won't be reused when you
7672 select another article. You can make an article sticky with:
7676 @kindex A S (Summary)
7677 @findex gnus-sticky-article
7678 Make the current article sticky. If a prefix arg is given, ask for a
7679 name for this sticky article buffer.
7682 To close a sticky article buffer you can use these commands:
7688 Puts this sticky article buffer at the end of the list of all buffers.
7692 @findex gnus-kill-sticky-article-buffer
7693 Kills this sticky article buffer.
7696 To kill all sticky article buffers you can use:
7698 @defun gnus-kill-sticky-article-buffers ARG
7699 Kill all sticky article buffers.
7700 If a prefix ARG is given, ask for confirmation.
7703 @node Article Backlog
7704 @section Article Backlog
7706 @cindex article backlog
7708 If you have a slow connection, but the idea of using caching seems
7709 unappealing to you (and it is, really), you can help the situation some
7710 by switching on the @dfn{backlog}. This is where Gnus will buffer
7711 already read articles so that it doesn't have to re-fetch articles
7712 you've already read. This only helps if you are in the habit of
7713 re-selecting articles you've recently read, of course. If you never do
7714 that, turning the backlog on will slow Gnus down a little bit, and
7715 increase memory usage some.
7717 @vindex gnus-keep-backlog
7718 If you set @code{gnus-keep-backlog} to a number @var{n}, Gnus will store
7719 at most @var{n} old articles in a buffer for later re-fetching. If this
7720 variable is non-@code{nil} and is not a number, Gnus will store
7721 @emph{all} read articles, which means that your Emacs will grow without
7722 bound before exploding and taking your machine down with you. I put
7723 that in there just to keep y'all on your toes.
7725 The default value is 20.
7728 @node Saving Articles
7729 @section Saving Articles
7730 @cindex saving articles
7732 Gnus can save articles in a number of ways. Below is the documentation
7733 for saving articles in a fairly straight-forward fashion (i.e., little
7734 processing of the article is done before it is saved). For a different
7735 approach (uudecoding, unsharing) you should use @code{gnus-uu}
7736 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
7738 For the commands listed here, the target is a file. If you want to
7739 save to a group, see the @kbd{B c} (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article})
7740 command (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
7742 @vindex gnus-save-all-headers
7743 If @code{gnus-save-all-headers} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will not delete
7744 unwanted headers before saving the article.
7746 @vindex gnus-saved-headers
7747 If the preceding variable is @code{nil}, all headers that match the
7748 @code{gnus-saved-headers} regexp will be kept, while the rest will be
7749 deleted before saving.
7755 @kindex O o (Summary)
7757 @findex gnus-summary-save-article
7758 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article}
7759 Save the current article using the default article saver
7760 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article}).
7763 @kindex O m (Summary)
7764 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-mail
7765 Save the current article in a Unix mail box (mbox) file
7766 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-mail}).
7769 @kindex O r (Summary)
7770 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-rmail
7771 Save the current article in Rmail format
7772 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-rmail}). This is mbox since Emacs 23,
7773 Babyl in older versions.
7776 @kindex O f (Summary)
7777 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-file
7778 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article-file}
7779 Save the current article in plain file format
7780 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-file}).
7783 @kindex O F (Summary)
7784 @findex gnus-summary-write-article-file
7785 Write the current article in plain file format, overwriting any previous
7786 file contents (@code{gnus-summary-write-article-file}).
7789 @kindex O b (Summary)
7790 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-body-file
7791 Save the current article body in plain file format
7792 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-body-file}).
7795 @kindex O h (Summary)
7796 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-folder
7797 Save the current article in mh folder format
7798 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-folder}).
7801 @kindex O v (Summary)
7802 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-vm
7803 Save the current article in a VM folder
7804 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-vm}).
7808 @kindex O p (Summary)
7810 @findex gnus-summary-pipe-output
7811 @vindex gnus-summary-pipe-output-default-command
7812 Save the current article in a pipe. Uhm, like, what I mean is---Pipe
7813 the current article to a process (@code{gnus-summary-pipe-output}).
7814 If given a symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}), include the
7815 complete headers in the piped output. The symbolic prefix @code{r} is
7816 special; it lets this command pipe a raw article including all headers.
7817 The @code{gnus-summary-pipe-output-default-command} variable can be set
7818 to a string containing the default command and options (default
7822 @kindex O P (Summary)
7823 @findex gnus-summary-muttprint
7824 @vindex gnus-summary-muttprint-program
7825 Save the current article into muttprint. That is, print it using the
7826 external program @uref{http://muttprint.sourceforge.net/,
7827 Muttprint}. The program name and options to use is controlled by the
7828 variable @code{gnus-summary-muttprint-program}.
7829 (@code{gnus-summary-muttprint}).
7833 @vindex gnus-prompt-before-saving
7834 All these commands use the process/prefix convention
7835 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). If you save bunches of articles using these
7836 functions, you might get tired of being prompted for files to save each
7837 and every article in. The prompting action is controlled by
7838 the @code{gnus-prompt-before-saving} variable, which is @code{always} by
7839 default, giving you that excessive prompting action you know and
7840 loathe. If you set this variable to @code{t} instead, you'll be prompted
7841 just once for each series of articles you save. If you like to really
7842 have Gnus do all your thinking for you, you can even set this variable
7843 to @code{nil}, which means that you will never be prompted for files to
7844 save articles in. Gnus will simply save all the articles in the default
7848 @vindex gnus-default-article-saver
7849 You can customize the @code{gnus-default-article-saver} variable to make
7850 Gnus do what you want it to. You can use any of the eight ready-made
7851 functions below, or you can create your own.
7855 @item gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
7856 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
7857 @vindex gnus-rmail-save-name
7858 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
7859 This is the default format, that used by the Rmail package. Since Emacs
7860 23, Rmail uses standard mbox format. Before this, it used the
7861 @dfn{Babyl} format. Accordingly, this command writes mbox format since
7862 Emacs 23, unless appending to an existing Babyl file. In older versions
7863 of Emacs, it always uses Babyl format. Uses the function in the
7864 @code{gnus-rmail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7865 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
7867 @item gnus-summary-save-in-mail
7868 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-mail
7869 @vindex gnus-mail-save-name
7870 Save in a Unix mail (mbox) file. Uses the function in the
7871 @code{gnus-mail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7872 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
7874 @item gnus-summary-save-in-file
7875 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-file
7876 @vindex gnus-file-save-name
7877 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
7878 Append the article straight to an ordinary file. Uses the function in
7879 the @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7880 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
7882 @item gnus-summary-write-to-file
7883 @findex gnus-summary-write-to-file
7884 Write the article straight to an ordinary file. The file is
7885 overwritten if it exists. Uses the function in the
7886 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7887 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
7889 @item gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
7890 @findex gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
7891 Append the article body to an ordinary file. Uses the function in the
7892 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7893 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
7895 @item gnus-summary-write-body-to-file
7896 @findex gnus-summary-write-body-to-file
7897 Write the article body straight to an ordinary file. The file is
7898 overwritten if it exists. Uses the function in the
7899 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7900 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
7902 @item gnus-summary-save-in-folder
7903 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-folder
7904 @findex gnus-folder-save-name
7905 @findex gnus-Folder-save-name
7906 @vindex gnus-folder-save-name
7909 Save the article to an MH folder using @code{rcvstore} from the MH
7910 library. Uses the function in the @code{gnus-folder-save-name} variable
7911 to get a file name to save the article in. The default is
7912 @code{gnus-folder-save-name}, but you can also use
7913 @code{gnus-Folder-save-name}, which creates capitalized names.
7915 @item gnus-summary-save-in-vm
7916 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-vm
7917 Save the article in a VM folder. You have to have the VM mail
7918 reader to use this setting.
7920 @item gnus-summary-save-in-pipe
7921 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-pipe
7922 Pipe the article to a shell command. This function takes optional two
7923 arguments COMMAND and RAW@. Valid values for COMMAND include:
7927 The executable command name and possibly arguments.
7929 You will be prompted for the command in the minibuffer.
7930 @item the symbol @code{default}@*
7931 It will be replaced with the command which the variable
7932 @code{gnus-summary-pipe-output-default-command} holds or the command
7933 last used for saving.
7936 Non-@code{nil} value for RAW overrides @code{:decode} and
7937 @code{:headers} properties (see below) and the raw article including all
7938 headers will be piped.
7941 The symbol of each function may have the following properties:
7945 The value non-@code{nil} means save decoded articles. This is
7946 meaningful only with @code{gnus-summary-save-in-file},
7947 @code{gnus-summary-save-body-in-file},
7948 @code{gnus-summary-write-to-file},
7949 @code{gnus-summary-write-body-to-file}, and
7950 @code{gnus-summary-save-in-pipe}.
7953 The value specifies an alternative function which appends, not
7954 overwrites, articles to a file. This implies that when saving many
7955 articles at a time, @code{gnus-prompt-before-saving} is bound to
7956 @code{t} and all articles are saved in a single file. This is
7957 meaningful only with @code{gnus-summary-write-to-file} and
7958 @code{gnus-summary-write-body-to-file}.
7961 The value specifies the symbol of a variable of which the value
7962 specifies headers to be saved. If it is omitted,
7963 @code{gnus-save-all-headers} and @code{gnus-saved-headers} control what
7964 headers should be saved.
7967 @vindex gnus-article-save-directory
7968 All of these functions, except for the last one, will save the article
7969 in the @code{gnus-article-save-directory}, which is initialized from the
7970 @env{SAVEDIR} environment variable. This is @file{~/News/} by
7973 As you can see above, the functions use different functions to find a
7974 suitable name of a file to save the article in. Below is a list of
7975 available functions that generate names:
7979 @item gnus-Numeric-save-name
7980 @findex gnus-Numeric-save-name
7981 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
7983 @item gnus-numeric-save-name
7984 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
7985 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
7987 @item gnus-Plain-save-name
7988 @findex gnus-Plain-save-name
7989 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin}.
7991 @item gnus-plain-save-name
7992 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
7993 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.
7995 @item gnus-sender-save-name
7996 @findex gnus-sender-save-name
7997 File names like @file{~/News/larsi}.
8000 @vindex gnus-split-methods
8001 You can have Gnus suggest where to save articles by plonking a regexp into
8002 the @code{gnus-split-methods} alist. For instance, if you would like to
8003 save articles related to Gnus in the file @file{gnus-stuff}, and articles
8004 related to VM in @file{vm-stuff}, you could set this variable to something
8008 (("^Subject:.*gnus\\|^Newsgroups:.*gnus" "gnus-stuff")
8009 ("^Subject:.*vm\\|^Xref:.*vm" "vm-stuff")
8010 (my-choosing-function "../other-dir/my-stuff")
8011 ((equal gnus-newsgroup-name "mail.misc") "mail-stuff"))
8014 We see that this is a list where each element is a list that has two
8015 elements---the @dfn{match} and the @dfn{file}. The match can either be
8016 a string (in which case it is used as a regexp to match on the article
8017 head); it can be a symbol (which will be called as a function with the
8018 group name as a parameter); or it can be a list (which will be
8019 @code{eval}ed). If any of these actions have a non-@code{nil} result,
8020 the @dfn{file} will be used as a default prompt. In addition, the
8021 result of the operation itself will be used if the function or form
8022 called returns a string or a list of strings.
8024 You basically end up with a list of file names that might be used when
8025 saving the current article. (All ``matches'' will be used.) You will
8026 then be prompted for what you really want to use as a name, with file
8027 name completion over the results from applying this variable.
8029 This variable is @code{((gnus-article-archive-name))} by default, which
8030 means that Gnus will look at the articles it saves for an
8031 @code{Archive-name} line and use that as a suggestion for the file
8034 Here's an example function to clean up file names somewhat. If you have
8035 lots of mail groups called things like
8036 @samp{nnml:mail.whatever}, you may want to chop off the beginning of
8037 these group names before creating the file name to save to. The
8038 following will do just that:
8041 (defun my-save-name (group)
8042 (when (string-match "^nnml:mail." group)
8043 (substring group (match-end 0))))
8045 (setq gnus-split-methods
8046 '((gnus-article-archive-name)
8051 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
8052 Finally, you have the @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable. If it is
8053 @code{nil}, all the preceding functions will replace all periods
8054 (@samp{.}) in the group names with slashes (@samp{/})---which means that
8055 the functions will generate hierarchies of directories instead of having
8056 all the files in the top level directory
8057 (@file{~/News/alt/andrea-dworkin} instead of
8058 @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.) This variable is @code{t} by default
8059 on most systems. However, for historical reasons, this is @code{nil} on
8060 Xenix and usg-unix-v machines by default.
8062 This function also affects kill and score file names. If this variable
8063 is a list, and the list contains the element @code{not-score}, long file
8064 names will not be used for score files, if it contains the element
8065 @code{not-save}, long file names will not be used for saving, and if it
8066 contains the element @code{not-kill}, long file names will not be used
8069 If you'd like to save articles in a hierarchy that looks something like
8073 (setq gnus-use-long-file-name '(not-save)) ; @r{to get a hierarchy}
8074 (setq gnus-default-article-saver
8075 'gnus-summary-save-in-file) ; @r{no encoding}
8078 Then just save with @kbd{o}. You'd then read this hierarchy with
8079 ephemeral @code{nneething} groups---@kbd{G D} in the group buffer, and
8080 the top level directory as the argument (@file{~/News/}). Then just walk
8081 around to the groups/directories with @code{nneething}.
8084 @node Decoding Articles
8085 @section Decoding Articles
8086 @cindex decoding articles
8088 Sometime users post articles (or series of articles) that have been
8089 encoded in some way or other. Gnus can decode them for you.
8092 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
8093 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
8094 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
8095 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
8096 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
8097 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
8101 @cindex article series
8102 All these functions use the process/prefix convention
8103 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) for finding out what articles to work on, with
8104 the extension that a ``single article'' means ``a single series''. Gnus
8105 can find out by itself what articles belong to a series, decode all the
8106 articles and unpack/view/save the resulting file(s).
8108 Gnus guesses what articles are in the series according to the following
8109 simplish rule: The subjects must be (nearly) identical, except for the
8110 last two numbers of the line. (Spaces are largely ignored, however.)
8112 For example: If you choose a subject called @samp{cat.gif (2/3)}, Gnus
8113 will find all the articles that match the regexp @samp{^cat.gif
8114 ([0-9]+/[0-9]+).*$}.
8116 Subjects that are non-standard, like @samp{cat.gif (2/3) Part 6 of a
8117 series}, will not be properly recognized by any of the automatic viewing
8118 commands, and you have to mark the articles manually with @kbd{#}.
8121 @node Uuencoded Articles
8122 @subsection Uuencoded Articles
8124 @cindex uuencoded articles
8129 @kindex X u (Summary)
8130 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu
8131 @c @icon{gnus-uu-decode-uu}
8132 Uudecodes the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}).
8135 @kindex X U (Summary)
8136 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save
8137 Uudecodes and saves the current series
8138 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
8141 @kindex X v u (Summary)
8142 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-view
8143 Uudecodes and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-view}).
8146 @kindex X v U (Summary)
8147 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view
8148 Uudecodes, views and saves the current series
8149 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view}).
8153 Remember that these all react to the presence of articles marked with
8154 the process mark. If, for instance, you'd like to decode and save an
8155 entire newsgroup, you'd typically do @kbd{M P a}
8156 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-all}) and then @kbd{X U}
8157 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
8159 All this is very much different from how @code{gnus-uu} worked with
8160 @sc{gnus 4.1}, where you had explicit keystrokes for everything under
8161 the sun. This version of @code{gnus-uu} generally assumes that you mark
8162 articles in some way (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}) and then press
8165 @vindex gnus-uu-notify-files
8166 Note: When trying to decode articles that have names matching
8167 @code{gnus-uu-notify-files}, which is hard-coded to
8168 @samp{[Cc][Ii][Nn][Dd][Yy][0-9]+.\\(gif\\|jpg\\)}, @code{gnus-uu} will
8169 automatically post an article on @samp{comp.unix.wizards} saying that
8170 you have just viewed the file in question. This feature can't be turned
8174 @node Shell Archives
8175 @subsection Shell Archives
8177 @cindex shell archives
8178 @cindex shared articles
8180 Shell archives (``shar files'') used to be a popular way to distribute
8181 sources, but it isn't used all that much today. In any case, we have
8182 some commands to deal with these:
8187 @kindex X s (Summary)
8188 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar
8189 Unshars the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar}).
8192 @kindex X S (Summary)
8193 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save
8194 Unshars and saves the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save}).
8197 @kindex X v s (Summary)
8198 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view
8199 Unshars and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view}).
8202 @kindex X v S (Summary)
8203 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view
8204 Unshars, views and saves the current series
8205 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view}).
8209 @node PostScript Files
8210 @subsection PostScript Files
8216 @kindex X p (Summary)
8217 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript
8218 Unpack the current PostScript series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript}).
8221 @kindex X P (Summary)
8222 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save
8223 Unpack and save the current PostScript series
8224 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save}).
8227 @kindex X v p (Summary)
8228 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view
8229 View the current PostScript series
8230 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view}).
8233 @kindex X v P (Summary)
8234 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view
8235 View and save the current PostScript series
8236 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view}).
8241 @subsection Other Files
8245 @kindex X o (Summary)
8246 @findex gnus-uu-decode-save
8247 Save the current series
8248 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-save}).
8251 @kindex X b (Summary)
8252 @findex gnus-uu-decode-binhex
8253 Unbinhex the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-binhex}). This
8254 doesn't really work yet.
8257 @kindex X Y (Summary)
8258 @findex gnus-uu-decode-yenc
8259 yEnc-decode the current series and save it (@code{gnus-uu-decode-yenc}).
8263 @node Decoding Variables
8264 @subsection Decoding Variables
8266 Adjective, not verb.
8269 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
8270 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
8271 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
8275 @node Rule Variables
8276 @subsubsection Rule Variables
8277 @cindex rule variables
8279 Gnus uses @dfn{rule variables} to decide how to view a file. All these
8280 variables are of the form
8283 (list '(regexp1 command2)
8290 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules
8291 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules
8293 This variable is consulted first when viewing files. If you wish to use,
8294 for instance, @code{sox} to convert an @file{.au} sound file, you could
8297 (setq gnus-uu-user-view-rules
8298 (list '("\\\\.au$" "sox %s -t .aiff > /dev/audio")))
8301 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
8302 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
8303 This variable is consulted if Gnus couldn't make any matches from the
8304 user and default view rules.
8306 @item gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
8307 @vindex gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
8308 This variable can be used to say what commands should be used to unpack
8313 @node Other Decode Variables
8314 @subsubsection Other Decode Variables
8317 @vindex gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
8319 @item gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
8320 All functions in this list will be called right after each file has been
8321 successfully decoded---so that you can move or view files right away,
8322 and don't have to wait for all files to be decoded before you can do
8323 anything. Ready-made functions you can put in this list are:
8327 @item gnus-uu-grab-view
8328 @findex gnus-uu-grab-view
8331 @item gnus-uu-grab-move
8332 @findex gnus-uu-grab-move
8333 Move the file (if you're using a saving function.)
8336 @item gnus-uu-be-dangerous
8337 @vindex gnus-uu-be-dangerous
8338 Specifies what to do if unusual situations arise during decoding. If
8339 @code{nil}, be as conservative as possible. If @code{t}, ignore things
8340 that didn't work, and overwrite existing files. Otherwise, ask each
8343 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
8344 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
8345 Files with name matching this regular expression won't be viewed.
8347 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
8348 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
8349 Files with a @acronym{MIME} type matching this variable won't be viewed.
8350 Note that Gnus tries to guess what type the file is based on the name.
8351 @code{gnus-uu} is not a @acronym{MIME} package (yet), so this is slightly
8354 @item gnus-uu-tmp-dir
8355 @vindex gnus-uu-tmp-dir
8356 Where @code{gnus-uu} does its work.
8358 @item gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
8359 @vindex gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
8360 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} won't peek inside archives
8361 looking for files to display.
8363 @item gnus-uu-view-and-save
8364 @vindex gnus-uu-view-and-save
8365 Non-@code{nil} means that the user will always be asked to save a file
8368 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
8369 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
8370 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default viewing
8373 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
8374 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
8375 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default archive
8378 @item gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
8379 @vindex gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
8380 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will strip all carriage returns
8383 @item gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
8384 @vindex gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
8385 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will mark unsuccessfully
8386 decoded articles as unread.
8388 @item gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
8389 @vindex gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
8390 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will @emph{try} to fix
8391 uuencoded files that have had trailing spaces deleted.
8393 @item gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
8394 @vindex gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
8395 Hook run before sending a message to @code{uudecode}.
8397 @item gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
8398 @vindex gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
8400 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the viewing
8401 commands defined by the rule variables and just fudge a @acronym{MIME}
8402 content type based on the file name. The result will be fed to
8403 @code{metamail} for viewing.
8405 @item gnus-uu-save-in-digest
8406 @vindex gnus-uu-save-in-digest
8407 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu}, when asked to save without
8408 decoding, will save in digests. If this variable is @code{nil},
8409 @code{gnus-uu} will just save everything in a file without any
8410 embellishments. The digesting almost conforms to RFC 1153---no easy way
8411 to specify any meaningful volume and issue numbers were found, so I
8412 simply dropped them.
8417 @node Uuencoding and Posting
8418 @subsubsection Uuencoding and Posting
8422 @item gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
8423 @vindex gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
8424 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ask for a file to encode
8425 before you compose the article. If this variable is @code{t}, you can
8426 either include an encoded file with @kbd{C-c C-i} or have one included
8427 for you when you post the article.
8429 @item gnus-uu-post-length
8430 @vindex gnus-uu-post-length
8431 Maximum length of an article. The encoded file will be split into how
8432 many articles it takes to post the entire file.
8434 @item gnus-uu-post-threaded
8435 @vindex gnus-uu-post-threaded
8436 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will post the encoded file in a
8437 thread. This may not be smart, as no other decoder I have seen is able
8438 to follow threads when collecting uuencoded articles. (Well, I have
8439 seen one package that does that---@code{gnus-uu}, but somehow, I don't
8440 think that counts@dots{}) Default is @code{nil}.
8442 @item gnus-uu-post-separate-description
8443 @vindex gnus-uu-post-separate-description
8444 Non-@code{nil} means that the description will be posted in a separate
8445 article. The first article will typically be numbered (0/x). If this
8446 variable is @code{nil}, the description the user enters will be included
8447 at the beginning of the first article, which will be numbered (1/x).
8448 Default is @code{t}.
8454 @subsection Viewing Files
8455 @cindex viewing files
8456 @cindex pseudo-articles
8458 After decoding, if the file is some sort of archive, Gnus will attempt
8459 to unpack the archive and see if any of the files in the archive can be
8460 viewed. For instance, if you have a gzipped tar file @file{pics.tar.gz}
8461 containing the files @file{pic1.jpg} and @file{pic2.gif}, Gnus will
8462 uncompress and de-tar the main file, and then view the two pictures.
8463 This unpacking process is recursive, so if the archive contains archives
8464 of archives, it'll all be unpacked.
8466 Finally, Gnus will normally insert a @dfn{pseudo-article} for each
8467 extracted file into the summary buffer. If you go to these
8468 ``articles'', you will be prompted for a command to run (usually Gnus
8469 will make a suggestion), and then the command will be run.
8471 @vindex gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously
8472 If @code{gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously} is @code{nil}, Emacs will wait
8473 until the viewing is done before proceeding.
8475 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos
8476 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos} is @code{automatic}, Gnus will not insert
8477 the pseudo-articles into the summary buffer, but view them
8478 immediately. If this variable is @code{not-confirm}, the user won't even
8479 be asked for a confirmation before viewing is done.
8481 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos-separately
8482 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos-separately} is non-@code{nil}, one
8483 pseudo-article will be created for each file to be viewed. If
8484 @code{nil}, all files that use the same viewing command will be given as
8485 a list of parameters to that command.
8487 @vindex gnus-insert-pseudo-articles
8488 If @code{gnus-insert-pseudo-articles} is non-@code{nil}, insert
8489 pseudo-articles when decoding. It is @code{t} by default.
8491 So; there you are, reading your @emph{pseudo-articles} in your
8492 @emph{virtual newsgroup} from the @emph{virtual server}; and you think:
8493 Why isn't anything real anymore? How did we get here?
8496 @node Article Treatment
8497 @section Article Treatment
8499 Reading through this huge manual, you may have quite forgotten that the
8500 object of newsreaders is to actually, like, read what people have
8501 written. Reading articles. Unfortunately, people are quite bad at
8502 writing, so there are tons of functions and variables to make reading
8503 these articles easier.
8506 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
8507 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
8508 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
8509 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
8510 * Article Header:: Doing various header transformations.
8511 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
8512 * Article Button Levels:: Controlling appearance of buttons.
8513 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
8514 * Article Display:: Display various stuff:
8515 X-Face, Picons, Gravatars, Smileys.
8516 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
8517 * Article Miscellanea:: Various other stuff.
8521 @node Article Highlighting
8522 @subsection Article Highlighting
8523 @cindex highlighting
8525 Not only do you want your article buffer to look like fruit salad, but
8526 you want it to look like technicolor fruit salad.
8531 @kindex W H a (Summary)
8532 @findex gnus-article-highlight
8533 @findex gnus-article-maybe-highlight
8534 Do much highlighting of the current article
8535 (@code{gnus-article-highlight}). This function highlights header, cited
8536 text, the signature, and adds buttons to the body and the head.
8539 @kindex W H h (Summary)
8540 @findex gnus-article-highlight-headers
8541 @vindex gnus-header-face-alist
8542 Highlight the headers (@code{gnus-article-highlight-headers}). The
8543 highlighting will be done according to the @code{gnus-header-face-alist}
8544 variable, which is a list where each element has the form
8545 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{name} @var{content})}.
8546 @var{regexp} is a regular expression for matching the
8547 header, @var{name} is the face used for highlighting the header name
8548 (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}) and @var{content} is the face for highlighting
8549 the header value. The first match made will be used. Note that
8550 @var{regexp} shouldn't have @samp{^} prepended---Gnus will add one.
8553 @kindex W H c (Summary)
8554 @findex gnus-article-highlight-citation
8555 Highlight cited text (@code{gnus-article-highlight-citation}).
8557 Some variables to customize the citation highlights:
8560 @vindex gnus-cite-parse-max-size
8562 @item gnus-cite-parse-max-size
8563 If the article size in bytes is bigger than this variable (which is
8564 25000 by default), no citation highlighting will be performed.
8566 @item gnus-cite-max-prefix
8567 @vindex gnus-cite-max-prefix
8568 Maximum possible length for a citation prefix (default 20).
8570 @item gnus-cite-face-list
8571 @vindex gnus-cite-face-list
8572 List of faces used for highlighting citations (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}).
8573 When there are citations from multiple articles in the same message,
8574 Gnus will try to give each citation from each article its own face.
8575 This should make it easier to see who wrote what.
8577 @item gnus-supercite-regexp
8578 @vindex gnus-supercite-regexp
8579 Regexp matching normal Supercite attribution lines.
8581 @item gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
8582 @vindex gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
8583 Regexp matching mangled Supercite attribution lines.
8585 @item gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
8586 @vindex gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
8587 Minimum number of identical prefixes we have to see before we believe
8588 that it's a citation.
8590 @item gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
8591 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
8592 Regexp matching the beginning of an attribution line.
8594 @item gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
8595 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
8596 Regexp matching the end of an attribution line.
8598 @item gnus-cite-attribution-face
8599 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-face
8600 Face used for attribution lines. It is merged with the face for the
8601 cited text belonging to the attribution.
8603 @item gnus-cite-ignore-quoted-from
8604 @vindex gnus-cite-ignore-quoted-from
8605 If non-@code{nil}, no citation highlighting will be performed on lines
8606 beginning with @samp{>From }. Those lines may have been quoted by MTAs
8607 in order not to mix up with the envelope From line. The default value
8614 @kindex W H s (Summary)
8615 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
8616 @vindex gnus-signature-face
8617 @findex gnus-article-highlight-signature
8618 Highlight the signature (@code{gnus-article-highlight-signature}).
8619 Everything after @code{gnus-signature-separator} (@pxref{Article
8620 Signature}) in an article will be considered a signature and will be
8621 highlighted with @code{gnus-signature-face}, which is @code{italic} by
8626 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to highlight articles automatically.
8629 @node Article Fontisizing
8630 @subsection Article Fontisizing
8632 @cindex article emphasis
8634 @findex gnus-article-emphasize
8635 @kindex W e (Summary)
8636 People commonly add emphasis to words in news articles by writing things
8637 like @samp{_this_} or @samp{*this*} or @samp{/this/}. Gnus can make
8638 this look nicer by running the article through the @kbd{W e}
8639 (@code{gnus-article-emphasize}) command.
8641 @vindex gnus-emphasis-alist
8642 How the emphasis is computed is controlled by the
8643 @code{gnus-emphasis-alist} variable. This is an alist where the first
8644 element is a regular expression to be matched. The second is a number
8645 that says what regular expression grouping is used to find the entire
8646 emphasized word. The third is a number that says what regexp grouping
8647 should be displayed and highlighted. (The text between these two
8648 groupings will be hidden.) The fourth is the face used for
8652 (setq gnus-emphasis-alist
8653 '(("_\\(\\w+\\)_" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-underline)
8654 ("\\*\\(\\w+\\)\\*" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-bold)))
8663 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline
8664 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold
8665 @vindex gnus-emphasis-italic
8666 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold
8667 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-italic
8668 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold-italic
8669 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic
8670 By default, there are seven rules, and they use the following faces:
8671 @code{gnus-emphasis-bold}, @code{gnus-emphasis-italic},
8672 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline}, @code{gnus-emphasis-bold-italic},
8673 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-italic},
8674 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold}, and
8675 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic}.
8677 If you want to change these faces, you can either use @kbd{M-x
8678 customize}, or you can use @code{copy-face}. For instance, if you want
8679 to make @code{gnus-emphasis-italic} use a red face instead, you could
8683 (copy-face 'red 'gnus-emphasis-italic)
8686 @vindex gnus-group-highlight-words-alist
8688 If you want to highlight arbitrary words, you can use the
8689 @code{gnus-group-highlight-words-alist} variable, which uses the same
8690 syntax as @code{gnus-emphasis-alist}. The @code{highlight-words} group
8691 parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) can also be used.
8693 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to fontize articles automatically.
8696 @node Article Hiding
8697 @subsection Article Hiding
8698 @cindex article hiding
8700 Or rather, hiding certain things in each article. There usually is much
8701 too much cruft in most articles.
8706 @kindex W W a (Summary)
8707 @findex gnus-article-hide
8708 Do quite a lot of hiding on the article buffer
8709 (@kbd{gnus-article-hide}). In particular, this function will hide
8710 headers, @acronym{PGP}, cited text and the signature.
8713 @kindex W W h (Summary)
8714 @findex gnus-article-hide-headers
8715 Hide headers (@code{gnus-article-hide-headers}). @xref{Hiding
8719 @kindex W W b (Summary)
8720 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
8721 Hide headers that aren't particularly interesting
8722 (@code{gnus-article-hide-boring-headers}). @xref{Hiding Headers}.
8725 @kindex W W s (Summary)
8726 @findex gnus-article-hide-signature
8727 Hide signature (@code{gnus-article-hide-signature}). @xref{Article
8731 @kindex W W l (Summary)
8732 @findex gnus-article-hide-list-identifiers
8733 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
8734 Strip list identifiers specified in @code{gnus-list-identifiers}. These
8735 are strings some mailing list servers add to the beginning of all
8736 @code{Subject} headers---for example, @samp{[zebra 4711]}. Any leading
8737 @samp{Re: } is skipped before stripping. @code{gnus-list-identifiers}
8738 may not contain @code{\\(..\\)}.
8742 @item gnus-list-identifiers
8743 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
8744 A regular expression that matches list identifiers to be removed from
8745 subject. This can also be a list of regular expressions.
8750 @kindex W W P (Summary)
8751 @findex gnus-article-hide-pem
8752 Hide @acronym{PEM} (privacy enhanced messages) cruft
8753 (@code{gnus-article-hide-pem}).
8756 @kindex W W B (Summary)
8757 @findex gnus-article-strip-banner
8758 @vindex gnus-article-banner-alist
8759 @vindex gnus-article-address-banner-alist
8762 @cindex stripping advertisements
8763 @cindex advertisements
8764 Strip the banner specified by the @code{banner} group parameter
8765 (@code{gnus-article-strip-banner}). This is mainly used to hide those
8766 annoying banners and/or signatures that some mailing lists and moderated
8767 groups adds to all the messages. The way to use this function is to add
8768 the @code{banner} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to the
8769 group you want banners stripped from. The parameter either be a string,
8770 which will be interpreted as a regular expression matching text to be
8771 removed, or the symbol @code{signature}, meaning that the (last)
8772 signature should be removed, or other symbol, meaning that the
8773 corresponding regular expression in @code{gnus-article-banner-alist} is
8779 (setq gnus-article-banner-alist
8781 "^\n*--~--~---------\\(.+\n\\)+")))
8784 Regardless of a group, you can hide things like advertisements only when
8785 the sender of an article has a certain mail address specified in
8786 @code{gnus-article-address-banner-alist}.
8790 @item gnus-article-address-banner-alist
8791 @vindex gnus-article-address-banner-alist
8792 Alist of mail addresses and banners. Each element has the form
8793 @code{(@var{address} . @var{banner})}, where @var{address} is a regexp
8794 matching a mail address in the From header, @var{banner} is one of a
8795 symbol @code{signature}, an item in @code{gnus-article-banner-alist},
8796 a regexp and @code{nil}. If @var{address} matches author's mail
8797 address, it will remove things like advertisements. For example, if a
8798 sender has the mail address @samp{hail@@yoo-hoo.co.jp} and there is a
8799 banner something like @samp{Do You Yoo-hoo!?} in all articles he
8800 sends, you can use the following element to remove them:
8803 ("@@yoo-hoo\\.co\\.jp\\'" .
8804 "\n_+\nDo You Yoo-hoo!\\?\n.*\n.*\n")
8810 @kindex W W c (Summary)
8811 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation
8812 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation}). Some variables for
8813 customizing the hiding:
8817 @item gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
8818 @itemx gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
8819 @vindex gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
8820 @vindex gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
8821 Gnus adds buttons to show where the cited text has been hidden, and to
8822 allow toggle hiding the text. The format of the variable is specified
8823 by these format-like variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}). These
8828 Starting point of the hidden text.
8830 Ending point of the hidden text.
8832 Number of characters in the hidden region.
8834 Number of lines of hidden text.
8837 @item gnus-cited-lines-visible
8838 @vindex gnus-cited-lines-visible
8839 The number of lines at the beginning of the cited text to leave
8840 shown. This can also be a cons cell with the number of lines at the top
8841 and bottom of the text, respectively, to remain visible.
8846 @kindex W W C-c (Summary)
8847 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe
8849 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe}) depending on the
8850 following two variables:
8853 @item gnus-cite-hide-percentage
8854 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-percentage
8855 If the cited text is of a bigger percentage than this variable (default
8856 50), hide the cited text.
8858 @item gnus-cite-hide-absolute
8859 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-absolute
8860 The cited text must have at least this length (default 10) before it
8865 @kindex W W C (Summary)
8866 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups
8867 Hide cited text in articles that aren't roots
8868 (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups}). This isn't very
8869 useful as an interactive command, but might be a handy function to stick
8870 have happen automatically (@pxref{Customizing Articles}).
8874 All these ``hiding'' commands are toggles, but if you give a negative
8875 prefix to these commands, they will show what they have previously
8876 hidden. If you give a positive prefix, they will always hide.
8878 Also @pxref{Article Highlighting} for further variables for
8879 citation customization.
8881 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to hide article elements
8885 @node Article Washing
8886 @subsection Article Washing
8888 @cindex article washing
8890 We call this ``article washing'' for a really good reason. Namely, the
8891 @kbd{A} key was taken, so we had to use the @kbd{W} key instead.
8893 @dfn{Washing} is defined by us as ``changing something from something to
8894 something else'', but normally results in something looking better.
8897 @xref{Customizing Articles}, if you want to change how Gnus displays
8898 articles by default.
8903 This is not really washing, it's sort of the opposite of washing. If
8904 you type this, you see the article exactly as it exists on disk or on
8908 Force redisplaying of the current article
8909 (@code{gnus-summary-show-article}). This is also not really washing.
8910 If you type this, you see the article without any previously applied
8911 interactive Washing functions but with all default treatments
8912 (@pxref{Customizing Articles}).
8915 @kindex W l (Summary)
8916 @findex gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking
8917 Remove page breaks from the current article
8918 (@code{gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking}). @xref{Misc Article}, for page
8922 @kindex W r (Summary)
8923 @findex gnus-summary-caesar-message
8924 @c @icon{gnus-summary-caesar-message}
8925 Do a Caesar rotate (rot13) on the article buffer
8926 (@code{gnus-summary-caesar-message}).
8927 Unreadable articles that tell you to read them with Caesar rotate or rot13.
8928 (Typically offensive jokes and such.)
8930 It's commonly called ``rot13'' because each letter is rotated 13
8931 positions in the alphabet, e.g., @samp{B} (letter #2) -> @samp{O} (letter
8932 #15). It is sometimes referred to as ``Caesar rotate'' because Caesar
8933 is rumored to have employed this form of, uh, somewhat weak encryption.
8936 @kindex W m (Summary)
8937 @findex gnus-summary-morse-message
8938 Morse decode the article buffer (@code{gnus-summary-morse-message}).
8941 @kindex W i (Summary)
8942 @findex gnus-summary-idna-message
8943 Decode IDNA encoded domain names in the current articles. IDNA
8944 encoded domain names looks like @samp{xn--bar}. If a string remain
8945 unencoded after running invoking this, it is likely an invalid IDNA
8946 string (@samp{xn--bar} is invalid). You must have GNU Libidn
8947 (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/libidn/}) installed for this command
8952 @kindex W t (Summary)
8954 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-header
8955 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer
8956 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-header}).
8959 @kindex W v (Summary)
8960 @findex gnus-summary-verbose-headers
8961 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer permanently
8962 (@code{gnus-summary-verbose-headers}).
8965 @kindex W o (Summary)
8966 @findex gnus-article-treat-overstrike
8967 Treat overstrike (@code{gnus-article-treat-overstrike}).
8970 @kindex W d (Summary)
8971 @findex gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes
8972 @vindex gnus-article-dumbquotes-map
8974 @cindex M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s
8976 Treat M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s according to
8977 @code{gnus-article-dumbquotes-map}
8978 (@code{gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes}). Note that this function guesses
8979 whether a character is a sm*rtq**t* or not, so it should only be used
8982 Sm*rtq**t*s are M****s***'s unilateral extension to the character map in
8983 an attempt to provide more quoting characters. If you see something
8984 like @code{\222} or @code{\264} where you're expecting some kind of
8985 apostrophe or quotation mark, then try this wash.
8988 @kindex W U (Summary)
8989 @findex gnus-article-treat-non-ascii
8991 @cindex Non-@acronym{ASCII}
8992 Translate many non-@acronym{ASCII} characters into their
8993 @acronym{ASCII} equivalents (@code{gnus-article-treat-non-ascii}).
8994 This is mostly useful if you're on a terminal that has a limited font
8995 and doesn't show accented characters, ``advanced'' punctuation, and the
8996 like. For instance, @samp{»} is translated into @samp{>>}, and so on.
8999 @kindex W Y f (Summary)
9000 @findex gnus-article-outlook-deuglify-article
9001 @cindex Outlook Express
9002 Full deuglify of broken Outlook (Express) articles: Treat dumbquotes,
9003 unwrap lines, repair attribution and rearrange citation.
9004 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-deuglify-article}).
9007 @kindex W Y u (Summary)
9008 @findex gnus-article-outlook-unwrap-lines
9009 @vindex gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-min
9010 @vindex gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-max
9011 Unwrap lines that appear to be wrapped citation lines. You can control
9012 what lines will be unwrapped by frobbing
9013 @code{gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-min} and
9014 @code{gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-max}, indicating the minimum and
9015 maximum length of an unwrapped citation line.
9016 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-unwrap-lines}).
9019 @kindex W Y a (Summary)
9020 @findex gnus-article-outlook-repair-attribution
9021 Repair a broken attribution line.@*
9022 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-repair-attribution}).
9025 @kindex W Y c (Summary)
9026 @findex gnus-article-outlook-rearrange-citation
9027 Repair broken citations by rearranging the text.
9028 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-rearrange-citation}).
9031 @kindex W w (Summary)
9032 @findex gnus-article-fill-cited-article
9033 Do word wrap (@code{gnus-article-fill-cited-article}).
9035 You can give the command a numerical prefix to specify the width to use
9039 @kindex W Q (Summary)
9040 @findex gnus-article-fill-long-lines
9041 Fill long lines (@code{gnus-article-fill-long-lines}).
9044 @kindex W C (Summary)
9045 @findex gnus-article-capitalize-sentences
9046 Capitalize the first word in each sentence
9047 (@code{gnus-article-capitalize-sentences}).
9050 @kindex W c (Summary)
9051 @findex gnus-article-remove-cr
9052 Translate CRLF pairs (i.e., @samp{^M}s on the end of the lines) into LF
9053 (this takes care of DOS line endings), and then translate any remaining
9054 CRs into LF (this takes care of Mac line endings)
9055 (@code{gnus-article-remove-cr}).
9058 @kindex W q (Summary)
9059 @findex gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable
9060 Treat quoted-printable (@code{gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable}).
9061 Quoted-Printable is one common @acronym{MIME} encoding employed when
9062 sending non-@acronym{ASCII} (i.e., 8-bit) articles. It typically
9063 makes strings like @samp{d@'ej@`a vu} look like @samp{d=E9j=E0 vu},
9064 which doesn't look very readable to me. Note that this is usually
9065 done automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
9066 @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding} header that says that this encoding
9067 has been done. If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
9070 @kindex W 6 (Summary)
9071 @findex gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable
9072 Treat base64 (@code{gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable}). Base64 is
9073 one common @acronym{MIME} encoding employed when sending
9074 non-@acronym{ASCII} (i.e., 8-bit) articles. Note that this is
9075 usually done automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
9076 @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding} header that says that this encoding
9077 has been done. If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
9080 @kindex W Z (Summary)
9081 @findex gnus-article-decode-HZ
9082 Treat HZ or HZP (@code{gnus-article-decode-HZ}). HZ (or HZP) is one
9083 common encoding employed when sending Chinese articles. It typically
9084 makes strings look like @samp{~@{<:Ky2;S@{#,NpJ)l6HK!#~@}}.
9087 @kindex W A (Summary)
9088 @findex gnus-article-treat-ansi-sequences
9089 @cindex @acronym{ANSI} control sequences
9090 Translate @acronym{ANSI} SGR control sequences into overlays or
9091 extents (@code{gnus-article-treat-ansi-sequences}). @acronym{ANSI}
9092 sequences are used in some Chinese hierarchies for highlighting.
9095 @kindex W u (Summary)
9096 @findex gnus-article-unsplit-urls
9097 Remove newlines from within URLs. Some mailers insert newlines into
9098 outgoing email messages to keep lines short. This reformatting can
9099 split long URLs onto multiple lines. Repair those URLs by removing
9100 the newlines (@code{gnus-article-unsplit-urls}).
9103 @kindex W h (Summary)
9104 @findex gnus-article-wash-html
9105 Treat @acronym{HTML} (@code{gnus-article-wash-html}). Note that this is
9106 usually done automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
9107 @code{Content-Type} header that says that the message is @acronym{HTML}.
9109 If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for. If it is a number,
9110 the charset defined in @code{gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist}
9111 (@pxref{Paging the Article}) will be used.
9113 The default is to use the function specified by
9114 @code{mm-text-html-renderer} (@pxref{Display Customization, ,Display
9115 Customization, emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME Manual}) to convert the
9116 @acronym{HTML}. Pre-defined functions you can use include:
9120 Use Gnus simple html renderer.
9123 Use Gnus rendered based on w3m.
9129 Use @uref{http://emacs-w3m.namazu.org/, emacs-w3m}.
9131 @item w3m-standalone
9132 Use @uref{http://w3m.sourceforge.net/, w3m}.
9135 Use @uref{http://links.sf.net/, Links}.
9138 Use @uref{http://lynx.isc.org/, Lynx}.
9141 Use html2text---a simple @acronym{HTML} converter included with Gnus.
9146 @kindex W b (Summary)
9147 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons
9148 Add clickable buttons to the article (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons}).
9149 @xref{Article Buttons}.
9152 @kindex W B (Summary)
9153 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head
9154 Add clickable buttons to the article headers
9155 (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head}).
9158 @kindex W p (Summary)
9159 @findex gnus-article-verify-x-pgp-sig
9160 Verify a signed control message
9161 (@code{gnus-article-verify-x-pgp-sig}). Control messages such as
9162 @code{newgroup} and @code{checkgroups} are usually signed by the
9163 hierarchy maintainer. You need to add the @acronym{PGP} public key of
9164 the maintainer to your keyring to verify the
9165 message.@footnote{@acronym{PGP} keys for many hierarchies are
9166 available at @uref{ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/pgpcontrol/README.html}}
9169 @kindex W s (Summary)
9170 @findex gnus-summary-force-verify-and-decrypt
9171 Verify a signed (@acronym{PGP}, @acronym{PGP/MIME} or
9172 @acronym{S/MIME}) message
9173 (@code{gnus-summary-force-verify-and-decrypt}). @xref{Security}.
9176 @kindex W a (Summary)
9177 @findex gnus-article-strip-headers-in-body
9178 Strip headers like the @code{X-No-Archive} header from the beginning of
9179 article bodies (@code{gnus-article-strip-headers-in-body}).
9182 @kindex W E l (Summary)
9183 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines
9184 Remove all blank lines from the beginning of the article
9185 (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines}).
9188 @kindex W E m (Summary)
9189 @findex gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines
9190 Replace all blank lines with empty lines and then all multiple empty
9191 lines with a single empty line.
9192 (@code{gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines}).
9195 @kindex W E t (Summary)
9196 @findex gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines
9197 Remove all blank lines at the end of the article
9198 (@code{gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines}).
9201 @kindex W E a (Summary)
9202 @findex gnus-article-strip-blank-lines
9203 Do all the three commands above
9204 (@code{gnus-article-strip-blank-lines}).
9207 @kindex W E A (Summary)
9208 @findex gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines
9209 Remove all blank lines
9210 (@code{gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines}).
9213 @kindex W E s (Summary)
9214 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-space
9215 Remove all white space from the beginning of all lines of the article
9216 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-space}).
9219 @kindex W E e (Summary)
9220 @findex gnus-article-strip-trailing-space
9221 Remove all white space from the end of all lines of the article
9222 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-trailing-space}).
9226 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to wash articles automatically.
9229 @node Article Header
9230 @subsection Article Header
9232 These commands perform various transformations of article header.
9237 @kindex W G u (Summary)
9238 @findex gnus-article-treat-unfold-headers
9239 Unfold folded header lines (@code{gnus-article-treat-unfold-headers}).
9242 @kindex W G n (Summary)
9243 @findex gnus-article-treat-fold-newsgroups
9244 Fold the @code{Newsgroups} and @code{Followup-To} headers
9245 (@code{gnus-article-treat-fold-newsgroups}).
9248 @kindex W G f (Summary)
9249 @findex gnus-article-treat-fold-headers
9250 Fold all the message headers
9251 (@code{gnus-article-treat-fold-headers}).
9254 @kindex W E w (Summary)
9255 @findex gnus-article-remove-leading-whitespace
9256 Remove excessive whitespace from all headers
9257 (@code{gnus-article-remove-leading-whitespace}).
9262 @node Article Buttons
9263 @subsection Article Buttons
9266 People often include references to other stuff in articles, and it would
9267 be nice if Gnus could just fetch whatever it is that people talk about
9268 with the minimum of fuzz when you hit @kbd{RET} or use the middle mouse
9269 button on these references.
9271 @vindex gnus-button-man-handler
9272 Gnus adds @dfn{buttons} to certain standard references by default:
9273 Well-formed URLs, mail addresses, Message-IDs, Info links, man pages and
9274 Emacs or Gnus related references. This is controlled by two variables,
9275 one that handles article bodies and one that handles article heads:
9279 @item gnus-button-alist
9280 @vindex gnus-button-alist
9281 This is an alist where each entry has this form:
9284 (@var{regexp} @var{button-par} @var{use-p} @var{function} @var{data-par})
9290 All text that match this regular expression (case insensitive) will be
9291 considered an external reference. Here's a typical regexp that matches
9292 embedded URLs: @samp{<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>}. This can also be a
9293 variable containing a regexp, useful variables to use include
9294 @code{gnus-button-url-regexp} and @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp}.
9297 Gnus has to know which parts of the matches is to be highlighted. This
9298 is a number that says what sub-expression of the regexp is to be
9299 highlighted. If you want it all highlighted, you use 0 here.
9302 This form will be @code{eval}ed, and if the result is non-@code{nil},
9303 this is considered a match. This is useful if you want extra sifting to
9304 avoid false matches. Often variables named
9305 @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level} are used here, @xref{Article Button
9306 Levels}, but any other form may be used too.
9308 @c @code{use-p} is @code{eval}ed only if @code{regexp} matches.
9311 This function will be called when you click on this button.
9314 As with @var{button-par}, this is a sub-expression number, but this one
9315 says which part of the match is to be sent as data to @var{function}.
9319 So the full entry for buttonizing URLs is then
9322 ("<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>" 0 t gnus-button-url 1)
9325 @item gnus-header-button-alist
9326 @vindex gnus-header-button-alist
9327 This is just like the other alist, except that it is applied to the
9328 article head only, and that each entry has an additional element that is
9329 used to say what headers to apply the buttonize coding to:
9332 (@var{header} @var{regexp} @var{button-par} @var{use-p} @var{function} @var{data-par})
9335 @var{header} is a regular expression.
9338 @subsubsection Related variables and functions
9341 @item gnus-button-@var{*}-level
9342 @xref{Article Button Levels}.
9344 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-browse-level
9346 @item gnus-button-url-regexp
9347 @vindex gnus-button-url-regexp
9348 A regular expression that matches embedded URLs. It is used in the
9349 default values of the variables above.
9351 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-man-level
9353 @item gnus-button-man-handler
9354 @vindex gnus-button-man-handler
9355 The function to use for displaying man pages. It must take at least one
9356 argument with a string naming the man page.
9358 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-message-level
9360 @item gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp
9361 @vindex gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp
9362 Regular expression that matches a message ID or a mail address.
9364 @item gnus-button-prefer-mid-or-mail
9365 @vindex gnus-button-prefer-mid-or-mail
9366 This variable determines what to do when the button on a string as
9367 @samp{foo123@@bar.invalid} is pushed. Strings like this can be either a
9368 message ID or a mail address. If it is one of the symbols @code{mid} or
9369 @code{mail}, Gnus will always assume that the string is a message ID or
9370 a mail address, respectively. If this variable is set to the symbol
9371 @code{ask}, always query the user what to do. If it is a function, this
9372 function will be called with the string as its only argument. The
9373 function must return @code{mid}, @code{mail}, @code{invalid} or
9374 @code{ask}. The default value is the function
9375 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic}.
9377 @item gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic
9378 @findex gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic
9379 Function that guesses whether its argument is a message ID or a mail
9380 address. Returns @code{mid} if it's a message IDs, @code{mail} if
9381 it's a mail address, @code{ask} if unsure and @code{invalid} if the
9384 @item gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic-alist
9385 @vindex gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic-alist
9386 An alist of @code{(RATE . REGEXP)} pairs used by the function
9387 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic}.
9391 @item gnus-article-button-face
9392 @vindex gnus-article-button-face
9393 Face used on buttons.
9395 @item gnus-article-mouse-face
9396 @vindex gnus-article-mouse-face
9397 Face used when the mouse cursor is over a button.
9401 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to buttonize articles automatically.
9404 @node Article Button Levels
9405 @subsection Article button levels
9406 @cindex button levels
9407 The higher the value of the variables @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level},
9408 the more buttons will appear. If the level is zero, no corresponding
9409 buttons are displayed. With the default value (which is 5) you should
9410 already see quite a lot of buttons. With higher levels, you will see
9411 more buttons, but you may also get more false positives. To avoid them,
9412 you can set the variables @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level} local to
9413 specific groups (@pxref{Group Parameters}). Here's an example for the
9414 variable @code{gnus-parameters}:
9417 ;; @r{increase @code{gnus-button-*-level} in some groups:}
9418 (setq gnus-parameters
9419 '(("\\<\\(emacs\\|gnus\\)\\>" (gnus-button-emacs-level 10))
9420 ("\\<unix\\>" (gnus-button-man-level 10))
9421 ("\\<tex\\>" (gnus-button-tex-level 10))))
9426 @item gnus-button-browse-level
9427 @vindex gnus-button-browse-level
9428 Controls the display of references to message IDs, mail addresses and
9429 news URLs. Related variables and functions include
9430 @code{gnus-button-url-regexp}, @code{browse-url}, and
9431 @code{browse-url-browser-function}.
9433 @item gnus-button-emacs-level
9434 @vindex gnus-button-emacs-level
9435 Controls the display of Emacs or Gnus references. Related functions are
9436 @code{gnus-button-handle-custom},
9437 @code{gnus-button-handle-describe-function},
9438 @code{gnus-button-handle-describe-variable},
9439 @code{gnus-button-handle-symbol},
9440 @code{gnus-button-handle-describe-key},
9441 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos},
9442 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos-command},
9443 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos-variable},
9444 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos-documentation}, and
9445 @code{gnus-button-handle-library}.
9447 @item gnus-button-man-level
9448 @vindex gnus-button-man-level
9449 Controls the display of references to (Unix) man pages.
9450 See @code{gnus-button-man-handler}.
9452 @item gnus-button-message-level
9453 @vindex gnus-button-message-level
9454 Controls the display of message IDs, mail addresses and news URLs.
9455 Related variables and functions include
9456 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp},
9457 @code{gnus-button-prefer-mid-or-mail},
9458 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic}, and
9459 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic-alist}.
9465 @subsection Article Date
9467 The date is most likely generated in some obscure timezone you've never
9468 heard of, so it's quite nice to be able to find out what the time was
9469 when the article was sent.
9474 @kindex W T u (Summary)
9475 @findex gnus-article-date-ut
9476 Display the date in UT (aka. GMT, aka ZULU)
9477 (@code{gnus-article-date-ut}).
9480 @kindex W T i (Summary)
9481 @findex gnus-article-date-iso8601
9483 Display the date in international format, aka. ISO 8601
9484 (@code{gnus-article-date-iso8601}).
9487 @kindex W T l (Summary)
9488 @findex gnus-article-date-local
9489 Display the date in the local timezone (@code{gnus-article-date-local}).
9492 @kindex W T p (Summary)
9493 @findex gnus-article-date-english
9494 Display the date in a format that's easily pronounceable in English
9495 (@code{gnus-article-date-english}).
9498 @kindex W T s (Summary)
9499 @vindex gnus-article-time-format
9500 @findex gnus-article-date-user
9501 @findex format-time-string
9502 Display the date using a user-defined format
9503 (@code{gnus-article-date-user}). The format is specified by the
9504 @code{gnus-article-time-format} variable, and is a string that's passed
9505 to @code{format-time-string}. See the documentation of that variable
9506 for a list of possible format specs.
9509 @kindex W T e (Summary)
9510 @findex gnus-article-date-lapsed
9511 @findex gnus-start-date-timer
9512 @findex gnus-stop-date-timer
9513 Say how much time has elapsed between the article was posted and now
9514 (@code{gnus-article-date-lapsed}). It looks something like:
9517 Date: 6 weeks, 4 days, 1 hour, 3 minutes, 8 seconds ago
9520 To make this line updated continually, set the
9521 @code{gnus-article-update-date-headers} variable to the frequency in
9522 seconds (the default is @code{nil}).
9525 @kindex W T o (Summary)
9526 @findex gnus-article-date-original
9527 Display the original date (@code{gnus-article-date-original}). This can
9528 be useful if you normally use some other conversion function and are
9529 worried that it might be doing something totally wrong. Say, claiming
9530 that the article was posted in 1854. Although something like that is
9531 @emph{totally} impossible. Don't you trust me? *titter*
9535 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to display the date in your
9536 preferred format automatically.
9539 @node Article Display
9540 @subsection Article Display
9546 These commands add various frivolous display gimmicks to the article
9547 buffer in Emacs versions that support them.
9549 @code{X-Face} headers are small black-and-white images supplied by the
9550 message headers (@pxref{X-Face}).
9552 @code{Face} headers are small colored images supplied by the message
9553 headers (@pxref{Face}).
9555 Smileys are those little @samp{:-)} symbols that people like to litter
9556 their messages with (@pxref{Smileys}).
9558 Picons, on the other hand, reside on your own system, and Gnus will
9559 try to match the headers to what you have (@pxref{Picons}).
9561 Gravatars reside on-line and are fetched from
9562 @uref{http://www.gravatar.com/} (@pxref{Gravatars}).
9564 All these functions are toggles---if the elements already exist,
9569 @kindex W D x (Summary)
9570 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
9571 Display an @code{X-Face} in the @code{From} header.
9572 (@code{gnus-article-display-x-face}).
9575 @kindex W D d (Summary)
9576 @findex gnus-article-display-face
9577 Display a @code{Face} in the @code{From} header.
9578 (@code{gnus-article-display-face}).
9581 @kindex W D s (Summary)
9582 @findex gnus-treat-smiley
9583 Display smileys (@code{gnus-treat-smiley}).
9586 @kindex W D f (Summary)
9587 @findex gnus-treat-from-picon
9588 Piconify the @code{From} header (@code{gnus-treat-from-picon}).
9591 @kindex W D m (Summary)
9592 @findex gnus-treat-mail-picon
9593 Piconify all mail headers (i.e., @code{Cc}, @code{To})
9594 (@code{gnus-treat-mail-picon}).
9597 @kindex W D n (Summary)
9598 @findex gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon
9599 Piconify all news headers (i.e., @code{Newsgroups} and
9600 @code{Followup-To}) (@code{gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon}).
9603 @kindex W D g (Summary)
9604 @findex gnus-treat-from-gravatar
9605 Gravatarify the @code{From} header (@code{gnus-treat-from-gravatar}).
9608 @kindex W D h (Summary)
9609 @findex gnus-treat-mail-gravatar
9610 Gravatarify all mail headers (i.e., @code{Cc}, @code{To})
9611 (@code{gnus-treat-from-gravatar}).
9614 @kindex W D D (Summary)
9615 @findex gnus-article-remove-images
9616 Remove all images from the article buffer
9617 (@code{gnus-article-remove-images}).
9620 @kindex W D W (Summary)
9621 @findex gnus-html-show-images
9622 If you're reading an @acronym{HTML} article rendered with
9623 @code{gnus-article-html}, then you can insert any blocked images in
9624 the buffer with this command.
9625 (@code{gnus-html-show-images}).
9631 @node Article Signature
9632 @subsection Article Signature
9634 @cindex article signature
9636 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
9637 Each article is divided into two parts---the head and the body. The
9638 body can be divided into a signature part and a text part. The variable
9639 that says what is to be considered a signature is
9640 @code{gnus-signature-separator}. This is normally the standard
9641 @samp{^-- $} as mandated by son-of-RFC 1036. However, many people use
9642 non-standard signature separators, so this variable can also be a list
9643 of regular expressions to be tested, one by one. (Searches are done
9644 from the end of the body towards the beginning.) One likely value is:
9647 (setq gnus-signature-separator
9648 '("^-- $" ; @r{The standard}
9649 "^-- *$" ; @r{A common mangling}
9650 "^-------*$" ; @r{Many people just use a looong}
9651 ; @r{line of dashes. Shame!}
9652 "^ *--------*$" ; @r{Double-shame!}
9653 "^________*$" ; @r{Underscores are also popular}
9654 "^========*$")) ; @r{Pervert!}
9657 The more permissive you are, the more likely it is that you'll get false
9660 @vindex gnus-signature-limit
9661 @code{gnus-signature-limit} provides a limit to what is considered a
9662 signature when displaying articles.
9666 If it is an integer, no signature may be longer (in characters) than
9669 If it is a floating point number, no signature may be longer (in lines)
9672 If it is a function, the function will be called without any parameters,
9673 and if it returns @code{nil}, there is no signature in the buffer.
9675 If it is a string, it will be used as a regexp. If it matches, the text
9676 in question is not a signature.
9679 This variable can also be a list where the elements may be of the types
9680 listed above. Here's an example:
9683 (setq gnus-signature-limit
9684 '(200.0 "^---*Forwarded article"))
9687 This means that if there are more than 200 lines after the signature
9688 separator, or the text after the signature separator is matched by
9689 the regular expression @samp{^---*Forwarded article}, then it isn't a
9690 signature after all.
9693 @node Article Miscellanea
9694 @subsection Article Miscellanea
9698 @kindex A t (Summary)
9699 @findex gnus-article-babel
9700 Translate the article from one language to another
9701 (@code{gnus-article-babel}).
9707 @section MIME Commands
9708 @cindex MIME decoding
9710 @cindex viewing attachments
9712 The following commands all understand the numerical prefix. For
9713 instance, @kbd{3 K v} means ``view the third @acronym{MIME} part''.
9719 @kindex K v (Summary)
9720 View the @acronym{MIME} part.
9723 @kindex K o (Summary)
9724 Save the @acronym{MIME} part.
9727 @kindex K O (Summary)
9728 Prompt for a file name, then save the @acronym{MIME} part and strip it
9729 from the article. The stripped @acronym{MIME} object will be referred
9730 via the message/external-body @acronym{MIME} type.
9733 @kindex K r (Summary)
9734 Replace the @acronym{MIME} part with an external body.
9737 @kindex K d (Summary)
9738 Delete the @acronym{MIME} part and add some information about the
9742 @kindex K c (Summary)
9743 Copy the @acronym{MIME} part.
9746 @kindex K e (Summary)
9747 View the @acronym{MIME} part externally.
9750 @kindex K i (Summary)
9751 View the @acronym{MIME} part internally.
9754 @kindex K | (Summary)
9755 Pipe the @acronym{MIME} part to an external command.
9758 The rest of these @acronym{MIME} commands do not use the numerical prefix in
9763 @kindex K H (Summary)
9764 @findex gnus-article-browse-html-article
9765 View @samp{text/html} parts of the current article with a WWW browser.
9766 Inline images embedded in a message using the @code{cid} scheme, as they
9767 are generally considered to be safe, will be processed properly. The
9768 message header is added to the beginning of every @acronym{HTML} part
9769 unless the prefix argument is given.
9771 Warning: Spammers use links to images (using the @code{http} scheme) in
9772 @acronym{HTML} articles to verify whether you have read the message. As
9773 this command passes the @acronym{HTML} content to the browser without
9774 eliminating these ``web bugs'' you should only use it for mails from
9777 If you always want to display @acronym{HTML} parts in the browser, set
9778 @code{mm-text-html-renderer} to @code{nil}.
9780 This command creates temporary files to pass @acronym{HTML} contents
9781 including images if any to the browser, and deletes them when exiting
9782 the group (if you want).
9785 @kindex K b (Summary)
9786 Make all the @acronym{MIME} parts have buttons in front of them. This is
9787 mostly useful if you wish to save (or perform other actions) on inlined
9791 @kindex K m (Summary)
9792 @findex gnus-summary-repair-multipart
9793 Some multipart messages are transmitted with missing or faulty headers.
9794 This command will attempt to ``repair'' these messages so that they can
9795 be viewed in a more pleasant manner
9796 (@code{gnus-summary-repair-multipart}).
9799 @kindex X m (Summary)
9800 @findex gnus-summary-save-parts
9801 Save all parts matching a @acronym{MIME} type to a directory
9802 (@code{gnus-summary-save-parts}). Understands the process/prefix
9803 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
9806 @kindex M-t (Summary)
9807 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-display-buttonized
9808 Toggle the buttonized display of the article buffer
9809 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-display-buttonized}).
9812 @kindex W M w (Summary)
9813 @findex gnus-article-decode-mime-words
9814 Decode RFC 2047-encoded words in the article headers
9815 (@code{gnus-article-decode-mime-words}).
9818 @kindex W M c (Summary)
9819 @findex gnus-article-decode-charset
9820 Decode encoded article bodies as well as charsets
9821 (@code{gnus-article-decode-charset}).
9823 This command looks in the @code{Content-Type} header to determine the
9824 charset. If there is no such header in the article, you can give it a
9825 prefix, which will prompt for the charset to decode as. In regional
9826 groups where people post using some common encoding (but do not
9827 include @acronym{MIME} headers), you can set the @code{charset} group/topic
9828 parameter to the required charset (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
9831 @kindex W M v (Summary)
9832 @findex gnus-mime-view-all-parts
9833 View all the @acronym{MIME} parts in the current article
9834 (@code{gnus-mime-view-all-parts}).
9841 @item gnus-ignored-mime-types
9842 @vindex gnus-ignored-mime-types
9843 This is a list of regexps. @acronym{MIME} types that match a regexp from
9844 this list will be completely ignored by Gnus. The default value is
9847 To have all Vcards be ignored, you'd say something like this:
9850 (setq gnus-ignored-mime-types
9854 @item gnus-article-loose-mime
9855 @vindex gnus-article-loose-mime
9856 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus won't require the @samp{MIME-Version} header
9857 before interpreting the message as a @acronym{MIME} message. This helps
9858 when reading messages from certain broken mail user agents. The
9859 default is @code{t}.
9861 @item gnus-article-emulate-mime
9862 @vindex gnus-article-emulate-mime
9865 There are other, non-@acronym{MIME} encoding methods used. The most common
9866 is @samp{uuencode}, but yEncode is also getting to be popular. If
9867 this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will look in message bodies to
9868 see if it finds these encodings, and if so, it'll run them through the
9869 Gnus @acronym{MIME} machinery. The default is @code{t}. Only
9870 single-part yEnc encoded attachments can be decoded. There's no support
9871 for encoding in Gnus.
9873 @item gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
9874 @vindex gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
9875 This is a list of regexps. @acronym{MIME} types that match a regexp from
9876 this list won't have @acronym{MIME} buttons inserted unless they aren't
9877 displayed or this variable is overridden by
9878 @code{gnus-buttonized-mime-types}. The default value is
9879 @code{(".*/.*")}. This variable is only used when
9880 @code{gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing} is @code{nil}.
9882 @item gnus-buttonized-mime-types
9883 @vindex gnus-buttonized-mime-types
9884 This is a list of regexps. @acronym{MIME} types that match a regexp from
9885 this list will have @acronym{MIME} buttons inserted unless they aren't
9886 displayed. This variable overrides
9887 @code{gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types}. The default value is @code{nil}.
9888 This variable is only used when @code{gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing}
9891 E.g., to see security buttons but no other buttons, you could set this
9892 variable to @code{("multipart/signed")} and leave
9893 @code{gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types} at the default value.
9895 You could also add @code{"multipart/alternative"} to this list to
9896 display radio buttons that allow you to choose one of two media types
9897 those mails include. See also @code{mm-discouraged-alternatives}
9898 (@pxref{Display Customization, ,Display Customization, emacs-mime, The
9899 Emacs MIME Manual}).
9901 @item gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing
9902 @vindex gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing
9903 If this is non-@code{nil}, then all @acronym{MIME} parts get buttons. The
9904 default value is @code{nil}.
9906 @item gnus-article-mime-part-function
9907 @vindex gnus-article-mime-part-function
9908 For each @acronym{MIME} part, this function will be called with the @acronym{MIME}
9909 handle as the parameter. The function is meant to be used to allow
9910 users to gather information from the article (e.g., add Vcard info to
9911 the bbdb database) or to do actions based on parts (e.g., automatically
9912 save all jpegs into some directory).
9914 Here's an example function the does the latter:
9917 (defun my-save-all-jpeg-parts (handle)
9918 (when (equal (car (mm-handle-type handle)) "image/jpeg")
9920 (insert (mm-get-part handle))
9921 (write-region (point-min) (point-max)
9922 (read-file-name "Save jpeg to: ")))))
9923 (setq gnus-article-mime-part-function
9924 'my-save-all-jpeg-parts)
9927 @vindex gnus-mime-multipart-functions
9928 @item gnus-mime-multipart-functions
9929 Alist of @acronym{MIME} multipart types and functions to handle them.
9931 @vindex gnus-mime-display-multipart-alternative-as-mixed
9932 @item gnus-mime-display-multipart-alternative-as-mixed
9933 Display "multipart/alternative" parts as "multipart/mixed".
9935 @vindex gnus-mime-display-multipart-related-as-mixed
9936 @item gnus-mime-display-multipart-related-as-mixed
9937 Display "multipart/related" parts as "multipart/mixed".
9939 If displaying @samp{text/html} is discouraged, see
9940 @code{mm-discouraged-alternatives}, images or other material inside a
9941 "multipart/related" part might be overlooked when this variable is
9942 @code{nil}. @ref{Display Customization, Display Customization, ,
9943 emacs-mime, Emacs-Mime Manual}.
9945 @vindex gnus-mime-display-multipart-as-mixed
9946 @item gnus-mime-display-multipart-as-mixed
9947 Display "multipart" parts as "multipart/mixed". If @code{t}, it
9948 overrides @code{nil} values of
9949 @code{gnus-mime-display-multipart-alternative-as-mixed} and
9950 @code{gnus-mime-display-multipart-related-as-mixed}.
9952 @vindex mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
9953 @item mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
9954 List of functions used for rewriting file names of @acronym{MIME} parts.
9955 Each function takes a file name as input and returns a file name.
9957 Ready-made functions include@*
9958 @code{mm-file-name-delete-whitespace},
9959 @code{mm-file-name-trim-whitespace},
9960 @code{mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace}, and
9961 @code{mm-file-name-replace-whitespace}. The later uses the value of
9962 the variable @code{mm-file-name-replace-whitespace} to replace each
9963 whitespace character in a file name with that string; default value
9964 is @code{"_"} (a single underscore).
9965 @findex mm-file-name-delete-whitespace
9966 @findex mm-file-name-trim-whitespace
9967 @findex mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace
9968 @findex mm-file-name-replace-whitespace
9969 @vindex mm-file-name-replace-whitespace
9971 The standard functions @code{capitalize}, @code{downcase},
9972 @code{upcase}, and @code{upcase-initials} may be useful, too.
9974 Everybody knows that whitespace characters in file names are evil,
9975 except those who don't know. If you receive lots of attachments from
9976 such unenlightened users, you can make live easier by adding
9979 (setq mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
9980 '(mm-file-name-trim-whitespace
9981 mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace
9982 mm-file-name-replace-whitespace))
9986 to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file.
9995 People use different charsets, and we have @acronym{MIME} to let us know what
9996 charsets they use. Or rather, we wish we had. Many people use
9997 newsreaders and mailers that do not understand or use @acronym{MIME}, and
9998 just send out messages without saying what character sets they use. To
9999 help a bit with this, some local news hierarchies have policies that say
10000 what character set is the default. For instance, the @samp{fj}
10001 hierarchy uses @code{iso-2022-jp}.
10003 @vindex gnus-group-charset-alist
10004 This knowledge is encoded in the @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}
10005 variable, which is an alist of regexps (use the first item to match full
10006 group names) and default charsets to be used when reading these groups.
10008 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-ignored-charsets
10009 In addition, some people do use soi-disant @acronym{MIME}-aware agents that
10010 aren't. These blithely mark messages as being in @code{iso-8859-1}
10011 even if they really are in @code{koi-8}. To help here, the
10012 @code{gnus-newsgroup-ignored-charsets} variable can be used. The
10013 charsets that are listed here will be ignored. The variable can be
10014 set on a group-by-group basis using the group parameters (@pxref{Group
10015 Parameters}). The default value is @code{(unknown-8bit x-unknown)},
10016 which includes values some agents insist on having in there.
10018 @vindex gnus-group-posting-charset-alist
10019 When posting, @code{gnus-group-posting-charset-alist} is used to
10020 determine which charsets should not be encoded using the @acronym{MIME}
10021 encodings. For instance, some hierarchies discourage using
10022 quoted-printable header encoding.
10024 This variable is an alist of regexps and permitted unencoded charsets
10025 for posting. Each element of the alist has the form @code{(}@var{test
10026 header body-list}@code{)}, where:
10030 is either a regular expression matching the newsgroup header or a
10033 is the charset which may be left unencoded in the header (@code{nil}
10034 means encode all charsets),
10036 is a list of charsets which may be encoded using 8bit content-transfer
10037 encoding in the body, or one of the special values @code{nil} (always
10038 encode using quoted-printable) or @code{t} (always use 8bit).
10045 @cindex coding system aliases
10046 @cindex preferred charset
10048 @xref{Encoding Customization, , Encoding Customization, emacs-mime,
10049 The Emacs MIME Manual}, for additional variables that control which
10050 MIME charsets are used when sending messages.
10052 Other charset tricks that may be useful, although not Gnus-specific:
10054 If there are several @acronym{MIME} charsets that encode the same Emacs
10055 charset, you can choose what charset to use by saying the following:
10058 (put-charset-property 'cyrillic-iso8859-5
10059 'preferred-coding-system 'koi8-r)
10062 This means that Russian will be encoded using @code{koi8-r} instead of
10063 the default @code{iso-8859-5} @acronym{MIME} charset.
10065 If you want to read messages in @code{koi8-u}, you can cheat and say
10068 (define-coding-system-alias 'koi8-u 'koi8-r)
10071 This will almost do the right thing.
10073 And finally, to read charsets like @code{windows-1251}, you can say
10077 (codepage-setup 1251)
10078 (define-coding-system-alias 'windows-1251 'cp1251)
10082 @node Article Commands
10083 @section Article Commands
10090 @kindex A P (Summary)
10091 @vindex gnus-ps-print-hook
10092 @findex gnus-summary-print-article
10093 Generate and print a PostScript image of the article buffer
10094 (@code{gnus-summary-print-article}). @code{gnus-ps-print-hook} will
10095 be run just before printing the buffer. An alternative way to print
10096 article is to use Muttprint (@pxref{Saving Articles}).
10099 @vindex gnus-fetch-partial-articles
10100 @findex gnus-summary-show-complete-article
10101 If @code{<backend>-fetch-partial-articles} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will
10102 fetch partial articles, if the backend it fetches them from supports
10103 it. Currently only @code{nnimap} does. If you're looking at a
10104 partial article, and want to see the complete article instead, then
10105 the @kbd{A C} command (@code{gnus-summary-show-complete-article}) will
10111 @node Summary Sorting
10112 @section Summary Sorting
10113 @cindex summary sorting
10115 You can have the summary buffer sorted in various ways, even though I
10116 can't really see why you'd want that.
10121 @kindex C-c C-s C-n (Summary)
10122 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-number
10123 Sort by article number (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-number}).
10125 @item C-c C-s C-m C-n
10126 @kindex C-c C-s C-n (Summary)
10127 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-most-recent-number
10128 Sort by most recent article number
10129 (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-most-recent-number}).
10132 @kindex C-c C-s C-a (Summary)
10133 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-author
10134 Sort by author (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-author}).
10137 @kindex C-c C-s C-t (Summary)
10138 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-recipient
10139 Sort by recipient (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-recipient}).
10142 @kindex C-c C-s C-s (Summary)
10143 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-subject
10144 Sort by subject (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-subject}).
10147 @kindex C-c C-s C-d (Summary)
10148 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-date
10149 Sort by date (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-date}).
10151 @item C-c C-s C-m C-d
10152 @kindex C-c C-s C-m C-d (Summary)
10153 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-most-recent-date
10154 Sort by most recent date (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-most-recent-date}).
10157 @kindex C-c C-s C-l (Summary)
10158 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-lines
10159 Sort by lines (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-lines}).
10162 @kindex C-c C-s C-c (Summary)
10163 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-chars
10164 Sort by article length (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-chars}).
10167 @kindex C-c C-s C-i (Summary)
10168 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-score
10169 Sort by score (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-score}).
10172 @kindex C-c C-s C-r (Summary)
10173 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-random
10174 Randomize (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-random}).
10177 @kindex C-c C-s C-o (Summary)
10178 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-original
10179 Sort using the default sorting method
10180 (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-original}).
10183 These functions will work both when you use threading and when you don't
10184 use threading. In the latter case, all summary lines will be sorted,
10185 line by line. In the former case, sorting will be done on a
10186 root-by-root basis, which might not be what you were looking for. To
10187 toggle whether to use threading, type @kbd{T T} (@pxref{Thread
10190 If a prefix argument if given, the sort order is reversed.
10193 @node Finding the Parent
10194 @section Finding the Parent
10195 @cindex parent articles
10196 @cindex referring articles
10200 @kindex ^ (Summary)
10201 @findex gnus-summary-refer-parent-article
10202 If you'd like to read the parent of the current article, and it is not
10203 displayed in the summary buffer, you might still be able to. That is,
10204 if the current group is fetched by @acronym{NNTP}, the parent hasn't expired
10205 and the @code{References} in the current article are not mangled, you
10206 can just press @kbd{^} or @kbd{A r}
10207 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-parent-article}). If everything goes well,
10208 you'll get the parent. If the parent is already displayed in the
10209 summary buffer, point will just move to this article.
10211 If given a positive numerical prefix, fetch that many articles back into
10212 the ancestry. If given a negative numerical prefix, fetch just that
10213 ancestor. So if you say @kbd{3 ^}, Gnus will fetch the parent, the
10214 grandparent and the grandgrandparent of the current article. If you say
10215 @kbd{-3 ^}, Gnus will only fetch the grandgrandparent of the current
10218 @item A R (Summary)
10219 @findex gnus-summary-refer-references
10220 @kindex A R (Summary)
10221 Fetch all articles mentioned in the @code{References} header of the
10222 article (@code{gnus-summary-refer-references}).
10224 @item A T (Summary)
10225 @findex gnus-summary-refer-thread
10226 @kindex A T (Summary)
10227 Display the full thread where the current article appears
10228 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-thread}). This command has to fetch all the
10229 headers in the current group to work, so it usually takes a while. If
10230 you do it often, you may consider setting @code{gnus-fetch-old-headers}
10231 to @code{invisible} (@pxref{Filling In Threads}). This won't have any
10232 visible effects normally, but it'll make this command work a whole lot
10233 faster. Of course, it'll make group entry somewhat slow.
10235 @vindex gnus-refer-thread-limit
10236 The @code{gnus-refer-thread-limit} variable says how many old (i.e.,
10237 articles before the first displayed in the current group) headers to
10238 fetch when doing this command. The default is 200. If @code{t}, all
10239 the available headers will be fetched. This variable can be overridden
10240 by giving the @kbd{A T} command a numerical prefix.
10242 @item M-^ (Summary)
10243 @findex gnus-summary-refer-article
10244 @kindex M-^ (Summary)
10246 @cindex fetching by Message-ID
10247 You can also ask Gnus for an arbitrary article, no matter what group it
10248 belongs to. @kbd{M-^} (@code{gnus-summary-refer-article}) will ask you
10249 for a @code{Message-ID}, which is one of those long, hard-to-read
10250 thingies that look something like @samp{<38o6up$6f2@@hymir.ifi.uio.no>}.
10251 You have to get it all exactly right. No fuzzy searches, I'm afraid.
10253 Gnus looks for the @code{Message-ID} in the headers that have already
10254 been fetched, but also tries all the select methods specified by
10255 @code{gnus-refer-article-method} if it is not found.
10258 @vindex gnus-refer-article-method
10259 If the group you are reading is located on a back end that does not
10260 support fetching by @code{Message-ID} very well (like @code{nnspool}),
10261 you can set @code{gnus-refer-article-method} to an @acronym{NNTP} method. It
10262 would, perhaps, be best if the @acronym{NNTP} server you consult is the one
10263 updating the spool you are reading from, but that's not really
10266 It can also be a list of select methods, as well as the special symbol
10267 @code{current}, which means to use the current select method. If it
10268 is a list, Gnus will try all the methods in the list until it finds a
10271 Here's an example setting that will first try the current method, and
10272 then ask Google if that fails:
10275 (setq gnus-refer-article-method
10277 (nnweb "google" (nnweb-type google))))
10280 Most of the mail back ends support fetching by @code{Message-ID}, but
10281 do not do a particularly excellent job at it. That is, @code{nnmbox},
10282 @code{nnbabyl}, @code{nnmaildir}, @code{nnml}, are able to locate
10283 articles from any groups, while @code{nnfolder}, and @code{nnimap} are
10284 only able to locate articles that have been posted to the current
10285 group. @code{nnmh} does not support this at all.
10287 Fortunately, the special @code{nnregistry} back end is able to locate
10288 articles in any groups, regardless of their back end (@pxref{Registry
10289 Article Refer Method, fetching by @code{Message-ID} using the
10292 @node Alternative Approaches
10293 @section Alternative Approaches
10295 Different people like to read news using different methods. This being
10296 Gnus, we offer a small selection of minor modes for the summary buffers.
10299 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
10300 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
10304 @node Pick and Read
10305 @subsection Pick and Read
10306 @cindex pick and read
10308 Some newsreaders (like @code{nn} and, uhm, @code{Netnews} on VM/CMS) use
10309 a two-phased reading interface. The user first marks in a summary
10310 buffer the articles she wants to read. Then she starts reading the
10311 articles with just an article buffer displayed.
10313 @findex gnus-pick-mode
10314 @kindex M-x gnus-pick-mode
10315 Gnus provides a summary buffer minor mode that allows
10316 this---@code{gnus-pick-mode}. This basically means that a few process
10317 mark commands become one-keystroke commands to allow easy marking, and
10318 it provides one additional command for switching to the summary buffer.
10320 Here are the available keystrokes when using pick mode:
10325 @findex gnus-pick-article-or-thread
10326 Pick the article or thread on the current line
10327 (@code{gnus-pick-article-or-thread}). If the variable
10328 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key selects the
10329 entire thread when used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise,
10330 it selects just the article. If given a numerical prefix, go to that
10331 thread or article and pick it. (The line number is normally displayed
10332 at the beginning of the summary pick lines.)
10335 @kindex SPACE (Pick)
10336 @findex gnus-pick-next-page
10337 Scroll the summary buffer up one page (@code{gnus-pick-next-page}). If
10338 at the end of the buffer, start reading the picked articles.
10342 @findex gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread.
10343 Unpick the thread or article
10344 (@code{gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread}). If the variable
10345 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key unpicks the
10346 thread if used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise it unpicks
10347 just the article. You can give this key a numerical prefix to unpick
10348 the thread or article at that line.
10352 @findex gnus-pick-start-reading
10353 @vindex gnus-pick-display-summary
10354 Start reading the picked articles (@code{gnus-pick-start-reading}). If
10355 given a prefix, mark all unpicked articles as read first. If
10356 @code{gnus-pick-display-summary} is non-@code{nil}, the summary buffer
10357 will still be visible when you are reading.
10361 All the normal summary mode commands are still available in the
10362 pick-mode, with the exception of @kbd{u}. However @kbd{!} is available
10363 which is mapped to the same function
10364 @code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}.
10366 If this sounds like a good idea to you, you could say:
10369 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
10372 @vindex gnus-pick-mode-hook
10373 @code{gnus-pick-mode-hook} is run in pick minor mode buffers.
10375 @vindex gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read
10376 If @code{gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read} is non-@code{nil}, mark
10377 all unpicked articles as read. The default is @code{nil}.
10379 @vindex gnus-summary-pick-line-format
10380 The summary line format in pick mode is slightly different from the
10381 standard format. At the beginning of each line the line number is
10382 displayed. The pick mode line format is controlled by the
10383 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting
10384 Variables}). It accepts the same format specs that
10385 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} does (@pxref{Summary Buffer Lines}).
10388 @node Binary Groups
10389 @subsection Binary Groups
10390 @cindex binary groups
10392 @findex gnus-binary-mode
10393 @kindex M-x gnus-binary-mode
10394 If you spend much time in binary groups, you may grow tired of hitting
10395 @kbd{X u}, @kbd{n}, @kbd{RET} all the time. @kbd{M-x gnus-binary-mode}
10396 is a minor mode for summary buffers that makes all ordinary Gnus article
10397 selection functions uudecode series of articles and display the result
10398 instead of just displaying the articles the normal way.
10401 @findex gnus-binary-show-article
10402 The only way, in fact, to see the actual articles is the @kbd{g}
10403 command, when you have turned on this mode
10404 (@code{gnus-binary-show-article}).
10406 @vindex gnus-binary-mode-hook
10407 @code{gnus-binary-mode-hook} is called in binary minor mode buffers.
10411 @section Tree Display
10414 @vindex gnus-use-trees
10415 If you don't like the normal Gnus summary display, you might try setting
10416 @code{gnus-use-trees} to @code{t}. This will create (by default) an
10417 additional @dfn{tree buffer}. You can execute all summary mode commands
10418 in the tree buffer.
10420 There are a few variables to customize the tree display, of course:
10423 @item gnus-tree-mode-hook
10424 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-hook
10425 A hook called in all tree mode buffers.
10427 @item gnus-tree-mode-line-format
10428 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-line-format
10429 A format string for the mode bar in the tree mode buffers (@pxref{Mode
10430 Line Formatting}). The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b %S %Z}. For a list
10431 of valid specs, @pxref{Summary Buffer Mode Line}.
10433 @item gnus-selected-tree-face
10434 @vindex gnus-selected-tree-face
10435 Face used for highlighting the selected article in the tree buffer. The
10436 default is @code{modeline}.
10438 @item gnus-tree-line-format
10439 @vindex gnus-tree-line-format
10440 A format string for the tree nodes. The name is a bit of a misnomer,
10441 though---it doesn't define a line, but just the node. The default value
10442 is @samp{%(%[%3,3n%]%)}, which displays the first three characters of
10443 the name of the poster. It is vital that all nodes are of the same
10444 length, so you @emph{must} use @samp{%4,4n}-like specifiers.
10450 The name of the poster.
10452 The @code{From} header.
10454 The number of the article.
10456 The opening bracket.
10458 The closing bracket.
10463 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
10465 Variables related to the display are:
10468 @item gnus-tree-brackets
10469 @vindex gnus-tree-brackets
10470 This is used for differentiating between ``real'' articles and
10471 ``sparse'' articles. The format is
10473 ((@var{real-open} . @var{real-close})
10474 (@var{sparse-open} . @var{sparse-close})
10475 (@var{dummy-open} . @var{dummy-close}))
10477 and the default is @code{((?[ . ?]) (?( . ?)) (?@{ . ?@}) (?< . ?>))}.
10479 @item gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
10480 @vindex gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
10481 This is a list that contains the characters used for connecting parent
10482 nodes to their children. The default is @code{(?- ?\\ ?|)}.
10486 @item gnus-tree-minimize-window
10487 @vindex gnus-tree-minimize-window
10488 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will try to keep the tree
10489 buffer as small as possible to allow more room for the other Gnus
10490 windows. If this variable is a number, the tree buffer will never be
10491 higher than that number. The default is @code{t}. Note that if you
10492 have several windows displayed side-by-side in a frame and the tree
10493 buffer is one of these, minimizing the tree window will also resize all
10494 other windows displayed next to it.
10496 You may also wish to add the following hook to keep the window minimized
10500 (add-hook 'gnus-configure-windows-hook
10501 'gnus-tree-perhaps-minimize)
10504 @item gnus-generate-tree-function
10505 @vindex gnus-generate-tree-function
10506 @findex gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
10507 @findex gnus-generate-vertical-tree
10508 The function that actually generates the thread tree. Two predefined
10509 functions are available: @code{gnus-generate-horizontal-tree} and
10510 @code{gnus-generate-vertical-tree} (which is the default).
10514 Here's an example from a horizontal tree buffer:
10517 @{***@}-(***)-[odd]-[Gun]
10527 Here's the same thread displayed in a vertical tree buffer:
10532 |--------------------------\-----\-----\
10533 (***) [Bjo] [Gun] [Gun]
10535 [odd] [Jan] [odd] (***) [Jor]
10537 [Gun] [Eri] [Eri] [odd]
10543 If you're using horizontal trees, it might be nice to display the trees
10544 side-by-side with the summary buffer. You could add something like the
10545 following to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
10548 (setq gnus-use-trees t
10549 gnus-generate-tree-function 'gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
10550 gnus-tree-minimize-window nil)
10551 (gnus-add-configuration
10555 (summary 0.75 point)
10560 @xref{Window Layout}.
10563 @node Mail Group Commands
10564 @section Mail Group Commands
10565 @cindex mail group commands
10567 Some commands only make sense in mail groups. If these commands are
10568 invalid in the current group, they will raise a hell and let you know.
10570 All these commands (except the expiry and edit commands) use the
10571 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
10576 @kindex B e (Summary)
10577 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles
10578 @cindex expiring mail
10579 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
10580 process (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles}). That is, delete all
10581 expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
10582 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
10585 @kindex B C-M-e (Summary)
10586 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles-now
10587 @cindex expiring mail
10588 Delete all the expirable articles in the group
10589 (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles-now}). This means that @strong{all}
10590 articles eligible for expiry in the current group will
10591 disappear forever into that big @file{/dev/null} in the sky.
10594 @kindex B DEL (Summary)
10595 @cindex deleting mail
10596 @findex gnus-summary-delete-article
10597 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-delete}
10598 Delete the mail article. This is ``delete'' as in ``delete it from your
10599 disk forever and ever, never to return again.'' Use with caution.
10600 (@code{gnus-summary-delete-article}).
10603 @kindex B m (Summary)
10605 @findex gnus-summary-move-article
10606 @vindex gnus-preserve-marks
10607 Move the article from one mail group to another
10608 (@code{gnus-summary-move-article}). Marks will be preserved if
10609 @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
10612 @kindex B c (Summary)
10614 @findex gnus-summary-copy-article
10615 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-copy}
10616 Copy the article from one group (mail group or not) to a mail group
10617 (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}). Marks will be preserved if
10618 @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
10621 @kindex B B (Summary)
10622 @cindex crosspost mail
10623 @findex gnus-summary-crosspost-article
10624 Crosspost the current article to some other group
10625 (@code{gnus-summary-crosspost-article}). This will create a new copy of
10626 the article in the other group, and the Xref headers of the article will
10627 be properly updated.
10630 @kindex B i (Summary)
10631 @findex gnus-summary-import-article
10632 Import an arbitrary file into the current mail newsgroup
10633 (@code{gnus-summary-import-article}). You will be prompted for a file
10634 name, a @code{From} header and a @code{Subject} header.
10637 @kindex B I (Summary)
10638 @findex gnus-summary-create-article
10639 Create an empty article in the current mail newsgroups
10640 (@code{gnus-summary-create-article}). You will be prompted for a
10641 @code{From} header and a @code{Subject} header.
10644 @kindex B r (Summary)
10645 @findex gnus-summary-respool-article
10646 @vindex gnus-summary-respool-default-method
10647 Respool the mail article (@code{gnus-summary-respool-article}).
10648 @code{gnus-summary-respool-default-method} will be used as the default
10649 select method when respooling. This variable is @code{nil} by default,
10650 which means that the current group select method will be used instead.
10651 Marks will be preserved if @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil}
10652 (which is the default).
10656 @kindex B w (Summary)
10657 @kindex e (Summary)
10658 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article
10659 @kindex C-c C-c (Article)
10660 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article-done
10661 Edit the current article (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article}). To finish
10662 editing and make the changes permanent, type @kbd{C-c C-c}
10663 (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article-done}). If you give a prefix to the
10664 @kbd{C-c C-c} command, Gnus won't re-highlight the article.
