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10 * Gnus: (gnus). The newsreader Gnus.
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268 \gnusauthor{by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen}
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277 Copyright \copyright{} 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000
278 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
281 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
282 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
283 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
284 Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
285 Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
286 license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
287 License'' in the Emacs manual.
289 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
290 this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
291 Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
293 This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
294 Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
295 separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
296 license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
304 This file documents Gnus, the GNU Emacs newsreader.
306 Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
308 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
309 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
310 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
311 Invariant Sections being none, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
312 Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
313 license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
314 License'' in the Emacs manual.
316 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
317 this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
318 Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
320 This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
321 Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
322 separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
323 license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
331 @author by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
334 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
335 Copyright @copyright{} 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
337 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
338 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
339 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
340 Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
341 Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
342 license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
343 License'' in the Emacs manual.
345 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
346 this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
347 Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
349 This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
350 Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
351 separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
352 license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
361 @top The Gnus Newsreader
365 You can read news (and mail) from within Emacs by using Gnus. The news
366 can be gotten by any nefarious means you can think of---@sc{nntp}, local
367 spool or your mbox file. All at the same time, if you want to push your
370 This manual corresponds to Oort Gnus v.
381 Gnus is the advanced, self-documenting, customizable, extensible
382 unreal-time newsreader for GNU Emacs.
384 Oops. That sounds oddly familiar, so let's start over again to avoid
385 being accused of plagiarism:
387 Gnus is a message-reading laboratory. It will let you look at just
388 about anything as if it were a newsgroup. You can read mail with it,
389 you can browse directories with it, you can @code{ftp} with it---you
390 can even read news with it!
392 Gnus tries to empower people who read news the same way Emacs empowers
393 people who edit text. Gnus sets no limits to what the user should be
394 allowed to do. Users are encouraged to extend Gnus to make it behave
395 like they want it to behave. A program should not control people;
396 people should be empowered to do what they want by using (or abusing)
402 * Starting Up:: Finding news can be a pain.
403 * Group Buffer:: Selecting, subscribing and killing groups.
404 * Summary Buffer:: Reading, saving and posting articles.
405 * Article Buffer:: Displaying and handling articles.
406 * Composing Messages:: Information on sending mail and news.
407 * Select Methods:: Gnus reads all messages from various select methods.
408 * Scoring:: Assigning values to articles.
409 * Various:: General purpose settings.
410 * The End:: Farewell and goodbye.
411 * Appendices:: Terminology, Emacs intro, FAQ, History, Internals.
412 * Index:: Variable, function and concept index.
413 * Key Index:: Key Index.
416 --- The Detailed Node Listing ---
420 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
421 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
422 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
423 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
424 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
425 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
426 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
427 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
428 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
429 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
430 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
434 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
435 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
436 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
440 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
441 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
442 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
443 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
444 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
445 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
446 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
447 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
448 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
449 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
450 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
451 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
452 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
453 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
454 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
455 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
456 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
460 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
461 * Group Modeline Specification:: The group buffer modeline.
462 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
466 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
467 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
468 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
469 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
470 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
474 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
475 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
476 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
477 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
481 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
482 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
483 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
484 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
485 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
487 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
488 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
489 * Threading:: How threads are made.
490 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
491 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
492 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
493 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
494 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
495 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
496 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
497 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
498 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
499 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
500 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
501 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
502 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
503 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
504 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
505 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
506 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
507 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
508 or reselecting the current group.
509 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
510 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
511 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
512 * Mailing List:: Mailing list minor mode.
514 Summary Buffer Format
516 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
517 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
518 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
519 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
523 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
524 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
526 Reply, Followup and Post
528 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
529 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
530 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
531 * Canceling and Superseding::
535 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
536 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
537 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
539 * Generic Marking Commands::
540 * Setting Process Marks::
544 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
545 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
546 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
550 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
551 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
553 Customizing Threading
555 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
556 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
557 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
558 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over... but you were wrong!
562 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
563 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
564 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
565 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
566 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
567 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
571 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
572 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
573 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
577 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
578 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
579 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
580 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
581 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
582 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
583 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
584 * Article Miscellania:: Various other stuff.
586 Alternative Approaches
588 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
589 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
591 Various Summary Stuff
593 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
594 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
595 * Summary Generation Commands::
596 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
600 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
601 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @sc{mime} before reading them.
602 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
603 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
604 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
608 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
609 * Posting Server:: What server should you post via?
610 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
611 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
612 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
613 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
614 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
615 * Using GPG:: How to use GPG and MML to sign and encrypt messages
619 * Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
620 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
621 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
622 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
623 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
624 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
625 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
629 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
630 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
631 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
632 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
633 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
634 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
635 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
639 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @sc{nntp} server.
640 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
644 * Direct Functions:: Connecting directly to the server.
645 * Indirect Functions:: Connecting indirectly to the server.
646 * Common Variables:: Understood by several connection functions.
650 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
651 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
652 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
653 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
654 * Mail Backend Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
655 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
656 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
657 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
658 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
659 * Washing Mail:: Removing gruft from the mail you get.
660 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
661 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail backends for reading other files.
662 * Choosing a Mail Backend:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
663 * Archiving Mail:: How to backup your mail.
667 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
668 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
669 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
671 Choosing a Mail Backend
673 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
674 * Rmail Babyl:: Emacs programs use the rmail babyl format.
675 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
676 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like backend.
677 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
678 * Comparing Mail Backends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
682 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
683 * Slashdot:: Reading the Slashdot comments.
684 * Ultimate:: The Ultimate Bulletin Board systems.
685 * Web Archive:: Reading mailing list archived on web.
686 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
687 * Customizing w3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/w3 from Gnus.
691 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
692 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
693 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
694 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{soup} packets ``offline''.
695 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
696 * IMAP:: Using Gnus as a @sc{imap} client.
700 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
704 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
705 * SOUP Groups:: A backend for reading @sc{soup} packets.
706 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
710 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
711 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
712 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a "compress mailbox" button.
716 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
717 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
721 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
722 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
723 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
724 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
725 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with IMAP.
726 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
727 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
728 * Example Setup:: An example @file{.gnus.el} file for offline people.
729 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
730 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
734 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
735 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
736 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
740 * Group Agent Commands::
741 * Summary Agent Commands::
742 * Server Agent Commands::
746 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
747 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
748 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
749 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
750 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
751 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
752 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
753 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
754 * Scoring On Other Headers:: Scoring on non-standard headers.
755 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
756 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
757 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
758 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
759 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
760 * GroupLens:: Getting predictions on what you like to read.
761 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
762 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
766 * Using GroupLens:: How to make Gnus use GroupLens.
767 * Rating Articles:: Letting GroupLens know how you rate articles.
768 * Displaying Predictions:: Displaying predictions given by GroupLens.
769 * GroupLens Variables:: Customizing GroupLens.
773 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
774 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
775 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
779 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
780 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
781 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
782 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
783 * Window Layout:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
784 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
785 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
786 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
787 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
788 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
789 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
790 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
791 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
792 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
793 * XEmacs Enhancements:: There are more pictures and stuff under XEmacs.
794 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
795 * Thwarting Email Spam:: A how-to on avoiding unsolicited commercial email.
796 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
800 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
801 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
802 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
803 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
804 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
805 * Positioning Point:: Moving point to a position after an operation.
806 * Tabulation:: Tabulating your output.
807 * Wide Characters:: Dealing with wide characters.
811 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what your reading.
812 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
813 * Toolbar:: Click'n'drool.
814 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
818 * Picon Basics:: What are picons and How do I get them.
819 * Picon Requirements:: Don't go further if you aren't using XEmacs.
820 * Easy Picons:: Displaying Picons---the easy way.
821 * Hard Picons:: The way you should do it. You'll learn something.
822 * Picon Useless Configuration:: Other variables you can trash/tweak/munge/play with.
826 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
827 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
828 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
829 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
830 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
831 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
832 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
836 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
837 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
838 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
839 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
840 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
841 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
842 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
843 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
844 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
848 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
849 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
850 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
851 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
852 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
856 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
857 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
858 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
859 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
863 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
864 * Backend Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
865 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
866 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
867 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
868 * Group Info:: The group info format.
869 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
870 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
871 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
875 * Required Backend Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
876 * Optional Backend Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
877 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
878 * Writing New Backends:: Extending old backends.
879 * Hooking New Backends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
880 * Mail-like Backends:: Some tips on mail backends.
884 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
885 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
889 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
890 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
896 @chapter Starting Gnus
901 If your system administrator has set things up properly, starting Gnus
902 and reading news is extremely easy---you just type @kbd{M-x gnus} in
905 @findex gnus-other-frame
906 @kindex M-x gnus-other-frame
907 If you want to start Gnus in a different frame, you can use the command
908 @kbd{M-x gnus-other-frame} instead.
910 If things do not go smoothly at startup, you have to twiddle some
911 variables in your @file{~/.gnus} file. This file is similar to
912 @file{~/.emacs}, but is read when gnus starts.
914 If you puzzle at any terms used in this manual, please refer to the
915 terminology section (@pxref{Terminology}).
918 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
919 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
920 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
921 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
922 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
923 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
924 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
925 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
926 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
927 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
928 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
932 @node Finding the News
933 @section Finding the News
936 @vindex gnus-select-method
938 The @code{gnus-select-method} variable says where Gnus should look for
939 news. This variable should be a list where the first element says
940 @dfn{how} and the second element says @dfn{where}. This method is your
941 native method. All groups not fetched with this method are
944 For instance, if the @samp{news.somewhere.edu} @sc{nntp} server is where
945 you want to get your daily dosage of news from, you'd say:
948 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"))
951 If you want to read directly from the local spool, say:
954 (setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool ""))
957 If you can use a local spool, you probably should, as it will almost
958 certainly be much faster.
960 @vindex gnus-nntpserver-file
962 @cindex @sc{nntp} server
963 If this variable is not set, Gnus will take a look at the
964 @code{NNTPSERVER} environment variable. If that variable isn't set,
965 Gnus will see whether @code{gnus-nntpserver-file}
966 (@file{/etc/nntpserver} by default) has any opinions on the matter. If
967 that fails as well, Gnus will try to use the machine running Emacs as an @sc{nntp} server. That's a long shot, though.
969 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
970 If @code{gnus-nntp-server} is set, this variable will override
971 @code{gnus-select-method}. You should therefore set
972 @code{gnus-nntp-server} to @code{nil}, which is what it is by default.
974 @vindex gnus-secondary-servers
975 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
976 You can also make Gnus prompt you interactively for the name of an
977 @sc{nntp} server. If you give a non-numerical prefix to @code{gnus}
978 (i.e., @kbd{C-u M-x gnus}), Gnus will let you choose between the servers
979 in the @code{gnus-secondary-servers} list (if any). You can also just
980 type in the name of any server you feel like visiting. (Note that this
981 will set @code{gnus-nntp-server}, which means that if you then @kbd{M-x
982 gnus} later in the same Emacs session, Gnus will contact the same
985 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
987 However, if you use one @sc{nntp} server regularly and are just
988 interested in a couple of groups from a different server, you would be
989 better served by using the @kbd{B} command in the group buffer. It will
990 let you have a look at what groups are available, and you can subscribe
991 to any of the groups you want to. This also makes @file{.newsrc}
992 maintenance much tidier. @xref{Foreign Groups}.
994 @vindex gnus-secondary-select-methods
996 A slightly different approach to foreign groups is to set the
997 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} variable. The select methods
998 listed in this variable are in many ways just as native as the
999 @code{gnus-select-method} server. They will also be queried for active
1000 files during startup (if that's required), and new newsgroups that
1001 appear on these servers will be subscribed (or not) just as native
1004 For instance, if you use the @code{nnmbox} backend to read your mail, you
1005 would typically set this variable to
1008 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnmbox "")))
1012 @node The First Time
1013 @section The First Time
1014 @cindex first time usage
1016 If no startup files exist, Gnus will try to determine what groups should
1017 be subscribed by default.
1019 @vindex gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups
1020 If the variable @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is set, Gnus
1021 will subscribe you to just those groups in that list, leaving the rest
1022 killed. Your system administrator should have set this variable to
1025 Since she hasn't, Gnus will just subscribe you to a few arbitrarily
1026 picked groups (i.e., @samp{*.newusers}). (@dfn{Arbitrary} is defined
1027 here as @dfn{whatever Lars thinks you should read}.)
1029 You'll also be subscribed to the Gnus documentation group, which should
1030 help you with most common problems.
1032 If @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is @code{t}, Gnus will just
1033 use the normal functions for handling new groups, and not do anything
1037 @node The Server is Down
1038 @section The Server is Down
1039 @cindex server errors
1041 If the default server is down, Gnus will understandably have some
1042 problems starting. However, if you have some mail groups in addition to
1043 the news groups, you may want to start Gnus anyway.
1045 Gnus, being the trusting sort of program, will ask whether to proceed
1046 without a native select method if that server can't be contacted. This
1047 will happen whether the server doesn't actually exist (i.e., you have
1048 given the wrong address) or the server has just momentarily taken ill
1049 for some reason or other. If you decide to continue and have no foreign
1050 groups, you'll find it difficult to actually do anything in the group
1051 buffer. But, hey, that's your problem. Blllrph!
1053 @findex gnus-no-server
1054 @kindex M-x gnus-no-server
1056 If you know that the server is definitely down, or you just want to read
1057 your mail without bothering with the server at all, you can use the
1058 @code{gnus-no-server} command to start Gnus. That might come in handy
1059 if you're in a hurry as well. This command will not attempt to contact
1060 your primary server---instead, it will just activate all groups on level
1061 1 and 2. (You should preferably keep no native groups on those two
1062 levels.) Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
1066 @section Slave Gnusae
1069 You might want to run more than one Emacs with more than one Gnus at the
1070 same time. If you are using different @file{.newsrc} files (e.g., if you
1071 are using the two different Gnusae to read from two different servers),
1072 that is no problem whatsoever. You just do it.
1074 The problem appears when you want to run two Gnusae that use the same
1075 @code{.newsrc} file.
1077 To work around that problem some, we here at the Think-Tank at the Gnus
1078 Towers have come up with a new concept: @dfn{Masters} and
1079 @dfn{slaves}. (We have applied for a patent on this concept, and have
1080 taken out a copyright on those words. If you wish to use those words in
1081 conjunction with each other, you have to send $1 per usage instance to
1082 me. Usage of the patent (@dfn{Master/Slave Relationships In Computer
1083 Applications}) will be much more expensive, of course.)
1085 Anyway, you start one Gnus up the normal way with @kbd{M-x gnus} (or
1086 however you do it). Each subsequent slave Gnusae should be started with
1087 @kbd{M-x gnus-slave}. These slaves won't save normal @file{.newsrc}
1088 files, but instead save @dfn{slave files} that contain information only
1089 on what groups have been read in the slave session. When a master Gnus
1090 starts, it will read (and delete) these slave files, incorporating all
1091 information from them. (The slave files will be read in the sequence
1092 they were created, so the latest changes will have precedence.)
1094 Information from the slave files has, of course, precedence over the
1095 information in the normal (i.e., master) @code{.newsrc} file.
1098 @node Fetching a Group
1099 @section Fetching a Group
1100 @cindex fetching a group
1102 @findex gnus-fetch-group
1103 It is sometimes convenient to be able to just say ``I want to read this
1104 group and I don't care whether Gnus has been started or not''. This is
1105 perhaps more useful for people who write code than for users, but the
1106 command @code{gnus-fetch-group} provides this functionality in any case.
1107 It takes the group name as a parameter.
1113 @cindex subscription
1115 @vindex gnus-check-new-newsgroups
1116 If you are satisfied that you really never want to see any new groups,
1117 you can set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil}. This will
1118 also save you some time at startup. Even if this variable is
1119 @code{nil}, you can always subscribe to the new groups just by pressing
1120 @kbd{U} in the group buffer (@pxref{Group Maintenance}). This variable
1121 is @code{ask-server} by default. If you set this variable to
1122 @code{always}, then Gnus will query the backends for new groups even
1123 when you do the @kbd{g} command (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
1126 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
1127 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
1128 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
1132 @node Checking New Groups
1133 @subsection Checking New Groups
1135 Gnus normally determines whether a group is new or not by comparing the
1136 list of groups from the active file(s) with the lists of subscribed and
1137 dead groups. This isn't a particularly fast method. If
1138 @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} is @code{ask-server}, Gnus will ask the
1139 server for new groups since the last time. This is both faster and
1140 cheaper. This also means that you can get rid of the list of killed
1141 groups altogether, so you may set @code{gnus-save-killed-list} to
1142 @code{nil}, which will save time both at startup, at exit, and all over.
1143 Saves disk space, too. Why isn't this the default, then?
1144 Unfortunately, not all servers support this command.
1146 I bet I know what you're thinking now: How do I find out whether my
1147 server supports @code{ask-server}? No? Good, because I don't have a
1148 fail-safe answer. I would suggest just setting this variable to
1149 @code{ask-server} and see whether any new groups appear within the next
1150 few days. If any do, then it works. If none do, then it doesn't
1151 work. I could write a function to make Gnus guess whether the server
1152 supports @code{ask-server}, but it would just be a guess. So I won't.
1153 You could @code{telnet} to the server and say @code{HELP} and see
1154 whether it lists @samp{NEWGROUPS} among the commands it understands. If
1155 it does, then it might work. (But there are servers that lists
1156 @samp{NEWGROUPS} without supporting the function properly.)
1158 This variable can also be a list of select methods. If so, Gnus will
1159 issue an @code{ask-server} command to each of the select methods, and
1160 subscribe them (or not) using the normal methods. This might be handy
1161 if you are monitoring a few servers for new groups. A side effect is
1162 that startup will take much longer, so you can meditate while waiting.
1163 Use the mantra ``dingnusdingnusdingnus'' to achieve permanent bliss.
1166 @node Subscription Methods
1167 @subsection Subscription Methods
1169 @vindex gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method
1170 What Gnus does when it encounters a new group is determined by the
1171 @code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} variable.
1173 This variable should contain a function. This function will be called
1174 with the name of the new group as the only parameter.
1176 Some handy pre-fab functions are:
1180 @item gnus-subscribe-zombies
1181 @vindex gnus-subscribe-zombies
1182 Make all new groups zombies. This is the default. You can browse the
1183 zombies later (with @kbd{A z}) and either kill them all off properly
1184 (with @kbd{S z}), or subscribe to them (with @kbd{u}).
1186 @item gnus-subscribe-randomly
1187 @vindex gnus-subscribe-randomly
1188 Subscribe all new groups in arbitrary order. This really means that all
1189 new groups will be added at ``the top'' of the group buffer.
1191 @item gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1192 @vindex gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1193 Subscribe all new groups in alphabetical order.
1195 @item gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1196 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1197 Subscribe all new groups hierarchically. The difference between this
1198 function and @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} is slight.
1199 @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} will subscribe new groups in a strictly
1200 alphabetical fashion, while this function will enter groups into its
1201 hierarchy. So if you want to have the @samp{rec} hierarchy before the
1202 @samp{comp} hierarchy, this function will not mess that configuration
1203 up. Or something like that.
1205 @item gnus-subscribe-interactively
1206 @vindex gnus-subscribe-interactively
1207 Subscribe new groups interactively. This means that Gnus will ask
1208 you about @strong{all} new groups. The groups you choose to subscribe
1209 to will be subscribed hierarchically.
1211 @item gnus-subscribe-killed
1212 @vindex gnus-subscribe-killed
1213 Kill all new groups.
1215 @item gnus-subscribe-topics
1216 @vindex gnus-subscribe-topics
1217 Put the groups into the topic that has a matching @code{subscribe} topic
1218 parameter (@pxref{Topic Parameters}). For instance, a @code{subscribe}
1219 topic parameter that looks like
1225 will mean that all groups that match that regex will be subscribed under
1228 If no topics match the groups, the groups will be subscribed in the
1233 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive
1234 A closely related variable is
1235 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. (That's quite a
1236 mouthful.) If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will ask you in a
1237 hierarchical fashion whether to subscribe to new groups or not. Gnus
1238 will ask you for each sub-hierarchy whether you want to descend the
1241 One common mistake is to set the variable a few paragraphs above
1242 (@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method}) to
1243 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. This is an error. This
1244 will not work. This is ga-ga. So don't do it.
1247 @node Filtering New Groups
1248 @subsection Filtering New Groups
1250 A nice and portable way to control which new newsgroups should be
1251 subscribed (or ignored) is to put an @dfn{options} line at the start of
1252 the @file{.newsrc} file. Here's an example:
1255 options -n !alt.all !rec.all sci.all
1258 @vindex gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method
1259 This line obviously belongs to a serious-minded intellectual scientific
1260 person (or she may just be plain old boring), because it says that all
1261 groups that have names beginning with @samp{alt} and @samp{rec} should
1262 be ignored, and all groups with names beginning with @samp{sci} should
1263 be subscribed. Gnus will not use the normal subscription method for
1264 subscribing these groups.
1265 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method} is used instead. This
1266 variable defaults to @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically}.
1268 @vindex gnus-options-not-subscribe
1269 @vindex gnus-options-subscribe
1270 If you don't want to mess with your @file{.newsrc} file, you can just
1271 set the two variables @code{gnus-options-subscribe} and
1272 @code{gnus-options-not-subscribe}. These two variables do exactly the
1273 same as the @file{.newsrc} @samp{options -n} trick. Both are regexps,
1274 and if the new group matches the former, it will be unconditionally
1275 subscribed, and if it matches the latter, it will be ignored.
1277 @vindex gnus-auto-subscribed-groups
1278 Yet another variable that meddles here is
1279 @code{gnus-auto-subscribed-groups}. It works exactly like
1280 @code{gnus-options-subscribe}, and is therefore really superfluous, but I
1281 thought it would be nice to have two of these. This variable is more
1282 meant for setting some ground rules, while the other variable is used
1283 more for user fiddling. By default this variable makes all new groups
1284 that come from mail backends (@code{nnml}, @code{nnbabyl},
1285 @code{nnfolder}, @code{nnmbox}, and @code{nnmh}) subscribed. If you
1286 don't like that, just set this variable to @code{nil}.
1288 New groups that match this regexp are subscribed using
1289 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method}.
1292 @node Changing Servers
1293 @section Changing Servers
1294 @cindex changing servers
1296 Sometimes it is necessary to move from one @sc{nntp} server to another.
1297 This happens very rarely, but perhaps you change jobs, or one server is
1298 very flaky and you want to use another.
1300 Changing the server is pretty easy, right? You just change
1301 @code{gnus-select-method} to point to the new server?
1305 Article numbers are not (in any way) kept synchronized between different
1306 @sc{nntp} servers, and the only way Gnus keeps track of what articles
1307 you have read is by keeping track of article numbers. So when you
1308 change @code{gnus-select-method}, your @file{.newsrc} file becomes
1311 Gnus provides a few functions to attempt to translate a @file{.newsrc}
1312 file from one server to another. They all have one thing in
1313 common---they take a looong time to run. You don't want to use these
1314 functions more than absolutely necessary.
1316 @kindex M-x gnus-change-server
1317 @findex gnus-change-server
1318 If you have access to both servers, Gnus can request the headers for all
1319 the articles you have read and compare @code{Message-ID}s and map the
1320 article numbers of the read articles and article marks. The @kbd{M-x
1321 gnus-change-server} command will do this for all your native groups. It
1322 will prompt for the method you want to move to.
1324 @kindex M-x gnus-group-move-group-to-server
1325 @findex gnus-group-move-group-to-server
1326 You can also move individual groups with the @kbd{M-x
1327 gnus-group-move-group-to-server} command. This is useful if you want to
1328 move a (foreign) group from one server to another.
1330 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1331 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1332 If you don't have access to both the old and new server, all your marks
1333 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use the @kbd{M-x
1334 gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups} command to clear out all data
1335 that you have on your native groups. Use with caution.
1337 After changing servers, you @strong{must} move the cache hierarchy away,
1338 since the cached articles will have wrong article numbers, which will
1339 affect which articles Gnus thinks are read.
1343 @section Startup Files
1344 @cindex startup files
1349 Now, you all know about the @file{.newsrc} file. All subscription
1350 information is traditionally stored in this file.
1352 Things got a bit more complicated with @sc{gnus}. In addition to
1353 keeping the @file{.newsrc} file updated, it also used a file called
1354 @file{.newsrc.el} for storing all the information that didn't fit into
1355 the @file{.newsrc} file. (Actually, it also duplicated everything in
1356 the @file{.newsrc} file.) @sc{gnus} would read whichever one of these
1357 files was the most recently saved, which enabled people to swap between
1358 @sc{gnus} and other newsreaders.
1360 That was kinda silly, so Gnus went one better: In addition to the
1361 @file{.newsrc} and @file{.newsrc.el} files, Gnus also has a file called
1362 @file{.newsrc.eld}. It will read whichever of these files that are most
1363 recent, but it will never write a @file{.newsrc.el} file. You should
1364 never delete the @file{.newsrc.eld} file---it contains much information
1365 not stored in the @file{.newsrc} file.
1367 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-file
1368 @vindex gnus-read-newsrc-file
1369 You can turn off writing the @file{.newsrc} file by setting
1370 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-file} to @code{nil}, which means you can delete
1371 the file and save some space, as well as exiting from Gnus faster.
1372 However, this will make it impossible to use other newsreaders than
1373 Gnus. But hey, who would want to, right? Similarly, setting
1374 @code{gnus-read-newsrc-file} to @code{nil} makes Gnus ignore the
1375 @file{.newsrc} file and any @file{.newsrc-SERVER} files, which is
1376 convenient if you have a tendency to use Netscape once in a while.
1378 @vindex gnus-save-killed-list
1379 If @code{gnus-save-killed-list} (default @code{t}) is @code{nil}, Gnus
1380 will not save the list of killed groups to the startup file. This will
1381 save both time (when starting and quitting) and space (on disk). It
1382 will also mean that Gnus has no record of what groups are new or old,
1383 so the automatic new groups subscription methods become meaningless.
1384 You should always set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil} or
1385 @code{ask-server} if you set this variable to @code{nil} (@pxref{New
1386 Groups}). This variable can also be a regular expression. If that's
1387 the case, remove all groups that do not match this regexp before
1388 saving. This can be useful in certain obscure situations that involve
1389 several servers where not all servers support @code{ask-server}.
1391 @vindex gnus-startup-file
1392 The @code{gnus-startup-file} variable says where the startup files are.
1393 The default value is @file{~/.newsrc}, with the Gnus (El Dingo) startup
1394 file being whatever that one is, with a @samp{.eld} appended.
1396 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-hook
1397 @vindex gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook
1398 @vindex gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook
1399 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-hook} is called before saving any of the newsrc
1400 files, while @code{gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook} is called just before
1401 saving the @file{.newsrc.eld} file, and
1402 @code{gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook} is called just before saving the
1403 @file{.newsrc} file. The latter two are commonly used to turn version
1404 control on or off. Version control is on by default when saving the
1405 startup files. If you want to turn backup creation off, say something like:
1408 (defun turn-off-backup ()
1409 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
1411 (add-hook 'gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1412 (add-hook 'gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1415 @vindex gnus-init-file
1416 When Gnus starts, it will read the @code{gnus-site-init-file}
1417 (@file{.../site-lisp/gnus} by default) and @code{gnus-init-file}
1418 (@file{~/.gnus} by default) files. These are normal Emacs Lisp files
1419 and can be used to avoid cluttering your @file{~/.emacs} and
1420 @file{site-init} files with Gnus stuff. Gnus will also check for files
1421 with the same names as these, but with @file{.elc} and @file{.el}
1422 suffixes. In other words, if you have set @code{gnus-init-file} to
1423 @file{~/.gnus}, it will look for @file{~/.gnus.elc}, @file{~/.gnus.el},
1424 and finally @file{~/.gnus} (in this order).
1430 @cindex dribble file
1433 Whenever you do something that changes the Gnus data (reading articles,
1434 catching up, killing/subscribing groups), the change is added to a
1435 special @dfn{dribble buffer}. This buffer is auto-saved the normal
1436 Emacs way. If your Emacs should crash before you have saved the
1437 @file{.newsrc} files, all changes you have made can be recovered from
1440 If Gnus detects this file at startup, it will ask the user whether to
1441 read it. The auto save file is deleted whenever the real startup file is
1444 @vindex gnus-use-dribble-file
1445 If @code{gnus-use-dribble-file} is @code{nil}, Gnus won't create and
1446 maintain a dribble buffer. The default is @code{t}.
1448 @vindex gnus-dribble-directory
1449 Gnus will put the dribble file(s) in @code{gnus-dribble-directory}. If
1450 this variable is @code{nil}, which it is by default, Gnus will dribble
1451 into the directory where the @file{.newsrc} file is located. (This is
1452 normally the user's home directory.) The dribble file will get the same
1453 file permissions as the @code{.newsrc} file.
1455 @vindex gnus-always-read-dribble-file
1456 If @code{gnus-always-read-dribble-file} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will
1457 read the dribble file on startup without querying the user.
1460 @node The Active File
1461 @section The Active File
1463 @cindex ignored groups
1465 When Gnus starts, or indeed whenever it tries to determine whether new
1466 articles have arrived, it reads the active file. This is a very large
1467 file that lists all the active groups and articles on the server.
1469 @vindex gnus-ignored-newsgroups
1470 Before examining the active file, Gnus deletes all lines that match the
1471 regexp @code{gnus-ignored-newsgroups}. This is done primarily to reject
1472 any groups with bogus names, but you can use this variable to make Gnus
1473 ignore hierarchies you aren't ever interested in. However, this is not
1474 recommended. In fact, it's highly discouraged. Instead, @pxref{New
1475 Groups} for an overview of other variables that can be used instead.
1478 @c @code{nil} by default, and will slow down active file handling somewhat
1479 @c if you set it to anything else.
1481 @vindex gnus-read-active-file
1483 The active file can be rather Huge, so if you have a slow network, you
1484 can set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{nil} to prevent Gnus from
1485 reading the active file. This variable is @code{some} by default.
1487 Gnus will try to make do by getting information just on the groups that
1488 you actually subscribe to.
1490 Note that if you subscribe to lots and lots of groups, setting this
1491 variable to @code{nil} will probably make Gnus slower, not faster. At
1492 present, having this variable @code{nil} will slow Gnus down
1493 considerably, unless you read news over a 2400 baud modem.
1495 This variable can also have the value @code{some}. Gnus will then
1496 attempt to read active info only on the subscribed groups. On some
1497 servers this is quite fast (on sparkling, brand new INN servers that
1498 support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command), on others this isn't fast
1499 at all. In any case, @code{some} should be faster than @code{nil}, and
1500 is certainly faster than @code{t} over slow lines.
1502 Some news servers (old versions of Leafnode and old versions of INN, for
1503 instance) do not support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group}. For these
1504 servers, @code{nil} is probably the most efficient value for this
1507 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will ask for group info in total
1508 lock-step, which isn't very fast. If it is @code{some} and you use an
1509 @sc{nntp} server, Gnus will pump out commands as fast as it can, and
1510 read all the replies in one swoop. This will normally result in better
1511 performance, but if the server does not support the aforementioned
1512 @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command, this isn't very nice to the server.
1514 If you think that starting up Gnus takes too long, try all the three
1515 different values for this variable and see what works best for you.
1517 In any case, if you use @code{some} or @code{nil}, you should definitely
1518 kill all groups that you aren't interested in to speed things up.
1520 Note that this variable also affects active file retrieval from
1521 secondary select methods.
1524 @node Startup Variables
1525 @section Startup Variables
1529 @item gnus-load-hook
1530 @vindex gnus-load-hook
1531 A hook run while Gnus is being loaded. Note that this hook will
1532 normally be run just once in each Emacs session, no matter how many
1533 times you start Gnus.
1535 @item gnus-before-startup-hook
1536 @vindex gnus-before-startup-hook
1537 A hook run after starting up Gnus successfully.
1539 @item gnus-startup-hook
1540 @vindex gnus-startup-hook
1541 A hook run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1543 @item gnus-started-hook
1544 @vindex gnus-started-hook
1545 A hook that is run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1548 @item gnus-setup-news-hook
1549 @vindex gnus-setup-news-hook
1550 A hook that is run after reading the @file{.newsrc} file(s), but before
1551 generating the group buffer.
1553 @item gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1554 @vindex gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1555 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will check for and delete all bogus groups at
1556 startup. A @dfn{bogus group} is a group that you have in your
1557 @file{.newsrc} file, but doesn't exist on the news server. Checking for
1558 bogus groups can take quite a while, so to save time and resources it's
1559 best to leave this option off, and do the checking for bogus groups once
1560 in a while from the group buffer instead (@pxref{Group Maintenance}).
1562 @item gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1563 @vindex gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1564 If non-@code{nil}, the startup message won't be displayed. That way,
1565 your boss might not notice as easily that you are reading news instead
1566 of doing your job. Note that this variable is used before
1567 @file{.gnus.el} is loaded, so it should be set in @code{.emacs} instead.
1569 @item gnus-no-groups-message
1570 @vindex gnus-no-groups-message
1571 Message displayed by Gnus when no groups are available.
1573 @item gnus-play-startup-jingle
1574 @vindex gnus-play-startup-jingle
1575 If non-@code{nil}, play the Gnus jingle at startup.
1577 @item gnus-startup-jingle
1578 @vindex gnus-startup-jingle
1579 Jingle to be played if the above variable is non-@code{nil}. The
1580 default is @samp{Tuxedomoon.Jingle4.au}.
1586 @chapter Group Buffer
1587 @cindex group buffer
1589 The @dfn{group buffer} lists all (or parts) of the available groups. It
1590 is the first buffer shown when Gnus starts, and will never be killed as
1591 long as Gnus is active.
1595 \gnusfigure{The Group Buffer}{320}{
1596 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=tmp/group.ps,height=9cm}}
1597 \put(120,37){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Buffer name}}
1598 \put(120,38){\vector(1,2){10}}
1599 \put(40,60){\makebox(0,0)[r]{Mode line}}
1600 \put(40,58){\vector(1,0){30}}
1601 \put(200,28){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Native select method}}
1602 \put(200,26){\vector(-1,2){15}}
1608 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
1609 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
1610 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
1611 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
1612 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
1613 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
1614 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
1615 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
1616 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
1617 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
1618 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
1619 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
1620 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
1621 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
1622 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
1623 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
1624 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
1628 @node Group Buffer Format
1629 @section Group Buffer Format
1632 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
1633 * Group Modeline Specification:: The group buffer modeline.
1634 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
1638 @node Group Line Specification
1639 @subsection Group Line Specification
1640 @cindex group buffer format
1642 The default format of the group buffer is nice and dull, but you can
1643 make it as exciting and ugly as you feel like.
1645 Here's a couple of example group lines:
1648 25: news.announce.newusers
1649 * 0: alt.fan.andrea-dworkin
1654 You can see that there are 25 unread articles in
1655 @samp{news.announce.newusers}. There are no unread articles, but some
1656 ticked articles, in @samp{alt.fan.andrea-dworkin} (see that little
1657 asterisk at the beginning of the line?).
1659 @vindex gnus-group-line-format
1660 You can change that format to whatever you want by fiddling with the
1661 @code{gnus-group-line-format} variable. This variable works along the
1662 lines of a @code{format} specification, which is pretty much the same as
1663 a @code{printf} specifications, for those of you who use (feh!) C.
1664 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
1666 @samp{%M%S%5y: %(%g%)\n} is the value that produced those lines above.
1668 There should always be a colon on the line; the cursor always moves to
1669 the colon after performing an operation. Nothing else is required---not
1670 even the group name. All displayed text is just window dressing, and is
1671 never examined by Gnus. Gnus stores all real information it needs using
1674 (Note that if you make a really strange, wonderful, spreadsheet-like
1675 layout, everybody will believe you are hard at work with the accounting
1676 instead of wasting time reading news.)
1678 Here's a list of all available format characters:
1683 An asterisk if the group only has marked articles.
1686 Whether the group is subscribed.
1689 Level of subscribedness.
1692 Number of unread articles.
1695 Number of dormant articles.
1698 Number of ticked articles.
1701 Number of read articles.
1704 Estimated total number of articles. (This is really @var{max-number}
1705 minus @var{min-number} plus 1.)
1707 Gnus uses this estimation because the NNTP protocol provides efficient
1708 access to @var{max-number} and @var{min-number} but getting the true
1709 unread message count is not possible efficiently. For hysterical
1710 raisins, even the mail backends, where the true number of unread
1711 messages might be available efficiently, use the same limited
1712 interface. To remove this restriction from Gnus means that the
1713 backend interface has to be changed, which is not an easy job. If you
1714 want to work on this, please contact the Gnus mailing list.
1717 Number of unread, unticked, non-dormant articles.
1720 Number of ticked and dormant articles.
1729 Newsgroup description.
1732 @samp{m} if moderated.
1735 @samp{(m)} if moderated.
1744 A string that looks like @samp{<%s:%n>} if a foreign select method is
1748 Indentation based on the level of the topic (@pxref{Group Topics}).
1751 @vindex gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels
1752 Short (collapsed) group name. The @code{gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels}
1753 variable says how many levels to leave at the end of the group name.
1754 The default is 1---this will mean that group names like
1755 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} will be shortened to @samp{g.e.gnus}.
1758 @vindex gnus-new-mail-mark
1760 @samp{%} (@code{gnus-new-mail-mark}) if there has arrived new mail to
1764 @samp{#} (@code{gnus-process-mark}) if the group is process marked.
1767 A string that says when you last read the group (@pxref{Group
1771 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
1772 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
1773 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
1774 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed a single dummy
1775 parameter as argument. The function should return a string, which will
1776 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
1781 All the ``number-of'' specs will be filled with an asterisk (@samp{*})
1782 if no info is available---for instance, if it is a non-activated foreign
1783 group, or a bogus native group.
1786 @node Group Modeline Specification
1787 @subsection Group Modeline Specification
1788 @cindex group modeline
1790 @vindex gnus-group-mode-line-format
1791 The mode line can be changed by setting
1792 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}). It
1793 doesn't understand that many format specifiers:
1797 The native news server.
1799 The native select method.
1803 @node Group Highlighting
1804 @subsection Group Highlighting
1805 @cindex highlighting
1806 @cindex group highlighting
1808 @vindex gnus-group-highlight
1809 Highlighting in the group buffer is controlled by the
1810 @code{gnus-group-highlight} variable. This is an alist with elements
1811 that look like @code{(@var{form} . @var{face})}. If @var{form} evaluates to
1812 something non-@code{nil}, the @var{face} will be used on the line.
1814 Here's an example value for this variable that might look nice if the
1818 (cond (window-system
1819 (setq custom-background-mode 'light)
1820 (defface my-group-face-1
1821 '((t (:foreground "Red" :bold t))) "First group face")
1822 (defface my-group-face-2
1823 '((t (:foreground "DarkSeaGreen4" :bold t))) "Second group face")
1824 (defface my-group-face-3
1825 '((t (:foreground "Green4" :bold t))) "Third group face")
1826 (defface my-group-face-4
1827 '((t (:foreground "SteelBlue" :bold t))) "Fourth group face")
1828 (defface my-group-face-5
1829 '((t (:foreground "Blue" :bold t))) "Fifth group face")))
1831 (setq gnus-group-highlight
1832 '(((> unread 200) . my-group-face-1)
1833 ((and (< level 3) (zerop unread)) . my-group-face-2)
1834 ((< level 3) . my-group-face-3)
1835 ((zerop unread) . my-group-face-4)
1836 (t . my-group-face-5)))
1839 Also @pxref{Faces and Fonts}.
1841 Variables that are dynamically bound when the forms are evaluated
1848 The number of unread articles in the group.
1852 Whether the group is a mail group.
1854 The level of the group.
1856 The score of the group.
1858 The number of ticked articles in the group.
1860 The total number of articles in the group. Or rather, MAX-NUMBER minus
1861 MIN-NUMBER plus one.
1863 When using the topic minor mode, this variable is bound to the current
1864 topic being inserted.
1867 When the forms are @code{eval}ed, point is at the beginning of the line
1868 of the group in question, so you can use many of the normal Gnus
1869 functions for snarfing info on the group.
1871 @vindex gnus-group-update-hook
1872 @findex gnus-group-highlight-line
1873 @code{gnus-group-update-hook} is called when a group line is changed.
1874 It will not be called when @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}. This hook
1875 calls @code{gnus-group-highlight-line} by default.
1878 @node Group Maneuvering
1879 @section Group Maneuvering
1880 @cindex group movement
1882 All movement commands understand the numeric prefix and will behave as
1883 expected, hopefully.
1889 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group
1890 Go to the next group that has unread articles
1891 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group}).
1897 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group
1898 Go to the previous group that has unread articles
1899 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group}).
1903 @findex gnus-group-next-group
1904 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
1908 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
1909 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
1913 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level
1914 Go to the next unread group on the same (or lower) level
1915 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level}).
1919 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level
1920 Go to the previous unread group on the same (or lower) level
1921 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level}).
1924 Three commands for jumping to groups:
1930 @findex gnus-group-jump-to-group
1931 Jump to a group (and make it visible if it isn't already)
1932 (@code{gnus-group-jump-to-group}). Killed groups can be jumped to, just
1937 @findex gnus-group-best-unread-group
1938 Jump to the unread group with the lowest level
1939 (@code{gnus-group-best-unread-group}).
1943 @findex gnus-group-first-unread-group
1944 Jump to the first group with unread articles
1945 (@code{gnus-group-first-unread-group}).
1948 @vindex gnus-group-goto-unread
1949 If @code{gnus-group-goto-unread} is @code{nil}, all the movement
1950 commands will move to the next group, not the next unread group. Even
1951 the commands that say they move to the next unread group. The default
1955 @node Selecting a Group
1956 @section Selecting a Group
1957 @cindex group selection
1962 @kindex SPACE (Group)
1963 @findex gnus-group-read-group
1964 Select the current group, switch to the summary buffer and display the
1965 first unread article (@code{gnus-group-read-group}). If there are no
1966 unread articles in the group, or if you give a non-numerical prefix to
1967 this command, Gnus will offer to fetch all the old articles in this
1968 group from the server. If you give a numerical prefix @var{N}, @var{N}
1969 determines the number of articles Gnus will fetch. If @var{N} is
1970 positive, Gnus fetches the @var{N} newest articles, if @var{N} is
1971 negative, Gnus fetches the @code{abs(@var{N})} oldest articles.
1973 Thus, @kbd{SPC} enters the group normally, @kbd{C-u SPC} offers old
1974 articles, @kbd{C-u 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 newest articles, and @kbd{C-u
1975 - 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 oldest ones.
1977 When you are in the group (in the Summary buffer), you can type
1978 @kbd{M-g} to fetch new articles, or @kbd{C-u M-g} to also show the old
1983 @findex gnus-group-select-group
1984 Select the current group and switch to the summary buffer
1985 (@code{gnus-group-select-group}). Takes the same arguments as
1986 @code{gnus-group-read-group}---the only difference is that this command
1987 does not display the first unread article automatically upon group
1991 @kindex M-RET (Group)
1992 @findex gnus-group-quick-select-group
1993 This does the same as the command above, but tries to do it with the
1994 minimum amount of fuzz (@code{gnus-group-quick-select-group}). No
1995 scoring/killing will be performed, there will be no highlights and no
1996 expunging. This might be useful if you're in a real hurry and have to
1997 enter some humongous group. If you give a 0 prefix to this command
1998 (i.e., @kbd{0 M-RET}), Gnus won't even generate the summary buffer,
1999 which is useful if you want to toggle threading before generating the
2000 summary buffer (@pxref{Summary Generation Commands}).
2003 @kindex M-SPACE (Group)
2004 @findex gnus-group-visible-select-group
2005 This is yet one more command that does the same as the @kbd{RET}
2006 command, but this one does it without expunging and hiding dormants
2007 (@code{gnus-group-visible-select-group}).
2010 @kindex M-C-RET (Group)
2011 @findex gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally
2012 Finally, this command selects the current group ephemerally without
2013 doing any processing of its contents
2014 (@code{gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally}). Even threading has been
2015 turned off. Everything you do in the group after selecting it in this
2016 manner will have no permanent effects.
2020 @vindex gnus-large-newsgroup
2021 The @code{gnus-large-newsgroup} variable says what Gnus should consider
2022 to be a big group. This is 200 by default. If the group has more
2023 (unread and/or ticked) articles than this, Gnus will query the user
2024 before entering the group. The user can then specify how many articles
2025 should be fetched from the server. If the user specifies a negative
2026 number (@code{-n}), the @code{n} oldest articles will be fetched. If it
2027 is positive, the @code{n} articles that have arrived most recently will
2030 @vindex gnus-select-group-hook
2031 @vindex gnus-auto-select-first
2032 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} control whether any articles are selected
2033 automatically when entering a group with the @kbd{SPACE} command.
2038 Don't select any articles when entering the group. Just display the
2039 full summary buffer.
2042 Select the first unread article when entering the group.
2045 Select the highest scored article in the group when entering the
2050 This variable can also be a function. In that case, that function will
2051 be called to place point on a subject line, and/or select some article.
2052 Useful functions include:
2055 @item gnus-summary-first-unread-subject
2056 Place point on the subject line of the first unread article, but
2057 don't select the article.
2059 @item gnus-summary-first-unread-article
2060 Select the first unread article.
2062 @item gnus-summary-best-unread-article
2063 Select the highest-scored unread article.
2067 If you want to prevent automatic selection in some group (say, in a
2068 binary group with Huge articles) you can set this variable to @code{nil}
2069 in @code{gnus-select-group-hook}, which is called when a group is
2073 @node Subscription Commands
2074 @section Subscription Commands
2075 @cindex subscription
2083 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group
2084 @c @icon{gnus-group-unsubscribe}
2085 Toggle subscription to the current group
2086 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group}).
2092 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-group
2093 Prompt for a group to subscribe, and then subscribe it. If it was
2094 subscribed already, unsubscribe it instead
2095 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-group}).
2101 @findex gnus-group-kill-group
2102 @c @icon{gnus-group-kill-group}
2103 Kill the current group (@code{gnus-group-kill-group}).
2109 @findex gnus-group-yank-group
2110 Yank the last killed group (@code{gnus-group-yank-group}).
2113 @kindex C-x C-t (Group)
2114 @findex gnus-group-transpose-groups
2115 Transpose two groups (@code{gnus-group-transpose-groups}). This isn't
2116 really a subscription command, but you can use it instead of a
2117 kill-and-yank sequence sometimes.
2123 @findex gnus-group-kill-region
2124 Kill all groups in the region (@code{gnus-group-kill-region}).
2128 @findex gnus-group-kill-all-zombies
2129 Kill all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-kill-all-zombies}).
2132 @kindex S C-k (Group)
2133 @findex gnus-group-kill-level
2134 Kill all groups on a certain level (@code{gnus-group-kill-level}).
2135 These groups can't be yanked back after killing, so this command should
2136 be used with some caution. The only time where this command comes in
2137 really handy is when you have a @file{.newsrc} with lots of unsubscribed
2138 groups that you want to get rid off. @kbd{S C-k} on level 7 will
2139 kill off all unsubscribed groups that do not have message numbers in the
2140 @file{.newsrc} file.
2144 Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
2154 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current
2155 @vindex gnus-group-catchup-group-hook
2156 @c @icon{gnus-group-catchup-current}
2157 Mark all unticked articles in this group as read
2158 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current}).
2159 @code{gnus-group-catchup-group-hook} is called when catching up a group from
2164 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current-all
2165 Mark all articles in this group, even the ticked ones, as read
2166 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current-all}).
2170 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
2171 Clear the data from the current group---nix out marks and the list of
2172 read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
2174 @item M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2175 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2176 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2177 If you have switched from one @sc{nntp} server to another, all your marks
2178 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use this command to
2179 clear out all data that you have on your native groups. Use with
2186 @section Group Levels
2190 All groups have a level of @dfn{subscribedness}. For instance, if a
2191 group is on level 2, it is more subscribed than a group on level 5. You
2192 can ask Gnus to just list groups on a given level or lower
2193 (@pxref{Listing Groups}), or to just check for new articles in groups on
2194 a given level or lower (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
2196 Remember: The higher the level of the group, the less important it is.
2202 @findex gnus-group-set-current-level
2203 Set the level of the current group. If a numeric prefix is given, the
2204 next @var{n} groups will have their levels set. The user will be
2205 prompted for a level.
2208 @vindex gnus-level-killed
2209 @vindex gnus-level-zombie
2210 @vindex gnus-level-unsubscribed
2211 @vindex gnus-level-subscribed
2212 Gnus considers groups from levels 1 to
2213 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (inclusive) (default 5) to be subscribed,
2214 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (exclusive) and
2215 @code{gnus-level-unsubscribed} (inclusive) (default 7) to be
2216 unsubscribed, @code{gnus-level-zombie} to be zombies (walking dead)
2217 (default 8) and @code{gnus-level-killed} to be killed (completely dead)
2218 (default 9). Gnus treats subscribed and unsubscribed groups exactly the
2219 same, but zombie and killed groups have no information on what articles
2220 you have read, etc, stored. This distinction between dead and living
2221 groups isn't done because it is nice or clever, it is done purely for
2222 reasons of efficiency.
2224 It is recommended that you keep all your mail groups (if any) on quite
2225 low levels (e.g. 1 or 2).
2227 Maybe the following description of the default behavior of Gnus helps to
2228 understand what these levels are all about. By default, Gnus shows you
2229 subscribed nonempty groups, but by hitting @kbd{L} you can have it show
2230 empty subscribed groups and unsubscribed groups, too. Type @kbd{l} to
2231 go back to showing nonempty subscribed groups again. Thus, unsubscribed
2232 groups are hidden, in a way.
2234 Zombie and killed groups are similar to unsubscribed groups in that they
2235 are hidden by default. But they are different from subscribed and
2236 unsubscribed groups in that Gnus doesn't ask the news server for
2237 information (number of messages, number of unread messages) on zombie
2238 and killed groups. Normally, you use @kbd{C-k} to kill the groups you
2239 aren't interested in. If most groups are killed, Gnus is faster.
2241 Why does Gnus distinguish between zombie and killed groups? Well, when
2242 a new group arrives on the server, Gnus by default makes it a zombie
2243 group. This means that you are normally not bothered with new groups,
2244 but you can type @kbd{A z} to get a list of all new groups. Subscribe
2245 the ones you like and kill the ones you don't want. (@kbd{A k} shows a
2246 list of killed groups.)
2248 If you want to play with the level variables, you should show some care.
2249 Set them once, and don't touch them ever again. Better yet, don't touch
2250 them at all unless you know exactly what you're doing.
2252 @vindex gnus-level-default-unsubscribed
2253 @vindex gnus-level-default-subscribed
2254 Two closely related variables are @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}
2255 (default 3) and @code{gnus-level-default-unsubscribed} (default 6),
2256 which are the levels that new groups will be put on if they are
2257 (un)subscribed. These two variables should, of course, be inside the
2258 relevant valid ranges.
2260 @vindex gnus-keep-same-level
2261 If @code{gnus-keep-same-level} is non-@code{nil}, some movement commands
2262 will only move to groups of the same level (or lower). In
2263 particular, going from the last article in one group to the next group
2264 will go to the next group of the same level (or lower). This might be
2265 handy if you want to read the most important groups before you read the
2268 If this variable is @code{best}, Gnus will make the next newsgroup the
2269 one with the best level.
2271 @vindex gnus-group-default-list-level
2272 All groups with a level less than or equal to
2273 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level} will be listed in the group buffer
2276 @vindex gnus-group-list-inactive-groups
2277 If @code{gnus-group-list-inactive-groups} is non-@code{nil}, non-active
2278 groups will be listed along with the unread groups. This variable is
2279 @code{t} by default. If it is @code{nil}, inactive groups won't be
2282 @vindex gnus-group-use-permanent-levels
2283 If @code{gnus-group-use-permanent-levels} is non-@code{nil}, once you
2284 give a level prefix to @kbd{g} or @kbd{l}, all subsequent commands will
2285 use this level as the ``work'' level.
2287 @vindex gnus-activate-level
2288 Gnus will normally just activate (i. e., query the server about) groups
2289 on level @code{gnus-activate-level} or less. If you don't want to
2290 activate unsubscribed groups, for instance, you might set this variable
2291 to 5. The default is 6.
2295 @section Group Score
2300 You would normally keep important groups on high levels, but that scheme
2301 is somewhat restrictive. Don't you wish you could have Gnus sort the
2302 group buffer according to how often you read groups, perhaps? Within
2305 This is what @dfn{group score} is for. You can have Gnus assign a score
2306 to each group through the mechanism described below. You can then sort
2307 the group buffer based on this score. Alternatively, you can sort on
2308 score and then level. (Taken together, the level and the score is
2309 called the @dfn{rank} of the group. A group that is on level 4 and has
2310 a score of 1 has a higher rank than a group on level 5 that has a score
2311 of 300. (The level is the most significant part and the score is the
2312 least significant part.))
2314 @findex gnus-summary-bubble-group
2315 If you want groups you read often to get higher scores than groups you
2316 read seldom you can add the @code{gnus-summary-bubble-group} function to
2317 the @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} hook. This will result (after
2318 sorting) in a bubbling sort of action. If you want to see that in
2319 action after each summary exit, you can add
2320 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank} or
2321 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score} to the same hook, but that will
2322 slow things down somewhat.
2325 @node Marking Groups
2326 @section Marking Groups
2327 @cindex marking groups
2329 If you want to perform some command on several groups, and they appear
2330 subsequently in the group buffer, you would normally just give a
2331 numerical prefix to the command. Most group commands will then do your
2332 bidding on those groups.
2334 However, if the groups are not in sequential order, you can still
2335 perform a command on several groups. You simply mark the groups first
2336 with the process mark and then execute the command.
2344 @findex gnus-group-mark-group
2345 Set the mark on the current group (@code{gnus-group-mark-group}).
2351 @findex gnus-group-unmark-group
2352 Remove the mark from the current group
2353 (@code{gnus-group-unmark-group}).
2357 @findex gnus-group-unmark-all-groups
2358 Remove the mark from all groups (@code{gnus-group-unmark-all-groups}).
2362 @findex gnus-group-mark-region
2363 Mark all groups between point and mark (@code{gnus-group-mark-region}).
2367 @findex gnus-group-mark-buffer
2368 Mark all groups in the buffer (@code{gnus-group-mark-buffer}).
2372 @findex gnus-group-mark-regexp
2373 Mark all groups that match some regular expression
2374 (@code{gnus-group-mark-regexp}).
2377 Also @pxref{Process/Prefix}.
2379 @findex gnus-group-universal-argument
2380 If you want to execute some command on all groups that have been marked
2381 with the process mark, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
2382 (@code{gnus-group-universal-argument}) command. It will prompt you for
2383 the command to be executed.
2386 @node Foreign Groups
2387 @section Foreign Groups
2388 @cindex foreign groups
2390 Below are some group mode commands for making and editing general foreign
2391 groups, as well as commands to ease the creation of a few
2392 special-purpose groups. All these commands insert the newly created
2393 groups under point---@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} is not
2400 @findex gnus-group-make-group
2401 @cindex making groups
2402 Make a new group (@code{gnus-group-make-group}). Gnus will prompt you
2403 for a name, a method and possibly an @dfn{address}. For an easier way
2404 to subscribe to @sc{nntp} groups, @pxref{Browse Foreign Server}.
2408 @findex gnus-group-rename-group
2409 @cindex renaming groups
2410 Rename the current group to something else
2411 (@code{gnus-group-rename-group}). This is valid only on some
2412 groups---mail groups mostly. This command might very well be quite slow
2418 @findex gnus-group-customize
2419 Customize the group parameters (@code{gnus-group-customize}).
2423 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-method
2424 @cindex renaming groups
2425 Enter a buffer where you can edit the select method of the current
2426 group (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method}).
2430 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-parameters
2431 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group parameters
2432 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-parameters}).
2436 @findex gnus-group-edit-group
2437 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group info
2438 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group}).
2442 @findex gnus-group-make-directory-group
2444 Make a directory group (@pxref{Directory Groups}). You will be prompted
2445 for a directory name (@code{gnus-group-make-directory-group}).
2450 @findex gnus-group-make-help-group
2451 Make the Gnus help group (@code{gnus-group-make-help-group}).
2455 @cindex (ding) archive
2456 @cindex archive group
2457 @findex gnus-group-make-archive-group
2458 @vindex gnus-group-archive-directory
2459 @vindex gnus-group-recent-archive-directory
2460 Make a Gnus archive group (@code{gnus-group-make-archive-group}). By
2461 default a group pointing to the most recent articles will be created
2462 (@code{gnus-group-recent-archive-directory}), but given a prefix, a full
2463 group will be created from @code{gnus-group-archive-directory}.
2467 @findex gnus-group-make-kiboze-group
2469 Make a kiboze group. You will be prompted for a name, for a regexp to
2470 match groups to be ``included'' in the kiboze group, and a series of
2471 strings to match on headers (@code{gnus-group-make-kiboze-group}).
2472 @xref{Kibozed Groups}.
2476 @findex gnus-group-enter-directory
2478 Read an arbitrary directory as if it were a newsgroup with the
2479 @code{nneething} backend (@code{gnus-group-enter-directory}).
2480 @xref{Anything Groups}.
2484 @findex gnus-group-make-doc-group
2485 @cindex ClariNet Briefs
2487 Make a group based on some file or other
2488 (@code{gnus-group-make-doc-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2489 command, you will be prompted for a file name and a file type.
2490 Currently supported types are @code{babyl}, @code{mbox}, @code{digest},
2491 @code{mmdf}, @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{clari-briefs},
2492 @code{rfc934}, @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{nsmail} and @code{forward}.
2493 If you run this command without a prefix, Gnus will guess at the file
2494 type. @xref{Document Groups}.
2498 @vindex gnus-useful-groups
2499 @findex gnus-group-make-useful-group
2500 Create one of the groups mentioned in @code{gnus-useful-groups}
2501 (@code{gnus-group-make-useful-group}).
2505 @findex gnus-group-make-web-group
2510 Make an ephemeral group based on a web search
2511 (@code{gnus-group-make-web-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2512 command, make a solid group instead. You will be prompted for the
2513 search engine type and the search string. Valid search engine types
2514 include @code{dejanews}, @code{altavista} and @code{reference}.
2515 @xref{Web Searches}.
2517 If you use the @code{dejanews} search engine, you can limit the search
2518 to a particular group by using a match string like
2519 @samp{~g alt.sysadmin.recovery shaving}.
2522 @kindex G DEL (Group)
2523 @findex gnus-group-delete-group
2524 This function will delete the current group
2525 (@code{gnus-group-delete-group}). If given a prefix, this function will
2526 actually delete all the articles in the group, and forcibly remove the
2527 group itself from the face of the Earth. Use a prefix only if you are
2528 absolutely sure of what you are doing. This command can't be used on
2529 read-only groups (like @code{nntp} group), though.
2533 @findex gnus-group-make-empty-virtual
2534 Make a new, fresh, empty @code{nnvirtual} group
2535 (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}). @xref{Virtual Groups}.
2539 @findex gnus-group-add-to-virtual
2540 Add the current group to an @code{nnvirtual} group
2541 (@code{gnus-group-add-to-virtual}). Uses the process/prefix convention.
2544 @xref{Select Methods}, for more information on the various select
2547 @vindex gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups
2548 If @code{gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups} is a positive number,
2549 Gnus will check all foreign groups with this level or lower at startup.
2550 This might take quite a while, especially if you subscribe to lots of
2551 groups from different @sc{nntp} servers. Also @pxref{Group Levels};
2552 @code{gnus-activate-level} also affects activation of foreign
2556 @node Group Parameters
2557 @section Group Parameters
2558 @cindex group parameters
2560 The group parameters store information local to a particular group.
2561 Here's an example group parameter list:
2564 ((to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")
2568 We see that each element consists of a "dotted pair"---the thing before
2569 the dot is the key, while the thing after the dot is the value. All the
2570 parameters have this form @emph{except} local variable specs, which are
2571 not dotted pairs, but proper lists.
2573 Some parameters have correspondant customizable variables, each of which
2574 is an alist of regexps and values.
2576 The following group parameters can be used:
2581 Address used by when doing followups and new posts.
2584 (to-address . "some@@where.com")
2587 This is primarily useful in mail groups that represent closed mailing
2588 lists---mailing lists where it's expected that everybody that writes to
2589 the mailing list is subscribed to it. Since using this parameter
2590 ensures that the mail only goes to the mailing list itself, it means
2591 that members won't receive two copies of your followups.
2593 Using @code{to-address} will actually work whether the group is foreign
2594 or not. Let's say there's a group on the server that is called
2595 @samp{fa.4ad-l}. This is a real newsgroup, but the server has gotten
2596 the articles from a mail-to-news gateway. Posting directly to this
2597 group is therefore impossible---you have to send mail to the mailing
2598 list address instead.
2600 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-address-alist}.
2604 Address used when doing @kbd{a} in that group.
2607 (to-list . "some@@where.com")
2610 It is totally ignored
2611 when doing a followup---except that if it is present in a news group,
2612 you'll get mail group semantics when doing @kbd{f}.
2614 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you have neither a
2615 @code{to-list} group parameter nor a @code{to-address} group parameter,
2616 then a @code{to-list} group parameter will be added automatically upon
2617 sending the message if @code{gnus-add-to-list} is set to @code{t}.
2618 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
2620 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you don't have a
2621 @code{to-list} group parameter, one will be added automatically upon
2622 sending the message.
2624 @findex gnus-mailing-list-mode
2625 @cindex Mail List Groups
2626 If this variable is set, @code{gnus-mailing-list-mode} is turned on when
2627 entering summary buffer.
2629 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-list-alist}.
2633 If the group parameter list has the element @code{(visible . t)},
2634 that group will always be visible in the Group buffer, regardless
2635 of whether it has any unread articles.
2637 @item broken-reply-to
2638 @cindex broken-reply-to
2639 Elements like @code{(broken-reply-to . t)} signals that @code{Reply-To}
2640 headers in this group are to be ignored. This can be useful if you're
2641 reading a mailing list group where the listserv has inserted
2642 @code{Reply-To} headers that point back to the listserv itself. This is
2643 broken behavior. So there!
2647 Elements like @code{(to-group . "some.group.name")} means that all
2648 posts in that group will be sent to @code{some.group.name}.
2652 If you have @code{(newsgroup . t)} in the group parameter list, Gnus
2653 will treat all responses as if they were responses to news articles.
2654 This can be useful if you have a mail group that's really a mirror of a
2659 If @code{(gcc-self . t)} is present in the group parameter list, newly
2660 composed messages will be @code{Gcc}'d to the current group. If
2661 @code{(gcc-self . none)} is present, no @code{Gcc:} header will be
2662 generated, if @code{(gcc-self . "string")} is present, this string will
2663 be inserted literally as a @code{gcc} header. This parameter takes
2664 precedence over any default @code{Gcc} rules as described later
2665 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
2669 If the group parameter has an element that looks like @code{(auto-expire
2670 . t)}, all articles read will be marked as expirable. For an
2671 alternative approach, @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
2673 See also @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups}.
2676 @cindex total-expire
2677 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2678 @code{(total-expire . t)}, all read articles will be put through the
2679 expiry process, even if they are not marked as expirable. Use with
2680 caution. Unread, ticked and dormant articles are not eligible for
2683 See also @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups}.
2687 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
2688 If the group parameter has an element that looks like @code{(expiry-wait
2689 . 10)}, this value will override any @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} and
2690 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} when expiring expirable messages.
2691 The value can either be a number of days (not necessarily an integer) or
2692 the symbols @code{never} or @code{immediate}.
2695 @cindex score file group parameter
2696 Elements that look like @code{(score-file . "file")} will make
2697 @file{file} into the current score file for the group in question. All
2698 interactive score entries will be put into this file.
2701 @cindex adapt file group parameter
2702 Elements that look like @code{(adapt-file . "file")} will make
2703 @file{file} into the current adaptive file for the group in question.
2704 All adaptive score entries will be put into this file.
2707 @cindex admin-address
2708 When unsubscribing from a mailing list you should never send the
2709 unsubscription notice to the mailing list itself. Instead, you'd send
2710 messages to the administrative address. This parameter allows you to
2711 put the admin address somewhere convenient.
2715 Elements that look like @code{(display . MODE)} say which articles to
2716 display on entering the group. Valid values are:
2720 Display all articles, both read and unread.
2723 Display the default visible articles, which normally includes unread and
2727 Display articles that satisfy a predicate.
2729 Here are some examples:
2733 Display only read articles.
2736 Display everything except expirable articles.
2738 @item [and (not reply) (not expire)]
2739 Display everything except expirable and articles you've already
2743 The available operators are @code{not}, @code{and} and @code{or}.
2744 Predicates include @code{tick}, @code{unsend}, @code{undownload},
2745 @code{read}, @code{dormant}, @code{expire}, @code{reply},
2746 @code{killed}, @code{bookmark}, @code{score}, @code{save},
2747 @code{cache}, @code{forward}, @code{seen} and @code{recent}.
2751 The @code{display} parameter works by limiting the summary buffer to
2752 the subset specified. You can pop the limit by using the @kbd{/ w}
2753 command (@pxref{Limiting}).
2757 Elements that look like @code{(comment . "This is a comment")}
2758 are arbitrary comments on the group. They are currently ignored by
2759 Gnus, but provide a place for you to store information on particular
2764 Elements that look like @code{(charset . iso-8859-1)} will make
2765 @code{iso-8859-1} the default charset; that is, the charset that will be
2766 used for all articles that do not specify a charset.
2768 See also @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}.
2770 @item ignored-charsets
2771 @cindex ignored-charset
2772 Elements that look like @code{(ignored-charsets x-unknown iso-8859-1)}
2773 will make @code{iso-8859-1} and @code{x-unknown} ignored; that is, the
2774 default charset will be used for decoding articles.
2776 See also @code{gnus-group-ignored-charsets-alist}.
2779 @cindex posting-style
2780 You can store additional posting style information for this group only
2781 here (@pxref{Posting Styles}). The format is that of an entry in the
2782 @code{gnus-posting-styles} alist, except that there's no regexp matching
2783 the group name (of course). Style elements in this group parameter will
2784 take precedence over the ones found in @code{gnus-posting-styles}.
2786 For instance, if you want a funky name and signature in this group only,
2787 instead of hacking @code{gnus-posting-styles}, you could put something
2788 like this in the group parameters:
2793 (signature "Funky Signature"))
2798 If it is set, the value is used as the method for posting message
2799 instead of @code{gnus-post-method}.
2803 An item like @code{(banner . "regex")} causes any part of an article
2804 that matches the regular expression "regex" to be stripped. Instead of
2805 "regex", you can also use the symbol @code{signature} which strips the
2806 last signature or any of the elements of the alist
2807 @code{gnus-article-banner-alist}.
2809 @item (@var{variable} @var{form})
2810 You can use the group parameters to set variables local to the group you
2811 are entering. If you want to turn threading off in @samp{news.answers},
2812 you could put @code{(gnus-show-threads nil)} in the group parameters of
2813 that group. @code{gnus-show-threads} will be made into a local variable
2814 in the summary buffer you enter, and the form @code{nil} will be
2815 @code{eval}ed there.
2817 This can also be used as a group-specific hook function, if you'd like.
2818 If you want to hear a beep when you enter a group, you could put
2819 something like @code{(dummy-variable (ding))} in the parameters of that
2820 group. @code{dummy-variable} will be set to the result of the
2821 @code{(ding)} form, but who cares?
2825 Use the @kbd{G p} or the @kbd{G c} command to edit group parameters of a
2826 group. (@kbd{G p} presents you with a Lisp-based interface, @kbd{G c}
2827 presents you with a Customize-like interface. The latter helps avoid
2828 silly Lisp errors.) You might also be interested in reading about topic
2829 parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}).
2831 Group parameters can be set via the @code{gnus-parameters} variable too.
2832 But some variables, such as @code{visible}, have no effect. For
2836 (setq gnus-parameters
2838 (gnus-show-threads nil)
2839 (gnus-use-scoring nil)
2840 (gnus-summary-line-format
2841 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%d:%ub%-23,23f%]%) %s\n")
2845 ("^nnimap:\\(foo.bar\\)$"
2849 (gnus-use-scoring t))
2853 (broken-reply-to . t))))
2856 String value of parameters will be subjected to regexp substitution, as
2857 the @code{to-group} example shows.
2860 @node Listing Groups
2861 @section Listing Groups
2862 @cindex group listing
2864 These commands all list various slices of the groups available.
2872 @findex gnus-group-list-groups
2873 List all groups that have unread articles
2874 (@code{gnus-group-list-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used, this
2875 command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default, it
2876 only lists groups of level five (i. e.,
2877 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level}) or lower (i.e., just subscribed
2884 @findex gnus-group-list-all-groups
2885 List all groups, whether they have unread articles or not
2886 (@code{gnus-group-list-all-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used,
2887 this command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default,
2888 it lists groups of level seven or lower (i.e., just subscribed and
2889 unsubscribed groups).
2893 @findex gnus-group-list-level
2894 List all unread groups on a specific level
2895 (@code{gnus-group-list-level}). If given a prefix, also list the groups
2896 with no unread articles.
2900 @findex gnus-group-list-killed
2901 List all killed groups (@code{gnus-group-list-killed}). If given a
2902 prefix argument, really list all groups that are available, but aren't
2903 currently (un)subscribed. This could entail reading the active file
2908 @findex gnus-group-list-zombies
2909 List all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-list-zombies}).
2913 @findex gnus-group-list-matching
2914 List all unread, subscribed groups with names that match a regexp
2915 (@code{gnus-group-list-matching}).
2919 @findex gnus-group-list-all-matching
2920 List groups that match a regexp (@code{gnus-group-list-all-matching}).
2924 @findex gnus-group-list-active
2925 List absolutely all groups in the active file(s) of the
2926 server(s) you are connected to (@code{gnus-group-list-active}). This
2927 might very well take quite a while. It might actually be a better idea
2928 to do a @kbd{A M} to list all matching, and just give @samp{.} as the
2929 thing to match on. Also note that this command may list groups that
2930 don't exist (yet)---these will be listed as if they were killed groups.
2931 Take the output with some grains of salt.
2935 @findex gnus-group-apropos
2936 List all groups that have names that match a regexp
2937 (@code{gnus-group-apropos}).
2941 @findex gnus-group-description-apropos
2942 List all groups that have names or descriptions that match a regexp
2943 (@code{gnus-group-description-apropos}).
2947 @findex gnus-group-list-cached
2948 List all groups with cached articles (@code{gnus-group-list-cached}).
2952 @findex gnus-group-list-dormant
2953 List all groups with dormant articles (@code{gnus-group-list-dormant}).
2957 @findex gnus-group-list-limit
2958 List groups limited within the current selection
2959 (@code{gnus-group-list-limit}).
2963 @findex gnus-group-list-flush
2964 Flush groups from the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-flush}).
2968 @findex gnus-group-list-plus
2969 List groups plus the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-plus}).
2973 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
2974 @cindex visible group parameter
2975 Groups that match the @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} regexp will
2976 always be shown, whether they have unread articles or not. You can also
2977 add the @code{visible} element to the group parameters in question to
2978 get the same effect.
2980 @vindex gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles
2981 Groups that have just ticked articles in it are normally listed in the
2982 group buffer. If @code{gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles} is
2983 @code{nil}, these groups will be treated just like totally empty
2984 groups. It is @code{t} by default.
2987 @node Sorting Groups
2988 @section Sorting Groups
2989 @cindex sorting groups
2991 @kindex C-c C-s (Group)
2992 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups
2993 @vindex gnus-group-sort-function
2994 The @kbd{C-c C-s} (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups}) command sorts the
2995 group buffer according to the function(s) given by the
2996 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable. Available sorting functions
3001 @item gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
3002 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
3003 Sort the group names alphabetically. This is the default.
3005 @item gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
3006 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
3007 Sort the group alphabetically on the real (unprefixed) group names.
3009 @item gnus-group-sort-by-level
3010 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-level
3011 Sort by group level.
3013 @item gnus-group-sort-by-score
3014 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-score
3015 Sort by group score. @xref{Group Score}.
3017 @item gnus-group-sort-by-rank
3018 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-rank
3019 Sort by group score and then the group level. The level and the score
3020 are, when taken together, the group's @dfn{rank}. @xref{Group Score}.
3022 @item gnus-group-sort-by-unread
3023 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-unread
3024 Sort by number of unread articles.
3026 @item gnus-group-sort-by-method
3027 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-method
3028 Sort alphabetically on the select method.
3030 @item gnus-group-sort-by-server
3031 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-server
3032 Sort alphabetically on the Gnus server name.
3037 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} can also be a list of sorting
3038 functions. In that case, the most significant sort key function must be
3042 There are also a number of commands for sorting directly according to
3043 some sorting criteria:
3047 @kindex G S a (Group)
3048 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet
3049 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by group name
3050 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
3053 @kindex G S u (Group)
3054 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread
3055 Sort the group buffer by the number of unread articles
3056 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread}).
3059 @kindex G S l (Group)
3060 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level
3061 Sort the group buffer by group level
3062 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level}).
3065 @kindex G S v (Group)
3066 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score
3067 Sort the group buffer by group score
3068 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3071 @kindex G S r (Group)
3072 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank
3073 Sort the group buffer by group rank
3074 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3077 @kindex G S m (Group)
3078 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method
3079 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by backend name
3080 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method}).
3084 All the commands below obey the process/prefix convention
3085 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3087 When given a symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}), all these
3088 commands will sort in reverse order.
3090 You can also sort a subset of the groups:
3094 @kindex G P a (Group)
3095 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet
3096 Sort the groups alphabetically by group name
3097 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet}).
3100 @kindex G P u (Group)
3101 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread
3102 Sort the groups by the number of unread articles
3103 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread}).
3106 @kindex G P l (Group)
3107 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level
3108 Sort the groups by group level
3109 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level}).
3112 @kindex G P v (Group)
3113 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score
3114 Sort the groups by group score
3115 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3118 @kindex G P r (Group)
3119 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank
3120 Sort the groups by group rank
3121 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3124 @kindex G P m (Group)
3125 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method
3126 Sort the groups alphabetically by backend name
3127 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method}).
3131 And finally, note that you can use @kbd{C-k} and @kbd{C-y} to manually
3135 @node Group Maintenance
3136 @section Group Maintenance
3137 @cindex bogus groups
3142 @findex gnus-group-check-bogus-groups
3143 Find bogus groups and delete them
3144 (@code{gnus-group-check-bogus-groups}).
3148 @findex gnus-group-find-new-groups
3149 Find new groups and process them (@code{gnus-group-find-new-groups}).
3150 With 1 @kbd{C-u}, use the @code{ask-server} method to query the server
3151 for new groups. With 2 @kbd{C-u}'s, use most complete method possible
3152 to query the server for new groups, and subscribe the new groups as
3156 @kindex C-c C-x (Group)
3157 @findex gnus-group-expire-articles
3158 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
3159 process (if any) (@code{gnus-group-expire-articles}). That is, delete
3160 all expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
3161 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3164 @kindex C-c M-C-x (Group)
3165 @findex gnus-group-expire-all-groups
3166 Run all expirable articles in all groups through the expiry process
3167 (@code{gnus-group-expire-all-groups}).
3172 @node Browse Foreign Server
3173 @section Browse Foreign Server
3174 @cindex foreign servers
3175 @cindex browsing servers
3180 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
3181 You will be queried for a select method and a server name. Gnus will
3182 then attempt to contact this server and let you browse the groups there
3183 (@code{gnus-group-browse-foreign-server}).
3186 @findex gnus-browse-mode
3187 A new buffer with a list of available groups will appear. This buffer
3188 will use the @code{gnus-browse-mode}. This buffer looks a bit (well,
3189 a lot) like a normal group buffer.
3191 Here's a list of keystrokes available in the browse mode:
3196 @findex gnus-group-next-group
3197 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
3201 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
3202 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
3205 @kindex SPACE (Browse)
3206 @findex gnus-browse-read-group
3207 Enter the current group and display the first article
3208 (@code{gnus-browse-read-group}).
3211 @kindex RET (Browse)
3212 @findex gnus-browse-select-group
3213 Enter the current group (@code{gnus-browse-select-group}).
3217 @findex gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group
3218 Unsubscribe to the current group, or, as will be the case here,
3219 subscribe to it (@code{gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group}).
3225 @findex gnus-browse-exit
3226 Exit browse mode (@code{gnus-browse-exit}).
3230 @findex gnus-browse-describe-briefly
3231 Describe browse mode briefly (well, there's not much to describe, is
3232 there) (@code{gnus-browse-describe-briefly}).
3237 @section Exiting Gnus
3238 @cindex exiting Gnus
3240 Yes, Gnus is ex(c)iting.
3245 @findex gnus-group-suspend
3246 Suspend Gnus (@code{gnus-group-suspend}). This doesn't really exit Gnus,
3247 but it kills all buffers except the Group buffer. I'm not sure why this
3248 is a gain, but then who am I to judge?
3252 @findex gnus-group-exit
3253 @c @icon{gnus-group-exit}
3254 Quit Gnus (@code{gnus-group-exit}).
3258 @findex gnus-group-quit
3259 Quit Gnus without saving the @file{.newsrc} files (@code{gnus-group-quit}).
3260 The dribble file will be saved, though (@pxref{Auto Save}).
3263 @vindex gnus-exit-gnus-hook
3264 @vindex gnus-suspend-gnus-hook
3265 @code{gnus-suspend-gnus-hook} is called when you suspend Gnus and
3266 @code{gnus-exit-gnus-hook} is called when you quit Gnus, while
3267 @code{gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook} is called as the final item when
3272 If you wish to completely unload Gnus and all its adherents, you can use
3273 the @code{gnus-unload} command. This command is also very handy when
3274 trying to customize meta-variables.
3279 Miss Lisa Cannifax, while sitting in English class, felt her feet go
3280 numbly heavy and herself fall into a hazy trance as the boy sitting
3281 behind her drew repeated lines with his pencil across the back of her
3287 @section Group Topics
3290 If you read lots and lots of groups, it might be convenient to group
3291 them hierarchically according to topics. You put your Emacs groups over
3292 here, your sex groups over there, and the rest (what, two groups or so?)
3293 you put in some misc section that you never bother with anyway. You can
3294 even group the Emacs sex groups as a sub-topic to either the Emacs
3295 groups or the sex groups---or both! Go wild!
3299 \gnusfigure{Group Topics}{400}{
3300 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=tmp/group-topic.ps,height=9cm}}
3311 2: alt.religion.emacs
3314 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3316 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3317 13: comp.sources.unix
3320 @findex gnus-topic-mode
3322 To get this @emph{fab} functionality you simply turn on (ooh!) the
3323 @code{gnus-topic} minor mode---type @kbd{t} in the group buffer. (This
3324 is a toggling command.)
3326 Go ahead, just try it. I'll still be here when you get back. La de
3327 dum... Nice tune, that... la la la... What, you're back? Yes, and now
3328 press @kbd{l}. There. All your groups are now listed under
3329 @samp{misc}. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy? Hot and
3332 If you want this permanently enabled, you should add that minor mode to
3333 the hook for the group mode:
3336 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
3340 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
3341 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
3342 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
3343 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
3344 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
3348 @node Topic Variables
3349 @subsection Topic Variables
3350 @cindex topic variables
3352 Now, if you select a topic, it will fold/unfold that topic, which is
3353 really neat, I think.
3355 @vindex gnus-topic-line-format
3356 The topic lines themselves are created according to the
3357 @code{gnus-topic-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
3370 Number of groups in the topic.
3372 Number of unread articles in the topic.
3374 Number of unread articles in the topic and all its subtopics.
3377 @vindex gnus-topic-indent-level
3378 Each sub-topic (and the groups in the sub-topics) will be indented with
3379 @code{gnus-topic-indent-level} times the topic level number of spaces.
3382 @vindex gnus-topic-mode-hook
3383 @code{gnus-topic-mode-hook} is called in topic minor mode buffers.
3385 @vindex gnus-topic-display-empty-topics
3386 The @code{gnus-topic-display-empty-topics} says whether to display even
3387 topics that have no unread articles in them. The default is @code{t}.
3390 @node Topic Commands
3391 @subsection Topic Commands
3392 @cindex topic commands
3394 When the topic minor mode is turned on, a new @kbd{T} submap will be
3395 available. In addition, a few of the standard keys change their
3396 definitions slightly.
3402 @findex gnus-topic-create-topic
3403 Prompt for a new topic name and create it
3404 (@code{gnus-topic-create-topic}).
3408 @findex gnus-topic-move-group
3409 Move the current group to some other topic
3410 (@code{gnus-topic-move-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3411 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3415 @findex gnus-topic-jump-to-topic
3416 Go to a topic (@code{gnus-topic-jump-to-topic}).
3420 @findex gnus-topic-copy-group
3421 Copy the current group to some other topic
3422 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3423 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3427 @findex gnus-topic-hide-topic
3428 Hide the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-hide-topic}). If given
3429 a prefix, hide the topic permanently.
3433 @findex gnus-topic-show-topic
3434 Show the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-show-topic}). If given
3435 a prefix, show the topic permanently.
3439 @findex gnus-topic-remove-group
3440 Remove a group from the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-remove-group}).
3441 This command is mainly useful if you have the same group in several
3442 topics and wish to remove it from one of the topics. You may also
3443 remove a group from all topics, but in that case, Gnus will add it to
3444 the root topic the next time you start Gnus. In fact, all new groups
3445 (which, naturally, don't belong to any topic) will show up in the root
3448 This command uses the process/prefix convention
3449 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3453 @findex gnus-topic-move-matching
3454 Move all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3455 (@code{gnus-topic-move-matching}).
3459 @findex gnus-topic-copy-matching
3460 Copy all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3461 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-matching}).
3465 @findex gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics
3466 Toggle hiding empty topics
3467 (@code{gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics}).
3471 @findex gnus-topic-mark-topic
3472 Mark all groups in the current topic with the process mark
3473 (@code{gnus-topic-mark-topic}).
