-@c Insert "\input texinfo" at 1st line before texing this file alone.
-@c -*-texinfo-*-
-@c Copyright (C) 1995, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
-@setfilename gnus-faq.info
+@c \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
+@c Uncomment 1st line before texing this file alone.
+@c %**start of header
+@c Copyright (C) 1995, 2001-2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+@c
+@c @setfilename gnus-faq.info
+@c @settitle Frequently Asked Questions
+@c @documentencoding UTF-8
+@c %**end of header
+@c
@node Frequently Asked Questions
@section Frequently Asked Questions
-This is the Gnus Frequently Asked Questions list.
-If you have a Web browser, the official hypertext version is at
-@uref{http://www.ccs.neu.edu/software/contrib/gnus/}, and has
-probably been updated since you got this manual.
-
@menu
-* Installation FAQ:: Installation of Gnus.
-* Customization FAQ:: Customizing Gnus.
-* Reading News FAQ:: News Reading Questions.
-* Reading Mail FAQ:: Mail Reading Questions.
+* FAQ - Changes::
+* FAQ - Introduction:: About Gnus and this FAQ.
+* FAQ 1 - Installation FAQ:: Installation of Gnus.
+* FAQ 2 - Startup / Group buffer:: Start up questions and the
+ first buffer Gnus shows you.
+* FAQ 3 - Getting Messages:: Making Gnus read your mail
+ and news.
+* FAQ 4 - Reading messages:: How to efficiently read
+ messages.
+* FAQ 5 - Composing messages:: Composing mails or Usenet
+ postings.
+* FAQ 6 - Old messages:: Importing, archiving,
+ searching and deleting messages.
+* FAQ 7 - Gnus in a dial-up environment:: Reading mail and news while
+ offline.
+* FAQ 8 - Getting help:: When this FAQ isn't enough.
+* FAQ 9 - Tuning Gnus:: How to make Gnus faster.
+* FAQ - Glossary:: Terms used in the FAQ
+ explained.
@end menu
+@subheading Abstract
+
+This is the new Gnus Frequently Asked Questions list.
+
+Please submit features and suggestions to the
+@email{ding@@gnus.org, ding list}.
+
+@node FAQ - Changes
+@subsection Changes
+
-@node Installation FAQ
-@subsection Installation
@itemize @bullet
-@item
-Q1.1 What is the latest version of Gnus?
-The latest (and greatest) version is 5.0.10. You might also run
-across something called @emph{September Gnus}. September Gnus
-is the alpha version of the next major release of Gnus. It is currently
-not stable enough to run unless you are prepared to debug lisp.
+@item
+2008-06-15: Adjust for message-fill-column. Add x-face-file.
+Clarify difference between ding and gnu.emacs.gnus. Remove
+reference to discontinued service.
@item
-Q1.2 Where do I get Gnus?
+2006-04-15: Added tip on how to delete sent buffer on exit.
+@end itemize
-Any of the following locations:
+@node FAQ - Introduction
+@subsection Introduction
-@itemize @minus
-@item
-@uref{ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/emacs/gnus/gnus.tar.gz}
+This is the Gnus Frequently Asked Questions list.
+
+Gnus is a Usenet Newsreader and Electronic Mail User Agent implemented
+as a part of Emacs. It's been around in some form for almost a decade
+now, and has been distributed as a standard part of Emacs for much of
+that time. Gnus 5 is the latest (and greatest) incarnation. The
+original version was called GNUS, and was written by Masanobu UMEDA@.
+When autumn crept up in '94, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen grew bored and
+decided to rewrite Gnus.
+
+Its biggest strength is the fact that it is extremely
+customizable. It is somewhat intimidating at first glance, but
+most of the complexity can be ignored until you're ready to take
+advantage of it. If you receive a reasonable volume of e-mail
+(you're on various mailing lists), or you would like to read
+high-volume mailing lists but cannot keep up with them, or read
+high volume newsgroups or are just bored, then Gnus is what you
+want.
+
+This FAQ was maintained by Justin Sheehy until March 2002. He
+would like to thank Steve Baur and Per Abrahamsen for doing a wonderful
+job with this FAQ before him. We would like to do the same: thanks,
+Justin!