10667 @kindex B q (Summary)
10668 @findex gnus-summary-respool-query
10669 If you want to re-spool an article, you might be curious as to what group
10670 the article will end up in before you do the re-spooling. This command
10671 will tell you (@code{gnus-summary-respool-query}).
10674 @kindex B t (Summary)
10675 @findex gnus-summary-respool-trace
10676 Similarly, this command will display all fancy splitting patterns used
10677 when respooling, if any (@code{gnus-summary-respool-trace}).
10680 @kindex B p (Summary)
10681 @findex gnus-summary-article-posted-p
10682 Some people have a tendency to send you ``courtesy'' copies when they
10683 follow up to articles you have posted. These usually have a
10684 @code{Newsgroups} header in them, but not always. This command
10685 (@code{gnus-summary-article-posted-p}) will try to fetch the current
10686 article from your news server (or rather, from
10687 @code{gnus-refer-article-method} or @code{gnus-select-method}) and will
10688 report back whether it found the article or not. Even if it says that
10689 it didn't find the article, it may have been posted anyway---mail
10690 propagation is much faster than news propagation, and the news copy may
10691 just not have arrived yet.
10694 @kindex K E (Summary)
10695 @findex gnus-article-encrypt-body
10696 @vindex gnus-article-encrypt-protocol
10697 Encrypt the body of an article (@code{gnus-article-encrypt-body}).
10698 The body is encrypted with the encryption protocol specified by the
10699 variable @code{gnus-article-encrypt-protocol}.
10703 @vindex gnus-move-split-methods
10704 @cindex moving articles
10705 If you move (or copy) articles regularly, you might wish to have Gnus
10706 suggest where to put the articles. @code{gnus-move-split-methods} is a
10707 variable that uses the same syntax as @code{gnus-split-methods}
10708 (@pxref{Saving Articles}). You may customize that variable to create
10709 suggestions you find reasonable. (Note that
10710 @code{gnus-move-split-methods} uses group names where
10711 @code{gnus-split-methods} uses file names.)
10714 (setq gnus-move-split-methods
10715 '(("^From:.*Lars Magne" "nnml:junk")
10716 ("^Subject:.*gnus" "nnfolder:important")
10717 (".*" "nnml:misc")))
10721 @node Various Summary Stuff
10722 @section Various Summary Stuff
10725 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
10726 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
10727 * Summary Generation Commands::
10728 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
10732 @vindex gnus-summary-display-while-building
10733 @item gnus-summary-display-while-building
10734 If non-@code{nil}, show and update the summary buffer as it's being
10735 built. If @code{t}, update the buffer after every line is inserted.
10736 If the value is an integer, @var{n}, update the display every @var{n}
10737 lines. The default is @code{nil}.
10739 @vindex gnus-summary-display-arrow
10740 @item gnus-summary-display-arrow
10741 If non-@code{nil}, display an arrow in the fringe to indicate the
10744 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-hook
10745 @item gnus-summary-mode-hook
10746 This hook is called when creating a summary mode buffer.
10748 @vindex gnus-summary-generate-hook
10749 @item gnus-summary-generate-hook
10750 This is called as the last thing before doing the threading and the
10751 generation of the summary buffer. It's quite convenient for customizing
10752 the threading variables based on what data the newsgroup has. This hook
10753 is called from the summary buffer after most summary buffer variables
10756 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-hook
10757 @item gnus-summary-prepare-hook
10758 It is called after the summary buffer has been generated. You might use
10759 it to, for instance, highlight lines or modify the look of the buffer in
10760 some other ungodly manner. I don't care.
10762 @vindex gnus-summary-prepared-hook
10763 @item gnus-summary-prepared-hook
10764 A hook called as the very last thing after the summary buffer has been
10767 @vindex gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
10768 @item gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
10769 When Gnus discovers two articles that have the same @code{Message-ID},
10770 it has to do something drastic. No articles are allowed to have the
10771 same @code{Message-ID}, but this may happen when reading mail from some
10772 sources. Gnus allows you to customize what happens with this variable.
10773 If it is @code{nil} (which is the default), Gnus will rename the
10774 @code{Message-ID} (for display purposes only) and display the article as
10775 any other article. If this variable is @code{t}, it won't display the
10776 article---it'll be as if it never existed.
10778 @vindex gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
10779 @item gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
10780 This function, which takes two parameters (the group name and the list
10781 of articles to be selected), is called to allow the user to alter the
10782 list of articles to be selected.
10784 For instance, the following function adds the list of cached articles to
10785 the list in one particular group:
10788 (defun my-add-cached-articles (group articles)
10789 (if (string= group "some.group")
10790 (append gnus-newsgroup-cached articles)
10794 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-variables
10795 @item gnus-newsgroup-variables
10796 A list of newsgroup (summary buffer) local variables, or cons of
10797 variables and their default expressions to be evalled (when the default
10798 values are not @code{nil}), that should be made global while the summary
10801 Note: The default expressions will be evaluated (using function
10802 @code{eval}) before assignment to the local variable rather than just
10803 assigned to it. If the default expression is the symbol @code{global},
10804 that symbol will not be evaluated but the global value of the local
10805 variable will be used instead.
10807 These variables can be used to set variables in the group parameters
10808 while still allowing them to affect operations done in other
10809 buffers. For example:
10812 (setq gnus-newsgroup-variables
10813 '(message-use-followup-to
10814 (gnus-visible-headers .
10815 "^From:\\|^Newsgroups:\\|^Subject:\\|^Date:\\|^To:")))
10818 Also @pxref{Group Parameters}.
10823 @node Summary Group Information
10824 @subsection Summary Group Information
10829 @kindex H d (Summary)
10830 @findex gnus-summary-describe-group
10831 Give a brief description of the current group
10832 (@code{gnus-summary-describe-group}). If given a prefix, force
10833 rereading the description from the server.
10836 @kindex H h (Summary)
10837 @findex gnus-summary-describe-briefly
10838 Give an extremely brief description of the most important summary
10839 keystrokes (@code{gnus-summary-describe-briefly}).
10842 @kindex H i (Summary)
10843 @findex gnus-info-find-node
10844 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
10848 @node Searching for Articles
10849 @subsection Searching for Articles
10854 @kindex M-s (Summary)
10855 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-forward
10856 Search through all subsequent (raw) articles for a regexp
10857 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-forward}).
10860 @kindex M-r (Summary)
10861 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-backward
10862 Search through all previous (raw) articles for a regexp
10863 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-backward}).
10866 @kindex M-S (Summary)
10867 @findex gnus-summary-repeat-search-article-forward
10868 Repeat the previous search forwards
10869 (@code{gnus-summary-repeat-search-article-forward}).
10872 @kindex M-R (Summary)
10873 @findex gnus-summary-repeat-search-article-backward
10874 Repeat the previous search backwards
10875 (@code{gnus-summary-repeat-search-article-backward}).
10878 @kindex & (Summary)
10879 @findex gnus-summary-execute-command
10880 This command will prompt you for a header, a regular expression to match
10881 on this field, and a command to be executed if the match is made
10882 (@code{gnus-summary-execute-command}). If the header is an empty
10883 string, the match is done on the entire article. If given a prefix,
10884 search backward instead.
10886 For instance, @kbd{& RET some.*string RET #} will put the process mark on
10887 all articles that have heads or bodies that match @samp{some.*string}.
10890 @kindex M-& (Summary)
10891 @findex gnus-summary-universal-argument
10892 Perform any operation on all articles that have been marked with
10893 the process mark (@code{gnus-summary-universal-argument}).
10896 @node Summary Generation Commands
10897 @subsection Summary Generation Commands
10902 @kindex Y g (Summary)
10903 @findex gnus-summary-prepare
10904 Regenerate the current summary buffer (@code{gnus-summary-prepare}).
10907 @kindex Y c (Summary)
10908 @findex gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles
10909 Pull all cached articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
10910 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles}).
10913 @kindex Y d (Summary)
10914 @findex gnus-summary-insert-dormant-articles
10915 Pull all dormant articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
10916 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-dormant-articles}).
10919 @kindex Y t (Summary)
10920 @findex gnus-summary-insert-ticked-articles
10921 Pull all ticked articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
10922 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-ticked-articles}).
10927 @node Really Various Summary Commands
10928 @subsection Really Various Summary Commands
10934 @kindex C-d (Summary)
10935 @kindex A D (Summary)
10936 @findex gnus-summary-enter-digest-group
10937 If the current article is a collection of other articles (for instance,
10938 a digest), you might use this command to enter a group based on the that
10939 article (@code{gnus-summary-enter-digest-group}). Gnus will try to
10940 guess what article type is currently displayed unless you give a prefix
10941 to this command, which forces a ``digest'' interpretation. Basically,
10942 whenever you see a message that is a collection of other messages of
10943 some format, you @kbd{C-d} and read these messages in a more convenient
10946 @vindex gnus-auto-select-on-ephemeral-exit
10947 The variable @code{gnus-auto-select-on-ephemeral-exit} controls what
10948 article should be selected after exiting a digest group. Valid values
10953 Select the next article.
10956 Select the next unread article.
10958 @item next-noselect
10959 Move the cursor to the next article. This is the default.
10961 @item next-unread-noselect
10962 Move the cursor to the next unread article.
10965 If it has any other value or there is no next (unread) article, the
10966 article selected before entering to the digest group will appear.
10969 @kindex C-M-d (Summary)
10970 @findex gnus-summary-read-document
10971 This command is very similar to the one above, but lets you gather
10972 several documents into one biiig group
10973 (@code{gnus-summary-read-document}). It does this by opening several
10974 @code{nndoc} groups for each document, and then opening an
10975 @code{nnvirtual} group on top of these @code{nndoc} groups. This
10976 command understands the process/prefix convention
10977 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
10980 @kindex C-t (Summary)
10981 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-truncation
10982 Toggle truncation of summary lines
10983 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-truncation}). This will probably confuse the
10984 line centering function in the summary buffer, so it's not a good idea
10985 to have truncation switched off while reading articles.
10988 @kindex = (Summary)
10989 @findex gnus-summary-expand-window
10990 Expand the summary buffer window (@code{gnus-summary-expand-window}).
10991 If given a prefix, force an @code{article} window configuration.
10994 @kindex C-M-e (Summary)
10995 @findex gnus-summary-edit-parameters
10996 Edit the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
10997 group (@code{gnus-summary-edit-parameters}).
11000 @kindex C-M-a (Summary)
11001 @findex gnus-summary-customize-parameters
11002 Customize the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
11003 group (@code{gnus-summary-customize-parameters}).
11008 @node Exiting the Summary Buffer
11009 @section Exiting the Summary Buffer
11010 @cindex summary exit
11011 @cindex exiting groups
11013 Exiting from the summary buffer will normally update all info on the
11014 group and return you to the group buffer.
11021 @kindex Z Z (Summary)
11022 @kindex Z Q (Summary)
11023 @kindex q (Summary)
11024 @findex gnus-summary-exit
11025 @vindex gnus-summary-exit-hook
11026 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook
11027 @vindex gnus-group-no-more-groups-hook
11028 @c @icon{gnus-summary-exit}
11029 Exit the current group and update all information on the group
11030 (@code{gnus-summary-exit}). @code{gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook} is
11031 called before doing much of the exiting, which calls
11032 @code{gnus-summary-expire-articles} by default.
11033 @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} is called after finishing the exit
11034 process. @code{gnus-group-no-more-groups-hook} is run when returning to
11035 group mode having no more (unread) groups.
11039 @kindex Z E (Summary)
11040 @kindex Q (Summary)
11041 @findex gnus-summary-exit-no-update
11042 Exit the current group without updating any information on the group
11043 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}).
11047 @kindex Z c (Summary)
11048 @kindex c (Summary)
11049 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit
11050 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}
11051 Mark all unticked articles in the group as read and then exit
11052 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}).
11055 @kindex Z C (Summary)
11056 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit
11057 Mark all articles, even the ticked ones, as read and then exit
11058 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit}).
11061 @kindex Z n (Summary)
11062 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group
11063 Mark all articles as read and go to the next group
11064 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group}).
11067 @kindex Z p (Summary)
11068 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-prev-group
11069 Mark all articles as read and go to the previous group
11070 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-prev-group}).
11074 @kindex Z R (Summary)
11075 @kindex C-x C-s (Summary)
11076 @findex gnus-summary-reselect-current-group
11077 Exit this group, and then enter it again
11078 (@code{gnus-summary-reselect-current-group}). If given a prefix, select
11079 all articles, both read and unread.
11083 @kindex Z G (Summary)
11084 @kindex M-g (Summary)
11085 @findex gnus-summary-rescan-group
11086 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-get}
11087 Exit the group, check for new articles in the group, and select the
11088 group (@code{gnus-summary-rescan-group}). If given a prefix, select all
11089 articles, both read and unread.
11092 @kindex Z N (Summary)
11093 @findex gnus-summary-next-group
11094 Exit the group and go to the next group
11095 (@code{gnus-summary-next-group}).
11098 @kindex Z P (Summary)
11099 @findex gnus-summary-prev-group
11100 Exit the group and go to the previous group
11101 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-group}).
11104 @kindex Z s (Summary)
11105 @findex gnus-summary-save-newsrc
11106 Save the current number of read/marked articles in the dribble buffer
11107 and then save the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-summary-save-newsrc}). If
11108 given a prefix, also save the @file{.newsrc} file(s). Using this
11109 command will make exit without updating (the @kbd{Q} command) worthless.
11112 @vindex gnus-exit-group-hook
11113 @code{gnus-exit-group-hook} is called when you exit the current group
11114 with an ``updating'' exit. For instance @kbd{Q}
11115 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}) does not call this hook.
11117 @findex gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead
11118 @findex gnus-dead-summary-mode
11119 @vindex gnus-kill-summary-on-exit
11120 If you're in the habit of exiting groups, and then changing your mind
11121 about it, you might set @code{gnus-kill-summary-on-exit} to @code{nil}.
11122 If you do that, Gnus won't kill the summary buffer when you exit it.
11123 (Quelle surprise!) Instead it will change the name of the buffer to
11124 something like @samp{*Dead Summary ... *} and install a minor mode
11125 called @code{gnus-dead-summary-mode}. Now, if you switch back to this
11126 buffer, you'll find that all keys are mapped to a function called
11127 @code{gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead}. So tapping any keys in a dead
11128 summary buffer will result in a live, normal summary buffer.
11130 There will never be more than one dead summary buffer at any one time.
11132 @vindex gnus-use-cross-reference
11133 The data on the current group will be updated (which articles you have
11134 read, which articles you have replied to, etc.)@: when you exit the
11135 summary buffer. If the @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} variable is
11136 @code{t} (which is the default), articles that are cross-referenced to
11137 this group and are marked as read, will also be marked as read in the
11138 other subscribed groups they were cross-posted to. If this variable is
11139 neither @code{nil} nor @code{t}, the article will be marked as read in
11140 both subscribed and unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}).
11143 @node Crosspost Handling
11144 @section Crosspost Handling
11148 Marking cross-posted articles as read ensures that you'll never have to
11149 read the same article more than once. Unless, of course, somebody has
11150 posted it to several groups separately. Posting the same article to
11151 several groups (not cross-posting) is called @dfn{spamming}, and you are
11152 by law required to send nasty-grams to anyone who perpetrates such a
11155 Remember: Cross-posting is kinda ok, but posting the same article
11156 separately to several groups is not. Massive cross-posting (aka.
11157 @dfn{velveeta}) is to be avoided at all costs, and you can even use the
11158 @code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint} command to complain about
11159 excessive crossposting (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
11161 @cindex cross-posting
11163 @cindex @acronym{NOV}
11164 One thing that may cause Gnus to not do the cross-posting thing
11165 correctly is if you use an @acronym{NNTP} server that supports @sc{xover}
11166 (which is very nice, because it speeds things up considerably) which
11167 does not include the @code{Xref} header in its @acronym{NOV} lines. This is
11168 Evil, but all too common, alas, alack. Gnus tries to Do The Right Thing
11169 even with @sc{xover} by registering the @code{Xref} lines of all
11170 articles you actually read, but if you kill the articles, or just mark
11171 them as read without reading them, Gnus will not get a chance to snoop
11172 the @code{Xref} lines out of these articles, and will be unable to use
11173 the cross reference mechanism.
11175 @cindex LIST overview.fmt
11176 @cindex overview.fmt
11177 To check whether your @acronym{NNTP} server includes the @code{Xref} header
11178 in its overview files, try @samp{telnet your.nntp.server nntp},
11179 @samp{MODE READER} on @code{inn} servers, and then say @samp{LIST
11180 overview.fmt}. This may not work, but if it does, and the last line you
11181 get does not read @samp{Xref:full}, then you should shout and whine at
11182 your news admin until she includes the @code{Xref} header in the
11185 If you want Gnus to get the @code{Xref}s right all the time, you have to
11186 set @code{nntp-nov-is-evil} to @code{t}, which slows things down
11187 considerably. Also @pxref{Slow/Expensive Connection}.
11191 For an alternative approach, @pxref{Duplicate Suppression}.
11194 @node Duplicate Suppression
11195 @section Duplicate Suppression
11197 By default, Gnus tries to make sure that you don't have to read the same
11198 article more than once by utilizing the crossposting mechanism
11199 (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}). However, that simple and efficient
11200 approach may not work satisfactory for some users for various
11205 The @acronym{NNTP} server may fail to generate the @code{Xref} header. This
11206 is evil and not very common.
11209 The @acronym{NNTP} server may fail to include the @code{Xref} header in the
11210 @file{.overview} data bases. This is evil and all too common, alas.
11213 You may be reading the same group (or several related groups) from
11214 different @acronym{NNTP} servers.
11217 You may be getting mail that duplicates articles posted to groups.
11220 I'm sure there are other situations where @code{Xref} handling fails as
11221 well, but these four are the most common situations.
11223 If, and only if, @code{Xref} handling fails for you, then you may
11224 consider switching on @dfn{duplicate suppression}. If you do so, Gnus
11225 will remember the @code{Message-ID}s of all articles you have read or
11226 otherwise marked as read, and then, as if by magic, mark them as read
11227 all subsequent times you see them---in @emph{all} groups. Using this
11228 mechanism is quite likely to be somewhat inefficient, but not overly
11229 so. It's certainly preferable to reading the same articles more than
11232 Duplicate suppression is not a very subtle instrument. It's more like a
11233 sledge hammer than anything else. It works in a very simple
11234 fashion---if you have marked an article as read, it adds this Message-ID
11235 to a cache. The next time it sees this Message-ID, it will mark the
11236 article as read with the @samp{M} mark. It doesn't care what group it
11237 saw the article in.
11240 @item gnus-suppress-duplicates
11241 @vindex gnus-suppress-duplicates
11242 If non-@code{nil}, suppress duplicates.
11244 @item gnus-save-duplicate-list
11245 @vindex gnus-save-duplicate-list
11246 If non-@code{nil}, save the list of duplicates to a file. This will
11247 make startup and shutdown take longer, so the default is @code{nil}.
11248 However, this means that only duplicate articles read in a single Gnus
11249 session are suppressed.
11251 @item gnus-duplicate-list-length
11252 @vindex gnus-duplicate-list-length
11253 This variable says how many @code{Message-ID}s to keep in the duplicate
11254 suppression list. The default is 10000.
11256 @item gnus-duplicate-file
11257 @vindex gnus-duplicate-file
11258 The name of the file to store the duplicate suppression list in. The
11259 default is @file{~/News/suppression}.
11262 If you have a tendency to stop and start Gnus often, setting
11263 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{t} is probably a good idea. If
11264 you leave Gnus running for weeks on end, you may have it @code{nil}. On
11265 the other hand, saving the list makes startup and shutdown much slower,
11266 so that means that if you stop and start Gnus often, you should set
11267 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{nil}. Uhm. I'll leave this up
11268 to you to figure out, I think.
11273 Gnus is able to verify signed messages or decrypt encrypted messages.
11274 The formats that are supported are @acronym{PGP}, @acronym{PGP/MIME}
11275 and @acronym{S/MIME}, however you need some external programs to get
11280 To handle @acronym{PGP} and @acronym{PGP/MIME} messages, you have to
11281 install an OpenPGP implementation such as GnuPG@. The Lisp interface
11282 to GnuPG included with Emacs is called EasyPG (@pxref{Top, ,EasyPG,
11283 epa, EasyPG Assistant user's manual}), but PGG (@pxref{Top, ,PGG, pgg,
11284 PGG Manual}), and Mailcrypt are also supported.
11287 To handle @acronym{S/MIME} message, you need to install OpenSSL@. OpenSSL 0.9.6
11288 or newer is recommended.
11292 The variables that control security functionality on reading/composing
11296 @item mm-verify-option
11297 @vindex mm-verify-option
11298 Option of verifying signed parts. @code{never}, not verify;
11299 @code{always}, always verify; @code{known}, only verify known
11300 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
11302 @item mm-decrypt-option
11303 @vindex mm-decrypt-option
11304 Option of decrypting encrypted parts. @code{never}, no decryption;
11305 @code{always}, always decrypt; @code{known}, only decrypt known
11306 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
11308 @item mm-sign-option
11309 @vindex mm-sign-option
11310 Option of creating signed parts. @code{nil}, use default signing
11311 keys; @code{guided}, ask user to select signing keys from the menu.
11313 @item mm-encrypt-option
11314 @vindex mm-encrypt-option
11315 Option of creating encrypted parts. @code{nil}, use the first
11316 public-key matching the @samp{From:} header as the recipient;
11317 @code{guided}, ask user to select recipient keys from the menu.
11320 @vindex mml1991-use
11321 Symbol indicating elisp interface to OpenPGP implementation for
11322 @acronym{PGP} messages. The default is @code{epg}, but @code{pgg},
11323 and @code{mailcrypt} are also supported although
11324 deprecated. By default, Gnus uses the first available interface in
11328 @vindex mml2015-use
11329 Symbol indicating elisp interface to OpenPGP implementation for
11330 @acronym{PGP/MIME} messages. The default is @code{epg}, but
11331 @code{pgg}, and @code{mailcrypt} are also supported
11332 although deprecated. By default, Gnus uses the first available
11333 interface in this order.
11337 By default the buttons that display security information are not
11338 shown, because they clutter reading the actual e-mail. You can type
11339 @kbd{K b} manually to display the information. Use the
11340 @code{gnus-buttonized-mime-types} and
11341 @code{gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types} variables to control this
11342 permanently. @ref{MIME Commands} for further details, and hints on
11343 how to customize these variables to always display security
11346 @cindex snarfing keys
11347 @cindex importing PGP keys
11348 @cindex PGP key ring import
11349 Snarfing OpenPGP keys (i.e., importing keys from articles into your
11350 key ring) is not supported explicitly through a menu item or command,
11351 rather Gnus do detect and label keys as @samp{application/pgp-keys},
11352 allowing you to specify whatever action you think is appropriate
11353 through the usual @acronym{MIME} infrastructure. You can use a
11354 @file{~/.mailcap} entry (@pxref{mailcap, , mailcap, emacs-mime, The
11355 Emacs MIME Manual}) such as the following to import keys using GNU
11356 Privacy Guard when you click on the @acronym{MIME} button
11357 (@pxref{Using MIME}).
11360 application/pgp-keys; gpg --import --interactive --verbose; needsterminal
11363 This happens to also be the default action defined in
11364 @code{mailcap-mime-data}.
11366 More information on how to set things for sending outgoing signed and
11367 encrypted messages up can be found in the message manual
11368 (@pxref{Security, ,Security, message, Message Manual}).
11371 @section Mailing List
11372 @cindex mailing list
11375 @kindex A M (summary)
11376 @findex gnus-mailing-list-insinuate
11377 Gnus understands some mailing list fields of RFC 2369. To enable it,
11378 add a @code{to-list} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}),
11379 possibly using @kbd{A M} (@code{gnus-mailing-list-insinuate}) in the
11382 That enables the following commands to the summary buffer:
11387 @kindex C-c C-n h (Summary)
11388 @findex gnus-mailing-list-help
11389 Send a message to fetch mailing list help, if List-Help field exists.
11392 @kindex C-c C-n s (Summary)
11393 @findex gnus-mailing-list-subscribe
11394 Send a message to subscribe the mailing list, if List-Subscribe field exists.
11397 @kindex C-c C-n u (Summary)
11398 @findex gnus-mailing-list-unsubscribe
11399 Send a message to unsubscribe the mailing list, if List-Unsubscribe
11403 @kindex C-c C-n p (Summary)
11404 @findex gnus-mailing-list-post
11405 Post to the mailing list, if List-Post field exists.
11408 @kindex C-c C-n o (Summary)
11409 @findex gnus-mailing-list-owner
11410 Send a message to the mailing list owner, if List-Owner field exists.
11413 @kindex C-c C-n a (Summary)
11414 @findex gnus-mailing-list-archive
11415 Browse the mailing list archive, if List-Archive field exists.
11420 @node Article Buffer
11421 @chapter Article Buffer
11422 @cindex article buffer
11424 The articles are displayed in the article buffer, of which there is only
11425 one. All the summary buffers share the same article buffer unless you
11426 tell Gnus otherwise.
11429 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
11430 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @acronym{MIME} before reading them.
11431 * HTML:: Reading @acronym{HTML} messages.
11432 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
11433 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
11434 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
11438 @node Hiding Headers
11439 @section Hiding Headers
11440 @cindex hiding headers
11441 @cindex deleting headers
11443 The top section of each article is the @dfn{head}. (The rest is the
11444 @dfn{body}, but you may have guessed that already.)
11446 @vindex gnus-show-all-headers
11447 There is a lot of useful information in the head: the name of the person
11448 who wrote the article, the date it was written and the subject of the
11449 article. That's well and nice, but there's also lots of information
11450 most people do not want to see---what systems the article has passed
11451 through before reaching you, the @code{Message-ID}, the
11452 @code{References}, etc. ad nauseam---and you'll probably want to get rid
11453 of some of those lines. If you want to keep all those lines in the
11454 article buffer, you can set @code{gnus-show-all-headers} to @code{t}.
11456 Gnus provides you with two variables for sifting headers:
11460 @item gnus-visible-headers
11461 @vindex gnus-visible-headers
11462 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, it should be a regular expression
11463 that says what headers you wish to keep in the article buffer. All
11464 headers that do not match this variable will be hidden.
11466 For instance, if you only want to see the name of the person who wrote
11467 the article and the subject, you'd say:
11470 (setq gnus-visible-headers "^From:\\|^Subject:")
11473 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
11476 @item gnus-ignored-headers
11477 @vindex gnus-ignored-headers
11478 This variable is the reverse of @code{gnus-visible-headers}. If this
11479 variable is set (and @code{gnus-visible-headers} is @code{nil}), it
11480 should be a regular expression that matches all lines that you want to
11481 hide. All lines that do not match this variable will remain visible.
11483 For instance, if you just want to get rid of the @code{References} line
11484 and the @code{Xref} line, you might say:
11487 (setq gnus-ignored-headers "^References:\\|^Xref:")
11490 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
11493 Note that if @code{gnus-visible-headers} is non-@code{nil}, this
11494 variable will have no effect.
11498 @vindex gnus-sorted-header-list
11499 Gnus can also sort the headers for you. (It does this by default.) You
11500 can control the sorting by setting the @code{gnus-sorted-header-list}
11501 variable. It is a list of regular expressions that says in what order
11502 the headers are to be displayed.
11504 For instance, if you want the name of the author of the article first,
11505 and then the subject, you might say something like:
11508 (setq gnus-sorted-header-list '("^From:" "^Subject:"))
11511 Any headers that are to remain visible, but are not listed in this
11512 variable, will be displayed in random order after all the headers listed in this variable.
11514 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
11515 @vindex gnus-boring-article-headers
11516 You can hide further boring headers by setting
11517 @code{gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers} to @code{head}. What this function
11518 does depends on the @code{gnus-boring-article-headers} variable. It's a
11519 list, but this list doesn't actually contain header names. Instead it
11520 lists various @dfn{boring conditions} that Gnus can check and remove
11523 These conditions are:
11526 Remove all empty headers.
11528 Remove the @code{Followup-To} header if it is identical to the
11529 @code{Newsgroups} header.
11531 Remove the @code{Reply-To} header if it lists the same addresses as
11532 the @code{From} header, or if the @code{broken-reply-to} group
11535 Remove the @code{Newsgroups} header if it only contains the current group
11538 Remove the @code{To} header if it only contains the address identical to
11539 the current group's @code{to-address} parameter.
11541 Remove the @code{To} header if it only contains the address identical to
11542 the current group's @code{to-list} parameter.
11544 Remove the @code{Cc} header if it only contains the address identical to
11545 the current group's @code{to-list} parameter.
11547 Remove the @code{Date} header if the article is less than three days
11550 Remove the @code{To} and/or @code{Cc} header if it is very long.
11552 Remove all @code{To} and/or @code{Cc} headers if there are more than one.
11555 To include these three elements, you could say something like:
11558 (setq gnus-boring-article-headers
11559 '(empty followup-to reply-to))
11562 This is also the default value for this variable.
11566 @section Using MIME
11567 @cindex @acronym{MIME}
11569 Mime is a standard for waving your hands through the air, aimlessly,
11570 while people stand around yawning.
11572 @acronym{MIME}, however, is a standard for encoding your articles, aimlessly,
11573 while all newsreaders die of fear.
11575 @acronym{MIME} may specify what character set the article uses, the encoding
11576 of the characters, and it also makes it possible to embed pictures and
11577 other naughty stuff in innocent-looking articles.
11579 @vindex gnus-display-mime-function
11580 @findex gnus-display-mime
11581 Gnus pushes @acronym{MIME} articles through @code{gnus-display-mime-function}
11582 to display the @acronym{MIME} parts. This is @code{gnus-display-mime} by
11583 default, which creates a bundle of clickable buttons that can be used to
11584 display, save and manipulate the @acronym{MIME} objects.
11586 The following commands are available when you have placed point over a
11587 @acronym{MIME} button:
11590 @findex gnus-article-press-button
11591 @item RET (Article)
11592 @kindex RET (Article)
11593 @itemx BUTTON-2 (Article)
11594 Toggle displaying of the @acronym{MIME} object
11595 (@code{gnus-article-press-button}). If built-in viewers can not display
11596 the object, Gnus resorts to external viewers in the @file{mailcap}
11597 files. If a viewer has the @samp{copiousoutput} specification, the
11598 object is displayed inline.
11600 @findex gnus-mime-view-part
11601 @item M-RET (Article)
11602 @kindex M-RET (Article)
11604 Prompt for a method, and then view the @acronym{MIME} object using this
11605 method (@code{gnus-mime-view-part}).
11607 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-as-type
11609 @kindex t (Article)
11610 View the @acronym{MIME} object as if it were a different @acronym{MIME} media type
11611 (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-as-type}).
11613 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-as-charset
11615 @kindex C (Article)
11616 Prompt for a charset, and then view the @acronym{MIME} object using this
11617 charset (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-as-charset}).
11619 @findex gnus-mime-save-part
11621 @kindex o (Article)
11622 Prompt for a file name, and then save the @acronym{MIME} object
11623 (@code{gnus-mime-save-part}).
11625 @findex gnus-mime-save-part-and-strip
11626 @item C-o (Article)
11627 @kindex C-o (Article)
11628 Prompt for a file name, then save the @acronym{MIME} object and strip it from
11629 the article. Then proceed to article editing, where a reasonable
11630 suggestion is being made on how the altered article should look
11631 like. The stripped @acronym{MIME} object will be referred via the
11632 message/external-body @acronym{MIME} type.
11633 (@code{gnus-mime-save-part-and-strip}).
11635 @findex gnus-mime-replace-part
11637 @kindex r (Article)
11638 Prompt for a file name, replace the @acronym{MIME} object with an
11639 external body referring to the file via the message/external-body
11640 @acronym{MIME} type. (@code{gnus-mime-replace-part}).
11642 @findex gnus-mime-delete-part
11644 @kindex d (Article)
11645 Delete the @acronym{MIME} object from the article and replace it with some
11646 information about the removed @acronym{MIME} object
11647 (@code{gnus-mime-delete-part}).
11649 @c FIXME: gnus-auto-select-part should be documented here
11651 @findex gnus-mime-copy-part
11653 @kindex c (Article)
11654 Copy the @acronym{MIME} object to a fresh buffer and display this buffer
11655 (@code{gnus-mime-copy-part}). If given a prefix, copy the raw contents
11656 without decoding. If given a numerical prefix, you can do semi-manual
11657 charset stuff (see @code{gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist} in
11658 @ref{Paging the Article}). Compressed files like @file{.gz} and
11659 @file{.bz2} are automatically decompressed if
11660 @code{auto-compression-mode} is enabled (@pxref{Compressed Files,,
11661 Accessing Compressed Files, emacs, The Emacs Editor}).
11663 @findex gnus-mime-print-part
11665 @kindex p (Article)
11666 Print the @acronym{MIME} object (@code{gnus-mime-print-part}). This
11667 command respects the @samp{print=} specifications in the
11668 @file{.mailcap} file.
11670 @findex gnus-mime-inline-part
11672 @kindex i (Article)
11673 Insert the contents of the @acronym{MIME} object into the buffer
11674 (@code{gnus-mime-inline-part}) as @samp{text/plain}. If given a prefix, insert
11675 the raw contents without decoding. If given a numerical prefix, you can
11676 do semi-manual charset stuff (see
11677 @code{gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist} in @ref{Paging the
11678 Article}). Compressed files like @file{.gz} and @file{.bz2} are
11679 automatically decompressed depending on @code{jka-compr} regardless of
11680 @code{auto-compression-mode} (@pxref{Compressed Files,, Accessing
11681 Compressed Files, emacs, The Emacs Editor}).
11683 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-internally
11685 @kindex E (Article)
11686 View the @acronym{MIME} object with an internal viewer. If no internal
11687 viewer is available, use an external viewer
11688 (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-internally}).
11690 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-externally
11692 @kindex e (Article)
11693 View the @acronym{MIME} object with an external viewer.
11694 (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-externally}).
11696 @findex gnus-mime-pipe-part
11698 @kindex | (Article)
11699 Output the @acronym{MIME} object to a process (@code{gnus-mime-pipe-part}).
11701 @findex gnus-mime-action-on-part
11703 @kindex . (Article)
11704 Interactively run an action on the @acronym{MIME} object
11705 (@code{gnus-mime-action-on-part}).
11709 Gnus will display some @acronym{MIME} objects automatically. The way Gnus
11710 determines which parts to do this with is described in the Emacs
11711 @acronym{MIME} manual.
11713 It might be best to just use the toggling functions from the article
11714 buffer to avoid getting nasty surprises. (For instance, you enter the
11715 group @samp{alt.sing-a-long} and, before you know it, @acronym{MIME} has
11716 decoded the sound file in the article and some horrible sing-a-long song
11717 comes screaming out your speakers, and you can't find the volume button,
11718 because there isn't one, and people are starting to look at you, and you
11719 try to stop the program, but you can't, and you can't find the program
11720 to control the volume, and everybody else in the room suddenly decides
11721 to look at you disdainfully, and you'll feel rather stupid.)
11723 Any similarity to real events and people is purely coincidental. Ahem.
11725 Also @pxref{MIME Commands}.
11729 @section @acronym{HTML}
11730 @cindex @acronym{HTML}
11732 If you have @code{w3m} installed on your system, Gnus can display
11733 @acronym{HTML} articles in the article buffer. There are many Gnus
11734 add-ons for doing this, using various approaches, but there's one
11735 (sort of) built-in method that's used by default.
11737 For a complete overview, consult @xref{Display Customization,
11738 ,Display Customization, emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME Manual}. This
11739 section only describes the default method.
11742 @item mm-text-html-renderer
11743 @vindex mm-text-html-renderer
11744 If set to @code{gnus-article-html}, Gnus will use the built-in method,
11745 that's based on @code{w3m}.
11747 @item gnus-blocked-images
11748 @vindex gnus-blocked-images
11749 External images that have @acronym{URL}s that match this regexp won't
11750 be fetched and displayed. For instance, do block all @acronym{URL}s
11751 that have the string ``ads'' in them, do the following:
11754 (setq gnus-blocked-images "ads")
11757 This can also be a function to be evaluated. If so, it will be
11758 called with the group name as the parameter. The default value is
11759 @code{gnus-block-private-groups}, which will return @samp{"."} for
11760 anything that isn't a newsgroup. This means that no external images
11761 will be fetched as a result of reading mail, so that nobody can use
11762 web bugs (and the like) to track whether you've read email.
11764 Also @pxref{Misc Article} for @code{gnus-inhibit-images}.
11766 @item gnus-html-cache-directory
11767 @vindex gnus-html-cache-directory
11768 Gnus will download and cache images according to how
11769 @code{gnus-blocked-images} is set. These images will be stored in
11772 @item gnus-html-cache-size
11773 @vindex gnus-html-cache-size
11774 When @code{gnus-html-cache-size} bytes have been used in that
11775 directory, the oldest files will be deleted. The default is 500MB.
11777 @item gnus-html-frame-width
11778 @vindex gnus-html-frame-width
11779 The width to use when rendering HTML@. The default is 70.
11781 @item gnus-max-image-proportion
11782 @vindex gnus-max-image-proportion
11783 How big pictures displayed are in relation to the window they're in.
11784 A value of 0.7 (the default) means that they are allowed to take up
11785 70% of the width and height of the window. If they are larger than
11786 this, and Emacs supports it, then the images will be rescaled down to
11787 fit these criteria.
11791 To use this, make sure that you have @code{w3m} and @code{curl}
11792 installed. If you have, then Gnus should display @acronym{HTML}
11797 @node Customizing Articles
11798 @section Customizing Articles
11799 @cindex article customization
11801 A slew of functions for customizing how the articles are to look like
11802 exist. You can call these functions interactively
11803 (@pxref{Article Washing}), or you can have them
11804 called automatically when you select the articles.
11806 To have them called automatically, you should set the corresponding
11807 ``treatment'' variable. For instance, to have headers hidden, you'd set
11808 @code{gnus-treat-hide-headers}. Below is a list of variables that can
11809 be set, but first we discuss the values these variables can have.
11811 Note: Some values, while valid, make little sense. Check the list below
11812 for sensible values.
11816 @code{nil}: Don't do this treatment.
11819 @code{t}: Do this treatment on all body parts.
11822 @code{head}: Do the treatment on the headers.
11825 @code{first}: Do this treatment on the first body part.
11828 @code{last}: Do this treatment on the last body part.
11831 An integer: Do this treatment on all body parts that have a length less
11835 A list of strings: Do this treatment on all body parts that are in
11836 articles that are read in groups that have names that match one of the
11837 regexps in the list.
11840 A list where the first element is not a string:
11842 The list is evaluated recursively. The first element of the list is a
11843 predicate. The following predicates are recognized: @code{or},
11844 @code{and}, @code{not} and @code{typep}. Here's an example:
11848 (typep "text/x-vcard"))
11853 You may have noticed that the word @dfn{part} is used here. This refers
11854 to the fact that some messages are @acronym{MIME} multipart articles that may
11855 be divided into several parts. Articles that are not multiparts are
11856 considered to contain just a single part.
11858 @vindex gnus-article-treat-types
11859 Are the treatments applied to all sorts of multipart parts? Yes, if you
11860 want to, but by default, only @samp{text/plain} parts are given the
11861 treatment. This is controlled by the @code{gnus-article-treat-types}
11862 variable, which is a list of regular expressions that are matched to the
11863 type of the part. This variable is ignored if the value of the
11864 controlling variable is a predicate list, as described above.
11867 @c Avoid sort of redundant entries in the same section for the printed
11868 @c manual, but add them in info to allow `i gnus-treat-foo-bar RET' or
11870 @vindex gnus-treat-buttonize
11871 @vindex gnus-treat-buttonize-head
11872 @vindex gnus-treat-capitalize-sentences
11873 @vindex gnus-treat-overstrike
11874 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-cr
11875 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-headers-in-body
11876 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-leading-blank-lines
11877 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-multiple-blank-lines
11878 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-pem
11879 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-trailing-blank-lines
11880 @vindex gnus-treat-unsplit-urls
11881 @vindex gnus-treat-wash-html
11882 @vindex gnus-treat-date
11883 @vindex gnus-treat-from-picon
11884 @vindex gnus-treat-mail-picon
11885 @vindex gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon
11886 @vindex gnus-treat-from-gravatar
11887 @vindex gnus-treat-mail-gravatar
11888 @vindex gnus-treat-display-smileys
11889 @vindex gnus-treat-body-boundary
11890 @vindex gnus-treat-display-x-face
11891 @vindex gnus-treat-display-face
11892 @vindex gnus-treat-emphasize
11893 @vindex gnus-treat-fill-article
11894 @vindex gnus-treat-fill-long-lines
11895 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers
11896 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-citation
11897 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-citation-maybe
11898 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-headers
11899 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-signature
11900 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-banner
11901 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-list-identifiers
11902 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-citation
11903 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-headers
11904 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-signature
11905 @vindex gnus-treat-play-sounds
11906 @vindex gnus-treat-x-pgp-sig
11907 @vindex gnus-treat-unfold-headers
11908 @vindex gnus-treat-fold-headers
11909 @vindex gnus-treat-fold-newsgroups
11910 @vindex gnus-treat-leading-whitespace
11913 The following treatment options are available. The easiest way to
11914 customize this is to examine the @code{gnus-article-treat} customization
11915 group. Values in parenthesis are suggested sensible values. Others are
11916 possible but those listed are probably sufficient for most people.
11919 @item gnus-treat-buttonize (t, integer)
11920 @item gnus-treat-buttonize-head (head)
11922 @xref{Article Buttons}.
11924 @item gnus-treat-capitalize-sentences (t, integer)
11925 @item gnus-treat-overstrike (t, integer)
11926 @item gnus-treat-strip-cr (t, integer)
11927 @item gnus-treat-strip-headers-in-body (t, integer)
11928 @item gnus-treat-strip-leading-blank-lines (t, first, integer)
11929 @item gnus-treat-strip-multiple-blank-lines (t, integer)
11930 @item gnus-treat-strip-pem (t, last, integer)
11931 @item gnus-treat-strip-trailing-blank-lines (t, last, integer)
11932 @item gnus-treat-unsplit-urls (t, integer)
11933 @item gnus-treat-wash-html (t, integer)
11935 @xref{Article Washing}.
11937 @item gnus-treat-date (head)
11939 This will transform/add date headers according to the
11940 @code{gnus-article-date-headers} variable. This is a list of Date
11941 headers to display. The formats available are:
11945 Universal time, aka GMT, aka ZULU.
11948 The user's local time zone.
11951 A semi-readable English sentence.
11954 The time elapsed since the message was posted.
11956 @item combined-lapsed
11957 Both the original date header and a (shortened) elapsed time.
11960 The original date header.
11963 ISO8601 format, i.e., ``2010-11-23T22:05:21''.
11966 A format done according to the @code{gnus-article-time-format}
11971 @xref{Article Date}.
11973 @item gnus-treat-from-picon (head)
11974 @item gnus-treat-mail-picon (head)
11975 @item gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon (head)
11979 @item gnus-treat-from-gravatar (head)
11980 @item gnus-treat-mail-gravatar (head)
11984 @item gnus-treat-display-smileys (t, integer)
11986 @item gnus-treat-body-boundary (head)
11988 @vindex gnus-body-boundary-delimiter
11989 Adds a delimiter between header and body, the string used as delimiter
11990 is controlled by @code{gnus-body-boundary-delimiter}.
11994 @vindex gnus-treat-display-x-face
11995 @item gnus-treat-display-x-face (head)
11999 @vindex gnus-treat-display-face
12000 @item gnus-treat-display-face (head)
12004 @vindex gnus-treat-emphasize
12005 @item gnus-treat-emphasize (t, head, integer)
12006 @vindex gnus-treat-fill-article
12007 @item gnus-treat-fill-article (t, integer)
12008 @vindex gnus-treat-fill-long-lines
12009 @item gnus-treat-fill-long-lines (t, integer)
12010 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers
12011 @item gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers (head)
12012 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-citation
12013 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation (t, integer)
12014 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-citation-maybe
12015 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation-maybe (t, integer)
12016 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-headers
12017 @item gnus-treat-hide-headers (head)
12018 @vindex gnus-treat-hide-signature
12019 @item gnus-treat-hide-signature (t, last)
12020 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-banner
12021 @item gnus-treat-strip-banner (t, last)
12022 @vindex gnus-treat-strip-list-identifiers
12023 @item gnus-treat-strip-list-identifiers (head)
12025 @xref{Article Hiding}.
12027 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-citation
12028 @item gnus-treat-highlight-citation (t, integer)
12029 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-headers
12030 @item gnus-treat-highlight-headers (head)
12031 @vindex gnus-treat-highlight-signature
12032 @item gnus-treat-highlight-signature (t, last, integer)
12034 @xref{Article Highlighting}.
12036 @vindex gnus-treat-play-sounds
12037 @item gnus-treat-play-sounds
12038 @item gnus-treat-ansi-sequences (t)
12039 @vindex gnus-treat-x-pgp-sig
12040 @item gnus-treat-x-pgp-sig (head)
12042 @vindex gnus-treat-unfold-headers
12043 @item gnus-treat-unfold-headers (head)
12044 @vindex gnus-treat-fold-headers
12045 @item gnus-treat-fold-headers (head)
12046 @vindex gnus-treat-fold-newsgroups
12047 @item gnus-treat-fold-newsgroups (head)
12048 @vindex gnus-treat-leading-whitespace
12049 @item gnus-treat-leading-whitespace (head)
12051 @xref{Article Header}.
12056 @vindex gnus-part-display-hook
12057 You can, of course, write your own functions to be called from
12058 @code{gnus-part-display-hook}. The functions are called narrowed to the
12059 part, and you can do anything you like, pretty much. There is no
12060 information that you have to keep in the buffer---you can change
12064 @node Article Keymap
12065 @section Article Keymap
12067 Most of the keystrokes in the summary buffer can also be used in the
12068 article buffer. They should behave as if you typed them in the summary
12069 buffer, which means that you don't actually have to have a summary
12070 buffer displayed while reading. You can do it all from the article
12073 @kindex v (Article)
12074 @cindex keys, reserved for users (Article)
12075 The key @kbd{v} is reserved for users. You can bind it to some
12076 command or better use it as a prefix key.
12078 A few additional keystrokes are available:
12083 @kindex SPACE (Article)
12084 @findex gnus-article-next-page
12085 Scroll forwards one page (@code{gnus-article-next-page}).
12086 This is exactly the same as @kbd{h SPACE h}.
12089 @kindex DEL (Article)
12090 @findex gnus-article-prev-page
12091 Scroll backwards one page (@code{gnus-article-prev-page}).
12092 This is exactly the same as @kbd{h DEL h}.
12095 @kindex C-c ^ (Article)
12096 @findex gnus-article-refer-article
12097 If point is in the neighborhood of a @code{Message-ID} and you press
12098 @kbd{C-c ^}, Gnus will try to get that article from the server
12099 (@code{gnus-article-refer-article}).
12102 @kindex C-c C-m (Article)
12103 @findex gnus-article-mail
12104 Send a reply to the address near point (@code{gnus-article-mail}). If
12105 given a prefix, include the mail.
12108 @kindex s (Article)
12109 @findex gnus-article-show-summary
12110 Reconfigure the buffers so that the summary buffer becomes visible
12111 (@code{gnus-article-show-summary}).
12114 @kindex ? (Article)
12115 @findex gnus-article-describe-briefly
12116 Give a very brief description of the available keystrokes
12117 (@code{gnus-article-describe-briefly}).
12120 @kindex TAB (Article)
12121 @findex gnus-article-next-button
12122 Go to the next button, if any (@code{gnus-article-next-button}). This
12123 only makes sense if you have buttonizing turned on.
12126 @kindex M-TAB (Article)
12127 @findex gnus-article-prev-button
12128 Go to the previous button, if any (@code{gnus-article-prev-button}).
12131 @kindex R (Article)
12132 @findex gnus-article-reply-with-original
12133 Send a reply to the current article and yank the current article
12134 (@code{gnus-article-reply-with-original}). If the region is active,
12135 only yank the text in the region.
12138 @kindex S W (Article)
12139 @findex gnus-article-wide-reply-with-original
12140 Send a wide reply to the current article and yank the current article
12141 (@code{gnus-article-wide-reply-with-original}). If the region is
12142 active, only yank the text in the region.
12145 @kindex F (Article)
12146 @findex gnus-article-followup-with-original
12147 Send a followup to the current article and yank the current article
12148 (@code{gnus-article-followup-with-original}). If the region is active,
12149 only yank the text in the region.
12156 @section Misc Article
12160 @item gnus-single-article-buffer
12161 @vindex gnus-single-article-buffer
12162 @cindex article buffers, several
12163 If non-@code{nil}, use the same article buffer for all the groups.
12164 (This is the default.) If @code{nil}, each group will have its own
12167 @item gnus-widen-article-window
12168 @cindex gnus-widen-article-window
12169 If non-@code{nil}, selecting the article buffer with the @kbd{h}
12170 command will ``widen'' the article window to take the entire frame.
12172 @vindex gnus-article-decode-hook
12173 @item gnus-article-decode-hook
12174 @cindex @acronym{MIME}
12175 Hook used to decode @acronym{MIME} articles. The default value is
12176 @code{(article-decode-charset article-decode-encoded-words)}
12178 @vindex gnus-article-prepare-hook
12179 @item gnus-article-prepare-hook
12180 This hook is called right after the article has been inserted into the
12181 article buffer. It is mainly intended for functions that do something
12182 depending on the contents; it should probably not be used for changing
12183 the contents of the article buffer.
12185 @item gnus-article-mode-hook
12186 @vindex gnus-article-mode-hook
12187 Hook called in article mode buffers.
12189 @item gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
12190 @vindex gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
12191 Syntax table used in article buffers. It is initialized from
12192 @code{text-mode-syntax-table}.
12194 @vindex gnus-article-over-scroll
12195 @item gnus-article-over-scroll
12196 If non-@code{nil}, allow scrolling the article buffer even when there
12197 no more new text to scroll in. The default is @code{nil}.
12199 @vindex gnus-article-mode-line-format
12200 @item gnus-article-mode-line-format
12201 This variable is a format string along the same lines as
12202 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Summary Buffer Mode
12203 Line}). It accepts the same format specifications as that variable,
12204 with two extensions:
12209 The @dfn{wash status} of the article. This is a short string with one
12210 character for each possible article wash operation that may have been
12211 performed. The characters and their meaning:
12216 Displayed when cited text may be hidden in the article buffer.
12219 Displayed when headers are hidden in the article buffer.
12222 Displayed when article is digitally signed or encrypted, and Gnus has
12223 hidden the security headers. (N.B. does not tell anything about
12224 security status, i.e., good or bad signature.)
12227 Displayed when the signature has been hidden in the Article buffer.
12230 Displayed when Gnus has treated overstrike characters in the article buffer.
12233 Displayed when Gnus has treated emphasized strings in the article buffer.
12238 The number of @acronym{MIME} parts in the article.
12242 @vindex gnus-break-pages
12244 @item gnus-break-pages
12245 Controls whether @dfn{page breaking} is to take place. If this variable
12246 is non-@code{nil}, the articles will be divided into pages whenever a
12247 page delimiter appears in the article. If this variable is @code{nil},
12248 paging will not be done.
12250 @item gnus-page-delimiter
12251 @vindex gnus-page-delimiter
12252 This is the delimiter mentioned above. By default, it is @samp{^L}
12256 @cindex internationalized domain names
12257 @vindex gnus-use-idna
12258 @item gnus-use-idna
12259 This variable controls whether Gnus performs IDNA decoding of
12260 internationalized domain names inside @samp{From}, @samp{To} and
12261 @samp{Cc} headers. @xref{IDNA, ,IDNA,message, The Message Manual},
12262 for how to compose such messages. This requires
12263 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/libidn/, GNU Libidn}, and this
12264 variable is only enabled if you have installed it.
12266 @vindex gnus-inhibit-images
12267 @item gnus-inhibit-images
12268 If this is non-@code{nil}, inhibit displaying of images inline in the
12269 article body. It is effective to images that are in articles as
12270 @acronym{MIME} parts, and images in @acronym{HTML} articles rendered
12271 when @code{mm-text-html-renderer} (@pxref{Display Customization,
12272 ,Display Customization, emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME Manual}) is
12273 @code{shr} or @code{gnus-w3m}.
12278 @node Composing Messages
12279 @chapter Composing Messages
12280 @cindex composing messages
12283 @cindex sending mail
12288 @cindex using s/mime
12289 @cindex using smime
12291 @kindex C-c C-c (Post)
12292 All commands for posting and mailing will put you in a message buffer
12293 where you can edit the article all you like, before you send the
12294 article by pressing @kbd{C-c C-c}. @xref{Top, , Overview, message,
12295 Message Manual}. Where the message will be posted/mailed to depends
12296 on your setup (@pxref{Posting Server}).
12299 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
12300 * Posting Server:: What server should you post and mail via?
12301 * POP before SMTP:: You cannot send a mail unless you read a mail.
12302 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
12303 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
12304 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
12305 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
12306 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
12307 * Signing and encrypting:: How to compose secure messages.
12310 Also @pxref{Canceling and Superseding} for information on how to
12311 remove articles you shouldn't have posted.
12317 Variables for customizing outgoing mail:
12320 @item gnus-uu-digest-headers
12321 @vindex gnus-uu-digest-headers
12322 List of regexps to match headers included in digested messages. The
12323 headers will be included in the sequence they are matched. If
12324 @code{nil} include all headers.
12326 @item gnus-add-to-list
12327 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
12328 If non-@code{nil}, add a @code{to-list} group parameter to mail groups
12329 that have none when you do a @kbd{a}.
12331 @item gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news
12332 @vindex gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news
12333 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will ask you for a confirmation when you are
12334 about to reply to news articles by mail. If it is @code{nil}, nothing
12335 interferes in what you want to do. This can also be a function
12336 receiving the group name as the only parameter which should return
12337 non-@code{nil} if a confirmation is needed, or a regular expression
12338 matching group names, where confirmation should be asked for.
12340 If you find yourself never wanting to reply to mail, but occasionally
12341 press @kbd{R} anyway, this variable might be for you.
12343 @item gnus-confirm-treat-mail-like-news
12344 @vindex gnus-confirm-treat-mail-like-news
12345 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus also requests confirmation according to
12346 @code{gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news} when replying to mail. This is
12347 useful for treating mailing lists like newsgroups.
12352 @node Posting Server
12353 @section Posting Server
12355 When you press those magical @kbd{C-c C-c} keys to ship off your latest
12356 (extremely intelligent, of course) article, where does it go?
12358 Thank you for asking. I hate you.
12360 It can be quite complicated.
12362 @vindex gnus-post-method
12363 When posting news, Message usually invokes @code{message-send-news}
12364 (@pxref{News Variables, , News Variables, message, Message Manual}).
12365 Normally, Gnus will post using the same select method as you're
12366 reading from (which might be convenient if you're reading lots of
12367 groups from different private servers). However. If the server
12368 you're reading from doesn't allow posting, just reading, you probably
12369 want to use some other server to post your (extremely intelligent and
12370 fabulously interesting) articles. You can then set the
12371 @code{gnus-post-method} to some other method:
12374 (setq gnus-post-method '(nnspool ""))
12377 Now, if you've done this, and then this server rejects your article, or
12378 this server is down, what do you do then? To override this variable you
12379 can use a non-zero prefix to the @kbd{C-c C-c} command to force using
12380 the ``current'' server, to get back the default behavior, for posting.
12382 If you give a zero prefix (i.e., @kbd{C-u 0 C-c C-c}) to that command,
12383 Gnus will prompt you for what method to use for posting.
12385 You can also set @code{gnus-post-method} to a list of select methods.
12386 If that's the case, Gnus will always prompt you for what method to use
12389 Finally, if you want to always post using the native select method,
12390 you can set this variable to @code{native}.
12392 @vindex message-send-mail-function
12393 When sending mail, Message invokes the function specified by the
12394 variable @code{message-send-mail-function}. Gnus tries to set it to a
12395 value suitable for your system.
12396 @xref{Mail Variables, ,Mail Variables,message,Message manual}, for more
12400 @node POP before SMTP
12401 @section POP before SMTP
12402 @cindex pop before smtp
12403 @findex mail-source-touch-pop
12405 Does your @acronym{ISP} use @acronym{POP}-before-@acronym{SMTP}
12406 authentication? This authentication method simply requires you to
12407 contact the @acronym{POP} server before sending email. To do that,
12408 put the following lines in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
12411 (add-hook 'message-send-mail-hook 'mail-source-touch-pop)
12415 The @code{mail-source-touch-pop} function does @acronym{POP}
12416 authentication according to the value of @code{mail-sources} without
12417 fetching mails, just before sending a mail. @xref{Mail Sources}.
12419 If you have two or more @acronym{POP} mail servers set in
12420 @code{mail-sources}, you may want to specify one of them to
12421 @code{mail-source-primary-source} as the @acronym{POP} mail server to be
12422 used for the @acronym{POP}-before-@acronym{SMTP} authentication. If it
12423 is your primary @acronym{POP} mail server (i.e., you are fetching mails
12424 mainly from that server), you can set it permanently as follows:
12427 (setq mail-source-primary-source
12428 '(pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
12429 :password "secret"))
12433 Otherwise, bind it dynamically only when performing the
12434 @acronym{POP}-before-@acronym{SMTP} authentication as follows:
12437 (add-hook 'message-send-mail-hook
12439 (let ((mail-source-primary-source
12440 '(pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
12441 :password "secret")))
12442 (mail-source-touch-pop))))
12446 @node Mail and Post
12447 @section Mail and Post
12449 Here's a list of variables relevant to both mailing and
12453 @item gnus-mailing-list-groups
12454 @findex gnus-mailing-list-groups
12455 @cindex mailing lists
12457 If your news server offers groups that are really mailing lists
12458 gatewayed to the @acronym{NNTP} server, you can read those groups without
12459 problems, but you can't post/followup to them without some difficulty.
12460 One solution is to add a @code{to-address} to the group parameters
12461 (@pxref{Group Parameters}). An easier thing to do is set the
12462 @code{gnus-mailing-list-groups} to a regexp that matches the groups that
12463 really are mailing lists. Then, at least, followups to the mailing
12464 lists will work most of the time. Posting to these groups (@kbd{a}) is
12465 still a pain, though.
12467 @item gnus-user-agent
12468 @vindex gnus-user-agent
12471 This variable controls which information should be exposed in the
12472 User-Agent header. It can be a list of symbols or a string. Valid
12473 symbols are @code{gnus} (show Gnus version) and @code{emacs} (show Emacs
12474 version). In addition to the Emacs version, you can add @code{codename}
12475 (show (S)XEmacs codename) or either @code{config} (show system
12476 configuration) or @code{type} (show system type). If you set it to a
12477 string, be sure to use a valid format, see RFC 2616.
12481 You may want to do spell-checking on messages that you send out. Or, if
12482 you don't want to spell-check by hand, you could add automatic
12483 spell-checking via the @code{ispell} package:
12486 @findex ispell-message
12488 (add-hook 'message-send-hook 'ispell-message)
12491 If you want to change the @code{ispell} dictionary based on what group
12492 you're in, you could say something like the following:
12495 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook
12499 "^de\\." (gnus-group-real-name gnus-newsgroup-name))
12500 (ispell-change-dictionary "deutsch"))
12502 (ispell-change-dictionary "english")))))
12505 Modify to suit your needs.
12507 @vindex gnus-message-highlight-citation
12508 If @code{gnus-message-highlight-citation} is t, different levels of
12509 citations are highlighted like in Gnus article buffers also in message
12512 @node Archived Messages
12513 @section Archived Messages
12514 @cindex archived messages
12515 @cindex sent messages
12517 Gnus provides a few different methods for storing the mail and news you
12518 send. The default method is to use the @dfn{archive virtual server} to
12519 store the messages. If you want to disable this completely, the
12520 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable should be @code{nil}. The
12521 default is "sent.%Y-%m", which gives you one archive group per month.
12523 For archiving interesting messages in a group you read, see the
12524 @kbd{B c} (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}) command (@pxref{Mail
12527 @vindex gnus-message-archive-method
12528 @code{gnus-message-archive-method} says what virtual server Gnus is to
12529 use to store sent messages. The default is @code{"archive"}, and when
12530 actually being used it is expanded into:
12533 (nnfolder "archive"
12534 (nnfolder-directory "~/Mail/archive")
12535 (nnfolder-active-file "~/Mail/archive/active")
12536 (nnfolder-get-new-mail nil)
12537 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t))
12541 @vindex gnus-update-message-archive-method
12542 Note: a server like this is saved in the @file{~/.newsrc.eld} file first
12543 so that it may be used as a real method of the server which is named
12544 @code{"archive"} (that is, for the case where
12545 @code{gnus-message-archive-method} is set to @code{"archive"}) ever
12546 since. If it once has been saved, it will never be updated by default
12547 even if you change the value of @code{gnus-message-archive-method}
12548 afterward. Therefore, the server @code{"archive"} doesn't necessarily
12549 mean the @code{nnfolder} server like this at all times. If you want the
12550 saved method to reflect always the value of
12551 @code{gnus-message-archive-method}, set the
12552 @code{gnus-update-message-archive-method} variable to a non-@code{nil}
12553 value. The default value of this variable is @code{nil}.
12556 You can, however, use any mail select method (@code{nnml},
12557 @code{nnmbox}, etc.). @code{nnfolder} is a quite likable select method
12558 for doing this sort of thing, though. If you don't like the default
12559 directory chosen, you could say something like:
12562 (setq gnus-message-archive-method
12563 '(nnfolder "archive"
12564 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t)
12565 (nnfolder-active-file "~/News/sent-mail/active")
12566 (nnfolder-directory "~/News/sent-mail/")))
12569 @vindex gnus-message-archive-group
12571 Gnus will insert @code{Gcc} headers in all outgoing messages that point
12572 to one or more group(s) on that server. Which group to use is
12573 determined by the @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable.
12575 This variable can be used to do the following:
12579 Messages will be saved in that group.
12581 Note that you can include a select method in the group name, then the
12582 message will not be stored in the select method given by
12583 @code{gnus-message-archive-method}, but in the select method specified
12584 by the group name, instead. Suppose @code{gnus-message-archive-method}
12585 has the default value shown above. Then setting
12586 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{"foo"} means that outgoing
12587 messages are stored in @samp{nnfolder+archive:foo}, but if you use the
12588 value @code{"nnml:foo"}, then outgoing messages will be stored in
12591 @item a list of strings
12592 Messages will be saved in all those groups.
12594 @item an alist of regexps, functions and forms
12595 When a key ``matches'', the result is used.
12598 No message archiving will take place.
12603 Just saving to a single group called @samp{MisK}:
12605 (setq gnus-message-archive-group "MisK")
12608 Saving to two groups, @samp{MisK} and @samp{safe}:
12610 (setq gnus-message-archive-group '("MisK" "safe"))
12613 Save to different groups based on what group you are in:
12615 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
12616 '(("^alt" "sent-to-alt")
12617 ("mail" "sent-to-mail")
12618 (".*" "sent-to-misc")))
12621 More complex stuff:
12623 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
12624 '((if (message-news-p)
12629 How about storing all news messages in one file, but storing all mail
12630 messages in one file per month:
12633 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
12634 '((if (message-news-p)
12636 (concat "mail." (format-time-string "%Y-%m")))))
12639 Now, when you send a message off, it will be stored in the appropriate
12640 group. (If you want to disable storing for just one particular message,
12641 you can just remove the @code{Gcc} header that has been inserted.) The
12642 archive group will appear in the group buffer the next time you start
12643 Gnus, or the next time you press @kbd{F} in the group buffer. You can
12644 enter it and read the articles in it just like you'd read any other
12645 group. If the group gets really big and annoying, you can simply rename
12646 if (using @kbd{G r} in the group buffer) to something
12647 nice---@samp{misc-mail-september-1995}, or whatever. New messages will
12648 continue to be stored in the old (now empty) group.
12651 @item gnus-gcc-mark-as-read
12652 @vindex gnus-gcc-mark-as-read
12653 If non-@code{nil}, automatically mark @code{Gcc} articles as read.
12655 @item gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments
12656 @vindex gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments
12657 If @code{nil}, attach files as normal parts in Gcc copies; if a regexp
12658 and matches the Gcc group name, attach files as external parts; if it is
12659 @code{all}, attach local files as external parts; if it is other
12660 non-@code{nil}, the behavior is the same as @code{all}, but it may be
12661 changed in the future.
12663 @item gnus-gcc-self-resent-messages
12664 @vindex gnus-gcc-self-resent-messages
12665 Like the @code{gcc-self} group parameter, applied only for unmodified
12666 messages that @code{gnus-summary-resend-message} (@pxref{Summary Mail
12667 Commands}) resends. Non-@code{nil} value of this variable takes
12668 precedence over any existing @code{Gcc} header.
12670 If this is @code{none}, no @code{Gcc} copy will be made. If this is
12671 @code{t}, messages resent will be @code{Gcc} copied to the current
12672 group. If this is a string, it specifies a group to which resent
12673 messages will be @code{Gcc} copied. If this is @code{nil}, @code{Gcc}
12674 will be done according to existing @code{Gcc} header(s), if any. If
12675 this is @code{no-gcc-self}, that is the default, resent messages will be
12676 @code{Gcc} copied to groups that existing @code{Gcc} header specifies,
12677 except for the current group.
12679 @item gnus-gcc-pre-body-encode-hook
12680 @vindex gnus-gcc-pre-body-encode-hook
12681 @itemx gnus-gcc-post-body-encode-hook
12682 @vindex gnus-gcc-post-body-encode-hook
12684 These hooks are run before/after encoding the message body of the Gcc
12685 copy of a sent message. The current buffer (when the hook is run)
12686 contains the message including the message header. Changes made to
12687 the message will only affect the Gcc copy, but not the original
12688 message. You can use these hooks to edit the copy (and influence
12689 subsequent transformations), e.g., remove MML secure tags
12690 (@pxref{Signing and encrypting}).
12695 @node Posting Styles
12696 @section Posting Styles
12697 @cindex posting styles
12700 All them variables, they make my head swim.
12702 So what if you want a different @code{Organization} and signature based
12703 on what groups you post to? And you post both from your home machine
12704 and your work machine, and you want different @code{From} lines, and so
12707 @vindex gnus-posting-styles
12708 One way to do stuff like that is to write clever hooks that change the
12709 variables you need to have changed. That's a bit boring, so somebody
12710 came up with the bright idea of letting the user specify these things in
12711 a handy alist. Here's an example of a @code{gnus-posting-styles}
12716 (signature "Peace and happiness")
12717 (organization "What me?"))
12719 (signature "Death to everybody"))
12720 ("comp.emacs.i-love-it"
12721 (organization "Emacs is it")))
12724 As you might surmise from this example, this alist consists of several
12725 @dfn{styles}. Each style will be applicable if the first element
12726 ``matches'', in some form or other. The entire alist will be iterated
12727 over, from the beginning towards the end, and each match will be
12728 applied, which means that attributes in later styles that match override
12729 the same attributes in earlier matching styles. So
12730 @samp{comp.programming.literate} will have the @samp{Death to everybody}
12731 signature and the @samp{What me?} @code{Organization} header.
12733 The first element in each style is called the @code{match}. If it's a
12734 string, then Gnus will try to regexp match it against the group name.
12735 If it is the form @code{(header @var{match} @var{regexp})}, then Gnus
12736 will look in the original article for a header whose name is
12737 @var{match} and compare that @var{regexp}. @var{match} and
12738 @var{regexp} are strings. (The original article is the one you are
12739 replying or following up to. If you are not composing a reply or a
12740 followup, then there is nothing to match against.) If the
12741 @code{match} is a function symbol, that function will be called with
12742 no arguments. If it's a variable symbol, then the variable will be
12743 referenced. If it's a list, then that list will be @code{eval}ed. In
12744 any case, if this returns a non-@code{nil} value, then the style is
12745 said to @dfn{match}.
12747 Each style may contain an arbitrary amount of @dfn{attributes}. Each
12748 attribute consists of a @code{(@var{name} @var{value})} pair. In
12749 addition, you can also use the @code{(@var{name} :file @var{value})}
12750 form or the @code{(@var{name} :value @var{value})} form. Where
12751 @code{:file} signifies @var{value} represents a file name and its
12752 contents should be used as the attribute value, @code{:value} signifies
12753 @var{value} does not represent a file name explicitly. The attribute
12754 name can be one of:
12757 @item @code{signature}
12758 @item @code{signature-file}
12759 @item @code{x-face-file}
12760 @item @code{address}, overriding @code{user-mail-address}
12761 @item @code{name}, overriding @code{(user-full-name)}
12765 Note that the @code{signature-file} attribute honors the variable
12766 @code{message-signature-directory}.
12768 The attribute name can also be a string or a symbol. In that case,
12769 this will be used as a header name, and the value will be inserted in
12770 the headers of the article; if the value is @code{nil}, the header
12771 name will be removed. If the attribute name is @code{eval}, the form
12772 is evaluated, and the result is thrown away.
12774 The attribute value can be a string, a function with zero arguments
12775 (the return value will be used), a variable (its value will be used)
12776 or a list (it will be @code{eval}ed and the return value will be
12777 used). The functions and sexps are called/@code{eval}ed in the
12778 message buffer that is being set up. The headers of the current
12779 article are available through the @code{message-reply-headers}
12780 variable, which is a vector of the following headers: number subject
12781 from date id references chars lines xref extra.
12783 In the case of a string value, if the @code{match} is a regular
12784 expression, a @samp{gnus-match-substitute-replacement} is proceed on
12785 the value to replace the positional parameters @samp{\@var{n}} by the
12786 corresponding parenthetical matches (see @xref{Replacing Match,,
12787 Replacing the Text that Matched, elisp, The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual}.)
12789 @vindex message-reply-headers
12791 If you wish to check whether the message you are about to compose is
12792 meant to be a news article or a mail message, you can check the values
12793 of the @code{message-news-p} and @code{message-mail-p} functions.
12795 @findex message-mail-p
12796 @findex message-news-p
12798 So here's a new example:
12801 (setq gnus-posting-styles
12803 (signature-file "~/.signature")
12805 (x-face-file "~/.xface")
12806 (x-url (getenv "WWW_HOME"))
12807 (organization "People's Front Against MWM"))
12809 (signature my-funny-signature-randomizer))
12810 ((equal (system-name) "gnarly") ;; @r{A form}
12811 (signature my-quote-randomizer))
12812 (message-news-p ;; @r{A function symbol}
12813 (signature my-news-signature))
12814 (window-system ;; @r{A value symbol}
12815 ("X-Window-System" (format "%s" window-system)))
12816 ;; @r{If I'm replying to Larsi, set the Organization header.}
12817 ((header "from" "larsi.*org")
12818 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
12819 ((posting-from-work-p) ;; @r{A user defined function}
12820 (signature-file "~/.work-signature")
12821 (address "user@@bar.foo")
12822 (body "You are fired.\n\nSincerely, your boss.")
12823 ("X-Message-SMTP-Method" "smtp smtp.example.org 587")
12824 (organization "Important Work, Inc"))
12826 (From (with-current-buffer gnus-article-buffer
12827 (message-fetch-field "to"))))
12829 (signature-file "~/.mail-signature"))))
12832 The @samp{nnml:.*} rule means that you use the @code{To} address as the
12833 @code{From} address in all your outgoing replies, which might be handy
12834 if you fill many roles.
12835 You may also use @code{message-alternative-emails} instead.
12836 @xref{Message Headers, ,Message Headers, message, Message Manual}.
12838 Of particular interest in the ``work-mail'' style is the
12839 @samp{X-Message-SMTP-Method} header. It specifies how to send the
12840 outgoing email. You may want to sent certain emails through certain
12841 @acronym{SMTP} servers due to company policies, for instance.
12842 @xref{Mail Variables, ,Message Variables, message, Message Manual}.
12849 If you are writing a message (mail or news) and suddenly remember that
12850 you have a steak in the oven (or some pesto in the food processor, you
12851 craaazy vegetarians), you'll probably wish there was a method to save
12852 the message you are writing so that you can continue editing it some
12853 other day, and send it when you feel its finished.
12855 Well, don't worry about it. Whenever you start composing a message of
12856 some sort using the Gnus mail and post commands, the buffer you get will
12857 automatically associate to an article in a special @dfn{draft} group.
12858 If you save the buffer the normal way (@kbd{C-x C-s}, for instance), the
12859 article will be saved there. (Auto-save files also go to the draft
12863 @vindex nndraft-directory
12864 The draft group is a special group (which is implemented as an
12865 @code{nndraft} group, if you absolutely have to know) called
12866 @samp{nndraft:drafts}. The variable @code{nndraft-directory} says where
12867 @code{nndraft} is to store its files. What makes this group special is
12868 that you can't tick any articles in it or mark any articles as
12869 read---all articles in the group are permanently unread.
12871 If the group doesn't exist, it will be created and you'll be subscribed
12872 to it. The only way to make it disappear from the Group buffer is to
12873 unsubscribe it. The special properties of the draft group comes from
12874 a group property (@pxref{Group Parameters}), and if lost the group
12875 behaves like any other group. This means the commands below will not
12876 be available. To restore the special properties of the group, the
12877 simplest way is to kill the group, using @kbd{C-k}, and restart
12878 Gnus. The group is automatically created again with the
12879 correct parameters. The content of the group is not lost.
12881 @c @findex gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft
12882 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Mail)
12883 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Post)
12884 @c @findex gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft
12885 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Mail)
12886 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Post)
12887 @c If you're writing some super-secret message that you later want to
12888 @c encode with PGP before sending, you may wish to turn the auto-saving
12889 @c (and association with the draft group) off. You never know who might be
12890 @c interested in reading all your extremely valuable and terribly horrible
12891 @c and interesting secrets. The @kbd{C-c M-d}
12892 @c (@code{gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft}) command does that for you.
12893 @c If you change your mind and want to turn the auto-saving back on again,
12894 @c @kbd{C-c C-d} (@code{gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft} does that.
12896 @c @vindex gnus-use-draft
12897 @c To leave association with the draft group off by default, set
12898 @c @code{gnus-use-draft} to @code{nil}. It is @code{t} by default.
12900 @findex gnus-draft-edit-message
12901 @kindex D e (Draft)
12902 When you want to continue editing the article, you simply enter the
12903 draft group and push @kbd{D e} (@code{gnus-draft-edit-message}) to do
12904 that. You will be placed in a buffer where you left off.
12906 Rejected articles will also be put in this draft group (@pxref{Rejected
12909 @findex gnus-draft-send-all-messages
12910 @kindex D s (Draft)
12911 @findex gnus-draft-send-message
12912 @kindex D S (Draft)
12913 If you have lots of rejected messages you want to post (or mail) without
12914 doing further editing, you can use the @kbd{D s} command
12915 (@code{gnus-draft-send-message}). This command understands the
12916 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). The @kbd{D S}
12917 command (@code{gnus-draft-send-all-messages}) will ship off all messages
12920 @findex gnus-draft-toggle-sending
12921 @kindex D t (Draft)
12922 If you have some messages that you wish not to send, you can use the
12923 @kbd{D t} (@code{gnus-draft-toggle-sending}) command to mark the message
12924 as unsendable. This is a toggling command.
12926 Finally, if you want to delete a draft, use the normal @kbd{B DEL}
12927 command (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
12930 @node Rejected Articles
12931 @section Rejected Articles
12932 @cindex rejected articles
12934 Sometimes a news server will reject an article. Perhaps the server
12935 doesn't like your face. Perhaps it just feels miserable. Perhaps
12936 @emph{there be demons}. Perhaps you have included too much cited text.
12937 Perhaps the disk is full. Perhaps the server is down.
12939 These situations are, of course, totally beyond the control of Gnus.
12940 (Gnus, of course, loves the way you look, always feels great, has angels
12941 fluttering around inside of it, doesn't care about how much cited text
12942 you include, never runs full and never goes down.) So Gnus saves these
12943 articles until some later time when the server feels better.
12945 The rejected articles will automatically be put in a special draft group
12946 (@pxref{Drafts}). When the server comes back up again, you'd then
12947 typically enter that group and send all the articles off.
12949 @node Signing and encrypting
12950 @section Signing and encrypting
12952 @cindex using s/mime
12953 @cindex using smime
12955 Gnus can digitally sign and encrypt your messages, using vanilla
12956 @acronym{PGP} format or @acronym{PGP/MIME} or @acronym{S/MIME}. For
12957 decoding such messages, see the @code{mm-verify-option} and
12958 @code{mm-decrypt-option} options (@pxref{Security}).
12960 @vindex gnus-message-replysign
12961 @vindex gnus-message-replyencrypt
12962 @vindex gnus-message-replysignencrypted
12963 Often, you would like to sign replies to people who send you signed
12964 messages. Even more often, you might want to encrypt messages which
12965 are in reply to encrypted messages. Gnus offers
12966 @code{gnus-message-replysign} to enable the former, and
12967 @code{gnus-message-replyencrypt} for the latter. In addition, setting
12968 @code{gnus-message-replysignencrypted} (on by default) will sign
12969 automatically encrypted messages.
12971 Instructing @acronym{MML} to perform security operations on a
12972 @acronym{MIME} part is done using the @kbd{C-c C-m s} key map for
12973 signing and the @kbd{C-c C-m c} key map for encryption, as follows.
12978 @kindex C-c C-m s s (Message)
12979 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-smime
12981 Digitally sign current message using @acronym{S/MIME}.
12984 @kindex C-c C-m s o (Message)
12985 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-pgp
12987 Digitally sign current message using @acronym{PGP}.
12990 @kindex C-c C-m s p (Message)
12991 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-pgp
12993 Digitally sign current message using @acronym{PGP/MIME}.
12996 @kindex C-c C-m c s (Message)
12997 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-smime
12999 Digitally encrypt current message using @acronym{S/MIME}.
13002 @kindex C-c C-m c o (Message)
13003 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-pgp
13005 Digitally encrypt current message using @acronym{PGP}.
13008 @kindex C-c C-m c p (Message)
13009 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-pgpmime
13011 Digitally encrypt current message using @acronym{PGP/MIME}.
13014 @kindex C-c C-m C-n (Message)
13015 @findex mml-unsecure-message
13016 Remove security related @acronym{MML} tags from message.
13020 @xref{Security, ,Security, message, Message Manual}, for more information.
13022 @node Select Methods
13023 @chapter Select Methods
13024 @cindex foreign groups
13025 @cindex select methods
13027 A @dfn{foreign group} is a group not read by the usual (or
13028 default) means. It could be, for instance, a group from a different
13029 @acronym{NNTP} server, it could be a virtual group, or it could be your own
13030 personal mail group.
13032 A foreign group (or any group, really) is specified by a @dfn{name} and
13033 a @dfn{select method}. To take the latter first, a select method is a
13034 list where the first element says what back end to use (e.g., @code{nntp},
13035 @code{nnspool}, @code{nnml}) and the second element is the @dfn{server
13036 name}. There may be additional elements in the select method, where the
13037 value may have special meaning for the back end in question.
13039 One could say that a select method defines a @dfn{virtual server}---so
13040 we do just that (@pxref{Server Buffer}).
13042 The @dfn{name} of the group is the name the back end will recognize the
13045 For instance, the group @samp{soc.motss} on the @acronym{NNTP} server
13046 @samp{some.where.edu} will have the name @samp{soc.motss} and select
13047 method @code{(nntp "some.where.edu")}. Gnus will call this group
13048 @samp{nntp+some.where.edu:soc.motss}, even though the @code{nntp}
13049 back end just knows this group as @samp{soc.motss}.
13051 The different methods all have their peculiarities, of course.
13054 * Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
13055 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
13056 * Using IMAP:: Reading mail from @acronym{IMAP}.
13057 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
13058 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
13059 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files.
13060 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
13061 * Email Based Diary:: Using mails to manage diary events in Gnus.
13062 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
13066 @node Server Buffer
13067 @section Server Buffer
13069 Traditionally, a @dfn{server} is a machine or a piece of software that
13070 one connects to, and then requests information from. Gnus does not
13071 connect directly to any real servers, but does all transactions through
13072 one back end or other. But that's just putting one layer more between
13073 the actual media and Gnus, so we might just as well say that each
13074 back end represents a virtual server.
13076 For instance, the @code{nntp} back end may be used to connect to several
13077 different actual @acronym{NNTP} servers, or, perhaps, to many different ports
13078 on the same actual @acronym{NNTP} server. You tell Gnus which back end to
13079 use, and what parameters to set by specifying a @dfn{select method}.
13081 These select method specifications can sometimes become quite
13082 complicated---say, for instance, that you want to read from the
13083 @acronym{NNTP} server @samp{news.funet.fi} on port number 13, which
13084 hangs if queried for @acronym{NOV} headers and has a buggy select. Ahem.
13085 Anyway, if you had to specify that for each group that used this
13086 server, that would be too much work, so Gnus offers a way of naming
13087 select methods, which is what you do in the server buffer.
13089 To enter the server buffer, use the @kbd{^}
13090 (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}) command in the group buffer.
13093 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
13094 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
13095 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
13096 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
13097 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
13098 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
13099 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
13102 @vindex gnus-server-mode-hook
13103 @code{gnus-server-mode-hook} is run when creating the server buffer.
13106 @node Server Buffer Format
13107 @subsection Server Buffer Format
13108 @cindex server buffer format
13110 @vindex gnus-server-line-format
13111 You can change the look of the server buffer lines by changing the
13112 @code{gnus-server-line-format} variable. This is a @code{format}-like
13113 variable, with some simple extensions:
13118 How the news is fetched---the back end name.
13121 The name of this server.
13124 Where the news is to be fetched from---the address.
13127 The opened/closed/denied status of the server.
13130 Whether this server is agentized.
13133 @vindex gnus-server-mode-line-format
13134 The mode line can also be customized by using the
13135 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format} variable (@pxref{Mode Line
13136 Formatting}). The following specs are understood:
13146 Also @pxref{Formatting Variables}.
13149 @node Server Commands
13150 @subsection Server Commands
13151 @cindex server commands
13157 @cindex keys, reserved for users (Server)
13158 The key @kbd{v} is reserved for users. You can bind it to some
13159 command or better use it as a prefix key.
13163 @findex gnus-server-add-server
13164 Add a new server (@code{gnus-server-add-server}).
13168 @findex gnus-server-edit-server
13169 Edit a server (@code{gnus-server-edit-server}).
13173 @findex gnus-server-show-server
13174 Show the definition of a server (@code{gnus-server-show-server}).
13177 @kindex SPACE (Server)
13178 @findex gnus-server-read-server
13179 Browse the current server (@code{gnus-server-read-server}).
13183 @findex gnus-server-exit
13184 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-server-exit}).
13188 @findex gnus-server-kill-server
13189 Kill the current server (@code{gnus-server-kill-server}).
13193 @findex gnus-server-yank-server
13194 Yank the previously killed server (@code{gnus-server-yank-server}).
13198 @findex gnus-server-copy-server
13199 Copy the current server (@code{gnus-server-copy-server}).
13203 @findex gnus-server-list-servers
13204 List all servers (@code{gnus-server-list-servers}).
13208 @findex gnus-server-scan-server
13209 Request that the server scan its sources for new articles
13210 (@code{gnus-server-scan-server}). This is mainly sensible with mail
13215 @findex gnus-server-regenerate-server
13216 Request that the server regenerate all its data structures
13217 (@code{gnus-server-regenerate-server}). This can be useful if you have
13218 a mail back end that has gotten out of sync.
13222 @findex gnus-server-compact-server
13224 Compact all groups in the server under point
13225 (@code{gnus-server-compact-server}). Currently implemented only in
13226 nnml (@pxref{Mail Spool}). This removes gaps between article numbers,
13227 hence getting a correct total article count.
13231 Some more commands for closing, disabling, and re-opening servers are
13232 listed in @ref{Unavailable Servers}.
13235 @node Example Methods
13236 @subsection Example Methods
13238 Most select methods are pretty simple and self-explanatory:
13241 (nntp "news.funet.fi")
13244 Reading directly from the spool is even simpler:
13250 As you can see, the first element in a select method is the name of the
13251 back end, and the second is the @dfn{address}, or @dfn{name}, if you
13254 After these two elements, there may be an arbitrary number of
13255 @code{(@var{variable} @var{form})} pairs.
13257 To go back to the first example---imagine that you want to read from
13258 port 15 on that machine. This is what the select method should
13262 (nntp "news.funet.fi" (nntp-port-number 15))
13265 You should read the documentation to each back end to find out what
13266 variables are relevant, but here's an @code{nnmh} example:
13268 @code{nnmh} is a mail back end that reads a spool-like structure. Say
13269 you have two structures that you wish to access: One is your private
13270 mail spool, and the other is a public one. Here's the possible spec for
13274 (nnmh "private" (nnmh-directory "~/private/mail/"))
13277 (This server is then called @samp{private}, but you may have guessed
13280 Here's the method for a public spool:
13284 (nnmh-directory "/usr/information/spool/")
13285 (nnmh-get-new-mail nil))
13291 If you are behind a firewall and only have access to the @acronym{NNTP}
13292 server from the firewall machine, you can instruct Gnus to @code{rlogin}
13293 on the firewall machine and connect with
13294 @uref{http://netcat.sourceforge.net/, netcat} from there to the
13295 @acronym{NNTP} server.
13296 Doing this can be rather fiddly, but your virtual server definition
13297 should probably look something like this:
13301 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat)
13302 (nntp-via-address "the.firewall.machine")
13303 (nntp-address "the.real.nntp.host"))
13306 If you want to use the wonderful @code{ssh} program to provide a
13307 compressed connection over the modem line, you could add the following
13308 configuration to the example above:
13311 (nntp-via-rlogin-command "ssh")
13314 See also @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches}. Here's an example for
13315 an indirect connection:
13318 (setq gnus-select-method
13320 (nntp-address "news.server.example")
13321 (nntp-via-user-name "intermediate_user_name")
13322 (nntp-via-address "intermediate.host.example")
13323 (nntp-via-rlogin-command "ssh")
13324 (nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches ("-C"))
13325 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat)))
13328 This means that you have to have set up @code{ssh-agent} correctly to
13329 provide automatic authorization, of course.
13331 If you're behind a firewall, but have direct access to the outside world
13332 through a wrapper command like "runsocks", you could open a socksified
13333 netcat connection to the news server as follows:
13337 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
13338 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-netcat-stream)
13339 (nntp-address "the.news.server"))
13343 @node Creating a Virtual Server
13344 @subsection Creating a Virtual Server
13346 If you're saving lots of articles in the cache by using persistent
13347 articles, you may want to create a virtual server to read the cache.
13349 First you need to add a new server. The @kbd{a} command does that. It
13350 would probably be best to use @code{nnml} to read the cache. You
13351 could also use @code{nnspool} or @code{nnmh}, though.
13353 Type @kbd{a nnml RET cache RET}.
13355 You should now have a brand new @code{nnml} virtual server called
13356 @samp{cache}. You now need to edit it to have the right definitions.
13357 Type @kbd{e} to edit the server. You'll be entered into a buffer that
13358 will contain the following:
13368 (nnml-directory "~/News/cache/")
13369 (nnml-active-file "~/News/cache/active"))
13372 Type @kbd{C-c C-c} to return to the server buffer. If you now press
13373 @kbd{RET} over this virtual server, you should be entered into a browse
13374 buffer, and you should be able to enter any of the groups displayed.
13377 @node Server Variables
13378 @subsection Server Variables
13379 @cindex server variables
13380 @cindex server parameters
13382 One sticky point when defining variables (both on back ends and in Emacs
13383 in general) is that some variables are typically initialized from other
13384 variables when the definition of the variables is being loaded. If you
13385 change the ``base'' variable after the variables have been loaded, you
13386 won't change the ``derived'' variables.
13388 This typically affects directory and file variables. For instance,
13389 @code{nnml-directory} is @file{~/Mail/} by default, and all @code{nnml}
13390 directory variables are initialized from that variable, so
13391 @code{nnml-active-file} will be @file{~/Mail/active}. If you define a
13392 new virtual @code{nnml} server, it will @emph{not} suffice to set just
13393 @code{nnml-directory}---you have to explicitly set all the file
13394 variables to be what you want them to be. For a complete list of
13395 variables for each back end, see each back end's section later in this
13396 manual, but here's an example @code{nnml} definition:
13400 (nnml-directory "~/my-mail/")
13401 (nnml-active-file "~/my-mail/active")
13402 (nnml-newsgroups-file "~/my-mail/newsgroups"))
13405 Server variables are often called @dfn{server parameters}.
13407 @node Servers and Methods
13408 @subsection Servers and Methods
13410 Wherever you would normally use a select method
13411 (e.g., @code{gnus-secondary-select-method}, in the group select method,
13412 when browsing a foreign server) you can use a virtual server name
13413 instead. This could potentially save lots of typing. And it's nice all
13417 @node Unavailable Servers
13418 @subsection Unavailable Servers
13420 If a server seems to be unreachable, Gnus will mark that server as
13421 @code{denied}. That means that any subsequent attempt to make contact
13422 with that server will just be ignored. ``It can't be opened,'' Gnus
13423 will tell you, without making the least effort to see whether that is
13424 actually the case or not.
13426 That might seem quite naughty, but it does make sense most of the time.
13427 Let's say you have 10 groups subscribed to on server
13428 @samp{nephelococcygia.com}. This server is located somewhere quite far
13429 away from you and the machine is quite slow, so it takes 1 minute just
13430 to find out that it refuses connection to you today. If Gnus were to
13431 attempt to do that 10 times, you'd be quite annoyed, so Gnus won't
13432 attempt to do that. Once it has gotten a single ``connection refused'',
13433 it will regard that server as ``down''.
13435 So, what happens if the machine was only feeling unwell temporarily?
13436 How do you test to see whether the machine has come up again?
13438 You jump to the server buffer (@pxref{Server Buffer}) and poke it
13439 with the following commands:
13445 @findex gnus-server-open-server
13446 Try to establish connection to the server on the current line
13447 (@code{gnus-server-open-server}).
13451 @findex gnus-server-close-server
13452 Close the connection (if any) to the server
13453 (@code{gnus-server-close-server}).
13457 @findex gnus-server-deny-server
13458 Mark the current server as unreachable
13459 (@code{gnus-server-deny-server}).
13462 @kindex M-o (Server)
13463 @findex gnus-server-open-all-servers
13464 Open the connections to all servers in the buffer
13465 (@code{gnus-server-open-all-servers}).
13468 @kindex M-c (Server)
13469 @findex gnus-server-close-all-servers
13470 Close the connections to all servers in the buffer
13471 (@code{gnus-server-close-all-servers}).
13475 @findex gnus-server-remove-denials
13476 Remove all marks to whether Gnus was denied connection from any servers
13477 (@code{gnus-server-remove-denials}).
13481 @findex gnus-server-copy-server
13482 Copy a server and give it a new name
13483 (@code{gnus-server-copy-server}). This can be useful if you have a
13484 complex method definition, and want to use the same definition towards
13485 a different (physical) server.
13489 @findex gnus-server-offline-server
13490 Set server status to offline (@code{gnus-server-offline-server}).
13496 @section Getting News
13497 @cindex reading news
13498 @cindex news back ends
13500 A newsreader is normally used for reading news. Gnus currently provides
13501 only two methods of getting news---it can read from an @acronym{NNTP} server,
13502 or it can read from a local spool.