3476 @kindex T M-# (Topic)
3477 @findex gnus-topic-unmark-topic
3478 Remove the process mark from all groups in the current topic
3479 (@code{gnus-topic-unmark-topic}).
3483 @kindex T TAB (Topic)
3485 @findex gnus-topic-indent
3486 ``Indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3487 previous topic (@code{gnus-topic-indent}). If given a prefix,
3488 ``un-indent'' the topic instead.
3491 @kindex M-TAB (Topic)
3492 @findex gnus-topic-unindent
3493 ``Un-indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3494 parent of its current parent (@code{gnus-topic-unindent}).
3498 @findex gnus-topic-select-group
3500 Either select a group or fold a topic (@code{gnus-topic-select-group}).
3501 When you perform this command on a group, you'll enter the group, as
3502 usual. When done on a topic line, the topic will be folded (if it was
3503 visible) or unfolded (if it was folded already). So it's basically a
3504 toggling command on topics. In addition, if you give a numerical
3505 prefix, group on that level (and lower) will be displayed.
3508 @kindex C-c C-x (Topic)
3509 @findex gnus-topic-expire-articles
3510 Run all expirable articles in the current group or topic through the
3511 expiry process (if any)
3512 (@code{gnus-topic-expire-articles}). (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3516 @findex gnus-topic-kill-group
3517 Kill a group or topic (@code{gnus-topic-kill-group}). All groups in the
3518 topic will be removed along with the topic.
3522 @findex gnus-topic-yank-group
3523 Yank the previously killed group or topic
3524 (@code{gnus-topic-yank-group}). Note that all topics will be yanked
3529 @findex gnus-topic-rename
3530 Rename a topic (@code{gnus-topic-rename}).
3533 @kindex T DEL (Topic)
3534 @findex gnus-topic-delete
3535 Delete an empty topic (@code{gnus-topic-delete}).
3539 @findex gnus-topic-list-active
3540 List all groups that Gnus knows about in a topics-ified way
3541 (@code{gnus-topic-list-active}).
3545 @findex gnus-topic-edit-parameters
3546 @cindex group parameters
3547 @cindex topic parameters
3549 Edit the topic parameters (@code{gnus-topic-edit-parameters}).
3550 @xref{Topic Parameters}.
3556 @subsection Topic Sorting
3557 @cindex topic sorting
3559 You can sort the groups in each topic individually with the following
3565 @kindex T S a (Topic)
3566 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet
3567 Sort the current topic alphabetically by group name
3568 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
3571 @kindex T S u (Topic)
3572 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread
3573 Sort the current topic by the number of unread articles
3574 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread}).
3577 @kindex T S l (Topic)
3578 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level
3579 Sort the current topic by group level
3580 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level}).
3583 @kindex T S v (Topic)
3584 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score
3585 Sort the current topic by group score
3586 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3589 @kindex T S r (Topic)
3590 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank
3591 Sort the current topic by group rank
3592 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3595 @kindex T S m (Topic)
3596 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method
3597 Sort the current topic alphabetically by backend name
3598 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method}).
3602 @xref{Sorting Groups}, for more information about group sorting.
3605 @node Topic Topology
3606 @subsection Topic Topology
3607 @cindex topic topology
3610 So, let's have a look at an example group buffer:
3616 2: alt.religion.emacs
3619 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3621 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3622 13: comp.sources.unix
3625 So, here we have one top-level topic (@samp{Gnus}), two topics under
3626 that, and one sub-topic under one of the sub-topics. (There is always
3627 just one (1) top-level topic). This topology can be expressed as
3632 (("Emacs -- I wuw it!" visible)
3633 (("Naughty Emacs" visible)))
3637 @vindex gnus-topic-topology
3638 This is in fact how the variable @code{gnus-topic-topology} would look
3639 for the display above. That variable is saved in the @file{.newsrc.eld}
3640 file, and shouldn't be messed with manually---unless you really want
3641 to. Since this variable is read from the @file{.newsrc.eld} file,
3642 setting it in any other startup files will have no effect.
3644 This topology shows what topics are sub-topics of what topics (right),
3645 and which topics are visible. Two settings are currently
3646 allowed---@code{visible} and @code{invisible}.
3649 @node Topic Parameters
3650 @subsection Topic Parameters
3651 @cindex topic parameters
3653 All groups in a topic will inherit group parameters from the parent (and
3654 ancestor) topic parameters. All valid group parameters are valid topic
3655 parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
3657 In addition, the following parameters are only valid as topic
3662 When subscribing new groups by topic (@pxref{Subscription Methods}), the
3663 @code{subscribe} topic parameter says what groups go in what topic. Its
3664 value should be a regexp to match the groups that should go in that
3669 Group parameters (of course) override topic parameters, and topic
3670 parameters in sub-topics override topic parameters in super-topics. You
3671 know. Normal inheritance rules. (@dfn{Rules} is here a noun, not a
3672 verb, although you may feel free to disagree with me here.)
3678 2: alt.religion.emacs
3682 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3684 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3685 13: comp.sources.unix
3689 The @samp{Emacs} topic has the topic parameter @code{(score-file
3690 . "emacs.SCORE")}; the @samp{Relief} topic has the topic parameter
3691 @code{(score-file . "relief.SCORE")}; and the @samp{Misc} topic has the
3692 topic parameter @code{(score-file . "emacs.SCORE")}. In addition,
3693 @* @samp{alt.religion.emacs} has the group parameter @code{(score-file
3694 . "religion.SCORE")}.
3696 Now, when you enter @samp{alt.sex.emacs} in the @samp{Relief} topic, you
3697 will get the @file{relief.SCORE} home score file. If you enter the same
3698 group in the @samp{Emacs} topic, you'll get the @file{emacs.SCORE} home
3699 score file. If you enter the group @samp{alt.religion.emacs}, you'll
3700 get the @file{religion.SCORE} home score file.
3702 This seems rather simple and self-evident, doesn't it? Well, yes. But
3703 there are some problems, especially with the @code{total-expiry}
3704 parameter. Say you have a mail group in two topics; one with
3705 @code{total-expiry} and one without. What happens when you do @kbd{M-x
3706 gnus-expire-all-expirable-groups}? Gnus has no way of telling which one
3707 of these topics you mean to expire articles from, so anything may
3708 happen. In fact, I hereby declare that it is @dfn{undefined} what
3709 happens. You just have to be careful if you do stuff like that.
3712 @node Misc Group Stuff
3713 @section Misc Group Stuff
3716 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
3717 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
3718 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
3719 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
3726 @findex gnus-group-enter-server-mode
3727 Enter the server buffer (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}).
3728 @xref{Server Buffer}.
3732 @findex gnus-group-post-news
3733 Post an article to a group (@code{gnus-group-post-news}). If given a
3734 prefix, the current group name will be used as the default.
3738 @findex gnus-group-mail
3739 Mail a message somewhere (@code{gnus-group-mail}).
3743 Variables for the group buffer:
3747 @item gnus-group-mode-hook
3748 @vindex gnus-group-mode-hook
3749 is called after the group buffer has been
3752 @item gnus-group-prepare-hook
3753 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
3754 is called after the group buffer is
3755 generated. It may be used to modify the buffer in some strange,
3758 @item gnus-group-prepared-hook
3759 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
3760 is called as the very last thing after the group buffer has been
3761 generated. It may be used to move point around, for instance.
3763 @item gnus-permanently-visible-groups
3764 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
3765 Groups matching this regexp will always be listed in the group buffer,
3766 whether they are empty or not.
3768 @item gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
3769 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
3770 An alist of method and the charset for group names. It is used to show
3771 non-ASCII group names.
3775 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
3776 '(((nntp "news.com.cn") . cn-gb-2312)))
3779 @item gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
3780 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
3781 An alist of regexp of group name and the charset for group names.
3782 It is used to show non-ASCII group names.
3786 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
3787 '(("\\.com\\.cn:" . cn-gb-2312)))
3792 @node Scanning New Messages
3793 @subsection Scanning New Messages
3794 @cindex new messages
3795 @cindex scanning new news
3801 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news
3802 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news}
3803 Check the server(s) for new articles. If the numerical prefix is used,
3804 this command will check only groups of level @var{arg} and lower
3805 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news}). If given a non-numerical prefix, this
3806 command will force a total re-reading of the active file(s) from the
3811 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group
3812 @vindex gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating
3813 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}
3814 Check whether new articles have arrived in the current group
3815 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}).
3816 @code{gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating} says whether this command is
3817 to move point to the next group or not. It is @code{t} by default.
3819 @findex gnus-activate-all-groups
3820 @cindex activating groups
3822 @kindex C-c M-g (Group)
3823 Activate absolutely all groups (@code{gnus-activate-all-groups}).
3828 @findex gnus-group-restart
3829 Restart Gnus (@code{gnus-group-restart}). This saves the @file{.newsrc}
3830 file(s), closes the connection to all servers, clears up all run-time
3831 Gnus variables, and then starts Gnus all over again.
3835 @vindex gnus-get-new-news-hook
3836 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is run just before checking for new news.
3838 @vindex gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook
3839 @code{gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook} is run after checking for new
3843 @node Group Information
3844 @subsection Group Information
3845 @cindex group information
3846 @cindex information on groups
3853 @findex gnus-group-fetch-faq
3854 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
3857 Try to fetch the FAQ for the current group
3858 (@code{gnus-group-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the FAQ from
3859 @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory on a
3860 remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories. In
3861 that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose
3862 between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp} (or @code{efs}) will be used
3863 for fetching the file.
3865 If fetching from the first site is unsuccessful, Gnus will attempt to go
3866 through @code{gnus-group-faq-directory} and try to open them one by one.
3870 @c @icon{gnus-group-describe-group}
3872 @kindex C-c C-d (Group)
3873 @cindex describing groups
3874 @cindex group description
3875 @findex gnus-group-describe-group
3876 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-group-describe-group}). If given
3877 a prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description from the server.
3881 @findex gnus-group-describe-all-groups
3882 Describe all groups (@code{gnus-group-describe-all-groups}). If given a
3883 prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description file from the server.
3890 @findex gnus-version
3891 Display current Gnus version numbers (@code{gnus-version}).
3895 @findex gnus-group-describe-briefly
3896 Give a very short help message (@code{gnus-group-describe-briefly}).
3899 @kindex C-c C-i (Group)
3902 @findex gnus-info-find-node
3903 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
3907 @node Group Timestamp
3908 @subsection Group Timestamp
3910 @cindex group timestamps
3912 It can be convenient to let Gnus keep track of when you last read a
3913 group. To set the ball rolling, you should add
3914 @code{gnus-group-set-timestamp} to @code{gnus-select-group-hook}:
3917 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook 'gnus-group-set-timestamp)
3920 After doing this, each time you enter a group, it'll be recorded.
3922 This information can be displayed in various ways---the easiest is to
3923 use the @samp{%d} spec in the group line format:
3926 (setq gnus-group-line-format
3927 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %d\n")
3930 This will result in lines looking like:
3933 * 0: mail.ding 19961002T012943
3934 0: custom 19961002T012713
3937 As you can see, the date is displayed in compact ISO 8601 format. This
3938 may be a bit too much, so to just display the date, you could say
3942 (setq gnus-group-line-format
3943 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %6,6~(cut 2)d\n")
3948 @subsection File Commands
3949 @cindex file commands
3955 @findex gnus-group-read-init-file
3956 @vindex gnus-init-file
3957 @cindex reading init file
3958 Re-read the init file (@code{gnus-init-file}, which defaults to
3959 @file{~/.gnus}) (@code{gnus-group-read-init-file}).
3963 @findex gnus-group-save-newsrc
3964 @cindex saving .newsrc
3965 Save the @file{.newsrc.eld} file (and @file{.newsrc} if wanted)
3966 (@code{gnus-group-save-newsrc}). If given a prefix, force saving the
3967 file(s) whether Gnus thinks it is necessary or not.
3970 @c @kindex Z (Group)
3971 @c @findex gnus-group-clear-dribble
3972 @c Clear the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-group-clear-dribble}).
3977 @node Summary Buffer
3978 @chapter Summary Buffer
3979 @cindex summary buffer
3981 A line for each article is displayed in the summary buffer. You can
3982 move around, read articles, post articles and reply to articles.
3984 The most common way to a summary buffer is to select a group from the
3985 group buffer (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
3987 You can have as many summary buffers open as you wish.
3990 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
3991 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
3992 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
3993 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
3994 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
3995 * Delayed Articles::
3996 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
3997 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
3998 * Threading:: How threads are made.
3999 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
4000 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
4001 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
4002 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
4003 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
4004 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
4005 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
4006 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
4007 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
4008 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
4009 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
4010 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
4011 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
4012 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
4013 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
4014 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
4015 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
4016 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
4017 or reselecting the current group.
4018 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
4019 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
4020 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
4021 * Mailing List:: Mailing list minor mode.
4025 @node Summary Buffer Format
4026 @section Summary Buffer Format
4027 @cindex summary buffer format
4031 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{180}{
4032 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary.ps,width=7.5cm}}
4033 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-article.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
4039 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
4040 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
4041 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
4042 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
4045 @findex mail-extract-address-components
4046 @findex gnus-extract-address-components
4047 @vindex gnus-extract-address-components
4048 Gnus will use the value of the @code{gnus-extract-address-components}
4049 variable as a function for getting the name and address parts of a
4050 @code{From} header. Two pre-defined functions exist:
4051 @code{gnus-extract-address-components}, which is the default, quite
4052 fast, and too simplistic solution; and
4053 @code{mail-extract-address-components}, which works very nicely, but is
4054 slower. The default function will return the wrong answer in 5% of the
4055 cases. If this is unacceptable to you, use the other function instead:
4058 (setq gnus-extract-address-components
4059 'mail-extract-address-components)
4062 @vindex gnus-summary-same-subject
4063 @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} is a string indicating that the current
4064 article has the same subject as the previous. This string will be used
4065 with those specs that require it. The default is @code{""}.
4068 @node Summary Buffer Lines
4069 @subsection Summary Buffer Lines
4071 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
4072 You can change the format of the lines in the summary buffer by changing
4073 the @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable. It works along the same
4074 lines as a normal @code{format} string, with some extensions
4075 (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
4077 There should always be a colon or a point position marker on the line;
4078 the cursor always moves to the point position marker or the colon after
4079 performing an operation. (Of course, Gnus wouldn't be Gnus if it wasn't
4080 possible to change this. Just write a new function
4081 @code{gnus-goto-colon} which does whatever you like with the cursor.)
4083 The default string is @samp{%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23n%]%) %s\n}.
4085 The following format specification characters are understood:
4091 Subject string. List identifiers stripped,
4092 @code{gnus-list-identifies}. @xref{Article Hiding}.
4094 Subject if the article is the root of the thread or the previous article
4095 had a different subject, @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} otherwise.
4096 (@code{gnus-summary-same-subject} defaults to @code{""}.)
4098 Full @code{From} header.
4100 The name (from the @code{From} header).
4102 The name, code @code{To} header or the @code{Newsgroups} header
4103 (@pxref{To From Newsgroups}).
4105 The name (from the @code{From} header). This differs from the @code{n}
4106 spec in that it uses the function designated by the
4107 @code{gnus-extract-address-components} variable, which is slower, but
4108 may be more thorough.
4110 The address (from the @code{From} header). This works the same way as
4113 Number of lines in the article.
4115 Number of characters in the article. This specifier is not supported
4116 in some methods (like nnfolder).
4118 Indentation based on thread level (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
4120 A complex trn-style thread tree, showing response-connecting trace
4123 Nothing if the article is a root and lots of spaces if it isn't (it
4124 pushes everything after it off the screen).
4126 Opening bracket, which is normally @samp{[}, but can also be @samp{<}
4127 for adopted articles (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
4129 Closing bracket, which is normally @samp{]}, but can also be @samp{>}
4130 for adopted articles.
4132 One space for each thread level.
4134 Twenty minus thread level spaces.
4139 This misleadingly named specifier is the @dfn{secondary mark}. This
4140 mark will say whether the article has been replied to, has been cached,
4144 Score as a number (@pxref{Scoring}).
4146 @vindex gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz
4147 Zcore, @samp{+} if above the default level and @samp{-} if below the
4148 default level. If the difference between
4149 @code{gnus-summary-default-score} and the score is less than
4150 @code{gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz}, this spec will not be used.
4158 The @code{Date} in @code{DD-MMM} format.
4160 The @code{Date} in @var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS} format.
4166 Number of articles in the current sub-thread. Using this spec will slow
4167 down summary buffer generation somewhat.
4169 An @samp{=} (@code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark}) will be displayed if the
4170 article has any children.
4176 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
4177 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
4178 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
4179 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed the current header as
4180 argument. The function should return a string, which will be inserted
4181 into the summary just like information from any other summary specifier.
4184 The @samp{%U} (status), @samp{%R} (replied) and @samp{%z} (zcore) specs
4185 have to be handled with care. For reasons of efficiency, Gnus will
4186 compute what column these characters will end up in, and ``hard-code''
4187 that. This means that it is invalid to have these specs after a
4188 variable-length spec. Well, you might not be arrested, but your summary
4189 buffer will look strange, which is bad enough.
4191 The smart choice is to have these specs as far to the left as possible.
4192 (Isn't that the case with everything, though? But I digress.)
4194 This restriction may disappear in later versions of Gnus.
4197 @node To From Newsgroups
4198 @subsection To From Newsgroups
4202 In some groups (particularly in archive groups), the @code{From} header
4203 isn't very interesting, since all the articles there are written by
4204 you. To display the information in the @code{To} or @code{Newsgroups}
4205 headers instead, you need to decide three things: What information to
4206 gather; where to display it; and when to display it.
4210 @vindex gnus-extra-headers
4211 The reading of extra header information is controlled by the
4212 @code{gnus-extra-headers}. This is a list of header symbols. For
4216 (setq gnus-extra-headers
4217 '(To Newsgroups X-Newsreader))
4220 This will result in Gnus trying to obtain these three headers, and
4221 storing it in header structures for later easy retrieval.
4224 @findex gnus-extra-header
4225 The value of these extra headers can be accessed via the
4226 @code{gnus-extra-header} function. Here's a format line spec that will
4227 access the @code{X-Newsreader} header:
4230 "%~(form (gnus-extra-header 'X-Newsreader))@@"
4234 @vindex gnus-ignored-from-addresses
4235 The @code{gnus-ignored-from-addresses} variable says when the @samp{%f}
4236 summary line spec returns the @code{To}, @code{Newsreader} or
4237 @code{From} header. If this regexp matches the contents of the
4238 @code{From} header, the value of the @code{To} or @code{Newsreader}
4239 headers are used instead.
4243 @vindex nnmail-extra-headers
4244 A related variable is @code{nnmail-extra-headers}, which controls when
4245 to include extra headers when generating overview (@sc{nov}) files. If
4246 you have old overview files, you should regenerate them after changing
4249 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
4250 You also have to instruct Gnus to display the data by changing the
4251 @code{%n} spec to the @code{%f} spec in the
4252 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable.
4254 In summary, you'd typically put something like the following in
4258 (setq gnus-extra-headers
4260 (setq nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
4261 (setq gnus-summary-line-format
4262 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%) %s\n")
4263 (setq gnus-ignored-from-addresses
4267 Now, this is mostly useful for mail groups, where you have control over
4268 the @sc{nov} files that are created. However, if you can persuade your
4275 to the end of her @file{overview.fmt} file, then you can use that just
4276 as you would the extra headers from the mail groups.
4279 @node Summary Buffer Mode Line
4280 @subsection Summary Buffer Mode Line
4282 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-line-format
4283 You can also change the format of the summary mode bar (@pxref{Mode Line
4284 Formatting}). Set @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} to whatever you
4285 like. The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b [%A] %Z}.
4287 Here are the elements you can play with:
4293 Unprefixed group name.
4295 Current article number.
4297 Current article score.
4301 Number of unread articles in this group.
4303 Number of unread articles in this group that aren't displayed in the
4306 A string with the number of unread and unselected articles represented
4307 either as @samp{<%U(+%e) more>} if there are both unread and unselected
4308 articles, and just as @samp{<%U more>} if there are just unread articles
4309 and no unselected ones.
4311 Shortish group name. For instance, @samp{rec.arts.anime} will be
4312 shortened to @samp{r.a.anime}.
4314 Subject of the current article.
4316 User-defined spec (@pxref{User-Defined Specs}).
4318 Name of the current score file (@pxref{Scoring}).
4320 Number of dormant articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
4322 Number of ticked articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
4324 Number of articles that have been marked as read in this session.
4326 Number of articles expunged by the score files.
4330 @node Summary Highlighting
4331 @subsection Summary Highlighting
4335 @item gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
4336 @vindex gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
4337 This hook is run after selecting an article. It is meant to be used for
4338 highlighting the article in some way. It is not run if
4339 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
4341 @item gnus-summary-update-hook
4342 @vindex gnus-summary-update-hook
4343 This hook is called when a summary line is changed. It is not run if
4344 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
4346 @item gnus-summary-selected-face
4347 @vindex gnus-summary-selected-face
4348 This is the face (or @dfn{font} as some people call it) used to
4349 highlight the current article in the summary buffer.
4351 @item gnus-summary-highlight
4352 @vindex gnus-summary-highlight
4353 Summary lines are highlighted according to this variable, which is a
4354 list where the elements are of the format @code{(@var{form}
4355 . @var{face})}. If you would, for instance, like ticked articles to be
4356 italic and high-scored articles to be bold, you could set this variable
4359 (((eq mark gnus-ticked-mark) . italic)
4360 ((> score default) . bold))
4362 As you may have guessed, if @var{form} returns a non-@code{nil} value,
4363 @var{face} will be applied to the line.
4367 @node Summary Maneuvering
4368 @section Summary Maneuvering
4369 @cindex summary movement
4371 All the straight movement commands understand the numeric prefix and
4372 behave pretty much as you'd expect.
4374 None of these commands select articles.
4379 @kindex M-n (Summary)
4380 @kindex G M-n (Summary)
4381 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-subject
4382 Go to the next summary line of an unread article
4383 (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-subject}).
4387 @kindex M-p (Summary)
4388 @kindex G M-p (Summary)
4389 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject
4390 Go to the previous summary line of an unread article
4391 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject}).
4394 @kindex G g (Summary)
4395 @findex gnus-summary-goto-subject
4396 Ask for an article number and then go to the summary line of that article
4397 without displaying the article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-subject}).
4400 If Gnus asks you to press a key to confirm going to the next group, you
4401 can use the @kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p} keys to move around the group
4402 buffer, searching for the next group to read without actually returning
4403 to the group buffer.
4405 Variables related to summary movement:
4409 @vindex gnus-auto-select-next
4410 @item gnus-auto-select-next
4411 If you issue one of the movement commands (like @kbd{n}) and there are
4412 no more unread articles after the current one, Gnus will offer to go to
4413 the next group. If this variable is @code{t} and the next group is
4414 empty, Gnus will exit summary mode and return to the group buffer. If
4415 this variable is neither @code{t} nor @code{nil}, Gnus will select the
4416 next group, no matter whether it has any unread articles or not. As a
4417 special case, if this variable is @code{quietly}, Gnus will select the
4418 next group without asking for confirmation. If this variable is
4419 @code{almost-quietly}, the same will happen only if you are located on
4420 the last article in the group. Finally, if this variable is
4421 @code{slightly-quietly}, the @kbd{Z n} command will go to the next group
4422 without confirmation. Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
4424 @item gnus-auto-select-same
4425 @vindex gnus-auto-select-same
4426 If non-@code{nil}, all the movement commands will try to go to the next
4427 article with the same subject as the current. (@dfn{Same} here might
4428 mean @dfn{roughly equal}. See @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}
4429 for details (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).) If there are no more
4430 articles with the same subject, go to the first unread article.
4432 This variable is not particularly useful if you use a threaded display.
4434 @item gnus-summary-check-current
4435 @vindex gnus-summary-check-current
4436 If non-@code{nil}, all the ``unread'' movement commands will not proceed
4437 to the next (or previous) article if the current article is unread.
4438 Instead, they will choose the current article.
4440 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
4441 @vindex gnus-auto-center-summary
4442 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will keep the point in the summary buffer
4443 centered at all times. This makes things quite tidy, but if you have a
4444 slow network connection, or simply do not like this un-Emacsism, you can
4445 set this variable to @code{nil} to get the normal Emacs scrolling
4446 action. This will also inhibit horizontal re-centering of the summary
4447 buffer, which might make it more inconvenient to read extremely long
4450 This variable can also be a number. In that case, center the window at
4451 the given number of lines from the top.
4456 @node Choosing Articles
4457 @section Choosing Articles
4458 @cindex selecting articles
4461 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
4462 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
4466 @node Choosing Commands
4467 @subsection Choosing Commands
4469 None of the following movement commands understand the numeric prefix,
4470 and they all select and display an article.
4472 If you want to fetch new articles or redisplay the group, see
4473 @ref{Exiting the Summary Buffer}.
4477 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
4478 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
4479 Select the current article, or, if that one's read already, the next
4480 unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
4485 @kindex G n (Summary)
4486 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-article
4487 @c @icon{gnus-summary-next-unread}
4488 Go to next unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-article}).
4493 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-article
4494 @c @icon{gnus-summary-prev-unread}
4495 Go to previous unread article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-article}).
4500 @kindex G N (Summary)
4501 @findex gnus-summary-next-article
4502 Go to the next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-article}).
4507 @kindex G P (Summary)
4508 @findex gnus-summary-prev-article
4509 Go to the previous article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-article}).
4512 @kindex G C-n (Summary)
4513 @findex gnus-summary-next-same-subject
4514 Go to the next article with the same subject
4515 (@code{gnus-summary-next-same-subject}).
4518 @kindex G C-p (Summary)
4519 @findex gnus-summary-prev-same-subject
4520 Go to the previous article with the same subject
4521 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-same-subject}).
4525 @kindex G f (Summary)
4527 @findex gnus-summary-first-unread-article
4528 Go to the first unread article
4529 (@code{gnus-summary-first-unread-article}).
4533 @kindex G b (Summary)
4535 @findex gnus-summary-best-unread-article
4536 Go to the article with the highest score
4537 (@code{gnus-summary-best-unread-article}).
4542 @kindex G l (Summary)
4543 @findex gnus-summary-goto-last-article
4544 Go to the previous article read (@code{gnus-summary-goto-last-article}).
4547 @kindex G o (Summary)
4548 @findex gnus-summary-pop-article
4550 @cindex article history
4551 Pop an article off the summary history and go to this article
4552 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-article}). This command differs from the
4553 command above in that you can pop as many previous articles off the
4554 history as you like, while @kbd{l} toggles the two last read articles.
4555 For a somewhat related issue (if you use these commands a lot),
4556 @pxref{Article Backlog}.
4561 @kindex G j (Summary)
4562 @findex gnus-summary-goto-article
4563 Ask for an article number or @code{Message-ID}, and then go to that
4564 article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-article}).
4569 @node Choosing Variables
4570 @subsection Choosing Variables
4572 Some variables relevant for moving and selecting articles:
4575 @item gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
4576 @vindex gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
4577 All the movement commands will try to go to the previous (or next)
4578 article, even if that article isn't displayed in the Summary buffer if
4579 this variable is non-@code{nil}. Gnus will then fetch the article from
4580 the server and display it in the article buffer.
4582 @item gnus-select-article-hook
4583 @vindex gnus-select-article-hook
4584 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. By default it
4585 exposes any threads hidden under the selected article.
4587 @item gnus-mark-article-hook
4588 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
4589 @findex gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read
4590 @findex gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read
4591 @findex gnus-unread-mark
4592 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. It is intended to
4593 be used for marking articles as read. The default value is
4594 @code{gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read}, and will change the
4595 mark of almost any article you read to @code{gnus-unread-mark}. The
4596 only articles not affected by this function are ticked, dormant, and
4597 expirable articles. If you'd instead like to just have unread articles
4598 marked as read, you can use @code{gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read}
4599 instead. It will leave marks like @code{gnus-low-score-mark},
4600 @code{gnus-del-mark} (and so on) alone.
4605 @node Paging the Article
4606 @section Scrolling the Article
4607 @cindex article scrolling
4612 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
4613 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
4614 Pressing @kbd{SPACE} will scroll the current article forward one page,
4615 or, if you have come to the end of the current article, will choose the
4616 next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
4619 @kindex DEL (Summary)
4620 @findex gnus-summary-prev-page
4621 Scroll the current article back one page (@code{gnus-summary-prev-page}).
4624 @kindex RET (Summary)
4625 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-up
4626 Scroll the current article one line forward
4627 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-up}).
4630 @kindex M-RET (Summary)
4631 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-down
4632 Scroll the current article one line backward
4633 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-down}).
4637 @kindex A g (Summary)
4639 @findex gnus-summary-show-article
4640 @vindex gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
4641 (Re)fetch the current article (@code{gnus-summary-show-article}). If
4642 given a prefix, fetch the current article, but don't run any of the
4643 article treatment functions. This will give you a ``raw'' article, just
4644 the way it came from the server.
4646 If given a numerical prefix, you can do semi-manual charset stuff.
4647 @kbd{C-u 0 g cn-gb-2312 RET} will decode the message as if it were
4648 encoded in the @code{cn-gb-2312} charset. If you have
4651 (setq gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
4656 then you can say @kbd{C-u 1 g} to get the same effect.
4661 @kindex A < (Summary)
4662 @findex gnus-summary-beginning-of-article
4663 Scroll to the beginning of the article
4664 (@code{gnus-summary-beginning-of-article}).
4669 @kindex A > (Summary)
4670 @findex gnus-summary-end-of-article
4671 Scroll to the end of the article (@code{gnus-summary-end-of-article}).
4675 @kindex A s (Summary)
4677 @findex gnus-summary-isearch-article
4678 Perform an isearch in the article buffer
4679 (@code{gnus-summary-isearch-article}).
4683 @findex gnus-summary-select-article-buffer
4684 Select the article buffer (@code{gnus-summary-select-article-buffer}).
4689 @node Reply Followup and Post
4690 @section Reply, Followup and Post
4693 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
4694 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
4695 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
4696 * Canceling and Superseding::
4700 @node Summary Mail Commands
4701 @subsection Summary Mail Commands
4703 @cindex composing mail
4705 Commands for composing a mail message:
4711 @kindex S r (Summary)
4713 @findex gnus-summary-reply
4714 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-reply}
4715 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply}
4716 Mail a reply to the author of the current article
4717 (@code{gnus-summary-reply}).
4722 @kindex S R (Summary)
4723 @findex gnus-summary-reply-with-original
4724 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}
4725 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
4726 original message (@code{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}). This
4727 command uses the process/prefix convention.
4730 @kindex S w (Summary)
4731 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply
4732 Mail a wide reply to the author of the current article
4733 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{wide reply} is a reply that
4734 goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
4735 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers.
4738 @kindex S W (Summary)
4739 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original
4740 Mail a wide reply to the current article and include the original
4741 message (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original}). This command uses
4742 the process/prefix convention.
4745 @kindex S v (Summary)
4746 @findex gnus-summary-very-wide-reply
4747 Mail a very wide reply to the author of the current article
4748 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{very wide reply} is a reply
4749 that goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
4750 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers in all the process/prefixed
4751 articles. This command uses the process/prefix convention.
4755 @kindex S o m (Summary)
4756 @kindex C-c C-f (Summary)
4757 @findex gnus-summary-mail-forward
4758 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-forward}
4759 Forward the current article to some other person
4760 (@code{gnus-summary-mail-forward}). If no prefix is given, the message
4761 is forwarded according to the value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime})
4762 and (@code{message-forward-show-mml}); if the prefix is 1, decode the
4763 message and forward directly inline; if the prefix is 2, forward message
4764 as an rfc822 MIME section; if the prefix is 3, decode message and
4765 forward as an rfc822 MIME section; if the prefix is 4, forward message
4766 directly inline; otherwise, the message is forwarded as no prefix given
4767 but use the flipped value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}). By
4768 default, the message is decoded and forwarded as an rfc822 MIME section.
4773 @kindex S m (Summary)
4774 @findex gnus-summary-mail-other-window
4775 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-originate}
4776 Send a mail to some other person
4777 (@code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}).
4780 @kindex S D b (Summary)
4781 @findex gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail
4782 @cindex bouncing mail
4783 If you have sent a mail, but the mail was bounced back to you for some
4784 reason (wrong address, transient failure), you can use this command to
4785 resend that bounced mail (@code{gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail}). You
4786 will be popped into a mail buffer where you can edit the headers before
4787 sending the mail off again. If you give a prefix to this command, and
4788 the bounced mail is a reply to some other mail, Gnus will try to fetch
4789 that mail and display it for easy perusal of its headers. This might
4790 very well fail, though.
4793 @kindex S D r (Summary)
4794 @findex gnus-summary-resend-message
4795 Not to be confused with the previous command,
4796 @code{gnus-summary-resend-message} will prompt you for an address to
4797 send the current message off to, and then send it to that place. The
4798 headers of the message won't be altered---but lots of headers that say
4799 @code{Resent-To}, @code{Resent-From} and so on will be added. This
4800 means that you actually send a mail to someone that has a @code{To}
4801 header that (probably) points to yourself. This will confuse people.
4802 So, natcherly you'll only do that if you're really eVIl.
4804 This command is mainly used if you have several accounts and want to
4805 ship a mail to a different account of yours. (If you're both
4806 @code{root} and @code{postmaster} and get a mail for @code{postmaster}
4807 to the @code{root} account, you may want to resend it to
4808 @code{postmaster}. Ordnung muß sein!
4810 This command understands the process/prefix convention
4811 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
4814 @kindex S O m (Summary)
4815 @findex gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward
4816 Digest the current series (@pxref{Decoding Articles}) and forward the
4817 result using mail (@code{gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward}). This command
4818 uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
4821 @kindex S M-c (Summary)
4822 @findex gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint
4823 @cindex crossposting
4824 @cindex excessive crossposting
4825 Send a complaint about excessive crossposting to the author of the
4826 current article (@code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint}).
4828 @findex gnus-crosspost-complaint
4829 This command is provided as a way to fight back against the current
4830 crossposting pandemic that's sweeping Usenet. It will compose a reply
4831 using the @code{gnus-crosspost-complaint} variable as a preamble. This
4832 command understands the process/prefix convention
4833 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) and will prompt you before sending each mail.
4837 Also @pxref{(message)Header Commands} for more information.
4840 @node Summary Post Commands
4841 @subsection Summary Post Commands
4843 @cindex composing news
4845 Commands for posting a news article:
4851 @kindex S p (Summary)
4852 @findex gnus-summary-post-news
4853 @c @icon{gnus-summary-post-news}
4854 Post an article to the current group
4855 (@code{gnus-summary-post-news}).
4860 @kindex S f (Summary)
4861 @findex gnus-summary-followup
4862 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup}
4863 Post a followup to the current article (@code{gnus-summary-followup}).
4867 @kindex S F (Summary)
4869 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}
4870 @findex gnus-summary-followup-with-original
4871 Post a followup to the current article and include the original message
4872 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}). This command uses the
4873 process/prefix convention.
4876 @kindex S n (Summary)
4877 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail
4878 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
4879 message through mail (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail}).
4882 @kindex S N (Summary)
4883 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original
4884 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
4885 message through mail and include the original message
4886 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original}). This command uses
4887 the process/prefix convention.
4890 @kindex S o p (Summary)
4891 @findex gnus-summary-post-forward
4892 Forward the current article to a newsgroup
4893 (@code{gnus-summary-post-forward}).
4894 If no prefix is given, the message is forwarded according to the value
4895 of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}) and
4896 (@code{message-forward-show-mml}); if the prefix is 1, decode the
4897 message and forward directly inline; if the prefix is 2, forward message
4898 as an rfc822 MIME section; if the prefix is 3, decode message and
4899 forward as an rfc822 MIME section; if the prefix is 4, forward message
4900 directly inline; otherwise, the message is forwarded as no prefix given
4901 but use the flipped value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}). By
4902 default, the message is decoded and forwarded as an rfc822 MIME section.
4905 @kindex S O p (Summary)
4906 @findex gnus-uu-digest-post-forward
4908 @cindex making digests
4909 Digest the current series and forward the result to a newsgroup
4910 (@code{gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward}). This command uses the
4911 process/prefix convention.
4914 @kindex S u (Summary)
4915 @findex gnus-uu-post-news
4916 @c @icon{gnus-uu-post-news}
4917 Uuencode a file, split it into parts, and post it as a series
4918 (@code{gnus-uu-post-news}). (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
4921 Also @pxref{(message)Header Commands} for more information.
4924 @node Summary Message Commands
4925 @subsection Summary Message Commands
4929 @kindex S y (Summary)
4930 @findex gnus-summary-yank-message
4931 Yank the current article into an already existing Message composition
4932 buffer (@code{gnus-summary-yank-message}). This command prompts for
4933 what message buffer you want to yank into, and understands the
4934 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
4939 @node Canceling and Superseding
4940 @subsection Canceling Articles
4941 @cindex canceling articles
4942 @cindex superseding articles
4944 Have you ever written something, and then decided that you really,
4945 really, really wish you hadn't posted that?
4947 Well, you can't cancel mail, but you can cancel posts.
4949 @findex gnus-summary-cancel-article
4951 @c @icon{gnus-summary-cancel-article}
4952 Find the article you wish to cancel (you can only cancel your own
4953 articles, so don't try any funny stuff). Then press @kbd{C} or @kbd{S
4954 c} (@code{gnus-summary-cancel-article}). Your article will be
4955 canceled---machines all over the world will be deleting your article.
4956 This command uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
4958 Be aware, however, that not all sites honor cancels, so your article may
4959 live on here and there, while most sites will delete the article in
4962 Gnus will use the ``current'' select method when canceling. If you
4963 want to use the standard posting method, use the @samp{a} symbolic
4964 prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}).
4966 If you discover that you have made some mistakes and want to do some
4967 corrections, you can post a @dfn{superseding} article that will replace
4968 your original article.
4970 @findex gnus-summary-supersede-article
4972 Go to the original article and press @kbd{S s}
4973 (@code{gnus-summary-supersede-article}). You will be put in a buffer
4974 where you can edit the article all you want before sending it off the
4977 The same goes for superseding as for canceling, only more so: Some
4978 sites do not honor superseding. On those sites, it will appear that you
4979 have posted almost the same article twice.
4981 If you have just posted the article, and change your mind right away,
4982 there is a trick you can use to cancel/supersede the article without
4983 waiting for the article to appear on your site first. You simply return
4984 to the post buffer (which is called @code{*sent ...*}). There you will
4985 find the article you just posted, with all the headers intact. Change
4986 the @code{Message-ID} header to a @code{Cancel} or @code{Supersedes}
4987 header by substituting one of those words for the word
4988 @code{Message-ID}. Then just press @kbd{C-c C-c} to send the article as
4989 you would do normally. The previous article will be
4990 canceled/superseded.
4992 Just remember, kids: There is no 'c' in 'supersede'.
4994 @node Delayed Articles
4995 @section Delayed Articles
4996 @cindex delayed sending
4997 @cindex send delayed
4999 Sometimes, you might wish to delay the sending of a message. For
5000 example, you might wish to arrange for a message to turn up just in time
5001 to remind your about the birthday of your Significant Other. For this,
5002 there is the @code{gnus-delay} package. Setup is simple:
5005 (gnus-delay-initialize)
5008 @findex gnus-delay-article
5009 Normally, to send a message you use the @kbd{C-c C-c} command from
5010 Message mode. To delay a message, use @kbd{C-c C-j}
5011 (@code{gnus-delay-article}) instead. This will ask you for how long the
5012 message should be delayed. Possible answers are:
5016 A time span. Consists of an integer and a letter. For example,
5017 @code{42d} means to delay for 42 days. Available letters are @code{m}
5018 (minutes), @code{h} (hours), @code{d} (days), @code{w} (weeks), @code{M}
5019 (months) and @code{Y} (years).
5022 A specific date. Looks like @code{YYYYY-MM-DD}. The message will be
5023 delayed until that day, at a specific time (eight o'clock by default).
5024 See also @code{gnus-delay-default-hour}.
5027 A specific time of day. Given in @code{hh:mm} format, 24h, no am/pm
5028 stuff. The deadline will be at that time today, except if that time has
5029 already passed, then it's at the given time tomorrow. So if it's ten
5030 o'clock in the morning and you specify @code{11:15}, then the deadline
5031 is one hour and fifteen minutes hence. But if you specify @code{9:20},
5032 that means a time tomorrow.
5035 The action of the @code{gnus-delay-article} command is influenced by a
5036 couple of variables:
5039 @item gnus-delay-default-hour
5040 @vindex gnus-delay-default-hour
5041 When you specify a specific date, the message will be due on that hour
5042 on the given date. Possible values are integers 0 through 23.
5044 @item gnus-delay-default-delay
5045 @vindex gnus-delay-default-delay
5046 This is a string and gives the default delay. It can be of any of the
5047 formats described above.
5049 @item gnus-delay-group
5050 @vindex gnus-delay-group
5051 Delayed articles will be kept in this group on the drafts server until
5052 they are due. You probably don't need to change this. The default
5053 value is @code{"delayed"}.
5055 @item gnus-delay-header
5056 @vindex gnus-delay-header
5057 The deadline for each article will be stored in a header. This variable
5058 is a string and gives the header name. You probably don't need to
5059 change this. The default value is @code{"X-Gnus-Delayed"}.
5062 The way delaying works is like this: when you use the
5063 @code{gnus-delay-article} command, you give a certain delay. Gnus
5064 calculates the deadline of the message and stores it in the
5065 @code{X-Gnus-Delayed} header and puts the message in the
5066 @code{nndraft:delayed} group.
5068 And whenever you get new news, Gnus looks through the group for articles
5069 which are due and sends them. It uses the @code{gnus-delay-send-drafts}
5070 function for this. By default, this function is added to the hook
5071 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. But of course, you can change this.
5072 Maybe you want to use the demon to send drafts? Just tell the demon to
5073 execute the @code{gnus-delay-send-drafts} function.
5076 @item gnus-delay-initialize
5077 @findex gnus-delay-initialize
5078 By default, this function installs the @kbd{C-c C-j} key binding in
5079 Message mode and @code{gnus-delay-send-drafts} in
5080 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. But it accepts two optional arguments,
5081 @code{no-keymap} and @code{no-check}. If @code{no-keymap} is non-nil,
5082 the @kbd{C-c C-j} binding is not intalled. If @code{no-check} is
5083 non-nil, @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is not changed.
5085 For example, @code{(gnus-delay-initialize nil t)} means to change the
5086 keymap but not to change @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. Presumably, you
5087 want to use the demon for sending due delayed articles. Just don't
5088 forget to set that up :-)
5092 @node Marking Articles
5093 @section Marking Articles
5094 @cindex article marking
5095 @cindex article ticking
5098 There are several marks you can set on an article.
5100 You have marks that decide the @dfn{readedness} (whoo, neato-keano
5101 neologism ohoy!) of the article. Alphabetic marks generally mean
5102 @dfn{read}, while non-alphabetic characters generally mean @dfn{unread}.
5104 In addition, you also have marks that do not affect readedness.
5107 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
5108 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
5109 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
5113 There's a plethora of commands for manipulating these marks:
5117 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
5118 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
5119 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
5123 @node Unread Articles
5124 @subsection Unread Articles
5126 The following marks mark articles as (kinda) unread, in one form or
5131 @vindex gnus-ticked-mark
5132 Marked as ticked (@code{gnus-ticked-mark}).
5134 @dfn{Ticked articles} are articles that will remain visible always. If
5135 you see an article that you find interesting, or you want to put off
5136 reading it, or replying to it, until sometime later, you'd typically
5137 tick it. However, articles can be expired (from news servers by the
5138 news server software, Gnus itself never expires ticked messages), so if
5139 you want to keep an article forever, you'll have to make it persistent
5140 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
5143 @vindex gnus-dormant-mark
5144 Marked as dormant (@code{gnus-dormant-mark}).
5146 @dfn{Dormant articles} will only appear in the summary buffer if there
5147 are followups to it. If you want to see them even if they don't have
5148 followups, you can use the @kbd{/ D} command (@pxref{Limiting}).
5149 Otherwise (except for the visibility issue), they are just like ticked
5153 @vindex gnus-unread-mark
5154 Marked as unread (@code{gnus-unread-mark}).
5156 @dfn{Unread articles} are articles that haven't been read at all yet.
5161 @subsection Read Articles
5162 @cindex expirable mark
5164 All the following marks mark articles as read.
5169 @vindex gnus-del-mark
5170 These are articles that the user has marked as read with the @kbd{d}
5171 command manually, more or less (@code{gnus-del-mark}).
5174 @vindex gnus-read-mark
5175 Articles that have actually been read (@code{gnus-read-mark}).
5178 @vindex gnus-ancient-mark
5179 Articles that were marked as read in previous sessions and are now
5180 @dfn{old} (@code{gnus-ancient-mark}).
5183 @vindex gnus-killed-mark
5184 Marked as killed (@code{gnus-killed-mark}).
5187 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mark
5188 Marked as killed by kill files (@code{gnus-kill-file-mark}).
5191 @vindex gnus-low-score-mark
5192 Marked as read by having too low a score (@code{gnus-low-score-mark}).
5195 @vindex gnus-catchup-mark
5196 Marked as read by a catchup (@code{gnus-catchup-mark}).
5199 @vindex gnus-canceled-mark
5200 Canceled article (@code{gnus-canceled-mark})
5203 @vindex gnus-souped-mark
5204 @sc{soup}ed article (@code{gnus-souped-mark}). @xref{SOUP}.
5207 @vindex gnus-sparse-mark
5208 Sparsely reffed article (@code{gnus-sparse-mark}). @xref{Customizing
5212 @vindex gnus-duplicate-mark
5213 Article marked as read by duplicate suppression
5214 (@code{gnus-duplicate-mark}). @xref{Duplicate Suppression}.
5218 All these marks just mean that the article is marked as read, really.
5219 They are interpreted differently when doing adaptive scoring, though.
5221 One more special mark, though:
5225 @vindex gnus-expirable-mark
5226 Marked as expirable (@code{gnus-expirable-mark}).
5228 Marking articles as @dfn{expirable} (or have them marked as such
5229 automatically) doesn't make much sense in normal groups---a user doesn't
5230 control expiring of news articles, but in mail groups, for instance,
5231 articles marked as @dfn{expirable} can be deleted by Gnus at
5237 @subsection Other Marks
5238 @cindex process mark
5241 There are some marks that have nothing to do with whether the article is
5247 You can set a bookmark in the current article. Say you are reading a
5248 long thesis on cats' urinary tracts, and have to go home for dinner
5249 before you've finished reading the thesis. You can then set a bookmark
5250 in the article, and Gnus will jump to this bookmark the next time it
5251 encounters the article. @xref{Setting Marks}.
5254 @vindex gnus-replied-mark
5255 All articles that you have replied to or made a followup to (i.e., have
5256 answered) will be marked with an @samp{A} in the second column
5257 (@code{gnus-replied-mark}).
5259 @vindex gnus-forwarded-mark
5260 All articles that you have forwarded will be marked with an @samp{F} in
5261 the second column (@code{gnus-forwarded-mark}).
5263 @vindex gnus-recent-mark
5264 Articles that are ``recently'' arrived in the group will be marked
5265 with an @samp{N} in the second column (@code{gnus-recent-mark}). Most
5266 backend doesn't support the mark, in which case it's not shown.
5269 @vindex gnus-cached-mark
5270 Articles stored in the article cache will be marked with an @samp{*} in
5271 the second column (@code{gnus-cached-mark}). @xref{Article Caching}.
5274 @vindex gnus-saved-mark
5275 Articles ``saved'' (in some manner or other; not necessarily
5276 religiously) are marked with an @samp{S} in the second column
5277 (@code{gnus-saved-mark}).
5280 @vindex gnus-unseen-mark
5281 Articles that haven't been seen by the user before are marked with a
5282 @samp{.} in the second column (@code{gnus-unseen-mark}).
5285 @vindex gnus-not-empty-thread-mark
5286 @vindex gnus-empty-thread-mark
5287 If the @samp{%e} spec is used, the presence of threads or not will be
5288 marked with @code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark} and
5289 @code{gnus-empty-thread-mark} in the third column, respectively.
5292 @vindex gnus-process-mark
5293 Finally we have the @dfn{process mark} (@code{gnus-process-mark}). A
5294 variety of commands react to the presence of the process mark. For
5295 instance, @kbd{X u} (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}) will uudecode and view
5296 all articles that have been marked with the process mark. Articles
5297 marked with the process mark have a @samp{#} in the second column.
5301 You might have noticed that most of these ``non-readedness'' marks
5302 appear in the second column by default. So if you have a cached, saved,
5303 replied article that you have process-marked, what will that look like?
5305 Nothing much. The precedence rules go as follows: process -> cache ->
5306 replied -> saved. So if the article is in the cache and is replied,
5307 you'll only see the cache mark and not the replied mark.
5311 @subsection Setting Marks
5312 @cindex setting marks
5314 All the marking commands understand the numeric prefix.
5319 @kindex M c (Summary)
5320 @kindex M-u (Summary)
5321 @findex gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward
5322 @cindex mark as unread
5323 Clear all readedness-marks from the current article
5324 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward}). In other words, mark the
5330 @kindex M t (Summary)
5331 @findex gnus-summary-tick-article-forward
5332 Tick the current article (@code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}).
5333 @xref{Article Caching}.
5338 @kindex M ? (Summary)
5339 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant
5340 Mark the current article as dormant
5341 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant}). @xref{Article Caching}.
5345 @kindex M d (Summary)
5347 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward
5348 Mark the current article as read
5349 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward}).
5353 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward
5354 Mark the current article as read and move point to the previous line
5355 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward}).
5360 @kindex M k (Summary)
5361 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select
5362 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read,
5363 and then select the next unread article
5364 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select}).
5368 @kindex M K (Summary)
5369 @kindex C-k (Summary)
5370 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject
5371 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read
5372 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject}).
5375 @kindex M C (Summary)
5376 @findex gnus-summary-catchup
5377 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup}
5378 Mark all unread articles as read (@code{gnus-summary-catchup}).
5381 @kindex M C-c (Summary)
5382 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all
5383 Mark all articles in the group as read---even the ticked and dormant
5384 articles (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all}).
5387 @kindex M H (Summary)
5388 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-to-here
5389 Catchup the current group to point (before the point)
5390 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-to-here}).
5393 @kindex M h (Summary)
5394 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-from-here
5395 Catchup the current group from point (after the point)
5396 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-from-here}).
5399 @kindex C-w (Summary)
5400 @findex gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read
5401 Mark all articles between point and mark as read
5402 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read}).
5405 @kindex M V k (Summary)
5406 @findex gnus-summary-kill-below
5407 Kill all articles with scores below the default score (or below the
5408 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-kill-below}).
5412 @kindex M e (Summary)
5414 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable
5415 Mark the current article as expirable
5416 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable}).
5419 @kindex M b (Summary)
5420 @findex gnus-summary-set-bookmark
5421 Set a bookmark in the current article
5422 (@code{gnus-summary-set-bookmark}).
5425 @kindex M B (Summary)
5426 @findex gnus-summary-remove-bookmark
5427 Remove the bookmark from the current article
5428 (@code{gnus-summary-remove-bookmark}).
5431 @kindex M V c (Summary)
5432 @findex gnus-summary-clear-above
5433 Clear all marks from articles with scores over the default score (or
5434 over the numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
5437 @kindex M V u (Summary)
5438 @findex gnus-summary-tick-above
5439 Tick all articles with scores over the default score (or over the
5440 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-tick-above}).
5443 @kindex M V m (Summary)
5444 @findex gnus-summary-mark-above
5445 Prompt for a mark, and mark all articles with scores over the default
5446 score (or over the numeric prefix) with this mark
5447 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
5450 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
5451 The @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} variable controls what action should
5452 be taken after setting a mark. If non-@code{nil}, point will move to
5453 the next/previous unread article. If @code{nil}, point will just move
5454 one line up or down. As a special case, if this variable is
5455 @code{never}, all the marking commands as well as other commands (like
5456 @kbd{SPACE}) will move to the next article, whether it is unread or not.
5457 The default is @code{t}.
5460 @node Generic Marking Commands
5461 @subsection Generic Marking Commands
5463 Some people would like the command that ticks an article (@kbd{!}) go to
5464 the next article. Others would like it to go to the next unread
5465 article. Yet others would like it to stay on the current article. And
5466 even though I haven't heard of anybody wanting it to go to the
5467 previous (unread) article, I'm sure there are people that want that as
5470 Multiply these five behaviors with five different marking commands, and
5471 you get a potentially complex set of variable to control what each
5474 To sidestep that mess, Gnus provides commands that do all these
5475 different things. They can be found on the @kbd{M M} map in the summary
5476 buffer. Type @kbd{M M C-h} to see them all---there are too many of them
5477 to list in this manual.
5479 While you can use these commands directly, most users would prefer
5480 altering the summary mode keymap. For instance, if you would like the
5481 @kbd{!} command to go to the next article instead of the next unread
5482 article, you could say something like:
5485 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'my-alter-summary-map)
5486 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
5487 (local-set-key "!" 'gnus-summary-put-mark-as-ticked-next))
5493 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
5494 (local-set-key "!" "MM!n"))
5498 @node Setting Process Marks
5499 @subsection Setting Process Marks
5500 @cindex setting process marks
5507 @kindex M P p (Summary)
5508 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-processable
5509 Mark the current article with the process mark
5510 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-processable}).
5511 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable
5515 @kindex M P u (Summary)
5516 @kindex M-# (Summary)
5517 Remove the process mark, if any, from the current article
5518 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable}).
5521 @kindex M P U (Summary)
5522 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable
5523 Remove the process mark from all articles
5524 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable}).
5527 @kindex M P i (Summary)
5528 @findex gnus-uu-invert-processable
5529 Invert the list of process marked articles
5530 (@code{gnus-uu-invert-processable}).
5533 @kindex M P R (Summary)
5534 @findex gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp
5535 Mark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
5536 expression (@code{gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp}).
5539 @kindex M P G (Summary)
5540 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp
5541 Unmark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
5542 expression (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp}).
5545 @kindex M P r (Summary)
5546 @findex gnus-uu-mark-region
5547 Mark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-mark-region}).
5550 @kindex M P t (Summary)
5551 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
5552 Mark all articles in the current (sub)thread
5553 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
5556 @kindex M P T (Summary)
5557 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
5558 Unmark all articles in the current (sub)thread
5559 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
5562 @kindex M P v (Summary)
5563 @findex gnus-uu-mark-over
5564 Mark all articles that have a score above the prefix argument
5565 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-over}).
5568 @kindex M P s (Summary)
5569 @findex gnus-uu-mark-series
5570 Mark all articles in the current series (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
5573 @kindex M P S (Summary)
5574 @findex gnus-uu-mark-sparse
5575 Mark all series that have already had some articles marked
5576 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-sparse}).
5579 @kindex M P a (Summary)
5580 @findex gnus-uu-mark-all
5581 Mark all articles in series order (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
5584 @kindex M P b (Summary)
5585 @findex gnus-uu-mark-buffer
5586 Mark all articles in the buffer in the order they appear
5587 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-buffer}).
5590 @kindex M P k (Summary)
5591 @findex gnus-summary-kill-process-mark
5592 Push the current process mark set onto the stack and unmark all articles
5593 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-process-mark}).
5596 @kindex M P y (Summary)
5597 @findex gnus-summary-yank-process-mark
5598 Pop the previous process mark set from the stack and restore it
5599 (@code{gnus-summary-yank-process-mark}).
5602 @kindex M P w (Summary)
5603 @findex gnus-summary-save-process-mark
5604 Push the current process mark set onto the stack
5605 (@code{gnus-summary-save-process-mark}).
5609 Also see the @kbd{&} command in @pxref{Searching for Articles} for how to
5610 set process marks based on article body contents.
5617 It can be convenient to limit the summary buffer to just show some
5618 subset of the articles currently in the group. The effect most limit
5619 commands have is to remove a few (or many) articles from the summary
5622 All limiting commands work on subsets of the articles already fetched
5623 from the servers. None of these commands query the server for
5624 additional articles.
5630 @kindex / / (Summary)
5631 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-subject
5632 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some subject
5633 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-subject}).
5636 @kindex / a (Summary)
5637 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-author
5638 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some author
5639 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-author}).
5642 @kindex / x (Summary)
5643 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-extra
5644 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match one of the ``extra''
5645 headers (@pxref{To From Newsgroups})
5646 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-extra}).
5650 @kindex / u (Summary)
5652 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-unread
5653 Limit the summary buffer to articles not marked as read
5654 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-unread}). If given a prefix, limit the
5655 buffer to articles strictly unread. This means that ticked and
5656 dormant articles will also be excluded.
5659 @kindex / m (Summary)
5660 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-marks
5661 Ask for a mark and then limit to all articles that have been marked
5662 with that mark (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-marks}).
5665 @kindex / t (Summary)
5666 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-age
5667 Ask for a number and then limit the summary buffer to articles older than (or equal to) that number of days
5668 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-age}). If given a prefix, limit to
5669 articles younger than that number of days.
5672 @kindex / n (Summary)
5673 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-articles
5674 Limit the summary buffer to the current article
5675 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-articles}). Uses the process/prefix
5676 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5679 @kindex / w (Summary)
5680 @findex gnus-summary-pop-limit
5681 Pop the previous limit off the stack and restore it
5682 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-limit}). If given a prefix, pop all limits off
5686 @kindex / v (Summary)
5687 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-score
5688 Limit the summary buffer to articles that have a score at or above some
5689 score (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-score}).
5692 @kindex / p (Summary)
5693 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-display-parameter
5694 Limit the summary buffer to articles that satisfy the @code{display}
5695 group parameter predicate
5696 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-display-parameter}). See @pxref{Group
5697 Parameters} for more on this predicate.
5701 @kindex M S (Summary)
5702 @kindex / E (Summary)
5703 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged
5704 Include all expunged articles in the limit
5705 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged}).
5708 @kindex / D (Summary)
5709 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant
5710 Include all dormant articles in the limit
5711 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant}).
5714 @kindex / * (Summary)
5715 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-cached
5716 Include all cached articles in the limit
5717 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-cached}).
5720 @kindex / d (Summary)
5721 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant
5722 Exclude all dormant articles from the limit
5723 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant}).
5726 @kindex / M (Summary)
5727 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks
5728 Exclude all marked articles (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks}).
5731 @kindex / T (Summary)
5732 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-thread
5733 Include all the articles in the current thread in the limit.
5736 @kindex / c (Summary)
5737 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant
5738 Exclude all dormant articles that have no children from the limit
5739 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant}).
5742 @kindex / C (Summary)
5743 @findex gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read
5744 Mark all excluded unread articles as read
5745 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read}). If given a prefix,
5746 also mark excluded ticked and dormant articles as read.
5754 @cindex article threading
5756 Gnus threads articles by default. @dfn{To thread} is to put responses
5757 to articles directly after the articles they respond to---in a
5758 hierarchical fashion.
5760 Threading is done by looking at the @code{References} headers of the
5761 articles. In a perfect world, this would be enough to build pretty
5762 trees, but unfortunately, the @code{References} header is often broken
5763 or simply missing. Weird news propagation exacerbates the problem,
5764 so one has to employ other heuristics to get pleasing results. A
5765 plethora of approaches exists, as detailed in horrible detail in
5766 @pxref{Customizing Threading}.
5768 First, a quick overview of the concepts:
5772 The top-most article in a thread; the first article in the thread.
5775 A tree-like article structure.
5778 A small(er) section of this tree-like structure.
5781 Threads often lose their roots due to article expiry, or due to the root
5782 already having been read in a previous session, and not displayed in the
5783 summary buffer. We then typically have many sub-threads that really
5784 belong to one thread, but are without connecting roots. These are
5785 called loose threads.
5787 @item thread gathering
5788 An attempt to gather loose threads into bigger threads.
5790 @item sparse threads
5791 A thread where the missing articles have been ``guessed'' at, and are
5792 displayed as empty lines in the summary buffer.
5798 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
5799 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
5803 @node Customizing Threading
5804 @subsection Customizing Threading
5805 @cindex customizing threading
5808 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
5809 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
5810 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
5811 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over... but you were wrong!
5816 @subsubsection Loose Threads
5819 @cindex loose threads
5822 @item gnus-summary-make-false-root
5823 @vindex gnus-summary-make-false-root
5824 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will gather all loose subtrees into one big tree
5825 and create a dummy root at the top. (Wait a minute. Root at the top?
5826 Yup.) Loose subtrees occur when the real root has expired, or you've
5827 read or killed the root in a previous session.
5829 When there is no real root of a thread, Gnus will have to fudge
5830 something. This variable says what fudging method Gnus should use.
5831 There are four possible values:
5835 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{390}{
5836 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-adopt.ps,width=7.5cm}}
5837 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-empty.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
5838 \put(0,400){\makebox(0,0)[tl]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-none.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
5839 \put(445,400){\makebox(0,0)[tr]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-dummy.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
5844 @cindex adopting articles
5849 Gnus will make the first of the orphaned articles the parent. This
5850 parent will adopt all the other articles. The adopted articles will be
5851 marked as such by pointy brackets (@samp{<>}) instead of the standard
5852 square brackets (@samp{[]}). This is the default method.
5855 @vindex gnus-summary-dummy-line-format
5856 Gnus will create a dummy summary line that will pretend to be the
5857 parent. This dummy line does not correspond to any real article, so
5858 selecting it will just select the first real article after the dummy
5859 article. @code{gnus-summary-dummy-line-format} is used to specify the
5860 format of the dummy roots. It accepts only one format spec: @samp{S},
5861 which is the subject of the article. @xref{Formatting Variables}.
5864 Gnus won't actually make any article the parent, but simply leave the
5865 subject field of all orphans except the first empty. (Actually, it will
5866 use @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} as the subject (@pxref{Summary
5870 Don't make any article parent at all. Just gather the threads and
5871 display them after one another.
5874 Don't gather loose threads.
5877 @item gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
5878 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
5879 Loose threads are gathered by comparing subjects of articles. If this
5880 variable is @code{nil}, Gnus requires an exact match between the
5881 subjects of the loose threads before gathering them into one big
5882 super-thread. This might be too strict a requirement, what with the
5883 presence of stupid newsreaders that chop off long subject lines. If
5884 you think so, set this variable to, say, 20 to require that only the
5885 first 20 characters of the subjects have to match. If you set this
5886 variable to a really low number, you'll find that Gnus will gather
5887 everything in sight into one thread, which isn't very helpful.
5889 @cindex fuzzy article gathering
5890 If you set this variable to the special value @code{fuzzy}, Gnus will
5891 use a fuzzy string comparison algorithm on the subjects (@pxref{Fuzzy
5894 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
5895 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
5896 This can either be a regular expression or list of regular expressions
5897 that match strings that will be removed from subjects if fuzzy subject
5898 simplification is used.
5900 @item gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
5901 @vindex gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
5902 If you set @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit} to something as low
5903 as 10, you might consider setting this variable to something sensible:
5905 @c Written by Michael Ernst <mernst@cs.rice.edu>
5907 (setq gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
5913 "wanted" "followup" "summary\\( of\\)?"
5914 "help" "query" "problem" "question"
5915 "answer" "reference" "announce"
5916 "How can I" "How to" "Comparison of"
5921 (mapconcat 'identity
5922 '("for" "for reference" "with" "about")
5924 "\\)?\\]?:?[ \t]*"))
5927 All words that match this regexp will be removed before comparing two
5930 @item gnus-simplify-subject-functions
5931 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-functions
5932 If non-@code{nil}, this variable overrides
5933 @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}. This variable should be a
5934 list of functions to apply to the @code{Subject} string iteratively to
5935 arrive at the simplified version of the string.
5937 Useful functions to put in this list include:
5940 @item gnus-simplify-subject-re
5941 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-re
5942 Strip the leading @samp{Re:}.
5944 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
5945 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
5948 @item gnus-simplify-whitespace
5949 @findex gnus-simplify-whitespace
5950 Remove excessive whitespace.
5953 You may also write your own functions, of course.
5956 @item gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
5957 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
5958 Since loose thread gathering is done on subjects only, that might lead
5959 to many false hits, especially with certain common subjects like
5960 @samp{} and @samp{(none)}. To make the situation slightly better,
5961 you can use the regexp @code{gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject} to say
5962 what subjects should be excluded from the gathering process.@*
5963 The default is @samp{^ *$\\|^(none)$}.
5965 @item gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
5966 @vindex gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
5967 Gnus gathers threads by looking at @code{Subject} headers. This means
5968 that totally unrelated articles may end up in the same ``thread'', which
5969 is confusing. An alternate approach is to look at all the
5970 @code{Message-ID}s in all the @code{References} headers to find matches.
5971 This will ensure that no gathered threads ever include unrelated
5972 articles, but it also means that people who have posted with broken
5973 newsreaders won't be gathered properly. The choice is yours---plague or
5977 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
5978 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
5979 This function is the default gathering function and looks at
5980 @code{Subject}s exclusively.
5982 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-references
5983 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-references
5984 This function looks at @code{References} headers exclusively.
5987 If you want to test gathering by @code{References}, you could say
5991 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
5992 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
5998 @node Filling In Threads
5999 @subsubsection Filling In Threads
6002 @item gnus-fetch-old-headers
6003 @vindex gnus-fetch-old-headers
6004 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will attempt to build old threads by fetching
6005 more old headers---headers to articles marked as read. If you
6006 would like to display as few summary lines as possible, but still
6007 connect as many loose threads as possible, you should set this variable
6008 to @code{some} or a number. If you set it to a number, no more than
6009 that number of extra old headers will be fetched. In either case,
6010 fetching old headers only works if the backend you are using carries
6011 overview files---this would normally be @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool} and
6012 @code{nnml}. Also remember that if the root of the thread has been
6013 expired by the server, there's not much Gnus can do about that.
6015 This variable can also be set to @code{invisible}. This won't have any
6016 visible effects, but is useful if you use the @kbd{A T} command a lot
6017 (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
6019 @item gnus-build-sparse-threads
6020 @vindex gnus-build-sparse-threads
6021 Fetching old headers can be slow. A low-rent similar effect can be
6022 gotten by setting this variable to @code{some}. Gnus will then look at
6023 the complete @code{References} headers of all articles and try to string
6024 together articles that belong in the same thread. This will leave
6025 @dfn{gaps} in the threading display where Gnus guesses that an article
6026 is missing from the thread. (These gaps appear like normal summary
6027 lines. If you select a gap, Gnus will try to fetch the article in
6028 question.) If this variable is @code{t}, Gnus will display all these
6029 ``gaps'' without regard for whether they are useful for completing the
6030 thread or not. Finally, if this variable is @code{more}, Gnus won't cut
6031 off sparse leaf nodes that don't lead anywhere. This variable is
6032 @code{nil} by default.
6034 @item gnus-read-all-available-headers
6035 @vindex gnus-read-all-available-headers
6036 This is a rather obscure variable that few will find useful. It's
6037 intended for those non-news newsgroups where the backend has to fetch
6038 quite a lot to present the summary buffer, and where it's impossible to
6039 go back to parents of articles. This is mostly the case in the
6040 web-based groups, like the @code{nnultimate} groups.
6042 If you don't use those, then it's safe to leave this as the default
6043 @code{nil}. If you want to use this variable, it should be a regexp
6044 that matches the group name, or @code{t} for all groups.
6049 @node More Threading
6050 @subsubsection More Threading
6053 @item gnus-show-threads
6054 @vindex gnus-show-threads
6055 If this variable is @code{nil}, no threading will be done, and all of
6056 the rest of the variables here will have no effect. Turning threading
6057 off will speed group selection up a bit, but it is sure to make reading
6058 slower and more awkward.
6060 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
6061 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-subtree
6062 If non-@code{nil}, all threads will be hidden when the summary buffer is
6065 @item gnus-thread-expunge-below
6066 @vindex gnus-thread-expunge-below
6067 All threads that have a total score (as defined by
6068 @code{gnus-thread-score-function}) less than this number will be
6069 expunged. This variable is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
6070 threads are expunged.
6072 @item gnus-thread-hide-killed
6073 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-killed
6074 if you kill a thread and this variable is non-@code{nil}, the subtree
6077 @item gnus-thread-ignore-subject
6078 @vindex gnus-thread-ignore-subject
6079 Sometimes somebody changes the subject in the middle of a thread. If
6080 this variable is non-@code{nil}, which is the default, the subject
6081 change is ignored. If it is @code{nil}, a change in the subject will
6082 result in a new thread.
6084 @item gnus-thread-indent-level
6085 @vindex gnus-thread-indent-level
6086 This is a number that says how much each sub-thread should be indented.
6089 @item gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
6090 @vindex gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
6091 Sometimes, particularly with mailing lists, the order in which mails
6092 arrive locally is not necessarily the same as the order in which they
6093 arrived on the mailing list. Consequently, when sorting sub-threads
6094 using the default @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number}, responses can end
6095 up appearing before the article to which they are responding to.
6096 Setting this variable to an alternate value
6097 (e.g. @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}), in a group's parameters or in an
6098 appropriate hook (e.g. @code{gnus-summary-generate-hook}) can produce a
6099 more logical sub-thread ordering in such instances.
6104 @node Low-Level Threading
6105 @subsubsection Low-Level Threading
6109 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
6110 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
6111 Hook run before parsing any headers.
6113 @item gnus-alter-header-function
6114 @vindex gnus-alter-header-function
6115 If non-@code{nil}, this function will be called to allow alteration of
6116 article header structures. The function is called with one parameter,
6117 the article header vector, which it may alter in any way. For instance,
6118 if you have a mail-to-news gateway which alters the @code{Message-ID}s
6119 in systematic ways (by adding prefixes and such), you can use this
6120 variable to un-scramble the @code{Message-ID}s so that they are more
6121 meaningful. Here's one example:
6124 (setq gnus-alter-header-function 'my-alter-message-id)
6126 (defun my-alter-message-id (header)
6127 (let ((id (mail-header-id header)))
6129 "\\(<[^<>@@]*\\)\\.?cygnus\\..*@@\\([^<>@@]*>\\)" id)
6131 (concat (match-string 1 id) "@@" (match-string 2 id))
6138 @node Thread Commands
6139 @subsection Thread Commands
6140 @cindex thread commands
6146 @kindex T k (Summary)
6147 @kindex M-C-k (Summary)
6148 @findex gnus-summary-kill-thread
6149 Mark all articles in the current (sub-)thread as read
6150 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}). If the prefix argument is positive,
6151 remove all marks instead. If the prefix argument is negative, tick
6156 @kindex T l (Summary)
6157 @kindex M-C-l (Summary)
6158 @findex gnus-summary-lower-thread
6159 Lower the score of the current (sub-)thread
6160 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-thread}).
6163 @kindex T i (Summary)
6164 @findex gnus-summary-raise-thread
6165 Increase the score of the current (sub-)thread
6166 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-thread}).
6169 @kindex T # (Summary)
6170 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
6171 Set the process mark on the current (sub-)thread
6172 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
6175 @kindex T M-# (Summary)
6176 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
6177 Remove the process mark from the current (sub-)thread
6178 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
6181 @kindex T T (Summary)
6182 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-threads
6183 Toggle threading (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-threads}).
6186 @kindex T s (Summary)
6187 @findex gnus-summary-show-thread
6188 Expose the (sub-)thread hidden under the current article, if any
6189 (@code{gnus-summary-show-thread}).
6192 @kindex T h (Summary)
6193 @findex gnus-summary-hide-thread
6194 Hide the current (sub-)thread (@code{gnus-summary-hide-thread}).
6197 @kindex T S (Summary)
6198 @findex gnus-summary-show-all-threads
6199 Expose all hidden threads (@code{gnus-summary-show-all-threads}).
6202 @kindex T H (Summary)
6203 @findex gnus-summary-hide-all-threads
6204 Hide all threads (@code{gnus-summary-hide-all-threads}).
6207 @kindex T t (Summary)
6208 @findex gnus-summary-rethread-current
6209 Re-thread the current article's thread
6210 (@code{gnus-summary-rethread-current}). This works even when the
6211 summary buffer is otherwise unthreaded.
6214 @kindex T ^ (Summary)
6215 @findex gnus-summary-reparent-thread
6216 Make the current article the child of the marked (or previous) article
6217 (@code{gnus-summary-reparent-thread}).
6221 The following commands are thread movement commands. They all
6222 understand the numeric prefix.
6227 @kindex T n (Summary)
6229 @kindex M-C-n (Summary)
6231 @kindex M-down (Summary)
6232 @findex gnus-summary-next-thread
6233 Go to the next thread (@code{gnus-summary-next-thread}).
6236 @kindex T p (Summary)
6238 @kindex M-C-p (Summary)
6240 @kindex M-up (Summary)
6241 @findex gnus-summary-prev-thread
6242 Go to the previous thread (@code{gnus-summary-prev-thread}).
6245 @kindex T d (Summary)
6246 @findex gnus-summary-down-thread
6247 Descend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-down-thread}).
6250 @kindex T u (Summary)
6251 @findex gnus-summary-up-thread
6252 Ascend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-up-thread}).
6255 @kindex T o (Summary)
6256 @findex gnus-summary-top-thread
6257 Go to the top of the thread (@code{gnus-summary-top-thread}).
6260 @vindex gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject
6261 If you ignore subject while threading, you'll naturally end up with
6262 threads that have several different subjects in them. If you then issue
6263 a command like `T k' (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}) you might not
6264 wish to kill the entire thread, but just those parts of the thread that
6265 have the same subject as the current article. If you like this idea,
6266 you can fiddle with @code{gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject}. If it
6267 is non-@code{nil} (which it is by default), subjects will be ignored
6268 when doing thread commands. If this variable is @code{nil}, articles in
6269 the same thread with different subjects will not be included in the
6270 operation in question. If this variable is @code{fuzzy}, only articles
6271 that have subjects fuzzily equal will be included (@pxref{Fuzzy
6275 @node Sorting the Summary Buffer
6276 @section Sorting the Summary Buffer
6278 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score
6279 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-date
6280 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-score
6281 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
6282 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-author
6283 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-number
6284 @vindex gnus-thread-sort-functions
6285 If you are using a threaded summary display, you can sort the threads by
6286 setting @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, which can be either a single
6287 function, a list of functions, or a list containing functions and
6288 @code{(not some-function)} elements.
6290 By default, sorting is done on article numbers. Ready-made sorting
6291 predicate functions include @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number},
6292 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-author}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-subject},
6293 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-score}, and
6294 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score}.
6296 Each function takes two threads and returns non-@code{nil} if the first
6297 thread should be sorted before the other. Note that sorting really is
6298 normally done by looking only at the roots of each thread.
6300 If you use more than one function, the primary sort key should be the
6301 last function in the list. You should probably always include
6302 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number} in the list of sorting
6303 functions---preferably first. This will ensure that threads that are
6304 equal with respect to the other sort criteria will be displayed in
6305 ascending article order.
6307 If you would like to sort by reverse score, then by subject, and finally
6308 by number, you could do something like:
6311 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
6312 '(gnus-thread-sort-by-number
6313 gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
6314 (not gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score)))
6317 The threads that have highest score will be displayed first in the
6318 summary buffer. When threads have the same score, they will be sorted
6319 alphabetically. The threads that have the same score and the same
6320 subject will be sorted by number, which is (normally) the sequence in
6321 which the articles arrived.
6323 If you want to sort by score and then reverse arrival order, you could
6327 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
6329 (not (gnus-thread-sort-by-number t1 t2)))
6330 gnus-thread-sort-by-score))
6333 @vindex gnus-thread-score-function
6334 The function in the @code{gnus-thread-score-function} variable (default
6335 @code{+}) is used for calculating the total score of a thread. Useful
6336 functions might be @code{max}, @code{min}, or squared means, or whatever
6339 @findex gnus-article-sort-functions
6340 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-date
6341 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-score
6342 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-subject
6343 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-author
6344 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-number
6345 If you are using an unthreaded display for some strange reason or other,
6346 you have to fiddle with the @code{gnus-article-sort-functions} variable.
6347 It is very similar to the @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, except that
6348 it uses slightly different functions for article comparison. Available
6349 sorting predicate functions are @code{gnus-article-sort-by-number},
6350 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-author}, @code{gnus-article-sort-by-subject},
6351 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-date}, and @code{gnus-article-sort-by-score}.
6353 If you want to sort an unthreaded summary display by subject, you could
6357 (setq gnus-article-sort-functions
6358 '(gnus-article-sort-by-number
6359 gnus-article-sort-by-subject))
6364 @node Asynchronous Fetching
6365 @section Asynchronous Article Fetching
6366 @cindex asynchronous article fetching
6367 @cindex article pre-fetch
6370 If you read your news from an @sc{nntp} server that's far away, the
6371 network latencies may make reading articles a chore. You have to wait
6372 for a while after pressing @kbd{n} to go to the next article before the
6373 article appears. Why can't Gnus just go ahead and fetch the article
6374 while you are reading the previous one? Why not, indeed.
6376 First, some caveats. There are some pitfalls to using asynchronous
6377 article fetching, especially the way Gnus does it.
6379 Let's say you are reading article 1, which is short, and article 2 is
6380 quite long, and you are not interested in reading that. Gnus does not
6381 know this, so it goes ahead and fetches article 2. You decide to read
6382 article 3, but since Gnus is in the process of fetching article 2, the
6383 connection is blocked.
6385 To avoid these situations, Gnus will open two (count 'em two)
6386 connections to the server. Some people may think this isn't a very nice
6387 thing to do, but I don't see any real alternatives. Setting up that
6388 extra connection takes some time, so Gnus startup will be slower.
6390 Gnus will fetch more articles than you will read. This will mean that
6391 the link between your machine and the @sc{nntp} server will become more
6392 loaded than if you didn't use article pre-fetch. The server itself will
6393 also become more loaded---both with the extra article requests, and the
6396 Ok, so now you know that you shouldn't really use this thing... unless
6399 @vindex gnus-asynchronous
6400 Here's how: Set @code{gnus-asynchronous} to @code{t}. The rest should
6401 happen automatically.
6403 @vindex gnus-use-article-prefetch
6404 You can control how many articles are to be pre-fetched by setting
6405 @code{gnus-use-article-prefetch}. This is 30 by default, which means
6406 that when you read an article in the group, the backend will pre-fetch
6407 the next 30 articles. If this variable is @code{t}, the backend will
6408 pre-fetch all the articles it can without bound. If it is
6409 @code{nil}, no pre-fetching will be done.
6411 @vindex gnus-async-prefetch-article-p
6412 @findex gnus-async-read-p
6413 There are probably some articles that you don't want to pre-fetch---read
6414 articles, for instance. The @code{gnus-async-prefetch-article-p} variable controls whether an article is to be pre-fetched. This function should
6415 return non-@code{nil} when the article in question is to be
6416 pre-fetched. The default is @code{gnus-async-read-p}, which returns
6417 @code{nil} on read articles. The function is called with an article
6418 data structure as the only parameter.
6420 If, for instance, you wish to pre-fetch only unread articles shorter than 100 lines, you could say something like:
6423 (defun my-async-short-unread-p (data)
6424 "Return non-nil for short, unread articles."
6425 (and (gnus-data-unread-p data)
6426 (< (mail-header-lines (gnus-data-header data))
6429 (setq gnus-async-prefetch-article-p 'my-async-short-unread-p)
6432 These functions will be called many, many times, so they should
6433 preferably be short and sweet to avoid slowing down Gnus too much.
6434 It's probably a good idea to byte-compile things like this.
6436 @vindex gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy
6437 Articles have to be removed from the asynch buffer sooner or later. The
6438 @code{gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy} says when to remove
6439 articles. This is a list that may contain the following elements:
6443 Remove articles when they are read.
6446 Remove articles when exiting the group.
6449 The default value is @code{(read exit)}.
6451 @c @vindex gnus-use-header-prefetch
6452 @c If @code{gnus-use-header-prefetch} is non-@code{nil}, prefetch articles
6453 @c from the next group.
6456 @node Article Caching
6457 @section Article Caching
6458 @cindex article caching
6461 If you have an @emph{extremely} slow @sc{nntp} connection, you may
6462 consider turning article caching on. Each article will then be stored
6463 locally under your home directory. As you may surmise, this could
6464 potentially use @emph{huge} amounts of disk space, as well as eat up all
6465 your inodes so fast it will make your head swim. In vodka.
6467 Used carefully, though, it could be just an easier way to save articles.
6469 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
6470 @vindex gnus-cache-directory
6471 @vindex gnus-use-cache
6472 To turn caching on, set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{t}. By default,
6473 all articles ticked or marked as dormant will then be copied
6474 over to your local cache (@code{gnus-cache-directory}). Whether this
6475 cache is flat or hierarchical is controlled by the
6476 @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable, as usual.
6478 When re-selecting a ticked or dormant article, it will be fetched from the
6479 cache instead of from the server. As articles in your cache will never
6480 expire, this might serve as a method of saving articles while still
6481 keeping them where they belong. Just mark all articles you want to save
6482 as dormant, and don't worry.
6484 When an article is marked as read, is it removed from the cache.
6486 @vindex gnus-cache-remove-articles
6487 @vindex gnus-cache-enter-articles
6488 The entering/removal of articles from the cache is controlled by the
6489 @code{gnus-cache-enter-articles} and @code{gnus-cache-remove-articles}
6490 variables. Both are lists of symbols. The first is @code{(ticked
6491 dormant)} by default, meaning that ticked and dormant articles will be
6492 put in the cache. The latter is @code{(read)} by default, meaning that
6493 articles marked as read are removed from the cache. Possibly
6494 symbols in these two lists are @code{ticked}, @code{dormant},
6495 @code{unread} and @code{read}.