+
+This version is much nicer than the unofficial hypertext
+versions that are archived at Utrecht, Oxford, Smart Pages, Ohio
+State, and other FAQ archives. See the resources question below
+if you want information on obtaining it in another format.
+
+The information contained here was compiled with the assistance
+of the Gnus development mailing list, and any errors or
+misprints are the Gnus team's fault, sorry.
+
+@node FAQ 1 - Installation FAQ
+@subsection Installation FAQ
+
+@menu
+* FAQ 1-1:: What is the latest version of Gnus?
+* FAQ 1-2:: What's new in 5.10?
+* FAQ 1-3:: Where and how to get Gnus?
+* FAQ 1-4:: What to do with the tarball now?
+* FAQ 1-5:: I sometimes read references to No Gnus and Oort Gnus,
+ what are those?
+* FAQ 1-6:: Which version of Emacs do I need?
+* FAQ 1-7:: How do I run Gnus on both Emacs and XEmacs?
+@end menu
+
+@node FAQ 1-1
+@subsubheading Question 1.1
+
+What is the latest version of Gnus?
+
+@subsubheading Answer
+
+Jingle please: Gnus 5.10 is released, get it while it's
+hot! As well as the step in version number is rather
+small, Gnus 5.10 has tons of new features which you
+shouldn't miss. The current release (5.13) should be at
+least as stable as the latest release of the 5.8 series.
+
+@node FAQ 1-2
+@subsubheading Question 1.2
+
+What's new in 5.10?
+
+@subsubheading Answer
+
+First of all, you should have a look into the file
+GNUS-NEWS in the toplevel directory of the Gnus tarball,
+there the most important changes are listed. Here's a
+short list of the changes I find especially
+important/interesting:
+
+@itemize @bullet
@item
-@uref{ftp://ftp.pilgrim.umass.edu/pub/misc/ding/}
+Major rewrite of the Gnus agent, Gnus agent is now
+active by default.
@item
-@file{gopher://gopher.pilgrim.umass.edu/11/pub/misc/ding/}
+Many new article washing functions for dealing with
+ugly formatted articles.
@item
-@uref{ftp://aphrodite.nectar.cs.cmu.edu/pub/ding-gnus/}
+Anti Spam features.
@item
-@uref{ftp://ftp.solace.mh.se:/pub/gnu/elisp/}
+Message-utils now included in Gnus.
+@item
+New format specifiers for summary lines, e.g., %B for
+a complex trn-style thread tree.
@end itemize
-@item
-Q1.3 Which version of Emacs do I need?
+@node FAQ 1-3
+@subsubheading Question 1.3
-At least GNU Emacs 19.28, or XEmacs 19.12 is recommended. GNU Emacs
-19.25 has been reported to work under certain circumstances, but it
-doesn't @emph{officially} work on it. 19.27 has also been reported to
-work. Gnus has been reported to work under OS/2 as well as Unix.
+Where and how to get Gnus?
+@subsubheading Answer
-@item
-Q1.4 Where is timezone.el?
+Gnus is released independent from releases of Emacs and XEmacs.
+Therefore, the version bundled with Emacs or the version in XEmacs's
+package system might not be up to date (e.g., Gnus 5.9 bundled with Emacs
+21 is outdated).
+You can get the latest released version of Gnus from
+@uref{http://www.gnus.org/dist/gnus.tar.gz}
+or via anonymous FTP from
+@uref{ftp://ftp.gnus.org/pub/gnus/gnus.tar.gz}.
-Upgrade to XEmacs 19.13. In earlier versions of XEmacs this file was
-placed with Gnus 4.1.3, but that has been corrected.
+@node FAQ 1-4
+@subsubheading Question 1.4
+What to do with the tarball now?
-@item
-Q1.5 When I run Gnus on XEmacs 19.13 I get weird error messages.
+@subsubheading Answer
-You're running an old version of Gnus. Upgrade to at least version
-5.0.4.
+Untar it via @samp{tar xvzf gnus.tar.gz} and do the common
+@samp{./configure; make; make install} circle.