13505 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @acronym{NNTP} server.
13506 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
13514 Subscribing to a foreign group from an @acronym{NNTP} server is rather easy.
13515 You just specify @code{nntp} as method and the address of the @acronym{NNTP}
13516 server as the, uhm, address.
13518 If the @acronym{NNTP} server is located at a non-standard port, setting the
13519 third element of the select method to this port number should allow you
13520 to connect to the right port. You'll have to edit the group info for
13521 that (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
13523 The name of the foreign group can be the same as a native group. In
13524 fact, you can subscribe to the same group from as many different servers
13525 you feel like. There will be no name collisions.
13527 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nntp}
13532 @item nntp-server-opened-hook
13533 @vindex nntp-server-opened-hook
13534 @cindex @sc{mode reader}
13536 @cindex authentication
13537 @cindex nntp authentication
13538 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
13539 @findex nntp-send-mode-reader
13540 is run after a connection has been made. It can be used to send
13541 commands to the @acronym{NNTP} server after it has been contacted. By
13542 default it sends the command @code{MODE READER} to the server with the
13543 @code{nntp-send-mode-reader} function. This function should always be
13544 present in this hook.
13546 @item nntp-authinfo-function
13547 @vindex nntp-authinfo-function
13548 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
13549 @vindex nntp-authinfo-file
13550 This function will be used to send @samp{AUTHINFO} to the @acronym{NNTP}
13551 server. The default function is @code{nntp-send-authinfo}, which looks
13552 through your @file{~/.authinfo} (or whatever you've set the
13553 @code{nntp-authinfo-file} variable to) for applicable entries. If none
13554 are found, it will prompt you for a login name and a password. The
13555 format of the @file{~/.authinfo} file is (almost) the same as the
13556 @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file, which is defined in the @code{ftp}
13557 manual page, but here are the salient facts:
13561 The file contains one or more line, each of which define one server.
13564 Each line may contain an arbitrary number of token/value pairs.
13566 The valid tokens include @samp{machine}, @samp{login}, @samp{password},
13567 @samp{default}. In addition Gnus introduces two new tokens, not present
13568 in the original @file{.netrc}/@code{ftp} syntax, namely @samp{port} and
13569 @samp{force}. (This is the only way the @file{.authinfo} file format
13570 deviates from the @file{.netrc} file format.) @samp{port} is used to
13571 indicate what port on the server the credentials apply to and
13572 @samp{force} is explained below.
13576 Here's an example file:
13579 machine news.uio.no login larsi password geheimnis
13580 machine nntp.ifi.uio.no login larsi force yes
13583 The token/value pairs may appear in any order; @samp{machine} doesn't
13584 have to be first, for instance.
13586 In this example, both login name and password have been supplied for the
13587 former server, while the latter has only the login name listed, and the
13588 user will be prompted for the password. The latter also has the
13589 @samp{force} tag, which means that the authinfo will be sent to the
13590 @var{nntp} server upon connection; the default (i.e., when there is not
13591 @samp{force} tag) is to not send authinfo to the @var{nntp} server
13592 until the @var{nntp} server asks for it.
13594 You can also add @samp{default} lines that will apply to all servers
13595 that don't have matching @samp{machine} lines.
13601 This will force sending @samp{AUTHINFO} commands to all servers not
13602 previously mentioned.
13604 Remember to not leave the @file{~/.authinfo} file world-readable.
13606 @item nntp-server-action-alist
13607 @vindex nntp-server-action-alist
13608 This is a list of regexps to match on server types and actions to be
13609 taken when matches are made. For instance, if you want Gnus to beep
13610 every time you connect to innd, you could say something like:
13613 (setq nntp-server-action-alist
13614 '(("innd" (ding))))
13617 You probably don't want to do that, though.
13619 The default value is
13622 '(("nntpd 1\\.5\\.11t"
13623 (remove-hook 'nntp-server-opened-hook
13624 'nntp-send-mode-reader)))
13627 This ensures that Gnus doesn't send the @code{MODE READER} command to
13628 nntpd 1.5.11t, since that command chokes that server, I've been told.
13630 @item nntp-maximum-request
13631 @vindex nntp-maximum-request
13632 If the @acronym{NNTP} server doesn't support @acronym{NOV} headers, this back end
13633 will collect headers by sending a series of @code{head} commands. To
13634 speed things up, the back end sends lots of these commands without
13635 waiting for reply, and then reads all the replies. This is controlled
13636 by the @code{nntp-maximum-request} variable, and is 400 by default. If
13637 your network is buggy, you should set this to 1.
13639 @item nntp-connection-timeout
13640 @vindex nntp-connection-timeout
13641 If you have lots of foreign @code{nntp} groups that you connect to
13642 regularly, you're sure to have problems with @acronym{NNTP} servers not
13643 responding properly, or being too loaded to reply within reasonable
13644 time. This is can lead to awkward problems, which can be helped
13645 somewhat by setting @code{nntp-connection-timeout}. This is an integer
13646 that says how many seconds the @code{nntp} back end should wait for a
13647 connection before giving up. If it is @code{nil}, which is the default,
13648 no timeouts are done.
13650 @item nntp-nov-is-evil
13651 @vindex nntp-nov-is-evil
13652 If the @acronym{NNTP} server does not support @acronym{NOV}, you could set this
13653 variable to @code{t}, but @code{nntp} usually checks automatically whether @acronym{NOV}
13656 @item nntp-xover-commands
13657 @vindex nntp-xover-commands
13658 @cindex @acronym{NOV}
13660 List of strings used as commands to fetch @acronym{NOV} lines from a
13661 server. The default value of this variable is @code{("XOVER"
13665 @vindex nntp-nov-gap
13666 @code{nntp} normally sends just one big request for @acronym{NOV} lines to
13667 the server. The server responds with one huge list of lines. However,
13668 if you have read articles 2--5000 in the group, and only want to read
13669 article 1 and 5001, that means that @code{nntp} will fetch 4999 @acronym{NOV}
13670 lines that you will not need. This variable says how
13671 big a gap between two consecutive articles is allowed to be before the
13672 @code{XOVER} request is split into several request. Note that if your
13673 network is fast, setting this variable to a really small number means
13674 that fetching will probably be slower. If this variable is @code{nil},
13675 @code{nntp} will never split requests. The default is 5.
13677 @item nntp-xref-number-is-evil
13678 @vindex nntp-xref-number-is-evil
13679 When Gnus refers to an article having the @code{Message-ID} that a user
13680 specifies or having the @code{Message-ID} of the parent article of the
13681 current one (@pxref{Finding the Parent}), Gnus sends a @code{HEAD}
13682 command to the @acronym{NNTP} server to know where it is, and the server
13683 returns the data containing the pairs of a group and an article number
13684 in the @code{Xref} header. Gnus normally uses the article number to
13685 refer to the article if the data shows that that article is in the
13686 current group, while it uses the @code{Message-ID} otherwise. However,
13687 some news servers, e.g., ones running Diablo, run multiple engines
13688 having the same articles but article numbers are not kept synchronized
13689 between them. In that case, the article number that appears in the
13690 @code{Xref} header varies by which engine is chosen, so you cannot refer
13691 to the parent article that is in the current group, for instance. If
13692 you connect to such a server, set this variable to a non-@code{nil}
13693 value, and Gnus never uses article numbers. For example:
13696 (setq gnus-select-method
13698 (nntp-address "newszilla.example.com")
13699 (nntp-xref-number-is-evil t)
13703 The default value of this server variable is @code{nil}.
13705 @item nntp-prepare-server-hook
13706 @vindex nntp-prepare-server-hook
13707 A hook run before attempting to connect to an @acronym{NNTP} server.
13709 @item nntp-record-commands
13710 @vindex nntp-record-commands
13711 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nntp} will log all commands it sends to the
13712 @acronym{NNTP} server (along with a timestamp) in the @samp{*nntp-log*}
13713 buffer. This is useful if you are debugging a Gnus/@acronym{NNTP} connection
13714 that doesn't seem to work.
13716 @item nntp-open-connection-function
13717 @vindex nntp-open-connection-function
13718 It is possible to customize how the connection to the nntp server will
13719 be opened. If you specify an @code{nntp-open-connection-function}
13720 parameter, Gnus will use that function to establish the connection.
13721 Seven pre-made functions are supplied. These functions can be grouped
13722 in two categories: direct connection functions (four pre-made), and
13723 indirect ones (three pre-made).
13725 @item nntp-never-echoes-commands
13726 @vindex nntp-never-echoes-commands
13727 Non-@code{nil} means the nntp server never echoes commands. It is
13728 reported that some nntps server doesn't echo commands. So, you may want
13729 to set this to non-@code{nil} in the method for such a server setting
13730 @code{nntp-open-connection-function} to @code{nntp-open-ssl-stream} for
13731 example. The default value is @code{nil}. Note that the
13732 @code{nntp-open-connection-functions-never-echo-commands} variable
13733 overrides the @code{nil} value of this variable.
13735 @item nntp-open-connection-functions-never-echo-commands
13736 @vindex nntp-open-connection-functions-never-echo-commands
13737 List of functions that never echo commands. Add or set a function which
13738 you set to @code{nntp-open-connection-function} to this list if it does
13739 not echo commands. Note that a non-@code{nil} value of the
13740 @code{nntp-never-echoes-commands} variable overrides this variable. The
13741 default value is @code{(nntp-open-network-stream)}.
13743 @item nntp-prepare-post-hook
13744 @vindex nntp-prepare-post-hook
13745 A hook run just before posting an article. If there is no
13746 @code{Message-ID} header in the article and the news server provides the
13747 recommended ID, it will be added to the article before running this
13748 hook. It is useful to make @code{Cancel-Lock} headers even if you
13749 inhibit Gnus to add a @code{Message-ID} header, you could say:
13752 (add-hook 'nntp-prepare-post-hook 'canlock-insert-header)
13755 Note that not all servers support the recommended ID@. This works for
13756 INN versions 2.3.0 and later, for instance.
13758 @item nntp-server-list-active-group
13759 If @code{nil}, then always use @samp{GROUP} instead of @samp{LIST
13760 ACTIVE}. This is usually slower, but on misconfigured servers that
13761 don't update their active files often, this can help.
13767 * Direct Functions:: Connecting directly to the server.
13768 * Indirect Functions:: Connecting indirectly to the server.
13769 * Common Variables:: Understood by several connection functions.
13773 @node Direct Functions
13774 @subsubsection Direct Functions
13775 @cindex direct connection functions
13777 These functions are called direct because they open a direct connection
13778 between your machine and the @acronym{NNTP} server. The behavior of these
13779 functions is also affected by commonly understood variables
13780 (@pxref{Common Variables}).
13783 @findex nntp-open-network-stream
13784 @item nntp-open-network-stream
13785 This is the default, and simply connects to some port or other on the
13786 remote system. If both Emacs and the server supports it, the
13787 connection will be upgraded to an encrypted @acronym{STARTTLS}
13788 connection automatically.
13791 The same as the above, but don't do automatic @acronym{STARTTLS} upgrades.
13793 @findex nntp-open-tls-stream
13794 @item nntp-open-tls-stream
13795 Opens a connection to a server over a @dfn{secure} channel. To use
13796 this you must have @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/, GnuTLS}
13797 installed. You then define a server as follows:
13800 ;; @r{"nntps" is port 563 and is predefined in our @file{/etc/services}}
13801 ;; @r{however, @samp{gnutls-cli -p} doesn't like named ports.}
13803 (nntp "snews.bar.com"
13804 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-tls-stream)
13805 (nntp-port-number 563)
13806 (nntp-address "snews.bar.com"))
13809 @findex nntp-open-ssl-stream
13810 @item nntp-open-ssl-stream
13811 Opens a connection to a server over a @dfn{secure} channel. To use
13812 this you must have @uref{http://www.openssl.org, OpenSSL} or
13813 @uref{ftp://ftp.psy.uq.oz.au/pub/Crypto/SSL, SSLeay} installed. You
13814 then define a server as follows:
13817 ;; @r{"snews" is port 563 and is predefined in our @file{/etc/services}}
13818 ;; @r{however, @samp{openssl s_client -port} doesn't like named ports.}
13820 (nntp "snews.bar.com"
13821 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-ssl-stream)
13822 (nntp-port-number 563)
13823 (nntp-address "snews.bar.com"))
13826 @findex nntp-open-netcat-stream
13827 @item nntp-open-netcat-stream
13828 Opens a connection to an @acronym{NNTP} server using the @code{netcat}
13829 program. You might wonder why this function exists, since we have
13830 the default @code{nntp-open-network-stream} which would do the job. (One
13831 of) the reason(s) is that if you are behind a firewall but have direct
13832 connections to the outside world thanks to a command wrapper like
13833 @code{runsocks}, you can use it like this:
13837 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
13838 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-netcat-stream)
13839 (nntp-address "the.news.server"))
13842 With the default method, you would need to wrap your whole Emacs
13843 session, which is not a good idea.
13845 @findex nntp-open-telnet-stream
13846 @item nntp-open-telnet-stream
13847 Like @code{nntp-open-netcat-stream}, but uses @code{telnet} rather than
13848 @code{netcat}. @code{telnet} is a bit less robust because of things
13849 like line-end-conversion, but sometimes netcat is simply
13850 not available. The previous example would turn into:
13854 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
13855 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-telnet-stream)
13856 (nntp-address "the.news.server")
13857 (nntp-end-of-line "\n"))
13862 @node Indirect Functions
13863 @subsubsection Indirect Functions
13864 @cindex indirect connection functions
13866 These functions are called indirect because they connect to an
13867 intermediate host before actually connecting to the @acronym{NNTP} server.
13868 All of these functions and related variables are also said to belong to
13869 the ``via'' family of connection: they're all prefixed with ``via'' to make
13870 things cleaner. The behavior of these functions is also affected by
13871 commonly understood variables (@pxref{Common Variables}).
13874 @item nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat
13875 @findex nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat
13876 Does an @samp{rlogin} on a remote system, and then uses @code{netcat} to connect
13877 to the real @acronym{NNTP} server from there. This is useful for instance if
13878 you need to connect to a firewall machine first.
13880 @code{nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat}-specific variables:
13883 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command
13884 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command
13885 Command used to log in on the intermediate host. The default is
13886 @samp{rsh}, but @samp{ssh} is a popular alternative.
13888 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
13889 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
13890 List of strings to be used as the switches to
13891 @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command}. The default is @code{nil}. If you use
13892 @samp{ssh} for @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command}, you may set this to
13893 @samp{("-C")} in order to compress all data connections.
13896 @item nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet
13897 @findex nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet
13898 Does essentially the same, but uses @code{telnet} instead of @samp{netcat}
13899 to connect to the real @acronym{NNTP} server from the intermediate host.
13900 @code{telnet} is a bit less robust because of things like
13901 line-end-conversion, but sometimes @code{netcat} is simply not available.
13903 @code{nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet}-specific variables:
13906 @item nntp-telnet-command
13907 @vindex nntp-telnet-command
13908 Command used to connect to the real @acronym{NNTP} server from the
13909 intermediate host. The default is @samp{telnet}.
13911 @item nntp-telnet-switches
13912 @vindex nntp-telnet-switches
13913 List of strings to be used as the switches to the
13914 @code{nntp-telnet-command} command. The default is @code{("-8")}.
13916 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command
13917 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command
13918 Command used to log in on the intermediate host. The default is
13919 @samp{rsh}, but @samp{ssh} is a popular alternative.
13921 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
13922 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
13923 List of strings to be used as the switches to
13924 @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command}. If you use @samp{ssh}, you may need to set
13925 this to @samp{("-t" "-e" "none")} or @samp{("-C" "-t" "-e" "none")} if
13926 the telnet command requires a pseudo-tty allocation on an intermediate
13927 host. The default is @code{nil}.
13930 Note that you may want to change the value for @code{nntp-end-of-line}
13931 to @samp{\n} (@pxref{Common Variables}).
13933 @item nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet
13934 @findex nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet
13935 Does essentially the same, but uses @samp{telnet} instead of
13936 @samp{rlogin} to connect to the intermediate host.
13938 @code{nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet}-specific variables:
13941 @item nntp-via-telnet-command
13942 @vindex nntp-via-telnet-command
13943 Command used to @code{telnet} the intermediate host. The default is
13946 @item nntp-via-telnet-switches
13947 @vindex nntp-via-telnet-switches
13948 List of strings to be used as the switches to the
13949 @code{nntp-via-telnet-command} command. The default is @samp{("-8")}.
13951 @item nntp-via-user-password
13952 @vindex nntp-via-user-password
13953 Password to use when logging in on the intermediate host.
13955 @item nntp-via-envuser
13956 @vindex nntp-via-envuser
13957 If non-@code{nil}, the intermediate @code{telnet} session (client and
13958 server both) will support the @code{ENVIRON} option and not prompt for
13959 login name. This works for Solaris @code{telnet}, for instance.
13961 @item nntp-via-shell-prompt
13962 @vindex nntp-via-shell-prompt
13963 Regexp matching the shell prompt on the intermediate host. The default
13964 is @samp{bash\\|\$ *\r?$\\|> *\r?}.
13968 Note that you may want to change the value for @code{nntp-end-of-line}
13969 to @samp{\n} (@pxref{Common Variables}).
13973 Here are some additional variables that are understood by all the above
13978 @item nntp-via-user-name
13979 @vindex nntp-via-user-name
13980 User name to use when connecting to the intermediate host.
13982 @item nntp-via-address
13983 @vindex nntp-via-address
13984 Address of the intermediate host to connect to.
13989 @node Common Variables
13990 @subsubsection Common Variables
13992 The following variables affect the behavior of all, or several of the
13993 pre-made connection functions. When not specified, all functions are
13994 affected (the values of the following variables will be used as the
13995 default if each virtual @code{nntp} server doesn't specify those server
13996 variables individually).
14000 @item nntp-pre-command
14001 @vindex nntp-pre-command
14002 A command wrapper to use when connecting through a non native
14003 connection function (all except @code{nntp-open-network-stream},
14004 @code{nntp-open-tls-stream}, and @code{nntp-open-ssl-stream}). This is
14005 where you would put a @samp{SOCKS} wrapper for instance.
14008 @vindex nntp-address
14009 The address of the @acronym{NNTP} server.
14011 @item nntp-port-number
14012 @vindex nntp-port-number
14013 Port number to connect to the @acronym{NNTP} server. The default is
14014 @samp{nntp}. If you use @acronym{NNTP} over
14015 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}, you may want to use integer ports rather
14016 than named ports (i.e., use @samp{563} instead of @samp{snews} or
14017 @samp{nntps}), because external @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} tools may
14018 not work with named ports.
14020 @item nntp-end-of-line
14021 @vindex nntp-end-of-line
14022 String to use as end-of-line marker when talking to the @acronym{NNTP}
14023 server. This is @samp{\r\n} by default, but should be @samp{\n} when
14024 using a non native telnet connection function.
14026 @item nntp-netcat-command
14027 @vindex nntp-netcat-command
14028 Command to use when connecting to the @acronym{NNTP} server through
14029 @samp{netcat}. This is @emph{not} for an intermediate host. This is
14030 just for the real @acronym{NNTP} server. The default is
14033 @item nntp-netcat-switches
14034 @vindex nntp-netcat-switches
14035 A list of switches to pass to @code{nntp-netcat-command}. The default
14041 @subsection News Spool
14045 Subscribing to a foreign group from the local spool is extremely easy,
14046 and might be useful, for instance, to speed up reading groups that
14047 contain very big articles---@samp{alt.binaries.pictures.furniture}, for
14050 Anyway, you just specify @code{nnspool} as the method and @code{""} (or
14051 anything else) as the address.
14053 If you have access to a local spool, you should probably use that as the
14054 native select method (@pxref{Finding the News}). It is normally faster
14055 than using an @code{nntp} select method, but might not be. It depends.
14056 You just have to try to find out what's best at your site.
14060 @item nnspool-inews-program
14061 @vindex nnspool-inews-program
14062 Program used to post an article.
14064 @item nnspool-inews-switches
14065 @vindex nnspool-inews-switches
14066 Parameters given to the inews program when posting an article.
14068 @item nnspool-spool-directory
14069 @vindex nnspool-spool-directory
14070 Where @code{nnspool} looks for the articles. This is normally
14071 @file{/usr/spool/news/}.
14073 @item nnspool-nov-directory
14074 @vindex nnspool-nov-directory
14075 Where @code{nnspool} will look for @acronym{NOV} files. This is normally@*
14076 @file{/usr/spool/news/over.view/}.
14078 @item nnspool-lib-dir
14079 @vindex nnspool-lib-dir
14080 Where the news lib dir is (@file{/usr/lib/news/} by default).
14082 @item nnspool-active-file
14083 @vindex nnspool-active-file
14084 The name of the active file.
14086 @item nnspool-newsgroups-file
14087 @vindex nnspool-newsgroups-file
14088 The name of the group descriptions file.
14090 @item nnspool-history-file
14091 @vindex nnspool-history-file
14092 The name of the news history file.
14094 @item nnspool-active-times-file
14095 @vindex nnspool-active-times-file
14096 The name of the active date file.
14098 @item nnspool-nov-is-evil
14099 @vindex nnspool-nov-is-evil
14100 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnspool} won't try to use any @acronym{NOV} files
14103 @item nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
14104 @vindex nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
14106 If non-@code{nil}, which is the default, use @code{sed} to get the
14107 relevant portion from the overview file. If @code{nil},
14108 @code{nnspool} will load the entire file into a buffer and process it
14115 @section Using IMAP
14118 The most popular mail backend is probably @code{nnimap}, which
14119 provides access to @acronym{IMAP} servers. @acronym{IMAP} servers
14120 store mail remotely, so the client doesn't store anything locally.
14121 This means that it's a convenient choice when you're reading your mail
14122 from different locations, or with different user agents.
14125 * Connecting to an IMAP Server:: Getting started with @acronym{IMAP}.
14126 * Customizing the IMAP Connection:: Variables for @acronym{IMAP} connection.
14127 * Client-Side IMAP Splitting:: Put mail in the correct mail box.
14131 @node Connecting to an IMAP Server
14132 @subsection Connecting to an IMAP Server
14134 Connecting to an @acronym{IMAP} can be very easy. Type @kbd{B} in the
14135 group buffer, or (if your primary interest is reading email), say
14139 (setq gnus-select-method
14140 '(nnimap "imap.gmail.com"))
14143 You'll be prompted for a user name and password. If you grow tired of
14144 that, then add the following to your @file{~/.authinfo} file:
14147 machine imap.gmail.com login <username> password <password> port imap
14150 That should basically be it for most users.
14153 @node Customizing the IMAP Connection
14154 @subsection Customizing the IMAP Connection
14156 Here's an example method that's more complex:
14159 (nnimap "imap.gmail.com"
14160 (nnimap-inbox "INBOX")
14161 (nnimap-split-methods default)
14163 (nnimap-stream ssl))
14167 @item nnimap-address
14168 The address of the server, like @samp{imap.gmail.com}.
14170 @item nnimap-server-port
14171 If the server uses a non-standard port, that can be specified here. A
14172 typical port would be @code{"imap"} or @code{"imaps"}.
14174 @item nnimap-stream
14175 How @code{nnimap} should connect to the server. Possible values are:
14179 This is the default, and this first tries the @code{ssl} setting, and
14180 then tries the @code{network} setting.
14183 This uses standard @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} connections.
14186 Non-encrypted and unsafe straight socket connection, but will upgrade
14187 to encrypted @acronym{STARTTLS} if both Emacs and the server
14191 Encrypted @acronym{STARTTLS} over the normal @acronym{IMAP} port.
14194 If you need to tunnel via other systems to connect to the server, you
14195 can use this option, and customize @code{nnimap-shell-program} to be
14200 @item nnimap-authenticator
14201 Some @acronym{IMAP} servers allow anonymous logins. In that case,
14202 this should be set to @code{anonymous}. If this variable isn't set,
14203 the normal login methods will be used. If you wish to specify a
14204 specific login method to be used, you can set this variable to either
14205 @code{login} (the traditional @acronym{IMAP} login method),
14206 @code{plain} or @code{cram-md5}.
14208 @item nnimap-expunge
14209 If non-@code{nil}, expunge articles after deleting them. This is always done
14210 if the server supports UID EXPUNGE, but it's not done by default on
14211 servers that doesn't support that command.
14213 @item nnimap-streaming
14214 Virtually all @acronym{IMAP} server support fast streaming of data.
14215 If you have problems connecting to the server, try setting this to
14218 @item nnimap-fetch-partial-articles
14219 If non-@code{nil}, fetch partial articles from the server. If set to
14220 a string, then it's interpreted as a regexp, and parts that have
14221 matching types will be fetched. For instance, @samp{"text/"} will
14222 fetch all textual parts, while leaving the rest on the server.
14224 @item nnimap-record-commands
14225 If non-@code{nil}, record all @acronym{IMAP} commands in the
14226 @samp{"*imap log*"} buffer.
14231 @node Client-Side IMAP Splitting
14232 @subsection Client-Side IMAP Splitting
14234 Many people prefer to do the sorting/splitting of mail into their mail
14235 boxes on the @acronym{IMAP} server. That way they don't have to
14236 download the mail they're not all that interested in.
14238 If you do want to do client-side mail splitting, then the following
14239 variables are relevant:
14243 This is the @acronym{IMAP} mail box that will be scanned for new
14244 mail. This can also be a list of mail box names.
14246 @item nnimap-split-methods
14247 Uses the same syntax as @code{nnmail-split-methods} (@pxref{Splitting
14248 Mail}), except the symbol @code{default}, which means that it should
14249 use the value of the @code{nnmail-split-methods} variable.
14251 @item nnimap-split-fancy
14252 Uses the same syntax as @code{nnmail-split-fancy}.
14254 @item nnimap-unsplittable-articles
14255 List of flag symbols to ignore when doing splitting. That is,
14256 articles that have these flags won't be considered when splitting.
14257 The default is @samp{(%Deleted %Seen)}.
14261 Here's a complete example @code{nnimap} backend with a client-side
14262 ``fancy'' splitting method:
14265 (nnimap "imap.example.com"
14266 (nnimap-inbox "INBOX")
14267 (nnimap-split-methods
14268 (| ("MailScanner-SpamCheck" "spam" "spam.detected")
14269 (to "foo@@bar.com" "foo")
14275 @section Getting Mail
14276 @cindex reading mail
14279 Reading mail with a newsreader---isn't that just plain WeIrD@? But of
14283 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
14284 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
14285 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
14286 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
14287 * Mail Back End Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
14288 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
14289 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
14290 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
14291 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
14292 * Washing Mail:: Removing cruft from the mail you get.
14293 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
14294 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail back ends for reading other files.
14295 * Choosing a Mail Back End:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
14299 @node Mail in a Newsreader
14300 @subsection Mail in a Newsreader
14302 If you are used to traditional mail readers, but have decided to switch
14303 to reading mail with Gnus, you may find yourself experiencing something
14304 of a culture shock.
14306 Gnus does not behave like traditional mail readers. If you want to make
14307 it behave that way, you can, but it's an uphill battle.
14309 Gnus, by default, handles all its groups using the same approach. This
14310 approach is very newsreaderly---you enter a group, see the new/unread
14311 messages, and when you read the messages, they get marked as read, and
14312 you don't see them any more. (Unless you explicitly ask for them.)
14314 In particular, you do not do anything explicitly to delete messages.
14316 Does this mean that all the messages that have been marked as read are
14317 deleted? How awful!
14319 But, no, it means that old messages are @dfn{expired} according to some
14320 scheme or other. For news messages, the expire process is controlled by
14321 the news administrator; for mail, the expire process is controlled by
14322 you. The expire process for mail is covered in depth in @ref{Expiring
14325 What many Gnus users find, after using it a while for both news and
14326 mail, is that the transport mechanism has very little to do with how
14327 they want to treat a message.
14329 Many people subscribe to several mailing lists. These are transported
14330 via @acronym{SMTP}, and are therefore mail. But we might go for weeks without
14331 answering, or even reading these messages very carefully. We may not
14332 need to save them because if we should need to read one again, they are
14333 archived somewhere else.
14335 Some people have local news groups which have only a handful of readers.
14336 These are transported via @acronym{NNTP}, and are therefore news. But we may need
14337 to read and answer a large fraction of the messages very carefully in
14338 order to do our work. And there may not be an archive, so we may need
14339 to save the interesting messages the same way we would personal mail.
14341 The important distinction turns out to be not the transport mechanism,
14342 but other factors such as how interested we are in the subject matter,
14343 or how easy it is to retrieve the message if we need to read it again.
14345 Gnus provides many options for sorting mail into ``groups'' which behave
14346 like newsgroups, and for treating each group (whether mail or news)
14349 Some users never get comfortable using the Gnus (ahem) paradigm and wish
14350 that Gnus should grow up and be a male, er, mail reader. It is possible
14351 to whip Gnus into a more mailreaderly being, but, as said before, it's
14352 not easy. People who prefer proper mail readers should try @sc{vm}
14353 instead, which is an excellent, and proper, mail reader.
14355 I don't mean to scare anybody off, but I want to make it clear that you
14356 may be required to learn a new way of thinking about messages. After
14357 you've been subjected to The Gnus Way, you will come to love it. I can
14358 guarantee it. (At least the guy who sold me the Emacs Subliminal
14359 Brain-Washing Functions that I've put into Gnus did guarantee it. You
14360 Will Be Assimilated. You Love Gnus. You Love The Gnus Mail Way.
14364 @node Getting Started Reading Mail
14365 @subsection Getting Started Reading Mail
14367 It's quite easy to use Gnus to read your new mail. You just plonk the
14368 mail back end of your choice into @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods},
14369 and things will happen automatically.
14371 For instance, if you want to use @code{nnml} (which is a ``one file per
14372 mail'' back end), you could put the following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
14375 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
14378 Now, the next time you start Gnus, this back end will be queried for new
14379 articles, and it will move all the messages in your spool file to its
14380 directory, which is @file{~/Mail/} by default. The new group that will
14381 be created (@samp{mail.misc}) will be subscribed, and you can read it
14382 like any other group.
14384 You will probably want to split the mail into several groups, though:
14387 (setq nnmail-split-methods
14388 '(("junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
14389 ("crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
14393 This will result in three new @code{nnml} mail groups being created:
14394 @samp{nnml:junk}, @samp{nnml:crazy}, and @samp{nnml:other}. All the
14395 mail that doesn't fit into the first two groups will be placed in the
14398 This should be sufficient for reading mail with Gnus. You might want to
14399 give the other sections in this part of the manual a perusal, though.
14400 Especially @pxref{Choosing a Mail Back End} and @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
14403 @node Splitting Mail
14404 @subsection Splitting Mail
14405 @cindex splitting mail
14406 @cindex mail splitting
14407 @cindex mail filtering (splitting)
14409 @vindex nnmail-split-methods
14410 The @code{nnmail-split-methods} variable says how the incoming mail is
14411 to be split into groups.
14414 (setq nnmail-split-methods
14415 '(("mail.junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
14416 ("mail.crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
14417 ("mail.other" "")))
14420 This variable is a list of lists, where the first element of each of
14421 these lists is the name of the mail group (they do not have to be called
14422 something beginning with @samp{mail}, by the way), and the second
14423 element is a regular expression used on the header of each mail to
14424 determine if it belongs in this mail group. The first string may
14425 contain @samp{\\1} forms, like the ones used by @code{replace-match} to
14426 insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For instance:
14429 ("list.\\1" "From:.* \\(.*\\)-list@@majordomo.com")
14433 In that case, @code{nnmail-split-lowercase-expanded} controls whether
14434 the inserted text should be made lowercase. @xref{Fancy Mail Splitting}.
14436 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
14437 called narrowed to the headers with the first element of the rule as the
14438 argument. It should return a non-@code{nil} value if it thinks that the
14439 mail belongs in that group.
14441 @cindex @samp{bogus} group
14442 The last of these groups should always be a general one, and the regular
14443 expression should @emph{always} be @samp{""} so that it matches any mails
14444 that haven't been matched by any of the other regexps. (These rules are
14445 processed from the beginning of the alist toward the end. The first rule
14446 to make a match will ``win'', unless you have crossposting enabled. In
14447 that case, all matching rules will ``win''.) If no rule matched, the mail
14448 will end up in the @samp{bogus} group. When new groups are created by
14449 splitting mail, you may want to run @code{gnus-group-find-new-groups} to
14450 see the new groups. This also applies to the @samp{bogus} group.
14452 If you like to tinker with this yourself, you can set this variable to a
14453 function of your choice. This function will be called without any
14454 arguments in a buffer narrowed to the headers of an incoming mail
14455 message. The function should return a list of group names that it
14456 thinks should carry this mail message.
14458 This variable can also be a fancy split method. For the syntax,
14459 see @ref{Fancy Mail Splitting}.
14461 Note that the mail back ends are free to maul the poor, innocent,
14462 incoming headers all they want to. They all add @code{Lines} headers;
14463 some add @code{X-Gnus-Group} headers; most rename the Unix mbox
14464 @code{From<SPACE>} line to something else.
14466 @vindex nnmail-crosspost
14467 The mail back ends all support cross-posting. If several regexps match,
14468 the mail will be ``cross-posted'' to all those groups.
14469 @code{nnmail-crosspost} says whether to use this mechanism or not. Note
14470 that no articles are crossposted to the general (@samp{""}) group.
14472 @vindex nnmail-crosspost-link-function
14475 @code{nnmh} and @code{nnml} makes crossposts by creating hard links to
14476 the crossposted articles. However, not all file systems support hard
14477 links. If that's the case for you, set
14478 @code{nnmail-crosspost-link-function} to @code{copy-file}. (This
14479 variable is @code{add-name-to-file} by default.)
14481 @kindex M-x nnmail-split-history
14482 @findex nnmail-split-history
14483 If you wish to see where the previous mail split put the messages, you
14484 can use the @kbd{M-x nnmail-split-history} command. If you wish to see
14485 where re-spooling messages would put the messages, you can use
14486 @code{gnus-summary-respool-trace} and related commands (@pxref{Mail
14489 @vindex nnmail-split-header-length-limit
14490 Header lines longer than the value of
14491 @code{nnmail-split-header-length-limit} are excluded from the split
14494 @vindex nnmail-mail-splitting-decodes
14495 @vindex nnmail-mail-splitting-charset
14496 By default, splitting does not decode headers, so you can not match on
14497 non-@acronym{ASCII} strings. But it is useful if you want to match
14498 articles based on the raw header data. To enable it, set the
14499 @code{nnmail-mail-splitting-decodes} variable to a non-@code{nil} value.
14500 In addition, the value of the @code{nnmail-mail-splitting-charset}
14501 variable is used for decoding non-@acronym{MIME} encoded string when
14502 @code{nnmail-mail-splitting-decodes} is non-@code{nil}. The default
14503 value is @code{nil} which means not to decode non-@acronym{MIME} encoded
14504 string. A suitable value for you will be @code{undecided} or be the
14505 charset used normally in mails you are interested in.
14507 @vindex nnmail-resplit-incoming
14508 By default, splitting is performed on all incoming messages. If you
14509 specify a @code{directory} entry for the variable @code{mail-sources}
14510 (@pxref{Mail Source Specifiers}), however, then splitting does
14511 @emph{not} happen by default. You can set the variable
14512 @code{nnmail-resplit-incoming} to a non-@code{nil} value to make
14513 splitting happen even in this case. (This variable has no effect on
14514 other kinds of entries.)
14516 Gnus gives you all the opportunity you could possibly want for shooting
14517 yourself in the foot. Let's say you create a group that will contain
14518 all the mail you get from your boss. And then you accidentally
14519 unsubscribe from the group. Gnus will still put all the mail from your
14520 boss in the unsubscribed group, and so, when your boss mails you ``Have
14521 that report ready by Monday or you're fired!'', you'll never see it and,
14522 come Tuesday, you'll still believe that you're gainfully employed while
14523 you really should be out collecting empty bottles to save up for next
14524 month's rent money.
14528 @subsection Mail Sources
14530 Mail can be gotten from many different sources---the mail spool, from
14531 a @acronym{POP} mail server, from a procmail directory, or from a
14532 maildir, for instance.
14535 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
14536 * Mail Source Functions::
14537 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
14538 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
14542 @node Mail Source Specifiers
14543 @subsubsection Mail Source Specifiers
14545 @cindex mail server
14548 @cindex mail source
14550 You tell Gnus how to fetch mail by setting @code{mail-sources}
14551 (@pxref{Fetching Mail}) to a @dfn{mail source specifier}.
14556 (pop :server "pop3.mailserver.com" :user "myname")
14559 As can be observed, a mail source specifier is a list where the first
14560 element is a @dfn{mail source type}, followed by an arbitrary number of
14561 @dfn{keywords}. Keywords that are not explicitly specified are given
14564 The @code{mail-sources} is global for all mail groups. You can specify
14565 an additional mail source for a particular group by including the
14566 @code{group} mail specifier in @code{mail-sources}, and setting a
14567 @code{mail-source} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) specifying
14568 a single mail source. When this is used, @code{mail-sources} is
14569 typically just @code{(group)}; the @code{mail-source} parameter for a
14570 group might look like this:
14573 (mail-source . (file :path "home/user/spools/foo.spool"))
14576 This means that the group's (and only this group's) messages will be
14577 fetched from the spool file @samp{/user/spools/foo.spool}.
14579 The following mail source types are available:
14583 Get mail from a single file; typically from the mail spool.
14589 The file name. Defaults to the value of the @env{MAIL}
14590 environment variable or the value of @code{rmail-spool-directory}
14591 (usually something like @file{/usr/mail/spool/user-name}).
14595 Script run before/after fetching mail.
14598 An example file mail source:
14601 (file :path "/usr/spool/mail/user-name")
14604 Or using the default file name:
14610 If the mail spool file is not located on the local machine, it's best
14611 to use @acronym{POP} or @acronym{IMAP} or the like to fetch the mail.
14612 You can not use ange-ftp file names here---it has no way to lock the
14613 mail spool while moving the mail.
14615 If it's impossible to set up a proper server, you can use ssh instead.
14619 '((file :prescript "ssh host bin/getmail >%t")))
14622 The @samp{getmail} script would look something like the following:
14626 # getmail - move mail from spool to stdout
14629 MOVEMAIL=/usr/lib/emacs/20.3/i386-redhat-linux/movemail
14631 rm -f $TMP; $MOVEMAIL $MAIL $TMP >/dev/null && cat $TMP
14634 Alter this script to fit the @samp{movemail} and temporary
14635 file you want to use.
14639 @vindex nnmail-scan-directory-mail-source-once
14640 Get mail from several files in a directory. This is typically used
14641 when you have procmail split the incoming mail into several files.
14642 That is, there is a one-to-one correspondence between files in that
14643 directory and groups, so that mail from the file @file{foo.bar.spool}
14644 will be put in the group @code{foo.bar}. (You can change the suffix
14645 to be used instead of @code{.spool}.) Setting
14646 @code{nnmail-scan-directory-mail-source-once} to non-@code{nil} forces
14647 Gnus to scan the mail source only once. This is particularly useful
14648 if you want to scan mail groups at a specified level.
14650 @vindex nnmail-resplit-incoming
14651 There is also the variable @code{nnmail-resplit-incoming}, if you set
14652 that to a non-@code{nil} value, then the normal splitting process is
14653 applied to all the files from the directory, @ref{Splitting Mail}.
14659 The name of the directory where the files are. There is no default
14663 Only files ending with this suffix are used. The default is
14667 Only files that have this predicate return non-@code{nil} are returned.
14668 The default is @code{identity}. This is used as an additional
14669 filter---only files that have the right suffix @emph{and} satisfy this
14670 predicate are considered.
14674 Script run before/after fetching mail.
14678 An example directory mail source:
14681 (directory :path "/home/user-name/procmail-dir/"
14686 Get mail from a @acronym{POP} server.
14692 The name of the @acronym{POP} server. The default is taken from the
14693 @env{MAILHOST} environment variable.
14696 The port number of the @acronym{POP} server. This can be a number (e.g.,
14697 @samp{:port 1234}) or a string (e.g., @samp{:port "pop3"}). If it is a
14698 string, it should be a service name as listed in @file{/etc/services} on
14699 Unix systems. The default is @samp{"pop3"}. On some systems you might
14700 need to specify it as @samp{"pop-3"} instead.
14703 The user name to give to the @acronym{POP} server. The default is the login
14707 The password to give to the @acronym{POP} server. If not specified,
14708 the user is prompted.
14711 The program to use to fetch mail from the @acronym{POP} server. This
14712 should be a @code{format}-like string. Here's an example:
14715 fetchmail %u@@%s -P %p %t
14718 The valid format specifier characters are:
14722 The name of the file the mail is to be moved to. This must always be
14723 included in this string.
14726 The name of the server.
14729 The port number of the server.
14732 The user name to use.
14735 The password to use.
14738 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
14739 corresponding keywords.
14742 A script to be run before fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
14743 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
14745 One popular way to use this is to set up an SSH tunnel to access the
14746 @acronym{POP} server. Here's an example:
14749 (pop :server "127.0.0.1"
14754 "nohup ssh -f -L 1234:pop.server:110 remote.host sleep 3600 &")
14758 A script to be run after fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
14759 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
14762 The function to use to fetch mail from the @acronym{POP} server. The
14763 function is called with one parameter---the name of the file where the
14764 mail should be moved to.
14766 @item :authentication
14767 This can be either the symbol @code{password} or the symbol @code{apop}
14768 and says what authentication scheme to use. The default is
14772 Non-@code{nil} if the mail is to be left on the @acronym{POP} server
14773 after fetching. Mails once fetched will never be fetched again by the
14774 @acronym{UIDL} control. Only the built-in @code{pop3-movemail} program
14775 (the default) supports this keyword.
14777 If this is neither @code{nil} nor a number, all mails will be left on
14778 the server. If this is a number, leave mails on the server for this
14779 many days since you first checked new mails. If this is @code{nil}
14780 (the default), mails will be deleted on the server right after fetching.
14782 @vindex pop3-uidl-file
14783 The @code{pop3-uidl-file} variable specifies the file to which the
14784 @acronym{UIDL} data are locally stored. The default value is
14785 @file{~/.pop3-uidl}.
14787 Note that @acronym{POP} servers maintain no state information between
14788 sessions, so what the client believes is there and what is actually
14789 there may not match up. If they do not, then you may get duplicate
14790 mails or the whole thing can fall apart and leave you with a corrupt
14795 @findex pop3-movemail
14796 @vindex pop3-leave-mail-on-server
14797 If the @code{:program} and @code{:function} keywords aren't specified,
14798 @code{pop3-movemail} will be used.
14800 Here are some examples for getting mail from a @acronym{POP} server.
14802 Fetch from the default @acronym{POP} server, using the default user
14803 name, and default fetcher:
14809 Fetch from a named server with a named user and password:
14812 (pop :server "my.pop.server"
14813 :user "user-name" :password "secret")
14816 Leave mails on the server for 14 days:
14819 (pop :server "my.pop.server"
14820 :user "user-name" :password "secret"
14824 Use @samp{movemail} to move the mail:
14827 (pop :program "movemail po:%u %t %p")
14831 Get mail from a maildir. This is a type of mailbox that is supported by
14832 at least qmail and postfix, where each file in a special directory
14833 contains exactly one mail.
14839 The name of the directory where the mails are stored. The default is
14840 taken from the @env{MAILDIR} environment variable or
14843 The subdirectories of the Maildir. The default is
14844 @samp{("new" "cur")}.
14846 @c If you sometimes look at your mail through a pop3 daemon before fetching
14847 @c them with Gnus, you may also have to fetch your mails from the
14848 @c @code{cur} directory inside the maildir, like in the first example
14851 You can also get mails from remote hosts (because maildirs don't suffer
14852 from locking problems).
14856 Two example maildir mail sources:
14859 (maildir :path "/home/user-name/Maildir/"
14860 :subdirs ("cur" "new"))
14864 (maildir :path "/user@@remotehost.org:~/Maildir/"
14869 Get mail from a @acronym{IMAP} server. If you don't want to use
14870 @acronym{IMAP} as intended, as a network mail reading protocol (i.e.,
14871 with nnimap), for some reason or other, Gnus let you treat it similar
14872 to a @acronym{POP} server and fetches articles from a given
14873 @acronym{IMAP} mailbox. @xref{Using IMAP}, for more information.
14879 The name of the @acronym{IMAP} server. The default is taken from the
14880 @env{MAILHOST} environment variable.
14883 The port number of the @acronym{IMAP} server. The default is @samp{143}, or
14884 @samp{993} for @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} connections.
14887 The user name to give to the @acronym{IMAP} server. The default is the login
14891 The password to give to the @acronym{IMAP} server. If not specified, the user is
14895 What stream to use for connecting to the server, this is one of the
14896 symbols in @code{imap-stream-alist}. Right now, this means
14897 @samp{gssapi}, @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{starttls}, @samp{tls},
14898 @samp{ssl}, @samp{shell} or the default @samp{network}.
14900 @item :authentication
14901 Which authenticator to use for authenticating to the server, this is
14902 one of the symbols in @code{imap-authenticator-alist}. Right now,
14903 this means @samp{gssapi}, @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{digest-md5},
14904 @samp{cram-md5}, @samp{anonymous} or the default @samp{login}.
14907 When using the `shell' :stream, the contents of this variable is
14908 mapped into the @code{imap-shell-program} variable. This should be a
14909 @code{format}-like string (or list of strings). Here's an example:
14915 Make sure nothing is interfering with the output of the program, e.g.,
14916 don't forget to redirect the error output to the void. The valid format
14917 specifier characters are:
14921 The name of the server.
14924 User name from @code{imap-default-user}.
14927 The port number of the server.
14930 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
14931 corresponding keywords.
14934 The name of the mailbox to get mail from. The default is @samp{INBOX}
14935 which normally is the mailbox which receives incoming mail.
14938 The predicate used to find articles to fetch. The default, @samp{UNSEEN
14939 UNDELETED}, is probably the best choice for most people, but if you
14940 sometimes peek in your mailbox with a @acronym{IMAP} client and mark some
14941 articles as read (or; SEEN) you might want to set this to @samp{1:*}.
14942 Then all articles in the mailbox is fetched, no matter what. For a
14943 complete list of predicates, see RFC 2060 section 6.4.4.
14946 How to flag fetched articles on the server, the default @samp{\Deleted}
14947 will mark them as deleted, an alternative would be @samp{\Seen} which
14948 would simply mark them as read. These are the two most likely choices,
14949 but more flags are defined in RFC 2060 section 2.3.2.
14952 If non-@code{nil}, don't remove all articles marked as deleted in the
14953 mailbox after finishing the fetch.
14957 An example @acronym{IMAP} mail source:
14960 (imap :server "mail.mycorp.com"
14962 :fetchflag "\\Seen")
14966 Get the actual mail source from the @code{mail-source} group parameter,
14967 @xref{Group Parameters}.
14972 @item Common Keywords
14973 Common keywords can be used in any type of mail source.
14979 If non-@code{nil}, fetch the mail even when Gnus is unplugged. If you
14980 use directory source to get mail, you can specify it as in this
14985 '((directory :path "/home/pavel/.Spool/"
14990 Gnus will then fetch your mail even when you are unplugged. This is
14991 useful when you use local mail and news.
14996 @node Mail Source Functions
14997 @subsubsection Function Interface
14999 Some of the above keywords specify a Lisp function to be executed.
15000 For each keyword @code{:foo}, the Lisp variable @code{foo} is bound to
15001 the value of the keyword while the function is executing. For example,
15002 consider the following mail-source setting:
15005 (setq mail-sources '((pop :user "jrl"
15006 :server "pophost" :function fetchfunc)))
15009 While the function @code{fetchfunc} is executing, the symbol @code{user}
15010 is bound to @code{"jrl"}, and the symbol @code{server} is bound to
15011 @code{"pophost"}. The symbols @code{port}, @code{password},
15012 @code{program}, @code{prescript}, @code{postscript}, @code{function},
15013 and @code{authentication} are also bound (to their default values).
15015 See above for a list of keywords for each type of mail source.
15018 @node Mail Source Customization
15019 @subsubsection Mail Source Customization
15021 The following is a list of variables that influence how the mail is
15022 fetched. You would normally not need to set or change any of these
15026 @item mail-source-crash-box
15027 @vindex mail-source-crash-box
15028 File where mail will be stored while processing it. The default is@*
15029 @file{~/.emacs-mail-crash-box}.
15032 @item mail-source-delete-incoming
15033 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
15034 If non-@code{nil}, delete incoming files after handling them. If
15035 @code{t}, delete the files immediately, if @code{nil}, never delete any
15036 files. If a positive number, delete files older than number of days
15037 (the deletion will only happen when receiving new mail). You may also
15038 set @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} to @code{nil} and call
15039 @code{mail-source-delete-old-incoming} from a hook or interactively.
15040 @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} defaults to @code{10} in alpha Gnusae
15041 and @code{2} in released Gnusae. @xref{Gnus Development}.
15043 @item mail-source-delete-old-incoming-confirm
15044 @vindex mail-source-delete-old-incoming-confirm
15045 If non-@code{nil}, ask for confirmation before deleting old incoming
15046 files. This variable only applies when
15047 @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is a positive number.
15049 @item mail-source-ignore-errors
15050 @vindex mail-source-ignore-errors
15051 If non-@code{nil}, ignore errors when reading mail from a mail source.
15053 @item mail-source-directory
15054 @vindex mail-source-directory
15055 Directory where incoming mail source files (if any) will be stored. The
15056 default is @file{~/Mail/}. At present, the only thing this is used for
15057 is to say where the incoming files will be stored if the variable
15058 @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is @code{nil} or a number.
15060 @item mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
15061 @vindex mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
15062 Prefix for file name for storing incoming mail. The default is
15063 @file{Incoming}, in which case files will end up with names like
15064 @file{Incoming30630D_} or @file{Incoming298602ZD}. This is really only
15065 relevant if @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is @code{nil} or a
15068 @item mail-source-default-file-modes
15069 @vindex mail-source-default-file-modes
15070 All new mail files will get this file mode. The default is @code{#o600}.
15072 @item mail-source-movemail-program
15073 @vindex mail-source-movemail-program
15074 If non-@code{nil}, name of program for fetching new mail. If
15075 @code{nil}, @code{movemail} in @var{exec-directory}.
15080 @node Fetching Mail
15081 @subsubsection Fetching Mail
15083 @vindex mail-sources
15084 The way to actually tell Gnus where to get new mail from is to set
15085 @code{mail-sources} to a list of mail source specifiers
15086 (@pxref{Mail Source Specifiers}).
15088 If this variable is @code{nil}, the mail back ends will never attempt to
15089 fetch mail by themselves.
15091 If you want to fetch mail both from your local spool as well as a
15092 @acronym{POP} mail server, you'd say something like:
15097 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
15098 :password "secret")))
15101 Or, if you don't want to use any of the keyword defaults:
15105 '((file :path "/var/spool/mail/user-name")
15106 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
15109 :password "secret")))
15113 When you use a mail back end, Gnus will slurp all your mail from your
15114 inbox and plonk it down in your home directory. Gnus doesn't move any
15115 mail if you're not using a mail back end---you have to do a lot of magic
15116 invocations first. At the time when you have finished drawing the
15117 pentagram, lightened the candles, and sacrificed the goat, you really
15118 shouldn't be too surprised when Gnus moves your mail.
15122 @node Mail Back End Variables
15123 @subsection Mail Back End Variables
15125 These variables are (for the most part) pertinent to all the various
15129 @vindex nnmail-read-incoming-hook
15130 @item nnmail-read-incoming-hook
15131 The mail back ends all call this hook after reading new mail. You can
15132 use this hook to notify any mail watch programs, if you want to.
15134 @vindex nnmail-split-hook
15135 @item nnmail-split-hook
15136 @findex gnus-article-decode-encoded-words
15137 @cindex RFC 1522 decoding
15138 @cindex RFC 2047 decoding
15139 Hook run in the buffer where the mail headers of each message is kept
15140 just before the splitting based on these headers is done. The hook is
15141 free to modify the buffer contents in any way it sees fit---the buffer
15142 is discarded after the splitting has been done, and no changes performed
15143 in the buffer will show up in any files.
15144 @code{gnus-article-decode-encoded-words} is one likely function to add
15147 @vindex nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
15148 @vindex nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
15149 @item nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
15150 @itemx nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
15151 These are two useful hooks executed when treating new incoming
15152 mail---@code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook} (is called just before
15153 starting to handle the new mail) and
15154 @code{nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook} (is called when the mail handling
15155 is done). Here's and example of using these two hooks to change the
15156 default file modes the new mail files get:
15159 (add-hook 'nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
15160 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes #o700)))
15162 (add-hook 'nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
15163 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes #o775)))
15166 @item nnmail-use-long-file-names
15167 @vindex nnmail-use-long-file-names
15168 If non-@code{nil}, the mail back ends will use long file and directory
15169 names. Groups like @samp{mail.misc} will end up in directories
15170 (assuming use of @code{nnml} back end) or files (assuming use of
15171 @code{nnfolder} back end) like @file{mail.misc}. If it is @code{nil},
15172 the same group will end up in @file{mail/misc}.
15174 @item nnmail-delete-file-function
15175 @vindex nnmail-delete-file-function
15176 @findex delete-file
15177 Function called to delete files. It is @code{delete-file} by default.
15179 @item nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
15180 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
15181 If non-@code{nil}, put the @code{Message-ID}s of articles imported into
15182 the back end (via @code{Gcc}, for instance) into the mail duplication
15183 discovery cache. The default is @code{nil}.
15185 @item nnmail-cache-ignore-groups
15186 @vindex nnmail-cache-ignore-groups
15187 This can be a regular expression or a list of regular expressions.
15188 Group names that match any of the regular expressions will never be
15189 recorded in the @code{Message-ID} cache.
15191 This can be useful, for example, when using Fancy Splitting
15192 (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}) together with the function
15193 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent}.
15198 @node Fancy Mail Splitting
15199 @subsection Fancy Mail Splitting
15200 @cindex mail splitting
15201 @cindex fancy mail splitting
15203 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy
15204 @findex nnmail-split-fancy
15205 If the rather simple, standard method for specifying how to split mail
15206 doesn't allow you to do what you want, you can set
15207 @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy}. Then you can
15208 play with the @code{nnmail-split-fancy} variable.
15210 Let's look at an example value of this variable first:
15213 ;; @r{Messages from the mailer daemon are not crossposted to any of}
15214 ;; @r{the ordinary groups. Warnings are put in a separate group}
15215 ;; @r{from real errors.}
15216 (| ("from" mail (| ("subject" "warn.*" "mail.warning")
15218 ;; @r{Non-error messages are crossposted to all relevant}
15219 ;; @r{groups, but we don't crosspost between the group for the}
15220 ;; @r{(ding) list and the group for other (ding) related mail.}
15221 (& (| (any "ding@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "ding.list")
15222 ("subject" "ding" "ding.misc"))
15223 ;; @r{Other mailing lists@dots{}}
15224 (any "procmail@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "procmail.list")
15225 (any "SmartList@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "SmartList.list")
15226 ;; @r{Both lists below have the same suffix, so prevent}
15227 ;; @r{cross-posting to mkpkg.list of messages posted only to}
15228 ;; @r{the bugs- list, but allow cross-posting when the}
15229 ;; @r{message was really cross-posted.}
15230 (any "bugs-mypackage@@somewhere" "mypkg.bugs")
15231 (any "mypackage@@somewhere" - "bugs-mypackage" "mypkg.list")
15232 ;; @r{People@dots{}}
15233 (any "larsi@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "people.Lars_Magne_Ingebrigtsen"))
15234 ;; @r{Unmatched mail goes to the catch all group.}
15238 This variable has the format of a @dfn{split}. A split is a
15239 (possibly) recursive structure where each split may contain other
15240 splits. Here are the possible split syntaxes:
15245 If the split is a string, that will be taken as a group name. Normal
15246 regexp match expansion will be done. See below for examples.
15248 @c Don't fold this line.
15249 @item (@var{field} @var{value} [- @var{restrict} [@dots{}] ] @var{split} [@var{invert-partial}])
15250 The split can be a list containing at least three elements. If the
15251 first element @var{field} (a regexp matching a header) contains
15252 @var{value} (also a regexp) then store the message as specified by
15255 If @var{restrict} (yet another regexp) matches some string after
15256 @var{field} and before the end of the matched @var{value}, the
15257 @var{split} is ignored. If none of the @var{restrict} clauses match,
15258 @var{split} is processed.
15260 The last element @var{invert-partial} is optional. If it is
15261 non-@code{nil}, the match-partial-words behavior controlled by the
15262 variable @code{nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words} (see below) is
15263 be inverted. (New in Gnus 5.10.7)
15265 @item (| @var{split} @dots{})
15266 If the split is a list, and the first element is @code{|} (vertical
15267 bar), then process each @var{split} until one of them matches. A
15268 @var{split} is said to match if it will cause the mail message to be
15269 stored in one or more groups.
15271 @item (& @var{split} @dots{})
15272 If the split is a list, and the first element is @code{&}, then
15273 process all @var{split}s in the list.
15276 If the split is the symbol @code{junk}, then don't save (i.e., delete)
15277 this message. Use with extreme caution.
15279 @item (: @var{function} @var{arg1} @var{arg2} @dots{})
15280 If the split is a list, and the first element is @samp{:}, then the
15281 second element will be called as a function with @var{args} given as
15282 arguments. The function should return a @var{split}.
15285 For instance, the following function could be used to split based on the
15286 body of the messages:
15289 (defun split-on-body ()
15293 (goto-char (point-min))
15294 (when (re-search-forward "Some.*string" nil t)
15298 The buffer is narrowed to the header of the message in question when
15299 @var{function} is run. That's why @code{(widen)} needs to be called
15300 after @code{save-excursion} and @code{save-restriction} in the example
15301 above. Also note that with the nnimap backend, message bodies will
15302 not be downloaded by default. You need to set
15303 @code{nnimap-split-download-body} to @code{t} to do that
15304 (@pxref{Client-Side IMAP Splitting}).
15306 @item (! @var{func} @var{split})
15307 If the split is a list, and the first element is @code{!}, then
15308 @var{split} will be processed, and @var{func} will be called as a
15309 function with the result of @var{split} as argument. @var{func}
15310 should return a split.
15313 If the split is @code{nil}, it is ignored.
15317 In these splits, @var{field} must match a complete field name.
15319 Normally, @var{value} in these splits must match a complete @emph{word}
15320 according to the fundamental mode syntax table. In other words, all
15321 @var{value}'s will be implicitly surrounded by @code{\<...\>} markers,
15322 which are word delimiters. Therefore, if you use the following split,
15326 (any "joe" "joemail")
15330 messages sent from @samp{joedavis@@foo.org} will normally not be filed
15331 in @samp{joemail}. If you want to alter this behavior, you can use any
15332 of the following three ways:
15336 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words
15337 You can set the @code{nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words} variable
15338 to non-@code{nil} in order to ignore word boundaries and instead the
15339 match becomes more like a grep. This variable controls whether partial
15340 words are matched during fancy splitting. The default value is
15343 Note that it influences all @var{value}'s in your split rules.
15346 @var{value} beginning with @code{.*} ignores word boundaries in front of
15347 a word. Similarly, if @var{value} ends with @code{.*}, word boundaries
15348 in the rear of a word will be ignored. For example, the @var{value}
15349 @code{"@@example\\.com"} does not match @samp{foo@@example.com} but
15350 @code{".*@@example\\.com"} does.
15353 You can set the @var{invert-partial} flag in your split rules of the
15354 @samp{(@var{field} @var{value} @dots{})} types, aforementioned in this
15355 section. If the flag is set, word boundaries on both sides of a word
15356 are ignored even if @code{nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words} is
15357 @code{nil}. Contrarily, if the flag is set, word boundaries are not
15358 ignored even if @code{nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words} is
15359 non-@code{nil}. (New in Gnus 5.10.7)
15362 @vindex nnmail-split-abbrev-alist
15363 @var{field} and @var{value} can also be Lisp symbols, in that case
15364 they are expanded as specified by the variable
15365 @code{nnmail-split-abbrev-alist}. This is an alist of cons cells,
15366 where the @sc{car} of a cell contains the key, and the @sc{cdr}
15367 contains the associated value. Predefined entries in
15368 @code{nnmail-split-abbrev-alist} include:
15372 Matches the @samp{From}, @samp{Sender} and @samp{Resent-From} fields.
15374 Matches the @samp{To}, @samp{Cc}, @samp{Apparently-To},
15375 @samp{Resent-To} and @samp{Resent-Cc} fields.
15377 Is the union of the @code{from} and @code{to} entries.
15380 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table
15381 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table} is the syntax table in effect
15382 when all this splitting is performed.
15384 If you want to have Gnus create groups dynamically based on some
15385 information in the headers (i.e., do @code{replace-match}-like
15386 substitutions in the group names), you can say things like:
15389 (any "debian-\\b\\(\\w+\\)@@lists.debian.org" "mail.debian.\\1")
15392 In this example, messages sent to @samp{debian-foo@@lists.debian.org}
15393 will be filed in @samp{mail.debian.foo}.
15395 If the string contains the element @samp{\\&}, then the previously
15396 matched string will be substituted. Similarly, the elements @samp{\\1}
15397 up to @samp{\\9} will be substituted with the text matched by the
15398 groupings 1 through 9.
15400 @vindex nnmail-split-lowercase-expanded
15401 Where @code{nnmail-split-lowercase-expanded} controls whether the
15402 lowercase of the matched string should be used for the substitution.
15403 Setting it as non-@code{nil} is useful to avoid the creation of multiple
15404 groups when users send to an address using different case
15405 (i.e., mailing-list@@domain vs Mailing-List@@Domain). The default value
15408 @findex nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent
15409 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} is a function which allows you to
15410 split followups into the same groups their parents are in. Sometimes
15411 you can't make splitting rules for all your mail. For example, your
15412 boss might send you personal mail regarding different projects you are
15413 working on, and as you can't tell your boss to put a distinguishing
15414 string into the subject line, you have to resort to manually moving the
15415 messages into the right group. With this function, you only have to do
15416 it once per thread.
15418 To use this feature, you have to set @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates}
15419 and @code{nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids} to a non-@code{nil}
15420 value. And then you can include @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent}
15421 using the colon feature, like so:
15423 (setq nnmail-treat-duplicates 'warn ; @r{or @code{delete}}
15424 nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids t
15426 '(| (: nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent)
15427 ;; @r{other splits go here}
15431 This feature works as follows: when @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} is
15432 non-@code{nil}, Gnus records the message id of every message it sees
15433 in the file specified by the variable
15434 @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}, together with the group it is in
15435 (the group is omitted for non-mail messages). When mail splitting is
15436 invoked, the function @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} then looks
15437 at the References (and In-Reply-To) header of each message to split
15438 and searches the file specified by @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}
15439 for the message ids. When it has found a parent, it returns the
15440 corresponding group name unless the group name matches the regexp
15441 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent-ignore-groups}. It is
15442 recommended that you set @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length} to a
15443 somewhat higher number than the default so that the message ids are
15444 still in the cache. (A value of 5000 appears to create a file some
15445 300 kBytes in size.)
15446 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
15447 When @code{nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus
15448 also records the message ids of moved articles, so that the followup
15449 messages goes into the new group.
15451 Also see the variable @code{nnmail-cache-ignore-groups} if you don't
15452 want certain groups to be recorded in the cache. For example, if all
15453 outgoing messages are written to an ``outgoing'' group, you could set
15454 @code{nnmail-cache-ignore-groups} to match that group name.
15455 Otherwise, answers to all your messages would end up in the
15456 ``outgoing'' group.
15459 @node Group Mail Splitting
15460 @subsection Group Mail Splitting
15461 @cindex mail splitting
15462 @cindex group mail splitting
15464 @findex gnus-group-split
15465 If you subscribe to dozens of mailing lists but you don't want to
15466 maintain mail splitting rules manually, group mail splitting is for you.
15467 You just have to set @code{to-list} and/or @code{to-address} in group
15468 parameters or group customization and set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to
15469 @code{gnus-group-split}. This splitting function will scan all groups
15470 for those parameters and split mail accordingly, i.e., messages posted
15471 from or to the addresses specified in the parameters @code{to-list} or
15472 @code{to-address} of a mail group will be stored in that group.
15474 Sometimes, mailing lists have multiple addresses, and you may want mail
15475 splitting to recognize them all: just set the @code{extra-aliases} group
15476 parameter to the list of additional addresses and it's done. If you'd
15477 rather use a regular expression, set @code{split-regexp}.
15479 All these parameters in a group will be used to create an
15480 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split, in which the @var{field} is @samp{any},
15481 the @var{value} is a single regular expression that matches
15482 @code{to-list}, @code{to-address}, all of @code{extra-aliases} and all
15483 matches of @code{split-regexp}, and the @var{split} is the name of the
15484 group. @var{restrict}s are also supported: just set the
15485 @code{split-exclude} parameter to a list of regular expressions.
15487 If you can't get the right split to be generated using all these
15488 parameters, or you just need something fancier, you can set the
15489 parameter @code{split-spec} to an @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split. In
15490 this case, all other aforementioned parameters will be ignored by
15491 @code{gnus-group-split}. In particular, @code{split-spec} may be set to
15492 @code{nil}, in which case the group will be ignored by
15493 @code{gnus-group-split}.
15495 @vindex gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group
15496 @code{gnus-group-split} will do cross-posting on all groups that match,
15497 by defining a single @code{&} fancy split containing one split for each
15498 group. If a message doesn't match any split, it will be stored in the
15499 group named in @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}, unless
15500 some group has @code{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all}, in which case
15501 that group is used as the catch-all group. Even though this variable is
15502 often used just to name a group, it may also be set to an arbitrarily
15503 complex fancy split (after all, a group name is a fancy split), and this
15504 may be useful to split mail that doesn't go to any mailing list to
15505 personal mail folders. Note that this fancy split is added as the last
15506 element of a @code{|} split list that also contains a @code{&} split
15507 with the rules extracted from group parameters.
15509 It's time for an example. Assume the following group parameters have
15514 ((to-address . "bar@@femail.com")
15515 (split-regexp . ".*@@femail\\.com"))
15517 ((to-list . "foo@@nowhere.gov")
15518 (extra-aliases "foo@@localhost" "foo-redist@@home")
15519 (split-exclude "bugs-foo" "rambling-foo")
15520 (admin-address . "foo-request@@nowhere.gov"))
15522 ((split-spec . catch-all))
15525 Setting @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{gnus-group-split} will
15526 behave as if @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been selected and variable
15527 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been set as follows:
15530 (| (& (any "\\(bar@@femail\\.com\\|.*@@femail\\.com\\)" "mail.bar")
15531 (any "\\(foo@@nowhere\\.gov\\|foo@@localhost\\|foo-redist@@home\\)"
15532 - "bugs-foo" - "rambling-foo" "mail.foo"))
15536 @findex gnus-group-split-fancy
15537 If you'd rather not use group splitting for all your mail groups, you
15538 may use it for only some of them, by using @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
15542 (: gnus-group-split-fancy @var{groups} @var{no-crosspost} @var{catch-all})
15545 @var{groups} may be a regular expression or a list of group names whose
15546 parameters will be scanned to generate the output split.
15547 @var{no-crosspost} can be used to disable cross-posting; in this case, a
15548 single @code{|} split will be output. @var{catch-all} is the fall back
15549 fancy split, used like @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}.
15550 If @var{catch-all} is @code{nil}, or if @code{split-regexp} matches the
15551 empty string in any selected group, no catch-all split will be issued.
15552 Otherwise, if some group has @code{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all},
15553 this group will override the value of the @var{catch-all} argument.
15555 @findex gnus-group-split-setup
15556 Unfortunately, scanning all groups and their parameters can be quite
15557 slow, especially considering that it has to be done for every message.
15558 But don't despair! The function @code{gnus-group-split-setup} can be
15559 used to enable @code{gnus-group-split} in a much more efficient way. It
15560 sets @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy} and sets
15561 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} to the split produced by
15562 @code{gnus-group-split-fancy}. Thus, the group parameters are only
15563 scanned once, no matter how many messages are split.
15565 @findex gnus-group-split-update
15566 However, if you change group parameters, you'd have to update
15567 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} manually. You can do it by running
15568 @code{gnus-group-split-update}. If you'd rather have it updated
15569 automatically, just tell @code{gnus-group-split-setup} to do it for
15570 you. For example, add to your @file{~/.gnus.el}:
15573 (gnus-group-split-setup @var{auto-update} @var{catch-all})
15576 If @var{auto-update} is non-@code{nil}, @code{gnus-group-split-update}
15577 will be added to @code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook}, so you won't ever
15578 have to worry about updating @code{nnmail-split-fancy} again. If you
15579 don't omit @var{catch-all} (it's optional, equivalent to @code{nil}),
15580 @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group} will be set to its
15583 @vindex gnus-group-split-updated-hook
15584 Because you may want to change @code{nnmail-split-fancy} after it is set
15585 by @code{gnus-group-split-update}, this function will run
15586 @code{gnus-group-split-updated-hook} just before finishing.
15588 @node Incorporating Old Mail
15589 @subsection Incorporating Old Mail
15590 @cindex incorporating old mail
15591 @cindex import old mail
15593 Most people have lots of old mail stored in various file formats. If
15594 you have set up Gnus to read mail using one of the spiffy Gnus mail
15595 back ends, you'll probably wish to have that old mail incorporated into
15598 Doing so can be quite easy.
15600 To take an example: You're reading mail using @code{nnml}
15601 (@pxref{Mail Spool}), and have set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to a
15602 satisfactory value (@pxref{Splitting Mail}). You have an old Unix mbox
15603 file filled with important, but old, mail. You want to move it into
15604 your @code{nnml} groups.
15610 Go to the group buffer.
15613 Type @kbd{G f} and give the file name to the mbox file when prompted to create an
15614 @code{nndoc} group from the mbox file (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
15617 Type @kbd{SPACE} to enter the newly created group.
15620 Type @kbd{M P b} to process-mark all articles in this group's buffer
15621 (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
15624 Type @kbd{B r} to respool all the process-marked articles, and answer
15625 @samp{nnml} when prompted (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
15628 All the mail messages in the mbox file will now also be spread out over
15629 all your @code{nnml} groups. Try entering them and check whether things
15630 have gone without a glitch. If things look ok, you may consider
15631 deleting the mbox file, but I wouldn't do that unless I was absolutely
15632 sure that all the mail has ended up where it should be.
15634 Respooling is also a handy thing to do if you're switching from one mail
15635 back end to another. Just respool all the mail in the old mail groups
15636 using the new mail back end.
15639 @node Expiring Mail
15640 @subsection Expiring Mail
15641 @cindex article expiry
15642 @cindex expiring mail
15644 Traditional mail readers have a tendency to remove mail articles when
15645 you mark them as read, in some way. Gnus takes a fundamentally
15646 different approach to mail reading.
15648 Gnus basically considers mail just to be news that has been received in
15649 a rather peculiar manner. It does not think that it has the power to
15650 actually change the mail, or delete any mail messages. If you enter a
15651 mail group, and mark articles as ``read'', or kill them in some other
15652 fashion, the mail articles will still exist on the system. I repeat:
15653 Gnus will not delete your old, read mail. Unless you ask it to, of
15656 To make Gnus get rid of your unwanted mail, you have to mark the
15657 articles as @dfn{expirable}. (With the default key bindings, this means
15658 that you have to type @kbd{E}.) This does not mean that the articles
15659 will disappear right away, however. In general, a mail article will be
15660 deleted from your system if, 1) it is marked as expirable, AND 2) it is
15661 more than one week old. If you do not mark an article as expirable, it
15662 will remain on your system until hell freezes over. This bears
15663 repeating one more time, with some spurious capitalizations: IF you do
15664 NOT mark articles as EXPIRABLE, Gnus will NEVER delete those ARTICLES.
15666 @vindex gnus-auto-expirable-marks
15667 You do not have to mark articles as expirable by hand. Gnus provides
15668 two features, called ``auto-expire'' and ``total-expire'', that can help you
15669 with this. In a nutshell, ``auto-expire'' means that Gnus hits @kbd{E}
15670 for you when you select an article. And ``total-expire'' means that Gnus
15671 considers all articles as expirable that are read. So, in addition to
15672 the articles marked @samp{E}, also the articles marked @samp{r},
15673 @samp{R}, @samp{O}, @samp{K}, @samp{Y} (and so on) are considered
15674 expirable. @code{gnus-auto-expirable-marks} has the full list of
15677 When should either auto-expire or total-expire be used? Most people
15678 who are subscribed to mailing lists split each list into its own group
15679 and then turn on auto-expire or total-expire for those groups.
15680 (@xref{Splitting Mail}, for more information on splitting each list
15681 into its own group.)
15683 Which one is better, auto-expire or total-expire? It's not easy to
15684 answer. Generally speaking, auto-expire is probably faster. Another
15685 advantage of auto-expire is that you get more marks to work with: for
15686 the articles that are supposed to stick around, you can still choose
15687 between tick and dormant and read marks. But with total-expire, you
15688 only have dormant and ticked to choose from. The advantage of
15689 total-expire is that it works well with adaptive scoring (@pxref{Adaptive
15690 Scoring}). Auto-expire works with normal scoring but not with adaptive
15693 @vindex gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
15694 Groups that match the regular expression
15695 @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups} will have all articles that you
15696 read marked as expirable automatically. All articles marked as
15697 expirable have an @samp{E} in the first column in the summary buffer.
15699 By default, if you have auto expiry switched on, Gnus will mark all the
15700 articles you read as expirable, no matter if they were read or unread
15701 before. To avoid having articles marked as read marked as expirable
15702 automatically, you can put something like the following in your
15703 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
15705 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
15707 (remove-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook
15708 'gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read)
15709 (add-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook 'gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read)
15712 Note that making a group auto-expirable doesn't mean that all read
15713 articles are expired---only the articles marked as expirable
15714 will be expired. Also note that using the @kbd{d} command won't make
15715 articles expirable---only semi-automatic marking of articles as read will
15716 mark the articles as expirable in auto-expirable groups.
15718 Let's say you subscribe to a couple of mailing lists, and you want the
15719 articles you have read to disappear after a while:
15722 (setq gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
15723 "mail.nonsense-list\\|mail.nice-list")
15726 Another way to have auto-expiry happen is to have the element
15727 @code{auto-expire} in the group parameters of the group.
15729 If you use adaptive scoring (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}) and
15730 auto-expiring, you'll have problems. Auto-expiring and adaptive scoring
15731 don't really mix very well.
15733 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait
15734 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable supplies the default time an
15735 expirable article has to live. Gnus starts counting days from when the
15736 message @emph{arrived}, not from when it was sent. The default is seven
15739 Gnus also supplies a function that lets you fine-tune how long articles
15740 are to live, based on what group they are in. Let's say you want to
15741 have one month expiry period in the @samp{mail.private} group, a one day
15742 expiry period in the @samp{mail.junk} group, and a six day expiry period
15745 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
15747 (setq nnmail-expiry-wait-function
15749 (cond ((string= group "mail.private")
15751 ((string= group "mail.junk")
15753 ((string= group "important")
15759 The group names this function is fed are ``unadorned'' group
15760 names---no @samp{nnml:} prefixes and the like.
15762 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable and
15763 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} function can either be a number (not
15764 necessarily an integer) or one of the symbols @code{immediate} or
15767 You can also use the @code{expiry-wait} group parameter to selectively
15768 change the expiry period (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
15770 @vindex nnmail-expiry-target
15771 The normal action taken when expiring articles is to delete them.
15772 However, in some circumstances it might make more sense to move them
15773 to other groups instead of deleting them. The variable
15774 @code{nnmail-expiry-target} (and the @code{expiry-target} group
15775 parameter) controls this. The variable supplies a default value for
15776 all groups, which can be overridden for specific groups by the group
15777 parameter. default value is @code{delete}, but this can also be a
15778 string (which should be the name of the group the message should be
15779 moved to), or a function (which will be called in a buffer narrowed to
15780 the message in question, and with the name of the group being moved
15781 from as its parameter) which should return a target---either a group
15782 name or @code{delete}.
15784 Here's an example for specifying a group name:
15786 (setq nnmail-expiry-target "nnml:expired")
15789 @findex nnmail-fancy-expiry-target
15790 @vindex nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets
15791 Gnus provides a function @code{nnmail-fancy-expiry-target} which will
15792 expire mail to groups according to the variable
15793 @code{nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets}. Here's an example:
15796 (setq nnmail-expiry-target 'nnmail-fancy-expiry-target
15797 nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets
15798 '((to-from "boss" "nnfolder:Work")
15799 ("subject" "IMPORTANT" "nnfolder:IMPORTANT.%Y.%b")
15800 ("from" ".*" "nnfolder:Archive-%Y")))
15803 With this setup, any mail that has @code{IMPORTANT} in its Subject
15804 header and was sent in the year @code{YYYY} and month @code{MMM}, will
15805 get expired to the group @code{nnfolder:IMPORTANT.YYYY.MMM}. If its
15806 From or To header contains the string @code{boss}, it will get expired
15807 to @code{nnfolder:Work}. All other mail will get expired to
15808 @code{nnfolder:Archive-YYYY}.
15810 @vindex nnmail-keep-last-article
15811 If @code{nnmail-keep-last-article} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will never
15812 expire the final article in a mail newsgroup. This is to make life
15813 easier for procmail users.
15815 @vindex gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups
15816 By the way: That line up there, about Gnus never expiring non-expirable
15817 articles, is a lie. If you put @code{total-expire} in the group
15818 parameters, articles will not be marked as expirable, but all read
15819 articles will be put through the expiry process. Use with extreme
15820 caution. Even more dangerous is the
15821 @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups} variable. All groups that match
15822 this regexp will have all read articles put through the expiry process,
15823 which means that @emph{all} old mail articles in the groups in question
15824 will be deleted after a while. Use with extreme caution, and don't come
15825 crying to me when you discover that the regexp you used matched the
15826 wrong group and all your important mail has disappeared. Be a
15827 @emph{man}! Or a @emph{woman}! Whatever you feel more comfortable
15830 Most people make most of their mail groups total-expirable, though.
15832 @vindex gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire
15833 If @code{gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire} is non-@code{nil}, user marking
15834 commands will not mark an article as expirable, even if the group has
15835 auto-expire turned on.
15837 @vindex gnus-mark-copied-or-moved-articles-as-expirable
15838 The expirable marks of articles will be removed when copying or moving
15839 them to a group in which auto-expire is not turned on. This is for
15840 preventing articles from being expired unintentionally. On the other
15841 hand, to a group that has turned auto-expire on, the expirable marks of
15842 articles that are copied or moved will not be changed by default. I.e.,
15843 when copying or moving to such a group, articles that were expirable
15844 will be left expirable and ones that were not expirable will not be
15845 marked as expirable. So, even though in auto-expire groups, some
15846 articles will never get expired (unless you read them again). If you
15847 don't side with that behavior that unexpirable articles may be mixed
15848 into auto-expire groups, you can set
15849 @code{gnus-mark-copied-or-moved-articles-as-expirable} to a
15850 non-@code{nil} value. In that case, articles that have been read will
15851 be marked as expirable automatically when being copied or moved to a
15852 group that has auto-expire turned on. The default value is @code{nil}.
15856 @subsection Washing Mail
15857 @cindex mail washing
15858 @cindex list server brain damage
15859 @cindex incoming mail treatment
15861 Mailers and list servers are notorious for doing all sorts of really,
15862 really stupid things with mail. ``Hey, RFC 822 doesn't explicitly
15863 prohibit us from adding the string @code{wE aRe ElItE!!!!!1!!} to the
15864 end of all lines passing through our server, so let's do that!!!!1!''
15865 Yes, but RFC 822 wasn't designed to be read by morons. Things that were
15866 considered to be self-evident were not discussed. So. Here we are.
15868 Case in point: The German version of Microsoft Exchange adds @samp{AW:
15869 } to the subjects of replies instead of @samp{Re: }. I could pretend to
15870 be shocked and dismayed by this, but I haven't got the energy. It is to
15873 Gnus provides a plethora of functions for washing articles while
15874 displaying them, but it might be nicer to do the filtering before
15875 storing the mail to disk. For that purpose, we have three hooks and
15876 various functions that can be put in these hooks.
15879 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
15880 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
15881 This hook is called before doing anything with the mail and is meant for
15882 grand, sweeping gestures. It is called in a buffer that contains all
15883 the new, incoming mail. Functions to be used include:
15886 @item nnheader-ms-strip-cr
15887 @findex nnheader-ms-strip-cr
15888 Remove trailing carriage returns from each line. This is default on
15889 Emacs running on MS machines.
15893 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
15894 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
15895 This hook is called narrowed to each header. It can be used when
15896 cleaning up the headers. Functions that can be used include:
15899 @item nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
15900 @findex nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
15901 Clear leading white space that ``helpful'' listservs have added to the
15902 headers to make them look nice. Aaah.
15904 (Note that this function works on both the header on the body of all
15905 messages, so it is a potentially dangerous function to use (if a body
15906 of a message contains something that looks like a header line). So
15907 rather than fix the bug, it is of course the right solution to make it
15908 into a feature by documenting it.)
15910 @item nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
15911 @findex nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
15912 Some list servers add an identifier---for example, @samp{(idm)}---to the
15913 beginning of all @code{Subject} headers. I'm sure that's nice for
15914 people who use stone age mail readers. This function will remove
15915 strings that match the @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} regexp, which can
15916 also be a list of regexp. @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} may not contain
15919 For instance, if you want to remove the @samp{(idm)} and the
15920 @samp{nagnagnag} identifiers:
15923 (setq nnmail-list-identifiers
15924 '("(idm)" "nagnagnag"))
15927 This can also be done non-destructively with
15928 @code{gnus-list-identifiers}, @xref{Article Hiding}.
15930 @item nnmail-remove-tabs
15931 @findex nnmail-remove-tabs
15932 Translate all @samp{TAB} characters into @samp{SPACE} characters.
15934 @item nnmail-ignore-broken-references
15935 @findex nnmail-ignore-broken-references
15936 @c @findex nnmail-fix-eudora-headers
15939 Some mail user agents (e.g., Eudora and Pegasus) produce broken
15940 @code{References} headers, but correct @code{In-Reply-To} headers. This
15941 function will get rid of the @code{References} header if the headers
15942 contain a line matching the regular expression
15943 @code{nnmail-broken-references-mailers}.
15947 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
15948 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
15949 This hook is called narrowed to each message. Functions to be used
15953 @item article-de-quoted-unreadable
15954 @findex article-de-quoted-unreadable
15955 Decode Quoted Readable encoding.
15962 @subsection Duplicates
15964 @vindex nnmail-treat-duplicates
15965 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-length
15966 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-file
15967 @cindex duplicate mails
15968 If you are a member of a couple of mailing lists, you will sometimes
15969 receive two copies of the same mail. This can be quite annoying, so
15970 @code{nnmail} checks for and treats any duplicates it might find. To do
15971 this, it keeps a cache of old @code{Message-ID}s:
15972 @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}, which is @file{~/.nnmail-cache} by
15973 default. The approximate maximum number of @code{Message-ID}s stored
15974 there is controlled by the @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length}
15975 variable, which is 1000 by default. (So 1000 @code{Message-ID}s will be
15976 stored.) If all this sounds scary to you, you can set
15977 @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} to @code{warn} (which is what it is by
15978 default), and @code{nnmail} won't delete duplicate mails. Instead it
15979 will insert a warning into the head of the mail saying that it thinks
15980 that this is a duplicate of a different message.
15982 This variable can also be a function. If that's the case, the function
15983 will be called from a buffer narrowed to the message in question with
15984 the @code{Message-ID} as a parameter. The function must return either
15985 @code{nil}, @code{warn}, or @code{delete}.
15987 You can turn this feature off completely by setting the variable to
15990 If you want all the duplicate mails to be put into a special
15991 @dfn{duplicates} group, you could do that using the normal mail split
15995 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
15996 '(| ;; @r{Messages duplicates go to a separate group.}
15997 ("gnus-warning" "duplicat\\(e\\|ion\\) of message" "duplicate")
15998 ;; @r{Message from daemons, postmaster, and the like to another.}
15999 (any mail "mail.misc")
16000 ;; @r{Other rules.}
16006 (setq nnmail-split-methods
16007 '(("duplicates" "^Gnus-Warning:.*duplicate")
16008 ;; @r{Other rules.}
16012 Here's a neat feature: If you know that the recipient reads her mail
16013 with Gnus, and that she has @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} set to
16014 @code{delete}, you can send her as many insults as you like, just by
16015 using a @code{Message-ID} of a mail that you know that she's already
16016 received. Think of all the fun! She'll never see any of it! Whee!
16019 @node Not Reading Mail
16020 @subsection Not Reading Mail
16022 If you start using any of the mail back ends, they have the annoying
16023 habit of assuming that you want to read mail with them. This might not
16024 be unreasonable, but it might not be what you want.
16026 If you set @code{mail-sources} and @code{nnmail-spool-file} to
16027 @code{nil}, none of the back ends will ever attempt to read incoming
16028 mail, which should help.
16030 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
16031 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
16032 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
16033 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
16034 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
16035 This might be too much, if, for instance, you are reading mail quite
16036 happily with @code{nnml} and just want to peek at some old (pre-Emacs
16037 23) Rmail file you have stashed away with @code{nnbabyl}. All back ends have
16038 variables called back-end-@code{get-new-mail}. If you want to disable
16039 the @code{nnbabyl} mail reading, you edit the virtual server for the
16040 group to have a setting where @code{nnbabyl-get-new-mail} to @code{nil}.
16042 All the mail back ends will call @code{nn}*@code{-prepare-save-mail-hook}
16043 narrowed to the article to be saved before saving it when reading
16047 @node Choosing a Mail Back End
16048 @subsection Choosing a Mail Back End
16050 Gnus will read the mail spool when you activate a mail group. The mail
16051 file is first copied to your home directory. What happens after that
16052 depends on what format you want to store your mail in.
16054 There are six different mail back ends in the standard Gnus, and more
16055 back ends are available separately. The mail back end most people use
16056 (because it is possibly the fastest) is @code{nnml} (@pxref{Mail
16060 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
16061 * Babyl:: Babyl was used by older versions of Rmail.
16062 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
16063 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like back end.
16064 * Maildir:: Another one-file-per-message format.
16065 * nnmaildir Group Parameters::
16066 * Article Identification::
16069 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
16070 * Comparing Mail Back Ends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
16075 @node Unix Mail Box
16076 @subsubsection Unix Mail Box
16078 @cindex unix mail box
16080 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
16081 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
16082 The @dfn{nnmbox} back end will use the standard Un*x mbox file to store
16083 mail. @code{nnmbox} will add extra headers to each mail article to say
16084 which group it belongs in.
16086 Virtual server settings:
16089 @item nnmbox-mbox-file
16090 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
16091 The name of the mail box in the user's home directory. Default is
16094 @item nnmbox-active-file
16095 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
16096 The name of the active file for the mail box. Default is
16097 @file{~/.mbox-active}.
16099 @item nnmbox-get-new-mail
16100 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
16101 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmbox} will read incoming mail and split it
16102 into groups. Default is @code{t}.
16107 @subsubsection Babyl
16110 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
16111 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
16112 The @dfn{nnbabyl} back end will use a Babyl mail box to store mail.
16113 @code{nnbabyl} will add extra headers to each mail article to say which
16114 group it belongs in.
16116 Virtual server settings:
16119 @item nnbabyl-mbox-file
16120 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
16121 The name of the Babyl file. The default is @file{~/RMAIL}
16123 @item nnbabyl-active-file
16124 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
16125 The name of the active file for the Babyl file. The default is
16126 @file{~/.rmail-active}
16128 @item nnbabyl-get-new-mail
16129 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
16130 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnbabyl} will read incoming mail. Default is
16136 @subsubsection Mail Spool
16138 @cindex mail @acronym{NOV} spool
16140 The @dfn{nnml} spool mail format isn't compatible with any other known
16141 format. It should be used with some caution.
16143 @vindex nnml-directory
16144 If you use this back end, Gnus will split all incoming mail into files,
16145 one file for each mail, and put the articles into the corresponding
16146 directories under the directory specified by the @code{nnml-directory}
16147 variable. The default value is @file{~/Mail/}.
16149 You do not have to create any directories beforehand; Gnus will take
16152 If you have a strict limit as to how many files you are allowed to store
16153 in your account, you should not use this back end. As each mail gets its
16154 own file, you might very well occupy thousands of inodes within a few
16155 weeks. If this is no problem for you, and it isn't a problem for you
16156 having your friendly systems administrator walking around, madly,
16157 shouting ``Who is eating all my inodes?! Who? Who!?!'', then you should
16158 know that this is probably the fastest format to use. You do not have
16159 to trudge through a big mbox file just to read your new mail.
16161 @code{nnml} is probably the slowest back end when it comes to article
16162 splitting. It has to create lots of files, and it also generates
16163 @acronym{NOV} databases for the incoming mails. This makes it possibly the
16164 fastest back end when it comes to reading mail.
16166 Virtual server settings:
16169 @item nnml-directory
16170 @vindex nnml-directory
16171 All @code{nnml} directories will be placed under this directory. The
16172 default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default value
16175 @item nnml-active-file
16176 @vindex nnml-active-file
16177 The active file for the @code{nnml} server. The default is
16178 @file{~/Mail/active}.
16180 @item nnml-newsgroups-file
16181 @vindex nnml-newsgroups-file
16182 The @code{nnml} group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
16183 Format}. The default is @file{~/Mail/newsgroups}.
16185 @item nnml-get-new-mail
16186 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
16187 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will read incoming mail. The default is
16190 @item nnml-nov-is-evil
16191 @vindex nnml-nov-is-evil
16192 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @acronym{NOV} files. The
16193 default is @code{nil}.
16195 @item nnml-nov-file-name
16196 @vindex nnml-nov-file-name
16197 The name of the @acronym{NOV} files. The default is @file{.overview}.
16199 @item nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
16200 @vindex nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
16201 Hook run narrowed to an article before saving.
16203 @item nnml-use-compressed-files
16204 @vindex nnml-use-compressed-files
16205 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will allow using compressed message
16206 files. This requires @code{auto-compression-mode} to be enabled
16207 (@pxref{Compressed Files, ,Compressed Files, emacs, The Emacs Manual}).
16208 If the value of @code{nnml-use-compressed-files} is a string, it is used
16209 as the file extension specifying the compression program. You can set it
16210 to @samp{.bz2} if your Emacs supports it. A value of @code{t} is
16211 equivalent to @samp{.gz}.
16213 @item nnml-compressed-files-size-threshold
16214 @vindex nnml-compressed-files-size-threshold
16215 Default size threshold for compressed message files. Message files with
16216 bodies larger than that many characters will be automatically compressed
16217 if @code{nnml-use-compressed-files} is non-@code{nil}.
