10 * Gnus: (gnus). The newsreader Gnus.
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284 \gnusauthor{by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen}
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293 Copyright \copyright{} 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001,
295 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
298 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
299 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
300 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
301 Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
302 Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
303 license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
304 License'' in the Emacs manual.
306 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
307 this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
308 Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
310 This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
311 Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
312 separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
313 license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
321 This file documents Gnus, the GNU Emacs newsreader.
323 Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003
324 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
326 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
327 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
328 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
329 Invariant Sections being none, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
330 Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
331 license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
332 License'' in the Emacs manual.
334 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
335 this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
336 Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
338 This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
339 Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
340 separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
341 license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
349 @author by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
352 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
353 Copyright @copyright{} 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001,
355 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
357 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
358 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
359 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
360 Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
361 Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
362 license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
363 License'' in the Emacs manual.
365 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
366 this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
367 Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
369 This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
370 Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
371 separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
372 license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
381 @top The Gnus Newsreader
385 You can read news (and mail) from within Emacs by using Gnus. The news
386 can be gotten by any nefarious means you can think of---@sc{nntp}, local
387 spool or your mbox file. All at the same time, if you want to push your
390 This manual corresponds to Oort Gnus v0.18.
401 Gnus is the advanced, self-documenting, customizable, extensible
402 unreal-time newsreader for GNU Emacs.
404 Oops. That sounds oddly familiar, so let's start over again to avoid
405 being accused of plagiarism:
407 Gnus is a message-reading laboratory. It will let you look at just
408 about anything as if it were a newsgroup. You can read mail with it,
409 you can browse directories with it, you can @code{ftp} with it---you
410 can even read news with it!
412 Gnus tries to empower people who read news the same way Emacs empowers
413 people who edit text. Gnus sets no limits to what the user should be
414 allowed to do. Users are encouraged to extend Gnus to make it behave
415 like they want it to behave. A program should not control people;
416 people should be empowered to do what they want by using (or abusing)
422 * Starting Up:: Finding news can be a pain.
423 * Group Buffer:: Selecting, subscribing and killing groups.
424 * Summary Buffer:: Reading, saving and posting articles.
425 * Article Buffer:: Displaying and handling articles.
426 * Composing Messages:: Information on sending mail and news.
427 * Select Methods:: Gnus reads all messages from various select methods.
428 * Scoring:: Assigning values to articles.
429 * Various:: General purpose settings.
430 * The End:: Farewell and goodbye.
431 * Appendices:: Terminology, Emacs intro, FAQ, History, Internals.
432 * Index:: Variable, function and concept index.
433 * Key Index:: Key Index.
435 Other related manuals
437 * Message:(message). Composing messages.
438 * Emacs-MIME:(emacs-mime). Composing messages; MIME-specific parts.
439 * Sieve:(sieve). Managing Sieve scripts in Emacs.
440 * PGG:(pgg). PGP/MIME with Gnus.
443 --- The Detailed Node Listing ---
447 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
448 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
449 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
450 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
451 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
452 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
453 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
454 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
455 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
456 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
457 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
461 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
462 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
463 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
467 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
468 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
469 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
470 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
471 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
472 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
473 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
474 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
475 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
476 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
477 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
478 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
479 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
480 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
481 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
482 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
483 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
487 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
488 * Group Modeline Specification:: The group buffer modeline.
489 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
493 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
494 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
495 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
496 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
497 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
501 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
502 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
503 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
504 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
505 * Sieve Commands:: Managing Sieve scripts.
509 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
510 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
511 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
512 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
513 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
514 * Delayed Articles:: Send articles at a later time.
515 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
516 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
517 * Threading:: How threads are made.
518 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
519 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
520 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
521 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
522 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
523 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
524 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
525 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
526 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
527 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
528 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
529 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
530 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
531 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
532 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
533 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
534 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
535 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
536 or reselecting the current group.
537 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
538 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
539 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
540 * Mailing List:: Mailing list minor mode.
542 Summary Buffer Format
544 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
545 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
546 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
547 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
551 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
552 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
554 Reply, Followup and Post
556 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
557 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
558 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
559 * Canceling and Superseding::
563 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
564 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
565 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
567 * Generic Marking Commands::
568 * Setting Process Marks::
572 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
573 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
574 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
578 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
579 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
581 Customizing Threading
583 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
584 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
585 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
586 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over@dots{} but you were wrong!
590 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
591 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
592 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
593 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
594 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
595 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
599 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
600 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
601 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
605 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
606 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
607 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
608 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
609 * Article Header:: Doing various header transformations.
610 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
611 * Article Button Levels:: Controlling appearance of buttons.
612 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
613 * Article Display:: Display various stuff---X-Face, Picons, Smileys
614 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
615 * Article Miscellania:: Various other stuff.
617 Alternative Approaches
619 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
620 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
622 Various Summary Stuff
624 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
625 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
626 * Summary Generation Commands::
627 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
631 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
632 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @sc{mime} before reading them.
633 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
634 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
635 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
639 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
640 * Posting Server:: What server should you post and mail via?
641 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
642 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
643 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
644 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
645 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
646 * Signing and encrypting:: How to compose secure messages.
650 * Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
651 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
652 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
653 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
654 * IMAP:: Using Gnus as a @sc{imap} client.
655 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
656 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
657 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
661 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
662 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
663 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
664 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
665 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
666 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
667 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
671 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @sc{nntp} server.
672 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
676 * Direct Functions:: Connecting directly to the server.
677 * Indirect Functions:: Connecting indirectly to the server.
678 * Common Variables:: Understood by several connection functions.
682 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
683 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
684 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
685 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
686 * Mail Back End Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
687 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
688 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
689 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
690 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
691 * Washing Mail:: Removing gruft from the mail you get.
692 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
693 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail back ends for reading other files.
694 * Choosing a Mail Back End:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
698 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
699 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
700 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
702 Choosing a Mail Back End
704 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
705 * Rmail Babyl:: Emacs programs use the rmail babyl format.
706 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
707 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like back end.
708 * Maildir:: Another one-file-per-message format.
709 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
710 * Comparing Mail Back Ends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
715 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
716 * Slashdot:: Reading the Slashdot comments.
717 * Ultimate:: The Ultimate Bulletin Board systems.
718 * Web Archive:: Reading mailing list archived on web.
719 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
720 * Customizing w3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/w3 from Gnus.
724 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
725 * Expiring in IMAP:: Expiring mail with nnimap.
726 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
727 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a ``compress mailbox'' button.
728 * A note on namespaces:: How to (not) use IMAP namespace in Gnus.
732 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
733 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
734 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
735 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{soup} packets ``offline''.
736 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
740 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
744 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
745 * SOUP Groups:: A back end for reading @sc{soup} packets.
746 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
750 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
751 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
755 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
756 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
757 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
758 * Agent as Cache:: The Agent is a big cache too.
759 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
760 * Agent Regeneration:: How to recover from lost connections and other accidents.
761 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with IMAP.
762 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
763 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
764 * Example Setup:: An example @file{~/.gnus.el} file for offline people.
765 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
766 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
770 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
771 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
772 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
776 * Group Agent Commands:: Configure groups and fetch their contents.
777 * Summary Agent Commands:: Manually select then fetch specific articles.
778 * Server Agent Commands:: Select the servers that are supported by the agent.
782 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
783 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
784 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
785 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
786 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
787 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
788 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
789 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
790 * Scoring On Other Headers:: Scoring on non-standard headers.
791 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
792 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
793 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
794 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
795 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
796 * GroupLens:: Getting predictions on what you like to read.
797 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
798 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
802 * Using GroupLens:: How to make Gnus use GroupLens.
803 * Rating Articles:: Letting GroupLens know how you rate articles.
804 * Displaying Predictions:: Displaying predictions given by GroupLens.
805 * GroupLens Variables:: Customizing GroupLens.
809 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
810 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
811 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
815 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
816 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
817 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
818 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
819 * Window Layout:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
820 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
821 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
822 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
823 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
824 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
825 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
826 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
827 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
828 * Predicate Specifiers:: Specifying predicates.
829 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
830 * Image Enhancements:: Modern versions of Emacs/XEmacs can display images.
831 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
832 * Thwarting Email Spam:: A how-to on avoiding unsolicited commercial email.
833 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
837 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
838 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
839 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
840 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
841 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
842 * Positioning Point:: Moving point to a position after an operation.
843 * Tabulation:: Tabulating your output.
844 * Wide Characters:: Dealing with wide characters.
848 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what you're reading.
849 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
850 * X-Face:: Display a funky, teensy black-and-white image.
851 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
855 * The problem of spam:: Some background, and some solutions
856 * Anti-Spam Basics:: Simple steps to reduce the amount of spam.
857 * SpamAssassin:: How to use external anti-spam tools.
858 * Hashcash:: Reduce spam by burning CPU time.
859 * Filtering Spam Using The Spam ELisp Package::
860 * Filtering Spam Using Statistics with spam-stat::
864 * XEmacs:: Requirements for installing under XEmacs.
865 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
866 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
867 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
868 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
869 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
870 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
871 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
872 * Frequently Asked Questions::
876 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
877 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
878 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
879 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
880 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
881 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
882 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
883 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
884 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
888 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
889 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
890 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
891 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
892 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
896 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
897 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
898 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
899 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
903 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
904 * Back End Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
905 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
906 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
907 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
908 * Group Info:: The group info format.
909 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
910 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
911 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
915 * Required Back End Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
916 * Optional Back End Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
917 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
918 * Writing New Back Ends:: Extending old back ends.
919 * Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
920 * Mail-like Back Ends:: Some tips on mail back ends.
924 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
925 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
929 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
930 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
936 @chapter Starting Gnus
941 If your system administrator has set things up properly, starting Gnus
942 and reading news is extremely easy---you just type @kbd{M-x gnus} in
945 @findex gnus-other-frame
946 @kindex M-x gnus-other-frame
947 If you want to start Gnus in a different frame, you can use the command
948 @kbd{M-x gnus-other-frame} instead.
950 If things do not go smoothly at startup, you have to twiddle some
951 variables in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file. This file is similar to
952 @file{~/.emacs}, but is read when gnus starts.
954 If you puzzle at any terms used in this manual, please refer to the
955 terminology section (@pxref{Terminology}).
958 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
959 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
960 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
961 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
962 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
963 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
964 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
965 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
966 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
967 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
968 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
972 @node Finding the News
973 @section Finding the News
976 @vindex gnus-select-method
978 The @code{gnus-select-method} variable says where Gnus should look for
979 news. This variable should be a list where the first element says
980 @dfn{how} and the second element says @dfn{where}. This method is your
981 native method. All groups not fetched with this method are
984 For instance, if the @samp{news.somewhere.edu} @sc{nntp} server is where
985 you want to get your daily dosage of news from, you'd say:
988 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"))
991 If you want to read directly from the local spool, say:
994 (setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool ""))
997 If you can use a local spool, you probably should, as it will almost
998 certainly be much faster. But do not use the local spool if your
999 server is running Leafnode; in this case, use @code{(nntp "localhost")}.
1001 @vindex gnus-nntpserver-file
1003 @cindex @sc{nntp} server
1004 If this variable is not set, Gnus will take a look at the
1005 @code{NNTPSERVER} environment variable. If that variable isn't set,
1006 Gnus will see whether @code{gnus-nntpserver-file}
1007 (@file{/etc/nntpserver} by default) has any opinions on the matter. If
1008 that fails as well, Gnus will try to use the machine running Emacs as an @sc{nntp} server. That's a long shot, though.
1010 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
1011 If @code{gnus-nntp-server} is set, this variable will override
1012 @code{gnus-select-method}. You should therefore set
1013 @code{gnus-nntp-server} to @code{nil}, which is what it is by default.
1015 @vindex gnus-secondary-servers
1016 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
1017 You can also make Gnus prompt you interactively for the name of an
1018 @sc{nntp} server. If you give a non-numerical prefix to @code{gnus}
1019 (i.e., @kbd{C-u M-x gnus}), Gnus will let you choose between the servers
1020 in the @code{gnus-secondary-servers} list (if any). You can also just
1021 type in the name of any server you feel like visiting. (Note that this
1022 will set @code{gnus-nntp-server}, which means that if you then @kbd{M-x
1023 gnus} later in the same Emacs session, Gnus will contact the same
1026 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
1028 However, if you use one @sc{nntp} server regularly and are just
1029 interested in a couple of groups from a different server, you would be
1030 better served by using the @kbd{B} command in the group buffer. It will
1031 let you have a look at what groups are available, and you can subscribe
1032 to any of the groups you want to. This also makes @file{.newsrc}
1033 maintenance much tidier. @xref{Foreign Groups}.
1035 @vindex gnus-secondary-select-methods
1037 A slightly different approach to foreign groups is to set the
1038 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} variable. The select methods
1039 listed in this variable are in many ways just as native as the
1040 @code{gnus-select-method} server. They will also be queried for active
1041 files during startup (if that's required), and new newsgroups that
1042 appear on these servers will be subscribed (or not) just as native
1045 For instance, if you use the @code{nnmbox} back end to read your mail,
1046 you would typically set this variable to
1049 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnmbox "")))
1053 @node The First Time
1054 @section The First Time
1055 @cindex first time usage
1057 If no startup files exist, Gnus will try to determine what groups should
1058 be subscribed by default.
1060 @vindex gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups
1061 If the variable @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is set, Gnus
1062 will subscribe you to just those groups in that list, leaving the rest
1063 killed. Your system administrator should have set this variable to
1066 Since she hasn't, Gnus will just subscribe you to a few arbitrarily
1067 picked groups (i.e., @samp{*.newusers}). (@dfn{Arbitrary} is defined
1068 here as @dfn{whatever Lars thinks you should read}.)
1070 You'll also be subscribed to the Gnus documentation group, which should
1071 help you with most common problems.
1073 If @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is @code{t}, Gnus will just
1074 use the normal functions for handling new groups, and not do anything
1078 @node The Server is Down
1079 @section The Server is Down
1080 @cindex server errors
1082 If the default server is down, Gnus will understandably have some
1083 problems starting. However, if you have some mail groups in addition to
1084 the news groups, you may want to start Gnus anyway.
1086 Gnus, being the trusting sort of program, will ask whether to proceed
1087 without a native select method if that server can't be contacted. This
1088 will happen whether the server doesn't actually exist (i.e., you have
1089 given the wrong address) or the server has just momentarily taken ill
1090 for some reason or other. If you decide to continue and have no foreign
1091 groups, you'll find it difficult to actually do anything in the group
1092 buffer. But, hey, that's your problem. Blllrph!
1094 @findex gnus-no-server
1095 @kindex M-x gnus-no-server
1097 If you know that the server is definitely down, or you just want to read
1098 your mail without bothering with the server at all, you can use the
1099 @code{gnus-no-server} command to start Gnus. That might come in handy
1100 if you're in a hurry as well. This command will not attempt to contact
1101 your primary server---instead, it will just activate all groups on level
1102 1 and 2. (You should preferably keep no native groups on those two
1103 levels.) Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
1107 @section Slave Gnusae
1110 You might want to run more than one Emacs with more than one Gnus at the
1111 same time. If you are using different @file{.newsrc} files (e.g., if you
1112 are using the two different Gnusae to read from two different servers),
1113 that is no problem whatsoever. You just do it.
1115 The problem appears when you want to run two Gnusae that use the same
1116 @file{.newsrc} file.
1118 To work around that problem some, we here at the Think-Tank at the Gnus
1119 Towers have come up with a new concept: @dfn{Masters} and
1120 @dfn{slaves}. (We have applied for a patent on this concept, and have
1121 taken out a copyright on those words. If you wish to use those words in
1122 conjunction with each other, you have to send $1 per usage instance to
1123 me. Usage of the patent (@dfn{Master/Slave Relationships In Computer
1124 Applications}) will be much more expensive, of course.)
1127 Anyway, you start one Gnus up the normal way with @kbd{M-x gnus} (or
1128 however you do it). Each subsequent slave Gnusae should be started with
1129 @kbd{M-x gnus-slave}. These slaves won't save normal @file{.newsrc}
1130 files, but instead save @dfn{slave files} that contain information only
1131 on what groups have been read in the slave session. When a master Gnus
1132 starts, it will read (and delete) these slave files, incorporating all
1133 information from them. (The slave files will be read in the sequence
1134 they were created, so the latest changes will have precedence.)
1136 Information from the slave files has, of course, precedence over the
1137 information in the normal (i.e., master) @file{.newsrc} file.
1139 If the @file{.newsrc*} files have not been saved in the master when the
1140 slave starts, you may be prompted as to whether to read an auto-save
1141 file. If you answer ``yes'', the unsaved changes to the master will be
1142 incorporated into the slave. If you answer ``no'', the slave may see some
1143 messages as unread that have been read in the master.
1145 @node Fetching a Group
1146 @section Fetching a Group
1147 @cindex fetching a group
1149 @findex gnus-fetch-group
1150 It is sometimes convenient to be able to just say ``I want to read this
1151 group and I don't care whether Gnus has been started or not''. This is
1152 perhaps more useful for people who write code than for users, but the
1153 command @code{gnus-fetch-group} provides this functionality in any case.
1154 It takes the group name as a parameter.
1160 @cindex subscription
1162 @vindex gnus-check-new-newsgroups
1163 If you are satisfied that you really never want to see any new groups,
1164 you can set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil}. This will
1165 also save you some time at startup. Even if this variable is
1166 @code{nil}, you can always subscribe to the new groups just by pressing
1167 @kbd{U} in the group buffer (@pxref{Group Maintenance}). This variable
1168 is @code{ask-server} by default. If you set this variable to
1169 @code{always}, then Gnus will query the back ends for new groups even
1170 when you do the @kbd{g} command (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
1173 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
1174 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
1175 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
1179 @node Checking New Groups
1180 @subsection Checking New Groups
1182 Gnus normally determines whether a group is new or not by comparing the
1183 list of groups from the active file(s) with the lists of subscribed and
1184 dead groups. This isn't a particularly fast method. If
1185 @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} is @code{ask-server}, Gnus will ask the
1186 server for new groups since the last time. This is both faster and
1187 cheaper. This also means that you can get rid of the list of killed
1188 groups altogether, so you may set @code{gnus-save-killed-list} to
1189 @code{nil}, which will save time both at startup, at exit, and all over.
1190 Saves disk space, too. Why isn't this the default, then?
1191 Unfortunately, not all servers support this command.
1193 I bet I know what you're thinking now: How do I find out whether my
1194 server supports @code{ask-server}? No? Good, because I don't have a
1195 fail-safe answer. I would suggest just setting this variable to
1196 @code{ask-server} and see whether any new groups appear within the next
1197 few days. If any do, then it works. If none do, then it doesn't
1198 work. I could write a function to make Gnus guess whether the server
1199 supports @code{ask-server}, but it would just be a guess. So I won't.
1200 You could @code{telnet} to the server and say @code{HELP} and see
1201 whether it lists @samp{NEWGROUPS} among the commands it understands. If
1202 it does, then it might work. (But there are servers that lists
1203 @samp{NEWGROUPS} without supporting the function properly.)
1205 This variable can also be a list of select methods. If so, Gnus will
1206 issue an @code{ask-server} command to each of the select methods, and
1207 subscribe them (or not) using the normal methods. This might be handy
1208 if you are monitoring a few servers for new groups. A side effect is
1209 that startup will take much longer, so you can meditate while waiting.
1210 Use the mantra ``dingnusdingnusdingnus'' to achieve permanent bliss.
1213 @node Subscription Methods
1214 @subsection Subscription Methods
1216 @vindex gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method
1217 What Gnus does when it encounters a new group is determined by the
1218 @code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} variable.
1220 This variable should contain a function. This function will be called
1221 with the name of the new group as the only parameter.
1223 Some handy pre-fab functions are:
1227 @item gnus-subscribe-zombies
1228 @vindex gnus-subscribe-zombies
1229 Make all new groups zombies. This is the default. You can browse the
1230 zombies later (with @kbd{A z}) and either kill them all off properly
1231 (with @kbd{S z}), or subscribe to them (with @kbd{u}).
1233 @item gnus-subscribe-randomly
1234 @vindex gnus-subscribe-randomly
1235 Subscribe all new groups in arbitrary order. This really means that all
1236 new groups will be added at ``the top'' of the group buffer.
1238 @item gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1239 @vindex gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1240 Subscribe all new groups in alphabetical order.
1242 @item gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1243 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1244 Subscribe all new groups hierarchically. The difference between this
1245 function and @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} is slight.
1246 @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} will subscribe new groups in a strictly
1247 alphabetical fashion, while this function will enter groups into its
1248 hierarchy. So if you want to have the @samp{rec} hierarchy before the
1249 @samp{comp} hierarchy, this function will not mess that configuration
1250 up. Or something like that.
1252 @item gnus-subscribe-interactively
1253 @vindex gnus-subscribe-interactively
1254 Subscribe new groups interactively. This means that Gnus will ask
1255 you about @strong{all} new groups. The groups you choose to subscribe
1256 to will be subscribed hierarchically.
1258 @item gnus-subscribe-killed
1259 @vindex gnus-subscribe-killed
1260 Kill all new groups.
1262 @item gnus-subscribe-topics
1263 @vindex gnus-subscribe-topics
1264 Put the groups into the topic that has a matching @code{subscribe} topic
1265 parameter (@pxref{Topic Parameters}). For instance, a @code{subscribe}
1266 topic parameter that looks like
1272 will mean that all groups that match that regex will be subscribed under
1275 If no topics match the groups, the groups will be subscribed in the
1280 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive
1281 A closely related variable is
1282 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. (That's quite a
1283 mouthful.) If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will ask you in a
1284 hierarchical fashion whether to subscribe to new groups or not. Gnus
1285 will ask you for each sub-hierarchy whether you want to descend the
1288 One common mistake is to set the variable a few paragraphs above
1289 (@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method}) to
1290 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. This is an error. This
1291 will not work. This is ga-ga. So don't do it.
1294 @node Filtering New Groups
1295 @subsection Filtering New Groups
1297 A nice and portable way to control which new newsgroups should be
1298 subscribed (or ignored) is to put an @dfn{options} line at the start of
1299 the @file{.newsrc} file. Here's an example:
1302 options -n !alt.all !rec.all sci.all
1305 @vindex gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method
1306 This line obviously belongs to a serious-minded intellectual scientific
1307 person (or she may just be plain old boring), because it says that all
1308 groups that have names beginning with @samp{alt} and @samp{rec} should
1309 be ignored, and all groups with names beginning with @samp{sci} should
1310 be subscribed. Gnus will not use the normal subscription method for
1311 subscribing these groups.
1312 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method} is used instead. This
1313 variable defaults to @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically}.
1315 @vindex gnus-options-not-subscribe
1316 @vindex gnus-options-subscribe
1317 If you don't want to mess with your @file{.newsrc} file, you can just
1318 set the two variables @code{gnus-options-subscribe} and
1319 @code{gnus-options-not-subscribe}. These two variables do exactly the
1320 same as the @file{.newsrc} @samp{options -n} trick. Both are regexps,
1321 and if the new group matches the former, it will be unconditionally
1322 subscribed, and if it matches the latter, it will be ignored.
1324 @vindex gnus-auto-subscribed-groups
1325 Yet another variable that meddles here is
1326 @code{gnus-auto-subscribed-groups}. It works exactly like
1327 @code{gnus-options-subscribe}, and is therefore really superfluous, but I
1328 thought it would be nice to have two of these. This variable is more
1329 meant for setting some ground rules, while the other variable is used
1330 more for user fiddling. By default this variable makes all new groups
1331 that come from mail back ends (@code{nnml}, @code{nnbabyl},
1332 @code{nnfolder}, @code{nnmbox}, @code{nnmh}, and @code{nnmaildir})
1333 subscribed. If you don't like that, just set this variable to
1336 New groups that match this regexp are subscribed using
1337 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method}.
1340 @node Changing Servers
1341 @section Changing Servers
1342 @cindex changing servers
1344 Sometimes it is necessary to move from one @sc{nntp} server to another.
1345 This happens very rarely, but perhaps you change jobs, or one server is
1346 very flaky and you want to use another.
1348 Changing the server is pretty easy, right? You just change
1349 @code{gnus-select-method} to point to the new server?
1353 Article numbers are not (in any way) kept synchronized between different
1354 @sc{nntp} servers, and the only way Gnus keeps track of what articles
1355 you have read is by keeping track of article numbers. So when you
1356 change @code{gnus-select-method}, your @file{.newsrc} file becomes
1359 Gnus provides a few functions to attempt to translate a @file{.newsrc}
1360 file from one server to another. They all have one thing in
1361 common---they take a looong time to run. You don't want to use these
1362 functions more than absolutely necessary.
1364 @kindex M-x gnus-change-server
1365 @findex gnus-change-server
1366 If you have access to both servers, Gnus can request the headers for all
1367 the articles you have read and compare @code{Message-ID}s and map the
1368 article numbers of the read articles and article marks. The @kbd{M-x
1369 gnus-change-server} command will do this for all your native groups. It
1370 will prompt for the method you want to move to.
1372 @kindex M-x gnus-group-move-group-to-server
1373 @findex gnus-group-move-group-to-server
1374 You can also move individual groups with the @kbd{M-x
1375 gnus-group-move-group-to-server} command. This is useful if you want to
1376 move a (foreign) group from one server to another.
1378 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1379 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1380 If you don't have access to both the old and new server, all your marks
1381 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use the @kbd{M-x
1382 gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups} command to clear out all data
1383 that you have on your native groups. Use with caution.
1385 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data
1386 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
1387 Clear the data from the current group only---nix out marks and the
1388 list of read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
1390 After changing servers, you @strong{must} move the cache hierarchy away,
1391 since the cached articles will have wrong article numbers, which will
1392 affect which articles Gnus thinks are read.
1393 @code{gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups} will ask you if you want
1394 to have it done automatically; for @code{gnus-group-clear-data}, you
1395 can use @kbd{M-x gnus-cache-move-cache} (but beware, it will move the
1396 cache for all groups).
1400 @section Startup Files
1401 @cindex startup files
1406 Now, you all know about the @file{.newsrc} file. All subscription
1407 information is traditionally stored in this file.
1409 Things got a bit more complicated with @sc{gnus}. In addition to
1410 keeping the @file{.newsrc} file updated, it also used a file called
1411 @file{.newsrc.el} for storing all the information that didn't fit into
1412 the @file{.newsrc} file. (Actually, it also duplicated everything in
1413 the @file{.newsrc} file.) @sc{gnus} would read whichever one of these
1414 files was the most recently saved, which enabled people to swap between
1415 @sc{gnus} and other newsreaders.
1417 That was kinda silly, so Gnus went one better: In addition to the
1418 @file{.newsrc} and @file{.newsrc.el} files, Gnus also has a file called
1419 @file{.newsrc.eld}. It will read whichever of these files that are most
1420 recent, but it will never write a @file{.newsrc.el} file. You should
1421 never delete the @file{.newsrc.eld} file---it contains much information
1422 not stored in the @file{.newsrc} file.
1424 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-file
1425 @vindex gnus-read-newsrc-file
1426 You can turn off writing the @file{.newsrc} file by setting
1427 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-file} to @code{nil}, which means you can delete
1428 the file and save some space, as well as exiting from Gnus faster.
1429 However, this will make it impossible to use other newsreaders than
1430 Gnus. But hey, who would want to, right? Similarly, setting
1431 @code{gnus-read-newsrc-file} to @code{nil} makes Gnus ignore the
1432 @file{.newsrc} file and any @file{.newsrc-SERVER} files, which is
1433 convenient if you have a tendency to use Netscape once in a while.
1435 @vindex gnus-save-killed-list
1436 If @code{gnus-save-killed-list} (default @code{t}) is @code{nil}, Gnus
1437 will not save the list of killed groups to the startup file. This will
1438 save both time (when starting and quitting) and space (on disk). It
1439 will also mean that Gnus has no record of what groups are new or old,
1440 so the automatic new groups subscription methods become meaningless.
1441 You should always set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil} or
1442 @code{ask-server} if you set this variable to @code{nil} (@pxref{New
1443 Groups}). This variable can also be a regular expression. If that's
1444 the case, remove all groups that do not match this regexp before
1445 saving. This can be useful in certain obscure situations that involve
1446 several servers where not all servers support @code{ask-server}.
1448 @vindex gnus-startup-file
1449 @vindex gnus-backup-startup-file
1450 @vindex version-control
1451 The @code{gnus-startup-file} variable says where the startup files are.
1452 The default value is @file{~/.newsrc}, with the Gnus (El Dingo) startup
1453 file being whatever that one is, with a @samp{.eld} appended.
1454 If you want version control for this file, set
1455 @code{gnus-backup-startup-file}. It respects the same values as the
1456 @code{version-control} variable.
1458 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-hook
1459 @vindex gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook
1460 @vindex gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook
1461 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-hook} is called before saving any of the newsrc
1462 files, while @code{gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook} is called just before
1463 saving the @file{.newsrc.eld} file, and
1464 @code{gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook} is called just before saving the
1465 @file{.newsrc} file. The latter two are commonly used to turn version
1466 control on or off. Version control is on by default when saving the
1467 startup files. If you want to turn backup creation off, say something like:
1470 (defun turn-off-backup ()
1471 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
1473 (add-hook 'gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1474 (add-hook 'gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1477 @vindex gnus-init-file
1478 @vindex gnus-site-init-file
1479 When Gnus starts, it will read the @code{gnus-site-init-file}
1480 (@file{.../site-lisp/gnus} by default) and @code{gnus-init-file}
1481 (@file{~/.gnus} by default) files. These are normal Emacs Lisp files
1482 and can be used to avoid cluttering your @file{~/.emacs} and
1483 @file{site-init} files with Gnus stuff. Gnus will also check for files
1484 with the same names as these, but with @file{.elc} and @file{.el}
1485 suffixes. In other words, if you have set @code{gnus-init-file} to
1486 @file{~/.gnus}, it will look for @file{~/.gnus.elc}, @file{~/.gnus.el},
1487 and finally @file{~/.gnus} (in this order).
1493 @cindex dribble file
1496 Whenever you do something that changes the Gnus data (reading articles,
1497 catching up, killing/subscribing groups), the change is added to a
1498 special @dfn{dribble buffer}. This buffer is auto-saved the normal
1499 Emacs way. If your Emacs should crash before you have saved the
1500 @file{.newsrc} files, all changes you have made can be recovered from
1503 If Gnus detects this file at startup, it will ask the user whether to
1504 read it. The auto save file is deleted whenever the real startup file is
1507 @vindex gnus-use-dribble-file
1508 If @code{gnus-use-dribble-file} is @code{nil}, Gnus won't create and
1509 maintain a dribble buffer. The default is @code{t}.
1511 @vindex gnus-dribble-directory
1512 Gnus will put the dribble file(s) in @code{gnus-dribble-directory}. If
1513 this variable is @code{nil}, which it is by default, Gnus will dribble
1514 into the directory where the @file{.newsrc} file is located. (This is
1515 normally the user's home directory.) The dribble file will get the same
1516 file permissions as the @file{.newsrc} file.
1518 @vindex gnus-always-read-dribble-file
1519 If @code{gnus-always-read-dribble-file} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will
1520 read the dribble file on startup without querying the user.
1523 @node The Active File
1524 @section The Active File
1526 @cindex ignored groups
1528 When Gnus starts, or indeed whenever it tries to determine whether new
1529 articles have arrived, it reads the active file. This is a very large
1530 file that lists all the active groups and articles on the server.
1532 @vindex gnus-ignored-newsgroups
1533 Before examining the active file, Gnus deletes all lines that match the
1534 regexp @code{gnus-ignored-newsgroups}. This is done primarily to reject
1535 any groups with bogus names, but you can use this variable to make Gnus
1536 ignore hierarchies you aren't ever interested in. However, this is not
1537 recommended. In fact, it's highly discouraged. Instead, @pxref{New
1538 Groups} for an overview of other variables that can be used instead.
1541 @c @code{nil} by default, and will slow down active file handling somewhat
1542 @c if you set it to anything else.
1544 @vindex gnus-read-active-file
1546 The active file can be rather Huge, so if you have a slow network, you
1547 can set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{nil} to prevent Gnus from
1548 reading the active file. This variable is @code{some} by default.
1550 Gnus will try to make do by getting information just on the groups that
1551 you actually subscribe to.
1553 Note that if you subscribe to lots and lots of groups, setting this
1554 variable to @code{nil} will probably make Gnus slower, not faster. At
1555 present, having this variable @code{nil} will slow Gnus down
1556 considerably, unless you read news over a 2400 baud modem.
1558 This variable can also have the value @code{some}. Gnus will then
1559 attempt to read active info only on the subscribed groups. On some
1560 servers this is quite fast (on sparkling, brand new INN servers that
1561 support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command), on others this isn't fast
1562 at all. In any case, @code{some} should be faster than @code{nil}, and
1563 is certainly faster than @code{t} over slow lines.
1565 Some news servers (old versions of Leafnode and old versions of INN, for
1566 instance) do not support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group}. For these
1567 servers, @code{nil} is probably the most efficient value for this
1570 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will ask for group info in total
1571 lock-step, which isn't very fast. If it is @code{some} and you use an
1572 @sc{nntp} server, Gnus will pump out commands as fast as it can, and
1573 read all the replies in one swoop. This will normally result in better
1574 performance, but if the server does not support the aforementioned
1575 @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command, this isn't very nice to the server.
1577 If you think that starting up Gnus takes too long, try all the three
1578 different values for this variable and see what works best for you.
1580 In any case, if you use @code{some} or @code{nil}, you should definitely
1581 kill all groups that you aren't interested in to speed things up.
1583 Note that this variable also affects active file retrieval from
1584 secondary select methods.
1587 @node Startup Variables
1588 @section Startup Variables
1592 @item gnus-load-hook
1593 @vindex gnus-load-hook
1594 A hook run while Gnus is being loaded. Note that this hook will
1595 normally be run just once in each Emacs session, no matter how many
1596 times you start Gnus.
1598 @item gnus-before-startup-hook
1599 @vindex gnus-before-startup-hook
1600 A hook run after starting up Gnus successfully.
1602 @item gnus-startup-hook
1603 @vindex gnus-startup-hook
1604 A hook run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1606 @item gnus-started-hook
1607 @vindex gnus-started-hook
1608 A hook that is run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1611 @item gnus-setup-news-hook
1612 @vindex gnus-setup-news-hook
1613 A hook that is run after reading the @file{.newsrc} file(s), but before
1614 generating the group buffer.
1616 @item gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1617 @vindex gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1618 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will check for and delete all bogus groups at
1619 startup. A @dfn{bogus group} is a group that you have in your
1620 @file{.newsrc} file, but doesn't exist on the news server. Checking for
1621 bogus groups can take quite a while, so to save time and resources it's
1622 best to leave this option off, and do the checking for bogus groups once
1623 in a while from the group buffer instead (@pxref{Group Maintenance}).
1625 @item gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1626 @vindex gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1627 If non-@code{nil}, the startup message won't be displayed. That way,
1628 your boss might not notice as easily that you are reading news instead
1629 of doing your job. Note that this variable is used before
1630 @file{~/.gnus.el} is loaded, so it should be set in @file{.emacs} instead.
1632 @item gnus-no-groups-message
1633 @vindex gnus-no-groups-message
1634 Message displayed by Gnus when no groups are available.
1636 @item gnus-play-startup-jingle
1637 @vindex gnus-play-startup-jingle
1638 If non-@code{nil}, play the Gnus jingle at startup.
1640 @item gnus-startup-jingle
1641 @vindex gnus-startup-jingle
1642 Jingle to be played if the above variable is non-@code{nil}. The
1643 default is @samp{Tuxedomoon.Jingle4.au}.
1649 @chapter Group Buffer
1650 @cindex group buffer
1652 @c Alex Schroeder suggests to rearrange this as follows:
1654 @c <kensanata> ok, just save it for reference. I'll go to bed in a minute.
1655 @c 1. Selecting a Group, 2. (new) Finding a Group, 3. Group Levels,
1656 @c 4. Subscription Commands, 5. Group Maneuvering, 6. Group Data,
1657 @c 7. Group Score, 8. Group Buffer Format
1658 @c <kensanata> Group Levels should have more information on levels 5 to 9. I
1659 @c suggest to split the 4th paragraph ("Gnus considers groups...") as follows:
1660 @c <kensanata> First, "Gnus considers groups... (default 9)."
1661 @c <kensanata> New, a table summarizing what levels 1 to 9 mean.
1662 @c <kensanata> Third, "Gnus treats subscribed ... reasons of efficiency"
1663 @c <kensanata> Then expand the next paragraph or add some more to it.
1664 @c This short one sentence explains levels 1 and 2, therefore I understand
1665 @c that I should keep important news at 3 and boring news at 4.
1666 @c Say so! Then go on to explain why I should bother with levels 6 to 9.
1667 @c Maybe keep those that you don't want to read temporarily at 6,
1668 @c those that you never want to read at 8, those that offend your
1669 @c human rights at 9...
1672 The @dfn{group buffer} lists all (or parts) of the available groups. It
1673 is the first buffer shown when Gnus starts, and will never be killed as
1674 long as Gnus is active.
1678 \gnusfigure{The Group Buffer}{320}{
1679 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=ps/group,height=9cm}}
1680 \put(120,37){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Buffer name}}
1681 \put(120,38){\vector(1,2){10}}
1682 \put(40,60){\makebox(0,0)[r]{Mode line}}
1683 \put(40,58){\vector(1,0){30}}
1684 \put(200,28){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Native select method}}
1685 \put(200,26){\vector(-1,2){15}}
1691 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
1692 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
1693 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
1694 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
1695 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
1696 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
1697 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
1698 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
1699 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
1700 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
1701 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
1702 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
1703 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
1704 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
1705 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
1706 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
1707 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
1711 @node Group Buffer Format
1712 @section Group Buffer Format
1715 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
1716 * Group Modeline Specification:: The group buffer modeline.
1717 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
1721 @node Group Line Specification
1722 @subsection Group Line Specification
1723 @cindex group buffer format
1725 The default format of the group buffer is nice and dull, but you can
1726 make it as exciting and ugly as you feel like.
1728 Here's a couple of example group lines:
1731 25: news.announce.newusers
1732 * 0: alt.fan.andrea-dworkin
1737 You can see that there are 25 unread articles in
1738 @samp{news.announce.newusers}. There are no unread articles, but some
1739 ticked articles, in @samp{alt.fan.andrea-dworkin} (see that little
1740 asterisk at the beginning of the line?).
1742 @vindex gnus-group-line-format
1743 You can change that format to whatever you want by fiddling with the
1744 @code{gnus-group-line-format} variable. This variable works along the
1745 lines of a @code{format} specification, which is pretty much the same as
1746 a @code{printf} specifications, for those of you who use (feh!) C.
1747 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
1749 @samp{%M%S%5y:%B%(%g%)\n} is the value that produced those lines above.
1751 There should always be a colon on the line; the cursor always moves to
1752 the colon after performing an operation. @xref{Positioning
1753 Point}. Nothing else is required---not even the group name. All
1754 displayed text is just window dressing, and is never examined by Gnus.
1755 Gnus stores all real information it needs using text properties.
1757 (Note that if you make a really strange, wonderful, spreadsheet-like
1758 layout, everybody will believe you are hard at work with the accounting
1759 instead of wasting time reading news.)
1761 Here's a list of all available format characters:
1766 An asterisk if the group only has marked articles.
1769 Whether the group is subscribed.
1772 Level of subscribedness.
1775 Number of unread articles.
1778 Number of dormant articles.
1781 Number of ticked articles.
1784 Number of read articles.
1787 Number of unseen articles.
1790 Estimated total number of articles. (This is really @var{max-number}
1791 minus @var{min-number} plus 1.)
1793 Gnus uses this estimation because the @sc{nntp} protocol provides
1794 efficient access to @var{max-number} and @var{min-number} but getting
1795 the true unread message count is not possible efficiently. For
1796 hysterical raisins, even the mail back ends, where the true number of
1797 unread messages might be available efficiently, use the same limited
1798 interface. To remove this restriction from Gnus means that the back
1799 end interface has to be changed, which is not an easy job. If you
1800 want to work on this, please contact the Gnus mailing list.
1803 Number of unread, unticked, non-dormant articles.
1806 Number of ticked and dormant articles.
1815 Group comment (@pxref{Group Parameters}) or group name if there is no
1816 comment element in the group parameters.
1819 Newsgroup description. You need to read the group descriptions
1820 before these will appear, and to do that, you either have to set
1821 @code{gnus-read-active-file} or use the group buffer @kbd{M-d}
1825 @samp{m} if moderated.
1828 @samp{(m)} if moderated.
1834 If the summary buffer for the group is open or not.
1840 A string that looks like @samp{<%s:%n>} if a foreign select method is
1844 Indentation based on the level of the topic (@pxref{Group Topics}).
1847 @vindex gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels
1848 Short (collapsed) group name. The @code{gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels}
1849 variable says how many levels to leave at the end of the group name.
1850 The default is 1---this will mean that group names like
1851 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} will be shortened to @samp{g.e.gnus}.
1854 @vindex gnus-new-mail-mark
1856 @samp{%} (@code{gnus-new-mail-mark}) if there has arrived new mail to
1860 @samp{#} (@code{gnus-process-mark}) if the group is process marked.
1863 A string that says when you last read the group (@pxref{Group
1867 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
1868 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
1869 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
1870 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed a single dummy
1871 parameter as argument. The function should return a string, which will
1872 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
1877 All the ``number-of'' specs will be filled with an asterisk (@samp{*})
1878 if no info is available---for instance, if it is a non-activated foreign
1879 group, or a bogus native group.
1882 @node Group Modeline Specification
1883 @subsection Group Modeline Specification
1884 @cindex group modeline
1886 @vindex gnus-group-mode-line-format
1887 The mode line can be changed by setting
1888 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}). It
1889 doesn't understand that many format specifiers:
1893 The native news server.
1895 The native select method.
1899 @node Group Highlighting
1900 @subsection Group Highlighting
1901 @cindex highlighting
1902 @cindex group highlighting
1904 @vindex gnus-group-highlight
1905 Highlighting in the group buffer is controlled by the
1906 @code{gnus-group-highlight} variable. This is an alist with elements
1907 that look like @code{(@var{form} . @var{face})}. If @var{form} evaluates to
1908 something non-@code{nil}, the @var{face} will be used on the line.
1910 Here's an example value for this variable that might look nice if the
1914 (cond (window-system
1915 (setq custom-background-mode 'light)
1916 (defface my-group-face-1
1917 '((t (:foreground "Red" :bold t))) "First group face")
1918 (defface my-group-face-2
1919 '((t (:foreground "DarkSeaGreen4" :bold t))) "Second group face")
1920 (defface my-group-face-3
1921 '((t (:foreground "Green4" :bold t))) "Third group face")
1922 (defface my-group-face-4
1923 '((t (:foreground "SteelBlue" :bold t))) "Fourth group face")
1924 (defface my-group-face-5
1925 '((t (:foreground "Blue" :bold t))) "Fifth group face")))
1927 (setq gnus-group-highlight
1928 '(((> unread 200) . my-group-face-1)
1929 ((and (< level 3) (zerop unread)) . my-group-face-2)
1930 ((< level 3) . my-group-face-3)
1931 ((zerop unread) . my-group-face-4)
1932 (t . my-group-face-5)))
1935 Also @pxref{Faces and Fonts}.
1937 Variables that are dynamically bound when the forms are evaluated
1944 The number of unread articles in the group.
1948 Whether the group is a mail group.
1950 The level of the group.
1952 The score of the group.
1954 The number of ticked articles in the group.
1956 The total number of articles in the group. Or rather,
1957 @var{max-number} minus @var{min-number} plus one.
1959 When using the topic minor mode, this variable is bound to the current
1960 topic being inserted.
1963 When the forms are @code{eval}ed, point is at the beginning of the line
1964 of the group in question, so you can use many of the normal Gnus
1965 functions for snarfing info on the group.
1967 @vindex gnus-group-update-hook
1968 @findex gnus-group-highlight-line
1969 @code{gnus-group-update-hook} is called when a group line is changed.
1970 It will not be called when @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}. This hook
1971 calls @code{gnus-group-highlight-line} by default.
1974 @node Group Maneuvering
1975 @section Group Maneuvering
1976 @cindex group movement
1978 All movement commands understand the numeric prefix and will behave as
1979 expected, hopefully.
1985 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group
1986 Go to the next group that has unread articles
1987 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group}).
1993 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group
1994 Go to the previous group that has unread articles
1995 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group}).
1999 @findex gnus-group-next-group
2000 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
2004 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
2005 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
2009 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level
2010 Go to the next unread group on the same (or lower) level
2011 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level}).
2015 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level
2016 Go to the previous unread group on the same (or lower) level
2017 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level}).
2020 Three commands for jumping to groups:
2026 @findex gnus-group-jump-to-group
2027 Jump to a group (and make it visible if it isn't already)
2028 (@code{gnus-group-jump-to-group}). Killed groups can be jumped to, just
2033 @findex gnus-group-best-unread-group
2034 Jump to the unread group with the lowest level
2035 (@code{gnus-group-best-unread-group}).
2039 @findex gnus-group-first-unread-group
2040 Jump to the first group with unread articles
2041 (@code{gnus-group-first-unread-group}).
2044 @vindex gnus-group-goto-unread
2045 If @code{gnus-group-goto-unread} is @code{nil}, all the movement
2046 commands will move to the next group, not the next unread group. Even
2047 the commands that say they move to the next unread group. The default
2051 @node Selecting a Group
2052 @section Selecting a Group
2053 @cindex group selection
2058 @kindex SPACE (Group)
2059 @findex gnus-group-read-group
2060 Select the current group, switch to the summary buffer and display the
2061 first unread article (@code{gnus-group-read-group}). If there are no
2062 unread articles in the group, or if you give a non-numerical prefix to
2063 this command, Gnus will offer to fetch all the old articles in this
2064 group from the server. If you give a numerical prefix @var{n}, @var{n}
2065 determines the number of articles Gnus will fetch. If @var{n} is
2066 positive, Gnus fetches the @var{n} newest articles, if @var{n} is
2067 negative, Gnus fetches the @code{abs(@var{n})} oldest articles.
2069 Thus, @kbd{SPC} enters the group normally, @kbd{C-u SPC} offers old
2070 articles, @kbd{C-u 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 newest articles, and @kbd{C-u
2071 - 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 oldest ones.
2073 When you are in the group (in the Summary buffer), you can type
2074 @kbd{M-g} to fetch new articles, or @kbd{C-u M-g} to also show the old
2079 @findex gnus-group-select-group
2080 Select the current group and switch to the summary buffer
2081 (@code{gnus-group-select-group}). Takes the same arguments as
2082 @code{gnus-group-read-group}---the only difference is that this command
2083 does not display the first unread article automatically upon group
2087 @kindex M-RET (Group)
2088 @findex gnus-group-quick-select-group
2089 This does the same as the command above, but tries to do it with the
2090 minimum amount of fuzz (@code{gnus-group-quick-select-group}). No
2091 scoring/killing will be performed, there will be no highlights and no
2092 expunging. This might be useful if you're in a real hurry and have to
2093 enter some humongous group. If you give a 0 prefix to this command
2094 (i.e., @kbd{0 M-RET}), Gnus won't even generate the summary buffer,
2095 which is useful if you want to toggle threading before generating the
2096 summary buffer (@pxref{Summary Generation Commands}).
2099 @kindex M-SPACE (Group)
2100 @findex gnus-group-visible-select-group
2101 This is yet one more command that does the same as the @kbd{RET}
2102 command, but this one does it without expunging and hiding dormants
2103 (@code{gnus-group-visible-select-group}).
2106 @kindex C-M-RET (Group)
2107 @findex gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally
2108 Finally, this command selects the current group ephemerally without
2109 doing any processing of its contents
2110 (@code{gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally}). Even threading has been
2111 turned off. Everything you do in the group after selecting it in this
2112 manner will have no permanent effects.
2116 @vindex gnus-large-newsgroup
2117 The @code{gnus-large-newsgroup} variable says what Gnus should consider
2118 to be a big group. This is 200 by default. If the group has more
2119 (unread and/or ticked) articles than this, Gnus will query the user
2120 before entering the group. The user can then specify how many articles
2121 should be fetched from the server. If the user specifies a negative
2122 number (@code{-n}), the @code{n} oldest articles will be fetched. If it
2123 is positive, the @code{n} articles that have arrived most recently will
2126 @vindex gnus-select-group-hook
2127 @vindex gnus-auto-select-first
2128 @vindex gnus-auto-select-subject
2129 If @code{gnus-auto-select-first} is non-@code{nil}, select an article
2130 automatically when entering a group with the @kbd{SPACE} command.
2131 Which article this is is controlled by the
2132 @code{gnus-auto-select-subject} variable. Valid values for this
2138 Place point on the subject line of the first unread article.
2141 Place point on the subject line of the first article.
2144 Place point on the subject line of the first unseen article.
2146 @item unseen-or-unread
2147 Place point on the subject line of the first unseen article, and if
2148 there is no such article, place point on the subject line of the first
2152 Place point on the subject line of the highest-scored unread article.
2156 This variable can also be a function. In that case, that function
2157 will be called to place point on a subject line.
2159 If you want to prevent automatic selection in some group (say, in a
2160 binary group with Huge articles) you can set the
2161 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} variable to @code{nil} in
2162 @code{gnus-select-group-hook}, which is called when a group is
2166 @node Subscription Commands
2167 @section Subscription Commands
2168 @cindex subscription
2176 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group
2177 @c @icon{gnus-group-unsubscribe}
2178 Toggle subscription to the current group
2179 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group}).
2185 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-group
2186 Prompt for a group to subscribe, and then subscribe it. If it was
2187 subscribed already, unsubscribe it instead
2188 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-group}).
2194 @findex gnus-group-kill-group
2195 @c @icon{gnus-group-kill-group}
2196 Kill the current group (@code{gnus-group-kill-group}).
2202 @findex gnus-group-yank-group
2203 Yank the last killed group (@code{gnus-group-yank-group}).
2206 @kindex C-x C-t (Group)
2207 @findex gnus-group-transpose-groups
2208 Transpose two groups (@code{gnus-group-transpose-groups}). This isn't
2209 really a subscription command, but you can use it instead of a
2210 kill-and-yank sequence sometimes.
2216 @findex gnus-group-kill-region
2217 Kill all groups in the region (@code{gnus-group-kill-region}).
2221 @findex gnus-group-kill-all-zombies
2222 Kill all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-kill-all-zombies}).
2225 @kindex S C-k (Group)
2226 @findex gnus-group-kill-level
2227 Kill all groups on a certain level (@code{gnus-group-kill-level}).
2228 These groups can't be yanked back after killing, so this command should
2229 be used with some caution. The only time where this command comes in
2230 really handy is when you have a @file{.newsrc} with lots of unsubscribed
2231 groups that you want to get rid off. @kbd{S C-k} on level 7 will
2232 kill off all unsubscribed groups that do not have message numbers in the
2233 @file{.newsrc} file.
2237 Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
2247 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current
2248 @vindex gnus-group-catchup-group-hook
2249 @c @icon{gnus-group-catchup-current}
2250 Mark all unticked articles in this group as read
2251 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current}).
2252 @code{gnus-group-catchup-group-hook} is called when catching up a group from
2257 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current-all
2258 Mark all articles in this group, even the ticked ones, as read
2259 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current-all}).
2263 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
2264 Clear the data from the current group---nix out marks and the list of
2265 read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
2267 @item M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2268 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2269 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2270 If you have switched from one @sc{nntp} server to another, all your marks
2271 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use this command to
2272 clear out all data that you have on your native groups. Use with
2279 @section Group Levels
2283 All groups have a level of @dfn{subscribedness}. For instance, if a
2284 group is on level 2, it is more subscribed than a group on level 5. You
2285 can ask Gnus to just list groups on a given level or lower
2286 (@pxref{Listing Groups}), or to just check for new articles in groups on
2287 a given level or lower (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
2289 Remember: The higher the level of the group, the less important it is.
2295 @findex gnus-group-set-current-level
2296 Set the level of the current group. If a numeric prefix is given, the
2297 next @var{n} groups will have their levels set. The user will be
2298 prompted for a level.
2301 @vindex gnus-level-killed
2302 @vindex gnus-level-zombie
2303 @vindex gnus-level-unsubscribed
2304 @vindex gnus-level-subscribed
2305 Gnus considers groups from levels 1 to
2306 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (inclusive) (default 5) to be subscribed,
2307 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (exclusive) and
2308 @code{gnus-level-unsubscribed} (inclusive) (default 7) to be
2309 unsubscribed, @code{gnus-level-zombie} to be zombies (walking dead)
2310 (default 8) and @code{gnus-level-killed} to be killed (completely dead)
2311 (default 9). Gnus treats subscribed and unsubscribed groups exactly the
2312 same, but zombie and killed groups have no information on what articles
2313 you have read, etc, stored. This distinction between dead and living
2314 groups isn't done because it is nice or clever, it is done purely for
2315 reasons of efficiency.
2317 It is recommended that you keep all your mail groups (if any) on quite
2318 low levels (e.g. 1 or 2).
2320 Maybe the following description of the default behavior of Gnus helps to
2321 understand what these levels are all about. By default, Gnus shows you
2322 subscribed nonempty groups, but by hitting @kbd{L} you can have it show
2323 empty subscribed groups and unsubscribed groups, too. Type @kbd{l} to
2324 go back to showing nonempty subscribed groups again. Thus, unsubscribed
2325 groups are hidden, in a way.
2327 Zombie and killed groups are similar to unsubscribed groups in that they
2328 are hidden by default. But they are different from subscribed and
2329 unsubscribed groups in that Gnus doesn't ask the news server for
2330 information (number of messages, number of unread messages) on zombie
2331 and killed groups. Normally, you use @kbd{C-k} to kill the groups you
2332 aren't interested in. If most groups are killed, Gnus is faster.
2334 Why does Gnus distinguish between zombie and killed groups? Well, when
2335 a new group arrives on the server, Gnus by default makes it a zombie
2336 group. This means that you are normally not bothered with new groups,
2337 but you can type @kbd{A z} to get a list of all new groups. Subscribe
2338 the ones you like and kill the ones you don't want. (@kbd{A k} shows a
2339 list of killed groups.)
2341 If you want to play with the level variables, you should show some care.
2342 Set them once, and don't touch them ever again. Better yet, don't touch
2343 them at all unless you know exactly what you're doing.
2345 @vindex gnus-level-default-unsubscribed
2346 @vindex gnus-level-default-subscribed
2347 Two closely related variables are @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}
2348 (default 3) and @code{gnus-level-default-unsubscribed} (default 6),
2349 which are the levels that new groups will be put on if they are
2350 (un)subscribed. These two variables should, of course, be inside the
2351 relevant valid ranges.
2353 @vindex gnus-keep-same-level
2354 If @code{gnus-keep-same-level} is non-@code{nil}, some movement commands
2355 will only move to groups of the same level (or lower). In
2356 particular, going from the last article in one group to the next group
2357 will go to the next group of the same level (or lower). This might be
2358 handy if you want to read the most important groups before you read the
2361 If this variable is @code{best}, Gnus will make the next newsgroup the
2362 one with the best level.
2364 @vindex gnus-group-default-list-level
2365 All groups with a level less than or equal to
2366 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level} will be listed in the group buffer
2369 @vindex gnus-group-list-inactive-groups
2370 If @code{gnus-group-list-inactive-groups} is non-@code{nil}, non-active
2371 groups will be listed along with the unread groups. This variable is
2372 @code{t} by default. If it is @code{nil}, inactive groups won't be
2375 @vindex gnus-group-use-permanent-levels
2376 If @code{gnus-group-use-permanent-levels} is non-@code{nil}, once you
2377 give a level prefix to @kbd{g} or @kbd{l}, all subsequent commands will
2378 use this level as the ``work'' level.
2380 @vindex gnus-activate-level
2381 Gnus will normally just activate (i. e., query the server about) groups
2382 on level @code{gnus-activate-level} or less. If you don't want to
2383 activate unsubscribed groups, for instance, you might set this variable
2384 to 5. The default is 6.
2388 @section Group Score
2393 You would normally keep important groups on high levels, but that scheme
2394 is somewhat restrictive. Don't you wish you could have Gnus sort the
2395 group buffer according to how often you read groups, perhaps? Within
2398 This is what @dfn{group score} is for. You can have Gnus assign a score
2399 to each group through the mechanism described below. You can then sort
2400 the group buffer based on this score. Alternatively, you can sort on
2401 score and then level. (Taken together, the level and the score is
2402 called the @dfn{rank} of the group. A group that is on level 4 and has
2403 a score of 1 has a higher rank than a group on level 5 that has a score
2404 of 300. (The level is the most significant part and the score is the
2405 least significant part.))
2407 @findex gnus-summary-bubble-group
2408 If you want groups you read often to get higher scores than groups you
2409 read seldom you can add the @code{gnus-summary-bubble-group} function to
2410 the @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} hook. This will result (after
2411 sorting) in a bubbling sort of action. If you want to see that in
2412 action after each summary exit, you can add
2413 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank} or
2414 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score} to the same hook, but that will
2415 slow things down somewhat.
2418 @node Marking Groups
2419 @section Marking Groups
2420 @cindex marking groups
2422 If you want to perform some command on several groups, and they appear
2423 subsequently in the group buffer, you would normally just give a
2424 numerical prefix to the command. Most group commands will then do your
2425 bidding on those groups.
2427 However, if the groups are not in sequential order, you can still
2428 perform a command on several groups. You simply mark the groups first
2429 with the process mark and then execute the command.
2437 @findex gnus-group-mark-group
2438 Set the mark on the current group (@code{gnus-group-mark-group}).
2444 @findex gnus-group-unmark-group
2445 Remove the mark from the current group
2446 (@code{gnus-group-unmark-group}).
2450 @findex gnus-group-unmark-all-groups
2451 Remove the mark from all groups (@code{gnus-group-unmark-all-groups}).
2455 @findex gnus-group-mark-region
2456 Mark all groups between point and mark (@code{gnus-group-mark-region}).
2460 @findex gnus-group-mark-buffer
2461 Mark all groups in the buffer (@code{gnus-group-mark-buffer}).
2465 @findex gnus-group-mark-regexp
2466 Mark all groups that match some regular expression
2467 (@code{gnus-group-mark-regexp}).
2470 Also @pxref{Process/Prefix}.
2472 @findex gnus-group-universal-argument
2473 If you want to execute some command on all groups that have been marked
2474 with the process mark, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
2475 (@code{gnus-group-universal-argument}) command. It will prompt you for
2476 the command to be executed.
2479 @node Foreign Groups
2480 @section Foreign Groups
2481 @cindex foreign groups
2483 Below are some group mode commands for making and editing general foreign
2484 groups, as well as commands to ease the creation of a few
2485 special-purpose groups. All these commands insert the newly created
2486 groups under point---@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} is not
2493 @findex gnus-group-make-group
2494 @cindex making groups
2495 Make a new group (@code{gnus-group-make-group}). Gnus will prompt you
2496 for a name, a method and possibly an @dfn{address}. For an easier way
2497 to subscribe to @sc{nntp} groups, @pxref{Browse Foreign Server}.
2501 @findex gnus-group-rename-group
2502 @cindex renaming groups
2503 Rename the current group to something else
2504 (@code{gnus-group-rename-group}). This is valid only on some
2505 groups---mail groups mostly. This command might very well be quite slow
2511 @findex gnus-group-customize
2512 Customize the group parameters (@code{gnus-group-customize}).
2516 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-method
2517 @cindex renaming groups
2518 Enter a buffer where you can edit the select method of the current
2519 group (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method}).
2523 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-parameters
2524 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group parameters
2525 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-parameters}).
2529 @findex gnus-group-edit-group
2530 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group info
2531 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group}).
2535 @findex gnus-group-make-directory-group
2537 Make a directory group (@pxref{Directory Groups}). You will be prompted
2538 for a directory name (@code{gnus-group-make-directory-group}).
2543 @findex gnus-group-make-help-group
2544 Make the Gnus help group (@code{gnus-group-make-help-group}).
2548 @cindex (ding) archive
2549 @cindex archive group
2550 @findex gnus-group-make-archive-group
2551 @vindex gnus-group-archive-directory
2552 @vindex gnus-group-recent-archive-directory
2553 Make a Gnus archive group (@code{gnus-group-make-archive-group}). By
2554 default a group pointing to the most recent articles will be created
2555 (@code{gnus-group-recent-archive-directory}), but given a prefix, a full
2556 group will be created from @code{gnus-group-archive-directory}.
2560 @findex gnus-group-make-kiboze-group
2562 Make a kiboze group. You will be prompted for a name, for a regexp to
2563 match groups to be ``included'' in the kiboze group, and a series of
2564 strings to match on headers (@code{gnus-group-make-kiboze-group}).
2565 @xref{Kibozed Groups}.
2569 @findex gnus-group-enter-directory
2571 Read an arbitrary directory as if it were a newsgroup with the
2572 @code{nneething} back end (@code{gnus-group-enter-directory}).
2573 @xref{Anything Groups}.
2577 @findex gnus-group-make-doc-group
2578 @cindex ClariNet Briefs
2580 Make a group based on some file or other
2581 (@code{gnus-group-make-doc-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2582 command, you will be prompted for a file name and a file type.
2583 Currently supported types are @code{mbox}, @code{babyl},
2584 @code{digest}, @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward},
2585 @code{rfc934}, @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-parts},
2586 @code{standard-digest}, @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs},
2587 @code{nsmail}, @code{outlook}, @code{oe-dbx}, and @code{mailman}. If
2588 you run this command without a prefix, Gnus will guess at the file
2589 type. @xref{Document Groups}.
2593 @vindex gnus-useful-groups
2594 @findex gnus-group-make-useful-group
2595 Create one of the groups mentioned in @code{gnus-useful-groups}
2596 (@code{gnus-group-make-useful-group}).
2600 @findex gnus-group-make-web-group
2604 Make an ephemeral group based on a web search
2605 (@code{gnus-group-make-web-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2606 command, make a solid group instead. You will be prompted for the
2607 search engine type and the search string. Valid search engine types
2608 include @code{google}, @code{dejanews}, and @code{gmane}.
2609 @xref{Web Searches}.
2611 If you use the @code{google} search engine, you can limit the search
2612 to a particular group by using a match string like
2613 @samp{shaving group:alt.sysadmin.recovery}.
2616 @kindex G DEL (Group)
2617 @findex gnus-group-delete-group
2618 This function will delete the current group
2619 (@code{gnus-group-delete-group}). If given a prefix, this function will
2620 actually delete all the articles in the group, and forcibly remove the
2621 group itself from the face of the Earth. Use a prefix only if you are
2622 absolutely sure of what you are doing. This command can't be used on
2623 read-only groups (like @code{nntp} group), though.
2627 @findex gnus-group-make-empty-virtual
2628 Make a new, fresh, empty @code{nnvirtual} group
2629 (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}). @xref{Virtual Groups}.
2633 @findex gnus-group-add-to-virtual
2634 Add the current group to an @code{nnvirtual} group
2635 (@code{gnus-group-add-to-virtual}). Uses the process/prefix convention.
2638 @xref{Select Methods}, for more information on the various select
2641 @vindex gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups
2642 If @code{gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups} is a positive number,
2643 Gnus will check all foreign groups with this level or lower at startup.
2644 This might take quite a while, especially if you subscribe to lots of
2645 groups from different @sc{nntp} servers. Also @pxref{Group Levels};
2646 @code{gnus-activate-level} also affects activation of foreign
2650 @node Group Parameters
2651 @section Group Parameters
2652 @cindex group parameters
2654 The group parameters store information local to a particular group.
2655 Here's an example group parameter list:
2658 ((to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")
2662 We see that each element consists of a ``dotted pair''---the thing before
2663 the dot is the key, while the thing after the dot is the value. All the
2664 parameters have this form @emph{except} local variable specs, which are
2665 not dotted pairs, but proper lists.
2667 Some parameters have correspondant customizable variables, each of which
2668 is an alist of regexps and values.
2670 The following group parameters can be used:
2675 Address used by when doing followups and new posts.
2678 (to-address . "some@@where.com")
2681 This is primarily useful in mail groups that represent closed mailing
2682 lists---mailing lists where it's expected that everybody that writes to
2683 the mailing list is subscribed to it. Since using this parameter
2684 ensures that the mail only goes to the mailing list itself, it means
2685 that members won't receive two copies of your followups.
2687 Using @code{to-address} will actually work whether the group is foreign
2688 or not. Let's say there's a group on the server that is called
2689 @samp{fa.4ad-l}. This is a real newsgroup, but the server has gotten
2690 the articles from a mail-to-news gateway. Posting directly to this
2691 group is therefore impossible---you have to send mail to the mailing
2692 list address instead.
2694 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-address-alist}.
2698 Address used when doing @kbd{a} in that group.
2701 (to-list . "some@@where.com")
2704 It is totally ignored
2705 when doing a followup---except that if it is present in a news group,
2706 you'll get mail group semantics when doing @kbd{f}.
2708 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you have neither a
2709 @code{to-list} group parameter nor a @code{to-address} group parameter,
2710 then a @code{to-list} group parameter will be added automatically upon
2711 sending the message if @code{gnus-add-to-list} is set to @code{t}.
2712 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
2714 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you don't have a
2715 @code{to-list} group parameter, one will be added automatically upon
2716 sending the message.
2718 @findex gnus-mailing-list-mode
2719 @cindex Mail List Groups
2720 If this variable is set, @code{gnus-mailing-list-mode} is turned on when
2721 entering summary buffer.
2723 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-list-alist}.
2728 If this parameter is set to @code{t}, Gnus will consider the
2729 to-address and to-list parameters for this group as addresses of
2730 mailing lists you are subscribed to. Giving Gnus this information is
2731 (only) a first step in getting it to generate correct Mail-Followup-To
2732 headers for your posts to these lists. Look here @pxref{Mailing
2733 Lists, , Mailing Lists, message, The Message Manual} for a complete
2734 treatment of available MFT support.
2736 See also @code{gnus-find-subscribed-addresses}, the function that
2737 directly uses this group parameter.
2741 If the group parameter list has the element @code{(visible . t)},
2742 that group will always be visible in the Group buffer, regardless
2743 of whether it has any unread articles.
2745 @item broken-reply-to
2746 @cindex broken-reply-to
2747 Elements like @code{(broken-reply-to . t)} signals that @code{Reply-To}
2748 headers in this group are to be ignored. This can be useful if you're
2749 reading a mailing list group where the listserv has inserted
2750 @code{Reply-To} headers that point back to the listserv itself. This is
2751 broken behavior. So there!
2755 Elements like @code{(to-group . "some.group.name")} means that all
2756 posts in that group will be sent to @code{some.group.name}.
2760 If you have @code{(newsgroup . t)} in the group parameter list, Gnus
2761 will treat all responses as if they were responses to news articles.
2762 This can be useful if you have a mail group that's really a mirror of a
2767 If @code{(gcc-self . t)} is present in the group parameter list, newly
2768 composed messages will be @code{Gcc}'d to the current group. If
2769 @code{(gcc-self . none)} is present, no @code{Gcc:} header will be
2770 generated, if @code{(gcc-self . "string")} is present, this string will
2771 be inserted literally as a @code{gcc} header. This parameter takes
2772 precedence over any default @code{Gcc} rules as described later
2773 (@pxref{Archived Messages}). CAVEAT:: It yields an error putting
2774 @code{(gcc-self . t)} in groups of a @code{nntp} server or so, because
2775 a @code{nntp} server doesn't accept articles.
2779 If the group parameter has an element that looks like @code{(auto-expire
2780 . t)}, all articles read will be marked as expirable. For an
2781 alternative approach, @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
2783 See also @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups}.
2786 @cindex total-expire
2787 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2788 @code{(total-expire . t)}, all read articles will be put through the
2789 expiry process, even if they are not marked as expirable. Use with
2790 caution. Unread, ticked and dormant articles are not eligible for
2793 See also @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups}.
2797 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
2798 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2799 @code{(expiry-wait . 10)}, this value will override any
2800 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} and @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function}
2801 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}) when expiring expirable messages. The value
2802 can either be a number of days (not necessarily an integer) or the
2803 symbols @code{never} or @code{immediate}.
2806 @cindex score file group parameter
2807 Elements that look like @code{(score-file . "file")} will make
2808 @file{file} into the current score file for the group in question. All
2809 interactive score entries will be put into this file.
2812 @cindex adapt file group parameter
2813 Elements that look like @code{(adapt-file . "file")} will make
2814 @file{file} into the current adaptive file for the group in question.
2815 All adaptive score entries will be put into this file.
2818 @cindex admin-address
2819 When unsubscribing from a mailing list you should never send the
2820 unsubscription notice to the mailing list itself. Instead, you'd send
2821 messages to the administrative address. This parameter allows you to
2822 put the admin address somewhere convenient.
2826 Elements that look like @code{(display . MODE)} say which articles to
2827 display on entering the group. Valid values are:
2831 Display all articles, both read and unread.
2834 Display the last @var{integer} articles in the group. This is the same as
2835 entering the group with C-u @var{integer}.
2838 Display the default visible articles, which normally includes unread and
2842 Display articles that satisfy a predicate.
2844 Here are some examples:
2848 Display only unread articles.
2851 Display everything except expirable articles.
2853 @item [and (not reply) (not expire)]
2854 Display everything except expirable and articles you've already
2858 The available operators are @code{not}, @code{and} and @code{or}.
2859 Predicates include @code{tick}, @code{unsend}, @code{undownload},
2860 @code{unread}, @code{dormant}, @code{expire}, @code{reply},
2861 @code{killed}, @code{bookmark}, @code{score}, @code{save},
2862 @code{cache}, @code{forward}, @code{unseen} and @code{recent}.
2866 The @code{display} parameter works by limiting the summary buffer to
2867 the subset specified. You can pop the limit by using the @kbd{/ w}
2868 command (@pxref{Limiting}).
2872 Elements that look like @code{(comment . "This is a comment")} are
2873 arbitrary comments on the group. You can display comments in the
2874 group line (@pxref{Group Line Specification}).
2878 Elements that look like @code{(charset . iso-8859-1)} will make
2879 @code{iso-8859-1} the default charset; that is, the charset that will be
2880 used for all articles that do not specify a charset.
2882 See also @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}.
2884 @item ignored-charsets
2885 @cindex ignored-charset
2886 Elements that look like @code{(ignored-charsets x-unknown iso-8859-1)}
2887 will make @code{iso-8859-1} and @code{x-unknown} ignored; that is, the
2888 default charset will be used for decoding articles.
2890 See also @code{gnus-group-ignored-charsets-alist}.
2893 @cindex posting-style
2894 You can store additional posting style information for this group
2895 here (@pxref{Posting Styles}). The format is that of an entry in the
2896 @code{gnus-posting-styles} alist, except that there's no regexp matching
2897 the group name (of course). Style elements in this group parameter will
2898 take precedence over the ones found in @code{gnus-posting-styles}.
2900 For instance, if you want a funky name and signature in this group only,
2901 instead of hacking @code{gnus-posting-styles}, you could put something
2902 like this in the group parameters:
2907 ("X-My-Header" "Funky Value")
2908 (signature "Funky Signature"))
2913 If it is set, the value is used as the method for posting message
2914 instead of @code{gnus-post-method}.
2918 An item like @code{(banner . "regex")} causes any part of an article
2919 that matches the regular expression "regex" to be stripped. Instead of
2920 "regex", you can also use the symbol @code{signature} which strips the
2921 last signature or any of the elements of the alist
2922 @code{gnus-article-banner-alist}.
2926 This parameter contains a Sieve test that should match incoming mail
2927 that should be placed in this group. From this group parameter, a
2928 Sieve @samp{IF} control structure is generated, having the test as the
2929 condition and @samp{fileinto "group.name";} as the body.
2931 For example, if the INBOX.list.sieve group has the @code{(sieve
2932 address "sender" "sieve-admin@@extundo.com")} group parameter, when
2933 translating the group parameter into a Sieve script (@pxref{Sieve
2934 Commands}) the following Sieve code is generated:
2937 if address \"sender\" \"sieve-admin@@extundo.com\" @{
2938 fileinto \"INBOX.list.sieve\";
2942 The Sieve language is described in RFC 3028. @xref{Top, , Top, sieve,
2945 @item (@var{variable} @var{form})
2946 You can use the group parameters to set variables local to the group you
2947 are entering. If you want to turn threading off in @samp{news.answers},
2948 you could put @code{(gnus-show-threads nil)} in the group parameters of
2949 that group. @code{gnus-show-threads} will be made into a local variable
2950 in the summary buffer you enter, and the form @code{nil} will be
2951 @code{eval}ed there.
2953 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
2954 A use for this feature, is to remove a mailing list identifier tag in
2955 the subject fields of articles. E.g. if the news group
2956 @samp{nntp+news.gnus.org:gmane.text.docbook.apps} has the tag
2957 @samp{DOC-BOOK-APPS:} in the subject of all articles, this tag can be
2958 removed from the article subjects in the summary buffer for the group by
2959 putting @code{(gnus-list-identifiers "DOCBOOK-APPS:")} into the group
2960 parameters for the group.
2963 This can also be used as a group-specific hook function, if you'd like.
2964 If you want to hear a beep when you enter a group, you could put
2965 something like @code{(dummy-variable (ding))} in the parameters of that
2966 group. @code{dummy-variable} will be set to the result of the
2967 @code{(ding)} form, but who cares?
2971 Use the @kbd{G p} or the @kbd{G c} command to edit group parameters of a
2972 group. (@kbd{G p} presents you with a Lisp-based interface, @kbd{G c}
2973 presents you with a Customize-like interface. The latter helps avoid
2974 silly Lisp errors.) You might also be interested in reading about topic
2975 parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}).
2977 @vindex gnus-parameters
2978 Group parameters can be set via the @code{gnus-parameters} variable too.
2979 But some variables, such as @code{visible}, have no effect. For
2983 (setq gnus-parameters
2985 (gnus-show-threads nil)
2986 (gnus-use-scoring nil)
2987 (gnus-summary-line-format
2988 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%d:%ub%-23,23f%]%) %s\n")
2992 ("^nnimap:\\(foo.bar\\)$"
2996 (gnus-use-scoring t))
3000 (broken-reply-to . t))))
3003 String value of parameters will be subjected to regexp substitution, as
3004 the @code{to-group} example shows.
3007 @node Listing Groups
3008 @section Listing Groups
3009 @cindex group listing
3011 These commands all list various slices of the groups available.
3019 @findex gnus-group-list-groups
3020 List all groups that have unread articles
3021 (@code{gnus-group-list-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used, this
3022 command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default, it
3023 only lists groups of level five (i. e.,
3024 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level}) or lower (i.e., just subscribed
3031 @findex gnus-group-list-all-groups
3032 List all groups, whether they have unread articles or not
3033 (@code{gnus-group-list-all-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used,
3034 this command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default,
3035 it lists groups of level seven or lower (i.e., just subscribed and
3036 unsubscribed groups).
3040 @findex gnus-group-list-level
3041 List all unread groups on a specific level
3042 (@code{gnus-group-list-level}). If given a prefix, also list the groups
3043 with no unread articles.
3047 @findex gnus-group-list-killed
3048 List all killed groups (@code{gnus-group-list-killed}). If given a
3049 prefix argument, really list all groups that are available, but aren't
3050 currently (un)subscribed. This could entail reading the active file
3055 @findex gnus-group-list-zombies
3056 List all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-list-zombies}).
3060 @findex gnus-group-list-matching
3061 List all unread, subscribed groups with names that match a regexp
3062 (@code{gnus-group-list-matching}).
3066 @findex gnus-group-list-all-matching
3067 List groups that match a regexp (@code{gnus-group-list-all-matching}).
3071 @findex gnus-group-list-active
3072 List absolutely all groups in the active file(s) of the
3073 server(s) you are connected to (@code{gnus-group-list-active}). This
3074 might very well take quite a while. It might actually be a better idea
3075 to do a @kbd{A M} to list all matching, and just give @samp{.} as the
3076 thing to match on. Also note that this command may list groups that
3077 don't exist (yet)---these will be listed as if they were killed groups.
3078 Take the output with some grains of salt.
3082 @findex gnus-group-apropos
3083 List all groups that have names that match a regexp
3084 (@code{gnus-group-apropos}).
3088 @findex gnus-group-description-apropos
3089 List all groups that have names or descriptions that match a regexp
3090 (@code{gnus-group-description-apropos}).
3094 @findex gnus-group-list-cached
3095 List all groups with cached articles (@code{gnus-group-list-cached}).
3099 @findex gnus-group-list-dormant
3100 List all groups with dormant articles (@code{gnus-group-list-dormant}).
3104 @findex gnus-group-list-limit
3105 List groups limited within the current selection
3106 (@code{gnus-group-list-limit}).
3110 @findex gnus-group-list-flush
3111 Flush groups from the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-flush}).
3115 @findex gnus-group-list-plus
3116 List groups plus the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-plus}).
3120 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
3121 @cindex visible group parameter
3122 Groups that match the @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} regexp will
3123 always be shown, whether they have unread articles or not. You can also
3124 add the @code{visible} element to the group parameters in question to
3125 get the same effect.
3127 @vindex gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles
3128 Groups that have just ticked articles in it are normally listed in the
3129 group buffer. If @code{gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles} is
3130 @code{nil}, these groups will be treated just like totally empty
3131 groups. It is @code{t} by default.
3134 @node Sorting Groups
3135 @section Sorting Groups
3136 @cindex sorting groups
3138 @kindex C-c C-s (Group)
3139 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups
3140 @vindex gnus-group-sort-function
3141 The @kbd{C-c C-s} (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups}) command sorts the
3142 group buffer according to the function(s) given by the
3143 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable. Available sorting functions
3148 @item gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
3149 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
3150 Sort the group names alphabetically. This is the default.
3152 @item gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
3153 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
3154 Sort the group alphabetically on the real (unprefixed) group names.
3156 @item gnus-group-sort-by-level
3157 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-level
3158 Sort by group level.
3160 @item gnus-group-sort-by-score
3161 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-score
3162 Sort by group score. @xref{Group Score}.
3164 @item gnus-group-sort-by-rank
3165 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-rank
3166 Sort by group score and then the group level. The level and the score
3167 are, when taken together, the group's @dfn{rank}. @xref{Group Score}.
3169 @item gnus-group-sort-by-unread
3170 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-unread
3171 Sort by number of unread articles.
3173 @item gnus-group-sort-by-method
3174 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-method
3175 Sort alphabetically on the select method.
3177 @item gnus-group-sort-by-server
3178 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-server
3179 Sort alphabetically on the Gnus server name.
3184 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} can also be a list of sorting
3185 functions. In that case, the most significant sort key function must be
3189 There are also a number of commands for sorting directly according to
3190 some sorting criteria:
3194 @kindex G S a (Group)
3195 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet
3196 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by group name
3197 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
3200 @kindex G S u (Group)
3201 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread
3202 Sort the group buffer by the number of unread articles
3203 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread}).
3206 @kindex G S l (Group)
3207 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level
3208 Sort the group buffer by group level
3209 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level}).
3212 @kindex G S v (Group)
3213 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score
3214 Sort the group buffer by group score
3215 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3218 @kindex G S r (Group)
3219 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank
3220 Sort the group buffer by group rank
3221 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3224 @kindex G S m (Group)
3225 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method
3226 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by back end name
3227 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method}).
3230 @kindex G S n (Group)
3231 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-real-name
3232 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by real (unprefixed) group name
3233 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-real-name}).
3237 All the commands below obey the process/prefix convention
3238 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3240 When given a symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}), all these
3241 commands will sort in reverse order.
3243 You can also sort a subset of the groups:
3247 @kindex G P a (Group)
3248 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet
3249 Sort the groups alphabetically by group name
3250 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet}).
3253 @kindex G P u (Group)
3254 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread
3255 Sort the groups by the number of unread articles
3256 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread}).
3259 @kindex G P l (Group)
3260 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level
3261 Sort the groups by group level
3262 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level}).
3265 @kindex G P v (Group)
3266 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score
3267 Sort the groups by group score
3268 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3271 @kindex G P r (Group)
3272 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank
3273 Sort the groups by group rank
3274 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3277 @kindex G P m (Group)
3278 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method
3279 Sort the groups alphabetically by back end name
3280 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method}).
3283 @kindex G P n (Group)
3284 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-real-name
3285 Sort the groups alphabetically by real (unprefixed) group name
3286 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-real-name}).
3289 @kindex G P s (Group)
3290 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups
3291 Sort the groups according to @code{gnus-group-sort-function}.
3295 And finally, note that you can use @kbd{C-k} and @kbd{C-y} to manually
3299 @node Group Maintenance
3300 @section Group Maintenance
3301 @cindex bogus groups
3306 @findex gnus-group-check-bogus-groups
3307 Find bogus groups and delete them
3308 (@code{gnus-group-check-bogus-groups}).
3312 @findex gnus-group-find-new-groups
3313 Find new groups and process them (@code{gnus-group-find-new-groups}).
3314 With 1 @kbd{C-u}, use the @code{ask-server} method to query the server
3315 for new groups. With 2 @kbd{C-u}'s, use most complete method possible
3316 to query the server for new groups, and subscribe the new groups as
3320 @kindex C-c C-x (Group)
3321 @findex gnus-group-expire-articles
3322 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
3323 process (if any) (@code{gnus-group-expire-articles}). That is, delete
3324 all expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
3325 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3328 @kindex C-c C-M-x (Group)
3329 @findex gnus-group-expire-all-groups
3330 Run all expirable articles in all groups through the expiry process
3331 (@code{gnus-group-expire-all-groups}).
3336 @node Browse Foreign Server
3337 @section Browse Foreign Server
3338 @cindex foreign servers
3339 @cindex browsing servers
3344 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
3345 You will be queried for a select method and a server name. Gnus will
3346 then attempt to contact this server and let you browse the groups there
3347 (@code{gnus-group-browse-foreign-server}).
3350 @findex gnus-browse-mode
3351 A new buffer with a list of available groups will appear. This buffer
3352 will use the @code{gnus-browse-mode}. This buffer looks a bit (well,
3353 a lot) like a normal group buffer.
3355 Here's a list of keystrokes available in the browse mode:
3360 @findex gnus-group-next-group
3361 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
3365 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
3366 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
3369 @kindex SPACE (Browse)
3370 @findex gnus-browse-read-group
3371 Enter the current group and display the first article
3372 (@code{gnus-browse-read-group}).
3375 @kindex RET (Browse)
3376 @findex gnus-browse-select-group
3377 Enter the current group (@code{gnus-browse-select-group}).
3381 @findex gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group
3382 Unsubscribe to the current group, or, as will be the case here,
3383 subscribe to it (@code{gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group}).
3389 @findex gnus-browse-exit
3390 Exit browse mode (@code{gnus-browse-exit}).
3394 @findex gnus-browse-describe-group
3395 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-browse-describe-group}).
3399 @findex gnus-browse-describe-briefly
3400 Describe browse mode briefly (well, there's not much to describe, is
3401 there) (@code{gnus-browse-describe-briefly}).
3406 @section Exiting Gnus
3407 @cindex exiting Gnus
3409 Yes, Gnus is ex(c)iting.
3414 @findex gnus-group-suspend
3415 Suspend Gnus (@code{gnus-group-suspend}). This doesn't really exit Gnus,
3416 but it kills all buffers except the Group buffer. I'm not sure why this
3417 is a gain, but then who am I to judge?
3421 @findex gnus-group-exit
3422 @c @icon{gnus-group-exit}
3423 Quit Gnus (@code{gnus-group-exit}).
3427 @findex gnus-group-quit
3428 Quit Gnus without saving the @file{.newsrc} files (@code{gnus-group-quit}).
3429 The dribble file will be saved, though (@pxref{Auto Save}).
3432 @vindex gnus-exit-gnus-hook
3433 @vindex gnus-suspend-gnus-hook
3434 @vindex gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook
3435 @code{gnus-suspend-gnus-hook} is called when you suspend Gnus and
3436 @code{gnus-exit-gnus-hook} is called when you quit Gnus, while
3437 @code{gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook} is called as the final item when
3443 Miss Lisa Cannifax, while sitting in English class, felt her feet go
3444 numbly heavy and herself fall into a hazy trance as the boy sitting
3445 behind her drew repeated lines with his pencil across the back of her
3451 @section Group Topics
3454 If you read lots and lots of groups, it might be convenient to group
3455 them hierarchically according to topics. You put your Emacs groups over
3456 here, your sex groups over there, and the rest (what, two groups or so?)
3457 you put in some misc section that you never bother with anyway. You can
3458 even group the Emacs sex groups as a sub-topic to either the Emacs
3459 groups or the sex groups---or both! Go wild!
3463 \gnusfigure{Group Topics}{400}{
3464 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=ps/group-topic,height=9cm}}
3475 2: alt.religion.emacs
3478 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3480 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3481 13: comp.sources.unix
3484 @findex gnus-topic-mode
3486 To get this @emph{fab} functionality you simply turn on (ooh!) the
3487 @code{gnus-topic} minor mode---type @kbd{t} in the group buffer. (This
3488 is a toggling command.)
3490 Go ahead, just try it. I'll still be here when you get back. La de
3491 dum@dots{} Nice tune, that@dots{} la la la@dots{} What, you're back?
3492 Yes, and now press @kbd{l}. There. All your groups are now listed
3493 under @samp{misc}. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy?
3496 If you want this permanently enabled, you should add that minor mode to
3497 the hook for the group mode. Put the following line in your
3498 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
3501 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
3505 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
3506 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
3507 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
3508 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
3509 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
3513 @node Topic Commands
3514 @subsection Topic Commands
3515 @cindex topic commands
3517 When the topic minor mode is turned on, a new @kbd{T} submap will be
3518 available. In addition, a few of the standard keys change their
3519 definitions slightly.
3521 In general, the following kinds of operations are possible on topics.
3522 First of all, you want to create topics. Secondly, you want to put
3523 groups in topics and to move them around until you have an order you
3524 like. The third kind of operation is to show/hide parts of the whole
3525 shebang. You might want to hide a topic including its subtopics and
3526 groups, to get a better overview of the other groups.
3528 Here is a list of the basic keys that you might need to set up topics
3535 @findex gnus-topic-create-topic
3536 Prompt for a new topic name and create it
3537 (@code{gnus-topic-create-topic}).
3541 @kindex T TAB (Topic)
3543 @findex gnus-topic-indent
3544 ``Indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3545 previous topic (@code{gnus-topic-indent}). If given a prefix,
3546 ``un-indent'' the topic instead.
3549 @kindex M-TAB (Topic)
3550 @findex gnus-topic-unindent
3551 ``Un-indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3552 parent of its current parent (@code{gnus-topic-unindent}).
3556 The following two keys can be used to move groups and topics around.
3557 They work like the well-known cut and paste. @kbd{C-k} is like cut and
3558 @kbd{C-y} is like paste. Of course, this being Emacs, we use the terms
3559 kill and yank rather than cut and paste.
3565 @findex gnus-topic-kill-group
3566 Kill a group or topic (@code{gnus-topic-kill-group}). All groups in the
3567 topic will be removed along with the topic.
3571 @findex gnus-topic-yank-group
3572 Yank the previously killed group or topic
3573 (@code{gnus-topic-yank-group}). Note that all topics will be yanked
3576 So, to move a topic to the beginning of the list of topics, just hit
3577 @kbd{C-k} on it. This is like the `cut' part of cut and paste. Then,
3578 move the cursor to the beginning of the buffer (just below the `Gnus'
3579 topic) and hit @kbd{C-y}. This is like the `paste' part of cut and
3580 paste. Like I said -- E-Z.
3582 You can use @kbd{C-k} and @kbd{C-y} on groups as well as on topics. So
3583 you can move topics around as well as groups.
3587 After setting up the topics the way you like them, you might wish to
3588 hide a topic, or to show it again. That's why we have the following
3595 @findex gnus-topic-select-group
3597 Either select a group or fold a topic (@code{gnus-topic-select-group}).
3598 When you perform this command on a group, you'll enter the group, as
3599 usual. When done on a topic line, the topic will be folded (if it was
3600 visible) or unfolded (if it was folded already). So it's basically a
3601 toggling command on topics. In addition, if you give a numerical
3602 prefix, group on that level (and lower) will be displayed.
3606 Now for a list of other commands, in no particular order.
3612 @findex gnus-topic-move-group
3613 Move the current group to some other topic
3614 (@code{gnus-topic-move-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3615 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3619 @findex gnus-topic-jump-to-topic
3620 Go to a topic (@code{gnus-topic-jump-to-topic}).
3624 @findex gnus-topic-copy-group
3625 Copy the current group to some other topic
3626 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3627 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3631 @findex gnus-topic-hide-topic
3632 Hide the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-hide-topic}). If given
3633 a prefix, hide the topic permanently.
3637 @findex gnus-topic-show-topic
3638 Show the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-show-topic}). If given
3639 a prefix, show the topic permanently.
3643 @findex gnus-topic-remove-group
3644 Remove a group from the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-remove-group}).
3645 This command is mainly useful if you have the same group in several
3646 topics and wish to remove it from one of the topics. You may also
3647 remove a group from all topics, but in that case, Gnus will add it to
3648 the root topic the next time you start Gnus. In fact, all new groups
3649 (which, naturally, don't belong to any topic) will show up in the root
3652 This command uses the process/prefix convention
3653 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3657 @findex gnus-topic-move-matching
3658 Move all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3659 (@code{gnus-topic-move-matching}).
3663 @findex gnus-topic-copy-matching
3664 Copy all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3665 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-matching}).
3669 @findex gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics
3670 Toggle hiding empty topics
3671 (@code{gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics}).
3675 @findex gnus-topic-mark-topic
3676 Mark all groups in the current topic with the process mark
3677 (@code{gnus-topic-mark-topic}). This command works recursively on
3678 sub-topics unless given a prefix.
3681 @kindex T M-# (Topic)
3682 @findex gnus-topic-unmark-topic
3683 Remove the process mark from all groups in the current topic
3684 (@code{gnus-topic-unmark-topic}). This command works recursively on
3685 sub-topics unless given a prefix.
3688 @kindex C-c C-x (Topic)
3689 @findex gnus-topic-expire-articles
3690 Run all expirable articles in the current group or topic through the
3691 expiry process (if any)
3692 (@code{gnus-topic-expire-articles}). (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3696 @findex gnus-topic-rename
3697 Rename a topic (@code{gnus-topic-rename}).
3700 @kindex T DEL (Topic)
3701 @findex gnus-topic-delete
3702 Delete an empty topic (@code{gnus-topic-delete}).
3706 @findex gnus-topic-list-active
3707 List all groups that Gnus knows about in a topics-ified way
3708 (@code{gnus-topic-list-active}).
3711 @kindex T M-n (Topic)
3712 @findex gnus-topic-goto-next-topic
3713 Go to the next topic (@code{gnus-topic-goto-next-topic}).
3716 @kindex T M-p (Topic)
3717 @findex gnus-topic-goto-previous-topic
3718 Go to the next topic (@code{gnus-topic-goto-previous-topic}).
3722 @findex gnus-topic-edit-parameters
3723 @cindex group parameters
3724 @cindex topic parameters
3726 Edit the topic parameters (@code{gnus-topic-edit-parameters}).
3727 @xref{Topic Parameters}.
3732 @node Topic Variables
3733 @subsection Topic Variables
3734 @cindex topic variables
3736 The previous section told you how to tell Gnus which topics to display.
3737 This section explains how to tell Gnus what to display about each topic.
3739 @vindex gnus-topic-line-format
3740 The topic lines themselves are created according to the
3741 @code{gnus-topic-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
3754 Number of groups in the topic.
3756 Number of unread articles in the topic.
3758 Number of unread articles in the topic and all its subtopics.
3761 @vindex gnus-topic-indent-level
3762 Each sub-topic (and the groups in the sub-topics) will be indented with
3763 @code{gnus-topic-indent-level} times the topic level number of spaces.
3766 @vindex gnus-topic-mode-hook
3767 @code{gnus-topic-mode-hook} is called in topic minor mode buffers.
3769 @vindex gnus-topic-display-empty-topics
3770 The @code{gnus-topic-display-empty-topics} says whether to display even
3771 topics that have no unread articles in them. The default is @code{t}.
3775 @subsection Topic Sorting
3776 @cindex topic sorting
3778 You can sort the groups in each topic individually with the following
3784 @kindex T S a (Topic)
3785 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet
3786 Sort the current topic alphabetically by group name
3787 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
3790 @kindex T S u (Topic)
3791 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread
3792 Sort the current topic by the number of unread articles
3793 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread}).
3796 @kindex T S l (Topic)
3797 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level
3798 Sort the current topic by group level
3799 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level}).
3802 @kindex T S v (Topic)
3803 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score
3804 Sort the current topic by group score
3805 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3808 @kindex T S r (Topic)
3809 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank
3810 Sort the current topic by group rank
3811 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3814 @kindex T S m (Topic)
3815 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method
3816 Sort the current topic alphabetically by back end name
3817 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method}).
3820 @kindex T S e (Topic)
3821 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-server
3822 Sort the current topic alphabetically by server name
3823 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-server}).
3827 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups
3828 Sort the current topic according to the function(s) given by the
3829 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable
3830 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups}).
3834 When given a prefix argument, all these commands will sort in reverse
3835 order. @xref{Sorting Groups}, for more information about group
3839 @node Topic Topology
3840 @subsection Topic Topology
3841 @cindex topic topology
3844 So, let's have a look at an example group buffer:
3850 2: alt.religion.emacs
3853 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3855 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3856 13: comp.sources.unix
3859 So, here we have one top-level topic (@samp{Gnus}), two topics under
3860 that, and one sub-topic under one of the sub-topics. (There is always
3861 just one (1) top-level topic). This topology can be expressed as
3866 (("Emacs -- I wuw it!" visible)
3867 (("Naughty Emacs" visible)))
3871 @vindex gnus-topic-topology
3872 This is in fact how the variable @code{gnus-topic-topology} would look
3873 for the display above. That variable is saved in the @file{.newsrc.eld}
3874 file, and shouldn't be messed with manually---unless you really want
3875 to. Since this variable is read from the @file{.newsrc.eld} file,
3876 setting it in any other startup files will have no effect.
3878 This topology shows what topics are sub-topics of what topics (right),
3879 and which topics are visible. Two settings are currently
3880 allowed---@code{visible} and @code{invisible}.
3883 @node Topic Parameters
3884 @subsection Topic Parameters
3885 @cindex topic parameters
3887 All groups in a topic will inherit group parameters from the parent (and
3888 ancestor) topic parameters. All valid group parameters are valid topic
3889 parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
3891 In addition, the following parameters are only valid as topic
3896 When subscribing new groups by topic (@pxref{Subscription Methods}), the
3897 @code{subscribe} topic parameter says what groups go in what topic. Its
3898 value should be a regexp to match the groups that should go in that
3901 @item subscribe-level
3902 When subscribing new groups by topic (see the @code{subscribe} parameter),
3903 the group will be subscribed with the level specified in the
3904 @code{subscribe-level} instead of @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}.
3908 Group parameters (of course) override topic parameters, and topic
3909 parameters in sub-topics override topic parameters in super-topics. You
3910 know. Normal inheritance rules. (@dfn{Rules} is here a noun, not a
3911 verb, although you may feel free to disagree with me here.)
3917 2: alt.religion.emacs
3921 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3923 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3924 13: comp.sources.unix
3928 The @samp{Emacs} topic has the topic parameter @code{(score-file
3929 . "emacs.SCORE")}; the @samp{Relief} topic has the topic parameter
3930 @code{(score-file . "relief.SCORE")}; and the @samp{Misc} topic has the
3931 topic parameter @code{(score-file . "emacs.SCORE")}. In addition,
3932 @* @samp{alt.religion.emacs} has the group parameter @code{(score-file
3933 . "religion.SCORE")}.
3935 Now, when you enter @samp{alt.sex.emacs} in the @samp{Relief} topic, you
3936 will get the @file{relief.SCORE} home score file. If you enter the same
3937 group in the @samp{Emacs} topic, you'll get the @file{emacs.SCORE} home
3938 score file. If you enter the group @samp{alt.religion.emacs}, you'll
3939 get the @file{religion.SCORE} home score file.
3941 This seems rather simple and self-evident, doesn't it? Well, yes. But
3942 there are some problems, especially with the @code{total-expiry}
3943 parameter. Say you have a mail group in two topics; one with
3944 @code{total-expiry} and one without. What happens when you do @kbd{M-x
3945 gnus-expire-all-expirable-groups}? Gnus has no way of telling which one
3946 of these topics you mean to expire articles from, so anything may
3947 happen. In fact, I hereby declare that it is @dfn{undefined} what
3948 happens. You just have to be careful if you do stuff like that.
3951 @node Misc Group Stuff
3952 @section Misc Group Stuff
3955 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
3956 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
3957 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
3958 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
3959 * Sieve Commands:: Managing Sieve scripts.
3966 @findex gnus-group-enter-server-mode
3967 Enter the server buffer (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}).
3968 @xref{Server Buffer}.
3972 @findex gnus-group-post-news
3973 Start composing a message (a news by default)
3974 (@code{gnus-group-post-news}). If given a prefix, post to the group
3975 under the point. If the prefix is 1, prompt for a group to post to.
3976 Contrary to what the name of this function suggests, the prepared
3977 article might be a mail instead of a news, if a mail group is specified
3978 with the prefix argument. @xref{Composing Messages}.
3982 @findex gnus-group-mail
3983 Mail a message somewhere (@code{gnus-group-mail}). If given a prefix,
3984 use the posting style of the group under the point. If the prefix is 1,
3985 prompt for a group name to find the posting style.
3986 @xref{Composing Messages}.
3990 @findex gnus-group-news
3991 Start composing a news (@code{gnus-group-news}). If given a prefix,
3992 post to the group under the point. If the prefix is 1, prompt
3993 for group to post to. @xref{Composing Messages}.