6497 @findex gnus-jog-cache
6498 So where does the massive article-fetching and storing come into the
6499 picture? The @code{gnus-jog-cache} command will go through all
6500 subscribed newsgroups, request all unread articles, score them, and
6501 store them in the cache. You should only ever, ever ever ever, use this
6502 command if 1) your connection to the @sc{nntp} server is really, really,
6503 really slow and 2) you have a really, really, really huge disk.
6504 Seriously. One way to cut down on the number of articles downloaded is
6505 to score unwanted articles down and have them marked as read. They will
6506 not then be downloaded by this command.
6508 @vindex gnus-uncacheable-groups
6509 @vindex gnus-cacheable-groups
6510 It is likely that you do not want caching on all groups. For instance,
6511 if your @code{nnml} mail is located under your home directory, it makes no
6512 sense to cache it somewhere else under your home directory. Unless you
6513 feel that it's neat to use twice as much space.
6515 To limit the caching, you could set @code{gnus-cacheable-groups} to a
6516 regexp of groups to cache, @samp{^nntp} for instance, or set the
6517 @code{gnus-uncacheable-groups} regexp to @samp{^nnml}, for instance.
6518 Both variables are @code{nil} by default. If a group matches both
6519 variables, the group is not cached.
6521 @findex gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases
6522 @findex gnus-cache-generate-active
6523 @vindex gnus-cache-active-file
6524 The cache stores information on what articles it contains in its active
6525 file (@code{gnus-cache-active-file}). If this file (or any other parts
6526 of the cache) becomes all messed up for some reason or other, Gnus
6527 offers two functions that will try to set things right. @kbd{M-x
6528 gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases} will (re)build all the @sc{nov}
6529 files, and @kbd{gnus-cache-generate-active} will (re)generate the active
6533 @node Persistent Articles
6534 @section Persistent Articles
6535 @cindex persistent articles
6537 Closely related to article caching, we have @dfn{persistent articles}.
6538 In fact, it's just a different way of looking at caching, and much more
6539 useful in my opinion.
6541 Say you're reading a newsgroup, and you happen on to some valuable gem
6542 that you want to keep and treasure forever. You'd normally just save it
6543 (using one of the many saving commands) in some file. The problem with
6544 that is that it's just, well, yucky. Ideally you'd prefer just having
6545 the article remain in the group where you found it forever; untouched by
6546 the expiry going on at the news server.
6548 This is what a @dfn{persistent article} is---an article that just won't
6549 be deleted. It's implemented using the normal cache functions, but
6550 you use two explicit commands for managing persistent articles:
6556 @findex gnus-cache-enter-article
6557 Make the current article persistent (@code{gnus-cache-enter-article}).
6560 @kindex M-* (Summary)
6561 @findex gnus-cache-remove-article
6562 Remove the current article from the persistent articles
6563 (@code{gnus-cache-remove-article}). This will normally delete the
6567 Both these commands understand the process/prefix convention.
6569 To avoid having all ticked articles (and stuff) entered into the cache,
6570 you should set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{passive} if you're just
6571 interested in persistent articles:
6574 (setq gnus-use-cache 'passive)
6578 @node Article Backlog
6579 @section Article Backlog
6581 @cindex article backlog
6583 If you have a slow connection, but the idea of using caching seems
6584 unappealing to you (and it is, really), you can help the situation some
6585 by switching on the @dfn{backlog}. This is where Gnus will buffer
6586 already read articles so that it doesn't have to re-fetch articles
6587 you've already read. This only helps if you are in the habit of
6588 re-selecting articles you've recently read, of course. If you never do
6589 that, turning the backlog on will slow Gnus down a little bit, and
6590 increase memory usage some.
6592 @vindex gnus-keep-backlog
6593 If you set @code{gnus-keep-backlog} to a number @var{n}, Gnus will store
6594 at most @var{n} old articles in a buffer for later re-fetching. If this
6595 variable is non-@code{nil} and is not a number, Gnus will store
6596 @emph{all} read articles, which means that your Emacs will grow without
6597 bound before exploding and taking your machine down with you. I put
6598 that in there just to keep y'all on your toes.
6600 This variable is @code{nil} by default.
6603 @node Saving Articles
6604 @section Saving Articles
6605 @cindex saving articles
6607 Gnus can save articles in a number of ways. Below is the documentation
6608 for saving articles in a fairly straight-forward fashion (i.e., little
6609 processing of the article is done before it is saved). For a different
6610 approach (uudecoding, unsharing) you should use @code{gnus-uu}
6611 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
6613 @vindex gnus-save-all-headers
6614 If @code{gnus-save-all-headers} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will not delete
6615 unwanted headers before saving the article.
6617 @vindex gnus-saved-headers
6618 If the preceding variable is @code{nil}, all headers that match the
6619 @code{gnus-saved-headers} regexp will be kept, while the rest will be
6620 deleted before saving.
6626 @kindex O o (Summary)
6628 @findex gnus-summary-save-article
6629 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article}
6630 Save the current article using the default article saver
6631 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article}).
6634 @kindex O m (Summary)
6635 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-mail
6636 Save the current article in mail format
6637 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-mail}).
6640 @kindex O r (Summary)
6641 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-rmail
6642 Save the current article in rmail format
6643 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-rmail}).
6646 @kindex O f (Summary)
6647 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-file
6648 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article-file}
6649 Save the current article in plain file format
6650 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-file}).
6653 @kindex O F (Summary)
6654 @findex gnus-summary-write-article-file
6655 Write the current article in plain file format, overwriting any previous
6656 file contents (@code{gnus-summary-write-article-file}).
6659 @kindex O b (Summary)
6660 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-body-file
6661 Save the current article body in plain file format
6662 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-body-file}).
6665 @kindex O h (Summary)
6666 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-folder
6667 Save the current article in mh folder format
6668 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-folder}).
6671 @kindex O v (Summary)
6672 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-vm
6673 Save the current article in a VM folder
6674 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-vm}).
6678 @kindex O p (Summary)
6680 @findex gnus-summary-pipe-output
6681 Save the current article in a pipe. Uhm, like, what I mean is---Pipe
6682 the current article to a process (@code{gnus-summary-pipe-output}).
6685 @vindex gnus-prompt-before-saving
6686 All these commands use the process/prefix convention
6687 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). If you save bunches of articles using these
6688 functions, you might get tired of being prompted for files to save each
6689 and every article in. The prompting action is controlled by
6690 the @code{gnus-prompt-before-saving} variable, which is @code{always} by
6691 default, giving you that excessive prompting action you know and
6692 loathe. If you set this variable to @code{t} instead, you'll be prompted
6693 just once for each series of articles you save. If you like to really
6694 have Gnus do all your thinking for you, you can even set this variable
6695 to @code{nil}, which means that you will never be prompted for files to
6696 save articles in. Gnus will simply save all the articles in the default
6700 @vindex gnus-default-article-saver
6701 You can customize the @code{gnus-default-article-saver} variable to make
6702 Gnus do what you want it to. You can use any of the six ready-made
6703 functions below, or you can create your own.
6707 @item gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
6708 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
6709 @vindex gnus-rmail-save-name
6710 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
6711 This is the default format, @dfn{babyl}. Uses the function in the
6712 @code{gnus-rmail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
6713 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
6715 @item gnus-summary-save-in-mail
6716 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-mail
6717 @vindex gnus-mail-save-name
6718 Save in a Unix mail (mbox) file. Uses the function in the
6719 @code{gnus-mail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
6720 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
6722 @item gnus-summary-save-in-file
6723 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-file
6724 @vindex gnus-file-save-name
6725 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
6726 Append the article straight to an ordinary file. Uses the function in
6727 the @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
6728 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
6730 @item gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
6731 @findex gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
6732 Append the article body to an ordinary file. Uses the function in the
6733 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
6734 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
6736 @item gnus-summary-save-in-folder
6737 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-folder
6738 @findex gnus-folder-save-name
6739 @findex gnus-Folder-save-name
6740 @vindex gnus-folder-save-name
6743 Save the article to an MH folder using @code{rcvstore} from the MH
6744 library. Uses the function in the @code{gnus-folder-save-name} variable
6745 to get a file name to save the article in. The default is
6746 @code{gnus-folder-save-name}, but you can also use
6747 @code{gnus-Folder-save-name}, which creates capitalized names.
6749 @item gnus-summary-save-in-vm
6750 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-vm
6751 Save the article in a VM folder. You have to have the VM mail
6752 reader to use this setting.
6755 @vindex gnus-article-save-directory
6756 All of these functions, except for the last one, will save the article
6757 in the @code{gnus-article-save-directory}, which is initialized from the
6758 @code{SAVEDIR} environment variable. This is @file{~/News/} by
6761 As you can see above, the functions use different functions to find a
6762 suitable name of a file to save the article in. Below is a list of
6763 available functions that generate names:
6767 @item gnus-Numeric-save-name
6768 @findex gnus-Numeric-save-name
6769 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
6771 @item gnus-numeric-save-name
6772 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
6773 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
6775 @item gnus-Plain-save-name
6776 @findex gnus-Plain-save-name
6777 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin}.
6779 @item gnus-plain-save-name
6780 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
6781 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.
6783 @item gnus-sender-save-name
6784 @findex gnus-sender-save-name
6785 File names like @file{~/News/larsi}.
6788 @vindex gnus-split-methods
6789 You can have Gnus suggest where to save articles by plonking a regexp into
6790 the @code{gnus-split-methods} alist. For instance, if you would like to
6791 save articles related to Gnus in the file @file{gnus-stuff}, and articles
6792 related to VM in @code{vm-stuff}, you could set this variable to something
6796 (("^Subject:.*gnus\\|^Newsgroups:.*gnus" "gnus-stuff")
6797 ("^Subject:.*vm\\|^Xref:.*vm" "vm-stuff")
6798 (my-choosing-function "../other-dir/my-stuff")
6799 ((equal gnus-newsgroup-name "mail.misc") "mail-stuff"))
6802 We see that this is a list where each element is a list that has two
6803 elements---the @dfn{match} and the @dfn{file}. The match can either be
6804 a string (in which case it is used as a regexp to match on the article
6805 head); it can be a symbol (which will be called as a function with the
6806 group name as a parameter); or it can be a list (which will be
6807 @code{eval}ed). If any of these actions have a non-@code{nil} result,
6808 the @dfn{file} will be used as a default prompt. In addition, the
6809 result of the operation itself will be used if the function or form
6810 called returns a string or a list of strings.
6812 You basically end up with a list of file names that might be used when
6813 saving the current article. (All ``matches'' will be used.) You will
6814 then be prompted for what you really want to use as a name, with file
6815 name completion over the results from applying this variable.
6817 This variable is @code{((gnus-article-archive-name))} by default, which
6818 means that Gnus will look at the articles it saves for an
6819 @code{Archive-name} line and use that as a suggestion for the file
6822 Here's an example function to clean up file names somewhat. If you have
6823 lots of mail groups called things like
6824 @samp{nnml:mail.whatever}, you may want to chop off the beginning of
6825 these group names before creating the file name to save to. The
6826 following will do just that:
6829 (defun my-save-name (group)
6830 (when (string-match "^nnml:mail." group)
6831 (substring group (match-end 0))))
6833 (setq gnus-split-methods
6834 '((gnus-article-archive-name)
6839 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
6840 Finally, you have the @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable. If it is
6841 @code{nil}, all the preceding functions will replace all periods
6842 (@samp{.}) in the group names with slashes (@samp{/})---which means that
6843 the functions will generate hierarchies of directories instead of having
6844 all the files in the top level directory
6845 (@file{~/News/alt/andrea-dworkin} instead of
6846 @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.) This variable is @code{t} by default
6847 on most systems. However, for historical reasons, this is @code{nil} on
6848 Xenix and usg-unix-v machines by default.
6850 This function also affects kill and score file names. If this variable
6851 is a list, and the list contains the element @code{not-score}, long file
6852 names will not be used for score files, if it contains the element
6853 @code{not-save}, long file names will not be used for saving, and if it
6854 contains the element @code{not-kill}, long file names will not be used
6857 If you'd like to save articles in a hierarchy that looks something like
6861 (setq gnus-use-long-file-name '(not-save)) ; to get a hierarchy
6862 (setq gnus-default-article-saver
6863 'gnus-summary-save-in-file) ; no encoding
6866 Then just save with @kbd{o}. You'd then read this hierarchy with
6867 ephemeral @code{nneething} groups---@kbd{G D} in the group buffer, and
6868 the top level directory as the argument (@file{~/News/}). Then just walk
6869 around to the groups/directories with @code{nneething}.
6872 @node Decoding Articles
6873 @section Decoding Articles
6874 @cindex decoding articles
6876 Sometime users post articles (or series of articles) that have been
6877 encoded in some way or other. Gnus can decode them for you.
6880 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
6881 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
6882 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
6883 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
6884 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
6885 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
6889 @cindex article series
6890 All these functions use the process/prefix convention
6891 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) for finding out what articles to work on, with
6892 the extension that a ``single article'' means ``a single series''. Gnus
6893 can find out by itself what articles belong to a series, decode all the
6894 articles and unpack/view/save the resulting file(s).
6896 Gnus guesses what articles are in the series according to the following
6897 simplish rule: The subjects must be (nearly) identical, except for the
6898 last two numbers of the line. (Spaces are largely ignored, however.)
6900 For example: If you choose a subject called @samp{cat.gif (2/3)}, Gnus
6901 will find all the articles that match the regexp @samp{^cat.gif
6902 ([0-9]+/[0-9]+).*$}.
6904 Subjects that are non-standard, like @samp{cat.gif (2/3) Part 6 of a
6905 series}, will not be properly recognized by any of the automatic viewing
6906 commands, and you have to mark the articles manually with @kbd{#}.
6909 @node Uuencoded Articles
6910 @subsection Uuencoded Articles
6912 @cindex uuencoded articles
6917 @kindex X u (Summary)
6918 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu
6919 @c @icon{gnus-uu-decode-uu}
6920 Uudecodes the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}).
6923 @kindex X U (Summary)
6924 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save
6925 Uudecodes and saves the current series
6926 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
6929 @kindex X v u (Summary)
6930 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-view
6931 Uudecodes and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-view}).
6934 @kindex X v U (Summary)
6935 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view
6936 Uudecodes, views and saves the current series
6937 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view}).
6941 Remember that these all react to the presence of articles marked with
6942 the process mark. If, for instance, you'd like to decode and save an
6943 entire newsgroup, you'd typically do @kbd{M P a}
6944 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-all}) and then @kbd{X U}
6945 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
6947 All this is very much different from how @code{gnus-uu} worked with
6948 @sc{gnus 4.1}, where you had explicit keystrokes for everything under
6949 the sun. This version of @code{gnus-uu} generally assumes that you mark
6950 articles in some way (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}) and then press
6953 @vindex gnus-uu-notify-files
6954 Note: When trying to decode articles that have names matching
6955 @code{gnus-uu-notify-files}, which is hard-coded to
6956 @samp{[Cc][Ii][Nn][Dd][Yy][0-9]+.\\(gif\\|jpg\\)}, @code{gnus-uu} will
6957 automatically post an article on @samp{comp.unix.wizards} saying that
6958 you have just viewed the file in question. This feature can't be turned
6962 @node Shell Archives
6963 @subsection Shell Archives
6965 @cindex shell archives
6966 @cindex shared articles
6968 Shell archives (``shar files'') used to be a popular way to distribute
6969 sources, but it isn't used all that much today. In any case, we have
6970 some commands to deal with these:
6975 @kindex X s (Summary)
6976 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar
6977 Unshars the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar}).
6980 @kindex X S (Summary)
6981 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save
6982 Unshars and saves the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save}).
6985 @kindex X v s (Summary)
6986 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view
6987 Unshars and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view}).
6990 @kindex X v S (Summary)
6991 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view
6992 Unshars, views and saves the current series
6993 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view}).
6997 @node PostScript Files
6998 @subsection PostScript Files
7004 @kindex X p (Summary)
7005 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript
7006 Unpack the current PostScript series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript}).
7009 @kindex X P (Summary)
7010 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save
7011 Unpack and save the current PostScript series
7012 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save}).
7015 @kindex X v p (Summary)
7016 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view
7017 View the current PostScript series
7018 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view}).
7021 @kindex X v P (Summary)
7022 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view
7023 View and save the current PostScript series
7024 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view}).
7029 @subsection Other Files
7033 @kindex X o (Summary)
7034 @findex gnus-uu-decode-save
7035 Save the current series
7036 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-save}).
7039 @kindex X b (Summary)
7040 @findex gnus-uu-decode-binhex
7041 Unbinhex the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-binhex}). This
7042 doesn't really work yet.
7046 @node Decoding Variables
7047 @subsection Decoding Variables
7049 Adjective, not verb.
7052 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
7053 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
7054 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
7058 @node Rule Variables
7059 @subsubsection Rule Variables
7060 @cindex rule variables
7062 Gnus uses @dfn{rule variables} to decide how to view a file. All these
7063 variables are of the form
7066 (list '(regexp1 command2)
7073 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules
7074 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules
7076 This variable is consulted first when viewing files. If you wish to use,
7077 for instance, @code{sox} to convert an @samp{.au} sound file, you could
7080 (setq gnus-uu-user-view-rules
7081 (list '("\\\\.au$" "sox %s -t .aiff > /dev/audio")))
7084 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
7085 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
7086 This variable is consulted if Gnus couldn't make any matches from the
7087 user and default view rules.
7089 @item gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
7090 @vindex gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
7091 This variable can be used to say what commands should be used to unpack
7096 @node Other Decode Variables
7097 @subsubsection Other Decode Variables
7100 @vindex gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
7102 @item gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
7103 All functions in this list will be called right after each file has been
7104 successfully decoded---so that you can move or view files right away,
7105 and don't have to wait for all files to be decoded before you can do
7106 anything. Ready-made functions you can put in this list are:
7110 @item gnus-uu-grab-view
7111 @findex gnus-uu-grab-view
7114 @item gnus-uu-grab-move
7115 @findex gnus-uu-grab-move
7116 Move the file (if you're using a saving function.)
7119 @item gnus-uu-be-dangerous
7120 @vindex gnus-uu-be-dangerous
7121 Specifies what to do if unusual situations arise during decoding. If
7122 @code{nil}, be as conservative as possible. If @code{t}, ignore things
7123 that didn't work, and overwrite existing files. Otherwise, ask each
7126 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
7127 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
7128 Files with name matching this regular expression won't be viewed.
7130 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
7131 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
7132 Files with a @sc{mime} type matching this variable won't be viewed.
7133 Note that Gnus tries to guess what type the file is based on the name.
7134 @code{gnus-uu} is not a @sc{mime} package (yet), so this is slightly
7137 @item gnus-uu-tmp-dir
7138 @vindex gnus-uu-tmp-dir
7139 Where @code{gnus-uu} does its work.
7141 @item gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
7142 @vindex gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
7143 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} won't peek inside archives
7144 looking for files to display.
7146 @item gnus-uu-view-and-save
7147 @vindex gnus-uu-view-and-save
7148 Non-@code{nil} means that the user will always be asked to save a file
7151 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
7152 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
7153 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default viewing
7156 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
7157 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
7158 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default archive
7161 @item gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
7162 @vindex gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
7163 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will strip all carriage returns
7166 @item gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
7167 @vindex gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
7168 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will mark unsuccessfully
7169 decoded articles as unread.
7171 @item gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
7172 @vindex gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
7173 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will @emph{try} to fix
7174 uuencoded files that have had trailing spaces deleted.
7176 @item gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
7177 @vindex gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
7178 Hook run before sending a message to @code{uudecode}.
7180 @item gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
7181 @vindex gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
7183 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the viewing
7184 commands defined by the rule variables and just fudge a @sc{mime}
7185 content type based on the file name. The result will be fed to
7186 @code{metamail} for viewing.
7188 @item gnus-uu-save-in-digest
7189 @vindex gnus-uu-save-in-digest
7190 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu}, when asked to save without
7191 decoding, will save in digests. If this variable is @code{nil},
7192 @code{gnus-uu} will just save everything in a file without any
7193 embellishments. The digesting almost conforms to RFC 1153---no easy way
7194 to specify any meaningful volume and issue numbers were found, so I
7195 simply dropped them.
7200 @node Uuencoding and Posting
7201 @subsubsection Uuencoding and Posting
7205 @item gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
7206 @vindex gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
7207 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ask for a file to encode
7208 before you compose the article. If this variable is @code{t}, you can
7209 either include an encoded file with @kbd{C-c C-i} or have one included
7210 for you when you post the article.
7212 @item gnus-uu-post-length
7213 @vindex gnus-uu-post-length
7214 Maximum length of an article. The encoded file will be split into how
7215 many articles it takes to post the entire file.
7217 @item gnus-uu-post-threaded
7218 @vindex gnus-uu-post-threaded
7219 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will post the encoded file in a
7220 thread. This may not be smart, as no other decoder I have seen is able
7221 to follow threads when collecting uuencoded articles. (Well, I have
7222 seen one package that does that---@code{gnus-uu}, but somehow, I don't
7223 think that counts...) Default is @code{nil}.
7225 @item gnus-uu-post-separate-description
7226 @vindex gnus-uu-post-separate-description
7227 Non-@code{nil} means that the description will be posted in a separate
7228 article. The first article will typically be numbered (0/x). If this
7229 variable is @code{nil}, the description the user enters will be included
7230 at the beginning of the first article, which will be numbered (1/x).
7231 Default is @code{t}.
7237 @subsection Viewing Files
7238 @cindex viewing files
7239 @cindex pseudo-articles
7241 After decoding, if the file is some sort of archive, Gnus will attempt
7242 to unpack the archive and see if any of the files in the archive can be
7243 viewed. For instance, if you have a gzipped tar file @file{pics.tar.gz}
7244 containing the files @file{pic1.jpg} and @file{pic2.gif}, Gnus will
7245 uncompress and de-tar the main file, and then view the two pictures.
7246 This unpacking process is recursive, so if the archive contains archives
7247 of archives, it'll all be unpacked.
7249 Finally, Gnus will normally insert a @dfn{pseudo-article} for each
7250 extracted file into the summary buffer. If you go to these
7251 ``articles'', you will be prompted for a command to run (usually Gnus
7252 will make a suggestion), and then the command will be run.
7254 @vindex gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously
7255 If @code{gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously} is @code{nil}, Emacs will wait
7256 until the viewing is done before proceeding.
7258 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos
7259 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos} is @code{automatic}, Gnus will not insert
7260 the pseudo-articles into the summary buffer, but view them
7261 immediately. If this variable is @code{not-confirm}, the user won't even
7262 be asked for a confirmation before viewing is done.
7264 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos-separately
7265 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos-separately} is non-@code{nil}, one
7266 pseudo-article will be created for each file to be viewed. If
7267 @code{nil}, all files that use the same viewing command will be given as
7268 a list of parameters to that command.
7270 @vindex gnus-insert-pseudo-articles
7271 If @code{gnus-insert-pseudo-articles} is non-@code{nil}, insert
7272 pseudo-articles when decoding. It is @code{t} by default.
7274 So; there you are, reading your @emph{pseudo-articles} in your
7275 @emph{virtual newsgroup} from the @emph{virtual server}; and you think:
7276 Why isn't anything real anymore? How did we get here?
7279 @node Article Treatment
7280 @section Article Treatment
7282 Reading through this huge manual, you may have quite forgotten that the
7283 object of newsreaders is to actually, like, read what people have
7284 written. Reading articles. Unfortunately, people are quite bad at
7285 writing, so there are tons of functions and variables to make reading
7286 these articles easier.
7289 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
7290 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
7291 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
7292 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
7293 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
7294 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
7295 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
7296 * Article Miscellania:: Various other stuff.
7300 @node Article Highlighting
7301 @subsection Article Highlighting
7302 @cindex highlighting
7304 Not only do you want your article buffer to look like fruit salad, but
7305 you want it to look like technicolor fruit salad.
7310 @kindex W H a (Summary)
7311 @findex gnus-article-highlight
7312 @findex gnus-article-maybe-highlight
7313 Do much highlighting of the current article
7314 (@code{gnus-article-highlight}). This function highlights header, cited
7315 text, the signature, and adds buttons to the body and the head.
7318 @kindex W H h (Summary)
7319 @findex gnus-article-highlight-headers
7320 @vindex gnus-header-face-alist
7321 Highlight the headers (@code{gnus-article-highlight-headers}). The
7322 highlighting will be done according to the @code{gnus-header-face-alist}
7323 variable, which is a list where each element has the form
7324 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{name} @var{content})}.
7325 @var{regexp} is a regular expression for matching the
7326 header, @var{name} is the face used for highlighting the header name
7327 (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}) and @var{content} is the face for highlighting
7328 the header value. The first match made will be used. Note that
7329 @var{regexp} shouldn't have @samp{^} prepended---Gnus will add one.
7332 @kindex W H c (Summary)
7333 @findex gnus-article-highlight-citation
7334 Highlight cited text (@code{gnus-article-highlight-citation}).
7336 Some variables to customize the citation highlights:
7339 @vindex gnus-cite-parse-max-size
7341 @item gnus-cite-parse-max-size
7342 If the article size if bigger than this variable (which is 25000 by
7343 default), no citation highlighting will be performed.
7345 @item gnus-cite-max-prefix
7346 @vindex gnus-cite-max-prefix
7347 Maximum possible length for a citation prefix (default 20).
7349 @item gnus-cite-face-list
7350 @vindex gnus-cite-face-list
7351 List of faces used for highlighting citations (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}).
7352 When there are citations from multiple articles in the same message,
7353 Gnus will try to give each citation from each article its own face.
7354 This should make it easier to see who wrote what.
7356 @item gnus-supercite-regexp
7357 @vindex gnus-supercite-regexp
7358 Regexp matching normal Supercite attribution lines.
7360 @item gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
7361 @vindex gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
7362 Regexp matching mangled Supercite attribution lines.
7364 @item gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
7365 @vindex gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
7366 Minimum number of identical prefixes we have to see before we believe
7367 that it's a citation.
7369 @item gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
7370 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
7371 Regexp matching the beginning of an attribution line.
7373 @item gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
7374 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
7375 Regexp matching the end of an attribution line.
7377 @item gnus-cite-attribution-face
7378 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-face
7379 Face used for attribution lines. It is merged with the face for the
7380 cited text belonging to the attribution.
7386 @kindex W H s (Summary)
7387 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
7388 @vindex gnus-signature-face
7389 @findex gnus-article-highlight-signature
7390 Highlight the signature (@code{gnus-article-highlight-signature}).
7391 Everything after @code{gnus-signature-separator} (@pxref{Article
7392 Signature}) in an article will be considered a signature and will be
7393 highlighted with @code{gnus-signature-face}, which is @code{italic} by
7398 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to highlight articles automatically.
7401 @node Article Fontisizing
7402 @subsection Article Fontisizing
7404 @cindex article emphasis
7406 @findex gnus-article-emphasize
7407 @kindex W e (Summary)
7408 People commonly add emphasis to words in news articles by writing things
7409 like @samp{_this_} or @samp{*this*} or @samp{/this/}. Gnus can make
7410 this look nicer by running the article through the @kbd{W e}
7411 (@code{gnus-article-emphasize}) command.
7413 @vindex gnus-emphasis-alist
7414 How the emphasis is computed is controlled by the
7415 @code{gnus-emphasis-alist} variable. This is an alist where the first
7416 element is a regular expression to be matched. The second is a number
7417 that says what regular expression grouping is used to find the entire
7418 emphasized word. The third is a number that says what regexp grouping
7419 should be displayed and highlighted. (The text between these two
7420 groupings will be hidden.) The fourth is the face used for
7424 (setq gnus-emphasis-alist
7425 '(("_\\(\\w+\\)_" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-underline)
7426 ("\\*\\(\\w+\\)\\*" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-bold)))
7435 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline
7436 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold
7437 @vindex gnus-emphasis-italic
7438 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold
7439 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-italic
7440 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold-italic
7441 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic
7442 By default, there are seven rules, and they use the following faces:
7443 @code{gnus-emphasis-bold}, @code{gnus-emphasis-italic},
7444 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline}, @code{gnus-emphasis-bold-italic},
7445 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-italic},
7446 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold}, and
7447 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic}.
7449 If you want to change these faces, you can either use @kbd{M-x
7450 customize}, or you can use @code{copy-face}. For instance, if you want
7451 to make @code{gnus-emphasis-italic} use a red face instead, you could
7455 (copy-face 'red 'gnus-emphasis-italic)
7458 @vindex gnus-group-highlight-words-alist
7460 If you want to highlight arbitrary words, you can use the
7461 @code{gnus-group-highlight-words-alist} variable, which uses the same
7462 syntax as @code{gnus-emphasis-alist}. The @code{highlight-words} group
7463 parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) can also be used.
7465 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to fontize articles automatically.
7468 @node Article Hiding
7469 @subsection Article Hiding
7470 @cindex article hiding
7472 Or rather, hiding certain things in each article. There usually is much
7473 too much cruft in most articles.
7478 @kindex W W a (Summary)
7479 @findex gnus-article-hide
7480 Do quite a lot of hiding on the article buffer
7481 (@kbd{gnus-article-hide}). In particular, this function will hide
7482 headers, PGP, cited text and the signature.
7485 @kindex W W h (Summary)
7486 @findex gnus-article-hide-headers
7487 Hide headers (@code{gnus-article-hide-headers}). @xref{Hiding
7491 @kindex W W b (Summary)
7492 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
7493 Hide headers that aren't particularly interesting
7494 (@code{gnus-article-hide-boring-headers}). @xref{Hiding Headers}.
7497 @kindex W W s (Summary)
7498 @findex gnus-article-hide-signature
7499 Hide signature (@code{gnus-article-hide-signature}). @xref{Article
7503 @kindex W W l (Summary)
7504 @findex gnus-article-hide-list-identifiers
7505 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
7506 Strip list identifiers specified in @code{gnus-list-identifiers}. These
7507 are strings some mailing list servers add to the beginning of all
7508 @code{Subject} headers---for example, @samp{[zebra 4711]}. Any leading
7509 @samp{Re: } is skipped before stripping. @code{gnus-list-identifiers}
7510 may not contain @code{\\(..\\)}.
7514 @item gnus-list-identifiers
7515 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
7516 A regular expression that matches list identifiers to be removed from
7517 subject. This can also be a list of regular expressions.
7522 @kindex W W p (Summary)
7523 @findex gnus-article-hide-pgp
7524 @vindex gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook
7525 Hide @sc{pgp} signatures (@code{gnus-article-hide-pgp}). The
7526 @code{gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook} hook will be run after a @sc{pgp}
7527 signature has been hidden. For example, to automatically verify
7528 articles that have signatures in them do:
7530 ;;; Hide pgp cruft if any.
7532 (setq gnus-treat-strip-pgp t)
7534 ;;; After hiding pgp, verify the message;
7535 ;;; only happens if pgp signature is found.
7537 (add-hook 'gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook
7540 (set-buffer gnus-original-article-buffer)
7545 @kindex W W P (Summary)
7546 @findex gnus-article-hide-pem
7547 Hide @sc{pem} (privacy enhanced messages) cruft
7548 (@code{gnus-article-hide-pem}).
7551 @kindex W W B (Summary)
7552 @findex gnus-article-strip-banner
7555 @cindex stripping advertisements
7556 @cindex advertisements
7557 Strip the banner specified by the @code{banner} group parameter
7558 (@code{gnus-article-strip-banner}). This is mainly used to hide those
7559 annoying banners and/or signatures that some mailing lists and moderated
7560 groups adds to all the messages. The way to use this function is to add
7561 the @code{banner} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to the
7562 group you want banners stripped from. The parameter either be a string,
7563 which will be interpreted as a regular expression matching text to be
7564 removed, or the symbol @code{signature}, meaning that the (last)
7565 signature should be removed, or other symbol, meaning that the
7566 corresponding regular expression in @code{gnus-article-banner-alist} is
7570 @kindex W W c (Summary)
7571 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation
7572 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation}). Some variables for
7573 customizing the hiding:
7577 @item gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
7578 @itemx gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
7579 @vindex gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
7580 @vindex gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
7581 Gnus adds buttons to show where the cited text has been hidden, and to
7582 allow toggle hiding the text. The format of the variable is specified
7583 by these format-like variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}). These
7588 Starting point of the hidden text.
7590 Ending point of the hidden text.
7592 Number of characters in the hidden region.
7594 Number of lines of hidden text.
7597 @item gnus-cited-lines-visible
7598 @vindex gnus-cited-lines-visible
7599 The number of lines at the beginning of the cited text to leave
7600 shown. This can also be a cons cell with the number of lines at the top
7601 and bottom of the text, respectively, to remain visible.
7606 @kindex W W C-c (Summary)
7607 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe
7609 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe}) depending on the
7610 following two variables:
7613 @item gnus-cite-hide-percentage
7614 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-percentage
7615 If the cited text is of a bigger percentage than this variable (default
7616 50), hide the cited text.
7618 @item gnus-cite-hide-absolute
7619 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-absolute
7620 The cited text must have at least this length (default 10) before it
7625 @kindex W W C (Summary)
7626 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups
7627 Hide cited text in articles that aren't roots
7628 (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups}). This isn't very
7629 useful as an interactive command, but might be a handy function to stick
7630 have happen automatically (@pxref{Customizing Articles}).
7634 All these ``hiding'' commands are toggles, but if you give a negative
7635 prefix to these commands, they will show what they have previously
7636 hidden. If you give a positive prefix, they will always hide.
7638 Also @pxref{Article Highlighting} for further variables for
7639 citation customization.
7641 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to hide article elements
7645 @node Article Washing
7646 @subsection Article Washing
7648 @cindex article washing
7650 We call this ``article washing'' for a really good reason. Namely, the
7651 @kbd{A} key was taken, so we had to use the @kbd{W} key instead.
7653 @dfn{Washing} is defined by us as ``changing something from something to
7654 something else'', but normally results in something looking better.
7657 @xref{Customizing Articles}, if you want to change how Gnus displays
7658 articles by default.
7663 This is not really washing, it's sort of the opposite of washing. If
7664 you type this, you see the article exactly as it exists on disk or on
7668 @kindex W l (Summary)
7669 @findex gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking
7670 Remove page breaks from the current article
7671 (@code{gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking}). @xref{Misc Article}, for page
7675 @kindex W r (Summary)
7676 @findex gnus-summary-caesar-message
7677 @c @icon{gnus-summary-caesar-message}
7678 Do a Caesar rotate (rot13) on the article buffer
7679 (@code{gnus-summary-caesar-message}).
7680 Unreadable articles that tell you to read them with Caesar rotate or rot13.
7681 (Typically offensive jokes and such.)
7683 It's commonly called ``rot13'' because each letter is rotated 13
7684 positions in the alphabet, e. g. @samp{B} (letter #2) -> @samp{O} (letter
7685 #15). It is sometimes referred to as ``Caesar rotate'' because Caesar
7686 is rumored to have employed this form of, uh, somewhat weak encryption.
7690 @kindex W t (Summary)
7692 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-header
7693 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer
7694 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-header}).
7697 @kindex W v (Summary)
7698 @findex gnus-summary-verbose-header
7699 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer permanently
7700 (@code{gnus-summary-verbose-header}).
7703 @kindex W o (Summary)
7704 @findex gnus-article-treat-overstrike
7705 Treat overstrike (@code{gnus-article-treat-overstrike}).
7708 @kindex W d (Summary)
7709 @findex gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes
7710 @vindex gnus-article-dumbquotes-map
7712 @cindex M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s
7714 Treat M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s according to
7715 @code{gnus-article-dumbquotes-map}
7716 (@code{gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes}). Note that this function guesses
7717 whether a character is a sm*rtq**t* or not, so it should only be used
7720 Sm*rtq**t*s are M****s***'s unilateral extension to the character map in
7721 an attempt to provide more quoting characters. If you see something
7722 like @code{\222} or @code{\264} where you're expecting some kind of
7723 apostrophe or quotation mark, then try this wash.
7726 @kindex W w (Summary)
7727 @findex gnus-article-fill-cited-article
7728 Do word wrap (@code{gnus-article-fill-cited-article}).
7730 You can give the command a numerical prefix to specify the width to use
7734 @kindex W Q (Summary)
7735 @findex gnus-article-fill-long-lines
7736 Fill long lines (@code{gnus-article-fill-long-lines}).
7739 @kindex W C (Summary)
7740 @findex gnus-article-capitalize-sentences
7741 Capitalize the first word in each sentence
7742 (@code{gnus-article-capitalize-sentences}).
7745 @kindex W c (Summary)
7746 @findex gnus-article-remove-cr
7747 Translate CRLF pairs (i. e., @samp{^M}s on the end of the lines) into LF
7748 (this takes care of DOS line endings), and then translate any remaining
7749 CRs into LF (this takes care of Mac line endings)
7750 (@code{gnus-article-remove-cr}).
7753 @kindex W q (Summary)
7754 @findex gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable
7755 Treat quoted-printable (@code{gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable}).
7756 Quoted-Printable is one common @sc{mime} encoding employed when sending
7757 non-ASCII (i. e., 8-bit) articles. It typically makes strings like
7758 @samp{déjà vu} look like @samp{d=E9j=E0 vu}, which doesn't look very
7759 readable to me. Note that the this is usually done automatically by
7760 Gnus if the message in question has a @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding}
7761 header that says that this encoding has been done.
7762 If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
7765 @kindex W 6 (Summary)
7766 @findex gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable
7767 Treat base64 (@code{gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable}).
7768 Base64 is one common @sc{mime} encoding employed when sending non-ASCII
7769 (i. e., 8-bit) articles. Note that the this is usually done
7770 automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
7771 @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding} header that says that this encoding has
7773 If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
7776 @kindex W Z (Summary)
7777 @findex gnus-article-decode-HZ
7778 Treat HZ or HZP (@code{gnus-article-decode-HZ}). HZ (or HZP) is one
7779 common encoding employed when sending Chinese articles. It typically
7780 makes strings look like @samp{~@{<:Ky2;S@{#,NpJ)l6HK!#~@}}.
7783 @kindex W h (Summary)
7784 @findex gnus-article-wash-html
7785 Treat HTML (@code{gnus-article-wash-html}).
7786 Note that the this is usually done automatically by Gnus if the message
7787 in question has a @code{Content-Type} header that says that this type
7789 If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
7792 @kindex W f (Summary)
7794 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
7795 @findex gnus-article-x-face-command
7796 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-command
7797 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly
7804 Look for and display any X-Face headers
7805 (@code{gnus-article-display-x-face}). The command executed by this
7806 function is given by the @code{gnus-article-x-face-command} variable.
7807 If this variable is a string, this string will be executed in a
7808 sub-shell. If it is a function, this function will be called with the
7809 face as the argument. If the @code{gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly} (which
7810 is a regexp) matches the @code{From} header, the face will not be shown.
7811 The default action under Emacs is to fork off the @code{display}
7812 program@footnote{@code{display} is from the ImageMagick package. For the
7813 @code{uncompface} and @code{icontopbm} programs look for a package
7814 like `compface' or `faces-xface' on a GNU/Linux system.}
7815 to view the face. Under XEmacs or Emacs 21+ with suitable image
7816 support, the default action is to display the face before the
7817 @code{From} header. (It's nicer if XEmacs has been compiled with X-Face
7818 support---that will make display somewhat faster. If there's no native
7819 X-Face support, Gnus will try to convert the @code{X-Face} header using
7820 external programs from the @code{pbmplus} package and
7821 friends.@footnote{On a GNU/Linux system look for packages with names
7822 like @code{netpbm} or @code{libgr-progs}.}) If you
7823 want to have this function in the display hook, it should probably come
7827 @kindex W b (Summary)
7828 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons
7829 Add clickable buttons to the article (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons}).
7830 @xref{Article Buttons}.
7833 @kindex W B (Summary)
7834 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head
7835 Add clickable buttons to the article headers
7836 (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head}).
7839 @kindex W p (Summary)
7840 @findex gnus-article-verify-x-pgp-sig
7841 Verify a signed control message (@code{gnus-article-verify-x-pgp-sig}).
7842 Control messages such as @code{newgroup} and @code{checkgroups} are
7843 usually signed by the hierarchy maintainer. You need to add the PGP
7844 public key of the maintainer to your keyring to verify the
7845 message.@footnote{PGP keys for many hierarchies are available at
7846 @uref{ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/pgpcontrol/README.html}}
7849 @kindex W W H (Summary)
7850 @findex gnus-article-strip-headers-from-body
7851 Strip headers like the @code{X-No-Archive} header from the beginning of
7852 article bodies (@code{gnus-article-strip-headers-from-body}).
7855 @kindex W E l (Summary)
7856 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines
7857 Remove all blank lines from the beginning of the article
7858 (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines}).
7861 @kindex W E m (Summary)
7862 @findex gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines
7863 Replace all blank lines with empty lines and then all multiple empty
7864 lines with a single empty line.
7865 (@code{gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines}).
7868 @kindex W E t (Summary)
7869 @findex gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines
7870 Remove all blank lines at the end of the article
7871 (@code{gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines}).
7874 @kindex W E a (Summary)
7875 @findex gnus-article-strip-blank-lines
7876 Do all the three commands above
7877 (@code{gnus-article-strip-blank-lines}).
7880 @kindex W E A (Summary)
7881 @findex gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines
7882 Remove all blank lines
7883 (@code{gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines}).
7886 @kindex W E s (Summary)
7887 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-space
7888 Remove all white space from the beginning of all lines of the article
7889 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-space}).
7892 @kindex W E e (Summary)
7893 @findex gnus-article-strip-trailing-space
7894 Remove all white space from the end of all lines of the article
7895 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-trailing-space}).
7899 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to wash articles automatically.
7902 @node Article Buttons
7903 @subsection Article Buttons
7906 People often include references to other stuff in articles, and it would
7907 be nice if Gnus could just fetch whatever it is that people talk about
7908 with the minimum of fuzz when you hit @kbd{RET} or use the middle mouse
7909 button on these references.
7911 Gnus adds @dfn{buttons} to certain standard references by default:
7912 Well-formed URLs, mail addresses and Message-IDs. This is controlled by
7913 two variables, one that handles article bodies and one that handles
7918 @item gnus-button-alist
7919 @vindex gnus-button-alist
7920 This is an alist where each entry has this form:
7923 (REGEXP BUTTON-PAR USE-P FUNCTION DATA-PAR)
7929 All text that match this regular expression will be considered an
7930 external reference. Here's a typical regexp that matches embedded URLs:
7931 @samp{<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>}.
7934 Gnus has to know which parts of the matches is to be highlighted. This
7935 is a number that says what sub-expression of the regexp is to be
7936 highlighted. If you want it all highlighted, you use 0 here.
7939 This form will be @code{eval}ed, and if the result is non-@code{nil},
7940 this is considered a match. This is useful if you want extra sifting to
7941 avoid false matches.
7944 This function will be called when you click on this button.
7947 As with @var{button-par}, this is a sub-expression number, but this one
7948 says which part of the match is to be sent as data to @var{function}.
7952 So the full entry for buttonizing URLs is then
7955 ("<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>" 0 t gnus-button-url 1)
7958 @item gnus-header-button-alist
7959 @vindex gnus-header-button-alist
7960 This is just like the other alist, except that it is applied to the
7961 article head only, and that each entry has an additional element that is
7962 used to say what headers to apply the buttonize coding to:
7965 (HEADER REGEXP BUTTON-PAR USE-P FUNCTION DATA-PAR)
7968 @var{header} is a regular expression.
7970 @item gnus-button-url-regexp
7971 @vindex gnus-button-url-regexp
7972 A regular expression that matches embedded URLs. It is used in the
7973 default values of the variables above.
7975 @item gnus-article-button-face
7976 @vindex gnus-article-button-face
7977 Face used on buttons.
7979 @item gnus-article-mouse-face
7980 @vindex gnus-article-mouse-face
7981 Face used when the mouse cursor is over a button.
7985 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to buttonize articles automatically.
7989 @subsection Article Date
7991 The date is most likely generated in some obscure timezone you've never
7992 heard of, so it's quite nice to be able to find out what the time was
7993 when the article was sent.
7998 @kindex W T u (Summary)
7999 @findex gnus-article-date-ut
8000 Display the date in UT (aka. GMT, aka ZULU)
8001 (@code{gnus-article-date-ut}).
8004 @kindex W T i (Summary)
8005 @findex gnus-article-date-iso8601
8007 Display the date in international format, aka. ISO 8601
8008 (@code{gnus-article-date-iso8601}).
8011 @kindex W T l (Summary)
8012 @findex gnus-article-date-local
8013 Display the date in the local timezone (@code{gnus-article-date-local}).
8016 @kindex W T p (Summary)
8017 @findex gnus-article-date-english
8018 Display the date in a format that's easily pronounceable in English
8019 (@code{gnus-article-date-english}).
8022 @kindex W T s (Summary)
8023 @vindex gnus-article-time-format
8024 @findex gnus-article-date-user
8025 @findex format-time-string
8026 Display the date using a user-defined format
8027 (@code{gnus-article-date-user}). The format is specified by the
8028 @code{gnus-article-time-format} variable, and is a string that's passed
8029 to @code{format-time-string}. See the documentation of that variable
8030 for a list of possible format specs.
8033 @kindex W T e (Summary)
8034 @findex gnus-article-date-lapsed
8035 @findex gnus-start-date-timer
8036 @findex gnus-stop-date-timer
8037 Say how much time has elapsed between the article was posted and now
8038 (@code{gnus-article-date-lapsed}). It looks something like:
8041 X-Sent: 6 weeks, 4 days, 1 hour, 3 minutes, 8 seconds ago
8044 The value of @code{gnus-article-date-lapsed-new-header} determines
8045 whether this header will just be added below the old Date one, or will
8048 An advantage of using Gnus to read mail is that it converts simple bugs
8049 into wonderful absurdities.
8051 If you want to have this line updated continually, you can put
8054 (gnus-start-date-timer)
8057 in your @file{.gnus.el} file, or you can run it off of some hook. If
8058 you want to stop the timer, you can use the @code{gnus-stop-date-timer}
8062 @kindex W T o (Summary)
8063 @findex gnus-article-date-original
8064 Display the original date (@code{gnus-article-date-original}). This can
8065 be useful if you normally use some other conversion function and are
8066 worried that it might be doing something totally wrong. Say, claiming
8067 that the article was posted in 1854. Although something like that is
8068 @emph{totally} impossible. Don't you trust me? *titter*
8072 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to display the date in your
8073 preferred format automatically.
8076 @node Article Signature
8077 @subsection Article Signature
8079 @cindex article signature
8081 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
8082 Each article is divided into two parts---the head and the body. The
8083 body can be divided into a signature part and a text part. The variable
8084 that says what is to be considered a signature is
8085 @code{gnus-signature-separator}. This is normally the standard
8086 @samp{^-- $} as mandated by son-of-RFC 1036. However, many people use
8087 non-standard signature separators, so this variable can also be a list
8088 of regular expressions to be tested, one by one. (Searches are done
8089 from the end of the body towards the beginning.) One likely value is:
8092 (setq gnus-signature-separator
8093 '("^-- $" ; The standard
8094 "^-- *$" ; A common mangling
8095 "^-------*$" ; Many people just use a looong
8096 ; line of dashes. Shame!
8097 "^ *--------*$" ; Double-shame!
8098 "^________*$" ; Underscores are also popular
8099 "^========*$")) ; Pervert!
8102 The more permissive you are, the more likely it is that you'll get false
8105 @vindex gnus-signature-limit
8106 @code{gnus-signature-limit} provides a limit to what is considered a
8107 signature when displaying articles.
8111 If it is an integer, no signature may be longer (in characters) than
8114 If it is a floating point number, no signature may be longer (in lines)
8117 If it is a function, the function will be called without any parameters,
8118 and if it returns @code{nil}, there is no signature in the buffer.
8120 If it is a string, it will be used as a regexp. If it matches, the text
8121 in question is not a signature.
8124 This variable can also be a list where the elements may be of the types
8125 listed above. Here's an example:
8128 (setq gnus-signature-limit
8129 '(200.0 "^---*Forwarded article"))
8132 This means that if there are more than 200 lines after the signature
8133 separator, or the text after the signature separator is matched by
8134 the regular expression @samp{^---*Forwarded article}, then it isn't a
8135 signature after all.
8138 @node Article Miscellania
8139 @subsection Article Miscellania
8143 @kindex A t (Summary)
8144 @findex gnus-article-babel
8145 Translate the article from one language to another
8146 (@code{gnus-article-babel}).
8152 @section @sc{mime} Commands
8153 @cindex MIME decoding
8155 @cindex viewing attachments
8157 The following commands all understand the numerical prefix. For
8158 instance, @kbd{3 b} means ``view the third @sc{mime} part''.
8164 @kindex K v (Summary)
8165 View the @sc{mime} part.
8168 @kindex K o (Summary)
8169 Save the @sc{mime} part.
8172 @kindex K c (Summary)
8173 Copy the @sc{mime} part.
8176 @kindex K e (Summary)
8177 View the @sc{mime} part externally.
8180 @kindex K i (Summary)
8181 View the @sc{mime} part internally.
8184 @kindex K | (Summary)
8185 Pipe the @sc{mime} part to an external command.
8188 The rest of these @sc{mime} commands do not use the numerical prefix in
8193 @kindex K b (Summary)
8194 Make all the @sc{mime} parts have buttons in front of them. This is
8195 mostly useful if you wish to save (or perform other actions) on inlined
8199 @kindex K m (Summary)
8200 @findex gnus-summary-repair-multipart
8201 Some multipart messages are transmitted with missing or faulty headers.
8202 This command will attempt to ``repair'' these messages so that they can
8203 be viewed in a more pleasant manner
8204 (@code{gnus-summary-repair-multipart}).
8207 @kindex X m (Summary)
8208 @findex gnus-summary-save-parts
8209 Save all parts matching a @sc{mime} type to a directory
8210 (@code{gnus-summary-save-parts}). Understands the process/prefix
8211 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
8214 @kindex M-t (Summary)
8215 @findex gnus-summary-display-buttonized
8216 Toggle the buttonized display of the article buffer
8217 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-display-buttonized}).
8220 @kindex W M w (Summary)
8221 Decode RFC 2047-encoded words in the article headers
8222 (@code{gnus-article-decode-mime-words}).
8225 @kindex W M c (Summary)
8226 Decode encoded article bodies as well as charsets
8227 (@code{gnus-article-decode-charset}).
8229 This command looks in the @code{Content-Type} header to determine the
8230 charset. If there is no such header in the article, you can give it a
8231 prefix, which will prompt for the charset to decode as. In regional
8232 groups where people post using some common encoding (but do not include
8233 MIME headers), you can set the @code{charset} group/topic parameter to
8234 the required charset (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
8237 @kindex W M v (Summary)
8238 View all the @sc{mime} parts in the current article
8239 (@code{gnus-mime-view-all-parts}).
8246 @item gnus-ignored-mime-types
8247 @vindex gnus-ignored-mime-types
8248 This is a list of regexps. @sc{mime} types that match a regexp from
8249 this list will be completely ignored by Gnus. The default value is
8252 To have all Vcards be ignored, you'd say something like this:
8255 (setq gnus-ignored-mime-types
8259 @item gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
8260 @vindex gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
8261 This is a list of regexps. @sc{mime} types that match a regexp from
8262 this list won't have @sc{mime} buttons inserted unless they aren't
8263 displayed. The default value is @code{(".*/.*")}.
8265 @item gnus-article-mime-part-function
8266 @vindex gnus-article-mime-part-function
8267 For each @sc{mime} part, this function will be called with the @sc{mime}
8268 handle as the parameter. The function is meant to be used to allow
8269 users to gather information from the article (e. g., add Vcard info to
8270 the bbdb database) or to do actions based on parts (e. g., automatically
8271 save all jpegs into some directory).
8273 Here's an example function the does the latter:
8276 (defun my-save-all-jpeg-parts (handle)
8277 (when (equal (car (mm-handle-type handle)) "image/jpeg")
8279 (insert (mm-get-part handle))
8280 (write-region (point-min) (point-max)
8281 (read-file-name "Save jpeg to: ")))))
8282 (setq gnus-article-mime-part-function
8283 'my-save-all-jpeg-parts)
8286 @vindex gnus-mime-multipart-functions
8287 @item gnus-mime-multipart-functions
8288 Alist of @sc{mime} multipart types and functions to handle them.
8290 @vindex mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
8291 @item mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
8292 List of functions used for rewriting file names of @sc{mime} parts.
8293 Each function takes a file name as input and returns a file name.
8295 Ready-made functions include@*
8296 @code{mm-file-name-delete-whitespace},
8297 @code{mm-file-name-trim-whitespace},
8298 @code{mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace}, and
8299 @code{mm-file-name-replace-whitespace}. The later uses the value of
8300 the variable @code{mm-file-name-replace-whitespace} to replace each
8301 whitespace character in a file name with that string; default value
8302 is @code{"_"} (a single underscore).
8303 @findex mm-file-name-delete-whitespace
8304 @findex mm-file-name-trim-whitespace
8305 @findex mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace
8306 @findex mm-file-name-replace-whitespace
8307 @vindex mm-file-name-replace-whitespace
8309 The standard functions @code{capitalize}, @code{downcase},
8310 @code{upcase}, and @code{upcase-initials} may be useful, too.
8312 Everybody knows that whitespace characters in file names are evil,
8313 except those who don't know. If you receive lots of attachments from
8314 such unenlightened users, you can make live easier by adding
8317 (setq mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
8318 '(mm-file-name-trim-whitespace
8319 mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace
8320 mm-file-name-replace-whitespace))
8324 to your @file{.gnus} file.
8333 People use different charsets, and we have @sc{mime} to let us know what
8334 charsets they use. Or rather, we wish we had. Many people use
8335 newsreaders and mailers that do not understand or use @sc{mime}, and
8336 just send out messages without saying what character sets they use. To
8337 help a bit with this, some local news hierarchies have policies that say
8338 what character set is the default. For instance, the @samp{fj}
8339 hierarchy uses @code{iso-2022-jp-2}.
8341 @vindex gnus-group-charset-alist
8342 This knowledge is encoded in the @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}
8343 variable, which is an alist of regexps (use the first item to match full
8344 group names) and default charsets to be used when reading these groups.
8346 In addition, some people do use soi-disant @sc{mime}-aware agents that
8347 aren't. These blithely mark messages as being in @code{iso-8859-1} even
8348 if they really are in @code{koi-8}. To help here, the
8349 @code{gnus-newsgroup-ignored-charsets} variable can be used. The
8350 charsets that are listed here will be ignored. The variable can be set
8351 on a group-by-group basis using the group parameters (@pxref{Group
8352 Parameters}). The default value is @code{(unknown-8bit)}, which is
8353 something some agents insist on having in there.
8355 @vindex gnus-group-posting-charset-alist
8356 When posting, @code{gnus-group-posting-charset-alist} is used to
8357 determine which charsets should not be encoded using the @sc{mime}
8358 encodings. For instance, some hierarchies discourage using
8359 quoted-printable header encoding.
8361 This variable is an alist of regexps and permitted unencoded charsets
8362 for posting. Each element of the alist has the form @code{(}@var{test
8363 header body-list}@code{)}, where:
8367 is either a regular expression matching the newsgroup header or a
8370 is the charset which may be left unencoded in the header (@code{nil}
8371 means encode all charsets),
8373 is a list of charsets which may be encoded using 8bit content-transfer
8374 encoding in the body, or one of the special values @code{nil} (always
8375 encode using quoted-printable) or @code{t} (always use 8bit).
8382 @cindex coding system aliases
8383 @cindex preferred charset
8385 Other charset tricks that may be useful, although not Gnus-specific:
8387 If there are several @sc{mime} charsets that encode the same Emacs
8388 charset, you can choose what charset to use by saying the following:
8391 (put-charset-property 'cyrillic-iso8859-5
8392 'preferred-coding-system 'koi8-r)
8395 This means that Russian will be encoded using @code{koi8-r} instead of
8396 the default @code{iso-8859-5} @sc{mime} charset.
8398 If you want to read messages in @code{koi8-u}, you can cheat and say
8401 (define-coding-system-alias 'koi8-u 'koi8-r)
8404 This will almost do the right thing.
8406 And finally, to read charsets like @code{windows-1251}, you can say
8410 (codepage-setup 1251)
8411 (define-coding-system-alias 'windows-1251 'cp1251)
8415 @node Article Commands
8416 @section Article Commands
8423 @kindex A P (Summary)
8424 @vindex gnus-ps-print-hook
8425 @findex gnus-summary-print-article
8426 Generate and print a PostScript image of the article buffer
8427 (@code{gnus-summary-print-article}). @code{gnus-ps-print-hook} will be
8428 run just before printing the buffer.
8433 @node Summary Sorting
8434 @section Summary Sorting
8435 @cindex summary sorting
8437 You can have the summary buffer sorted in various ways, even though I
8438 can't really see why you'd want that.
8443 @kindex C-c C-s C-n (Summary)
8444 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-number
8445 Sort by article number (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-number}).
8448 @kindex C-c C-s C-a (Summary)
8449 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-author
8450 Sort by author (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-author}).
8453 @kindex C-c C-s C-s (Summary)
8454 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-subject
8455 Sort by subject (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-subject}).
8458 @kindex C-c C-s C-d (Summary)
8459 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-date
8460 Sort by date (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-date}).
8463 @kindex C-c C-s C-l (Summary)
8464 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-lines
8465 Sort by lines (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-lines}).
8468 @kindex C-c C-s C-c (Summary)
8469 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-chars
8470 Sort by article length (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-chars}).
8473 @kindex C-c C-s C-i (Summary)
8474 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-score
8475 Sort by score (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-score}).
8478 @kindex C-c C-s C-o (Summary)
8479 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-original
8480 Sort using the default sorting method
8481 (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-original}).
8484 These functions will work both when you use threading and when you don't
8485 use threading. In the latter case, all summary lines will be sorted,
8486 line by line. In the former case, sorting will be done on a
8487 root-by-root basis, which might not be what you were looking for. To
8488 toggle whether to use threading, type @kbd{T T} (@pxref{Thread
8492 @node Finding the Parent
8493 @section Finding the Parent
8494 @cindex parent articles
8495 @cindex referring articles
8500 @findex gnus-summary-refer-parent-article
8501 If you'd like to read the parent of the current article, and it is not
8502 displayed in the summary buffer, you might still be able to. That is,
8503 if the current group is fetched by @sc{nntp}, the parent hasn't expired
8504 and the @code{References} in the current article are not mangled, you
8505 can just press @kbd{^} or @kbd{A r}
8506 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-parent-article}). If everything goes well,
8507 you'll get the parent. If the parent is already displayed in the
8508 summary buffer, point will just move to this article.
8510 If given a positive numerical prefix, fetch that many articles back into
8511 the ancestry. If given a negative numerical prefix, fetch just that
8512 ancestor. So if you say @kbd{3 ^}, Gnus will fetch the parent, the
8513 grandparent and the grandgrandparent of the current article. If you say
8514 @kbd{-3 ^}, Gnus will only fetch the grandgrandparent of the current
8518 @findex gnus-summary-refer-references
8519 @kindex A R (Summary)
8520 Fetch all articles mentioned in the @code{References} header of the
8521 article (@code{gnus-summary-refer-references}).
8524 @findex gnus-summary-refer-thread
8525 @kindex A T (Summary)
8526 Display the full thread where the current article appears
8527 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-thread}). This command has to fetch all the
8528 headers in the current group to work, so it usually takes a while. If
8529 you do it often, you may consider setting @code{gnus-fetch-old-headers}
8530 to @code{invisible} (@pxref{Filling In Threads}). This won't have any
8531 visible effects normally, but it'll make this command work a whole lot
8532 faster. Of course, it'll make group entry somewhat slow.
8534 @vindex gnus-refer-thread-limit
8535 The @code{gnus-refer-thread-limit} variable says how many old (i. e.,
8536 articles before the first displayed in the current group) headers to
8537 fetch when doing this command. The default is 200. If @code{t}, all
8538 the available headers will be fetched. This variable can be overridden
8539 by giving the @kbd{A T} command a numerical prefix.
8542 @findex gnus-summary-refer-article
8543 @kindex M-^ (Summary)
8545 @cindex fetching by Message-ID
8546 You can also ask the @sc{nntp} server for an arbitrary article, no
8547 matter what group it belongs to. @kbd{M-^}
8548 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-article}) will ask you for a
8549 @code{Message-ID}, which is one of those long, hard-to-read thingies
8550 that look something like @samp{<38o6up$6f2@@hymir.ifi.uio.no>}. You
8551 have to get it all exactly right. No fuzzy searches, I'm afraid.
8554 The current select method will be used when fetching by
8555 @code{Message-ID} from non-news select method, but you can override this
8556 by giving this command a prefix.
8558 @vindex gnus-refer-article-method
8559 If the group you are reading is located on a backend that does not
8560 support fetching by @code{Message-ID} very well (like @code{nnspool}),
8561 you can set @code{gnus-refer-article-method} to an @sc{nntp} method. It
8562 would, perhaps, be best if the @sc{nntp} server you consult is the one
8563 updating the spool you are reading from, but that's not really
8566 It can also be a list of select methods, as well as the special symbol
8567 @code{current}, which means to use the current select method. If it
8568 is a list, Gnus will try all the methods in the list until it finds a
8571 Here's an example setting that will first try the current method, and
8572 then ask Deja if that fails:
8575 (setq gnus-refer-article-method
8577 (nnweb "refer" (nnweb-type dejanews))))
8580 Most of the mail backends support fetching by @code{Message-ID}, but do
8581 not do a particularly excellent job at it. That is, @code{nnmbox} and
8582 @code{nnbabyl} are able to locate articles from any groups, while
8583 @code{nnml} and @code{nnfolder} are only able to locate articles that
8584 have been posted to the current group. (Anything else would be too time
8585 consuming.) @code{nnmh} does not support this at all.
8588 @node Alternative Approaches
8589 @section Alternative Approaches
8591 Different people like to read news using different methods. This being
8592 Gnus, we offer a small selection of minor modes for the summary buffers.
8595 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
8596 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
8601 @subsection Pick and Read
8602 @cindex pick and read
8604 Some newsreaders (like @code{nn} and, uhm, @code{Netnews} on VM/CMS) use
8605 a two-phased reading interface. The user first marks in a summary
8606 buffer the articles she wants to read. Then she starts reading the
8607 articles with just an article buffer displayed.
8609 @findex gnus-pick-mode
8610 @kindex M-x gnus-pick-mode
8611 Gnus provides a summary buffer minor mode that allows
8612 this---@code{gnus-pick-mode}. This basically means that a few process
8613 mark commands become one-keystroke commands to allow easy marking, and
8614 it provides one additional command for switching to the summary buffer.
8616 Here are the available keystrokes when using pick mode:
8621 @findex gnus-pick-article-or-thread
8622 Pick the article or thread on the current line
8623 (@code{gnus-pick-article-or-thread}). If the variable
8624 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key selects the
8625 entire thread when used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise,
8626 it selects just the article. If given a numerical prefix, go to that
8627 thread or article and pick it. (The line number is normally displayed
8628 at the beginning of the summary pick lines.)
8631 @kindex SPACE (Pick)
8632 @findex gnus-pick-next-page
8633 Scroll the summary buffer up one page (@code{gnus-pick-next-page}). If
8634 at the end of the buffer, start reading the picked articles.
8638 @findex gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread.
8639 Unpick the thread or article
8640 (@code{gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread}). If the variable
8641 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key unpicks the
8642 thread if used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise it unpicks
8643 just the article. You can give this key a numerical prefix to unpick
8644 the thread or article at that line.
8648 @findex gnus-pick-start-reading
8649 @vindex gnus-pick-display-summary
8650 Start reading the picked articles (@code{gnus-pick-start-reading}). If
8651 given a prefix, mark all unpicked articles as read first. If
8652 @code{gnus-pick-display-summary} is non-@code{nil}, the summary buffer
8653 will still be visible when you are reading.
8657 All the normal summary mode commands are still available in the
8658 pick-mode, with the exception of @kbd{u}. However @kbd{!} is available
8659 which is mapped to the same function
8660 @code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}.
8662 If this sounds like a good idea to you, you could say:
8665 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
8668 @vindex gnus-pick-mode-hook
8669 @code{gnus-pick-mode-hook} is run in pick minor mode buffers.
8671 @vindex gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read
8672 If @code{gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read} is non-@code{nil}, mark
8673 all unpicked articles as read. The default is @code{nil}.
8675 @vindex gnus-summary-pick-line-format
8676 The summary line format in pick mode is slightly different from the
8677 standard format. At the beginning of each line the line number is
8678 displayed. The pick mode line format is controlled by the
8679 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting
8680 Variables}). It accepts the same format specs that
8681 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} does (@pxref{Summary Buffer Lines}).
8685 @subsection Binary Groups
8686 @cindex binary groups
8688 @findex gnus-binary-mode
8689 @kindex M-x gnus-binary-mode
8690 If you spend much time in binary groups, you may grow tired of hitting
8691 @kbd{X u}, @kbd{n}, @kbd{RET} all the time. @kbd{M-x gnus-binary-mode}
8692 is a minor mode for summary buffers that makes all ordinary Gnus article
8693 selection functions uudecode series of articles and display the result
8694 instead of just displaying the articles the normal way.
8697 @findex gnus-binary-show-article
8698 The only way, in fact, to see the actual articles is the @kbd{g}
8699 command, when you have turned on this mode
8700 (@code{gnus-binary-show-article}).
8702 @vindex gnus-binary-mode-hook
8703 @code{gnus-binary-mode-hook} is called in binary minor mode buffers.
8707 @section Tree Display
8710 @vindex gnus-use-trees
8711 If you don't like the normal Gnus summary display, you might try setting
8712 @code{gnus-use-trees} to @code{t}. This will create (by default) an
8713 additional @dfn{tree buffer}. You can execute all summary mode commands
8716 There are a few variables to customize the tree display, of course:
8719 @item gnus-tree-mode-hook
8720 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-hook
8721 A hook called in all tree mode buffers.
8723 @item gnus-tree-mode-line-format
8724 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-line-format
8725 A format string for the mode bar in the tree mode buffers (@pxref{Mode
8726 Line Formatting}). The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b %S %Z}. For a list
8727 of valid specs, @pxref{Summary Buffer Mode Line}.
8729 @item gnus-selected-tree-face
8730 @vindex gnus-selected-tree-face
8731 Face used for highlighting the selected article in the tree buffer. The
8732 default is @code{modeline}.
8734 @item gnus-tree-line-format
8735 @vindex gnus-tree-line-format
8736 A format string for the tree nodes. The name is a bit of a misnomer,
8737 though---it doesn't define a line, but just the node. The default value
8738 is @samp{%(%[%3,3n%]%)}, which displays the first three characters of
8739 the name of the poster. It is vital that all nodes are of the same
8740 length, so you @emph{must} use @samp{%4,4n}-like specifiers.
8746 The name of the poster.
8748 The @code{From} header.
8750 The number of the article.
8752 The opening bracket.
8754 The closing bracket.
8759 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
8761 Variables related to the display are:
8764 @item gnus-tree-brackets
8765 @vindex gnus-tree-brackets
8766 This is used for differentiating between ``real'' articles and
8767 ``sparse'' articles. The format is @code{((@var{real-open} . @var{real-close})
8768 (@var{sparse-open} . @var{sparse-close}) (@var{dummy-open} . @var{dummy-close}))}, and the
8769 default is @code{((?[ . ?]) (?( . ?)) (?@{ . ?@}) (?< . ?>))}.
8771 @item gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
8772 @vindex gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
8773 This is a list that contains the characters used for connecting parent
8774 nodes to their children. The default is @code{(?- ?\\ ?|)}.
8778 @item gnus-tree-minimize-window
8779 @vindex gnus-tree-minimize-window
8780 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will try to keep the tree
8781 buffer as small as possible to allow more room for the other Gnus
8782 windows. If this variable is a number, the tree buffer will never be
8783 higher than that number. The default is @code{t}. Note that if you
8784 have several windows displayed side-by-side in a frame and the tree
8785 buffer is one of these, minimizing the tree window will also resize all
8786 other windows displayed next to it.
8788 @item gnus-generate-tree-function
8789 @vindex gnus-generate-tree-function
8790 @findex gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
8791 @findex gnus-generate-vertical-tree
8792 The function that actually generates the thread tree. Two predefined
8793 functions are available: @code{gnus-generate-horizontal-tree} and
8794 @code{gnus-generate-vertical-tree} (which is the default).
8798 Here's an example from a horizontal tree buffer:
8801 @{***@}-(***)-[odd]-[Gun]
8811 Here's the same thread displayed in a vertical tree buffer:
8815 |--------------------------\-----\-----\
8816 (***) [Bjo] [Gun] [Gun]
8818 [odd] [Jan] [odd] (***) [Jor]
8820 [Gun] [Eri] [Eri] [odd]
8825 If you're using horizontal trees, it might be nice to display the trees
8826 side-by-side with the summary buffer. You could add something like the
8827 following to your @file{.gnus.el} file:
8830 (setq gnus-use-trees t
8831 gnus-generate-tree-function 'gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
8832 gnus-tree-minimize-window nil)
8833 (gnus-add-configuration
8837 (summary 0.75 point)
8842 @xref{Window Layout}.
8845 @node Mail Group Commands
8846 @section Mail Group Commands
8847 @cindex mail group commands
8849 Some commands only make sense in mail groups. If these commands are
8850 invalid in the current group, they will raise a hell and let you know.
8852 All these commands (except the expiry and edit commands) use the
8853 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
8858 @kindex B e (Summary)
8859 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles
8860 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
8861 process (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles}). That is, delete all
8862 expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
8863 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
8866 @kindex B M-C-e (Summary)
8867 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles-now
8868 Delete all the expirable articles in the group
8869 (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles-now}). This means that @strong{all}
8870 articles eligible for expiry in the current group will
8871 disappear forever into that big @file{/dev/null} in the sky.
8874 @kindex B DEL (Summary)
8875 @findex gnus-summary-delete-article
8876 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-delete}
8877 Delete the mail article. This is ``delete'' as in ``delete it from your
8878 disk forever and ever, never to return again.'' Use with caution.
8879 (@code{gnus-summary-delete-article}).
8882 @kindex B m (Summary)
8884 @findex gnus-summary-move-article
8885 @vindex gnus-preserve-marks
8886 Move the article from one mail group to another
8887 (@code{gnus-summary-move-article}). Marks will be preserved if
8888 @var{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
8891 @kindex B c (Summary)
8893 @findex gnus-summary-copy-article
8894 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-copy}
8895 Copy the article from one group (mail group or not) to a mail group
8896 (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}). Marks will be preserved if
8897 @var{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
8900 @kindex B B (Summary)
8901 @cindex crosspost mail
8902 @findex gnus-summary-crosspost-article
8903 Crosspost the current article to some other group
8904 (@code{gnus-summary-crosspost-article}). This will create a new copy of
8905 the article in the other group, and the Xref headers of the article will
8906 be properly updated.
8909 @kindex B i (Summary)
8910 @findex gnus-summary-import-article
8911 Import an arbitrary file into the current mail newsgroup
8912 (@code{gnus-summary-import-article}). You will be prompted for a file
8913 name, a @code{From} header and a @code{Subject} header.
8916 @kindex B r (Summary)
8917 @findex gnus-summary-respool-article
8918 Respool the mail article (@code{gnus-summary-respool-article}).
8919 @code{gnus-summary-respool-default-method} will be used as the default
8920 select method when respooling. This variable is @code{nil} by default,
8921 which means that the current group select method will be used instead.
8922 Marks will be preserved if @var{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil}
8923 (which is the default).
8927 @kindex B w (Summary)
8929 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article
8930 @kindex C-c C-c (Article)
8931 Edit the current article (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article}). To finish
8932 editing and make the changes permanent, type @kbd{C-c C-c}
8933 (@kbd{gnus-summary-edit-article-done}). If you give a prefix to the
8934 @kbd{C-c C-c} command, Gnus won't re-highlight the article.
8937 @kindex B q (Summary)
8938 @findex gnus-summary-respool-query
8939 If you want to re-spool an article, you might be curious as to what group
8940 the article will end up in before you do the re-spooling. This command
8941 will tell you (@code{gnus-summary-respool-query}).
8944 @kindex B t (Summary)
8945 @findex gnus-summary-respool-trace
8946 Similarly, this command will display all fancy splitting patterns used
8947 when repooling, if any (@code{gnus-summary-respool-trace}).
8950 @kindex B p (Summary)
8951 @findex gnus-summary-article-posted-p
8952 Some people have a tendency to send you "courtesy" copies when they
8953 follow up to articles you have posted. These usually have a
8954 @code{Newsgroups} header in them, but not always. This command
8955 (@code{gnus-summary-article-posted-p}) will try to fetch the current
8956 article from your news server (or rather, from
8957 @code{gnus-refer-article-method} or @code{gnus-select-method}) and will
8958 report back whether it found the article or not. Even if it says that
8959 it didn't find the article, it may have been posted anyway---mail
8960 propagation is much faster than news propagation, and the news copy may
8961 just not have arrived yet.
8965 @vindex gnus-move-split-methods
8966 @cindex moving articles
8967 If you move (or copy) articles regularly, you might wish to have Gnus
8968 suggest where to put the articles. @code{gnus-move-split-methods} is a
8969 variable that uses the same syntax as @code{gnus-split-methods}
8970 (@pxref{Saving Articles}). You may customize that variable to create
8971 suggestions you find reasonable. (Note that
8972 @code{gnus-move-split-methods} uses group names where
8973 @code{gnus-split-methods} uses file names.)
8976 (setq gnus-move-split-methods
8977 '(("^From:.*Lars Magne" "nnml:junk")
8978 ("^Subject:.*gnus" "nnfolder:important")
8979 (".*" "nnml:misc")))
8983 @node Various Summary Stuff
8984 @section Various Summary Stuff
8987 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
8988 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
8989 * Summary Generation Commands::
8990 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
8994 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-hook
8995 @item gnus-summary-mode-hook
8996 This hook is called when creating a summary mode buffer.
8998 @vindex gnus-summary-generate-hook
8999 @item gnus-summary-generate-hook
9000 This is called as the last thing before doing the threading and the
9001 generation of the summary buffer. It's quite convenient for customizing
9002 the threading variables based on what data the newsgroup has. This hook
9003 is called from the summary buffer after most summary buffer variables
9006 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-hook
9007 @item gnus-summary-prepare-hook
9008 It is called after the summary buffer has been generated. You might use
9009 it to, for instance, highlight lines or modify the look of the buffer in
9010 some other ungodly manner. I don't care.
9012 @vindex gnus-summary-prepared-hook
9013 @item gnus-summary-prepared-hook
9014 A hook called as the very last thing after the summary buffer has been
9017 @vindex gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
9018 @item gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
9019 When Gnus discovers two articles that have the same @code{Message-ID},
9020 it has to do something drastic. No articles are allowed to have the
9021 same @code{Message-ID}, but this may happen when reading mail from some
9022 sources. Gnus allows you to customize what happens with this variable.
9023 If it is @code{nil} (which is the default), Gnus will rename the
9024 @code{Message-ID} (for display purposes only) and display the article as
9025 any other article. If this variable is @code{t}, it won't display the
9026 article---it'll be as if it never existed.
9028 @vindex gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
9029 @item gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
9030 This function, which takes two parameters (the group name and the list
9031 of articles to be selected), is called to allow the user to alter the
9032 list of articles to be selected.
9034 For instance, the following function adds the list of cached articles to
9035 the list in one particular group:
9038 (defun my-add-cached-articles (group articles)
9039 (if (string= group "some.group")
9040 (append gnus-newsgroup-cached articles)
9047 @node Summary Group Information
9048 @subsection Summary Group Information
9053 @kindex H f (Summary)
9054 @findex gnus-summary-fetch-faq
9055 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
9056 Try to fetch the FAQ (list of frequently asked questions) for the
9057 current group (@code{gnus-summary-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the
9058 FAQ from @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory
9059 on a remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories.
9060 In that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose
9061 between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs} will probably
9062 be used for fetching the file.
9065 @kindex H d (Summary)
9066 @findex gnus-summary-describe-group
9067 Give a brief description of the current group
9068 (@code{gnus-summary-describe-group}). If given a prefix, force
9069 rereading the description from the server.
9072 @kindex H h (Summary)
9073 @findex gnus-summary-describe-briefly
9074 Give an extremely brief description of the most important summary
9075 keystrokes (@code{gnus-summary-describe-briefly}).
9078 @kindex H i (Summary)
9079 @findex gnus-info-find-node
9080 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
9084 @node Searching for Articles
9085 @subsection Searching for Articles
9090 @kindex M-s (Summary)
9091 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-forward
9092 Search through all subsequent (raw) articles for a regexp
9093 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-forward}).
9096 @kindex M-r (Summary)
9097 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-backward
9098 Search through all previous (raw) articles for a regexp
9099 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-backward}).
9103 @findex gnus-summary-execute-command
9104 This command will prompt you for a header, a regular expression to match
9105 on this field, and a command to be executed if the match is made
9106 (@code{gnus-summary-execute-command}). If the header is an empty
9107 string, the match is done on the entire article. If given a prefix,
9108 search backward instead.
9110 For instance, @kbd{& RET some.*string #} will put the process mark on
9111 all articles that have heads or bodies that match @samp{some.*string}.
9114 @kindex M-& (Summary)
9115 @findex gnus-summary-universal-argument
9116 Perform any operation on all articles that have been marked with
9117 the process mark (@code{gnus-summary-universal-argument}).
9120 @node Summary Generation Commands
9121 @subsection Summary Generation Commands
9126 @kindex Y g (Summary)
9127 @findex gnus-summary-prepare
9128 Regenerate the current summary buffer (@code{gnus-summary-prepare}).
9131 @kindex Y c (Summary)
9132 @findex gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles
9133 Pull all cached articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
9134 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles}).
9139 @node Really Various Summary Commands
9140 @subsection Really Various Summary Commands
9146 @kindex C-d (Summary)
9147 @kindex A D (Summary)
9148 @findex gnus-summary-enter-digest-group
9149 If the current article is a collection of other articles (for instance,
9150 a digest), you might use this command to enter a group based on the that
9151 article (@code{gnus-summary-enter-digest-group}). Gnus will try to
9152 guess what article type is currently displayed unless you give a prefix
9153 to this command, which forces a ``digest'' interpretation. Basically,
9154 whenever you see a message that is a collection of other messages of
9155 some format, you @kbd{C-d} and read these messages in a more convenient
9159 @kindex M-C-d (Summary)
9160 @findex gnus-summary-read-document
9161 This command is very similar to the one above, but lets you gather
9162 several documents into one biiig group
9163 (@code{gnus-summary-read-document}). It does this by opening several
9164 @code{nndoc} groups for each document, and then opening an
9165 @code{nnvirtual} group on top of these @code{nndoc} groups. This
9166 command understands the process/prefix convention
9167 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
9170 @kindex C-t (Summary)
9171 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-truncation
9172 Toggle truncation of summary lines
9173 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-truncation}). This will probably confuse the
9174 line centering function in the summary buffer, so it's not a good idea
9175 to have truncation switched off while reading articles.
9179 @findex gnus-summary-expand-window
9180 Expand the summary buffer window (@code{gnus-summary-expand-window}).
9181 If given a prefix, force an @code{article} window configuration.
9184 @kindex M-C-e (Summary)
9185 @findex gnus-summary-edit-parameters
9186 Edit the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
9187 group (@code{gnus-summary-edit-parameters}).
9190 @kindex M-C-a (Summary)
9191 @findex gnus-summary-customize-parameters
9192 Customize the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
9193 group (@code{gnus-summary-customize-parameters}).
9198 @node Exiting the Summary Buffer
9199 @section Exiting the Summary Buffer
9200 @cindex summary exit
9201 @cindex exiting groups
9203 Exiting from the summary buffer will normally update all info on the
9204 group and return you to the group buffer.
9210 @kindex Z Z (Summary)
9212 @findex gnus-summary-exit
9213 @vindex gnus-summary-exit-hook
9214 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook
9215 @c @icon{gnus-summary-exit}
9216 Exit the current group and update all information on the group
9217 (@code{gnus-summary-exit}). @code{gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook} is
9218 called before doing much of the exiting, which calls
9219 @code{gnus-summary-expire-articles} by default.
9220 @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} is called after finishing the exit
9221 process. @code{gnus-group-no-more-groups-hook} is run when returning to
9222 group mode having no more (unread) groups.
9226 @kindex Z E (Summary)
9228 @findex gnus-summary-exit-no-update
9229 Exit the current group without updating any information on the group
9230 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}).
9234 @kindex Z c (Summary)
9236 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit
9237 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}
9238 Mark all unticked articles in the group as read and then exit
9239 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}).
9242 @kindex Z C (Summary)
9243 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit
9244 Mark all articles, even the ticked ones, as read and then exit
9245 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit}).
9248 @kindex Z n (Summary)
9249 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group
9250 Mark all articles as read and go to the next group
9251 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group}).
9254 @kindex Z R (Summary)
9255 @findex gnus-summary-reselect-current-group
9256 Exit this group, and then enter it again
9257 (@code{gnus-summary-reselect-current-group}). If given a prefix, select
9258 all articles, both read and unread.
9262 @kindex Z G (Summary)
9263 @kindex M-g (Summary)
9264 @findex gnus-summary-rescan-group
9265 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-get}
9266 Exit the group, check for new articles in the group, and select the
9267 group (@code{gnus-summary-rescan-group}). If given a prefix, select all
9268 articles, both read and unread.
9271 @kindex Z N (Summary)
9272 @findex gnus-summary-next-group
9273 Exit the group and go to the next group
9274 (@code{gnus-summary-next-group}).
9277 @kindex Z P (Summary)
9278 @findex gnus-summary-prev-group
9279 Exit the group and go to the previous group
9280 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-group}).