16221 @findex nnml-generate-nov-databases
16222 If your @code{nnml} groups and @acronym{NOV} files get totally out of
16223 whack, you can do a complete update by typing @kbd{M-x
16224 nnml-generate-nov-databases}. This command will trawl through the
16225 entire @code{nnml} hierarchy, looking at each and every article, so it
16226 might take a while to complete. A better interface to this
16227 functionality can be found in the server buffer (@pxref{Server
16232 @subsubsection MH Spool
16234 @cindex mh-e mail spool
16236 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, except that is doesn't generate
16237 @acronym{NOV} databases and it doesn't keep an active file or marks
16238 file. This makes @code{nnmh} a @emph{much} slower back end than
16239 @code{nnml}, but it also makes it easier to write procmail scripts
16242 Virtual server settings:
16245 @item nnmh-directory
16246 @vindex nnmh-directory
16247 All @code{nnmh} directories will be located under this directory. The
16248 default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default is
16251 @item nnmh-get-new-mail
16252 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
16253 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will read incoming mail. The default is
16257 @vindex nnmh-be-safe
16258 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will go to ridiculous lengths to make
16259 sure that the articles in the folder are actually what Gnus thinks
16260 they are. It will check date stamps and stat everything in sight, so
16261 setting this to @code{t} will mean a serious slow-down. If you never
16262 use anything but Gnus to read the @code{nnmh} articles, you do not
16263 have to set this variable to @code{t}. The default is @code{nil}.
16268 @subsubsection Maildir
16272 @code{nnmaildir} stores mail in the maildir format, with each maildir
16273 corresponding to a group in Gnus. This format is documented here:
16274 @uref{http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html} and here:
16275 @uref{http://www.qmail.org/man/man5/maildir.html}. @code{nnmaildir}
16276 also stores extra information in the @file{.nnmaildir/} directory
16279 Maildir format was designed to allow concurrent deliveries and
16280 reading, without needing locks. With other back ends, you would have
16281 your mail delivered to a spool of some kind, and then you would
16282 configure Gnus to split mail from that spool into your groups. You
16283 can still do that with @code{nnmaildir}, but the more common
16284 configuration is to have your mail delivered directly to the maildirs
16285 that appear as group in Gnus.
16287 @code{nnmaildir} is designed to be perfectly reliable: @kbd{C-g} will
16288 never corrupt its data in memory, and @code{SIGKILL} will never
16289 corrupt its data in the filesystem.
16291 @code{nnmaildir} stores article marks and @acronym{NOV} data in each
16292 maildir. So you can copy a whole maildir from one Gnus setup to
16293 another, and you will keep your marks.
16295 Virtual server settings:
16299 For each of your @code{nnmaildir} servers (it's very unlikely that
16300 you'd need more than one), you need to create a directory and populate
16301 it with maildirs or symlinks to maildirs (and nothing else; do not
16302 choose a directory already used for other purposes). Each maildir
16303 will be represented in Gnus as a newsgroup on that server; the
16304 filename of the symlink will be the name of the group. Any filenames
16305 in the directory starting with @samp{.} are ignored. The directory is
16306 scanned when you first start Gnus, and each time you type @kbd{g} in
16307 the group buffer; if any maildirs have been removed or added,
16308 @code{nnmaildir} notices at these times.
16310 The value of the @code{directory} parameter should be a Lisp form
16311 which is processed by @code{eval} and @code{expand-file-name} to get
16312 the path of the directory for this server. The form is @code{eval}ed
16313 only when the server is opened; the resulting string is used until the
16314 server is closed. (If you don't know about forms and @code{eval},
16315 don't worry---a simple string will work.) This parameter is not
16316 optional; you must specify it. I don't recommend using
16317 @code{"~/Mail"} or a subdirectory of it; several other parts of Gnus
16318 use that directory by default for various things, and may get confused
16319 if @code{nnmaildir} uses it too. @code{"~/.nnmaildir"} is a typical
16322 @item target-prefix
16323 This should be a Lisp form which is processed by @code{eval} and
16324 @code{expand-file-name}. The form is @code{eval}ed only when the
16325 server is opened; the resulting string is used until the server is
16328 When you create a group on an @code{nnmaildir} server, the maildir is
16329 created with @code{target-prefix} prepended to its name, and a symlink
16330 pointing to that maildir is created, named with the plain group name.
16331 So if @code{directory} is @code{"~/.nnmaildir"} and
16332 @code{target-prefix} is @code{"../maildirs/"}, then when you create
16333 the group @code{foo}, @code{nnmaildir} will create
16334 @file{~/.nnmaildir/../maildirs/foo} as a maildir, and will create
16335 @file{~/.nnmaildir/foo} as a symlink pointing to
16336 @file{../maildirs/foo}.
16338 You can set @code{target-prefix} to a string without any slashes to
16339 create both maildirs and symlinks in the same @code{directory}; in
16340 this case, any maildirs found in @code{directory} whose names start
16341 with @code{target-prefix} will not be listed as groups (but the
16342 symlinks pointing to them will be).
16344 As a special case, if @code{target-prefix} is @code{""} (the default),
16345 then when you create a group, the maildir will be created in
16346 @code{directory} without a corresponding symlink. Beware that you
16347 cannot use @code{gnus-group-delete-group} on such groups without the
16348 @code{force} argument.
16350 @item directory-files
16351 This should be a function with the same interface as
16352 @code{directory-files} (such as @code{directory-files} itself). It is
16353 used to scan the server's @code{directory} for maildirs. This
16354 parameter is optional; the default is
16355 @code{nnheader-directory-files-safe} if
16356 @code{nnheader-directory-files-is-safe} is @code{nil}, and
16357 @code{directory-files} otherwise.
16358 (@code{nnheader-directory-files-is-safe} is checked only once when the
16359 server is opened; if you want to check it each time the directory is
16360 scanned, you'll have to provide your own function that does that.)
16363 If non-@code{nil}, then after scanning for new mail in the group
16364 maildirs themselves as usual, this server will also incorporate mail
16365 the conventional Gnus way, from @code{mail-sources} according to
16366 @code{nnmail-split-methods} or @code{nnmail-split-fancy}. The default
16367 value is @code{nil}.
16369 Do @emph{not} use the same maildir both in @code{mail-sources} and as
16370 an @code{nnmaildir} group. The results might happen to be useful, but
16371 that would be by chance, not by design, and the results might be
16372 different in the future. If your split rules create new groups,
16373 remember to supply a @code{create-directory} server parameter.
16376 @node nnmaildir Group Parameters
16377 @subsubsection Group parameters
16379 @code{nnmaildir} uses several group parameters. It's safe to ignore
16380 all this; the default behavior for @code{nnmaildir} is the same as the
16381 default behavior for other mail back ends: articles are deleted after
16382 one week, etc. Except for the expiry parameters, all this
16383 functionality is unique to @code{nnmaildir}, so you can ignore it if
16384 you're just trying to duplicate the behavior you already have with
16387 If the value of any of these parameters is a vector, the first element
16388 is evaluated as a Lisp form and the result is used, rather than the
16389 original value. If the value is not a vector, the value itself is
16390 evaluated as a Lisp form. (This is why these parameters use names
16391 different from those of other, similar parameters supported by other
16392 back ends: they have different, though similar, meanings.) (For
16393 numbers, strings, @code{nil}, and @code{t}, you can ignore the
16394 @code{eval} business again; for other values, remember to use an extra
16395 quote and wrap the value in a vector when appropriate.)
16399 An integer specifying the minimum age, in seconds, of an article
16400 before it will be expired, or the symbol @code{never} to specify that
16401 articles should never be expired. If this parameter is not set,
16402 @code{nnmaildir} falls back to the usual
16403 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait}(@code{-function}) variables (the
16404 @code{expiry-wait} group parameter overrides @code{nnmail-expiry-wait}
16405 and makes @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} ineffective). If you
16406 wanted a value of 3 days, you could use something like @code{[(* 3 24
16407 60 60)]}; @code{nnmaildir} will evaluate the form and use the result.
16408 An article's age is measured starting from the article file's
16409 modification time. Normally, this is the same as the article's
16410 delivery time, but editing an article makes it younger. Moving an
16411 article (other than via expiry) may also make an article younger.
16414 If this is set to a string such as a full Gnus group name, like
16416 "backend+server.address.string:group.name"
16418 and if it is not the name of the same group that the parameter belongs
16419 to, then articles will be moved to the specified group during expiry
16420 before being deleted. @emph{If this is set to an @code{nnmaildir}
16421 group, the article will be just as old in the destination group as it
16422 was in the source group.} So be careful with @code{expire-age} in the
16423 destination group. If this is set to the name of the same group that
16424 the parameter belongs to, then the article is not expired at all. If
16425 you use the vector form, the first element is evaluated once for each
16426 article. So that form can refer to
16427 @code{nnmaildir-article-file-name}, etc., to decide where to put the
16428 article. @emph{Even if this parameter is not set, @code{nnmaildir}
16429 does not fall back to the @code{expiry-target} group parameter or the
16430 @code{nnmail-expiry-target} variable.}
16433 If this is set to @code{t}, @code{nnmaildir} will treat the articles
16434 in this maildir as read-only. This means: articles are not renamed
16435 from @file{new/} into @file{cur/}; articles are only found in
16436 @file{new/}, not @file{cur/}; articles are never deleted; articles
16437 cannot be edited. @file{new/} is expected to be a symlink to the
16438 @file{new/} directory of another maildir---e.g., a system-wide mailbox
16439 containing a mailing list of common interest. Everything in the
16440 maildir outside @file{new/} is @emph{not} treated as read-only, so for
16441 a shared mailbox, you do still need to set up your own maildir (or
16442 have write permission to the shared mailbox); your maildir just won't
16443 contain extra copies of the articles.
16445 @item directory-files
16446 A function with the same interface as @code{directory-files}. It is
16447 used to scan the directories in the maildir corresponding to this
16448 group to find articles. The default is the function specified by the
16449 server's @code{directory-files} parameter.
16451 @item distrust-Lines:
16452 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmaildir} will always count the lines of an
16453 article, rather than use the @code{Lines:} header field. If
16454 @code{nil}, the header field will be used if present.
16457 A list of mark symbols, such as @code{['(read expire)]}. Whenever
16458 Gnus asks @code{nnmaildir} for article marks, @code{nnmaildir} will
16459 say that all articles have these marks, regardless of whether the
16460 marks stored in the filesystem say so. This is a proof-of-concept
16461 feature that will probably be removed eventually; it ought to be done
16462 in Gnus proper, or abandoned if it's not worthwhile.
16465 A list of mark symbols, such as @code{['(tick expire)]}. Whenever
16466 Gnus asks @code{nnmaildir} for article marks, @code{nnmaildir} will
16467 say that no articles have these marks, regardless of whether the marks
16468 stored in the filesystem say so. @code{never-marks} overrides
16469 @code{always-marks}. This is a proof-of-concept feature that will
16470 probably be removed eventually; it ought to be done in Gnus proper, or
16471 abandoned if it's not worthwhile.
16473 @item nov-cache-size
16474 An integer specifying the size of the @acronym{NOV} memory cache. To
16475 speed things up, @code{nnmaildir} keeps @acronym{NOV} data in memory
16476 for a limited number of articles in each group. (This is probably not
16477 worthwhile, and will probably be removed in the future.) This
16478 parameter's value is noticed only the first time a group is seen after
16479 the server is opened---i.e., when you first start Gnus, typically.
16480 The @acronym{NOV} cache is never resized until the server is closed
16481 and reopened. The default is an estimate of the number of articles
16482 that would be displayed in the summary buffer: a count of articles
16483 that are either marked with @code{tick} or not marked with
16484 @code{read}, plus a little extra.
16487 @node Article Identification
16488 @subsubsection Article identification
16489 Articles are stored in the @file{cur/} subdirectory of each maildir.
16490 Each article file is named like @code{uniq:info}, where @code{uniq}
16491 contains no colons. @code{nnmaildir} ignores, but preserves, the
16492 @code{:info} part. (Other maildir readers typically use this part of
16493 the filename to store marks.) The @code{uniq} part uniquely
16494 identifies the article, and is used in various places in the
16495 @file{.nnmaildir/} subdirectory of the maildir to store information
16496 about the corresponding article. The full pathname of an article is
16497 available in the variable @code{nnmaildir-article-file-name} after you
16498 request the article in the summary buffer.
16501 @subsubsection NOV data
16502 An article identified by @code{uniq} has its @acronym{NOV} data (used
16503 to generate lines in the summary buffer) stored in
16504 @code{.nnmaildir/nov/uniq}. There is no
16505 @code{nnmaildir-generate-nov-databases} function. (There isn't much
16506 need for it---an article's @acronym{NOV} data is updated automatically
16507 when the article or @code{nnmail-extra-headers} has changed.) You can
16508 force @code{nnmaildir} to regenerate the @acronym{NOV} data for a
16509 single article simply by deleting the corresponding @acronym{NOV}
16510 file, but @emph{beware}: this will also cause @code{nnmaildir} to
16511 assign a new article number for this article, which may cause trouble
16512 with @code{seen} marks, the Agent, and the cache.
16514 @node Article Marks
16515 @subsubsection Article marks
16516 An article identified by @code{uniq} is considered to have the mark
16517 @code{flag} when the file @file{.nnmaildir/marks/flag/uniq} exists.
16518 When Gnus asks @code{nnmaildir} for a group's marks, @code{nnmaildir}
16519 looks for such files and reports the set of marks it finds. When Gnus
16520 asks @code{nnmaildir} to store a new set of marks, @code{nnmaildir}
16521 creates and deletes the corresponding files as needed. (Actually,
16522 rather than create a new file for each mark, it just creates hard
16523 links to @file{.nnmaildir/markfile}, to save inodes.)
16525 You can invent new marks by creating a new directory in
16526 @file{.nnmaildir/marks/}. You can tar up a maildir and remove it from
16527 your server, untar it later, and keep your marks. You can add and
16528 remove marks yourself by creating and deleting mark files. If you do
16529 this while Gnus is running and your @code{nnmaildir} server is open,
16530 it's best to exit all summary buffers for @code{nnmaildir} groups and
16531 type @kbd{s} in the group buffer first, and to type @kbd{g} or
16532 @kbd{M-g} in the group buffer afterwards. Otherwise, Gnus might not
16533 pick up the changes, and might undo them.
16537 @subsubsection Mail Folders
16539 @cindex mbox folders
16540 @cindex mail folders
16542 @code{nnfolder} is a back end for storing each mail group in a
16543 separate file. Each file is in the standard Un*x mbox format.
16544 @code{nnfolder} will add extra headers to keep track of article
16545 numbers and arrival dates.
16547 Virtual server settings:
16550 @item nnfolder-directory
16551 @vindex nnfolder-directory
16552 All the @code{nnfolder} mail boxes will be stored under this
16553 directory. The default is the value of @code{message-directory}
16554 (whose default is @file{~/Mail})
16556 @item nnfolder-active-file
16557 @vindex nnfolder-active-file
16558 The name of the active file. The default is @file{~/Mail/active}.
16560 @item nnfolder-newsgroups-file
16561 @vindex nnfolder-newsgroups-file
16562 The name of the group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
16563 Format}. The default is @file{~/Mail/newsgroups}
16565 @item nnfolder-get-new-mail
16566 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
16567 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnfolder} will read incoming mail. The
16568 default is @code{t}
16570 @item nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
16571 @vindex nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
16572 @cindex backup files
16573 Hook run before saving the folders. Note that Emacs does the normal
16574 backup renaming of files even with the @code{nnfolder} buffers. If
16575 you wish to switch this off, you could say something like the
16576 following in your @file{.emacs} file:
16579 (defun turn-off-backup ()
16580 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
16582 (add-hook 'nnfolder-save-buffer-hook 'turn-off-backup)
16585 @item nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
16586 @vindex nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
16587 Hook run in a buffer narrowed to the message that is to be deleted.
16588 This function can be used to copy the message to somewhere else, or to
16589 extract some information from it before removing it.
16591 @item nnfolder-nov-is-evil
16592 @vindex nnfolder-nov-is-evil
16593 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @acronym{NOV} files. The
16594 default is @code{nil}.
16596 @item nnfolder-nov-file-suffix
16597 @vindex nnfolder-nov-file-suffix
16598 The extension for @acronym{NOV} files. The default is @file{.nov}.
16600 @item nnfolder-nov-directory
16601 @vindex nnfolder-nov-directory
16602 The directory where the @acronym{NOV} files should be stored. If
16603 @code{nil}, @code{nnfolder-directory} is used.
16608 @findex nnfolder-generate-active-file
16609 @kindex M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file
16610 If you have lots of @code{nnfolder}-like files you'd like to read with
16611 @code{nnfolder}, you can use the @kbd{M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file}
16612 command to make @code{nnfolder} aware of all likely files in
16613 @code{nnfolder-directory}. This only works if you use long file names,
16616 @node Comparing Mail Back Ends
16617 @subsubsection Comparing Mail Back Ends
16619 First, just for terminology, the @dfn{back end} is the common word for a
16620 low-level access method---a transport, if you will, by which something
16621 is acquired. The sense is that one's mail has to come from somewhere,
16622 and so selection of a suitable back end is required in order to get that
16623 mail within spitting distance of Gnus.
16625 The same concept exists for Usenet itself: Though access to articles is
16626 typically done by @acronym{NNTP} these days, once upon a midnight dreary, everyone
16627 in the world got at Usenet by running a reader on the machine where the
16628 articles lay (the machine which today we call an @acronym{NNTP} server), and
16629 access was by the reader stepping into the articles' directory spool
16630 area directly. One can still select between either the @code{nntp} or
16631 @code{nnspool} back ends, to select between these methods, if one happens
16632 actually to live on the server (or can see its spool directly, anyway,
16635 The goal in selecting a mail back end is to pick one which
16636 simultaneously represents a suitable way of dealing with the original
16637 format plus leaving mail in a form that is convenient to use in the
16638 future. Here are some high and low points on each:
16643 UNIX systems have historically had a single, very common, and well-defined
16644 format. All messages arrive in a single @dfn{spool file}, and
16645 they are delineated by a line whose regular expression matches
16646 @samp{^From_}. (My notational use of @samp{_} is to indicate a space,
16647 to make it clear in this instance that this is not the RFC-specified
16648 @samp{From:} header.) Because Emacs and therefore Gnus emanate
16649 historically from the Unix environment, it is simplest if one does not
16650 mess a great deal with the original mailbox format, so if one chooses
16651 this back end, Gnus' primary activity in getting mail from the real spool
16652 area to Gnus' preferred directory is simply to copy it, with no
16653 (appreciable) format change in the process. It is the ``dumbest'' way
16654 to move mail into availability in the Gnus environment. This makes it
16655 fast to move into place, but slow to parse, when Gnus has to look at
16660 Once upon a time, there was the DEC-10 and DEC-20, running operating
16661 systems called TOPS and related things, and the usual (only?) mail
16662 reading environment was a thing called Babyl. I don't know what format
16663 was used for mail landing on the system, but Babyl had its own internal
16664 format to which mail was converted, primarily involving creating a
16665 spool-file-like entity with a scheme for inserting Babyl-specific
16666 headers and status bits above the top of each message in the file.
16667 Rmail was Emacs's first mail reader, it was written by Richard Stallman,
16668 and Stallman came out of that TOPS/Babyl environment, so he wrote Rmail
16669 to understand the mail files folks already had in existence. Gnus (and
16670 VM, for that matter) continue to support this format because it's
16671 perceived as having some good qualities in those mailer-specific
16672 headers/status bits stuff. Rmail itself still exists as well, of
16673 course, and is still maintained within Emacs. Since Emacs 23, it
16674 uses standard mbox format rather than Babyl.
16676 Both of the above forms leave your mail in a single file on your
16677 file system, and they must parse that entire file each time you take a
16682 @code{nnml} is the back end which smells the most as though you were
16683 actually operating with an @code{nnspool}-accessed Usenet system. (In
16684 fact, I believe @code{nnml} actually derived from @code{nnspool} code,
16685 lo these years ago.) One's mail is taken from the original spool file,
16686 and is then cut up into individual message files, 1:1. It maintains a
16687 Usenet-style active file (analogous to what one finds in an INN- or
16688 CNews-based news system in (for instance) @file{/var/lib/news/active},
16689 or what is returned via the @samp{NNTP LIST} verb) and also creates
16690 @dfn{overview} files for efficient group entry, as has been defined for
16691 @acronym{NNTP} servers for some years now. It is slower in mail-splitting,
16692 due to the creation of lots of files, updates to the @code{nnml} active
16693 file, and additions to overview files on a per-message basis, but it is
16694 extremely fast on access because of what amounts to the indexing support
16695 provided by the active file and overviews.
16697 @code{nnml} costs @dfn{inodes} in a big way; that is, it soaks up the
16698 resource which defines available places in the file system to put new
16699 files. Sysadmins take a dim view of heavy inode occupation within
16700 tight, shared file systems. But if you live on a personal machine where
16701 the file system is your own and space is not at a premium, @code{nnml}
16704 It is also problematic using this back end if you are living in a
16705 FAT16-based Windows world, since much space will be wasted on all these
16710 The Rand MH mail-reading system has been around UNIX systems for a very
16711 long time; it operates by splitting one's spool file of messages into
16712 individual files, but with little or no indexing support---@code{nnmh}
16713 is considered to be semantically equivalent to ``@code{nnml} without
16714 active file or overviews''. This is arguably the worst choice, because
16715 one gets the slowness of individual file creation married to the
16716 slowness of access parsing when learning what's new in one's groups.
16720 Basically the effect of @code{nnfolder} is @code{nnmbox} (the first
16721 method described above) on a per-group basis. That is, @code{nnmbox}
16722 itself puts @emph{all} one's mail in one file; @code{nnfolder} provides a
16723 little bit of optimization to this so that each of one's mail groups has
16724 a Unix mail box file. It's faster than @code{nnmbox} because each group
16725 can be parsed separately, and still provides the simple Unix mail box
16726 format requiring minimal effort in moving the mail around. In addition,
16727 it maintains an ``active'' file making it much faster for Gnus to figure
16728 out how many messages there are in each separate group.
16730 If you have groups that are expected to have a massive amount of
16731 messages, @code{nnfolder} is not the best choice, but if you receive
16732 only a moderate amount of mail, @code{nnfolder} is probably the most
16733 friendly mail back end all over.
16737 For configuring expiry and other things, @code{nnmaildir} uses
16738 incompatible group parameters, slightly different from those of other
16741 @code{nnmaildir} is largely similar to @code{nnml}, with some notable
16742 differences. Each message is stored in a separate file, but the
16743 filename is unrelated to the article number in Gnus. @code{nnmaildir}
16744 also stores the equivalent of @code{nnml}'s overview files in one file
16745 per article, so it uses about twice as many inodes as @code{nnml}.
16746 (Use @code{df -i} to see how plentiful your inode supply is.) If this
16747 slows you down or takes up very much space, a non-block-structured
16750 Since maildirs don't require locking for delivery, the maildirs you use
16751 as groups can also be the maildirs your mail is directly delivered to.
16752 This means you can skip Gnus' mail splitting if your mail is already
16753 organized into different mailboxes during delivery. A @code{directory}
16754 entry in @code{mail-sources} would have a similar effect, but would
16755 require one set of mailboxes for spooling deliveries (in mbox format,
16756 thus damaging message bodies), and another set to be used as groups (in
16757 whatever format you like). A maildir has a built-in spool, in the
16758 @code{new/} subdirectory. Beware that currently, mail moved from
16759 @code{new/} to @code{cur/} instead of via mail splitting will not
16760 undergo treatment such as duplicate checking.
16762 @code{nnmaildir} stores article marks for a given group in the
16763 corresponding maildir, in a way designed so that it's easy to manipulate
16764 them from outside Gnus. You can tar up a maildir, unpack it somewhere
16765 else, and still have your marks.
16767 @code{nnmaildir} uses a significant amount of memory to speed things up.
16768 (It keeps in memory some of the things that @code{nnml} stores in files
16769 and that @code{nnmh} repeatedly parses out of message files.) If this
16770 is a problem for you, you can set the @code{nov-cache-size} group
16771 parameter to something small (0 would probably not work, but 1 probably
16772 would) to make it use less memory. This caching will probably be
16773 removed in the future.
16775 Startup is likely to be slower with @code{nnmaildir} than with other
16776 back ends. Everything else is likely to be faster, depending in part
16777 on your file system.
16779 @code{nnmaildir} does not use @code{nnoo}, so you cannot use @code{nnoo}
16780 to write an @code{nnmaildir}-derived back end.
16785 @node Browsing the Web
16786 @section Browsing the Web
16788 @cindex browsing the web
16792 Web-based discussion forums are getting more and more popular. On many
16793 subjects, the web-based forums have become the most important forums,
16794 eclipsing the importance of mailing lists and news groups. The reason
16795 is easy to understand---they are friendly to new users; you just point
16796 and click, and there's the discussion. With mailing lists, you have to
16797 go through a cumbersome subscription procedure, and most people don't
16798 even know what a news group is.
16800 The problem with this scenario is that web browsers are not very good at
16801 being newsreaders. They do not keep track of what articles you've read;
16802 they do not allow you to score on subjects you're interested in; they do
16803 not allow off-line browsing; they require you to click around and drive
16804 you mad in the end.
16806 So---if web browsers suck at reading discussion forums, why not use Gnus
16809 Gnus has been getting a bit of a collection of back ends for providing
16810 interfaces to these sources.
16814 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
16815 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
16816 * Customizing W3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/W3 from Gnus.
16819 All the web sources require Emacs/W3 and the url library or those
16820 alternatives to work.
16822 The main caveat with all these web sources is that they probably won't
16823 work for a very long time. Gleaning information from the @acronym{HTML} data
16824 is guesswork at best, and when the layout is altered, the Gnus back end
16825 will fail. If you have reasonably new versions of these back ends,
16826 though, you should be ok.
16828 One thing all these Web methods have in common is that the Web sources
16829 are often down, unavailable or just plain too slow to be fun. In those
16830 cases, it makes a lot of sense to let the Gnus Agent (@pxref{Gnus
16831 Unplugged}) handle downloading articles, and then you can read them at
16832 leisure from your local disk. No more World Wide Wait for you.
16834 @node Archiving Mail
16835 @subsection Archiving Mail
16836 @cindex archiving mail
16837 @cindex backup of mail
16839 Some of the back ends, notably @code{nnml}, @code{nnfolder}, and
16840 @code{nnmaildir}, now actually store the article marks with each group.
16841 For these servers, archiving and restoring a group while preserving
16842 marks is fairly simple.
16844 (Preserving the group level and group parameters as well still
16845 requires ritual dancing and sacrifices to the @file{.newsrc.eld} deity
16848 To archive an entire @code{nnml}, @code{nnfolder}, or @code{nnmaildir}
16849 server, take a recursive copy of the server directory. There is no need
16850 to shut down Gnus, so archiving may be invoked by @code{cron} or
16851 similar. You restore the data by restoring the directory tree, and
16852 adding a server definition pointing to that directory in Gnus. The
16853 @ref{Article Backlog}, @ref{Asynchronous Fetching} and other things
16854 might interfere with overwriting data, so you may want to shut down Gnus
16855 before you restore the data.
16858 @subsection Web Searches
16863 @cindex Usenet searches
16864 @cindex searching the Usenet
16866 It's, like, too neat to search the Usenet for articles that match a
16867 string, but it, like, totally @emph{sucks}, like, totally, to use one of
16868 those, like, Web browsers, and you, like, have to, rilly, like, look at
16869 the commercials, so, like, with Gnus you can do @emph{rad}, rilly,
16870 searches without having to use a browser.
16872 The @code{nnweb} back end allows an easy interface to the mighty search
16873 engine. You create an @code{nnweb} group, enter a search pattern, and
16874 then enter the group and read the articles like you would any normal
16875 group. The @kbd{G w} command in the group buffer (@pxref{Foreign
16876 Groups}) will do this in an easy-to-use fashion.
16878 @code{nnweb} groups don't really lend themselves to being solid
16879 groups---they have a very fleeting idea of article numbers. In fact,
16880 each time you enter an @code{nnweb} group (not even changing the search
16881 pattern), you are likely to get the articles ordered in a different
16882 manner. Not even using duplicate suppression (@pxref{Duplicate
16883 Suppression}) will help, since @code{nnweb} doesn't even know the
16884 @code{Message-ID} of the articles before reading them using some search
16885 engines (Google, for instance). The only possible way to keep track
16886 of which articles you've read is by scoring on the @code{Date}
16887 header---mark all articles posted before the last date you read the
16890 If the search engine changes its output substantially, @code{nnweb}
16891 won't be able to parse it and will fail. One could hardly fault the Web
16892 providers if they were to do this---their @emph{raison d'@^etre} is to
16893 make money off of advertisements, not to provide services to the
16894 community. Since @code{nnweb} washes the ads off all the articles, one
16895 might think that the providers might be somewhat miffed. We'll see.
16897 You must have the @code{url} and @code{W3} package or those alternatives
16898 (try @code{customize-group} on the @samp{mm-url} variable group)
16899 installed to be able to use @code{nnweb}.
16901 Virtual server variables:
16906 What search engine type is being used. The currently supported types
16907 are @code{google}, @code{dejanews}, and @code{gmane}. Note that
16908 @code{dejanews} is an alias to @code{google}.
16911 @vindex nnweb-search
16912 The search string to feed to the search engine.
16914 @item nnweb-max-hits
16915 @vindex nnweb-max-hits
16916 Advisory maximum number of hits per search to display. The default is
16919 @item nnweb-type-definition
16920 @vindex nnweb-type-definition
16921 Type-to-definition alist. This alist says what @code{nnweb} should do
16922 with the various search engine types. The following elements must be
16927 Function to decode the article and provide something that Gnus
16931 Function to create an article number to message header and URL alist.
16934 Function to send the search string to the search engine.
16937 The address the aforementioned function should send the search string
16941 Format string URL to fetch an article by @code{Message-ID}.
16952 Some web sites have an RDF Site Summary (@acronym{RSS}).
16953 @acronym{RSS} is a format for summarizing headlines from news related
16954 sites (such as BBC or CNN). But basically anything list-like can be
16955 presented as an @acronym{RSS} feed: weblogs, changelogs or recent
16956 changes to a wiki (e.g., @url{http://cliki.net/recent-changes.rdf}).
16958 @acronym{RSS} has a quite regular and nice interface, and it's
16959 possible to get the information Gnus needs to keep groups updated.
16961 Note: you had better use Emacs which supports the @code{utf-8} coding
16962 system because @acronym{RSS} uses UTF-8 for encoding non-@acronym{ASCII}
16963 text by default. It is also used by default for non-@acronym{ASCII}
16966 @kindex G R (Group)
16967 Use @kbd{G R} from the group buffer to subscribe to a feed---you will be
16968 prompted for the location, the title and the description of the feed.
16969 The title, which allows any characters, will be used for the group name
16970 and the name of the group data file. The description can be omitted.
16972 An easy way to get started with @code{nnrss} is to say something like
16973 the following in the group buffer: @kbd{B nnrss RET RET y}, then
16974 subscribe to groups.
16976 The @code{nnrss} back end saves the group data file in
16977 @code{nnrss-directory} (see below) for each @code{nnrss} group. File
16978 names containing non-@acronym{ASCII} characters will be encoded by the
16979 coding system specified with the @code{nnmail-pathname-coding-system}
16980 variable or other. Also @xref{Non-ASCII Group Names}, for more
16983 The @code{nnrss} back end generates @samp{multipart/alternative}
16984 @acronym{MIME} articles in which each contains a @samp{text/plain} part
16985 and a @samp{text/html} part.
16988 You can also use the following commands to import and export your
16989 subscriptions from a file in @acronym{OPML} format (Outline Processor
16992 @defun nnrss-opml-import file
16993 Prompt for an @acronym{OPML} file, and subscribe to each feed in the
16997 @defun nnrss-opml-export
16998 Write your current @acronym{RSS} subscriptions to a buffer in
16999 @acronym{OPML} format.
17002 The following @code{nnrss} variables can be altered:
17005 @item nnrss-directory
17006 @vindex nnrss-directory
17007 The directory where @code{nnrss} stores its files. The default is
17008 @file{~/News/rss/}.
17010 @item nnrss-file-coding-system
17011 @vindex nnrss-file-coding-system
17012 The coding system used when reading and writing the @code{nnrss} groups
17013 data files. The default is the value of
17014 @code{mm-universal-coding-system} (which defaults to @code{emacs-mule}
17015 in Emacs or @code{escape-quoted} in XEmacs).
17017 @item nnrss-ignore-article-fields
17018 @vindex nnrss-ignore-article-fields
17019 Some feeds update constantly article fields during their publications,
17020 e.g., to indicate the number of comments. However, if there is
17021 a difference between the local article and the distant one, the latter
17022 is considered to be new. To avoid this and discard some fields, set this
17023 variable to the list of fields to be ignored. The default is
17024 @code{'(slash:comments)}.
17026 @item nnrss-use-local
17027 @vindex nnrss-use-local
17028 @findex nnrss-generate-download-script
17029 If you set @code{nnrss-use-local} to @code{t}, @code{nnrss} will read
17030 the feeds from local files in @code{nnrss-directory}. You can use
17031 the command @code{nnrss-generate-download-script} to generate a
17032 download script using @command{wget}.
17035 The following code may be helpful, if you want to show the description in
17036 the summary buffer.
17039 (add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers nnrss-description-field)
17040 (setq gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-15,15f%]%) %s%uX\n")
17042 (defun gnus-user-format-function-X (header)
17044 (assq nnrss-description-field (mail-header-extra header))))
17045 (if descr (concat "\n\t" (cdr descr)) "")))
17048 The following code may be useful to open an nnrss url directly from the
17052 (require 'browse-url)
17054 (defun browse-nnrss-url (arg)
17056 (let ((url (assq nnrss-url-field
17059 (assq (gnus-summary-article-number)
17060 gnus-newsgroup-data))))))
17063 (browse-url (cdr url))
17064 (gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward 1))
17065 (gnus-summary-scroll-up arg))))
17067 (eval-after-load "gnus"
17068 #'(define-key gnus-summary-mode-map
17069 (kbd "<RET>") 'browse-nnrss-url))
17070 (add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers nnrss-url-field)
17073 Even if you have added @samp{text/html} to the
17074 @code{mm-discouraged-alternatives} variable (@pxref{Display
17075 Customization, ,Display Customization, emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME
17076 Manual}) since you don't want to see @acronym{HTML} parts, it might be
17077 more useful especially in @code{nnrss} groups to display
17078 @samp{text/html} parts. Here's an example of setting
17079 @code{mm-discouraged-alternatives} as a group parameter (@pxref{Group
17080 Parameters}) in order to display @samp{text/html} parts only in
17081 @code{nnrss} groups:
17084 ;; @r{Set the default value of @code{mm-discouraged-alternatives}.}
17085 (eval-after-load "gnus-sum"
17087 'gnus-newsgroup-variables
17088 '(mm-discouraged-alternatives
17089 . '("text/html" "image/.*"))))
17091 ;; @r{Display @samp{text/html} parts in @code{nnrss} groups.}
17094 '("\\`nnrss:" (mm-discouraged-alternatives nil)))
17098 @node Customizing W3
17099 @subsection Customizing W3
17105 Gnus uses the url library to fetch web pages and Emacs/W3 (or those
17106 alternatives) to display web pages. Emacs/W3 is documented in its own
17107 manual, but there are some things that may be more relevant for Gnus
17110 For instance, a common question is how to make Emacs/W3 follow links
17111 using the @code{browse-url} functions (which will call some external web
17112 browser like Netscape). Here's one way:
17115 (eval-after-load "w3"
17117 (fset 'w3-fetch-orig (symbol-function 'w3-fetch))
17118 (defun w3-fetch (&optional url target)
17119 (interactive (list (w3-read-url-with-default)))
17120 (if (eq major-mode 'gnus-article-mode)
17122 (w3-fetch-orig url target)))))
17125 Put that in your @file{.emacs} file, and hitting links in W3-rendered
17126 @acronym{HTML} in the Gnus article buffers will use @code{browse-url} to
17130 @node Other Sources
17131 @section Other Sources
17133 Gnus can do more than just read news or mail. The methods described
17134 below allow Gnus to view directories and files as if they were
17138 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
17139 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
17140 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
17141 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
17142 * The Empty Backend:: The backend that never has any news.
17146 @node Directory Groups
17147 @subsection Directory Groups
17149 @cindex directory groups
17151 If you have a directory that has lots of articles in separate files in
17152 it, you might treat it as a newsgroup. The files have to have numerical
17155 This might be an opportune moment to mention @code{ange-ftp} (and its
17156 successor @code{efs}), that most wonderful of all wonderful Emacs
17157 packages. When I wrote @code{nndir}, I didn't think much about it---a
17158 back end to read directories. Big deal.
17160 @code{ange-ftp} changes that picture dramatically. For instance, if you
17161 enter the @code{ange-ftp} file name
17162 @file{/ftp.hpc.uh.edu:/pub/emacs/ding-list/} as the directory name,
17163 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs} will actually allow you to read this
17164 directory over at @samp{sina} as a newsgroup. Distributed news ahoy!
17166 @code{nndir} will use @acronym{NOV} files if they are present.
17168 @code{nndir} is a ``read-only'' back end---you can't delete or expire
17169 articles with this method. You can use @code{nnmh} or @code{nnml} for
17170 whatever you use @code{nndir} for, so you could switch to any of those
17171 methods if you feel the need to have a non-read-only @code{nndir}.
17174 @node Anything Groups
17175 @subsection Anything Groups
17178 From the @code{nndir} back end (which reads a single spool-like
17179 directory), it's just a hop and a skip to @code{nneething}, which
17180 pretends that any arbitrary directory is a newsgroup. Strange, but
17183 When @code{nneething} is presented with a directory, it will scan this
17184 directory and assign article numbers to each file. When you enter such
17185 a group, @code{nneething} must create ``headers'' that Gnus can use.
17186 After all, Gnus is a newsreader, in case you're forgetting.
17187 @code{nneething} does this in a two-step process. First, it snoops each
17188 file in question. If the file looks like an article (i.e., the first
17189 few lines look like headers), it will use this as the head. If this is
17190 just some arbitrary file without a head (e.g., a C source file),
17191 @code{nneething} will cobble up a header out of thin air. It will use
17192 file ownership, name and date and do whatever it can with these
17195 All this should happen automatically for you, and you will be presented
17196 with something that looks very much like a newsgroup. Totally like a
17197 newsgroup, to be precise. If you select an article, it will be displayed
17198 in the article buffer, just as usual.
17200 If you select a line that represents a directory, Gnus will pop you into
17201 a new summary buffer for this @code{nneething} group. And so on. You can
17202 traverse the entire disk this way, if you feel like, but remember that
17203 Gnus is not dired, really, and does not intend to be, either.
17205 There are two overall modes to this action---ephemeral or solid. When
17206 doing the ephemeral thing (i.e., @kbd{G D} from the group buffer), Gnus
17207 will not store information on what files you have read, and what files
17208 are new, and so on. If you create a solid @code{nneething} group the
17209 normal way with @kbd{G m}, Gnus will store a mapping table between
17210 article numbers and file names, and you can treat this group like any
17211 other groups. When you activate a solid @code{nneething} group, you will
17212 be told how many unread articles it contains, etc., etc.
17217 @item nneething-map-file-directory
17218 @vindex nneething-map-file-directory
17219 All the mapping files for solid @code{nneething} groups will be stored
17220 in this directory, which defaults to @file{~/.nneething/}.
17222 @item nneething-exclude-files
17223 @vindex nneething-exclude-files
17224 All files that match this regexp will be ignored. Nice to use to exclude
17225 auto-save files and the like, which is what it does by default.
17227 @item nneething-include-files
17228 @vindex nneething-include-files
17229 Regexp saying what files to include in the group. If this variable is
17230 non-@code{nil}, only files matching this regexp will be included.
17232 @item nneething-map-file
17233 @vindex nneething-map-file
17234 Name of the map files.
17238 @node Document Groups
17239 @subsection Document Groups
17241 @cindex documentation group
17244 @code{nndoc} is a cute little thing that will let you read a single file
17245 as a newsgroup. Several files types are supported:
17255 The standard Unix mbox file.
17257 @cindex MMDF mail box
17259 The MMDF mail box format.
17262 Several news articles appended into a file.
17264 @cindex rnews batch files
17266 The rnews batch transport format.
17269 Netscape mail boxes.
17272 @acronym{MIME} multipart messages.
17274 @item standard-digest
17275 The standard (RFC 1153) digest format.
17278 A @acronym{MIME} digest of messages.
17280 @item lanl-gov-announce
17281 Announcement messages from LANL Gov Announce.
17283 @cindex git commit messages
17285 @code{git} commit messages.
17287 @cindex forwarded messages
17288 @item rfc822-forward
17289 A message forwarded according to RFC822.
17292 The Outlook mail box.
17295 The Outlook Express dbx mail box.
17298 A bounce message from the Exim MTA.
17301 A message forwarded according to informal rules.
17304 An RFC934-forwarded message.
17310 A digest of Clarinet brief news items.
17313 Non-standard digest format---matches most things, but does it badly.
17319 You can also use the special ``file type'' @code{guess}, which means
17320 that @code{nndoc} will try to guess what file type it is looking at.
17321 @code{digest} means that @code{nndoc} should guess what digest type the
17324 @code{nndoc} will not try to change the file or insert any extra headers into
17325 it---it will simply, like, let you use the file as the basis for a
17326 group. And that's it.
17328 If you have some old archived articles that you want to insert into your
17329 new & spiffy Gnus mail back end, @code{nndoc} can probably help you with
17330 that. Say you have an old @file{RMAIL} file with mail that you now want
17331 to split into your new @code{nnml} groups. You look at that file using
17332 @code{nndoc} (using the @kbd{G f} command in the group buffer
17333 (@pxref{Foreign Groups})), set the process mark on all the articles in
17334 the buffer (@kbd{M P b}, for instance), and then re-spool (@kbd{B r})
17335 using @code{nnml}. If all goes well, all the mail in the @file{RMAIL}
17336 file is now also stored in lots of @code{nnml} directories, and you can
17337 delete that pesky @file{RMAIL} file. If you have the guts!
17339 Virtual server variables:
17342 @item nndoc-article-type
17343 @vindex nndoc-article-type
17344 This should be one of @code{mbox}, @code{babyl}, @code{digest},
17345 @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward}, @code{rfc934},
17346 @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-parts}, @code{standard-digest},
17347 @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs}, @code{nsmail}, @code{outlook},
17348 @code{oe-dbx}, @code{mailman}, and @code{mail-in-mail} or @code{guess}.
17350 @item nndoc-post-type
17351 @vindex nndoc-post-type
17352 This variable says whether Gnus is to consider the group a news group or
17353 a mail group. There are two valid values: @code{mail} (the default)
17358 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
17362 @node Document Server Internals
17363 @subsubsection Document Server Internals
17365 Adding new document types to be recognized by @code{nndoc} isn't
17366 difficult. You just have to whip up a definition of what the document
17367 looks like, write a predicate function to recognize that document type,
17368 and then hook into @code{nndoc}.
17370 First, here's an example document type definition:
17374 (article-begin . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n")
17375 (body-end . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n"))
17378 The definition is simply a unique @dfn{name} followed by a series of
17379 regexp pseudo-variable settings. Below are the possible
17380 variables---don't be daunted by the number of variables; most document
17381 types can be defined with very few settings:
17384 @item first-article
17385 If present, @code{nndoc} will skip past all text until it finds
17386 something that match this regexp. All text before this will be
17389 @item article-begin
17390 This setting has to be present in all document type definitions. It
17391 says what the beginning of each article looks like. To do more
17392 complicated things that cannot be dealt with a simple regexp, you can
17393 use @code{article-begin-function} instead of this.
17395 @item article-begin-function
17396 If present, this should be a function that moves point to the beginning
17397 of each article. This setting overrides @code{article-begin}.
17400 If present, this should be a regexp that matches the head of the
17401 article. To do more complicated things that cannot be dealt with a
17402 simple regexp, you can use @code{head-begin-function} instead of this.
17404 @item head-begin-function
17405 If present, this should be a function that moves point to the head of
17406 the article. This setting overrides @code{head-begin}.
17409 This should match the end of the head of the article. It defaults to
17410 @samp{^$}---the empty line.
17413 This should match the beginning of the body of the article. It defaults
17414 to @samp{^\n}. To do more complicated things that cannot be dealt with
17415 a simple regexp, you can use @code{body-begin-function} instead of this.
17417 @item body-begin-function
17418 If present, this function should move point to the beginning of the body
17419 of the article. This setting overrides @code{body-begin}.
17422 If present, this should match the end of the body of the article. To do
17423 more complicated things that cannot be dealt with a simple regexp, you
17424 can use @code{body-end-function} instead of this.
17426 @item body-end-function
17427 If present, this function should move point to the end of the body of
17428 the article. This setting overrides @code{body-end}.
17431 If present, this should match the beginning of the file. All text
17432 before this regexp will be totally ignored.
17435 If present, this should match the end of the file. All text after this
17436 regexp will be totally ignored.
17440 So, using these variables @code{nndoc} is able to dissect a document
17441 file into a series of articles, each with a head and a body. However, a
17442 few more variables are needed since not all document types are all that
17443 news-like---variables needed to transform the head or the body into
17444 something that's palatable for Gnus:
17447 @item prepare-body-function
17448 If present, this function will be called when requesting an article. It
17449 will be called with point at the start of the body, and is useful if the
17450 document has encoded some parts of its contents.
17452 @item article-transform-function
17453 If present, this function is called when requesting an article. It's
17454 meant to be used for more wide-ranging transformation of both head and
17455 body of the article.
17457 @item generate-head-function
17458 If present, this function is called to generate a head that Gnus can
17459 understand. It is called with the article number as a parameter, and is
17460 expected to generate a nice head for the article in question. It is
17461 called when requesting the headers of all articles.
17463 @item generate-article-function
17464 If present, this function is called to generate an entire article that
17465 Gnus can understand. It is called with the article number as a
17466 parameter when requesting all articles.
17468 @item dissection-function
17469 If present, this function is called to dissect a document by itself,
17470 overriding @code{first-article}, @code{article-begin},
17471 @code{article-begin-function}, @code{head-begin},
17472 @code{head-begin-function}, @code{head-end}, @code{body-begin},
17473 @code{body-begin-function}, @code{body-end}, @code{body-end-function},
17474 @code{file-begin}, and @code{file-end}.
17478 Let's look at the most complicated example I can come up with---standard
17483 (first-article . ,(concat "^" (make-string 70 ?-) "\n\n+"))
17484 (article-begin . ,(concat "\n\n" (make-string 30 ?-) "\n\n+"))
17485 (prepare-body-function . nndoc-unquote-dashes)
17486 (body-end-function . nndoc-digest-body-end)
17487 (head-end . "^ ?$")
17488 (body-begin . "^ ?\n")
17489 (file-end . "^End of .*digest.*[0-9].*\n\\*\\*\\|^End of.*Digest *$")
17490 (subtype digest guess))
17493 We see that all text before a 70-width line of dashes is ignored; all
17494 text after a line that starts with that @samp{^End of} is also ignored;
17495 each article begins with a 30-width line of dashes; the line separating
17496 the head from the body may contain a single space; and that the body is
17497 run through @code{nndoc-unquote-dashes} before being delivered.
17499 To hook your own document definition into @code{nndoc}, use the
17500 @code{nndoc-add-type} function. It takes two parameters---the first
17501 is the definition itself and the second (optional) parameter says
17502 where in the document type definition alist to put this definition.
17503 The alist is traversed sequentially, and
17504 @code{nndoc-@var{type}-type-p} is called for a given type @var{type}.
17505 So @code{nndoc-mmdf-type-p} is called to see whether a document is of
17506 @code{mmdf} type, and so on. These type predicates should return
17507 @code{nil} if the document is not of the correct type; @code{t} if it
17508 is of the correct type; and a number if the document might be of the
17509 correct type. A high number means high probability; a low number
17510 means low probability with @samp{0} being the lowest valid number.
17513 @node Mail-To-News Gateways
17514 @subsection Mail-To-News Gateways
17515 @cindex mail-to-news gateways
17518 If your local @code{nntp} server doesn't allow posting, for some reason
17519 or other, you can post using one of the numerous mail-to-news gateways.
17520 The @code{nngateway} back end provides the interface.
17522 Note that you can't read anything from this back end---it can only be
17528 @item nngateway-address
17529 @vindex nngateway-address
17530 This is the address of the mail-to-news gateway.
17532 @item nngateway-header-transformation
17533 @vindex nngateway-header-transformation
17534 News headers often have to be transformed in some odd way or other
17535 for the mail-to-news gateway to accept it. This variable says what
17536 transformation should be called, and defaults to
17537 @code{nngateway-simple-header-transformation}. The function is called
17538 narrowed to the headers to be transformed and with one parameter---the
17541 This default function just inserts a new @code{To} header based on the
17542 @code{Newsgroups} header and the gateway address.
17543 For instance, an article with this @code{Newsgroups} header:
17546 Newsgroups: alt.religion.emacs
17549 will get this @code{To} header inserted:
17552 To: alt-religion-emacs@@GATEWAY
17555 The following pre-defined functions exist:
17557 @findex nngateway-simple-header-transformation
17560 @item nngateway-simple-header-transformation
17561 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
17562 @var{newsgroup}@@@code{nngateway-address}.
17564 @findex nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
17566 @item nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
17567 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
17568 @code{nngateway-address}.
17576 (setq gnus-post-method
17578 "mail2news@@replay.com"
17579 (nngateway-header-transformation
17580 nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation)))
17583 So, to use this, simply say something like:
17586 (setq gnus-post-method '(nngateway "GATEWAY.ADDRESS"))
17590 @node The Empty Backend
17591 @subsection The Empty Backend
17594 @code{nnnil} is a backend that can be used as a placeholder if you
17595 have to specify a backend somewhere, but don't really want to. The
17596 classical example is if you don't want to have a primary select
17597 methods, but want to only use secondary ones:
17600 (setq gnus-select-method '(nnnil ""))
17601 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
17607 @node Combined Groups
17608 @section Combined Groups
17610 Gnus allows combining a mixture of all the other group types into bigger
17614 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
17618 @node Virtual Groups
17619 @subsection Virtual Groups
17621 @cindex virtual groups
17622 @cindex merging groups
17624 An @dfn{nnvirtual group} is really nothing more than a collection of
17627 For instance, if you are tired of reading many small groups, you can
17628 put them all in one big group, and then grow tired of reading one
17629 big, unwieldy group. The joys of computing!
17631 You specify @code{nnvirtual} as the method. The address should be a
17632 regexp to match component groups.
17634 All marks in the virtual group will stick to the articles in the
17635 component groups. So if you tick an article in a virtual group, the
17636 article will also be ticked in the component group from whence it
17637 came. (And vice versa---marks from the component groups will also be
17638 shown in the virtual group.). To create an empty virtual group, run
17639 @kbd{G V} (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}) in the group buffer
17640 and edit the method regexp with @kbd{M-e}
17641 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method})
17643 Here's an example @code{nnvirtual} method that collects all Andrea Dworkin
17644 newsgroups into one, big, happy newsgroup:
17647 (nnvirtual "^alt\\.fan\\.andrea-dworkin$\\|^rec\\.dworkin.*")
17650 The component groups can be native or foreign; everything should work
17651 smoothly, but if your computer explodes, it was probably my fault.
17653 Collecting the same group from several servers might actually be a good
17654 idea if users have set the Distribution header to limit distribution.
17655 If you would like to read @samp{soc.motss} both from a server in Japan
17656 and a server in Norway, you could use the following as the group regexp:
17659 "^nntp\\+server\\.jp:soc\\.motss$\\|^nntp\\+server\\.no:soc\\.motss$"
17662 (Remember, though, that if you're creating the group with @kbd{G m}, you
17663 shouldn't double the backslashes, and you should leave off the quote
17664 characters at the beginning and the end of the string.)
17666 This should work kinda smoothly---all articles from both groups should
17667 end up in this one, and there should be no duplicates. Threading (and
17668 the rest) will still work as usual, but there might be problems with the
17669 sequence of articles. Sorting on date might be an option here
17670 (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
17672 One limitation, however---all groups included in a virtual
17673 group have to be alive (i.e., subscribed or unsubscribed). Killed or
17674 zombie groups can't be component groups for @code{nnvirtual} groups.
17676 @vindex nnvirtual-always-rescan
17677 If the @code{nnvirtual-always-rescan} variable is non-@code{nil} (which
17678 is the default), @code{nnvirtual} will always scan groups for unread
17679 articles when entering a virtual group. If this variable is @code{nil}
17680 and you read articles in a component group after the virtual group has
17681 been activated, the read articles from the component group will show up
17682 when you enter the virtual group. You'll also see this effect if you
17683 have two virtual groups that have a component group in common. If
17684 that's the case, you should set this variable to @code{t}. Or you can
17685 just tap @code{M-g} on the virtual group every time before you enter
17686 it---it'll have much the same effect.
17688 @code{nnvirtual} can have both mail and news groups as component groups.
17689 When responding to articles in @code{nnvirtual} groups, @code{nnvirtual}
17690 has to ask the back end of the component group the article comes from
17691 whether it is a news or mail back end. However, when you do a @kbd{^},
17692 there is typically no sure way for the component back end to know this,
17693 and in that case @code{nnvirtual} tells Gnus that the article came from a
17694 not-news back end. (Just to be on the safe side.)
17696 @kbd{C-c C-n} in the message buffer will insert the @code{Newsgroups}
17697 line from the article you respond to in these cases.
17699 @code{nnvirtual} groups do not inherit anything but articles and marks
17700 from component groups---group parameters, for instance, are not
17704 @node Email Based Diary
17705 @section Email Based Diary
17707 @cindex email based diary
17710 This section describes a special mail back end called @code{nndiary},
17711 and its companion library @code{gnus-diary}. It is ``special'' in the
17712 sense that it is not meant to be one of the standard alternatives for
17713 reading mail with Gnus. See @ref{Choosing a Mail Back End} for that.
17714 Instead, it is used to treat @emph{some} of your mails in a special way,
17715 namely, as event reminders.
17717 Here is a typical scenario:
17721 You've got a date with Andy Mc Dowell or Bruce Willis (select according
17722 to your sexual preference) in one month. You don't want to forget it.
17724 So you send a ``reminder'' message (actually, a diary one) to yourself.
17726 You forget all about it and keep on getting and reading new mail, as usual.
17728 From time to time, as you type `g' in the group buffer and as the date
17729 is getting closer, the message will pop up again to remind you of your
17730 appointment, just as if it were new and unread.
17732 Read your ``new'' messages, this one included, and start dreaming again
17733 of the night you're gonna have.
17735 Once the date is over (you actually fell asleep just after dinner), the
17736 message will be automatically deleted if it is marked as expirable.
17739 The Gnus Diary back end has the ability to handle regular appointments
17740 (that wouldn't ever be deleted) as well as punctual ones, operates as a
17741 real mail back end and is configurable in many ways. All of this is
17742 explained in the sections below.
17745 * The NNDiary Back End:: Basic setup and usage.
17746 * The Gnus Diary Library:: Utility toolkit on top of nndiary.
17747 * Sending or Not Sending:: A final note on sending diary messages.
17751 @node The NNDiary Back End
17752 @subsection The NNDiary Back End
17754 @cindex the nndiary back end
17756 @code{nndiary} is a back end very similar to @code{nnml} (@pxref{Mail
17757 Spool}). Actually, it could appear as a mix of @code{nnml} and
17758 @code{nndraft}. If you know @code{nnml}, you're already familiar with
17759 the message storing scheme of @code{nndiary}: one file per message, one
17760 directory per group.
17762 Before anything, there is one requirement to be able to run
17763 @code{nndiary} properly: you @emph{must} use the group timestamp feature
17764 of Gnus. This adds a timestamp to each group's parameters. @ref{Group
17765 Timestamp} to see how it's done.
17768 * Diary Messages:: What makes a message valid for nndiary.
17769 * Running NNDiary:: NNDiary has two modes of operation.
17770 * Customizing NNDiary:: Bells and whistles.
17773 @node Diary Messages
17774 @subsubsection Diary Messages
17775 @cindex nndiary messages
17776 @cindex nndiary mails
17778 @code{nndiary} messages are just normal ones, except for the mandatory
17779 presence of 7 special headers. These headers are of the form
17780 @code{X-Diary-<something>}, @code{<something>} being one of
17781 @code{Minute}, @code{Hour}, @code{Dom}, @code{Month}, @code{Year},
17782 @code{Time-Zone} and @code{Dow}. @code{Dom} means ``Day of Month'', and
17783 @code{dow} means ``Day of Week''. These headers actually behave like
17784 crontab specifications and define the event date(s):
17788 For all headers except the @code{Time-Zone} one, a header value is
17789 either a star (meaning all possible values), or a list of fields
17790 (separated by a comma).
17792 A field is either an integer, or a range.
17794 A range is two integers separated by a dash.
17796 Possible integer values are 0--59 for @code{Minute}, 0--23 for
17797 @code{Hour}, 1--31 for @code{Dom}, 1--12 for @code{Month}, above 1971
17798 for @code{Year} and 0--6 for @code{Dow} (0 meaning Sunday).
17800 As a special case, a star in either @code{Dom} or @code{Dow} doesn't
17801 mean ``all possible values'', but ``use only the other field''. Note
17802 that if both are star'ed, the use of either one gives the same result.
17804 The @code{Time-Zone} header is special in that it can only have one
17805 value (@code{GMT}, for instance). A star doesn't mean ``all possible
17806 values'' (because it makes no sense), but ``the current local time
17807 zone''. Most of the time, you'll be using a star here. However, for a
17808 list of available time zone values, see the variable
17809 @code{nndiary-headers}.
17812 As a concrete example, here are the diary headers to add to your message
17813 for specifying ``Each Monday and each 1st of month, at 12:00, 20:00,
17814 21:00, 22:00, 23:00 and 24:00, from 1999 to 2010'' (I'll let you find
17819 X-Diary-Hour: 12, 20-24
17822 X-Diary-Year: 1999-2010
17824 X-Diary-Time-Zone: *
17827 @node Running NNDiary
17828 @subsubsection Running NNDiary
17829 @cindex running nndiary
17830 @cindex nndiary operation modes
17832 @code{nndiary} has two modes of operation: ``traditional'' (the default)
17833 and ``autonomous''. In traditional mode, @code{nndiary} does not get new
17834 mail by itself. You have to move (@kbd{B m}) or copy (@kbd{B c}) mails
17835 from your primary mail back end to nndiary groups in order to handle them
17836 as diary messages. In autonomous mode, @code{nndiary} retrieves its own
17837 mail and handles it independently from your primary mail back end.
17839 One should note that Gnus is not inherently designed to allow several
17840 ``master'' mail back ends at the same time. However, this does make
17841 sense with @code{nndiary}: you really want to send and receive diary
17842 messages to your diary groups directly. So, @code{nndiary} supports
17843 being sort of a ``second primary mail back end'' (to my knowledge, it is
17844 the only back end offering this feature). However, there is a limitation
17845 (which I hope to fix some day): respooling doesn't work in autonomous
17848 In order to use @code{nndiary} in autonomous mode, you have several
17853 Allow @code{nndiary} to retrieve new mail by itself. Put the following
17854 line in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
17857 (setq nndiary-get-new-mail t)
17860 You must arrange for diary messages (those containing @code{X-Diary-*}
17861 headers) to be split in a private folder @emph{before} Gnus treat them.
17862 Again, this is needed because Gnus cannot (yet ?) properly handle
17863 multiple primary mail back ends. Getting those messages from a separate
17864 source will compensate this misfeature to some extent.
17866 As an example, here's my procmailrc entry to store diary files in
17867 @file{~/.nndiary} (the default @code{nndiary} mail source file):
17876 Once this is done, you might want to customize the following two options
17877 that affect the diary mail retrieval and splitting processes:
17879 @defvar nndiary-mail-sources
17880 This is the diary-specific replacement for the standard
17881 @code{mail-sources} variable. It obeys the same syntax, and defaults to
17882 @code{(file :path "~/.nndiary")}.
17885 @defvar nndiary-split-methods
17886 This is the diary-specific replacement for the standard
17887 @code{nnmail-split-methods} variable. It obeys the same syntax.
17890 Finally, you may add a permanent @code{nndiary} virtual server
17891 (something like @code{(nndiary "diary")} should do) to your
17892 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods}.
17894 Hopefully, almost everything (see the TODO section in
17895 @file{nndiary.el}) will work as expected when you restart Gnus: in
17896 autonomous mode, typing @kbd{g} and @kbd{M-g} in the group buffer, will
17897 also get your new diary mails and split them according to your
17898 diary-specific rules, @kbd{F} will find your new diary groups etc.
17900 @node Customizing NNDiary
17901 @subsubsection Customizing NNDiary
17902 @cindex customizing nndiary
17903 @cindex nndiary customization
17905 Now that @code{nndiary} is up and running, it's time to customize it.
17906 The custom group is called @code{nndiary} (no, really ?!). You should
17907 browse it to figure out which options you'd like to tweak. The following
17908 two variables are probably the only ones you will want to change:
17910 @defvar nndiary-reminders
17911 This is the list of times when you want to be reminded of your
17912 appointments (e.g., 3 weeks before, then 2 days before, then 1 hour
17913 before and that's it). Remember that ``being reminded'' means that the
17914 diary message will pop up as brand new and unread again when you get new
17918 @defvar nndiary-week-starts-on-monday
17919 Rather self-explanatory. Otherwise, Sunday is assumed (this is the
17924 @node The Gnus Diary Library
17925 @subsection The Gnus Diary Library
17927 @cindex the gnus diary library
17929 Using @code{nndiary} manually (I mean, writing the headers by hand and
17930 so on) would be rather boring. Fortunately, there is a library called
17931 @code{gnus-diary} written on top of @code{nndiary}, that does many
17932 useful things for you.
17934 In order to use it, add the following line to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
17937 (require 'gnus-diary)
17940 Also, you shouldn't use any @code{gnus-user-format-function-[d|D]}
17941 (@pxref{Summary Buffer Lines}). @code{gnus-diary} provides both of these
17942 (sorry if you used them before).
17946 * Diary Summary Line Format:: A nicer summary buffer line format.
17947 * Diary Articles Sorting:: A nicer way to sort messages.
17948 * Diary Headers Generation:: Not doing it manually.
17949 * Diary Group Parameters:: Not handling them manually.
17952 @node Diary Summary Line Format
17953 @subsubsection Diary Summary Line Format
17954 @cindex diary summary buffer line
17955 @cindex diary summary line format
17957 Displaying diary messages in standard summary line format (usually
17958 something like @samp{From Joe: Subject}) is pretty useless. Most of
17959 the time, you're the one who wrote the message, and you mostly want to
17960 see the event's date.
17962 @code{gnus-diary} provides two supplemental user formats to be used in
17963 summary line formats. @code{D} corresponds to a formatted time string
17964 for the next occurrence of the event (e.g., ``Sat, Sep 22 01, 12:00''),
17965 while @code{d} corresponds to an approximate remaining time until the
17966 next occurrence of the event (e.g., ``in 6 months, 1 week'').
17968 For example, here's how Joe's birthday is displayed in my
17969 @code{nndiary+diary:birthdays} summary buffer (note that the message is
17970 expirable, but will never be deleted, as it specifies a periodic event):
17973 E Sat, Sep 22 01, 12:00: Joe's birthday (in 6 months, 1 week)
17976 In order to get something like the above, you would normally add the
17977 following line to your diary groups'parameters:
17980 (gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z %uD: %(%s%) (%ud)\n")
17983 However, @code{gnus-diary} does it automatically (@pxref{Diary Group
17984 Parameters}). You can however customize the provided summary line format
17985 with the following user options:
17987 @defvar gnus-diary-summary-line-format
17988 Defines the summary line format used for diary groups (@pxref{Summary
17989 Buffer Lines}). @code{gnus-diary} uses it to automatically update the
17990 diary groups'parameters.
17993 @defvar gnus-diary-time-format
17994 Defines the format to display dates in diary summary buffers. This is
17995 used by the @code{D} user format. See the docstring for details.
17998 @defvar gnus-diary-delay-format-function
17999 Defines the format function to use for displaying delays (remaining
18000 times) in diary summary buffers. This is used by the @code{d} user
18001 format. There are currently built-in functions for English and French;
18002 you can also define your own. See the docstring for details.
18005 @node Diary Articles Sorting
18006 @subsubsection Diary Articles Sorting
18007 @cindex diary articles sorting
18008 @cindex diary summary lines sorting
18009 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-schedule
18010 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-schedule
18011 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-schedule
18013 @code{gnus-diary} provides new sorting functions (@pxref{Sorting the
18014 Summary Buffer} ) called @code{gnus-summary-sort-by-schedule},
18015 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-schedule} and
18016 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-schedule}. These functions let you organize
18017 your diary summary buffers from the closest event to the farthest one.
18019 @code{gnus-diary} automatically installs
18020 @code{gnus-summary-sort-by-schedule} as a menu item in the summary
18021 buffer's ``sort'' menu, and the two others as the primary (hence
18022 default) sorting functions in the group parameters (@pxref{Diary Group
18025 @node Diary Headers Generation
18026 @subsubsection Diary Headers Generation
18027 @cindex diary headers generation
18028 @findex gnus-diary-check-message
18030 @code{gnus-diary} provides a function called
18031 @code{gnus-diary-check-message} to help you handle the @code{X-Diary-*}
18032 headers. This function ensures that the current message contains all the
18033 required diary headers, and prompts you for values or corrections if
18036 This function is hooked into the @code{nndiary} back end, so that
18037 moving or copying an article to a diary group will trigger it
18038 automatically. It is also bound to @kbd{C-c C-f d} in
18039 @code{message-mode} and @code{article-edit-mode} in order to ease the
18040 process of converting a usual mail to a diary one.
18042 This function takes a prefix argument which will force prompting of
18043 all diary headers, regardless of their presence or validity. That way,
18044 you can very easily reschedule an already valid diary message, for
18047 @node Diary Group Parameters
18048 @subsubsection Diary Group Parameters
18049 @cindex diary group parameters
18051 When you create a new diary group, or visit one, @code{gnus-diary}
18052 automatically checks your group parameters and if needed, sets the
18053 summary line format to the diary-specific value, installs the
18054 diary-specific sorting functions, and also adds the different
18055 @code{X-Diary-*} headers to the group's posting-style. It is then easier
18056 to send a diary message, because if you use @kbd{C-u a} or @kbd{C-u m}
18057 on a diary group to prepare a message, these headers will be inserted
18058 automatically (although not filled with proper values yet).
18060 @node Sending or Not Sending
18061 @subsection Sending or Not Sending
18063 Well, assuming you've read all of the above, here are two final notes on
18064 mail sending with @code{nndiary}:
18068 @code{nndiary} is a @emph{real} mail back end. You really send real diary
18069 messages for real. This means for instance that you can give
18070 appointments to anybody (provided they use Gnus and @code{nndiary}) by
18071 sending the diary message to them as well.
18073 However, since @code{nndiary} also has a @code{request-post} method, you
18074 can also use @kbd{C-u a} instead of @kbd{C-u m} on a diary group and the
18075 message won't actually be sent; just stored locally in the group. This
18076 comes in very handy for private appointments.
18079 @node Gnus Unplugged
18080 @section Gnus Unplugged
18085 @cindex Gnus unplugged
18087 In olden times (ca. February '88), people used to run their newsreaders
18088 on big machines with permanent connections to the net. News transport
18089 was dealt with by news servers, and all the newsreaders had to do was to
18090 read news. Believe it or not.
18092 Nowadays most people read news and mail at home, and use some sort of
18093 modem to connect to the net. To avoid running up huge phone bills, it
18094 would be nice to have a way to slurp down all the news and mail, hang up
18095 the phone, read for several hours, and then upload any responses you
18096 have to make. And then you repeat the procedure.
18098 Of course, you can use news servers for doing this as well. I've used
18099 @code{inn} together with @code{slurp}, @code{pop} and @code{sendmail}
18100 for some years, but doing that's a bore. Moving the news server
18101 functionality up to the newsreader makes sense if you're the only person
18102 reading news on a machine.
18104 Setting up Gnus as an ``offline'' newsreader is quite simple. In
18105 fact, you don't have to configure anything as the agent is now enabled
18106 by default (@pxref{Agent Variables, gnus-agent}).
18108 Of course, to use it as such, you have to learn a few new commands.
18111 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
18112 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
18113 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
18114 * Agent Visuals:: Ways that the agent may effect your summary buffer.
18115 * Agent as Cache:: The Agent is a big cache too.
18116 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
18117 * Agent Regeneration:: How to recover from lost connections and other accidents.
18118 * Agent and flags:: How the Agent maintains flags.
18119 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with @acronym{IMAP}.
18120 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
18121 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
18122 * Example Setup:: An example @file{~/.gnus.el} file for offline people.
18123 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
18124 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
18129 @subsection Agent Basics
18131 First, let's get some terminology out of the way.
18133 The Gnus Agent is said to be @dfn{unplugged} when you have severed the
18134 connection to the net (and notified the Agent that this is the case).
18135 When the connection to the net is up again (and Gnus knows this), the
18136 Agent is @dfn{plugged}.
18138 The @dfn{local} machine is the one you're running on, and which isn't
18139 connected to the net continuously.
18141 @dfn{Downloading} means fetching things from the net to your local
18142 machine. @dfn{Uploading} is doing the opposite.
18144 You know that Gnus gives you all the opportunity you'd ever want for
18145 shooting yourself in the foot. Some people call it flexibility. Gnus
18146 is also customizable to a great extent, which means that the user has a
18147 say on how Gnus behaves. Other newsreaders might unconditionally shoot
18148 you in your foot, but with Gnus, you have a choice!
18150 Gnus is never really in plugged or unplugged state. Rather, it applies
18151 that state to each server individually. This means that some servers
18152 can be plugged while others can be unplugged. Additionally, some
18153 servers can be ignored by the Agent altogether (which means that
18154 they're kinda like plugged always).
18156 So when you unplug the Agent and then wonder why is Gnus opening a
18157 connection to the Net, the next step to do is to look whether all
18158 servers are agentized. If there is an unagentized server, you found
18161 Another thing is the @dfn{offline} state. Sometimes, servers aren't
18162 reachable. When Gnus notices this, it asks you whether you want the
18163 server to be switched to offline state. If you say yes, then the
18164 server will behave somewhat as if it was unplugged, except that Gnus
18165 will ask you whether you want to switch it back online again.
18167 Let's take a typical Gnus session using the Agent.
18172 @findex gnus-unplugged
18173 You start Gnus with @code{gnus-unplugged}. This brings up the Gnus
18174 Agent in a disconnected state. You can read all the news that you have
18175 already fetched while in this mode.
18178 You then decide to see whether any new news has arrived. You connect
18179 your machine to the net (using PPP or whatever), and then hit @kbd{J j}
18180 to make Gnus become @dfn{plugged} and use @kbd{g} to check for new mail
18181 as usual. To check for new mail in unplugged mode (@pxref{Mail
18182 Source Specifiers}).
18185 You can then read the new news immediately, or you can download the
18186 news onto your local machine. If you want to do the latter, you press
18187 @kbd{g} to check if there are any new news and then @kbd{J s} to fetch
18188 all the eligible articles in all the groups. (To let Gnus know which
18189 articles you want to download, @pxref{Agent Categories}).
18192 After fetching the articles, you press @kbd{J j} to make Gnus become
18193 unplugged again, and you shut down the PPP thing (or whatever). And
18194 then you read the news offline.
18197 And then you go to step 2.
18200 Here are some things you should do the first time (or so) that you use
18206 Decide which servers should be covered by the Agent. If you have a mail
18207 back end, it would probably be nonsensical to have it covered by the
18208 Agent. Go to the server buffer (@kbd{^} in the group buffer) and press
18209 @kbd{J a} on the server (or servers) that you wish to have covered by the
18210 Agent (@pxref{Server Agent Commands}), or @kbd{J r} on automatically
18211 added servers you do not wish to have covered by the Agent. By default,
18212 no servers are agentized.
18215 Decide on download policy. It's fairly simple once you decide whether
18216 you are going to use agent categories, topic parameters, and/or group
18217 parameters to implement your policy. If you're new to gnus, it
18218 is probably best to start with a category, @xref{Agent Categories}.
18220 Both topic parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}) and agent categories
18221 (@pxref{Agent Categories}) provide for setting a policy that applies
18222 to multiple groups. Which you use is entirely up to you. Topic
18223 parameters do override categories so, if you mix the two, you'll have
18224 to take that into account. If you have a few groups that deviate from
18225 your policy, you can use group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to
18229 Uhm@dots{} that's it.
18233 @node Agent Categories
18234 @subsection Agent Categories
18236 One of the main reasons to integrate the news transport layer into the
18237 newsreader is to allow greater control over what articles to download.
18238 There's not much point in downloading huge amounts of articles, just to
18239 find out that you're not interested in reading any of them. It's better
18240 to be somewhat more conservative in choosing what to download, and then
18241 mark the articles for downloading manually if it should turn out that
18242 you're interested in the articles anyway.
18244 One of the more effective methods for controlling what is to be
18245 downloaded is to create a @dfn{category} and then assign some (or all)
18246 groups to this category. Groups that do not belong in any other
18247 category belong to the @code{default} category. Gnus has its own
18248 buffer for creating and managing categories.
18250 If you prefer, you can also use group parameters (@pxref{Group
18251 Parameters}) and topic parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}) for an
18252 alternative approach to controlling the agent. The only real
18253 difference is that categories are specific to the agent (so there is
18254 less to learn) while group and topic parameters include the kitchen
18257 Since you can set agent parameters in several different places we have
18258 a rule to decide which source to believe. This rule specifies that
18259 the parameter sources are checked in the following order: group
18260 parameters, topic parameters, agent category, and finally customizable
18261 variables. So you can mix all of these sources to produce a wide range
18262 of behavior, just don't blame me if you don't remember where you put
18266 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
18267 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
18268 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
18272 @node Category Syntax
18273 @subsubsection Category Syntax
18275 A category consists of a name, the list of groups belonging to the
18276 category, and a number of optional parameters that override the
18277 customizable variables. The complete list of agent parameters are
18280 @cindex Agent Parameters
18283 The list of groups that are in this category.
18285 @item agent-predicate
18286 A predicate which (generally) gives a rough outline of which articles
18287 are eligible for downloading; and
18290 a score rule which (generally) gives you a finer granularity when
18291 deciding what articles to download. (Note that this @dfn{download
18292 score} is not necessarily related to normal scores.)
18294 @item agent-enable-expiration
18295 a boolean indicating whether the agent should expire old articles in
18296 this group. Most groups should be expired to conserve disk space. In
18297 fact, its probably safe to say that the gnus.* hierarchy contains the
18298 only groups that should not be expired.
18300 @item agent-days-until-old
18301 an integer indicating the number of days that the agent should wait
18302 before deciding that a read article is safe to expire.
18304 @item agent-low-score
18305 an integer that overrides the value of @code{gnus-agent-low-score}.
18307 @item agent-high-score
18308 an integer that overrides the value of @code{gnus-agent-high-score}.
18310 @item agent-short-article
18311 an integer that overrides the value of
18312 @code{gnus-agent-short-article}.
18314 @item agent-long-article
18315 an integer that overrides the value of @code{gnus-agent-long-article}.
18317 @item agent-enable-undownloaded-faces
18318 a symbol indicating whether the summary buffer should display
18319 undownloaded articles using the @code{gnus-summary-*-undownloaded-face}
18320 faces. Any symbol other than @code{nil} will enable the use of
18321 undownloaded faces.
18324 The name of a category can not be changed once the category has been
18327 Each category maintains a list of groups that are exclusive members of
18328 that category. The exclusivity rule is automatically enforced, add a
18329 group to a new category and it is automatically removed from its old
18332 A predicate in its simplest form can be a single predicate such as
18333 @code{true} or @code{false}. These two will download every available
18334 article or nothing respectively. In the case of these two special
18335 predicates an additional score rule is superfluous.
18337 Predicates of @code{high} or @code{low} download articles in respect of
18338 their scores in relationship to @code{gnus-agent-high-score} and
18339 @code{gnus-agent-low-score} as described below.
18341 To gain even finer control of what is to be regarded eligible for
18342 download a predicate can consist of a number of predicates with logical
18343 operators sprinkled in between.
18345 Perhaps some examples are in order.
18347 Here's a simple predicate. (It's the default predicate, in fact, used
18348 for all groups that don't belong to any other category.)
18354 Quite simple, eh? This predicate is true if and only if the article is
18355 short (for some value of ``short'').
18357 Here's a more complex predicate:
18366 This means that an article should be downloaded if it has a high score,
18367 or if the score is not low and the article is not long. You get the
18370 The available logical operators are @code{or}, @code{and} and
18371 @code{not}. (If you prefer, you can use the more ``C''-ish operators
18372 @samp{|}, @code{&} and @code{!} instead.)
18374 The following predicates are pre-defined, but if none of these fit what
18375 you want to do, you can write your own.
18377 When evaluating each of these predicates, the named constant will be
18378 bound to the value determined by calling
18379 @code{gnus-agent-find-parameter} on the appropriate parameter. For
18380 example, gnus-agent-short-article will be bound to
18381 @code{(gnus-agent-find-parameter group 'agent-short-article)}. This
18382 means that you can specify a predicate in your category then tune that
18383 predicate to individual groups.
18387 True if the article is shorter than @code{gnus-agent-short-article}
18388 lines; default 100.
18391 True if the article is longer than @code{gnus-agent-long-article}
18392 lines; default 200.
18395 True if the article has a download score less than
18396 @code{gnus-agent-low-score}; default 0.
18399 True if the article has a download score greater than
18400 @code{gnus-agent-high-score}; default 0.
18403 True if the Gnus Agent guesses that the article is spam. The
18404 heuristics may change over time, but at present it just computes a
18405 checksum and sees whether articles match.
18414 If you want to create your own predicate function, here's what you have
18415 to know: The functions are called with no parameters, but the
18416 @code{gnus-headers} and @code{gnus-score} dynamic variables are bound to
18419 For example, you could decide that you don't want to download articles
18420 that were posted more than a certain number of days ago (e.g., posted
18421 more than @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} ago) you might write a function
18422 something along the lines of the following:
18425 (defun my-article-old-p ()
18426 "Say whether an article is old."
18427 (< (time-to-days (date-to-time (mail-header-date gnus-headers)))
18428 (- (time-to-days (current-time)) gnus-agent-expire-days)))
18431 with the predicate then defined as:
18434 (not my-article-old-p)
18437 or you could append your predicate to the predefined
18438 @code{gnus-category-predicate-alist} in your @file{~/.gnus.el} or
18442 (require 'gnus-agent)
18443 (setq gnus-category-predicate-alist
18444 (append gnus-category-predicate-alist
18445 '((old . my-article-old-p))))
18448 and simply specify your predicate as:
18454 If/when using something like the above, be aware that there are many
18455 misconfigured systems/mailers out there and so an article's date is not
18456 always a reliable indication of when it was posted. Hell, some people
18457 just don't give a damn.
18459 The above predicates apply to @emph{all} the groups which belong to the
18460 category. However, if you wish to have a specific predicate for an
18461 individual group within a category, or you're just too lazy to set up a
18462 new category, you can enter a group's individual predicate in its group
18463 parameters like so:
18466 (agent-predicate . short)
18469 This is the group/topic parameter equivalent of the agent category default.
18470 Note that when specifying a single word predicate like this, the
18471 @code{agent-predicate} specification must be in dotted pair notation.
18473 The equivalent of the longer example from above would be:
18476 (agent-predicate or high (and (not low) (not long)))
18479 The outer parenthesis required in the category specification are not
18480 entered here as, not being in dotted pair notation, the value of the
18481 predicate is assumed to be a list.
18484 Now, the syntax of the download score is the same as the syntax of
18485 normal score files, except that all elements that require actually
18486 seeing the article itself are verboten. This means that only the
18487 following headers can be scored on: @code{Subject}, @code{From},
18488 @code{Date}, @code{Message-ID}, @code{References}, @code{Chars},
18489 @code{Lines}, and @code{Xref}.
18491 As with predicates, the specification of the @code{download score rule}
18492 to use in respect of a group can be in either the category definition if
18493 it's to be applicable to all groups in therein, or a group's parameters
18494 if it's to be specific to that group.
18496 In both of these places the @code{download score rule} can take one of
18503 This has the same syntax as a normal Gnus score file except only a
18504 subset of scoring keywords are available as mentioned above.
18510 Category specification
18514 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
18520 Group/Topic Parameter specification
18523 (agent-score ("from"
18524 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
18529 Again, note the omission of the outermost parenthesis here.
18535 These score files must @emph{only} contain the permitted scoring
18536 keywords stated above.
18542 Category specification
18545 ("~/News/agent.SCORE")
18551 ("~/News/agent.SCORE" "~/News/agent.group.SCORE")
18555 Group Parameter specification
18558 (agent-score "~/News/agent.SCORE")
18561 Additional score files can be specified as above. Need I say anything
18566 Use @code{normal} score files
18568 If you don't want to maintain two sets of scoring rules for a group, and
18569 your desired @code{downloading} criteria for a group are the same as your
18570 @code{reading} criteria then you can tell the agent to refer to your
18571 @code{normal} score files when deciding what to download.
18573 These directives in either the category definition or a group's
18574 parameters will cause the agent to read in all the applicable score
18575 files for a group, @emph{filtering out} those sections that do not
18576 relate to one of the permitted subset of scoring keywords.
18580 Category Specification
18587 Group Parameter specification
18590 (agent-score . file)
18595 @node Category Buffer
18596 @subsubsection Category Buffer
18598 You'd normally do all category maintenance from the category buffer.
18599 When you enter it for the first time (with the @kbd{J c} command from
18600 the group buffer), you'll only see the @code{default} category.
18602 The following commands are available in this buffer:
18606 @kindex q (Category)
18607 @findex gnus-category-exit
18608 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-category-exit}).
18611 @kindex e (Category)
18612 @findex gnus-category-customize-category
18613 Use a customization buffer to set all of the selected category's
18614 parameters at one time (@code{gnus-category-customize-category}).
18617 @kindex k (Category)
18618 @findex gnus-category-kill
18619 Kill the current category (@code{gnus-category-kill}).
18622 @kindex c (Category)
18623 @findex gnus-category-copy
18624 Copy the current category (@code{gnus-category-copy}).
18627 @kindex a (Category)
18628 @findex gnus-category-add
18629 Add a new category (@code{gnus-category-add}).
18632 @kindex p (Category)
18633 @findex gnus-category-edit-predicate
18634 Edit the predicate of the current category
18635 (@code{gnus-category-edit-predicate}).
18638 @kindex g (Category)
18639 @findex gnus-category-edit-groups
18640 Edit the list of groups belonging to the current category
18641 (@code{gnus-category-edit-groups}).
18644 @kindex s (Category)
18645 @findex gnus-category-edit-score
18646 Edit the download score rule of the current category
18647 (@code{gnus-category-edit-score}).
18650 @kindex l (Category)
18651 @findex gnus-category-list
18652 List all the categories (@code{gnus-category-list}).
18656 @node Category Variables
18657 @subsubsection Category Variables
18660 @item gnus-category-mode-hook
18661 @vindex gnus-category-mode-hook
18662 Hook run in category buffers.
18664 @item gnus-category-line-format
18665 @vindex gnus-category-line-format
18666 Format of the lines in the category buffer (@pxref{Formatting
18667 Variables}). Valid elements are:
18671 The name of the category.
18674 The number of groups in the category.
18677 @item gnus-category-mode-line-format
18678 @vindex gnus-category-mode-line-format
18679 Format of the category mode line (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}).
18681 @item gnus-agent-short-article
18682 @vindex gnus-agent-short-article
18683 Articles that have fewer lines than this are short. Default 100.
18685 @item gnus-agent-long-article
18686 @vindex gnus-agent-long-article
18687 Articles that have more lines than this are long. Default 200.
18689 @item gnus-agent-low-score
18690 @vindex gnus-agent-low-score
18691 Articles that have a score lower than this have a low score. Default
18694 @item gnus-agent-high-score
18695 @vindex gnus-agent-high-score
18696 Articles that have a score higher than this have a high score. Default
18699 @item gnus-agent-expire-days
18700 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-days
18701 The number of days that a @samp{read} article must stay in the agent's
18702 local disk before becoming eligible for expiration (While the name is
18703 the same, this doesn't mean expiring the article on the server. It
18704 just means deleting the local copy of the article). What is also
18705 important to understand is that the counter starts with the time the
18706 article was written to the local disk and not the time the article was
18710 @item gnus-agent-enable-expiration
18711 @vindex gnus-agent-enable-expiration
18712 Determines whether articles in a group are, by default, expired or
18713 retained indefinitely. The default is @code{ENABLE} which means that
18714 you'll have to disable expiration when desired. On the other hand,
18715 you could set this to @code{DISABLE}. In that case, you would then
18716 have to enable expiration in selected groups.
18721 @node Agent Commands
18722 @subsection Agent Commands
18723 @findex gnus-agent-toggle-plugged
18724 @kindex J j (Agent)
18726 All the Gnus Agent commands are on the @kbd{J} submap. The @kbd{J j}
18727 (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-plugged}) command works in all modes, and
18728 toggles the plugged/unplugged state of the Gnus Agent.
18732 * Group Agent Commands:: Configure groups and fetch their contents.
18733 * Summary Agent Commands:: Manually select then fetch specific articles.
18734 * Server Agent Commands:: Select the servers that are supported by the agent.
18740 @node Group Agent Commands
18741 @subsubsection Group Agent Commands
18745 @kindex J u (Agent Group)
18746 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-groups
18747 Fetch all eligible articles in the current group
18748 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-groups}).
18751 @kindex J c (Agent Group)
18752 @findex gnus-enter-category-buffer
18753 Enter the Agent category buffer (@code{gnus-enter-category-buffer}).
18756 @kindex J s (Agent Group)
18757 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-session
18758 Fetch all eligible articles in all groups
18759 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-session}).
18762 @kindex J S (Agent Group)
18763 @findex gnus-group-send-queue
18764 Send all sendable messages in the queue group
18765 (@code{gnus-group-send-queue}). @xref{Drafts}.
18768 @kindex J a (Agent Group)
18769 @findex gnus-agent-add-group
18770 Add the current group to an Agent category
18771 (@code{gnus-agent-add-group}). This command understands the
18772 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
18775 @kindex J r (Agent Group)
18776 @findex gnus-agent-remove-group
18777 Remove the current group from its category, if any
18778 (@code{gnus-agent-remove-group}). This command understands the
18779 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
18782 @kindex J Y (Agent Group)
18783 @findex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
18784 Synchronize flags changed while unplugged with remote server, if any.
18790 @node Summary Agent Commands
18791 @subsubsection Summary Agent Commands
18795 @kindex J # (Agent Summary)
18796 @findex gnus-agent-mark-article
18797 Mark the article for downloading (@code{gnus-agent-mark-article}).
18800 @kindex J M-# (Agent Summary)
18801 @findex gnus-agent-unmark-article
18802 Remove the downloading mark from the article
18803 (@code{gnus-agent-unmark-article}).
18807 @kindex @@ (Agent Summary)
18808 @findex gnus-agent-toggle-mark
18809 Toggle whether to download the article
18810 (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-mark}). The download mark is @samp{%} by
18814 @kindex J c (Agent Summary)
18815 @findex gnus-agent-catchup
18816 Mark all articles as read (@code{gnus-agent-catchup}) that are neither cached, downloaded, nor downloadable.
18819 @kindex J S (Agent Summary)
18820 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-group
18821 Download all eligible (@pxref{Agent Categories}) articles in this group.
18822 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-group}).
18825 @kindex J s (Agent Summary)
18826 @findex gnus-agent-summary-fetch-series
18827 Download all processable articles in this group.
18828 (@code{gnus-agent-summary-fetch-series}).
18831 @kindex J u (Agent Summary)
18832 @findex gnus-agent-summary-fetch-group
18833 Download all downloadable articles in the current group
18834 (@code{gnus-agent-summary-fetch-group}).
18839 @node Server Agent Commands
18840 @subsubsection Server Agent Commands
18844 @kindex J a (Agent Server)
18845 @findex gnus-agent-add-server
18846 Add the current server to the list of servers covered by the Gnus Agent
18847 (@code{gnus-agent-add-server}).
18850 @kindex J r (Agent Server)
18851 @findex gnus-agent-remove-server
18852 Remove the current server from the list of servers covered by the Gnus
18853 Agent (@code{gnus-agent-remove-server}).
18858 @node Agent Visuals
18859 @subsection Agent Visuals
18861 If you open a summary while unplugged and, Gnus knows from the group's
18862 active range that there are more articles than the headers currently
18863 stored in the Agent, you may see some articles whose subject looks
18864 something like @samp{[Undownloaded article #####]}. These are
18865 placeholders for the missing headers. Aside from setting a mark,
18866 there is not much that can be done with one of these placeholders.
18867 When Gnus finally gets a chance to fetch the group's headers, the
18868 placeholders will automatically be replaced by the actual headers.
18869 You can configure the summary buffer's maneuvering to skip over the
18870 placeholders if you care (See @code{gnus-auto-goto-ignores}).
18872 While it may be obvious to all, the only headers and articles
18873 available while unplugged are those headers and articles that were
18874 fetched into the Agent while previously plugged. To put it another
18875 way, ``If you forget to fetch something while plugged, you might have a
18876 less than satisfying unplugged session''. For this reason, the Agent
18877 adds two visual effects to your summary buffer. These effects display
18878 the download status of each article so that you always know which
18879 articles will be available when unplugged.
18881 The first visual effect is the @samp{%O} spec. If you customize
18882 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} to include this specifier, you will add
18883 a single character field that indicates an article's download status.
18884 Articles that have been fetched into either the Agent or the Cache,
18885 will display @code{gnus-downloaded-mark} (defaults to @samp{+}). All
18886 other articles will display @code{gnus-undownloaded-mark} (defaults to
18887 @samp{-}). If you open a group that has not been agentized, a space
18888 (@samp{ }) will be displayed.
18890 The second visual effect are the undownloaded faces. The faces, there
18891 are three indicating the article's score (low, normal, high), seem to
18892 result in a love/hate response from many Gnus users. The problem is
18893 that the face selection is controlled by a list of condition tests and
18894 face names (See @code{gnus-summary-highlight}). Each condition is
18895 tested in the order in which it appears in the list so early
18896 conditions have precedence over later conditions. All of this means
18897 that, if you tick an undownloaded article, the article will continue
18898 to be displayed in the undownloaded face rather than the ticked face.
18900 If you use the Agent as a cache (to avoid downloading the same article
18901 each time you visit it or to minimize your connection time), the
18902 undownloaded face will probably seem like a good idea. The reason
18903 being that you do all of our work (marking, reading, deleting) with
18904 downloaded articles so the normal faces always appear. For those
18905 users using the agent to improve online performance by caching the NOV
18906 database (most users since 5.10.2), the undownloaded faces may appear
18907 to be an absolutely horrible idea. The issue being that, since none
18908 of their articles have been fetched into the Agent, all of the
18909 normal faces will be obscured by the undownloaded faces.
18911 If you would like to use the undownloaded faces, you must enable the
18912 undownloaded faces by setting the @code{agent-enable-undownloaded-faces}
18913 group parameter to @code{t}. This parameter, like all other agent
18914 parameters, may be set on an Agent Category (@pxref{Agent Categories}),
18915 a Group Topic (@pxref{Topic Parameters}), or an individual group
18916 (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
18918 The one problem common to all users using the agent is how quickly it
18919 can consume disk space. If you using the agent on many groups, it is
18920 even more difficult to effectively recover disk space. One solution
18921 is the @samp{%F} format available in @code{gnus-group-line-format}.
18922 This format will display the actual disk space used by articles
18923 fetched into both the agent and cache. By knowing which groups use
18924 the most space, users know where to focus their efforts when ``agent
18925 expiring'' articles.