3995 This function actually prepares a news even when using mail groups.
3996 This is useful for ``posting'' messages to mail groups without actually
3997 sending them over the network: they're just saved directly to the group
3998 in question. The corresponding back end must have a request-post method
3999 for this to work though.
4003 Variables for the group buffer:
4007 @item gnus-group-mode-hook
4008 @vindex gnus-group-mode-hook
4009 is called after the group buffer has been
4012 @item gnus-group-prepare-hook
4013 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
4014 is called after the group buffer is
4015 generated. It may be used to modify the buffer in some strange,
4018 @item gnus-group-prepared-hook
4019 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
4020 is called as the very last thing after the group buffer has been
4021 generated. It may be used to move point around, for instance.
4023 @item gnus-permanently-visible-groups
4024 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
4025 Groups matching this regexp will always be listed in the group buffer,
4026 whether they are empty or not.
4028 @item gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4029 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4030 An alist of method and the charset for group names. It is used to show
4031 non-ASCII group names.
4035 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4036 '(((nntp "news.com.cn") . cn-gb-2312)))
4039 @item gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4040 @cindex UTF-8 group names
4041 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4042 An alist of regexp of group name and the charset for group names. It
4043 is used to show non-ASCII group names. @code{((".*" utf-8))} is the
4044 default value if UTF-8 is supported, otherwise the default is
4049 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4050 '(("\\.com\\.cn:" . cn-gb-2312)))
4055 @node Scanning New Messages
4056 @subsection Scanning New Messages
4057 @cindex new messages
4058 @cindex scanning new news
4064 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news
4065 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news}
4066 Check the server(s) for new articles. If the numerical prefix is used,
4067 this command will check only groups of level @var{arg} and lower
4068 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news}). If given a non-numerical prefix, this
4069 command will force a total re-reading of the active file(s) from the
4074 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group
4075 @vindex gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating
4076 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}
4077 Check whether new articles have arrived in the current group
4078 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}).
4079 @code{gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating} says whether this command is
4080 to move point to the next group or not. It is @code{t} by default.
4082 @findex gnus-activate-all-groups
4083 @cindex activating groups
4085 @kindex C-c M-g (Group)
4086 Activate absolutely all groups (@code{gnus-activate-all-groups}).
4091 @findex gnus-group-restart
4092 Restart Gnus (@code{gnus-group-restart}). This saves the @file{.newsrc}
4093 file(s), closes the connection to all servers, clears up all run-time
4094 Gnus variables, and then starts Gnus all over again.
4098 @vindex gnus-get-new-news-hook
4099 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is run just before checking for new news.
4101 @vindex gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook
4102 @code{gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook} is run after checking for new
4106 @node Group Information
4107 @subsection Group Information
4108 @cindex group information
4109 @cindex information on groups
4116 @findex gnus-group-fetch-faq
4117 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
4120 Try to fetch the FAQ for the current group
4121 (@code{gnus-group-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the FAQ from
4122 @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory on a
4123 remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories. In
4124 that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose
4125 between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp} (or @code{efs}) will be used
4126 for fetching the file.
4128 If fetching from the first site is unsuccessful, Gnus will attempt to go
4129 through @code{gnus-group-faq-directory} and try to open them one by one.
4133 @findex gnus-group-fetch-charter
4134 @vindex gnus-group-charter-alist
4136 Try to open the charter for the current group in a web browser
4137 (@code{gnus-group-fetch-charter}). Query for a group if given a
4140 Gnus will use @code{gnus-group-charter-alist} to find the location of
4141 the charter. If no location is known, Gnus will fetch the control
4142 messages for the group, which in some cases includes the charter.
4146 @findex gnus-group-fetch-control
4147 @vindex gnus-group-fetch-control-use-browse-url
4148 @cindex control message
4149 Fetch the control messages for the group from the archive at
4150 @code{ftp.isc.org} (@code{gnus-group-fetch-control}). Query for a
4151 group if given a prefix argument.
4153 If @code{gnus-group-fetch-control-use-browse-url} is non-@code{nil},
4154 Gnus will open the control messages in a browser using
4155 @code{browse-url}. Otherwise they are fetched using @code{ange-ftp}
4156 and displayed in an ephemeral group.
4158 Note that the control messages are compressed. To use this command
4159 you need to turn on @code{auto-compression-mode} (@pxref{Compressed
4160 Files, ,Compressed Files, emacs, The Emacs Manual}).
4164 @c @icon{gnus-group-describe-group}
4166 @kindex C-c C-d (Group)
4167 @cindex describing groups
4168 @cindex group description
4169 @findex gnus-group-describe-group
4170 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-group-describe-group}). If given
4171 a prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description from the server.
4175 @findex gnus-group-describe-all-groups
4176 Describe all groups (@code{gnus-group-describe-all-groups}). If given a
4177 prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description file from the server.
4184 @findex gnus-version
4185 Display current Gnus version numbers (@code{gnus-version}).
4189 @findex gnus-group-describe-briefly
4190 Give a very short help message (@code{gnus-group-describe-briefly}).
4193 @kindex C-c C-i (Group)
4196 @findex gnus-info-find-node
4197 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
4201 @node Group Timestamp
4202 @subsection Group Timestamp
4204 @cindex group timestamps
4206 It can be convenient to let Gnus keep track of when you last read a
4207 group. To set the ball rolling, you should add
4208 @code{gnus-group-set-timestamp} to @code{gnus-select-group-hook}:
4211 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook 'gnus-group-set-timestamp)
4214 After doing this, each time you enter a group, it'll be recorded.
4216 This information can be displayed in various ways---the easiest is to
4217 use the @samp{%d} spec in the group line format:
4220 (setq gnus-group-line-format
4221 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %d\n")
4224 This will result in lines looking like:
4227 * 0: mail.ding 19961002T012943
4228 0: custom 19961002T012713
4231 As you can see, the date is displayed in compact ISO 8601 format. This
4232 may be a bit too much, so to just display the date, you could say
4236 (setq gnus-group-line-format
4237 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %6,6~(cut 2)d\n")
4240 If you would like greater control of the time format, you can use a
4241 user-defined format spec. Something like the following should do the
4245 (setq gnus-group-line-format
4246 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %ud\n")
4247 (defun gnus-user-format-function-d (headers)
4248 (let ((time (gnus-group-timestamp gnus-tmp-group)))
4250 (format-time-string "%b %d %H:%M" time)
4256 @subsection File Commands
4257 @cindex file commands
4263 @findex gnus-group-read-init-file
4264 @vindex gnus-init-file
4265 @cindex reading init file
4266 Re-read the init file (@code{gnus-init-file}, which defaults to
4267 @file{~/.gnus.el}) (@code{gnus-group-read-init-file}).
4271 @findex gnus-group-save-newsrc
4272 @cindex saving .newsrc
4273 Save the @file{.newsrc.eld} file (and @file{.newsrc} if wanted)
4274 (@code{gnus-group-save-newsrc}). If given a prefix, force saving the
4275 file(s) whether Gnus thinks it is necessary or not.
4278 @c @kindex Z (Group)
4279 @c @findex gnus-group-clear-dribble
4280 @c Clear the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-group-clear-dribble}).
4285 @node Sieve Commands
4286 @subsection Sieve Commands
4287 @cindex group sieve commands
4289 Sieve is a server-side mail filtering language. In Gnus you can use
4290 the @code{sieve} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to specify
4291 sieve rules that should apply to each group. Gnus provides two
4292 commands to translate all these group parameters into a proper Sieve
4293 script that can be transfered to the server somehow.
4295 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
4296 @vindex gnus-sieve-region-start
4297 @vindex gnus-sieve-region-end
4298 The generated Sieve script is placed in @code{gnus-sieve-file} (by
4299 default @file{~/.sieve}). The Sieve code that Gnus generate is placed
4300 between two delimiters, @code{gnus-sieve-region-start} and
4301 @code{gnus-sieve-region-end}, so you may write additional Sieve code
4302 outside these delimiters that will not be removed the next time you
4303 regenerate the Sieve script.
4305 @vindex gnus-sieve-crosspost
4306 The variable @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} controls how the Sieve script
4307 is generated. If it is non-@code{nil} (the default) articles is
4308 placed in all groups that have matching rules, otherwise the article
4309 is only placed in the group with the first matching rule. For
4310 example, the group parameter @samp{(sieve address "sender"
4311 "owner-ding@@hpc.uh.edu")} will generate the following piece of Sieve
4312 code if @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} is @code{nil}. (When
4313 @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} is non-@code{nil}, it looks the same
4314 except that the line containing the call to @code{stop} is removed.)
4317 if address "sender" "owner-ding@@hpc.uh.edu" @{
4318 fileinto "INBOX.ding";
4323 @xref{Top, ,Top, sieve, Emacs Sieve}.
4329 @findex gnus-sieve-generate
4330 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
4331 @cindex generating sieve script
4332 Regenerate a Sieve script from the @code{sieve} group parameters and
4333 put you into the @code{gnus-sieve-file} without saving it.
4337 @findex gnus-sieve-update
4338 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
4339 @cindex updating sieve script
4340 Regenerates the Gnus managed part of @code{gnus-sieve-file} using the
4341 @code{sieve} group parameters, save the file and upload it to the
4342 server using the @code{sieveshell} program.
4347 @node Summary Buffer
4348 @chapter Summary Buffer
4349 @cindex summary buffer
4351 A line for each article is displayed in the summary buffer. You can
4352 move around, read articles, post articles and reply to articles.
4354 The most common way to a summary buffer is to select a group from the
4355 group buffer (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
4357 You can have as many summary buffers open as you wish.
4360 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
4361 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
4362 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
4363 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
4364 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
4365 * Delayed Articles:: Send articles at a later time.
4366 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
4367 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
4368 * Threading:: How threads are made.
4369 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
4370 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
4371 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
4372 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
4373 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
4374 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
4375 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
4376 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
4377 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
4378 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
4379 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
4380 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
4381 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
4382 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
4383 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
4384 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
4385 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
4386 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
4387 or reselecting the current group.
4388 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
4389 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
4390 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
4391 * Mailing List:: Mailing list minor mode.
4395 @node Summary Buffer Format
4396 @section Summary Buffer Format
4397 @cindex summary buffer format
4401 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{180}{
4402 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=ps/summary,width=7.5cm}}
4403 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-article,width=7.5cm}}}
4409 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
4410 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
4411 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
4412 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
4415 @findex mail-extract-address-components
4416 @findex gnus-extract-address-components
4417 @vindex gnus-extract-address-components
4418 Gnus will use the value of the @code{gnus-extract-address-components}
4419 variable as a function for getting the name and address parts of a
4420 @code{From} header. Two pre-defined functions exist:
4421 @code{gnus-extract-address-components}, which is the default, quite
4422 fast, and too simplistic solution; and
4423 @code{mail-extract-address-components}, which works very nicely, but is
4424 slower. The default function will return the wrong answer in 5% of the
4425 cases. If this is unacceptable to you, use the other function instead:
4428 (setq gnus-extract-address-components
4429 'mail-extract-address-components)
4432 @vindex gnus-summary-same-subject
4433 @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} is a string indicating that the current
4434 article has the same subject as the previous. This string will be used
4435 with those specs that require it. The default is @code{""}.
4438 @node Summary Buffer Lines
4439 @subsection Summary Buffer Lines
4441 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
4442 You can change the format of the lines in the summary buffer by changing
4443 the @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable. It works along the same
4444 lines as a normal @code{format} string, with some extensions
4445 (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
4447 There should always be a colon or a point position marker on the line;
4448 the cursor always moves to the point position marker or the colon after
4449 performing an operation. (Of course, Gnus wouldn't be Gnus if it wasn't
4450 possible to change this. Just write a new function
4451 @code{gnus-goto-colon} which does whatever you like with the cursor.)
4452 @xref{Positioning Point}.
4454 The default string is @samp{%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%) %s\n}.
4456 The following format specification characters and extended format
4457 specification(s) are understood:
4463 Subject string. List identifiers stripped,
4464 @code{gnus-list-identifies}. @xref{Article Hiding}.
4466 Subject if the article is the root of the thread or the previous article
4467 had a different subject, @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} otherwise.
4468 (@code{gnus-summary-same-subject} defaults to @code{""}.)
4470 Full @code{From} header.
4472 The name (from the @code{From} header).
4474 The name, @code{To} header or the @code{Newsgroups} header (@pxref{To
4477 The name (from the @code{From} header). This differs from the @code{n}
4478 spec in that it uses the function designated by the
4479 @code{gnus-extract-address-components} variable, which is slower, but
4480 may be more thorough.
4482 The address (from the @code{From} header). This works the same way as
4485 Number of lines in the article.
4487 Number of characters in the article. This specifier is not supported
4488 in some methods (like nnfolder).
4490 Pretty-printed version of the number of characters in the article;
4491 for example, @samp{1.2k} or @samp{0.4M}.
4493 Indentation based on thread level (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
4495 A complex trn-style thread tree, showing response-connecting trace
4496 lines. A thread could be drawn like this:
4509 You can customize the appearance with the following options. Note
4510 that it is possible to make the thread display look really neat by
4511 replacing the default ASCII characters with graphic line-drawing
4514 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-root
4515 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-root
4516 Used for the root of a thread. If @code{nil}, use subject
4517 instead. The default is @samp{> }.
4519 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent
4520 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent
4521 Used for a thread with just one message. If @code{nil}, use subject
4522 instead. The default is @samp{}.
4524 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical
4525 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical
4526 Used for drawing a vertical line. The default is @samp{| }.
4528 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-indent
4529 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-indent
4530 Used for indenting. The default is @samp{ }.
4532 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other
4533 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other
4534 Used for a leaf with brothers. The default is @samp{+-> }.
4536 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf
4537 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf
4538 Used for a leaf without brothers. The default is @samp{\-> }
4543 Nothing if the article is a root and lots of spaces if it isn't (it
4544 pushes everything after it off the screen).
4546 Opening bracket, which is normally @samp{[}, but can also be @samp{<}
4547 for adopted articles (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
4549 Closing bracket, which is normally @samp{]}, but can also be @samp{>}
4550 for adopted articles.
4552 One space for each thread level.
4554 Twenty minus thread level spaces.
4556 Unread. @xref{Read Articles}.
4559 This misleadingly named specifier is the @dfn{secondary mark}. This
4560 mark will say whether the article has been replied to, has been cached,
4561 or has been saved. @xref{Other Marks}.
4564 Score as a number (@pxref{Scoring}).
4566 @vindex gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz
4567 Zcore, @samp{+} if above the default level and @samp{-} if below the
4568 default level. If the difference between
4569 @code{gnus-summary-default-score} and the score is less than
4570 @code{gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz}, this spec will not be used.
4578 The @code{Date} in @code{DD-MMM} format.
4580 The @code{Date} in @var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS} format.
4586 Number of articles in the current sub-thread. Using this spec will slow
4587 down summary buffer generation somewhat.
4589 An @samp{=} (@code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark}) will be displayed if the
4590 article has any children.
4596 Age sensitive date format. Various date format is defined in
4597 @code{gnus-user-date-format-alist}.
4599 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
4600 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
4601 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
4602 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed the current header as
4603 argument. The function should return a string, which will be inserted
4604 into the summary just like information from any other summary specifier.
4607 Text between @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} will be highlighted with
4608 @code{gnus-mouse-face} when the mouse point is placed inside the area.
4609 There can only be one such area.
4611 The @samp{%U} (status), @samp{%R} (replied) and @samp{%z} (zcore) specs
4612 have to be handled with care. For reasons of efficiency, Gnus will
4613 compute what column these characters will end up in, and ``hard-code''
4614 that. This means that it is invalid to have these specs after a
4615 variable-length spec. Well, you might not be arrested, but your summary
4616 buffer will look strange, which is bad enough.
4618 The smart choice is to have these specs as far to the left as possible.
4619 (Isn't that the case with everything, though? But I digress.)
4621 This restriction may disappear in later versions of Gnus.
4624 @node To From Newsgroups
4625 @subsection To From Newsgroups
4629 In some groups (particularly in archive groups), the @code{From} header
4630 isn't very interesting, since all the articles there are written by
4631 you. To display the information in the @code{To} or @code{Newsgroups}
4632 headers instead, you need to decide three things: What information to
4633 gather; where to display it; and when to display it.
4637 @vindex gnus-extra-headers
4638 The reading of extra header information is controlled by the
4639 @code{gnus-extra-headers}. This is a list of header symbols. For
4643 (setq gnus-extra-headers
4644 '(To Newsgroups X-Newsreader))
4647 This will result in Gnus trying to obtain these three headers, and
4648 storing it in header structures for later easy retrieval.
4651 @findex gnus-extra-header
4652 The value of these extra headers can be accessed via the
4653 @code{gnus-extra-header} function. Here's a format line spec that will
4654 access the @code{X-Newsreader} header:
4657 "%~(form (gnus-extra-header 'X-Newsreader))@@"
4661 @vindex gnus-ignored-from-addresses
4662 The @code{gnus-ignored-from-addresses} variable says when the @samp{%f}
4663 summary line spec returns the @code{To}, @code{Newsreader} or
4664 @code{From} header. If this regexp matches the contents of the
4665 @code{From} header, the value of the @code{To} or @code{Newsreader}
4666 headers are used instead.
4670 @vindex nnmail-extra-headers
4671 A related variable is @code{nnmail-extra-headers}, which controls when
4672 to include extra headers when generating overview (@sc{nov}) files.
4673 If you have old overview files, you should regenerate them after
4674 changing this variable, by entering the server buffer using @kbd{^},
4675 and then @kbd{g} on the appropriate mail server (e.g. nnml) to cause
4678 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
4679 You also have to instruct Gnus to display the data by changing the
4680 @code{%n} spec to the @code{%f} spec in the
4681 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable.
4683 In summary, you'd typically put something like the following in
4687 (setq gnus-extra-headers
4689 (setq nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
4690 (setq gnus-summary-line-format
4691 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%) %s\n")
4692 (setq gnus-ignored-from-addresses
4696 (The values listed above are the default values in Gnus. Alter them
4699 A note for news server administrators, or for users who wish to try to
4700 convince their news server administrator to provide some additional
4703 The above is mostly useful for mail groups, where you have control over
4704 the @sc{nov} files that are created. However, if you can persuade your
4705 nntp admin to add (in the usual implementation, notably INN):
4711 to the end of her @file{overview.fmt} file, then you can use that just
4712 as you would the extra headers from the mail groups.
4715 @node Summary Buffer Mode Line
4716 @subsection Summary Buffer Mode Line
4718 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-line-format
4719 You can also change the format of the summary mode bar (@pxref{Mode Line
4720 Formatting}). Set @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} to whatever you
4721 like. The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b [%A] %Z}.
4723 Here are the elements you can play with:
4729 Unprefixed group name.
4731 Current article number.
4733 Current article score.
4737 Number of unread articles in this group.
4739 Number of unread articles in this group that aren't displayed in the
4742 A string with the number of unread and unselected articles represented
4743 either as @samp{<%U(+%e) more>} if there are both unread and unselected
4744 articles, and just as @samp{<%U more>} if there are just unread articles
4745 and no unselected ones.
4747 Shortish group name. For instance, @samp{rec.arts.anime} will be
4748 shortened to @samp{r.a.anime}.
4750 Subject of the current article.
4752 User-defined spec (@pxref{User-Defined Specs}).
4754 Name of the current score file (@pxref{Scoring}).
4756 Number of dormant articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
4758 Number of ticked articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
4760 Number of articles that have been marked as read in this session.
4762 Number of articles expunged by the score files.
4766 @node Summary Highlighting
4767 @subsection Summary Highlighting
4771 @item gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
4772 @vindex gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
4773 This hook is run after selecting an article. It is meant to be used for
4774 highlighting the article in some way. It is not run if
4775 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
4777 @item gnus-summary-update-hook
4778 @vindex gnus-summary-update-hook
4779 This hook is called when a summary line is changed. It is not run if
4780 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
4782 @item gnus-summary-selected-face
4783 @vindex gnus-summary-selected-face
4784 This is the face (or @dfn{font} as some people call it) used to
4785 highlight the current article in the summary buffer.
4787 @item gnus-summary-highlight
4788 @vindex gnus-summary-highlight
4789 Summary lines are highlighted according to this variable, which is a
4790 list where the elements are of the format @code{(@var{form}
4791 . @var{face})}. If you would, for instance, like ticked articles to be
4792 italic and high-scored articles to be bold, you could set this variable
4795 (((eq mark gnus-ticked-mark) . italic)
4796 ((> score default) . bold))
4798 As you may have guessed, if @var{form} returns a non-@code{nil} value,
4799 @var{face} will be applied to the line.
4803 @node Summary Maneuvering
4804 @section Summary Maneuvering
4805 @cindex summary movement
4807 All the straight movement commands understand the numeric prefix and
4808 behave pretty much as you'd expect.
4810 None of these commands select articles.
4815 @kindex M-n (Summary)
4816 @kindex G M-n (Summary)
4817 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-subject
4818 Go to the next summary line of an unread article
4819 (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-subject}).
4823 @kindex M-p (Summary)
4824 @kindex G M-p (Summary)
4825 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject
4826 Go to the previous summary line of an unread article
4827 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject}).
4830 @kindex G g (Summary)
4831 @findex gnus-summary-goto-subject
4832 Ask for an article number and then go to the summary line of that article
4833 without displaying the article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-subject}).
4836 If Gnus asks you to press a key to confirm going to the next group, you
4837 can use the @kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p} keys to move around the group
4838 buffer, searching for the next group to read without actually returning
4839 to the group buffer.
4841 Variables related to summary movement:
4845 @vindex gnus-auto-select-next
4846 @item gnus-auto-select-next
4847 If you issue one of the movement commands (like @kbd{n}) and there are
4848 no more unread articles after the current one, Gnus will offer to go to
4849 the next group. If this variable is @code{t} and the next group is
4850 empty, Gnus will exit summary mode and return to the group buffer. If
4851 this variable is neither @code{t} nor @code{nil}, Gnus will select the
4852 next group with unread articles. As a special case, if this variable
4853 is @code{quietly}, Gnus will select the next group without asking for
4854 confirmation. If this variable is @code{almost-quietly}, the same
4855 will happen only if you are located on the last article in the group.
4856 Finally, if this variable is @code{slightly-quietly}, the @kbd{Z n}
4857 command will go to the next group without confirmation. Also
4858 @pxref{Group Levels}.
4860 @item gnus-auto-select-same
4861 @vindex gnus-auto-select-same
4862 If non-@code{nil}, all the movement commands will try to go to the next
4863 article with the same subject as the current. (@dfn{Same} here might
4864 mean @dfn{roughly equal}. See @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}
4865 for details (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).) If there are no more
4866 articles with the same subject, go to the first unread article.
4868 This variable is not particularly useful if you use a threaded display.
4870 @item gnus-summary-check-current
4871 @vindex gnus-summary-check-current
4872 If non-@code{nil}, all the ``unread'' movement commands will not proceed
4873 to the next (or previous) article if the current article is unread.
4874 Instead, they will choose the current article.
4876 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
4877 @vindex gnus-auto-center-summary
4878 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will keep the point in the summary buffer
4879 centered at all times. This makes things quite tidy, but if you have a
4880 slow network connection, or simply do not like this un-Emacsism, you can
4881 set this variable to @code{nil} to get the normal Emacs scrolling
4882 action. This will also inhibit horizontal re-centering of the summary
4883 buffer, which might make it more inconvenient to read extremely long
4886 This variable can also be a number. In that case, center the window at
4887 the given number of lines from the top.
4892 @node Choosing Articles
4893 @section Choosing Articles
4894 @cindex selecting articles
4897 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
4898 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
4902 @node Choosing Commands
4903 @subsection Choosing Commands
4905 None of the following movement commands understand the numeric prefix,
4906 and they all select and display an article.
4908 If you want to fetch new articles or redisplay the group, see
4909 @ref{Exiting the Summary Buffer}.
4913 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
4914 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
4915 Select the current article, or, if that one's read already, the next
4916 unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
4918 If you have an article window open already and you press @kbd{SPACE}
4919 again, the article will be scrolled. This lets you conveniently
4920 @kbd{SPACE} through an entire newsgroup. @pxref{Paging the Article}.
4925 @kindex G n (Summary)
4926 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-article
4927 @c @icon{gnus-summary-next-unread}
4928 Go to next unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-article}).
4933 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-article
4934 @c @icon{gnus-summary-prev-unread}
4935 Go to previous unread article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-article}).
4940 @kindex G N (Summary)
4941 @findex gnus-summary-next-article
4942 Go to the next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-article}).
4947 @kindex G P (Summary)
4948 @findex gnus-summary-prev-article
4949 Go to the previous article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-article}).
4952 @kindex G C-n (Summary)
4953 @findex gnus-summary-next-same-subject
4954 Go to the next article with the same subject
4955 (@code{gnus-summary-next-same-subject}).
4958 @kindex G C-p (Summary)
4959 @findex gnus-summary-prev-same-subject
4960 Go to the previous article with the same subject
4961 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-same-subject}).
4965 @kindex G f (Summary)
4967 @findex gnus-summary-first-unread-article
4968 Go to the first unread article
4969 (@code{gnus-summary-first-unread-article}).
4973 @kindex G b (Summary)
4975 @findex gnus-summary-best-unread-article
4976 Go to the unread article with the highest score
4977 (@code{gnus-summary-best-unread-article}). If given a prefix argument,
4978 go to the first unread article that has a score over the default score.
4983 @kindex G l (Summary)
4984 @findex gnus-summary-goto-last-article
4985 Go to the previous article read (@code{gnus-summary-goto-last-article}).
4988 @kindex G o (Summary)
4989 @findex gnus-summary-pop-article
4991 @cindex article history
4992 Pop an article off the summary history and go to this article
4993 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-article}). This command differs from the
4994 command above in that you can pop as many previous articles off the
4995 history as you like, while @kbd{l} toggles the two last read articles.
4996 For a somewhat related issue (if you use these commands a lot),
4997 @pxref{Article Backlog}.
5002 @kindex G j (Summary)
5003 @findex gnus-summary-goto-article
5004 Ask for an article number or @code{Message-ID}, and then go to that
5005 article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-article}).
5010 @node Choosing Variables
5011 @subsection Choosing Variables
5013 Some variables relevant for moving and selecting articles:
5016 @item gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
5017 @vindex gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
5018 All the movement commands will try to go to the previous (or next)
5019 article, even if that article isn't displayed in the Summary buffer if
5020 this variable is non-@code{nil}. Gnus will then fetch the article from
5021 the server and display it in the article buffer.
5023 @item gnus-select-article-hook
5024 @vindex gnus-select-article-hook
5025 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. By default it
5026 exposes any threads hidden under the selected article. If you would
5027 like each article to be saved in the Agent as you read it, putting
5028 @code{gnus-agent-fetch-selected-article} on this hook will do so.
5030 @item gnus-mark-article-hook
5031 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
5032 @findex gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read
5033 @findex gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read
5034 @findex gnus-unread-mark
5035 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. It is intended to
5036 be used for marking articles as read. The default value is
5037 @code{gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read}, and will change the
5038 mark of almost any article you read to @code{gnus-unread-mark}. The
5039 only articles not affected by this function are ticked, dormant, and
5040 expirable articles. If you'd instead like to just have unread articles
5041 marked as read, you can use @code{gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read}
5042 instead. It will leave marks like @code{gnus-low-score-mark},
5043 @code{gnus-del-mark} (and so on) alone.
5048 @node Paging the Article
5049 @section Scrolling the Article
5050 @cindex article scrolling
5055 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
5056 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
5057 Pressing @kbd{SPACE} will scroll the current article forward one page,
5058 or, if you have come to the end of the current article, will choose the
5059 next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
5061 @vindex gnus-article-boring-faces
5062 @vindex gnus-article-skip-boring
5063 If @code{gnus-article-skip-boring} is non-@code{nil} and the rest of
5064 the article consists only of citations and signature, then it will be
5065 skipped; the next article will be shown instead. You can customize
5066 what is considered uninteresting with
5067 @code{gnus-article-boring-faces}. You can manually view the article's
5068 pages, no matter how boring, using @kbd{C-M-v}.
5071 @kindex DEL (Summary)
5072 @findex gnus-summary-prev-page
5073 Scroll the current article back one page (@code{gnus-summary-prev-page}).
5076 @kindex RET (Summary)
5077 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-up
5078 Scroll the current article one line forward
5079 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-up}).
5082 @kindex M-RET (Summary)
5083 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-down
5084 Scroll the current article one line backward
5085 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-down}).
5089 @kindex A g (Summary)
5091 @findex gnus-summary-show-article
5092 @vindex gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
5093 (Re)fetch the current article (@code{gnus-summary-show-article}). If
5094 given a prefix, fetch the current article, but don't run any of the
5095 article treatment functions. This will give you a ``raw'' article, just
5096 the way it came from the server.
5098 If given a numerical prefix, you can do semi-manual charset stuff.
5099 @kbd{C-u 0 g cn-gb-2312 RET} will decode the message as if it were
5100 encoded in the @code{cn-gb-2312} charset. If you have
5103 (setq gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
5108 then you can say @kbd{C-u 1 g} to get the same effect.
5113 @kindex A < (Summary)
5114 @findex gnus-summary-beginning-of-article
5115 Scroll to the beginning of the article
5116 (@code{gnus-summary-beginning-of-article}).
5121 @kindex A > (Summary)
5122 @findex gnus-summary-end-of-article
5123 Scroll to the end of the article (@code{gnus-summary-end-of-article}).
5127 @kindex A s (Summary)
5129 @findex gnus-summary-isearch-article
5130 Perform an isearch in the article buffer
5131 (@code{gnus-summary-isearch-article}).
5135 @findex gnus-summary-select-article-buffer
5136 Select the article buffer (@code{gnus-summary-select-article-buffer}).
5141 @node Reply Followup and Post
5142 @section Reply, Followup and Post
5145 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
5146 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
5147 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
5148 * Canceling and Superseding::
5152 @node Summary Mail Commands
5153 @subsection Summary Mail Commands
5155 @cindex composing mail
5157 Commands for composing a mail message:
5163 @kindex S r (Summary)
5165 @findex gnus-summary-reply
5166 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-reply}
5167 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply}
5168 Mail a reply to the author of the current article
5169 (@code{gnus-summary-reply}).
5174 @kindex S R (Summary)
5175 @findex gnus-summary-reply-with-original
5176 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}
5177 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
5178 original message (@code{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}). This
5179 command uses the process/prefix convention.
5182 @kindex S w (Summary)
5183 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply
5184 Mail a wide reply to the author of the current article
5185 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{wide reply} is a reply that
5186 goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
5187 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers.
5190 @kindex S W (Summary)
5191 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original
5192 Mail a wide reply to the current article and include the original
5193 message (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original}). This command uses
5194 the process/prefix convention.
5197 @kindex S v (Summary)
5198 @findex gnus-summary-very-wide-reply
5199 Mail a very wide reply to the author of the current article
5200 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{very wide reply} is a reply
5201 that goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
5202 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers in all the process/prefixed
5203 articles. This command uses the process/prefix convention.
5206 @kindex S V (Summary)
5207 @findex gnus-summary-very-wide-reply-with-original
5208 Mail a very wide reply to the author of the current article and include the
5209 original message (@code{gnus-summary-very-wide-reply-with-original}). This
5210 command uses the process/prefix convention.
5213 @kindex S B r (Summary)
5214 @findex gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to
5215 Mail a reply to the author of the current article but ignore the
5216 @code{Reply-To} field (@code{gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to}).
5219 @kindex S B R (Summary)
5220 @findex gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to-with-original
5221 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
5222 original message but ignore the @code{Reply-To} field
5223 (@code{gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to-with-original}).
5227 @kindex S o m (Summary)
5228 @kindex C-c C-f (Summary)
5229 @findex gnus-summary-mail-forward
5230 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-forward}
5231 Forward the current article to some other person
5232 (@code{gnus-summary-mail-forward}). If no prefix is given, the message
5233 is forwarded according to the value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime})
5234 and (@code{message-forward-show-mml}); if the prefix is 1, decode the
5235 message and forward directly inline; if the prefix is 2, forward message
5236 as an rfc822 @sc{mime} section; if the prefix is 3, decode message and
5237 forward as an rfc822 @sc{mime} section; if the prefix is 4, forward message
5238 directly inline; otherwise, the message is forwarded as no prefix given
5239 but use the flipped value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}). By
5240 default, the message is decoded and forwarded as an rfc822 @sc{mime}
5246 @kindex S m (Summary)
5247 @findex gnus-summary-mail-other-window
5248 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-originate}
5249 Prepare a mail (@code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}). By default, use
5250 the posting style of the current group. If given a prefix, disable that.
5251 If the prefix is 1, prompt for a group name to find the posting style.
5256 @kindex S i (Summary)
5257 @findex gnus-summary-news-other-window
5258 Prepare a news (@code{gnus-summary-news-other-window}). By default,
5259 post to the current group. If given a prefix, disable that. If the
5260 prefix is 1, prompt for a group to post to.
5262 This function actually prepares a news even when using mail groups.
5263 This is useful for ``posting'' messages to mail groups without actually
5264 sending them over the network: they're just saved directly to the group
5265 in question. The corresponding back end must have a request-post method
5266 for this to work though.
5269 @kindex S D b (Summary)
5270 @findex gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail
5271 @cindex bouncing mail
5272 If you have sent a mail, but the mail was bounced back to you for some
5273 reason (wrong address, transient failure), you can use this command to
5274 resend that bounced mail (@code{gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail}). You
5275 will be popped into a mail buffer where you can edit the headers before
5276 sending the mail off again. If you give a prefix to this command, and
5277 the bounced mail is a reply to some other mail, Gnus will try to fetch
5278 that mail and display it for easy perusal of its headers. This might
5279 very well fail, though.
5282 @kindex S D r (Summary)
5283 @findex gnus-summary-resend-message
5284 Not to be confused with the previous command,
5285 @code{gnus-summary-resend-message} will prompt you for an address to
5286 send the current message off to, and then send it to that place. The
5287 headers of the message won't be altered---but lots of headers that say
5288 @code{Resent-To}, @code{Resent-From} and so on will be added. This
5289 means that you actually send a mail to someone that has a @code{To}
5290 header that (probably) points to yourself. This will confuse people.
5291 So, natcherly you'll only do that if you're really eVIl.
5293 This command is mainly used if you have several accounts and want to
5294 ship a mail to a different account of yours. (If you're both
5295 @code{root} and @code{postmaster} and get a mail for @code{postmaster}
5296 to the @code{root} account, you may want to resend it to
5297 @code{postmaster}. Ordnung muss sein!
5299 This command understands the process/prefix convention
5300 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5303 @kindex S O m (Summary)
5304 @findex gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward
5305 Digest the current series (@pxref{Decoding Articles}) and forward the
5306 result using mail (@code{gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward}). This command
5307 uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5310 @kindex S M-c (Summary)
5311 @findex gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint
5312 @cindex crossposting
5313 @cindex excessive crossposting
5314 Send a complaint about excessive crossposting to the author of the
5315 current article (@code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint}).
5317 @findex gnus-crosspost-complaint
5318 This command is provided as a way to fight back against the current
5319 crossposting pandemic that's sweeping Usenet. It will compose a reply
5320 using the @code{gnus-crosspost-complaint} variable as a preamble. This
5321 command understands the process/prefix convention
5322 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) and will prompt you before sending each mail.
5326 Also @xref{Header Commands, ,Header Commands, message, The Message
5327 Manual}, for more information.
5330 @node Summary Post Commands
5331 @subsection Summary Post Commands
5333 @cindex composing news
5335 Commands for posting a news article:
5341 @kindex S p (Summary)
5342 @findex gnus-summary-post-news
5343 @c @icon{gnus-summary-post-news}
5344 Prepare for posting an article (@code{gnus-summary-post-news}). By
5345 default, post to the current group. If given a prefix, disable that.
5346 If the prefix is 1, prompt for another group instead.
5351 @kindex S f (Summary)
5352 @findex gnus-summary-followup
5353 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup}
5354 Post a followup to the current article (@code{gnus-summary-followup}).
5358 @kindex S F (Summary)
5360 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}
5361 @findex gnus-summary-followup-with-original
5362 Post a followup to the current article and include the original message
5363 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}). This command uses the
5364 process/prefix convention.
5367 @kindex S n (Summary)
5368 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail
5369 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
5370 message through mail (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail}).
5373 @kindex S N (Summary)
5374 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original
5375 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
5376 message through mail and include the original message
5377 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original}). This command uses
5378 the process/prefix convention.
5381 @kindex S o p (Summary)
5382 @findex gnus-summary-post-forward
5383 Forward the current article to a newsgroup
5384 (@code{gnus-summary-post-forward}).
5385 If no prefix is given, the message is forwarded according to the value
5386 of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}) and
5387 (@code{message-forward-show-mml}); if the prefix is 1, decode the
5388 message and forward directly inline; if the prefix is 2, forward message
5389 as an rfc822 @sc{mime} section; if the prefix is 3, decode message and
5390 forward as an rfc822 @sc{mime} section; if the prefix is 4, forward message
5391 directly inline; otherwise, the message is forwarded as no prefix given
5392 but use the flipped value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}). By
5393 default, the message is decoded and forwarded as an rfc822 @sc{mime} section.
5396 @kindex S O p (Summary)
5397 @findex gnus-uu-digest-post-forward
5399 @cindex making digests
5400 Digest the current series and forward the result to a newsgroup
5401 (@code{gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward}). This command uses the
5402 process/prefix convention.
5405 @kindex S u (Summary)
5406 @findex gnus-uu-post-news
5407 @c @icon{gnus-uu-post-news}
5408 Uuencode a file, split it into parts, and post it as a series
5409 (@code{gnus-uu-post-news}). (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
5412 Also @xref{Header Commands, ,Header Commands, message, The Message
5413 Manual}, for more information.
5416 @node Summary Message Commands
5417 @subsection Summary Message Commands
5421 @kindex S y (Summary)
5422 @findex gnus-summary-yank-message
5423 Yank the current article into an already existing Message composition
5424 buffer (@code{gnus-summary-yank-message}). This command prompts for
5425 what message buffer you want to yank into, and understands the
5426 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5431 @node Canceling and Superseding
5432 @subsection Canceling Articles
5433 @cindex canceling articles
5434 @cindex superseding articles
5436 Have you ever written something, and then decided that you really,
5437 really, really wish you hadn't posted that?
5439 Well, you can't cancel mail, but you can cancel posts.
5441 @findex gnus-summary-cancel-article
5443 @c @icon{gnus-summary-cancel-article}
5444 Find the article you wish to cancel (you can only cancel your own
5445 articles, so don't try any funny stuff). Then press @kbd{C} or @kbd{S
5446 c} (@code{gnus-summary-cancel-article}). Your article will be
5447 canceled---machines all over the world will be deleting your article.
5448 This command uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5450 Be aware, however, that not all sites honor cancels, so your article may
5451 live on here and there, while most sites will delete the article in
5454 Gnus will use the ``current'' select method when canceling. If you
5455 want to use the standard posting method, use the @samp{a} symbolic
5456 prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}).
5458 If you discover that you have made some mistakes and want to do some
5459 corrections, you can post a @dfn{superseding} article that will replace
5460 your original article.
5462 @findex gnus-summary-supersede-article
5464 Go to the original article and press @kbd{S s}
5465 (@code{gnus-summary-supersede-article}). You will be put in a buffer
5466 where you can edit the article all you want before sending it off the
5469 The same goes for superseding as for canceling, only more so: Some
5470 sites do not honor superseding. On those sites, it will appear that you
5471 have posted almost the same article twice.
5473 If you have just posted the article, and change your mind right away,
5474 there is a trick you can use to cancel/supersede the article without
5475 waiting for the article to appear on your site first. You simply return
5476 to the post buffer (which is called @code{*sent ...*}). There you will
5477 find the article you just posted, with all the headers intact. Change
5478 the @code{Message-ID} header to a @code{Cancel} or @code{Supersedes}
5479 header by substituting one of those words for the word
5480 @code{Message-ID}. Then just press @kbd{C-c C-c} to send the article as
5481 you would do normally. The previous article will be
5482 canceled/superseded.
5484 Just remember, kids: There is no 'c' in 'supersede'.
5486 @node Delayed Articles
5487 @section Delayed Articles
5488 @cindex delayed sending
5489 @cindex send delayed
5491 Sometimes, you might wish to delay the sending of a message. For
5492 example, you might wish to arrange for a message to turn up just in time
5493 to remind your about the birthday of your Significant Other. For this,
5494 there is the @code{gnus-delay} package. Setup is simple:
5497 (gnus-delay-initialize)
5500 @findex gnus-delay-article
5501 Normally, to send a message you use the @kbd{C-c C-c} command from
5502 Message mode. To delay a message, use @kbd{C-c C-j}
5503 (@code{gnus-delay-article}) instead. This will ask you for how long the
5504 message should be delayed. Possible answers are:
5508 A time span. Consists of an integer and a letter. For example,
5509 @code{42d} means to delay for 42 days. Available letters are @code{m}
5510 (minutes), @code{h} (hours), @code{d} (days), @code{w} (weeks), @code{M}
5511 (months) and @code{Y} (years).
5514 A specific date. Looks like @code{YYYYY-MM-DD}. The message will be
5515 delayed until that day, at a specific time (eight o'clock by default).
5516 See also @code{gnus-delay-default-hour}.
5519 A specific time of day. Given in @code{hh:mm} format, 24h, no am/pm
5520 stuff. The deadline will be at that time today, except if that time has
5521 already passed, then it's at the given time tomorrow. So if it's ten
5522 o'clock in the morning and you specify @code{11:15}, then the deadline
5523 is one hour and fifteen minutes hence. But if you specify @code{9:20},
5524 that means a time tomorrow.
5527 The action of the @code{gnus-delay-article} command is influenced by a
5528 couple of variables:
5531 @item gnus-delay-default-hour
5532 @vindex gnus-delay-default-hour
5533 When you specify a specific date, the message will be due on that hour
5534 on the given date. Possible values are integers 0 through 23.
5536 @item gnus-delay-default-delay
5537 @vindex gnus-delay-default-delay
5538 This is a string and gives the default delay. It can be of any of the
5539 formats described above.
5541 @item gnus-delay-group
5542 @vindex gnus-delay-group
5543 Delayed articles will be kept in this group on the drafts server until
5544 they are due. You probably don't need to change this. The default
5545 value is @code{"delayed"}.
5547 @item gnus-delay-header
5548 @vindex gnus-delay-header
5549 The deadline for each article will be stored in a header. This variable
5550 is a string and gives the header name. You probably don't need to
5551 change this. The default value is @code{"X-Gnus-Delayed"}.
5554 The way delaying works is like this: when you use the
5555 @code{gnus-delay-article} command, you give a certain delay. Gnus
5556 calculates the deadline of the message and stores it in the
5557 @code{X-Gnus-Delayed} header and puts the message in the
5558 @code{nndraft:delayed} group.
5560 @findex gnus-delay-send-queue
5561 And whenever you get new news, Gnus looks through the group for articles
5562 which are due and sends them. It uses the @code{gnus-delay-send-queue}
5563 function for this. By default, this function is added to the hook
5564 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. But of course, you can change this.
5565 Maybe you want to use the demon to send drafts? Just tell the demon to
5566 execute the @code{gnus-delay-send-queue} function.
5569 @item gnus-delay-initialize
5570 @findex gnus-delay-initialize
5571 By default, this function installs @code{gnus-delay-send-queue} in
5572 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. But it accepts the optional second
5573 argument @code{no-check}. If it is non-@code{nil},
5574 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is not changed. The optional first
5575 argument is ignored.
5577 For example, @code{(gnus-delay-initialize nil t)} means to do nothing.
5578 Presumably, you want to use the demon for sending due delayed articles.
5579 Just don't forget to set that up :-)
5583 @node Marking Articles
5584 @section Marking Articles
5585 @cindex article marking
5586 @cindex article ticking
5589 There are several marks you can set on an article.
5591 You have marks that decide the @dfn{readedness} (whoo, neato-keano
5592 neologism ohoy!) of the article. Alphabetic marks generally mean
5593 @dfn{read}, while non-alphabetic characters generally mean @dfn{unread}.
5595 In addition, you also have marks that do not affect readedness.
5598 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
5599 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
5600 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
5604 There's a plethora of commands for manipulating these marks:
5608 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
5609 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
5610 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
5614 @node Unread Articles
5615 @subsection Unread Articles
5617 The following marks mark articles as (kinda) unread, in one form or
5622 @vindex gnus-ticked-mark
5623 Marked as ticked (@code{gnus-ticked-mark}).
5625 @dfn{Ticked articles} are articles that will remain visible always. If
5626 you see an article that you find interesting, or you want to put off
5627 reading it, or replying to it, until sometime later, you'd typically
5628 tick it. However, articles can be expired (from news servers by the
5629 news server software, Gnus itself never expires ticked messages), so if
5630 you want to keep an article forever, you'll have to make it persistent
5631 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
5634 @vindex gnus-dormant-mark
5635 Marked as dormant (@code{gnus-dormant-mark}).
5637 @dfn{Dormant articles} will only appear in the summary buffer if there
5638 are followups to it. If you want to see them even if they don't have
5639 followups, you can use the @kbd{/ D} command (@pxref{Limiting}).
5640 Otherwise (except for the visibility issue), they are just like ticked
5644 @vindex gnus-unread-mark
5645 Marked as unread (@code{gnus-unread-mark}).
5647 @dfn{Unread articles} are articles that haven't been read at all yet.
5652 @subsection Read Articles
5653 @cindex expirable mark
5655 All the following marks mark articles as read.
5660 @vindex gnus-del-mark
5661 These are articles that the user has marked as read with the @kbd{d}
5662 command manually, more or less (@code{gnus-del-mark}).
5665 @vindex gnus-read-mark
5666 Articles that have actually been read (@code{gnus-read-mark}).
5669 @vindex gnus-ancient-mark
5670 Articles that were marked as read in previous sessions and are now
5671 @dfn{old} (@code{gnus-ancient-mark}).
5674 @vindex gnus-killed-mark
5675 Marked as killed (@code{gnus-killed-mark}).
5678 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mark
5679 Marked as killed by kill files (@code{gnus-kill-file-mark}).
5682 @vindex gnus-low-score-mark
5683 Marked as read by having too low a score (@code{gnus-low-score-mark}).
5686 @vindex gnus-catchup-mark
5687 Marked as read by a catchup (@code{gnus-catchup-mark}).
5690 @vindex gnus-canceled-mark
5691 Canceled article (@code{gnus-canceled-mark})
5694 @vindex gnus-souped-mark
5695 @sc{soup}ed article (@code{gnus-souped-mark}). @xref{SOUP}.
5698 @vindex gnus-sparse-mark
5699 Sparsely reffed article (@code{gnus-sparse-mark}). @xref{Customizing
5703 @vindex gnus-duplicate-mark
5704 Article marked as read by duplicate suppression
5705 (@code{gnus-duplicate-mark}). @xref{Duplicate Suppression}.
5709 All these marks just mean that the article is marked as read, really.
5710 They are interpreted differently when doing adaptive scoring, though.
5712 One more special mark, though:
5716 @vindex gnus-expirable-mark
5717 Marked as expirable (@code{gnus-expirable-mark}).
5719 Marking articles as @dfn{expirable} (or have them marked as such
5720 automatically) doesn't make much sense in normal groups---a user doesn't
5721 control expiring of news articles, but in mail groups, for instance,
5722 articles marked as @dfn{expirable} can be deleted by Gnus at
5728 @subsection Other Marks
5729 @cindex process mark
5732 There are some marks that have nothing to do with whether the article is
5738 You can set a bookmark in the current article. Say you are reading a
5739 long thesis on cats' urinary tracts, and have to go home for dinner
5740 before you've finished reading the thesis. You can then set a bookmark
5741 in the article, and Gnus will jump to this bookmark the next time it
5742 encounters the article. @xref{Setting Marks}.
5745 @vindex gnus-replied-mark
5746 All articles that you have replied to or made a followup to (i.e., have
5747 answered) will be marked with an @samp{A} in the second column
5748 (@code{gnus-replied-mark}).
5751 @vindex gnus-forwarded-mark
5752 All articles that you have forwarded will be marked with an @samp{F} in
5753 the second column (@code{gnus-forwarded-mark}).
5756 @vindex gnus-cached-mark
5757 Articles stored in the article cache will be marked with an @samp{*} in
5758 the second column (@code{gnus-cached-mark}). @xref{Article Caching}.
5761 @vindex gnus-saved-mark
5762 Articles ``saved'' (in some manner or other; not necessarily
5763 religiously) are marked with an @samp{S} in the second column
5764 (@code{gnus-saved-mark}).
5767 @vindex gnus-recent-mark
5768 Articles that according to the server haven't been shown to the user
5769 before are marked with a @samp{N} in the second column
5770 (@code{gnus-recent-mark}). Note that not all servers support this
5771 mark, in which case it simply never appears. Compare with
5772 @code{gnus-unseen-mark}.
5775 @vindex gnus-unseen-mark
5776 Articles that haven't been seen before in Gnus by the user are marked
5777 with a @samp{.} in the second column (@code{gnus-unseen-mark}).
5778 Compare with @code{gnus-recent-mark}.
5781 @vindex gnus-downloaded-mark
5782 When using the Gnus agent @pxref{Agent Basics}, articles may be
5783 downloaded for unplugged (offline) viewing. If you are using the
5784 @samp{%O} spec, these articles get the @samp{+} mark in that spec.
5785 (The variable @code{gnus-downloaded-mark} controls which character to
5789 @vindex gnus-undownloaded-mark
5790 When using the Gnus agent @pxref{Agent Basics}, some articles might
5791 not have been downloaded. Such articles cannot be viewed while you
5792 are unplugged (offline). If you are using the @samp{%O} spec, these
5793 articles get the @samp{-} mark in that spec. (The variable
5794 @code{gnus-undownloaded-mark} controls which character to use.)
5797 @vindex gnus-downloadable-mark
5798 The Gnus agent @pxref{Agent Basics} downloads some articles
5799 automatically, but it is also possible to explicitly mark articles for
5800 download, even if they would not be downloaded automatically. Such
5801 explicitly-marked articles get the @samp{%} mark in the first column.
5802 (The variable @code{gnus-downloadable-mark} controls which character to
5806 @vindex gnus-not-empty-thread-mark
5807 @vindex gnus-empty-thread-mark
5808 If the @samp{%e} spec is used, the presence of threads or not will be
5809 marked with @code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark} and
5810 @code{gnus-empty-thread-mark} in the third column, respectively.
5813 @vindex gnus-process-mark
5814 Finally we have the @dfn{process mark} (@code{gnus-process-mark}). A
5815 variety of commands react to the presence of the process mark. For
5816 instance, @kbd{X u} (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}) will uudecode and view
5817 all articles that have been marked with the process mark. Articles
5818 marked with the process mark have a @samp{#} in the second column.
5822 You might have noticed that most of these ``non-readedness'' marks
5823 appear in the second column by default. So if you have a cached, saved,
5824 replied article that you have process-marked, what will that look like?
5826 Nothing much. The precedence rules go as follows: process -> cache ->
5827 replied -> saved. So if the article is in the cache and is replied,
5828 you'll only see the cache mark and not the replied mark.
5832 @subsection Setting Marks
5833 @cindex setting marks
5835 All the marking commands understand the numeric prefix.
5840 @kindex M c (Summary)
5841 @kindex M-u (Summary)
5842 @findex gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward
5843 @cindex mark as unread
5844 Clear all readedness-marks from the current article
5845 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward}). In other words, mark the
5851 @kindex M t (Summary)
5852 @findex gnus-summary-tick-article-forward
5853 Tick the current article (@code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}).
5854 @xref{Article Caching}.
5859 @kindex M ? (Summary)
5860 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant
5861 Mark the current article as dormant
5862 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant}). @xref{Article Caching}.
5866 @kindex M d (Summary)
5868 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward
5869 Mark the current article as read
5870 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward}).
5874 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward
5875 Mark the current article as read and move point to the previous line
5876 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward}).
5881 @kindex M k (Summary)
5882 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select
5883 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read,
5884 and then select the next unread article
5885 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select}).
5889 @kindex M K (Summary)
5890 @kindex C-k (Summary)
5891 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject
5892 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read
5893 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject}).
5896 @kindex M C (Summary)
5897 @findex gnus-summary-catchup
5898 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup}
5899 Mark all unread articles as read (@code{gnus-summary-catchup}).
5902 @kindex M C-c (Summary)
5903 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all
5904 Mark all articles in the group as read---even the ticked and dormant
5905 articles (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all}).
5908 @kindex M H (Summary)
5909 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-to-here
5910 Catchup the current group to point (before the point)
5911 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-to-here}).
5914 @kindex M h (Summary)
5915 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-from-here
5916 Catchup the current group from point (after the point)
5917 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-from-here}).
5920 @kindex C-w (Summary)
5921 @findex gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read
5922 Mark all articles between point and mark as read
5923 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read}).
5926 @kindex M V k (Summary)
5927 @findex gnus-summary-kill-below
5928 Kill all articles with scores below the default score (or below the
5929 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-kill-below}).
5933 @kindex M e (Summary)
5935 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable
5936 Mark the current article as expirable
5937 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable}).
5940 @kindex M b (Summary)
5941 @findex gnus-summary-set-bookmark
5942 Set a bookmark in the current article
5943 (@code{gnus-summary-set-bookmark}).
5946 @kindex M B (Summary)
5947 @findex gnus-summary-remove-bookmark
5948 Remove the bookmark from the current article
5949 (@code{gnus-summary-remove-bookmark}).
5952 @kindex M V c (Summary)
5953 @findex gnus-summary-clear-above
5954 Clear all marks from articles with scores over the default score (or
5955 over the numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
5958 @kindex M V u (Summary)
5959 @findex gnus-summary-tick-above
5960 Tick all articles with scores over the default score (or over the
5961 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-tick-above}).
5964 @kindex M V m (Summary)
5965 @findex gnus-summary-mark-above
5966 Prompt for a mark, and mark all articles with scores over the default
5967 score (or over the numeric prefix) with this mark
5968 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
5971 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
5972 The @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} variable controls what action should
5973 be taken after setting a mark. If non-@code{nil}, point will move to
5974 the next/previous unread article. If @code{nil}, point will just move
5975 one line up or down. As a special case, if this variable is
5976 @code{never}, all the marking commands as well as other commands (like
5977 @kbd{SPACE}) will move to the next article, whether it is unread or not.
5978 The default is @code{t}.
5981 @node Generic Marking Commands
5982 @subsection Generic Marking Commands
5984 Some people would like the command that ticks an article (@kbd{!}) go to
5985 the next article. Others would like it to go to the next unread
5986 article. Yet others would like it to stay on the current article. And
5987 even though I haven't heard of anybody wanting it to go to the
5988 previous (unread) article, I'm sure there are people that want that as
5991 Multiply these five behaviors with five different marking commands, and
5992 you get a potentially complex set of variable to control what each
5995 To sidestep that mess, Gnus provides commands that do all these
5996 different things. They can be found on the @kbd{M M} map in the summary
5997 buffer. Type @kbd{M M C-h} to see them all---there are too many of them
5998 to list in this manual.
6000 While you can use these commands directly, most users would prefer
6001 altering the summary mode keymap. For instance, if you would like the
6002 @kbd{!} command to go to the next article instead of the next unread
6003 article, you could say something like:
6006 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'my-alter-summary-map)
6007 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
6008 (local-set-key "!" 'gnus-summary-put-mark-as-ticked-next))
6014 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
6015 (local-set-key "!" "MM!n"))
6019 @node Setting Process Marks
6020 @subsection Setting Process Marks
6021 @cindex setting process marks
6023 Process marks are displayed as @code{#} in the summary buffer, and are
6024 used for marking articles in such a way that other commands will
6025 process these articles. For instance, if you process mark four
6026 articles and then use the @kbd{*} command, Gnus will enter these four
6027 commands into the cache. For more information,
6028 @pxref{Process/Prefix}.
6035 @kindex M P p (Summary)
6036 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-processable
6037 Mark the current article with the process mark
6038 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-processable}).
6039 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable
6043 @kindex M P u (Summary)
6044 @kindex M-# (Summary)
6045 Remove the process mark, if any, from the current article
6046 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable}).
6049 @kindex M P U (Summary)
6050 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable
6051 Remove the process mark from all articles
6052 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable}).
6055 @kindex M P i (Summary)
6056 @findex gnus-uu-invert-processable
6057 Invert the list of process marked articles
6058 (@code{gnus-uu-invert-processable}).
6061 @kindex M P R (Summary)
6062 @findex gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp
6063 Mark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
6064 expression (@code{gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp}).
6067 @kindex M P G (Summary)
6068 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp
6069 Unmark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
6070 expression (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp}).
6073 @kindex M P r (Summary)
6074 @findex gnus-uu-mark-region
6075 Mark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-mark-region}).
6079 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-region
6080 Unmark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-region}).
6083 @kindex M P t (Summary)
6084 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
6085 Mark all articles in the current (sub)thread
6086 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
6089 @kindex M P T (Summary)
6090 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
6091 Unmark all articles in the current (sub)thread
6092 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
6095 @kindex M P v (Summary)
6096 @findex gnus-uu-mark-over
6097 Mark all articles that have a score above the prefix argument
6098 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-over}).
6101 @kindex M P s (Summary)
6102 @findex gnus-uu-mark-series
6103 Mark all articles in the current series (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
6106 @kindex M P S (Summary)
6107 @findex gnus-uu-mark-sparse
6108 Mark all series that have already had some articles marked
6109 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-sparse}).
6112 @kindex M P a (Summary)
6113 @findex gnus-uu-mark-all
6114 Mark all articles in series order (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
6117 @kindex M P b (Summary)
6118 @findex gnus-uu-mark-buffer
6119 Mark all articles in the buffer in the order they appear
6120 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-buffer}).
6123 @kindex M P k (Summary)
6124 @findex gnus-summary-kill-process-mark
6125 Push the current process mark set onto the stack and unmark all articles
6126 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-process-mark}).
6129 @kindex M P y (Summary)
6130 @findex gnus-summary-yank-process-mark
6131 Pop the previous process mark set from the stack and restore it
6132 (@code{gnus-summary-yank-process-mark}).
6135 @kindex M P w (Summary)
6136 @findex gnus-summary-save-process-mark
6137 Push the current process mark set onto the stack
6138 (@code{gnus-summary-save-process-mark}).
6142 Also see the @kbd{&} command in @pxref{Searching for Articles} for how to
6143 set process marks based on article body contents.
6150 It can be convenient to limit the summary buffer to just show some
6151 subset of the articles currently in the group. The effect most limit
6152 commands have is to remove a few (or many) articles from the summary
6155 All limiting commands work on subsets of the articles already fetched
6156 from the servers. None of these commands query the server for
6157 additional articles.
6163 @kindex / / (Summary)
6164 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-subject
6165 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some subject
6166 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-subject}). If given a prefix, exclude
6170 @kindex / a (Summary)
6171 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-author
6172 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some author
6173 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-author}). If given a prefix, exclude
6177 @kindex / x (Summary)
6178 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-extra
6179 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match one of the ``extra''
6180 headers (@pxref{To From Newsgroups})
6181 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-extra}). If given a prefix, exclude
6186 @kindex / u (Summary)
6188 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-unread
6189 Limit the summary buffer to articles not marked as read
6190 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-unread}). If given a prefix, limit the
6191 buffer to articles strictly unread. This means that ticked and
6192 dormant articles will also be excluded.
6195 @kindex / m (Summary)
6196 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-marks
6197 Ask for a mark and then limit to all articles that have been marked
6198 with that mark (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-marks}).
6201 @kindex / t (Summary)
6202 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-age
6203 Ask for a number and then limit the summary buffer to articles older than (or equal to) that number of days
6204 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-age}). If given a prefix, limit to
6205 articles younger than that number of days.
6208 @kindex / n (Summary)
6209 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-articles
6210 Limit the summary buffer to the current article
6211 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-articles}). Uses the process/prefix
6212 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
6215 @kindex / w (Summary)
6216 @findex gnus-summary-pop-limit
6217 Pop the previous limit off the stack and restore it
6218 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-limit}). If given a prefix, pop all limits off
6222 @kindex / . (Summary)
6223 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-unseen
6224 Limit the summary buffer to the unseen articles
6225 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-unseen}).
6228 @kindex / v (Summary)
6229 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-score
6230 Limit the summary buffer to articles that have a score at or above some
6231 score (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-score}).
6234 @kindex / p (Summary)
6235 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-display-predicate
6236 Limit the summary buffer to articles that satisfy the @code{display}
6237 group parameter predicate
6238 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-display-predicate}). See @pxref{Group
6239 Parameters} for more on this predicate.
6243 @kindex M S (Summary)
6244 @kindex / E (Summary)
6245 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged
6246 Include all expunged articles in the limit
6247 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged}).
6250 @kindex / D (Summary)
6251 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant
6252 Include all dormant articles in the limit
6253 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant}).
6256 @kindex / * (Summary)
6257 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-cached
6258 Include all cached articles in the limit
6259 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-cached}).
6262 @kindex / d (Summary)
6263 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant
6264 Exclude all dormant articles from the limit
6265 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant}).
6268 @kindex / M (Summary)
6269 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks
6270 Exclude all marked articles (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks}).
6273 @kindex / T (Summary)
6274 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-thread
6275 Include all the articles in the current thread in the limit.
6278 @kindex / c (Summary)
6279 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant
6280 Exclude all dormant articles that have no children from the limit
6281 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant}).
6284 @kindex / C (Summary)
6285 @findex gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read
6286 Mark all excluded unread articles as read
6287 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read}). If given a prefix,
6288 also mark excluded ticked and dormant articles as read.
6291 @kindex / N (Summary)
6292 @findex gnus-summary-insert-new-articles
6293 Insert all new articles in the summary buffer. It scans for new emails
6294 if @var{back-end}@code{-get-new-mail} is non-@code{nil}.
6297 @kindex / o (Summary)
6298 @findex gnus-summary-insert-old-articles
6299 Insert all old articles in the summary buffer. If given a numbered
6300 prefix, fetch this number of articles.
6308 @cindex article threading
6310 Gnus threads articles by default. @dfn{To thread} is to put responses
6311 to articles directly after the articles they respond to---in a
6312 hierarchical fashion.
6314 Threading is done by looking at the @code{References} headers of the
6315 articles. In a perfect world, this would be enough to build pretty
6316 trees, but unfortunately, the @code{References} header is often broken
6317 or simply missing. Weird news propagation exacerbates the problem,
6318 so one has to employ other heuristics to get pleasing results. A
6319 plethora of approaches exists, as detailed in horrible detail in
6320 @pxref{Customizing Threading}.
6322 First, a quick overview of the concepts:
6326 The top-most article in a thread; the first article in the thread.
6329 A tree-like article structure.
6332 A small(er) section of this tree-like structure.
6335 Threads often lose their roots due to article expiry, or due to the root
6336 already having been read in a previous session, and not displayed in the
6337 summary buffer. We then typically have many sub-threads that really
6338 belong to one thread, but are without connecting roots. These are
6339 called loose threads.
6341 @item thread gathering
6342 An attempt to gather loose threads into bigger threads.
6344 @item sparse threads
6345 A thread where the missing articles have been ``guessed'' at, and are
6346 displayed as empty lines in the summary buffer.
6352 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
6353 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
6357 @node Customizing Threading
6358 @subsection Customizing Threading
6359 @cindex customizing threading
6362 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
6363 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
6364 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
6365 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over@dots{} but you were wrong!
6370 @subsubsection Loose Threads
6373 @cindex loose threads
6376 @item gnus-summary-make-false-root
6377 @vindex gnus-summary-make-false-root
6378 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will gather all loose subtrees into one big tree
6379 and create a dummy root at the top. (Wait a minute. Root at the top?
6380 Yup.) Loose subtrees occur when the real root has expired, or you've
6381 read or killed the root in a previous session.
6383 When there is no real root of a thread, Gnus will have to fudge
6384 something. This variable says what fudging method Gnus should use.
6385 There are four possible values:
6389 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{390}{
6390 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-adopt,width=7.5cm}}
6391 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-empty,width=7.5cm}}}
6392 \put(0,400){\makebox(0,0)[tl]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-none,width=7.5cm}}}
6393 \put(445,400){\makebox(0,0)[tr]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-dummy,width=7.5cm}}}
6398 @cindex adopting articles
6403 Gnus will make the first of the orphaned articles the parent. This
6404 parent will adopt all the other articles. The adopted articles will be
6405 marked as such by pointy brackets (@samp{<>}) instead of the standard
6406 square brackets (@samp{[]}). This is the default method.
6409 @vindex gnus-summary-dummy-line-format
6410 @vindex gnus-summary-make-false-root-always
6411 Gnus will create a dummy summary line that will pretend to be the
6412 parent. This dummy line does not correspond to any real article, so
6413 selecting it will just select the first real article after the dummy
6414 article. @code{gnus-summary-dummy-line-format} is used to specify the
6415 format of the dummy roots. It accepts only one format spec: @samp{S},
6416 which is the subject of the article. @xref{Formatting Variables}.
6417 If you want all threads to have a dummy root, even the non-gathered
6418 ones, set @code{gnus-summary-make-false-root-always} to @code{t}.
6421 Gnus won't actually make any article the parent, but simply leave the
6422 subject field of all orphans except the first empty. (Actually, it will
6423 use @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} as the subject (@pxref{Summary
6427 Don't make any article parent at all. Just gather the threads and
6428 display them after one another.
6431 Don't gather loose threads.
6434 @item gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
6435 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
6436 Loose threads are gathered by comparing subjects of articles. If this
6437 variable is @code{nil}, Gnus requires an exact match between the
6438 subjects of the loose threads before gathering them into one big
6439 super-thread. This might be too strict a requirement, what with the
6440 presence of stupid newsreaders that chop off long subject lines. If
6441 you think so, set this variable to, say, 20 to require that only the
6442 first 20 characters of the subjects have to match. If you set this
6443 variable to a really low number, you'll find that Gnus will gather
6444 everything in sight into one thread, which isn't very helpful.
6446 @cindex fuzzy article gathering
6447 If you set this variable to the special value @code{fuzzy}, Gnus will
6448 use a fuzzy string comparison algorithm on the subjects (@pxref{Fuzzy
6451 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
6452 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
6453 This can either be a regular expression or list of regular expressions
6454 that match strings that will be removed from subjects if fuzzy subject
6455 simplification is used.
6457 @item gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
6458 @vindex gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
6459 If you set @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit} to something as low
6460 as 10, you might consider setting this variable to something sensible:
6462 @c Written by Michael Ernst <mernst@cs.rice.edu>
6464 (setq gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
6470 "wanted" "followup" "summary\\( of\\)?"
6471 "help" "query" "problem" "question"
6472 "answer" "reference" "announce"
6473 "How can I" "How to" "Comparison of"
6478 (mapconcat 'identity
6479 '("for" "for reference" "with" "about")
6481 "\\)?\\]?:?[ \t]*"))
6484 All words that match this regexp will be removed before comparing two
6487 @item gnus-simplify-subject-functions
6488 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-functions
6489 If non-@code{nil}, this variable overrides
6490 @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}. This variable should be a
6491 list of functions to apply to the @code{Subject} string iteratively to
6492 arrive at the simplified version of the string.
6494 Useful functions to put in this list include:
6497 @item gnus-simplify-subject-re
6498 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-re
6499 Strip the leading @samp{Re:}.
6501 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
6502 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
6505 @item gnus-simplify-whitespace
6506 @findex gnus-simplify-whitespace
6507 Remove excessive whitespace.
6509 @item gnus-simplify-all-whitespace
6510 @findex gnus-simplify-all-whitespace
6511 Remove all whitespace.
6514 You may also write your own functions, of course.
6517 @item gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
6518 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
6519 Since loose thread gathering is done on subjects only, that might lead
6520 to many false hits, especially with certain common subjects like
6521 @samp{} and @samp{(none)}. To make the situation slightly better,
6522 you can use the regexp @code{gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject} to say
6523 what subjects should be excluded from the gathering process.@*
6524 The default is @samp{^ *$\\|^(none)$}.
6526 @item gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
6527 @vindex gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
6528 Gnus gathers threads by looking at @code{Subject} headers. This means
6529 that totally unrelated articles may end up in the same ``thread'', which
6530 is confusing. An alternate approach is to look at all the
6531 @code{Message-ID}s in all the @code{References} headers to find matches.
6532 This will ensure that no gathered threads ever include unrelated
6533 articles, but it also means that people who have posted with broken
6534 newsreaders won't be gathered properly. The choice is yours---plague or
6538 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
6539 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
6540 This function is the default gathering function and looks at
6541 @code{Subject}s exclusively.
6543 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-references
6544 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-references
6545 This function looks at @code{References} headers exclusively.
6548 If you want to test gathering by @code{References}, you could say
6552 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
6553 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
6559 @node Filling In Threads
6560 @subsubsection Filling In Threads
6563 @item gnus-fetch-old-headers
6564 @vindex gnus-fetch-old-headers
6565 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will attempt to build old threads by fetching
6566 more old headers---headers to articles marked as read. If you
6567 would like to display as few summary lines as possible, but still
6568 connect as many loose threads as possible, you should set this variable
6569 to @code{some} or a number. If you set it to a number, no more than
6570 that number of extra old headers will be fetched. In either case,
6571 fetching old headers only works if the back end you are using carries
6572 overview files---this would normally be @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool},
6573 @code{nnml}, and @code{nnmaildir}. Also remember that if the root of
6574 the thread has been expired by the server, there's not much Gnus can do
6577 This variable can also be set to @code{invisible}. This won't have any
6578 visible effects, but is useful if you use the @kbd{A T} command a lot
6579 (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
6581 @item gnus-build-sparse-threads
6582 @vindex gnus-build-sparse-threads
6583 Fetching old headers can be slow. A low-rent similar effect can be
6584 gotten by setting this variable to @code{some}. Gnus will then look at
6585 the complete @code{References} headers of all articles and try to string
6586 together articles that belong in the same thread. This will leave
6587 @dfn{gaps} in the threading display where Gnus guesses that an article
6588 is missing from the thread. (These gaps appear like normal summary
6589 lines. If you select a gap, Gnus will try to fetch the article in
6590 question.) If this variable is @code{t}, Gnus will display all these
6591 ``gaps'' without regard for whether they are useful for completing the
6592 thread or not. Finally, if this variable is @code{more}, Gnus won't cut
6593 off sparse leaf nodes that don't lead anywhere. This variable is
6594 @code{nil} by default.
6596 @item gnus-read-all-available-headers
6597 @vindex gnus-read-all-available-headers
6598 This is a rather obscure variable that few will find useful. It's
6599 intended for those non-news newsgroups where the back end has to fetch
6600 quite a lot to present the summary buffer, and where it's impossible to
6601 go back to parents of articles. This is mostly the case in the
6602 web-based groups, like the @code{nnultimate} groups.
6604 If you don't use those, then it's safe to leave this as the default
6605 @code{nil}. If you want to use this variable, it should be a regexp
6606 that matches the group name, or @code{t} for all groups.
6611 @node More Threading
6612 @subsubsection More Threading
6615 @item gnus-show-threads
6616 @vindex gnus-show-threads
6617 If this variable is @code{nil}, no threading will be done, and all of
6618 the rest of the variables here will have no effect. Turning threading
6619 off will speed group selection up a bit, but it is sure to make reading
6620 slower and more awkward.
6622 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
6623 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-subtree
6624 If non-@code{nil}, all threads will be hidden when the summary buffer is
6627 This can also be a predicate specifier (@pxref{Predicate Specifiers}).
6628 Available predicates are @code{gnus-article-unread-p} and
6629 @code{gnus-article-unseen-p}).
6634 (setq gnus-thread-hide-subtree
6635 '(or gnus-article-unread-p
6636 gnus-article-unseen-p))
6639 (It's a pretty nonsensical example, since all unseen articles are also
6640 unread, but you get my drift.)
6643 @item gnus-thread-expunge-below
6644 @vindex gnus-thread-expunge-below
6645 All threads that have a total score (as defined by
6646 @code{gnus-thread-score-function}) less than this number will be
6647 expunged. This variable is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
6648 threads are expunged.
6650 @item gnus-thread-hide-killed
6651 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-killed
6652 if you kill a thread and this variable is non-@code{nil}, the subtree
6655 @item gnus-thread-ignore-subject
6656 @vindex gnus-thread-ignore-subject
6657 Sometimes somebody changes the subject in the middle of a thread. If
6658 this variable is non-@code{nil}, which is the default, the subject
6659 change is ignored. If it is @code{nil}, a change in the subject will
6660 result in a new thread.
6662 @item gnus-thread-indent-level
6663 @vindex gnus-thread-indent-level
6664 This is a number that says how much each sub-thread should be indented.
6667 @item gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
6668 @vindex gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
6669 Sometimes, particularly with mailing lists, the order in which mails
6670 arrive locally is not necessarily the same as the order in which they
6671 arrived on the mailing list. Consequently, when sorting sub-threads
6672 using the default @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number}, responses can end
6673 up appearing before the article to which they are responding to.
6674 Setting this variable to an alternate value
6675 (e.g. @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}), in a group's parameters or in an
6676 appropriate hook (e.g. @code{gnus-summary-generate-hook}) can produce a
6677 more logical sub-thread ordering in such instances.
6682 @node Low-Level Threading
6683 @subsubsection Low-Level Threading
6687 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
6688 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
6689 Hook run before parsing any headers.
6691 @item gnus-alter-header-function
6692 @vindex gnus-alter-header-function
6693 If non-@code{nil}, this function will be called to allow alteration of
6694 article header structures. The function is called with one parameter,
6695 the article header vector, which it may alter in any way. For instance,
6696 if you have a mail-to-news gateway which alters the @code{Message-ID}s
6697 in systematic ways (by adding prefixes and such), you can use this
6698 variable to un-scramble the @code{Message-ID}s so that they are more
6699 meaningful. Here's one example:
6702 (setq gnus-alter-header-function 'my-alter-message-id)
6704 (defun my-alter-message-id (header)
6705 (let ((id (mail-header-id header)))
6707 "\\(<[^<>@@]*\\)\\.?cygnus\\..*@@\\([^<>@@]*>\\)" id)
6709 (concat (match-string 1 id) "@@" (match-string 2 id))
6716 @node Thread Commands
6717 @subsection Thread Commands
6718 @cindex thread commands
6724 @kindex T k (Summary)
6725 @kindex C-M-k (Summary)
6726 @findex gnus-summary-kill-thread
6727 Mark all articles in the current (sub-)thread as read
6728 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}). If the prefix argument is positive,
6729 remove all marks instead. If the prefix argument is negative, tick
6734 @kindex T l (Summary)
6735 @kindex C-M-l (Summary)
6736 @findex gnus-summary-lower-thread
6737 Lower the score of the current (sub-)thread
6738 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-thread}).
6741 @kindex T i (Summary)
6742 @findex gnus-summary-raise-thread
6743 Increase the score of the current (sub-)thread
6744 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-thread}).
6747 @kindex T # (Summary)
6748 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
6749 Set the process mark on the current (sub-)thread
6750 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
6753 @kindex T M-# (Summary)
6754 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
6755 Remove the process mark from the current (sub-)thread
6756 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
6759 @kindex T T (Summary)
6760 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-threads
6761 Toggle threading (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-threads}).
6764 @kindex T s (Summary)
6765 @findex gnus-summary-show-thread
6766 Expose the (sub-)thread hidden under the current article, if any
6767 (@code{gnus-summary-show-thread}).
6770 @kindex T h (Summary)
6771 @findex gnus-summary-hide-thread
6772 Hide the current (sub-)thread (@code{gnus-summary-hide-thread}).
6775 @kindex T S (Summary)
6776 @findex gnus-summary-show-all-threads
6777 Expose all hidden threads (@code{gnus-summary-show-all-threads}).
6780 @kindex T H (Summary)
6781 @findex gnus-summary-hide-all-threads
6782 Hide all threads (@code{gnus-summary-hide-all-threads}).
6785 @kindex T t (Summary)
6786 @findex gnus-summary-rethread-current
6787 Re-thread the current article's thread
6788 (@code{gnus-summary-rethread-current}). This works even when the
6789 summary buffer is otherwise unthreaded.
6792 @kindex T ^ (Summary)
6793 @findex gnus-summary-reparent-thread
6794 Make the current article the child of the marked (or previous) article
6795 (@code{gnus-summary-reparent-thread}).
6799 The following commands are thread movement commands. They all
6800 understand the numeric prefix.
6805 @kindex T n (Summary)
6807 @kindex C-M-n (Summary)
6809 @kindex M-down (Summary)
6810 @findex gnus-summary-next-thread
6811 Go to the next thread (@code{gnus-summary-next-thread}).
6814 @kindex T p (Summary)
6816 @kindex C-M-p (Summary)
6818 @kindex M-up (Summary)
6819 @findex gnus-summary-prev-thread
6820 Go to the previous thread (@code{gnus-summary-prev-thread}).
6823 @kindex T d (Summary)
6824 @findex gnus-summary-down-thread
6825 Descend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-down-thread}).
6828 @kindex T u (Summary)
6829 @findex gnus-summary-up-thread
6830 Ascend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-up-thread}).
6833 @kindex T o (Summary)
6834 @findex gnus-summary-top-thread
6835 Go to the top of the thread (@code{gnus-summary-top-thread}).
6838 @vindex gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject
6839 If you ignore subject while threading, you'll naturally end up with
6840 threads that have several different subjects in them. If you then issue
6841 a command like @kbd{T k} (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}) you might not
6842 wish to kill the entire thread, but just those parts of the thread that
6843 have the same subject as the current article. If you like this idea,
6844 you can fiddle with @code{gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject}. If it
6845 is non-@code{nil} (which it is by default), subjects will be ignored
6846 when doing thread commands. If this variable is @code{nil}, articles in
6847 the same thread with different subjects will not be included in the
6848 operation in question. If this variable is @code{fuzzy}, only articles
6849 that have subjects fuzzily equal will be included (@pxref{Fuzzy
6853 @node Sorting the Summary Buffer
6854 @section Sorting the Summary Buffer
6856 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score
6857 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-date
6858 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-score
6859 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
6860 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-author
6861 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-number
6862 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-random
6863 @vindex gnus-thread-sort-functions
6864 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-thread
6865 If you are using a threaded summary display, you can sort the threads by
6866 setting @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, which can be either a single
6867 function, a list of functions, or a list containing functions and
6868 @code{(not some-function)} elements.
6870 By default, sorting is done on article numbers. Ready-made sorting
6871 predicate functions include @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number},
6872 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-author}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-subject},
6873 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-score},
6874 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-number},
6875 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-date},
6876 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-random} and
6877 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score}.
6879 Each function takes two threads and returns non-@code{nil} if the first
6880 thread should be sorted before the other. Note that sorting really is
6881 normally done by looking only at the roots of each thread.
6883 If you use more than one function, the primary sort key should be the
6884 last function in the list. You should probably always include
6885 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number} in the list of sorting
6886 functions---preferably first. This will ensure that threads that are
6887 equal with respect to the other sort criteria will be displayed in
6888 ascending article order.
6890 If you would like to sort by reverse score, then by subject, and finally
6891 by number, you could do something like:
6894 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
6895 '(gnus-thread-sort-by-number
6896 gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
6897 (not gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score)))
6900 The threads that have highest score will be displayed first in the
6901 summary buffer. When threads have the same score, they will be sorted
6902 alphabetically. The threads that have the same score and the same
6903 subject will be sorted by number, which is (normally) the sequence in
6904 which the articles arrived.
6906 If you want to sort by score and then reverse arrival order, you could
6910 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
6912 (not (gnus-thread-sort-by-number t1 t2)))
6913 gnus-thread-sort-by-score))
6916 @vindex gnus-thread-score-function
6917 The function in the @code{gnus-thread-score-function} variable (default
6918 @code{+}) is used for calculating the total score of a thread. Useful
6919 functions might be @code{max}, @code{min}, or squared means, or whatever
6922 @findex gnus-article-sort-functions
6923 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-date
6924 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-score
6925 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-subject
6926 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-author
6927 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-random
6928 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-number
6929 If you are using an unthreaded display for some strange reason or
6930 other, you have to fiddle with the @code{gnus-article-sort-functions}
6931 variable. It is very similar to the
6932 @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, except that it uses slightly
6933 different functions for article comparison. Available sorting
6934 predicate functions are @code{gnus-article-sort-by-number},
6935 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-author},
6936 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-subject}, @code{gnus-article-sort-by-date},
6937 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-random}, and
6938 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-score}.
6940 If you want to sort an unthreaded summary display by subject, you could
6944 (setq gnus-article-sort-functions
6945 '(gnus-article-sort-by-number
6946 gnus-article-sort-by-subject))
6951 @node Asynchronous Fetching
6952 @section Asynchronous Article Fetching
6953 @cindex asynchronous article fetching
6954 @cindex article pre-fetch
6957 If you read your news from an @sc{nntp} server that's far away, the
6958 network latencies may make reading articles a chore. You have to wait
6959 for a while after pressing @kbd{n} to go to the next article before the
6960 article appears. Why can't Gnus just go ahead and fetch the article
6961 while you are reading the previous one? Why not, indeed.
6963 First, some caveats. There are some pitfalls to using asynchronous
6964 article fetching, especially the way Gnus does it.
6966 Let's say you are reading article 1, which is short, and article 2 is
6967 quite long, and you are not interested in reading that. Gnus does not
6968 know this, so it goes ahead and fetches article 2. You decide to read
6969 article 3, but since Gnus is in the process of fetching article 2, the
6970 connection is blocked.
6972 To avoid these situations, Gnus will open two (count 'em two)
6973 connections to the server. Some people may think this isn't a very nice
6974 thing to do, but I don't see any real alternatives. Setting up that
6975 extra connection takes some time, so Gnus startup will be slower.
6977 Gnus will fetch more articles than you will read. This will mean that
6978 the link between your machine and the @sc{nntp} server will become more
6979 loaded than if you didn't use article pre-fetch. The server itself will
6980 also become more loaded---both with the extra article requests, and the
6983 Ok, so now you know that you shouldn't really use this thing@dots{} unless
6986 @vindex gnus-asynchronous
6987 Here's how: Set @code{gnus-asynchronous} to @code{t}. The rest should
6988 happen automatically.
6990 @vindex gnus-use-article-prefetch
6991 You can control how many articles are to be pre-fetched by setting
6992 @code{gnus-use-article-prefetch}. This is 30 by default, which means
6993 that when you read an article in the group, the back end will pre-fetch
6994 the next 30 articles. If this variable is @code{t}, the back end will
6995 pre-fetch all the articles it can without bound. If it is
6996 @code{nil}, no pre-fetching will be done.
6998 @vindex gnus-async-prefetch-article-p
6999 @findex gnus-async-read-p
7000 There are probably some articles that you don't want to pre-fetch---read
7001 articles, for instance. The @code{gnus-async-prefetch-article-p}
7002 variable controls whether an article is to be pre-fetched. This
7003 function should return non-@code{nil} when the article in question is
7004 to be pre-fetched. The default is @code{gnus-async-read-p}, which
7005 returns @code{nil} on read articles. The function is called with an
7006 article data structure as the only parameter.
7008 If, for instance, you wish to pre-fetch only unread articles shorter
7009 than 100 lines, you could say something like:
7012 (defun my-async-short-unread-p (data)
7013 "Return non-nil for short, unread articles."
7014 (and (gnus-data-unread-p data)
7015 (< (mail-header-lines (gnus-data-header data))
7018 (setq gnus-async-prefetch-article-p 'my-async-short-unread-p)
7021 These functions will be called many, many times, so they should
7022 preferably be short and sweet to avoid slowing down Gnus too much.
7023 It's probably a good idea to byte-compile things like this.
7025 @vindex gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy
7026 Articles have to be removed from the asynch buffer sooner or later. The
7027 @code{gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy} says when to remove
7028 articles. This is a list that may contain the following elements:
7032 Remove articles when they are read.
7035 Remove articles when exiting the group.
7038 The default value is @code{(read exit)}.
7040 @c @vindex gnus-use-header-prefetch
7041 @c If @code{gnus-use-header-prefetch} is non-@code{nil}, prefetch articles
7042 @c from the next group.
7045 @node Article Caching
7046 @section Article Caching
7047 @cindex article caching
7050 If you have an @emph{extremely} slow @sc{nntp} connection, you may
7051 consider turning article caching on. Each article will then be stored
7052 locally under your home directory. As you may surmise, this could
7053 potentially use @emph{huge} amounts of disk space, as well as eat up all
7054 your inodes so fast it will make your head swim. In vodka.
7056 Used carefully, though, it could be just an easier way to save articles.
7058 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
7059 @vindex gnus-cache-directory
7060 @vindex gnus-use-cache
7061 To turn caching on, set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{t}. By default,
7062 all articles ticked or marked as dormant will then be copied
7063 over to your local cache (@code{gnus-cache-directory}). Whether this
7064 cache is flat or hierarchical is controlled by the
7065 @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable, as usual.
7067 When re-selecting a ticked or dormant article, it will be fetched from the
7068 cache instead of from the server. As articles in your cache will never
7069 expire, this might serve as a method of saving articles while still
7070 keeping them where they belong. Just mark all articles you want to save
7071 as dormant, and don't worry.
7073 When an article is marked as read, is it removed from the cache.
7075 @vindex gnus-cache-remove-articles
7076 @vindex gnus-cache-enter-articles
7077 The entering/removal of articles from the cache is controlled by the
7078 @code{gnus-cache-enter-articles} and @code{gnus-cache-remove-articles}
7079 variables. Both are lists of symbols. The first is @code{(ticked
7080 dormant)} by default, meaning that ticked and dormant articles will be
7081 put in the cache. The latter is @code{(read)} by default, meaning that
7082 articles marked as read are removed from the cache. Possibly
7083 symbols in these two lists are @code{ticked}, @code{dormant},
7084 @code{unread} and @code{read}.
7086 @findex gnus-jog-cache
7087 So where does the massive article-fetching and storing come into the
7088 picture? The @code{gnus-jog-cache} command will go through all
7089 subscribed newsgroups, request all unread articles, score them, and
7090 store them in the cache. You should only ever, ever ever ever, use this
7091 command if 1) your connection to the @sc{nntp} server is really, really,
7092 really slow and 2) you have a really, really, really huge disk.
7093 Seriously. One way to cut down on the number of articles downloaded is
7094 to score unwanted articles down and have them marked as read. They will
7095 not then be downloaded by this command.
7097 @vindex gnus-uncacheable-groups
7098 @vindex gnus-cacheable-groups
7099 It is likely that you do not want caching on all groups. For instance,
7100 if your @code{nnml} mail is located under your home directory, it makes no
7101 sense to cache it somewhere else under your home directory. Unless you
7102 feel that it's neat to use twice as much space.
7104 To limit the caching, you could set @code{gnus-cacheable-groups} to a
7105 regexp of groups to cache, @samp{^nntp} for instance, or set the
7106 @code{gnus-uncacheable-groups} regexp to @samp{^nnml}, for instance.
7107 Both variables are @code{nil} by default. If a group matches both
7108 variables, the group is not cached.
7110 @findex gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases
7111 @findex gnus-cache-generate-active
7112 @vindex gnus-cache-active-file
7113 The cache stores information on what articles it contains in its active
7114 file (@code{gnus-cache-active-file}). If this file (or any other parts
7115 of the cache) becomes all messed up for some reason or other, Gnus
7116 offers two functions that will try to set things right. @kbd{M-x
7117 gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases} will (re)build all the @sc{nov}
7118 files, and @kbd{gnus-cache-generate-active} will (re)generate the active
7121 @findex gnus-cache-move-cache
7122 @code{gnus-cache-move-cache} will move your whole
7123 @code{gnus-cache-directory} to some other location. You get asked to
7124 where, isn't that cool?
7126 @node Persistent Articles
7127 @section Persistent Articles
7128 @cindex persistent articles
7130 Closely related to article caching, we have @dfn{persistent articles}.
7131 In fact, it's just a different way of looking at caching, and much more
7132 useful in my opinion.
7134 Say you're reading a newsgroup, and you happen on to some valuable gem
7135 that you want to keep and treasure forever. You'd normally just save it
7136 (using one of the many saving commands) in some file. The problem with
7137 that is that it's just, well, yucky. Ideally you'd prefer just having
7138 the article remain in the group where you found it forever; untouched by
7139 the expiry going on at the news server.
7141 This is what a @dfn{persistent article} is---an article that just won't
7142 be deleted. It's implemented using the normal cache functions, but
7143 you use two explicit commands for managing persistent articles:
7149 @findex gnus-cache-enter-article
7150 Make the current article persistent (@code{gnus-cache-enter-article}).
7153 @kindex M-* (Summary)
7154 @findex gnus-cache-remove-article
7155 Remove the current article from the persistent articles
7156 (@code{gnus-cache-remove-article}). This will normally delete the
7160 Both these commands understand the process/prefix convention.
7162 To avoid having all ticked articles (and stuff) entered into the cache,
7163 you should set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{passive} if you're just
7164 interested in persistent articles:
7167 (setq gnus-use-cache 'passive)
7171 @node Article Backlog
7172 @section Article Backlog
7174 @cindex article backlog
7176 If you have a slow connection, but the idea of using caching seems
7177 unappealing to you (and it is, really), you can help the situation some
7178 by switching on the @dfn{backlog}. This is where Gnus will buffer
7179 already read articles so that it doesn't have to re-fetch articles
7180 you've already read. This only helps if you are in the habit of
7181 re-selecting articles you've recently read, of course. If you never do
7182 that, turning the backlog on will slow Gnus down a little bit, and
7183 increase memory usage some.
7185 @vindex gnus-keep-backlog
7186 If you set @code{gnus-keep-backlog} to a number @var{n}, Gnus will store
7187 at most @var{n} old articles in a buffer for later re-fetching. If this
7188 variable is non-@code{nil} and is not a number, Gnus will store
7189 @emph{all} read articles, which means that your Emacs will grow without
7190 bound before exploding and taking your machine down with you. I put
7191 that in there just to keep y'all on your toes.
7193 The default value is 20.
7196 @node Saving Articles
7197 @section Saving Articles
7198 @cindex saving articles
7200 Gnus can save articles in a number of ways. Below is the documentation
7201 for saving articles in a fairly straight-forward fashion (i.e., little
7202 processing of the article is done before it is saved). For a different
7203 approach (uudecoding, unsharing) you should use @code{gnus-uu}
7204 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
7206 For the commands listed here, the target is a file. If you want to
7207 save to a group, see the @kbd{B c} (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article})
7208 command (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
7210 @vindex gnus-save-all-headers
7211 If @code{gnus-save-all-headers} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will not delete
7212 unwanted headers before saving the article.
7214 @vindex gnus-saved-headers
7215 If the preceding variable is @code{nil}, all headers that match the
7216 @code{gnus-saved-headers} regexp will be kept, while the rest will be
7217 deleted before saving.
7223 @kindex O o (Summary)
7225 @findex gnus-summary-save-article
7226 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article}
7227 Save the current article using the default article saver
7228 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article}).
7231 @kindex O m (Summary)
7232 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-mail
7233 Save the current article in mail format
7234 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-mail}).
7237 @kindex O r (Summary)
7238 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-rmail
7239 Save the current article in rmail format
7240 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-rmail}).
7243 @kindex O f (Summary)
7244 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-file
7245 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article-file}
7246 Save the current article in plain file format
7247 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-file}).
7250 @kindex O F (Summary)
7251 @findex gnus-summary-write-article-file
7252 Write the current article in plain file format, overwriting any previous
7253 file contents (@code{gnus-summary-write-article-file}).
7256 @kindex O b (Summary)
7257 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-body-file
7258 Save the current article body in plain file format
7259 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-body-file}).
7262 @kindex O h (Summary)
7263 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-folder
7264 Save the current article in mh folder format
7265 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-folder}).
7268 @kindex O v (Summary)
7269 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-vm
7270 Save the current article in a VM folder
7271 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-vm}).
7275 @kindex O p (Summary)
7277 @findex gnus-summary-pipe-output
7278 Save the current article in a pipe. Uhm, like, what I mean is---Pipe
7279 the current article to a process (@code{gnus-summary-pipe-output}).
7280 If given a symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}), include the
7281 complete headers in the piped output.
7284 @kindex O P (Summary)
7285 @findex gnus-summary-muttprint
7286 @vindex gnus-summary-muttprint-program
7287 Save the current article into muttprint. That is, print it using the
7288 external program Muttprint (see
7289 @uref{http://muttprint.sourceforge.net/}). The program name and
7290 options to use is controlled by the variable
7291 @code{gnus-summary-muttprint-program}. (@code{gnus-summary-muttprint}).
7295 @vindex gnus-prompt-before-saving
7296 All these commands use the process/prefix convention
7297 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). If you save bunches of articles using these
7298 functions, you might get tired of being prompted for files to save each
7299 and every article in. The prompting action is controlled by
7300 the @code{gnus-prompt-before-saving} variable, which is @code{always} by
7301 default, giving you that excessive prompting action you know and
7302 loathe. If you set this variable to @code{t} instead, you'll be prompted
7303 just once for each series of articles you save. If you like to really
7304 have Gnus do all your thinking for you, you can even set this variable
7305 to @code{nil}, which means that you will never be prompted for files to
7306 save articles in. Gnus will simply save all the articles in the default
7310 @vindex gnus-default-article-saver
7311 You can customize the @code{gnus-default-article-saver} variable to make
7312 Gnus do what you want it to. You can use any of the six ready-made
7313 functions below, or you can create your own.
7317 @item gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
7318 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
7319 @vindex gnus-rmail-save-name
7320 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
7321 This is the default format, @dfn{babyl}. Uses the function in the
7322 @code{gnus-rmail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7323 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
7325 @item gnus-summary-save-in-mail
7326 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-mail
7327 @vindex gnus-mail-save-name
7328 Save in a Unix mail (mbox) file. Uses the function in the
7329 @code{gnus-mail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7330 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
7332 @item gnus-summary-save-in-file
7333 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-file
7334 @vindex gnus-file-save-name
7335 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
7336 Append the article straight to an ordinary file. Uses the function in
7337 the @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7338 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
7340 @item gnus-summary-write-to-file
7341 @findex gnus-summary-write-to-file
7342 Write the article straight to an ordinary file. The file is
7343 overwritten if it exists. Uses the function in the
7344 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7345 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
7347 @item gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
7348 @findex gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
7349 Append the article body to an ordinary file. Uses the function in the
7350 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7351 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
7353 @item gnus-summary-save-in-folder
7354 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-folder
7355 @findex gnus-folder-save-name
7356 @findex gnus-Folder-save-name
7357 @vindex gnus-folder-save-name
7360 Save the article to an MH folder using @code{rcvstore} from the MH
7361 library. Uses the function in the @code{gnus-folder-save-name} variable
7362 to get a file name to save the article in. The default is
7363 @code{gnus-folder-save-name}, but you can also use
7364 @code{gnus-Folder-save-name}, which creates capitalized names.
7366 @item gnus-summary-save-in-vm
7367 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-vm
7368 Save the article in a VM folder. You have to have the VM mail
7369 reader to use this setting.
7372 @vindex gnus-article-save-directory
7373 All of these functions, except for the last one, will save the article
7374 in the @code{gnus-article-save-directory}, which is initialized from the
7375 @code{SAVEDIR} environment variable. This is @file{~/News/} by
7378 As you can see above, the functions use different functions to find a
7379 suitable name of a file to save the article in. Below is a list of
7380 available functions that generate names:
7384 @item gnus-Numeric-save-name
7385 @findex gnus-Numeric-save-name
7386 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
7388 @item gnus-numeric-save-name
7389 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
7390 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
7392 @item gnus-Plain-save-name
7393 @findex gnus-Plain-save-name
7394 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin}.
7396 @item gnus-plain-save-name
7397 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
7398 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.
7400 @item gnus-sender-save-name
7401 @findex gnus-sender-save-name
7402 File names like @file{~/News/larsi}.
7405 @vindex gnus-split-methods
7406 You can have Gnus suggest where to save articles by plonking a regexp into
7407 the @code{gnus-split-methods} alist. For instance, if you would like to
7408 save articles related to Gnus in the file @file{gnus-stuff}, and articles
7409 related to VM in @file{vm-stuff}, you could set this variable to something
7413 (("^Subject:.*gnus\\|^Newsgroups:.*gnus" "gnus-stuff")
7414 ("^Subject:.*vm\\|^Xref:.*vm" "vm-stuff")
7415 (my-choosing-function "../other-dir/my-stuff")
7416 ((equal gnus-newsgroup-name "mail.misc") "mail-stuff"))
7419 We see that this is a list where each element is a list that has two
7420 elements---the @dfn{match} and the @dfn{file}. The match can either be
7421 a string (in which case it is used as a regexp to match on the article
7422 head); it can be a symbol (which will be called as a function with the
7423 group name as a parameter); or it can be a list (which will be
7424 @code{eval}ed). If any of these actions have a non-@code{nil} result,
7425 the @dfn{file} will be used as a default prompt. In addition, the
7426 result of the operation itself will be used if the function or form
7427 called returns a string or a list of strings.
7429 You basically end up with a list of file names that might be used when
7430 saving the current article. (All ``matches'' will be used.) You will
7431 then be prompted for what you really want to use as a name, with file
7432 name completion over the results from applying this variable.