9283 @kindex Z s (Summary)
9284 @findex gnus-summary-save-newsrc
9285 Save the current number of read/marked articles in the dribble buffer
9286 and then save the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-summary-save-newsrc}). If
9287 given a prefix, also save the @file{.newsrc} file(s). Using this
9288 command will make exit without updating (the @kbd{Q} command) worthless.
9291 @vindex gnus-exit-group-hook
9292 @code{gnus-exit-group-hook} is called when you exit the current group
9293 with an ``updating'' exit. For instance @kbd{Q}
9294 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}) does not call this hook.
9296 @findex gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead
9297 @findex gnus-dead-summary-mode
9298 @vindex gnus-kill-summary-on-exit
9299 If you're in the habit of exiting groups, and then changing your mind
9300 about it, you might set @code{gnus-kill-summary-on-exit} to @code{nil}.
9301 If you do that, Gnus won't kill the summary buffer when you exit it.
9302 (Quelle surprise!) Instead it will change the name of the buffer to
9303 something like @samp{*Dead Summary ... *} and install a minor mode
9304 called @code{gnus-dead-summary-mode}. Now, if you switch back to this
9305 buffer, you'll find that all keys are mapped to a function called
9306 @code{gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead}. So tapping any keys in a dead
9307 summary buffer will result in a live, normal summary buffer.
9309 There will never be more than one dead summary buffer at any one time.
9311 @vindex gnus-use-cross-reference
9312 The data on the current group will be updated (which articles you have
9313 read, which articles you have replied to, etc.) when you exit the
9314 summary buffer. If the @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} variable is
9315 @code{t} (which is the default), articles that are cross-referenced to
9316 this group and are marked as read, will also be marked as read in the
9317 other subscribed groups they were cross-posted to. If this variable is
9318 neither @code{nil} nor @code{t}, the article will be marked as read in
9319 both subscribed and unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}).
9322 @node Crosspost Handling
9323 @section Crosspost Handling
9327 Marking cross-posted articles as read ensures that you'll never have to
9328 read the same article more than once. Unless, of course, somebody has
9329 posted it to several groups separately. Posting the same article to
9330 several groups (not cross-posting) is called @dfn{spamming}, and you are
9331 by law required to send nasty-grams to anyone who perpetrates such a
9332 heinous crime. You may want to try NoCeM handling to filter out spam
9335 Remember: Cross-posting is kinda ok, but posting the same article
9336 separately to several groups is not. Massive cross-posting (aka.
9337 @dfn{velveeta}) is to be avoided at all costs, and you can even use the
9338 @code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint} command to complain about
9339 excessive crossposting (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
9341 @cindex cross-posting
9344 One thing that may cause Gnus to not do the cross-posting thing
9345 correctly is if you use an @sc{nntp} server that supports @sc{xover}
9346 (which is very nice, because it speeds things up considerably) which
9347 does not include the @code{Xref} header in its @sc{nov} lines. This is
9348 Evil, but all too common, alas, alack. Gnus tries to Do The Right Thing
9349 even with @sc{xover} by registering the @code{Xref} lines of all
9350 articles you actually read, but if you kill the articles, or just mark
9351 them as read without reading them, Gnus will not get a chance to snoop
9352 the @code{Xref} lines out of these articles, and will be unable to use
9353 the cross reference mechanism.
9355 @cindex LIST overview.fmt
9356 @cindex overview.fmt
9357 To check whether your @sc{nntp} server includes the @code{Xref} header
9358 in its overview files, try @samp{telnet your.nntp.server nntp},
9359 @samp{MODE READER} on @code{inn} servers, and then say @samp{LIST
9360 overview.fmt}. This may not work, but if it does, and the last line you
9361 get does not read @samp{Xref:full}, then you should shout and whine at
9362 your news admin until she includes the @code{Xref} header in the
9365 @vindex gnus-nov-is-evil
9366 If you want Gnus to get the @code{Xref}s right all the time, you have to
9367 set @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{t}, which slows things down
9372 For an alternative approach, @pxref{Duplicate Suppression}.
9375 @node Duplicate Suppression
9376 @section Duplicate Suppression
9378 By default, Gnus tries to make sure that you don't have to read the same
9379 article more than once by utilizing the crossposting mechanism
9380 (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}). However, that simple and efficient
9381 approach may not work satisfactory for some users for various
9386 The @sc{nntp} server may fail to generate the @code{Xref} header. This
9387 is evil and not very common.
9390 The @sc{nntp} server may fail to include the @code{Xref} header in the
9391 @file{.overview} data bases. This is evil and all too common, alas.
9394 You may be reading the same group (or several related groups) from
9395 different @sc{nntp} servers.
9398 You may be getting mail that duplicates articles posted to groups.
9401 I'm sure there are other situations where @code{Xref} handling fails as
9402 well, but these four are the most common situations.
9404 If, and only if, @code{Xref} handling fails for you, then you may
9405 consider switching on @dfn{duplicate suppression}. If you do so, Gnus
9406 will remember the @code{Message-ID}s of all articles you have read or
9407 otherwise marked as read, and then, as if by magic, mark them as read
9408 all subsequent times you see them---in @emph{all} groups. Using this
9409 mechanism is quite likely to be somewhat inefficient, but not overly
9410 so. It's certainly preferable to reading the same articles more than
9413 Duplicate suppression is not a very subtle instrument. It's more like a
9414 sledge hammer than anything else. It works in a very simple
9415 fashion---if you have marked an article as read, it adds this Message-ID
9416 to a cache. The next time it sees this Message-ID, it will mark the
9417 article as read with the @samp{M} mark. It doesn't care what group it
9421 @item gnus-suppress-duplicates
9422 @vindex gnus-suppress-duplicates
9423 If non-@code{nil}, suppress duplicates.
9425 @item gnus-save-duplicate-list
9426 @vindex gnus-save-duplicate-list
9427 If non-@code{nil}, save the list of duplicates to a file. This will
9428 make startup and shutdown take longer, so the default is @code{nil}.
9429 However, this means that only duplicate articles read in a single Gnus
9430 session are suppressed.
9432 @item gnus-duplicate-list-length
9433 @vindex gnus-duplicate-list-length
9434 This variable says how many @code{Message-ID}s to keep in the duplicate
9435 suppression list. The default is 10000.
9437 @item gnus-duplicate-file
9438 @vindex gnus-duplicate-file
9439 The name of the file to store the duplicate suppression list in. The
9440 default is @file{~/News/suppression}.
9443 If you have a tendency to stop and start Gnus often, setting
9444 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{t} is probably a good idea. If
9445 you leave Gnus running for weeks on end, you may have it @code{nil}. On
9446 the other hand, saving the list makes startup and shutdown much slower,
9447 so that means that if you stop and start Gnus often, you should set
9448 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{nil}. Uhm. I'll leave this up
9449 to you to figure out, I think.
9454 Gnus is able to verify PGP or S/MIME signed messages or decrypt PGP
9459 To verify or decrypt PGP messages, you have to install mailcrypt or
9465 @item mm-verify-option
9466 @vindex mm-verify-option
9467 Option of verifying signed parts. @code{never}, not verify;
9468 @code{always}, always verify; @code{known}, only verify known
9469 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
9471 @item mm-decrypt-option
9472 @vindex mm-decrypt-option
9473 Option of decrypting encrypted parts. @code{never}, no decryption;
9474 @code{always}, always decrypt @code{known}, only decrypt known
9475 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
9480 @section Mailing List
9482 Gnus understands some mailing list fields of RFC 2369.
9487 @kindex C-c C-n h (Summary)
9488 @findex gnus-mailing-list-help
9489 Send a message to fetch mailing list help, if List-Help field exists.
9492 @kindex C-c C-n s (Summary)
9493 @findex gnus-mailing-list-subscribe
9494 Send a message to subscribe the mailing list, if List-Subscribe field exists.
9497 @kindex C-c C-n u (Summary)
9498 @findex gnus-mailing-list-unsubscribe
9499 Send a message to unsubscribe the mailing list, if List-Unsubscribe
9503 @kindex C-c C-n p (Summary)
9504 @findex gnus-mailing-list-post
9505 Post to the mailing list, if List-Post field exists.
9508 @kindex C-c C-n o (Summary)
9509 @findex gnus-mailing-list-owner
9510 Send a message to the mailing list owner, if List-Owner field exists.
9513 @kindex C-c C-n a (Summary)
9514 @findex gnus-mailing-list-owner
9515 Browse the mailing list archive, if List-Archive field exists.
9519 @node Article Buffer
9520 @chapter Article Buffer
9521 @cindex article buffer
9523 The articles are displayed in the article buffer, of which there is only
9524 one. All the summary buffers share the same article buffer unless you
9525 tell Gnus otherwise.
9528 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
9529 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @sc{mime} before reading them.
9530 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
9531 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
9532 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
9536 @node Hiding Headers
9537 @section Hiding Headers
9538 @cindex hiding headers
9539 @cindex deleting headers
9541 The top section of each article is the @dfn{head}. (The rest is the
9542 @dfn{body}, but you may have guessed that already.)
9544 @vindex gnus-show-all-headers
9545 There is a lot of useful information in the head: the name of the person
9546 who wrote the article, the date it was written and the subject of the
9547 article. That's well and nice, but there's also lots of information
9548 most people do not want to see---what systems the article has passed
9549 through before reaching you, the @code{Message-ID}, the
9550 @code{References}, etc. ad nauseum---and you'll probably want to get rid
9551 of some of those lines. If you want to keep all those lines in the
9552 article buffer, you can set @code{gnus-show-all-headers} to @code{t}.
9554 Gnus provides you with two variables for sifting headers:
9558 @item gnus-visible-headers
9559 @vindex gnus-visible-headers
9560 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, it should be a regular expression
9561 that says what headers you wish to keep in the article buffer. All
9562 headers that do not match this variable will be hidden.
9564 For instance, if you only want to see the name of the person who wrote
9565 the article and the subject, you'd say:
9568 (setq gnus-visible-headers "^From:\\|^Subject:")
9571 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
9574 @item gnus-ignored-headers
9575 @vindex gnus-ignored-headers
9576 This variable is the reverse of @code{gnus-visible-headers}. If this
9577 variable is set (and @code{gnus-visible-headers} is @code{nil}), it
9578 should be a regular expression that matches all lines that you want to
9579 hide. All lines that do not match this variable will remain visible.
9581 For instance, if you just want to get rid of the @code{References} line
9582 and the @code{Xref} line, you might say:
9585 (setq gnus-ignored-headers "^References:\\|^Xref:")
9588 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
9591 Note that if @code{gnus-visible-headers} is non-@code{nil}, this
9592 variable will have no effect.
9596 @vindex gnus-sorted-header-list
9597 Gnus can also sort the headers for you. (It does this by default.) You
9598 can control the sorting by setting the @code{gnus-sorted-header-list}
9599 variable. It is a list of regular expressions that says in what order
9600 the headers are to be displayed.
9602 For instance, if you want the name of the author of the article first,
9603 and then the subject, you might say something like:
9606 (setq gnus-sorted-header-list '("^From:" "^Subject:"))
9609 Any headers that are to remain visible, but are not listed in this
9610 variable, will be displayed in random order after all the headers listed in this variable.
9612 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
9613 @vindex gnus-boring-article-headers
9614 You can hide further boring headers by setting
9615 @code{gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers} to @code{head}. What this function
9616 does depends on the @code{gnus-boring-article-headers} variable. It's a
9617 list, but this list doesn't actually contain header names. Instead is
9618 lists various @dfn{boring conditions} that Gnus can check and remove
9621 These conditions are:
9624 Remove all empty headers.
9626 Remove the @code{Followup-To} header if it is identical to the
9627 @code{Newsgroups} header.
9629 Remove the @code{Reply-To} header if it lists the same address as the
9632 Remove the @code{Newsgroups} header if it only contains the current group
9635 Remove the @code{To} header if it only contains the address identical to
9636 the current groups's @code{to-address} parameter.
9638 Remove the @code{Date} header if the article is less than three days
9641 Remove the @code{To} header if it is very long.
9643 Remove all @code{To} headers if there are more than one.
9646 To include these three elements, you could say something like;
9649 (setq gnus-boring-article-headers
9650 '(empty followup-to reply-to))
9653 This is also the default value for this variable.
9657 @section Using @sc{mime}
9660 Mime is a standard for waving your hands through the air, aimlessly,
9661 while people stand around yawning.
9663 @sc{mime}, however, is a standard for encoding your articles, aimlessly,
9664 while all newsreaders die of fear.
9666 @sc{mime} may specify what character set the article uses, the encoding
9667 of the characters, and it also makes it possible to embed pictures and
9668 other naughty stuff in innocent-looking articles.
9670 @vindex gnus-display-mime-function
9671 @findex gnus-display-mime
9672 Gnus pushes @sc{mime} articles through @code{gnus-display-mime-function}
9673 to display the @sc{mime} parts. This is @code{gnus-display-mime} by
9674 default, which creates a bundle of clickable buttons that can be used to
9675 display, save and manipulate the @sc{mime} objects.
9677 The following commands are available when you have placed point over a
9681 @findex gnus-article-press-button
9683 @itemx BUTTON-2 (Article)
9684 Toggle displaying of the @sc{mime} object
9685 (@code{gnus-article-press-button}).
9687 @findex gnus-mime-view-part
9688 @item M-RET (Article)
9690 Prompt for a method, and then view the @sc{mime} object using this
9691 method (@code{gnus-mime-view-part}).
9693 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-as-type
9695 View the @sc{mime} object as if it were a different @sc{mime} media type
9696 (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-as-type}).
9698 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-as-charset
9700 Prompt for a charset, and then view the @sc{mime} object using this
9701 charset (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-as-charset}).
9703 @findex gnus-mime-save-part
9705 Prompt for a file name, and then save the @sc{mime} object
9706 (@code{gnus-mime-save-part}).
9708 @findex gnus-mime-save-part-and-strip
9710 Prompt for a file name, then save the @sc{mime} object and strip it from
9711 the article. Then proceed to article editing, where a reasonable
9712 suggestion is being made on how the altered article should look
9713 like. The stripped @sc{mime} object will be referred via the
9714 message/external-body @sc{mime} type.
9715 (@code{gnus-mime-save-part-and-strip}).
9717 @findex gnus-mime-copy-part
9719 Copy the @sc{mime} object to a fresh buffer and display this buffer
9720 (@code{gnus-mime-copy-part}).
9722 @findex gnus-mime-inline-part
9724 Insert the contents of the @sc{mime} object into the buffer
9725 (@code{gnus-mime-inline-part}) as text/plain. If given a prefix, insert
9726 the raw contents without decoding. If given a numerical prefix, you can
9727 do semi-manual charset stuff (see
9728 @code{gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist} in @pxref{Paging the
9731 @findex gnus-mime-internalize-part
9733 View the @sc{mime} object with an internal viewer. If no internal
9734 viewer is available, use an external viewer
9735 (@code{gnus-mime-internalize-part}).
9737 @findex gnus-mime-externalize-part
9739 View the @sc{mime} object with an external viewer.
9740 (@code{gnus-mime-externalize-part}).
9742 @findex gnus-mime-pipe-part
9744 Output the @sc{mime} object to a process (@code{gnus-mime-pipe-part}).
9746 @findex gnus-mime-action-on-part
9748 Interactively run an action on the @sc{mime} object
9749 (@code{gnus-mime-action-on-part}).
9753 Gnus will display some @sc{mime} objects automatically. The way Gnus
9754 determines which parts to do this with is described in the Emacs MIME
9757 It might be best to just use the toggling functions from the article
9758 buffer to avoid getting nasty surprises. (For instance, you enter the
9759 group @samp{alt.sing-a-long} and, before you know it, @sc{mime} has
9760 decoded the sound file in the article and some horrible sing-a-long song
9761 comes screaming out your speakers, and you can't find the volume button,
9762 because there isn't one, and people are starting to look at you, and you
9763 try to stop the program, but you can't, and you can't find the program
9764 to control the volume, and everybody else in the room suddenly decides
9765 to look at you disdainfully, and you'll feel rather stupid.)
9767 Any similarity to real events and people is purely coincidental. Ahem.
9769 Also see @pxref{MIME Commands}.
9772 @node Customizing Articles
9773 @section Customizing Articles
9774 @cindex article customization
9776 A slew of functions for customizing how the articles are to look like
9777 exist. You can call these functions interactively, or you can have them
9778 called automatically when you select the articles.
9780 To have them called automatically, you should set the corresponding
9781 ``treatment'' variable. For instance, to have headers hidden, you'd set
9782 @code{gnus-treat-hide-headers}. Below is a list of variables that can
9783 be set, but first we discuss the values these variables can have.
9785 Note: Some values, while valid, make little sense. Check the list below
9786 for sensible values.
9790 @code{nil}: Don't do this treatment.
9793 @code{t}: Do this treatment on all body parts.
9796 @code{head}: Do the treatment on the headers.
9799 @code{last}: Do this treatment on the last part.
9802 An integer: Do this treatment on all body parts that have a length less
9806 A list of strings: Do this treatment on all body parts that are in
9807 articles that are read in groups that have names that match one of the
9808 regexps in the list.
9811 A list where the first element is not a string:
9813 The list is evaluated recursively. The first element of the list is a
9814 predicate. The following predicates are recognized: @code{or},
9815 @code{and}, @code{not} and @code{typep}. Here's an example:
9819 (typep "text/x-vcard"))
9824 You may have noticed that the word @dfn{part} is used here. This refers
9825 to the fact that some messages are @sc{mime} multipart articles that may
9826 be divided into several parts. Articles that are not multiparts are
9827 considered to contain just a single part.
9829 @vindex gnus-article-treat-types
9830 Are the treatments applied to all sorts of multipart parts? Yes, if you
9831 want to, but by default, only @samp{text/plain} parts are given the
9832 treatment. This is controlled by the @code{gnus-article-treat-types}
9833 variable, which is a list of regular expressions that are matched to the
9834 type of the part. This variable is ignored if the value of the
9835 controlling variable is a predicate list, as described above.
9837 The following treatment options are available. The easiest way to
9838 customize this is to examine the @code{gnus-article-treat} customization
9839 group. Values in parenthesis are suggested sensible values. Others are
9840 possible but those listed are probably sufficient for most people.
9843 @item gnus-treat-highlight-signature (t, last)
9844 @item gnus-treat-buttonize (t, integer)
9845 @item gnus-treat-buttonize-head (head)
9846 @item gnus-treat-emphasize (t, head, integer)
9847 @item gnus-treat-fill-article (t, integer)
9848 @item gnus-treat-strip-cr (t, integer)
9849 @item gnus-treat-hide-headers (head)
9850 @item gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers (head)
9851 @item gnus-treat-hide-signature (t, last)
9852 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation (t, integer)
9853 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation-maybe (t, integer)
9854 @item gnus-treat-strip-pgp (t, last, integer)
9855 @item gnus-treat-x-pgp-sig (head)
9856 @item gnus-treat-strip-pem (t, last, integer)
9857 @item gnus-treat-highlight-headers (head)
9858 @item gnus-treat-highlight-citation (t, integer)
9859 @item gnus-treat-highlight-signature (t, last, integer)
9860 @item gnus-treat-date-ut (head)
9861 @item gnus-treat-date-local (head)
9862 @item gnus-treat-date-english (head)
9863 @item gnus-treat-date-lapsed (head)
9864 @item gnus-treat-date-original (head)
9865 @item gnus-treat-date-iso8601 (head)
9866 @item gnus-treat-date-user-defined (head)
9867 @item gnus-treat-strip-headers-in-body (t, integer)
9868 @item gnus-treat-strip-trailing-blank-lines (t, last, integer)
9869 @item gnus-treat-strip-leading-blank-lines (t, integer)
9870 @item gnus-treat-strip-multiple-blank-lines (t, integer)
9871 @item gnus-treat-overstrike (t, integer)
9872 @item gnus-treat-display-xface (head)
9873 @item gnus-treat-display-smileys (t, integer)
9874 @item gnus-treat-display-picons (head)
9875 @item gnus-treat-capitalize-sentences (t, integer)
9876 @item gnus-treat-fill-long-lines (t, integer)
9877 @item gnus-treat-play-sounds
9878 @item gnus-treat-translate
9881 @vindex gnus-part-display-hook
9882 You can, of course, write your own functions to be called from
9883 @code{gnus-part-display-hook}. The functions are called narrowed to the
9884 part, and you can do anything you like, pretty much. There is no
9885 information that you have to keep in the buffer---you can change
9889 @node Article Keymap
9890 @section Article Keymap
9892 Most of the keystrokes in the summary buffer can also be used in the
9893 article buffer. They should behave as if you typed them in the summary
9894 buffer, which means that you don't actually have to have a summary
9895 buffer displayed while reading. You can do it all from the article
9898 A few additional keystrokes are available:
9903 @kindex SPACE (Article)
9904 @findex gnus-article-next-page
9905 Scroll forwards one page (@code{gnus-article-next-page}).
9908 @kindex DEL (Article)
9909 @findex gnus-article-prev-page
9910 Scroll backwards one page (@code{gnus-article-prev-page}).
9913 @kindex C-c ^ (Article)
9914 @findex gnus-article-refer-article
9915 If point is in the neighborhood of a @code{Message-ID} and you press
9916 @kbd{C-c ^}, Gnus will try to get that article from the server
9917 (@code{gnus-article-refer-article}).
9920 @kindex C-c C-m (Article)
9921 @findex gnus-article-mail
9922 Send a reply to the address near point (@code{gnus-article-mail}). If
9923 given a prefix, include the mail.
9927 @findex gnus-article-show-summary
9928 Reconfigure the buffers so that the summary buffer becomes visible
9929 (@code{gnus-article-show-summary}).
9933 @findex gnus-article-describe-briefly
9934 Give a very brief description of the available keystrokes
9935 (@code{gnus-article-describe-briefly}).
9938 @kindex TAB (Article)
9939 @findex gnus-article-next-button
9940 Go to the next button, if any (@code{gnus-article-next-button}). This
9941 only makes sense if you have buttonizing turned on.
9944 @kindex M-TAB (Article)
9945 @findex gnus-article-prev-button
9946 Go to the previous button, if any (@code{gnus-article-prev-button}).
9952 @section Misc Article
9956 @item gnus-single-article-buffer
9957 @vindex gnus-single-article-buffer
9958 If non-@code{nil}, use the same article buffer for all the groups.
9959 (This is the default.) If @code{nil}, each group will have its own
9962 @vindex gnus-article-decode-hook
9963 @item gnus-article-decode-hook
9965 Hook used to decode @sc{mime} articles. The default value is
9966 @code{(article-decode-charset article-decode-encoded-words)}
9968 @vindex gnus-article-prepare-hook
9969 @item gnus-article-prepare-hook
9970 This hook is called right after the article has been inserted into the
9971 article buffer. It is mainly intended for functions that do something
9972 depending on the contents; it should probably not be used for changing
9973 the contents of the article buffer.
9975 @item gnus-article-mode-hook
9976 @vindex gnus-article-mode-hook
9977 Hook called in article mode buffers.
9979 @item gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
9980 @vindex gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
9981 Syntax table used in article buffers. It is initialized from
9982 @code{text-mode-syntax-table}.
9984 @vindex gnus-article-mode-line-format
9985 @item gnus-article-mode-line-format
9986 This variable is a format string along the same lines as
9987 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}). It
9988 accepts the same format specifications as that variable, with two
9993 The @dfn{wash status} of the article. This is a short string with one
9994 character for each possible article wash operation that may have been
9997 The number of @sc{mime} parts in the article.
10000 @vindex gnus-break-pages
10002 @item gnus-break-pages
10003 Controls whether @dfn{page breaking} is to take place. If this variable
10004 is non-@code{nil}, the articles will be divided into pages whenever a
10005 page delimiter appears in the article. If this variable is @code{nil},
10006 paging will not be done.
10008 @item gnus-page-delimiter
10009 @vindex gnus-page-delimiter
10010 This is the delimiter mentioned above. By default, it is @samp{^L}
10015 @node Composing Messages
10016 @chapter Composing Messages
10017 @cindex composing messages
10020 @cindex sending mail
10026 @kindex C-c C-c (Post)
10027 All commands for posting and mailing will put you in a message buffer
10028 where you can edit the article all you like, before you send the
10029 article by pressing @kbd{C-c C-c}. @xref{Top, , Top, message, The
10030 Message Manual}. Where the message will be posted/mailed to depends
10031 on your setup (@pxref{Posting Server}).
10034 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
10035 * Posting Server:: What server should you post via?
10036 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
10037 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
10038 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
10039 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
10040 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
10041 * Using GPG:: How to use GPG and MML to sign and encrypt messages
10044 Also see @pxref{Canceling and Superseding} for information on how to
10045 remove articles you shouldn't have posted.
10051 Variables for customizing outgoing mail:
10054 @item gnus-uu-digest-headers
10055 @vindex gnus-uu-digest-headers
10056 List of regexps to match headers included in digested messages. The
10057 headers will be included in the sequence they are matched.
10059 @item gnus-add-to-list
10060 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
10061 If non-@code{nil}, add a @code{to-list} group parameter to mail groups
10062 that have none when you do a @kbd{a}.
10067 @node Posting Server
10068 @section Posting Server
10070 When you press those magical @kbd{C-c C-c} keys to ship off your latest
10071 (extremely intelligent, of course) article, where does it go?
10073 Thank you for asking. I hate you.
10075 @vindex gnus-post-method
10077 It can be quite complicated. Normally, Gnus will post using the same
10078 select method as you're reading from (which might be convenient if
10079 you're reading lots of groups from different private servers).
10080 However. If the server you're reading from doesn't allow posting,
10081 just reading, you probably want to use some other server to post your
10082 (extremely intelligent and fabulously interesting) articles. You can
10083 then set the @code{gnus-post-method} to some other method:
10086 (setq gnus-post-method '(nnspool ""))
10089 Now, if you've done this, and then this server rejects your article, or
10090 this server is down, what do you do then? To override this variable you
10091 can use a non-zero prefix to the @kbd{C-c C-c} command to force using
10092 the ``current'' server, to get back the default behavior, for posting.
10094 If you give a zero prefix (i.e., @kbd{C-u 0 C-c C-c}) to that command,
10095 Gnus will prompt you for what method to use for posting.
10097 You can also set @code{gnus-post-method} to a list of select methods.
10098 If that's the case, Gnus will always prompt you for what method to use
10101 Finally, if you want to always post using the native select method,
10102 you can set this variable to @code{nil}.
10105 @node Mail and Post
10106 @section Mail and Post
10108 Here's a list of variables relevant to both mailing and
10112 @item gnus-mailing-list-groups
10113 @findex gnus-mailing-list-groups
10114 @cindex mailing lists
10116 If your news server offers groups that are really mailing lists
10117 gatewayed to the @sc{nntp} server, you can read those groups without
10118 problems, but you can't post/followup to them without some difficulty.
10119 One solution is to add a @code{to-address} to the group parameters
10120 (@pxref{Group Parameters}). An easier thing to do is set the
10121 @code{gnus-mailing-list-groups} to a regexp that matches the groups that
10122 really are mailing lists. Then, at least, followups to the mailing
10123 lists will work most of the time. Posting to these groups (@kbd{a}) is
10124 still a pain, though.
10128 You may want to do spell-checking on messages that you send out. Or, if
10129 you don't want to spell-check by hand, you could add automatic
10130 spell-checking via the @code{ispell} package:
10133 @findex ispell-message
10135 (add-hook 'message-send-hook 'ispell-message)
10138 If you want to change the @code{ispell} dictionary based on what group
10139 you're in, you could say something like the following:
10142 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook
10146 "^de\\." (gnus-group-real-name gnus-newsgroup-name))
10147 (ispell-change-dictionary "deutsch"))
10149 (ispell-change-dictionary "english")))))
10152 Modify to suit your needs.
10155 @node Archived Messages
10156 @section Archived Messages
10157 @cindex archived messages
10158 @cindex sent messages
10160 Gnus provides a few different methods for storing the mail and news you
10161 send. The default method is to use the @dfn{archive virtual server} to
10162 store the messages. If you want to disable this completely, the
10163 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable should be @code{nil}, which
10166 @vindex gnus-message-archive-method
10167 @code{gnus-message-archive-method} says what virtual server Gnus is to
10168 use to store sent messages. The default is:
10171 (nnfolder "archive"
10172 (nnfolder-directory "~/Mail/archive")
10173 (nnfolder-active-file "~/Mail/archive/active")
10174 (nnfolder-get-new-mail nil)
10175 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t))
10178 You can, however, use any mail select method (@code{nnml},
10179 @code{nnmbox}, etc.). @code{nnfolder} is a quite likable select method
10180 for doing this sort of thing, though. If you don't like the default
10181 directory chosen, you could say something like:
10184 (setq gnus-message-archive-method
10185 '(nnfolder "archive"
10186 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t)
10187 (nnfolder-active-file "~/News/sent-mail/active")
10188 (nnfolder-directory "~/News/sent-mail/")))
10191 @vindex gnus-message-archive-group
10193 Gnus will insert @code{Gcc} headers in all outgoing messages that point
10194 to one or more group(s) on that server. Which group to use is
10195 determined by the @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable.
10197 This variable can be used to do the following:
10201 Messages will be saved in that group.
10203 Note that you can include a select method in the group name, then the
10204 message will not be stored in the select method given by
10205 @code{gnus-message-archive-method}, but in the select method specified
10206 by the group name, instead. Suppose @code{gnus-message-archive-method}
10207 has the default value shown above. Then setting
10208 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{"foo"} means that outgoing
10209 messages are stored in @samp{nnfolder+archive:foo}, but if you use the
10210 value @code{"nnml:foo"}, then outgoing messages will be stored in
10212 @item a list of strings
10213 Messages will be saved in all those groups.
10214 @item an alist of regexps, functions and forms
10215 When a key ``matches'', the result is used.
10217 No message archiving will take place. This is the default.
10222 Just saving to a single group called @samp{MisK}:
10224 (setq gnus-message-archive-group "MisK")
10227 Saving to two groups, @samp{MisK} and @samp{safe}:
10229 (setq gnus-message-archive-group '("MisK" "safe"))
10232 Save to different groups based on what group you are in:
10234 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
10235 '(("^alt" "sent-to-alt")
10236 ("mail" "sent-to-mail")
10237 (".*" "sent-to-misc")))
10240 More complex stuff:
10242 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
10243 '((if (message-news-p)
10248 How about storing all news messages in one file, but storing all mail
10249 messages in one file per month:
10252 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
10253 '((if (message-news-p)
10255 (concat "mail." (format-time-string "%Y-%m")))))
10258 (XEmacs 19.13 doesn't have @code{format-time-string}, so you'll have to
10259 use a different value for @code{gnus-message-archive-group} there.)
10261 Now, when you send a message off, it will be stored in the appropriate
10262 group. (If you want to disable storing for just one particular message,
10263 you can just remove the @code{Gcc} header that has been inserted.) The
10264 archive group will appear in the group buffer the next time you start
10265 Gnus, or the next time you press @kbd{F} in the group buffer. You can
10266 enter it and read the articles in it just like you'd read any other
10267 group. If the group gets really big and annoying, you can simply rename
10268 if (using @kbd{G r} in the group buffer) to something
10269 nice---@samp{misc-mail-september-1995}, or whatever. New messages will
10270 continue to be stored in the old (now empty) group.
10272 That's the default method of archiving sent messages. Gnus offers a
10273 different way for the people who don't like the default method. In that
10274 case you should set @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{nil};
10275 this will disable archiving.
10278 @item gnus-outgoing-message-group
10279 @vindex gnus-outgoing-message-group
10280 All outgoing messages will be put in this group. If you want to store
10281 all your outgoing mail and articles in the group @samp{nnml:archive},
10282 you set this variable to that value. This variable can also be a list of
10285 If you want to have greater control over what group to put each
10286 message in, you can set this variable to a function that checks the
10287 current newsgroup name and then returns a suitable group name (or list
10290 This variable can be used instead of @code{gnus-message-archive-group},
10291 but the latter is the preferred method.
10293 @item gnus-inews-mark-gcc-as-read
10294 @vindex gnus-inews-mark-gcc-as-read
10295 If non-@code{nil}, automatically mark @code{Gcc} articles as read.
10300 @node Posting Styles
10301 @section Posting Styles
10302 @cindex posting styles
10305 All them variables, they make my head swim.
10307 So what if you want a different @code{Organization} and signature based
10308 on what groups you post to? And you post both from your home machine
10309 and your work machine, and you want different @code{From} lines, and so
10312 @vindex gnus-posting-styles
10313 One way to do stuff like that is to write clever hooks that change the
10314 variables you need to have changed. That's a bit boring, so somebody
10315 came up with the bright idea of letting the user specify these things in
10316 a handy alist. Here's an example of a @code{gnus-posting-styles}
10321 (signature "Peace and happiness")
10322 (organization "What me?"))
10324 (signature "Death to everybody"))
10325 ("comp.emacs.i-love-it"
10326 (organization "Emacs is it")))
10329 As you might surmise from this example, this alist consists of several
10330 @dfn{styles}. Each style will be applicable if the first element
10331 ``matches'', in some form or other. The entire alist will be iterated
10332 over, from the beginning towards the end, and each match will be
10333 applied, which means that attributes in later styles that match override
10334 the same attributes in earlier matching styles. So
10335 @samp{comp.programming.literate} will have the @samp{Death to everybody}
10336 signature and the @samp{What me?} @code{Organization} header.
10338 The first element in each style is called the @code{match}. If it's a
10339 string, then Gnus will try to regexp match it against the group name.
10340 If it is the symbol @code{header}, then Gnus will look for header (the
10341 next element in the match) in the original article , and compare that to
10342 the last regexp in the match. If it's a function symbol, that function
10343 will be called with no arguments. If it's a variable symbol, then the
10344 variable will be referenced. If it's a list, then that list will be
10345 @code{eval}ed. In any case, if this returns a non-@code{nil} value,
10346 then the style is said to @dfn{match}.
10348 Each style may contain a arbitrary amount of @dfn{attributes}. Each
10349 attribute consists of a @code{(@var{name} @var{value})} pair. The
10350 attribute name can be one of @code{signature}, @code{signature-file},
10351 @code{organization}, @code{address}, @code{name} or @code{body}. The
10352 attribute name can also be a string. In that case, this will be used as
10353 a header name, and the value will be inserted in the headers of the
10354 article; if the value is @code{nil}, the header name will be removed.
10355 If the attribute name is @code{eval}, the form is evaluated, and the
10356 result is thrown away.
10358 The attribute value can be a string (used verbatim), a function with
10359 zero arguments (the return value will be used), a variable (its value
10360 will be used) or a list (it will be @code{eval}ed and the return value
10361 will be used). The functions and sexps are called/@code{eval}ed in the
10362 message buffer that is being set up. The headers of the current article
10363 are available through the @code{message-reply-headers} variable.
10365 If you wish to check whether the message you are about to compose is
10366 meant to be a news article or a mail message, you can check the values
10367 of the @code{message-news-p} and @code{message-mail-p} functions.
10369 @findex message-mail-p
10370 @findex message-news-p
10372 So here's a new example:
10375 (setq gnus-posting-styles
10377 (signature-file "~/.signature")
10379 ("X-Home-Page" (getenv "WWW_HOME"))
10380 (organization "People's Front Against MWM"))
10382 (signature my-funny-signature-randomizer))
10383 ((equal (system-name) "gnarly")
10384 (signature my-quote-randomizer))
10386 (signature my-news-signature))
10387 (header "to" "larsi.*org"
10388 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
10389 ((posting-from-work-p)
10390 (signature-file "~/.work-signature")
10391 (address "user@@bar.foo")
10392 (body "You are fired.\n\nSincerely, your boss.")
10393 (organization "Important Work, Inc"))
10395 (From (save-excursion
10396 (set-buffer gnus-article-buffer)
10397 (message-fetch-field "to"))))
10399 (signature-file "~/.mail-signature"))))
10402 The @samp{nnml:.*} rule means that you use the @code{To} address as the
10403 @code{From} address in all your outgoing replies, which might be handy
10404 if you fill many roles.
10411 If you are writing a message (mail or news) and suddenly remember that
10412 you have a steak in the oven (or some pesto in the food processor, you
10413 craaazy vegetarians), you'll probably wish there was a method to save
10414 the message you are writing so that you can continue editing it some
10415 other day, and send it when you feel its finished.
10417 Well, don't worry about it. Whenever you start composing a message of
10418 some sort using the Gnus mail and post commands, the buffer you get will
10419 automatically associate to an article in a special @dfn{draft} group.
10420 If you save the buffer the normal way (@kbd{C-x C-s}, for instance), the
10421 article will be saved there. (Auto-save files also go to the draft
10425 @vindex nndraft-directory
10426 The draft group is a special group (which is implemented as an
10427 @code{nndraft} group, if you absolutely have to know) called
10428 @samp{nndraft:drafts}. The variable @code{nndraft-directory} says where
10429 @code{nndraft} is to store its files. What makes this group special is
10430 that you can't tick any articles in it or mark any articles as
10431 read---all articles in the group are permanently unread.
10433 If the group doesn't exist, it will be created and you'll be subscribed
10434 to it. The only way to make it disappear from the Group buffer is to
10437 @c @findex gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft
10438 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Mail)
10439 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Post)
10440 @c @findex gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft
10441 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Mail)
10442 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Post)
10443 @c If you're writing some super-secret message that you later want to
10444 @c encode with PGP before sending, you may wish to turn the auto-saving
10445 @c (and association with the draft group) off. You never know who might be
10446 @c interested in reading all your extremely valuable and terribly horrible
10447 @c and interesting secrets. The @kbd{C-c M-d}
10448 @c (@code{gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft}) command does that for you.
10449 @c If you change your mind and want to turn the auto-saving back on again,
10450 @c @kbd{C-c C-d} (@code{gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft} does that.
10452 @c @vindex gnus-use-draft
10453 @c To leave association with the draft group off by default, set
10454 @c @code{gnus-use-draft} to @code{nil}. It is @code{t} by default.
10456 @findex gnus-draft-edit-message
10457 @kindex D e (Draft)
10458 When you want to continue editing the article, you simply enter the
10459 draft group and push @kbd{D e} (@code{gnus-draft-edit-message}) to do
10460 that. You will be placed in a buffer where you left off.
10462 Rejected articles will also be put in this draft group (@pxref{Rejected
10465 @findex gnus-draft-send-all-messages
10466 @findex gnus-draft-send-message
10467 If you have lots of rejected messages you want to post (or mail) without
10468 doing further editing, you can use the @kbd{D s} command
10469 (@code{gnus-draft-send-message}). This command understands the
10470 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). The @kbd{D S}
10471 command (@code{gnus-draft-send-all-messages}) will ship off all messages
10474 If you have some messages that you wish not to send, you can use the
10475 @kbd{D t} (@code{gnus-draft-toggle-sending}) command to mark the message
10476 as unsendable. This is a toggling command.
10479 @node Rejected Articles
10480 @section Rejected Articles
10481 @cindex rejected articles
10483 Sometimes a news server will reject an article. Perhaps the server
10484 doesn't like your face. Perhaps it just feels miserable. Perhaps
10485 @emph{there be demons}. Perhaps you have included too much cited text.
10486 Perhaps the disk is full. Perhaps the server is down.
10488 These situations are, of course, totally beyond the control of Gnus.
10489 (Gnus, of course, loves the way you look, always feels great, has angels
10490 fluttering around inside of it, doesn't care about how much cited text
10491 you include, never runs full and never goes down.) So Gnus saves these
10492 articles until some later time when the server feels better.
10494 The rejected articles will automatically be put in a special draft group
10495 (@pxref{Drafts}). When the server comes back up again, you'd then
10496 typically enter that group and send all the articles off.
10502 Gnus has an ALPHA support to GPG that's provided by @file{gpg.el}. See
10503 @code{mm-verify-option} and @code{mm-decrypt-option} to enable Gnus to
10504 verify or decrypt messages accordingly.
10506 To use this correctly with GPG, you'll need the following lisp code in your
10507 @file{~/.emacs} or @file{~/.gnus}:
10511 (setq mml2015-use 'gpg)
10512 (setq gpg-temp-directory (expand-file-name "~/.gnupg/tmp"))
10515 The @code{gpg-temp-directory} need to point to a directory with permissions set
10516 to 700, for your own safety.
10518 If you want to benefit of PGP2.6 compatibility, you might create a script named
10519 @file{gpg-2comp} with these instructions:
10523 exec gpg --rfc1991 "$@@"
10526 If you don't want to use such compatibility, you can add the following line to
10527 your @file{~/.emacs} or @file{~/.gnus}:
10530 (setq gpg-command-default-alist (quote ((gpg . "gpg") (gpg-2comp . "gpg"))))
10533 To sign or encrypt your message you may choose to use the MML Security
10534 menu or @kbd{C-c C-m s p} to sign your message using PGP/MIME, @kbd{C-c
10535 C-m s s} to sign your message using S/MIME. There's also @kbd{C-c C-m c
10536 p} to encrypt your message with PGP/MIME and @kbd{C-c C-m c s} to
10537 encrypt using S/MIME.
10539 Gnus will ask for your passphrase and then it will send your message, if
10540 you've typed it correctly.
10542 @node Select Methods
10543 @chapter Select Methods
10544 @cindex foreign groups
10545 @cindex select methods
10547 A @dfn{foreign group} is a group not read by the usual (or
10548 default) means. It could be, for instance, a group from a different
10549 @sc{nntp} server, it could be a virtual group, or it could be your own
10550 personal mail group.
10552 A foreign group (or any group, really) is specified by a @dfn{name} and
10553 a @dfn{select method}. To take the latter first, a select method is a
10554 list where the first element says what backend to use (e.g. @code{nntp},
10555 @code{nnspool}, @code{nnml}) and the second element is the @dfn{server
10556 name}. There may be additional elements in the select method, where the
10557 value may have special meaning for the backend in question.
10559 One could say that a select method defines a @dfn{virtual server}---so
10560 we do just that (@pxref{Server Buffer}).
10562 The @dfn{name} of the group is the name the backend will recognize the
10565 For instance, the group @samp{soc.motss} on the @sc{nntp} server
10566 @samp{some.where.edu} will have the name @samp{soc.motss} and select
10567 method @code{(nntp "some.where.edu")}. Gnus will call this group
10568 @samp{nntp+some.where.edu:soc.motss}, even though the @code{nntp}
10569 backend just knows this group as @samp{soc.motss}.
10571 The different methods all have their peculiarities, of course.
10574 * Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
10575 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
10576 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
10577 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
10578 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
10579 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
10580 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
10584 @node Server Buffer
10585 @section Server Buffer
10587 Traditionally, a @dfn{server} is a machine or a piece of software that
10588 one connects to, and then requests information from. Gnus does not
10589 connect directly to any real servers, but does all transactions through
10590 one backend or other. But that's just putting one layer more between
10591 the actual media and Gnus, so we might just as well say that each
10592 backend represents a virtual server.
10594 For instance, the @code{nntp} backend may be used to connect to several
10595 different actual @sc{nntp} servers, or, perhaps, to many different ports
10596 on the same actual @sc{nntp} server. You tell Gnus which backend to
10597 use, and what parameters to set by specifying a @dfn{select method}.
10599 These select method specifications can sometimes become quite
10600 complicated---say, for instance, that you want to read from the
10601 @sc{nntp} server @samp{news.funet.fi} on port number 13, which
10602 hangs if queried for @sc{nov} headers and has a buggy select. Ahem.
10603 Anyway, if you had to specify that for each group that used this
10604 server, that would be too much work, so Gnus offers a way of naming
10605 select methods, which is what you do in the server buffer.
10607 To enter the server buffer, use the @kbd{^}
10608 (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}) command in the group buffer.
10611 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
10612 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
10613 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
10614 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
10615 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
10616 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
10617 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
10620 @vindex gnus-server-mode-hook
10621 @code{gnus-server-mode-hook} is run when creating the server buffer.
10624 @node Server Buffer Format
10625 @subsection Server Buffer Format
10626 @cindex server buffer format
10628 @vindex gnus-server-line-format
10629 You can change the look of the server buffer lines by changing the
10630 @code{gnus-server-line-format} variable. This is a @code{format}-like
10631 variable, with some simple extensions:
10636 How the news is fetched---the backend name.
10639 The name of this server.
10642 Where the news is to be fetched from---the address.
10645 The opened/closed/denied status of the server.
10648 @vindex gnus-server-mode-line-format
10649 The mode line can also be customized by using the
10650 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format} variable (@pxref{Mode Line
10651 Formatting}). The following specs are understood:
10661 Also @pxref{Formatting Variables}.
10664 @node Server Commands
10665 @subsection Server Commands
10666 @cindex server commands
10672 @findex gnus-server-add-server
10673 Add a new server (@code{gnus-server-add-server}).
10677 @findex gnus-server-edit-server
10678 Edit a server (@code{gnus-server-edit-server}).
10681 @kindex SPACE (Server)
10682 @findex gnus-server-read-server
10683 Browse the current server (@code{gnus-server-read-server}).
10687 @findex gnus-server-exit
10688 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-server-exit}).
10692 @findex gnus-server-kill-server
10693 Kill the current server (@code{gnus-server-kill-server}).
10697 @findex gnus-server-yank-server
10698 Yank the previously killed server (@code{gnus-server-yank-server}).
10702 @findex gnus-server-copy-server
10703 Copy the current server (@code{gnus-server-copy-server}).
10707 @findex gnus-server-list-servers
10708 List all servers (@code{gnus-server-list-servers}).
10712 @findex gnus-server-scan-server
10713 Request that the server scan its sources for new articles
10714 (@code{gnus-server-scan-server}). This is mainly sensible with mail
10719 @findex gnus-server-regenerate-server
10720 Request that the server regenerate all its data structures
10721 (@code{gnus-server-regenerate-server}). This can be useful if you have
10722 a mail backend that has gotten out of sync.
10727 @node Example Methods
10728 @subsection Example Methods
10730 Most select methods are pretty simple and self-explanatory:
10733 (nntp "news.funet.fi")
10736 Reading directly from the spool is even simpler:
10742 As you can see, the first element in a select method is the name of the
10743 backend, and the second is the @dfn{address}, or @dfn{name}, if you
10746 After these two elements, there may be an arbitrary number of
10747 @code{(@var{variable} @var{form})} pairs.
10749 To go back to the first example---imagine that you want to read from
10750 port 15 on that machine. This is what the select method should
10754 (nntp "news.funet.fi" (nntp-port-number 15))
10757 You should read the documentation to each backend to find out what
10758 variables are relevant, but here's an @code{nnmh} example:
10760 @code{nnmh} is a mail backend that reads a spool-like structure. Say
10761 you have two structures that you wish to access: One is your private
10762 mail spool, and the other is a public one. Here's the possible spec for
10766 (nnmh "private" (nnmh-directory "~/private/mail/"))
10769 (This server is then called @samp{private}, but you may have guessed
10772 Here's the method for a public spool:
10776 (nnmh-directory "/usr/information/spool/")
10777 (nnmh-get-new-mail nil))
10783 If you are behind a firewall and only have access to the @sc{nntp}
10784 server from the firewall machine, you can instruct Gnus to @code{rlogin}
10785 on the firewall machine and telnet from there to the @sc{nntp} server.
10786 Doing this can be rather fiddly, but your virtual server definition
10787 should probably look something like this:
10791 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet)
10792 (nntp-via-address "the.firewall.machine")
10793 (nntp-address "the.real.nntp.host")
10794 (nntp-end-of-line "\n"))
10797 If you want to use the wonderful @code{ssh} program to provide a
10798 compressed connection over the modem line, you could add the following
10799 configuration to the example above:
10802 (nntp-via-rlogin-command "ssh")
10805 If you're behind a firewall, but have direct access to the outside world
10806 through a wrapper command like "runsocks", you could open a socksified
10807 telnet connection to the news server as follows:
10811 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
10812 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-telnet)
10813 (nntp-address "the.news.server")
10814 (nntp-end-of-line "\n"))
10817 This means that you have to have set up @code{ssh-agent} correctly to
10818 provide automatic authorization, of course. And to get a compressed
10819 connection, you have to have the @samp{Compression} option in the
10820 @code{ssh} @file{config} file.
10823 @node Creating a Virtual Server
10824 @subsection Creating a Virtual Server
10826 If you're saving lots of articles in the cache by using persistent
10827 articles, you may want to create a virtual server to read the cache.
10829 First you need to add a new server. The @kbd{a} command does that. It
10830 would probably be best to use @code{nnspool} to read the cache. You
10831 could also use @code{nnml} or @code{nnmh}, though.
10833 Type @kbd{a nnspool RET cache RET}.
10835 You should now have a brand new @code{nnspool} virtual server called
10836 @samp{cache}. You now need to edit it to have the right definitions.
10837 Type @kbd{e} to edit the server. You'll be entered into a buffer that
10838 will contain the following:
10848 (nnspool-spool-directory "~/News/cache/")
10849 (nnspool-nov-directory "~/News/cache/")
10850 (nnspool-active-file "~/News/cache/active"))
10853 Type @kbd{C-c C-c} to return to the server buffer. If you now press
10854 @kbd{RET} over this virtual server, you should be entered into a browse
10855 buffer, and you should be able to enter any of the groups displayed.
10858 @node Server Variables
10859 @subsection Server Variables
10861 One sticky point when defining variables (both on backends and in Emacs
10862 in general) is that some variables are typically initialized from other
10863 variables when the definition of the variables is being loaded. If you
10864 change the "base" variable after the variables have been loaded, you
10865 won't change the "derived" variables.
10867 This typically affects directory and file variables. For instance,
10868 @code{nnml-directory} is @file{~/Mail/} by default, and all @code{nnml}
10869 directory variables are initialized from that variable, so
10870 @code{nnml-active-file} will be @file{~/Mail/active}. If you define a
10871 new virtual @code{nnml} server, it will @emph{not} suffice to set just
10872 @code{nnml-directory}---you have to explicitly set all the file
10873 variables to be what you want them to be. For a complete list of
10874 variables for each backend, see each backend's section later in this
10875 manual, but here's an example @code{nnml} definition:
10879 (nnml-directory "~/my-mail/")
10880 (nnml-active-file "~/my-mail/active")
10881 (nnml-newsgroups-file "~/my-mail/newsgroups"))
10885 @node Servers and Methods
10886 @subsection Servers and Methods
10888 Wherever you would normally use a select method
10889 (e.g. @code{gnus-secondary-select-method}, in the group select method,
10890 when browsing a foreign server) you can use a virtual server name
10891 instead. This could potentially save lots of typing. And it's nice all
10895 @node Unavailable Servers
10896 @subsection Unavailable Servers
10898 If a server seems to be unreachable, Gnus will mark that server as
10899 @code{denied}. That means that any subsequent attempt to make contact
10900 with that server will just be ignored. ``It can't be opened,'' Gnus
10901 will tell you, without making the least effort to see whether that is
10902 actually the case or not.
10904 That might seem quite naughty, but it does make sense most of the time.
10905 Let's say you have 10 groups subscribed to on server
10906 @samp{nephelococcygia.com}. This server is located somewhere quite far
10907 away from you and the machine is quite slow, so it takes 1 minute just
10908 to find out that it refuses connection to you today. If Gnus were to
10909 attempt to do that 10 times, you'd be quite annoyed, so Gnus won't
10910 attempt to do that. Once it has gotten a single ``connection refused'',
10911 it will regard that server as ``down''.
10913 So, what happens if the machine was only feeling unwell temporarily?
10914 How do you test to see whether the machine has come up again?
10916 You jump to the server buffer (@pxref{Server Buffer}) and poke it
10917 with the following commands:
10923 @findex gnus-server-open-server
10924 Try to establish connection to the server on the current line
10925 (@code{gnus-server-open-server}).
10929 @findex gnus-server-close-server
10930 Close the connection (if any) to the server
10931 (@code{gnus-server-close-server}).
10935 @findex gnus-server-deny-server
10936 Mark the current server as unreachable
10937 (@code{gnus-server-deny-server}).
10940 @kindex M-o (Server)
10941 @findex gnus-server-open-all-servers
10942 Open the connections to all servers in the buffer
10943 (@code{gnus-server-open-all-servers}).
10946 @kindex M-c (Server)
10947 @findex gnus-server-close-all-servers
10948 Close the connections to all servers in the buffer
10949 (@code{gnus-server-close-all-servers}).
10953 @findex gnus-server-remove-denials
10954 Remove all marks to whether Gnus was denied connection from any servers
10955 (@code{gnus-server-remove-denials}).
10961 @section Getting News
10962 @cindex reading news
10963 @cindex news backends
10965 A newsreader is normally used for reading news. Gnus currently provides
10966 only two methods of getting news---it can read from an @sc{nntp} server,
10967 or it can read from a local spool.
10970 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @sc{nntp} server.
10971 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
10976 @subsection @sc{nntp}
10979 Subscribing to a foreign group from an @sc{nntp} server is rather easy.
10980 You just specify @code{nntp} as method and the address of the @sc{nntp}
10981 server as the, uhm, address.
10983 If the @sc{nntp} server is located at a non-standard port, setting the
10984 third element of the select method to this port number should allow you
10985 to connect to the right port. You'll have to edit the group info for
10986 that (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
10988 The name of the foreign group can be the same as a native group. In
10989 fact, you can subscribe to the same group from as many different servers
10990 you feel like. There will be no name collisions.
10992 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nntp}
10997 @item nntp-server-opened-hook
10998 @vindex nntp-server-opened-hook
10999 @cindex @sc{mode reader}
11001 @cindex authentification
11002 @cindex nntp authentification
11003 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
11004 @findex nntp-send-mode-reader
11005 is run after a connection has been made. It can be used to send
11006 commands to the @sc{nntp} server after it has been contacted. By
11007 default it sends the command @code{MODE READER} to the server with the
11008 @code{nntp-send-mode-reader} function. This function should always be
11009 present in this hook.
11011 @item nntp-authinfo-function
11012 @vindex nntp-authinfo-function
11013 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
11014 @vindex nntp-authinfo-file
11015 This function will be used to send @samp{AUTHINFO} to the @sc{nntp}
11016 server. The default function is @code{nntp-send-authinfo}, which looks
11017 through your @file{~/.authinfo} (or whatever you've set the
11018 @code{nntp-authinfo-file} variable to) for applicable entries. If none
11019 are found, it will prompt you for a login name and a password. The
11020 format of the @file{~/.authinfo} file is (almost) the same as the
11021 @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file, which is defined in the @code{ftp}
11022 manual page, but here are the salient facts:
11026 The file contains one or more line, each of which define one server.
11029 Each line may contain an arbitrary number of token/value pairs.
11031 The valid tokens include @samp{machine}, @samp{login}, @samp{password},
11032 @samp{default}. In addition Gnus introduces two new tokens, not present
11033 in the original @file{.netrc}/@code{ftp} syntax, namely @samp{port} and
11034 @samp{force}. (This is the only way the @file{.authinfo} file format
11035 deviates from the @file{.netrc} file format.) @samp{port} is used to
11036 indicate what port on the server the credentials apply to and
11037 @samp{force} is explained below.
11041 Here's an example file:
11044 machine news.uio.no login larsi password geheimnis
11045 machine nntp.ifi.uio.no login larsi force yes
11048 The token/value pairs may appear in any order; @samp{machine} doesn't
11049 have to be first, for instance.
11051 In this example, both login name and password have been supplied for the
11052 former server, while the latter has only the login name listed, and the
11053 user will be prompted for the password. The latter also has the
11054 @samp{force} tag, which means that the authinfo will be sent to the
11055 @var{nntp} server upon connection; the default (i.e., when there is not
11056 @samp{force} tag) is to not send authinfo to the @var{nntp} server
11057 until the @var{nntp} server asks for it.
11059 You can also add @samp{default} lines that will apply to all servers
11060 that don't have matching @samp{machine} lines.
11066 This will force sending @samp{AUTHINFO} commands to all servers not
11067 previously mentioned.
11069 Remember to not leave the @file{~/.authinfo} file world-readable.
11071 @item nntp-server-action-alist
11072 @vindex nntp-server-action-alist
11073 This is a list of regexps to match on server types and actions to be
11074 taken when matches are made. For instance, if you want Gnus to beep
11075 every time you connect to innd, you could say something like:
11078 (setq nntp-server-action-alist
11079 '(("innd" (ding))))
11082 You probably don't want to do that, though.
11084 The default value is
11087 '(("nntpd 1\\.5\\.11t"
11088 (remove-hook 'nntp-server-opened-hook
11089 'nntp-send-mode-reader)))
11092 This ensures that Gnus doesn't send the @code{MODE READER} command to
11093 nntpd 1.5.11t, since that command chokes that server, I've been told.
11095 @item nntp-maximum-request
11096 @vindex nntp-maximum-request
11097 If the @sc{nntp} server doesn't support @sc{nov} headers, this backend
11098 will collect headers by sending a series of @code{head} commands. To
11099 speed things up, the backend sends lots of these commands without
11100 waiting for reply, and then reads all the replies. This is controlled
11101 by the @code{nntp-maximum-request} variable, and is 400 by default. If
11102 your network is buggy, you should set this to 1.
11104 @item nntp-connection-timeout
11105 @vindex nntp-connection-timeout
11106 If you have lots of foreign @code{nntp} groups that you connect to
11107 regularly, you're sure to have problems with @sc{nntp} servers not
11108 responding properly, or being too loaded to reply within reasonable
11109 time. This is can lead to awkward problems, which can be helped
11110 somewhat by setting @code{nntp-connection-timeout}. This is an integer
11111 that says how many seconds the @code{nntp} backend should wait for a
11112 connection before giving up. If it is @code{nil}, which is the default,
11113 no timeouts are done.
11115 @c @item nntp-command-timeout
11116 @c @vindex nntp-command-timeout
11117 @c @cindex PPP connections
11118 @c @cindex dynamic IP addresses
11119 @c If you're running Gnus on a machine that has a dynamically assigned
11120 @c address, Gnus may become confused. If the address of your machine
11121 @c changes after connecting to the @sc{nntp} server, Gnus will simply sit
11122 @c waiting forever for replies from the server. To help with this
11123 @c unfortunate problem, you can set this command to a number. Gnus will
11124 @c then, if it sits waiting for a reply from the server longer than that
11125 @c number of seconds, shut down the connection, start a new one, and resend
11126 @c the command. This should hopefully be transparent to the user. A
11127 @c likely number is 30 seconds.
11129 @c @item nntp-retry-on-break
11130 @c @vindex nntp-retry-on-break
11131 @c If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you can also @kbd{C-g} if Gnus
11132 @c hangs. This will have much the same effect as the command timeout
11133 @c described above.
11135 @item nntp-server-hook
11136 @vindex nntp-server-hook
11137 This hook is run as the last step when connecting to an @sc{nntp}
11140 @item nntp-buggy-select
11141 @vindex nntp-buggy-select
11142 Set this to non-@code{nil} if your select routine is buggy.
11144 @item nntp-nov-is-evil
11145 @vindex nntp-nov-is-evil
11146 If the @sc{nntp} server does not support @sc{nov}, you could set this
11147 variable to @code{t}, but @code{nntp} usually checks automatically whether @sc{nov}
11150 @item nntp-xover-commands
11151 @vindex nntp-xover-commands
11154 List of strings used as commands to fetch @sc{nov} lines from a
11155 server. The default value of this variable is @code{("XOVER"
11159 @vindex nntp-nov-gap
11160 @code{nntp} normally sends just one big request for @sc{nov} lines to
11161 the server. The server responds with one huge list of lines. However,
11162 if you have read articles 2-5000 in the group, and only want to read
11163 article 1 and 5001, that means that @code{nntp} will fetch 4999 @sc{nov}
11164 lines that you will not need. This variable says how
11165 big a gap between two consecutive articles is allowed to be before the
11166 @code{XOVER} request is split into several request. Note that if your
11167 network is fast, setting this variable to a really small number means
11168 that fetching will probably be slower. If this variable is @code{nil},
11169 @code{nntp} will never split requests. The default is 5.
11171 @item nntp-prepare-server-hook
11172 @vindex nntp-prepare-server-hook
11173 A hook run before attempting to connect to an @sc{nntp} server.
11175 @item nntp-warn-about-losing-connection
11176 @vindex nntp-warn-about-losing-connection
11177 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, some noise will be made when a
11178 server closes connection.
11180 @item nntp-record-commands
11181 @vindex nntp-record-commands
11182 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nntp} will log all commands it sends to the
11183 @sc{nntp} server (along with a timestamp) in the @samp{*nntp-log*}
11184 buffer. This is useful if you are debugging a Gnus/@sc{nntp} connection
11185 that doesn't seem to work.
11187 @item nntp-open-connection-function
11188 @vindex nntp-open-connection-function
11189 It is possible to customize how the connection to the nntp server will
11190 be opened. If you specify an @code{nntp-open-connection-function}
11191 parameter, Gnus will use that function to establish the connection.
11192 Five pre-made functions are supplied. These functions can be grouped in
11193 two categories: direct connection functions (three pre-made), and
11194 indirect ones (two pre-made).
11198 * Direct Functions:: Connecting directly to the server.
11199 * Indirect Functions:: Connecting indirectly to the server.
11200 * Common Variables:: Understood by several connection functions.
11204 @node Direct Functions
11205 @subsubsection Direct Functions
11206 @cindex direct connection functions
11208 These functions are called direct because they open a direct connection
11209 between your machine and the @sc{nntp} server. The behavior of these
11210 functions is also affected by commonly understood variables
11211 (@pxref{Common Variables}).
11214 @findex nntp-open-network-stream
11215 @item nntp-open-network-stream
11216 This is the default, and simply connects to some port or other on the
11219 @findex nntp-open-ssl-stream
11220 @item nntp-open-ssl-stream
11221 Opens a connection to a server over a @dfn{secure} channel. To use this
11222 you must have SSLay installed
11223 (@uref{ftp://ftp.psy.uq.oz.au/pub/Crypto/SSL}, and you also need
11224 @file{ssl.el} (from the W3 distribution, for instance). You then
11225 define a server as follows:
11228 ;; Type `C-c C-c' after you've finished editing.
11230 ;; "snews" is port 563 and is predefined in our /etc/services
11232 (nntp "snews.bar.com"
11233 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-ssl-stream)
11234 (nntp-port-number "snews")
11235 (nntp-address "snews.bar.com"))
11238 @findex nntp-open-telnet-stream
11239 @item nntp-open-telnet-stream
11240 Opens a connection to an @sc{nntp} server by simply @samp{telnet}'ing
11241 it. You might wonder why this function exists, since we have the
11242 default @code{nntp-open-network-stream} which would do the job. (One
11243 of) the reason(s) is that if you are behind a firewall but have direct
11244 connections to the outside world thanks to a command wrapper like
11245 @code{runsocks}, you can use it like this:
11249 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
11250 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-telnet-stream)
11251 (nntp-address "the.news.server"))
11254 With the default method, you would need to wrap your whole Emacs
11255 session, which is not a good idea.
11259 @node Indirect Functions
11260 @subsubsection Indirect Functions
11261 @cindex indirect connection functions
11263 These functions are called indirect because they connect to an
11264 intermediate host before actually connecting to the @sc{nntp} server.
11265 All of these functions and related variables are also said to belong to
11266 the "via" family of connection: they're all prefixed with "via" to make
11267 things cleaner. The behavior of these functions is also affected by
11268 commonly understood variables (@pxref{Common Variables}).
11271 @item nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet
11272 @findex nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet
11273 Does an @samp{rlogin} on a remote system, and then does a @samp{telnet}
11274 to the real @sc{nntp} server from there. This is useful for instance if
11275 you need to connect to a firewall machine first.
11277 @code{nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet}-specific variables:
11280 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command
11281 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command
11282 Command used to log in on the intermediate host. The default is
11283 @samp{rsh}, but @samp{ssh} is a popular alternative.
11286 @item nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet
11287 @findex nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet
11288 Does essentially the same, but uses @samp{telnet} instead of
11289 @samp{rlogin} to connect to the intermediate host.
11291 @code{nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet}-specific variables:
11294 @item nntp-via-telnet-command
11295 @vindex nntp-via-telnet-command
11296 Command used to @code{telnet} the intermediate host. The default is
11299 @item nntp-via-telnet-switches
11300 @vindex nntp-via-telnet-switches
11301 List of strings to be used as the switches to the
11302 @code{nntp-via-telnet-command} command. The default is @samp{("-8")}.
11304 @item nntp-via-user-password
11305 @vindex nntp-via-user-password
11306 Password to use when logging in on the intermediate host.
11308 @item nntp-via-envuser
11309 @vindex nntp-via-envuser
11310 If non-@code{nil}, the intermediate @code{telnet} session (client and
11311 server both) will support the @code{ENVIRON} option and not prompt for
11312 login name. This works for Solaris @code{telnet}, for instance.
11314 @item nntp-via-shell-prompt
11315 @vindex nntp-via-shell-prompt
11316 Regexp matching the shell prompt on the intermediate host. The default
11317 is @samp{bash\\|\$ *\r?$\\|> *\r?}.
11324 Here are some additional variables that are understood by all the above
11329 @item nntp-via-user-name
11330 @vindex nntp-via-user-name
11331 User name to use when connecting to the intermediate host.
11333 @item nntp-via-address
11334 @vindex nntp-via-address
11335 Address of the intermediate host to connect to.
11340 @node Common Variables
11341 @subsubsection Common Variables
11343 The following variables affect the behavior of all, or several of the
11344 pre-made connection functions. When not specified, all functions are
11349 @item nntp-pre-command
11350 @vindex nntp-pre-command
11351 A command wrapper to use when connecting through a non native connection
11352 function (all except @code{nntp-open-network-stream} and
11353 @code{nntp-open-ssl-stream}. This is where you would put a @samp{SOCKS}
11354 wrapper for instance.
11357 @vindex nntp-address
11358 The address of the @sc{nntp} server.
11360 @item nntp-port-number
11361 @vindex nntp-port-number
11362 Port number to connect to the @sc{nntp} server. The default is @samp{nntp}.
11364 @item nntp-end-of-line
11365 @vindex nntp-end-of-line
11366 String to use as end-of-line marker when talking to the @sc{nntp}
11367 server. This is @samp{\r\n} by default, but should be @samp{\n} when
11368 using a non native connection function.
11370 @item nntp-telnet-command
11371 @vindex nntp-telnet-command
11372 Command to use when connecting to the @sc{nntp} server through
11373 @samp{telnet}. This is NOT for an intermediate host. This is just for
11374 the real @sc{nntp} server. The default is @samp{telnet}.
11376 @item nntp-telnet-switches
11377 @vindex nntp-telnet-switches
11378 A list of switches to pass to @code{nntp-telnet-command}. The default
11385 @subsection News Spool
11389 Subscribing to a foreign group from the local spool is extremely easy,
11390 and might be useful, for instance, to speed up reading groups that
11391 contain very big articles---@samp{alt.binaries.pictures.furniture}, for
11394 Anyway, you just specify @code{nnspool} as the method and @code{""} (or
11395 anything else) as the address.
11397 If you have access to a local spool, you should probably use that as the
11398 native select method (@pxref{Finding the News}). It is normally faster
11399 than using an @code{nntp} select method, but might not be. It depends.
11400 You just have to try to find out what's best at your site.
11404 @item nnspool-inews-program
11405 @vindex nnspool-inews-program
11406 Program used to post an article.
11408 @item nnspool-inews-switches
11409 @vindex nnspool-inews-switches
11410 Parameters given to the inews program when posting an article.
11412 @item nnspool-spool-directory
11413 @vindex nnspool-spool-directory
11414 Where @code{nnspool} looks for the articles. This is normally
11415 @file{/usr/spool/news/}.
11417 @item nnspool-nov-directory
11418 @vindex nnspool-nov-directory
11419 Where @code{nnspool} will look for @sc{nov} files. This is normally
11420 @file{/usr/spool/news/over.view/}.
11422 @item nnspool-lib-dir
11423 @vindex nnspool-lib-dir
11424 Where the news lib dir is (@file{/usr/lib/news/} by default).
11426 @item nnspool-active-file
11427 @vindex nnspool-active-file
11428 The path to the active file.
11430 @item nnspool-newsgroups-file
11431 @vindex nnspool-newsgroups-file
11432 The path to the group descriptions file.
11434 @item nnspool-history-file
11435 @vindex nnspool-history-file
11436 The path to the news history file.
11438 @item nnspool-active-times-file
11439 @vindex nnspool-active-times-file
11440 The path to the active date file.
11442 @item nnspool-nov-is-evil
11443 @vindex nnspool-nov-is-evil
11444 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnspool} won't try to use any @sc{nov} files
11447 @item nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
11448 @vindex nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
11450 If non-@code{nil}, which is the default, use @code{sed} to get the
11451 relevant portion from the overview file. If nil, @code{nnspool} will
11452 load the entire file into a buffer and process it there.
11458 @section Getting Mail
11459 @cindex reading mail
11462 Reading mail with a newsreader---isn't that just plain WeIrD? But of
11466 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
11467 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
11468 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
11469 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
11470 * Mail Backend Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
11471 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
11472 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
11473 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
11474 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
11475 * Washing Mail:: Removing gruft from the mail you get.
11476 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
11477 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail backends for reading other files.
11478 * Choosing a Mail Backend:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
11479 * Archiving Mail:: How to backup your mail.
11483 @node Mail in a Newsreader
11484 @subsection Mail in a Newsreader
11486 If you are used to traditional mail readers, but have decided to switch
11487 to reading mail with Gnus, you may find yourself experiencing something
11488 of a culture shock.
11490 Gnus does not behave like traditional mail readers. If you want to make
11491 it behave that way, you can, but it's an uphill battle.
11493 Gnus, by default, handles all its groups using the same approach. This
11494 approach is very newsreaderly---you enter a group, see the new/unread
11495 messages, and when you read the messages, they get marked as read, and
11496 you don't see them any more. (Unless you explicitly ask for them.)
11498 In particular, you do not do anything explicitly to delete messages.
11500 Does this mean that all the messages that have been marked as read are
11501 deleted? How awful!
11503 But, no, it means that old messages are @dfn{expired} according to some
11504 scheme or other. For news messages, the expire process is controlled by
11505 the news administrator; for mail, the expire process is controlled by
11506 you. The expire process for mail is covered in depth in @pxref{Expiring
11509 What many Gnus users find, after using it a while for both news and
11510 mail, is that the transport mechanism has very little to do with how
11511 they want to treat a message.
11513 Many people subscribe to several mailing lists. These are transported
11514 via SMTP, and are therefore mail. But we might go for weeks without
11515 answering, or even reading these messages very carefully. We may not
11516 need to save them because if we should need to read one again, they are
11517 archived somewhere else.
11519 Some people have local news groups which have only a handful of readers.
11520 These are transported via @sc{nntp}, and are therefore news. But we may need
11521 to read and answer a large fraction of the messages very carefully in
11522 order to do our work. And there may not be an archive, so we may need
11523 to save the interesting messages the same way we would personal mail.
11525 The important distinction turns out to be not the transport mechanism,
11526 but other factors such as how interested we are in the subject matter,
11527 or how easy it is to retrieve the message if we need to read it again.
11529 Gnus provides many options for sorting mail into ``groups'' which behave
11530 like newsgroups, and for treating each group (whether mail or news)
11533 Some users never get comfortable using the Gnus (ahem) paradigm and wish
11534 that Gnus should grow up and be a male, er, mail reader. It is possible
11535 to whip Gnus into a more mailreaderly being, but, as said before, it's
11536 not easy. People who prefer proper mail readers should try @sc{vm}
11537 instead, which is an excellent, and proper, mail reader.
11539 I don't mean to scare anybody off, but I want to make it clear that you
11540 may be required to learn a new way of thinking about messages. After
11541 you've been subjected to The Gnus Way, you will come to love it. I can
11542 guarantee it. (At least the guy who sold me the Emacs Subliminal
11543 Brain-Washing Functions that I've put into Gnus did guarantee it. You
11544 Will Be Assimilated. You Love Gnus. You Love The Gnus Mail Way.
11548 @node Getting Started Reading Mail
11549 @subsection Getting Started Reading Mail
11551 It's quite easy to use Gnus to read your new mail. You just plonk the
11552 mail backend of your choice into @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods},
11553 and things will happen automatically.
11555 For instance, if you want to use @code{nnml} (which is a "one file per
11556 mail" backend), you could put the following in your @file{.gnus} file:
11559 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
11562 Now, the next time you start Gnus, this backend will be queried for new
11563 articles, and it will move all the messages in your spool file to its
11564 directory, which is @code{~/Mail/} by default. The new group that will
11565 be created (@samp{mail.misc}) will be subscribed, and you can read it
11566 like any other group.
11568 You will probably want to split the mail into several groups, though:
11571 (setq nnmail-split-methods
11572 '(("junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
11573 ("crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
11577 This will result in three new @code{nnml} mail groups being created:
11578 @samp{nnml:junk}, @samp{nnml:crazy}, and @samp{nnml:other}. All the
11579 mail that doesn't fit into the first two groups will be placed in the
11582 This should be sufficient for reading mail with Gnus. You might want to
11583 give the other sections in this part of the manual a perusal, though.
11584 Especially @pxref{Choosing a Mail Backend} and @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
11587 @node Splitting Mail
11588 @subsection Splitting Mail
11589 @cindex splitting mail
11590 @cindex mail splitting
11592 @vindex nnmail-split-methods
11593 The @code{nnmail-split-methods} variable says how the incoming mail is
11594 to be split into groups.
11597 (setq nnmail-split-methods
11598 '(("mail.junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
11599 ("mail.crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
11600 ("mail.other" "")))
11603 This variable is a list of lists, where the first element of each of
11604 these lists is the name of the mail group (they do not have to be called
11605 something beginning with @samp{mail}, by the way), and the second
11606 element is a regular expression used on the header of each mail to
11607 determine if it belongs in this mail group. The first string may
11608 contain @samp{\\1} forms, like the ones used by @code{replace-match} to
11609 insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For instance:
11612 ("list.\\1" "From:.* \\(.*\\)-list@@majordomo.com")
11615 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
11616 called narrowed to the headers with the first element of the rule as the
11617 argument. It should return a non-@code{nil} value if it thinks that the
11618 mail belongs in that group.
11620 The last of these groups should always be a general one, and the regular
11621 expression should @emph{always} be @samp{} so that it matches any mails
11622 that haven't been matched by any of the other regexps. (These rules are
11623 processed from the beginning of the alist toward the end. The first
11624 rule to make a match will "win", unless you have crossposting enabled.
11625 In that case, all matching rules will "win".)
11627 If you like to tinker with this yourself, you can set this variable to a
11628 function of your choice. This function will be called without any
11629 arguments in a buffer narrowed to the headers of an incoming mail
11630 message. The function should return a list of group names that it
11631 thinks should carry this mail message.
11633 Note that the mail backends are free to maul the poor, innocent,
11634 incoming headers all they want to. They all add @code{Lines} headers;
11635 some add @code{X-Gnus-Group} headers; most rename the Unix mbox
11636 @code{From<SPACE>} line to something else.
11638 @vindex nnmail-crosspost
11639 The mail backends all support cross-posting. If several regexps match,
11640 the mail will be ``cross-posted'' to all those groups.
11641 @code{nnmail-crosspost} says whether to use this mechanism or not. Note
11642 that no articles are crossposted to the general (@samp{}) group.
11644 @vindex nnmail-crosspost-link-function
11647 @code{nnmh} and @code{nnml} makes crossposts by creating hard links to
11648 the crossposted articles. However, not all file systems support hard
11649 links. If that's the case for you, set
11650 @code{nnmail-crosspost-link-function} to @code{copy-file}. (This
11651 variable is @code{add-name-to-file} by default.)
11653 @kindex M-x nnmail-split-history
11654 @kindex nnmail-split-history
11655 If you wish to see where the previous mail split put the messages, you
11656 can use the @kbd{M-x nnmail-split-history} command. If you wish to see
11657 where re-spooling messages would put the messages, you can use
11658 @code{gnus-summary-respool-trace} and related commands (@pxref{Mail
11661 Gnus gives you all the opportunity you could possibly want for shooting
11662 yourself in the foot. Let's say you create a group that will contain
11663 all the mail you get from your boss. And then you accidentally
11664 unsubscribe from the group. Gnus will still put all the mail from your
11665 boss in the unsubscribed group, and so, when your boss mails you ``Have
11666 that report ready by Monday or you're fired!'', you'll never see it and,
11667 come Tuesday, you'll still believe that you're gainfully employed while
11668 you really should be out collecting empty bottles to save up for next
11669 month's rent money.
11673 @subsection Mail Sources
11675 Mail can be gotten from many different sources---the mail spool, from a
11676 POP mail server, from a procmail directory, or from a maildir, for
11680 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
11681 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
11682 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
11686 @node Mail Source Specifiers
11687 @subsubsection Mail Source Specifiers
11689 @cindex mail server
11692 @cindex mail source
11694 You tell Gnus how to fetch mail by setting @code{mail-sources}
11695 (@pxref{Fetching Mail}) to a @dfn{mail source specifier}.
11700 (pop :server "pop3.mailserver.com" :user "myname")
11703 As can be observed, a mail source specifier is a list where the first
11704 element is a @dfn{mail source type}, followed by an arbitrary number of
11705 @dfn{keywords}. Keywords that are not explicitly specified are given
11708 The following mail source types are available:
11712 Get mail from a single file; typically from the mail spool.
11718 The path of the file. Defaults to the value of the @code{MAIL}
11719 environment variable or @file{/usr/mail/spool/user-name}.
11722 An example file mail source:
11725 (file :path "/usr/spool/mail/user-name")
11728 Or using the default path:
11734 If the mail spool file is not located on the local machine, it's best to
11735 use POP or @sc{imap} or the like to fetch the mail. You can not use ange-ftp
11736 file names here---it has no way to lock the mail spool while moving the
11739 If it's impossible to set up a proper server, you can use ssh instead.
11743 '((file :prescript "ssh host bin/getmail >%t")))
11746 The @samp{getmail} script would look something like the following:
11750 # getmail - move mail from spool to stdout
11753 MOVEMAIL=/usr/lib/emacs/20.3/i386-redhat-linux/movemail
11755 rm -f $TMP; $MOVEMAIL $MAIL $TMP >/dev/null && cat $TMP
11758 Alter this script to fit find the @samp{movemail} you want to use.
11762 Get mail from several files in a directory. This is typically used when
11763 you have procmail split the incoming mail into several files. Setting
11764 @code{nnmail-scan-directory-mail-source-once} to non-nil forces Gnus to
11765 scan the mail source only once. This is particularly useful if you want
11766 to scan mail groups at a specified level.
11772 The path of the directory where the files are. There is no default
11776 Only files ending with this suffix are used. The default is
11780 Only files that have this predicate return non-@code{nil} are returned.
11781 The default is @code{identity}. This is used as an additional
11782 filter---only files that have the right suffix @emph{and} satisfy this
11783 predicate are considered.
11787 Script run before/after fetching mail.
11791 An example directory mail source:
11794 (directory :path "/home/user-name/procmail-dir/"
11799 Get mail from a POP server.
11805 The name of the POP server. The default is taken from the
11806 @code{MAILHOST} environment variable.
11809 The port number of the POP server. This can be a number (eg,
11810 @samp{:port 1234}) or a string (eg, @samp{:port "pop3"}). If it is a
11811 string, it should be a service name as listed in @file{/etc/services} on
11812 Unix systems. The default is @samp{"pop3"}. On some systems you might
11813 need to specify it as @samp{"pop-3"} instead.
11816 The user name to give to the POP server. The default is the login
11820 The password to give to the POP server. If not specified, the user is
11824 The program to use to fetch mail from the POP server. This should be
11825 a @code{format}-like string. Here's an example:
11828 fetchmail %u@@%s -P %p %t
11831 The valid format specifier characters are:
11835 The name of the file the mail is to be moved to. This must always be
11836 included in this string.
11839 The name of the server.
11842 The port number of the server.
11845 The user name to use.
11848 The password to use.
11851 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
11852 corresponding keywords.
11855 A script to be run before fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
11856 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
11859 A script to be run after fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
11860 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
11863 The function to use to fetch mail from the POP server. The function is
11864 called with one parameter---the name of the file where the mail should
11867 @item :authentication
11868 This can be either the symbol @code{password} or the symbol @code{apop}
11869 and says what authentication scheme to use. The default is
11874 If the @code{:program} and @code{:function} keywords aren't specified,
11875 @code{pop3-movemail} will be used.
11877 Here are some examples. Fetch from the default POP server, using the
11878 default user name, and default fetcher:
11884 Fetch from a named server with a named user and password:
11887 (pop :server "my.pop.server"
11888 :user "user-name" :password "secret")
11891 Use @samp{movemail} to move the mail:
11894 (pop :program "movemail po:%u %t %p")
11898 Get mail from a maildir. This is a type of mailbox that is supported by
11899 at least qmail and postfix, where each file in a special directory
11900 contains exactly one mail.
11906 The path of the directory where the mails are stored. The default is
11907 taken from the @code{MAILDIR} environment variable or
11910 The subdirectories of the Maildir. The default is
11911 @samp{("new" "cur")}.
11913 @c If you sometimes look at your mail through a pop3 daemon before fetching
11914 @c them with Gnus, you may also have to fetch your mails from the
11915 @c @code{cur} directory inside the maildir, like in the first example
11918 You can also get mails from remote hosts (because maildirs don't suffer
11919 from locking problems).
11923 Two example maildir mail sources:
11926 (maildir :path "/home/user-name/Maildir/"
11927 :subdirs ("cur" "new"))
11931 (maildir :path "/user@@remotehost.org:~/Maildir/"
11936 Get mail from a @sc{imap} server. If you don't want to use @sc{imap}
11937 as intended, as a network mail reading protocol (ie with nnimap), for
11938 some reason or other, Gnus let you treat it similar to a POP server
11939 and fetches articles from a given @sc{imap} mailbox. @xref{IMAP}, for
11946 The name of the @sc{imap} server. The default is taken from the
11947 @code{MAILHOST} environment variable.