18927 @node Agent as Cache
18928 @subsection Agent as Cache
18930 When Gnus is plugged, it is not efficient to download headers or
18931 articles from the server again, if they are already stored in the
18932 Agent. So, Gnus normally only downloads headers once, and stores them
18933 in the Agent. These headers are later used when generating the summary
18934 buffer, regardless of whether you are plugged or unplugged. Articles
18935 are not cached in the Agent by default though (that would potentially
18936 consume lots of disk space), but if you have already downloaded an
18937 article into the Agent, Gnus will not download the article from the
18938 server again but use the locally stored copy instead.
18940 If you so desire, you can configure the agent (see @code{gnus-agent-cache}
18941 @pxref{Agent Variables}) to always download headers and articles while
18942 plugged. Gnus will almost certainly be slower, but it will be kept
18943 synchronized with the server. That last point probably won't make any
18944 sense if you are using a nntp or nnimap back end.
18947 @subsection Agent Expiry
18949 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-days
18950 @findex gnus-agent-expire
18951 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-expire
18952 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-expire-group
18953 @findex gnus-agent-expire-group
18954 @cindex agent expiry
18955 @cindex Gnus agent expiry
18956 @cindex expiry, in Gnus agent
18958 The Agent back end, @code{nnagent}, doesn't handle expiry. Well, at
18959 least it doesn't handle it like other back ends. Instead, there are
18960 special @code{gnus-agent-expire} and @code{gnus-agent-expire-group}
18961 commands that will expire all read articles that are older than
18962 @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} days. They can be run whenever you feel
18963 that you're running out of space. Neither are particularly fast or
18964 efficient, and it's not a particularly good idea to interrupt them (with
18965 @kbd{C-g} or anything else) once you've started one of them.
18967 Note that other functions might run @code{gnus-agent-expire} for you
18968 to keep the agent synchronized with the group.
18970 The agent parameter @code{agent-enable-expiration} may be used to
18971 prevent expiration in selected groups.
18973 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-all
18974 If @code{gnus-agent-expire-all} is non-@code{nil}, the agent
18975 expiration commands will expire all articles---unread, read, ticked
18976 and dormant. If @code{nil} (which is the default), only read articles
18977 are eligible for expiry, and unread, ticked and dormant articles will
18978 be kept indefinitely.
18980 If you find that some articles eligible for expiry are never expired,
18981 perhaps some Gnus Agent files are corrupted. There's are special
18982 commands, @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} and
18983 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group}, to fix possible problems.
18985 @node Agent Regeneration
18986 @subsection Agent Regeneration
18988 @cindex agent regeneration
18989 @cindex Gnus agent regeneration
18990 @cindex regeneration
18992 The local data structures used by @code{nnagent} may become corrupted
18993 due to certain exceptional conditions. When this happens,
18994 @code{nnagent} functionality may degrade or even fail. The solution
18995 to this problem is to repair the local data structures by removing all
18996 internal inconsistencies.
18998 For example, if your connection to your server is lost while
18999 downloaded articles into the agent, the local data structures will not
19000 know about articles successfully downloaded prior to the connection
19001 failure. Running @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} or
19002 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} will update the data structures
19003 such that you don't need to download these articles a second time.
19005 @findex gnus-agent-regenerate
19006 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-regenerate
19007 The command @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} will perform
19008 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} on every agentized group. While
19009 you can run @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} in any buffer, it is strongly
19010 recommended that you first close all summary buffers.
19012 @findex gnus-agent-regenerate-group
19013 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-regenerate-group
19014 The command @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} uses the local copies
19015 of individual articles to repair the local @acronym{NOV}(header) database. It
19016 then updates the internal data structures that document which articles
19017 are stored locally. An optional argument will mark articles in the
19020 @node Agent and flags
19021 @subsection Agent and flags
19023 The Agent works with any Gnus back end including those, such as
19024 nnimap, that store flags (read, ticked, etc.)@: on the server. Sadly,
19025 the Agent does not actually know which backends keep their flags in
19026 the backend server rather than in @file{.newsrc}. This means that the
19027 Agent, while unplugged or disconnected, will always record all changes
19028 to the flags in its own files.
19030 When you plug back in, Gnus will then check to see if you have any
19031 changed any flags and ask if you wish to synchronize these with the
19032 server. This behavior is customizable by @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags}.
19034 @vindex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
19035 If @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} is @code{nil}, the Agent will
19036 never automatically synchronize flags. If it is @code{ask}, which is
19037 the default, the Agent will check if you made any changes and if so
19038 ask if you wish to synchronize these when you re-connect. If it has
19039 any other value, all flags will be synchronized automatically.
19041 If you do not wish to synchronize flags automatically when you
19042 re-connect, you can do it manually with the
19043 @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} command that is bound to @kbd{J Y}
19044 in the group buffer.
19046 Technical note: the synchronization algorithm does not work by ``pushing''
19047 all local flags to the server, but rather by incrementally updated the
19048 server view of flags by changing only those flags that were changed by
19049 the user. Thus, if you set one flag on an article, quit the group then
19050 re-select the group and remove the flag; the flag will be set and
19051 removed from the server when you ``synchronize''. The queued flag
19052 operations can be found in the per-server @code{flags} file in the Agent
19053 directory. It's emptied when you synchronize flags.
19055 @node Agent and IMAP
19056 @subsection Agent and IMAP
19058 The Agent works with any Gnus back end, including nnimap. However,
19059 since there are some conceptual differences between @acronym{NNTP} and
19060 @acronym{IMAP}, this section (should) provide you with some information to
19061 make Gnus Agent work smoother as a @acronym{IMAP} Disconnected Mode client.
19063 Some things are currently not implemented in the Agent that you'd might
19064 expect from a disconnected @acronym{IMAP} client, including:
19069 Copying/moving articles into nnimap groups when unplugged.
19072 Creating/deleting nnimap groups when unplugged.
19076 @node Outgoing Messages
19077 @subsection Outgoing Messages
19079 By default, when Gnus is unplugged, all outgoing messages (both mail
19080 and news) are stored in the draft group ``queue'' (@pxref{Drafts}).
19081 You can view them there after posting, and edit them at will.
19083 You can control the circumstances under which outgoing mail is queued
19084 (see @code{gnus-agent-queue-mail}, @pxref{Agent Variables}). Outgoing
19085 news is always queued when Gnus is unplugged, and never otherwise.
19087 You can send the messages either from the draft group with the special
19088 commands available there, or you can use the @kbd{J S} command in the
19089 group buffer to send all the sendable messages in the draft group.
19090 Posting news will only work when Gnus is plugged, but you can send
19093 If sending mail while unplugged does not work for you and you worry
19094 about hitting @kbd{J S} by accident when unplugged, you can have Gnus
19095 ask you to confirm your action (see
19096 @code{gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue}, @pxref{Agent Variables}).
19098 @node Agent Variables
19099 @subsection Agent Variables
19104 Is the agent enabled? The default is @code{t}. When first enabled,
19105 the agent will use @code{gnus-agent-auto-agentize-methods} to
19106 automatically mark some back ends as agentized. You may change which
19107 back ends are agentized using the agent commands in the server buffer.
19109 To enter the server buffer, use the @kbd{^}
19110 (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}) command in the group buffer.
19113 @item gnus-agent-directory
19114 @vindex gnus-agent-directory
19115 Where the Gnus Agent will store its files. The default is
19116 @file{~/News/agent/}.
19118 @item gnus-agent-handle-level
19119 @vindex gnus-agent-handle-level
19120 Groups on levels (@pxref{Group Levels}) higher than this variable will
19121 be ignored by the Agent. The default is @code{gnus-level-subscribed},
19122 which means that only subscribed group will be considered by the Agent
19125 @item gnus-agent-plugged-hook
19126 @vindex gnus-agent-plugged-hook
19127 Hook run when connecting to the network.
19129 @item gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
19130 @vindex gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
19131 Hook run when disconnecting from the network.
19133 @item gnus-agent-fetched-hook
19134 @vindex gnus-agent-fetched-hook
19135 Hook run when finished fetching articles.
19137 @item gnus-agent-cache
19138 @vindex gnus-agent-cache
19139 Variable to control whether use the locally stored @acronym{NOV} and
19140 articles when plugged, e.g., essentially using the Agent as a cache.
19141 The default is non-@code{nil}, which means to use the Agent as a cache.
19143 @item gnus-agent-go-online
19144 @vindex gnus-agent-go-online
19145 If @code{gnus-agent-go-online} is @code{nil}, the Agent will never
19146 automatically switch offline servers into online status. If it is
19147 @code{ask}, the default, the Agent will ask if you wish to switch
19148 offline servers into online status when you re-connect. If it has any
19149 other value, all offline servers will be automatically switched into
19152 @item gnus-agent-mark-unread-after-downloaded
19153 @vindex gnus-agent-mark-unread-after-downloaded
19154 If @code{gnus-agent-mark-unread-after-downloaded} is non-@code{nil},
19155 mark articles as unread after downloading. This is usually a safe
19156 thing to do as the newly downloaded article has obviously not been
19157 read. The default is @code{t}.
19159 @item gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
19160 @vindex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
19161 If @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} is @code{nil}, the Agent will
19162 never automatically synchronize flags. If it is @code{ask}, which is
19163 the default, the Agent will check if you made any changes and if so
19164 ask if you wish to synchronize these when you re-connect. If it has
19165 any other value, all flags will be synchronized automatically.
19167 @item gnus-agent-consider-all-articles
19168 @vindex gnus-agent-consider-all-articles
19169 If @code{gnus-agent-consider-all-articles} is non-@code{nil}, the
19170 agent will let the agent predicate decide whether articles need to be
19171 downloaded or not, for all articles. When @code{nil}, the default,
19172 the agent will only let the predicate decide whether unread articles
19173 are downloaded or not. If you enable this, you may also want to look
19174 into the agent expiry settings (@pxref{Category Variables}), so that
19175 the agent doesn't download articles which the agent will later expire,
19176 over and over again.
19178 @item gnus-agent-max-fetch-size
19179 @vindex gnus-agent-max-fetch-size
19180 The agent fetches articles into a temporary buffer prior to parsing
19181 them into individual files. To avoid exceeding the max. buffer size,
19182 the agent alternates between fetching and parsing until all articles
19183 have been fetched. @code{gnus-agent-max-fetch-size} provides a size
19184 limit to control how often the cycling occurs. A large value improves
19185 performance. A small value minimizes the time lost should the
19186 connection be lost while fetching (You may need to run
19187 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} to update the group's state.
19188 However, all articles parsed prior to losing the connection will be
19189 available while unplugged). The default is 10M so it is unusual to
19192 @item gnus-server-unopen-status
19193 @vindex gnus-server-unopen-status
19194 Perhaps not an Agent variable, but closely related to the Agent, this
19195 variable says what will happen if Gnus cannot open a server. If the
19196 Agent is enabled, the default, @code{nil}, makes Gnus ask the user
19197 whether to deny the server or whether to unplug the agent. If the
19198 Agent is disabled, Gnus always simply deny the server. Other choices
19199 for this variable include @code{denied} and @code{offline} the latter
19200 is only valid if the Agent is used.
19202 @item gnus-auto-goto-ignores
19203 @vindex gnus-auto-goto-ignores
19204 Another variable that isn't an Agent variable, yet so closely related
19205 that most will look for it here, this variable tells the summary
19206 buffer how to maneuver around undownloaded (only headers stored in the
19207 agent) and unfetched (neither article nor headers stored) articles.
19209 The valid values are @code{nil} (maneuver to any article),
19210 @code{undownloaded} (maneuvering while unplugged ignores articles that
19211 have not been fetched), @code{always-undownloaded} (maneuvering always
19212 ignores articles that have not been fetched), @code{unfetched}
19213 (maneuvering ignores articles whose headers have not been fetched).
19215 @item gnus-agent-queue-mail
19216 @vindex gnus-agent-queue-mail
19217 When @code{gnus-agent-queue-mail} is @code{always}, Gnus will always
19218 queue mail rather than sending it straight away. When @code{t}, Gnus
19219 will queue mail when unplugged only. When @code{nil}, never queue
19220 mail. The default is @code{t}.
19222 @item gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue
19223 @vindex gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue
19224 When @code{gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue} is non-@code{nil} Gnus will
19225 prompt you to confirm that you really wish to proceed if you hit
19226 @kbd{J S} while unplugged. The default is @code{nil}.
19228 @item gnus-agent-auto-agentize-methods
19229 @vindex gnus-agent-auto-agentize-methods
19230 If you have never used the Agent before (or more technically, if
19231 @file{~/News/agent/lib/servers} does not exist), Gnus will
19232 automatically agentize a few servers for you. This variable control
19233 which back ends should be auto-agentized. It is typically only useful
19234 to agentize remote back ends. The auto-agentizing has the same effect
19235 as running @kbd{J a} on the servers (@pxref{Server Agent Commands}).
19236 If the file exist, you must manage the servers manually by adding or
19237 removing them, this variable is only applicable the first time you
19238 start Gnus. The default is @samp{nil}.
19243 @node Example Setup
19244 @subsection Example Setup
19246 If you don't want to read this manual, and you have a fairly standard
19247 setup, you may be able to use something like the following as your
19248 @file{~/.gnus.el} file to get started.
19251 ;; @r{Define how Gnus is to fetch news. We do this over @acronym{NNTP}}
19252 ;; @r{from your ISP's server.}
19253 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.your-isp.com"))
19255 ;; @r{Define how Gnus is to read your mail. We read mail from}
19256 ;; @r{your ISP's @acronym{POP} server.}
19257 (setq mail-sources '((pop :server "pop.your-isp.com")))
19259 ;; @r{Say how Gnus is to store the mail. We use nnml groups.}
19260 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
19262 ;; @r{Make Gnus into an offline newsreader.}
19263 ;; (gnus-agentize) ; @r{The obsolete setting.}
19264 ;; (setq gnus-agent t) ; @r{Now the default.}
19267 That should be it, basically. Put that in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file,
19268 edit to suit your needs, start up PPP (or whatever), and type @kbd{M-x
19271 If this is the first time you've run Gnus, you will be subscribed
19272 automatically to a few default newsgroups. You'll probably want to
19273 subscribe to more groups, and to do that, you have to query the
19274 @acronym{NNTP} server for a complete list of groups with the @kbd{A A}
19275 command. This usually takes quite a while, but you only have to do it
19278 After reading and parsing a while, you'll be presented with a list of
19279 groups. Subscribe to the ones you want to read with the @kbd{u}
19280 command. @kbd{l} to make all the killed groups disappear after you've
19281 subscribe to all the groups you want to read. (@kbd{A k} will bring
19282 back all the killed groups.)
19284 You can now read the groups at once, or you can download the articles
19285 with the @kbd{J s} command. And then read the rest of this manual to
19286 find out which of the other gazillion things you want to customize.
19289 @node Batching Agents
19290 @subsection Batching Agents
19291 @findex gnus-agent-batch
19293 Having the Gnus Agent fetch articles (and post whatever messages you've
19294 written) is quite easy once you've gotten things set up properly. The
19295 following shell script will do everything that is necessary:
19297 You can run a complete batch command from the command line with the
19298 following incantation:
19302 emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-agent-batch >/dev/null 2>&1
19306 @node Agent Caveats
19307 @subsection Agent Caveats
19309 The Gnus Agent doesn't seem to work like most other offline
19310 newsreaders. Here are some common questions that some imaginary people
19314 @item If I read an article while plugged, do they get entered into the Agent?
19316 @strong{No}. If you want this behavior, add
19317 @code{gnus-agent-fetch-selected-article} to
19318 @code{gnus-select-article-hook}.
19320 @item If I read an article while plugged, and the article already exists in
19321 the Agent, will it get downloaded once more?
19323 @strong{No}, unless @code{gnus-agent-cache} is @code{nil}.
19327 In short, when Gnus is unplugged, it only looks into the locally stored
19328 articles; when it's plugged, it talks to your ISP and may also use the
19329 locally stored articles.
19336 Other people use @dfn{kill files}, but we here at Gnus Towers like
19337 scoring better than killing, so we'd rather switch than fight. They do
19338 something completely different as well, so sit up straight and pay
19341 @vindex gnus-summary-mark-below
19342 All articles have a default score (@code{gnus-summary-default-score}),
19343 which is 0 by default. This score may be raised or lowered either
19344 interactively or by score files. Articles that have a score lower than
19345 @code{gnus-summary-mark-below} are marked as read.
19347 Gnus will read any @dfn{score files} that apply to the current group
19348 before generating the summary buffer.
19350 There are several commands in the summary buffer that insert score
19351 entries based on the current article. You can, for instance, ask Gnus to
19352 lower or increase the score of all articles with a certain subject.
19354 There are two sorts of scoring entries: Permanent and temporary.
19355 Temporary score entries are self-expiring entries. Any entries that are
19356 temporary and have not been used for, say, a week, will be removed
19357 silently to help keep the sizes of the score files down.
19360 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
19361 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
19362 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
19363 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
19364 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
19365 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
19366 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
19367 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
19368 * Scoring On Other Headers:: Scoring on non-standard headers.
19369 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
19370 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
19371 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
19372 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
19373 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
19374 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
19375 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
19379 @node Summary Score Commands
19380 @section Summary Score Commands
19381 @cindex score commands
19383 The score commands that alter score entries do not actually modify real
19384 score files. That would be too inefficient. Gnus maintains a cache of
19385 previously loaded score files, one of which is considered the
19386 @dfn{current score file alist}. The score commands simply insert
19387 entries into this list, and upon group exit, this list is saved.
19389 The current score file is by default the group's local score file, even
19390 if no such score file actually exists. To insert score commands into
19391 some other score file (e.g., @file{all.SCORE}), you must first make this
19392 score file the current one.
19394 General score commands that don't actually change the score file:
19399 @kindex V s (Summary)
19400 @findex gnus-summary-set-score
19401 Set the score of the current article (@code{gnus-summary-set-score}).
19404 @kindex V S (Summary)
19405 @findex gnus-summary-current-score
19406 Display the score of the current article
19407 (@code{gnus-summary-current-score}).
19410 @kindex V t (Summary)
19411 @findex gnus-score-find-trace
19412 Display all score rules that have been used on the current article
19413 (@code{gnus-score-find-trace}). In the @code{*Score Trace*} buffer, you
19414 may type @kbd{e} to edit score file corresponding to the score rule on
19415 current line and @kbd{f} to format (@code{gnus-score-pretty-print}) the
19416 score file and edit it.
19419 @kindex V w (Summary)
19420 @findex gnus-score-find-favourite-words
19421 List words used in scoring (@code{gnus-score-find-favourite-words}).
19424 @kindex V R (Summary)
19425 @findex gnus-summary-rescore
19426 Run the current summary through the scoring process
19427 (@code{gnus-summary-rescore}). This might be useful if you're playing
19428 around with your score files behind Gnus' back and want to see the
19429 effect you're having.
19432 @kindex V c (Summary)
19433 @findex gnus-score-change-score-file
19434 Make a different score file the current
19435 (@code{gnus-score-change-score-file}).
19438 @kindex V e (Summary)
19439 @findex gnus-score-edit-current-scores
19440 Edit the current score file (@code{gnus-score-edit-current-scores}).
19441 You will be popped into a @code{gnus-score-mode} buffer (@pxref{Score
19445 @kindex V f (Summary)
19446 @findex gnus-score-edit-file
19447 Edit a score file and make this score file the current one
19448 (@code{gnus-score-edit-file}).
19451 @kindex V F (Summary)
19452 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
19453 Flush the score cache (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}). This is useful
19454 after editing score files.
19457 @kindex V C (Summary)
19458 @findex gnus-score-customize
19459 Customize a score file in a visually pleasing manner
19460 (@code{gnus-score-customize}).
19464 The rest of these commands modify the local score file.
19469 @kindex V m (Summary)
19470 @findex gnus-score-set-mark-below
19471 Prompt for a score, and mark all articles with a score below this as
19472 read (@code{gnus-score-set-mark-below}).
19475 @kindex V x (Summary)
19476 @findex gnus-score-set-expunge-below
19477 Prompt for a score, and add a score rule to the current score file to
19478 expunge all articles below this score
19479 (@code{gnus-score-set-expunge-below}).
19482 The keystrokes for actually making score entries follow a very regular
19483 pattern, so there's no need to list all the commands. (Hundreds of
19486 @findex gnus-summary-increase-score
19487 @findex gnus-summary-lower-score
19491 The first key is either @kbd{I} (upper case i) for increasing the score
19492 or @kbd{L} for lowering the score.
19494 The second key says what header you want to score on. The following
19495 keys are available:
19499 Score on the author name.
19502 Score on the subject line.
19505 Score on the @code{Xref} line---i.e., the cross-posting line.
19508 Score on the @code{References} line.
19514 Score on the number of lines.
19517 Score on the @code{Message-ID} header.
19520 Score on an ``extra'' header, that is, one of those in gnus-extra-headers,
19521 if your @acronym{NNTP} server tracks additional header data in overviews.
19524 Score on followups---this matches the author name, and adds scores to
19525 the followups to this author. (Using this key leads to the creation of
19526 @file{ADAPT} files.)
19535 Score on thread. (Using this key leads to the creation of @file{ADAPT}
19541 The third key is the match type. Which match types are valid depends on
19542 what headers you are scoring on.
19554 Substring matching.
19557 Fuzzy matching (@pxref{Fuzzy Matching}).
19586 Greater than number.
19591 The fourth and usually final key says whether this is a temporary (i.e.,
19592 expiring) score entry, or a permanent (i.e., non-expiring) score entry,
19593 or whether it is to be done immediately, without adding to the score
19598 Temporary score entry.
19601 Permanent score entry.
19604 Immediately scoring.
19608 If you are scoring on `e' (extra) headers, you will then be prompted for
19609 the header name on which you wish to score. This must be a header named
19610 in gnus-extra-headers, and @samp{TAB} completion is available.
19614 So, let's say you want to increase the score on the current author with
19615 exact matching permanently: @kbd{I a e p}. If you want to lower the
19616 score based on the subject line, using substring matching, and make a
19617 temporary score entry: @kbd{L s s t}. Pretty easy.
19619 To make things a bit more complicated, there are shortcuts. If you use
19620 a capital letter on either the second or third keys, Gnus will use
19621 defaults for the remaining one or two keystrokes. The defaults are
19622 ``substring'' and ``temporary''. So @kbd{I A} is the same as @kbd{I a s
19623 t}, and @kbd{I a R} is the same as @kbd{I a r t}.
19625 These functions take both the numerical prefix and the symbolic prefix
19626 (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}). A numerical prefix says how much to lower
19627 (or increase) the score of the article. A symbolic prefix of @code{a}
19628 says to use the @file{all.SCORE} file for the command instead of the
19629 current score file.
19631 @vindex gnus-score-mimic-keymap
19632 The @code{gnus-score-mimic-keymap} says whether these commands will
19633 pretend they are keymaps or not.
19636 @node Group Score Commands
19637 @section Group Score Commands
19638 @cindex group score commands
19640 There aren't many of these as yet, I'm afraid.
19645 @kindex W e (Group)
19646 @findex gnus-score-edit-all-score
19647 Edit the apply-to-all-groups all.SCORE file. You will be popped into
19648 a @code{gnus-score-mode} buffer (@pxref{Score File Editing}).
19651 @kindex W f (Group)
19652 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
19653 Gnus maintains a cache of score alists to avoid having to reload them
19654 all the time. This command will flush the cache
19655 (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}).
19659 You can do scoring from the command line by saying something like:
19661 @findex gnus-batch-score
19662 @cindex batch scoring
19664 $ emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-batch-score
19668 @node Score Variables
19669 @section Score Variables
19670 @cindex score variables
19674 @item gnus-use-scoring
19675 @vindex gnus-use-scoring
19676 If @code{nil}, Gnus will not check for score files, and will not, in
19677 general, do any score-related work. This is @code{t} by default.
19679 @item gnus-kill-killed
19680 @vindex gnus-kill-killed
19681 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will never apply score files to
19682 articles that have already been through the kill process. While this
19683 may save you lots of time, it also means that if you apply a kill file
19684 to a group, and then change the kill file and want to run it over you
19685 group again to kill more articles, it won't work. You have to set this
19686 variable to @code{t} to do that. (It is @code{t} by default.)
19688 @item gnus-kill-files-directory
19689 @vindex gnus-kill-files-directory
19690 All kill and score files will be stored in this directory, which is
19691 initialized from the @env{SAVEDIR} environment variable by default.
19692 This is @file{~/News/} by default.
19694 @item gnus-score-file-suffix
19695 @vindex gnus-score-file-suffix
19696 Suffix to add to the group name to arrive at the score file name
19697 (@file{SCORE} by default.)
19699 @item gnus-score-uncacheable-files
19700 @vindex gnus-score-uncacheable-files
19701 @cindex score cache
19702 All score files are normally cached to avoid excessive re-loading of
19703 score files. However, this might make your Emacs grow big and
19704 bloated, so this regexp can be used to weed out score files unlikely
19705 to be needed again. It would be a bad idea to deny caching of
19706 @file{all.SCORE}, while it might be a good idea to not cache
19707 @file{comp.infosystems.www.authoring.misc.ADAPT}. In fact, this
19708 variable is @samp{ADAPT$} by default, so no adaptive score files will
19711 @item gnus-save-score
19712 @vindex gnus-save-score
19713 If you have really complicated score files, and do lots of batch
19714 scoring, then you might set this variable to @code{t}. This will make
19715 Gnus save the scores into the @file{.newsrc.eld} file.
19717 If you do not set this to @code{t}, then manual scores (like those set
19718 with @kbd{V s} (@code{gnus-summary-set-score})) will not be preserved
19719 across group visits.
19721 @item gnus-score-interactive-default-score
19722 @vindex gnus-score-interactive-default-score
19723 Score used by all the interactive raise/lower commands to raise/lower
19724 score with. Default is 1000, which may seem excessive, but this is to
19725 ensure that the adaptive scoring scheme gets enough room to play with.
19726 We don't want the small changes from the adaptive scoring to overwrite
19727 manually entered data.
19729 @item gnus-summary-default-score
19730 @vindex gnus-summary-default-score
19731 Default score of an article, which is 0 by default.
19733 @item gnus-summary-expunge-below
19734 @vindex gnus-summary-expunge-below
19735 Don't display the summary lines of articles that have scores lower than
19736 this variable. This is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
19737 articles will be hidden. This variable is local to the summary buffers,
19738 and has to be set from @code{gnus-summary-mode-hook}.
19740 @item gnus-score-over-mark
19741 @vindex gnus-score-over-mark
19742 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score over the
19743 default. Default is @samp{+}.
19745 @item gnus-score-below-mark
19746 @vindex gnus-score-below-mark
19747 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score below the
19748 default. Default is @samp{-}.
19750 @item gnus-score-find-score-files-function
19751 @vindex gnus-score-find-score-files-function
19752 Function used to find score files for the current group. This function
19753 is called with the name of the group as the argument.
19755 Predefined functions available are:
19758 @item gnus-score-find-single
19759 @findex gnus-score-find-single
19760 Only apply the group's own score file.
19762 @item gnus-score-find-bnews
19763 @findex gnus-score-find-bnews
19764 Apply all score files that match, using bnews syntax. This is the
19765 default. If the current group is @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}, for instance,
19766 @file{all.emacs.all.SCORE}, @file{not.alt.all.SCORE} and
19767 @file{gnu.all.SCORE} would all apply. In short, the instances of
19768 @samp{all} in the score file names are translated into @samp{.*}, and
19769 then a regexp match is done.
19771 This means that if you have some score entries that you want to apply to
19772 all groups, then you put those entries in the @file{all.SCORE} file.
19774 The score files are applied in a semi-random order, although Gnus will
19775 try to apply the more general score files before the more specific score
19776 files. It does this by looking at the number of elements in the score
19777 file names---discarding the @samp{all} elements.
19779 @item gnus-score-find-hierarchical
19780 @findex gnus-score-find-hierarchical
19781 Apply all score files from all the parent groups. This means that you
19782 can't have score files like @file{all.SCORE}, but you can have
19783 @file{SCORE}, @file{comp.SCORE} and @file{comp.emacs.SCORE} for each
19787 This variable can also be a list of functions. In that case, all
19788 these functions will be called with the group name as argument, and
19789 all the returned lists of score files will be applied. These
19790 functions can also return lists of lists of score alists directly. In
19791 that case, the functions that return these non-file score alists
19792 should probably be placed before the ``real'' score file functions, to
19793 ensure that the last score file returned is the local score file.
19796 For example, to do hierarchical scoring but use a non-server-specific
19797 overall score file, you could use the value
19799 (list (lambda (group) ("all.SCORE"))
19800 'gnus-score-find-hierarchical)
19803 @item gnus-score-expiry-days
19804 @vindex gnus-score-expiry-days
19805 This variable says how many days should pass before an unused score file
19806 entry is expired. If this variable is @code{nil}, no score file entries
19807 are expired. It's 7 by default.
19809 @item gnus-update-score-entry-dates
19810 @vindex gnus-update-score-entry-dates
19811 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, temporary score entries that have
19812 been triggered (matched) will have their dates updated. (This is how Gnus
19813 controls expiry---all non-matched-entries will become too old while
19814 matched entries will stay fresh and young.) However, if you set this
19815 variable to @code{nil}, even matched entries will grow old and will
19816 have to face that oh-so grim reaper.
19818 @item gnus-score-after-write-file-function
19819 @vindex gnus-score-after-write-file-function
19820 Function called with the name of the score file just written.
19822 @item gnus-score-thread-simplify
19823 @vindex gnus-score-thread-simplify
19824 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, article subjects will be
19825 simplified for subject scoring purposes in the same manner as with
19826 threading---according to the current value of
19827 @code{gnus-simplify-subject-functions}. If the scoring entry uses
19828 @code{substring} or @code{exact} matching, the match will also be
19829 simplified in this manner.
19834 @node Score File Format
19835 @section Score File Format
19836 @cindex score file format
19838 A score file is an @code{emacs-lisp} file that normally contains just a
19839 single form. Casual users are not expected to edit these files;
19840 everything can be changed from the summary buffer.
19842 Anyway, if you'd like to dig into it yourself, here's an example:
19846 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" -10000)
19848 ("larsi\\|lmi" -50000 nil R))
19850 ("Ding is Badd" nil 728373))
19852 ("alt.politics" -1000 728372 s))
19857 (mark-and-expunge -10)
19861 (files "/hom/larsi/News/gnu.SCORE")
19862 (exclude-files "all.SCORE")
19863 (local (gnus-newsgroup-auto-expire t)
19864 (gnus-summary-make-false-root empty))
19868 This example demonstrates most score file elements. @xref{Advanced
19869 Scoring}, for a different approach.
19871 Even though this looks much like Lisp code, nothing here is actually
19872 @code{eval}ed. The Lisp reader is used to read this form, though, so it
19873 has to be valid syntactically, if not semantically.
19875 Six keys are supported by this alist:
19880 If the key is a string, it is the name of the header to perform the
19881 match on. Scoring can only be performed on these eight headers:
19882 @code{From}, @code{Subject}, @code{References}, @code{Message-ID},
19883 @code{Xref}, @code{Lines}, @code{Chars} and @code{Date}. In addition to
19884 these headers, there are three strings to tell Gnus to fetch the entire
19885 article and do the match on larger parts of the article: @code{Body}
19886 will perform the match on the body of the article, @code{Head} will
19887 perform the match on the head of the article, and @code{All} will
19888 perform the match on the entire article. Note that using any of these
19889 last three keys will slow down group entry @emph{considerably}. The
19890 final ``header'' you can score on is @code{Followup}. These score
19891 entries will result in new score entries being added for all follow-ups
19892 to articles that matches these score entries.
19894 Following this key is an arbitrary number of score entries, where each
19895 score entry has one to four elements.
19899 The first element is the @dfn{match element}. On most headers this will
19900 be a string, but on the Lines and Chars headers, this must be an
19904 If the second element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{score
19905 element}. This number should be an integer in the neginf to posinf
19906 interval. This number is added to the score of the article if the match
19907 is successful. If this element is not present, the
19908 @code{gnus-score-interactive-default-score} number will be used
19909 instead. This is 1000 by default.
19912 If the third element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{date
19913 element}. This date says when the last time this score entry matched,
19914 which provides a mechanism for expiring the score entries. It this
19915 element is not present, the score entry is permanent. The date is
19916 represented by the number of days since December 31, 1 BCE.
19919 If the fourth element is present, it should be a symbol---the @dfn{type
19920 element}. This element specifies what function should be used to see
19921 whether this score entry matches the article. What match types that can
19922 be used depends on what header you wish to perform the match on.
19925 @item From, Subject, References, Xref, Message-ID
19926 For most header types, there are the @code{r} and @code{R} (regexp), as
19927 well as @code{s} and @code{S} (substring) types, and @code{e} and
19928 @code{E} (exact match), and @code{w} (word match) types. If this
19929 element is not present, Gnus will assume that substring matching should
19930 be used. @code{R}, @code{S}, and @code{E} differ from the others in
19931 that the matches will be done in a case-sensitive manner. All these
19932 one-letter types are really just abbreviations for the @code{regexp},
19933 @code{string}, @code{exact}, and @code{word} types, which you can use
19934 instead, if you feel like.
19937 Just as for the standard string overview headers, if you are using
19938 gnus-extra-headers, you can score on these headers' values. In this
19939 case, there is a 5th element in the score entry, being the name of the
19940 header to be scored. The following entry is useful in your
19941 @file{all.SCORE} file in case of spam attacks from a single origin
19942 host, if your @acronym{NNTP} server tracks @samp{NNTP-Posting-Host} in
19946 ("111.222.333.444" -1000 nil s
19947 "NNTP-Posting-Host")
19951 These two headers use different match types: @code{<}, @code{>},
19952 @code{=}, @code{>=} and @code{<=}.
19954 These predicates are true if
19957 (PREDICATE HEADER MATCH)
19960 evaluates to non-@code{nil}. For instance, the advanced match
19961 @code{("lines" 4 <)} (@pxref{Advanced Scoring}) will result in the
19968 Or to put it another way: When using @code{<} on @code{Lines} with 4 as
19969 the match, we get the score added if the article has less than 4 lines.
19970 (It's easy to get confused and think it's the other way around. But
19971 it's not. I think.)
19973 When matching on @code{Lines}, be careful because some back ends (like
19974 @code{nndir}) do not generate @code{Lines} header, so every article ends
19975 up being marked as having 0 lines. This can lead to strange results if
19976 you happen to lower score of the articles with few lines.
19979 For the Date header we have three kinda silly match types:
19980 @code{before}, @code{at} and @code{after}. I can't really imagine this
19981 ever being useful, but, like, it would feel kinda silly not to provide
19982 this function. Just in case. You never know. Better safe than sorry.
19983 Once burnt, twice shy. Don't judge a book by its cover. Never not have
19984 sex on a first date. (I have been told that at least one person, and I
19985 quote, ``found this function indispensable'', however.)
19989 A more useful match type is @code{regexp}. With it, you can match the
19990 date string using a regular expression. The date is normalized to
19991 ISO8601 compact format first---@var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS}. If
19992 you want to match all articles that have been posted on April 1st in
19993 every year, you could use @samp{....0401.........} as a match string,
19994 for instance. (Note that the date is kept in its original time zone, so
19995 this will match articles that were posted when it was April 1st where
19996 the article was posted from. Time zones are such wholesome fun for the
19999 @item Head, Body, All
20000 These three match keys use the same match types as the @code{From} (etc.)@:
20004 This match key is somewhat special, in that it will match the
20005 @code{From} header, and affect the score of not only the matching
20006 articles, but also all followups to the matching articles. This allows
20007 you to increase the score of followups to your own articles, or
20008 decrease the score of followups to the articles of some known
20009 trouble-maker. Uses the same match types as the @code{From} header
20010 uses. (Using this match key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT}
20014 This match key works along the same lines as the @code{Followup} match
20015 key. If you say that you want to score on a (sub-)thread started by an
20016 article with a @code{Message-ID} @var{x}, then you add a @samp{thread}
20017 match. This will add a new @samp{thread} match for each article that
20018 has @var{x} in its @code{References} header. (These new @samp{thread}
20019 matches will use the @code{Message-ID}s of these matching articles.)
20020 This will ensure that you can raise/lower the score of an entire thread,
20021 even though some articles in the thread may not have complete
20022 @code{References} headers. Note that using this may lead to
20023 nondeterministic scores of the articles in the thread. (Using this match
20024 key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT} files.)
20028 @cindex score file atoms
20030 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
20031 lower than this number will be marked as read.
20034 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
20035 lower than this number will be removed from the summary buffer.
20037 @item mark-and-expunge
20038 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
20039 lower than this number will be marked as read and removed from the
20042 @item thread-mark-and-expunge
20043 The value of this entry should be a number. All articles that belong to
20044 a thread that has a total score below this number will be marked as read
20045 and removed from the summary buffer. @code{gnus-thread-score-function}
20046 says how to compute the total score for a thread.
20049 The value of this entry should be any number of file names. These files
20050 are assumed to be score files as well, and will be loaded the same way
20053 @item exclude-files
20054 The clue of this entry should be any number of files. These files will
20055 not be loaded, even though they would normally be so, for some reason or
20059 The value of this entry will be @code{eval}ed. This element will be
20060 ignored when handling global score files.
20063 Read-only score files will not be updated or saved. Global score files
20064 should feature this atom (@pxref{Global Score Files}). (Note:
20065 @dfn{Global} here really means @dfn{global}; not your personal
20066 apply-to-all-groups score files.)
20069 The value of this entry should be a number. Articles that do not have
20070 parents will get this number added to their scores. Imagine you follow
20071 some high-volume newsgroup, like @samp{comp.lang.c}. Most likely you
20072 will only follow a few of the threads, also want to see any new threads.
20074 You can do this with the following two score file entries:
20078 (mark-and-expunge -100)
20081 When you enter the group the first time, you will only see the new
20082 threads. You then raise the score of the threads that you find
20083 interesting (with @kbd{I T} or @kbd{I S}), and ignore (@kbd{c y}) the
20084 rest. Next time you enter the group, you will see new articles in the
20085 interesting threads, plus any new threads.
20087 I.e., the orphan score atom is for high-volume groups where a few
20088 interesting threads which can't be found automatically by ordinary
20089 scoring rules exist.
20092 This entry controls the adaptive scoring. If it is @code{t}, the
20093 default adaptive scoring rules will be used. If it is @code{ignore}, no
20094 adaptive scoring will be performed on this group. If it is a list, this
20095 list will be used as the adaptive scoring rules. If it isn't present,
20096 or is something other than @code{t} or @code{ignore}, the default
20097 adaptive scoring rules will be used. If you want to use adaptive
20098 scoring on most groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
20099 @code{t}, and insert an @code{(adapt ignore)} in the groups where you do
20100 not want adaptive scoring. If you only want adaptive scoring in a few
20101 groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to @code{nil}, and
20102 insert @code{(adapt t)} in the score files of the groups where you want
20106 All adaptive score entries will go to the file named by this entry. It
20107 will also be applied when entering the group. This atom might be handy
20108 if you want to adapt on several groups at once, using the same adaptive
20109 file for a number of groups.
20112 @cindex local variables
20113 The value of this entry should be a list of @code{(@var{var}
20114 @var{value})} pairs. Each @var{var} will be made buffer-local to the
20115 current summary buffer, and set to the value specified. This is a
20116 convenient, if somewhat strange, way of setting variables in some
20117 groups if you don't like hooks much. Note that the @var{value} won't
20122 @node Score File Editing
20123 @section Score File Editing
20125 You normally enter all scoring commands from the summary buffer, but you
20126 might feel the urge to edit them by hand as well, so we've supplied you
20127 with a mode for that.
20129 It's simply a slightly customized @code{emacs-lisp} mode, with these
20130 additional commands:
20135 @kindex C-c C-c (Score)
20136 @findex gnus-score-edit-exit
20137 Save the changes you have made and return to the summary buffer
20138 (@code{gnus-score-edit-exit}).
20141 @kindex C-c C-d (Score)
20142 @findex gnus-score-edit-insert-date
20143 Insert the current date in numerical format
20144 (@code{gnus-score-edit-insert-date}). This is really the day number, if
20145 you were wondering.
20148 @kindex C-c C-p (Score)
20149 @findex gnus-score-pretty-print
20150 The adaptive score files are saved in an unformatted fashion. If you
20151 intend to read one of these files, you want to @dfn{pretty print} it
20152 first. This command (@code{gnus-score-pretty-print}) does that for
20157 Type @kbd{M-x gnus-score-mode} to use this mode.
20159 @vindex gnus-score-mode-hook
20160 @code{gnus-score-menu-hook} is run in score mode buffers.
20162 In the summary buffer you can use commands like @kbd{V f}, @kbd{V e} and
20163 @kbd{V t} to begin editing score files.
20166 @node Adaptive Scoring
20167 @section Adaptive Scoring
20168 @cindex adaptive scoring
20170 If all this scoring is getting you down, Gnus has a way of making it all
20171 happen automatically---as if by magic. Or rather, as if by artificial
20172 stupidity, to be precise.
20174 @vindex gnus-use-adaptive-scoring
20175 When you read an article, or mark an article as read, or kill an
20176 article, you leave marks behind. On exit from the group, Gnus can sniff
20177 these marks and add score elements depending on what marks it finds.
20178 You turn on this ability by setting @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
20179 @code{t} or @code{(line)}. If you want score adaptively on separate
20180 words appearing in the subjects, you should set this variable to
20181 @code{(word)}. If you want to use both adaptive methods, set this
20182 variable to @code{(word line)}.
20184 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
20185 To give you complete control over the scoring process, you can customize
20186 the @code{gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist} variable. For instance, it
20187 might look something like this:
20190 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
20191 '((gnus-unread-mark)
20192 (gnus-ticked-mark (from 4))
20193 (gnus-dormant-mark (from 5))
20194 (gnus-del-mark (from -4) (subject -1))
20195 (gnus-read-mark (from 4) (subject 2))
20196 (gnus-expirable-mark (from -1) (subject -1))
20197 (gnus-killed-mark (from -1) (subject -3))
20198 (gnus-kill-file-mark)
20199 (gnus-ancient-mark)
20200 (gnus-low-score-mark)
20201 (gnus-catchup-mark (from -1) (subject -1))))
20204 As you see, each element in this alist has a mark as a key (either a
20205 variable name or a ``real'' mark---a character). Following this key is
20206 a arbitrary number of header/score pairs. If there are no header/score
20207 pairs following the key, no adaptive scoring will be done on articles
20208 that have that key as the article mark. For instance, articles with
20209 @code{gnus-unread-mark} in the example above will not get adaptive score
20212 Each article can have only one mark, so just a single of these rules
20213 will be applied to each article.
20215 To take @code{gnus-del-mark} as an example---this alist says that all
20216 articles that have that mark (i.e., are marked with @samp{e}) will have a
20217 score entry added to lower based on the @code{From} header by -4, and
20218 lowered by @code{Subject} by -1. Change this to fit your prejudices.
20220 If you have marked 10 articles with the same subject with
20221 @code{gnus-del-mark}, the rule for that mark will be applied ten times.
20222 That means that that subject will get a score of ten times -1, which
20223 should be, unless I'm much mistaken, -10.
20225 If you have auto-expirable (mail) groups (@pxref{Expiring Mail}), all
20226 the read articles will be marked with the @samp{E} mark. This'll
20227 probably make adaptive scoring slightly impossible, so auto-expiring and
20228 adaptive scoring doesn't really mix very well.
20230 The headers you can score on are @code{from}, @code{subject},
20231 @code{message-id}, @code{references}, @code{xref}, @code{lines},
20232 @code{chars} and @code{date}. In addition, you can score on
20233 @code{followup}, which will create an adaptive score entry that matches
20234 on the @code{References} header using the @code{Message-ID} of the
20235 current article, thereby matching the following thread.
20237 If you use this scheme, you should set the score file atom @code{mark}
20238 to something small---like -300, perhaps, to avoid having small random
20239 changes result in articles getting marked as read.
20241 After using adaptive scoring for a week or so, Gnus should start to
20242 become properly trained and enhance the authors you like best, and kill
20243 the authors you like least, without you having to say so explicitly.
20245 You can control what groups the adaptive scoring is to be performed on
20246 by using the score files (@pxref{Score File Format}). This will also
20247 let you use different rules in different groups.
20249 @vindex gnus-adaptive-file-suffix
20250 The adaptive score entries will be put into a file where the name is the
20251 group name with @code{gnus-adaptive-file-suffix} appended. The default
20254 @vindex gnus-adaptive-pretty-print
20255 Adaptive score files can get huge and are not meant to be edited by
20256 human hands. If @code{gnus-adaptive-pretty-print} is @code{nil} (the
20257 default) those files will not be written in a human readable way.
20259 @vindex gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit
20260 When doing adaptive scoring, substring or fuzzy matching would probably
20261 give you the best results in most cases. However, if the header one
20262 matches is short, the possibility for false positives is great, so if
20263 the length of the match is less than
20264 @code{gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit}, exact matching will be used. If
20265 this variable is @code{nil}, exact matching will always be used to avoid
20268 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
20269 As mentioned above, you can adapt either on individual words or entire
20270 headers. If you adapt on words, the
20271 @code{gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist} variable says what score
20272 each instance of a word should add given a mark.
20275 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
20276 `((,gnus-read-mark . 30)
20277 (,gnus-catchup-mark . -10)
20278 (,gnus-killed-mark . -20)
20279 (,gnus-del-mark . -15)))
20282 This is the default value. If you have adaption on words enabled, every
20283 word that appears in subjects of articles marked with
20284 @code{gnus-read-mark} will result in a score rule that increase the
20285 score with 30 points.
20287 @vindex gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words
20288 @vindex gnus-ignored-adaptive-words
20289 Words that appear in the @code{gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words} list
20290 will be ignored. If you wish to add more words to be ignored, use the
20291 @code{gnus-ignored-adaptive-words} list instead.
20293 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-length-limit
20294 Some may feel that short words shouldn't count when doing adaptive
20295 scoring. If so, you may set @code{gnus-adaptive-word-length-limit} to
20296 an integer. Words shorter than this number will be ignored. This
20297 variable defaults to @code{nil}.
20299 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table
20300 When the scoring is done, @code{gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table} is the
20301 syntax table in effect. It is similar to the standard syntax table, but
20302 it considers numbers to be non-word-constituent characters.
20304 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-minimum
20305 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} is set to a number, the adaptive
20306 word scoring process will never bring down the score of an article to
20307 below this number. The default is @code{nil}.
20309 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words
20310 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words} is set to @code{t}, gnus
20311 won't adaptively word score any of the words in the group name. Useful
20312 for groups like @samp{comp.editors.emacs}, where most of the subject
20313 lines contain the word @samp{emacs}.
20315 After using this scheme for a while, it might be nice to write a
20316 @code{gnus-psychoanalyze-user} command to go through the rules and see
20317 what words you like and what words you don't like. Or perhaps not.
20319 Note that the adaptive word scoring thing is highly experimental and is
20320 likely to change in the future. Initial impressions seem to indicate
20321 that it's totally useless as it stands. Some more work (involving more
20322 rigorous statistical methods) will have to be done to make this useful.
20325 @node Home Score File
20326 @section Home Score File
20328 The score file where new score file entries will go is called the
20329 @dfn{home score file}. This is normally (and by default) the score file
20330 for the group itself. For instance, the home score file for
20331 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} is @file{gnu.emacs.gnus.SCORE}.
20333 However, this may not be what you want. It is often convenient to share
20334 a common home score file among many groups---all @samp{emacs} groups
20335 could perhaps use the same home score file.
20337 @vindex gnus-home-score-file
20338 The variable that controls this is @code{gnus-home-score-file}. It can
20343 A string. Then this file will be used as the home score file for all
20347 A function. The result of this function will be used as the home score
20348 file. The function will be called with the name of the group as the
20352 A list. The elements in this list can be:
20356 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{file-name})}. If the @var{regexp} matches the
20357 group name, the @var{file-name} will be used as the home score file.
20360 A function. If the function returns non-@code{nil}, the result will
20361 be used as the home score file. The function will be called with the
20362 name of the group as the parameter.
20365 A string. Use the string as the home score file.
20368 The list will be traversed from the beginning towards the end looking
20373 So, if you want to use just a single score file, you could say:
20376 (setq gnus-home-score-file
20377 "my-total-score-file.SCORE")
20380 If you want to use @file{gnu.SCORE} for all @samp{gnu} groups and
20381 @file{rec.SCORE} for all @samp{rec} groups (and so on), you can say:
20383 @findex gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file
20385 (setq gnus-home-score-file
20386 'gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file)
20389 This is a ready-made function provided for your convenience.
20390 Other functions include
20393 @item gnus-current-home-score-file
20394 @findex gnus-current-home-score-file
20395 Return the ``current'' regular score file. This will make scoring
20396 commands add entry to the ``innermost'' matching score file.
20400 If you want to have one score file for the @samp{emacs} groups and
20401 another for the @samp{comp} groups, while letting all other groups use
20402 their own home score files:
20405 (setq gnus-home-score-file
20406 ;; @r{All groups that match the regexp @code{"\\.emacs"}}
20407 '(("\\.emacs" "emacs.SCORE")
20408 ;; @r{All the comp groups in one score file}
20409 ("^comp" "comp.SCORE")))
20412 @vindex gnus-home-adapt-file
20413 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file} works exactly the same way as
20414 @code{gnus-home-score-file}, but says what the home adaptive score file
20415 is instead. All new adaptive file entries will go into the file
20416 specified by this variable, and the same syntax is allowed.
20418 In addition to using @code{gnus-home-score-file} and
20419 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file}, you can also use group parameters
20420 (@pxref{Group Parameters}) and topic parameters (@pxref{Topic
20421 Parameters}) to achieve much the same. Group and topic parameters take
20422 precedence over this variable.
20425 @node Followups To Yourself
20426 @section Followups To Yourself
20428 Gnus offers two commands for picking out the @code{Message-ID} header in
20429 the current buffer. Gnus will then add a score rule that scores using
20430 this @code{Message-ID} on the @code{References} header of other
20431 articles. This will, in effect, increase the score of all articles that
20432 respond to the article in the current buffer. Quite useful if you want
20433 to easily note when people answer what you've said.
20437 @item gnus-score-followup-article
20438 @findex gnus-score-followup-article
20439 This will add a score to articles that directly follow up your own
20442 @item gnus-score-followup-thread
20443 @findex gnus-score-followup-thread
20444 This will add a score to all articles that appear in a thread ``below''
20448 @vindex message-sent-hook
20449 These two functions are both primarily meant to be used in hooks like
20450 @code{message-sent-hook}, like this:
20452 (add-hook 'message-sent-hook 'gnus-score-followup-thread)
20456 If you look closely at your own @code{Message-ID}, you'll notice that
20457 the first two or three characters are always the same. Here's two of
20461 <x6u3u47icf.fsf@@eyesore.no>
20462 <x6sp9o7ibw.fsf@@eyesore.no>
20465 So ``my'' ident on this machine is @samp{x6}. This can be
20466 exploited---the following rule will raise the score on all followups to
20471 ("<x6[0-9a-z]+\\.fsf\\(_-_\\)?@@.*eyesore\\.no>"
20475 Whether it's the first two or first three characters that are ``yours''
20476 is system-dependent.
20479 @node Scoring On Other Headers
20480 @section Scoring On Other Headers
20481 @cindex scoring on other headers
20483 Gnus is quite fast when scoring the ``traditional''
20484 headers---@samp{From}, @samp{Subject} and so on. However, scoring
20485 other headers requires writing a @code{head} scoring rule, which means
20486 that Gnus has to request every single article from the back end to find
20487 matches. This takes a long time in big groups.
20489 @vindex gnus-inhibit-slow-scoring
20490 You can inhibit this slow scoring on headers or body by setting the
20491 variable @code{gnus-inhibit-slow-scoring}. If
20492 @code{gnus-inhibit-slow-scoring} is regexp, slow scoring is inhibited if
20493 the group matches the regexp. If it is t, slow scoring on it is
20494 inhibited for all groups.
20496 Now, there's not much you can do about the slowness for news groups, but for
20497 mail groups, you have greater control. In @ref{To From Newsgroups},
20498 it's explained in greater detail what this mechanism does, but here's
20499 a cookbook example for @code{nnml} on how to allow scoring on the
20500 @samp{To} and @samp{Cc} headers.
20502 Put the following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file.
20505 (setq gnus-extra-headers '(To Cc Newsgroups Keywords)
20506 nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
20509 Restart Gnus and rebuild your @code{nnml} overview files with the
20510 @kbd{M-x nnml-generate-nov-databases} command. This will take a long
20511 time if you have much mail.
20513 Now you can score on @samp{To} and @samp{Cc} as ``extra headers'' like
20514 so: @kbd{I e s p To RET <your name> RET}.
20520 @section Scoring Tips
20521 @cindex scoring tips
20527 @cindex scoring crossposts
20528 If you want to lower the score of crossposts, the line to match on is
20529 the @code{Xref} header.
20531 ("xref" (" talk.politics.misc:" -1000))
20534 @item Multiple crossposts
20535 If you want to lower the score of articles that have been crossposted to
20536 more than, say, 3 groups:
20539 ("[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+"
20543 @item Matching on the body
20544 This is generally not a very good idea---it takes a very long time.
20545 Gnus actually has to fetch each individual article from the server. But
20546 you might want to anyway, I guess. Even though there are three match
20547 keys (@code{Head}, @code{Body} and @code{All}), you should choose one
20548 and stick with it in each score file. If you use any two, each article
20549 will be fetched @emph{twice}. If you want to match a bit on the
20550 @code{Head} and a bit on the @code{Body}, just use @code{All} for all
20553 @item Marking as read
20554 You will probably want to mark articles that have scores below a certain
20555 number as read. This is most easily achieved by putting the following
20556 in your @file{all.SCORE} file:
20560 You may also consider doing something similar with @code{expunge}.
20562 @item Negated character classes
20563 If you say stuff like @code{[^abcd]*}, you may get unexpected results.
20564 That will match newlines, which might lead to, well, The Unknown. Say
20565 @code{[^abcd\n]*} instead.
20569 @node Reverse Scoring
20570 @section Reverse Scoring
20571 @cindex reverse scoring
20573 If you want to keep just articles that have @samp{Sex with Emacs} in the
20574 subject header, and expunge all other articles, you could put something
20575 like this in your score file:
20579 ("Sex with Emacs" 2))
20584 So, you raise all articles that match @samp{Sex with Emacs} and mark the
20585 rest as read, and expunge them to boot.
20588 @node Global Score Files
20589 @section Global Score Files
20590 @cindex global score files
20592 Sure, other newsreaders have ``global kill files''. These are usually
20593 nothing more than a single kill file that applies to all groups, stored
20594 in the user's home directory. Bah! Puny, weak newsreaders!
20596 What I'm talking about here are Global Score Files. Score files from
20597 all over the world, from users everywhere, uniting all nations in one
20598 big, happy score file union! Ange-score! New and untested!
20600 @vindex gnus-global-score-files
20601 All you have to do to use other people's score files is to set the
20602 @code{gnus-global-score-files} variable. One entry for each score file,
20603 or each score file directory. Gnus will decide by itself what score
20604 files are applicable to which group.
20606 To use the score file
20607 @file{/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE} and
20608 all score files in the @file{/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score} directory,
20612 (setq gnus-global-score-files
20613 '("/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE"
20614 "/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score/"))
20617 @findex gnus-score-search-global-directories
20619 Simple, eh? Directory names must end with a @samp{/}. These
20620 directories are typically scanned only once during each Gnus session.
20621 If you feel the need to manually re-scan the remote directories, you can
20622 use the @code{gnus-score-search-global-directories} command.
20624 Note that, at present, using this option will slow down group entry
20625 somewhat. (That is---a lot.)
20627 If you want to start maintaining score files for other people to use,
20628 just put your score file up for anonymous ftp and announce it to the
20629 world. Become a retro-moderator! Participate in the retro-moderator
20630 wars sure to ensue, where retro-moderators battle it out for the
20631 sympathy of the people, luring them to use their score files on false
20632 premises! Yay! The net is saved!
20634 Here are some tips for the would-be retro-moderator, off the top of my
20640 Articles heavily crossposted are probably junk.
20642 To lower a single inappropriate article, lower by @code{Message-ID}.
20644 Particularly brilliant authors can be raised on a permanent basis.
20646 Authors that repeatedly post off-charter for the group can safely be
20647 lowered out of existence.
20649 Set the @code{mark} and @code{expunge} atoms to obliterate the nastiest
20650 articles completely.
20653 Use expiring score entries to keep the size of the file down. You
20654 should probably have a long expiry period, though, as some sites keep
20655 old articles for a long time.
20658 @dots{} I wonder whether other newsreaders will support global score files
20659 in the future. @emph{Snicker}. Yup, any day now, newsreaders like Blue
20660 Wave, xrn and 1stReader are bound to implement scoring. Should we start
20661 holding our breath yet?
20665 @section Kill Files
20668 Gnus still supports those pesky old kill files. In fact, the kill file
20669 entries can now be expiring, which is something I wrote before Daniel
20670 Quinlan thought of doing score files, so I've left the code in there.
20672 In short, kill processing is a lot slower (and I do mean @emph{a lot})
20673 than score processing, so it might be a good idea to rewrite your kill
20674 files into score files.
20676 Anyway, a kill file is a normal @code{emacs-lisp} file. You can put any
20677 forms into this file, which means that you can use kill files as some
20678 sort of primitive hook function to be run on group entry, even though
20679 that isn't a very good idea.
20681 Normal kill files look like this:
20684 (gnus-kill "From" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
20685 (gnus-kill "Subject" "ding")
20689 This will mark every article written by me as read, and remove the
20690 marked articles from the summary buffer. Very useful, you'll agree.
20692 Other programs use a totally different kill file syntax. If Gnus
20693 encounters what looks like a @code{rn} kill file, it will take a stab at
20696 Two summary functions for editing a @sc{gnus} kill file:
20701 @kindex M-k (Summary)
20702 @findex gnus-summary-edit-local-kill
20703 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-local-kill}).
20706 @kindex M-K (Summary)
20707 @findex gnus-summary-edit-global-kill
20708 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-global-kill}).
20711 Two group mode functions for editing the kill files:
20716 @kindex M-k (Group)
20717 @findex gnus-group-edit-local-kill
20718 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-local-kill}).
20721 @kindex M-K (Group)
20722 @findex gnus-group-edit-global-kill
20723 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-global-kill}).
20726 Kill file variables:
20729 @item gnus-kill-file-name
20730 @vindex gnus-kill-file-name
20731 A kill file for the group @samp{soc.motss} is normally called
20732 @file{soc.motss.KILL}. The suffix appended to the group name to get
20733 this file name is detailed by the @code{gnus-kill-file-name} variable.
20734 The ``global'' kill file (not in the score file sense of ``global'', of
20735 course) is just called @file{KILL}.
20737 @vindex gnus-kill-save-kill-file
20738 @item gnus-kill-save-kill-file
20739 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will save the
20740 kill file after processing, which is necessary if you use expiring
20743 @item gnus-apply-kill-hook
20744 @vindex gnus-apply-kill-hook
20745 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored
20746 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file
20747 A hook called to apply kill files to a group. It is
20748 @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file)} by default. If you want to ignore the
20749 kill file if you have a score file for the same group, you can set this
20750 hook to @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored)}. If you don't want
20751 kill files to be processed, you should set this variable to @code{nil}.
20753 @item gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
20754 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
20755 A hook called in kill-file mode buffers.
20760 @node Converting Kill Files
20761 @section Converting Kill Files
20763 @cindex converting kill files
20765 If you have loads of old kill files, you may want to convert them into
20766 score files. If they are ``regular'', you can use
20767 the @file{gnus-kill-to-score.el} package; if not, you'll have to do it
20770 The kill to score conversion package isn't included in Emacs by default.
20771 You can fetch it from the contrib directory of the Gnus distribution or
20773 @uref{http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/ding-various/gnus-kill-to-score.el}.
20775 If your old kill files are very complex---if they contain more
20776 non-@code{gnus-kill} forms than not, you'll have to convert them by
20777 hand. Or just let them be as they are. Gnus will still use them as
20781 @node Advanced Scoring
20782 @section Advanced Scoring
20784 Scoring on Subjects and From headers is nice enough, but what if you're
20785 really interested in what a person has to say only when she's talking
20786 about a particular subject? Or what if you really don't want to
20787 read what person A has to say when she's following up to person B, but
20788 want to read what she says when she's following up to person C?
20790 By using advanced scoring rules you may create arbitrarily complex
20794 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
20795 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
20796 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
20800 @node Advanced Scoring Syntax
20801 @subsection Advanced Scoring Syntax
20803 Ordinary scoring rules have a string as the first element in the rule.
20804 Advanced scoring rules have a list as the first element. The second
20805 element is the score to be applied if the first element evaluated to a
20806 non-@code{nil} value.
20808 These lists may consist of three logical operators, one redirection
20809 operator, and various match operators.
20816 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
20817 one that evaluates to @code{false}, and then it'll stop. If all arguments
20818 evaluate to @code{true} values, then this operator will return
20823 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
20824 one that evaluates to @code{true}. If no arguments are @code{true},
20825 then this operator will return @code{false}.
20830 This logical operator only takes a single argument. It returns the
20831 logical negation of the value of its argument.
20835 There is an @dfn{indirection operator} that will make its arguments
20836 apply to the ancestors of the current article being scored. For
20837 instance, @code{1-} will make score rules apply to the parent of the
20838 current article. @code{2-} will make score rules apply to the
20839 grandparent of the current article. Alternatively, you can write
20840 @code{^^}, where the number of @code{^}s (carets) says how far back into
20841 the ancestry you want to go.
20843 Finally, we have the match operators. These are the ones that do the
20844 real work. Match operators are header name strings followed by a match
20845 and a match type. A typical match operator looks like @samp{("from"
20846 "Lars Ingebrigtsen" s)}. The header names are the same as when using
20847 simple scoring, and the match types are also the same.
20850 @node Advanced Scoring Examples
20851 @subsection Advanced Scoring Examples
20853 Please note that the following examples are score file rules. To
20854 make a complete score file from them, surround them with another pair
20857 Let's say you want to increase the score of articles written by Lars
20858 when he's talking about Gnus:
20863 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
20864 ("subject" "Gnus"))
20871 When he writes long articles, he sometimes has something nice to say:
20875 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
20882 However, when he responds to things written by Reig Eigil Logge, you
20883 really don't want to read what he's written:
20887 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
20888 (1- ("from" "Reig Eigil Logge")))
20892 Everybody that follows up Redmondo when he writes about disappearing
20893 socks should have their scores raised, but only when they talk about
20894 white socks. However, when Lars talks about socks, it's usually not
20901 ("from" "redmondo@@.*no" r)
20902 ("body" "disappearing.*socks" t)))
20903 (! ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen"))
20904 ("body" "white.*socks"))
20908 Suppose you're reading a high volume group and you're only interested
20909 in replies. The plan is to score down all articles that don't have
20910 subject that begin with "Re:", "Fw:" or "Fwd:" and then score up all
20911 parents of articles that have subjects that begin with reply marks.
20914 ((! ("subject" "re:\\|fwd?:" r))
20916 ((1- ("subject" "re:\\|fwd?:" r))
20920 The possibilities are endless.
20922 @node Advanced Scoring Tips
20923 @subsection Advanced Scoring Tips
20925 The @code{&} and @code{|} logical operators do short-circuit logic.
20926 That is, they stop processing their arguments when it's clear what the
20927 result of the operation will be. For instance, if one of the arguments
20928 of an @code{&} evaluates to @code{false}, there's no point in evaluating
20929 the rest of the arguments. This means that you should put slow matches
20930 (@samp{body}, @samp{header}) last and quick matches (@samp{from},
20931 @samp{subject}) first.
20933 The indirection arguments (@code{1-} and so on) will make their
20934 arguments work on previous generations of the thread. If you say
20945 Then that means ``score on the from header of the grandparent of the
20946 current article''. An indirection is quite fast, but it's better to say:
20952 ("subject" "Gnus")))
20959 (1- ("from" "Lars"))
20960 (1- ("subject" "Gnus")))
20965 @section Score Decays
20966 @cindex score decays
20969 You may find that your scores have a tendency to grow without
20970 bounds, especially if you're using adaptive scoring. If scores get too
20971 big, they lose all meaning---they simply max out and it's difficult to
20972 use them in any sensible way.
20974 @vindex gnus-decay-scores
20975 @findex gnus-decay-score
20976 @vindex gnus-decay-score-function
20977 Gnus provides a mechanism for decaying scores to help with this problem.
20978 When score files are loaded and @code{gnus-decay-scores} is
20979 non-@code{nil}, Gnus will run the score files through the decaying
20980 mechanism thereby lowering the scores of all non-permanent score rules.
20981 If @code{gnus-decay-scores} is a regexp, only score files matching this
20982 regexp are treated. E.g., you may set it to @samp{\\.ADAPT\\'} if only
20983 @emph{adaptive} score files should be decayed. The decay itself if
20984 performed by the @code{gnus-decay-score-function} function, which is
20985 @code{gnus-decay-score} by default. Here's the definition of that
20989 (defun gnus-decay-score (score)
20990 "Decay SCORE according to `gnus-score-decay-constant'
20991 and `gnus-score-decay-scale'."
20993 (* (if (< score 0) -1 1)
20995 (max gnus-score-decay-constant
20997 gnus-score-decay-scale)))))))
20998 (if (and (featurep 'xemacs)
20999 ;; XEmacs's floor can handle only the floating point
21000 ;; number below the half of the maximum integer.
21001 (> (abs n) (lsh -1 -2)))
21003 (car (split-string (number-to-string n) "\\.")))
21007 @vindex gnus-score-decay-scale
21008 @vindex gnus-score-decay-constant
21009 @code{gnus-score-decay-constant} is 3 by default and
21010 @code{gnus-score-decay-scale} is 0.05. This should cause the following:
21014 Scores between -3 and 3 will be set to 0 when this function is called.
21017 Scores with magnitudes between 3 and 60 will be shrunk by 3.
21020 Scores with magnitudes greater than 60 will be shrunk by 5% of the
21024 If you don't like this decay function, write your own. It is called
21025 with the score to be decayed as its only parameter, and it should return
21026 the new score, which should be an integer.
21028 Gnus will try to decay scores once a day. If you haven't run Gnus for
21029 four days, Gnus will decay the scores four times, for instance.
21035 FIXME: Add a brief overview of Gnus search capabilities. A brief
21036 comparison of nnir, nnmairix, contrib/gnus-namazu would be nice
21039 This chapter describes tools for searching groups and servers for
21040 articles matching a query and then retrieving those articles. Gnus
21041 provides a simpler mechanism for searching through articles in a summary buffer
21042 to find those matching a pattern. @xref{Searching for Articles}.
21045 * nnir:: Searching with various engines.
21046 * nnmairix:: Searching with Mairix.
21053 This section describes how to use @code{nnir} to search for articles
21057 * What is nnir?:: What does @code{nnir} do?
21058 * Basic Usage:: How to perform simple searches.
21059 * Setting up nnir:: How to set up @code{nnir}.
21062 @node What is nnir?
21063 @subsection What is nnir?
21065 @code{nnir} is a Gnus interface to a number of tools for searching
21066 through mail and news repositories. Different backends (like
21067 @code{nnimap} and @code{nntp}) work with different tools (called
21068 @dfn{engines} in @code{nnir} lingo), but all use the same basic search
21071 The @code{nnimap} and @code{gmane} search engines should work with no
21072 configuration. Other engines require a local index that needs to be
21073 created and maintained outside of Gnus.
21077 @subsection Basic Usage
21079 In the group buffer typing @kbd{G G} will search the group on the
21080 current line by calling @code{gnus-group-make-nnir-group}. This prompts
21081 for a query string, creates an ephemeral @code{nnir} group containing
21082 the articles that match this query, and takes you to a summary buffer
21083 showing these articles. Articles may then be read, moved and deleted
21084 using the usual commands.
21086 The @code{nnir} group made in this way is an @code{ephemeral} group, and
21087 some changes are not permanent: aside from reading, moving, and
21088 deleting, you can't act on the original article. But there is an
21089 alternative: you can @emph{warp} to the original group for the article
21090 on the current line with @kbd{A W}, aka
21091 @code{gnus-warp-to-article}. Even better, the function
21092 @code{gnus-summary-refer-thread}, bound by default in summary buffers to
21093 @kbd{A T}, will first warp to the original group before it works its
21094 magic and includes all the articles in the thread. From here you can
21095 read, move and delete articles, but also copy them, alter article marks,
21098 You say you want to search more than just the group on the current line?
21099 No problem: just process-mark the groups you want to search. You want
21100 even more? Calling for an nnir search with the cursor on a topic heading
21101 will search all the groups under that heading.
21103 Still not enough? OK, in the server buffer
21104 @code{gnus-group-make-nnir-group} (now bound to @kbd{G}) will search all
21105 groups from the server on the current line. Too much? Want to ignore
21106 certain groups when searching, like spam groups? Just customize
21107 @code{nnir-ignored-newsgroups}.
21109 One more thing: individual search engines may have special search
21110 features. You can access these special features by giving a prefix-arg
21111 to @code{gnus-group-make-nnir-group}. If you are searching multiple
21112 groups with different search engines you will be prompted for the
21113 special search features for each engine separately.
21116 @node Setting up nnir
21117 @subsection Setting up nnir
21119 To set up nnir you may need to do some prep work. Firstly, you may need
21120 to configure the search engines you plan to use. Some of them, like
21121 @code{imap} and @code{gmane}, need no special configuration. Others,
21122 like @code{namazu} and @code{swish}, require configuration as described
21123 below. Secondly, you need to associate a search engine with a server or
21126 If you just want to use the @code{imap} engine to search @code{nnimap}
21127 servers, and the @code{gmane} engine to search @code{gmane} then you
21128 don't have to do anything. But you might want to read the details of the
21129 query language anyway.
21132 * Associating Engines:: How to associate engines.
21133 * The imap Engine:: Imap configuration and usage.
21134 * The gmane Engine:: Gmane configuration and usage.
21135 * The swish++ Engine:: Swish++ configuration and usage.
21136 * The swish-e Engine:: Swish-e configuration and usage.
21137 * The namazu Engine:: Namazu configuration and usage.
21138 * The hyrex Engine:: Hyrex configuration and usage.
21139 * Customizations:: User customizable settings.
21142 @node Associating Engines
21143 @subsubsection Associating Engines
21146 When searching a group, @code{nnir} needs to know which search engine to
21147 use. You can configure a given server to use a particular engine by
21148 setting the server variable @code{nnir-search-engine} to the engine
21149 name. For example to use the @code{namazu} engine to search the server
21150 named @code{home} you can use
21153 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
21155 (nnimap-address "localhost")
21156 (nnir-search-engine namazu))))
21159 Alternatively you might want to use a particular engine for all servers
21160 with a given backend. For example, you might want to use the @code{imap}
21161 engine for all servers using the @code{nnimap} backend. In this case you
21162 can customize the variable @code{nnir-method-default-engines}. This is
21163 an alist of pairs of the form @code{(backend . engine)}. By default this
21164 variable is set to use the @code{imap} engine for all servers using the
21165 @code{nnimap} backend, and the @code{gmane} backend for @code{nntp}
21166 servers. (Don't worry, the @code{gmane} search engine won't actually try
21167 to search non-gmane @code{nntp} servers.) But if you wanted to use
21168 @code{namazu} for all your servers with an @code{nnimap} backend you
21169 could change this to
21172 '((nnimap . namazu)
21176 @node The imap Engine
21177 @subsubsection The imap Engine
21179 The @code{imap} engine requires no configuration.
21181 Queries using the @code{imap} engine follow a simple query language.
21182 The search is always case-insensitive and supports the following
21183 features (inspired by the Google search input language):
21187 @item Boolean query operators
21188 AND, OR, and NOT are supported, and parentheses can be used to control
21189 operator precedence, e.g., (emacs OR xemacs) AND linux. Note that
21190 operators must be written with all capital letters to be
21191 recognized. Also preceding a term with a @minus{} sign is equivalent to NOT
21194 @item Automatic AND queries
21195 If you specify multiple words then they will be treated as an AND
21196 expression intended to match all components.
21198 @item Phrase searches
21199 If you wrap your query in double-quotes then it will be treated as a
21204 By default the whole message will be searched. The query can be limited
21205 to a specific part of a message by using a prefix-arg. After inputting
21206 the query this will prompt (with completion) for a message part.
21207 Choices include ``Whole message'', ``Subject'', ``From'', and
21208 ``To''. Any unrecognized input is interpreted as a header name. For
21209 example, typing @kbd{Message-ID} in response to this prompt will limit
21210 the query to the Message-ID header.
21212 Finally selecting ``Imap'' will interpret the query as a raw
21213 @acronym{IMAP} search query. The format of such queries can be found in
21216 If you don't like the default of searching whole messages you can
21217 customize @code{nnir-imap-default-search-key}. For example to use
21218 @acronym{IMAP} queries by default
21221 (setq nnir-imap-default-search-key "Imap")
21224 @node The gmane Engine
21225 @subsubsection The gmane Engine
21227 The @code{gmane} engine requires no configuration.
21229 Gmane queries follow a simple query language:
21232 @item Boolean query operators
21233 AND, OR, NOT (or AND NOT), and XOR are supported, and brackets can be
21234 used to control operator precedence, e.g., (emacs OR xemacs) AND linux.
21235 Note that operators must be written with all capital letters to be
21238 @item Required and excluded terms
21239 + and @minus{} can be used to require or exclude terms, e.g., football
21242 @item Unicode handling
21243 The search engine converts all text to utf-8, so searching should work
21247 Common English words (like 'the' and 'a') are ignored by default. You
21248 can override this by prefixing such words with a + (e.g., +the) or
21249 enclosing the word in quotes (e.g., "the").
21253 The query can be limited to articles by a specific author using a
21254 prefix-arg. After inputting the query this will prompt for an author
21255 name (or part of a name) to match.
21257 @node The swish++ Engine
21258 @subsubsection The swish++ Engine
21260 FIXME: Say something more here.
21262 Documentation for swish++ may be found at the swish++ sourceforge page:
21263 @uref{http://swishplusplus.sourceforge.net}
21267 @item nnir-swish++-program
21268 The name of the swish++ executable. Defaults to @code{search}
21270 @item nnir-swish++-additional-switches
21271 A list of strings to be given as additional arguments to
21272 swish++. @code{nil} by default.
21274 @item nnir-swish++-remove-prefix
21275 The prefix to remove from each file name returned by swish++ in order
21276 to get a group name. By default this is @code{$HOME/Mail}.
21280 @node The swish-e Engine
21281 @subsubsection The swish-e Engine
21283 FIXME: Say something more here.
21285 Documentation for swish-e may be found at the swish-e homepage
21286 @uref{http://swish-e.org}
21290 @item nnir-swish-e-program
21291 The name of the swish-e search program. Defaults to @code{swish-e}.
21293 @item nnir-swish-e-additional-switches
21294 A list of strings to be given as additional arguments to
21295 swish-e. @code{nil} by default.
21297 @item nnir-swish-e-remove-prefix
21298 The prefix to remove from each file name returned by swish-e in order
21299 to get a group name. By default this is @code{$HOME/Mail}.
21303 @node The namazu Engine
21304 @subsubsection The namazu Engine
21306 Using the namazu engine requires creating and maintaining index files.
21307 One directory should contain all the index files, and nnir must be told
21308 where to find them by setting the @code{nnir-namazu-index-directory}
21311 To work correctly the @code{nnir-namazu-remove-prefix} variable must
21312 also be correct. This is the prefix to remove from each file name
21313 returned by Namazu in order to get a proper group name (albeit with `/'
21316 For example, suppose that Namazu returns file names such as
21317 @samp{/home/john/Mail/mail/misc/42}. For this example, use the
21318 following setting: @code{(setq nnir-namazu-remove-prefix
21319 "/home/john/Mail/")} Note the trailing slash. Removing this prefix from
21320 the directory gives @samp{mail/misc/42}. @code{nnir} knows to remove
21321 the @samp{/42} and to replace @samp{/} with @samp{.} to arrive at the
21322 correct group name @samp{mail.misc}.
21324 Extra switches may be passed to the namazu search command by setting the
21325 variable @code{nnir-namazu-additional-switches}. It is particularly
21326 important not to pass any any switches to namazu that will change the
21327 output format. Good switches to use include `--sort', `--ascending',
21328 `--early' and `--late'. Refer to the Namazu documentation for further
21329 information on valid switches.
21331 Mail must first be indexed with the `mknmz' program. Read the documentation
21332 for namazu to create a configuration file. Here is an example:
21336 package conf; # Don't remove this line!
21338 # Paths which will not be indexed. Don't use `^' or `$' anchors.
21339 $EXCLUDE_PATH = "spam|sent";
21341 # Header fields which should be searchable. case-insensitive
21342 $REMAIN_HEADER = "from|date|message-id|subject";
21344 # Searchable fields. case-insensitive
21345 $SEARCH_FIELD = "from|date|message-id|subject";
21347 # The max length of a word.
21348 $WORD_LENG_MAX = 128;
21350 # The max length of a field.
21351 $MAX_FIELD_LENGTH = 256;
21355 For this example, mail is stored in the directories @samp{~/Mail/mail/},
21356 @samp{~/Mail/lists/} and @samp{~/Mail/archive/}, so to index them go to
21357 the index directory set in @code{nnir-namazu-index-directory} and issue
21358 the following command:
21361 mknmz --mailnews ~/Mail/archive/ ~/Mail/mail/ ~/Mail/lists/
21364 For maximum searching efficiency you might want to have a cron job run
21365 this command periodically, say every four hours.
21367 @node The hyrex Engine
21368 @subsubsection The hyrex Engine
21369 This engine is obsolete.
21371 @node Customizations
21372 @subsubsection Customizations
21376 @item nnir-method-default-engines
21377 Alist of pairs of server backends and search engines. The default associations
21384 @item nnir-ignored-newsgroups
21385 A regexp to match newsgroups in the active file that should be skipped
21386 when searching all groups on a server.
21388 @item nnir-summary-line-format
21389 The format specification to be used for lines in an nnir summary buffer.
21390 All the items from `gnus-summary-line-format' are available, along with
21391 three items unique to nnir summary buffers:
21394 %Z Search retrieval score value (integer)
21395 %G Article original full group name (string)
21396 %g Article original short group name (string)
21399 If nil (the default) this will use @code{gnus-summary-line-format}.
21401 @item nnir-retrieve-headers-override-function
21402 If non-nil, a function that retrieves article headers rather than using
21403 the gnus built-in function. This function takes an article list and
21404 group as arguments and populates the `nntp-server-buffer' with the
21405 retrieved headers. It should then return either 'nov or 'headers
21406 indicating the retrieved header format. Failure to retrieve headers
21407 should return @code{nil}
21409 If this variable is nil, or if the provided function returns nil for a
21410 search result, @code{gnus-retrieve-headers} will be called instead."
21421 This paragraph describes how to set up mairix and the back end
21422 @code{nnmairix} for indexing and searching your mail from within
21423 Gnus. Additionally, you can create permanent ``smart'' groups which are
21424 bound to mairix searches and are automatically updated.
21427 * About mairix:: About the mairix mail search engine
21428 * nnmairix requirements:: What you will need for using nnmairix
21429 * What nnmairix does:: What does nnmairix actually do?
21430 * Setting up mairix:: Set up your mairix installation
21431 * Configuring nnmairix:: Set up the nnmairix back end
21432 * nnmairix keyboard shortcuts:: List of available keyboard shortcuts
21433 * Propagating marks:: How to propagate marks from nnmairix groups
21434 * nnmairix tips and tricks:: Some tips, tricks and examples
21435 * nnmairix caveats:: Some more stuff you might want to know
21438 @c FIXME: The markup in this section might need improvement.
21439 @c E.g., adding @samp, @var, @file, @command, etc.
21440 @c Cf. (info "(texinfo)Indicating")
21443 @subsection About mairix
21445 Mairix is a tool for indexing and searching words in locally stored
21446 mail. It was written by Richard Curnow and is licensed under the
21447 GPL@. Mairix comes with most popular GNU/Linux distributions, but it also
21448 runs under Windows (with cygwin), Mac OS X and Solaris. The homepage can
21450 @uref{http://www.rpcurnow.force9.co.uk/mairix/index.html}
21452 Though mairix might not be as flexible as other search tools like
21453 swish++ or namazu, which you can use via the @code{nnir} back end, it
21454 has the prime advantage of being incredibly fast. On current systems, it
21455 can easily search through headers and message bodies of thousands and
21456 thousands of mails in well under a second. Building the database
21457 necessary for searching might take a minute or two, but only has to be
21458 done once fully. Afterwards, the updates are done incrementally and
21459 therefore are really fast, too. Additionally, mairix is very easy to set
21462 For maximum speed though, mairix should be used with mails stored in
21463 @code{Maildir} or @code{MH} format (this includes the @code{nnml} back
21464 end), although it also works with mbox. Mairix presents the search
21465 results by populating a @emph{virtual} maildir/MH folder with symlinks
21466 which point to the ``real'' message files (if mbox is used, copies are
21467 made). Since mairix already presents search results in such a virtual
21468 mail folder, it is very well suited for using it as an external program
21469 for creating @emph{smart} mail folders, which represent certain mail
21472 @node nnmairix requirements
21473 @subsection nnmairix requirements
21475 Mairix searches local mail---that means, mairix absolutely must have
21476 direct access to your mail folders. If your mail resides on another
21477 server (e.g., an @acronym{IMAP} server) and you happen to have shell
21478 access, @code{nnmairix} supports running mairix remotely, e.g., via ssh.
21480 Additionally, @code{nnmairix} only supports the following Gnus back
21481 ends: @code{nnml}, @code{nnmaildir}, and @code{nnimap}. You must use
21482 one of these back ends for using @code{nnmairix}. Other back ends, like
21483 @code{nnmbox}, @code{nnfolder} or @code{nnmh}, won't work.
21485 If you absolutely must use mbox and still want to use @code{nnmairix},
21486 you can set up a local @acronym{IMAP} server, which you then access via
21487 @code{nnimap}. This is a rather massive setup for accessing some mbox
21488 files, so just change to MH or Maildir already... However, if you're
21489 really, really passionate about using mbox, you might want to look into
21490 the package @file{mairix.el}, which comes with Emacs 23.
21492 @node What nnmairix does
21493 @subsection What nnmairix does
21495 The back end @code{nnmairix} enables you to call mairix from within Gnus,
21496 either to query mairix with a search term or to update the
21497 database. While visiting a message in the summary buffer, you can use
21498 several pre-defined shortcuts for calling mairix, e.g., to quickly
21499 search for all mails from the sender of the current message or to
21500 display the whole thread associated with the message, even if the
21501 mails are in different folders.
21503 Additionally, you can create permanent @code{nnmairix} groups which are bound
21504 to certain mairix searches. This way, you can easily create a group
21505 containing mails from a certain sender, with a certain subject line or
21506 even for one specific thread based on the Message-ID@. If you check for
21507 new mail in these folders (e.g., by pressing @kbd{g} or @kbd{M-g}), they
21508 automatically update themselves by calling mairix.
21510 You might ask why you need @code{nnmairix} at all, since mairix already
21511 creates the group, populates it with links to the mails so that you can
21512 then access it with Gnus, right? Well, this @emph{might} work, but often
21513 does not---at least not without problems. Most probably you will get
21514 strange article counts, and sometimes you might see mails which Gnus
21515 claims have already been canceled and are inaccessible. This is due to
21516 the fact that Gnus isn't really amused when things are happening behind
21517 its back. Another problem can be the mail back end itself, e.g., if you
21518 use mairix with an @acronym{IMAP} server (I had Dovecot complaining
21519 about corrupt index files when mairix changed the contents of the search
21520 group). Using @code{nnmairix} should circumvent these problems.
21522 @code{nnmairix} is not really a mail back end---it's actually more like
21523 a wrapper, sitting between a ``real'' mail back end where mairix stores
21524 the searches and the Gnus front end. You can choose between three
21525 different mail back ends for the mairix folders: @code{nnml},
21526 @code{nnmaildir} or @code{nnimap}. @code{nnmairix} will call the mairix
21527 binary so that the search results are stored in folders named
21528 @code{zz_mairix-<NAME>-<NUMBER>} on this mail back end, but it will
21529 present these folders in the Gnus front end only with @code{<NAME>}.
21530 You can use an existing mail back end where you already store your mail,
21531 but if you're uncomfortable with @code{nnmairix} creating new mail
21532 groups alongside your other mail, you can also create, e.g., a new
21533 @code{nnmaildir} or @code{nnml} server exclusively for mairix, but then
21534 make sure those servers do not accidentally receive your new mail
21535 (@pxref{nnmairix caveats}). A special case exists if you want to use
21536 mairix remotely on an IMAP server with @code{nnimap}---here the mairix
21537 folders and your other mail must be on the same @code{nnimap} back end.
21539 @node Setting up mairix
21540 @subsection Setting up mairix
21542 First: create a backup of your mail folders (@pxref{nnmairix caveats}).
21544 Setting up mairix is easy: simply create a @file{.mairixrc} file with
21545 (at least) the following entries:
21548 # Your Maildir/MH base folder
21552 This is the base folder for your mails. All the following directories
21553 are relative to this base folder. If you want to use @code{nnmairix}
21554 with @code{nnimap}, this base directory has to point to the mail
21555 directory where the @acronym{IMAP} server stores the mail folders!
21558 maildir= ... your maildir folders which should be indexed ...
21559 mh= ... your nnml/mh folders which should be indexed ...
21560 mbox = ... your mbox files which should be indexed ...
21563 This specifies all your mail folders and mbox files (relative to the
21564 base directory!) you want to index with mairix. Note that the
21565 @code{nnml} back end saves mails in MH format, so you have to put those
21566 directories in the @code{mh} line. See the example at the end of this
21567 section and mairixrc's man-page for further details.
21573 @vindex nnmairix-group-prefix
21574 This should make sure that you don't accidentally index the mairix
21575 search results. You can change the prefix of these folders with the
21576 variable @code{nnmairix-group-prefix}.
21579 mformat= ... 'maildir' or 'mh' ...
21580 database= ... location of database file ...
21583 The @code{format} setting specifies the output format for the mairix
21584 search folder. Set this to @code{mh} if you want to access search results
21585 with @code{nnml}. Otherwise choose @code{maildir}.
21587 To summarize, here is my shortened @file{.mairixrc} file as an example:
21591 maildir=.personal:.work:.logcheck:.sent
21592 mh=../Mail/nnml/*...
21593 mbox=../mboxmail/mailarchive_year*
21596 database=~/.mairixdatabase
21599 In this case, the base directory is @file{~/Maildir}, where all my Maildir
21600 folders are stored. As you can see, the folders are separated by
21601 colons. If you wonder why every folder begins with a dot: this is
21602 because I use Dovecot as @acronym{IMAP} server, which again uses
21603 @code{Maildir++} folders. For testing nnmairix, I also have some
21604 @code{nnml} mail, which is saved in @file{~/Mail/nnml}. Since this has
21605 to be specified relative to the @code{base} directory, the @code{../Mail}
21606 notation is needed. Note that the line ends in @code{*...}, which means
21607 to recursively scan all files under this directory. Without the three
21608 dots, the wildcard @code{*} will not work recursively. I also have some
21609 old mbox files with archived mail lying around in @file{~/mboxmail}.
21610 The other lines should be obvious.
21612 See the man page for @code{mairixrc} for details and further options,
21613 especially regarding wildcard usage, which may be a little different
21614 than you are used to.
21616 Now simply call @code{mairix} to create the index for the first time.
21617 Note that this may take a few minutes, but every following index will do
21618 the updates incrementally and hence is very fast.
21620 @node Configuring nnmairix
21621 @subsection Configuring nnmairix
21623 In group mode, type @kbd{G b c}
21624 (@code{nnmairix-create-server-and-default-group}). This will ask you for all
21625 necessary information and create a @code{nnmairix} server as a foreign
21626 server. You will have to specify the following:
21631 The @strong{name} of the @code{nnmairix} server---choose whatever you
21635 The name of the @strong{back end server} where mairix should store its
21636 searches. This must be a full server name, like @code{nnml:mymail}.
21637 Just hit @kbd{TAB} to see the available servers. Currently, servers
21638 which are accessed through @code{nnmaildir}, @code{nnimap} and
21639 @code{nnml} are supported. As explained above, for locally stored
21640 mails, this can be an existing server where you store your mails.
21641 However, you can also create, e.g., a new @code{nnmaildir} or @code{nnml}
21642 server exclusively for @code{nnmairix} in your secondary select methods
21643 (@pxref{Finding the News}). If you use a secondary @code{nnml} server
21644 just for mairix, make sure that you explicitly set the server variable
21645 @code{nnml-get-new-mail} to @code{nil}, or you might lose mail
21646 (@pxref{nnmairix caveats}). If you want to use mairix remotely on an
21647 @acronym{IMAP} server, you have to choose the corresponding
21648 @code{nnimap} server here.
21651 @vindex nnmairix-mairix-search-options
21652 The @strong{command} to call the mairix binary. This will usually just
21653 be @code{mairix}, but you can also choose something like @code{ssh
21654 SERVER mairix} if you want to call mairix remotely, e.g., on your
21655 @acronym{IMAP} server. If you want to add some default options to
21656 mairix, you could do this here, but better use the variable
21657 @code{nnmairix-mairix-search-options} instead.
21660 The name of the @strong{default search group}. This will be the group
21661 where all temporary mairix searches are stored, i.e., all searches which
21662 are not bound to permanent @code{nnmairix} groups. Choose whatever you
21666 If the mail back end is @code{nnimap} or @code{nnmaildir}, you will be
21667 asked if you work with @strong{Maildir++}, i.e., with hidden maildir
21668 folders (=beginning with a dot). For example, you have to answer
21669 @samp{yes} here if you work with the Dovecot @acronym{IMAP}
21670 server. Otherwise, you should answer @samp{no} here.
21674 @node nnmairix keyboard shortcuts
21675 @subsection nnmairix keyboard shortcuts
21682 @kindex G b c (Group)
21683 @findex nnmairix-create-server-and-default-group
21684 Creates @code{nnmairix} server and default search group for this server
21685 (@code{nnmairix-create-server-and-default-group}). You should have done
21686 this by now (@pxref{Configuring nnmairix}).
21689 @kindex G b s (Group)
21690 @findex nnmairix-search
21691 Prompts for query which is then sent to the mairix binary. Search
21692 results are put into the default search group which is automatically
21693 displayed (@code{nnmairix-search}).
21696 @kindex G b m (Group)
21697 @findex nnmairix-widget-search
21698 Allows you to create a mairix search or a permanent group more
21699 comfortably using graphical widgets, similar to a customization
21700 group. Just try it to see how it works (@code{nnmairix-widget-search}).
21703 @kindex G b i (Group)
21704 @findex nnmairix-search-interactive
21705 Another command for creating a mairix query more comfortably, but uses
21706 only the minibuffer (@code{nnmairix-search-interactive}).
21709 @kindex G b g (Group)
21710 @findex nnmairix-create-search-group
21711 Creates a permanent group which is associated with a search query
21712 (@code{nnmairix-create-search-group}). The @code{nnmairix} back end
21713 automatically calls mairix when you update this group with @kbd{g} or
21717 @kindex G b q (Group)
21718 @findex nnmairix-group-change-query-this-group
21719 Changes the search query for the @code{nnmairix} group under cursor
21720 (@code{nnmairix-group-change-query-this-group}).