7434 This variable is @code{((gnus-article-archive-name))} by default, which
7435 means that Gnus will look at the articles it saves for an
7436 @code{Archive-name} line and use that as a suggestion for the file
7439 Here's an example function to clean up file names somewhat. If you have
7440 lots of mail groups called things like
7441 @samp{nnml:mail.whatever}, you may want to chop off the beginning of
7442 these group names before creating the file name to save to. The
7443 following will do just that:
7446 (defun my-save-name (group)
7447 (when (string-match "^nnml:mail." group)
7448 (substring group (match-end 0))))
7450 (setq gnus-split-methods
7451 '((gnus-article-archive-name)
7456 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
7457 Finally, you have the @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable. If it is
7458 @code{nil}, all the preceding functions will replace all periods
7459 (@samp{.}) in the group names with slashes (@samp{/})---which means that
7460 the functions will generate hierarchies of directories instead of having
7461 all the files in the top level directory
7462 (@file{~/News/alt/andrea-dworkin} instead of
7463 @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.) This variable is @code{t} by default
7464 on most systems. However, for historical reasons, this is @code{nil} on
7465 Xenix and usg-unix-v machines by default.
7467 This function also affects kill and score file names. If this variable
7468 is a list, and the list contains the element @code{not-score}, long file
7469 names will not be used for score files, if it contains the element
7470 @code{not-save}, long file names will not be used for saving, and if it
7471 contains the element @code{not-kill}, long file names will not be used
7474 If you'd like to save articles in a hierarchy that looks something like
7478 (setq gnus-use-long-file-name '(not-save)) ; to get a hierarchy
7479 (setq gnus-default-article-saver
7480 'gnus-summary-save-in-file) ; no encoding
7483 Then just save with @kbd{o}. You'd then read this hierarchy with
7484 ephemeral @code{nneething} groups---@kbd{G D} in the group buffer, and
7485 the top level directory as the argument (@file{~/News/}). Then just walk
7486 around to the groups/directories with @code{nneething}.
7489 @node Decoding Articles
7490 @section Decoding Articles
7491 @cindex decoding articles
7493 Sometime users post articles (or series of articles) that have been
7494 encoded in some way or other. Gnus can decode them for you.
7497 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
7498 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
7499 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
7500 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
7501 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
7502 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
7506 @cindex article series
7507 All these functions use the process/prefix convention
7508 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) for finding out what articles to work on, with
7509 the extension that a ``single article'' means ``a single series''. Gnus
7510 can find out by itself what articles belong to a series, decode all the
7511 articles and unpack/view/save the resulting file(s).
7513 Gnus guesses what articles are in the series according to the following
7514 simplish rule: The subjects must be (nearly) identical, except for the
7515 last two numbers of the line. (Spaces are largely ignored, however.)
7517 For example: If you choose a subject called @samp{cat.gif (2/3)}, Gnus
7518 will find all the articles that match the regexp @samp{^cat.gif
7519 ([0-9]+/[0-9]+).*$}.
7521 Subjects that are non-standard, like @samp{cat.gif (2/3) Part 6 of a
7522 series}, will not be properly recognized by any of the automatic viewing
7523 commands, and you have to mark the articles manually with @kbd{#}.
7526 @node Uuencoded Articles
7527 @subsection Uuencoded Articles
7529 @cindex uuencoded articles
7534 @kindex X u (Summary)
7535 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu
7536 @c @icon{gnus-uu-decode-uu}
7537 Uudecodes the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}).
7540 @kindex X U (Summary)
7541 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save
7542 Uudecodes and saves the current series
7543 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
7546 @kindex X v u (Summary)
7547 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-view
7548 Uudecodes and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-view}).
7551 @kindex X v U (Summary)
7552 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view
7553 Uudecodes, views and saves the current series
7554 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view}).
7558 Remember that these all react to the presence of articles marked with
7559 the process mark. If, for instance, you'd like to decode and save an
7560 entire newsgroup, you'd typically do @kbd{M P a}
7561 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-all}) and then @kbd{X U}
7562 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
7564 All this is very much different from how @code{gnus-uu} worked with
7565 @sc{gnus 4.1}, where you had explicit keystrokes for everything under
7566 the sun. This version of @code{gnus-uu} generally assumes that you mark
7567 articles in some way (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}) and then press
7570 @vindex gnus-uu-notify-files
7571 Note: When trying to decode articles that have names matching
7572 @code{gnus-uu-notify-files}, which is hard-coded to
7573 @samp{[Cc][Ii][Nn][Dd][Yy][0-9]+.\\(gif\\|jpg\\)}, @code{gnus-uu} will
7574 automatically post an article on @samp{comp.unix.wizards} saying that
7575 you have just viewed the file in question. This feature can't be turned
7579 @node Shell Archives
7580 @subsection Shell Archives
7582 @cindex shell archives
7583 @cindex shared articles
7585 Shell archives (``shar files'') used to be a popular way to distribute
7586 sources, but it isn't used all that much today. In any case, we have
7587 some commands to deal with these:
7592 @kindex X s (Summary)
7593 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar
7594 Unshars the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar}).
7597 @kindex X S (Summary)
7598 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save
7599 Unshars and saves the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save}).
7602 @kindex X v s (Summary)
7603 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view
7604 Unshars and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view}).
7607 @kindex X v S (Summary)
7608 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view
7609 Unshars, views and saves the current series
7610 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view}).
7614 @node PostScript Files
7615 @subsection PostScript Files
7621 @kindex X p (Summary)
7622 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript
7623 Unpack the current PostScript series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript}).
7626 @kindex X P (Summary)
7627 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save
7628 Unpack and save the current PostScript series
7629 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save}).
7632 @kindex X v p (Summary)
7633 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view
7634 View the current PostScript series
7635 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view}).
7638 @kindex X v P (Summary)
7639 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view
7640 View and save the current PostScript series
7641 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view}).
7646 @subsection Other Files
7650 @kindex X o (Summary)
7651 @findex gnus-uu-decode-save
7652 Save the current series
7653 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-save}).
7656 @kindex X b (Summary)
7657 @findex gnus-uu-decode-binhex
7658 Unbinhex the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-binhex}). This
7659 doesn't really work yet.
7663 @node Decoding Variables
7664 @subsection Decoding Variables
7666 Adjective, not verb.
7669 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
7670 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
7671 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
7675 @node Rule Variables
7676 @subsubsection Rule Variables
7677 @cindex rule variables
7679 Gnus uses @dfn{rule variables} to decide how to view a file. All these
7680 variables are of the form
7683 (list '(regexp1 command2)
7690 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules
7691 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules
7693 This variable is consulted first when viewing files. If you wish to use,
7694 for instance, @code{sox} to convert an @file{.au} sound file, you could
7697 (setq gnus-uu-user-view-rules
7698 (list '("\\\\.au$" "sox %s -t .aiff > /dev/audio")))
7701 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
7702 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
7703 This variable is consulted if Gnus couldn't make any matches from the
7704 user and default view rules.
7706 @item gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
7707 @vindex gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
7708 This variable can be used to say what commands should be used to unpack
7713 @node Other Decode Variables
7714 @subsubsection Other Decode Variables
7717 @vindex gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
7719 @item gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
7720 All functions in this list will be called right after each file has been
7721 successfully decoded---so that you can move or view files right away,
7722 and don't have to wait for all files to be decoded before you can do
7723 anything. Ready-made functions you can put in this list are:
7727 @item gnus-uu-grab-view
7728 @findex gnus-uu-grab-view
7731 @item gnus-uu-grab-move
7732 @findex gnus-uu-grab-move
7733 Move the file (if you're using a saving function.)
7736 @item gnus-uu-be-dangerous
7737 @vindex gnus-uu-be-dangerous
7738 Specifies what to do if unusual situations arise during decoding. If
7739 @code{nil}, be as conservative as possible. If @code{t}, ignore things
7740 that didn't work, and overwrite existing files. Otherwise, ask each
7743 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
7744 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
7745 Files with name matching this regular expression won't be viewed.
7747 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
7748 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
7749 Files with a @sc{mime} type matching this variable won't be viewed.
7750 Note that Gnus tries to guess what type the file is based on the name.
7751 @code{gnus-uu} is not a @sc{mime} package (yet), so this is slightly
7754 @item gnus-uu-tmp-dir
7755 @vindex gnus-uu-tmp-dir
7756 Where @code{gnus-uu} does its work.
7758 @item gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
7759 @vindex gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
7760 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} won't peek inside archives
7761 looking for files to display.
7763 @item gnus-uu-view-and-save
7764 @vindex gnus-uu-view-and-save
7765 Non-@code{nil} means that the user will always be asked to save a file
7768 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
7769 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
7770 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default viewing
7773 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
7774 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
7775 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default archive
7778 @item gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
7779 @vindex gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
7780 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will strip all carriage returns
7783 @item gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
7784 @vindex gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
7785 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will mark unsuccessfully
7786 decoded articles as unread.
7788 @item gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
7789 @vindex gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
7790 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will @emph{try} to fix
7791 uuencoded files that have had trailing spaces deleted.
7793 @item gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
7794 @vindex gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
7795 Hook run before sending a message to @code{uudecode}.
7797 @item gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
7798 @vindex gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
7800 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the viewing
7801 commands defined by the rule variables and just fudge a @sc{mime}
7802 content type based on the file name. The result will be fed to
7803 @code{metamail} for viewing.
7805 @item gnus-uu-save-in-digest
7806 @vindex gnus-uu-save-in-digest
7807 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu}, when asked to save without
7808 decoding, will save in digests. If this variable is @code{nil},
7809 @code{gnus-uu} will just save everything in a file without any
7810 embellishments. The digesting almost conforms to RFC 1153---no easy way
7811 to specify any meaningful volume and issue numbers were found, so I
7812 simply dropped them.
7817 @node Uuencoding and Posting
7818 @subsubsection Uuencoding and Posting
7822 @item gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
7823 @vindex gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
7824 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ask for a file to encode
7825 before you compose the article. If this variable is @code{t}, you can
7826 either include an encoded file with @kbd{C-c C-i} or have one included
7827 for you when you post the article.
7829 @item gnus-uu-post-length
7830 @vindex gnus-uu-post-length
7831 Maximum length of an article. The encoded file will be split into how
7832 many articles it takes to post the entire file.
7834 @item gnus-uu-post-threaded
7835 @vindex gnus-uu-post-threaded
7836 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will post the encoded file in a
7837 thread. This may not be smart, as no other decoder I have seen is able
7838 to follow threads when collecting uuencoded articles. (Well, I have
7839 seen one package that does that---@code{gnus-uu}, but somehow, I don't
7840 think that counts@dots{}) Default is @code{nil}.
7842 @item gnus-uu-post-separate-description
7843 @vindex gnus-uu-post-separate-description
7844 Non-@code{nil} means that the description will be posted in a separate
7845 article. The first article will typically be numbered (0/x). If this
7846 variable is @code{nil}, the description the user enters will be included
7847 at the beginning of the first article, which will be numbered (1/x).
7848 Default is @code{t}.
7854 @subsection Viewing Files
7855 @cindex viewing files
7856 @cindex pseudo-articles
7858 After decoding, if the file is some sort of archive, Gnus will attempt
7859 to unpack the archive and see if any of the files in the archive can be
7860 viewed. For instance, if you have a gzipped tar file @file{pics.tar.gz}
7861 containing the files @file{pic1.jpg} and @file{pic2.gif}, Gnus will
7862 uncompress and de-tar the main file, and then view the two pictures.
7863 This unpacking process is recursive, so if the archive contains archives
7864 of archives, it'll all be unpacked.
7866 Finally, Gnus will normally insert a @dfn{pseudo-article} for each
7867 extracted file into the summary buffer. If you go to these
7868 ``articles'', you will be prompted for a command to run (usually Gnus
7869 will make a suggestion), and then the command will be run.
7871 @vindex gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously
7872 If @code{gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously} is @code{nil}, Emacs will wait
7873 until the viewing is done before proceeding.
7875 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos
7876 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos} is @code{automatic}, Gnus will not insert
7877 the pseudo-articles into the summary buffer, but view them
7878 immediately. If this variable is @code{not-confirm}, the user won't even
7879 be asked for a confirmation before viewing is done.
7881 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos-separately
7882 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos-separately} is non-@code{nil}, one
7883 pseudo-article will be created for each file to be viewed. If
7884 @code{nil}, all files that use the same viewing command will be given as
7885 a list of parameters to that command.
7887 @vindex gnus-insert-pseudo-articles
7888 If @code{gnus-insert-pseudo-articles} is non-@code{nil}, insert
7889 pseudo-articles when decoding. It is @code{t} by default.
7891 So; there you are, reading your @emph{pseudo-articles} in your
7892 @emph{virtual newsgroup} from the @emph{virtual server}; and you think:
7893 Why isn't anything real anymore? How did we get here?
7896 @node Article Treatment
7897 @section Article Treatment
7899 Reading through this huge manual, you may have quite forgotten that the
7900 object of newsreaders is to actually, like, read what people have
7901 written. Reading articles. Unfortunately, people are quite bad at
7902 writing, so there are tons of functions and variables to make reading
7903 these articles easier.
7906 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
7907 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
7908 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
7909 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
7910 * Article Header:: Doing various header transformations.
7911 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
7912 * Article Button Levels:: Controlling appearance of buttons.
7913 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
7914 * Article Display:: Display various stuff---X-Face, Picons, Smileys
7915 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
7916 * Article Miscellania:: Various other stuff.
7920 @node Article Highlighting
7921 @subsection Article Highlighting
7922 @cindex highlighting
7924 Not only do you want your article buffer to look like fruit salad, but
7925 you want it to look like technicolor fruit salad.
7930 @kindex W H a (Summary)
7931 @findex gnus-article-highlight
7932 @findex gnus-article-maybe-highlight
7933 Do much highlighting of the current article
7934 (@code{gnus-article-highlight}). This function highlights header, cited
7935 text, the signature, and adds buttons to the body and the head.
7938 @kindex W H h (Summary)
7939 @findex gnus-article-highlight-headers
7940 @vindex gnus-header-face-alist
7941 Highlight the headers (@code{gnus-article-highlight-headers}). The
7942 highlighting will be done according to the @code{gnus-header-face-alist}
7943 variable, which is a list where each element has the form
7944 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{name} @var{content})}.
7945 @var{regexp} is a regular expression for matching the
7946 header, @var{name} is the face used for highlighting the header name
7947 (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}) and @var{content} is the face for highlighting
7948 the header value. The first match made will be used. Note that
7949 @var{regexp} shouldn't have @samp{^} prepended---Gnus will add one.
7952 @kindex W H c (Summary)
7953 @findex gnus-article-highlight-citation
7954 Highlight cited text (@code{gnus-article-highlight-citation}).
7956 Some variables to customize the citation highlights:
7959 @vindex gnus-cite-parse-max-size
7961 @item gnus-cite-parse-max-size
7962 If the article size if bigger than this variable (which is 25000 by
7963 default), no citation highlighting will be performed.
7965 @item gnus-cite-max-prefix
7966 @vindex gnus-cite-max-prefix
7967 Maximum possible length for a citation prefix (default 20).
7969 @item gnus-cite-face-list
7970 @vindex gnus-cite-face-list
7971 List of faces used for highlighting citations (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}).
7972 When there are citations from multiple articles in the same message,
7973 Gnus will try to give each citation from each article its own face.
7974 This should make it easier to see who wrote what.
7976 @item gnus-supercite-regexp
7977 @vindex gnus-supercite-regexp
7978 Regexp matching normal Supercite attribution lines.
7980 @item gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
7981 @vindex gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
7982 Regexp matching mangled Supercite attribution lines.
7984 @item gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
7985 @vindex gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
7986 Minimum number of identical prefixes we have to see before we believe
7987 that it's a citation.
7989 @item gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
7990 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
7991 Regexp matching the beginning of an attribution line.
7993 @item gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
7994 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
7995 Regexp matching the end of an attribution line.
7997 @item gnus-cite-attribution-face
7998 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-face
7999 Face used for attribution lines. It is merged with the face for the
8000 cited text belonging to the attribution.
8006 @kindex W H s (Summary)
8007 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
8008 @vindex gnus-signature-face
8009 @findex gnus-article-highlight-signature
8010 Highlight the signature (@code{gnus-article-highlight-signature}).
8011 Everything after @code{gnus-signature-separator} (@pxref{Article
8012 Signature}) in an article will be considered a signature and will be
8013 highlighted with @code{gnus-signature-face}, which is @code{italic} by
8018 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to highlight articles automatically.
8021 @node Article Fontisizing
8022 @subsection Article Fontisizing
8024 @cindex article emphasis
8026 @findex gnus-article-emphasize
8027 @kindex W e (Summary)
8028 People commonly add emphasis to words in news articles by writing things
8029 like @samp{_this_} or @samp{*this*} or @samp{/this/}. Gnus can make
8030 this look nicer by running the article through the @kbd{W e}
8031 (@code{gnus-article-emphasize}) command.
8033 @vindex gnus-emphasis-alist
8034 How the emphasis is computed is controlled by the
8035 @code{gnus-emphasis-alist} variable. This is an alist where the first
8036 element is a regular expression to be matched. The second is a number
8037 that says what regular expression grouping is used to find the entire
8038 emphasized word. The third is a number that says what regexp grouping
8039 should be displayed and highlighted. (The text between these two
8040 groupings will be hidden.) The fourth is the face used for
8044 (setq gnus-emphasis-alist
8045 '(("_\\(\\w+\\)_" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-underline)
8046 ("\\*\\(\\w+\\)\\*" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-bold)))
8055 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline
8056 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold
8057 @vindex gnus-emphasis-italic
8058 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold
8059 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-italic
8060 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold-italic
8061 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic
8062 By default, there are seven rules, and they use the following faces:
8063 @code{gnus-emphasis-bold}, @code{gnus-emphasis-italic},
8064 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline}, @code{gnus-emphasis-bold-italic},
8065 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-italic},
8066 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold}, and
8067 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic}.
8069 If you want to change these faces, you can either use @kbd{M-x
8070 customize}, or you can use @code{copy-face}. For instance, if you want
8071 to make @code{gnus-emphasis-italic} use a red face instead, you could
8075 (copy-face 'red 'gnus-emphasis-italic)
8078 @vindex gnus-group-highlight-words-alist
8080 If you want to highlight arbitrary words, you can use the
8081 @code{gnus-group-highlight-words-alist} variable, which uses the same
8082 syntax as @code{gnus-emphasis-alist}. The @code{highlight-words} group
8083 parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) can also be used.
8085 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to fontize articles automatically.
8088 @node Article Hiding
8089 @subsection Article Hiding
8090 @cindex article hiding
8092 Or rather, hiding certain things in each article. There usually is much
8093 too much cruft in most articles.
8098 @kindex W W a (Summary)
8099 @findex gnus-article-hide
8100 Do quite a lot of hiding on the article buffer
8101 (@kbd{gnus-article-hide}). In particular, this function will hide
8102 headers, PGP, cited text and the signature.
8105 @kindex W W h (Summary)
8106 @findex gnus-article-hide-headers
8107 Hide headers (@code{gnus-article-hide-headers}). @xref{Hiding
8111 @kindex W W b (Summary)
8112 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
8113 Hide headers that aren't particularly interesting
8114 (@code{gnus-article-hide-boring-headers}). @xref{Hiding Headers}.
8117 @kindex W W s (Summary)
8118 @findex gnus-article-hide-signature
8119 Hide signature (@code{gnus-article-hide-signature}). @xref{Article
8123 @kindex W W l (Summary)
8124 @findex gnus-article-hide-list-identifiers
8125 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
8126 Strip list identifiers specified in @code{gnus-list-identifiers}. These
8127 are strings some mailing list servers add to the beginning of all
8128 @code{Subject} headers---for example, @samp{[zebra 4711]}. Any leading
8129 @samp{Re: } is skipped before stripping. @code{gnus-list-identifiers}
8130 may not contain @code{\\(..\\)}.
8134 @item gnus-list-identifiers
8135 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
8136 A regular expression that matches list identifiers to be removed from
8137 subject. This can also be a list of regular expressions.
8142 @kindex W W P (Summary)
8143 @findex gnus-article-hide-pem
8144 Hide @sc{pem} (privacy enhanced messages) cruft
8145 (@code{gnus-article-hide-pem}).
8148 @kindex W W B (Summary)
8149 @findex gnus-article-strip-banner
8150 @vindex gnus-article-banner-alist
8151 @vindex gnus-article-address-banner-alist
8154 @cindex stripping advertisements
8155 @cindex advertisements
8156 Strip the banner specified by the @code{banner} group parameter
8157 (@code{gnus-article-strip-banner}). This is mainly used to hide those
8158 annoying banners and/or signatures that some mailing lists and moderated
8159 groups adds to all the messages. The way to use this function is to add
8160 the @code{banner} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to the
8161 group you want banners stripped from. The parameter either be a string,
8162 which will be interpreted as a regular expression matching text to be
8163 removed, or the symbol @code{signature}, meaning that the (last)
8164 signature should be removed, or other symbol, meaning that the
8165 corresponding regular expression in @code{gnus-article-banner-alist} is
8168 Regardless of a group, you can hide things like advertisements only when
8169 the sender of an article has a certain mail address specified in
8170 @code{gnus-article-address-banner-alist}.
8174 @item gnus-article-address-banner-alist
8175 @vindex gnus-article-address-banner-alist
8176 Alist of mail addresses and banners. Each element has the form
8177 @code{(@var{address} . @var{banner})}, where @var{address} is a regexp
8178 matching a mail address in the From header, @var{banner} is one of a
8179 symbol @code{signature}, an item in @code{gnus-article-banner-alist},
8180 a regexp and @code{nil}. If @var{address} matches author's mail
8181 address, it will remove things like advertisements. For example, if a
8182 sender has the mail address @samp{hail@@yoo-hoo.co.jp} and there is a
8183 banner something like @samp{Do You Yoo-hoo!?} in all articles he
8184 sends, you can use the following element to remove them:
8187 ("@@yoo-hoo\\.co\\.jp\\'" . "\n_+\nDo You Yoo-hoo!\\?\n.*\n.*\n")
8193 @kindex W W c (Summary)
8194 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation
8195 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation}). Some variables for
8196 customizing the hiding:
8200 @item gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
8201 @itemx gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
8202 @vindex gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
8203 @vindex gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
8204 Gnus adds buttons to show where the cited text has been hidden, and to
8205 allow toggle hiding the text. The format of the variable is specified
8206 by these format-like variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}). These
8211 Starting point of the hidden text.
8213 Ending point of the hidden text.
8215 Number of characters in the hidden region.
8217 Number of lines of hidden text.
8220 @item gnus-cited-lines-visible
8221 @vindex gnus-cited-lines-visible
8222 The number of lines at the beginning of the cited text to leave
8223 shown. This can also be a cons cell with the number of lines at the top
8224 and bottom of the text, respectively, to remain visible.
8229 @kindex W W C-c (Summary)
8230 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe
8232 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe}) depending on the
8233 following two variables:
8236 @item gnus-cite-hide-percentage
8237 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-percentage
8238 If the cited text is of a bigger percentage than this variable (default
8239 50), hide the cited text.
8241 @item gnus-cite-hide-absolute
8242 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-absolute
8243 The cited text must have at least this length (default 10) before it
8248 @kindex W W C (Summary)
8249 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups
8250 Hide cited text in articles that aren't roots
8251 (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups}). This isn't very
8252 useful as an interactive command, but might be a handy function to stick
8253 have happen automatically (@pxref{Customizing Articles}).
8257 All these ``hiding'' commands are toggles, but if you give a negative
8258 prefix to these commands, they will show what they have previously
8259 hidden. If you give a positive prefix, they will always hide.
8261 Also @pxref{Article Highlighting} for further variables for
8262 citation customization.
8264 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to hide article elements
8268 @node Article Washing
8269 @subsection Article Washing
8271 @cindex article washing
8273 We call this ``article washing'' for a really good reason. Namely, the
8274 @kbd{A} key was taken, so we had to use the @kbd{W} key instead.
8276 @dfn{Washing} is defined by us as ``changing something from something to
8277 something else'', but normally results in something looking better.
8280 @xref{Customizing Articles}, if you want to change how Gnus displays
8281 articles by default.
8286 This is not really washing, it's sort of the opposite of washing. If
8287 you type this, you see the article exactly as it exists on disk or on
8291 Force redisplaying of the current article
8292 (@code{gnus-summary-show-article}). This is also not really washing.
8293 If you type this, you see the article without any previously applied
8294 interactive Washing functions but with all default treatments
8295 (@pxref{Customizing Articles}).
8298 @kindex W l (Summary)
8299 @findex gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking
8300 Remove page breaks from the current article
8301 (@code{gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking}). @xref{Misc Article}, for page
8305 @kindex W r (Summary)
8306 @findex gnus-summary-caesar-message
8307 @c @icon{gnus-summary-caesar-message}
8308 Do a Caesar rotate (rot13) on the article buffer
8309 (@code{gnus-summary-caesar-message}).
8310 Unreadable articles that tell you to read them with Caesar rotate or rot13.
8311 (Typically offensive jokes and such.)
8313 It's commonly called ``rot13'' because each letter is rotated 13
8314 positions in the alphabet, e. g. @samp{B} (letter #2) -> @samp{O} (letter
8315 #15). It is sometimes referred to as ``Caesar rotate'' because Caesar
8316 is rumored to have employed this form of, uh, somewhat weak encryption.
8319 @kindex W m (Summary)
8320 @findex gnus-summary-morse-message
8321 Morse decode the article buffer (@code{gnus-summary-morse-message}).
8325 @kindex W t (Summary)
8327 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-header
8328 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer
8329 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-header}).
8332 @kindex W v (Summary)
8333 @findex gnus-summary-verbose-headers
8334 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer permanently
8335 (@code{gnus-summary-verbose-headers}).
8338 @kindex W o (Summary)
8339 @findex gnus-article-treat-overstrike
8340 Treat overstrike (@code{gnus-article-treat-overstrike}).
8343 @kindex W d (Summary)
8344 @findex gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes
8345 @vindex gnus-article-dumbquotes-map
8347 @cindex M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s
8349 Treat M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s according to
8350 @code{gnus-article-dumbquotes-map}
8351 (@code{gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes}). Note that this function guesses
8352 whether a character is a sm*rtq**t* or not, so it should only be used
8355 Sm*rtq**t*s are M****s***'s unilateral extension to the character map in
8356 an attempt to provide more quoting characters. If you see something
8357 like @code{\222} or @code{\264} where you're expecting some kind of
8358 apostrophe or quotation mark, then try this wash.
8361 @kindex W Y f (Summary)
8362 @findex gnus-article-outlook-deuglify-article
8363 @cindex Outlook Express
8364 Full deuglify of broken Outlook (Express) articles: Treat dumbquotes,
8365 unwrap lines, repair attribution and rearrange citation.
8366 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-deuglify-article}).
8369 @kindex W Y u (Summary)
8370 @findex gnus-article-outlook-unwrap-lines
8371 @vindex gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-min
8372 @vindex gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-max
8373 Unwrap lines that appear to be wrapped citation lines. You can control
8374 what lines will be unwrapped by frobbing
8375 @code{gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-min} and
8376 @code{gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-max}, indicating the miminum and
8377 maximum length of an unwrapped citation line.
8378 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-unwrap-lines}).
8381 @kindex W Y a (Summary)
8382 @findex gnus-article-outlook-repair-attribution
8383 Repair a broken attribution line.
8384 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-repair-attribution}).
8387 @kindex W Y c (Summary)
8388 @findex gnus-article-outlook-rearrange-citation
8389 Repair broken citations by rearranging the text.
8390 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-rearrange-citation}).
8393 @kindex W w (Summary)
8394 @findex gnus-article-fill-cited-article
8395 Do word wrap (@code{gnus-article-fill-cited-article}).
8397 You can give the command a numerical prefix to specify the width to use
8401 @kindex W Q (Summary)
8402 @findex gnus-article-fill-long-lines
8403 Fill long lines (@code{gnus-article-fill-long-lines}).
8406 @kindex W C (Summary)
8407 @findex gnus-article-capitalize-sentences
8408 Capitalize the first word in each sentence
8409 (@code{gnus-article-capitalize-sentences}).
8412 @kindex W c (Summary)
8413 @findex gnus-article-remove-cr
8414 Translate CRLF pairs (i. e., @samp{^M}s on the end of the lines) into LF
8415 (this takes care of DOS line endings), and then translate any remaining
8416 CRs into LF (this takes care of Mac line endings)
8417 (@code{gnus-article-remove-cr}).
8420 @kindex W q (Summary)
8421 @findex gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable
8422 Treat quoted-printable (@code{gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable}).
8423 Quoted-Printable is one common @sc{mime} encoding employed when sending
8424 non-ASCII (i. e., 8-bit) articles. It typically makes strings like
8425 @samp{déjà vu} look like @samp{d=E9j=E0 vu}, which doesn't look very
8426 readable to me. Note that this is usually done automatically by
8427 Gnus if the message in question has a @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding}
8428 header that says that this encoding has been done.
8429 If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
8432 @kindex W 6 (Summary)
8433 @findex gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable
8434 Treat base64 (@code{gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable}).
8435 Base64 is one common @sc{mime} encoding employed when sending non-ASCII
8436 (i. e., 8-bit) articles. Note that this is usually done
8437 automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
8438 @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding} header that says that this encoding has
8440 If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
8443 @kindex W Z (Summary)
8444 @findex gnus-article-decode-HZ
8445 Treat HZ or HZP (@code{gnus-article-decode-HZ}). HZ (or HZP) is one
8446 common encoding employed when sending Chinese articles. It typically
8447 makes strings look like @samp{~@{<:Ky2;S@{#,NpJ)l6HK!#~@}}.
8450 @kindex W u (Summary)
8451 @findex gnus-article-unsplit-urls
8452 Remove newlines from within URLs. Some mailers insert newlines into
8453 outgoing email messages to keep lines short. This reformatting can
8454 split long URLs onto multiple lines. Repair those URLs by removing
8455 the newlines (@code{gnus-article-unsplit-urls}).
8458 @kindex W h (Summary)
8459 @findex gnus-article-wash-html
8460 Treat @sc{html} (@code{gnus-article-wash-html}). Note that this is
8461 usually done automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
8462 @code{Content-Type} header that says that the message is @sc{html}.
8464 If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
8466 @vindex gnus-article-wash-function
8467 The default is to use the function specified by
8468 @code{mm-text-html-renderer} (@pxref{Display Customization, ,Display
8469 Customization, emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME Manual}) to convert the
8470 @sc{html}, but this is controlled by the
8471 @code{gnus-article-wash-function} variable. Pre-defined functions you
8479 Use emacs-w3m (see @uref{http://emacs-w3m.namazu.org/} for more
8483 Use Links (see @uref{http://artax.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~mikulas/links/}).
8486 Use Lynx (see @uref{http://lynx.browser.org/}).
8489 Use html2text -- a simple @sc{html} converter included with Gnus.
8494 @kindex W b (Summary)
8495 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons
8496 Add clickable buttons to the article (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons}).
8497 @xref{Article Buttons}.
8500 @kindex W B (Summary)
8501 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head
8502 Add clickable buttons to the article headers
8503 (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head}).
8506 @kindex W p (Summary)
8507 @findex gnus-article-verify-x-pgp-sig
8508 Verify a signed control message (@code{gnus-article-verify-x-pgp-sig}).
8509 Control messages such as @code{newgroup} and @code{checkgroups} are
8510 usually signed by the hierarchy maintainer. You need to add the PGP
8511 public key of the maintainer to your keyring to verify the
8512 message.@footnote{PGP keys for many hierarchies are available at
8513 @uref{ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/pgpcontrol/README.html}}
8516 @kindex W s (Summary)
8517 @findex gnus-summary-force-verify-and-decrypt
8518 Verify a signed (PGP, @sc{pgp/mime} or @sc{s/mime}) message
8519 (@code{gnus-summary-force-verify-and-decrypt}). @xref{Security}.
8522 @kindex W a (Summary)
8523 @findex gnus-article-strip-headers-in-body
8524 Strip headers like the @code{X-No-Archive} header from the beginning of
8525 article bodies (@code{gnus-article-strip-headers-in-body}).
8528 @kindex W E l (Summary)
8529 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines
8530 Remove all blank lines from the beginning of the article
8531 (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines}).
8534 @kindex W E m (Summary)
8535 @findex gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines
8536 Replace all blank lines with empty lines and then all multiple empty
8537 lines with a single empty line.
8538 (@code{gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines}).
8541 @kindex W E t (Summary)
8542 @findex gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines
8543 Remove all blank lines at the end of the article
8544 (@code{gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines}).
8547 @kindex W E a (Summary)
8548 @findex gnus-article-strip-blank-lines
8549 Do all the three commands above
8550 (@code{gnus-article-strip-blank-lines}).
8553 @kindex W E A (Summary)
8554 @findex gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines
8555 Remove all blank lines
8556 (@code{gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines}).
8559 @kindex W E s (Summary)
8560 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-space
8561 Remove all white space from the beginning of all lines of the article
8562 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-space}).
8565 @kindex W E e (Summary)
8566 @findex gnus-article-strip-trailing-space
8567 Remove all white space from the end of all lines of the article
8568 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-trailing-space}).
8572 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to wash articles automatically.
8575 @node Article Header
8576 @subsection Article Header
8578 These commands perform various transformations of article header.
8583 @kindex W G u (Summary)
8584 @findex gnus-article-treat-unfold-headers
8585 Unfold folded header lines (@code{gnus-article-treat-unfold-headers}).
8588 @kindex W G n (Summary)
8589 @findex gnus-article-treat-fold-newsgroups
8590 Fold the @code{Newsgroups} and @code{Followup-To} headers
8591 (@code{gnus-article-treat-fold-newsgroups}).
8594 @kindex W G f (Summary)
8595 @findex gnus-article-treat-fold-headers
8596 Fold all the message headers
8597 (@code{gnus-article-treat-fold-headers}).
8601 @findex gnus-article-remove-leading-whitespace
8602 Remove excessive whitespace from all headers
8603 (@code{gnus-article-remove-leading-whitespace}).
8608 @node Article Buttons
8609 @subsection Article Buttons
8612 People often include references to other stuff in articles, and it would
8613 be nice if Gnus could just fetch whatever it is that people talk about
8614 with the minimum of fuzz when you hit @kbd{RET} or use the middle mouse
8615 button on these references.
8617 @vindex gnus-button-man-handler
8618 Gnus adds @dfn{buttons} to certain standard references by default:
8619 Well-formed URLs, mail addresses, Message-IDs, Info links, man pages and
8620 Emacs or Gnus related references. This is controlled by two variables,
8621 one that handles article bodies and one that handles article heads:
8625 @item gnus-button-alist
8626 @vindex gnus-button-alist
8627 This is an alist where each entry has this form:
8630 (REGEXP BUTTON-PAR USE-P FUNCTION DATA-PAR)
8636 All text that match this regular expression (case insensitive) will be
8637 considered an external reference. Here's a typical regexp that matches
8638 embedded URLs: @samp{<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>}. This can also be a
8639 variable containing a regexp, useful variables to use include
8640 @code{gnus-button-url-regexp} and @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp}.
8643 Gnus has to know which parts of the matches is to be highlighted. This
8644 is a number that says what sub-expression of the regexp is to be
8645 highlighted. If you want it all highlighted, you use 0 here.
8648 This form will be @code{eval}ed, and if the result is non-@code{nil},
8649 this is considered a match. This is useful if you want extra sifting to
8650 avoid false matches. Often variables named
8651 @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level} are used here, @xref{Article Button
8652 Levels}, but any other form may be used too.
8654 @c @code{use-p} is @code{eval}ed only if @code{regexp} matches.
8657 This function will be called when you click on this button.
8660 As with @var{button-par}, this is a sub-expression number, but this one
8661 says which part of the match is to be sent as data to @var{function}.
8665 So the full entry for buttonizing URLs is then
8668 ("<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>" 0 t gnus-button-url 1)
8671 @item gnus-header-button-alist
8672 @vindex gnus-header-button-alist
8673 This is just like the other alist, except that it is applied to the
8674 article head only, and that each entry has an additional element that is
8675 used to say what headers to apply the buttonize coding to:
8678 (HEADER REGEXP BUTTON-PAR USE-P FUNCTION DATA-PAR)
8681 @var{header} is a regular expression.
8683 @subsubheading Related variables and functions
8685 @item gnus-button-@var{*}-level
8686 @xref{Article Button Levels}.
8688 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-browse-level
8690 @item gnus-button-url-regexp
8691 @vindex gnus-button-url-regexp
8692 A regular expression that matches embedded URLs. It is used in the
8693 default values of the variables above.
8695 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-man-level
8697 @item gnus-button-man-handler
8698 @vindex gnus-button-man-handler
8699 The function to use for displaying man pages. It must take at least one
8700 argument with a string naming the man page.
8702 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-message-level
8704 @item gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp
8705 @vindex gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp
8706 Regular expression that matches a message ID or a mail address.
8708 @item gnus-button-prefer-mid-or-mail
8709 @vindex gnus-button-prefer-mid-or-mail
8710 This variable determines what to do when the button on a string as
8711 @samp{foo123@@bar.invalid} is pushed. Strings like this can be either a
8712 message ID or a mail address. If it is one of the symbols @code{mid} or
8713 @code{mail}, Gnus will always assume that the string is a message ID or
8714 a mail address, respectivly. If this variable is set to the symbol
8715 @code{ask}, always query the user what do do. If it is a function, this
8716 function will be called with the string as it's only argument. The
8717 function must return @code{mid}, @code{mail}, @code{invalid} or
8718 @code{ask}. The default value is the function
8719 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic}.
8721 @item gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic
8722 @findex gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic
8723 Function that guesses whether it's argument is a message ID or a mail
8724 address. Returns @code{mid} it's a message IDs, @code{mail} if it's a
8725 mail address, @code{ask} if unsure and @code{invalid} if the string is
8728 @item gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic-alist
8729 @vindex gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic-alist
8730 An alist of @code{(RATE . REGEXP)} pairs used by the function
8731 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic}.
8733 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-tex-level
8735 @item gnus-button-ctan-handler
8736 @findex gnus-button-ctan-handler
8737 The function to use for displaying CTAN links. It must take one
8738 argument, the string naming the URL.
8741 @vindex gnus-ctan-url
8742 Top directory of a CTAN (Comprehensive TeX Archive Network) archive used
8743 by @code{gnus-button-ctan-handler}.
8747 @item gnus-article-button-face
8748 @vindex gnus-article-button-face
8749 Face used on buttons.
8751 @item gnus-article-mouse-face
8752 @vindex gnus-article-mouse-face
8753 Face used when the mouse cursor is over a button.
8757 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to buttonize articles automatically.
8760 @node Article Button Levels
8761 @subsection Article button levels
8762 @cindex button levels
8763 The higher the value of the variables @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level},
8764 the more buttons will appear. If the level is zero, no corresponding
8765 buttons are displayed. With the default value (which is 5) you should
8766 already see quite a lot of buttons. With higher levels, you will see
8767 more buttons, but you may also get more false positives. To avoid them,
8768 you can set the variables @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level} local to
8769 specific groups (@pxref{Group Parameters}). Here's an example for the
8770 variable @code{gnus-parameters}:
8773 ;; increase `gnus-button-*-level' in some groups:
8774 (setq gnus-parameters
8775 '(("\\<\\(emacs\\|gnus\\)\\>" (gnus-button-emacs-level 10))
8776 ("\\<unix\\>" (gnus-button-man-level 10))
8777 ("\\<tex\\>" (gnus-button-tex-level 10))))
8782 @item gnus-button-browse-level
8783 @vindex gnus-button-browse-level
8784 Controls the display of references to message IDs, mail addresses and
8785 news URLs. Related variables and functions include
8786 @code{gnus-button-url-regexp}, @code{browse-url}, and
8787 @code{browse-url-browser-function}.
8789 @item gnus-button-emacs-level
8790 @vindex gnus-button-emacs-level
8791 Controls the display of Emacs or Gnus references. Related functions are
8792 @code{gnus-button-handle-custom},
8793 @code{gnus-button-handle-describe-function},
8794 @code{gnus-button-handle-describe-variable},
8795 @code{gnus-button-handle-symbol},
8796 @code{gnus-button-handle-describe-key},
8797 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos},
8798 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos-command},
8799 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos-variable},
8800 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos-documentation}, and
8801 @code{gnus-button-handle-library}.
8803 @item gnus-button-man-level
8804 @vindex gnus-button-man-level
8805 Controls the display of references to (Unix) man pages.
8806 See @code{gnus-button-man-handler}.
8808 @item gnus-button-message-level
8809 @vindex gnus-button-message-level
8810 Controls the display of message IDs, mail addresses and news URLs.
8811 Related variables and functions include
8812 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp},
8813 @code{gnus-button-prefer-mid-or-mail},
8814 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic}, and
8815 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic-alist}.
8817 @item gnus-button-tex-level
8818 @vindex gnus-button-tex-level
8819 Controls the display of references to TeX or LaTeX stuff, e.g. for CTAN
8820 URLs. See the variables @code{gnus-ctan-url},
8821 @code{gnus-button-ctan-handler},
8822 @code{gnus-button-ctan-directory-regexp}, and
8823 @code{gnus-button-handle-ctan-bogus-regexp}.
8829 @subsection Article Date
8831 The date is most likely generated in some obscure timezone you've never
8832 heard of, so it's quite nice to be able to find out what the time was
8833 when the article was sent.
8838 @kindex W T u (Summary)
8839 @findex gnus-article-date-ut
8840 Display the date in UT (aka. GMT, aka ZULU)
8841 (@code{gnus-article-date-ut}).
8844 @kindex W T i (Summary)
8845 @findex gnus-article-date-iso8601
8847 Display the date in international format, aka. ISO 8601
8848 (@code{gnus-article-date-iso8601}).
8851 @kindex W T l (Summary)
8852 @findex gnus-article-date-local
8853 Display the date in the local timezone (@code{gnus-article-date-local}).
8856 @kindex W T p (Summary)
8857 @findex gnus-article-date-english
8858 Display the date in a format that's easily pronounceable in English
8859 (@code{gnus-article-date-english}).
8862 @kindex W T s (Summary)
8863 @vindex gnus-article-time-format
8864 @findex gnus-article-date-user
8865 @findex format-time-string
8866 Display the date using a user-defined format
8867 (@code{gnus-article-date-user}). The format is specified by the
8868 @code{gnus-article-time-format} variable, and is a string that's passed
8869 to @code{format-time-string}. See the documentation of that variable
8870 for a list of possible format specs.
8873 @kindex W T e (Summary)
8874 @findex gnus-article-date-lapsed
8875 @findex gnus-start-date-timer
8876 @findex gnus-stop-date-timer
8877 Say how much time has elapsed between the article was posted and now
8878 (@code{gnus-article-date-lapsed}). It looks something like:
8881 X-Sent: 6 weeks, 4 days, 1 hour, 3 minutes, 8 seconds ago
8884 @vindex gnus-article-date-lapsed-new-header
8885 The value of @code{gnus-article-date-lapsed-new-header} determines
8886 whether this header will just be added below the old Date one, or will
8889 An advantage of using Gnus to read mail is that it converts simple bugs
8890 into wonderful absurdities.
8892 If you want to have this line updated continually, you can put
8895 (gnus-start-date-timer)
8898 in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file, or you can run it off of some hook. If
8899 you want to stop the timer, you can use the @code{gnus-stop-date-timer}
8903 @kindex W T o (Summary)
8904 @findex gnus-article-date-original
8905 Display the original date (@code{gnus-article-date-original}). This can
8906 be useful if you normally use some other conversion function and are
8907 worried that it might be doing something totally wrong. Say, claiming
8908 that the article was posted in 1854. Although something like that is
8909 @emph{totally} impossible. Don't you trust me? *titter*
8913 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to display the date in your
8914 preferred format automatically.
8917 @node Article Display
8918 @subsection Article Display
8923 These commands add various frivolous display gimmicks to the article
8924 buffer in Emacs versions that support them.
8926 @code{X-Face} headers are small black-and-white images supplied by the
8927 message headers (@pxref{X-Face}).
8929 Picons, on the other hand, reside on your own system, and Gnus will
8930 try to match the headers to what you have (@pxref{Picons}).
8932 Smileys are those little @samp{:-)} symbols that people like to litter
8933 their messages with (@pxref{Smileys}).
8935 All these functions are toggles--if the elements already exist,
8940 @kindex W D x (Summary)
8941 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
8942 Display an @code{X-Face} in the @code{From} header.
8943 (@code{gnus-article-display-x-face}).
8946 @kindex W D d (Summary)
8947 @findex gnus-article-display-face
8948 Display a @code{Face} in the @code{From} header.
8949 (@code{gnus-article-display-face}).
8952 @kindex W D s (Summary)
8953 @findex gnus-treat-smiley
8954 Display smileys (@code{gnus-treat-smiley}).
8957 @kindex W D f (Summary)
8958 @findex gnus-treat-from-picon
8959 Piconify the @code{From} header (@code{gnus-treat-from-picon}).
8962 @kindex W D m (Summary)
8963 @findex gnus-treat-mail-picon
8964 Piconify all mail headers (i. e., @code{Cc}, @code{To})
8965 (@code{gnus-treat-mail-picon}).
8968 @kindex W D n (Summary)
8969 @findex gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon
8970 Piconify all news headers (i. e., @code{Newsgroups} and
8971 @code{Followup-To}) (@code{gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon}).
8974 @kindex W D D (Summary)
8975 @findex gnus-article-remove-images
8976 Remove all images from the article buffer
8977 (@code{gnus-article-remove-images}).
8983 @node Article Signature
8984 @subsection Article Signature
8986 @cindex article signature
8988 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
8989 Each article is divided into two parts---the head and the body. The
8990 body can be divided into a signature part and a text part. The variable
8991 that says what is to be considered a signature is
8992 @code{gnus-signature-separator}. This is normally the standard
8993 @samp{^-- $} as mandated by son-of-RFC 1036. However, many people use
8994 non-standard signature separators, so this variable can also be a list
8995 of regular expressions to be tested, one by one. (Searches are done
8996 from the end of the body towards the beginning.) One likely value is:
8999 (setq gnus-signature-separator
9000 '("^-- $" ; The standard
9001 "^-- *$" ; A common mangling
9002 "^-------*$" ; Many people just use a looong
9003 ; line of dashes. Shame!
9004 "^ *--------*$" ; Double-shame!
9005 "^________*$" ; Underscores are also popular
9006 "^========*$")) ; Pervert!
9009 The more permissive you are, the more likely it is that you'll get false
9012 @vindex gnus-signature-limit
9013 @code{gnus-signature-limit} provides a limit to what is considered a
9014 signature when displaying articles.
9018 If it is an integer, no signature may be longer (in characters) than
9021 If it is a floating point number, no signature may be longer (in lines)
9024 If it is a function, the function will be called without any parameters,
9025 and if it returns @code{nil}, there is no signature in the buffer.
9027 If it is a string, it will be used as a regexp. If it matches, the text
9028 in question is not a signature.
9031 This variable can also be a list where the elements may be of the types
9032 listed above. Here's an example:
9035 (setq gnus-signature-limit
9036 '(200.0 "^---*Forwarded article"))
9039 This means that if there are more than 200 lines after the signature
9040 separator, or the text after the signature separator is matched by
9041 the regular expression @samp{^---*Forwarded article}, then it isn't a
9042 signature after all.
9045 @node Article Miscellania
9046 @subsection Article Miscellania
9050 @kindex A t (Summary)
9051 @findex gnus-article-babel
9052 Translate the article from one language to another
9053 (@code{gnus-article-babel}).
9059 @section MIME Commands
9060 @cindex MIME decoding
9062 @cindex viewing attachments
9064 The following commands all understand the numerical prefix. For
9065 instance, @kbd{3 b} means ``view the third @sc{mime} part''.
9071 @kindex K v (Summary)
9072 View the @sc{mime} part.
9075 @kindex K o (Summary)
9076 Save the @sc{mime} part.
9079 @kindex K c (Summary)
9080 Copy the @sc{mime} part.
9083 @kindex K e (Summary)
9084 View the @sc{mime} part externally.
9087 @kindex K i (Summary)
9088 View the @sc{mime} part internally.
9091 @kindex K | (Summary)
9092 Pipe the @sc{mime} part to an external command.
9095 The rest of these @sc{mime} commands do not use the numerical prefix in
9100 @kindex K b (Summary)
9101 Make all the @sc{mime} parts have buttons in front of them. This is
9102 mostly useful if you wish to save (or perform other actions) on inlined
9106 @kindex K m (Summary)
9107 @findex gnus-summary-repair-multipart
9108 Some multipart messages are transmitted with missing or faulty headers.
9109 This command will attempt to ``repair'' these messages so that they can
9110 be viewed in a more pleasant manner
9111 (@code{gnus-summary-repair-multipart}).
9114 @kindex X m (Summary)
9115 @findex gnus-summary-save-parts
9116 Save all parts matching a @sc{mime} type to a directory
9117 (@code{gnus-summary-save-parts}). Understands the process/prefix
9118 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
9121 @kindex M-t (Summary)
9122 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-display-buttonized
9123 Toggle the buttonized display of the article buffer
9124 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-display-buttonized}).
9127 @kindex W M w (Summary)
9128 @findex gnus-article-decode-mime-words
9129 Decode RFC 2047-encoded words in the article headers
9130 (@code{gnus-article-decode-mime-words}).
9133 @kindex W M c (Summary)
9134 @findex gnus-article-decode-charset
9135 Decode encoded article bodies as well as charsets
9136 (@code{gnus-article-decode-charset}).
9138 This command looks in the @code{Content-Type} header to determine the
9139 charset. If there is no such header in the article, you can give it a
9140 prefix, which will prompt for the charset to decode as. In regional
9141 groups where people post using some common encoding (but do not
9142 include @sc{mime} headers), you can set the @code{charset} group/topic
9143 parameter to the required charset (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
9146 @kindex W M v (Summary)
9147 @findex gnus-mime-view-all-parts
9148 View all the @sc{mime} parts in the current article
9149 (@code{gnus-mime-view-all-parts}).
9156 @item gnus-ignored-mime-types
9157 @vindex gnus-ignored-mime-types
9158 This is a list of regexps. @sc{mime} types that match a regexp from
9159 this list will be completely ignored by Gnus. The default value is
9162 To have all Vcards be ignored, you'd say something like this:
9165 (setq gnus-ignored-mime-types
9169 @item gnus-article-loose-mime
9170 @vindex gnus-article-loose-mime
9171 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus won't required the @samp{MIME-Version} header
9172 before interpreting the message as a @sc{mime} message. This helps
9173 when reading messages from certain broken mail user agents. The
9174 default is @code{nil}.
9176 @item gnus-article-emulate-mime
9177 @vindex gnus-article-emulate-mime
9178 There are other, non-@sc{mime} encoding methods used. The most common
9179 is @samp{uuencode}, but yEncode is also getting to be popular. If
9180 This variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will look in message bodies to
9181 see if it finds these encodings, and if so, it'll run them through the
9182 Gnus @sc{mime} machinery. The default is @code{t}.
9184 @item gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
9185 @vindex gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
9186 This is a list of regexps. @sc{mime} types that match a regexp from
9187 this list won't have @sc{mime} buttons inserted unless they aren't
9188 displayed or this variable is overridden by
9189 @code{gnus-buttonized-mime-types}. The default value is
9190 @code{(".*/.*")}. This variable is only used when
9191 @code{gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing} is nil.
9193 @item gnus-buttonized-mime-types
9194 @vindex gnus-buttonized-mime-types
9195 This is a list of regexps. @sc{mime} types that match a regexp from
9196 this list will have @sc{mime} buttons inserted unless they aren't
9197 displayed. This variable overrides
9198 @code{gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types}. The default value is @code{nil}.
9199 This variable is only used when @code{gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing}
9202 To see e.g. security buttons but no other buttons, you could set this
9203 variable to @code{("multipart/signed")} and leave
9204 @code{gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types} at the default value.
9206 @item gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing
9207 @vindex gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing
9208 If this is non-nil, then all @sc{mime} parts get buttons. The default
9209 value is @code{nil}.
9211 @item gnus-article-mime-part-function
9212 @vindex gnus-article-mime-part-function
9213 For each @sc{mime} part, this function will be called with the @sc{mime}
9214 handle as the parameter. The function is meant to be used to allow
9215 users to gather information from the article (e. g., add Vcard info to
9216 the bbdb database) or to do actions based on parts (e. g., automatically
9217 save all jpegs into some directory).
9219 Here's an example function the does the latter:
9222 (defun my-save-all-jpeg-parts (handle)
9223 (when (equal (car (mm-handle-type handle)) "image/jpeg")
9225 (insert (mm-get-part handle))
9226 (write-region (point-min) (point-max)
9227 (read-file-name "Save jpeg to: ")))))
9228 (setq gnus-article-mime-part-function
9229 'my-save-all-jpeg-parts)
9232 @vindex gnus-mime-multipart-functions
9233 @item gnus-mime-multipart-functions
9234 Alist of @sc{mime} multipart types and functions to handle them.
9236 @vindex mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
9237 @item mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
9238 List of functions used for rewriting file names of @sc{mime} parts.
9239 Each function takes a file name as input and returns a file name.
9241 Ready-made functions include@*
9242 @code{mm-file-name-delete-whitespace},
9243 @code{mm-file-name-trim-whitespace},
9244 @code{mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace}, and
9245 @code{mm-file-name-replace-whitespace}. The later uses the value of
9246 the variable @code{mm-file-name-replace-whitespace} to replace each
9247 whitespace character in a file name with that string; default value
9248 is @code{"_"} (a single underscore).
9249 @findex mm-file-name-delete-whitespace
9250 @findex mm-file-name-trim-whitespace
9251 @findex mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace
9252 @findex mm-file-name-replace-whitespace
9253 @vindex mm-file-name-replace-whitespace
9255 The standard functions @code{capitalize}, @code{downcase},
9256 @code{upcase}, and @code{upcase-initials} may be useful, too.
9258 Everybody knows that whitespace characters in file names are evil,
9259 except those who don't know. If you receive lots of attachments from
9260 such unenlightened users, you can make live easier by adding
9263 (setq mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
9264 '(mm-file-name-trim-whitespace
9265 mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace
9266 mm-file-name-replace-whitespace))
9270 to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file.
9279 People use different charsets, and we have @sc{mime} to let us know what
9280 charsets they use. Or rather, we wish we had. Many people use
9281 newsreaders and mailers that do not understand or use @sc{mime}, and
9282 just send out messages without saying what character sets they use. To
9283 help a bit with this, some local news hierarchies have policies that say
9284 what character set is the default. For instance, the @samp{fj}
9285 hierarchy uses @code{iso-2022-jp-2}.
9287 @vindex gnus-group-charset-alist
9288 This knowledge is encoded in the @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}
9289 variable, which is an alist of regexps (use the first item to match full
9290 group names) and default charsets to be used when reading these groups.
9292 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-ignored-charsets
9293 In addition, some people do use soi-disant @sc{mime}-aware agents that
9294 aren't. These blithely mark messages as being in @code{iso-8859-1}
9295 even if they really are in @code{koi-8}. To help here, the
9296 @code{gnus-newsgroup-ignored-charsets} variable can be used. The
9297 charsets that are listed here will be ignored. The variable can be
9298 set on a group-by-group basis using the group parameters (@pxref{Group
9299 Parameters}). The default value is @code{(unknown-8bit x-unknown)},
9300 which includes values some agents insist on having in there.
9302 @vindex gnus-group-posting-charset-alist
9303 When posting, @code{gnus-group-posting-charset-alist} is used to
9304 determine which charsets should not be encoded using the @sc{mime}
9305 encodings. For instance, some hierarchies discourage using
9306 quoted-printable header encoding.
9308 This variable is an alist of regexps and permitted unencoded charsets
9309 for posting. Each element of the alist has the form @code{(}@var{test
9310 header body-list}@code{)}, where:
9314 is either a regular expression matching the newsgroup header or a
9317 is the charset which may be left unencoded in the header (@code{nil}
9318 means encode all charsets),
9320 is a list of charsets which may be encoded using 8bit content-transfer
9321 encoding in the body, or one of the special values @code{nil} (always
9322 encode using quoted-printable) or @code{t} (always use 8bit).
9329 @cindex coding system aliases
9330 @cindex preferred charset
9332 Other charset tricks that may be useful, although not Gnus-specific:
9334 If there are several @sc{mime} charsets that encode the same Emacs
9335 charset, you can choose what charset to use by saying the following:
9338 (put-charset-property 'cyrillic-iso8859-5
9339 'preferred-coding-system 'koi8-r)
9342 This means that Russian will be encoded using @code{koi8-r} instead of
9343 the default @code{iso-8859-5} @sc{mime} charset.
9345 If you want to read messages in @code{koi8-u}, you can cheat and say
9348 (define-coding-system-alias 'koi8-u 'koi8-r)
9351 This will almost do the right thing.
9353 And finally, to read charsets like @code{windows-1251}, you can say
9357 (codepage-setup 1251)
9358 (define-coding-system-alias 'windows-1251 'cp1251)
9362 @node Article Commands
9363 @section Article Commands
9370 @kindex A P (Summary)
9371 @vindex gnus-ps-print-hook
9372 @findex gnus-summary-print-article
9373 Generate and print a PostScript image of the article buffer
9374 (@code{gnus-summary-print-article}). @code{gnus-ps-print-hook} will
9375 be run just before printing the buffer. An alternative way to print
9376 article is to use Muttprint (@pxref{Saving Articles}).
9381 @node Summary Sorting
9382 @section Summary Sorting
9383 @cindex summary sorting
9385 You can have the summary buffer sorted in various ways, even though I
9386 can't really see why you'd want that.
9391 @kindex C-c C-s C-n (Summary)
9392 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-number
9393 Sort by article number (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-number}).
9396 @kindex C-c C-s C-a (Summary)
9397 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-author
9398 Sort by author (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-author}).
9401 @kindex C-c C-s C-s (Summary)
9402 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-subject
9403 Sort by subject (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-subject}).
9406 @kindex C-c C-s C-d (Summary)
9407 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-date
9408 Sort by date (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-date}).
9411 @kindex C-c C-s C-l (Summary)
9412 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-lines
9413 Sort by lines (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-lines}).
9416 @kindex C-c C-s C-c (Summary)
9417 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-chars
9418 Sort by article length (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-chars}).
9421 @kindex C-c C-s C-i (Summary)
9422 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-score
9423 Sort by score (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-score}).
9426 @kindex C-c C-s C-r (Summary)
9427 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-random
9428 Randomize (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-random}).
9431 @kindex C-c C-s C-o (Summary)
9432 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-original
9433 Sort using the default sorting method
9434 (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-original}).
9437 These functions will work both when you use threading and when you don't
9438 use threading. In the latter case, all summary lines will be sorted,
9439 line by line. In the former case, sorting will be done on a
9440 root-by-root basis, which might not be what you were looking for. To
9441 toggle whether to use threading, type @kbd{T T} (@pxref{Thread
9445 @node Finding the Parent
9446 @section Finding the Parent
9447 @cindex parent articles
9448 @cindex referring articles
9453 @findex gnus-summary-refer-parent-article
9454 If you'd like to read the parent of the current article, and it is not
9455 displayed in the summary buffer, you might still be able to. That is,
9456 if the current group is fetched by @sc{nntp}, the parent hasn't expired
9457 and the @code{References} in the current article are not mangled, you
9458 can just press @kbd{^} or @kbd{A r}
9459 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-parent-article}). If everything goes well,
9460 you'll get the parent. If the parent is already displayed in the
9461 summary buffer, point will just move to this article.
9463 If given a positive numerical prefix, fetch that many articles back into
9464 the ancestry. If given a negative numerical prefix, fetch just that
9465 ancestor. So if you say @kbd{3 ^}, Gnus will fetch the parent, the
9466 grandparent and the grandgrandparent of the current article. If you say
9467 @kbd{-3 ^}, Gnus will only fetch the grandgrandparent of the current
9471 @findex gnus-summary-refer-references
9472 @kindex A R (Summary)
9473 Fetch all articles mentioned in the @code{References} header of the
9474 article (@code{gnus-summary-refer-references}).
9477 @findex gnus-summary-refer-thread
9478 @kindex A T (Summary)
9479 Display the full thread where the current article appears
9480 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-thread}). This command has to fetch all the
9481 headers in the current group to work, so it usually takes a while. If
9482 you do it often, you may consider setting @code{gnus-fetch-old-headers}
9483 to @code{invisible} (@pxref{Filling In Threads}). This won't have any
9484 visible effects normally, but it'll make this command work a whole lot
9485 faster. Of course, it'll make group entry somewhat slow.
9487 @vindex gnus-refer-thread-limit
9488 The @code{gnus-refer-thread-limit} variable says how many old (i. e.,
9489 articles before the first displayed in the current group) headers to
9490 fetch when doing this command. The default is 200. If @code{t}, all
9491 the available headers will be fetched. This variable can be overridden
9492 by giving the @kbd{A T} command a numerical prefix.
9495 @findex gnus-summary-refer-article
9496 @kindex M-^ (Summary)
9498 @cindex fetching by Message-ID
9499 You can also ask the @sc{nntp} server for an arbitrary article, no
9500 matter what group it belongs to. @kbd{M-^}
9501 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-article}) will ask you for a
9502 @code{Message-ID}, which is one of those long, hard-to-read thingies
9503 that look something like @samp{<38o6up$6f2@@hymir.ifi.uio.no>}. You
9504 have to get it all exactly right. No fuzzy searches, I'm afraid.
9507 The current select method will be used when fetching by
9508 @code{Message-ID} from non-news select method, but you can override this
9509 by giving this command a prefix.
9511 @vindex gnus-refer-article-method
9512 If the group you are reading is located on a back end that does not
9513 support fetching by @code{Message-ID} very well (like @code{nnspool}),
9514 you can set @code{gnus-refer-article-method} to an @sc{nntp} method. It
9515 would, perhaps, be best if the @sc{nntp} server you consult is the one
9516 updating the spool you are reading from, but that's not really
9519 It can also be a list of select methods, as well as the special symbol
9520 @code{current}, which means to use the current select method. If it
9521 is a list, Gnus will try all the methods in the list until it finds a
9524 Here's an example setting that will first try the current method, and
9525 then ask Google if that fails:
9528 (setq gnus-refer-article-method
9530 (nnweb "google" (nnweb-type google))))
9533 Most of the mail back ends support fetching by @code{Message-ID}, but
9534 do not do a particularly excellent job at it. That is, @code{nnmbox},
9535 @code{nnbabyl}, and @code{nnmaildir} are able to locate articles from
9536 any groups, while @code{nnml}, @code{nnfolder}, and @code{nnimap} are
9537 only able to locate articles that have been posted to the current group.
9538 (Anything else would be too time consuming.) @code{nnmh} does not
9539 support this at all.
9542 @node Alternative Approaches
9543 @section Alternative Approaches
9545 Different people like to read news using different methods. This being
9546 Gnus, we offer a small selection of minor modes for the summary buffers.
9549 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
9550 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
9555 @subsection Pick and Read
9556 @cindex pick and read
9558 Some newsreaders (like @code{nn} and, uhm, @code{Netnews} on VM/CMS) use
9559 a two-phased reading interface. The user first marks in a summary
9560 buffer the articles she wants to read. Then she starts reading the
9561 articles with just an article buffer displayed.
9563 @findex gnus-pick-mode
9564 @kindex M-x gnus-pick-mode
9565 Gnus provides a summary buffer minor mode that allows
9566 this---@code{gnus-pick-mode}. This basically means that a few process
9567 mark commands become one-keystroke commands to allow easy marking, and
9568 it provides one additional command for switching to the summary buffer.
9570 Here are the available keystrokes when using pick mode:
9575 @findex gnus-pick-article-or-thread
9576 Pick the article or thread on the current line
9577 (@code{gnus-pick-article-or-thread}). If the variable
9578 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key selects the
9579 entire thread when used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise,
9580 it selects just the article. If given a numerical prefix, go to that
9581 thread or article and pick it. (The line number is normally displayed
9582 at the beginning of the summary pick lines.)
9585 @kindex SPACE (Pick)
9586 @findex gnus-pick-next-page
9587 Scroll the summary buffer up one page (@code{gnus-pick-next-page}). If
9588 at the end of the buffer, start reading the picked articles.
9592 @findex gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread.
9593 Unpick the thread or article
9594 (@code{gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread}). If the variable
9595 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key unpicks the
9596 thread if used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise it unpicks
9597 just the article. You can give this key a numerical prefix to unpick
9598 the thread or article at that line.
9602 @findex gnus-pick-start-reading
9603 @vindex gnus-pick-display-summary
9604 Start reading the picked articles (@code{gnus-pick-start-reading}). If
9605 given a prefix, mark all unpicked articles as read first. If
9606 @code{gnus-pick-display-summary} is non-@code{nil}, the summary buffer
9607 will still be visible when you are reading.
9611 All the normal summary mode commands are still available in the
9612 pick-mode, with the exception of @kbd{u}. However @kbd{!} is available
9613 which is mapped to the same function
9614 @code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}.
9616 If this sounds like a good idea to you, you could say:
9619 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
9622 @vindex gnus-pick-mode-hook
9623 @code{gnus-pick-mode-hook} is run in pick minor mode buffers.
9625 @vindex gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read
9626 If @code{gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read} is non-@code{nil}, mark
9627 all unpicked articles as read. The default is @code{nil}.
9629 @vindex gnus-summary-pick-line-format
9630 The summary line format in pick mode is slightly different from the
9631 standard format. At the beginning of each line the line number is
9632 displayed. The pick mode line format is controlled by the
9633 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting
9634 Variables}). It accepts the same format specs that
9635 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} does (@pxref{Summary Buffer Lines}).
9639 @subsection Binary Groups
9640 @cindex binary groups
9642 @findex gnus-binary-mode
9643 @kindex M-x gnus-binary-mode
9644 If you spend much time in binary groups, you may grow tired of hitting
9645 @kbd{X u}, @kbd{n}, @kbd{RET} all the time. @kbd{M-x gnus-binary-mode}
9646 is a minor mode for summary buffers that makes all ordinary Gnus article
9647 selection functions uudecode series of articles and display the result
9648 instead of just displaying the articles the normal way.
9651 @findex gnus-binary-show-article
9652 The only way, in fact, to see the actual articles is the @kbd{g}
9653 command, when you have turned on this mode
9654 (@code{gnus-binary-show-article}).
9656 @vindex gnus-binary-mode-hook
9657 @code{gnus-binary-mode-hook} is called in binary minor mode buffers.
9661 @section Tree Display
9664 @vindex gnus-use-trees
9665 If you don't like the normal Gnus summary display, you might try setting
9666 @code{gnus-use-trees} to @code{t}. This will create (by default) an
9667 additional @dfn{tree buffer}. You can execute all summary mode commands
9670 There are a few variables to customize the tree display, of course:
9673 @item gnus-tree-mode-hook
9674 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-hook
9675 A hook called in all tree mode buffers.
9677 @item gnus-tree-mode-line-format
9678 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-line-format
9679 A format string for the mode bar in the tree mode buffers (@pxref{Mode
9680 Line Formatting}). The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b %S %Z}. For a list
9681 of valid specs, @pxref{Summary Buffer Mode Line}.
9683 @item gnus-selected-tree-face
9684 @vindex gnus-selected-tree-face
9685 Face used for highlighting the selected article in the tree buffer. The
9686 default is @code{modeline}.
9688 @item gnus-tree-line-format
9689 @vindex gnus-tree-line-format
9690 A format string for the tree nodes. The name is a bit of a misnomer,
9691 though---it doesn't define a line, but just the node. The default value
9692 is @samp{%(%[%3,3n%]%)}, which displays the first three characters of
9693 the name of the poster. It is vital that all nodes are of the same
9694 length, so you @emph{must} use @samp{%4,4n}-like specifiers.
9700 The name of the poster.
9702 The @code{From} header.
9704 The number of the article.
9706 The opening bracket.
9708 The closing bracket.
9713 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
9715 Variables related to the display are:
9718 @item gnus-tree-brackets
9719 @vindex gnus-tree-brackets
9720 This is used for differentiating between ``real'' articles and
9721 ``sparse'' articles. The format is @code{((@var{real-open} . @var{real-close})
9722 (@var{sparse-open} . @var{sparse-close}) (@var{dummy-open} . @var{dummy-close}))}, and the
9723 default is @code{((?[ . ?]) (?( . ?)) (?@{ . ?@}) (?< . ?>))}.
9725 @item gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
9726 @vindex gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
9727 This is a list that contains the characters used for connecting parent
9728 nodes to their children. The default is @code{(?- ?\\ ?|)}.
9732 @item gnus-tree-minimize-window
9733 @vindex gnus-tree-minimize-window
9734 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will try to keep the tree
9735 buffer as small as possible to allow more room for the other Gnus
9736 windows. If this variable is a number, the tree buffer will never be
9737 higher than that number. The default is @code{t}. Note that if you
9738 have several windows displayed side-by-side in a frame and the tree
9739 buffer is one of these, minimizing the tree window will also resize all
9740 other windows displayed next to it.
9742 You may also wish to add the following hook to keep the window minimized
9746 (add-hook 'gnus-configure-windows-hook
9747 'gnus-tree-perhaps-minimize)
9750 @item gnus-generate-tree-function
9751 @vindex gnus-generate-tree-function
9752 @findex gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
9753 @findex gnus-generate-vertical-tree
9754 The function that actually generates the thread tree. Two predefined
9755 functions are available: @code{gnus-generate-horizontal-tree} and
9756 @code{gnus-generate-vertical-tree} (which is the default).
9760 Here's an example from a horizontal tree buffer:
9763 @{***@}-(***)-[odd]-[Gun]
9773 Here's the same thread displayed in a vertical tree buffer:
9777 |--------------------------\-----\-----\
9778 (***) [Bjo] [Gun] [Gun]
9780 [odd] [Jan] [odd] (***) [Jor]
9782 [Gun] [Eri] [Eri] [odd]
9787 If you're using horizontal trees, it might be nice to display the trees
9788 side-by-side with the summary buffer. You could add something like the
9789 following to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
9792 (setq gnus-use-trees t
9793 gnus-generate-tree-function 'gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
9794 gnus-tree-minimize-window nil)
9795 (gnus-add-configuration
9799 (summary 0.75 point)
9804 @xref{Window Layout}.
9807 @node Mail Group Commands
9808 @section Mail Group Commands
9809 @cindex mail group commands
9811 Some commands only make sense in mail groups. If these commands are
9812 invalid in the current group, they will raise a hell and let you know.
9814 All these commands (except the expiry and edit commands) use the
9815 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
9820 @kindex B e (Summary)
9821 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles
9822 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
9823 process (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles}). That is, delete all
9824 expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
9825 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
9828 @kindex B C-M-e (Summary)
9829 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles-now
9830 Delete all the expirable articles in the group
9831 (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles-now}). This means that @strong{all}
9832 articles eligible for expiry in the current group will
9833 disappear forever into that big @file{/dev/null} in the sky.
9836 @kindex B DEL (Summary)
9837 @findex gnus-summary-delete-article
9838 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-delete}
9839 Delete the mail article. This is ``delete'' as in ``delete it from your
9840 disk forever and ever, never to return again.'' Use with caution.
9841 (@code{gnus-summary-delete-article}).
9844 @kindex B m (Summary)
9846 @findex gnus-summary-move-article
9847 @vindex gnus-preserve-marks
9848 Move the article from one mail group to another
9849 (@code{gnus-summary-move-article}). Marks will be preserved if
9850 @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
9853 @kindex B c (Summary)
9855 @findex gnus-summary-copy-article
9856 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-copy}
9857 Copy the article from one group (mail group or not) to a mail group
9858 (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}). Marks will be preserved if
9859 @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
9862 @kindex B B (Summary)
9863 @cindex crosspost mail
9864 @findex gnus-summary-crosspost-article
9865 Crosspost the current article to some other group
9866 (@code{gnus-summary-crosspost-article}). This will create a new copy of
9867 the article in the other group, and the Xref headers of the article will
9868 be properly updated.
9871 @kindex B i (Summary)
9872 @findex gnus-summary-import-article
9873 Import an arbitrary file into the current mail newsgroup
9874 (@code{gnus-summary-import-article}). You will be prompted for a file
9875 name, a @code{From} header and a @code{Subject} header.
9878 @kindex B I (Summary)
9879 @findex gnus-summary-create-article
9880 Create an empty article in the current mail newsgroups
9881 (@code{gnus-summary-create-article}). You will be prompted for a
9882 @code{From} header and a @code{Subject} header.
9885 @kindex B r (Summary)
9886 @findex gnus-summary-respool-article
9887 @vindex gnus-summary-respool-default-method
9888 Respool the mail article (@code{gnus-summary-respool-article}).
9889 @code{gnus-summary-respool-default-method} will be used as the default
9890 select method when respooling. This variable is @code{nil} by default,
9891 which means that the current group select method will be used instead.
9892 Marks will be preserved if @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil}
9893 (which is the default).
9897 @kindex B w (Summary)
9899 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article
9900 @kindex C-c C-c (Article)
9901 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article-done
9902 Edit the current article (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article}). To finish
9903 editing and make the changes permanent, type @kbd{C-c C-c}
9904 (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article-done}). If you give a prefix to the
9905 @kbd{C-c C-c} command, Gnus won't re-highlight the article.
9908 @kindex B q (Summary)
9909 @findex gnus-summary-respool-query
9910 If you want to re-spool an article, you might be curious as to what group
9911 the article will end up in before you do the re-spooling. This command
9912 will tell you (@code{gnus-summary-respool-query}).
9915 @kindex B t (Summary)
9916 @findex gnus-summary-respool-trace
9917 Similarly, this command will display all fancy splitting patterns used
9918 when respooling, if any (@code{gnus-summary-respool-trace}).
9921 @kindex B p (Summary)
9922 @findex gnus-summary-article-posted-p
9923 Some people have a tendency to send you ``courtesy'' copies when they
9924 follow up to articles you have posted. These usually have a
9925 @code{Newsgroups} header in them, but not always. This command
9926 (@code{gnus-summary-article-posted-p}) will try to fetch the current
9927 article from your news server (or rather, from
9928 @code{gnus-refer-article-method} or @code{gnus-select-method}) and will
9929 report back whether it found the article or not. Even if it says that
9930 it didn't find the article, it may have been posted anyway---mail
9931 propagation is much faster than news propagation, and the news copy may
9932 just not have arrived yet.
9935 @kindex K E (Summary)
9936 @findex gnus-article-encrypt-body
9937 @vindex gnus-article-encrypt-protocol
9938 Encrypt the body of an article (@code{gnus-article-encrypt-body}).
9939 The body is encrypted with the encryption protocol specified by the
9940 variable @code{gnus-article-encrypt-protocol}.
9944 @vindex gnus-move-split-methods
9945 @cindex moving articles
9946 If you move (or copy) articles regularly, you might wish to have Gnus
9947 suggest where to put the articles. @code{gnus-move-split-methods} is a
9948 variable that uses the same syntax as @code{gnus-split-methods}
9949 (@pxref{Saving Articles}). You may customize that variable to create
9950 suggestions you find reasonable. (Note that
9951 @code{gnus-move-split-methods} uses group names where
9952 @code{gnus-split-methods} uses file names.)
9955 (setq gnus-move-split-methods
9956 '(("^From:.*Lars Magne" "nnml:junk")
9957 ("^Subject:.*gnus" "nnfolder:important")
9958 (".*" "nnml:misc")))
9962 @node Various Summary Stuff
9963 @section Various Summary Stuff
9966 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
9967 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
9968 * Summary Generation Commands::
9969 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
9973 @vindex gnus-summary-display-while-building
9974 @item gnus-summary-display-while-building
9975 If non-@code{nil}, show and update the summary buffer as it's being
9976 built. If @code{t}, update the buffer after every line is inserted.
9977 If the value is an integer, @var{n}, update the display every @var{n}
9978 lines. The default is @code{nil}.
9980 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-hook
9981 @item gnus-summary-mode-hook
9982 This hook is called when creating a summary mode buffer.
9984 @vindex gnus-summary-generate-hook
9985 @item gnus-summary-generate-hook
9986 This is called as the last thing before doing the threading and the
9987 generation of the summary buffer. It's quite convenient for customizing
9988 the threading variables based on what data the newsgroup has. This hook
9989 is called from the summary buffer after most summary buffer variables
9992 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-hook
9993 @item gnus-summary-prepare-hook
9994 It is called after the summary buffer has been generated. You might use
9995 it to, for instance, highlight lines or modify the look of the buffer in
9996 some other ungodly manner. I don't care.
9998 @vindex gnus-summary-prepared-hook
9999 @item gnus-summary-prepared-hook
10000 A hook called as the very last thing after the summary buffer has been
10003 @vindex gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
10004 @item gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
10005 When Gnus discovers two articles that have the same @code{Message-ID},
10006 it has to do something drastic. No articles are allowed to have the
10007 same @code{Message-ID}, but this may happen when reading mail from some
10008 sources. Gnus allows you to customize what happens with this variable.
10009 If it is @code{nil} (which is the default), Gnus will rename the
10010 @code{Message-ID} (for display purposes only) and display the article as
10011 any other article. If this variable is @code{t}, it won't display the
10012 article---it'll be as if it never existed.
10014 @vindex gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
10015 @item gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
10016 This function, which takes two parameters (the group name and the list
10017 of articles to be selected), is called to allow the user to alter the
10018 list of articles to be selected.
10020 For instance, the following function adds the list of cached articles to
10021 the list in one particular group:
10024 (defun my-add-cached-articles (group articles)
10025 (if (string= group "some.group")
10026 (append gnus-newsgroup-cached articles)
10030 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-variables
10031 @item gnus-newsgroup-variables
10032 A list of newsgroup (summary buffer) local variables, or cons of
10033 variables and their default values (when the default values are not
10034 nil), that should be made global while the summary buffer is active.
10035 These variables can be used to set variables in the group parameters
10036 while still allowing them to affect operations done in other
10037 buffers. For example:
10040 (setq gnus-newsgroup-variables
10041 '(message-use-followup-to
10042 (gnus-visible-headers .
10043 "^From:\\|^Newsgroups:\\|^Subject:\\|^Date:\\|^To:")))
10049 @node Summary Group Information
10050 @subsection Summary Group Information
10055 @kindex H f (Summary)
10056 @findex gnus-summary-fetch-faq
10057 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
10058 Try to fetch the FAQ (list of frequently asked questions) for the
10059 current group (@code{gnus-summary-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the
10060 FAQ from @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory
10061 on a remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories.
10062 In that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose
10063 between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs} will probably
10064 be used for fetching the file.
10067 @kindex H d (Summary)
10068 @findex gnus-summary-describe-group
10069 Give a brief description of the current group
10070 (@code{gnus-summary-describe-group}). If given a prefix, force
10071 rereading the description from the server.
10074 @kindex H h (Summary)
10075 @findex gnus-summary-describe-briefly
10076 Give an extremely brief description of the most important summary
10077 keystrokes (@code{gnus-summary-describe-briefly}).
10080 @kindex H i (Summary)
10081 @findex gnus-info-find-node
10082 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
10086 @node Searching for Articles
10087 @subsection Searching for Articles
10092 @kindex M-s (Summary)
10093 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-forward
10094 Search through all subsequent (raw) articles for a regexp
10095 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-forward}).
10098 @kindex M-r (Summary)
10099 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-backward
10100 Search through all previous (raw) articles for a regexp
10101 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-backward}).
10104 @kindex & (Summary)
10105 @findex gnus-summary-execute-command
10106 This command will prompt you for a header, a regular expression to match
10107 on this field, and a command to be executed if the match is made
10108 (@code{gnus-summary-execute-command}). If the header is an empty
10109 string, the match is done on the entire article. If given a prefix,
10110 search backward instead.
10112 For instance, @kbd{& RET some.*string #} will put the process mark on
10113 all articles that have heads or bodies that match @samp{some.*string}.
10116 @kindex M-& (Summary)
10117 @findex gnus-summary-universal-argument
10118 Perform any operation on all articles that have been marked with
10119 the process mark (@code{gnus-summary-universal-argument}).
10122 @node Summary Generation Commands
10123 @subsection Summary Generation Commands
10128 @kindex Y g (Summary)
10129 @findex gnus-summary-prepare
10130 Regenerate the current summary buffer (@code{gnus-summary-prepare}).
10133 @kindex Y c (Summary)
10134 @findex gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles
10135 Pull all cached articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
10136 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles}).
10139 @kindex Y d (Summary)
10140 @findex gnus-summary-insert-dormant-articles
10141 Pull all dormant articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
10142 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-dormant-articles}).
10147 @node Really Various Summary Commands
10148 @subsection Really Various Summary Commands
10154 @kindex C-d (Summary)
10155 @kindex A D (Summary)
10156 @findex gnus-summary-enter-digest-group
10157 If the current article is a collection of other articles (for instance,
10158 a digest), you might use this command to enter a group based on the that
10159 article (@code{gnus-summary-enter-digest-group}). Gnus will try to
10160 guess what article type is currently displayed unless you give a prefix
10161 to this command, which forces a ``digest'' interpretation. Basically,
10162 whenever you see a message that is a collection of other messages of
10163 some format, you @kbd{C-d} and read these messages in a more convenient
10167 @kindex C-M-d (Summary)
10168 @findex gnus-summary-read-document
10169 This command is very similar to the one above, but lets you gather
10170 several documents into one biiig group
10171 (@code{gnus-summary-read-document}). It does this by opening several
10172 @code{nndoc} groups for each document, and then opening an
10173 @code{nnvirtual} group on top of these @code{nndoc} groups. This
10174 command understands the process/prefix convention
10175 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
10178 @kindex C-t (Summary)
10179 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-truncation
10180 Toggle truncation of summary lines
10181 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-truncation}). This will probably confuse the
10182 line centering function in the summary buffer, so it's not a good idea
10183 to have truncation switched off while reading articles.
10186 @kindex = (Summary)
10187 @findex gnus-summary-expand-window
10188 Expand the summary buffer window (@code{gnus-summary-expand-window}).
10189 If given a prefix, force an @code{article} window configuration.
10192 @kindex C-M-e (Summary)
10193 @findex gnus-summary-edit-parameters
10194 Edit the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
10195 group (@code{gnus-summary-edit-parameters}).
10198 @kindex C-M-a (Summary)
10199 @findex gnus-summary-customize-parameters
10200 Customize the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
10201 group (@code{gnus-summary-customize-parameters}).
10206 @node Exiting the Summary Buffer
10207 @section Exiting the Summary Buffer
10208 @cindex summary exit
10209 @cindex exiting groups
10211 Exiting from the summary buffer will normally update all info on the
10212 group and return you to the group buffer.
10218 @kindex Z Z (Summary)
10219 @kindex q (Summary)
10220 @findex gnus-summary-exit
10221 @vindex gnus-summary-exit-hook
10222 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook
10223 @vindex gnus-group-no-more-groups-hook
10224 @c @icon{gnus-summary-exit}
10225 Exit the current group and update all information on the group
10226 (@code{gnus-summary-exit}). @code{gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook} is
10227 called before doing much of the exiting, which calls
10228 @code{gnus-summary-expire-articles} by default.
10229 @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} is called after finishing the exit
10230 process. @code{gnus-group-no-more-groups-hook} is run when returning to
10231 group mode having no more (unread) groups.
10235 @kindex Z E (Summary)
10236 @kindex Q (Summary)
10237 @findex gnus-summary-exit-no-update
10238 Exit the current group without updating any information on the group
10239 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}).
10243 @kindex Z c (Summary)
10244 @kindex c (Summary)
10245 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit
10246 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}
10247 Mark all unticked articles in the group as read and then exit
10248 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}).
10251 @kindex Z C (Summary)
10252 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit
10253 Mark all articles, even the ticked ones, as read and then exit
10254 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit}).
10257 @kindex Z n (Summary)
10258 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group
10259 Mark all articles as read and go to the next group
10260 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group}).
10263 @kindex Z R (Summary)
10264 @findex gnus-summary-reselect-current-group
10265 Exit this group, and then enter it again
10266 (@code{gnus-summary-reselect-current-group}). If given a prefix, select
10267 all articles, both read and unread.
10271 @kindex Z G (Summary)
10272 @kindex M-g (Summary)
10273 @findex gnus-summary-rescan-group
10274 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-get}
10275 Exit the group, check for new articles in the group, and select the
10276 group (@code{gnus-summary-rescan-group}). If given a prefix, select all
10277 articles, both read and unread.
10280 @kindex Z N (Summary)
10281 @findex gnus-summary-next-group
10282 Exit the group and go to the next group
10283 (@code{gnus-summary-next-group}).
10286 @kindex Z P (Summary)
10287 @findex gnus-summary-prev-group
10288 Exit the group and go to the previous group
10289 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-group}).
10292 @kindex Z s (Summary)
10293 @findex gnus-summary-save-newsrc
10294 Save the current number of read/marked articles in the dribble buffer
10295 and then save the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-summary-save-newsrc}). If
10296 given a prefix, also save the @file{.newsrc} file(s). Using this
10297 command will make exit without updating (the @kbd{Q} command) worthless.
10300 @vindex gnus-exit-group-hook
10301 @code{gnus-exit-group-hook} is called when you exit the current group
10302 with an ``updating'' exit. For instance @kbd{Q}
10303 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}) does not call this hook.
10305 @findex gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead
10306 @findex gnus-dead-summary-mode
10307 @vindex gnus-kill-summary-on-exit
10308 If you're in the habit of exiting groups, and then changing your mind
10309 about it, you might set @code{gnus-kill-summary-on-exit} to @code{nil}.
10310 If you do that, Gnus won't kill the summary buffer when you exit it.
10311 (Quelle surprise!) Instead it will change the name of the buffer to
10312 something like @samp{*Dead Summary ... *} and install a minor mode
10313 called @code{gnus-dead-summary-mode}. Now, if you switch back to this
10314 buffer, you'll find that all keys are mapped to a function called
10315 @code{gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead}. So tapping any keys in a dead
10316 summary buffer will result in a live, normal summary buffer.
10318 There will never be more than one dead summary buffer at any one time.
10320 @vindex gnus-use-cross-reference
10321 The data on the current group will be updated (which articles you have
10322 read, which articles you have replied to, etc.) when you exit the
10323 summary buffer. If the @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} variable is
10324 @code{t} (which is the default), articles that are cross-referenced to
10325 this group and are marked as read, will also be marked as read in the
10326 other subscribed groups they were cross-posted to. If this variable is
10327 neither @code{nil} nor @code{t}, the article will be marked as read in
10328 both subscribed and unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}).
10331 @node Crosspost Handling
10332 @section Crosspost Handling
10336 Marking cross-posted articles as read ensures that you'll never have to
10337 read the same article more than once. Unless, of course, somebody has
10338 posted it to several groups separately. Posting the same article to
10339 several groups (not cross-posting) is called @dfn{spamming}, and you are
10340 by law required to send nasty-grams to anyone who perpetrates such a
10341 heinous crime. You may want to try NoCeM handling to filter out spam
10344 Remember: Cross-posting is kinda ok, but posting the same article
10345 separately to several groups is not. Massive cross-posting (aka.
10346 @dfn{velveeta}) is to be avoided at all costs, and you can even use the
10347 @code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint} command to complain about
10348 excessive crossposting (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
10350 @cindex cross-posting
10353 One thing that may cause Gnus to not do the cross-posting thing
10354 correctly is if you use an @sc{nntp} server that supports @sc{xover}
10355 (which is very nice, because it speeds things up considerably) which
10356 does not include the @code{Xref} header in its @sc{nov} lines. This is
10357 Evil, but all too common, alas, alack. Gnus tries to Do The Right Thing
10358 even with @sc{xover} by registering the @code{Xref} lines of all
10359 articles you actually read, but if you kill the articles, or just mark
10360 them as read without reading them, Gnus will not get a chance to snoop
10361 the @code{Xref} lines out of these articles, and will be unable to use
10362 the cross reference mechanism.
10364 @cindex LIST overview.fmt
10365 @cindex overview.fmt
10366 To check whether your @sc{nntp} server includes the @code{Xref} header
10367 in its overview files, try @samp{telnet your.nntp.server nntp},
10368 @samp{MODE READER} on @code{inn} servers, and then say @samp{LIST
10369 overview.fmt}. This may not work, but if it does, and the last line you
10370 get does not read @samp{Xref:full}, then you should shout and whine at
10371 your news admin until she includes the @code{Xref} header in the
10374 @vindex gnus-nov-is-evil
10375 If you want Gnus to get the @code{Xref}s right all the time, you have to
10376 set @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{t}, which slows things down
10381 For an alternative approach, @pxref{Duplicate Suppression}.
10384 @node Duplicate Suppression
10385 @section Duplicate Suppression
10387 By default, Gnus tries to make sure that you don't have to read the same
10388 article more than once by utilizing the crossposting mechanism
10389 (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}). However, that simple and efficient
10390 approach may not work satisfactory for some users for various
10395 The @sc{nntp} server may fail to generate the @code{Xref} header. This
10396 is evil and not very common.
10399 The @sc{nntp} server may fail to include the @code{Xref} header in the
10400 @file{.overview} data bases. This is evil and all too common, alas.
10403 You may be reading the same group (or several related groups) from
10404 different @sc{nntp} servers.
10407 You may be getting mail that duplicates articles posted to groups.
10410 I'm sure there are other situations where @code{Xref} handling fails as
10411 well, but these four are the most common situations.
10413 If, and only if, @code{Xref} handling fails for you, then you may
10414 consider switching on @dfn{duplicate suppression}. If you do so, Gnus
10415 will remember the @code{Message-ID}s of all articles you have read or
10416 otherwise marked as read, and then, as if by magic, mark them as read
10417 all subsequent times you see them---in @emph{all} groups. Using this
10418 mechanism is quite likely to be somewhat inefficient, but not overly
10419 so. It's certainly preferable to reading the same articles more than
10422 Duplicate suppression is not a very subtle instrument. It's more like a
10423 sledge hammer than anything else. It works in a very simple
10424 fashion---if you have marked an article as read, it adds this Message-ID
10425 to a cache. The next time it sees this Message-ID, it will mark the
10426 article as read with the @samp{M} mark. It doesn't care what group it
10427 saw the article in.
10430 @item gnus-suppress-duplicates
10431 @vindex gnus-suppress-duplicates
10432 If non-@code{nil}, suppress duplicates.
10434 @item gnus-save-duplicate-list
10435 @vindex gnus-save-duplicate-list
10436 If non-@code{nil}, save the list of duplicates to a file. This will
10437 make startup and shutdown take longer, so the default is @code{nil}.
10438 However, this means that only duplicate articles read in a single Gnus
10439 session are suppressed.
10441 @item gnus-duplicate-list-length
10442 @vindex gnus-duplicate-list-length
10443 This variable says how many @code{Message-ID}s to keep in the duplicate
10444 suppression list. The default is 10000.
10446 @item gnus-duplicate-file
10447 @vindex gnus-duplicate-file
10448 The name of the file to store the duplicate suppression list in. The
10449 default is @file{~/News/suppression}.
10452 If you have a tendency to stop and start Gnus often, setting
10453 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{t} is probably a good idea. If
10454 you leave Gnus running for weeks on end, you may have it @code{nil}. On
10455 the other hand, saving the list makes startup and shutdown much slower,
10456 so that means that if you stop and start Gnus often, you should set
10457 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{nil}. Uhm. I'll leave this up
10458 to you to figure out, I think.
10463 Gnus is able to verify signed messages or decrypt encrypted messages.
10464 The formats that are supported are PGP, @sc{pgp/mime} and @sc{s/mime},
10465 however you need some external programs to get things to work:
10469 To handle PGP and PGP/MIME messages, you have to install an OpenPGP
10470 implementation such as GnuPG. The lisp interface to GnuPG included
10471 with Gnus is called PGG (@pxref{Top, ,PGG, pgg, PGG Manual}), but
10472 Mailcrypt and gpg.el are also supported.
10475 To handle @sc{s/mime} message, you need to install OpenSSL. OpenSSL 0.9.6
10476 or newer is recommended.
10480 More information on how to set things up can be found in the message
10481 manual (@pxref{Security, ,Security, message, Message Manual}).
10484 @item mm-verify-option
10485 @vindex mm-verify-option
10486 Option of verifying signed parts. @code{never}, not verify;
10487 @code{always}, always verify; @code{known}, only verify known
10488 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
10490 @item mm-decrypt-option
10491 @vindex mm-decrypt-option
10492 Option of decrypting encrypted parts. @code{never}, no decryption;
10493 @code{always}, always decrypt; @code{known}, only decrypt known
10494 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
10497 @vindex mml1991-use
10498 Symbol indicating elisp interface to OpenPGP implementation for PGP
10499 messages. The default is @code{pgg}, but @code{mailcrypt} and
10500 @code{gpg} are also supported although deprecated.
10503 @vindex mml2015-use
10504 Symbol indicating elisp interface to OpenPGP implementation for
10505 PGP/MIME messages. The default is @code{pgg}, but @code{mailcrypt}
10506 and @code{gpg} are also supported although deprecated.
10510 @cindex snarfing keys
10511 @cindex importing PGP keys
10512 @cindex PGP key ring import
10513 Snarfing OpenPGP keys (i.e., importing keys from articles into your
10514 key ring) is not supported explicitly through a menu item or command,
10515 rather Gnus do detect and label keys as @samp{application/pgp-keys},
10516 allowing you to specify whatever action you think is appropriate
10517 through the usual MIME infrastructure. You can use a
10518 @file{~/.mailcap} entry (@pxref{mailcap, , mailcap, emacs-mime, The
10519 Emacs MIME Manual}) such as the following to import keys using GNU
10520 Privacy Guard when you click on the MIME button (@pxref{Using MIME}).
10523 application/pgp-keys; gpg --import --interactive --verbose; needsterminal
10526 This happens to also be the default action defined in
10527 @var{mailcap-mime-data}.
10530 @section Mailing List
10532 @kindex A M (summary)
10533 @findex gnus-mailing-list-insinuate
10534 Gnus understands some mailing list fields of RFC 2369. To enable it,
10535 add a @code{to-list} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}),
10536 possibly using @kbd{A M} (@code{gnus-mailing-list-insinuate}) in the
10539 That enables the following commands to the summary buffer:
10544 @kindex C-c C-n h (Summary)
10545 @findex gnus-mailing-list-help
10546 Send a message to fetch mailing list help, if List-Help field exists.
10549 @kindex C-c C-n s (Summary)
10550 @findex gnus-mailing-list-subscribe
10551 Send a message to subscribe the mailing list, if List-Subscribe field exists.
10554 @kindex C-c C-n u (Summary)
10555 @findex gnus-mailing-list-unsubscribe
10556 Send a message to unsubscribe the mailing list, if List-Unsubscribe
10560 @kindex C-c C-n p (Summary)
10561 @findex gnus-mailing-list-post
10562 Post to the mailing list, if List-Post field exists.
10565 @kindex C-c C-n o (Summary)
10566 @findex gnus-mailing-list-owner
10567 Send a message to the mailing list owner, if List-Owner field exists.
10570 @kindex C-c C-n a (Summary)
10571 @findex gnus-mailing-list-owner
10572 Browse the mailing list archive, if List-Archive field exists.
10577 @node Article Buffer
10578 @chapter Article Buffer
10579 @cindex article buffer
10581 The articles are displayed in the article buffer, of which there is only
10582 one. All the summary buffers share the same article buffer unless you
10583 tell Gnus otherwise.
10586 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
10587 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @sc{mime} before reading them.
10588 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
10589 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
10590 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
10594 @node Hiding Headers
10595 @section Hiding Headers
10596 @cindex hiding headers
10597 @cindex deleting headers
10599 The top section of each article is the @dfn{head}. (The rest is the
10600 @dfn{body}, but you may have guessed that already.)
10602 @vindex gnus-show-all-headers
10603 There is a lot of useful information in the head: the name of the person
10604 who wrote the article, the date it was written and the subject of the
10605 article. That's well and nice, but there's also lots of information
10606 most people do not want to see---what systems the article has passed
10607 through before reaching you, the @code{Message-ID}, the
10608 @code{References}, etc. ad nauseum---and you'll probably want to get rid
10609 of some of those lines. If you want to keep all those lines in the
10610 article buffer, you can set @code{gnus-show-all-headers} to @code{t}.
10612 Gnus provides you with two variables for sifting headers:
10616 @item gnus-visible-headers
10617 @vindex gnus-visible-headers
10618 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, it should be a regular expression
10619 that says what headers you wish to keep in the article buffer. All
10620 headers that do not match this variable will be hidden.
10622 For instance, if you only want to see the name of the person who wrote
10623 the article and the subject, you'd say:
10626 (setq gnus-visible-headers "^From:\\|^Subject:")
10629 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
10632 @item gnus-ignored-headers
10633 @vindex gnus-ignored-headers
10634 This variable is the reverse of @code{gnus-visible-headers}. If this
10635 variable is set (and @code{gnus-visible-headers} is @code{nil}), it
10636 should be a regular expression that matches all lines that you want to
10637 hide. All lines that do not match this variable will remain visible.
10639 For instance, if you just want to get rid of the @code{References} line
10640 and the @code{Xref} line, you might say:
10643 (setq gnus-ignored-headers "^References:\\|^Xref:")
10646 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
10649 Note that if @code{gnus-visible-headers} is non-@code{nil}, this
10650 variable will have no effect.
10654 @vindex gnus-sorted-header-list
10655 Gnus can also sort the headers for you. (It does this by default.) You
10656 can control the sorting by setting the @code{gnus-sorted-header-list}
10657 variable. It is a list of regular expressions that says in what order
10658 the headers are to be displayed.
10660 For instance, if you want the name of the author of the article first,
10661 and then the subject, you might say something like:
10664 (setq gnus-sorted-header-list '("^From:" "^Subject:"))
10667 Any headers that are to remain visible, but are not listed in this
10668 variable, will be displayed in random order after all the headers listed in this variable.