11950 The port number of the @sc{imap} server. The default is @samp{143}, or
11951 @samp{993} for SSL connections.
11954 The user name to give to the @sc{imap} server. The default is the login
11958 The password to give to the @sc{imap} server. If not specified, the user is
11962 What stream to use for connecting to the server, this is one of the
11963 symbols in @code{imap-stream-alist}. Right now, this means
11964 @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{ssl} or the default @samp{network}.
11966 @item :authentication
11967 Which authenticator to use for authenticating to the server, this is one
11968 of the symbols in @code{imap-authenticator-alist}. Right now, this
11969 means @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{cram-md5}, @samp{anonymous} or the default
11973 When using the `shell' :stream, the contents of this variable is
11974 mapped into the `imap-shell-program' variable. This should be a
11975 @code{format}-like string (or list of strings). Here's an example:
11981 The valid format specifier characters are:
11985 The name of the server.
11988 User name from `imap-default-user'.
11991 The port number of the server.
11994 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
11995 corresponding keywords.
11998 The name of the mailbox to get mail from. The default is @samp{INBOX}
11999 which normally is the mailbox which receive incoming mail.
12002 The predicate used to find articles to fetch. The default, @samp{UNSEEN
12003 UNDELETED}, is probably the best choice for most people, but if you
12004 sometimes peek in your mailbox with a @sc{imap} client and mark some
12005 articles as read (or; SEEN) you might want to set this to @samp{nil}.
12006 Then all articles in the mailbox is fetched, no matter what. For a
12007 complete list of predicates, see RFC 2060 §6.4.4.
12010 How to flag fetched articles on the server, the default @samp{\Deleted}
12011 will mark them as deleted, an alternative would be @samp{\Seen} which
12012 would simply mark them as read. These are the two most likely choices,
12013 but more flags are defined in RFC 2060 §2.3.2.
12016 If non-nil, don't remove all articles marked as deleted in the mailbox
12017 after finishing the fetch.
12021 An example @sc{imap} mail source:
12024 (imap :server "mail.mycorp.com"
12026 :fetchflag "\\Seen")
12030 Get mail from a webmail server, such as www.hotmail.com,
12031 webmail.netscape.com, www.netaddress.com, www.my-deja.com.
12033 NOTE: Now mail.yahoo.com provides POP3 service, so @sc{pop} mail source
12036 NOTE: Webmail largely depends cookies. A "one-line-cookie" patch is
12037 required for url "4.0pre.46".
12039 WARNING: Mails may lost. NO WARRANTY.
12045 The type of the webmail server. The default is @code{hotmail}. The
12046 alternatives are @code{netscape}, @code{netaddress}, @code{my-deja}.
12049 The user name to give to the webmail server. The default is the login
12053 The password to give to the webmail server. If not specified, the user is
12057 If non-nil, only fetch unread articles and don't move them to trash
12058 folder after finishing the fetch.
12062 An example webmail source:
12065 (webmail :subtype 'hotmail
12067 :password "secret")
12072 @item Common Keywords
12073 Common keywords can be used in any type of mail source.
12079 If non-nil, fetch the mail even when Gnus is unplugged. If you use
12080 directory source to get mail, you can specify it as in this example:
12084 '((directory :path "/home/pavel/.Spool/"
12089 Gnus will then fetch your mail even when you are unplugged. This is
12090 useful when you use local mail and news.
12095 @subsubsection Function Interface
12097 Some of the above keywords specify a Lisp function to be executed.
12098 For each keyword @code{:foo}, the Lisp variable @code{foo} is bound to
12099 the value of the keyword while the function is executing. For example,
12100 consider the following mail-source setting:
12103 (setq mail-sources '((pop :user "jrl"
12104 :server "pophost" :function fetchfunc)))
12107 While the function @code{fetchfunc} is executing, the symbol @code{user}
12108 is bound to @code{"jrl"}, and the symbol @code{server} is bound to
12109 @code{"pophost"}. The symbols @code{port}, @code{password},
12110 @code{program}, @code{prescript}, @code{postscript}, @code{function},
12111 and @code{authentication} are also bound (to their default values).
12113 See above for a list of keywords for each type of mail source.
12116 @node Mail Source Customization
12117 @subsubsection Mail Source Customization
12119 The following is a list of variables that influence how the mail is
12120 fetched. You would normally not need to set or change any of these
12124 @item mail-source-crash-box
12125 @vindex mail-source-crash-box
12126 File where mail will be stored while processing it. The default is
12127 @file{~/.emacs-mail-crash-box}.
12129 @item mail-source-delete-incoming
12130 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
12131 If non-@code{nil}, delete incoming files after handling them.
12133 @item mail-source-directory
12134 @vindex mail-source-directory
12135 Directory where files (if any) will be stored. The default is
12136 @file{~/Mail/}. At present, the only thing this is used for is to say
12137 where the incoming files will be stored if the previous variable is
12140 @item mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
12141 @vindex mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
12142 Prefix for file name for storing incoming mail. The default is
12143 @file{Incoming}, in which case files will end up with names like
12144 @file{Incoming30630D_} or @file{Incoming298602ZD}. This is really only
12145 relevant if @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is @code{nil}.
12147 @item mail-source-default-file-modes
12148 @vindex mail-source-default-file-modes
12149 All new mail files will get this file mode. The default is 384.
12154 @node Fetching Mail
12155 @subsubsection Fetching Mail
12157 @vindex mail-sources
12158 @vindex nnmail-spool-file
12159 The way to actually tell Gnus where to get new mail from is to set
12160 @code{mail-sources} to a list of mail source specifiers
12161 (@pxref{Mail Source Specifiers}).
12163 If this variable (and the obsolescent @code{nnmail-spool-file}) is
12164 @code{nil}, the mail backends will never attempt to fetch mail by
12167 If you want to fetch mail both from your local spool as well as a POP
12168 mail server, you'd say something like:
12173 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
12174 :password "secret")))
12177 Or, if you don't want to use any of the keyword defaults:
12181 '((file :path "/var/spool/mail/user-name")
12182 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
12185 :password "secret")))
12189 When you use a mail backend, Gnus will slurp all your mail from your
12190 inbox and plonk it down in your home directory. Gnus doesn't move any
12191 mail if you're not using a mail backend---you have to do a lot of magic
12192 invocations first. At the time when you have finished drawing the
12193 pentagram, lightened the candles, and sacrificed the goat, you really
12194 shouldn't be too surprised when Gnus moves your mail.
12198 @node Mail Backend Variables
12199 @subsection Mail Backend Variables
12201 These variables are (for the most part) pertinent to all the various
12205 @vindex nnmail-read-incoming-hook
12206 @item nnmail-read-incoming-hook
12207 The mail backends all call this hook after reading new mail. You can
12208 use this hook to notify any mail watch programs, if you want to.
12210 @vindex nnmail-split-hook
12211 @item nnmail-split-hook
12212 @findex article-decode-encoded-words
12213 @findex RFC 1522 decoding
12214 @findex RFC 2047 decoding
12215 Hook run in the buffer where the mail headers of each message is kept
12216 just before the splitting based on these headers is done. The hook is
12217 free to modify the buffer contents in any way it sees fit---the buffer
12218 is discarded after the splitting has been done, and no changes performed
12219 in the buffer will show up in any files.
12220 @code{gnus-article-decode-encoded-words} is one likely function to add
12223 @vindex nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
12224 @vindex nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
12225 @item nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
12226 @itemx nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
12227 These are two useful hooks executed when treating new incoming
12228 mail---@code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook} (is called just before
12229 starting to handle the new mail) and
12230 @code{nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook} (is called when the mail handling
12231 is done). Here's and example of using these two hooks to change the
12232 default file modes the new mail files get:
12235 (add-hook 'nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
12236 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 511)))
12238 (add-hook 'nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
12239 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 551)))
12242 @item nnmail-use-long-file-names
12243 @vindex nnmail-use-long-file-names
12244 If non-@code{nil}, the mail backends will use long file and directory
12245 names. Groups like @samp{mail.misc} will end up in directories
12246 (assuming use of @code{nnml} backend) or files (assuming use of
12247 @code{nnfolder} backend) like @file{mail.misc}. If it is @code{nil},
12248 the same group will end up in @file{mail/misc}.
12250 @item nnmail-delete-file-function
12251 @vindex nnmail-delete-file-function
12252 @findex delete-file
12253 Function called to delete files. It is @code{delete-file} by default.
12255 @item nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
12256 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
12257 If non-@code{nil}, put the @code{Message-ID}s of articles imported into
12258 the backend (via @code{Gcc}, for instance) into the mail duplication
12259 discovery cache. The default is @code{nil}.
12264 @node Fancy Mail Splitting
12265 @subsection Fancy Mail Splitting
12266 @cindex mail splitting
12267 @cindex fancy mail splitting
12269 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy
12270 @findex nnmail-split-fancy
12271 If the rather simple, standard method for specifying how to split mail
12272 doesn't allow you to do what you want, you can set
12273 @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy}. Then you can
12274 play with the @code{nnmail-split-fancy} variable.
12276 Let's look at an example value of this variable first:
12279 ;; Messages from the mailer daemon are not crossposted to any of
12280 ;; the ordinary groups. Warnings are put in a separate group
12281 ;; from real errors.
12282 (| ("from" mail (| ("subject" "warn.*" "mail.warning")
12284 ;; Non-error messages are crossposted to all relevant
12285 ;; groups, but we don't crosspost between the group for the
12286 ;; (ding) list and the group for other (ding) related mail.
12287 (& (| (any "ding@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "ding.list")
12288 ("subject" "ding" "ding.misc"))
12289 ;; Other mailing lists...
12290 (any "procmail@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "procmail.list")
12291 (any "SmartList@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "SmartList.list")
12292 ;; Both lists below have the same suffix, so prevent
12293 ;; cross-posting to mkpkg.list of messages posted only to
12294 ;; the bugs- list, but allow cross-posting when the
12295 ;; message was really cross-posted.
12296 (any "bugs-mypackage@@somewhere" "mypkg.bugs")
12297 (any "mypackage@@somewhere\" - "bugs-mypackage" "mypkg.list")
12299 (any "larsi@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "people.Lars_Magne_Ingebrigtsen"))
12300 ;; Unmatched mail goes to the catch all group.
12304 This variable has the format of a @dfn{split}. A split is a (possibly)
12305 recursive structure where each split may contain other splits. Here are
12306 the five possible split syntaxes:
12311 @samp{group}: If the split is a string, that will be taken as a group
12312 name. Normal regexp match expansion will be done. See below for
12316 @code{(@var{field} @var{value} @code{[-} @var{restrict}
12317 @code{[@dots{}]}@code{]} @var{split})}: If the split is a list, the
12318 first element of which is a string, then store the message as
12319 specified by @var{split}, if header @var{field} (a regexp) contains
12320 @var{value} (also a regexp). If @var{restrict} (yet another regexp)
12321 matches some string after @var{field} and before the end of the
12322 matched @var{value}, the @var{split} is ignored. If none of the
12323 @var{restrict} clauses match, @var{split} is processed.
12326 @code{(| @var{split}@dots{})}: If the split is a list, and the first
12327 element is @code{|} (vertical bar), then process each @var{split} until
12328 one of them matches. A @var{split} is said to match if it will cause
12329 the mail message to be stored in one or more groups.
12332 @code{(& @var{split}@dots{})}: If the split is a list, and the first
12333 element is @code{&}, then process all @var{split}s in the list.
12336 @code{junk}: If the split is the symbol @code{junk}, then don't save
12337 this message. Use with extreme caution.
12340 @code{(: @var{function} @var{arg1} @var{arg2} @dots{})}: If the split is
12341 a list, and the first element is @code{:}, then the second element will
12342 be called as a function with @var{args} given as arguments. The
12343 function should return a @var{split}.
12346 For instance, the following function could be used to split based on the
12347 body of the messages:
12350 (defun split-on-body ()
12352 (set-buffer " *nnmail incoming*")
12353 (goto-char (point-min))
12354 (when (re-search-forward "Some.*string" nil t)
12358 The @samp{" *nnmail incoming*"} is narrowed to the message in question
12359 when the @code{:} function is run.
12362 @code{(! @var{func} @var{split})}: If the split is a list, and the first
12363 element is @code{!}, then SPLIT will be processed, and FUNC will be
12364 called as a function with the result of SPLIT as argument. FUNC should
12368 @code{nil}: If the split is @code{nil}, it is ignored.
12372 In these splits, @var{field} must match a complete field name.
12373 @var{value} must match a complete word according to the fundamental mode
12374 syntax table. You can use @code{.*} in the regexps to match partial
12375 field names or words. In other words, all @var{value}'s are wrapped in
12376 @samp{\<} and @samp{\>} pairs.
12378 @vindex nnmail-split-abbrev-alist
12379 @var{field} and @var{value} can also be lisp symbols, in that case they
12380 are expanded as specified by the variable
12381 @code{nnmail-split-abbrev-alist}. This is an alist of cons cells, where
12382 the @code{car} of a cell contains the key, and the @code{cdr} contains the associated
12385 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table
12386 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table} is the syntax table in effect
12387 when all this splitting is performed.
12389 If you want to have Gnus create groups dynamically based on some
12390 information in the headers (i.e., do @code{replace-match}-like
12391 substitutions in the group names), you can say things like:
12394 (any "debian-\\b\\(\\w+\\)@@lists.debian.org" "mail.debian.\\1")
12397 In this example, messages sent to @samp{debian-foo@@lists.debian.org}
12398 will be filed in @samp{mail.debian.foo}.
12400 If the string contains the element @samp{\&}, then the previously
12401 matched string will be substituted. Similarly, the elements @samp{\\1}
12402 up to @samp{\\9} will be substituted with the text matched by the
12403 groupings 1 through 9.
12405 @findex nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent
12406 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} is a function which allows you to
12407 split followups into the same groups their parents are in. Sometimes
12408 you can't make splitting rules for all your mail. For example, your
12409 boss might send you personal mail regarding different projects you are
12410 working on, and as you can't tell your boss to put a distinguishing
12411 string into the subject line, you have to resort to manually moving the
12412 messages into the right group. With this function, you only have to do
12413 it once per thread.
12415 To use this feature, you have to set @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} and
12416 @code{nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids} to a non-nil value. And then
12417 you can include @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} using the colon
12420 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
12421 '(| (: nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent)
12422 ;; other splits go here
12426 This feature works as follows: when @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} is
12427 non-nil, Gnus records the message id of every message it sees in the
12428 file specified by the variable @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file},
12429 together with the group it is in (the group is omitted for non-mail
12430 messages). When mail splitting is invoked, the function
12431 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} then looks at the References (and
12432 In-Reply-To) header of each message to split and searches the file
12433 specified by @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file} for the message ids.
12434 When it has found a parent, it returns the corresponding group name
12435 unless the group name matches the regexp
12436 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent-ignore-groups}. It is recommended
12437 that you set @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length} to a somewhat higher
12438 number than the default so that the message ids are still in the cache.
12439 (A value of 5000 appears to create a file some 300 kBytes in size.)
12440 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
12441 When @code{nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus
12442 also records the message ids of moved articles, so that the followup
12443 messages goes into the new group.
12446 @node Group Mail Splitting
12447 @subsection Group Mail Splitting
12448 @cindex mail splitting
12449 @cindex group mail splitting
12451 @findex gnus-group-split
12452 If you subscribe to dozens of mailing lists but you don't want to
12453 maintain mail splitting rules manually, group mail splitting is for you.
12454 You just have to set @var{to-list} and/or @var{to-address} in group
12455 parameters or group customization and set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to
12456 @code{gnus-group-split}. This splitting function will scan all groups
12457 for those parameters and split mail accordingly, i.e., messages posted
12458 from or to the addresses specified in the parameters @var{to-list} or
12459 @var{to-address} of a mail group will be stored in that group.
12461 Sometimes, mailing lists have multiple addresses, and you may want mail
12462 splitting to recognize them all: just set the @var{extra-aliases} group
12463 parameter to the list of additional addresses and it's done. If you'd
12464 rather use a regular expression, set @var{split-regexp}.
12466 All these parameters in a group will be used to create an
12467 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split, in which the @var{field} is @samp{any},
12468 the @var{value} is a single regular expression that matches
12469 @var{to-list}, @var{to-address}, all of @var{extra-aliases} and all
12470 matches of @var{split-regexp}, and the @var{split} is the name of the
12471 group. @var{restrict}s are also supported: just set the
12472 @var{split-exclude} parameter to a list of regular expressions.
12474 If you can't get the right split to be generated using all these
12475 parameters, or you just need something fancier, you can set the
12476 parameter @var{split-spec} to an @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split. In
12477 this case, all other aforementioned parameters will be ignored by
12478 @code{gnus-group-split}. In particular, @var{split-spec} may be set to
12479 @code{nil}, in which case the group will be ignored by
12480 @code{gnus-group-split}.
12482 @vindex gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group
12483 @code{gnus-group-split} will do cross-posting on all groups that match,
12484 by defining a single @code{&} fancy split containing one split for each
12485 group. If a message doesn't match any split, it will be stored in the
12486 group named in @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}, unless
12487 some group has @var{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all}, in which case
12488 that group is used as the catch-all group. Even though this variable is
12489 often used just to name a group, it may also be set to an arbitrarily
12490 complex fancy split (after all, a group name is a fancy split), and this
12491 may be useful to split mail that doesn't go to any mailing list to
12492 personal mail folders. Note that this fancy split is added as the last
12493 element of a @code{|} split list that also contains a @code{&} split
12494 with the rules extracted from group parameters.
12496 It's time for an example. Assume the following group parameters have
12501 ((to-address . "bar@@femail.com")
12502 (split-regexp . ".*@@femail\\.com"))
12504 ((to-list . "foo@@nowhere.gov")
12505 (extra-aliases "foo@@localhost" "foo-redist@@home")
12506 (split-exclude "bugs-foo" "rambling-foo")
12507 (admin-address . "foo-request@@nowhere.gov"))
12509 ((split-spec . catch-all))
12512 Setting @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{gnus-group-split} will
12513 behave as if @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been selected and variable
12514 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been set as follows:
12517 (| (& (any "\\(bar@@femail\\.com\\|.*@@femail\\.com\\)" "mail.bar")
12518 (any "\\(foo@@nowhere\\.gov\\|foo@@localhost\\|foo-redist@@home\\)"
12519 - "bugs-foo" - "rambling-foo" "mail.foo"))
12523 @findex gnus-group-split-fancy
12524 If you'd rather not use group splitting for all your mail groups, you
12525 may use it for only some of them, by using @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
12529 (: gnus-mlsplt-fancy GROUPS NO-CROSSPOST CATCH-ALL)
12532 @var{groups} may be a regular expression or a list of group names whose
12533 parameters will be scanned to generate the output split.
12534 @var{no-crosspost} can be used to disable cross-posting; in this case, a
12535 single @code{|} split will be output. @var{catch-all} is the fallback
12536 fancy split, used like @var{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}.
12537 If @var{catch-all} is @code{nil}, or if @var{split-regexp} matches the
12538 empty string in any selected group, no catch-all split will be issued.
12539 Otherwise, if some group has @var{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all},
12540 this group will override the value of the @var{catch-all} argument.
12542 @findex gnus-group-split-setup
12543 Unfortunately, scanning all groups and their parameters can be quite
12544 slow, especially considering that it has to be done for every message.
12545 But don't despair! The function @code{gnus-group-split-setup} can be
12546 used to enable @code{gnus-group-split} in a much more efficient way. It
12547 sets @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy} and sets
12548 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} to the split produced by
12549 @code{gnus-group-split-fancy}. Thus, the group parameters are only
12550 scanned once, no matter how many messages are split.
12552 @findex gnus-group-split-update
12553 However, if you change group parameters, you'd have to update
12554 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} manually. You can do it by running
12555 @code{gnus-group-split-update}. If you'd rather have it updated
12556 automatically, just tell @code{gnus-group-split-setup} to do it for
12557 you. For example, add to your @file{.gnus}:
12560 (gnus-group-split-setup AUTO-UPDATE CATCH-ALL)
12563 If @var{auto-update} is non-@code{nil}, @code{gnus-group-split-update}
12564 will be added to @code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook}, so you won't ever
12565 have to worry about updating @code{nnmail-split-fancy} again. If you
12566 don't omit @var{catch-all} (it's optional, equivalent to @code{nil}),
12567 @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group} will be set to its
12570 @vindex gnus-group-split-updated-hook
12571 Because you may want to change @code{nnmail-split-fancy} after it is set
12572 by @code{gnus-group-split-update}, this function will run
12573 @code{gnus-group-split-updated-hook} just before finishing.
12575 @node Incorporating Old Mail
12576 @subsection Incorporating Old Mail
12577 @cindex incorporating old mail
12578 @cindex import old mail
12580 Most people have lots of old mail stored in various file formats. If
12581 you have set up Gnus to read mail using one of the spiffy Gnus mail
12582 backends, you'll probably wish to have that old mail incorporated into
12585 Doing so can be quite easy.
12587 To take an example: You're reading mail using @code{nnml}
12588 (@pxref{Mail Spool}), and have set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to a
12589 satisfactory value (@pxref{Splitting Mail}). You have an old Unix mbox
12590 file filled with important, but old, mail. You want to move it into
12591 your @code{nnml} groups.
12597 Go to the group buffer.
12600 Type `G f' and give the path to the mbox file when prompted to create an
12601 @code{nndoc} group from the mbox file (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
12604 Type `SPACE' to enter the newly created group.
12607 Type `M P b' to process-mark all articles in this group's buffer
12608 (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
12611 Type `B r' to respool all the process-marked articles, and answer
12612 @samp{nnml} when prompted (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
12615 All the mail messages in the mbox file will now also be spread out over
12616 all your @code{nnml} groups. Try entering them and check whether things
12617 have gone without a glitch. If things look ok, you may consider
12618 deleting the mbox file, but I wouldn't do that unless I was absolutely
12619 sure that all the mail has ended up where it should be.
12621 Respooling is also a handy thing to do if you're switching from one mail
12622 backend to another. Just respool all the mail in the old mail groups
12623 using the new mail backend.
12626 @node Expiring Mail
12627 @subsection Expiring Mail
12628 @cindex article expiry
12630 Traditional mail readers have a tendency to remove mail articles when
12631 you mark them as read, in some way. Gnus takes a fundamentally
12632 different approach to mail reading.
12634 Gnus basically considers mail just to be news that has been received in
12635 a rather peculiar manner. It does not think that it has the power to
12636 actually change the mail, or delete any mail messages. If you enter a
12637 mail group, and mark articles as ``read'', or kill them in some other
12638 fashion, the mail articles will still exist on the system. I repeat:
12639 Gnus will not delete your old, read mail. Unless you ask it to, of
12642 To make Gnus get rid of your unwanted mail, you have to mark the
12643 articles as @dfn{expirable}. This does not mean that the articles will
12644 disappear right away, however. In general, a mail article will be
12645 deleted from your system if, 1) it is marked as expirable, AND 2) it is
12646 more than one week old. If you do not mark an article as expirable, it
12647 will remain on your system until hell freezes over. This bears
12648 repeating one more time, with some spurious capitalizations: IF you do
12649 NOT mark articles as EXPIRABLE, Gnus will NEVER delete those ARTICLES.
12651 @vindex gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
12652 You do not have to mark articles as expirable by hand. Groups that
12653 match the regular expression @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups} will
12654 have all articles that you read marked as expirable automatically. All
12655 articles marked as expirable have an @samp{E} in the first
12656 column in the summary buffer.
12658 By default, if you have auto expiry switched on, Gnus will mark all the
12659 articles you read as expirable, no matter if they were read or unread
12660 before. To avoid having articles marked as read marked as expirable
12661 automatically, you can put something like the following in your
12664 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
12666 (remove-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook
12667 'gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read)
12668 (add-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook 'gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read)
12671 Note that making a group auto-expirable doesn't mean that all read
12672 articles are expired---only the articles marked as expirable
12673 will be expired. Also note that using the @kbd{d} command won't make
12674 articles expirable---only semi-automatic marking of articles as read will
12675 mark the articles as expirable in auto-expirable groups.
12677 Let's say you subscribe to a couple of mailing lists, and you want the
12678 articles you have read to disappear after a while:
12681 (setq gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
12682 "mail.nonsense-list\\|mail.nice-list")
12685 Another way to have auto-expiry happen is to have the element
12686 @code{auto-expire} in the group parameters of the group.
12688 If you use adaptive scoring (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}) and
12689 auto-expiring, you'll have problems. Auto-expiring and adaptive scoring
12690 don't really mix very well.
12692 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait
12693 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable supplies the default time an
12694 expirable article has to live. Gnus starts counting days from when the
12695 message @emph{arrived}, not from when it was sent. The default is seven
12698 Gnus also supplies a function that lets you fine-tune how long articles
12699 are to live, based on what group they are in. Let's say you want to
12700 have one month expiry period in the @samp{mail.private} group, a one day
12701 expiry period in the @samp{mail.junk} group, and a six day expiry period
12704 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
12706 (setq nnmail-expiry-wait-function
12708 (cond ((string= group "mail.private")
12710 ((string= group "mail.junk")
12712 ((string= group "important")
12718 The group names this function is fed are ``unadorned'' group
12719 names---no @samp{nnml:} prefixes and the like.
12721 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable and
12722 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} function can either be a number (not
12723 necessarily an integer) or one of the symbols @code{immediate} or
12726 You can also use the @code{expiry-wait} group parameter to selectively
12727 change the expiry period (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
12729 @vindex nnmail-expiry-target
12730 The normal action taken when expiring articles is to delete them.
12731 However, in some circumstances it might make more sense to move them to
12732 other groups instead of deleting them. The variable @code{nnmail-expiry-target}
12733 (and the @code{expiry-target} group parameter) controls this. The
12734 variable supplies a default value for all groups, which can be
12735 overridden for specific groups by the group parameter.
12736 default value is @code{delete}, but this can also be a string (which
12737 should be the name of the group the message should be moved to), or a
12738 function (which will be called in a buffer narrowed to the message in
12739 question, and with the name of the group being moved from as its
12740 parameter) which should return a target -- either a group name or
12743 Here's an example for specifying a group name:
12745 (setq nnmail-expiry-target "nnml:expired")
12749 @vindex nnmail-keep-last-article
12750 If @code{nnmail-keep-last-article} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will never
12751 expire the final article in a mail newsgroup. This is to make life
12752 easier for procmail users.
12754 @vindex gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups
12755 By the way: That line up there, about Gnus never expiring non-expirable
12756 articles, is a lie. If you put @code{total-expire} in the group
12757 parameters, articles will not be marked as expirable, but all read
12758 articles will be put through the expiry process. Use with extreme
12759 caution. Even more dangerous is the
12760 @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups} variable. All groups that match
12761 this regexp will have all read articles put through the expiry process,
12762 which means that @emph{all} old mail articles in the groups in question
12763 will be deleted after a while. Use with extreme caution, and don't come
12764 crying to me when you discover that the regexp you used matched the
12765 wrong group and all your important mail has disappeared. Be a
12766 @emph{man}! Or a @emph{woman}! Whatever you feel more comfortable
12769 Most people make most of their mail groups total-expirable, though.
12771 @vindex gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire
12772 If @code{gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire} is non-@code{nil}, user marking
12773 commands will not mark an article as expirable, even if the group has
12774 auto-expire turned on.
12778 @subsection Washing Mail
12779 @cindex mail washing
12780 @cindex list server brain damage
12781 @cindex incoming mail treatment
12783 Mailers and list servers are notorious for doing all sorts of really,
12784 really stupid things with mail. ``Hey, RFC 822 doesn't explicitly
12785 prohibit us from adding the string @code{wE aRe ElItE!!!!!1!!} to the
12786 end of all lines passing through our server, so let's do that!!!!1!''
12787 Yes, but RFC 822 wasn't designed to be read by morons. Things that were
12788 considered to be self-evident were not discussed. So. Here we are.
12790 Case in point: The German version of Microsoft Exchange adds @samp{AW:
12791 } to the subjects of replies instead of @samp{Re: }. I could pretend to
12792 be shocked and dismayed by this, but I haven't got the energy. It is to
12795 Gnus provides a plethora of functions for washing articles while
12796 displaying them, but it might be nicer to do the filtering before
12797 storing the mail to disc. For that purpose, we have three hooks and
12798 various functions that can be put in these hooks.
12801 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
12802 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
12803 This hook is called before doing anything with the mail and is meant for
12804 grand, sweeping gestures. It is called in a buffer that contains all
12805 the new, incoming mail. Functions to be used include:
12808 @item nnheader-ms-strip-cr
12809 @findex nnheader-ms-strip-cr
12810 Remove trailing carriage returns from each line. This is default on
12811 Emacs running on MS machines.
12815 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
12816 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
12817 This hook is called narrowed to each header. It can be used when
12818 cleaning up the headers. Functions that can be used include:
12821 @item nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
12822 @findex nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
12823 Clear leading white space that ``helpful'' listservs have added to the
12824 headers to make them look nice. Aaah.
12826 @item nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
12827 @findex nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
12828 Some list servers add an identifier---for example, @samp{(idm)}---to the
12829 beginning of all @code{Subject} headers. I'm sure that's nice for
12830 people who use stone age mail readers. This function will remove
12831 strings that match the @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} regexp, which can
12832 also be a list of regexp. @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} may not contain
12835 For instance, if you want to remove the @samp{(idm)} and the
12836 @samp{nagnagnag} identifiers:
12839 (setq nnmail-list-identifiers
12840 '("(idm)" "nagnagnag"))
12843 This can also be done non-destructively with
12844 @code{gnus-list-identifiers}, @xref{Article Hiding}.
12846 @item nnmail-remove-tabs
12847 @findex nnmail-remove-tabs
12848 Translate all @samp{TAB} characters into @samp{SPACE} characters.
12850 @item nnmail-fix-eudora-headers
12851 @findex nnmail-fix-eudora-headers
12853 Eudora produces broken @code{References} headers, but OK
12854 @code{In-Reply-To} headers. This function will get rid of the
12855 @code{References} headers.
12859 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
12860 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
12861 This hook is called narrowed to each message. Functions to be used
12865 @item article-de-quoted-unreadable
12866 @findex article-de-quoted-unreadable
12867 Decode Quoted Readable encoding.
12874 @subsection Duplicates
12876 @vindex nnmail-treat-duplicates
12877 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-length
12878 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-file
12879 @cindex duplicate mails
12880 If you are a member of a couple of mailing lists, you will sometimes
12881 receive two copies of the same mail. This can be quite annoying, so
12882 @code{nnmail} checks for and treats any duplicates it might find. To do
12883 this, it keeps a cache of old @code{Message-ID}s---
12884 @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}, which is @file{~/.nnmail-cache} by
12885 default. The approximate maximum number of @code{Message-ID}s stored
12886 there is controlled by the @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length}
12887 variable, which is 1000 by default. (So 1000 @code{Message-ID}s will be
12888 stored.) If all this sounds scary to you, you can set
12889 @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} to @code{warn} (which is what it is by
12890 default), and @code{nnmail} won't delete duplicate mails. Instead it
12891 will insert a warning into the head of the mail saying that it thinks
12892 that this is a duplicate of a different message.
12894 This variable can also be a function. If that's the case, the function
12895 will be called from a buffer narrowed to the message in question with
12896 the @code{Message-ID} as a parameter. The function must return either
12897 @code{nil}, @code{warn}, or @code{delete}.
12899 You can turn this feature off completely by setting the variable to
12902 If you want all the duplicate mails to be put into a special
12903 @dfn{duplicates} group, you could do that using the normal mail split
12907 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
12908 '(| ;; Messages duplicates go to a separate group.
12909 ("gnus-warning" "duplicat\\(e\\|ion\\) of message" "duplicate")
12910 ;; Message from daemons, postmaster, and the like to another.
12911 (any mail "mail.misc")
12918 (setq nnmail-split-methods
12919 '(("duplicates" "^Gnus-Warning:.*duplicate")
12924 Here's a neat feature: If you know that the recipient reads her mail
12925 with Gnus, and that she has @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} set to
12926 @code{delete}, you can send her as many insults as you like, just by
12927 using a @code{Message-ID} of a mail that you know that she's already
12928 received. Think of all the fun! She'll never see any of it! Whee!
12931 @node Not Reading Mail
12932 @subsection Not Reading Mail
12934 If you start using any of the mail backends, they have the annoying
12935 habit of assuming that you want to read mail with them. This might not
12936 be unreasonable, but it might not be what you want.
12938 If you set @code{mail-sources} and @code{nnmail-spool-file} to
12939 @code{nil}, none of the backends will ever attempt to read incoming
12940 mail, which should help.
12942 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
12943 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
12944 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
12945 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
12946 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
12947 This might be too much, if, for instance, you are reading mail quite
12948 happily with @code{nnml} and just want to peek at some old @sc{rmail}
12949 file you have stashed away with @code{nnbabyl}. All backends have
12950 variables called backend-@code{get-new-mail}. If you want to disable
12951 the @code{nnbabyl} mail reading, you edit the virtual server for the
12952 group to have a setting where @code{nnbabyl-get-new-mail} to @code{nil}.
12954 All the mail backends will call @code{nn}*@code{-prepare-save-mail-hook}
12955 narrowed to the article to be saved before saving it when reading
12959 @node Choosing a Mail Backend
12960 @subsection Choosing a Mail Backend
12962 Gnus will read the mail spool when you activate a mail group. The mail
12963 file is first copied to your home directory. What happens after that
12964 depends on what format you want to store your mail in.
12966 There are five different mail backends in the standard Gnus, and more
12967 backends are available separately. The mail backend most people use
12968 (because it is the fastest and most flexible) is @code{nnml}
12969 (@pxref{Mail Spool}).
12972 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
12973 * Rmail Babyl:: Emacs programs use the rmail babyl format.
12974 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
12975 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like backend.
12976 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
12977 * Comparing Mail Backends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
12981 @node Unix Mail Box
12982 @subsubsection Unix Mail Box
12984 @cindex unix mail box
12986 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
12987 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
12988 The @dfn{nnmbox} backend will use the standard Un*x mbox file to store
12989 mail. @code{nnmbox} will add extra headers to each mail article to say
12990 which group it belongs in.
12992 Virtual server settings:
12995 @item nnmbox-mbox-file
12996 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
12997 The name of the mail box in the user's home directory. Default is
13000 @item nnmbox-active-file
13001 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
13002 The name of the active file for the mail box. Default is
13003 @file{~/.mbox-active}.
13005 @item nnmbox-get-new-mail
13006 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
13007 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmbox} will read incoming mail and split it
13008 into groups. Default is @code{t}.
13013 @subsubsection Rmail Babyl
13017 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
13018 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
13019 The @dfn{nnbabyl} backend will use a babyl mail box (aka. @dfn{rmail
13020 mbox}) to store mail. @code{nnbabyl} will add extra headers to each
13021 mail article to say which group it belongs in.
13023 Virtual server settings:
13026 @item nnbabyl-mbox-file
13027 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
13028 The name of the rmail mbox file. The default is @file{~/RMAIL}
13030 @item nnbabyl-active-file
13031 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
13032 The name of the active file for the rmail box. The default is
13033 @file{~/.rmail-active}
13035 @item nnbabyl-get-new-mail
13036 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
13037 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnbabyl} will read incoming mail. Default is
13043 @subsubsection Mail Spool
13045 @cindex mail @sc{nov} spool
13047 The @dfn{nnml} spool mail format isn't compatible with any other known
13048 format. It should be used with some caution.
13050 @vindex nnml-directory
13051 If you use this backend, Gnus will split all incoming mail into files,
13052 one file for each mail, and put the articles into the corresponding
13053 directories under the directory specified by the @code{nnml-directory}
13054 variable. The default value is @file{~/Mail/}.
13056 You do not have to create any directories beforehand; Gnus will take
13059 If you have a strict limit as to how many files you are allowed to store
13060 in your account, you should not use this backend. As each mail gets its
13061 own file, you might very well occupy thousands of inodes within a few
13062 weeks. If this is no problem for you, and it isn't a problem for you
13063 having your friendly systems administrator walking around, madly,
13064 shouting ``Who is eating all my inodes?! Who? Who!?!'', then you should
13065 know that this is probably the fastest format to use. You do not have
13066 to trudge through a big mbox file just to read your new mail.
13068 @code{nnml} is probably the slowest backend when it comes to article
13069 splitting. It has to create lots of files, and it also generates
13070 @sc{nov} databases for the incoming mails. This makes it the fastest
13071 backend when it comes to reading mail.
13073 @cindex self contained nnml servers
13074 When the marks file is used (which it is by default), @code{nnml}
13075 servers have the property that you may backup them using @code{tar} or
13076 similar, and later be able to restore them into Gnus (by adding the
13077 proper @code{nnml} server) and have all your marks be preserved. Marks
13078 for a group is usually stored in the @code{.marks} file (but see
13079 @code{nnml-marks-file-name}) within each @code{nnml} group's directory.
13080 Individual @code{nnml} groups are also possible to backup, use @kbd{G m}
13081 to restore the group (after restoring the backup into the nnml
13084 Virtual server settings:
13087 @item nnml-directory
13088 @vindex nnml-directory
13089 All @code{nnml} directories will be placed under this directory.
13090 The default is the value of `message-directory' (whose default value is
13093 @item nnml-active-file
13094 @vindex nnml-active-file
13095 The active file for the @code{nnml} server. The default is
13096 @file{~/Mail/active"}.
13098 @item nnml-newsgroups-file
13099 @vindex nnml-newsgroups-file
13100 The @code{nnml} group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
13101 Format}. The default is @file{~/Mail/newsgroups"}.
13103 @item nnml-get-new-mail
13104 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
13105 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will read incoming mail. The default is
13108 @item nnml-nov-is-evil
13109 @vindex nnml-nov-is-evil
13110 If non-@code{nil}, this backend will ignore any @sc{nov} files. The
13111 default is @code{nil}.
13113 @item nnml-nov-file-name
13114 @vindex nnml-nov-file-name
13115 The name of the @sc{nov} files. The default is @file{.overview}.
13117 @item nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
13118 @vindex nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
13119 Hook run narrowed to an article before saving.
13121 @item nnml-marks-is-evil
13122 @vindex nnml-marks-is-evil
13123 If non-@code{nil}, this backend will ignore any @sc{marks} files. The
13124 default is @code{nil}.
13126 @item nnml-marks-file-name
13127 @vindex nnml-marks-file-name
13128 The name of the @sc{marks} files. The default is @file{.marks}.
13132 @findex nnml-generate-nov-databases
13133 If your @code{nnml} groups and @sc{nov} files get totally out of whack,
13134 you can do a complete update by typing @kbd{M-x
13135 nnml-generate-nov-databases}. This command will trawl through the
13136 entire @code{nnml} hierarchy, looking at each and every article, so it
13137 might take a while to complete. A better interface to this
13138 functionality can be found in the server buffer (@pxref{Server
13143 @subsubsection MH Spool
13145 @cindex mh-e mail spool
13147 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, except that is doesn't generate
13148 @sc{nov} databases and it doesn't keep an active file or marks file.
13149 This makes @code{nnmh} a @emph{much} slower backend than @code{nnml},
13150 but it also makes it easier to write procmail scripts for.
13152 Virtual server settings:
13155 @item nnmh-directory
13156 @vindex nnmh-directory
13157 All @code{nnmh} directories will be located under this directory. The
13158 default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default is
13161 @item nnmh-get-new-mail
13162 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
13163 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will read incoming mail. The default is
13167 @vindex nnmh-be-safe
13168 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will go to ridiculous lengths to make
13169 sure that the articles in the folder are actually what Gnus thinks they
13170 are. It will check date stamps and stat everything in sight, so
13171 setting this to @code{t} will mean a serious slow-down. If you never
13172 use anything but Gnus to read the @code{nnmh} articles, you do not have
13173 to set this variable to @code{t}. The default is @code{nil}.
13178 @subsubsection Mail Folders
13180 @cindex mbox folders
13181 @cindex mail folders
13183 @code{nnfolder} is a backend for storing each mail group in a separate
13184 file. Each file is in the standard Un*x mbox format. @code{nnfolder}
13185 will add extra headers to keep track of article numbers and arrival
13188 @cindex self contained nnfolder servers
13189 When the marks file is used (which it is by default), @code{nnfolder}
13190 servers have the property that you may backup them using @code{tar} or
13191 similar, and later be able to restore them into Gnus (by adding the
13192 proper @code{nnfolder} server) and have all your marks be preserved.
13193 Marks for a group is usually stored in a file named as the mbox file
13194 with @code{.mrk} concatenated to it (but see
13195 @code{nnfolder-marks-file-suffix}) within the @code{nnfolder} directory.
13196 Individual @code{nnfolder} groups are also possible to backup, use
13197 @kbd{G m} to restore the group (after restoring the backup into the
13198 @code{nnfolder} directory).
13200 Virtual server settings:
13203 @item nnfolder-directory
13204 @vindex nnfolder-directory
13205 All the @code{nnfolder} mail boxes will be stored under this directory.
13206 The default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default is
13209 @item nnfolder-active-file
13210 @vindex nnfolder-active-file
13211 The name of the active file. The default is @file{~/Mail/active}.
13213 @item nnfolder-newsgroups-file
13214 @vindex nnfolder-newsgroups-file
13215 The name of the group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
13216 Format}. The default is @file{~/Mail/newsgroups"}
13218 @item nnfolder-get-new-mail
13219 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
13220 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnfolder} will read incoming mail. The default
13223 @item nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
13224 @vindex nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
13225 @cindex backup files
13226 Hook run before saving the folders. Note that Emacs does the normal
13227 backup renaming of files even with the @code{nnfolder} buffers. If you
13228 wish to switch this off, you could say something like the following in
13229 your @file{.emacs} file:
13232 (defun turn-off-backup ()
13233 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
13235 (add-hook 'nnfolder-save-buffer-hook 'turn-off-backup)
13238 @item nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
13239 @vindex nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
13240 Hook run in a buffer narrowed to the message that is to be deleted.
13241 This function can be used to copy the message to somewhere else, or to
13242 extract some information from it before removing it.
13244 @item nnfolder-nov-is-evil
13245 @vindex nnfolder-nov-is-evil
13246 If non-@code{nil}, this backend will ignore any @sc{nov} files. The
13247 default is @code{nil}.
13249 @item nnfolder-nov-file-suffix
13250 @vindex nnfolder-nov-file-suffix
13251 The extension for @sc{nov} files. The default is @file{.nov}.
13253 @item nnfolder-marks-is-evil
13254 @vindex nnfolder-marks-is-evil
13255 If non-@code{nil}, this backend will ignore any @sc{marks} files. The
13256 default is @code{nil}.
13258 @item nnfolder-marks-file-suffix
13259 @vindex nnfolder-marks-file-suffix
13260 The extension for @sc{marks} files. The default is @file{.mrk}.
13265 @findex nnfolder-generate-active-file
13266 @kindex M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file
13267 If you have lots of @code{nnfolder}-like files you'd like to read with
13268 @code{nnfolder}, you can use the @kbd{M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file}
13269 command to make @code{nnfolder} aware of all likely files in
13270 @code{nnfolder-directory}. This only works if you use long file names,
13273 @node Comparing Mail Backends
13274 @subsubsection Comparing Mail Backends
13276 First, just for terminology, the @dfn{backend} is the common word for a
13277 low-level access method---a transport, if you will, by which something
13278 is acquired. The sense is that one's mail has to come from somewhere,
13279 and so selection of a suitable backend is required in order to get that
13280 mail within spitting distance of Gnus.
13282 The same concept exists for Usenet itself: Though access to articles is
13283 typically done by @sc{nntp} these days, once upon a midnight dreary, everyone
13284 in the world got at Usenet by running a reader on the machine where the
13285 articles lay (the machine which today we call an @sc{nntp} server), and
13286 access was by the reader stepping into the articles' directory spool
13287 area directly. One can still select between either the @code{nntp} or
13288 @code{nnspool} backends, to select between these methods, if one happens
13289 actually to live on the server (or can see its spool directly, anyway,
13292 The goal in selecting a mail backend is to pick one which
13293 simultaneously represents a suitable way of dealing with the original
13294 format plus leaving mail in a form that is convenient to use in the
13295 future. Here are some high and low points on each:
13300 UNIX systems have historically had a single, very common, and well-
13301 defined format. All messages arrive in a single @dfn{spool file}, and
13302 they are delineated by a line whose regular expression matches
13303 @samp{^From_}. (My notational use of @samp{_} is to indicate a space,
13304 to make it clear in this instance that this is not the RFC-specified
13305 @samp{From:} header.) Because Emacs and therefore Gnus emanate
13306 historically from the Unix environment, it is simplest if one does not
13307 mess a great deal with the original mailbox format, so if one chooses
13308 this backend, Gnus' primary activity in getting mail from the real spool
13309 area to Gnus' preferred directory is simply to copy it, with no
13310 (appreciable) format change in the process. It is the ``dumbest'' way
13311 to move mail into availability in the Gnus environment. This makes it
13312 fast to move into place, but slow to parse, when Gnus has to look at
13317 Once upon a time, there was the DEC-10 and DEC-20, running operating
13318 systems called TOPS and related things, and the usual (only?) mail
13319 reading environment was a thing called Babyl. I don't know what format
13320 was used for mail landing on the system, but Babyl had its own internal
13321 format to which mail was converted, primarily involving creating a
13322 spool-file-like entity with a scheme for inserting Babyl-specific
13323 headers and status bits above the top of each message in the file.
13324 RMAIL was Emacs' first mail reader, it was written by Richard Stallman,
13325 and Stallman came out of that TOPS/Babyl environment, so he wrote RMAIL
13326 to understand the mail files folks already had in existence. Gnus (and
13327 VM, for that matter) continue to support this format because it's
13328 perceived as having some good qualities in those mailer-specific
13329 headers/status bits stuff. RMAIL itself still exists as well, of
13330 course, and is still maintained by Stallman.
13332 Both of the above forms leave your mail in a single file on your
13333 filesystem, and they must parse that entire file each time you take a
13338 @code{nnml} is the backend which smells the most as though you were
13339 actually operating with an @code{nnspool}-accessed Usenet system. (In
13340 fact, I believe @code{nnml} actually derived from @code{nnspool} code,
13341 lo these years ago.) One's mail is taken from the original spool file,
13342 and is then cut up into individual message files, 1:1. It maintains a
13343 Usenet-style active file (analogous to what one finds in an INN- or
13344 CNews-based news system in (for instance) @file{/var/lib/news/active},
13345 or what is returned via the @samp{NNTP LIST} verb) and also creates
13346 @dfn{overview} files for efficient group entry, as has been defined for
13347 @sc{nntp} servers for some years now. It is slower in mail-splitting,
13348 due to the creation of lots of files, updates to the @code{nnml} active
13349 file, and additions to overview files on a per-message basis, but it is
13350 extremely fast on access because of what amounts to the indexing support
13351 provided by the active file and overviews.
13353 @code{nnml} costs @dfn{inodes} in a big way; that is, it soaks up the
13354 resource which defines available places in the filesystem to put new
13355 files. Sysadmins take a dim view of heavy inode occupation within
13356 tight, shared filesystems. But if you live on a personal machine where
13357 the filesystem is your own and space is not at a premium, @code{nnml}
13360 It is also problematic using this backend if you are living in a
13361 FAT16-based Windows world, since much space will be wasted on all these
13366 The Rand MH mail-reading system has been around UNIX systems for a very
13367 long time; it operates by splitting one's spool file of messages into
13368 individual files, but with little or no indexing support -- @code{nnmh}
13369 is considered to be semantically equivalent to ``@code{nnml} without
13370 active file or overviews''. This is arguably the worst choice, because
13371 one gets the slowness of individual file creation married to the
13372 slowness of access parsing when learning what's new in one's groups.
13376 Basically the effect of @code{nnfolder} is @code{nnmbox} (the first
13377 method described above) on a per-group basis. That is, @code{nnmbox}
13378 itself puts *all* one's mail in one file; @code{nnfolder} provides a
13379 little bit of optimization to this so that each of one's mail groups has
13380 a Unix mail box file. It's faster than @code{nnmbox} because each group
13381 can be parsed separately, and still provides the simple Unix mail box
13382 format requiring minimal effort in moving the mail around. In addition,
13383 it maintains an ``active'' file making it much faster for Gnus to figure
13384 out how many messages there are in each separate group.
13386 If you have groups that are expected to have a massive amount of
13387 messages, @code{nnfolder} is not the best choice, but if you receive
13388 only a moderate amount of mail, @code{nnfolder} is probably the most
13389 friendly mail backend all over.
13394 @node Browsing the Web
13395 @section Browsing the Web
13397 @cindex browsing the web
13401 Web-based discussion forums are getting more and more popular. On many
13402 subjects, the web-based forums have become the most important forums,
13403 eclipsing the importance of mailing lists and news groups. The reason
13404 is easy to understand---they are friendly to new users; you just point
13405 and click, and there's the discussion. With mailing lists, you have to
13406 go through a cumbersome subscription procedure, and most people don't
13407 even know what a news group is.
13409 The problem with this scenario is that web browsers are not very good at
13410 being newsreaders. They do not keep track of what articles you've read;
13411 they do not allow you to score on subjects you're interested in; they do
13412 not allow off-line browsing; they require you to click around and drive
13413 you mad in the end.
13415 So---if web browsers suck at reading discussion forums, why not use Gnus
13418 Gnus has been getting a bit of a collection of backends for providing
13419 interfaces to these sources.
13422 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
13423 * Slashdot:: Reading the Slashdot comments.
13424 * Ultimate:: The Ultimate Bulletin Board systems.
13425 * Web Archive:: Reading mailing list archived on web.
13426 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
13427 * Customizing w3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/w3 from Gnus.
13430 All the web sources require Emacs/w3 and the url library to work.
13432 The main caveat with all these web sources is that they probably won't
13433 work for a very long time. Gleaning information from the @sc{html} data
13434 is guesswork at best, and when the layout is altered, the Gnus backend
13435 will fail. If you have reasonably new versions of these backends,
13436 though, you should be ok.
13438 One thing all these Web methods have in common is that the Web sources
13439 are often down, unavailable or just plain too slow to be fun. In those
13440 cases, it makes a lot of sense to let the Gnus Agent (@pxref{Gnus
13441 Unplugged}) handle downloading articles, and then you can read them at
13442 leisure from your local disk. No more World Wide Wait for you.
13444 @node Archiving Mail
13445 @subsection Archiving Mail
13446 @cindex archiving mail
13447 @cindex backup of mail
13449 Some of the backends, notably nnml and nnfolder, now actually store
13450 the article marks with each group. For these servers, archiving and
13451 restoring a group while preserving marks is fairly simple.
13453 (Preserving the group level and group parameters as well still
13454 requires ritual dancing and sacrifices to the @code{.newsrc.eld} deity
13457 To archive an entire @code{nnml} or @code{nnfolder} server, take a
13458 recursive copy of the server directory. There is no need to shut down
13459 Gnus, so archiving may be invoked by @code{cron} or similar. You
13460 restore the data by restoring the directory tree, and adding a server
13461 definition pointing to that directory in Gnus. The @ref{Article
13462 Backlog}, @ref{Asynchronous Fetching} and other things might interfer
13463 with overwriting data, so you may want to shut down Gnus before you
13466 It is also possible to archive individual @code{nnml} or
13467 @code{nnfolder} groups, while preserving marks. For @code{nnml}, you
13468 copy all files in the group's directory. For @code{nnfolder} you need
13469 to copy both the base folder file itself (@code{FOO}, say), and the
13470 marks file (@code{FOO.mrk} in this example). Restoring the group is
13471 done with @kbd{G m} from the Group buffer. The last step makes Gnus
13472 notice the new directory.
13475 @subsection Web Searches
13479 @cindex InReference
13480 @cindex Usenet searches
13481 @cindex searching the Usenet
13483 It's, like, too neat to search the Usenet for articles that match a
13484 string, but it, like, totally @emph{sucks}, like, totally, to use one of
13485 those, like, Web browsers, and you, like, have to, rilly, like, look at
13486 the commercials, so, like, with Gnus you can do @emph{rad}, rilly,
13487 searches without having to use a browser.
13489 The @code{nnweb} backend allows an easy interface to the mighty search
13490 engine. You create an @code{nnweb} group, enter a search pattern, and
13491 then enter the group and read the articles like you would any normal
13492 group. The @kbd{G w} command in the group buffer (@pxref{Foreign
13493 Groups}) will do this in an easy-to-use fashion.
13495 @code{nnweb} groups don't really lend themselves to being solid
13496 groups---they have a very fleeting idea of article numbers. In fact,
13497 each time you enter an @code{nnweb} group (not even changing the search
13498 pattern), you are likely to get the articles ordered in a different
13499 manner. Not even using duplicate suppression (@pxref{Duplicate
13500 Suppression}) will help, since @code{nnweb} doesn't even know the
13501 @code{Message-ID} of the articles before reading them using some search
13502 engines (DejaNews, for instance). The only possible way to keep track
13503 of which articles you've read is by scoring on the @code{Date}
13504 header---mark all articles posted before the last date you read the
13507 If the search engine changes its output substantially, @code{nnweb}
13508 won't be able to parse it and will fail. One could hardly fault the Web
13509 providers if they were to do this---their @emph{raison d'être} is to
13510 make money off of advertisements, not to provide services to the
13511 community. Since @code{nnweb} washes the ads off all the articles, one
13512 might think that the providers might be somewhat miffed. We'll see.
13514 You must have the @code{url} and @code{w3} package installed to be able
13515 to use @code{nnweb}.
13517 Virtual server variables:
13522 What search engine type is being used. The currently supported types
13523 are @code{dejanews}, @code{dejanewsold}, @code{altavista} and
13527 @vindex nnweb-search
13528 The search string to feed to the search engine.
13530 @item nnweb-max-hits
13531 @vindex nnweb-max-hits
13532 Advisory maximum number of hits per search to display. The default is
13535 @item nnweb-type-definition
13536 @vindex nnweb-type-definition
13537 Type-to-definition alist. This alist says what @code{nnweb} should do
13538 with the various search engine types. The following elements must be
13543 Function to decode the article and provide something that Gnus
13547 Function to create an article number to message header and URL alist.
13550 Function to send the search string to the search engine.
13553 The address the aforementioned function should send the search string
13557 Format string URL to fetch an article by @code{Message-ID}.
13564 @subsection Slashdot
13568 Slashdot (@uref{http://slashdot.org/}) is a popular news site, with
13569 lively discussion following the news articles. @code{nnslashdot} will
13570 let you read this forum in a convenient manner.
13572 The easiest way to read this source is to put something like the
13573 following in your @file{.gnus.el} file:
13576 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
13577 '((nnslashdot "")))
13580 This will make Gnus query the @code{nnslashdot} backend for new comments
13581 and groups. The @kbd{F} command will subscribe each new news article as
13582 a new Gnus group, and you can read the comments by entering these
13583 groups. (Note that the default subscription method is to subscribe new
13584 groups as zombies. Other methods are available (@pxref{Subscription
13587 If you want to remove an old @code{nnslashdot} group, the @kbd{G DEL}
13588 command is the most handy tool (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
13590 When following up to @code{nnslashdot} comments (or posting new
13591 comments), some light @sc{html}izations will be performed. In
13592 particular, text quoted with @samp{> } will be quoted with
13593 @code{blockquote} instead, and signatures will have @code{br} added to
13594 the end of each line. Other than that, you can just write @sc{html}
13595 directly into the message buffer. Note that Slashdot filters out some
13598 The following variables can be altered to change its behavior:
13601 @item nnslashdot-threaded
13602 Whether @code{nnslashdot} should display threaded groups or not. The
13603 default is @code{t}. To be able to display threads, @code{nnslashdot}
13604 has to retrieve absolutely all comments in a group upon entry. If a
13605 threaded display is not required, @code{nnslashdot} will only retrieve
13606 the comments that are actually wanted by the user. Threading is nicer,
13607 but much, much slower than untreaded.
13609 @item nnslashdot-login-name
13610 @vindex nnslashdot-login-name
13611 The login name to use when posting.
13613 @item nnslashdot-password
13614 @vindex nnslashdot-password
13615 The password to use when posting.
13617 @item nnslashdot-directory
13618 @vindex nnslashdot-directory
13619 Where @code{nnslashdot} will store its files. The default is
13620 @samp{~/News/slashdot/}.
13622 @item nnslashdot-active-url
13623 @vindex nnslashdot-active-url
13624 The @sc{url} format string that will be used to fetch the information on
13625 news articles and comments. The default is
13626 @samp{http://slashdot.org/search.pl?section=&min=%d}.
13628 @item nnslashdot-comments-url
13629 @vindex nnslashdot-comments-url
13630 The @sc{url} format string that will be used to fetch comments. The
13632 @samp{http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=%s&threshold=%d&commentsort=%d&mode=flat&startat=%d}.
13634 @item nnslashdot-article-url
13635 @vindex nnslashdot-article-url
13636 The @sc{url} format string that will be used to fetch the news article. The
13638 @samp{http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=%s&mode=nocomment}.
13640 @item nnslashdot-threshold
13641 @vindex nnslashdot-threshold
13642 The score threshold. The default is -1.
13644 @item nnslashdot-group-number
13645 @vindex nnslashdot-group-number
13646 The number of old groups, in addition to the ten latest, to keep
13647 updated. The default is 0.
13654 @subsection Ultimate
13656 @cindex Ultimate Bulletin Board
13658 The Ultimate Bulletin Board (@uref{http://www.ultimatebb.com/}) is
13659 probably the most popular Web bulletin board system used. It has a
13660 quite regular and nice interface, and it's possible to get the
13661 information Gnus needs to keep groups updated.
13663 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnultimate} is to say
13664 something like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{B nnultimate RET
13665 http://www.tcj.com/messboard/ubbcgi/ RET}. (Substitute the @sc{url}
13666 (not including @samp{Ultimate.cgi} or the like at the end) for a forum
13667 you're interested in; there's quite a list of them on the Ultimate web
13668 site.) Then subscribe to the groups you're interested in from the
13669 server buffer, and read them from the group buffer.
13671 The following @code{nnultimate} variables can be altered:
13674 @item nnultimate-directory
13675 @vindex nnultimate-directory
13676 The directory where @code{nnultimate} stores its files. The default is
13677 @samp{~/News/ultimate/}.
13682 @subsection Web Archive
13684 @cindex Web Archive
13686 Some mailing lists only have archives on Web servers, such as
13687 @uref{http://www.egroups.com/} and
13688 @uref{http://www.mail-archive.com/}. It has a quite regular and nice
13689 interface, and it's possible to get the information Gnus needs to keep
13692 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnwarchive} is to say
13693 something like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{M-x
13694 gnus-group-make-warchive-group RET an_egroup RET egroups RET
13695 www.egroups.com RET your@@email.address RET}. (Substitute the
13696 @sc{an_egroup} with the mailing list you subscribed, the
13697 @sc{your@@email.address} with your email address.), or to browse the
13698 backend by @kbd{B nnwarchive RET mail-archive RET}.
13700 The following @code{nnwarchive} variables can be altered:
13703 @item nnwarchive-directory
13704 @vindex nnwarchive-directory
13705 The directory where @code{nnwarchive} stores its files. The default is
13706 @samp{~/News/warchive/}.
13708 @item nnwarchive-login
13709 @vindex nnwarchive-login
13710 The account name on the web server.
13712 @item nnwarchive-passwd
13713 @vindex nnwarchive-passwd
13714 The password for your account on the web server.
13722 Some sites have RDF site summary (RSS)
13723 @uref{http://purl.org/rss/1.0/spec}. It has a quite regular and nice
13724 interface, and it's possible to get the information Gnus needs to keep
13727 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnrss} is to say something
13728 like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{B nnrss RET RET}, then
13731 The following @code{nnrss} variables can be altered:
13734 @item nnrss-directory
13735 @vindex nnrss-directory
13736 The directory where @code{nnrss} stores its files. The default is
13737 @samp{~/News/rss/}.
13741 The following code may be helpful, if you want to show the description in
13742 the summary buffer.
13745 (add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers nnrss-description-field)
13746 (setq gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-15,15f%]%) %s%uX\n")
13748 (defun gnus-user-format-function-X (header)
13750 (assq nnrss-description-field (mail-header-extra header))))
13751 (if descr (concat "\n\t" (cdr descr)) "")))
13754 The following code may be useful to open an nnrss url directly from the
13757 (require 'browse-url)
13759 (defun browse-nnrss-url( arg )
13761 (let ((url (assq nnrss-url-field
13764 (assq (gnus-summary-article-number)
13765 gnus-newsgroup-data))))))
13767 (browse-url (cdr url))
13768 (gnus-summary-scroll-up arg))))
13770 (eval-after-load "gnus"
13771 #'(define-key gnus-summary-mode-map
13772 (kbd "<RET>") 'browse-nnrss-url))
13773 (add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers nnrss-url-field)
13776 @node Customizing w3
13777 @subsection Customizing w3
13783 Gnus uses the url library to fetch web pages and Emacs/w3 to display web
13784 pages. Emacs/w3 is documented in its own manual, but there are some
13785 things that may be more relevant for Gnus users.
13787 For instance, a common question is how to make Emacs/w3 follow links
13788 using the @code{browse-url} functions (which will call some external web
13789 browser like Netscape). Here's one way:
13792 (eval-after-load "w3"
13794 (fset 'w3-fetch-orig (symbol-function 'w3-fetch))
13795 (defun w3-fetch (&optional url target)
13796 (interactive (list (w3-read-url-with-default)))
13797 (if (eq major-mode 'gnus-article-mode)
13799 (w3-fetch-orig url target)))))
13802 Put that in your @file{.emacs} file, and hitting links in w3-rendered
13803 @sc{html} in the Gnus article buffers will use @code{browse-url} to
13807 @node Other Sources
13808 @section Other Sources
13810 Gnus can do more than just read news or mail. The methods described
13811 below allow Gnus to view directories and files as if they were
13815 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
13816 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
13817 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
13818 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{soup} packets ``offline''.
13819 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
13820 * IMAP:: Using Gnus as a @sc{imap} client.
13824 @node Directory Groups
13825 @subsection Directory Groups
13827 @cindex directory groups
13829 If you have a directory that has lots of articles in separate files in
13830 it, you might treat it as a newsgroup. The files have to have numerical
13833 This might be an opportune moment to mention @code{ange-ftp} (and its
13834 successor @code{efs}), that most wonderful of all wonderful Emacs
13835 packages. When I wrote @code{nndir}, I didn't think much about it---a
13836 backend to read directories. Big deal.
13838 @code{ange-ftp} changes that picture dramatically. For instance, if you
13839 enter the @code{ange-ftp} file name
13840 @file{/ftp.hpc.uh.edu:/pub/emacs/ding-list/} as the directory name,
13841 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs} will actually allow you to read this
13842 directory over at @samp{sina} as a newsgroup. Distributed news ahoy!
13844 @code{nndir} will use @sc{nov} files if they are present.
13846 @code{nndir} is a ``read-only'' backend---you can't delete or expire
13847 articles with this method. You can use @code{nnmh} or @code{nnml} for
13848 whatever you use @code{nndir} for, so you could switch to any of those
13849 methods if you feel the need to have a non-read-only @code{nndir}.
13852 @node Anything Groups
13853 @subsection Anything Groups
13856 From the @code{nndir} backend (which reads a single spool-like
13857 directory), it's just a hop and a skip to @code{nneething}, which
13858 pretends that any arbitrary directory is a newsgroup. Strange, but
13861 When @code{nneething} is presented with a directory, it will scan this
13862 directory and assign article numbers to each file. When you enter such
13863 a group, @code{nneething} must create ``headers'' that Gnus can use.
13864 After all, Gnus is a newsreader, in case you're forgetting.
13865 @code{nneething} does this in a two-step process. First, it snoops each
13866 file in question. If the file looks like an article (i.e., the first
13867 few lines look like headers), it will use this as the head. If this is
13868 just some arbitrary file without a head (e.g. a C source file),
13869 @code{nneething} will cobble up a header out of thin air. It will use
13870 file ownership, name and date and do whatever it can with these
13873 All this should happen automatically for you, and you will be presented
13874 with something that looks very much like a newsgroup. Totally like a
13875 newsgroup, to be precise. If you select an article, it will be displayed
13876 in the article buffer, just as usual.
13878 If you select a line that represents a directory, Gnus will pop you into
13879 a new summary buffer for this @code{nneething} group. And so on. You can
13880 traverse the entire disk this way, if you feel like, but remember that
13881 Gnus is not dired, really, and does not intend to be, either.
13883 There are two overall modes to this action---ephemeral or solid. When
13884 doing the ephemeral thing (i.e., @kbd{G D} from the group buffer), Gnus
13885 will not store information on what files you have read, and what files
13886 are new, and so on. If you create a solid @code{nneething} group the
13887 normal way with @kbd{G m}, Gnus will store a mapping table between
13888 article numbers and file names, and you can treat this group like any
13889 other groups. When you activate a solid @code{nneething} group, you will
13890 be told how many unread articles it contains, etc., etc.
13895 @item nneething-map-file-directory
13896 @vindex nneething-map-file-directory
13897 All the mapping files for solid @code{nneething} groups will be stored
13898 in this directory, which defaults to @file{~/.nneething/}.
13900 @item nneething-exclude-files
13901 @vindex nneething-exclude-files
13902 All files that match this regexp will be ignored. Nice to use to exclude
13903 auto-save files and the like, which is what it does by default.
13905 @item nneething-include-files
13906 @vindex nneething-include-files
13907 Regexp saying what files to include in the group. If this variable is
13908 non-@code{nil}, only files matching this regexp will be included.
13910 @item nneething-map-file
13911 @vindex nneething-map-file
13912 Name of the map files.
13916 @node Document Groups
13917 @subsection Document Groups
13919 @cindex documentation group
13922 @code{nndoc} is a cute little thing that will let you read a single file
13923 as a newsgroup. Several files types are supported:
13930 The babyl (rmail) mail box.
13935 The standard Unix mbox file.
13937 @cindex MMDF mail box
13939 The MMDF mail box format.
13942 Several news articles appended into a file.
13945 @cindex rnews batch files
13946 The rnews batch transport format.
13947 @cindex forwarded messages
13950 Forwarded articles.
13953 Netscape mail boxes.
13956 MIME multipart messages.
13958 @item standard-digest
13959 The standard (RFC 1153) digest format.
13962 Non-standard digest format---matches most things, but does it badly.
13965 You can also use the special ``file type'' @code{guess}, which means
13966 that @code{nndoc} will try to guess what file type it is looking at.
13967 @code{digest} means that @code{nndoc} should guess what digest type the
13970 @code{nndoc} will not try to change the file or insert any extra headers into
13971 it---it will simply, like, let you use the file as the basis for a
13972 group. And that's it.
13974 If you have some old archived articles that you want to insert into your
13975 new & spiffy Gnus mail backend, @code{nndoc} can probably help you with
13976 that. Say you have an old @file{RMAIL} file with mail that you now want
13977 to split into your new @code{nnml} groups. You look at that file using
13978 @code{nndoc} (using the @kbd{G f} command in the group buffer
13979 (@pxref{Foreign Groups})), set the process mark on all the articles in
13980 the buffer (@kbd{M P b}, for instance), and then re-spool (@kbd{B r})
13981 using @code{nnml}. If all goes well, all the mail in the @file{RMAIL}
13982 file is now also stored in lots of @code{nnml} directories, and you can
13983 delete that pesky @file{RMAIL} file. If you have the guts!
13985 Virtual server variables:
13988 @item nndoc-article-type
13989 @vindex nndoc-article-type
13990 This should be one of @code{mbox}, @code{babyl}, @code{digest},
13991 @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward}, @code{rfc934},
13992 @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-parts}, @code{standard-digest},
13993 @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs}, @code{nsmail} or @code{guess}.
13995 @item nndoc-post-type
13996 @vindex nndoc-post-type
13997 This variable says whether Gnus is to consider the group a news group or
13998 a mail group. There are two valid values: @code{mail} (the default)
14003 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
14007 @node Document Server Internals
14008 @subsubsection Document Server Internals
14010 Adding new document types to be recognized by @code{nndoc} isn't
14011 difficult. You just have to whip up a definition of what the document
14012 looks like, write a predicate function to recognize that document type,
14013 and then hook into @code{nndoc}.
14015 First, here's an example document type definition:
14019 (article-begin . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n")
14020 (body-end . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n"))
14023 The definition is simply a unique @dfn{name} followed by a series of
14024 regexp pseudo-variable settings. Below are the possible
14025 variables---don't be daunted by the number of variables; most document
14026 types can be defined with very few settings:
14029 @item first-article
14030 If present, @code{nndoc} will skip past all text until it finds
14031 something that match this regexp. All text before this will be
14034 @item article-begin
14035 This setting has to be present in all document type definitions. It
14036 says what the beginning of each article looks like.
14038 @item head-begin-function
14039 If present, this should be a function that moves point to the head of
14042 @item nndoc-head-begin
14043 If present, this should be a regexp that matches the head of the
14046 @item nndoc-head-end
14047 This should match the end of the head of the article. It defaults to
14048 @samp{^$}---the empty line.
14050 @item body-begin-function
14051 If present, this function should move point to the beginning of the body
14055 This should match the beginning of the body of the article. It defaults
14058 @item body-end-function
14059 If present, this function should move point to the end of the body of
14063 If present, this should match the end of the body of the article.
14066 If present, this should match the end of the file. All text after this
14067 regexp will be totally ignored.
14071 So, using these variables @code{nndoc} is able to dissect a document
14072 file into a series of articles, each with a head and a body. However, a
14073 few more variables are needed since not all document types are all that
14074 news-like---variables needed to transform the head or the body into
14075 something that's palatable for Gnus:
14078 @item prepare-body-function
14079 If present, this function will be called when requesting an article. It
14080 will be called with point at the start of the body, and is useful if the
14081 document has encoded some parts of its contents.
14083 @item article-transform-function
14084 If present, this function is called when requesting an article. It's
14085 meant to be used for more wide-ranging transformation of both head and
14086 body of the article.
14088 @item generate-head-function
14089 If present, this function is called to generate a head that Gnus can
14090 understand. It is called with the article number as a parameter, and is
14091 expected to generate a nice head for the article in question. It is
14092 called when requesting the headers of all articles.
14096 Let's look at the most complicated example I can come up with---standard
14101 (first-article . ,(concat "^" (make-string 70 ?-) "\n\n+"))
14102 (article-begin . ,(concat "\n\n" (make-string 30 ?-) "\n\n+"))
14103 (prepare-body-function . nndoc-unquote-dashes)
14104 (body-end-function . nndoc-digest-body-end)
14105 (head-end . "^ ?$")
14106 (body-begin . "^ ?\n")
14107 (file-end . "^End of .*digest.*[0-9].*\n\\*\\*\\|^End of.*Digest *$")
14108 (subtype digest guess))
14111 We see that all text before a 70-width line of dashes is ignored; all
14112 text after a line that starts with that @samp{^End of} is also ignored;
14113 each article begins with a 30-width line of dashes; the line separating
14114 the head from the body may contain a single space; and that the body is
14115 run through @code{nndoc-unquote-dashes} before being delivered.
14117 To hook your own document definition into @code{nndoc}, use the
14118 @code{nndoc-add-type} function. It takes two parameters---the first is
14119 the definition itself and the second (optional) parameter says where in
14120 the document type definition alist to put this definition. The alist is
14121 traversed sequentially, and @code{nndoc-TYPE-type-p} is called for a given type @code{TYPE}. So @code{nndoc-mmdf-type-p} is called to see whether a document
14122 is of @code{mmdf} type, and so on. These type predicates should return
14123 @code{nil} if the document is not of the correct type; @code{t} if it is
14124 of the correct type; and a number if the document might be of the
14125 correct type. A high number means high probability; a low number means
14126 low probability with @samp{0} being the lowest valid number.
14134 In the PC world people often talk about ``offline'' newsreaders. These
14135 are thingies that are combined reader/news transport monstrosities.
14136 With built-in modem programs. Yecchh!
14138 Of course, us Unix Weenie types of human beans use things like
14139 @code{uucp} and, like, @code{nntpd} and set up proper news and mail
14140 transport things like Ghod intended. And then we just use normal
14143 However, it can sometimes be convenient to do something that's a bit
14144 easier on the brain if you have a very slow modem, and you're not really
14145 that interested in doing things properly.
14147 A file format called @sc{soup} has been developed for transporting news
14148 and mail from servers to home machines and back again. It can be a bit
14151 First some terminology:
14156 This is the machine that is connected to the outside world and where you
14157 get news and/or mail from.
14160 This is the machine that you want to do the actual reading and responding
14161 on. It is typically not connected to the rest of the world in any way.
14164 Something that contains messages and/or commands. There are two kinds
14168 @item message packets
14169 These are packets made at the server, and typically contain lots of
14170 messages for you to read. These are called @file{SoupoutX.tgz} by
14171 default, where @var{x} is a number.
14173 @item response packets
14174 These are packets made at the home machine, and typically contains
14175 replies that you've written. These are called @file{SoupinX.tgz} by
14176 default, where @var{x} is a number.
14186 You log in on the server and create a @sc{soup} packet. You can either
14187 use a dedicated @sc{soup} thingie (like the @code{awk} program), or you
14188 can use Gnus to create the packet with its @sc{soup} commands (@kbd{O
14189 s} and/or @kbd{G s b}; and then @kbd{G s p}) (@pxref{SOUP Commands}).
14192 You transfer the packet home. Rail, boat, car or modem will do fine.
14195 You put the packet in your home directory.
14198 You fire up Gnus on your home machine using the @code{nnsoup} backend as
14199 the native or secondary server.
14202 You read articles and mail and answer and followup to the things you
14203 want (@pxref{SOUP Replies}).
14206 You do the @kbd{G s r} command to pack these replies into a @sc{soup}
14210 You transfer this packet to the server.
14213 You use Gnus to mail this packet out with the @kbd{G s s} command.
14216 You then repeat until you die.
14220 So you basically have a bipartite system---you use @code{nnsoup} for
14221 reading and Gnus for packing/sending these @sc{soup} packets.
14224 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
14225 * SOUP Groups:: A backend for reading @sc{soup} packets.
14226 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
14230 @node SOUP Commands
14231 @subsubsection SOUP Commands
14233 These are commands for creating and manipulating @sc{soup} packets.
14237 @kindex G s b (Group)
14238 @findex gnus-group-brew-soup
14239 Pack all unread articles in the current group
14240 (@code{gnus-group-brew-soup}). This command understands the
14241 process/prefix convention.
14244 @kindex G s w (Group)
14245 @findex gnus-soup-save-areas
14246 Save all @sc{soup} data files (@code{gnus-soup-save-areas}).
14249 @kindex G s s (Group)
14250 @findex gnus-soup-send-replies
14251 Send all replies from the replies packet
14252 (@code{gnus-soup-send-replies}).
14255 @kindex G s p (Group)
14256 @findex gnus-soup-pack-packet
14257 Pack all files into a @sc{soup} packet (@code{gnus-soup-pack-packet}).
14260 @kindex G s r (Group)
14261 @findex nnsoup-pack-replies
14262 Pack all replies into a replies packet (@code{nnsoup-pack-replies}).
14265 @kindex O s (Summary)
14266 @findex gnus-soup-add-article
14267 This summary-mode command adds the current article to a @sc{soup} packet
14268 (@code{gnus-soup-add-article}). It understands the process/prefix
14269 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
14274 There are a few variables to customize where Gnus will put all these
14279 @item gnus-soup-directory
14280 @vindex gnus-soup-directory
14281 Directory where Gnus will save intermediate files while composing
14282 @sc{soup} packets. The default is @file{~/SoupBrew/}.
14284 @item gnus-soup-replies-directory
14285 @vindex gnus-soup-replies-directory
14286 This is what Gnus will use as a temporary directory while sending our
14287 reply packets. @file{~/SoupBrew/SoupReplies/} is the default.
14289 @item gnus-soup-prefix-file
14290 @vindex gnus-soup-prefix-file
14291 Name of the file where Gnus stores the last used prefix. The default is
14292 @samp{gnus-prefix}.
14294 @item gnus-soup-packer
14295 @vindex gnus-soup-packer
14296 A format string command for packing a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
14297 @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupout%d.tgz}.
14299 @item gnus-soup-unpacker
14300 @vindex gnus-soup-unpacker
14301 Format string command for unpacking a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
14302 @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
14304 @item gnus-soup-packet-directory
14305 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-directory
14306 Where Gnus will look for reply packets. The default is @file{~/}.
14308 @item gnus-soup-packet-regexp
14309 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-regexp
14310 Regular expression matching @sc{soup} reply packets in
14311 @code{gnus-soup-packet-directory}.
14317 @subsubsection @sc{soup} Groups
14320 @code{nnsoup} is the backend for reading @sc{soup} packets. It will
14321 read incoming packets, unpack them, and put them in a directory where
14322 you can read them at leisure.
14324 These are the variables you can use to customize its behavior:
14328 @item nnsoup-tmp-directory
14329 @vindex nnsoup-tmp-directory
14330 When @code{nnsoup} unpacks a @sc{soup} packet, it does it in this
14331 directory. (@file{/tmp/} by default.)
14333 @item nnsoup-directory
14334 @vindex nnsoup-directory
14335 @code{nnsoup} then moves each message and index file to this directory.
14336 The default is @file{~/SOUP/}.
14338 @item nnsoup-replies-directory
14339 @vindex nnsoup-replies-directory
14340 All replies will be stored in this directory before being packed into a
14341 reply packet. The default is @file{~/SOUP/replies/"}.
14343 @item nnsoup-replies-format-type
14344 @vindex nnsoup-replies-format-type
14345 The @sc{soup} format of the replies packets. The default is @samp{?n}
14346 (rnews), and I don't think you should touch that variable. I probably
14347 shouldn't even have documented it. Drats! Too late!
14349 @item nnsoup-replies-index-type
14350 @vindex nnsoup-replies-index-type
14351 The index type of the replies packet. The default is @samp{?n}, which
14352 means ``none''. Don't fiddle with this one either!
14354 @item nnsoup-active-file
14355 @vindex nnsoup-active-file
14356 Where @code{nnsoup} stores lots of information. This is not an ``active
14357 file'' in the @code{nntp} sense; it's an Emacs Lisp file. If you lose
14358 this file or mess it up in any way, you're dead. The default is
14359 @file{~/SOUP/active}.
14361 @item nnsoup-packer
14362 @vindex nnsoup-packer
14363 Format string command for packing a reply @sc{soup} packet. The default
14364 is @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupin%d.tgz}.
14366 @item nnsoup-unpacker
14367 @vindex nnsoup-unpacker
14368 Format string command for unpacking incoming @sc{soup} packets. The
14369 default is @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
14371 @item nnsoup-packet-directory
14372 @vindex nnsoup-packet-directory
14373 Where @code{nnsoup} will look for incoming packets. The default is
14376 @item nnsoup-packet-regexp
14377 @vindex nnsoup-packet-regexp
14378 Regular expression matching incoming @sc{soup} packets. The default is
14381 @item nnsoup-always-save
14382 @vindex nnsoup-always-save
14383 If non-@code{nil}, save the replies buffer after each posted message.
14389 @subsubsection SOUP Replies
14391 Just using @code{nnsoup} won't mean that your postings and mailings end
14392 up in @sc{soup} reply packets automagically. You have to work a bit
14393 more for that to happen.
14395 @findex nnsoup-set-variables
14396 The @code{nnsoup-set-variables} command will set the appropriate
14397 variables to ensure that all your followups and replies end up in the
14400 In specific, this is what it does:
14403 (setq message-send-news-function 'nnsoup-request-post)
14404 (setq message-send-mail-function 'nnsoup-request-mail)
14407 And that's it, really. If you only want news to go into the @sc{soup}
14408 system you just use the first line. If you only want mail to be
14409 @sc{soup}ed you use the second.
14412 @node Mail-To-News Gateways
14413 @subsection Mail-To-News Gateways
14414 @cindex mail-to-news gateways
14417 If your local @code{nntp} server doesn't allow posting, for some reason
14418 or other, you can post using one of the numerous mail-to-news gateways.
14419 The @code{nngateway} backend provides the interface.
14421 Note that you can't read anything from this backend---it can only be
14427 @item nngateway-address
14428 @vindex nngateway-address
14429 This is the address of the mail-to-news gateway.
14431 @item nngateway-header-transformation
14432 @vindex nngateway-header-transformation
14433 News headers often have to be transformed in some odd way or other
14434 for the mail-to-news gateway to accept it. This variable says what
14435 transformation should be called, and defaults to
14436 @code{nngateway-simple-header-transformation}. The function is called
14437 narrowed to the headers to be transformed and with one parameter---the
14440 This default function just inserts a new @code{To} header based on the
14441 @code{Newsgroups} header and the gateway address.
14442 For instance, an article with this @code{Newsgroups} header:
14445 Newsgroups: alt.religion.emacs
14448 will get this @code{From} header inserted:
14451 To: alt-religion-emacs@@GATEWAY
14454 The following pre-defined functions exist:
14456 @findex nngateway-simple-header-transformation
14459 @item nngateway-simple-header-transformation
14460 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
14461 @var{newsgroup}@@@code{nngateway-address}.
14463 @findex nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
14465 @item nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
14466 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
14467 @code{nngateway-address}.
14472 (setq gnus-post-method
14474 "mail2news@@replay.com"
14475 (nngateway-header-transformation
14476 nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation)))
14484 So, to use this, simply say something like:
14487 (setq gnus-post-method '(nngateway "GATEWAY.ADDRESS"))
14493 @subsection @sc{imap}
14497 @sc{imap} is a network protocol for reading mail (or news, or ...),
14498 think of it as a modernized @sc{nntp}. Connecting to a @sc{imap}
14499 server is much similar to connecting to a news server, you just
14500 specify the network address of the server.