21723 @kindex G b t (Group)
21724 @findex nnmairix-group-toggle-threads-this-group
21725 Toggles the 'threads' parameter for the @code{nnmairix} group under cursor,
21726 i.e., if you want see the whole threads of the found messages
21727 (@code{nnmairix-group-toggle-threads-this-group}).
21730 @kindex G b u (Group)
21731 @findex nnmairix-update-database
21732 @vindex nnmairix-mairix-update-options
21733 Calls mairix binary for updating the database
21734 (@code{nnmairix-update-database}). The default parameters are @code{-F}
21735 and @code{-Q} for making this as fast as possible (see variable
21736 @code{nnmairix-mairix-update-options} for defining these default
21740 @kindex G b r (Group)
21741 @findex nnmairix-group-toggle-readmarks-this-group
21742 Keep articles in this @code{nnmairix} group always read or unread, or leave the
21743 marks unchanged (@code{nnmairix-group-toggle-readmarks-this-group}).
21746 @kindex G b d (Group)
21747 @findex nnmairix-group-delete-recreate-this-group
21748 Recreate @code{nnmairix} group on the ``real'' mail back end
21749 (@code{nnmairix-group-delete-recreate-this-group}). You can do this if
21750 you always get wrong article counts with a @code{nnmairix} group.
21753 @kindex G b a (Group)
21754 @findex nnmairix-group-toggle-allowfast-this-group
21755 Toggles the @code{allow-fast} parameters for group under cursor
21756 (@code{nnmairix-group-toggle-allowfast-this-group}). The default
21757 behavior of @code{nnmairix} is to do a mairix search every time you
21758 update or enter the group. With the @code{allow-fast} parameter set,
21759 mairix will only be called when you explicitly update the group, but not
21760 upon entering. This makes entering the group faster, but it may also
21761 lead to dangling symlinks if something changed between updating and
21762 entering the group which is not yet in the mairix database.
21765 @kindex G b p (Group)
21766 @findex nnmairix-group-toggle-propmarks-this-group
21767 Toggle marks propagation for this group
21768 (@code{nnmairix-group-toggle-propmarks-this-group}). (@pxref{Propagating
21772 @kindex G b o (Group)
21773 @findex nnmairix-propagate-marks
21774 Manually propagate marks (@code{nnmairix-propagate-marks}); needed only when
21775 @code{nnmairix-propagate-marks-upon-close} is set to @code{nil}.
21784 @kindex $ m (Summary)
21785 @findex nnmairix-widget-search-from-this-article
21786 Allows you to create a mairix query or group based on the current
21787 message using graphical widgets (same as @code{nnmairix-widget-search})
21788 (@code{nnmairix-widget-search-from-this-article}).
21791 @kindex $ g (Summary)
21792 @findex nnmairix-create-search-group-from-message
21793 Interactively creates a new search group with query based on the current
21794 message, but uses the minibuffer instead of graphical widgets
21795 (@code{nnmairix-create-search-group-from-message}).
21798 @kindex $ t (Summary)
21799 @findex nnmairix-search-thread-this-article
21800 Searches thread for the current article
21801 (@code{nnmairix-search-thread-this-article}). This is effectively a
21802 shortcut for calling @code{nnmairix-search} with @samp{m:msgid} of the
21803 current article and enabled threads.
21806 @kindex $ f (Summary)
21807 @findex nnmairix-search-from-this-article
21808 Searches all messages from sender of the current article
21809 (@code{nnmairix-search-from-this-article}). This is a shortcut for
21810 calling @code{nnmairix-search} with @samp{f:From}.
21813 @kindex $ o (Summary)
21814 @findex nnmairix-goto-original-article
21815 (Only in @code{nnmairix} groups!) Tries determine the group this article
21816 originally came from and displays the article in this group, so that,
21817 e.g., replying to this article the correct posting styles/group
21818 parameters are applied (@code{nnmairix-goto-original-article}). This
21819 function will use the registry if available, but can also parse the
21820 article file name as a fallback method.
21823 @kindex $ u (Summary)
21824 @findex nnmairix-remove-tick-mark-original-article
21825 Remove possibly existing tick mark from original article
21826 (@code{nnmairix-remove-tick-mark-original-article}). (@pxref{nnmairix
21831 @node Propagating marks
21832 @subsection Propagating marks
21834 First of: you really need a patched mairix binary for using the marks
21835 propagation feature efficiently. Otherwise, you would have to update
21836 the mairix database all the time. You can get the patch at
21838 @uref{http://www.randomsample.de/mairix-maildir-patch.tar}
21840 You need the mairix v0.21 source code for this patch; everything else
21841 is explained in the accompanied readme file. If you don't want to use
21842 marks propagation, you don't have to apply these patches, but they also
21843 fix some annoyances regarding changing maildir flags, so it might still
21846 With the patched mairix binary, you can use @code{nnmairix} as an
21847 alternative to mail splitting (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}). For
21848 example, instead of splitting all mails from @samp{david@@foobar.com}
21849 into a group, you can simply create a search group with the query
21850 @samp{f:david@@foobar.com}. This is actually what ``smart folders'' are
21851 all about: simply put everything in one mail folder and dynamically
21852 create searches instead of splitting. This is more flexible, since you
21853 can dynamically change your folders any time you want to. This also
21854 implies that you will usually read your mails in the @code{nnmairix}
21855 groups instead of your ``real'' mail groups.
21857 There is one problem, though: say you got a new mail from
21858 @samp{david@@foobar.com}; it will now show up in two groups, the
21859 ``real'' group (your INBOX, for example) and in the @code{nnmairix}
21860 search group (provided you have updated the mairix database). Now you
21861 enter the @code{nnmairix} group and read the mail. The mail will be
21862 marked as read, but only in the @code{nnmairix} group---in the ``real''
21863 mail group it will be still shown as unread.
21865 You could now catch up the mail group (@pxref{Group Data}), but this is
21866 tedious and error prone, since you may overlook mails you don't have
21867 created @code{nnmairix} groups for. Of course, you could first use
21868 @code{nnmairix-goto-original-article} (@pxref{nnmairix keyboard
21869 shortcuts}) and then read the mail in the original group, but that's
21870 even more cumbersome.
21872 Clearly, the easiest way would be if marks could somehow be
21873 automatically set for the original article. This is exactly what
21874 @emph{marks propagation} is about.
21876 Marks propagation is inactive by default. You can activate it for a
21877 certain @code{nnmairix} group with
21878 @code{nnmairix-group-toggle-propmarks-this-group} (bound to @kbd{G b
21879 p}). This function will warn you if you try to use it with your default
21880 search group; the reason is that the default search group is used for
21881 temporary searches, and it's easy to accidentally propagate marks from
21882 this group. However, you can ignore this warning if you really want to.
21884 With marks propagation enabled, all the marks you set in a @code{nnmairix}
21885 group should now be propagated to the original article. For example,
21886 you can now tick an article (by default with @kbd{!}) and this mark should
21887 magically be set for the original article, too.
21889 A few more remarks which you may or may not want to know:
21891 @vindex nnmairix-propagate-marks-upon-close
21892 Marks will not be set immediately, but only upon closing a group. This
21893 not only makes marks propagation faster, it also avoids problems with
21894 dangling symlinks when dealing with maildir files (since changing flags
21895 will change the file name). You can also control when to propagate marks
21896 via @code{nnmairix-propagate-marks-upon-close} (see the doc-string for
21899 Obviously, @code{nnmairix} will have to look up the original group for every
21900 article you want to set marks for. If available, @code{nnmairix} will first use
21901 the registry for determining the original group. The registry is very
21902 fast, hence you should really, really enable the registry when using
21903 marks propagation. If you don't have to worry about RAM and disc space,
21904 set @code{gnus-registry-max-entries} to a large enough value; to be on
21905 the safe side, choose roughly the amount of mails you index with mairix.
21907 @vindex nnmairix-only-use-registry
21908 If you don't want to use the registry or the registry hasn't seen the
21909 original article yet, @code{nnmairix} will use an additional mairix
21910 search for determining the file name of the article. This, of course, is
21911 way slower than the registry---if you set hundreds or even thousands of
21912 marks this way, it might take some time. You can avoid this situation by
21913 setting @code{nnmairix-only-use-registry} to t.
21915 Maybe you also want to propagate marks the other way round, i.e., if you
21916 tick an article in a "real" mail group, you'd like to have the same
21917 article in a @code{nnmairix} group ticked, too. For several good
21918 reasons, this can only be done efficiently if you use maildir. To
21919 immediately contradict myself, let me mention that it WON'T work with
21920 @code{nnmaildir}, since @code{nnmaildir} stores the marks externally and
21921 not in the file name. Therefore, propagating marks to @code{nnmairix}
21922 groups will usually only work if you use an IMAP server which uses
21923 maildir as its file format.
21925 @vindex nnmairix-propagate-marks-to-nnmairix-groups
21926 If you work with this setup, just set
21927 @code{nnmairix-propagate-marks-to-nnmairix-groups} to @code{t} and see what
21928 happens. If you don't like what you see, just set it to @code{nil} again. One
21929 problem might be that you get a wrong number of unread articles; this
21930 usually happens when you delete or expire articles in the original
21931 groups. When this happens, you can recreate the @code{nnmairix} group on the
21932 back end using @kbd{G b d}.
21934 @node nnmairix tips and tricks
21935 @subsection nnmairix tips and tricks
21941 @findex nnmairix-update-groups
21942 I put all my important mail groups at group level 1. The mairix groups
21943 have group level 5, so they do not get checked at start up (@pxref{Group
21946 I use the following to check for mails:
21949 (defun my-check-mail-mairix-update (level)
21951 ;; if no prefix given, set level=1
21952 (gnus-group-get-new-news (or level 1))
21953 (nnmairix-update-groups "mairixsearch" t t)
21954 (gnus-group-list-groups))
21956 (define-key gnus-group-mode-map "g" 'my-check-mail-mairix-update)
21959 Instead of @samp{"mairixsearch"} use the name of your @code{nnmairix}
21960 server. See the doc string for @code{nnmairix-update-groups} for
21964 Example: search group for ticked articles
21966 For example, you can create a group for all ticked articles, where the
21967 articles always stay unread:
21969 Hit @kbd{G b g}, enter group name (e.g., @samp{important}), use
21970 @samp{F:f} as query and do not include threads.
21972 Now activate marks propagation for this group by using @kbd{G b p}. Then
21973 activate the always-unread feature by using @kbd{G b r} twice.
21975 So far so good---but how do you remove the tick marks in the @code{nnmairix}
21976 group? There are two options: You may simply use
21977 @code{nnmairix-remove-tick-mark-original-article} (bound to @kbd{$ u}) to remove
21978 tick marks from the original article. The other possibility is to set
21979 @code{nnmairix-propagate-marks-to-nnmairix-groups} to @code{t}, but see the above
21980 comments about this option. If it works for you, the tick marks should
21981 also exist in the @code{nnmairix} group and you can remove them as usual,
21982 e.g., by marking an article as read.
21984 When you have removed a tick mark from the original article, this
21985 article should vanish from the @code{nnmairix} group after you have updated the
21986 mairix database and updated the group. Fortunately, there is a function
21987 for doing exactly that: @code{nnmairix-update-groups}. See the previous code
21988 snippet and the doc string for details.
21991 Dealing with auto-subscription of mail groups
21993 As described before, all @code{nnmairix} groups are in fact stored on
21994 the mail back end in the form @samp{zz_mairix-<NAME>-<NUMBER>}. You can
21995 see them when you enter the back end server in the server buffer. You
21996 should not subscribe these groups! Unfortunately, these groups will
21997 usually get @emph{auto-subscribed} when you use @code{nnmaildir} or
21998 @code{nnml}, i.e., you will suddenly see groups of the form
21999 @samp{zz_mairix*} pop up in your group buffer. If this happens to you,
22000 simply kill these groups with C-k. For avoiding this, turn off
22001 auto-subscription completely by setting the variable
22002 @code{gnus-auto-subscribed-groups} to @code{nil} (@pxref{Filtering New
22003 Groups}), or if you like to keep this feature use the following kludge
22004 for turning it off for all groups beginning with @samp{zz_}:
22007 (setq gnus-auto-subscribed-groups
22008 "^\\(nnml\\|nnfolder\\|nnmbox\\|nnmh\\|nnbabyl\\|nnmaildir\\).*:\\([^z]\\|z$\\|\\z[^z]\\|zz$\\|zz[^_]\\|zz_$\\).*")
22013 @node nnmairix caveats
22014 @subsection nnmairix caveats
22018 You can create a secondary @code{nnml} server just for nnmairix, but then
22019 you have to explicitly set the corresponding server variable
22020 @code{nnml-get-new-mail} to @code{nil}. Otherwise, new mail might get
22021 put into this secondary server (and would never show up again). Here's
22022 an example server definition:
22025 (nnml "mairix" (nnml-directory "mairix") (nnml-get-new-mail nil))
22028 (The @code{nnmaildir} back end also has a server variable
22029 @code{get-new-mail}, but its default value is @code{nil}, so you don't
22030 have to explicitly set it if you use a @code{nnmaildir} server just for
22034 If you use the Gnus registry: don't use the registry with
22035 @code{nnmairix} groups (put them in
22036 @code{gnus-registry-unfollowed-groups}; this is the default). Be
22037 @emph{extra careful} if you use
22038 @code{gnus-registry-split-fancy-with-parent}; mails which are split
22039 into @code{nnmairix} groups are usually gone for good as soon as you
22040 check the group for new mail (yes, it has happened to me...).
22043 Therefore: @emph{Never ever} put ``real'' mails into @code{nnmairix}
22044 groups (you shouldn't be able to, anyway).
22047 If you use the Gnus agent (@pxref{Gnus Unplugged}): don't agentize
22048 @code{nnmairix} groups (though I have no idea what happens if you do).
22051 mairix does only support us-ascii characters.
22054 @code{nnmairix} uses a rather brute force method to force Gnus to
22055 completely reread the group on the mail back end after mairix was
22056 called---it simply deletes and re-creates the group on the mail
22057 back end. So far, this has worked for me without any problems, and I
22058 don't see how @code{nnmairix} could delete other mail groups than its
22059 own, but anyway: you really should have a backup of your mail
22063 All necessary information is stored in the group parameters
22064 (@pxref{Group Parameters}). This has the advantage that no active file
22065 is needed, but also implies that when you kill a @code{nnmairix} group,
22066 it is gone for good.
22069 @findex nnmairix-purge-old-groups
22070 If you create and kill a lot of @code{nnmairix} groups, the
22071 ``zz_mairix-*'' groups will accumulate on the mail back end server. To
22072 delete old groups which are no longer needed, call
22073 @code{nnmairix-purge-old-groups}. Note that this assumes that you don't
22074 save any ``real'' mail in folders of the form
22075 @code{zz_mairix-<NAME>-<NUMBER>}. You can change the prefix of
22076 @code{nnmairix} groups by changing the variable
22077 @code{nnmairix-group-prefix}.
22080 The following only applies if you @emph{don't} use the mentioned patch
22081 for mairix (@pxref{Propagating marks}):
22083 A problem can occur when using @code{nnmairix} with maildir folders and
22084 comes with the fact that maildir stores mail flags like @samp{Seen} or
22085 @samp{Replied} by appending chars @samp{S} and @samp{R} to the message
22086 file name, respectively. This implies that currently you would have to
22087 update the mairix database not only when new mail arrives, but also when
22088 mail flags are changing. The same applies to new mails which are indexed
22089 while they are still in the @samp{new} folder but then get moved to
22090 @samp{cur} when Gnus has seen the mail. If you don't update the database
22091 after this has happened, a mairix query can lead to symlinks pointing to
22092 non-existing files. In Gnus, these messages will usually appear with
22093 ``(none)'' entries in the header and can't be accessed. If this happens
22094 to you, using @kbd{G b u} and updating the group will usually fix this.
22101 @include message.texi
22102 @chapter Emacs MIME
22103 @include emacs-mime.texi
22105 @include sieve.texi
22117 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
22118 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
22119 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
22120 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
22121 * Window Layout:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
22122 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
22123 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
22124 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
22125 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
22126 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
22127 * Predicate Specifiers:: Specifying predicates.
22128 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
22129 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
22130 * Image Enhancements:: Modern versions of Emacs/XEmacs can display images.
22131 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
22132 * Thwarting Email Spam:: Simple ways to avoid unsolicited commercial email.
22133 * Spam Package:: A package for filtering and processing spam.
22134 * The Gnus Registry:: A package for tracking messages by Message-ID.
22135 * Other modes:: Interaction with other modes.
22136 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
22140 @node Process/Prefix
22141 @section Process/Prefix
22142 @cindex process/prefix convention
22144 Many functions, among them functions for moving, decoding and saving
22145 articles, use what is known as the @dfn{Process/Prefix convention}.
22147 This is a method for figuring out what articles the user wants the
22148 command to be performed on.
22152 If the numeric prefix is N, perform the operation on the next N
22153 articles, starting with the current one. If the numeric prefix is
22154 negative, perform the operation on the previous N articles, starting
22155 with the current one.
22157 @vindex transient-mark-mode
22158 If @code{transient-mark-mode} in non-@code{nil} and the region is
22159 active, all articles in the region will be worked upon.
22161 If there is no numeric prefix, but some articles are marked with the
22162 process mark, perform the operation on the articles marked with
22165 If there is neither a numeric prefix nor any articles marked with the
22166 process mark, just perform the operation on the current article.
22168 Quite simple, really, but it needs to be made clear so that surprises
22171 Commands that react to the process mark will push the current list of
22172 process marked articles onto a stack and will then clear all process
22173 marked articles. You can restore the previous configuration with the
22174 @kbd{M P y} command (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
22176 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
22177 One thing that seems to shock & horrify lots of people is that, for
22178 instance, @kbd{3 d} does exactly the same as @kbd{d} @kbd{d} @kbd{d}.
22179 Since each @kbd{d} (which marks the current article as read) by default
22180 goes to the next unread article after marking, this means that @kbd{3 d}
22181 will mark the next three unread articles as read, no matter what the
22182 summary buffer looks like. Set @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} to
22183 @code{nil} for a more straightforward action.
22185 Many commands do not use the process/prefix convention. All commands
22186 that do explicitly say so in this manual. To apply the process/prefix
22187 convention to commands that do not use it, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
22188 command. For instance, to mark all the articles in the group as
22189 expirable, you could say @kbd{M P b M-& E}.
22193 @section Interactive
22194 @cindex interaction
22198 @item gnus-novice-user
22199 @vindex gnus-novice-user
22200 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you are either a newcomer to the
22201 World of Usenet, or you are very cautious, which is a nice thing to be,
22202 really. You will be given questions of the type ``Are you sure you want
22203 to do this?'' before doing anything dangerous. This is @code{t} by
22206 @item gnus-expert-user
22207 @vindex gnus-expert-user
22208 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you will seldom be asked any
22209 questions by Gnus. It will simply assume you know what you're doing,
22210 no matter how strange. For example, quitting Gnus, exiting a group
22211 without an update, catching up with a group, deleting expired
22212 articles, and replying by mail to a news message will not require
22215 @item gnus-interactive-catchup
22216 @vindex gnus-interactive-catchup
22217 Require confirmation before catching up a group if non-@code{nil}. It
22218 is @code{t} by default.
22220 @item gnus-interactive-exit
22221 @vindex gnus-interactive-exit
22222 If non-@code{nil}, require a confirmation when exiting Gnus. If
22223 @code{quiet}, update any active summary buffers automatically without
22224 querying. The default value is @code{t}.
22228 @node Symbolic Prefixes
22229 @section Symbolic Prefixes
22230 @cindex symbolic prefixes
22232 Quite a lot of Emacs commands react to the (numeric) prefix. For
22233 instance, @kbd{C-u 4 C-f} moves point four characters forward, and
22234 @kbd{C-u 9 0 0 I s s p} adds a permanent @code{Subject} substring score
22235 rule of 900 to the current article.
22237 This is all nice and well, but what if you want to give a command some
22238 additional information? Well, what most commands do is interpret the
22239 ``raw'' prefix in some special way. @kbd{C-u 0 C-x C-s} means that one
22240 doesn't want a backup file to be created when saving the current buffer,
22241 for instance. But what if you want to save without making a backup
22242 file, and you want Emacs to flash lights and play a nice tune at the
22243 same time? You can't, and you're probably perfectly happy that way.
22245 @kindex M-i (Summary)
22246 @findex gnus-symbolic-argument
22247 I'm not, so I've added a second prefix---the @dfn{symbolic prefix}. The
22248 prefix key is @kbd{M-i} (@code{gnus-symbolic-argument}), and the next
22249 character typed in is the value. You can stack as many @kbd{M-i}
22250 prefixes as you want. @kbd{M-i a C-M-u} means ``feed the @kbd{C-M-u}
22251 command the symbolic prefix @code{a}''. @kbd{M-i a M-i b C-M-u} means
22252 ``feed the @kbd{C-M-u} command the symbolic prefixes @code{a} and
22253 @code{b}''. You get the drift.
22255 Typing in symbolic prefixes to commands that don't accept them doesn't
22256 hurt, but it doesn't do any good either. Currently not many Gnus
22257 functions make use of the symbolic prefix.
22259 If you're interested in how Gnus implements this, @pxref{Extended
22263 @node Formatting Variables
22264 @section Formatting Variables
22265 @cindex formatting variables
22267 Throughout this manual you've probably noticed lots of variables called
22268 things like @code{gnus-group-line-format} and
22269 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}. These control how Gnus is to
22270 output lines in the various buffers. There's quite a lot of them.
22271 Fortunately, they all use the same syntax, so there's not that much to
22274 Here's an example format spec (from the group buffer): @samp{%M%S%5y:
22275 %(%g%)\n}. We see that it is indeed extremely ugly, and that there are
22276 lots of percentages everywhere.
22279 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
22280 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
22281 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
22282 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
22283 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
22284 * Positioning Point:: Moving point to a position after an operation.
22285 * Tabulation:: Tabulating your output.
22286 * Wide Characters:: Dealing with wide characters.
22289 Currently Gnus uses the following formatting variables:
22290 @code{gnus-group-line-format}, @code{gnus-summary-line-format},
22291 @code{gnus-server-line-format}, @code{gnus-topic-line-format},
22292 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format},
22293 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format},
22294 @code{gnus-article-mode-line-format},
22295 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format}, and
22296 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format}.
22298 All these format variables can also be arbitrary elisp forms. In that
22299 case, they will be @code{eval}ed to insert the required lines.
22301 @kindex M-x gnus-update-format
22302 @findex gnus-update-format
22303 Gnus includes a command to help you while creating your own format
22304 specs. @kbd{M-x gnus-update-format} will @code{eval} the current form,
22305 update the spec in question and pop you to a buffer where you can
22306 examine the resulting Lisp code to be run to generate the line.
22310 @node Formatting Basics
22311 @subsection Formatting Basics
22313 Each @samp{%} element will be replaced by some string or other when the
22314 buffer in question is generated. @samp{%5y} means ``insert the @samp{y}
22315 spec, and pad with spaces to get a 5-character field''.
22317 As with normal C and Emacs Lisp formatting strings, the numerical
22318 modifier between the @samp{%} and the formatting type character will
22319 @dfn{pad} the output so that it is always at least that long.
22320 @samp{%5y} will make the field always (at least) five characters wide by
22321 padding with spaces to the left. If you say @samp{%-5y}, it will pad to
22324 You may also wish to limit the length of the field to protect against
22325 particularly wide values. For that you can say @samp{%4,6y}, which
22326 means that the field will never be more than 6 characters wide and never
22327 less than 4 characters wide.
22329 Also Gnus supports some extended format specifications, such as
22330 @samp{%&user-date;}.
22333 @node Mode Line Formatting
22334 @subsection Mode Line Formatting
22336 Mode line formatting variables (e.g.,
22337 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}) follow the same rules as other,
22338 buffer line oriented formatting variables (@pxref{Formatting Basics})
22339 with the following two differences:
22344 There must be no newline (@samp{\n}) at the end.
22347 The special @samp{%%b} spec can be used to display the buffer name.
22348 Well, it's no spec at all, really---@samp{%%} is just a way to quote
22349 @samp{%} to allow it to pass through the formatting machinery unmangled,
22350 so that Emacs receives @samp{%b}, which is something the Emacs mode line
22351 display interprets to mean ``show the buffer name''. For a full list of
22352 mode line specs Emacs understands, see the documentation of the
22353 @code{mode-line-format} variable.
22358 @node Advanced Formatting
22359 @subsection Advanced Formatting
22361 It is frequently useful to post-process the fields in some way.
22362 Padding, limiting, cutting off parts and suppressing certain values can
22363 be achieved by using @dfn{tilde modifiers}. A typical tilde spec might
22364 look like @samp{%~(cut 3)~(ignore "0")y}.
22366 These are the valid modifiers:
22371 Pad the field to the left with spaces until it reaches the required
22375 Pad the field to the right with spaces until it reaches the required
22380 Cut off characters from the left until it reaches the specified length.
22383 Cut off characters from the right until it reaches the specified
22388 Cut off the specified number of characters from the left.
22391 Cut off the specified number of characters from the right.
22394 Return an empty string if the field is equal to the specified value.
22397 Use the specified form as the field value when the @samp{@@} spec is
22403 "~(form (current-time-string))@@"
22408 Let's take an example. The @samp{%o} spec in the summary mode lines
22409 will return a date in compact ISO8601 format---@samp{19960809T230410}.
22410 This is quite a mouthful, so we want to shave off the century number and
22411 the time, leaving us with a six-character date. That would be
22412 @samp{%~(cut-left 2)~(max-right 6)~(pad 6)o}. (Cutting is done before
22413 maxing, and we need the padding to ensure that the date is never less
22414 than 6 characters to make it look nice in columns.)
22416 Ignoring is done first; then cutting; then maxing; and then as the very
22417 last operation, padding.
22420 @node User-Defined Specs
22421 @subsection User-Defined Specs
22423 All the specs allow for inserting user defined specifiers---@samp{u}.
22424 The next character in the format string should be a letter. Gnus
22425 will call the function @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where
22426 @samp{X} is the letter following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed
22427 a single parameter---what the parameter means depends on what buffer
22428 it's being called from. The function should return a string, which will
22429 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
22430 specifier. This function may also be called with dummy values, so it
22431 should protect against that.
22433 Also Gnus supports extended user-defined specs, such as @samp{%u&foo;}.
22434 Gnus will call the function @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{foo}.
22436 You can also use tilde modifiers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting} to achieve
22437 much the same without defining new functions. Here's an example:
22438 @samp{%~(form (count-lines (point-min) (point)))@@}. The form
22439 given here will be evaluated to yield the current line number, and then
22443 @node Formatting Fonts
22444 @subsection Formatting Fonts
22447 @vindex gnus-mouse-face
22448 There are specs for highlighting, and these are shared by all the format
22449 variables. Text inside the @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} specifiers will get
22450 the special @code{mouse-face} property set, which means that it will be
22451 highlighted (with @code{gnus-mouse-face}) when you put the mouse pointer
22455 @vindex gnus-face-0
22456 Text inside the @samp{%@{} and @samp{%@}} specifiers will have their
22457 normal faces set using @code{gnus-face-0}, which is @code{bold} by
22458 default. If you say @samp{%1@{}, you'll get @code{gnus-face-1} instead,
22459 and so on. Create as many faces as you wish. The same goes for the
22460 @code{mouse-face} specs---you can say @samp{%3(hello%)} to have
22461 @samp{hello} mouse-highlighted with @code{gnus-mouse-face-3}.
22463 @cindex %<<, %>>, guillemets
22464 @c @cindex %<<, %>>, %«, %», guillemets
22465 @vindex gnus-balloon-face-0
22466 Text inside the @samp{%<<} and @samp{%>>} specifiers will get the
22467 special @code{balloon-help} property set to
22468 @code{gnus-balloon-face-0}. If you say @samp{%1<<}, you'll get
22469 @code{gnus-balloon-face-1} and so on. The @code{gnus-balloon-face-*}
22470 variables should be either strings or symbols naming functions that
22471 return a string. When the mouse passes over text with this property
22472 set, a balloon window will appear and display the string. Please
22473 refer to @ref{Tooltips, ,Tooltips, emacs, The Emacs Manual},
22474 (in Emacs) or the doc string of @code{balloon-help-mode} (in
22475 XEmacs) for more information on this. (For technical reasons, the
22476 guillemets have been approximated as @samp{<<} and @samp{>>} in this
22479 Here's an alternative recipe for the group buffer:
22482 ;; @r{Create three face types.}
22483 (setq gnus-face-1 'bold)
22484 (setq gnus-face-3 'italic)
22486 ;; @r{We want the article count to be in}
22487 ;; @r{a bold and green face. So we create}
22488 ;; @r{a new face called @code{my-green-bold}.}
22489 (copy-face 'bold 'my-green-bold)
22490 ;; @r{Set the color.}
22491 (set-face-foreground 'my-green-bold "ForestGreen")
22492 (setq gnus-face-2 'my-green-bold)
22494 ;; @r{Set the new & fancy format.}
22495 (setq gnus-group-line-format
22496 "%M%S%3@{%5y%@}%2[:%] %(%1@{%g%@}%)\n")
22499 I'm sure you'll be able to use this scheme to create totally unreadable
22500 and extremely vulgar displays. Have fun!
22502 Note that the @samp{%(} specs (and friends) do not make any sense on the
22503 mode-line variables.
22505 @node Positioning Point
22506 @subsection Positioning Point
22508 Gnus usually moves point to a pre-defined place on each line in most
22509 buffers. By default, point move to the first colon character on the
22510 line. You can customize this behavior in three different ways.
22512 You can move the colon character to somewhere else on the line.
22514 @findex gnus-goto-colon
22515 You can redefine the function that moves the point to the colon. The
22516 function is called @code{gnus-goto-colon}.
22518 But perhaps the most convenient way to deal with this, if you don't want
22519 to have a colon in your line, is to use the @samp{%*} specifier. If you
22520 put a @samp{%*} somewhere in your format line definition, Gnus will
22525 @subsection Tabulation
22527 You can usually line up your displays by padding and cutting your
22528 strings. However, when combining various strings of different size, it
22529 can often be more convenient to just output the strings, and then worry
22530 about lining up the following text afterwards.
22532 To do that, Gnus supplies tabulator specs---@samp{%=}. There are two
22533 different types---@dfn{hard tabulators} and @dfn{soft tabulators}.
22535 @samp{%50=} will insert space characters to pad the line up to column
22536 50. If the text is already past column 50, nothing will be inserted.
22537 This is the soft tabulator.
22539 @samp{%-50=} will insert space characters to pad the line up to column
22540 50. If the text is already past column 50, the excess text past column
22541 50 will be removed. This is the hard tabulator.
22544 @node Wide Characters
22545 @subsection Wide Characters
22547 Fixed width fonts in most countries have characters of the same width.
22548 Some countries, however, use Latin characters mixed with wider
22549 characters---most notable East Asian countries.
22551 The problem is that when formatting, Gnus assumes that if a string is 10
22552 characters wide, it'll be 10 Latin characters wide on the screen. In
22553 these countries, that's not true.
22555 @vindex gnus-use-correct-string-widths
22556 To help fix this, you can set @code{gnus-use-correct-string-widths} to
22557 @code{t}. This makes buffer generation slower, but the results will be
22558 prettier. The default value under XEmacs is @code{t} but @code{nil}
22562 @node Window Layout
22563 @section Window Layout
22564 @cindex window layout
22566 No, there's nothing here about X, so be quiet.
22568 @vindex gnus-use-full-window
22569 If @code{gnus-use-full-window} non-@code{nil}, Gnus will delete all
22570 other windows and occupy the entire Emacs screen by itself. It is
22571 @code{t} by default.
22573 Setting this variable to @code{nil} kinda works, but there are
22574 glitches. Use at your own peril.
22576 @vindex gnus-buffer-configuration
22577 @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} describes how much space each Gnus
22578 buffer should be given. Here's an excerpt of this variable:
22581 ((group (vertical 1.0 (group 1.0 point)))
22582 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
22586 This is an alist. The @dfn{key} is a symbol that names some action or
22587 other. For instance, when displaying the group buffer, the window
22588 configuration function will use @code{group} as the key. A full list of
22589 possible names is listed below.
22591 The @dfn{value} (i.e., the @dfn{split}) says how much space each buffer
22592 should occupy. To take the @code{article} split as an example:
22595 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
22599 This @dfn{split} says that the summary buffer should occupy 25% of upper
22600 half of the screen, and that it is placed over the article buffer. As
22601 you may have noticed, 100% + 25% is actually 125% (yup, I saw y'all
22602 reaching for that calculator there). However, the special number
22603 @code{1.0} is used to signal that this buffer should soak up all the
22604 rest of the space available after the rest of the buffers have taken
22605 whatever they need. There should be only one buffer with the @code{1.0}
22606 size spec per split.
22608 Point will be put in the buffer that has the optional third element
22609 @code{point}. In a @code{frame} split, the last subsplit having a leaf
22610 split where the tag @code{frame-focus} is a member (i.e., is the third or
22611 fourth element in the list, depending on whether the @code{point} tag is
22612 present) gets focus.
22614 Here's a more complicated example:
22617 (article (vertical 1.0 (group 4)
22618 (summary 0.25 point)
22622 If the size spec is an integer instead of a floating point number,
22623 then that number will be used to say how many lines a buffer should
22624 occupy, not a percentage.
22626 If the @dfn{split} looks like something that can be @code{eval}ed (to be
22627 precise---if the @code{car} of the split is a function or a subr), this
22628 split will be @code{eval}ed. If the result is non-@code{nil}, it will
22629 be used as a split.
22631 Not complicated enough for you? Well, try this on for size:
22634 (article (horizontal 1.0
22638 (summary 0.25 point)
22642 Whoops. Two buffers with the mystery 100% tag. And what's that
22643 @code{horizontal} thingie?
22645 If the first element in one of the split is @code{horizontal}, Gnus will
22646 split the window horizontally, giving you two windows side-by-side.
22647 Inside each of these strips you may carry on all you like in the normal
22648 fashion. The number following @code{horizontal} says what percentage of
22649 the screen is to be given to this strip.
22651 For each split, there @emph{must} be one element that has the 100% tag.
22652 The splitting is never accurate, and this buffer will eat any leftover
22653 lines from the splits.
22655 To be slightly more formal, here's a definition of what a valid split
22660 split = frame | horizontal | vertical | buffer | form
22661 frame = "(frame " size *split ")"
22662 horizontal = "(horizontal " size *split ")"
22663 vertical = "(vertical " size *split ")"
22664 buffer = "(" buf-name " " size *[ "point" ] *[ "frame-focus"] ")"
22665 size = number | frame-params
22666 buf-name = group | article | summary ...
22670 The limitations are that the @code{frame} split can only appear as the
22671 top-level split. @var{form} should be an Emacs Lisp form that should
22672 return a valid split. We see that each split is fully recursive, and
22673 may contain any number of @code{vertical} and @code{horizontal} splits.
22675 @vindex gnus-window-min-width
22676 @vindex gnus-window-min-height
22677 @cindex window height
22678 @cindex window width
22679 Finding the right sizes can be a bit complicated. No window may be less
22680 than @code{gnus-window-min-height} (default 1) characters high, and all
22681 windows must be at least @code{gnus-window-min-width} (default 1)
22682 characters wide. Gnus will try to enforce this before applying the
22683 splits. If you want to use the normal Emacs window width/height limit,
22684 you can just set these two variables to @code{nil}.
22686 If you're not familiar with Emacs terminology, @code{horizontal} and
22687 @code{vertical} splits may work the opposite way of what you'd expect.
22688 Windows inside a @code{horizontal} split are shown side-by-side, and
22689 windows within a @code{vertical} split are shown above each other.
22691 @findex gnus-configure-frame
22692 If you want to experiment with window placement, a good tip is to call
22693 @code{gnus-configure-frame} directly with a split. This is the function
22694 that does all the real work when splitting buffers. Below is a pretty
22695 nonsensical configuration with 5 windows; two for the group buffer and
22696 three for the article buffer. (I said it was nonsensical.) If you
22697 @code{eval} the statement below, you can get an idea of how that would
22698 look straight away, without going through the normal Gnus channels.
22699 Play with it until you're satisfied, and then use
22700 @code{gnus-add-configuration} to add your new creation to the buffer
22701 configuration list.
22704 (gnus-configure-frame
22708 (article 0.3 point))
22716 You might want to have several frames as well. No prob---just use the
22717 @code{frame} split:
22720 (gnus-configure-frame
22723 (summary 0.25 point frame-focus)
22725 (vertical ((height . 5) (width . 15)
22726 (user-position . t)
22727 (left . -1) (top . 1))
22732 This split will result in the familiar summary/article window
22733 configuration in the first (or ``main'') frame, while a small additional
22734 frame will be created where picons will be shown. As you can see,
22735 instead of the normal @code{1.0} top-level spec, each additional split
22736 should have a frame parameter alist as the size spec.
22737 @xref{Frame Parameters, , Frame Parameters, elisp, The GNU Emacs Lisp
22738 Reference Manual}. Under XEmacs, a frame property list will be
22739 accepted, too---for instance, @code{(height 5 width 15 left -1 top 1)}
22741 The list of all possible keys for @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} can
22742 be found in its default value.
22744 Note that the @code{message} key is used for both
22745 @code{gnus-group-mail} and @code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}. If
22746 it is desirable to distinguish between the two, something like this
22750 (message (horizontal 1.0
22751 (vertical 1.0 (message 1.0 point))
22753 (if (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer)
22758 One common desire for a multiple frame split is to have a separate frame
22759 for composing mail and news while leaving the original frame intact. To
22760 accomplish that, something like the following can be done:
22765 (if (not (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer))
22766 (car (cdr (assoc 'group gnus-buffer-configuration)))
22767 (car (cdr (assoc 'summary gnus-buffer-configuration))))
22768 (vertical ((user-position . t) (top . 1) (left . 1)
22769 (name . "Message"))
22770 (message 1.0 point))))
22773 @findex gnus-add-configuration
22774 Since the @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} variable is so long and
22775 complicated, there's a function you can use to ease changing the config
22776 of a single setting: @code{gnus-add-configuration}. If, for instance,
22777 you want to change the @code{article} setting, you could say:
22780 (gnus-add-configuration
22781 '(article (vertical 1.0
22783 (summary .25 point)
22787 You'd typically stick these @code{gnus-add-configuration} calls in your
22788 @file{~/.gnus.el} file or in some startup hook---they should be run after
22789 Gnus has been loaded.
22791 @vindex gnus-always-force-window-configuration
22792 If all windows mentioned in the configuration are already visible, Gnus
22793 won't change the window configuration. If you always want to force the
22794 ``right'' window configuration, you can set
22795 @code{gnus-always-force-window-configuration} to non-@code{nil}.
22797 If you're using tree displays (@pxref{Tree Display}), and the tree
22798 window is displayed vertically next to another window, you may also want
22799 to fiddle with @code{gnus-tree-minimize-window} to avoid having the
22802 @subsection Window Configuration Names
22804 Here's a list of most of the currently known window configurations,
22805 and when they're used:
22812 Entering a group and showing only the summary.
22815 Selecting an article.
22821 Browsing groups from the server buffer.
22824 Composing a (new) message.
22827 Showing only the article buffer.
22830 Editing an article.
22833 Editing group parameters and the like.
22836 Editing a server definition.
22839 Composing a news message.
22842 Replying or following up an article without yanking the text.
22845 Forwarding a message.
22848 Replying or following up an article with yanking the text.
22851 Bouncing a message.
22854 Sending an article to an external process.
22857 Sending a bug report.
22860 Displaying the score trace.
22863 Displaying the score words.
22866 Displaying the split trace.
22868 @item compose-bounce
22869 Composing a bounce message.
22872 Previewing a @acronym{MIME} part.
22877 @subsection Example Window Configurations
22881 Narrow left hand side occupied by group buffer. Right hand side split
22882 between summary buffer (top one-sixth) and article buffer (bottom).
22897 (gnus-add-configuration
22900 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
22902 (summary 0.16 point)
22905 (gnus-add-configuration
22908 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
22909 (vertical 1.0 (summary 1.0 point)))))
22915 @node Faces and Fonts
22916 @section Faces and Fonts
22921 Fiddling with fonts and faces used to be very difficult, but these days
22922 it is very simple. You simply say @kbd{M-x customize-face}, pick out
22923 the face you want to alter, and alter it via the standard Customize
22928 @section Mode Lines
22931 @vindex gnus-updated-mode-lines
22932 @code{gnus-updated-mode-lines} says what buffers should keep their mode
22933 lines updated. It is a list of symbols. Supported symbols include
22934 @code{group}, @code{article}, @code{summary}, @code{server},
22935 @code{browse}, and @code{tree}. If the corresponding symbol is present,
22936 Gnus will keep that mode line updated with information that may be
22937 pertinent. If this variable is @code{nil}, screen refresh may be
22940 @cindex display-time
22942 @vindex gnus-mode-non-string-length
22943 By default, Gnus displays information on the current article in the mode
22944 lines of the summary and article buffers. The information Gnus wishes
22945 to display (e.g., the subject of the article) is often longer than the
22946 mode lines, and therefore have to be cut off at some point. The
22947 @code{gnus-mode-non-string-length} variable says how long the other
22948 elements on the line is (i.e., the non-info part). If you put
22949 additional elements on the mode line (e.g., a clock), you should modify
22952 @c Hook written by Francesco Potorti` <pot@cnuce.cnr.it>
22954 (add-hook 'display-time-hook
22955 (lambda () (setq gnus-mode-non-string-length
22957 (if line-number-mode 5 0)
22958 (if column-number-mode 4 0)
22959 (length display-time-string)))))
22962 If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the default), the mode line
22963 strings won't be chopped off, and they won't be padded either. Note
22964 that the default is unlikely to be desirable, as even the percentage
22965 complete in the buffer may be crowded off the mode line; the user should
22966 configure this variable appropriately for her configuration.
22969 @node Highlighting and Menus
22970 @section Highlighting and Menus
22972 @cindex highlighting
22975 @vindex gnus-visual
22976 The @code{gnus-visual} variable controls most of the Gnus-prettifying
22977 aspects. If @code{nil}, Gnus won't attempt to create menus or use fancy
22978 colors or fonts. This will also inhibit loading the @file{gnus-vis.el}
22981 This variable can be a list of visual properties that are enabled. The
22982 following elements are valid, and are all included by default:
22985 @item group-highlight
22986 Do highlights in the group buffer.
22987 @item summary-highlight
22988 Do highlights in the summary buffer.
22989 @item article-highlight
22990 Do highlights in the article buffer.
22992 Turn on highlighting in all buffers.
22994 Create menus in the group buffer.
22996 Create menus in the summary buffers.
22998 Create menus in the article buffer.
23000 Create menus in the browse buffer.
23002 Create menus in the server buffer.
23004 Create menus in the score buffers.
23006 Create menus in all buffers.
23009 So if you only want highlighting in the article buffer and menus in all
23010 buffers, you could say something like:
23013 (setq gnus-visual '(article-highlight menu))
23016 If you want highlighting only and no menus whatsoever, you'd say:
23019 (setq gnus-visual '(highlight))
23022 If @code{gnus-visual} is @code{t}, highlighting and menus will be used
23023 in all Gnus buffers.
23025 Other general variables that influence the look of all buffers include:
23028 @item gnus-mouse-face
23029 @vindex gnus-mouse-face
23030 This is the face (i.e., font) used for mouse highlighting in Gnus. No
23031 mouse highlights will be done if @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
23035 There are hooks associated with the creation of all the different menus:
23039 @item gnus-article-menu-hook
23040 @vindex gnus-article-menu-hook
23041 Hook called after creating the article mode menu.
23043 @item gnus-group-menu-hook
23044 @vindex gnus-group-menu-hook
23045 Hook called after creating the group mode menu.
23047 @item gnus-summary-menu-hook
23048 @vindex gnus-summary-menu-hook
23049 Hook called after creating the summary mode menu.
23051 @item gnus-server-menu-hook
23052 @vindex gnus-server-menu-hook
23053 Hook called after creating the server mode menu.
23055 @item gnus-browse-menu-hook
23056 @vindex gnus-browse-menu-hook
23057 Hook called after creating the browse mode menu.
23059 @item gnus-score-menu-hook
23060 @vindex gnus-score-menu-hook
23061 Hook called after creating the score mode menu.
23071 Gnus, being larger than any program ever written (allegedly), does lots
23072 of strange stuff that you may wish to have done while you're not
23073 present. For instance, you may want it to check for new mail once in a
23074 while. Or you may want it to close down all connections to all servers
23075 when you leave Emacs idle. And stuff like that.
23077 Gnus will let you do stuff like that by defining various
23078 @dfn{handlers}. Each handler consists of three elements: A
23079 @var{function}, a @var{time}, and an @var{idle} parameter.
23081 Here's an example of a handler that closes connections when Emacs has
23082 been idle for thirty minutes:
23085 (gnus-demon-close-connections nil 30)
23088 Here's a handler that scans for @acronym{PGP} headers every hour when
23092 (gnus-demon-scan-pgp 60 t)
23095 This @var{time} parameter and that @var{idle} parameter work together
23096 in a strange, but wonderful fashion. Basically, if @var{idle} is
23097 @code{nil}, then the function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
23099 If @var{idle} is @code{t}, then the function will be called after
23100 @var{time} minutes only if Emacs is idle. So if Emacs is never idle,
23101 the function will never be called. But once Emacs goes idle, the
23102 function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
23104 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is a number, the function will
23105 be called every @var{time} minutes only when Emacs has been idle for
23106 @var{idle} minutes.
23108 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is @code{nil}, the function
23109 will be called once every time Emacs has been idle for @var{idle}
23112 And if @var{time} is a string, it should look like @samp{07:31}, and
23113 the function will then be called once every day somewhere near that
23114 time. Modified by the @var{idle} parameter, of course.
23116 @vindex gnus-demon-timestep
23117 (When I say ``minute'' here, I really mean @code{gnus-demon-timestep}
23118 seconds. This is 60 by default. If you change that variable,
23119 all the timings in the handlers will be affected.)
23121 So, if you want to add a handler, you could put something like this in
23122 your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
23124 @findex gnus-demon-add-handler
23126 (gnus-demon-add-handler 'gnus-demon-close-connections 30 t)
23129 @findex gnus-demon-add-scanmail
23130 @findex gnus-demon-add-rescan
23131 @findex gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps
23132 @findex gnus-demon-add-disconnection
23133 Some ready-made functions to do this have been created:
23134 @code{gnus-demon-add-disconnection},
23135 @code{gnus-demon-add-nntp-close-connection},
23136 @code{gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps}, @code{gnus-demon-add-rescan}, and
23137 @code{gnus-demon-add-scanmail}. Just put those functions in your
23138 @file{~/.gnus.el} if you want those abilities.
23140 @findex gnus-demon-init
23141 @findex gnus-demon-cancel
23142 @vindex gnus-demon-handlers
23143 If you add handlers to @code{gnus-demon-handlers} directly, you should
23144 run @code{gnus-demon-init} to make the changes take hold. To cancel all
23145 daemons, you can use the @code{gnus-demon-cancel} function.
23147 Note that adding daemons can be pretty naughty if you over do it. Adding
23148 functions that scan all news and mail from all servers every two seconds
23149 is a sure-fire way of getting booted off any respectable system. So
23157 It is very useful to be able to undo actions one has done. In normal
23158 Emacs buffers, it's easy enough---you just push the @code{undo} button.
23159 In Gnus buffers, however, it isn't that simple.
23161 The things Gnus displays in its buffer is of no value whatsoever to
23162 Gnus---it's all just data designed to look nice to the user.
23163 Killing a group in the group buffer with @kbd{C-k} makes the line
23164 disappear, but that's just a side-effect of the real action---the
23165 removal of the group in question from the internal Gnus structures.
23166 Undoing something like that can't be done by the normal Emacs
23167 @code{undo} function.
23169 Gnus tries to remedy this somewhat by keeping track of what the user
23170 does and coming up with actions that would reverse the actions the user
23171 takes. When the user then presses the @code{undo} key, Gnus will run
23172 the code to reverse the previous action, or the previous actions.
23173 However, not all actions are easily reversible, so Gnus currently offers
23174 a few key functions to be undoable. These include killing groups,
23175 yanking groups, and changing the list of read articles of groups.
23176 That's it, really. More functions may be added in the future, but each
23177 added function means an increase in data to be stored, so Gnus will
23178 never be totally undoable.
23180 @findex gnus-undo-mode
23181 @vindex gnus-use-undo
23183 The undoability is provided by the @code{gnus-undo-mode} minor mode. It
23184 is used if @code{gnus-use-undo} is non-@code{nil}, which is the
23185 default. The @kbd{C-M-_} key performs the @code{gnus-undo}
23186 command, which should feel kinda like the normal Emacs @code{undo}
23190 @node Predicate Specifiers
23191 @section Predicate Specifiers
23192 @cindex predicate specifiers
23194 Some Gnus variables are @dfn{predicate specifiers}. This is a special
23195 form that allows flexible specification of predicates without having
23196 to type all that much.
23198 These specifiers are lists consisting of functions, symbols and lists.
23203 (or gnus-article-unseen-p
23204 gnus-article-unread-p)
23207 The available symbols are @code{or}, @code{and} and @code{not}. The
23208 functions all take one parameter.
23210 @findex gnus-make-predicate
23211 Internally, Gnus calls @code{gnus-make-predicate} on these specifiers
23212 to create a function that can be called. This input parameter to this
23213 function will be passed along to all the functions in the predicate
23218 @section Moderation
23221 If you are a moderator, you can use the @file{gnus-mdrtn.el} package.
23222 It is not included in the standard Gnus package. Write a mail to
23223 @samp{larsi@@gnus.org} and state what group you moderate, and you'll
23226 The moderation package is implemented as a minor mode for summary
23230 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-moderate)
23233 in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file.
23235 If you are the moderator of @samp{rec.zoofle}, this is how it's
23240 You split your incoming mail by matching on
23241 @samp{Newsgroups:.*rec.zoofle}, which will put all the to-be-posted
23242 articles in some mail group---for instance, @samp{nnml:rec.zoofle}.
23245 You enter that group once in a while and post articles using the @kbd{e}
23246 (edit-and-post) or @kbd{s} (just send unedited) commands.
23249 If, while reading the @samp{rec.zoofle} newsgroup, you happen upon some
23250 articles that weren't approved by you, you can cancel them with the
23254 To use moderation mode in these two groups, say:
23257 (setq gnus-moderated-list
23258 "^nnml:rec.zoofle$\\|^rec.zoofle$")
23262 @node Fetching a Group
23263 @section Fetching a Group
23264 @cindex fetching a group
23266 @findex gnus-fetch-group
23267 It is sometimes convenient to be able to just say ``I want to read this
23268 group and I don't care whether Gnus has been started or not''. This is
23269 perhaps more useful for people who write code than for users, but the
23270 command @code{gnus-fetch-group} provides this functionality in any case.
23271 It takes the group name as a parameter.
23274 @node Image Enhancements
23275 @section Image Enhancements
23277 XEmacs, as well as Emacs 21@footnote{Emacs 21 on MS Windows doesn't
23278 support images, Emacs 22 does.} and up, are able to display pictures and
23279 stuff, so Gnus has taken advantage of that.
23282 * X-Face:: Display a funky, teensy black-and-white image.
23283 * Face:: Display a funkier, teensier colored image.
23284 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
23285 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what you're reading.
23286 * Gravatars:: Display the avatar of people you read.
23287 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
23295 @code{X-Face} headers describe a 48x48 pixel black-and-white (1 bit
23296 depth) image that's supposed to represent the author of the message.
23297 It seems to be supported by an ever-growing number of mail and news
23301 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
23302 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-command
23303 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly
23311 Viewing an @code{X-Face} header either requires an Emacs that has
23312 @samp{compface} support (which most XEmacs versions have), or that you
23313 have suitable conversion or display programs installed. If your Emacs
23314 has image support the default action is to display the face before the
23315 @code{From} header. If there's no native @code{X-Face} support, Gnus
23316 will try to convert the @code{X-Face} header using external programs
23317 from the @code{pbmplus} package and friends, see below. For XEmacs it's
23318 faster if XEmacs has been compiled with @code{X-Face} support. The
23319 default action under Emacs without image support is to fork off the
23320 @code{display} program.
23322 On a GNU/Linux system, the @code{display} program is included in the
23323 ImageMagick package. For external conversion programs look for packages
23324 with names like @code{netpbm}, @code{libgr-progs} and @code{compface}.
23325 On Windows, you may use the packages @code{netpbm} and @code{compface}
23326 from @url{http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net}. You need to add the
23327 @code{bin} directory to your @code{PATH} environment variable.
23328 @c In fact only the following DLLs and binaries seem to be required:
23329 @c compface1.dll uncompface.exe libnetpbm10.dll icontopbm.exe
23331 The variable @code{gnus-article-x-face-command} controls which programs
23332 are used to display the @code{X-Face} header. If this variable is a
23333 string, this string will be executed in a sub-shell. If it is a
23334 function, this function will be called with the face as the argument.
23335 If @code{gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly} (which is a regexp) matches the
23336 @code{From} header, the face will not be shown.
23338 (Note: @code{x-face} is used in the variable/function names, not
23346 @vindex gnus-x-face
23347 Face to show X-Face. The colors from this face are used as the
23348 foreground and background colors of the displayed X-Faces. The
23349 default colors are black and white.
23351 @item gnus-face-properties-alist
23352 @vindex gnus-face-properties-alist
23353 Alist of image types and properties applied to Face (@pxref{Face}) and
23354 X-Face images. The default value is @code{((pbm . (:face gnus-x-face))
23355 (png . nil))} for Emacs or @code{((xface . (:face gnus-x-face)))} for
23356 XEmacs. Here are examples:
23359 ;; Specify the altitude of Face and X-Face images in the From header.
23360 (setq gnus-face-properties-alist
23361 '((pbm . (:face gnus-x-face :ascent 80))
23362 (png . (:ascent 80))))
23364 ;; Show Face and X-Face images as pressed buttons.
23365 (setq gnus-face-properties-alist
23366 '((pbm . (:face gnus-x-face :relief -2))
23367 (png . (:relief -2))))
23370 @pxref{Image Descriptors, ,Image Descriptors, elisp, The Emacs Lisp
23371 Reference Manual} for the valid properties for various image types.
23372 Currently, @code{pbm} is used for X-Face images and @code{png} is used
23373 for Face images in Emacs. Only the @code{:face} property is effective
23374 on the @code{xface} image type in XEmacs if it is built with the
23375 @samp{libcompface} library.
23378 If you use posting styles, you can use an @code{x-face-file} entry in
23379 @code{gnus-posting-styles}, @xref{Posting Styles}. If you don't, Gnus
23380 provides a few convenience functions and variables to allow easier
23381 insertion of X-Face headers in outgoing messages. You also need the
23382 above mentioned ImageMagick, netpbm or other image conversion packages
23383 (depending the values of the variables below) for these functions.
23385 @findex gnus-random-x-face
23386 @vindex gnus-convert-pbm-to-x-face-command
23387 @vindex gnus-x-face-directory
23388 @code{gnus-random-x-face} goes through all the @samp{pbm} files in
23389 @code{gnus-x-face-directory} and picks one at random, and then
23390 converts it to the X-Face format by using the
23391 @code{gnus-convert-pbm-to-x-face-command} shell command. The
23392 @samp{pbm} files should be 48x48 pixels big. It returns the X-Face
23393 header data as a string.
23395 @findex gnus-insert-random-x-face-header
23396 @code{gnus-insert-random-x-face-header} calls
23397 @code{gnus-random-x-face} and inserts a @samp{X-Face} header with the
23398 randomly generated data.
23400 @findex gnus-x-face-from-file
23401 @vindex gnus-convert-image-to-x-face-command
23402 @code{gnus-x-face-from-file} takes a GIF file as the parameter, and then
23403 converts the file to X-Face format by using the
23404 @code{gnus-convert-image-to-x-face-command} shell command.
23406 Here's how you would typically use the first function. Put something
23407 like the following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
23410 (setq message-required-news-headers
23411 (nconc message-required-news-headers
23412 (list '(X-Face . gnus-random-x-face))))
23415 Using the last function would be something like this:
23418 (setq message-required-news-headers
23419 (nconc message-required-news-headers
23420 (list '(X-Face . (lambda ()
23421 (gnus-x-face-from-file
23422 "~/My-face.gif"))))))
23430 @c #### FIXME: faces and x-faces' implementations should really be harmonized.
23432 @code{Face} headers are essentially a funkier version of @code{X-Face}
23433 ones. They describe a 48x48 pixel colored image that's supposed to
23434 represent the author of the message.
23437 @findex gnus-article-display-face
23438 The contents of a @code{Face} header must be a base64 encoded PNG image.
23439 See @uref{http://quimby.gnus.org/circus/face/} for the precise
23442 The @code{gnus-face-properties-alist} variable affects the appearance of
23443 displayed Face images. @xref{X-Face}.
23445 Viewing a @code{Face} header requires an Emacs that is able to display
23448 @c (if (featurep 'xemacs)
23450 @c (image-type-available-p 'png))
23452 Gnus provides a few convenience functions and variables to allow
23453 easier insertion of Face headers in outgoing messages.
23455 @findex gnus-convert-png-to-face
23456 @code{gnus-convert-png-to-face} takes a 48x48 PNG image, no longer than
23457 726 bytes long, and converts it to a face.
23459 @findex gnus-face-from-file
23460 @vindex gnus-convert-image-to-face-command
23461 @code{gnus-face-from-file} takes a JPEG file as the parameter, and then
23462 converts the file to Face format by using the
23463 @code{gnus-convert-image-to-face-command} shell command.
23465 Here's how you would typically use this function. Put something like the
23466 following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
23469 (setq message-required-news-headers
23470 (nconc message-required-news-headers
23471 (list '(Face . (lambda ()
23472 (gnus-face-from-file "~/face.jpg"))))))
23477 @subsection Smileys
23482 \gnusfig{-3cm}{0.5cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/BigFace,height=20cm}}
23487 @dfn{Smiley} is a package separate from Gnus, but since Gnus is
23488 currently the only package that uses Smiley, it is documented here.
23490 In short---to use Smiley in Gnus, put the following in your
23491 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
23494 (setq gnus-treat-display-smileys t)
23497 Smiley maps text smiley faces---@samp{:-)}, @samp{8-)}, @samp{:-(} and
23498 the like---to pictures and displays those instead of the text smiley
23499 faces. The conversion is controlled by a list of regexps that matches
23500 text and maps that to file names.
23502 @vindex smiley-regexp-alist
23503 The alist used is specified by the @code{smiley-regexp-alist}
23504 variable. The first item in each element is the regexp to be matched;
23505 the second element is the regexp match group that is to be replaced by
23506 the picture; and the third element is the name of the file to be
23509 The following variables customize the appearance of the smileys:
23514 @vindex smiley-style
23515 Specifies the smiley style. Predefined smiley styles include
23516 @code{low-color} (small 13x14 pixel, three-color images), @code{medium}
23517 (more colorful images, 16x16 pixel), and @code{grayscale} (grayscale
23518 images, 14x14 pixel). The default depends on the height of the default
23521 @item smiley-data-directory
23522 @vindex smiley-data-directory
23523 Where Smiley will look for smiley faces files. You shouldn't set this
23524 variable anymore. Customize @code{smiley-style} instead.
23526 @item gnus-smiley-file-types
23527 @vindex gnus-smiley-file-types
23528 List of suffixes on smiley file names to try.
23542 So@dots{} You want to slow down your news reader even more! This is a
23543 good way to do so. It's also a great way to impress people staring
23544 over your shoulder as you read news.
23546 What are Picons? To quote directly from the Picons Web site:
23555 @dfn{Picons} is short for ``personal icons''. They're small,
23556 constrained images used to represent users and domains on the net,
23557 organized into databases so that the appropriate image for a given
23558 e-mail address can be found. Besides users and domains, there are picon
23559 databases for Usenet newsgroups and weather forecasts. The picons are
23560 in either monochrome @code{XBM} format or color @code{XPM} and
23561 @code{GIF} formats.
23564 @vindex gnus-picon-databases
23565 For instructions on obtaining and installing the picons databases,
23566 point your Web browser at
23567 @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/ftp/index.html}.
23569 If you are using Debian GNU/Linux, saying @samp{apt-get install
23570 picons.*} will install the picons where Gnus can find them.
23572 To enable displaying picons, simply make sure that
23573 @code{gnus-picon-databases} points to the directory containing the
23576 @vindex gnus-picon-style
23577 The variable @code{gnus-picon-style} controls how picons are displayed.
23578 If @code{inline}, the textual representation is replaced. If
23579 @code{right}, picons are added right to the textual representation.
23581 @vindex gnus-picon-properties
23582 The value of the variable @code{gnus-picon-properties} is a list of
23583 properties applied to picons.
23585 The following variables offer control over where things are located.
23589 @item gnus-picon-databases
23590 @vindex gnus-picon-databases
23591 The location of the picons database. This is a list of directories
23592 containing the @file{news}, @file{domains}, @file{users} (and so on)
23593 subdirectories. Defaults to @code{("/usr/lib/picon"
23594 "/usr/local/faces")}.
23596 @item gnus-picon-news-directories
23597 @vindex gnus-picon-news-directories
23598 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picon-databases} for
23599 newsgroups faces. @code{("news")} is the default.
23601 @item gnus-picon-user-directories
23602 @vindex gnus-picon-user-directories
23603 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picon-databases} for user
23604 faces. @code{("users" "usenix" "local" "misc")} is the default.
23606 @item gnus-picon-domain-directories
23607 @vindex gnus-picon-domain-directories
23608 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picon-databases} for
23609 domain name faces. Defaults to @code{("domains")}. Some people may
23610 want to add @samp{"unknown"} to this list.
23612 @item gnus-picon-file-types
23613 @vindex gnus-picon-file-types
23614 Ordered list of suffixes on picon file names to try. Defaults to
23615 @code{("xpm" "gif" "xbm")} minus those not built-in your Emacs.
23617 @item gnus-picon-inhibit-top-level-domains
23618 @vindex gnus-picon-inhibit-top-level-domains
23619 If non-@code{nil} (which is the default), don't display picons for
23620 things like @samp{.net} and @samp{.de}, which aren't usually very
23626 @subsection Gravatars
23630 \include{gravatars}
23634 A gravatar is an image registered to an e-mail address.
23636 You can submit yours on-line at @uref{http://www.gravatar.com}.
23638 The following variables offer control over how things are displayed.
23642 @item gnus-gravatar-size
23643 @vindex gnus-gravatar-size
23644 The size in pixels of gravatars. Gravatars are always square, so one
23645 number for the size is enough.
23647 @item gnus-gravatar-properties
23648 @vindex gnus-gravatar-properties
23649 List of image properties applied to Gravatar images.
23651 @item gnus-gravatar-too-ugly
23652 @vindex gnus-gravatar-too-ugly
23653 Regexp that matches mail addresses or names of people of which avatars
23654 should not be displayed, or @code{nil}. It default to the value of
23655 @code{gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly} (@pxref{X-Face}).
23659 If you want to see them in the From field, set:
23661 (setq gnus-treat-from-gravatar 'head)
23664 If you want to see them in the Cc and To fields, set:
23667 (setq gnus-treat-mail-gravatar 'head)
23672 @subsection Various XEmacs Variables
23675 @item gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
23676 @vindex gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
23677 This is where Gnus will look for pictures. Gnus will normally
23678 auto-detect this directory, but you may set it manually if you have an
23679 unusual directory structure.
23681 @item gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
23682 @vindex gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
23683 A glyph displayed in all Gnus mode lines. It is a tiny gnu head by
23688 @subsubsection Toolbar
23692 @item gnus-use-toolbar
23693 @vindex gnus-use-toolbar
23694 This variable specifies the position to display the toolbar. If
23695 @code{nil}, don't display toolbars. If it is non-@code{nil}, it should
23696 be one of the symbols @code{default}, @code{top}, @code{bottom},
23697 @code{right}, and @code{left}. @code{default} means to use the default
23698 toolbar, the rest mean to display the toolbar on the place which those
23699 names show. The default is @code{default}.
23701 @item gnus-toolbar-thickness
23702 @vindex gnus-toolbar-thickness
23703 Cons of the height and the width specifying the thickness of a toolbar.
23704 The height is used for the toolbar displayed on the top or the bottom,
23705 the width is used for the toolbar displayed on the right or the left.
23706 The default is that of the default toolbar.
23708 @item gnus-group-toolbar
23709 @vindex gnus-group-toolbar
23710 The toolbar in the group buffer.
23712 @item gnus-summary-toolbar
23713 @vindex gnus-summary-toolbar
23714 The toolbar in the summary buffer.
23716 @item gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
23717 @vindex gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
23718 The toolbar in the summary buffer of mail groups.
23729 @node Fuzzy Matching
23730 @section Fuzzy Matching
23731 @cindex fuzzy matching
23733 Gnus provides @dfn{fuzzy matching} of @code{Subject} lines when doing
23734 things like scoring, thread gathering and thread comparison.
23736 As opposed to regular expression matching, fuzzy matching is very fuzzy.
23737 It's so fuzzy that there's not even a definition of what @dfn{fuzziness}
23738 means, and the implementation has changed over time.
23740 Basically, it tries to remove all noise from lines before comparing.
23741 @samp{Re: }, parenthetical remarks, white space, and so on, are filtered
23742 out of the strings before comparing the results. This often leads to
23743 adequate results---even when faced with strings generated by text
23744 manglers masquerading as newsreaders.
23747 @node Thwarting Email Spam
23748 @section Thwarting Email Spam
23752 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
23754 In these last days of the Usenet, commercial vultures are hanging about
23755 and grepping through news like crazy to find email addresses they can
23756 foist off their scams and products to. As a reaction to this, many
23757 people have started putting nonsense addresses into their @code{From}
23758 lines. I think this is counterproductive---it makes it difficult for
23759 people to send you legitimate mail in response to things you write, as
23760 well as making it difficult to see who wrote what. This rewriting may
23761 perhaps be a bigger menace than the unsolicited commercial email itself
23764 The biggest problem I have with email spam is that it comes in under
23765 false pretenses. I press @kbd{g} and Gnus merrily informs me that I
23766 have 10 new emails. I say ``Golly gee! Happy is me!'' and select the
23767 mail group, only to find two pyramid schemes, seven advertisements
23768 (``New! Miracle tonic for growing full, lustrous hair on your toes!'')
23769 and one mail asking me to repent and find some god.
23771 This is annoying. Here's what you can do about it.
23774 * The problem of spam:: Some background, and some solutions
23775 * Anti-Spam Basics:: Simple steps to reduce the amount of spam.
23776 * SpamAssassin:: How to use external anti-spam tools.
23777 * Hashcash:: Reduce spam by burning CPU time.
23780 @node The problem of spam
23781 @subsection The problem of spam
23783 @cindex spam filtering approaches
23784 @cindex filtering approaches, spam
23786 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
23788 First, some background on spam.
23790 If you have access to e-mail, you are familiar with spam (technically
23791 termed @acronym{UCE}, Unsolicited Commercial E-mail). Simply put, it
23792 exists because e-mail delivery is very cheap compared to paper mail,
23793 so only a very small percentage of people need to respond to an UCE to
23794 make it worthwhile to the advertiser. Ironically, one of the most
23795 common spams is the one offering a database of e-mail addresses for
23796 further spamming. Senders of spam are usually called @emph{spammers},
23797 but terms like @emph{vermin}, @emph{scum}, @emph{sociopaths}, and
23798 @emph{morons} are in common use as well.
23800 Spam comes from a wide variety of sources. It is simply impossible to
23801 dispose of all spam without discarding useful messages. A good
23802 example is the TMDA system, which requires senders
23803 unknown to you to confirm themselves as legitimate senders before
23804 their e-mail can reach you. Without getting into the technical side
23805 of TMDA, a downside is clearly that e-mail from legitimate sources may
23806 be discarded if those sources can't or won't confirm themselves
23807 through the TMDA system. Another problem with TMDA is that it
23808 requires its users to have a basic understanding of e-mail delivery
23811 The simplest approach to filtering spam is filtering, at the mail
23812 server or when you sort through incoming mail. If you get 200 spam
23813 messages per day from @samp{random-address@@vmadmin.com}, you block
23814 @samp{vmadmin.com}. If you get 200 messages about @samp{VIAGRA}, you
23815 discard all messages with @samp{VIAGRA} in the message. If you get
23816 lots of spam from Bulgaria, for example, you try to filter all mail
23817 from Bulgarian IPs.
23819 This, unfortunately, is a great way to discard legitimate e-mail. The
23820 risks of blocking a whole country (Bulgaria, Norway, Nigeria, China,
23821 etc.)@: or even a continent (Asia, Africa, Europe, etc.)@: from contacting
23822 you should be obvious, so don't do it if you have the choice.
23824 In another instance, the very informative and useful RISKS digest has
23825 been blocked by overzealous mail filters because it @strong{contained}
23826 words that were common in spam messages. Nevertheless, in isolated
23827 cases, with great care, direct filtering of mail can be useful.
23829 Another approach to filtering e-mail is the distributed spam
23830 processing, for instance DCC implements such a system. In essence,
23831 @var{N} systems around the world agree that a machine @var{X} in
23832 Ghana, Estonia, or California is sending out spam e-mail, and these
23833 @var{N} systems enter @var{X} or the spam e-mail from @var{X} into a
23834 database. The criteria for spam detection vary---it may be the number
23835 of messages sent, the content of the messages, and so on. When a user
23836 of the distributed processing system wants to find out if a message is
23837 spam, he consults one of those @var{N} systems.
23839 Distributed spam processing works very well against spammers that send
23840 a large number of messages at once, but it requires the user to set up
23841 fairly complicated checks. There are commercial and free distributed
23842 spam processing systems. Distributed spam processing has its risks as
23843 well. For instance legitimate e-mail senders have been accused of
23844 sending spam, and their web sites and mailing lists have been shut
23845 down for some time because of the incident.
23847 The statistical approach to spam filtering is also popular. It is
23848 based on a statistical analysis of previous spam messages. Usually
23849 the analysis is a simple word frequency count, with perhaps pairs of
23850 words or 3-word combinations thrown into the mix. Statistical
23851 analysis of spam works very well in most of the cases, but it can
23852 classify legitimate e-mail as spam in some cases. It takes time to
23853 run the analysis, the full message must be analyzed, and the user has
23854 to store the database of spam analysis. Statistical analysis on the
23855 server is gaining popularity. This has the advantage of letting the
23856 user Just Read Mail, but has the disadvantage that it's harder to tell
23857 the server that it has misclassified mail.
23859 Fighting spam is not easy, no matter what anyone says. There is no
23860 magic switch that will distinguish Viagra ads from Mom's e-mails.
23861 Even people are having a hard time telling spam apart from non-spam,
23862 because spammers are actively looking to fool us into thinking they
23863 are Mom, essentially. Spamming is irritating, irresponsible, and
23864 idiotic behavior from a bunch of people who think the world owes them
23865 a favor. We hope the following sections will help you in fighting the
23868 @node Anti-Spam Basics
23869 @subsection Anti-Spam Basics
23873 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
23875 One way of dealing with spam is having Gnus split out all spam into a
23876 @samp{spam} mail group (@pxref{Splitting Mail}).
23878 First, pick one (1) valid mail address that you can be reached at, and
23879 put it in your @code{From} header of all your news articles. (I've
23880 chosen @samp{larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no}, but for many addresses on the form
23881 @samp{larsi+usenet@@ifi.uio.no} will be a better choice. Ask your
23882 sysadmin whether your sendmail installation accepts keywords in the local
23883 part of the mail address.)
23886 (setq message-default-news-headers
23887 "From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no>\n")
23890 Then put the following split rule in @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
23891 (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}):
23895 (to "larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no"
23896 (| ("subject" "re:.*" "misc")
23897 ("references" ".*@@.*" "misc")
23902 This says that all mail to this address is suspect, but if it has a
23903 @code{Subject} that starts with a @samp{Re:} or has a @code{References}
23904 header, it's probably ok. All the rest goes to the @samp{spam} group.
23905 (This idea probably comes from Tim Pierce.)
23907 In addition, many mail spammers talk directly to your @acronym{SMTP} server
23908 and do not include your email address explicitly in the @code{To}
23909 header. Why they do this is unknown---perhaps it's to thwart this
23910 thwarting scheme? In any case, this is trivial to deal with---you just
23911 put anything not addressed to you in the @samp{spam} group by ending
23912 your fancy split rule in this way:
23917 (to "larsi" "misc")
23921 In my experience, this will sort virtually everything into the right
23922 group. You still have to check the @samp{spam} group from time to time to
23923 check for legitimate mail, though. If you feel like being a good net
23924 citizen, you can even send off complaints to the proper authorities on
23925 each unsolicited commercial email---at your leisure.
23927 This works for me. It allows people an easy way to contact me (they can
23928 just press @kbd{r} in the usual way), and I'm not bothered at all with
23929 spam. It's a win-win situation. Forging @code{From} headers to point
23930 to non-existent domains is yucky, in my opinion.
23932 Be careful with this approach. Spammers are wise to it.
23936 @subsection SpamAssassin, Vipul's Razor, DCC, etc
23937 @cindex SpamAssassin
23938 @cindex Vipul's Razor
23941 The days where the hints in the previous section were sufficient in
23942 avoiding spam are coming to an end. There are many tools out there
23943 that claim to reduce the amount of spam you get. This section could
23944 easily become outdated fast, as new products replace old, but
23945 fortunately most of these tools seem to have similar interfaces. Even
23946 though this section will use SpamAssassin as an example, it should be
23947 easy to adapt it to most other tools.
23949 Note that this section does not involve the @code{spam.el} package,
23950 which is discussed in the next section. If you don't care for all
23951 the features of @code{spam.el}, you can make do with these simple
23954 If the tool you are using is not installed on the mail server, you
23955 need to invoke it yourself. Ideas on how to use the
23956 @code{:postscript} mail source parameter (@pxref{Mail Source
23957 Specifiers}) follow.
23961 '((file :prescript "formail -bs spamassassin < /var/mail/%u")
23965 "mv %t /tmp/foo; formail -bs spamc < /tmp/foo > %t")))
23968 Once you manage to process your incoming spool somehow, thus making
23969 the mail contain, e.g., a header indicating it is spam, you are ready to
23970 filter it out. Using normal split methods (@pxref{Splitting Mail}):
23973 (setq nnmail-split-methods '(("spam" "^X-Spam-Flag: YES")
23977 Or using fancy split methods (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}):
23980 (setq nnmail-split-methods 'nnmail-split-fancy
23981 nnmail-split-fancy '(| ("X-Spam-Flag" "YES" "spam")
23985 Some people might not like the idea of piping the mail through various
23986 programs using a @code{:prescript} (if some program is buggy, you
23987 might lose all mail). If you are one of them, another solution is to
23988 call the external tools during splitting. Example fancy split method:
23991 (setq nnmail-split-fancy '(| (: kevin-spamassassin)
23993 (defun kevin-spamassassin ()
23997 (if (eq 1 (call-process-region (point-min) (point-max)
23998 "spamc" nil nil nil "-c"))
24002 Note that with the nnimap back end, message bodies will not be
24003 downloaded by default. You need to set
24004 @code{nnimap-split-download-body} to @code{t} to do that
24005 (@pxref{Client-Side IMAP Splitting}).
24007 That is about it. As some spam is likely to get through anyway, you
24008 might want to have a nifty function to call when you happen to read
24009 spam. And here is the nifty function:
24012 (defun my-gnus-raze-spam ()
24013 "Submit SPAM to Vipul's Razor, then mark it as expirable."
24015 (gnus-summary-save-in-pipe "razor-report -f -d" t)
24016 (gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable 1))
24020 @subsection Hashcash
24023 A novel technique to fight spam is to require senders to do something
24024 costly and demonstrably unique for each message they send. This has
24025 the obvious drawback that you cannot rely on everyone in the world
24026 using this technique, since it is not part of the Internet standards,
24027 but it may be useful in smaller communities.
24029 While the tools in the previous section work well in practice, they
24030 work only because the tools are constantly maintained and updated as
24031 new form of spam appears. This means that a small percentage of spam
24032 will always get through. It also means that somewhere, someone needs
24033 to read lots of spam to update these tools. Hashcash avoids that, but
24034 instead prefers that everyone you contact through e-mail supports the
24035 scheme. You can view the two approaches as pragmatic vs dogmatic.
24036 The approaches have their own advantages and disadvantages, but as
24037 often in the real world, a combination of them is stronger than either
24038 one of them separately.
24041 The ``something costly'' is to burn CPU time, more specifically to
24042 compute a hash collision up to a certain number of bits. The
24043 resulting hashcash cookie is inserted in a @samp{X-Hashcash:} header.
24044 For more details, and for the external application @code{hashcash} you
24045 need to install to use this feature, see
24046 @uref{http://www.hashcash.org/}. Even more information can be found
24047 at @uref{http://www.camram.org/}.
24049 If you wish to generate hashcash for each message you send, you can
24050 customize @code{message-generate-hashcash} (@pxref{Mail Headers, ,Mail
24051 Headers,message, The Message Manual}), as in:
24054 (setq message-generate-hashcash t)
24057 You will need to set up some additional variables as well:
24061 @item hashcash-default-payment
24062 @vindex hashcash-default-payment
24063 This variable indicates the default number of bits the hash collision
24064 should consist of. By default this is 20. Suggested useful values
24067 @item hashcash-payment-alist
24068 @vindex hashcash-payment-alist
24069 Some receivers may require you to spend burn more CPU time than the
24070 default. This variable contains a list of @samp{(@var{addr}
24071 @var{amount})} cells, where @var{addr} is the receiver (email address
24072 or newsgroup) and @var{amount} is the number of bits in the collision
24073 that is needed. It can also contain @samp{(@var{addr} @var{string}
24074 @var{amount})} cells, where the @var{string} is the string to use
24075 (normally the email address or newsgroup name is used).
24077 @item hashcash-path
24078 @vindex hashcash-path
24079 Where the @code{hashcash} binary is installed. This variable should
24080 be automatically set by @code{executable-find}, but if it's @code{nil}
24081 (usually because the @code{hashcash} binary is not in your path)
24082 you'll get a warning when you check hashcash payments and an error
24083 when you generate hashcash payments.
24087 Gnus can verify hashcash cookies, although this can also be done by
24088 hand customized mail filtering scripts. To verify a hashcash cookie
24089 in a message, use the @code{mail-check-payment} function in the
24090 @code{hashcash.el} library. You can also use the @code{spam.el}
24091 package with the @code{spam-use-hashcash} back end to validate hashcash
24092 cookies in incoming mail and filter mail accordingly (@pxref{Anti-spam
24093 Hashcash Payments}).
24096 @section Spam Package
24097 @cindex spam filtering
24100 The Spam package provides Gnus with a centralized mechanism for
24101 detecting and filtering spam. It filters new mail, and processes
24102 messages according to whether they are spam or ham. (@dfn{Ham} is the
24103 name used throughout this manual to indicate non-spam messages.)
24106 * Spam Package Introduction::
24107 * Filtering Incoming Mail::
24108 * Detecting Spam in Groups::
24109 * Spam and Ham Processors::
24110 * Spam Package Configuration Examples::
24112 * Extending the Spam package::
24113 * Spam Statistics Package::
24116 @node Spam Package Introduction
24117 @subsection Spam Package Introduction
24118 @cindex spam filtering
24119 @cindex spam filtering sequence of events
24122 You must read this section to understand how the Spam package works.
24123 Do not skip, speed-read, or glance through this section.
24125 Make sure you read the section on the @code{spam.el} sequence of
24126 events. See @xref{Extending the Spam package}.
24128 @cindex spam-initialize
24129 @vindex spam-use-stat
24130 To use the Spam package, you @strong{must} first run the function
24131 @code{spam-initialize}:
24137 This autoloads @code{spam.el} and installs the various hooks necessary
24138 to let the Spam package do its job. In order to make use of the Spam
24139 package, you have to set up certain group parameters and variables,
24140 which we will describe below. All of the variables controlling the
24141 Spam package can be found in the @samp{spam} customization group.
24143 There are two ``contact points'' between the Spam package and the rest
24144 of Gnus: checking new mail for spam, and leaving a group.
24146 Checking new mail for spam is done in one of two ways: while splitting
24147 incoming mail, or when you enter a group.
24149 The first way, checking for spam while splitting incoming mail, is
24150 suited to mail back ends such as @code{nnml} or @code{nnimap}, where
24151 new mail appears in a single spool file. The Spam package processes
24152 incoming mail, and sends mail considered to be spam to a designated
24153 ``spam'' group. @xref{Filtering Incoming Mail}.
24155 The second way is suited to back ends such as @code{nntp}, which have
24156 no incoming mail spool, or back ends where the server is in charge of
24157 splitting incoming mail. In this case, when you enter a Gnus group,
24158 the unseen or unread messages in that group are checked for spam.
24159 Detected spam messages are marked as spam. @xref{Detecting Spam in
24162 @cindex spam back ends
24163 In either case, you have to tell the Spam package what method to use
24164 to detect spam messages. There are several methods, or @dfn{spam back
24165 ends} (not to be confused with Gnus back ends!) to choose from: spam
24166 ``blacklists'' and ``whitelists'', dictionary-based filters, and so
24167 forth. @xref{Spam Back Ends}.
24169 In the Gnus summary buffer, messages that have been identified as spam
24170 always appear with a @samp{$} symbol.
24172 The Spam package divides Gnus groups into three categories: ham
24173 groups, spam groups, and unclassified groups. You should mark each of
24174 the groups you subscribe to as either a ham group or a spam group,
24175 using the @code{spam-contents} group parameter (@pxref{Group
24176 Parameters}). Spam groups have a special property: when you enter a
24177 spam group, all unseen articles are marked as spam. Thus, mail split
24178 into a spam group is automatically marked as spam.
24180 Identifying spam messages is only half of the Spam package's job. The
24181 second half comes into play whenever you exit a group buffer. At this
24182 point, the Spam package does several things:
24184 First, it calls @dfn{spam and ham processors} to process the articles
24185 according to whether they are spam or ham. There is a pair of spam
24186 and ham processors associated with each spam back end, and what the
24187 processors do depends on the back end. At present, the main role of
24188 spam and ham processors is for dictionary-based spam filters: they add
24189 the contents of the messages in the group to the filter's dictionary,
24190 to improve its ability to detect future spam. The @code{spam-process}
24191 group parameter specifies what spam processors to use. @xref{Spam and
24194 If the spam filter failed to mark a spam message, you can mark it
24195 yourself, so that the message is processed as spam when you exit the
24203 @kindex $ (Summary)
24204 @kindex M-d (Summary)
24205 @kindex S x (Summary)
24206 @kindex M s x (Summary)
24207 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-spam
24208 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-spam
24209 Mark current article as spam, showing it with the @samp{$} mark
24210 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-spam}).
24214 Similarly, you can unmark an article if it has been erroneously marked
24215 as spam. @xref{Setting Marks}.
24217 Normally, a ham message found in a non-ham group is not processed as
24218 ham---the rationale is that it should be moved into a ham group for
24219 further processing (see below). However, you can force these articles
24220 to be processed as ham by setting
24221 @code{spam-process-ham-in-spam-groups} and
24222 @code{spam-process-ham-in-nonham-groups}.
24224 @vindex gnus-ham-process-destinations
24225 @vindex gnus-spam-process-destinations
24226 The second thing that the Spam package does when you exit a group is
24227 to move ham articles out of spam groups, and spam articles out of ham
24228 groups. Ham in a spam group is moved to the group specified by the
24229 variable @code{gnus-ham-process-destinations}, or the group parameter
24230 @code{ham-process-destination}. Spam in a ham group is moved to the
24231 group specified by the variable @code{gnus-spam-process-destinations},
24232 or the group parameter @code{spam-process-destination}. If these
24233 variables are not set, the articles are left in their current group.
24234 If an article cannot be moved (e.g., with a read-only backend such
24235 as @acronym{NNTP}), it is copied.
24237 If an article is moved to another group, it is processed again when
24238 you visit the new group. Normally, this is not a problem, but if you
24239 want each article to be processed only once, load the
24240 @code{gnus-registry.el} package and set the variable
24241 @code{spam-log-to-registry} to @code{t}. @xref{Spam Package
24242 Configuration Examples}.
24244 Normally, spam groups ignore @code{gnus-spam-process-destinations}.
24245 However, if you set @code{spam-move-spam-nonspam-groups-only} to
24246 @code{nil}, spam will also be moved out of spam groups, depending on
24247 the @code{spam-process-destination} parameter.
24249 The final thing the Spam package does is to mark spam articles as
24250 expired, which is usually the right thing to do.
24252 If all this seems confusing, don't worry. Soon it will be as natural
24253 as typing Lisp one-liners on a neural interface@dots{} err, sorry, that's
24254 50 years in the future yet. Just trust us, it's not so bad.
24256 @node Filtering Incoming Mail
24257 @subsection Filtering Incoming Mail
24258 @cindex spam filtering
24259 @cindex spam filtering incoming mail
24262 To use the Spam package to filter incoming mail, you must first set up
24263 fancy mail splitting. @xref{Fancy Mail Splitting}. The Spam package
24264 defines a special splitting function that you can add to your fancy
24265 split variable (either @code{nnmail-split-fancy} or
24266 @code{nnimap-split-fancy}, depending on your mail back end):
24272 @vindex spam-split-group
24274 The @code{spam-split} function scans incoming mail according to your
24275 chosen spam back end(s), and sends messages identified as spam to a
24276 spam group. By default, the spam group is a group named @samp{spam},
24277 but you can change this by customizing @code{spam-split-group}. Make
24278 sure the contents of @code{spam-split-group} are an unqualified group
24279 name. For instance, in an @code{nnimap} server @samp{your-server},
24280 the value @samp{spam} means @samp{nnimap+your-server:spam}. The value
24281 @samp{nnimap+server:spam} is therefore wrong---it gives the group
24282 @samp{nnimap+your-server:nnimap+server:spam}.
24284 @code{spam-split} does not modify the contents of messages in any way.
24286 @vindex nnimap-split-download-body
24287 Note for IMAP users: if you use the @code{spam-check-bogofilter},
24288 @code{spam-check-ifile}, and @code{spam-check-stat} spam back ends,
24289 you should also set the variable @code{nnimap-split-download-body} to
24290 @code{t}. These spam back ends are most useful when they can ``scan''
24291 the full message body. By default, the nnimap back end only retrieves
24292 the message headers; @code{nnimap-split-download-body} tells it to
24293 retrieve the message bodies as well. We don't set this by default
24294 because it will slow @acronym{IMAP} down, and that is not an
24295 appropriate decision to make on behalf of the user. @xref{Client-Side
24298 You have to specify one or more spam back ends for @code{spam-split}
24299 to use, by setting the @code{spam-use-*} variables. @xref{Spam Back
24300 Ends}. Normally, @code{spam-split} simply uses all the spam back ends
24301 you enabled in this way. However, you can tell @code{spam-split} to
24302 use only some of them. Why this is useful? Suppose you are using the
24303 @code{spam-use-regex-headers} and @code{spam-use-blackholes} spam back
24304 ends, and the following split rule:
24307 nnimap-split-fancy '(|
24308 (any "ding" "ding")
24310 ;; @r{default mailbox}
24315 The problem is that you want all ding messages to make it to the ding
24316 folder. But that will let obvious spam (for example, spam detected by
24317 SpamAssassin, and @code{spam-use-regex-headers}) through, when it's
24318 sent to the ding list. On the other hand, some messages to the ding
24319 list are from a mail server in the blackhole list, so the invocation
24320 of @code{spam-split} can't be before the ding rule.
24322 The solution is to let SpamAssassin headers supersede ding rules, and
24323 perform the other @code{spam-split} rules (including a second
24324 invocation of the regex-headers check) after the ding rule. This is
24325 done by passing a parameter to @code{spam-split}:
24330 ;; @r{spam detected by @code{spam-use-regex-headers} goes to @samp{regex-spam}}
24331 (: spam-split "regex-spam" 'spam-use-regex-headers)
24332 (any "ding" "ding")
24333 ;; @r{all other spam detected by spam-split goes to @code{spam-split-group}}
24335 ;; @r{default mailbox}
24340 This lets you invoke specific @code{spam-split} checks depending on
24341 your particular needs, and target the results of those checks to a
24342 particular spam group. You don't have to throw all mail into all the
24343 spam tests. Another reason why this is nice is that messages to
24344 mailing lists you have rules for don't have to have resource-intensive
24345 blackhole checks performed on them. You could also specify different
24346 spam checks for your nnmail split vs. your nnimap split. Go crazy.
24348 You should set the @code{spam-use-*} variables for whatever spam back
24349 ends you intend to use. The reason is that when loading
24350 @file{spam.el}, some conditional loading is done depending on what
24351 @code{spam-use-xyz} variables you have set. @xref{Spam Back Ends}.
24353 @c @emph{TODO: spam.el needs to provide a uniform way of training all the
24354 @c statistical databases. Some have that functionality built-in, others
24357 @node Detecting Spam in Groups
24358 @subsection Detecting Spam in Groups
24360 To detect spam when visiting a group, set the group's
24361 @code{spam-autodetect} and @code{spam-autodetect-methods} group
24362 parameters. These are accessible with @kbd{G c} or @kbd{G p}, as
24363 usual (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
24365 You should set the @code{spam-use-*} variables for whatever spam back
24366 ends you intend to use. The reason is that when loading
24367 @file{spam.el}, some conditional loading is done depending on what
24368 @code{spam-use-xyz} variables you have set.
24370 By default, only unseen articles are processed for spam. You can
24371 force Gnus to recheck all messages in the group by setting the
24372 variable @code{spam-autodetect-recheck-messages} to @code{t}.
24374 If you use the @code{spam-autodetect} method of checking for spam, you
24375 can specify different spam detection methods for different groups.
24376 For instance, the @samp{ding} group may have @code{spam-use-BBDB} as
24377 the autodetection method, while the @samp{suspect} group may have the
24378 @code{spam-use-blacklist} and @code{spam-use-bogofilter} methods
24379 enabled. Unlike with @code{spam-split}, you don't have any control
24380 over the @emph{sequence} of checks, but this is probably unimportant.
24382 @node Spam and Ham Processors
24383 @subsection Spam and Ham Processors
24384 @cindex spam filtering
24385 @cindex spam filtering variables
24386 @cindex spam variables
24389 @vindex gnus-spam-process-newsgroups
24390 Spam and ham processors specify special actions to take when you exit
24391 a group buffer. Spam processors act on spam messages, and ham
24392 processors on ham messages. At present, the main role of these
24393 processors is to update the dictionaries of dictionary-based spam back
24394 ends such as Bogofilter (@pxref{Bogofilter}) and the Spam Statistics
24395 package (@pxref{Spam Statistics Filtering}).
24397 The spam and ham processors that apply to each group are determined by
24398 the group's@code{spam-process} group parameter. If this group
24399 parameter is not defined, they are determined by the variable
24400 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups}.