+(under MS-Windows either get the Cygwin environment from
+@uref{http://www.cygwin.com}
+which allows you to do what's described above or unpack the
+tarball with some packer (e.g., Winace from
+@uref{http://www.winace.com})
+and use the batch-file make.bat included in the tarball to install
+Gnus.) If you don't want to (or aren't allowed to) install Gnus
+system-wide, you can install it in your home directory and add the
+following lines to your ~/.xemacs/init.el or ~/.emacs:
+@example
+(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/gnus/lisp")
+(if (featurep 'xemacs)
+ (add-to-list 'Info-directory-list "/path/to/gnus/texi/")
+ (add-to-list 'Info-default-directory-list "/path/to/gnus/texi/"))
+@end example
+@noindent
-@item
-Q1.6 How do I unsubscribe from the Mailing List?
+Make sure that you don't have any Gnus related stuff
+before this line, on MS Windows use something like
+"C:/path/to/lisp" (yes, "/").
-Send an e-mail message to @file{ding-request@@ifi.uio.no} with the magic word
-@emph{unsubscribe} somewhere in it, and you will be removed.
+@node FAQ 1-5
+@subsubheading Question 1.5
-If you are reading the digest version of the list, send an e-mail message
-to @*
-@file{ding-rn-digests-d-request@@moe.shore.net}
-with @emph{unsubscribe} as the subject and you will be removed.
+I sometimes read references to No Gnus and Oort Gnus,
+what are those?
+@subsubheading Answer
-@item
-Q1.7 How do I run Gnus on both Emacs and XEmacs?
+Oort Gnus was the name of the development version of
+Gnus, which became Gnus 5.10 in autumn 2003. No Gnus is
+the name of the current development version which will
+once become Gnus 5.12 or Gnus 6. (If you're wondering why
+not 5.11, the odd version numbers are normally used for
+the Gnus versions bundled with Emacs)
+
+@node FAQ 1-6
+@subsubheading Question 1.6
+
+Which version of Emacs do I need?
+
+@subsubheading Answer
+
+Gnus 5.13 requires an Emacs version that is greater than or equal
+to Emacs 23.1 or XEmacs 21.1, although there are some features that
+only work on Emacs 24.
+
+@node FAQ 1-7
+@subsubheading Question 1.7
+
+How do I run Gnus on both Emacs and XEmacs?
+
+@subsubheading Answer
+
+You can't use the same copy of Gnus in both as the Lisp
+files are byte-compiled to a format which is different
+depending on which Emacs did the compilation. Get one copy
+of Gnus for Emacs and one for XEmacs.
+
+@node FAQ 2 - Startup / Group buffer
+@subsection Startup / Group buffer
+
+@menu
+* FAQ 2-1:: Every time I start Gnus I get a message "Gnus auto-save
+ file exists. Do you want to read it?", what does this mean and
+ how to prevent it?
+* FAQ 2-2:: Gnus doesn't remember which groups I'm subscribed to,
+ what's this?
+* FAQ 2-3:: How to change the format of the lines in Group buffer?
+* FAQ 2-4:: My group buffer becomes a bit crowded, is there a way to
+ sort my groups into categories so I can easier browse through
+ them?
+* FAQ 2-5:: How to manually sort the groups in Group buffer? How to
+ sort the groups in a topic?
+@end menu
+
+@node FAQ 2-1
+@subsubheading Question 2.1
+
+Every time I start Gnus I get a message "Gnus auto-save
+file exists. Do you want to read it?", what does this mean
+and how to prevent it?
+
+@subsubheading Answer
+
+This message means that the last time you used Gnus, it
+wasn't properly exited and therefore couldn't write its
+information to disk (e.g., which messages you read), you
+are now asked if you want to restore that information
+from the auto-save file.
+
+To prevent this message make sure you exit Gnus
+via @samp{q} in group buffer instead of
+just killing Emacs.
+
+@node FAQ 2-2
+@subsubheading Question 2.2
+
+Gnus doesn't remember which groups I'm subscribed to,
+what's this?
+
+@subsubheading Answer
+
+You get the message described in the q/a pair above while
+starting Gnus, right? It's an other symptom for the same
+problem, so read the answer above.
+
+@node FAQ 2-3
+@subsubheading Question 2.3
+
+How to change the format of the lines in Group buffer?
-The basic answer is to byte-compile under XEmacs, and then you can
-run under either Emacsen. There is, however, a potential version
-problem with easymenu.el with Gnu Emacs prior to 19.29.
+@subsubheading Answer
-Per Abrahamsen <abraham@@dina.kvl.dk> writes :@*
-The internal easymenu.el interface changed between 19.28 and 19.29 in
-order to make it possible to create byte compiled files that can be
-shared between Gnu Emacs and XEmacs. The change is upward
-compatible, but not downward compatible.
-This gives the following compatibility table:
+You've got to tweak the value of the variable
+gnus-group-line-format. See the manual node "Group Line
+Specification" for information on how to do this. An
+example for this (guess from whose .gnus :-)):
@example
-Compiled with: | Can be used with:
-----------------+--------------------------------------
-19.28 | 19.28 19.29
-19.29 | 19.29 XEmacs
-XEmacs | 19.29 XEmacs
+(setq gnus-group-line-format "%P%M%S[%5t]%5y : %(%g%)\n")
@end example
+@noindent
-If you have Gnu Emacs 19.28 or earlier, or XEmacs 19.12 or earlier, get
-a recent version of auc-menu.el from
-@uref{ftp://ftp.iesd.auc.dk/pub/emacs-lisp/auc-menu.el}, and install it
-under the name easymenu.el somewhere early in your load path.
+@node FAQ 2-4
+@subsubheading Question 2.4
+My group buffer becomes a bit crowded, is there a way to
+sort my groups into categories so I can easier browse
+through them?
-@item
-Q1.8 What resources are available?
-
-There is the newsgroup Gnu.emacs.gnus. Discussion of Gnus 5.x is now
-taking place there. There is also a mailing list, send mail to
-@file{ding-request@@ifi.uio.no} with the magic word @emph{subscribe}
-somewhere in it.
-
-@emph{NOTE:} the traffic on this list is heavy so you may not want to be
-on it (unless you use Gnus as your mailer reader, that is). The mailing
-list is mainly for developers and testers.
-
-Gnus has a home World Wide Web page at@*
-@uref{http://www.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/ding.html}.
-
-Gnus has a write up in the X Windows Applications FAQ at@*
-@uref{http://www.ee.ryerson.ca:8080/~elf/xapps/Q-III.html}.
-
-The Gnus manual is also available on the World Wide Web. The canonical
-source is in Norway at@*
-@uref{http://www.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/ding-manual/gnus_toc.html}.
-
-There are three mirrors in the United States:
-@enumerate
-@item
-@uref{http://www.miranova.com/gnus-man/}
+@subsubheading Answer
-@item
-@uref{http://www.pilgrim.umass.edu/pub/misc/ding/manual/gnus_toc.html}
+Gnus offers the topic mode, it allows you to sort your
+groups in, well, topics, e.g., all groups dealing with
+Linux under the topic linux, all dealing with music under
+the topic music and all dealing with scottish music under
+the topic scottish which is a subtopic of music.
-@item
-@uref{http://www.rtd.com/~woo/gnus/}
+To enter topic mode, just hit t while in Group buffer. Now
+you can use @samp{T n} to create a topic
+at point and @samp{T m} to move a group to
+a specific topic. For more commands see the manual or the
+menu. You might want to include the %P specifier at the
+beginning of your gnus-group-line-format variable to have
+the groups nicely indented.
-@end enumerate
+@node FAQ 2-5
+@subsubheading Question 2.5
-PostScript copies of the Gnus Reference card are available from@*
-@uref{ftp://ftp.cs.ualberta.ca/pub/oolog/gnus/}. They are mirrored at@*
-@uref{ftp://ftp.pilgrim.umass.edu/pub/misc/ding/refcard/} in the
-United States. And@*
-@uref{ftp://marvin.fkphy.uni-duesseldorf.de/pub/gnus/}
-in Germany.
-
-An online version of the Gnus FAQ is available at@*
-@uref{http://www.miranova.com/~steve/gnus-faq.html}. Off-line formats
-are also available:@*
-ASCII: @uref{ftp://ftp.miranova.com/pub/gnus/gnus-faq}@*
-PostScript: @uref{ftp://ftp.miranova.com/pub/gnus/gnus-faq.ps}.
+How to manually sort the groups in Group buffer? How to
+sort the groups in a topic?
+@subsubheading Answer
-@item
-Q1.9 Gnus hangs on connecting to NNTP server
+Move point over the group you want to move and
+hit @samp{C-k}, now move point to the
+place where you want the group to be and
+hit @samp{C-y}.
-I am running XEmacs on SunOS and Gnus prints a message about Connecting
-to NNTP server and then just hangs.
+@node FAQ 3 - Getting Messages
+@subsection Getting Messages
-Ben Wing <wing@@netcom.com> writes :@*
-I wonder if you're hitting the infamous @emph{libresolv} problem.
-The basic problem is that under SunOS you can compile either
-with DNS or NIS name lookup libraries but not both. Try
-substituting the IP address and see if that works; if so, you
-need to download the sources and recompile.
+@menu
+* FAQ 3-1:: I just installed Gnus, started it via @samp{M-x gnus}
+ but it only says "nntp (news) open error", what to do?
+* FAQ 3-2:: I'm working under Windows and have no idea what
+ ~/.gnus.el means.
+* FAQ 3-3:: My news server requires authentication, how to store
+ user name and password on disk?
+* FAQ 3-4:: Gnus seems to start up OK, but I can't find out how to
+ subscribe to a group.
+* FAQ 3-5:: Gnus doesn't show all groups / Gnus says I'm not allowed
+ to post on this server as well as I am, what's that?
+* FAQ 3-6:: I want Gnus to fetch news from several servers, is this
+ possible?
+* FAQ 3-7:: And how about local spool files?
+* FAQ 3-8:: OK, reading news works now, but I want to be able to
+ read my mail with Gnus, too. How to do it?
+* FAQ 3-9:: And what about IMAP?
+* FAQ 3-10:: At the office we use one of those MS Exchange servers,
+ can I use Gnus to read my mail from it?
+* FAQ 3-11:: Can I tell Gnus not to delete the mails on the server it
+ retrieves via POP3?
+@end menu
+@node FAQ 3-1
+@subsubheading Question 3.1
-@item
-Q1.10 Mailcrypt 3.4 doesn't work
+I just installed Gnus, started it via
+@samp{M-x gnus}
+but it only says "nntp (news) open error", what to do?
-This problem is verified to still exist in Gnus 5.0.9 and Mailcrypt 3.4.
-The answer comes from Peter Arius
-<arius@@immd2.informatik.uni-erlangen.de>.
+@subsubheading Answer
-I found out that mailcrypt uses
-@code{gnus-eval-in-buffer-window}, which is a macro.
-It seems as if you have
-compiled mailcrypt with plain old GNUS in load path, and the XEmacs byte
-compiler has inserted that macro definition into
-@file{mc-toplev.elc}.
-The solution is to recompile @file{mc-toplev.el} with Gnus 5 in
-load-path, and it works fine.
+You've got to tell Gnus where to fetch the news from. Read
+the documentation for information on how to do this. As a
+first start, put those lines in @file{~/.gnus.el}:
-Steve Baur <steve@@miranova.com> adds :@*
-The problem also manifests itself if neither GNUS 4 nor Gnus 5 is in the
-load-path.
+@example
+(setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.yourprovider.net"))
+(setq user-mail-address "you@@yourprovider.net")
+(setq user-full-name "Your Name")
+@end example
+@noindent
+
+@node FAQ 3-2
+@subsubheading Question 3.2
+
+I'm working under Windows and have no idea what @file{~/.gnus.el} means.
+
+@subsubheading Answer
+
+The ~/ means the home directory where Gnus and Emacs look
+for the configuration files. However, you don't really
+need to know what this means, it suffices that Emacs knows
+what it means :-) You can type
+@samp{C-x C-f ~/.gnus.el RET }
+(yes, with the forward slash, even on Windows), and
+Emacs will open the right file for you. (It will most
+likely be new, and thus empty.)
+However, I'd discourage you from doing so, since the
+directory Emacs chooses will most certainly not be what
+you want, so let's do it the correct way.
+The first thing you've got to do is to
+create a suitable directory (no blanks in directory name
+please), e.g., c:\myhome. Then you must set the environment
+variable HOME to this directory. To do this under Windows 9x
+or Me include the line
+@example
+SET HOME=C:\myhome
+@end example
projects / gnus / blobdiff