14502 @sc{imap} has two properties. First, @sc{imap} can do everything that
14503 POP can, it can hence be viewed as POP++. Secondly, @sc{imap} is a
14504 mail storage protocol, similar to @sc{nntp} being a news storage
14505 protocol. (@sc{imap} offers more features than @sc{nntp} because news
14506 is more or less read-only whereas mail is read-write.)
14508 If you want to use @sc{imap} as POP++, use an imap entry in
14509 mail-sources. With this, Gnus will fetch mails from the @sc{imap}
14510 server and store them on the local disk. This is not the usage
14511 described in this section. @xref{Mail Sources}.
14513 If you want to use @sc{imap} as a mail storage protocol, use an nnimap
14514 entry in gnus-secondary-select-methods. With this, Gnus will
14515 manipulate mails stored on the @sc{imap} server. This is the kind of
14516 usage explained in this section.
14518 A server configuration in @code{~/.gnus} with a few @sc{imap} servers
14519 might look something like this:
14522 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
14523 '((nnimap "simpleserver") ; no special configuration
14524 ; perhaps a ssh port forwarded server:
14526 (nnimap-address "localhost")
14527 (nnimap-server-port 1430))
14528 ; a UW server running on localhost
14530 (nnimap-server-port 143)
14531 (nnimap-address "localhost")
14532 (nnimap-list-pattern ("INBOX" "mail/*")))
14533 ; anonymous public cyrus server:
14534 (nnimap "cyrus.andrew.cmu.edu"
14535 (nnimap-authenticator anonymous)
14536 (nnimap-list-pattern "archive.*")
14537 (nnimap-stream network))
14538 ; a ssl server on a non-standard port:
14540 (nnimap-address "vic20.somewhere.com")
14541 (nnimap-server-port 9930)
14542 (nnimap-stream ssl))))
14545 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nnimap}
14550 @item nnimap-address
14551 @vindex nnimap-address
14553 The address of the remote @sc{imap} server. Defaults to the virtual
14554 server name if not specified.
14556 @item nnimap-server-port
14557 @vindex nnimap-server-port
14558 Port on server to contact. Defaults to port 143, or 993 for SSL.
14560 Note that this should be a integer, example server specification:
14563 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
14564 (nnimap-server-port 4711))
14567 @item nnimap-list-pattern
14568 @vindex nnimap-list-pattern
14569 String or list of strings of mailboxes to limit available groups to.
14570 This is used when the server has very many mailboxes and you're only
14571 interested in a few -- some servers export your home directory via
14572 @sc{imap}, you'll probably want to limit the mailboxes to those in
14573 @file{~/Mail/*} then.
14575 The string can also be a cons of REFERENCE and the string as above, what
14576 REFERENCE is used for is server specific, but on the University of
14577 Washington server it's a directory that will be concatenated with the
14580 Example server specification:
14583 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
14584 (nnimap-list-pattern ("INBOX" "Mail/*" "alt.sex.*"
14585 ("~friend/Mail/" . "list/*"))))
14588 @item nnimap-stream
14589 @vindex nnimap-stream
14590 The type of stream used to connect to your server. By default, nnimap
14591 will detect and automatically use all of the below, with the exception
14592 of SSL. (SSL is being replaced by STARTTLS, which can be automatically
14593 detected, but it's not widely deployed yet).
14595 Example server specification:
14598 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
14599 (nnimap-stream ssl))
14602 Please note that the value of @code{nnimap-stream} is a symbol!
14606 @dfn{gssapi:} Connect with GSSAPI (usually kerberos 5). Requires the
14607 @samp{imtest} program.
14609 @dfn{kerberos4:} Connect with kerberos 4. Requires the @samp{imtest} program.
14611 @dfn{starttls:} Connect via the STARTTLS extension (similar to
14612 SSL). Requires the external library @samp{starttls.el} and program
14615 @dfn{ssl:} Connect through SSL. Requires OpenSSL (the
14616 program @samp{openssl}) or SSLeay (@samp{s_client}).
14618 @dfn{shell:} Use a shell command to start @sc{imap} connection.
14620 @dfn{network:} Plain, TCP/IP network connection.
14623 @vindex imap-kerberos4-program
14624 The @samp{imtest} program is shipped with Cyrus IMAPD. If you're
14625 using @samp{imtest} from Cyrus IMAPD < 2.0.14 (which includes version
14626 1.5.x and 1.6.x) you need to frob @code{imap-process-connection-type}
14627 to make @code{imap.el} use a pty instead of a pipe when communicating
14628 with @samp{imtest}. You will then suffer from a line length
14629 restrictions on IMAP commands, which might make Gnus seem to hang
14630 indefinitely if you have many articles in a mailbox. The variable
14631 @code{imap-kerberos4-program} contain parameters to pass to the imtest
14634 @vindex imap-ssl-program
14635 For SSL connections, the OpenSSL program is available from
14636 @uref{http://www.openssl.org/}. OpenSSL was formerly known as SSLeay,
14637 and nnimap support it too - altough the most recent versions of
14638 SSLeay, 0.9.x, are known to have serious bugs making it
14639 useless. Earlier versions, especially 0.8.x, of SSLeay are known to
14640 work. The variable @code{imap-ssl-program} contain parameters to pass
14643 @vindex imap-shell-program
14644 @vindex imap-shell-host
14645 For @sc{imap} connections using the @code{shell} stream, the variable
14646 @code{imap-shell-program} specify what program to call.
14648 @item nnimap-authenticator
14649 @vindex nnimap-authenticator
14651 The authenticator used to connect to the server. By default, nnimap
14652 will use the most secure authenticator your server is capable of.
14654 Example server specification:
14657 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
14658 (nnimap-authenticator anonymous))
14661 Please note that the value of @code{nnimap-authenticator} is a symbol!
14665 @dfn{gssapi:} GSSAPI (usually kerberos 5) authentication. Require
14666 external program @code{imtest}.
14668 @dfn{kerberos4:} Kerberos authentication. Require external program
14671 @dfn{digest-md5:} Encrypted username/password via DIGEST-MD5. Require
14672 external library @code{digest-md5.el}.
14674 @dfn{cram-md5:} Encrypted username/password via CRAM-MD5.
14676 @dfn{login:} Plain-text username/password via LOGIN.
14678 @dfn{anonymous:} Login as `anonymous', supplying your emailadress as password.
14681 @item nnimap-expunge-on-close
14683 @vindex nnimap-expunge-on-close
14684 Unlike Parmenides the @sc{imap} designers has decided that things that
14685 doesn't exist actually does exist. More specifically, @sc{imap} has
14686 this concept of marking articles @code{Deleted} which doesn't actually
14687 delete them, and this (marking them @code{Deleted}, that is) is what
14688 nnimap does when you delete a article in Gnus (with @kbd{G DEL} or
14691 Since the articles aren't really removed when we mark them with the
14692 @code{Deleted} flag we'll need a way to actually delete them. Feel like
14693 running in circles yet?
14695 Traditionally, nnimap has removed all articles marked as @code{Deleted}
14696 when closing a mailbox but this is now configurable by this server
14699 The possible options are:
14704 The default behavior, delete all articles marked as "Deleted" when
14707 Never actually delete articles. Currently there is no way of showing
14708 the articles marked for deletion in nnimap, but other @sc{imap} clients
14709 may allow you to do this. If you ever want to run the EXPUNGE command
14710 manually, @xref{Expunging mailboxes}.
14712 When closing mailboxes, nnimap will ask if you wish to expunge deleted
14717 @item nnimap-importantize-dormant
14718 @vindex nnimap-importantize-dormant
14720 If non-nil, marks dormant articles as ticked (as well), for other IMAP
14721 clients. Within Gnus, dormant articles will naturally still (only) be
14722 marked as ticked. This is to make dormant articles stand out, just
14723 like ticked articles, in other IMAP clients. (In other words, Gnus has
14724 two ``Tick'' marks and IMAP has only one.)
14726 Probably the only reason for frobing this would be if you're trying
14727 enable per-user persistant dormant flags, using something like:
14730 (setcdr (assq 'dormant nnimap-mark-to-flag-alist)
14731 (format "gnus-dormant-%s" (user-login-name)))
14732 (setcdr (assq 'dormant nnimap-mark-to-predicate-alist)
14733 (format "KEYWORD gnus-dormant-%s" (user-login-name)))
14736 In this case, you would not want the per-user dormant flag showing up
14737 as ticked for other users.
14739 @item nnimap-expunge-search-string
14741 @vindex nnimap-expunge-search-string
14743 This variable contain the IMAP search command sent to server when
14744 searching for articles eligible for expiring. The default is
14745 @code{"UID %s NOT SINCE %s"}, where the first @code{%s} is replaced by
14746 UID set and the second @code{%s} is replaced by a date.
14748 Probably the only useful value to change this to is
14749 @code{"UID %s NOT SENTSINCE %s"}, which makes nnimap use the Date: in
14750 messages instead of the internal article date. See section 6.4.4 of
14751 RFC 2060 for more information on valid strings.
14753 @item nnimap-authinfo-file
14754 @vindex nnimap-authinfo-file
14756 A file containing credentials used to log in on servers. The format is
14757 (almost) the same as the @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file. See the
14758 variable @code{nntp-authinfo-file} for exact syntax; also see
14764 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
14765 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
14766 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a "compress mailbox" button.
14771 @node Splitting in IMAP
14772 @subsubsection Splitting in @sc{imap}
14773 @cindex splitting imap mail
14775 Splitting is something Gnus users has loved and used for years, and now
14776 the rest of the world is catching up. Yeah, dream on, not many
14777 @sc{imap} server has server side splitting and those that have splitting
14778 seem to use some non-standard protocol. This means that @sc{imap}
14779 support for Gnus has to do it's own splitting.
14783 Here are the variables of interest:
14787 @item nnimap-split-crosspost
14788 @cindex splitting, crosspost
14790 @vindex nnimap-split-crosspost
14792 If non-nil, do crossposting if several split methods match the mail. If
14793 nil, the first match in @code{nnimap-split-rule} found will be used.
14795 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-crosspost}.
14797 @item nnimap-split-inbox
14798 @cindex splitting, inbox
14800 @vindex nnimap-split-inbox
14802 A string or a list of strings that gives the name(s) of @sc{imap}
14803 mailboxes to split from. Defaults to nil, which means that splitting is
14807 (setq nnimap-split-inbox
14808 '("INBOX" ("~/friend/Mail" . "lists/*") "lists.imap"))
14811 No nnmail equivalent.
14813 @item nnimap-split-rule
14814 @cindex Splitting, rules
14815 @vindex nnimap-split-rule
14817 New mail found in @code{nnimap-split-inbox} will be split according to
14820 This variable contains a list of lists, where the first element in the
14821 sublist gives the name of the @sc{imap} mailbox to move articles
14822 matching the regexp in the second element in the sublist. Got that?
14823 Neither did I, we need examples.
14826 (setq nnimap-split-rule
14828 "^Sender: owner-nnimap@@vic20.globalcom.se")
14829 ("INBOX.junk" "^Subject:.*MAKE MONEY")
14830 ("INBOX.private" "")))
14833 This will put all articles from the nnimap mailing list into mailbox
14834 INBOX.nnimap, all articles containing MAKE MONEY in the Subject: line
14835 into INBOX.junk and everything else in INBOX.private.
14837 The first string may contain `\\1' forms, like the ones used by
14838 replace-match to insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For
14842 ("INBOX.lists.\\1" "^Sender: owner-\\([a-z-]+\\)@@")
14845 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
14846 called with the first element of the rule as the argument, in a buffer
14847 containing the headers of the article. It should return a non-nil value
14848 if it thinks that the mail belongs in that group.
14850 Nnmail users might recollect that the last regexp had to be empty to
14851 match all articles (like in the example above). This is not required in
14852 nnimap. Articles not matching any of the regexps will not be moved out
14853 of your inbox. (This might affect performance if you keep lots of
14854 unread articles in your inbox, since the splitting code would go over
14855 them every time you fetch new mail.)
14857 These rules are processed from the beginning of the alist toward the
14858 end. The first rule to make a match will "win", unless you have
14859 crossposting enabled. In that case, all matching rules will "win".
14861 This variable can also have a function as its value, the function will
14862 be called with the headers narrowed and should return a group where it
14863 thinks the article should be split to. See @code{nnimap-split-fancy}.
14865 The splitting code tries to create mailboxes if it need too.
14867 To allow for different split rules on different virtual servers, and
14868 even different split rules in different inboxes on the same server,
14869 the syntax of this variable have been extended along the lines of:
14872 (setq nnimap-split-rule
14873 '(("my1server" (".*" (("ding" "ding@@gnus.org")
14874 ("junk" "From:.*Simon")))
14875 ("my2server" ("INBOX" nnimap-split-fancy))
14876 ("my[34]server" (".*" (("private" "To:.*Simon")
14877 ("junk" my-junk-func)))))
14880 The virtual server name is in fact a regexp, so that the same rules
14881 may apply to several servers. In the example, the servers
14882 @code{my3server} and @code{my4server} both use the same rules.
14883 Similarly, the inbox string is also a regexp. The actual splitting
14884 rules are as before, either a function, or a list with group/regexp or
14885 group/function elements.
14887 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
14889 @item nnimap-split-predicate
14891 @vindex nnimap-split-predicate
14893 Mail matching this predicate in @code{nnimap-split-inbox} will be
14894 split, it is a string and the default is @samp{UNSEEN UNDELETED}.
14896 This might be useful if you use another @sc{imap} client to read mail in
14897 your inbox but would like Gnus to split all articles in the inbox
14898 regardless of readedness. Then you might change this to
14901 @item nnimap-split-fancy
14902 @cindex splitting, fancy
14903 @findex nnimap-split-fancy
14904 @vindex nnimap-split-fancy
14906 It's possible to set @code{nnimap-split-rule} to
14907 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} if you want to use fancy
14908 splitting. @xref{Fancy Mail Splitting}.
14910 However, to be able to have different fancy split rules for nnmail and
14911 nnimap backends you can set @code{nnimap-split-rule} to
14912 @code{nnimap-split-fancy} and define the nnimap specific fancy split
14913 rule in @code{nnimap-split-fancy}.
14918 (setq nnimap-split-rule 'nnimap-split-fancy
14919 nnimap-split-fancy ...)
14922 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-split-fancy}.
14926 @node Editing IMAP ACLs
14927 @subsubsection Editing @sc{imap} ACLs
14928 @cindex editing imap acls
14929 @cindex Access Control Lists
14930 @cindex Editing @sc{imap} ACLs
14932 @findex gnus-group-nnimap-edit-acl
14934 ACL stands for Access Control List. ACLs are used in @sc{imap} for
14935 limiting (or enabling) other users access to your mail boxes. Not all
14936 @sc{imap} servers support this, this function will give an error if it
14939 To edit a ACL for a mailbox, type @kbd{G l}
14940 (@code{gnus-group-edit-nnimap-acl}) and you'll be presented with a ACL
14941 editing window with detailed instructions.
14943 Some possible uses:
14947 Giving "anyone" the "lrs" rights (lookup, read, keep seen/unseen flags)
14948 on your mailing list mailboxes enables other users on the same server to
14949 follow the list without subscribing to it.
14951 At least with the Cyrus server, you are required to give the user
14952 "anyone" posting ("p") capabilities to have "plussing" work (that is,
14953 mail sent to user+mailbox@@domain ending up in the @sc{imap} mailbox
14957 @node Expunging mailboxes
14958 @subsubsection Expunging mailboxes
14962 @cindex Manual expunging
14964 @findex gnus-group-nnimap-expunge
14966 If you're using the @code{never} setting of @code{nnimap-expunge-on-close},
14967 you may want the option of expunging all deleted articles in a mailbox
14968 manually. This is exactly what @kbd{G x} does.
14970 Currently there is no way of showing deleted articles, you can just
14975 @node Combined Groups
14976 @section Combined Groups
14978 Gnus allows combining a mixture of all the other group types into bigger
14982 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
14983 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
14987 @node Virtual Groups
14988 @subsection Virtual Groups
14990 @cindex virtual groups
14991 @cindex merging groups
14993 An @dfn{nnvirtual group} is really nothing more than a collection of
14996 For instance, if you are tired of reading many small groups, you can
14997 put them all in one big group, and then grow tired of reading one
14998 big, unwieldy group. The joys of computing!
15000 You specify @code{nnvirtual} as the method. The address should be a
15001 regexp to match component groups.
15003 All marks in the virtual group will stick to the articles in the
15004 component groups. So if you tick an article in a virtual group, the
15005 article will also be ticked in the component group from whence it came.
15006 (And vice versa---marks from the component groups will also be shown in
15007 the virtual group.)
15009 Here's an example @code{nnvirtual} method that collects all Andrea Dworkin
15010 newsgroups into one, big, happy newsgroup:
15013 (nnvirtual "^alt\\.fan\\.andrea-dworkin$\\|^rec\\.dworkin.*")
15016 The component groups can be native or foreign; everything should work
15017 smoothly, but if your computer explodes, it was probably my fault.
15019 Collecting the same group from several servers might actually be a good
15020 idea if users have set the Distribution header to limit distribution.
15021 If you would like to read @samp{soc.motss} both from a server in Japan
15022 and a server in Norway, you could use the following as the group regexp:
15025 "^nntp\\+server\\.jp:soc\\.motss$\\|^nntp\\+server\\.no:soc\\.motss$"
15028 (Remember, though, that if you're creating the group with @kbd{G m}, you
15029 shouldn't double the backslashes, and you should leave off the quote
15030 characters at the beginning and the end of the string.)
15032 This should work kinda smoothly---all articles from both groups should
15033 end up in this one, and there should be no duplicates. Threading (and
15034 the rest) will still work as usual, but there might be problems with the
15035 sequence of articles. Sorting on date might be an option here
15036 (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
15038 One limitation, however---all groups included in a virtual
15039 group have to be alive (i.e., subscribed or unsubscribed). Killed or
15040 zombie groups can't be component groups for @code{nnvirtual} groups.
15042 @vindex nnvirtual-always-rescan
15043 If the @code{nnvirtual-always-rescan} is non-@code{nil},
15044 @code{nnvirtual} will always scan groups for unread articles when
15045 entering a virtual group. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
15046 default) and you read articles in a component group after the virtual
15047 group has been activated, the read articles from the component group
15048 will show up when you enter the virtual group. You'll also see this
15049 effect if you have two virtual groups that have a component group in
15050 common. If that's the case, you should set this variable to @code{t}.
15051 Or you can just tap @code{M-g} on the virtual group every time before
15052 you enter it---it'll have much the same effect.
15054 @code{nnvirtual} can have both mail and news groups as component groups.
15055 When responding to articles in @code{nnvirtual} groups, @code{nnvirtual}
15056 has to ask the backend of the component group the article comes from
15057 whether it is a news or mail backend. However, when you do a @kbd{^},
15058 there is typically no sure way for the component backend to know this,
15059 and in that case @code{nnvirtual} tells Gnus that the article came from a
15060 not-news backend. (Just to be on the safe side.)
15062 @kbd{C-c C-t} in the message buffer will insert the @code{Newsgroups}
15063 line from the article you respond to in these cases.
15067 @node Kibozed Groups
15068 @subsection Kibozed Groups
15072 @dfn{Kibozing} is defined by @sc{oed} as ``grepping through (parts of)
15073 the news feed''. @code{nnkiboze} is a backend that will do this for
15074 you. Oh joy! Now you can grind any @sc{nntp} server down to a halt
15075 with useless requests! Oh happiness!
15077 @kindex G k (Group)
15078 To create a kibozed group, use the @kbd{G k} command in the group
15081 The address field of the @code{nnkiboze} method is, as with
15082 @code{nnvirtual}, a regexp to match groups to be ``included'' in the
15083 @code{nnkiboze} group. That's where most similarities between @code{nnkiboze}
15084 and @code{nnvirtual} end.
15086 In addition to this regexp detailing component groups, an @code{nnkiboze} group
15087 must have a score file to say what articles are to be included in
15088 the group (@pxref{Scoring}).
15090 @kindex M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups
15091 @findex nnkiboze-generate-groups
15092 You must run @kbd{M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups} after creating the
15093 @code{nnkiboze} groups you want to have. This command will take time. Lots of
15094 time. Oodles and oodles of time. Gnus has to fetch the headers from
15095 all the articles in all the component groups and run them through the
15096 scoring process to determine if there are any articles in the groups
15097 that are to be part of the @code{nnkiboze} groups.
15099 Please limit the number of component groups by using restrictive
15100 regexps. Otherwise your sysadmin may become annoyed with you, and the
15101 @sc{nntp} site may throw you off and never let you back in again.
15102 Stranger things have happened.
15104 @code{nnkiboze} component groups do not have to be alive---they can be dead,
15105 and they can be foreign. No restrictions.
15107 @vindex nnkiboze-directory
15108 The generation of an @code{nnkiboze} group means writing two files in
15109 @code{nnkiboze-directory}, which is @file{~/News/} by default. One
15110 contains the @sc{nov} header lines for all the articles in the group,
15111 and the other is an additional @file{.newsrc} file to store information
15112 on what groups have been searched through to find component articles.
15114 Articles marked as read in the @code{nnkiboze} group will have
15115 their @sc{nov} lines removed from the @sc{nov} file.
15118 @node Gnus Unplugged
15119 @section Gnus Unplugged
15124 @cindex Gnus Unplugged
15126 In olden times (ca. February '88), people used to run their newsreaders
15127 on big machines with permanent connections to the net. News transport
15128 was dealt with by news servers, and all the newsreaders had to do was to
15129 read news. Believe it or not.
15131 Nowadays most people read news and mail at home, and use some sort of
15132 modem to connect to the net. To avoid running up huge phone bills, it
15133 would be nice to have a way to slurp down all the news and mail, hang up
15134 the phone, read for several hours, and then upload any responses you
15135 have to make. And then you repeat the procedure.
15137 Of course, you can use news servers for doing this as well. I've used
15138 @code{inn} together with @code{slurp}, @code{pop} and @code{sendmail}
15139 for some years, but doing that's a bore. Moving the news server
15140 functionality up to the newsreader makes sense if you're the only person
15141 reading news on a machine.
15143 Using Gnus as an ``offline'' newsreader is quite simple.
15147 First, set up Gnus as you would do if you were running it on a machine
15148 that has full connection to the net. Go ahead. I'll still be waiting
15152 Then, put the following magical incantation at the end of your
15153 @file{.gnus.el} file:
15160 That's it. Gnus is now an ``offline'' newsreader.
15162 Of course, to use it as such, you have to learn a few new commands.
15165 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
15166 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
15167 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
15168 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
15169 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with IMAP.
15170 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
15171 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
15172 * Example Setup:: An example @file{.gnus.el} file for offline people.
15173 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
15174 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
15179 @subsection Agent Basics
15181 First, let's get some terminology out of the way.
15183 The Gnus Agent is said to be @dfn{unplugged} when you have severed the
15184 connection to the net (and notified the Agent that this is the case).
15185 When the connection to the net is up again (and Gnus knows this), the
15186 Agent is @dfn{plugged}.
15188 The @dfn{local} machine is the one you're running on, and which isn't
15189 connected to the net continuously.
15191 @dfn{Downloading} means fetching things from the net to your local
15192 machine. @dfn{Uploading} is doing the opposite.
15194 Let's take a typical Gnus session using the Agent.
15199 You start Gnus with @code{gnus-unplugged}. This brings up the Gnus
15200 Agent in a disconnected state. You can read all the news that you have
15201 already fetched while in this mode.
15204 You then decide to see whether any new news has arrived. You connect
15205 your machine to the net (using PPP or whatever), and then hit @kbd{J j}
15206 to make Gnus become @dfn{plugged} and use @kbd{g} to check for new mail
15207 as usual. To check for new mail in unplugged mode, see (@pxref{Mail
15208 Source Specifiers}).
15211 You can then read the new news immediately, or you can download the news
15212 onto your local machine. If you want to do the latter, you press @kbd{g}
15213 to check if there are any new news and then @kbd{J
15214 s} to fetch all the eligible articles in all the groups. (To let Gnus
15215 know which articles you want to download, @pxref{Agent Categories}.)
15218 After fetching the articles, you press @kbd{J j} to make Gnus become
15219 unplugged again, and you shut down the PPP thing (or whatever). And
15220 then you read the news offline.
15223 And then you go to step 2.
15226 Here are some things you should do the first time (or so) that you use
15232 Decide which servers should be covered by the Agent. If you have a mail
15233 backend, it would probably be nonsensical to have it covered by the
15234 Agent. Go to the server buffer (@kbd{^} in the group buffer) and press
15235 @kbd{J a} the server (or servers) that you wish to have covered by the
15236 Agent (@pxref{Server Agent Commands}). This will typically be only the
15237 primary select method, which is listed on the bottom in the buffer.
15240 Decide on download policy. @xref{Agent Categories}.
15247 @node Agent Categories
15248 @subsection Agent Categories
15250 One of the main reasons to integrate the news transport layer into the
15251 newsreader is to allow greater control over what articles to download.
15252 There's not much point in downloading huge amounts of articles, just to
15253 find out that you're not interested in reading any of them. It's better
15254 to be somewhat more conservative in choosing what to download, and then
15255 mark the articles for downloading manually if it should turn out that
15256 you're interested in the articles anyway.
15258 The main way to control what is to be downloaded is to create a
15259 @dfn{category} and then assign some (or all) groups to this category.
15260 Groups that do not belong in any other category belong to the
15261 @code{default} category. Gnus has its own buffer for creating and
15262 managing categories.
15265 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
15266 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
15267 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
15271 @node Category Syntax
15272 @subsubsection Category Syntax
15274 A category consists of two things.
15278 A predicate which (generally) gives a rough outline of which articles
15279 are eligible for downloading; and
15282 a score rule which (generally) gives you a finer granularity when
15283 deciding what articles to download. (Note that this @dfn{download
15284 score} is not necessarily related to normal scores.)
15287 A predicate in its simplest form can be a single predicate such as
15288 @code{true} or @code{false}. These two will download every available
15289 article or nothing respectively. In the case of these two special
15290 predicates an additional score rule is superfluous.
15292 Predicates of @code{high} or @code{low} download articles in respect of
15293 their scores in relationship to @code{gnus-agent-high-score} and
15294 @code{gnus-agent-low-score} as described below.
15296 To gain even finer control of what is to be regarded eligible for
15297 download a predicate can consist of a number of predicates with logical
15298 operators sprinkled in between.
15300 Perhaps some examples are in order.
15302 Here's a simple predicate. (It's the default predicate, in fact, used
15303 for all groups that don't belong to any other category.)
15309 Quite simple, eh? This predicate is true if and only if the article is
15310 short (for some value of ``short'').
15312 Here's a more complex predicate:
15321 This means that an article should be downloaded if it has a high score,
15322 or if the score is not low and the article is not long. You get the
15325 The available logical operators are @code{or}, @code{and} and
15326 @code{not}. (If you prefer, you can use the more ``C''-ish operators
15327 @samp{|}, @code{&} and @code{!} instead.)
15329 The following predicates are pre-defined, but if none of these fit what
15330 you want to do, you can write your own.
15334 True iff the article is shorter than @code{gnus-agent-short-article}
15335 lines; default 100.
15338 True iff the article is longer than @code{gnus-agent-long-article}
15339 lines; default 200.
15342 True iff the article has a download score less than
15343 @code{gnus-agent-low-score}; default 0.
15346 True iff the article has a download score greater than
15347 @code{gnus-agent-high-score}; default 0.
15350 True iff the Gnus Agent guesses that the article is spam. The
15351 heuristics may change over time, but at present it just computes a
15352 checksum and sees whether articles match.
15361 If you want to create your own predicate function, here's what you have
15362 to know: The functions are called with no parameters, but the
15363 @code{gnus-headers} and @code{gnus-score} dynamic variables are bound to
15366 For example, you could decide that you don't want to download articles
15367 that were posted more than a certain number of days ago (e.g. posted
15368 more than @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} ago) you might write a function
15369 something along the lines of the following:
15372 (defun my-article-old-p ()
15373 "Say whether an article is old."
15374 (< (time-to-days (date-to-time (mail-header-date gnus-headers)))
15375 (- (time-to-days (current-time)) gnus-agent-expire-days)))
15378 with the predicate then defined as:
15381 (not my-article-old-p)
15384 or you could append your predicate to the predefined
15385 @code{gnus-category-predicate-alist} in your @file{~/.gnus.el} or
15386 wherever. (Note: this would have to be at a point *after*
15387 @code{gnus-agent} has been loaded via @code{(gnus-agentize)})
15390 (setq gnus-category-predicate-alist
15391 (append gnus-category-predicate-alist
15392 '((old . my-article-old-p))))
15395 and simply specify your predicate as:
15401 If/when using something like the above, be aware that there are many
15402 misconfigured systems/mailers out there and so an article's date is not
15403 always a reliable indication of when it was posted. Hell, some people
15404 just don't give a damn.
15406 The above predicates apply to *all* the groups which belong to the
15407 category. However, if you wish to have a specific predicate for an
15408 individual group within a category, or you're just too lazy to set up a
15409 new category, you can enter a group's individual predicate in it's group
15410 parameters like so:
15413 (agent-predicate . short)
15416 This is the group parameter equivalent of the agent category default.
15417 Note that when specifying a single word predicate like this, the
15418 @code{agent-predicate} specification must be in dotted pair notation.
15420 The equivalent of the longer example from above would be:
15423 (agent-predicate or high (and (not low) (not long)))
15426 The outer parenthesis required in the category specification are not
15427 entered here as, not being in dotted pair notation, the value of the
15428 predicate is assumed to be a list.
15431 Now, the syntax of the download score is the same as the syntax of
15432 normal score files, except that all elements that require actually
15433 seeing the article itself are verboten. This means that only the
15434 following headers can be scored on: @code{Subject}, @code{From},
15435 @code{Date}, @code{Message-ID}, @code{References}, @code{Chars},
15436 @code{Lines}, and @code{Xref}.
15438 As with predicates, the specification of the @code{download score rule}
15439 to use in respect of a group can be in either the category definition if
15440 it's to be applicable to all groups in therein, or a group's parameters
15441 if it's to be specific to that group.
15443 In both of these places the @code{download score rule} can take one of
15450 This has the same syntax as a normal gnus score file except only a
15451 subset of scoring keywords are available as mentioned above.
15457 Category specification
15461 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
15467 Group Parameter specification
15470 (agent-score ("from"
15471 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
15476 Again, note the omission of the outermost parenthesis here.
15482 These score files must *only* contain the permitted scoring keywords
15489 Category specification
15492 ("~/News/agent.SCORE")
15498 ("~/News/agent.SCORE" "~/News/agent.group.SCORE")
15502 Group Parameter specification
15505 (agent-score "~/News/agent.SCORE")
15508 Additional score files can be specified as above. Need I say anything
15513 Use @code{normal} score files
15515 If you don't want to maintain two sets of scoring rules for a group, and
15516 your desired @code{downloading} criteria for a group are the same as your
15517 @code{reading} criteria then you can tell the agent to refer to your
15518 @code{normal} score files when deciding what to download.
15520 These directives in either the category definition or a group's
15521 parameters will cause the agent to read in all the applicable score
15522 files for a group, *filtering out* those sections that do not
15523 relate to one of the permitted subset of scoring keywords.
15527 Category Specification
15534 Group Parameter specification
15537 (agent-score . file)
15542 @node Category Buffer
15543 @subsubsection Category Buffer
15545 You'd normally do all category maintenance from the category buffer.
15546 When you enter it for the first time (with the @kbd{J c} command from
15547 the group buffer), you'll only see the @code{default} category.
15549 The following commands are available in this buffer:
15553 @kindex q (Category)
15554 @findex gnus-category-exit
15555 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-category-exit}).
15558 @kindex k (Category)
15559 @findex gnus-category-kill
15560 Kill the current category (@code{gnus-category-kill}).
15563 @kindex c (Category)
15564 @findex gnus-category-copy
15565 Copy the current category (@code{gnus-category-copy}).
15568 @kindex a (Category)
15569 @findex gnus-category-add
15570 Add a new category (@code{gnus-category-add}).
15573 @kindex p (Category)
15574 @findex gnus-category-edit-predicate
15575 Edit the predicate of the current category
15576 (@code{gnus-category-edit-predicate}).
15579 @kindex g (Category)
15580 @findex gnus-category-edit-groups
15581 Edit the list of groups belonging to the current category
15582 (@code{gnus-category-edit-groups}).
15585 @kindex s (Category)
15586 @findex gnus-category-edit-score
15587 Edit the download score rule of the current category
15588 (@code{gnus-category-edit-score}).
15591 @kindex l (Category)
15592 @findex gnus-category-list
15593 List all the categories (@code{gnus-category-list}).
15597 @node Category Variables
15598 @subsubsection Category Variables
15601 @item gnus-category-mode-hook
15602 @vindex gnus-category-mode-hook
15603 Hook run in category buffers.
15605 @item gnus-category-line-format
15606 @vindex gnus-category-line-format
15607 Format of the lines in the category buffer (@pxref{Formatting
15608 Variables}). Valid elements are:
15612 The name of the category.
15615 The number of groups in the category.
15618 @item gnus-category-mode-line-format
15619 @vindex gnus-category-mode-line-format
15620 Format of the category mode line (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}).
15622 @item gnus-agent-short-article
15623 @vindex gnus-agent-short-article
15624 Articles that have fewer lines than this are short. Default 100.
15626 @item gnus-agent-long-article
15627 @vindex gnus-agent-long-article
15628 Articles that have more lines than this are long. Default 200.
15630 @item gnus-agent-low-score
15631 @vindex gnus-agent-low-score
15632 Articles that have a score lower than this have a low score. Default
15635 @item gnus-agent-high-score
15636 @vindex gnus-agent-high-score
15637 Articles that have a score higher than this have a high score. Default
15643 @node Agent Commands
15644 @subsection Agent Commands
15646 All the Gnus Agent commands are on the @kbd{J} submap. The @kbd{J j}
15647 (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-plugged} command works in all modes, and
15648 toggles the plugged/unplugged state of the Gnus Agent.
15652 * Group Agent Commands::
15653 * Summary Agent Commands::
15654 * Server Agent Commands::
15657 You can run a complete batch fetch from the command line with the
15658 following incantation:
15660 @cindex gnus-agent-batch-fetch
15662 $ emacs -batch -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-agent-batch-fetch
15667 @node Group Agent Commands
15668 @subsubsection Group Agent Commands
15672 @kindex J u (Agent Group)
15673 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-groups
15674 Fetch all eligible articles in the current group
15675 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-groups}).
15678 @kindex J c (Agent Group)
15679 @findex gnus-enter-category-buffer
15680 Enter the Agent category buffer (@code{gnus-enter-category-buffer}).
15683 @kindex J s (Agent Group)
15684 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-session
15685 Fetch all eligible articles in all groups
15686 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-session}).
15689 @kindex J S (Agent Group)
15690 @findex gnus-group-send-drafts
15691 Send all sendable messages in the draft group
15692 (@code{gnus-group-send-drafts}). @xref{Drafts}.
15695 @kindex J a (Agent Group)
15696 @findex gnus-agent-add-group
15697 Add the current group to an Agent category
15698 (@code{gnus-agent-add-group}). This command understands the
15699 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
15702 @kindex J r (Agent Group)
15703 @findex gnus-agent-remove-group
15704 Remove the current group from its category, if any
15705 (@code{gnus-agent-remove-group}). This command understands the
15706 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
15709 @kindex J Y (Agent Group)
15710 @findex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
15711 Synchronize flags changed while unplugged with remote server, if any.
15717 @node Summary Agent Commands
15718 @subsubsection Summary Agent Commands
15722 @kindex J # (Agent Summary)
15723 @findex gnus-agent-mark-article
15724 Mark the article for downloading (@code{gnus-agent-mark-article}).
15727 @kindex J M-# (Agent Summary)
15728 @findex gnus-agent-unmark-article
15729 Remove the downloading mark from the article
15730 (@code{gnus-agent-unmark-article}).
15733 @kindex @@ (Agent Summary)
15734 @findex gnus-agent-toggle-mark
15735 Toggle whether to download the article (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-mark}).
15738 @kindex J c (Agent Summary)
15739 @findex gnus-agent-catchup
15740 Mark all undownloaded articles as read (@code{gnus-agent-catchup}).
15743 @kindex J u (Agent Summary)
15744 @findex gnus-agent-summary-fetch-group
15745 Download all downloadable articles in the current group
15746 (@code{gnus-agent-summary-fetch-group}).
15751 @node Server Agent Commands
15752 @subsubsection Server Agent Commands
15756 @kindex J a (Agent Server)
15757 @findex gnus-agent-add-server
15758 Add the current server to the list of servers covered by the Gnus Agent
15759 (@code{gnus-agent-add-server}).
15762 @kindex J r (Agent Server)
15763 @findex gnus-agent-remove-server
15764 Remove the current server from the list of servers covered by the Gnus
15765 Agent (@code{gnus-agent-remove-server}).
15771 @subsection Agent Expiry
15773 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-days
15774 @findex gnus-agent-expire
15775 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-expire
15776 @cindex Agent expiry
15777 @cindex Gnus Agent expiry
15780 @code{nnagent} doesn't handle expiry. Instead, there's a special
15781 @code{gnus-agent-expire} command that will expire all read articles that
15782 are older than @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} days. It can be run
15783 whenever you feel that you're running out of space. It's not
15784 particularly fast or efficient, and it's not a particularly good idea to
15785 interrupt it (with @kbd{C-g} or anything else) once you've started it.
15787 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-all
15788 if @code{gnus-agent-expire-all} is non-@code{nil}, this command will
15789 expire all articles---unread, read, ticked and dormant. If @code{nil}
15790 (which is the default), only read articles are eligible for expiry, and
15791 unread, ticked and dormant articles will be kept indefinitely.
15794 @node Agent and IMAP
15795 @subsection Agent and IMAP
15797 The Agent work with any Gnus backend, including nnimap. However,
15798 since there are some conceptual differences between @sc{nntp} and
15799 @sc{imap}, this section (should) provide you with some information to
15800 make Gnus Agent work smoother as a @sc{imap} Disconnected Mode client.
15802 The first thing to keep in mind is that all flags (read, ticked, etc)
15803 are kept on the @sc{imap} server, rather than in @code{.newsrc} as is the
15804 case for nntp. Thus Gnus need to remember flag changes when
15805 disconnected, and synchronize these flags when you plug back in.
15807 Gnus keep track of flag changes when reading nnimap groups under the
15808 Agent by default. When you plug back in, by default Gnus will check if
15809 you have any changed any flags and ask if you wish to synchronize these
15810 with the server. This behavior is customizable with
15811 @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags}.
15813 @vindex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
15814 If @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} is @code{nil}, the Agent will
15815 never automatically synchronize flags. If it is @code{ask}, the
15816 default, the Agent will check if you made any changes and if so ask if
15817 you wish to synchronize these when you re-connect. If it has any other
15818 value, all flags will be synchronized automatically.
15820 If you do not wish to automatically synchronize flags when you
15821 re-connect, this can be done manually with the
15822 @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} command that is bound to @kbd{J Y}
15823 in the group buffer by default.
15825 Some things are currently not implemented in the Agent that you'd might
15826 expect from a disconnected @sc{imap} client, including:
15831 Copying/moving articles into nnimap groups when unplugged.
15834 Creating/deleting nnimap groups when unplugged.
15838 Technical note: the synchronization algorithm does not work by "pushing"
15839 all local flags to the server, but rather incrementally update the
15840 server view of flags by changing only those flags that were changed by
15841 the user. Thus, if you set one flag on a article, quit the group and
15842 re-select the group and remove the flag; the flag will be set and
15843 removed from the server when you "synchronize". The queued flag
15844 operations can be found in the per-server @code{flags} file in the Agent
15845 directory. It's emptied when you synchronize flags.
15848 @node Outgoing Messages
15849 @subsection Outgoing Messages
15851 When Gnus is unplugged, all outgoing messages (both mail and news) are
15852 stored in the draft groups (@pxref{Drafts}). You can view them there
15853 after posting, and edit them at will.
15855 When Gnus is plugged again, you can send the messages either from the
15856 draft group with the special commands available there, or you can use
15857 the @kbd{J S} command in the group buffer to send all the sendable
15858 messages in the draft group.
15862 @node Agent Variables
15863 @subsection Agent Variables
15866 @item gnus-agent-directory
15867 @vindex gnus-agent-directory
15868 Where the Gnus Agent will store its files. The default is
15869 @file{~/News/agent/}.
15871 @item gnus-agent-handle-level
15872 @vindex gnus-agent-handle-level
15873 Groups on levels (@pxref{Group Levels}) higher than this variable will
15874 be ignored by the Agent. The default is @code{gnus-level-subscribed},
15875 which means that only subscribed group will be considered by the Agent
15878 @item gnus-agent-plugged-hook
15879 @vindex gnus-agent-plugged-hook
15880 Hook run when connecting to the network.
15882 @item gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
15883 @vindex gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
15884 Hook run when disconnecting from the network.
15889 @node Example Setup
15890 @subsection Example Setup
15892 If you don't want to read this manual, and you have a fairly standard
15893 setup, you may be able to use something like the following as your
15894 @file{.gnus.el} file to get started.
15897 ;;; Define how Gnus is to fetch news. We do this over @sc{nntp}
15898 ;;; from your ISP's server.
15899 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.your-isp.com"))
15901 ;;; Define how Gnus is to read your mail. We read mail from
15902 ;;; your ISP's POP server.
15903 (setq mail-sources '((pop :server "pop.your-isp.com")))
15905 ;;; Say how Gnus is to store the mail. We use nnml groups.
15906 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
15908 ;;; Make Gnus into an offline newsreader.
15912 That should be it, basically. Put that in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file,
15913 edit to suit your needs, start up PPP (or whatever), and type @kbd{M-x
15916 If this is the first time you've run Gnus, you will be subscribed
15917 automatically to a few default newsgroups. You'll probably want to
15918 subscribe to more groups, and to do that, you have to query the
15919 @sc{nntp} server for a complete list of groups with the @kbd{A A}
15920 command. This usually takes quite a while, but you only have to do it
15923 After reading and parsing a while, you'll be presented with a list of
15924 groups. Subscribe to the ones you want to read with the @kbd{u}
15925 command. @kbd{l} to make all the killed groups disappear after you've
15926 subscribe to all the groups you want to read. (@kbd{A k} will bring
15927 back all the killed groups.)
15929 You can now read the groups at once, or you can download the articles
15930 with the @kbd{J s} command. And then read the rest of this manual to
15931 find out which of the other gazillion things you want to customize.
15934 @node Batching Agents
15935 @subsection Batching Agents
15937 Having the Gnus Agent fetch articles (and post whatever messages you've
15938 written) is quite easy once you've gotten things set up properly. The
15939 following shell script will do everything that is necessary:
15943 emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -f gnus-agent-batch >/dev/null
15947 @node Agent Caveats
15948 @subsection Agent Caveats
15950 The Gnus Agent doesn't seem to work like most other offline
15951 newsreaders. Here are some common questions that some imaginary people
15955 @item If I read an article while plugged, do they get entered into the
15960 @item If I read an article while plugged, and the article already exists
15961 in the Agent, will it get downloaded once more?
15967 In short, when Gnus is unplugged, it only looks into the locally stored
15968 articles; when it's plugged, it only talks to your ISP.
15975 Other people use @dfn{kill files}, but we here at Gnus Towers like
15976 scoring better than killing, so we'd rather switch than fight. They do
15977 something completely different as well, so sit up straight and pay
15980 @vindex gnus-summary-mark-below
15981 All articles have a default score (@code{gnus-summary-default-score}),
15982 which is 0 by default. This score may be raised or lowered either
15983 interactively or by score files. Articles that have a score lower than
15984 @code{gnus-summary-mark-below} are marked as read.
15986 Gnus will read any @dfn{score files} that apply to the current group
15987 before generating the summary buffer.
15989 There are several commands in the summary buffer that insert score
15990 entries based on the current article. You can, for instance, ask Gnus to
15991 lower or increase the score of all articles with a certain subject.
15993 There are two sorts of scoring entries: Permanent and temporary.
15994 Temporary score entries are self-expiring entries. Any entries that are
15995 temporary and have not been used for, say, a week, will be removed
15996 silently to help keep the sizes of the score files down.
15999 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
16000 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
16001 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
16002 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
16003 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
16004 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
16005 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
16006 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
16007 * Scoring On Other Headers:: Scoring on non-standard headers.
16008 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
16009 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
16010 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
16011 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
16012 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
16013 * GroupLens:: Getting predictions on what you like to read.
16014 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
16015 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
16019 @node Summary Score Commands
16020 @section Summary Score Commands
16021 @cindex score commands
16023 The score commands that alter score entries do not actually modify real
16024 score files. That would be too inefficient. Gnus maintains a cache of
16025 previously loaded score files, one of which is considered the
16026 @dfn{current score file alist}. The score commands simply insert
16027 entries into this list, and upon group exit, this list is saved.
16029 The current score file is by default the group's local score file, even
16030 if no such score file actually exists. To insert score commands into
16031 some other score file (e.g. @file{all.SCORE}), you must first make this
16032 score file the current one.
16034 General score commands that don't actually change the score file:
16039 @kindex V s (Summary)
16040 @findex gnus-summary-set-score
16041 Set the score of the current article (@code{gnus-summary-set-score}).
16044 @kindex V S (Summary)
16045 @findex gnus-summary-current-score
16046 Display the score of the current article
16047 (@code{gnus-summary-current-score}).
16050 @kindex V t (Summary)
16051 @findex gnus-score-find-trace
16052 Display all score rules that have been used on the current article
16053 (@code{gnus-score-find-trace}).
16056 @kindex V R (Summary)
16057 @findex gnus-summary-rescore
16058 Run the current summary through the scoring process
16059 (@code{gnus-summary-rescore}). This might be useful if you're playing
16060 around with your score files behind Gnus' back and want to see the
16061 effect you're having.
16064 @kindex V c (Summary)
16065 @findex gnus-score-change-score-file
16066 Make a different score file the current
16067 (@code{gnus-score-change-score-file}).
16070 @kindex V e (Summary)
16071 @findex gnus-score-edit-current-scores
16072 Edit the current score file (@code{gnus-score-edit-current-scores}).
16073 You will be popped into a @code{gnus-score-mode} buffer (@pxref{Score
16077 @kindex V f (Summary)
16078 @findex gnus-score-edit-file
16079 Edit a score file and make this score file the current one
16080 (@code{gnus-score-edit-file}).
16083 @kindex V F (Summary)
16084 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
16085 Flush the score cache (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}). This is useful
16086 after editing score files.
16089 @kindex V C (Summary)
16090 @findex gnus-score-customize
16091 Customize a score file in a visually pleasing manner
16092 (@code{gnus-score-customize}).
16096 The rest of these commands modify the local score file.
16101 @kindex V m (Summary)
16102 @findex gnus-score-set-mark-below
16103 Prompt for a score, and mark all articles with a score below this as
16104 read (@code{gnus-score-set-mark-below}).
16107 @kindex V x (Summary)
16108 @findex gnus-score-set-expunge-below
16109 Prompt for a score, and add a score rule to the current score file to
16110 expunge all articles below this score
16111 (@code{gnus-score-set-expunge-below}).
16114 The keystrokes for actually making score entries follow a very regular
16115 pattern, so there's no need to list all the commands. (Hundreds of
16118 @findex gnus-summary-increase-score
16119 @findex gnus-summary-lower-score
16123 The first key is either @kbd{I} (upper case i) for increasing the score
16124 or @kbd{L} for lowering the score.
16126 The second key says what header you want to score on. The following
16127 keys are available:
16131 Score on the author name.
16134 Score on the subject line.
16137 Score on the @code{Xref} line---i.e., the cross-posting line.
16140 Score on the @code{References} line.
16146 Score on the number of lines.
16149 Score on the @code{Message-ID} header.
16152 Score on followups---this matches the author name, and adds scores to
16153 the followups to this author. (Using this key leads to the creation of
16154 @file{ADAPT} files.)
16163 Score on thread. (Using this key leads to the creation of @file{ADAPT}
16169 The third key is the match type. Which match types are valid depends on
16170 what headers you are scoring on.
16182 Substring matching.
16185 Fuzzy matching (@pxref{Fuzzy Matching}).
16214 Greater than number.
16219 The fourth and final key says whether this is a temporary (i.e., expiring)
16220 score entry, or a permanent (i.e., non-expiring) score entry, or whether
16221 it is to be done immediately, without adding to the score file.
16225 Temporary score entry.
16228 Permanent score entry.
16231 Immediately scoring.
16236 So, let's say you want to increase the score on the current author with
16237 exact matching permanently: @kbd{I a e p}. If you want to lower the
16238 score based on the subject line, using substring matching, and make a
16239 temporary score entry: @kbd{L s s t}. Pretty easy.
16241 To make things a bit more complicated, there are shortcuts. If you use
16242 a capital letter on either the second or third keys, Gnus will use
16243 defaults for the remaining one or two keystrokes. The defaults are
16244 ``substring'' and ``temporary''. So @kbd{I A} is the same as @kbd{I a s
16245 t}, and @kbd{I a R} is the same as @kbd{I a r t}.
16247 These functions take both the numerical prefix and the symbolic prefix
16248 (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}). A numerical prefix says how much to lower
16249 (or increase) the score of the article. A symbolic prefix of @code{a}
16250 says to use the @file{all.SCORE} file for the command instead of the
16251 current score file.
16253 @vindex gnus-score-mimic-keymap
16254 The @code{gnus-score-mimic-keymap} says whether these commands will
16255 pretend they are keymaps or not.
16258 @node Group Score Commands
16259 @section Group Score Commands
16260 @cindex group score commands
16262 There aren't many of these as yet, I'm afraid.
16267 @kindex W f (Group)
16268 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
16269 Gnus maintains a cache of score alists to avoid having to reload them
16270 all the time. This command will flush the cache
16271 (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}).
16275 You can do scoring from the command line by saying something like:
16277 @findex gnus-batch-score
16278 @cindex batch scoring
16280 $ emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-batch-score
16284 @node Score Variables
16285 @section Score Variables
16286 @cindex score variables
16290 @item gnus-use-scoring
16291 @vindex gnus-use-scoring
16292 If @code{nil}, Gnus will not check for score files, and will not, in
16293 general, do any score-related work. This is @code{t} by default.
16295 @item gnus-kill-killed
16296 @vindex gnus-kill-killed
16297 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will never apply score files to
16298 articles that have already been through the kill process. While this
16299 may save you lots of time, it also means that if you apply a kill file
16300 to a group, and then change the kill file and want to run it over you
16301 group again to kill more articles, it won't work. You have to set this
16302 variable to @code{t} to do that. (It is @code{t} by default.)
16304 @item gnus-kill-files-directory
16305 @vindex gnus-kill-files-directory
16306 All kill and score files will be stored in this directory, which is
16307 initialized from the @code{SAVEDIR} environment variable by default.
16308 This is @file{~/News/} by default.
16310 @item gnus-score-file-suffix
16311 @vindex gnus-score-file-suffix
16312 Suffix to add to the group name to arrive at the score file name
16313 (@samp{SCORE} by default.)
16315 @item gnus-score-uncacheable-files
16316 @vindex gnus-score-uncacheable-files
16317 @cindex score cache
16318 All score files are normally cached to avoid excessive re-loading of
16319 score files. However, if this might make your Emacs grow big and
16320 bloated, so this regexp can be used to weed out score files unlikely to be needed again. It would be a bad idea to deny caching of
16321 @file{all.SCORE}, while it might be a good idea to not cache
16322 @file{comp.infosystems.www.authoring.misc.ADAPT}. In fact, this
16323 variable is @samp{ADAPT$} by default, so no adaptive score files will
16326 @item gnus-save-score
16327 @vindex gnus-save-score
16328 If you have really complicated score files, and do lots of batch
16329 scoring, then you might set this variable to @code{t}. This will make
16330 Gnus save the scores into the @file{.newsrc.eld} file.
16332 If you do not set this to @code{t}, then manual scores (like those set
16333 with @kbd{V s} (@code{gnus-summary-set-score})) will not be preserved
16334 across group visits.
16336 @item gnus-score-interactive-default-score
16337 @vindex gnus-score-interactive-default-score
16338 Score used by all the interactive raise/lower commands to raise/lower
16339 score with. Default is 1000, which may seem excessive, but this is to
16340 ensure that the adaptive scoring scheme gets enough room to play with.
16341 We don't want the small changes from the adaptive scoring to overwrite
16342 manually entered data.
16344 @item gnus-summary-default-score
16345 @vindex gnus-summary-default-score
16346 Default score of an article, which is 0 by default.
16348 @item gnus-summary-expunge-below
16349 @vindex gnus-summary-expunge-below
16350 Don't display the summary lines of articles that have scores lower than
16351 this variable. This is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
16352 articles will be hidden. This variable is local to the summary buffers,
16353 and has to be set from @code{gnus-summary-mode-hook}.
16355 @item gnus-score-over-mark
16356 @vindex gnus-score-over-mark
16357 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score over the
16358 default. Default is @samp{+}.
16360 @item gnus-score-below-mark
16361 @vindex gnus-score-below-mark
16362 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score below the
16363 default. Default is @samp{-}.
16365 @item gnus-score-find-score-files-function
16366 @vindex gnus-score-find-score-files-function
16367 Function used to find score files for the current group. This function
16368 is called with the name of the group as the argument.
16370 Predefined functions available are:
16373 @item gnus-score-find-single
16374 @findex gnus-score-find-single
16375 Only apply the group's own score file.
16377 @item gnus-score-find-bnews
16378 @findex gnus-score-find-bnews
16379 Apply all score files that match, using bnews syntax. This is the
16380 default. If the current group is @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}, for instance,
16381 @file{all.emacs.all.SCORE}, @file{not.alt.all.SCORE} and
16382 @file{gnu.all.SCORE} would all apply. In short, the instances of
16383 @samp{all} in the score file names are translated into @samp{.*}, and
16384 then a regexp match is done.
16386 This means that if you have some score entries that you want to apply to
16387 all groups, then you put those entries in the @file{all.SCORE} file.
16389 The score files are applied in a semi-random order, although Gnus will
16390 try to apply the more general score files before the more specific score
16391 files. It does this by looking at the number of elements in the score
16392 file names---discarding the @samp{all} elements.
16394 @item gnus-score-find-hierarchical
16395 @findex gnus-score-find-hierarchical
16396 Apply all score files from all the parent groups. This means that you
16397 can't have score files like @file{all.SCORE}, but you can have
16398 @file{SCORE}, @file{comp.SCORE} and @file{comp.emacs.SCORE} for each
16402 This variable can also be a list of functions. In that case, all
16403 these functions will be called with the group name as argument, and
16404 all the returned lists of score files will be applied. These
16405 functions can also return lists of lists of score alists directly. In
16406 that case, the functions that return these non-file score alists
16407 should probably be placed before the ``real'' score file functions, to
16408 ensure that the last score file returned is the local score file.
16411 For example, to do hierarchical scoring but use a non-server-specific
16412 overall score file, you could use the value
16414 (list (lambda (group) ("all.SCORE"))
16415 'gnus-score-find-hierarchical)
16418 @item gnus-score-expiry-days
16419 @vindex gnus-score-expiry-days
16420 This variable says how many days should pass before an unused score file
16421 entry is expired. If this variable is @code{nil}, no score file entries
16422 are expired. It's 7 by default.
16424 @item gnus-update-score-entry-dates
16425 @vindex gnus-update-score-entry-dates
16426 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, matching score entries will have
16427 their dates updated. (This is how Gnus controls expiry---all
16428 non-matching entries will become too old while matching entries will
16429 stay fresh and young.) However, if you set this variable to @code{nil},
16430 even matching entries will grow old and will have to face that oh-so
16433 @item gnus-score-after-write-file-function
16434 @vindex gnus-score-after-write-file-function
16435 Function called with the name of the score file just written.
16437 @item gnus-score-thread-simplify
16438 @vindex gnus-score-thread-simplify
16439 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, article subjects will be simplified
16440 for subject scoring purposes in the same manner as with
16441 threading---according to the current value of
16442 gnus-simplify-subject-functions. If the scoring entry uses
16443 @code{substring} or @code{exact} matching, the match will also be
16444 simplified in this manner.
16449 @node Score File Format
16450 @section Score File Format
16451 @cindex score file format
16453 A score file is an @code{emacs-lisp} file that normally contains just a
16454 single form. Casual users are not expected to edit these files;
16455 everything can be changed from the summary buffer.
16457 Anyway, if you'd like to dig into it yourself, here's an example:
16461 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" -10000)
16463 ("larsi\\|lmi" -50000 nil R))
16465 ("Ding is Badd" nil 728373))
16467 ("alt.politics" -1000 728372 s))
16472 (mark-and-expunge -10)
16476 (files "/hom/larsi/News/gnu.SCORE")
16477 (exclude-files "all.SCORE")
16478 (local (gnus-newsgroup-auto-expire t)
16479 (gnus-summary-make-false-root empty))
16483 This example demonstrates most score file elements. For a different
16484 approach, see @pxref{Advanced Scoring}.
16486 Even though this looks much like lisp code, nothing here is actually
16487 @code{eval}ed. The lisp reader is used to read this form, though, so it
16488 has to be valid syntactically, if not semantically.
16490 Six keys are supported by this alist:
16495 If the key is a string, it is the name of the header to perform the
16496 match on. Scoring can only be performed on these eight headers:
16497 @code{From}, @code{Subject}, @code{References}, @code{Message-ID},
16498 @code{Xref}, @code{Lines}, @code{Chars} and @code{Date}. In addition to
16499 these headers, there are three strings to tell Gnus to fetch the entire
16500 article and do the match on larger parts of the article: @code{Body}
16501 will perform the match on the body of the article, @code{Head} will
16502 perform the match on the head of the article, and @code{All} will
16503 perform the match on the entire article. Note that using any of these
16504 last three keys will slow down group entry @emph{considerably}. The
16505 final ``header'' you can score on is @code{Followup}. These score
16506 entries will result in new score entries being added for all follow-ups
16507 to articles that matches these score entries.
16509 Following this key is a arbitrary number of score entries, where each
16510 score entry has one to four elements.
16514 The first element is the @dfn{match element}. On most headers this will
16515 be a string, but on the Lines and Chars headers, this must be an
16519 If the second element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{score
16520 element}. This number should be an integer in the neginf to posinf
16521 interval. This number is added to the score of the article if the match
16522 is successful. If this element is not present, the
16523 @code{gnus-score-interactive-default-score} number will be used
16524 instead. This is 1000 by default.
16527 If the third element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{date
16528 element}. This date says when the last time this score entry matched,
16529 which provides a mechanism for expiring the score entries. It this
16530 element is not present, the score entry is permanent. The date is
16531 represented by the number of days since December 31, 1 BCE.
16534 If the fourth element is present, it should be a symbol---the @dfn{type
16535 element}. This element specifies what function should be used to see
16536 whether this score entry matches the article. What match types that can
16537 be used depends on what header you wish to perform the match on.
16540 @item From, Subject, References, Xref, Message-ID
16541 For most header types, there are the @code{r} and @code{R} (regexp), as
16542 well as @code{s} and @code{S} (substring) types, and @code{e} and
16543 @code{E} (exact match), and @code{w} (word match) types. If this
16544 element is not present, Gnus will assume that substring matching should
16545 be used. @code{R}, @code{S}, and @code{E} differ from the others in
16546 that the matches will be done in a case-sensitive manner. All these
16547 one-letter types are really just abbreviations for the @code{regexp},
16548 @code{string}, @code{exact}, and @code{word} types, which you can use
16549 instead, if you feel like.
16552 These two headers use different match types: @code{<}, @code{>},
16553 @code{=}, @code{>=} and @code{<=}.
16555 These predicates are true if
16558 (PREDICATE HEADER MATCH)
16561 evaluates to non-@code{nil}. For instance, the advanced match
16562 @code{("lines" 4 <)} (@pxref{Advanced Scoring}) will result in the
16569 Or to put it another way: When using @code{<} on @code{Lines} with 4 as
16570 the match, we get the score added if the article has less than 4 lines.
16571 (It's easy to get confused and think it's the other way around. But
16572 it's not. I think.)
16574 When matching on @code{Lines}, be careful because some backends (like
16575 @code{nndir}) do not generate @code{Lines} header, so every article ends
16576 up being marked as having 0 lines. This can lead to strange results if
16577 you happen to lower score of the articles with few lines.
16580 For the Date header we have three kinda silly match types:
16581 @code{before}, @code{at} and @code{after}. I can't really imagine this
16582 ever being useful, but, like, it would feel kinda silly not to provide
16583 this function. Just in case. You never know. Better safe than sorry.
16584 Once burnt, twice shy. Don't judge a book by its cover. Never not have
16585 sex on a first date. (I have been told that at least one person, and I
16586 quote, ``found this function indispensable'', however.)
16590 A more useful match type is @code{regexp}. With it, you can match the
16591 date string using a regular expression. The date is normalized to
16592 ISO8601 compact format first---@var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS}. If
16593 you want to match all articles that have been posted on April 1st in
16594 every year, you could use @samp{....0401.........} as a match string,
16595 for instance. (Note that the date is kept in its original time zone, so
16596 this will match articles that were posted when it was April 1st where
16597 the article was posted from. Time zones are such wholesome fun for the
16600 @item Head, Body, All
16601 These three match keys use the same match types as the @code{From} (etc)
16605 This match key is somewhat special, in that it will match the
16606 @code{From} header, and affect the score of not only the matching
16607 articles, but also all followups to the matching articles. This allows
16608 you e.g. increase the score of followups to your own articles, or
16609 decrease the score of followups to the articles of some known
16610 trouble-maker. Uses the same match types as the @code{From} header
16611 uses. (Using this match key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT}
16615 This match key works along the same lines as the @code{Followup} match
16616 key. If you say that you want to score on a (sub-)thread started by an
16617 article with a @code{Message-ID} @var{x}, then you add a @samp{thread}
16618 match. This will add a new @samp{thread} match for each article that
16619 has @var{x} in its @code{References} header. (These new @samp{thread}
16620 matches will use the @code{Message-ID}s of these matching articles.)
16621 This will ensure that you can raise/lower the score of an entire thread,
16622 even though some articles in the thread may not have complete
16623 @code{References} headers. Note that using this may lead to
16624 undeterministic scores of the articles in the thread. (Using this match
16625 key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT} files.)
16629 @cindex Score File Atoms
16631 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
16632 lower than this number will be marked as read.
16635 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
16636 lower than this number will be removed from the summary buffer.
16638 @item mark-and-expunge
16639 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
16640 lower than this number will be marked as read and removed from the
16643 @item thread-mark-and-expunge
16644 The value of this entry should be a number. All articles that belong to
16645 a thread that has a total score below this number will be marked as read
16646 and removed from the summary buffer. @code{gnus-thread-score-function}
16647 says how to compute the total score for a thread.
16650 The value of this entry should be any number of file names. These files
16651 are assumed to be score files as well, and will be loaded the same way
16654 @item exclude-files
16655 The clue of this entry should be any number of files. These files will
16656 not be loaded, even though they would normally be so, for some reason or
16660 The value of this entry will be @code{eval}el. This element will be
16661 ignored when handling global score files.
16664 Read-only score files will not be updated or saved. Global score files
16665 should feature this atom (@pxref{Global Score Files}). (Note:
16666 @dfn{Global} here really means @dfn{global}; not your personal
16667 apply-to-all-groups score files.)
16670 The value of this entry should be a number. Articles that do not have
16671 parents will get this number added to their scores. Imagine you follow
16672 some high-volume newsgroup, like @samp{comp.lang.c}. Most likely you
16673 will only follow a few of the threads, also want to see any new threads.
16675 You can do this with the following two score file entries:
16679 (mark-and-expunge -100)
16682 When you enter the group the first time, you will only see the new
16683 threads. You then raise the score of the threads that you find
16684 interesting (with @kbd{I T} or @kbd{I S}), and ignore (@kbd{C y}) the
16685 rest. Next time you enter the group, you will see new articles in the
16686 interesting threads, plus any new threads.
16688 I.e.---the orphan score atom is for high-volume groups where a few
16689 interesting threads which can't be found automatically by ordinary
16690 scoring rules exist.
16693 This entry controls the adaptive scoring. If it is @code{t}, the
16694 default adaptive scoring rules will be used. If it is @code{ignore}, no
16695 adaptive scoring will be performed on this group. If it is a list, this
16696 list will be used as the adaptive scoring rules. If it isn't present,
16697 or is something other than @code{t} or @code{ignore}, the default
16698 adaptive scoring rules will be used. If you want to use adaptive
16699 scoring on most groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
16700 @code{t}, and insert an @code{(adapt ignore)} in the groups where you do
16701 not want adaptive scoring. If you only want adaptive scoring in a few
16702 groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to @code{nil}, and
16703 insert @code{(adapt t)} in the score files of the groups where you want
16707 All adaptive score entries will go to the file named by this entry. It
16708 will also be applied when entering the group. This atom might be handy
16709 if you want to adapt on several groups at once, using the same adaptive
16710 file for a number of groups.
16713 @cindex local variables
16714 The value of this entry should be a list of @code{(VAR VALUE)} pairs.
16715 Each @var{var} will be made buffer-local to the current summary buffer,
16716 and set to the value specified. This is a convenient, if somewhat
16717 strange, way of setting variables in some groups if you don't like hooks
16718 much. Note that the @var{value} won't be evaluated.
16722 @node Score File Editing
16723 @section Score File Editing
16725 You normally enter all scoring commands from the summary buffer, but you
16726 might feel the urge to edit them by hand as well, so we've supplied you
16727 with a mode for that.
16729 It's simply a slightly customized @code{emacs-lisp} mode, with these
16730 additional commands:
16735 @kindex C-c C-c (Score)
16736 @findex gnus-score-edit-done
16737 Save the changes you have made and return to the summary buffer
16738 (@code{gnus-score-edit-done}).
16741 @kindex C-c C-d (Score)
16742 @findex gnus-score-edit-insert-date
16743 Insert the current date in numerical format
16744 (@code{gnus-score-edit-insert-date}). This is really the day number, if
16745 you were wondering.
16748 @kindex C-c C-p (Score)
16749 @findex gnus-score-pretty-print
16750 The adaptive score files are saved in an unformatted fashion. If you
16751 intend to read one of these files, you want to @dfn{pretty print} it
16752 first. This command (@code{gnus-score-pretty-print}) does that for
16757 Type @kbd{M-x gnus-score-mode} to use this mode.
16759 @vindex gnus-score-mode-hook
16760 @code{gnus-score-menu-hook} is run in score mode buffers.
16762 In the summary buffer you can use commands like @kbd{V f} and @kbd{V
16763 e} to begin editing score files.
16766 @node Adaptive Scoring
16767 @section Adaptive Scoring
16768 @cindex adaptive scoring
16770 If all this scoring is getting you down, Gnus has a way of making it all
16771 happen automatically---as if by magic. Or rather, as if by artificial
16772 stupidity, to be precise.
16774 @vindex gnus-use-adaptive-scoring
16775 When you read an article, or mark an article as read, or kill an
16776 article, you leave marks behind. On exit from the group, Gnus can sniff
16777 these marks and add score elements depending on what marks it finds.
16778 You turn on this ability by setting @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
16779 @code{t} or @code{(line)}. If you want score adaptively on separate
16780 words appearing in the subjects, you should set this variable to
16781 @code{(word)}. If you want to use both adaptive methods, set this
16782 variable to @code{(word line)}.
16784 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
16785 To give you complete control over the scoring process, you can customize
16786 the @code{gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist} variable. For instance, it
16787 might look something like this:
16790 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
16791 '((gnus-unread-mark)
16792 (gnus-ticked-mark (from 4))
16793 (gnus-dormant-mark (from 5))
16794 (gnus-del-mark (from -4) (subject -1))
16795 (gnus-read-mark (from 4) (subject 2))
16796 (gnus-expirable-mark (from -1) (subject -1))
16797 (gnus-killed-mark (from -1) (subject -3))
16798 (gnus-kill-file-mark)
16799 (gnus-ancient-mark)
16800 (gnus-low-score-mark)
16801 (gnus-catchup-mark (from -1) (subject -1))))
16804 As you see, each element in this alist has a mark as a key (either a
16805 variable name or a ``real'' mark---a character). Following this key is
16806 a arbitrary number of header/score pairs. If there are no header/score
16807 pairs following the key, no adaptive scoring will be done on articles
16808 that have that key as the article mark. For instance, articles with
16809 @code{gnus-unread-mark} in the example above will not get adaptive score
16812 Each article can have only one mark, so just a single of these rules
16813 will be applied to each article.
16815 To take @code{gnus-del-mark} as an example---this alist says that all
16816 articles that have that mark (i.e., are marked with @samp{D}) will have a
16817 score entry added to lower based on the @code{From} header by -4, and
16818 lowered by @code{Subject} by -1. Change this to fit your prejudices.
16820 If you have marked 10 articles with the same subject with
16821 @code{gnus-del-mark}, the rule for that mark will be applied ten times.
16822 That means that that subject will get a score of ten times -1, which
16823 should be, unless I'm much mistaken, -10.
16825 If you have auto-expirable (mail) groups (@pxref{Expiring Mail}), all
16826 the read articles will be marked with the @samp{E} mark. This'll
16827 probably make adaptive scoring slightly impossible, so auto-expiring and
16828 adaptive scoring doesn't really mix very well.
16830 The headers you can score on are @code{from}, @code{subject},
16831 @code{message-id}, @code{references}, @code{xref}, @code{lines},
16832 @code{chars} and @code{date}. In addition, you can score on
16833 @code{followup}, which will create an adaptive score entry that matches
16834 on the @code{References} header using the @code{Message-ID} of the
16835 current article, thereby matching the following thread.
16837 You can also score on @code{thread}, which will try to score all
16838 articles that appear in a thread. @code{thread} matches uses a
16839 @code{Message-ID} to match on the @code{References} header of the
16840 article. If the match is made, the @code{Message-ID} of the article is
16841 added to the @code{thread} rule. (Think about it. I'd recommend two
16842 aspirins afterwards.)
16844 If you use this scheme, you should set the score file atom @code{mark}
16845 to something small---like -300, perhaps, to avoid having small random
16846 changes result in articles getting marked as read.
16848 After using adaptive scoring for a week or so, Gnus should start to
16849 become properly trained and enhance the authors you like best, and kill
16850 the authors you like least, without you having to say so explicitly.
16852 You can control what groups the adaptive scoring is to be performed on
16853 by using the score files (@pxref{Score File Format}). This will also
16854 let you use different rules in different groups.
16856 @vindex gnus-adaptive-file-suffix
16857 The adaptive score entries will be put into a file where the name is the
16858 group name with @code{gnus-adaptive-file-suffix} appended. The default
16861 @vindex gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit
16862 When doing adaptive scoring, substring or fuzzy matching would probably
16863 give you the best results in most cases. However, if the header one
16864 matches is short, the possibility for false positives is great, so if
16865 the length of the match is less than
16866 @code{gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit}, exact matching will be used. If
16867 this variable is @code{nil}, exact matching will always be used to avoid
16870 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
16871 As mentioned above, you can adapt either on individual words or entire
16872 headers. If you adapt on words, the
16873 @code{gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist} variable says what score
16874 each instance of a word should add given a mark.
16877 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
16878 `((,gnus-read-mark . 30)
16879 (,gnus-catchup-mark . -10)
16880 (,gnus-killed-mark . -20)
16881 (,gnus-del-mark . -15)))
16884 This is the default value. If you have adaption on words enabled, every
16885 word that appears in subjects of articles marked with
16886 @code{gnus-read-mark} will result in a score rule that increase the
16887 score with 30 points.
16889 @vindex gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words
16890 @vindex gnus-ignored-adaptive-words
16891 Words that appear in the @code{gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words} list
16892 will be ignored. If you wish to add more words to be ignored, use the
16893 @code{gnus-ignored-adaptive-words} list instead.
16895 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-length-limit
16896 Some may feel that short words shouldn't count when doing adaptive
16897 scoring. If so, you may set @code{gnus-adaptive-word-length-limit} to
16898 an integer. Words shorter than this number will be ignored. This
16899 variable defaults til @code{nil}.
16901 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table
16902 When the scoring is done, @code{gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table} is the
16903 syntax table in effect. It is similar to the standard syntax table, but
16904 it considers numbers to be non-word-constituent characters.
16906 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-minimum
16907 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} is set to a number, the adaptive
16908 word scoring process will never bring down the score of an article to
16909 below this number. The default is @code{nil}.
16911 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words
16912 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words} is set to @code{t}, gnus
16913 won't adaptively word score any of the words in the group name. Useful
16914 for groups like @samp{comp.editors.emacs}, where most of the subject
16915 lines contain the word @samp{emacs}.
16917 After using this scheme for a while, it might be nice to write a
16918 @code{gnus-psychoanalyze-user} command to go through the rules and see
16919 what words you like and what words you don't like. Or perhaps not.
16921 Note that the adaptive word scoring thing is highly experimental and is
16922 likely to change in the future. Initial impressions seem to indicate
16923 that it's totally useless as it stands. Some more work (involving more
16924 rigorous statistical methods) will have to be done to make this useful.
16927 @node Home Score File
16928 @section Home Score File
16930 The score file where new score file entries will go is called the
16931 @dfn{home score file}. This is normally (and by default) the score file
16932 for the group itself. For instance, the home score file for
16933 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} is @file{gnu.emacs.gnus.SCORE}.
16935 However, this may not be what you want. It is often convenient to share
16936 a common home score file among many groups---all @samp{emacs} groups
16937 could perhaps use the same home score file.
16939 @vindex gnus-home-score-file
16940 The variable that controls this is @code{gnus-home-score-file}. It can
16945 A string. Then this file will be used as the home score file for all
16949 A function. The result of this function will be used as the home score
16950 file. The function will be called with the name of the group as the
16954 A list. The elements in this list can be:
16958 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{file-name})}. If the @var{regexp} matches the
16959 group name, the @var{file-name} will be used as the home score file.
16962 A function. If the function returns non-nil, the result will be used as
16963 the home score file.
16966 A string. Use the string as the home score file.
16969 The list will be traversed from the beginning towards the end looking
16974 So, if you want to use just a single score file, you could say:
16977 (setq gnus-home-score-file
16978 "my-total-score-file.SCORE")
16981 If you want to use @file{gnu.SCORE} for all @samp{gnu} groups and
16982 @file{rec.SCORE} for all @samp{rec} groups (and so on), you can say:
16984 @findex gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file
16986 (setq gnus-home-score-file
16987 'gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file)
16990 This is a ready-made function provided for your convenience.
16991 Other functions include
16994 @item gnus-current-home-score-file
16995 @findex gnus-current-home-score-file
16996 Return the ``current'' regular score file. This will make scoring
16997 commands add entry to the ``innermost'' matching score file.
17001 If you want to have one score file for the @samp{emacs} groups and
17002 another for the @samp{comp} groups, while letting all other groups use
17003 their own home score files:
17006 (setq gnus-home-score-file
17007 ;; All groups that match the regexp "\\.emacs"
17008 '(("\\.emacs" "emacs.SCORE")
17009 ;; All the comp groups in one score file
17010 ("^comp" "comp.SCORE")))
17013 @vindex gnus-home-adapt-file
17014 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file} works exactly the same way as
17015 @code{gnus-home-score-file}, but says what the home adaptive score file
17016 is instead. All new adaptive file entries will go into the file
17017 specified by this variable, and the same syntax is allowed.
17019 In addition to using @code{gnus-home-score-file} and
17020 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file}, you can also use group parameters
17021 (@pxref{Group Parameters}) and topic parameters (@pxref{Topic
17022 Parameters}) to achieve much the same. Group and topic parameters take
17023 precedence over this variable.
17026 @node Followups To Yourself
17027 @section Followups To Yourself
17029 Gnus offers two commands for picking out the @code{Message-ID} header in
17030 the current buffer. Gnus will then add a score rule that scores using
17031 this @code{Message-ID} on the @code{References} header of other
17032 articles. This will, in effect, increase the score of all articles that
17033 respond to the article in the current buffer. Quite useful if you want
17034 to easily note when people answer what you've said.
17038 @item gnus-score-followup-article
17039 @findex gnus-score-followup-article
17040 This will add a score to articles that directly follow up your own
17043 @item gnus-score-followup-thread
17044 @findex gnus-score-followup-thread
17045 This will add a score to all articles that appear in a thread ``below''
17049 @vindex message-sent-hook
17050 These two functions are both primarily meant to be used in hooks like
17051 @code{message-sent-hook}, like this:
17053 (add-hook 'message-sent-hook 'gnus-score-followup-thread)
17057 If you look closely at your own @code{Message-ID}, you'll notice that
17058 the first two or three characters are always the same. Here's two of
17062 <x6u3u47icf.fsf@@eyesore.no>
17063 <x6sp9o7ibw.fsf@@eyesore.no>
17066 So ``my'' ident on this machine is @samp{x6}. This can be
17067 exploited---the following rule will raise the score on all followups to
17072 ("<x6[0-9a-z]+\\.fsf\\(_-_\\)?@@.*eyesore\\.no>"
17076 Whether it's the first two or first three characters that are ``yours''
17077 is system-dependent.
17080 @node Scoring On Other Headers
17081 @section Scoring On Other Headers
17082 @cindex scoring on other headers
17084 Gnus is quite fast when scoring the ``traditional''
17085 headers---@samp{From}, @samp{Subject} and so on. However, scoring
17086 other headers requires writing a @code{head} scoring rule, which means
17087 that Gnus has to request every single article from the backend to find
17088 matches. This takes a long time in big groups.
17090 Now, there's not much you can do about this for news groups, but for
17091 mail groups, you have greater control. In the @pxref{To From
17092 Newsgroups} section of the manual, it's explained in greater detail what
17093 this mechanism does, but here's a cookbook example for @code{nnml} on
17094 how to allow scoring on the @samp{To} and @samp{Cc} headers.
17096 Put the following in your @file{.gnus.el} file.
17099 (setq gnus-extra-headers '(To Cc Newsgroups Keywords)
17100 nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
17103 Restart Gnus and rebuild your @code{nnml} overview files with the
17104 @kbd{M-x nnml-generate-nov-databases} command. This will take a long
17105 time if you have much mail.
17107 Now you can score on @samp{To} and @samp{Cc} as ``extra headers'' like
17108 so: @kbd{I e s p To RET <your name> RET}.
17114 @section Scoring Tips
17115 @cindex scoring tips
17121 @cindex scoring crossposts
17122 If you want to lower the score of crossposts, the line to match on is
17123 the @code{Xref} header.
17125 ("xref" (" talk.politics.misc:" -1000))
17128 @item Multiple crossposts
17129 If you want to lower the score of articles that have been crossposted to
17130 more than, say, 3 groups:
17133 ("[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+"
17137 @item Matching on the body
17138 This is generally not a very good idea---it takes a very long time.
17139 Gnus actually has to fetch each individual article from the server. But
17140 you might want to anyway, I guess. Even though there are three match
17141 keys (@code{Head}, @code{Body} and @code{All}), you should choose one
17142 and stick with it in each score file. If you use any two, each article
17143 will be fetched @emph{twice}. If you want to match a bit on the
17144 @code{Head} and a bit on the @code{Body}, just use @code{All} for all
17147 @item Marking as read
17148 You will probably want to mark articles that have scores below a certain
17149 number as read. This is most easily achieved by putting the following
17150 in your @file{all.SCORE} file:
17154 You may also consider doing something similar with @code{expunge}.
17156 @item Negated character classes
17157 If you say stuff like @code{[^abcd]*}, you may get unexpected results.
17158 That will match newlines, which might lead to, well, The Unknown. Say
17159 @code{[^abcd\n]*} instead.
17163 @node Reverse Scoring
17164 @section Reverse Scoring
17165 @cindex reverse scoring
17167 If you want to keep just articles that have @samp{Sex with Emacs} in the
17168 subject header, and expunge all other articles, you could put something
17169 like this in your score file:
17173 ("Sex with Emacs" 2))
17178 So, you raise all articles that match @samp{Sex with Emacs} and mark the
17179 rest as read, and expunge them to boot.
17182 @node Global Score Files
17183 @section Global Score Files
17184 @cindex global score files
17186 Sure, other newsreaders have ``global kill files''. These are usually
17187 nothing more than a single kill file that applies to all groups, stored
17188 in the user's home directory. Bah! Puny, weak newsreaders!
17190 What I'm talking about here are Global Score Files. Score files from
17191 all over the world, from users everywhere, uniting all nations in one
17192 big, happy score file union! Ange-score! New and untested!
17194 @vindex gnus-global-score-files
17195 All you have to do to use other people's score files is to set the
17196 @code{gnus-global-score-files} variable. One entry for each score file,
17197 or each score file directory. Gnus will decide by itself what score
17198 files are applicable to which group.
17200 To use the score file
17201 @file{/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE} and
17202 all score files in the @file{/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score} directory,
17206 (setq gnus-global-score-files
17207 '("/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE"
17208 "/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score/"))
17211 @findex gnus-score-search-global-directories
17213 Simple, eh? Directory names must end with a @samp{/}. These
17214 directories are typically scanned only once during each Gnus session.
17215 If you feel the need to manually re-scan the remote directories, you can
17216 use the @code{gnus-score-search-global-directories} command.
17218 Note that, at present, using this option will slow down group entry
17219 somewhat. (That is---a lot.)
17221 If you want to start maintaining score files for other people to use,
17222 just put your score file up for anonymous ftp and announce it to the
17223 world. Become a retro-moderator! Participate in the retro-moderator
17224 wars sure to ensue, where retro-moderators battle it out for the
17225 sympathy of the people, luring them to use their score files on false
17226 premises! Yay! The net is saved!
17228 Here are some tips for the would-be retro-moderator, off the top of my
17234 Articles heavily crossposted are probably junk.
17236 To lower a single inappropriate article, lower by @code{Message-ID}.
17238 Particularly brilliant authors can be raised on a permanent basis.
17240 Authors that repeatedly post off-charter for the group can safely be
17241 lowered out of existence.
17243 Set the @code{mark} and @code{expunge} atoms to obliterate the nastiest
17244 articles completely.
17247 Use expiring score entries to keep the size of the file down. You
17248 should probably have a long expiry period, though, as some sites keep
17249 old articles for a long time.
17252 ... I wonder whether other newsreaders will support global score files
17253 in the future. @emph{Snicker}. Yup, any day now, newsreaders like Blue
17254 Wave, xrn and 1stReader are bound to implement scoring. Should we start
17255 holding our breath yet?
17259 @section Kill Files
17262 Gnus still supports those pesky old kill files. In fact, the kill file
17263 entries can now be expiring, which is something I wrote before Daniel
17264 Quinlan thought of doing score files, so I've left the code in there.
17266 In short, kill processing is a lot slower (and I do mean @emph{a lot})
17267 than score processing, so it might be a good idea to rewrite your kill
17268 files into score files.
17270 Anyway, a kill file is a normal @code{emacs-lisp} file. You can put any
17271 forms into this file, which means that you can use kill files as some
17272 sort of primitive hook function to be run on group entry, even though
17273 that isn't a very good idea.
17275 Normal kill files look like this:
17278 (gnus-kill "From" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
17279 (gnus-kill "Subject" "ding")
17283 This will mark every article written by me as read, and remove the
17284 marked articles from the summary buffer. Very useful, you'll agree.
17286 Other programs use a totally different kill file syntax. If Gnus
17287 encounters what looks like a @code{rn} kill file, it will take a stab at
17290 Two summary functions for editing a GNUS kill file:
17295 @kindex M-k (Summary)
17296 @findex gnus-summary-edit-local-kill
17297 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-local-kill}).
17300 @kindex M-K (Summary)
17301 @findex gnus-summary-edit-global-kill
17302 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-global-kill}).
17305 Two group mode functions for editing the kill files:
17310 @kindex M-k (Group)
17311 @findex gnus-group-edit-local-kill
17312 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-local-kill}).
17315 @kindex M-K (Group)
17316 @findex gnus-group-edit-global-kill
17317 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-global-kill}).
17320 Kill file variables:
17323 @item gnus-kill-file-name
17324 @vindex gnus-kill-file-name
17325 A kill file for the group @samp{soc.motss} is normally called
17326 @file{soc.motss.KILL}. The suffix appended to the group name to get
17327 this file name is detailed by the @code{gnus-kill-file-name} variable.
17328 The ``global'' kill file (not in the score file sense of ``global'', of
17329 course) is just called @file{KILL}.
17331 @vindex gnus-kill-save-kill-file
17332 @item gnus-kill-save-kill-file
17333 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will save the
17334 kill file after processing, which is necessary if you use expiring
17337 @item gnus-apply-kill-hook
17338 @vindex gnus-apply-kill-hook
17339 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored
17340 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file
17341 A hook called to apply kill files to a group. It is
17342 @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file)} by default. If you want to ignore the
17343 kill file if you have a score file for the same group, you can set this
17344 hook to @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored)}. If you don't want
17345 kill files to be processed, you should set this variable to @code{nil}.
17347 @item gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
17348 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
17349 A hook called in kill-file mode buffers.
17354 @node Converting Kill Files
17355 @section Converting Kill Files
17357 @cindex converting kill files
17359 If you have loads of old kill files, you may want to convert them into
17360 score files. If they are ``regular'', you can use
17361 the @file{gnus-kill-to-score.el} package; if not, you'll have to do it
17364 The kill to score conversion package isn't included in Gnus by default.
17365 You can fetch it from
17366 @uref{http://www.stud.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/ding-various/gnus-kill-to-score.el}.
17368 If your old kill files are very complex---if they contain more
17369 non-@code{gnus-kill} forms than not, you'll have to convert them by
17370 hand. Or just let them be as they are. Gnus will still use them as
17378 GroupLens is a collaborative filtering system that helps you work
17379 together with other people to find the quality news articles out of the
17380 huge volume of news articles generated every day.
17382 To accomplish this the GroupLens system combines your opinions about
17383 articles you have already read with the opinions of others who have done
17384 likewise and gives you a personalized prediction for each unread news
17385 article. Think of GroupLens as a matchmaker. GroupLens watches how you
17386 rate articles, and finds other people that rate articles the same way.
17387 Once it has found some people you agree with it tells you, in the form
17388 of a prediction, what they thought of the article. You can use this
17389 prediction to help you decide whether or not you want to read the
17393 * Using GroupLens:: How to make Gnus use GroupLens.
17394 * Rating Articles:: Letting GroupLens know how you rate articles.
17395 * Displaying Predictions:: Displaying predictions given by GroupLens.
17396 * GroupLens Variables:: Customizing GroupLens.
17400 @node Using GroupLens
17401 @subsection Using GroupLens
17403 To use GroupLens you must register a pseudonym with your local Better
17405 @uref{http://www.cs.umn.edu/Research/GroupLens/bbb.html} is the only
17406 better bit in town at the moment.
17408 Once you have registered you'll need to set a couple of variables.
17412 @item gnus-use-grouplens
17413 @vindex gnus-use-grouplens
17414 Setting this variable to a non-@code{nil} value will make Gnus hook into
17415 all the relevant GroupLens functions.
17417 @item grouplens-pseudonym
17418 @vindex grouplens-pseudonym
17419 This variable should be set to the pseudonym you got when registering
17420 with the Better Bit Bureau.
17422 @item grouplens-newsgroups
17423 @vindex grouplens-newsgroups
17424 A list of groups that you want to get GroupLens predictions for.
17428 That's the minimum of what you need to get up and running with GroupLens.
17429 Once you've registered, GroupLens will start giving you scores for
17430 articles based on the average of what other people think. But, to get
17431 the real benefit of GroupLens you need to start rating articles
17432 yourself. Then the scores GroupLens gives you will be personalized for
17433 you, based on how the people you usually agree with have already rated.
17436 @node Rating Articles
17437 @subsection Rating Articles
17439 In GroupLens, an article is rated on a scale from 1 to 5, inclusive.
17440 Where 1 means something like this article is a waste of bandwidth and 5
17441 means that the article was really good. The basic question to ask
17442 yourself is, "on a scale from 1 to 5 would I like to see more articles
17445 There are four ways to enter a rating for an article in GroupLens.
17450 @kindex r (GroupLens)
17451 @findex bbb-summary-rate-article
17452 This function will prompt you for a rating on a scale of one to five.
17455 @kindex k (GroupLens)
17456 @findex grouplens-score-thread
17457 This function will prompt you for a rating, and rate all the articles in
17458 the thread. This is really useful for some of those long running giant
17459 threads in rec.humor.
17463 The next two commands, @kbd{n} and @kbd{,} take a numerical prefix to be
17464 the score of the article you're reading.
17469 @kindex n (GroupLens)
17470 @findex grouplens-next-unread-article
17471 Rate the article and go to the next unread article.
17474 @kindex , (GroupLens)
17475 @findex grouplens-best-unread-article
17476 Rate the article and go to the next unread article with the highest score.
17480 If you want to give the current article a score of 4 and then go to the
17481 next article, just type @kbd{4 n}.
17484 @node Displaying Predictions
17485 @subsection Displaying Predictions
17487 GroupLens makes a prediction for you about how much you will like a
17488 news article. The predictions from GroupLens are on a scale from 1 to
17489 5, where 1 is the worst and 5 is the best. You can use the predictions
17490 from GroupLens in one of three ways controlled by the variable
17491 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring}.
17493 @vindex gnus-grouplens-override-scoring
17494 There are three ways to display predictions in grouplens. You may
17495 choose to have the GroupLens scores contribute to, or override the
17496 regular gnus scoring mechanism. override is the default; however, some
17497 people prefer to see the Gnus scores plus the grouplens scores. To get
17498 the separate scoring behavior you need to set
17499 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring} to @code{'separate}. To have the
17500 GroupLens predictions combined with the grouplens scores set it to
17501 @code{'override} and to combine the scores set
17502 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring} to @code{'combine}. When you use
17503 the combine option you will also want to set the values for
17504 @code{grouplens-prediction-offset} and
17505 @code{grouplens-score-scale-factor}.
17507 @vindex grouplens-prediction-display
17508 In either case, GroupLens gives you a few choices for how you would like
17509 to see your predictions displayed. The display of predictions is
17510 controlled by the @code{grouplens-prediction-display} variable.
17512 The following are valid values for that variable.
17515 @item prediction-spot
17516 The higher the prediction, the further to the right an @samp{*} is
17519 @item confidence-interval
17520 A numeric confidence interval.
17522 @item prediction-bar
17523 The higher the prediction, the longer the bar.
17525 @item confidence-bar
17526 Numerical confidence.
17528 @item confidence-spot
17529 The spot gets bigger with more confidence.
17531 @item prediction-num
17532 Plain-old numeric value.
17534 @item confidence-plus-minus
17535 Prediction +/- confidence.
17540 @node GroupLens Variables
17541 @subsection GroupLens Variables
17545 @item gnus-summary-grouplens-line-format
17546 The summary line format used in GroupLens-enhanced summary buffers. It
17547 accepts the same specs as the normal summary line format (@pxref{Summary
17548 Buffer Lines}). The default is @samp{%U%R%z%l%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23n%]%)
17551 @item grouplens-bbb-host
17552 Host running the bbbd server. @samp{grouplens.cs.umn.edu} is the
17555 @item grouplens-bbb-port
17556 Port of the host running the bbbd server. The default is 9000.
17558 @item grouplens-score-offset
17559 Offset the prediction by this value. In other words, subtract the
17560 prediction value by this number to arrive at the effective score. The
17563 @item grouplens-score-scale-factor
17564 This variable allows the user to magnify the effect of GroupLens scores.
17565 The scale factor is applied after the offset. The default is 1.
17570 @node Advanced Scoring
17571 @section Advanced Scoring
17573 Scoring on Subjects and From headers is nice enough, but what if you're
17574 really interested in what a person has to say only when she's talking
17575 about a particular subject? Or what if you really don't want to
17576 read what person A has to say when she's following up to person B, but
17577 want to read what she says when she's following up to person C?
17579 By using advanced scoring rules you may create arbitrarily complex
17583 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
17584 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
17585 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
17589 @node Advanced Scoring Syntax
17590 @subsection Advanced Scoring Syntax
17592 Ordinary scoring rules have a string as the first element in the rule.
17593 Advanced scoring rules have a list as the first element. The second
17594 element is the score to be applied if the first element evaluated to a
17595 non-@code{nil} value.
17597 These lists may consist of three logical operators, one redirection
17598 operator, and various match operators.
17605 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
17606 one that evaluates to @code{false}, and then it'll stop. If all arguments
17607 evaluate to @code{true} values, then this operator will return
17612 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
17613 one that evaluates to @code{true}. If no arguments are @code{true},
17614 then this operator will return @code{false}.
17619 This logical operator only takes a single argument. It returns the
17620 logical negation of the value of its argument.
17624 There is an @dfn{indirection operator} that will make its arguments
17625 apply to the ancestors of the current article being scored. For
17626 instance, @code{1-} will make score rules apply to the parent of the
17627 current article. @code{2-} will make score rules apply to the
17628 grandparent of the current article. Alternatively, you can write
17629 @code{^^}, where the number of @code{^}s (carets) says how far back into
17630 the ancestry you want to go.
17632 Finally, we have the match operators. These are the ones that do the
17633 real work. Match operators are header name strings followed by a match
17634 and a match type. A typical match operator looks like @samp{("from"
17635 "Lars Ingebrigtsen" s)}. The header names are the same as when using
17636 simple scoring, and the match types are also the same.
17639 @node Advanced Scoring Examples
17640 @subsection Advanced Scoring Examples
17642 Let's say you want to increase the score of articles written by Lars
17643 when he's talking about Gnus:
17647 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
17648 ("subject" "Gnus"))
17654 When he writes long articles, he sometimes has something nice to say:
17658 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
17665 However, when he responds to things written by Reig Eigil Logge, you
17666 really don't want to read what he's written:
17670 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
17671 (1- ("from" "Reig Eigir Logge")))
17675 Everybody that follows up Redmondo when he writes about disappearing
17676 socks should have their scores raised, but only when they talk about
17677 white socks. However, when Lars talks about socks, it's usually not
17684 ("from" "redmondo@@.*no" r)
17685 ("body" "disappearing.*socks" t)))
17686 (! ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen"))
17687 ("body" "white.*socks"))
17691 The possibilities are endless.
17694 @node Advanced Scoring Tips
17695 @subsection Advanced Scoring Tips
17697 The @code{&} and @code{|} logical operators do short-circuit logic.
17698 That is, they stop processing their arguments when it's clear what the
17699 result of the operation will be. For instance, if one of the arguments
17700 of an @code{&} evaluates to @code{false}, there's no point in evaluating
17701 the rest of the arguments. This means that you should put slow matches
17702 (@samp{body}, @samp{header}) last and quick matches (@samp{from},
17703 @samp{subject}) first.
17705 The indirection arguments (@code{1-} and so on) will make their
17706 arguments work on previous generations of the thread. If you say
17717 Then that means "score on the from header of the grandparent of the
17718 current article". An indirection is quite fast, but it's better to say:
17724 ("subject" "Gnus")))
17731 (1- ("from" "Lars"))
17732 (1- ("subject" "Gnus")))
17737 @section Score Decays
17738 @cindex score decays
17741 You may find that your scores have a tendency to grow without
17742 bounds, especially if you're using adaptive scoring. If scores get too
17743 big, they lose all meaning---they simply max out and it's difficult to
17744 use them in any sensible way.
17746 @vindex gnus-decay-scores
17747 @findex gnus-decay-score
17748 @vindex gnus-decay-score-function
17749 Gnus provides a mechanism for decaying scores to help with this problem.
17750 When score files are loaded and @code{gnus-decay-scores} is
17751 non-@code{nil}, Gnus will run the score files through the decaying
17752 mechanism thereby lowering the scores of all non-permanent score rules.
17753 The decay itself if performed by the @code{gnus-decay-score-function}
17754 function, which is @code{gnus-decay-score} by default. Here's the
17755 definition of that function:
17758 (defun gnus-decay-score (score)
17760 This is done according to `gnus-score-decay-constant'
17761 and `gnus-score-decay-scale'."
17764 (* (if (< score 0) 1 -1)
17766 (max gnus-score-decay-constant
17768 gnus-score-decay-scale)))))))
17771 @vindex gnus-score-decay-scale
17772 @vindex gnus-score-decay-constant
17773 @code{gnus-score-decay-constant} is 3 by default and
17774 @code{gnus-score-decay-scale} is 0.05. This should cause the following:
17778 Scores between -3 and 3 will be set to 0 when this function is called.
17781 Scores with magnitudes between 3 and 60 will be shrunk by 3.
17784 Scores with magnitudes greater than 60 will be shrunk by 5% of the
17788 If you don't like this decay function, write your own. It is called
17789 with the score to be decayed as its only parameter, and it should return
17790 the new score, which should be an integer.
17792 Gnus will try to decay scores once a day. If you haven't run Gnus for
17793 four days, Gnus will decay the scores four times, for instance.
17800 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
17801 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
17802 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
17803 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
17804 * Window Layout:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
17805 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
17806 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
17807 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
17808 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
17809 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
17810 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
17811 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
17812 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
17813 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
17814 * XEmacs Enhancements:: There are more pictures and stuff under XEmacs.
17815 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
17816 * Thwarting Email Spam:: A how-to on avoiding unsolicited commercial email.
17817 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
17821 @node Process/Prefix
17822 @section Process/Prefix
17823 @cindex process/prefix convention
17825 Many functions, among them functions for moving, decoding and saving
17826 articles, use what is known as the @dfn{Process/Prefix convention}.
17828 This is a method for figuring out what articles the user wants the
17829 command to be performed on.
17833 If the numeric prefix is N, perform the operation on the next N
17834 articles, starting with the current one. If the numeric prefix is
17835 negative, perform the operation on the previous N articles, starting
17836 with the current one.
17838 @vindex transient-mark-mode
17839 If @code{transient-mark-mode} in non-@code{nil} and the region is
17840 active, all articles in the region will be worked upon.
17842 If there is no numeric prefix, but some articles are marked with the
17843 process mark, perform the operation on the articles marked with
17846 If there is neither a numeric prefix nor any articles marked with the
17847 process mark, just perform the operation on the current article.
17849 Quite simple, really, but it needs to be made clear so that surprises
17852 Commands that react to the process mark will push the current list of
17853 process marked articles onto a stack and will then clear all process
17854 marked articles. You can restore the previous configuration with the
17855 @kbd{M P y} command (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
17857 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
17858 One thing that seems to shock & horrify lots of people is that, for
17859 instance, @kbd{3 d} does exactly the same as @kbd{d} @kbd{d} @kbd{d}.
17860 Since each @kbd{d} (which marks the current article as read) by default
17861 goes to the next unread article after marking, this means that @kbd{3 d}
17862 will mark the next three unread articles as read, no matter what the
17863 summary buffer looks like. Set @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} to
17864 @code{nil} for a more straightforward action.
17866 Many commands do not use the process/prefix convention. All commands
17867 that do explicitly say so in this manual. To apply the process/prefix
17868 convention to commands that do not use it, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
17869 command. For instance, to mark all the articles in the group as
17870 expirable, you could say `M P b M-& E'.
17874 @section Interactive
17875 @cindex interaction
17879 @item gnus-novice-user
17880 @vindex gnus-novice-user
17881 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you are either a newcomer to the
17882 World of Usenet, or you are very cautious, which is a nice thing to be,
17883 really. You will be given questions of the type ``Are you sure you want
17884 to do this?'' before doing anything dangerous. This is @code{t} by
17887 @item gnus-expert-user
17888 @vindex gnus-expert-user
17889 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you will seldom be asked any
17890 questions by Gnus. It will simply assume you know what you're doing, no
17891 matter how strange.
17893 @item gnus-interactive-catchup
17894 @vindex gnus-interactive-catchup
17895 Require confirmation before catching up a group if non-@code{nil}. It
17896 is @code{t} by default.
17898 @item gnus-interactive-exit
17899 @vindex gnus-interactive-exit
17900 Require confirmation before exiting Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
17905 @node Symbolic Prefixes
17906 @section Symbolic Prefixes
17907 @cindex symbolic prefixes
17909 Quite a lot of Emacs commands react to the (numeric) prefix. For
17910 instance, @kbd{C-u 4 C-f} moves point four characters forward, and
17911 @kbd{C-u 9 0 0 I s s p} adds a permanent @code{Subject} substring score
17912 rule of 900 to the current article.
17914 This is all nice and well, but what if you want to give a command some
17915 additional information? Well, what most commands do is interpret the
17916 ``raw'' prefix in some special way. @kbd{C-u 0 C-x C-s} means that one
17917 doesn't want a backup file to be created when saving the current buffer,
17918 for instance. But what if you want to save without making a backup
17919 file, and you want Emacs to flash lights and play a nice tune at the
17920 same time? You can't, and you're probably perfectly happy that way.
17922 @kindex M-i (Summary)
17923 @findex gnus-symbolic-argument
17924 I'm not, so I've added a second prefix---the @dfn{symbolic prefix}. The
17925 prefix key is @kbd{M-i} (@code{gnus-symbolic-argument}), and the next
17926 character typed in is the value. You can stack as many @kbd{M-i}
17927 prefixes as you want. @kbd{M-i a M-C-u} means ``feed the @kbd{M-C-u}
17928 command the symbolic prefix @code{a}''. @kbd{M-i a M-i b M-C-u} means
17929 ``feed the @kbd{M-C-u} command the symbolic prefixes @code{a} and
17930 @code{b}''. You get the drift.
17932 Typing in symbolic prefixes to commands that don't accept them doesn't
17933 hurt, but it doesn't do any good either. Currently not many Gnus
17934 functions make use of the symbolic prefix.
17936 If you're interested in how Gnus implements this, @pxref{Extended
17940 @node Formatting Variables
17941 @section Formatting Variables
17942 @cindex formatting variables
17944 Throughout this manual you've probably noticed lots of variables called
17945 things like @code{gnus-group-line-format} and
17946 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}. These control how Gnus is to
17947 output lines in the various buffers. There's quite a lot of them.
17948 Fortunately, they all use the same syntax, so there's not that much to
17951 Here's an example format spec (from the group buffer): @samp{%M%S%5y:
17952 %(%g%)\n}. We see that it is indeed extremely ugly, and that there are
17953 lots of percentages everywhere.
17956 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
17957 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
17958 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
17959 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
17960 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
17961 * Positioning Point:: Moving point to a position after an operation.
17962 * Tabulation:: Tabulating your output.
17963 * Wide Characters:: Dealing with wide characters.
17966 Currently Gnus uses the following formatting variables:
17967 @code{gnus-group-line-format}, @code{gnus-summary-line-format},
17968 @code{gnus-server-line-format}, @code{gnus-topic-line-format},
17969 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format},
17970 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format},
17971 @code{gnus-article-mode-line-format},
17972 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format}, and
17973 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format}.
17975 All these format variables can also be arbitrary elisp forms. In that
17976 case, they will be @code{eval}ed to insert the required lines.
17978 @kindex M-x gnus-update-format
17979 @findex gnus-update-format
17980 Gnus includes a command to help you while creating your own format
17981 specs. @kbd{M-x gnus-update-format} will @code{eval} the current form,
17982 update the spec in question and pop you to a buffer where you can
17983 examine the resulting lisp code to be run to generate the line.
17987 @node Formatting Basics
17988 @subsection Formatting Basics
17990 Each @samp{%} element will be replaced by some string or other when the
17991 buffer in question is generated. @samp{%5y} means ``insert the @samp{y}
17992 spec, and pad with spaces to get a 5-character field''.
17994 As with normal C and Emacs Lisp formatting strings, the numerical
17995 modifier between the @samp{%} and the formatting type character will
17996 @dfn{pad} the output so that it is always at least that long.
17997 @samp{%5y} will make the field always (at least) five characters wide by
17998 padding with spaces to the left. If you say @samp{%-5y}, it will pad to
18001 You may also wish to limit the length of the field to protect against
18002 particularly wide values. For that you can say @samp{%4,6y}, which
18003 means that the field will never be more than 6 characters wide and never
18004 less than 4 characters wide.
18007 @node Mode Line Formatting
18008 @subsection Mode Line Formatting
18010 Mode line formatting variables (e.g.,
18011 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}) follow the same rules as other,
18012 buffer line oriented formatting variables (@pxref{Formatting Basics})
18013 with the following two differences:
18018 There must be no newline (@samp{\n}) at the end.
18021 The special @samp{%%b} spec can be used to display the buffer name.
18022 Well, it's no spec at all, really---@samp{%%} is just a way to quote
18023 @samp{%} to allow it to pass through the formatting machinery unmangled,
18024 so that Emacs receives @samp{%b}, which is something the Emacs mode line
18025 display interprets to mean ``show the buffer name''. For a full list of
18026 mode line specs Emacs understands, see the documentation of the
18027 @code{mode-line-format} variable.
18032 @node Advanced Formatting
18033 @subsection Advanced Formatting
18035 It is frequently useful to post-process the fields in some way.
18036 Padding, limiting, cutting off parts and suppressing certain values can
18037 be achieved by using @dfn{tilde modifiers}. A typical tilde spec might
18038 look like @samp{%~(cut 3)~(ignore "0")y}.
18040 These are the valid modifiers:
18045 Pad the field to the left with spaces until it reaches the required
18049 Pad the field to the right with spaces until it reaches the required
18054 Cut off characters from the left until it reaches the specified length.
18057 Cut off characters from the right until it reaches the specified
18062 Cut off the specified number of characters from the left.
18065 Cut off the specified number of characters from the right.
18068 Return an empty string if the field is equal to the specified value.
18071 Use the specified form as the field value when the @samp{@@} spec is
18075 Let's take an example. The @samp{%o} spec in the summary mode lines
18076 will return a date in compact ISO8601 format---@samp{19960809T230410}.
18077 This is quite a mouthful, so we want to shave off the century number and
18078 the time, leaving us with a six-character date. That would be
18079 @samp{%~(cut-left 2)~(max-right 6)~(pad 6)o}. (Cutting is done before
18080 maxing, and we need the padding to ensure that the date is never less
18081 than 6 characters to make it look nice in columns.)
18083 Ignoring is done first; then cutting; then maxing; and then as the very
18084 last operation, padding.
18086 If you use lots of these advanced thingies, you'll find that Gnus gets
18087 quite slow. This can be helped enormously by running @kbd{M-x
18088 gnus-compile} when you are satisfied with the look of your lines.
18089 @xref{Compilation}.
18092 @node User-Defined Specs
18093 @subsection User-Defined Specs
18095 All the specs allow for inserting user defined specifiers---@samp{u}.
18096 The next character in the format string should be a letter. Gnus
18097 will call the function @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where
18098 @samp{X} is the letter following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed
18099 a single parameter---what the parameter means depends on what buffer
18100 it's being called from. The function should return a string, which will
18101 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
18102 specifier. This function may also be called with dummy values, so it
18103 should protect against that.
18105 You can also use tilde modifiers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting} to achieve
18106 much the same without defining new functions. Here's an example:
18107 @samp{%~(form (count-lines (point-min) (point)))@@}. The form
18108 given here will be evaluated to yield the current line number, and then
18112 @node Formatting Fonts
18113 @subsection Formatting Fonts
18115 There are specs for highlighting, and these are shared by all the format
18116 variables. Text inside the @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} specifiers will get
18117 the special @code{mouse-face} property set, which means that it will be
18118 highlighted (with @code{gnus-mouse-face}) when you put the mouse pointer
18121 Text inside the @samp{%@{} and @samp{%@}} specifiers will have their
18122 normal faces set using @code{gnus-face-0}, which is @code{bold} by
18123 default. If you say @samp{%1@{}, you'll get @code{gnus-face-1} instead,
18124 and so on. Create as many faces as you wish. The same goes for the
18125 @code{mouse-face} specs---you can say @samp{%3(hello%)} to have
18126 @samp{hello} mouse-highlighted with @code{gnus-mouse-face-3}.
18128 Text inside the @samp{%<} and @samp{%>} specifiers will get the special
18129 @code{balloon-help} property set to @code{gnus-balloon-face-0}. If you
18130 say @samp{%1<}, you'll get @code{gnus-balloon-face-1} and so on. The
18131 @code{gnus-balloon-face-*} variables should be either strings or symbols
18132 naming functions that return a string. Under @code{balloon-help-mode},
18133 when the mouse passes over text with this property set, a balloon window
18134 will appear and display the string. Please refer to the doc string of
18135 @code{balloon-help-mode} for more information on this.
18137 Here's an alternative recipe for the group buffer:
18140 ;; Create three face types.
18141 (setq gnus-face-1 'bold)
18142 (setq gnus-face-3 'italic)
18144 ;; We want the article count to be in
18145 ;; a bold and green face. So we create
18146 ;; a new face called `my-green-bold'.
18147 (copy-face 'bold 'my-green-bold)
18149 (set-face-foreground 'my-green-bold "ForestGreen")
18150 (setq gnus-face-2 'my-green-bold)
18152 ;; Set the new & fancy format.
18153 (setq gnus-group-line-format
18154 "%M%S%3@{%5y%@}%2[:%] %(%1@{%g%@}%)\n")
18157 I'm sure you'll be able to use this scheme to create totally unreadable
18158 and extremely vulgar displays. Have fun!
18160 Note that the @samp{%(} specs (and friends) do not make any sense on the
18161 mode-line variables.
18163 @node Positioning Point
18164 @subsection Positioning Point
18166 Gnus usually moves point to a pre-defined place on each line in most
18167 buffers. By default, point move to the first colon character on the
18168 line. You can customize this behaviour in three different ways.
18170 You can move the colon character to somewhere else on the line.
18172 @findex gnus-goto-colon
18173 You can redefine the function that moves the point to the colon. The
18174 function is called @code{gnus-goto-colon}.
18176 But perhaps the most convenient way to deal with this, if you don't want
18177 to have a colon in your line, is to use the @samp{%C} specifier. If you
18178 put a @samp{%C} somewhere in your format line definition, Gnus will
18183 @subsection Tabulation
18185 You can usually line up your displays by padding and cutting your
18186 strings. However, when combining various strings of different size, it
18187 can often be more convenient to just output the strings, and then worry
18188 about lining up the following text afterwards.
18190 To do that, Gnus supplies tabulator specs--@samp{%=}. There are two
18191 different types---@dfn{hard tabulators} and @dfn{soft tabulators}.
18193 @samp{%50=} will insert space characters to pad the line up to column
18194 50. If the text is already past column 50, nothing will be inserted.
18195 This is the soft tabulator.
18197 @samp{%-50=} will insert space characters to pad the line up to column
18198 50. If the text is already past column 50, the excess text past column
18199 50 will be removed. This is the hard tabulator.
18202 @node Wide Characters
18203 @subsection Wide Characters
18205 Proportional fonts in most countries have characters of the same width.
18206 Some countries, however, use Latin characters mixed with wider
18207 characters---most notable East Asian countries.
18209 The problem is that when formatting, Gnus assumes that if a string is 10
18210 characters wide, it'll be 10 Latin characters wide on the screen. In
18211 these coutries, that's not true.
18213 @vindex gnus-use-correct-string-widths
18214 To help fix this, you can set @code{gnus-use-correct-string-widths} to
18215 @code{t}. This makes buffer generation slower, but the results will be
18216 prettieer. The default value is @code{nil}.
18220 @node Window Layout
18221 @section Window Layout
18222 @cindex window layout
18224 No, there's nothing here about X, so be quiet.
18226 @vindex gnus-use-full-window
18227 If @code{gnus-use-full-window} non-@code{nil}, Gnus will delete all
18228 other windows and occupy the entire Emacs screen by itself. It is
18229 @code{t} by default.
18231 Setting this variable to @code{nil} kinda works, but there are
18232 glitches. Use at your own peril.
18234 @vindex gnus-buffer-configuration
18235 @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} describes how much space each Gnus
18236 buffer should be given. Here's an excerpt of this variable:
18239 ((group (vertical 1.0 (group 1.0 point)
18240 (if gnus-carpal (group-carpal 4))))
18241 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
18245 This is an alist. The @dfn{key} is a symbol that names some action or
18246 other. For instance, when displaying the group buffer, the window
18247 configuration function will use @code{group} as the key. A full list of
18248 possible names is listed below.
18250 The @dfn{value} (i.e., the @dfn{split}) says how much space each buffer
18251 should occupy. To take the @code{article} split as an example -
18254 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
18258 This @dfn{split} says that the summary buffer should occupy 25% of upper
18259 half of the screen, and that it is placed over the article buffer. As
18260 you may have noticed, 100% + 25% is actually 125% (yup, I saw y'all
18261 reaching for that calculator there). However, the special number
18262 @code{1.0} is used to signal that this buffer should soak up all the
18263 rest of the space available after the rest of the buffers have taken
18264 whatever they need. There should be only one buffer with the @code{1.0}
18265 size spec per split.
18267 Point will be put in the buffer that has the optional third element
18268 @code{point}. In a @code{frame} split, the last subsplit having a leaf
18269 split where the tag @code{frame-focus} is a member (i.e. is the third or
18270 fourth element in the list, depending on whether the @code{point} tag is
18271 present) gets focus.
18273 Here's a more complicated example:
18276 (article (vertical 1.0 (group 4)
18277 (summary 0.25 point)
18278 (if gnus-carpal (summary-carpal 4))
18282 If the size spec is an integer instead of a floating point number,
18283 then that number will be used to say how many lines a buffer should
18284 occupy, not a percentage.
18286 If the @dfn{split} looks like something that can be @code{eval}ed (to be
18287 precise---if the @code{car} of the split is a function or a subr), this
18288 split will be @code{eval}ed. If the result is non-@code{nil}, it will
18289 be used as a split. This means that there will be three buffers if
18290 @code{gnus-carpal} is @code{nil}, and four buffers if @code{gnus-carpal}
18293 Not complicated enough for you? Well, try this on for size:
18296 (article (horizontal 1.0
18301 (summary 0.25 point)
18306 Whoops. Two buffers with the mystery 100% tag. And what's that
18307 @code{horizontal} thingie?
18309 If the first element in one of the split is @code{horizontal}, Gnus will
18310 split the window horizontally, giving you two windows side-by-side.
18311 Inside each of these strips you may carry on all you like in the normal
18312 fashion. The number following @code{horizontal} says what percentage of
18313 the screen is to be given to this strip.
18315 For each split, there @emph{must} be one element that has the 100% tag.
18316 The splitting is never accurate, and this buffer will eat any leftover
18317 lines from the splits.
18319 To be slightly more formal, here's a definition of what a valid split
18323 split = frame | horizontal | vertical | buffer | form
18324 frame = "(frame " size *split ")"
18325 horizontal = "(horizontal " size *split ")"
18326 vertical = "(vertical " size *split ")"
18327 buffer = "(" buf-name " " size *[ "point" ] *[ "frame-focus"] ")"
18328 size = number | frame-params
18329 buf-name = group | article | summary ...
18332 The limitations are that the @code{frame} split can only appear as the
18333 top-level split. @var{form} should be an Emacs Lisp form that should
18334 return a valid split. We see that each split is fully recursive, and
18335 may contain any number of @code{vertical} and @code{horizontal} splits.
18337 @vindex gnus-window-min-width
18338 @vindex gnus-window-min-height
18339 @cindex window height
18340 @cindex window width
18341 Finding the right sizes can be a bit complicated. No window may be less
18342 than @code{gnus-window-min-height} (default 1) characters high, and all
18343 windows must be at least @code{gnus-window-min-width} (default 1)
18344 characters wide. Gnus will try to enforce this before applying the
18345 splits. If you want to use the normal Emacs window width/height limit,
18346 you can just set these two variables to @code{nil}.
18348 If you're not familiar with Emacs terminology, @code{horizontal} and
18349 @code{vertical} splits may work the opposite way of what you'd expect.
18350 Windows inside a @code{horizontal} split are shown side-by-side, and
18351 windows within a @code{vertical} split are shown above each other.
18353 @findex gnus-configure-frame
18354 If you want to experiment with window placement, a good tip is to call
18355 @code{gnus-configure-frame} directly with a split. This is the function
18356 that does all the real work when splitting buffers. Below is a pretty
18357 nonsensical configuration with 5 windows; two for the group buffer and
18358 three for the article buffer. (I said it was nonsensical.) If you
18359 @code{eval} the statement below, you can get an idea of how that would
18360 look straight away, without going through the normal Gnus channels.
18361 Play with it until you're satisfied, and then use
18362 @code{gnus-add-configuration} to add your new creation to the buffer
18363 configuration list.
18366 (gnus-configure-frame
18370 (article 0.3 point))
18378 You might want to have several frames as well. No prob---just use the
18379 @code{frame} split:
18382 (gnus-configure-frame
18385 (summary 0.25 point frame-focus)
18387 (vertical ((height . 5) (width . 15)
18388 (user-position . t)
18389 (left . -1) (top . 1))
18394 This split will result in the familiar summary/article window
18395 configuration in the first (or ``main'') frame, while a small additional
18396 frame will be created where picons will be shown. As you can see,
18397 instead of the normal @code{1.0} top-level spec, each additional split
18398 should have a frame parameter alist as the size spec.
18399 @xref{Frame Parameters, , Frame Parameters, elisp, The GNU Emacs Lisp
18400 Reference Manual}. Under XEmacs, a frame property list will be
18401 accepted, too---for instance, @code{(height 5 width 15 left -1 top 1)}
18403 The list of all possible keys for @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} can
18404 be found in its default value.
18406 Note that the @code{message} key is used for both
18407 @code{gnus-group-mail} and @code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}. If
18408 it is desirable to distinguish between the two, something like this
18412 (message (horizontal 1.0
18413 (vertical 1.0 (message 1.0 point))
18415 (if (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer)
18420 One common desire for a multiple frame split is to have a separate frame
18421 for composing mail and news while leaving the original frame intact. To
18422 accomplish that, something like the following can be done:
18427 (if (not (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer))
18428 (car (cdr (assoc 'group gnus-buffer-configuration)))
18429 (car (cdr (assoc 'summary gnus-buffer-configuration))))
18430 (vertical ((user-position . t) (top . 1) (left . 1)
18431 (name . "Message"))
18432 (message 1.0 point))))
18435 @findex gnus-add-configuration
18436 Since the @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} variable is so long and
18437 complicated, there's a function you can use to ease changing the config
18438 of a single setting: @code{gnus-add-configuration}. If, for instance,
18439 you want to change the @code{article} setting, you could say:
18442 (gnus-add-configuration
18443 '(article (vertical 1.0
18445 (summary .25 point)
18449 You'd typically stick these @code{gnus-add-configuration} calls in your
18450 @file{.gnus.el} file or in some startup hook---they should be run after
18451 Gnus has been loaded.
18453 @vindex gnus-always-force-window-configuration
18454 If all windows mentioned in the configuration are already visible, Gnus
18455 won't change the window configuration. If you always want to force the
18456 ``right'' window configuration, you can set
18457 @code{gnus-always-force-window-configuration} to non-@code{nil}.
18459 If you're using tree displays (@pxref{Tree Display}), and the tree
18460 window is displayed vertically next to another window, you may also want
18461 to fiddle with @code{gnus-tree-minimize-window} to avoid having the
18464 @subsection Example Window Configurations
18468 Narrow left hand side occupied by group buffer. Right hand side split
18469 between summary buffer (top one-sixth) and article buffer (bottom).
18484 (gnus-add-configuration
18487 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
18489 (summary 0.16 point)
18492 (gnus-add-configuration
18495 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
18496 (vertical 1.0 (summary 1.0 point)))))
18502 @node Faces and Fonts
18503 @section Faces and Fonts
18508 Fiddling with fonts and faces used to be very difficult, but these days
18509 it is very simple. You simply say @kbd{M-x customize-face}, pick out
18510 the face you want to alter, and alter it via the standard Customize
18515 @section Compilation
18516 @cindex compilation
18517 @cindex byte-compilation
18519 @findex gnus-compile
18521 Remember all those line format specification variables?
18522 @code{gnus-summary-line-format}, @code{gnus-group-line-format}, and so
18523 on. Now, Gnus will of course heed whatever these variables are, but,
18524 unfortunately, changing them will mean a quite significant slow-down.
18525 (The default values of these variables have byte-compiled functions
18526 associated with them, while the user-generated versions do not, of
18529 To help with this, you can run @kbd{M-x gnus-compile} after you've
18530 fiddled around with the variables and feel that you're (kind of)
18531 satisfied. This will result in the new specs being byte-compiled, and
18532 you'll get top speed again. Gnus will save these compiled specs in the
18533 @file{.newsrc.eld} file. (User-defined functions aren't compiled by
18534 this function, though---you should compile them yourself by sticking
18535 them into the @code{.gnus.el} file and byte-compiling that file.)
18539 @section Mode Lines
18542 @vindex gnus-updated-mode-lines
18543 @code{gnus-updated-mode-lines} says what buffers should keep their mode
18544 lines updated. It is a list of symbols. Supported symbols include
18545 @code{group}, @code{article}, @code{summary}, @code{server},
18546 @code{browse}, and @code{tree}. If the corresponding symbol is present,
18547 Gnus will keep that mode line updated with information that may be
18548 pertinent. If this variable is @code{nil}, screen refresh may be
18551 @cindex display-time
18553 @vindex gnus-mode-non-string-length
18554 By default, Gnus displays information on the current article in the mode
18555 lines of the summary and article buffers. The information Gnus wishes
18556 to display (e.g. the subject of the article) is often longer than the
18557 mode lines, and therefore have to be cut off at some point. The
18558 @code{gnus-mode-non-string-length} variable says how long the other
18559 elements on the line is (i.e., the non-info part). If you put
18560 additional elements on the mode line (e.g. a clock), you should modify
18563 @c Hook written by Francesco Potorti` <pot@cnuce.cnr.it>
18565 (add-hook 'display-time-hook
18566 (lambda () (setq gnus-mode-non-string-length
18568 (if line-number-mode 5 0)
18569 (if column-number-mode 4 0)
18570 (length display-time-string)))))
18573 If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the default), the mode line
18574 strings won't be chopped off, and they won't be padded either. Note
18575 that the default is unlikely to be desirable, as even the percentage
18576 complete in the buffer may be crowded off the mode line; the user should
18577 configure this variable appropriately for her configuration.
18580 @node Highlighting and Menus
18581 @section Highlighting and Menus
18583 @cindex highlighting
18586 @vindex gnus-visual
18587 The @code{gnus-visual} variable controls most of the Gnus-prettifying
18588 aspects. If @code{nil}, Gnus won't attempt to create menus or use fancy
18589 colors or fonts. This will also inhibit loading the @file{gnus-vis.el}
18592 This variable can be a list of visual properties that are enabled. The
18593 following elements are valid, and are all included by default:
18596 @item group-highlight
18597 Do highlights in the group buffer.
18598 @item summary-highlight
18599 Do highlights in the summary buffer.
18600 @item article-highlight
18601 Do highlights in the article buffer.
18603 Turn on highlighting in all buffers.
18605 Create menus in the group buffer.
18607 Create menus in the summary buffers.
18609 Create menus in the article buffer.
18611 Create menus in the browse buffer.
18613 Create menus in the server buffer.
18615 Create menus in the score buffers.
18617 Create menus in all buffers.
18620 So if you only want highlighting in the article buffer and menus in all
18621 buffers, you could say something like:
18624 (setq gnus-visual '(article-highlight menu))
18627 If you want highlighting only and no menus whatsoever, you'd say:
18630 (setq gnus-visual '(highlight))
18633 If @code{gnus-visual} is @code{t}, highlighting and menus will be used
18634 in all Gnus buffers.
18636 Other general variables that influence the look of all buffers include:
18639 @item gnus-mouse-face
18640 @vindex gnus-mouse-face
18641 This is the face (i.e., font) used for mouse highlighting in Gnus. No
18642 mouse highlights will be done if @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
18646 There are hooks associated with the creation of all the different menus:
18650 @item gnus-article-menu-hook
18651 @vindex gnus-article-menu-hook
18652 Hook called after creating the article mode menu.
18654 @item gnus-group-menu-hook
18655 @vindex gnus-group-menu-hook
18656 Hook called after creating the group mode menu.
18658 @item gnus-summary-menu-hook
18659 @vindex gnus-summary-menu-hook
18660 Hook called after creating the summary mode menu.
18662 @item gnus-server-menu-hook
18663 @vindex gnus-server-menu-hook
18664 Hook called after creating the server mode menu.
18666 @item gnus-browse-menu-hook
18667 @vindex gnus-browse-menu-hook
18668 Hook called after creating the browse mode menu.
18670 @item gnus-score-menu-hook
18671 @vindex gnus-score-menu-hook
18672 Hook called after creating the score mode menu.
18683 Those new-fangled @dfn{mouse} contraptions is very popular with the
18684 young, hep kids who don't want to learn the proper way to do things
18685 these days. Why, I remember way back in the summer of '89, when I was
18686 using Emacs on a Tops 20 system. Three hundred users on one single
18687 machine, and every user was running Simula compilers. Bah!
18691 @vindex gnus-carpal
18692 Well, you can make Gnus display bufferfuls of buttons you can click to
18693 do anything by setting @code{gnus-carpal} to @code{t}. Pretty simple,
18694 really. Tell the chiropractor I sent you.
18699 @item gnus-carpal-mode-hook
18700 @vindex gnus-carpal-mode-hook
18701 Hook run in all carpal mode buffers.
18703 @item gnus-carpal-button-face
18704 @vindex gnus-carpal-button-face
18705 Face used on buttons.
18707 @item gnus-carpal-header-face
18708 @vindex gnus-carpal-header-face
18709 Face used on carpal buffer headers.
18711 @item gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
18712 @vindex gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
18713 Buttons in the group buffer.
18715 @item gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
18716 @vindex gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
18717 Buttons in the summary buffer.
18719 @item gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
18720 @vindex gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
18721 Buttons in the server buffer.
18723 @item gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
18724 @vindex gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
18725 Buttons in the browse buffer.
18728 All the @code{buttons} variables are lists. The elements in these list
18729 are either cons cells where the @code{car} contains a text to be displayed and
18730 the @code{cdr} contains a function symbol, or a simple string.
18738 Gnus, being larger than any program ever written (allegedly), does lots
18739 of strange stuff that you may wish to have done while you're not
18740 present. For instance, you may want it to check for new mail once in a
18741 while. Or you may want it to close down all connections to all servers
18742 when you leave Emacs idle. And stuff like that.
18744 Gnus will let you do stuff like that by defining various
18745 @dfn{handlers}. Each handler consists of three elements: A
18746 @var{function}, a @var{time}, and an @var{idle} parameter.
18748 Here's an example of a handler that closes connections when Emacs has
18749 been idle for thirty minutes:
18752 (gnus-demon-close-connections nil 30)
18755 Here's a handler that scans for PGP headers every hour when Emacs is
18759 (gnus-demon-scan-pgp 60 t)
18762 This @var{time} parameter and than @var{idle} parameter work together
18763 in a strange, but wonderful fashion. Basically, if @var{idle} is
18764 @code{nil}, then the function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
18766 If @var{idle} is @code{t}, then the function will be called after
18767 @var{time} minutes only if Emacs is idle. So if Emacs is never idle,
18768 the function will never be called. But once Emacs goes idle, the
18769 function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
18771 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is a number, the function will
18772 be called every @var{time} minutes only when Emacs has been idle for
18773 @var{idle} minutes.
18775 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is @code{nil}, the function
18776 will be called once every time Emacs has been idle for @var{idle}
18779 And if @var{time} is a string, it should look like @samp{07:31}, and
18780 the function will then be called once every day somewhere near that
18781 time. Modified by the @var{idle} parameter, of course.
18783 @vindex gnus-demon-timestep
18784 (When I say ``minute'' here, I really mean @code{gnus-demon-timestep}
18785 seconds. This is 60 by default. If you change that variable,
18786 all the timings in the handlers will be affected.)
18788 So, if you want to add a handler, you could put something like this in
18789 your @file{.gnus} file:
18791 @findex gnus-demon-add-handler
18793 (gnus-demon-add-handler 'gnus-demon-close-connections 30 t)
18796 @findex gnus-demon-add-nocem
18797 @findex gnus-demon-add-scanmail
18798 @findex gnus-demon-add-rescan
18799 @findex gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps
18800 @findex gnus-demon-add-disconnection
18801 Some ready-made functions to do this have been created:
18802 @code{gnus-demon-add-nocem}, @code{gnus-demon-add-disconnection},
18803 @code{gnus-demon-add-nntp-close-connection},
18804 @code{gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps}, @code{gnus-demon-add-rescan}, and
18805 @code{gnus-demon-add-scanmail}. Just put those functions in your
18806 @file{.gnus} if you want those abilities.
18808 @findex gnus-demon-init
18809 @findex gnus-demon-cancel
18810 @vindex gnus-demon-handlers
18811 If you add handlers to @code{gnus-demon-handlers} directly, you should
18812 run @code{gnus-demon-init} to make the changes take hold. To cancel all
18813 daemons, you can use the @code{gnus-demon-cancel} function.
18815 Note that adding daemons can be pretty naughty if you over do it. Adding
18816 functions that scan all news and mail from all servers every two seconds
18817 is a sure-fire way of getting booted off any respectable system. So
18826 @dfn{Spamming} is posting the same article lots and lots of times.
18827 Spamming is bad. Spamming is evil.
18829 Spamming is usually canceled within a day or so by various anti-spamming
18830 agencies. These agencies usually also send out @dfn{NoCeM} messages.
18831 NoCeM is pronounced ``no see-'em'', and means what the name
18832 implies---these are messages that make the offending articles, like, go
18835 What use are these NoCeM messages if the articles are canceled anyway?
18836 Some sites do not honor cancel messages and some sites just honor cancels
18837 from a select few people. Then you may wish to make use of the NoCeM
18838 messages, which are distributed in the @samp{alt.nocem.misc} newsgroup.
18840 Gnus can read and parse the messages in this group automatically, and
18841 this will make spam disappear.
18843 There are some variables to customize, of course:
18846 @item gnus-use-nocem
18847 @vindex gnus-use-nocem
18848 Set this variable to @code{t} to set the ball rolling. It is @code{nil}
18851 @item gnus-nocem-groups
18852 @vindex gnus-nocem-groups
18853 Gnus will look for NoCeM messages in the groups in this list. The
18854 default is @code{("news.lists.filters" "news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins"
18855 "alt.nocem.misc" "news.admin.net-abuse.announce")}.
18857 @item gnus-nocem-issuers
18858 @vindex gnus-nocem-issuers
18859 There are many people issuing NoCeM messages. This list says what
18860 people you want to listen to. The default is @code{("Automoose-1"
18861 "clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" "cosmo.roadkill" "SpamHippo"
18862 "hweede@@snafu.de")}; fine, upstanding citizens all of them.
18864 Known despammers that you can put in this list are listed at
18865 @uref{http://www.xs4all.nl/~rosalind/nocemreg/nocemreg.html}.
18867 You do not have to heed NoCeM messages from all these people---just the
18868 ones you want to listen to. You also don't have to accept all NoCeM
18869 messages from the people you like. Each NoCeM message has a @dfn{type}
18870 header that gives the message a (more or less, usually less) rigorous
18871 definition. Common types are @samp{spam}, @samp{spew}, @samp{mmf},
18872 @samp{binary}, and @samp{troll}. To specify this, you have to use
18873 @code{(@var{issuer} @var{conditions} @dots{})} elements in the list.
18874 Each condition is either a string (which is a regexp that matches types
18875 you want to use) or a list on the form @code{(not @var{string})}, where
18876 @var{string} is a regexp that matches types you don't want to use.
18878 For instance, if you want all NoCeM messages from Chris Lewis except his
18879 @samp{troll} messages, you'd say:
18882 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" ".*" (not "troll"))
18885 On the other hand, if you just want nothing but his @samp{spam} and
18886 @samp{spew} messages, you'd say:
18889 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" (not ".*") "spew" "spam")
18892 The specs are applied left-to-right.
18895 @item gnus-nocem-verifyer
18896 @vindex gnus-nocem-verifyer
18898 This should be a function for verifying that the NoCeM issuer is who she
18899 says she is. The default is @code{mc-verify}, which is a Mailcrypt
18900 function. If this is too slow and you don't care for verification
18901 (which may be dangerous), you can set this variable to @code{nil}.
18903 If you want signed NoCeM messages to be verified and unsigned messages
18904 not to be verified (but used anyway), you could do something like:
18907 (setq gnus-nocem-verifyer 'my-gnus-mc-verify)
18909 (defun my-gnus-mc-verify ()
18917 This might be dangerous, though.
18919 @item gnus-nocem-directory
18920 @vindex gnus-nocem-directory
18921 This is where Gnus will store its NoCeM cache files. The default is
18922 @file{~/News/NoCeM/}.
18924 @item gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
18925 @vindex gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
18926 The number of days before removing old NoCeM entries from the cache.
18927 The default is 15. If you make it shorter Gnus will be faster, but you
18928 might then see old spam.
18930 @item gnus-nocem-check-from
18931 @vindex gnus-nocem-check-from
18932 Non-@code{nil} means check for valid issuers in message bodies.
18933 Otherwise don't bother fetching articles unless their author matches a
18934 valid issuer; that is much faster if you are selective about the
18937 @item gnus-nocem-check-article-limit
18938 @vindex gnus-nocem-check-article-limit
18939 If non-@code{nil}, the maximum number of articles to check in any NoCeM
18940 group. NoCeM groups can be huge and very slow to process.
18944 Using NoCeM could potentially be a memory hog. If you have many living
18945 (i. e., subscribed or unsubscribed groups), your Emacs process will grow
18946 big. If this is a problem, you should kill off all (or most) of your
18947 unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Subscription Commands}).
18954 It is very useful to be able to undo actions one has done. In normal
18955 Emacs buffers, it's easy enough---you just push the @code{undo} button.
18956 In Gnus buffers, however, it isn't that simple.
18958 The things Gnus displays in its buffer is of no value whatsoever to
18959 Gnus---it's all just data designed to look nice to the user.
18960 Killing a group in the group buffer with @kbd{C-k} makes the line
18961 disappear, but that's just a side-effect of the real action---the
18962 removal of the group in question from the internal Gnus structures.
18963 Undoing something like that can't be done by the normal Emacs
18964 @code{undo} function.
18966 Gnus tries to remedy this somewhat by keeping track of what the user
18967 does and coming up with actions that would reverse the actions the user
18968 takes. When the user then presses the @code{undo} key, Gnus will run
18969 the code to reverse the previous action, or the previous actions.
18970 However, not all actions are easily reversible, so Gnus currently offers
18971 a few key functions to be undoable. These include killing groups,
18972 yanking groups, and changing the list of read articles of groups.
18973 That's it, really. More functions may be added in the future, but each
18974 added function means an increase in data to be stored, so Gnus will
18975 never be totally undoable.
18977 @findex gnus-undo-mode
18978 @vindex gnus-use-undo
18980 The undoability is provided by the @code{gnus-undo-mode} minor mode. It
18981 is used if @code{gnus-use-undo} is non-@code{nil}, which is the
18982 default. The @kbd{M-C-_} key performs the @code{gnus-undo}
18983 command, which should feel kinda like the normal Emacs @code{undo}
18988 @section Moderation
18991 If you are a moderator, you can use the @file{gnus-mdrtn.el} package.
18992 It is not included in the standard Gnus package. Write a mail to
18993 @samp{larsi@@gnus.org} and state what group you moderate, and you'll
18996 The moderation package is implemented as a minor mode for summary
19000 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-moderate)
19003 in your @file{.gnus.el} file.
19005 If you are the moderator of @samp{rec.zoofle}, this is how it's
19010 You split your incoming mail by matching on
19011 @samp{Newsgroups:.*rec.zoofle}, which will put all the to-be-posted
19012 articles in some mail group---for instance, @samp{nnml:rec.zoofle}.
19015 You enter that group once in a while and post articles using the @kbd{e}
19016 (edit-and-post) or @kbd{s} (just send unedited) commands.
19019 If, while reading the @samp{rec.zoofle} newsgroup, you happen upon some
19020 articles that weren't approved by you, you can cancel them with the
19024 To use moderation mode in these two groups, say:
19027 (setq gnus-moderated-list
19028 "^nnml:rec.zoofle$\\|^rec.zoofle$")
19032 @node XEmacs Enhancements
19033 @section XEmacs Enhancements
19036 XEmacs is able to display pictures and stuff, so Gnus has taken
19040 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what your reading.
19041 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
19042 * Toolbar:: Click'n'drool.
19043 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
19056 So@dots{} You want to slow down your news reader even more! This is a
19057 good way to do so. Its also a great way to impress people staring
19058 over your shoulder as you read news.
19061 * Picon Basics:: What are picons and How do I get them.
19062 * Picon Requirements:: Don't go further if you aren't using XEmacs.
19063 * Easy Picons:: Displaying Picons---the easy way.
19064 * Hard Picons:: The way you should do it. You'll learn something.
19065 * Picon Useless Configuration:: Other variables you can trash/tweak/munge/play with.
19070 @subsubsection Picon Basics
19072 What are Picons? To quote directly from the Picons Web site:
19081 @dfn{Picons} is short for ``personal icons''. They're small,
19082 constrained images used to represent users and domains on the net,
19083 organized into databases so that the appropriate image for a given
19084 e-mail address can be found. Besides users and domains, there are picon
19085 databases for Usenet newsgroups and weather forecasts. The picons are
19086 in either monochrome @code{XBM} format or color @code{XPM} and
19087 @code{GIF} formats.
19090 @vindex gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
19091 If you have a permanent connection to the Internet you can use Steve
19092 Kinzler's Picons Search engine by setting
19093 @code{gnus-picons-piconsearch-url} to the string @*
19094 @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/search.html}.
19096 @vindex gnus-picons-database
19097 Otherwise you need a local copy of his database. For instructions on
19098 obtaining and installing the picons databases, point your Web browser at @*
19099 @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/ftp/index.html}. Gnus expects
19100 picons to be installed into a location pointed to by
19101 @code{gnus-picons-database}.
19104 @node Picon Requirements
19105 @subsubsection Picon Requirements
19107 To have Gnus display Picons for you, you must be running XEmacs
19108 19.13 or greater since all other versions of Emacs aren't yet able to
19111 Additionally, you must have @code{x} support compiled into XEmacs. To
19112 display color picons which are much nicer than the black & white one,
19113 you also need one of @code{xpm} or @code{gif} compiled into XEmacs.
19115 @vindex gnus-picons-convert-x-face
19116 If you want to display faces from @code{X-Face} headers, you should have
19117 the @code{xface} support compiled into XEmacs. Otherwise you must have
19118 the @code{netpbm} utilities installed, or munge the
19119 @code{gnus-picons-convert-x-face} variable to use something else.
19123 @subsubsection Easy Picons
19125 To enable displaying picons, simply put the following line in your
19126 @file{~/.gnus} file and start Gnus.
19129 (setq gnus-use-picons t)
19130 (setq gnus-treat-display-picons t)
19133 and make sure @code{gnus-picons-database} points to the directory
19134 containing the Picons databases.
19136 Alternatively if you want to use the web piconsearch engine add this:
19139 (setq gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
19140 "http://www.cs.indiana.edu:800/piconsearch")
19145 @subsubsection Hard Picons
19153 Gnus can display picons for you as you enter and leave groups and
19154 articles. It knows how to interact with three sections of the picons
19155 database. Namely, it can display the picons newsgroup pictures,
19156 author's face picture(s), and the authors domain. To enable this
19157 feature, you need to select where to get the picons from, and where to
19162 @item gnus-picons-database
19163 @vindex gnus-picons-database
19164 The location of the picons database. Should point to a directory
19165 containing the @file{news}, @file{domains}, @file{users} (and so on)
19166 subdirectories. This is only useful if
19167 @code{gnus-picons-piconsearch-url} is @code{nil}. Defaults to
19168 @file{/usr/local/faces/}.
19170 @item gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
19171 @vindex gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
19172 The URL for the web picons search engine. The only currently known
19173 engine is @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu:800/piconsearch}. To
19174 workaround network delays, icons will be fetched in the background. If
19175 this is @code{nil} 'the default), then picons are fetched from local
19176 database indicated by @code{gnus-picons-database}.
19178 @item gnus-picons-display-where
19179 @vindex gnus-picons-display-where
19180 Where the picon images should be displayed. It is @code{picons} by
19181 default (which by default maps to the buffer @samp{*Picons*}). Other
19182 valid places could be @code{article}, @code{summary}, or
19183 @samp{*scratch*} for all I care. Just make sure that you've made the
19184 buffer visible using the standard Gnus window configuration
19185 routines---@pxref{Window Layout}.
19187 @item gnus-picons-group-excluded-groups
19188 @vindex gnus-picons-group-excluded-groups
19189 Groups that are matched by this regexp won't have their group icons
19194 Note: If you set @code{gnus-use-picons} to @code{t}, it will set up your
19195 window configuration for you to include the @code{picons} buffer.
19197 Now that you've made those decision, you need to add the following
19198 functions to the appropriate hooks so these pictures will get displayed
19201 @vindex gnus-picons-display-where
19203 @item gnus-article-display-picons
19204 @findex gnus-article-display-picons
19205 Looks up and displays the picons for the author and the author's domain
19206 in the @code{gnus-picons-display-where} buffer.
19208 @item gnus-picons-article-display-x-face
19209 @findex gnus-article-display-picons
19210 Decodes and displays the X-Face header if present.
19216 @node Picon Useless Configuration
19217 @subsubsection Picon Useless Configuration
19225 The following variables offer further control over how things are
19226 done, where things are located, and other useless stuff you really
19227 don't need to worry about.
19231 @item gnus-picons-news-directories
19232 @vindex gnus-picons-news-directories
19233 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picons-database} for
19234 newsgroups faces. @code{("news")} is the default.
19236 @item gnus-picons-user-directories
19237 @vindex gnus-picons-user-directories
19238 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picons-database} for user
19239 faces. @code{("local" "users" "usenix" "misc")} is the default.
19241 @item gnus-picons-domain-directories
19242 @vindex gnus-picons-domain-directories
19243 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picons-database} for
19244 domain name faces. Defaults to @code{("domains")}. Some people may
19245 want to add @samp{"unknown"} to this list.
19247 @item gnus-picons-convert-x-face
19248 @vindex gnus-picons-convert-x-face
19249 If you don't have @code{xface} support builtin XEmacs, this is the
19250 command to use to convert the @code{X-Face} header to an X bitmap
19251 (@code{xbm}). Defaults to @code{(format "@{ echo '/* Width=48,
19252 Height=48 */'; uncompface; @} | icontopbm | pbmtoxbm > %s"
19253 gnus-picons-x-face-file-name)}
19255 @item gnus-picons-x-face-file-name
19256 @vindex gnus-picons-x-face-file-name
19257 Names a temporary file to store the @code{X-Face} bitmap in. Defaults
19258 to @code{(format "/tmp/picon-xface.%s.xbm" (user-login-name))}.
19260 @item gnus-picons-has-modeline-p
19261 @vindex gnus-picons-has-modeline-p
19262 If you have set @code{gnus-picons-display-where} to @code{picons}, your
19263 XEmacs frame will become really cluttered. To alleviate this a bit you
19264 can set @code{gnus-picons-has-modeline-p} to @code{nil}; this will
19265 remove the mode line from the Picons buffer. This is only useful if
19266 @code{gnus-picons-display-where} is @code{picons}.
19268 @item gnus-picons-refresh-before-display
19269 @vindex gnus-picons-refresh-before-display
19270 If non-nil, display the article buffer before computing the picons.
19271 Defaults to @code{nil}.
19273 @item gnus-picons-display-as-address
19274 @vindex gnus-picons-display-as-address
19275 If @code{t} display textual email addresses along with pictures.
19276 Defaults to @code{t}.
19278 @item gnus-picons-file-suffixes
19279 @vindex gnus-picons-file-suffixes
19280 Ordered list of suffixes on picon file names to try. Defaults to
19281 @code{("xpm" "gif" "xbm")} minus those not builtin your XEmacs.
19283 @item gnus-picons-setup-hook
19284 @vindex gnus-picons-setup-hook
19285 Hook run in the picon buffer, if that is displayed.
19287 @item gnus-picons-display-article-move-p
19288 @vindex gnus-picons-display-article-move-p
19289 Whether to move point to first empty line when displaying picons. This
19290 has only an effect if `gnus-picons-display-where' has value `article'.
19292 If @code{nil}, display the picons in the @code{From} and
19293 @code{Newsgroups} lines. This is the default.
19295 @item gnus-picons-clear-cache-on-shutdown
19296 @vindex gnus-picons-clear-cache-on-shutdown
19297 Whether to clear the picons cache when exiting gnus. Gnus caches every
19298 picons it finds while it is running. This saves some time in the search
19299 process but eats some memory. If this variable is set to @code{nil},
19300 Gnus will never clear the cache itself; you will have to manually call
19301 @code{gnus-picons-clear-cache} to clear it. Otherwise the cache will be
19302 cleared every time you exit Gnus. Defaults to @code{t}.
19313 @subsection Smileys
19318 \gnusfig{-3cm}{0.5cm}{\epsfig{figure=tmp/BigFace.ps,height=20cm}}
19323 @dfn{Smiley} is a package separate from Gnus, but since Gnus is
19324 currently the only package that uses Smiley, it is documented here.
19326 In short---to use Smiley in Gnus, put the following in your
19327 @file{.gnus.el} file:
19330 (setq gnus-treat-display-smileys t)
19333 Smiley maps text smiley faces---@samp{:-)}, @samp{:-=}, @samp{:-(} and
19334 the like---to pictures and displays those instead of the text smiley
19335 faces. The conversion is controlled by a list of regexps that matches
19336 text and maps that to file names.
19338 @vindex smiley-nosey-regexp-alist
19339 @vindex smiley-deformed-regexp-alist
19340 Smiley supplies two example conversion alists by default:
19341 @code{smiley-deformed-regexp-alist} (which matches @samp{:)}, @samp{:(}
19342 and so on), and @code{smiley-nosey-regexp-alist} (which matches
19343 @samp{:-)}, @samp{:-(} and so on).
19345 The alist used is specified by the @code{smiley-regexp-alist} variable,
19346 which defaults to the value of @code{smiley-deformed-regexp-alist}.
19348 The first item in each element is the regexp to be matched; the second
19349 element is the regexp match group that is to be replaced by the picture;
19350 and the third element is the name of the file to be displayed.
19352 The following variables customize where Smiley will look for these
19353 files, as well as the color to be used and stuff:
19357 @item smiley-data-directory
19358 @vindex smiley-data-directory
19359 Where Smiley will look for smiley faces files.
19361 @item smiley-flesh-color
19362 @vindex smiley-flesh-color
19363 Skin color. The default is @samp{yellow}, which is really racist.
19365 @item smiley-features-color
19366 @vindex smiley-features-color
19367 Color of the features of the face. The default is @samp{black}.
19369 @item smiley-tongue-color
19370 @vindex smiley-tongue-color
19371 Color of the tongue. The default is @samp{red}.
19373 @item smiley-circle-color
19374 @vindex smiley-circle-color
19375 Color of the circle around the face. The default is @samp{black}.
19377 @item smiley-mouse-face
19378 @vindex smiley-mouse-face
19379 Face used for mouse highlighting over the smiley face.
19385 @subsection Toolbar
19395 @item gnus-use-toolbar
19396 @vindex gnus-use-toolbar
19397 If @code{nil}, don't display toolbars. If non-@code{nil}, it should be
19398 one of @code{default-toolbar}, @code{top-toolbar}, @code{bottom-toolbar},
19399 @code{right-toolbar}, or @code{left-toolbar}.
19401 @item gnus-group-toolbar
19402 @vindex gnus-group-toolbar
19403 The toolbar in the group buffer.
19405 @item gnus-summary-toolbar
19406 @vindex gnus-summary-toolbar
19407 The toolbar in the summary buffer.
19409 @item gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
19410 @vindex gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
19411 The toolbar in the summary buffer of mail groups.
19417 @subsection Various XEmacs Variables
19420 @item gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
19421 @vindex gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
19422 This is where Gnus will look for pictures. Gnus will normally
19423 auto-detect this directory, but you may set it manually if you have an
19424 unusual directory structure.
19426 @item gnus-xmas-logo-color-alist
19427 @vindex gnus-xmas-logo-color-alist
19428 This is an alist where the key is a type symbol and the values are the
19429 foreground and background color of the splash page glyph.
19431 @item gnus-xmas-logo-color-style
19432 @vindex gnus-xmas-logo-color-style
19433 This is the key used to look up the color in the alist described above.
19434 Valid values include @code{flame}, @code{pine}, @code{moss},
19435 @code{irish}, @code{sky}, @code{tin}, @code{velvet}, @code{grape},
19436 @code{labia}, @code{berry}, @code{neutral}, and @code{september}.
19438 @item gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
19439 @vindex gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
19440 A glyph displayed in all Gnus mode lines. It is a tiny gnu head by
19454 @node Fuzzy Matching
19455 @section Fuzzy Matching
19456 @cindex fuzzy matching
19458 Gnus provides @dfn{fuzzy matching} of @code{Subject} lines when doing
19459 things like scoring, thread gathering and thread comparison.
19461 As opposed to regular expression matching, fuzzy matching is very fuzzy.
19462 It's so fuzzy that there's not even a definition of what @dfn{fuzziness}
19463 means, and the implementation has changed over time.
19465 Basically, it tries to remove all noise from lines before comparing.
19466 @samp{Re: }, parenthetical remarks, white space, and so on, are filtered
19467 out of the strings before comparing the results. This often leads to
19468 adequate results---even when faced with strings generated by text
19469 manglers masquerading as newsreaders.
19472 @node Thwarting Email Spam
19473 @section Thwarting Email Spam
19477 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
19479 In these last days of the Usenet, commercial vultures are hanging about
19480 and grepping through news like crazy to find email addresses they can
19481 foist off their scams and products to. As a reaction to this, many
19482 people have started putting nonsense addresses into their @code{From}
19483 lines. I think this is counterproductive---it makes it difficult for
19484 people to send you legitimate mail in response to things you write, as
19485 well as making it difficult to see who wrote what. This rewriting may
19486 perhaps be a bigger menace than the unsolicited commercial email itself
19489 The biggest problem I have with email spam is that it comes in under
19490 false pretenses. I press @kbd{g} and Gnus merrily informs me that I
19491 have 10 new emails. I say ``Golly gee! Happy is me!'' and select the
19492 mail group, only to find two pyramid schemes, seven advertisements
19493 (``New! Miracle tonic for growing full, lustrous hair on your toes!'')
19494 and one mail asking me to repent and find some god.
19498 The way to deal with this is having Gnus split out all spam into a
19499 @samp{spam} mail group (@pxref{Splitting Mail}).
19501 First, pick one (1) valid mail address that you can be reached at, and
19502 put it in your @code{From} header of all your news articles. (I've
19503 chosen @samp{larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no}, but for many addresses on the form
19504 @samp{larsi+usenet@@ifi.uio.no} will be a better choice. Ask your
19505 sysadmin whether your sendmail installation accepts keywords in the local
19506 part of the mail address.)
19509 (setq message-default-news-headers
19510 "From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no>\n")
19513 Then put the following split rule in @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
19514 (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}):
19519 (to "larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no"
19520 (| ("subject" "re:.*" "misc")
19521 ("references" ".*@@.*" "misc")
19527 This says that all mail to this address is suspect, but if it has a
19528 @code{Subject} that starts with a @samp{Re:} or has a @code{References}
19529 header, it's probably ok. All the rest goes to the @samp{spam} group.
19530 (This idea probably comes from Tim Pierce.)
19532 In addition, many mail spammers talk directly to your @code{smtp} server
19533 and do not include your email address explicitly in the @code{To}
19534 header. Why they do this is unknown---perhaps it's to thwart this
19535 thwarting scheme? In any case, this is trivial to deal with---you just
19536 put anything not addressed to you in the @samp{spam} group by ending
19537 your fancy split rule in this way:
19542 (to "larsi" "misc")
19546 In my experience, this will sort virtually everything into the right
19547 group. You still have to check the @samp{spam} group from time to time to
19548 check for legitimate mail, though. If you feel like being a good net
19549 citizen, you can even send off complaints to the proper authorities on
19550 each unsolicited commercial email---at your leisure.
19552 If you are also a lazy net citizen, you will probably prefer complaining
19553 automatically with the @file{gnus-junk.el} package, available FOR FREE
19554 at @* @uref{http://stud2.tuwien.ac.at/~e9426626/gnus-junk.html}.
19555 Since most e-mail spam is sent automatically, this may reconcile the
19556 cosmic balance somewhat.
19558 This works for me. It allows people an easy way to contact me (they can
19559 just press @kbd{r} in the usual way), and I'm not bothered at all with
19560 spam. It's a win-win situation. Forging @code{From} headers to point
19561 to non-existent domains is yucky, in my opinion.
19564 @node Various Various
19565 @section Various Various
19571 @item gnus-home-directory
19572 All Gnus path variables will be initialized from this variable, which
19573 defaults to @file{~/}.
19575 @item gnus-directory
19576 @vindex gnus-directory
19577 Most Gnus storage path variables will be initialized from this variable,
19578 which defaults to the @samp{SAVEDIR} environment variable, or
19579 @file{~/News/} if that variable isn't set.
19581 Note that Gnus is mostly loaded when the @file{.gnus.el} file is read.
19582 This means that other directory variables that are initialized from this
19583 variable won't be set properly if you set this variable in
19584 @file{.gnus.el}. Set this variable in @file{.emacs} instead.
19586 @item gnus-default-directory
19587 @vindex gnus-default-directory
19588 Not related to the above variable at all---this variable says what the
19589 default directory of all Gnus buffers should be. If you issue commands
19590 like @kbd{C-x C-f}, the prompt you'll get starts in the current buffer's
19591 default directory. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
19592 default), the default directory will be the default directory of the
19593 buffer you were in when you started Gnus.
19596 @vindex gnus-verbose
19597 This variable is an integer between zero and ten. The higher the value,
19598 the more messages will be displayed. If this variable is zero, Gnus
19599 will never flash any messages, if it is seven (which is the default),
19600 most important messages will be shown, and if it is ten, Gnus won't ever
19601 shut up, but will flash so many messages it will make your head swim.
19603 @item gnus-verbose-backends
19604 @vindex gnus-verbose-backends
19605 This variable works the same way as @code{gnus-verbose}, but it applies
19606 to the Gnus backends instead of Gnus proper.
19608 @item nnheader-max-head-length
19609 @vindex nnheader-max-head-length
19610 When the backends read straight heads of articles, they all try to read
19611 as little as possible. This variable (default 4096) specifies
19612 the absolute max length the backends will try to read before giving up
19613 on finding a separator line between the head and the body. If this
19614 variable is @code{nil}, there is no upper read bound. If it is
19615 @code{t}, the backends won't try to read the articles piece by piece,
19616 but read the entire articles. This makes sense with some versions of
19617 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs}.
19619 @item nnheader-head-chop-length
19620 @vindex nnheader-head-chop-length
19621 This variable (default 2048) says how big a piece of each article to
19622 read when doing the operation described above.
19624 @item nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
19625 @vindex nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
19627 @cindex invalid characters in file names
19628 @cindex characters in file names
19629 This is an alist that says how to translate characters in file names.
19630 For instance, if @samp{:} is invalid as a file character in file names
19631 on your system (you OS/2 user you), you could say something like:
19634 (setq nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
19638 In fact, this is the default value for this variable on OS/2 and MS
19639 Windows (phooey) systems.
19641 @item gnus-hidden-properties
19642 @vindex gnus-hidden-properties
19643 This is a list of properties to use to hide ``invisible'' text. It is
19644 @code{(invisible t intangible t)} by default on most systems, which
19645 makes invisible text invisible and intangible.
19647 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
19648 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
19649 A hook called before parsing headers. It can be used, for instance, to
19650 gather statistics on the headers fetched, or perhaps you'd like to prune
19651 some headers. I don't see why you'd want that, though.
19653 @item gnus-shell-command-separator
19654 @vindex gnus-shell-command-separator
19655 String used to separate two shell commands. The default is @samp{;}.
19657 @item gnus-invalid-group-regexp
19658 @vindex gnus-invalid-group-regexp
19660 Regexp to match ``invalid'' group names when querying user for a group
19661 name. The default value catches some @strong{really} invalid group
19662 names who could possibly mess up Gnus internally (like allowing
19663 @samp{:} in a group name, which is normally used to delimit method and
19666 @sc{imap} users might want to allow @samp{/} in group names though.
19675 Well, that's the manual---you can get on with your life now. Keep in
19676 touch. Say hello to your cats from me.
19678 My @strong{ghod}---I just can't stand goodbyes. Sniffle.
19680 Ol' Charles Reznikoff said it pretty well, so I leave the floor to him:
19686 Not because of victories @*
19689 but for the common sunshine,@*
19691 the largess of the spring.
19695 but for the day's work done@*
19696 as well as I was able;@*
19697 not for a seat upon the dais@*
19698 but at the common table.@*
19703 @chapter Appendices
19706 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
19707 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
19708 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
19709 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
19710 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
19711 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
19712 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
19713 * Frequently Asked Questions::
19721 @sc{gnus} was written by Masanobu @sc{Umeda}. When autumn crept up in
19722 '94, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen grew bored and decided to rewrite Gnus.
19724 If you want to investigate the person responsible for this outrage,
19725 you can point your (feh!) web browser to
19726 @uref{http://quimby.gnus.org/}. This is also the primary
19727 distribution point for the new and spiffy versions of Gnus, and is
19728 known as The Site That Destroys Newsrcs And Drives People Mad.
19730 During the first extended alpha period of development, the new Gnus was
19731 called ``(ding) Gnus''. @dfn{(ding)} is, of course, short for
19732 @dfn{ding is not Gnus}, which is a total and utter lie, but who cares?
19733 (Besides, the ``Gnus'' in this abbreviation should probably be
19734 pronounced ``news'' as @sc{Umeda} intended, which makes it a more
19735 appropriate name, don't you think?)
19737 In any case, after spending all that energy on coming up with a new and
19738 spunky name, we decided that the name was @emph{too} spunky, so we
19739 renamed it back again to ``Gnus''. But in mixed case. ``Gnus'' vs.
19740 ``@sc{gnus}''. New vs. old.
19743 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
19744 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
19745 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
19746 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
19747 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
19748 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
19749 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
19750 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
19751 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
19755 @node Gnus Versions
19756 @subsection Gnus Versions
19757 @cindex Pterodactyl Gnus
19759 @cindex September Gnus
19760 @cindex Quassia Gnus
19762 The first ``proper'' release of Gnus 5 was done in November 1995 when it
19763 was included in the Emacs 19.30 distribution (132 (ding) Gnus releases
19764 plus 15 Gnus 5.0 releases).
19766 In May 1996 the next Gnus generation (aka. ``September Gnus'' (after 99
19767 releases)) was released under the name ``Gnus 5.2'' (40 releases).
19769 On July 28th 1996 work on Red Gnus was begun, and it was released on
19770 January 25th 1997 (after 84 releases) as ``Gnus 5.4'' (67 releases).
19772 On September 13th 1997, Quassia Gnus was started and lasted 37 releases.
19773 If was released as ``Gnus 5.6'' on March 8th 1998 (46 releases).
19775 Gnus 5.6 begat Pterodactyl Gnus on August 29th 1998 and was released as
19776 ``Gnus 5.8'' (after 99 releases and a CVS repository) on December 3rd
19779 On the 26th of October 2000, Oort Gnus was begun.
19781 If you happen upon a version of Gnus that has a prefixed name --
19782 ``(ding) Gnus'', ``September Gnus'', ``Red Gnus'', ``Quassia Gnus'',
19783 ``Pterodactyl Gnus'', ``Oort Gnus'' -- don't panic. Don't let it know
19784 that you're frightened. Back away. Slowly. Whatever you do, don't
19785 run. Walk away, calmly, until you're out of its reach. Find a proper
19786 released version of Gnus and snuggle up to that instead.
19789 @node Other Gnus Versions
19790 @subsection Other Gnus Versions
19793 In addition to the versions of Gnus which have had their releases
19794 coordinated by Lars, one major development has been Semi-gnus from
19795 Japan. It's based on a library called @sc{semi}, which provides
19796 @sc{mime} capabilities.
19798 These Gnusae are based mainly on Gnus 5.6 and Pterodactyl Gnus.
19799 Collectively, they are called ``Semi-gnus'', and different strains are
19800 called T-gnus, ET-gnus, Nana-gnus and Chaos. These provide powerful
19801 @sc{mime} and multilingualization things, especially important for
19808 What's the point of Gnus?
19810 I want to provide a ``rad'', ``happening'', ``way cool'' and ``hep''
19811 newsreader, that lets you do anything you can think of. That was my
19812 original motivation, but while working on Gnus, it has become clear to
19813 me that this generation of newsreaders really belong in the stone age.
19814 Newsreaders haven't developed much since the infancy of the net. If the
19815 volume continues to rise with the current rate of increase, all current
19816 newsreaders will be pretty much useless. How do you deal with
19817 newsgroups that have thousands of new articles each day? How do you
19818 keep track of millions of people who post?
19820 Gnus offers no real solutions to these questions, but I would very much
19821 like to see Gnus being used as a testing ground for new methods of
19822 reading and fetching news. Expanding on @sc{Umeda}-san's wise decision
19823 to separate the newsreader from the backends, Gnus now offers a simple
19824 interface for anybody who wants to write new backends for fetching mail
19825 and news from different sources. I have added hooks for customizations
19826 everywhere I could imagine it being useful. By doing so, I'm inviting
19827 every one of you to explore and invent.
19829 May Gnus never be complete. @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-emacs} and
19830 @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-xemacs}.
19833 @node Compatibility
19834 @subsection Compatibility
19836 @cindex compatibility
19837 Gnus was designed to be fully compatible with @sc{gnus}. Almost all key
19838 bindings have been kept. More key bindings have been added, of course,
19839 but only in one or two obscure cases have old bindings been changed.
19844 @center In a cloud bones of steel.
19848 All commands have kept their names. Some internal functions have changed
19851 The @code{gnus-uu} package has changed drastically. @xref{Decoding
19854 One major compatibility question is the presence of several summary
19855 buffers. All variables relevant while reading a group are
19856 buffer-local to the summary buffer they belong in. Although many
19857 important variables have their values copied into their global
19858 counterparts whenever a command is executed in the summary buffer, this
19859 change might lead to incorrect values being used unless you are careful.
19861 All code that relies on knowledge of @sc{gnus} internals will probably
19862 fail. To take two examples: Sorting @code{gnus-newsrc-alist} (or
19863 changing it in any way, as a matter of fact) is strictly verboten. Gnus
19864 maintains a hash table that points to the entries in this alist (which
19865 speeds up many functions), and changing the alist directly will lead to
19869 @cindex highlighting
19870 Old hilit19 code does not work at all. In fact, you should probably
19871 remove all hilit code from all Gnus hooks
19872 (@code{gnus-group-prepare-hook} and @code{gnus-summary-prepare-hook}).
19873 Gnus provides various integrated functions for highlighting. These are
19874 faster and more accurate. To make life easier for everybody, Gnus will
19875 by default remove all hilit calls from all hilit hooks. Uncleanliness!
19878 Packages like @code{expire-kill} will no longer work. As a matter of
19879 fact, you should probably remove all old @sc{gnus} packages (and other
19880 code) when you start using Gnus. More likely than not, Gnus already
19881 does what you have written code to make @sc{gnus} do. (Snicker.)
19883 Even though old methods of doing things are still supported, only the
19884 new methods are documented in this manual. If you detect a new method of
19885 doing something while reading this manual, that does not mean you have
19886 to stop doing it the old way.
19888 Gnus understands all @sc{gnus} startup files.
19890 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
19892 @cindex reporting bugs
19894 Overall, a casual user who hasn't written much code that depends on
19895 @sc{gnus} internals should suffer no problems. If problems occur,
19896 please let me know by issuing that magic command @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}.
19898 @vindex gnus-bug-create-help-buffer
19899 If you are in the habit of sending bug reports @emph{very} often, you
19900 may find the helpful help buffer annoying after a while. If so, set
19901 @code{gnus-bug-create-help-buffer} to @code{nil} to avoid having it pop
19906 @subsection Conformity
19908 No rebels without a clue here, ma'am. We conform to all standards known
19909 to (wo)man. Except for those standards and/or conventions we disagree
19916 There are no known breaches of this standard.
19920 There are no known breaches of this standard, either.
19922 @item Son-of-RFC 1036
19923 @cindex Son-of-RFC 1036
19924 We do have some breaches to this one.
19930 These are considered to be ``vanity headers'', while I consider them
19931 to be consumer information. After seeing so many badly formatted
19932 articles coming from @code{tin} and @code{Netscape} I know not to use
19933 either of those for posting articles. I would not have known that if
19934 it wasn't for the @code{X-Newsreader} header.
19939 USEFOR is an IETF working group writing a successor to RFC 1036, based
19940 on Son-of-RFC 1036. They have produced a number of drafts proposing
19941 various changes to the format of news articles. The Gnus towers will
19942 look into implementing the changes when the draft is accepted as an RFC.
19946 If you ever notice Gnus acting non-compliant with regards to the texts
19947 mentioned above, don't hesitate to drop a note to Gnus Towers and let us
19952 @subsection Emacsen
19958 Gnus should work on :
19966 XEmacs 20.4 and up.
19970 This Gnus version will absolutely not work on any Emacsen older than
19971 that. Not reliably, at least. Older versions of Gnus may work on older
19974 There are some vague differences between Gnus on the various
19975 platforms---XEmacs features more graphics (a logo and a toolbar)---but
19976 other than that, things should look pretty much the same under all
19980 @node Gnus Development
19981 @subsection Gnus Development
19983 Gnus is developed in a two-phased cycle. The first phase involves much
19984 discussion on the @samp{ding@@gnus.org} mailing list, where people
19985 propose changes and new features, post patches and new backends. This
19986 phase is called the @dfn{alpha} phase, since the Gnusae released in this
19987 phase are @dfn{alpha releases}, or (perhaps more commonly in other
19988 circles) @dfn{snapshots}. During this phase, Gnus is assumed to be
19989 unstable and should not be used by casual users. Gnus alpha releases
19990 have names like ``Red Gnus'' and ``Quassia Gnus''.
19992 After futzing around for 50-100 alpha releases, Gnus is declared
19993 @dfn{frozen}, and only bug fixes are applied. Gnus loses the prefix,
19994 and is called things like ``Gnus 5.6.32'' instead. Normal people are
19995 supposed to be able to use these, and these are mostly discussed on the
19996 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} newsgroup.
19999 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
20000 Some variable defaults differ between alpha Gnusae and released Gnusae.
20001 In particular, @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} defaults to @code{nil} in
20002 alpha Gnusae and @code{t} in released Gnusae. This is to prevent
20003 lossage of mail if an alpha release hiccups while handling the mail.
20005 The division of discussion between the ding mailing list and the Gnus
20006 newsgroup is not purely based on publicity concerns. It's true that
20007 having people write about the horrible things that an alpha Gnus release
20008 can do (sometimes) in a public forum may scare people off, but more
20009 importantly, talking about new experimental features that have been
20010 introduced may confuse casual users. New features are frequently
20011 introduced, fiddled with, and judged to be found wanting, and then
20012 either discarded or totally rewritten. People reading the mailing list
20013 usually keep up with these rapid changes, while people on the newsgroup
20014 can't be assumed to do so.
20019 @subsection Contributors
20020 @cindex contributors
20022 The new Gnus version couldn't have been done without the help of all the
20023 people on the (ding) mailing list. Every day for over a year I have
20024 gotten billions of nice bug reports from them, filling me with joy,
20025 every single one of them. Smooches. The people on the list have been
20026 tried beyond endurance, what with my ``oh, that's a neat idea <type
20027 type>, yup, I'll release it right away <ship off> no wait, that doesn't
20028 work at all <type type>, yup, I'll ship that one off right away <ship
20029 off> no, wait, that absolutely does not work'' policy for releases.
20030 Micro$oft---bah. Amateurs. I'm @emph{much} worse. (Or is that
20031 ``worser''? ``much worser''? ``worsest''?)
20033 I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Academy for... oops,
20039 Masanobu @sc{Umeda}---the writer of the original @sc{gnus}.
20042 Shenghuo Zhu---uudecode.el, mm-uu.el, rfc1843.el, webmail.el,
20043 nnwarchive and many, many other things connected with @sc{mime} and
20044 other types of en/decoding, as well as general bug fixing, new
20045 functionality and stuff.
20048 Per Abrahamsen---custom, scoring, highlighting and @sc{soup} code (as
20049 well as numerous other things).
20052 Luis Fernandes---design and graphics.
20055 Joe Reiss---creator of the smiley faces.
20058 Justin Sheehy--the FAQ maintainer.
20061 Erik Naggum---help, ideas, support, code and stuff.
20064 Wes Hardaker---@file{gnus-picon.el} and the manual section on
20065 @dfn{picons} (@pxref{Picons}).
20068 Kim-Minh Kaplan---further work on the picon code.
20071 Brad Miller---@file{gnus-gl.el} and the GroupLens manual section
20072 (@pxref{GroupLens}).
20075 Sudish Joseph---innumerable bug fixes.
20078 Ilja Weis---@file{gnus-topic.el}.
20081 Steven L. Baur---lots and lots and lots of bugs detections and fixes.
20084 Vladimir Alexiev---the refcard and reference booklets.
20087 Felix Lee & Jamie Zawinski---I stole some pieces from the XGnus
20088 distribution by Felix Lee and JWZ.
20091 Scott Byer---@file{nnfolder.el} enhancements & rewrite.
20094 Peter Mutsaers---orphan article scoring code.
20097 Ken Raeburn---POP mail support.
20100 Hallvard B Furuseth---various bits and pieces, especially dealing with
20104 Brian Edmonds---@file{gnus-bbdb.el}.
20107 David Moore---rewrite of @file{nnvirtual.el} and many other things.
20110 Kevin Davidson---came up with the name @dfn{ding}, so blame him.
20113 François Pinard---many, many interesting and thorough bug reports, as
20114 well as autoconf support.
20118 This manual was proof-read by Adrian Aichner, with Ricardo Nassif, Mark
20119 Borges, and Jost Krieger proof-reading parts of the manual.
20121 The following people have contributed many patches and suggestions:
20130 Jason L. Tibbitts, III,
20134 Also thanks to the following for patches and stuff:
20144 Alexei V. Barantsev,
20159 Massimo Campostrini,
20164 Jae-you Chung, @c ?
20165 James H. Cloos, Jr.,
20169 Andrew J. Cosgriff,
20172 Geoffrey T. Dairiki,
20178 Michael Welsh Duggan,
20183 Enami Tsugutomo, @c Enami
20187 Nelson Jose dos Santos Ferreira,
20195 Arne Georg Gleditsch,
20197 Michelangelo Grigni,
20201 Kenichi Handa, @c Handa
20203 Yoshiki Hayashi, @c ?
20205 Hisashige Kenji, @c Hisashige
20212 François Felix Ingrand,
20213 Tatsuya Ichikawa, @c ?
20214 Ishikawa Ichiro, @c Ishikawa
20216 Iwamuro Motonori, @c Iwamuro
20227 Peter Skov Knudsen,
20228 Shuhei Kobayashi, @c Kobayashi
20230 Koseki Yoshinori, @c Koseki
20231 Thor Kristoffersen,
20234 Seokchan Lee, @c Lee
20252 Morioka Tomohiko, @c Morioka
20253 Erik Toubro Nielsen,
20260 Masaharu Onishi, @c Onishi
20265 Jens-Ulrik Holger Petersen,
20269 John McClary Prevost,
20275 Lars Balker Rasmussen,
20280 Christian von Roques,
20283 Wolfgang Rupprecht,
20290 Philippe Schnoebelen,
20292 Randal L. Schwartz,
20306 Kiyokazu Suto, @c Suto
20311 Tozawa Akihiko, @c Tozawa
20327 Katsumi Yamaoka @c Yamaoka
20332 For a full overview of what each person has done, the ChangeLogs
20333 included in the Gnus alpha distributions should give ample reading
20334 (550kB and counting).
20336 Apologies to everybody that I've forgotten, of which there are many, I'm
20339 Gee, that's quite a list of people. I guess that must mean that there
20340 actually are people who are using Gnus. Who'd'a thunk it!
20344 @subsection New Features
20345 @cindex new features
20348 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
20349 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
20350 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
20351 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
20352 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
20355 These lists are, of course, just @emph{short} overviews of the
20356 @emph{most} important new features. No, really. There are tons more.
20357 Yes, we have feeping creaturism in full effect.
20360 @subsubsection (ding) Gnus
20362 New features in Gnus 5.0/5.1:
20367 The look of all buffers can be changed by setting format-like variables
20368 (@pxref{Group Buffer Format} and @pxref{Summary Buffer Format}).
20371 Local spool and several @sc{nntp} servers can be used at once
20372 (@pxref{Select Methods}).
20375 You can combine groups into virtual groups (@pxref{Virtual Groups}).
20378 You can read a number of different mail formats (@pxref{Getting Mail}).
20379 All the mail backends implement a convenient mail expiry scheme
20380 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
20383 Gnus can use various strategies for gathering threads that have lost
20384 their roots (thereby gathering loose sub-threads into one thread) or it
20385 can go back and retrieve enough headers to build a complete thread
20386 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
20389 Killed groups can be displayed in the group buffer, and you can read
20390 them as well (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
20393 Gnus can do partial group updates---you do not have to retrieve the
20394 entire active file just to check for new articles in a few groups
20395 (@pxref{The Active File}).
20398 Gnus implements a sliding scale of subscribedness to groups
20399 (@pxref{Group Levels}).
20402 You can score articles according to any number of criteria
20403 (@pxref{Scoring}). You can even get Gnus to find out how to score
20404 articles for you (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
20407 Gnus maintains a dribble buffer that is auto-saved the normal Emacs
20408 manner, so it should be difficult to lose much data on what you have
20409 read if your machine should go down (@pxref{Auto Save}).
20412 Gnus now has its own startup file (@file{.gnus}) to avoid cluttering up
20413 the @file{.emacs} file.
20416 You can set the process mark on both groups and articles and perform
20417 operations on all the marked items (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
20420 You can grep through a subset of groups and create a group from the
20421 results (@pxref{Kibozed Groups}).
20424 You can list subsets of groups according to, well, anything
20425 (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
20428 You can browse foreign servers and subscribe to groups from those
20429 servers (@pxref{Browse Foreign Server}).
20432 Gnus can fetch articles, asynchronously, on a second connection to the
20433 server (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
20436 You can cache articles locally (@pxref{Article Caching}).
20439 The uudecode functions have been expanded and generalized
20440 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
20443 You can still post uuencoded articles, which was a little-known feature
20444 of @sc{gnus}' past (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
20447 Fetching parents (and other articles) now actually works without
20448 glitches (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
20451 Gnus can fetch FAQs and group descriptions (@pxref{Group Information}).
20454 Digests (and other files) can be used as the basis for groups
20455 (@pxref{Document Groups}).
20458 Articles can be highlighted and customized (@pxref{Customizing
20462 URLs and other external references can be buttonized (@pxref{Article
20466 You can do lots of strange stuff with the Gnus window & frame
20467 configuration (@pxref{Window Layout}).
20470 You can click on buttons instead of using the keyboard
20476 @node September Gnus
20477 @subsubsection September Gnus
20481 \gnusfig{-28cm}{0cm}{\epsfig{figure=tmp/september.ps,height=20cm}}
20485 New features in Gnus 5.2/5.3:
20490 A new message composition mode is used. All old customization variables
20491 for @code{mail-mode}, @code{rnews-reply-mode} and @code{gnus-msg} are
20495 Gnus is now able to generate @dfn{sparse} threads---threads where
20496 missing articles are represented by empty nodes (@pxref{Customizing
20500 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
20504 Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server
20505 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
20508 Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
20512 Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions (@pxref{GroupLens}).
20515 Picons (personal icons) can be displayed under XEmacs (@pxref{Picons}).
20518 A @code{trn}-like tree buffer can be displayed (@pxref{Tree Display}).
20521 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
20525 An @code{nn}-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
20526 buffers (@pxref{Pick and Read}).
20529 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
20533 In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode (@pxref{Binary
20537 Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy (@pxref{Group
20541 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
20545 Gnus can re-send and bounce mail (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
20548 Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
20549 is possible (@pxref{Group Score}).
20552 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
20556 Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
20557 groups of groups (@pxref{Marking Groups}).
20560 Caching is possible in virtual groups.
20563 @code{nndoc} now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews
20564 news batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything
20565 else (@pxref{Document Groups}).
20568 Gnus has a new backend (@code{nnsoup}) to create/read SOUP packets
20572 The Gnus cache is much faster.
20575 Groups can be sorted according to many criteria (@pxref{Sorting
20579 New group parameters have been introduced to set list-addresses and
20580 expiry times (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
20583 All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used
20584 (@pxref{Formatting Fonts}).
20587 There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on process
20588 marked articles on the @kbd{M P} submap (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
20591 The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
20592 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
20593 bound to keys on the @kbd{/} submap (@pxref{Limiting}).
20596 Articles can be made persistent with the @kbd{*} command
20597 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
20600 All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
20603 Article headers can be buttonized (@pxref{Article Washing}).
20606 All mail backends support fetching articles by @code{Message-ID}.
20609 Duplicate mail can now be treated properly (@pxref{Duplicates}).
20612 All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
20613 buffer (@pxref{Article Keymap}).
20616 Frames can be part of @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} (@pxref{Window
20620 Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process (@pxref{Daemons}).
20623 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=tmp/fseptember.ps,height=5cm}]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/fseptember.ps,height=5cm}}
20628 Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to weed out spam (@pxref{NoCeM}).
20631 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
20635 Groups can be made permanently visible (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
20638 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
20642 Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
20645 Gnus respects the @code{Mail-Copies-To} header.
20648 Threads can be gathered by looking at the @code{References} header
20649 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
20652 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
20653 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
20657 Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
20658 refetching (@pxref{Article Backlog}).
20661 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
20665 A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
20666 buffer to allow easier treatment.
20669 Gnus can suggest where to save articles (@pxref{Saving Articles}).
20672 Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving (@pxref{Saving
20676 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
20680 @code{gnus-uu} can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
20681 articles (@pxref{Other Decode Variables}).
20684 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
20688 Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text
20689 (@pxref{Article Washing}).
20692 Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
20693 cited text to hide is now customizable (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
20696 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
20700 Boring headers can be hidden (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
20703 Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
20706 Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
20712 @subsubsection Red Gnus
20714 New features in Gnus 5.4/5.5:
20718 \gnusfig{-5.5cm}{-4cm}{\epsfig{figure=tmp/red.ps,height=20cm}}
20725 @file{nntp.el} has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
20728 Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
20729 Gnus (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
20732 Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like @code{and},
20733 @code{or}, @code{not}, and parent redirection (@pxref{Advanced
20737 Article washing status can be displayed in the
20738 article mode line (@pxref{Misc Article}).
20741 @file{gnus.el} has been split into many smaller files.
20744 Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID can be done
20745 (@pxref{Duplicate Suppression}).
20748 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
20752 New variables for specifying what score and adapt files are to be
20753 considered home score and adapt files (@pxref{Home Score File}) have
20757 @code{nndoc} was rewritten to be easily extendable (@pxref{Document
20758 Server Internals}).
20761 Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics (@pxref{Topic
20765 Article editing has been revamped and is now actually usable.
20768 Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions
20769 (@pxref{Article Signature}).
20772 Summary pick mode has been made to look more @code{nn}-like. Line
20773 numbers are displayed and the @kbd{.} command can be used to pick
20774 articles (@code{Pick and Read}).
20777 Commands for moving the @file{.newsrc.eld} from one server to
20778 another have been added (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
20781 There's a way now to specify that ``uninteresting'' fields be suppressed
20782 when generating lines in buffers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting}).
20785 Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with @kbd{M-C-_}
20789 Scoring can be done on words using the new score type @code{w}
20790 (@pxref{Score File Format}).
20793 Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis
20794 (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
20797 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
20801 Scores can be decayed (@pxref{Score Decays}).
20804 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
20808 Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The Date is
20809 normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first (@pxref{Score File Format}).
20812 A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
20813 the native server (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
20816 A new command for reading collections of documents
20817 (@code{nndoc} with @code{nnvirtual} on top) has been added---@kbd{M-C-d}
20818 (@pxref{Really Various Summary Commands}).
20821 Process mark sets can be pushed and popped (@pxref{Setting Process
20825 A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post even when the @sc{nntp}
20826 server doesn't allow posting (@pxref{Mail-To-News Gateways}).
20829 A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
20830 (@dfn{DejaNews}, @dfn{Alta Vista}, @dfn{InReference}) has been added
20831 (@pxref{Web Searches}).
20834 Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard sorting
20835 functions, and each topic can be sorted independently (@pxref{Topic
20839 Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently (@code{Sorting
20843 Cached articles can be pulled into the groups (@pxref{Summary Generation
20847 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=tmp/fred.ps,width=3cm}]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/fred.ps,width=3cm}}
20852 Score files are now applied in a more reliable order (@pxref{Score
20856 Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated (@pxref{Splitting
20860 More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk from incoming
20861 mail before saving the mail (@pxref{Washing Mail}).
20864 Emphasized text can be properly fontisized:
20870 @subsubsection Quassia Gnus
20872 New features in Gnus 5.6:
20877 New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
20878 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See
20879 @pxref{Gnus Unplugged} for the full story.
20882 The @code{nndraft} backend has returned, but works differently than
20883 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the @code{nndraft}
20884 group, which is created automatically.
20887 @code{gnus-alter-header-function} can now be used to alter header
20891 @code{gnus-summary-goto-article} now accept Message-ID's.
20894 A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
20895 outside the region: @kbd{C-c C-v}.
20898 You can now post to component group in @code{nnvirtual} groups with
20902 @code{nntp-rlogin-program}---new variable to ease customization.
20905 @code{C-u C-c C-c} in @code{gnus-article-edit-mode} will now inhibit
20906 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
20909 New element in @code{gnus-boring-article-headers}---@code{long-to}.
20912 @kbd{M-i} symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
20913 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
20916 @kbd{L} and @kbd{I} in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
20917 @kbd{a} to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
20920 @code{gnus-simplify-subject-functions} variable to allow greater
20921 control over simplification.
20924 @kbd{A T}---new command for fetching the current thread.
20927 @kbd{/ T}---new command for including the current thread in the
20931 @kbd{M-RET} is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
20934 @samp{\\1}-expressions are now valid in @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
20937 The @code{custom-face-lookup} function has been removed.
20938 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
20939 rewrite them to use @code{face-spec-set} instead.
20942 Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
20943 @kbd{a} forces normal posting method.
20946 New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper
20950 For easier debugging of @code{nntp}, you can set
20951 @code{nntp-record-commands} to a non-@code{nil} value.
20954 @code{nntp} now uses @file{~/.authinfo}, a @file{.netrc}-like file, for
20955 controlling where and how to send @sc{authinfo} to @sc{nntp} servers.
20958 A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
20962 A history of where mails have been split is available.
20965 A new article date command has been added---@code{article-date-iso8601}.
20968 Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
20969 @code{gnus-score-thread-simplify}.
20972 A new function for citing in Message has been
20973 added---@code{message-cite-original-without-signature}.
20976 @code{article-strip-all-blank-lines}---new article command.
20979 A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
20983 A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
20984 @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} variable.
20987 The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
20988 updated by the @code{gnus-start-date-timer} command.
20991 Web listserv archives can be read with the @code{nnlistserv} backend.
20994 Old dejanews archives can now be read by @code{nnweb}.
20998 @node Pterodactyl Gnus
20999 @subsubsection Pterodactyl Gnus
21001 New features in Gnus 5.8:
21005 @item The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
21006 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
21008 If you used procmail like in
21011 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
21012 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
21013 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
21014 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
21017 this now has changed to
21021 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
21025 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
21026 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
21028 @item Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
21029 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
21031 @item Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too
21032 many parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables.
21034 @item @code{gnus-auto-select-first} can now be a function to be
21035 called to position point.
21037 @item The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
21038 summary buffers and NOV files.
21040 @item @code{gnus-article-display-hook} has been removed. Instead, a number
21041 of variables starting with @code{gnus-treat-} have been added.
21043 @item The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now works in a
21044 subtly different manner.
21046 @item New web-based backends have been added: @code{nnslashdot},
21047 @code{nnwarchive} and @code{nnultimate}. nnweb has been revamped,
21048 again, to keep up with ever-changing layouts.
21050 @item Gnus can now read IMAP mail via @code{nnimap}.
21058 @section The Manual
21062 This manual was generated from a TeXinfo file and then run through
21063 either @code{texi2dvi}
21065 or my own home-brewed TeXinfo to \LaTeX\ transformer,
21066 and then run through @code{latex} and @code{dvips}
21068 to get what you hold in your hands now.
21070 The following conventions have been used:
21075 This is a @samp{string}
21078 This is a @kbd{keystroke}
21081 This is a @file{file}
21084 This is a @code{symbol}
21088 So if I were to say ``set @code{flargnoze} to @samp{yes}'', that would
21092 (setq flargnoze "yes")
21095 If I say ``set @code{flumphel} to @code{yes}'', that would mean:
21098 (setq flumphel 'yes)
21101 @samp{yes} and @code{yes} are two @emph{very} different things---don't
21102 ever get them confused.
21106 Of course, everything in this manual is of vital interest, so you should
21107 read it all. Several times. However, if you feel like skimming the
21108 manual, look for that gnu head you should see in the margin over
21109 there---it means that what's being discussed is of more importance than
21110 the rest of the stuff. (On the other hand, if everything is infinitely
21111 important, how can anything be more important than that? Just one more
21112 of the mysteries of this world, I guess.)
21118 @node On Writing Manuals
21119 @section On Writing Manuals
21121 I guess most manuals are written after-the-fact; documenting a program
21122 that's already there. This is not how this manual is written. When
21123 implementing something, I write the manual entry for that something
21124 straight away. I then see that it's difficult to explain the
21125 functionality, so I write how it's supposed to be, and then I change the
21126 implementation. Writing the documentation and writing the code goes
21129 This, of course, means that this manual has no, or little, flow. It
21130 documents absolutely everything in Gnus, but often not where you're
21131 looking for it. It is a reference manual, and not a guide to how to get
21134 That would be a totally different book, that should be written using the
21135 reference manual as source material. It would look quite differently.
21140 @section Terminology
21142 @cindex terminology
21147 This is what you are supposed to use this thing for---reading news.
21148 News is generally fetched from a nearby @sc{nntp} server, and is
21149 generally publicly available to everybody. If you post news, the entire
21150 world is likely to read just what you have written, and they'll all
21151 snigger mischievously. Behind your back.
21155 Everything that's delivered to you personally is mail. Some news/mail
21156 readers (like Gnus) blur the distinction between mail and news, but
21157 there is a difference. Mail is private. News is public. Mailing is
21158 not posting, and replying is not following up.
21162 Send a mail to the person who has written what you are reading.
21166 Post an article to the current newsgroup responding to the article you
21171 Gnus gets fed articles from a number of backends, both news and mail
21172 backends. Gnus does not handle the underlying media, so to speak---this
21173 is all done by the backends.
21177 Gnus will always use one method (and backend) as the @dfn{native}, or
21178 default, way of getting news.
21182 You can also have any number of foreign groups active at the same time.
21183 These are groups that use non-native non-secondary backends for getting
21188 Secondary backends are somewhere half-way between being native and being
21189 foreign, but they mostly act like they are native.
21193 A message that has been posted as news.
21196 @cindex mail message
21197 A message that has been mailed.
21201 A mail message or news article
21205 The top part of a message, where administrative information (etc.) is
21210 The rest of an article. Everything not in the head is in the
21215 A line from the head of an article.
21219 A collection of such lines, or a collection of heads. Or even a
21220 collection of @sc{nov} lines.
21224 When Gnus enters a group, it asks the backend for the headers of all
21225 unread articles in the group. Most servers support the News OverView
21226 format, which is more compact and much faster to read and parse than the
21227 normal @sc{head} format.
21231 Each group is subscribed at some @dfn{level} or other (1-9). The ones
21232 that have a lower level are ``more'' subscribed than the groups with a
21233 higher level. In fact, groups on levels 1-5 are considered
21234 @dfn{subscribed}; 6-7 are @dfn{unsubscribed}; 8 are @dfn{zombies}; and 9
21235 are @dfn{killed}. Commands for listing groups and scanning for new
21236 articles will all use the numeric prefix as @dfn{working level}.
21238 @item killed groups
21239 @cindex killed groups
21240 No information on killed groups is stored or updated, which makes killed
21241 groups much easier to handle than subscribed groups.
21243 @item zombie groups
21244 @cindex zombie groups
21245 Just like killed groups, only slightly less dead.
21248 @cindex active file
21249 The news server has to keep track of what articles it carries, and what
21250 groups exist. All this information in stored in the active file, which
21251 is rather large, as you might surmise.
21254 @cindex bogus groups
21255 A group that exists in the @file{.newsrc} file, but isn't known to the
21256 server (i.e., it isn't in the active file), is a @emph{bogus group}.
21257 This means that the group probably doesn't exist (any more).
21260 @cindex activating groups
21261 The act of asking the server for info on a group and computing the
21262 number of unread articles is called @dfn{activating the group}.
21263 Un-activated groups are listed with @samp{*} in the group buffer.
21267 A machine one can connect to and get news (or mail) from.
21269 @item select method
21270 @cindex select method
21271 A structure that specifies the backend, the server and the virtual
21274 @item virtual server
21275 @cindex virtual server
21276 A named select method. Since a select method defines all there is to
21277 know about connecting to a (physical) server, taking the thing as a
21278 whole is a virtual server.
21282 Taking a buffer and running it through a filter of some sort. The
21283 result will (more often than not) be cleaner and more pleasing than the
21286 @item ephemeral groups
21287 @cindex ephemeral groups
21288 Most groups store data on what articles you have read. @dfn{Ephemeral}
21289 groups are groups that will have no data stored---when you exit the
21290 group, it'll disappear into the aether.
21293 @cindex solid groups
21294 This is the opposite of ephemeral groups. All groups listed in the
21295 group buffer are solid groups.
21297 @item sparse articles
21298 @cindex sparse articles
21299 These are article placeholders shown in the summary buffer when
21300 @code{gnus-build-sparse-threads} has been switched on.
21304 To put responses to articles directly after the articles they respond
21305 to---in a hierarchical fashion.
21309 @cindex thread root
21310 The first article in a thread is the root. It is the ancestor of all
21311 articles in the thread.
21315 An article that has responses.
21319 An article that responds to a different article---its parent.
21323 A collection of messages in one file. The most common digest format is
21324 specified by RFC 1153.
21330 @node Customization
21331 @section Customization
21332 @cindex general customization
21334 All variables are properly documented elsewhere in this manual. This
21335 section is designed to give general pointers on how to customize Gnus
21336 for some quite common situations.
21339 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
21340 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
21341 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
21342 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
21346 @node Slow/Expensive Connection
21347 @subsection Slow/Expensive @sc{nntp} Connection
21349 If you run Emacs on a machine locally, and get your news from a machine
21350 over some very thin strings, you want to cut down on the amount of data
21351 Gnus has to get from the @sc{nntp} server.
21355 @item gnus-read-active-file
21356 Set this to @code{nil}, which will inhibit Gnus from requesting the
21357 entire active file from the server. This file is often v. large. You
21358 also have to set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
21359 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make sure that Gnus
21360 doesn't suddenly decide to fetch the active file anyway.
21362 @item gnus-nov-is-evil
21363 This one has to be @code{nil}. If not, grabbing article headers from
21364 the @sc{nntp} server will not be very fast. Not all @sc{nntp} servers
21365 support @sc{xover}; Gnus will detect this by itself.
21369 @node Slow Terminal Connection
21370 @subsection Slow Terminal Connection
21372 Let's say you use your home computer for dialing up the system that runs
21373 Emacs and Gnus. If your modem is slow, you want to reduce (as much as
21374 possible) the amount of data sent over the wires.
21378 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
21379 Set this to @code{nil} to inhibit Gnus from re-centering the summary
21380 buffer all the time. If it is @code{vertical}, do only vertical
21381 re-centering. If it is neither @code{nil} nor @code{vertical}, do both
21382 horizontal and vertical recentering.
21384 @item gnus-visible-headers
21385 Cut down on the headers included in the articles to the
21386 minimum. You can, in fact, make do without them altogether---most of the
21387 useful data is in the summary buffer, anyway. Set this variable to
21388 @samp{^NEVVVVER} or @samp{From:}, or whatever you feel you need.
21390 Set this hook to all the available hiding commands:
21392 (setq gnus-treat-hide-headers 'head
21393 gnus-treat-hide-signature t
21394 gnus-treat-hide-citation t)
21397 @item gnus-use-full-window
21398 By setting this to @code{nil}, you can make all the windows smaller.
21399 While this doesn't really cut down much generally, it means that you
21400 have to see smaller portions of articles before deciding that you didn't
21401 want to read them anyway.
21403 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
21404 If this is non-@code{nil}, all threads in the summary buffer will be
21407 @item gnus-updated-mode-lines
21408 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not put information in the buffer mode
21409 lines, which might save some time.
21413 @node Little Disk Space
21414 @subsection Little Disk Space
21417 The startup files can get rather large, so you may want to cut their
21418 sizes a bit if you are running out of space.
21422 @item gnus-save-newsrc-file
21423 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never save @file{.newsrc}---it will
21424 only save @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
21425 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
21428 @item gnus-read-newsrc-file
21429 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never read @file{.newsrc}---it will
21430 only read @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
21431 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
21434 @item gnus-save-killed-list
21435 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not save the list of dead groups. You
21436 should also set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{ask-server}
21437 and @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} if you set this
21438 variable to @code{nil}. This variable is @code{t} by default.
21444 @subsection Slow Machine
21445 @cindex slow machine
21447 If you have a slow machine, or are just really impatient, there are a
21448 few things you can do to make Gnus run faster.
21450 Set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
21451 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make startup faster.
21453 Set @code{gnus-show-threads}, @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} and
21454 @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{nil} to make entering and exiting the
21455 summary buffer faster.
21459 @node Troubleshooting
21460 @section Troubleshooting
21461 @cindex troubleshooting
21463 Gnus works @emph{so} well straight out of the box---I can't imagine any
21471 Make sure your computer is switched on.
21474 Make sure that you really load the current Gnus version. If you have
21475 been running @sc{gnus}, you need to exit Emacs and start it up again before
21479 Try doing an @kbd{M-x gnus-version}. If you get something that looks
21480 like @samp{Gnus v5.46; nntp 4.0} you have the right files loaded. If,
21481 on the other hand, you get something like @samp{NNTP 3.x} or @samp{nntp
21482 flee}, you have some old @file{.el} files lying around. Delete these.
21485 Read the help group (@kbd{G h} in the group buffer) for a FAQ and a
21489 @vindex max-lisp-eval-depth
21490 Gnus works on many recursive structures, and in some extreme (and very
21491 rare) cases Gnus may recurse down ``too deeply'' and Emacs will beep at
21492 you. If this happens to you, set @code{max-lisp-eval-depth} to 500 or
21493 something like that.
21496 If all else fails, report the problem as a bug.
21499 @cindex reporting bugs
21501 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
21503 If you find a bug in Gnus, you can report it with the @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}
21504 command. @kbd{M-x set-variable RET debug-on-error RET t RET}, and send
21505 me the backtrace. I will fix bugs, but I can only fix them if you send
21506 me a precise description as to how to reproduce the bug.
21508 You really can never be too detailed in a bug report. Always use the
21509 @kbd{M-x gnus-bug} command when you make bug reports, even if it creates
21510 a 10Kb mail each time you use it, and even if you have sent me your
21511 environment 500 times before. I don't care. I want the full info each
21514 It is also important to remember that I have no memory whatsoever. If
21515 you send a bug report, and I send you a reply, and then you just send
21516 back ``No, it's not! Moron!'', I will have no idea what you are
21517 insulting me about. Always over-explain everything. It's much easier
21518 for all of us---if I don't have all the information I need, I will just
21519 mail you and ask for more info, and everything takes more time.
21521 If the problem you're seeing is very visual, and you can't quite explain
21522 it, copy the Emacs window to a file (with @code{xwd}, for instance), put
21523 it somewhere it can be reached, and include the URL of the picture in
21527 If you would like to contribute a patch to fix bugs or make
21528 improvements, please produce the patch using @samp{diff -u}.
21530 If you just need help, you are better off asking on
21531 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}. I'm not very helpful.
21533 @cindex gnu.emacs.gnus
21534 @cindex ding mailing list
21535 You can also ask on the ding mailing list---@samp{ding@@gnus.org}.
21536 Write to @samp{ding-request@@gnus.org} to subscribe.
21540 @node Gnus Reference Guide
21541 @section Gnus Reference Guide
21543 It is my hope that other people will figure out smart stuff that Gnus
21544 can do, and that other people will write those smart things as well. To
21545 facilitate that I thought it would be a good idea to describe the inner
21546 workings of Gnus. And some of the not-so-inner workings, while I'm at
21549 You can never expect the internals of a program not to change, but I
21550 will be defining (in some details) the interface between Gnus and its
21551 backends (this is written in stone), the format of the score files
21552 (ditto), data structures (some are less likely to change than others)
21553 and general methods of operation.
21556 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
21557 * Backend Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
21558 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
21559 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
21560 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
21561 * Group Info:: The group info format.
21562 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
21563 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
21564 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
21568 @node Gnus Utility Functions
21569 @subsection Gnus Utility Functions
21570 @cindex Gnus utility functions
21571 @cindex utility functions
21573 @cindex internal variables
21575 When writing small functions to be run from hooks (and stuff), it's
21576 vital to have access to the Gnus internal functions and variables.
21577 Below is a list of the most common ones.
21581 @item gnus-newsgroup-name
21582 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-name
21583 This variable holds the name of the current newsgroup.
21585 @item gnus-find-method-for-group
21586 @findex gnus-find-method-for-group
21587 A function that returns the select method for @var{group}.
21589 @item gnus-group-real-name
21590 @findex gnus-group-real-name
21591 Takes a full (prefixed) Gnus group name, and returns the unprefixed
21594 @item gnus-group-prefixed-name
21595 @findex gnus-group-prefixed-name
21596 Takes an unprefixed group name and a select method, and returns the full
21597 (prefixed) Gnus group name.
21599 @item gnus-get-info
21600 @findex gnus-get-info
21601 Returns the group info list for @var{group}.
21603 @item gnus-group-unread
21604 @findex gnus-group-unread
21605 The number of unread articles in @var{group}, or @code{t} if that is
21609 @findex gnus-active
21610 The active entry for @var{group}.
21612 @item gnus-set-active
21613 @findex gnus-set-active
21614 Set the active entry for @var{group}.
21616 @item gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
21617 @findex gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
21618 Adds the current buffer to the list of buffers to be killed on Gnus
21621 @item gnus-continuum-version
21622 @findex gnus-continuum-version
21623 Takes a Gnus version string as a parameter and returns a floating point
21624 number. Earlier versions will always get a lower number than later
21627 @item gnus-group-read-only-p
21628 @findex gnus-group-read-only-p
21629 Says whether @var{group} is read-only or not.
21631 @item gnus-news-group-p
21632 @findex gnus-news-group-p
21633 Says whether @var{group} came from a news backend.
21635 @item gnus-ephemeral-group-p
21636 @findex gnus-ephemeral-group-p
21637 Says whether @var{group} is ephemeral or not.
21639 @item gnus-server-to-method
21640 @findex gnus-server-to-method
21641 Returns the select method corresponding to @var{server}.
21643 @item gnus-server-equal
21644 @findex gnus-server-equal
21645 Says whether two virtual servers are equal.
21647 @item gnus-group-native-p
21648 @findex gnus-group-native-p
21649 Says whether @var{group} is native or not.
21651 @item gnus-group-secondary-p
21652 @findex gnus-group-secondary-p
21653 Says whether @var{group} is secondary or not.
21655 @item gnus-group-foreign-p
21656 @findex gnus-group-foreign-p
21657 Says whether @var{group} is foreign or not.
21659 @item group-group-find-parameter
21660 @findex group-group-find-parameter
21661 Returns the parameter list of @var{group}. If given a second parameter,
21662 returns the value of that parameter for @var{group}.
21664 @item gnus-group-set-parameter
21665 @findex gnus-group-set-parameter
21666 Takes three parameters; @var{group}, @var{parameter} and @var{value}.
21668 @item gnus-narrow-to-body
21669 @findex gnus-narrow-to-body
21670 Narrows the current buffer to the body of the article.
21672 @item gnus-check-backend-function
21673 @findex gnus-check-backend-function
21674 Takes two parameters, @var{function} and @var{group}. If the backend
21675 @var{group} comes from supports @var{function}, return non-@code{nil}.
21678 (gnus-check-backend-function "request-scan" "nnml:misc")
21682 @item gnus-read-method
21683 @findex gnus-read-method
21684 Prompts the user for a select method.
21689 @node Backend Interface
21690 @subsection Backend Interface
21692 Gnus doesn't know anything about @sc{nntp}, spools, mail or virtual
21693 groups. It only knows how to talk to @dfn{virtual servers}. A virtual
21694 server is a @dfn{backend} and some @dfn{backend variables}. As examples
21695 of the first, we have @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool} and @code{nnmbox}. As
21696 examples of the latter we have @code{nntp-port-number} and
21697 @code{nnmbox-directory}.
21699 When Gnus asks for information from a backend---say @code{nntp}---on
21700 something, it will normally include a virtual server name in the
21701 function parameters. (If not, the backend should use the ``current''
21702 virtual server.) For instance, @code{nntp-request-list} takes a virtual
21703 server as its only (optional) parameter. If this virtual server hasn't
21704 been opened, the function should fail.
21706 Note that a virtual server name has no relation to some physical server
21707 name. Take this example:
21711 (nntp-address "ifi.uio.no")
21712 (nntp-port-number 4324))
21715 Here the virtual server name is @samp{odd-one} while the name of
21716 the physical server is @samp{ifi.uio.no}.
21718 The backends should be able to switch between several virtual servers.
21719 The standard backends implement this by keeping an alist of virtual
21720 server environments that they pull down/push up when needed.
21722 There are two groups of interface functions: @dfn{required functions},
21723 which must be present, and @dfn{optional functions}, which Gnus will
21724 always check for presence before attempting to call 'em.
21726 All these functions are expected to return data in the buffer
21727 @code{nntp-server-buffer} (@samp{ *nntpd*}), which is somewhat
21728 unfortunately named, but we'll have to live with it. When I talk about
21729 @dfn{resulting data}, I always refer to the data in that buffer. When I
21730 talk about @dfn{return value}, I talk about the function value returned by
21731 the function call. Functions that fail should return @code{nil} as the
21734 Some backends could be said to be @dfn{server-forming} backends, and
21735 some might be said not to be. The latter are backends that generally
21736 only operate on one group at a time, and have no concept of ``server''
21737 -- they have a group, and they deliver info on that group and nothing
21740 Gnus identifies each message by way of group name and article number. A
21741 few remarks about these article numbers might be useful. First of all,
21742 the numbers are positive integers. Secondly, it is normally not
21743 possible for later articles to `re-use' older article numbers without
21744 confusing Gnus. That is, if a group has ever contained a message
21745 numbered 42, then no other message may get that number, or Gnus will get
21746 mightily confused.@footnote{See the function
21747 @code{nnchoke-request-update-info}, @ref{Optional Backend Functions}.}
21748 Third, article numbers must be assigned in order of arrival in the
21749 group; this is not necessarily the same as the date of the message.
21751 The previous paragraph already mentions all the `hard' restrictions that
21752 article numbers must fulfill. But it seems that it might be useful to
21753 assign @emph{consecutive} article numbers, for Gnus gets quite confused
21754 if there are holes in the article numbering sequence. However, due to
21755 the `no-reuse' restriction, holes cannot be avoided altogether. It's
21756 also useful for the article numbers to start at 1 to avoid running out
21757 of numbers as long as possible.
21759 In the examples and definitions I will refer to the imaginary backend
21762 @cindex @code{nnchoke}
21765 * Required Backend Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
21766 * Optional Backend Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
21767 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
21768 * Writing New Backends:: Extending old backends.
21769 * Hooking New Backends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
21770 * Mail-like Backends:: Some tips on mail backends.
21774 @node Required Backend Functions
21775 @subsubsection Required Backend Functions
21779 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-headers ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FETCH-OLD)
21781 @var{articles} is either a range of article numbers or a list of
21782 @code{Message-ID}s. Current backends do not fully support either---only
21783 sequences (lists) of article numbers, and most backends do not support
21784 retrieval of @code{Message-ID}s. But they should try for both.
21786 The result data should either be HEADs or NOV lines, and the result
21787 value should either be @code{headers} or @code{nov} to reflect this.
21788 This might later be expanded to @code{various}, which will be a mixture
21789 of HEADs and NOV lines, but this is currently not supported by Gnus.
21791 If @var{fetch-old} is non-@code{nil} it says to try fetching "extra
21792 headers", in some meaning of the word. This is generally done by
21793 fetching (at most) @var{fetch-old} extra headers less than the smallest
21794 article number in @code{articles}, and filling the gaps as well. The
21795 presence of this parameter can be ignored if the backend finds it
21796 cumbersome to follow the request. If this is non-@code{nil} and not a
21797 number, do maximum fetches.
21799 Here's an example HEAD:
21802 221 1056 Article retrieved.
21803 Path: ifi.uio.no!sturles
21804 From: sturles@@ifi.uio.no (Sturle Sunde)
21805 Newsgroups: ifi.discussion
21806 Subject: Re: Something very droll
21807 Date: 27 Oct 1994 14:02:57 +0100
21808 Organization: Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
21810 Message-ID: <38o8e1$a0o@@holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no>
21811 References: <38jdmq$4qu@@visbur.ifi.uio.no>
21812 NNTP-Posting-Host: holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no
21816 So a @code{headers} return value would imply that there's a number of
21817 these in the data buffer.
21819 Here's a BNF definition of such a buffer:
21823 head = error / valid-head
21824 error-message = [ "4" / "5" ] 2number " " <error message> eol
21825 valid-head = valid-message *header "." eol
21826 valid-message = "221 " <number> " Article retrieved." eol
21827 header = <text> eol
21830 If the return value is @code{nov}, the data buffer should contain
21831 @dfn{network overview database} lines. These are basically fields
21835 nov-buffer = *nov-line
21836 nov-line = 8*9 [ field <TAB> ] eol
21837 field = <text except TAB>
21840 For a closer look at what should be in those fields,
21844 @item (nnchoke-open-server SERVER &optional DEFINITIONS)
21846 @var{server} is here the virtual server name. @var{definitions} is a
21847 list of @code{(VARIABLE VALUE)} pairs that define this virtual server.
21849 If the server can't be opened, no error should be signaled. The backend
21850 may then choose to refuse further attempts at connecting to this
21851 server. In fact, it should do so.
21853 If the server is opened already, this function should return a
21854 non-@code{nil} value. There should be no data returned.
21857 @item (nnchoke-close-server &optional SERVER)
21859 Close connection to @var{server} and free all resources connected
21860 to it. Return @code{nil} if the server couldn't be closed for some
21863 There should be no data returned.
21866 @item (nnchoke-request-close)
21868 Close connection to all servers and free all resources that the backend
21869 have reserved. All buffers that have been created by that backend
21870 should be killed. (Not the @code{nntp-server-buffer}, though.) This
21871 function is generally only called when Gnus is shutting down.
21873 There should be no data returned.
21876 @item (nnchoke-server-opened &optional SERVER)
21878 If @var{server} is the current virtual server, and the connection to the
21879 physical server is alive, then this function should return a
21880 non-@code{nil} vlue. This function should under no circumstances
21881 attempt to reconnect to a server we have lost connection to.
21883 There should be no data returned.
21886 @item (nnchoke-status-message &optional SERVER)
21888 This function should return the last error message from @var{server}.
21890 There should be no data returned.
21893 @item (nnchoke-request-article ARTICLE &optional GROUP SERVER TO-BUFFER)
21895 The result data from this function should be the article specified by
21896 @var{article}. This might either be a @code{Message-ID} or a number.
21897 It is optional whether to implement retrieval by @code{Message-ID}, but
21898 it would be nice if that were possible.
21900 If @var{to-buffer} is non-@code{nil}, the result data should be returned
21901 in this buffer instead of the normal data buffer. This is to make it
21902 possible to avoid copying large amounts of data from one buffer to
21903 another, while Gnus mainly requests articles to be inserted directly
21904 into its article buffer.
21906 If it is at all possible, this function should return a cons cell where
21907 the @code{car} is the group name the article was fetched from, and the @code{cdr} is
21908 the article number. This will enable Gnus to find out what the real
21909 group and article numbers are when fetching articles by
21910 @code{Message-ID}. If this isn't possible, @code{t} should be returned
21911 on successful article retrieval.
21914 @item (nnchoke-request-group GROUP &optional SERVER FAST)
21916 Get data on @var{group}. This function also has the side effect of
21917 making @var{group} the current group.
21919 If @var{fast}, don't bother to return useful data, just make @var{group}
21922 Here's an example of some result data and a definition of the same:
21925 211 56 1000 1059 ifi.discussion
21928 The first number is the status, which should be 211. Next is the
21929 total number of articles in the group, the lowest article number, the
21930 highest article number, and finally the group name. Note that the total
21931 number of articles may be less than one might think while just
21932 considering the highest and lowest article numbers, but some articles
21933 may have been canceled. Gnus just discards the total-number, so
21934 whether one should take the bother to generate it properly (if that is a
21935 problem) is left as an exercise to the reader.
21938 group-status = [ error / info ] eol
21939 error = [ "4" / "5" ] 2<number> " " <Error message>
21940 info = "211 " 3* [ <number> " " ] <string>
21944 @item (nnchoke-close-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
21946 Close @var{group} and free any resources connected to it. This will be
21947 a no-op on most backends.
21949 There should be no data returned.
21952 @item (nnchoke-request-list &optional SERVER)
21954 Return a list of all groups available on @var{server}. And that means
21957 Here's an example from a server that only carries two groups:
21960 ifi.test 0000002200 0000002000 y
21961 ifi.discussion 3324 3300 n
21964 On each line we have a group name, then the highest article number in
21965 that group, the lowest article number, and finally a flag.
21968 active-file = *active-line
21969 active-line = name " " <number> " " <number> " " flags eol
21971 flags = "n" / "y" / "m" / "x" / "j" / "=" name
21974 The flag says whether the group is read-only (@samp{n}), is moderated
21975 (@samp{m}), is dead (@samp{x}), is aliased to some other group
21976 (@samp{=other-group}) or none of the above (@samp{y}).
21979 @item (nnchoke-request-post &optional SERVER)
21981 This function should post the current buffer. It might return whether
21982 the posting was successful or not, but that's not required. If, for
21983 instance, the posting is done asynchronously, it has generally not been
21984 completed by the time this function concludes. In that case, this
21985 function should set up some kind of sentinel to beep the user loud and
21986 clear if the posting could not be completed.
21988 There should be no result data from this function.
21993 @node Optional Backend Functions
21994 @subsubsection Optional Backend Functions
21998 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-groups GROUPS &optional SERVER)
22000 @var{groups} is a list of groups, and this function should request data
22001 on all those groups. How it does it is of no concern to Gnus, but it
22002 should attempt to do this in a speedy fashion.
22004 The return value of this function can be either @code{active} or
22005 @code{group}, which says what the format of the result data is. The
22006 former is in the same format as the data from
22007 @code{nnchoke-request-list}, while the latter is a buffer full of lines
22008 in the same format as @code{nnchoke-request-group} gives.
22011 group-buffer = *active-line / *group-status
22015 @item (nnchoke-request-update-info GROUP INFO &optional SERVER)
22017 A Gnus group info (@pxref{Group Info}) is handed to the backend for
22018 alterations. This comes in handy if the backend really carries all the
22019 information (as is the case with virtual and imap groups). This
22020 function should destructively alter the info to suit its needs, and
22021 should return the (altered) group info.
22023 There should be no result data from this function.
22026 @item (nnchoke-request-type GROUP &optional ARTICLE)
22028 When the user issues commands for ``sending news'' (@kbd{F} in the
22029 summary buffer, for instance), Gnus has to know whether the article the
22030 user is following up on is news or mail. This function should return
22031 @code{news} if @var{article} in @var{group} is news, @code{mail} if it
22032 is mail and @code{unknown} if the type can't be decided. (The
22033 @var{article} parameter is necessary in @code{nnvirtual} groups which
22034 might very well combine mail groups and news groups.) Both @var{group}
22035 and @var{article} may be @code{nil}.
22037 There should be no result data from this function.
22040 @item (nnchoke-request-set-mark GROUP ACTION &optional SERVER)
22042 Set/remove/add marks on articles. Normally Gnus handles the article
22043 marks (such as read, ticked, expired etc) internally, and store them in
22044 @code{~/.newsrc.eld}. Some backends (such as @sc{imap}) however carry
22045 all information about the articles on the server, so Gnus need to
22046 propagate the mark information to the server.
22048 ACTION is a list of mark setting requests, having this format:
22051 (RANGE ACTION MARK)
22054 RANGE is a range of articles you wish to update marks on. ACTION is
22055 @code{add} or @code{del}, used to add marks or remove marks
22056 (preserving all marks not mentioned). MARK is a list of marks; where
22057 each mark is a symbol. Currently used marks are @code{read},
22058 @code{tick}, @code{reply}, @code{expire}, @code{killed},
22059 @code{dormant}, @code{save}, @code{download}, @code{unsend},
22060 @code{forward} and @code{recent}, but your backend should, if
22061 possible, not limit itself to these.
22063 Given contradictory actions, the last action in the list should be the
22064 effective one. That is, if your action contains a request to add the
22065 @code{tick} mark on article 1 and, later in the list, a request to
22066 remove the mark on the same article, the mark should in fact be removed.
22068 An example action list:
22071 (((5 12 30) 'del '(tick))
22072 ((10 . 90) 'add '(read expire))
22073 ((92 94) 'del '(read)))
22076 The function should return a range of articles it wasn't able to set the
22077 mark on (currently not used for anything).
22079 There should be no result data from this function.
22081 @item (nnchoke-request-update-mark GROUP ARTICLE MARK)
22083 If the user tries to set a mark that the backend doesn't like, this
22084 function may change the mark. Gnus will use whatever this function
22085 returns as the mark for @var{article} instead of the original
22086 @var{mark}. If the backend doesn't care, it must return the original
22087 @var{mark}, and not @code{nil} or any other type of garbage.
22089 The only use for this I can see is what @code{nnvirtual} does with
22090 it---if a component group is auto-expirable, marking an article as read
22091 in the virtual group should result in the article being marked as
22094 There should be no result data from this function.
22097 @item (nnchoke-request-scan &optional GROUP SERVER)
22099 This function may be called at any time (by Gnus or anything else) to
22100 request that the backend check for incoming articles, in one way or
22101 another. A mail backend will typically read the spool file or query the
22102 POP server when this function is invoked. The @var{group} doesn't have
22103 to be heeded---if the backend decides that it is too much work just
22104 scanning for a single group, it may do a total scan of all groups. It
22105 would be nice, however, to keep things local if that's practical.
22107 There should be no result data from this function.
22110 @item (nnchoke-request-group-description GROUP &optional SERVER)
22112 The result data from this function should be a description of
22116 description-line = name <TAB> description eol
22118 description = <text>
22121 @item (nnchoke-request-list-newsgroups &optional SERVER)
22123 The result data from this function should be the description of all
22124 groups available on the server.
22127 description-buffer = *description-line
22131 @item (nnchoke-request-newgroups DATE &optional SERVER)
22133 The result data from this function should be all groups that were
22134 created after @samp{date}, which is in normal human-readable date format
22135 (i.e., the date format used in mail and news headers, and returned by
22136 the function @code{message-make-date} by default). The data should be
22137 in the active buffer format.
22139 It is okay for this function to return `too many' groups; some backends
22140 might find it cheaper to return the full list of groups, rather than
22141 just the new groups. But don't do this for backends with many groups.
22142 Normally, if the user creates the groups herself, there won't be too
22143 many groups, so nnml and the like are probably safe. But for backends
22144 like nntp, where the groups have been created by the server, it is quite
22145 likely that there can be many groups.
22148 @item (nnchoke-request-create-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
22150 This function should create an empty group with name @var{group}.
22152 There should be no return data.
22155 @item (nnchoke-request-expire-articles ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FORCE)
22157 This function should run the expiry process on all articles in the
22158 @var{articles} range (which is currently a simple list of article
22159 numbers.) It is left up to the backend to decide how old articles
22160 should be before they are removed by this function. If @var{force} is
22161 non-@code{nil}, all @var{articles} should be deleted, no matter how new
22164 This function should return a list of articles that it did not/was not
22167 There should be no result data returned.
22170 @item (nnchoke-request-move-article ARTICLE GROUP SERVER ACCEPT-FORM
22173 This function should move @var{article} (which is a number) from
22174 @var{group} by calling @var{accept-form}.
22176 This function should ready the article in question for moving by
22177 removing any header lines it has added to the article, and generally
22178 should ``tidy up'' the article. Then it should @code{eval}
22179 @var{accept-form} in the buffer where the ``tidy'' article is. This
22180 will do the actual copying. If this @code{eval} returns a
22181 non-@code{nil} value, the article should be removed.
22183 If @var{last} is @code{nil}, that means that there is a high likelihood
22184 that there will be more requests issued shortly, so that allows some
22187 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
22188 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
22190 There should be no data returned.
22193 @item (nnchoke-request-accept-article GROUP &optional SERVER LAST)
22195 This function takes the current buffer and inserts it into @var{group}.
22196 If @var{last} in @code{nil}, that means that there will be more calls to
22197 this function in short order.
22199 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
22200 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
22202 There should be no data returned.
22205 @item (nnchoke-request-replace-article ARTICLE GROUP BUFFER)
22207 This function should remove @var{article} (which is a number) from
22208 @var{group} and insert @var{buffer} there instead.
22210 There should be no data returned.
22213 @item (nnchoke-request-delete-group GROUP FORCE &optional SERVER)
22215 This function should delete @var{group}. If @var{force}, it should
22216 really delete all the articles in the group, and then delete the group
22217 itself. (If there is such a thing as ``the group itself''.)
22219 There should be no data returned.
22222 @item (nnchoke-request-rename-group GROUP NEW-NAME &optional SERVER)
22224 This function should rename @var{group} into @var{new-name}. All
22225 articles in @var{group} should move to @var{new-name}.
22227 There should be no data returned.
22232 @node Error Messaging
22233 @subsubsection Error Messaging
22235 @findex nnheader-report
22236 @findex nnheader-get-report
22237 The backends should use the function @code{nnheader-report} to report
22238 error conditions---they should not raise errors when they aren't able to
22239 perform a request. The first argument to this function is the backend
22240 symbol, and the rest are interpreted as arguments to @code{format} if
22241 there are multiple of them, or just a string if there is one of them.
22242 This function must always returns @code{nil}.
22245 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "You did something totally bogus")
22247 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "Could not request group %s" group)
22250 Gnus, in turn, will call @code{nnheader-get-report} when it gets a
22251 @code{nil} back from a server, and this function returns the most
22252 recently reported message for the backend in question. This function
22253 takes one argument---the server symbol.
22255 Internally, these functions access @var{backend}@code{-status-string},
22256 so the @code{nnchoke} backend will have its error message stored in
22257 @code{nnchoke-status-string}.
22260 @node Writing New Backends
22261 @subsubsection Writing New Backends
22263 Many backends are quite similar. @code{nnml} is just like
22264 @code{nnspool}, but it allows you to edit the articles on the server.
22265 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, but it doesn't use an active file,
22266 and it doesn't maintain overview databases. @code{nndir} is just like
22267 @code{nnml}, but it has no concept of ``groups'', and it doesn't allow
22270 It would make sense if it were possible to ``inherit'' functions from
22271 backends when writing new backends. And, indeed, you can do that if you
22272 want to. (You don't have to if you don't want to, of course.)
22274 All the backends declare their public variables and functions by using a
22275 package called @code{nnoo}.
22277 To inherit functions from other backends (and allow other backends to
22278 inherit functions from the current backend), you should use the
22284 This macro declares the first parameter to be a child of the subsequent
22285 parameters. For instance:
22288 (nnoo-declare nndir
22292 @code{nndir} has declared here that it intends to inherit functions from
22293 both @code{nnml} and @code{nnmh}.
22296 This macro is equivalent to @code{defvar}, but registers the variable as
22297 a public server variable. Most state-oriented variables should be
22298 declared with @code{defvoo} instead of @code{defvar}.
22300 In addition to the normal @code{defvar} parameters, it takes a list of
22301 variables in the parent backends to map the variable to when executing
22302 a function in those backends.
22305 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
22306 "Where nndir will look for groups."
22307 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
22310 This means that @code{nnml-current-directory} will be set to
22311 @code{nndir-directory} when an @code{nnml} function is called on behalf
22312 of @code{nndir}. (The same with @code{nnmh}.)
22314 @item nnoo-define-basics
22315 This macro defines some common functions that almost all backends should
22319 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
22323 This macro is just like @code{defun} and takes the same parameters. In
22324 addition to doing the normal @code{defun} things, it registers the
22325 function as being public so that other backends can inherit it.
22327 @item nnoo-map-functions
22328 This macro allows mapping of functions from the current backend to
22329 functions from the parent backends.
22332 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
22333 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
22334 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0))
22337 This means that when @code{nndir-retrieve-headers} is called, the first,
22338 third, and fourth parameters will be passed on to
22339 @code{nnml-retrieve-headers}, while the second parameter is set to the
22340 value of @code{nndir-current-group}.
22343 This macro allows importing functions from backends. It should be the
22344 last thing in the source file, since it will only define functions that
22345 haven't already been defined.
22351 nnmh-request-newgroups)
22355 This means that calls to @code{nndir-request-list} should just be passed
22356 on to @code{nnmh-request-list}, while all public functions from
22357 @code{nnml} that haven't been defined in @code{nndir} yet should be
22362 Below is a slightly shortened version of the @code{nndir} backend.
22365 ;;; nndir.el --- single directory newsgroup access for Gnus
22366 ;; Copyright (C) 1995,96 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
22370 (require 'nnheader)
22374 (eval-when-compile (require 'cl))
22376 (nnoo-declare nndir
22379 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
22380 "Where nndir will look for groups."
22381 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
22383 (defvoo nndir-nov-is-evil nil
22384 "*Non-nil means that nndir will never retrieve NOV headers."
22387 (defvoo nndir-current-group ""
22389 nnml-current-group nnmh-current-group)
22390 (defvoo nndir-top-directory nil nil nnml-directory nnmh-directory)
22391 (defvoo nndir-get-new-mail nil nil nnml-get-new-mail nnmh-get-new-mail)
22393 (defvoo nndir-status-string "" nil nnmh-status-string)
22394 (defconst nndir-version "nndir 1.0")
22396 ;;; Interface functions.
22398 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
22400 (deffoo nndir-open-server (server &optional defs)
22401 (setq nndir-directory
22402 (or (cadr (assq 'nndir-directory defs))
22404 (unless (assq 'nndir-directory defs)
22405 (push `(nndir-directory ,server) defs))
22406 (push `(nndir-current-group
22407 ,(file-name-nondirectory
22408 (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
22410 (push `(nndir-top-directory
22411 ,(file-name-directory (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
22413 (nnoo-change-server 'nndir server defs))
22415 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
22416 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
22417 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
22418 (nnmh-request-group nndir-current-group 0 0)
22419 (nnmh-close-group nndir-current-group 0))
22423 nnmh-status-message
22425 nnmh-request-newgroups))
22431 @node Hooking New Backends Into Gnus
22432 @subsubsection Hooking New Backends Into Gnus
22434 @vindex gnus-valid-select-methods
22435 @findex gnus-declare-backend
22436 Having Gnus start using your new backend is rather easy---you just
22437 declare it with the @code{gnus-declare-backend} functions. This will
22438 enter the backend into the @code{gnus-valid-select-methods} variable.
22440 @code{gnus-declare-backend} takes two parameters---the backend name and
22441 an arbitrary number of @dfn{abilities}.
22446 (gnus-declare-backend "nnchoke" 'mail 'respool 'address)
22449 The above line would then go in the @file{nnchoke.el} file.
22451 The abilities can be:
22455 This is a mailish backend---followups should (probably) go via mail.
22457 This is a newsish backend---followups should (probably) go via news.
22459 This backend supports both mail and news.
22461 This is neither a post nor mail backend---it's something completely
22464 It supports respooling---or rather, it is able to modify its source
22465 articles and groups.
22467 The name of the server should be in the virtual server name. This is
22468 true for almost all backends.
22469 @item prompt-address
22470 The user should be prompted for an address when doing commands like
22471 @kbd{B} in the group buffer. This is true for backends like
22472 @code{nntp}, but not @code{nnmbox}, for instance.
22476 @node Mail-like Backends
22477 @subsubsection Mail-like Backends
22479 One of the things that separate the mail backends from the rest of the
22480 backends is the heavy dependence by the mail backends on common
22481 functions in @file{nnmail.el}. For instance, here's the definition of
22482 @code{nnml-request-scan}:
22485 (deffoo nnml-request-scan (&optional group server)
22486 (setq nnml-article-file-alist nil)
22487 (nnmail-get-new-mail 'nnml 'nnml-save-nov nnml-directory group))
22490 It simply calls @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} with a few parameters,
22491 and @code{nnmail} takes care of all the moving and splitting of the
22494 This function takes four parameters.
22498 This should be a symbol to designate which backend is responsible for
22501 @item exit-function
22502 This function should be called after the splitting has been performed.
22504 @item temp-directory
22505 Where the temporary files should be stored.
22508 This optional argument should be a group name if the splitting is to be
22509 performed for one group only.
22512 @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} will call @var{backend}@code{-save-mail} to
22513 save each article. @var{backend}@code{-active-number} will be called to
22514 find the article number assigned to this article.
22516 The function also uses the following variables:
22517 @var{backend}@code{-get-new-mail} (to see whether to get new mail for
22518 this backend); and @var{backend}@code{-group-alist} and
22519 @var{backend}@code{-active-file} to generate the new active file.
22520 @var{backend}@code{-group-alist} should be a group-active alist, like
22524 (("a-group" (1 . 10))
22525 ("some-group" (34 . 39)))
22529 @node Score File Syntax
22530 @subsection Score File Syntax
22532 Score files are meant to be easily parseable, but yet extremely
22533 mallable. It was decided that something that had the same read syntax
22534 as an Emacs Lisp list would fit that spec.
22536 Here's a typical score file:
22540 ("win95" -10000 nil s)
22547 BNF definition of a score file:
22550 score-file = "" / "(" *element ")"
22551 element = rule / atom
22552 rule = string-rule / number-rule / date-rule
22553 string-rule = "(" quote string-header quote space *string-match ")"
22554 number-rule = "(" quote number-header quote space *number-match ")"
22555 date-rule = "(" quote date-header quote space *date-match ")"
22557 string-header = "subject" / "from" / "references" / "message-id" /
22558 "xref" / "body" / "head" / "all" / "followup"
22559 number-header = "lines" / "chars"
22560 date-header = "date"
22561 string-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
22562 space date [ "" / [ space string-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
22563 score = "nil" / <integer>
22564 date = "nil" / <natural number>
22565 string-match-t = "nil" / "s" / "substring" / "S" / "Substring" /
22566 "r" / "regex" / "R" / "Regex" /
22567 "e" / "exact" / "E" / "Exact" /
22568 "f" / "fuzzy" / "F" / "Fuzzy"
22569 number-match = "(" <integer> [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
22570 space date [ "" / [ space number-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
22571 number-match-t = "nil" / "=" / "<" / ">" / ">=" / "<="
22572 date-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
22573 space date [ "" / [ space date-match-t ] ] ] ] ")"
22574 date-match-t = "nil" / "at" / "before" / "after"
22575 atom = "(" [ required-atom / optional-atom ] ")"
22576 required-atom = mark / expunge / mark-and-expunge / files /
22577 exclude-files / read-only / touched
22578 optional-atom = adapt / local / eval
22579 mark = "mark" space nil-or-number
22580 nil-or-number = "nil" / <integer>
22581 expunge = "expunge" space nil-or-number
22582 mark-and-expunge = "mark-and-expunge" space nil-or-number
22583 files = "files" *[ space <string> ]
22584 exclude-files = "exclude-files" *[ space <string> ]
22585 read-only = "read-only" [ space "nil" / space "t" ]
22586 adapt = "adapt" [ space "ignore" / space "t" / space adapt-rule ]
22587 adapt-rule = "(" *[ <string> *[ "(" <string> <integer> ")" ] ")"
22588 local = "local" *[ space "(" <string> space <form> ")" ]
22589 eval = "eval" space <form>
22590 space = *[ " " / <TAB> / <NEWLINE> ]
22593 Any unrecognized elements in a score file should be ignored, but not
22596 As you can see, white space is needed, but the type and amount of white
22597 space is irrelevant. This means that formatting of the score file is
22598 left up to the programmer---if it's simpler to just spew it all out on
22599 one looong line, then that's ok.
22601 The meaning of the various atoms are explained elsewhere in this
22602 manual (@pxref{Score File Format}).
22606 @subsection Headers
22608 Internally Gnus uses a format for storing article headers that
22609 corresponds to the @sc{nov} format in a mysterious fashion. One could
22610 almost suspect that the author looked at the @sc{nov} specification and
22611 just shamelessly @emph{stole} the entire thing, and one would be right.
22613 @dfn{Header} is a severely overloaded term. ``Header'' is used in
22614 RFC 1036 to talk about lines in the head of an article (e.g.,
22615 @code{From}). It is used by many people as a synonym for
22616 ``head''---``the header and the body''. (That should be avoided, in my
22617 opinion.) And Gnus uses a format internally that it calls ``header'',
22618 which is what I'm talking about here. This is a 9-element vector,
22619 basically, with each header (ouch) having one slot.
22621 These slots are, in order: @code{number}, @code{subject}, @code{from},
22622 @code{date}, @code{id}, @code{references}, @code{chars}, @code{lines},
22623 @code{xref}, and @code{extra}. There are macros for accessing and
22624 setting these slots---they all have predictable names beginning with
22625 @code{mail-header-} and @code{mail-header-set-}, respectively.
22627 All these slots contain strings, except the @code{extra} slot, which
22628 contains an alist of header/value pairs (@pxref{To From Newsgroups}).
22634 @sc{gnus} introduced a concept that I found so useful that I've started
22635 using it a lot and have elaborated on it greatly.
22637 The question is simple: If you have a large amount of objects that are
22638 identified by numbers (say, articles, to take a @emph{wild} example)
22639 that you want to qualify as being ``included'', a normal sequence isn't
22640 very useful. (A 200,000 length sequence is a bit long-winded.)
22642 The solution is as simple as the question: You just collapse the
22646 (1 2 3 4 5 6 10 11 12)
22649 is transformed into
22652 ((1 . 6) (10 . 12))
22655 To avoid having those nasty @samp{(13 . 13)} elements to denote a
22656 lonesome object, a @samp{13} is a valid element:
22659 ((1 . 6) 7 (10 . 12))
22662 This means that comparing two ranges to find out whether they are equal
22663 is slightly tricky:
22666 ((1 . 5) 7 8 (10 . 12))
22672 ((1 . 5) (7 . 8) (10 . 12))
22675 are equal. In fact, any non-descending list is a range:
22681 is a perfectly valid range, although a pretty long-winded one. This is
22688 and is equal to the previous range.
22690 Here's a BNF definition of ranges. Of course, one must remember the
22691 semantic requirement that the numbers are non-descending. (Any number
22692 of repetition of the same number is allowed, but apt to disappear in
22696 range = simple-range / normal-range
22697 simple-range = "(" number " . " number ")"
22698 normal-range = "(" start-contents ")"
22699 contents = "" / simple-range *[ " " contents ] /
22700 number *[ " " contents ]
22703 Gnus currently uses ranges to keep track of read articles and article
22704 marks. I plan on implementing a number of range operators in C if The
22705 Powers That Be are willing to let me. (I haven't asked yet, because I
22706 need to do some more thinking on what operators I need to make life
22707 totally range-based without ever having to convert back to normal
22712 @subsection Group Info
22714 Gnus stores all permanent info on groups in a @dfn{group info} list.
22715 This list is from three to six elements (or more) long and exhaustively
22716 describes the group.
22718 Here are two example group infos; one is a very simple group while the
22719 second is a more complex one:
22722 ("no.group" 5 ((1 . 54324)))
22724 ("nnml:my.mail" 3 ((1 . 5) 9 (20 . 55))
22725 ((tick (15 . 19)) (replied 3 6 (19 . 3)))
22727 ((auto-expire . t) (to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")))
22730 The first element is the @dfn{group name}---as Gnus knows the group,
22731 anyway. The second element is the @dfn{subscription level}, which
22732 normally is a small integer. (It can also be the @dfn{rank}, which is a
22733 cons cell where the @code{car} is the level and the @code{cdr} is the
22734 score.) The third element is a list of ranges of read articles. The
22735 fourth element is a list of lists of article marks of various kinds.
22736 The fifth element is the select method (or virtual server, if you like).
22737 The sixth element is a list of @dfn{group parameters}, which is what
22738 this section is about.
22740 Any of the last three elements may be missing if they are not required.
22741 In fact, the vast majority of groups will normally only have the first
22742 three elements, which saves quite a lot of cons cells.
22744 Here's a BNF definition of the group info format:
22747 info = "(" group space ralevel space read
22748 [ "" / [ space marks-list [ "" / [ space method [ "" /
22749 space parameters ] ] ] ] ] ")"
22750 group = quote <string> quote
22751 ralevel = rank / level
22752 level = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
22753 rank = "(" level "." score ")"
22754 score = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
22756 marks-lists = nil / "(" *marks ")"
22757 marks = "(" <string> range ")"
22758 method = "(" <string> *elisp-forms ")"
22759 parameters = "(" *elisp-forms ")"
22762 Actually that @samp{marks} rule is a fib. A @samp{marks} is a
22763 @samp{<string>} consed on to a @samp{range}, but that's a bitch to say
22766 If you have a Gnus info and want to access the elements, Gnus offers a
22767 series of macros for getting/setting these elements.
22770 @item gnus-info-group
22771 @itemx gnus-info-set-group
22772 @findex gnus-info-group
22773 @findex gnus-info-set-group
22774 Get/set the group name.
22776 @item gnus-info-rank
22777 @itemx gnus-info-set-rank
22778 @findex gnus-info-rank
22779 @findex gnus-info-set-rank
22780 Get/set the group rank (@pxref{Group Score}).
22782 @item gnus-info-level
22783 @itemx gnus-info-set-level
22784 @findex gnus-info-level
22785 @findex gnus-info-set-level
22786 Get/set the group level.
22788 @item gnus-info-score
22789 @itemx gnus-info-set-score
22790 @findex gnus-info-score
22791 @findex gnus-info-set-score
22792 Get/set the group score (@pxref{Group Score}).
22794 @item gnus-info-read
22795 @itemx gnus-info-set-read
22796 @findex gnus-info-read
22797 @findex gnus-info-set-read
22798 Get/set the ranges of read articles.
22800 @item gnus-info-marks
22801 @itemx gnus-info-set-marks
22802 @findex gnus-info-marks
22803 @findex gnus-info-set-marks
22804 Get/set the lists of ranges of marked articles.
22806 @item gnus-info-method
22807 @itemx gnus-info-set-method
22808 @findex gnus-info-method
22809 @findex gnus-info-set-method
22810 Get/set the group select method.
22812 @item gnus-info-params
22813 @itemx gnus-info-set-params
22814 @findex gnus-info-params
22815 @findex gnus-info-set-params
22816 Get/set the group parameters.
22819 All the getter functions take one parameter---the info list. The setter
22820 functions take two parameters---the info list and the new value.
22822 The last three elements in the group info aren't mandatory, so it may be
22823 necessary to extend the group info before setting the element. If this
22824 is necessary, you can just pass on a non-@code{nil} third parameter to
22825 the three final setter functions to have this happen automatically.
22828 @node Extended Interactive
22829 @subsection Extended Interactive
22830 @cindex interactive
22831 @findex gnus-interactive
22833 Gnus extends the standard Emacs @code{interactive} specification
22834 slightly to allow easy use of the symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic
22835 Prefixes}). Here's an example of how this is used:
22838 (defun gnus-summary-increase-score (&optional score symp)
22839 (interactive (gnus-interactive "P\ny"))
22844 The best thing to do would have been to implement
22845 @code{gnus-interactive} as a macro which would have returned an
22846 @code{interactive} form, but this isn't possible since Emacs checks
22847 whether a function is interactive or not by simply doing an @code{assq}
22848 on the lambda form. So, instead we have @code{gnus-interactive}
22849 function that takes a string and returns values that are usable to
22850 @code{interactive}.
22852 This function accepts (almost) all normal @code{interactive} specs, but
22857 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbol
22858 The current symbolic prefix---the @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol}
22862 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbols
22863 A list of the current symbolic prefixes---the
22864 @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol} variable.
22867 The current article number---the @code{gnus-summary-article-number}
22871 The current article header---the @code{gnus-summary-article-header}
22875 The current group name---the @code{gnus-group-group-name}
22881 @node Emacs/XEmacs Code
22882 @subsection Emacs/XEmacs Code
22886 While Gnus runs under Emacs, XEmacs and Mule, I decided that one of the
22887 platforms must be the primary one. I chose Emacs. Not because I don't
22888 like XEmacs or Mule, but because it comes first alphabetically.
22890 This means that Gnus will byte-compile under Emacs with nary a warning,
22891 while XEmacs will pump out gigabytes of warnings while byte-compiling.
22892 As I use byte-compilation warnings to help me root out trivial errors in
22893 Gnus, that's very useful.
22895 I've also consistently used Emacs function interfaces, but have used
22896 Gnusey aliases for the functions. To take an example: Emacs defines a
22897 @code{run-at-time} function while XEmacs defines a @code{start-itimer}
22898 function. I then define a function called @code{gnus-run-at-time} that
22899 takes the same parameters as the Emacs @code{run-at-time}. When running
22900 Gnus under Emacs, the former function is just an alias for the latter.
22901 However, when running under XEmacs, the former is an alias for the
22902 following function:
22905 (defun gnus-xmas-run-at-time (time repeat function &rest args)
22909 (,function ,@@args))
22913 This sort of thing has been done for bunches of functions. Gnus does
22914 not redefine any native Emacs functions while running under XEmacs---it
22915 does this @code{defalias} thing with Gnus equivalents instead. Cleaner
22918 In the cases where the XEmacs function interface was obviously cleaner,
22919 I used it instead. For example @code{gnus-region-active-p} is an alias
22920 for @code{region-active-p} in XEmacs, whereas in Emacs it is a function.
22922 Of course, I could have chosen XEmacs as my native platform and done
22923 mapping functions the other way around. But I didn't. The performance
22924 hit these indirections impose on Gnus under XEmacs should be slight.
22927 @node Various File Formats
22928 @subsection Various File Formats
22931 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
22932 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
22936 @node Active File Format
22937 @subsubsection Active File Format
22939 The active file lists all groups available on the server in
22940 question. It also lists the highest and lowest current article numbers
22943 Here's an excerpt from a typical active file:
22946 soc.motss 296030 293865 y
22947 alt.binaries.pictures.fractals 3922 3913 n
22948 comp.sources.unix 1605 1593 m
22949 comp.binaries.ibm.pc 5097 5089 y
22950 no.general 1000 900 y
22953 Here's a pseudo-BNF definition of this file:
22956 active = *group-line
22957 group-line = group spc high-number spc low-number spc flag <NEWLINE>
22958 group = <non-white-space string>
22960 high-number = <non-negative integer>
22961 low-number = <positive integer>
22962 flag = "y" / "n" / "m" / "j" / "x" / "=" group
22965 For a full description of this file, see the manual pages for
22966 @samp{innd}, in particular @samp{active(5)}.
22969 @node Newsgroups File Format
22970 @subsubsection Newsgroups File Format
22972 The newsgroups file lists groups along with their descriptions. Not all
22973 groups on the server have to be listed, and not all groups in the file
22974 have to exist on the server. The file is meant purely as information to
22977 The format is quite simple; a group name, a tab, and the description.
22978 Here's the definition:
22982 line = group tab description <NEWLINE>
22983 group = <non-white-space string>
22985 description = <string>
22990 @node Emacs for Heathens
22991 @section Emacs for Heathens
22993 Believe it or not, but some people who use Gnus haven't really used
22994 Emacs much before they embarked on their journey on the Gnus Love Boat.
22995 If you are one of those unfortunates whom ``@kbd{M-C-a}'', ``kill the
22996 region'', and ``set @code{gnus-flargblossen} to an alist where the key
22997 is a regexp that is used for matching on the group name'' are magical
22998 phrases with little or no meaning, then this appendix is for you. If
22999 you are already familiar with Emacs, just ignore this and go fondle your
23003 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
23004 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
23009 @subsection Keystrokes
23013 Q: What is an experienced Emacs user?
23016 A: A person who wishes that the terminal had pedals.
23019 Yes, when you use Emacs, you are apt to use the control key, the shift
23020 key and the meta key a lot. This is very annoying to some people
23021 (notably @code{vi}le users), and the rest of us just love the hell out
23022 of it. Just give up and submit. Emacs really does stand for
23023 ``Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift'', and not ``Editing Macros'', as you
23024 may have heard from other disreputable sources (like the Emacs author).
23026 The shift keys are normally located near your pinky fingers, and are
23027 normally used to get capital letters and stuff. You probably use it all
23028 the time. The control key is normally marked ``CTRL'' or something like
23029 that. The meta key is, funnily enough, never marked as such on any
23030 keyboard. The one I'm currently at has a key that's marked ``Alt'',
23031 which is the meta key on this keyboard. It's usually located somewhere
23032 to the left hand side of the keyboard, usually on the bottom row.
23034 Now, us Emacs people don't say ``press the meta-control-m key'',
23035 because that's just too inconvenient. We say ``press the @kbd{M-C-m}
23036 key''. @kbd{M-} is the prefix that means ``meta'' and ``C-'' is the
23037 prefix that means ``control''. So ``press @kbd{C-k}'' means ``press
23038 down the control key, and hold it down while you press @kbd{k}''.
23039 ``Press @kbd{M-C-k}'' means ``press down and hold down the meta key and
23040 the control key and then press @kbd{k}''. Simple, ay?
23042 This is somewhat complicated by the fact that not all keyboards have a
23043 meta key. In that case you can use the ``escape'' key. Then @kbd{M-k}
23044 means ``press escape, release escape, press @kbd{k}''. That's much more
23045 work than if you have a meta key, so if that's the case, I respectfully
23046 suggest you get a real keyboard with a meta key. You can't live without
23052 @subsection Emacs Lisp
23054 Emacs is the King of Editors because it's really a Lisp interpreter.
23055 Each and every key you tap runs some Emacs Lisp code snippet, and since
23056 Emacs Lisp is an interpreted language, that means that you can configure
23057 any key to run any arbitrary code. You just, like, do it.
23059 Gnus is written in Emacs Lisp, and is run as a bunch of interpreted
23060 functions. (These are byte-compiled for speed, but it's still
23061 interpreted.) If you decide that you don't like the way Gnus does
23062 certain things, it's trivial to have it do something a different way.
23063 (Well, at least if you know how to write Lisp code.) However, that's
23064 beyond the scope of this manual, so we are simply going to talk about
23065 some common constructs that you normally use in your @file{.emacs} file
23068 If you want to set the variable @code{gnus-florgbnize} to four (4), you
23069 write the following:
23072 (setq gnus-florgbnize 4)
23075 This function (really ``special form'') @code{setq} is the one that can
23076 set a variable to some value. This is really all you need to know. Now
23077 you can go and fill your @code{.emacs} file with lots of these to change
23080 If you have put that thing in your @code{.emacs} file, it will be read
23081 and @code{eval}ed (which is lisp-ese for ``run'') the next time you
23082 start Emacs. If you want to change the variable right away, simply say
23083 @kbd{C-x C-e} after the closing parenthesis. That will @code{eval} the
23084 previous ``form'', which is a simple @code{setq} statement here.
23086 Go ahead---just try it, if you're located at your Emacs. After you
23087 @kbd{C-x C-e}, you will see @samp{4} appear in the echo area, which
23088 is the return value of the form you @code{eval}ed.
23092 If the manual says ``set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{some}'',
23096 (setq gnus-read-active-file 'some)
23099 On the other hand, if the manual says ``set @code{gnus-nntp-server} to
23100 @samp{nntp.ifi.uio.no}'', that means:
23103 (setq gnus-nntp-server "nntp.ifi.uio.no")
23106 So be careful not to mix up strings (the latter) with symbols (the
23107 former). The manual is unambiguous, but it can be confusing.
23110 @include gnus-faq.texi
23131 % LocalWords: Backend BNF mucho Backends backends detailmenu cindex kindex kbd
23132 % LocalWords: findex Gnusae vindex dfn dfn samp nntp setq nnspool nntpserver
23133 % LocalWords: nnmbox backend newusers Blllrph NEWGROUPS dingnusdingnusdingnus
23134 % LocalWords: pre fab rec comp nnslashdot regex ga ga sci nnml nnbabyl nnmh
23135 % LocalWords: nnfolder emph looong eld newsreaders defun init elc pxref