24402 @vindex gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents
24403 Gnus learns from the spam you get. You have to collect your spam in
24404 one or more spam groups, and set or customize the variable
24405 @code{spam-junk-mailgroups} as appropriate. You can also declare
24406 groups to contain spam by setting their group parameter
24407 @code{spam-contents} to @code{gnus-group-spam-classification-spam}, or
24408 by customizing the corresponding variable
24409 @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents}. The @code{spam-contents} group
24410 parameter and the @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents} variable can
24411 also be used to declare groups as @emph{ham} groups if you set their
24412 classification to @code{gnus-group-spam-classification-ham}. If
24413 groups are not classified by means of @code{spam-junk-mailgroups},
24414 @code{spam-contents}, or @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents}, they are
24415 considered @emph{unclassified}. All groups are unclassified by
24418 @vindex gnus-spam-mark
24420 In spam groups, all messages are considered to be spam by default:
24421 they get the @samp{$} mark (@code{gnus-spam-mark}) when you enter the
24422 group. If you have seen a message, had it marked as spam, then
24423 unmarked it, it won't be marked as spam when you enter the group
24424 thereafter. You can disable that behavior, so all unread messages
24425 will get the @samp{$} mark, if you set the
24426 @code{spam-mark-only-unseen-as-spam} parameter to @code{nil}. You
24427 should remove the @samp{$} mark when you are in the group summary
24428 buffer for every message that is not spam after all. To remove the
24429 @samp{$} mark, you can use @kbd{M-u} to ``unread'' the article, or
24430 @kbd{d} for declaring it read the non-spam way. When you leave a
24431 group, all spam-marked (@samp{$}) articles are sent to a spam
24432 processor which will study them as spam samples.
24434 Messages may also be deleted in various other ways, and unless
24435 @code{ham-marks} group parameter gets overridden below, marks @samp{R}
24436 and @samp{r} for default read or explicit delete, marks @samp{X} and
24437 @samp{K} for automatic or explicit kills, as well as mark @samp{Y} for
24438 low scores, are all considered to be associated with articles which
24439 are not spam. This assumption might be false, in particular if you
24440 use kill files or score files as means for detecting genuine spam, you
24441 should then adjust the @code{ham-marks} group parameter.
24444 You can customize this group or topic parameter to be the list of
24445 marks you want to consider ham. By default, the list contains the
24446 deleted, read, killed, kill-filed, and low-score marks (the idea is
24447 that these articles have been read, but are not spam). It can be
24448 useful to also include the tick mark in the ham marks. It is not
24449 recommended to make the unread mark a ham mark, because it normally
24450 indicates a lack of classification. But you can do it, and we'll be
24455 You can customize this group or topic parameter to be the list of
24456 marks you want to consider spam. By default, the list contains only
24457 the spam mark. It is not recommended to change that, but you can if
24458 you really want to.
24461 When you leave @emph{any} group, regardless of its
24462 @code{spam-contents} classification, all spam-marked articles are sent
24463 to a spam processor, which will study these as spam samples. If you
24464 explicit kill a lot, you might sometimes end up with articles marked
24465 @samp{K} which you never saw, and which might accidentally contain
24466 spam. Best is to make sure that real spam is marked with @samp{$},
24469 @vindex gnus-ham-process-destinations
24470 When you leave a @emph{spam} group, all spam-marked articles are
24471 marked as expired after processing with the spam processor. This is
24472 not done for @emph{unclassified} or @emph{ham} groups. Also, any
24473 @strong{ham} articles in a spam group will be moved to a location
24474 determined by either the @code{ham-process-destination} group
24475 parameter or a match in the @code{gnus-ham-process-destinations}
24476 variable, which is a list of regular expressions matched with group
24477 names (it's easiest to customize this variable with @kbd{M-x
24478 customize-variable @key{RET} gnus-ham-process-destinations}). Each
24479 group name list is a standard Lisp list, if you prefer to customize
24480 the variable manually. If the @code{ham-process-destination}
24481 parameter is not set, ham articles are left in place. If the
24482 @code{spam-mark-ham-unread-before-move-from-spam-group} parameter is
24483 set, the ham articles are marked as unread before being moved.
24485 If ham can not be moved---because of a read-only back end such as
24486 @acronym{NNTP}, for example, it will be copied.
24488 Note that you can use multiples destinations per group or regular
24489 expression! This enables you to send your ham to a regular mail
24490 group and to a @emph{ham training} group.
24492 When you leave a @emph{ham} group, all ham-marked articles are sent to
24493 a ham processor, which will study these as non-spam samples.
24495 @vindex spam-process-ham-in-spam-groups
24496 By default the variable @code{spam-process-ham-in-spam-groups} is
24497 @code{nil}. Set it to @code{t} if you want ham found in spam groups
24498 to be processed. Normally this is not done, you are expected instead
24499 to send your ham to a ham group and process it there.
24501 @vindex spam-process-ham-in-nonham-groups
24502 By default the variable @code{spam-process-ham-in-nonham-groups} is
24503 @code{nil}. Set it to @code{t} if you want ham found in non-ham (spam
24504 or unclassified) groups to be processed. Normally this is not done,
24505 you are expected instead to send your ham to a ham group and process
24508 @vindex gnus-spam-process-destinations
24509 When you leave a @emph{ham} or @emph{unclassified} group, all
24510 @strong{spam} articles are moved to a location determined by either
24511 the @code{spam-process-destination} group parameter or a match in the
24512 @code{gnus-spam-process-destinations} variable, which is a list of
24513 regular expressions matched with group names (it's easiest to
24514 customize this variable with @kbd{M-x customize-variable @key{RET}
24515 gnus-spam-process-destinations}). Each group name list is a standard
24516 Lisp list, if you prefer to customize the variable manually. If the
24517 @code{spam-process-destination} parameter is not set, the spam
24518 articles are only expired. The group name is fully qualified, meaning
24519 that if you see @samp{nntp:servername} before the group name in the
24520 group buffer then you need it here as well.
24522 If spam can not be moved---because of a read-only back end such as
24523 @acronym{NNTP}, for example, it will be copied.
24525 Note that you can use multiples destinations per group or regular
24526 expression! This enables you to send your spam to multiple @emph{spam
24529 @vindex spam-log-to-registry
24530 The problem with processing ham and spam is that Gnus doesn't track
24531 this processing by default. Enable the @code{spam-log-to-registry}
24532 variable so @code{spam.el} will use @code{gnus-registry.el} to track
24533 what articles have been processed, and avoid processing articles
24534 multiple times. Keep in mind that if you limit the number of registry
24535 entries, this won't work as well as it does without a limit.
24537 @vindex spam-mark-only-unseen-as-spam
24538 Set this variable if you want only unseen articles in spam groups to
24539 be marked as spam. By default, it is set. If you set it to
24540 @code{nil}, unread articles will also be marked as spam.
24542 @vindex spam-mark-ham-unread-before-move-from-spam-group
24543 Set this variable if you want ham to be unmarked before it is moved
24544 out of the spam group. This is very useful when you use something
24545 like the tick mark @samp{!} to mark ham---the article will be placed
24546 in your @code{ham-process-destination}, unmarked as if it came fresh
24547 from the mail server.
24549 @vindex spam-autodetect-recheck-messages
24550 When autodetecting spam, this variable tells @code{spam.el} whether
24551 only unseen articles or all unread articles should be checked for
24552 spam. It is recommended that you leave it off.
24554 @node Spam Package Configuration Examples
24555 @subsection Spam Package Configuration Examples
24556 @cindex spam filtering
24557 @cindex spam filtering configuration examples
24558 @cindex spam configuration examples
24561 @subsubheading Ted's setup
24563 From Ted Zlatanov <tzz@@lifelogs.com>.
24565 ;; @r{for @code{gnus-registry-split-fancy-with-parent} and spam autodetection}
24566 ;; @r{see @file{gnus-registry.el} for more information}
24567 (gnus-registry-initialize)
24571 spam-log-to-registry t ; @r{for spam autodetection}
24573 spam-use-regex-headers t ; @r{catch X-Spam-Flag (SpamAssassin)}
24574 ;; @r{all groups with @samp{spam} in the name contain spam}
24575 gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents
24576 '(("spam" gnus-group-spam-classification-spam))
24577 ;; @r{see documentation for these}
24578 spam-move-spam-nonspam-groups-only nil
24579 spam-mark-only-unseen-as-spam t
24580 spam-mark-ham-unread-before-move-from-spam-group t
24581 ;; @r{understand what this does before you copy it to your own setup!}
24582 ;; @r{for nnimap you'll probably want to set nnimap-split-methods, see the manual}
24583 nnimap-split-fancy '(|
24584 ;; @r{trace references to parents and put in their group}
24585 (: gnus-registry-split-fancy-with-parent)
24586 ;; @r{this will catch server-side SpamAssassin tags}
24587 (: spam-split 'spam-use-regex-headers)
24588 (any "ding" "ding")
24589 ;; @r{note that spam by default will go to @samp{spam}}
24591 ;; @r{default mailbox}
24594 ;; @r{my parameters, set with @kbd{G p}}
24596 ;; @r{all nnml groups, and all nnimap groups except}
24597 ;; @r{@samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train} and}
24598 ;; @r{@samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:spam}: any spam goes to nnimap training,}
24599 ;; @r{because it must have been detected manually}
24601 ((spam-process-destination . "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train"))
24603 ;; @r{all @acronym{NNTP} groups}
24604 ;; @r{autodetect spam with the blacklist and ham with the BBDB}
24605 ((spam-autodetect-methods spam-use-blacklist spam-use-BBDB)
24606 ;; @r{send all spam to the training group}
24607 (spam-process-destination . "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train"))
24609 ;; @r{only some @acronym{NNTP} groups, where I want to autodetect spam}
24610 ((spam-autodetect . t))
24612 ;; @r{my nnimap @samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:spam} group}
24614 ;; @r{this is a spam group}
24615 ((spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-spam)
24617 ;; @r{any spam (which happens when I enter for all unseen messages,}
24618 ;; @r{because of the @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents} setting above), goes to}
24619 ;; @r{@samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train} unless I mark it as ham}
24621 (spam-process-destination "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train")
24623 ;; @r{any ham goes to my @samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:mail} folder, but}
24624 ;; @r{also to my @samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:trainham} folder for training}
24626 (ham-process-destination "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:mail"
24627 "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:trainham")
24628 ;; @r{in this group, only @samp{!} marks are ham}
24630 (gnus-ticked-mark))
24631 ;; @r{remembers senders in the blacklist on the way out---this is}
24632 ;; @r{definitely not needed, it just makes me feel better}
24633 (spam-process (gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blacklist)))
24635 ;; @r{Later, on the @acronym{IMAP} server I use the @samp{train} group for training}
24636 ;; @r{SpamAssassin to recognize spam, and the @samp{trainham} group fora}
24637 ;; @r{recognizing ham---but Gnus has nothing to do with it.}
24641 @subsubheading Using @code{spam.el} on an IMAP server with a statistical filter on the server
24642 From Reiner Steib <reiner.steib@@gmx.de>.
24644 My provider has set up bogofilter (in combination with @acronym{DCC}) on
24645 the mail server (@acronym{IMAP}). Recognized spam goes to
24646 @samp{spam.detected}, the rest goes through the normal filter rules,
24647 i.e., to @samp{some.folder} or to @samp{INBOX}. Training on false
24648 positives or negatives is done by copying or moving the article to
24649 @samp{training.ham} or @samp{training.spam} respectively. A cron job on
24650 the server feeds those to bogofilter with the suitable ham or spam
24651 options and deletes them from the @samp{training.ham} and
24652 @samp{training.spam} folders.
24654 With the following entries in @code{gnus-parameters}, @code{spam.el}
24655 does most of the job for me:
24658 ("nnimap:spam\\.detected"
24659 (gnus-article-sort-functions '(gnus-article-sort-by-chars))
24660 (ham-process-destination "nnimap:INBOX" "nnimap:training.ham")
24661 (spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-spam))
24662 ("nnimap:\\(INBOX\\|other-folders\\)"
24663 (spam-process-destination . "nnimap:training.spam")
24664 (spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-ham))
24669 @item @b{The Spam folder:}
24671 In the folder @samp{spam.detected}, I have to check for false positives
24672 (i.e., legitimate mails, that were wrongly judged as spam by
24673 bogofilter or DCC).
24675 Because of the @code{gnus-group-spam-classification-spam} entry, all
24676 messages are marked as spam (with @code{$}). When I find a false
24677 positive, I mark the message with some other ham mark
24678 (@code{ham-marks}, @ref{Spam and Ham Processors}). On group exit,
24679 those messages are copied to both groups, @samp{INBOX} (where I want
24680 to have the article) and @samp{training.ham} (for training bogofilter)
24681 and deleted from the @samp{spam.detected} folder.
24683 The @code{gnus-article-sort-by-chars} entry simplifies detection of
24684 false positives for me. I receive lots of worms (sweN, @dots{}), that all
24685 have a similar size. Grouping them by size (i.e., chars) makes finding
24686 other false positives easier. (Of course worms aren't @i{spam}
24687 (@acronym{UCE}, @acronym{UBE}) strictly speaking. Anyhow, bogofilter is
24688 an excellent tool for filtering those unwanted mails for me.)
24690 @item @b{Ham folders:}
24692 In my ham folders, I just hit @kbd{S x}
24693 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-spam}) whenever I see an unrecognized spam
24694 mail (false negative). On group exit, those messages are moved to
24695 @samp{training.spam}.
24698 @subsubheading Reporting spam articles in Gmane groups with @code{spam-report.el}
24700 From Reiner Steib <reiner.steib@@gmx.de>.
24702 With following entry in @code{gnus-parameters}, @kbd{S x}
24703 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-spam}) marks articles in @code{gmane.*}
24704 groups as spam and reports the to Gmane at group exit:
24708 (spam-process (gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-report-gmane)))
24711 Additionally, I use @code{(setq spam-report-gmane-use-article-number nil)}
24712 because I don't read the groups directly from news.gmane.org, but
24713 through my local news server (leafnode). I.e., the article numbers are
24714 not the same as on news.gmane.org, thus @code{spam-report.el} has to check
24715 the @code{X-Report-Spam} header to find the correct number.
24717 @node Spam Back Ends
24718 @subsection Spam Back Ends
24719 @cindex spam back ends
24721 The spam package offers a variety of back ends for detecting spam.
24722 Each back end defines a set of methods for detecting spam
24723 (@pxref{Filtering Incoming Mail}, @pxref{Detecting Spam in Groups}),
24724 and a pair of spam and ham processors (@pxref{Spam and Ham
24728 * Blacklists and Whitelists::
24729 * BBDB Whitelists::
24730 * Gmane Spam Reporting::
24731 * Anti-spam Hashcash Payments::
24733 * Regular Expressions Header Matching::
24735 * SpamAssassin back end::
24736 * ifile spam filtering::
24737 * Spam Statistics Filtering::
24741 @node Blacklists and Whitelists
24742 @subsubsection Blacklists and Whitelists
24743 @cindex spam filtering
24744 @cindex whitelists, spam filtering
24745 @cindex blacklists, spam filtering
24748 @defvar spam-use-blacklist
24750 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use blacklists when
24751 splitting incoming mail. Messages whose senders are in the blacklist
24752 will be sent to the @code{spam-split-group}. This is an explicit
24753 filter, meaning that it acts only on mail senders @emph{declared} to
24758 @defvar spam-use-whitelist
24760 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use whitelists when
24761 splitting incoming mail. Messages whose senders are not in the
24762 whitelist will be sent to the next spam-split rule. This is an
24763 explicit filter, meaning that unless someone is in the whitelist, their
24764 messages are not assumed to be spam or ham.
24768 @defvar spam-use-whitelist-exclusive
24770 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use whitelists as an
24771 implicit filter, meaning that every message will be considered spam
24772 unless the sender is in the whitelist. Use with care.
24776 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blacklist
24778 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
24779 customizing the group parameters or the
24780 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
24781 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the senders of
24782 spam-marked articles will be added to the blacklist.
24786 Instead of the obsolete
24787 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blacklist}, it is recommended
24788 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-blacklist)}. Everything will work
24789 the same way, we promise.
24793 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-whitelist
24795 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
24796 customizing the group parameters or the
24797 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
24798 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the senders of
24799 ham-marked articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the
24804 Instead of the obsolete
24805 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-whitelist}, it is recommended
24806 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-whitelist)}. Everything will work
24807 the same way, we promise.
24811 Blacklists are lists of regular expressions matching addresses you
24812 consider to be spam senders. For instance, to block mail from any
24813 sender at @samp{vmadmin.com}, you can put @samp{vmadmin.com} in your
24814 blacklist. You start out with an empty blacklist. Blacklist entries
24815 use the Emacs regular expression syntax.
24817 Conversely, whitelists tell Gnus what addresses are considered
24818 legitimate. All messages from whitelisted addresses are considered
24819 non-spam. Also see @ref{BBDB Whitelists}. Whitelist entries use the
24820 Emacs regular expression syntax.
24822 The blacklist and whitelist file locations can be customized with the
24823 @code{spam-directory} variable (@file{~/News/spam} by default), or
24824 the @code{spam-whitelist} and @code{spam-blacklist} variables
24825 directly. The whitelist and blacklist files will by default be in the
24826 @code{spam-directory} directory, named @file{whitelist} and
24827 @file{blacklist} respectively.
24829 @node BBDB Whitelists
24830 @subsubsection BBDB Whitelists
24831 @cindex spam filtering
24832 @cindex BBDB whitelists, spam filtering
24833 @cindex BBDB, spam filtering
24836 @defvar spam-use-BBDB
24838 Analogous to @code{spam-use-whitelist} (@pxref{Blacklists and
24839 Whitelists}), but uses the BBDB as the source of whitelisted
24840 addresses, without regular expressions. You must have the BBDB loaded
24841 for @code{spam-use-BBDB} to work properly. Messages whose senders are
24842 not in the BBDB will be sent to the next spam-split rule. This is an
24843 explicit filter, meaning that unless someone is in the BBDB, their
24844 messages are not assumed to be spam or ham.
24848 @defvar spam-use-BBDB-exclusive
24850 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use the BBDB as an
24851 implicit filter, meaning that every message will be considered spam
24852 unless the sender is in the BBDB@. Use with care. Only sender
24853 addresses in the BBDB will be allowed through; all others will be
24854 classified as spammers.
24856 While @code{spam-use-BBDB-exclusive} @emph{can} be used as an alias
24857 for @code{spam-use-BBDB} as far as @code{spam.el} is concerned, it is
24858 @emph{not} a separate back end. If you set
24859 @code{spam-use-BBDB-exclusive} to t, @emph{all} your BBDB splitting
24864 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-BBDB
24866 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
24867 customizing the group parameters or the
24868 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
24869 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the senders of
24870 ham-marked articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the
24875 Instead of the obsolete
24876 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-BBDB}, it is recommended
24877 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-BBDB)}. Everything will work
24878 the same way, we promise.
24882 @node Gmane Spam Reporting
24883 @subsubsection Gmane Spam Reporting
24884 @cindex spam reporting
24885 @cindex Gmane, spam reporting
24886 @cindex Gmane, spam reporting
24889 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-report-gmane
24891 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
24892 customizing the group parameters or the
24893 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
24894 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the spam-marked
24895 articles groups will be reported to the Gmane administrators via a
24898 Gmane can be found at @uref{http://gmane.org}.
24902 Instead of the obsolete
24903 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-report-gmane}, it is recommended
24904 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-gmane)}. Everything will work the
24905 same way, we promise.
24909 @defvar spam-report-gmane-use-article-number
24911 This variable is @code{t} by default. Set it to @code{nil} if you are
24912 running your own news server, for instance, and the local article
24913 numbers don't correspond to the Gmane article numbers. When
24914 @code{spam-report-gmane-use-article-number} is @code{nil},
24915 @code{spam-report.el} will fetch the number from the article headers.
24919 @defvar spam-report-user-mail-address
24921 Mail address exposed in the User-Agent spam reports to Gmane. It allows
24922 the Gmane administrators to contact you in case of misreports. The
24923 default is @code{user-mail-address}.
24927 @node Anti-spam Hashcash Payments
24928 @subsubsection Anti-spam Hashcash Payments
24929 @cindex spam filtering
24930 @cindex hashcash, spam filtering
24933 @defvar spam-use-hashcash
24935 Similar to @code{spam-use-whitelist} (@pxref{Blacklists and
24936 Whitelists}), but uses hashcash tokens for whitelisting messages
24937 instead of the sender address. Messages without a hashcash payment
24938 token will be sent to the next spam-split rule. This is an explicit
24939 filter, meaning that unless a hashcash token is found, the messages
24940 are not assumed to be spam or ham.
24945 @subsubsection Blackholes
24946 @cindex spam filtering
24947 @cindex blackholes, spam filtering
24950 @defvar spam-use-blackholes
24952 This option is disabled by default. You can let Gnus consult the
24953 blackhole-type distributed spam processing systems (DCC, for instance)
24954 when you set this option. The variable @code{spam-blackhole-servers}
24955 holds the list of blackhole servers Gnus will consult. The current
24956 list is fairly comprehensive, but make sure to let us know if it
24957 contains outdated servers.
24959 The blackhole check uses the @code{dig.el} package, but you can tell
24960 @code{spam.el} to use @code{dns.el} instead for better performance if
24961 you set @code{spam-use-dig} to @code{nil}. It is not recommended at
24962 this time to set @code{spam-use-dig} to @code{nil} despite the
24963 possible performance improvements, because some users may be unable to
24964 use it, but you can try it and see if it works for you.
24968 @defvar spam-blackhole-servers
24970 The list of servers to consult for blackhole checks.
24974 @defvar spam-blackhole-good-server-regex
24976 A regular expression for IPs that should not be checked against the
24977 blackhole server list. When set to @code{nil}, it has no effect.
24981 @defvar spam-use-dig
24983 Use the @code{dig.el} package instead of the @code{dns.el} package.
24984 The default setting of @code{t} is recommended.
24988 Blackhole checks are done only on incoming mail. There is no spam or
24989 ham processor for blackholes.
24991 @node Regular Expressions Header Matching
24992 @subsubsection Regular Expressions Header Matching
24993 @cindex spam filtering
24994 @cindex regular expressions header matching, spam filtering
24997 @defvar spam-use-regex-headers
24999 This option is disabled by default. You can let Gnus check the
25000 message headers against lists of regular expressions when you set this
25001 option. The variables @code{spam-regex-headers-spam} and
25002 @code{spam-regex-headers-ham} hold the list of regular expressions.
25003 Gnus will check against the message headers to determine if the
25004 message is spam or ham, respectively.
25008 @defvar spam-regex-headers-spam
25010 The list of regular expressions that, when matched in the headers of
25011 the message, positively identify it as spam.
25015 @defvar spam-regex-headers-ham
25017 The list of regular expressions that, when matched in the headers of
25018 the message, positively identify it as ham.
25022 Regular expression header checks are done only on incoming mail.
25023 There is no specific spam or ham processor for regular expressions.
25026 @subsubsection Bogofilter
25027 @cindex spam filtering
25028 @cindex bogofilter, spam filtering
25031 @defvar spam-use-bogofilter
25033 Set this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use Eric Raymond's
25036 With a minimum of care for associating the @samp{$} mark for spam
25037 articles only, Bogofilter training all gets fairly automatic. You
25038 should do this until you get a few hundreds of articles in each
25039 category, spam or not. The command @kbd{S t} in summary mode, either
25040 for debugging or for curiosity, shows the @emph{spamicity} score of
25041 the current article (between 0.0 and 1.0).
25043 Bogofilter determines if a message is spam based on a specific
25044 threshold. That threshold can be customized, consult the Bogofilter
25047 If the @code{bogofilter} executable is not in your path, Bogofilter
25048 processing will be turned off.
25050 You should not enable this if you use @code{spam-use-bogofilter-headers}.
25059 @findex spam-bogofilter-score
25060 Get the Bogofilter spamicity score (@code{spam-bogofilter-score}).
25063 @defvar spam-use-bogofilter-headers
25065 Set this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use Eric Raymond's
25066 speedy Bogofilter, looking only at the message headers. It works
25067 similarly to @code{spam-use-bogofilter}, but the @code{X-Bogosity} header
25068 must be in the message already. Normally you would do this with a
25069 procmail recipe or something similar; consult the Bogofilter
25070 installation documents for details.
25072 You should not enable this if you use @code{spam-use-bogofilter}.
25076 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-bogofilter
25077 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25078 customizing the group parameters or the
25079 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
25080 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, spam-marked articles
25081 will be added to the Bogofilter spam database.
25085 Instead of the obsolete
25086 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-bogofilter}, it is recommended
25087 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-bogofilter)}. Everything will work
25088 the same way, we promise.
25091 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-bogofilter
25092 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25093 customizing the group parameters or the
25094 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
25095 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the ham-marked
25096 articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the Bogofilter database
25097 of non-spam messages.
25101 Instead of the obsolete
25102 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-bogofilter}, it is recommended
25103 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-bogofilter)}. Everything will work
25104 the same way, we promise.
25107 @defvar spam-bogofilter-database-directory
25109 This is the directory where Bogofilter will store its databases. It
25110 is not specified by default, so Bogofilter will use its own default
25111 database directory.
25115 The Bogofilter mail classifier is similar to @command{ifile} in intent and
25116 purpose. A ham and a spam processor are provided, plus the
25117 @code{spam-use-bogofilter} and @code{spam-use-bogofilter-headers}
25118 variables to indicate to spam-split that Bogofilter should either be
25119 used, or has already been used on the article. The 0.9.2.1 version of
25120 Bogofilter was used to test this functionality.
25122 @node SpamAssassin back end
25123 @subsubsection SpamAssassin back end
25124 @cindex spam filtering
25125 @cindex spamassassin, spam filtering
25128 @defvar spam-use-spamassassin
25130 Set this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use SpamAssassin.
25132 SpamAssassin assigns a score to each article based on a set of rules
25133 and tests, including a Bayesian filter. The Bayesian filter can be
25134 trained by associating the @samp{$} mark for spam articles. The
25135 spam score can be viewed by using the command @kbd{S t} in summary
25138 If you set this variable, each article will be processed by
25139 SpamAssassin when @code{spam-split} is called. If your mail is
25140 preprocessed by SpamAssassin, and you want to just use the
25141 SpamAssassin headers, set @code{spam-use-spamassassin-headers}
25144 You should not enable this if you use
25145 @code{spam-use-spamassassin-headers}.
25149 @defvar spam-use-spamassassin-headers
25151 Set this variable if your mail is preprocessed by SpamAssassin and
25152 want @code{spam-split} to split based on the SpamAssassin headers.
25154 You should not enable this if you use @code{spam-use-spamassassin}.
25158 @defvar spam-spamassassin-program
25160 This variable points to the SpamAssassin executable. If you have
25161 @code{spamd} running, you can set this variable to the @code{spamc}
25162 executable for faster processing. See the SpamAssassin documentation
25163 for more information on @code{spamd}/@code{spamc}.
25167 SpamAssassin is a powerful and flexible spam filter that uses a wide
25168 variety of tests to identify spam. A ham and a spam processors are
25169 provided, plus the @code{spam-use-spamassassin} and
25170 @code{spam-use-spamassassin-headers} variables to indicate to
25171 spam-split that SpamAssassin should be either used, or has already
25172 been used on the article. The 2.63 version of SpamAssassin was used
25173 to test this functionality.
25175 @node ifile spam filtering
25176 @subsubsection ifile spam filtering
25177 @cindex spam filtering
25178 @cindex ifile, spam filtering
25181 @defvar spam-use-ifile
25183 Enable this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use @command{ifile}, a
25184 statistical analyzer similar to Bogofilter.
25188 @defvar spam-ifile-all-categories
25190 Enable this variable if you want @code{spam-use-ifile} to give you all
25191 the ifile categories, not just spam/non-spam. If you use this, make
25192 sure you train ifile as described in its documentation.
25196 @defvar spam-ifile-spam-category
25198 This is the category of spam messages as far as ifile is concerned.
25199 The actual string used is irrelevant, but you probably want to leave
25200 the default value of @samp{spam}.
25203 @defvar spam-ifile-database
25205 This is the filename for the ifile database. It is not specified by
25206 default, so ifile will use its own default database name.
25210 The ifile mail classifier is similar to Bogofilter in intent and
25211 purpose. A ham and a spam processor are provided, plus the
25212 @code{spam-use-ifile} variable to indicate to spam-split that ifile
25213 should be used. The 1.2.1 version of ifile was used to test this
25216 @node Spam Statistics Filtering
25217 @subsubsection Spam Statistics Filtering
25218 @cindex spam filtering
25219 @cindex spam-stat, spam filtering
25223 This back end uses the Spam Statistics Emacs Lisp package to perform
25224 statistics-based filtering (@pxref{Spam Statistics Package}). Before
25225 using this, you may want to perform some additional steps to
25226 initialize your Spam Statistics dictionary. @xref{Creating a
25227 spam-stat dictionary}.
25229 @defvar spam-use-stat
25233 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-stat
25234 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25235 customizing the group parameters or the
25236 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
25237 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the spam-marked
25238 articles will be added to the spam-stat database of spam messages.
25242 Instead of the obsolete
25243 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-stat}, it is recommended
25244 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-stat)}. Everything will work
25245 the same way, we promise.
25248 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-stat
25249 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25250 customizing the group parameters or the
25251 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
25252 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the ham-marked
25253 articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the spam-stat database
25254 of non-spam messages.
25258 Instead of the obsolete
25259 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-stat}, it is recommended
25260 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-stat)}. Everything will work
25261 the same way, we promise.
25264 This enables @code{spam.el} to cooperate with @file{spam-stat.el}.
25265 @file{spam-stat.el} provides an internal (Lisp-only) spam database,
25266 which unlike ifile or Bogofilter does not require external programs.
25267 A spam and a ham processor, and the @code{spam-use-stat} variable for
25268 @code{spam-split} are provided.
25271 @subsubsection Using SpamOracle with Gnus
25272 @cindex spam filtering
25276 An easy way to filter out spam is to use SpamOracle. SpamOracle is an
25277 statistical mail filtering tool written by Xavier Leroy and needs to be
25278 installed separately.
25280 There are several ways to use SpamOracle with Gnus. In all cases, your
25281 mail is piped through SpamOracle in its @emph{mark} mode. SpamOracle will
25282 then enter an @samp{X-Spam} header indicating whether it regards the
25283 mail as a spam mail or not.
25285 One possibility is to run SpamOracle as a @code{:prescript} from the
25286 @xref{Mail Source Specifiers}, (@pxref{SpamAssassin}). This method has
25287 the advantage that the user can see the @emph{X-Spam} headers.
25289 The easiest method is to make @file{spam.el} (@pxref{Spam Package})
25292 @vindex spam-use-spamoracle
25293 To enable SpamOracle usage by @code{spam.el}, set the variable
25294 @code{spam-use-spamoracle} to @code{t} and configure the
25295 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} or @code{nnimap-split-fancy}. @xref{Spam
25296 Package}. In this example the @samp{INBOX} of an nnimap server is
25297 filtered using SpamOracle. Mails recognized as spam mails will be
25298 moved to @code{spam-split-group}, @samp{Junk} in this case. Ham
25299 messages stay in @samp{INBOX}:
25302 (setq spam-use-spamoracle t
25303 spam-split-group "Junk"
25304 ;; @r{for nnimap you'll probably want to set nnimap-split-methods, see the manual}
25305 nnimap-split-inbox '("INBOX")
25306 nnimap-split-fancy '(| (: spam-split) "INBOX"))
25309 @defvar spam-use-spamoracle
25310 Set to @code{t} if you want Gnus to enable spam filtering using
25314 @defvar spam-spamoracle-binary
25315 Gnus uses the SpamOracle binary called @file{spamoracle} found in the
25316 user's PATH@. Using the variable @code{spam-spamoracle-binary}, this
25320 @defvar spam-spamoracle-database
25321 By default, SpamOracle uses the file @file{~/.spamoracle.db} as a database to
25322 store its analysis. This is controlled by the variable
25323 @code{spam-spamoracle-database} which defaults to @code{nil}. That means
25324 the default SpamOracle database will be used. In case you want your
25325 database to live somewhere special, set
25326 @code{spam-spamoracle-database} to this path.
25329 SpamOracle employs a statistical algorithm to determine whether a
25330 message is spam or ham. In order to get good results, meaning few
25331 false hits or misses, SpamOracle needs training. SpamOracle learns
25332 the characteristics of your spam mails. Using the @emph{add} mode
25333 (training mode) one has to feed good (ham) and spam mails to
25334 SpamOracle. This can be done by pressing @kbd{|} in the Summary
25335 buffer and pipe the mail to a SpamOracle process or using
25336 @file{spam.el}'s spam- and ham-processors, which is much more
25337 convenient. For a detailed description of spam- and ham-processors,
25338 @xref{Spam Package}.
25340 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-spamoracle
25341 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25342 customizing the group parameter or the
25343 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is added
25344 to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, spam-marked articles will be
25345 sent to SpamOracle as spam samples.
25349 Instead of the obsolete
25350 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-spamoracle}, it is recommended
25351 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-spamoracle)}. Everything will work
25352 the same way, we promise.
25355 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-spamoracle
25356 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
25357 customizing the group parameter or the
25358 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is added
25359 to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the ham-marked articles in
25360 @emph{ham} groups will be sent to the SpamOracle as samples of ham
25365 Instead of the obsolete
25366 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-spamoracle}, it is recommended
25367 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-spamoracle)}. Everything will work
25368 the same way, we promise.
25371 @emph{Example:} These are the Group Parameters of a group that has been
25372 classified as a ham group, meaning that it should only contain ham
25375 ((spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-ham)
25376 (spam-process ((ham spam-use-spamoracle)
25377 (spam spam-use-spamoracle))))
25379 For this group the @code{spam-use-spamoracle} is installed for both
25380 ham and spam processing. If the group contains spam message
25381 (e.g., because SpamOracle has not had enough sample messages yet) and
25382 the user marks some messages as spam messages, these messages will be
25383 processed by SpamOracle. The processor sends the messages to
25384 SpamOracle as new samples for spam.
25386 @node Extending the Spam package
25387 @subsection Extending the Spam package
25388 @cindex spam filtering
25389 @cindex spam elisp package, extending
25390 @cindex extending the spam elisp package
25392 Say you want to add a new back end called blackbox. For filtering
25393 incoming mail, provide the following:
25401 (defvar spam-use-blackbox nil
25402 "True if blackbox should be used.")
25405 Write @code{spam-check-blackbox} if Blackbox can check incoming mail.
25407 Write @code{spam-blackbox-register-routine} and
25408 @code{spam-blackbox-unregister-routine} using the bogofilter
25409 register/unregister routines as a start, or other register/unregister
25410 routines more appropriate to Blackbox, if Blackbox can
25411 register/unregister spam and ham.
25416 The @code{spam-check-blackbox} function should return @samp{nil} or
25417 @code{spam-split-group}, observing the other conventions. See the
25418 existing @code{spam-check-*} functions for examples of what you can
25419 do, and stick to the template unless you fully understand the reasons
25424 For processing spam and ham messages, provide the following:
25431 Note you don't have to provide a spam or a ham processor. Only
25432 provide them if Blackbox supports spam or ham processing.
25434 Also, ham and spam processors are being phased out as single
25435 variables. Instead the form @code{(spam spam-use-blackbox)} or
25436 @code{(ham spam-use-blackbox)} is favored. For now, spam/ham
25437 processor variables are still around but they won't be for long.
25440 (defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blackbox "blackbox-spam"
25441 "The Blackbox summary exit spam processor.
25442 Only applicable to spam groups.")
25444 (defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-blackbox "blackbox-ham"
25445 "The whitelist summary exit ham processor.
25446 Only applicable to non-spam (unclassified and ham) groups.")
25455 (const :tag "Spam: Blackbox" (spam spam-use-blackbox))
25456 (const :tag "Ham: Blackbox" (ham spam-use-blackbox))
25458 to the @code{spam-process} group parameter in @code{gnus.el}. Make
25459 sure you do it twice, once for the parameter and once for the
25460 variable customization.
25464 (variable-item spam-use-blackbox)
25466 to the @code{spam-autodetect-methods} group parameter in
25467 @code{gnus.el} if Blackbox can check incoming mail for spam contents.
25469 Finally, use the appropriate @code{spam-install-*-backend} function in
25470 @code{spam.el}. Here are the available functions.
25476 @code{spam-install-backend-alias}
25478 This function will simply install an alias for a back end that does
25479 everything like the original back end. It is currently only used to
25480 make @code{spam-use-BBDB-exclusive} act like @code{spam-use-BBDB}.
25483 @code{spam-install-nocheck-backend}
25485 This function installs a back end that has no check function, but can
25486 register/unregister ham or spam. The @code{spam-use-gmane} back end is
25490 @code{spam-install-checkonly-backend}
25492 This function will install a back end that can only check incoming mail
25493 for spam contents. It can't register or unregister messages.
25494 @code{spam-use-blackholes} and @code{spam-use-hashcash} are such
25498 @code{spam-install-statistical-checkonly-backend}
25500 This function installs a statistical back end (one which requires the
25501 full body of a message to check it) that can only check incoming mail
25502 for contents. @code{spam-use-regex-body} is such a filter.
25505 @code{spam-install-statistical-backend}
25507 This function install a statistical back end with incoming checks and
25508 registration/unregistration routines. @code{spam-use-bogofilter} is
25512 @code{spam-install-backend}
25514 This is the most normal back end installation, where a back end that can
25515 check and register/unregister messages is set up without statistical
25516 abilities. The @code{spam-use-BBDB} is such a back end.
25519 @code{spam-install-mover-backend}
25521 Mover back ends are internal to @code{spam.el} and specifically move
25522 articles around when the summary is exited. You will very probably
25523 never install such a back end.
25528 @node Spam Statistics Package
25529 @subsection Spam Statistics Package
25530 @cindex Paul Graham
25531 @cindex Graham, Paul
25532 @cindex naive Bayesian spam filtering
25533 @cindex Bayesian spam filtering, naive
25534 @cindex spam filtering, naive Bayesian
25536 Paul Graham has written an excellent essay about spam filtering using
25537 statistics: @uref{http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html,A Plan for
25538 Spam}. In it he describes the inherent deficiency of rule-based
25539 filtering as used by SpamAssassin, for example: Somebody has to write
25540 the rules, and everybody else has to install these rules. You are
25541 always late. It would be much better, he argues, to filter mail based
25542 on whether it somehow resembles spam or non-spam. One way to measure
25543 this is word distribution. He then goes on to describe a solution
25544 that checks whether a new mail resembles any of your other spam mails
25547 The basic idea is this: Create a two collections of your mail, one
25548 with spam, one with non-spam. Count how often each word appears in
25549 either collection, weight this by the total number of mails in the
25550 collections, and store this information in a dictionary. For every
25551 word in a new mail, determine its probability to belong to a spam or a
25552 non-spam mail. Use the 15 most conspicuous words, compute the total
25553 probability of the mail being spam. If this probability is higher
25554 than a certain threshold, the mail is considered to be spam.
25556 The Spam Statistics package adds support to Gnus for this kind of
25557 filtering. It can be used as one of the back ends of the Spam package
25558 (@pxref{Spam Package}), or by itself.
25560 Before using the Spam Statistics package, you need to set it up.
25561 First, you need two collections of your mail, one with spam, one with
25562 non-spam. Then you need to create a dictionary using these two
25563 collections, and save it. And last but not least, you need to use
25564 this dictionary in your fancy mail splitting rules.
25567 * Creating a spam-stat dictionary::
25568 * Splitting mail using spam-stat::
25569 * Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary::
25572 @node Creating a spam-stat dictionary
25573 @subsubsection Creating a spam-stat dictionary
25575 Before you can begin to filter spam based on statistics, you must
25576 create these statistics based on two mail collections, one with spam,
25577 one with non-spam. These statistics are then stored in a dictionary
25578 for later use. In order for these statistics to be meaningful, you
25579 need several hundred emails in both collections.
25581 Gnus currently supports only the nnml back end for automated dictionary
25582 creation. The nnml back end stores all mails in a directory, one file
25583 per mail. Use the following:
25585 @defun spam-stat-process-spam-directory
25586 Create spam statistics for every file in this directory. Every file
25587 is treated as one spam mail.
25590 @defun spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory
25591 Create non-spam statistics for every file in this directory. Every
25592 file is treated as one non-spam mail.
25595 Usually you would call @code{spam-stat-process-spam-directory} on a
25596 directory such as @file{~/Mail/mail/spam} (this usually corresponds to
25597 the group @samp{nnml:mail.spam}), and you would call
25598 @code{spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory} on a directory such as
25599 @file{~/Mail/mail/misc} (this usually corresponds to the group
25600 @samp{nnml:mail.misc}).
25602 When you are using @acronym{IMAP}, you won't have the mails available
25603 locally, so that will not work. One solution is to use the Gnus Agent
25604 to cache the articles. Then you can use directories such as
25605 @file{"~/News/agent/nnimap/mail.yourisp.com/personal_spam"} for
25606 @code{spam-stat-process-spam-directory}. @xref{Agent as Cache}.
25609 This variable holds the hash-table with all the statistics---the
25610 dictionary we have been talking about. For every word in either
25611 collection, this hash-table stores a vector describing how often the
25612 word appeared in spam and often it appeared in non-spam mails.
25615 If you want to regenerate the statistics from scratch, you need to
25616 reset the dictionary.
25618 @defun spam-stat-reset
25619 Reset the @code{spam-stat} hash-table, deleting all the statistics.
25622 When you are done, you must save the dictionary. The dictionary may
25623 be rather large. If you will not update the dictionary incrementally
25624 (instead, you will recreate it once a month, for example), then you
25625 can reduce the size of the dictionary by deleting all words that did
25626 not appear often enough or that do not clearly belong to only spam or
25627 only non-spam mails.
25629 @defun spam-stat-reduce-size
25630 Reduce the size of the dictionary. Use this only if you do not want
25631 to update the dictionary incrementally.
25634 @defun spam-stat-save
25635 Save the dictionary.
25638 @defvar spam-stat-file
25639 The filename used to store the dictionary. This defaults to
25640 @file{~/.spam-stat.el}.
25643 @node Splitting mail using spam-stat
25644 @subsubsection Splitting mail using spam-stat
25646 This section describes how to use the Spam statistics
25647 @emph{independently} of the @xref{Spam Package}.
25649 First, add the following to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
25652 (require 'spam-stat)
25656 This will load the necessary Gnus code, and the dictionary you
25659 Next, you need to adapt your fancy splitting rules: You need to
25660 determine how to use @code{spam-stat}. The following examples are for
25661 the nnml back end. Using the nnimap back end works just as well. Just
25662 use @code{nnimap-split-fancy} instead of @code{nnmail-split-fancy}.
25664 In the simplest case, you only have two groups, @samp{mail.misc} and
25665 @samp{mail.spam}. The following expression says that mail is either
25666 spam or it should go into @samp{mail.misc}. If it is spam, then
25667 @code{spam-stat-split-fancy} will return @samp{mail.spam}.
25670 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
25671 `(| (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
25675 @defvar spam-stat-split-fancy-spam-group
25676 The group to use for spam. Default is @samp{mail.spam}.
25679 If you also filter mail with specific subjects into other groups, use
25680 the following expression. Only mails not matching the regular
25681 expression are considered potential spam.
25684 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
25685 `(| ("Subject" "\\bspam-stat\\b" "mail.emacs")
25686 (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
25690 If you want to filter for spam first, then you must be careful when
25691 creating the dictionary. Note that @code{spam-stat-split-fancy} must
25692 consider both mails in @samp{mail.emacs} and in @samp{mail.misc} as
25693 non-spam, therefore both should be in your collection of non-spam
25694 mails, when creating the dictionary!
25697 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
25698 `(| (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
25699 ("Subject" "\\bspam-stat\\b" "mail.emacs")
25703 You can combine this with traditional filtering. Here, we move all
25704 HTML-only mails into the @samp{mail.spam.filtered} group. Note that since
25705 @code{spam-stat-split-fancy} will never see them, the mails in
25706 @samp{mail.spam.filtered} should be neither in your collection of spam mails,
25707 nor in your collection of non-spam mails, when creating the
25711 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
25712 `(| ("Content-Type" "text/html" "mail.spam.filtered")
25713 (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
25714 ("Subject" "\\bspam-stat\\b" "mail.emacs")
25719 @node Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary
25720 @subsubsection Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary
25722 The main interface to using @code{spam-stat}, are the following functions:
25724 @defun spam-stat-buffer-is-spam
25725 Called in a buffer, that buffer is considered to be a new spam mail.
25726 Use this for new mail that has not been processed before.
25729 @defun spam-stat-buffer-is-no-spam
25730 Called in a buffer, that buffer is considered to be a new non-spam
25731 mail. Use this for new mail that has not been processed before.
25734 @defun spam-stat-buffer-change-to-spam
25735 Called in a buffer, that buffer is no longer considered to be normal
25736 mail but spam. Use this to change the status of a mail that has
25737 already been processed as non-spam.
25740 @defun spam-stat-buffer-change-to-non-spam
25741 Called in a buffer, that buffer is no longer considered to be spam but
25742 normal mail. Use this to change the status of a mail that has already
25743 been processed as spam.
25746 @defun spam-stat-save
25747 Save the hash table to the file. The filename used is stored in the
25748 variable @code{spam-stat-file}.
25751 @defun spam-stat-load
25752 Load the hash table from a file. The filename used is stored in the
25753 variable @code{spam-stat-file}.
25756 @defun spam-stat-score-word
25757 Return the spam score for a word.
25760 @defun spam-stat-score-buffer
25761 Return the spam score for a buffer.
25764 @defun spam-stat-split-fancy
25765 Use this function for fancy mail splitting. Add the rule @samp{(:
25766 spam-stat-split-fancy)} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
25769 Make sure you load the dictionary before using it. This requires the
25770 following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
25773 (require 'spam-stat)
25777 Typical test will involve calls to the following functions:
25780 Reset: (setq spam-stat (make-hash-table :test 'equal))
25781 Learn spam: (spam-stat-process-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
25782 Learn non-spam: (spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
25783 Save table: (spam-stat-save)
25784 File size: (nth 7 (file-attributes spam-stat-file))
25785 Number of words: (hash-table-count spam-stat)
25786 Test spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
25787 Test non-spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
25788 Reduce table size: (spam-stat-reduce-size)
25789 Save table: (spam-stat-save)
25790 File size: (nth 7 (file-attributes spam-stat-file))
25791 Number of words: (hash-table-count spam-stat)
25792 Test spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
25793 Test non-spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
25796 Here is how you would create your dictionary:
25799 Reset: (setq spam-stat (make-hash-table :test 'equal))
25800 Learn spam: (spam-stat-process-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
25801 Learn non-spam: (spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
25802 Repeat for any other non-spam group you need...
25803 Reduce table size: (spam-stat-reduce-size)
25804 Save table: (spam-stat-save)
25807 @node The Gnus Registry
25808 @section The Gnus Registry
25813 The Gnus registry is a package that tracks messages by their
25814 Message-ID across all backends. This allows Gnus users to do several
25815 cool things, be the envy of the locals, get free haircuts, and be
25816 experts on world issues. Well, maybe not all of those, but the
25817 features are pretty cool.
25819 Although they will be explained in detail shortly, here's a quick list
25820 of said features in case your attention span is... never mind.
25824 Split messages to their parent
25826 This keeps discussions in the same group. You can use the subject and
25827 the sender in addition to the Message-ID@. Several strategies are
25831 Refer to messages by ID
25833 Commands like @code{gnus-summary-refer-parent-article} can take
25834 advantage of the registry to jump to the referred article, regardless
25835 of the group the message is in.
25838 Store custom flags and keywords
25840 The registry can store custom flags and keywords for a message. For
25841 instance, you can mark a message ``To-Do'' this way and the flag will
25842 persist whether the message is in the nnimap, nnml, nnmaildir,
25846 Store arbitrary data
25848 Through a simple ELisp API, the registry can remember any data for a
25849 message. A built-in inverse map, when activated, allows quick lookups
25850 of all messages matching a particular set of criteria.
25854 * Gnus Registry Setup::
25855 * Registry Article Refer Method::
25856 * Fancy splitting to parent::
25857 * Store custom flags and keywords::
25858 * Store arbitrary data::
25861 @node Gnus Registry Setup
25862 @subsection Gnus Registry Setup
25864 Fortunately, setting up the Gnus registry is pretty easy:
25867 (setq gnus-registry-max-entries 2500)
25869 (gnus-registry-initialize)
25872 This adds registry saves to Gnus newsrc saves (which happen on exit
25873 and when you press @kbd{s} from the @code{*Group*} buffer. It also
25874 adds registry calls to article actions in Gnus (copy, move, etc.)@: so
25875 it's not easy to undo the initialization. See
25876 @code{gnus-registry-initialize} for the gory details.
25878 Here are other settings used by the author of the registry (understand
25879 what they do before you copy them blindly).
25883 gnus-registry-split-strategy 'majority
25884 gnus-registry-ignored-groups '(("nntp" t)
25888 gnus-registry-max-entries 500000
25889 ;; this is the default
25890 gnus-registry-track-extra '(sender subject))
25893 They say: keep a lot of messages around, track messages by sender and
25894 subject (not just parent Message-ID), and when the registry splits
25895 incoming mail, use a majority rule to decide where messages should go
25896 if there's more than one possibility. In addition, the registry
25897 should ignore messages in groups that match ``nntp'', ``nnrss'',
25898 ``spam'', or ``train.''
25900 You are doubtless impressed by all this, but you ask: ``I am a Gnus
25901 user, I customize to live. Give me more.'' Here you go, these are
25902 the general settings.
25904 @defvar gnus-registry-unfollowed-groups
25905 The groups that will not be followed by
25906 @code{gnus-registry-split-fancy-with-parent}. They will still be
25907 remembered by the registry. This is a list of regular expressions.
25908 By default any group name that ends with ``delayed'', ``drafts'',
25909 ``queue'', or ``INBOX'', belongs to the nnmairix backend, or contains
25910 the word ``archive'' is not followed.
25913 @defvar gnus-registry-max-entries
25914 The number (an integer or @code{nil} for unlimited) of entries the
25915 registry will keep.
25918 @defvar gnus-registry-max-pruned-entries
25919 The maximum number (an integer or @code{nil} for unlimited) of entries
25920 the registry will keep after pruning.
25923 @defvar gnus-registry-cache-file
25924 The file where the registry will be stored between Gnus sessions. By
25925 default the file name is @code{.gnus.registry.eioio} in the same
25926 directory as your @code{.newsrc.eld}.
25929 @node Registry Article Refer Method
25930 @subsection Fetching by @code{Message-ID} Using the Registry
25932 The registry knows how to map each @code{Message-ID} to the group it's
25933 in. This can be leveraged to enhance the ``article refer method'',
25934 the thing that tells Gnus how to look up an article given its
25935 Message-ID (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
25938 @vindex gnus-refer-article-method
25940 The @code{nnregistry} refer method does exactly that. It has the
25941 advantage that an article may be found regardless of the group it's
25942 in---provided its @code{Message-ID} is known to the registry. It can
25943 be enabled by augmenting the start-up file with something along these
25947 ;; Keep enough entries to have a good hit rate when referring to an
25948 ;; article using the registry. Use long group names so that Gnus
25949 ;; knows where the article is.
25950 (setq gnus-registry-max-entries 2500)
25952 (gnus-registry-initialize)
25954 (setq gnus-refer-article-method
25957 (nnweb "gmane" (nnweb-type gmane))))
25960 The example above instructs Gnus to first look up the article in the
25961 current group, or, alternatively, using the registry, and finally, if
25962 all else fails, using Gmane.
25964 @node Fancy splitting to parent
25965 @subsection Fancy splitting to parent
25967 Simply put, this lets you put followup e-mail where it belongs.
25969 Every message has a Message-ID, which is unique, and the registry
25970 remembers it. When the message is moved or copied, the registry will
25971 notice this and offer the new group as a choice to the splitting
25974 When a followup is made, usually it mentions the original message's
25975 Message-ID in the headers. The registry knows this and uses that
25976 mention to find the group where the original message lives. You only
25977 have to put a rule like this:
25980 (setq nnimap-my-split-fancy '(|
25982 ;; split to parent: you need this
25983 (: gnus-registry-split-fancy-with-parent)
25985 ;; other rules, as an example
25991 in your fancy split setup. In addition, you may want to customize the
25992 following variables.
25994 @defvar gnus-registry-track-extra
25995 This is a list of symbols, so it's best to change it from the
25996 Customize interface. By default it's @code{(subject sender)}, which
25997 may work for you. It can be annoying if your mail flow is large and
25998 people don't stick to the same groups.
26001 @defvar gnus-registry-split-strategy
26002 This is a symbol, so it's best to change it from the Customize
26003 interface. By default it's @code{nil}, but you may want to set it to
26004 @code{majority} or @code{first} to split by sender or subject based on
26005 the majority of matches or on the first found. I find @code{majority}
26009 @node Store custom flags and keywords
26010 @subsection Store custom flags and keywords
26012 The registry lets you set custom flags and keywords per message. You
26013 can use the Gnus->Registry Marks menu or the @kbd{M M x} keyboard
26014 shortcuts, where @code{x} is the first letter of the mark's name.
26016 @defvar gnus-registry-marks
26017 The custom marks that the registry can use. You can modify the
26018 default list, if you like. If you do, you'll have to exit Emacs
26019 before they take effect (you can also unload the registry and reload
26020 it or evaluate the specific macros you'll need, but you probably don't
26021 want to bother). Use the Customize interface to modify the list.
26023 By default this list has the @code{Important}, @code{Work},
26024 @code{Personal}, @code{To-Do}, and @code{Later} marks. They all have
26025 keyboard shortcuts like @kbd{M M i} for Important, using the first
26029 @defun gnus-registry-mark-article
26030 Call this function to mark an article with a custom registry mark. It
26031 will offer the available marks for completion.
26034 You can use @code{defalias} to install a summary line formatting
26035 function that will show the registry marks. There are two flavors of
26036 this function, either showing the marks as single characters, using
26037 their @code{:char} property, or showing the marks as full strings.
26040 ;; show the marks as single characters (see the :char property in
26041 ;; `gnus-registry-marks'):
26042 ;; (defalias 'gnus-user-format-function-M 'gnus-registry-article-marks-to-chars)
26044 ;; show the marks by name (see `gnus-registry-marks'):
26045 ;; (defalias 'gnus-user-format-function-M 'gnus-registry-article-marks-to-names)
26049 @node Store arbitrary data
26050 @subsection Store arbitrary data
26052 The registry has a simple API that uses a Message-ID as the key to
26053 store arbitrary data (as long as it can be converted to a list for
26056 @defun gnus-registry-set-id-key (id key value)
26057 Store @code{value} under @code{key} for message @code{id}.
26060 @defun gnus-registry-get-id-key (id key)
26061 Get the data under @code{key} for message @code{id}.
26064 @defvar gnus-registry-extra-entries-precious
26065 If any extra entries are precious, their presence will make the
26066 registry keep the whole entry forever, even if there are no groups for
26067 the Message-ID and if the size limit of the registry is reached. By
26068 default this is just @code{(marks)} so the custom registry marks are
26073 @section Interaction with other modes
26078 @code{gnus-dired-minor-mode} provides some useful functions for dired
26079 buffers. It is enabled with
26081 (add-hook 'dired-mode-hook 'turn-on-gnus-dired-mode)
26086 @findex gnus-dired-attach
26087 @cindex attachments, selection via dired
26088 Send dired's marked files as an attachment (@code{gnus-dired-attach}).
26089 You will be prompted for a message buffer.
26092 @findex gnus-dired-find-file-mailcap
26093 Visit a file according to the appropriate mailcap entry
26094 (@code{gnus-dired-find-file-mailcap}). With prefix, open file in a new
26098 @findex gnus-dired-print
26099 Print file according to the mailcap entry (@code{gnus-dired-print}). If
26100 there is no print command, print in a PostScript image.
26103 @node Various Various
26104 @section Various Various
26110 @item gnus-home-directory
26111 @vindex gnus-home-directory
26112 All Gnus file and directory variables will be initialized from this
26113 variable, which defaults to @file{~/}.
26115 @item gnus-directory
26116 @vindex gnus-directory
26117 Most Gnus storage file and directory variables will be initialized from
26118 this variable, which defaults to the @env{SAVEDIR} environment
26119 variable, or @file{~/News/} if that variable isn't set.
26121 Note that Gnus is mostly loaded when the @file{~/.gnus.el} file is read.
26122 This means that other directory variables that are initialized from this
26123 variable won't be set properly if you set this variable in
26124 @file{~/.gnus.el}. Set this variable in @file{.emacs} instead.
26126 @item gnus-default-directory
26127 @vindex gnus-default-directory
26128 Not related to the above variable at all---this variable says what the
26129 default directory of all Gnus buffers should be. If you issue commands
26130 like @kbd{C-x C-f}, the prompt you'll get starts in the current buffer's
26131 default directory. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
26132 default), the default directory will be the default directory of the
26133 buffer you were in when you started Gnus.
26136 @vindex gnus-verbose
26137 This variable is an integer between zero and ten. The higher the value,
26138 the more messages will be displayed. If this variable is zero, Gnus
26139 will never flash any messages, if it is seven (which is the default),
26140 most important messages will be shown, and if it is ten, Gnus won't ever
26141 shut up, but will flash so many messages it will make your head swim.
26143 @item gnus-verbose-backends
26144 @vindex gnus-verbose-backends
26145 This variable works the same way as @code{gnus-verbose}, but it applies
26146 to the Gnus back ends instead of Gnus proper.
26148 @item gnus-add-timestamp-to-message
26149 @vindex gnus-add-timestamp-to-message
26150 This variable controls whether to add timestamps to messages that are
26151 controlled by @code{gnus-verbose} and @code{gnus-verbose-backends} and
26152 are issued. The default value is @code{nil} which means never to add
26153 timestamp. If it is @code{log}, add timestamps to only the messages
26154 that go into the @samp{*Messages*} buffer (in XEmacs, it is the
26155 @w{@samp{ *Message-Log*}} buffer). If it is neither @code{nil} nor
26156 @code{log}, add timestamps not only to log messages but also to the ones
26157 displayed in the echo area.
26159 @item nnheader-max-head-length
26160 @vindex nnheader-max-head-length
26161 When the back ends read straight heads of articles, they all try to read
26162 as little as possible. This variable (default 8192) specifies
26163 the absolute max length the back ends will try to read before giving up
26164 on finding a separator line between the head and the body. If this
26165 variable is @code{nil}, there is no upper read bound. If it is
26166 @code{t}, the back ends won't try to read the articles piece by piece,
26167 but read the entire articles. This makes sense with some versions of
26168 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs}.
26170 @item nnheader-head-chop-length
26171 @vindex nnheader-head-chop-length
26172 This variable (default 2048) says how big a piece of each article to
26173 read when doing the operation described above.
26175 @item nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
26176 @vindex nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
26178 @cindex invalid characters in file names
26179 @cindex characters in file names
26180 This is an alist that says how to translate characters in file names.
26181 For instance, if @samp{:} is invalid as a file character in file names
26182 on your system (you OS/2 user you), you could say something like:
26186 (setq nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
26191 In fact, this is the default value for this variable on OS/2 and MS
26192 Windows (phooey) systems.
26194 @item gnus-hidden-properties
26195 @vindex gnus-hidden-properties
26196 This is a list of properties to use to hide ``invisible'' text. It is
26197 @code{(invisible t intangible t)} by default on most systems, which
26198 makes invisible text invisible and intangible.
26200 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
26201 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
26202 A hook called before parsing headers. It can be used, for instance, to
26203 gather statistics on the headers fetched, or perhaps you'd like to prune
26204 some headers. I don't see why you'd want that, though.
26206 @item gnus-shell-command-separator
26207 @vindex gnus-shell-command-separator
26208 String used to separate two shell commands. The default is @samp{;}.
26210 @item gnus-invalid-group-regexp
26211 @vindex gnus-invalid-group-regexp
26213 Regexp to match ``invalid'' group names when querying user for a group
26214 name. The default value catches some @strong{really} invalid group
26215 names who could possibly mess up Gnus internally (like allowing
26216 @samp{:} in a group name, which is normally used to delimit method and
26219 @acronym{IMAP} users might want to allow @samp{/} in group names though.
26221 @item gnus-safe-html-newsgroups
26222 @vindex gnus-safe-html-newsgroups
26223 Groups in which links in html articles are considered all safe. The
26224 value may be a regexp matching those groups, a list of group names, or
26225 @code{nil}. This overrides @code{mm-w3m-safe-url-regexp}. The default
26226 value is @code{"\\`nnrss[+:]"}. This is effective only when emacs-w3m
26227 renders html articles, i.e., in the case @code{mm-text-html-renderer} is
26228 set to @code{w3m}. @xref{Display Customization, ,Display Customization,
26229 emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME Manual}.
26236 Well, that's the manual---you can get on with your life now. Keep in
26237 touch. Say hello to your cats from me.
26239 My @strong{ghod}---I just can't stand goodbyes. Sniffle.
26241 Ol' Charles Reznikoff said it pretty well, so I leave the floor to him:
26247 Not because of victories @*
26250 but for the common sunshine,@*
26252 the largess of the spring.
26256 but for the day's work done@*
26257 as well as I was able;@*
26258 not for a seat upon the dais@*
26259 but at the common table.@*
26264 @chapter Appendices
26267 * XEmacs:: Requirements for installing under XEmacs.
26268 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
26269 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
26270 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
26271 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
26272 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
26273 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
26274 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
26275 * Frequently Asked Questions:: The Gnus FAQ
26282 @cindex installing under XEmacs
26284 XEmacs is distributed as a collection of packages. You should install
26285 whatever packages the Gnus XEmacs package requires. The current
26286 requirements are @samp{gnus}, @samp{mail-lib}, @samp{xemacs-base},
26287 @samp{eterm}, @samp{sh-script}, @samp{net-utils}, @samp{os-utils},
26288 @samp{dired}, @samp{mh-e}, @samp{sieve}, @samp{ps-print}, @samp{W3},
26289 @samp{pgg}, @samp{mailcrypt}, @samp{ecrypto}, and @samp{sasl}.
26296 @sc{gnus} was written by Masanobu @sc{Umeda}. When autumn crept up in
26297 '94, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen grew bored and decided to rewrite Gnus.
26299 If you want to investigate the person responsible for this outrage,
26300 you can point your (feh!) web browser to
26301 @uref{http://quimby.gnus.org/}. This is also the primary
26302 distribution point for the new and spiffy versions of Gnus, and is
26303 known as The Site That Destroys Newsrcs And Drives People Mad.
26305 During the first extended alpha period of development, the new Gnus was
26306 called ``(ding) Gnus''. @dfn{(ding)} is, of course, short for
26307 @dfn{ding is not Gnus}, which is a total and utter lie, but who cares?
26308 (Besides, the ``Gnus'' in this abbreviation should probably be
26309 pronounced ``news'' as @sc{Umeda} intended, which makes it a more
26310 appropriate name, don't you think?)
26312 In any case, after spending all that energy on coming up with a new and
26313 spunky name, we decided that the name was @emph{too} spunky, so we
26314 renamed it back again to ``Gnus''. But in mixed case. ``Gnus'' vs.
26315 ``@sc{gnus}''. New vs. old.
26318 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
26319 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
26320 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
26321 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
26322 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
26323 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
26324 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
26325 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
26329 @node Gnus Versions
26330 @subsection Gnus Versions
26332 @cindex September Gnus
26334 @cindex Quassia Gnus
26335 @cindex Pterodactyl Gnus
26339 @cindex Gnus versions
26341 The first ``proper'' release of Gnus 5 was done in November 1995 when it
26342 was included in the Emacs 19.30 distribution (132 (ding) Gnus releases
26343 plus 15 Gnus 5.0 releases).
26345 In May 1996 the next Gnus generation (aka. ``September Gnus'' (after 99
26346 releases)) was released under the name ``Gnus 5.2'' (40 releases).
26348 On July 28th 1996 work on Red Gnus was begun, and it was released on
26349 January 25th 1997 (after 84 releases) as ``Gnus 5.4'' (67 releases).
26351 On September 13th 1997, Quassia Gnus was started and lasted 37 releases.
26352 It was released as ``Gnus 5.6'' on March 8th 1998 (46 releases).
26354 Gnus 5.6 begat Pterodactyl Gnus on August 29th 1998 and was released as
26355 ``Gnus 5.8'' (after 99 releases and a CVS repository) on December 3rd
26358 On the 26th of October 2000, Oort Gnus was begun and was released as
26359 Gnus 5.10 on May 1st 2003 (24 releases).
26361 On the January 4th 2004, No Gnus was begun.
26363 On April 19, 2010 Gnus development was moved to Git. See
26364 http://git.gnus.org for details (http://www.gnus.org will be updated
26365 with the information when possible).
26367 On the January 31th 2012, Ma Gnus was begun.
26369 If you happen upon a version of Gnus that has a prefixed name---``(ding)
26370 Gnus'', ``September Gnus'', ``Red Gnus'', ``Quassia Gnus'',
26371 ``Pterodactyl Gnus'', ``Oort Gnus'', ``No Gnus'', ``Ma Gnus''---don't
26372 panic. Don't let it know that you're frightened. Back away. Slowly.
26373 Whatever you do, don't run. Walk away, calmly, until you're out of
26374 its reach. Find a proper released version of Gnus and snuggle up to
26381 What's the point of Gnus?
26383 I want to provide a ``rad'', ``happening'', ``way cool'' and ``hep''
26384 newsreader, that lets you do anything you can think of. That was my
26385 original motivation, but while working on Gnus, it has become clear to
26386 me that this generation of newsreaders really belong in the stone age.
26387 Newsreaders haven't developed much since the infancy of the net. If the
26388 volume continues to rise with the current rate of increase, all current
26389 newsreaders will be pretty much useless. How do you deal with
26390 newsgroups that have thousands of new articles each day? How do you
26391 keep track of millions of people who post?
26393 Gnus offers no real solutions to these questions, but I would very much
26394 like to see Gnus being used as a testing ground for new methods of
26395 reading and fetching news. Expanding on @sc{Umeda}-san's wise decision
26396 to separate the newsreader from the back ends, Gnus now offers a simple
26397 interface for anybody who wants to write new back ends for fetching mail
26398 and news from different sources. I have added hooks for customizations
26399 everywhere I could imagine it being useful. By doing so, I'm inviting
26400 every one of you to explore and invent.
26402 May Gnus never be complete. @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-emacs} and
26403 @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-xemacs}.
26406 @node Compatibility
26407 @subsection Compatibility
26409 @cindex compatibility
26410 Gnus was designed to be fully compatible with @sc{gnus}. Almost all key
26411 bindings have been kept. More key bindings have been added, of course,
26412 but only in one or two obscure cases have old bindings been changed.
26417 @center In a cloud bones of steel.
26421 All commands have kept their names. Some internal functions have changed
26424 The @code{gnus-uu} package has changed drastically. @xref{Decoding
26427 One major compatibility question is the presence of several summary
26428 buffers. All variables relevant while reading a group are
26429 buffer-local to the summary buffer they belong in. Although many
26430 important variables have their values copied into their global
26431 counterparts whenever a command is executed in the summary buffer, this
26432 change might lead to incorrect values being used unless you are careful.
26434 All code that relies on knowledge of @sc{gnus} internals will probably
26435 fail. To take two examples: Sorting @code{gnus-newsrc-alist} (or
26436 changing it in any way, as a matter of fact) is strictly verboten. Gnus
26437 maintains a hash table that points to the entries in this alist (which
26438 speeds up many functions), and changing the alist directly will lead to
26442 @cindex highlighting
26443 Old hilit19 code does not work at all. In fact, you should probably
26444 remove all hilit code from all Gnus hooks
26445 (@code{gnus-group-prepare-hook} and @code{gnus-summary-prepare-hook}).
26446 Gnus provides various integrated functions for highlighting. These are
26447 faster and more accurate. To make life easier for everybody, Gnus will
26448 by default remove all hilit calls from all hilit hooks. Uncleanliness!
26451 Packages like @code{expire-kill} will no longer work. As a matter of
26452 fact, you should probably remove all old @sc{gnus} packages (and other
26453 code) when you start using Gnus. More likely than not, Gnus already
26454 does what you have written code to make @sc{gnus} do. (Snicker.)
26456 Even though old methods of doing things are still supported, only the
26457 new methods are documented in this manual. If you detect a new method of
26458 doing something while reading this manual, that does not mean you have
26459 to stop doing it the old way.
26461 Gnus understands all @sc{gnus} startup files.
26463 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
26465 @cindex reporting bugs
26467 Overall, a casual user who hasn't written much code that depends on
26468 @sc{gnus} internals should suffer no problems. If problems occur,
26469 please let me know by issuing that magic command @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}.
26471 @vindex gnus-bug-create-help-buffer
26472 If you are in the habit of sending bug reports @emph{very} often, you
26473 may find the helpful help buffer annoying after a while. If so, set
26474 @code{gnus-bug-create-help-buffer} to @code{nil} to avoid having it pop
26479 @subsection Conformity
26481 No rebels without a clue here, ma'am. We conform to all standards known
26482 to (wo)man. Except for those standards and/or conventions we disagree
26490 There are no known breaches of this standard.
26494 There are no known breaches of this standard, either.
26496 @item Son-of-RFC 1036
26497 @cindex Son-of-RFC 1036
26498 We do have some breaches to this one.
26504 These are considered to be ``vanity headers'', while I consider them
26505 to be consumer information. After seeing so many badly formatted
26506 articles coming from @code{tin} and @code{Netscape} I know not to use
26507 either of those for posting articles. I would not have known that if
26508 it wasn't for the @code{X-Newsreader} header.
26513 USEFOR is an IETF working group writing a successor to RFC 1036, based
26514 on Son-of-RFC 1036. They have produced a number of drafts proposing
26515 various changes to the format of news articles. The Gnus towers will
26516 look into implementing the changes when the draft is accepted as an RFC.
26518 @item MIME---RFC 2045--2049 etc
26519 @cindex @acronym{MIME}
26520 All the various @acronym{MIME} RFCs are supported.
26522 @item Disposition Notifications---RFC 2298
26523 Message Mode is able to request notifications from the receiver.
26525 @item PGP---RFC 1991 and RFC 2440
26528 RFC 1991 is the original @acronym{PGP} message specification,
26529 published as an informational RFC@. RFC 2440 was the follow-up, now
26530 called Open PGP, and put on the Standards Track. Both document a
26531 non-@acronym{MIME} aware @acronym{PGP} format. Gnus supports both
26532 encoding (signing and encryption) and decoding (verification and
26535 @item PGP/MIME---RFC 2015/3156
26536 RFC 2015 (superseded by 3156 which references RFC 2440 instead of RFC
26537 1991) describes the @acronym{MIME}-wrapping around the RFC 1991/2440 format.
26538 Gnus supports both encoding and decoding.
26540 @item S/MIME---RFC 2633
26541 RFC 2633 describes the @acronym{S/MIME} format.
26543 @item IMAP---RFC 1730/2060, RFC 2195, RFC 2086, RFC 2359, RFC 2595, RFC 1731
26544 RFC 1730 is @acronym{IMAP} version 4, updated somewhat by RFC 2060
26545 (@acronym{IMAP} 4 revision 1). RFC 2195 describes CRAM-MD5
26546 authentication for @acronym{IMAP}. RFC 2086 describes access control
26547 lists (ACLs) for @acronym{IMAP}. RFC 2359 describes a @acronym{IMAP}
26548 protocol enhancement. RFC 2595 describes the proper @acronym{TLS}
26549 integration (STARTTLS) with @acronym{IMAP}. RFC 1731 describes the
26550 GSSAPI/Kerberos4 mechanisms for @acronym{IMAP}.
26554 If you ever notice Gnus acting non-compliant with regards to the texts
26555 mentioned above, don't hesitate to drop a note to Gnus Towers and let us
26560 @subsection Emacsen
26566 This version of Gnus should work on:
26574 XEmacs 21.4 and up.
26578 This Gnus version will absolutely not work on any Emacsen older than
26579 that. Not reliably, at least. Older versions of Gnus may work on older
26580 Emacs versions. Particularly, Gnus 5.10.8 should also work on Emacs
26581 20.7 and XEmacs 21.1.
26583 @c No-merge comment: The paragraph added in v5-10 here must not be
26586 @node Gnus Development
26587 @subsection Gnus Development
26589 Gnus is developed in a two-phased cycle. The first phase involves much
26590 discussion on the development mailing list @samp{ding@@gnus.org}, where people
26591 propose changes and new features, post patches and new back ends. This
26592 phase is called the @dfn{alpha} phase, since the Gnusae released in this
26593 phase are @dfn{alpha releases}, or (perhaps more commonly in other
26594 circles) @dfn{snapshots}. During this phase, Gnus is assumed to be
26595 unstable and should not be used by casual users. Gnus alpha releases
26596 have names like ``Oort Gnus'' and ``No Gnus''. @xref{Gnus Versions}.
26598 After futzing around for 10--100 alpha releases, Gnus is declared
26599 @dfn{frozen}, and only bug fixes are applied. Gnus loses the prefix,
26600 and is called things like ``Gnus 5.10.1'' instead. Normal people are
26601 supposed to be able to use these, and these are mostly discussed on the
26602 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} newsgroup. This newgroup is mirrored to the
26603 mailing list @samp{info-gnus-english@@gnu.org} which is carried on Gmane
26604 as @samp{gmane.emacs.gnus.user}. These releases are finally integrated
26608 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
26609 Some variable defaults differ between alpha Gnusae and released Gnusae,
26610 in particular, @code{mail-source-delete-incoming}. This is to prevent
26611 lossage of mail if an alpha release hiccups while handling the mail.
26612 @xref{Mail Source Customization}.
26614 The division of discussion between the ding mailing list and the Gnus
26615 newsgroup is not purely based on publicity concerns. It's true that
26616 having people write about the horrible things that an alpha Gnus release
26617 can do (sometimes) in a public forum may scare people off, but more
26618 importantly, talking about new experimental features that have been
26619 introduced may confuse casual users. New features are frequently
26620 introduced, fiddled with, and judged to be found wanting, and then
26621 either discarded or totally rewritten. People reading the mailing list
26622 usually keep up with these rapid changes, while people on the newsgroup
26623 can't be assumed to do so.
26625 So if you have problems with or questions about the alpha versions,
26626 direct those to the ding mailing list @samp{ding@@gnus.org}. This list
26627 is also available on Gmane as @samp{gmane.emacs.gnus.general}.
26630 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
26631 Some variable defaults differ between alpha Gnusae and released Gnusae,
26632 in particular, @code{mail-source-delete-incoming}. This is to prevent
26633 lossage of mail if an alpha release hiccups while handling the mail.
26634 @xref{Mail Source Customization}.
26637 @subsection Contributors
26638 @cindex contributors
26640 The new Gnus version couldn't have been done without the help of all the
26641 people on the (ding) mailing list. Every day for over a year I have
26642 gotten billions of nice bug reports from them, filling me with joy,
26643 every single one of them. Smooches. The people on the list have been
26644 tried beyond endurance, what with my ``oh, that's a neat idea <type
26645 type>, yup, I'll release it right away <ship off> no wait, that doesn't
26646 work at all <type type>, yup, I'll ship that one off right away <ship
26647 off> no, wait, that absolutely does not work'' policy for releases.
26648 Micro$oft---bah. Amateurs. I'm @emph{much} worse. (Or is that
26649 ``worser''? ``much worser''? ``worsest''?)
26651 I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Academy for@dots{} oops,
26657 Masanobu @sc{Umeda}---the writer of the original @sc{gnus}.
26660 Shenghuo Zhu---uudecode.el, mm-uu.el, rfc1843.el,
26661 nnwarchive and many, many other things connected with @acronym{MIME} and
26662 other types of en/decoding, as well as general bug fixing, new
26663 functionality and stuff.
26666 Per Abrahamsen---custom, scoring, highlighting and @sc{soup} code (as
26667 well as numerous other things).
26670 Luis Fernandes---design and graphics.
26673 Joe Reiss---creator of the smiley faces.
26676 Justin Sheehy---the @acronym{FAQ} maintainer.
26679 Erik Naggum---help, ideas, support, code and stuff.
26682 Wes Hardaker---@file{gnus-picon.el} and the manual section on
26683 @dfn{picons} (@pxref{Picons}).
26686 Kim-Minh Kaplan---further work on the picon code.
26689 Brad Miller---@file{gnus-gl.el} and the GroupLens manual section.
26692 Sudish Joseph---innumerable bug fixes.
26695 Ilja Weis---@file{gnus-topic.el}.
26698 Steven L. Baur---lots and lots and lots of bug detection and fixes.
26701 Vladimir Alexiev---the refcard and reference booklets.
26704 Felix Lee & Jamie Zawinski---I stole some pieces from the XGnus
26705 distribution by Felix Lee and JWZ.
26708 Scott Byer---@file{nnfolder.el} enhancements & rewrite.
26711 Peter Mutsaers---orphan article scoring code.
26714 Ken Raeburn---POP mail support.
26717 Hallvard B Furuseth---various bits and pieces, especially dealing with
26721 Brian Edmonds---@file{gnus-bbdb.el}.
26724 David Moore---rewrite of @file{nnvirtual.el} and many other things.
26727 Kevin Davidson---came up with the name @dfn{ding}, so blame him.
26730 Fran@,{c}ois Pinard---many, many interesting and thorough bug reports, as
26731 well as autoconf support.
26735 This manual was proof-read by Adrian Aichner, with Ricardo Nassif, Mark
26736 Borges, and Jost Krieger proof-reading parts of the manual.
26738 The following people have contributed many patches and suggestions:
26753 Jason L. Tibbitts, III,
26755 Katsumi Yamaoka, @c Yamaoka
26759 Also thanks to the following for patches and stuff:
26769 Alexei V. Barantsev,
26784 Massimo Campostrini,
26789 Jae-you Chung, @c ?
26790 James H. Cloos, Jr.,
26794 Andrew J. Cosgriff,
26797 Geoffrey T. Dairiki,
26803 Michael Welsh Duggan,
26808 Enami Tsugutomo, @c Enami
26812 Nelson Jose dos Santos Ferreira,
26820 Arne Georg Gleditsch,
26822 Michelangelo Grigni,
26826 Kenichi Handa, @c Handa
26828 Yoshiki Hayashi, @c Hayashi
26830 Hisashige Kenji, @c Hisashige
26838 Fran@,{c}ois Felix Ingrand,
26839 Tatsuya Ichikawa, @c Ichikawa
26840 Ishikawa Ichiro, @c Ishikawa
26842 Iwamuro Motonori, @c Iwamuro
26852 Peter Skov Knudsen,
26853 Shuhei Kobayashi, @c Kobayashi
26855 Koseki Yoshinori, @c Koseki
26856 Thor Kristoffersen,
26859 Seokchan Lee, @c Lee
26877 Morioka Tomohiko, @c Morioka
26878 Erik Toubro Nielsen,
26885 Masaharu Onishi, @c Onishi
26890 Jens-Ulrik Holger Petersen,
26894 John McClary Prevost,
26900 Lars Balker Rasmussen,
26905 Christian von Roques,
26908 Wolfgang Rupprecht,
26915 Philippe Schnoebelen,
26917 Randal L. Schwartz,
26931 Kiyokazu Suto, @c Suto
26936 Tozawa Akihiko, @c Tozawa
26956 For a full overview of what each person has done, the ChangeLogs
26957 included in the Gnus alpha distributions should give ample reading
26958 (550kB and counting).
26960 Apologies to everybody that I've forgotten, of which there are many, I'm
26963 Gee, that's quite a list of people. I guess that must mean that there
26964 actually are people who are using Gnus. Who'd'a thunk it!
26968 @subsection New Features
26969 @cindex new features
26972 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
26973 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
26974 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
26975 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
26976 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
26977 * Oort Gnus:: It's big. It's far out. Gnus 5.10/5.11.
26978 * No Gnus:: Very punny. Gnus 5.12/5.13.
26979 * Ma Gnus:: Celebrating 25 years of Gnus.
26982 These lists are, of course, just @emph{short} overviews of the
26983 @emph{most} important new features. No, really. There are tons more.
26984 Yes, we have feeping creaturism in full effect.
26987 @subsubsection (ding) Gnus
26989 New features in Gnus 5.0/5.1:
26994 The look of all buffers can be changed by setting format-like variables
26995 (@pxref{Group Buffer Format} and @pxref{Summary Buffer Format}).
26998 Local spool and several @acronym{NNTP} servers can be used at once
26999 (@pxref{Select Methods}).
27002 You can combine groups into virtual groups (@pxref{Virtual Groups}).
27005 You can read a number of different mail formats (@pxref{Getting Mail}).
27006 All the mail back ends implement a convenient mail expiry scheme
27007 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
27010 Gnus can use various strategies for gathering threads that have lost
27011 their roots (thereby gathering loose sub-threads into one thread) or it
27012 can go back and retrieve enough headers to build a complete thread
27013 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
27016 Killed groups can be displayed in the group buffer, and you can read
27017 them as well (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
27020 Gnus can do partial group updates---you do not have to retrieve the
27021 entire active file just to check for new articles in a few groups
27022 (@pxref{The Active File}).
27025 Gnus implements a sliding scale of subscribedness to groups
27026 (@pxref{Group Levels}).
27029 You can score articles according to any number of criteria
27030 (@pxref{Scoring}). You can even get Gnus to find out how to score
27031 articles for you (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
27034 Gnus maintains a dribble buffer that is auto-saved the normal Emacs
27035 manner, so it should be difficult to lose much data on what you have
27036 read if your machine should go down (@pxref{Auto Save}).
27039 Gnus now has its own startup file (@file{~/.gnus.el}) to avoid
27040 cluttering up the @file{.emacs} file.
27043 You can set the process mark on both groups and articles and perform
27044 operations on all the marked items (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
27047 You can list subsets of groups according to, well, anything
27048 (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
27051 You can browse foreign servers and subscribe to groups from those
27052 servers (@pxref{Browse Foreign Server}).
27055 Gnus can fetch articles, asynchronously, on a second connection to the
27056 server (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
27059 You can cache articles locally (@pxref{Article Caching}).
27062 The uudecode functions have been expanded and generalized
27063 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
27066 You can still post uuencoded articles, which was a little-known feature
27067 of @sc{gnus}' past (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
27070 Fetching parents (and other articles) now actually works without
27071 glitches (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
27074 Gnus can fetch @acronym{FAQ}s and group descriptions (@pxref{Group Information}).
27077 Digests (and other files) can be used as the basis for groups
27078 (@pxref{Document Groups}).
27081 Articles can be highlighted and customized (@pxref{Customizing
27085 URLs and other external references can be buttonized (@pxref{Article
27089 You can do lots of strange stuff with the Gnus window & frame
27090 configuration (@pxref{Window Layout}).
27095 @node September Gnus
27096 @subsubsection September Gnus
27100 \gnusfig{-28cm}{0cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/september,height=20cm}}
27104 New features in Gnus 5.2/5.3:
27109 A new message composition mode is used. All old customization variables
27110 for @code{mail-mode}, @code{rnews-reply-mode} and @code{gnus-msg} are
27114 Gnus is now able to generate @dfn{sparse} threads---threads where
27115 missing articles are represented by empty nodes (@pxref{Customizing
27119 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
27123 Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server
27124 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
27127 Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
27131 Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions.
27134 Picons (personal icons) can be displayed under XEmacs (@pxref{Picons}).
27137 A @code{trn}-like tree buffer can be displayed (@pxref{Tree Display}).
27140 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
27144 An @code{nn}-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
27145 buffers (@pxref{Pick and Read}).
27148 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
27152 In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode (@pxref{Binary
27156 Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy (@pxref{Group
27160 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
27164 Gnus can re-send and bounce mail (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
27167 Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
27168 is possible (@pxref{Group Score}).
27171 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
27175 Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
27176 groups of groups (@pxref{Marking Groups}).
27179 Caching is possible in virtual groups.
27182 @code{nndoc} now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews
27183 news batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything
27184 else (@pxref{Document Groups}).
27187 Gnus has a new back end (@code{nnsoup}) to create/read SOUP packets.
27190 The Gnus cache is much faster.
27193 Groups can be sorted according to many criteria (@pxref{Sorting
27197 New group parameters have been introduced to set list-addresses and
27198 expiry times (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
27201 All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used
27202 (@pxref{Formatting Fonts}).
27205 There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on process
27206 marked articles on the @kbd{M P} submap (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
27209 The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
27210 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
27211 bound to keys on the @kbd{/} submap (@pxref{Limiting}).
27214 Articles can be made persistent with the @kbd{*} command
27215 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
27218 All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
27221 Article headers can be buttonized (@pxref{Article Washing}).
27224 All mail back ends support fetching articles by @code{Message-ID}.
27227 Duplicate mail can now be treated properly (@pxref{Duplicates}).
27230 All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
27231 buffer (@pxref{Article Keymap}).
27234 Frames can be part of @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} (@pxref{Window
27238 Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process (@pxref{Daemons}).
27241 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=ps/fseptember,height=5cm}]{\epsfig{figure=ps/fseptember,height=5cm}}
27246 Groups can be made permanently visible (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
27249 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
27253 Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
27256 Gnus respects the @code{Mail-Copies-To} header.
27259 Threads can be gathered by looking at the @code{References} header
27260 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
27263 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
27264 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
27268 Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
27269 refetching (@pxref{Article Backlog}).
27272 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
27276 A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
27277 buffer to allow easier treatment.
27280 Gnus can suggest where to save articles (@pxref{Saving Articles}).
27283 Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving (@pxref{Saving
27287 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
27291 @code{gnus-uu} can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
27292 articles (@pxref{Other Decode Variables}).
27295 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
27299 Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text
27300 (@pxref{Article Washing}).
27303 Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
27304 cited text to hide is now customizable (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
27307 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
27311 Boring headers can be hidden (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
27314 Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
27317 Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
27323 @subsubsection Red Gnus
27325 New features in Gnus 5.4/5.5:
27329 \gnusfig{-5.5cm}{-4cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/red,height=20cm}}
27336 @file{nntp.el} has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
27339 Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
27340 Gnus (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
27343 Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like @code{and},
27344 @code{or}, @code{not}, and parent redirection (@pxref{Advanced
27348 Article washing status can be displayed in the
27349 article mode line (@pxref{Misc Article}).
27352 @file{gnus.el} has been split into many smaller files.
27355 Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID can be done
27356 (@pxref{Duplicate Suppression}).
27359 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
27363 New variables for specifying what score and adapt files are to be
27364 considered home score and adapt files (@pxref{Home Score File}) have
27368 @code{nndoc} was rewritten to be easily extensible (@pxref{Document
27369 Server Internals}).
27372 Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics (@pxref{Topic
27376 Article editing has been revamped and is now actually usable.
27379 Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions
27380 (@pxref{Article Signature}).
27383 Summary pick mode has been made to look more @code{nn}-like. Line
27384 numbers are displayed and the @kbd{.} command can be used to pick
27385 articles (@code{Pick and Read}).
27388 Commands for moving the @file{.newsrc.eld} from one server to
27389 another have been added (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
27392 There's a way now to specify that ``uninteresting'' fields be suppressed
27393 when generating lines in buffers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting}).
27396 Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with @kbd{C-M-_}
27400 Scoring can be done on words using the new score type @code{w}
27401 (@pxref{Score File Format}).
27404 Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis
27405 (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
27408 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
27412 Scores can be decayed (@pxref{Score Decays}).
27415 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
27419 Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The Date is
27420 normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first (@pxref{Score File Format}).
27423 A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
27424 the native server (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
27427 A new command for reading collections of documents
27428 (@code{nndoc} with @code{nnvirtual} on top) has been added---@kbd{C-M-d}
27429 (@pxref{Really Various Summary Commands}).
27432 Process mark sets can be pushed and popped (@pxref{Setting Process
27436 A new mail-to-news back end makes it possible to post even when the @acronym{NNTP}
27437 server doesn't allow posting (@pxref{Mail-To-News Gateways}).
27440 A new back end for reading searches from Web search engines
27441 (@dfn{DejaNews}, @dfn{Alta Vista}, @dfn{InReference}) has been added
27442 (@pxref{Web Searches}).
27445 Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard sorting
27446 functions, and each topic can be sorted independently (@pxref{Topic
27450 Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently (@code{Sorting
27454 Cached articles can be pulled into the groups (@pxref{Summary Generation
27458 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=ps/fred,width=3cm}]{\epsfig{figure=ps/fred,width=3cm}}
27463 Score files are now applied in a more reliable order (@pxref{Score
27467 Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated (@pxref{Splitting
27471 More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk from incoming
27472 mail before saving the mail (@pxref{Washing Mail}).
27475 Emphasized text can be properly fontisized:
27481 @subsubsection Quassia Gnus
27483 New features in Gnus 5.6:
27488 New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
27489 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added.
27490 @xref{Gnus Unplugged}, for the full story.
27493 The @code{nndraft} back end has returned, but works differently than
27494 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the @code{nndraft}
27495 group, which is created automatically.
27498 @code{gnus-alter-header-function} can now be used to alter header
27502 @code{gnus-summary-goto-article} now accept Message-IDs.
27505 A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
27506 outside the region: @kbd{C-c C-v}.
27509 You can now post to component group in @code{nnvirtual} groups with
27513 @code{nntp-rlogin-program}---new variable to ease customization.
27516 @code{C-u C-c C-c} in @code{gnus-article-edit-mode} will now inhibit
27517 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
27520 New element in @code{gnus-boring-article-headers}---@code{long-to}.
27523 @kbd{M-i} symbolic prefix command. @xref{Symbolic Prefixes}, for
27527 @kbd{L} and @kbd{I} in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
27528 @kbd{a} to add the score rule to the @file{all.SCORE} file.
27531 @code{gnus-simplify-subject-functions} variable to allow greater
27532 control over simplification.
27535 @kbd{A T}---new command for fetching the current thread.
27538 @kbd{/ T}---new command for including the current thread in the
27542 @kbd{M-RET} is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
27545 @samp{\\1}-expressions are now valid in @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
27548 The @code{custom-face-lookup} function has been removed.
27549 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
27550 rewrite them to use @code{face-spec-set} instead.
27553 Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
27554 @kbd{a} forces normal posting method.
27557 New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper
27561 For easier debugging of @code{nntp}, you can set
27562 @code{nntp-record-commands} to a non-@code{nil} value.
27565 @code{nntp} now uses @file{~/.authinfo}, a @file{.netrc}-like file, for
27566 controlling where and how to send @sc{authinfo} to @acronym{NNTP} servers.
27569 A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
27573 A history of where mails have been split is available.
27576 A new article date command has been added---@code{article-date-iso8601}.
27579 Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
27580 @code{gnus-score-thread-simplify}.
27583 A new function for citing in Message has been
27584 added---@code{message-cite-original-without-signature}.
27587 @code{article-strip-all-blank-lines}---new article command.
27590 A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
27594 A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
27595 @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} variable.
27598 The ``lapsed date'' article header can be kept continually
27599 updated by the @code{gnus-start-date-timer} command.
27602 Web listserv archives can be read with the @code{nnlistserv} back end.
27605 Old dejanews archives can now be read by @code{nnweb}.
27609 @node Pterodactyl Gnus
27610 @subsubsection Pterodactyl Gnus
27612 New features in Gnus 5.8:
27617 The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
27618 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
27620 If you used procmail like in
27623 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
27624 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
27625 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
27626 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
27629 this now has changed to
27633 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
27637 @xref{Mail Source Specifiers}.
27640 Gnus is now a @acronym{MIME}-capable reader. This affects many parts of
27641 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
27644 Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too
27645 many parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables.
27648 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} can now be a function to be
27649 called to position point.
27652 The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
27653 summary buffers and @acronym{NOV} files.