10670 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
10671 @vindex gnus-boring-article-headers
10672 You can hide further boring headers by setting
10673 @code{gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers} to @code{head}. What this function
10674 does depends on the @code{gnus-boring-article-headers} variable. It's a
10675 list, but this list doesn't actually contain header names. Instead is
10676 lists various @dfn{boring conditions} that Gnus can check and remove
10679 These conditions are:
10682 Remove all empty headers.
10684 Remove the @code{Followup-To} header if it is identical to the
10685 @code{Newsgroups} header.
10687 Remove the @code{Reply-To} header if it lists the same address as the
10688 @code{From} header.
10690 Remove the @code{Newsgroups} header if it only contains the current group
10693 Remove the @code{To} header if it only contains the address identical to
10694 the current groups's @code{to-address} parameter.
10696 Remove the @code{To} header if it only contains the address identical to
10697 the current groups's @code{to-list} parameter.
10699 Remove the @code{CC} header if it only contains the address identical to
10700 the current groups's @code{to-list} parameter.
10702 Remove the @code{Date} header if the article is less than three days
10705 Remove the @code{To} header if it is very long.
10707 Remove all @code{To} headers if there are more than one.
10710 To include these three elements, you could say something like:
10713 (setq gnus-boring-article-headers
10714 '(empty followup-to reply-to))
10717 This is also the default value for this variable.
10721 @section Using MIME
10724 Mime is a standard for waving your hands through the air, aimlessly,
10725 while people stand around yawning.
10727 @sc{mime}, however, is a standard for encoding your articles, aimlessly,
10728 while all newsreaders die of fear.
10730 @sc{mime} may specify what character set the article uses, the encoding
10731 of the characters, and it also makes it possible to embed pictures and
10732 other naughty stuff in innocent-looking articles.
10734 @vindex gnus-display-mime-function
10735 @findex gnus-display-mime
10736 Gnus pushes @sc{mime} articles through @code{gnus-display-mime-function}
10737 to display the @sc{mime} parts. This is @code{gnus-display-mime} by
10738 default, which creates a bundle of clickable buttons that can be used to
10739 display, save and manipulate the @sc{mime} objects.
10741 The following commands are available when you have placed point over a
10745 @findex gnus-article-press-button
10746 @item RET (Article)
10747 @kindex RET (Article)
10748 @itemx BUTTON-2 (Article)
10749 Toggle displaying of the @sc{mime} object
10750 (@code{gnus-article-press-button}). If builtin viewers can not display
10751 the object, Gnus resorts to external viewers in the @file{mailcap}
10752 files. If a viewer has the @samp{copiousoutput} specification, the
10753 object is displayed inline.
10755 @findex gnus-mime-view-part
10756 @item M-RET (Article)
10757 @kindex M-RET (Article)
10759 Prompt for a method, and then view the @sc{mime} object using this
10760 method (@code{gnus-mime-view-part}).
10762 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-as-type
10764 @kindex t (Article)
10765 View the @sc{mime} object as if it were a different @sc{mime} media type
10766 (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-as-type}).
10768 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-as-charset
10770 @kindex C (Article)
10771 Prompt for a charset, and then view the @sc{mime} object using this
10772 charset (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-as-charset}).
10774 @findex gnus-mime-save-part
10776 @kindex o (Article)
10777 Prompt for a file name, and then save the @sc{mime} object
10778 (@code{gnus-mime-save-part}).
10780 @findex gnus-mime-save-part-and-strip
10781 @item C-o (Article)
10782 @kindex C-o (Article)
10783 Prompt for a file name, then save the @sc{mime} object and strip it from
10784 the article. Then proceed to article editing, where a reasonable
10785 suggestion is being made on how the altered article should look
10786 like. The stripped @sc{mime} object will be referred via the
10787 message/external-body @sc{mime} type.
10788 (@code{gnus-mime-save-part-and-strip}).
10790 @findex gnus-mime-delete-part
10792 @kindex d (Article)
10793 Delete the @sc{mime} object from the article and replace it with some
10794 information about the removed @sc{mime} object
10795 (@code{gnus-mime-delete-part}).
10797 @findex gnus-mime-copy-part
10799 @kindex c (Article)
10800 Copy the @sc{mime} object to a fresh buffer and display this buffer
10801 (@code{gnus-mime-copy-part}). Compressed files like @file{.gz} and
10802 @file{.bz2} are automatically decompressed if
10803 @code{auto-compression-mode} is enabled (@pxref{Compressed Files,,
10804 Accessing Compressed Files, emacs, The Emacs Editor}).
10806 @findex gnus-mime-print-part
10808 @kindex p (Article)
10809 Print the @sc{mime} object (@code{gnus-mime-print-part}). This
10810 command respects the @samp{print=} specifications in the
10811 @file{.mailcap} file.
10813 @findex gnus-mime-inline-part
10815 @kindex i (Article)
10816 Insert the contents of the @sc{mime} object into the buffer
10817 (@code{gnus-mime-inline-part}) as text/plain. If given a prefix, insert
10818 the raw contents without decoding. If given a numerical prefix, you can
10819 do semi-manual charset stuff (see
10820 @code{gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist} in @pxref{Paging the
10823 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-internally
10825 @kindex E (Article)
10826 View the @sc{mime} object with an internal viewer. If no internal
10827 viewer is available, use an external viewer
10828 (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-internally}).
10830 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-externally
10832 @kindex e (Article)
10833 View the @sc{mime} object with an external viewer.
10834 (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-externally}).
10836 @findex gnus-mime-pipe-part
10838 @kindex | (Article)
10839 Output the @sc{mime} object to a process (@code{gnus-mime-pipe-part}).
10841 @findex gnus-mime-action-on-part
10843 @kindex . (Article)
10844 Interactively run an action on the @sc{mime} object
10845 (@code{gnus-mime-action-on-part}).
10849 Gnus will display some @sc{mime} objects automatically. The way Gnus
10850 determines which parts to do this with is described in the Emacs
10853 It might be best to just use the toggling functions from the article
10854 buffer to avoid getting nasty surprises. (For instance, you enter the
10855 group @samp{alt.sing-a-long} and, before you know it, @sc{mime} has
10856 decoded the sound file in the article and some horrible sing-a-long song
10857 comes screaming out your speakers, and you can't find the volume button,
10858 because there isn't one, and people are starting to look at you, and you
10859 try to stop the program, but you can't, and you can't find the program
10860 to control the volume, and everybody else in the room suddenly decides
10861 to look at you disdainfully, and you'll feel rather stupid.)
10863 Any similarity to real events and people is purely coincidental. Ahem.
10865 Also see @pxref{MIME Commands}.
10868 @node Customizing Articles
10869 @section Customizing Articles
10870 @cindex article customization
10872 A slew of functions for customizing how the articles are to look like
10873 exist. You can call these functions interactively
10874 (@pxref{Article Washing}), or you can have them
10875 called automatically when you select the articles.
10877 To have them called automatically, you should set the corresponding
10878 ``treatment'' variable. For instance, to have headers hidden, you'd set
10879 @code{gnus-treat-hide-headers}. Below is a list of variables that can
10880 be set, but first we discuss the values these variables can have.
10882 Note: Some values, while valid, make little sense. Check the list below
10883 for sensible values.
10887 @code{nil}: Don't do this treatment.
10890 @code{t}: Do this treatment on all body parts.
10893 @code{head}: Do the treatment on the headers.
10896 @code{last}: Do this treatment on the last part.
10899 An integer: Do this treatment on all body parts that have a length less
10903 A list of strings: Do this treatment on all body parts that are in
10904 articles that are read in groups that have names that match one of the
10905 regexps in the list.
10908 A list where the first element is not a string:
10910 The list is evaluated recursively. The first element of the list is a
10911 predicate. The following predicates are recognized: @code{or},
10912 @code{and}, @code{not} and @code{typep}. Here's an example:
10916 (typep "text/x-vcard"))
10921 You may have noticed that the word @dfn{part} is used here. This refers
10922 to the fact that some messages are @sc{mime} multipart articles that may
10923 be divided into several parts. Articles that are not multiparts are
10924 considered to contain just a single part.
10926 @vindex gnus-article-treat-types
10927 Are the treatments applied to all sorts of multipart parts? Yes, if you
10928 want to, but by default, only @samp{text/plain} parts are given the
10929 treatment. This is controlled by the @code{gnus-article-treat-types}
10930 variable, which is a list of regular expressions that are matched to the
10931 type of the part. This variable is ignored if the value of the
10932 controlling variable is a predicate list, as described above.
10934 The following treatment options are available. The easiest way to
10935 customize this is to examine the @code{gnus-article-treat} customization
10936 group. Values in parenthesis are suggested sensible values. Others are
10937 possible but those listed are probably sufficient for most people.
10940 @item gnus-treat-buttonize (t, integer)
10941 @item gnus-treat-buttonize-head (head)
10943 @xref{Article Buttons}.
10945 @item gnus-treat-capitalize-sentences (t, integer)
10946 @item gnus-treat-overstrike (t, integer)
10947 @item gnus-treat-strip-cr (t, integer)
10948 @item gnus-treat-strip-headers-in-body (t, integer)
10949 @item gnus-treat-strip-leading-blank-lines (t, integer)
10950 @item gnus-treat-strip-multiple-blank-lines (t, integer)
10951 @item gnus-treat-strip-pem (t, last, integer)
10952 @item gnus-treat-strip-trailing-blank-lines (t, last, integer)
10953 @item gnus-treat-unsplit-urls (t, integer)
10954 @item gnus-treat-wash-html (t, integer)
10956 @xref{Article Washing}.
10958 @item gnus-treat-date-english (head)
10959 @item gnus-treat-date-iso8601 (head)
10960 @item gnus-treat-date-lapsed (head)
10961 @item gnus-treat-date-local (head)
10962 @item gnus-treat-date-original (head)
10963 @item gnus-treat-date-user-defined (head)
10964 @item gnus-treat-date-ut (head)
10966 @xref{Article Date}.
10968 @item gnus-treat-from-picon (head)
10969 @item gnus-treat-mail-picon (head)
10970 @item gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon (head)
10974 @item gnus-treat-display-smileys (t, integer)
10976 @item gnus-treat-body-boundary (head)
10978 @vindex gnus-body-boundary-delimiter
10979 Adds a delimiter between header and body, the string used as delimiter
10980 is controlled by @code{gnus-body-boundary-delimiter}.
10984 @item gnus-treat-display-xface (head)
10988 @item gnus-treat-emphasize (t, head, integer)
10989 @item gnus-treat-fill-article (t, integer)
10990 @item gnus-treat-fill-long-lines (t, integer)
10991 @item gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers (head)
10992 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation (t, integer)
10993 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation-maybe (t, integer)
10994 @item gnus-treat-hide-headers (head)
10995 @item gnus-treat-hide-signature (t, last)
10996 @item gnus-treat-strip-banner (t, last)
10997 @item gnus-treat-strip-list-identifiers (head)
10999 @xref{Article Hiding}.
11001 @item gnus-treat-highlight-citation (t, integer)
11002 @item gnus-treat-highlight-headers (head)
11003 @item gnus-treat-highlight-signature (t, last, integer)
11005 @xref{Article Highlighting}.
11007 @item gnus-treat-play-sounds
11008 @item gnus-treat-translate
11009 @item gnus-treat-x-pgp-sig (head)
11011 @item gnus-treat-unfold-headers (head)
11012 @item gnus-treat-fold-headers (head)
11013 @item gnus-treat-fold-newsgroups (head)
11014 @item gnus-treat-leading-whitespace (head)
11016 @xref{Article Header}.
11021 @vindex gnus-part-display-hook
11022 You can, of course, write your own functions to be called from
11023 @code{gnus-part-display-hook}. The functions are called narrowed to the
11024 part, and you can do anything you like, pretty much. There is no
11025 information that you have to keep in the buffer---you can change
11029 @node Article Keymap
11030 @section Article Keymap
11032 Most of the keystrokes in the summary buffer can also be used in the
11033 article buffer. They should behave as if you typed them in the summary
11034 buffer, which means that you don't actually have to have a summary
11035 buffer displayed while reading. You can do it all from the article
11038 A few additional keystrokes are available:
11043 @kindex SPACE (Article)
11044 @findex gnus-article-next-page
11045 Scroll forwards one page (@code{gnus-article-next-page}).
11046 This is exactly the same as @kbd{h SPACE h}.
11049 @kindex DEL (Article)
11050 @findex gnus-article-prev-page
11051 Scroll backwards one page (@code{gnus-article-prev-page}).
11052 This is exactly the same as @kbd{h DEL h}.
11055 @kindex C-c ^ (Article)
11056 @findex gnus-article-refer-article
11057 If point is in the neighborhood of a @code{Message-ID} and you press
11058 @kbd{C-c ^}, Gnus will try to get that article from the server
11059 (@code{gnus-article-refer-article}).
11062 @kindex C-c C-m (Article)
11063 @findex gnus-article-mail
11064 Send a reply to the address near point (@code{gnus-article-mail}). If
11065 given a prefix, include the mail.
11068 @kindex s (Article)
11069 @findex gnus-article-show-summary
11070 Reconfigure the buffers so that the summary buffer becomes visible
11071 (@code{gnus-article-show-summary}).
11074 @kindex ? (Article)
11075 @findex gnus-article-describe-briefly
11076 Give a very brief description of the available keystrokes
11077 (@code{gnus-article-describe-briefly}).
11080 @kindex TAB (Article)
11081 @findex gnus-article-next-button
11082 Go to the next button, if any (@code{gnus-article-next-button}). This
11083 only makes sense if you have buttonizing turned on.
11086 @kindex M-TAB (Article)
11087 @findex gnus-article-prev-button
11088 Go to the previous button, if any (@code{gnus-article-prev-button}).
11091 @kindex R (Article)
11092 @findex gnus-article-reply-with-original
11093 Send a reply to the current article and yank the current article
11094 (@code{gnus-article-reply-with-original}). If given a prefix, make a
11095 wide reply. If the region is active, only yank the text in the
11099 @kindex F (Article)
11100 @findex gnus-article-followup-with-original
11101 Send a followup to the current article and yank the current article
11102 (@code{gnus-article-followup-with-original}). If given a prefix, make
11103 a wide reply. If the region is active, only yank the text in the
11111 @section Misc Article
11115 @item gnus-single-article-buffer
11116 @vindex gnus-single-article-buffer
11117 If non-@code{nil}, use the same article buffer for all the groups.
11118 (This is the default.) If @code{nil}, each group will have its own
11121 @vindex gnus-article-decode-hook
11122 @item gnus-article-decode-hook
11124 Hook used to decode @sc{mime} articles. The default value is
11125 @code{(article-decode-charset article-decode-encoded-words)}
11127 @vindex gnus-article-prepare-hook
11128 @item gnus-article-prepare-hook
11129 This hook is called right after the article has been inserted into the
11130 article buffer. It is mainly intended for functions that do something
11131 depending on the contents; it should probably not be used for changing
11132 the contents of the article buffer.
11134 @item gnus-article-mode-hook
11135 @vindex gnus-article-mode-hook
11136 Hook called in article mode buffers.
11138 @item gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
11139 @vindex gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
11140 Syntax table used in article buffers. It is initialized from
11141 @code{text-mode-syntax-table}.
11143 @vindex gnus-article-over-scroll
11144 @item gnus-article-over-scroll
11145 If non-@code{nil}, allow scrolling the article buffer even when there
11146 no more new text to scroll in. The default is @code{nil}.
11148 @vindex gnus-article-mode-line-format
11149 @item gnus-article-mode-line-format
11150 This variable is a format string along the same lines as
11151 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}). It
11152 accepts the same format specifications as that variable, with two
11158 The @dfn{wash status} of the article. This is a short string with one
11159 character for each possible article wash operation that may have been
11160 performed. The characters and their meaning:
11165 Displayed when cited text may be hidden in the article buffer.
11168 Displayed when headers are hidden in the article buffer.
11171 Displayed when article is digitally signed or encrypted, and Gnus has
11172 hidden the security headers. (N.B. does not tell anything about
11173 security status, i.e. good or bad signature.)
11176 Displayed when the signature has been hidden in the Article buffer.
11179 Displayed when Gnus has treated overstrike characters in the article buffer.
11182 Displayed when Gnus has treated emphasised strings in the article buffer.
11187 The number of @sc{mime} parts in the article.
11191 @vindex gnus-break-pages
11193 @item gnus-break-pages
11194 Controls whether @dfn{page breaking} is to take place. If this variable
11195 is non-@code{nil}, the articles will be divided into pages whenever a
11196 page delimiter appears in the article. If this variable is @code{nil},
11197 paging will not be done.
11199 @item gnus-page-delimiter
11200 @vindex gnus-page-delimiter
11201 This is the delimiter mentioned above. By default, it is @samp{^L}
11205 @cindex internationalized domain names
11206 @vindex gnus-use-idna
11207 @item gnus-use-idna
11208 This variable controls whether Gnus performs IDNA decoding of
11209 internationalized domain names inside @sc{From:}, @sc{To:} and
11210 @sc{Cc:} headers. This requires GNU Libidn
11211 (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/libidn/}, and this variable is only
11212 enabled if you have installed it.
11217 @node Composing Messages
11218 @chapter Composing Messages
11219 @cindex composing messages
11222 @cindex sending mail
11227 @cindex using s/mime
11228 @cindex using smime
11230 @kindex C-c C-c (Post)
11231 All commands for posting and mailing will put you in a message buffer
11232 where you can edit the article all you like, before you send the
11233 article by pressing @kbd{C-c C-c}. @xref{Top, , Overview, message,
11234 Message Manual}. Where the message will be posted/mailed to depends
11235 on your setup (@pxref{Posting Server}).
11238 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
11239 * Posting Server:: What server should you post and mail via?
11240 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
11241 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
11242 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
11243 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
11244 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
11245 * Signing and encrypting:: How to compose secure messages.
11248 Also see @pxref{Canceling and Superseding} for information on how to
11249 remove articles you shouldn't have posted.
11255 Variables for customizing outgoing mail:
11258 @item gnus-uu-digest-headers
11259 @vindex gnus-uu-digest-headers
11260 List of regexps to match headers included in digested messages. The
11261 headers will be included in the sequence they are matched. If
11262 @code{nil} include all headers.
11264 @item gnus-add-to-list
11265 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
11266 If non-@code{nil}, add a @code{to-list} group parameter to mail groups
11267 that have none when you do a @kbd{a}.
11269 @item gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news
11270 @vindex gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news
11271 This can also be a function receiving the group name as the only
11272 parameter which should return non-@code{nil} if a confirmation is
11273 needed, or a regular expression matching group names, where
11274 confirmation is should be asked for.
11276 If you find yourself never wanting to reply to mail, but occasionally
11277 press R anyway, this variable might be for you.
11279 @item gnus-confirm-treat-mail-like-news
11280 @vindex gnus-confirm-treat-mail-like-news
11281 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus also requests confirmation according to
11282 @code{gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news} when replying to mail. This is
11283 useful for treating mailing lists like newsgroups.
11288 @node Posting Server
11289 @section Posting Server
11291 When you press those magical @kbd{C-c C-c} keys to ship off your latest
11292 (extremely intelligent, of course) article, where does it go?
11294 Thank you for asking. I hate you.
11296 It can be quite complicated.
11298 @vindex gnus-post-method
11299 When posting news, Message usually invokes @code{message-send-news}
11300 (@pxref{News Variables, , News Variables, message, Message Manual}).
11301 Normally, Gnus will post using the same select method as you're
11302 reading from (which might be convenient if you're reading lots of
11303 groups from different private servers). However. If the server
11304 you're reading from doesn't allow posting, just reading, you probably
11305 want to use some other server to post your (extremely intelligent and
11306 fabulously interesting) articles. You can then set the
11307 @code{gnus-post-method} to some other method:
11310 (setq gnus-post-method '(nnspool ""))
11313 Now, if you've done this, and then this server rejects your article, or
11314 this server is down, what do you do then? To override this variable you
11315 can use a non-zero prefix to the @kbd{C-c C-c} command to force using
11316 the ``current'' server, to get back the default behavior, for posting.
11318 If you give a zero prefix (i.e., @kbd{C-u 0 C-c C-c}) to that command,
11319 Gnus will prompt you for what method to use for posting.
11321 You can also set @code{gnus-post-method} to a list of select methods.
11322 If that's the case, Gnus will always prompt you for what method to use
11325 Finally, if you want to always post using the native select method,
11326 you can set this variable to @code{native}.
11328 When sending mail, Message invokes @code{message-send-mail-function}.
11329 The default function, @code{message-send-mail-with-sendmail}, pipes
11330 your article to the @code{sendmail} binary for further queuing and
11331 sending. When your local system is not configured for sending mail
11332 using @code{sendmail}, and you have access to a remote @sc{smtp}
11333 server, you can set @code{message-send-mail-function} to
11334 @code{smtpmail-send-it} and make sure to setup the @code{smtpmail}
11335 package correctly. An example:
11338 (setq message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it
11339 smtpmail-default-smtp-server "YOUR SMTP HOST")
11342 To the thing similar to this, there is @code{message-smtpmail-send-it}.
11343 It is useful if your ISP requires the POP-before-SMTP authentication.
11344 See the documentation for the function @code{mail-source-touch-pop}.
11346 Other possible choices for @code{message-send-mail-function} includes
11347 @code{message-send-mail-with-mh}, @code{message-send-mail-with-qmail},
11348 and @code{feedmail-send-it}.
11350 @node Mail and Post
11351 @section Mail and Post
11353 Here's a list of variables relevant to both mailing and
11357 @item gnus-mailing-list-groups
11358 @findex gnus-mailing-list-groups
11359 @cindex mailing lists
11361 If your news server offers groups that are really mailing lists
11362 gatewayed to the @sc{nntp} server, you can read those groups without
11363 problems, but you can't post/followup to them without some difficulty.
11364 One solution is to add a @code{to-address} to the group parameters
11365 (@pxref{Group Parameters}). An easier thing to do is set the
11366 @code{gnus-mailing-list-groups} to a regexp that matches the groups that
11367 really are mailing lists. Then, at least, followups to the mailing
11368 lists will work most of the time. Posting to these groups (@kbd{a}) is
11369 still a pain, though.
11371 @item gnus-user-agent
11372 @vindex gnus-user-agent
11375 This variable controls which information should be exposed in the
11376 User-Agent header. It can be one of the symbols @code{gnus} (show only
11377 Gnus version), @code{emacs-gnus} (show only Emacs and Gnus versions),
11378 @code{emacs-gnus-config} (same as @code{emacs-gnus} plus system
11379 configuration), @code{emacs-gnus-type} (same as @code{emacs-gnus} plus
11380 system type) or a custom string. If you set it to a string, be sure to
11381 use a valid format, see RFC 2616."
11385 You may want to do spell-checking on messages that you send out. Or, if
11386 you don't want to spell-check by hand, you could add automatic
11387 spell-checking via the @code{ispell} package:
11390 @findex ispell-message
11392 (add-hook 'message-send-hook 'ispell-message)
11395 If you want to change the @code{ispell} dictionary based on what group
11396 you're in, you could say something like the following:
11399 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook
11403 "^de\\." (gnus-group-real-name gnus-newsgroup-name))
11404 (ispell-change-dictionary "deutsch"))
11406 (ispell-change-dictionary "english")))))
11409 Modify to suit your needs.
11412 @node Archived Messages
11413 @section Archived Messages
11414 @cindex archived messages
11415 @cindex sent messages
11417 Gnus provides a few different methods for storing the mail and news you
11418 send. The default method is to use the @dfn{archive virtual server} to
11419 store the messages. If you want to disable this completely, the
11420 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable should be @code{nil}, which
11423 For archiving interesting messages in a group you read, see the
11424 @kbd{B c} (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}) command (@pxref{Mail
11427 @vindex gnus-message-archive-method
11428 @code{gnus-message-archive-method} says what virtual server Gnus is to
11429 use to store sent messages. The default is:
11432 (nnfolder "archive"
11433 (nnfolder-directory "~/Mail/archive")
11434 (nnfolder-active-file "~/Mail/archive/active")
11435 (nnfolder-get-new-mail nil)
11436 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t))
11439 You can, however, use any mail select method (@code{nnml},
11440 @code{nnmbox}, etc.). @code{nnfolder} is a quite likable select method
11441 for doing this sort of thing, though. If you don't like the default
11442 directory chosen, you could say something like:
11445 (setq gnus-message-archive-method
11446 '(nnfolder "archive"
11447 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t)
11448 (nnfolder-active-file "~/News/sent-mail/active")
11449 (nnfolder-directory "~/News/sent-mail/")))
11452 @vindex gnus-message-archive-group
11454 Gnus will insert @code{Gcc} headers in all outgoing messages that point
11455 to one or more group(s) on that server. Which group to use is
11456 determined by the @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable.
11458 This variable can be used to do the following:
11463 Messages will be saved in that group.
11465 Note that you can include a select method in the group name, then the
11466 message will not be stored in the select method given by
11467 @code{gnus-message-archive-method}, but in the select method specified
11468 by the group name, instead. Suppose @code{gnus-message-archive-method}
11469 has the default value shown above. Then setting
11470 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{"foo"} means that outgoing
11471 messages are stored in @samp{nnfolder+archive:foo}, but if you use the
11472 value @code{"nnml:foo"}, then outgoing messages will be stored in
11476 Messages will be saved in all those groups.
11478 an alist of regexps, functions and forms
11479 When a key ``matches'', the result is used.
11482 No message archiving will take place. This is the default.
11487 Just saving to a single group called @samp{MisK}:
11489 (setq gnus-message-archive-group "MisK")
11492 Saving to two groups, @samp{MisK} and @samp{safe}:
11494 (setq gnus-message-archive-group '("MisK" "safe"))
11497 Save to different groups based on what group you are in:
11499 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
11500 '(("^alt" "sent-to-alt")
11501 ("mail" "sent-to-mail")
11502 (".*" "sent-to-misc")))
11505 More complex stuff:
11507 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
11508 '((if (message-news-p)
11513 How about storing all news messages in one file, but storing all mail
11514 messages in one file per month:
11517 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
11518 '((if (message-news-p)
11520 (concat "mail." (format-time-string "%Y-%m")))))
11523 @c (XEmacs 19.13 doesn't have @code{format-time-string}, so you'll have to
11524 @c use a different value for @code{gnus-message-archive-group} there.)
11526 Now, when you send a message off, it will be stored in the appropriate
11527 group. (If you want to disable storing for just one particular message,
11528 you can just remove the @code{Gcc} header that has been inserted.) The
11529 archive group will appear in the group buffer the next time you start
11530 Gnus, or the next time you press @kbd{F} in the group buffer. You can
11531 enter it and read the articles in it just like you'd read any other
11532 group. If the group gets really big and annoying, you can simply rename
11533 if (using @kbd{G r} in the group buffer) to something
11534 nice---@samp{misc-mail-september-1995}, or whatever. New messages will
11535 continue to be stored in the old (now empty) group.
11537 That's the default method of archiving sent messages. Gnus offers a
11538 different way for the people who don't like the default method. In that
11539 case you should set @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{nil};
11540 this will disable archiving.
11543 @item gnus-outgoing-message-group
11544 @vindex gnus-outgoing-message-group
11545 All outgoing messages will be put in this group. If you want to store
11546 all your outgoing mail and articles in the group @samp{nnml:archive},
11547 you set this variable to that value. This variable can also be a list of
11550 If you want to have greater control over what group to put each
11551 message in, you can set this variable to a function that checks the
11552 current newsgroup name and then returns a suitable group name (or list
11555 This variable can be used instead of @code{gnus-message-archive-group},
11556 but the latter is the preferred method.
11558 @item gnus-gcc-mark-as-read
11559 @vindex gnus-gcc-mark-as-read
11560 If non-@code{nil}, automatically mark @code{Gcc} articles as read.
11562 @item gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments
11563 @vindex gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments
11564 If @code{nil}, attach files as normal parts in Gcc copies; if a regexp
11565 and matches the Gcc group name, attach files as external parts; if it is
11566 @code{all}, attach local files as external parts; if it is other
11567 non-@code{nil}, the behavior is the same as @code{all}, but it may be
11568 changed in the future.
11573 @node Posting Styles
11574 @section Posting Styles
11575 @cindex posting styles
11578 All them variables, they make my head swim.
11580 So what if you want a different @code{Organization} and signature based
11581 on what groups you post to? And you post both from your home machine
11582 and your work machine, and you want different @code{From} lines, and so
11585 @vindex gnus-posting-styles
11586 One way to do stuff like that is to write clever hooks that change the
11587 variables you need to have changed. That's a bit boring, so somebody
11588 came up with the bright idea of letting the user specify these things in
11589 a handy alist. Here's an example of a @code{gnus-posting-styles}
11594 (signature "Peace and happiness")
11595 (organization "What me?"))
11597 (signature "Death to everybody"))
11598 ("comp.emacs.i-love-it"
11599 (organization "Emacs is it")))
11602 As you might surmise from this example, this alist consists of several
11603 @dfn{styles}. Each style will be applicable if the first element
11604 ``matches'', in some form or other. The entire alist will be iterated
11605 over, from the beginning towards the end, and each match will be
11606 applied, which means that attributes in later styles that match override
11607 the same attributes in earlier matching styles. So
11608 @samp{comp.programming.literate} will have the @samp{Death to everybody}
11609 signature and the @samp{What me?} @code{Organization} header.
11611 The first element in each style is called the @code{match}. If it's a
11612 string, then Gnus will try to regexp match it against the group name.
11613 If it is the form @code{(header @var{match} @var{regexp})}, then Gnus
11614 will look in the original article for a header whose name is
11615 @var{match} and compare that @var{regexp}. @var{match} and
11616 @var{regexp} are strings. (There original article is the one you are
11617 replying or following up to. If you are not composing a reply or a
11618 followup, then there is nothing to match against.) If the
11619 @code{match} is a function symbol, that function will be called with
11620 no arguments. If it's a variable symbol, then the variable will be
11621 referenced. If it's a list, then that list will be @code{eval}ed. In
11622 any case, if this returns a non-@code{nil} value, then the style is
11623 said to @dfn{match}.
11625 Each style may contain an arbitrary amount of @dfn{attributes}. Each
11626 attribute consists of a @code{(@var{name} @var{value})} pair. The
11627 attribute name can be one of @code{signature}, @code{signature-file},
11628 @code{x-face-file}, @code{address} (overriding
11629 @code{user-mail-address}), @code{name} (overriding
11630 @code{(user-full-name)}) or @code{body}. The attribute name can also
11631 be a string or a symbol. In that case, this will be used as a header
11632 name, and the value will be inserted in the headers of the article; if
11633 the value is @code{nil}, the header name will be removed. If the
11634 attribute name is @code{eval}, the form is evaluated, and the result
11637 The attribute value can be a string (used verbatim), a function with
11638 zero arguments (the return value will be used), a variable (its value
11639 will be used) or a list (it will be @code{eval}ed and the return value
11640 will be used). The functions and sexps are called/@code{eval}ed in the
11641 message buffer that is being set up. The headers of the current article
11642 are available through the @code{message-reply-headers} variable, which
11643 is a vector of the following headers: number subject from date id
11644 references chars lines xref extra.
11646 @vindex message-reply-headers
11648 If you wish to check whether the message you are about to compose is
11649 meant to be a news article or a mail message, you can check the values
11650 of the @code{message-news-p} and @code{message-mail-p} functions.
11652 @findex message-mail-p
11653 @findex message-news-p
11655 So here's a new example:
11658 (setq gnus-posting-styles
11660 (signature-file "~/.signature")
11662 ("X-Home-Page" (getenv "WWW_HOME"))
11663 (organization "People's Front Against MWM"))
11665 (signature my-funny-signature-randomizer))
11666 ((equal (system-name) "gnarly") ;; A form
11667 (signature my-quote-randomizer))
11668 (message-news-p ;; A function symbol
11669 (signature my-news-signature))
11670 (window-system ;; A value symbol
11671 ("X-Window-System" (format "%s" window-system)))
11672 ;; If I'm replying to Larsi, set the Organization header.
11673 ((header "from" "larsi.*org")
11674 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
11675 ((posting-from-work-p) ;; A user defined function
11676 (signature-file "~/.work-signature")
11677 (address "user@@bar.foo")
11678 (body "You are fired.\n\nSincerely, your boss.")
11679 (organization "Important Work, Inc"))
11681 (From (save-excursion
11682 (set-buffer gnus-article-buffer)
11683 (message-fetch-field "to"))))
11685 (signature-file "~/.mail-signature"))))
11688 The @samp{nnml:.*} rule means that you use the @code{To} address as the
11689 @code{From} address in all your outgoing replies, which might be handy
11690 if you fill many roles.
11697 If you are writing a message (mail or news) and suddenly remember that
11698 you have a steak in the oven (or some pesto in the food processor, you
11699 craaazy vegetarians), you'll probably wish there was a method to save
11700 the message you are writing so that you can continue editing it some
11701 other day, and send it when you feel its finished.
11703 Well, don't worry about it. Whenever you start composing a message of
11704 some sort using the Gnus mail and post commands, the buffer you get will
11705 automatically associate to an article in a special @dfn{draft} group.
11706 If you save the buffer the normal way (@kbd{C-x C-s}, for instance), the
11707 article will be saved there. (Auto-save files also go to the draft
11711 @vindex nndraft-directory
11712 The draft group is a special group (which is implemented as an
11713 @code{nndraft} group, if you absolutely have to know) called
11714 @samp{nndraft:drafts}. The variable @code{nndraft-directory} says where
11715 @code{nndraft} is to store its files. What makes this group special is
11716 that you can't tick any articles in it or mark any articles as
11717 read---all articles in the group are permanently unread.
11719 If the group doesn't exist, it will be created and you'll be subscribed
11720 to it. The only way to make it disappear from the Group buffer is to
11721 unsubscribe it. The special properties of the draft group comes from
11722 a group property (@pxref{Group Parameters}), and if lost the group
11723 behaves like any other group. This means the commands below will not
11724 be available. To restore the special properties of the group, the
11725 simplest way is to kill the group, using @kbd{C-k}, and restart
11726 Gnus. The group is automatically created again with the
11727 correct parameters. The content of the group is not lost.
11729 @c @findex gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft
11730 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Mail)
11731 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Post)
11732 @c @findex gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft
11733 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Mail)
11734 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Post)
11735 @c If you're writing some super-secret message that you later want to
11736 @c encode with PGP before sending, you may wish to turn the auto-saving
11737 @c (and association with the draft group) off. You never know who might be
11738 @c interested in reading all your extremely valuable and terribly horrible
11739 @c and interesting secrets. The @kbd{C-c M-d}
11740 @c (@code{gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft}) command does that for you.
11741 @c If you change your mind and want to turn the auto-saving back on again,
11742 @c @kbd{C-c C-d} (@code{gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft} does that.
11744 @c @vindex gnus-use-draft
11745 @c To leave association with the draft group off by default, set
11746 @c @code{gnus-use-draft} to @code{nil}. It is @code{t} by default.
11748 @findex gnus-draft-edit-message
11749 @kindex D e (Draft)
11750 When you want to continue editing the article, you simply enter the
11751 draft group and push @kbd{D e} (@code{gnus-draft-edit-message}) to do
11752 that. You will be placed in a buffer where you left off.
11754 Rejected articles will also be put in this draft group (@pxref{Rejected
11757 @findex gnus-draft-send-all-messages
11758 @kindex D s (Draft)
11759 @findex gnus-draft-send-message
11760 @kindex D S (Draft)
11761 If you have lots of rejected messages you want to post (or mail) without
11762 doing further editing, you can use the @kbd{D s} command
11763 (@code{gnus-draft-send-message}). This command understands the
11764 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). The @kbd{D S}
11765 command (@code{gnus-draft-send-all-messages}) will ship off all messages
11768 @findex gnus-draft-toggle-sending
11769 @kindex D t (Draft)
11770 If you have some messages that you wish not to send, you can use the
11771 @kbd{D t} (@code{gnus-draft-toggle-sending}) command to mark the message
11772 as unsendable. This is a toggling command.
11775 @node Rejected Articles
11776 @section Rejected Articles
11777 @cindex rejected articles
11779 Sometimes a news server will reject an article. Perhaps the server
11780 doesn't like your face. Perhaps it just feels miserable. Perhaps
11781 @emph{there be demons}. Perhaps you have included too much cited text.
11782 Perhaps the disk is full. Perhaps the server is down.
11784 These situations are, of course, totally beyond the control of Gnus.
11785 (Gnus, of course, loves the way you look, always feels great, has angels
11786 fluttering around inside of it, doesn't care about how much cited text
11787 you include, never runs full and never goes down.) So Gnus saves these
11788 articles until some later time when the server feels better.
11790 The rejected articles will automatically be put in a special draft group
11791 (@pxref{Drafts}). When the server comes back up again, you'd then
11792 typically enter that group and send all the articles off.
11794 @node Signing and encrypting
11795 @section Signing and encrypting
11797 @cindex using s/mime
11798 @cindex using smime
11800 Gnus can digitally sign and encrypt your messages, using vanilla PGP
11801 format or @sc{pgp/mime} or @sc{s/mime}. For decoding such messages,
11802 see the @code{mm-verify-option} and @code{mm-decrypt-option} options
11803 (@pxref{Security}).
11805 @vindex gnus-message-replysign
11806 @vindex gnus-message-replyencrypt
11807 @vindex gnus-message-replysignencrypted
11808 Often, you would like to sign replies to people who send you signed
11809 messages. Even more often, you might want to encrypt messages which
11810 are in reply to encrypted messages. Gnus offers
11811 @code{gnus-message-replysign} to enable the former, and
11812 @code{gnus-message-replyencrypt} for the latter. In addition, setting
11813 @code{gnus-message-replysignencrypted} (on by default) will sign
11814 automatically encrypted messages.
11816 Instructing MML to perform security operations on a @sc{mime} part is
11817 done using the @kbd{C-c C-m s} key map for signing and the @kbd{C-c
11818 C-m c} key map for encryption, as follows.
11823 @kindex C-c C-m s s
11824 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-smime
11826 Digitally sign current message using @sc{s/mime}.
11829 @kindex C-c C-m s o
11830 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-pgp
11832 Digitally sign current message using PGP.
11835 @kindex C-c C-m s p
11836 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-pgp
11838 Digitally sign current message using @sc{pgp/mime}.
11841 @kindex C-c C-m c s
11842 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-smime
11844 Digitally encrypt current message using @sc{s/mime}.
11847 @kindex C-c C-m c o
11848 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-pgp
11850 Digitally encrypt current message using PGP.
11853 @kindex C-c C-m c p
11854 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-pgpmime
11856 Digitally encrypt current message using @sc{pgp/mime}.
11859 @kindex C-c C-m C-n
11860 @findex mml-unsecure-message
11861 Remove security related MML tags from message.
11865 @xref{Security, ,Security, message, Message Manual}, for more information.
11867 @node Select Methods
11868 @chapter Select Methods
11869 @cindex foreign groups
11870 @cindex select methods
11872 A @dfn{foreign group} is a group not read by the usual (or
11873 default) means. It could be, for instance, a group from a different
11874 @sc{nntp} server, it could be a virtual group, or it could be your own
11875 personal mail group.
11877 A foreign group (or any group, really) is specified by a @dfn{name} and
11878 a @dfn{select method}. To take the latter first, a select method is a
11879 list where the first element says what back end to use (e.g. @code{nntp},
11880 @code{nnspool}, @code{nnml}) and the second element is the @dfn{server
11881 name}. There may be additional elements in the select method, where the
11882 value may have special meaning for the back end in question.
11884 One could say that a select method defines a @dfn{virtual server}---so
11885 we do just that (@pxref{Server Buffer}).
11887 The @dfn{name} of the group is the name the back end will recognize the
11890 For instance, the group @samp{soc.motss} on the @sc{nntp} server
11891 @samp{some.where.edu} will have the name @samp{soc.motss} and select
11892 method @code{(nntp "some.where.edu")}. Gnus will call this group
11893 @samp{nntp+some.where.edu:soc.motss}, even though the @code{nntp}
11894 back end just knows this group as @samp{soc.motss}.
11896 The different methods all have their peculiarities, of course.
11899 * Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
11900 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
11901 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
11902 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
11903 * IMAP:: Using Gnus as a @sc{imap} client.
11904 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
11905 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
11906 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
11910 @node Server Buffer
11911 @section Server Buffer
11913 Traditionally, a @dfn{server} is a machine or a piece of software that
11914 one connects to, and then requests information from. Gnus does not
11915 connect directly to any real servers, but does all transactions through
11916 one back end or other. But that's just putting one layer more between
11917 the actual media and Gnus, so we might just as well say that each
11918 back end represents a virtual server.
11920 For instance, the @code{nntp} back end may be used to connect to several
11921 different actual @sc{nntp} servers, or, perhaps, to many different ports
11922 on the same actual @sc{nntp} server. You tell Gnus which back end to
11923 use, and what parameters to set by specifying a @dfn{select method}.
11925 These select method specifications can sometimes become quite
11926 complicated---say, for instance, that you want to read from the
11927 @sc{nntp} server @samp{news.funet.fi} on port number 13, which
11928 hangs if queried for @sc{nov} headers and has a buggy select. Ahem.
11929 Anyway, if you had to specify that for each group that used this
11930 server, that would be too much work, so Gnus offers a way of naming
11931 select methods, which is what you do in the server buffer.
11933 To enter the server buffer, use the @kbd{^}
11934 (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}) command in the group buffer.
11937 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
11938 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
11939 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
11940 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
11941 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
11942 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
11943 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
11946 @vindex gnus-server-mode-hook
11947 @code{gnus-server-mode-hook} is run when creating the server buffer.
11950 @node Server Buffer Format
11951 @subsection Server Buffer Format
11952 @cindex server buffer format
11954 @vindex gnus-server-line-format
11955 You can change the look of the server buffer lines by changing the
11956 @code{gnus-server-line-format} variable. This is a @code{format}-like
11957 variable, with some simple extensions:
11962 How the news is fetched---the back end name.
11965 The name of this server.
11968 Where the news is to be fetched from---the address.
11971 The opened/closed/denied status of the server.
11974 @vindex gnus-server-mode-line-format
11975 The mode line can also be customized by using the
11976 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format} variable (@pxref{Mode Line
11977 Formatting}). The following specs are understood:
11987 Also @pxref{Formatting Variables}.
11990 @node Server Commands
11991 @subsection Server Commands
11992 @cindex server commands
11998 @findex gnus-server-add-server
11999 Add a new server (@code{gnus-server-add-server}).
12003 @findex gnus-server-edit-server
12004 Edit a server (@code{gnus-server-edit-server}).
12007 @kindex SPACE (Server)
12008 @findex gnus-server-read-server
12009 Browse the current server (@code{gnus-server-read-server}).
12013 @findex gnus-server-exit
12014 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-server-exit}).
12018 @findex gnus-server-kill-server
12019 Kill the current server (@code{gnus-server-kill-server}).
12023 @findex gnus-server-yank-server
12024 Yank the previously killed server (@code{gnus-server-yank-server}).
12028 @findex gnus-server-copy-server
12029 Copy the current server (@code{gnus-server-copy-server}).
12033 @findex gnus-server-list-servers
12034 List all servers (@code{gnus-server-list-servers}).
12038 @findex gnus-server-scan-server
12039 Request that the server scan its sources for new articles
12040 (@code{gnus-server-scan-server}). This is mainly sensible with mail
12045 @findex gnus-server-regenerate-server
12046 Request that the server regenerate all its data structures
12047 (@code{gnus-server-regenerate-server}). This can be useful if you have
12048 a mail back end that has gotten out of sync.
12053 @node Example Methods
12054 @subsection Example Methods
12056 Most select methods are pretty simple and self-explanatory:
12059 (nntp "news.funet.fi")
12062 Reading directly from the spool is even simpler:
12068 As you can see, the first element in a select method is the name of the
12069 back end, and the second is the @dfn{address}, or @dfn{name}, if you
12072 After these two elements, there may be an arbitrary number of
12073 @code{(@var{variable} @var{form})} pairs.
12075 To go back to the first example---imagine that you want to read from
12076 port 15 on that machine. This is what the select method should
12080 (nntp "news.funet.fi" (nntp-port-number 15))
12083 You should read the documentation to each back end to find out what
12084 variables are relevant, but here's an @code{nnmh} example:
12086 @code{nnmh} is a mail back end that reads a spool-like structure. Say
12087 you have two structures that you wish to access: One is your private
12088 mail spool, and the other is a public one. Here's the possible spec for
12092 (nnmh "private" (nnmh-directory "~/private/mail/"))
12095 (This server is then called @samp{private}, but you may have guessed
12098 Here's the method for a public spool:
12102 (nnmh-directory "/usr/information/spool/")
12103 (nnmh-get-new-mail nil))
12109 If you are behind a firewall and only have access to the @sc{nntp}
12110 server from the firewall machine, you can instruct Gnus to @code{rlogin}
12111 on the firewall machine and telnet from there to the @sc{nntp} server.
12112 Doing this can be rather fiddly, but your virtual server definition
12113 should probably look something like this:
12117 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet)
12118 (nntp-via-address "the.firewall.machine")
12119 (nntp-address "the.real.nntp.host")
12120 (nntp-end-of-line "\n"))
12123 If you want to use the wonderful @code{ssh} program to provide a
12124 compressed connection over the modem line, you could add the following
12125 configuration to the example above:
12128 (nntp-via-rlogin-command "ssh")
12131 See also @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches}.
12133 If you're behind a firewall, but have direct access to the outside world
12134 through a wrapper command like "runsocks", you could open a socksified
12135 telnet connection to the news server as follows:
12139 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
12140 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-telnet)
12141 (nntp-address "the.news.server")
12142 (nntp-end-of-line "\n"))
12145 This means that you have to have set up @code{ssh-agent} correctly to
12146 provide automatic authorization, of course. And to get a compressed
12147 connection, you have to have the @samp{Compression} option in the
12148 @code{ssh} @file{config} file.
12151 @node Creating a Virtual Server
12152 @subsection Creating a Virtual Server
12154 If you're saving lots of articles in the cache by using persistent
12155 articles, you may want to create a virtual server to read the cache.
12157 First you need to add a new server. The @kbd{a} command does that. It
12158 would probably be best to use @code{nnspool} to read the cache. You
12159 could also use @code{nnml} or @code{nnmh}, though.
12161 Type @kbd{a nnspool RET cache RET}.
12163 You should now have a brand new @code{nnspool} virtual server called
12164 @samp{cache}. You now need to edit it to have the right definitions.
12165 Type @kbd{e} to edit the server. You'll be entered into a buffer that
12166 will contain the following:
12176 (nnspool-spool-directory "~/News/cache/")
12177 (nnspool-nov-directory "~/News/cache/")
12178 (nnspool-active-file "~/News/cache/active"))
12181 Type @kbd{C-c C-c} to return to the server buffer. If you now press
12182 @kbd{RET} over this virtual server, you should be entered into a browse
12183 buffer, and you should be able to enter any of the groups displayed.
12186 @node Server Variables
12187 @subsection Server Variables
12189 One sticky point when defining variables (both on back ends and in Emacs
12190 in general) is that some variables are typically initialized from other
12191 variables when the definition of the variables is being loaded. If you
12192 change the ``base'' variable after the variables have been loaded, you
12193 won't change the ``derived'' variables.
12195 This typically affects directory and file variables. For instance,
12196 @code{nnml-directory} is @file{~/Mail/} by default, and all @code{nnml}
12197 directory variables are initialized from that variable, so
12198 @code{nnml-active-file} will be @file{~/Mail/active}. If you define a
12199 new virtual @code{nnml} server, it will @emph{not} suffice to set just
12200 @code{nnml-directory}---you have to explicitly set all the file
12201 variables to be what you want them to be. For a complete list of
12202 variables for each back end, see each back end's section later in this
12203 manual, but here's an example @code{nnml} definition:
12207 (nnml-directory "~/my-mail/")
12208 (nnml-active-file "~/my-mail/active")
12209 (nnml-newsgroups-file "~/my-mail/newsgroups"))
12213 @node Servers and Methods
12214 @subsection Servers and Methods
12216 Wherever you would normally use a select method
12217 (e.g. @code{gnus-secondary-select-method}, in the group select method,
12218 when browsing a foreign server) you can use a virtual server name
12219 instead. This could potentially save lots of typing. And it's nice all
12223 @node Unavailable Servers
12224 @subsection Unavailable Servers
12226 If a server seems to be unreachable, Gnus will mark that server as
12227 @code{denied}. That means that any subsequent attempt to make contact
12228 with that server will just be ignored. ``It can't be opened,'' Gnus
12229 will tell you, without making the least effort to see whether that is
12230 actually the case or not.
12232 That might seem quite naughty, but it does make sense most of the time.
12233 Let's say you have 10 groups subscribed to on server
12234 @samp{nephelococcygia.com}. This server is located somewhere quite far
12235 away from you and the machine is quite slow, so it takes 1 minute just
12236 to find out that it refuses connection to you today. If Gnus were to
12237 attempt to do that 10 times, you'd be quite annoyed, so Gnus won't
12238 attempt to do that. Once it has gotten a single ``connection refused'',
12239 it will regard that server as ``down''.
12241 So, what happens if the machine was only feeling unwell temporarily?
12242 How do you test to see whether the machine has come up again?
12244 You jump to the server buffer (@pxref{Server Buffer}) and poke it
12245 with the following commands:
12251 @findex gnus-server-open-server
12252 Try to establish connection to the server on the current line
12253 (@code{gnus-server-open-server}).
12257 @findex gnus-server-close-server
12258 Close the connection (if any) to the server
12259 (@code{gnus-server-close-server}).
12263 @findex gnus-server-deny-server
12264 Mark the current server as unreachable
12265 (@code{gnus-server-deny-server}).
12268 @kindex M-o (Server)
12269 @findex gnus-server-open-all-servers
12270 Open the connections to all servers in the buffer
12271 (@code{gnus-server-open-all-servers}).
12274 @kindex M-c (Server)
12275 @findex gnus-server-close-all-servers
12276 Close the connections to all servers in the buffer
12277 (@code{gnus-server-close-all-servers}).
12281 @findex gnus-server-remove-denials
12282 Remove all marks to whether Gnus was denied connection from any servers
12283 (@code{gnus-server-remove-denials}).
12287 @findex gnus-server-offline-server
12288 Set server status to offline (@code{gnus-server-offline-server}).
12294 @section Getting News
12295 @cindex reading news
12296 @cindex news back ends
12298 A newsreader is normally used for reading news. Gnus currently provides
12299 only two methods of getting news---it can read from an @sc{nntp} server,
12300 or it can read from a local spool.
12303 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @sc{nntp} server.
12304 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
12312 Subscribing to a foreign group from an @sc{nntp} server is rather easy.
12313 You just specify @code{nntp} as method and the address of the @sc{nntp}
12314 server as the, uhm, address.
12316 If the @sc{nntp} server is located at a non-standard port, setting the
12317 third element of the select method to this port number should allow you
12318 to connect to the right port. You'll have to edit the group info for
12319 that (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
12321 The name of the foreign group can be the same as a native group. In
12322 fact, you can subscribe to the same group from as many different servers
12323 you feel like. There will be no name collisions.
12325 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nntp}
12330 @item nntp-server-opened-hook
12331 @vindex nntp-server-opened-hook
12332 @cindex @sc{mode reader}
12334 @cindex authentification
12335 @cindex nntp authentification
12336 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
12337 @findex nntp-send-mode-reader
12338 is run after a connection has been made. It can be used to send
12339 commands to the @sc{nntp} server after it has been contacted. By
12340 default it sends the command @code{MODE READER} to the server with the
12341 @code{nntp-send-mode-reader} function. This function should always be
12342 present in this hook.
12344 @item nntp-authinfo-function
12345 @vindex nntp-authinfo-function
12346 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
12347 @vindex nntp-authinfo-file
12348 This function will be used to send @samp{AUTHINFO} to the @sc{nntp}
12349 server. The default function is @code{nntp-send-authinfo}, which looks
12350 through your @file{~/.authinfo} (or whatever you've set the
12351 @code{nntp-authinfo-file} variable to) for applicable entries. If none
12352 are found, it will prompt you for a login name and a password. The
12353 format of the @file{~/.authinfo} file is (almost) the same as the
12354 @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file, which is defined in the @code{ftp}
12355 manual page, but here are the salient facts:
12359 The file contains one or more line, each of which define one server.
12362 Each line may contain an arbitrary number of token/value pairs.
12364 The valid tokens include @samp{machine}, @samp{login}, @samp{password},
12365 @samp{default}. In addition Gnus introduces two new tokens, not present
12366 in the original @file{.netrc}/@code{ftp} syntax, namely @samp{port} and
12367 @samp{force}. (This is the only way the @file{.authinfo} file format
12368 deviates from the @file{.netrc} file format.) @samp{port} is used to
12369 indicate what port on the server the credentials apply to and
12370 @samp{force} is explained below.
12374 Here's an example file:
12377 machine news.uio.no login larsi password geheimnis
12378 machine nntp.ifi.uio.no login larsi force yes
12381 The token/value pairs may appear in any order; @samp{machine} doesn't
12382 have to be first, for instance.
12384 In this example, both login name and password have been supplied for the
12385 former server, while the latter has only the login name listed, and the
12386 user will be prompted for the password. The latter also has the
12387 @samp{force} tag, which means that the authinfo will be sent to the
12388 @var{nntp} server upon connection; the default (i.e., when there is not
12389 @samp{force} tag) is to not send authinfo to the @var{nntp} server
12390 until the @var{nntp} server asks for it.
12392 You can also add @samp{default} lines that will apply to all servers
12393 that don't have matching @samp{machine} lines.
12399 This will force sending @samp{AUTHINFO} commands to all servers not
12400 previously mentioned.
12402 Remember to not leave the @file{~/.authinfo} file world-readable.
12404 @item nntp-server-action-alist
12405 @vindex nntp-server-action-alist
12406 This is a list of regexps to match on server types and actions to be
12407 taken when matches are made. For instance, if you want Gnus to beep
12408 every time you connect to innd, you could say something like:
12411 (setq nntp-server-action-alist
12412 '(("innd" (ding))))
12415 You probably don't want to do that, though.
12417 The default value is
12420 '(("nntpd 1\\.5\\.11t"
12421 (remove-hook 'nntp-server-opened-hook
12422 'nntp-send-mode-reader)))
12425 This ensures that Gnus doesn't send the @code{MODE READER} command to
12426 nntpd 1.5.11t, since that command chokes that server, I've been told.
12428 @item nntp-maximum-request
12429 @vindex nntp-maximum-request
12430 If the @sc{nntp} server doesn't support @sc{nov} headers, this back end
12431 will collect headers by sending a series of @code{head} commands. To
12432 speed things up, the back end sends lots of these commands without
12433 waiting for reply, and then reads all the replies. This is controlled
12434 by the @code{nntp-maximum-request} variable, and is 400 by default. If
12435 your network is buggy, you should set this to 1.
12437 @item nntp-connection-timeout
12438 @vindex nntp-connection-timeout
12439 If you have lots of foreign @code{nntp} groups that you connect to
12440 regularly, you're sure to have problems with @sc{nntp} servers not
12441 responding properly, or being too loaded to reply within reasonable
12442 time. This is can lead to awkward problems, which can be helped
12443 somewhat by setting @code{nntp-connection-timeout}. This is an integer
12444 that says how many seconds the @code{nntp} back end should wait for a
12445 connection before giving up. If it is @code{nil}, which is the default,
12446 no timeouts are done.
12448 @c @item nntp-command-timeout
12449 @c @vindex nntp-command-timeout
12450 @c @cindex PPP connections
12451 @c @cindex dynamic IP addresses
12452 @c If you're running Gnus on a machine that has a dynamically assigned
12453 @c address, Gnus may become confused. If the address of your machine
12454 @c changes after connecting to the @sc{nntp} server, Gnus will simply sit
12455 @c waiting forever for replies from the server. To help with this
12456 @c unfortunate problem, you can set this command to a number. Gnus will
12457 @c then, if it sits waiting for a reply from the server longer than that
12458 @c number of seconds, shut down the connection, start a new one, and resend
12459 @c the command. This should hopefully be transparent to the user. A
12460 @c likely number is 30 seconds.
12462 @c @item nntp-retry-on-break
12463 @c @vindex nntp-retry-on-break
12464 @c If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you can also @kbd{C-g} if Gnus
12465 @c hangs. This will have much the same effect as the command timeout
12466 @c described above.
12468 @item nntp-server-hook
12469 @vindex nntp-server-hook
12470 This hook is run as the last step when connecting to an @sc{nntp}
12473 @item nntp-buggy-select
12474 @vindex nntp-buggy-select
12475 Set this to non-@code{nil} if your select routine is buggy.
12477 @item nntp-nov-is-evil
12478 @vindex nntp-nov-is-evil
12479 If the @sc{nntp} server does not support @sc{nov}, you could set this
12480 variable to @code{t}, but @code{nntp} usually checks automatically whether @sc{nov}
12483 @item nntp-xover-commands
12484 @vindex nntp-xover-commands
12487 List of strings used as commands to fetch @sc{nov} lines from a
12488 server. The default value of this variable is @code{("XOVER"
12492 @vindex nntp-nov-gap
12493 @code{nntp} normally sends just one big request for @sc{nov} lines to
12494 the server. The server responds with one huge list of lines. However,
12495 if you have read articles 2-5000 in the group, and only want to read
12496 article 1 and 5001, that means that @code{nntp} will fetch 4999 @sc{nov}
12497 lines that you will not need. This variable says how
12498 big a gap between two consecutive articles is allowed to be before the
12499 @code{XOVER} request is split into several request. Note that if your
12500 network is fast, setting this variable to a really small number means
12501 that fetching will probably be slower. If this variable is @code{nil},
12502 @code{nntp} will never split requests. The default is 5.
12504 @item nntp-prepare-server-hook
12505 @vindex nntp-prepare-server-hook
12506 A hook run before attempting to connect to an @sc{nntp} server.
12508 @item nntp-warn-about-losing-connection
12509 @vindex nntp-warn-about-losing-connection
12510 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, some noise will be made when a
12511 server closes connection.
12513 @item nntp-record-commands
12514 @vindex nntp-record-commands
12515 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nntp} will log all commands it sends to the
12516 @sc{nntp} server (along with a timestamp) in the @samp{*nntp-log*}
12517 buffer. This is useful if you are debugging a Gnus/@sc{nntp} connection
12518 that doesn't seem to work.
12520 @item nntp-open-connection-function
12521 @vindex nntp-open-connection-function
12522 It is possible to customize how the connection to the nntp server will
12523 be opened. If you specify an @code{nntp-open-connection-function}
12524 parameter, Gnus will use that function to establish the connection.
12525 Five pre-made functions are supplied. These functions can be grouped in
12526 two categories: direct connection functions (three pre-made), and
12527 indirect ones (two pre-made).
12529 @item nntp-prepare-post-hook
12530 @vindex nntp-prepare-post-hook
12531 A hook run just before posting an article. If there is no
12532 @code{Message-ID} header in the article and the news server provides the
12533 recommended ID, it will be added to the article before running this
12534 hook. It is useful to make @code{Cancel-Lock} headers even if you
12535 inhibit Gnus to add a @code{Message-ID} header, you could say:
12538 (add-hook 'nntp-prepare-post-hook 'canlock-insert-header)
12541 Note that not all servers support the recommended ID. This works for
12542 INN versions 2.3.0 and later, for instance.
12544 @item nntp-read-timeout
12545 @vindex nntp-read-timeout
12546 How long nntp should wait between checking for the end of output.
12547 Shorter values mean quicker response, but is more CPU intensive. The
12548 default is 0.1 seconds. If you have a slow line to the server (and
12549 don't like to see Emacs eat your available CPU power), you might set
12555 * Direct Functions:: Connecting directly to the server.
12556 * Indirect Functions:: Connecting indirectly to the server.
12557 * Common Variables:: Understood by several connection functions.
12561 @node Direct Functions
12562 @subsubsection Direct Functions
12563 @cindex direct connection functions
12565 These functions are called direct because they open a direct connection
12566 between your machine and the @sc{nntp} server. The behavior of these
12567 functions is also affected by commonly understood variables
12568 (@pxref{Common Variables}).
12571 @findex nntp-open-network-stream
12572 @item nntp-open-network-stream
12573 This is the default, and simply connects to some port or other on the
12576 @findex nntp-open-tls-stream
12577 @item nntp-open-tls-stream
12578 Opens a connection to a server over a @dfn{secure} channel. To use
12579 this you must have GNUTLS installed (see
12580 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/}). You then define a server
12584 ;; "nntps" is port 563 and is predefined in our /etc/services
12585 ;; however, gnutls-cli -p doesn't like named ports.
12587 (nntp "snews.bar.com"
12588 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-tls-stream)
12589 (nntp-port-number )
12590 (nntp-address "snews.bar.com"))
12593 @findex nntp-open-ssl-stream
12594 @item nntp-open-ssl-stream
12595 Opens a connection to a server over a @dfn{secure} channel. To use this
12596 you must have OpenSSL (@uref{http://www.openssl.org}) or SSLeay
12597 installed (@uref{ftp://ftp.psy.uq.oz.au/pub/Crypto/SSL}. You then
12598 define a server as follows:
12601 ;; "snews" is port 563 and is predefined in our /etc/services
12602 ;; however, openssl s_client -port doesn't like named ports.
12604 (nntp "snews.bar.com"
12605 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-ssl-stream)
12606 (nntp-port-number 563)
12607 (nntp-address "snews.bar.com"))
12610 @findex nntp-open-telnet-stream
12611 @item nntp-open-telnet-stream
12612 Opens a connection to an @sc{nntp} server by simply @samp{telnet}'ing
12613 it. You might wonder why this function exists, since we have the
12614 default @code{nntp-open-network-stream} which would do the job. (One
12615 of) the reason(s) is that if you are behind a firewall but have direct
12616 connections to the outside world thanks to a command wrapper like
12617 @code{runsocks}, you can use it like this:
12621 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
12622 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-telnet-stream)
12623 (nntp-address "the.news.server"))
12626 With the default method, you would need to wrap your whole Emacs
12627 session, which is not a good idea.
12631 @node Indirect Functions
12632 @subsubsection Indirect Functions
12633 @cindex indirect connection functions
12635 These functions are called indirect because they connect to an
12636 intermediate host before actually connecting to the @sc{nntp} server.
12637 All of these functions and related variables are also said to belong to
12638 the ``via'' family of connection: they're all prefixed with ``via'' to make
12639 things cleaner. The behavior of these functions is also affected by
12640 commonly understood variables (@pxref{Common Variables}).
12643 @item nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet
12644 @findex nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet
12645 Does an @samp{rlogin} on a remote system, and then does a @samp{telnet}
12646 to the real @sc{nntp} server from there. This is useful for instance if
12647 you need to connect to a firewall machine first.
12649 @code{nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet}-specific variables:
12652 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command
12653 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command
12654 Command used to log in on the intermediate host. The default is
12655 @samp{rsh}, but @samp{ssh} is a popular alternative.
12657 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
12658 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
12659 List of strings to be used as the switches to
12660 @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command}. The default is @code{nil}. If you use
12661 @samp{ssh} for @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command}, you may set this to
12662 @samp{("-C")} in order to compress all data connections, otherwise set
12663 this to @samp{("-t" "-e" "none")} or @samp{("-C" "-t" "-e" "none")} if
12664 the telnet command requires a pseudo-tty allocation on an intermediate
12668 @item nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet
12669 @findex nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet
12670 Does essentially the same, but uses @samp{telnet} instead of
12671 @samp{rlogin} to connect to the intermediate host.
12673 @code{nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet}-specific variables:
12676 @item nntp-via-telnet-command
12677 @vindex nntp-via-telnet-command
12678 Command used to @code{telnet} the intermediate host. The default is
12681 @item nntp-via-telnet-switches
12682 @vindex nntp-via-telnet-switches
12683 List of strings to be used as the switches to the
12684 @code{nntp-via-telnet-command} command. The default is @samp{("-8")}.
12686 @item nntp-via-user-password
12687 @vindex nntp-via-user-password
12688 Password to use when logging in on the intermediate host.
12690 @item nntp-via-envuser
12691 @vindex nntp-via-envuser
12692 If non-@code{nil}, the intermediate @code{telnet} session (client and
12693 server both) will support the @code{ENVIRON} option and not prompt for
12694 login name. This works for Solaris @code{telnet}, for instance.
12696 @item nntp-via-shell-prompt
12697 @vindex nntp-via-shell-prompt
12698 Regexp matching the shell prompt on the intermediate host. The default
12699 is @samp{bash\\|\$ *\r?$\\|> *\r?}.
12706 Here are some additional variables that are understood by all the above
12711 @item nntp-via-user-name
12712 @vindex nntp-via-user-name
12713 User name to use when connecting to the intermediate host.
12715 @item nntp-via-address
12716 @vindex nntp-via-address
12717 Address of the intermediate host to connect to.
12722 @node Common Variables
12723 @subsubsection Common Variables
12725 The following variables affect the behavior of all, or several of the
12726 pre-made connection functions. When not specified, all functions are
12731 @item nntp-pre-command
12732 @vindex nntp-pre-command
12733 A command wrapper to use when connecting through a non native
12734 connection function (all except @code{nntp-open-network-stream},
12735 @code{nntp-open-tls-stream}, and @code{nntp-open-ssl-stream}. This is
12736 where you would put a @samp{SOCKS} wrapper for instance.
12739 @vindex nntp-address
12740 The address of the @sc{nntp} server.
12742 @item nntp-port-number
12743 @vindex nntp-port-number
12744 Port number to connect to the @sc{nntp} server. The default is
12745 @samp{nntp}. If you use @sc{nntp} over @sc{tls}/@sc{ssl}, you may
12746 want to use integer ports rather than named ports (i.e, use @samp{563}
12747 instead of @samp{snews} or @samp{nntps}), because external TLS/SSL
12748 tools may not work with named ports.
12750 @item nntp-end-of-line
12751 @vindex nntp-end-of-line
12752 String to use as end-of-line marker when talking to the @sc{nntp}
12753 server. This is @samp{\r\n} by default, but should be @samp{\n} when
12754 using a non native connection function.
12756 @item nntp-telnet-command
12757 @vindex nntp-telnet-command
12758 Command to use when connecting to the @sc{nntp} server through
12759 @samp{telnet}. This is NOT for an intermediate host. This is just for
12760 the real @sc{nntp} server. The default is @samp{telnet}.
12762 @item nntp-telnet-switches
12763 @vindex nntp-telnet-switches
12764 A list of switches to pass to @code{nntp-telnet-command}. The default
12771 @subsection News Spool
12775 Subscribing to a foreign group from the local spool is extremely easy,
12776 and might be useful, for instance, to speed up reading groups that
12777 contain very big articles---@samp{alt.binaries.pictures.furniture}, for
12780 Anyway, you just specify @code{nnspool} as the method and @code{""} (or
12781 anything else) as the address.
12783 If you have access to a local spool, you should probably use that as the
12784 native select method (@pxref{Finding the News}). It is normally faster
12785 than using an @code{nntp} select method, but might not be. It depends.
12786 You just have to try to find out what's best at your site.
12790 @item nnspool-inews-program
12791 @vindex nnspool-inews-program
12792 Program used to post an article.
12794 @item nnspool-inews-switches
12795 @vindex nnspool-inews-switches
12796 Parameters given to the inews program when posting an article.
12798 @item nnspool-spool-directory
12799 @vindex nnspool-spool-directory
12800 Where @code{nnspool} looks for the articles. This is normally
12801 @file{/usr/spool/news/}.
12803 @item nnspool-nov-directory
12804 @vindex nnspool-nov-directory
12805 Where @code{nnspool} will look for @sc{nov} files. This is normally
12806 @file{/usr/spool/news/over.view/}.
12808 @item nnspool-lib-dir
12809 @vindex nnspool-lib-dir
12810 Where the news lib dir is (@file{/usr/lib/news/} by default).
12812 @item nnspool-active-file
12813 @vindex nnspool-active-file
12814 The name of the active file.
12816 @item nnspool-newsgroups-file
12817 @vindex nnspool-newsgroups-file
12818 The name of the group descriptions file.
12820 @item nnspool-history-file
12821 @vindex nnspool-history-file
12822 The name of the news history file.
12824 @item nnspool-active-times-file
12825 @vindex nnspool-active-times-file
12826 The name of the active date file.
12828 @item nnspool-nov-is-evil
12829 @vindex nnspool-nov-is-evil
12830 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnspool} won't try to use any @sc{nov} files
12833 @item nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
12834 @vindex nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
12836 If non-@code{nil}, which is the default, use @code{sed} to get the
12837 relevant portion from the overview file. If nil, @code{nnspool} will
12838 load the entire file into a buffer and process it there.
12844 @section Getting Mail
12845 @cindex reading mail
12848 Reading mail with a newsreader---isn't that just plain WeIrD? But of
12852 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
12853 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
12854 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
12855 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
12856 * Mail Back End Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
12857 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
12858 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
12859 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
12860 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
12861 * Washing Mail:: Removing gruft from the mail you get.
12862 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
12863 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail back ends for reading other files.
12864 * Choosing a Mail Back End:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
12868 @node Mail in a Newsreader
12869 @subsection Mail in a Newsreader
12871 If you are used to traditional mail readers, but have decided to switch
12872 to reading mail with Gnus, you may find yourself experiencing something
12873 of a culture shock.
12875 Gnus does not behave like traditional mail readers. If you want to make
12876 it behave that way, you can, but it's an uphill battle.
12878 Gnus, by default, handles all its groups using the same approach. This
12879 approach is very newsreaderly---you enter a group, see the new/unread
12880 messages, and when you read the messages, they get marked as read, and
12881 you don't see them any more. (Unless you explicitly ask for them.)
12883 In particular, you do not do anything explicitly to delete messages.
12885 Does this mean that all the messages that have been marked as read are
12886 deleted? How awful!
12888 But, no, it means that old messages are @dfn{expired} according to some
12889 scheme or other. For news messages, the expire process is controlled by
12890 the news administrator; for mail, the expire process is controlled by
12891 you. The expire process for mail is covered in depth in @pxref{Expiring
12894 What many Gnus users find, after using it a while for both news and
12895 mail, is that the transport mechanism has very little to do with how
12896 they want to treat a message.
12898 Many people subscribe to several mailing lists. These are transported
12899 via @sc{smtp}, and are therefore mail. But we might go for weeks without
12900 answering, or even reading these messages very carefully. We may not
12901 need to save them because if we should need to read one again, they are
12902 archived somewhere else.
12904 Some people have local news groups which have only a handful of readers.
12905 These are transported via @sc{nntp}, and are therefore news. But we may need
12906 to read and answer a large fraction of the messages very carefully in
12907 order to do our work. And there may not be an archive, so we may need
12908 to save the interesting messages the same way we would personal mail.
12910 The important distinction turns out to be not the transport mechanism,
12911 but other factors such as how interested we are in the subject matter,
12912 or how easy it is to retrieve the message if we need to read it again.
12914 Gnus provides many options for sorting mail into ``groups'' which behave
12915 like newsgroups, and for treating each group (whether mail or news)
12918 Some users never get comfortable using the Gnus (ahem) paradigm and wish
12919 that Gnus should grow up and be a male, er, mail reader. It is possible
12920 to whip Gnus into a more mailreaderly being, but, as said before, it's
12921 not easy. People who prefer proper mail readers should try @sc{vm}
12922 instead, which is an excellent, and proper, mail reader.
12924 I don't mean to scare anybody off, but I want to make it clear that you
12925 may be required to learn a new way of thinking about messages. After
12926 you've been subjected to The Gnus Way, you will come to love it. I can
12927 guarantee it. (At least the guy who sold me the Emacs Subliminal
12928 Brain-Washing Functions that I've put into Gnus did guarantee it. You
12929 Will Be Assimilated. You Love Gnus. You Love The Gnus Mail Way.
12933 @node Getting Started Reading Mail
12934 @subsection Getting Started Reading Mail
12936 It's quite easy to use Gnus to read your new mail. You just plonk the
12937 mail back end of your choice into @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods},
12938 and things will happen automatically.
12940 For instance, if you want to use @code{nnml} (which is a ``one file per
12941 mail'' back end), you could put the following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
12944 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
12947 Now, the next time you start Gnus, this back end will be queried for new
12948 articles, and it will move all the messages in your spool file to its
12949 directory, which is @file{~/Mail/} by default. The new group that will
12950 be created (@samp{mail.misc}) will be subscribed, and you can read it
12951 like any other group.
12953 You will probably want to split the mail into several groups, though:
12956 (setq nnmail-split-methods
12957 '(("junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
12958 ("crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
12962 This will result in three new @code{nnml} mail groups being created:
12963 @samp{nnml:junk}, @samp{nnml:crazy}, and @samp{nnml:other}. All the
12964 mail that doesn't fit into the first two groups will be placed in the
12967 This should be sufficient for reading mail with Gnus. You might want to
12968 give the other sections in this part of the manual a perusal, though.
12969 Especially @pxref{Choosing a Mail Back End} and @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
12972 @node Splitting Mail
12973 @subsection Splitting Mail
12974 @cindex splitting mail
12975 @cindex mail splitting
12977 @vindex nnmail-split-methods
12978 The @code{nnmail-split-methods} variable says how the incoming mail is
12979 to be split into groups.
12982 (setq nnmail-split-methods
12983 '(("mail.junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
12984 ("mail.crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
12985 ("mail.other" "")))
12988 This variable is a list of lists, where the first element of each of
12989 these lists is the name of the mail group (they do not have to be called
12990 something beginning with @samp{mail}, by the way), and the second
12991 element is a regular expression used on the header of each mail to
12992 determine if it belongs in this mail group. The first string may
12993 contain @samp{\\1} forms, like the ones used by @code{replace-match} to
12994 insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For instance:
12997 ("list.\\1" "From:.* \\(.*\\)-list@@majordomo.com")
13000 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
13001 called narrowed to the headers with the first element of the rule as the
13002 argument. It should return a non-@code{nil} value if it thinks that the
13003 mail belongs in that group.
13005 The last of these groups should always be a general one, and the regular
13006 expression should @emph{always} be @samp{*} so that it matches any mails
13007 that haven't been matched by any of the other regexps. (These rules are
13008 processed from the beginning of the alist toward the end. The first
13009 rule to make a match will ``win'', unless you have crossposting enabled.
13010 In that case, all matching rules will ``win''.)
13012 If you like to tinker with this yourself, you can set this variable to a
13013 function of your choice. This function will be called without any
13014 arguments in a buffer narrowed to the headers of an incoming mail
13015 message. The function should return a list of group names that it
13016 thinks should carry this mail message.
13018 Note that the mail back ends are free to maul the poor, innocent,
13019 incoming headers all they want to. They all add @code{Lines} headers;
13020 some add @code{X-Gnus-Group} headers; most rename the Unix mbox
13021 @code{From<SPACE>} line to something else.
13023 @vindex nnmail-crosspost
13024 The mail back ends all support cross-posting. If several regexps match,
13025 the mail will be ``cross-posted'' to all those groups.
13026 @code{nnmail-crosspost} says whether to use this mechanism or not. Note
13027 that no articles are crossposted to the general (@samp{*}) group.
13029 @vindex nnmail-crosspost-link-function
13032 @code{nnmh} and @code{nnml} makes crossposts by creating hard links to
13033 the crossposted articles. However, not all file systems support hard
13034 links. If that's the case for you, set
13035 @code{nnmail-crosspost-link-function} to @code{copy-file}. (This
13036 variable is @code{add-name-to-file} by default.)
13038 @kindex M-x nnmail-split-history
13039 @kindex nnmail-split-history
13040 If you wish to see where the previous mail split put the messages, you
13041 can use the @kbd{M-x nnmail-split-history} command. If you wish to see
13042 where re-spooling messages would put the messages, you can use
13043 @code{gnus-summary-respool-trace} and related commands (@pxref{Mail
13046 @vindex nnmail-split-header-length-limit
13047 Header lines longer than the value of
13048 @code{nnmail-split-header-length-limit} are excluded from the split
13051 @vindex nnmail-mail-splitting-charset
13052 @vindex nnmail-mail-splitting-decodes
13053 By default the splitting codes @sc{mime} decodes headers so you can match
13054 on non-ASCII strings. The @code{nnmail-mail-splitting-charset}
13055 variable specifies the default charset for decoding. The behaviour
13056 can be turned off completely by binding
13057 @code{nnmail-mail-splitting-decodes} to nil, which is useful if you
13058 want to match articles based on the raw header data.
13060 @vindex nnmail-resplit-incoming
13061 By default, splitting is performed on all incoming messages. If
13062 you specify a @code{directory} entry for the variable
13063 @code{mail-sources} @pxref{Mail Source Specifiers}, however, then
13064 splitting does @emph{not} happen by default. You can set the variable
13065 @code{nnmail-resplit-incoming} to a non-nil value to make splitting
13066 happen even in this case. (This variable has no effect on other kinds
13069 Gnus gives you all the opportunity you could possibly want for shooting
13070 yourself in the foot. Let's say you create a group that will contain
13071 all the mail you get from your boss. And then you accidentally
13072 unsubscribe from the group. Gnus will still put all the mail from your
13073 boss in the unsubscribed group, and so, when your boss mails you ``Have
13074 that report ready by Monday or you're fired!'', you'll never see it and,
13075 come Tuesday, you'll still believe that you're gainfully employed while
13076 you really should be out collecting empty bottles to save up for next
13077 month's rent money.
13081 @subsection Mail Sources
13083 Mail can be gotten from many different sources---the mail spool, from a
13084 POP mail server, from a procmail directory, or from a maildir, for
13088 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
13089 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
13090 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
13094 @node Mail Source Specifiers
13095 @subsubsection Mail Source Specifiers
13097 @cindex mail server
13100 @cindex mail source
13102 You tell Gnus how to fetch mail by setting @code{mail-sources}
13103 (@pxref{Fetching Mail}) to a @dfn{mail source specifier}.
13108 (pop :server "pop3.mailserver.com" :user "myname")
13111 As can be observed, a mail source specifier is a list where the first
13112 element is a @dfn{mail source type}, followed by an arbitrary number of
13113 @dfn{keywords}. Keywords that are not explicitly specified are given
13116 The following mail source types are available:
13120 Get mail from a single file; typically from the mail spool.
13126 The file name. Defaults to the value of the @code{MAIL}
13127 environment variable or the value of @code{rmail-spool-directory}
13128 (usually something like @file{/usr/mail/spool/user-name}).
13132 Script run before/after fetching mail.
13135 An example file mail source:
13138 (file :path "/usr/spool/mail/user-name")
13141 Or using the default file name:
13147 If the mail spool file is not located on the local machine, it's best to
13148 use POP or @sc{imap} or the like to fetch the mail. You can not use ange-ftp
13149 file names here---it has no way to lock the mail spool while moving the
13152 If it's impossible to set up a proper server, you can use ssh instead.
13156 '((file :prescript "ssh host bin/getmail >%t")))
13159 The @samp{getmail} script would look something like the following:
13163 # getmail - move mail from spool to stdout
13166 MOVEMAIL=/usr/lib/emacs/20.3/i386-redhat-linux/movemail
13168 rm -f $TMP; $MOVEMAIL $MAIL $TMP >/dev/null && cat $TMP
13171 Alter this script to fit find the @samp{movemail} you want to use.
13175 @vindex nnmail-scan-directory-mail-source-once
13176 Get mail from several files in a directory. This is typically used when
13177 you have procmail split the incoming mail into several files. That is,
13178 there is a one-to-one correspondence between files in that directory and
13179 groups, so that mail from the file @file{foo.bar.spool} will be put in
13180 the group @code{foo.bar}. (You can change the suffix to be used instead
13181 of @code{.spool}.) Setting
13182 @code{nnmail-scan-directory-mail-source-once} to non-nil forces Gnus to
13183 scan the mail source only once. This is particularly useful if you want
13184 to scan mail groups at a specified level.
13186 @vindex nnmail-resplit-incoming
13187 There is also the variable @code{nnmail-resplit-incoming}, if you set
13188 that to a non-nil value, then the normal splitting process is applied
13189 to all the files from the directory, @ref{Splitting Mail}.
13195 The name of the directory where the files are. There is no default
13199 Only files ending with this suffix are used. The default is
13203 Only files that have this predicate return non-@code{nil} are returned.
13204 The default is @code{identity}. This is used as an additional
13205 filter---only files that have the right suffix @emph{and} satisfy this
13206 predicate are considered.
13210 Script run before/after fetching mail.
13214 An example directory mail source:
13217 (directory :path "/home/user-name/procmail-dir/"
13222 Get mail from a POP server.
13228 The name of the POP server. The default is taken from the
13229 @code{MAILHOST} environment variable.
13232 The port number of the POP server. This can be a number (eg,
13233 @samp{:port 1234}) or a string (eg, @samp{:port "pop3"}). If it is a
13234 string, it should be a service name as listed in @file{/etc/services} on
13235 Unix systems. The default is @samp{"pop3"}. On some systems you might
13236 need to specify it as @samp{"pop-3"} instead.
13239 The user name to give to the POP server. The default is the login
13243 The password to give to the POP server. If not specified, the user is
13247 The program to use to fetch mail from the POP server. This should be
13248 a @code{format}-like string. Here's an example:
13251 fetchmail %u@@%s -P %p %t
13254 The valid format specifier characters are:
13258 The name of the file the mail is to be moved to. This must always be
13259 included in this string.
13262 The name of the server.
13265 The port number of the server.
13268 The user name to use.
13271 The password to use.
13274 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
13275 corresponding keywords.
13278 A script to be run before fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
13279 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
13282 A script to be run after fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
13283 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
13286 The function to use to fetch mail from the POP server. The function is
13287 called with one parameter---the name of the file where the mail should
13290 @item :authentication
13291 This can be either the symbol @code{password} or the symbol @code{apop}
13292 and says what authentication scheme to use. The default is
13297 If the @code{:program} and @code{:function} keywords aren't specified,
13298 @code{pop3-movemail} will be used.
13300 Here are some examples. Fetch from the default POP server, using the
13301 default user name, and default fetcher:
13307 Fetch from a named server with a named user and password:
13310 (pop :server "my.pop.server"
13311 :user "user-name" :password "secret")
13314 Use @samp{movemail} to move the mail:
13317 (pop :program "movemail po:%u %t %p")
13321 Get mail from a maildir. This is a type of mailbox that is supported by
13322 at least qmail and postfix, where each file in a special directory
13323 contains exactly one mail.
13329 The name of the directory where the mails are stored. The default is
13330 taken from the @code{MAILDIR} environment variable or
13333 The subdirectories of the Maildir. The default is
13334 @samp{("new" "cur")}.
13336 @c If you sometimes look at your mail through a pop3 daemon before fetching
13337 @c them with Gnus, you may also have to fetch your mails from the
13338 @c @code{cur} directory inside the maildir, like in the first example
13341 You can also get mails from remote hosts (because maildirs don't suffer
13342 from locking problems).
13346 Two example maildir mail sources:
13349 (maildir :path "/home/user-name/Maildir/"
13350 :subdirs ("cur" "new"))
13354 (maildir :path "/user@@remotehost.org:~/Maildir/"
13359 Get mail from a @sc{imap} server. If you don't want to use @sc{imap}
13360 as intended, as a network mail reading protocol (ie with nnimap), for
13361 some reason or other, Gnus let you treat it similar to a POP server
13362 and fetches articles from a given @sc{imap} mailbox. @xref{IMAP}, for
13365 Note that for the Kerberos, GSSAPI, TLS/SSL and STARTTLS support you
13366 may need external programs and libraries, @xref{IMAP}.
13372 The name of the @sc{imap} server. The default is taken from the
13373 @code{MAILHOST} environment variable.
13376 The port number of the @sc{imap} server. The default is @samp{143}, or
13377 @samp{993} for TLS/SSL connections.
13380 The user name to give to the @sc{imap} server. The default is the login
13384 The password to give to the @sc{imap} server. If not specified, the user is
13388 What stream to use for connecting to the server, this is one of the
13389 symbols in @code{imap-stream-alist}. Right now, this means
13390 @samp{gssapi}, @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{starttls}, @samp{tls},
13391 @samp{ssl}, @samp{shell} or the default @samp{network}.
13393 @item :authentication
13394 Which authenticator to use for authenticating to the server, this is
13395 one of the symbols in @code{imap-authenticator-alist}. Right now,
13396 this means @samp{gssapi}, @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{digest-md5},
13397 @samp{cram-md5}, @samp{anonymous} or the default @samp{login}.
13400 When using the `shell' :stream, the contents of this variable is
13401 mapped into the @code{imap-shell-program} variable. This should be a
13402 @code{format}-like string (or list of strings). Here's an example:
13408 The valid format specifier characters are:
13412 The name of the server.
13415 User name from @code{imap-default-user}.
13418 The port number of the server.
13421 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
13422 corresponding keywords.
13425 The name of the mailbox to get mail from. The default is @samp{INBOX}
13426 which normally is the mailbox which receive incoming mail.
13429 The predicate used to find articles to fetch. The default, @samp{UNSEEN
13430 UNDELETED}, is probably the best choice for most people, but if you
13431 sometimes peek in your mailbox with a @sc{imap} client and mark some
13432 articles as read (or; SEEN) you might want to set this to @samp{1:*}.
13433 Then all articles in the mailbox is fetched, no matter what. For a
13434 complete list of predicates, see RFC 2060 section 6.4.4.
13437 How to flag fetched articles on the server, the default @samp{\Deleted}
13438 will mark them as deleted, an alternative would be @samp{\Seen} which
13439 would simply mark them as read. These are the two most likely choices,
13440 but more flags are defined in RFC 2060 section 2.3.2.
13443 If non-nil, don't remove all articles marked as deleted in the mailbox
13444 after finishing the fetch.
13448 An example @sc{imap} mail source:
13451 (imap :server "mail.mycorp.com"
13453 :fetchflag "\\Seen")
13457 Get mail from a webmail server, such as @uref{www.hotmail.com},
13458 @uref{webmail.netscape.com}, @uref{www.netaddress.com},
13459 @uref{mail.yahoo..com}.
13461 NOTE: Webmail largely depends cookies. A "one-line-cookie" patch is
13462 required for url "4.0pre.46".
13464 WARNING: Mails may be lost. NO WARRANTY.
13470 The type of the webmail server. The default is @code{hotmail}. The
13471 alternatives are @code{netscape}, @code{netaddress}, @code{my-deja}.
13474 The user name to give to the webmail server. The default is the login
13478 The password to give to the webmail server. If not specified, the user is
13482 If non-nil, only fetch unread articles and don't move them to trash
13483 folder after finishing the fetch.
13487 An example webmail source:
13490 (webmail :subtype 'hotmail
13492 :password "secret")
13497 @item Common Keywords
13498 Common keywords can be used in any type of mail source.
13504 If non-nil, fetch the mail even when Gnus is unplugged. If you use
13505 directory source to get mail, you can specify it as in this example:
13509 '((directory :path "/home/pavel/.Spool/"
13514 Gnus will then fetch your mail even when you are unplugged. This is
13515 useful when you use local mail and news.
13520 @subsubsection Function Interface
13522 Some of the above keywords specify a Lisp function to be executed.
13523 For each keyword @code{:foo}, the Lisp variable @code{foo} is bound to
13524 the value of the keyword while the function is executing. For example,
13525 consider the following mail-source setting:
13528 (setq mail-sources '((pop :user "jrl"
13529 :server "pophost" :function fetchfunc)))
13532 While the function @code{fetchfunc} is executing, the symbol @code{user}
13533 is bound to @code{"jrl"}, and the symbol @code{server} is bound to
13534 @code{"pophost"}. The symbols @code{port}, @code{password},
13535 @code{program}, @code{prescript}, @code{postscript}, @code{function},
13536 and @code{authentication} are also bound (to their default values).
13538 See above for a list of keywords for each type of mail source.
13541 @node Mail Source Customization
13542 @subsubsection Mail Source Customization
13544 The following is a list of variables that influence how the mail is
13545 fetched. You would normally not need to set or change any of these
13549 @item mail-source-crash-box
13550 @vindex mail-source-crash-box
13551 File where mail will be stored while processing it. The default is
13552 @file{~/.emacs-mail-crash-box}.
13554 @item mail-source-delete-incoming
13555 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
13556 If non-@code{nil}, delete incoming files after handling them. If
13557 @code{t}, delete the files immediately, if @code{nil}, never delete any
13558 files. If a positive number, delete files older than number of days
13559 (This will only happen, when reveiving new mail). You may also set
13560 @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} to @code{nil} and call
13561 @code{mail-source-delete-old-incoming} from a hook or interactively.
13563 @item mail-source-delete-old-incoming-confirm
13564 @vindex mail-source-delete-old-incoming-confirm
13565 If @code{non-nil}, ask for for confirmation before deleting old incoming
13566 files. This variable only applies when
13567 @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is a positive number.
13569 @item mail-source-ignore-errors
13570 @vindex mail-source-ignore-errors
13571 If non-@code{nil}, ignore errors when reading mail from a mail source.
13573 @item mail-source-directory
13574 @vindex mail-source-directory
13575 Directory where files (if any) will be stored. The default is
13576 @file{~/Mail/}. At present, the only thing this is used for is to say
13577 where the incoming files will be stored if the previous variable is
13580 @item mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
13581 @vindex mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
13582 Prefix for file name for storing incoming mail. The default is
13583 @file{Incoming}, in which case files will end up with names like
13584 @file{Incoming30630D_} or @file{Incoming298602ZD}. This is really only
13585 relevant if @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is @code{nil}.
13587 @item mail-source-default-file-modes
13588 @vindex mail-source-default-file-modes
13589 All new mail files will get this file mode. The default is 384.
13591 @item mail-source-movemail-program
13592 @vindex mail-source-movemail-program
13593 If non-nil, name of program for fetching new mail. If nil,
13594 @code{movemail} in @var{exec-directory}.
13599 @node Fetching Mail
13600 @subsubsection Fetching Mail
13602 @vindex mail-sources
13603 @vindex nnmail-spool-file
13604 The way to actually tell Gnus where to get new mail from is to set
13605 @code{mail-sources} to a list of mail source specifiers
13606 (@pxref{Mail Source Specifiers}).
13608 If this variable (and the obsolescent @code{nnmail-spool-file}) is
13609 @code{nil}, the mail back ends will never attempt to fetch mail by
13612 If you want to fetch mail both from your local spool as well as a POP
13613 mail server, you'd say something like:
13618 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
13619 :password "secret")))
13622 Or, if you don't want to use any of the keyword defaults:
13626 '((file :path "/var/spool/mail/user-name")
13627 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
13630 :password "secret")))
13634 When you use a mail back end, Gnus will slurp all your mail from your
13635 inbox and plonk it down in your home directory. Gnus doesn't move any
13636 mail if you're not using a mail back end---you have to do a lot of magic
13637 invocations first. At the time when you have finished drawing the
13638 pentagram, lightened the candles, and sacrificed the goat, you really
13639 shouldn't be too surprised when Gnus moves your mail.
13643 @node Mail Back End Variables
13644 @subsection Mail Back End Variables
13646 These variables are (for the most part) pertinent to all the various
13650 @vindex nnmail-read-incoming-hook
13651 @item nnmail-read-incoming-hook
13652 The mail back ends all call this hook after reading new mail. You can
13653 use this hook to notify any mail watch programs, if you want to.
13655 @vindex nnmail-split-hook
13656 @item nnmail-split-hook
13657 @findex gnus-article-decode-encoded-words
13658 @findex RFC 1522 decoding
13659 @findex RFC 2047 decoding
13660 Hook run in the buffer where the mail headers of each message is kept
13661 just before the splitting based on these headers is done. The hook is
13662 free to modify the buffer contents in any way it sees fit---the buffer
13663 is discarded after the splitting has been done, and no changes performed
13664 in the buffer will show up in any files.
13665 @code{gnus-article-decode-encoded-words} is one likely function to add
13668 @vindex nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
13669 @vindex nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
13670 @item nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
13671 @itemx nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
13672 These are two useful hooks executed when treating new incoming
13673 mail---@code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook} (is called just before
13674 starting to handle the new mail) and
13675 @code{nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook} (is called when the mail handling
13676 is done). Here's and example of using these two hooks to change the
13677 default file modes the new mail files get:
13680 (add-hook 'nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
13681 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 511)))
13683 (add-hook 'nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
13684 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 551)))
13687 @item nnmail-use-long-file-names
13688 @vindex nnmail-use-long-file-names
13689 If non-@code{nil}, the mail back ends will use long file and directory
13690 names. Groups like @samp{mail.misc} will end up in directories
13691 (assuming use of @code{nnml} back end) or files (assuming use of
13692 @code{nnfolder} back end) like @file{mail.misc}. If it is @code{nil},
13693 the same group will end up in @file{mail/misc}.
13695 @item nnmail-delete-file-function
13696 @vindex nnmail-delete-file-function
13697 @findex delete-file
13698 Function called to delete files. It is @code{delete-file} by default.
13700 @item nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
13701 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
13702 If non-@code{nil}, put the @code{Message-ID}s of articles imported into
13703 the back end (via @code{Gcc}, for instance) into the mail duplication
13704 discovery cache. The default is @code{nil}.
13706 @item nnmail-cache-ignore-groups
13707 @vindex nnmail-cache-ignore-groups
13708 This can be a regular expression or a list of regular expressions.
13709 Group names that match any of the regular expressions will never be
13710 recorded in the @code{Message-ID} cache.
13712 This can be useful, for example, when using Fancy Splitting
13713 (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}) together with the function
13714 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent}.
13719 @node Fancy Mail Splitting
13720 @subsection Fancy Mail Splitting
13721 @cindex mail splitting
13722 @cindex fancy mail splitting
13724 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy
13725 @findex nnmail-split-fancy
13726 If the rather simple, standard method for specifying how to split mail
13727 doesn't allow you to do what you want, you can set
13728 @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy}. Then you can
13729 play with the @code{nnmail-split-fancy} variable.
13731 Let's look at an example value of this variable first:
13734 ;; Messages from the mailer daemon are not crossposted to any of
13735 ;; the ordinary groups. Warnings are put in a separate group
13736 ;; from real errors.
13737 (| ("from" mail (| ("subject" "warn.*" "mail.warning")
13739 ;; Non-error messages are crossposted to all relevant
13740 ;; groups, but we don't crosspost between the group for the
13741 ;; (ding) list and the group for other (ding) related mail.
13742 (& (| (any "ding@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "ding.list")
13743 ("subject" "ding" "ding.misc"))
13744 ;; Other mailing lists...
13745 (any "procmail@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "procmail.list")
13746 (any "SmartList@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "SmartList.list")
13747 ;; Both lists below have the same suffix, so prevent
13748 ;; cross-posting to mkpkg.list of messages posted only to
13749 ;; the bugs- list, but allow cross-posting when the
13750 ;; message was really cross-posted.
13751 (any "bugs-mypackage@@somewhere" "mypkg.bugs")
13752 (any "mypackage@@somewhere\" - "bugs-mypackage" "mypkg.list")
13754 (any "larsi@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "people.Lars_Magne_Ingebrigtsen"))
13755 ;; Unmatched mail goes to the catch all group.
13759 This variable has the format of a @dfn{split}. A split is a (possibly)
13760 recursive structure where each split may contain other splits. Here are
13761 the five possible split syntaxes:
13766 @samp{group}: If the split is a string, that will be taken as a group
13767 name. Normal regexp match expansion will be done. See below for
13771 @code{(@var{field} @var{value} @code{[-} @var{restrict}
13772 @code{[@dots{}]}@code{]} @var{split})}: If the split is a list, the
13773 first element of which is a string, then store the message as
13774 specified by @var{split}, if header @var{field} (a regexp) contains
13775 @var{value} (also a regexp). If @var{restrict} (yet another regexp)
13776 matches some string after @var{field} and before the end of the
13777 matched @var{value}, the @var{split} is ignored. If none of the
13778 @var{restrict} clauses match, @var{split} is processed.
13781 @code{(| @var{split}@dots{})}: If the split is a list, and the first
13782 element is @code{|} (vertical bar), then process each @var{split} until
13783 one of them matches. A @var{split} is said to match if it will cause
13784 the mail message to be stored in one or more groups.
13787 @code{(& @var{split}@dots{})}: If the split is a list, and the first
13788 element is @code{&}, then process all @var{split}s in the list.
13791 @code{junk}: If the split is the symbol @code{junk}, then don't save
13792 (i.e., delete) this message. Use with extreme caution.
13795 @code{(: @var{function} @var{arg1} @var{arg2} @dots{})}: If the split is
13796 a list, and the first element is @code{:}, then the second element will
13797 be called as a function with @var{args} given as arguments. The
13798 function should return a @var{split}.
13801 For instance, the following function could be used to split based on the
13802 body of the messages:
13805 (defun split-on-body ()
13807 (set-buffer " *nnmail incoming*")
13808 (goto-char (point-min))
13809 (when (re-search-forward "Some.*string" nil t)
13813 The @samp{" *nnmail incoming*"} is narrowed to the message in question
13814 when the @code{:} function is run.
13817 @code{(! @var{func} @var{split})}: If the split is a list, and the
13818 first element is @code{!}, then @var{split} will be processed, and
13819 @var{func} will be called as a function with the result of @var{split}
13820 as argument. @var{func} should return a split.
13823 @code{nil}: If the split is @code{nil}, it is ignored.
13827 In these splits, @var{field} must match a complete field name.
13828 @var{value} must match a complete word according to the fundamental mode
13829 syntax table. You can use @code{.*} in the regexps to match partial
13830 field names or words. In other words, all @var{value}'s are wrapped in
13831 @samp{\<} and @samp{\>} pairs.
13833 @vindex nnmail-split-abbrev-alist
13834 @var{field} and @var{value} can also be lisp symbols, in that case they
13835 are expanded as specified by the variable
13836 @code{nnmail-split-abbrev-alist}. This is an alist of cons cells, where
13837 the @code{car} of a cell contains the key, and the @code{cdr} contains the associated
13840 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table
13841 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table} is the syntax table in effect
13842 when all this splitting is performed.
13844 If you want to have Gnus create groups dynamically based on some
13845 information in the headers (i.e., do @code{replace-match}-like
13846 substitutions in the group names), you can say things like:
13849 (any "debian-\\b\\(\\w+\\)@@lists.debian.org" "mail.debian.\\1")
13852 In this example, messages sent to @samp{debian-foo@@lists.debian.org}
13853 will be filed in @samp{mail.debian.foo}.
13855 If the string contains the element @samp{\&}, then the previously
13856 matched string will be substituted. Similarly, the elements @samp{\\1}
13857 up to @samp{\\9} will be substituted with the text matched by the
13858 groupings 1 through 9.
13860 @findex nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent
13861 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} is a function which allows you to
13862 split followups into the same groups their parents are in. Sometimes
13863 you can't make splitting rules for all your mail. For example, your
13864 boss might send you personal mail regarding different projects you are
13865 working on, and as you can't tell your boss to put a distinguishing
13866 string into the subject line, you have to resort to manually moving the
13867 messages into the right group. With this function, you only have to do
13868 it once per thread.
13870 To use this feature, you have to set @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} and
13871 @code{nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids} to a non-nil value. And then
13872 you can include @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} using the colon
13875 (setq nnmail-treat-duplicates 'warn ; or 'delete
13876 nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids t
13878 '(| (: nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent)
13879 ;; other splits go here
13883 This feature works as follows: when @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} is
13884 non-nil, Gnus records the message id of every message it sees in the
13885 file specified by the variable @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file},
13886 together with the group it is in (the group is omitted for non-mail
13887 messages). When mail splitting is invoked, the function
13888 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} then looks at the References (and
13889 In-Reply-To) header of each message to split and searches the file
13890 specified by @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file} for the message ids.
13891 When it has found a parent, it returns the corresponding group name
13892 unless the group name matches the regexp
13893 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent-ignore-groups}. It is recommended
13894 that you set @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length} to a somewhat higher
13895 number than the default so that the message ids are still in the cache.
13896 (A value of 5000 appears to create a file some 300 kBytes in size.)
13897 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
13898 When @code{nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus
13899 also records the message ids of moved articles, so that the followup
13900 messages goes into the new group.
13902 Also see the variable @code{nnmail-cache-ignore-groups} if you don't
13903 want certain groups to be recorded in the cache. For example, if all
13904 outgoing messages are written to an `outgoing' group, you could set
13905 @code{nnmail-cache-ignore-groups} to match that group name.
13906 Otherwise, answers to all your messages would end up in the
13910 @node Group Mail Splitting
13911 @subsection Group Mail Splitting
13912 @cindex mail splitting
13913 @cindex group mail splitting
13915 @findex gnus-group-split
13916 If you subscribe to dozens of mailing lists but you don't want to
13917 maintain mail splitting rules manually, group mail splitting is for you.
13918 You just have to set @var{to-list} and/or @var{to-address} in group
13919 parameters or group customization and set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to
13920 @code{gnus-group-split}. This splitting function will scan all groups
13921 for those parameters and split mail accordingly, i.e., messages posted
13922 from or to the addresses specified in the parameters @var{to-list} or
13923 @var{to-address} of a mail group will be stored in that group.
13925 Sometimes, mailing lists have multiple addresses, and you may want mail
13926 splitting to recognize them all: just set the @var{extra-aliases} group
13927 parameter to the list of additional addresses and it's done. If you'd
13928 rather use a regular expression, set @var{split-regexp}.
13930 All these parameters in a group will be used to create an
13931 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split, in which the @var{field} is @samp{any},
13932 the @var{value} is a single regular expression that matches
13933 @var{to-list}, @var{to-address}, all of @var{extra-aliases} and all
13934 matches of @var{split-regexp}, and the @var{split} is the name of the
13935 group. @var{restrict}s are also supported: just set the
13936 @var{split-exclude} parameter to a list of regular expressions.
13938 If you can't get the right split to be generated using all these
13939 parameters, or you just need something fancier, you can set the
13940 parameter @var{split-spec} to an @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split. In
13941 this case, all other aforementioned parameters will be ignored by
13942 @code{gnus-group-split}. In particular, @var{split-spec} may be set to
13943 @code{nil}, in which case the group will be ignored by
13944 @code{gnus-group-split}.
13946 @vindex gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group
13947 @code{gnus-group-split} will do cross-posting on all groups that match,
13948 by defining a single @code{&} fancy split containing one split for each
13949 group. If a message doesn't match any split, it will be stored in the
13950 group named in @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}, unless
13951 some group has @var{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all}, in which case
13952 that group is used as the catch-all group. Even though this variable is
13953 often used just to name a group, it may also be set to an arbitrarily
13954 complex fancy split (after all, a group name is a fancy split), and this
13955 may be useful to split mail that doesn't go to any mailing list to
13956 personal mail folders. Note that this fancy split is added as the last
13957 element of a @code{|} split list that also contains a @code{&} split
13958 with the rules extracted from group parameters.
13960 It's time for an example. Assume the following group parameters have
13965 ((to-address . "bar@@femail.com")
13966 (split-regexp . ".*@@femail\\.com"))
13968 ((to-list . "foo@@nowhere.gov")
13969 (extra-aliases "foo@@localhost" "foo-redist@@home")
13970 (split-exclude "bugs-foo" "rambling-foo")
13971 (admin-address . "foo-request@@nowhere.gov"))
13973 ((split-spec . catch-all))
13976 Setting @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{gnus-group-split} will
13977 behave as if @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been selected and variable
13978 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been set as follows:
13981 (| (& (any "\\(bar@@femail\\.com\\|.*@@femail\\.com\\)" "mail.bar")
13982 (any "\\(foo@@nowhere\\.gov\\|foo@@localhost\\|foo-redist@@home\\)"
13983 - "bugs-foo" - "rambling-foo" "mail.foo"))
13987 @findex gnus-group-split-fancy
13988 If you'd rather not use group splitting for all your mail groups, you
13989 may use it for only some of them, by using @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
13993 (: gnus-group-split-fancy GROUPS NO-CROSSPOST CATCH-ALL)
13996 @var{groups} may be a regular expression or a list of group names whose
13997 parameters will be scanned to generate the output split.
13998 @var{no-crosspost} can be used to disable cross-posting; in this case, a
13999 single @code{|} split will be output. @var{catch-all} is the fallback
14000 fancy split, used like @var{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}.
14001 If @var{catch-all} is @code{nil}, or if @var{split-regexp} matches the
14002 empty string in any selected group, no catch-all split will be issued.
14003 Otherwise, if some group has @var{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all},
14004 this group will override the value of the @var{catch-all} argument.
14006 @findex gnus-group-split-setup
14007 Unfortunately, scanning all groups and their parameters can be quite
14008 slow, especially considering that it has to be done for every message.
14009 But don't despair! The function @code{gnus-group-split-setup} can be
14010 used to enable @code{gnus-group-split} in a much more efficient way. It
14011 sets @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy} and sets
14012 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} to the split produced by
14013 @code{gnus-group-split-fancy}. Thus, the group parameters are only
14014 scanned once, no matter how many messages are split.
14016 @findex gnus-group-split-update
14017 However, if you change group parameters, you'd have to update
14018 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} manually. You can do it by running
14019 @code{gnus-group-split-update}. If you'd rather have it updated
14020 automatically, just tell @code{gnus-group-split-setup} to do it for
14021 you. For example, add to your @file{~/.gnus.el}:
14024 (gnus-group-split-setup AUTO-UPDATE CATCH-ALL)
14027 If @var{auto-update} is non-@code{nil}, @code{gnus-group-split-update}
14028 will be added to @code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook}, so you won't ever
14029 have to worry about updating @code{nnmail-split-fancy} again. If you
14030 don't omit @var{catch-all} (it's optional, equivalent to @code{nil}),
14031 @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group} will be set to its
14034 @vindex gnus-group-split-updated-hook
14035 Because you may want to change @code{nnmail-split-fancy} after it is set
14036 by @code{gnus-group-split-update}, this function will run
14037 @code{gnus-group-split-updated-hook} just before finishing.
14039 @node Incorporating Old Mail
14040 @subsection Incorporating Old Mail
14041 @cindex incorporating old mail
14042 @cindex import old mail
14044 Most people have lots of old mail stored in various file formats. If
14045 you have set up Gnus to read mail using one of the spiffy Gnus mail
14046 back ends, you'll probably wish to have that old mail incorporated into
14049 Doing so can be quite easy.
14051 To take an example: You're reading mail using @code{nnml}
14052 (@pxref{Mail Spool}), and have set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to a
14053 satisfactory value (@pxref{Splitting Mail}). You have an old Unix mbox
14054 file filled with important, but old, mail. You want to move it into
14055 your @code{nnml} groups.
14061 Go to the group buffer.
14064 Type @kbd{G f} and give the file name to the mbox file when prompted to create an
14065 @code{nndoc} group from the mbox file (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
14068 Type @kbd{SPACE} to enter the newly created group.
14071 Type @kbd{M P b} to process-mark all articles in this group's buffer
14072 (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
14075 Type @kbd{B r} to respool all the process-marked articles, and answer
14076 @samp{nnml} when prompted (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
14079 All the mail messages in the mbox file will now also be spread out over
14080 all your @code{nnml} groups. Try entering them and check whether things
14081 have gone without a glitch. If things look ok, you may consider
14082 deleting the mbox file, but I wouldn't do that unless I was absolutely
14083 sure that all the mail has ended up where it should be.
14085 Respooling is also a handy thing to do if you're switching from one mail
14086 back end to another. Just respool all the mail in the old mail groups
14087 using the new mail back end.
14090 @node Expiring Mail
14091 @subsection Expiring Mail
14092 @cindex article expiry
14094 Traditional mail readers have a tendency to remove mail articles when
14095 you mark them as read, in some way. Gnus takes a fundamentally
14096 different approach to mail reading.
14098 Gnus basically considers mail just to be news that has been received in
14099 a rather peculiar manner. It does not think that it has the power to
14100 actually change the mail, or delete any mail messages. If you enter a
14101 mail group, and mark articles as ``read'', or kill them in some other
14102 fashion, the mail articles will still exist on the system. I repeat:
14103 Gnus will not delete your old, read mail. Unless you ask it to, of
14106 To make Gnus get rid of your unwanted mail, you have to mark the
14107 articles as @dfn{expirable}. (With the default keybindings, this means
14108 that you have to type @kbd{E}.) This does not mean that the articles
14109 will disappear right away, however. In general, a mail article will be
14110 deleted from your system if, 1) it is marked as expirable, AND 2) it is
14111 more than one week old. If you do not mark an article as expirable, it
14112 will remain on your system until hell freezes over. This bears
14113 repeating one more time, with some spurious capitalizations: IF you do
14114 NOT mark articles as EXPIRABLE, Gnus will NEVER delete those ARTICLES.
14116 You do not have to mark articles as expirable by hand. Gnus provides
14117 two features, called `auto-expire' and `total-expire', that can help you
14118 with this. In a nutshell, `auto-expire' means that Gnus hits @kbd{E}
14119 for you when you select an article. And `total-expire' means that Gnus
14120 considers all articles as expirable that are read. So, in addition to
14121 the articles marked @samp{E}, also the articles marked @samp{r},
14122 @samp{R}, @samp{O}, @samp{K}, @samp{Y} and so on are considered
14125 When should either auto-expire or total-expire be used? Most people
14126 who are subscribed to mailing lists split each list into its own group
14127 and then turn on auto-expire or total-expire for those groups.
14128 (@xref{Splitting Mail}, for more information on splitting each list
14129 into its own group.)
14131 Which one is better, auto-expire or total-expire? It's not easy to
14132 answer. Generally speaking, auto-expire is probably faster. Another
14133 advantage of auto-expire is that you get more marks to work with: for
14134 the articles that are supposed to stick around, you can still choose
14135 between tick and dormant and read marks. But with total-expire, you
14136 only have dormant and ticked to choose from. The advantage of
14137 total-expire is that it works well with adaptive scoring @pxref{Adaptive
14138 Scoring}. Auto-expire works with normal scoring but not with adaptive
14141 @vindex gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
14142 Groups that match the regular expression
14143 @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups} will have all articles that you
14144 read marked as expirable automatically. All articles marked as
14145 expirable have an @samp{E} in the first column in the summary buffer.
14147 By default, if you have auto expiry switched on, Gnus will mark all the
14148 articles you read as expirable, no matter if they were read or unread
14149 before. To avoid having articles marked as read marked as expirable
14150 automatically, you can put something like the following in your
14151 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
14153 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
14155 (remove-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook
14156 'gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read)
14157 (add-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook 'gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read)
14160 Note that making a group auto-expirable doesn't mean that all read
14161 articles are expired---only the articles marked as expirable
14162 will be expired. Also note that using the @kbd{d} command won't make
14163 articles expirable---only semi-automatic marking of articles as read will
14164 mark the articles as expirable in auto-expirable groups.
14166 Let's say you subscribe to a couple of mailing lists, and you want the
14167 articles you have read to disappear after a while:
14170 (setq gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
14171 "mail.nonsense-list\\|mail.nice-list")
14174 Another way to have auto-expiry happen is to have the element
14175 @code{auto-expire} in the group parameters of the group.
14177 If you use adaptive scoring (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}) and
14178 auto-expiring, you'll have problems. Auto-expiring and adaptive scoring
14179 don't really mix very well.
14181 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait
14182 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable supplies the default time an
14183 expirable article has to live. Gnus starts counting days from when the
14184 message @emph{arrived}, not from when it was sent. The default is seven
14187 Gnus also supplies a function that lets you fine-tune how long articles
14188 are to live, based on what group they are in. Let's say you want to
14189 have one month expiry period in the @samp{mail.private} group, a one day
14190 expiry period in the @samp{mail.junk} group, and a six day expiry period
14193 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
14195 (setq nnmail-expiry-wait-function
14197 (cond ((string= group "mail.private")
14199 ((string= group "mail.junk")
14201 ((string= group "important")
14207 The group names this function is fed are ``unadorned'' group
14208 names---no @samp{nnml:} prefixes and the like.
14210 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable and
14211 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} function can either be a number (not
14212 necessarily an integer) or one of the symbols @code{immediate} or
14215 You can also use the @code{expiry-wait} group parameter to selectively
14216 change the expiry period (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
14218 @vindex nnmail-expiry-target
14219 The normal action taken when expiring articles is to delete them.
14220 However, in some circumstances it might make more sense to move them
14221 to other groups instead of deleting them. The variable
14222 @code{nnmail-expiry-target} (and the @code{expiry-target} group
14223 parameter) controls this. The variable supplies a default value for
14224 all groups, which can be overridden for specific groups by the group
14225 parameter. default value is @code{delete}, but this can also be a
14226 string (which should be the name of the group the message should be
14227 moved to), or a function (which will be called in a buffer narrowed to
14228 the message in question, and with the name of the group being moved
14229 from as its parameter) which should return a target -- either a group
14230 name or @code{delete}.
14232 Here's an example for specifying a group name:
14234 (setq nnmail-expiry-target "nnml:expired")
14237 @findex nnmail-fancy-expiry-target
14238 @vindex nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets
14239 Gnus provides a function @code{nnmail-fancy-expiry-target} which will
14240 expire mail to groups according to the variable
14241 @code{nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets}. Here's an example:
14244 (setq nnmail-expiry-target 'nnmail-fancy-expiry-target
14245 nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets
14246 '((to-from "boss" "nnfolder:Work")
14247 ("subject" "IMPORTANT" "nnfolder:IMPORTANT.%Y.%b")
14248 ("from" ".*" "nnfolder:Archive-%Y")))
14251 With this setup, any mail that has @code{IMPORTANT} in its Subject
14252 header and was sent in the year @code{YYYY} and month @code{MMM}, will
14253 get expired to the group @code{nnfolder:IMPORTANT.YYYY.MMM}. If its
14254 From or To header contains the string @code{boss}, it will get expired
14255 to @code{nnfolder:Work}. All other mail will get expired to
14256 @code{nnfolder:Archive-YYYY}.
14258 @vindex nnmail-keep-last-article
14259 If @code{nnmail-keep-last-article} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will never
14260 expire the final article in a mail newsgroup. This is to make life
14261 easier for procmail users.
14263 @vindex gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups
14264 By the way: That line up there, about Gnus never expiring non-expirable
14265 articles, is a lie. If you put @code{total-expire} in the group
14266 parameters, articles will not be marked as expirable, but all read
14267 articles will be put through the expiry process. Use with extreme
14268 caution. Even more dangerous is the
14269 @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups} variable. All groups that match
14270 this regexp will have all read articles put through the expiry process,
14271 which means that @emph{all} old mail articles in the groups in question
14272 will be deleted after a while. Use with extreme caution, and don't come
14273 crying to me when you discover that the regexp you used matched the
14274 wrong group and all your important mail has disappeared. Be a
14275 @emph{man}! Or a @emph{woman}! Whatever you feel more comfortable
14278 Most people make most of their mail groups total-expirable, though.
14280 @vindex gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire
14281 If @code{gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire} is non-@code{nil}, user marking
14282 commands will not mark an article as expirable, even if the group has
14283 auto-expire turned on.
14287 @subsection Washing Mail
14288 @cindex mail washing
14289 @cindex list server brain damage
14290 @cindex incoming mail treatment
14292 Mailers and list servers are notorious for doing all sorts of really,
14293 really stupid things with mail. ``Hey, RFC 822 doesn't explicitly
14294 prohibit us from adding the string @code{wE aRe ElItE!!!!!1!!} to the
14295 end of all lines passing through our server, so let's do that!!!!1!''
14296 Yes, but RFC 822 wasn't designed to be read by morons. Things that were
14297 considered to be self-evident were not discussed. So. Here we are.
14299 Case in point: The German version of Microsoft Exchange adds @samp{AW:
14300 } to the subjects of replies instead of @samp{Re: }. I could pretend to
14301 be shocked and dismayed by this, but I haven't got the energy. It is to
14304 Gnus provides a plethora of functions for washing articles while
14305 displaying them, but it might be nicer to do the filtering before
14306 storing the mail to disk. For that purpose, we have three hooks and
14307 various functions that can be put in these hooks.
14310 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
14311 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
14312 This hook is called before doing anything with the mail and is meant for
14313 grand, sweeping gestures. It is called in a buffer that contains all
14314 the new, incoming mail. Functions to be used include:
14317 @item nnheader-ms-strip-cr
14318 @findex nnheader-ms-strip-cr
14319 Remove trailing carriage returns from each line. This is default on
14320 Emacs running on MS machines.
14324 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
14325 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
14326 This hook is called narrowed to each header. It can be used when
14327 cleaning up the headers. Functions that can be used include:
14330 @item nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
14331 @findex nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
14332 Clear leading white space that ``helpful'' listservs have added to the
14333 headers to make them look nice. Aaah.
14335 (Note that this function works on both the header on the body of all
14336 messages, so it is a potentially dangerous function to use (if a body
14337 of a message contains something that looks like a header line). So
14338 rather than fix the bug, it is of course the right solution to make it
14339 into a feature by documenting it.)
14341 @item nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
14342 @findex nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
14343 Some list servers add an identifier---for example, @samp{(idm)}---to the
14344 beginning of all @code{Subject} headers. I'm sure that's nice for
14345 people who use stone age mail readers. This function will remove
14346 strings that match the @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} regexp, which can
14347 also be a list of regexp. @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} may not contain
14350 For instance, if you want to remove the @samp{(idm)} and the
14351 @samp{nagnagnag} identifiers:
14354 (setq nnmail-list-identifiers
14355 '("(idm)" "nagnagnag"))
14358 This can also be done non-destructively with
14359 @code{gnus-list-identifiers}, @xref{Article Hiding}.
14361 @item nnmail-remove-tabs
14362 @findex nnmail-remove-tabs
14363 Translate all @samp{TAB} characters into @samp{SPACE} characters.
14365 @item nnmail-fix-eudora-headers
14366 @findex nnmail-fix-eudora-headers
14368 Eudora produces broken @code{References} headers, but OK
14369 @code{In-Reply-To} headers. This function will get rid of the
14370 @code{References} headers.
14374 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
14375 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
14376 This hook is called narrowed to each message. Functions to be used
14380 @item article-de-quoted-unreadable
14381 @findex article-de-quoted-unreadable
14382 Decode Quoted Readable encoding.
14389 @subsection Duplicates
14391 @vindex nnmail-treat-duplicates
14392 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-length
14393 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-file
14394 @cindex duplicate mails
14395 If you are a member of a couple of mailing lists, you will sometimes
14396 receive two copies of the same mail. This can be quite annoying, so
14397 @code{nnmail} checks for and treats any duplicates it might find. To do
14398 this, it keeps a cache of old @code{Message-ID}s---
14399 @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}, which is @file{~/.nnmail-cache} by
14400 default. The approximate maximum number of @code{Message-ID}s stored
14401 there is controlled by the @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length}
14402 variable, which is 1000 by default. (So 1000 @code{Message-ID}s will be
14403 stored.) If all this sounds scary to you, you can set
14404 @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} to @code{warn} (which is what it is by
14405 default), and @code{nnmail} won't delete duplicate mails. Instead it
14406 will insert a warning into the head of the mail saying that it thinks
14407 that this is a duplicate of a different message.
14409 This variable can also be a function. If that's the case, the function
14410 will be called from a buffer narrowed to the message in question with
14411 the @code{Message-ID} as a parameter. The function must return either
14412 @code{nil}, @code{warn}, or @code{delete}.
14414 You can turn this feature off completely by setting the variable to
14417 If you want all the duplicate mails to be put into a special
14418 @dfn{duplicates} group, you could do that using the normal mail split
14422 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
14423 '(| ;; Messages duplicates go to a separate group.
14424 ("gnus-warning" "duplicat\\(e\\|ion\\) of message" "duplicate")
14425 ;; Message from daemons, postmaster, and the like to another.
14426 (any mail "mail.misc")
14433 (setq nnmail-split-methods
14434 '(("duplicates" "^Gnus-Warning:.*duplicate")
14439 Here's a neat feature: If you know that the recipient reads her mail
14440 with Gnus, and that she has @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} set to
14441 @code{delete}, you can send her as many insults as you like, just by
14442 using a @code{Message-ID} of a mail that you know that she's already
14443 received. Think of all the fun! She'll never see any of it! Whee!
14446 @node Not Reading Mail
14447 @subsection Not Reading Mail
14449 If you start using any of the mail back ends, they have the annoying
14450 habit of assuming that you want to read mail with them. This might not
14451 be unreasonable, but it might not be what you want.
14453 If you set @code{mail-sources} and @code{nnmail-spool-file} to
14454 @code{nil}, none of the back ends will ever attempt to read incoming
14455 mail, which should help.
14457 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
14458 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
14459 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
14460 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
14461 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
14462 This might be too much, if, for instance, you are reading mail quite
14463 happily with @code{nnml} and just want to peek at some old @sc{rmail}
14464 file you have stashed away with @code{nnbabyl}. All back ends have
14465 variables called back-end-@code{get-new-mail}. If you want to disable
14466 the @code{nnbabyl} mail reading, you edit the virtual server for the
14467 group to have a setting where @code{nnbabyl-get-new-mail} to @code{nil}.
14469 All the mail back ends will call @code{nn}*@code{-prepare-save-mail-hook}
14470 narrowed to the article to be saved before saving it when reading
14474 @node Choosing a Mail Back End
14475 @subsection Choosing a Mail Back End
14477 Gnus will read the mail spool when you activate a mail group. The mail
14478 file is first copied to your home directory. What happens after that
14479 depends on what format you want to store your mail in.
14481 There are six different mail back ends in the standard Gnus, and more
14482 back ends are available separately. The mail back end most people use
14483 (because it is possibly the fastest) is @code{nnml} (@pxref{Mail
14487 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
14488 * Rmail Babyl:: Emacs programs use the rmail babyl format.
14489 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
14490 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like back end.
14491 * Maildir:: Another one-file-per-message format.
14492 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
14493 * Comparing Mail Back Ends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
14497 @node Unix Mail Box
14498 @subsubsection Unix Mail Box
14500 @cindex unix mail box
14502 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
14503 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
14504 The @dfn{nnmbox} back end will use the standard Un*x mbox file to store
14505 mail. @code{nnmbox} will add extra headers to each mail article to say
14506 which group it belongs in.
14508 Virtual server settings:
14511 @item nnmbox-mbox-file
14512 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
14513 The name of the mail box in the user's home directory. Default is
14516 @item nnmbox-active-file
14517 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
14518 The name of the active file for the mail box. Default is
14519 @file{~/.mbox-active}.
14521 @item nnmbox-get-new-mail
14522 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
14523 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmbox} will read incoming mail and split it
14524 into groups. Default is @code{t}.
14529 @subsubsection Rmail Babyl
14533 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
14534 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
14535 The @dfn{nnbabyl} back end will use a babyl mail box (aka. @dfn{rmail
14536 mbox}) to store mail. @code{nnbabyl} will add extra headers to each
14537 mail article to say which group it belongs in.
14539 Virtual server settings:
14542 @item nnbabyl-mbox-file
14543 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
14544 The name of the rmail mbox file. The default is @file{~/RMAIL}
14546 @item nnbabyl-active-file
14547 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
14548 The name of the active file for the rmail box. The default is
14549 @file{~/.rmail-active}
14551 @item nnbabyl-get-new-mail
14552 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
14553 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnbabyl} will read incoming mail. Default is
14559 @subsubsection Mail Spool
14561 @cindex mail @sc{nov} spool
14563 The @dfn{nnml} spool mail format isn't compatible with any other known
14564 format. It should be used with some caution.
14566 @vindex nnml-directory
14567 If you use this back end, Gnus will split all incoming mail into files,
14568 one file for each mail, and put the articles into the corresponding
14569 directories under the directory specified by the @code{nnml-directory}
14570 variable. The default value is @file{~/Mail/}.
14572 You do not have to create any directories beforehand; Gnus will take
14575 If you have a strict limit as to how many files you are allowed to store
14576 in your account, you should not use this back end. As each mail gets its
14577 own file, you might very well occupy thousands of inodes within a few
14578 weeks. If this is no problem for you, and it isn't a problem for you
14579 having your friendly systems administrator walking around, madly,
14580 shouting ``Who is eating all my inodes?! Who? Who!?!'', then you should
14581 know that this is probably the fastest format to use. You do not have
14582 to trudge through a big mbox file just to read your new mail.
14584 @code{nnml} is probably the slowest back end when it comes to article
14585 splitting. It has to create lots of files, and it also generates
14586 @sc{nov} databases for the incoming mails. This makes it possibly the
14587 fastest back end when it comes to reading mail.
14589 @cindex self contained nnml servers
14591 When the marks file is used (which it is by default), @code{nnml}
14592 servers have the property that you may backup them using @code{tar} or
14593 similar, and later be able to restore them into Gnus (by adding the
14594 proper @code{nnml} server) and have all your marks be preserved. Marks
14595 for a group is usually stored in the @code{.marks} file (but see
14596 @code{nnml-marks-file-name}) within each @code{nnml} group's directory.
14597 Individual @code{nnml} groups are also possible to backup, use @kbd{G m}
14598 to restore the group (after restoring the backup into the nnml
14601 If for some reason you believe your @file{.marks} files are screwed
14602 up, you can just delete them all. Gnus will then correctly regenerate
14603 them next time it starts.
14605 Virtual server settings:
14608 @item nnml-directory
14609 @vindex nnml-directory
14610 All @code{nnml} directories will be placed under this directory. The
14611 default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default value
14614 @item nnml-active-file
14615 @vindex nnml-active-file
14616 The active file for the @code{nnml} server. The default is
14617 @file{~/Mail/active}.
14619 @item nnml-newsgroups-file
14620 @vindex nnml-newsgroups-file
14621 The @code{nnml} group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
14622 Format}. The default is @file{~/Mail/newsgroups}.
14624 @item nnml-get-new-mail
14625 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
14626 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will read incoming mail. The default is
14629 @item nnml-nov-is-evil
14630 @vindex nnml-nov-is-evil
14631 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @sc{nov} files. The
14632 default is @code{nil}.
14634 @item nnml-nov-file-name
14635 @vindex nnml-nov-file-name
14636 The name of the @sc{nov} files. The default is @file{.overview}.
14638 @item nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
14639 @vindex nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
14640 Hook run narrowed to an article before saving.
14642 @item nnml-marks-is-evil
14643 @vindex nnml-marks-is-evil
14644 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @sc{marks} files. The
14645 default is @code{nil}.
14647 @item nnml-marks-file-name
14648 @vindex nnml-marks-file-name
14649 The name of the @dfn{marks} files. The default is @file{.marks}.
14651 @item nnml-use-compressed-files
14652 @vindex nnml-use-compressed-files
14653 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will allow using compressed message
14658 @findex nnml-generate-nov-databases
14659 If your @code{nnml} groups and @sc{nov} files get totally out of whack,
14660 you can do a complete update by typing @kbd{M-x
14661 nnml-generate-nov-databases}. This command will trawl through the
14662 entire @code{nnml} hierarchy, looking at each and every article, so it
14663 might take a while to complete. A better interface to this
14664 functionality can be found in the server buffer (@pxref{Server
14669 @subsubsection MH Spool
14671 @cindex mh-e mail spool
14673 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, except that is doesn't generate
14674 @sc{nov} databases and it doesn't keep an active file or marks file.
14675 This makes @code{nnmh} a @emph{much} slower back end than @code{nnml},
14676 but it also makes it easier to write procmail scripts for.
14678 Virtual server settings:
14681 @item nnmh-directory
14682 @vindex nnmh-directory
14683 All @code{nnmh} directories will be located under this directory. The
14684 default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default is
14687 @item nnmh-get-new-mail
14688 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
14689 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will read incoming mail. The default is
14693 @vindex nnmh-be-safe
14694 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will go to ridiculous lengths to make
14695 sure that the articles in the folder are actually what Gnus thinks they
14696 are. It will check date stamps and stat everything in sight, so
14697 setting this to @code{t} will mean a serious slow-down. If you never
14698 use anything but Gnus to read the @code{nnmh} articles, you do not have
14699 to set this variable to @code{t}. The default is @code{nil}.
14704 @subsubsection Maildir
14708 @code{nnmaildir} stores mail in the maildir format, with each maildir
14709 corresponding to a group in Gnus. This format is documented here:
14710 @uref{http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html} and here:
14711 @uref{http://www.qmail.org/man/man5/maildir.html}. nnmaildir also
14712 stores extra information in the @file{.nnmaildir/} directory within a
14715 Maildir format was designed to allow concurrent deliveries and
14716 reading, without needing locks. With other backends, you would have
14717 your mail delivered to a spool of some kind, and then you would
14718 configure Gnus to split mail from that spool into your groups. You
14719 can still do that with nnmaildir, but the more common configuration is
14720 to have your mail delivered directly to the maildirs that appear as
14723 nnmaildir is designed to be perfectly reliable: @kbd{C-g} will never
14724 corrupt its data in memory, and @code{SIGKILL} will never corrupt its
14725 data in the filesystem.
14727 nnmaildir stores article marks and NOV data in each maildir. So you
14728 can copy a whole maildir from one Gnus setup to another, and you will
14731 Virtual server settings:
14735 For each of your nnmaildir servers (it's very unlikely that you'd need
14736 more than one), you need to create a directory and populate it with
14737 maildirs or symlinks to maildirs (and nothing else; do not choose a
14738 directory already used for other purposes). Each maildir will be
14739 represented in Gnus as a newsgroup on that server; the filename of the
14740 symlink will be the name of the group. Any filenames in the directory
14741 starting with `.' are ignored. The directory is scanned when you
14742 first start Gnus, and each time you type @kbd{g} in the group buffer;
14743 if any maildirs have been removed or added, nnmaildir notices at these
14746 The value of the @code{directory} parameter should be a Lisp form
14747 which is processed by @code{eval} and @code{expand-file-name} to get
14748 the path of the directory for this server. The form is @code{eval}ed
14749 only when the server is opened; the resulting string is used until the
14750 server is closed. (If you don't know about forms and @code{eval},
14751 don't worry - a simple string will work.) This parameter is not
14752 optional; you must specify it. I don't recommend using
14753 @code{"~/Mail"} or a subdirectory of it; several other parts of Gnus
14754 use that directory by default for various things, and may get confused
14755 if nnmaildir uses it too. @code{"~/.nnmaildir"} is a typical value.
14757 @item target-prefix
14758 This should be a Lisp form which is processed by @code{eval} and
14759 @code{expand-file-name}. The form is @code{eval}ed only when the
14760 server is opened; the resulting string is used until the server is
14763 When you create a group on an nnmaildir server, the maildir is created
14764 with @code{target-prefix} prepended to its name, and a symlink
14765 pointing to that maildir is created, named with the plain group name.
14766 So if @code{directory} is @code{"~/.nnmaildir"} and
14767 @code{target-prefix} is @code{"../maildirs/"}, then when you create
14768 the group @code{foo}, nnmaildir will create
14769 @file{~/.nnmaildir/../maildirs/foo} as a maildir, and will create
14770 @file{~/.nnmaildir/foo} as a symlink pointing to
14771 @file{../maildirs/foo}.
14773 You can set @code{target-prefix} to a string without any slashes to
14774 create both maildirs and symlinks in the same @code{directory}; in
14775 this case, any maildirs found in @code{directory} whose names start
14776 with @code{target-prefix} will not be listed as groups (but the
14777 symlinks pointing to them will be).
14779 As a special case, if @code{target-prefix} is @code{""} (the default),
14780 then when you create a group, the maildir will be created in
14781 @code{directory} without a corresponding symlink. Beware that you
14782 cannot use @code{gnus-group-delete-group} on such groups without the
14783 @code{force} argument.
14785 @item directory-files
14786 This should be a function with the same interface as
14787 @code{directory-files} (such as @code{directory-files} itself). It is
14788 used to scan the server's @code{directory} for maildirs. This
14789 parameter is optional; the default is
14790 @code{nnheader-directory-files-safe} if
14791 @code{nnheader-directory-files-is-safe} is @code{nil}, and
14792 @code{directory-files} otherwise.
14793 (@code{nnheader-directory-files-is-safe} is checked only once when the
14794 server is opened; if you want to check it each time the directory is
14795 scanned, you'll have to provide your own function that does that.)
14798 If non-@code{nil}, then after scanning for new mail in the group
14799 maildirs themselves as usual, this server will also incorporate mail
14800 the conventional Gnus way, from @code{mail-sources} according to
14801 @code{nnmail-split-methods} or @code{nnmail-split-fancy}. The default
14802 value is @code{nil}.
14804 Do @emph{not} use the same maildir both in @code{mail-sources} and as
14805 an nnmaildir group. The results might happen to be useful, but that
14806 would be by chance, not by design, and the results might be different
14807 in the future. If your split rules create new groups, remember to
14808 supply a @code{create-directory} server parameter.
14811 @subsubsection Group parameters
14813 nnmaildir uses several group parameters. It's safe to ignore all
14814 this; the default behavior for nnmaildir is the same as the default
14815 behavior for other mail backends: articles are deleted after one week,
14816 etc. Except for the expiry parameters, all this functionality is
14817 unique to nnmaildir, so you can ignore it if you're just trying to
14818 duplicate the behavior you already have with another backend.
14820 If the value of any of these parameters is a vector, the first element
14821 is evaluated as a Lisp form and the result is used, rather than the
14822 original value. If the value is not a vector, the value itself is
14823 evaluated as a Lisp form. (This is why these parameters use names
14824 different from those of other, similar parameters supported by other
14825 backends: they have different, though similar, meanings.) (For
14826 numbers, strings, @code{nil}, and @code{t}, you can ignore the
14827 @code{eval} business again; for other values, remember to use an extra
14828 quote and wrap the value in a vector when appropriate.)
14832 An integer specifying the minimum age, in seconds, of an article before
14833 it will be expired, or the symbol @code{never} to specify that
14834 articles should never be expired. If this parameter is not set,
14835 nnmaildir falls back to the usual
14836 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait}(@code{-function}) variables (overridable by
14837 the @code{expiry-wait}(@code{-function}) group parameters. If you
14838 wanted a value of 3 days, you could use something like @code{[(* 3 24
14839 60 60)]}; nnmaildir will evaluate the form and use the result. An
14840 article's age is measured starting from the article file's
14841 modification time. Normally, this is the same as the article's
14842 delivery time, but editing an article makes it younger. Moving an
14843 article (other than via expiry) may also make an article younger.
14846 If this is set to a string (a full Gnus group name, like
14847 @code{"backend+server.address.string:group.name"}), and if it is not
14848 the name of the same group that the parameter belongs to, then
14849 articles will be moved to the specified group during expiry before
14850 being deleted. @emph{If this is set to an nnmaildir group, the
14851 article will be just as old in the destination group as it was in the
14852 source group.} So be careful with @code{expire-age} in the
14853 destination group. If this is set to the name of the same group that
14854 the parameter belongs to, then the article is not expired at all. If
14855 you use the vector form, the first element is evaluated once for each
14856 article. So that form can refer to
14857 @code{nnmaildir-article-file-name}, etc., to decide where to put the
14858 article. @emph{If this parameter is not set, nnmaildir does not fall
14859 back to the @code{expiry-target} group parameter or the
14860 @code{nnmail-expiry-target} variable.}
14863 If this is set to @code{t}, nnmaildir will treat the articles in this
14864 maildir as read-only. This means: articles are not renamed from
14865 @file{new/} into @file{cur/}; articles are only found in @file{new/},
14866 not @file{cur/}; articles are never deleted; articles cannot be
14867 edited. @file{new/} is expected to be a symlink to the @file{new/}
14868 directory of another maildir - e.g., a system-wide mailbox containing
14869 a mailing list of common interest. Everything in the maildir outside
14870 @file{new/} is @emph{not} treated as read-only, so for a shared
14871 mailbox, you do still need to set up your own maildir (or have write
14872 permission to the shared mailbox); your maildir just won't contain
14873 extra copies of the articles.
14875 @item directory-files
14876 A function with the same interface as @code{directory-files}. It is
14877 used to scan the directories in the maildir corresponding to this
14878 group to find articles. The default is the function specified by the
14879 server's @code{directory-files} parameter.
14881 @item distrust-Lines:
14882 If non-@code{nil}, nnmaildir will always count the lines of an
14883 article, rather than use the @code{Lines:} header field. If
14884 @code{nil}, the header field will be used if present.
14887 A list of mark symbols, such as
14888 @code{['(read expire)]}. Whenever Gnus asks nnmaildir for
14889 article marks, nnmaildir will say that all articles have these
14890 marks, regardless of whether the marks stored in the filesystem
14891 say so. This is a proof-of-concept feature that will probably be
14892 removed eventually; it ought to be done in Gnus proper, or
14893 abandoned if it's not worthwhile.
14896 A list of mark symbols, such as @code{['(tick expire)]}. Whenever
14897 Gnus asks nnmaildir for article marks, nnmaildir will say that no
14898 articles have these marks, regardless of whether the marks stored in
14899 the filesystem say so. @code{never-marks} overrides
14900 @code{always-marks}. This is a proof-of-concept feature that will
14901 probably be removed eventually; it ought to be done in Gnus proper, or
14902 abandoned if it's not worthwhile.
14904 @item nov-cache-size
14905 An integer specifying the size of the NOV memory cache. To speed
14906 things up, nnmaildir keeps NOV data in memory for a limited number of
14907 articles in each group. (This is probably not worthwhile, and will
14908 probably be removed in the future.) This parameter's value is noticed
14909 only the first time a group is seen after the server is opened - i.e.,
14910 when you first start Gnus, typically. The NOV cache is never resized
14911 until the server is closed and reopened. The default is an estimate
14912 of the number of articles that would be displayed in the summary
14913 buffer: a count of articles that are either marked with @code{tick} or
14914 not marked with @code{read}, plus a little extra.
14917 @subsubsection Article identification
14918 Articles are stored in the @file{cur/} subdirectory of each maildir.
14919 Each article file is named like @code{uniq:info}, where @code{uniq}
14920 contains no colons. nnmaildir ignores, but preserves, the
14921 @code{:info} part. (Other maildir readers typically use this part of
14922 the filename to store marks.) The @code{uniq} part uniquely
14923 identifies the article, and is used in various places in the
14924 @file{.nnmaildir/} subdirectory of the maildir to store information
14925 about the corresponding article. The full pathname of an article is
14926 available in the variable @code{nnmaildir-article-file-name} after you
14927 request the article in the summary buffer.
14929 @subsubsection NOV data
14930 An article identified by @code{uniq} has its NOV data (used to
14931 generate lines in the summary buffer) stored in
14932 @code{.nnmaildir/nov/uniq}. There is no
14933 @code{nnmaildir-generate-nov-databases} function. (There isn't much
14934 need for it - an article's NOV data is updated automatically when the
14935 article or @code{nnmail-extra-headers} has changed.) You can force
14936 nnmaildir to regenerate the NOV data for a single article simply by
14937 deleting the corresponding NOV file, but @emph{beware}: this will also
14938 cause nnmaildir to assign a new article number for this article, which
14939 may cause trouble with @code{seen} marks, the Agent, and the cache.
14941 @subsubsection Article marks
14942 An article identified by @code{uniq} is considered to have the mark
14943 @code{flag} when the file @file{.nnmaildir/marks/flag/uniq} exists.
14944 When Gnus asks nnmaildir for a group's marks, nnmaildir looks for such
14945 files and reports the set of marks it finds. When Gnus asks nnmaildir
14946 to store a new set of marks, nnmaildir creates and deletes the
14947 corresponding files as needed. (Actually, rather than create a new
14948 file for each mark, it just creates hard links to
14949 @file{.nnmaildir/markfile}, to save inodes.)
14951 You can invent new marks by creating a new directory in
14952 @file{.nnmaildir/marks/}. You can tar up a maildir and remove it from
14953 your server, untar it later, and keep your marks. You can add and
14954 remove marks yourself by creating and deleting mark files. If you do
14955 this while Gnus is running and your nnmaildir server is open, it's
14956 best to exit all summary buffers for nnmaildir groups and type @kbd{s}
14957 in the group buffer first, and to type @kbd{g} or @kbd{M-g} in the
14958 group buffer afterwards. Otherwise, Gnus might not pick up the
14959 changes, and might undo them.
14963 @subsubsection Mail Folders
14965 @cindex mbox folders
14966 @cindex mail folders
14968 @code{nnfolder} is a back end for storing each mail group in a separate
14969 file. Each file is in the standard Un*x mbox format. @code{nnfolder}
14970 will add extra headers to keep track of article numbers and arrival
14973 @cindex self contained nnfolder servers
14975 When the marks file is used (which it is by default), @code{nnfolder}
14976 servers have the property that you may backup them using @code{tar} or
14977 similar, and later be able to restore them into Gnus (by adding the
14978 proper @code{nnfolder} server) and have all your marks be preserved.
14979 Marks for a group is usually stored in a file named as the mbox file
14980 with @code{.mrk} concatenated to it (but see
14981 @code{nnfolder-marks-file-suffix}) within the @code{nnfolder} directory.
14982 Individual @code{nnfolder} groups are also possible to backup, use
14983 @kbd{G m} to restore the group (after restoring the backup into the
14984 @code{nnfolder} directory).
14986 Virtual server settings:
14989 @item nnfolder-directory
14990 @vindex nnfolder-directory
14991 All the @code{nnfolder} mail boxes will be stored under this directory.
14992 The default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default is
14995 @item nnfolder-active-file
14996 @vindex nnfolder-active-file
14997 The name of the active file. The default is @file{~/Mail/active}.
14999 @item nnfolder-newsgroups-file
15000 @vindex nnfolder-newsgroups-file
15001 The name of the group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
15002 Format}. The default is @file{~/Mail/newsgroups}
15004 @item nnfolder-get-new-mail
15005 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
15006 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnfolder} will read incoming mail. The default
15009 @item nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
15010 @vindex nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
15011 @cindex backup files
15012 Hook run before saving the folders. Note that Emacs does the normal
15013 backup renaming of files even with the @code{nnfolder} buffers. If you
15014 wish to switch this off, you could say something like the following in
15015 your @file{.emacs} file:
15018 (defun turn-off-backup ()
15019 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
15021 (add-hook 'nnfolder-save-buffer-hook 'turn-off-backup)
15024 @item nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
15025 @vindex nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
15026 Hook run in a buffer narrowed to the message that is to be deleted.
15027 This function can be used to copy the message to somewhere else, or to
15028 extract some information from it before removing it.
15030 @item nnfolder-nov-is-evil
15031 @vindex nnfolder-nov-is-evil
15032 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @sc{nov} files. The
15033 default is @code{nil}.
15035 @item nnfolder-nov-file-suffix
15036 @vindex nnfolder-nov-file-suffix
15037 The extension for @sc{nov} files. The default is @file{.nov}.
15039 @item nnfolder-nov-directory
15040 @vindex nnfolder-nov-directory
15041 The directory where the @sc{nov} files should be stored. If nil,
15042 @code{nnfolder-directory} is used.
15044 @item nnfolder-marks-is-evil
15045 @vindex nnfolder-marks-is-evil
15046 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @sc{marks} files. The
15047 default is @code{nil}.
15049 @item nnfolder-marks-file-suffix
15050 @vindex nnfolder-marks-file-suffix
15051 The extension for @sc{marks} files. The default is @file{.mrk}.
15053 @item nnfolder-marks-directory
15054 @vindex nnfolder-marks-directory
15055 The directory where the @sc{marks} files should be stored. If nil,
15056 @code{nnfolder-directory} is used.
15061 @findex nnfolder-generate-active-file
15062 @kindex M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file
15063 If you have lots of @code{nnfolder}-like files you'd like to read with
15064 @code{nnfolder}, you can use the @kbd{M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file}
15065 command to make @code{nnfolder} aware of all likely files in
15066 @code{nnfolder-directory}. This only works if you use long file names,
15069 @node Comparing Mail Back Ends
15070 @subsubsection Comparing Mail Back Ends
15072 First, just for terminology, the @dfn{back end} is the common word for a
15073 low-level access method---a transport, if you will, by which something
15074 is acquired. The sense is that one's mail has to come from somewhere,
15075 and so selection of a suitable back end is required in order to get that
15076 mail within spitting distance of Gnus.
15078 The same concept exists for Usenet itself: Though access to articles is
15079 typically done by @sc{nntp} these days, once upon a midnight dreary, everyone
15080 in the world got at Usenet by running a reader on the machine where the
15081 articles lay (the machine which today we call an @sc{nntp} server), and
15082 access was by the reader stepping into the articles' directory spool
15083 area directly. One can still select between either the @code{nntp} or
15084 @code{nnspool} back ends, to select between these methods, if one happens
15085 actually to live on the server (or can see its spool directly, anyway,
15088 The goal in selecting a mail back end is to pick one which
15089 simultaneously represents a suitable way of dealing with the original
15090 format plus leaving mail in a form that is convenient to use in the
15091 future. Here are some high and low points on each:
15096 UNIX systems have historically had a single, very common, and well-
15097 defined format. All messages arrive in a single @dfn{spool file}, and
15098 they are delineated by a line whose regular expression matches
15099 @samp{^From_}. (My notational use of @samp{_} is to indicate a space,
15100 to make it clear in this instance that this is not the RFC-specified
15101 @samp{From:} header.) Because Emacs and therefore Gnus emanate
15102 historically from the Unix environment, it is simplest if one does not
15103 mess a great deal with the original mailbox format, so if one chooses
15104 this back end, Gnus' primary activity in getting mail from the real spool
15105 area to Gnus' preferred directory is simply to copy it, with no
15106 (appreciable) format change in the process. It is the ``dumbest'' way
15107 to move mail into availability in the Gnus environment. This makes it
15108 fast to move into place, but slow to parse, when Gnus has to look at
15113 Once upon a time, there was the DEC-10 and DEC-20, running operating
15114 systems called TOPS and related things, and the usual (only?) mail
15115 reading environment was a thing called Babyl. I don't know what format
15116 was used for mail landing on the system, but Babyl had its own internal
15117 format to which mail was converted, primarily involving creating a
15118 spool-file-like entity with a scheme for inserting Babyl-specific
15119 headers and status bits above the top of each message in the file.
15120 RMAIL was Emacs' first mail reader, it was written by Richard Stallman,
15121 and Stallman came out of that TOPS/Babyl environment, so he wrote RMAIL
15122 to understand the mail files folks already had in existence. Gnus (and
15123 VM, for that matter) continue to support this format because it's
15124 perceived as having some good qualities in those mailer-specific
15125 headers/status bits stuff. RMAIL itself still exists as well, of
15126 course, and is still maintained by Stallman.
15128 Both of the above forms leave your mail in a single file on your
15129 file system, and they must parse that entire file each time you take a
15134 @code{nnml} is the back end which smells the most as though you were
15135 actually operating with an @code{nnspool}-accessed Usenet system. (In
15136 fact, I believe @code{nnml} actually derived from @code{nnspool} code,
15137 lo these years ago.) One's mail is taken from the original spool file,
15138 and is then cut up into individual message files, 1:1. It maintains a
15139 Usenet-style active file (analogous to what one finds in an INN- or
15140 CNews-based news system in (for instance) @file{/var/lib/news/active},
15141 or what is returned via the @samp{NNTP LIST} verb) and also creates
15142 @dfn{overview} files for efficient group entry, as has been defined for
15143 @sc{nntp} servers for some years now. It is slower in mail-splitting,
15144 due to the creation of lots of files, updates to the @code{nnml} active
15145 file, and additions to overview files on a per-message basis, but it is
15146 extremely fast on access because of what amounts to the indexing support
15147 provided by the active file and overviews.
15149 @code{nnml} costs @dfn{inodes} in a big way; that is, it soaks up the
15150 resource which defines available places in the file system to put new
15151 files. Sysadmins take a dim view of heavy inode occupation within
15152 tight, shared file systems. But if you live on a personal machine where
15153 the file system is your own and space is not at a premium, @code{nnml}
15156 It is also problematic using this back end if you are living in a
15157 FAT16-based Windows world, since much space will be wasted on all these
15162 The Rand MH mail-reading system has been around UNIX systems for a very
15163 long time; it operates by splitting one's spool file of messages into
15164 individual files, but with little or no indexing support -- @code{nnmh}
15165 is considered to be semantically equivalent to ``@code{nnml} without
15166 active file or overviews''. This is arguably the worst choice, because
15167 one gets the slowness of individual file creation married to the
15168 slowness of access parsing when learning what's new in one's groups.
15172 Basically the effect of @code{nnfolder} is @code{nnmbox} (the first
15173 method described above) on a per-group basis. That is, @code{nnmbox}
15174 itself puts @emph{all} one's mail in one file; @code{nnfolder} provides a
15175 little bit of optimization to this so that each of one's mail groups has
15176 a Unix mail box file. It's faster than @code{nnmbox} because each group
15177 can be parsed separately, and still provides the simple Unix mail box
15178 format requiring minimal effort in moving the mail around. In addition,
15179 it maintains an ``active'' file making it much faster for Gnus to figure
15180 out how many messages there are in each separate group.
15182 If you have groups that are expected to have a massive amount of
15183 messages, @code{nnfolder} is not the best choice, but if you receive
15184 only a moderate amount of mail, @code{nnfolder} is probably the most
15185 friendly mail back end all over.
15189 For configuring expiry and other things, @code{nnmaildir} uses
15190 incompatible group parameters, slightly different from those of other
15193 @code{nnmaildir} is largely similar to @code{nnml}, with some notable
15194 differences. Each message is stored in a separate file, but the
15195 filename is unrelated to the article number in Gnus. @code{nnmaildir}
15196 also stores the equivalent of @code{nnml}'s overview files in one file
15197 per article, so it uses about twice as many inodes as @code{nnml}. (Use
15198 @code{df -i} to see how plentiful your inode supply is.) If this slows
15199 you down or takes up very much space, consider switching to ReiserFS
15200 (@uref{http://www.namesys.com/}) or another non-block-structured
15203 Since maildirs don't require locking for delivery, the maildirs you use
15204 as groups can also be the maildirs your mail is directly delivered to.
15205 This means you can skip Gnus's mail splitting if your mail is already
15206 organized into different mailboxes during delivery. A @code{directory}
15207 entry in @code{mail-sources} would have a similar effect, but would
15208 require one set of mailboxes for spooling deliveries (in mbox format,
15209 thus damaging message bodies), and another set to be used as groups (in
15210 whatever format you like). A maildir has a built-in spool, in the
15211 @code{new/} subdirectory. Beware that currently, mail moved from
15212 @code{new/} to @code{cur/} instead of via mail splitting will not
15213 undergo treatment such as duplicate checking.
15215 @code{nnmaildir} stores article marks for a given group in the
15216 corresponding maildir, in a way designed so that it's easy to manipulate
15217 them from outside Gnus. You can tar up a maildir, unpack it somewhere
15218 else, and still have your marks. @code{nnml} also stores marks, but
15219 it's not as easy to work with them from outside Gnus as with
15222 @code{nnmaildir} uses a significant amount of memory to speed things up.
15223 (It keeps in memory some of the things that @code{nnml} stores in files
15224 and that @code{nnmh} repeatedly parses out of message files.) If this
15225 is a problem for you, you can set the @code{nov-cache-size} group
15226 parameter to something small (0 would probably not work, but 1 probably
15227 would) to make it use less memory. This caching will probably be
15228 removed in the future.
15230 Startup is likely to be slower with @code{nnmaildir} than with other
15231 back ends. Everything else is likely to be faster, depending in part
15232 on your file system.
15234 @code{nnmaildir} does not use @code{nnoo}, so you cannot use @code{nnoo}
15235 to write an @code{nnmaildir}-derived back end.
15240 @node Browsing the Web
15241 @section Browsing the Web
15243 @cindex browsing the web
15247 Web-based discussion forums are getting more and more popular. On many
15248 subjects, the web-based forums have become the most important forums,
15249 eclipsing the importance of mailing lists and news groups. The reason
15250 is easy to understand---they are friendly to new users; you just point
15251 and click, and there's the discussion. With mailing lists, you have to
15252 go through a cumbersome subscription procedure, and most people don't
15253 even know what a news group is.
15255 The problem with this scenario is that web browsers are not very good at
15256 being newsreaders. They do not keep track of what articles you've read;
15257 they do not allow you to score on subjects you're interested in; they do
15258 not allow off-line browsing; they require you to click around and drive
15259 you mad in the end.
15261 So---if web browsers suck at reading discussion forums, why not use Gnus
15264 Gnus has been getting a bit of a collection of back ends for providing
15265 interfaces to these sources.
15269 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
15270 * Slashdot:: Reading the Slashdot comments.
15271 * Ultimate:: The Ultimate Bulletin Board systems.
15272 * Web Archive:: Reading mailing list archived on web.
15273 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
15274 * Customizing w3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/w3 from Gnus.
15277 All the web sources require Emacs/w3 and the url library to work.
15279 The main caveat with all these web sources is that they probably won't
15280 work for a very long time. Gleaning information from the @sc{html} data
15281 is guesswork at best, and when the layout is altered, the Gnus back end
15282 will fail. If you have reasonably new versions of these back ends,
15283 though, you should be ok.
15285 One thing all these Web methods have in common is that the Web sources
15286 are often down, unavailable or just plain too slow to be fun. In those
15287 cases, it makes a lot of sense to let the Gnus Agent (@pxref{Gnus
15288 Unplugged}) handle downloading articles, and then you can read them at
15289 leisure from your local disk. No more World Wide Wait for you.
15291 @node Archiving Mail
15292 @subsection Archiving Mail
15293 @cindex archiving mail
15294 @cindex backup of mail
15296 Some of the back ends, notably @code{nnml}, @code{nnfolder}, and
15297 @code{nnmaildir}, now actually store the article marks with each group.
15298 For these servers, archiving and restoring a group while preserving
15299 marks is fairly simple.
15301 (Preserving the group level and group parameters as well still
15302 requires ritual dancing and sacrifices to the @file{.newsrc.eld} deity
15305 To archive an entire @code{nnml}, @code{nnfolder}, or @code{nnmaildir}
15306 server, take a recursive copy of the server directory. There is no need
15307 to shut down Gnus, so archiving may be invoked by @code{cron} or
15308 similar. You restore the data by restoring the directory tree, and
15309 adding a server definition pointing to that directory in Gnus. The
15310 @ref{Article Backlog}, @ref{Asynchronous Fetching} and other things
15311 might interfere with overwriting data, so you may want to shut down Gnus
15312 before you restore the data.
15314 It is also possible to archive individual @code{nnml},
15315 @code{nnfolder}, or @code{nnmaildir} groups, while preserving marks.
15316 For @code{nnml} or @code{nnmaildir}, you copy all files in the group's
15317 directory. For @code{nnfolder} you need to copy both the base folder
15318 file itself (@file{FOO}, say), and the marks file (@file{FOO.mrk} in
15319 this example). Restoring the group is done with @kbd{G m} from the Group
15320 buffer. The last step makes Gnus notice the new directory.
15321 @code{nnmaildir} notices the new directory automatically, so @kbd{G m}
15322 is unnecessary in that case.
15325 @subsection Web Searches
15330 @cindex Usenet searches
15331 @cindex searching the Usenet
15333 It's, like, too neat to search the Usenet for articles that match a
15334 string, but it, like, totally @emph{sucks}, like, totally, to use one of
15335 those, like, Web browsers, and you, like, have to, rilly, like, look at
15336 the commercials, so, like, with Gnus you can do @emph{rad}, rilly,
15337 searches without having to use a browser.
15339 The @code{nnweb} back end allows an easy interface to the mighty search
15340 engine. You create an @code{nnweb} group, enter a search pattern, and
15341 then enter the group and read the articles like you would any normal
15342 group. The @kbd{G w} command in the group buffer (@pxref{Foreign
15343 Groups}) will do this in an easy-to-use fashion.
15345 @code{nnweb} groups don't really lend themselves to being solid
15346 groups---they have a very fleeting idea of article numbers. In fact,
15347 each time you enter an @code{nnweb} group (not even changing the search
15348 pattern), you are likely to get the articles ordered in a different
15349 manner. Not even using duplicate suppression (@pxref{Duplicate
15350 Suppression}) will help, since @code{nnweb} doesn't even know the
15351 @code{Message-ID} of the articles before reading them using some search
15352 engines (Google, for instance). The only possible way to keep track
15353 of which articles you've read is by scoring on the @code{Date}
15354 header---mark all articles posted before the last date you read the
15357 If the search engine changes its output substantially, @code{nnweb}
15358 won't be able to parse it and will fail. One could hardly fault the Web
15359 providers if they were to do this---their @emph{raison d'être} is to
15360 make money off of advertisements, not to provide services to the
15361 community. Since @code{nnweb} washes the ads off all the articles, one
15362 might think that the providers might be somewhat miffed. We'll see.
15364 You must have the @code{url} and @code{w3} package installed to be able
15365 to use @code{nnweb}.
15367 Virtual server variables:
15372 What search engine type is being used. The currently supported types
15373 are @code{google}, @code{dejanews}, and @code{gmane}. Note that
15374 @code{dejanews} is an alias to @code{google}.
15377 @vindex nnweb-search
15378 The search string to feed to the search engine.
15380 @item nnweb-max-hits
15381 @vindex nnweb-max-hits
15382 Advisory maximum number of hits per search to display. The default is
15385 @item nnweb-type-definition
15386 @vindex nnweb-type-definition
15387 Type-to-definition alist. This alist says what @code{nnweb} should do
15388 with the various search engine types. The following elements must be
15393 Function to decode the article and provide something that Gnus
15397 Function to create an article number to message header and URL alist.
15400 Function to send the search string to the search engine.
15403 The address the aforementioned function should send the search string
15407 Format string URL to fetch an article by @code{Message-ID}.
15414 @subsection Slashdot
15418 Slashdot (@uref{http://slashdot.org/}) is a popular news site, with
15419 lively discussion following the news articles. @code{nnslashdot} will
15420 let you read this forum in a convenient manner.
15422 The easiest way to read this source is to put something like the
15423 following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
15426 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
15427 '((nnslashdot "")))
15430 This will make Gnus query the @code{nnslashdot} back end for new comments
15431 and groups. The @kbd{F} command will subscribe each new news article as
15432 a new Gnus group, and you can read the comments by entering these
15433 groups. (Note that the default subscription method is to subscribe new
15434 groups as zombies. Other methods are available (@pxref{Subscription
15437 If you want to remove an old @code{nnslashdot} group, the @kbd{G DEL}
15438 command is the most handy tool (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
15440 When following up to @code{nnslashdot} comments (or posting new
15441 comments), some light @sc{html}izations will be performed. In
15442 particular, text quoted with @samp{> } will be quoted with
15443 @code{blockquote} instead, and signatures will have @code{br} added to
15444 the end of each line. Other than that, you can just write @sc{html}
15445 directly into the message buffer. Note that Slashdot filters out some
15448 The following variables can be altered to change its behavior:
15451 @item nnslashdot-threaded
15452 Whether @code{nnslashdot} should display threaded groups or not. The
15453 default is @code{t}. To be able to display threads, @code{nnslashdot}
15454 has to retrieve absolutely all comments in a group upon entry. If a
15455 threaded display is not required, @code{nnslashdot} will only retrieve
15456 the comments that are actually wanted by the user. Threading is nicer,
15457 but much, much slower than unthreaded.
15459 @item nnslashdot-login-name
15460 @vindex nnslashdot-login-name
15461 The login name to use when posting.
15463 @item nnslashdot-password
15464 @vindex nnslashdot-password
15465 The password to use when posting.
15467 @item nnslashdot-directory
15468 @vindex nnslashdot-directory
15469 Where @code{nnslashdot} will store its files. The default is
15470 @file{~/News/slashdot/}.
15472 @item nnslashdot-active-url
15473 @vindex nnslashdot-active-url
15474 The @sc{url} format string that will be used to fetch the information on
15475 news articles and comments. The default is
15476 @samp{http://slashdot.org/search.pl?section=&min=%d}.
15478 @item nnslashdot-comments-url
15479 @vindex nnslashdot-comments-url
15480 The @sc{url} format string that will be used to fetch comments. The
15482 @samp{http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=%s&threshold=%d&commentsort=%d&mode=flat&startat=%d}.
15484 @item nnslashdot-article-url
15485 @vindex nnslashdot-article-url
15486 The @sc{url} format string that will be used to fetch the news article. The
15488 @samp{http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=%s&mode=nocomment}.
15490 @item nnslashdot-threshold
15491 @vindex nnslashdot-threshold
15492 The score threshold. The default is -1.
15494 @item nnslashdot-group-number
15495 @vindex nnslashdot-group-number
15496 The number of old groups, in addition to the ten latest, to keep
15497 updated. The default is 0.
15504 @subsection Ultimate
15506 @cindex Ultimate Bulletin Board
15508 The Ultimate Bulletin Board (@uref{http://www.ultimatebb.com/}) is
15509 probably the most popular Web bulletin board system used. It has a
15510 quite regular and nice interface, and it's possible to get the
15511 information Gnus needs to keep groups updated.
15513 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnultimate} is to say
15514 something like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{B nnultimate RET
15515 http://www.tcj.com/messboard/ubbcgi/ RET}. (Substitute the @sc{url}
15516 (not including @samp{Ultimate.cgi} or the like at the end) for a forum
15517 you're interested in; there's quite a list of them on the Ultimate web
15518 site.) Then subscribe to the groups you're interested in from the
15519 server buffer, and read them from the group buffer.
15521 The following @code{nnultimate} variables can be altered:
15524 @item nnultimate-directory
15525 @vindex nnultimate-directory
15526 The directory where @code{nnultimate} stores its files. The default is
15527 @file{~/News/ultimate/}.
15532 @subsection Web Archive
15534 @cindex Web Archive
15536 Some mailing lists only have archives on Web servers, such as
15537 @uref{http://www.egroups.com/} and
15538 @uref{http://www.mail-archive.com/}. It has a quite regular and nice
15539 interface, and it's possible to get the information Gnus needs to keep
15542 @findex gnus-group-make-warchive-group
15543 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnwarchive} is to say
15544 something like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{M-x
15545 gnus-group-make-warchive-group RET an_egroup RET egroups RET
15546 www.egroups.com RET your@@email.address RET}. (Substitute the
15547 @sc{an_egroup} with the mailing list you subscribed, the
15548 @sc{your@@email.address} with your email address.), or to browse the
15549 back end by @kbd{B nnwarchive RET mail-archive RET}.
15551 The following @code{nnwarchive} variables can be altered:
15554 @item nnwarchive-directory
15555 @vindex nnwarchive-directory
15556 The directory where @code{nnwarchive} stores its files. The default is
15557 @file{~/News/warchive/}.
15559 @item nnwarchive-login
15560 @vindex nnwarchive-login
15561 The account name on the web server.
15563 @item nnwarchive-passwd
15564 @vindex nnwarchive-passwd
15565 The password for your account on the web server.
15573 Some sites have RDF site summary (RSS)
15574 @uref{http://purl.org/rss/1.0/spec}. It has a quite regular and nice
15575 interface, and it's possible to get the information Gnus needs to keep
15578 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnrss} is to say something
15579 like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{B nnrss RET RET}, then
15582 The following @code{nnrss} variables can be altered:
15585 @item nnrss-directory
15586 @vindex nnrss-directory
15587 The directory where @code{nnrss} stores its files. The default is
15588 @file{~/News/rss/}.
15592 The following code may be helpful, if you want to show the description in
15593 the summary buffer.
15596 (add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers nnrss-description-field)
15597 (setq gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-15,15f%]%) %s%uX\n")
15599 (defun gnus-user-format-function-X (header)
15601 (assq nnrss-description-field (mail-header-extra header))))
15602 (if descr (concat "\n\t" (cdr descr)) "")))
15605 The following code may be useful to open an nnrss url directly from the
15608 (require 'browse-url)
15610 (defun browse-nnrss-url( arg )
15612 (let ((url (assq nnrss-url-field
15615 (assq (gnus-summary-article-number)
15616 gnus-newsgroup-data))))))
15619 (browse-url (cdr url))
15620 (gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward 1))
15621 (gnus-summary-scroll-up arg))))
15623 (eval-after-load "gnus"
15624 #'(define-key gnus-summary-mode-map
15625 (kbd "<RET>") 'browse-nnrss-url))
15626 (add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers nnrss-url-field)
15629 @node Customizing w3
15630 @subsection Customizing w3
15636 Gnus uses the url library to fetch web pages and Emacs/w3 to display web
15637 pages. Emacs/w3 is documented in its own manual, but there are some
15638 things that may be more relevant for Gnus users.
15640 For instance, a common question is how to make Emacs/w3 follow links
15641 using the @code{browse-url} functions (which will call some external web
15642 browser like Netscape). Here's one way:
15645 (eval-after-load "w3"
15647 (fset 'w3-fetch-orig (symbol-function 'w3-fetch))
15648 (defun w3-fetch (&optional url target)
15649 (interactive (list (w3-read-url-with-default)))
15650 (if (eq major-mode 'gnus-article-mode)
15652 (w3-fetch-orig url target)))))
15655 Put that in your @file{.emacs} file, and hitting links in w3-rendered
15656 @sc{html} in the Gnus article buffers will use @code{browse-url} to
15665 @sc{imap} is a network protocol for reading mail (or news, or @dots{}),
15666 think of it as a modernized @sc{nntp}. Connecting to a @sc{imap}
15667 server is much similar to connecting to a news server, you just
15668 specify the network address of the server.
15670 @sc{imap} has two properties. First, @sc{imap} can do everything that
15671 POP can, it can hence be viewed as a POP++. Secondly, @sc{imap} is a
15672 mail storage protocol, similar to @sc{nntp} being a news storage
15673 protocol -- however, @sc{imap} offers more features than @sc{nntp}
15674 because news is more or less read-only whereas mail is read-write.
15676 If you want to use @sc{imap} as a POP++, use an imap entry in
15677 @code{mail-sources}. With this, Gnus will fetch mails from the
15678 @sc{imap} server and store them on the local disk. This is not the
15679 usage described in this section--@xref{Mail Sources}.
15681 If you want to use @sc{imap} as a mail storage protocol, use an nnimap
15682 entry in @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods}. With this, Gnus will
15683 manipulate mails stored on the @sc{imap} server. This is the kind of
15684 usage explained in this section.
15686 A server configuration in @file{~/.gnus.el} with a few @sc{imap} servers
15687 might look something like the following. (Note that for TLS/SSL, you
15688 need external programs and libraries, see below.)
15691 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
15692 '((nnimap "simpleserver") ; no special configuration
15693 ; perhaps a ssh port forwarded server:
15695 (nnimap-address "localhost")
15696 (nnimap-server-port 1430))
15697 ; a UW server running on localhost
15699 (nnimap-server-port 143)
15700 (nnimap-address "localhost")
15701 (nnimap-list-pattern ("INBOX" "mail/*")))
15702 ; anonymous public cyrus server:
15703 (nnimap "cyrus.andrew.cmu.edu"
15704 (nnimap-authenticator anonymous)
15705 (nnimap-list-pattern "archive.*")
15706 (nnimap-stream network))
15707 ; a ssl server on a non-standard port:
15709 (nnimap-address "vic20.somewhere.com")
15710 (nnimap-server-port 9930)
15711 (nnimap-stream ssl))))
15714 After defining the new server, you can subscribe to groups on the
15715 server using normal Gnus commands such as @kbd{U} in the Group Buffer
15716 (@pxref{Subscription Commands}) or via the Server Buffer
15717 (@pxref{Server Buffer}).
15719 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nnimap}
15724 @item nnimap-address
15725 @vindex nnimap-address
15727 The address of the remote @sc{imap} server. Defaults to the virtual
15728 server name if not specified.
15730 @item nnimap-server-port
15731 @vindex nnimap-server-port
15732 Port on server to contact. Defaults to port 143, or 993 for TLS/SSL.
15734 Note that this should be an integer, example server specification:
15737 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
15738 (nnimap-server-port 4711))
15741 @item nnimap-list-pattern
15742 @vindex nnimap-list-pattern
15743 String or list of strings of mailboxes to limit available groups to.
15744 This is used when the server has very many mailboxes and you're only
15745 interested in a few -- some servers export your home directory via
15746 @sc{imap}, you'll probably want to limit the mailboxes to those in
15747 @file{~/Mail/*} then.
15749 The string can also be a cons of REFERENCE and the string as above, what
15750 REFERENCE is used for is server specific, but on the University of
15751 Washington server it's a directory that will be concatenated with the
15754 Example server specification:
15757 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
15758 (nnimap-list-pattern ("INBOX" "Mail/*" "alt.sex.*"
15759 ("~friend/Mail/" . "list/*"))))
15762 @item nnimap-stream
15763 @vindex nnimap-stream
15764 The type of stream used to connect to your server. By default, nnimap
15765 will detect and automatically use all of the below, with the exception
15766 of TLS/SSL. (@sc{imap} over TLS/SSL is being replaced by STARTTLS, which
15767 can be automatically detected, but it's not widely deployed yet.)
15769 Example server specification:
15772 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
15773 (nnimap-stream ssl))
15776 Please note that the value of @code{nnimap-stream} is a symbol!
15780 @dfn{gssapi:} Connect with GSSAPI (usually Kerberos 5). Requires the
15781 @samp{gsasl} or @samp{imtest} program.
15783 @dfn{kerberos4:} Connect with Kerberos 4. Requires the @samp{imtest} program.
15785 @dfn{starttls:} Connect via the STARTTLS extension (similar to
15786 TLS/SSL). Requires the external library @samp{starttls.el} and program
15789 @dfn{tls:} Connect through TLS. Requires GNUTLS (the program
15790 @samp{gnutls-cli}).
15792 @dfn{ssl:} Connect through SSL. Requires OpenSSL (the program
15793 @samp{openssl}) or SSLeay (@samp{s_client}).
15795 @dfn{shell:} Use a shell command to start @sc{imap} connection.
15797 @dfn{network:} Plain, TCP/IP network connection.
15800 @vindex imap-kerberos4-program
15801 The @samp{imtest} program is shipped with Cyrus IMAPD. If you're
15802 using @samp{imtest} from Cyrus IMAPD < 2.0.14 (which includes version
15803 1.5.x and 1.6.x) you need to frob @code{imap-process-connection-type}
15804 to make @code{imap.el} use a pty instead of a pipe when communicating
15805 with @samp{imtest}. You will then suffer from a line length
15806 restrictions on @sc{imap} commands, which might make Gnus seem to hang
15807 indefinitely if you have many articles in a mailbox. The variable
15808 @code{imap-kerberos4-program} contain parameters to pass to the imtest
15811 For TLS connection, the @code{gnutls-cli} program from GNUTLS is
15812 needed. It is available from
15813 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/}.
15815 @vindex imap-gssapi-program
15816 This parameter specifies a list of command lines that invoke a GSSAPI
15817 authenticated IMAP stream in a subshell. They are tried sequentially
15818 until a connection is made, or the list has been exhausted. By
15819 default, @samp{gsasl} from GNU SASL, available from
15820 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/}, and the @samp{imtest}
15821 program from Cyrus IMAPD (see @code{imap-kerberos4-program}), are
15824 @vindex imap-ssl-program
15825 For SSL connections, the OpenSSL program is available from
15826 @uref{http://www.openssl.org/}. OpenSSL was formerly known as SSLeay,
15827 and nnimap support it too - although the most recent versions of
15828 SSLeay, 0.9.x, are known to have serious bugs making it
15829 useless. Earlier versions, especially 0.8.x, of SSLeay are known to
15830 work. The variable @code{imap-ssl-program} contain parameters to pass
15833 @vindex imap-shell-program
15834 @vindex imap-shell-host
15835 For @sc{imap} connections using the @code{shell} stream, the variable
15836 @code{imap-shell-program} specify what program to call.
15838 @item nnimap-authenticator
15839 @vindex nnimap-authenticator
15841 The authenticator used to connect to the server. By default, nnimap
15842 will use the most secure authenticator your server is capable of.
15844 Example server specification:
15847 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
15848 (nnimap-authenticator anonymous))
15851 Please note that the value of @code{nnimap-authenticator} is a symbol!
15855 @dfn{gssapi:} GSSAPI (usually kerberos 5) authentication. Requires
15856 external program @code{gsasl} or @code{imtest}.
15858 @dfn{kerberos4:} Kerberos 4 authentication. Requires external program
15861 @dfn{digest-md5:} Encrypted username/password via DIGEST-MD5. Requires
15862 external library @code{digest-md5.el}.
15864 @dfn{cram-md5:} Encrypted username/password via CRAM-MD5.
15866 @dfn{login:} Plain-text username/password via LOGIN.
15868 @dfn{anonymous:} Login as `anonymous', supplying your email address as password.
15871 @item nnimap-expunge-on-close
15873 @vindex nnimap-expunge-on-close
15874 Unlike Parmenides the @sc{imap} designers has decided that things that
15875 doesn't exist actually does exist. More specifically, @sc{imap} has
15876 this concept of marking articles @code{Deleted} which doesn't actually
15877 delete them, and this (marking them @code{Deleted}, that is) is what
15878 nnimap does when you delete a article in Gnus (with @kbd{B DEL} or
15881 Since the articles aren't really removed when we mark them with the
15882 @code{Deleted} flag we'll need a way to actually delete them. Feel like
15883 running in circles yet?
15885 Traditionally, nnimap has removed all articles marked as @code{Deleted}
15886 when closing a mailbox but this is now configurable by this server
15889 The possible options are:
15894 The default behavior, delete all articles marked as ``Deleted'' when
15897 Never actually delete articles. Currently there is no way of showing
15898 the articles marked for deletion in nnimap, but other @sc{imap} clients
15899 may allow you to do this. If you ever want to run the EXPUNGE command
15900 manually, @xref{Expunging mailboxes}.
15902 When closing mailboxes, nnimap will ask if you wish to expunge deleted
15907 @item nnimap-importantize-dormant
15908 @vindex nnimap-importantize-dormant
15910 If non-nil (the default), marks dormant articles as ticked (as well),
15911 for other @sc{imap} clients. Within Gnus, dormant articles will
15912 naturally still (only) be marked as dormant. This is to make dormant
15913 articles stand out, just like ticked articles, in other @sc{imap}
15914 clients. (In other words, Gnus has two ``Tick'' marks and @sc{imap}
15917 Probably the only reason for frobing this would be if you're trying
15918 enable per-user persistant dormant flags, using something like:
15921 (setcdr (assq 'dormant nnimap-mark-to-flag-alist)
15922 (format "gnus-dormant-%s" (user-login-name)))
15923 (setcdr (assq 'dormant nnimap-mark-to-predicate-alist)
15924 (format "KEYWORD gnus-dormant-%s" (user-login-name)))
15927 In this case, you would not want the per-user dormant flag showing up
15928 as ticked for other users.
15930 @item nnimap-expunge-search-string
15932 @vindex nnimap-expunge-search-string
15934 This variable contain the @sc{imap} search command sent to server when
15935 searching for articles eligible for expiring. The default is
15936 @code{"UID %s NOT SINCE %s"}, where the first @code{%s} is replaced by
15937 UID set and the second @code{%s} is replaced by a date.
15939 Probably the only useful value to change this to is
15940 @code{"UID %s NOT SENTSINCE %s"}, which makes nnimap use the Date: in
15941 messages instead of the internal article date. See section 6.4.4 of
15942 RFC 2060 for more information on valid strings.
15944 @item nnimap-authinfo-file
15945 @vindex nnimap-authinfo-file
15947 A file containing credentials used to log in on servers. The format is
15948 (almost) the same as the @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file. See the
15949 variable @code{nntp-authinfo-file} for exact syntax; also see
15955 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
15956 * Expiring in IMAP:: Expiring mail with nnimap.
15957 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
15958 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a ``compress mailbox'' button.
15959 * A note on namespaces:: How to (not) use IMAP namespace in Gnus.
15964 @node Splitting in IMAP
15965 @subsection Splitting in IMAP
15966 @cindex splitting imap mail
15968 Splitting is something Gnus users has loved and used for years, and now
15969 the rest of the world is catching up. Yeah, dream on, not many
15970 @sc{imap} server has server side splitting and those that have splitting
15971 seem to use some non-standard protocol. This means that @sc{imap}
15972 support for Gnus has to do it's own splitting.
15976 Here are the variables of interest:
15980 @item nnimap-split-crosspost
15981 @cindex splitting, crosspost
15983 @vindex nnimap-split-crosspost
15985 If non-nil, do crossposting if several split methods match the mail. If
15986 nil, the first match in @code{nnimap-split-rule} found will be used.
15988 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-crosspost}.
15990 @item nnimap-split-inbox
15991 @cindex splitting, inbox
15993 @vindex nnimap-split-inbox
15995 A string or a list of strings that gives the name(s) of @sc{imap}
15996 mailboxes to split from. Defaults to nil, which means that splitting is
16000 (setq nnimap-split-inbox
16001 '("INBOX" ("~/friend/Mail" . "lists/*") "lists.imap"))
16004 No nnmail equivalent.
16006 @item nnimap-split-rule
16007 @cindex Splitting, rules
16008 @vindex nnimap-split-rule
16010 New mail found in @code{nnimap-split-inbox} will be split according to
16013 This variable contains a list of lists, where the first element in the
16014 sublist gives the name of the @sc{imap} mailbox to move articles
16015 matching the regexp in the second element in the sublist. Got that?
16016 Neither did I, we need examples.
16019 (setq nnimap-split-rule
16021 "^Sender: owner-nnimap@@vic20.globalcom.se")
16022 ("INBOX.junk" "^Subject:.*MAKE MONEY")
16023 ("INBOX.private" "")))
16026 This will put all articles from the nnimap mailing list into mailbox
16027 INBOX.nnimap, all articles containing MAKE MONEY in the Subject: line
16028 into INBOX.junk and everything else in INBOX.private.
16030 The first string may contain `\\1' forms, like the ones used by
16031 replace-match to insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For
16035 ("INBOX.lists.\\1" "^Sender: owner-\\([a-z-]+\\)@@")
16038 The first element can also be the symbol @code{junk} to indicate that
16039 matching messages should simply be deleted. Use with care.
16041 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
16042 called with the first element of the rule as the argument, in a buffer
16043 containing the headers of the article. It should return a non-nil value
16044 if it thinks that the mail belongs in that group.
16046 Nnmail users might recollect that the last regexp had to be empty to
16047 match all articles (like in the example above). This is not required in
16048 nnimap. Articles not matching any of the regexps will not be moved out
16049 of your inbox. (This might affect performance if you keep lots of
16050 unread articles in your inbox, since the splitting code would go over
16051 them every time you fetch new mail.)
16053 These rules are processed from the beginning of the alist toward the
16054 end. The first rule to make a match will ``win'', unless you have
16055 crossposting enabled. In that case, all matching rules will ``win''.
16057 This variable can also have a function as its value, the function will
16058 be called with the headers narrowed and should return a group where it
16059 thinks the article should be split to. See @code{nnimap-split-fancy}.
16061 The splitting code tries to create mailboxes if it needs to.
16063 To allow for different split rules on different virtual servers, and
16064 even different split rules in different inboxes on the same server,
16065 the syntax of this variable have been extended along the lines of:
16068 (setq nnimap-split-rule
16069 '(("my1server" (".*" (("ding" "ding@@gnus.org")
16070 ("junk" "From:.*Simon")))
16071 ("my2server" ("INBOX" nnimap-split-fancy))
16072 ("my[34]server" (".*" (("private" "To:.*Simon")
16073 ("junk" my-junk-func)))))
16076 The virtual server name is in fact a regexp, so that the same rules
16077 may apply to several servers. In the example, the servers
16078 @code{my3server} and @code{my4server} both use the same rules.
16079 Similarly, the inbox string is also a regexp. The actual splitting
16080 rules are as before, either a function, or a list with group/regexp or
16081 group/function elements.
16083 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
16085 @item nnimap-split-predicate
16087 @vindex nnimap-split-predicate
16089 Mail matching this predicate in @code{nnimap-split-inbox} will be
16090 split, it is a string and the default is @samp{UNSEEN UNDELETED}.
16092 This might be useful if you use another @sc{imap} client to read mail in
16093 your inbox but would like Gnus to split all articles in the inbox
16094 regardless of readedness. Then you might change this to
16097 @item nnimap-split-fancy
16098 @cindex splitting, fancy
16099 @findex nnimap-split-fancy
16100 @vindex nnimap-split-fancy
16102 It's possible to set @code{nnimap-split-rule} to
16103 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} if you want to use fancy
16104 splitting. @xref{Fancy Mail Splitting}.
16106 However, to be able to have different fancy split rules for nnmail and
16107 nnimap back ends you can set @code{nnimap-split-rule} to
16108 @code{nnimap-split-fancy} and define the nnimap specific fancy split
16109 rule in @code{nnimap-split-fancy}.
16114 (setq nnimap-split-rule 'nnimap-split-fancy
16115 nnimap-split-fancy ...)
16118 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-split-fancy}.
16120 @item nnimap-split-download-body
16121 @findex nnimap-split-download-body
16122 @vindex nnimap-split-download-body
16124 Set to non-nil to download entire articles during splitting. This is
16125 generally not required, and will slow things down considerably. You
16126 may need it if you want to use an advanced splitting function that
16127 analyses the body to split the article.
16131 @node Expiring in IMAP
16132 @subsection Expiring in IMAP
16133 @cindex expiring imap mail
16135 Even though @code{nnimap} is not a proper @code{nnmail} derived back
16136 end, it supports most features in regular expiring (@pxref{Expiring
16137 Mail}). Unlike splitting in IMAP (@pxref{Splitting in IMAP}) it do
16138 not clone the @code{nnmail} variables (i.e., creating
16139 @var{nnimap-expiry-wait}) but reuse the @code{nnmail} variables. What
16140 follows below are the variables used by the @code{nnimap} expiry
16143 A note on how the expire mark is stored on the @sc{imap} server is
16144 appropriate here as well. The expire mark is translated into a
16145 @code{imap} client specific mark, @code{gnus-expire}, and stored on the
16146 message. This means that likely only Gnus will understand and treat
16147 the @code{gnus-expire} mark properly, although other clients may allow
16148 you to view client specific flags on the message. It also means that
16149 your server must support permanent storage of client specific flags on
16150 messages. Most do, fortunately.
16154 @item nnmail-expiry-wait
16155 @item nnmail-expiry-wait-function
16157 These variables are fully supported. The expire value can be a
16158 number, the symbol @code{immediate} or @code{never}.
16160 @item nnmail-expiry-target
16162 This variable is supported, and internally implemented by calling the
16163 @code{nnmail} functions that handle this. It contains an optimization
16164 that if the destination is a IMAP group on the same server, the
16165 article is copied instead of appended (that is, uploaded again).
16169 @node Editing IMAP ACLs
16170 @subsection Editing IMAP ACLs
16171 @cindex editing imap acls
16172 @cindex Access Control Lists
16173 @cindex Editing @sc{imap} ACLs
16175 @findex gnus-group-nnimap-edit-acl
16177 ACL stands for Access Control List. ACLs are used in @sc{imap} for
16178 limiting (or enabling) other users access to your mail boxes. Not all
16179 @sc{imap} servers support this, this function will give an error if it
16182 To edit a ACL for a mailbox, type @kbd{G l}
16183 (@code{gnus-group-edit-nnimap-acl}) and you'll be presented with a ACL
16184 editing window with detailed instructions.
16186 Some possible uses:
16190 Giving ``anyone'' the ``lrs'' rights (lookup, read, keep seen/unseen flags)
16191 on your mailing list mailboxes enables other users on the same server to
16192 follow the list without subscribing to it.
16194 At least with the Cyrus server, you are required to give the user
16195 ``anyone'' posting ("p") capabilities to have ``plussing'' work (that is,
16196 mail sent to user+mailbox@@domain ending up in the @sc{imap} mailbox
16200 @node Expunging mailboxes
16201 @subsection Expunging mailboxes
16205 @cindex Manual expunging
16207 @findex gnus-group-nnimap-expunge
16209 If you're using the @code{never} setting of @code{nnimap-expunge-on-close},
16210 you may want the option of expunging all deleted articles in a mailbox
16211 manually. This is exactly what @kbd{G x} does.
16213 Currently there is no way of showing deleted articles, you can just
16216 @node A note on namespaces
16217 @subsection A note on namespaces
16218 @cindex IMAP namespace
16221 The IMAP protocol has a concept called namespaces, described by the
16222 following text in the RFC:
16225 5.1.2. Mailbox Namespace Naming Convention
16227 By convention, the first hierarchical element of any mailbox name
16228 which begins with "#" identifies the "namespace" of the remainder of
16229 the name. This makes it possible to disambiguate between different
16230 types of mailbox stores, each of which have their own namespaces.
16232 For example, implementations which offer access to USENET
16233 newsgroups MAY use the "#news" namespace to partition the USENET
16234 newsgroup namespace from that of other mailboxes. Thus, the
16235 comp.mail.misc newsgroup would have an mailbox name of
16236 "#news.comp.mail.misc", and the name "comp.mail.misc" could refer
16237 to a different object (e.g. a user's private mailbox).
16240 While there is nothing in this text that warrants concern for the IMAP
16241 implementation in Gnus, some servers use namespace prefixes in a way
16242 that does not work with how Gnus uses mailbox names.
16244 Specifically, University of Washington's IMAP server uses mailbox
16245 names like @code{#driver.mbx/read-mail} which are valid only in the
16246 @sc{create} and @sc{append} commands. After the mailbox is created
16247 (or a messages is appended to a mailbox), it must be accessed without
16248 the namespace prefix, i.e. @code{read-mail}. Since Gnus do not make it
16249 possible for the user to guarantee that user entered mailbox names
16250 will only be used with the CREATE and APPEND commands, you should
16251 simply not use the namespace prefixed mailbox names in Gnus.
16253 See the UoW @sc{imapd} documentation for the @code{#driver.*/} prefix
16254 for more information on how to use the prefixes. They are a power
16255 tool and should be used only if you are sure what the effects are.
16257 @node Other Sources
16258 @section Other Sources
16260 Gnus can do more than just read news or mail. The methods described
16261 below allow Gnus to view directories and files as if they were
16265 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
16266 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
16267 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
16268 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{soup} packets ``offline''.
16269 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
16273 @node Directory Groups
16274 @subsection Directory Groups
16276 @cindex directory groups
16278 If you have a directory that has lots of articles in separate files in
16279 it, you might treat it as a newsgroup. The files have to have numerical
16282 This might be an opportune moment to mention @code{ange-ftp} (and its
16283 successor @code{efs}), that most wonderful of all wonderful Emacs
16284 packages. When I wrote @code{nndir}, I didn't think much about it---a
16285 back end to read directories. Big deal.
16287 @code{ange-ftp} changes that picture dramatically. For instance, if you
16288 enter the @code{ange-ftp} file name
16289 @file{/ftp.hpc.uh.edu:/pub/emacs/ding-list/} as the directory name,
16290 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs} will actually allow you to read this
16291 directory over at @samp{sina} as a newsgroup. Distributed news ahoy!
16293 @code{nndir} will use @sc{nov} files if they are present.
16295 @code{nndir} is a ``read-only'' back end---you can't delete or expire
16296 articles with this method. You can use @code{nnmh} or @code{nnml} for
16297 whatever you use @code{nndir} for, so you could switch to any of those
16298 methods if you feel the need to have a non-read-only @code{nndir}.
16301 @node Anything Groups
16302 @subsection Anything Groups
16305 From the @code{nndir} back end (which reads a single spool-like
16306 directory), it's just a hop and a skip to @code{nneething}, which
16307 pretends that any arbitrary directory is a newsgroup. Strange, but
16310 When @code{nneething} is presented with a directory, it will scan this
16311 directory and assign article numbers to each file. When you enter such
16312 a group, @code{nneething} must create ``headers'' that Gnus can use.
16313 After all, Gnus is a newsreader, in case you're forgetting.
16314 @code{nneething} does this in a two-step process. First, it snoops each
16315 file in question. If the file looks like an article (i.e., the first
16316 few lines look like headers), it will use this as the head. If this is
16317 just some arbitrary file without a head (e.g. a C source file),
16318 @code{nneething} will cobble up a header out of thin air. It will use
16319 file ownership, name and date and do whatever it can with these
16322 All this should happen automatically for you, and you will be presented
16323 with something that looks very much like a newsgroup. Totally like a
16324 newsgroup, to be precise. If you select an article, it will be displayed
16325 in the article buffer, just as usual.
16327 If you select a line that represents a directory, Gnus will pop you into
16328 a new summary buffer for this @code{nneething} group. And so on. You can
16329 traverse the entire disk this way, if you feel like, but remember that
16330 Gnus is not dired, really, and does not intend to be, either.
16332 There are two overall modes to this action---ephemeral or solid. When
16333 doing the ephemeral thing (i.e., @kbd{G D} from the group buffer), Gnus
16334 will not store information on what files you have read, and what files
16335 are new, and so on. If you create a solid @code{nneething} group the
16336 normal way with @kbd{G m}, Gnus will store a mapping table between
16337 article numbers and file names, and you can treat this group like any
16338 other groups. When you activate a solid @code{nneething} group, you will
16339 be told how many unread articles it contains, etc., etc.
16344 @item nneething-map-file-directory
16345 @vindex nneething-map-file-directory
16346 All the mapping files for solid @code{nneething} groups will be stored
16347 in this directory, which defaults to @file{~/.nneething/}.
16349 @item nneething-exclude-files
16350 @vindex nneething-exclude-files
16351 All files that match this regexp will be ignored. Nice to use to exclude
16352 auto-save files and the like, which is what it does by default.
16354 @item nneething-include-files
16355 @vindex nneething-include-files
16356 Regexp saying what files to include in the group. If this variable is
16357 non-@code{nil}, only files matching this regexp will be included.
16359 @item nneething-map-file
16360 @vindex nneething-map-file
16361 Name of the map files.
16365 @node Document Groups
16366 @subsection Document Groups
16368 @cindex documentation group
16371 @code{nndoc} is a cute little thing that will let you read a single file
16372 as a newsgroup. Several files types are supported:
16379 The babyl (rmail) mail box.
16384 The standard Unix mbox file.
16386 @cindex MMDF mail box
16388 The MMDF mail box format.
16391 Several news articles appended into a file.
16394 @cindex rnews batch files
16395 The rnews batch transport format.
16396 @cindex forwarded messages
16399 Forwarded articles.
16402 Netscape mail boxes.
16405 @sc{mime} multipart messages.
16407 @item standard-digest
16408 The standard (RFC 1153) digest format.
16411 A @sc{mime} digest of messages.
16413 @item lanl-gov-announce
16414 Announcement messages from LANL Gov Announce.
16416 @item rfc822-forward
16417 A message forwarded according to RFC822.
16420 The Outlook mail box.
16423 The Outlook Express dbx mail box.
16426 A bounce message from the Exim MTA.
16429 A message forwarded according to informal rules.
16432 An RFC934-forwarded message.
16438 A digest of Clarinet brief news items.
16441 Non-standard digest format---matches most things, but does it badly.
16447 You can also use the special ``file type'' @code{guess}, which means
16448 that @code{nndoc} will try to guess what file type it is looking at.
16449 @code{digest} means that @code{nndoc} should guess what digest type the
16452 @code{nndoc} will not try to change the file or insert any extra headers into
16453 it---it will simply, like, let you use the file as the basis for a
16454 group. And that's it.
16456 If you have some old archived articles that you want to insert into your
16457 new & spiffy Gnus mail back end, @code{nndoc} can probably help you with
16458 that. Say you have an old @file{RMAIL} file with mail that you now want
16459 to split into your new @code{nnml} groups. You look at that file using
16460 @code{nndoc} (using the @kbd{G f} command in the group buffer
16461 (@pxref{Foreign Groups})), set the process mark on all the articles in
16462 the buffer (@kbd{M P b}, for instance), and then re-spool (@kbd{B r})
16463 using @code{nnml}. If all goes well, all the mail in the @file{RMAIL}
16464 file is now also stored in lots of @code{nnml} directories, and you can
16465 delete that pesky @file{RMAIL} file. If you have the guts!
16467 Virtual server variables:
16470 @item nndoc-article-type
16471 @vindex nndoc-article-type
16472 This should be one of @code{mbox}, @code{babyl}, @code{digest},
16473 @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward}, @code{rfc934},
16474 @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-parts}, @code{standard-digest},
16475 @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs}, @code{nsmail}, @code{outlook},
16476 @code{oe-dbx}, @code{mailman}, and @code{mail-in-mail} or @code{guess}.
16478 @item nndoc-post-type
16479 @vindex nndoc-post-type
16480 This variable says whether Gnus is to consider the group a news group or
16481 a mail group. There are two valid values: @code{mail} (the default)
16486 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
16490 @node Document Server Internals
16491 @subsubsection Document Server Internals
16493 Adding new document types to be recognized by @code{nndoc} isn't
16494 difficult. You just have to whip up a definition of what the document
16495 looks like, write a predicate function to recognize that document type,
16496 and then hook into @code{nndoc}.
16498 First, here's an example document type definition:
16502 (article-begin . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n")
16503 (body-end . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n"))
16506 The definition is simply a unique @dfn{name} followed by a series of
16507 regexp pseudo-variable settings. Below are the possible
16508 variables---don't be daunted by the number of variables; most document
16509 types can be defined with very few settings:
16512 @item first-article
16513 If present, @code{nndoc} will skip past all text until it finds
16514 something that match this regexp. All text before this will be
16517 @item article-begin
16518 This setting has to be present in all document type definitions. It
16519 says what the beginning of each article looks like.
16521 @item head-begin-function
16522 If present, this should be a function that moves point to the head of
16525 @item nndoc-head-begin
16526 If present, this should be a regexp that matches the head of the
16529 @item nndoc-head-end
16530 This should match the end of the head of the article. It defaults to
16531 @samp{^$}---the empty line.
16533 @item body-begin-function
16534 If present, this function should move point to the beginning of the body
16538 This should match the beginning of the body of the article. It defaults
16541 @item body-end-function
16542 If present, this function should move point to the end of the body of
16546 If present, this should match the end of the body of the article.
16549 If present, this should match the end of the file. All text after this
16550 regexp will be totally ignored.
16554 So, using these variables @code{nndoc} is able to dissect a document
16555 file into a series of articles, each with a head and a body. However, a
16556 few more variables are needed since not all document types are all that
16557 news-like---variables needed to transform the head or the body into
16558 something that's palatable for Gnus:
16561 @item prepare-body-function
16562 If present, this function will be called when requesting an article. It
16563 will be called with point at the start of the body, and is useful if the
16564 document has encoded some parts of its contents.
16566 @item article-transform-function
16567 If present, this function is called when requesting an article. It's
16568 meant to be used for more wide-ranging transformation of both head and
16569 body of the article.
16571 @item generate-head-function
16572 If present, this function is called to generate a head that Gnus can
16573 understand. It is called with the article number as a parameter, and is
16574 expected to generate a nice head for the article in question. It is
16575 called when requesting the headers of all articles.
16579 Let's look at the most complicated example I can come up with---standard
16584 (first-article . ,(concat "^" (make-string 70 ?-) "\n\n+"))
16585 (article-begin . ,(concat "\n\n" (make-string 30 ?-) "\n\n+"))
16586 (prepare-body-function . nndoc-unquote-dashes)
16587 (body-end-function . nndoc-digest-body-end)
16588 (head-end . "^ ?$")
16589 (body-begin . "^ ?\n")
16590 (file-end . "^End of .*digest.*[0-9].*\n\\*\\*\\|^End of.*Digest *$")
16591 (subtype digest guess))
16594 We see that all text before a 70-width line of dashes is ignored; all
16595 text after a line that starts with that @samp{^End of} is also ignored;
16596 each article begins with a 30-width line of dashes; the line separating
16597 the head from the body may contain a single space; and that the body is
16598 run through @code{nndoc-unquote-dashes} before being delivered.
16600 To hook your own document definition into @code{nndoc}, use the
16601 @code{nndoc-add-type} function. It takes two parameters---the first
16602 is the definition itself and the second (optional) parameter says
16603 where in the document type definition alist to put this definition.
16604 The alist is traversed sequentially, and @code{nndoc-TYPE-type-p} is
16605 called for a given type @code{TYPE}. So @code{nndoc-mmdf-type-p} is
16606 called to see whether a document is of @code{mmdf} type, and so on.
16607 These type predicates should return @code{nil} if the document is not
16608 of the correct type; @code{t} if it is of the correct type; and a
16609 number if the document might be of the correct type. A high number
16610 means high probability; a low number means low probability with
16611 @samp{0} being the lowest valid number.
16619 In the PC world people often talk about ``offline'' newsreaders. These
16620 are thingies that are combined reader/news transport monstrosities.
16621 With built-in modem programs. Yecchh!
16623 Of course, us Unix Weenie types of human beans use things like
16624 @code{uucp} and, like, @code{nntpd} and set up proper news and mail
16625 transport things like Ghod intended. And then we just use normal
16628 However, it can sometimes be convenient to do something that's a bit
16629 easier on the brain if you have a very slow modem, and you're not really
16630 that interested in doing things properly.
16632 A file format called @sc{soup} has been developed for transporting news
16633 and mail from servers to home machines and back again. It can be a bit
16636 First some terminology:
16641 This is the machine that is connected to the outside world and where you
16642 get news and/or mail from.
16645 This is the machine that you want to do the actual reading and responding
16646 on. It is typically not connected to the rest of the world in any way.
16649 Something that contains messages and/or commands. There are two kinds
16653 @item message packets
16654 These are packets made at the server, and typically contain lots of
16655 messages for you to read. These are called @file{SoupoutX.tgz} by
16656 default, where @var{x} is a number.
16658 @item response packets
16659 These are packets made at the home machine, and typically contains
16660 replies that you've written. These are called @file{SoupinX.tgz} by
16661 default, where @var{x} is a number.
16671 You log in on the server and create a @sc{soup} packet. You can either
16672 use a dedicated @sc{soup} thingie (like the @code{awk} program), or you
16673 can use Gnus to create the packet with its @sc{soup} commands (@kbd{O
16674 s} and/or @kbd{G s b}; and then @kbd{G s p}) (@pxref{SOUP Commands}).
16677 You transfer the packet home. Rail, boat, car or modem will do fine.
16680 You put the packet in your home directory.
16683 You fire up Gnus on your home machine using the @code{nnsoup} back end as
16684 the native or secondary server.
16687 You read articles and mail and answer and followup to the things you
16688 want (@pxref{SOUP Replies}).
16691 You do the @kbd{G s r} command to pack these replies into a @sc{soup}
16695 You transfer this packet to the server.
16698 You use Gnus to mail this packet out with the @kbd{G s s} command.
16701 You then repeat until you die.
16705 So you basically have a bipartite system---you use @code{nnsoup} for
16706 reading and Gnus for packing/sending these @sc{soup} packets.
16709 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
16710 * SOUP Groups:: A back end for reading @sc{soup} packets.
16711 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
16715 @node SOUP Commands
16716 @subsubsection SOUP Commands
16718 These are commands for creating and manipulating @sc{soup} packets.
16722 @kindex G s b (Group)
16723 @findex gnus-group-brew-soup
16724 Pack all unread articles in the current group
16725 (@code{gnus-group-brew-soup}). This command understands the
16726 process/prefix convention.
16729 @kindex G s w (Group)
16730 @findex gnus-soup-save-areas
16731 Save all @sc{soup} data files (@code{gnus-soup-save-areas}).
16734 @kindex G s s (Group)
16735 @findex gnus-soup-send-replies
16736 Send all replies from the replies packet
16737 (@code{gnus-soup-send-replies}).
16740 @kindex G s p (Group)
16741 @findex gnus-soup-pack-packet
16742 Pack all files into a @sc{soup} packet (@code{gnus-soup-pack-packet}).
16745 @kindex G s r (Group)
16746 @findex nnsoup-pack-replies
16747 Pack all replies into a replies packet (@code{nnsoup-pack-replies}).
16750 @kindex O s (Summary)
16751 @findex gnus-soup-add-article
16752 This summary-mode command adds the current article to a @sc{soup} packet
16753 (@code{gnus-soup-add-article}). It understands the process/prefix
16754 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
16759 There are a few variables to customize where Gnus will put all these
16764 @item gnus-soup-directory
16765 @vindex gnus-soup-directory
16766 Directory where Gnus will save intermediate files while composing
16767 @sc{soup} packets. The default is @file{~/SoupBrew/}.
16769 @item gnus-soup-replies-directory
16770 @vindex gnus-soup-replies-directory
16771 This is what Gnus will use as a temporary directory while sending our
16772 reply packets. @file{~/SoupBrew/SoupReplies/} is the default.
16774 @item gnus-soup-prefix-file
16775 @vindex gnus-soup-prefix-file
16776 Name of the file where Gnus stores the last used prefix. The default is
16777 @samp{gnus-prefix}.
16779 @item gnus-soup-packer
16780 @vindex gnus-soup-packer
16781 A format string command for packing a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
16782 @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupout%d.tgz}.
16784 @item gnus-soup-unpacker
16785 @vindex gnus-soup-unpacker
16786 Format string command for unpacking a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
16787 @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
16789 @item gnus-soup-packet-directory
16790 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-directory
16791 Where Gnus will look for reply packets. The default is @file{~/}.
16793 @item gnus-soup-packet-regexp
16794 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-regexp
16795 Regular expression matching @sc{soup} reply packets in
16796 @code{gnus-soup-packet-directory}.
16802 @subsubsection SOUP Groups
16805 @code{nnsoup} is the back end for reading @sc{soup} packets. It will
16806 read incoming packets, unpack them, and put them in a directory where
16807 you can read them at leisure.
16809 These are the variables you can use to customize its behavior:
16813 @item nnsoup-tmp-directory
16814 @vindex nnsoup-tmp-directory
16815 When @code{nnsoup} unpacks a @sc{soup} packet, it does it in this
16816 directory. (@file{/tmp/} by default.)
16818 @item nnsoup-directory
16819 @vindex nnsoup-directory
16820 @code{nnsoup} then moves each message and index file to this directory.
16821 The default is @file{~/SOUP/}.
16823 @item nnsoup-replies-directory
16824 @vindex nnsoup-replies-directory
16825 All replies will be stored in this directory before being packed into a
16826 reply packet. The default is @file{~/SOUP/replies/}.
16828 @item nnsoup-replies-format-type
16829 @vindex nnsoup-replies-format-type
16830 The @sc{soup} format of the replies packets. The default is @samp{?n}
16831 (rnews), and I don't think you should touch that variable. I probably
16832 shouldn't even have documented it. Drats! Too late!
16834 @item nnsoup-replies-index-type
16835 @vindex nnsoup-replies-index-type
16836 The index type of the replies packet. The default is @samp{?n}, which
16837 means ``none''. Don't fiddle with this one either!
16839 @item nnsoup-active-file
16840 @vindex nnsoup-active-file
16841 Where @code{nnsoup} stores lots of information. This is not an ``active
16842 file'' in the @code{nntp} sense; it's an Emacs Lisp file. If you lose
16843 this file or mess it up in any way, you're dead. The default is
16844 @file{~/SOUP/active}.
16846 @item nnsoup-packer
16847 @vindex nnsoup-packer
16848 Format string command for packing a reply @sc{soup} packet. The default
16849 is @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupin%d.tgz}.
16851 @item nnsoup-unpacker
16852 @vindex nnsoup-unpacker
16853 Format string command for unpacking incoming @sc{soup} packets. The
16854 default is @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
16856 @item nnsoup-packet-directory
16857 @vindex nnsoup-packet-directory
16858 Where @code{nnsoup} will look for incoming packets. The default is
16861 @item nnsoup-packet-regexp
16862 @vindex nnsoup-packet-regexp
16863 Regular expression matching incoming @sc{soup} packets. The default is
16866 @item nnsoup-always-save
16867 @vindex nnsoup-always-save
16868 If non-@code{nil}, save the replies buffer after each posted message.
16874 @subsubsection SOUP Replies
16876 Just using @code{nnsoup} won't mean that your postings and mailings end
16877 up in @sc{soup} reply packets automagically. You have to work a bit
16878 more for that to happen.
16880 @findex nnsoup-set-variables
16881 The @code{nnsoup-set-variables} command will set the appropriate
16882 variables to ensure that all your followups and replies end up in the
16885 In specific, this is what it does:
16888 (setq message-send-news-function 'nnsoup-request-post)
16889 (setq message-send-mail-function 'nnsoup-request-mail)
16892 And that's it, really. If you only want news to go into the @sc{soup}
16893 system you just use the first line. If you only want mail to be
16894 @sc{soup}ed you use the second.
16897 @node Mail-To-News Gateways
16898 @subsection Mail-To-News Gateways
16899 @cindex mail-to-news gateways
16902 If your local @code{nntp} server doesn't allow posting, for some reason
16903 or other, you can post using one of the numerous mail-to-news gateways.
16904 The @code{nngateway} back end provides the interface.
16906 Note that you can't read anything from this back end---it can only be
16912 @item nngateway-address
16913 @vindex nngateway-address
16914 This is the address of the mail-to-news gateway.
16916 @item nngateway-header-transformation
16917 @vindex nngateway-header-transformation
16918 News headers often have to be transformed in some odd way or other
16919 for the mail-to-news gateway to accept it. This variable says what
16920 transformation should be called, and defaults to
16921 @code{nngateway-simple-header-transformation}. The function is called
16922 narrowed to the headers to be transformed and with one parameter---the
16925 This default function just inserts a new @code{To} header based on the
16926 @code{Newsgroups} header and the gateway address.
16927 For instance, an article with this @code{Newsgroups} header:
16930 Newsgroups: alt.religion.emacs
16933 will get this @code{To} header inserted:
16936 To: alt-religion-emacs@@GATEWAY
16939 The following pre-defined functions exist:
16941 @findex nngateway-simple-header-transformation
16944 @item nngateway-simple-header-transformation
16945 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
16946 @var{newsgroup}@@@code{nngateway-address}.
16948 @findex nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
16950 @item nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
16951 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
16952 @code{nngateway-address}.
16957 (setq gnus-post-method
16959 "mail2news@@replay.com"
16960 (nngateway-header-transformation
16961 nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation)))
16969 So, to use this, simply say something like:
16972 (setq gnus-post-method '(nngateway "GATEWAY.ADDRESS"))
16977 @node Combined Groups
16978 @section Combined Groups
16980 Gnus allows combining a mixture of all the other group types into bigger
16984 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
16985 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
16989 @node Virtual Groups
16990 @subsection Virtual Groups
16992 @cindex virtual groups
16993 @cindex merging groups
16995 An @dfn{nnvirtual group} is really nothing more than a collection of
16998 For instance, if you are tired of reading many small groups, you can
16999 put them all in one big group, and then grow tired of reading one
17000 big, unwieldy group. The joys of computing!
17002 You specify @code{nnvirtual} as the method. The address should be a
17003 regexp to match component groups.
17005 All marks in the virtual group will stick to the articles in the
17006 component groups. So if you tick an article in a virtual group, the
17007 article will also be ticked in the component group from whence it
17008 came. (And vice versa---marks from the component groups will also be
17009 shown in the virtual group.). To create an empty virtual group, run
17010 @kbd{G V} (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}) in the group buffer
17011 and edit the method regexp with @kbd{M-e}
17012 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method})
17014 Here's an example @code{nnvirtual} method that collects all Andrea Dworkin
17015 newsgroups into one, big, happy newsgroup:
17018 (nnvirtual "^alt\\.fan\\.andrea-dworkin$\\|^rec\\.dworkin.*")
17021 The component groups can be native or foreign; everything should work
17022 smoothly, but if your computer explodes, it was probably my fault.
17024 Collecting the same group from several servers might actually be a good
17025 idea if users have set the Distribution header to limit distribution.
17026 If you would like to read @samp{soc.motss} both from a server in Japan
17027 and a server in Norway, you could use the following as the group regexp:
17030 "^nntp\\+server\\.jp:soc\\.motss$\\|^nntp\\+server\\.no:soc\\.motss$"
17033 (Remember, though, that if you're creating the group with @kbd{G m}, you
17034 shouldn't double the backslashes, and you should leave off the quote
17035 characters at the beginning and the end of the string.)
17037 This should work kinda smoothly---all articles from both groups should
17038 end up in this one, and there should be no duplicates. Threading (and
17039 the rest) will still work as usual, but there might be problems with the
17040 sequence of articles. Sorting on date might be an option here
17041 (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
17043 One limitation, however---all groups included in a virtual
17044 group have to be alive (i.e., subscribed or unsubscribed). Killed or
17045 zombie groups can't be component groups for @code{nnvirtual} groups.
17047 @vindex nnvirtual-always-rescan
17048 If the @code{nnvirtual-always-rescan} is non-@code{nil},
17049 @code{nnvirtual} will always scan groups for unread articles when
17050 entering a virtual group. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
17051 default) and you read articles in a component group after the virtual
17052 group has been activated, the read articles from the component group
17053 will show up when you enter the virtual group. You'll also see this
17054 effect if you have two virtual groups that have a component group in
17055 common. If that's the case, you should set this variable to @code{t}.
17056 Or you can just tap @code{M-g} on the virtual group every time before
17057 you enter it---it'll have much the same effect.
17059 @code{nnvirtual} can have both mail and news groups as component groups.
17060 When responding to articles in @code{nnvirtual} groups, @code{nnvirtual}
17061 has to ask the back end of the component group the article comes from
17062 whether it is a news or mail back end. However, when you do a @kbd{^},
17063 there is typically no sure way for the component back end to know this,
17064 and in that case @code{nnvirtual} tells Gnus that the article came from a
17065 not-news back end. (Just to be on the safe side.)
17067 @kbd{C-c C-n} in the message buffer will insert the @code{Newsgroups}
17068 line from the article you respond to in these cases.
17070 @code{nnvirtual} groups do not inherit anything but articles and marks
17071 from component groups---group parameters, for instance, are not
17075 @node Kibozed Groups
17076 @subsection Kibozed Groups
17080 @dfn{Kibozing} is defined by @sc{oed} as ``grepping through (parts of)
17081 the news feed''. @code{nnkiboze} is a back end that will do this for
17082 you. Oh joy! Now you can grind any @sc{nntp} server down to a halt
17083 with useless requests! Oh happiness!
17085 @kindex G k (Group)
17086 To create a kibozed group, use the @kbd{G k} command in the group
17089 The address field of the @code{nnkiboze} method is, as with
17090 @code{nnvirtual}, a regexp to match groups to be ``included'' in the
17091 @code{nnkiboze} group. That's where most similarities between @code{nnkiboze}
17092 and @code{nnvirtual} end.
17094 In addition to this regexp detailing component groups, an @code{nnkiboze} group
17095 must have a score file to say what articles are to be included in
17096 the group (@pxref{Scoring}).
17098 @kindex M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups
17099 @findex nnkiboze-generate-groups
17100 You must run @kbd{M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups} after creating the
17101 @code{nnkiboze} groups you want to have. This command will take time. Lots of
17102 time. Oodles and oodles of time. Gnus has to fetch the headers from
17103 all the articles in all the component groups and run them through the
17104 scoring process to determine if there are any articles in the groups
17105 that are to be part of the @code{nnkiboze} groups.
17107 Please limit the number of component groups by using restrictive
17108 regexps. Otherwise your sysadmin may become annoyed with you, and the
17109 @sc{nntp} site may throw you off and never let you back in again.
17110 Stranger things have happened.
17112 @code{nnkiboze} component groups do not have to be alive---they can be dead,
17113 and they can be foreign. No restrictions.
17115 @vindex nnkiboze-directory
17116 The generation of an @code{nnkiboze} group means writing two files in
17117 @code{nnkiboze-directory}, which is @file{~/News/} by default. One
17118 contains the @sc{nov} header lines for all the articles in the group,
17119 and the other is an additional @file{.newsrc} file to store information
17120 on what groups have been searched through to find component articles.
17122 Articles marked as read in the @code{nnkiboze} group will have
17123 their @sc{nov} lines removed from the @sc{nov} file.
17126 @node Gnus Unplugged
17127 @section Gnus Unplugged
17132 @cindex Gnus Unplugged
17134 In olden times (ca. February '88), people used to run their newsreaders
17135 on big machines with permanent connections to the net. News transport
17136 was dealt with by news servers, and all the newsreaders had to do was to
17137 read news. Believe it or not.
17139 Nowadays most people read news and mail at home, and use some sort of
17140 modem to connect to the net. To avoid running up huge phone bills, it
17141 would be nice to have a way to slurp down all the news and mail, hang up
17142 the phone, read for several hours, and then upload any responses you
17143 have to make. And then you repeat the procedure.
17145 Of course, you can use news servers for doing this as well. I've used
17146 @code{inn} together with @code{slurp}, @code{pop} and @code{sendmail}
17147 for some years, but doing that's a bore. Moving the news server
17148 functionality up to the newsreader makes sense if you're the only person
17149 reading news on a machine.
17151 Setting up Gnus as an ``offline'' newsreader is quite simple. In
17152 fact, you don't even have to configure anything.
17154 Of course, to use it as such, you have to learn a few new commands.
17157 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
17158 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
17159 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
17160 * Agent as Cache:: The Agent is a big cache too.
17161 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
17162 * Agent Regeneration:: How to recover from lost connections and other accidents.
17163 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with IMAP.
17164 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
17165 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
17166 * Example Setup:: An example @file{~/.gnus.el} file for offline people.
17167 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
17168 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
17173 @subsection Agent Basics
17175 First, let's get some terminology out of the way.
17177 The Gnus Agent is said to be @dfn{unplugged} when you have severed the
17178 connection to the net (and notified the Agent that this is the case).
17179 When the connection to the net is up again (and Gnus knows this), the
17180 Agent is @dfn{plugged}.
17182 The @dfn{local} machine is the one you're running on, and which isn't
17183 connected to the net continuously.
17185 @dfn{Downloading} means fetching things from the net to your local
17186 machine. @dfn{Uploading} is doing the opposite.
17188 Let's take a typical Gnus session using the Agent.
17193 @findex gnus-unplugged
17194 You start Gnus with @code{gnus-unplugged}. This brings up the Gnus
17195 Agent in a disconnected state. You can read all the news that you have
17196 already fetched while in this mode.
17199 You then decide to see whether any new news has arrived. You connect
17200 your machine to the net (using PPP or whatever), and then hit @kbd{J j}
17201 to make Gnus become @dfn{plugged} and use @kbd{g} to check for new mail
17202 as usual. To check for new mail in unplugged mode, see (@pxref{Mail
17203 Source Specifiers}).
17206 You can then read the new news immediately, or you can download the news
17207 onto your local machine. If you want to do the latter, you press @kbd{g}
17208 to check if there are any new news and then @kbd{J
17209 s} to fetch all the eligible articles in all the groups. (To let Gnus
17210 know which articles you want to download, @pxref{Agent Categories}.)
17213 After fetching the articles, you press @kbd{J j} to make Gnus become
17214 unplugged again, and you shut down the PPP thing (or whatever). And
17215 then you read the news offline.
17218 And then you go to step 2.
17221 Here are some things you should do the first time (or so) that you use
17227 Decide which servers should be covered by the Agent. If you have a mail
17228 back end, it would probably be nonsensical to have it covered by the
17229 Agent. Go to the server buffer (@kbd{^} in the group buffer) and press
17230 @kbd{J a} on the server (or servers) that you wish to have covered by the
17231 Agent (@pxref{Server Agent Commands}), or @kbd{J r} on automatically
17232 added servers you do not wish to have covered by the Agent. By default,
17233 all @code{nntp} and @code{nnimap} groups in @code{gnus-select-method} and
17234 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} are agentized.
17238 Decide on download policy. It's fairly simple once you decide whether
17239 you are going to use agent categories, topic parameters, and/or group
17240 parameters to implement your policy. If you're new to gnus, it
17241 is probably best to start with a category @xref{Agent Categories}.
17243 Both topic parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}) and agent categories
17244 (@pxref{Agent Categories}) provide for setting a policy that applies
17245 to multiple groups. Which you use is entirely up to you. Topic
17246 parameters do override categories so, if you mix the two, you'll have
17247 to take that into account. If you have a few groups that deviate from
17248 your policy, you can use grou parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to
17252 Uhm@dots{} that's it.
17256 @node Agent Categories
17257 @subsection Agent Categories
17259 One of the main reasons to integrate the news transport layer into the
17260 newsreader is to allow greater control over what articles to download.
17261 There's not much point in downloading huge amounts of articles, just to
17262 find out that you're not interested in reading any of them. It's better
17263 to be somewhat more conservative in choosing what to download, and then
17264 mark the articles for downloading manually if it should turn out that
17265 you're interested in the articles anyway.
17267 One of the more effective methods for controlling what is to be
17268 downloaded is to create a @dfn{category} and then assign some (or all)
17269 groups to this category. Groups that do not belong in any other
17270 category belong to the @code{default} category. Gnus has its own
17271 buffer for creating and managing categories.
17273 If you prefer, you can also use group parameters (@pxref{Group
17274 Parameters}) and topic parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}) for an
17275 alternative approach to controlling the agent. The only real
17276 difference is that categories are specific to the agent (so there is
17277 less to learn) while group and topic parameters include the kitchen
17280 Since you can set agent parameters in several different places we have
17281 a rule to decide which source to believe. This rule specifies that
17282 the parameter sources are checked in the following order: group
17283 parameters, topic parameters, agent category, and finally customizable
17284 variables. So you can mix all of these sources to produce a wide range
17285 of behavior, just don't blame me if you don't remember where you put
17289 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
17290 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
17291 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
17295 @node Category Syntax
17296 @subsubsection Category Syntax
17298 A category consists of a name, the list of groups belonging to the
17299 category, and a number of optional parameters that override the
17300 customizable variables. The complete list of agent parameters are
17304 @item gnus-agent-cat-name
17305 The name of the category.
17307 @item gnus-agent-cat-groups
17308 The list of groups that are in this category.
17310 @item gnus-agent-cat-predicate
17311 A predicate which (generally) gives a rough outline of which articles
17312 are eligible for downloading; and
17314 @item gnus-agent-cat-score-file
17315 a score rule which (generally) gives you a finer granularity when
17316 deciding what articles to download. (Note that this @dfn{download
17317 score} is not necessarily related to normal scores.)
17319 @item gnus-agent-cat-enable-expiration
17320 a boolean indicating whether the agent should expire old articles in
17321 this group. Most groups should be expired to conserve disk space. In
17322 fact, its probably safe to say that the gnus.* hierarchy contains the
17323 only groups that should not be expired.
17325 @item gnus-agent-cat-days-until-old
17326 an integer indicating the number of days that the agent should wait
17327 before deciding that a read article is safe to expire.
17329 @item gnus-agent-cat-low-score
17330 an integer that overrides the value of @code{gnus-agent-low-score}.
17332 @item gnus-agent-cat-high-score
17333 an integer that overrides the value of @code{gnus-agent-high-score}.
17335 @item gnus-agent-cat-length-when-short
17336 an integer that overrides the value of
17337 @code{gnus-agent-short-article}.
17339 @item gnus-agent-cat-length-when-long
17340 an integer that overrides the value of @code{gnus-agent-long-article}.
17343 The name of a category can not be changed once the category has been
17346 Each category maintains a list of groups that are exclusive members of
17347 that category. The exclusivity rule is automatically enforced, add a
17348 group to a new category and it is automatically removed from its old
17351 A predicate in its simplest form can be a single predicate such as
17352 @code{true} or @code{false}. These two will download every available
17353 article or nothing respectively. In the case of these two special
17354 predicates an additional score rule is superfluous.
17356 Predicates of @code{high} or @code{low} download articles in respect of
17357 their scores in relationship to @code{gnus-agent-high-score} and
17358 @code{gnus-agent-low-score} as described below.
17360 To gain even finer control of what is to be regarded eligible for
17361 download a predicate can consist of a number of predicates with logical
17362 operators sprinkled in between.
17364 Perhaps some examples are in order.
17366 Here's a simple predicate. (It's the default predicate, in fact, used
17367 for all groups that don't belong to any other category.)
17373 Quite simple, eh? This predicate is true if and only if the article is
17374 short (for some value of ``short'').
17376 Here's a more complex predicate:
17385 This means that an article should be downloaded if it has a high score,
17386 or if the score is not low and the article is not long. You get the
17389 The available logical operators are @code{or}, @code{and} and
17390 @code{not}. (If you prefer, you can use the more ``C''-ish operators
17391 @samp{|}, @code{&} and @code{!} instead.)
17393 The following predicates are pre-defined, but if none of these fit what
17394 you want to do, you can write your own.
17396 When evaluating each of these predicates, the named constant will be
17397 bound to the value determined by calling
17398 @code{gnus-agent-find-parameter} on the appropriate parameter. For
17399 example, gnus-agent-short-article will be bound to
17400 @code{(gnus-agent-find-parameter group 'agent-short-article)}. This
17401 means that you can specify a predicate in your category then tune that
17402 predicate to individual groups.
17406 True iff the article is shorter than @code{gnus-agent-short-article}
17407 lines; default 100.
17410 True iff the article is longer than @code{gnus-agent-long-article}
17411 lines; default 200.
17414 True iff the article has a download score less than
17415 @code{gnus-agent-low-score}; default 0.
17418 True iff the article has a download score greater than
17419 @code{gnus-agent-high-score}; default 0.
17422 True iff the Gnus Agent guesses that the article is spam. The
17423 heuristics may change over time, but at present it just computes a
17424 checksum and sees whether articles match.
17433 If you want to create your own predicate function, here's what you have
17434 to know: The functions are called with no parameters, but the
17435 @code{gnus-headers} and @code{gnus-score} dynamic variables are bound to
17438 For example, you could decide that you don't want to download articles
17439 that were posted more than a certain number of days ago (e.g. posted
17440 more than @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} ago) you might write a function
17441 something along the lines of the following:
17444 (defun my-article-old-p ()
17445 "Say whether an article is old."
17446 (< (time-to-days (date-to-time (mail-header-date gnus-headers)))
17447 (- (time-to-days (current-time)) gnus-agent-expire-days)))
17450 with the predicate then defined as:
17453 (not my-article-old-p)
17456 or you could append your predicate to the predefined
17457 @code{gnus-category-predicate-alist} in your @file{~/.gnus.el} or
17461 (require 'gnus-agent)
17462 (setq gnus-category-predicate-alist
17463 (append gnus-category-predicate-alist
17464 '((old . my-article-old-p))))
17467 and simply specify your predicate as:
17473 If/when using something like the above, be aware that there are many
17474 misconfigured systems/mailers out there and so an article's date is not
17475 always a reliable indication of when it was posted. Hell, some people
17476 just don't give a damn.
17478 The above predicates apply to @emph{all} the groups which belong to the
17479 category. However, if you wish to have a specific predicate for an
17480 individual group within a category, or you're just too lazy to set up a
17481 new category, you can enter a group's individual predicate in it's group
17482 parameters like so:
17485 (agent-predicate . short)
17488 This is the group/topic parameter equivalent of the agent category default.
17489 Note that when specifying a single word predicate like this, the
17490 @code{agent-predicate} specification must be in dotted pair notation.
17492 The equivalent of the longer example from above would be:
17495 (agent-predicate or high (and (not low) (not long)))
17498 The outer parenthesis required in the category specification are not
17499 entered here as, not being in dotted pair notation, the value of the
17500 predicate is assumed to be a list.
17503 Now, the syntax of the download score is the same as the syntax of
17504 normal score files, except that all elements that require actually
17505 seeing the article itself are verboten. This means that only the
17506 following headers can be scored on: @code{Subject}, @code{From},
17507 @code{Date}, @code{Message-ID}, @code{References}, @code{Chars},
17508 @code{Lines}, and @code{Xref}.
17510 As with predicates, the specification of the @code{download score rule}
17511 to use in respect of a group can be in either the category definition if
17512 it's to be applicable to all groups in therein, or a group's parameters
17513 if it's to be specific to that group.
17515 In both of these places the @code{download score rule} can take one of
17522 This has the same syntax as a normal gnus score file except only a
17523 subset of scoring keywords are available as mentioned above.
17529 Category specification
17533 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
17539 Group/Topic Parameter specification
17542 (agent-score ("from"
17543 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
17548 Again, note the omission of the outermost parenthesis here.
17554 These score files must @emph{only} contain the permitted scoring
17555 keywords stated above.
17561 Category specification
17564 ("~/News/agent.SCORE")
17570 ("~/News/agent.SCORE" "~/News/agent.group.SCORE")
17574 Group Parameter specification
17577 (agent-score "~/News/agent.SCORE")
17580 Additional score files can be specified as above. Need I say anything
17585 Use @code{normal} score files
17587 If you don't want to maintain two sets of scoring rules for a group, and
17588 your desired @code{downloading} criteria for a group are the same as your
17589 @code{reading} criteria then you can tell the agent to refer to your
17590 @code{normal} score files when deciding what to download.
17592 These directives in either the category definition or a group's
17593 parameters will cause the agent to read in all the applicable score
17594 files for a group, @emph{filtering out} those sections that do not
17595 relate to one of the permitted subset of scoring keywords.
17599 Category Specification
17606 Group Parameter specification
17609 (agent-score . file)
17614 @node Category Buffer
17615 @subsubsection Category Buffer
17617 You'd normally do all category maintenance from the category buffer.
17618 When you enter it for the first time (with the @kbd{J c} command from
17619 the group buffer), you'll only see the @code{default} category.
17621 The following commands are available in this buffer:
17625 @kindex q (Category)
17626 @findex gnus-category-exit
17627 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-category-exit}).
17630 @kindex e (Category)
17631 @findex gnus-category-customize-category
17632 Use a customization buffer to set all of the selected category's
17633 parameters at one time (@code{gnus-category-customize-category}).
17636 @kindex k (Category)
17637 @findex gnus-category-kill
17638 Kill the current category (@code{gnus-category-kill}).
17641 @kindex c (Category)
17642 @findex gnus-category-copy
17643 Copy the current category (@code{gnus-category-copy}).
17646 @kindex a (Category)
17647 @findex gnus-category-add
17648 Add a new category (@code{gnus-category-add}).
17651 @kindex p (Category)
17652 @findex gnus-category-edit-predicate
17653 Edit the predicate of the current category
17654 (@code{gnus-category-edit-predicate}).
17657 @kindex g (Category)
17658 @findex gnus-category-edit-groups
17659 Edit the list of groups belonging to the current category
17660 (@code{gnus-category-edit-groups}).
17663 @kindex s (Category)
17664 @findex gnus-category-edit-score
17665 Edit the download score rule of the current category
17666 (@code{gnus-category-edit-score}).
17669 @kindex l (Category)
17670 @findex gnus-category-list
17671 List all the categories (@code{gnus-category-list}).
17675 @node Category Variables
17676 @subsubsection Category Variables
17679 @item gnus-category-mode-hook
17680 @vindex gnus-category-mode-hook
17681 Hook run in category buffers.
17683 @item gnus-category-line-format
17684 @vindex gnus-category-line-format
17685 Format of the lines in the category buffer (@pxref{Formatting
17686 Variables}). Valid elements are:
17690 The name of the category.
17693 The number of groups in the category.
17696 @item gnus-category-mode-line-format
17697 @vindex gnus-category-mode-line-format
17698 Format of the category mode line (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}).
17700 @item gnus-agent-short-article
17701 @vindex gnus-agent-short-article
17702 Articles that have fewer lines than this are short. Default 100.
17704 @item gnus-agent-long-article
17705 @vindex gnus-agent-long-article
17706 Articles that have more lines than this are long. Default 200.
17708 @item gnus-agent-low-score
17709 @vindex gnus-agent-low-score
17710 Articles that have a score lower than this have a low score. Default
17713 @item gnus-agent-high-score
17714 @vindex gnus-agent-high-score
17715 Articles that have a score higher than this have a high score. Default
17718 @item gnus-agent-expire-days
17719 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-days
17720 The number of days that a @samp{read} article must stay in the agent's
17721 local disk before becoming eligible for expiration (While the name is
17722 the same, this doesn't mean expiring the article on the server. It
17723 just means deleting the local copy of the article). What is also
17724 important to understand is that the counter starts with the time the
17725 article was written to the local disk and not the time the article was
17729 @item gnus-agent-enable-expiration
17730 @vindex gnus-agent-enable-expiration
17731 Determines whether articles in a group are, by default, expired or
17732 retained indefinitely. The default is @code{ENABLE} which means that
17733 you'll have to disable expiration when desired. On the other hand,
17734 you could set this to @code{DISABLE}. In that case, you would then
17735 have to enable expiration in selected groups.
17740 @node Agent Commands
17741 @subsection Agent Commands
17742 @findex gnus-agent-toggle-plugged
17743 @kindex J j (Agent)
17745 All the Gnus Agent commands are on the @kbd{J} submap. The @kbd{J j}
17746 (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-plugged}) command works in all modes, and
17747 toggles the plugged/unplugged state of the Gnus Agent.
17751 * Group Agent Commands:: Configure groups and fetch their contents.
17752 * Summary Agent Commands:: Manually select then fetch specific articles.
17753 * Server Agent Commands:: Select the servers that are supported by the agent.
17759 @node Group Agent Commands
17760 @subsubsection Group Agent Commands
17764 @kindex J u (Agent Group)
17765 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-groups
17766 Fetch all eligible articles in the current group
17767 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-groups}).
17770 @kindex J c (Agent Group)
17771 @findex gnus-enter-category-buffer
17772 Enter the Agent category buffer (@code{gnus-enter-category-buffer}).
17775 @kindex J s (Agent Group)
17776 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-session
17777 Fetch all eligible articles in all groups
17778 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-session}).
17781 @kindex J S (Agent Group)
17782 @findex gnus-group-send-queue
17783 Send all sendable messages in the queue group
17784 (@code{gnus-group-send-queue}). @xref{Drafts}.
17787 @kindex J a (Agent Group)
17788 @findex gnus-agent-add-group
17789 Add the current group to an Agent category
17790 (@code{gnus-agent-add-group}). This command understands the
17791 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
17794 @kindex J r (Agent Group)
17795 @findex gnus-agent-remove-group
17796 Remove the current group from its category, if any
17797 (@code{gnus-agent-remove-group}). This command understands the
17798 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
17801 @kindex J Y (Agent Group)
17802 @findex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
17803 Synchronize flags changed while unplugged with remote server, if any.
17809 @node Summary Agent Commands
17810 @subsubsection Summary Agent Commands
17814 @kindex J # (Agent Summary)
17815 @findex gnus-agent-mark-article
17816 Mark the article for downloading (@code{gnus-agent-mark-article}).
17819 @kindex J M-# (Agent Summary)
17820 @findex gnus-agent-unmark-article
17821 Remove the downloading mark from the article
17822 (@code{gnus-agent-unmark-article}).
17826 @kindex @@ (Agent Summary)
17827 @findex gnus-agent-toggle-mark
17828 Toggle whether to download the article
17829 (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-mark}). The dowload mark is @samp{%} by
17833 @kindex J c (Agent Summary)
17834 @findex gnus-agent-catchup
17835 Mark all articles as read (@code{gnus-agent-catchup}) that are neither cached, downloaded, nor downloadable.
17838 @kindex J S (Agent Summary)
17839 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-group
17840 Download all eligible (See @pxref{Agent Categories}) articles in this group.
17841 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-group}).
17844 @kindex J s (Agent Summary)
17845 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-series
17846 Download all processable articles in this group.
17847 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-series}).
17850 @kindex J u (Agent Summary)
17851 @findex gnus-agent-summary-fetch-group
17852 Download all downloadable articles in the current group
17853 (@code{gnus-agent-summary-fetch-group}).
17858 @node Server Agent Commands
17859 @subsubsection Server Agent Commands
17863 @kindex J a (Agent Server)
17864 @findex gnus-agent-add-server
17865 Add the current server to the list of servers covered by the Gnus Agent
17866 (@code{gnus-agent-add-server}).
17869 @kindex J r (Agent Server)
17870 @findex gnus-agent-remove-server
17871 Remove the current server from the list of servers covered by the Gnus
17872 Agent (@code{gnus-agent-remove-server}).
17877 @node Agent as Cache
17878 @subsection Agent as Cache
17880 When Gnus is plugged, it is not efficient to download headers or
17881 articles from the server again, if they are already stored in the
17882 Agent. So, Gnus normally only downloads headers once, and stores them
17883 in the Agent. These headers are later used when generating the summary
17884 buffer, regardless of whether you are plugged or unplugged. Articles
17885 are not cached in the Agent by default though (that would potentially
17886 consume lots of disk space), but if you have already downloaded an
17887 article into the Agent, Gnus will not download the article from the
17888 server again but use the locally stored copy instead.
17890 If you so desire, you can configure the agent (see @code{gnus-agent-cache}
17891 @pxref{Agent Variables}) to always download headers and articles while
17892 plugged. Gnus will almost certainly be slower, but it will be kept
17893 synchronized with the server. That last point probably won't make any
17894 sense if you are using a nntp or nnimap backend.
17897 @subsection Agent Expiry
17899 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-days
17900 @findex gnus-agent-expire
17901 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-expire
17902 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-expire-group
17903 @findex gnus-agent-expire-group
17904 @cindex Agent expiry
17905 @cindex Gnus Agent expiry
17908 The Agent backend, @code{nnagent}, doesn't handle expiry. Well, at
17909 least it doesn't handle it like other backends. Instead, there are
17910 special @code{gnus-agent-expire} and @code{gnus-agent-expire-group}
17911 commands that will expire all read articles that are older than
17912 @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} days. They can be run whenever you feel
17913 that you're running out of space. Neither are particularly fast or
17914 efficient, and it's not a particularly good idea to interrupt them (with
17915 @kbd{C-g} or anything else) once you've started one of them.
17917 Note that other functions, e.g. @code{gnus-request-expire-articles},
17918 might run @code{gnus-agent-expire} for you to keep the agent
17919 synchronized with the group.
17921 The agent parameter @code{agent-enable-expiration} may be used to
17922 prevent expiration in selected groups.
17924 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-all
17925 If @code{gnus-agent-expire-all} is non-@code{nil}, the agent
17926 expiration commands will expire all articles---unread, read, ticked
17927 and dormant. If @code{nil} (which is the default), only read articles
17928 are eligible for expiry, and unread, ticked and dormant articles will
17929 be kept indefinitely.
17931 If you find that some articles eligible for expiry are never expired,
17932 perhaps some Gnus Agent files are corrupted. There's are special
17933 commands, @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} and
17934 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group}, to fix possible problems.
17936 @node Agent Regeneration
17937 @subsection Agent Regeneration
17939 @cindex Agent Regeneration
17940 @cindex Gnus Agent Regeneration
17941 @cindex regeneration
17943 The local data structures used by @code{nnagent} may become corrupted
17944 due to certain exceptional conditions. When this happens,
17945 @code{nnagent} functionality may degrade or even fail. The solution
17946 to this problem is to repair the local data structures by removing all
17947 internal inconsistencies.
17949 For example, if your connection to your server is lost while
17950 downloaded articles into the agent, the local data structures will not
17951 know about articles successfully downloaded prior to the connection
17952 failure. Running @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} or
17953 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} will update the data structures
17954 such that you don't need to download these articles a second time.
17956 @findex gnus-agent-regenerate
17957 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-regenerate
17958 The command @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} will perform
17959 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} on every agentized group. While
17960 you can run @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} in any buffer, it is strongly
17961 recommended that you first close all summary buffers.
17963 @findex gnus-agent-regenerate-group
17964 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-regenerate-group
17965 The command @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} uses the local copies
17966 of individual articles to repair the local NOV(header) database. It
17967 then updates the internal data structures that document which articles
17968 are stored locally. An optional argument will mark articles in the
17971 @node Agent and IMAP
17972 @subsection Agent and IMAP
17974 The Agent works with any Gnus back end, including nnimap. However,
17975 since there are some conceptual differences between @sc{nntp} and
17976 @sc{imap}, this section (should) provide you with some information to
17977 make Gnus Agent work smoother as a @sc{imap} Disconnected Mode client.
17979 The first thing to keep in mind is that all flags (read, ticked, etc)
17980 are kept on the @sc{imap} server, rather than in @file{.newsrc} as is the
17981 case for nntp. Thus Gnus need to remember flag changes when
17982 disconnected, and synchronize these flags when you plug back in.
17984 Gnus keeps track of flag changes when reading nnimap groups under the
17985 Agent. When you plug back in, Gnus will check if you have any changed
17986 any flags and ask if you wish to synchronize these with the server.
17987 The behavior is customizable by @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags}.
17989 @vindex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
17990 If @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} is @code{nil}, the Agent will
17991 never automatically synchronize flags. If it is @code{ask}, which is
17992 the default, the Agent will check if you made any changes and if so
17993 ask if you wish to synchronize these when you re-connect. If it has
17994 any other value, all flags will be synchronized automatically.
17996 If you do not wish to synchronize flags automatically when you
17997 re-connect, you can do it manually with the
17998 @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} command that is bound to @kbd{J Y}
17999 in the group buffer.
18001 Some things are currently not implemented in the Agent that you'd might
18002 expect from a disconnected @sc{imap} client, including:
18007 Copying/moving articles into nnimap groups when unplugged.
18010 Creating/deleting nnimap groups when unplugged.
18014 Technical note: the synchronization algorithm does not work by ``pushing''
18015 all local flags to the server, but rather incrementally update the
18016 server view of flags by changing only those flags that were changed by
18017 the user. Thus, if you set one flag on a article, quit the group and
18018 re-select the group and remove the flag; the flag will be set and
18019 removed from the server when you ``synchronize''. The queued flag
18020 operations can be found in the per-server @code{flags} file in the Agent
18021 directory. It's emptied when you synchronize flags.
18024 @node Outgoing Messages
18025 @subsection Outgoing Messages
18027 When Gnus is unplugged, all outgoing messages (both mail and news) are
18028 stored in the draft group ``queue'' (@pxref{Drafts}). You can view
18029 them there after posting, and edit them at will.
18031 When Gnus is plugged again, you can send the messages either from the
18032 draft group with the special commands available there, or you can use
18033 the @kbd{J S} command in the group buffer to send all the sendable
18034 messages in the draft group.
18038 @node Agent Variables
18039 @subsection Agent Variables
18042 @item gnus-agent-directory
18043 @vindex gnus-agent-directory
18044 Where the Gnus Agent will store its files. The default is
18045 @file{~/News/agent/}.
18047 @item gnus-agent-handle-level
18048 @vindex gnus-agent-handle-level
18049 Groups on levels (@pxref{Group Levels}) higher than this variable will
18050 be ignored by the Agent. The default is @code{gnus-level-subscribed},
18051 which means that only subscribed group will be considered by the Agent
18054 @item gnus-agent-plugged-hook
18055 @vindex gnus-agent-plugged-hook
18056 Hook run when connecting to the network.
18058 @item gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
18059 @vindex gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
18060 Hook run when disconnecting from the network.
18062 @item gnus-agent-fetched-hook
18063 @vindex gnus-agent-fetched-hook
18064 Hook run when finished fetching articles.
18066 @item gnus-agent-cache
18067 @vindex gnus-agent-cache
18068 Variable to control whether use the locally stored @sc{nov} and
18069 articles when plugged, e.g. essentially using the Agent as a cache.
18070 The default is non-nil, which means to use the Agent as a cache.
18072 @item gnus-agent-go-online
18073 @vindex gnus-agent-go-online
18074 If @code{gnus-agent-go-online} is @code{nil}, the Agent will never
18075 automatically switch offline servers into online status. If it is
18076 @code{ask}, the default, the Agent will ask if you wish to switch
18077 offline servers into online status when you re-connect. If it has any
18078 other value, all offline servers will be automatically switched into
18081 @item gnus-agent-mark-unread-after-downloaded
18082 @vindex gnus-agent-mark-unread-after-downloaded
18083 If @code{gnus-agent-mark-unread-after-downloaded} is non-@code{nil},
18084 mark articles as unread after downloading. This is usually a safe
18085 thing to do as the newly downloaded article has obviously not been
18086 read. The default is t.
18088 @item gnus-agent-consider-all-articles
18089 @vindex gnus-agent-consider-all-articles
18090 If @code{gnus-agent-consider-all-articles} is non-@code{nil}, the
18091 agent will fetch all missing headers. When @code{nil}, the agent will
18092 fetch only new headers. The default is @code{nil}.
18094 @item gnus-agent-max-fetch-size
18095 @vindex gnus-agent-max-fetch-size
18096 The agent fetches articles into a temporary buffer prior to parsing
18097 them into individual files. To avoid exceeding the max. buffer size,
18098 the agent alternates between fetching and parsing until all articles
18099 have been fetched. @code{gnus-agent-max-fetch-size} provides a size
18100 limit to control how often the cycling occurs. A large value improves
18101 performance. A small value minimizes the time lost should the
18102 connection be lost while fetching (You may need to run
18103 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} to update the group's state.
18104 However, all articles parsed prior to loosing the connection will be
18105 available while unplugged). The default is 10M so it is unusual to
18108 @item gnus-server-unopen-status
18109 @vindex gnus-server-unopen-status
18110 Perhaps not a Agent variable, but closely related to the Agent, this
18111 variable says what will happen if Gnus cannot open a server. If the
18112 Agent is enabled, the default, @code{nil}, makes Gnus ask the user
18113 whether to deny the server or whether to unplug the agent. If the
18114 Agent is disabled, Gnus always simply deny the server. Other choices
18115 for this variable include @code{denied} and @code{offline} the latter
18116 is only valid if the Agent is used.
18118 @item gnus-auto-goto-ignores
18119 @vindex gnus-auto-goto-ignores
18120 Another variable that isn't a Agent variable, yet so closely related
18121 that most will look for it here, this variable tells the summary
18122 buffer how to maneuver around undownloaded (only headers stored in the
18123 agent) and unfetched (neither article nor headers stored) articles.
18125 The legal values are @code{nil} (maneuver to any article),
18126 @code{undownloaded} (maneuvering while unplugged ignores articles that
18127 have not been fetched), @code{always-undownloaded} (maneuvering always
18128 ignores articles that have not been fetched), @code{unfetched}
18129 (maneuvering ignores articles whose headers have not been fetched).
18134 @node Example Setup
18135 @subsection Example Setup
18137 If you don't want to read this manual, and you have a fairly standard
18138 setup, you may be able to use something like the following as your
18139 @file{~/.gnus.el} file to get started.
18142 ;;; Define how Gnus is to fetch news. We do this over @sc{nntp}
18143 ;;; from your ISP's server.
18144 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.your-isp.com"))
18146 ;;; Define how Gnus is to read your mail. We read mail from
18147 ;;; your ISP's POP server.
18148 (setq mail-sources '((pop :server "pop.your-isp.com")))
18150 ;;; Say how Gnus is to store the mail. We use nnml groups.
18151 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
18153 ;;; Make Gnus into an offline newsreader.
18154 ;;; (gnus-agentize) ; The obsolete setting.
18155 ;;; (setq gnus-agent t) ; Now the default.
18158 That should be it, basically. Put that in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file,
18159 edit to suit your needs, start up PPP (or whatever), and type @kbd{M-x
18162 If this is the first time you've run Gnus, you will be subscribed
18163 automatically to a few default newsgroups. You'll probably want to
18164 subscribe to more groups, and to do that, you have to query the
18165 @sc{nntp} server for a complete list of groups with the @kbd{A A}
18166 command. This usually takes quite a while, but you only have to do it
18169 After reading and parsing a while, you'll be presented with a list of
18170 groups. Subscribe to the ones you want to read with the @kbd{u}
18171 command. @kbd{l} to make all the killed groups disappear after you've
18172 subscribe to all the groups you want to read. (@kbd{A k} will bring
18173 back all the killed groups.)
18175 You can now read the groups at once, or you can download the articles
18176 with the @kbd{J s} command. And then read the rest of this manual to
18177 find out which of the other gazillion things you want to customize.
18180 @node Batching Agents
18181 @subsection Batching Agents
18182 @findex gnus-agent-batch
18184 Having the Gnus Agent fetch articles (and post whatever messages you've
18185 written) is quite easy once you've gotten things set up properly. The
18186 following shell script will do everything that is necessary:
18188 You can run a complete batch command from the command line with the
18189 following incantation:
18193 emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -f -l ~/.gnus.el gnus-agent-batch >/dev/null 2>&1
18197 @node Agent Caveats
18198 @subsection Agent Caveats
18200 The Gnus Agent doesn't seem to work like most other offline
18201 newsreaders. Here are some common questions that some imaginary people
18205 @item If I read an article while plugged, do they get entered into the Agent?
18207 @strong{No}. If you want this behaviour, add
18208 @code{gnus-agent-fetch-selected-article} to
18209 @code{gnus-select-article-hook}.
18211 @item If I read an article while plugged, and the article already exists in
18212 the Agent, will it get downloaded once more?
18214 @strong{No}, unless @code{gnus-agent-cache} is @code{nil}.
18218 In short, when Gnus is unplugged, it only looks into the locally stored
18219 articles; when it's plugged, it talks to your ISP and may also use the
18220 locally stored articles.
18227 Other people use @dfn{kill files}, but we here at Gnus Towers like
18228 scoring better than killing, so we'd rather switch than fight. They do
18229 something completely different as well, so sit up straight and pay
18232 @vindex gnus-summary-mark-below
18233 All articles have a default score (@code{gnus-summary-default-score}),
18234 which is 0 by default. This score may be raised or lowered either
18235 interactively or by score files. Articles that have a score lower than
18236 @code{gnus-summary-mark-below} are marked as read.
18238 Gnus will read any @dfn{score files} that apply to the current group
18239 before generating the summary buffer.
18241 There are several commands in the summary buffer that insert score
18242 entries based on the current article. You can, for instance, ask Gnus to
18243 lower or increase the score of all articles with a certain subject.
18245 There are two sorts of scoring entries: Permanent and temporary.
18246 Temporary score entries are self-expiring entries. Any entries that are
18247 temporary and have not been used for, say, a week, will be removed
18248 silently to help keep the sizes of the score files down.
18251 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
18252 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
18253 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
18254 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
18255 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
18256 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
18257 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
18258 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
18259 * Scoring On Other Headers:: Scoring on non-standard headers.
18260 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
18261 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
18262 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
18263 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
18264 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
18265 * GroupLens:: Getting predictions on what you like to read.
18266 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
18267 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
18271 @node Summary Score Commands
18272 @section Summary Score Commands
18273 @cindex score commands
18275 The score commands that alter score entries do not actually modify real
18276 score files. That would be too inefficient. Gnus maintains a cache of
18277 previously loaded score files, one of which is considered the
18278 @dfn{current score file alist}. The score commands simply insert
18279 entries into this list, and upon group exit, this list is saved.
18281 The current score file is by default the group's local score file, even
18282 if no such score file actually exists. To insert score commands into
18283 some other score file (e.g. @file{all.SCORE}), you must first make this
18284 score file the current one.
18286 General score commands that don't actually change the score file:
18291 @kindex V s (Summary)
18292 @findex gnus-summary-set-score
18293 Set the score of the current article (@code{gnus-summary-set-score}).
18296 @kindex V S (Summary)
18297 @findex gnus-summary-current-score
18298 Display the score of the current article
18299 (@code{gnus-summary-current-score}).
18302 @kindex V t (Summary)
18303 @findex gnus-score-find-trace
18304 Display all score rules that have been used on the current article
18305 (@code{gnus-score-find-trace}). In the @code{*Score Trace*} buffer, you
18306 can use @kbd{q} to quit. @kbd{e} edits the corresponding score file.
18307 When point is on a string within the match element, @kbd{e} will try to
18308 bring you to this string in the score file.
18311 @kindex V w (Summary)
18312 @findex gnus-score-find-favourite-words
18313 List words used in scoring (@code{gnus-score-find-favourite-words}).
18316 @kindex V R (Summary)
18317 @findex gnus-summary-rescore
18318 Run the current summary through the scoring process
18319 (@code{gnus-summary-rescore}). This might be useful if you're playing
18320 around with your score files behind Gnus' back and want to see the
18321 effect you're having.
18324 @kindex V c (Summary)
18325 @findex gnus-score-change-score-file
18326 Make a different score file the current
18327 (@code{gnus-score-change-score-file}).
18330 @kindex V e (Summary)
18331 @findex gnus-score-edit-current-scores
18332 Edit the current score file (@code{gnus-score-edit-current-scores}).
18333 You will be popped into a @code{gnus-score-mode} buffer (@pxref{Score
18337 @kindex V f (Summary)
18338 @findex gnus-score-edit-file
18339 Edit a score file and make this score file the current one
18340 (@code{gnus-score-edit-file}).
18343 @kindex V F (Summary)
18344 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
18345 Flush the score cache (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}). This is useful
18346 after editing score files.
18349 @kindex V C (Summary)
18350 @findex gnus-score-customize
18351 Customize a score file in a visually pleasing manner
18352 (@code{gnus-score-customize}).
18356 The rest of these commands modify the local score file.
18361 @kindex V m (Summary)
18362 @findex gnus-score-set-mark-below
18363 Prompt for a score, and mark all articles with a score below this as
18364 read (@code{gnus-score-set-mark-below}).
18367 @kindex V x (Summary)
18368 @findex gnus-score-set-expunge-below
18369 Prompt for a score, and add a score rule to the current score file to
18370 expunge all articles below this score
18371 (@code{gnus-score-set-expunge-below}).
18374 The keystrokes for actually making score entries follow a very regular
18375 pattern, so there's no need to list all the commands. (Hundreds of
18378 @findex gnus-summary-increase-score
18379 @findex gnus-summary-lower-score
18383 The first key is either @kbd{I} (upper case i) for increasing the score
18384 or @kbd{L} for lowering the score.
18386 The second key says what header you want to score on. The following
18387 keys are available:
18391 Score on the author name.
18394 Score on the subject line.
18397 Score on the @code{Xref} line---i.e., the cross-posting line.
18400 Score on the @code{References} line.
18406 Score on the number of lines.
18409 Score on the @code{Message-ID} header.
18412 Score on an ``extra'' header, that is, one of those in gnus-extra-headers,
18413 if your @sc{nntp} server tracks additional header data in overviews.
18416 Score on followups---this matches the author name, and adds scores to
18417 the followups to this author. (Using this key leads to the creation of
18418 @file{ADAPT} files.)
18427 Score on thread. (Using this key leads to the creation of @file{ADAPT}
18433 The third key is the match type. Which match types are valid depends on
18434 what headers you are scoring on.
18446 Substring matching.
18449 Fuzzy matching (@pxref{Fuzzy Matching}).
18478 Greater than number.
18483 The fourth and usually final key says whether this is a temporary (i.e.,
18484 expiring) score entry, or a permanent (i.e., non-expiring) score entry,
18485 or whether it is to be done immediately, without adding to the score
18490 Temporary score entry.
18493 Permanent score entry.
18496 Immediately scoring.
18500 If you are scoring on `e' (extra) headers, you will then be prompted for
18501 the header name on which you wish to score. This must be a header named
18502 in gnus-extra-headers, and @samp{TAB} completion is available.
18506 So, let's say you want to increase the score on the current author with
18507 exact matching permanently: @kbd{I a e p}. If you want to lower the
18508 score based on the subject line, using substring matching, and make a
18509 temporary score entry: @kbd{L s s t}. Pretty easy.
18511 To make things a bit more complicated, there are shortcuts. If you use
18512 a capital letter on either the second or third keys, Gnus will use
18513 defaults for the remaining one or two keystrokes. The defaults are
18514 ``substring'' and ``temporary''. So @kbd{I A} is the same as @kbd{I a s
18515 t}, and @kbd{I a R} is the same as @kbd{I a r t}.
18517 These functions take both the numerical prefix and the symbolic prefix
18518 (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}). A numerical prefix says how much to lower
18519 (or increase) the score of the article. A symbolic prefix of @code{a}
18520 says to use the @file{all.SCORE} file for the command instead of the
18521 current score file.
18523 @vindex gnus-score-mimic-keymap
18524 The @code{gnus-score-mimic-keymap} says whether these commands will
18525 pretend they are keymaps or not.
18528 @node Group Score Commands
18529 @section Group Score Commands
18530 @cindex group score commands
18532 There aren't many of these as yet, I'm afraid.
18537 @kindex W f (Group)
18538 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
18539 Gnus maintains a cache of score alists to avoid having to reload them
18540 all the time. This command will flush the cache
18541 (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}).
18545 You can do scoring from the command line by saying something like:
18547 @findex gnus-batch-score
18548 @cindex batch scoring
18550 $ emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-batch-score
18554 @node Score Variables
18555 @section Score Variables
18556 @cindex score variables
18560 @item gnus-use-scoring
18561 @vindex gnus-use-scoring
18562 If @code{nil}, Gnus will not check for score files, and will not, in
18563 general, do any score-related work. This is @code{t} by default.
18565 @item gnus-kill-killed
18566 @vindex gnus-kill-killed
18567 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will never apply score files to
18568 articles that have already been through the kill process. While this
18569 may save you lots of time, it also means that if you apply a kill file
18570 to a group, and then change the kill file and want to run it over you
18571 group again to kill more articles, it won't work. You have to set this
18572 variable to @code{t} to do that. (It is @code{t} by default.)
18574 @item gnus-kill-files-directory
18575 @vindex gnus-kill-files-directory
18576 All kill and score files will be stored in this directory, which is
18577 initialized from the @code{SAVEDIR} environment variable by default.
18578 This is @file{~/News/} by default.
18580 @item gnus-score-file-suffix
18581 @vindex gnus-score-file-suffix
18582 Suffix to add to the group name to arrive at the score file name
18583 (@file{SCORE} by default.)
18585 @item gnus-score-uncacheable-files
18586 @vindex gnus-score-uncacheable-files
18587 @cindex score cache
18588 All score files are normally cached to avoid excessive re-loading of
18589 score files. However, if this might make your Emacs grow big and
18590 bloated, so this regexp can be used to weed out score files unlikely
18591 to be needed again. It would be a bad idea to deny caching of
18592 @file{all.SCORE}, while it might be a good idea to not cache
18593 @file{comp.infosystems.www.authoring.misc.ADAPT}. In fact, this
18594 variable is @samp{ADAPT$} by default, so no adaptive score files will
18597 @item gnus-save-score
18598 @vindex gnus-save-score
18599 If you have really complicated score files, and do lots of batch
18600 scoring, then you might set this variable to @code{t}. This will make
18601 Gnus save the scores into the @file{.newsrc.eld} file.
18603 If you do not set this to @code{t}, then manual scores (like those set
18604 with @kbd{V s} (@code{gnus-summary-set-score})) will not be preserved
18605 across group visits.
18607 @item gnus-score-interactive-default-score
18608 @vindex gnus-score-interactive-default-score
18609 Score used by all the interactive raise/lower commands to raise/lower
18610 score with. Default is 1000, which may seem excessive, but this is to
18611 ensure that the adaptive scoring scheme gets enough room to play with.
18612 We don't want the small changes from the adaptive scoring to overwrite
18613 manually entered data.
18615 @item gnus-summary-default-score
18616 @vindex gnus-summary-default-score
18617 Default score of an article, which is 0 by default.
18619 @item gnus-summary-expunge-below
18620 @vindex gnus-summary-expunge-below
18621 Don't display the summary lines of articles that have scores lower than
18622 this variable. This is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
18623 articles will be hidden. This variable is local to the summary buffers,
18624 and has to be set from @code{gnus-summary-mode-hook}.
18626 @item gnus-score-over-mark
18627 @vindex gnus-score-over-mark
18628 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score over the
18629 default. Default is @samp{+}.
18631 @item gnus-score-below-mark
18632 @vindex gnus-score-below-mark
18633 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score below the
18634 default. Default is @samp{-}.
18636 @item gnus-score-find-score-files-function
18637 @vindex gnus-score-find-score-files-function
18638 Function used to find score files for the current group. This function
18639 is called with the name of the group as the argument.
18641 Predefined functions available are:
18644 @item gnus-score-find-single
18645 @findex gnus-score-find-single
18646 Only apply the group's own score file.
18648 @item gnus-score-find-bnews
18649 @findex gnus-score-find-bnews
18650 Apply all score files that match, using bnews syntax. This is the
18651 default. If the current group is @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}, for instance,
18652 @file{all.emacs.all.SCORE}, @file{not.alt.all.SCORE} and
18653 @file{gnu.all.SCORE} would all apply. In short, the instances of
18654 @samp{all} in the score file names are translated into @samp{.*}, and
18655 then a regexp match is done.
18657 This means that if you have some score entries that you want to apply to
18658 all groups, then you put those entries in the @file{all.SCORE} file.
18660 The score files are applied in a semi-random order, although Gnus will
18661 try to apply the more general score files before the more specific score
18662 files. It does this by looking at the number of elements in the score
18663 file names---discarding the @samp{all} elements.
18665 @item gnus-score-find-hierarchical
18666 @findex gnus-score-find-hierarchical
18667 Apply all score files from all the parent groups. This means that you
18668 can't have score files like @file{all.SCORE}, but you can have
18669 @file{SCORE}, @file{comp.SCORE} and @file{comp.emacs.SCORE} for each
18673 This variable can also be a list of functions. In that case, all
18674 these functions will be called with the group name as argument, and
18675 all the returned lists of score files will be applied. These
18676 functions can also return lists of lists of score alists directly. In
18677 that case, the functions that return these non-file score alists
18678 should probably be placed before the ``real'' score file functions, to
18679 ensure that the last score file returned is the local score file.
18682 For example, to do hierarchical scoring but use a non-server-specific
18683 overall score file, you could use the value
18685 (list (lambda (group) ("all.SCORE"))
18686 'gnus-score-find-hierarchical)
18689 @item gnus-score-expiry-days
18690 @vindex gnus-score-expiry-days
18691 This variable says how many days should pass before an unused score file
18692 entry is expired. If this variable is @code{nil}, no score file entries
18693 are expired. It's 7 by default.
18695 @item gnus-update-score-entry-dates
18696 @vindex gnus-update-score-entry-dates
18697 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, temporary score entries that have
18698 been triggered (matched) will have their dates updated. (This is how Gnus
18699 controls expiry---all non-matched-entries will become too old while
18700 matched entries will stay fresh and young.) However, if you set this
18701 variable to @code{nil}, even matched entries will grow old and will
18702 have to face that oh-so grim reaper.
18704 @item gnus-score-after-write-file-function
18705 @vindex gnus-score-after-write-file-function
18706 Function called with the name of the score file just written.
18708 @item gnus-score-thread-simplify
18709 @vindex gnus-score-thread-simplify
18710 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, article subjects will be simplified
18711 for subject scoring purposes in the same manner as with
18712 threading---according to the current value of
18713 gnus-simplify-subject-functions. If the scoring entry uses
18714 @code{substring} or @code{exact} matching, the match will also be
18715 simplified in this manner.
18720 @node Score File Format
18721 @section Score File Format
18722 @cindex score file format
18724 A score file is an @code{emacs-lisp} file that normally contains just a
18725 single form. Casual users are not expected to edit these files;
18726 everything can be changed from the summary buffer.
18728 Anyway, if you'd like to dig into it yourself, here's an example:
18732 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" -10000)
18734 ("larsi\\|lmi" -50000 nil R))
18736 ("Ding is Badd" nil 728373))
18738 ("alt.politics" -1000 728372 s))
18743 (mark-and-expunge -10)
18747 (files "/hom/larsi/News/gnu.SCORE")
18748 (exclude-files "all.SCORE")
18749 (local (gnus-newsgroup-auto-expire t)
18750 (gnus-summary-make-false-root empty))
18754 This example demonstrates most score file elements. For a different
18755 approach, see @pxref{Advanced Scoring}.
18757 Even though this looks much like lisp code, nothing here is actually
18758 @code{eval}ed. The lisp reader is used to read this form, though, so it
18759 has to be valid syntactically, if not semantically.
18761 Six keys are supported by this alist:
18766 If the key is a string, it is the name of the header to perform the
18767 match on. Scoring can only be performed on these eight headers:
18768 @code{From}, @code{Subject}, @code{References}, @code{Message-ID},
18769 @code{Xref}, @code{Lines}, @code{Chars} and @code{Date}. In addition to
18770 these headers, there are three strings to tell Gnus to fetch the entire
18771 article and do the match on larger parts of the article: @code{Body}
18772 will perform the match on the body of the article, @code{Head} will
18773 perform the match on the head of the article, and @code{All} will
18774 perform the match on the entire article. Note that using any of these
18775 last three keys will slow down group entry @emph{considerably}. The
18776 final ``header'' you can score on is @code{Followup}. These score
18777 entries will result in new score entries being added for all follow-ups
18778 to articles that matches these score entries.
18780 Following this key is a arbitrary number of score entries, where each
18781 score entry has one to four elements.
18785 The first element is the @dfn{match element}. On most headers this will
18786 be a string, but on the Lines and Chars headers, this must be an
18790 If the second element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{score
18791 element}. This number should be an integer in the neginf to posinf
18792 interval. This number is added to the score of the article if the match
18793 is successful. If this element is not present, the
18794 @code{gnus-score-interactive-default-score} number will be used
18795 instead. This is 1000 by default.
18798 If the third element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{date
18799 element}. This date says when the last time this score entry matched,
18800 which provides a mechanism for expiring the score entries. It this
18801 element is not present, the score entry is permanent. The date is
18802 represented by the number of days since December 31, 1 BCE.
18805 If the fourth element is present, it should be a symbol---the @dfn{type
18806 element}. This element specifies what function should be used to see
18807 whether this score entry matches the article. What match types that can
18808 be used depends on what header you wish to perform the match on.
18811 @item From, Subject, References, Xref, Message-ID
18812 For most header types, there are the @code{r} and @code{R} (regexp), as
18813 well as @code{s} and @code{S} (substring) types, and @code{e} and
18814 @code{E} (exact match), and @code{w} (word match) types. If this
18815 element is not present, Gnus will assume that substring matching should
18816 be used. @code{R}, @code{S}, and @code{E} differ from the others in
18817 that the matches will be done in a case-sensitive manner. All these
18818 one-letter types are really just abbreviations for the @code{regexp},
18819 @code{string}, @code{exact}, and @code{word} types, which you can use
18820 instead, if you feel like.
18823 Just as for the standard string overview headers, if you are using
18824 gnus-extra-headers, you can score on these headers' values. In this
18825 case, there is a 5th element in the score entry, being the name of the
18826 header to be scored. The following entry is useful in your
18827 @file{all.SCORE} file in case of spam attacks from a single origin host,
18828 if your @sc{nntp} server tracks NNTP-Posting-Host in overviews:
18831 ("111.222.333.444" -1000 nil s "NNTP-Posting-Host")
18835 These two headers use different match types: @code{<}, @code{>},
18836 @code{=}, @code{>=} and @code{<=}.
18838 These predicates are true if
18841 (PREDICATE HEADER MATCH)
18844 evaluates to non-@code{nil}. For instance, the advanced match
18845 @code{("lines" 4 <)} (@pxref{Advanced Scoring}) will result in the
18852 Or to put it another way: When using @code{<} on @code{Lines} with 4 as
18853 the match, we get the score added if the article has less than 4 lines.
18854 (It's easy to get confused and think it's the other way around. But
18855 it's not. I think.)
18857 When matching on @code{Lines}, be careful because some back ends (like
18858 @code{nndir}) do not generate @code{Lines} header, so every article ends
18859 up being marked as having 0 lines. This can lead to strange results if
18860 you happen to lower score of the articles with few lines.
18863 For the Date header we have three kinda silly match types:
18864 @code{before}, @code{at} and @code{after}. I can't really imagine this
18865 ever being useful, but, like, it would feel kinda silly not to provide
18866 this function. Just in case. You never know. Better safe than sorry.
18867 Once burnt, twice shy. Don't judge a book by its cover. Never not have
18868 sex on a first date. (I have been told that at least one person, and I
18869 quote, ``found this function indispensable'', however.)
18873 A more useful match type is @code{regexp}. With it, you can match the
18874 date string using a regular expression. The date is normalized to
18875 ISO8601 compact format first---@var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS}. If
18876 you want to match all articles that have been posted on April 1st in
18877 every year, you could use @samp{....0401.........} as a match string,
18878 for instance. (Note that the date is kept in its original time zone, so
18879 this will match articles that were posted when it was April 1st where
18880 the article was posted from. Time zones are such wholesome fun for the
18883 @item Head, Body, All
18884 These three match keys use the same match types as the @code{From} (etc)
18888 This match key is somewhat special, in that it will match the
18889 @code{From} header, and affect the score of not only the matching
18890 articles, but also all followups to the matching articles. This allows
18891 you e.g. increase the score of followups to your own articles, or
18892 decrease the score of followups to the articles of some known
18893 trouble-maker. Uses the same match types as the @code{From} header
18894 uses. (Using this match key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT}
18898 This match key works along the same lines as the @code{Followup} match
18899 key. If you say that you want to score on a (sub-)thread started by an
18900 article with a @code{Message-ID} @var{x}, then you add a @samp{thread}
18901 match. This will add a new @samp{thread} match for each article that
18902 has @var{x} in its @code{References} header. (These new @samp{thread}
18903 matches will use the @code{Message-ID}s of these matching articles.)
18904 This will ensure that you can raise/lower the score of an entire thread,
18905 even though some articles in the thread may not have complete
18906 @code{References} headers. Note that using this may lead to
18907 undeterministic scores of the articles in the thread. (Using this match
18908 key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT} files.)
18912 @cindex Score File Atoms
18914 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
18915 lower than this number will be marked as read.
18918 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
18919 lower than this number will be removed from the summary buffer.
18921 @item mark-and-expunge
18922 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
18923 lower than this number will be marked as read and removed from the
18926 @item thread-mark-and-expunge
18927 The value of this entry should be a number. All articles that belong to
18928 a thread that has a total score below this number will be marked as read
18929 and removed from the summary buffer. @code{gnus-thread-score-function}
18930 says how to compute the total score for a thread.
18933 The value of this entry should be any number of file names. These files
18934 are assumed to be score files as well, and will be loaded the same way
18937 @item exclude-files
18938 The clue of this entry should be any number of files. These files will
18939 not be loaded, even though they would normally be so, for some reason or
18943 The value of this entry will be @code{eval}el. This element will be
18944 ignored when handling global score files.
18947 Read-only score files will not be updated or saved. Global score files
18948 should feature this atom (@pxref{Global Score Files}). (Note:
18949 @dfn{Global} here really means @dfn{global}; not your personal
18950 apply-to-all-groups score files.)
18953 The value of this entry should be a number. Articles that do not have
18954 parents will get this number added to their scores. Imagine you follow
18955 some high-volume newsgroup, like @samp{comp.lang.c}. Most likely you
18956 will only follow a few of the threads, also want to see any new threads.
18958 You can do this with the following two score file entries:
18962 (mark-and-expunge -100)
18965 When you enter the group the first time, you will only see the new
18966 threads. You then raise the score of the threads that you find
18967 interesting (with @kbd{I T} or @kbd{I S}), and ignore (@kbd{C y}) the
18968 rest. Next time you enter the group, you will see new articles in the
18969 interesting threads, plus any new threads.
18971 I.e.---the orphan score atom is for high-volume groups where a few
18972 interesting threads which can't be found automatically by ordinary
18973 scoring rules exist.
18976 This entry controls the adaptive scoring. If it is @code{t}, the
18977 default adaptive scoring rules will be used. If it is @code{ignore}, no
18978 adaptive scoring will be performed on this group. If it is a list, this
18979 list will be used as the adaptive scoring rules. If it isn't present,
18980 or is something other than @code{t} or @code{ignore}, the default
18981 adaptive scoring rules will be used. If you want to use adaptive
18982 scoring on most groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
18983 @code{t}, and insert an @code{(adapt ignore)} in the groups where you do
18984 not want adaptive scoring. If you only want adaptive scoring in a few
18985 groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to @code{nil}, and
18986 insert @code{(adapt t)} in the score files of the groups where you want
18990 All adaptive score entries will go to the file named by this entry. It
18991 will also be applied when entering the group. This atom might be handy
18992 if you want to adapt on several groups at once, using the same adaptive
18993 file for a number of groups.
18996 @cindex local variables
18997 The value of this entry should be a list of @code{(@var{var}
18998 @var{value})} pairs. Each @var{var} will be made buffer-local to the
18999 current summary buffer, and set to the value specified. This is a
19000 convenient, if somewhat strange, way of setting variables in some
19001 groups if you don't like hooks much. Note that the @var{value} won't
19006 @node Score File Editing
19007 @section Score File Editing
19009 You normally enter all scoring commands from the summary buffer, but you
19010 might feel the urge to edit them by hand as well, so we've supplied you
19011 with a mode for that.
19013 It's simply a slightly customized @code{emacs-lisp} mode, with these
19014 additional commands:
19019 @kindex C-c C-c (Score)
19020 @findex gnus-score-edit-done
19021 Save the changes you have made and return to the summary buffer
19022 (@code{gnus-score-edit-done}).
19025 @kindex C-c C-d (Score)
19026 @findex gnus-score-edit-insert-date
19027 Insert the current date in numerical format
19028 (@code{gnus-score-edit-insert-date}). This is really the day number, if
19029 you were wondering.
19032 @kindex C-c C-p (Score)
19033 @findex gnus-score-pretty-print
19034 The adaptive score files are saved in an unformatted fashion. If you
19035 intend to read one of these files, you want to @dfn{pretty print} it
19036 first. This command (@code{gnus-score-pretty-print}) does that for
19041 Type @kbd{M-x gnus-score-mode} to use this mode.
19043 @vindex gnus-score-mode-hook
19044 @code{gnus-score-menu-hook} is run in score mode buffers.
19046 In the summary buffer you can use commands like @kbd{V f} and @kbd{V
19047 e} to begin editing score files.
19050 @node Adaptive Scoring
19051 @section Adaptive Scoring
19052 @cindex adaptive scoring
19054 If all this scoring is getting you down, Gnus has a way of making it all
19055 happen automatically---as if by magic. Or rather, as if by artificial
19056 stupidity, to be precise.
19058 @vindex gnus-use-adaptive-scoring
19059 When you read an article, or mark an article as read, or kill an
19060 article, you leave marks behind. On exit from the group, Gnus can sniff
19061 these marks and add score elements depending on what marks it finds.
19062 You turn on this ability by setting @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
19063 @code{t} or @code{(line)}. If you want score adaptively on separate
19064 words appearing in the subjects, you should set this variable to
19065 @code{(word)}. If you want to use both adaptive methods, set this
19066 variable to @code{(word line)}.
19068 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
19069 To give you complete control over the scoring process, you can customize
19070 the @code{gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist} variable. For instance, it
19071 might look something like this:
19074 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
19075 '((gnus-unread-mark)
19076 (gnus-ticked-mark (from 4))
19077 (gnus-dormant-mark (from 5))
19078 (gnus-del-mark (from -4) (subject -1))
19079 (gnus-read-mark (from 4) (subject 2))
19080 (gnus-expirable-mark (from -1) (subject -1))
19081 (gnus-killed-mark (from -1) (subject -3))
19082 (gnus-kill-file-mark)
19083 (gnus-ancient-mark)
19084 (gnus-low-score-mark)
19085 (gnus-catchup-mark (from -1) (subject -1))))
19088 As you see, each element in this alist has a mark as a key (either a
19089 variable name or a ``real'' mark---a character). Following this key is
19090 a arbitrary number of header/score pairs. If there are no header/score
19091 pairs following the key, no adaptive scoring will be done on articles
19092 that have that key as the article mark. For instance, articles with
19093 @code{gnus-unread-mark} in the example above will not get adaptive score
19096 Each article can have only one mark, so just a single of these rules
19097 will be applied to each article.
19099 To take @code{gnus-del-mark} as an example---this alist says that all
19100 articles that have that mark (i.e., are marked with @samp{e}) will have a
19101 score entry added to lower based on the @code{From} header by -4, and
19102 lowered by @code{Subject} by -1. Change this to fit your prejudices.
19104 If you have marked 10 articles with the same subject with
19105 @code{gnus-del-mark}, the rule for that mark will be applied ten times.
19106 That means that that subject will get a score of ten times -1, which
19107 should be, unless I'm much mistaken, -10.
19109 If you have auto-expirable (mail) groups (@pxref{Expiring Mail}), all
19110 the read articles will be marked with the @samp{E} mark. This'll
19111 probably make adaptive scoring slightly impossible, so auto-expiring and
19112 adaptive scoring doesn't really mix very well.
19114 The headers you can score on are @code{from}, @code{subject},
19115 @code{message-id}, @code{references}, @code{xref}, @code{lines},
19116 @code{chars} and @code{date}. In addition, you can score on
19117 @code{followup}, which will create an adaptive score entry that matches
19118 on the @code{References} header using the @code{Message-ID} of the
19119 current article, thereby matching the following thread.
19121 If you use this scheme, you should set the score file atom @code{mark}
19122 to something small---like -300, perhaps, to avoid having small random
19123 changes result in articles getting marked as read.
19125 After using adaptive scoring for a week or so, Gnus should start to
19126 become properly trained and enhance the authors you like best, and kill
19127 the authors you like least, without you having to say so explicitly.
19129 You can control what groups the adaptive scoring is to be performed on
19130 by using the score files (@pxref{Score File Format}). This will also
19131 let you use different rules in different groups.
19133 @vindex gnus-adaptive-file-suffix
19134 The adaptive score entries will be put into a file where the name is the
19135 group name with @code{gnus-adaptive-file-suffix} appended. The default
19138 @vindex gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit
19139 When doing adaptive scoring, substring or fuzzy matching would probably
19140 give you the best results in most cases. However, if the header one
19141 matches is short, the possibility for false positives is great, so if
19142 the length of the match is less than
19143 @code{gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit}, exact matching will be used. If
19144 this variable is @code{nil}, exact matching will always be used to avoid
19147 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
19148 As mentioned above, you can adapt either on individual words or entire
19149 headers. If you adapt on words, the
19150 @code{gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist} variable says what score
19151 each instance of a word should add given a mark.
19154 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
19155 `((,gnus-read-mark . 30)
19156 (,gnus-catchup-mark . -10)
19157 (,gnus-killed-mark . -20)
19158 (,gnus-del-mark . -15)))
19161 This is the default value. If you have adaption on words enabled, every
19162 word that appears in subjects of articles marked with
19163 @code{gnus-read-mark} will result in a score rule that increase the
19164 score with 30 points.
19166 @vindex gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words
19167 @vindex gnus-ignored-adaptive-words
19168 Words that appear in the @code{gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words} list
19169 will be ignored. If you wish to add more words to be ignored, use the
19170 @code{gnus-ignored-adaptive-words} list instead.
19172 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-length-limit
19173 Some may feel that short words shouldn't count when doing adaptive
19174 scoring. If so, you may set @code{gnus-adaptive-word-length-limit} to
19175 an integer. Words shorter than this number will be ignored. This
19176 variable defaults to @code{nil}.
19178 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table
19179 When the scoring is done, @code{gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table} is the
19180 syntax table in effect. It is similar to the standard syntax table, but
19181 it considers numbers to be non-word-constituent characters.
19183 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-minimum
19184 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} is set to a number, the adaptive
19185 word scoring process will never bring down the score of an article to
19186 below this number. The default is @code{nil}.
19188 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words
19189 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words} is set to @code{t}, gnus
19190 won't adaptively word score any of the words in the group name. Useful
19191 for groups like @samp{comp.editors.emacs}, where most of the subject
19192 lines contain the word @samp{emacs}.
19194 After using this scheme for a while, it might be nice to write a
19195 @code{gnus-psychoanalyze-user} command to go through the rules and see
19196 what words you like and what words you don't like. Or perhaps not.
19198 Note that the adaptive word scoring thing is highly experimental and is
19199 likely to change in the future. Initial impressions seem to indicate
19200 that it's totally useless as it stands. Some more work (involving more
19201 rigorous statistical methods) will have to be done to make this useful.
19204 @node Home Score File
19205 @section Home Score File
19207 The score file where new score file entries will go is called the
19208 @dfn{home score file}. This is normally (and by default) the score file
19209 for the group itself. For instance, the home score file for
19210 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} is @file{gnu.emacs.gnus.SCORE}.
19212 However, this may not be what you want. It is often convenient to share
19213 a common home score file among many groups---all @samp{emacs} groups
19214 could perhaps use the same home score file.
19216 @vindex gnus-home-score-file
19217 The variable that controls this is @code{gnus-home-score-file}. It can
19222 A string. Then this file will be used as the home score file for all
19226 A function. The result of this function will be used as the home score
19227 file. The function will be called with the name of the group as the
19231 A list. The elements in this list can be:
19235 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{file-name})}. If the @var{regexp} matches the
19236 group name, the @var{file-name} will be used as the home score file.
19239 A function. If the function returns non-nil, the result will be used as
19240 the home score file.
19243 A string. Use the string as the home score file.
19246 The list will be traversed from the beginning towards the end looking
19251 So, if you want to use just a single score file, you could say:
19254 (setq gnus-home-score-file
19255 "my-total-score-file.SCORE")
19258 If you want to use @file{gnu.SCORE} for all @samp{gnu} groups and
19259 @file{rec.SCORE} for all @samp{rec} groups (and so on), you can say:
19261 @findex gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file
19263 (setq gnus-home-score-file
19264 'gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file)
19267 This is a ready-made function provided for your convenience.
19268 Other functions include
19271 @item gnus-current-home-score-file
19272 @findex gnus-current-home-score-file
19273 Return the ``current'' regular score file. This will make scoring
19274 commands add entry to the ``innermost'' matching score file.
19278 If you want to have one score file for the @samp{emacs} groups and
19279 another for the @samp{comp} groups, while letting all other groups use
19280 their own home score files:
19283 (setq gnus-home-score-file
19284 ;; All groups that match the regexp "\\.emacs"
19285 '(("\\.emacs" "emacs.SCORE")
19286 ;; All the comp groups in one score file
19287 ("^comp" "comp.SCORE")))
19290 @vindex gnus-home-adapt-file
19291 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file} works exactly the same way as
19292 @code{gnus-home-score-file}, but says what the home adaptive score file
19293 is instead. All new adaptive file entries will go into the file
19294 specified by this variable, and the same syntax is allowed.
19296 In addition to using @code{gnus-home-score-file} and
19297 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file}, you can also use group parameters
19298 (@pxref{Group Parameters}) and topic parameters (@pxref{Topic
19299 Parameters}) to achieve much the same. Group and topic parameters take
19300 precedence over this variable.
19303 @node Followups To Yourself
19304 @section Followups To Yourself
19306 Gnus offers two commands for picking out the @code{Message-ID} header in
19307 the current buffer. Gnus will then add a score rule that scores using
19308 this @code{Message-ID} on the @code{References} header of other
19309 articles. This will, in effect, increase the score of all articles that
19310 respond to the article in the current buffer. Quite useful if you want
19311 to easily note when people answer what you've said.
19315 @item gnus-score-followup-article
19316 @findex gnus-score-followup-article
19317 This will add a score to articles that directly follow up your own
19320 @item gnus-score-followup-thread
19321 @findex gnus-score-followup-thread
19322 This will add a score to all articles that appear in a thread ``below''
19326 @vindex message-sent-hook
19327 These two functions are both primarily meant to be used in hooks like
19328 @code{message-sent-hook}, like this:
19330 (add-hook 'message-sent-hook 'gnus-score-followup-thread)
19334 If you look closely at your own @code{Message-ID}, you'll notice that
19335 the first two or three characters are always the same. Here's two of
19339 <x6u3u47icf.fsf@@eyesore.no>
19340 <x6sp9o7ibw.fsf@@eyesore.no>
19343 So ``my'' ident on this machine is @samp{x6}. This can be
19344 exploited---the following rule will raise the score on all followups to
19349 ("<x6[0-9a-z]+\\.fsf\\(_-_\\)?@@.*eyesore\\.no>"
19353 Whether it's the first two or first three characters that are ``yours''
19354 is system-dependent.
19357 @node Scoring On Other Headers
19358 @section Scoring On Other Headers
19359 @cindex scoring on other headers
19361 Gnus is quite fast when scoring the ``traditional''
19362 headers---@samp{From}, @samp{Subject} and so on. However, scoring
19363 other headers requires writing a @code{head} scoring rule, which means
19364 that Gnus has to request every single article from the back end to find
19365 matches. This takes a long time in big groups.
19367 Now, there's not much you can do about this for news groups, but for
19368 mail groups, you have greater control. In the @pxref{To From
19369 Newsgroups} section of the manual, it's explained in greater detail what
19370 this mechanism does, but here's a cookbook example for @code{nnml} on
19371 how to allow scoring on the @samp{To} and @samp{Cc} headers.
19373 Put the following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file.
19376 (setq gnus-extra-headers '(To Cc Newsgroups Keywords)
19377 nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
19380 Restart Gnus and rebuild your @code{nnml} overview files with the
19381 @kbd{M-x nnml-generate-nov-databases} command. This will take a long
19382 time if you have much mail.
19384 Now you can score on @samp{To} and @samp{Cc} as ``extra headers'' like
19385 so: @kbd{I e s p To RET <your name> RET}.
19391 @section Scoring Tips
19392 @cindex scoring tips
19398 @cindex scoring crossposts
19399 If you want to lower the score of crossposts, the line to match on is
19400 the @code{Xref} header.
19402 ("xref" (" talk.politics.misc:" -1000))
19405 @item Multiple crossposts
19406 If you want to lower the score of articles that have been crossposted to
19407 more than, say, 3 groups:
19410 ("[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+"
19414 @item Matching on the body
19415 This is generally not a very good idea---it takes a very long time.
19416 Gnus actually has to fetch each individual article from the server. But
19417 you might want to anyway, I guess. Even though there are three match
19418 keys (@code{Head}, @code{Body} and @code{All}), you should choose one
19419 and stick with it in each score file. If you use any two, each article
19420 will be fetched @emph{twice}. If you want to match a bit on the
19421 @code{Head} and a bit on the @code{Body}, just use @code{All} for all
19424 @item Marking as read
19425 You will probably want to mark articles that have scores below a certain
19426 number as read. This is most easily achieved by putting the following
19427 in your @file{all.SCORE} file:
19431 You may also consider doing something similar with @code{expunge}.
19433 @item Negated character classes
19434 If you say stuff like @code{[^abcd]*}, you may get unexpected results.
19435 That will match newlines, which might lead to, well, The Unknown. Say
19436 @code{[^abcd\n]*} instead.
19440 @node Reverse Scoring
19441 @section Reverse Scoring
19442 @cindex reverse scoring
19444 If you want to keep just articles that have @samp{Sex with Emacs} in the
19445 subject header, and expunge all other articles, you could put something
19446 like this in your score file:
19450 ("Sex with Emacs" 2))
19455 So, you raise all articles that match @samp{Sex with Emacs} and mark the
19456 rest as read, and expunge them to boot.
19459 @node Global Score Files
19460 @section Global Score Files
19461 @cindex global score files
19463 Sure, other newsreaders have ``global kill files''. These are usually
19464 nothing more than a single kill file that applies to all groups, stored
19465 in the user's home directory. Bah! Puny, weak newsreaders!
19467 What I'm talking about here are Global Score Files. Score files from
19468 all over the world, from users everywhere, uniting all nations in one
19469 big, happy score file union! Ange-score! New and untested!
19471 @vindex gnus-global-score-files
19472 All you have to do to use other people's score files is to set the
19473 @code{gnus-global-score-files} variable. One entry for each score file,
19474 or each score file directory. Gnus will decide by itself what score
19475 files are applicable to which group.
19477 To use the score file
19478 @file{/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE} and
19479 all score files in the @file{/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score} directory,
19483 (setq gnus-global-score-files
19484 '("/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE"
19485 "/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score/"))
19488 @findex gnus-score-search-global-directories
19490 Simple, eh? Directory names must end with a @samp{/}. These
19491 directories are typically scanned only once during each Gnus session.
19492 If you feel the need to manually re-scan the remote directories, you can
19493 use the @code{gnus-score-search-global-directories} command.
19495 Note that, at present, using this option will slow down group entry
19496 somewhat. (That is---a lot.)
19498 If you want to start maintaining score files for other people to use,
19499 just put your score file up for anonymous ftp and announce it to the
19500 world. Become a retro-moderator! Participate in the retro-moderator
19501 wars sure to ensue, where retro-moderators battle it out for the
19502 sympathy of the people, luring them to use their score files on false
19503 premises! Yay! The net is saved!
19505 Here are some tips for the would-be retro-moderator, off the top of my
19511 Articles heavily crossposted are probably junk.
19513 To lower a single inappropriate article, lower by @code{Message-ID}.
19515 Particularly brilliant authors can be raised on a permanent basis.
19517 Authors that repeatedly post off-charter for the group can safely be
19518 lowered out of existence.
19520 Set the @code{mark} and @code{expunge} atoms to obliterate the nastiest
19521 articles completely.
19524 Use expiring score entries to keep the size of the file down. You
19525 should probably have a long expiry period, though, as some sites keep
19526 old articles for a long time.
19529 @dots{} I wonder whether other newsreaders will support global score files
19530 in the future. @emph{Snicker}. Yup, any day now, newsreaders like Blue
19531 Wave, xrn and 1stReader are bound to implement scoring. Should we start
19532 holding our breath yet?
19536 @section Kill Files
19539 Gnus still supports those pesky old kill files. In fact, the kill file
19540 entries can now be expiring, which is something I wrote before Daniel
19541 Quinlan thought of doing score files, so I've left the code in there.
19543 In short, kill processing is a lot slower (and I do mean @emph{a lot})
19544 than score processing, so it might be a good idea to rewrite your kill
19545 files into score files.
19547 Anyway, a kill file is a normal @code{emacs-lisp} file. You can put any
19548 forms into this file, which means that you can use kill files as some
19549 sort of primitive hook function to be run on group entry, even though
19550 that isn't a very good idea.
19552 Normal kill files look like this:
19555 (gnus-kill "From" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
19556 (gnus-kill "Subject" "ding")
19560 This will mark every article written by me as read, and remove the
19561 marked articles from the summary buffer. Very useful, you'll agree.
19563 Other programs use a totally different kill file syntax. If Gnus
19564 encounters what looks like a @code{rn} kill file, it will take a stab at
19567 Two summary functions for editing a GNUS kill file:
19572 @kindex M-k (Summary)
19573 @findex gnus-summary-edit-local-kill
19574 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-local-kill}).
19577 @kindex M-K (Summary)
19578 @findex gnus-summary-edit-global-kill
19579 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-global-kill}).
19582 Two group mode functions for editing the kill files:
19587 @kindex M-k (Group)
19588 @findex gnus-group-edit-local-kill
19589 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-local-kill}).
19592 @kindex M-K (Group)
19593 @findex gnus-group-edit-global-kill
19594 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-global-kill}).
19597 Kill file variables:
19600 @item gnus-kill-file-name
19601 @vindex gnus-kill-file-name
19602 A kill file for the group @samp{soc.motss} is normally called
19603 @file{soc.motss.KILL}. The suffix appended to the group name to get
19604 this file name is detailed by the @code{gnus-kill-file-name} variable.
19605 The ``global'' kill file (not in the score file sense of ``global'', of
19606 course) is just called @file{KILL}.
19608 @vindex gnus-kill-save-kill-file
19609 @item gnus-kill-save-kill-file
19610 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will save the
19611 kill file after processing, which is necessary if you use expiring
19614 @item gnus-apply-kill-hook
19615 @vindex gnus-apply-kill-hook
19616 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored
19617 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file
19618 A hook called to apply kill files to a group. It is
19619 @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file)} by default. If you want to ignore the
19620 kill file if you have a score file for the same group, you can set this
19621 hook to @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored)}. If you don't want
19622 kill files to be processed, you should set this variable to @code{nil}.
19624 @item gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
19625 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
19626 A hook called in kill-file mode buffers.
19631 @node Converting Kill Files
19632 @section Converting Kill Files
19634 @cindex converting kill files
19636 If you have loads of old kill files, you may want to convert them into
19637 score files. If they are ``regular'', you can use
19638 the @file{gnus-kill-to-score.el} package; if not, you'll have to do it
19641 The kill to score conversion package isn't included in Gnus by default.
19642 You can fetch it from
19643 @uref{http://www.stud.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/ding-various/gnus-kill-to-score.el}.
19645 If your old kill files are very complex---if they contain more
19646 non-@code{gnus-kill} forms than not, you'll have to convert them by
19647 hand. Or just let them be as they are. Gnus will still use them as
19655 GroupLens (@uref{http://www.cs.umn.edu/Research/GroupLens/}) is a
19656 collaborative filtering system that helps you work together with other
19657 people to find the quality news articles out of the huge volume of
19658 news articles generated every day.
19660 To accomplish this the GroupLens system combines your opinions about
19661 articles you have already read with the opinions of others who have done
19662 likewise and gives you a personalized prediction for each unread news
19663 article. Think of GroupLens as a matchmaker. GroupLens watches how you
19664 rate articles, and finds other people that rate articles the same way.
19665 Once it has found some people you agree with it tells you, in the form
19666 of a prediction, what they thought of the article. You can use this
19667 prediction to help you decide whether or not you want to read the
19670 @sc{Note:} Unfortunately the GroupLens system seems to have shut down,
19671 so this section is mostly of historical interest.
19674 * Using GroupLens:: How to make Gnus use GroupLens.
19675 * Rating Articles:: Letting GroupLens know how you rate articles.
19676 * Displaying Predictions:: Displaying predictions given by GroupLens.
19677 * GroupLens Variables:: Customizing GroupLens.
19681 @node Using GroupLens
19682 @subsection Using GroupLens
19684 To use GroupLens you must register a pseudonym with your local Better
19686 @uref{http://www.cs.umn.edu/Research/GroupLens/bbb.html} is the only
19687 better bit in town at the moment.
19689 Once you have registered you'll need to set a couple of variables.
19693 @item gnus-use-grouplens
19694 @vindex gnus-use-grouplens
19695 Setting this variable to a non-@code{nil} value will make Gnus hook into
19696 all the relevant GroupLens functions.
19698 @item grouplens-pseudonym
19699 @vindex grouplens-pseudonym
19700 This variable should be set to the pseudonym you got when registering
19701 with the Better Bit Bureau.
19703 @item grouplens-newsgroups
19704 @vindex grouplens-newsgroups
19705 A list of groups that you want to get GroupLens predictions for.
19709 That's the minimum of what you need to get up and running with GroupLens.
19710 Once you've registered, GroupLens will start giving you scores for
19711 articles based on the average of what other people think. But, to get
19712 the real benefit of GroupLens you need to start rating articles
19713 yourself. Then the scores GroupLens gives you will be personalized for
19714 you, based on how the people you usually agree with have already rated.
19717 @node Rating Articles
19718 @subsection Rating Articles
19720 In GroupLens, an article is rated on a scale from 1 to 5, inclusive.
19721 Where 1 means something like this article is a waste of bandwidth and 5
19722 means that the article was really good. The basic question to ask
19723 yourself is, ``on a scale from 1 to 5 would I like to see more articles
19726 There are four ways to enter a rating for an article in GroupLens.
19731 @kindex r (GroupLens)
19732 @findex bbb-summary-rate-article
19733 This function will prompt you for a rating on a scale of one to five.
19736 @kindex k (GroupLens)
19737 @findex grouplens-score-thread
19738 This function will prompt you for a rating, and rate all the articles in
19739 the thread. This is really useful for some of those long running giant
19740 threads in rec.humor.
19744 The next two commands, @kbd{n} and @kbd{,} take a numerical prefix to be
19745 the score of the article you're reading.
19750 @kindex n (GroupLens)
19751 @findex grouplens-next-unread-article
19752 Rate the article and go to the next unread article.
19755 @kindex , (GroupLens)
19756 @findex grouplens-best-unread-article
19757 Rate the article and go to the next unread article with the highest score.
19761 If you want to give the current article a score of 4 and then go to the
19762 next article, just type @kbd{4 n}.
19765 @node Displaying Predictions
19766 @subsection Displaying Predictions
19768 GroupLens makes a prediction for you about how much you will like a
19769 news article. The predictions from GroupLens are on a scale from 1 to
19770 5, where 1 is the worst and 5 is the best. You can use the predictions
19771 from GroupLens in one of three ways controlled by the variable
19772 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring}.
19774 @vindex gnus-grouplens-override-scoring
19775 There are three ways to display predictions in grouplens. You may
19776 choose to have the GroupLens scores contribute to, or override the
19777 regular gnus scoring mechanism. override is the default; however, some
19778 people prefer to see the Gnus scores plus the grouplens scores. To get
19779 the separate scoring behavior you need to set
19780 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring} to @code{'separate}. To have the
19781 GroupLens predictions combined with the grouplens scores set it to
19782 @code{'override} and to combine the scores set
19783 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring} to @code{'combine}. When you use
19784 the combine option you will also want to set the values for
19785 @code{grouplens-prediction-offset} and
19786 @code{grouplens-score-scale-factor}.
19788 @vindex grouplens-prediction-display
19789 In either case, GroupLens gives you a few choices for how you would like
19790 to see your predictions displayed. The display of predictions is
19791 controlled by the @code{grouplens-prediction-display} variable.
19793 The following are valid values for that variable.
19796 @item prediction-spot
19797 The higher the prediction, the further to the right an @samp{*} is
19800 @item confidence-interval
19801 A numeric confidence interval.
19803 @item prediction-bar
19804 The higher the prediction, the longer the bar.
19806 @item confidence-bar
19807 Numerical confidence.
19809 @item confidence-spot
19810 The spot gets bigger with more confidence.
19812 @item prediction-num
19813 Plain-old numeric value.
19815 @item confidence-plus-minus
19816 Prediction +/- confidence.
19821 @node GroupLens Variables
19822 @subsection GroupLens Variables
19826 @item gnus-summary-grouplens-line-format
19827 The summary line format used in GroupLens-enhanced summary buffers. It
19828 accepts the same specs as the normal summary line format (@pxref{Summary
19829 Buffer Lines}). The default is @samp{%U%R%z%l%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23n%]%)
19832 @item grouplens-bbb-host
19833 Host running the bbbd server. @samp{grouplens.cs.umn.edu} is the
19836 @item grouplens-bbb-port
19837 Port of the host running the bbbd server. The default is 9000.
19839 @item grouplens-score-offset
19840 Offset the prediction by this value. In other words, subtract the
19841 prediction value by this number to arrive at the effective score. The
19844 @item grouplens-score-scale-factor
19845 This variable allows the user to magnify the effect of GroupLens scores.
19846 The scale factor is applied after the offset. The default is 1.
19851 @node Advanced Scoring
19852 @section Advanced Scoring
19854 Scoring on Subjects and From headers is nice enough, but what if you're
19855 really interested in what a person has to say only when she's talking
19856 about a particular subject? Or what if you really don't want to
19857 read what person A has to say when she's following up to person B, but
19858 want to read what she says when she's following up to person C?
19860 By using advanced scoring rules you may create arbitrarily complex
19864 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
19865 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
19866 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
19870 @node Advanced Scoring Syntax
19871 @subsection Advanced Scoring Syntax
19873 Ordinary scoring rules have a string as the first element in the rule.
19874 Advanced scoring rules have a list as the first element. The second
19875 element is the score to be applied if the first element evaluated to a
19876 non-@code{nil} value.
19878 These lists may consist of three logical operators, one redirection
19879 operator, and various match operators.
19886 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
19887 one that evaluates to @code{false}, and then it'll stop. If all arguments
19888 evaluate to @code{true} values, then this operator will return
19893 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
19894 one that evaluates to @code{true}. If no arguments are @code{true},
19895 then this operator will return @code{false}.
19900 This logical operator only takes a single argument. It returns the
19901 logical negation of the value of its argument.
19905 There is an @dfn{indirection operator} that will make its arguments
19906 apply to the ancestors of the current article being scored. For
19907 instance, @code{1-} will make score rules apply to the parent of the
19908 current article. @code{2-} will make score rules apply to the
19909 grandparent of the current article. Alternatively, you can write
19910 @code{^^}, where the number of @code{^}s (carets) says how far back into
19911 the ancestry you want to go.
19913 Finally, we have the match operators. These are the ones that do the
19914 real work. Match operators are header name strings followed by a match
19915 and a match type. A typical match operator looks like @samp{("from"
19916 "Lars Ingebrigtsen" s)}. The header names are the same as when using
19917 simple scoring, and the match types are also the same.
19920 @node Advanced Scoring Examples
19921 @subsection Advanced Scoring Examples
19923 Please note that the following examples are score file rules. To
19924 make a complete score file from them, surround them with another pair
19927 Let's say you want to increase the score of articles written by Lars
19928 when he's talking about Gnus:
19932 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
19933 ("subject" "Gnus"))
19939 When he writes long articles, he sometimes has something nice to say:
19943 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
19950 However, when he responds to things written by Reig Eigil Logge, you
19951 really don't want to read what he's written:
19955 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
19956 (1- ("from" "Reig Eigir Logge")))
19960 Everybody that follows up Redmondo when he writes about disappearing
19961 socks should have their scores raised, but only when they talk about
19962 white socks. However, when Lars talks about socks, it's usually not
19969 ("from" "redmondo@@.*no" r)
19970 ("body" "disappearing.*socks" t)))
19971 (! ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen"))
19972 ("body" "white.*socks"))
19976 The possibilities are endless.
19979 @node Advanced Scoring Tips
19980 @subsection Advanced Scoring Tips
19982 The @code{&} and @code{|} logical operators do short-circuit logic.
19983 That is, they stop processing their arguments when it's clear what the
19984 result of the operation will be. For instance, if one of the arguments
19985 of an @code{&} evaluates to @code{false}, there's no point in evaluating
19986 the rest of the arguments. This means that you should put slow matches
19987 (@samp{body}, @samp{header}) last and quick matches (@samp{from},
19988 @samp{subject}) first.
19990 The indirection arguments (@code{1-} and so on) will make their
19991 arguments work on previous generations of the thread. If you say
20002 Then that means "score on the from header of the grandparent of the
20003 current article". An indirection is quite fast, but it's better to say:
20009 ("subject" "Gnus")))
20016 (1- ("from" "Lars"))
20017 (1- ("subject" "Gnus")))
20022 @section Score Decays
20023 @cindex score decays
20026 You may find that your scores have a tendency to grow without
20027 bounds, especially if you're using adaptive scoring. If scores get too
20028 big, they lose all meaning---they simply max out and it's difficult to
20029 use them in any sensible way.
20031 @vindex gnus-decay-scores
20032 @findex gnus-decay-score
20033 @vindex gnus-decay-score-function
20034 Gnus provides a mechanism for decaying scores to help with this problem.
20035 When score files are loaded and @code{gnus-decay-scores} is
20036 non-@code{nil}, Gnus will run the score files through the decaying
20037 mechanism thereby lowering the scores of all non-permanent score rules.
20038 The decay itself if performed by the @code{gnus-decay-score-function}
20039 function, which is @code{gnus-decay-score} by default. Here's the
20040 definition of that function:
20043 (defun gnus-decay-score (score)
20045 This is done according to `gnus-score-decay-constant'
20046 and `gnus-score-decay-scale'."
20049 (* (if (< score 0) 1 -1)
20051 (max gnus-score-decay-constant
20053 gnus-score-decay-scale)))))))
20056 @vindex gnus-score-decay-scale
20057 @vindex gnus-score-decay-constant
20058 @code{gnus-score-decay-constant} is 3 by default and
20059 @code{gnus-score-decay-scale} is 0.05. This should cause the following:
20063 Scores between -3 and 3 will be set to 0 when this function is called.
20066 Scores with magnitudes between 3 and 60 will be shrunk by 3.
20069 Scores with magnitudes greater than 60 will be shrunk by 5% of the
20073 If you don't like this decay function, write your own. It is called
20074 with the score to be decayed as its only parameter, and it should return
20075 the new score, which should be an integer.
20077 Gnus will try to decay scores once a day. If you haven't run Gnus for
20078 four days, Gnus will decay the scores four times, for instance.
20083 @include message.texi
20084 @chapter Emacs MIME
20085 @include emacs-mime.texi
20087 @include sieve.texi
20097 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
20098 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
20099 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
20100 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
20101 * Window Layout:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
20102 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
20103 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
20104 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
20105 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
20106 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
20107 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
20108 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
20109 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
20110 * Predicate Specifiers:: Specifying predicates.
20111 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
20112 * Image Enhancements:: Modern versions of Emacs/XEmacs can display images.
20113 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
20114 * Thwarting Email Spam:: A how-to on avoiding unsolicited commercial email.
20115 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
20119 @node Process/Prefix
20120 @section Process/Prefix
20121 @cindex process/prefix convention
20123 Many functions, among them functions for moving, decoding and saving
20124 articles, use what is known as the @dfn{Process/Prefix convention}.
20126 This is a method for figuring out what articles the user wants the
20127 command to be performed on.
20131 If the numeric prefix is N, perform the operation on the next N
20132 articles, starting with the current one. If the numeric prefix is
20133 negative, perform the operation on the previous N articles, starting
20134 with the current one.
20136 @vindex transient-mark-mode
20137 If @code{transient-mark-mode} in non-@code{nil} and the region is
20138 active, all articles in the region will be worked upon.
20140 If there is no numeric prefix, but some articles are marked with the
20141 process mark, perform the operation on the articles marked with
20144 If there is neither a numeric prefix nor any articles marked with the
20145 process mark, just perform the operation on the current article.
20147 Quite simple, really, but it needs to be made clear so that surprises
20150 Commands that react to the process mark will push the current list of
20151 process marked articles onto a stack and will then clear all process
20152 marked articles. You can restore the previous configuration with the
20153 @kbd{M P y} command (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
20155 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
20156 One thing that seems to shock & horrify lots of people is that, for
20157 instance, @kbd{3 d} does exactly the same as @kbd{d} @kbd{d} @kbd{d}.
20158 Since each @kbd{d} (which marks the current article as read) by default
20159 goes to the next unread article after marking, this means that @kbd{3 d}
20160 will mark the next three unread articles as read, no matter what the
20161 summary buffer looks like. Set @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} to
20162 @code{nil} for a more straightforward action.
20164 Many commands do not use the process/prefix convention. All commands
20165 that do explicitly say so in this manual. To apply the process/prefix
20166 convention to commands that do not use it, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
20167 command. For instance, to mark all the articles in the group as
20168 expirable, you could say @kbd{M P b M-& E}.
20172 @section Interactive
20173 @cindex interaction
20177 @item gnus-novice-user
20178 @vindex gnus-novice-user
20179 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you are either a newcomer to the
20180 World of Usenet, or you are very cautious, which is a nice thing to be,
20181 really. You will be given questions of the type ``Are you sure you want
20182 to do this?'' before doing anything dangerous. This is @code{t} by
20185 @item gnus-expert-user
20186 @vindex gnus-expert-user
20187 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you will seldom be asked any
20188 questions by Gnus. It will simply assume you know what you're doing, no
20189 matter how strange.
20191 @item gnus-interactive-catchup
20192 @vindex gnus-interactive-catchup
20193 Require confirmation before catching up a group if non-@code{nil}. It
20194 is @code{t} by default.
20196 @item gnus-interactive-exit
20197 @vindex gnus-interactive-exit
20198 Require confirmation before exiting Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
20203 @node Symbolic Prefixes
20204 @section Symbolic Prefixes
20205 @cindex symbolic prefixes
20207 Quite a lot of Emacs commands react to the (numeric) prefix. For
20208 instance, @kbd{C-u 4 C-f} moves point four characters forward, and
20209 @kbd{C-u 9 0 0 I s s p} adds a permanent @code{Subject} substring score
20210 rule of 900 to the current article.
20212 This is all nice and well, but what if you want to give a command some
20213 additional information? Well, what most commands do is interpret the
20214 ``raw'' prefix in some special way. @kbd{C-u 0 C-x C-s} means that one
20215 doesn't want a backup file to be created when saving the current buffer,
20216 for instance. But what if you want to save without making a backup
20217 file, and you want Emacs to flash lights and play a nice tune at the
20218 same time? You can't, and you're probably perfectly happy that way.
20220 @kindex M-i (Summary)
20221 @findex gnus-symbolic-argument
20222 I'm not, so I've added a second prefix---the @dfn{symbolic prefix}. The
20223 prefix key is @kbd{M-i} (@code{gnus-symbolic-argument}), and the next
20224 character typed in is the value. You can stack as many @kbd{M-i}
20225 prefixes as you want. @kbd{M-i a C-M-u} means ``feed the @kbd{C-M-u}
20226 command the symbolic prefix @code{a}''. @kbd{M-i a M-i b C-M-u} means
20227 ``feed the @kbd{C-M-u} command the symbolic prefixes @code{a} and
20228 @code{b}''. You get the drift.
20230 Typing in symbolic prefixes to commands that don't accept them doesn't
20231 hurt, but it doesn't do any good either. Currently not many Gnus
20232 functions make use of the symbolic prefix.
20234 If you're interested in how Gnus implements this, @pxref{Extended
20238 @node Formatting Variables
20239 @section Formatting Variables
20240 @cindex formatting variables
20242 Throughout this manual you've probably noticed lots of variables called
20243 things like @code{gnus-group-line-format} and
20244 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}. These control how Gnus is to
20245 output lines in the various buffers. There's quite a lot of them.
20246 Fortunately, they all use the same syntax, so there's not that much to
20249 Here's an example format spec (from the group buffer): @samp{%M%S%5y:
20250 %(%g%)\n}. We see that it is indeed extremely ugly, and that there are
20251 lots of percentages everywhere.
20254 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
20255 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
20256 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
20257 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
20258 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
20259 * Positioning Point:: Moving point to a position after an operation.
20260 * Tabulation:: Tabulating your output.
20261 * Wide Characters:: Dealing with wide characters.
20264 Currently Gnus uses the following formatting variables:
20265 @code{gnus-group-line-format}, @code{gnus-summary-line-format},
20266 @code{gnus-server-line-format}, @code{gnus-topic-line-format},
20267 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format},
20268 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format},
20269 @code{gnus-article-mode-line-format},
20270 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format}, and
20271 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format}.
20273 All these format variables can also be arbitrary elisp forms. In that
20274 case, they will be @code{eval}ed to insert the required lines.
20276 @kindex M-x gnus-update-format
20277 @findex gnus-update-format
20278 Gnus includes a command to help you while creating your own format
20279 specs. @kbd{M-x gnus-update-format} will @code{eval} the current form,
20280 update the spec in question and pop you to a buffer where you can
20281 examine the resulting lisp code to be run to generate the line.
20285 @node Formatting Basics
20286 @subsection Formatting Basics
20288 Each @samp{%} element will be replaced by some string or other when the
20289 buffer in question is generated. @samp{%5y} means ``insert the @samp{y}
20290 spec, and pad with spaces to get a 5-character field''.
20292 As with normal C and Emacs Lisp formatting strings, the numerical
20293 modifier between the @samp{%} and the formatting type character will
20294 @dfn{pad} the output so that it is always at least that long.
20295 @samp{%5y} will make the field always (at least) five characters wide by
20296 padding with spaces to the left. If you say @samp{%-5y}, it will pad to
20299 You may also wish to limit the length of the field to protect against
20300 particularly wide values. For that you can say @samp{%4,6y}, which
20301 means that the field will never be more than 6 characters wide and never
20302 less than 4 characters wide.
20304 Also Gnus supports some extended format specifications, such as
20305 @samp{%&user-date;}.
20308 @node Mode Line Formatting
20309 @subsection Mode Line Formatting
20311 Mode line formatting variables (e.g.,
20312 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}) follow the same rules as other,
20313 buffer line oriented formatting variables (@pxref{Formatting Basics})
20314 with the following two differences:
20319 There must be no newline (@samp{\n}) at the end.
20322 The special @samp{%%b} spec can be used to display the buffer name.
20323 Well, it's no spec at all, really---@samp{%%} is just a way to quote
20324 @samp{%} to allow it to pass through the formatting machinery unmangled,
20325 so that Emacs receives @samp{%b}, which is something the Emacs mode line
20326 display interprets to mean ``show the buffer name''. For a full list of
20327 mode line specs Emacs understands, see the documentation of the
20328 @code{mode-line-format} variable.
20333 @node Advanced Formatting
20334 @subsection Advanced Formatting
20336 It is frequently useful to post-process the fields in some way.
20337 Padding, limiting, cutting off parts and suppressing certain values can
20338 be achieved by using @dfn{tilde modifiers}. A typical tilde spec might
20339 look like @samp{%~(cut 3)~(ignore "0")y}.
20341 These are the valid modifiers:
20346 Pad the field to the left with spaces until it reaches the required
20350 Pad the field to the right with spaces until it reaches the required
20355 Cut off characters from the left until it reaches the specified length.
20358 Cut off characters from the right until it reaches the specified
20363 Cut off the specified number of characters from the left.
20366 Cut off the specified number of characters from the right.
20369 Return an empty string if the field is equal to the specified value.
20372 Use the specified form as the field value when the @samp{@@} spec is
20378 "~(form (current-time-string))@@"
20383 Let's take an example. The @samp{%o} spec in the summary mode lines
20384 will return a date in compact ISO8601 format---@samp{19960809T230410}.
20385 This is quite a mouthful, so we want to shave off the century number and
20386 the time, leaving us with a six-character date. That would be
20387 @samp{%~(cut-left 2)~(max-right 6)~(pad 6)o}. (Cutting is done before
20388 maxing, and we need the padding to ensure that the date is never less
20389 than 6 characters to make it look nice in columns.)
20391 Ignoring is done first; then cutting; then maxing; and then as the very
20392 last operation, padding.
20394 If you use lots of these advanced thingies, you'll find that Gnus gets
20395 quite slow. This can be helped enormously by running @kbd{M-x
20396 gnus-compile} when you are satisfied with the look of your lines.
20397 @xref{Compilation}.
20400 @node User-Defined Specs
20401 @subsection User-Defined Specs
20403 All the specs allow for inserting user defined specifiers---@samp{u}.
20404 The next character in the format string should be a letter. Gnus
20405 will call the function @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where
20406 @samp{X} is the letter following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed
20407 a single parameter---what the parameter means depends on what buffer
20408 it's being called from. The function should return a string, which will
20409 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
20410 specifier. This function may also be called with dummy values, so it
20411 should protect against that.
20413 Also Gnus supports extended user-defined specs, such as @samp{%u&foo;}.
20414 Gnus will call the function @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{foo}.
20416 You can also use tilde modifiers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting} to achieve
20417 much the same without defining new functions. Here's an example:
20418 @samp{%~(form (count-lines (point-min) (point)))@@}. The form
20419 given here will be evaluated to yield the current line number, and then
20423 @node Formatting Fonts
20424 @subsection Formatting Fonts
20426 There are specs for highlighting, and these are shared by all the format
20427 variables. Text inside the @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} specifiers will get
20428 the special @code{mouse-face} property set, which means that it will be
20429 highlighted (with @code{gnus-mouse-face}) when you put the mouse pointer
20432 Text inside the @samp{%@{} and @samp{%@}} specifiers will have their
20433 normal faces set using @code{gnus-face-0}, which is @code{bold} by
20434 default. If you say @samp{%1@{}, you'll get @code{gnus-face-1} instead,
20435 and so on. Create as many faces as you wish. The same goes for the
20436 @code{mouse-face} specs---you can say @samp{%3(hello%)} to have
20437 @samp{hello} mouse-highlighted with @code{gnus-mouse-face-3}.
20439 Text inside the @samp{%<<} and @samp{%>>} specifiers will get the
20440 special @code{balloon-help} property set to
20441 @code{gnus-balloon-face-0}. If you say @samp{%1<<}, you'll get
20442 @code{gnus-balloon-face-1} and so on. The @code{gnus-balloon-face-*}
20443 variables should be either strings or symbols naming functions that
20444 return a string. When the mouse passes over text with this property
20445 set, a balloon window will appear and display the string. Please
20446 refer to @ref{Tooltips, ,Tooltips, emacs, The Emacs Manual},
20447 (in GNU Emacs) or the doc string of @code{balloon-help-mode} (in
20448 XEmacs) for more information on this. (For technical reasons, the
20449 guillemets have been approximated as @samp{<<} and @samp{>>} in this
20452 Here's an alternative recipe for the group buffer:
20455 ;; Create three face types.
20456 (setq gnus-face-1 'bold)
20457 (setq gnus-face-3 'italic)
20459 ;; We want the article count to be in
20460 ;; a bold and green face. So we create
20461 ;; a new face called `my-green-bold'.
20462 (copy-face 'bold 'my-green-bold)
20464 (set-face-foreground 'my-green-bold "ForestGreen")
20465 (setq gnus-face-2 'my-green-bold)
20467 ;; Set the new & fancy format.
20468 (setq gnus-group-line-format
20469 "%M%S%3@{%5y%@}%2[:%] %(%1@{%g%@}%)\n")
20472 I'm sure you'll be able to use this scheme to create totally unreadable
20473 and extremely vulgar displays. Have fun!
20475 Note that the @samp{%(} specs (and friends) do not make any sense on the
20476 mode-line variables.
20478 @node Positioning Point
20479 @subsection Positioning Point
20481 Gnus usually moves point to a pre-defined place on each line in most
20482 buffers. By default, point move to the first colon character on the
20483 line. You can customize this behaviour in three different ways.
20485 You can move the colon character to somewhere else on the line.
20487 @findex gnus-goto-colon
20488 You can redefine the function that moves the point to the colon. The
20489 function is called @code{gnus-goto-colon}.
20491 But perhaps the most convenient way to deal with this, if you don't want
20492 to have a colon in your line, is to use the @samp{%*} specifier. If you
20493 put a @samp{%*} somewhere in your format line definition, Gnus will
20498 @subsection Tabulation
20500 You can usually line up your displays by padding and cutting your
20501 strings. However, when combining various strings of different size, it
20502 can often be more convenient to just output the strings, and then worry
20503 about lining up the following text afterwards.
20505 To do that, Gnus supplies tabulator specs--@samp{%=}. There are two
20506 different types---@dfn{hard tabulators} and @dfn{soft tabulators}.
20508 @samp{%50=} will insert space characters to pad the line up to column
20509 50. If the text is already past column 50, nothing will be inserted.
20510 This is the soft tabulator.
20512 @samp{%-50=} will insert space characters to pad the line up to column
20513 50. If the text is already past column 50, the excess text past column
20514 50 will be removed. This is the hard tabulator.
20517 @node Wide Characters
20518 @subsection Wide Characters
20520 Proportional fonts in most countries have characters of the same width.
20521 Some countries, however, use Latin characters mixed with wider
20522 characters---most notable East Asian countries.
20524 The problem is that when formatting, Gnus assumes that if a string is 10
20525 characters wide, it'll be 10 Latin characters wide on the screen. In
20526 these countries, that's not true.
20528 @vindex gnus-use-correct-string-widths
20529 To help fix this, you can set @code{gnus-use-correct-string-widths} to
20530 @code{t}. This makes buffer generation slower, but the results will be
20531 prettier. The default value under XEmacs is @code{t} but @code{nil}
20535 @node Window Layout
20536 @section Window Layout
20537 @cindex window layout
20539 No, there's nothing here about X, so be quiet.
20541 @vindex gnus-use-full-window
20542 If @code{gnus-use-full-window} non-@code{nil}, Gnus will delete all
20543 other windows and occupy the entire Emacs screen by itself. It is
20544 @code{t} by default.
20546 Setting this variable to @code{nil} kinda works, but there are
20547 glitches. Use at your own peril.
20549 @vindex gnus-buffer-configuration
20550 @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} describes how much space each Gnus
20551 buffer should be given. Here's an excerpt of this variable:
20554 ((group (vertical 1.0 (group 1.0 point)
20555 (if gnus-carpal (group-carpal 4))))
20556 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
20560 This is an alist. The @dfn{key} is a symbol that names some action or
20561 other. For instance, when displaying the group buffer, the window
20562 configuration function will use @code{group} as the key. A full list of
20563 possible names is listed below.
20565 The @dfn{value} (i.e., the @dfn{split}) says how much space each buffer
20566 should occupy. To take the @code{article} split as an example -
20569 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
20573 This @dfn{split} says that the summary buffer should occupy 25% of upper
20574 half of the screen, and that it is placed over the article buffer. As
20575 you may have noticed, 100% + 25% is actually 125% (yup, I saw y'all
20576 reaching for that calculator there). However, the special number
20577 @code{1.0} is used to signal that this buffer should soak up all the
20578 rest of the space available after the rest of the buffers have taken
20579 whatever they need. There should be only one buffer with the @code{1.0}
20580 size spec per split.
20582 Point will be put in the buffer that has the optional third element
20583 @code{point}. In a @code{frame} split, the last subsplit having a leaf
20584 split where the tag @code{frame-focus} is a member (i.e. is the third or
20585 fourth element in the list, depending on whether the @code{point} tag is
20586 present) gets focus.
20588 Here's a more complicated example:
20591 (article (vertical 1.0 (group 4)
20592 (summary 0.25 point)
20593 (if gnus-carpal (summary-carpal 4))
20597 If the size spec is an integer instead of a floating point number,
20598 then that number will be used to say how many lines a buffer should
20599 occupy, not a percentage.
20601 If the @dfn{split} looks like something that can be @code{eval}ed (to be
20602 precise---if the @code{car} of the split is a function or a subr), this
20603 split will be @code{eval}ed. If the result is non-@code{nil}, it will
20604 be used as a split. This means that there will be three buffers if
20605 @code{gnus-carpal} is @code{nil}, and four buffers if @code{gnus-carpal}
20608 Not complicated enough for you? Well, try this on for size:
20611 (article (horizontal 1.0
20616 (summary 0.25 point)
20621 Whoops. Two buffers with the mystery 100% tag. And what's that
20622 @code{horizontal} thingie?
20624 If the first element in one of the split is @code{horizontal}, Gnus will
20625 split the window horizontally, giving you two windows side-by-side.
20626 Inside each of these strips you may carry on all you like in the normal
20627 fashion. The number following @code{horizontal} says what percentage of
20628 the screen is to be given to this strip.
20630 For each split, there @emph{must} be one element that has the 100% tag.
20631 The splitting is never accurate, and this buffer will eat any leftover
20632 lines from the splits.
20634 To be slightly more formal, here's a definition of what a valid split
20638 split = frame | horizontal | vertical | buffer | form
20639 frame = "(frame " size *split ")"
20640 horizontal = "(horizontal " size *split ")"
20641 vertical = "(vertical " size *split ")"
20642 buffer = "(" buf-name " " size *[ "point" ] *[ "frame-focus"] ")"
20643 size = number | frame-params
20644 buf-name = group | article | summary ...
20647 The limitations are that the @code{frame} split can only appear as the
20648 top-level split. @var{form} should be an Emacs Lisp form that should
20649 return a valid split. We see that each split is fully recursive, and
20650 may contain any number of @code{vertical} and @code{horizontal} splits.
20652 @vindex gnus-window-min-width
20653 @vindex gnus-window-min-height
20654 @cindex window height
20655 @cindex window width
20656 Finding the right sizes can be a bit complicated. No window may be less
20657 than @code{gnus-window-min-height} (default 1) characters high, and all
20658 windows must be at least @code{gnus-window-min-width} (default 1)
20659 characters wide. Gnus will try to enforce this before applying the
20660 splits. If you want to use the normal Emacs window width/height limit,
20661 you can just set these two variables to @code{nil}.
20663 If you're not familiar with Emacs terminology, @code{horizontal} and
20664 @code{vertical} splits may work the opposite way of what you'd expect.
20665 Windows inside a @code{horizontal} split are shown side-by-side, and
20666 windows within a @code{vertical} split are shown above each other.
20668 @findex gnus-configure-frame
20669 If you want to experiment with window placement, a good tip is to call
20670 @code{gnus-configure-frame} directly with a split. This is the function
20671 that does all the real work when splitting buffers. Below is a pretty
20672 nonsensical configuration with 5 windows; two for the group buffer and
20673 three for the article buffer. (I said it was nonsensical.) If you
20674 @code{eval} the statement below, you can get an idea of how that would
20675 look straight away, without going through the normal Gnus channels.
20676 Play with it until you're satisfied, and then use
20677 @code{gnus-add-configuration} to add your new creation to the buffer
20678 configuration list.
20681 (gnus-configure-frame
20685 (article 0.3 point))
20693 You might want to have several frames as well. No prob---just use the
20694 @code{frame} split:
20697 (gnus-configure-frame
20700 (summary 0.25 point frame-focus)
20702 (vertical ((height . 5) (width . 15)
20703 (user-position . t)
20704 (left . -1) (top . 1))
20709 This split will result in the familiar summary/article window
20710 configuration in the first (or ``main'') frame, while a small additional
20711 frame will be created where picons will be shown. As you can see,
20712 instead of the normal @code{1.0} top-level spec, each additional split
20713 should have a frame parameter alist as the size spec.
20714 @xref{Frame Parameters, , Frame Parameters, elisp, The GNU Emacs Lisp
20715 Reference Manual}. Under XEmacs, a frame property list will be
20716 accepted, too---for instance, @code{(height 5 width 15 left -1 top 1)}
20718 The list of all possible keys for @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} can
20719 be found in its default value.
20721 Note that the @code{message} key is used for both
20722 @code{gnus-group-mail} and @code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}. If
20723 it is desirable to distinguish between the two, something like this
20727 (message (horizontal 1.0
20728 (vertical 1.0 (message 1.0 point))
20730 (if (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer)
20735 One common desire for a multiple frame split is to have a separate frame
20736 for composing mail and news while leaving the original frame intact. To
20737 accomplish that, something like the following can be done:
20742 (if (not (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer))
20743 (car (cdr (assoc 'group gnus-buffer-configuration)))
20744 (car (cdr (assoc 'summary gnus-buffer-configuration))))
20745 (vertical ((user-position . t) (top . 1) (left . 1)
20746 (name . "Message"))
20747 (message 1.0 point))))
20750 @findex gnus-add-configuration
20751 Since the @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} variable is so long and
20752 complicated, there's a function you can use to ease changing the config
20753 of a single setting: @code{gnus-add-configuration}. If, for instance,
20754 you want to change the @code{article} setting, you could say:
20757 (gnus-add-configuration
20758 '(article (vertical 1.0
20760 (summary .25 point)
20764 You'd typically stick these @code{gnus-add-configuration} calls in your
20765 @file{~/.gnus.el} file or in some startup hook---they should be run after
20766 Gnus has been loaded.
20768 @vindex gnus-always-force-window-configuration
20769 If all windows mentioned in the configuration are already visible, Gnus
20770 won't change the window configuration. If you always want to force the
20771 ``right'' window configuration, you can set
20772 @code{gnus-always-force-window-configuration} to non-@code{nil}.
20774 If you're using tree displays (@pxref{Tree Display}), and the tree
20775 window is displayed vertically next to another window, you may also want
20776 to fiddle with @code{gnus-tree-minimize-window} to avoid having the
20779 @subsection Example Window Configurations
20783 Narrow left hand side occupied by group buffer. Right hand side split
20784 between summary buffer (top one-sixth) and article buffer (bottom).
20799 (gnus-add-configuration
20802 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
20804 (summary 0.16 point)
20807 (gnus-add-configuration
20810 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
20811 (vertical 1.0 (summary 1.0 point)))))
20817 @node Faces and Fonts
20818 @section Faces and Fonts
20823 Fiddling with fonts and faces used to be very difficult, but these days
20824 it is very simple. You simply say @kbd{M-x customize-face}, pick out
20825 the face you want to alter, and alter it via the standard Customize
20830 @section Compilation
20831 @cindex compilation
20832 @cindex byte-compilation
20834 @findex gnus-compile
20836 Remember all those line format specification variables?
20837 @code{gnus-summary-line-format}, @code{gnus-group-line-format}, and so
20838 on. Now, Gnus will of course heed whatever these variables are, but,
20839 unfortunately, changing them will mean a quite significant slow-down.
20840 (The default values of these variables have byte-compiled functions
20841 associated with them, while the user-generated versions do not, of
20844 To help with this, you can run @kbd{M-x gnus-compile} after you've
20845 fiddled around with the variables and feel that you're (kind of)
20846 satisfied. This will result in the new specs being byte-compiled, and
20847 you'll get top speed again. Gnus will save these compiled specs in the
20848 @file{.newsrc.eld} file. (User-defined functions aren't compiled by
20849 this function, though---you should compile them yourself by sticking
20850 them into the @file{~/.gnus.el} file and byte-compiling that file.)
20854 @section Mode Lines
20857 @vindex gnus-updated-mode-lines
20858 @code{gnus-updated-mode-lines} says what buffers should keep their mode
20859 lines updated. It is a list of symbols. Supported symbols include
20860 @code{group}, @code{article}, @code{summary}, @code{server},
20861 @code{browse}, and @code{tree}. If the corresponding symbol is present,
20862 Gnus will keep that mode line updated with information that may be
20863 pertinent. If this variable is @code{nil}, screen refresh may be
20866 @cindex display-time
20868 @vindex gnus-mode-non-string-length
20869 By default, Gnus displays information on the current article in the mode
20870 lines of the summary and article buffers. The information Gnus wishes
20871 to display (e.g. the subject of the article) is often longer than the
20872 mode lines, and therefore have to be cut off at some point. The
20873 @code{gnus-mode-non-string-length} variable says how long the other
20874 elements on the line is (i.e., the non-info part). If you put
20875 additional elements on the mode line (e.g. a clock), you should modify
20878 @c Hook written by Francesco Potorti` <pot@cnuce.cnr.it>
20880 (add-hook 'display-time-hook
20881 (lambda () (setq gnus-mode-non-string-length
20883 (if line-number-mode 5 0)
20884 (if column-number-mode 4 0)
20885 (length display-time-string)))))
20888 If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the default), the mode line
20889 strings won't be chopped off, and they won't be padded either. Note
20890 that the default is unlikely to be desirable, as even the percentage
20891 complete in the buffer may be crowded off the mode line; the user should
20892 configure this variable appropriately for her configuration.
20895 @node Highlighting and Menus
20896 @section Highlighting and Menus
20898 @cindex highlighting
20901 @vindex gnus-visual
20902 The @code{gnus-visual} variable controls most of the Gnus-prettifying
20903 aspects. If @code{nil}, Gnus won't attempt to create menus or use fancy
20904 colors or fonts. This will also inhibit loading the @file{gnus-vis.el}
20907 This variable can be a list of visual properties that are enabled. The
20908 following elements are valid, and are all included by default:
20911 @item group-highlight
20912 Do highlights in the group buffer.
20913 @item summary-highlight
20914 Do highlights in the summary buffer.
20915 @item article-highlight
20916 Do highlights in the article buffer.
20918 Turn on highlighting in all buffers.
20920 Create menus in the group buffer.
20922 Create menus in the summary buffers.
20924 Create menus in the article buffer.
20926 Create menus in the browse buffer.
20928 Create menus in the server buffer.
20930 Create menus in the score buffers.
20932 Create menus in all buffers.
20935 So if you only want highlighting in the article buffer and menus in all
20936 buffers, you could say something like:
20939 (setq gnus-visual '(article-highlight menu))
20942 If you want highlighting only and no menus whatsoever, you'd say:
20945 (setq gnus-visual '(highlight))
20948 If @code{gnus-visual} is @code{t}, highlighting and menus will be used
20949 in all Gnus buffers.
20951 Other general variables that influence the look of all buffers include:
20954 @item gnus-mouse-face
20955 @vindex gnus-mouse-face
20956 This is the face (i.e., font) used for mouse highlighting in Gnus. No
20957 mouse highlights will be done if @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
20961 There are hooks associated with the creation of all the different menus:
20965 @item gnus-article-menu-hook
20966 @vindex gnus-article-menu-hook
20967 Hook called after creating the article mode menu.
20969 @item gnus-group-menu-hook
20970 @vindex gnus-group-menu-hook
20971 Hook called after creating the group mode menu.
20973 @item gnus-summary-menu-hook
20974 @vindex gnus-summary-menu-hook
20975 Hook called after creating the summary mode menu.
20977 @item gnus-server-menu-hook
20978 @vindex gnus-server-menu-hook
20979 Hook called after creating the server mode menu.
20981 @item gnus-browse-menu-hook
20982 @vindex gnus-browse-menu-hook
20983 Hook called after creating the browse mode menu.
20985 @item gnus-score-menu-hook
20986 @vindex gnus-score-menu-hook
20987 Hook called after creating the score mode menu.
20998 Those new-fangled @dfn{mouse} contraptions is very popular with the
20999 young, hep kids who don't want to learn the proper way to do things
21000 these days. Why, I remember way back in the summer of '89, when I was
21001 using Emacs on a Tops 20 system. Three hundred users on one single
21002 machine, and every user was running Simula compilers. Bah!
21006 @vindex gnus-carpal
21007 Well, you can make Gnus display bufferfuls of buttons you can click to
21008 do anything by setting @code{gnus-carpal} to @code{t}. Pretty simple,
21009 really. Tell the chiropractor I sent you.
21014 @item gnus-carpal-mode-hook
21015 @vindex gnus-carpal-mode-hook
21016 Hook run in all carpal mode buffers.
21018 @item gnus-carpal-button-face
21019 @vindex gnus-carpal-button-face
21020 Face used on buttons.
21022 @item gnus-carpal-header-face
21023 @vindex gnus-carpal-header-face
21024 Face used on carpal buffer headers.
21026 @item gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
21027 @vindex gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
21028 Buttons in the group buffer.
21030 @item gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
21031 @vindex gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
21032 Buttons in the summary buffer.
21034 @item gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
21035 @vindex gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
21036 Buttons in the server buffer.
21038 @item gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
21039 @vindex gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
21040 Buttons in the browse buffer.
21043 All the @code{buttons} variables are lists. The elements in these list
21044 are either cons cells where the @code{car} contains a text to be displayed and
21045 the @code{cdr} contains a function symbol, or a simple string.
21053 Gnus, being larger than any program ever written (allegedly), does lots
21054 of strange stuff that you may wish to have done while you're not
21055 present. For instance, you may want it to check for new mail once in a
21056 while. Or you may want it to close down all connections to all servers
21057 when you leave Emacs idle. And stuff like that.
21059 Gnus will let you do stuff like that by defining various
21060 @dfn{handlers}. Each handler consists of three elements: A
21061 @var{function}, a @var{time}, and an @var{idle} parameter.
21063 Here's an example of a handler that closes connections when Emacs has
21064 been idle for thirty minutes:
21067 (gnus-demon-close-connections nil 30)
21070 Here's a handler that scans for PGP headers every hour when Emacs is
21074 (gnus-demon-scan-pgp 60 t)
21077 This @var{time} parameter and than @var{idle} parameter work together
21078 in a strange, but wonderful fashion. Basically, if @var{idle} is
21079 @code{nil}, then the function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
21081 If @var{idle} is @code{t}, then the function will be called after
21082 @var{time} minutes only if Emacs is idle. So if Emacs is never idle,
21083 the function will never be called. But once Emacs goes idle, the
21084 function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
21086 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is a number, the function will
21087 be called every @var{time} minutes only when Emacs has been idle for
21088 @var{idle} minutes.
21090 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is @code{nil}, the function
21091 will be called once every time Emacs has been idle for @var{idle}
21094 And if @var{time} is a string, it should look like @samp{07:31}, and
21095 the function will then be called once every day somewhere near that
21096 time. Modified by the @var{idle} parameter, of course.
21098 @vindex gnus-demon-timestep
21099 (When I say ``minute'' here, I really mean @code{gnus-demon-timestep}
21100 seconds. This is 60 by default. If you change that variable,
21101 all the timings in the handlers will be affected.)
21103 So, if you want to add a handler, you could put something like this in
21104 your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
21106 @findex gnus-demon-add-handler
21108 (gnus-demon-add-handler 'gnus-demon-close-connections 30 t)
21111 @findex gnus-demon-add-nocem
21112 @findex gnus-demon-add-scanmail
21113 @findex gnus-demon-add-rescan
21114 @findex gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps
21115 @findex gnus-demon-add-disconnection
21116 Some ready-made functions to do this have been created:
21117 @code{gnus-demon-add-nocem}, @code{gnus-demon-add-disconnection},
21118 @code{gnus-demon-add-nntp-close-connection},
21119 @code{gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps}, @code{gnus-demon-add-rescan}, and
21120 @code{gnus-demon-add-scanmail}. Just put those functions in your
21121 @file{~/.gnus.el} if you want those abilities.
21123 @findex gnus-demon-init
21124 @findex gnus-demon-cancel
21125 @vindex gnus-demon-handlers
21126 If you add handlers to @code{gnus-demon-handlers} directly, you should
21127 run @code{gnus-demon-init} to make the changes take hold. To cancel all
21128 daemons, you can use the @code{gnus-demon-cancel} function.
21130 Note that adding daemons can be pretty naughty if you over do it. Adding
21131 functions that scan all news and mail from all servers every two seconds
21132 is a sure-fire way of getting booted off any respectable system. So
21141 @dfn{Spamming} is posting the same article lots and lots of times.
21142 Spamming is bad. Spamming is evil.
21144 Spamming is usually canceled within a day or so by various anti-spamming
21145 agencies. These agencies usually also send out @dfn{NoCeM} messages.
21146 NoCeM is pronounced ``no see-'em'', and means what the name
21147 implies---these are messages that make the offending articles, like, go
21150 What use are these NoCeM messages if the articles are canceled anyway?
21151 Some sites do not honor cancel messages and some sites just honor cancels
21152 from a select few people. Then you may wish to make use of the NoCeM
21153 messages, which are distributed in the @samp{alt.nocem.misc} newsgroup.
21155 Gnus can read and parse the messages in this group automatically, and
21156 this will make spam disappear.
21158 There are some variables to customize, of course:
21161 @item gnus-use-nocem
21162 @vindex gnus-use-nocem
21163 Set this variable to @code{t} to set the ball rolling. It is @code{nil}
21166 @item gnus-nocem-groups
21167 @vindex gnus-nocem-groups
21168 Gnus will look for NoCeM messages in the groups in this list. The
21169 default is @code{("news.lists.filters" "news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins"
21170 "alt.nocem.misc" "news.admin.net-abuse.announce")}.
21172 @item gnus-nocem-issuers
21173 @vindex gnus-nocem-issuers
21174 There are many people issuing NoCeM messages. This list says what
21175 people you want to listen to. The default is @code{("Automoose-1"
21176 "clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" "cosmo.roadkill" "SpamHippo"
21177 "hweede@@snafu.de")}; fine, upstanding citizens all of them.
21179 Known despammers that you can put in this list are listed at
21180 @uref{http://www.xs4all.nl/~rosalind/nocemreg/nocemreg.html}.
21182 You do not have to heed NoCeM messages from all these people---just the
21183 ones you want to listen to. You also don't have to accept all NoCeM
21184 messages from the people you like. Each NoCeM message has a @dfn{type}
21185 header that gives the message a (more or less, usually less) rigorous
21186 definition. Common types are @samp{spam}, @samp{spew}, @samp{mmf},
21187 @samp{binary}, and @samp{troll}. To specify this, you have to use
21188 @code{(@var{issuer} @var{conditions} @dots{})} elements in the list.
21189 Each condition is either a string (which is a regexp that matches types
21190 you want to use) or a list on the form @code{(not @var{string})}, where
21191 @var{string} is a regexp that matches types you don't want to use.
21193 For instance, if you want all NoCeM messages from Chris Lewis except his
21194 @samp{troll} messages, you'd say:
21197 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" ".*" (not "troll"))
21200 On the other hand, if you just want nothing but his @samp{spam} and
21201 @samp{spew} messages, you'd say:
21204 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" (not ".*") "spew" "spam")
21207 The specs are applied left-to-right.
21210 @item gnus-nocem-verifyer
21211 @vindex gnus-nocem-verifyer
21213 This should be a function for verifying that the NoCeM issuer is who she
21214 says she is. The default is @code{mc-verify}, which is a Mailcrypt
21215 function. If this is too slow and you don't care for verification
21216 (which may be dangerous), you can set this variable to @code{nil}.
21218 If you want signed NoCeM messages to be verified and unsigned messages
21219 not to be verified (but used anyway), you could do something like:
21222 (setq gnus-nocem-verifyer 'my-gnus-mc-verify)
21224 (defun my-gnus-mc-verify ()
21232 This might be dangerous, though.
21234 @item gnus-nocem-directory
21235 @vindex gnus-nocem-directory
21236 This is where Gnus will store its NoCeM cache files. The default is
21237 @file{~/News/NoCeM/}.
21239 @item gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
21240 @vindex gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
21241 The number of days before removing old NoCeM entries from the cache.
21242 The default is 15. If you make it shorter Gnus will be faster, but you
21243 might then see old spam.
21245 @item gnus-nocem-check-from
21246 @vindex gnus-nocem-check-from
21247 Non-@code{nil} means check for valid issuers in message bodies.
21248 Otherwise don't bother fetching articles unless their author matches a
21249 valid issuer; that is much faster if you are selective about the
21252 @item gnus-nocem-check-article-limit
21253 @vindex gnus-nocem-check-article-limit
21254 If non-@code{nil}, the maximum number of articles to check in any NoCeM
21255 group. NoCeM groups can be huge and very slow to process.
21259 Using NoCeM could potentially be a memory hog. If you have many living
21260 (i. e., subscribed or unsubscribed groups), your Emacs process will grow
21261 big. If this is a problem, you should kill off all (or most) of your
21262 unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Subscription Commands}).
21269 It is very useful to be able to undo actions one has done. In normal
21270 Emacs buffers, it's easy enough---you just push the @code{undo} button.
21271 In Gnus buffers, however, it isn't that simple.
21273 The things Gnus displays in its buffer is of no value whatsoever to
21274 Gnus---it's all just data designed to look nice to the user.
21275 Killing a group in the group buffer with @kbd{C-k} makes the line
21276 disappear, but that's just a side-effect of the real action---the
21277 removal of the group in question from the internal Gnus structures.
21278 Undoing something like that can't be done by the normal Emacs
21279 @code{undo} function.
21281 Gnus tries to remedy this somewhat by keeping track of what the user
21282 does and coming up with actions that would reverse the actions the user
21283 takes. When the user then presses the @code{undo} key, Gnus will run
21284 the code to reverse the previous action, or the previous actions.
21285 However, not all actions are easily reversible, so Gnus currently offers
21286 a few key functions to be undoable. These include killing groups,
21287 yanking groups, and changing the list of read articles of groups.
21288 That's it, really. More functions may be added in the future, but each
21289 added function means an increase in data to be stored, so Gnus will
21290 never be totally undoable.
21292 @findex gnus-undo-mode
21293 @vindex gnus-use-undo
21295 The undoability is provided by the @code{gnus-undo-mode} minor mode. It
21296 is used if @code{gnus-use-undo} is non-@code{nil}, which is the
21297 default. The @kbd{C-M-_} key performs the @code{gnus-undo}
21298 command, which should feel kinda like the normal Emacs @code{undo}
21302 @node Predicate Specifiers
21303 @section Predicate Specifiers
21304 @cindex predicate specifiers
21306 Some Gnus variables are @dfn{predicate specifiers}. This is a special
21307 form that allows flexible specification of predicates without having
21308 to type all that much.
21310 These specifiers are lists consisting of functions, symbols and lists.
21315 (or gnus-article-unseen-p
21316 gnus-article-unread-p)
21319 The available symbols are @code{or}, @code{and} and @code{not}. The
21320 functions all take one parameter.
21322 @findex gnus-make-predicate
21323 Internally, Gnus calls @code{gnus-make-predicate} on these specifiers
21324 to create a function that can be called. This input parameter to this
21325 function will be passed along to all the functions in the predicate
21330 @section Moderation
21333 If you are a moderator, you can use the @file{gnus-mdrtn.el} package.
21334 It is not included in the standard Gnus package. Write a mail to
21335 @samp{larsi@@gnus.org} and state what group you moderate, and you'll
21338 The moderation package is implemented as a minor mode for summary
21342 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-moderate)
21345 in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file.
21347 If you are the moderator of @samp{rec.zoofle}, this is how it's
21352 You split your incoming mail by matching on
21353 @samp{Newsgroups:.*rec.zoofle}, which will put all the to-be-posted
21354 articles in some mail group---for instance, @samp{nnml:rec.zoofle}.
21357 You enter that group once in a while and post articles using the @kbd{e}
21358 (edit-and-post) or @kbd{s} (just send unedited) commands.
21361 If, while reading the @samp{rec.zoofle} newsgroup, you happen upon some
21362 articles that weren't approved by you, you can cancel them with the
21366 To use moderation mode in these two groups, say:
21369 (setq gnus-moderated-list
21370 "^nnml:rec.zoofle$\\|^rec.zoofle$")
21374 @node Image Enhancements
21375 @section Image Enhancements
21377 XEmacs, as well as Emacs 21, is able to display pictures and stuff, so
21378 Gnus has taken advantage of that.
21381 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what you're reading.
21382 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
21383 * X-Face:: Display a funky, teensy black-and-white image.
21384 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
21397 So@dots{} You want to slow down your news reader even more! This is a
21398 good way to do so. Its also a great way to impress people staring
21399 over your shoulder as you read news.
21401 What are Picons? To quote directly from the Picons Web site:
21410 @dfn{Picons} is short for ``personal icons''. They're small,
21411 constrained images used to represent users and domains on the net,
21412 organized into databases so that the appropriate image for a given
21413 e-mail address can be found. Besides users and domains, there are picon
21414 databases for Usenet newsgroups and weather forecasts. The picons are
21415 in either monochrome @code{XBM} format or color @code{XPM} and
21416 @code{GIF} formats.
21419 @vindex gnus-picon-databases
21420 For instructions on obtaining and installing the picons databases,
21421 point your Web browser at
21422 @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/ftp/index.html}.
21424 If you are using Debian GNU/Linux, saying @samp{apt-get install
21425 picons.*} will install the picons where Gnus can find them.
21427 To enable displaying picons, simply make sure that
21428 @code{gnus-picon-databases} points to the directory containing the
21431 The following variables offer control over where things are located.
21435 @item gnus-picon-databases
21436 @vindex gnus-picon-databases
21437 The location of the picons database. This is a list of directories
21438 containing the @file{news}, @file{domains}, @file{users} (and so on)
21439 subdirectories. Defaults to @code{("/usr/lib/picon"
21440 "/usr/local/faces")}.
21442 @item gnus-picon-news-directories
21443 @vindex gnus-picon-news-directories
21444 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picon-databases} for
21445 newsgroups faces. @code{("news")} is the default.
21447 @item gnus-picon-user-directories
21448 @vindex gnus-picon-user-directories
21449 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picon-databases} for user
21450 faces. @code{("users" "usenix" "local" "misc")} is the default.
21452 @item gnus-picon-domain-directories
21453 @vindex gnus-picon-domain-directories
21454 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picon-databases} for
21455 domain name faces. Defaults to @code{("domains")}. Some people may
21456 want to add @samp{"unknown"} to this list.
21458 @item gnus-picon-file-types
21459 @vindex gnus-picon-file-types
21460 Ordered list of suffixes on picon file names to try. Defaults to
21461 @code{("xpm" "gif" "xbm")} minus those not builtin your Emacs.
21466 @subsection Smileys
21471 \gnusfig{-3cm}{0.5cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/BigFace,height=20cm}}
21476 @dfn{Smiley} is a package separate from Gnus, but since Gnus is
21477 currently the only package that uses Smiley, it is documented here.
21479 In short---to use Smiley in Gnus, put the following in your
21480 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
21483 (setq gnus-treat-display-smileys t)
21486 Smiley maps text smiley faces---@samp{:-)}, @samp{8-)}, @samp{:-(} and
21487 the like---to pictures and displays those instead of the text smiley
21488 faces. The conversion is controlled by a list of regexps that matches
21489 text and maps that to file names.
21491 @vindex smiley-regexp-alist
21492 The alist used is specified by the @code{smiley-regexp-alist}
21493 variable. The first item in each element is the regexp to be matched;
21494 the second element is the regexp match group that is to be replaced by
21495 the picture; and the third element is the name of the file to be
21498 The following variables customize where Smiley will look for these
21503 @item smiley-data-directory
21504 @vindex smiley-data-directory
21505 Where Smiley will look for smiley faces files.
21507 @item gnus-smiley-file-types
21508 @vindex gnus-smiley-file-types
21509 List of suffixes on smiley file names to try.
21518 @code{X-Face} headers describe a 48x48 pixel black-and-white (1 bit
21519 depth) image that's supposed to represent the author of the message.
21520 It seems to be supported by an ever-growing number of mail and news
21524 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
21525 @findex gnus-article-x-face-command
21526 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-command
21527 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly
21535 Decoding an @code{X-Face} header either requires an Emacs that has
21536 @samp{compface} support (which most XEmacs versions has), or that you
21537 have @samp{compface} installed on your system. If either is true,
21538 Gnus will default to displaying @code{X-Face} headers.
21540 The variable that controls this is the
21541 @code{gnus-article-x-face-command} variable. If this variable is a
21542 string, this string will be executed in a sub-shell. If it is a
21543 function, this function will be called with the face as the argument.
21544 If the @code{gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly} (which is a regexp) matches
21545 the @code{From} header, the face will not be shown.
21547 The default action under Emacs 20 is to fork off the @code{display}
21548 program@footnote{@code{display} is from the ImageMagick package. For
21549 the @code{uncompface} and @code{icontopbm} programs look for a package
21550 like @code{compface} or @code{faces-xface} on a GNU/Linux system.} to
21553 Under XEmacs or Emacs 21+ with suitable image support, the default
21554 action is to display the face before the @code{From} header. (It's
21555 nicer if XEmacs has been compiled with @code{X-Face} support---that
21556 will make display somewhat faster. If there's no native @code{X-Face}
21557 support, Gnus will try to convert the @code{X-Face} header using
21558 external programs from the @code{pbmplus} package and
21559 friends.@footnote{On a GNU/Linux system look for packages with names
21560 like @code{netpbm}, @code{libgr-progs} and @code{compface}.})
21562 (Note: @code{x-face} is used in the variable/function names, not
21565 Gnus provides a few convenience functions and variables to allow
21566 easier insertion of X-Face headers in outgoing messages.
21568 @findex gnus-random-x-face
21569 @vindex gnus-convert-pbm-to-x-face-command
21570 @vindex gnus-x-face-directory
21571 @code{gnus-random-x-face} goes through all the @samp{pbm} files in
21572 @code{gnus-x-face-directory} and picks one at random, and then
21573 converts it to the X-Face format by using the
21574 @code{gnus-convert-pbm-to-x-face-command} shell command. The
21575 @samp{pbm} files should be 48x48 pixels big. It returns the X-Face
21576 header data as a string.
21578 @findex gnus-insert-random-x-face-header
21579 @code{gnus-insert-random-x-face-header} calls
21580 @code{gnus-random-x-face} and inserts a @samp{X-Face} header with the
21581 randomly generated data.
21583 @findex gnus-x-face-from-file
21584 @vindex gnus-convert-image-to-x-face-command
21585 @code{gnus-x-face-from-file} takes a GIF file as the parameter, and then
21586 converts the file to X-Face format by using the
21587 @code{gnus-convert-image-to-x-face-command} shell command.
21589 Here's how you would typically use the first function. Put something
21590 like the following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
21593 (setq message-required-news-headers
21594 (nconc message-required-news-headers
21595 (list '(X-Face . gnus-random-x-face))))
21598 Using the last function would be something like this:
21601 (setq message-required-news-headers
21602 (nconc message-required-news-headers
21603 (list '(X-Face . (lambda ()
21604 (gnus-x-face-from-file
21605 "~/My-face.gif"))))))
21610 @subsection Various XEmacs Variables
21613 @item gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
21614 @vindex gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
21615 This is where Gnus will look for pictures. Gnus will normally
21616 auto-detect this directory, but you may set it manually if you have an
21617 unusual directory structure.
21619 @item gnus-xmas-logo-color-alist
21620 @vindex gnus-xmas-logo-color-alist
21621 This is an alist where the key is a type symbol and the values are the
21622 foreground and background color of the splash page glyph.
21624 @item gnus-xmas-logo-color-style
21625 @vindex gnus-xmas-logo-color-style
21626 This is the key used to look up the color in the alist described above.
21627 Valid values include @code{flame}, @code{pine}, @code{moss},
21628 @code{irish}, @code{sky}, @code{tin}, @code{velvet}, @code{grape},
21629 @code{labia}, @code{berry}, @code{neutral}, and @code{september}.
21631 @item gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
21632 @vindex gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
21633 A glyph displayed in all Gnus mode lines. It is a tiny gnu head by
21638 @subsubsection Toolbar
21642 @item gnus-use-toolbar
21643 @vindex gnus-use-toolbar
21644 If @code{nil}, don't display toolbars. If non-@code{nil}, it should be
21645 one of @code{default-toolbar}, @code{top-toolbar}, @code{bottom-toolbar},
21646 @code{right-toolbar}, or @code{left-toolbar}.
21648 @item gnus-group-toolbar
21649 @vindex gnus-group-toolbar
21650 The toolbar in the group buffer.
21652 @item gnus-summary-toolbar
21653 @vindex gnus-summary-toolbar
21654 The toolbar in the summary buffer.
21656 @item gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
21657 @vindex gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
21658 The toolbar in the summary buffer of mail groups.
21669 @node Fuzzy Matching
21670 @section Fuzzy Matching
21671 @cindex fuzzy matching
21673 Gnus provides @dfn{fuzzy matching} of @code{Subject} lines when doing
21674 things like scoring, thread gathering and thread comparison.
21676 As opposed to regular expression matching, fuzzy matching is very fuzzy.
21677 It's so fuzzy that there's not even a definition of what @dfn{fuzziness}
21678 means, and the implementation has changed over time.
21680 Basically, it tries to remove all noise from lines before comparing.
21681 @samp{Re: }, parenthetical remarks, white space, and so on, are filtered
21682 out of the strings before comparing the results. This often leads to
21683 adequate results---even when faced with strings generated by text
21684 manglers masquerading as newsreaders.
21687 @node Thwarting Email Spam
21688 @section Thwarting Email Spam
21692 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
21694 In these last days of the Usenet, commercial vultures are hanging about
21695 and grepping through news like crazy to find email addresses they can
21696 foist off their scams and products to. As a reaction to this, many
21697 people have started putting nonsense addresses into their @code{From}
21698 lines. I think this is counterproductive---it makes it difficult for
21699 people to send you legitimate mail in response to things you write, as
21700 well as making it difficult to see who wrote what. This rewriting may
21701 perhaps be a bigger menace than the unsolicited commercial email itself
21704 The biggest problem I have with email spam is that it comes in under
21705 false pretenses. I press @kbd{g} and Gnus merrily informs me that I
21706 have 10 new emails. I say ``Golly gee! Happy is me!'' and select the
21707 mail group, only to find two pyramid schemes, seven advertisements
21708 (``New! Miracle tonic for growing full, lustrous hair on your toes!'')
21709 and one mail asking me to repent and find some god.
21711 This is annoying. Here's what you can do about it.
21714 * The problem of spam:: Some background, and some solutions
21715 * Anti-Spam Basics:: Simple steps to reduce the amount of spam.
21716 * SpamAssassin:: How to use external anti-spam tools.
21717 * Hashcash:: Reduce spam by burning CPU time.
21718 * Filtering Spam Using The Spam ELisp Package::
21719 * Filtering Spam Using Statistics with spam-stat::
21722 @node The problem of spam
21723 @subsection The problem of spam
21725 @cindex spam filtering approaches
21726 @cindex filtering approaches, spam
21728 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
21730 First, some background on spam.
21732 If you have access to e-mail, you are familiar with spam (technically
21733 termed @acronym{UCE}, Unsolicited Commercial E-mail). Simply put, it exists
21734 because e-mail delivery is very cheap compared to paper mail, so only
21735 a very small percentage of people need to respond to an UCE to make it
21736 worthwhile to the advertiser. Ironically, one of the most common
21737 spams is the one offering a database of e-mail addresses for further
21738 spamming. Senders of spam are usually called @emph{spammers}, but terms like
21739 @emph{vermin}, @emph{scum}, and @emph{morons} are in common use as well.
21741 Spam comes from a wide variety of sources. It is simply impossible to
21742 dispose of all spam without discarding useful messages. A good
21743 example is the TMDA system, which requires senders
21744 unknown to you to confirm themselves as legitimate senders before
21745 their e-mail can reach you. Without getting into the technical side
21746 of TMDA, a downside is clearly that e-mail from legitimate sources may
21747 be discarded if those sources can't or won't confirm themselves
21748 through the TMDA system. Another problem with TMDA is that it
21749 requires its users to have a basic understanding of e-mail delivery
21752 The simplest approach to filtering spam is filtering. If you get 200
21753 spam messages per day from @samp{random-address@@vmadmin.com}, you
21754 block @samp{vmadmin.com}. If you get 200 messages about
21755 @samp{VIAGRA}, you discard all messages with @samp{VIAGRA} in the
21756 message. This, unfortunately, is a great way to discard legitimate
21757 e-mail. For instance, the very informative and useful RISKS digest
21758 has been blocked by overzealous mail filters because it
21759 @strong{contained} words that were common in spam messages.
21760 Nevertheless, in isolated cases, with great care, direct filtering of
21761 mail can be useful.
21763 Another approach to filtering e-mail is the distributed spam
21764 processing, for instance DCC implements such a system. In essence,
21765 @code{N} systems around the world agree that a machine @samp{X} in
21766 China, Ghana, or California is sending out spam e-mail, and these
21767 @code{N} systems enter @samp{X} or the spam e-mail from @samp{X} into
21768 a database. The criteria for spam detection vary - it may be the
21769 number of messages sent, the content of the messages, and so on. When
21770 a user of the distributed processing system wants to find out if a
21771 message is spam, he consults one of those @code{N} systems.
21773 Distributed spam processing works very well against spammers that send
21774 a large number of messages at once, but it requires the user to set up
21775 fairly complicated checks. There are commercial and free distributed
21776 spam processing systems. Distributed spam processing has its risks as
21777 well. For instance legitimate e-mail senders have been accused of
21778 sending spam, and their web sites have been shut down for some time
21779 because of the incident.
21781 The statistical approach to spam filtering is also popular. It is
21782 based on a statistical analysis of previous spam messages. Usually
21783 the analysis is a simple word frequency count, with perhaps pairs of
21784 words or 3-word combinations thrown into the mix. Statistical
21785 analysis of spam works very well in most of the cases, but it can
21786 classify legitimate e-mail as spam in some cases. It takes time to
21787 run the analysis, the full message must be analyzed, and the user has
21788 to store the database of spam analyses.
21790 @node Anti-Spam Basics
21791 @subsection Anti-Spam Basics
21795 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
21797 One way of dealing with spam is having Gnus split out all spam into a
21798 @samp{spam} mail group (@pxref{Splitting Mail}).
21800 First, pick one (1) valid mail address that you can be reached at, and
21801 put it in your @code{From} header of all your news articles. (I've
21802 chosen @samp{larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no}, but for many addresses on the form
21803 @samp{larsi+usenet@@ifi.uio.no} will be a better choice. Ask your
21804 sysadmin whether your sendmail installation accepts keywords in the local
21805 part of the mail address.)
21808 (setq message-default-news-headers
21809 "From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no>\n")
21812 Then put the following split rule in @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
21813 (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}):
21818 (to "larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no"
21819 (| ("subject" "re:.*" "misc")
21820 ("references" ".*@@.*" "misc")
21826 This says that all mail to this address is suspect, but if it has a
21827 @code{Subject} that starts with a @samp{Re:} or has a @code{References}
21828 header, it's probably ok. All the rest goes to the @samp{spam} group.
21829 (This idea probably comes from Tim Pierce.)
21831 In addition, many mail spammers talk directly to your @sc{smtp} server
21832 and do not include your email address explicitly in the @code{To}
21833 header. Why they do this is unknown---perhaps it's to thwart this
21834 thwarting scheme? In any case, this is trivial to deal with---you just
21835 put anything not addressed to you in the @samp{spam} group by ending
21836 your fancy split rule in this way:
21841 (to "larsi" "misc")
21845 In my experience, this will sort virtually everything into the right
21846 group. You still have to check the @samp{spam} group from time to time to
21847 check for legitimate mail, though. If you feel like being a good net
21848 citizen, you can even send off complaints to the proper authorities on
21849 each unsolicited commercial email---at your leisure.
21851 If you are also a lazy net citizen, you will probably prefer complaining
21852 automatically with the @file{gnus-junk.el} package, available FOR FREE
21853 at @* @uref{http://stud2.tuwien.ac.at/~e9426626/gnus-junk.html}.
21854 Since most e-mail spam is sent automatically, this may reconcile the
21855 cosmic balance somewhat.
21857 This works for me. It allows people an easy way to contact me (they can
21858 just press @kbd{r} in the usual way), and I'm not bothered at all with
21859 spam. It's a win-win situation. Forging @code{From} headers to point
21860 to non-existent domains is yucky, in my opinion.
21865 @subsection SpamAssassin, Vipul's Razor, DCC, etc
21866 @cindex SpamAssassin
21867 @cindex Vipul's Razor
21870 The days where the hints in the previous section was sufficient in
21871 avoiding spam is coming to an end. There are many tools out there
21872 that claim to reduce the amount of spam you get. This section could
21873 easily become outdated fast, as new products replace old, but
21874 fortunately most of these tools seem to have similar interfaces. Even
21875 though this section will use SpamAssassin as an example, it should be
21876 easy to adapt it to most other tools.
21878 If the tool you are using is not installed on the mail server, you
21879 need to invoke it yourself. Ideas on how to use the
21880 @code{:postscript} mail source parameter (@pxref{Mail Source
21881 Specifiers}) follows.
21885 '((file :prescript "formail -bs spamassassin < /var/mail/%u")
21888 :postscript "mv %t /tmp/foo; formail -bs spamc < /tmp/foo > %t")))
21891 Once you managed to process your incoming spool somehow, thus making
21892 the mail contain e.g. a header indicating it is spam, you are ready to
21893 filter it out. Using normal split methods (@pxref{Splitting Mail}):
21896 (setq nnmail-split-methods '(("spam" "^X-Spam-Flag: YES")
21900 Or using fancy split methods (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}):
21903 (setq nnmail-split-methods 'nnmail-split-fancy
21904 nnmail-split-fancy '(| ("X-Spam-Flag" "YES" "spam")
21908 Some people might not like the idea of piping the mail through various
21909 programs using a @code{:prescript} (if some program is buggy, you
21910 might lose all mail). If you are one of them, another solution is to
21911 call the external tools during splitting. Example fancy split method:
21914 (setq nnmail-split-fancy '(| (: kevin-spamassassin)
21916 (defun kevin-spamassassin ()
21918 (let ((buf (or (get-buffer " *nnmail incoming*")
21919 (get-buffer " *nnml move*"))))
21921 (progn (message "Oops, cannot find message buffer") nil)
21923 (if (eq 1 (call-process-region (point-min) (point-max)
21924 "spamc" nil nil nil "-c"))
21928 That is about it. As some spam is likely to get through anyway, you
21929 might want to have a nifty function to call when you happen to read
21930 spam. And here is the nifty function:
21933 (defun my-gnus-raze-spam ()
21934 "Submit SPAM to Vipul's Razor, then mark it as expirable."
21936 (gnus-summary-show-raw-article)
21937 (gnus-summary-save-in-pipe "razor-report -f -d")
21938 (gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable 1))
21942 @subsection Hashcash
21945 A novel technique to fight spam is to require senders to do something
21946 costly for each message they send. This has the obvious drawback that
21947 you cannot rely on that everyone in the world uses this technique,
21948 since it is not part of the Internet standards, but it may be useful
21949 in smaller communities.
21951 While the tools in the previous section work well in practice, they
21952 work only because the tools are constantly maintained and updated as
21953 new form of spam appears. This means that a small percentage of spam
21954 will always get through. It also means that somewhere, someone needs
21955 to read lots of spam to update these tools. Hashcash avoids that, but
21956 instead requires that everyone you communicate with supports the
21957 scheme. You can view the two approaches as pragmatic vs dogmatic.
21958 The approaches have their own advantages and disadvantages, but as
21959 often in the real world, a combination of them is stronger than either
21960 one of them separately.
21963 The ``something costly'' is to burn CPU time, more specifically to
21964 compute a hash collision up to a certain number of bits. The
21965 resulting hashcash cookie is inserted in a @samp{X-Hashcash:}
21966 header. For more details, and for the external application
21967 @code{hashcash} you need to install to use this feature, see
21968 @uref{http://www.cypherspace.org/~adam/hashcash/}. Even more
21969 information can be found at @uref{http://www.camram.org/}.
21971 If you wish to call hashcash for each message you send, say something
21975 (require 'hashcash)
21976 (add-hook 'message-send-hook 'mail-add-payment)
21979 The @code{hashcash.el} library can be found at
21980 @uref{http://users.actrix.gen.nz/mycroft/hashcash.el}, or in the Gnus
21981 development contrib directory.
21983 You will need to set up some additional variables as well:
21987 @item hashcash-default-payment
21988 @vindex hashcash-default-payment
21989 This variable indicates the default number of bits the hash collision
21990 should consist of. By default this is 0, meaning nothing will be
21991 done. Suggested useful values include 17 to 29.
21993 @item hashcash-payment-alist
21994 @vindex hashcash-payment-alist
21995 Some receivers may require you to spend burn more CPU time than the
21996 default. This variable contains a list of @samp{(@var{addr}
21997 @var{amount})} cells, where @var{addr} is the receiver (email address
21998 or newsgroup) and @var{amount} is the number of bits in the collision
21999 that is needed. It can also contain @samp{(@var{addr} @var{string}
22000 @var{amount})} cells, where the @var{string} is the string to use
22001 (normally the email address or newsgroup name is used).
22005 Where the @code{hashcash} binary is installed.
22009 Currently there is no built in functionality in Gnus to verify
22010 hashcash cookies, it is expected that this is performed by your hand
22011 customized mail filtering scripts. Improvements in this area would be
22012 a useful contribution, however.
22014 @node Filtering Spam Using The Spam ELisp Package
22015 @subsection Filtering Spam Using The Spam ELisp Package
22016 @cindex spam filtering
22019 The idea behind @code{spam.el} is to have a control center for spam detection
22020 and filtering in Gnus. To that end, @code{spam.el} does two things: it
22021 filters incoming mail, and it analyzes mail known to be spam or ham.
22022 @emph{Ham} is the name used throughout @code{spam.el} to indicate
22025 So, what happens when you load @code{spam.el}? First of all, you get
22026 the following keyboard commands:
22036 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-spam
22037 @code{gnus-summary-mark-as-spam}.
22039 Mark current article as spam, showing it with the @samp{$} mark.
22040 Whenever you see a spam article, make sure to mark its summary line
22041 with @kbd{M-d} before leaving the group. This is done automatically
22042 for unread articles in @emph{spam} groups.
22048 @findex spam-bogofilter-score
22049 @code{spam-bogofilter-score}.
22051 You must have Bogofilter installed for that command to work properly.
22057 Also, when you load @code{spam.el}, you will be able to customize its
22058 variables. Try @code{customize-group} on the @samp{spam} variable
22061 The concepts of ham processors and spam processors are very important.
22062 Ham processors and spam processors for a group can be set with the
22063 @code{spam-process} group parameter, or the
22064 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. Ham processors take
22065 mail known to be non-spam (@emph{ham}) and process it in some way so
22066 that later similar mail will also be considered non-spam. Spam
22067 processors take mail known to be spam and process it so similar spam
22068 will be detected later.
22070 Gnus learns from the spam you get. You have to collect your spam in
22071 one or more spam groups, and set or customize the variable
22072 @code{spam-junk-mailgroups} as appropriate. You can also declare
22073 groups to contain spam by setting their group parameter
22074 @code{spam-contents} to @code{gnus-group-spam-classification-spam}, or
22075 by customizing the corresponding variable
22076 @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents}. The @code{spam-contents} group
22077 parameter and the @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents} variable can
22078 also be used to declare groups as @emph{ham} groups if you set their
22079 classification to @code{gnus-group-spam-classification-ham}. If
22080 groups are not classified by means of @code{spam-junk-mailgroups},
22081 @code{spam-contents}, or @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents}, they are
22082 considered @emph{unclassified}. All groups are unclassified by
22085 In spam groups, all messages are considered to be spam by default:
22086 they get the @samp{$} mark when you enter the group. You must review
22087 these messages from time to time and remove the @samp{$} mark for
22088 every message that is not spam after all. To remove the @samp{$}
22089 mark, you can use @kbd{M-u} to ``unread'' the article, or @kbd{d} for
22090 declaring it read the non-spam way. When you leave a group, all
22091 spam-marked (@samp{$}) articles are sent to a spam processor which
22092 will study them as spam samples.
22094 Messages may also be deleted in various other ways, and unless
22095 @code{spam-ham-marks} gets overridden below, marks @samp{R} and
22096 @samp{r} for default read or explicit delete, marks @samp{X} and
22097 @samp{K} for automatic or explicit kills, as well as mark @samp{Y} for
22098 low scores, are all considered to be associated with articles which
22099 are not spam. This assumption might be false, in particular if you
22100 use kill files or score files as means for detecting genuine spam, you
22101 should then adjust the @code{spam-ham-marks} variable.
22103 @defvar spam-ham-marks
22104 You can customize this variable to be the list of marks you want to
22105 consider ham. By default, the list contains the deleted, read,
22106 killed, kill-filed, and low-score marks.
22109 @defvar spam-spam-marks
22110 You can customize this variable to be the list of marks you want to
22111 consider spam. By default, the list contains only the spam mark.
22114 When you leave @emph{any} group, regardless of its
22115 @code{spam-contents} classification, all spam-marked articles are sent
22116 to a spam processor, which will study these as spam samples. If you
22117 explicit kill a lot, you might sometimes end up with articles marked
22118 @samp{K} which you never saw, and which might accidentally contain
22119 spam. Best is to make sure that real spam is marked with @samp{$},
22122 When you leave a @emph{spam} group, all spam-marked articles are
22123 marked as expired after processing with the spam processor. This is
22124 not done for @emph{unclassified} or @emph{ham} groups. Also, any
22125 @strong{ham} articles in a spam group will be moved to a location
22126 determined by either the @code{ham-process-destination} group
22127 parameter or a match in the @code{gnus-ham-process-destinations}
22128 variable, which is a list of regular expressions matched with group
22129 names (it's easiest to customize this variable with
22130 @code{customize-variable gnus-ham-process-destinations}). The ultimate
22131 location is a group name. If the @code{ham-process-destination}
22132 parameter is not set, spam articles are only expired.
22134 When you leave a @emph{ham} group, all ham-marked articles are sent to
22135 a ham processor, which will study these as non-spam samples.
22137 When you leave a @emph{ham} or @emph{unclassified} group, all
22138 @strong{spam} articles are moved to a location determined by either
22139 the @code{spam-process-destination} group parameter or a match in the
22140 @code{gnus-spam-process-destinations} variable, which is a list of
22141 regular expressions matched with group names (it's easiest to
22142 customize this variable with @code{customize-variable
22143 gnus-spam-process-destinations}). The ultimate location is a group
22144 name. If the @code{spam-process-destination} parameter is not set,
22145 the spam articles are only expired.
22147 To use the @code{spam.el} facilities for incoming mail filtering, you
22148 must add the following to your fancy split list
22149 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} or @code{nnimap-split-fancy}:
22155 Note that the fancy split may be called @code{nnmail-split-fancy} or
22156 @code{nnimap-split-fancy}, depending on whether you use the nnmail or
22157 nnimap back ends to retrieve your mail.
22159 The @code{spam-split} function will process incoming mail and send the
22160 mail considered to be spam into the group name given by the variable
22161 @code{spam-split-group}. By default that group name is @samp{spam},
22162 but you can customize it.
22164 @emph{Note for IMAP users}
22166 The boolean variable @code{nnimap-split-download-body} needs to be
22167 set, if you want to split based on the whole message instead of just
22168 the headers. By default, the nnimap backend will only retrieve the
22169 message headers. If you use spam-check-bogofilter, spam-check-ifile,
22170 or spam-check-stat (the splitters that can benefit from the full
22171 message body), you should set this variable. It is not set by default
22172 because it will slow IMAP down.
22174 @xref{Splitting in IMAP}.
22176 @emph{TODO: Currently, spam.el only supports insertion of articles
22177 into a backend. There is no way to tell spam.el that an article is no
22178 longer spam or ham.}
22180 @emph{TODO: spam.el needs to provide a uniform way of training all the
22181 statistical databases. Some have that functionality built-in, others
22184 The following are the methods you can use to control the behavior of
22185 @code{spam-split} and their corresponding spam and ham processors:
22188 * Blacklists and Whitelists::
22189 * BBDB Whitelists::
22191 * Regular Expressions Header Matching::
22193 * ifile spam filtering::
22194 * spam-stat spam filtering::
22195 * Extending the spam elisp package::
22198 @node Blacklists and Whitelists
22199 @subsubsection Blacklists and Whitelists
22200 @cindex spam filtering
22201 @cindex whitelists, spam filtering
22202 @cindex blacklists, spam filtering
22205 @defvar spam-use-blacklist
22207 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use blacklists when
22208 splitting incoming mail. Messages whose senders are in the blacklist
22209 will be sent to the @code{spam-split-group}. This is an explicit
22210 filter, meaning that it acts only on mail senders @emph{declared} to
22215 @defvar spam-use-whitelist
22217 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use whitelists when
22218 splitting incoming mail. Messages whose senders are not in the
22219 whitelist will be sent to the next spam-split rule. This is an
22220 explicit filter, meaning that unless someone is in the whitelist, their
22221 messages are not assumed to be spam or ham.
22225 @defvar spam-use-whitelist-exclusive
22227 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use whitelists as an
22228 implicit filter, meaning that every message will be considered spam
22229 unless the sender is in the whitelist. Use with care.
22233 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blacklist
22235 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
22236 customizing the group parameters or the
22237 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
22238 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the senders of
22239 spam-marked articles will be added to the blacklist.
22243 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-whitelist
22245 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
22246 customizing the group parameters or the
22247 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
22248 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the senders of
22249 ham-marked articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the
22250 whitelist. Note that this ham processor has no effect in @emph{spam}
22251 or @emph{unclassified} groups.
22255 Blacklists are lists of regular expressions matching addresses you
22256 consider to be spam senders. For instance, to block mail from any
22257 sender at @samp{vmadmin.com}, you can put @samp{vmadmin.com} in your
22258 blacklist. You start out with an empty blacklist. Blacklist entries
22259 use the Emacs regular expression syntax.
22261 Conversely, whitelists tell Gnus what addresses are considered
22262 legitimate. All messages from whitelisted addresses are considered
22263 non-spam. Also see @ref{BBDB Whitelists}. Whitelist entries use the
22264 Emacs regular expression syntax.
22266 The blacklist and whitelist file locations can be customized with the
22267 @code{spam-directory} variable (@file{~/News/spam} by default), or
22268 the @code{spam-whitelist} and @code{spam-blacklist} variables
22269 directly. The whitelist and blacklist files will by default be in the
22270 @code{spam-directory} directory, named @file{whitelist} and
22271 @file{blacklist} respectively.
22273 @node BBDB Whitelists
22274 @subsubsection BBDB Whitelists
22275 @cindex spam filtering
22276 @cindex BBDB whitelists, spam filtering
22277 @cindex BBDB, spam filtering
22280 @defvar spam-use-BBDB
22282 Analogous to @code{spam-use-whitelist} (@pxref{Blacklists and
22283 Whitelists}), but uses the BBDB as the source of whitelisted
22284 addresses, without regular expressions. You must have the BBDB loaded
22285 for @code{spam-use-BBDB} to work properly. Messages whose senders are
22286 not in the BBDB will be sent to the next spam-split rule. This is an
22287 explicit filter, meaning that unless someone is in the BBDB, their
22288 messages are not assumed to be spam or ham.
22292 @defvar spam-use-BBDB-exclusive
22294 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use the BBDB as an
22295 implicit filter, meaning that every message will be considered spam
22296 unless the sender is in the BBDB. Use with care. Only sender
22297 addresses in the BBDB will be allowed through; all others will be
22298 classified as spammers.
22302 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-BBDB
22304 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
22305 customizing the group parameters or the
22306 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
22307 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the senders of
22308 ham-marked articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the
22309 BBDB. Note that this ham processor has no effect in @emph{spam}
22310 or @emph{unclassified} groups.
22315 @subsubsection Blackholes
22316 @cindex spam filtering
22317 @cindex blackholes, spam filtering
22320 @defvar spam-use-blackholes
22322 This option is disabled by default. You can let Gnus consult the
22323 blackhole-type distributed spam processing systems (DCC, for instance)
22324 when you set this option. The variable @code{spam-blackhole-servers}
22325 holds the list of blackhole servers Gnus will consult. The current
22326 list is fairly comprehensive, but make sure to let us know if it
22327 contains outdated servers.
22329 The blackhole check uses the @code{dig.el} package, but you can tell
22330 @code{spam.el} to use @code{dns.el} instead for better performance if
22331 you set @code{spam-use-dig} to nil. It is not recommended at this
22332 time to set @code{spam-use-dig} to nil despite the possible
22333 performance improvements, because some users may be unable to use it,
22334 but you can try it and see if it works for you.
22338 @defvar spam-blackhole-servers
22340 The list of servers to consult for blackhole checks.
22344 @defvar spam-blackhole-good-server-regex
22346 A regular expression for IPs that should not be checked against the
22347 blackhole server list. When set to nil, it has no effect.
22351 @defvar spam-use-dig
22353 Use the @code{dig.el} package instead of the @code{dns.el} package.
22354 The default setting of @code{t} is recommended.
22358 Blackhole checks are done only on incoming mail. There is no spam or
22359 ham processor for blackholes.
22361 @node Regular Expressions Header Matching
22362 @subsubsection Regular Expressions Header Matching
22363 @cindex spam filtering
22364 @cindex regular expressions header matching, spam filtering
22367 @defvar spam-use-regex-headers
22369 This option is disabled by default. You can let Gnus check the
22370 message headers against lists of regular expressions when you set this
22371 option. The variables @code{spam-regex-headers-spam} and
22372 @code{spam-regex-headers-ham} hold the list of regular expressions.
22373 Gnus will check against the message headers to determine if the
22374 message is spam or ham, respectively.
22378 @defvar spam-regex-headers-spam
22380 The list of regular expressions that, when matched in the headers of
22381 the message, positively identify it as spam.
22385 @defvar spam-regex-headers-ham
22387 The list of regular expressions that, when matched in the headers of
22388 the message, positively identify it as ham.
22392 Regular expression header checks are done only on incoming mail.
22393 There is no specific spam or ham processor for regular expressions.
22396 @subsubsection Bogofilter
22397 @cindex spam filtering
22398 @cindex bogofilter, spam filtering
22401 @defvar spam-use-bogofilter
22403 Set this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use Eric Raymond's
22406 With a minimum of care for associating the @samp{$} mark for spam
22407 articles only, Bogofilter training all gets fairly automatic. You
22408 should do this until you get a few hundreds of articles in each
22409 category, spam or not. The command @kbd{S t} in summary mode, either
22410 for debugging or for curiosity, shows the @emph{spamicity} score of
22411 the current article (between 0.0 and 1.0).
22413 Bogofilter determines if a message is spam based on an internal
22414 threshold, set at compilation time. That threshold can't be
22417 If the @code{bogofilter} executable is not in your path, Bogofilter
22418 processing will be turned off.
22420 You should not enable this if you use @code{spam-use-bogofilter-headers}.
22424 @defvar spam-use-bogofilter-headers
22426 Set this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use Eric Raymond's
22427 speedy Bogofilter, looking only at the message headers. It works
22428 similarly to @code{spam-use-bogofilter}, but the @code{X-Bogosity} header
22429 must be in the message already. Normally you would do this with a
22430 procmail recipe or something similar; consult the Bogofilter
22431 installation documents for details.
22433 You should not enable this if you use @code{spam-use-bogofilter}.
22437 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-bogofilter
22438 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
22439 customizing the group parameters or the
22440 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
22441 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, spam-marked articles
22442 will be added to the Bogofilter spam database.
22445 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-bogofilter
22446 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
22447 customizing the group parameters or the
22448 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
22449 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the ham-marked
22450 articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the Bogofilter database
22451 of non-spam messages. Note that this ham processor has no effect in
22452 @emph{spam} or @emph{unclassified} groups.
22455 @defvar spam-bogofilter-database-directory
22457 This is the directory where Bogofilter will store its databases. It
22458 is not specified by default, so Bogofilter will use its own default
22459 database directory.
22463 The Bogofilter mail classifier is similar to ifile in intent and
22464 purpose. A ham and a spam processor are provided, plus the
22465 @code{spam-use-bogofilter} and @code{spam-use-bogofilter-headers}
22466 variables to indicate to spam-split that Bogofilter should either be
22467 used, or has already been used on the article. The 0.9.2.1 version of
22468 Bogofilter was used to test this functionality.
22470 @node ifile spam filtering
22471 @subsubsection ifile spam filtering
22472 @cindex spam filtering
22473 @cindex ifile, spam filtering
22476 @defvar spam-use-ifile
22478 Enable this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use ifile, a
22479 statistical analyzer similar to Bogofilter.
22483 @defvar spam-ifile-all-categories
22485 Enable this variable if you want @code{spam-use-ifile} to give you all
22486 the ifile categories, not just spam/non-spam. If you use this, make
22487 sure you train ifile as described in its documentation.
22491 @defvar spam-ifile-spam-category
22493 This is the category of spam messages as far as ifile is concerned.
22494 The actual string used is irrelevant, but you probably want to leave
22495 the default value of @samp{spam}.
22498 @defvar spam-ifile-database-path
22500 This is the filename for the ifile database. It is not specified by
22501 default, so ifile will use its own default database name.
22505 The ifile mail classifier is similar to Bogofilter in intent and
22506 purpose. A ham and a spam processor are provided, plus the
22507 @code{spam-use-ifile} variable to indicate to spam-split that ifile
22508 should be used. The 1.2.1 version of ifile was used to test this
22511 @node spam-stat spam filtering
22512 @subsubsection spam-stat spam filtering
22513 @cindex spam filtering
22514 @cindex spam-stat, spam filtering
22518 @xref{Filtering Spam Using Statistics with spam-stat}.
22520 @defvar spam-use-stat
22522 Enable this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use
22523 spam-stat.el, an Emacs Lisp statistical analyzer.
22527 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-stat
22528 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
22529 customizing the group parameters or the
22530 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
22531 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the spam-marked
22532 articles will be added to the spam-stat database of spam messages.
22535 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-stat
22536 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
22537 customizing the group parameters or the
22538 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
22539 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the ham-marked
22540 articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the spam-stat database
22541 of non-spam messages. Note that this ham processor has no effect in
22542 @emph{spam} or @emph{unclassified} groups.
22545 This enables spam.el to cooperate with spam-stat.el. spam-stat.el
22546 provides an internal (Lisp-only) spam database, which unlike ifile or
22547 Bogofilter does not require external programs. A spam and a ham
22548 processor, and the @code{spam-use-stat} variable for @code{spam-split}
22551 @node Extending the spam elisp package
22552 @subsubsection Extending the spam elisp package
22553 @cindex spam filtering
22554 @cindex spam elisp package, extending
22555 @cindex extending the spam elisp package
22557 Say you want to add a new back end called blackbox. For filtering
22558 incoming mail, provide the following:
22566 (defvar spam-use-blackbox nil
22567 "True if blackbox should be used.")
22572 (spam-use-blackbox . spam-check-blackbox)
22574 to @code{spam-list-of-checks}.
22579 Write the @code{spam-check-blackbox} function. It should return
22580 @samp{nil} or @code{spam-split-group}. See the existing
22581 @code{spam-check-*} functions for examples of what you can do.
22583 Make sure to add @code{spam-use-blackbox} to
22584 @code{spam-list-of-statistical-checks} if Blackbox is a statistical
22585 mail analyzer that needs the full message body to operate.
22589 For processing spam and ham messages, provide the following:
22596 Note you don't have to provide a spam or a ham processor. Only
22597 provide them if Blackbox supports spam or ham processing.
22600 (defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blackbox "blackbox"
22601 "The Blackbox summary exit spam processor.
22602 Only applicable to spam groups.")
22604 (defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-blackbox "blackbox"
22605 "The whitelist summary exit ham processor.
22606 Only applicable to non-spam (unclassified and ham) groups.")
22614 (defun spam-blackbox-register-spam-routine ()
22615 (spam-generic-register-routine
22616 ;; the spam function
22618 (let ((from (spam-fetch-field-from-fast article)))
22619 (when (stringp from)
22620 (blackbox-do-something-with-this-spammer from))))
22621 ;; the ham function
22624 (defun spam-blackbox-register-ham-routine ()
22625 (spam-generic-register-routine
22626 ;; the spam function
22628 ;; the ham function
22630 (let ((from (spam-fetch-field-from-fast article)))
22631 (when (stringp from)
22632 (blackbox-do-something-with-this-ham-sender from))))))
22635 Write the @code{blackbox-do-something-with-this-ham-sender} and
22636 @code{blackbox-do-something-with-this-spammer} functions. You can add
22637 more complex code than fetching the message sender, but keep in mind
22638 that retrieving the whole message takes significantly longer than the
22639 sender through @code{spam-fetch-field-from-fast}, because the message
22640 senders are kept in memory by Gnus.
22645 @node Filtering Spam Using Statistics with spam-stat
22646 @subsection Filtering Spam Using Statistics with spam-stat
22647 @cindex Paul Graham
22648 @cindex Graham, Paul
22649 @cindex naive Bayesian spam filtering
22650 @cindex Bayesian spam filtering, naive
22651 @cindex spam filtering, naive Bayesian
22653 Paul Graham has written an excellent essay about spam filtering using
22654 statistics: @uref{http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html,A Plan for
22655 Spam}. In it he describes the inherent deficiency of rule-based
22656 filtering as used by SpamAssassin, for example: Somebody has to write
22657 the rules, and everybody else has to install these rules. You are
22658 always late. It would be much better, he argues, to filter mail based
22659 on whether it somehow resembles spam or non-spam. One way to measure
22660 this is word distribution. He then goes on to describe a solution
22661 that checks whether a new mail resembles any of your other spam mails
22664 The basic idea is this: Create a two collections of your mail, one
22665 with spam, one with non-spam. Count how often each word appears in
22666 either collection, weight this by the total number of mails in the
22667 collections, and store this information in a dictionary. For every
22668 word in a new mail, determine its probability to belong to a spam or a
22669 non-spam mail. Use the 15 most conspicuous words, compute the total
22670 probability of the mail being spam. If this probability is higher
22671 than a certain threshold, the mail is considered to be spam.
22673 Gnus supports this kind of filtering. But it needs some setting up.
22674 First, you need two collections of your mail, one with spam, one with
22675 non-spam. Then you need to create a dictionary using these two
22676 collections, and save it. And last but not least, you need to use
22677 this dictionary in your fancy mail splitting rules.
22680 * Creating a spam-stat dictionary::
22681 * Splitting mail using spam-stat::
22682 * Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary::
22685 @node Creating a spam-stat dictionary
22686 @subsubsection Creating a spam-stat dictionary
22688 Before you can begin to filter spam based on statistics, you must
22689 create these statistics based on two mail collections, one with spam,
22690 one with non-spam. These statistics are then stored in a dictionary
22691 for later use. In order for these statistics to be meaningful, you
22692 need several hundred emails in both collections.
22694 Gnus currently supports only the nnml back end for automated dictionary
22695 creation. The nnml back end stores all mails in a directory, one file
22696 per mail. Use the following:
22698 @defun spam-stat-process-spam-directory
22699 Create spam statistics for every file in this directory. Every file
22700 is treated as one spam mail.
22703 @defun spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory
22704 Create non-spam statistics for every file in this directory. Every
22705 file is treated as one non-spam mail.
22708 Usually you would call @code{spam-stat-process-spam-directory} on a
22709 directory such as @file{~/Mail/mail/spam} (this usually corresponds
22710 the the group @samp{nnml:mail.spam}), and you would call
22711 @code{spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory} on a directory such as
22712 @file{~/Mail/mail/misc} (this usually corresponds the the group
22713 @samp{nnml:mail.misc}).
22715 When you are using IMAP, you won't have the mails available locally,
22716 so that will not work. One solution is to use the Gnus Agent to cache
22717 the articles. Then you can use directories such as
22718 @file{"~/News/agent/nnimap/mail.yourisp.com/personal_spam"} for
22719 @code{spam-stat-process-spam-directory}. @xref{Agent as Cache}.
22722 This variable holds the hash-table with all the statistics -- the
22723 dictionary we have been talking about. For every word in either
22724 collection, this hash-table stores a vector describing how often the
22725 word appeared in spam and often it appeared in non-spam mails.
22728 If you want to regenerate the statistics from scratch, you need to
22729 reset the dictionary.
22731 @defun spam-stat-reset
22732 Reset the @code{spam-stat} hash-table, deleting all the statistics.
22735 When you are done, you must save the dictionary. The dictionary may
22736 be rather large. If you will not update the dictionary incrementally
22737 (instead, you will recreate it once a month, for example), then you
22738 can reduce the size of the dictionary by deleting all words that did
22739 not appear often enough or that do not clearly belong to only spam or
22740 only non-spam mails.
22742 @defun spam-stat-reduce-size
22743 Reduce the size of the dictionary. Use this only if you do not want
22744 to update the dictionary incrementally.
22747 @defun spam-stat-save
22748 Save the dictionary.
22751 @defvar spam-stat-file
22752 The filename used to store the dictionary. This defaults to
22753 @file{~/.spam-stat.el}.
22756 @node Splitting mail using spam-stat
22757 @subsubsection Splitting mail using spam-stat
22759 In order to use @code{spam-stat} to split your mail, you need to add the
22760 following to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
22763 (require 'spam-stat)
22767 This will load the necessary Gnus code, and the dictionary you
22770 Next, you need to adapt your fancy splitting rules: You need to
22771 determine how to use @code{spam-stat}. The following examples are for
22772 the nnml back end. Using the nnimap back end works just as well. Just
22773 use @code{nnimap-split-fancy} instead of @code{nnmail-split-fancy}.
22775 In the simplest case, you only have two groups, @samp{mail.misc} and
22776 @samp{mail.spam}. The following expression says that mail is either
22777 spam or it should go into @samp{mail.misc}. If it is spam, then
22778 @code{spam-stat-split-fancy} will return @samp{mail.spam}.
22781 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
22782 `(| (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
22786 @defvar spam-stat-split-fancy-spam-group
22787 The group to use for spam. Default is @samp{mail.spam}.
22790 If you also filter mail with specific subjects into other groups, use
22791 the following expression. Only mails not matching the regular
22792 expression are considered potential spam.
22795 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
22796 `(| ("Subject" "\\bspam-stat\\b" "mail.emacs")
22797 (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
22801 If you want to filter for spam first, then you must be careful when
22802 creating the dictionary. Note that @code{spam-stat-split-fancy} must
22803 consider both mails in @samp{mail.emacs} and in @samp{mail.misc} as
22804 non-spam, therefore both should be in your collection of non-spam
22805 mails, when creating the dictionary!
22808 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
22809 `(| (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
22810 ("Subject" "\\bspam-stat\\b" "mail.emacs")
22814 You can combine this with traditional filtering. Here, we move all
22815 HTML-only mails into the @samp{mail.spam.filtered} group. Note that since
22816 @code{spam-stat-split-fancy} will never see them, the mails in
22817 @samp{mail.spam.filtered} should be neither in your collection of spam mails,
22818 nor in your collection of non-spam mails, when creating the
22822 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
22823 `(| ("Content-Type" "text/html" "mail.spam.filtered")
22824 (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
22825 ("Subject" "\\bspam-stat\\b" "mail.emacs")
22830 @node Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary
22831 @subsubsection Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary
22833 The main interface to using @code{spam-stat}, are the following functions:
22835 @defun spam-stat-buffer-is-spam
22836 Called in a buffer, that buffer is considered to be a new spam mail.
22837 Use this for new mail that has not been processed before.
22840 @defun spam-stat-buffer-is-no-spam
22841 Called in a buffer, that buffer is considered to be a new non-spam
22842 mail. Use this for new mail that has not been processed before.
22845 @defun spam-stat-buffer-change-to-spam
22846 Called in a buffer, that buffer is no longer considered to be normal
22847 mail but spam. Use this to change the status of a mail that has
22848 already been processed as non-spam.
22851 @defun spam-stat-buffer-change-to-non-spam
22852 Called in a buffer, that buffer is no longer considered to be spam but
22853 normal mail. Use this to change the status of a mail that has already
22854 been processed as spam.
22857 @defun spam-stat-save
22858 Save the hash table to the file. The filename used is stored in the
22859 variable @code{spam-stat-file}.
22862 @defun spam-stat-load
22863 Load the hash table from a file. The filename used is stored in the
22864 variable @code{spam-stat-file}.
22867 @defun spam-stat-score-word
22868 Return the spam score for a word.
22871 @defun spam-stat-score-buffer
22872 Return the spam score for a buffer.
22875 @defun spam-stat-split-fancy
22876 Use this function for fancy mail splitting. Add the rule @samp{(:
22877 spam-stat-split-fancy)} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
22880 Make sure you load the dictionary before using it. This requires the
22881 following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
22884 (require 'spam-stat)
22888 Typical test will involve calls to the following functions:
22891 Reset: (setq spam-stat (make-hash-table :test 'equal))
22892 Learn spam: (spam-stat-process-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
22893 Learn non-spam: (spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
22894 Save table: (spam-stat-save)
22895 File size: (nth 7 (file-attributes spam-stat-file))
22896 Number of words: (hash-table-count spam-stat)
22897 Test spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
22898 Test non-spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
22899 Reduce table size: (spam-stat-reduce-size)
22900 Save table: (spam-stat-save)
22901 File size: (nth 7 (file-attributes spam-stat-file))
22902 Number of words: (hash-table-count spam-stat)
22903 Test spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
22904 Test non-spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
22907 Here is how you would create your dictionary:
22910 Reset: (setq spam-stat (make-hash-table :test 'equal))
22911 Learn spam: (spam-stat-process-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
22912 Learn non-spam: (spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
22913 Repeat for any other non-spam group you need...
22914 Reduce table size: (spam-stat-reduce-size)
22915 Save table: (spam-stat-save)
22918 @node Various Various
22919 @section Various Various
22925 @item gnus-home-directory
22926 @vindex gnus-home-directory
22927 All Gnus file and directory variables will be initialized from this
22928 variable, which defaults to @file{~/}.
22930 @item gnus-directory
22931 @vindex gnus-directory
22932 Most Gnus storage file and directory variables will be initialized from
22933 this variable, which defaults to the @samp{SAVEDIR} environment
22934 variable, or @file{~/News/} if that variable isn't set.
22936 Note that Gnus is mostly loaded when the @file{~/.gnus.el} file is read.
22937 This means that other directory variables that are initialized from this
22938 variable won't be set properly if you set this variable in
22939 @file{~/.gnus.el}. Set this variable in @file{.emacs} instead.
22941 @item gnus-default-directory
22942 @vindex gnus-default-directory
22943 Not related to the above variable at all---this variable says what the
22944 default directory of all Gnus buffers should be. If you issue commands
22945 like @kbd{C-x C-f}, the prompt you'll get starts in the current buffer's
22946 default directory. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
22947 default), the default directory will be the default directory of the
22948 buffer you were in when you started Gnus.
22951 @vindex gnus-verbose
22952 This variable is an integer between zero and ten. The higher the value,
22953 the more messages will be displayed. If this variable is zero, Gnus
22954 will never flash any messages, if it is seven (which is the default),
22955 most important messages will be shown, and if it is ten, Gnus won't ever
22956 shut up, but will flash so many messages it will make your head swim.
22958 @item gnus-verbose-backends
22959 @vindex gnus-verbose-backends
22960 This variable works the same way as @code{gnus-verbose}, but it applies
22961 to the Gnus back ends instead of Gnus proper.
22963 @item nnheader-max-head-length
22964 @vindex nnheader-max-head-length
22965 When the back ends read straight heads of articles, they all try to read
22966 as little as possible. This variable (default 4096) specifies
22967 the absolute max length the back ends will try to read before giving up
22968 on finding a separator line between the head and the body. If this
22969 variable is @code{nil}, there is no upper read bound. If it is
22970 @code{t}, the back ends won't try to read the articles piece by piece,
22971 but read the entire articles. This makes sense with some versions of
22972 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs}.
22974 @item nnheader-head-chop-length
22975 @vindex nnheader-head-chop-length
22976 This variable (default 2048) says how big a piece of each article to
22977 read when doing the operation described above.
22979 @item nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
22980 @vindex nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
22982 @cindex invalid characters in file names
22983 @cindex characters in file names
22984 This is an alist that says how to translate characters in file names.
22985 For instance, if @samp{:} is invalid as a file character in file names
22986 on your system (you OS/2 user you), you could say something like:
22989 (setq nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
22993 In fact, this is the default value for this variable on OS/2 and MS
22994 Windows (phooey) systems.
22996 @item gnus-hidden-properties
22997 @vindex gnus-hidden-properties
22998 This is a list of properties to use to hide ``invisible'' text. It is
22999 @code{(invisible t intangible t)} by default on most systems, which
23000 makes invisible text invisible and intangible.
23002 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
23003 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
23004 A hook called before parsing headers. It can be used, for instance, to
23005 gather statistics on the headers fetched, or perhaps you'd like to prune
23006 some headers. I don't see why you'd want that, though.
23008 @item gnus-shell-command-separator
23009 @vindex gnus-shell-command-separator
23010 String used to separate two shell commands. The default is @samp{;}.
23012 @item gnus-invalid-group-regexp
23013 @vindex gnus-invalid-group-regexp
23015 Regexp to match ``invalid'' group names when querying user for a group
23016 name. The default value catches some @strong{really} invalid group
23017 names who could possibly mess up Gnus internally (like allowing
23018 @samp{:} in a group name, which is normally used to delimit method and
23021 @sc{imap} users might want to allow @samp{/} in group names though.
23029 Well, that's the manual---you can get on with your life now. Keep in
23030 touch. Say hello to your cats from me.
23032 My @strong{ghod}---I just can't stand goodbyes. Sniffle.
23034 Ol' Charles Reznikoff said it pretty well, so I leave the floor to him:
23040 Not because of victories @*
23043 but for the common sunshine,@*
23045 the largess of the spring.
23049 but for the day's work done@*
23050 as well as I was able;@*
23051 not for a seat upon the dais@*
23052 but at the common table.@*
23057 @chapter Appendices
23060 * XEmacs:: Requirements for installing under XEmacs.
23061 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
23062 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
23063 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
23064 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
23065 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
23066 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
23067 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
23068 * Frequently Asked Questions::
23075 @cindex Installing under XEmacs
23077 XEmacs is distributed as a collection of packages. You should install
23078 whatever packages the Gnus XEmacs package requires. The current
23079 requirements are @samp{gnus}, @samp{w3}, @samp{mh-e},
23080 @samp{mailcrypt}, @samp{rmail}, @samp{eterm}, @samp{mail-lib},
23081 @samp{xemacs-base}, @samp{sh-script} and @samp{fsf-compat}. The
23082 @samp{misc-games} package is required for Morse decoding.
23089 @sc{gnus} was written by Masanobu @sc{Umeda}. When autumn crept up in
23090 '94, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen grew bored and decided to rewrite Gnus.
23092 If you want to investigate the person responsible for this outrage,
23093 you can point your (feh!) web browser to
23094 @uref{http://quimby.gnus.org/}. This is also the primary
23095 distribution point for the new and spiffy versions of Gnus, and is
23096 known as The Site That Destroys Newsrcs And Drives People Mad.
23098 During the first extended alpha period of development, the new Gnus was
23099 called ``(ding) Gnus''. @dfn{(ding)} is, of course, short for
23100 @dfn{ding is not Gnus}, which is a total and utter lie, but who cares?
23101 (Besides, the ``Gnus'' in this abbreviation should probably be
23102 pronounced ``news'' as @sc{Umeda} intended, which makes it a more
23103 appropriate name, don't you think?)
23105 In any case, after spending all that energy on coming up with a new and
23106 spunky name, we decided that the name was @emph{too} spunky, so we
23107 renamed it back again to ``Gnus''. But in mixed case. ``Gnus'' vs.
23108 ``@sc{gnus}''. New vs. old.
23111 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
23112 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
23113 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
23114 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
23115 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
23116 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
23117 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
23118 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
23119 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
23123 @node Gnus Versions
23124 @subsection Gnus Versions
23126 @cindex September Gnus
23128 @cindex Quassia Gnus
23129 @cindex Pterodactyl Gnus
23132 @cindex Gnus versions
23134 The first ``proper'' release of Gnus 5 was done in November 1995 when it
23135 was included in the Emacs 19.30 distribution (132 (ding) Gnus releases
23136 plus 15 Gnus 5.0 releases).
23138 In May 1996 the next Gnus generation (aka. ``September Gnus'' (after 99
23139 releases)) was released under the name ``Gnus 5.2'' (40 releases).
23141 On July 28th 1996 work on Red Gnus was begun, and it was released on
23142 January 25th 1997 (after 84 releases) as ``Gnus 5.4'' (67 releases).
23144 On September 13th 1997, Quassia Gnus was started and lasted 37 releases.
23145 If was released as ``Gnus 5.6'' on March 8th 1998 (46 releases).
23147 Gnus 5.6 begat Pterodactyl Gnus on August 29th 1998 and was released as
23148 ``Gnus 5.8'' (after 99 releases and a CVS repository) on December 3rd
23151 On the 26th of October 2000, Oort Gnus was begun.
23153 If you happen upon a version of Gnus that has a prefixed name --
23154 ``(ding) Gnus'', ``September Gnus'', ``Red Gnus'', ``Quassia Gnus'',
23155 ``Pterodactyl Gnus'', ``Oort Gnus'' -- don't panic. Don't let it know
23156 that you're frightened. Back away. Slowly. Whatever you do, don't
23157 run. Walk away, calmly, until you're out of its reach. Find a proper
23158 released version of Gnus and snuggle up to that instead.
23161 @node Other Gnus Versions
23162 @subsection Other Gnus Versions
23165 In addition to the versions of Gnus which have had their releases
23166 coordinated by Lars, one major development has been Semi-gnus from
23167 Japan. It's based on a library called @sc{semi}, which provides
23168 @sc{mime} capabilities.
23170 These Gnusae are based mainly on Gnus 5.6 and Pterodactyl Gnus.
23171 Collectively, they are called ``Semi-gnus'', and different strains are
23172 called T-gnus, ET-gnus, Nana-gnus and Chaos. These provide powerful
23173 @sc{mime} and multilingualization things, especially important for
23180 What's the point of Gnus?
23182 I want to provide a ``rad'', ``happening'', ``way cool'' and ``hep''
23183 newsreader, that lets you do anything you can think of. That was my
23184 original motivation, but while working on Gnus, it has become clear to
23185 me that this generation of newsreaders really belong in the stone age.
23186 Newsreaders haven't developed much since the infancy of the net. If the
23187 volume continues to rise with the current rate of increase, all current
23188 newsreaders will be pretty much useless. How do you deal with
23189 newsgroups that have thousands of new articles each day? How do you
23190 keep track of millions of people who post?
23192 Gnus offers no real solutions to these questions, but I would very much
23193 like to see Gnus being used as a testing ground for new methods of
23194 reading and fetching news. Expanding on @sc{Umeda}-san's wise decision
23195 to separate the newsreader from the back ends, Gnus now offers a simple
23196 interface for anybody who wants to write new back ends for fetching mail
23197 and news from different sources. I have added hooks for customizations
23198 everywhere I could imagine it being useful. By doing so, I'm inviting
23199 every one of you to explore and invent.
23201 May Gnus never be complete. @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-emacs} and
23202 @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-xemacs}.
23205 @node Compatibility
23206 @subsection Compatibility
23208 @cindex compatibility
23209 Gnus was designed to be fully compatible with @sc{gnus}. Almost all key
23210 bindings have been kept. More key bindings have been added, of course,
23211 but only in one or two obscure cases have old bindings been changed.
23216 @center In a cloud bones of steel.
23220 All commands have kept their names. Some internal functions have changed
23223 The @code{gnus-uu} package has changed drastically. @xref{Decoding
23226 One major compatibility question is the presence of several summary
23227 buffers. All variables relevant while reading a group are
23228 buffer-local to the summary buffer they belong in. Although many
23229 important variables have their values copied into their global
23230 counterparts whenever a command is executed in the summary buffer, this
23231 change might lead to incorrect values being used unless you are careful.
23233 All code that relies on knowledge of @sc{gnus} internals will probably
23234 fail. To take two examples: Sorting @code{gnus-newsrc-alist} (or
23235 changing it in any way, as a matter of fact) is strictly verboten. Gnus
23236 maintains a hash table that points to the entries in this alist (which
23237 speeds up many functions), and changing the alist directly will lead to
23241 @cindex highlighting
23242 Old hilit19 code does not work at all. In fact, you should probably
23243 remove all hilit code from all Gnus hooks
23244 (@code{gnus-group-prepare-hook} and @code{gnus-summary-prepare-hook}).
23245 Gnus provides various integrated functions for highlighting. These are
23246 faster and more accurate. To make life easier for everybody, Gnus will
23247 by default remove all hilit calls from all hilit hooks. Uncleanliness!
23250 Packages like @code{expire-kill} will no longer work. As a matter of
23251 fact, you should probably remove all old @sc{gnus} packages (and other
23252 code) when you start using Gnus. More likely than not, Gnus already
23253 does what you have written code to make @sc{gnus} do. (Snicker.)
23255 Even though old methods of doing things are still supported, only the
23256 new methods are documented in this manual. If you detect a new method of
23257 doing something while reading this manual, that does not mean you have
23258 to stop doing it the old way.
23260 Gnus understands all @sc{gnus} startup files.
23262 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
23264 @cindex reporting bugs
23266 Overall, a casual user who hasn't written much code that depends on
23267 @sc{gnus} internals should suffer no problems. If problems occur,
23268 please let me know by issuing that magic command @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}.
23270 @vindex gnus-bug-create-help-buffer
23271 If you are in the habit of sending bug reports @emph{very} often, you
23272 may find the helpful help buffer annoying after a while. If so, set
23273 @code{gnus-bug-create-help-buffer} to @code{nil} to avoid having it pop
23278 @subsection Conformity
23280 No rebels without a clue here, ma'am. We conform to all standards known
23281 to (wo)man. Except for those standards and/or conventions we disagree
23289 There are no known breaches of this standard.
23293 There are no known breaches of this standard, either.
23295 @item Son-of-RFC 1036
23296 @cindex Son-of-RFC 1036
23297 We do have some breaches to this one.
23303 These are considered to be ``vanity headers'', while I consider them
23304 to be consumer information. After seeing so many badly formatted
23305 articles coming from @code{tin} and @code{Netscape} I know not to use
23306 either of those for posting articles. I would not have known that if
23307 it wasn't for the @code{X-Newsreader} header.
23312 USEFOR is an IETF working group writing a successor to RFC 1036, based
23313 on Son-of-RFC 1036. They have produced a number of drafts proposing
23314 various changes to the format of news articles. The Gnus towers will
23315 look into implementing the changes when the draft is accepted as an RFC.
23317 @item MIME - RFC 2045-2049 etc
23319 All the various @sc{mime} RFCs are supported.
23321 @item Disposition Notifications - RFC 2298
23322 Message Mode is able to request notifications from the receiver.
23324 @item PGP - RFC 1991 and RFC 2440
23327 RFC 1991 is the original PGP message specification, published as a
23328 Information RFC. RFC 2440 was the follow-up, now called Open PGP, and
23329 put on the Standards Track. Both document a non-@sc{mime} aware PGP
23330 format. Gnus supports both encoding (signing and encryption) and
23331 decoding (verification and decryption).
23333 @item PGP/MIME - RFC 2015/3156
23334 RFC 2015 (superseded by 3156 which references RFC 2440 instead of RFC
23335 1991) describes the @sc{mime}-wrapping around the RF 1991/2440 format.
23336 Gnus supports both encoding and decoding.
23338 @item S/MIME - RFC 2633
23339 RFC 2633 describes the @sc{s/mime} format.
23341 @item IMAP - RFC 1730/2060, RFC 2195, RFC 2086, RFC 2359, RFC 2595, RFC 1731
23342 RFC 1730 is @sc{imap} version 4, updated somewhat by RFC 2060 (@sc{imap} 4
23343 revision 1). RFC 2195 describes CRAM-MD5 authentication for @sc{imap}. RFC
23344 2086 describes access control lists (ACLs) for @sc{imap}. RFC 2359
23345 describes a @sc{imap} protocol enhancement. RFC 2595 describes the proper
23346 TLS integration (STARTTLS) with @sc{imap}. RFC 1731 describes the
23347 GSSAPI/Kerberos4 mechanisms for @sc{imap}.
23351 If you ever notice Gnus acting non-compliant with regards to the texts
23352 mentioned above, don't hesitate to drop a note to Gnus Towers and let us
23357 @subsection Emacsen
23363 Gnus should work on :
23371 XEmacs 20.4 and up.
23375 This Gnus version will absolutely not work on any Emacsen older than
23376 that. Not reliably, at least. Older versions of Gnus may work on older
23379 There are some vague differences between Gnus on the various
23380 platforms---XEmacs features more graphics (a logo and a toolbar)---but
23381 other than that, things should look pretty much the same under all
23385 @node Gnus Development
23386 @subsection Gnus Development
23388 Gnus is developed in a two-phased cycle. The first phase involves much
23389 discussion on the @samp{ding@@gnus.org} mailing list, where people
23390 propose changes and new features, post patches and new back ends. This
23391 phase is called the @dfn{alpha} phase, since the Gnusae released in this
23392 phase are @dfn{alpha releases}, or (perhaps more commonly in other
23393 circles) @dfn{snapshots}. During this phase, Gnus is assumed to be
23394 unstable and should not be used by casual users. Gnus alpha releases
23395 have names like ``Red Gnus'' and ``Quassia Gnus''.
23397 After futzing around for 50-100 alpha releases, Gnus is declared
23398 @dfn{frozen}, and only bug fixes are applied. Gnus loses the prefix,
23399 and is called things like ``Gnus 5.6.32'' instead. Normal people are
23400 supposed to be able to use these, and these are mostly discussed on the
23401 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} newsgroup.
23404 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
23405 Some variable defaults differ between alpha Gnusae and released Gnusae.
23406 In particular, @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} defaults to @code{nil} in
23407 alpha Gnusae and @code{t} in released Gnusae. This is to prevent
23408 lossage of mail if an alpha release hiccups while handling the mail.
23410 The division of discussion between the ding mailing list and the Gnus
23411 newsgroup is not purely based on publicity concerns. It's true that
23412 having people write about the horrible things that an alpha Gnus release
23413 can do (sometimes) in a public forum may scare people off, but more
23414 importantly, talking about new experimental features that have been
23415 introduced may confuse casual users. New features are frequently
23416 introduced, fiddled with, and judged to be found wanting, and then
23417 either discarded or totally rewritten. People reading the mailing list
23418 usually keep up with these rapid changes, while people on the newsgroup
23419 can't be assumed to do so.
23424 @subsection Contributors
23425 @cindex contributors
23427 The new Gnus version couldn't have been done without the help of all the
23428 people on the (ding) mailing list. Every day for over a year I have
23429 gotten billions of nice bug reports from them, filling me with joy,
23430 every single one of them. Smooches. The people on the list have been
23431 tried beyond endurance, what with my ``oh, that's a neat idea <type
23432 type>, yup, I'll release it right away <ship off> no wait, that doesn't
23433 work at all <type type>, yup, I'll ship that one off right away <ship
23434 off> no, wait, that absolutely does not work'' policy for releases.
23435 Micro$oft---bah. Amateurs. I'm @emph{much} worse. (Or is that
23436 ``worser''? ``much worser''? ``worsest''?)
23438 I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Academy for@dots{} oops,
23444 Masanobu @sc{Umeda}---the writer of the original @sc{gnus}.
23447 Shenghuo Zhu---uudecode.el, mm-uu.el, rfc1843.el, webmail.el,
23448 nnwarchive and many, many other things connected with @sc{mime} and
23449 other types of en/decoding, as well as general bug fixing, new
23450 functionality and stuff.
23453 Per Abrahamsen---custom, scoring, highlighting and @sc{soup} code (as
23454 well as numerous other things).
23457 Luis Fernandes---design and graphics.
23460 Joe Reiss---creator of the smiley faces.
23463 Justin Sheehy--the FAQ maintainer.
23466 Erik Naggum---help, ideas, support, code and stuff.
23469 Wes Hardaker---@file{gnus-picon.el} and the manual section on
23470 @dfn{picons} (@pxref{Picons}).
23473 Kim-Minh Kaplan---further work on the picon code.
23476 Brad Miller---@file{gnus-gl.el} and the GroupLens manual section
23477 (@pxref{GroupLens}).
23480 Sudish Joseph---innumerable bug fixes.
23483 Ilja Weis---@file{gnus-topic.el}.
23486 Steven L. Baur---lots and lots and lots of bugs detections and fixes.
23489 Vladimir Alexiev---the refcard and reference booklets.
23492 Felix Lee & Jamie Zawinski---I stole some pieces from the XGnus
23493 distribution by Felix Lee and JWZ.
23496 Scott Byer---@file{nnfolder.el} enhancements & rewrite.
23499 Peter Mutsaers---orphan article scoring code.
23502 Ken Raeburn---POP mail support.
23505 Hallvard B Furuseth---various bits and pieces, especially dealing with
23509 Brian Edmonds---@file{gnus-bbdb.el}.
23512 David Moore---rewrite of @file{nnvirtual.el} and many other things.
23515 Kevin Davidson---came up with the name @dfn{ding}, so blame him.
23518 François Pinard---many, many interesting and thorough bug reports, as
23519 well as autoconf support.
23523 This manual was proof-read by Adrian Aichner, with Ricardo Nassif, Mark
23524 Borges, and Jost Krieger proof-reading parts of the manual.
23526 The following people have contributed many patches and suggestions:
23541 Jason L. Tibbitts, III,
23543 Katsumi Yamaoka, @c Yamaoka
23547 Also thanks to the following for patches and stuff:
23557 Alexei V. Barantsev,
23572 Massimo Campostrini,
23577 Jae-you Chung, @c ?
23578 James H. Cloos, Jr.,
23582 Andrew J. Cosgriff,
23585 Geoffrey T. Dairiki,
23591 Michael Welsh Duggan,
23596 Enami Tsugutomo, @c Enami
23600 Nelson Jose dos Santos Ferreira,
23608 Arne Georg Gleditsch,
23610 Michelangelo Grigni,
23614 Kenichi Handa, @c Handa
23616 Yoshiki Hayashi, @c Hayashi
23618 Hisashige Kenji, @c Hisashige
23625 François Felix Ingrand,
23626 Tatsuya Ichikawa, @c Ichikawa
23627 Ishikawa Ichiro, @c Ishikawa
23629 Iwamuro Motonori, @c Iwamuro
23639 Peter Skov Knudsen,
23640 Shuhei Kobayashi, @c Kobayashi
23642 Koseki Yoshinori, @c Koseki
23643 Thor Kristoffersen,
23646 Seokchan Lee, @c Lee
23664 Morioka Tomohiko, @c Morioka
23665 Erik Toubro Nielsen,
23672 Masaharu Onishi, @c Onishi
23677 Jens-Ulrik Holger Petersen,
23681 John McClary Prevost,
23687 Lars Balker Rasmussen,
23692 Christian von Roques,
23695 Wolfgang Rupprecht,
23702 Philippe Schnoebelen,
23704 Randal L. Schwartz,
23718 Kiyokazu Suto, @c Suto
23723 Tozawa Akihiko, @c Tozawa
23743 For a full overview of what each person has done, the ChangeLogs
23744 included in the Gnus alpha distributions should give ample reading
23745 (550kB and counting).
23747 Apologies to everybody that I've forgotten, of which there are many, I'm
23750 Gee, that's quite a list of people. I guess that must mean that there
23751 actually are people who are using Gnus. Who'd'a thunk it!
23755 @subsection New Features
23756 @cindex new features
23759 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
23760 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
23761 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
23762 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
23763 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
23766 These lists are, of course, just @emph{short} overviews of the
23767 @emph{most} important new features. No, really. There are tons more.
23768 Yes, we have feeping creaturism in full effect.
23771 @subsubsection (ding) Gnus
23773 New features in Gnus 5.0/5.1:
23778 The look of all buffers can be changed by setting format-like variables
23779 (@pxref{Group Buffer Format} and @pxref{Summary Buffer Format}).
23782 Local spool and several @sc{nntp} servers can be used at once
23783 (@pxref{Select Methods}).
23786 You can combine groups into virtual groups (@pxref{Virtual Groups}).
23789 You can read a number of different mail formats (@pxref{Getting Mail}).
23790 All the mail back ends implement a convenient mail expiry scheme
23791 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
23794 Gnus can use various strategies for gathering threads that have lost
23795 their roots (thereby gathering loose sub-threads into one thread) or it
23796 can go back and retrieve enough headers to build a complete thread
23797 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
23800 Killed groups can be displayed in the group buffer, and you can read
23801 them as well (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
23804 Gnus can do partial group updates---you do not have to retrieve the
23805 entire active file just to check for new articles in a few groups
23806 (@pxref{The Active File}).
23809 Gnus implements a sliding scale of subscribedness to groups
23810 (@pxref{Group Levels}).
23813 You can score articles according to any number of criteria
23814 (@pxref{Scoring}). You can even get Gnus to find out how to score
23815 articles for you (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
23818 Gnus maintains a dribble buffer that is auto-saved the normal Emacs
23819 manner, so it should be difficult to lose much data on what you have
23820 read if your machine should go down (@pxref{Auto Save}).
23823 Gnus now has its own startup file (@file{~/.gnus.el}) to avoid
23824 cluttering up the @file{.emacs} file.
23827 You can set the process mark on both groups and articles and perform
23828 operations on all the marked items (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
23831 You can grep through a subset of groups and create a group from the
23832 results (@pxref{Kibozed Groups}).
23835 You can list subsets of groups according to, well, anything
23836 (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
23839 You can browse foreign servers and subscribe to groups from those
23840 servers (@pxref{Browse Foreign Server}).
23843 Gnus can fetch articles, asynchronously, on a second connection to the
23844 server (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
23847 You can cache articles locally (@pxref{Article Caching}).
23850 The uudecode functions have been expanded and generalized
23851 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
23854 You can still post uuencoded articles, which was a little-known feature
23855 of @sc{gnus}' past (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
23858 Fetching parents (and other articles) now actually works without
23859 glitches (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
23862 Gnus can fetch FAQs and group descriptions (@pxref{Group Information}).
23865 Digests (and other files) can be used as the basis for groups
23866 (@pxref{Document Groups}).
23869 Articles can be highlighted and customized (@pxref{Customizing
23873 URLs and other external references can be buttonized (@pxref{Article
23877 You can do lots of strange stuff with the Gnus window & frame
23878 configuration (@pxref{Window Layout}).
23881 You can click on buttons instead of using the keyboard
23887 @node September Gnus
23888 @subsubsection September Gnus
23892 \gnusfig{-28cm}{0cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/september,height=20cm}}
23896 New features in Gnus 5.2/5.3:
23901 A new message composition mode is used. All old customization variables
23902 for @code{mail-mode}, @code{rnews-reply-mode} and @code{gnus-msg} are
23906 Gnus is now able to generate @dfn{sparse} threads---threads where
23907 missing articles are represented by empty nodes (@pxref{Customizing
23911 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
23915 Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server
23916 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
23919 Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
23923 Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions (@pxref{GroupLens}).
23926 Picons (personal icons) can be displayed under XEmacs (@pxref{Picons}).
23929 A @code{trn}-like tree buffer can be displayed (@pxref{Tree Display}).
23932 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
23936 An @code{nn}-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
23937 buffers (@pxref{Pick and Read}).
23940 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
23944 In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode (@pxref{Binary
23948 Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy (@pxref{Group
23952 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
23956 Gnus can re-send and bounce mail (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
23959 Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
23960 is possible (@pxref{Group Score}).
23963 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
23967 Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
23968 groups of groups (@pxref{Marking Groups}).
23971 Caching is possible in virtual groups.
23974 @code{nndoc} now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews
23975 news batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything
23976 else (@pxref{Document Groups}).
23979 Gnus has a new back end (@code{nnsoup}) to create/read SOUP packets
23983 The Gnus cache is much faster.
23986 Groups can be sorted according to many criteria (@pxref{Sorting
23990 New group parameters have been introduced to set list-addresses and
23991 expiry times (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
23994 All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used
23995 (@pxref{Formatting Fonts}).
23998 There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on process
23999 marked articles on the @kbd{M P} submap (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
24002 The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
24003 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
24004 bound to keys on the @kbd{/} submap (@pxref{Limiting}).
24007 Articles can be made persistent with the @kbd{*} command
24008 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
24011 All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
24014 Article headers can be buttonized (@pxref{Article Washing}).
24017 All mail back ends support fetching articles by @code{Message-ID}.
24020 Duplicate mail can now be treated properly (@pxref{Duplicates}).
24023 All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
24024 buffer (@pxref{Article Keymap}).
24027 Frames can be part of @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} (@pxref{Window
24031 Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process (@pxref{Daemons}).
24034 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=ps/fseptember,height=5cm}]{\epsfig{figure=ps/fseptember,height=5cm}}
24039 Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to weed out spam (@pxref{NoCeM}).
24042 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
24046 Groups can be made permanently visible (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
24049 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
24053 Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
24056 Gnus respects the @code{Mail-Copies-To} header.
24059 Threads can be gathered by looking at the @code{References} header
24060 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
24063 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
24064 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
24068 Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
24069 refetching (@pxref{Article Backlog}).
24072 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
24076 A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
24077 buffer to allow easier treatment.
24080 Gnus can suggest where to save articles (@pxref{Saving Articles}).
24083 Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving (@pxref{Saving
24087 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
24091 @code{gnus-uu} can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
24092 articles (@pxref{Other Decode Variables}).
24095 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
24099 Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text
24100 (@pxref{Article Washing}).
24103 Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
24104 cited text to hide is now customizable (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
24107 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
24111 Boring headers can be hidden (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
24114 Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
24117 Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
24123 @subsubsection Red Gnus
24125 New features in Gnus 5.4/5.5:
24129 \gnusfig{-5.5cm}{-4cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/red,height=20cm}}
24136 @file{nntp.el} has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
24139 Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
24140 Gnus (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
24143 Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like @code{and},
24144 @code{or}, @code{not}, and parent redirection (@pxref{Advanced
24148 Article washing status can be displayed in the
24149 article mode line (@pxref{Misc Article}).
24152 @file{gnus.el} has been split into many smaller files.
24155 Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID can be done
24156 (@pxref{Duplicate Suppression}).
24159 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
24163 New variables for specifying what score and adapt files are to be
24164 considered home score and adapt files (@pxref{Home Score File}) have
24168 @code{nndoc} was rewritten to be easily extendable (@pxref{Document
24169 Server Internals}).
24172 Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics (@pxref{Topic
24176 Article editing has been revamped and is now actually usable.
24179 Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions
24180 (@pxref{Article Signature}).
24183 Summary pick mode has been made to look more @code{nn}-like. Line
24184 numbers are displayed and the @kbd{.} command can be used to pick
24185 articles (@code{Pick and Read}).
24188 Commands for moving the @file{.newsrc.eld} from one server to
24189 another have been added (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
24192 There's a way now to specify that ``uninteresting'' fields be suppressed
24193 when generating lines in buffers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting}).
24196 Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with @kbd{C-M-_}
24200 Scoring can be done on words using the new score type @code{w}
24201 (@pxref{Score File Format}).
24204 Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis
24205 (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
24208 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
24212 Scores can be decayed (@pxref{Score Decays}).
24215 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
24219 Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The Date is
24220 normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first (@pxref{Score File Format}).
24223 A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
24224 the native server (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
24227 A new command for reading collections of documents
24228 (@code{nndoc} with @code{nnvirtual} on top) has been added---@kbd{C-M-d}
24229 (@pxref{Really Various Summary Commands}).
24232 Process mark sets can be pushed and popped (@pxref{Setting Process
24236 A new mail-to-news back end makes it possible to post even when the @sc{nntp}
24237 server doesn't allow posting (@pxref{Mail-To-News Gateways}).
24240 A new back end for reading searches from Web search engines
24241 (@dfn{DejaNews}, @dfn{Alta Vista}, @dfn{InReference}) has been added
24242 (@pxref{Web Searches}).
24245 Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard sorting
24246 functions, and each topic can be sorted independently (@pxref{Topic
24250 Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently (@code{Sorting
24254 Cached articles can be pulled into the groups (@pxref{Summary Generation
24258 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=ps/fred,width=3cm}]{\epsfig{figure=ps/fred,width=3cm}}
24263 Score files are now applied in a more reliable order (@pxref{Score
24267 Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated (@pxref{Splitting
24271 More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk from incoming
24272 mail before saving the mail (@pxref{Washing Mail}).
24275 Emphasized text can be properly fontisized:
24281 @subsubsection Quassia Gnus
24283 New features in Gnus 5.6:
24288 New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
24289 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See
24290 @pxref{Gnus Unplugged} for the full story.
24293 The @code{nndraft} back end has returned, but works differently than
24294 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the @code{nndraft}
24295 group, which is created automatically.
24298 @code{gnus-alter-header-function} can now be used to alter header
24302 @code{gnus-summary-goto-article} now accept Message-ID's.
24305 A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
24306 outside the region: @kbd{C-c C-v}.
24309 You can now post to component group in @code{nnvirtual} groups with
24313 @code{nntp-rlogin-program}---new variable to ease customization.
24316 @code{C-u C-c C-c} in @code{gnus-article-edit-mode} will now inhibit
24317 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
24320 New element in @code{gnus-boring-article-headers}---@code{long-to}.
24323 @kbd{M-i} symbolic prefix command. See the section ``Symbolic
24324 Prefixes'' in the Gnus manual for details.
24327 @kbd{L} and @kbd{I} in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
24328 @kbd{a} to add the score rule to the @file{all.SCORE} file.
24331 @code{gnus-simplify-subject-functions} variable to allow greater
24332 control over simplification.
24335 @kbd{A T}---new command for fetching the current thread.
24338 @kbd{/ T}---new command for including the current thread in the
24342 @kbd{M-RET} is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
24345 @samp{\\1}-expressions are now valid in @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
24348 The @code{custom-face-lookup} function has been removed.
24349 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
24350 rewrite them to use @code{face-spec-set} instead.
24353 Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
24354 @kbd{a} forces normal posting method.
24357 New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper
24361 For easier debugging of @code{nntp}, you can set
24362 @code{nntp-record-commands} to a non-@code{nil} value.
24365 @code{nntp} now uses @file{~/.authinfo}, a @file{.netrc}-like file, for
24366 controlling where and how to send @sc{authinfo} to @sc{nntp} servers.
24369 A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
24373 A history of where mails have been split is available.
24376 A new article date command has been added---@code{article-date-iso8601}.
24379 Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
24380 @code{gnus-score-thread-simplify}.
24383 A new function for citing in Message has been
24384 added---@code{message-cite-original-without-signature}.
24387 @code{article-strip-all-blank-lines}---new article command.
24390 A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
24394 A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
24395 @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} variable.
24398 The ``lapsed date'' article header can be kept continually
24399 updated by the @code{gnus-start-date-timer} command.
24402 Web listserv archives can be read with the @code{nnlistserv} back end.
24405 Old dejanews archives can now be read by @code{nnweb}.
24409 @node Pterodactyl Gnus
24410 @subsubsection Pterodactyl Gnus
24412 New features in Gnus 5.8:
24417 The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
24418 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
24420 If you used procmail like in
24423 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
24424 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
24425 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
24426 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
24429 this now has changed to
24433 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
24437 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
24438 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
24441 Gnus is now a @sc{mime}-capable reader. This affects many parts of
24442 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
24445 Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too
24446 many parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables.
24449 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} can now be a function to be
24450 called to position point.
24453 The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
24454 summary buffers and @sc{nov} files.
24457 @code{gnus-article-display-hook} has been removed. Instead, a number
24458 of variables starting with @code{gnus-treat-} have been added.
24461 The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now works in a
24462 subtly different manner.
24465 New web-based back ends have been added: @code{nnslashdot},
24466 @code{nnwarchive} and @code{nnultimate}. nnweb has been revamped,
24467 again, to keep up with ever-changing layouts.
24470 Gnus can now read @sc{imap} mail via @code{nnimap}.
24478 @section The Manual
24482 This manual was generated from a TeXinfo file and then run through
24483 either @code{texi2dvi}
24485 or my own home-brewed TeXinfo to \LaTeX\ transformer,
24486 and then run through @code{latex} and @code{dvips}
24488 to get what you hold in your hands now.
24490 The following conventions have been used:
24495 This is a @samp{string}
24498 This is a @kbd{keystroke}
24501 This is a @file{file}
24504 This is a @code{symbol}
24508 So if I were to say ``set @code{flargnoze} to @samp{yes}'', that would
24512 (setq flargnoze "yes")
24515 If I say ``set @code{flumphel} to @code{yes}'', that would mean:
24518 (setq flumphel 'yes)
24521 @samp{yes} and @code{yes} are two @emph{very} different things---don't
24522 ever get them confused.
24526 Of course, everything in this manual is of vital interest, so you should
24527 read it all. Several times. However, if you feel like skimming the
24528 manual, look for that gnu head you should see in the margin over
24529 there---it means that what's being discussed is of more importance than
24530 the rest of the stuff. (On the other hand, if everything is infinitely
24531 important, how can anything be more important than that? Just one more
24532 of the mysteries of this world, I guess.)
24538 @node On Writing Manuals
24539 @section On Writing Manuals
24541 I guess most manuals are written after-the-fact; documenting a program
24542 that's already there. This is not how this manual is written. When
24543 implementing something, I write the manual entry for that something
24544 straight away. I then see that it's difficult to explain the
24545 functionality, so I write how it's supposed to be, and then I change the
24546 implementation. Writing the documentation and writing the code goes
24549 This, of course, means that this manual has no, or little, flow. It
24550 documents absolutely everything in Gnus, but often not where you're
24551 looking for it. It is a reference manual, and not a guide to how to get
24554 That would be a totally different book, that should be written using the
24555 reference manual as source material. It would look quite differently.
24560 @section Terminology
24562 @cindex terminology
24567 This is what you are supposed to use this thing for---reading news.
24568 News is generally fetched from a nearby @sc{nntp} server, and is
24569 generally publicly available to everybody. If you post news, the entire
24570 world is likely to read just what you have written, and they'll all
24571 snigger mischievously. Behind your back.
24575 Everything that's delivered to you personally is mail. Some news/mail
24576 readers (like Gnus) blur the distinction between mail and news, but
24577 there is a difference. Mail is private. News is public. Mailing is
24578 not posting, and replying is not following up.
24582 Send a mail to the person who has written what you are reading.
24586 Post an article to the current newsgroup responding to the article you
24591 Gnus considers mail and news to be mostly the same, really. The only
24592 difference is how to access the actual articles. News articles are
24593 commonly fetched via the protocol NNTP, whereas mail messages could be
24594 read from a file on the local disk. The internal architecture of Gnus
24595 thus comprises a `front end' and a number of `back ends'. Internally,
24596 when you enter a group (by hitting @key{RET}, say), you thereby invoke
24597 a function in the front end in Gnus. The front end then `talks' to a
24598 back end and says things like ``Give me the list of articles in the foo
24599 group'' or ``Show me article number 4711''.
24601 So a back end mainly defines either a protocol (the @code{nntp} back end
24602 accesses news via NNTP, the @code{nnimap} back end accesses mail via
24603 IMAP) or a file format and directory layout (the @code{nnspool} back end
24604 accesses news via the common `spool directory' format, the @code{nnml}
24605 back end access mail via a file format and directory layout that's
24608 Gnus does not handle the underlying media, so to speak---this is all
24609 done by the back ends. A back end is a collection of functions to
24610 access the articles.
24612 However, sometimes the term `back end' is also used where `server'
24613 would have been more appropriate. And then there is the term `select
24614 method' which can mean either. The Gnus terminology can be quite
24619 Gnus will always use one method (and back end) as the @dfn{native}, or
24620 default, way of getting news.
24624 You can also have any number of foreign groups active at the same time.
24625 These are groups that use non-native non-secondary back ends for getting
24630 Secondary back ends are somewhere half-way between being native and being
24631 foreign, but they mostly act like they are native.
24635 A message that has been posted as news.
24638 @cindex mail message
24639 A message that has been mailed.
24643 A mail message or news article
24647 The top part of a message, where administrative information (etc.) is
24652 The rest of an article. Everything not in the head is in the
24657 A line from the head of an article.
24661 A collection of such lines, or a collection of heads. Or even a
24662 collection of @sc{nov} lines.
24666 When Gnus enters a group, it asks the back end for the headers of all
24667 unread articles in the group. Most servers support the News OverView
24668 format, which is more compact and much faster to read and parse than the
24669 normal @sc{head} format.
24673 Each group is subscribed at some @dfn{level} or other (1-9). The ones
24674 that have a lower level are ``more'' subscribed than the groups with a
24675 higher level. In fact, groups on levels 1-5 are considered
24676 @dfn{subscribed}; 6-7 are @dfn{unsubscribed}; 8 are @dfn{zombies}; and 9
24677 are @dfn{killed}. Commands for listing groups and scanning for new
24678 articles will all use the numeric prefix as @dfn{working level}.
24680 @item killed groups
24681 @cindex killed groups
24682 No information on killed groups is stored or updated, which makes killed
24683 groups much easier to handle than subscribed groups.
24685 @item zombie groups
24686 @cindex zombie groups
24687 Just like killed groups, only slightly less dead.
24690 @cindex active file
24691 The news server has to keep track of what articles it carries, and what
24692 groups exist. All this information in stored in the active file, which
24693 is rather large, as you might surmise.
24696 @cindex bogus groups
24697 A group that exists in the @file{.newsrc} file, but isn't known to the
24698 server (i.e., it isn't in the active file), is a @emph{bogus group}.
24699 This means that the group probably doesn't exist (any more).
24702 @cindex activating groups
24703 The act of asking the server for info on a group and computing the
24704 number of unread articles is called @dfn{activating the group}.
24705 Un-activated groups are listed with @samp{*} in the group buffer.
24709 A machine one can connect to and get news (or mail) from.
24711 @item select method
24712 @cindex select method
24713 A structure that specifies the back end, the server and the virtual
24716 @item virtual server
24717 @cindex virtual server
24718 A named select method. Since a select method defines all there is to
24719 know about connecting to a (physical) server, taking the thing as a
24720 whole is a virtual server.
24724 Taking a buffer and running it through a filter of some sort. The
24725 result will (more often than not) be cleaner and more pleasing than the
24728 @item ephemeral groups
24729 @cindex ephemeral groups
24730 Most groups store data on what articles you have read. @dfn{Ephemeral}
24731 groups are groups that will have no data stored---when you exit the
24732 group, it'll disappear into the aether.
24735 @cindex solid groups
24736 This is the opposite of ephemeral groups. All groups listed in the
24737 group buffer are solid groups.
24739 @item sparse articles
24740 @cindex sparse articles
24741 These are article placeholders shown in the summary buffer when
24742 @code{gnus-build-sparse-threads} has been switched on.
24746 To put responses to articles directly after the articles they respond
24747 to---in a hierarchical fashion.
24751 @cindex thread root
24752 The first article in a thread is the root. It is the ancestor of all
24753 articles in the thread.
24757 An article that has responses.
24761 An article that responds to a different article---its parent.
24765 A collection of messages in one file. The most common digest format is
24766 specified by RFC 1153.
24772 @node Customization
24773 @section Customization
24774 @cindex general customization
24776 All variables are properly documented elsewhere in this manual. This
24777 section is designed to give general pointers on how to customize Gnus
24778 for some quite common situations.
24781 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
24782 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
24783 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
24784 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
24788 @node Slow/Expensive Connection
24789 @subsection Slow/Expensive NNTP Connection
24791 If you run Emacs on a machine locally, and get your news from a machine
24792 over some very thin strings, you want to cut down on the amount of data
24793 Gnus has to get from the @sc{nntp} server.
24797 @item gnus-read-active-file
24798 Set this to @code{nil}, which will inhibit Gnus from requesting the
24799 entire active file from the server. This file is often v. large. You
24800 also have to set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
24801 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make sure that Gnus
24802 doesn't suddenly decide to fetch the active file anyway.
24804 @item gnus-nov-is-evil
24805 This one has to be @code{nil}. If not, grabbing article headers from
24806 the @sc{nntp} server will not be very fast. Not all @sc{nntp} servers
24807 support @sc{xover}; Gnus will detect this by itself.
24811 @node Slow Terminal Connection
24812 @subsection Slow Terminal Connection
24814 Let's say you use your home computer for dialing up the system that runs
24815 Emacs and Gnus. If your modem is slow, you want to reduce (as much as
24816 possible) the amount of data sent over the wires.
24820 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
24821 Set this to @code{nil} to inhibit Gnus from re-centering the summary
24822 buffer all the time. If it is @code{vertical}, do only vertical
24823 re-centering. If it is neither @code{nil} nor @code{vertical}, do both
24824 horizontal and vertical recentering.
24826 @item gnus-visible-headers
24827 Cut down on the headers included in the articles to the
24828 minimum. You can, in fact, make do without them altogether---most of the
24829 useful data is in the summary buffer, anyway. Set this variable to
24830 @samp{^NEVVVVER} or @samp{From:}, or whatever you feel you need.
24832 Set this hook to all the available hiding commands:
24834 (setq gnus-treat-hide-headers 'head
24835 gnus-treat-hide-signature t
24836 gnus-treat-hide-citation t)
24839 @item gnus-use-full-window
24840 By setting this to @code{nil}, you can make all the windows smaller.
24841 While this doesn't really cut down much generally, it means that you
24842 have to see smaller portions of articles before deciding that you didn't
24843 want to read them anyway.
24845 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
24846 If this is non-@code{nil}, all threads in the summary buffer will be
24850 @item gnus-updated-mode-lines
24851 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not put information in the buffer mode
24852 lines, which might save some time.
24856 @node Little Disk Space
24857 @subsection Little Disk Space
24860 The startup files can get rather large, so you may want to cut their
24861 sizes a bit if you are running out of space.
24865 @item gnus-save-newsrc-file
24866 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never save @file{.newsrc}---it will
24867 only save @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
24868 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
24871 @item gnus-read-newsrc-file
24872 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never read @file{.newsrc}---it will
24873 only read @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
24874 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
24877 @item gnus-save-killed-list
24878 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not save the list of dead groups. You
24879 should also set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{ask-server}
24880 and @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} if you set this
24881 variable to @code{nil}. This variable is @code{t} by default.
24887 @subsection Slow Machine
24888 @cindex slow machine
24890 If you have a slow machine, or are just really impatient, there are a
24891 few things you can do to make Gnus run faster.
24893 Set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
24894 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make startup faster.
24896 Set @code{gnus-show-threads}, @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} and
24897 @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{nil} to make entering and exiting the
24898 summary buffer faster.
24902 @node Troubleshooting
24903 @section Troubleshooting
24904 @cindex troubleshooting
24906 Gnus works @emph{so} well straight out of the box---I can't imagine any
24914 Make sure your computer is switched on.
24917 Make sure that you really load the current Gnus version. If you have
24918 been running @sc{gnus}, you need to exit Emacs and start it up again before
24922 Try doing an @kbd{M-x gnus-version}. If you get something that looks
24923 like @samp{Gnus v5.46; nntp 4.0} you have the right files loaded. If,
24924 on the other hand, you get something like @samp{NNTP 3.x} or @samp{nntp
24925 flee}, you have some old @file{.el} files lying around. Delete these.
24928 Read the help group (@kbd{G h} in the group buffer) for a FAQ and a
24932 @vindex max-lisp-eval-depth
24933 Gnus works on many recursive structures, and in some extreme (and very
24934 rare) cases Gnus may recurse down ``too deeply'' and Emacs will beep at
24935 you. If this happens to you, set @code{max-lisp-eval-depth} to 500 or
24936 something like that.
24939 If all else fails, report the problem as a bug.
24942 @cindex reporting bugs
24944 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
24946 If you find a bug in Gnus, you can report it with the @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}
24947 command. @kbd{M-x set-variable RET debug-on-error RET t RET}, and send
24948 me the backtrace. I will fix bugs, but I can only fix them if you send
24949 me a precise description as to how to reproduce the bug.
24951 You really can never be too detailed in a bug report. Always use the
24952 @kbd{M-x gnus-bug} command when you make bug reports, even if it creates
24953 a 10Kb mail each time you use it, and even if you have sent me your
24954 environment 500 times before. I don't care. I want the full info each
24957 It is also important to remember that I have no memory whatsoever. If
24958 you send a bug report, and I send you a reply, and then you just send
24959 back ``No, it's not! Moron!'', I will have no idea what you are
24960 insulting me about. Always over-explain everything. It's much easier
24961 for all of us---if I don't have all the information I need, I will just
24962 mail you and ask for more info, and everything takes more time.
24964 If the problem you're seeing is very visual, and you can't quite explain
24965 it, copy the Emacs window to a file (with @code{xwd}, for instance), put
24966 it somewhere it can be reached, and include the URL of the picture in
24970 If you would like to contribute a patch to fix bugs or make
24971 improvements, please produce the patch using @samp{diff -u}.
24974 If you want to debug your problem further before reporting, possibly
24975 in order to solve the problem yourself and send a patch, you can use
24976 edebug. Debugging lisp code is documented in the Elisp manual
24977 (@pxref{Debugging, , Debugging Lisp Programs, elisp, The GNU Emacs
24978 Lisp Reference Manual}). To get you started with edebug, consider if
24979 you discover some weird behaviour when pressing @kbd{c}, the first
24980 step is to do @kbd{C-h k c} and click on the hyperlink (Emacs only) in
24981 the documentation buffer that leads you to the function definition,
24982 then press @kbd{M-x edebug-defun RET} with point inside that function,
24983 return to Gnus and press @kbd{c} to invoke the code. You will be
24984 placed in the lisp buffer and can single step using @kbd{SPC} and
24985 evaluate expressions using @kbd{M-:} or inspect variables using
24986 @kbd{C-h v}, abort execution with @kbd{q}, and resume execution with
24987 @kbd{c} or @kbd{g}.
24992 Sometimes, a problem do not directly generate a elisp error but
24993 manifests itself by causing Gnus to be very slow. In these cases, you
24994 can use @kbd{M-x toggle-debug-on-quit} and press @kbd{C-g} when things are
24995 slow, and then try to analyze the backtrace (repeating the procedure
24996 helps isolating the real problem areas). A fancier approach is to use
24997 the elisp profiler, ELP. The profiler is (or should be) fully
24998 documented elsewhere, but to get you started there are a few steps
24999 that need to be followed. First, instrument the part of Gnus you are
25000 interested in for profiling, e.g. @kbd{M-x elp-instrument-package RET
25001 gnus} or @kbd{M-x elp-instrument-package RET message}. Then perform
25002 the operation that is slow and press @kbd{M-x elp-results}. You will
25003 then see which operations that takes time, and can debug them further.
25004 If the entire operation takes much longer than the time spent in the
25005 slowest function in the profiler output, you probably profiled the
25006 wrong part of Gnus. To reset profiling statistics, use @kbd{M-x
25007 elp-reset-all}. @kbd{M-x elp-restore-all} is supposed to remove
25008 profiling, but given the complexities and dynamic code generation in
25009 Gnus, it might not always work perfectly.
25011 If you just need help, you are better off asking on
25012 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}. I'm not very helpful.
25014 @cindex gnu.emacs.gnus
25015 @cindex ding mailing list
25016 You can also ask on the ding mailing list---@email{ding@@gnus.org}.
25017 Write to @email{ding-request@@gnus.org} to subscribe.
25021 @node Gnus Reference Guide
25022 @section Gnus Reference Guide
25024 It is my hope that other people will figure out smart stuff that Gnus
25025 can do, and that other people will write those smart things as well. To
25026 facilitate that I thought it would be a good idea to describe the inner
25027 workings of Gnus. And some of the not-so-inner workings, while I'm at
25030 You can never expect the internals of a program not to change, but I
25031 will be defining (in some details) the interface between Gnus and its
25032 back ends (this is written in stone), the format of the score files
25033 (ditto), data structures (some are less likely to change than others)
25034 and general methods of operation.
25037 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
25038 * Back End Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
25039 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
25040 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
25041 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
25042 * Group Info:: The group info format.
25043 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
25044 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
25045 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
25049 @node Gnus Utility Functions
25050 @subsection Gnus Utility Functions
25051 @cindex Gnus utility functions
25052 @cindex utility functions
25054 @cindex internal variables
25056 When writing small functions to be run from hooks (and stuff), it's
25057 vital to have access to the Gnus internal functions and variables.
25058 Below is a list of the most common ones.
25062 @item gnus-newsgroup-name
25063 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-name
25064 This variable holds the name of the current newsgroup.
25066 @item gnus-find-method-for-group
25067 @findex gnus-find-method-for-group
25068 A function that returns the select method for @var{group}.
25070 @item gnus-group-real-name
25071 @findex gnus-group-real-name
25072 Takes a full (prefixed) Gnus group name, and returns the unprefixed
25075 @item gnus-group-prefixed-name
25076 @findex gnus-group-prefixed-name
25077 Takes an unprefixed group name and a select method, and returns the full
25078 (prefixed) Gnus group name.
25080 @item gnus-get-info
25081 @findex gnus-get-info
25082 Returns the group info list for @var{group}.
25084 @item gnus-group-unread
25085 @findex gnus-group-unread
25086 The number of unread articles in @var{group}, or @code{t} if that is
25090 @findex gnus-active
25091 The active entry for @var{group}.
25093 @item gnus-set-active
25094 @findex gnus-set-active
25095 Set the active entry for @var{group}.
25097 @item gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
25098 @findex gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
25099 Adds the current buffer to the list of buffers to be killed on Gnus
25102 @item gnus-continuum-version
25103 @findex gnus-continuum-version
25104 Takes a Gnus version string as a parameter and returns a floating point
25105 number. Earlier versions will always get a lower number than later
25108 @item gnus-group-read-only-p
25109 @findex gnus-group-read-only-p
25110 Says whether @var{group} is read-only or not.
25112 @item gnus-news-group-p
25113 @findex gnus-news-group-p
25114 Says whether @var{group} came from a news back end.
25116 @item gnus-ephemeral-group-p
25117 @findex gnus-ephemeral-group-p
25118 Says whether @var{group} is ephemeral or not.
25120 @item gnus-server-to-method
25121 @findex gnus-server-to-method
25122 Returns the select method corresponding to @var{server}.
25124 @item gnus-server-equal
25125 @findex gnus-server-equal
25126 Says whether two virtual servers are equal.
25128 @item gnus-group-native-p
25129 @findex gnus-group-native-p
25130 Says whether @var{group} is native or not.
25132 @item gnus-group-secondary-p
25133 @findex gnus-group-secondary-p
25134 Says whether @var{group} is secondary or not.
25136 @item gnus-group-foreign-p
25137 @findex gnus-group-foreign-p
25138 Says whether @var{group} is foreign or not.
25140 @item group-group-find-parameter
25141 @findex group-group-find-parameter
25142 Returns the parameter list of @var{group}. If given a second parameter,
25143 returns the value of that parameter for @var{group}.
25145 @item gnus-group-set-parameter
25146 @findex gnus-group-set-parameter
25147 Takes three parameters; @var{group}, @var{parameter} and @var{value}.
25149 @item gnus-narrow-to-body
25150 @findex gnus-narrow-to-body
25151 Narrows the current buffer to the body of the article.
25153 @item gnus-check-backend-function
25154 @findex gnus-check-backend-function
25155 Takes two parameters, @var{function} and @var{group}. If the back end
25156 @var{group} comes from supports @var{function}, return non-@code{nil}.
25159 (gnus-check-backend-function "request-scan" "nnml:misc")
25163 @item gnus-read-method
25164 @findex gnus-read-method
25165 Prompts the user for a select method.
25170 @node Back End Interface
25171 @subsection Back End Interface
25173 Gnus doesn't know anything about @sc{nntp}, spools, mail or virtual
25174 groups. It only knows how to talk to @dfn{virtual servers}. A virtual
25175 server is a @dfn{back end} and some @dfn{back end variables}. As examples
25176 of the first, we have @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool} and @code{nnmbox}. As
25177 examples of the latter we have @code{nntp-port-number} and
25178 @code{nnmbox-directory}.
25180 When Gnus asks for information from a back end---say @code{nntp}---on
25181 something, it will normally include a virtual server name in the
25182 function parameters. (If not, the back end should use the ``current''
25183 virtual server.) For instance, @code{nntp-request-list} takes a virtual
25184 server as its only (optional) parameter. If this virtual server hasn't
25185 been opened, the function should fail.
25187 Note that a virtual server name has no relation to some physical server
25188 name. Take this example:
25192 (nntp-address "ifi.uio.no")
25193 (nntp-port-number 4324))
25196 Here the virtual server name is @samp{odd-one} while the name of
25197 the physical server is @samp{ifi.uio.no}.
25199 The back ends should be able to switch between several virtual servers.
25200 The standard back ends implement this by keeping an alist of virtual
25201 server environments that they pull down/push up when needed.
25203 There are two groups of interface functions: @dfn{required functions},
25204 which must be present, and @dfn{optional functions}, which Gnus will
25205 always check for presence before attempting to call 'em.
25207 All these functions are expected to return data in the buffer
25208 @code{nntp-server-buffer} (@samp{ *nntpd*}), which is somewhat
25209 unfortunately named, but we'll have to live with it. When I talk about
25210 @dfn{resulting data}, I always refer to the data in that buffer. When I
25211 talk about @dfn{return value}, I talk about the function value returned by
25212 the function call. Functions that fail should return @code{nil} as the
25215 Some back ends could be said to be @dfn{server-forming} back ends, and
25216 some might be said not to be. The latter are back ends that generally
25217 only operate on one group at a time, and have no concept of ``server''
25218 -- they have a group, and they deliver info on that group and nothing
25221 Gnus identifies each message by way of group name and article number. A
25222 few remarks about these article numbers might be useful. First of all,
25223 the numbers are positive integers. Secondly, it is normally not
25224 possible for later articles to `re-use' older article numbers without
25225 confusing Gnus. That is, if a group has ever contained a message
25226 numbered 42, then no other message may get that number, or Gnus will get
25227 mightily confused.@footnote{See the function
25228 @code{nnchoke-request-update-info}, @ref{Optional Back End Functions}.}
25229 Third, article numbers must be assigned in order of arrival in the
25230 group; this is not necessarily the same as the date of the message.
25232 The previous paragraph already mentions all the `hard' restrictions that
25233 article numbers must fulfill. But it seems that it might be useful to
25234 assign @emph{consecutive} article numbers, for Gnus gets quite confused
25235 if there are holes in the article numbering sequence. However, due to
25236 the `no-reuse' restriction, holes cannot be avoided altogether. It's
25237 also useful for the article numbers to start at 1 to avoid running out
25238 of numbers as long as possible.
25240 Note that by convention, backends are named @code{nnsomething}, but
25241 Gnus also comes with some @code{nnnotbackends}, such as
25242 @file{nnheader.el}, @file{nnmail.el} and @file{nnoo.el}.
25244 In the examples and definitions I will refer to the imaginary back end
25247 @cindex @code{nnchoke}
25250 * Required Back End Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
25251 * Optional Back End Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
25252 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
25253 * Writing New Back Ends:: Extending old back ends.
25254 * Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
25255 * Mail-like Back Ends:: Some tips on mail back ends.
25259 @node Required Back End Functions
25260 @subsubsection Required Back End Functions
25264 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-headers ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FETCH-OLD)
25266 @var{articles} is either a range of article numbers or a list of
25267 @code{Message-ID}s. Current back ends do not fully support either---only
25268 sequences (lists) of article numbers, and most back ends do not support
25269 retrieval of @code{Message-ID}s. But they should try for both.
25271 The result data should either be HEADs or @sc{nov} lines, and the result
25272 value should either be @code{headers} or @code{nov} to reflect this.
25273 This might later be expanded to @code{various}, which will be a mixture
25274 of HEADs and @sc{nov} lines, but this is currently not supported by Gnus.
25276 If @var{fetch-old} is non-@code{nil} it says to try fetching ``extra
25277 headers'', in some meaning of the word. This is generally done by
25278 fetching (at most) @var{fetch-old} extra headers less than the smallest
25279 article number in @code{articles}, and filling the gaps as well. The
25280 presence of this parameter can be ignored if the back end finds it
25281 cumbersome to follow the request. If this is non-@code{nil} and not a
25282 number, do maximum fetches.
25284 Here's an example HEAD:
25287 221 1056 Article retrieved.
25288 Path: ifi.uio.no!sturles
25289 From: sturles@@ifi.uio.no (Sturle Sunde)
25290 Newsgroups: ifi.discussion
25291 Subject: Re: Something very droll
25292 Date: 27 Oct 1994 14:02:57 +0100
25293 Organization: Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
25295 Message-ID: <38o8e1$a0o@@holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no>
25296 References: <38jdmq$4qu@@visbur.ifi.uio.no>
25297 NNTP-Posting-Host: holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no
25301 So a @code{headers} return value would imply that there's a number of
25302 these in the data buffer.
25304 Here's a BNF definition of such a buffer:
25308 head = error / valid-head
25309 error-message = [ "4" / "5" ] 2number " " <error message> eol
25310 valid-head = valid-message *header "." eol
25311 valid-message = "221 " <number> " Article retrieved." eol
25312 header = <text> eol
25316 (The version of BNF used here is the one used in RFC822.)
25318 If the return value is @code{nov}, the data buffer should contain
25319 @dfn{network overview database} lines. These are basically fields
25323 nov-buffer = *nov-line
25324 nov-line = field 7*8[ <TAB> field ] eol
25325 field = <text except TAB>
25328 For a closer look at what should be in those fields,
25332 @item (nnchoke-open-server SERVER &optional DEFINITIONS)
25334 @var{server} is here the virtual server name. @var{definitions} is a
25335 list of @code{(VARIABLE VALUE)} pairs that define this virtual server.
25337 If the server can't be opened, no error should be signaled. The back end
25338 may then choose to refuse further attempts at connecting to this
25339 server. In fact, it should do so.
25341 If the server is opened already, this function should return a
25342 non-@code{nil} value. There should be no data returned.
25345 @item (nnchoke-close-server &optional SERVER)
25347 Close connection to @var{server} and free all resources connected
25348 to it. Return @code{nil} if the server couldn't be closed for some
25351 There should be no data returned.
25354 @item (nnchoke-request-close)
25356 Close connection to all servers and free all resources that the back end
25357 have reserved. All buffers that have been created by that back end
25358 should be killed. (Not the @code{nntp-server-buffer}, though.) This
25359 function is generally only called when Gnus is shutting down.
25361 There should be no data returned.
25364 @item (nnchoke-server-opened &optional SERVER)
25366 If @var{server} is the current virtual server, and the connection to the
25367 physical server is alive, then this function should return a
25368 non-@code{nil} vlue. This function should under no circumstances
25369 attempt to reconnect to a server we have lost connection to.
25371 There should be no data returned.
25374 @item (nnchoke-status-message &optional SERVER)
25376 This function should return the last error message from @var{server}.
25378 There should be no data returned.
25381 @item (nnchoke-request-article ARTICLE &optional GROUP SERVER TO-BUFFER)
25383 The result data from this function should be the article specified by
25384 @var{article}. This might either be a @code{Message-ID} or a number.
25385 It is optional whether to implement retrieval by @code{Message-ID}, but
25386 it would be nice if that were possible.
25388 If @var{to-buffer} is non-@code{nil}, the result data should be returned
25389 in this buffer instead of the normal data buffer. This is to make it
25390 possible to avoid copying large amounts of data from one buffer to
25391 another, while Gnus mainly requests articles to be inserted directly
25392 into its article buffer.
25394 If it is at all possible, this function should return a cons cell where
25395 the @code{car} is the group name the article was fetched from, and the @code{cdr} is
25396 the article number. This will enable Gnus to find out what the real
25397 group and article numbers are when fetching articles by
25398 @code{Message-ID}. If this isn't possible, @code{t} should be returned
25399 on successful article retrieval.
25402 @item (nnchoke-request-group GROUP &optional SERVER FAST)
25404 Get data on @var{group}. This function also has the side effect of
25405 making @var{group} the current group.
25407 If @var{fast}, don't bother to return useful data, just make @var{group}
25410 Here's an example of some result data and a definition of the same:
25413 211 56 1000 1059 ifi.discussion
25416 The first number is the status, which should be 211. Next is the
25417 total number of articles in the group, the lowest article number, the
25418 highest article number, and finally the group name. Note that the total
25419 number of articles may be less than one might think while just
25420 considering the highest and lowest article numbers, but some articles
25421 may have been canceled. Gnus just discards the total-number, so
25422 whether one should take the bother to generate it properly (if that is a
25423 problem) is left as an exercise to the reader. If the group contains no
25424 articles, the lowest article number should be reported as 1 and the
25428 group-status = [ error / info ] eol
25429 error = [ "4" / "5" ] 2<number> " " <Error message>
25430 info = "211 " 3* [ <number> " " ] <string>
25434 @item (nnchoke-close-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
25436 Close @var{group} and free any resources connected to it. This will be
25437 a no-op on most back ends.
25439 There should be no data returned.
25442 @item (nnchoke-request-list &optional SERVER)
25444 Return a list of all groups available on @var{server}. And that means
25447 Here's an example from a server that only carries two groups:
25450 ifi.test 0000002200 0000002000 y
25451 ifi.discussion 3324 3300 n
25454 On each line we have a group name, then the highest article number in
25455 that group, the lowest article number, and finally a flag. If the group
25456 contains no articles, the lowest article number should be reported as 1
25457 and the highest as 0.
25460 active-file = *active-line
25461 active-line = name " " <number> " " <number> " " flags eol
25463 flags = "n" / "y" / "m" / "x" / "j" / "=" name
25466 The flag says whether the group is read-only (@samp{n}), is moderated
25467 (@samp{m}), is dead (@samp{x}), is aliased to some other group
25468 (@samp{=other-group}) or none of the above (@samp{y}).
25471 @item (nnchoke-request-post &optional SERVER)
25473 This function should post the current buffer. It might return whether
25474 the posting was successful or not, but that's not required. If, for
25475 instance, the posting is done asynchronously, it has generally not been
25476 completed by the time this function concludes. In that case, this
25477 function should set up some kind of sentinel to beep the user loud and
25478 clear if the posting could not be completed.
25480 There should be no result data from this function.
25485 @node Optional Back End Functions
25486 @subsubsection Optional Back End Functions
25490 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-groups GROUPS &optional SERVER)
25492 @var{groups} is a list of groups, and this function should request data
25493 on all those groups. How it does it is of no concern to Gnus, but it
25494 should attempt to do this in a speedy fashion.
25496 The return value of this function can be either @code{active} or
25497 @code{group}, which says what the format of the result data is. The
25498 former is in the same format as the data from
25499 @code{nnchoke-request-list}, while the latter is a buffer full of lines
25500 in the same format as @code{nnchoke-request-group} gives.
25503 group-buffer = *active-line / *group-status
25507 @item (nnchoke-request-update-info GROUP INFO &optional SERVER)
25509 A Gnus group info (@pxref{Group Info}) is handed to the back end for
25510 alterations. This comes in handy if the back end really carries all the
25511 information (as is the case with virtual and imap groups). This
25512 function should destructively alter the info to suit its needs, and
25513 should return a non-nil value.
25515 There should be no result data from this function.
25518 @item (nnchoke-request-type GROUP &optional ARTICLE)
25520 When the user issues commands for ``sending news'' (@kbd{F} in the
25521 summary buffer, for instance), Gnus has to know whether the article the
25522 user is following up on is news or mail. This function should return
25523 @code{news} if @var{article} in @var{group} is news, @code{mail} if it
25524 is mail and @code{unknown} if the type can't be decided. (The
25525 @var{article} parameter is necessary in @code{nnvirtual} groups which
25526 might very well combine mail groups and news groups.) Both @var{group}
25527 and @var{article} may be @code{nil}.
25529 There should be no result data from this function.
25532 @item (nnchoke-request-set-mark GROUP ACTION &optional SERVER)
25534 Set/remove/add marks on articles. Normally Gnus handles the article
25535 marks (such as read, ticked, expired etc) internally, and store them in
25536 @file{~/.newsrc.eld}. Some back ends (such as @sc{imap}) however carry
25537 all information about the articles on the server, so Gnus need to
25538 propagate the mark information to the server.
25540 @var{action} is a list of mark setting requests, having this format:
25543 (RANGE ACTION MARK)
25546 @var{range} is a range of articles you wish to update marks on.
25547 @var{action} is @code{add} or @code{del}, used to add marks or remove
25548 marks (preserving all marks not mentioned). @var{mark} is a list of
25549 marks; where each mark is a symbol. Currently used marks are
25550 @code{read}, @code{tick}, @code{reply}, @code{expire}, @code{killed},
25551 @code{dormant}, @code{save}, @code{download}, @code{unsend},
25552 @code{forward} and @code{recent}, but your back end should, if
25553 possible, not limit itself to these.
25555 Given contradictory actions, the last action in the list should be the
25556 effective one. That is, if your action contains a request to add the
25557 @code{tick} mark on article 1 and, later in the list, a request to
25558 remove the mark on the same article, the mark should in fact be removed.
25560 An example action list:
25563 (((5 12 30) 'del '(tick))
25564 ((10 . 90) 'add '(read expire))
25565 ((92 94) 'del '(read)))
25568 The function should return a range of articles it wasn't able to set the
25569 mark on (currently not used for anything).
25571 There should be no result data from this function.
25573 @item (nnchoke-request-update-mark GROUP ARTICLE MARK)
25575 If the user tries to set a mark that the back end doesn't like, this
25576 function may change the mark. Gnus will use whatever this function
25577 returns as the mark for @var{article} instead of the original
25578 @var{mark}. If the back end doesn't care, it must return the original
25579 @var{mark}, and not @code{nil} or any other type of garbage.
25581 The only use for this I can see is what @code{nnvirtual} does with
25582 it---if a component group is auto-expirable, marking an article as read
25583 in the virtual group should result in the article being marked as
25586 There should be no result data from this function.
25589 @item (nnchoke-request-scan &optional GROUP SERVER)
25591 This function may be called at any time (by Gnus or anything else) to
25592 request that the back end check for incoming articles, in one way or
25593 another. A mail back end will typically read the spool file or query the
25594 POP server when this function is invoked. The @var{group} doesn't have
25595 to be heeded---if the back end decides that it is too much work just
25596 scanning for a single group, it may do a total scan of all groups. It
25597 would be nice, however, to keep things local if that's practical.
25599 There should be no result data from this function.
25602 @item (nnchoke-request-group-description GROUP &optional SERVER)
25604 The result data from this function should be a description of
25608 description-line = name <TAB> description eol
25610 description = <text>
25613 @item (nnchoke-request-list-newsgroups &optional SERVER)
25615 The result data from this function should be the description of all
25616 groups available on the server.
25619 description-buffer = *description-line
25623 @item (nnchoke-request-newgroups DATE &optional SERVER)
25625 The result data from this function should be all groups that were
25626 created after @samp{date}, which is in normal human-readable date format
25627 (i.e., the date format used in mail and news headers, and returned by
25628 the function @code{message-make-date} by default). The data should be
25629 in the active buffer format.
25631 It is okay for this function to return `too many' groups; some back ends
25632 might find it cheaper to return the full list of groups, rather than
25633 just the new groups. But don't do this for back ends with many groups.
25634 Normally, if the user creates the groups herself, there won't be too
25635 many groups, so @code{nnml} and the like are probably safe. But for
25636 back ends like @code{nntp}, where the groups have been created by the
25637 server, it is quite likely that there can be many groups.
25640 @item (nnchoke-request-create-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
25642 This function should create an empty group with name @var{group}.
25644 There should be no return data.
25647 @item (nnchoke-request-expire-articles ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FORCE)
25649 This function should run the expiry process on all articles in the
25650 @var{articles} range (which is currently a simple list of article
25651 numbers.) It is left up to the back end to decide how old articles
25652 should be before they are removed by this function. If @var{force} is
25653 non-@code{nil}, all @var{articles} should be deleted, no matter how new
25656 This function should return a list of articles that it did not/was not
25659 There should be no result data returned.
25662 @item (nnchoke-request-move-article ARTICLE GROUP SERVER ACCEPT-FORM &optional LAST)
25664 This function should move @var{article} (which is a number) from
25665 @var{group} by calling @var{accept-form}.
25667 This function should ready the article in question for moving by
25668 removing any header lines it has added to the article, and generally
25669 should ``tidy up'' the article. Then it should @code{eval}
25670 @var{accept-form} in the buffer where the ``tidy'' article is. This
25671 will do the actual copying. If this @code{eval} returns a
25672 non-@code{nil} value, the article should be removed.
25674 If @var{last} is @code{nil}, that means that there is a high likelihood
25675 that there will be more requests issued shortly, so that allows some
25678 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
25679 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
25681 There should be no data returned.
25684 @item (nnchoke-request-accept-article GROUP &optional SERVER LAST)
25686 This function takes the current buffer and inserts it into @var{group}.
25687 If @var{last} in @code{nil}, that means that there will be more calls to
25688 this function in short order.
25690 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
25691 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
25693 The group should exist before the backend is asked to accept the
25694 article for that group.
25696 There should be no data returned.
25699 @item (nnchoke-request-replace-article ARTICLE GROUP BUFFER)
25701 This function should remove @var{article} (which is a number) from
25702 @var{group} and insert @var{buffer} there instead.
25704 There should be no data returned.
25707 @item (nnchoke-request-delete-group GROUP FORCE &optional SERVER)
25709 This function should delete @var{group}. If @var{force}, it should
25710 really delete all the articles in the group, and then delete the group
25711 itself. (If there is such a thing as ``the group itself''.)
25713 There should be no data returned.
25716 @item (nnchoke-request-rename-group GROUP NEW-NAME &optional SERVER)
25718 This function should rename @var{group} into @var{new-name}. All
25719 articles in @var{group} should move to @var{new-name}.
25721 There should be no data returned.
25726 @node Error Messaging
25727 @subsubsection Error Messaging
25729 @findex nnheader-report
25730 @findex nnheader-get-report
25731 The back ends should use the function @code{nnheader-report} to report
25732 error conditions---they should not raise errors when they aren't able to
25733 perform a request. The first argument to this function is the back end
25734 symbol, and the rest are interpreted as arguments to @code{format} if
25735 there are multiple of them, or just a string if there is one of them.
25736 This function must always returns @code{nil}.
25739 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "You did something totally bogus")
25741 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "Could not request group %s" group)
25744 Gnus, in turn, will call @code{nnheader-get-report} when it gets a
25745 @code{nil} back from a server, and this function returns the most
25746 recently reported message for the back end in question. This function
25747 takes one argument---the server symbol.
25749 Internally, these functions access @var{back-end}@code{-status-string},
25750 so the @code{nnchoke} back end will have its error message stored in
25751 @code{nnchoke-status-string}.
25754 @node Writing New Back Ends
25755 @subsubsection Writing New Back Ends
25757 Many back ends are quite similar. @code{nnml} is just like
25758 @code{nnspool}, but it allows you to edit the articles on the server.
25759 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, but it doesn't use an active file,
25760 and it doesn't maintain overview databases. @code{nndir} is just like
25761 @code{nnml}, but it has no concept of ``groups'', and it doesn't allow
25764 It would make sense if it were possible to ``inherit'' functions from
25765 back ends when writing new back ends. And, indeed, you can do that if you
25766 want to. (You don't have to if you don't want to, of course.)
25768 All the back ends declare their public variables and functions by using a
25769 package called @code{nnoo}.
25771 To inherit functions from other back ends (and allow other back ends to
25772 inherit functions from the current back end), you should use the
25778 This macro declares the first parameter to be a child of the subsequent
25779 parameters. For instance:
25782 (nnoo-declare nndir
25786 @code{nndir} has declared here that it intends to inherit functions from
25787 both @code{nnml} and @code{nnmh}.
25790 This macro is equivalent to @code{defvar}, but registers the variable as
25791 a public server variable. Most state-oriented variables should be
25792 declared with @code{defvoo} instead of @code{defvar}.
25794 In addition to the normal @code{defvar} parameters, it takes a list of
25795 variables in the parent back ends to map the variable to when executing
25796 a function in those back ends.
25799 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
25800 "Where nndir will look for groups."
25801 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
25804 This means that @code{nnml-current-directory} will be set to
25805 @code{nndir-directory} when an @code{nnml} function is called on behalf
25806 of @code{nndir}. (The same with @code{nnmh}.)
25808 @item nnoo-define-basics
25809 This macro defines some common functions that almost all back ends should
25813 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
25817 This macro is just like @code{defun} and takes the same parameters. In
25818 addition to doing the normal @code{defun} things, it registers the
25819 function as being public so that other back ends can inherit it.
25821 @item nnoo-map-functions
25822 This macro allows mapping of functions from the current back end to
25823 functions from the parent back ends.
25826 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
25827 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
25828 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0))
25831 This means that when @code{nndir-retrieve-headers} is called, the first,
25832 third, and fourth parameters will be passed on to
25833 @code{nnml-retrieve-headers}, while the second parameter is set to the
25834 value of @code{nndir-current-group}.
25837 This macro allows importing functions from back ends. It should be the
25838 last thing in the source file, since it will only define functions that
25839 haven't already been defined.
25845 nnmh-request-newgroups)
25849 This means that calls to @code{nndir-request-list} should just be passed
25850 on to @code{nnmh-request-list}, while all public functions from
25851 @code{nnml} that haven't been defined in @code{nndir} yet should be
25856 Below is a slightly shortened version of the @code{nndir} back end.
25859 ;;; nndir.el --- single directory newsgroup access for Gnus
25860 ;; Copyright (C) 1995,96 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
25864 (require 'nnheader)
25868 (eval-when-compile (require 'cl))
25870 (nnoo-declare nndir
25873 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
25874 "Where nndir will look for groups."
25875 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
25877 (defvoo nndir-nov-is-evil nil
25878 "*Non-nil means that nndir will never retrieve NOV headers."
25881 (defvoo nndir-current-group ""
25883 nnml-current-group nnmh-current-group)
25884 (defvoo nndir-top-directory nil nil nnml-directory nnmh-directory)
25885 (defvoo nndir-get-new-mail nil nil nnml-get-new-mail nnmh-get-new-mail)
25887 (defvoo nndir-status-string "" nil nnmh-status-string)
25888 (defconst nndir-version "nndir 1.0")
25890 ;;; Interface functions.
25892 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
25894 (deffoo nndir-open-server (server &optional defs)
25895 (setq nndir-directory
25896 (or (cadr (assq 'nndir-directory defs))
25898 (unless (assq 'nndir-directory defs)
25899 (push `(nndir-directory ,server) defs))
25900 (push `(nndir-current-group
25901 ,(file-name-nondirectory
25902 (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
25904 (push `(nndir-top-directory
25905 ,(file-name-directory (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
25907 (nnoo-change-server 'nndir server defs))
25909 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
25910 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
25911 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
25912 (nnmh-request-group nndir-current-group 0 0)
25913 (nnmh-close-group nndir-current-group 0))
25917 nnmh-status-message
25919 nnmh-request-newgroups))
25925 @node Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus
25926 @subsubsection Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus
25928 @vindex gnus-valid-select-methods
25929 @findex gnus-declare-backend
25930 Having Gnus start using your new back end is rather easy---you just
25931 declare it with the @code{gnus-declare-backend} functions. This will
25932 enter the back end into the @code{gnus-valid-select-methods} variable.
25934 @code{gnus-declare-backend} takes two parameters---the back end name and
25935 an arbitrary number of @dfn{abilities}.
25940 (gnus-declare-backend "nnchoke" 'mail 'respool 'address)
25943 The above line would then go in the @file{nnchoke.el} file.
25945 The abilities can be:
25949 This is a mailish back end---followups should (probably) go via mail.
25951 This is a newsish back end---followups should (probably) go via news.
25953 This back end supports both mail and news.
25955 This is neither a post nor mail back end---it's something completely
25958 It supports respooling---or rather, it is able to modify its source
25959 articles and groups.
25961 The name of the server should be in the virtual server name. This is
25962 true for almost all back ends.
25963 @item prompt-address
25964 The user should be prompted for an address when doing commands like
25965 @kbd{B} in the group buffer. This is true for back ends like
25966 @code{nntp}, but not @code{nnmbox}, for instance.
25970 @node Mail-like Back Ends
25971 @subsubsection Mail-like Back Ends
25973 One of the things that separate the mail back ends from the rest of the
25974 back ends is the heavy dependence by most of the mail back ends on
25975 common functions in @file{nnmail.el}. For instance, here's the
25976 definition of @code{nnml-request-scan}:
25979 (deffoo nnml-request-scan (&optional group server)
25980 (setq nnml-article-file-alist nil)
25981 (nnmail-get-new-mail 'nnml 'nnml-save-nov nnml-directory group))
25984 It simply calls @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} with a few parameters,
25985 and @code{nnmail} takes care of all the moving and splitting of the
25988 This function takes four parameters.
25992 This should be a symbol to designate which back end is responsible for
25995 @item exit-function
25996 This function should be called after the splitting has been performed.
25998 @item temp-directory
25999 Where the temporary files should be stored.
26002 This optional argument should be a group name if the splitting is to be
26003 performed for one group only.
26006 @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} will call @var{back-end}@code{-save-mail} to
26007 save each article. @var{back-end}@code{-active-number} will be called to
26008 find the article number assigned to this article.
26010 The function also uses the following variables:
26011 @var{back-end}@code{-get-new-mail} (to see whether to get new mail for
26012 this back end); and @var{back-end}@code{-group-alist} and
26013 @var{back-end}@code{-active-file} to generate the new active file.
26014 @var{back-end}@code{-group-alist} should be a group-active alist, like
26018 (("a-group" (1 . 10))
26019 ("some-group" (34 . 39)))
26023 @node Score File Syntax
26024 @subsection Score File Syntax
26026 Score files are meant to be easily parseable, but yet extremely
26027 mallable. It was decided that something that had the same read syntax
26028 as an Emacs Lisp list would fit that spec.
26030 Here's a typical score file:
26034 ("win95" -10000 nil s)
26041 BNF definition of a score file:
26044 score-file = "" / "(" *element ")"
26045 element = rule / atom
26046 rule = string-rule / number-rule / date-rule
26047 string-rule = "(" quote string-header quote space *string-match ")"
26048 number-rule = "(" quote number-header quote space *number-match ")"
26049 date-rule = "(" quote date-header quote space *date-match ")"
26051 string-header = "subject" / "from" / "references" / "message-id" /
26052 "xref" / "body" / "head" / "all" / "followup"
26053 number-header = "lines" / "chars"
26054 date-header = "date"
26055 string-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
26056 space date [ "" / [ space string-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
26057 score = "nil" / <integer>
26058 date = "nil" / <natural number>
26059 string-match-t = "nil" / "s" / "substring" / "S" / "Substring" /
26060 "r" / "regex" / "R" / "Regex" /
26061 "e" / "exact" / "E" / "Exact" /
26062 "f" / "fuzzy" / "F" / "Fuzzy"
26063 number-match = "(" <integer> [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
26064 space date [ "" / [ space number-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
26065 number-match-t = "nil" / "=" / "<" / ">" / ">=" / "<="
26066 date-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
26067 space date [ "" / [ space date-match-t ] ] ] ] ")"
26068 date-match-t = "nil" / "at" / "before" / "after"
26069 atom = "(" [ required-atom / optional-atom ] ")"
26070 required-atom = mark / expunge / mark-and-expunge / files /
26071 exclude-files / read-only / touched
26072 optional-atom = adapt / local / eval
26073 mark = "mark" space nil-or-number
26074 nil-or-number = "nil" / <integer>
26075 expunge = "expunge" space nil-or-number
26076 mark-and-expunge = "mark-and-expunge" space nil-or-number
26077 files = "files" *[ space <string> ]
26078 exclude-files = "exclude-files" *[ space <string> ]
26079 read-only = "read-only" [ space "nil" / space "t" ]
26080 adapt = "adapt" [ space "ignore" / space "t" / space adapt-rule ]
26081 adapt-rule = "(" *[ <string> *[ "(" <string> <integer> ")" ] ")"
26082 local = "local" *[ space "(" <string> space <form> ")" ]
26083 eval = "eval" space <form>
26084 space = *[ " " / <TAB> / <NEWLINE> ]
26087 Any unrecognized elements in a score file should be ignored, but not
26090 As you can see, white space is needed, but the type and amount of white
26091 space is irrelevant. This means that formatting of the score file is
26092 left up to the programmer---if it's simpler to just spew it all out on
26093 one looong line, then that's ok.
26095 The meaning of the various atoms are explained elsewhere in this
26096 manual (@pxref{Score File Format}).
26100 @subsection Headers
26102 Internally Gnus uses a format for storing article headers that
26103 corresponds to the @sc{nov} format in a mysterious fashion. One could
26104 almost suspect that the author looked at the @sc{nov} specification and
26105 just shamelessly @emph{stole} the entire thing, and one would be right.
26107 @dfn{Header} is a severely overloaded term. ``Header'' is used in
26108 RFC 1036 to talk about lines in the head of an article (e.g.,
26109 @code{From}). It is used by many people as a synonym for
26110 ``head''---``the header and the body''. (That should be avoided, in my
26111 opinion.) And Gnus uses a format internally that it calls ``header'',
26112 which is what I'm talking about here. This is a 9-element vector,
26113 basically, with each header (ouch) having one slot.
26115 These slots are, in order: @code{number}, @code{subject}, @code{from},
26116 @code{date}, @code{id}, @code{references}, @code{chars}, @code{lines},
26117 @code{xref}, and @code{extra}. There are macros for accessing and
26118 setting these slots---they all have predictable names beginning with
26119 @code{mail-header-} and @code{mail-header-set-}, respectively.
26121 All these slots contain strings, except the @code{extra} slot, which
26122 contains an alist of header/value pairs (@pxref{To From Newsgroups}).
26128 @sc{gnus} introduced a concept that I found so useful that I've started
26129 using it a lot and have elaborated on it greatly.
26131 The question is simple: If you have a large amount of objects that are
26132 identified by numbers (say, articles, to take a @emph{wild} example)
26133 that you want to qualify as being ``included'', a normal sequence isn't
26134 very useful. (A 200,000 length sequence is a bit long-winded.)
26136 The solution is as simple as the question: You just collapse the
26140 (1 2 3 4 5 6 10 11 12)
26143 is transformed into
26146 ((1 . 6) (10 . 12))
26149 To avoid having those nasty @samp{(13 . 13)} elements to denote a
26150 lonesome object, a @samp{13} is a valid element:
26153 ((1 . 6) 7 (10 . 12))
26156 This means that comparing two ranges to find out whether they are equal
26157 is slightly tricky:
26160 ((1 . 5) 7 8 (10 . 12))
26166 ((1 . 5) (7 . 8) (10 . 12))
26169 are equal. In fact, any non-descending list is a range:
26175 is a perfectly valid range, although a pretty long-winded one. This is
26182 and is equal to the previous range.
26184 Here's a BNF definition of ranges. Of course, one must remember the
26185 semantic requirement that the numbers are non-descending. (Any number
26186 of repetition of the same number is allowed, but apt to disappear in
26190 range = simple-range / normal-range
26191 simple-range = "(" number " . " number ")"
26192 normal-range = "(" start-contents ")"
26193 contents = "" / simple-range *[ " " contents ] /
26194 number *[ " " contents ]
26197 Gnus currently uses ranges to keep track of read articles and article
26198 marks. I plan on implementing a number of range operators in C if The
26199 Powers That Be are willing to let me. (I haven't asked yet, because I
26200 need to do some more thinking on what operators I need to make life
26201 totally range-based without ever having to convert back to normal
26206 @subsection Group Info
26208 Gnus stores all permanent info on groups in a @dfn{group info} list.
26209 This list is from three to six elements (or more) long and exhaustively
26210 describes the group.
26212 Here are two example group infos; one is a very simple group while the
26213 second is a more complex one:
26216 ("no.group" 5 ((1 . 54324)))
26218 ("nnml:my.mail" 3 ((1 . 5) 9 (20 . 55))
26219 ((tick (15 . 19)) (replied 3 6 (19 . 3)))
26221 ((auto-expire . t) (to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")))
26224 The first element is the @dfn{group name}---as Gnus knows the group,
26225 anyway. The second element is the @dfn{subscription level}, which
26226 normally is a small integer. (It can also be the @dfn{rank}, which is a
26227 cons cell where the @code{car} is the level and the @code{cdr} is the
26228 score.) The third element is a list of ranges of read articles. The
26229 fourth element is a list of lists of article marks of various kinds.
26230 The fifth element is the select method (or virtual server, if you like).
26231 The sixth element is a list of @dfn{group parameters}, which is what
26232 this section is about.
26234 Any of the last three elements may be missing if they are not required.
26235 In fact, the vast majority of groups will normally only have the first
26236 three elements, which saves quite a lot of cons cells.
26238 Here's a BNF definition of the group info format:
26241 info = "(" group space ralevel space read
26242 [ "" / [ space marks-list [ "" / [ space method [ "" /
26243 space parameters ] ] ] ] ] ")"
26244 group = quote <string> quote
26245 ralevel = rank / level
26246 level = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
26247 rank = "(" level "." score ")"
26248 score = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
26250 marks-lists = nil / "(" *marks ")"
26251 marks = "(" <string> range ")"
26252 method = "(" <string> *elisp-forms ")"
26253 parameters = "(" *elisp-forms ")"
26256 Actually that @samp{marks} rule is a fib. A @samp{marks} is a
26257 @samp{<string>} consed on to a @samp{range}, but that's a bitch to say
26260 If you have a Gnus info and want to access the elements, Gnus offers a
26261 series of macros for getting/setting these elements.
26264 @item gnus-info-group
26265 @itemx gnus-info-set-group
26266 @findex gnus-info-group
26267 @findex gnus-info-set-group
26268 Get/set the group name.
26270 @item gnus-info-rank
26271 @itemx gnus-info-set-rank
26272 @findex gnus-info-rank
26273 @findex gnus-info-set-rank
26274 Get/set the group rank (@pxref{Group Score}).
26276 @item gnus-info-level
26277 @itemx gnus-info-set-level
26278 @findex gnus-info-level
26279 @findex gnus-info-set-level
26280 Get/set the group level.
26282 @item gnus-info-score
26283 @itemx gnus-info-set-score
26284 @findex gnus-info-score
26285 @findex gnus-info-set-score
26286 Get/set the group score (@pxref{Group Score}).
26288 @item gnus-info-read
26289 @itemx gnus-info-set-read
26290 @findex gnus-info-read
26291 @findex gnus-info-set-read
26292 Get/set the ranges of read articles.
26294 @item gnus-info-marks
26295 @itemx gnus-info-set-marks
26296 @findex gnus-info-marks
26297 @findex gnus-info-set-marks
26298 Get/set the lists of ranges of marked articles.
26300 @item gnus-info-method
26301 @itemx gnus-info-set-method
26302 @findex gnus-info-method
26303 @findex gnus-info-set-method
26304 Get/set the group select method.
26306 @item gnus-info-params
26307 @itemx gnus-info-set-params
26308 @findex gnus-info-params
26309 @findex gnus-info-set-params
26310 Get/set the group parameters.
26313 All the getter functions take one parameter---the info list. The setter
26314 functions take two parameters---the info list and the new value.
26316 The last three elements in the group info aren't mandatory, so it may be
26317 necessary to extend the group info before setting the element. If this
26318 is necessary, you can just pass on a non-@code{nil} third parameter to
26319 the three final setter functions to have this happen automatically.
26322 @node Extended Interactive
26323 @subsection Extended Interactive
26324 @cindex interactive
26325 @findex gnus-interactive
26327 Gnus extends the standard Emacs @code{interactive} specification
26328 slightly to allow easy use of the symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic
26329 Prefixes}). Here's an example of how this is used:
26332 (defun gnus-summary-increase-score (&optional score symp)
26333 (interactive (gnus-interactive "P\ny"))
26338 The best thing to do would have been to implement
26339 @code{gnus-interactive} as a macro which would have returned an
26340 @code{interactive} form, but this isn't possible since Emacs checks
26341 whether a function is interactive or not by simply doing an @code{assq}
26342 on the lambda form. So, instead we have @code{gnus-interactive}
26343 function that takes a string and returns values that are usable to
26344 @code{interactive}.
26346 This function accepts (almost) all normal @code{interactive} specs, but
26351 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbol
26352 The current symbolic prefix---the @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol}
26356 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbols
26357 A list of the current symbolic prefixes---the
26358 @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol} variable.
26361 The current article number---the @code{gnus-summary-article-number}
26365 The current article header---the @code{gnus-summary-article-header}
26369 The current group name---the @code{gnus-group-group-name}
26375 @node Emacs/XEmacs Code
26376 @subsection Emacs/XEmacs Code
26380 While Gnus runs under Emacs, XEmacs and Mule, I decided that one of the
26381 platforms must be the primary one. I chose Emacs. Not because I don't
26382 like XEmacs or Mule, but because it comes first alphabetically.
26384 This means that Gnus will byte-compile under Emacs with nary a warning,
26385 while XEmacs will pump out gigabytes of warnings while byte-compiling.
26386 As I use byte-compilation warnings to help me root out trivial errors in
26387 Gnus, that's very useful.
26389 I've also consistently used Emacs function interfaces, but have used
26390 Gnusey aliases for the functions. To take an example: Emacs defines a
26391 @code{run-at-time} function while XEmacs defines a @code{start-itimer}
26392 function. I then define a function called @code{gnus-run-at-time} that
26393 takes the same parameters as the Emacs @code{run-at-time}. When running
26394 Gnus under Emacs, the former function is just an alias for the latter.
26395 However, when running under XEmacs, the former is an alias for the
26396 following function:
26399 (defun gnus-xmas-run-at-time (time repeat function &rest args)
26403 (,function ,@@args))
26407 This sort of thing has been done for bunches of functions. Gnus does
26408 not redefine any native Emacs functions while running under XEmacs---it
26409 does this @code{defalias} thing with Gnus equivalents instead. Cleaner
26412 In the cases where the XEmacs function interface was obviously cleaner,
26413 I used it instead. For example @code{gnus-region-active-p} is an alias
26414 for @code{region-active-p} in XEmacs, whereas in Emacs it is a function.
26416 Of course, I could have chosen XEmacs as my native platform and done
26417 mapping functions the other way around. But I didn't. The performance
26418 hit these indirections impose on Gnus under XEmacs should be slight.
26421 @node Various File Formats
26422 @subsection Various File Formats
26425 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
26426 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
26430 @node Active File Format
26431 @subsubsection Active File Format
26433 The active file lists all groups available on the server in
26434 question. It also lists the highest and lowest current article numbers
26437 Here's an excerpt from a typical active file:
26440 soc.motss 296030 293865 y
26441 alt.binaries.pictures.fractals 3922 3913 n
26442 comp.sources.unix 1605 1593 m
26443 comp.binaries.ibm.pc 5097 5089 y
26444 no.general 1000 900 y
26447 Here's a pseudo-BNF definition of this file:
26450 active = *group-line
26451 group-line = group spc high-number spc low-number spc flag <NEWLINE>
26452 group = <non-white-space string>
26454 high-number = <non-negative integer>
26455 low-number = <positive integer>
26456 flag = "y" / "n" / "m" / "j" / "x" / "=" group
26459 For a full description of this file, see the manual pages for
26460 @samp{innd}, in particular @samp{active(5)}.
26463 @node Newsgroups File Format
26464 @subsubsection Newsgroups File Format
26466 The newsgroups file lists groups along with their descriptions. Not all
26467 groups on the server have to be listed, and not all groups in the file
26468 have to exist on the server. The file is meant purely as information to
26471 The format is quite simple; a group name, a tab, and the description.
26472 Here's the definition:
26476 line = group tab description <NEWLINE>
26477 group = <non-white-space string>
26479 description = <string>
26484 @node Emacs for Heathens
26485 @section Emacs for Heathens
26487 Believe it or not, but some people who use Gnus haven't really used
26488 Emacs much before they embarked on their journey on the Gnus Love Boat.
26489 If you are one of those unfortunates whom ``@kbd{C-M-a}'', ``kill the
26490 region'', and ``set @code{gnus-flargblossen} to an alist where the key
26491 is a regexp that is used for matching on the group name'' are magical
26492 phrases with little or no meaning, then this appendix is for you. If
26493 you are already familiar with Emacs, just ignore this and go fondle your
26497 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
26498 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
26503 @subsection Keystrokes
26507 Q: What is an experienced Emacs user?
26510 A: A person who wishes that the terminal had pedals.
26513 Yes, when you use Emacs, you are apt to use the control key, the shift
26514 key and the meta key a lot. This is very annoying to some people
26515 (notably @code{vi}le users), and the rest of us just love the hell out
26516 of it. Just give up and submit. Emacs really does stand for
26517 ``Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift'', and not ``Editing Macros'', as you
26518 may have heard from other disreputable sources (like the Emacs author).
26520 The shift keys are normally located near your pinky fingers, and are
26521 normally used to get capital letters and stuff. You probably use it all
26522 the time. The control key is normally marked ``CTRL'' or something like
26523 that. The meta key is, funnily enough, never marked as such on any
26524 keyboard. The one I'm currently at has a key that's marked ``Alt'',
26525 which is the meta key on this keyboard. It's usually located somewhere
26526 to the left hand side of the keyboard, usually on the bottom row.
26528 Now, us Emacs people don't say ``press the meta-control-m key'',
26529 because that's just too inconvenient. We say ``press the @kbd{C-M-m}
26530 key''. @kbd{M-} is the prefix that means ``meta'' and ``C-'' is the
26531 prefix that means ``control''. So ``press @kbd{C-k}'' means ``press
26532 down the control key, and hold it down while you press @kbd{k}''.
26533 ``Press @kbd{C-M-k}'' means ``press down and hold down the meta key and
26534 the control key and then press @kbd{k}''. Simple, ay?
26536 This is somewhat complicated by the fact that not all keyboards have a
26537 meta key. In that case you can use the ``escape'' key. Then @kbd{M-k}
26538 means ``press escape, release escape, press @kbd{k}''. That's much more
26539 work than if you have a meta key, so if that's the case, I respectfully
26540 suggest you get a real keyboard with a meta key. You can't live without
26546 @subsection Emacs Lisp
26548 Emacs is the King of Editors because it's really a Lisp interpreter.
26549 Each and every key you tap runs some Emacs Lisp code snippet, and since
26550 Emacs Lisp is an interpreted language, that means that you can configure
26551 any key to run any arbitrary code. You just, like, do it.
26553 Gnus is written in Emacs Lisp, and is run as a bunch of interpreted
26554 functions. (These are byte-compiled for speed, but it's still
26555 interpreted.) If you decide that you don't like the way Gnus does
26556 certain things, it's trivial to have it do something a different way.
26557 (Well, at least if you know how to write Lisp code.) However, that's
26558 beyond the scope of this manual, so we are simply going to talk about
26559 some common constructs that you normally use in your @file{.emacs} file
26562 If you want to set the variable @code{gnus-florgbnize} to four (4), you
26563 write the following:
26566 (setq gnus-florgbnize 4)
26569 This function (really ``special form'') @code{setq} is the one that can
26570 set a variable to some value. This is really all you need to know. Now
26571 you can go and fill your @file{.emacs} file with lots of these to change
26574 If you have put that thing in your @file{.emacs} file, it will be read
26575 and @code{eval}ed (which is lisp-ese for ``run'') the next time you
26576 start Emacs. If you want to change the variable right away, simply say
26577 @kbd{C-x C-e} after the closing parenthesis. That will @code{eval} the
26578 previous ``form'', which is a simple @code{setq} statement here.
26580 Go ahead---just try it, if you're located at your Emacs. After you
26581 @kbd{C-x C-e}, you will see @samp{4} appear in the echo area, which
26582 is the return value of the form you @code{eval}ed.
26586 If the manual says ``set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{some}'',
26590 (setq gnus-read-active-file 'some)
26593 On the other hand, if the manual says ``set @code{gnus-nntp-server} to
26594 @samp{nntp.ifi.uio.no}'', that means:
26597 (setq gnus-nntp-server "nntp.ifi.uio.no")
26600 So be careful not to mix up strings (the latter) with symbols (the
26601 former). The manual is unambiguous, but it can be confusing.
26604 @include gnus-faq.texi
26624 @c Local Variables:
26626 @c coding: iso-8859-1
26628 % LocalWords: BNF mucho detailmenu cindex kindex kbd
26629 % LocalWords: findex Gnusae vindex dfn dfn samp nntp setq nnspool nntpserver
26630 % LocalWords: nnmbox newusers Blllrph NEWGROUPS dingnusdingnusdingnus
26631 % LocalWords: pre fab rec comp nnslashdot regex ga ga sci nnml nnbabyl nnmh
26632 % LocalWords: nnfolder emph looong eld newsreaders defun init elc pxref