27656 @code{gnus-article-display-hook} has been removed. Instead, a number
27657 of variables starting with @code{gnus-treat-} have been added.
27660 The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now works in a
27661 subtly different manner.
27664 New web-based back ends have been added: @code{nnslashdot},
27665 @code{nnwarchive} and @code{nnultimate}. nnweb has been revamped,
27666 again, to keep up with ever-changing layouts.
27669 Gnus can now read @acronym{IMAP} mail via @code{nnimap}.
27674 @subsubsection Oort Gnus
27677 New features in Gnus 5.10:
27681 @item Installation changes
27682 @c ***********************
27686 Upgrading from previous (stable) version if you have used Oort.
27688 If you have tried Oort (the unstable Gnus branch leading to this
27689 release) but went back to a stable version, be careful when upgrading to
27690 this version. In particular, you will probably want to remove all
27691 @file{.marks} (nnml) and @file{.mrk} (nnfolder) files, so that flags are
27692 read from your @file{.newsrc.eld} instead of from the
27693 @file{.marks}/@file{.mrk} file where this release store flags. See a
27694 later entry for more information about marks. Note that downgrading
27695 isn't save in general.
27698 Lisp files are now installed in @file{.../site-lisp/gnus/} by default.
27699 It defaulted to @file{.../site-lisp/} formerly. In addition to this,
27700 the new installer issues a warning if other Gnus installations which
27701 will shadow the latest one are detected. You can then remove those
27702 shadows manually or remove them using @code{make
27703 remove-installed-shadows}.
27706 New @file{make.bat} for compiling and installing Gnus under MS Windows
27708 Use @file{make.bat} if you want to install Gnus under MS Windows, the
27709 first argument to the batch-program should be the directory where
27710 @file{xemacs.exe} respectively @file{emacs.exe} is located, if you want
27711 to install Gnus after compiling it, give @file{make.bat} @code{/copy} as
27712 the second parameter.
27714 @file{make.bat} has been rewritten from scratch, it now features
27715 automatic recognition of XEmacs and Emacs, generates
27716 @file{gnus-load.el}, checks if errors occur while compilation and
27717 generation of info files and reports them at the end of the build
27718 process. It now uses @code{makeinfo} if it is available and falls
27719 back to @file{infohack.el} otherwise. @file{make.bat} should now
27720 install all files which are necessary to run Gnus and be generally a
27721 complete replacement for the @code{configure; make; make install}
27722 cycle used under Unix systems.
27724 The new @file{make.bat} makes @file{make-x.bat} and @file{xemacs.mak}
27725 superfluous, so they have been removed.
27728 @file{~/News/overview/} not used.
27730 As a result of the following change, the @file{~/News/overview/}
27731 directory is not used any more. You can safely delete the entire
27734 @c FIXME: `gnus-load' is mentioned in README, which is not included in
27735 @c the repository. We should find a better place for this item.
27737 @code{(require 'gnus-load)}
27739 If you use a stand-alone Gnus distribution, you'd better add
27740 @code{(require 'gnus-load)} into your @file{~/.emacs} after adding the Gnus
27741 lisp directory into load-path.
27743 File @file{gnus-load.el} contains autoload commands, functions and variables,
27744 some of which may not be included in distributions of Emacsen.
27748 @item New packages and libraries within Gnus
27749 @c *****************************************
27754 The revised Gnus @acronym{FAQ} is included in the manual,
27755 @xref{Frequently Asked Questions}.
27758 @acronym{TLS} wrapper shipped with Gnus
27760 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} is now supported in @acronym{IMAP} and
27761 @acronym{NNTP} via @file{tls.el} and GnuTLS.
27764 Improved anti-spam features.
27766 Gnus is now able to take out spam from your mail and news streams
27767 using a wide variety of programs and filter rules. Among the supported
27768 methods are RBL blocklists, bogofilter and white/blacklists. Hooks
27769 for easy use of external packages such as SpamAssassin and Hashcash
27770 are also new. @ref{Thwarting Email Spam} and @ref{Spam Package}.
27771 @c FIXME: @xref{Spam Package}?. Should this be under Misc?
27774 Gnus supports server-side mail filtering using Sieve.
27776 Sieve rules can be added as Group Parameters for groups, and the
27777 complete Sieve script is generated using @kbd{D g} from the Group
27778 buffer, and then uploaded to the server using @kbd{C-c C-l} in the
27779 generated Sieve buffer. @xref{Sieve Commands}, and the new Sieve
27780 manual @ref{Top, , Top, sieve, Emacs Sieve}.
27784 @item Changes in group mode
27785 @c ************************
27790 @code{gnus-group-read-ephemeral-group} can be called interactively,
27794 Retrieval of charters and control messages
27796 There are new commands for fetching newsgroup charters (@kbd{H c}) and
27797 control messages (@kbd{H C}).
27800 The new variable @code{gnus-parameters} can be used to set group parameters.
27802 Earlier this was done only via @kbd{G p} (or @kbd{G c}), which stored
27803 the parameters in @file{~/.newsrc.eld}, but via this variable you can
27804 enjoy the powers of customize, and simplified backups since you set the
27805 variable in @file{~/.gnus.el} instead of @file{~/.newsrc.eld}. The
27806 variable maps regular expressions matching group names to group
27809 (setq gnus-parameters
27811 (gnus-show-threads nil)
27812 (gnus-use-scoring nil))
27813 ("^nnimap:\\(foo.bar\\)$"
27814 (to-group . "\\1"))))
27818 Unread count correct in nnimap groups.
27820 The estimated number of unread articles in the group buffer should now
27821 be correct for nnimap groups. This is achieved by calling
27822 @code{nnimap-fixup-unread-after-getting-new-news} from the
27823 @code{gnus-setup-news-hook} (called on startup) and
27824 @code{gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook}. (called after getting new
27825 mail). If you have modified those variables from the default, you may
27826 want to add @code{nnimap-fixup-unread-after-getting-new-news} again. If
27827 you were happy with the estimate and want to save some (minimal) time
27828 when getting new mail, remove the function.
27831 Group names are treated as UTF-8 by default.
27833 This is supposedly what USEFOR wanted to migrate to. See
27834 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist} and
27835 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist} for customization.
27838 @code{gnus-group-charset-alist} and
27839 @code{gnus-group-ignored-charsets-alist}.
27841 The regexps in these variables are compared with full group names
27842 instead of real group names in 5.8. Users who customize these
27843 variables should change those regexps accordingly. For example:
27845 ("^han\\>" euc-kr) -> ("\\(^\\|:\\)han\\>" euc-kr)
27849 Old intermediate incoming mail files (@file{Incoming*}) are deleted
27850 after a couple of days, not immediately. @xref{Mail Source
27851 Customization}. (New in Gnus 5.10.10 / Emacs 22.2)
27855 @item Changes in summary and article mode
27856 @c **************************************
27861 @kbd{F} (@code{gnus-article-followup-with-original}) and @kbd{R}
27862 (@code{gnus-article-reply-with-original}) only yank the text in the
27863 region if the region is active.
27866 In draft groups, @kbd{e} is now bound to @code{gnus-draft-edit-message}.
27867 Use @kbd{B w} for @code{gnus-summary-edit-article} instead.
27872 More buttons for URLs, mail addresses, Message-IDs, Info links, man
27873 pages and Emacs or Gnus related references. @xref{Article Buttons}. The
27874 variables @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level} can be used to control the
27875 appearance of all article buttons. @xref{Article Button Levels}.
27878 Single-part yenc encoded attachments can be decoded.
27883 The picons code has been reimplemented to work in GNU Emacs---some of
27884 the previous options have been removed or renamed.
27886 Picons are small ``personal icons'' representing users, domain and
27887 newsgroups, which can be displayed in the Article buffer.
27891 If the new option @code{gnus-treat-body-boundary} is non-@code{nil}, a
27892 boundary line is drawn at the end of the headers.
27895 Signed article headers (X-PGP-Sig) can be verified with @kbd{W p}.
27898 The Summary Buffer uses an arrow in the fringe to indicate the current
27899 article. Use @code{(setq gnus-summary-display-arrow nil)} to disable it.
27902 Warn about email replies to news
27904 Do you often find yourself replying to news by email by mistake? Then
27905 the new option @code{gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news} is just the thing for
27909 If the new option @code{gnus-summary-display-while-building} is
27910 non-@code{nil}, the summary buffer is shown and updated as it's being
27914 Gnus supports RFC 2369 mailing list headers, and adds a number of
27915 related commands in mailing list groups. @xref{Mailing List}.
27918 The Date header can be displayed in a format that can be read aloud
27919 in English. @xref{Article Date}.
27922 diffs are automatically highlighted in groups matching
27923 @code{mm-uu-diff-groups-regexp}
27926 Better handling of Microsoft citation styles
27928 Gnus now tries to recognize the mangled header block that some Microsoft
27929 mailers use to indicate that the rest of the message is a citation, even
27930 though it is not quoted in any way. The variable
27931 @code{gnus-cite-unsightly-citation-regexp} matches the start of these
27934 The new command @kbd{W Y f}
27935 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-deuglify-article}) allows deuglifying broken
27936 Outlook (Express) articles.
27939 @code{gnus-article-skip-boring}
27941 If you set @code{gnus-article-skip-boring} to @code{t}, then Gnus will
27942 not scroll down to show you a page that contains only boring text,
27943 which by default means cited text and signature. You can customize
27944 what is skippable using @code{gnus-article-boring-faces}.
27946 This feature is especially useful if you read many articles that
27947 consist of a little new content at the top with a long, untrimmed
27948 message cited below.
27951 Smileys (@samp{:-)}, @samp{;-)} etc.)@: are now displayed graphically in
27954 Put @code{(setq gnus-treat-display-smileys nil)} in @file{~/.gnus.el} to
27958 Face headers handling. @xref{Face}.
27961 In the summary buffer, the new command @kbd{/ N} inserts new messages
27962 and @kbd{/ o} inserts old messages.
27965 Gnus decodes morse encoded messages if you press @kbd{W m}.
27968 @code{gnus-summary-line-format}
27970 The default value changed to @samp{%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%)
27971 %s\n}. Moreover @code{gnus-extra-headers},
27972 @code{nnmail-extra-headers} and @code{gnus-ignored-from-addresses}
27973 changed their default so that the users name will be replaced by the
27974 recipient's name or the group name posting to for @acronym{NNTP}
27978 Deleting of attachments.
27980 The command @code{gnus-mime-save-part-and-strip} (bound to @kbd{C-o}
27981 on @acronym{MIME} buttons) saves a part and replaces the part with an
27982 external one. @code{gnus-mime-delete-part} (bound to @kbd{d} on
27983 @acronym{MIME} buttons) removes a part. It works only on back ends
27984 that support editing.
27987 @code{gnus-default-charset}
27989 The default value is determined from the
27990 @code{current-language-environment} variable, instead of
27991 @code{iso-8859-1}. Also the @samp{.*} item in
27992 @code{gnus-group-charset-alist} is removed.
27995 Printing capabilities are enhanced.
27997 Gnus supports Muttprint natively with @kbd{O P} from the Summary and
27998 Article buffers. Also, each individual @acronym{MIME} part can be
27999 printed using @kbd{p} on the @acronym{MIME} button.
28002 Extended format specs.
28004 Format spec @samp{%&user-date;} is added into
28005 @code{gnus-summary-line-format-alist}. Also, user defined extended
28006 format specs are supported. The extended format specs look like
28007 @samp{%u&foo;}, which invokes function
28008 @code{gnus-user-format-function-@var{foo}}. Because @samp{&} is used as the
28009 escape character, old user defined format @samp{%u&} is no longer supported.
28012 @kbd{/ *} (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-cached}) is rewritten.
28013 @c FIXME: Was this a user-visible change?
28015 It was aliased to @kbd{Y c}
28016 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles}). The new function filters
28017 out other articles.
28020 Some limiting commands accept a @kbd{C-u} prefix to negate the match.
28022 If @kbd{C-u} is used on subject, author or extra headers, i.e., @kbd{/
28023 s}, @kbd{/ a}, and @kbd{/ x}
28024 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-@{subject,author,extra@}}) respectively, the
28025 result will be to display all articles that do not match the expression.
28028 Gnus inlines external parts (message/external).
28032 @item Changes in Message mode and related Gnus features
28033 @c ****************************************************
28040 You can delay the sending of a message with @kbd{C-c C-j} in the Message
28041 buffer. The messages are delivered at specified time. This is useful
28042 for sending yourself reminders. @xref{Delayed Articles}.
28045 If the new option @code{nnml-use-compressed-files} is non-@code{nil},
28046 the nnml back end allows compressed message files.
28049 The new option @code{gnus-gcc-mark-as-read} automatically marks
28050 Gcc articles as read.
28053 Externalizing of attachments
28055 If @code{gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments} or
28056 @code{message-fcc-externalize-attachments} is non-@code{nil}, attach
28057 local files as external parts.
28060 The envelope sender address can be customized when using Sendmail.
28061 @xref{Mail Variables, Mail Variables,, message, Message Manual}.
28064 Gnus no longer generate the Sender: header automatically.
28066 Earlier it was generated when the user configurable email address was
28067 different from the Gnus guessed default user address. As the guessing
28068 algorithm is rarely correct these days, and (more controversially) the
28069 only use of the Sender: header was to check if you are entitled to
28070 cancel/supersede news (which is now solved by Cancel Locks instead,
28071 see another entry), generation of the header has been disabled by
28072 default. See the variables @code{message-required-headers},
28073 @code{message-required-news-headers}, and
28074 @code{message-required-mail-headers}.
28077 Features from third party @file{message-utils.el} added to @file{message.el}.
28079 Message now asks if you wish to remove @samp{(was: <old subject>)} from
28080 subject lines (see @code{message-subject-trailing-was-query}). @kbd{C-c
28081 M-m} and @kbd{C-c M-f} inserts markers indicating included text.
28082 @kbd{C-c C-f a} adds a X-No-Archive: header. @kbd{C-c C-f x} inserts
28083 appropriate headers and a note in the body for cross-postings and
28084 followups (see the variables @code{message-cross-post-@var{*}}).
28087 References and X-Draft-From headers are no longer generated when you
28088 start composing messages and @code{message-generate-headers-first} is
28092 Easy inclusion of X-Faces headers. @xref{X-Face}.
28095 Group Carbon Copy (GCC) quoting
28097 To support groups that contains SPC and other weird characters, groups
28098 are quoted before they are placed in the Gcc: header. This means
28099 variables such as @code{gnus-message-archive-group} should no longer
28100 contain quote characters to make groups containing SPC work. Also, if
28101 you are using the string @samp{nnml:foo, nnml:bar} (indicating Gcc
28102 into two groups) you must change it to return the list
28103 @code{("nnml:foo" "nnml:bar")}, otherwise the Gcc: line will be quoted
28104 incorrectly. Note that returning the string @samp{nnml:foo, nnml:bar}
28105 was incorrect earlier, it just didn't generate any problems since it
28106 was inserted directly.
28109 @code{message-insinuate-rmail}
28111 @c FIXME should that not be 'message-user-agent?
28112 Adding @code{(message-insinuate-rmail)} and @code{(setq
28113 mail-user-agent 'gnus-user-agent)} in @file{.emacs} convinces Rmail to
28114 compose, reply and forward messages in message-mode, where you can
28115 enjoy the power of @acronym{MML}.
28118 @code{message-minibuffer-local-map}
28120 The line below enables BBDB in resending a message:
28122 (define-key message-minibuffer-local-map [(tab)]
28123 'bbdb-complete-name)
28127 @code{gnus-posting-styles}
28129 Add a new format of match like
28131 ((header "to" "larsi.*org")
28132 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
28134 The old format like the lines below is obsolete, but still accepted.
28136 (header "to" "larsi.*org"
28137 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
28141 @code{message-ignored-news-headers} and @code{message-ignored-mail-headers}
28143 @samp{X-Draft-From} and @samp{X-Gnus-Agent-Meta-Information} have been
28144 added into these two variables. If you customized those, perhaps you
28145 need add those two headers too.
28148 Gnus supports the ``format=flowed'' (RFC 2646) parameter. On
28149 composing messages, it is enabled by @code{use-hard-newlines}.
28150 Decoding format=flowed was present but not documented in earlier
28154 The option @code{mm-fill-flowed} can be used to disable treatment of
28155 ``format=flowed'' messages. Also, flowed text is disabled when sending
28156 inline PGP signed messages. @xref{Flowed text, , Flowed text,
28157 emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME Manual}. (New in Gnus 5.10.7)
28158 @c This entry is also present in the node "No Gnus".
28161 Gnus supports the generation of RFC 2298 Disposition Notification requests.
28163 This is invoked with the @kbd{C-c M-n} key binding from message mode.
28166 Message supports the Importance: (RFC 2156) header.
28168 In the message buffer, @kbd{C-c C-f C-i} or @kbd{C-c C-u} cycles through
28172 Gnus supports Cancel Locks in News.
28174 This means a header @samp{Cancel-Lock} is inserted in news posting. It is
28175 used to determine if you wrote an article or not (for canceling and
28176 superseding). Gnus generates a random password string the first time
28177 you post a message, and saves it in your @file{~/.emacs} using the Custom
28178 system. While the variable is called @code{canlock-password}, it is not
28179 security sensitive data. Publishing your canlock string on the web
28180 will not allow anyone to be able to anything she could not already do.
28181 The behavior can be changed by customizing @code{message-insert-canlock}.
28184 Gnus supports @acronym{PGP} (RFC 1991/2440), @acronym{PGP/MIME} (RFC
28185 2015/3156) and @acronym{S/MIME} (RFC 2630--2633).
28187 It needs an external @acronym{S/MIME} and OpenPGP implementation, but no
28188 additional Lisp libraries. This add several menu items to the
28189 Attachments menu, and @kbd{C-c RET} key bindings, when composing
28190 messages. This also obsoletes @code{gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook}.
28193 @acronym{MML} (Mime compose) prefix changed from @kbd{M-m} to @kbd{C-c
28196 This change was made to avoid conflict with the standard binding of
28197 @code{back-to-indentation}, which is also useful in message mode.
28200 The default for @code{message-forward-show-mml} changed to the symbol
28203 The behavior for the @code{best} value is to show @acronym{MML} (i.e.,
28204 convert to @acronym{MIME}) when appropriate. @acronym{MML} will not be
28205 used when forwarding signed or encrypted messages, as the conversion
28206 invalidate the digital signature.
28209 If @code{auto-compression-mode} is enabled, attachments are automatically
28210 decompressed when activated.
28211 @c FIXME: Does this affect article or message mode?
28214 Support for non-@acronym{ASCII} domain names
28216 Message supports non-@acronym{ASCII} domain names in From:, To: and
28217 Cc: and will query you whether to perform encoding when you try to
28218 send a message. The variable @code{message-use-idna} controls this.
28219 Gnus will also decode non-@acronym{ASCII} domain names in From:, To:
28220 and Cc: when you view a message. The variable @code{gnus-use-idna}
28223 @item You can now drag and drop attachments to the Message buffer.
28224 See @code{mml-dnd-protocol-alist} and @code{mml-dnd-attach-options}.
28225 @xref{MIME, ,MIME, message, Message Manual}.
28226 @c New in 5.10.9 / 5.11 (Emacs 22.1)
28228 @item @code{auto-fill-mode} is enabled by default in Message mode.
28229 See @code{message-fill-column}. @xref{Various Message Variables, ,
28230 Message Headers, message, Message Manual}.
28231 @c New in Gnus 5.10.12 / 5.11 (Emacs 22.3)
28235 @item Changes in back ends
28236 @c ***********************
28240 Gnus can display RSS newsfeeds as a newsgroup. @xref{RSS}.
28243 The nndoc back end now supports mailman digests and exim bounces.
28246 Gnus supports Maildir groups.
28248 Gnus includes a new back end @file{nnmaildir.el}. @xref{Maildir}.
28251 The nnml and nnfolder back ends store marks for each groups.
28253 This makes it possible to take backup of nnml/nnfolder servers/groups
28254 separately of @file{~/.newsrc.eld}, while preserving marks. It also
28255 makes it possible to share articles and marks between users (without
28256 sharing the @file{~/.newsrc.eld} file) within, e.g., a department. It
28257 works by storing the marks stored in @file{~/.newsrc.eld} in a per-group
28258 file @file{.marks} (for nnml) and @file{@var{groupname}.mrk} (for
28259 nnfolder, named @var{groupname}). If the nnml/nnfolder is moved to
28260 another machine, Gnus will automatically use the @file{.marks} or
28261 @file{.mrk} file instead of the information in @file{~/.newsrc.eld}.
28262 The new server variables @code{nnml-marks-is-evil} and
28263 @code{nnfolder-marks-is-evil} can be used to disable this feature.
28273 The menu bar item (in Group and Summary buffer) named ``Misc'' has
28274 been renamed to ``Gnus''.
28277 The menu bar item (in Message mode) named ``@acronym{MML}'' has been
28278 renamed to ``Attachments''. Note that this menu also contains security
28279 related stuff, like signing and encryption (@pxref{Security, Security,,
28280 message, Message Manual}).
28283 The tool bars have been updated to use GNOME icons in Group, Summary and
28284 Message mode. You can also customize the tool bars: @kbd{M-x
28285 customize-apropos RET -tool-bar$} should get you started. This is a new
28286 feature in Gnus 5.10.10. (Only for Emacs, not in XEmacs.)
28288 @item The tool bar icons are now (de)activated correctly
28289 in the group buffer, see the variable @code{gnus-group-update-tool-bar}.
28290 Its default value depends on your Emacs version. This is a new feature
28295 @item Miscellaneous changes
28296 @c ************************
28303 The Gnus Agent has seen a major updated and is now enabled by default,
28304 and all nntp and nnimap servers from @code{gnus-select-method} and
28305 @code{gnus-secondary-select-method} are agentized by default. Earlier
28306 only the server in @code{gnus-select-method} was agentized by the
28307 default, and the agent was disabled by default. When the agent is
28308 enabled, headers are now also retrieved from the Agent cache instead
28309 of the back ends when possible. Earlier this only happened in the
28310 unplugged state. You can enroll or remove servers with @kbd{J a} and
28311 @kbd{J r} in the server buffer. Gnus will not download articles into
28312 the Agent cache, unless you instruct it to do so, though, by using
28313 @kbd{J u} or @kbd{J s} from the Group buffer. You revert to the old
28314 behavior of having the Agent disabled with @code{(setq gnus-agent
28315 nil)}. Note that putting @code{(gnus-agentize)} in @file{~/.gnus.el}
28316 is not needed any more.
28319 Gnus reads the @acronym{NOV} and articles in the Agent if plugged.
28321 If one reads an article while plugged, and the article already exists
28322 in the Agent, it won't get downloaded once more. @code{(setq
28323 gnus-agent-cache nil)} reverts to the old behavior.
28328 @code{gnus-dired-minor-mode} (see @ref{Other modes}) installs key
28329 bindings in dired buffers to send a file as an attachment, open a file
28330 using the appropriate mailcap entry, and print a file using the mailcap
28334 The format spec @code{%C} for positioning point has changed to @code{%*}.
28337 @code{gnus-slave-unplugged}
28339 A new command which starts Gnus offline in slave mode.
28346 @subsubsection No Gnus
28349 New features in No Gnus:
28350 @c FIXME: Gnus 5.12?
28352 @include gnus-news.texi
28355 @subsubsection Ma Gnus
28358 I'm sure there will be lots of text here. It's really spelled 真
28361 New features in Ma Gnus:
28365 @item Changes in Message mode and related Gnus features
28366 @c ****************************************************
28371 The new hooks @code{gnus-gcc-pre-body-encode-hook} and
28372 @code{gnus-gcc-post-body-encode-hook} are run before/after encoding
28373 the message body of the Gcc copy of a sent message. See
28374 @xref{Archived Messages}.
28384 @section The Manual
28388 This manual was generated from a TeXinfo file and then run through
28389 either @code{texi2dvi}
28391 or my own home-brewed TeXinfo to \LaTeX\ transformer,
28392 and then run through @code{latex} and @code{dvips}
28394 to get what you hold in your hands now.
28396 The following conventions have been used:
28401 This is a @samp{string}
28404 This is a @kbd{keystroke}
28407 This is a @file{file}
28410 This is a @code{symbol}
28414 So if I were to say ``set @code{flargnoze} to @samp{yes}'', that would
28418 (setq flargnoze "yes")
28421 If I say ``set @code{flumphel} to @code{yes}'', that would mean:
28424 (setq flumphel 'yes)
28427 @samp{yes} and @code{yes} are two @emph{very} different things---don't
28428 ever get them confused.
28432 Of course, everything in this manual is of vital interest, so you should
28433 read it all. Several times. However, if you feel like skimming the
28434 manual, look for that gnu head you should see in the margin over
28435 there---it means that what's being discussed is of more importance than
28436 the rest of the stuff. (On the other hand, if everything is infinitely
28437 important, how can anything be more important than that? Just one more
28438 of the mysteries of this world, I guess.)
28444 @node On Writing Manuals
28445 @section On Writing Manuals
28447 I guess most manuals are written after-the-fact; documenting a program
28448 that's already there. This is not how this manual is written. When
28449 implementing something, I write the manual entry for that something
28450 straight away. I then see that it's difficult to explain the
28451 functionality, so I write how it's supposed to be, and then I change the
28452 implementation. Writing the documentation and writing the code go hand
28455 This, of course, means that this manual has no, or little, flow. It
28456 documents absolutely everything in Gnus, but often not where you're
28457 looking for it. It is a reference manual, and not a guide to how to get
28460 That would be a totally different book, that should be written using the
28461 reference manual as source material. It would look quite different.
28466 @section Terminology
28468 @cindex terminology
28473 This is what you are supposed to use this thing for---reading news.
28474 News is generally fetched from a nearby @acronym{NNTP} server, and is
28475 generally publicly available to everybody. If you post news, the entire
28476 world is likely to read just what you have written, and they'll all
28477 snigger mischievously. Behind your back.
28481 Everything that's delivered to you personally is mail. Some news/mail
28482 readers (like Gnus) blur the distinction between mail and news, but
28483 there is a difference. Mail is private. News is public. Mailing is
28484 not posting, and replying is not following up.
28488 Send a mail to the person who has written what you are reading.
28492 Post an article to the current newsgroup responding to the article you
28497 Gnus considers mail and news to be mostly the same, really. The only
28498 difference is how to access the actual articles. News articles are
28499 commonly fetched via the protocol @acronym{NNTP}, whereas mail
28500 messages could be read from a file on the local disk. The internal
28501 architecture of Gnus thus comprises a ``front end'' and a number of
28502 ``back ends''. Internally, when you enter a group (by hitting
28503 @key{RET}, say), you thereby invoke a function in the front end in
28504 Gnus. The front end then ``talks'' to a back end and says things like
28505 ``Give me the list of articles in the foo group'' or ``Show me article
28508 So a back end mainly defines either a protocol (the @code{nntp} back
28509 end accesses news via @acronym{NNTP}, the @code{nnimap} back end
28510 accesses mail via @acronym{IMAP}) or a file format and directory
28511 layout (the @code{nnspool} back end accesses news via the common
28512 ``spool directory'' format, the @code{nnml} back end access mail via a
28513 file format and directory layout that's quite similar).
28515 Gnus does not handle the underlying media, so to speak---this is all
28516 done by the back ends. A back end is a collection of functions to
28517 access the articles.
28519 However, sometimes the term ``back end'' is also used where ``server''
28520 would have been more appropriate. And then there is the term ``select
28521 method'' which can mean either. The Gnus terminology can be quite
28526 Gnus will always use one method (and back end) as the @dfn{native}, or
28527 default, way of getting news. Groups from the native select method
28528 have names like @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}.
28532 You can also have any number of foreign groups active at the same
28533 time. These are groups that use non-native non-secondary back ends
28534 for getting news. Foreign groups have names like
28535 @samp{nntp+news.gmane.org:gmane.emacs.gnus.devel}.
28539 Secondary back ends are somewhere half-way between being native and
28540 being foreign, but they mostly act like they are native, but they, too
28541 have names like @samp{nntp+news.gmane.org:gmane.emacs.gnus.devel}.
28545 A message that has been posted as news.
28548 @cindex mail message
28549 A message that has been mailed.
28553 A mail message or news article
28557 The top part of a message, where administrative information (etc.)@: is
28562 The rest of an article. Everything not in the head is in the
28567 A line from the head of an article.
28571 A collection of such lines, or a collection of heads. Or even a
28572 collection of @acronym{NOV} lines.
28574 @item @acronym{NOV}
28575 @cindex @acronym{NOV}
28576 @acronym{NOV} stands for News OverView, which is a type of news server
28577 header which provide datas containing the condensed header information
28578 of articles. They are produced by the server itself; in the @code{nntp}
28579 back end Gnus uses the ones that the @acronym{NNTP} server makes, but
28580 Gnus makes them by itself for some backends (in particular, @code{nnml}).
28582 When Gnus enters a group, it asks the back end for the headers of all
28583 unread articles in the group. Most servers support the News OverView
28584 format, which is more compact and much faster to read and parse than the
28585 normal @sc{head} format.
28587 The @acronym{NOV} data consist of one or more text lines (@pxref{Text
28588 Lines, ,Motion by Text Lines, elisp, The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual})
28589 where each line has the header information of one article. The header
28590 information is a tab-separated series of the header's contents including
28591 an article number, a subject, an author, a date, a message-id,
28594 Those data enable Gnus to generate summary lines quickly. However, if
28595 the server does not support @acronym{NOV} or you disable it purposely or
28596 for some reason, Gnus will try to generate the header information by
28597 parsing each article's headers one by one. It will take time.
28598 Therefore, it is not usually a good idea to set nn*-nov-is-evil
28599 (@pxref{Slow/Expensive Connection}) to a non-@code{nil} value unless you
28600 know that the server makes wrong @acronym{NOV} data.
28604 Each group is subscribed at some @dfn{level} or other (1--9). The ones
28605 that have a lower level are ``more'' subscribed than the groups with a
28606 higher level. In fact, groups on levels 1--5 are considered
28607 @dfn{subscribed}; 6--7 are @dfn{unsubscribed}; 8 are @dfn{zombies}; and 9
28608 are @dfn{killed}. Commands for listing groups and scanning for new
28609 articles will all use the numeric prefix as @dfn{working level}.
28611 @item killed groups
28612 @cindex killed groups
28613 No information on killed groups is stored or updated, which makes killed
28614 groups much easier to handle than subscribed groups.
28616 @item zombie groups
28617 @cindex zombie groups
28618 Just like killed groups, only slightly less dead.
28621 @cindex active file
28622 The news server has to keep track of what articles it carries, and what
28623 groups exist. All this information in stored in the active file, which
28624 is rather large, as you might surmise.
28627 @cindex bogus groups
28628 A group that exists in the @file{.newsrc} file, but isn't known to the
28629 server (i.e., it isn't in the active file), is a @emph{bogus group}.
28630 This means that the group probably doesn't exist (any more).
28633 @cindex activating groups
28634 The act of asking the server for info on a group and computing the
28635 number of unread articles is called @dfn{activating the group}.
28636 Un-activated groups are listed with @samp{*} in the group buffer.
28640 News servers store their articles locally in one fashion or other.
28641 One old-fashioned storage method is to have just one file per
28642 article. That's called a ``traditional spool''.
28646 A machine one can connect to and get news (or mail) from.
28648 @item select method
28649 @cindex select method
28650 A structure that specifies the back end, the server and the virtual
28653 @item virtual server
28654 @cindex virtual server
28655 A named select method. Since a select method defines all there is to
28656 know about connecting to a (physical) server, taking the thing as a
28657 whole is a virtual server.
28661 Taking a buffer and running it through a filter of some sort. The
28662 result will (more often than not) be cleaner and more pleasing than the
28665 @item ephemeral groups
28666 @cindex ephemeral groups
28667 @cindex temporary groups
28668 Most groups store data on what articles you have read. @dfn{Ephemeral}
28669 groups are groups that will have no data stored---when you exit the
28670 group, it'll disappear into the aether.
28673 @cindex solid groups
28674 This is the opposite of ephemeral groups. All groups listed in the
28675 group buffer are solid groups.
28677 @item sparse articles
28678 @cindex sparse articles
28679 These are article placeholders shown in the summary buffer when
28680 @code{gnus-build-sparse-threads} has been switched on.
28684 To put responses to articles directly after the articles they respond
28685 to---in a hierarchical fashion.
28689 @cindex thread root
28690 The first article in a thread is the root. It is the ancestor of all
28691 articles in the thread.
28695 An article that has responses.
28699 An article that responds to a different article---its parent.
28703 A collection of messages in one file. The most common digest format is
28704 specified by RFC 1153.
28707 @cindex splitting, terminology
28708 @cindex mail sorting
28709 @cindex mail filtering (splitting)
28710 The action of sorting your emails according to certain rules. Sometimes
28711 incorrectly called mail filtering.
28717 @node Customization
28718 @section Customization
28719 @cindex general customization
28721 All variables are properly documented elsewhere in this manual. This
28722 section is designed to give general pointers on how to customize Gnus
28723 for some quite common situations.
28726 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
28727 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
28728 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
28729 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
28733 @node Slow/Expensive Connection
28734 @subsection Slow/Expensive Connection
28736 If you run Emacs on a machine locally, and get your news from a machine
28737 over some very thin strings, you want to cut down on the amount of data
28738 Gnus has to get from the server.
28742 @item gnus-read-active-file
28743 Set this to @code{nil}, which will inhibit Gnus from requesting the
28744 entire active file from the server. This file is often very large. You
28745 also have to set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
28746 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make sure that Gnus
28747 doesn't suddenly decide to fetch the active file anyway.
28749 @item gnus-nov-is-evil
28750 @vindex gnus-nov-is-evil
28751 Usually this one must @emph{always} be @code{nil} (which is the
28752 default). If, for example, you wish to not use @acronym{NOV}
28753 (@pxref{Terminology}) with the @code{nntp} back end (@pxref{Crosspost
28754 Handling}), set @code{nntp-nov-is-evil} to a non-@code{nil} value
28755 instead of setting this. But you normally do not need to set
28756 @code{nntp-nov-is-evil} since Gnus by itself will detect whether the
28757 @acronym{NNTP} server supports @acronym{NOV}. Anyway, grabbing article
28758 headers from the @acronym{NNTP} server will not be very fast if you tell
28759 Gnus not to use @acronym{NOV}.
28761 As the variables for the other back ends, there are
28762 @code{nndiary-nov-is-evil}, @code{nndir-nov-is-evil},
28763 @code{nnfolder-nov-is-evil}, @code{nnimap-nov-is-evil},
28764 @code{nnml-nov-is-evil}, and @code{nnspool-nov-is-evil}. Note that a
28765 non-@code{nil} value for @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} overrides all those
28770 @node Slow Terminal Connection
28771 @subsection Slow Terminal Connection
28773 Let's say you use your home computer for dialing up the system that runs
28774 Emacs and Gnus. If your modem is slow, you want to reduce (as much as
28775 possible) the amount of data sent over the wires.
28779 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
28780 Set this to @code{nil} to inhibit Gnus from re-centering the summary
28781 buffer all the time. If it is @code{vertical}, do only vertical
28782 re-centering. If it is neither @code{nil} nor @code{vertical}, do both
28783 horizontal and vertical recentering.
28785 @item gnus-visible-headers
28786 Cut down on the headers included in the articles to the
28787 minimum. You can, in fact, make do without them altogether---most of the
28788 useful data is in the summary buffer, anyway. Set this variable to
28789 @samp{^NEVVVVER} or @samp{From:}, or whatever you feel you need.
28791 Use the following to enable all the available hiding features:
28793 (setq gnus-treat-hide-headers 'head
28794 gnus-treat-hide-signature t
28795 gnus-treat-hide-citation t)
28798 @item gnus-use-full-window
28799 By setting this to @code{nil}, you can make all the windows smaller.
28800 While this doesn't really cut down much generally, it means that you
28801 have to see smaller portions of articles before deciding that you didn't
28802 want to read them anyway.
28804 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
28805 If this is non-@code{nil}, all threads in the summary buffer will be
28809 @item gnus-updated-mode-lines
28810 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not put information in the buffer mode
28811 lines, which might save some time.
28815 @node Little Disk Space
28816 @subsection Little Disk Space
28819 The startup files can get rather large, so you may want to cut their
28820 sizes a bit if you are running out of space.
28824 @item gnus-save-newsrc-file
28825 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never save @file{.newsrc}---it will
28826 only save @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
28827 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
28830 @item gnus-read-newsrc-file
28831 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never read @file{.newsrc}---it will
28832 only read @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
28833 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
28836 @item gnus-save-killed-list
28837 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not save the list of dead groups. You
28838 should also set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{ask-server}
28839 and @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} if you set this
28840 variable to @code{nil}. This variable is @code{t} by default.
28846 @subsection Slow Machine
28847 @cindex slow machine
28849 If you have a slow machine, or are just really impatient, there are a
28850 few things you can do to make Gnus run faster.
28852 Set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
28853 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make startup faster.
28855 Set @code{gnus-show-threads}, @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} and
28856 @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{nil} to make entering and exiting the
28857 summary buffer faster. Also @pxref{Slow/Expensive Connection}.
28861 @node Troubleshooting
28862 @section Troubleshooting
28863 @cindex troubleshooting
28865 Gnus works @emph{so} well straight out of the box---I can't imagine any
28873 Make sure your computer is switched on.
28876 Make sure that you really load the current Gnus version. If you have
28877 been running @sc{gnus}, you need to exit Emacs and start it up again before
28881 Try doing an @kbd{M-x gnus-version}. If you get something that looks
28883 @samp{Ma Gnus v0.8} @c Adjust ../Makefile.in if you change this line!
28885 you have the right files loaded. Otherwise you have some old @file{.el}
28886 files lying around. Delete these.
28889 Read the help group (@kbd{G h} in the group buffer) for a
28890 @acronym{FAQ} and a how-to.
28893 @vindex max-lisp-eval-depth
28894 Gnus works on many recursive structures, and in some extreme (and very
28895 rare) cases Gnus may recurse down ``too deeply'' and Emacs will beep at
28896 you. If this happens to you, set @code{max-lisp-eval-depth} to 500 or
28897 something like that.
28900 If all else fails, report the problem as a bug.
28903 @cindex reporting bugs
28905 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
28907 If you find a bug in Gnus, you can report it with the @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}
28908 command. @kbd{M-x set-variable RET debug-on-error RET t RET}, and send
28909 me the backtrace. I will fix bugs, but I can only fix them if you send
28910 me a precise description as to how to reproduce the bug.
28912 You really can never be too detailed in a bug report. Always use the
28913 @kbd{M-x gnus-bug} command when you make bug reports, even if it creates
28914 a 10Kb mail each time you use it, and even if you have sent me your
28915 environment 500 times before. I don't care. I want the full info each
28918 It is also important to remember that I have no memory whatsoever. If
28919 you send a bug report, and I send you a reply, and then you just send
28920 back ``No, it's not! Moron!'', I will have no idea what you are
28921 insulting me about. Always over-explain everything. It's much easier
28922 for all of us---if I don't have all the information I need, I will just
28923 mail you and ask for more info, and everything takes more time.
28925 If the problem you're seeing is very visual, and you can't quite explain
28926 it, copy the Emacs window to a file (with @code{xwd}, for instance), put
28927 it somewhere it can be reached, and include the URL of the picture in
28931 If you would like to contribute a patch to fix bugs or make
28932 improvements, please produce the patch using @samp{diff -u}.
28935 If you want to debug your problem further before reporting, possibly
28936 in order to solve the problem yourself and send a patch, you can use
28937 edebug. Debugging Lisp code is documented in the Elisp manual
28938 (@pxref{Debugging, , Debugging Lisp Programs, elisp, The GNU Emacs
28939 Lisp Reference Manual}). To get you started with edebug, consider if
28940 you discover some weird behavior when pressing @kbd{c}, the first
28941 step is to do @kbd{C-h k c} and click on the hyperlink (Emacs only) in
28942 the documentation buffer that leads you to the function definition,
28943 then press @kbd{M-x edebug-defun RET} with point inside that function,
28944 return to Gnus and press @kbd{c} to invoke the code. You will be
28945 placed in the lisp buffer and can single step using @kbd{SPC} and
28946 evaluate expressions using @kbd{M-:} or inspect variables using
28947 @kbd{C-h v}, abort execution with @kbd{q}, and resume execution with
28948 @kbd{c} or @kbd{g}.
28953 Sometimes, a problem do not directly generate an elisp error but
28954 manifests itself by causing Gnus to be very slow. In these cases, you
28955 can use @kbd{M-x toggle-debug-on-quit} and press @kbd{C-g} when things are
28956 slow, and then try to analyze the backtrace (repeating the procedure
28957 helps isolating the real problem areas).
28959 A fancier approach is to use the elisp profiler, ELP@. The profiler is
28960 (or should be) fully documented elsewhere, but to get you started
28961 there are a few steps that need to be followed. First, instrument the
28962 part of Gnus you are interested in for profiling, e.g., @kbd{M-x
28963 elp-instrument-package RET gnus} or @kbd{M-x elp-instrument-package
28964 RET message}. Then perform the operation that is slow and press
28965 @kbd{M-x elp-results}. You will then see which operations that takes
28966 time, and can debug them further. If the entire operation takes much
28967 longer than the time spent in the slowest function in the profiler
28968 output, you probably profiled the wrong part of Gnus. To reset
28969 profiling statistics, use @kbd{M-x elp-reset-all}. @kbd{M-x
28970 elp-restore-all} is supposed to remove profiling, but given the
28971 complexities and dynamic code generation in Gnus, it might not always
28974 @cindex gnu.emacs.gnus
28975 @cindex ding mailing list
28976 If you just need help, you are better off asking on
28977 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}. I'm not very helpful. You can also ask on
28978 @email{ding@@gnus.org, the ding mailing list}. Write to
28979 @email{ding-request@@gnus.org} to subscribe.
28983 @node Gnus Reference Guide
28984 @section Gnus Reference Guide
28986 It is my hope that other people will figure out smart stuff that Gnus
28987 can do, and that other people will write those smart things as well. To
28988 facilitate that I thought it would be a good idea to describe the inner
28989 workings of Gnus. And some of the not-so-inner workings, while I'm at
28992 You can never expect the internals of a program not to change, but I
28993 will be defining (in some details) the interface between Gnus and its
28994 back ends (this is written in stone), the format of the score files
28995 (ditto), data structures (some are less likely to change than others)
28996 and general methods of operation.
28999 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
29000 * Back End Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
29001 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
29002 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
29003 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
29004 * Group Info:: The group info format.
29005 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
29006 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
29007 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
29011 @node Gnus Utility Functions
29012 @subsection Gnus Utility Functions
29013 @cindex Gnus utility functions
29014 @cindex utility functions
29016 @cindex internal variables
29018 When writing small functions to be run from hooks (and stuff), it's
29019 vital to have access to the Gnus internal functions and variables.
29020 Below is a list of the most common ones.
29024 @item gnus-newsgroup-name
29025 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-name
29026 This variable holds the name of the current newsgroup.
29028 @item gnus-find-method-for-group
29029 @findex gnus-find-method-for-group
29030 A function that returns the select method for @var{group}.
29032 @item gnus-group-real-name
29033 @findex gnus-group-real-name
29034 Takes a full (prefixed) Gnus group name, and returns the unprefixed
29037 @item gnus-group-prefixed-name
29038 @findex gnus-group-prefixed-name
29039 Takes an unprefixed group name and a select method, and returns the full
29040 (prefixed) Gnus group name.
29042 @item gnus-get-info
29043 @findex gnus-get-info
29044 Returns the group info list for @var{group} (@pxref{Group Info}).
29046 @item gnus-group-unread
29047 @findex gnus-group-unread
29048 The number of unread articles in @var{group}, or @code{t} if that is
29052 @findex gnus-active
29053 The active entry (i.e., a cons cell containing the lowest and highest
29054 article numbers) for @var{group}.
29056 @item gnus-set-active
29057 @findex gnus-set-active
29058 Set the active entry for @var{group}.
29060 @item gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
29061 @findex gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
29062 Adds the current buffer to the list of buffers to be killed on Gnus
29065 @item gnus-continuum-version
29066 @findex gnus-continuum-version
29067 Takes a Gnus version string as a parameter and returns a floating point
29068 number. Earlier versions will always get a lower number than later
29071 @item gnus-group-read-only-p
29072 @findex gnus-group-read-only-p
29073 Says whether @var{group} is read-only or not.
29075 @item gnus-news-group-p
29076 @findex gnus-news-group-p
29077 Says whether @var{group} came from a news back end.
29079 @item gnus-ephemeral-group-p
29080 @findex gnus-ephemeral-group-p
29081 Says whether @var{group} is ephemeral or not.
29083 @item gnus-server-to-method
29084 @findex gnus-server-to-method
29085 Returns the select method corresponding to @var{server}.
29087 @item gnus-server-equal
29088 @findex gnus-server-equal
29089 Says whether two virtual servers are essentially equal. For instance,
29090 two virtual servers may have server parameters in different order, but
29091 this function will consider them equal.
29093 @item gnus-group-native-p
29094 @findex gnus-group-native-p
29095 Says whether @var{group} is native or not.
29097 @item gnus-group-secondary-p
29098 @findex gnus-group-secondary-p
29099 Says whether @var{group} is secondary or not.
29101 @item gnus-group-foreign-p
29102 @findex gnus-group-foreign-p
29103 Says whether @var{group} is foreign or not.
29105 @item gnus-group-find-parameter
29106 @findex gnus-group-find-parameter
29107 Returns the parameter list of @var{group} (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
29108 If given a second parameter, returns the value of that parameter for
29111 @item gnus-group-set-parameter
29112 @findex gnus-group-set-parameter
29113 Takes three parameters; @var{group}, @var{parameter} and @var{value}.
29115 @item gnus-narrow-to-body
29116 @findex gnus-narrow-to-body
29117 Narrows the current buffer to the body of the article.
29119 @item gnus-check-backend-function
29120 @findex gnus-check-backend-function
29121 Takes two parameters, @var{function} and @var{group}. If the back end
29122 @var{group} comes from supports @var{function}, return non-@code{nil}.
29125 (gnus-check-backend-function "request-scan" "nnml:misc")
29129 @item gnus-read-method
29130 @findex gnus-read-method
29131 Prompts the user for a select method.
29136 @node Back End Interface
29137 @subsection Back End Interface
29139 Gnus doesn't know anything about @acronym{NNTP}, spools, mail or virtual
29140 groups. It only knows how to talk to @dfn{virtual servers}. A virtual
29141 server is a @dfn{back end} and some @dfn{back end variables}. As examples
29142 of the first, we have @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool} and @code{nnmbox}. As
29143 examples of the latter we have @code{nntp-port-number} and
29144 @code{nnmbox-directory}.
29146 When Gnus asks for information from a back end---say @code{nntp}---on
29147 something, it will normally include a virtual server name in the
29148 function parameters. (If not, the back end should use the ``current''
29149 virtual server.) For instance, @code{nntp-request-list} takes a virtual
29150 server as its only (optional) parameter. If this virtual server hasn't
29151 been opened, the function should fail.
29153 Note that a virtual server name has no relation to some physical server
29154 name. Take this example:
29158 (nntp-address "ifi.uio.no")
29159 (nntp-port-number 4324))
29162 Here the virtual server name is @samp{odd-one} while the name of
29163 the physical server is @samp{ifi.uio.no}.
29165 The back ends should be able to switch between several virtual servers.
29166 The standard back ends implement this by keeping an alist of virtual
29167 server environments that they pull down/push up when needed.
29169 There are two groups of interface functions: @dfn{required functions},
29170 which must be present, and @dfn{optional functions}, which Gnus will
29171 always check for presence before attempting to call 'em.
29173 All these functions are expected to return data in the buffer
29174 @code{nntp-server-buffer} (@samp{ *nntpd*}), which is somewhat
29175 unfortunately named, but we'll have to live with it. When I talk about
29176 @dfn{resulting data}, I always refer to the data in that buffer. When I
29177 talk about @dfn{return value}, I talk about the function value returned by
29178 the function call. Functions that fail should return @code{nil} as the
29181 Some back ends could be said to be @dfn{server-forming} back ends, and
29182 some might be said not to be. The latter are back ends that generally
29183 only operate on one group at a time, and have no concept of ``server'';
29184 they have a group, and they deliver info on that group and nothing
29187 Gnus identifies each message by way of group name and article number. A
29188 few remarks about these article numbers might be useful. First of all,
29189 the numbers are positive integers. Secondly, it is normally not
29190 possible for later articles to ``re-use'' older article numbers without
29191 confusing Gnus. That is, if a group has ever contained a message
29192 numbered 42, then no other message may get that number, or Gnus will get
29193 mightily confused.@footnote{See the function
29194 @code{nnchoke-request-update-info}, @ref{Optional Back End Functions}.}
29195 Third, article numbers must be assigned in order of arrival in the
29196 group; this is not necessarily the same as the date of the message.
29198 The previous paragraph already mentions all the ``hard'' restrictions that
29199 article numbers must fulfill. But it seems that it might be useful to
29200 assign @emph{consecutive} article numbers, for Gnus gets quite confused
29201 if there are holes in the article numbering sequence. However, due to
29202 the ``no-reuse'' restriction, holes cannot be avoided altogether. It's
29203 also useful for the article numbers to start at 1 to avoid running out
29204 of numbers as long as possible.
29206 Note that by convention, back ends are named @code{nnsomething}, but
29207 Gnus also comes with some @code{nnnotbackends}, such as
29208 @file{nnheader.el}, @file{nnmail.el} and @file{nnoo.el}.
29210 In the examples and definitions I will refer to the imaginary back end
29213 @cindex @code{nnchoke}
29216 * Required Back End Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
29217 * Optional Back End Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
29218 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
29219 * Writing New Back Ends:: Extending old back ends.
29220 * Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
29221 * Mail-like Back Ends:: Some tips on mail back ends.
29225 @node Required Back End Functions
29226 @subsubsection Required Back End Functions
29230 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-headers ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FETCH-OLD)
29232 @var{articles} is either a range of article numbers or a list of
29233 @code{Message-ID}s. Current back ends do not fully support either---only
29234 sequences (lists) of article numbers, and most back ends do not support
29235 retrieval of @code{Message-ID}s. But they should try for both.
29237 The result data should either be HEADs or @acronym{NOV} lines, and the result
29238 value should either be @code{headers} or @code{nov} to reflect this.
29239 This might later be expanded to @code{various}, which will be a mixture
29240 of HEADs and @acronym{NOV} lines, but this is currently not supported by Gnus.
29242 If @var{fetch-old} is non-@code{nil} it says to try fetching ``extra
29243 headers'', in some meaning of the word. This is generally done by
29244 fetching (at most) @var{fetch-old} extra headers less than the smallest
29245 article number in @code{articles}, and filling the gaps as well. The
29246 presence of this parameter can be ignored if the back end finds it
29247 cumbersome to follow the request. If this is non-@code{nil} and not a
29248 number, do maximum fetches.
29250 Here's an example HEAD:
29253 221 1056 Article retrieved.
29254 Path: ifi.uio.no!sturles
29255 From: sturles@@ifi.uio.no (Sturle Sunde)
29256 Newsgroups: ifi.discussion
29257 Subject: Re: Something very droll
29258 Date: 27 Oct 1994 14:02:57 +0100
29259 Organization: Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
29261 Message-ID: <38o8e1$a0o@@holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no>
29262 References: <38jdmq$4qu@@visbur.ifi.uio.no>
29263 NNTP-Posting-Host: holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no
29267 So a @code{headers} return value would imply that there's a number of
29268 these in the data buffer.
29270 Here's a BNF definition of such a buffer:
29274 head = error / valid-head
29275 error-message = [ "4" / "5" ] 2number " " <error message> eol
29276 valid-head = valid-message *header "." eol
29277 valid-message = "221 " <number> " Article retrieved." eol
29278 header = <text> eol
29282 (The version of BNF used here is the one used in RFC822.)
29284 If the return value is @code{nov}, the data buffer should contain
29285 @dfn{network overview database} lines. These are basically fields
29289 nov-buffer = *nov-line
29290 nov-line = field 7*8[ <TAB> field ] eol
29291 field = <text except TAB>
29294 For a closer look at what should be in those fields,
29298 @item (nnchoke-open-server SERVER &optional DEFINITIONS)
29300 @var{server} is here the virtual server name. @var{definitions} is a
29301 list of @code{(VARIABLE VALUE)} pairs that define this virtual server.
29303 If the server can't be opened, no error should be signaled. The back end
29304 may then choose to refuse further attempts at connecting to this
29305 server. In fact, it should do so.
29307 If the server is opened already, this function should return a
29308 non-@code{nil} value. There should be no data returned.
29311 @item (nnchoke-close-server &optional SERVER)
29313 Close connection to @var{server} and free all resources connected
29314 to it. Return @code{nil} if the server couldn't be closed for some
29317 There should be no data returned.
29320 @item (nnchoke-request-close)
29322 Close connection to all servers and free all resources that the back end
29323 have reserved. All buffers that have been created by that back end
29324 should be killed. (Not the @code{nntp-server-buffer}, though.) This
29325 function is generally only called when Gnus is shutting down.
29327 There should be no data returned.
29330 @item (nnchoke-server-opened &optional SERVER)
29332 If @var{server} is the current virtual server, and the connection to the
29333 physical server is alive, then this function should return a
29334 non-@code{nil} value. This function should under no circumstances
29335 attempt to reconnect to a server we have lost connection to.
29337 There should be no data returned.
29340 @item (nnchoke-status-message &optional SERVER)
29342 This function should return the last error message from @var{server}.
29344 There should be no data returned.
29347 @item (nnchoke-request-article ARTICLE &optional GROUP SERVER TO-BUFFER)
29349 The result data from this function should be the article specified by
29350 @var{article}. This might either be a @code{Message-ID} or a number.
29351 It is optional whether to implement retrieval by @code{Message-ID}, but
29352 it would be nice if that were possible.
29354 If @var{to-buffer} is non-@code{nil}, the result data should be returned
29355 in this buffer instead of the normal data buffer. This is to make it
29356 possible to avoid copying large amounts of data from one buffer to
29357 another, while Gnus mainly requests articles to be inserted directly
29358 into its article buffer.
29360 If it is at all possible, this function should return a cons cell where
29361 the @code{car} is the group name the article was fetched from, and the @code{cdr} is
29362 the article number. This will enable Gnus to find out what the real
29363 group and article numbers are when fetching articles by
29364 @code{Message-ID}. If this isn't possible, @code{t} should be returned
29365 on successful article retrieval.
29368 @item (nnchoke-request-group GROUP &optional SERVER FAST INFO)
29370 Get data on @var{group}. This function also has the side effect of
29371 making @var{group} the current group.
29373 If @var{fast}, don't bother to return useful data, just make @var{group}
29376 If @var{info}, it allows the backend to update the group info
29379 Here's an example of some result data and a definition of the same:
29382 211 56 1000 1059 ifi.discussion
29385 The first number is the status, which should be 211. Next is the
29386 total number of articles in the group, the lowest article number, the
29387 highest article number, and finally the group name. Note that the total
29388 number of articles may be less than one might think while just
29389 considering the highest and lowest article numbers, but some articles
29390 may have been canceled. Gnus just discards the total-number, so
29391 whether one should take the bother to generate it properly (if that is a
29392 problem) is left as an exercise to the reader. If the group contains no
29393 articles, the lowest article number should be reported as 1 and the
29397 group-status = [ error / info ] eol
29398 error = [ "4" / "5" ] 2<number> " " <Error message>
29399 info = "211 " 3* [ <number> " " ] <string>
29403 @item (nnchoke-close-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
29405 Close @var{group} and free any resources connected to it. This will be
29406 a no-op on most back ends.
29408 There should be no data returned.
29411 @item (nnchoke-request-list &optional SERVER)
29413 Return a list of all groups available on @var{server}. And that means
29416 Here's an example from a server that only carries two groups:
29419 ifi.test 0000002200 0000002000 y
29420 ifi.discussion 3324 3300 n
29423 On each line we have a group name, then the highest article number in
29424 that group, the lowest article number, and finally a flag. If the group
29425 contains no articles, the lowest article number should be reported as 1
29426 and the highest as 0.
29429 active-file = *active-line
29430 active-line = name " " <number> " " <number> " " flags eol
29432 flags = "n" / "y" / "m" / "x" / "j" / "=" name
29435 The flag says whether the group is read-only (@samp{n}), is moderated
29436 (@samp{m}), is dead (@samp{x}), is aliased to some other group
29437 (@samp{=other-group}) or none of the above (@samp{y}).
29440 @item (nnchoke-request-post &optional SERVER)
29442 This function should post the current buffer. It might return whether
29443 the posting was successful or not, but that's not required. If, for
29444 instance, the posting is done asynchronously, it has generally not been
29445 completed by the time this function concludes. In that case, this
29446 function should set up some kind of sentinel to beep the user loud and
29447 clear if the posting could not be completed.
29449 There should be no result data from this function.
29454 @node Optional Back End Functions
29455 @subsubsection Optional Back End Functions
29459 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-groups GROUPS &optional SERVER)
29461 @var{groups} is a list of groups, and this function should request data
29462 on all those groups. How it does it is of no concern to Gnus, but it
29463 should attempt to do this in a speedy fashion.
29465 The return value of this function can be either @code{active} or
29466 @code{group}, which says what the format of the result data is. The
29467 former is in the same format as the data from
29468 @code{nnchoke-request-list}, while the latter is a buffer full of lines
29469 in the same format as @code{nnchoke-request-group} gives.
29472 group-buffer = *active-line / *group-status
29476 @item (nnchoke-request-update-info GROUP INFO &optional SERVER)
29478 A Gnus group info (@pxref{Group Info}) is handed to the back end for
29479 alterations. This comes in handy if the back end really carries all
29480 the information (as is the case with virtual and imap groups). This
29481 function should destructively alter the info to suit its needs, and
29482 should return a non-@code{nil} value (exceptionally,
29483 @code{nntp-request-update-info} always returns @code{nil} not to waste
29484 the network resources).
29486 There should be no result data from this function.
29489 @item (nnchoke-request-type GROUP &optional ARTICLE)
29491 When the user issues commands for ``sending news'' (@kbd{F} in the
29492 summary buffer, for instance), Gnus has to know whether the article the
29493 user is following up on is news or mail. This function should return
29494 @code{news} if @var{article} in @var{group} is news, @code{mail} if it
29495 is mail and @code{unknown} if the type can't be decided. (The
29496 @var{article} parameter is necessary in @code{nnvirtual} groups which
29497 might very well combine mail groups and news groups.) Both @var{group}
29498 and @var{article} may be @code{nil}.
29500 There should be no result data from this function.
29503 @item (nnchoke-request-set-mark GROUP ACTION &optional SERVER)
29505 Set/remove/add marks on articles. Normally Gnus handles the article
29506 marks (such as read, ticked, expired etc.)@: internally, and store them in
29507 @file{~/.newsrc.eld}. Some back ends (such as @acronym{IMAP}) however carry
29508 all information about the articles on the server, so Gnus need to
29509 propagate the mark information to the server.
29511 @var{action} is a list of mark setting requests, having this format:
29514 (RANGE ACTION MARK)
29517 @var{range} is a range of articles you wish to update marks on.
29518 @var{action} is @code{add} or @code{del}, used to add marks or remove
29519 marks (preserving all marks not mentioned). @var{mark} is a list of
29520 marks; where each mark is a symbol. Currently used marks are
29521 @code{read}, @code{tick}, @code{reply}, @code{expire}, @code{killed},
29522 @code{dormant}, @code{save}, @code{download}, @code{unsend}, and
29523 @code{forward}, but your back end should, if possible, not limit
29526 Given contradictory actions, the last action in the list should be the
29527 effective one. That is, if your action contains a request to add the
29528 @code{tick} mark on article 1 and, later in the list, a request to
29529 remove the mark on the same article, the mark should in fact be removed.
29531 An example action list:
29534 (((5 12 30) 'del '(tick))
29535 ((10 . 90) 'add '(read expire))
29536 ((92 94) 'del '(read)))
29539 The function should return a range of articles it wasn't able to set the
29540 mark on (currently not used for anything).
29542 There should be no result data from this function.
29544 @item (nnchoke-request-update-mark GROUP ARTICLE MARK)
29546 If the user tries to set a mark that the back end doesn't like, this
29547 function may change the mark. Gnus will use whatever this function
29548 returns as the mark for @var{article} instead of the original
29549 @var{mark}. If the back end doesn't care, it must return the original
29550 @var{mark}, and not @code{nil} or any other type of garbage.
29552 The only use for this I can see is what @code{nnvirtual} does with
29553 it---if a component group is auto-expirable, marking an article as read
29554 in the virtual group should result in the article being marked as
29557 There should be no result data from this function.
29560 @item (nnchoke-request-scan &optional GROUP SERVER)
29562 This function may be called at any time (by Gnus or anything else) to
29563 request that the back end check for incoming articles, in one way or
29564 another. A mail back end will typically read the spool file or query
29565 the @acronym{POP} server when this function is invoked. The
29566 @var{group} doesn't have to be heeded---if the back end decides that
29567 it is too much work just scanning for a single group, it may do a
29568 total scan of all groups. It would be nice, however, to keep things
29569 local if that's practical.
29571 There should be no result data from this function.
29574 @item (nnchoke-request-group-description GROUP &optional SERVER)
29576 The result data from this function should be a description of
29580 description-line = name <TAB> description eol
29582 description = <text>
29585 @item (nnchoke-request-list-newsgroups &optional SERVER)
29587 The result data from this function should be the description of all
29588 groups available on the server.
29591 description-buffer = *description-line
29595 @item (nnchoke-request-newgroups DATE &optional SERVER)
29597 The result data from this function should be all groups that were
29598 created after @samp{date}, which is in normal human-readable date format
29599 (i.e., the date format used in mail and news headers, and returned by
29600 the function @code{message-make-date} by default). The data should be
29601 in the active buffer format.
29603 It is okay for this function to return ``too many'' groups; some back ends
29604 might find it cheaper to return the full list of groups, rather than
29605 just the new groups. But don't do this for back ends with many groups.
29606 Normally, if the user creates the groups herself, there won't be too
29607 many groups, so @code{nnml} and the like are probably safe. But for
29608 back ends like @code{nntp}, where the groups have been created by the
29609 server, it is quite likely that there can be many groups.
29612 @item (nnchoke-request-create-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
29614 This function should create an empty group with name @var{group}.
29616 There should be no return data.
29619 @item (nnchoke-request-expire-articles ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FORCE)
29621 This function should run the expiry process on all articles in the
29622 @var{articles} range (which is currently a simple list of article
29623 numbers.) It is left up to the back end to decide how old articles
29624 should be before they are removed by this function. If @var{force} is
29625 non-@code{nil}, all @var{articles} should be deleted, no matter how new
29628 This function should return a list of articles that it did not/was not
29631 There should be no result data returned.
29634 @item (nnchoke-request-move-article ARTICLE GROUP SERVER ACCEPT-FORM &optional LAST)
29636 This function should move @var{article} (which is a number) from
29637 @var{group} by calling @var{accept-form}.
29639 This function should ready the article in question for moving by
29640 removing any header lines it has added to the article, and generally
29641 should ``tidy up'' the article. Then it should @code{eval}
29642 @var{accept-form} in the buffer where the ``tidy'' article is. This
29643 will do the actual copying. If this @code{eval} returns a
29644 non-@code{nil} value, the article should be removed.
29646 If @var{last} is @code{nil}, that means that there is a high likelihood
29647 that there will be more requests issued shortly, so that allows some
29650 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
29651 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
29653 There should be no data returned.
29656 @item (nnchoke-request-accept-article GROUP &optional SERVER LAST)
29658 This function takes the current buffer and inserts it into @var{group}.
29659 If @var{last} in @code{nil}, that means that there will be more calls to
29660 this function in short order.
29662 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
29663 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
29665 The group should exist before the back end is asked to accept the
29666 article for that group.
29668 There should be no data returned.
29671 @item (nnchoke-request-replace-article ARTICLE GROUP BUFFER)
29673 This function should remove @var{article} (which is a number) from
29674 @var{group} and insert @var{buffer} there instead.
29676 There should be no data returned.
29679 @item (nnchoke-request-delete-group GROUP FORCE &optional SERVER)
29681 This function should delete @var{group}. If @var{force}, it should
29682 really delete all the articles in the group, and then delete the group
29683 itself. (If there is such a thing as ``the group itself''.)
29685 There should be no data returned.
29688 @item (nnchoke-request-rename-group GROUP NEW-NAME &optional SERVER)
29690 This function should rename @var{group} into @var{new-name}. All
29691 articles in @var{group} should move to @var{new-name}.
29693 There should be no data returned.
29698 @node Error Messaging
29699 @subsubsection Error Messaging
29701 @findex nnheader-report
29702 @findex nnheader-get-report
29703 The back ends should use the function @code{nnheader-report} to report
29704 error conditions---they should not raise errors when they aren't able to
29705 perform a request. The first argument to this function is the back end
29706 symbol, and the rest are interpreted as arguments to @code{format} if
29707 there are multiple of them, or just a string if there is one of them.
29708 This function must always returns @code{nil}.
29711 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "You did something totally bogus")
29713 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "Could not request group %s" group)
29716 Gnus, in turn, will call @code{nnheader-get-report} when it gets a
29717 @code{nil} back from a server, and this function returns the most
29718 recently reported message for the back end in question. This function
29719 takes one argument---the server symbol.
29721 Internally, these functions access @var{back-end}@code{-status-string},
29722 so the @code{nnchoke} back end will have its error message stored in
29723 @code{nnchoke-status-string}.
29726 @node Writing New Back Ends
29727 @subsubsection Writing New Back Ends
29729 Many back ends are quite similar. @code{nnml} is just like
29730 @code{nnspool}, but it allows you to edit the articles on the server.
29731 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, but it doesn't use an active file,
29732 and it doesn't maintain overview databases. @code{nndir} is just like
29733 @code{nnml}, but it has no concept of ``groups'', and it doesn't allow
29736 It would make sense if it were possible to ``inherit'' functions from
29737 back ends when writing new back ends. And, indeed, you can do that if you
29738 want to. (You don't have to if you don't want to, of course.)
29740 All the back ends declare their public variables and functions by using a
29741 package called @code{nnoo}.
29743 To inherit functions from other back ends (and allow other back ends to
29744 inherit functions from the current back end), you should use the
29750 This macro declares the first parameter to be a child of the subsequent
29751 parameters. For instance:
29754 (nnoo-declare nndir
29758 @code{nndir} has declared here that it intends to inherit functions from
29759 both @code{nnml} and @code{nnmh}.
29762 This macro is equivalent to @code{defvar}, but registers the variable as
29763 a public server variable. Most state-oriented variables should be
29764 declared with @code{defvoo} instead of @code{defvar}.
29766 In addition to the normal @code{defvar} parameters, it takes a list of
29767 variables in the parent back ends to map the variable to when executing
29768 a function in those back ends.
29771 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
29772 "Where nndir will look for groups."
29773 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
29776 This means that @code{nnml-current-directory} will be set to
29777 @code{nndir-directory} when an @code{nnml} function is called on behalf
29778 of @code{nndir}. (The same with @code{nnmh}.)
29780 @item nnoo-define-basics
29781 This macro defines some common functions that almost all back ends should
29785 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
29789 This macro is just like @code{defun} and takes the same parameters. In
29790 addition to doing the normal @code{defun} things, it registers the
29791 function as being public so that other back ends can inherit it.
29793 @item nnoo-map-functions
29794 This macro allows mapping of functions from the current back end to
29795 functions from the parent back ends.
29798 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
29799 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
29800 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0))
29803 This means that when @code{nndir-retrieve-headers} is called, the first,
29804 third, and fourth parameters will be passed on to
29805 @code{nnml-retrieve-headers}, while the second parameter is set to the
29806 value of @code{nndir-current-group}.
29809 This macro allows importing functions from back ends. It should be the
29810 last thing in the source file, since it will only define functions that
29811 haven't already been defined.
29817 nnmh-request-newgroups)
29821 This means that calls to @code{nndir-request-list} should just be passed
29822 on to @code{nnmh-request-list}, while all public functions from
29823 @code{nnml} that haven't been defined in @code{nndir} yet should be
29828 Below is a slightly shortened version of the @code{nndir} back end.
29831 ;;; @r{nndir.el --- single directory newsgroup access for Gnus}
29832 ;; @r{Copyright (C) 1995,1996 Free Software Foundation, Inc.}
29836 (require 'nnheader)
29840 (eval-when-compile (require 'cl))
29842 (nnoo-declare nndir
29845 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
29846 "Where nndir will look for groups."
29847 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
29849 (defvoo nndir-nov-is-evil nil
29850 "*Non-nil means that nndir will never retrieve NOV headers."
29853 (defvoo nndir-current-group ""
29855 nnml-current-group nnmh-current-group)
29856 (defvoo nndir-top-directory nil nil nnml-directory nnmh-directory)
29857 (defvoo nndir-get-new-mail nil nil nnml-get-new-mail nnmh-get-new-mail)
29859 (defvoo nndir-status-string "" nil nnmh-status-string)
29860 (defconst nndir-version "nndir 1.0")
29862 ;;; @r{Interface functions.}
29864 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
29866 (deffoo nndir-open-server (server &optional defs)
29867 (setq nndir-directory
29868 (or (cadr (assq 'nndir-directory defs))
29870 (unless (assq 'nndir-directory defs)
29871 (push `(nndir-directory ,server) defs))
29872 (push `(nndir-current-group
29873 ,(file-name-nondirectory
29874 (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
29876 (push `(nndir-top-directory
29877 ,(file-name-directory (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
29879 (nnoo-change-server 'nndir server defs))
29881 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
29882 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
29883 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
29884 (nnmh-request-group nndir-current-group 0 0)
29885 (nnmh-close-group nndir-current-group 0))
29889 nnmh-status-message
29891 nnmh-request-newgroups))
29897 @node Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus
29898 @subsubsection Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus
29900 @vindex gnus-valid-select-methods
29901 @findex gnus-declare-backend
29902 Having Gnus start using your new back end is rather easy---you just
29903 declare it with the @code{gnus-declare-backend} functions. This will
29904 enter the back end into the @code{gnus-valid-select-methods} variable.
29906 @code{gnus-declare-backend} takes two parameters---the back end name and
29907 an arbitrary number of @dfn{abilities}.
29912 (gnus-declare-backend "nnchoke" 'mail 'respool 'address)
29915 The above line would then go in the @file{nnchoke.el} file.
29917 The abilities can be:
29921 This is a mailish back end---followups should (probably) go via mail.
29923 This is a newsish back end---followups should (probably) go via news.
29925 This back end supports both mail and news.
29927 This is neither a post nor mail back end---it's something completely
29930 It supports respooling---or rather, it is able to modify its source
29931 articles and groups.
29933 The name of the server should be in the virtual server name. This is
29934 true for almost all back ends.
29935 @item prompt-address
29936 The user should be prompted for an address when doing commands like
29937 @kbd{B} in the group buffer. This is true for back ends like
29938 @code{nntp}, but not @code{nnmbox}, for instance.
29942 @node Mail-like Back Ends
29943 @subsubsection Mail-like Back Ends
29945 One of the things that separate the mail back ends from the rest of the
29946 back ends is the heavy dependence by most of the mail back ends on
29947 common functions in @file{nnmail.el}. For instance, here's the
29948 definition of @code{nnml-request-scan}:
29951 (deffoo nnml-request-scan (&optional group server)
29952 (setq nnml-article-file-alist nil)
29953 (nnmail-get-new-mail 'nnml 'nnml-save-nov nnml-directory group))
29956 It simply calls @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} with a few parameters,
29957 and @code{nnmail} takes care of all the moving and splitting of the
29960 This function takes four parameters.
29964 This should be a symbol to designate which back end is responsible for
29967 @item exit-function
29968 This function should be called after the splitting has been performed.
29970 @item temp-directory
29971 Where the temporary files should be stored.
29974 This optional argument should be a group name if the splitting is to be
29975 performed for one group only.
29978 @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} will call @var{back-end}@code{-save-mail} to
29979 save each article. @var{back-end}@code{-active-number} will be called to
29980 find the article number assigned to this article.
29982 The function also uses the following variables:
29983 @var{back-end}@code{-get-new-mail} (to see whether to get new mail for
29984 this back end); and @var{back-end}@code{-group-alist} and
29985 @var{back-end}@code{-active-file} to generate the new active file.
29986 @var{back-end}@code{-group-alist} should be a group-active alist, like
29990 (("a-group" (1 . 10))
29991 ("some-group" (34 . 39)))
29995 @node Score File Syntax
29996 @subsection Score File Syntax
29998 Score files are meant to be easily parsable, but yet extremely
29999 malleable. It was decided that something that had the same read syntax
30000 as an Emacs Lisp list would fit that spec.
30002 Here's a typical score file:
30006 ("Windows 95" -10000 nil s)
30013 BNF definition of a score file:
30016 score-file = "" / "(" *element ")"
30017 element = rule / atom
30018 rule = string-rule / number-rule / date-rule
30019 string-rule = "(" quote string-header quote space *string-match ")"
30020 number-rule = "(" quote number-header quote space *number-match ")"
30021 date-rule = "(" quote date-header quote space *date-match ")"
30023 string-header = "subject" / "from" / "references" / "message-id" /
30024 "xref" / "body" / "head" / "all" / "followup"
30025 number-header = "lines" / "chars"
30026 date-header = "date"
30027 string-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
30028 space date [ "" / [ space string-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
30029 score = "nil" / <integer>
30030 date = "nil" / <natural number>
30031 string-match-t = "nil" / "s" / "substring" / "S" / "Substring" /
30032 "r" / "regex" / "R" / "Regex" /
30033 "e" / "exact" / "E" / "Exact" /
30034 "f" / "fuzzy" / "F" / "Fuzzy"
30035 number-match = "(" <integer> [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
30036 space date [ "" / [ space number-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
30037 number-match-t = "nil" / "=" / "<" / ">" / ">=" / "<="
30038 date-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
30039 space date [ "" / [ space date-match-t ] ] ] ] ")"
30040 date-match-t = "nil" / "at" / "before" / "after"
30041 atom = "(" [ required-atom / optional-atom ] ")"
30042 required-atom = mark / expunge / mark-and-expunge / files /
30043 exclude-files / read-only / touched
30044 optional-atom = adapt / local / eval
30045 mark = "mark" space nil-or-number
30046 nil-or-number = "nil" / <integer>
30047 expunge = "expunge" space nil-or-number
30048 mark-and-expunge = "mark-and-expunge" space nil-or-number
30049 files = "files" *[ space <string> ]
30050 exclude-files = "exclude-files" *[ space <string> ]
30051 read-only = "read-only" [ space "nil" / space "t" ]
30052 adapt = "adapt" [ space "ignore" / space "t" / space adapt-rule ]
30053 adapt-rule = "(" *[ <string> *[ "(" <string> <integer> ")" ] ")"
30054 local = "local" *[ space "(" <string> space <form> ")" ]
30055 eval = "eval" space <form>
30056 space = *[ " " / <TAB> / <NEWLINE> ]
30059 Any unrecognized elements in a score file should be ignored, but not
30062 As you can see, white space is needed, but the type and amount of white
30063 space is irrelevant. This means that formatting of the score file is
30064 left up to the programmer---if it's simpler to just spew it all out on
30065 one looong line, then that's ok.
30067 The meaning of the various atoms are explained elsewhere in this
30068 manual (@pxref{Score File Format}).
30072 @subsection Headers
30074 Internally Gnus uses a format for storing article headers that
30075 corresponds to the @acronym{NOV} format in a mysterious fashion. One could
30076 almost suspect that the author looked at the @acronym{NOV} specification and
30077 just shamelessly @emph{stole} the entire thing, and one would be right.
30079 @dfn{Header} is a severely overloaded term. ``Header'' is used in
30080 RFC 1036 to talk about lines in the head of an article (e.g.,
30081 @code{From}). It is used by many people as a synonym for
30082 ``head''---``the header and the body''. (That should be avoided, in my
30083 opinion.) And Gnus uses a format internally that it calls ``header'',
30084 which is what I'm talking about here. This is a 9-element vector,
30085 basically, with each header (ouch) having one slot.
30087 These slots are, in order: @code{number}, @code{subject}, @code{from},
30088 @code{date}, @code{id}, @code{references}, @code{chars}, @code{lines},
30089 @code{xref}, and @code{extra}. There are macros for accessing and
30090 setting these slots---they all have predictable names beginning with
30091 @code{mail-header-} and @code{mail-header-set-}, respectively.
30093 All these slots contain strings, except the @code{extra} slot, which
30094 contains an alist of header/value pairs (@pxref{To From Newsgroups}).
30100 @sc{gnus} introduced a concept that I found so useful that I've started
30101 using it a lot and have elaborated on it greatly.
30103 The question is simple: If you have a large amount of objects that are
30104 identified by numbers (say, articles, to take a @emph{wild} example)
30105 that you want to qualify as being ``included'', a normal sequence isn't
30106 very useful. (A 200,000 length sequence is a bit long-winded.)
30108 The solution is as simple as the question: You just collapse the
30112 (1 2 3 4 5 6 10 11 12)
30115 is transformed into
30118 ((1 . 6) (10 . 12))
30121 To avoid having those nasty @samp{(13 . 13)} elements to denote a
30122 lonesome object, a @samp{13} is a valid element:
30125 ((1 . 6) 7 (10 . 12))
30128 This means that comparing two ranges to find out whether they are equal
30129 is slightly tricky:
30132 ((1 . 5) 7 8 (10 . 12))
30138 ((1 . 5) (7 . 8) (10 . 12))
30141 are equal. In fact, any non-descending list is a range:
30147 is a perfectly valid range, although a pretty long-winded one. This is
30154 and is equal to the previous range.
30156 Here's a BNF definition of ranges. Of course, one must remember the
30157 semantic requirement that the numbers are non-descending. (Any number
30158 of repetition of the same number is allowed, but apt to disappear in
30162 range = simple-range / normal-range
30163 simple-range = "(" number " . " number ")"
30164 normal-range = "(" start-contents ")"
30165 contents = "" / simple-range *[ " " contents ] /
30166 number *[ " " contents ]
30169 Gnus currently uses ranges to keep track of read articles and article
30170 marks. I plan on implementing a number of range operators in C if The
30171 Powers That Be are willing to let me. (I haven't asked yet, because I
30172 need to do some more thinking on what operators I need to make life
30173 totally range-based without ever having to convert back to normal
30178 @subsection Group Info
30180 Gnus stores all permanent info on groups in a @dfn{group info} list.
30181 This list is from three to six elements (or more) long and exhaustively
30182 describes the group.
30184 Here are two example group infos; one is a very simple group while the
30185 second is a more complex one:
30188 ("no.group" 5 ((1 . 54324)))
30190 ("nnml:my.mail" 3 ((1 . 5) 9 (20 . 55))
30191 ((tick (15 . 19)) (replied 3 6 (19 . 3)))
30193 ((auto-expire . t) (to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")))
30196 The first element is the @dfn{group name}---as Gnus knows the group,
30197 anyway. The second element is the @dfn{subscription level}, which
30198 normally is a small integer. (It can also be the @dfn{rank}, which is a
30199 cons cell where the @code{car} is the level and the @code{cdr} is the
30200 score.) The third element is a list of ranges of read articles. The
30201 fourth element is a list of lists of article marks of various kinds.
30202 The fifth element is the select method (or virtual server, if you like).
30203 The sixth element is a list of @dfn{group parameters}, which is what
30204 this section is about.
30206 Any of the last three elements may be missing if they are not required.
30207 In fact, the vast majority of groups will normally only have the first
30208 three elements, which saves quite a lot of cons cells.
30210 Here's a BNF definition of the group info format:
30213 info = "(" group space ralevel space read
30214 [ "" / [ space marks-list [ "" / [ space method [ "" /
30215 space parameters ] ] ] ] ] ")"
30216 group = quote <string> quote
30217 ralevel = rank / level
30218 level = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
30219 rank = "(" level "." score ")"
30220 score = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
30222 marks-lists = nil / "(" *marks ")"
30223 marks = "(" <string> range ")"
30224 method = "(" <string> *elisp-forms ")"
30225 parameters = "(" *elisp-forms ")"
30228 Actually that @samp{marks} rule is a fib. A @samp{marks} is a
30229 @samp{<string>} consed on to a @samp{range}, but that's a bitch to say
30232 If you have a Gnus info and want to access the elements, Gnus offers a
30233 series of macros for getting/setting these elements.
30236 @item gnus-info-group
30237 @itemx gnus-info-set-group
30238 @findex gnus-info-group
30239 @findex gnus-info-set-group
30240 Get/set the group name.
30242 @item gnus-info-rank
30243 @itemx gnus-info-set-rank
30244 @findex gnus-info-rank
30245 @findex gnus-info-set-rank
30246 Get/set the group rank (@pxref{Group Score}).
30248 @item gnus-info-level
30249 @itemx gnus-info-set-level
30250 @findex gnus-info-level
30251 @findex gnus-info-set-level
30252 Get/set the group level.
30254 @item gnus-info-score
30255 @itemx gnus-info-set-score
30256 @findex gnus-info-score
30257 @findex gnus-info-set-score
30258 Get/set the group score (@pxref{Group Score}).
30260 @item gnus-info-read
30261 @itemx gnus-info-set-read
30262 @findex gnus-info-read
30263 @findex gnus-info-set-read
30264 Get/set the ranges of read articles.
30266 @item gnus-info-marks
30267 @itemx gnus-info-set-marks
30268 @findex gnus-info-marks
30269 @findex gnus-info-set-marks
30270 Get/set the lists of ranges of marked articles.
30272 @item gnus-info-method
30273 @itemx gnus-info-set-method
30274 @findex gnus-info-method
30275 @findex gnus-info-set-method
30276 Get/set the group select method.
30278 @item gnus-info-params
30279 @itemx gnus-info-set-params
30280 @findex gnus-info-params
30281 @findex gnus-info-set-params
30282 Get/set the group parameters.
30285 All the getter functions take one parameter---the info list. The setter
30286 functions take two parameters---the info list and the new value.
30288 The last three elements in the group info aren't mandatory, so it may be
30289 necessary to extend the group info before setting the element. If this
30290 is necessary, you can just pass on a non-@code{nil} third parameter to
30291 the three final setter functions to have this happen automatically.
30294 @node Extended Interactive
30295 @subsection Extended Interactive
30296 @cindex interactive
30297 @findex gnus-interactive
30299 Gnus extends the standard Emacs @code{interactive} specification
30300 slightly to allow easy use of the symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic
30301 Prefixes}). Here's an example of how this is used:
30304 (defun gnus-summary-increase-score (&optional score symp)
30305 (interactive (gnus-interactive "P\ny"))
30310 The best thing to do would have been to implement
30311 @code{gnus-interactive} as a macro which would have returned an
30312 @code{interactive} form, but this isn't possible since Emacs checks
30313 whether a function is interactive or not by simply doing an @code{assq}
30314 on the lambda form. So, instead we have @code{gnus-interactive}
30315 function that takes a string and returns values that are usable to
30316 @code{interactive}.
30318 This function accepts (almost) all normal @code{interactive} specs, but
30323 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbol
30324 The current symbolic prefix---the @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol}
30328 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbols
30329 A list of the current symbolic prefixes---the
30330 @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol} variable.
30333 The current article number---the @code{gnus-summary-article-number}
30337 The current article header---the @code{gnus-summary-article-header}
30341 The current group name---the @code{gnus-group-group-name}
30347 @node Emacs/XEmacs Code
30348 @subsection Emacs/XEmacs Code
30352 While Gnus runs under Emacs, XEmacs and Mule, I decided that one of the
30353 platforms must be the primary one. I chose Emacs. Not because I don't
30354 like XEmacs or Mule, but because it comes first alphabetically.
30356 This means that Gnus will byte-compile under Emacs with nary a warning,
30357 while XEmacs will pump out gigabytes of warnings while byte-compiling.
30358 As I use byte-compilation warnings to help me root out trivial errors in
30359 Gnus, that's very useful.
30361 I've also consistently used Emacs function interfaces, but have used
30362 Gnusey aliases for the functions. To take an example: Emacs defines a
30363 @code{run-at-time} function while XEmacs defines a @code{start-itimer}
30364 function. I then define a function called @code{gnus-run-at-time} that
30365 takes the same parameters as the Emacs @code{run-at-time}. When running
30366 Gnus under Emacs, the former function is just an alias for the latter.
30367 However, when running under XEmacs, the former is an alias for the
30368 following function:
30371 (defun gnus-xmas-run-at-time (time repeat function &rest args)
30375 (,function ,@@args))
30379 This sort of thing has been done for bunches of functions. Gnus does
30380 not redefine any native Emacs functions while running under XEmacs---it
30381 does this @code{defalias} thing with Gnus equivalents instead. Cleaner
30384 In the cases where the XEmacs function interface was obviously cleaner,
30385 I used it instead. For example @code{gnus-region-active-p} is an alias
30386 for @code{region-active-p} in XEmacs, whereas in Emacs it is a function.
30388 Of course, I could have chosen XEmacs as my native platform and done
30389 mapping functions the other way around. But I didn't. The performance
30390 hit these indirections impose on Gnus under XEmacs should be slight.
30393 @node Various File Formats
30394 @subsection Various File Formats
30397 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
30398 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
30402 @node Active File Format
30403 @subsubsection Active File Format
30405 The active file lists all groups available on the server in
30406 question. It also lists the highest and lowest current article numbers
30409 Here's an excerpt from a typical active file:
30412 soc.motss 296030 293865 y
30413 alt.binaries.pictures.fractals 3922 3913 n
30414 comp.sources.unix 1605 1593 m
30415 comp.binaries.ibm.pc 5097 5089 y
30416 no.general 1000 900 y
30419 Here's a pseudo-BNF definition of this file:
30422 active = *group-line
30423 group-line = group spc high-number spc low-number spc flag <NEWLINE>
30424 group = <non-white-space string>
30426 high-number = <non-negative integer>
30427 low-number = <positive integer>
30428 flag = "y" / "n" / "m" / "j" / "x" / "=" group
30431 For a full description of this file, see the manual pages for
30432 @samp{innd}, in particular @samp{active(5)}.
30435 @node Newsgroups File Format
30436 @subsubsection Newsgroups File Format
30438 The newsgroups file lists groups along with their descriptions. Not all
30439 groups on the server have to be listed, and not all groups in the file
30440 have to exist on the server. The file is meant purely as information to
30443 The format is quite simple; a group name, a tab, and the description.
30444 Here's the definition:
30448 line = group tab description <NEWLINE>
30449 group = <non-white-space string>
30451 description = <string>
30456 @node Emacs for Heathens
30457 @section Emacs for Heathens
30459 Believe it or not, but some people who use Gnus haven't really used
30460 Emacs much before they embarked on their journey on the Gnus Love Boat.
30461 If you are one of those unfortunates whom ``@kbd{C-M-a}'', ``kill the
30462 region'', and ``set @code{gnus-flargblossen} to an alist where the key
30463 is a regexp that is used for matching on the group name'' are magical
30464 phrases with little or no meaning, then this appendix is for you. If
30465 you are already familiar with Emacs, just ignore this and go fondle your
30469 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
30470 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
30475 @subsection Keystrokes
30479 Q: What is an experienced Emacs user?
30482 A: A person who wishes that the terminal had pedals.
30485 Yes, when you use Emacs, you are apt to use the control key, the shift
30486 key and the meta key a lot. This is very annoying to some people
30487 (notably @code{vi}le users), and the rest of us just love the hell out
30488 of it. Just give up and submit. Emacs really does stand for
30489 ``Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift'', and not ``Editing Macros'', as you
30490 may have heard from other disreputable sources (like the Emacs author).
30492 The shift keys are normally located near your pinky fingers, and are
30493 normally used to get capital letters and stuff. You probably use it all
30494 the time. The control key is normally marked ``CTRL'' or something like
30495 that. The meta key is, funnily enough, never marked as such on any
30496 keyboard. The one I'm currently at has a key that's marked ``Alt'',
30497 which is the meta key on this keyboard. It's usually located somewhere
30498 to the left hand side of the keyboard, usually on the bottom row.
30500 Now, us Emacs people don't say ``press the meta-control-m key'',
30501 because that's just too inconvenient. We say ``press the @kbd{C-M-m}
30502 key''. @kbd{M-} is the prefix that means ``meta'' and ``C-'' is the
30503 prefix that means ``control''. So ``press @kbd{C-k}'' means ``press
30504 down the control key, and hold it down while you press @kbd{k}''.
30505 ``Press @kbd{C-M-k}'' means ``press down and hold down the meta key and
30506 the control key and then press @kbd{k}''. Simple, ay?
30508 This is somewhat complicated by the fact that not all keyboards have a
30509 meta key. In that case you can use the ``escape'' key. Then @kbd{M-k}
30510 means ``press escape, release escape, press @kbd{k}''. That's much more
30511 work than if you have a meta key, so if that's the case, I respectfully
30512 suggest you get a real keyboard with a meta key. You can't live without
30518 @subsection Emacs Lisp
30520 Emacs is the King of Editors because it's really a Lisp interpreter.
30521 Each and every key you tap runs some Emacs Lisp code snippet, and since
30522 Emacs Lisp is an interpreted language, that means that you can configure
30523 any key to run any arbitrary code. You just, like, do it.
30525 Gnus is written in Emacs Lisp, and is run as a bunch of interpreted
30526 functions. (These are byte-compiled for speed, but it's still
30527 interpreted.) If you decide that you don't like the way Gnus does
30528 certain things, it's trivial to have it do something a different way.
30529 (Well, at least if you know how to write Lisp code.) However, that's
30530 beyond the scope of this manual, so we are simply going to talk about
30531 some common constructs that you normally use in your @file{~/.gnus.el}
30532 file to customize Gnus. (You can also use the @file{~/.emacs} file, but
30533 in order to set things of Gnus up, it is much better to use the
30534 @file{~/.gnus.el} file, @xref{Startup Files}.)
30536 If you want to set the variable @code{gnus-florgbnize} to four (4), you
30537 write the following:
30540 (setq gnus-florgbnize 4)
30543 This function (really ``special form'') @code{setq} is the one that can
30544 set a variable to some value. This is really all you need to know. Now
30545 you can go and fill your @file{~/.gnus.el} file with lots of these to
30546 change how Gnus works.
30548 If you have put that thing in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file, it will be
30549 read and @code{eval}ed (which is Lisp-ese for ``run'') the next time you
30550 start Gnus. If you want to change the variable right away, simply say
30551 @kbd{C-x C-e} after the closing parenthesis. That will @code{eval} the
30552 previous ``form'', which is a simple @code{setq} statement here.
30554 Go ahead---just try it, if you're located at your Emacs. After you
30555 @kbd{C-x C-e}, you will see @samp{4} appear in the echo area, which
30556 is the return value of the form you @code{eval}ed.
30560 If the manual says ``set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{some}'',
30564 (setq gnus-read-active-file 'some)
30567 On the other hand, if the manual says ``set @code{gnus-nntp-server-file} to
30568 @samp{/etc/nntpserver}'', that means:
30571 (setq gnus-nntp-server-file "/etc/nntpserver")
30574 So be careful not to mix up strings (the latter) with symbols (the
30575 former). The manual is unambiguous, but it can be confusing.
30578 @include gnus-faq.texi
30580 @node GNU Free Documentation License
30581 @chapter GNU Free Documentation License
30582 @include doclicense.texi
30600 @c Local Variables: