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10 * Gnus: (gnus). The newsreader Gnus.
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266 \gnusauthor{by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen}
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275 Copyright \copyright{} 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000
276 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
279 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
280 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
281 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
282 Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
283 Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
284 license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
285 License'' in the Emacs manual.
287 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
288 this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
289 Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
291 This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
292 Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
293 separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
294 license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
302 This file documents Gnus, the GNU Emacs newsreader.
304 Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
306 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
307 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
308 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
309 Invariant Sections being none, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
310 Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
311 license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
312 License'' in the Emacs manual.
314 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
315 this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
316 Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
318 This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
319 Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
320 separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
321 license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
329 @author by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
332 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
333 Copyright @copyright{} 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
335 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
336 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
337 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
338 Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
339 Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
340 license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
341 License'' in the Emacs manual.
343 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
344 this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
345 Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
347 This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
348 Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
349 separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
350 license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
359 @top The Gnus Newsreader
363 You can read news (and mail) from within Emacs by using Gnus. The news
364 can be gotten by any nefarious means you can think of---@sc{nntp}, local
365 spool or your mbox file. All at the same time, if you want to push your
368 This manual corresponds to Oort Gnus v0.01.
379 Gnus is the advanced, self-documenting, customizable, extensible
380 unreal-time newsreader for GNU Emacs.
382 Oops. That sounds oddly familiar, so let's start over again to avoid
383 being accused of plagiarism:
385 Gnus is a message-reading laboratory. It will let you look at just
386 about anything as if it were a newsgroup. You can read mail with it,
387 you can browse directories with it, you can @code{ftp} with it---you
388 can even read news with it!
390 Gnus tries to empower people who read news the same way Emacs empowers
391 people who edit text. Gnus sets no limits to what the user should be
392 allowed to do. Users are encouraged to extend Gnus to make it behave
393 like they want it to behave. A program should not control people;
394 people should be empowered to do what they want by using (or abusing)
400 * Starting Up:: Finding news can be a pain.
401 * The Group Buffer:: Selecting, subscribing and killing groups.
402 * The Summary Buffer:: Reading, saving and posting articles.
403 * The Article Buffer:: Displaying and handling articles.
404 * Composing Messages:: Information on sending mail and news.
405 * Select Methods:: Gnus reads all messages from various select methods.
406 * Scoring:: Assigning values to articles.
407 * Various:: General purpose settings.
408 * The End:: Farewell and goodbye.
409 * Appendices:: Terminology, Emacs intro, FAQ, History, Internals.
410 * Index:: Variable, function and concept index.
411 * Key Index:: Key Index.
414 --- The Detailed Node Listing ---
418 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
419 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
420 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
421 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
422 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
423 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
424 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
425 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
426 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
427 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
428 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
432 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
433 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
434 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
438 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
439 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
440 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
441 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
442 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
443 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
444 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
445 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
446 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
447 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
448 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
449 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
450 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
451 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
452 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
453 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
454 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
458 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
459 * Group Modeline Specification:: The group buffer modeline.
460 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
464 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
465 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
466 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
467 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
468 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
472 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
473 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
474 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
475 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
479 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
480 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
481 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
482 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
483 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
484 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
485 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
486 * Threading:: How threads are made.
487 * Sorting:: How articles and threads are sorted.
488 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
489 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
490 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
491 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
492 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
493 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
494 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
495 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
496 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
497 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
498 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
499 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
500 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
501 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
502 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
503 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
504 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer.
505 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
506 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
507 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
509 Summary Buffer Format
511 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
512 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
513 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
514 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
518 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
519 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
521 Reply, Followup and Post
523 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
524 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
525 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
526 * Canceling and Superseding:: ``Whoops, I shouldn't have called him that.''
530 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
531 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
532 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
533 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
534 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
535 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
539 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
540 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
542 Customizing Threading
544 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
545 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
546 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
547 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over... but you were wrong!
551 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
552 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
553 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
554 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
555 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
556 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
560 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
561 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
562 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
566 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
567 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
568 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
569 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
570 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
571 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
572 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
573 * Article Miscellania:: Various other stuff.
575 Alternative Approaches
577 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
578 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
580 Various Summary Stuff
582 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
583 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
584 * Summary Generation Commands:: (Re)generating the summary buffer.
585 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
589 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
590 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @sc{mime} before reading them.
591 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
592 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
593 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
597 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
598 * Posting Server:: What server should you post via?
599 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
600 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
601 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
602 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
603 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
604 * Using GPG:: How to use GPG and MML to sign and encrypt messages
608 * The Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
609 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
610 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
611 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
612 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
613 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
614 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
618 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
619 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
620 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
621 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
622 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
623 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
624 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
628 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @sc{nntp} server.
629 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
633 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
634 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
635 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
636 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
637 * Mail Backend Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
638 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
639 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
640 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
641 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
642 * Washing Mail:: Removing cruft from the mail you get.
643 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
644 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail backends for reading other files.
645 * Choosing a Mail Backend:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
649 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
650 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
651 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
653 Choosing a Mail Backend
655 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
656 * Rmail Babyl:: Emacs programs use the rmail babyl format.
657 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
658 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like backend.
659 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
660 * Comparing Mail Backends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
664 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
665 * Slashdot:: Reading the Slashdot comments.
666 * Ultimate:: The Ultimate Bulletin Board systems.
667 * Web Archive:: Reading mailing list archived on web.
671 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
672 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
673 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
674 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{soup} packets ``offline''.
675 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
676 * IMAP:: Using Gnus as a @sc{imap} client.
680 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
684 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
685 * SOUP Groups:: A backend for reading @sc{soup} packets.
686 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
690 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
691 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
692 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a "compress mailbox" button.
696 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
697 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
701 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
702 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
703 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
704 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
705 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with IMAP.
706 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
707 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
708 * Example Setup:: An example @file{.gnus.el} file for offline people.
709 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
710 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
714 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
715 * The Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
716 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
720 * Group Agent Commands::
721 * Summary Agent Commands::
722 * Server Agent Commands::
726 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
727 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
728 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
729 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
730 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
731 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
732 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
733 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
734 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
735 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
736 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
737 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
738 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
739 * GroupLens:: Getting predictions on what you like to read.
740 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
741 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
745 * Using GroupLens:: How to make Gnus use GroupLens.
746 * Rating Articles:: Letting GroupLens know how you rate articles.
747 * Displaying Predictions:: Displaying predictions given by GroupLens.
748 * GroupLens Variables:: Customizing GroupLens.
752 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
753 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
754 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
758 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
759 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
760 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
761 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
762 * Windows Configuration:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
763 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
764 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
765 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
766 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
767 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
768 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
769 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
770 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
771 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
772 * XEmacs Enhancements:: There are more pictures and stuff under XEmacs.
773 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
774 * Thwarting Email Spam:: A how-to on avoiding unsolicited commercial email.
775 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
779 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
780 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
781 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
782 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
783 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
787 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what your reading.
788 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
789 * Toolbar:: Click'n'drool.
790 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
794 * Picon Basics:: What are picons and How do I get them.
795 * Picon Requirements:: Don't go further if you aren't using XEmacs.
796 * Easy Picons:: Displaying Picons---the easy way.
797 * Hard Picons:: The way you should do it. You'll learn something.
798 * Picon Useless Configuration:: Other variables you can trash/tweak/munge/play with.
802 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
803 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
804 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
805 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
806 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
807 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
808 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
809 * Frequently Asked Questions:: A question-and-answer session.
813 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
814 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
815 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
816 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
817 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
818 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
819 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
820 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
821 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
822 * Newest Features:: Features so new that they haven't been written yet.
826 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
827 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.3/5.3.
828 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
829 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
833 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
834 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
835 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
836 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
840 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
841 * Backend Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
842 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
843 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
844 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
845 * Group Info:: The group info format.
846 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
847 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
848 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
852 * Required Backend Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
853 * Optional Backend Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
854 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
855 * Writing New Backends:: Extending old backends.
856 * Hooking New Backends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
857 * Mail-like Backends:: Some tips on mail backends.
861 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
862 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
866 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
867 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
873 @chapter Starting Gnus
878 If your system administrator has set things up properly, starting Gnus
879 and reading news is extremely easy---you just type @kbd{M-x gnus} in
882 @findex gnus-other-frame
883 @kindex M-x gnus-other-frame
884 If you want to start Gnus in a different frame, you can use the command
885 @kbd{M-x gnus-other-frame} instead.
887 If things do not go smoothly at startup, you have to twiddle some
888 variables in your @file{~/.gnus} file. This file is similar to
889 @file{~/.emacs}, but is read when gnus starts.
891 If you puzzle at any terms used in this manual, please refer to the
892 terminology section (@pxref{Terminology}).
895 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
896 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
897 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
898 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
899 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
900 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
901 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
902 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
903 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
904 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
905 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
909 @node Finding the News
910 @section Finding the News
913 @vindex gnus-select-method
915 The @code{gnus-select-method} variable says where Gnus should look for
916 news. This variable should be a list where the first element says
917 @dfn{how} and the second element says @dfn{where}. This method is your
918 native method. All groups not fetched with this method are
921 For instance, if the @samp{news.somewhere.edu} @sc{nntp} server is where
922 you want to get your daily dosage of news from, you'd say:
925 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"))
928 If you want to read directly from the local spool, say:
931 (setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool ""))
934 If you can use a local spool, you probably should, as it will almost
935 certainly be much faster.
937 @vindex gnus-nntpserver-file
939 @cindex @sc{nntp} server
940 If this variable is not set, Gnus will take a look at the
941 @code{NNTPSERVER} environment variable. If that variable isn't set,
942 Gnus will see whether @code{gnus-nntpserver-file}
943 (@file{/etc/nntpserver} by default) has any opinions on the matter. If
944 that fails as well, Gnus will try to use the machine running Emacs as an @sc{nntp} server. That's a long shot, though.
946 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
947 If @code{gnus-nntp-server} is set, this variable will override
948 @code{gnus-select-method}. You should therefore set
949 @code{gnus-nntp-server} to @code{nil}, which is what it is by default.
951 @vindex gnus-secondary-servers
952 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
953 You can also make Gnus prompt you interactively for the name of an
954 @sc{nntp} server. If you give a non-numerical prefix to @code{gnus}
955 (i.e., @kbd{C-u M-x gnus}), Gnus will let you choose between the servers
956 in the @code{gnus-secondary-servers} list (if any). You can also just
957 type in the name of any server you feel like visiting. (Note that this
958 will set @code{gnus-nntp-server}, which means that if you then @kbd{M-x
959 gnus} later in the same Emacs session, Gnus will contact the same
962 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
964 However, if you use one @sc{nntp} server regularly and are just
965 interested in a couple of groups from a different server, you would be
966 better served by using the @kbd{B} command in the group buffer. It will
967 let you have a look at what groups are available, and you can subscribe
968 to any of the groups you want to. This also makes @file{.newsrc}
969 maintenance much tidier. @xref{Foreign Groups}.
971 @vindex gnus-secondary-select-methods
973 A slightly different approach to foreign groups is to set the
974 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} variable. The select methods
975 listed in this variable are in many ways just as native as the
976 @code{gnus-select-method} server. They will also be queried for active
977 files during startup (if that's required), and new newsgroups that
978 appear on these servers will be subscribed (or not) just as native
981 For instance, if you use the @code{nnmbox} backend to read your mail, you
982 would typically set this variable to
985 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnmbox "")))
990 @section The First Time
991 @cindex first time usage
993 If no startup files exist, Gnus will try to determine what groups should
994 be subscribed by default.
996 @vindex gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups
997 If the variable @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is set, Gnus
998 will subscribe you to just those groups in that list, leaving the rest
999 killed. Your system administrator should have set this variable to
1002 Since she hasn't, Gnus will just subscribe you to a few arbitrarily
1003 picked groups (i.e., @samp{*.newusers}). (@dfn{Arbitrary} is defined
1004 here as @dfn{whatever Lars thinks you should read}.)
1006 You'll also be subscribed to the Gnus documentation group, which should
1007 help you with most common problems.
1009 If @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is @code{t}, Gnus will just
1010 use the normal functions for handling new groups, and not do anything
1014 @node The Server is Down
1015 @section The Server is Down
1016 @cindex server errors
1018 If the default server is down, Gnus will understandably have some
1019 problems starting. However, if you have some mail groups in addition to
1020 the news groups, you may want to start Gnus anyway.
1022 Gnus, being the trusting sort of program, will ask whether to proceed
1023 without a native select method if that server can't be contacted. This
1024 will happen whether the server doesn't actually exist (i.e., you have
1025 given the wrong address) or the server has just momentarily taken ill
1026 for some reason or other. If you decide to continue and have no foreign
1027 groups, you'll find it difficult to actually do anything in the group
1028 buffer. But, hey, that's your problem. Blllrph!
1030 @findex gnus-no-server
1031 @kindex M-x gnus-no-server
1033 If you know that the server is definitely down, or you just want to read
1034 your mail without bothering with the server at all, you can use the
1035 @code{gnus-no-server} command to start Gnus. That might come in handy
1036 if you're in a hurry as well. This command will not attempt to contact
1037 your primary server---instead, it will just activate all groups on level
1038 1 and 2. (You should preferably keep no native groups on those two
1039 levels.) Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
1043 @section Slave Gnusae
1046 You might want to run more than one Emacs with more than one Gnus at the
1047 same time. If you are using different @file{.newsrc} files (e.g., if you
1048 are using the two different Gnusae to read from two different servers),
1049 that is no problem whatsoever. You just do it.
1051 The problem appears when you want to run two Gnusae that use the same
1052 @code{.newsrc} file.
1054 To work around that problem some, we here at the Think-Tank at the Gnus
1055 Towers have come up with a new concept: @dfn{Masters} and
1056 @dfn{slaves}. (We have applied for a patent on this concept, and have
1057 taken out a copyright on those words. If you wish to use those words in
1058 conjunction with each other, you have to send $1 per usage instance to
1059 me. Usage of the patent (@dfn{Master/Slave Relationships In Computer
1060 Applications}) will be much more expensive, of course.)
1062 Anyway, you start one Gnus up the normal way with @kbd{M-x gnus} (or
1063 however you do it). Each subsequent slave Gnusae should be started with
1064 @kbd{M-x gnus-slave}. These slaves won't save normal @file{.newsrc}
1065 files, but instead save @dfn{slave files} that contain information only
1066 on what groups have been read in the slave session. When a master Gnus
1067 starts, it will read (and delete) these slave files, incorporating all
1068 information from them. (The slave files will be read in the sequence
1069 they were created, so the latest changes will have precedence.)
1071 Information from the slave files has, of course, precedence over the
1072 information in the normal (i.e., master) @code{.newsrc} file.
1075 @node Fetching a Group
1076 @section Fetching a Group
1077 @cindex fetching a group
1079 @findex gnus-fetch-group
1080 It is sometimes convenient to be able to just say ``I want to read this
1081 group and I don't care whether Gnus has been started or not''. This is
1082 perhaps more useful for people who write code than for users, but the
1083 command @code{gnus-fetch-group} provides this functionality in any case.
1084 It takes the group name as a parameter.
1090 @cindex subscription
1092 @vindex gnus-check-new-newsgroups
1093 If you are satisfied that you really never want to see any new groups,
1094 you can set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil}. This will
1095 also save you some time at startup. Even if this variable is
1096 @code{nil}, you can always subscribe to the new groups just by pressing
1097 @kbd{U} in the group buffer (@pxref{Group Maintenance}). This variable
1098 is @code{ask-server} by default. If you set this variable to
1099 @code{always}, then Gnus will query the backends for new groups even
1100 when you do the @kbd{g} command (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
1103 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
1104 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
1105 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
1109 @node Checking New Groups
1110 @subsection Checking New Groups
1112 Gnus normally determines whether a group is new or not by comparing the
1113 list of groups from the active file(s) with the lists of subscribed and
1114 dead groups. This isn't a particularly fast method. If
1115 @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} is @code{ask-server}, Gnus will ask the
1116 server for new groups since the last time. This is both faster and
1117 cheaper. This also means that you can get rid of the list of killed
1118 groups altogether, so you may set @code{gnus-save-killed-list} to
1119 @code{nil}, which will save time both at startup, at exit, and all over.
1120 Saves disk space, too. Why isn't this the default, then?
1121 Unfortunately, not all servers support this command.
1123 I bet I know what you're thinking now: How do I find out whether my
1124 server supports @code{ask-server}? No? Good, because I don't have a
1125 fail-safe answer. I would suggest just setting this variable to
1126 @code{ask-server} and see whether any new groups appear within the next
1127 few days. If any do, then it works. If none do, then it doesn't
1128 work. I could write a function to make Gnus guess whether the server
1129 supports @code{ask-server}, but it would just be a guess. So I won't.
1130 You could @code{telnet} to the server and say @code{HELP} and see
1131 whether it lists @samp{NEWGROUPS} among the commands it understands. If
1132 it does, then it might work. (But there are servers that lists
1133 @samp{NEWGROUPS} without supporting the function properly.)
1135 This variable can also be a list of select methods. If so, Gnus will
1136 issue an @code{ask-server} command to each of the select methods, and
1137 subscribe them (or not) using the normal methods. This might be handy
1138 if you are monitoring a few servers for new groups. A side effect is
1139 that startup will take much longer, so you can meditate while waiting.
1140 Use the mantra ``dingnusdingnusdingnus'' to achieve permanent bliss.
1143 @node Subscription Methods
1144 @subsection Subscription Methods
1146 @vindex gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method
1147 What Gnus does when it encounters a new group is determined by the
1148 @code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} variable.
1150 This variable should contain a function. This function will be called
1151 with the name of the new group as the only parameter.
1153 Some handy pre-fab functions are:
1157 @item gnus-subscribe-zombies
1158 @vindex gnus-subscribe-zombies
1159 Make all new groups zombies. This is the default. You can browse the
1160 zombies later (with @kbd{A z}) and either kill them all off properly
1161 (with @kbd{S z}), or subscribe to them (with @kbd{u}).
1163 @item gnus-subscribe-randomly
1164 @vindex gnus-subscribe-randomly
1165 Subscribe all new groups in arbitrary order. This really means that all
1166 new groups will be added at ``the top'' of the group buffer.
1168 @item gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1169 @vindex gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1170 Subscribe all new groups in alphabetical order.
1172 @item gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1173 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1174 Subscribe all new groups hierarchically. The difference between this
1175 function and @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} is slight.
1176 @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} will subscribe new groups in a strictly
1177 alphabetical fashion, while this function will enter groups into its
1178 hierarchy. So if you want to have the @samp{rec} hierarchy before the
1179 @samp{comp} hierarchy, this function will not mess that configuration
1180 up. Or something like that.
1182 @item gnus-subscribe-interactively
1183 @vindex gnus-subscribe-interactively
1184 Subscribe new groups interactively. This means that Gnus will ask
1185 you about @strong{all} new groups. The groups you choose to subscribe
1186 to will be subscribed hierarchically.
1188 @item gnus-subscribe-killed
1189 @vindex gnus-subscribe-killed
1190 Kill all new groups.
1192 @item gnus-subscribe-topics
1193 @vindex gnus-subscribe-topics
1194 Put the groups into the topic that has a matching @code{subscribe} topic
1195 parameter (@pxref{Topic Parameters}). For instance, a @code{subscribe}
1196 topic parameter that looks like
1202 will mean that all groups that match that regex will be subscribed under
1205 If no topics match the groups, the groups will be subscribed in the
1210 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive
1211 A closely related variable is
1212 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. (That's quite a
1213 mouthful.) If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will ask you in a
1214 hierarchical fashion whether to subscribe to new groups or not. Gnus
1215 will ask you for each sub-hierarchy whether you want to descend the
1218 One common mistake is to set the variable a few paragraphs above
1219 (@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method}) to
1220 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. This is an error. This
1221 will not work. This is ga-ga. So don't do it.
1224 @node Filtering New Groups
1225 @subsection Filtering New Groups
1227 A nice and portable way to control which new newsgroups should be
1228 subscribed (or ignored) is to put an @dfn{options} line at the start of
1229 the @file{.newsrc} file. Here's an example:
1232 options -n !alt.all !rec.all sci.all
1235 @vindex gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method
1236 This line obviously belongs to a serious-minded intellectual scientific
1237 person (or she may just be plain old boring), because it says that all
1238 groups that have names beginning with @samp{alt} and @samp{rec} should
1239 be ignored, and all groups with names beginning with @samp{sci} should
1240 be subscribed. Gnus will not use the normal subscription method for
1241 subscribing these groups.
1242 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method} is used instead. This
1243 variable defaults to @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically}.
1245 @vindex gnus-options-not-subscribe
1246 @vindex gnus-options-subscribe
1247 If you don't want to mess with your @file{.newsrc} file, you can just
1248 set the two variables @code{gnus-options-subscribe} and
1249 @code{gnus-options-not-subscribe}. These two variables do exactly the
1250 same as the @file{.newsrc} @samp{options -n} trick. Both are regexps,
1251 and if the new group matches the former, it will be unconditionally
1252 subscribed, and if it matches the latter, it will be ignored.
1254 @vindex gnus-auto-subscribed-groups
1255 Yet another variable that meddles here is
1256 @code{gnus-auto-subscribed-groups}. It works exactly like
1257 @code{gnus-options-subscribe}, and is therefore really superfluous, but I
1258 thought it would be nice to have two of these. This variable is more
1259 meant for setting some ground rules, while the other variable is used
1260 more for user fiddling. By default this variable makes all new groups
1261 that come from mail backends (@code{nnml}, @code{nnbabyl},
1262 @code{nnfolder}, @code{nnmbox}, and @code{nnmh}) subscribed. If you
1263 don't like that, just set this variable to @code{nil}.
1265 New groups that match this regexp are subscribed using
1266 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method}.
1269 @node Changing Servers
1270 @section Changing Servers
1271 @cindex changing servers
1273 Sometimes it is necessary to move from one @sc{nntp} server to another.
1274 This happens very rarely, but perhaps you change jobs, or one server is
1275 very flaky and you want to use another.
1277 Changing the server is pretty easy, right? You just change
1278 @code{gnus-select-method} to point to the new server?
1282 Article numbers are not (in any way) kept synchronized between different
1283 @sc{nntp} servers, and the only way Gnus keeps track of what articles
1284 you have read is by keeping track of article numbers. So when you
1285 change @code{gnus-select-method}, your @file{.newsrc} file becomes
1288 Gnus provides a few functions to attempt to translate a @file{.newsrc}
1289 file from one server to another. They all have one thing in
1290 common---they take a looong time to run. You don't want to use these
1291 functions more than absolutely necessary.
1293 @kindex M-x gnus-change-server
1294 @findex gnus-change-server
1295 If you have access to both servers, Gnus can request the headers for all
1296 the articles you have read and compare @code{Message-ID}s and map the
1297 article numbers of the read articles and article marks. The @kbd{M-x
1298 gnus-change-server} command will do this for all your native groups. It
1299 will prompt for the method you want to move to.
1301 @kindex M-x gnus-group-move-group-to-server
1302 @findex gnus-group-move-group-to-server
1303 You can also move individual groups with the @kbd{M-x
1304 gnus-group-move-group-to-server} command. This is useful if you want to
1305 move a (foreign) group from one server to another.
1307 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1308 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1309 If you don't have access to both the old and new server, all your marks
1310 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use the @kbd{M-x
1311 gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups} command to clear out all data
1312 that you have on your native groups. Use with caution.
1314 After changing servers, you @strong{must} move the cache hierarchy away,
1315 since the cached articles will have wrong article numbers, which will
1316 affect which articles Gnus thinks are read.
1320 @section Startup Files
1321 @cindex startup files
1326 Now, you all know about the @file{.newsrc} file. All subscription
1327 information is traditionally stored in this file.
1329 Things got a bit more complicated with @sc{gnus}. In addition to
1330 keeping the @file{.newsrc} file updated, it also used a file called
1331 @file{.newsrc.el} for storing all the information that didn't fit into
1332 the @file{.newsrc} file. (Actually, it also duplicated everything in
1333 the @file{.newsrc} file.) @sc{gnus} would read whichever one of these
1334 files was the most recently saved, which enabled people to swap between
1335 @sc{gnus} and other newsreaders.
1337 That was kinda silly, so Gnus went one better: In addition to the
1338 @file{.newsrc} and @file{.newsrc.el} files, Gnus also has a file called
1339 @file{.newsrc.eld}. It will read whichever of these files that are most
1340 recent, but it will never write a @file{.newsrc.el} file. You should
1341 never delete the @file{.newsrc.eld} file---it contains much information
1342 not stored in the @file{.newsrc} file.
1344 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-file
1345 @vindex gnus-read-newsrc-file
1346 You can turn off writing the @file{.newsrc} file by setting
1347 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-file} to @code{nil}, which means you can delete
1348 the file and save some space, as well as exiting from Gnus faster.
1349 However, this will make it impossible to use other newsreaders than
1350 Gnus. But hey, who would want to, right? Similarly, setting
1351 @code{gnus-read-newsrc-file} to @code{nil} makes Gnus ignore the
1352 @file{.newsrc} file and any @file{.newsrc-SERVER} files, which is
1353 convenient if you have a tendency to use Netscape once in a while.
1355 @vindex gnus-save-killed-list
1356 If @code{gnus-save-killed-list} (default @code{t}) is @code{nil}, Gnus
1357 will not save the list of killed groups to the startup file. This will
1358 save both time (when starting and quitting) and space (on disk). It
1359 will also mean that Gnus has no record of what groups are new or old,
1360 so the automatic new groups subscription methods become meaningless.
1361 You should always set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil} or
1362 @code{ask-server} if you set this variable to @code{nil} (@pxref{New
1363 Groups}). This variable can also be a regular expression. If that's
1364 the case, remove all groups that do not match this regexp before
1365 saving. This can be useful in certain obscure situations that involve
1366 several servers where not all servers support @code{ask-server}.
1368 @vindex gnus-startup-file
1369 The @code{gnus-startup-file} variable says where the startup files are.
1370 The default value is @file{~/.newsrc}, with the Gnus (El Dingo) startup
1371 file being whatever that one is, with a @samp{.eld} appended.
1373 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-hook
1374 @vindex gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook
1375 @vindex gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook
1376 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-hook} is called before saving any of the newsrc
1377 files, while @code{gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook} is called just before
1378 saving the @file{.newsrc.eld} file, and
1379 @code{gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook} is called just before saving the
1380 @file{.newsrc} file. The latter two are commonly used to turn version
1381 control on or off. Version control is on by default when saving the
1382 startup files. If you want to turn backup creation off, say something like:
1385 (defun turn-off-backup ()
1386 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
1388 (add-hook 'gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1389 (add-hook 'gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1392 @vindex gnus-init-file
1393 When Gnus starts, it will read the @code{gnus-site-init-file}
1394 (@file{.../site-lisp/gnus} by default) and @code{gnus-init-file}
1395 (@file{~/.gnus} by default) files. These are normal Emacs Lisp files
1396 and can be used to avoid cluttering your @file{~/.emacs} and
1397 @file{site-init} files with Gnus stuff. Gnus will also check for files
1398 with the same names as these, but with @file{.elc} and @file{.el}
1399 suffixes. In other words, if you have set @code{gnus-init-file} to
1400 @file{~/.gnus}, it will look for @file{~/.gnus.elc}, @file{~/.gnus.el},
1401 and finally @file{~/.gnus} (in this order).
1407 @cindex dribble file
1410 Whenever you do something that changes the Gnus data (reading articles,
1411 catching up, killing/subscribing groups), the change is added to a
1412 special @dfn{dribble buffer}. This buffer is auto-saved the normal
1413 Emacs way. If your Emacs should crash before you have saved the
1414 @file{.newsrc} files, all changes you have made can be recovered from
1417 If Gnus detects this file at startup, it will ask the user whether to
1418 read it. The auto save file is deleted whenever the real startup file is
1421 @vindex gnus-use-dribble-file
1422 If @code{gnus-use-dribble-file} is @code{nil}, Gnus won't create and
1423 maintain a dribble buffer. The default is @code{t}.
1425 @vindex gnus-dribble-directory
1426 Gnus will put the dribble file(s) in @code{gnus-dribble-directory}. If
1427 this variable is @code{nil}, which it is by default, Gnus will dribble
1428 into the directory where the @file{.newsrc} file is located. (This is
1429 normally the user's home directory.) The dribble file will get the same
1430 file permissions as the @code{.newsrc} file.
1432 @vindex gnus-always-read-dribble-file
1433 If @code{gnus-always-read-dribble-file} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will
1434 read the dribble file on startup without querying the user.
1437 @node The Active File
1438 @section The Active File
1440 @cindex ignored groups
1442 When Gnus starts, or indeed whenever it tries to determine whether new
1443 articles have arrived, it reads the active file. This is a very large
1444 file that lists all the active groups and articles on the server.
1446 @vindex gnus-ignored-newsgroups
1447 Before examining the active file, Gnus deletes all lines that match the
1448 regexp @code{gnus-ignored-newsgroups}. This is done primarily to reject
1449 any groups with bogus names, but you can use this variable to make Gnus
1450 ignore hierarchies you aren't ever interested in. However, this is not
1451 recommended. In fact, it's highly discouraged. Instead, @pxref{New
1452 Groups} for an overview of other variables that can be used instead.
1455 @c @code{nil} by default, and will slow down active file handling somewhat
1456 @c if you set it to anything else.
1458 @vindex gnus-read-active-file
1460 The active file can be rather Huge, so if you have a slow network, you
1461 can set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{nil} to prevent Gnus from
1462 reading the active file. This variable is @code{some} by default.
1464 Gnus will try to make do by getting information just on the groups that
1465 you actually subscribe to.
1467 Note that if you subscribe to lots and lots of groups, setting this
1468 variable to @code{nil} will probably make Gnus slower, not faster. At
1469 present, having this variable @code{nil} will slow Gnus down
1470 considerably, unless you read news over a 2400 baud modem.
1472 This variable can also have the value @code{some}. Gnus will then
1473 attempt to read active info only on the subscribed groups. On some
1474 servers this is quite fast (on sparkling, brand new INN servers that
1475 support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command), on others this isn't fast
1476 at all. In any case, @code{some} should be faster than @code{nil}, and
1477 is certainly faster than @code{t} over slow lines.
1479 Some news servers (old versions of Leafnode and old versions of INN, for
1480 instance) do not support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group}. For these
1481 servers, @code{nil} is probably the most efficient value for this
1484 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will ask for group info in total
1485 lock-step, which isn't very fast. If it is @code{some} and you use an
1486 @sc{nntp} server, Gnus will pump out commands as fast as it can, and
1487 read all the replies in one swoop. This will normally result in better
1488 performance, but if the server does not support the aforementioned
1489 @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command, this isn't very nice to the server.
1491 If you think that starting up Gnus takes too long, try all the three
1492 different values for this variable and see what works best for you.
1494 In any case, if you use @code{some} or @code{nil}, you should definitely
1495 kill all groups that you aren't interested in to speed things up.
1497 Note that this variable also affects active file retrieval from
1498 secondary select methods.
1501 @node Startup Variables
1502 @section Startup Variables
1506 @item gnus-load-hook
1507 @vindex gnus-load-hook
1508 A hook run while Gnus is being loaded. Note that this hook will
1509 normally be run just once in each Emacs session, no matter how many
1510 times you start Gnus.
1512 @item gnus-before-startup-hook
1513 @vindex gnus-before-startup-hook
1514 A hook run after starting up Gnus successfully.
1516 @item gnus-startup-hook
1517 @vindex gnus-startup-hook
1518 A hook run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1520 @item gnus-started-hook
1521 @vindex gnus-started-hook
1522 A hook that is run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1525 @item gnus-setup-news-hook
1526 @vindex gnus-setup-news-hook
1527 A hook that is run after reading the @file{.newsrc} file(s), but before
1528 generating the group buffer.
1530 @item gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1531 @vindex gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1532 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will check for and delete all bogus groups at
1533 startup. A @dfn{bogus group} is a group that you have in your
1534 @file{.newsrc} file, but doesn't exist on the news server. Checking for
1535 bogus groups can take quite a while, so to save time and resources it's
1536 best to leave this option off, and do the checking for bogus groups once
1537 in a while from the group buffer instead (@pxref{Group Maintenance}).
1539 @item gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1540 @vindex gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1541 If non-@code{nil}, the startup message won't be displayed. That way,
1542 your boss might not notice as easily that you are reading news instead
1543 of doing your job. Note that this variable is used before
1544 @file{.gnus.el} is loaded, so it should be set in @code{.emacs} instead.
1546 @item gnus-no-groups-message
1547 @vindex gnus-no-groups-message
1548 Message displayed by Gnus when no groups are available.
1550 @item gnus-play-startup-jingle
1551 @vindex gnus-play-startup-jingle
1552 If non-@code{nil}, play the Gnus jingle at startup.
1554 @item gnus-startup-jingle
1555 @vindex gnus-startup-jingle
1556 Jingle to be played if the above variable is non-@code{nil}. The
1557 default is @samp{Tuxedomoon.Jingle4.au}.
1562 @node The Group Buffer
1563 @chapter The Group Buffer
1564 @cindex group buffer
1566 The @dfn{group buffer} lists all (or parts) of the available groups. It
1567 is the first buffer shown when Gnus starts, and will never be killed as
1568 long as Gnus is active.
1572 \gnusfigure{The Group Buffer}{320}{
1573 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=tmp/group.ps,height=9cm}}
1574 \put(120,37){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Buffer name}}
1575 \put(120,38){\vector(1,2){10}}
1576 \put(40,60){\makebox(0,0)[r]{Mode line}}
1577 \put(40,58){\vector(1,0){30}}
1578 \put(200,28){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Native select method}}
1579 \put(200,26){\vector(-1,2){15}}
1585 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
1586 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
1587 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
1588 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
1589 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
1590 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
1591 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
1592 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
1593 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
1594 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
1595 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
1596 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
1597 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
1598 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
1599 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
1600 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
1601 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
1605 @node Group Buffer Format
1606 @section Group Buffer Format
1609 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
1610 * Group Modeline Specification:: The group buffer modeline.
1611 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
1615 @node Group Line Specification
1616 @subsection Group Line Specification
1617 @cindex group buffer format
1619 The default format of the group buffer is nice and dull, but you can
1620 make it as exciting and ugly as you feel like.
1622 Here's a couple of example group lines:
1625 25: news.announce.newusers
1626 * 0: alt.fan.andrea-dworkin
1631 You can see that there are 25 unread articles in
1632 @samp{news.announce.newusers}. There are no unread articles, but some
1633 ticked articles, in @samp{alt.fan.andrea-dworkin} (see that little
1634 asterisk at the beginning of the line?).
1636 @vindex gnus-group-line-format
1637 You can change that format to whatever you want by fiddling with the
1638 @code{gnus-group-line-format} variable. This variable works along the
1639 lines of a @code{format} specification, which is pretty much the same as
1640 a @code{printf} specifications, for those of you who use (feh!) C.
1641 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
1643 @samp{%M%S%5y: %(%g%)\n} is the value that produced those lines above.
1645 There should always be a colon on the line; the cursor always moves to
1646 the colon after performing an operation. Nothing else is required---not
1647 even the group name. All displayed text is just window dressing, and is
1648 never examined by Gnus. Gnus stores all real information it needs using
1651 (Note that if you make a really strange, wonderful, spreadsheet-like
1652 layout, everybody will believe you are hard at work with the accounting
1653 instead of wasting time reading news.)
1655 Here's a list of all available format characters:
1660 An asterisk if the group only has marked articles.
1663 Whether the group is subscribed.
1666 Level of subscribedness.
1669 Number of unread articles.
1672 Number of dormant articles.
1675 Number of ticked articles.
1678 Number of read articles.
1681 Estimated total number of articles. (This is really @var{max-number}
1682 minus @var{min-number} plus 1.)
1685 Number of unread, unticked, non-dormant articles.
1688 Number of ticked and dormant articles.
1697 Newsgroup description.
1700 @samp{m} if moderated.
1703 @samp{(m)} if moderated.
1712 A string that looks like @samp{<%s:%n>} if a foreign select method is
1716 Indentation based on the level of the topic (@pxref{Group Topics}).
1719 @vindex gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels
1720 Short (collapsed) group name. The @code{gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels}
1721 variable says how many levels to leave at the end of the group name.
1722 The default is 1---this will mean that group names like
1723 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} will be shortened to @samp{g.e.gnus}.
1726 @vindex gnus-new-mail-mark
1728 @samp{%} (@code{gnus-new-mail-mark}) if there has arrived new mail to
1732 @samp{#} (@code{gnus-process-mark}) if the group is process marked.
1735 A string that says when you last read the group (@pxref{Group
1739 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
1740 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
1741 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
1742 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed a single dummy
1743 parameter as argument. The function should return a string, which will
1744 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
1749 All the ``number-of'' specs will be filled with an asterisk (@samp{*})
1750 if no info is available---for instance, if it is a non-activated foreign
1751 group, or a bogus native group.
1754 @node Group Modeline Specification
1755 @subsection Group Modeline Specification
1756 @cindex group modeline
1758 @vindex gnus-group-mode-line-format
1759 The mode line can be changed by setting
1760 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}). It
1761 doesn't understand that many format specifiers:
1765 The native news server.
1767 The native select method.
1771 @node Group Highlighting
1772 @subsection Group Highlighting
1773 @cindex highlighting
1774 @cindex group highlighting
1776 @vindex gnus-group-highlight
1777 Highlighting in the group buffer is controlled by the
1778 @code{gnus-group-highlight} variable. This is an alist with elements
1779 that look like @code{(@var{form} . @var{face})}. If @var{form} evaluates to
1780 something non-@code{nil}, the @var{face} will be used on the line.
1782 Here's an example value for this variable that might look nice if the
1786 (cond (window-system
1787 (setq custom-background-mode 'light)
1788 (defface my-group-face-1
1789 '((t (:foreground "Red" :bold t))) "First group face")
1790 (defface my-group-face-2
1791 '((t (:foreground "DarkSeaGreen4" :bold t))) "Second group face")
1792 (defface my-group-face-3
1793 '((t (:foreground "Green4" :bold t))) "Third group face")
1794 (defface my-group-face-4
1795 '((t (:foreground "SteelBlue" :bold t))) "Fourth group face")
1796 (defface my-group-face-5
1797 '((t (:foreground "Blue" :bold t))) "Fifth group face")))
1799 (setq gnus-group-highlight
1800 '(((> unread 200) . my-group-face-1)
1801 ((and (< level 3) (zerop unread)) . my-group-face-2)
1802 ((< level 3) . my-group-face-3)
1803 ((zerop unread) . my-group-face-4)
1804 (t . my-group-face-5)))
1807 Also @pxref{Faces and Fonts}.
1809 Variables that are dynamically bound when the forms are evaluated
1816 The number of unread articles in the group.
1820 Whether the group is a mail group.
1822 The level of the group.
1824 The score of the group.
1826 The number of ticked articles in the group.
1828 The total number of articles in the group. Or rather, MAX-NUMBER minus
1829 MIN-NUMBER plus one.
1831 When using the topic minor mode, this variable is bound to the current
1832 topic being inserted.
1835 When the forms are @code{eval}ed, point is at the beginning of the line
1836 of the group in question, so you can use many of the normal Gnus
1837 functions for snarfing info on the group.
1839 @vindex gnus-group-update-hook
1840 @findex gnus-group-highlight-line
1841 @code{gnus-group-update-hook} is called when a group line is changed.
1842 It will not be called when @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}. This hook
1843 calls @code{gnus-group-highlight-line} by default.
1846 @node Group Maneuvering
1847 @section Group Maneuvering
1848 @cindex group movement
1850 All movement commands understand the numeric prefix and will behave as
1851 expected, hopefully.
1857 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group
1858 Go to the next group that has unread articles
1859 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group}).
1865 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group
1866 Go to the previous group that has unread articles
1867 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group}).
1871 @findex gnus-group-next-group
1872 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
1876 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
1877 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
1881 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level
1882 Go to the next unread group on the same (or lower) level
1883 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level}).
1887 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level
1888 Go to the previous unread group on the same (or lower) level
1889 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level}).
1892 Three commands for jumping to groups:
1898 @findex gnus-group-jump-to-group
1899 Jump to a group (and make it visible if it isn't already)
1900 (@code{gnus-group-jump-to-group}). Killed groups can be jumped to, just
1905 @findex gnus-group-best-unread-group
1906 Jump to the unread group with the lowest level
1907 (@code{gnus-group-best-unread-group}).
1911 @findex gnus-group-first-unread-group
1912 Jump to the first group with unread articles
1913 (@code{gnus-group-first-unread-group}).
1916 @vindex gnus-group-goto-unread
1917 If @code{gnus-group-goto-unread} is @code{nil}, all the movement
1918 commands will move to the next group, not the next unread group. Even
1919 the commands that say they move to the next unread group. The default
1923 @node Selecting a Group
1924 @section Selecting a Group
1925 @cindex group selection
1930 @kindex SPACE (Group)
1931 @findex gnus-group-read-group
1932 Select the current group, switch to the summary buffer and display the
1933 first unread article (@code{gnus-group-read-group}). If there are no
1934 unread articles in the group, or if you give a non-numerical prefix to
1935 this command, Gnus will offer to fetch all the old articles in this
1936 group from the server. If you give a numerical prefix @var{N}, @var{N}
1937 determines the number of articles Gnus will fetch. If @var{N} is
1938 positive, Gnus fetches the @var{N} newest articles, if @var{N} is
1939 negative, Gnus fetches the @code{abs(@var{N})} oldest articles.
1941 Thus, @kbd{SPC} enters the group normally, @kbd{C-u SPC} offers old
1942 articles, @kbd{C-u 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 newest articles, and @kbd{C-u
1943 - 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 oldest ones.
1945 When you are in the group (in the Summary buffer), you can type
1946 @kbd{M-g} to fetch new articles, or @kbd{C-u M-g} to also show the old
1951 @findex gnus-group-select-group
1952 Select the current group and switch to the summary buffer
1953 (@code{gnus-group-select-group}). Takes the same arguments as
1954 @code{gnus-group-read-group}---the only difference is that this command
1955 does not display the first unread article automatically upon group
1959 @kindex M-RET (Group)
1960 @findex gnus-group-quick-select-group
1961 This does the same as the command above, but tries to do it with the
1962 minimum amount of fuzz (@code{gnus-group-quick-select-group}). No
1963 scoring/killing will be performed, there will be no highlights and no
1964 expunging. This might be useful if you're in a real hurry and have to
1965 enter some humongous group. If you give a 0 prefix to this command
1966 (i.e., @kbd{0 M-RET}), Gnus won't even generate the summary buffer,
1967 which is useful if you want to toggle threading before generating the
1968 summary buffer (@pxref{Summary Generation Commands}).
1971 @kindex M-SPACE (Group)
1972 @findex gnus-group-visible-select-group
1973 This is yet one more command that does the same as the @kbd{RET}
1974 command, but this one does it without expunging and hiding dormants
1975 (@code{gnus-group-visible-select-group}).
1978 @kindex M-C-RET (Group)
1979 @findex gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally
1980 Finally, this command selects the current group ephemerally without
1981 doing any processing of its contents
1982 (@code{gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally}). Even threading has been
1983 turned off. Everything you do in the group after selecting it in this
1984 manner will have no permanent effects.
1988 @vindex gnus-large-newsgroup
1989 The @code{gnus-large-newsgroup} variable says what Gnus should consider
1990 to be a big group. This is 200 by default. If the group has more
1991 (unread and/or ticked) articles than this, Gnus will query the user
1992 before entering the group. The user can then specify how many articles
1993 should be fetched from the server. If the user specifies a negative
1994 number (@code{-n}), the @code{n} oldest articles will be fetched. If it
1995 is positive, the @code{n} articles that have arrived most recently will
1998 @vindex gnus-select-group-hook
1999 @vindex gnus-auto-select-first
2000 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} control whether any articles are selected
2001 automatically when entering a group with the @kbd{SPACE} command.
2006 Don't select any articles when entering the group. Just display the
2007 full summary buffer.
2010 Select the first unread article when entering the group.
2013 Select the highest scored article in the group when entering the
2018 This variable can also be a function. In that case, that function will
2019 be called to place point on a subject line, and/or select some article.
2020 Useful functions include:
2023 @item gnus-summary-first-unread-subject
2024 Place point on the subject line of the first unread article, but
2025 don't select the article.
2027 @item gnus-summary-first-unread-article
2028 Select the first unread article.
2030 @item gnus-summary-best-unread-article
2031 Select the highest-scored unread article.
2035 If you want to prevent automatic selection in some group (say, in a
2036 binary group with Huge articles) you can set this variable to @code{nil}
2037 in @code{gnus-select-group-hook}, which is called when a group is
2041 @node Subscription Commands
2042 @section Subscription Commands
2043 @cindex subscription
2051 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group
2052 @c @icon{gnus-group-unsubscribe}
2053 Toggle subscription to the current group
2054 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group}).
2060 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-group
2061 Prompt for a group to subscribe, and then subscribe it. If it was
2062 subscribed already, unsubscribe it instead
2063 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-group}).
2069 @findex gnus-group-kill-group
2070 @c @icon{gnus-group-kill-group}
2071 Kill the current group (@code{gnus-group-kill-group}).
2077 @findex gnus-group-yank-group
2078 Yank the last killed group (@code{gnus-group-yank-group}).
2081 @kindex C-x C-t (Group)
2082 @findex gnus-group-transpose-groups
2083 Transpose two groups (@code{gnus-group-transpose-groups}). This isn't
2084 really a subscription command, but you can use it instead of a
2085 kill-and-yank sequence sometimes.
2091 @findex gnus-group-kill-region
2092 Kill all groups in the region (@code{gnus-group-kill-region}).
2096 @findex gnus-group-kill-all-zombies
2097 Kill all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-kill-all-zombies}).
2100 @kindex S C-k (Group)
2101 @findex gnus-group-kill-level
2102 Kill all groups on a certain level (@code{gnus-group-kill-level}).
2103 These groups can't be yanked back after killing, so this command should
2104 be used with some caution. The only time where this command comes in
2105 really handy is when you have a @file{.newsrc} with lots of unsubscribed
2106 groups that you want to get rid off. @kbd{S C-k} on level 7 will
2107 kill off all unsubscribed groups that do not have message numbers in the
2108 @file{.newsrc} file.
2112 Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
2122 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current
2123 @vindex gnus-group-catchup-group-hook
2124 @c @icon{gnus-group-catchup-current}
2125 Mark all unticked articles in this group as read
2126 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current}).
2127 @code{gnus-group-catchup-group-hook} is called when catching up a group from
2132 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current-all
2133 Mark all articles in this group, even the ticked ones, as read
2134 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current-all}).
2138 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
2139 Clear the data from the current group---nix out marks and the list of
2140 read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
2142 @item M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2143 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2144 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2145 If you have switched from one @sc{nntp} server to another, all your marks
2146 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use this command to
2147 clear out all data that you have on your native groups. Use with
2154 @section Group Levels
2158 All groups have a level of @dfn{subscribedness}. For instance, if a
2159 group is on level 2, it is more subscribed than a group on level 5. You
2160 can ask Gnus to just list groups on a given level or lower
2161 (@pxref{Listing Groups}), or to just check for new articles in groups on
2162 a given level or lower (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
2164 Remember: The higher the level of the group, the less important it is.
2170 @findex gnus-group-set-current-level
2171 Set the level of the current group. If a numeric prefix is given, the
2172 next @var{n} groups will have their levels set. The user will be
2173 prompted for a level.
2176 @vindex gnus-level-killed
2177 @vindex gnus-level-zombie
2178 @vindex gnus-level-unsubscribed
2179 @vindex gnus-level-subscribed
2180 Gnus considers groups from levels 1 to
2181 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (inclusive) (default 5) to be subscribed,
2182 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (exclusive) and
2183 @code{gnus-level-unsubscribed} (inclusive) (default 7) to be
2184 unsubscribed, @code{gnus-level-zombie} to be zombies (walking dead)
2185 (default 8) and @code{gnus-level-killed} to be killed (completely dead)
2186 (default 9). Gnus treats subscribed and unsubscribed groups exactly the
2187 same, but zombie and killed groups have no information on what articles
2188 you have read, etc, stored. This distinction between dead and living
2189 groups isn't done because it is nice or clever, it is done purely for
2190 reasons of efficiency.
2192 It is recommended that you keep all your mail groups (if any) on quite
2193 low levels (e.g. 1 or 2).
2195 Maybe the following description of the default behavior of Gnus helps to
2196 understand what these levels are all about. By default, Gnus shows you
2197 subscribed nonempty groups, but by hitting @kbd{L} you can have it show
2198 empty subscribed groups and unsubscribed groups, too. Type @kbd{l} to
2199 go back to showing nonempty subscribed groups again. Thus, unsubscribed
2200 groups are hidden, in a way.
2202 Zombie and killed groups are similar to unsubscribed groups in that they
2203 are hidden by default. But they are different from subscribed and
2204 unsubscribed groups in that Gnus doesn't ask the news server for
2205 information (number of messages, number of unread messages) on zombie
2206 and killed groups. Normally, you use @kbd{C-k} to kill the groups you
2207 aren't interested in. If most groups are killed, Gnus is faster.
2209 Why does Gnus distinguish between zombie and killed groups? Well, when
2210 a new group arrives on the server, Gnus by default makes it a zombie
2211 group. This means that you are normally not bothered with new groups,
2212 but you can type @kbd{A z} to get a list of all new groups. Subscribe
2213 the ones you like and kill the ones you don't want. (@kbd{A k} shows a
2214 list of killed groups.)
2216 If you want to play with the level variables, you should show some care.
2217 Set them once, and don't touch them ever again. Better yet, don't touch
2218 them at all unless you know exactly what you're doing.
2220 @vindex gnus-level-default-unsubscribed
2221 @vindex gnus-level-default-subscribed
2222 Two closely related variables are @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}
2223 (default 3) and @code{gnus-level-default-unsubscribed} (default 6),
2224 which are the levels that new groups will be put on if they are
2225 (un)subscribed. These two variables should, of course, be inside the
2226 relevant valid ranges.
2228 @vindex gnus-keep-same-level
2229 If @code{gnus-keep-same-level} is non-@code{nil}, some movement commands
2230 will only move to groups of the same level (or lower). In
2231 particular, going from the last article in one group to the next group
2232 will go to the next group of the same level (or lower). This might be
2233 handy if you want to read the most important groups before you read the
2236 If this variable is @code{best}, Gnus will make the next newsgroup the
2237 one with the best level.
2239 @vindex gnus-group-default-list-level
2240 All groups with a level less than or equal to
2241 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level} will be listed in the group buffer
2244 @vindex gnus-group-list-inactive-groups
2245 If @code{gnus-group-list-inactive-groups} is non-@code{nil}, non-active
2246 groups will be listed along with the unread groups. This variable is
2247 @code{t} by default. If it is @code{nil}, inactive groups won't be
2250 @vindex gnus-group-use-permanent-levels
2251 If @code{gnus-group-use-permanent-levels} is non-@code{nil}, once you
2252 give a level prefix to @kbd{g} or @kbd{l}, all subsequent commands will
2253 use this level as the ``work'' level.
2255 @vindex gnus-activate-level
2256 Gnus will normally just activate (i. e., query the server about) groups
2257 on level @code{gnus-activate-level} or less. If you don't want to
2258 activate unsubscribed groups, for instance, you might set this variable
2259 to 5. The default is 6.
2263 @section Group Score
2268 You would normally keep important groups on high levels, but that scheme
2269 is somewhat restrictive. Don't you wish you could have Gnus sort the
2270 group buffer according to how often you read groups, perhaps? Within
2273 This is what @dfn{group score} is for. You can have Gnus assign a score
2274 to each group through the mechanism described below. You can then sort
2275 the group buffer based on this score. Alternatively, you can sort on
2276 score and then level. (Taken together, the level and the score is
2277 called the @dfn{rank} of the group. A group that is on level 4 and has
2278 a score of 1 has a higher rank than a group on level 5 that has a score
2279 of 300. (The level is the most significant part and the score is the
2280 least significant part.))
2282 @findex gnus-summary-bubble-group
2283 If you want groups you read often to get higher scores than groups you
2284 read seldom you can add the @code{gnus-summary-bubble-group} function to
2285 the @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} hook. This will result (after
2286 sorting) in a bubbling sort of action. If you want to see that in
2287 action after each summary exit, you can add
2288 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank} or
2289 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score} to the same hook, but that will
2290 slow things down somewhat.
2293 @node Marking Groups
2294 @section Marking Groups
2295 @cindex marking groups
2297 If you want to perform some command on several groups, and they appear
2298 subsequently in the group buffer, you would normally just give a
2299 numerical prefix to the command. Most group commands will then do your
2300 bidding on those groups.
2302 However, if the groups are not in sequential order, you can still
2303 perform a command on several groups. You simply mark the groups first
2304 with the process mark and then execute the command.
2312 @findex gnus-group-mark-group
2313 Set the mark on the current group (@code{gnus-group-mark-group}).
2319 @findex gnus-group-unmark-group
2320 Remove the mark from the current group
2321 (@code{gnus-group-unmark-group}).
2325 @findex gnus-group-unmark-all-groups
2326 Remove the mark from all groups (@code{gnus-group-unmark-all-groups}).
2330 @findex gnus-group-mark-region
2331 Mark all groups between point and mark (@code{gnus-group-mark-region}).
2335 @findex gnus-group-mark-buffer
2336 Mark all groups in the buffer (@code{gnus-group-mark-buffer}).
2340 @findex gnus-group-mark-regexp
2341 Mark all groups that match some regular expression
2342 (@code{gnus-group-mark-regexp}).
2345 Also @pxref{Process/Prefix}.
2347 @findex gnus-group-universal-argument
2348 If you want to execute some command on all groups that have been marked
2349 with the process mark, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
2350 (@code{gnus-group-universal-argument}) command. It will prompt you for
2351 the command to be executed.
2354 @node Foreign Groups
2355 @section Foreign Groups
2356 @cindex foreign groups
2358 Below are some group mode commands for making and editing general foreign
2359 groups, as well as commands to ease the creation of a few
2360 special-purpose groups. All these commands insert the newly created
2361 groups under point---@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} is not
2368 @findex gnus-group-make-group
2369 @cindex making groups
2370 Make a new group (@code{gnus-group-make-group}). Gnus will prompt you
2371 for a name, a method and possibly an @dfn{address}. For an easier way
2372 to subscribe to @sc{nntp} groups, @pxref{Browse Foreign Server}.
2376 @findex gnus-group-rename-group
2377 @cindex renaming groups
2378 Rename the current group to something else
2379 (@code{gnus-group-rename-group}). This is valid only on some
2380 groups---mail groups mostly. This command might very well be quite slow
2386 @findex gnus-group-customize
2387 Customize the group parameters (@code{gnus-group-customize}).
2391 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-method
2392 @cindex renaming groups
2393 Enter a buffer where you can edit the select method of the current
2394 group (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method}).
2398 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-parameters
2399 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group parameters
2400 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-parameters}).
2404 @findex gnus-group-edit-group
2405 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group info
2406 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group}).
2410 @findex gnus-group-make-directory-group
2412 Make a directory group (@pxref{Directory Groups}). You will be prompted
2413 for a directory name (@code{gnus-group-make-directory-group}).
2418 @findex gnus-group-make-help-group
2419 Make the Gnus help group (@code{gnus-group-make-help-group}).
2423 @cindex (ding) archive
2424 @cindex archive group
2425 @findex gnus-group-make-archive-group
2426 @vindex gnus-group-archive-directory
2427 @vindex gnus-group-recent-archive-directory
2428 Make a Gnus archive group (@code{gnus-group-make-archive-group}). By
2429 default a group pointing to the most recent articles will be created
2430 (@code{gnus-group-recent-archive-directory}), but given a prefix, a full
2431 group will be created from @code{gnus-group-archive-directory}.
2435 @findex gnus-group-make-kiboze-group
2437 Make a kiboze group. You will be prompted for a name, for a regexp to
2438 match groups to be ``included'' in the kiboze group, and a series of
2439 strings to match on headers (@code{gnus-group-make-kiboze-group}).
2440 @xref{Kibozed Groups}.
2444 @findex gnus-group-enter-directory
2446 Read an arbitrary directory as if it were a newsgroup with the
2447 @code{nneething} backend (@code{gnus-group-enter-directory}).
2448 @xref{Anything Groups}.
2452 @findex gnus-group-make-doc-group
2453 @cindex ClariNet Briefs
2455 Make a group based on some file or other
2456 (@code{gnus-group-make-doc-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2457 command, you will be prompted for a file name and a file type.
2458 Currently supported types are @code{babyl}, @code{mbox}, @code{digest},
2459 @code{mmdf}, @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{clari-briefs},
2460 @code{rfc934}, @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{nsmail} and @code{forward}.
2461 If you run this command without a prefix, Gnus will guess at the file
2462 type. @xref{Document Groups}.
2466 @vindex gnus-useful-groups
2467 @findex gnus-group-make-useful-group
2468 Create one of the groups mentioned in @code{gnus-useful-groups}
2469 (@code{gnus-group-make-useful-group}).
2473 @findex gnus-group-make-web-group
2478 Make an ephemeral group based on a web search
2479 (@code{gnus-group-make-web-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2480 command, make a solid group instead. You will be prompted for the
2481 search engine type and the search string. Valid search engine types
2482 include @code{dejanews}, @code{altavista} and @code{reference}.
2483 @xref{Web Searches}.
2485 If you use the @code{dejanews} search engine, you can limit the search
2486 to a particular group by using a match string like
2487 @samp{~g alt.sysadmin.recovery shaving}.
2490 @kindex G DEL (Group)
2491 @findex gnus-group-delete-group
2492 This function will delete the current group
2493 (@code{gnus-group-delete-group}). If given a prefix, this function will
2494 actually delete all the articles in the group, and forcibly remove the
2495 group itself from the face of the Earth. Use a prefix only if you are
2496 absolutely sure of what you are doing. This command can't be used on
2497 read-only groups (like @code{nntp} group), though.
2501 @findex gnus-group-make-empty-virtual
2502 Make a new, fresh, empty @code{nnvirtual} group
2503 (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}). @xref{Virtual Groups}.
2507 @findex gnus-group-add-to-virtual
2508 Add the current group to an @code{nnvirtual} group
2509 (@code{gnus-group-add-to-virtual}). Uses the process/prefix convention.
2512 @xref{Select Methods}, for more information on the various select
2515 @vindex gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups
2516 If @code{gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups} is a positive number,
2517 Gnus will check all foreign groups with this level or lower at startup.
2518 This might take quite a while, especially if you subscribe to lots of
2519 groups from different @sc{nntp} servers. Also @pxref{Group Levels};
2520 @code{gnus-activate-level} also affects activation of foreign
2524 @node Group Parameters
2525 @section Group Parameters
2526 @cindex group parameters
2528 The group parameters store information local to a particular group.
2529 Here's an example group parameter list:
2532 ((to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")
2536 We see that each element consists of a "dotted pair"---the thing before
2537 the dot is the key, while the thing after the dot is the value. All the
2538 parameters have this form @emph{except} local variable specs, which are
2539 not dotted pairs, but proper lists.
2541 The following group parameters can be used:
2546 Address used by when doing followups and new posts.
2549 (to-address . "some@@where.com")
2552 This is primarily useful in mail groups that represent closed mailing
2553 lists---mailing lists where it's expected that everybody that writes to
2554 the mailing list is subscribed to it. Since using this parameter
2555 ensures that the mail only goes to the mailing list itself, it means
2556 that members won't receive two copies of your followups.
2558 Using @code{to-address} will actually work whether the group is foreign
2559 or not. Let's say there's a group on the server that is called
2560 @samp{fa.4ad-l}. This is a real newsgroup, but the server has gotten
2561 the articles from a mail-to-news gateway. Posting directly to this
2562 group is therefore impossible---you have to send mail to the mailing
2563 list address instead.
2567 Address used when doing @kbd{a} in that group.
2570 (to-list . "some@@where.com")
2573 It is totally ignored
2574 when doing a followup---except that if it is present in a news group,
2575 you'll get mail group semantics when doing @kbd{f}.
2577 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you have neither a
2578 @code{to-list} group parameter nor a @code{to-address} group parameter,
2579 then a @code{to-list} group parameter will be added automatically upon
2580 sending the message if @code{gnus-add-to-list} is set to @code{t}.
2581 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
2583 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you don't have a
2584 @code{to-list} group parameter, one will be added automatically upon
2585 sending the message.
2589 If the group parameter list has the element @code{(visible . t)},
2590 that group will always be visible in the Group buffer, regardless
2591 of whether it has any unread articles.
2593 @item broken-reply-to
2594 @cindex broken-reply-to
2595 Elements like @code{(broken-reply-to . t)} signals that @code{Reply-To}
2596 headers in this group are to be ignored. This can be useful if you're
2597 reading a mailing list group where the listserv has inserted
2598 @code{Reply-To} headers that point back to the listserv itself. This is
2599 broken behavior. So there!
2603 Elements like @code{(to-group . "some.group.name")} means that all
2604 posts in that group will be sent to @code{some.group.name}.
2608 If you have @code{(newsgroup . t)} in the group parameter list, Gnus
2609 will treat all responses as if they were responses to news articles.
2610 This can be useful if you have a mail group that's really a mirror of a
2615 If @code{(gcc-self . t)} is present in the group parameter list, newly
2616 composed messages will be @code{Gcc}'d to the current group. If
2617 @code{(gcc-self . none)} is present, no @code{Gcc:} header will be
2618 generated, if @code{(gcc-self . "string")} is present, this string will
2619 be inserted literally as a @code{gcc} header. This parameter takes
2620 precedence over any default @code{Gcc} rules as described later
2621 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
2625 If the group parameter has an element that looks like @code{(auto-expire
2626 . t)}, all articles read will be marked as expirable. For an
2627 alternative approach, @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
2630 @cindex total-expire
2631 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2632 @code{(total-expire . t)}, all read articles will be put through the
2633 expiry process, even if they are not marked as expirable. Use with
2634 caution. Unread, ticked and dormant articles are not eligible for
2639 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
2640 If the group parameter has an element that looks like @code{(expiry-wait
2641 . 10)}, this value will override any @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} and
2642 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} when expiring expirable messages.
2643 The value can either be a number of days (not necessarily an integer) or
2644 the symbols @code{never} or @code{immediate}.
2647 @cindex score file group parameter
2648 Elements that look like @code{(score-file . "file")} will make
2649 @file{file} into the current score file for the group in question. All
2650 interactive score entries will be put into this file.
2653 @cindex adapt file group parameter
2654 Elements that look like @code{(adapt-file . "file")} will make
2655 @file{file} into the current adaptive file for the group in question.
2656 All adaptive score entries will be put into this file.
2659 When unsubscribing from a mailing list you should never send the
2660 unsubscription notice to the mailing list itself. Instead, you'd send
2661 messages to the administrative address. This parameter allows you to
2662 put the admin address somewhere convenient.
2665 Elements that look like @code{(display . MODE)} say which articles to
2666 display on entering the group. Valid values are:
2670 Display all articles, both read and unread.
2673 Display the default visible articles, which normally includes unread and
2678 Elements that look like @code{(comment . "This is a comment")}
2679 are arbitrary comments on the group. They are currently ignored by
2680 Gnus, but provide a place for you to store information on particular
2684 Elements that look like @code{(charset . iso-8859-1)} will make
2685 @code{iso-8859-1} the default charset; that is, the charset that will be
2686 used for all articles that do not specify a charset.
2688 @item (@var{variable} @var{form})
2689 You can use the group parameters to set variables local to the group you
2690 are entering. If you want to turn threading off in @samp{news.answers},
2691 you could put @code{(gnus-show-threads nil)} in the group parameters of
2692 that group. @code{gnus-show-threads} will be made into a local variable
2693 in the summary buffer you enter, and the form @code{nil} will be
2694 @code{eval}ed there.
2696 This can also be used as a group-specific hook function, if you'd like.
2697 If you want to hear a beep when you enter a group, you could put
2698 something like @code{(dummy-variable (ding))} in the parameters of that
2699 group. @code{dummy-variable} will be set to the result of the
2700 @code{(ding)} form, but who cares?
2703 You can store additional posting style information for this group only
2704 here (@pxref{Posting Styles}). The format is that of an entry in the
2705 @code{gnus-posting-styles} alist, except that there's no regexp matching
2706 the group name (of course). Style elements in this group parameter will
2707 take precedence over the ones found in @code{gnus-posting-styles}.
2709 For instance, if you want a funky name and signature in this group only,
2710 instead of hacking @code{gnus-posting-styles}, you could put something
2711 like this in the group parameters:
2716 (signature "Funky Signature"))
2720 An item like @code{(banner . "regex")} causes any part of an article
2721 that matches the regular expression "regex" to be stripped. Instead of
2722 "regex", you can also use the symbol @code{signature} which strips the
2723 last signature or any of the elements of the alist
2724 @code{gnus-article-banner-alist}.
2728 Use the @kbd{G p} command to edit group parameters of a group. You
2729 might also be interested in reading about topic parameters (@pxref{Topic
2733 @node Listing Groups
2734 @section Listing Groups
2735 @cindex group listing
2737 These commands all list various slices of the groups available.
2745 @findex gnus-group-list-groups
2746 List all groups that have unread articles
2747 (@code{gnus-group-list-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used, this
2748 command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default, it
2749 only lists groups of level five (i. e.,
2750 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level}) or lower (i.e., just subscribed
2757 @findex gnus-group-list-all-groups
2758 List all groups, whether they have unread articles or not
2759 (@code{gnus-group-list-all-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used,
2760 this command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default,
2761 it lists groups of level seven or lower (i.e., just subscribed and
2762 unsubscribed groups).
2766 @findex gnus-group-list-level
2767 List all unread groups on a specific level
2768 (@code{gnus-group-list-level}). If given a prefix, also list the groups
2769 with no unread articles.
2773 @findex gnus-group-list-killed
2774 List all killed groups (@code{gnus-group-list-killed}). If given a
2775 prefix argument, really list all groups that are available, but aren't
2776 currently (un)subscribed. This could entail reading the active file
2781 @findex gnus-group-list-zombies
2782 List all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-list-zombies}).
2786 @findex gnus-group-list-matching
2787 List all unread, subscribed groups with names that match a regexp
2788 (@code{gnus-group-list-matching}).
2792 @findex gnus-group-list-all-matching
2793 List groups that match a regexp (@code{gnus-group-list-all-matching}).
2797 @findex gnus-group-list-active
2798 List absolutely all groups in the active file(s) of the
2799 server(s) you are connected to (@code{gnus-group-list-active}). This
2800 might very well take quite a while. It might actually be a better idea
2801 to do a @kbd{A M} to list all matching, and just give @samp{.} as the
2802 thing to match on. Also note that this command may list groups that
2803 don't exist (yet)---these will be listed as if they were killed groups.
2804 Take the output with some grains of salt.
2808 @findex gnus-group-apropos
2809 List all groups that have names that match a regexp
2810 (@code{gnus-group-apropos}).
2814 @findex gnus-group-description-apropos
2815 List all groups that have names or descriptions that match a regexp
2816 (@code{gnus-group-description-apropos}).
2820 @findex gnus-group-list-cached
2821 List all groups with cached articles (@code{gnus-group-list-cached}).
2825 @findex gnus-group-list-dormant
2826 List all groups with dormant articles (@code{gnus-group-list-dormant}).
2830 @findex gnus-group-list-limit
2831 List groups limited within the current selection
2832 (@code{gnus-group-list-limit}).
2836 @findex gnus-group-list-flush
2837 Flush groups from the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-flush}).
2841 @findex gnus-group-list-plus
2842 List groups plus the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-plus}).
2846 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
2847 @cindex visible group parameter
2848 Groups that match the @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} regexp will
2849 always be shown, whether they have unread articles or not. You can also
2850 add the @code{visible} element to the group parameters in question to
2851 get the same effect.
2853 @vindex gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles
2854 Groups that have just ticked articles in it are normally listed in the
2855 group buffer. If @code{gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles} is
2856 @code{nil}, these groups will be treated just like totally empty
2857 groups. It is @code{t} by default.
2860 @node Sorting Groups
2861 @section Sorting Groups
2862 @cindex sorting groups
2864 @kindex C-c C-s (Group)
2865 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups
2866 @vindex gnus-group-sort-function
2867 The @kbd{C-c C-s} (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups}) command sorts the
2868 group buffer according to the function(s) given by the
2869 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable. Available sorting functions
2874 @item gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
2875 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
2876 Sort the group names alphabetically. This is the default.
2878 @item gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
2879 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
2880 Sort the group alphabetically on the real (unprefixed) group names.
2882 @item gnus-group-sort-by-level
2883 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-level
2884 Sort by group level.
2886 @item gnus-group-sort-by-score
2887 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-score
2888 Sort by group score. @xref{Group Score}.
2890 @item gnus-group-sort-by-rank
2891 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-rank
2892 Sort by group score and then the group level. The level and the score
2893 are, when taken together, the group's @dfn{rank}. @xref{Group Score}.
2895 @item gnus-group-sort-by-unread
2896 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-unread
2897 Sort by number of unread articles.
2899 @item gnus-group-sort-by-method
2900 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-method
2901 Sort alphabetically on the select method.
2903 @item gnus-group-sort-by-server
2904 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-server
2905 Sort alphabetically on the Gnus server name.
2910 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} can also be a list of sorting
2911 functions. In that case, the most significant sort key function must be
2915 There are also a number of commands for sorting directly according to
2916 some sorting criteria:
2920 @kindex G S a (Group)
2921 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet
2922 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by group name
2923 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
2926 @kindex G S u (Group)
2927 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread
2928 Sort the group buffer by the number of unread articles
2929 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread}).
2932 @kindex G S l (Group)
2933 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level
2934 Sort the group buffer by group level
2935 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level}).
2938 @kindex G S v (Group)
2939 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score
2940 Sort the group buffer by group score
2941 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
2944 @kindex G S r (Group)
2945 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank
2946 Sort the group buffer by group rank
2947 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
2950 @kindex G S m (Group)
2951 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method
2952 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by backend name
2953 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method}).
2957 All the commands below obey the process/prefix convention
2958 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
2960 When given a symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}), all these
2961 commands will sort in reverse order.
2963 You can also sort a subset of the groups:
2967 @kindex G P a (Group)
2968 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet
2969 Sort the groups alphabetically by group name
2970 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet}).
2973 @kindex G P u (Group)
2974 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread
2975 Sort the groups by the number of unread articles
2976 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread}).
2979 @kindex G P l (Group)
2980 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level
2981 Sort the groups by group level
2982 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level}).
2985 @kindex G P v (Group)
2986 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score
2987 Sort the groups by group score
2988 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
2991 @kindex G P r (Group)
2992 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank
2993 Sort the groups by group rank
2994 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
2997 @kindex G P m (Group)
2998 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method
2999 Sort the groups alphabetically by backend name
3000 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method}).
3006 @node Group Maintenance
3007 @section Group Maintenance
3008 @cindex bogus groups
3013 @findex gnus-group-check-bogus-groups
3014 Find bogus groups and delete them
3015 (@code{gnus-group-check-bogus-groups}).
3019 @findex gnus-group-find-new-groups
3020 Find new groups and process them (@code{gnus-group-find-new-groups}).
3021 With 1 @kbd{C-u}, use the @code{ask-server} method to query the server
3022 for new groups. With 2 @kbd{C-u}'s, use most complete method possible
3023 to query the server for new groups, and subscribe the new groups as
3027 @kindex C-c C-x (Group)
3028 @findex gnus-group-expire-articles
3029 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
3030 process (if any) (@code{gnus-group-expire-articles}).
3033 @kindex C-c M-C-x (Group)
3034 @findex gnus-group-expire-all-groups
3035 Run all articles in all groups through the expiry process
3036 (@code{gnus-group-expire-all-groups}).
3041 @node Browse Foreign Server
3042 @section Browse Foreign Server
3043 @cindex foreign servers
3044 @cindex browsing servers
3049 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
3050 You will be queried for a select method and a server name. Gnus will
3051 then attempt to contact this server and let you browse the groups there
3052 (@code{gnus-group-browse-foreign-server}).
3055 @findex gnus-browse-mode
3056 A new buffer with a list of available groups will appear. This buffer
3057 will use the @code{gnus-browse-mode}. This buffer looks a bit (well,
3058 a lot) like a normal group buffer.
3060 Here's a list of keystrokes available in the browse mode:
3065 @findex gnus-group-next-group
3066 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
3070 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
3071 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
3074 @kindex SPACE (Browse)
3075 @findex gnus-browse-read-group
3076 Enter the current group and display the first article
3077 (@code{gnus-browse-read-group}).
3080 @kindex RET (Browse)
3081 @findex gnus-browse-select-group
3082 Enter the current group (@code{gnus-browse-select-group}).
3086 @findex gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group
3087 Unsubscribe to the current group, or, as will be the case here,
3088 subscribe to it (@code{gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group}).
3094 @findex gnus-browse-exit
3095 Exit browse mode (@code{gnus-browse-exit}).
3099 @findex gnus-browse-describe-briefly
3100 Describe browse mode briefly (well, there's not much to describe, is
3101 there) (@code{gnus-browse-describe-briefly}).
3106 @section Exiting Gnus
3107 @cindex exiting Gnus
3109 Yes, Gnus is ex(c)iting.
3114 @findex gnus-group-suspend
3115 Suspend Gnus (@code{gnus-group-suspend}). This doesn't really exit Gnus,
3116 but it kills all buffers except the Group buffer. I'm not sure why this
3117 is a gain, but then who am I to judge?
3121 @findex gnus-group-exit
3122 @c @icon{gnus-group-exit}
3123 Quit Gnus (@code{gnus-group-exit}).
3127 @findex gnus-group-quit
3128 Quit Gnus without saving the @file{.newsrc} files (@code{gnus-group-quit}).
3129 The dribble file will be saved, though (@pxref{Auto Save}).
3132 @vindex gnus-exit-gnus-hook
3133 @vindex gnus-suspend-gnus-hook
3134 @code{gnus-suspend-gnus-hook} is called when you suspend Gnus and
3135 @code{gnus-exit-gnus-hook} is called when you quit Gnus, while
3136 @code{gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook} is called as the final item when
3141 If you wish to completely unload Gnus and all its adherents, you can use
3142 the @code{gnus-unload} command. This command is also very handy when
3143 trying to customize meta-variables.
3148 Miss Lisa Cannifax, while sitting in English class, felt her feet go
3149 numbly heavy and herself fall into a hazy trance as the boy sitting
3150 behind her drew repeated lines with his pencil across the back of her
3156 @section Group Topics
3159 If you read lots and lots of groups, it might be convenient to group
3160 them hierarchically according to topics. You put your Emacs groups over
3161 here, your sex groups over there, and the rest (what, two groups or so?)
3162 you put in some misc section that you never bother with anyway. You can
3163 even group the Emacs sex groups as a sub-topic to either the Emacs
3164 groups or the sex groups---or both! Go wild!
3168 \gnusfigure{Group Topics}{400}{
3169 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=tmp/group-topic.ps,height=9cm}}
3180 2: alt.religion.emacs
3183 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3185 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3186 13: comp.sources.unix
3189 @findex gnus-topic-mode
3191 To get this @emph{fab} functionality you simply turn on (ooh!) the
3192 @code{gnus-topic} minor mode---type @kbd{t} in the group buffer. (This
3193 is a toggling command.)
3195 Go ahead, just try it. I'll still be here when you get back. La de
3196 dum... Nice tune, that... la la la... What, you're back? Yes, and now
3197 press @kbd{l}. There. All your groups are now listed under
3198 @samp{misc}. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy? Hot and
3201 If you want this permanently enabled, you should add that minor mode to
3202 the hook for the group mode:
3205 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
3209 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
3210 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
3211 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
3212 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
3213 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
3217 @node Topic Variables
3218 @subsection Topic Variables
3219 @cindex topic variables
3221 Now, if you select a topic, it will fold/unfold that topic, which is
3222 really neat, I think.
3224 @vindex gnus-topic-line-format
3225 The topic lines themselves are created according to the
3226 @code{gnus-topic-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
3239 Number of groups in the topic.
3241 Number of unread articles in the topic.
3243 Number of unread articles in the topic and all its subtopics.
3246 @vindex gnus-topic-indent-level
3247 Each sub-topic (and the groups in the sub-topics) will be indented with
3248 @code{gnus-topic-indent-level} times the topic level number of spaces.
3251 @vindex gnus-topic-mode-hook
3252 @code{gnus-topic-mode-hook} is called in topic minor mode buffers.
3254 @vindex gnus-topic-display-empty-topics
3255 The @code{gnus-topic-display-empty-topics} says whether to display even
3256 topics that have no unread articles in them. The default is @code{t}.
3259 @node Topic Commands
3260 @subsection Topic Commands
3261 @cindex topic commands
3263 When the topic minor mode is turned on, a new @kbd{T} submap will be
3264 available. In addition, a few of the standard keys change their
3265 definitions slightly.
3271 @findex gnus-topic-create-topic
3272 Prompt for a new topic name and create it
3273 (@code{gnus-topic-create-topic}).
3277 @findex gnus-topic-move-group
3278 Move the current group to some other topic
3279 (@code{gnus-topic-move-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3280 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3284 @findex gnus-topic-jump-to-topic
3285 Go to a topic (@code{gnus-topic-jump-to-topic}).
3289 @findex gnus-topic-copy-group
3290 Copy the current group to some other topic
3291 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3292 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3296 @findex gnus-topic-hide-topic
3297 Hide the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-hide-topic}). If given
3298 a prefix, hide the topic permanently.
3302 @findex gnus-topic-show-topic
3303 Show the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-show-topic}). If given
3304 a prefix, show the topic permanently.
3308 @findex gnus-topic-remove-group
3309 Remove a group from the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-remove-group}).
3310 This command is mainly useful if you have the same group in several
3311 topics and wish to remove it from one of the topics. You may also
3312 remove a group from all topics, but in that case, Gnus will add it to
3313 the root topic the next time you start Gnus. In fact, all new groups
3314 (which, naturally, don't belong to any topic) will show up in the root
3317 This command uses the process/prefix convention
3318 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3322 @findex gnus-topic-move-matching
3323 Move all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3324 (@code{gnus-topic-move-matching}).
3328 @findex gnus-topic-copy-matching
3329 Copy all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3330 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-matching}).
3334 @findex gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics
3335 Toggle hiding empty topics
3336 (@code{gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics}).
3340 @findex gnus-topic-mark-topic
3341 Mark all groups in the current topic with the process mark
3342 (@code{gnus-topic-mark-topic}).
3345 @kindex T M-# (Topic)
3346 @findex gnus-topic-unmark-topic
3347 Remove the process mark from all groups in the current topic
3348 (@code{gnus-topic-unmark-topic}).
3352 @kindex T TAB (Topic)
3354 @findex gnus-topic-indent
3355 ``Indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3356 previous topic (@code{gnus-topic-indent}). If given a prefix,
3357 ``un-indent'' the topic instead.
3360 @kindex M-TAB (Topic)
3361 @findex gnus-topic-unindent
3362 ``Un-indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3363 parent of its current parent (@code{gnus-topic-unindent}).
3367 @findex gnus-topic-select-group
3369 Either select a group or fold a topic (@code{gnus-topic-select-group}).
3370 When you perform this command on a group, you'll enter the group, as
3371 usual. When done on a topic line, the topic will be folded (if it was
3372 visible) or unfolded (if it was folded already). So it's basically a
3373 toggling command on topics. In addition, if you give a numerical
3374 prefix, group on that level (and lower) will be displayed.
3377 @kindex C-c C-x (Topic)
3378 @findex gnus-topic-expire-articles
3379 Run all expirable articles in the current group or topic through the expiry
3380 process (if any) (@code{gnus-topic-expire-articles}).
3384 @findex gnus-topic-kill-group
3385 Kill a group or topic (@code{gnus-topic-kill-group}). All groups in the
3386 topic will be removed along with the topic.
3390 @findex gnus-topic-yank-group
3391 Yank the previously killed group or topic
3392 (@code{gnus-topic-yank-group}). Note that all topics will be yanked
3397 @findex gnus-topic-rename
3398 Rename a topic (@code{gnus-topic-rename}).
3401 @kindex T DEL (Topic)
3402 @findex gnus-topic-delete
3403 Delete an empty topic (@code{gnus-topic-delete}).
3407 @findex gnus-topic-list-active
3408 List all groups that Gnus knows about in a topics-ified way
3409 (@code{gnus-topic-list-active}).
3413 @findex gnus-topic-edit-parameters
3414 @cindex group parameters
3415 @cindex topic parameters
3417 Edit the topic parameters (@code{gnus-topic-edit-parameters}).
3418 @xref{Topic Parameters}.
3424 @subsection Topic Sorting
3425 @cindex topic sorting
3427 You can sort the groups in each topic individually with the following
3433 @kindex T S a (Topic)
3434 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet
3435 Sort the current topic alphabetically by group name
3436 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
3439 @kindex T S u (Topic)
3440 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread
3441 Sort the current topic by the number of unread articles
3442 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread}).
3445 @kindex T S l (Topic)
3446 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level
3447 Sort the current topic by group level
3448 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level}).
3451 @kindex T S v (Topic)
3452 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score
3453 Sort the current topic by group score
3454 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3457 @kindex T S r (Topic)
3458 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank
3459 Sort the current topic by group rank
3460 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3463 @kindex T S m (Topic)
3464 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method
3465 Sort the current topic alphabetically by backend name
3466 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method}).
3470 @xref{Sorting Groups}, for more information about group sorting.
3473 @node Topic Topology
3474 @subsection Topic Topology
3475 @cindex topic topology
3478 So, let's have a look at an example group buffer:
3484 2: alt.religion.emacs
3487 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3489 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3490 13: comp.sources.unix
3493 So, here we have one top-level topic (@samp{Gnus}), two topics under
3494 that, and one sub-topic under one of the sub-topics. (There is always
3495 just one (1) top-level topic). This topology can be expressed as
3500 (("Emacs -- I wuw it!" visible)
3501 (("Naughty Emacs" visible)))
3505 @vindex gnus-topic-topology
3506 This is in fact how the variable @code{gnus-topic-topology} would look
3507 for the display above. That variable is saved in the @file{.newsrc.eld}
3508 file, and shouldn't be messed with manually---unless you really want
3509 to. Since this variable is read from the @file{.newsrc.eld} file,
3510 setting it in any other startup files will have no effect.
3512 This topology shows what topics are sub-topics of what topics (right),
3513 and which topics are visible. Two settings are currently
3514 allowed---@code{visible} and @code{invisible}.
3517 @node Topic Parameters
3518 @subsection Topic Parameters
3519 @cindex topic parameters
3521 All groups in a topic will inherit group parameters from the parent (and
3522 ancestor) topic parameters. All valid group parameters are valid topic
3523 parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
3525 In addition, the following parameters are only valid as topic
3530 When subscribing new groups by topic (@pxref{Subscription Methods}), the
3531 @code{subscribe} topic parameter says what groups go in what topic. Its
3532 value should be a regexp to match the groups that should go in that
3537 Group parameters (of course) override topic parameters, and topic
3538 parameters in sub-topics override topic parameters in super-topics. You
3539 know. Normal inheritance rules. (@dfn{Rules} is here a noun, not a
3540 verb, although you may feel free to disagree with me here.)
3546 2: alt.religion.emacs
3550 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3552 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3553 13: comp.sources.unix
3557 The @samp{Emacs} topic has the topic parameter @code{(score-file
3558 . "emacs.SCORE")}; the @samp{Relief} topic has the topic parameter
3559 @code{(score-file . "relief.SCORE")}; and the @samp{Misc} topic has the
3560 topic parameter @code{(score-file . "emacs.SCORE")}. In addition,
3561 @* @samp{alt.religion.emacs} has the group parameter @code{(score-file
3562 . "religion.SCORE")}.
3564 Now, when you enter @samp{alt.sex.emacs} in the @samp{Relief} topic, you
3565 will get the @file{relief.SCORE} home score file. If you enter the same
3566 group in the @samp{Emacs} topic, you'll get the @file{emacs.SCORE} home
3567 score file. If you enter the group @samp{alt.religion.emacs}, you'll
3568 get the @file{religion.SCORE} home score file.
3570 This seems rather simple and self-evident, doesn't it? Well, yes. But
3571 there are some problems, especially with the @code{total-expiry}
3572 parameter. Say you have a mail group in two topics; one with
3573 @code{total-expiry} and one without. What happens when you do @kbd{M-x
3574 gnus-expire-all-expirable-groups}? Gnus has no way of telling which one
3575 of these topics you mean to expire articles from, so anything may
3576 happen. In fact, I hereby declare that it is @dfn{undefined} what
3577 happens. You just have to be careful if you do stuff like that.
3580 @node Misc Group Stuff
3581 @section Misc Group Stuff
3584 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
3585 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
3586 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
3587 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
3594 @findex gnus-group-enter-server-mode
3595 Enter the server buffer (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}).
3596 @xref{The Server Buffer}.
3600 @findex gnus-group-post-news
3601 Post an article to a group (@code{gnus-group-post-news}). If given a
3602 prefix, the current group name will be used as the default.
3606 @findex gnus-group-mail
3607 Mail a message somewhere (@code{gnus-group-mail}).
3611 Variables for the group buffer:
3615 @item gnus-group-mode-hook
3616 @vindex gnus-group-mode-hook
3617 is called after the group buffer has been
3620 @item gnus-group-prepare-hook
3621 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
3622 is called after the group buffer is
3623 generated. It may be used to modify the buffer in some strange,
3626 @item gnus-group-prepared-hook
3627 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
3628 is called as the very last thing after the group buffer has been
3629 generated. It may be used to move point around, for instance.
3631 @item gnus-permanently-visible-groups
3632 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
3633 Groups matching this regexp will always be listed in the group buffer,
3634 whether they are empty or not.
3636 @item gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
3637 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
3638 An alist of method and the charset for group names. It is used to show
3639 non-ASCII group names.
3643 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
3644 '(((nntp "news.com.cn") . cn-gb-2312)))
3647 @item gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
3648 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
3649 An alist of regexp of group name and the charset for group names.
3650 It is used to show non-ASCII group names.
3654 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
3655 '(("\\.com\\.cn:" . cn-gb-2312)))
3660 @node Scanning New Messages
3661 @subsection Scanning New Messages
3662 @cindex new messages
3663 @cindex scanning new news
3669 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news
3670 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news}
3671 Check the server(s) for new articles. If the numerical prefix is used,
3672 this command will check only groups of level @var{arg} and lower
3673 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news}). If given a non-numerical prefix, this
3674 command will force a total re-reading of the active file(s) from the
3679 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group
3680 @vindex gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating
3681 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}
3682 Check whether new articles have arrived in the current group
3683 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}).
3684 @code{gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating} says whether this command is
3685 to move point to the next group or not. It is @code{t} by default.
3687 @findex gnus-activate-all-groups
3688 @cindex activating groups
3690 @kindex C-c M-g (Group)
3691 Activate absolutely all groups (@code{gnus-activate-all-groups}).
3696 @findex gnus-group-restart
3697 Restart Gnus (@code{gnus-group-restart}). This saves the @file{.newsrc}
3698 file(s), closes the connection to all servers, clears up all run-time
3699 Gnus variables, and then starts Gnus all over again.
3703 @vindex gnus-get-new-news-hook
3704 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is run just before checking for new news.
3706 @vindex gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook
3707 @code{gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook} is run after checking for new
3711 @node Group Information
3712 @subsection Group Information
3713 @cindex group information
3714 @cindex information on groups
3721 @findex gnus-group-fetch-faq
3722 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
3725 Try to fetch the FAQ for the current group
3726 (@code{gnus-group-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the FAQ from
3727 @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory on a
3728 remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories. In
3729 that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose
3730 between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp} (or @code{efs}) will be used
3731 for fetching the file.
3733 If fetching from the first site is unsuccessful, Gnus will attempt to go
3734 through @code{gnus-group-faq-directory} and try to open them one by one.
3738 @c @icon{gnus-group-describe-group}
3740 @kindex C-c C-d (Group)
3741 @cindex describing groups
3742 @cindex group description
3743 @findex gnus-group-describe-group
3744 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-group-describe-group}). If given
3745 a prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description from the server.
3749 @findex gnus-group-describe-all-groups
3750 Describe all groups (@code{gnus-group-describe-all-groups}). If given a
3751 prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description file from the server.
3758 @findex gnus-version
3759 Display current Gnus version numbers (@code{gnus-version}).
3763 @findex gnus-group-describe-briefly
3764 Give a very short help message (@code{gnus-group-describe-briefly}).
3767 @kindex C-c C-i (Group)
3770 @findex gnus-info-find-node
3771 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
3775 @node Group Timestamp
3776 @subsection Group Timestamp
3778 @cindex group timestamps
3780 It can be convenient to let Gnus keep track of when you last read a
3781 group. To set the ball rolling, you should add
3782 @code{gnus-group-set-timestamp} to @code{gnus-select-group-hook}:
3785 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook 'gnus-group-set-timestamp)
3788 After doing this, each time you enter a group, it'll be recorded.
3790 This information can be displayed in various ways---the easiest is to
3791 use the @samp{%d} spec in the group line format:
3794 (setq gnus-group-line-format
3795 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %d\n")
3798 This will result in lines looking like:
3801 * 0: mail.ding 19961002T012943
3802 0: custom 19961002T012713
3805 As you can see, the date is displayed in compact ISO 8601 format. This
3806 may be a bit too much, so to just display the date, you could say
3810 (setq gnus-group-line-format
3811 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %6,6~(cut 2)d\n")
3816 @subsection File Commands
3817 @cindex file commands
3823 @findex gnus-group-read-init-file
3824 @vindex gnus-init-file
3825 @cindex reading init file
3826 Re-read the init file (@code{gnus-init-file}, which defaults to
3827 @file{~/.gnus}) (@code{gnus-group-read-init-file}).
3831 @findex gnus-group-save-newsrc
3832 @cindex saving .newsrc
3833 Save the @file{.newsrc.eld} file (and @file{.newsrc} if wanted)
3834 (@code{gnus-group-save-newsrc}). If given a prefix, force saving the
3835 file(s) whether Gnus thinks it is necessary or not.
3838 @c @kindex Z (Group)
3839 @c @findex gnus-group-clear-dribble
3840 @c Clear the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-group-clear-dribble}).
3845 @node The Summary Buffer
3846 @chapter The Summary Buffer
3847 @cindex summary buffer
3849 A line for each article is displayed in the summary buffer. You can
3850 move around, read articles, post articles and reply to articles.
3852 The most common way to a summary buffer is to select a group from the
3853 group buffer (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
3855 You can have as many summary buffers open as you wish.
3858 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
3859 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
3860 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
3861 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
3862 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
3863 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
3864 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
3865 * Threading:: How threads are made.
3866 * Sorting:: How articles and threads are sorted.
3867 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
3868 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
3869 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
3870 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
3871 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
3872 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
3873 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
3874 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
3875 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
3876 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
3877 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
3878 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
3879 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
3880 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
3881 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
3882 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
3883 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
3884 or reselecting the current group.
3885 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
3886 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
3887 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
3891 @node Summary Buffer Format
3892 @section Summary Buffer Format
3893 @cindex summary buffer format
3897 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{180}{
3898 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary.ps,width=7.5cm}}
3899 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-article.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
3905 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
3906 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
3907 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
3908 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
3911 @findex mail-extract-address-components
3912 @findex gnus-extract-address-components
3913 @vindex gnus-extract-address-components
3914 Gnus will use the value of the @code{gnus-extract-address-components}
3915 variable as a function for getting the name and address parts of a
3916 @code{From} header. Two pre-defined functions exist:
3917 @code{gnus-extract-address-components}, which is the default, quite
3918 fast, and too simplistic solution; and
3919 @code{mail-extract-address-components}, which works very nicely, but is
3920 slower. The default function will return the wrong answer in 5% of the
3921 cases. If this is unacceptable to you, use the other function instead:
3924 (setq gnus-extract-address-components
3925 'mail-extract-address-components)
3928 @vindex gnus-summary-same-subject
3929 @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} is a string indicating that the current
3930 article has the same subject as the previous. This string will be used
3931 with those specs that require it. The default is @code{""}.
3934 @node Summary Buffer Lines
3935 @subsection Summary Buffer Lines
3937 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
3938 You can change the format of the lines in the summary buffer by changing
3939 the @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable. It works along the same
3940 lines as a normal @code{format} string, with some extensions
3941 (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
3943 The default string is @samp{%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-20,20n%]%) %s\n}.
3945 The following format specification characters are understood:
3951 Subject string. List identifiers stripped,
3952 @code{gnus-list-identifies}. @xref{Article Hiding}.
3954 Subject if the article is the root of the thread or the previous article
3955 had a different subject, @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} otherwise.
3956 (@code{gnus-summary-same-subject} defaults to @code{""}.)
3958 Full @code{From} header.
3960 The name (from the @code{From} header).
3962 The name, code @code{To} header or the @code{Newsgroups} header
3963 (@pxref{To From Newsgroups}).
3965 The name (from the @code{From} header). This differs from the @code{n}
3966 spec in that it uses the function designated by the
3967 @code{gnus-extract-address-components} variable, which is slower, but
3968 may be more thorough.
3970 The address (from the @code{From} header). This works the same way as
3973 Number of lines in the article.
3975 Number of characters in the article. This specifier is not supported in some
3976 methods (like nnfolder).
3978 Indentation based on thread level (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
3980 Nothing if the article is a root and lots of spaces if it isn't (it
3981 pushes everything after it off the screen).
3983 Opening bracket, which is normally @samp{[}, but can also be @samp{<}
3984 for adopted articles (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
3986 Closing bracket, which is normally @samp{]}, but can also be @samp{>}
3987 for adopted articles.
3989 One space for each thread level.
3991 Twenty minus thread level spaces.
3996 This misleadingly named specifier is the @dfn{secondary mark}. This
3997 mark will say whether the article has been replied to, has been cached,
4001 Score as a number (@pxref{Scoring}).
4003 @vindex gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz
4004 Zcore, @samp{+} if above the default level and @samp{-} if below the
4005 default level. If the difference between
4006 @code{gnus-summary-default-score} and the score is less than
4007 @code{gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz}, this spec will not be used.
4015 The @code{Date} in @code{DD-MMM} format.
4017 The @code{Date} in @var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS} format.
4023 Number of articles in the current sub-thread. Using this spec will slow
4024 down summary buffer generation somewhat.
4026 An @samp{=} (@code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark}) will be displayed if the
4027 article has any children.
4033 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
4034 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
4035 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
4036 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed the current header as
4037 argument. The function should return a string, which will be inserted
4038 into the summary just like information from any other summary specifier.
4041 The @samp{%U} (status), @samp{%R} (replied) and @samp{%z} (zcore) specs
4042 have to be handled with care. For reasons of efficiency, Gnus will
4043 compute what column these characters will end up in, and ``hard-code''
4044 that. This means that it is invalid to have these specs after a
4045 variable-length spec. Well, you might not be arrested, but your summary
4046 buffer will look strange, which is bad enough.
4048 The smart choice is to have these specs as far to the left as possible.
4049 (Isn't that the case with everything, though? But I digress.)
4051 This restriction may disappear in later versions of Gnus.
4054 @node To From Newsgroups
4055 @subsection To From Newsgroups
4059 In some groups (particularly in archive groups), the @code{From} header
4060 isn't very interesting, since all the articles there are written by
4061 you. To display the information in the @code{To} or @code{Newsgroups}
4062 headers instead, you need to decide three things: What information to
4063 gather; where to display it; and when to display it.
4067 @vindex gnus-extra-headers
4068 The reading of extra header information is controlled by the
4069 @code{gnus-extra-headers}. This is a list of header symbols. For
4073 (setq gnus-extra-headers
4074 '(To Newsgroups X-Newsreader))
4077 This will result in Gnus trying to obtain these three headers, and
4078 storing it in header structures for later easy retrieval.
4081 @findex gnus-extra-header
4082 The value of these extra headers can be accessed via the
4083 @code{gnus-extra-header} function. Here's a format line spec that will
4084 access the @code{X-Newsreader} header:
4087 "%~(form (gnus-extra-header 'X-Newsreader))@@"
4091 @vindex gnus-ignored-from-addresses
4092 The @code{gnus-ignored-from-addresses} variable says when the @samp{%f}
4093 summary line spec returns the @code{To}, @code{Newsreader} or
4094 @code{From} header. If this regexp matches the contents of the
4095 @code{From} header, the value of the @code{To} or @code{Newsreader}
4096 headers are used instead.
4100 @vindex nnmail-extra-headers
4101 A related variable is @code{nnmail-extra-headers}, which controls when
4102 to include extra headers when generating overview (@sc{nov}) files. If
4103 you have old overview files, you should regenerate them after changing
4106 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
4107 You also have to instruct Gnus to display the data by changing the
4108 @code{%n} spec to the @code{%f} spec in the
4109 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable.
4111 In summary, you'd typically do something like the following:
4114 (setq gnus-extra-headers
4116 (setq nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
4117 (setq gnus-summary-line-format
4118 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-20,20f%]%) %s\n")
4119 (setq gnus-ignored-from-addresses
4123 Now, this is mostly useful for mail groups, where you have control over
4124 the @sc{nov} files that are created. However, if you can persuade your
4131 to the end of her @file{overview.fmt} file, then you can use that just
4132 as you would the extra headers from the mail groups.
4135 @node Summary Buffer Mode Line
4136 @subsection Summary Buffer Mode Line
4138 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-line-format
4139 You can also change the format of the summary mode bar (@pxref{Mode Line
4140 Formatting}). Set @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} to whatever you
4141 like. The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b [%A] %Z}.
4143 Here are the elements you can play with:
4149 Unprefixed group name.
4151 Current article number.
4153 Current article score.
4157 Number of unread articles in this group.
4159 Number of unread articles in this group that aren't displayed in the
4162 A string with the number of unread and unselected articles represented
4163 either as @samp{<%U(+%e) more>} if there are both unread and unselected
4164 articles, and just as @samp{<%U more>} if there are just unread articles
4165 and no unselected ones.
4167 Shortish group name. For instance, @samp{rec.arts.anime} will be
4168 shortened to @samp{r.a.anime}.
4170 Subject of the current article.
4172 User-defined spec (@pxref{User-Defined Specs}).
4174 Name of the current score file (@pxref{Scoring}).
4176 Number of dormant articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
4178 Number of ticked articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
4180 Number of articles that have been marked as read in this session.
4182 Number of articles expunged by the score files.
4186 @node Summary Highlighting
4187 @subsection Summary Highlighting
4191 @item gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
4192 @vindex gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
4193 This hook is run after selecting an article. It is meant to be used for
4194 highlighting the article in some way. It is not run if
4195 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
4197 @item gnus-summary-update-hook
4198 @vindex gnus-summary-update-hook
4199 This hook is called when a summary line is changed. It is not run if
4200 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
4202 @item gnus-summary-selected-face
4203 @vindex gnus-summary-selected-face
4204 This is the face (or @dfn{font} as some people call it) used to
4205 highlight the current article in the summary buffer.
4207 @item gnus-summary-highlight
4208 @vindex gnus-summary-highlight
4209 Summary lines are highlighted according to this variable, which is a
4210 list where the elements are of the format @code{(@var{form}
4211 . @var{face})}. If you would, for instance, like ticked articles to be
4212 italic and high-scored articles to be bold, you could set this variable
4215 (((eq mark gnus-ticked-mark) . italic)
4216 ((> score default) . bold))
4218 As you may have guessed, if @var{form} returns a non-@code{nil} value,
4219 @var{face} will be applied to the line.
4223 @node Summary Maneuvering
4224 @section Summary Maneuvering
4225 @cindex summary movement
4227 All the straight movement commands understand the numeric prefix and
4228 behave pretty much as you'd expect.
4230 None of these commands select articles.
4235 @kindex M-n (Summary)
4236 @kindex G M-n (Summary)
4237 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-subject
4238 Go to the next summary line of an unread article
4239 (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-subject}).
4243 @kindex M-p (Summary)
4244 @kindex G M-p (Summary)
4245 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject
4246 Go to the previous summary line of an unread article
4247 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject}).
4252 @kindex G j (Summary)
4253 @findex gnus-summary-goto-article
4254 Ask for an article number or @code{Message-ID}, and then go to that
4255 article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-article}).
4258 @kindex G g (Summary)
4259 @findex gnus-summary-goto-subject
4260 Ask for an article number and then go to the summary line of that article
4261 without displaying the article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-subject}).
4264 If Gnus asks you to press a key to confirm going to the next group, you
4265 can use the @kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p} keys to move around the group
4266 buffer, searching for the next group to read without actually returning
4267 to the group buffer.
4269 Variables related to summary movement:
4273 @vindex gnus-auto-select-next
4274 @item gnus-auto-select-next
4275 If you issue one of the movement commands (like @kbd{n}) and there are
4276 no more unread articles after the current one, Gnus will offer to go to
4277 the next group. If this variable is @code{t} and the next group is
4278 empty, Gnus will exit summary mode and return to the group buffer. If
4279 this variable is neither @code{t} nor @code{nil}, Gnus will select the
4280 next group, no matter whether it has any unread articles or not. As a
4281 special case, if this variable is @code{quietly}, Gnus will select the
4282 next group without asking for confirmation. If this variable is
4283 @code{almost-quietly}, the same will happen only if you are located on
4284 the last article in the group. Finally, if this variable is
4285 @code{slightly-quietly}, the @kbd{Z n} command will go to the next group
4286 without confirmation. Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
4288 @item gnus-auto-select-same
4289 @vindex gnus-auto-select-same
4290 If non-@code{nil}, all the movement commands will try to go to the next
4291 article with the same subject as the current. (@dfn{Same} here might
4292 mean @dfn{roughly equal}. See @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}
4293 for details (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).) If there are no more
4294 articles with the same subject, go to the first unread article.
4296 This variable is not particularly useful if you use a threaded display.
4298 @item gnus-summary-check-current
4299 @vindex gnus-summary-check-current
4300 If non-@code{nil}, all the ``unread'' movement commands will not proceed
4301 to the next (or previous) article if the current article is unread.
4302 Instead, they will choose the current article.
4304 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
4305 @vindex gnus-auto-center-summary
4306 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will keep the point in the summary buffer
4307 centered at all times. This makes things quite tidy, but if you have a
4308 slow network connection, or simply do not like this un-Emacsism, you can
4309 set this variable to @code{nil} to get the normal Emacs scrolling
4310 action. This will also inhibit horizontal re-centering of the summary
4311 buffer, which might make it more inconvenient to read extremely long
4314 This variable can also be a number. In that case, center the window at
4315 the given number of lines from the top.
4320 @node Choosing Articles
4321 @section Choosing Articles
4322 @cindex selecting articles
4325 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
4326 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
4330 @node Choosing Commands
4331 @subsection Choosing Commands
4333 None of the following movement commands understand the numeric prefix,
4334 and they all select and display an article.
4336 If you want to fetch new articles or redisplay the group, see
4337 @ref{Exiting the Summary Buffer}.
4341 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
4342 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
4343 Select the current article, or, if that one's read already, the next
4344 unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
4349 @kindex G n (Summary)
4350 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-article
4351 @c @icon{gnus-summary-next-unread}
4352 Go to next unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-article}).
4357 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-article
4358 @c @icon{gnus-summary-prev-unread}
4359 Go to previous unread article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-article}).
4364 @kindex G N (Summary)
4365 @findex gnus-summary-next-article
4366 Go to the next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-article}).
4371 @kindex G P (Summary)
4372 @findex gnus-summary-prev-article
4373 Go to the previous article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-article}).
4376 @kindex G C-n (Summary)
4377 @findex gnus-summary-next-same-subject
4378 Go to the next article with the same subject
4379 (@code{gnus-summary-next-same-subject}).
4382 @kindex G C-p (Summary)
4383 @findex gnus-summary-prev-same-subject
4384 Go to the previous article with the same subject
4385 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-same-subject}).
4389 @kindex G f (Summary)
4391 @findex gnus-summary-first-unread-article
4392 Go to the first unread article
4393 (@code{gnus-summary-first-unread-article}).
4397 @kindex G b (Summary)
4399 @findex gnus-summary-best-unread-article
4400 Go to the article with the highest score
4401 (@code{gnus-summary-best-unread-article}).
4406 @kindex G l (Summary)
4407 @findex gnus-summary-goto-last-article
4408 Go to the previous article read (@code{gnus-summary-goto-last-article}).
4411 @kindex G o (Summary)
4412 @findex gnus-summary-pop-article
4414 @cindex article history
4415 Pop an article off the summary history and go to this article
4416 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-article}). This command differs from the
4417 command above in that you can pop as many previous articles off the
4418 history as you like, while @kbd{l} toggles the two last read articles.
4419 For a somewhat related issue (if you use these commands a lot),
4420 @pxref{Article Backlog}.
4424 @node Choosing Variables
4425 @subsection Choosing Variables
4427 Some variables relevant for moving and selecting articles:
4430 @item gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
4431 @vindex gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
4432 All the movement commands will try to go to the previous (or next)
4433 article, even if that article isn't displayed in the Summary buffer if
4434 this variable is non-@code{nil}. Gnus will then fetch the article from
4435 the server and display it in the article buffer.
4437 @item gnus-select-article-hook
4438 @vindex gnus-select-article-hook
4439 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. By default it
4440 exposes any threads hidden under the selected article.
4442 @item gnus-mark-article-hook
4443 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
4444 @findex gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read
4445 @findex gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read
4446 @findex gnus-unread-mark
4447 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. It is intended to
4448 be used for marking articles as read. The default value is
4449 @code{gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read}, and will change the
4450 mark of almost any article you read to @code{gnus-unread-mark}. The
4451 only articles not affected by this function are ticked, dormant, and
4452 expirable articles. If you'd instead like to just have unread articles
4453 marked as read, you can use @code{gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read}
4454 instead. It will leave marks like @code{gnus-low-score-mark},
4455 @code{gnus-del-mark} (and so on) alone.
4460 @node Paging the Article
4461 @section Scrolling the Article
4462 @cindex article scrolling
4467 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
4468 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
4469 Pressing @kbd{SPACE} will scroll the current article forward one page,
4470 or, if you have come to the end of the current article, will choose the
4471 next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
4474 @kindex DEL (Summary)
4475 @findex gnus-summary-prev-page
4476 Scroll the current article back one page (@code{gnus-summary-prev-page}).
4479 @kindex RET (Summary)
4480 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-up
4481 Scroll the current article one line forward
4482 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-up}).
4485 @kindex M-RET (Summary)
4486 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-down
4487 Scroll the current article one line backward
4488 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-down}).
4492 @kindex A g (Summary)
4494 @findex gnus-summary-show-article
4495 @vindex gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
4496 (Re)fetch the current article (@code{gnus-summary-show-article}). If
4497 given a prefix, fetch the current article, but don't run any of the
4498 article treatment functions. This will give you a ``raw'' article, just
4499 the way it came from the server.
4501 If given a numerical prefix, you can do semi-manual charset stuff.
4502 @kbd{C-u 0 g cn-gb-2312 RET} will decode the message as if it were
4503 encoded in the @code{cn-gb-2312} charset. If you have
4506 (setq gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
4511 then you can say @kbd{C-u 1 g} to get the same effect.
4516 @kindex A < (Summary)
4517 @findex gnus-summary-beginning-of-article
4518 Scroll to the beginning of the article
4519 (@code{gnus-summary-beginning-of-article}).
4524 @kindex A > (Summary)
4525 @findex gnus-summary-end-of-article
4526 Scroll to the end of the article (@code{gnus-summary-end-of-article}).
4530 @kindex A s (Summary)
4532 @findex gnus-summary-isearch-article
4533 Perform an isearch in the article buffer
4534 (@code{gnus-summary-isearch-article}).
4538 @findex gnus-summary-select-article-buffer
4539 Select the article buffer (@code{gnus-summary-select-article-buffer}).
4544 @node Reply Followup and Post
4545 @section Reply, Followup and Post
4548 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
4549 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
4550 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
4551 * Canceling and Superseding:: ``Whoops, I shouldn't have called him that.''
4555 @node Summary Mail Commands
4556 @subsection Summary Mail Commands
4558 @cindex composing mail
4560 Commands for composing a mail message:
4566 @kindex S r (Summary)
4568 @findex gnus-summary-reply
4569 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-reply}
4570 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply}
4571 Mail a reply to the author of the current article
4572 (@code{gnus-summary-reply}).
4577 @kindex S R (Summary)
4578 @findex gnus-summary-reply-with-original
4579 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}
4580 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
4581 original message (@code{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}). This
4582 command uses the process/prefix convention.
4585 @kindex S w (Summary)
4586 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply
4587 Mail a wide reply to the author of the current article
4588 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{wide reply} is a reply that
4589 goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
4590 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers.
4593 @kindex S W (Summary)
4594 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original
4595 Mail a wide reply to the current article and include the original
4596 message (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original}). This command uses
4597 the process/prefix convention.
4601 @kindex S o m (Summary)
4602 @kindex C-c C-f (Summary)
4603 @findex gnus-summary-mail-forward
4604 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-forward}
4605 Forward the current article to some other person
4606 (@code{gnus-summary-mail-forward}). If no prefix is given, the message
4607 is forwarded according to the value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime})
4608 and (@code{message-forward-show-mml}); if the prefix is 1, decode the
4609 message and forward directly inline; if the prefix is 2, forward message
4610 as an rfc822 MIME section; if the prefix is 3, decode message and
4611 forward as an rfc822 MIME section; if the prefix is 4, forward message
4612 directly inline; otherwise, the message is forwarded as no prefix given
4613 but use the flipped value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}). By
4614 default, the message is decoded and forwarded as an rfc822 MIME section.
4619 @kindex S m (Summary)
4620 @findex gnus-summary-mail-other-window
4621 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-originate}
4622 Send a mail to some other person
4623 (@code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}).
4626 @kindex S D b (Summary)
4627 @findex gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail
4628 @cindex bouncing mail
4629 If you have sent a mail, but the mail was bounced back to you for some
4630 reason (wrong address, transient failure), you can use this command to
4631 resend that bounced mail (@code{gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail}). You
4632 will be popped into a mail buffer where you can edit the headers before
4633 sending the mail off again. If you give a prefix to this command, and
4634 the bounced mail is a reply to some other mail, Gnus will try to fetch
4635 that mail and display it for easy perusal of its headers. This might
4636 very well fail, though.
4639 @kindex S D r (Summary)
4640 @findex gnus-summary-resend-message
4641 Not to be confused with the previous command,
4642 @code{gnus-summary-resend-message} will prompt you for an address to
4643 send the current message off to, and then send it to that place. The
4644 headers of the message won't be altered---but lots of headers that say
4645 @code{Resent-To}, @code{Resent-From} and so on will be added. This
4646 means that you actually send a mail to someone that has a @code{To}
4647 header that (probably) points to yourself. This will confuse people.
4648 So, natcherly you'll only do that if you're really eVIl.
4650 This command is mainly used if you have several accounts and want to
4651 ship a mail to a different account of yours. (If you're both
4652 @code{root} and @code{postmaster} and get a mail for @code{postmaster}
4653 to the @code{root} account, you may want to resend it to
4654 @code{postmaster}. Ordnung muß sein!
4656 This command understands the process/prefix convention
4657 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
4660 @kindex S O m (Summary)
4661 @findex gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward
4662 Digest the current series (@pxref{Decoding Articles}) and forward the
4663 result using mail (@code{gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward}). This command
4664 uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
4667 @kindex S M-c (Summary)
4668 @findex gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint
4669 @cindex crossposting
4670 @cindex excessive crossposting
4671 Send a complaint about excessive crossposting to the author of the
4672 current article (@code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint}).
4674 @findex gnus-crosspost-complaint
4675 This command is provided as a way to fight back against the current
4676 crossposting pandemic that's sweeping Usenet. It will compose a reply
4677 using the @code{gnus-crosspost-complaint} variable as a preamble. This
4678 command understands the process/prefix convention
4679 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) and will prompt you before sending each mail.
4683 Also @pxref{(message)Header Commands} for more information.
4686 @node Summary Post Commands
4687 @subsection Summary Post Commands
4689 @cindex composing news
4691 Commands for posting a news article:
4697 @kindex S p (Summary)
4698 @findex gnus-summary-post-news
4699 @c @icon{gnus-summary-post-news}
4700 Post an article to the current group
4701 (@code{gnus-summary-post-news}).
4706 @kindex S f (Summary)
4707 @findex gnus-summary-followup
4708 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup}
4709 Post a followup to the current article (@code{gnus-summary-followup}).
4713 @kindex S F (Summary)
4715 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}
4716 @findex gnus-summary-followup-with-original
4717 Post a followup to the current article and include the original message
4718 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}). This command uses the
4719 process/prefix convention.
4722 @kindex S n (Summary)
4723 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail
4724 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
4725 message through mail (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail}).
4728 @kindex S N (Summary)
4729 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original
4730 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
4731 message through mail and include the original message
4732 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original}). This command uses
4733 the process/prefix convention.
4736 @kindex S o p (Summary)
4737 @findex gnus-summary-post-forward
4738 Forward the current article to a newsgroup
4739 (@code{gnus-summary-post-forward}).
4740 If no prefix is given, the message is forwarded according to the value
4741 of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}) and
4742 (@code{message-forward-show-mml}); if the prefix is 1, decode the
4743 message and forward directly inline; if the prefix is 2, forward message
4744 as an rfc822 MIME section; if the prefix is 3, decode message and
4745 forward as an rfc822 MIME section; if the prefix is 4, forward message
4746 directly inline; otherwise, the message is forwarded as no prefix given
4747 but use the flipped value of (@code{message-forward-as-mime}). By
4748 default, the message is decoded and forwarded as an rfc822 MIME section.
4751 @kindex S O p (Summary)
4752 @findex gnus-uu-digest-post-forward
4754 @cindex making digests
4755 Digest the current series and forward the result to a newsgroup
4756 (@code{gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward}). This command uses the
4757 process/prefix convention.
4760 @kindex S u (Summary)
4761 @findex gnus-uu-post-news
4762 @c @icon{gnus-uu-post-news}
4763 Uuencode a file, split it into parts, and post it as a series
4764 (@code{gnus-uu-post-news}). (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
4767 Also @pxref{(message)Header Commands} for more information.
4770 @node Summary Message Commands
4771 @subsection Summary Message Commands
4775 @kindex S y (Summary)
4776 @findex gnus-summary-yank-message
4777 Yank the current article into an already existing Message composition
4778 buffer (@code{gnus-summary-yank-message}). This command prompts for
4779 what message buffer you want to yank into, and understands the
4780 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
4785 @node Canceling and Superseding
4786 @subsection Canceling Articles
4787 @cindex canceling articles
4788 @cindex superseding articles
4790 Have you ever written something, and then decided that you really,
4791 really, really wish you hadn't posted that?
4793 Well, you can't cancel mail, but you can cancel posts.
4795 @findex gnus-summary-cancel-article
4797 @c @icon{gnus-summary-cancel-article}
4798 Find the article you wish to cancel (you can only cancel your own
4799 articles, so don't try any funny stuff). Then press @kbd{C} or @kbd{S
4800 c} (@code{gnus-summary-cancel-article}). Your article will be
4801 canceled---machines all over the world will be deleting your article.
4802 This command uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
4804 Be aware, however, that not all sites honor cancels, so your article may
4805 live on here and there, while most sites will delete the article in
4808 Gnus will use the ``current'' select method when canceling. If you
4809 want to use the standard posting method, use the @samp{a} symbolic
4810 prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}).
4812 If you discover that you have made some mistakes and want to do some
4813 corrections, you can post a @dfn{superseding} article that will replace
4814 your original article.
4816 @findex gnus-summary-supersede-article
4818 Go to the original article and press @kbd{S s}
4819 (@code{gnus-summary-supersede-article}). You will be put in a buffer
4820 where you can edit the article all you want before sending it off the
4823 The same goes for superseding as for canceling, only more so: Some
4824 sites do not honor superseding. On those sites, it will appear that you
4825 have posted almost the same article twice.
4827 If you have just posted the article, and change your mind right away,
4828 there is a trick you can use to cancel/supersede the article without
4829 waiting for the article to appear on your site first. You simply return
4830 to the post buffer (which is called @code{*sent ...*}). There you will
4831 find the article you just posted, with all the headers intact. Change
4832 the @code{Message-ID} header to a @code{Cancel} or @code{Supersedes}
4833 header by substituting one of those words for the word
4834 @code{Message-ID}. Then just press @kbd{C-c C-c} to send the article as
4835 you would do normally. The previous article will be
4836 canceled/superseded.
4838 Just remember, kids: There is no 'c' in 'supersede'.
4841 @node Marking Articles
4842 @section Marking Articles
4843 @cindex article marking
4844 @cindex article ticking
4847 There are several marks you can set on an article.
4849 You have marks that decide the @dfn{readedness} (whoo, neato-keano
4850 neologism ohoy!) of the article. Alphabetic marks generally mean
4851 @dfn{read}, while non-alphabetic characters generally mean @dfn{unread}.
4853 In addition, you also have marks that do not affect readedness.
4856 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
4857 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
4858 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
4862 There's a plethora of commands for manipulating these marks:
4866 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
4867 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
4868 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
4872 @node Unread Articles
4873 @subsection Unread Articles
4875 The following marks mark articles as (kinda) unread, in one form or
4880 @vindex gnus-ticked-mark
4881 Marked as ticked (@code{gnus-ticked-mark}).
4883 @dfn{Ticked articles} are articles that will remain visible always. If
4884 you see an article that you find interesting, or you want to put off
4885 reading it, or replying to it, until sometime later, you'd typically
4886 tick it. However, articles can be expired, so if you want to keep an
4887 article forever, you'll have to make it persistent (@pxref{Persistent
4891 @vindex gnus-dormant-mark
4892 Marked as dormant (@code{gnus-dormant-mark}).
4894 @dfn{Dormant articles} will only appear in the summary buffer if there
4895 are followups to it. If you want to see them even if they don't have
4896 followups, you can use the @kbd{/ D} command (@pxref{Limiting}).
4899 @vindex gnus-unread-mark
4900 Marked as unread (@code{gnus-unread-mark}).
4902 @dfn{Unread articles} are articles that haven't been read at all yet.
4907 @subsection Read Articles
4908 @cindex expirable mark
4910 All the following marks mark articles as read.
4915 @vindex gnus-del-mark
4916 These are articles that the user has marked as read with the @kbd{d}
4917 command manually, more or less (@code{gnus-del-mark}).
4920 @vindex gnus-read-mark
4921 Articles that have actually been read (@code{gnus-read-mark}).
4924 @vindex gnus-ancient-mark
4925 Articles that were marked as read in previous sessions and are now
4926 @dfn{old} (@code{gnus-ancient-mark}).
4929 @vindex gnus-killed-mark
4930 Marked as killed (@code{gnus-killed-mark}).
4933 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mark
4934 Marked as killed by kill files (@code{gnus-kill-file-mark}).
4937 @vindex gnus-low-score-mark
4938 Marked as read by having too low a score (@code{gnus-low-score-mark}).
4941 @vindex gnus-catchup-mark
4942 Marked as read by a catchup (@code{gnus-catchup-mark}).
4945 @vindex gnus-canceled-mark
4946 Canceled article (@code{gnus-canceled-mark})
4949 @vindex gnus-souped-mark
4950 @sc{soup}ed article (@code{gnus-souped-mark}). @xref{SOUP}.
4953 @vindex gnus-sparse-mark
4954 Sparsely reffed article (@code{gnus-sparse-mark}). @xref{Customizing
4958 @vindex gnus-duplicate-mark
4959 Article marked as read by duplicate suppression
4960 (@code{gnus-duplicated-mark}). @xref{Duplicate Suppression}.
4964 All these marks just mean that the article is marked as read, really.
4965 They are interpreted differently when doing adaptive scoring, though.
4967 One more special mark, though:
4971 @vindex gnus-expirable-mark
4972 Marked as expirable (@code{gnus-expirable-mark}).
4974 Marking articles as @dfn{expirable} (or have them marked as such
4975 automatically) doesn't make much sense in normal groups---a user doesn't
4976 control expiring of news articles, but in mail groups, for instance,
4977 articles marked as @dfn{expirable} can be deleted by Gnus at
4983 @subsection Other Marks
4984 @cindex process mark
4987 There are some marks that have nothing to do with whether the article is
4993 You can set a bookmark in the current article. Say you are reading a
4994 long thesis on cats' urinary tracts, and have to go home for dinner
4995 before you've finished reading the thesis. You can then set a bookmark
4996 in the article, and Gnus will jump to this bookmark the next time it
4997 encounters the article. @xref{Setting Marks}.
5000 @vindex gnus-replied-mark
5001 All articles that you have replied to or made a followup to (i.e., have
5002 answered) will be marked with an @samp{A} in the second column
5003 (@code{gnus-replied-mark}).
5006 @vindex gnus-cached-mark
5007 Articles stored in the article cache will be marked with an @samp{*} in
5008 the second column (@code{gnus-cached-mark}). @xref{Article Caching}.
5011 @vindex gnus-saved-mark
5012 Articles ``saved'' (in some manner or other; not necessarily
5013 religiously) are marked with an @samp{S} in the second column
5014 (@code{gnus-saved-mark}).
5017 @vindex gnus-not-empty-thread-mark
5018 @vindex gnus-empty-thread-mark
5019 If the @samp{%e} spec is used, the presence of threads or not will be
5020 marked with @code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark} and
5021 @code{gnus-empty-thread-mark} in the third column, respectively.
5024 @vindex gnus-process-mark
5025 Finally we have the @dfn{process mark} (@code{gnus-process-mark}). A
5026 variety of commands react to the presence of the process mark. For
5027 instance, @kbd{X u} (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}) will uudecode and view
5028 all articles that have been marked with the process mark. Articles
5029 marked with the process mark have a @samp{#} in the second column.
5033 You might have noticed that most of these ``non-readedness'' marks
5034 appear in the second column by default. So if you have a cached, saved,
5035 replied article that you have process-marked, what will that look like?
5037 Nothing much. The precedence rules go as follows: process -> cache ->
5038 replied -> saved. So if the article is in the cache and is replied,
5039 you'll only see the cache mark and not the replied mark.
5043 @subsection Setting Marks
5044 @cindex setting marks
5046 All the marking commands understand the numeric prefix.
5051 @kindex M c (Summary)
5052 @kindex M-u (Summary)
5053 @findex gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward
5054 @cindex mark as unread
5055 Clear all readedness-marks from the current article
5056 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward}). In other words, mark the
5062 @kindex M t (Summary)
5063 @findex gnus-summary-tick-article-forward
5064 Tick the current article (@code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}).
5065 @xref{Article Caching}.
5070 @kindex M ? (Summary)
5071 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant
5072 Mark the current article as dormant
5073 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant}). @xref{Article Caching}.
5077 @kindex M d (Summary)
5079 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward
5080 Mark the current article as read
5081 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward}).
5085 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward
5086 Mark the current article as read and move point to the previous line
5087 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward}).
5092 @kindex M k (Summary)
5093 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select
5094 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read,
5095 and then select the next unread article
5096 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select}).
5100 @kindex M K (Summary)
5101 @kindex C-k (Summary)
5102 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject
5103 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read
5104 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject}).
5107 @kindex M C (Summary)
5108 @findex gnus-summary-catchup
5109 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup}
5110 Mark all unread articles as read (@code{gnus-summary-catchup}).
5113 @kindex M C-c (Summary)
5114 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all
5115 Mark all articles in the group as read---even the ticked and dormant
5116 articles (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all}).
5119 @kindex M H (Summary)
5120 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-to-here
5121 Catchup the current group to point
5122 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-to-here}).
5125 @kindex C-w (Summary)
5126 @findex gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read
5127 Mark all articles between point and mark as read
5128 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read}).
5131 @kindex M V k (Summary)
5132 @findex gnus-summary-kill-below
5133 Kill all articles with scores below the default score (or below the
5134 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-kill-below}).
5138 @kindex M e (Summary)
5140 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable
5141 Mark the current article as expirable
5142 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable}).
5145 @kindex M b (Summary)
5146 @findex gnus-summary-set-bookmark
5147 Set a bookmark in the current article
5148 (@code{gnus-summary-set-bookmark}).
5151 @kindex M B (Summary)
5152 @findex gnus-summary-remove-bookmark
5153 Remove the bookmark from the current article
5154 (@code{gnus-summary-remove-bookmark}).
5157 @kindex M V c (Summary)
5158 @findex gnus-summary-clear-above
5159 Clear all marks from articles with scores over the default score (or
5160 over the numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
5163 @kindex M V u (Summary)
5164 @findex gnus-summary-tick-above
5165 Tick all articles with scores over the default score (or over the
5166 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-tick-above}).
5169 @kindex M V m (Summary)
5170 @findex gnus-summary-mark-above
5171 Prompt for a mark, and mark all articles with scores over the default
5172 score (or over the numeric prefix) with this mark
5173 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
5176 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
5177 The @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} variable controls what action should
5178 be taken after setting a mark. If non-@code{nil}, point will move to
5179 the next/previous unread article. If @code{nil}, point will just move
5180 one line up or down. As a special case, if this variable is
5181 @code{never}, all the marking commands as well as other commands (like
5182 @kbd{SPACE}) will move to the next article, whether it is unread or not.
5183 The default is @code{t}.
5186 @node Generic Marking Commands
5187 @subsection Generic Marking Commands
5189 Some people would like the command that ticks an article (@kbd{!}) go to
5190 the next article. Others would like it to go to the next unread
5191 article. Yet others would like it to stay on the current article. And
5192 even though I haven't heard of anybody wanting it to go to the
5193 previous (unread) article, I'm sure there are people that want that as
5196 Multiply these five behaviors with five different marking commands, and
5197 you get a potentially complex set of variable to control what each
5200 To sidestep that mess, Gnus provides commands that do all these
5201 different things. They can be found on the @kbd{M M} map in the summary
5202 buffer. Type @kbd{M M C-h} to see them all---there are too many of them
5203 to list in this manual.
5205 While you can use these commands directly, most users would prefer
5206 altering the summary mode keymap. For instance, if you would like the
5207 @kbd{!} command to go to the next article instead of the next unread
5208 article, you could say something like:
5211 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'my-alter-summary-map)
5212 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
5213 (local-set-key "!" 'gnus-summary-put-mark-as-ticked-next))
5219 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
5220 (local-set-key "!" "MM!n"))
5224 @node Setting Process Marks
5225 @subsection Setting Process Marks
5226 @cindex setting process marks
5233 @kindex M P p (Summary)
5234 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-processable
5235 Mark the current article with the process mark
5236 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-processable}).
5237 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable
5241 @kindex M P u (Summary)
5242 @kindex M-# (Summary)
5243 Remove the process mark, if any, from the current article
5244 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable}).
5247 @kindex M P U (Summary)
5248 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable
5249 Remove the process mark from all articles
5250 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable}).
5253 @kindex M P i (Summary)
5254 @findex gnus-uu-invert-processable
5255 Invert the list of process marked articles
5256 (@code{gnus-uu-invert-processable}).
5259 @kindex M P R (Summary)
5260 @findex gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp
5261 Mark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
5262 expression (@code{gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp}).
5265 @kindex M P G (Summary)
5266 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp
5267 Unmark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
5268 expression (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp}).
5271 @kindex M P r (Summary)
5272 @findex gnus-uu-mark-region
5273 Mark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-mark-region}).
5276 @kindex M P t (Summary)
5277 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
5278 Mark all articles in the current (sub)thread
5279 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
5282 @kindex M P T (Summary)
5283 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
5284 Unmark all articles in the current (sub)thread
5285 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
5288 @kindex M P v (Summary)
5289 @findex gnus-uu-mark-over
5290 Mark all articles that have a score above the prefix argument
5291 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-over}).
5294 @kindex M P s (Summary)
5295 @findex gnus-uu-mark-series
5296 Mark all articles in the current series (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
5299 @kindex M P S (Summary)
5300 @findex gnus-uu-mark-sparse
5301 Mark all series that have already had some articles marked
5302 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-sparse}).
5305 @kindex M P a (Summary)
5306 @findex gnus-uu-mark-all
5307 Mark all articles in series order (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
5310 @kindex M P b (Summary)
5311 @findex gnus-uu-mark-buffer
5312 Mark all articles in the buffer in the order they appear
5313 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-buffer}).
5316 @kindex M P k (Summary)
5317 @findex gnus-summary-kill-process-mark
5318 Push the current process mark set onto the stack and unmark all articles
5319 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-process-mark}).
5322 @kindex M P y (Summary)
5323 @findex gnus-summary-yank-process-mark
5324 Pop the previous process mark set from the stack and restore it
5325 (@code{gnus-summary-yank-process-mark}).
5328 @kindex M P w (Summary)
5329 @findex gnus-summary-save-process-mark
5330 Push the current process mark set onto the stack
5331 (@code{gnus-summary-save-process-mark}).
5335 Also see the @kbd{&} command in @pxref{Searching for Articles} for how to
5336 set process marks based on article body contents.
5343 It can be convenient to limit the summary buffer to just show some
5344 subset of the articles currently in the group. The effect most limit
5345 commands have is to remove a few (or many) articles from the summary
5348 All limiting commands work on subsets of the articles already fetched
5349 from the servers. None of these commands query the server for
5350 additional articles.
5356 @kindex / / (Summary)
5357 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-subject
5358 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some subject
5359 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-subject}).
5362 @kindex / a (Summary)
5363 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-author
5364 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some author
5365 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-author}).
5368 @kindex / x (Summary)
5369 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-extra
5370 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match one of the ``extra''
5371 headers (@pxref{To From Newsgroups})
5372 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-extra}).
5376 @kindex / u (Summary)
5378 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-unread
5379 Limit the summary buffer to articles not marked as read
5380 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-unread}). If given a prefix, limit the
5381 buffer to articles strictly unread. This means that ticked and
5382 dormant articles will also be excluded.
5385 @kindex / m (Summary)
5386 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-marks
5387 Ask for a mark and then limit to all articles that have been marked
5388 with that mark (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-marks}).
5391 @kindex / t (Summary)
5392 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-age
5393 Ask for a number and then limit the summary buffer to articles older than (or equal to) that number of days
5394 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-age}). If given a prefix, limit to
5395 articles younger than that number of days.
5398 @kindex / n (Summary)
5399 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-articles
5400 Limit the summary buffer to the current article
5401 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-articles}). Uses the process/prefix
5402 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5405 @kindex / w (Summary)
5406 @findex gnus-summary-pop-limit
5407 Pop the previous limit off the stack and restore it
5408 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-limit}). If given a prefix, pop all limits off
5412 @kindex / v (Summary)
5413 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-score
5414 Limit the summary buffer to articles that have a score at or above some
5415 score (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-score}).
5419 @kindex M S (Summary)
5420 @kindex / E (Summary)
5421 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged
5422 Include all expunged articles in the limit
5423 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged}).
5426 @kindex / D (Summary)
5427 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant
5428 Include all dormant articles in the limit
5429 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant}).
5432 @kindex / * (Summary)
5433 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-cached
5434 Include all cached articles in the limit
5435 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-cached}).
5438 @kindex / d (Summary)
5439 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant
5440 Exclude all dormant articles from the limit
5441 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant}).
5444 @kindex / M (Summary)
5445 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks
5446 Exclude all marked articles (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks}).
5449 @kindex / T (Summary)
5450 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-thread
5451 Include all the articles in the current thread in the limit.
5454 @kindex / c (Summary)
5455 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant
5456 Exclude all dormant articles that have no children from the limit
5457 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant}).
5460 @kindex / C (Summary)
5461 @findex gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read
5462 Mark all excluded unread articles as read
5463 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read}). If given a prefix,
5464 also mark excluded ticked and dormant articles as read.
5472 @cindex article threading
5474 Gnus threads articles by default. @dfn{To thread} is to put responses
5475 to articles directly after the articles they respond to---in a
5476 hierarchical fashion.
5478 Threading is done by looking at the @code{References} headers of the
5479 articles. In a perfect world, this would be enough to build pretty
5480 trees, but unfortunately, the @code{References} header is often broken
5481 or simply missing. Weird news propagation exacerbates the problem,
5482 so one has to employ other heuristics to get pleasing results. A
5483 plethora of approaches exists, as detailed in horrible detail in
5484 @pxref{Customizing Threading}.
5486 First, a quick overview of the concepts:
5490 The top-most article in a thread; the first article in the thread.
5493 A tree-like article structure.
5496 A small(er) section of this tree-like structure.
5499 Threads often lose their roots due to article expiry, or due to the root
5500 already having been read in a previous session, and not displayed in the
5501 summary buffer. We then typically have many sub-threads that really
5502 belong to one thread, but are without connecting roots. These are
5503 called loose threads.
5505 @item thread gathering
5506 An attempt to gather loose threads into bigger threads.
5508 @item sparse threads
5509 A thread where the missing articles have been ``guessed'' at, and are
5510 displayed as empty lines in the summary buffer.
5516 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
5517 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
5521 @node Customizing Threading
5522 @subsection Customizing Threading
5523 @cindex customizing threading
5526 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
5527 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
5528 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
5529 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over... but you were wrong!
5534 @subsubsection Loose Threads
5537 @cindex loose threads
5540 @item gnus-summary-make-false-root
5541 @vindex gnus-summary-make-false-root
5542 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will gather all loose subtrees into one big tree
5543 and create a dummy root at the top. (Wait a minute. Root at the top?
5544 Yup.) Loose subtrees occur when the real root has expired, or you've
5545 read or killed the root in a previous session.
5547 When there is no real root of a thread, Gnus will have to fudge
5548 something. This variable says what fudging method Gnus should use.
5549 There are four possible values:
5553 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{390}{
5554 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-adopt.ps,width=7.5cm}}
5555 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-empty.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
5556 \put(0,400){\makebox(0,0)[tl]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-none.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
5557 \put(445,400){\makebox(0,0)[tr]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-dummy.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
5562 @cindex adopting articles
5567 Gnus will make the first of the orphaned articles the parent. This
5568 parent will adopt all the other articles. The adopted articles will be
5569 marked as such by pointy brackets (@samp{<>}) instead of the standard
5570 square brackets (@samp{[]}). This is the default method.
5573 @vindex gnus-summary-dummy-line-format
5574 Gnus will create a dummy summary line that will pretend to be the
5575 parent. This dummy line does not correspond to any real article, so
5576 selecting it will just select the first real article after the dummy
5577 article. @code{gnus-summary-dummy-line-format} is used to specify the
5578 format of the dummy roots. It accepts only one format spec: @samp{S},
5579 which is the subject of the article. @xref{Formatting Variables}.
5582 Gnus won't actually make any article the parent, but simply leave the
5583 subject field of all orphans except the first empty. (Actually, it will
5584 use @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} as the subject (@pxref{Summary
5588 Don't make any article parent at all. Just gather the threads and
5589 display them after one another.
5592 Don't gather loose threads.
5595 @item gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
5596 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
5597 Loose threads are gathered by comparing subjects of articles. If this
5598 variable is @code{nil}, Gnus requires an exact match between the
5599 subjects of the loose threads before gathering them into one big
5600 super-thread. This might be too strict a requirement, what with the
5601 presence of stupid newsreaders that chop off long subject lines. If
5602 you think so, set this variable to, say, 20 to require that only the
5603 first 20 characters of the subjects have to match. If you set this
5604 variable to a really low number, you'll find that Gnus will gather
5605 everything in sight into one thread, which isn't very helpful.
5607 @cindex fuzzy article gathering
5608 If you set this variable to the special value @code{fuzzy}, Gnus will
5609 use a fuzzy string comparison algorithm on the subjects (@pxref{Fuzzy
5612 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
5613 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
5614 This can either be a regular expression or list of regular expressions
5615 that match strings that will be removed from subjects if fuzzy subject
5616 simplification is used.
5618 @item gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
5619 @vindex gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
5620 If you set @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit} to something as low
5621 as 10, you might consider setting this variable to something sensible:
5623 @c Written by Michael Ernst <mernst@cs.rice.edu>
5625 (setq gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
5631 "wanted" "followup" "summary\\( of\\)?"
5632 "help" "query" "problem" "question"
5633 "answer" "reference" "announce"
5634 "How can I" "How to" "Comparison of"
5639 (mapconcat 'identity
5640 '("for" "for reference" "with" "about")
5642 "\\)?\\]?:?[ \t]*"))
5645 All words that match this regexp will be removed before comparing two
5648 @item gnus-simplify-subject-functions
5649 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-functions
5650 If non-@code{nil}, this variable overrides
5651 @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}. This variable should be a
5652 list of functions to apply to the @code{Subject} string iteratively to
5653 arrive at the simplified version of the string.
5655 Useful functions to put in this list include:
5658 @item gnus-simplify-subject-re
5659 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-re
5660 Strip the leading @samp{Re:}.
5662 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
5663 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
5666 @item gnus-simplify-whitespace
5667 @findex gnus-simplify-whitespace
5668 Remove excessive whitespace.
5671 You may also write your own functions, of course.
5674 @item gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
5675 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
5676 Since loose thread gathering is done on subjects only, that might lead
5677 to many false hits, especially with certain common subjects like
5678 @samp{} and @samp{(none)}. To make the situation slightly better,
5679 you can use the regexp @code{gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject} to say
5680 what subjects should be excluded from the gathering process.@*
5681 The default is @samp{^ *$\\|^(none)$}.
5683 @item gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
5684 @vindex gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
5685 Gnus gathers threads by looking at @code{Subject} headers. This means
5686 that totally unrelated articles may end up in the same ``thread'', which
5687 is confusing. An alternate approach is to look at all the
5688 @code{Message-ID}s in all the @code{References} headers to find matches.
5689 This will ensure that no gathered threads ever include unrelated
5690 articles, but it also means that people who have posted with broken
5691 newsreaders won't be gathered properly. The choice is yours---plague or
5695 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
5696 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
5697 This function is the default gathering function and looks at
5698 @code{Subject}s exclusively.
5700 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-references
5701 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-references
5702 This function looks at @code{References} headers exclusively.
5705 If you want to test gathering by @code{References}, you could say
5709 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
5710 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
5716 @node Filling In Threads
5717 @subsubsection Filling In Threads
5720 @item gnus-fetch-old-headers
5721 @vindex gnus-fetch-old-headers
5722 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will attempt to build old threads by fetching
5723 more old headers---headers to articles marked as read. If you
5724 would like to display as few summary lines as possible, but still
5725 connect as many loose threads as possible, you should set this variable
5726 to @code{some} or a number. If you set it to a number, no more than
5727 that number of extra old headers will be fetched. In either case,
5728 fetching old headers only works if the backend you are using carries
5729 overview files---this would normally be @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool} and
5730 @code{nnml}. Also remember that if the root of the thread has been
5731 expired by the server, there's not much Gnus can do about that.
5733 This variable can also be set to @code{invisible}. This won't have any
5734 visible effects, but is useful if you use the @kbd{A T} command a lot
5735 (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
5737 @item gnus-build-sparse-threads
5738 @vindex gnus-build-sparse-threads
5739 Fetching old headers can be slow. A low-rent similar effect can be
5740 gotten by setting this variable to @code{some}. Gnus will then look at
5741 the complete @code{References} headers of all articles and try to string
5742 together articles that belong in the same thread. This will leave
5743 @dfn{gaps} in the threading display where Gnus guesses that an article
5744 is missing from the thread. (These gaps appear like normal summary
5745 lines. If you select a gap, Gnus will try to fetch the article in
5746 question.) If this variable is @code{t}, Gnus will display all these
5747 ``gaps'' without regard for whether they are useful for completing the
5748 thread or not. Finally, if this variable is @code{more}, Gnus won't cut
5749 off sparse leaf nodes that don't lead anywhere. This variable is
5750 @code{nil} by default.
5755 @node More Threading
5756 @subsubsection More Threading
5759 @item gnus-show-threads
5760 @vindex gnus-show-threads
5761 If this variable is @code{nil}, no threading will be done, and all of
5762 the rest of the variables here will have no effect. Turning threading
5763 off will speed group selection up a bit, but it is sure to make reading
5764 slower and more awkward.
5766 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
5767 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-subtree
5768 If non-@code{nil}, all threads will be hidden when the summary buffer is
5771 @item gnus-thread-expunge-below
5772 @vindex gnus-thread-expunge-below
5773 All threads that have a total score (as defined by
5774 @code{gnus-thread-score-function}) less than this number will be
5775 expunged. This variable is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
5776 threads are expunged.
5778 @item gnus-thread-hide-killed
5779 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-killed
5780 if you kill a thread and this variable is non-@code{nil}, the subtree
5783 @item gnus-thread-ignore-subject
5784 @vindex gnus-thread-ignore-subject
5785 Sometimes somebody changes the subject in the middle of a thread. If
5786 this variable is non-@code{nil}, the subject change is ignored. If it
5787 is @code{nil}, which is the default, a change in the subject will result
5790 @item gnus-thread-indent-level
5791 @vindex gnus-thread-indent-level
5792 This is a number that says how much each sub-thread should be indented.
5795 @item gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
5796 @vindex gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
5797 Sometimes, particularly with mailing lists, the order in which mails
5798 arrive locally is not necessarily the same as the order in which they
5799 arrived on the mailing list. Consequently, when sorting sub-threads
5800 using the default @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number}, responses can end
5801 up appearing before the article to which they are responding to.
5802 Setting this variable to an alternate value
5803 (e.g. @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}), in a group's parameters or in an
5804 appropriate hook (e.g. @code{gnus-summary-generate-hook}) can produce a
5805 more logical sub-thread ordering in such instances.
5810 @node Low-Level Threading
5811 @subsubsection Low-Level Threading
5815 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
5816 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
5817 Hook run before parsing any headers.
5819 @item gnus-alter-header-function
5820 @vindex gnus-alter-header-function
5821 If non-@code{nil}, this function will be called to allow alteration of
5822 article header structures. The function is called with one parameter,
5823 the article header vector, which it may alter in any way. For instance,
5824 if you have a mail-to-news gateway which alters the @code{Message-ID}s
5825 in systematic ways (by adding prefixes and such), you can use this
5826 variable to un-scramble the @code{Message-ID}s so that they are more
5827 meaningful. Here's one example:
5830 (setq gnus-alter-header-function 'my-alter-message-id)
5832 (defun my-alter-message-id (header)
5833 (let ((id (mail-header-id header)))
5835 "\\(<[^<>@@]*\\)\\.?cygnus\\..*@@\\([^<>@@]*>\\)" id)
5837 (concat (match-string 1 id) "@@" (match-string 2 id))
5844 @node Thread Commands
5845 @subsection Thread Commands
5846 @cindex thread commands
5852 @kindex T k (Summary)
5853 @kindex M-C-k (Summary)
5854 @findex gnus-summary-kill-thread
5855 Mark all articles in the current (sub-)thread as read
5856 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}). If the prefix argument is positive,
5857 remove all marks instead. If the prefix argument is negative, tick
5862 @kindex T l (Summary)
5863 @kindex M-C-l (Summary)
5864 @findex gnus-summary-lower-thread
5865 Lower the score of the current (sub-)thread
5866 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-thread}).
5869 @kindex T i (Summary)
5870 @findex gnus-summary-raise-thread
5871 Increase the score of the current (sub-)thread
5872 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-thread}).
5875 @kindex T # (Summary)
5876 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
5877 Set the process mark on the current (sub-)thread
5878 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
5881 @kindex T M-# (Summary)
5882 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
5883 Remove the process mark from the current (sub-)thread
5884 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
5887 @kindex T T (Summary)
5888 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-threads
5889 Toggle threading (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-threads}).
5892 @kindex T s (Summary)
5893 @findex gnus-summary-show-thread
5894 Expose the (sub-)thread hidden under the current article, if any
5895 (@code{gnus-summary-show-thread}).
5898 @kindex T h (Summary)
5899 @findex gnus-summary-hide-thread
5900 Hide the current (sub-)thread (@code{gnus-summary-hide-thread}).
5903 @kindex T S (Summary)
5904 @findex gnus-summary-show-all-threads
5905 Expose all hidden threads (@code{gnus-summary-show-all-threads}).
5908 @kindex T H (Summary)
5909 @findex gnus-summary-hide-all-threads
5910 Hide all threads (@code{gnus-summary-hide-all-threads}).
5913 @kindex T t (Summary)
5914 @findex gnus-summary-rethread-current
5915 Re-thread the current article's thread
5916 (@code{gnus-summary-rethread-current}). This works even when the
5917 summary buffer is otherwise unthreaded.
5920 @kindex T ^ (Summary)
5921 @findex gnus-summary-reparent-thread
5922 Make the current article the child of the marked (or previous) article
5923 (@code{gnus-summary-reparent-thread}).
5927 The following commands are thread movement commands. They all
5928 understand the numeric prefix.
5933 @kindex T n (Summary)
5935 @kindex M-C-n (Summary)
5937 @kindex M-down (Summary)
5938 @findex gnus-summary-next-thread
5939 Go to the next thread (@code{gnus-summary-next-thread}).
5942 @kindex T p (Summary)
5944 @kindex M-C-p (Summary)
5946 @kindex M-up (Summary)
5947 @findex gnus-summary-prev-thread
5948 Go to the previous thread (@code{gnus-summary-prev-thread}).
5951 @kindex T d (Summary)
5952 @findex gnus-summary-down-thread
5953 Descend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-down-thread}).
5956 @kindex T u (Summary)
5957 @findex gnus-summary-up-thread
5958 Ascend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-up-thread}).
5961 @kindex T o (Summary)
5962 @findex gnus-summary-top-thread
5963 Go to the top of the thread (@code{gnus-summary-top-thread}).
5966 @vindex gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject
5967 If you ignore subject while threading, you'll naturally end up with
5968 threads that have several different subjects in them. If you then issue
5969 a command like `T k' (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}) you might not
5970 wish to kill the entire thread, but just those parts of the thread that
5971 have the same subject as the current article. If you like this idea,
5972 you can fiddle with @code{gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject}. If it
5973 is non-@code{nil} (which it is by default), subjects will be ignored
5974 when doing thread commands. If this variable is @code{nil}, articles in
5975 the same thread with different subjects will not be included in the
5976 operation in question. If this variable is @code{fuzzy}, only articles
5977 that have subjects fuzzily equal will be included (@pxref{Fuzzy
5984 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score
5985 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-date
5986 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-score
5987 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
5988 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-author
5989 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-number
5990 @vindex gnus-thread-sort-functions
5991 If you are using a threaded summary display, you can sort the threads by
5992 setting @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, which can be either a single
5993 function, a list of functions, or a list containing functions and
5994 @code{(not some-function)} elements.
5996 By default, sorting is done on article numbers. Ready-made sorting
5997 predicate functions include @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number},
5998 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-author}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-subject},
5999 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-score}, and
6000 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score}.
6002 Each function takes two threads and returns non-@code{nil} if the first
6003 thread should be sorted before the other. Note that sorting really is
6004 normally done by looking only at the roots of each thread.
6006 If you use more than one function, the primary sort key should be the
6007 last function in the list. You should probably always include
6008 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number} in the list of sorting
6009 functions---preferably first. This will ensure that threads that are
6010 equal with respect to the other sort criteria will be displayed in
6011 ascending article order.
6013 If you would like to sort by reverse score, then by subject, and finally
6014 by number, you could do something like:
6017 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
6018 '(gnus-thread-sort-by-number
6019 gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
6020 (not gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score)))
6023 The threads that have highest score will be displayed first in the
6024 summary buffer. When threads have the same score, they will be sorted
6025 alphabetically. The threads that have the same score and the same
6026 subject will be sorted by number, which is (normally) the sequence in
6027 which the articles arrived.
6029 If you want to sort by score and then reverse arrival order, you could
6033 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
6035 (not (gnus-thread-sort-by-number t1 t2)))
6036 gnus-thread-sort-by-score))
6039 @vindex gnus-thread-score-function
6040 The function in the @code{gnus-thread-score-function} variable (default
6041 @code{+}) is used for calculating the total score of a thread. Useful
6042 functions might be @code{max}, @code{min}, or squared means, or whatever
6045 @findex gnus-article-sort-functions
6046 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-date
6047 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-score
6048 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-subject
6049 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-author
6050 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-number
6051 If you are using an unthreaded display for some strange reason or other,
6052 you have to fiddle with the @code{gnus-article-sort-functions} variable.
6053 It is very similar to the @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, except that
6054 it uses slightly different functions for article comparison. Available
6055 sorting predicate functions are @code{gnus-article-sort-by-number},
6056 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-author}, @code{gnus-article-sort-by-subject},
6057 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-date}, and @code{gnus-article-sort-by-score}.
6059 If you want to sort an unthreaded summary display by subject, you could
6063 (setq gnus-article-sort-functions
6064 '(gnus-article-sort-by-number
6065 gnus-article-sort-by-subject))
6070 @node Asynchronous Fetching
6071 @section Asynchronous Article Fetching
6072 @cindex asynchronous article fetching
6073 @cindex article pre-fetch
6076 If you read your news from an @sc{nntp} server that's far away, the
6077 network latencies may make reading articles a chore. You have to wait
6078 for a while after pressing @kbd{n} to go to the next article before the
6079 article appears. Why can't Gnus just go ahead and fetch the article
6080 while you are reading the previous one? Why not, indeed.
6082 First, some caveats. There are some pitfalls to using asynchronous
6083 article fetching, especially the way Gnus does it.
6085 Let's say you are reading article 1, which is short, and article 2 is
6086 quite long, and you are not interested in reading that. Gnus does not
6087 know this, so it goes ahead and fetches article 2. You decide to read
6088 article 3, but since Gnus is in the process of fetching article 2, the
6089 connection is blocked.
6091 To avoid these situations, Gnus will open two (count 'em two)
6092 connections to the server. Some people may think this isn't a very nice
6093 thing to do, but I don't see any real alternatives. Setting up that
6094 extra connection takes some time, so Gnus startup will be slower.
6096 Gnus will fetch more articles than you will read. This will mean that
6097 the link between your machine and the @sc{nntp} server will become more
6098 loaded than if you didn't use article pre-fetch. The server itself will
6099 also become more loaded---both with the extra article requests, and the
6102 Ok, so now you know that you shouldn't really use this thing... unless
6105 @vindex gnus-asynchronous
6106 Here's how: Set @code{gnus-asynchronous} to @code{t}. The rest should
6107 happen automatically.
6109 @vindex gnus-use-article-prefetch
6110 You can control how many articles are to be pre-fetched by setting
6111 @code{gnus-use-article-prefetch}. This is 30 by default, which means
6112 that when you read an article in the group, the backend will pre-fetch
6113 the next 30 articles. If this variable is @code{t}, the backend will
6114 pre-fetch all the articles it can without bound. If it is
6115 @code{nil}, no pre-fetching will be done.
6117 @vindex gnus-async-prefetch-article-p
6118 @findex gnus-async-read-p
6119 There are probably some articles that you don't want to pre-fetch---read
6120 articles, for instance. The @code{gnus-async-prefetch-article-p} variable controls whether an article is to be pre-fetched. This function should
6121 return non-@code{nil} when the article in question is to be
6122 pre-fetched. The default is @code{gnus-async-read-p}, which returns
6123 @code{nil} on read articles. The function is called with an article
6124 data structure as the only parameter.
6126 If, for instance, you wish to pre-fetch only unread articles shorter than 100 lines, you could say something like:
6129 (defun my-async-short-unread-p (data)
6130 "Return non-nil for short, unread articles."
6131 (and (gnus-data-unread-p data)
6132 (< (mail-header-lines (gnus-data-header data))
6135 (setq gnus-async-prefetch-article-p 'my-async-short-unread-p)
6138 These functions will be called many, many times, so they should
6139 preferably be short and sweet to avoid slowing down Gnus too much.
6140 It's probably a good idea to byte-compile things like this.
6142 @vindex gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy
6143 Articles have to be removed from the asynch buffer sooner or later. The
6144 @code{gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy} says when to remove
6145 articles. This is a list that may contain the following elements:
6149 Remove articles when they are read.
6152 Remove articles when exiting the group.
6155 The default value is @code{(read exit)}.
6157 @c @vindex gnus-use-header-prefetch
6158 @c If @code{gnus-use-header-prefetch} is non-@code{nil}, prefetch articles
6159 @c from the next group.
6162 @node Article Caching
6163 @section Article Caching
6164 @cindex article caching
6167 If you have an @emph{extremely} slow @sc{nntp} connection, you may
6168 consider turning article caching on. Each article will then be stored
6169 locally under your home directory. As you may surmise, this could
6170 potentially use @emph{huge} amounts of disk space, as well as eat up all
6171 your inodes so fast it will make your head swim. In vodka.
6173 Used carefully, though, it could be just an easier way to save articles.
6175 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
6176 @vindex gnus-cache-directory
6177 @vindex gnus-use-cache
6178 To turn caching on, set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{t}. By default,
6179 all articles ticked or marked as dormant will then be copied
6180 over to your local cache (@code{gnus-cache-directory}). Whether this
6181 cache is flat or hierarchical is controlled by the
6182 @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable, as usual.
6184 When re-selecting a ticked or dormant article, it will be fetched from the
6185 cache instead of from the server. As articles in your cache will never
6186 expire, this might serve as a method of saving articles while still
6187 keeping them where they belong. Just mark all articles you want to save
6188 as dormant, and don't worry.
6190 When an article is marked as read, is it removed from the cache.
6192 @vindex gnus-cache-remove-articles
6193 @vindex gnus-cache-enter-articles
6194 The entering/removal of articles from the cache is controlled by the
6195 @code{gnus-cache-enter-articles} and @code{gnus-cache-remove-articles}
6196 variables. Both are lists of symbols. The first is @code{(ticked
6197 dormant)} by default, meaning that ticked and dormant articles will be
6198 put in the cache. The latter is @code{(read)} by default, meaning that
6199 articles marked as read are removed from the cache. Possibly
6200 symbols in these two lists are @code{ticked}, @code{dormant},
6201 @code{unread} and @code{read}.
6203 @findex gnus-jog-cache
6204 So where does the massive article-fetching and storing come into the
6205 picture? The @code{gnus-jog-cache} command will go through all
6206 subscribed newsgroups, request all unread articles, score them, and
6207 store them in the cache. You should only ever, ever ever ever, use this
6208 command if 1) your connection to the @sc{nntp} server is really, really,
6209 really slow and 2) you have a really, really, really huge disk.
6210 Seriously. One way to cut down on the number of articles downloaded is
6211 to score unwanted articles down and have them marked as read. They will
6212 not then be downloaded by this command.
6214 @vindex gnus-uncacheable-groups
6215 @vindex gnus-cacheable-groups
6216 It is likely that you do not want caching on all groups. For instance,
6217 if your @code{nnml} mail is located under your home directory, it makes no
6218 sense to cache it somewhere else under your home directory. Unless you
6219 feel that it's neat to use twice as much space.
6221 To limit the caching, you could set @code{gnus-cacheable-groups} to a
6222 regexp of groups to cache, @samp{^nntp} for instance, or set the
6223 @code{gnus-uncacheable-groups} regexp to @samp{^nnml}, for instance.
6224 Both variables are @code{nil} by default. If a group matches both
6225 variables, the group is not cached.
6227 @findex gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases
6228 @findex gnus-cache-generate-active
6229 @vindex gnus-cache-active-file
6230 The cache stores information on what articles it contains in its active
6231 file (@code{gnus-cache-active-file}). If this file (or any other parts
6232 of the cache) becomes all messed up for some reason or other, Gnus
6233 offers two functions that will try to set things right. @kbd{M-x
6234 gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases} will (re)build all the @sc{nov}
6235 files, and @kbd{gnus-cache-generate-active} will (re)generate the active
6239 @node Persistent Articles
6240 @section Persistent Articles
6241 @cindex persistent articles
6243 Closely related to article caching, we have @dfn{persistent articles}.
6244 In fact, it's just a different way of looking at caching, and much more
6245 useful in my opinion.
6247 Say you're reading a newsgroup, and you happen on to some valuable gem
6248 that you want to keep and treasure forever. You'd normally just save it
6249 (using one of the many saving commands) in some file. The problem with
6250 that is that it's just, well, yucky. Ideally you'd prefer just having
6251 the article remain in the group where you found it forever; untouched by
6252 the expiry going on at the news server.
6254 This is what a @dfn{persistent article} is---an article that just won't
6255 be deleted. It's implemented using the normal cache functions, but
6256 you use two explicit commands for managing persistent articles:
6262 @findex gnus-cache-enter-article
6263 Make the current article persistent (@code{gnus-cache-enter-article}).
6266 @kindex M-* (Summary)
6267 @findex gnus-cache-remove-article
6268 Remove the current article from the persistent articles
6269 (@code{gnus-cache-remove-article}). This will normally delete the
6273 Both these commands understand the process/prefix convention.
6275 To avoid having all ticked articles (and stuff) entered into the cache,
6276 you should set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{passive} if you're just
6277 interested in persistent articles:
6280 (setq gnus-use-cache 'passive)
6284 @node Article Backlog
6285 @section Article Backlog
6287 @cindex article backlog
6289 If you have a slow connection, but the idea of using caching seems
6290 unappealing to you (and it is, really), you can help the situation some
6291 by switching on the @dfn{backlog}. This is where Gnus will buffer
6292 already read articles so that it doesn't have to re-fetch articles
6293 you've already read. This only helps if you are in the habit of
6294 re-selecting articles you've recently read, of course. If you never do
6295 that, turning the backlog on will slow Gnus down a little bit, and
6296 increase memory usage some.
6298 @vindex gnus-keep-backlog
6299 If you set @code{gnus-keep-backlog} to a number @var{n}, Gnus will store
6300 at most @var{n} old articles in a buffer for later re-fetching. If this
6301 variable is non-@code{nil} and is not a number, Gnus will store
6302 @emph{all} read articles, which means that your Emacs will grow without
6303 bound before exploding and taking your machine down with you. I put
6304 that in there just to keep y'all on your toes.
6306 This variable is @code{nil} by default.
6309 @node Saving Articles
6310 @section Saving Articles
6311 @cindex saving articles
6313 Gnus can save articles in a number of ways. Below is the documentation
6314 for saving articles in a fairly straight-forward fashion (i.e., little
6315 processing of the article is done before it is saved). For a different
6316 approach (uudecoding, unsharing) you should use @code{gnus-uu}
6317 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
6319 @vindex gnus-save-all-headers
6320 If @code{gnus-save-all-headers} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will not delete
6321 unwanted headers before saving the article.
6323 @vindex gnus-saved-headers
6324 If the preceding variable is @code{nil}, all headers that match the
6325 @code{gnus-saved-headers} regexp will be kept, while the rest will be
6326 deleted before saving.
6332 @kindex O o (Summary)
6334 @findex gnus-summary-save-article
6335 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article}
6336 Save the current article using the default article saver
6337 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article}).
6340 @kindex O m (Summary)
6341 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-mail
6342 Save the current article in mail format
6343 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-mail}).
6346 @kindex O r (Summary)
6347 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-rmail
6348 Save the current article in rmail format
6349 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-rmail}).
6352 @kindex O f (Summary)
6353 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-file
6354 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article-file}
6355 Save the current article in plain file format
6356 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-file}).
6359 @kindex O F (Summary)
6360 @findex gnus-summary-write-article-file
6361 Write the current article in plain file format, overwriting any previous
6362 file contents (@code{gnus-summary-write-article-file}).
6365 @kindex O b (Summary)
6366 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-body-file
6367 Save the current article body in plain file format
6368 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-body-file}).
6371 @kindex O h (Summary)
6372 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-folder
6373 Save the current article in mh folder format
6374 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-folder}).
6377 @kindex O v (Summary)
6378 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-vm
6379 Save the current article in a VM folder
6380 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-vm}).
6383 @kindex O p (Summary)
6384 @findex gnus-summary-pipe-output
6385 Save the current article in a pipe. Uhm, like, what I mean is---Pipe
6386 the current article to a process (@code{gnus-summary-pipe-output}).
6389 @vindex gnus-prompt-before-saving
6390 All these commands use the process/prefix convention
6391 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). If you save bunches of articles using these
6392 functions, you might get tired of being prompted for files to save each
6393 and every article in. The prompting action is controlled by
6394 the @code{gnus-prompt-before-saving} variable, which is @code{always} by
6395 default, giving you that excessive prompting action you know and
6396 loathe. If you set this variable to @code{t} instead, you'll be prompted
6397 just once for each series of articles you save. If you like to really
6398 have Gnus do all your thinking for you, you can even set this variable
6399 to @code{nil}, which means that you will never be prompted for files to
6400 save articles in. Gnus will simply save all the articles in the default
6404 @vindex gnus-default-article-saver
6405 You can customize the @code{gnus-default-article-saver} variable to make
6406 Gnus do what you want it to. You can use any of the six ready-made
6407 functions below, or you can create your own.
6411 @item gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
6412 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
6413 @vindex gnus-rmail-save-name
6414 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
6415 This is the default format, @dfn{babyl}. Uses the function in the
6416 @code{gnus-rmail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
6417 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
6419 @item gnus-summary-save-in-mail
6420 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-mail
6421 @vindex gnus-mail-save-name
6422 Save in a Unix mail (mbox) file. Uses the function in the
6423 @code{gnus-mail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
6424 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
6426 @item gnus-summary-save-in-file
6427 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-file
6428 @vindex gnus-file-save-name
6429 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
6430 Append the article straight to an ordinary file. Uses the function in
6431 the @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
6432 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
6434 @item gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
6435 @findex gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
6436 Append the article body to an ordinary file. Uses the function in the
6437 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
6438 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
6440 @item gnus-summary-save-in-folder
6441 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-folder
6442 @findex gnus-folder-save-name
6443 @findex gnus-Folder-save-name
6444 @vindex gnus-folder-save-name
6447 Save the article to an MH folder using @code{rcvstore} from the MH
6448 library. Uses the function in the @code{gnus-folder-save-name} variable
6449 to get a file name to save the article in. The default is
6450 @code{gnus-folder-save-name}, but you can also use
6451 @code{gnus-Folder-save-name}, which creates capitalized names.
6453 @item gnus-summary-save-in-vm
6454 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-vm
6455 Save the article in a VM folder. You have to have the VM mail
6456 reader to use this setting.
6459 @vindex gnus-article-save-directory
6460 All of these functions, except for the last one, will save the article
6461 in the @code{gnus-article-save-directory}, which is initialized from the
6462 @code{SAVEDIR} environment variable. This is @file{~/News/} by
6465 As you can see above, the functions use different functions to find a
6466 suitable name of a file to save the article in. Below is a list of
6467 available functions that generate names:
6471 @item gnus-Numeric-save-name
6472 @findex gnus-Numeric-save-name
6473 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
6475 @item gnus-numeric-save-name
6476 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
6477 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
6479 @item gnus-Plain-save-name
6480 @findex gnus-Plain-save-name
6481 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin}.
6483 @item gnus-plain-save-name
6484 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
6485 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.
6488 @vindex gnus-split-methods
6489 You can have Gnus suggest where to save articles by plonking a regexp into
6490 the @code{gnus-split-methods} alist. For instance, if you would like to
6491 save articles related to Gnus in the file @file{gnus-stuff}, and articles
6492 related to VM in @code{vm-stuff}, you could set this variable to something
6496 (("^Subject:.*gnus\\|^Newsgroups:.*gnus" "gnus-stuff")
6497 ("^Subject:.*vm\\|^Xref:.*vm" "vm-stuff")
6498 (my-choosing-function "../other-dir/my-stuff")
6499 ((equal gnus-newsgroup-name "mail.misc") "mail-stuff"))
6502 We see that this is a list where each element is a list that has two
6503 elements---the @dfn{match} and the @dfn{file}. The match can either be
6504 a string (in which case it is used as a regexp to match on the article
6505 head); it can be a symbol (which will be called as a function with the
6506 group name as a parameter); or it can be a list (which will be
6507 @code{eval}ed). If any of these actions have a non-@code{nil} result,
6508 the @dfn{file} will be used as a default prompt. In addition, the
6509 result of the operation itself will be used if the function or form
6510 called returns a string or a list of strings.
6512 You basically end up with a list of file names that might be used when
6513 saving the current article. (All ``matches'' will be used.) You will
6514 then be prompted for what you really want to use as a name, with file
6515 name completion over the results from applying this variable.
6517 This variable is @code{((gnus-article-archive-name))} by default, which
6518 means that Gnus will look at the articles it saves for an
6519 @code{Archive-name} line and use that as a suggestion for the file
6522 Here's an example function to clean up file names somewhat. If you have
6523 lots of mail groups called things like
6524 @samp{nnml:mail.whatever}, you may want to chop off the beginning of
6525 these group names before creating the file name to save to. The
6526 following will do just that:
6529 (defun my-save-name (group)
6530 (when (string-match "^nnml:mail." group)
6531 (substring group (match-end 0))))
6533 (setq gnus-split-methods
6534 '((gnus-article-archive-name)
6539 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
6540 Finally, you have the @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable. If it is
6541 @code{nil}, all the preceding functions will replace all periods
6542 (@samp{.}) in the group names with slashes (@samp{/})---which means that
6543 the functions will generate hierarchies of directories instead of having
6544 all the files in the top level directory
6545 (@file{~/News/alt/andrea-dworkin} instead of
6546 @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.) This variable is @code{t} by default
6547 on most systems. However, for historical reasons, this is @code{nil} on
6548 Xenix and usg-unix-v machines by default.
6550 This function also affects kill and score file names. If this variable
6551 is a list, and the list contains the element @code{not-score}, long file
6552 names will not be used for score files, if it contains the element
6553 @code{not-save}, long file names will not be used for saving, and if it
6554 contains the element @code{not-kill}, long file names will not be used
6557 If you'd like to save articles in a hierarchy that looks something like
6561 (setq gnus-use-long-file-name '(not-save)) ; to get a hierarchy
6562 (setq gnus-default-article-saver 'gnus-summary-save-in-file) ; no encoding
6565 Then just save with @kbd{o}. You'd then read this hierarchy with
6566 ephemeral @code{nneething} groups---@kbd{G D} in the group buffer, and
6567 the top level directory as the argument (@file{~/News/}). Then just walk
6568 around to the groups/directories with @code{nneething}.
6571 @node Decoding Articles
6572 @section Decoding Articles
6573 @cindex decoding articles
6575 Sometime users post articles (or series of articles) that have been
6576 encoded in some way or other. Gnus can decode them for you.
6579 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
6580 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
6581 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
6582 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
6583 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
6584 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
6588 @cindex article series
6589 All these functions use the process/prefix convention
6590 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) for finding out what articles to work on, with
6591 the extension that a ``single article'' means ``a single series''. Gnus
6592 can find out by itself what articles belong to a series, decode all the
6593 articles and unpack/view/save the resulting file(s).
6595 Gnus guesses what articles are in the series according to the following
6596 simplish rule: The subjects must be (nearly) identical, except for the
6597 last two numbers of the line. (Spaces are largely ignored, however.)
6599 For example: If you choose a subject called @samp{cat.gif (2/3)}, Gnus
6600 will find all the articles that match the regexp @samp{^cat.gif
6601 ([0-9]+/[0-9]+).*$}.
6603 Subjects that are non-standard, like @samp{cat.gif (2/3) Part 6 of a
6604 series}, will not be properly recognized by any of the automatic viewing
6605 commands, and you have to mark the articles manually with @kbd{#}.
6608 @node Uuencoded Articles
6609 @subsection Uuencoded Articles
6611 @cindex uuencoded articles
6616 @kindex X u (Summary)
6617 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu
6618 @c @icon{gnus-uu-decode-uu}
6619 Uudecodes the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}).
6622 @kindex X U (Summary)
6623 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save
6624 Uudecodes and saves the current series
6625 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
6628 @kindex X v u (Summary)
6629 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-view
6630 Uudecodes and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-view}).
6633 @kindex X v U (Summary)
6634 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view
6635 Uudecodes, views and saves the current series
6636 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view}).
6640 Remember that these all react to the presence of articles marked with
6641 the process mark. If, for instance, you'd like to decode and save an
6642 entire newsgroup, you'd typically do @kbd{M P a}
6643 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-all}) and then @kbd{X U}
6644 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
6646 All this is very much different from how @code{gnus-uu} worked with
6647 @sc{gnus 4.1}, where you had explicit keystrokes for everything under
6648 the sun. This version of @code{gnus-uu} generally assumes that you mark
6649 articles in some way (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}) and then press
6652 @vindex gnus-uu-notify-files
6653 Note: When trying to decode articles that have names matching
6654 @code{gnus-uu-notify-files}, which is hard-coded to
6655 @samp{[Cc][Ii][Nn][Dd][Yy][0-9]+.\\(gif\\|jpg\\)}, @code{gnus-uu} will
6656 automatically post an article on @samp{comp.unix.wizards} saying that
6657 you have just viewed the file in question. This feature can't be turned
6661 @node Shell Archives
6662 @subsection Shell Archives
6664 @cindex shell archives
6665 @cindex shared articles
6667 Shell archives (``shar files'') used to be a popular way to distribute
6668 sources, but it isn't used all that much today. In any case, we have
6669 some commands to deal with these:
6674 @kindex X s (Summary)
6675 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar
6676 Unshars the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar}).
6679 @kindex X S (Summary)
6680 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save
6681 Unshars and saves the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save}).
6684 @kindex X v s (Summary)
6685 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view
6686 Unshars and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view}).
6689 @kindex X v S (Summary)
6690 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view
6691 Unshars, views and saves the current series
6692 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view}).
6696 @node PostScript Files
6697 @subsection PostScript Files
6703 @kindex X p (Summary)
6704 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript
6705 Unpack the current PostScript series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript}).
6708 @kindex X P (Summary)
6709 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save
6710 Unpack and save the current PostScript series
6711 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save}).
6714 @kindex X v p (Summary)
6715 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view
6716 View the current PostScript series
6717 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view}).
6720 @kindex X v P (Summary)
6721 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view
6722 View and save the current PostScript series
6723 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view}).
6728 @subsection Other Files
6732 @kindex X o (Summary)
6733 @findex gnus-uu-decode-save
6734 Save the current series
6735 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-save}).
6738 @kindex X b (Summary)
6739 @findex gnus-uu-decode-binhex
6740 Unbinhex the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-binhex}). This
6741 doesn't really work yet.
6745 @node Decoding Variables
6746 @subsection Decoding Variables
6748 Adjective, not verb.
6751 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
6752 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
6753 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
6757 @node Rule Variables
6758 @subsubsection Rule Variables
6759 @cindex rule variables
6761 Gnus uses @dfn{rule variables} to decide how to view a file. All these
6762 variables are of the form
6765 (list '(regexp1 command2)
6772 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules
6773 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules
6775 This variable is consulted first when viewing files. If you wish to use,
6776 for instance, @code{sox} to convert an @samp{.au} sound file, you could
6779 (setq gnus-uu-user-view-rules
6780 (list '("\\\\.au$" "sox %s -t .aiff > /dev/audio")))
6783 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
6784 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
6785 This variable is consulted if Gnus couldn't make any matches from the
6786 user and default view rules.
6788 @item gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
6789 @vindex gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
6790 This variable can be used to say what commands should be used to unpack
6795 @node Other Decode Variables
6796 @subsubsection Other Decode Variables
6799 @vindex gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
6801 @item gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
6802 All functions in this list will be called right after each file has been
6803 successfully decoded---so that you can move or view files right away,
6804 and don't have to wait for all files to be decoded before you can do
6805 anything. Ready-made functions you can put in this list are:
6809 @item gnus-uu-grab-view
6810 @findex gnus-uu-grab-view
6813 @item gnus-uu-grab-move
6814 @findex gnus-uu-grab-move
6815 Move the file (if you're using a saving function.)
6818 @item gnus-uu-be-dangerous
6819 @vindex gnus-uu-be-dangerous
6820 Specifies what to do if unusual situations arise during decoding. If
6821 @code{nil}, be as conservative as possible. If @code{t}, ignore things
6822 that didn't work, and overwrite existing files. Otherwise, ask each
6825 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
6826 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
6827 Files with name matching this regular expression won't be viewed.
6829 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
6830 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
6831 Files with a @sc{mime} type matching this variable won't be viewed.
6832 Note that Gnus tries to guess what type the file is based on the name.
6833 @code{gnus-uu} is not a @sc{mime} package (yet), so this is slightly
6836 @item gnus-uu-tmp-dir
6837 @vindex gnus-uu-tmp-dir
6838 Where @code{gnus-uu} does its work.
6840 @item gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
6841 @vindex gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
6842 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} won't peek inside archives
6843 looking for files to display.
6845 @item gnus-uu-view-and-save
6846 @vindex gnus-uu-view-and-save
6847 Non-@code{nil} means that the user will always be asked to save a file
6850 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
6851 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
6852 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default viewing
6855 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
6856 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
6857 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default archive
6860 @item gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
6861 @vindex gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
6862 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will strip all carriage returns
6865 @item gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
6866 @vindex gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
6867 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will mark unsuccessfully
6868 decoded articles as unread.
6870 @item gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
6871 @vindex gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
6872 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will @emph{try} to fix
6873 uuencoded files that have had trailing spaces deleted.
6875 @item gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
6876 @vindex gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
6877 Hook run before sending a message to @code{uudecode}.
6879 @item gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
6880 @vindex gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
6882 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the viewing
6883 commands defined by the rule variables and just fudge a @sc{mime}
6884 content type based on the file name. The result will be fed to
6885 @code{metamail} for viewing.
6887 @item gnus-uu-save-in-digest
6888 @vindex gnus-uu-save-in-digest
6889 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu}, when asked to save without
6890 decoding, will save in digests. If this variable is @code{nil},
6891 @code{gnus-uu} will just save everything in a file without any
6892 embellishments. The digesting almost conforms to RFC 1153---no easy way
6893 to specify any meaningful volume and issue numbers were found, so I
6894 simply dropped them.
6899 @node Uuencoding and Posting
6900 @subsubsection Uuencoding and Posting
6904 @item gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
6905 @vindex gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
6906 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ask for a file to encode
6907 before you compose the article. If this variable is @code{t}, you can
6908 either include an encoded file with @kbd{C-c C-i} or have one included
6909 for you when you post the article.
6911 @item gnus-uu-post-length
6912 @vindex gnus-uu-post-length
6913 Maximum length of an article. The encoded file will be split into how
6914 many articles it takes to post the entire file.
6916 @item gnus-uu-post-threaded
6917 @vindex gnus-uu-post-threaded
6918 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will post the encoded file in a
6919 thread. This may not be smart, as no other decoder I have seen is able
6920 to follow threads when collecting uuencoded articles. (Well, I have
6921 seen one package that does that---@code{gnus-uu}, but somehow, I don't
6922 think that counts...) Default is @code{nil}.
6924 @item gnus-uu-post-separate-description
6925 @vindex gnus-uu-post-separate-description
6926 Non-@code{nil} means that the description will be posted in a separate
6927 article. The first article will typically be numbered (0/x). If this
6928 variable is @code{nil}, the description the user enters will be included
6929 at the beginning of the first article, which will be numbered (1/x).
6930 Default is @code{t}.
6936 @subsection Viewing Files
6937 @cindex viewing files
6938 @cindex pseudo-articles
6940 After decoding, if the file is some sort of archive, Gnus will attempt
6941 to unpack the archive and see if any of the files in the archive can be
6942 viewed. For instance, if you have a gzipped tar file @file{pics.tar.gz}
6943 containing the files @file{pic1.jpg} and @file{pic2.gif}, Gnus will
6944 uncompress and de-tar the main file, and then view the two pictures.
6945 This unpacking process is recursive, so if the archive contains archives
6946 of archives, it'll all be unpacked.
6948 Finally, Gnus will normally insert a @dfn{pseudo-article} for each
6949 extracted file into the summary buffer. If you go to these
6950 ``articles'', you will be prompted for a command to run (usually Gnus
6951 will make a suggestion), and then the command will be run.
6953 @vindex gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously
6954 If @code{gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously} is @code{nil}, Emacs will wait
6955 until the viewing is done before proceeding.
6957 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos
6958 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos} is @code{automatic}, Gnus will not insert
6959 the pseudo-articles into the summary buffer, but view them
6960 immediately. If this variable is @code{not-confirm}, the user won't even
6961 be asked for a confirmation before viewing is done.
6963 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos-separately
6964 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos-separately} is non-@code{nil}, one
6965 pseudo-article will be created for each file to be viewed. If
6966 @code{nil}, all files that use the same viewing command will be given as
6967 a list of parameters to that command.
6969 @vindex gnus-insert-pseudo-articles
6970 If @code{gnus-insert-pseudo-articles} is non-@code{nil}, insert
6971 pseudo-articles when decoding. It is @code{t} by default.
6973 So; there you are, reading your @emph{pseudo-articles} in your
6974 @emph{virtual newsgroup} from the @emph{virtual server}; and you think:
6975 Why isn't anything real anymore? How did we get here?
6978 @node Article Treatment
6979 @section Article Treatment
6981 Reading through this huge manual, you may have quite forgotten that the
6982 object of newsreaders is to actually, like, read what people have
6983 written. Reading articles. Unfortunately, people are quite bad at
6984 writing, so there are tons of functions and variables to make reading
6985 these articles easier.
6988 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
6989 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
6990 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
6991 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
6992 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
6993 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
6994 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
6995 * Article Miscellania:: Various other stuff.
6999 @node Article Highlighting
7000 @subsection Article Highlighting
7001 @cindex highlighting
7003 Not only do you want your article buffer to look like fruit salad, but
7004 you want it to look like technicolor fruit salad.
7009 @kindex W H a (Summary)
7010 @findex gnus-article-highlight
7011 @findex gnus-article-maybe-highlight
7012 Do much highlighting of the current article
7013 (@code{gnus-article-highlight}). This function highlights header, cited
7014 text, the signature, and adds buttons to the body and the head.
7017 @kindex W H h (Summary)
7018 @findex gnus-article-highlight-headers
7019 @vindex gnus-header-face-alist
7020 Highlight the headers (@code{gnus-article-highlight-headers}). The
7021 highlighting will be done according to the @code{gnus-header-face-alist}
7022 variable, which is a list where each element has the form
7023 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{name} @var{content})}.
7024 @var{regexp} is a regular expression for matching the
7025 header, @var{name} is the face used for highlighting the header name
7026 (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}) and @var{content} is the face for highlighting
7027 the header value. The first match made will be used. Note that
7028 @var{regexp} shouldn't have @samp{^} prepended---Gnus will add one.
7031 @kindex W H c (Summary)
7032 @findex gnus-article-highlight-citation
7033 Highlight cited text (@code{gnus-article-highlight-citation}).
7035 Some variables to customize the citation highlights:
7038 @vindex gnus-cite-parse-max-size
7040 @item gnus-cite-parse-max-size
7041 If the article size if bigger than this variable (which is 25000 by
7042 default), no citation highlighting will be performed.
7044 @item gnus-cite-max-prefix
7045 @vindex gnus-cite-max-prefix
7046 Maximum possible length for a citation prefix (default 20).
7048 @item gnus-cite-face-list
7049 @vindex gnus-cite-face-list
7050 List of faces used for highlighting citations (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}).
7051 When there are citations from multiple articles in the same message,
7052 Gnus will try to give each citation from each article its own face.
7053 This should make it easier to see who wrote what.
7055 @item gnus-supercite-regexp
7056 @vindex gnus-supercite-regexp
7057 Regexp matching normal Supercite attribution lines.
7059 @item gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
7060 @vindex gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
7061 Regexp matching mangled Supercite attribution lines.
7063 @item gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
7064 @vindex gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
7065 Minimum number of identical prefixes we have to see before we believe
7066 that it's a citation.
7068 @item gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
7069 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
7070 Regexp matching the beginning of an attribution line.
7072 @item gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
7073 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
7074 Regexp matching the end of an attribution line.
7076 @item gnus-cite-attribution-face
7077 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-face
7078 Face used for attribution lines. It is merged with the face for the
7079 cited text belonging to the attribution.
7085 @kindex W H s (Summary)
7086 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
7087 @vindex gnus-signature-face
7088 @findex gnus-article-highlight-signature
7089 Highlight the signature (@code{gnus-article-highlight-signature}).
7090 Everything after @code{gnus-signature-separator} (@pxref{Article
7091 Signature}) in an article will be considered a signature and will be
7092 highlighted with @code{gnus-signature-face}, which is @code{italic} by
7097 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to highlight articles automatically.
7100 @node Article Fontisizing
7101 @subsection Article Fontisizing
7103 @cindex article emphasis
7105 @findex gnus-article-emphasize
7106 @kindex W e (Summary)
7107 People commonly add emphasis to words in news articles by writing things
7108 like @samp{_this_} or @samp{*this*} or @samp{/this/}. Gnus can make
7109 this look nicer by running the article through the @kbd{W e}
7110 (@code{gnus-article-emphasize}) command.
7112 @vindex gnus-emphasis-alist
7113 How the emphasis is computed is controlled by the
7114 @code{gnus-emphasis-alist} variable. This is an alist where the first
7115 element is a regular expression to be matched. The second is a number
7116 that says what regular expression grouping is used to find the entire
7117 emphasized word. The third is a number that says what regexp grouping
7118 should be displayed and highlighted. (The text between these two
7119 groupings will be hidden.) The fourth is the face used for
7123 (setq gnus-article-emphasis
7124 '(("_\\(\\w+\\)_" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-underline)
7125 ("\\*\\(\\w+\\)\\*" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-bold)))
7134 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline
7135 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold
7136 @vindex gnus-emphasis-italic
7137 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold
7138 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-italic
7139 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold-italic
7140 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic
7141 By default, there are seven rules, and they use the following faces:
7142 @code{gnus-emphasis-bold}, @code{gnus-emphasis-italic},
7143 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline}, @code{gnus-emphasis-bold-italic},
7144 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-italic},
7145 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold}, and
7146 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic}.
7148 If you want to change these faces, you can either use @kbd{M-x
7149 customize}, or you can use @code{copy-face}. For instance, if you want
7150 to make @code{gnus-emphasis-italic} use a red face instead, you could
7154 (copy-face 'red 'gnus-emphasis-italic)
7157 @vindex gnus-group-highlight-words-alist
7159 If you want to highlight arbitrary words, you can use the
7160 @code{gnus-group-highlight-words-alist} variable, which uses the same
7161 syntax as @code{gnus-emphasis-alist}. The @code{highlight-words} group
7162 parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) can also be used.
7164 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to fontize articles automatically.
7167 @node Article Hiding
7168 @subsection Article Hiding
7169 @cindex article hiding
7171 Or rather, hiding certain things in each article. There usually is much
7172 too much cruft in most articles.
7177 @kindex W W a (Summary)
7178 @findex gnus-article-hide
7179 Do quite a lot of hiding on the article buffer
7180 (@kbd{gnus-article-hide}). In particular, this function will hide
7181 headers, PGP, cited text and the signature.
7184 @kindex W W h (Summary)
7185 @findex gnus-article-hide-headers
7186 Hide headers (@code{gnus-article-hide-headers}). @xref{Hiding
7190 @kindex W W b (Summary)
7191 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
7192 Hide headers that aren't particularly interesting
7193 (@code{gnus-article-hide-boring-headers}). @xref{Hiding Headers}.
7196 @kindex W W s (Summary)
7197 @findex gnus-article-hide-signature
7198 Hide signature (@code{gnus-article-hide-signature}). @xref{Article
7202 @kindex W W l (Summary)
7203 @findex gnus-article-hide-list-identifiers
7204 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
7205 Strip list identifiers specified in @code{gnus-list-identifiers}. These
7206 are strings some mailing list servers add to the beginning of all
7207 @code{Subject} headers---for example, @samp{[zebra 4711]}. Any leading
7208 @samp{Re: } is skipped before stripping. @code{gnus-list-identifiers}
7209 may not contain @code{\\(..\\)}.
7213 @item gnus-list-identifiers
7214 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
7215 A regular expression that matches list identifiers to be removed from
7216 subject. This can also be a list of regular expressions.
7221 @kindex W W p (Summary)
7222 @findex gnus-article-hide-pgp
7223 @vindex gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook
7224 Hide @sc{pgp} signatures (@code{gnus-article-hide-pgp}). The
7225 @code{gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook} hook will be run after a @sc{pgp}
7226 signature has been hidden. For example, to automatically verify
7227 articles that have signatures in them do:
7229 ;;; Hide pgp cruft if any.
7231 (setq gnus-treat-strip-pgp t)
7233 ;;; After hiding pgp, verify the message;
7234 ;;; only happens if pgp signature is found.
7236 (add-hook 'gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook
7239 (set-buffer gnus-original-article-buffer)
7244 @kindex W W P (Summary)
7245 @findex gnus-article-hide-pem
7246 Hide @sc{pem} (privacy enhanced messages) cruft
7247 (@code{gnus-article-hide-pem}).
7250 @kindex W W B (Summary)
7251 @findex gnus-article-strip-banner
7254 @cindex stripping advertisements
7255 @cindex advertisements
7256 Strip the banner specified by the @code{banner} group parameter
7257 (@code{gnus-article-strip-banner}). This is mainly used to hide those
7258 annoying banners and/or signatures that some mailing lists and moderated
7259 groups adds to all the messages. The way to use this function is to add
7260 the @code{banner} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to the
7261 group you want banners stripped from. The parameter either be a string,
7262 which will be interpreted as a regular expression matching text to be
7263 removed, or the symbol @code{signature}, meaning that the (last)
7264 signature should be removed, or other symbol, meaning that the
7265 corresponding regular expression in @code{gnus-article-banner-alist} is
7269 @kindex W W c (Summary)
7270 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation
7271 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation}). Some variables for
7272 customizing the hiding:
7276 @item gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
7277 @itemx gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
7278 @vindex gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
7279 @vindex gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
7280 Gnus adds buttons to show where the cited text has been hidden, and to
7281 allow toggle hiding the text. The format of the variable is specified
7282 by these format-like variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}). These
7287 Starting point of the hidden text.
7289 Ending point of the hidden text.
7291 Number of characters in the hidden region.
7293 Number of lines of hidden text.
7296 @item gnus-cited-lines-visible
7297 @vindex gnus-cited-lines-visible
7298 The number of lines at the beginning of the cited text to leave
7299 shown. This can also be a cons cell with the number of lines at the top
7300 and bottom of the text, respectively, to remain visible.
7305 @kindex W W C-c (Summary)
7306 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe
7308 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe}) depending on the
7309 following two variables:
7312 @item gnus-cite-hide-percentage
7313 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-percentage
7314 If the cited text is of a bigger percentage than this variable (default
7315 50), hide the cited text.
7317 @item gnus-cite-hide-absolute
7318 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-absolute
7319 The cited text must have at least this length (default 10) before it
7324 @kindex W W C (Summary)
7325 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups
7326 Hide cited text in articles that aren't roots
7327 (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups}). This isn't very
7328 useful as an interactive command, but might be a handy function to stick
7329 have happen automatically (@pxref{Customizing Articles}).
7333 All these ``hiding'' commands are toggles, but if you give a negative
7334 prefix to these commands, they will show what they have previously
7335 hidden. If you give a positive prefix, they will always hide.
7337 Also @pxref{Article Highlighting} for further variables for
7338 citation customization.
7340 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to hide article elements
7344 @node Article Washing
7345 @subsection Article Washing
7347 @cindex article washing
7349 We call this ``article washing'' for a really good reason. Namely, the
7350 @kbd{A} key was taken, so we had to use the @kbd{W} key instead.
7352 @dfn{Washing} is defined by us as ``changing something from something to
7353 something else'', but normally results in something looking better.
7356 @xref{Customizing Articles}, if you want to change how Gnus displays
7357 articles by default.
7362 This is not really washing, it's sort of the opposite of washing. If
7363 you type this, you see the article exactly as it exists on disk or on
7367 @kindex W l (Summary)
7368 @findex gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking
7369 Remove page breaks from the current article
7370 (@code{gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking}). @xref{Misc Article}, for page
7374 @kindex W r (Summary)
7375 @findex gnus-summary-caesar-message
7376 @c @icon{gnus-summary-caesar-message}
7377 Do a Caesar rotate (rot13) on the article buffer
7378 (@code{gnus-summary-caesar-message}).
7379 Unreadable articles that tell you to read them with Caesar rotate or rot13.
7380 (Typically offensive jokes and such.)
7382 It's commonly called ``rot13'' because each letter is rotated 13
7383 positions in the alphabet, e. g. @samp{B} (letter #2) -> @samp{O} (letter
7384 #15). It is sometimes referred to as ``Caesar rotate'' because Caesar
7385 is rumored to have employed this form of, uh, somewhat weak encryption.
7389 @kindex W t (Summary)
7391 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-header
7392 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer
7393 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-header}).
7396 @kindex W v (Summary)
7397 @findex gnus-summary-verbose-header
7398 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer permanently
7399 (@code{gnus-summary-verbose-header}).
7402 @kindex W o (Summary)
7403 @findex gnus-article-treat-overstrike
7404 Treat overstrike (@code{gnus-article-treat-overstrike}).
7407 @kindex W d (Summary)
7408 @findex gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes
7409 @vindex gnus-article-dumbquotes-map
7411 @cindex M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s
7413 Treat M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s according to
7414 @code{gnus-article-dumbquotes-map}
7415 (@code{gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes}). Note that this function guesses
7416 whether a character is a sm*rtq**t* or not, so it should only be used
7419 Sm*rtq**t*s are M****s***'s unilateral extension to the character map in
7420 an attempt to provide more quoting characters. If you see something
7421 like @code{\222} or @code{\264} where you're expecting some kind of
7422 apostrophe or quotation mark, then try this wash.
7425 @kindex W w (Summary)
7426 @findex gnus-article-fill-cited-article
7427 Do word wrap (@code{gnus-article-fill-cited-article}).
7429 You can give the command a numerical prefix to specify the width to use
7433 @kindex W Q (Summary)
7434 @findex gnus-article-fill-long-lines
7435 Fill long lines (@code{gnus-article-fill-long-lines}).
7438 @kindex W C (Summary)
7439 @findex gnus-article-capitalize-sentences
7440 Capitalize the first word in each sentence
7441 (@code{gnus-article-capitalize-sentences}).
7444 @kindex W c (Summary)
7445 @findex gnus-article-remove-cr
7446 Translate CRLF pairs (i. e., @samp{^M}s on the end of the lines) into LF
7447 (this takes care of DOS line endings), and then translate any remaining
7448 CRs into LF (this takes care of Mac line endings)
7449 (@code{gnus-article-remove-cr}).
7452 @kindex W q (Summary)
7453 @findex gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable
7454 Treat quoted-printable (@code{gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable}).
7455 Quoted-Printable is one common @sc{mime} encoding employed when sending
7456 non-ASCII (i. e., 8-bit) articles. It typically makes strings like
7457 @samp{déjà vu} look like @samp{d=E9j=E0 vu}, which doesn't look very
7458 readable to me. Note that the this is usually done automatically by
7459 Gnus if the message in question has a @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding}
7460 header that says that this encoding has been done.
7463 @kindex W 6 (Summary)
7464 @findex gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable
7465 Treat base64 (@code{gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable}).
7466 Base64 is one common @sc{mime} encoding employed when sending non-ASCII
7467 (i. e., 8-bit) articles. Note that the this is usually done
7468 automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
7469 @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding} header that says that this encoding has
7473 @kindex W Z (Summary)
7474 @findex gnus-article-decode-HZ
7475 Treat HZ or HZP (@code{gnus-article-decode-HZ}). HZ (or HZP) is one
7476 common encoding employed when sending Chinese articles. It typically
7477 makes strings look like @samp{~@{<:Ky2;S@{#,NpJ)l6HK!#~@}}.
7480 @kindex W h (Summary)
7481 @findex gnus-article-wash-html
7482 Treat HTML (@code{gnus-article-wash-html}).
7483 Note that the this is usually done automatically by Gnus if the message
7484 in question has a @code{Content-Type} header that says that this type
7488 @kindex W f (Summary)
7490 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
7491 @findex gnus-article-x-face-command
7492 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-command
7493 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly
7500 Look for and display any X-Face headers
7501 (@code{gnus-article-display-x-face}). The command executed by this
7502 function is given by the @code{gnus-article-x-face-command} variable.
7503 If this variable is a string, this string will be executed in a
7504 sub-shell. If it is a function, this function will be called with the
7505 face as the argument. If the @code{gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly} (which
7506 is a regexp) matches the @code{From} header, the face will not be shown.
7507 The default action under Emacs is to fork off the @code{display}
7508 program@footnote{@code{display} is from the ImageMagick package. For the
7509 @code{uncompface} and @code{icontopbm} programs look for a package
7510 like `compface' or `faces-xface' on a GNU/Linux system.}
7511 to view the face. Under XEmacs or Emacs 21+ with suitable image
7512 support, the default action is to display the face before the
7513 @code{From} header. (It's nicer if XEmacs has been compiled with X-Face
7514 support---that will make display somewhat faster. If there's no native
7515 X-Face support, Gnus will try to convert the @code{X-Face} header using
7516 external programs from the @code{pbmplus} package and
7517 friends.@footnote{On a GNU/Linux system look for packages with names
7518 like @code{netpbm} or @code{libgr-progs}.}) If you
7519 want to have this function in the display hook, it should probably come
7523 @kindex W b (Summary)
7524 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons
7525 Add clickable buttons to the article (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons}).
7526 @xref{Article Buttons}.
7529 @kindex W B (Summary)
7530 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head
7531 Add clickable buttons to the article headers
7532 (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head}).
7535 @kindex W W H (Summary)
7536 @findex gnus-article-strip-headers-from-body
7537 Strip headers like the @code{X-No-Archive} header from the beginning of
7538 article bodies (@code{gnus-article-strip-headers-from-body}).
7541 @kindex W E l (Summary)
7542 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines
7543 Remove all blank lines from the beginning of the article
7544 (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines}).
7547 @kindex W E m (Summary)
7548 @findex gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines
7549 Replace all blank lines with empty lines and then all multiple empty
7550 lines with a single empty line.
7551 (@code{gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines}).
7554 @kindex W E t (Summary)
7555 @findex gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines
7556 Remove all blank lines at the end of the article
7557 (@code{gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines}).
7560 @kindex W E a (Summary)
7561 @findex gnus-article-strip-blank-lines
7562 Do all the three commands above
7563 (@code{gnus-article-strip-blank-lines}).
7566 @kindex W E A (Summary)
7567 @findex gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines
7568 Remove all blank lines
7569 (@code{gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines}).
7572 @kindex W E s (Summary)
7573 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-space
7574 Remove all white space from the beginning of all lines of the article
7575 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-space}).
7578 @kindex W E e (Summary)
7579 @findex gnus-article-strip-trailing-space
7580 Remove all white space from the end of all lines of the article
7581 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-trailing-space}).
7585 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to wash articles automatically.
7588 @node Article Buttons
7589 @subsection Article Buttons
7592 People often include references to other stuff in articles, and it would
7593 be nice if Gnus could just fetch whatever it is that people talk about
7594 with the minimum of fuzz when you hit @kbd{RET} or use the middle mouse
7595 button on these references.
7597 Gnus adds @dfn{buttons} to certain standard references by default:
7598 Well-formed URLs, mail addresses and Message-IDs. This is controlled by
7599 two variables, one that handles article bodies and one that handles
7604 @item gnus-button-alist
7605 @vindex gnus-button-alist
7606 This is an alist where each entry has this form:
7609 (REGEXP BUTTON-PAR USE-P FUNCTION DATA-PAR)
7615 All text that match this regular expression will be considered an
7616 external reference. Here's a typical regexp that matches embedded URLs:
7617 @samp{<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>}.
7620 Gnus has to know which parts of the matches is to be highlighted. This
7621 is a number that says what sub-expression of the regexp is to be
7622 highlighted. If you want it all highlighted, you use 0 here.
7625 This form will be @code{eval}ed, and if the result is non-@code{nil},
7626 this is considered a match. This is useful if you want extra sifting to
7627 avoid false matches.
7630 This function will be called when you click on this button.
7633 As with @var{button-par}, this is a sub-expression number, but this one
7634 says which part of the match is to be sent as data to @var{function}.
7638 So the full entry for buttonizing URLs is then
7641 ("<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>" 0 t gnus-button-url 1)
7644 @item gnus-header-button-alist
7645 @vindex gnus-header-button-alist
7646 This is just like the other alist, except that it is applied to the
7647 article head only, and that each entry has an additional element that is
7648 used to say what headers to apply the buttonize coding to:
7651 (HEADER REGEXP BUTTON-PAR USE-P FUNCTION DATA-PAR)
7654 @var{header} is a regular expression.
7656 @item gnus-button-url-regexp
7657 @vindex gnus-button-url-regexp
7658 A regular expression that matches embedded URLs. It is used in the
7659 default values of the variables above.
7661 @item gnus-article-button-face
7662 @vindex gnus-article-button-face
7663 Face used on buttons.
7665 @item gnus-article-mouse-face
7666 @vindex gnus-article-mouse-face
7667 Face used when the mouse cursor is over a button.
7671 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to buttonize articles automatically.
7675 @subsection Article Date
7677 The date is most likely generated in some obscure timezone you've never
7678 heard of, so it's quite nice to be able to find out what the time was
7679 when the article was sent.
7684 @kindex W T u (Summary)
7685 @findex gnus-article-date-ut
7686 Display the date in UT (aka. GMT, aka ZULU)
7687 (@code{gnus-article-date-ut}).
7690 @kindex W T i (Summary)
7691 @findex gnus-article-date-iso8601
7693 Display the date in international format, aka. ISO 8601
7694 (@code{gnus-article-date-iso8601}).
7697 @kindex W T l (Summary)
7698 @findex gnus-article-date-local
7699 Display the date in the local timezone (@code{gnus-article-date-local}).
7702 @kindex W T p (Summary)
7703 @findex gnus-article-date-english
7704 Display the date in a format that's easily pronounceable in English
7705 (@code{gnus-article-date-english}).
7708 @kindex W T s (Summary)
7709 @vindex gnus-article-time-format
7710 @findex gnus-article-date-user
7711 @findex format-time-string
7712 Display the date using a user-defined format
7713 (@code{gnus-article-date-user}). The format is specified by the
7714 @code{gnus-article-time-format} variable, and is a string that's passed
7715 to @code{format-time-string}. See the documentation of that variable
7716 for a list of possible format specs.
7719 @kindex W T e (Summary)
7720 @findex gnus-article-date-lapsed
7721 @findex gnus-start-date-timer
7722 @findex gnus-stop-date-timer
7723 Say how much time has elapsed between the article was posted and now
7724 (@code{gnus-article-date-lapsed}). It looks something like:
7727 X-Sent: 9 years, 6 weeks, 4 days, 9 hours, 3 minutes, 28 seconds ago
7730 The value of @code{gnus-article-date-lapsed-new-header} determines
7731 whether this header will just be added below the old Date one, or will
7734 An advantage of using Gnus to read mail is that it converts simple bugs
7735 into wonderful absurdities.
7737 If you want to have this line updated continually, you can put
7740 (gnus-start-date-timer)
7743 in your @file{.gnus.el} file, or you can run it off of some hook. If
7744 you want to stop the timer, you can use the @code{gnus-stop-date-timer}
7748 @kindex W T o (Summary)
7749 @findex gnus-article-date-original
7750 Display the original date (@code{gnus-article-date-original}). This can
7751 be useful if you normally use some other conversion function and are
7752 worried that it might be doing something totally wrong. Say, claiming
7753 that the article was posted in 1854. Although something like that is
7754 @emph{totally} impossible. Don't you trust me? *titter*
7758 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to display the date in your
7759 preferred format automatically.
7762 @node Article Signature
7763 @subsection Article Signature
7765 @cindex article signature
7767 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
7768 Each article is divided into two parts---the head and the body. The
7769 body can be divided into a signature part and a text part. The variable
7770 that says what is to be considered a signature is
7771 @code{gnus-signature-separator}. This is normally the standard
7772 @samp{^-- $} as mandated by son-of-RFC 1036. However, many people use
7773 non-standard signature separators, so this variable can also be a list
7774 of regular expressions to be tested, one by one. (Searches are done
7775 from the end of the body towards the beginning.) One likely value is:
7778 (setq gnus-signature-separator
7779 '("^-- $" ; The standard
7780 "^-- *$" ; A common mangling
7781 "^-------*$" ; Many people just use a looong
7782 ; line of dashes. Shame!
7783 "^ *--------*$" ; Double-shame!
7784 "^________*$" ; Underscores are also popular
7785 "^========*$")) ; Pervert!
7788 The more permissive you are, the more likely it is that you'll get false
7791 @vindex gnus-signature-limit
7792 @code{gnus-signature-limit} provides a limit to what is considered a
7793 signature when displaying articles.
7797 If it is an integer, no signature may be longer (in characters) than
7800 If it is a floating point number, no signature may be longer (in lines)
7803 If it is a function, the function will be called without any parameters,
7804 and if it returns @code{nil}, there is no signature in the buffer.
7806 If it is a string, it will be used as a regexp. If it matches, the text
7807 in question is not a signature.
7810 This variable can also be a list where the elements may be of the types
7811 listed above. Here's an example:
7814 (setq gnus-signature-limit
7815 '(200.0 "^---*Forwarded article"))
7818 This means that if there are more than 200 lines after the signature
7819 separator, or the text after the signature separator is matched by
7820 the regular expression @samp{^---*Forwarded article}, then it isn't a
7821 signature after all.
7824 @node Article Miscellania
7825 @subsection Article Miscellania
7829 @kindex A t (Summary)
7830 @findex gnus-article-babel
7831 Translate the article from one language to another
7832 (@code{gnus-article-babel}).
7838 @section @sc{mime} Commands
7839 @cindex MIME decoding
7841 @cindex viewing attachments
7843 The following commands all understand the numerical prefix. For
7844 instance, @kbd{3 b} means ``view the third @sc{mime} part''.
7850 @kindex K v (Summary)
7851 View the @sc{mime} part.
7854 @kindex K o (Summary)
7855 Save the @sc{mime} part.
7858 @kindex K c (Summary)
7859 Copy the @sc{mime} part.
7862 @kindex K e (Summary)
7863 View the @sc{mime} part externally.
7866 @kindex K i (Summary)
7867 View the @sc{mime} part internally.
7870 @kindex K | (Summary)
7871 Pipe the @sc{mime} part to an external command.
7874 The rest of these @sc{mime} commands do not use the numerical prefix in
7879 @kindex K b (Summary)
7880 Make all the @sc{mime} parts have buttons in front of them. This is
7881 mostly useful if you wish to save (or perform other actions) on inlined
7885 @kindex K m (Summary)
7886 @findex gnus-summary-repair-multipart
7887 Some multipart messages are transmitted with missing or faulty headers.
7888 This command will attempt to ``repair'' these messages so that they can
7889 be viewed in a more pleasant manner
7890 (@code{gnus-summary-repair-multipart}).
7893 @kindex X m (Summary)
7894 @findex gnus-summary-save-parts
7895 Save all parts matching a @sc{mime} type to a directory
7896 (@code{gnus-summary-save-parts}). Understands the process/prefix
7897 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
7900 @kindex M-t (Summary)
7901 @findex gnus-summary-display-buttonized
7902 Toggle the buttonized display of the article buffer
7903 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-display-buttonized}).
7906 @kindex W M w (Summary)
7907 Decode RFC 2047-encoded words in the article headers
7908 (@code{gnus-article-decode-mime-words}).
7911 @kindex W M c (Summary)
7912 Decode encoded article bodies as well as charsets
7913 (@code{gnus-article-decode-charset}).
7915 This command looks in the @code{Content-Type} header to determine the
7916 charset. If there is no such header in the article, you can give it a
7917 prefix, which will prompt for the charset to decode as. In regional
7918 groups where people post using some common encoding (but do not include
7919 MIME headers), you can set the @code{charset} group/topic parameter to
7920 the required charset (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
7923 @kindex W M v (Summary)
7924 View all the @sc{mime} parts in the current article
7925 (@code{gnus-mime-view-all-parts}).
7932 @item gnus-ignored-mime-types
7933 @vindex gnus-ignored-mime-types
7934 This is a list of regexps. @sc{mime} types that match a regexp from
7935 this list will be completely ignored by Gnus. The default value is
7938 To have all Vcards be ignored, you'd say something like this:
7941 (setq gnus-ignored-mime-types
7945 @item gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
7946 @vindex gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
7947 This is a list of regexps. @sc{mime} types that match a regexp from
7948 this list won't have @sc{mime} buttons inserted unless they aren't
7949 displayed. The default value is @code{(".*/.*")}.
7951 @item gnus-article-mime-part-function
7952 @vindex gnus-article-mime-part-function
7953 For each @sc{mime} part, this function will be called with the @sc{mime}
7954 handle as the parameter. The function is meant to be used to allow
7955 users to gather information from the article (e. g., add Vcard info to
7956 the bbdb database) or to do actions based on parts (e. g., automatically
7957 save all jpegs into some directory).
7959 Here's an example function the does the latter:
7962 (defun my-save-all-jpeg-parts (handle)
7963 (when (equal (car (mm-handle-type handle)) "image/jpeg")
7965 (insert (mm-get-part handle))
7966 (write-region (point-min) (point-max)
7967 (read-file-name "Save jpeg to: ")))))
7968 (setq gnus-article-mime-part-function
7969 'my-save-all-jpeg-parts)
7972 @vindex gnus-mime-multipart-functions
7973 @item gnus-mime-multipart-functions
7974 Alist of @sc{mime} multipart types and functions to handle them.
7983 People use different charsets, and we have @sc{mime} to let us know what
7984 charsets they use. Or rather, we wish we had. Many people use
7985 newsreaders and mailers that do not understand or use @sc{mime}, and
7986 just send out messages without saying what character sets they use. To
7987 help a bit with this, some local news hierarchies have policies that say
7988 what character set is the default. For instance, the @samp{fj}
7989 hierarchy uses @code{iso-2022-jp-2}.
7991 @vindex gnus-group-charset-alist
7992 This knowledge is encoded in the @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}
7993 variable, which is an alist of regexps (to match group names) and
7994 default charsets to be used when reading these groups.
7996 In addition, some people do use soi-disant @sc{mime}-aware agents that
7997 aren't. These blithely mark messages as being in @code{iso-8859-1} even
7998 if they really are in @code{koi-8}. To help here, the
7999 @code{gnus-newsgroup-ignored-charsets} variable can be used. The
8000 charsets that are listed here will be ignored. The variable can be set
8001 on a group-by-group basis using the group parameters (@pxref{Group
8002 Parameters}). The default value is @code{(unknown-8bit)}, which is
8003 something some agents insist on having in there.
8005 @vindex gnus-group-posting-charset-alist
8006 When posting, @code{gnus-group-posting-charset-alist} is used to
8007 determine which charsets should not be encoded using the @sc{mime}
8008 encodings. For instance, some hierarchies discourage using
8009 quoted-printable header encoding.
8011 This variable is an alist of regexps and permitted unencoded charsets
8012 for posting. Each element of the alist has the form @code{(}@var{test
8013 header body-list}@code{)}, where:
8017 is either a regular expression matching the newsgroup header or a
8020 is the charset which may be left unencoded in the header (@code{nil}
8021 means encode all charsets),
8023 is a list of charsets which may be encoded using 8bit content-transfer
8024 encoding in the body, or one of the special values @code{nil} (always
8025 encode using quoted-printable) or @code{t} (always use 8bit).
8032 @cindex coding system aliases
8033 @cindex preferred charset
8035 Other charset tricks that may be useful, although not Gnus-specific:
8037 If there are several @sc{mime} charsets that encode the same Emacs
8038 charset, you can choose what charset to use by saying the following:
8041 (put-charset-property 'cyrillic-iso8859-5
8042 'preferred-coding-system 'koi8-r)
8045 This means that Russian will be encoded using @code{koi8-r} instead of
8046 the default @code{iso-8859-5} @sc{mime} charset.
8048 If you want to read messages in @code{koi8-u}, you can cheat and say
8051 (define-coding-system-alias 'koi8-u 'koi8-r)
8054 This will almost do the right thing.
8056 And finally, to read charsets like @code{windows-1251}, you can say
8060 (codepage-setup 1251)
8061 (define-coding-system-alias 'windows-1251 'cp1251)
8065 @node Article Commands
8066 @section Article Commands
8073 @kindex A P (Summary)
8074 @vindex gnus-ps-print-hook
8075 @findex gnus-summary-print-article
8076 Generate and print a PostScript image of the article buffer
8077 (@code{gnus-summary-print-article}). @code{gnus-ps-print-hook} will be
8078 run just before printing the buffer.
8083 @node Summary Sorting
8084 @section Summary Sorting
8085 @cindex summary sorting
8087 You can have the summary buffer sorted in various ways, even though I
8088 can't really see why you'd want that.
8093 @kindex C-c C-s C-n (Summary)
8094 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-number
8095 Sort by article number (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-number}).
8098 @kindex C-c C-s C-a (Summary)
8099 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-author
8100 Sort by author (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-author}).
8103 @kindex C-c C-s C-s (Summary)
8104 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-subject
8105 Sort by subject (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-subject}).
8108 @kindex C-c C-s C-d (Summary)
8109 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-date
8110 Sort by date (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-date}).
8113 @kindex C-c C-s C-l (Summary)
8114 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-lines
8115 Sort by lines (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-lines}).
8118 @kindex C-c C-s C-c (Summary)
8119 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-chars
8120 Sort by article length (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-chars}).
8123 @kindex C-c C-s C-i (Summary)
8124 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-score
8125 Sort by score (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-score}).
8128 These functions will work both when you use threading and when you don't
8129 use threading. In the latter case, all summary lines will be sorted,
8130 line by line. In the former case, sorting will be done on a
8131 root-by-root basis, which might not be what you were looking for. To
8132 toggle whether to use threading, type @kbd{T T} (@pxref{Thread
8136 @node Finding the Parent
8137 @section Finding the Parent
8138 @cindex parent articles
8139 @cindex referring articles
8144 @findex gnus-summary-refer-parent-article
8145 If you'd like to read the parent of the current article, and it is not
8146 displayed in the summary buffer, you might still be able to. That is,
8147 if the current group is fetched by @sc{nntp}, the parent hasn't expired
8148 and the @code{References} in the current article are not mangled, you
8149 can just press @kbd{^} or @kbd{A r}
8150 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-parent-article}). If everything goes well,
8151 you'll get the parent. If the parent is already displayed in the
8152 summary buffer, point will just move to this article.
8154 If given a positive numerical prefix, fetch that many articles back into
8155 the ancestry. If given a negative numerical prefix, fetch just that
8156 ancestor. So if you say @kbd{3 ^}, Gnus will fetch the parent, the
8157 grandparent and the grandgrandparent of the current article. If you say
8158 @kbd{-3 ^}, Gnus will only fetch the grandgrandparent of the current
8162 @findex gnus-summary-refer-references
8163 @kindex A R (Summary)
8164 Fetch all articles mentioned in the @code{References} header of the
8165 article (@code{gnus-summary-refer-references}).
8168 @findex gnus-summary-refer-thread
8169 @kindex A T (Summary)
8170 Display the full thread where the current article appears
8171 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-thread}). This command has to fetch all the
8172 headers in the current group to work, so it usually takes a while. If
8173 you do it often, you may consider setting @code{gnus-fetch-old-headers}
8174 to @code{invisible} (@pxref{Filling In Threads}). This won't have any
8175 visible effects normally, but it'll make this command work a whole lot
8176 faster. Of course, it'll make group entry somewhat slow.
8178 @vindex gnus-refer-thread-limit
8179 The @code{gnus-refer-thread-limit} variable says how many old (i. e.,
8180 articles before the first displayed in the current group) headers to
8181 fetch when doing this command. The default is 200. If @code{t}, all
8182 the available headers will be fetched. This variable can be overridden
8183 by giving the @kbd{A T} command a numerical prefix.
8186 @findex gnus-summary-refer-article
8187 @kindex M-^ (Summary)
8189 @cindex fetching by Message-ID
8190 You can also ask the @sc{nntp} server for an arbitrary article, no
8191 matter what group it belongs to. @kbd{M-^}
8192 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-article}) will ask you for a
8193 @code{Message-ID}, which is one of those long, hard-to-read thingies
8194 that look something like @samp{<38o6up$6f2@@hymir.ifi.uio.no>}. You
8195 have to get it all exactly right. No fuzzy searches, I'm afraid.
8198 The current select method will be used when fetching by
8199 @code{Message-ID} from non-news select method, but you can override this
8200 by giving this command a prefix.
8202 @vindex gnus-refer-article-method
8203 If the group you are reading is located on a backend that does not
8204 support fetching by @code{Message-ID} very well (like @code{nnspool}),
8205 you can set @code{gnus-refer-article-method} to an @sc{nntp} method. It
8206 would, perhaps, be best if the @sc{nntp} server you consult is the one
8207 updating the spool you are reading from, but that's not really
8210 It can also be a list of select methods, as well as the special symbol
8211 @code{current}, which means to use the current select method. If it
8212 is a list, Gnus will try all the methods in the list until it finds a
8215 Here's an example setting that will first try the current method, and
8216 then ask Deja if that fails:
8219 (setq gnus-refer-article-method
8221 (nnweb "refer" (nnweb-type dejanews))))
8224 Most of the mail backends support fetching by @code{Message-ID}, but do
8225 not do a particularly excellent job at it. That is, @code{nnmbox} and
8226 @code{nnbabyl} are able to locate articles from any groups, while
8227 @code{nnml} and @code{nnfolder} are only able to locate articles that
8228 have been posted to the current group. (Anything else would be too time
8229 consuming.) @code{nnmh} does not support this at all.
8232 @node Alternative Approaches
8233 @section Alternative Approaches
8235 Different people like to read news using different methods. This being
8236 Gnus, we offer a small selection of minor modes for the summary buffers.
8239 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
8240 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
8245 @subsection Pick and Read
8246 @cindex pick and read
8248 Some newsreaders (like @code{nn} and, uhm, @code{Netnews} on VM/CMS) use
8249 a two-phased reading interface. The user first marks in a summary
8250 buffer the articles she wants to read. Then she starts reading the
8251 articles with just an article buffer displayed.
8253 @findex gnus-pick-mode
8254 @kindex M-x gnus-pick-mode
8255 Gnus provides a summary buffer minor mode that allows
8256 this---@code{gnus-pick-mode}. This basically means that a few process
8257 mark commands become one-keystroke commands to allow easy marking, and
8258 it provides one additional command for switching to the summary buffer.
8260 Here are the available keystrokes when using pick mode:
8265 @findex gnus-pick-article-or-thread
8266 Pick the article or thread on the current line
8267 (@code{gnus-pick-article-or-thread}). If the variable
8268 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key selects the
8269 entire thread when used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise,
8270 it selects just the article. If given a numerical prefix, go to that
8271 thread or article and pick it. (The line number is normally displayed
8272 at the beginning of the summary pick lines.)
8275 @kindex SPACE (Pick)
8276 @findex gnus-pick-next-page
8277 Scroll the summary buffer up one page (@code{gnus-pick-next-page}). If
8278 at the end of the buffer, start reading the picked articles.
8282 @findex gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread.
8283 Unpick the thread or article
8284 (@code{gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread}). If the variable
8285 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key unpicks the
8286 thread if used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise it unpicks
8287 just the article. You can give this key a numerical prefix to unpick
8288 the thread or article at that line.
8292 @findex gnus-pick-start-reading
8293 @vindex gnus-pick-display-summary
8294 Start reading the picked articles (@code{gnus-pick-start-reading}). If
8295 given a prefix, mark all unpicked articles as read first. If
8296 @code{gnus-pick-display-summary} is non-@code{nil}, the summary buffer
8297 will still be visible when you are reading.
8301 All the normal summary mode commands are still available in the
8302 pick-mode, with the exception of @kbd{u}. However @kbd{!} is available
8303 which is mapped to the same function
8304 @code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}.
8306 If this sounds like a good idea to you, you could say:
8309 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
8312 @vindex gnus-pick-mode-hook
8313 @code{gnus-pick-mode-hook} is run in pick minor mode buffers.
8315 @vindex gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read
8316 If @code{gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read} is non-@code{nil}, mark
8317 all unpicked articles as read. The default is @code{nil}.
8319 @vindex gnus-summary-pick-line-format
8320 The summary line format in pick mode is slightly different from the
8321 standard format. At the beginning of each line the line number is
8322 displayed. The pick mode line format is controlled by the
8323 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting
8324 Variables}). It accepts the same format specs that
8325 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} does (@pxref{Summary Buffer Lines}).
8329 @subsection Binary Groups
8330 @cindex binary groups
8332 @findex gnus-binary-mode
8333 @kindex M-x gnus-binary-mode
8334 If you spend much time in binary groups, you may grow tired of hitting
8335 @kbd{X u}, @kbd{n}, @kbd{RET} all the time. @kbd{M-x gnus-binary-mode}
8336 is a minor mode for summary buffers that makes all ordinary Gnus article
8337 selection functions uudecode series of articles and display the result
8338 instead of just displaying the articles the normal way.
8341 @findex gnus-binary-show-article
8342 The only way, in fact, to see the actual articles is the @kbd{g}
8343 command, when you have turned on this mode
8344 (@code{gnus-binary-show-article}).
8346 @vindex gnus-binary-mode-hook
8347 @code{gnus-binary-mode-hook} is called in binary minor mode buffers.
8351 @section Tree Display
8354 @vindex gnus-use-trees
8355 If you don't like the normal Gnus summary display, you might try setting
8356 @code{gnus-use-trees} to @code{t}. This will create (by default) an
8357 additional @dfn{tree buffer}. You can execute all summary mode commands
8360 There are a few variables to customize the tree display, of course:
8363 @item gnus-tree-mode-hook
8364 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-hook
8365 A hook called in all tree mode buffers.
8367 @item gnus-tree-mode-line-format
8368 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-line-format
8369 A format string for the mode bar in the tree mode buffers (@pxref{Mode
8370 Line Formatting}). The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b %S %Z}. For a list
8371 of valid specs, @pxref{Summary Buffer Mode Line}.
8373 @item gnus-selected-tree-face
8374 @vindex gnus-selected-tree-face
8375 Face used for highlighting the selected article in the tree buffer. The
8376 default is @code{modeline}.
8378 @item gnus-tree-line-format
8379 @vindex gnus-tree-line-format
8380 A format string for the tree nodes. The name is a bit of a misnomer,
8381 though---it doesn't define a line, but just the node. The default value
8382 is @samp{%(%[%3,3n%]%)}, which displays the first three characters of
8383 the name of the poster. It is vital that all nodes are of the same
8384 length, so you @emph{must} use @samp{%4,4n}-like specifiers.
8390 The name of the poster.
8392 The @code{From} header.
8394 The number of the article.
8396 The opening bracket.
8398 The closing bracket.
8403 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
8405 Variables related to the display are:
8408 @item gnus-tree-brackets
8409 @vindex gnus-tree-brackets
8410 This is used for differentiating between ``real'' articles and
8411 ``sparse'' articles. The format is @code{((@var{real-open} . @var{real-close})
8412 (@var{sparse-open} . @var{sparse-close}) (@var{dummy-open} . @var{dummy-close}))}, and the
8413 default is @code{((?[ . ?]) (?( . ?)) (?@{ . ?@}) (?< . ?>))}.
8415 @item gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
8416 @vindex gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
8417 This is a list that contains the characters used for connecting parent
8418 nodes to their children. The default is @code{(?- ?\\ ?|)}.
8422 @item gnus-tree-minimize-window
8423 @vindex gnus-tree-minimize-window
8424 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will try to keep the tree
8425 buffer as small as possible to allow more room for the other Gnus
8426 windows. If this variable is a number, the tree buffer will never be
8427 higher than that number. The default is @code{t}. Note that if you
8428 have several windows displayed side-by-side in a frame and the tree
8429 buffer is one of these, minimizing the tree window will also resize all
8430 other windows displayed next to it.
8432 @item gnus-generate-tree-function
8433 @vindex gnus-generate-tree-function
8434 @findex gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
8435 @findex gnus-generate-vertical-tree
8436 The function that actually generates the thread tree. Two predefined
8437 functions are available: @code{gnus-generate-horizontal-tree} and
8438 @code{gnus-generate-vertical-tree} (which is the default).
8442 Here's an example from a horizontal tree buffer:
8445 @{***@}-(***)-[odd]-[Gun]
8455 Here's the same thread displayed in a vertical tree buffer:
8459 |--------------------------\-----\-----\
8460 (***) [Bjo] [Gun] [Gun]
8462 [odd] [Jan] [odd] (***) [Jor]
8464 [Gun] [Eri] [Eri] [odd]
8469 If you're using horizontal trees, it might be nice to display the trees
8470 side-by-side with the summary buffer. You could add something like the
8471 following to your @file{.gnus.el} file:
8474 (setq gnus-use-trees t
8475 gnus-generate-tree-function 'gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
8476 gnus-tree-minimize-window nil)
8477 (gnus-add-configuration
8481 (summary 0.75 point)
8486 @xref{Windows Configuration}.
8489 @node Mail Group Commands
8490 @section Mail Group Commands
8491 @cindex mail group commands
8493 Some commands only make sense in mail groups. If these commands are
8494 invalid in the current group, they will raise a hell and let you know.
8496 All these commands (except the expiry and edit commands) use the
8497 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
8502 @kindex B e (Summary)
8503 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles
8504 Expire all expirable articles in the group
8505 (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles}).
8508 @kindex B M-C-e (Summary)
8509 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles-now
8510 Delete all the expirable articles in the group
8511 (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles-now}). This means that @strong{all}
8512 articles eligible for expiry in the current group will
8513 disappear forever into that big @file{/dev/null} in the sky.
8516 @kindex B DEL (Summary)
8517 @findex gnus-summary-delete-article
8518 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-delete}
8519 Delete the mail article. This is ``delete'' as in ``delete it from your
8520 disk forever and ever, never to return again.'' Use with caution.
8521 (@code{gnus-summary-delete-article}).
8524 @kindex B m (Summary)
8526 @findex gnus-summary-move-article
8527 @vindex gnus-preserve-marks
8528 Move the article from one mail group to another
8529 (@code{gnus-summary-move-article}). Marks will be preserved if
8530 @var{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
8533 @kindex B c (Summary)
8535 @findex gnus-summary-copy-article
8536 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-copy}
8537 Copy the article from one group (mail group or not) to a mail group
8538 (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}). Marks will be preserved if
8539 @var{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
8542 @kindex B B (Summary)
8543 @cindex crosspost mail
8544 @findex gnus-summary-crosspost-article
8545 Crosspost the current article to some other group
8546 (@code{gnus-summary-crosspost-article}). This will create a new copy of
8547 the article in the other group, and the Xref headers of the article will
8548 be properly updated.
8551 @kindex B i (Summary)
8552 @findex gnus-summary-import-article
8553 Import an arbitrary file into the current mail newsgroup
8554 (@code{gnus-summary-import-article}). You will be prompted for a file
8555 name, a @code{From} header and a @code{Subject} header.
8558 @kindex B r (Summary)
8559 @findex gnus-summary-respool-article
8560 Respool the mail article (@code{gnus-summary-respool-article}).
8561 @code{gnus-summary-respool-default-method} will be used as the default
8562 select method when respooling. This variable is @code{nil} by default,
8563 which means that the current group select method will be used instead.
8564 Marks will be preserved if @var{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil}
8565 (which is the default).
8569 @kindex B w (Summary)
8571 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article
8572 @kindex C-c C-c (Article)
8573 Edit the current article (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article}). To finish
8574 editing and make the changes permanent, type @kbd{C-c C-c}
8575 (@kbd{gnus-summary-edit-article-done}). If you give a prefix to the
8576 @kbd{C-c C-c} command, Gnus won't re-highlight the article.
8579 @kindex B q (Summary)
8580 @findex gnus-summary-respool-query
8581 If you want to re-spool an article, you might be curious as to what group
8582 the article will end up in before you do the re-spooling. This command
8583 will tell you (@code{gnus-summary-respool-query}).
8586 @kindex B t (Summary)
8587 @findex gnus-summary-respool-trace
8588 Similarly, this command will display all fancy splitting patterns used
8589 when repooling, if any (@code{gnus-summary-respool-trace}).
8592 @kindex B p (Summary)
8593 @findex gnus-summary-article-posted-p
8594 Some people have a tendency to send you "courtesy" copies when they
8595 follow up to articles you have posted. These usually have a
8596 @code{Newsgroups} header in them, but not always. This command
8597 (@code{gnus-summary-article-posted-p}) will try to fetch the current
8598 article from your news server (or rather, from
8599 @code{gnus-refer-article-method} or @code{gnus-select-method}) and will
8600 report back whether it found the article or not. Even if it says that
8601 it didn't find the article, it may have been posted anyway---mail
8602 propagation is much faster than news propagation, and the news copy may
8603 just not have arrived yet.
8607 @vindex gnus-move-split-methods
8608 @cindex moving articles
8609 If you move (or copy) articles regularly, you might wish to have Gnus
8610 suggest where to put the articles. @code{gnus-move-split-methods} is a
8611 variable that uses the same syntax as @code{gnus-split-methods}
8612 (@pxref{Saving Articles}). You may customize that variable to create
8613 suggestions you find reasonable. (Note that
8614 @code{gnus-move-split-methods} uses group names where
8615 @code{gnus-split-methods} uses file names.)
8618 (setq gnus-move-split-methods
8619 '(("^From:.*Lars Magne" "nnml:junk")
8620 ("^Subject:.*gnus" "nnfolder:important")
8621 (".*" "nnml:misc")))
8625 @node Various Summary Stuff
8626 @section Various Summary Stuff
8629 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
8630 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
8631 * Summary Generation Commands:: (Re)generating the summary buffer.
8632 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
8636 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-hook
8637 @item gnus-summary-mode-hook
8638 This hook is called when creating a summary mode buffer.
8640 @vindex gnus-summary-generate-hook
8641 @item gnus-summary-generate-hook
8642 This is called as the last thing before doing the threading and the
8643 generation of the summary buffer. It's quite convenient for customizing
8644 the threading variables based on what data the newsgroup has. This hook
8645 is called from the summary buffer after most summary buffer variables
8648 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-hook
8649 @item gnus-summary-prepare-hook
8650 It is called after the summary buffer has been generated. You might use
8651 it to, for instance, highlight lines or modify the look of the buffer in
8652 some other ungodly manner. I don't care.
8654 @vindex gnus-summary-prepared-hook
8655 @item gnus-summary-prepared-hook
8656 A hook called as the very last thing after the summary buffer has been
8659 @vindex gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
8660 @item gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
8661 When Gnus discovers two articles that have the same @code{Message-ID},
8662 it has to do something drastic. No articles are allowed to have the
8663 same @code{Message-ID}, but this may happen when reading mail from some
8664 sources. Gnus allows you to customize what happens with this variable.
8665 If it is @code{nil} (which is the default), Gnus will rename the
8666 @code{Message-ID} (for display purposes only) and display the article as
8667 any other article. If this variable is @code{t}, it won't display the
8668 article---it'll be as if it never existed.
8670 @vindex gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
8671 @item gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
8672 This function, which takes two parameters (the group name and the list
8673 of articles to be selected), is called to allow the user to alter the
8674 list of articles to be selected.
8676 For instance, the following function adds the list of cached articles to
8677 the list in one particular group:
8680 (defun my-add-cached-articles (group articles)
8681 (if (string= group "some.group")
8682 (append gnus-newsgroup-cached articles)
8689 @node Summary Group Information
8690 @subsection Summary Group Information
8695 @kindex H f (Summary)
8696 @findex gnus-summary-fetch-faq
8697 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
8698 Try to fetch the FAQ (list of frequently asked questions) for the
8699 current group (@code{gnus-summary-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the
8700 FAQ from @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory
8701 on a remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories.
8702 In that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose
8703 between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs} will probably
8704 be used for fetching the file.
8707 @kindex H d (Summary)
8708 @findex gnus-summary-describe-group
8709 Give a brief description of the current group
8710 (@code{gnus-summary-describe-group}). If given a prefix, force
8711 rereading the description from the server.
8714 @kindex H h (Summary)
8715 @findex gnus-summary-describe-briefly
8716 Give an extremely brief description of the most important summary
8717 keystrokes (@code{gnus-summary-describe-briefly}).
8720 @kindex H i (Summary)
8721 @findex gnus-info-find-node
8722 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
8726 @node Searching for Articles
8727 @subsection Searching for Articles
8732 @kindex M-s (Summary)
8733 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-forward
8734 Search through all subsequent articles for a regexp
8735 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-forward}).
8738 @kindex M-r (Summary)
8739 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-backward
8740 Search through all previous articles for a regexp
8741 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-backward}).
8745 @findex gnus-summary-execute-command
8746 This command will prompt you for a header, a regular expression to match
8747 on this field, and a command to be executed if the match is made
8748 (@code{gnus-summary-execute-command}). If the header is an empty
8749 string, the match is done on the entire article. If given a prefix,
8750 search backward instead.
8752 For instance, @kbd{& RET some.*string #} will put the process mark on
8753 all articles that have heads or bodies that match @samp{some.*string}.
8756 @kindex M-& (Summary)
8757 @findex gnus-summary-universal-argument
8758 Perform any operation on all articles that have been marked with
8759 the process mark (@code{gnus-summary-universal-argument}).
8762 @node Summary Generation Commands
8763 @subsection Summary Generation Commands
8768 @kindex Y g (Summary)
8769 @findex gnus-summary-prepare
8770 Regenerate the current summary buffer (@code{gnus-summary-prepare}).
8773 @kindex Y c (Summary)
8774 @findex gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles
8775 Pull all cached articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
8776 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles}).
8781 @node Really Various Summary Commands
8782 @subsection Really Various Summary Commands
8788 @kindex C-d (Summary)
8789 @kindex A D (Summary)
8790 @findex gnus-summary-enter-digest-group
8791 If the current article is a collection of other articles (for instance,
8792 a digest), you might use this command to enter a group based on the that
8793 article (@code{gnus-summary-enter-digest-group}). Gnus will try to
8794 guess what article type is currently displayed unless you give a prefix
8795 to this command, which forces a ``digest'' interpretation. Basically,
8796 whenever you see a message that is a collection of other messages of
8797 some format, you @kbd{C-d} and read these messages in a more convenient
8801 @kindex M-C-d (Summary)
8802 @findex gnus-summary-read-document
8803 This command is very similar to the one above, but lets you gather
8804 several documents into one biiig group
8805 (@code{gnus-summary-read-document}). It does this by opening several
8806 @code{nndoc} groups for each document, and then opening an
8807 @code{nnvirtual} group on top of these @code{nndoc} groups. This
8808 command understands the process/prefix convention
8809 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
8812 @kindex C-t (Summary)
8813 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-truncation
8814 Toggle truncation of summary lines
8815 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-truncation}). This will probably confuse the
8816 line centering function in the summary buffer, so it's not a good idea
8817 to have truncation switched off while reading articles.
8821 @findex gnus-summary-expand-window
8822 Expand the summary buffer window (@code{gnus-summary-expand-window}).
8823 If given a prefix, force an @code{article} window configuration.
8826 @kindex M-C-e (Summary)
8827 @findex gnus-summary-edit-parameters
8828 Edit the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
8829 group (@code{gnus-summary-edit-parameters}).
8832 @kindex M-C-a (Summary)
8833 @findex gnus-summary-customize-parameters
8834 Customize the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
8835 group (@code{gnus-summary-customize-parameters}).
8840 @node Exiting the Summary Buffer
8841 @section Exiting the Summary Buffer
8842 @cindex summary exit
8843 @cindex exiting groups
8845 Exiting from the summary buffer will normally update all info on the
8846 group and return you to the group buffer.
8852 @kindex Z Z (Summary)
8854 @findex gnus-summary-exit
8855 @vindex gnus-summary-exit-hook
8856 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook
8857 @c @icon{gnus-summary-exit}
8858 Exit the current group and update all information on the group
8859 (@code{gnus-summary-exit}). @code{gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook} is
8860 called before doing much of the exiting, which calls
8861 @code{gnus-summary-expire-articles} by default.
8862 @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} is called after finishing the exit
8863 process. @code{gnus-group-no-more-groups-hook} is run when returning to
8864 group mode having no more (unread) groups.
8868 @kindex Z E (Summary)
8870 @findex gnus-summary-exit-no-update
8871 Exit the current group without updating any information on the group
8872 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}).
8876 @kindex Z c (Summary)
8878 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit
8879 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}
8880 Mark all unticked articles in the group as read and then exit
8881 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}).
8884 @kindex Z C (Summary)
8885 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit
8886 Mark all articles, even the ticked ones, as read and then exit
8887 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit}).
8890 @kindex Z n (Summary)
8891 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group
8892 Mark all articles as read and go to the next group
8893 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group}).
8896 @kindex Z R (Summary)
8897 @findex gnus-summary-reselect-current-group
8898 Exit this group, and then enter it again
8899 (@code{gnus-summary-reselect-current-group}). If given a prefix, select
8900 all articles, both read and unread.
8904 @kindex Z G (Summary)
8905 @kindex M-g (Summary)
8906 @findex gnus-summary-rescan-group
8907 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-get}
8908 Exit the group, check for new articles in the group, and select the
8909 group (@code{gnus-summary-rescan-group}). If given a prefix, select all
8910 articles, both read and unread.
8913 @kindex Z N (Summary)
8914 @findex gnus-summary-next-group
8915 Exit the group and go to the next group
8916 (@code{gnus-summary-next-group}).
8919 @kindex Z P (Summary)
8920 @findex gnus-summary-prev-group
8921 Exit the group and go to the previous group
8922 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-group}).
8925 @kindex Z s (Summary)
8926 @findex gnus-summary-save-newsrc
8927 Save the current number of read/marked articles in the dribble buffer
8928 and then save the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-summary-save-newsrc}). If
8929 given a prefix, also save the @file{.newsrc} file(s). Using this
8930 command will make exit without updating (the @kbd{Q} command) worthless.
8933 @vindex gnus-exit-group-hook
8934 @code{gnus-exit-group-hook} is called when you exit the current group
8935 with an ``updating'' exit. For instance @kbd{Q}
8936 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}) does not call this hook.
8938 @findex gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead
8939 @findex gnus-dead-summary-mode
8940 @vindex gnus-kill-summary-on-exit
8941 If you're in the habit of exiting groups, and then changing your mind
8942 about it, you might set @code{gnus-kill-summary-on-exit} to @code{nil}.
8943 If you do that, Gnus won't kill the summary buffer when you exit it.
8944 (Quelle surprise!) Instead it will change the name of the buffer to
8945 something like @samp{*Dead Summary ... *} and install a minor mode
8946 called @code{gnus-dead-summary-mode}. Now, if you switch back to this
8947 buffer, you'll find that all keys are mapped to a function called
8948 @code{gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead}. So tapping any keys in a dead
8949 summary buffer will result in a live, normal summary buffer.
8951 There will never be more than one dead summary buffer at any one time.
8953 @vindex gnus-use-cross-reference
8954 The data on the current group will be updated (which articles you have
8955 read, which articles you have replied to, etc.) when you exit the
8956 summary buffer. If the @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} variable is
8957 @code{t} (which is the default), articles that are cross-referenced to
8958 this group and are marked as read, will also be marked as read in the
8959 other subscribed groups they were cross-posted to. If this variable is
8960 neither @code{nil} nor @code{t}, the article will be marked as read in
8961 both subscribed and unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}).
8964 @node Crosspost Handling
8965 @section Crosspost Handling
8969 Marking cross-posted articles as read ensures that you'll never have to
8970 read the same article more than once. Unless, of course, somebody has
8971 posted it to several groups separately. Posting the same article to
8972 several groups (not cross-posting) is called @dfn{spamming}, and you are
8973 by law required to send nasty-grams to anyone who perpetrates such a
8974 heinous crime. You may want to try NoCeM handling to filter out spam
8977 Remember: Cross-posting is kinda ok, but posting the same article
8978 separately to several groups is not. Massive cross-posting (aka.
8979 @dfn{velveeta}) is to be avoided at all costs, and you can even use the
8980 @code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint} command to complain about
8981 excessive crossposting (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
8983 @cindex cross-posting
8986 One thing that may cause Gnus to not do the cross-posting thing
8987 correctly is if you use an @sc{nntp} server that supports @sc{xover}
8988 (which is very nice, because it speeds things up considerably) which
8989 does not include the @code{Xref} header in its @sc{nov} lines. This is
8990 Evil, but all too common, alas, alack. Gnus tries to Do The Right Thing
8991 even with @sc{xover} by registering the @code{Xref} lines of all
8992 articles you actually read, but if you kill the articles, or just mark
8993 them as read without reading them, Gnus will not get a chance to snoop
8994 the @code{Xref} lines out of these articles, and will be unable to use
8995 the cross reference mechanism.
8997 @cindex LIST overview.fmt
8998 @cindex overview.fmt
8999 To check whether your @sc{nntp} server includes the @code{Xref} header
9000 in its overview files, try @samp{telnet your.nntp.server nntp},
9001 @samp{MODE READER} on @code{inn} servers, and then say @samp{LIST
9002 overview.fmt}. This may not work, but if it does, and the last line you
9003 get does not read @samp{Xref:full}, then you should shout and whine at
9004 your news admin until she includes the @code{Xref} header in the
9007 @vindex gnus-nov-is-evil
9008 If you want Gnus to get the @code{Xref}s right all the time, you have to
9009 set @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{t}, which slows things down
9014 For an alternative approach, @pxref{Duplicate Suppression}.
9017 @node Duplicate Suppression
9018 @section Duplicate Suppression
9020 By default, Gnus tries to make sure that you don't have to read the same
9021 article more than once by utilizing the crossposting mechanism
9022 (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}). However, that simple and efficient
9023 approach may not work satisfactory for some users for various
9028 The @sc{nntp} server may fail to generate the @code{Xref} header. This
9029 is evil and not very common.
9032 The @sc{nntp} server may fail to include the @code{Xref} header in the
9033 @file{.overview} data bases. This is evil and all too common, alas.
9036 You may be reading the same group (or several related groups) from
9037 different @sc{nntp} servers.
9040 You may be getting mail that duplicates articles posted to groups.
9043 I'm sure there are other situations where @code{Xref} handling fails as
9044 well, but these four are the most common situations.
9046 If, and only if, @code{Xref} handling fails for you, then you may
9047 consider switching on @dfn{duplicate suppression}. If you do so, Gnus
9048 will remember the @code{Message-ID}s of all articles you have read or
9049 otherwise marked as read, and then, as if by magic, mark them as read
9050 all subsequent times you see them---in @emph{all} groups. Using this
9051 mechanism is quite likely to be somewhat inefficient, but not overly
9052 so. It's certainly preferable to reading the same articles more than
9055 Duplicate suppression is not a very subtle instrument. It's more like a
9056 sledge hammer than anything else. It works in a very simple
9057 fashion---if you have marked an article as read, it adds this Message-ID
9058 to a cache. The next time it sees this Message-ID, it will mark the
9059 article as read with the @samp{M} mark. It doesn't care what group it
9063 @item gnus-suppress-duplicates
9064 @vindex gnus-suppress-duplicates
9065 If non-@code{nil}, suppress duplicates.
9067 @item gnus-save-duplicate-list
9068 @vindex gnus-save-duplicate-list
9069 If non-@code{nil}, save the list of duplicates to a file. This will
9070 make startup and shutdown take longer, so the default is @code{nil}.
9071 However, this means that only duplicate articles read in a single Gnus
9072 session are suppressed.
9074 @item gnus-duplicate-list-length
9075 @vindex gnus-duplicate-list-length
9076 This variable says how many @code{Message-ID}s to keep in the duplicate
9077 suppression list. The default is 10000.
9079 @item gnus-duplicate-file
9080 @vindex gnus-duplicate-file
9081 The name of the file to store the duplicate suppression list in. The
9082 default is @file{~/News/suppression}.
9085 If you have a tendency to stop and start Gnus often, setting
9086 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{t} is probably a good idea. If
9087 you leave Gnus running for weeks on end, you may have it @code{nil}. On
9088 the other hand, saving the list makes startup and shutdown much slower,
9089 so that means that if you stop and start Gnus often, you should set
9090 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{nil}. Uhm. I'll leave this up
9091 to you to figure out, I think.
9096 Gnus is able to verify PGP or S/MIME signed messages or decrypt PGP
9101 To verify or decrypt PGP messages, you have to install mailcrypt or
9107 @item mm-verify-option
9108 @vindex mm-verify-option
9109 Option of verifying signed parts. @code{never}, not verify;
9110 @code{always}, always verify; @code{known}, only verify known
9111 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
9113 @item mm-decrypt-option
9114 @vindex mm-decrypt-option
9115 Option of decrypting encrypted parts. @code{never}, no decryption;
9116 @code{always}, always decrypt @code{known}, only decrypt known
9117 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
9121 @node The Article Buffer
9122 @chapter The Article Buffer
9123 @cindex article buffer
9125 The articles are displayed in the article buffer, of which there is only
9126 one. All the summary buffers share the same article buffer unless you
9127 tell Gnus otherwise.
9130 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
9131 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @sc{mime} before reading them.
9132 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
9133 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
9134 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
9138 @node Hiding Headers
9139 @section Hiding Headers
9140 @cindex hiding headers
9141 @cindex deleting headers
9143 The top section of each article is the @dfn{head}. (The rest is the
9144 @dfn{body}, but you may have guessed that already.)
9146 @vindex gnus-show-all-headers
9147 There is a lot of useful information in the head: the name of the person
9148 who wrote the article, the date it was written and the subject of the
9149 article. That's well and nice, but there's also lots of information
9150 most people do not want to see---what systems the article has passed
9151 through before reaching you, the @code{Message-ID}, the
9152 @code{References}, etc. ad nauseum---and you'll probably want to get rid
9153 of some of those lines. If you want to keep all those lines in the
9154 article buffer, you can set @code{gnus-show-all-headers} to @code{t}.
9156 Gnus provides you with two variables for sifting headers:
9160 @item gnus-visible-headers
9161 @vindex gnus-visible-headers
9162 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, it should be a regular expression
9163 that says what headers you wish to keep in the article buffer. All
9164 headers that do not match this variable will be hidden.
9166 For instance, if you only want to see the name of the person who wrote
9167 the article and the subject, you'd say:
9170 (setq gnus-visible-headers "^From:\\|^Subject:")
9173 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
9176 @item gnus-ignored-headers
9177 @vindex gnus-ignored-headers
9178 This variable is the reverse of @code{gnus-visible-headers}. If this
9179 variable is set (and @code{gnus-visible-headers} is @code{nil}), it
9180 should be a regular expression that matches all lines that you want to
9181 hide. All lines that do not match this variable will remain visible.
9183 For instance, if you just want to get rid of the @code{References} line
9184 and the @code{Xref} line, you might say:
9187 (setq gnus-ignored-headers "^References:\\|^Xref:")
9190 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
9193 Note that if @code{gnus-visible-headers} is non-@code{nil}, this
9194 variable will have no effect.
9198 @vindex gnus-sorted-header-list
9199 Gnus can also sort the headers for you. (It does this by default.) You
9200 can control the sorting by setting the @code{gnus-sorted-header-list}
9201 variable. It is a list of regular expressions that says in what order
9202 the headers are to be displayed.
9204 For instance, if you want the name of the author of the article first,
9205 and then the subject, you might say something like:
9208 (setq gnus-sorted-header-list '("^From:" "^Subject:"))
9211 Any headers that are to remain visible, but are not listed in this
9212 variable, will be displayed in random order after all the headers listed in this variable.
9214 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
9215 @vindex gnus-boring-article-headers
9216 You can hide further boring headers by setting
9217 @code{gnus-treat-hide-boring-header} to @code{head}. What this function
9218 does depends on the @code{gnus-boring-article-headers} variable. It's a
9219 list, but this list doesn't actually contain header names. Instead is
9220 lists various @dfn{boring conditions} that Gnus can check and remove
9223 These conditions are:
9226 Remove all empty headers.
9228 Remove the @code{Followup-To} header if it is identical to the
9229 @code{Newsgroups} header.
9231 Remove the @code{Reply-To} header if it lists the same address as the
9234 Remove the @code{Newsgroups} header if it only contains the current group
9237 Remove the @code{To} header if it only contains the address identical to
9238 the current groups's @code{to-address} parameter.
9240 Remove the @code{Date} header if the article is less than three days
9243 Remove the @code{To} header if it is very long.
9245 Remove all @code{To} headers if there are more than one.
9248 To include the four three elements, you could say something like;
9251 (setq gnus-boring-article-headers
9252 '(empty followup-to reply-to))
9255 This is also the default value for this variable.
9259 @section Using @sc{mime}
9262 Mime is a standard for waving your hands through the air, aimlessly,
9263 while people stand around yawning.
9265 @sc{mime}, however, is a standard for encoding your articles, aimlessly,
9266 while all newsreaders die of fear.
9268 @sc{mime} may specify what character set the article uses, the encoding
9269 of the characters, and it also makes it possible to embed pictures and
9270 other naughty stuff in innocent-looking articles.
9272 @vindex gnus-display-mime-function
9273 @findex gnus-display-mime
9274 Gnus pushes @sc{mime} articles through @code{gnus-display-mime-function}
9275 to display the @sc{mime} parts. This is @code{gnus-display-mime} by
9276 default, which creates a bundle of clickable buttons that can be used to
9277 display, save and manipulate the @sc{mime} objects.
9279 The following commands are available when you have placed point over a
9283 @findex gnus-article-press-button
9285 @itemx BUTTON-2 (Article)
9286 Toggle displaying of the @sc{mime} object
9287 (@code{gnus-article-press-button}).
9289 @findex gnus-mime-view-part
9290 @item M-RET (Article)
9292 Prompt for a method, and then view the @sc{mime} object using this
9293 method (@code{gnus-mime-view-part}).
9295 @findex gnus-mime-save-part
9297 Prompt for a file name, and then save the @sc{mime} object
9298 (@code{gnus-mime-save-part}).
9300 @findex gnus-mime-copy-part
9302 Copy the @sc{mime} object to a fresh buffer and display this buffer
9303 (@code{gnus-mime-copy-part}).
9305 @findex gnus-mime-view-part-as-type
9307 View the @sc{mime} object as if it were a different @sc{mime} media type
9308 (@code{gnus-mime-view-part-as-type}).
9310 @findex gnus-mime-pipe-part
9312 Output the @sc{mime} object to a process (@code{gnus-mime-pipe-part}).
9314 @findex gnus-mime-inline-part
9316 Insert the contents of the @sc{mime} object into the buffer
9317 (@code{gnus-mime-inline-part}) as text/plain. If given a prefix, insert
9318 the raw contents without decoding. If given a numerical prefix, you can
9319 do semi-manual charset stuff (see
9320 @code{gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist} in @pxref{Paging the
9323 @findex gnus-mime-action-on-part
9325 Interactively run an action on the @sc{mime} object
9326 (@code{gnus-mime-action-on-part}).
9330 Gnus will display some @sc{mime} objects automatically. The way Gnus
9331 determines which parts to do this with is described in the Emacs MIME
9334 It might be best to just use the toggling functions from the article
9335 buffer to avoid getting nasty surprises. (For instance, you enter the
9336 group @samp{alt.sing-a-long} and, before you know it, @sc{mime} has
9337 decoded the sound file in the article and some horrible sing-a-long song
9338 comes screaming out your speakers, and you can't find the volume button,
9339 because there isn't one, and people are starting to look at you, and you
9340 try to stop the program, but you can't, and you can't find the program
9341 to control the volume, and everybody else in the room suddenly decides
9342 to look at you disdainfully, and you'll feel rather stupid.)
9344 Any similarity to real events and people is purely coincidental. Ahem.
9346 Also see @pxref{MIME Commands}.
9349 @node Customizing Articles
9350 @section Customizing Articles
9351 @cindex article customization
9353 A slew of functions for customizing how the articles are to look like
9354 exist. You can call these functions interactively, or you can have them
9355 called automatically when you select the articles.
9357 To have them called automatically, you should set the corresponding
9358 ``treatment'' variable. For instance, to have headers hidden, you'd set
9359 @code{gnus-treat-hide-headers}. Below is a list of variables that can
9360 be set, but first we discuss the values these variables can have.
9362 Note: Some values, while valid, make little sense. Check the list below
9363 for sensible values.
9367 @code{nil}: Don't do this treatment.
9370 @code{t}: Do this treatment on all body parts.
9373 @code{head}: Do the treatment on the headers.
9376 @code{last}: Do this treatment on the last part.
9379 An integer: Do this treatment on all body parts that have a length less
9383 A list of strings: Do this treatment on all body parts that are in
9384 articles that are read in groups that have names that match one of the
9385 regexps in the list.
9388 A list where the first element is not a string:
9390 The list is evaluated recursively. The first element of the list is a
9391 predicate. The following predicates are recognized: @code{or},
9392 @code{and}, @code{not} and @code{typep}. Here's an example:
9396 (typep "text/x-vcard"))
9401 You may have noticed that the word @dfn{part} is used here. This refers
9402 to the fact that some messages are @sc{mime} multipart articles that may
9403 be divided into several parts. Articles that are not multiparts are
9404 considered to contain just a single part.
9406 @vindex gnus-article-treat-types
9407 Are the treatments applied to all sorts of multipart parts? Yes, if you
9408 want to, but by default, only @samp{text/plain} parts are given the
9409 treatment. This is controlled by the @code{gnus-article-treat-types}
9410 variable, which is a list of regular expressions that are matched to the
9411 type of the part. This variable is ignored if the value of the
9412 controlling variable is a predicate list, as described above.
9414 The following treatment options are available. The easiest way to
9415 customize this is to examine the @code{gnus-article-treat} customization
9416 group. Values in parenthesis are suggested sensible values. Others are
9417 possible but those listed are probably sufficient for most people.
9420 @item gnus-treat-highlight-signature (t, last)
9421 @item gnus-treat-buttonize (t, integer)
9422 @item gnus-treat-buttonize-head (head)
9423 @item gnus-treat-emphasize (t, head, integer)
9424 @item gnus-treat-fill-article (t, integer)
9425 @item gnus-treat-strip-cr (t, integer)
9426 @item gnus-treat-hide-headers (head)
9427 @item gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers (head)
9428 @item gnus-treat-hide-signature (t, last)
9429 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation (t, integer)
9430 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation-maybe (t, integer)
9431 @item gnus-treat-strip-pgp (t, last, integer)
9432 @item gnus-treat-strip-pem (t, last, integer)
9433 @item gnus-treat-highlight-headers (head)
9434 @item gnus-treat-highlight-citation (t, integer)
9435 @item gnus-treat-highlight-signature (t, last, integer)
9436 @item gnus-treat-date-ut (head)
9437 @item gnus-treat-date-local (head)
9438 @item gnus-treat-date-english (head)
9439 @item gnus-treat-date-lapsed (head)
9440 @item gnus-treat-date-original (head)
9441 @item gnus-treat-date-iso8601 (head)
9442 @item gnus-treat-date-user-defined (head)
9443 @item gnus-treat-strip-headers-in-body (t, integer)
9444 @item gnus-treat-strip-trailing-blank-lines (t, last, integer)
9445 @item gnus-treat-strip-leading-blank-lines (t, integer)
9446 @item gnus-treat-strip-multiple-blank-lines (t, integer)
9447 @item gnus-treat-overstrike (t, integer)
9448 @item gnus-treat-display-xface (head)
9449 @item gnus-treat-display-smileys (t, integer)
9450 @item gnus-treat-display-picons (head)
9451 @item gnus-treat-capitalize-sentences (t, integer)
9452 @item gnus-treat-fill-long-lines (t, integer)
9453 @item gnus-treat-play-sounds
9454 @item gnus-treat-translate
9457 @vindex gnus-part-display-hook
9458 You can, of course, write your own functions to be called from
9459 @code{gnus-part-display-hook}. The functions are called narrowed to the
9460 part, and you can do anything you like, pretty much. There is no
9461 information that you have to keep in the buffer---you can change
9465 @node Article Keymap
9466 @section Article Keymap
9468 Most of the keystrokes in the summary buffer can also be used in the
9469 article buffer. They should behave as if you typed them in the summary
9470 buffer, which means that you don't actually have to have a summary
9471 buffer displayed while reading. You can do it all from the article
9474 A few additional keystrokes are available:
9479 @kindex SPACE (Article)
9480 @findex gnus-article-next-page
9481 Scroll forwards one page (@code{gnus-article-next-page}).
9484 @kindex DEL (Article)
9485 @findex gnus-article-prev-page
9486 Scroll backwards one page (@code{gnus-article-prev-page}).
9489 @kindex C-c ^ (Article)
9490 @findex gnus-article-refer-article
9491 If point is in the neighborhood of a @code{Message-ID} and you press
9492 @kbd{C-c ^}, Gnus will try to get that article from the server
9493 (@code{gnus-article-refer-article}).
9496 @kindex C-c C-m (Article)
9497 @findex gnus-article-mail
9498 Send a reply to the address near point (@code{gnus-article-mail}). If
9499 given a prefix, include the mail.
9503 @findex gnus-article-show-summary
9504 Reconfigure the buffers so that the summary buffer becomes visible
9505 (@code{gnus-article-show-summary}).
9509 @findex gnus-article-describe-briefly
9510 Give a very brief description of the available keystrokes
9511 (@code{gnus-article-describe-briefly}).
9514 @kindex TAB (Article)
9515 @findex gnus-article-next-button
9516 Go to the next button, if any (@code{gnus-article-next-button}). This
9517 only makes sense if you have buttonizing turned on.
9520 @kindex M-TAB (Article)
9521 @findex gnus-article-prev-button
9522 Go to the previous button, if any (@code{gnus-article-prev-button}).
9528 @section Misc Article
9532 @item gnus-single-article-buffer
9533 @vindex gnus-single-article-buffer
9534 If non-@code{nil}, use the same article buffer for all the groups.
9535 (This is the default.) If @code{nil}, each group will have its own
9538 @vindex gnus-article-decode-hook
9539 @item gnus-article-decode-hook
9541 Hook used to decode @sc{mime} articles. The default value is
9542 @code{(article-decode-charset article-decode-encoded-words)}
9544 @vindex gnus-article-prepare-hook
9545 @item gnus-article-prepare-hook
9546 This hook is called right after the article has been inserted into the
9547 article buffer. It is mainly intended for functions that do something
9548 depending on the contents; it should probably not be used for changing
9549 the contents of the article buffer.
9551 @item gnus-article-mode-hook
9552 @vindex gnus-article-mode-hook
9553 Hook called in article mode buffers.
9555 @item gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
9556 @vindex gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
9557 Syntax table used in article buffers. It is initialized from
9558 @code{text-mode-syntax-table}.
9560 @vindex gnus-article-mode-line-format
9561 @item gnus-article-mode-line-format
9562 This variable is a format string along the same lines as
9563 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}). It
9564 accepts the same format specifications as that variable, with two
9569 The @dfn{wash status} of the article. This is a short string with one
9570 character for each possible article wash operation that may have been
9573 The number of @sc{mime} parts in the article.
9576 @vindex gnus-break-pages
9578 @item gnus-break-pages
9579 Controls whether @dfn{page breaking} is to take place. If this variable
9580 is non-@code{nil}, the articles will be divided into pages whenever a
9581 page delimiter appears in the article. If this variable is @code{nil},
9582 paging will not be done.
9584 @item gnus-page-delimiter
9585 @vindex gnus-page-delimiter
9586 This is the delimiter mentioned above. By default, it is @samp{^L}
9591 @node Composing Messages
9592 @chapter Composing Messages
9593 @cindex composing messages
9596 @cindex sending mail
9602 @kindex C-c C-c (Post)
9603 All commands for posting and mailing will put you in a message buffer
9604 where you can edit the article all you like, before you send the
9605 article by pressing @kbd{C-c C-c}. @xref{Top, , Top, message, The
9606 Message Manual}. Where the message will be posted/mailed to depends
9607 on your setup (@pxref{Posting Server}).
9610 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
9611 * Posting Server:: What server should you post via?
9612 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
9613 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
9614 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
9615 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
9616 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
9617 * Using GPG:: How to use GPG and MML to sign and encrypt messages
9620 Also see @pxref{Canceling and Superseding} for information on how to
9621 remove articles you shouldn't have posted.
9627 Variables for customizing outgoing mail:
9630 @item gnus-uu-digest-headers
9631 @vindex gnus-uu-digest-headers
9632 List of regexps to match headers included in digested messages. The
9633 headers will be included in the sequence they are matched.
9635 @item gnus-add-to-list
9636 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
9637 If non-@code{nil}, add a @code{to-list} group parameter to mail groups
9638 that have none when you do a @kbd{a}.
9643 @node Posting Server
9644 @section Posting Server
9646 When you press those magical @kbd{C-c C-c} keys to ship off your latest
9647 (extremely intelligent, of course) article, where does it go?
9649 Thank you for asking. I hate you.
9651 @vindex gnus-post-method
9653 It can be quite complicated. Normally, Gnus will use the same native
9654 server. However. If your native server doesn't allow posting, just
9655 reading, you probably want to use some other server to post your
9656 (extremely intelligent and fabulously interesting) articles. You can
9657 then set the @code{gnus-post-method} to some other method:
9660 (setq gnus-post-method '(nnspool ""))
9663 Now, if you've done this, and then this server rejects your article, or
9664 this server is down, what do you do then? To override this variable you
9665 can use a non-zero prefix to the @kbd{C-c C-c} command to force using
9666 the ``current'' server for posting.
9668 If you give a zero prefix (i.e., @kbd{C-u 0 C-c C-c}) to that command,
9669 Gnus will prompt you for what method to use for posting.
9671 You can also set @code{gnus-post-method} to a list of select methods.
9672 If that's the case, Gnus will always prompt you for what method to use
9675 Finally, if you want to always post using the same select method as
9676 you're reading from (which might be convenient if you're reading lots of
9677 groups from different private servers), you can set this variable to
9682 @section Mail and Post
9684 Here's a list of variables relevant to both mailing and
9688 @item gnus-mailing-list-groups
9689 @findex gnus-mailing-list-groups
9690 @cindex mailing lists
9692 If your news server offers groups that are really mailing lists
9693 gatewayed to the @sc{nntp} server, you can read those groups without
9694 problems, but you can't post/followup to them without some difficulty.
9695 One solution is to add a @code{to-address} to the group parameters
9696 (@pxref{Group Parameters}). An easier thing to do is set the
9697 @code{gnus-mailing-list-groups} to a regexp that matches the groups that
9698 really are mailing lists. Then, at least, followups to the mailing
9699 lists will work most of the time. Posting to these groups (@kbd{a}) is
9700 still a pain, though.
9704 You may want to do spell-checking on messages that you send out. Or, if
9705 you don't want to spell-check by hand, you could add automatic
9706 spell-checking via the @code{ispell} package:
9709 @findex ispell-message
9711 (add-hook 'message-send-hook 'ispell-message)
9714 If you want to change the @code{ispell} dictionary based on what group
9715 you're in, you could say something like the following:
9718 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook
9721 ((string-match "^de\\." gnus-newsgroup-name)
9722 (ispell-change-dictionary "deutsch"))
9724 (ispell-change-dictionary "english")))))
9727 Modify to suit your needs.
9730 @node Archived Messages
9731 @section Archived Messages
9732 @cindex archived messages
9733 @cindex sent messages
9735 Gnus provides a few different methods for storing the mail and news you
9736 send. The default method is to use the @dfn{archive virtual server} to
9737 store the messages. If you want to disable this completely, the
9738 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable should be @code{nil}, which
9741 @vindex gnus-message-archive-method
9742 @code{gnus-message-archive-method} says what virtual server Gnus is to
9743 use to store sent messages. The default is:
9747 (nnfolder-directory "~/Mail/archive")
9748 (nnfolder-active-file "~/Mail/archive/active")
9749 (nnfolder-get-new-mail nil)
9750 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t))
9753 You can, however, use any mail select method (@code{nnml},
9754 @code{nnmbox}, etc.). @code{nnfolder} is a quite likable select method
9755 for doing this sort of thing, though. If you don't like the default
9756 directory chosen, you could say something like:
9759 (setq gnus-message-archive-method
9760 '(nnfolder "archive"
9761 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t)
9762 (nnfolder-active-file "~/News/sent-mail/active")
9763 (nnfolder-directory "~/News/sent-mail/")))
9766 @vindex gnus-message-archive-group
9768 Gnus will insert @code{Gcc} headers in all outgoing messages that point
9769 to one or more group(s) on that server. Which group to use is
9770 determined by the @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable.
9772 This variable can be used to do the following:
9776 Messages will be saved in that group.
9778 Note that you can include a select method in the group name, then the
9779 message will not be stored in the select method given by
9780 @code{gnus-message-archive-method}, but in the select method specified
9781 by the group name, instead. Suppose @code{gnus-message-archive-method}
9782 has the default value shown above. Then setting
9783 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{"foo"} means that outgoing
9784 messages are stored in @samp{nnfolder+archive:foo}, but if you use the
9785 value @code{"nnml:foo"}, then outgoing messages will be stored in
9787 @item a list of strings
9788 Messages will be saved in all those groups.
9789 @item an alist of regexps, functions and forms
9790 When a key ``matches'', the result is used.
9792 No message archiving will take place. This is the default.
9797 Just saving to a single group called @samp{MisK}:
9799 (setq gnus-message-archive-group "MisK")
9802 Saving to two groups, @samp{MisK} and @samp{safe}:
9804 (setq gnus-message-archive-group '("MisK" "safe"))
9807 Save to different groups based on what group you are in:
9809 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
9810 '(("^alt" "sent-to-alt")
9811 ("mail" "sent-to-mail")
9812 (".*" "sent-to-misc")))
9817 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
9818 '((if (message-news-p)
9823 How about storing all news messages in one file, but storing all mail
9824 messages in one file per month:
9827 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
9828 '((if (message-news-p)
9830 (concat "mail." (format-time-string "%Y-%m")))))
9833 (XEmacs 19.13 doesn't have @code{format-time-string}, so you'll have to
9834 use a different value for @code{gnus-message-archive-group} there.)
9836 Now, when you send a message off, it will be stored in the appropriate
9837 group. (If you want to disable storing for just one particular message,
9838 you can just remove the @code{Gcc} header that has been inserted.) The
9839 archive group will appear in the group buffer the next time you start
9840 Gnus, or the next time you press @kbd{F} in the group buffer. You can
9841 enter it and read the articles in it just like you'd read any other
9842 group. If the group gets really big and annoying, you can simply rename
9843 if (using @kbd{G r} in the group buffer) to something
9844 nice---@samp{misc-mail-september-1995}, or whatever. New messages will
9845 continue to be stored in the old (now empty) group.
9847 That's the default method of archiving sent messages. Gnus offers a
9848 different way for the people who don't like the default method. In that
9849 case you should set @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{nil};
9850 this will disable archiving.
9853 @item gnus-outgoing-message-group
9854 @vindex gnus-outgoing-message-group
9855 All outgoing messages will be put in this group. If you want to store
9856 all your outgoing mail and articles in the group @samp{nnml:archive},
9857 you set this variable to that value. This variable can also be a list of
9860 If you want to have greater control over what group to put each
9861 message in, you can set this variable to a function that checks the
9862 current newsgroup name and then returns a suitable group name (or list
9865 This variable can be used instead of @code{gnus-message-archive-group},
9866 but the latter is the preferred method.
9868 @item gnus-inews-mark-gcc-as-read
9869 @vindex gnus-inews-mark-gcc-as-read
9870 If non-@code{nil}, automatically mark @code{Gcc} articles as read.
9875 @node Posting Styles
9876 @section Posting Styles
9877 @cindex posting styles
9880 All them variables, they make my head swim.
9882 So what if you want a different @code{Organization} and signature based
9883 on what groups you post to? And you post both from your home machine
9884 and your work machine, and you want different @code{From} lines, and so
9887 @vindex gnus-posting-styles
9888 One way to do stuff like that is to write clever hooks that change the
9889 variables you need to have changed. That's a bit boring, so somebody
9890 came up with the bright idea of letting the user specify these things in
9891 a handy alist. Here's an example of a @code{gnus-posting-styles}
9896 (signature "Peace and happiness")
9897 (organization "What me?"))
9899 (signature "Death to everybody"))
9900 ("comp.emacs.i-love-it"
9901 (organization "Emacs is it")))
9904 As you might surmise from this example, this alist consists of several
9905 @dfn{styles}. Each style will be applicable if the first element
9906 ``matches'', in some form or other. The entire alist will be iterated
9907 over, from the beginning towards the end, and each match will be
9908 applied, which means that attributes in later styles that match override
9909 the same attributes in earlier matching styles. So
9910 @samp{comp.programming.literate} will have the @samp{Death to everybody}
9911 signature and the @samp{What me?} @code{Organization} header.
9913 The first element in each style is called the @code{match}. If it's a
9914 string, then Gnus will try to regexp match it against the group name.
9915 If it is the symbol @code{header}, then Gnus will look for header that
9916 match the next element in the match, and compare that to the last header
9917 in the match. If it's a function symbol, that function will be called
9918 with no arguments. If it's a variable symbol, then the variable will be
9919 referenced. If it's a list, then that list will be @code{eval}ed. In
9920 any case, if this returns a non-@code{nil} value, then the style is said
9923 Each style may contain a arbitrary amount of @dfn{attributes}. Each
9924 attribute consists of a @code{(@var{name} . @var{value})} pair. The
9925 attribute name can be one of @code{signature}, @code{signature-file},
9926 @code{organization}, @code{address}, @code{name} or @code{body}. The
9927 attribute name can also be a string. In that case, this will be used as
9928 a header name, and the value will be inserted in the headers of the
9929 article; if the value is @code{nil}, the header name will be removed.
9930 If the attribute name is @code{eval}, the form is evaluated, and the
9931 result is thrown away.
9933 The attribute value can be a string (used verbatim), a function with
9934 zero arguments (the return value will be used), a variable (its value
9935 will be used) or a list (it will be @code{eval}ed and the return value
9936 will be used). The functions and sexps are called/@code{eval}ed in the
9937 message buffer that is being set up. The headers of the current article
9938 are available through the @code{message-reply-headers} variable.
9940 If you wish to check whether the message you are about to compose is
9941 meant to be a news article or a mail message, you can check the values
9942 of the @code{message-news-p} and @code{message-mail-p} functions.
9944 @findex message-mail-p
9945 @findex message-news-p
9947 So here's a new example:
9950 (setq gnus-posting-styles
9952 (signature-file "~/.signature")
9954 ("X-Home-Page" (getenv "WWW_HOME"))
9955 (organization "People's Front Against MWM"))
9957 (signature my-funny-signature-randomizer))
9958 ((equal (system-name) "gnarly")
9959 (signature my-quote-randomizer))
9961 (signature my-news-signature))
9962 (header "From\\|To" "larsi.*org"
9963 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
9964 ((posting-from-work-p)
9965 (signature-file "~/.work-signature")
9966 (address "user@@bar.foo")
9967 (body "You are fired.\n\nSincerely, your boss.")
9968 (organization "Important Work, Inc"))
9970 (From (save-excursion
9971 (set-buffer gnus-article-buffer)
9972 (message-fetch-field "to"))))
9974 (signature-file "~/.mail-signature"))))
9977 The @samp{nnml:.*} rule means that you use the @code{To} address as the
9978 @code{From} address in all your outgoing replies, which might be handy
9979 if you fill many roles.
9986 If you are writing a message (mail or news) and suddenly remember that
9987 you have a steak in the oven (or some pesto in the food processor, you
9988 craaazy vegetarians), you'll probably wish there was a method to save
9989 the message you are writing so that you can continue editing it some
9990 other day, and send it when you feel its finished.
9992 Well, don't worry about it. Whenever you start composing a message of
9993 some sort using the Gnus mail and post commands, the buffer you get will
9994 automatically associate to an article in a special @dfn{draft} group.
9995 If you save the buffer the normal way (@kbd{C-x C-s}, for instance), the
9996 article will be saved there. (Auto-save files also go to the draft
10000 @vindex nndraft-directory
10001 The draft group is a special group (which is implemented as an
10002 @code{nndraft} group, if you absolutely have to know) called
10003 @samp{nndraft:drafts}. The variable @code{nndraft-directory} says where
10004 @code{nndraft} is to store its files. What makes this group special is
10005 that you can't tick any articles in it or mark any articles as
10006 read---all articles in the group are permanently unread.
10008 If the group doesn't exist, it will be created and you'll be subscribed
10009 to it. The only way to make it disappear from the Group buffer is to
10012 @c @findex gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft
10013 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Mail)
10014 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Post)
10015 @c @findex gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft
10016 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Mail)
10017 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Post)
10018 @c If you're writing some super-secret message that you later want to
10019 @c encode with PGP before sending, you may wish to turn the auto-saving
10020 @c (and association with the draft group) off. You never know who might be
10021 @c interested in reading all your extremely valuable and terribly horrible
10022 @c and interesting secrets. The @kbd{C-c M-d}
10023 @c (@code{gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft}) command does that for you.
10024 @c If you change your mind and want to turn the auto-saving back on again,
10025 @c @kbd{C-c C-d} (@code{gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft} does that.
10027 @c @vindex gnus-use-draft
10028 @c To leave association with the draft group off by default, set
10029 @c @code{gnus-use-draft} to @code{nil}. It is @code{t} by default.
10031 @findex gnus-draft-edit-message
10032 @kindex D e (Draft)
10033 When you want to continue editing the article, you simply enter the
10034 draft group and push @kbd{D e} (@code{gnus-draft-edit-message}) to do
10035 that. You will be placed in a buffer where you left off.
10037 Rejected articles will also be put in this draft group (@pxref{Rejected
10040 @findex gnus-draft-send-all-messages
10041 @findex gnus-draft-send-message
10042 If you have lots of rejected messages you want to post (or mail) without
10043 doing further editing, you can use the @kbd{D s} command
10044 (@code{gnus-draft-send-message}). This command understands the
10045 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). The @kbd{D S}
10046 command (@code{gnus-draft-send-all-messages}) will ship off all messages
10049 If you have some messages that you wish not to send, you can use the
10050 @kbd{D t} (@code{gnus-draft-toggle-sending}) command to mark the message
10051 as unsendable. This is a toggling command.
10054 @node Rejected Articles
10055 @section Rejected Articles
10056 @cindex rejected articles
10058 Sometimes a news server will reject an article. Perhaps the server
10059 doesn't like your face. Perhaps it just feels miserable. Perhaps
10060 @emph{there be demons}. Perhaps you have included too much cited text.
10061 Perhaps the disk is full. Perhaps the server is down.
10063 These situations are, of course, totally beyond the control of Gnus.
10064 (Gnus, of course, loves the way you look, always feels great, has angels
10065 fluttering around inside of it, doesn't care about how much cited text
10066 you include, never runs full and never goes down.) So Gnus saves these
10067 articles until some later time when the server feels better.
10069 The rejected articles will automatically be put in a special draft group
10070 (@pxref{Drafts}). When the server comes back up again, you'd then
10071 typically enter that group and send all the articles off.
10077 Gnus has an ALPHA support to GPG that's provided by @file{gpg.el}. See
10078 @code{mm-verify-option} and @code{mm-decrypt-option} to enable Gnus to
10079 verify or decrypt messages accordingly.
10081 To use this correctly with GPG, you'll need the following lisp code in your
10082 @file{~/.emacs} or @file{~/.gnus}:
10086 (setq mml2015-use 'gpg)
10087 (setq gpg-temp-directory (expand-file-name "~/.gnupg/tmp"))
10090 The @code{gpg-temp-directory} need to point to a directory with permissions set
10091 to 700, for your own safety.
10093 If you want to benefit of PGP2.6 compatibility, you might create a script named
10094 @file{gpg-2comp} with these instructions:
10098 exec gpg --rfc1991 "$@@"
10101 If you don't want to use such compatibility, you can add the following line to
10102 your @file{~/.emacs} or @file{~/.gnus}:
10105 (setq gpg-command-default-alist (quote ((gpg . "gpg") (gpg-2comp . "gpg"))))
10108 To sign or encrypt your message you may choose to use the MML Security
10109 menu or @kbd{C-c C-m s p} to sign your message using PGP/MIME, @kbd{C-c
10110 C-m s s} to sign your message using S/MIME. There's also @kbd{C-c C-m c
10111 p} to encrypt your message with PGP/MIME and @kbd{C-c C-m c s} to
10112 encrypt using S/MIME.
10114 Gnus will ask for your passphrase and then it will send your message, if
10115 you've typed it correctly.
10117 @node Select Methods
10118 @chapter Select Methods
10119 @cindex foreign groups
10120 @cindex select methods
10122 A @dfn{foreign group} is a group not read by the usual (or
10123 default) means. It could be, for instance, a group from a different
10124 @sc{nntp} server, it could be a virtual group, or it could be your own
10125 personal mail group.
10127 A foreign group (or any group, really) is specified by a @dfn{name} and
10128 a @dfn{select method}. To take the latter first, a select method is a
10129 list where the first element says what backend to use (e.g. @code{nntp},
10130 @code{nnspool}, @code{nnml}) and the second element is the @dfn{server
10131 name}. There may be additional elements in the select method, where the
10132 value may have special meaning for the backend in question.
10134 One could say that a select method defines a @dfn{virtual server}---so
10135 we do just that (@pxref{The Server Buffer}).
10137 The @dfn{name} of the group is the name the backend will recognize the
10140 For instance, the group @samp{soc.motss} on the @sc{nntp} server
10141 @samp{some.where.edu} will have the name @samp{soc.motss} and select
10142 method @code{(nntp "some.where.edu")}. Gnus will call this group
10143 @samp{nntp+some.where.edu:soc.motss}, even though the @code{nntp}
10144 backend just knows this group as @samp{soc.motss}.
10146 The different methods all have their peculiarities, of course.
10149 * The Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
10150 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
10151 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
10152 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
10153 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
10154 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
10155 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
10159 @node The Server Buffer
10160 @section The Server Buffer
10162 Traditionally, a @dfn{server} is a machine or a piece of software that
10163 one connects to, and then requests information from. Gnus does not
10164 connect directly to any real servers, but does all transactions through
10165 one backend or other. But that's just putting one layer more between
10166 the actual media and Gnus, so we might just as well say that each
10167 backend represents a virtual server.
10169 For instance, the @code{nntp} backend may be used to connect to several
10170 different actual @sc{nntp} servers, or, perhaps, to many different ports
10171 on the same actual @sc{nntp} server. You tell Gnus which backend to
10172 use, and what parameters to set by specifying a @dfn{select method}.
10174 These select method specifications can sometimes become quite
10175 complicated---say, for instance, that you want to read from the
10176 @sc{nntp} server @samp{news.funet.fi} on port number 13, which
10177 hangs if queried for @sc{nov} headers and has a buggy select. Ahem.
10178 Anyway, if you had to specify that for each group that used this
10179 server, that would be too much work, so Gnus offers a way of naming
10180 select methods, which is what you do in the server buffer.
10182 To enter the server buffer, use the @kbd{^}
10183 (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}) command in the group buffer.
10186 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
10187 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
10188 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
10189 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
10190 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
10191 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
10192 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
10195 @vindex gnus-server-mode-hook
10196 @code{gnus-server-mode-hook} is run when creating the server buffer.
10199 @node Server Buffer Format
10200 @subsection Server Buffer Format
10201 @cindex server buffer format
10203 @vindex gnus-server-line-format
10204 You can change the look of the server buffer lines by changing the
10205 @code{gnus-server-line-format} variable. This is a @code{format}-like
10206 variable, with some simple extensions:
10211 How the news is fetched---the backend name.
10214 The name of this server.
10217 Where the news is to be fetched from---the address.
10220 The opened/closed/denied status of the server.
10223 @vindex gnus-server-mode-line-format
10224 The mode line can also be customized by using the
10225 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format} variable (@pxref{Mode Line
10226 Formatting}). The following specs are understood:
10236 Also @pxref{Formatting Variables}.
10239 @node Server Commands
10240 @subsection Server Commands
10241 @cindex server commands
10247 @findex gnus-server-add-server
10248 Add a new server (@code{gnus-server-add-server}).
10252 @findex gnus-server-edit-server
10253 Edit a server (@code{gnus-server-edit-server}).
10256 @kindex SPACE (Server)
10257 @findex gnus-server-read-server
10258 Browse the current server (@code{gnus-server-read-server}).
10262 @findex gnus-server-exit
10263 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-server-exit}).
10267 @findex gnus-server-kill-server
10268 Kill the current server (@code{gnus-server-kill-server}).
10272 @findex gnus-server-yank-server
10273 Yank the previously killed server (@code{gnus-server-yank-server}).
10277 @findex gnus-server-copy-server
10278 Copy the current server (@code{gnus-server-copy-server}).
10282 @findex gnus-server-list-servers
10283 List all servers (@code{gnus-server-list-servers}).
10287 @findex gnus-server-scan-server
10288 Request that the server scan its sources for new articles
10289 (@code{gnus-server-scan-server}). This is mainly sensible with mail
10294 @findex gnus-server-regenerate-server
10295 Request that the server regenerate all its data structures
10296 (@code{gnus-server-regenerate-server}). This can be useful if you have
10297 a mail backend that has gotten out of sync.
10302 @node Example Methods
10303 @subsection Example Methods
10305 Most select methods are pretty simple and self-explanatory:
10308 (nntp "news.funet.fi")
10311 Reading directly from the spool is even simpler:
10317 As you can see, the first element in a select method is the name of the
10318 backend, and the second is the @dfn{address}, or @dfn{name}, if you
10321 After these two elements, there may be an arbitrary number of
10322 @code{(@var{variable} @var{form})} pairs.
10324 To go back to the first example---imagine that you want to read from
10325 port 15 on that machine. This is what the select method should
10329 (nntp "news.funet.fi" (nntp-port-number 15))
10332 You should read the documentation to each backend to find out what
10333 variables are relevant, but here's an @code{nnmh} example:
10335 @code{nnmh} is a mail backend that reads a spool-like structure. Say
10336 you have two structures that you wish to access: One is your private
10337 mail spool, and the other is a public one. Here's the possible spec for
10341 (nnmh "private" (nnmh-directory "~/private/mail/"))
10344 (This server is then called @samp{private}, but you may have guessed
10347 Here's the method for a public spool:
10351 (nnmh-directory "/usr/information/spool/")
10352 (nnmh-get-new-mail nil))
10358 If you are behind a firewall and only have access to the @sc{nntp}
10359 server from the firewall machine, you can instruct Gnus to @code{rlogin}
10360 on the firewall machine and telnet from there to the @sc{nntp} server.
10361 Doing this can be rather fiddly, but your virtual server definition
10362 should probably look something like this:
10366 (nntp-address "the.firewall.machine")
10367 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-rlogin)
10368 (nntp-end-of-line "\n")
10369 (nntp-rlogin-parameters
10370 ("telnet" "the.real.nntp.host" "nntp")))
10373 If you want to use the wonderful @code{ssh} program to provide a
10374 compressed connection over the modem line, you could create a virtual
10375 server that would look something like this:
10379 (nntp-address "copper.uio.no")
10380 (nntp-rlogin-program "ssh")
10381 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-rlogin)
10382 (nntp-end-of-line "\n")
10383 (nntp-rlogin-parameters
10384 ("telnet" "news.uio.no" "nntp")))
10387 This means that you have to have set up @code{ssh-agent} correctly to
10388 provide automatic authorization, of course. And to get a compressed
10389 connection, you have to have the @samp{Compression} option in the
10390 @code{ssh} @file{config} file.
10393 @node Creating a Virtual Server
10394 @subsection Creating a Virtual Server
10396 If you're saving lots of articles in the cache by using persistent
10397 articles, you may want to create a virtual server to read the cache.
10399 First you need to add a new server. The @kbd{a} command does that. It
10400 would probably be best to use @code{nnspool} to read the cache. You
10401 could also use @code{nnml} or @code{nnmh}, though.
10403 Type @kbd{a nnspool RET cache RET}.
10405 You should now have a brand new @code{nnspool} virtual server called
10406 @samp{cache}. You now need to edit it to have the right definitions.
10407 Type @kbd{e} to edit the server. You'll be entered into a buffer that
10408 will contain the following:
10418 (nnspool-spool-directory "~/News/cache/")
10419 (nnspool-nov-directory "~/News/cache/")
10420 (nnspool-active-file "~/News/cache/active"))
10423 Type @kbd{C-c C-c} to return to the server buffer. If you now press
10424 @kbd{RET} over this virtual server, you should be entered into a browse
10425 buffer, and you should be able to enter any of the groups displayed.
10428 @node Server Variables
10429 @subsection Server Variables
10431 One sticky point when defining variables (both on backends and in Emacs
10432 in general) is that some variables are typically initialized from other
10433 variables when the definition of the variables is being loaded. If you
10434 change the "base" variable after the variables have been loaded, you
10435 won't change the "derived" variables.
10437 This typically affects directory and file variables. For instance,
10438 @code{nnml-directory} is @file{~/Mail/} by default, and all @code{nnml}
10439 directory variables are initialized from that variable, so
10440 @code{nnml-active-file} will be @file{~/Mail/active}. If you define a
10441 new virtual @code{nnml} server, it will @emph{not} suffice to set just
10442 @code{nnml-directory}---you have to explicitly set all the file
10443 variables to be what you want them to be. For a complete list of
10444 variables for each backend, see each backend's section later in this
10445 manual, but here's an example @code{nnml} definition:
10449 (nnml-directory "~/my-mail/")
10450 (nnml-active-file "~/my-mail/active")
10451 (nnml-newsgroups-file "~/my-mail/newsgroups"))
10455 @node Servers and Methods
10456 @subsection Servers and Methods
10458 Wherever you would normally use a select method
10459 (e.g. @code{gnus-secondary-select-method}, in the group select method,
10460 when browsing a foreign server) you can use a virtual server name
10461 instead. This could potentially save lots of typing. And it's nice all
10465 @node Unavailable Servers
10466 @subsection Unavailable Servers
10468 If a server seems to be unreachable, Gnus will mark that server as
10469 @code{denied}. That means that any subsequent attempt to make contact
10470 with that server will just be ignored. ``It can't be opened,'' Gnus
10471 will tell you, without making the least effort to see whether that is
10472 actually the case or not.
10474 That might seem quite naughty, but it does make sense most of the time.
10475 Let's say you have 10 groups subscribed to on server
10476 @samp{nephelococcygia.com}. This server is located somewhere quite far
10477 away from you and the machine is quite slow, so it takes 1 minute just
10478 to find out that it refuses connection to you today. If Gnus were to
10479 attempt to do that 10 times, you'd be quite annoyed, so Gnus won't
10480 attempt to do that. Once it has gotten a single ``connection refused'',
10481 it will regard that server as ``down''.
10483 So, what happens if the machine was only feeling unwell temporarily?
10484 How do you test to see whether the machine has come up again?
10486 You jump to the server buffer (@pxref{The Server Buffer}) and poke it
10487 with the following commands:
10493 @findex gnus-server-open-server
10494 Try to establish connection to the server on the current line
10495 (@code{gnus-server-open-server}).
10499 @findex gnus-server-close-server
10500 Close the connection (if any) to the server
10501 (@code{gnus-server-close-server}).
10505 @findex gnus-server-deny-server
10506 Mark the current server as unreachable
10507 (@code{gnus-server-deny-server}).
10510 @kindex M-o (Server)
10511 @findex gnus-server-open-all-servers
10512 Open the connections to all servers in the buffer
10513 (@code{gnus-server-open-all-servers}).
10516 @kindex M-c (Server)
10517 @findex gnus-server-close-all-servers
10518 Close the connections to all servers in the buffer
10519 (@code{gnus-server-close-all-servers}).
10523 @findex gnus-server-remove-denials
10524 Remove all marks to whether Gnus was denied connection from any servers
10525 (@code{gnus-server-remove-denials}).
10531 @section Getting News
10532 @cindex reading news
10533 @cindex news backends
10535 A newsreader is normally used for reading news. Gnus currently provides
10536 only two methods of getting news---it can read from an @sc{nntp} server,
10537 or it can read from a local spool.
10540 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @sc{nntp} server.
10541 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
10546 @subsection @sc{nntp}
10549 Subscribing to a foreign group from an @sc{nntp} server is rather easy.
10550 You just specify @code{nntp} as method and the address of the @sc{nntp}
10551 server as the, uhm, address.
10553 If the @sc{nntp} server is located at a non-standard port, setting the
10554 third element of the select method to this port number should allow you
10555 to connect to the right port. You'll have to edit the group info for
10556 that (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
10558 The name of the foreign group can be the same as a native group. In
10559 fact, you can subscribe to the same group from as many different servers
10560 you feel like. There will be no name collisions.
10562 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nntp}
10567 @item nntp-server-opened-hook
10568 @vindex nntp-server-opened-hook
10569 @cindex @sc{mode reader}
10571 @cindex authentification
10572 @cindex nntp authentification
10573 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
10574 @findex nntp-send-mode-reader
10575 is run after a connection has been made. It can be used to send
10576 commands to the @sc{nntp} server after it has been contacted. By
10577 default it sends the command @code{MODE READER} to the server with the
10578 @code{nntp-send-mode-reader} function. This function should always be
10579 present in this hook.
10581 @item nntp-authinfo-function
10582 @vindex nntp-authinfo-function
10583 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
10584 @vindex nntp-authinfo-file
10585 This function will be used to send @samp{AUTHINFO} to the @sc{nntp}
10586 server. The default function is @code{nntp-send-authinfo}, which looks
10587 through your @file{~/.authinfo} (or whatever you've set the
10588 @code{nntp-authinfo-file} variable to) for applicable entries. If none
10589 are found, it will prompt you for a login name and a password. The
10590 format of the @file{~/.authinfo} file is (almost) the same as the
10591 @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file, which is defined in the @code{ftp}
10592 manual page, but here are the salient facts:
10596 The file contains one or more line, each of which define one server.
10599 Each line may contain an arbitrary number of token/value pairs.
10601 The valid tokens include @samp{machine}, @samp{login}, @samp{password},
10602 @samp{default}. In addition Gnus introduces two new tokens, not present
10603 in the original @file{.netrc}/@code{ftp} syntax, namely @samp{port} and
10604 @samp{force}. (This is the only way the @file{.authinfo} file format
10605 deviates from the @file{.netrc} file format.) @samp{port} is used to
10606 indicate what port on the server the credentials apply to and
10607 @samp{force} is explained below.
10611 Here's an example file:
10614 machine news.uio.no login larsi password geheimnis
10615 machine nntp.ifi.uio.no login larsi force yes
10618 The token/value pairs may appear in any order; @samp{machine} doesn't
10619 have to be first, for instance.
10621 In this example, both login name and password have been supplied for the
10622 former server, while the latter has only the login name listed, and the
10623 user will be prompted for the password. The latter also has the
10624 @samp{force} tag, which means that the authinfo will be sent to the
10625 @var{nntp} server upon connection; the default (i.e., when there is not
10626 @samp{force} tag) is to not send authinfo to the @var{nntp} server
10627 until the @var{nntp} server asks for it.
10629 You can also add @samp{default} lines that will apply to all servers
10630 that don't have matching @samp{machine} lines.
10636 This will force sending @samp{AUTHINFO} commands to all servers not
10637 previously mentioned.
10639 Remember to not leave the @file{~/.authinfo} file world-readable.
10641 @item nntp-server-action-alist
10642 @vindex nntp-server-action-alist
10643 This is a list of regexps to match on server types and actions to be
10644 taken when matches are made. For instance, if you want Gnus to beep
10645 every time you connect to innd, you could say something like:
10648 (setq nntp-server-action-alist
10649 '(("innd" (ding))))
10652 You probably don't want to do that, though.
10654 The default value is
10657 '(("nntpd 1\\.5\\.11t"
10658 (remove-hook 'nntp-server-opened-hook 'nntp-send-mode-reader)))
10661 This ensures that Gnus doesn't send the @code{MODE READER} command to
10662 nntpd 1.5.11t, since that command chokes that server, I've been told.
10664 @item nntp-maximum-request
10665 @vindex nntp-maximum-request
10666 If the @sc{nntp} server doesn't support @sc{nov} headers, this backend
10667 will collect headers by sending a series of @code{head} commands. To
10668 speed things up, the backend sends lots of these commands without
10669 waiting for reply, and then reads all the replies. This is controlled
10670 by the @code{nntp-maximum-request} variable, and is 400 by default. If
10671 your network is buggy, you should set this to 1.
10673 @item nntp-connection-timeout
10674 @vindex nntp-connection-timeout
10675 If you have lots of foreign @code{nntp} groups that you connect to
10676 regularly, you're sure to have problems with @sc{nntp} servers not
10677 responding properly, or being too loaded to reply within reasonable
10678 time. This is can lead to awkward problems, which can be helped
10679 somewhat by setting @code{nntp-connection-timeout}. This is an integer
10680 that says how many seconds the @code{nntp} backend should wait for a
10681 connection before giving up. If it is @code{nil}, which is the default,
10682 no timeouts are done.
10684 @c @item nntp-command-timeout
10685 @c @vindex nntp-command-timeout
10686 @c @cindex PPP connections
10687 @c @cindex dynamic IP addresses
10688 @c If you're running Gnus on a machine that has a dynamically assigned
10689 @c address, Gnus may become confused. If the address of your machine
10690 @c changes after connecting to the @sc{nntp} server, Gnus will simply sit
10691 @c waiting forever for replies from the server. To help with this
10692 @c unfortunate problem, you can set this command to a number. Gnus will
10693 @c then, if it sits waiting for a reply from the server longer than that
10694 @c number of seconds, shut down the connection, start a new one, and resend
10695 @c the command. This should hopefully be transparent to the user. A
10696 @c likely number is 30 seconds.
10698 @c @item nntp-retry-on-break
10699 @c @vindex nntp-retry-on-break
10700 @c If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you can also @kbd{C-g} if Gnus
10701 @c hangs. This will have much the same effect as the command timeout
10702 @c described above.
10704 @item nntp-server-hook
10705 @vindex nntp-server-hook
10706 This hook is run as the last step when connecting to an @sc{nntp}
10709 @findex nntp-open-rlogin
10710 @findex nntp-open-telnet
10711 @findex nntp-open-network-stream
10712 @item nntp-open-connection-function
10713 @vindex nntp-open-connection-function
10714 This function is used to connect to the remote system. Four pre-made
10715 functions are supplied:
10718 @item nntp-open-network-stream
10719 This is the default, and simply connects to some port or other on the
10722 @item nntp-open-rlogin
10723 Does an @samp{rlogin} on the
10724 remote system, and then does a @samp{telnet} to the @sc{nntp} server
10727 @code{nntp-open-rlogin}-related variables:
10731 @item nntp-rlogin-program
10732 @vindex nntp-rlogin-program
10733 Program used to log in on remote machines. The default is @samp{rsh},
10734 but @samp{ssh} is a popular alternative.
10736 @item nntp-rlogin-parameters
10737 @vindex nntp-rlogin-parameters
10738 This list will be used as the parameter list given to @code{rsh}.
10740 @item nntp-rlogin-user-name
10741 @vindex nntp-rlogin-user-name
10742 User name on the remote system.
10746 @item nntp-open-telnet
10747 Does a @samp{telnet} to the remote system and then another @samp{telnet}
10748 to get to the @sc{nntp} server.
10750 @code{nntp-open-telnet}-related variables:
10753 @item nntp-telnet-command
10754 @vindex nntp-telnet-command
10755 Command used to start @code{telnet}.
10757 @item nntp-telnet-switches
10758 @vindex nntp-telnet-switches
10759 List of strings to be used as the switches to the @code{telnet} command.
10761 @item nntp-telnet-user-name
10762 @vindex nntp-telnet-user-name
10763 User name for log in on the remote system.
10765 @item nntp-telnet-passwd
10766 @vindex nntp-telnet-passwd
10767 Password to use when logging in.
10769 @item nntp-telnet-parameters
10770 @vindex nntp-telnet-parameters
10771 A list of strings executed as a command after logging in
10774 @item nntp-telnet-shell-prompt
10775 @vindex nntp-telnet-shell-prompt
10776 Regexp matching the shell prompt on the remote machine. The default is
10777 @samp{bash\\|\$ *\r?$\\|> *\r?}.
10779 @item nntp-open-telnet-envuser
10780 @vindex nntp-open-telnet-envuser
10781 If non-@code{nil}, the @code{telnet} session (client and server both)
10782 will support the @code{ENVIRON} option and not prompt for login name.
10783 This works for Solaris @code{telnet}, for instance.
10787 @findex nntp-open-ssl-stream
10788 @item nntp-open-ssl-stream
10789 Opens a connection to a server over a @dfn{secure} channel. To use this
10790 you must have SSLay installed
10791 (@uref{ftp://ftp.psy.uq.oz.au/pub/Crypto/SSL}, and you also need
10792 @file{ssl.el} (from the W3 distribution, for instance). You then
10793 define a server as follows:
10796 ;; Type `C-c C-c' after you've finished editing.
10798 ;; "snews" is port 563 and is predefined in our /etc/services
10800 (nntp "snews.bar.com"
10801 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-ssl-stream)
10802 (nntp-port-number "snews")
10803 (nntp-address "snews.bar.com"))
10808 @item nntp-end-of-line
10809 @vindex nntp-end-of-line
10810 String to use as end-of-line marker when talking to the @sc{nntp}
10811 server. This is @samp{\r\n} by default, but should be @samp{\n} when
10812 using @code{rlogin} to talk to the server.
10814 @item nntp-rlogin-user-name
10815 @vindex nntp-rlogin-user-name
10816 User name on the remote system when using the @code{rlogin} connect
10820 @vindex nntp-address
10821 The address of the remote system running the @sc{nntp} server.
10823 @item nntp-port-number
10824 @vindex nntp-port-number
10825 Port number to connect to when using the @code{nntp-open-network-stream}
10828 @item nntp-buggy-select
10829 @vindex nntp-buggy-select
10830 Set this to non-@code{nil} if your select routine is buggy.
10832 @item nntp-nov-is-evil
10833 @vindex nntp-nov-is-evil
10834 If the @sc{nntp} server does not support @sc{nov}, you could set this
10835 variable to @code{t}, but @code{nntp} usually checks automatically whether @sc{nov}
10838 @item nntp-xover-commands
10839 @vindex nntp-xover-commands
10842 List of strings used as commands to fetch @sc{nov} lines from a
10843 server. The default value of this variable is @code{("XOVER"
10847 @vindex nntp-nov-gap
10848 @code{nntp} normally sends just one big request for @sc{nov} lines to
10849 the server. The server responds with one huge list of lines. However,
10850 if you have read articles 2-5000 in the group, and only want to read
10851 article 1 and 5001, that means that @code{nntp} will fetch 4999 @sc{nov}
10852 lines that you will not need. This variable says how
10853 big a gap between two consecutive articles is allowed to be before the
10854 @code{XOVER} request is split into several request. Note that if your
10855 network is fast, setting this variable to a really small number means
10856 that fetching will probably be slower. If this variable is @code{nil},
10857 @code{nntp} will never split requests. The default is 5.
10859 @item nntp-prepare-server-hook
10860 @vindex nntp-prepare-server-hook
10861 A hook run before attempting to connect to an @sc{nntp} server.
10863 @item nntp-warn-about-losing-connection
10864 @vindex nntp-warn-about-losing-connection
10865 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, some noise will be made when a
10866 server closes connection.
10868 @item nntp-record-commands
10869 @vindex nntp-record-commands
10870 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nntp} will log all commands it sends to the
10871 @sc{nntp} server (along with a timestamp) in the @samp{*nntp-log*}
10872 buffer. This is useful if you are debugging a Gnus/@sc{nntp} connection
10873 that doesn't seem to work.
10879 @subsection News Spool
10883 Subscribing to a foreign group from the local spool is extremely easy,
10884 and might be useful, for instance, to speed up reading groups that
10885 contain very big articles---@samp{alt.binaries.pictures.furniture}, for
10888 Anyway, you just specify @code{nnspool} as the method and @code{""} (or
10889 anything else) as the address.
10891 If you have access to a local spool, you should probably use that as the
10892 native select method (@pxref{Finding the News}). It is normally faster
10893 than using an @code{nntp} select method, but might not be. It depends.
10894 You just have to try to find out what's best at your site.
10898 @item nnspool-inews-program
10899 @vindex nnspool-inews-program
10900 Program used to post an article.
10902 @item nnspool-inews-switches
10903 @vindex nnspool-inews-switches
10904 Parameters given to the inews program when posting an article.
10906 @item nnspool-spool-directory
10907 @vindex nnspool-spool-directory
10908 Where @code{nnspool} looks for the articles. This is normally
10909 @file{/usr/spool/news/}.
10911 @item nnspool-nov-directory
10912 @vindex nnspool-nov-directory
10913 Where @code{nnspool} will look for @sc{nov} files. This is normally
10914 @file{/usr/spool/news/over.view/}.
10916 @item nnspool-lib-dir
10917 @vindex nnspool-lib-dir
10918 Where the news lib dir is (@file{/usr/lib/news/} by default).
10920 @item nnspool-active-file
10921 @vindex nnspool-active-file
10922 The path to the active file.
10924 @item nnspool-newsgroups-file
10925 @vindex nnspool-newsgroups-file
10926 The path to the group descriptions file.
10928 @item nnspool-history-file
10929 @vindex nnspool-history-file
10930 The path to the news history file.
10932 @item nnspool-active-times-file
10933 @vindex nnspool-active-times-file
10934 The path to the active date file.
10936 @item nnspool-nov-is-evil
10937 @vindex nnspool-nov-is-evil
10938 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnspool} won't try to use any @sc{nov} files
10941 @item nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
10942 @vindex nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
10944 If non-@code{nil}, which is the default, use @code{sed} to get the
10945 relevant portion from the overview file. If nil, @code{nnspool} will
10946 load the entire file into a buffer and process it there.
10952 @section Getting Mail
10953 @cindex reading mail
10956 Reading mail with a newsreader---isn't that just plain WeIrD? But of
10960 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
10961 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
10962 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
10963 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
10964 * Mail Backend Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
10965 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
10966 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
10967 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
10968 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
10969 * Washing Mail:: Removing gruft from the mail you get.
10970 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
10971 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail backends for reading other files.
10972 * Choosing a Mail Backend:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
10976 @node Mail in a Newsreader
10977 @subsection Mail in a Newsreader
10979 If you are used to traditional mail readers, but have decided to switch
10980 to reading mail with Gnus, you may find yourself experiencing something
10981 of a culture shock.
10983 Gnus does not behave like traditional mail readers. If you want to make
10984 it behave that way, you can, but it's an uphill battle.
10986 Gnus, by default, handles all its groups using the same approach. This
10987 approach is very newsreaderly---you enter a group, see the new/unread
10988 messages, and when you read the messages, they get marked as read, and
10989 you don't see them any more. (Unless you explicitly ask for them.)
10991 In particular, you do not do anything explicitly to delete messages.
10993 Does this mean that all the messages that have been marked as read are
10994 deleted? How awful!
10996 But, no, it means that old messages are @dfn{expired} according to some
10997 scheme or other. For news messages, the expire process is controlled by
10998 the news administrator; for mail, the expire process is controlled by
10999 you. The expire process for mail is covered in depth in @pxref{Expiring
11002 What many Gnus users find, after using it a while for both news and
11003 mail, is that the transport mechanism has very little to do with how
11004 they want to treat a message.
11006 Many people subscribe to several mailing lists. These are transported
11007 via SMTP, and are therefore mail. But we might go for weeks without
11008 answering, or even reading these messages very carefully. We may not
11009 need to save them because if we should need to read one again, they are
11010 archived somewhere else.
11012 Some people have local news groups which have only a handful of readers.
11013 These are transported via @sc{nntp}, and are therefore news. But we may need
11014 to read and answer a large fraction of the messages very carefully in
11015 order to do our work. And there may not be an archive, so we may need
11016 to save the interesting messages the same way we would personal mail.
11018 The important distinction turns out to be not the transport mechanism,
11019 but other factors such as how interested we are in the subject matter,
11020 or how easy it is to retrieve the message if we need to read it again.
11022 Gnus provides many options for sorting mail into ``groups'' which behave
11023 like newsgroups, and for treating each group (whether mail or news)
11026 Some users never get comfortable using the Gnus (ahem) paradigm and wish
11027 that Gnus should grow up and be a male, er, mail reader. It is possible
11028 to whip Gnus into a more mailreaderly being, but, as said before, it's
11029 not easy. People who prefer proper mail readers should try @sc{vm}
11030 instead, which is an excellent, and proper, mail reader.
11032 I don't mean to scare anybody off, but I want to make it clear that you
11033 may be required to learn a new way of thinking about messages. After
11034 you've been subjected to The Gnus Way, you will come to love it. I can
11035 guarantee it. (At least the guy who sold me the Emacs Subliminal
11036 Brain-Washing Functions that I've put into Gnus did guarantee it. You
11037 Will Be Assimilated. You Love Gnus. You Love The Gnus Mail Way.
11041 @node Getting Started Reading Mail
11042 @subsection Getting Started Reading Mail
11044 It's quite easy to use Gnus to read your new mail. You just plonk the
11045 mail backend of your choice into @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods},
11046 and things will happen automatically.
11048 For instance, if you want to use @code{nnml} (which is a "one file per
11049 mail" backend), you could put the following in your @file{.gnus} file:
11052 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
11053 '((nnml "private")))
11056 Now, the next time you start Gnus, this backend will be queried for new
11057 articles, and it will move all the messages in your spool file to its
11058 directory, which is @code{~/Mail/} by default. The new group that will
11059 be created (@samp{mail.misc}) will be subscribed, and you can read it
11060 like any other group.
11062 You will probably want to split the mail into several groups, though:
11065 (setq nnmail-split-methods
11066 '(("junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
11067 ("crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
11071 This will result in three new @code{nnml} mail groups being created:
11072 @samp{nnml:junk}, @samp{nnml:crazy}, and @samp{nnml:other}. All the
11073 mail that doesn't fit into the first two groups will be placed in the
11076 This should be sufficient for reading mail with Gnus. You might want to
11077 give the other sections in this part of the manual a perusal, though.
11078 Especially @pxref{Choosing a Mail Backend} and @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
11081 @node Splitting Mail
11082 @subsection Splitting Mail
11083 @cindex splitting mail
11084 @cindex mail splitting
11086 @vindex nnmail-split-methods
11087 The @code{nnmail-split-methods} variable says how the incoming mail is
11088 to be split into groups.
11091 (setq nnmail-split-methods
11092 '(("mail.junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
11093 ("mail.crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
11094 ("mail.other" "")))
11097 This variable is a list of lists, where the first element of each of
11098 these lists is the name of the mail group (they do not have to be called
11099 something beginning with @samp{mail}, by the way), and the second
11100 element is a regular expression used on the header of each mail to
11101 determine if it belongs in this mail group. The first string may
11102 contain @samp{\\1} forms, like the ones used by @code{replace-match} to
11103 insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For instance:
11106 ("list.\\1" "From:.* \\(.*\\)-list@@majordomo.com")
11109 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
11110 called narrowed to the headers with the first element of the rule as the
11111 argument. It should return a non-@code{nil} value if it thinks that the
11112 mail belongs in that group.
11114 The last of these groups should always be a general one, and the regular
11115 expression should @emph{always} be @samp{} so that it matches any mails
11116 that haven't been matched by any of the other regexps. (These rules are
11117 processed from the beginning of the alist toward the end. The first
11118 rule to make a match will "win", unless you have crossposting enabled.
11119 In that case, all matching rules will "win".)
11121 If you like to tinker with this yourself, you can set this variable to a
11122 function of your choice. This function will be called without any
11123 arguments in a buffer narrowed to the headers of an incoming mail
11124 message. The function should return a list of group names that it
11125 thinks should carry this mail message.
11127 Note that the mail backends are free to maul the poor, innocent,
11128 incoming headers all they want to. They all add @code{Lines} headers;
11129 some add @code{X-Gnus-Group} headers; most rename the Unix mbox
11130 @code{From<SPACE>} line to something else.
11132 @vindex nnmail-crosspost
11133 The mail backends all support cross-posting. If several regexps match,
11134 the mail will be ``cross-posted'' to all those groups.
11135 @code{nnmail-crosspost} says whether to use this mechanism or not. Note
11136 that no articles are crossposted to the general (@samp{}) group.
11138 @vindex nnmail-crosspost-link-function
11141 @code{nnmh} and @code{nnml} makes crossposts by creating hard links to
11142 the crossposted articles. However, not all file systems support hard
11143 links. If that's the case for you, set
11144 @code{nnmail-crosspost-link-function} to @code{copy-file}. (This
11145 variable is @code{add-name-to-file} by default.)
11147 @kindex M-x nnmail-split-history
11148 @kindex nnmail-split-history
11149 If you wish to see where the previous mail split put the messages, you
11150 can use the @kbd{M-x nnmail-split-history} command. If you wish to see
11151 where re-spooling messages would put the messages, you can use
11152 @code{gnus-summary-respool-trace} and related commands (@pxref{Mail
11155 Gnus gives you all the opportunity you could possibly want for shooting
11156 yourself in the foot. Let's say you create a group that will contain
11157 all the mail you get from your boss. And then you accidentally
11158 unsubscribe from the group. Gnus will still put all the mail from your
11159 boss in the unsubscribed group, and so, when your boss mails you ``Have
11160 that report ready by Monday or you're fired!'', you'll never see it and,
11161 come Tuesday, you'll still believe that you're gainfully employed while
11162 you really should be out collecting empty bottles to save up for next
11163 month's rent money.
11167 @subsection Mail Sources
11169 Mail can be gotten from many different sources---the mail spool, from a
11170 POP mail server, from a procmail directory, or from a maildir, for
11174 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
11175 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
11176 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
11180 @node Mail Source Specifiers
11181 @subsubsection Mail Source Specifiers
11183 @cindex mail server
11186 @cindex mail source
11188 You tell Gnus how to fetch mail by setting @code{mail-sources}
11189 (@pxref{Fetching Mail}) to a @dfn{mail source specifier}.
11194 (pop :server "pop3.mailserver.com" :user "myname")
11197 As can be observed, a mail source specifier is a list where the first
11198 element is a @dfn{mail source type}, followed by an arbitrary number of
11199 @dfn{keywords}. Keywords that are not explicitly specified are given
11202 The following mail source types are available:
11206 Get mail from a single file; typically from the mail spool.
11212 The path of the file. Defaults to the value of the @code{MAIL}
11213 environment variable or @file{/usr/mail/spool/user-name}.
11216 An example file mail source:
11219 (file :path "/usr/spool/mail/user-name")
11222 Or using the default path:
11228 If the mail spool file is not located on the local machine, it's best to
11229 use POP or @sc{imap} or the like to fetch the mail. You can not use ange-ftp
11230 file names here---it has no way to lock the mail spool while moving the
11233 If it's impossible to set up a proper server, you can use ssh instead.
11237 '((file :prescript "ssh host bin/getmail >%t")))
11240 The @samp{getmail} script would look something like the following:
11244 # getmail - move mail from spool to stdout
11247 MOVEMAIL=/usr/lib/emacs/20.3/i386-redhat-linux/movemail
11249 rm -f $TMP; $MOVEMAIL $MAIL $TMP >/dev/null && cat $TMP
11252 Alter this script to fit find the @samp{movemail} you want to use.
11256 Get mail from several files in a directory. This is typically used when
11257 you have procmail split the incoming mail into several files. Setting
11258 @code{nnmail-scan-directory-mail-source-once} to non-nil force Gnus to
11259 scan the mail source only once.
11265 The path of the directory where the files are. There is no default
11269 Only files ending with this suffix are used. The default is
11273 Only files that have this predicate return non-@code{nil} are returned.
11274 The default is @code{identity}. This is used as an additional
11275 filter---only files that have the right suffix @emph{and} satisfy this
11276 predicate are considered.
11280 Script run before/after fetching mail.
11284 An example directory mail source:
11287 (directory :path "/home/user-name/procmail-dir/"
11292 Get mail from a POP server.
11298 The name of the POP server. The default is taken from the
11299 @code{MAILHOST} environment variable.
11302 The port number of the POP server. This can be a number (eg,
11303 @samp{:port 1234}) or a string (eg, @samp{:port "pop3"}). If it is a
11304 string, it should be a service name as listed in @file{/etc/services} on
11305 Unix systems. The default is @samp{"pop3"}. On some systems you might
11306 need to specify it as @samp{"pop-3"} instead.
11309 The user name to give to the POP server. The default is the login
11313 The password to give to the POP server. If not specified, the user is
11317 The program to use to fetch mail from the POP server. This should be
11318 a @code{format}-like string. Here's an example:
11321 fetchmail %u@@%s -P %p %t
11324 The valid format specifier characters are:
11328 The name of the file the mail is to be moved to. This must always be
11329 included in this string.
11332 The name of the server.
11335 The port number of the server.
11338 The user name to use.
11341 The password to use.
11344 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
11345 corresponding keywords.
11348 A script to be run before fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
11349 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
11352 A script to be run after fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
11353 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
11356 The function to use to fetch mail from the POP server. The function is
11357 called with one parameter---the name of the file where the mail should
11360 @item :authentication
11361 This can be either the symbol @code{password} or the symbol @code{apop}
11362 and says what authentication scheme to use. The default is
11367 If the @code{:program} and @code{:function} keywords aren't specified,
11368 @code{pop3-movemail} will be used.
11370 Here are some examples. Fetch from the default POP server, using the
11371 default user name, and default fetcher:
11377 Fetch from a named server with a named user and password:
11380 (pop :server "my.pop.server"
11381 :user "user-name" :password "secret")
11384 Use @samp{movemail} to move the mail:
11387 (pop :program "movemail po:%u %t %p")
11391 Get mail from a maildir. This is a type of mailbox that is supported by
11392 at least qmail and postfix, where each file in a special directory
11393 contains exactly one mail.
11399 The path of the directory where the mails are stored. The default is
11400 taken from the @code{MAILDIR} environment variable or
11403 The subdirectories of the Maildir. The default is
11404 @samp{("new" "cur")}.
11406 @c If you sometimes look at your mail through a pop3 daemon before fetching
11407 @c them with Gnus, you may also have to fetch your mails from the
11408 @c @code{cur} directory inside the maildir, like in the first example
11411 You can also get mails from remote hosts (because maildirs don't suffer
11412 from locking problems).
11416 Two example maildir mail sources:
11419 (maildir :path "/home/user-name/Maildir/" :subdirs ("cur" "new"))
11423 (maildir :path "/user@@remotehost.org:~/Maildir/" :subdirs ("new"))
11427 Get mail from a @sc{imap} server. If you don't want to use @sc{imap} as
11428 intended, as a network mail reading protocol (ie with nnimap), for some
11429 reason or other, Gnus let you treat it similar to a POP server and
11430 fetches articles from a given @sc{imap} mailbox.
11436 The name of the @sc{imap} server. The default is taken from the
11437 @code{MAILHOST} environment variable.
11440 The port number of the @sc{imap} server. The default is @samp{143}, or
11441 @samp{993} for SSL connections.
11444 The user name to give to the @sc{imap} server. The default is the login
11448 The password to give to the @sc{imap} server. If not specified, the user is
11452 What stream to use for connecting to the server, this is one of the
11453 symbols in @code{imap-stream-alist}. Right now, this means
11454 @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{ssl} or the default @samp{network}.
11456 @item :authentication
11457 Which authenticator to use for authenticating to the server, this is one
11458 of the symbols in @code{imap-authenticator-alist}. Right now, this
11459 means @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{cram-md5}, @samp{anonymous} or the default
11463 When using the `shell' :stream, the contents of this variable is
11464 mapped into the `imap-shell-program' variable. This should be a
11465 @code{format}-like string (or list of strings). Here's an example:
11471 The valid format specifier characters are:
11475 The name of the server.
11478 User name from `imap-default-user'.
11481 The port number of the server.
11484 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
11485 corresponding keywords.
11488 The name of the mailbox to get mail from. The default is @samp{INBOX}
11489 which normally is the mailbox which receive incoming mail.
11492 The predicate used to find articles to fetch. The default, @samp{UNSEEN
11493 UNDELETED}, is probably the best choice for most people, but if you
11494 sometimes peek in your mailbox with a @sc{imap} client and mark some
11495 articles as read (or; SEEN) you might want to set this to @samp{nil}.
11496 Then all articles in the mailbox is fetched, no matter what. For a
11497 complete list of predicates, see RFC 2060 §6.4.4.
11500 How to flag fetched articles on the server, the default @samp{\Deleted}
11501 will mark them as deleted, an alternative would be @samp{\Seen} which
11502 would simply mark them as read. These are the two most likely choices,
11503 but more flags are defined in RFC 2060 §2.3.2.
11506 If non-nil, don't remove all articles marked as deleted in the mailbox
11507 after finishing the fetch.
11511 An example @sc{imap} mail source:
11514 (imap :server "mail.mycorp.com" :stream kerberos4 :fetchflag "\\Seen")
11518 Get mail from a webmail server, such as www.hotmail.com,
11519 webmail.netscape.com, www.netaddress.com, www.my-deja.com.
11521 NOTE: Now mail.yahoo.com provides POP3 service, so @sc{pop} mail source
11524 NOTE: Webmail largely depends cookies. A "one-line-cookie" patch is
11525 required for url "4.0pre.46".
11527 WARNING: Mails may lost. NO WARRANTY.
11533 The type of the webmail server. The default is @code{hotmail}. The
11534 alternatives are @code{netscape}, @code{netaddress}, @code{my-deja}.
11537 The user name to give to the webmail server. The default is the login
11541 The password to give to the webmail server. If not specified, the user is
11545 If non-nil, only fetch unread articles and don't move them to trash
11546 folder after finishing the fetch.
11550 An example webmail source:
11553 (webmail :subtype 'hotmail :user "user-name" :password "secret")
11558 @item Common Keywords
11559 Common keywords can be used in any type of mail source.
11565 If non-nil, fetch the mail even when Gnus is unplugged. If you use
11566 directory source to get mail, you can specify it as in this example:
11570 '((directory :path "/home/pavel/.Spool/"
11575 Gnus will then fetch your mail even when you are unplugged. This is
11576 useful when you use local mail and news.
11581 @subsubsection Function Interface
11583 Some of the above keywords specify a Lisp function to be executed.
11584 For each keyword @code{:foo}, the Lisp variable @code{foo} is bound to
11585 the value of the keyword while the function is executing. For example,
11586 consider the following mail-source setting:
11589 (setq mail-sources '((pop :user "jrl"
11590 :server "pophost" :function fetchfunc)))
11593 While the function @code{fetchfunc} is executing, the symbol @code{user}
11594 is bound to @code{"jrl"}, and the symbol @code{server} is bound to
11595 @code{"pophost"}. The symbols @code{port}, @code{password},
11596 @code{program}, @code{prescript}, @code{postscript}, @code{function},
11597 and @code{authentication} are also bound (to their default values).
11599 See above for a list of keywords for each type of mail source.
11602 @node Mail Source Customization
11603 @subsubsection Mail Source Customization
11605 The following is a list of variables that influence how the mail is
11606 fetched. You would normally not need to set or change any of these
11610 @item mail-source-crash-box
11611 @vindex mail-source-crash-box
11612 File where mail will be stored while processing it. The default is
11613 @file{~/.emacs-mail-crash-box}.
11615 @item mail-source-delete-incoming
11616 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
11617 If non-@code{nil}, delete incoming files after handling them.
11619 @item mail-source-directory
11620 @vindex mail-source-directory
11621 Directory where files (if any) will be stored. The default is
11622 @file{~/Mail/}. At present, the only thing this is used for is to say
11623 where the incoming files will be stored if the previous variable is
11626 @item mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
11627 @vindex mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
11628 Prefix for file name for storing incoming mail. The default is
11629 @file{Incoming}, in which case files will end up with names like
11630 @file{Incoming30630D_} or @file{Incoming298602ZD}. This is really only
11631 relevant if @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is @code{nil}.
11633 @item mail-source-default-file-modes
11634 @vindex mail-source-default-file-modes
11635 All new mail files will get this file mode. The default is 384.
11640 @node Fetching Mail
11641 @subsubsection Fetching Mail
11643 @vindex mail-sources
11644 @vindex nnmail-spool-file
11645 The way to actually tell Gnus where to get new mail from is to set
11646 @code{mail-sources} to a list of mail source specifiers
11647 (@pxref{Mail Source Specifiers}).
11649 If this variable (and the obsolescent @code{nnmail-spool-file}) is
11650 @code{nil}, the mail backends will never attempt to fetch mail by
11653 If you want to fetch mail both from your local spool as well as a POP
11654 mail server, you'd say something like:
11659 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
11660 :password "secret")))
11663 Or, if you don't want to use any of the keyword defaults:
11667 '((file :path "/var/spool/mail/user-name")
11668 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
11671 :password "secret")))
11675 When you use a mail backend, Gnus will slurp all your mail from your
11676 inbox and plonk it down in your home directory. Gnus doesn't move any
11677 mail if you're not using a mail backend---you have to do a lot of magic
11678 invocations first. At the time when you have finished drawing the
11679 pentagram, lightened the candles, and sacrificed the goat, you really
11680 shouldn't be too surprised when Gnus moves your mail.
11684 @node Mail Backend Variables
11685 @subsection Mail Backend Variables
11687 These variables are (for the most part) pertinent to all the various
11691 @vindex nnmail-read-incoming-hook
11692 @item nnmail-read-incoming-hook
11693 The mail backends all call this hook after reading new mail. You can
11694 use this hook to notify any mail watch programs, if you want to.
11696 @vindex nnmail-split-hook
11697 @item nnmail-split-hook
11698 @findex article-decode-encoded-words
11699 @findex RFC 1522 decoding
11700 @findex RFC 2047 decoding
11701 Hook run in the buffer where the mail headers of each message is kept
11702 just before the splitting based on these headers is done. The hook is
11703 free to modify the buffer contents in any way it sees fit---the buffer
11704 is discarded after the splitting has been done, and no changes performed
11705 in the buffer will show up in any files.
11706 @code{gnus-article-decode-encoded-words} is one likely function to add
11709 @vindex nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
11710 @vindex nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
11711 @item nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
11712 @itemx nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
11713 These are two useful hooks executed when treating new incoming
11714 mail---@code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook} (is called just before
11715 starting to handle the new mail) and
11716 @code{nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook} (is called when the mail handling
11717 is done). Here's and example of using these two hooks to change the
11718 default file modes the new mail files get:
11721 (add-hook 'gnus-pre-get-new-mail-hook
11722 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 511)))
11724 (add-hook 'gnus-post-get-new-mail-hook
11725 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 551)))
11728 @item nnmail-use-long-file-names
11729 @vindex nnmail-use-long-file-names
11730 If non-@code{nil}, the mail backends will use long file and directory
11731 names. Groups like @samp{mail.misc} will end up in directories
11732 (assuming use of @code{nnml} backend) or files (assuming use of
11733 @code{nnfolder} backend) like @file{mail.misc}. If it is @code{nil},
11734 the same group will end up in @file{mail/misc}.
11736 @item nnmail-delete-file-function
11737 @vindex nnmail-delete-file-function
11738 @findex delete-file
11739 Function called to delete files. It is @code{delete-file} by default.
11741 @item nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
11742 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
11743 If non-@code{nil}, put the @code{Message-ID}s of articles imported into
11744 the backend (via @code{Gcc}, for instance) into the mail duplication
11745 discovery cache. The default is @code{nil}.
11750 @node Fancy Mail Splitting
11751 @subsection Fancy Mail Splitting
11752 @cindex mail splitting
11753 @cindex fancy mail splitting
11755 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy
11756 @findex nnmail-split-fancy
11757 If the rather simple, standard method for specifying how to split mail
11758 doesn't allow you to do what you want, you can set
11759 @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy}. Then you can
11760 play with the @code{nnmail-split-fancy} variable.
11762 Let's look at an example value of this variable first:
11765 ;; Messages from the mailer daemon are not crossposted to any of
11766 ;; the ordinary groups. Warnings are put in a separate group
11767 ;; from real errors.
11768 (| ("from" mail (| ("subject" "warn.*" "mail.warning")
11770 ;; Non-error messages are crossposted to all relevant
11771 ;; groups, but we don't crosspost between the group for the
11772 ;; (ding) list and the group for other (ding) related mail.
11773 (& (| (any "ding@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "ding.list")
11774 ("subject" "ding" "ding.misc"))
11775 ;; Other mailing lists...
11776 (any "procmail@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "procmail.list")
11777 (any "SmartList@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "SmartList.list")
11778 ;; Both lists below have the same suffix, so prevent
11779 ;; cross-posting to mkpkg.list of messages posted only to
11780 ;; the bugs- list, but allow cross-posting when the
11781 ;; message was really cross-posted.
11782 (any "bugs-mypackage@@somewhere" "mypkg.bugs")
11783 (any "mypackage@@somewhere\" - "bugs-mypackage" "mypkg.list")
11785 (any "larsi@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "people.Lars_Magne_Ingebrigtsen"))
11786 ;; Unmatched mail goes to the catch all group.
11790 This variable has the format of a @dfn{split}. A split is a (possibly)
11791 recursive structure where each split may contain other splits. Here are
11792 the five possible split syntaxes:
11797 @samp{group}: If the split is a string, that will be taken as a group
11798 name. Normal regexp match expansion will be done. See below for
11802 @code{(@var{field} @var{value} @code{[-} @var{restrict}
11803 @code{[@dots{}]}@code{]} @var{split})}: If the split is a list, the
11804 first element of which is a string, then store the message as
11805 specified by @var{split}, if header @var{field} (a regexp) contains
11806 @var{value} (also a regexp). If @var{restrict} (yet another regexp)
11807 matches some string after @var{field} and before the end of the
11808 matched @var{value}, the @var{split} is ignored. If none of the
11809 @var{restrict} clauses match, @var{split} is processed.
11812 @code{(| @var{split}@dots{})}: If the split is a list, and the first
11813 element is @code{|} (vertical bar), then process each @var{split} until
11814 one of them matches. A @var{split} is said to match if it will cause
11815 the mail message to be stored in one or more groups.
11818 @code{(& @var{split}@dots{})}: If the split is a list, and the first
11819 element is @code{&}, then process all @var{split}s in the list.
11822 @code{junk}: If the split is the symbol @code{junk}, then don't save
11823 this message. Use with extreme caution.
11826 @code{(: @var{function} @var{arg1} @var{arg2} @dots{})}: If the split is
11827 a list, and the first element is @code{:}, then the second element will
11828 be called as a function with @var{args} given as arguments. The
11829 function should return a @var{split}.
11831 For instance, the following function could be used to split based on the
11832 body of the messages:
11835 (defun split-on-body ()
11837 (set-buffer " *nnmail incoming*")
11838 (goto-char (point-min))
11839 (when (re-search-forward "Some.*string" nil t)
11844 @code{(! @var{func} @var{split})}: If the split is a list, and the first
11845 element is @code{!}, then SPLIT will be processed, and FUNC will be
11846 called as a function with the result of SPLIT as argument. FUNC should
11850 @code{nil}: If the split is @code{nil}, it is ignored.
11854 In these splits, @var{field} must match a complete field name.
11855 @var{value} must match a complete word according to the fundamental mode
11856 syntax table. You can use @code{.*} in the regexps to match partial
11857 field names or words. In other words, all @var{value}'s are wrapped in
11858 @samp{\<} and @samp{\>} pairs.
11860 @vindex nnmail-split-abbrev-alist
11861 @var{field} and @var{value} can also be lisp symbols, in that case they
11862 are expanded as specified by the variable
11863 @code{nnmail-split-abbrev-alist}. This is an alist of cons cells, where
11864 the @code{car} of a cell contains the key, and the @code{cdr} contains the associated
11867 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table
11868 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table} is the syntax table in effect
11869 when all this splitting is performed.
11871 If you want to have Gnus create groups dynamically based on some
11872 information in the headers (i.e., do @code{replace-match}-like
11873 substitutions in the group names), you can say things like:
11876 (any "debian-\\b\\(\\w+\\)@@lists.debian.org" "mail.debian.\\1")
11879 In this example, messages sent to @samp{debian-foo@@lists.debian.org}
11880 will be filed in @samp{mail.debian.foo}.
11882 If the string contains the element @samp{\&}, then the previously
11883 matched string will be substituted. Similarly, the elements @samp{\\1}
11884 up to @samp{\\9} will be substituted with the text matched by the
11885 groupings 1 through 9.
11887 @findex nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent
11888 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} is a function which allows you to
11889 split followups into the same groups their parents are in. Sometimes
11890 you can't make splitting rules for all your mail. For example, your
11891 boss might send you personal mail regarding different projects you are
11892 working on, and as you can't tell your boss to put a distinguishing
11893 string into the subject line, you have to resort to manually moving the
11894 messages into the right group. With this function, you only have to do
11895 it once per thread.
11897 To use this feature, you have to set @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} to a
11898 non-nil value. And then you can include
11899 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} using the colon feature, like so:
11901 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
11902 '(| (: nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent)
11903 ;; other splits go here
11907 This feature works as follows: when @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} is
11908 non-nil, Gnus records the message id of every message it sees in the
11909 file specified by the variable @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file},
11910 together with the group it is in (the group is omitted for non-mail
11911 messages). When mail splitting is invoked, the function
11912 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} then looks at the References (and
11913 In-Reply-To) header of each message to split and searches the file
11914 specified by @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file} for the message ids.
11915 When it has found a parent, it returns the corresponding group name. It
11916 is recommended that you set @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length} to a
11917 somewhat higher number than the default so that the message ids are
11918 still in the cache. (A value of 5000 appears to create a file some 300
11920 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
11921 When @code{nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus
11922 also records the message ids of moved articles, so that the followup
11923 messages goes into the new group.
11926 @node Group Mail Splitting
11927 @subsection Group Mail Splitting
11928 @cindex mail splitting
11929 @cindex group mail splitting
11931 @findex gnus-group-split
11932 If you subscribe to dozens of mailing lists but you don't want to
11933 maintain mail splitting rules manually, group mail splitting is for you.
11934 You just have to set @var{to-list} and/or @var{to-address} in group
11935 parameters or group customization and set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to
11936 @code{gnus-group-split}. This splitting function will scan all groups
11937 for those parameters and split mail accordingly, i.e., messages posted
11938 from or to the addresses specified in the parameters @var{to-list} or
11939 @var{to-address} of a mail group will be stored in that group.
11941 Sometimes, mailing lists have multiple addresses, and you may want mail
11942 splitting to recognize them all: just set the @var{extra-aliases} group
11943 parameter to the list of additional addresses and it's done. If you'd
11944 rather use a regular expression, set @var{split-regexp}.
11946 All these parameters in a group will be used to create an
11947 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split, in which the @var{field} is @samp{any},
11948 the @var{value} is a single regular expression that matches
11949 @var{to-list}, @var{to-address}, all of @var{extra-aliases} and all
11950 matches of @var{split-regexp}, and the @var{split} is the name of the
11951 group. @var{restrict}s are also supported: just set the
11952 @var{split-exclude} parameter to a list of regular expressions.
11954 If you can't get the right split to be generated using all these
11955 parameters, or you just need something fancier, you can set the
11956 parameter @var{split-spec} to an @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split. In
11957 this case, all other aforementioned parameters will be ignored by
11958 @code{gnus-group-split}. In particular, @var{split-spec} may be set to
11959 @code{nil}, in which case the group will be ignored by
11960 @code{gnus-group-split}.
11962 @vindex gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group
11963 @code{gnus-group-split} will do cross-posting on all groups that match,
11964 by defining a single @code{&} fancy split containing one split for each
11965 group. If a message doesn't match any split, it will be stored in the
11966 group named in @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}, unless
11967 some group has @var{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all}, in which case
11968 that group is used as the catch-all group. Even though this variable is
11969 often used just to name a group, it may also be set to an arbitrarily
11970 complex fancy split (after all, a group name is a fancy split), and this
11971 may be useful to split mail that doesn't go to any mailing list to
11972 personal mail folders. Note that this fancy split is added as the last
11973 element of a @code{|} split list that also contains a @code{&} split
11974 with the rules extracted from group parameters.
11976 It's time for an example. Assume the following group parameters have
11981 ((to-address . "bar@@femail.com")
11982 (split-regexp . ".*@@femail\\.com"))
11984 ((to-list . "foo@@nowhere.gov")
11985 (extra-aliases "foo@@localhost" "foo-redist@@home")
11986 (split-exclude "bugs-foo" "rambling-foo")
11987 (admin-address . "foo-request@@nowhere.gov"))
11989 ((split-spec . catch-all))
11992 Setting @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{gnus-group-split} will
11993 behave as if @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been selected and variable
11994 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been set as follows:
11997 (| (& (any "\\(bar@@femail\\.com\\|.*@@femail\\.com\\)" "mail.bar")
11998 (any "\\(foo@@nowhere\\.gov\\|foo@@localhost\\|foo-redist@@home\\)"
11999 - "bugs-foo" - "rambling-foo" "mail.foo"))
12003 @findex gnus-group-split-fancy
12004 If you'd rather not use group splitting for all your mail groups, you
12005 may use it for only some of them, by using @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
12009 (: gnus-mlsplt-fancy GROUPS NO-CROSSPOST CATCH-ALL)
12012 @var{groups} may be a regular expression or a list of group names whose
12013 parameters will be scanned to generate the output split.
12014 @var{no-crosspost} can be used to disable cross-posting; in this case, a
12015 single @code{|} split will be output. @var{catch-all} is the fallback
12016 fancy split, used like @var{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}.
12017 If @var{catch-all} is @code{nil}, or if @var{split-regexp} matches the
12018 empty string in any selected group, no catch-all split will be issued.
12019 Otherwise, if some group has @var{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all},
12020 this group will override the value of the @var{catch-all} argument.
12022 @findex gnus-group-split-setup
12023 Unfortunately, scanning all groups and their parameters can be quite
12024 slow, especially considering that it has to be done for every message.
12025 But don't despair! The function @code{gnus-group-split-setup} can be
12026 used to enable @code{gnus-group-split} in a much more efficient way. It
12027 sets @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy} and sets
12028 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} to the split produced by
12029 @code{gnus-group-split-fancy}. Thus, the group parameters are only
12030 scanned once, no matter how many messages are split.
12032 @findex gnus-group-split-update
12033 However, if you change group parameters, you'd have to update
12034 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} manually. You can do it by running
12035 @code{gnus-group-split-update}. If you'd rather have it updated
12036 automatically, just tell @code{gnus-group-split-setup} to do it for
12037 you. For example, add to your @file{.gnus}:
12040 (gnus-group-split-setup AUTO-UPDATE CATCH-ALL)
12043 If @var{auto-update} is non-@code{nil}, @code{gnus-group-split-update}
12044 will be added to @code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook}, so you won't ever
12045 have to worry about updating @code{nnmail-split-fancy} again. If you
12046 don't omit @var{catch-all} (it's optional, equivalent to @code{nil}),
12047 @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group} will be set to its
12050 @vindex gnus-group-split-updated-hook
12051 Because you may want to change @code{nnmail-split-fancy} after it is set
12052 by @code{gnus-group-split-update}, this function will run
12053 @code{gnus-group-split-updated-hook} just before finishing.
12055 @node Incorporating Old Mail
12056 @subsection Incorporating Old Mail
12058 Most people have lots of old mail stored in various file formats. If
12059 you have set up Gnus to read mail using one of the spiffy Gnus mail
12060 backends, you'll probably wish to have that old mail incorporated into
12063 Doing so can be quite easy.
12065 To take an example: You're reading mail using @code{nnml}
12066 (@pxref{Mail Spool}), and have set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to a
12067 satisfactory value (@pxref{Splitting Mail}). You have an old Unix mbox
12068 file filled with important, but old, mail. You want to move it into
12069 your @code{nnml} groups.
12075 Go to the group buffer.
12078 Type `G f' and give the path to the mbox file when prompted to create an
12079 @code{nndoc} group from the mbox file (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
12082 Type `SPACE' to enter the newly created group.
12085 Type `M P b' to process-mark all articles in this group's buffer
12086 (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
12089 Type `B r' to respool all the process-marked articles, and answer
12090 @samp{nnml} when prompted (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
12093 All the mail messages in the mbox file will now also be spread out over
12094 all your @code{nnml} groups. Try entering them and check whether things
12095 have gone without a glitch. If things look ok, you may consider
12096 deleting the mbox file, but I wouldn't do that unless I was absolutely
12097 sure that all the mail has ended up where it should be.
12099 Respooling is also a handy thing to do if you're switching from one mail
12100 backend to another. Just respool all the mail in the old mail groups
12101 using the new mail backend.
12104 @node Expiring Mail
12105 @subsection Expiring Mail
12106 @cindex article expiry
12108 Traditional mail readers have a tendency to remove mail articles when
12109 you mark them as read, in some way. Gnus takes a fundamentally
12110 different approach to mail reading.
12112 Gnus basically considers mail just to be news that has been received in
12113 a rather peculiar manner. It does not think that it has the power to
12114 actually change the mail, or delete any mail messages. If you enter a
12115 mail group, and mark articles as ``read'', or kill them in some other
12116 fashion, the mail articles will still exist on the system. I repeat:
12117 Gnus will not delete your old, read mail. Unless you ask it to, of
12120 To make Gnus get rid of your unwanted mail, you have to mark the
12121 articles as @dfn{expirable}. This does not mean that the articles will
12122 disappear right away, however. In general, a mail article will be
12123 deleted from your system if, 1) it is marked as expirable, AND 2) it is
12124 more than one week old. If you do not mark an article as expirable, it
12125 will remain on your system until hell freezes over. This bears
12126 repeating one more time, with some spurious capitalizations: IF you do
12127 NOT mark articles as EXPIRABLE, Gnus will NEVER delete those ARTICLES.
12129 @vindex gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
12130 You do not have to mark articles as expirable by hand. Groups that
12131 match the regular expression @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups} will
12132 have all articles that you read marked as expirable automatically. All
12133 articles marked as expirable have an @samp{E} in the first
12134 column in the summary buffer.
12136 By default, if you have auto expiry switched on, Gnus will mark all the
12137 articles you read as expirable, no matter if they were read or unread
12138 before. To avoid having articles marked as read marked as expirable
12139 automatically, you can put something like the following in your
12142 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
12144 (remove-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook
12145 'gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read)
12146 (add-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook 'gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read)
12149 Note that making a group auto-expirable doesn't mean that all read
12150 articles are expired---only the articles marked as expirable
12151 will be expired. Also note that using the @kbd{d} command won't make
12152 groups expirable---only semi-automatic marking of articles as read will
12153 mark the articles as expirable in auto-expirable groups.
12155 Let's say you subscribe to a couple of mailing lists, and you want the
12156 articles you have read to disappear after a while:
12159 (setq gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
12160 "mail.nonsense-list\\|mail.nice-list")
12163 Another way to have auto-expiry happen is to have the element
12164 @code{auto-expire} in the group parameters of the group.
12166 If you use adaptive scoring (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}) and
12167 auto-expiring, you'll have problems. Auto-expiring and adaptive scoring
12168 don't really mix very well.
12170 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait
12171 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable supplies the default time an
12172 expirable article has to live. Gnus starts counting days from when the
12173 message @emph{arrived}, not from when it was sent. The default is seven
12176 Gnus also supplies a function that lets you fine-tune how long articles
12177 are to live, based on what group they are in. Let's say you want to
12178 have one month expiry period in the @samp{mail.private} group, a one day
12179 expiry period in the @samp{mail.junk} group, and a six day expiry period
12182 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
12184 (setq nnmail-expiry-wait-function
12186 (cond ((string= group "mail.private")
12188 ((string= group "mail.junk")
12190 ((string= group "important")
12196 The group names this function is fed are ``unadorned'' group
12197 names---no @samp{nnml:} prefixes and the like.
12199 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable and
12200 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} function can either be a number (not
12201 necessarily an integer) or one of the symbols @code{immediate} or
12204 You can also use the @code{expiry-wait} group parameter to selectively
12205 change the expiry period (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
12207 @vindex nnmail-expiry-target
12208 The normal action taken when expiring articles is to delete them.
12209 However, in some circumstances it might make more sense to move them to
12210 other groups instead of deleting them. The variable @code{nnmail-expiry-target}
12211 (and the @code{expiry-target} group parameter) controls this. The
12212 variable supplies a default value for all groups, which can be
12213 overridden for specific groups by the group parameter.
12214 default value is @code{delete}, but this can also be a string (which
12215 should be the name of the group the message should be moved to), or a
12216 function (which will be called in a buffer narrowed to the message in
12217 question, and with the name of the group being moved from as its
12218 parameter) which should return a target -- either a group name or
12221 Here's an example for specifying a group name:
12223 (setq nnmail-expiry-target "nnml:expired")
12227 @vindex nnmail-keep-last-article
12228 If @code{nnmail-keep-last-article} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will never
12229 expire the final article in a mail newsgroup. This is to make life
12230 easier for procmail users.
12232 @vindex gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups
12233 By the way: That line up there, about Gnus never expiring non-expirable
12234 articles, is a lie. If you put @code{total-expire} in the group
12235 parameters, articles will not be marked as expirable, but all read
12236 articles will be put through the expiry process. Use with extreme
12237 caution. Even more dangerous is the
12238 @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups} variable. All groups that match
12239 this regexp will have all read articles put through the expiry process,
12240 which means that @emph{all} old mail articles in the groups in question
12241 will be deleted after a while. Use with extreme caution, and don't come
12242 crying to me when you discover that the regexp you used matched the
12243 wrong group and all your important mail has disappeared. Be a
12244 @emph{man}! Or a @emph{woman}! Whatever you feel more comfortable
12247 Most people make most of their mail groups total-expirable, though.
12249 @vindex gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire
12250 If @code{gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire} is non-@code{nil}, user marking
12251 commands will not mark an article as expirable, even if the group has
12252 auto-expire turned on.
12256 @subsection Washing Mail
12257 @cindex mail washing
12258 @cindex list server brain damage
12259 @cindex incoming mail treatment
12261 Mailers and list servers are notorious for doing all sorts of really,
12262 really stupid things with mail. ``Hey, RFC 822 doesn't explicitly
12263 prohibit us from adding the string @code{wE aRe ElItE!!!!!1!!} to the
12264 end of all lines passing through our server, so let's do that!!!!1!''
12265 Yes, but RFC 822 wasn't designed to be read by morons. Things that were
12266 considered to be self-evident were not discussed. So. Here we are.
12268 Case in point: The German version of Microsoft Exchange adds @samp{AW:
12269 } to the subjects of replies instead of @samp{Re: }. I could pretend to
12270 be shocked and dismayed by this, but I haven't got the energy. It is to
12273 Gnus provides a plethora of functions for washing articles while
12274 displaying them, but it might be nicer to do the filtering before
12275 storing the mail to disc. For that purpose, we have three hooks and
12276 various functions that can be put in these hooks.
12279 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
12280 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
12281 This hook is called before doing anything with the mail and is meant for
12282 grand, sweeping gestures. It is called in a buffer that contains all
12283 the new, incoming mail. Functions to be used include:
12286 @item nnheader-ms-strip-cr
12287 @findex nnheader-ms-strip-cr
12288 Remove trailing carriage returns from each line. This is default on
12289 Emacs running on MS machines.
12293 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
12294 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
12295 This hook is called narrowed to each header. It can be used when
12296 cleaning up the headers. Functions that can be used include:
12299 @item nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
12300 @findex nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
12301 Clear leading white space that ``helpful'' listservs have added to the
12302 headers to make them look nice. Aaah.
12304 @item nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
12305 @findex nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
12306 Some list servers add an identifier---for example, @samp{(idm)}---to the
12307 beginning of all @code{Subject} headers. I'm sure that's nice for
12308 people who use stone age mail readers. This function will remove
12309 strings that match the @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} regexp, which can
12310 also be a list of regexp. @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} may not contain
12313 For instance, if you want to remove the @samp{(idm)} and the
12314 @samp{nagnagnag} identifiers:
12317 (setq nnmail-list-identifiers
12318 '("(idm)" "nagnagnag"))
12321 This can also be done non-destructively with
12322 @code{gnus-list-identifiers}, @xref{Article Hiding}.
12324 @item nnmail-remove-tabs
12325 @findex nnmail-remove-tabs
12326 Translate all @samp{TAB} characters into @samp{SPACE} characters.
12328 @item nnmail-fix-eudora-headers
12329 @findex nnmail-fix-eudora-headers
12331 Eudora produces broken @code{References} headers, but OK
12332 @code{In-Reply-To} headers. This function will get rid of the
12333 @code{References} headers.
12337 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
12338 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
12339 This hook is called narrowed to each message. Functions to be used
12343 @item article-de-quoted-unreadable
12344 @findex article-de-quoted-unreadable
12345 Decode Quoted Readable encoding.
12352 @subsection Duplicates
12354 @vindex nnmail-treat-duplicates
12355 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-length
12356 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-file
12357 @cindex duplicate mails
12358 If you are a member of a couple of mailing lists, you will sometimes
12359 receive two copies of the same mail. This can be quite annoying, so
12360 @code{nnmail} checks for and treats any duplicates it might find. To do
12361 this, it keeps a cache of old @code{Message-ID}s---
12362 @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}, which is @file{~/.nnmail-cache} by
12363 default. The approximate maximum number of @code{Message-ID}s stored
12364 there is controlled by the @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length}
12365 variable, which is 1000 by default. (So 1000 @code{Message-ID}s will be
12366 stored.) If all this sounds scary to you, you can set
12367 @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} to @code{warn} (which is what it is by
12368 default), and @code{nnmail} won't delete duplicate mails. Instead it
12369 will insert a warning into the head of the mail saying that it thinks
12370 that this is a duplicate of a different message.
12372 This variable can also be a function. If that's the case, the function
12373 will be called from a buffer narrowed to the message in question with
12374 the @code{Message-ID} as a parameter. The function must return either
12375 @code{nil}, @code{warn}, or @code{delete}.
12377 You can turn this feature off completely by setting the variable to
12380 If you want all the duplicate mails to be put into a special
12381 @dfn{duplicates} group, you could do that using the normal mail split
12385 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
12386 '(| ;; Messages duplicates go to a separate group.
12387 ("gnus-warning" "duplication of message" "duplicate")
12388 ;; Message from daemons, postmaster, and the like to another.
12389 (any mail "mail.misc")
12396 (setq nnmail-split-methods
12397 '(("duplicates" "^Gnus-Warning:")
12402 Here's a neat feature: If you know that the recipient reads her mail
12403 with Gnus, and that she has @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} set to
12404 @code{delete}, you can send her as many insults as you like, just by
12405 using a @code{Message-ID} of a mail that you know that she's already
12406 received. Think of all the fun! She'll never see any of it! Whee!
12409 @node Not Reading Mail
12410 @subsection Not Reading Mail
12412 If you start using any of the mail backends, they have the annoying
12413 habit of assuming that you want to read mail with them. This might not
12414 be unreasonable, but it might not be what you want.
12416 If you set @code{mail-sources} and @code{nnmail-spool-file} to
12417 @code{nil}, none of the backends will ever attempt to read incoming
12418 mail, which should help.
12420 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
12421 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
12422 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
12423 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
12424 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
12425 This might be too much, if, for instance, you are reading mail quite
12426 happily with @code{nnml} and just want to peek at some old @sc{rmail}
12427 file you have stashed away with @code{nnbabyl}. All backends have
12428 variables called backend-@code{get-new-mail}. If you want to disable
12429 the @code{nnbabyl} mail reading, you edit the virtual server for the
12430 group to have a setting where @code{nnbabyl-get-new-mail} to @code{nil}.
12432 All the mail backends will call @code{nn}*@code{-prepare-save-mail-hook}
12433 narrowed to the article to be saved before saving it when reading
12437 @node Choosing a Mail Backend
12438 @subsection Choosing a Mail Backend
12440 Gnus will read the mail spool when you activate a mail group. The mail
12441 file is first copied to your home directory. What happens after that
12442 depends on what format you want to store your mail in.
12444 There are five different mail backends in the standard Gnus, and more
12445 backends are available separately. The mail backend most people use
12446 (because it is the fastest and most flexible) is @code{nnml}
12447 (@pxref{Mail Spool}).
12450 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
12451 * Rmail Babyl:: Emacs programs use the rmail babyl format.
12452 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
12453 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like backend.
12454 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
12455 * Comparing Mail Backends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
12459 @node Unix Mail Box
12460 @subsubsection Unix Mail Box
12462 @cindex unix mail box
12464 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
12465 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
12466 The @dfn{nnmbox} backend will use the standard Un*x mbox file to store
12467 mail. @code{nnmbox} will add extra headers to each mail article to say
12468 which group it belongs in.
12470 Virtual server settings:
12473 @item nnmbox-mbox-file
12474 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
12475 The name of the mail box in the user's home directory.
12477 @item nnmbox-active-file
12478 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
12479 The name of the active file for the mail box.
12481 @item nnmbox-get-new-mail
12482 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
12483 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmbox} will read incoming mail and split it
12489 @subsubsection Rmail Babyl
12493 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
12494 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
12495 The @dfn{nnbabyl} backend will use a babyl mail box (aka. @dfn{rmail
12496 mbox}) to store mail. @code{nnbabyl} will add extra headers to each
12497 mail article to say which group it belongs in.
12499 Virtual server settings:
12502 @item nnbabyl-mbox-file
12503 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
12504 The name of the rmail mbox file.
12506 @item nnbabyl-active-file
12507 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
12508 The name of the active file for the rmail box.
12510 @item nnbabyl-get-new-mail
12511 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
12512 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnbabyl} will read incoming mail.
12517 @subsubsection Mail Spool
12519 @cindex mail @sc{nov} spool
12521 The @dfn{nnml} spool mail format isn't compatible with any other known
12522 format. It should be used with some caution.
12524 @vindex nnml-directory
12525 If you use this backend, Gnus will split all incoming mail into files,
12526 one file for each mail, and put the articles into the corresponding
12527 directories under the directory specified by the @code{nnml-directory}
12528 variable. The default value is @file{~/Mail/}.
12530 You do not have to create any directories beforehand; Gnus will take
12533 If you have a strict limit as to how many files you are allowed to store
12534 in your account, you should not use this backend. As each mail gets its
12535 own file, you might very well occupy thousands of inodes within a few
12536 weeks. If this is no problem for you, and it isn't a problem for you
12537 having your friendly systems administrator walking around, madly,
12538 shouting ``Who is eating all my inodes?! Who? Who!?!'', then you should
12539 know that this is probably the fastest format to use. You do not have
12540 to trudge through a big mbox file just to read your new mail.
12542 @code{nnml} is probably the slowest backend when it comes to article
12543 splitting. It has to create lots of files, and it also generates
12544 @sc{nov} databases for the incoming mails. This makes it the fastest
12545 backend when it comes to reading mail.
12547 Virtual server settings:
12550 @item nnml-directory
12551 @vindex nnml-directory
12552 All @code{nnml} directories will be placed under this directory.
12554 @item nnml-active-file
12555 @vindex nnml-active-file
12556 The active file for the @code{nnml} server.
12558 @item nnml-newsgroups-file
12559 @vindex nnml-newsgroups-file
12560 The @code{nnml} group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
12563 @item nnml-get-new-mail
12564 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
12565 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will read incoming mail.
12567 @item nnml-nov-is-evil
12568 @vindex nnml-nov-is-evil
12569 If non-@code{nil}, this backend will ignore any @sc{nov} files.
12571 @item nnml-nov-file-name
12572 @vindex nnml-nov-file-name
12573 The name of the @sc{nov} files. The default is @file{.overview}.
12575 @item nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
12576 @vindex nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
12577 Hook run narrowed to an article before saving.
12581 @findex nnml-generate-nov-databases
12582 If your @code{nnml} groups and @sc{nov} files get totally out of whack,
12583 you can do a complete update by typing @kbd{M-x
12584 nnml-generate-nov-databases}. This command will trawl through the
12585 entire @code{nnml} hierarchy, looking at each and every article, so it
12586 might take a while to complete. A better interface to this
12587 functionality can be found in the server buffer (@pxref{Server
12592 @subsubsection MH Spool
12594 @cindex mh-e mail spool
12596 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, except that is doesn't generate
12597 @sc{nov} databases and it doesn't keep an active file. This makes
12598 @code{nnmh} a @emph{much} slower backend than @code{nnml}, but it also
12599 makes it easier to write procmail scripts for.
12601 Virtual server settings:
12604 @item nnmh-directory
12605 @vindex nnmh-directory
12606 All @code{nnmh} directories will be located under this directory.
12608 @item nnmh-get-new-mail
12609 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
12610 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will read incoming mail.
12613 @vindex nnmh-be-safe
12614 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will go to ridiculous lengths to make
12615 sure that the articles in the folder are actually what Gnus thinks they
12616 are. It will check date stamps and stat everything in sight, so
12617 setting this to @code{t} will mean a serious slow-down. If you never
12618 use anything but Gnus to read the @code{nnmh} articles, you do not have
12619 to set this variable to @code{t}.
12624 @subsubsection Mail Folders
12626 @cindex mbox folders
12627 @cindex mail folders
12629 @code{nnfolder} is a backend for storing each mail group in a separate
12630 file. Each file is in the standard Un*x mbox format. @code{nnfolder}
12631 will add extra headers to keep track of article numbers and arrival
12634 Virtual server settings:
12637 @item nnfolder-directory
12638 @vindex nnfolder-directory
12639 All the @code{nnfolder} mail boxes will be stored under this directory.
12641 @item nnfolder-active-file
12642 @vindex nnfolder-active-file
12643 The name of the active file.
12645 @item nnfolder-newsgroups-file
12646 @vindex nnfolder-newsgroups-file
12647 The name of the group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File Format}.
12649 @item nnfolder-get-new-mail
12650 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
12651 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnfolder} will read incoming mail.
12653 @item nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
12654 @vindex nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
12655 @cindex backup files
12656 Hook run before saving the folders. Note that Emacs does the normal
12657 backup renaming of files even with the @code{nnfolder} buffers. If you
12658 wish to switch this off, you could say something like the following in
12659 your @file{.emacs} file:
12662 (defun turn-off-backup ()
12663 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
12665 (add-hook 'nnfolder-save-buffer-hook 'turn-off-backup)
12668 @item nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
12669 @vindex nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
12670 Hook run in a buffer narrowed to the message that is to be deleted.
12671 This function can be used to copy the message to somewhere else, or to
12672 extract some information from it before removing it.
12674 @item nnfolder-nov-is-evil
12675 @vindex nnfolder-nov-is-evil
12676 If non-@code{nil}, this backend will ignore any @sc{nov} files.
12681 @findex nnfolder-generate-active-file
12682 @kindex M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file
12683 If you have lots of @code{nnfolder}-like files you'd like to read with
12684 @code{nnfolder}, you can use the @kbd{M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file}
12685 command to make @code{nnfolder} aware of all likely files in
12686 @code{nnfolder-directory}. This only works if you use long file names,
12689 @node Comparing Mail Backends
12690 @subsubsection Comparing Mail Backends
12692 First, just for terminology, the @dfn{backend} is the common word for a
12693 low-level access method---a transport, if you will, by which something
12694 is acquired. The sense is that one's mail has to come from somewhere,
12695 and so selection of a suitable backend is required in order to get that
12696 mail within spitting distance of Gnus.
12698 The same concept exists for Usenet itself: Though access to articles is
12699 typically done by @sc{nntp} these days, once upon a midnight dreary, everyone
12700 in the world got at Usenet by running a reader on the machine where the
12701 articles lay (the machine which today we call an @sc{nntp} server), and
12702 access was by the reader stepping into the articles' directory spool
12703 area directly. One can still select between either the @code{nntp} or
12704 @code{nnspool} backends, to select between these methods, if one happens
12705 actually to live on the server (or can see its spool directly, anyway,
12708 The goal in selecting a mail backend is to pick one which
12709 simultaneously represents a suitable way of dealing with the original
12710 format plus leaving mail in a form that is convenient to use in the
12711 future. Here are some high and low points on each:
12716 UNIX systems have historically had a single, very common, and well-
12717 defined format. All messages arrive in a single @dfn{spool file}, and
12718 they are delineated by a line whose regular expression matches
12719 @samp{^From_}. (My notational use of @samp{_} is to indicate a space,
12720 to make it clear in this instance that this is not the RFC-specified
12721 @samp{From:} header.) Because Emacs and therefore Gnus emanate
12722 historically from the Unix environment, it is simplest if one does not
12723 mess a great deal with the original mailbox format, so if one chooses
12724 this backend, Gnus' primary activity in getting mail from the real spool
12725 area to Gnus' preferred directory is simply to copy it, with no
12726 (appreciable) format change in the process. It is the ``dumbest'' way
12727 to move mail into availability in the Gnus environment. This makes it
12728 fast to move into place, but slow to parse, when Gnus has to look at
12733 Once upon a time, there was the DEC-10 and DEC-20, running operating
12734 systems called TOPS and related things, and the usual (only?) mail
12735 reading environment was a thing called Babyl. I don't know what format
12736 was used for mail landing on the system, but Babyl had its own internal
12737 format to which mail was converted, primarily involving creating a
12738 spool-file-like entity with a scheme for inserting Babyl-specific
12739 headers and status bits above the top of each message in the file.
12740 RMAIL was Emacs' first mail reader, it was written by Richard Stallman,
12741 and Stallman came out of that TOPS/Babyl environment, so he wrote RMAIL
12742 to understand the mail files folks already had in existence. Gnus (and
12743 VM, for that matter) continue to support this format because it's
12744 perceived as having some good qualities in those mailer-specific
12745 headers/status bits stuff. RMAIL itself still exists as well, of
12746 course, and is still maintained by Stallman.
12748 Both of the above forms leave your mail in a single file on your
12749 filesystem, and they must parse that entire file each time you take a
12754 @code{nnml} is the backend which smells the most as though you were
12755 actually operating with an @code{nnspool}-accessed Usenet system. (In
12756 fact, I believe @code{nnml} actually derived from @code{nnspool} code,
12757 lo these years ago.) One's mail is taken from the original spool file,
12758 and is then cut up into individual message files, 1:1. It maintains a
12759 Usenet-style active file (analogous to what one finds in an INN- or
12760 CNews-based news system in (for instance) @file{/var/lib/news/active},
12761 or what is returned via the @samp{NNTP LIST} verb) and also creates
12762 @dfn{overview} files for efficient group entry, as has been defined for
12763 @sc{nntp} servers for some years now. It is slower in mail-splitting,
12764 due to the creation of lots of files, updates to the @code{nnml} active
12765 file, and additions to overview files on a per-message basis, but it is
12766 extremely fast on access because of what amounts to the indexing support
12767 provided by the active file and overviews.
12769 @code{nnml} costs @dfn{inodes} in a big way; that is, it soaks up the
12770 resource which defines available places in the filesystem to put new
12771 files. Sysadmins take a dim view of heavy inode occupation within
12772 tight, shared filesystems. But if you live on a personal machine where
12773 the filesystem is your own and space is not at a premium, @code{nnml}
12776 It is also problematic using this backend if you are living in a
12777 FAT16-based Windows world, since much space will be wasted on all these
12782 The Rand MH mail-reading system has been around UNIX systems for a very
12783 long time; it operates by splitting one's spool file of messages into
12784 individual files, but with little or no indexing support -- @code{nnmh}
12785 is considered to be semantically equivalent to ``@code{nnml} without
12786 active file or overviews''. This is arguably the worst choice, because
12787 one gets the slowness of individual file creation married to the
12788 slowness of access parsing when learning what's new in one's groups.
12792 Basically the effect of @code{nnfolder} is @code{nnmbox} (the first
12793 method described above) on a per-group basis. That is, @code{nnmbox}
12794 itself puts *all* one's mail in one file; @code{nnfolder} provides a
12795 little bit of optimization to this so that each of one's mail groups has
12796 a Unix mail box file. It's faster than @code{nnmbox} because each group
12797 can be parsed separately, and still provides the simple Unix mail box
12798 format requiring minimal effort in moving the mail around. In addition,
12799 it maintains an ``active'' file making it much faster for Gnus to figure
12800 out how many messages there are in each separate group.
12802 If you have groups that are expected to have a massive amount of
12803 messages, @code{nnfolder} is not the best choice, but if you receive
12804 only a moderate amount of mail, @code{nnfolder} is probably the most
12805 friendly mail backend all over.
12810 @node Browsing the Web
12811 @section Browsing the Web
12813 @cindex browsing the web
12817 Web-based discussion forums are getting more and more popular. On many
12818 subjects, the web-based forums have become the most important forums,
12819 eclipsing the importance of mailing lists and news groups. The reason
12820 is easy to understand---they are friendly to new users; you just point
12821 and click, and there's the discussion. With mailing lists, you have to
12822 go through a cumbersome subscription procedure, and most people don't
12823 even know what a news group is.
12825 The problem with this scenario is that web browsers are not very good at
12826 being newsreaders. They do not keep track of what articles you've read;
12827 they do not allow you to score on subjects you're interested in; they do
12828 not allow off-line browsing; they require you to click around and drive
12829 you mad in the end.
12831 So---if web browsers suck at reading discussion forums, why not use Gnus
12834 Gnus has been getting a bit of a collection of backends for providing
12835 interfaces to these sources.
12838 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
12839 * Slashdot:: Reading the Slashdot comments.
12840 * Ultimate:: The Ultimate Bulletin Board systems.
12841 * Web Archive:: Reading mailing list archived on web.
12842 * Customizing w3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/w3 from Gnus.
12845 All the web sources require Emacs/w3 and the url library to work.
12847 The main caveat with all these web sources is that they probably won't
12848 work for a very long time. Gleaning information from the @sc{html} data
12849 is guesswork at best, and when the layout is altered, the Gnus backend
12850 will fail. If you have reasonably new versions of these backends,
12851 though, you should be ok.
12853 One thing all these Web methods have in common is that the Web sources
12854 are often down, unavailable or just plain too slow to be fun. In those
12855 cases, it makes a lot of sense to let the Gnus Agent (@pxref{Gnus
12856 Unplugged}) handle downloading articles, and then you can read them at
12857 leisure from your local disk. No more World Wide Wait for you.
12861 @subsection Web Searches
12865 @cindex InReference
12866 @cindex Usenet searches
12867 @cindex searching the Usenet
12869 It's, like, too neat to search the Usenet for articles that match a
12870 string, but it, like, totally @emph{sucks}, like, totally, to use one of
12871 those, like, Web browsers, and you, like, have to, rilly, like, look at
12872 the commercials, so, like, with Gnus you can do @emph{rad}, rilly,
12873 searches without having to use a browser.
12875 The @code{nnweb} backend allows an easy interface to the mighty search
12876 engine. You create an @code{nnweb} group, enter a search pattern, and
12877 then enter the group and read the articles like you would any normal
12878 group. The @kbd{G w} command in the group buffer (@pxref{Foreign
12879 Groups}) will do this in an easy-to-use fashion.
12881 @code{nnweb} groups don't really lend themselves to being solid
12882 groups---they have a very fleeting idea of article numbers. In fact,
12883 each time you enter an @code{nnweb} group (not even changing the search
12884 pattern), you are likely to get the articles ordered in a different
12885 manner. Not even using duplicate suppression (@pxref{Duplicate
12886 Suppression}) will help, since @code{nnweb} doesn't even know the
12887 @code{Message-ID} of the articles before reading them using some search
12888 engines (DejaNews, for instance). The only possible way to keep track
12889 of which articles you've read is by scoring on the @code{Date}
12890 header---mark all articles posted before the last date you read the
12893 If the search engine changes its output substantially, @code{nnweb}
12894 won't be able to parse it and will fail. One could hardly fault the Web
12895 providers if they were to do this---their @emph{raison d'être} is to
12896 make money off of advertisements, not to provide services to the
12897 community. Since @code{nnweb} washes the ads off all the articles, one
12898 might think that the providers might be somewhat miffed. We'll see.
12900 You must have the @code{url} and @code{w3} package installed to be able
12901 to use @code{nnweb}.
12903 Virtual server variables:
12908 What search engine type is being used. The currently supported types
12909 are @code{dejanews}, @code{dejanewsold}, @code{altavista} and
12913 @vindex nnweb-search
12914 The search string to feed to the search engine.
12916 @item nnweb-max-hits
12917 @vindex nnweb-max-hits
12918 Advisory maximum number of hits per search to display. The default is
12921 @item nnweb-type-definition
12922 @vindex nnweb-type-definition
12923 Type-to-definition alist. This alist says what @code{nnweb} should do
12924 with the various search engine types. The following elements must be
12929 Function to decode the article and provide something that Gnus
12933 Function to create an article number to message header and URL alist.
12936 Function to send the search string to the search engine.
12939 The address the aforementioned function should send the search string
12943 Format string URL to fetch an article by @code{Message-ID}.
12950 @subsection Slashdot
12954 Slashdot (@uref{http://slashdot.org/}) is a popular news site, with
12955 lively discussion following the news articles. @code{nnslashdot} will
12956 let you read this forum in a convenient manner.
12958 The easiest way to read this source is to put something like the
12959 following in your @file{.gnus.el} file:
12962 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
12963 '((nnslashdot "")))
12966 This will make Gnus query the @code{nnslashdot} backend for new comments
12967 and groups. The @kbd{F} command will subscribe each new news article as
12968 a new Gnus group, and you can read the comments by entering these
12969 groups. (Note that the default subscription method is to subscribe new
12970 groups as zombies. Other methods are available (@pxref{Subscription
12973 If you want to remove an old @code{nnslashdot} group, the @kbd{G DEL}
12974 command is the most handy tool (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
12976 When following up to @code{nnslashdot} comments (or posting new
12977 comments), some light @sc{html}izations will be performed. In
12978 particular, text quoted with @samp{> } will be quoted with
12979 @code{blockquote} instead, and signatures will have @code{br} added to
12980 the end of each line. Other than that, you can just write @sc{html}
12981 directly into the message buffer. Note that Slashdot filters out some
12984 The following variables can be altered to change its behavior:
12987 @item nnslashdot-threaded
12988 Whether @code{nnslashdot} should display threaded groups or not. The
12989 default is @code{t}. To be able to display threads, @code{nnslashdot}
12990 has to retrieve absolutely all comments in a group upon entry. If a
12991 threaded display is not required, @code{nnslashdot} will only retrieve
12992 the comments that are actually wanted by the user. Threading is nicer,
12993 but much, much slower than untreaded.
12995 @item nnslashdot-login-name
12996 @vindex nnslashdot-login-name
12997 The login name to use when posting.
12999 @item nnslashdot-password
13000 @vindex nnslashdot-password
13001 The password to use when posting.
13003 @item nnslashdot-directory
13004 @vindex nnslashdot-directory
13005 Where @code{nnslashdot} will store its files. The default value is
13006 @samp{~/News/slashdot/}.
13008 @item nnslashdot-active-url
13009 @vindex nnslashdot-active-url
13010 The @sc{url} format string that will be used to fetch the information on
13011 news articles and comments. The default is
13012 @samp{http://slashdot.org/search.pl?section=&min=%d}.
13014 @item nnslashdot-comments-url
13015 @vindex nnslashdot-comments-url
13016 The @sc{url} format string that will be used to fetch comments. The
13018 @samp{http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=%s&threshold=%d&commentsort=%d&mode=flat&startat=%d}.
13020 @item nnslashdot-article-url
13021 @vindex nnslashdot-article-url
13022 The @sc{url} format string that will be used to fetch the news article. The
13024 @samp{http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=%s&mode=nocomment}.
13026 @item nnslashdot-threshold
13027 @vindex nnslashdot-threshold
13028 The score threshold. The default is -1.
13030 @item nnslashdot-group-number
13031 @vindex nnslashdot-group-number
13032 The number of old groups, in addition to the ten latest, to keep
13033 updated. The default is 0.
13040 @subsection Ultimate
13042 @cindex Ultimate Bulletin Board
13044 The Ultimate Bulletin Board (@uref{http://www.ultimatebb.com/}) is
13045 probably the most popular Web bulletin board system used. It has a
13046 quite regular and nice interface, and it's possible to get the
13047 information Gnus needs to keep groups updated.
13049 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnultimate} is to say
13050 something like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{B nnultimate RET
13051 http://www.tcj.com/messboard/ubbcgi/ RET}. (Substitute the @sc{url}
13052 (not including @samp{Ultimate.cgi} or the like at the end) for a forum
13053 you're interested in; there's quite a list of them on the Ultimate web
13054 site.) Then subscribe to the groups you're interested in from the
13055 server buffer, and read them from the group buffer.
13057 The following @code{nnultimate} variables can be altered:
13060 @item nnultimate-directory
13061 @vindex nnultimate-directory
13062 The directory where @code{nnultimate} stores its files. The default is
13063 @samp{~/News/ultimate/}.
13068 @subsection Web Archive
13070 @cindex Web Archive
13072 Some mailing lists only have archives on Web servers, such as
13073 @uref{http://www.egroups.com/} and
13074 @uref{http://www.mail-archive.com/}. It has a quite regular and nice
13075 interface, and it's possible to get the information Gnus needs to keep
13078 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnwarchive} is to say
13079 something like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{M-x
13080 gnus-group-make-warchive-group RET an_egroup RET egroups RET
13081 www.egroups.com RET your@@email.address RET}. (Substitute the
13082 @sc{an_egroup} with the mailing list you subscribed, the
13083 @sc{your@@email.address} with your email address.), or to browse the
13084 backend by @kbd{B nnwarchive RET mail-archive RET}.
13086 The following @code{nnwarchive} variables can be altered:
13089 @item nnwarchive-directory
13090 @vindex nnwarchive-directory
13091 The directory where @code{nnwarchive} stores its files. The default is
13092 @samp{~/News/warchive/}.
13094 @item nnwarchive-login
13095 @vindex nnwarchive-login
13096 The account name on the web server.
13098 @item nnwarchive-passwd
13099 @vindex nnwarchive-passwd
13100 The password for your account on the web server.
13104 @node Customizing w3
13105 @subsection Customizing w3
13111 Gnus uses the url library to fetch web pages and Emacs/w3 to display web
13112 pages. Emacs/w3 is documented in its own manual, but there are some
13113 things that may be more relevant for Gnus users.
13115 For instance, a common question is how to make Emacs/w3 follow links
13116 using the @code{browse-url} functions (which will call some external web
13117 browser like Netscape). Here's one way:
13120 (eval-after-load "w3"
13122 (fset 'w3-fetch-orig (symbol-function 'w3-fetch))
13123 (defun w3-fetch (&optional url target)
13124 (interactive (list (w3-read-url-with-default)))
13125 (if (eq major-mode 'gnus-article-mode)
13127 (w3-fetch-orig url target)))))
13130 Put that in your @file{.emacs} file, and hitting links in w3-rendered
13131 @sc{html} in the Gnus article buffers will use @code{browse-url} to
13135 @node Other Sources
13136 @section Other Sources
13138 Gnus can do more than just read news or mail. The methods described
13139 below allow Gnus to view directories and files as if they were
13143 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
13144 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
13145 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
13146 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{soup} packets ``offline''.
13147 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
13148 * IMAP:: Using Gnus as a @sc{imap} client.
13152 @node Directory Groups
13153 @subsection Directory Groups
13155 @cindex directory groups
13157 If you have a directory that has lots of articles in separate files in
13158 it, you might treat it as a newsgroup. The files have to have numerical
13161 This might be an opportune moment to mention @code{ange-ftp} (and its
13162 successor @code{efs}), that most wonderful of all wonderful Emacs
13163 packages. When I wrote @code{nndir}, I didn't think much about it---a
13164 backend to read directories. Big deal.
13166 @code{ange-ftp} changes that picture dramatically. For instance, if you
13167 enter the @code{ange-ftp} file name
13168 @file{/ftp.hpc.uh.edu:/pub/emacs/ding-list/} as the directory name,
13169 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs} will actually allow you to read this
13170 directory over at @samp{sina} as a newsgroup. Distributed news ahoy!
13172 @code{nndir} will use @sc{nov} files if they are present.
13174 @code{nndir} is a ``read-only'' backend---you can't delete or expire
13175 articles with this method. You can use @code{nnmh} or @code{nnml} for
13176 whatever you use @code{nndir} for, so you could switch to any of those
13177 methods if you feel the need to have a non-read-only @code{nndir}.
13180 @node Anything Groups
13181 @subsection Anything Groups
13184 From the @code{nndir} backend (which reads a single spool-like
13185 directory), it's just a hop and a skip to @code{nneething}, which
13186 pretends that any arbitrary directory is a newsgroup. Strange, but
13189 When @code{nneething} is presented with a directory, it will scan this
13190 directory and assign article numbers to each file. When you enter such
13191 a group, @code{nneething} must create ``headers'' that Gnus can use.
13192 After all, Gnus is a newsreader, in case you're forgetting.
13193 @code{nneething} does this in a two-step process. First, it snoops each
13194 file in question. If the file looks like an article (i.e., the first
13195 few lines look like headers), it will use this as the head. If this is
13196 just some arbitrary file without a head (e.g. a C source file),
13197 @code{nneething} will cobble up a header out of thin air. It will use
13198 file ownership, name and date and do whatever it can with these
13201 All this should happen automatically for you, and you will be presented
13202 with something that looks very much like a newsgroup. Totally like a
13203 newsgroup, to be precise. If you select an article, it will be displayed
13204 in the article buffer, just as usual.
13206 If you select a line that represents a directory, Gnus will pop you into
13207 a new summary buffer for this @code{nneething} group. And so on. You can
13208 traverse the entire disk this way, if you feel like, but remember that
13209 Gnus is not dired, really, and does not intend to be, either.
13211 There are two overall modes to this action---ephemeral or solid. When
13212 doing the ephemeral thing (i.e., @kbd{G D} from the group buffer), Gnus
13213 will not store information on what files you have read, and what files
13214 are new, and so on. If you create a solid @code{nneething} group the
13215 normal way with @kbd{G m}, Gnus will store a mapping table between
13216 article numbers and file names, and you can treat this group like any
13217 other groups. When you activate a solid @code{nneething} group, you will
13218 be told how many unread articles it contains, etc., etc.
13223 @item nneething-map-file-directory
13224 @vindex nneething-map-file-directory
13225 All the mapping files for solid @code{nneething} groups will be stored
13226 in this directory, which defaults to @file{~/.nneething/}.
13228 @item nneething-exclude-files
13229 @vindex nneething-exclude-files
13230 All files that match this regexp will be ignored. Nice to use to exclude
13231 auto-save files and the like, which is what it does by default.
13233 @item nneething-include-files
13234 @vindex nneething-include-files
13235 Regexp saying what files to include in the group. If this variable is
13236 non-@code{nil}, only files matching this regexp will be included.
13238 @item nneething-map-file
13239 @vindex nneething-map-file
13240 Name of the map files.
13244 @node Document Groups
13245 @subsection Document Groups
13247 @cindex documentation group
13250 @code{nndoc} is a cute little thing that will let you read a single file
13251 as a newsgroup. Several files types are supported:
13258 The babyl (rmail) mail box.
13263 The standard Unix mbox file.
13265 @cindex MMDF mail box
13267 The MMDF mail box format.
13270 Several news articles appended into a file.
13273 @cindex rnews batch files
13274 The rnews batch transport format.
13275 @cindex forwarded messages
13278 Forwarded articles.
13281 Netscape mail boxes.
13284 MIME multipart messages.
13286 @item standard-digest
13287 The standard (RFC 1153) digest format.
13290 Non-standard digest format---matches most things, but does it badly.
13293 You can also use the special ``file type'' @code{guess}, which means
13294 that @code{nndoc} will try to guess what file type it is looking at.
13295 @code{digest} means that @code{nndoc} should guess what digest type the
13298 @code{nndoc} will not try to change the file or insert any extra headers into
13299 it---it will simply, like, let you use the file as the basis for a
13300 group. And that's it.
13302 If you have some old archived articles that you want to insert into your
13303 new & spiffy Gnus mail backend, @code{nndoc} can probably help you with
13304 that. Say you have an old @file{RMAIL} file with mail that you now want
13305 to split into your new @code{nnml} groups. You look at that file using
13306 @code{nndoc} (using the @kbd{G f} command in the group buffer
13307 (@pxref{Foreign Groups})), set the process mark on all the articles in
13308 the buffer (@kbd{M P b}, for instance), and then re-spool (@kbd{B r})
13309 using @code{nnml}. If all goes well, all the mail in the @file{RMAIL}
13310 file is now also stored in lots of @code{nnml} directories, and you can
13311 delete that pesky @file{RMAIL} file. If you have the guts!
13313 Virtual server variables:
13316 @item nndoc-article-type
13317 @vindex nndoc-article-type
13318 This should be one of @code{mbox}, @code{babyl}, @code{digest},
13319 @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward}, @code{rfc934},
13320 @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-parts}, @code{standard-digest},
13321 @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs}, @code{nsmail} or @code{guess}.
13323 @item nndoc-post-type
13324 @vindex nndoc-post-type
13325 This variable says whether Gnus is to consider the group a news group or
13326 a mail group. There are two valid values: @code{mail} (the default)
13331 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
13335 @node Document Server Internals
13336 @subsubsection Document Server Internals
13338 Adding new document types to be recognized by @code{nndoc} isn't
13339 difficult. You just have to whip up a definition of what the document
13340 looks like, write a predicate function to recognize that document type,
13341 and then hook into @code{nndoc}.
13343 First, here's an example document type definition:
13347 (article-begin . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n")
13348 (body-end . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n"))
13351 The definition is simply a unique @dfn{name} followed by a series of
13352 regexp pseudo-variable settings. Below are the possible
13353 variables---don't be daunted by the number of variables; most document
13354 types can be defined with very few settings:
13357 @item first-article
13358 If present, @code{nndoc} will skip past all text until it finds
13359 something that match this regexp. All text before this will be
13362 @item article-begin
13363 This setting has to be present in all document type definitions. It
13364 says what the beginning of each article looks like.
13366 @item head-begin-function
13367 If present, this should be a function that moves point to the head of
13370 @item nndoc-head-begin
13371 If present, this should be a regexp that matches the head of the
13374 @item nndoc-head-end
13375 This should match the end of the head of the article. It defaults to
13376 @samp{^$}---the empty line.
13378 @item body-begin-function
13379 If present, this function should move point to the beginning of the body
13383 This should match the beginning of the body of the article. It defaults
13386 @item body-end-function
13387 If present, this function should move point to the end of the body of
13391 If present, this should match the end of the body of the article.
13394 If present, this should match the end of the file. All text after this
13395 regexp will be totally ignored.
13399 So, using these variables @code{nndoc} is able to dissect a document
13400 file into a series of articles, each with a head and a body. However, a
13401 few more variables are needed since not all document types are all that
13402 news-like---variables needed to transform the head or the body into
13403 something that's palatable for Gnus:
13406 @item prepare-body-function
13407 If present, this function will be called when requesting an article. It
13408 will be called with point at the start of the body, and is useful if the
13409 document has encoded some parts of its contents.
13411 @item article-transform-function
13412 If present, this function is called when requesting an article. It's
13413 meant to be used for more wide-ranging transformation of both head and
13414 body of the article.
13416 @item generate-head-function
13417 If present, this function is called to generate a head that Gnus can
13418 understand. It is called with the article number as a parameter, and is
13419 expected to generate a nice head for the article in question. It is
13420 called when requesting the headers of all articles.
13424 Let's look at the most complicated example I can come up with---standard
13429 (first-article . ,(concat "^" (make-string 70 ?-) "\n\n+"))
13430 (article-begin . ,(concat "\n\n" (make-string 30 ?-) "\n\n+"))
13431 (prepare-body-function . nndoc-unquote-dashes)
13432 (body-end-function . nndoc-digest-body-end)
13433 (head-end . "^ ?$")
13434 (body-begin . "^ ?\n")
13435 (file-end . "^End of .*digest.*[0-9].*\n\\*\\*\\|^End of.*Digest *$")
13436 (subtype digest guess))
13439 We see that all text before a 70-width line of dashes is ignored; all
13440 text after a line that starts with that @samp{^End of} is also ignored;
13441 each article begins with a 30-width line of dashes; the line separating
13442 the head from the body may contain a single space; and that the body is
13443 run through @code{nndoc-unquote-dashes} before being delivered.
13445 To hook your own document definition into @code{nndoc}, use the
13446 @code{nndoc-add-type} function. It takes two parameters---the first is
13447 the definition itself and the second (optional) parameter says where in
13448 the document type definition alist to put this definition. The alist is
13449 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
13450 is of @code{mmdf} type, and so on. These type predicates should return
13451 @code{nil} if the document is not of the correct type; @code{t} if it is
13452 of the correct type; and a number if the document might be of the
13453 correct type. A high number means high probability; a low number means
13454 low probability with @samp{0} being the lowest valid number.
13462 In the PC world people often talk about ``offline'' newsreaders. These
13463 are thingies that are combined reader/news transport monstrosities.
13464 With built-in modem programs. Yecchh!
13466 Of course, us Unix Weenie types of human beans use things like
13467 @code{uucp} and, like, @code{nntpd} and set up proper news and mail
13468 transport things like Ghod intended. And then we just use normal
13471 However, it can sometimes be convenient to do something that's a bit
13472 easier on the brain if you have a very slow modem, and you're not really
13473 that interested in doing things properly.
13475 A file format called @sc{soup} has been developed for transporting news
13476 and mail from servers to home machines and back again. It can be a bit
13479 First some terminology:
13484 This is the machine that is connected to the outside world and where you
13485 get news and/or mail from.
13488 This is the machine that you want to do the actual reading and responding
13489 on. It is typically not connected to the rest of the world in any way.
13492 Something that contains messages and/or commands. There are two kinds
13496 @item message packets
13497 These are packets made at the server, and typically contain lots of
13498 messages for you to read. These are called @file{SoupoutX.tgz} by
13499 default, where @var{x} is a number.
13501 @item response packets
13502 These are packets made at the home machine, and typically contains
13503 replies that you've written. These are called @file{SoupinX.tgz} by
13504 default, where @var{x} is a number.
13514 You log in on the server and create a @sc{soup} packet. You can either
13515 use a dedicated @sc{soup} thingie (like the @code{awk} program), or you
13516 can use Gnus to create the packet with its @sc{soup} commands (@kbd{O
13517 s} and/or @kbd{G s b}; and then @kbd{G s p}) (@pxref{SOUP Commands}).
13520 You transfer the packet home. Rail, boat, car or modem will do fine.
13523 You put the packet in your home directory.
13526 You fire up Gnus on your home machine using the @code{nnsoup} backend as
13527 the native or secondary server.
13530 You read articles and mail and answer and followup to the things you
13531 want (@pxref{SOUP Replies}).
13534 You do the @kbd{G s r} command to pack these replies into a @sc{soup}
13538 You transfer this packet to the server.
13541 You use Gnus to mail this packet out with the @kbd{G s s} command.
13544 You then repeat until you die.
13548 So you basically have a bipartite system---you use @code{nnsoup} for
13549 reading and Gnus for packing/sending these @sc{soup} packets.
13552 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
13553 * SOUP Groups:: A backend for reading @sc{soup} packets.
13554 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
13558 @node SOUP Commands
13559 @subsubsection SOUP Commands
13561 These are commands for creating and manipulating @sc{soup} packets.
13565 @kindex G s b (Group)
13566 @findex gnus-group-brew-soup
13567 Pack all unread articles in the current group
13568 (@code{gnus-group-brew-soup}). This command understands the
13569 process/prefix convention.
13572 @kindex G s w (Group)
13573 @findex gnus-soup-save-areas
13574 Save all @sc{soup} data files (@code{gnus-soup-save-areas}).
13577 @kindex G s s (Group)
13578 @findex gnus-soup-send-replies
13579 Send all replies from the replies packet
13580 (@code{gnus-soup-send-replies}).
13583 @kindex G s p (Group)
13584 @findex gnus-soup-pack-packet
13585 Pack all files into a @sc{soup} packet (@code{gnus-soup-pack-packet}).
13588 @kindex G s r (Group)
13589 @findex nnsoup-pack-replies
13590 Pack all replies into a replies packet (@code{nnsoup-pack-replies}).
13593 @kindex O s (Summary)
13594 @findex gnus-soup-add-article
13595 This summary-mode command adds the current article to a @sc{soup} packet
13596 (@code{gnus-soup-add-article}). It understands the process/prefix
13597 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
13602 There are a few variables to customize where Gnus will put all these
13607 @item gnus-soup-directory
13608 @vindex gnus-soup-directory
13609 Directory where Gnus will save intermediate files while composing
13610 @sc{soup} packets. The default is @file{~/SoupBrew/}.
13612 @item gnus-soup-replies-directory
13613 @vindex gnus-soup-replies-directory
13614 This is what Gnus will use as a temporary directory while sending our
13615 reply packets. @file{~/SoupBrew/SoupReplies/} is the default.
13617 @item gnus-soup-prefix-file
13618 @vindex gnus-soup-prefix-file
13619 Name of the file where Gnus stores the last used prefix. The default is
13620 @samp{gnus-prefix}.
13622 @item gnus-soup-packer
13623 @vindex gnus-soup-packer
13624 A format string command for packing a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
13625 @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupout%d.tgz}.
13627 @item gnus-soup-unpacker
13628 @vindex gnus-soup-unpacker
13629 Format string command for unpacking a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
13630 @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
13632 @item gnus-soup-packet-directory
13633 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-directory
13634 Where Gnus will look for reply packets. The default is @file{~/}.
13636 @item gnus-soup-packet-regexp
13637 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-regexp
13638 Regular expression matching @sc{soup} reply packets in
13639 @code{gnus-soup-packet-directory}.
13645 @subsubsection @sc{soup} Groups
13648 @code{nnsoup} is the backend for reading @sc{soup} packets. It will
13649 read incoming packets, unpack them, and put them in a directory where
13650 you can read them at leisure.
13652 These are the variables you can use to customize its behavior:
13656 @item nnsoup-tmp-directory
13657 @vindex nnsoup-tmp-directory
13658 When @code{nnsoup} unpacks a @sc{soup} packet, it does it in this
13659 directory. (@file{/tmp/} by default.)
13661 @item nnsoup-directory
13662 @vindex nnsoup-directory
13663 @code{nnsoup} then moves each message and index file to this directory.
13664 The default is @file{~/SOUP/}.
13666 @item nnsoup-replies-directory
13667 @vindex nnsoup-replies-directory
13668 All replies will be stored in this directory before being packed into a
13669 reply packet. The default is @file{~/SOUP/replies/"}.
13671 @item nnsoup-replies-format-type
13672 @vindex nnsoup-replies-format-type
13673 The @sc{soup} format of the replies packets. The default is @samp{?n}
13674 (rnews), and I don't think you should touch that variable. I probably
13675 shouldn't even have documented it. Drats! Too late!
13677 @item nnsoup-replies-index-type
13678 @vindex nnsoup-replies-index-type
13679 The index type of the replies packet. The default is @samp{?n}, which
13680 means ``none''. Don't fiddle with this one either!
13682 @item nnsoup-active-file
13683 @vindex nnsoup-active-file
13684 Where @code{nnsoup} stores lots of information. This is not an ``active
13685 file'' in the @code{nntp} sense; it's an Emacs Lisp file. If you lose
13686 this file or mess it up in any way, you're dead. The default is
13687 @file{~/SOUP/active}.
13689 @item nnsoup-packer
13690 @vindex nnsoup-packer
13691 Format string command for packing a reply @sc{soup} packet. The default
13692 is @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupin%d.tgz}.
13694 @item nnsoup-unpacker
13695 @vindex nnsoup-unpacker
13696 Format string command for unpacking incoming @sc{soup} packets. The
13697 default is @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
13699 @item nnsoup-packet-directory
13700 @vindex nnsoup-packet-directory
13701 Where @code{nnsoup} will look for incoming packets. The default is
13704 @item nnsoup-packet-regexp
13705 @vindex nnsoup-packet-regexp
13706 Regular expression matching incoming @sc{soup} packets. The default is
13709 @item nnsoup-always-save
13710 @vindex nnsoup-always-save
13711 If non-@code{nil}, save the replies buffer after each posted message.
13717 @subsubsection SOUP Replies
13719 Just using @code{nnsoup} won't mean that your postings and mailings end
13720 up in @sc{soup} reply packets automagically. You have to work a bit
13721 more for that to happen.
13723 @findex nnsoup-set-variables
13724 The @code{nnsoup-set-variables} command will set the appropriate
13725 variables to ensure that all your followups and replies end up in the
13728 In specific, this is what it does:
13731 (setq message-send-news-function 'nnsoup-request-post)
13732 (setq message-send-mail-function 'nnsoup-request-mail)
13735 And that's it, really. If you only want news to go into the @sc{soup}
13736 system you just use the first line. If you only want mail to be
13737 @sc{soup}ed you use the second.
13740 @node Mail-To-News Gateways
13741 @subsection Mail-To-News Gateways
13742 @cindex mail-to-news gateways
13745 If your local @code{nntp} server doesn't allow posting, for some reason
13746 or other, you can post using one of the numerous mail-to-news gateways.
13747 The @code{nngateway} backend provides the interface.
13749 Note that you can't read anything from this backend---it can only be
13755 @item nngateway-address
13756 @vindex nngateway-address
13757 This is the address of the mail-to-news gateway.
13759 @item nngateway-header-transformation
13760 @vindex nngateway-header-transformation
13761 News headers often have to be transformed in some odd way or other
13762 for the mail-to-news gateway to accept it. This variable says what
13763 transformation should be called, and defaults to
13764 @code{nngateway-simple-header-transformation}. The function is called
13765 narrowed to the headers to be transformed and with one parameter---the
13768 This default function just inserts a new @code{To} header based on the
13769 @code{Newsgroups} header and the gateway address.
13770 For instance, an article with this @code{Newsgroups} header:
13773 Newsgroups: alt.religion.emacs
13776 will get this @code{From} header inserted:
13779 To: alt-religion-emacs@@GATEWAY
13782 The following pre-defined functions exist:
13784 @findex nngateway-simple-header-transformation
13787 @item nngateway-simple-header-transformation
13788 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
13789 @var{newsgroup}@@@code{nngateway-address}.
13791 @findex nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
13793 @item nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
13794 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
13795 @code{nngateway-address}.
13800 (setq gnus-post-method
13801 '(nngateway "mail2news@@replay.com"
13802 (nngateway-header-transformation
13803 nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation)))
13811 So, to use this, simply say something like:
13814 (setq gnus-post-method '(nngateway "GATEWAY.ADDRESS"))
13820 @subsection @sc{imap}
13824 @sc{imap} is a network protocol for reading mail (or news, or ...),
13825 think of it as a modernized @sc{nntp}. Connecting to a @sc{imap} server
13826 is much similar to connecting to a news server, you just specify the
13827 network address of the server.
13829 A server configuration in @code{~/.gnus} with a few @sc{imap} servers
13830 might look something like this:
13833 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
13834 '((nnimap "simpleserver") ; no special configuration
13835 ; perhaps a ssh port forwarded server:
13837 (nnimap-address "localhost")
13838 (nnimap-server-port 1430))
13839 ; a UW server running on localhost
13841 (nnimap-server-port 143)
13842 (nnimap-address "localhost")
13843 (nnimap-list-pattern ("INBOX" "mail/*")))
13844 ; anonymous public cyrus server:
13845 (nnimap "cyrus.andrew.cmu.edu"
13846 (nnimap-authenticator anonymous)
13847 (nnimap-list-pattern "archive.*")
13848 (nnimap-stream network))
13849 ; a ssl server on a non-standard port:
13851 (nnimap-address "vic20.somewhere.com")
13852 (nnimap-server-port 9930)
13853 (nnimap-stream ssl))))
13856 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nnimap}
13861 @item nnimap-address
13862 @vindex nnimap-address
13864 The address of the remote @sc{imap} server. Defaults to the virtual
13865 server name if not specified.
13867 @item nnimap-server-port
13868 @vindex nnimap-server-port
13869 Port on server to contact. Defaults to port 143, or 993 for SSL.
13871 Note that this should be a integer, example server specification:
13874 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
13875 (nnimap-server-port 4711))
13878 @item nnimap-list-pattern
13879 @vindex nnimap-list-pattern
13880 String or list of strings of mailboxes to limit available groups to.
13881 This is used when the server has very many mailboxes and you're only
13882 interested in a few -- some servers export your home directory via
13883 @sc{imap}, you'll probably want to limit the mailboxes to those in
13884 @file{~/Mail/*} then.
13886 The string can also be a cons of REFERENCE and the string as above, what
13887 REFERENCE is used for is server specific, but on the University of
13888 Washington server it's a directory that will be concatenated with the
13891 Example server specification:
13894 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
13895 (nnimap-list-pattern ("INBOX" "Mail/*" "alt.sex.*"
13896 ("~friend/Mail/" . "list/*"))))
13899 @item nnimap-stream
13900 @vindex nnimap-stream
13901 The type of stream used to connect to your server. By default, nnimap
13902 will detect and automatically use all of the below, with the exception
13903 of SSL. (SSL is being replaced by STARTTLS, which can be automatically
13904 detected, but it's not widely deployed yet).
13906 Example server specification:
13909 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
13910 (nnimap-stream ssl))
13913 Please note that the value of @code{nnimap-stream} is a symbol!
13917 @dfn{gssapi:} Connect with GSSAPI (usually kerberos 5). Require the
13918 @samp{imtest} program.
13920 @dfn{kerberos4:} Connect with kerberos 4. Require the @samp{imtest} program.
13922 @dfn{starttls:} Connect via the STARTTLS extension (similar to
13923 SSL). Require the external library @samp{starttls.el} and program
13926 @dfn{ssl:} Connect through SSL. Require OpenSSL (the
13927 program @samp{openssl}) or SSLeay (@samp{s_client}).
13929 @dfn{shell:} Use a shell command to start IMAP connection.
13931 @dfn{network:} Plain, TCP/IP network connection.
13934 @vindex imap-kerberos4-program
13935 The @samp{imtest} program is shipped with Cyrus IMAPD, nnimap support
13936 both @samp{imtest} version 1.5.x and version 1.6.x. The variable
13937 @code{imap-kerberos4-program} contain parameters to pass to the imtest
13940 @vindex imap-ssl-program
13941 For SSL connections, the OpenSSL program is available from
13942 @uref{http://www.openssl.org/}. OpenSSL was formerly known as SSLeay,
13943 and nnimap support it too - altough the most recent versions of
13944 SSLeay, 0.9.x, are known to have serious bugs making it
13945 useless. Earlier versions, especially 0.8.x, of SSLeay are known to
13946 work. The variable @code{imap-ssl-program} contain parameters to pass
13949 @vindex imap-shell-program
13950 @vindex imap-shell-host
13951 For IMAP connections using the @code{shell} stream, the variable
13952 @code{imap-shell-program} specify what program to call.
13954 @item nnimap-authenticator
13955 @vindex nnimap-authenticator
13957 The authenticator used to connect to the server. By default, nnimap
13958 will use the most secure authenticator your server is capable of.
13960 Example server specification:
13963 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
13964 (nnimap-authenticator anonymous))
13967 Please note that the value of @code{nnimap-authenticator} is a symbol!
13971 @dfn{gssapi:} GSSAPI (usually kerberos 5) authentication. Require
13972 external program @code{imtest}.
13974 @dfn{kerberos4:} Kerberos authentication. Require external program
13977 @dfn{digest-md5:} Encrypted username/password via DIGEST-MD5. Require
13978 external library @code{digest-md5.el}.
13980 @dfn{cram-md5:} Encrypted username/password via CRAM-MD5.
13982 @dfn{login:} Plain-text username/password via LOGIN.
13984 @dfn{anonymous:} Login as `anonymous', supplying your emailadress as password.
13987 @item nnimap-expunge-on-close
13989 @vindex nnimap-expunge-on-close
13990 Unlike Parmenides the @sc{imap} designers has decided that things that
13991 doesn't exist actually does exist. More specifically, @sc{imap} has
13992 this concept of marking articles @code{Deleted} which doesn't actually
13993 delete them, and this (marking them @code{Deleted}, that is) is what
13994 nnimap does when you delete a article in Gnus (with @kbd{G DEL} or
13997 Since the articles aren't really removed when we mark them with the
13998 @code{Deleted} flag we'll need a way to actually delete them. Feel like
13999 running in circles yet?
14001 Traditionally, nnimap has removed all articles marked as @code{Deleted}
14002 when closing a mailbox but this is now configurable by this server
14005 The possible options are:
14010 The default behavior, delete all articles marked as "Deleted" when
14013 Never actually delete articles. Currently there is no way of showing
14014 the articles marked for deletion in nnimap, but other @sc{imap} clients
14015 may allow you to do this. If you ever want to run the EXPUNGE command
14016 manually, @xref{Expunging mailboxes}.
14018 When closing mailboxes, nnimap will ask if you wish to expunge deleted
14023 @item nnimap-authinfo-file
14024 @vindex nnimap-authinfo-file
14026 A file containing credentials used to log in on servers. The format
14027 is (almost) the same as the @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file. See
14028 `nntp-authinfo-file' for exact syntax.
14030 A file containing credentials used to log in on servers. The format is
14031 (almost) the same as the @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file. See the
14032 variable @code{nntp-authinfo-file} for exact syntax; also see
14038 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
14039 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
14040 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a "compress mailbox" button.
14045 @node Splitting in IMAP
14046 @subsubsection Splitting in @sc{imap}
14047 @cindex splitting imap mail
14049 Splitting is something Gnus users has loved and used for years, and now
14050 the rest of the world is catching up. Yeah, dream on, not many
14051 @sc{imap} server has server side splitting and those that have splitting
14052 seem to use some non-standard protocol. This means that @sc{imap}
14053 support for Gnus has to do it's own splitting.
14057 Here are the variables of interest:
14061 @item nnimap-split-crosspost
14062 @cindex splitting, crosspost
14064 @vindex nnimap-split-crosspost
14066 If non-nil, do crossposting if several split methods match the mail. If
14067 nil, the first match in @code{nnimap-split-rule} found will be used.
14069 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-crosspost}.
14071 @item nnimap-split-inbox
14072 @cindex splitting, inbox
14074 @vindex nnimap-split-inbox
14076 A string or a list of strings that gives the name(s) of @sc{imap}
14077 mailboxes to split from. Defaults to nil, which means that splitting is
14081 (setq nnimap-split-inbox
14082 '("INBOX" ("~/friend/Mail" . "lists/*") "lists.imap"))
14085 No nnmail equivalent.
14087 @item nnimap-split-rule
14088 @cindex Splitting, rules
14089 @vindex nnimap-split-rule
14091 New mail found in @code{nnimap-split-inbox} will be split according to
14094 This variable contains a list of lists, where the first element in the
14095 sublist gives the name of the @sc{imap} mailbox to move articles
14096 matching the regexp in the second element in the sublist. Got that?
14097 Neither did I, we need examples.
14100 (setq nnimap-split-rule
14101 '(("INBOX.nnimap" "^Sender: owner-nnimap@@vic20.globalcom.se")
14102 ("INBOX.junk" "^Subject:.*MAKE MONEY")
14103 ("INBOX.private" "")))
14106 This will put all articles from the nnimap mailing list into mailbox
14107 INBOX.nnimap, all articles containing MAKE MONEY in the Subject: line
14108 into INBOX.spam and everything else in INBOX.private.
14110 The first string may contain `\\1' forms, like the ones used by
14111 replace-match to insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For
14115 ("INBOX.lists.\\1" "^Sender: owner-\\([a-z-]+\\)@@")
14118 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
14119 called with the first element of the rule as the argument, in a buffer
14120 containing the headers of the article. It should return a non-nil value
14121 if it thinks that the mail belongs in that group.
14123 Nnmail users might recollect that the last regexp had to be empty to
14124 match all articles (like in the example above). This is not required in
14125 nnimap. Articles not matching any of the regexps will not be moved out
14126 of your inbox. (This might might affect performance if you keep lots of
14127 unread articles in your inbox, since the splitting code would go over
14128 them every time you fetch new mail.)
14130 These rules are processed from the beginning of the alist toward the
14131 end. The first rule to make a match will "win", unless you have
14132 crossposting enabled. In that case, all matching rules will "win".
14134 This variable can also have a function as its value, the function will
14135 be called with the headers narrowed and should return a group where it
14136 thinks the article should be split to. See @code{nnimap-split-fancy}.
14138 The splitting code tries to create mailboxes if it need too.
14140 To allow for different split rules on different virtual servers, and
14141 even different split rules in different inboxes on the same server,
14142 the syntax of this variable have been extended along the lines of:
14145 (setq nnimap-split-rule
14146 '(("my1server" (".*" (("ding" "ding@@gnus.org")
14147 ("junk" "From:.*Simon")))
14148 ("my2server" ("INBOX" nnimap-split-fancy))
14149 ("my[34]server" (".*" (("private" "To:.*Simon")
14150 ("junk" my-junk-func)))))
14153 The virtual server name is in fact a regexp, so that the same rules
14154 may apply to several servers. In the example, the servers
14155 @code{my3server} and @code{my4server} both use the same rules.
14156 Similarly, the inbox string is also a regexp. The actual splitting
14157 rules are as before, either a function, or a list with group/regexp or
14158 group/function elements.
14160 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
14162 @item nnimap-split-predicate
14164 @vindex nnimap-split-predicate
14166 Mail matching this predicate in @code{nnimap-split-inbox} will be
14167 split, it is a string and the default is @samp{UNSEEN UNDELETED}.
14169 This might be useful if you use another @sc{imap} client to read mail in
14170 your inbox but would like Gnus to split all articles in the inbox
14171 regardless of readedness. Then you might change this to
14174 @item nnimap-split-fancy
14175 @cindex splitting, fancy
14176 @findex nnimap-split-fancy
14177 @vindex nnimap-split-fancy
14179 It's possible to set @code{nnimap-split-rule} to
14180 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} if you want to use fancy
14181 splitting. @xref{Fancy Mail Splitting}.
14183 However, to be able to have different fancy split rules for nnmail and
14184 nnimap backends you can set @code{nnimap-split-rule} to
14185 @code{nnimap-split-fancy} and define the nnimap specific fancy split
14186 rule in @code{nnimap-split-fancy}.
14191 (setq nnimap-split-rule 'nnimap-split-fancy
14192 nnimap-split-fancy ...)
14195 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-split-fancy}.
14199 @node Editing IMAP ACLs
14200 @subsubsection Editing @sc{imap} ACLs
14201 @cindex editing imap acls
14202 @cindex Access Control Lists
14203 @cindex Editing @sc{imap} ACLs
14205 @findex gnus-group-nnimap-edit-acl
14207 ACL stands for Access Control List. ACLs are used in @sc{imap} for
14208 limiting (or enabling) other users access to your mail boxes. Not all
14209 @sc{imap} servers support this, this function will give an error if it
14212 To edit a ACL for a mailbox, type @kbd{G l}
14213 (@code{gnus-group-edit-nnimap-acl}) and you'll be presented with a ACL
14214 editing window with detailed instructions.
14216 Some possible uses:
14220 Giving "anyone" the "lrs" rights (lookup, read, keep seen/unseen flags)
14221 on your mailing list mailboxes enables other users on the same server to
14222 follow the list without subscribing to it.
14224 At least with the Cyrus server, you are required to give the user
14225 "anyone" posting ("p") capabilities to have "plussing" work (that is,
14226 mail sent to user+mailbox@@domain ending up in the @sc{imap} mailbox
14230 @node Expunging mailboxes
14231 @subsubsection Expunging mailboxes
14235 @cindex Manual expunging
14237 @findex gnus-group-nnimap-expunge
14239 If you're using the @code{never} setting of @code{nnimap-expunge-close},
14240 you may want the option of expunging all deleted articles in a mailbox
14241 manually. This is exactly what @kbd{G x} does.
14243 Currently there is no way of showing deleted articles, you can just
14248 @node Combined Groups
14249 @section Combined Groups
14251 Gnus allows combining a mixture of all the other group types into bigger
14255 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
14256 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
14260 @node Virtual Groups
14261 @subsection Virtual Groups
14263 @cindex virtual groups
14264 @cindex merging groups
14266 An @dfn{nnvirtual group} is really nothing more than a collection of
14269 For instance, if you are tired of reading many small groups, you can
14270 put them all in one big group, and then grow tired of reading one
14271 big, unwieldy group. The joys of computing!
14273 You specify @code{nnvirtual} as the method. The address should be a
14274 regexp to match component groups.
14276 All marks in the virtual group will stick to the articles in the
14277 component groups. So if you tick an article in a virtual group, the
14278 article will also be ticked in the component group from whence it came.
14279 (And vice versa---marks from the component groups will also be shown in
14280 the virtual group.)
14282 Here's an example @code{nnvirtual} method that collects all Andrea Dworkin
14283 newsgroups into one, big, happy newsgroup:
14286 (nnvirtual "^alt\\.fan\\.andrea-dworkin$\\|^rec\\.dworkin.*")
14289 The component groups can be native or foreign; everything should work
14290 smoothly, but if your computer explodes, it was probably my fault.
14292 Collecting the same group from several servers might actually be a good
14293 idea if users have set the Distribution header to limit distribution.
14294 If you would like to read @samp{soc.motss} both from a server in Japan
14295 and a server in Norway, you could use the following as the group regexp:
14298 "^nntp\\+server\\.jp:soc\\.motss$\\|^nntp\\+server\\.no:soc\\.motss$"
14301 (Remember, though, that if you're creating the group with @kbd{G m}, you
14302 shouldn't double the backslashes, and you should leave off the quote
14303 characters at the beginning and the end of the string.)
14305 This should work kinda smoothly---all articles from both groups should
14306 end up in this one, and there should be no duplicates. Threading (and
14307 the rest) will still work as usual, but there might be problems with the
14308 sequence of articles. Sorting on date might be an option here
14309 (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
14311 One limitation, however---all groups included in a virtual
14312 group have to be alive (i.e., subscribed or unsubscribed). Killed or
14313 zombie groups can't be component groups for @code{nnvirtual} groups.
14315 @vindex nnvirtual-always-rescan
14316 If the @code{nnvirtual-always-rescan} is non-@code{nil},
14317 @code{nnvirtual} will always scan groups for unread articles when
14318 entering a virtual group. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
14319 default) and you read articles in a component group after the virtual
14320 group has been activated, the read articles from the component group
14321 will show up when you enter the virtual group. You'll also see this
14322 effect if you have two virtual groups that have a component group in
14323 common. If that's the case, you should set this variable to @code{t}.
14324 Or you can just tap @code{M-g} on the virtual group every time before
14325 you enter it---it'll have much the same effect.
14327 @code{nnvirtual} can have both mail and news groups as component groups.
14328 When responding to articles in @code{nnvirtual} groups, @code{nnvirtual}
14329 has to ask the backend of the component group the article comes from
14330 whether it is a news or mail backend. However, when you do a @kbd{^},
14331 there is typically no sure way for the component backend to know this,
14332 and in that case @code{nnvirtual} tells Gnus that the article came from a
14333 not-news backend. (Just to be on the safe side.)
14335 @kbd{C-c C-t} in the message buffer will insert the @code{Newsgroups}
14336 line from the article you respond to in these cases.
14340 @node Kibozed Groups
14341 @subsection Kibozed Groups
14345 @dfn{Kibozing} is defined by @sc{oed} as ``grepping through (parts of)
14346 the news feed''. @code{nnkiboze} is a backend that will do this for
14347 you. Oh joy! Now you can grind any @sc{nntp} server down to a halt
14348 with useless requests! Oh happiness!
14350 @kindex G k (Group)
14351 To create a kibozed group, use the @kbd{G k} command in the group
14354 The address field of the @code{nnkiboze} method is, as with
14355 @code{nnvirtual}, a regexp to match groups to be ``included'' in the
14356 @code{nnkiboze} group. That's where most similarities between @code{nnkiboze}
14357 and @code{nnvirtual} end.
14359 In addition to this regexp detailing component groups, an @code{nnkiboze} group
14360 must have a score file to say what articles are to be included in
14361 the group (@pxref{Scoring}).
14363 @kindex M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups
14364 @findex nnkiboze-generate-groups
14365 You must run @kbd{M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups} after creating the
14366 @code{nnkiboze} groups you want to have. This command will take time. Lots of
14367 time. Oodles and oodles of time. Gnus has to fetch the headers from
14368 all the articles in all the component groups and run them through the
14369 scoring process to determine if there are any articles in the groups
14370 that are to be part of the @code{nnkiboze} groups.
14372 Please limit the number of component groups by using restrictive
14373 regexps. Otherwise your sysadmin may become annoyed with you, and the
14374 @sc{nntp} site may throw you off and never let you back in again.
14375 Stranger things have happened.
14377 @code{nnkiboze} component groups do not have to be alive---they can be dead,
14378 and they can be foreign. No restrictions.
14380 @vindex nnkiboze-directory
14381 The generation of an @code{nnkiboze} group means writing two files in
14382 @code{nnkiboze-directory}, which is @file{~/News/} by default. One
14383 contains the @sc{nov} header lines for all the articles in the group,
14384 and the other is an additional @file{.newsrc} file to store information
14385 on what groups have been searched through to find component articles.
14387 Articles marked as read in the @code{nnkiboze} group will have
14388 their @sc{nov} lines removed from the @sc{nov} file.
14391 @node Gnus Unplugged
14392 @section Gnus Unplugged
14397 @cindex Gnus Unplugged
14399 In olden times (ca. February '88), people used to run their newsreaders
14400 on big machines with permanent connections to the net. News transport
14401 was dealt with by news servers, and all the newsreaders had to do was to
14402 read news. Believe it or not.
14404 Nowadays most people read news and mail at home, and use some sort of
14405 modem to connect to the net. To avoid running up huge phone bills, it
14406 would be nice to have a way to slurp down all the news and mail, hang up
14407 the phone, read for several hours, and then upload any responses you
14408 have to make. And then you repeat the procedure.
14410 Of course, you can use news servers for doing this as well. I've used
14411 @code{inn} together with @code{slurp}, @code{pop} and @code{sendmail}
14412 for some years, but doing that's a bore. Moving the news server
14413 functionality up to the newsreader makes sense if you're the only person
14414 reading news on a machine.
14416 Using Gnus as an ``offline'' newsreader is quite simple.
14420 First, set up Gnus as you would do if you were running it on a machine
14421 that has full connection to the net. Go ahead. I'll still be waiting
14425 Then, put the following magical incantation at the end of your
14426 @file{.gnus.el} file:
14433 That's it. Gnus is now an ``offline'' newsreader.
14435 Of course, to use it as such, you have to learn a few new commands.
14438 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
14439 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
14440 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
14441 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
14442 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with IMAP.
14443 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
14444 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
14445 * Example Setup:: An example @file{.gnus.el} file for offline people.
14446 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
14447 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
14452 @subsection Agent Basics
14454 First, let's get some terminology out of the way.
14456 The Gnus Agent is said to be @dfn{unplugged} when you have severed the
14457 connection to the net (and notified the Agent that this is the case).
14458 When the connection to the net is up again (and Gnus knows this), the
14459 Agent is @dfn{plugged}.
14461 The @dfn{local} machine is the one you're running on, and which isn't
14462 connected to the net continuously.
14464 @dfn{Downloading} means fetching things from the net to your local
14465 machine. @dfn{Uploading} is doing the opposite.
14467 Let's take a typical Gnus session using the Agent.
14472 You start Gnus with @code{gnus-unplugged}. This brings up the Gnus
14473 Agent in a disconnected state. You can read all the news that you have
14474 already fetched while in this mode.
14477 You then decide to see whether any new news has arrived. You connect
14478 your machine to the net (using PPP or whatever), and then hit @kbd{J j}
14479 to make Gnus become @dfn{plugged} and use @kbd{g} to check for new mail
14480 as usual. To check for new mail in unplugged mode, see (@pxref{Mail
14481 Source Specifiers}).
14484 You can then read the new news immediately, or you can download the news
14485 onto your local machine. If you want to do the latter, you press @kbd{g}
14486 to check if there are any new news and then @kbd{J
14487 s} to fetch all the eligible articles in all the groups. (To let Gnus
14488 know which articles you want to download, @pxref{Agent Categories}.)
14491 After fetching the articles, you press @kbd{J j} to make Gnus become
14492 unplugged again, and you shut down the PPP thing (or whatever). And
14493 then you read the news offline.
14496 And then you go to step 2.
14499 Here are some things you should do the first time (or so) that you use
14505 Decide which servers should be covered by the Agent. If you have a mail
14506 backend, it would probably be nonsensical to have it covered by the
14507 Agent. Go to the server buffer (@kbd{^} in the group buffer) and press
14508 @kbd{J a} the server (or servers) that you wish to have covered by the
14509 Agent (@pxref{Server Agent Commands}). This will typically be only the
14510 primary select method, which is listed on the bottom in the buffer.
14513 Decide on download policy. @xref{Agent Categories}.
14520 @node Agent Categories
14521 @subsection Agent Categories
14523 One of the main reasons to integrate the news transport layer into the
14524 newsreader is to allow greater control over what articles to download.
14525 There's not much point in downloading huge amounts of articles, just to
14526 find out that you're not interested in reading any of them. It's better
14527 to be somewhat more conservative in choosing what to download, and then
14528 mark the articles for downloading manually if it should turn out that
14529 you're interested in the articles anyway.
14531 The main way to control what is to be downloaded is to create a
14532 @dfn{category} and then assign some (or all) groups to this category.
14533 Groups that do not belong in any other category belong to the
14534 @code{default} category. Gnus has its own buffer for creating and
14535 managing categories.
14538 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
14539 * The Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
14540 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
14544 @node Category Syntax
14545 @subsubsection Category Syntax
14547 A category consists of two things.
14551 A predicate which (generally) gives a rough outline of which articles
14552 are eligible for downloading; and
14555 a score rule which (generally) gives you a finer granularity when
14556 deciding what articles to download. (Note that this @dfn{download
14557 score} is not necessarily related to normal scores.)
14560 A predicate in its simplest form can be a single predicate such as
14561 @code{true} or @code{false}. These two will download every available
14562 article or nothing respectively. In the case of these two special
14563 predicates an additional score rule is superfluous.
14565 Predicates of @code{high} or @code{low} download articles in respect of
14566 their scores in relationship to @code{gnus-agent-high-score} and
14567 @code{gnus-agent-low-score} as described below.
14569 To gain even finer control of what is to be regarded eligible for
14570 download a predicate can consist of a number of predicates with logical
14571 operators sprinkled in between.
14573 Perhaps some examples are in order.
14575 Here's a simple predicate. (It's the default predicate, in fact, used
14576 for all groups that don't belong to any other category.)
14582 Quite simple, eh? This predicate is true if and only if the article is
14583 short (for some value of ``short'').
14585 Here's a more complex predicate:
14594 This means that an article should be downloaded if it has a high score,
14595 or if the score is not low and the article is not long. You get the
14598 The available logical operators are @code{or}, @code{and} and
14599 @code{not}. (If you prefer, you can use the more ``C''-ish operators
14600 @samp{|}, @code{&} and @code{!} instead.)
14602 The following predicates are pre-defined, but if none of these fit what
14603 you want to do, you can write your own.
14607 True iff the article is shorter than @code{gnus-agent-short-article}
14608 lines; default 100.
14611 True iff the article is longer than @code{gnus-agent-long-article}
14612 lines; default 200.
14615 True iff the article has a download score less than
14616 @code{gnus-agent-low-score}; default 0.
14619 True iff the article has a download score greater than
14620 @code{gnus-agent-high-score}; default 0.
14623 True iff the Gnus Agent guesses that the article is spam. The
14624 heuristics may change over time, but at present it just computes a
14625 checksum and sees whether articles match.
14634 If you want to create your own predicate function, here's what you have
14635 to know: The functions are called with no parameters, but the
14636 @code{gnus-headers} and @code{gnus-score} dynamic variables are bound to
14639 For example, you could decide that you don't want to download articles
14640 that were posted more than a certain number of days ago (e.g. posted
14641 more than @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} ago) you might write a function
14642 something along the lines of the following:
14645 (defun my-article-old-p ()
14646 "Say whether an article is old."
14647 (< (time-to-days (date-to-time (mail-header-date gnus-headers)))
14648 (- (time-to-days (current-time)) gnus-agent-expire-days)))
14651 with the predicate then defined as:
14654 (not my-article-old-p)
14657 or you could append your predicate to the predefined
14658 @code{gnus-category-predicate-alist} in your @file{~/.gnus.el} or
14659 wherever. (Note: this would have to be at a point *after*
14660 @code{gnus-agent} has been loaded via @code{(gnus-agentize)})
14663 (setq gnus-category-predicate-alist
14664 (append gnus-category-predicate-alist
14665 '((old . my-article-old-p))))
14668 and simply specify your predicate as:
14674 If/when using something like the above, be aware that there are many
14675 misconfigured systems/mailers out there and so an article's date is not
14676 always a reliable indication of when it was posted. Hell, some people
14677 just don't give a damn.
14679 The above predicates apply to *all* the groups which belong to the
14680 category. However, if you wish to have a specific predicate for an
14681 individual group within a category, or you're just too lazy to set up a
14682 new category, you can enter a group's individual predicate in it's group
14683 parameters like so:
14686 (agent-predicate . short)
14689 This is the group parameter equivalent of the agent category default.
14690 Note that when specifying a single word predicate like this, the
14691 @code{agent-predicate} specification must be in dotted pair notation.
14693 The equivalent of the longer example from above would be:
14696 (agent-predicate or high (and (not low) (not long)))
14699 The outer parenthesis required in the category specification are not
14700 entered here as, not being in dotted pair notation, the value of the
14701 predicate is assumed to be a list.
14704 Now, the syntax of the download score is the same as the syntax of
14705 normal score files, except that all elements that require actually
14706 seeing the article itself are verboten. This means that only the
14707 following headers can be scored on: @code{Subject}, @code{From},
14708 @code{Date}, @code{Message-ID}, @code{References}, @code{Chars},
14709 @code{Lines}, and @code{Xref}.
14711 As with predicates, the specification of the @code{download score rule}
14712 to use in respect of a group can be in either the category definition if
14713 it's to be applicable to all groups in therein, or a group's parameters
14714 if it's to be specific to that group.
14716 In both of these places the @code{download score rule} can take one of
14723 This has the same syntax as a normal gnus score file except only a
14724 subset of scoring keywords are available as mentioned above.
14730 Category specification
14734 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
14740 Group Parameter specification
14743 (agent-score ("from"
14744 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
14749 Again, note the omission of the outermost parenthesis here.
14755 These score files must *only* contain the permitted scoring keywords
14762 Category specification
14765 ("~/News/agent.SCORE")
14771 ("~/News/agent.SCORE" "~/News/agent.group.SCORE")
14775 Group Parameter specification
14778 (agent-score "~/News/agent.SCORE")
14781 Additional score files can be specified as above. Need I say anything
14786 Use @code{normal} score files
14788 If you don't want to maintain two sets of scoring rules for a group, and
14789 your desired @code{downloading} criteria for a group are the same as your
14790 @code{reading} criteria then you can tell the agent to refer to your
14791 @code{normal} score files when deciding what to download.
14793 These directives in either the category definition or a group's
14794 parameters will cause the agent to read in all the applicable score
14795 files for a group, *filtering out* those those sections that do not
14796 relate to one of the permitted subset of scoring keywords.
14800 Category Specification
14807 Group Parameter specification
14810 (agent-score . file)
14815 @node The Category Buffer
14816 @subsubsection The Category Buffer
14818 You'd normally do all category maintenance from the category buffer.
14819 When you enter it for the first time (with the @kbd{J c} command from
14820 the group buffer), you'll only see the @code{default} category.
14822 The following commands are available in this buffer:
14826 @kindex q (Category)
14827 @findex gnus-category-exit
14828 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-category-exit}).
14831 @kindex k (Category)
14832 @findex gnus-category-kill
14833 Kill the current category (@code{gnus-category-kill}).
14836 @kindex c (Category)
14837 @findex gnus-category-copy
14838 Copy the current category (@code{gnus-category-copy}).
14841 @kindex a (Category)
14842 @findex gnus-category-add
14843 Add a new category (@code{gnus-category-add}).
14846 @kindex p (Category)
14847 @findex gnus-category-edit-predicate
14848 Edit the predicate of the current category
14849 (@code{gnus-category-edit-predicate}).
14852 @kindex g (Category)
14853 @findex gnus-category-edit-groups
14854 Edit the list of groups belonging to the current category
14855 (@code{gnus-category-edit-groups}).
14858 @kindex s (Category)
14859 @findex gnus-category-edit-score
14860 Edit the download score rule of the current category
14861 (@code{gnus-category-edit-score}).
14864 @kindex l (Category)
14865 @findex gnus-category-list
14866 List all the categories (@code{gnus-category-list}).
14870 @node Category Variables
14871 @subsubsection Category Variables
14874 @item gnus-category-mode-hook
14875 @vindex gnus-category-mode-hook
14876 Hook run in category buffers.
14878 @item gnus-category-line-format
14879 @vindex gnus-category-line-format
14880 Format of the lines in the category buffer (@pxref{Formatting
14881 Variables}). Valid elements are:
14885 The name of the category.
14888 The number of groups in the category.
14891 @item gnus-category-mode-line-format
14892 @vindex gnus-category-mode-line-format
14893 Format of the category mode line (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}).
14895 @item gnus-agent-short-article
14896 @vindex gnus-agent-short-article
14897 Articles that have fewer lines than this are short. Default 100.
14899 @item gnus-agent-long-article
14900 @vindex gnus-agent-long-article
14901 Articles that have more lines than this are long. Default 200.
14903 @item gnus-agent-low-score
14904 @vindex gnus-agent-low-score
14905 Articles that have a score lower than this have a low score. Default
14908 @item gnus-agent-high-score
14909 @vindex gnus-agent-high-score
14910 Articles that have a score higher than this have a high score. Default
14916 @node Agent Commands
14917 @subsection Agent Commands
14919 All the Gnus Agent commands are on the @kbd{J} submap. The @kbd{J j}
14920 (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-plugged} command works in all modes, and
14921 toggles the plugged/unplugged state of the Gnus Agent.
14925 * Group Agent Commands::
14926 * Summary Agent Commands::
14927 * Server Agent Commands::
14930 You can run a complete batch fetch from the command line with the
14931 following incantation:
14933 @cindex gnus-agent-batch-fetch
14935 $ emacs -batch -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-agent-batch-fetch
14940 @node Group Agent Commands
14941 @subsubsection Group Agent Commands
14945 @kindex J u (Agent Group)
14946 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-groups
14947 Fetch all eligible articles in the current group
14948 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-groups}).
14951 @kindex J c (Agent Group)
14952 @findex gnus-enter-category-buffer
14953 Enter the Agent category buffer (@code{gnus-enter-category-buffer}).
14956 @kindex J s (Agent Group)
14957 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-session
14958 Fetch all eligible articles in all groups
14959 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-session}).
14962 @kindex J S (Agent Group)
14963 @findex gnus-group-send-drafts
14964 Send all sendable messages in the draft group
14965 (@code{gnus-group-send-drafts}). @xref{Drafts}.
14968 @kindex J a (Agent Group)
14969 @findex gnus-agent-add-group
14970 Add the current group to an Agent category
14971 (@code{gnus-agent-add-group}). This command understands the
14972 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
14975 @kindex J r (Agent Group)
14976 @findex gnus-agent-remove-group
14977 Remove the current group from its category, if any
14978 (@code{gnus-agent-remove-group}). This command understands the
14979 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
14982 @kindex J Y (Agent Group)
14983 @findex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
14984 Synchronize flags changed while unplugged with remote server, if any.
14990 @node Summary Agent Commands
14991 @subsubsection Summary Agent Commands
14995 @kindex J # (Agent Summary)
14996 @findex gnus-agent-mark-article
14997 Mark the article for downloading (@code{gnus-agent-mark-article}).
15000 @kindex J M-# (Agent Summary)
15001 @findex gnus-agent-unmark-article
15002 Remove the downloading mark from the article
15003 (@code{gnus-agent-unmark-article}).
15006 @kindex @@ (Agent Summary)
15007 @findex gnus-agent-toggle-mark
15008 Toggle whether to download the article (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-mark}).
15011 @kindex J c (Agent Summary)
15012 @findex gnus-agent-catchup
15013 Mark all undownloaded articles as read (@code{gnus-agent-catchup}).
15018 @node Server Agent Commands
15019 @subsubsection Server Agent Commands
15023 @kindex J a (Agent Server)
15024 @findex gnus-agent-add-server
15025 Add the current server to the list of servers covered by the Gnus Agent
15026 (@code{gnus-agent-add-server}).
15029 @kindex J r (Agent Server)
15030 @findex gnus-agent-remove-server
15031 Remove the current server from the list of servers covered by the Gnus
15032 Agent (@code{gnus-agent-remove-server}).
15038 @subsection Agent Expiry
15040 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-days
15041 @findex gnus-agent-expire
15042 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-expire
15043 @cindex Agent expiry
15044 @cindex Gnus Agent expiry
15047 @code{nnagent} doesn't handle expiry. Instead, there's a special
15048 @code{gnus-agent-expire} command that will expire all read articles that
15049 are older than @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} days. It can be run
15050 whenever you feel that you're running out of space. It's not
15051 particularly fast or efficient, and it's not a particularly good idea to
15052 interrupt it (with @kbd{C-g} or anything else) once you've started it.
15054 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-all
15055 if @code{gnus-agent-expire-all} is non-@code{nil}, this command will
15056 expire all articles---unread, read, ticked and dormant. If @code{nil}
15057 (which is the default), only read articles are eligible for expiry, and
15058 unread, ticked and dormant articles will be kept indefinitely.
15061 @node Agent and IMAP
15062 @subsection Agent and IMAP
15064 The Agent work with any Gnus backend, including nnimap. However, since
15065 there are some conceptual differences between NNTP and IMAP, this
15066 section (should) provide you with some information to make Gnus Agent
15067 work smoother as a IMAP Disconnected Mode client.
15069 The first thing to keep in mind is that all flags (read, ticked, etc)
15070 are kept on the IMAP server, rather than in @code{.newsrc} as is the
15071 case for nntp. Thus Gnus need to remember flag changes when
15072 disconnected, and synchronize these flags when you plug back in.
15074 Gnus keep track of flag changes when reading nnimap groups under the
15075 Agent by default. When you plug back in, by default Gnus will check if
15076 you have any changed any flags and ask if you wish to synchronize these
15077 with the server. This behavior is customizable with
15078 @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags}.
15080 @vindex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
15081 If @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} is @code{nil}, the Agent will
15082 never automatically synchronize flags. If it is @code{ask}, the
15083 default, the Agent will check if you made any changes and if so ask if
15084 you wish to synchronize these when you re-connect. If it has any other
15085 value, all flags will be synchronized automatically.
15087 If you do not wish to automatically synchronize flags when you
15088 re-connect, this can be done manually with the
15089 @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} command that is bound to @kbd{J Y}
15090 in the group buffer by default.
15092 Some things are currently not implemented in the Agent that you'd might
15093 expect from a disconnected IMAP client, including:
15098 Copying/moving articles into nnimap groups when unplugged.
15101 Creating/deleting nnimap groups when unplugged.
15105 Technical note: the synchronization algorithm does not work by "pushing"
15106 all local flags to the server, but rather incrementally update the
15107 server view of flags by changing only those flags that were changed by
15108 the user. Thus, if you set one flag on a article, quit the group and
15109 re-select the group and remove the flag; the flag will be set and
15110 removed from the server when you "synchronize". The queued flag
15111 operations can be found in the per-server @code{flags} file in the Agent
15112 directory. It's emptied when you synchronize flags.
15115 @node Outgoing Messages
15116 @subsection Outgoing Messages
15118 When Gnus is unplugged, all outgoing messages (both mail and news) are
15119 stored in the draft groups (@pxref{Drafts}). You can view them there
15120 after posting, and edit them at will.
15122 When Gnus is plugged again, you can send the messages either from the
15123 draft group with the special commands available there, or you can use
15124 the @kbd{J S} command in the group buffer to send all the sendable
15125 messages in the draft group.
15129 @node Agent Variables
15130 @subsection Agent Variables
15133 @item gnus-agent-directory
15134 @vindex gnus-agent-directory
15135 Where the Gnus Agent will store its files. The default is
15136 @file{~/News/agent/}.
15138 @item gnus-agent-handle-level
15139 @vindex gnus-agent-handle-level
15140 Groups on levels (@pxref{Group Levels}) higher than this variable will
15141 be ignored by the Agent. The default is @code{gnus-level-subscribed},
15142 which means that only subscribed group will be considered by the Agent
15145 @item gnus-agent-plugged-hook
15146 @vindex gnus-agent-plugged-hook
15147 Hook run when connecting to the network.
15149 @item gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
15150 @vindex gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
15151 Hook run when disconnecting from the network.
15156 @node Example Setup
15157 @subsection Example Setup
15159 If you don't want to read this manual, and you have a fairly standard
15160 setup, you may be able to use something like the following as your
15161 @file{.gnus.el} file to get started.
15164 ;;; Define how Gnus is to fetch news. We do this over @sc{nntp}
15165 ;;; from your ISP's server.
15166 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.your-isp.com"))
15168 ;;; Define how Gnus is to read your mail. We read mail from
15169 ;;; your ISP's POP server.
15170 (setq mail-sources '((pop :server "pop.your-isp.com")))
15172 ;;; Say how Gnus is to store the mail. We use nnml groups.
15173 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
15175 ;;; Make Gnus into an offline newsreader.
15179 That should be it, basically. Put that in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file,
15180 edit to suit your needs, start up PPP (or whatever), and type @kbd{M-x
15183 If this is the first time you've run Gnus, you will be subscribed
15184 automatically to a few default newsgroups. You'll probably want to
15185 subscribe to more groups, and to do that, you have to query the
15186 @sc{nntp} server for a complete list of groups with the @kbd{A A}
15187 command. This usually takes quite a while, but you only have to do it
15190 After reading and parsing a while, you'll be presented with a list of
15191 groups. Subscribe to the ones you want to read with the @kbd{u}
15192 command. @kbd{l} to make all the killed groups disappear after you've
15193 subscribe to all the groups you want to read. (@kbd{A k} will bring
15194 back all the killed groups.)
15196 You can now read the groups at once, or you can download the articles
15197 with the @kbd{J s} command. And then read the rest of this manual to
15198 find out which of the other gazillion things you want to customize.
15201 @node Batching Agents
15202 @subsection Batching Agents
15204 Having the Gnus Agent fetch articles (and post whatever messages you've
15205 written) is quite easy once you've gotten things set up properly. The
15206 following shell script will do everything that is necessary:
15210 emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -f gnus-agent-batch >/dev/null
15214 @node Agent Caveats
15215 @subsection Agent Caveats
15217 The Gnus Agent doesn't seem to work like most other offline
15218 newsreaders. Here are some common questions that some imaginary people
15222 @item If I read an article while plugged, do they get entered into the
15227 @item If I read an article while plugged, and the article already exists
15228 in the Agent, will it get downloaded once more?
15234 In short, when Gnus is unplugged, it only looks into the locally stored
15235 articles; when it's plugged, it only talks to your ISP.
15242 Other people use @dfn{kill files}, but we here at Gnus Towers like
15243 scoring better than killing, so we'd rather switch than fight. They do
15244 something completely different as well, so sit up straight and pay
15247 @vindex gnus-summary-mark-below
15248 All articles have a default score (@code{gnus-summary-default-score}),
15249 which is 0 by default. This score may be raised or lowered either
15250 interactively or by score files. Articles that have a score lower than
15251 @code{gnus-summary-mark-below} are marked as read.
15253 Gnus will read any @dfn{score files} that apply to the current group
15254 before generating the summary buffer.
15256 There are several commands in the summary buffer that insert score
15257 entries based on the current article. You can, for instance, ask Gnus to
15258 lower or increase the score of all articles with a certain subject.
15260 There are two sorts of scoring entries: Permanent and temporary.
15261 Temporary score entries are self-expiring entries. Any entries that are
15262 temporary and have not been used for, say, a week, will be removed
15263 silently to help keep the sizes of the score files down.
15266 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
15267 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
15268 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
15269 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
15270 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
15271 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
15272 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
15273 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
15274 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
15275 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
15276 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
15277 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
15278 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
15279 * GroupLens:: Getting predictions on what you like to read.
15280 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
15281 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
15285 @node Summary Score Commands
15286 @section Summary Score Commands
15287 @cindex score commands
15289 The score commands that alter score entries do not actually modify real
15290 score files. That would be too inefficient. Gnus maintains a cache of
15291 previously loaded score files, one of which is considered the
15292 @dfn{current score file alist}. The score commands simply insert
15293 entries into this list, and upon group exit, this list is saved.
15295 The current score file is by default the group's local score file, even
15296 if no such score file actually exists. To insert score commands into
15297 some other score file (e.g. @file{all.SCORE}), you must first make this
15298 score file the current one.
15300 General score commands that don't actually change the score file:
15305 @kindex V s (Summary)
15306 @findex gnus-summary-set-score
15307 Set the score of the current article (@code{gnus-summary-set-score}).
15310 @kindex V S (Summary)
15311 @findex gnus-summary-current-score
15312 Display the score of the current article
15313 (@code{gnus-summary-current-score}).
15316 @kindex V t (Summary)
15317 @findex gnus-score-find-trace
15318 Display all score rules that have been used on the current article
15319 (@code{gnus-score-find-trace}).
15322 @kindex V R (Summary)
15323 @findex gnus-summary-rescore
15324 Run the current summary through the scoring process
15325 (@code{gnus-summary-rescore}). This might be useful if you're playing
15326 around with your score files behind Gnus' back and want to see the
15327 effect you're having.
15330 @kindex V c (Summary)
15331 @findex gnus-score-change-score-file
15332 Make a different score file the current
15333 (@code{gnus-score-change-score-file}).
15336 @kindex V e (Summary)
15337 @findex gnus-score-edit-current-scores
15338 Edit the current score file (@code{gnus-score-edit-current-scores}).
15339 You will be popped into a @code{gnus-score-mode} buffer (@pxref{Score
15343 @kindex V f (Summary)
15344 @findex gnus-score-edit-file
15345 Edit a score file and make this score file the current one
15346 (@code{gnus-score-edit-file}).
15349 @kindex V F (Summary)
15350 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
15351 Flush the score cache (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}). This is useful
15352 after editing score files.
15355 @kindex V C (Summary)
15356 @findex gnus-score-customize
15357 Customize a score file in a visually pleasing manner
15358 (@code{gnus-score-customize}).
15362 The rest of these commands modify the local score file.
15367 @kindex V m (Summary)
15368 @findex gnus-score-set-mark-below
15369 Prompt for a score, and mark all articles with a score below this as
15370 read (@code{gnus-score-set-mark-below}).
15373 @kindex V x (Summary)
15374 @findex gnus-score-set-expunge-below
15375 Prompt for a score, and add a score rule to the current score file to
15376 expunge all articles below this score
15377 (@code{gnus-score-set-expunge-below}).
15380 The keystrokes for actually making score entries follow a very regular
15381 pattern, so there's no need to list all the commands. (Hundreds of
15384 @findex gnus-summary-increase-score
15385 @findex gnus-summary-lower-score
15389 The first key is either @kbd{I} (upper case i) for increasing the score
15390 or @kbd{L} for lowering the score.
15392 The second key says what header you want to score on. The following
15393 keys are available:
15397 Score on the author name.
15400 Score on the subject line.
15403 Score on the @code{Xref} line---i.e., the cross-posting line.
15406 Score on the @code{References} line.
15412 Score on the number of lines.
15415 Score on the @code{Message-ID} header.
15418 Score on followups---this matches the author name, and adds scores to
15419 the followups to this author.
15433 The third key is the match type. Which match types are valid depends on
15434 what headers you are scoring on.
15446 Substring matching.
15449 Fuzzy matching (@pxref{Fuzzy Matching}).
15478 Greater than number.
15483 The fourth and final key says whether this is a temporary (i.e., expiring)
15484 score entry, or a permanent (i.e., non-expiring) score entry, or whether
15485 it is to be done immediately, without adding to the score file.
15489 Temporary score entry.
15492 Permanent score entry.
15495 Immediately scoring.
15500 So, let's say you want to increase the score on the current author with
15501 exact matching permanently: @kbd{I a e p}. If you want to lower the
15502 score based on the subject line, using substring matching, and make a
15503 temporary score entry: @kbd{L s s t}. Pretty easy.
15505 To make things a bit more complicated, there are shortcuts. If you use
15506 a capital letter on either the second or third keys, Gnus will use
15507 defaults for the remaining one or two keystrokes. The defaults are
15508 ``substring'' and ``temporary''. So @kbd{I A} is the same as @kbd{I a s
15509 t}, and @kbd{I a R} is the same as @kbd{I a r t}.
15511 These functions take both the numerical prefix and the symbolic prefix
15512 (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}). A numerical prefix says how much to lower
15513 (or increase) the score of the article. A symbolic prefix of @code{a}
15514 says to use the @file{all.SCORE} file for the command instead of the
15515 current score file.
15517 @vindex gnus-score-mimic-keymap
15518 The @code{gnus-score-mimic-keymap} says whether these commands will
15519 pretend they are keymaps or not.
15522 @node Group Score Commands
15523 @section Group Score Commands
15524 @cindex group score commands
15526 There aren't many of these as yet, I'm afraid.
15531 @kindex W f (Group)
15532 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
15533 Gnus maintains a cache of score alists to avoid having to reload them
15534 all the time. This command will flush the cache
15535 (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}).
15539 You can do scoring from the command line by saying something like:
15541 @findex gnus-batch-score
15542 @cindex batch scoring
15544 $ emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-batch-score
15548 @node Score Variables
15549 @section Score Variables
15550 @cindex score variables
15554 @item gnus-use-scoring
15555 @vindex gnus-use-scoring
15556 If @code{nil}, Gnus will not check for score files, and will not, in
15557 general, do any score-related work. This is @code{t} by default.
15559 @item gnus-kill-killed
15560 @vindex gnus-kill-killed
15561 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will never apply score files to
15562 articles that have already been through the kill process. While this
15563 may save you lots of time, it also means that if you apply a kill file
15564 to a group, and then change the kill file and want to run it over you
15565 group again to kill more articles, it won't work. You have to set this
15566 variable to @code{t} to do that. (It is @code{t} by default.)
15568 @item gnus-kill-files-directory
15569 @vindex gnus-kill-files-directory
15570 All kill and score files will be stored in this directory, which is
15571 initialized from the @code{SAVEDIR} environment variable by default.
15572 This is @file{~/News/} by default.
15574 @item gnus-score-file-suffix
15575 @vindex gnus-score-file-suffix
15576 Suffix to add to the group name to arrive at the score file name
15577 (@samp{SCORE} by default.)
15579 @item gnus-score-uncacheable-files
15580 @vindex gnus-score-uncacheable-files
15581 @cindex score cache
15582 All score files are normally cached to avoid excessive re-loading of
15583 score files. However, if this might make your Emacs grow big and
15584 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
15585 @file{all.SCORE}, while it might be a good idea to not cache
15586 @file{comp.infosystems.www.authoring.misc.ADAPT}. In fact, this
15587 variable is @samp{ADAPT$} by default, so no adaptive score files will
15590 @item gnus-save-score
15591 @vindex gnus-save-score
15592 If you have really complicated score files, and do lots of batch
15593 scoring, then you might set this variable to @code{t}. This will make
15594 Gnus save the scores into the @file{.newsrc.eld} file.
15596 If you do not set this to @code{t}, then manual scores (like those set
15597 with @kbd{V s} (@code{gnus-summary-set-score})) will not be preserved
15598 across group visits.
15600 @item gnus-score-interactive-default-score
15601 @vindex gnus-score-interactive-default-score
15602 Score used by all the interactive raise/lower commands to raise/lower
15603 score with. Default is 1000, which may seem excessive, but this is to
15604 ensure that the adaptive scoring scheme gets enough room to play with.
15605 We don't want the small changes from the adaptive scoring to overwrite
15606 manually entered data.
15608 @item gnus-summary-default-score
15609 @vindex gnus-summary-default-score
15610 Default score of an article, which is 0 by default.
15612 @item gnus-summary-expunge-below
15613 @vindex gnus-summary-expunge-below
15614 Don't display the summary lines of articles that have scores lower than
15615 this variable. This is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
15616 articles will be hidden. This variable is local to the summary buffers,
15617 and has to be set from @code{gnus-summary-mode-hook}.
15619 @item gnus-score-over-mark
15620 @vindex gnus-score-over-mark
15621 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score over the
15622 default. Default is @samp{+}.
15624 @item gnus-score-below-mark
15625 @vindex gnus-score-below-mark
15626 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score below the
15627 default. Default is @samp{-}.
15629 @item gnus-score-find-score-files-function
15630 @vindex gnus-score-find-score-files-function
15631 Function used to find score files for the current group. This function
15632 is called with the name of the group as the argument.
15634 Predefined functions available are:
15637 @item gnus-score-find-single
15638 @findex gnus-score-find-single
15639 Only apply the group's own score file.
15641 @item gnus-score-find-bnews
15642 @findex gnus-score-find-bnews
15643 Apply all score files that match, using bnews syntax. This is the
15644 default. If the current group is @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}, for instance,
15645 @file{all.emacs.all.SCORE}, @file{not.alt.all.SCORE} and
15646 @file{gnu.all.SCORE} would all apply. In short, the instances of
15647 @samp{all} in the score file names are translated into @samp{.*}, and
15648 then a regexp match is done.
15650 This means that if you have some score entries that you want to apply to
15651 all groups, then you put those entries in the @file{all.SCORE} file.
15653 The score files are applied in a semi-random order, although Gnus will
15654 try to apply the more general score files before the more specific score
15655 files. It does this by looking at the number of elements in the score
15656 file names---discarding the @samp{all} elements.
15658 @item gnus-score-find-hierarchical
15659 @findex gnus-score-find-hierarchical
15660 Apply all score files from all the parent groups. This means that you
15661 can't have score files like @file{all.SCORE}, but you can have
15662 @file{SCORE}, @file{comp.SCORE} and @file{comp.emacs.SCORE} for each
15666 This variable can also be a list of functions. In that case, all these
15667 functions will be called with the group name as argument, and all the
15668 returned lists of score files will be applied. These functions can also
15669 return lists of score alists directly. In that case, the functions that
15670 return these non-file score alists should probably be placed before the
15671 ``real'' score file functions, to ensure that the last score file
15672 returned is the local score file. Phu.
15674 For example, to do hierarchical scoring but use a non-server-specific
15675 overall score file, you could use the value
15677 (list (lambda (group) ("all.SCORE")) 'gnus-score-find-hierarchical)
15680 @item gnus-score-expiry-days
15681 @vindex gnus-score-expiry-days
15682 This variable says how many days should pass before an unused score file
15683 entry is expired. If this variable is @code{nil}, no score file entries
15684 are expired. It's 7 by default.
15686 @item gnus-update-score-entry-dates
15687 @vindex gnus-update-score-entry-dates
15688 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, matching score entries will have
15689 their dates updated. (This is how Gnus controls expiry---all
15690 non-matching entries will become too old while matching entries will
15691 stay fresh and young.) However, if you set this variable to @code{nil},
15692 even matching entries will grow old and will have to face that oh-so
15695 @item gnus-score-after-write-file-function
15696 @vindex gnus-score-after-write-file-function
15697 Function called with the name of the score file just written.
15699 @item gnus-score-thread-simplify
15700 @vindex gnus-score-thread-simplify
15701 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, article subjects will be simplified
15702 for subject scoring purposes in the same manner as with
15703 threading---according to the current value of
15704 gnus-simplify-subject-functions. If the scoring entry uses
15705 @code{substring} or @code{exact} matching, the match will also be
15706 simplified in this manner.
15711 @node Score File Format
15712 @section Score File Format
15713 @cindex score file format
15715 A score file is an @code{emacs-lisp} file that normally contains just a
15716 single form. Casual users are not expected to edit these files;
15717 everything can be changed from the summary buffer.
15719 Anyway, if you'd like to dig into it yourself, here's an example:
15723 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" -10000)
15725 ("larsi\\|lmi" -50000 nil R))
15727 ("Ding is Badd" nil 728373))
15729 ("alt.politics" -1000 728372 s))
15734 (mark-and-expunge -10)
15738 (files "/hom/larsi/News/gnu.SCORE")
15739 (exclude-files "all.SCORE")
15740 (local (gnus-newsgroup-auto-expire t)
15741 (gnus-summary-make-false-root empty))
15745 This example demonstrates most score file elements. For a different
15746 approach, see @pxref{Advanced Scoring}.
15748 Even though this looks much like lisp code, nothing here is actually
15749 @code{eval}ed. The lisp reader is used to read this form, though, so it
15750 has to be valid syntactically, if not semantically.
15752 Six keys are supported by this alist:
15757 If the key is a string, it is the name of the header to perform the
15758 match on. Scoring can only be performed on these eight headers:
15759 @code{From}, @code{Subject}, @code{References}, @code{Message-ID},
15760 @code{Xref}, @code{Lines}, @code{Chars} and @code{Date}. In addition to
15761 these headers, there are three strings to tell Gnus to fetch the entire
15762 article and do the match on larger parts of the article: @code{Body}
15763 will perform the match on the body of the article, @code{Head} will
15764 perform the match on the head of the article, and @code{All} will
15765 perform the match on the entire article. Note that using any of these
15766 last three keys will slow down group entry @emph{considerably}. The
15767 final ``header'' you can score on is @code{Followup}. These score
15768 entries will result in new score entries being added for all follow-ups
15769 to articles that matches these score entries.
15771 Following this key is a arbitrary number of score entries, where each
15772 score entry has one to four elements.
15776 The first element is the @dfn{match element}. On most headers this will
15777 be a string, but on the Lines and Chars headers, this must be an
15781 If the second element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{score
15782 element}. This number should be an integer in the neginf to posinf
15783 interval. This number is added to the score of the article if the match
15784 is successful. If this element is not present, the
15785 @code{gnus-score-interactive-default-score} number will be used
15786 instead. This is 1000 by default.
15789 If the third element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{date
15790 element}. This date says when the last time this score entry matched,
15791 which provides a mechanism for expiring the score entries. It this
15792 element is not present, the score entry is permanent. The date is
15793 represented by the number of days since December 31, 1 BCE.
15796 If the fourth element is present, it should be a symbol---the @dfn{type
15797 element}. This element specifies what function should be used to see
15798 whether this score entry matches the article. What match types that can
15799 be used depends on what header you wish to perform the match on.
15802 @item From, Subject, References, Xref, Message-ID
15803 For most header types, there are the @code{r} and @code{R} (regexp), as
15804 well as @code{s} and @code{S} (substring) types, and @code{e} and
15805 @code{E} (exact match), and @code{w} (word match) types. If this
15806 element is not present, Gnus will assume that substring matching should
15807 be used. @code{R}, @code{S}, and @code{E} differ from the others in
15808 that the matches will be done in a case-sensitive manner. All these
15809 one-letter types are really just abbreviations for the @code{regexp},
15810 @code{string}, @code{exact}, and @code{word} types, which you can use
15811 instead, if you feel like.
15814 These two headers use different match types: @code{<}, @code{>},
15815 @code{=}, @code{>=} and @code{<=}.
15817 These predicates are true if
15820 (PREDICATE HEADER MATCH)
15823 evaluates to non-@code{nil}. For instance, the advanced match
15824 @code{("lines" 4 <)} (@pxref{Advanced Scoring}) will result in the
15831 Or to put it another way: When using @code{<} on @code{Lines} with 4 as
15832 the match, we get the score added if the article has less than 4 lines.
15833 (It's easy to get confused and think it's the other way around. But
15834 it's not. I think.)
15836 When matching on @code{Lines}, be careful because some backends (like
15837 @code{nndir}) do not generate @code{Lines} header, so every article ends
15838 up being marked as having 0 lines. This can lead to strange results if
15839 you happen to lower score of the articles with few lines.
15842 For the Date header we have three kinda silly match types:
15843 @code{before}, @code{at} and @code{after}. I can't really imagine this
15844 ever being useful, but, like, it would feel kinda silly not to provide
15845 this function. Just in case. You never know. Better safe than sorry.
15846 Once burnt, twice shy. Don't judge a book by its cover. Never not have
15847 sex on a first date. (I have been told that at least one person, and I
15848 quote, ``found this function indispensable'', however.)
15852 A more useful match type is @code{regexp}. With it, you can match the
15853 date string using a regular expression. The date is normalized to
15854 ISO8601 compact format first---@var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS}. If
15855 you want to match all articles that have been posted on April 1st in
15856 every year, you could use @samp{....0401.........} as a match string,
15857 for instance. (Note that the date is kept in its original time zone, so
15858 this will match articles that were posted when it was April 1st where
15859 the article was posted from. Time zones are such wholesome fun for the
15862 @item Head, Body, All
15863 These three match keys use the same match types as the @code{From} (etc)
15867 This match key is somewhat special, in that it will match the
15868 @code{From} header, and affect the score of not only the matching
15869 articles, but also all followups to the matching articles. This allows
15870 you e.g. increase the score of followups to your own articles, or
15871 decrease the score of followups to the articles of some known
15872 trouble-maker. Uses the same match types as the @code{From} header
15873 uses. (Using this match key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT}
15877 This match key works along the same lines as the @code{Followup} match
15878 key. If you say that you want to score on a (sub-)thread started by an
15879 article with a @code{Message-ID} @var{x}, then you add a @samp{thread}
15880 match. This will add a new @samp{thread} match for each article that
15881 has @var{x} in its @code{References} header. (These new @samp{thread}
15882 matches will use the @code{Message-ID}s of these matching articles.)
15883 This will ensure that you can raise/lower the score of an entire thread,
15884 even though some articles in the thread may not have complete
15885 @code{References} headers. Note that using this may lead to
15886 undeterministic scores of the articles in the thread. (Using this match
15887 key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT} files.)
15891 @cindex Score File Atoms
15893 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
15894 lower than this number will be marked as read.
15897 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
15898 lower than this number will be removed from the summary buffer.
15900 @item mark-and-expunge
15901 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
15902 lower than this number will be marked as read and removed from the
15905 @item thread-mark-and-expunge
15906 The value of this entry should be a number. All articles that belong to
15907 a thread that has a total score below this number will be marked as read
15908 and removed from the summary buffer. @code{gnus-thread-score-function}
15909 says how to compute the total score for a thread.
15912 The value of this entry should be any number of file names. These files
15913 are assumed to be score files as well, and will be loaded the same way
15916 @item exclude-files
15917 The clue of this entry should be any number of files. These files will
15918 not be loaded, even though they would normally be so, for some reason or
15922 The value of this entry will be @code{eval}el. This element will be
15923 ignored when handling global score files.
15926 Read-only score files will not be updated or saved. Global score files
15927 should feature this atom (@pxref{Global Score Files}). (Note:
15928 @dfn{Global} here really means @dfn{global}; not your personal
15929 apply-to-all-groups score files.)
15932 The value of this entry should be a number. Articles that do not have
15933 parents will get this number added to their scores. Imagine you follow
15934 some high-volume newsgroup, like @samp{comp.lang.c}. Most likely you
15935 will only follow a few of the threads, also want to see any new threads.
15937 You can do this with the following two score file entries:
15941 (mark-and-expunge -100)
15944 When you enter the group the first time, you will only see the new
15945 threads. You then raise the score of the threads that you find
15946 interesting (with @kbd{I T} or @kbd{I S}), and ignore (@kbd{C y}) the
15947 rest. Next time you enter the group, you will see new articles in the
15948 interesting threads, plus any new threads.
15950 I.e.---the orphan score atom is for high-volume groups where there
15951 exist a few interesting threads which can't be found automatically by
15952 ordinary scoring rules.
15955 This entry controls the adaptive scoring. If it is @code{t}, the
15956 default adaptive scoring rules will be used. If it is @code{ignore}, no
15957 adaptive scoring will be performed on this group. If it is a list, this
15958 list will be used as the adaptive scoring rules. If it isn't present,
15959 or is something other than @code{t} or @code{ignore}, the default
15960 adaptive scoring rules will be used. If you want to use adaptive
15961 scoring on most groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
15962 @code{t}, and insert an @code{(adapt ignore)} in the groups where you do
15963 not want adaptive scoring. If you only want adaptive scoring in a few
15964 groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to @code{nil}, and
15965 insert @code{(adapt t)} in the score files of the groups where you want
15969 All adaptive score entries will go to the file named by this entry. It
15970 will also be applied when entering the group. This atom might be handy
15971 if you want to adapt on several groups at once, using the same adaptive
15972 file for a number of groups.
15975 @cindex local variables
15976 The value of this entry should be a list of @code{(VAR VALUE)} pairs.
15977 Each @var{var} will be made buffer-local to the current summary buffer,
15978 and set to the value specified. This is a convenient, if somewhat
15979 strange, way of setting variables in some groups if you don't like hooks
15980 much. Note that the @var{value} won't be evaluated.
15984 @node Score File Editing
15985 @section Score File Editing
15987 You normally enter all scoring commands from the summary buffer, but you
15988 might feel the urge to edit them by hand as well, so we've supplied you
15989 with a mode for that.
15991 It's simply a slightly customized @code{emacs-lisp} mode, with these
15992 additional commands:
15997 @kindex C-c C-c (Score)
15998 @findex gnus-score-edit-done
15999 Save the changes you have made and return to the summary buffer
16000 (@code{gnus-score-edit-done}).
16003 @kindex C-c C-d (Score)
16004 @findex gnus-score-edit-insert-date
16005 Insert the current date in numerical format
16006 (@code{gnus-score-edit-insert-date}). This is really the day number, if
16007 you were wondering.
16010 @kindex C-c C-p (Score)
16011 @findex gnus-score-pretty-print
16012 The adaptive score files are saved in an unformatted fashion. If you
16013 intend to read one of these files, you want to @dfn{pretty print} it
16014 first. This command (@code{gnus-score-pretty-print}) does that for
16019 Type @kbd{M-x gnus-score-mode} to use this mode.
16021 @vindex gnus-score-mode-hook
16022 @code{gnus-score-menu-hook} is run in score mode buffers.
16024 In the summary buffer you can use commands like @kbd{V f} and @kbd{V
16025 e} to begin editing score files.
16028 @node Adaptive Scoring
16029 @section Adaptive Scoring
16030 @cindex adaptive scoring
16032 If all this scoring is getting you down, Gnus has a way of making it all
16033 happen automatically---as if by magic. Or rather, as if by artificial
16034 stupidity, to be precise.
16036 @vindex gnus-use-adaptive-scoring
16037 When you read an article, or mark an article as read, or kill an
16038 article, you leave marks behind. On exit from the group, Gnus can sniff
16039 these marks and add score elements depending on what marks it finds.
16040 You turn on this ability by setting @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
16041 @code{t} or @code{(line)}. If you want score adaptively on separate
16042 words appearing in the subjects, you should set this variable to
16043 @code{(word)}. If you want to use both adaptive methods, set this
16044 variable to @code{(word line)}.
16046 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
16047 To give you complete control over the scoring process, you can customize
16048 the @code{gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist} variable. For instance, it
16049 might look something like this:
16052 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
16053 '((gnus-unread-mark)
16054 (gnus-ticked-mark (from 4))
16055 (gnus-dormant-mark (from 5))
16056 (gnus-del-mark (from -4) (subject -1))
16057 (gnus-read-mark (from 4) (subject 2))
16058 (gnus-expirable-mark (from -1) (subject -1))
16059 (gnus-killed-mark (from -1) (subject -3))
16060 (gnus-kill-file-mark)
16061 (gnus-ancient-mark)
16062 (gnus-low-score-mark)
16063 (gnus-catchup-mark (from -1) (subject -1))))
16066 As you see, each element in this alist has a mark as a key (either a
16067 variable name or a ``real'' mark---a character). Following this key is
16068 a arbitrary number of header/score pairs. If there are no header/score
16069 pairs following the key, no adaptive scoring will be done on articles
16070 that have that key as the article mark. For instance, articles with
16071 @code{gnus-unread-mark} in the example above will not get adaptive score
16074 Each article can have only one mark, so just a single of these rules
16075 will be applied to each article.
16077 To take @code{gnus-del-mark} as an example---this alist says that all
16078 articles that have that mark (i.e., are marked with @samp{D}) will have a
16079 score entry added to lower based on the @code{From} header by -4, and
16080 lowered by @code{Subject} by -1. Change this to fit your prejudices.
16082 If you have marked 10 articles with the same subject with
16083 @code{gnus-del-mark}, the rule for that mark will be applied ten times.
16084 That means that that subject will get a score of ten times -1, which
16085 should be, unless I'm much mistaken, -10.
16087 If you have auto-expirable (mail) groups (@pxref{Expiring Mail}), all
16088 the read articles will be marked with the @samp{E} mark. This'll
16089 probably make adaptive scoring slightly impossible, so auto-expiring and
16090 adaptive scoring doesn't really mix very well.
16092 The headers you can score on are @code{from}, @code{subject},
16093 @code{message-id}, @code{references}, @code{xref}, @code{lines},
16094 @code{chars} and @code{date}. In addition, you can score on
16095 @code{followup}, which will create an adaptive score entry that matches
16096 on the @code{References} header using the @code{Message-ID} of the
16097 current article, thereby matching the following thread.
16099 You can also score on @code{thread}, which will try to score all
16100 articles that appear in a thread. @code{thread} matches uses a
16101 @code{Message-ID} to match on the @code{References} header of the
16102 article. If the match is made, the @code{Message-ID} of the article is
16103 added to the @code{thread} rule. (Think about it. I'd recommend two
16104 aspirins afterwards.)
16106 If you use this scheme, you should set the score file atom @code{mark}
16107 to something small---like -300, perhaps, to avoid having small random
16108 changes result in articles getting marked as read.
16110 After using adaptive scoring for a week or so, Gnus should start to
16111 become properly trained and enhance the authors you like best, and kill
16112 the authors you like least, without you having to say so explicitly.
16114 You can control what groups the adaptive scoring is to be performed on
16115 by using the score files (@pxref{Score File Format}). This will also
16116 let you use different rules in different groups.
16118 @vindex gnus-adaptive-file-suffix
16119 The adaptive score entries will be put into a file where the name is the
16120 group name with @code{gnus-adaptive-file-suffix} appended. The default
16123 @vindex gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit
16124 When doing adaptive scoring, substring or fuzzy matching would probably
16125 give you the best results in most cases. However, if the header one
16126 matches is short, the possibility for false positives is great, so if
16127 the length of the match is less than
16128 @code{gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit}, exact matching will be used. If
16129 this variable is @code{nil}, exact matching will always be used to avoid
16132 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
16133 As mentioned above, you can adapt either on individual words or entire
16134 headers. If you adapt on words, the
16135 @code{gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist} variable says what score
16136 each instance of a word should add given a mark.
16139 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
16140 `((,gnus-read-mark . 30)
16141 (,gnus-catchup-mark . -10)
16142 (,gnus-killed-mark . -20)
16143 (,gnus-del-mark . -15)))
16146 This is the default value. If you have adaption on words enabled, every
16147 word that appears in subjects of articles marked with
16148 @code{gnus-read-mark} will result in a score rule that increase the
16149 score with 30 points.
16151 @vindex gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words
16152 @vindex gnus-ignored-adaptive-words
16153 Words that appear in the @code{gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words} list
16154 will be ignored. If you wish to add more words to be ignored, use the
16155 @code{gnus-ignored-adaptive-words} list instead.
16157 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table
16158 When the scoring is done, @code{gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table} is the
16159 syntax table in effect. It is similar to the standard syntax table, but
16160 it considers numbers to be non-word-constituent characters.
16162 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-minimum
16163 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} is set to a number, the adaptive
16164 word scoring process will never bring down the score of an article to
16165 below this number. The default is @code{nil}.
16167 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words
16168 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words} is set to @code{t}, gnus
16169 won't adaptively word score any of the words in the group name. Useful
16170 for groups like @samp{comp.editors.emacs}, where most of the subject
16171 lines contain the word @samp{emacs}.
16173 After using this scheme for a while, it might be nice to write a
16174 @code{gnus-psychoanalyze-user} command to go through the rules and see
16175 what words you like and what words you don't like. Or perhaps not.
16177 Note that the adaptive word scoring thing is highly experimental and is
16178 likely to change in the future. Initial impressions seem to indicate
16179 that it's totally useless as it stands. Some more work (involving more
16180 rigorous statistical methods) will have to be done to make this useful.
16183 @node Home Score File
16184 @section Home Score File
16186 The score file where new score file entries will go is called the
16187 @dfn{home score file}. This is normally (and by default) the score file
16188 for the group itself. For instance, the home score file for
16189 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} is @file{gnu.emacs.gnus.SCORE}.
16191 However, this may not be what you want. It is often convenient to share
16192 a common home score file among many groups---all @samp{emacs} groups
16193 could perhaps use the same home score file.
16195 @vindex gnus-home-score-file
16196 The variable that controls this is @code{gnus-home-score-file}. It can
16201 A string. Then this file will be used as the home score file for all
16205 A function. The result of this function will be used as the home score
16206 file. The function will be called with the name of the group as the
16210 A list. The elements in this list can be:
16214 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{file-name})}. If the @var{regexp} matches the
16215 group name, the @var{file-name} will will be used as the home score file.
16218 A function. If the function returns non-nil, the result will be used as
16219 the home score file.
16222 A string. Use the string as the home score file.
16225 The list will be traversed from the beginning towards the end looking
16230 So, if you want to use just a single score file, you could say:
16233 (setq gnus-home-score-file
16234 "my-total-score-file.SCORE")
16237 If you want to use @file{gnu.SCORE} for all @samp{gnu} groups and
16238 @file{rec.SCORE} for all @samp{rec} groups (and so on), you can say:
16240 @findex gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file
16242 (setq gnus-home-score-file
16243 'gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file)
16246 This is a ready-made function provided for your convenience.
16247 Other functions include
16250 @item gnus-current-home-score-file
16251 @findex gnus-current-home-score-file
16252 Return the ``current'' regular score file. This will make scoring
16253 commands add entry to the ``innermost'' matching score file.
16257 If you want to have one score file for the @samp{emacs} groups and
16258 another for the @samp{comp} groups, while letting all other groups use
16259 their own home score files:
16262 (setq gnus-home-score-file
16263 ;; All groups that match the regexp "\\.emacs"
16264 '(("\\.emacs" "emacs.SCORE")
16265 ;; All the comp groups in one score file
16266 ("^comp" "comp.SCORE")))
16269 @vindex gnus-home-adapt-file
16270 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file} works exactly the same way as
16271 @code{gnus-home-score-file}, but says what the home adaptive score file
16272 is instead. All new adaptive file entries will go into the file
16273 specified by this variable, and the same syntax is allowed.
16275 In addition to using @code{gnus-home-score-file} and
16276 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file}, you can also use group parameters
16277 (@pxref{Group Parameters}) and topic parameters (@pxref{Topic
16278 Parameters}) to achieve much the same. Group and topic parameters take
16279 precedence over this variable.
16282 @node Followups To Yourself
16283 @section Followups To Yourself
16285 Gnus offers two commands for picking out the @code{Message-ID} header in
16286 the current buffer. Gnus will then add a score rule that scores using
16287 this @code{Message-ID} on the @code{References} header of other
16288 articles. This will, in effect, increase the score of all articles that
16289 respond to the article in the current buffer. Quite useful if you want
16290 to easily note when people answer what you've said.
16294 @item gnus-score-followup-article
16295 @findex gnus-score-followup-article
16296 This will add a score to articles that directly follow up your own
16299 @item gnus-score-followup-thread
16300 @findex gnus-score-followup-thread
16301 This will add a score to all articles that appear in a thread ``below''
16305 @vindex message-sent-hook
16306 These two functions are both primarily meant to be used in hooks like
16307 @code{message-sent-hook}, like this:
16309 (add-hook 'message-sent-hook 'gnus-score-followup-thread)
16313 If you look closely at your own @code{Message-ID}, you'll notice that
16314 the first two or three characters are always the same. Here's two of
16318 <x6u3u47icf.fsf@@eyesore.no>
16319 <x6sp9o7ibw.fsf@@eyesore.no>
16322 So ``my'' ident on this machine is @samp{x6}. This can be
16323 exploited---the following rule will raise the score on all followups to
16328 ("<x6[0-9a-z]+\\.fsf\\(_-_\\)?@@.*eyesore\\.no>"
16332 Whether it's the first two or first three characters that are ``yours''
16333 is system-dependent.
16337 @section Scoring Tips
16338 @cindex scoring tips
16344 @cindex scoring crossposts
16345 If you want to lower the score of crossposts, the line to match on is
16346 the @code{Xref} header.
16348 ("xref" (" talk.politics.misc:" -1000))
16351 @item Multiple crossposts
16352 If you want to lower the score of articles that have been crossposted to
16353 more than, say, 3 groups:
16355 ("xref" ("[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+" -1000 nil r))
16358 @item Matching on the body
16359 This is generally not a very good idea---it takes a very long time.
16360 Gnus actually has to fetch each individual article from the server. But
16361 you might want to anyway, I guess. Even though there are three match
16362 keys (@code{Head}, @code{Body} and @code{All}), you should choose one
16363 and stick with it in each score file. If you use any two, each article
16364 will be fetched @emph{twice}. If you want to match a bit on the
16365 @code{Head} and a bit on the @code{Body}, just use @code{All} for all
16368 @item Marking as read
16369 You will probably want to mark articles that have scores below a certain
16370 number as read. This is most easily achieved by putting the following
16371 in your @file{all.SCORE} file:
16375 You may also consider doing something similar with @code{expunge}.
16377 @item Negated character classes
16378 If you say stuff like @code{[^abcd]*}, you may get unexpected results.
16379 That will match newlines, which might lead to, well, The Unknown. Say
16380 @code{[^abcd\n]*} instead.
16384 @node Reverse Scoring
16385 @section Reverse Scoring
16386 @cindex reverse scoring
16388 If you want to keep just articles that have @samp{Sex with Emacs} in the
16389 subject header, and expunge all other articles, you could put something
16390 like this in your score file:
16394 ("Sex with Emacs" 2))
16399 So, you raise all articles that match @samp{Sex with Emacs} and mark the
16400 rest as read, and expunge them to boot.
16403 @node Global Score Files
16404 @section Global Score Files
16405 @cindex global score files
16407 Sure, other newsreaders have ``global kill files''. These are usually
16408 nothing more than a single kill file that applies to all groups, stored
16409 in the user's home directory. Bah! Puny, weak newsreaders!
16411 What I'm talking about here are Global Score Files. Score files from
16412 all over the world, from users everywhere, uniting all nations in one
16413 big, happy score file union! Ange-score! New and untested!
16415 @vindex gnus-global-score-files
16416 All you have to do to use other people's score files is to set the
16417 @code{gnus-global-score-files} variable. One entry for each score file,
16418 or each score file directory. Gnus will decide by itself what score
16419 files are applicable to which group.
16421 Say you want to use the score file
16422 @file{/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE} and
16423 all score files in the @file{/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score} directory:
16426 (setq gnus-global-score-files
16427 '("/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE"
16428 "/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score/"))
16431 @findex gnus-score-search-global-directories
16432 Simple, eh? Directory names must end with a @samp{/}. These
16433 directories are typically scanned only once during each Gnus session.
16434 If you feel the need to manually re-scan the remote directories, you can
16435 use the @code{gnus-score-search-global-directories} command.
16437 Note that, at present, using this option will slow down group entry
16438 somewhat. (That is---a lot.)
16440 If you want to start maintaining score files for other people to use,
16441 just put your score file up for anonymous ftp and announce it to the
16442 world. Become a retro-moderator! Participate in the retro-moderator
16443 wars sure to ensue, where retro-moderators battle it out for the
16444 sympathy of the people, luring them to use their score files on false
16445 premises! Yay! The net is saved!
16447 Here are some tips for the would-be retro-moderator, off the top of my
16453 Articles heavily crossposted are probably junk.
16455 To lower a single inappropriate article, lower by @code{Message-ID}.
16457 Particularly brilliant authors can be raised on a permanent basis.
16459 Authors that repeatedly post off-charter for the group can safely be
16460 lowered out of existence.
16462 Set the @code{mark} and @code{expunge} atoms to obliterate the nastiest
16463 articles completely.
16466 Use expiring score entries to keep the size of the file down. You
16467 should probably have a long expiry period, though, as some sites keep
16468 old articles for a long time.
16471 ... I wonder whether other newsreaders will support global score files
16472 in the future. @emph{Snicker}. Yup, any day now, newsreaders like Blue
16473 Wave, xrn and 1stReader are bound to implement scoring. Should we start
16474 holding our breath yet?
16478 @section Kill Files
16481 Gnus still supports those pesky old kill files. In fact, the kill file
16482 entries can now be expiring, which is something I wrote before Daniel
16483 Quinlan thought of doing score files, so I've left the code in there.
16485 In short, kill processing is a lot slower (and I do mean @emph{a lot})
16486 than score processing, so it might be a good idea to rewrite your kill
16487 files into score files.
16489 Anyway, a kill file is a normal @code{emacs-lisp} file. You can put any
16490 forms into this file, which means that you can use kill files as some
16491 sort of primitive hook function to be run on group entry, even though
16492 that isn't a very good idea.
16494 Normal kill files look like this:
16497 (gnus-kill "From" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
16498 (gnus-kill "Subject" "ding")
16502 This will mark every article written by me as read, and remove the
16503 marked articles from the summary buffer. Very useful, you'll agree.
16505 Other programs use a totally different kill file syntax. If Gnus
16506 encounters what looks like a @code{rn} kill file, it will take a stab at
16509 Two summary functions for editing a GNUS kill file:
16514 @kindex M-k (Summary)
16515 @findex gnus-summary-edit-local-kill
16516 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-local-kill}).
16519 @kindex M-K (Summary)
16520 @findex gnus-summary-edit-global-kill
16521 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-global-kill}).
16524 Two group mode functions for editing the kill files:
16529 @kindex M-k (Group)
16530 @findex gnus-group-edit-local-kill
16531 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-local-kill}).
16534 @kindex M-K (Group)
16535 @findex gnus-group-edit-global-kill
16536 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-global-kill}).
16539 Kill file variables:
16542 @item gnus-kill-file-name
16543 @vindex gnus-kill-file-name
16544 A kill file for the group @samp{soc.motss} is normally called
16545 @file{soc.motss.KILL}. The suffix appended to the group name to get
16546 this file name is detailed by the @code{gnus-kill-file-name} variable.
16547 The ``global'' kill file (not in the score file sense of ``global'', of
16548 course) is just called @file{KILL}.
16550 @vindex gnus-kill-save-kill-file
16551 @item gnus-kill-save-kill-file
16552 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will save the
16553 kill file after processing, which is necessary if you use expiring
16556 @item gnus-apply-kill-hook
16557 @vindex gnus-apply-kill-hook
16558 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored
16559 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file
16560 A hook called to apply kill files to a group. It is
16561 @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file)} by default. If you want to ignore the
16562 kill file if you have a score file for the same group, you can set this
16563 hook to @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored)}. If you don't want
16564 kill files to be processed, you should set this variable to @code{nil}.
16566 @item gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
16567 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
16568 A hook called in kill-file mode buffers.
16573 @node Converting Kill Files
16574 @section Converting Kill Files
16576 @cindex converting kill files
16578 If you have loads of old kill files, you may want to convert them into
16579 score files. If they are ``regular'', you can use
16580 the @file{gnus-kill-to-score.el} package; if not, you'll have to do it
16583 The kill to score conversion package isn't included in Gnus by default.
16584 You can fetch it from
16585 @uref{http://www.stud.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/ding-various/gnus-kill-to-score.el}.
16587 If your old kill files are very complex---if they contain more
16588 non-@code{gnus-kill} forms than not, you'll have to convert them by
16589 hand. Or just let them be as they are. Gnus will still use them as
16597 GroupLens is a collaborative filtering system that helps you work
16598 together with other people to find the quality news articles out of the
16599 huge volume of news articles generated every day.
16601 To accomplish this the GroupLens system combines your opinions about
16602 articles you have already read with the opinions of others who have done
16603 likewise and gives you a personalized prediction for each unread news
16604 article. Think of GroupLens as a matchmaker. GroupLens watches how you
16605 rate articles, and finds other people that rate articles the same way.
16606 Once it has found some people you agree with it tells you, in the form
16607 of a prediction, what they thought of the article. You can use this
16608 prediction to help you decide whether or not you want to read the
16612 * Using GroupLens:: How to make Gnus use GroupLens.
16613 * Rating Articles:: Letting GroupLens know how you rate articles.
16614 * Displaying Predictions:: Displaying predictions given by GroupLens.
16615 * GroupLens Variables:: Customizing GroupLens.
16619 @node Using GroupLens
16620 @subsection Using GroupLens
16622 To use GroupLens you must register a pseudonym with your local Better
16624 @uref{http://www.cs.umn.edu/Research/GroupLens/bbb.html} is the only
16625 better bit in town at the moment.
16627 Once you have registered you'll need to set a couple of variables.
16631 @item gnus-use-grouplens
16632 @vindex gnus-use-grouplens
16633 Setting this variable to a non-@code{nil} value will make Gnus hook into
16634 all the relevant GroupLens functions.
16636 @item grouplens-pseudonym
16637 @vindex grouplens-pseudonym
16638 This variable should be set to the pseudonym you got when registering
16639 with the Better Bit Bureau.
16641 @item grouplens-newsgroups
16642 @vindex grouplens-newsgroups
16643 A list of groups that you want to get GroupLens predictions for.
16647 That's the minimum of what you need to get up and running with GroupLens.
16648 Once you've registered, GroupLens will start giving you scores for
16649 articles based on the average of what other people think. But, to get
16650 the real benefit of GroupLens you need to start rating articles
16651 yourself. Then the scores GroupLens gives you will be personalized for
16652 you, based on how the people you usually agree with have already rated.
16655 @node Rating Articles
16656 @subsection Rating Articles
16658 In GroupLens, an article is rated on a scale from 1 to 5, inclusive.
16659 Where 1 means something like this article is a waste of bandwidth and 5
16660 means that the article was really good. The basic question to ask
16661 yourself is, "on a scale from 1 to 5 would I like to see more articles
16664 There are four ways to enter a rating for an article in GroupLens.
16669 @kindex r (GroupLens)
16670 @findex bbb-summary-rate-article
16671 This function will prompt you for a rating on a scale of one to five.
16674 @kindex k (GroupLens)
16675 @findex grouplens-score-thread
16676 This function will prompt you for a rating, and rate all the articles in
16677 the thread. This is really useful for some of those long running giant
16678 threads in rec.humor.
16682 The next two commands, @kbd{n} and @kbd{,} take a numerical prefix to be
16683 the score of the article you're reading.
16688 @kindex n (GroupLens)
16689 @findex grouplens-next-unread-article
16690 Rate the article and go to the next unread article.
16693 @kindex , (GroupLens)
16694 @findex grouplens-best-unread-article
16695 Rate the article and go to the next unread article with the highest score.
16699 If you want to give the current article a score of 4 and then go to the
16700 next article, just type @kbd{4 n}.
16703 @node Displaying Predictions
16704 @subsection Displaying Predictions
16706 GroupLens makes a prediction for you about how much you will like a
16707 news article. The predictions from GroupLens are on a scale from 1 to
16708 5, where 1 is the worst and 5 is the best. You can use the predictions
16709 from GroupLens in one of three ways controlled by the variable
16710 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring}.
16712 @vindex gnus-grouplens-override-scoring
16713 There are three ways to display predictions in grouplens. You may
16714 choose to have the GroupLens scores contribute to, or override the
16715 regular gnus scoring mechanism. override is the default; however, some
16716 people prefer to see the Gnus scores plus the grouplens scores. To get
16717 the separate scoring behavior you need to set
16718 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring} to @code{'separate}. To have the
16719 GroupLens predictions combined with the grouplens scores set it to
16720 @code{'override} and to combine the scores set
16721 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring} to @code{'combine}. When you use
16722 the combine option you will also want to set the values for
16723 @code{grouplens-prediction-offset} and
16724 @code{grouplens-score-scale-factor}.
16726 @vindex grouplens-prediction-display
16727 In either case, GroupLens gives you a few choices for how you would like
16728 to see your predictions displayed. The display of predictions is
16729 controlled by the @code{grouplens-prediction-display} variable.
16731 The following are valid values for that variable.
16734 @item prediction-spot
16735 The higher the prediction, the further to the right an @samp{*} is
16738 @item confidence-interval
16739 A numeric confidence interval.
16741 @item prediction-bar
16742 The higher the prediction, the longer the bar.
16744 @item confidence-bar
16745 Numerical confidence.
16747 @item confidence-spot
16748 The spot gets bigger with more confidence.
16750 @item prediction-num
16751 Plain-old numeric value.
16753 @item confidence-plus-minus
16754 Prediction +/- confidence.
16759 @node GroupLens Variables
16760 @subsection GroupLens Variables
16764 @item gnus-summary-grouplens-line-format
16765 The summary line format used in GroupLens-enhanced summary buffers. It
16766 accepts the same specs as the normal summary line format (@pxref{Summary
16767 Buffer Lines}). The default is @samp{%U%R%z%l%I%(%[%4L: %-20,20n%]%)
16770 @item grouplens-bbb-host
16771 Host running the bbbd server. @samp{grouplens.cs.umn.edu} is the
16774 @item grouplens-bbb-port
16775 Port of the host running the bbbd server. The default is 9000.
16777 @item grouplens-score-offset
16778 Offset the prediction by this value. In other words, subtract the
16779 prediction value by this number to arrive at the effective score. The
16782 @item grouplens-score-scale-factor
16783 This variable allows the user to magnify the effect of GroupLens scores.
16784 The scale factor is applied after the offset. The default is 1.
16789 @node Advanced Scoring
16790 @section Advanced Scoring
16792 Scoring on Subjects and From headers is nice enough, but what if you're
16793 really interested in what a person has to say only when she's talking
16794 about a particular subject? Or what if you really don't want to
16795 read what person A has to say when she's following up to person B, but
16796 want to read what she says when she's following up to person C?
16798 By using advanced scoring rules you may create arbitrarily complex
16802 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
16803 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
16804 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
16808 @node Advanced Scoring Syntax
16809 @subsection Advanced Scoring Syntax
16811 Ordinary scoring rules have a string as the first element in the rule.
16812 Advanced scoring rules have a list as the first element. The second
16813 element is the score to be applied if the first element evaluated to a
16814 non-@code{nil} value.
16816 These lists may consist of three logical operators, one redirection
16817 operator, and various match operators.
16824 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
16825 one that evaluates to @code{false}, and then it'll stop. If all arguments
16826 evaluate to @code{true} values, then this operator will return
16831 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
16832 one that evaluates to @code{true}. If no arguments are @code{true},
16833 then this operator will return @code{false}.
16838 This logical operator only takes a single argument. It returns the
16839 logical negation of the value of its argument.
16843 There is an @dfn{indirection operator} that will make its arguments
16844 apply to the ancestors of the current article being scored. For
16845 instance, @code{1-} will make score rules apply to the parent of the
16846 current article. @code{2-} will make score rules apply to the
16847 grandparent of the current article. Alternatively, you can write
16848 @code{^^}, where the number of @code{^}s (carets) says how far back into
16849 the ancestry you want to go.
16851 Finally, we have the match operators. These are the ones that do the
16852 real work. Match operators are header name strings followed by a match
16853 and a match type. A typical match operator looks like @samp{("from"
16854 "Lars Ingebrigtsen" s)}. The header names are the same as when using
16855 simple scoring, and the match types are also the same.
16858 @node Advanced Scoring Examples
16859 @subsection Advanced Scoring Examples
16861 Let's say you want to increase the score of articles written by Lars
16862 when he's talking about Gnus:
16866 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
16867 ("subject" "Gnus"))
16873 When he writes long articles, he sometimes has something nice to say:
16877 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
16884 However, when he responds to things written by Reig Eigil Logge, you
16885 really don't want to read what he's written:
16889 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
16890 (1- ("from" "Reig Eigir Logge")))
16894 Everybody that follows up Redmondo when he writes about disappearing
16895 socks should have their scores raised, but only when they talk about
16896 white socks. However, when Lars talks about socks, it's usually not
16903 ("from" "redmondo@@.*no" r)
16904 ("body" "disappearing.*socks" t)))
16905 (! ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen"))
16906 ("body" "white.*socks"))
16910 The possibilities are endless.
16913 @node Advanced Scoring Tips
16914 @subsection Advanced Scoring Tips
16916 The @code{&} and @code{|} logical operators do short-circuit logic.
16917 That is, they stop processing their arguments when it's clear what the
16918 result of the operation will be. For instance, if one of the arguments
16919 of an @code{&} evaluates to @code{false}, there's no point in evaluating
16920 the rest of the arguments. This means that you should put slow matches
16921 (@samp{body}, @samp{header}) last and quick matches (@samp{from},
16922 @samp{subject}) first.
16924 The indirection arguments (@code{1-} and so on) will make their
16925 arguments work on previous generations of the thread. If you say
16936 Then that means "score on the from header of the grandparent of the
16937 current article". An indirection is quite fast, but it's better to say:
16943 ("subject" "Gnus")))
16950 (1- ("from" "Lars"))
16951 (1- ("subject" "Gnus")))
16956 @section Score Decays
16957 @cindex score decays
16960 You may find that your scores have a tendency to grow without
16961 bounds, especially if you're using adaptive scoring. If scores get too
16962 big, they lose all meaning---they simply max out and it's difficult to
16963 use them in any sensible way.
16965 @vindex gnus-decay-scores
16966 @findex gnus-decay-score
16967 @vindex gnus-decay-score-function
16968 Gnus provides a mechanism for decaying scores to help with this problem.
16969 When score files are loaded and @code{gnus-decay-scores} is
16970 non-@code{nil}, Gnus will run the score files through the decaying
16971 mechanism thereby lowering the scores of all non-permanent score rules.
16972 The decay itself if performed by the @code{gnus-decay-score-function}
16973 function, which is @code{gnus-decay-score} by default. Here's the
16974 definition of that function:
16977 (defun gnus-decay-score (score)
16979 This is done according to `gnus-score-decay-constant'
16980 and `gnus-score-decay-scale'."
16983 (* (if (< score 0) 1 -1)
16985 (max gnus-score-decay-constant
16987 gnus-score-decay-scale)))))))
16990 @vindex gnus-score-decay-scale
16991 @vindex gnus-score-decay-constant
16992 @code{gnus-score-decay-constant} is 3 by default and
16993 @code{gnus-score-decay-scale} is 0.05. This should cause the following:
16997 Scores between -3 and 3 will be set to 0 when this function is called.
17000 Scores with magnitudes between 3 and 60 will be shrunk by 3.
17003 Scores with magnitudes greater than 60 will be shrunk by 5% of the
17007 If you don't like this decay function, write your own. It is called
17008 with the score to be decayed as its only parameter, and it should return
17009 the new score, which should be an integer.
17011 Gnus will try to decay scores once a day. If you haven't run Gnus for
17012 four days, Gnus will decay the scores four times, for instance.
17019 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
17020 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
17021 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
17022 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
17023 * Windows Configuration:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
17024 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
17025 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
17026 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
17027 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
17028 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
17029 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
17030 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
17031 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
17032 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
17033 * XEmacs Enhancements:: There are more pictures and stuff under XEmacs.
17034 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
17035 * Thwarting Email Spam:: A how-to on avoiding unsolicited commercial email.
17036 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
17040 @node Process/Prefix
17041 @section Process/Prefix
17042 @cindex process/prefix convention
17044 Many functions, among them functions for moving, decoding and saving
17045 articles, use what is known as the @dfn{Process/Prefix convention}.
17047 This is a method for figuring out what articles the user wants the
17048 command to be performed on.
17052 If the numeric prefix is N, perform the operation on the next N
17053 articles, starting with the current one. If the numeric prefix is
17054 negative, perform the operation on the previous N articles, starting
17055 with the current one.
17057 @vindex transient-mark-mode
17058 If @code{transient-mark-mode} in non-@code{nil} and the region is
17059 active, all articles in the region will be worked upon.
17061 If there is no numeric prefix, but some articles are marked with the
17062 process mark, perform the operation on the articles marked with
17065 If there is neither a numeric prefix nor any articles marked with the
17066 process mark, just perform the operation on the current article.
17068 Quite simple, really, but it needs to be made clear so that surprises
17071 Commands that react to the process mark will push the current list of
17072 process marked articles onto a stack and will then clear all process
17073 marked articles. You can restore the previous configuration with the
17074 @kbd{M P y} command (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
17076 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
17077 One thing that seems to shock & horrify lots of people is that, for
17078 instance, @kbd{3 d} does exactly the same as @kbd{d} @kbd{d} @kbd{d}.
17079 Since each @kbd{d} (which marks the current article as read) by default
17080 goes to the next unread article after marking, this means that @kbd{3 d}
17081 will mark the next three unread articles as read, no matter what the
17082 summary buffer looks like. Set @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} to
17083 @code{nil} for a more straightforward action.
17085 Many commands do not use the process/prefix convention. All commands
17086 that do explicitly say so in this manual. To apply the process/prefix
17087 convention to commands that do not use it, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
17088 command. For instance, to mark all the articles in the group as
17089 expirable, you could say `M P b M-& E'.
17093 @section Interactive
17094 @cindex interaction
17098 @item gnus-novice-user
17099 @vindex gnus-novice-user
17100 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you are either a newcomer to the
17101 World of Usenet, or you are very cautious, which is a nice thing to be,
17102 really. You will be given questions of the type ``Are you sure you want
17103 to do this?'' before doing anything dangerous. This is @code{t} by
17106 @item gnus-expert-user
17107 @vindex gnus-expert-user
17108 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you will seldom be asked any
17109 questions by Gnus. It will simply assume you know what you're doing, no
17110 matter how strange.
17112 @item gnus-interactive-catchup
17113 @vindex gnus-interactive-catchup
17114 Require confirmation before catching up a group if non-@code{nil}. It
17115 is @code{t} by default.
17117 @item gnus-interactive-exit
17118 @vindex gnus-interactive-exit
17119 Require confirmation before exiting Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
17124 @node Symbolic Prefixes
17125 @section Symbolic Prefixes
17126 @cindex symbolic prefixes
17128 Quite a lot of Emacs commands react to the (numeric) prefix. For
17129 instance, @kbd{C-u 4 C-f} moves point four characters forward, and
17130 @kbd{C-u 9 0 0 I s s p} adds a permanent @code{Subject} substring score
17131 rule of 900 to the current article.
17133 This is all nice and well, but what if you want to give a command some
17134 additional information? Well, what most commands do is interpret the
17135 ``raw'' prefix in some special way. @kbd{C-u 0 C-x C-s} means that one
17136 doesn't want a backup file to be created when saving the current buffer,
17137 for instance. But what if you want to save without making a backup
17138 file, and you want Emacs to flash lights and play a nice tune at the
17139 same time? You can't, and you're probably perfectly happy that way.
17141 @kindex M-i (Summary)
17142 @findex gnus-symbolic-argument
17143 I'm not, so I've added a second prefix---the @dfn{symbolic prefix}. The
17144 prefix key is @kbd{M-i} (@code{gnus-symbolic-argument}), and the next
17145 character typed in is the value. You can stack as many @kbd{M-i}
17146 prefixes as you want. @kbd{M-i a M-C-u} means ``feed the @kbd{M-C-u}
17147 command the symbolic prefix @code{a}''. @kbd{M-i a M-i b M-C-u} means
17148 ``feed the @kbd{M-C-u} command the symbolic prefixes @code{a} and
17149 @code{b}''. You get the drift.
17151 Typing in symbolic prefixes to commands that don't accept them doesn't
17152 hurt, but it doesn't do any good either. Currently not many Gnus
17153 functions make use of the symbolic prefix.
17155 If you're interested in how Gnus implements this, @pxref{Extended
17159 @node Formatting Variables
17160 @section Formatting Variables
17161 @cindex formatting variables
17163 Throughout this manual you've probably noticed lots of variables called
17164 things like @code{gnus-group-line-format} and
17165 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}. These control how Gnus is to
17166 output lines in the various buffers. There's quite a lot of them.
17167 Fortunately, they all use the same syntax, so there's not that much to
17170 Here's an example format spec (from the group buffer): @samp{%M%S%5y:
17171 %(%g%)\n}. We see that it is indeed extremely ugly, and that there are
17172 lots of percentages everywhere.
17175 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
17176 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
17177 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
17178 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
17179 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
17182 Currently Gnus uses the following formatting variables:
17183 @code{gnus-group-line-format}, @code{gnus-summary-line-format},
17184 @code{gnus-server-line-format}, @code{gnus-topic-line-format},
17185 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format},
17186 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format},
17187 @code{gnus-article-mode-line-format},
17188 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format}, and
17189 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format}.
17191 All these format variables can also be arbitrary elisp forms. In that
17192 case, they will be @code{eval}ed to insert the required lines.
17194 @kindex M-x gnus-update-format
17195 @findex gnus-update-format
17196 Gnus includes a command to help you while creating your own format
17197 specs. @kbd{M-x gnus-update-format} will @code{eval} the current form,
17198 update the spec in question and pop you to a buffer where you can
17199 examine the resulting lisp code to be run to generate the line.
17203 @node Formatting Basics
17204 @subsection Formatting Basics
17206 Each @samp{%} element will be replaced by some string or other when the
17207 buffer in question is generated. @samp{%5y} means ``insert the @samp{y}
17208 spec, and pad with spaces to get a 5-character field''.
17210 As with normal C and Emacs Lisp formatting strings, the numerical
17211 modifier between the @samp{%} and the formatting type character will
17212 @dfn{pad} the output so that it is always at least that long.
17213 @samp{%5y} will make the field always (at least) five characters wide by
17214 padding with spaces to the left. If you say @samp{%-5y}, it will pad to
17217 You may also wish to limit the length of the field to protect against
17218 particularly wide values. For that you can say @samp{%4,6y}, which
17219 means that the field will never be more than 6 characters wide and never
17220 less than 4 characters wide.
17223 @node Mode Line Formatting
17224 @subsection Mode Line Formatting
17226 Mode line formatting variables (e.g.,
17227 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}) follow the same rules as other,
17228 buffer line oriented formatting variables (@pxref{Formatting Basics})
17229 with the following two differences:
17234 There must be no newline (@samp{\n}) at the end.
17237 The special @samp{%%b} spec can be used to display the buffer name.
17238 Well, it's no spec at all, really---@samp{%%} is just a way to quote
17239 @samp{%} to allow it to pass through the formatting machinery unmangled,
17240 so that Emacs receives @samp{%b}, which is something the Emacs mode line
17241 display interprets to mean ``show the buffer name''. For a full list of
17242 mode line specs Emacs understands, see the documentation of the
17243 @code{mode-line-format} variable.
17248 @node Advanced Formatting
17249 @subsection Advanced Formatting
17251 It is frequently useful to post-process the fields in some way.
17252 Padding, limiting, cutting off parts and suppressing certain values can
17253 be achieved by using @dfn{tilde modifiers}. A typical tilde spec might
17254 look like @samp{%~(cut 3)~(ignore "0")y}.
17256 These are the valid modifiers:
17261 Pad the field to the left with spaces until it reaches the required
17265 Pad the field to the right with spaces until it reaches the required
17270 Cut off characters from the left until it reaches the specified length.
17273 Cut off characters from the right until it reaches the specified
17278 Cut off the specified number of characters from the left.
17281 Cut off the specified number of characters from the right.
17284 Return an empty string if the field is equal to the specified value.
17287 Use the specified form as the field value when the @samp{@@} spec is
17291 Let's take an example. The @samp{%o} spec in the summary mode lines
17292 will return a date in compact ISO8601 format---@samp{19960809T230410}.
17293 This is quite a mouthful, so we want to shave off the century number and
17294 the time, leaving us with a six-character date. That would be
17295 @samp{%~(cut-left 2)~(max-right 6)~(pad 6)o}. (Cutting is done before
17296 maxing, and we need the padding to ensure that the date is never less
17297 than 6 characters to make it look nice in columns.)
17299 Ignoring is done first; then cutting; then maxing; and then as the very
17300 last operation, padding.
17302 If you use lots of these advanced thingies, you'll find that Gnus gets
17303 quite slow. This can be helped enormously by running @kbd{M-x
17304 gnus-compile} when you are satisfied with the look of your lines.
17305 @xref{Compilation}.
17308 @node User-Defined Specs
17309 @subsection User-Defined Specs
17311 All the specs allow for inserting user defined specifiers---@samp{u}.
17312 The next character in the format string should be a letter. Gnus
17313 will call the function @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where
17314 @samp{X} is the letter following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed
17315 a single parameter---what the parameter means depends on what buffer
17316 it's being called from. The function should return a string, which will
17317 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
17318 specifier. This function may also be called with dummy values, so it
17319 should protect against that.
17321 You can also use tilde modifiers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting} to achieve
17322 much the same without defining new functions. Here's an example:
17323 @samp{%~(form (count-lines (point-min) (point)))@@}. The form
17324 given here will be evaluated to yield the current line number, and then
17328 @node Formatting Fonts
17329 @subsection Formatting Fonts
17331 There are specs for highlighting, and these are shared by all the format
17332 variables. Text inside the @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} specifiers will get
17333 the special @code{mouse-face} property set, which means that it will be
17334 highlighted (with @code{gnus-mouse-face}) when you put the mouse pointer
17337 Text inside the @samp{%@{} and @samp{%@}} specifiers will have their
17338 normal faces set using @code{gnus-face-0}, which is @code{bold} by
17339 default. If you say @samp{%1@{}, you'll get @code{gnus-face-1} instead,
17340 and so on. Create as many faces as you wish. The same goes for the
17341 @code{mouse-face} specs---you can say @samp{%3(hello%)} to have
17342 @samp{hello} mouse-highlighted with @code{gnus-mouse-face-3}.
17344 Text inside the @samp{%<} and @samp{%>} specifiers will get the special
17345 @code{balloon-help} property set to @code{gnus-balloon-face-0}. If you
17346 say @samp{%1<}, you'll get @code{gnus-balloon-face-1} and so on. The
17347 @code{gnus-balloon-face-*} variables should be either strings or symbols
17348 naming functions that return a string. Under @code{balloon-help-mode},
17349 when the mouse passes over text with this property set, a balloon window
17350 will appear and display the string. Please refer to the doc string of
17351 @code{balloon-help-mode} for more information on this.
17353 Here's an alternative recipe for the group buffer:
17356 ;; Create three face types.
17357 (setq gnus-face-1 'bold)
17358 (setq gnus-face-3 'italic)
17360 ;; We want the article count to be in
17361 ;; a bold and green face. So we create
17362 ;; a new face called `my-green-bold'.
17363 (copy-face 'bold 'my-green-bold)
17365 (set-face-foreground 'my-green-bold "ForestGreen")
17366 (setq gnus-face-2 'my-green-bold)
17368 ;; Set the new & fancy format.
17369 (setq gnus-group-line-format
17370 "%M%S%3@{%5y%@}%2[:%] %(%1@{%g%@}%)\n")
17373 I'm sure you'll be able to use this scheme to create totally unreadable
17374 and extremely vulgar displays. Have fun!
17376 Note that the @samp{%(} specs (and friends) do not make any sense on the
17377 mode-line variables.
17380 @node Windows Configuration
17381 @section Windows Configuration
17382 @cindex windows configuration
17384 No, there's nothing here about X, so be quiet.
17386 @vindex gnus-use-full-window
17387 If @code{gnus-use-full-window} non-@code{nil}, Gnus will delete all
17388 other windows and occupy the entire Emacs screen by itself. It is
17389 @code{t} by default.
17391 Setting this variable to @code{nil} kinda works, but there are
17392 glitches. Use at your own peril.
17394 @vindex gnus-buffer-configuration
17395 @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} describes how much space each Gnus
17396 buffer should be given. Here's an excerpt of this variable:
17399 ((group (vertical 1.0 (group 1.0 point)
17400 (if gnus-carpal (group-carpal 4))))
17401 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
17405 This is an alist. The @dfn{key} is a symbol that names some action or
17406 other. For instance, when displaying the group buffer, the window
17407 configuration function will use @code{group} as the key. A full list of
17408 possible names is listed below.
17410 The @dfn{value} (i.e., the @dfn{split}) says how much space each buffer
17411 should occupy. To take the @code{article} split as an example -
17414 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
17418 This @dfn{split} says that the summary buffer should occupy 25% of upper
17419 half of the screen, and that it is placed over the article buffer. As
17420 you may have noticed, 100% + 25% is actually 125% (yup, I saw y'all
17421 reaching for that calculator there). However, the special number
17422 @code{1.0} is used to signal that this buffer should soak up all the
17423 rest of the space available after the rest of the buffers have taken
17424 whatever they need. There should be only one buffer with the @code{1.0}
17425 size spec per split.
17427 Point will be put in the buffer that has the optional third element
17428 @code{point}. In a @code{frame} split, the last subsplit having a leaf
17429 split where the tag @code{frame-focus} is a member (i.e. is the third or
17430 fourth element in the list, depending on whether the @code{point} tag is
17431 present) gets focus.
17433 Here's a more complicated example:
17436 (article (vertical 1.0 (group 4)
17437 (summary 0.25 point)
17438 (if gnus-carpal (summary-carpal 4))
17442 If the size spec is an integer instead of a floating point number,
17443 then that number will be used to say how many lines a buffer should
17444 occupy, not a percentage.
17446 If the @dfn{split} looks like something that can be @code{eval}ed (to be
17447 precise---if the @code{car} of the split is a function or a subr), this
17448 split will be @code{eval}ed. If the result is non-@code{nil}, it will
17449 be used as a split. This means that there will be three buffers if
17450 @code{gnus-carpal} is @code{nil}, and four buffers if @code{gnus-carpal}
17453 Not complicated enough for you? Well, try this on for size:
17456 (article (horizontal 1.0
17461 (summary 0.25 point)
17466 Whoops. Two buffers with the mystery 100% tag. And what's that
17467 @code{horizontal} thingie?
17469 If the first element in one of the split is @code{horizontal}, Gnus will
17470 split the window horizontally, giving you two windows side-by-side.
17471 Inside each of these strips you may carry on all you like in the normal
17472 fashion. The number following @code{horizontal} says what percentage of
17473 the screen is to be given to this strip.
17475 For each split, there @emph{must} be one element that has the 100% tag.
17476 The splitting is never accurate, and this buffer will eat any leftover
17477 lines from the splits.
17479 To be slightly more formal, here's a definition of what a valid split
17483 split = frame | horizontal | vertical | buffer | form
17484 frame = "(frame " size *split ")"
17485 horizontal = "(horizontal " size *split ")"
17486 vertical = "(vertical " size *split ")"
17487 buffer = "(" buffer-name " " size *[ "point" ] *[ "frame-focus"] ")"
17488 size = number | frame-params
17489 buffer-name = group | article | summary ...
17492 The limitations are that the @code{frame} split can only appear as the
17493 top-level split. @var{form} should be an Emacs Lisp form that should
17494 return a valid split. We see that each split is fully recursive, and
17495 may contain any number of @code{vertical} and @code{horizontal} splits.
17497 @vindex gnus-window-min-width
17498 @vindex gnus-window-min-height
17499 @cindex window height
17500 @cindex window width
17501 Finding the right sizes can be a bit complicated. No window may be less
17502 than @code{gnus-window-min-height} (default 1) characters high, and all
17503 windows must be at least @code{gnus-window-min-width} (default 1)
17504 characters wide. Gnus will try to enforce this before applying the
17505 splits. If you want to use the normal Emacs window width/height limit,
17506 you can just set these two variables to @code{nil}.
17508 If you're not familiar with Emacs terminology, @code{horizontal} and
17509 @code{vertical} splits may work the opposite way of what you'd expect.
17510 Windows inside a @code{horizontal} split are shown side-by-side, and
17511 windows within a @code{vertical} split are shown above each other.
17513 @findex gnus-configure-frame
17514 If you want to experiment with window placement, a good tip is to call
17515 @code{gnus-configure-frame} directly with a split. This is the function
17516 that does all the real work when splitting buffers. Below is a pretty
17517 nonsensical configuration with 5 windows; two for the group buffer and
17518 three for the article buffer. (I said it was nonsensical.) If you
17519 @code{eval} the statement below, you can get an idea of how that would
17520 look straight away, without going through the normal Gnus channels.
17521 Play with it until you're satisfied, and then use
17522 @code{gnus-add-configuration} to add your new creation to the buffer
17523 configuration list.
17526 (gnus-configure-frame
17530 (article 0.3 point))
17538 You might want to have several frames as well. No prob---just use the
17539 @code{frame} split:
17542 (gnus-configure-frame
17545 (summary 0.25 point frame-focus)
17547 (vertical ((height . 5) (width . 15)
17548 (user-position . t)
17549 (left . -1) (top . 1))
17554 This split will result in the familiar summary/article window
17555 configuration in the first (or ``main'') frame, while a small additional
17556 frame will be created where picons will be shown. As you can see,
17557 instead of the normal @code{1.0} top-level spec, each additional split
17558 should have a frame parameter alist as the size spec.
17559 @xref{Frame Parameters, , Frame Parameters, elisp, The GNU Emacs Lisp
17560 Reference Manual}. Under XEmacs, a frame property list will be
17561 accepted, too---for instance, @code{(height 5 width 15 left -1 top 1)}
17563 The list of all possible keys for @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} can
17564 be found in its default value.
17566 Note that the @code{message} key is used for both
17567 @code{gnus-group-mail} and @code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}. If
17568 it is desirable to distinguish between the two, something like this
17572 (message (horizontal 1.0
17573 (vertical 1.0 (message 1.0 point))
17575 (if (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer)
17580 One common desire for a multiple frame split is to have a separate frame
17581 for composing mail and news while leaving the original frame intact. To
17582 accomplish that, something like the following can be done:
17585 (message (frame 1.0
17586 (if (not (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer))
17587 (car (cdr (assoc 'group gnus-buffer-configuration)))
17588 (car (cdr (assoc 'summary gnus-buffer-configuration))))
17589 (vertical ((user-position . t) (top . 1) (left . 1)
17590 (name . "Message"))
17591 (message 1.0 point))))
17594 @findex gnus-add-configuration
17595 Since the @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} variable is so long and
17596 complicated, there's a function you can use to ease changing the config
17597 of a single setting: @code{gnus-add-configuration}. If, for instance,
17598 you want to change the @code{article} setting, you could say:
17601 (gnus-add-configuration
17602 '(article (vertical 1.0
17604 (summary .25 point)
17608 You'd typically stick these @code{gnus-add-configuration} calls in your
17609 @file{.gnus.el} file or in some startup hook---they should be run after
17610 Gnus has been loaded.
17612 @vindex gnus-always-force-window-configuration
17613 If all windows mentioned in the configuration are already visible, Gnus
17614 won't change the window configuration. If you always want to force the
17615 ``right'' window configuration, you can set
17616 @code{gnus-always-force-window-configuration} to non-@code{nil}.
17618 If you're using tree displays (@pxref{Tree Display}), and the tree
17619 window is displayed vertically next to another window, you may also want
17620 to fiddle with @code{gnus-tree-minimize-window} to avoid having the
17623 @subsection Example Window Configurations
17627 Narrow left hand side occupied by group buffer. Right hand side split
17628 between summary buffer (top one-sixth) and article buffer (bottom).
17643 (gnus-add-configuration
17646 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
17648 (summary 0.16 point)
17651 (gnus-add-configuration
17654 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
17655 (vertical 1.0 (summary 1.0 point)))))
17661 @node Faces and Fonts
17662 @section Faces and Fonts
17667 Fiddling with fonts and faces used to be very difficult, but these days
17668 it is very simple. You simply say @kbd{M-x customize-face}, pick out
17669 the face you want to alter, and alter it via the standard Customize
17674 @section Compilation
17675 @cindex compilation
17676 @cindex byte-compilation
17678 @findex gnus-compile
17680 Remember all those line format specification variables?
17681 @code{gnus-summary-line-format}, @code{gnus-group-line-format}, and so
17682 on. Now, Gnus will of course heed whatever these variables are, but,
17683 unfortunately, changing them will mean a quite significant slow-down.
17684 (The default values of these variables have byte-compiled functions
17685 associated with them, while the user-generated versions do not, of
17688 To help with this, you can run @kbd{M-x gnus-compile} after you've
17689 fiddled around with the variables and feel that you're (kind of)
17690 satisfied. This will result in the new specs being byte-compiled, and
17691 you'll get top speed again. Gnus will save these compiled specs in the
17692 @file{.newsrc.eld} file. (User-defined functions aren't compiled by
17693 this function, though---you should compile them yourself by sticking
17694 them into the @code{.gnus.el} file and byte-compiling that file.)
17698 @section Mode Lines
17701 @vindex gnus-updated-mode-lines
17702 @code{gnus-updated-mode-lines} says what buffers should keep their mode
17703 lines updated. It is a list of symbols. Supported symbols include
17704 @code{group}, @code{article}, @code{summary}, @code{server},
17705 @code{browse}, and @code{tree}. If the corresponding symbol is present,
17706 Gnus will keep that mode line updated with information that may be
17707 pertinent. If this variable is @code{nil}, screen refresh may be
17710 @cindex display-time
17712 @vindex gnus-mode-non-string-length
17713 By default, Gnus displays information on the current article in the mode
17714 lines of the summary and article buffers. The information Gnus wishes
17715 to display (e.g. the subject of the article) is often longer than the
17716 mode lines, and therefore have to be cut off at some point. The
17717 @code{gnus-mode-non-string-length} variable says how long the other
17718 elements on the line is (i.e., the non-info part). If you put
17719 additional elements on the mode line (e.g. a clock), you should modify
17722 @c Hook written by Francesco Potorti` <pot@cnuce.cnr.it>
17724 (add-hook 'display-time-hook
17725 (lambda () (setq gnus-mode-non-string-length
17727 (if line-number-mode 5 0)
17728 (if column-number-mode 4 0)
17729 (length display-time-string)))))
17732 If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the default), the mode line
17733 strings won't be chopped off, and they won't be padded either. Note
17734 that the default is unlikely to be desirable, as even the percentage
17735 complete in the buffer may be crowded off the mode line; the user should
17736 configure this variable appropriately for her configuration.
17739 @node Highlighting and Menus
17740 @section Highlighting and Menus
17742 @cindex highlighting
17745 @vindex gnus-visual
17746 The @code{gnus-visual} variable controls most of the Gnus-prettifying
17747 aspects. If @code{nil}, Gnus won't attempt to create menus or use fancy
17748 colors or fonts. This will also inhibit loading the @file{gnus-vis.el}
17751 This variable can be a list of visual properties that are enabled. The
17752 following elements are valid, and are all included by default:
17755 @item group-highlight
17756 Do highlights in the group buffer.
17757 @item summary-highlight
17758 Do highlights in the summary buffer.
17759 @item article-highlight
17760 Do highlights in the article buffer.
17762 Turn on highlighting in all buffers.
17764 Create menus in the group buffer.
17766 Create menus in the summary buffers.
17768 Create menus in the article buffer.
17770 Create menus in the browse buffer.
17772 Create menus in the server buffer.
17774 Create menus in the score buffers.
17776 Create menus in all buffers.
17779 So if you only want highlighting in the article buffer and menus in all
17780 buffers, you could say something like:
17783 (setq gnus-visual '(article-highlight menu))
17786 If you want highlighting only and no menus whatsoever, you'd say:
17789 (setq gnus-visual '(highlight))
17792 If @code{gnus-visual} is @code{t}, highlighting and menus will be used
17793 in all Gnus buffers.
17795 Other general variables that influence the look of all buffers include:
17798 @item gnus-mouse-face
17799 @vindex gnus-mouse-face
17800 This is the face (i.e., font) used for mouse highlighting in Gnus. No
17801 mouse highlights will be done if @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
17805 There are hooks associated with the creation of all the different menus:
17809 @item gnus-article-menu-hook
17810 @vindex gnus-article-menu-hook
17811 Hook called after creating the article mode menu.
17813 @item gnus-group-menu-hook
17814 @vindex gnus-group-menu-hook
17815 Hook called after creating the group mode menu.
17817 @item gnus-summary-menu-hook
17818 @vindex gnus-summary-menu-hook
17819 Hook called after creating the summary mode menu.
17821 @item gnus-server-menu-hook
17822 @vindex gnus-server-menu-hook
17823 Hook called after creating the server mode menu.
17825 @item gnus-browse-menu-hook
17826 @vindex gnus-browse-menu-hook
17827 Hook called after creating the browse mode menu.
17829 @item gnus-score-menu-hook
17830 @vindex gnus-score-menu-hook
17831 Hook called after creating the score mode menu.
17842 Those new-fangled @dfn{mouse} contraptions is very popular with the
17843 young, hep kids who don't want to learn the proper way to do things
17844 these days. Why, I remember way back in the summer of '89, when I was
17845 using Emacs on a Tops 20 system. Three hundred users on one single
17846 machine, and every user was running Simula compilers. Bah!
17850 @vindex gnus-carpal
17851 Well, you can make Gnus display bufferfuls of buttons you can click to
17852 do anything by setting @code{gnus-carpal} to @code{t}. Pretty simple,
17853 really. Tell the chiropractor I sent you.
17858 @item gnus-carpal-mode-hook
17859 @vindex gnus-carpal-mode-hook
17860 Hook run in all carpal mode buffers.
17862 @item gnus-carpal-button-face
17863 @vindex gnus-carpal-button-face
17864 Face used on buttons.
17866 @item gnus-carpal-header-face
17867 @vindex gnus-carpal-header-face
17868 Face used on carpal buffer headers.
17870 @item gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
17871 @vindex gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
17872 Buttons in the group buffer.
17874 @item gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
17875 @vindex gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
17876 Buttons in the summary buffer.
17878 @item gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
17879 @vindex gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
17880 Buttons in the server buffer.
17882 @item gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
17883 @vindex gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
17884 Buttons in the browse buffer.
17887 All the @code{buttons} variables are lists. The elements in these list
17888 are either cons cells where the @code{car} contains a text to be displayed and
17889 the @code{cdr} contains a function symbol, or a simple string.
17897 Gnus, being larger than any program ever written (allegedly), does lots
17898 of strange stuff that you may wish to have done while you're not
17899 present. For instance, you may want it to check for new mail once in a
17900 while. Or you may want it to close down all connections to all servers
17901 when you leave Emacs idle. And stuff like that.
17903 Gnus will let you do stuff like that by defining various
17904 @dfn{handlers}. Each handler consists of three elements: A
17905 @var{function}, a @var{time}, and an @var{idle} parameter.
17907 Here's an example of a handler that closes connections when Emacs has
17908 been idle for thirty minutes:
17911 (gnus-demon-close-connections nil 30)
17914 Here's a handler that scans for PGP headers every hour when Emacs is
17918 (gnus-demon-scan-pgp 60 t)
17921 This @var{time} parameter and than @var{idle} parameter work together
17922 in a strange, but wonderful fashion. Basically, if @var{idle} is
17923 @code{nil}, then the function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
17925 If @var{idle} is @code{t}, then the function will be called after
17926 @var{time} minutes only if Emacs is idle. So if Emacs is never idle,
17927 the function will never be called. But once Emacs goes idle, the
17928 function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
17930 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is a number, the function will
17931 be called every @var{time} minutes only when Emacs has been idle for
17932 @var{idle} minutes.
17934 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is @code{nil}, the function
17935 will be called once every time Emacs has been idle for @var{idle}
17938 And if @var{time} is a string, it should look like @samp{07:31}, and
17939 the function will then be called once every day somewhere near that
17940 time. Modified by the @var{idle} parameter, of course.
17942 @vindex gnus-demon-timestep
17943 (When I say ``minute'' here, I really mean @code{gnus-demon-timestep}
17944 seconds. This is 60 by default. If you change that variable,
17945 all the timings in the handlers will be affected.)
17947 So, if you want to add a handler, you could put something like this in
17948 your @file{.gnus} file:
17950 @findex gnus-demon-add-handler
17952 (gnus-demon-add-handler 'gnus-demon-close-connections 30 t)
17955 @findex gnus-demon-add-nocem
17956 @findex gnus-demon-add-scanmail
17957 @findex gnus-demon-add-rescan
17958 @findex gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps
17959 @findex gnus-demon-add-disconnection
17960 Some ready-made functions to do this have been created:
17961 @code{gnus-demon-add-nocem}, @code{gnus-demon-add-disconnection},
17962 @code{gnus-demon-add-nntp-close-connection},
17963 @code{gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps}, @code{gnus-demon-add-rescan}, and
17964 @code{gnus-demon-add-scanmail}. Just put those functions in your
17965 @file{.gnus} if you want those abilities.
17967 @findex gnus-demon-init
17968 @findex gnus-demon-cancel
17969 @vindex gnus-demon-handlers
17970 If you add handlers to @code{gnus-demon-handlers} directly, you should
17971 run @code{gnus-demon-init} to make the changes take hold. To cancel all
17972 daemons, you can use the @code{gnus-demon-cancel} function.
17974 Note that adding daemons can be pretty naughty if you over do it. Adding
17975 functions that scan all news and mail from all servers every two seconds
17976 is a sure-fire way of getting booted off any respectable system. So
17985 @dfn{Spamming} is posting the same article lots and lots of times.
17986 Spamming is bad. Spamming is evil.
17988 Spamming is usually canceled within a day or so by various anti-spamming
17989 agencies. These agencies usually also send out @dfn{NoCeM} messages.
17990 NoCeM is pronounced ``no see-'em'', and means what the name
17991 implies---these are messages that make the offending articles, like, go
17994 What use are these NoCeM messages if the articles are canceled anyway?
17995 Some sites do not honor cancel messages and some sites just honor cancels
17996 from a select few people. Then you may wish to make use of the NoCeM
17997 messages, which are distributed in the @samp{alt.nocem.misc} newsgroup.
17999 Gnus can read and parse the messages in this group automatically, and
18000 this will make spam disappear.
18002 There are some variables to customize, of course:
18005 @item gnus-use-nocem
18006 @vindex gnus-use-nocem
18007 Set this variable to @code{t} to set the ball rolling. It is @code{nil}
18010 @item gnus-nocem-groups
18011 @vindex gnus-nocem-groups
18012 Gnus will look for NoCeM messages in the groups in this list. The
18013 default is @code{("news.lists.filters" "news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins"
18014 "alt.nocem.misc" "news.admin.net-abuse.announce")}.
18016 @item gnus-nocem-issuers
18017 @vindex gnus-nocem-issuers
18018 There are many people issuing NoCeM messages. This list says what
18019 people you want to listen to. The default is @code{("Automoose-1"
18020 "clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" "cosmo.roadkill" "SpamHippo"
18021 "hweede@@snafu.de")}; fine, upstanding citizens all of them.
18023 Known despammers that you can put in this list are listed at
18024 @uref{http://www.xs4all.nl/~rosalind/nocemreg/nocemreg.html}.
18026 You do not have to heed NoCeM messages from all these people---just the
18027 ones you want to listen to. You also don't have to accept all NoCeM
18028 messages from the people you like. Each NoCeM message has a @dfn{type}
18029 header that gives the message a (more or less, usually less) rigorous
18030 definition. Common types are @samp{spam}, @samp{spew}, @samp{mmf},
18031 @samp{binary}, and @samp{troll}. To specify this, you have to use
18032 @code{(@var{issuer} @var{conditions} @dots{})} elements in the list.
18033 Each condition is either a string (which is a regexp that matches types
18034 you want to use) or a list on the form @code{(not @var{string})}, where
18035 @var{string} is a regexp that matches types you don't want to use.
18037 For instance, if you want all NoCeM messages from Chris Lewis except his
18038 @samp{troll} messages, you'd say:
18041 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" ".*" (not "troll"))
18044 On the other hand, if you just want nothing but his @samp{spam} and
18045 @samp{spew} messages, you'd say:
18048 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" (not ".*") "spew" "spam")
18051 The specs are applied left-to-right.
18054 @item gnus-nocem-verifyer
18055 @vindex gnus-nocem-verifyer
18057 This should be a function for verifying that the NoCeM issuer is who she
18058 says she is. The default is @code{mc-verify}, which is a Mailcrypt
18059 function. If this is too slow and you don't care for verification
18060 (which may be dangerous), you can set this variable to @code{nil}.
18062 If you want signed NoCeM messages to be verified and unsigned messages
18063 not to be verified (but used anyway), you could do something like:
18066 (setq gnus-nocem-verifyer 'my-gnus-mc-verify)
18068 (defun my-gnus-mc-verify ()
18076 This might be dangerous, though.
18078 @item gnus-nocem-directory
18079 @vindex gnus-nocem-directory
18080 This is where Gnus will store its NoCeM cache files. The default is
18081 @file{~/News/NoCeM/}.
18083 @item gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
18084 @vindex gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
18085 The number of days before removing old NoCeM entries from the cache.
18086 The default is 15. If you make it shorter Gnus will be faster, but you
18087 might then see old spam.
18089 @item gnus-nocem-check-from
18090 @vindex gnus-nocem-check-from
18091 Non-@code{nil} means check for valid issuers in message bodies.
18092 Otherwise don't bother fetching articles unless their author matches a
18093 valid issuer; that is much faster if you are selective about the
18096 @item gnus-nocem-check-article-limit
18097 @vindex gnus-nocem-check-article-limit
18098 If non-@code{nil}, the maximum number of articles to check in any NoCeM
18099 group. NoCeM groups can be huge and very slow to process.
18103 Using NoCeM could potentially be a memory hog. If you have many living
18104 (i. e., subscribed or unsubscribed groups), your Emacs process will grow
18105 big. If this is a problem, you should kill off all (or most) of your
18106 unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Subscription Commands}).
18113 It is very useful to be able to undo actions one has done. In normal
18114 Emacs buffers, it's easy enough---you just push the @code{undo} button.
18115 In Gnus buffers, however, it isn't that simple.
18117 The things Gnus displays in its buffer is of no value whatsoever to
18118 Gnus---it's all just data designed to look nice to the user.
18119 Killing a group in the group buffer with @kbd{C-k} makes the line
18120 disappear, but that's just a side-effect of the real action---the
18121 removal of the group in question from the internal Gnus structures.
18122 Undoing something like that can't be done by the normal Emacs
18123 @code{undo} function.
18125 Gnus tries to remedy this somewhat by keeping track of what the user
18126 does and coming up with actions that would reverse the actions the user
18127 takes. When the user then presses the @code{undo} key, Gnus will run
18128 the code to reverse the previous action, or the previous actions.
18129 However, not all actions are easily reversible, so Gnus currently offers
18130 a few key functions to be undoable. These include killing groups,
18131 yanking groups, and changing the list of read articles of groups.
18132 That's it, really. More functions may be added in the future, but each
18133 added function means an increase in data to be stored, so Gnus will
18134 never be totally undoable.
18136 @findex gnus-undo-mode
18137 @vindex gnus-use-undo
18139 The undoability is provided by the @code{gnus-undo-mode} minor mode. It
18140 is used if @code{gnus-use-undo} is non-@code{nil}, which is the
18141 default. The @kbd{M-C-_} key performs the @code{gnus-undo} command
18142 command, which should feel kinda like the normal Emacs @code{undo}
18147 @section Moderation
18150 If you are a moderator, you can use the @file{gnus-mdrtn.el} package.
18151 It is not included in the standard Gnus package. Write a mail to
18152 @samp{larsi@@gnus.org} and state what group you moderate, and you'll
18155 The moderation package is implemented as a minor mode for summary
18159 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-moderate)
18162 in your @file{.gnus.el} file.
18164 If you are the moderator of @samp{rec.zoofle}, this is how it's
18169 You split your incoming mail by matching on
18170 @samp{Newsgroups:.*rec.zoofle}, which will put all the to-be-posted
18171 articles in some mail group---for instance, @samp{nnml:rec.zoofle}.
18174 You enter that group once in a while and post articles using the @kbd{e}
18175 (edit-and-post) or @kbd{s} (just send unedited) commands.
18178 If, while reading the @samp{rec.zoofle} newsgroup, you happen upon some
18179 articles that weren't approved by you, you can cancel them with the
18183 To use moderation mode in these two groups, say:
18186 (setq gnus-moderated-list
18187 "^nnml:rec.zoofle$\\|^rec.zoofle$")
18191 @node XEmacs Enhancements
18192 @section XEmacs Enhancements
18195 XEmacs is able to display pictures and stuff, so Gnus has taken
18199 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what your reading.
18200 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
18201 * Toolbar:: Click'n'drool.
18202 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
18215 So@dots{} You want to slow down your news reader even more! This is a
18216 good way to do so. Its also a great way to impress people staring
18217 over your shoulder as you read news.
18220 * Picon Basics:: What are picons and How do I get them.
18221 * Picon Requirements:: Don't go further if you aren't using XEmacs.
18222 * Easy Picons:: Displaying Picons---the easy way.
18223 * Hard Picons:: The way you should do it. You'll learn something.
18224 * Picon Useless Configuration:: Other variables you can trash/tweak/munge/play with.
18229 @subsubsection Picon Basics
18231 What are Picons? To quote directly from the Picons Web site:
18240 @dfn{Picons} is short for ``personal icons''. They're small,
18241 constrained images used to represent users and domains on the net,
18242 organized into databases so that the appropriate image for a given
18243 e-mail address can be found. Besides users and domains, there are picon
18244 databases for Usenet newsgroups and weather forecasts. The picons are
18245 in either monochrome @code{XBM} format or color @code{XPM} and
18246 @code{GIF} formats.
18249 @vindex gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
18250 If you have a permanent connection to the Internet you can use Steve
18251 Kinzler's Picons Search engine by setting
18252 @code{gnus-picons-piconsearch-url} to the string @*
18253 @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/search.html}.
18255 @vindex gnus-picons-database
18256 Otherwise you need a local copy of his database. For instructions on
18257 obtaining and installing the picons databases, point your Web browser at @*
18258 @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/ftp/index.html}. Gnus expects
18259 picons to be installed into a location pointed to by
18260 @code{gnus-picons-database}.
18263 @node Picon Requirements
18264 @subsubsection Picon Requirements
18266 To have Gnus display Picons for you, you must be running XEmacs
18267 19.13 or greater since all other versions of Emacs aren't yet able to
18270 Additionally, you must have @code{x} support compiled into XEmacs. To
18271 display color picons which are much nicer than the black & white one,
18272 you also need one of @code{xpm} or @code{gif} compiled into XEmacs.
18274 @vindex gnus-picons-convert-x-face
18275 If you want to display faces from @code{X-Face} headers, you should have
18276 the @code{xface} support compiled into XEmacs. Otherwise you must have
18277 the @code{netpbm} utilities installed, or munge the
18278 @code{gnus-picons-convert-x-face} variable to use something else.
18282 @subsubsection Easy Picons
18284 To enable displaying picons, simply put the following line in your
18285 @file{~/.gnus} file and start Gnus.
18288 (setq gnus-use-picons t)
18289 (setq gnus-treat-display-picons t)
18292 and make sure @code{gnus-picons-database} points to the directory
18293 containing the Picons databases.
18295 Alternatively if you want to use the web piconsearch engine add this:
18298 (setq gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
18299 "http://www.cs.indiana.edu:800/piconsearch")
18304 @subsubsection Hard Picons
18312 Gnus can display picons for you as you enter and leave groups and
18313 articles. It knows how to interact with three sections of the picons
18314 database. Namely, it can display the picons newsgroup pictures,
18315 author's face picture(s), and the authors domain. To enable this
18316 feature, you need to select where to get the picons from, and where to
18321 @item gnus-picons-database
18322 @vindex gnus-picons-database
18323 The location of the picons database. Should point to a directory
18324 containing the @file{news}, @file{domains}, @file{users} (and so on)
18325 subdirectories. This is only useful if
18326 @code{gnus-picons-piconsearch-url} is @code{nil}. Defaults to
18327 @file{/usr/local/faces/}.
18329 @item gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
18330 @vindex gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
18331 The URL for the web picons search engine. The only currently known
18332 engine is @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu:800/piconsearch}. To
18333 workaround network delays, icons will be fetched in the background. If
18334 this is @code{nil} 'the default), then picons are fetched from local
18335 database indicated by @code{gnus-picons-database}.
18337 @item gnus-picons-display-where
18338 @vindex gnus-picons-display-where
18339 Where the picon images should be displayed. It is @code{picons} by
18340 default (which by default maps to the buffer @samp{*Picons*}). Other
18341 valid places could be @code{article}, @code{summary}, or
18342 @samp{*scratch*} for all I care. Just make sure that you've made the
18343 buffer visible using the standard Gnus window configuration
18344 routines---@pxref{Windows Configuration}.
18346 @item gnus-picons-group-excluded-groups
18347 @vindex gnus-picons-group-excluded-groups
18348 Groups that are matched by this regexp won't have their group icons
18353 Note: If you set @code{gnus-use-picons} to @code{t}, it will set up your
18354 window configuration for you to include the @code{picons} buffer.
18356 Now that you've made those decision, you need to add the following
18357 functions to the appropriate hooks so these pictures will get displayed
18360 @vindex gnus-picons-display-where
18362 @item gnus-article-display-picons
18363 @findex gnus-article-display-picons
18364 Looks up and displays the picons for the author and the author's domain
18365 in the @code{gnus-picons-display-where} buffer.
18367 @item gnus-picons-article-display-x-face
18368 @findex gnus-article-display-picons
18369 Decodes and displays the X-Face header if present.
18375 @node Picon Useless Configuration
18376 @subsubsection Picon Useless Configuration
18384 The following variables offer further control over how things are
18385 done, where things are located, and other useless stuff you really
18386 don't need to worry about.
18390 @item gnus-picons-news-directories
18391 @vindex gnus-picons-news-directories
18392 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picons-database} for
18393 newsgroups faces. @code{("news")} is the default.
18395 @item gnus-picons-user-directories
18396 @vindex gnus-picons-user-directories
18397 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picons-database} for user
18398 faces. @code{("local" "users" "usenix" "misc")} is the default.
18400 @item gnus-picons-domain-directories
18401 @vindex gnus-picons-domain-directories
18402 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picons-database} for
18403 domain name faces. Defaults to @code{("domains")}. Some people may
18404 want to add @samp{"unknown"} to this list.
18406 @item gnus-picons-convert-x-face
18407 @vindex gnus-picons-convert-x-face
18408 If you don't have @code{xface} support builtin XEmacs, this is the
18409 command to use to convert the @code{X-Face} header to an X bitmap
18410 (@code{xbm}). Defaults to @code{(format "@{ echo '/* Width=48,
18411 Height=48 */'; uncompface; @} | icontopbm | pbmtoxbm > %s"
18412 gnus-picons-x-face-file-name)}
18414 @item gnus-picons-x-face-file-name
18415 @vindex gnus-picons-x-face-file-name
18416 Names a temporary file to store the @code{X-Face} bitmap in. Defaults
18417 to @code{(format "/tmp/picon-xface.%s.xbm" (user-login-name))}.
18419 @item gnus-picons-has-modeline-p
18420 @vindex gnus-picons-has-modeline-p
18421 If you have set @code{gnus-picons-display-where} to @code{picons}, your
18422 XEmacs frame will become really cluttered. To alleviate this a bit you
18423 can set @code{gnus-picons-has-modeline-p} to @code{nil}; this will
18424 remove the mode line from the Picons buffer. This is only useful if
18425 @code{gnus-picons-display-where} is @code{picons}.
18427 @item gnus-picons-refresh-before-display
18428 @vindex gnus-picons-refresh-before-display
18429 If non-nil, display the article buffer before computing the picons.
18430 Defaults to @code{nil}.
18432 @item gnus-picons-display-as-address
18433 @vindex gnus-picons-display-as-address
18434 If @code{t} display textual email addresses along with pictures.
18435 Defaults to @code{t}.
18437 @item gnus-picons-file-suffixes
18438 @vindex gnus-picons-file-suffixes
18439 Ordered list of suffixes on picon file names to try. Defaults to
18440 @code{("xpm" "gif" "xbm")} minus those not builtin your XEmacs.
18442 @item gnus-picons-setup-hook
18443 @vindex gnus-picons-setup-hook
18444 Hook run in the picon buffer, if that is displayed.
18446 @item gnus-picons-display-article-move-p
18447 @vindex gnus-picons-display-article-move-p
18448 Whether to move point to first empty line when displaying picons. This
18449 has only an effect if `gnus-picons-display-where' has value `article'.
18451 If @code{nil}, display the picons in the @code{From} and
18452 @code{Newsgroups} lines. This is the default.
18454 @item gnus-picons-clear-cache-on-shutdown
18455 @vindex gnus-picons-clear-cache-on-shutdown
18456 Whether to clear the picons cache when exiting gnus. Gnus caches every
18457 picons it finds while it is running. This saves some time in the search
18458 process but eats some memory. If this variable is set to @code{nil},
18459 Gnus will never clear the cache itself; you will have to manually call
18460 @code{gnus-picons-clear-cache} to clear it. Otherwise the cache will be
18461 cleared every time you exit Gnus. Defaults to @code{t}.
18472 @subsection Smileys
18477 \gnusfig{-3cm}{0.5cm}{\epsfig{figure=tmp/BigFace.ps,height=20cm}}
18482 @dfn{Smiley} is a package separate from Gnus, but since Gnus is
18483 currently the only package that uses Smiley, it is documented here.
18485 In short---to use Smiley in Gnus, put the following in your
18486 @file{.gnus.el} file:
18489 (setq gnus-treat-display-smileys t)
18492 Smiley maps text smiley faces---@samp{:-)}, @samp{:-=}, @samp{:-(} and
18493 the like---to pictures and displays those instead of the text smiley
18494 faces. The conversion is controlled by a list of regexps that matches
18495 text and maps that to file names.
18497 @vindex smiley-nosey-regexp-alist
18498 @vindex smiley-deformed-regexp-alist
18499 Smiley supplies two example conversion alists by default:
18500 @code{smiley-deformed-regexp-alist} (which matches @samp{:)}, @samp{:(}
18501 and so on), and @code{smiley-nosey-regexp-alist} (which matches
18502 @samp{:-)}, @samp{:-(} and so on).
18504 The alist used is specified by the @code{smiley-regexp-alist} variable,
18505 which defaults to the value of @code{smiley-deformed-regexp-alist}.
18507 The first item in each element is the regexp to be matched; the second
18508 element is the regexp match group that is to be replaced by the picture;
18509 and the third element is the name of the file to be displayed.
18511 The following variables customize where Smiley will look for these
18512 files, as well as the color to be used and stuff:
18516 @item smiley-data-directory
18517 @vindex smiley-data-directory
18518 Where Smiley will look for smiley faces files.
18520 @item smiley-flesh-color
18521 @vindex smiley-flesh-color
18522 Skin color. The default is @samp{yellow}, which is really racist.
18524 @item smiley-features-color
18525 @vindex smiley-features-color
18526 Color of the features of the face. The default is @samp{black}.
18528 @item smiley-tongue-color
18529 @vindex smiley-tongue-color
18530 Color of the tongue. The default is @samp{red}.
18532 @item smiley-circle-color
18533 @vindex smiley-circle-color
18534 Color of the circle around the face. The default is @samp{black}.
18536 @item smiley-mouse-face
18537 @vindex smiley-mouse-face
18538 Face used for mouse highlighting over the smiley face.
18544 @subsection Toolbar
18554 @item gnus-use-toolbar
18555 @vindex gnus-use-toolbar
18556 If @code{nil}, don't display toolbars. If non-@code{nil}, it should be
18557 one of @code{default-toolbar}, @code{top-toolbar}, @code{bottom-toolbar},
18558 @code{right-toolbar}, or @code{left-toolbar}.
18560 @item gnus-group-toolbar
18561 @vindex gnus-group-toolbar
18562 The toolbar in the group buffer.
18564 @item gnus-summary-toolbar
18565 @vindex gnus-summary-toolbar
18566 The toolbar in the summary buffer.
18568 @item gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
18569 @vindex gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
18570 The toolbar in the summary buffer of mail groups.
18576 @subsection Various XEmacs Variables
18579 @item gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
18580 @vindex gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
18581 This is where Gnus will look for pictures. Gnus will normally
18582 auto-detect this directory, but you may set it manually if you have an
18583 unusual directory structure.
18585 @item gnus-xmas-logo-color-alist
18586 @vindex gnus-xmas-logo-color-alist
18587 This is an alist where the key is a type symbol and the values are the
18588 foreground and background color of the splash page glyph.
18590 @item gnus-xmas-logo-color-style
18591 @vindex gnus-xmas-logo-color-style
18592 This is the key used to look up the color in the alist described above.
18593 Valid values include @code{flame}, @code{pine}, @code{moss},
18594 @code{irish}, @code{sky}, @code{tin}, @code{velvet}, @code{grape},
18595 @code{labia}, @code{berry}, @code{neutral}, and @code{september}.
18597 @item gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
18598 @vindex gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
18599 A glyph displayed in all Gnus mode lines. It is a tiny gnu head by
18613 @node Fuzzy Matching
18614 @section Fuzzy Matching
18615 @cindex fuzzy matching
18617 Gnus provides @dfn{fuzzy matching} of @code{Subject} lines when doing
18618 things like scoring, thread gathering and thread comparison.
18620 As opposed to regular expression matching, fuzzy matching is very fuzzy.
18621 It's so fuzzy that there's not even a definition of what @dfn{fuzziness}
18622 means, and the implementation has changed over time.
18624 Basically, it tries to remove all noise from lines before comparing.
18625 @samp{Re: }, parenthetical remarks, white space, and so on, are filtered
18626 out of the strings before comparing the results. This often leads to
18627 adequate results---even when faced with strings generated by text
18628 manglers masquerading as newsreaders.
18631 @node Thwarting Email Spam
18632 @section Thwarting Email Spam
18636 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
18638 In these last days of the Usenet, commercial vultures are hanging about
18639 and grepping through news like crazy to find email addresses they can
18640 foist off their scams and products to. As a reaction to this, many
18641 people have started putting nonsense addresses into their @code{From}
18642 lines. I think this is counterproductive---it makes it difficult for
18643 people to send you legitimate mail in response to things you write, as
18644 well as making it difficult to see who wrote what. This rewriting may
18645 perhaps be a bigger menace than the unsolicited commercial email itself
18648 The biggest problem I have with email spam is that it comes in under
18649 false pretenses. I press @kbd{g} and Gnus merrily informs me that I
18650 have 10 new emails. I say ``Golly gee! Happy is me!'' and select the
18651 mail group, only to find two pyramid schemes, seven advertisements
18652 (``New! Miracle tonic for growing full, lustrous hair on your toes!'')
18653 and one mail asking me to repent and find some god.
18657 The way to deal with this is having Gnus split out all spam into a
18658 @samp{spam} mail group (@pxref{Splitting Mail}).
18660 First, pick one (1) valid mail address that you can be reached at, and
18661 put it in your @code{From} header of all your news articles. (I've
18662 chosen @samp{larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no}, but for many addresses on the form
18663 @samp{larsi+usenet@@ifi.uio.no} will be a better choice. Ask your
18664 sysadmin whether your sendmail installation accepts keywords in the local
18665 part of the mail address.)
18668 (setq message-default-news-headers
18669 "From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no>\n")
18672 Then put the following split rule in @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
18673 (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}):
18678 (to "larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no"
18679 (| ("subject" "re:.*" "misc")
18680 ("references" ".*@@.*" "misc")
18686 This says that all mail to this address is suspect, but if it has a
18687 @code{Subject} that starts with a @samp{Re:} or has a @code{References}
18688 header, it's probably ok. All the rest goes to the @samp{spam} group.
18689 (This idea probably comes from Tim Pierce.)
18691 In addition, many mail spammers talk directly to your @code{smtp} server
18692 and do not include your email address explicitly in the @code{To}
18693 header. Why they do this is unknown---perhaps it's to thwart this
18694 thwarting scheme? In any case, this is trivial to deal with---you just
18695 put anything not addressed to you in the @samp{spam} group by ending
18696 your fancy split rule in this way:
18701 (to "larsi" "misc")
18705 In my experience, this will sort virtually everything into the right
18706 group. You still have to check the @samp{spam} group from time to time to
18707 check for legitimate mail, though. If you feel like being a good net
18708 citizen, you can even send off complaints to the proper authorities on
18709 each unsolicited commercial email---at your leisure.
18711 If you are also a lazy net citizen, you will probably prefer complaining
18712 automatically with the @file{gnus-junk.el} package, available FOR FREE
18713 at @* @uref{http://stud2.tuwien.ac.at/~e9426626/gnus-junk.html}.
18714 Since most e-mail spam is sent automatically, this may reconcile the
18715 cosmic balance somewhat.
18717 This works for me. It allows people an easy way to contact me (they can
18718 just press @kbd{r} in the usual way), and I'm not bothered at all with
18719 spam. It's a win-win situation. Forging @code{From} headers to point
18720 to non-existent domains is yucky, in my opinion.
18723 @node Various Various
18724 @section Various Various
18730 @item gnus-home-directory
18731 All Gnus path variables will be initialized from this variable, which
18732 defaults to @file{~/}.
18734 @item gnus-directory
18735 @vindex gnus-directory
18736 Most Gnus storage path variables will be initialized from this variable,
18737 which defaults to the @samp{SAVEDIR} environment variable, or
18738 @file{~/News/} if that variable isn't set.
18740 Note that Gnus is mostly loaded when the @file{.gnus.el} file is read.
18741 This means that other directory variables that are initialized from this
18742 variable won't be set properly if you set this variable in
18743 @file{.gnus.el}. Set this variable in @file{.emacs} instead.
18745 @item gnus-default-directory
18746 @vindex gnus-default-directory
18747 Not related to the above variable at all---this variable says what the
18748 default directory of all Gnus buffers should be. If you issue commands
18749 like @kbd{C-x C-f}, the prompt you'll get starts in the current buffer's
18750 default directory. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
18751 default), the default directory will be the default directory of the
18752 buffer you were in when you started Gnus.
18755 @vindex gnus-verbose
18756 This variable is an integer between zero and ten. The higher the value,
18757 the more messages will be displayed. If this variable is zero, Gnus
18758 will never flash any messages, if it is seven (which is the default),
18759 most important messages will be shown, and if it is ten, Gnus won't ever
18760 shut up, but will flash so many messages it will make your head swim.
18762 @item gnus-verbose-backends
18763 @vindex gnus-verbose-backends
18764 This variable works the same way as @code{gnus-verbose}, but it applies
18765 to the Gnus backends instead of Gnus proper.
18767 @item nnheader-max-head-length
18768 @vindex nnheader-max-head-length
18769 When the backends read straight heads of articles, they all try to read
18770 as little as possible. This variable (default 4096) specifies
18771 the absolute max length the backends will try to read before giving up
18772 on finding a separator line between the head and the body. If this
18773 variable is @code{nil}, there is no upper read bound. If it is
18774 @code{t}, the backends won't try to read the articles piece by piece,
18775 but read the entire articles. This makes sense with some versions of
18776 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs}.
18778 @item nnheader-head-chop-length
18779 @vindex nnheader-head-chop-length
18780 This variable (default 2048) says how big a piece of each article to
18781 read when doing the operation described above.
18783 @item nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
18784 @vindex nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
18786 @cindex invalid characters in file names
18787 @cindex characters in file names
18788 This is an alist that says how to translate characters in file names.
18789 For instance, if @samp{:} is invalid as a file character in file names
18790 on your system (you OS/2 user you), you could say something like:
18793 (setq nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
18797 In fact, this is the default value for this variable on OS/2 and MS
18798 Windows (phooey) systems.
18800 @item gnus-hidden-properties
18801 @vindex gnus-hidden-properties
18802 This is a list of properties to use to hide ``invisible'' text. It is
18803 @code{(invisible t intangible t)} by default on most systems, which
18804 makes invisible text invisible and intangible.
18806 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
18807 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
18808 A hook called before parsing headers. It can be used, for instance, to
18809 gather statistics on the headers fetched, or perhaps you'd like to prune
18810 some headers. I don't see why you'd want that, though.
18812 @item gnus-shell-command-separator
18813 @vindex gnus-shell-command-separator
18814 String used to separate two shell commands. The default is @samp{;}.
18816 @item gnus-invalid-group-regexp
18817 @vindex gnus-invalid-group-regexp
18819 Regexp to match ``invalid'' group names when querying user for a group
18820 name. The default value catches some @strong{really} invalid group
18821 names who could possibly mess up Gnus internally (like allowing
18822 @samp{:} in a group name, which is normally used to delimit method and
18825 IMAP users might want to allow @samp{/} in group names though.
18834 Well, that's the manual---you can get on with your life now. Keep in
18835 touch. Say hello to your cats from me.
18837 My @strong{ghod}---I just can't stand goodbyes. Sniffle.
18839 Ol' Charles Reznikoff said it pretty well, so I leave the floor to him:
18845 Not because of victories @*
18848 but for the common sunshine,@*
18850 the largess of the spring.
18854 but for the day's work done@*
18855 as well as I was able;@*
18856 not for a seat upon the dais@*
18857 but at the common table.@*
18862 @chapter Appendices
18865 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
18866 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
18867 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
18868 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
18869 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
18870 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
18871 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
18872 * Frequently Asked Questions:: A question-and-answer session.
18880 @sc{gnus} was written by Masanobu @sc{Umeda}. When autumn crept up in
18881 '94, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen grew bored and decided to rewrite Gnus.
18883 If you want to investigate the person responsible for this outrage,
18884 you can point your (feh!) web browser to
18885 @uref{http://quimby.gnus.org/}. This is also the primary
18886 distribution point for the new and spiffy versions of Gnus, and is
18887 known as The Site That Destroys Newsrcs And Drives People Mad.
18889 During the first extended alpha period of development, the new Gnus was
18890 called ``(ding) Gnus''. @dfn{(ding)} is, of course, short for
18891 @dfn{ding is not Gnus}, which is a total and utter lie, but who cares?
18892 (Besides, the ``Gnus'' in this abbreviation should probably be
18893 pronounced ``news'' as @sc{Umeda} intended, which makes it a more
18894 appropriate name, don't you think?)
18896 In any case, after spending all that energy on coming up with a new and
18897 spunky name, we decided that the name was @emph{too} spunky, so we
18898 renamed it back again to ``Gnus''. But in mixed case. ``Gnus'' vs.
18899 ``@sc{gnus}''. New vs. old.
18902 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
18903 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
18904 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
18905 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
18906 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
18907 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
18908 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
18909 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
18910 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
18911 * Newest Features:: Features so new that they haven't been written yet.
18915 @node Gnus Versions
18916 @subsection Gnus Versions
18917 @cindex Pterodactyl Gnus
18919 @cindex September Gnus
18920 @cindex Quassia Gnus
18922 The first ``proper'' release of Gnus 5 was done in November 1995 when it
18923 was included in the Emacs 19.30 distribution (132 (ding) Gnus releases
18924 plus 15 Gnus 5.0 releases).
18926 In May 1996 the next Gnus generation (aka. ``September Gnus'' (after 99
18927 releases)) was released under the name ``Gnus 5.2'' (40 releases).
18929 On July 28th 1996 work on Red Gnus was begun, and it was released on
18930 January 25th 1997 (after 84 releases) as ``Gnus 5.4'' (67 releases).
18932 On September 13th 1997, Quassia Gnus was started and lasted 37 releases.
18933 If was released as ``Gnus 5.6'' on March 8th 1998 (46 releases).
18935 Gnus 5.6 begat Pterodactyl Gnus on August 29th 1998 and was released as
18936 ``Gnus 5.8'' (after 99 releases and a CVS repository) on December 3rd
18939 On the 26th of October 2000, Oort Gnus was begun.
18941 If you happen upon a version of Gnus that has a prefixed name --
18942 ``(ding) Gnus'', ``September Gnus'', ``Red Gnus'', ``Quassia Gnus'',
18943 ``Pterodactyl Gnus'', ``Oort Gnus'' -- don't panic. Don't let it know
18944 that you're frightened. Back away. Slowly. Whatever you do, don't
18945 run. Walk away, calmly, until you're out of its reach. Find a proper
18946 released version of Gnus and snuggle up to that instead.
18949 @node Other Gnus Versions
18950 @subsection Other Gnus Versions
18953 In addition to the versions of Gnus which have had their releases
18954 coordinated by Lars, one major development has been Semi-gnus from
18955 Japan. It's based on a library called @sc{semi}, which provides
18956 @sc{mime} capabilities.
18958 These Gnusae are based mainly on Gnus 5.6 and Pterodactyl Gnus.
18959 Collectively, they are called ``Semi-gnus'', and different strains are
18960 called T-gnus, ET-gnus, Nana-gnus and Chaos. These provide powerful
18961 @sc{mime} and multilingualization things, especially important for
18968 What's the point of Gnus?
18970 I want to provide a ``rad'', ``happening'', ``way cool'' and ``hep''
18971 newsreader, that lets you do anything you can think of. That was my
18972 original motivation, but while working on Gnus, it has become clear to
18973 me that this generation of newsreaders really belong in the stone age.
18974 Newsreaders haven't developed much since the infancy of the net. If the
18975 volume continues to rise with the current rate of increase, all current
18976 newsreaders will be pretty much useless. How do you deal with
18977 newsgroups that have thousands of new articles each day? How do you
18978 keep track of millions of people who post?
18980 Gnus offers no real solutions to these questions, but I would very much
18981 like to see Gnus being used as a testing ground for new methods of
18982 reading and fetching news. Expanding on @sc{Umeda}-san's wise decision
18983 to separate the newsreader from the backends, Gnus now offers a simple
18984 interface for anybody who wants to write new backends for fetching mail
18985 and news from different sources. I have added hooks for customizations
18986 everywhere I could imagine it being useful. By doing so, I'm inviting
18987 every one of you to explore and invent.
18989 May Gnus never be complete. @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-emacs} and
18990 @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-xemacs}.
18993 @node Compatibility
18994 @subsection Compatibility
18996 @cindex compatibility
18997 Gnus was designed to be fully compatible with @sc{gnus}. Almost all key
18998 bindings have been kept. More key bindings have been added, of course,
18999 but only in one or two obscure cases have old bindings been changed.
19004 @center In a cloud bones of steel.
19008 All commands have kept their names. Some internal functions have changed
19011 The @code{gnus-uu} package has changed drastically. @xref{Decoding
19014 One major compatibility question is the presence of several summary
19015 buffers. All variables relevant while reading a group are
19016 buffer-local to the summary buffer they belong in. Although many
19017 important variables have their values copied into their global
19018 counterparts whenever a command is executed in the summary buffer, this
19019 change might lead to incorrect values being used unless you are careful.
19021 All code that relies on knowledge of @sc{gnus} internals will probably
19022 fail. To take two examples: Sorting @code{gnus-newsrc-alist} (or
19023 changing it in any way, as a matter of fact) is strictly verboten. Gnus
19024 maintains a hash table that points to the entries in this alist (which
19025 speeds up many functions), and changing the alist directly will lead to
19029 @cindex highlighting
19030 Old hilit19 code does not work at all. In fact, you should probably
19031 remove all hilit code from all Gnus hooks
19032 (@code{gnus-group-prepare-hook} and @code{gnus-summary-prepare-hook}).
19033 Gnus provides various integrated functions for highlighting. These are
19034 faster and more accurate. To make life easier for everybody, Gnus will
19035 by default remove all hilit calls from all hilit hooks. Uncleanliness!
19038 Packages like @code{expire-kill} will no longer work. As a matter of
19039 fact, you should probably remove all old @sc{gnus} packages (and other
19040 code) when you start using Gnus. More likely than not, Gnus already
19041 does what you have written code to make @sc{gnus} do. (Snicker.)
19043 Even though old methods of doing things are still supported, only the
19044 new methods are documented in this manual. If you detect a new method of
19045 doing something while reading this manual, that does not mean you have
19046 to stop doing it the old way.
19048 Gnus understands all @sc{gnus} startup files.
19050 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
19052 @cindex reporting bugs
19054 Overall, a casual user who hasn't written much code that depends on
19055 @sc{gnus} internals should suffer no problems. If problems occur,
19056 please let me know by issuing that magic command @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}.
19058 @vindex gnus-bug-create-help-buffer
19059 If you are in the habit of sending bug reports @emph{very} often, you
19060 may find the helpful help buffer annoying after a while. If so, set
19061 @code{gnus-bug-create-help-buffer} to @code{nil} to avoid having it pop
19066 @subsection Conformity
19068 No rebels without a clue here, ma'am. We conform to all standards known
19069 to (wo)man. Except for those standards and/or conventions we disagree
19076 There are no known breaches of this standard.
19080 There are no known breaches of this standard, either.
19082 @item Son-of-RFC 1036
19083 @cindex Son-of-RFC 1036
19084 We do have some breaches to this one.
19090 These are considered to be ``vanity headers'', while I consider them
19091 to be consumer information. After seeing so many badly formatted
19092 articles coming from @code{tin} and @code{Netscape} I know not to use
19093 either of those for posting articles. I would not have known that if
19094 it wasn't for the @code{X-Newsreader} header.
19099 USEFOR is an IETF working group writing a successor to RFC 1036, based
19100 on Son-of-RFC 1036. They have produced a number of drafts proposing
19101 various changes to the format of news articles. The Gnus towers will
19102 look into implementing the changes when the draft is accepted as an RFC.
19106 If you ever notice Gnus acting non-compliant with regards to the texts
19107 mentioned above, don't hesitate to drop a note to Gnus Towers and let us
19112 @subsection Emacsen
19118 Gnus should work on :
19126 XEmacs 20.4 and up.
19130 This Gnus version will absolutely not work on any Emacsen older than
19131 that. Not reliably, at least. Older versions of Gnus may work on older
19134 There are some vague differences between Gnus on the various
19135 platforms---XEmacs features more graphics (a logo and a toolbar)---but
19136 other than that, things should look pretty much the same under all
19140 @node Gnus Development
19141 @subsection Gnus Development
19143 Gnus is developed in a two-phased cycle. The first phase involves much
19144 discussion on the @samp{ding@@gnus.org} mailing list, where people
19145 propose changes and new features, post patches and new backends. This
19146 phase is called the @dfn{alpha} phase, since the Gnusae released in this
19147 phase are @dfn{alpha releases}, or (perhaps more commonly in other
19148 circles) @dfn{snapshots}. During this phase, Gnus is assumed to be
19149 unstable and should not be used by casual users. Gnus alpha releases
19150 have names like ``Red Gnus'' and ``Quassia Gnus''.
19152 After futzing around for 50-100 alpha releases, Gnus is declared
19153 @dfn{frozen}, and only bug fixes are applied. Gnus loses the prefix,
19154 and is called things like ``Gnus 5.6.32'' instead. Normal people are
19155 supposed to be able to use these, and these are mostly discussed on the
19156 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} newsgroup.
19159 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
19160 Some variable defaults differ between alpha Gnusae and released Gnusae.
19161 In particular, @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} defaults to @code{nil} in
19162 alpha Gnusae and @code{t} in released Gnusae. This is to prevent
19163 lossage of mail if an alpha release hiccups while handling the mail.
19165 The division of discussion between the ding mailing list and the Gnus
19166 newsgroup is not purely based on publicity concerns. It's true that
19167 having people write about the horrible things that an alpha Gnus release
19168 can do (sometimes) in a public forum may scare people off, but more
19169 importantly, talking about new experimental features that have been
19170 introduced may confuse casual users. New features are frequently
19171 introduced, fiddled with, and judged to be found wanting, and then
19172 either discarded or totally rewritten. People reading the mailing list
19173 usually keep up with these rapid changes, while people on the newsgroup
19174 can't be assumed to do so.
19179 @subsection Contributors
19180 @cindex contributors
19182 The new Gnus version couldn't have been done without the help of all the
19183 people on the (ding) mailing list. Every day for over a year I have
19184 gotten billions of nice bug reports from them, filling me with joy,
19185 every single one of them. Smooches. The people on the list have been
19186 tried beyond endurance, what with my ``oh, that's a neat idea <type
19187 type>, yup, I'll release it right away <ship off> no wait, that doesn't
19188 work at all <type type>, yup, I'll ship that one off right away <ship
19189 off> no, wait, that absolutely does not work'' policy for releases.
19190 Micro$oft---bah. Amateurs. I'm @emph{much} worse. (Or is that
19191 ``worser''? ``much worser''? ``worsest''?)
19193 I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Academy for... oops,
19199 Masanobu @sc{Umeda}---the writer of the original @sc{gnus}.
19202 Shenghuo Zhu---uudecode.el, mm-uu.el, rfc1843.el, webmail.el,
19203 nnwarchive and many, many other things connected with @sc{mime} and
19204 other types of en/decoding, as well as general bug fixing, new
19205 functionality and stuff.
19208 Per Abrahamsen---custom, scoring, highlighting and @sc{soup} code (as
19209 well as numerous other things).
19212 Luis Fernandes---design and graphics.
19215 Justin Sheehy--the FAQ maintainer.
19218 Erik Naggum---help, ideas, support, code and stuff.
19221 Wes Hardaker---@file{gnus-picon.el} and the manual section on
19222 @dfn{picons} (@pxref{Picons}).
19225 Kim-Minh Kaplan---further work on the picon code.
19228 Brad Miller---@file{gnus-gl.el} and the GroupLens manual section
19229 (@pxref{GroupLens}).
19232 Sudish Joseph---innumerable bug fixes.
19235 Ilja Weis---@file{gnus-topic.el}.
19238 Steven L. Baur---lots and lots and lots of bugs detections and fixes.
19241 Vladimir Alexiev---the refcard and reference booklets.
19244 Felix Lee & Jamie Zawinski---I stole some pieces from the XGnus
19245 distribution by Felix Lee and JWZ.
19248 Scott Byer---@file{nnfolder.el} enhancements & rewrite.
19251 Peter Mutsaers---orphan article scoring code.
19254 Ken Raeburn---POP mail support.
19257 Hallvard B Furuseth---various bits and pieces, especially dealing with
19261 Brian Edmonds---@file{gnus-bbdb.el}.
19264 David Moore---rewrite of @file{nnvirtual.el} and many other things.
19267 Kevin Davidson---came up with the name @dfn{ding}, so blame him.
19270 François Pinard---many, many interesting and thorough bug reports, as
19271 well as autoconf support.
19275 This manual was proof-read by Adrian Aichner, with Ricardo Nassif, Mark
19276 Borges, and Jost Krieger proof-reading parts of the manual.
19278 The following people have contributed many patches and suggestions:
19287 Jason L. Tibbitts, III,
19291 Also thanks to the following for patches and stuff:
19301 Alexei V. Barantsev,
19316 Massimo Campostrini,
19321 Jae-you Chung, @c ?
19322 James H. Cloos, Jr.,
19326 Andrew J. Cosgriff,
19329 Geoffrey T. Dairiki,
19335 Michael Welsh Duggan,
19340 Enami Tsugutomo, @c Enami
19344 Nelson Jose dos Santos Ferreira,
19352 Arne Georg Gleditsch,
19354 Michelangelo Grigni,
19358 Kenichi Handa, @c Handa
19360 Yoshiki Hayashi, @c ?
19362 Hisashige Kenji, @c Hisashige
19369 François Felix Ingrand,
19370 Tatsuya Ichikawa, @c ?
19371 Ishikawa Ichiro, @c Ishikawa
19373 Iwamuro Motonori, @c Iwamuro
19384 Peter Skov Knudsen,
19385 Shuhei Kobayashi, @c Kobayashi
19387 Koseki Yoshinori, @c Koseki
19388 Thor Kristoffersen,
19391 Seokchan Lee, @c Lee
19409 Morioka Tomohiko, @c Morioka
19410 Erik Toubro Nielsen,
19417 Masaharu Onishi, @c Onishi
19422 Jens-Ulrik Holger Petersen,
19426 John McClary Prevost,
19432 Lars Balker Rasmussen,
19437 Christian von Roques,
19440 Wolfgang Rupprecht,
19447 Philippe Schnoebelen,
19449 Randal L. Schwartz,
19463 Kiyokazu Suto, @c Suto
19468 Tozawa Akihiko, @c Tozawa
19484 Katsumi Yamaoka @c Yamaoka
19489 For a full overview of what each person has done, the ChangeLogs
19490 included in the Gnus alpha distributions should give ample reading
19491 (550kB and counting).
19493 Apologies to everybody that I've forgotten, of which there are many, I'm
19496 Gee, that's quite a list of people. I guess that must mean that there
19497 actually are people who are using Gnus. Who'd'a thunk it!
19501 @subsection New Features
19502 @cindex new features
19505 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
19506 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.3/5.3.
19507 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
19508 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
19511 These lists are, of course, just @emph{short} overviews of the
19512 @emph{most} important new features. No, really. There are tons more.
19513 Yes, we have feeping creaturism in full effect.
19517 @subsubsection (ding) Gnus
19519 New features in Gnus 5.0/5.1:
19524 The look of all buffers can be changed by setting format-like variables
19525 (@pxref{Group Buffer Format} and @pxref{Summary Buffer Format}).
19528 Local spool and several @sc{nntp} servers can be used at once
19529 (@pxref{Select Methods}).
19532 You can combine groups into virtual groups (@pxref{Virtual Groups}).
19535 You can read a number of different mail formats (@pxref{Getting Mail}).
19536 All the mail backends implement a convenient mail expiry scheme
19537 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
19540 Gnus can use various strategies for gathering threads that have lost
19541 their roots (thereby gathering loose sub-threads into one thread) or it
19542 can go back and retrieve enough headers to build a complete thread
19543 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
19546 Killed groups can be displayed in the group buffer, and you can read
19547 them as well (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
19550 Gnus can do partial group updates---you do not have to retrieve the
19551 entire active file just to check for new articles in a few groups
19552 (@pxref{The Active File}).
19555 Gnus implements a sliding scale of subscribedness to groups
19556 (@pxref{Group Levels}).
19559 You can score articles according to any number of criteria
19560 (@pxref{Scoring}). You can even get Gnus to find out how to score
19561 articles for you (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
19564 Gnus maintains a dribble buffer that is auto-saved the normal Emacs
19565 manner, so it should be difficult to lose much data on what you have
19566 read if your machine should go down (@pxref{Auto Save}).
19569 Gnus now has its own startup file (@file{.gnus}) to avoid cluttering up
19570 the @file{.emacs} file.
19573 You can set the process mark on both groups and articles and perform
19574 operations on all the marked items (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
19577 You can grep through a subset of groups and create a group from the
19578 results (@pxref{Kibozed Groups}).
19581 You can list subsets of groups according to, well, anything
19582 (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
19585 You can browse foreign servers and subscribe to groups from those
19586 servers (@pxref{Browse Foreign Server}).
19589 Gnus can fetch articles, asynchronously, on a second connection to the
19590 server (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
19593 You can cache articles locally (@pxref{Article Caching}).
19596 The uudecode functions have been expanded and generalized
19597 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
19600 You can still post uuencoded articles, which was a little-known feature
19601 of @sc{gnus}' past (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
19604 Fetching parents (and other articles) now actually works without
19605 glitches (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
19608 Gnus can fetch FAQs and group descriptions (@pxref{Group Information}).
19611 Digests (and other files) can be used as the basis for groups
19612 (@pxref{Document Groups}).
19615 Articles can be highlighted and customized (@pxref{Customizing
19619 URLs and other external references can be buttonized (@pxref{Article
19623 You can do lots of strange stuff with the Gnus window & frame
19624 configuration (@pxref{Windows Configuration}).
19627 You can click on buttons instead of using the keyboard
19633 @node September Gnus
19634 @subsubsection September Gnus
19638 \gnusfig{-28cm}{0cm}{\epsfig{figure=tmp/september.ps,height=20cm}}
19642 New features in Gnus 5.2/5.3:
19647 A new message composition mode is used. All old customization variables
19648 for @code{mail-mode}, @code{rnews-reply-mode} and @code{gnus-msg} are
19652 Gnus is now able to generate @dfn{sparse} threads---threads where
19653 missing articles are represented by empty nodes (@pxref{Customizing
19657 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
19661 Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server
19662 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
19665 Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
19669 Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions (@pxref{GroupLens}).
19672 Picons (personal icons) can be displayed under XEmacs (@pxref{Picons}).
19675 A @code{trn}-like tree buffer can be displayed (@pxref{Tree Display}).
19678 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
19682 An @code{nn}-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
19683 buffers (@pxref{Pick and Read}).
19686 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
19690 In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode (@pxref{Binary
19694 Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy (@pxref{Group
19698 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
19702 Gnus can re-send and bounce mail (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
19705 Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
19706 is possible (@pxref{Group Score}).
19709 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
19713 Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
19714 groups of groups (@pxref{Marking Groups}).
19717 Caching is possible in virtual groups.
19720 @code{nndoc} now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews
19721 news batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything
19722 else (@pxref{Document Groups}).
19725 Gnus has a new backend (@code{nnsoup}) to create/read SOUP packets
19729 The Gnus cache is much faster.
19732 Groups can be sorted according to many criteria (@pxref{Sorting
19736 New group parameters have been introduced to set list-addresses and
19737 expiry times (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
19740 All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used
19741 (@pxref{Formatting Fonts}).
19744 There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on process
19745 marked articles on the @kbd{M P} submap (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
19748 The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
19749 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
19750 bound to keys on the @kbd{/} submap (@pxref{Limiting}).
19753 Articles can be made persistent with the @kbd{*} command
19754 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
19757 All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
19760 Article headers can be buttonized (@pxref{Article Washing}).
19763 All mail backends support fetching articles by @code{Message-ID}.
19766 Duplicate mail can now be treated properly (@pxref{Duplicates}).
19769 All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
19770 buffer (@pxref{Article Keymap}).
19773 Frames can be part of @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} (@pxref{Windows
19777 Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process (@pxref{Daemons}).
19780 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=tmp/fseptember.ps,height=5cm}]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/fseptember.ps,height=5cm}}
19785 Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to weed out spam (@pxref{NoCeM}).
19788 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
19792 Groups can be made permanently visible (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
19795 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
19799 Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
19802 Gnus respects the @code{Mail-Copies-To} header.
19805 Threads can be gathered by looking at the @code{References} header
19806 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
19809 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
19810 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
19814 Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
19815 refetching (@pxref{Article Backlog}).
19818 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
19822 A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
19823 buffer to allow easier treatment.
19826 Gnus can suggest where to save articles (@pxref{Saving Articles}).
19829 Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving (@pxref{Saving
19833 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
19837 @code{gnus-uu} can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
19838 articles (@pxref{Other Decode Variables}).
19841 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
19845 Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text
19846 (@pxref{Article Washing}).
19849 Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
19850 cited text to hide is now customizable (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
19853 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
19857 Boring headers can be hidden (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
19860 Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
19863 Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
19869 @subsubsection Red Gnus
19871 New features in Gnus 5.4/5.5:
19875 \gnusfig{-5.5cm}{-4cm}{\epsfig{figure=tmp/red.ps,height=20cm}}
19882 @file{nntp.el} has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
19885 Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
19886 Gnus (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
19889 Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like @code{and},
19890 @code{or}, @code{not}, and parent redirection (@pxref{Advanced
19894 Article washing status can be displayed in the
19895 article mode line (@pxref{Misc Article}).
19898 @file{gnus.el} has been split into many smaller files.
19901 Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID can be done
19902 (@pxref{Duplicate Suppression}).
19905 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
19909 New variables for specifying what score and adapt files are to be
19910 considered home score and adapt files (@pxref{Home Score File}) have
19914 @code{nndoc} was rewritten to be easily extendable (@pxref{Document
19915 Server Internals}).
19918 Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics (@pxref{Topic
19922 Article editing has been revamped and is now actually usable.
19925 Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions
19926 (@pxref{Article Signature}).
19929 Summary pick mode has been made to look more @code{nn}-like. Line
19930 numbers are displayed and the @kbd{.} command can be used to pick
19931 articles (@code{Pick and Read}).
19934 Commands for moving the @file{.newsrc.eld} from one server to
19935 another have been added (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
19938 There's a way now to specify that ``uninteresting'' fields be suppressed
19939 when generating lines in buffers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting}).
19942 Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with @kbd{M-C-_}
19946 Scoring can be done on words using the new score type @code{w}
19947 (@pxref{Score File Format}).
19950 Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis
19951 (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
19954 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
19958 Scores can be decayed (@pxref{Score Decays}).
19961 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
19965 Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The Date is
19966 normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first (@pxref{Score File Format}).
19969 A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
19970 the native server (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
19973 A new command for reading collections of documents
19974 (@code{nndoc} with @code{nnvirtual} on top) has been added---@kbd{M-C-d}
19975 (@pxref{Really Various Summary Commands}).
19978 Process mark sets can be pushed and popped (@pxref{Setting Process
19982 A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post even when the @sc{nntp}
19983 server doesn't allow posting (@pxref{Mail-To-News Gateways}).
19986 A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
19987 (@dfn{DejaNews}, @dfn{Alta Vista}, @dfn{InReference}) has been added
19988 (@pxref{Web Searches}).
19991 Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard sorting
19992 functions, and each topic can be sorted independently (@pxref{Topic
19996 Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently (@code{Sorting
20000 Cached articles can be pulled into the groups (@pxref{Summary Generation
20004 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=tmp/fred.ps,width=3cm}]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/fred.ps,width=3cm}}
20009 Score files are now applied in a more reliable order (@pxref{Score
20013 Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated (@pxref{Splitting
20017 More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk from incoming
20018 mail before saving the mail (@pxref{Washing Mail}).
20021 Emphasized text can be properly fontisized:
20027 @subsubsection Quassia Gnus
20029 New features in Gnus 5.6:
20034 New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
20035 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See
20036 @pxref{Gnus Unplugged} for the full story.
20039 The @code{nndraft} backend has returned, but works differently than
20040 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the @code{nndraft}
20041 group, which is created automatically.
20044 @code{gnus-alter-header-function} can now be used to alter header
20048 @code{gnus-summary-goto-article} now accept Message-ID's.
20051 A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
20052 outside the region: @kbd{C-c C-v}.
20055 You can now post to component group in @code{nnvirtual} groups with
20059 @code{nntp-rlogin-program}---new variable to ease customization.
20062 @code{C-u C-c C-c} in @code{gnus-article-edit-mode} will now inhibit
20063 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
20066 New element in @code{gnus-boring-article-headers}---@code{long-to}.
20069 @kbd{M-i} symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
20070 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
20073 @kbd{L} and @kbd{I} in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
20074 @kbd{a} to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
20077 @code{gnus-simplify-subject-functions} variable to allow greater
20078 control over simplification.
20081 @kbd{A T}---new command for fetching the current thread.
20084 @kbd{/ T}---new command for including the current thread in the
20088 @kbd{M-RET} is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
20091 @samp{\\1}-expressions are now valid in @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
20094 The @code{custom-face-lookup} function has been removed.
20095 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
20096 rewrite them to use @code{face-spec-set} instead.
20099 Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
20100 @kbd{a} forces normal posting method.
20103 New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper
20107 For easier debugging of @code{nntp}, you can set
20108 @code{nntp-record-commands} to a non-@code{nil} value.
20111 @code{nntp} now uses @file{~/.authinfo}, a @file{.netrc}-like file, for
20112 controlling where and how to send @sc{authinfo} to @sc{nntp} servers.
20115 A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
20119 A history of where mails have been split is available.
20122 A new article date command has been added---@code{article-date-iso8601}.
20125 Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
20126 @code{gnus-score-thread-simplify}.
20129 A new function for citing in Message has been
20130 added---@code{message-cite-original-without-signature}.
20133 @code{article-strip-all-blank-lines}---new article command.
20136 A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
20140 A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
20141 @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} variable.
20144 The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
20145 updated by the @code{gnus-start-date-timer} command.
20148 Web listserv archives can be read with the @code{nnlistserv} backend.
20151 Old dejanews archives can now be read by @code{nnweb}.
20156 @node Newest Features
20157 @subsection Newest Features
20160 Also known as the @dfn{todo list}. Sure to be implemented before the
20163 Be afraid. Be very afraid.
20165 (That a feature appears in this list doesn't necessarily mean that I've
20166 decided to actually implement it. It just means that I think it sounds
20169 (Yes, this is the actual, up-to-the-second todo list.)
20174 I would like the zombie-page to contain an URL to the source of the
20175 latest version of gnus or some explanation on where to find it.
20178 A way to continue editing the latest Message composition.
20181 @uref{http://www.sonicnet.com/feature/ari3/}
20184 facep is not declared.
20187 Include a section in the manual on why the number of articles
20188 isn't the same in the group buffer and on the SPC prompt.
20191 Interacting with rmail fcc isn't easy.
20196 <URL:http://www.falch.no/people/pepper/DSSSL-Lite/archives/>
20197 <URL:http://www.eit.com/software/hypermail/hypermail.html>
20198 <URL:http://homer.ncm.com/>
20199 <URL:http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/HTML_Converters/>
20200 http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/9610/index.html
20201 <URL:http://union.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HyperNews/get/www/html/converters.html>
20202 http://www.miranova.com/gnus-list/
20207 @samp{^-- } is made into - in LaTeX.
20210 gnus-kill is much slower than it was in GNUS 4.1.3.
20213 when expunging articles on low score, the sparse nodes keep hanging on?
20215 starting the first time seems to hang Gnus on some systems. Does
20216 NEWGROUPS answer too fast?
20218 nndir doesn't read gzipped files.
20220 FAQ doesn't have an up node?
20222 when moving mail from a procmail spool to the crash-box,
20223 the crash-box is only appropriate to one specific group.
20225 `t' `t' makes X-Faces disappear.
20227 nnmh-be-safe means that crossposted articles will
20228 be marked as unread.
20230 Orphan score entries don't show on "V t" score trace
20232 when clearing out data, the cache data should also be reset.
20234 rewrite gnus-summary-limit-children to be non-recursive
20235 to avoid exceeding lisp nesting on huge groups.
20237 expunged articles are counted when computing scores.
20239 implement gnus-batch-brew-soup
20241 ticked articles aren't easy to read in pick mode -- `n' and
20242 stuff just skips past them. Read articles are the same.
20244 topics that contain just groups with ticked
20245 articles aren't displayed.
20247 nndoc should always allocate unique Message-IDs.
20249 If there are mail groups the first time you use Gnus, Gnus'll
20250 make the mail groups killed.
20252 no "no news is good news" when using topics.
20254 when doing crosspost marking, the cache has to be consulted
20255 and articles have to be removed.
20257 nnweb should fetch complete articles when they are split into several
20260 scoring on head immediate doesn't work.
20262 finding short score file names takes forever.
20264 canceling articles in foreign groups.
20266 nntp-open-rlogin no longer works.
20268 C-u C-x C-s (Summary) switches to the group buffer.
20270 move nnmail-split-history out to the backends.
20272 nnweb doesn't work properly.
20274 using a virtual server name as `gnus-select-method' doesn't work?
20276 when killing/yanking a group from one topic to another in a slave, the
20277 master will yank it first to one topic and then add it to another.
20281 warn user about `=' redirection of a group in the active file?
20283 take over the XEmacs menubar and offer a toggle between the XEmacs
20284 bar and the Gnus bar.
20287 push active file and NOV file parsing down into C code.
20288 `(canonize-message-id id)'
20289 `(mail-parent-message-id references n)'
20290 `(parse-news-nov-line &optional dependency-hashtb)'
20291 `(parse-news-nov-region beg end &optional dependency-hashtb fullp)'
20292 `(parse-news-active-region beg end hashtb)'
20297 nnml .overview directory with splits.
20301 postponed commands.
20303 the selected article show have its Subject displayed in its summary line.
20305 when entering groups, get the real number of unread articles from
20308 sort after gathering threads -- make false roots have the
20309 headers of the oldest orphan with a 0 article number?
20311 nndoc groups should inherit the score files of their parents? Also
20312 inherit copy prompts and save files.
20314 command to start up Gnus (if not running) and enter a mail mode buffer.
20316 allow editing the group description from the group buffer
20317 for backends that support that.
20319 gnus-hide,show-all-topics
20321 groups and sub-topics should be allowed to mingle inside each topic,
20322 and not just list all subtopics at the end.
20324 a command to remove all read articles that are not needed to connect
20325 threads -- `gnus-summary-limit-to-sparse-unread'?
20327 a variable to turn off limiting/cutting of threads in the tree buffer.
20329 a variable to limit how many files are uudecoded.
20331 add zombie groups to a special "New Groups" topic.
20333 server mode command: close/open all connections
20335 put a file date in gnus-score-alist and check whether the file
20336 has been changed before using it.
20338 on exit from a digest group, go to the next article in the parent group.
20340 hide (sub)threads with low score.
20342 when expiring, remove all marks from expired articles.
20344 gnus-summary-limit-to-body
20346 a regexp alist that says what level groups are to be subscribed
20347 on. Eg. -- `(("nnml:" . 1))'.
20349 easier interface to nnkiboze to create ephemeral groups that
20350 contain groups that match a regexp.
20352 allow newlines in <URL:> urls, but remove them before using
20355 If there is no From line, the mail backends should fudge one from the
20358 fuzzy simplifying should strip all non-alpha-numerical info
20359 from subject lines.
20361 gnus-soup-brew-soup-with-high-scores.
20363 nntp-ping-before-connect
20365 command to check whether NOV is evil. "list overview.fmt".
20367 when entering a group, Gnus should look through the score
20368 files very early for `local' atoms and set those local variables.
20370 message annotations.
20372 topics are always yanked before groups, and that's not good.
20374 (set-extent-property extent 'help-echo "String to display in minibuf")
20375 to display help in the minibuffer on buttons under XEmacs.
20377 allow group line format spec to say how many articles there
20382 `run-with-idle-timer' in gnus-demon.
20384 stop using invisible text properties and start using overlays instead
20386 C-c C-f C-e to add an Expires header.
20388 go from one group to the next; everything is expunged; go to the
20389 next group instead of going to the group buffer.
20391 gnus-renumber-cache -- to renumber the cache using "low" numbers.
20393 record topic changes in the dribble buffer.
20395 `nnfolder-generate-active-file' should look at the folders it
20396 finds and generate proper active ranges.
20398 nneething-look-in-files-for-article-heads variable to control
20399 whether nneething should sniff all files in the directories.
20401 gnus-fetch-article -- start Gnus, enter group, display article
20403 gnus-dont-move-articles-to-same-group variable when respooling.
20405 when messages are crossposted between several auto-expirable groups,
20406 articles aren't properly marked as expirable.
20408 nneething should allow deletion/moving.
20410 TAB on the last button should go to the first button.
20412 if the car of an element in `mail-split-methods' is a function,
20413 and the function returns non-nil, use that as the name of the group(s) to
20416 command for listing all score files that have been applied.
20418 a command in the article buffer to return to `summary' config.
20420 `gnus-always-post-using-current-server' -- variable to override
20421 `C-c C-c' when posting.
20423 nnmail-group-spool-alist -- says where each group should use
20426 when an article is crossposted to an auto-expirable group, the article
20427 should be marker as expirable.
20429 article mode command/menu for "send region as URL to browser".
20431 on errors, jump to info nodes that explain the error. For instance,
20432 on invalid From headers, or on error messages from the nntp server.
20434 when gathering threads, make the article that has no "Re: " the parent.
20435 Also consult Date headers.
20437 a token in splits to call shrink-window-if-larger-than-buffer
20439 `1 0 A M' to do matches on the active hashtb.
20441 duplicates -- command to remove Gnus-Warning header, use the read
20442 Message-ID, delete the "original".
20444 when replying to several messages at once, put the "other" message-ids
20445 into a See-Also header.
20447 support setext: @uref{http://www.bsdi.com/setext/}
20449 support ProleText: @uref{http://proletext.clari.net/prole/proletext.html}
20451 when browsing a foreign server, the groups that are already subscribed
20452 should be listed as such and not as "K".
20454 generate font names dynamically.
20456 score file mode auto-alist.
20458 allow nndoc to change/add/delete things from documents. Implement
20459 methods for each format for adding an article to the document.
20461 `gnus-fetch-old-headers' `all' value to incorporate
20462 absolutely all headers there is.
20464 function like `|', but concatenate all marked articles
20465 and pipe them to the process.
20467 cache the list of killed (or active) groups in a separate file. Update
20468 the file whenever we read the active file or the list
20469 of killed groups in the .eld file reaches a certain length.
20471 function for starting to edit a file to put into
20472 the current mail group.
20474 score-find-trace should display the total score of the article.
20476 "ghettozie" -- score on Xref header and nix it out after using it
20477 to avoid marking as read in other groups it has been crossposted to.
20479 look at procmail splitting. The backends should create
20480 the groups automatically if a spool file exists for that group.
20482 function for backends to register themselves with Gnus.
20484 when replying to several process-marked articles,
20485 have all the From end up in Cc headers? Variable to toggle.
20487 command to delete a crossposted mail article from all
20488 groups it has been mailed to.
20490 `B c' and `B m' should be crosspost aware.
20492 hide-pgp should also hide PGP public key blocks.
20494 Command in the group buffer to respool process-marked groups.
20496 `gnus-summary-find-matching' should accept
20497 pseudo-"headers" like "body", "head" and "all"
20499 When buttifying <URL: > things, all white space (including
20500 newlines) should be ignored.
20502 Process-marking all groups in a topic should process-mark
20503 groups in subtopics as well.
20505 Add non-native groups to the list of killed groups when killing them.
20507 nntp-suggest-kewl-config to probe the nntp server and suggest
20510 add edit and forward secondary marks.
20512 nnml shouldn't visit its .overview files.
20514 allow customizing sorting within gathered threads.
20516 `B q' shouldn't select the current article.
20518 nnmbox should support a newsgroups file for descriptions.
20520 allow fetching mail from several pop servers.
20522 Be able to specify whether the saving commands save the original
20523 or the formatted article.
20525 a command to reparent with the child process-marked (cf. `T ^'.).
20527 I think the possibility to send a password with nntp-open-rlogin
20528 should be a feature in Red Gnus.
20530 The `Z n' command should be possible to execute from a mouse click.
20532 more limiting functions -- date, etc.
20534 be able to limit on a random header; on body; using reverse matches.
20536 a group parameter (`absofucking-total-expiry') that will make Gnus expire
20537 even unread articles.
20539 a command to print the article buffer as postscript.
20541 variable to disable password fetching when opening by nntp-open-telnet.
20543 manual: more example servers -- nntp with rlogin, telnet
20545 checking for bogus groups should clean topic alists as well.
20547 canceling articles in foreign groups.
20549 article number in folded topics isn't properly updated by
20552 Movement in the group buffer to the next unread group should go to the
20553 next closed topic with unread messages if no group can be found.
20555 Extensive info pages generated on the fly with help everywhere --
20556 in the "*Gnus edit*" buffers, for instance.
20558 Topic movement commands -- like thread movement. Up, down, forward, next.
20560 a way to tick/mark as read Gcc'd articles.
20562 a way to say that all groups within a specific topic comes
20563 from a particular server? Hm.
20565 `gnus-article-fill-if-long-lines' -- a function to fill
20566 the article buffer if there are any looong lines there.
20568 `T h' should jump to the parent topic and fold it.
20570 a command to create an ephemeral nndoc group out of a file,
20571 and then splitting it/moving it to some other group/backend.
20573 a group parameter for nnkiboze groups that says that
20574 all kibozed articles should be entered into the cache.
20576 It should also probably be possible to delimit what
20577 `gnus-jog-cache' does -- for instance, work on just some groups, or on
20578 some levels, and entering just articles that have a score higher than
20581 nnfolder should append to the folder instead of re-writing
20582 the entire folder to disk when accepting new messages.
20584 allow all backends to do the proper thing with .gz files.
20586 a backend for reading collections of babyl files nnbabylfolder?
20588 a command for making the native groups into foreign groups.
20590 server mode command for clearing read marks from all groups
20593 when following up multiple articles, include all To, Cc, etc headers
20596 a command for deciding what the total score of the current
20597 thread is. Also a way to highlight based on this.
20599 command to show and edit group scores
20601 a gnus-tree-minimize-horizontal to minimize tree buffers
20604 command to generate nnml overview file for one group.
20606 `C-u C-u a' -- prompt for many crossposted groups.
20608 keep track of which mail groups have received new articles (in this session).
20609 Be able to generate a report and perhaps do some marking in the group
20612 gnus-build-sparse-threads to a number -- build only sparse threads
20613 that are of that length.
20615 have nnmh respect mh's unseen sequence in .mh_profile.
20617 cache the newsgroups descriptions locally.
20619 asynchronous posting under nntp.
20621 be able to control word adaptive scoring from the score files.
20623 a variable to make `C-c C-c' post using the "current" select method.
20625 `limit-exclude-low-scored-articles'.
20627 if `gnus-summary-show-thread' is a number, hide threads that have
20628 a score lower than this number.
20630 split newsgroup subscription variable up into "order" and "method".
20632 buttonize ange-ftp file names.
20634 a command to make a duplicate copy of the current article
20635 so that each copy can be edited separately.
20637 nnweb should allow fetching from the local nntp server.
20639 record the sorting done in the summary buffer so that
20640 it can be repeated when limiting/regenerating the buffer.
20642 nnml-generate-nov-databses should generate for
20645 when the user does commands in the group buffer, check
20646 the modification time of the .newsrc.eld file and use
20647 ask-user-about-supersession-threat. Also warn when trying
20648 to save .newsrc.eld and it has changed.
20650 M-g on a topic will display all groups with 0 articles in
20653 command to remove all topic stuff.
20655 allow exploding incoming digests when reading incoming mail
20656 and splitting the resulting digests.
20658 nnsoup shouldn't set the `message-' variables.
20660 command to nix out all nnoo state information.
20662 nnmail-process-alist that calls functions if group names
20663 matches an alist -- before saving.
20665 use buffer-invisibility-spec everywhere for hiding text.
20667 variable to activate each group before entering them
20668 to get the (new) number of articles. `gnus-activate-before-entering'.
20670 command to fetch a Message-ID from any buffer, even
20671 starting Gnus first if necessary.
20673 when posting and checking whether a group exists or not, just
20674 ask the nntp server instead of relying on the active hashtb.
20676 buttonize the output of `C-c C-a' in an apropos-like way.
20678 `G p' should understand process/prefix, and allow editing
20679 of several groups at once.
20681 command to create an ephemeral nnvirtual group that
20682 matches some regexp(s).
20684 nndoc should understand "Content-Type: message/rfc822" forwarded messages.
20686 it should be possible to score "thread" on the From header.
20688 hitting RET on a "gnus-uu-archive" pseudo article should unpack it.
20690 `B i' should display the article at once in the summary buffer.
20692 remove the "*" mark at once when unticking an article.
20694 `M-s' should highlight the matching text.
20696 when checking for duplicated mails, use Resent-Message-ID if present.
20698 killing and yanking groups in topics should be better. If killing one copy
20699 of a group that exists in multiple topics, only that copy should
20700 be removed. Yanking should insert the copy, and yanking topics
20701 should be possible to be interspersed with the other yankings.
20703 command for enter a group just to read the cached articles. A way to say
20704 "ignore the nntp connection; just read from the cache."
20706 `X u' should decode base64 articles.
20708 a way to hide all "inner" cited text, leaving just the most
20709 recently cited text.
20711 nnvirtual should be asynchronous.
20713 after editing an article, gnus-original-article-buffer should
20716 there should probably be a way to make Gnus not connect to the
20717 server and just read the articles in the server
20719 allow a `set-default' (or something) to change the default
20720 value of nnoo variables.
20722 a command to import group infos from a .newsrc.eld file.
20724 groups from secondary servers have the entire select method
20725 listed in each group info.
20727 a command for just switching from the summary buffer to the group
20730 a way to specify that some incoming mail washing functions
20731 should only be applied to some groups.
20733 Message `C-f C-t' should ask the user whether to heed
20734 mail-copies-to: never.
20736 new group parameter -- `post-to-server' that says to post
20737 using the current server. Also a variable to do the same.
20739 the slave dribble files should auto-save to the slave file names.
20741 a group parameter that says what articles to display on group entry, based
20744 a way to visually distinguish slave Gnusae from masters. (Whip instead
20747 Use DJ Bernstein "From " quoting/dequoting, where applicable.
20749 Why is hide-citation-maybe and hide-citation different? Also
20752 group user-defined meta-parameters.
20756 From: John Griffith <griffith@@sfs.nphil.uni-tuebingen.de>
20758 I like the option for trying to retrieve the FAQ for a group and I was
20759 thinking it would be great if for those newsgroups that had archives
20760 you could also try to read the archive for that group. Part of the
20761 problem is that archives are spread all over the net, unlike FAQs.
20762 What would be best I suppose is to find the one closest to your site.
20764 In any case, there is a list of general news group archives at @*
20765 @uref{ftp://ftp.neosoft.com/pub/users/claird/news.lists/newsgroup_archives.html}
20772 From: Jason L Tibbitts III <tibbs@@hpc.uh.edu>
20773 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook
20775 (gnus-group-add-parameter group
20776 (cons 'gnus-group-date-last-entered (list (current-time-string))))))
20778 (defun gnus-user-format-function-d (headers)
20779 "Return the date the group was last read."
20780 (cond ((car (gnus-group-get-parameter gnus-tmp-group 'gnus-group-date-last-entered)))
20785 tanken var at når du bruker `gnus-startup-file' som prefix (FOO) til å lete
20786 opp en fil FOO-SERVER, FOO-SERVER.el, FOO-SERVER.eld, kan du la den være en
20787 liste hvor du bruker hvert element i listen som FOO, istedet. da kunne man
20788 hatt forskjellige serveres startup-filer forskjellige steder.
20792 LMI> Well, nnbabyl could alter the group info to heed labels like
20793 LMI> answered and read, I guess.
20795 It could also keep them updated (the same for the Status: header of
20798 They could be used like this:
20802 `M l <name> RET' add label <name> to current message.
20803 `M u <name> RET' remove label <name> from current message.
20804 `/ l <expr> RET' limit summary buffer according to <expr>.
20806 <expr> would be a boolean expression on the labels, e.g.
20808 `/ l bug & !fixed RET'
20811 would show all the messages which are labeled `bug' but not labeled
20814 One could also imagine the labels being used for highlighting, or
20815 affect the summary line format.
20819 Sender: abraham@@dina.kvl.dk
20821 I'd like a gnus-find-file which work like find file, except that it
20822 would recognize things that looks like messages or folders:
20824 - If it is a directory containing numbered files, create an nndir
20827 - For other directories, create a nneething summary buffer.
20829 - For files matching "\\`From ", create a nndoc/mbox summary.
20831 - For files matching "\\`BABYL OPTIONS:", create a nndoc/baby summary.
20833 - For files matching "\\`[^ \t\n]+:", create an *Article* buffer.
20835 - For other files, just find them normally.
20837 I'd like `nneething' to use this function, so it would work on a
20838 directory potentially containing mboxes or babyl files.
20841 Please send a mail to bwarsaw@@cnri.reston.va.us (Barry A. Warsaw) and
20842 tell him what you are doing.
20845 Currently, I get prompted:
20849 decend into sci.something ?
20853 The problem above is that since there is really only one subsection of
20854 science, shouldn't it prompt you for only descending sci.something? If
20855 there was a sci.somethingelse group or section, then it should prompt
20856 for sci? first the sci.something? then sci.somethingelse?...
20859 Ja, det burde være en måte å si slikt. Kanskje en ny variabel?
20860 `gnus-use-few-score-files'? SÃ¥ kunne score-regler legges til den
20861 "mest" lokale score-fila. F. eks. ville no-gruppene betjenes av
20862 "no.all.SCORE", osv.
20865 What i want is for Gnus to treat any sequence or combination of the following
20866 as a single spoiler warning and hide it all, replacing it with a "Next Page"
20872 more than n blank lines
20874 more than m identical lines
20875 (which should be replaced with button to show them)
20877 any whitespace surrounding any of the above
20881 Well, we could allow a new value to `gnus-thread-ignore-subject' --
20882 `spaces', or something. (We could even default to that.) And then
20883 subjects that differ in white space only could be considered the
20884 "same" subject for threading purposes.
20887 Modes to preprocess the contents (e.g. jka-compr) use the second form
20888 "(REGEXP FUNCTION NON-NIL)" while ordinary modes (e.g. tex) use the first
20889 form "(REGEXP . FUNCTION)", so you could use it to distinguish between
20890 those two types of modes. (auto-modes-alist, insert-file-contents-literally.)
20893 Under XEmacs -- do funny article marks:
20896 soup - bowl of soup
20897 score below - dim light bulb
20898 score over - bright light bulb
20901 Yes. I think the algorithm is as follows:
20906 show-list-of-articles-in-group
20907 if (key-pressed == SPACE)
20908 if (no-more-articles-in-group-to-select)
20909 if (articles-selected)
20910 start-reading-selected-articles;
20911 junk-unread-articles;
20916 else if (key-pressed = '.')
20917 if (consolidated-menus) # same as hide-thread in Gnus
20918 select-thread-under-cursor;
20920 select-article-under-cursor;
20924 if (key-pressed == SPACE)
20925 if (more-pages-in-article)
20927 else if (more-selected-articles-to-read)
20934 My precise need here would have been to limit files to Incoming*.
20935 One could think of some `nneething-only-files' variable, but I guess
20936 it would have been unacceptable if one was using many unrelated such
20939 A more useful approach would be to, in response to the `G D' prompt, be
20940 allowed to say something like: `~/.mail/Incoming*', somewhat limiting
20941 the top-level directory only (in case directories would be matched by
20942 the wildcard expression).
20945 It would be nice if it also handled
20947 <URL:news://sunsite.auc.dk/>
20949 which should correspond to `B nntp RET sunsite.auc.dk' in *Group*.
20954 Take a look at w3-menu.el in the Emacs-W3 distribution - this works out
20955 really well. Each menu is 'named' by a symbol that would be on a
20956 gnus-*-menus (where * would be whatever, but at least group, summary, and
20957 article versions) variable.
20959 So for gnus-summary-menus, I would set to '(sort mark dispose ...)
20961 A value of '1' would just put _all_ the menus in a single 'GNUS' menu in
20962 the main menubar. This approach works really well for Emacs-W3 and VM.
20966 nndoc should take care to create unique Message-IDs for all its
20969 gnus-score-followup-article only works when you have a summary buffer
20970 active. Make it work when posting from the group buffer as well.
20971 (message-sent-hook).
20973 rewrite gnus-demon to use run-with-idle-timers.
20976 * Enhancements to Gnus:
20980 * gnus-servers (gnus-start-server-buffer?)--enters Gnus and goes
20981 straight to the server buffer, without opening any connections to
20984 * gnus-server-read-server-newsrc--produces a buffer very similar to
20985 the group buffer, but with only groups from that server listed;
20986 quitting this buffer returns to the server buffer.
20989 add a command to check the integrity of an nnfolder folder --
20990 go through the article numbers and see that there are no duplicates,
20994 `unsmileyfy-buffer' to undo smileification.
20997 a command to give all relevant info on an article, including all
21001 when doing `-request-accept-article', the backends should do
21002 the nnmail duplicate checking.
21005 allow `message-signature-file' to be a function to return the
21006 value of the signature file.
21009 In addition, I would love it if I could configure message-tab so that it
21010 could call `bbdb-complete-name' in other headers. So, some sort of
21013 (setq message-tab-alist
21014 '((message-header-regexp message-expand-group)
21015 ("^\\(To\\|[cC]c\\|[bB]cc\\)" bbdb-complete-name)))
21017 then you could run the relevant function to complete the information in
21021 cache the newsgroups file locally to avoid reloading it all the time.
21024 a command to import a buffer into a group.
21027 nnweb should allow fetching by Message-ID from servers.
21030 point in the article buffer doesn't always go to the
21031 beginning of the buffer when selecting new articles.
21034 a command to process mark all unread articles.
21037 `gnus-gather-threads-by-references-and-subject' -- first
21038 do gathering by references, and then go through the dummy roots and
21039 do more gathering by subject.
21042 gnus-uu-mark-in-numerical-order -- process mark articles in
21043 article numerical order.
21046 (gnus-thread-total-score
21047 (gnus-id-to-thread (mail-header-id (gnus-summary-article-header))))
21051 sorting by score is wrong when using sparse threads.
21054 a command to fetch an arbitrary article -- without having to be
21055 in the summary buffer.
21058 a new nncvs backend. Each group would show an article, using
21059 version branches as threading, checkin date as the date, etc.
21062 @uref{http://www.dejanews.com/forms/dnsetfilter_exp.html}?
21063 This filter allows one to construct advance queries on the Dejanews
21064 database such as specifying start and end dates, subject, author,
21065 and/or newsgroup name.
21068 new Date header scoring type -- older, newer
21071 use the summary toolbar in the article buffer.
21074 a command to fetch all articles that are less than X days old.
21077 in pick mode, `q' should save the list of selected articles in the
21078 group info. The next time the group is selected, these articles
21079 will automatically get the process mark.
21082 Isn't it possible to (also?) allow M-^ to automatically try the
21083 default server if it fails on the current server? (controlled by a
21084 user variable, (nil, t, 'ask)).
21087 make it possible to cancel articles using the select method for the
21091 `gnus-summary-select-article-on-entry' or something. It'll default
21092 to t and will select whatever article decided by `gnus-auto-select-first'.
21095 a new variable to control which selection commands should be unselecting.
21096 `first', `best', `next', `prev', `next-unread', `prev-unread' are
21100 be able to select groups that have no articles in them
21101 to be able to post in them (using the current select method).
21104 be able to post via DejaNews.
21107 `x' should retain any sortings that have been performed.
21110 allow the user to specify the precedence of the secondary marks. Also
21111 allow them to be displayed separately.
21114 gnus-summary-save-in-pipe should concatenate the results from
21115 the processes when doing a process marked pipe.
21118 a new match type, like Followup, but which adds Thread matches on all
21119 articles that match a certain From header.
21122 a function that can be read from kill-emacs-query-functions to offer
21123 saving living summary buffers.
21126 a function for selecting a particular group which will contain
21127 the articles listed in a list of article numbers/id's.
21130 a battery of character translation functions to translate common
21131 Mac, MS (etc) characters into ISO 8859-1.
21134 (defun article-fix-m$word ()
21135 "Fix M$Word smartquotes in an article."
21138 (let ((buffer-read-only nil))
21139 (goto-char (point-min))
21140 (while (search-forward "\221" nil t)
21141 (replace-match "`" t t))
21142 (goto-char (point-min))
21143 (while (search-forward "\222" nil t)
21144 (replace-match "'" t t))
21145 (goto-char (point-min))
21146 (while (search-forward "\223" nil t)
21147 (replace-match "\"" t t))
21148 (goto-char (point-min))
21149 (while (search-forward "\224" nil t)
21150 (replace-match "\"" t t)))))
21155 (add-hook 'gnus-exit-query-functions
21157 (if (and (file-exists-p nnmail-spool-file)
21158 (> (nnheader-file-size nnmail-spool-file) 0))
21159 (yes-or-no-p "New mail has arrived. Quit Gnus anyways? ")
21160 (y-or-n-p "Are you sure you want to quit Gnus? "))))
21164 allow message-default-headers to be a function.
21167 new Date score match types -- < > = (etc) that take floating point
21168 numbers and match on the age of the article.
21172 > > > If so, I've got one gripe: It seems that when I fire up gnus 5.2.25
21173 > > > under xemacs-19.14, it's creating a new frame, but is erasing the
21174 > > > buffer in the frame that it was called from =:-O
21176 > > Hm. How do you start up Gnus? From the toolbar or with
21177 > > `M-x gnus-other-frame'?
21179 > I normally start it up from the toolbar; at
21180 > least that's the way I've caught it doing the
21185 all commands that react to the process mark should push
21186 the current process mark set onto the stack.
21189 gnus-article-hide-pgp
21190 Selv ville jeg nok ha valgt å slette den dersom teksten matcher
21192 "\\(This\s+\\)?[^ ]+ has been automatically signed by"
21194 og det er maks hundre tegn mellom match-end og ----linja. Men -det-
21195 er min type heuristikk og langt fra alles.
21198 `gnus-subscribe-sorted' -- insert new groups where they would have been
21199 sorted to if `gnus-group-sort-function' were run.
21202 gnus-(group,summary)-highlight should respect any `face' text props set
21206 use run-with-idle-timer for gnus-demon instead of the
21207 home-brewed stuff for better reliability.
21210 add a way to select which NoCeM type to apply -- spam, troll, etc.
21213 nndraft-request-group should tally auto-save files.
21216 implement nntp-retry-on-break and nntp-command-timeout.
21219 gnus-article-highlight-limit that says when not to highlight (long)
21223 (nnoo-set SERVER VARIABLE VALUE)
21229 interrupitng agent fetching of articles should save articles.
21232 command to open a digest group, and copy all the articles there to the
21236 a variable to disable article body highlights if there's more than
21237 X characters in the body.
21240 handle 480/381 authinfo requests separately.
21243 include the texi/dir file in the distribution.
21246 format spec to "tab" to a position.
21249 Move all prompting to the new `M-n' default style.
21252 command to display all dormant articles.
21255 gnus-auto-select-next makeover -- list of things it should do.
21258 a score match type that adds scores matching on From if From has replied
21259 to something someone else has said.
21262 Read Netscape discussion groups:
21263 snews://secnews.netscape.com/netscape.communicator.unix
21266 One command to edit the original version if an article, and one to edit
21267 the displayed version.
21270 @kbd{T v} -- make all process-marked articles the children of the
21274 Switch from initial text to the new default text mechanism.
21277 How about making it possible to expire local articles? Will it be
21278 possible to make various constraints on when an article can be
21279 expired, e.g. (read), (age > 14 days), or the more interesting (read
21283 New limit command---limit to articles that have a certain string
21284 in the head or body.
21287 Allow breaking lengthy @sc{nntp} commands.
21290 gnus-article-highlight-limit, to disable highlighting in big articles.
21293 Editing an article should put the article to be edited
21294 in a special, unique buffer.
21297 A command to send a mail to the admin-address group param.
21300 A Date scoring type that will match if the article
21301 is less than a certain number of days old.
21304 New spec: %~(tab 56) to put point on column 56
21307 Allow Gnus Agent scoring to use normal score files.
21310 Rething the Agent active file thing. `M-g' doesn't update the active
21311 file, for instance.
21314 With dummy roots, `^' and then selecing the first article
21315 in any other dummy thread will make Gnus highlight the
21316 dummy root instead of the first article.
21319 Propagate all group properties (marks, article numbers, etc) up to the
21320 topics for displaying.
21323 `n' in the group buffer with topics should go to the next group
21324 with unread articles, even if that group is hidden in a topic.
21327 gnus-posting-styles doesn't work in drafts.
21330 gnus-summary-limit-include-cached is slow when there are
21331 many articles in the cache, since it regenerates big parts of the
21332 summary buffer for each article.
21335 Implement gnus-batch-brew-soup.
21338 Group parameters and summary commands for un/subscribing to mailing
21342 Introduce nnmail-home-directory.
21345 gnus-fetch-group and friends should exit Gnus when the user
21349 The jingle is only played on the second invocation of Gnus.
21352 Bouncing articles should do MIME.
21355 Crossposted articles should "inherit" the % or @ mark from the other
21356 groups it has been crossposted to, or something. (Agent.)
21359 If point is on a group that appears multiple times in topics, and
21360 you press `l', point will move to the first instance of the group.
21363 A spec for the group line format to display the number of
21364 agent-downloaded articles in the group.
21367 Some nntp servers never respond when posting, so there should be a
21368 timeout for all commands.
21371 When stading on a topic line and `t'-ing, point goes to the last line.
21372 It should go somewhere else.
21375 I'm having trouble accessing a newsgroup with a "+" in its name with
21376 Gnus. There is a new newsgroup on msnews.microsoft.com named
21377 "microsoft.public.multimedia.directx.html+time" that I'm trying to
21379 "nntp+msnews.microsoft.com:microsoft.public.multimedia.directx.html+time"
21380 but it gives an error that it cant access the group.
21382 Is the "+" character illegal in newsgroup names? Is there any way in
21383 Gnus to work around this? (gnus 5.6.45 - XEmacs 20.4)
21390 Subject: Answer to your mails 01.01.1999-01.05.1999
21391 --text follows this line--
21392 Sorry I killfiled you...
21394 Under the subject "foo", you wrote on 01.01.1999:
21396 Under the subject "foo1", you wrote on 01.01.1999:
21401 Allow "orphan" scores in the Agent scoring.
21405 - Edit article's summary line.
21407 - Sort lines in buffer by subject
21409 --> the old subject line appears in Summary buffer, not the one that was
21415 Remove list identifiers from the subject in the summary when doing `^'
21419 Have the Agent write out articles, one by one, as it retrieves them,
21420 to avoid having to re-fetch them all if Emacs should crash while
21424 Be able to forward groups of messages as MIME digests.
21427 nnweb should include the "get whole article" article when getting articles.
21430 When I type W W c (gnus-article-hide-citation) in the summary
21431 buffer, the citations are revealed, but the [+] buttons don't turn
21432 into [-] buttons. (If I click on one of the [+] buttons, it does
21433 turn into a [-] button.)
21436 Perhaps there should be a command to "attach" a buffer of comments to
21437 a message? That is, `B WHATEVER', you're popped into a buffer, write
21438 something, end with `C-c C-c', and then the thing you've written gets
21439 to be the child of the message you're commenting.
21442 Handle external-body parts.
21445 When renaming a group name, nnmail-split-history does not get the group
21449 Allow mail splitting on bodies when using advanced mail splitting.
21452 (body "whatever.text")
21456 Be able to run `J u' from summary buffers.
21459 Solve the halting problem.
21468 @section The Manual
21472 This manual was generated from a TeXinfo file and then run through
21473 either @code{texi2dvi}
21475 or my own home-brewed TeXinfo to \LaTeX\ transformer,
21476 and then run through @code{latex} and @code{dvips}
21478 to get what you hold in your hands now.
21480 The following conventions have been used:
21485 This is a @samp{string}
21488 This is a @kbd{keystroke}
21491 This is a @file{file}
21494 This is a @code{symbol}
21498 So if I were to say ``set @code{flargnoze} to @samp{yes}'', that would
21502 (setq flargnoze "yes")
21505 If I say ``set @code{flumphel} to @code{yes}'', that would mean:
21508 (setq flumphel 'yes)
21511 @samp{yes} and @code{yes} are two @emph{very} different things---don't
21512 ever get them confused.
21516 Of course, everything in this manual is of vital interest, so you should
21517 read it all. Several times. However, if you feel like skimming the
21518 manual, look for that gnu head you should see in the margin over
21519 there---it means that what's being discussed is of more importance than
21520 the rest of the stuff. (On the other hand, if everything is infinitely
21521 important, how can anything be more important than that? Just one more
21522 of the mysteries of this world, I guess.)
21528 @node On Writing Manuals
21529 @section On Writing Manuals
21531 I guess most manuals are written after-the-fact; documenting a program
21532 that's already there. This is not how this manual is written. When
21533 implementing something, I write the manual entry for that something
21534 straight away. I then see that it's difficult to explain the
21535 functionality, so I write how it's supposed to be, and then I change the
21536 implementation. Writing the documentation and writing the code goes
21539 This, of course, means that this manual has no, or little, flow. It
21540 documents absolutely everything in Gnus, but often not where you're
21541 looking for it. It is a reference manual, and not a guide to how to get
21544 That would be a totally different book, that should be written using the
21545 reference manual as source material. It would look quite differently.
21550 @section Terminology
21552 @cindex terminology
21557 This is what you are supposed to use this thing for---reading news.
21558 News is generally fetched from a nearby @sc{nntp} server, and is
21559 generally publicly available to everybody. If you post news, the entire
21560 world is likely to read just what you have written, and they'll all
21561 snigger mischievously. Behind your back.
21565 Everything that's delivered to you personally is mail. Some news/mail
21566 readers (like Gnus) blur the distinction between mail and news, but
21567 there is a difference. Mail is private. News is public. Mailing is
21568 not posting, and replying is not following up.
21572 Send a mail to the person who has written what you are reading.
21576 Post an article to the current newsgroup responding to the article you
21581 Gnus gets fed articles from a number of backends, both news and mail
21582 backends. Gnus does not handle the underlying media, so to speak---this
21583 is all done by the backends.
21587 Gnus will always use one method (and backend) as the @dfn{native}, or
21588 default, way of getting news.
21592 You can also have any number of foreign groups active at the same time.
21593 These are groups that use non-native non-secondary backends for getting
21598 Secondary backends are somewhere half-way between being native and being
21599 foreign, but they mostly act like they are native.
21603 A message that has been posted as news.
21606 @cindex mail message
21607 A message that has been mailed.
21611 A mail message or news article
21615 The top part of a message, where administrative information (etc.) is
21620 The rest of an article. Everything not in the head is in the
21625 A line from the head of an article.
21629 A collection of such lines, or a collection of heads. Or even a
21630 collection of @sc{nov} lines.
21634 When Gnus enters a group, it asks the backend for the headers of all
21635 unread articles in the group. Most servers support the News OverView
21636 format, which is more compact and much faster to read and parse than the
21637 normal @sc{head} format.
21641 Each group is subscribed at some @dfn{level} or other (1-9). The ones
21642 that have a lower level are ``more'' subscribed than the groups with a
21643 higher level. In fact, groups on levels 1-5 are considered
21644 @dfn{subscribed}; 6-7 are @dfn{unsubscribed}; 8 are @dfn{zombies}; and 9
21645 are @dfn{killed}. Commands for listing groups and scanning for new
21646 articles will all use the numeric prefix as @dfn{working level}.
21648 @item killed groups
21649 @cindex killed groups
21650 No information on killed groups is stored or updated, which makes killed
21651 groups much easier to handle than subscribed groups.
21653 @item zombie groups
21654 @cindex zombie groups
21655 Just like killed groups, only slightly less dead.
21658 @cindex active file
21659 The news server has to keep track of what articles it carries, and what
21660 groups exist. All this information in stored in the active file, which
21661 is rather large, as you might surmise.
21664 @cindex bogus groups
21665 A group that exists in the @file{.newsrc} file, but isn't known to the
21666 server (i.e., it isn't in the active file), is a @emph{bogus group}.
21667 This means that the group probably doesn't exist (any more).
21670 @cindex activating groups
21671 The act of asking the server for info on a group and computing the
21672 number of unread articles is called @dfn{activating the group}.
21673 Un-activated groups are listed with @samp{*} in the group buffer.
21677 A machine one can connect to and get news (or mail) from.
21679 @item select method
21680 @cindex select method
21681 A structure that specifies the backend, the server and the virtual
21684 @item virtual server
21685 @cindex virtual server
21686 A named select method. Since a select method defines all there is to
21687 know about connecting to a (physical) server, taking the thing as a
21688 whole is a virtual server.
21692 Taking a buffer and running it through a filter of some sort. The
21693 result will (more often than not) be cleaner and more pleasing than the
21696 @item ephemeral groups
21697 @cindex ephemeral groups
21698 Most groups store data on what articles you have read. @dfn{Ephemeral}
21699 groups are groups that will have no data stored---when you exit the
21700 group, it'll disappear into the aether.
21703 @cindex solid groups
21704 This is the opposite of ephemeral groups. All groups listed in the
21705 group buffer are solid groups.
21707 @item sparse articles
21708 @cindex sparse articles
21709 These are article placeholders shown in the summary buffer when
21710 @code{gnus-build-sparse-threads} has been switched on.
21714 To put responses to articles directly after the articles they respond
21715 to---in a hierarchical fashion.
21719 @cindex thread root
21720 The first article in a thread is the root. It is the ancestor of all
21721 articles in the thread.
21725 An article that has responses.
21729 An article that responds to a different article---its parent.
21733 A collection of messages in one file. The most common digest format is
21734 specified by RFC 1153.
21740 @node Customization
21741 @section Customization
21742 @cindex general customization
21744 All variables are properly documented elsewhere in this manual. This
21745 section is designed to give general pointers on how to customize Gnus
21746 for some quite common situations.
21749 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
21750 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
21751 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
21752 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
21756 @node Slow/Expensive Connection
21757 @subsection Slow/Expensive @sc{nntp} Connection
21759 If you run Emacs on a machine locally, and get your news from a machine
21760 over some very thin strings, you want to cut down on the amount of data
21761 Gnus has to get from the @sc{nntp} server.
21765 @item gnus-read-active-file
21766 Set this to @code{nil}, which will inhibit Gnus from requesting the
21767 entire active file from the server. This file is often v. large. You
21768 also have to set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
21769 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make sure that Gnus
21770 doesn't suddenly decide to fetch the active file anyway.
21772 @item gnus-nov-is-evil
21773 This one has to be @code{nil}. If not, grabbing article headers from
21774 the @sc{nntp} server will not be very fast. Not all @sc{nntp} servers
21775 support @sc{xover}; Gnus will detect this by itself.
21779 @node Slow Terminal Connection
21780 @subsection Slow Terminal Connection
21782 Let's say you use your home computer for dialing up the system that runs
21783 Emacs and Gnus. If your modem is slow, you want to reduce (as much as
21784 possible) the amount of data sent over the wires.
21788 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
21789 Set this to @code{nil} to inhibit Gnus from re-centering the summary
21790 buffer all the time. If it is @code{vertical}, do only vertical
21791 re-centering. If it is neither @code{nil} nor @code{vertical}, do both
21792 horizontal and vertical recentering.
21794 @item gnus-visible-headers
21795 Cut down on the headers included in the articles to the
21796 minimum. You can, in fact, make do without them altogether---most of the
21797 useful data is in the summary buffer, anyway. Set this variable to
21798 @samp{^NEVVVVER} or @samp{From:}, or whatever you feel you need.
21800 Set this hook to all the available hiding commands:
21802 (setq gnus-treat-hide-headers 'head
21803 gnus-treat-hide-signature t
21804 gnus-treat-hide-citation t)
21807 @item gnus-use-full-window
21808 By setting this to @code{nil}, you can make all the windows smaller.
21809 While this doesn't really cut down much generally, it means that you
21810 have to see smaller portions of articles before deciding that you didn't
21811 want to read them anyway.
21813 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
21814 If this is non-@code{nil}, all threads in the summary buffer will be
21817 @item gnus-updated-mode-lines
21818 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not put information in the buffer mode
21819 lines, which might save some time.
21823 @node Little Disk Space
21824 @subsection Little Disk Space
21827 The startup files can get rather large, so you may want to cut their
21828 sizes a bit if you are running out of space.
21832 @item gnus-save-newsrc-file
21833 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never save @file{.newsrc}---it will
21834 only save @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
21835 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
21838 @item gnus-read-newsrc-file
21839 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never read @file{.newsrc}---it will
21840 only read @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
21841 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
21844 @item gnus-save-killed-list
21845 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not save the list of dead groups. You
21846 should also set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{ask-server}
21847 and @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} if you set this
21848 variable to @code{nil}. This variable is @code{t} by default.
21854 @subsection Slow Machine
21855 @cindex slow machine
21857 If you have a slow machine, or are just really impatient, there are a
21858 few things you can do to make Gnus run faster.
21860 Set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
21861 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make startup faster.
21863 Set @code{gnus-show-threads}, @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} and
21864 @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{nil} to make entering and exiting the
21865 summary buffer faster.
21869 @node Troubleshooting
21870 @section Troubleshooting
21871 @cindex troubleshooting
21873 Gnus works @emph{so} well straight out of the box---I can't imagine any
21881 Make sure your computer is switched on.
21884 Make sure that you really load the current Gnus version. If you have
21885 been running @sc{gnus}, you need to exit Emacs and start it up again before
21889 Try doing an @kbd{M-x gnus-version}. If you get something that looks
21890 like @samp{Gnus v5.46; nntp 4.0} you have the right files loaded. If,
21891 on the other hand, you get something like @samp{NNTP 3.x} or @samp{nntp
21892 flee}, you have some old @file{.el} files lying around. Delete these.
21895 Read the help group (@kbd{G h} in the group buffer) for a FAQ and a
21899 @vindex max-lisp-eval-depth
21900 Gnus works on many recursive structures, and in some extreme (and very
21901 rare) cases Gnus may recurse down ``too deeply'' and Emacs will beep at
21902 you. If this happens to you, set @code{max-lisp-eval-depth} to 500 or
21903 something like that.
21906 If all else fails, report the problem as a bug.
21909 @cindex reporting bugs
21911 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
21913 If you find a bug in Gnus, you can report it with the @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}
21914 command. @kbd{M-x set-variable RET debug-on-error RET t RET}, and send
21915 me the backtrace. I will fix bugs, but I can only fix them if you send
21916 me a precise description as to how to reproduce the bug.
21918 You really can never be too detailed in a bug report. Always use the
21919 @kbd{M-x gnus-bug} command when you make bug reports, even if it creates
21920 a 10Kb mail each time you use it, and even if you have sent me your
21921 environment 500 times before. I don't care. I want the full info each
21924 It is also important to remember that I have no memory whatsoever. If
21925 you send a bug report, and I send you a reply, and then you just send
21926 back ``No, it's not! Moron!'', I will have no idea what you are
21927 insulting me about. Always over-explain everything. It's much easier
21928 for all of us---if I don't have all the information I need, I will just
21929 mail you and ask for more info, and everything takes more time.
21931 If the problem you're seeing is very visual, and you can't quite explain
21932 it, copy the Emacs window to a file (with @code{xwd}, for instance), put
21933 it somewhere it can be reached, and include the URL of the picture in
21936 If you just need help, you are better off asking on
21937 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}. I'm not very helpful.
21939 @cindex gnu.emacs.gnus
21940 @cindex ding mailing list
21941 You can also ask on the ding mailing list---@samp{ding@@gnus.org}.
21942 Write to @samp{ding-request@@gnus.org} to subscribe.
21946 @node Gnus Reference Guide
21947 @section Gnus Reference Guide
21949 It is my hope that other people will figure out smart stuff that Gnus
21950 can do, and that other people will write those smart things as well. To
21951 facilitate that I thought it would be a good idea to describe the inner
21952 workings of Gnus. And some of the not-so-inner workings, while I'm at
21955 You can never expect the internals of a program not to change, but I
21956 will be defining (in some details) the interface between Gnus and its
21957 backends (this is written in stone), the format of the score files
21958 (ditto), data structures (some are less likely to change than others)
21959 and general methods of operation.
21962 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
21963 * Backend Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
21964 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
21965 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
21966 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
21967 * Group Info:: The group info format.
21968 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
21969 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
21970 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
21974 @node Gnus Utility Functions
21975 @subsection Gnus Utility Functions
21976 @cindex Gnus utility functions
21977 @cindex utility functions
21979 @cindex internal variables
21981 When writing small functions to be run from hooks (and stuff), it's
21982 vital to have access to the Gnus internal functions and variables.
21983 Below is a list of the most common ones.
21987 @item gnus-newsgroup-name
21988 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-name
21989 This variable holds the name of the current newsgroup.
21991 @item gnus-find-method-for-group
21992 @findex gnus-find-method-for-group
21993 A function that returns the select method for @var{group}.
21995 @item gnus-group-real-name
21996 @findex gnus-group-real-name
21997 Takes a full (prefixed) Gnus group name, and returns the unprefixed
22000 @item gnus-group-prefixed-name
22001 @findex gnus-group-prefixed-name
22002 Takes an unprefixed group name and a select method, and returns the full
22003 (prefixed) Gnus group name.
22005 @item gnus-get-info
22006 @findex gnus-get-info
22007 Returns the group info list for @var{group}.
22009 @item gnus-group-unread
22010 @findex gnus-group-unread
22011 The number of unread articles in @var{group}, or @code{t} if that is
22015 @findex gnus-active
22016 The active entry for @var{group}.
22018 @item gnus-set-active
22019 @findex gnus-set-active
22020 Set the active entry for @var{group}.
22022 @item gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
22023 @findex gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
22024 Adds the current buffer to the list of buffers to be killed on Gnus
22027 @item gnus-continuum-version
22028 @findex gnus-continuum-version
22029 Takes a Gnus version string as a parameter and returns a floating point
22030 number. Earlier versions will always get a lower number than later
22033 @item gnus-group-read-only-p
22034 @findex gnus-group-read-only-p
22035 Says whether @var{group} is read-only or not.
22037 @item gnus-news-group-p
22038 @findex gnus-news-group-p
22039 Says whether @var{group} came from a news backend.
22041 @item gnus-ephemeral-group-p
22042 @findex gnus-ephemeral-group-p
22043 Says whether @var{group} is ephemeral or not.
22045 @item gnus-server-to-method
22046 @findex gnus-server-to-method
22047 Returns the select method corresponding to @var{server}.
22049 @item gnus-server-equal
22050 @findex gnus-server-equal
22051 Says whether two virtual servers are equal.
22053 @item gnus-group-native-p
22054 @findex gnus-group-native-p
22055 Says whether @var{group} is native or not.
22057 @item gnus-group-secondary-p
22058 @findex gnus-group-secondary-p
22059 Says whether @var{group} is secondary or not.
22061 @item gnus-group-foreign-p
22062 @findex gnus-group-foreign-p
22063 Says whether @var{group} is foreign or not.
22065 @item group-group-find-parameter
22066 @findex group-group-find-parameter
22067 Returns the parameter list of @var{group}. If given a second parameter,
22068 returns the value of that parameter for @var{group}.
22070 @item gnus-group-set-parameter
22071 @findex gnus-group-set-parameter
22072 Takes three parameters; @var{group}, @var{parameter} and @var{value}.
22074 @item gnus-narrow-to-body
22075 @findex gnus-narrow-to-body
22076 Narrows the current buffer to the body of the article.
22078 @item gnus-check-backend-function
22079 @findex gnus-check-backend-function
22080 Takes two parameters, @var{function} and @var{group}. If the backend
22081 @var{group} comes from supports @var{function}, return non-@code{nil}.
22084 (gnus-check-backend-function "request-scan" "nnml:misc")
22088 @item gnus-read-method
22089 @findex gnus-read-method
22090 Prompts the user for a select method.
22095 @node Backend Interface
22096 @subsection Backend Interface
22098 Gnus doesn't know anything about @sc{nntp}, spools, mail or virtual
22099 groups. It only knows how to talk to @dfn{virtual servers}. A virtual
22100 server is a @dfn{backend} and some @dfn{backend variables}. As examples
22101 of the first, we have @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool} and @code{nnmbox}. As
22102 examples of the latter we have @code{nntp-port-number} and
22103 @code{nnmbox-directory}.
22105 When Gnus asks for information from a backend---say @code{nntp}---on
22106 something, it will normally include a virtual server name in the
22107 function parameters. (If not, the backend should use the ``current''
22108 virtual server.) For instance, @code{nntp-request-list} takes a virtual
22109 server as its only (optional) parameter. If this virtual server hasn't
22110 been opened, the function should fail.
22112 Note that a virtual server name has no relation to some physical server
22113 name. Take this example:
22117 (nntp-address "ifi.uio.no")
22118 (nntp-port-number 4324))
22121 Here the virtual server name is @samp{odd-one} while the name of
22122 the physical server is @samp{ifi.uio.no}.
22124 The backends should be able to switch between several virtual servers.
22125 The standard backends implement this by keeping an alist of virtual
22126 server environments that they pull down/push up when needed.
22128 There are two groups of interface functions: @dfn{required functions},
22129 which must be present, and @dfn{optional functions}, which Gnus will
22130 always check for presence before attempting to call 'em.
22132 All these functions are expected to return data in the buffer
22133 @code{nntp-server-buffer} (@samp{ *nntpd*}), which is somewhat
22134 unfortunately named, but we'll have to live with it. When I talk about
22135 @dfn{resulting data}, I always refer to the data in that buffer. When I
22136 talk about @dfn{return value}, I talk about the function value returned by
22137 the function call. Functions that fail should return @code{nil} as the
22140 Some backends could be said to be @dfn{server-forming} backends, and
22141 some might be said not to be. The latter are backends that generally
22142 only operate on one group at a time, and have no concept of ``server''
22143 -- they have a group, and they deliver info on that group and nothing
22146 In the examples and definitions I will refer to the imaginary backend
22149 @cindex @code{nnchoke}
22152 * Required Backend Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
22153 * Optional Backend Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
22154 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
22155 * Writing New Backends:: Extending old backends.
22156 * Hooking New Backends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
22157 * Mail-like Backends:: Some tips on mail backends.
22161 @node Required Backend Functions
22162 @subsubsection Required Backend Functions
22166 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-headers ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FETCH-OLD)
22168 @var{articles} is either a range of article numbers or a list of
22169 @code{Message-ID}s. Current backends do not fully support either---only
22170 sequences (lists) of article numbers, and most backends do not support
22171 retrieval of @code{Message-ID}s. But they should try for both.
22173 The result data should either be HEADs or NOV lines, and the result
22174 value should either be @code{headers} or @code{nov} to reflect this.
22175 This might later be expanded to @code{various}, which will be a mixture
22176 of HEADs and NOV lines, but this is currently not supported by Gnus.
22178 If @var{fetch-old} is non-@code{nil} it says to try fetching "extra
22179 headers", in some meaning of the word. This is generally done by
22180 fetching (at most) @var{fetch-old} extra headers less than the smallest
22181 article number in @code{articles}, and filling the gaps as well. The
22182 presence of this parameter can be ignored if the backend finds it
22183 cumbersome to follow the request. If this is non-@code{nil} and not a
22184 number, do maximum fetches.
22186 Here's an example HEAD:
22189 221 1056 Article retrieved.
22190 Path: ifi.uio.no!sturles
22191 From: sturles@@ifi.uio.no (Sturle Sunde)
22192 Newsgroups: ifi.discussion
22193 Subject: Re: Something very droll
22194 Date: 27 Oct 1994 14:02:57 +0100
22195 Organization: Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
22197 Message-ID: <38o8e1$a0o@@holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no>
22198 References: <38jdmq$4qu@@visbur.ifi.uio.no>
22199 NNTP-Posting-Host: holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no
22203 So a @code{headers} return value would imply that there's a number of
22204 these in the data buffer.
22206 Here's a BNF definition of such a buffer:
22210 head = error / valid-head
22211 error-message = [ "4" / "5" ] 2number " " <error message> eol
22212 valid-head = valid-message *header "." eol
22213 valid-message = "221 " <number> " Article retrieved." eol
22214 header = <text> eol
22217 If the return value is @code{nov}, the data buffer should contain
22218 @dfn{network overview database} lines. These are basically fields
22222 nov-buffer = *nov-line
22223 nov-line = 8*9 [ field <TAB> ] eol
22224 field = <text except TAB>
22227 For a closer look at what should be in those fields,
22231 @item (nnchoke-open-server SERVER &optional DEFINITIONS)
22233 @var{server} is here the virtual server name. @var{definitions} is a
22234 list of @code{(VARIABLE VALUE)} pairs that define this virtual server.
22236 If the server can't be opened, no error should be signaled. The backend
22237 may then choose to refuse further attempts at connecting to this
22238 server. In fact, it should do so.
22240 If the server is opened already, this function should return a
22241 non-@code{nil} value. There should be no data returned.
22244 @item (nnchoke-close-server &optional SERVER)
22246 Close connection to @var{server} and free all resources connected
22247 to it. Return @code{nil} if the server couldn't be closed for some
22250 There should be no data returned.
22253 @item (nnchoke-request-close)
22255 Close connection to all servers and free all resources that the backend
22256 have reserved. All buffers that have been created by that backend
22257 should be killed. (Not the @code{nntp-server-buffer}, though.) This
22258 function is generally only called when Gnus is shutting down.
22260 There should be no data returned.
22263 @item (nnchoke-server-opened &optional SERVER)
22265 If @var{server} is the current virtual server, and the connection to the
22266 physical server is alive, then this function should return a
22267 non-@code{nil} vlue. This function should under no circumstances
22268 attempt to reconnect to a server we have lost connection to.
22270 There should be no data returned.
22273 @item (nnchoke-status-message &optional SERVER)
22275 This function should return the last error message from @var{server}.
22277 There should be no data returned.
22280 @item (nnchoke-request-article ARTICLE &optional GROUP SERVER TO-BUFFER)
22282 The result data from this function should be the article specified by
22283 @var{article}. This might either be a @code{Message-ID} or a number.
22284 It is optional whether to implement retrieval by @code{Message-ID}, but
22285 it would be nice if that were possible.
22287 If @var{to-buffer} is non-@code{nil}, the result data should be returned
22288 in this buffer instead of the normal data buffer. This is to make it
22289 possible to avoid copying large amounts of data from one buffer to
22290 another, while Gnus mainly requests articles to be inserted directly
22291 into its article buffer.
22293 If it is at all possible, this function should return a cons cell where
22294 the @code{car} is the group name the article was fetched from, and the @code{cdr} is
22295 the article number. This will enable Gnus to find out what the real
22296 group and article numbers are when fetching articles by
22297 @code{Message-ID}. If this isn't possible, @code{t} should be returned
22298 on successful article retrieval.
22301 @item (nnchoke-request-group GROUP &optional SERVER FAST)
22303 Get data on @var{group}. This function also has the side effect of
22304 making @var{group} the current group.
22306 If @var{fast}, don't bother to return useful data, just make @var{group}
22309 Here's an example of some result data and a definition of the same:
22312 211 56 1000 1059 ifi.discussion
22315 The first number is the status, which should be 211. Next is the
22316 total number of articles in the group, the lowest article number, the
22317 highest article number, and finally the group name. Note that the total
22318 number of articles may be less than one might think while just
22319 considering the highest and lowest article numbers, but some articles
22320 may have been canceled. Gnus just discards the total-number, so
22321 whether one should take the bother to generate it properly (if that is a
22322 problem) is left as an exercise to the reader.
22325 group-status = [ error / info ] eol
22326 error = [ "4" / "5" ] 2<number> " " <Error message>
22327 info = "211 " 3* [ <number> " " ] <string>
22331 @item (nnchoke-close-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
22333 Close @var{group} and free any resources connected to it. This will be
22334 a no-op on most backends.
22336 There should be no data returned.
22339 @item (nnchoke-request-list &optional SERVER)
22341 Return a list of all groups available on @var{server}. And that means
22344 Here's an example from a server that only carries two groups:
22347 ifi.test 0000002200 0000002000 y
22348 ifi.discussion 3324 3300 n
22351 On each line we have a group name, then the highest article number in
22352 that group, the lowest article number, and finally a flag.
22355 active-file = *active-line
22356 active-line = name " " <number> " " <number> " " flags eol
22358 flags = "n" / "y" / "m" / "x" / "j" / "=" name
22361 The flag says whether the group is read-only (@samp{n}), is moderated
22362 (@samp{m}), is dead (@samp{x}), is aliased to some other group
22363 (@samp{=other-group}) or none of the above (@samp{y}).
22366 @item (nnchoke-request-post &optional SERVER)
22368 This function should post the current buffer. It might return whether
22369 the posting was successful or not, but that's not required. If, for
22370 instance, the posting is done asynchronously, it has generally not been
22371 completed by the time this function concludes. In that case, this
22372 function should set up some kind of sentinel to beep the user loud and
22373 clear if the posting could not be completed.
22375 There should be no result data from this function.
22380 @node Optional Backend Functions
22381 @subsubsection Optional Backend Functions
22385 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-groups GROUPS &optional SERVER)
22387 @var{groups} is a list of groups, and this function should request data
22388 on all those groups. How it does it is of no concern to Gnus, but it
22389 should attempt to do this in a speedy fashion.
22391 The return value of this function can be either @code{active} or
22392 @code{group}, which says what the format of the result data is. The
22393 former is in the same format as the data from
22394 @code{nnchoke-request-list}, while the latter is a buffer full of lines
22395 in the same format as @code{nnchoke-request-group} gives.
22398 group-buffer = *active-line / *group-status
22402 @item (nnchoke-request-update-info GROUP INFO &optional SERVER)
22404 A Gnus group info (@pxref{Group Info}) is handed to the backend for
22405 alterations. This comes in handy if the backend really carries all the
22406 information (as is the case with virtual and imap groups). This
22407 function should destructively alter the info to suit its needs, and
22408 should return the (altered) group info.
22410 There should be no result data from this function.
22413 @item (nnchoke-request-type GROUP &optional ARTICLE)
22415 When the user issues commands for ``sending news'' (@kbd{F} in the
22416 summary buffer, for instance), Gnus has to know whether the article the
22417 user is following up on is news or mail. This function should return
22418 @code{news} if @var{article} in @var{group} is news, @code{mail} if it
22419 is mail and @code{unknown} if the type can't be decided. (The
22420 @var{article} parameter is necessary in @code{nnvirtual} groups which
22421 might very well combine mail groups and news groups.) Both @var{group}
22422 and @var{article} may be @code{nil}.
22424 There should be no result data from this function.
22427 @item (nnchoke-request-set-mark GROUP ACTION &optional SERVER)
22429 Set/remove/add marks on articles. Normally Gnus handles the article
22430 marks (such as read, ticked, expired etc) internally, and store them in
22431 @code{~/.newsrc.eld}. Some backends (such as @sc{imap}) however carry
22432 all information about the articles on the server, so Gnus need to
22433 propagate the mark information to the server.
22435 ACTION is a list of mark setting requests, having this format:
22438 (RANGE ACTION MARK)
22441 Range is a range of articles you wish to update marks on. Action is
22442 @code{set}, @code{add} or @code{del}, respectively used for removing all
22443 existing marks and setting them as specified, adding (preserving the
22444 marks not mentioned) mark and removing (preserving the marks not
22445 mentioned) marks. Mark is a list of marks; where each mark is a symbol.
22446 Currently used marks are @code{read}, @code{tick}, @code{reply},
22447 @code{expire}, @code{killed}, @code{dormant}, @code{save},
22448 @code{download} and @code{unsend}, but your backend should, if possible,
22449 not limit itself to these.
22451 Given contradictory actions, the last action in the list should be the
22452 effective one. That is, if your action contains a request to add the
22453 @code{tick} mark on article 1 and, later in the list, a request to
22454 remove the mark on the same article, the mark should in fact be removed.
22456 An example action list:
22459 (((5 12 30) 'del '(tick))
22460 ((10 . 90) 'add '(read expire))
22461 ((92 94) 'del '(read)))
22464 The function should return a range of articles it wasn't able to set the
22465 mark on (currently not used for anything).
22467 There should be no result data from this function.
22469 @item (nnchoke-request-update-mark GROUP ARTICLE MARK)
22471 If the user tries to set a mark that the backend doesn't like, this
22472 function may change the mark. Gnus will use whatever this function
22473 returns as the mark for @var{article} instead of the original
22474 @var{mark}. If the backend doesn't care, it must return the original
22475 @var{mark}, and not @code{nil} or any other type of garbage.
22477 The only use for this I can see is what @code{nnvirtual} does with
22478 it---if a component group is auto-expirable, marking an article as read
22479 in the virtual group should result in the article being marked as
22482 There should be no result data from this function.
22485 @item (nnchoke-request-scan &optional GROUP SERVER)
22487 This function may be called at any time (by Gnus or anything else) to
22488 request that the backend check for incoming articles, in one way or
22489 another. A mail backend will typically read the spool file or query the
22490 POP server when this function is invoked. The @var{group} doesn't have
22491 to be heeded---if the backend decides that it is too much work just
22492 scanning for a single group, it may do a total scan of all groups. It
22493 would be nice, however, to keep things local if that's practical.
22495 There should be no result data from this function.
22498 @item (nnchoke-request-group-description GROUP &optional SERVER)
22500 The result data from this function should be a description of
22504 description-line = name <TAB> description eol
22506 description = <text>
22509 @item (nnchoke-request-list-newsgroups &optional SERVER)
22511 The result data from this function should be the description of all
22512 groups available on the server.
22515 description-buffer = *description-line
22519 @item (nnchoke-request-newgroups DATE &optional SERVER)
22521 The result data from this function should be all groups that were
22522 created after @samp{date}, which is in normal human-readable date
22523 format. The data should be in the active buffer format.
22526 @item (nnchoke-request-create-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
22528 This function should create an empty group with name @var{group}.
22530 There should be no return data.
22533 @item (nnchoke-request-expire-articles ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FORCE)
22535 This function should run the expiry process on all articles in the
22536 @var{articles} range (which is currently a simple list of article
22537 numbers.) It is left up to the backend to decide how old articles
22538 should be before they are removed by this function. If @var{force} is
22539 non-@code{nil}, all @var{articles} should be deleted, no matter how new
22542 This function should return a list of articles that it did not/was not
22545 There should be no result data returned.
22548 @item (nnchoke-request-move-article ARTICLE GROUP SERVER ACCEPT-FORM
22551 This function should move @var{article} (which is a number) from
22552 @var{group} by calling @var{accept-form}.
22554 This function should ready the article in question for moving by
22555 removing any header lines it has added to the article, and generally
22556 should ``tidy up'' the article. Then it should @code{eval}
22557 @var{accept-form} in the buffer where the ``tidy'' article is. This
22558 will do the actual copying. If this @code{eval} returns a
22559 non-@code{nil} value, the article should be removed.
22561 If @var{last} is @code{nil}, that means that there is a high likelihood
22562 that there will be more requests issued shortly, so that allows some
22565 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
22566 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
22568 There should be no data returned.
22571 @item (nnchoke-request-accept-article GROUP &optional SERVER LAST)
22573 This function takes the current buffer and inserts it into @var{group}.
22574 If @var{last} in @code{nil}, that means that there will be more calls to
22575 this function in short order.
22577 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
22578 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
22580 There should be no data returned.
22583 @item (nnchoke-request-replace-article ARTICLE GROUP BUFFER)
22585 This function should remove @var{article} (which is a number) from
22586 @var{group} and insert @var{buffer} there instead.
22588 There should be no data returned.
22591 @item (nnchoke-request-delete-group GROUP FORCE &optional SERVER)
22593 This function should delete @var{group}. If @var{force}, it should
22594 really delete all the articles in the group, and then delete the group
22595 itself. (If there is such a thing as ``the group itself''.)
22597 There should be no data returned.
22600 @item (nnchoke-request-rename-group GROUP NEW-NAME &optional SERVER)
22602 This function should rename @var{group} into @var{new-name}. All
22603 articles in @var{group} should move to @var{new-name}.
22605 There should be no data returned.
22610 @node Error Messaging
22611 @subsubsection Error Messaging
22613 @findex nnheader-report
22614 @findex nnheader-get-report
22615 The backends should use the function @code{nnheader-report} to report
22616 error conditions---they should not raise errors when they aren't able to
22617 perform a request. The first argument to this function is the backend
22618 symbol, and the rest are interpreted as arguments to @code{format} if
22619 there are multiple of them, or just a string if there is one of them.
22620 This function must always returns @code{nil}.
22623 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "You did something totally bogus")
22625 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "Could not request group %s" group)
22628 Gnus, in turn, will call @code{nnheader-get-report} when it gets a
22629 @code{nil} back from a server, and this function returns the most
22630 recently reported message for the backend in question. This function
22631 takes one argument---the server symbol.
22633 Internally, these functions access @var{backend}@code{-status-string},
22634 so the @code{nnchoke} backend will have its error message stored in
22635 @code{nnchoke-status-string}.
22638 @node Writing New Backends
22639 @subsubsection Writing New Backends
22641 Many backends are quite similar. @code{nnml} is just like
22642 @code{nnspool}, but it allows you to edit the articles on the server.
22643 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, but it doesn't use an active file,
22644 and it doesn't maintain overview databases. @code{nndir} is just like
22645 @code{nnml}, but it has no concept of ``groups'', and it doesn't allow
22648 It would make sense if it were possible to ``inherit'' functions from
22649 backends when writing new backends. And, indeed, you can do that if you
22650 want to. (You don't have to if you don't want to, of course.)
22652 All the backends declare their public variables and functions by using a
22653 package called @code{nnoo}.
22655 To inherit functions from other backends (and allow other backends to
22656 inherit functions from the current backend), you should use the
22662 This macro declares the first parameter to be a child of the subsequent
22663 parameters. For instance:
22666 (nnoo-declare nndir
22670 @code{nndir} has declared here that it intends to inherit functions from
22671 both @code{nnml} and @code{nnmh}.
22674 This macro is equivalent to @code{defvar}, but registers the variable as
22675 a public server variable. Most state-oriented variables should be
22676 declared with @code{defvoo} instead of @code{defvar}.
22678 In addition to the normal @code{defvar} parameters, it takes a list of
22679 variables in the parent backends to map the variable to when executing
22680 a function in those backends.
22683 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
22684 "Where nndir will look for groups."
22685 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
22688 This means that @code{nnml-current-directory} will be set to
22689 @code{nndir-directory} when an @code{nnml} function is called on behalf
22690 of @code{nndir}. (The same with @code{nnmh}.)
22692 @item nnoo-define-basics
22693 This macro defines some common functions that almost all backends should
22697 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
22701 This macro is just like @code{defun} and takes the same parameters. In
22702 addition to doing the normal @code{defun} things, it registers the
22703 function as being public so that other backends can inherit it.
22705 @item nnoo-map-functions
22706 This macro allows mapping of functions from the current backend to
22707 functions from the parent backends.
22710 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
22711 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
22712 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0))
22715 This means that when @code{nndir-retrieve-headers} is called, the first,
22716 third, and fourth parameters will be passed on to
22717 @code{nnml-retrieve-headers}, while the second parameter is set to the
22718 value of @code{nndir-current-group}.
22721 This macro allows importing functions from backends. It should be the
22722 last thing in the source file, since it will only define functions that
22723 haven't already been defined.
22729 nnmh-request-newgroups)
22733 This means that calls to @code{nndir-request-list} should just be passed
22734 on to @code{nnmh-request-list}, while all public functions from
22735 @code{nnml} that haven't been defined in @code{nndir} yet should be
22740 Below is a slightly shortened version of the @code{nndir} backend.
22743 ;;; nndir.el --- single directory newsgroup access for Gnus
22744 ;; Copyright (C) 1995,96 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
22748 (require 'nnheader)
22752 (eval-when-compile (require 'cl))
22754 (nnoo-declare nndir
22757 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
22758 "Where nndir will look for groups."
22759 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
22761 (defvoo nndir-nov-is-evil nil
22762 "*Non-nil means that nndir will never retrieve NOV headers."
22765 (defvoo nndir-current-group "" nil nnml-current-group nnmh-current-group)
22766 (defvoo nndir-top-directory nil nil nnml-directory nnmh-directory)
22767 (defvoo nndir-get-new-mail nil nil nnml-get-new-mail nnmh-get-new-mail)
22769 (defvoo nndir-status-string "" nil nnmh-status-string)
22770 (defconst nndir-version "nndir 1.0")
22772 ;;; Interface functions.
22774 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
22776 (deffoo nndir-open-server (server &optional defs)
22777 (setq nndir-directory
22778 (or (cadr (assq 'nndir-directory defs))
22780 (unless (assq 'nndir-directory defs)
22781 (push `(nndir-directory ,server) defs))
22782 (push `(nndir-current-group
22783 ,(file-name-nondirectory (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
22785 (push `(nndir-top-directory
22786 ,(file-name-directory (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
22788 (nnoo-change-server 'nndir server defs))
22790 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
22791 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
22792 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
22793 (nnmh-request-group nndir-current-group 0 0)
22794 (nnmh-close-group nndir-current-group 0))
22798 nnmh-status-message
22800 nnmh-request-newgroups))
22806 @node Hooking New Backends Into Gnus
22807 @subsubsection Hooking New Backends Into Gnus
22809 @vindex gnus-valid-select-methods
22810 Having Gnus start using your new backend is rather easy---you just
22811 declare it with the @code{gnus-declare-backend} functions. This will
22812 enter the backend into the @code{gnus-valid-select-methods} variable.
22814 @code{gnus-declare-backend} takes two parameters---the backend name and
22815 an arbitrary number of @dfn{abilities}.
22820 (gnus-declare-backend "nnchoke" 'mail 'respool 'address)
22823 The abilities can be:
22827 This is a mailish backend---followups should (probably) go via mail.
22829 This is a newsish backend---followups should (probably) go via news.
22831 This backend supports both mail and news.
22833 This is neither a post nor mail backend---it's something completely
22836 It supports respooling---or rather, it is able to modify its source
22837 articles and groups.
22839 The name of the server should be in the virtual server name. This is
22840 true for almost all backends.
22841 @item prompt-address
22842 The user should be prompted for an address when doing commands like
22843 @kbd{B} in the group buffer. This is true for backends like
22844 @code{nntp}, but not @code{nnmbox}, for instance.
22848 @node Mail-like Backends
22849 @subsubsection Mail-like Backends
22851 One of the things that separate the mail backends from the rest of the
22852 backends is the heavy dependence by the mail backends on common
22853 functions in @file{nnmail.el}. For instance, here's the definition of
22854 @code{nnml-request-scan}:
22857 (deffoo nnml-request-scan (&optional group server)
22858 (setq nnml-article-file-alist nil)
22859 (nnmail-get-new-mail 'nnml 'nnml-save-nov nnml-directory group))
22862 It simply calls @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} with a few parameters,
22863 and @code{nnmail} takes care of all the moving and splitting of the
22866 This function takes four parameters.
22870 This should be a symbol to designate which backend is responsible for
22873 @item exit-function
22874 This function should be called after the splitting has been performed.
22876 @item temp-directory
22877 Where the temporary files should be stored.
22880 This optional argument should be a group name if the splitting is to be
22881 performed for one group only.
22884 @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} will call @var{backend}@code{-save-mail} to
22885 save each article. @var{backend}@code{-active-number} will be called to
22886 find the article number assigned to this article.
22888 The function also uses the following variables:
22889 @var{backend}@code{-get-new-mail} (to see whether to get new mail for
22890 this backend); and @var{backend}@code{-group-alist} and
22891 @var{backend}@code{-active-file} to generate the new active file.
22892 @var{backend}@code{-group-alist} should be a group-active alist, like
22896 (("a-group" (1 . 10))
22897 ("some-group" (34 . 39)))
22901 @node Score File Syntax
22902 @subsection Score File Syntax
22904 Score files are meant to be easily parseable, but yet extremely
22905 mallable. It was decided that something that had the same read syntax
22906 as an Emacs Lisp list would fit that spec.
22908 Here's a typical score file:
22912 ("win95" -10000 nil s)
22919 BNF definition of a score file:
22922 score-file = "" / "(" *element ")"
22923 element = rule / atom
22924 rule = string-rule / number-rule / date-rule
22925 string-rule = "(" quote string-header quote space *string-match ")"
22926 number-rule = "(" quote number-header quote space *number-match ")"
22927 date-rule = "(" quote date-header quote space *date-match ")"
22929 string-header = "subject" / "from" / "references" / "message-id" /
22930 "xref" / "body" / "head" / "all" / "followup"
22931 number-header = "lines" / "chars"
22932 date-header = "date"
22933 string-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
22934 space date [ "" / [ space string-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
22935 score = "nil" / <integer>
22936 date = "nil" / <natural number>
22937 string-match-t = "nil" / "s" / "substring" / "S" / "Substring" /
22938 "r" / "regex" / "R" / "Regex" /
22939 "e" / "exact" / "E" / "Exact" /
22940 "f" / "fuzzy" / "F" / "Fuzzy"
22941 number-match = "(" <integer> [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
22942 space date [ "" / [ space number-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
22943 number-match-t = "nil" / "=" / "<" / ">" / ">=" / "<="
22944 date-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
22945 space date [ "" / [ space date-match-t ] ] ] ] ")"
22946 date-match-t = "nil" / "at" / "before" / "after"
22947 atom = "(" [ required-atom / optional-atom ] ")"
22948 required-atom = mark / expunge / mark-and-expunge / files /
22949 exclude-files / read-only / touched
22950 optional-atom = adapt / local / eval
22951 mark = "mark" space nil-or-number
22952 nil-or-number = "nil" / <integer>
22953 expunge = "expunge" space nil-or-number
22954 mark-and-expunge = "mark-and-expunge" space nil-or-number
22955 files = "files" *[ space <string> ]
22956 exclude-files = "exclude-files" *[ space <string> ]
22957 read-only = "read-only" [ space "nil" / space "t" ]
22958 adapt = "adapt" [ space "ignore" / space "t" / space adapt-rule ]
22959 adapt-rule = "(" *[ <string> *[ "(" <string> <integer> ")" ] ")"
22960 local = "local" *[ space "(" <string> space <form> ")" ]
22961 eval = "eval" space <form>
22962 space = *[ " " / <TAB> / <NEWLINE> ]
22965 Any unrecognized elements in a score file should be ignored, but not
22968 As you can see, white space is needed, but the type and amount of white
22969 space is irrelevant. This means that formatting of the score file is
22970 left up to the programmer---if it's simpler to just spew it all out on
22971 one looong line, then that's ok.
22973 The meaning of the various atoms are explained elsewhere in this
22974 manual (@pxref{Score File Format}).
22978 @subsection Headers
22980 Internally Gnus uses a format for storing article headers that
22981 corresponds to the @sc{nov} format in a mysterious fashion. One could
22982 almost suspect that the author looked at the @sc{nov} specification and
22983 just shamelessly @emph{stole} the entire thing, and one would be right.
22985 @dfn{Header} is a severely overloaded term. ``Header'' is used in
22986 RFC 1036 to talk about lines in the head of an article (e.g.,
22987 @code{From}). It is used by many people as a synonym for
22988 ``head''---``the header and the body''. (That should be avoided, in my
22989 opinion.) And Gnus uses a format internally that it calls ``header'',
22990 which is what I'm talking about here. This is a 9-element vector,
22991 basically, with each header (ouch) having one slot.
22993 These slots are, in order: @code{number}, @code{subject}, @code{from},
22994 @code{date}, @code{id}, @code{references}, @code{chars}, @code{lines},
22995 @code{xref}, and @code{extra}. There are macros for accessing and
22996 setting these slots---they all have predictable names beginning with
22997 @code{mail-header-} and @code{mail-header-set-}, respectively.
22999 All these slots contain strings, except the @code{extra} slot, which
23000 contains an alist of header/value pairs (@pxref{To From Newsgroups}).
23006 @sc{gnus} introduced a concept that I found so useful that I've started
23007 using it a lot and have elaborated on it greatly.
23009 The question is simple: If you have a large amount of objects that are
23010 identified by numbers (say, articles, to take a @emph{wild} example)
23011 that you want to qualify as being ``included'', a normal sequence isn't
23012 very useful. (A 200,000 length sequence is a bit long-winded.)
23014 The solution is as simple as the question: You just collapse the
23018 (1 2 3 4 5 6 10 11 12)
23021 is transformed into
23024 ((1 . 6) (10 . 12))
23027 To avoid having those nasty @samp{(13 . 13)} elements to denote a
23028 lonesome object, a @samp{13} is a valid element:
23031 ((1 . 6) 7 (10 . 12))
23034 This means that comparing two ranges to find out whether they are equal
23035 is slightly tricky:
23038 ((1 . 5) 7 8 (10 . 12))
23044 ((1 . 5) (7 . 8) (10 . 12))
23047 are equal. In fact, any non-descending list is a range:
23053 is a perfectly valid range, although a pretty long-winded one. This is
23060 and is equal to the previous range.
23062 Here's a BNF definition of ranges. Of course, one must remember the
23063 semantic requirement that the numbers are non-descending. (Any number
23064 of repetition of the same number is allowed, but apt to disappear in
23068 range = simple-range / normal-range
23069 simple-range = "(" number " . " number ")"
23070 normal-range = "(" start-contents ")"
23071 contents = "" / simple-range *[ " " contents ] /
23072 number *[ " " contents ]
23075 Gnus currently uses ranges to keep track of read articles and article
23076 marks. I plan on implementing a number of range operators in C if The
23077 Powers That Be are willing to let me. (I haven't asked yet, because I
23078 need to do some more thinking on what operators I need to make life
23079 totally range-based without ever having to convert back to normal
23084 @subsection Group Info
23086 Gnus stores all permanent info on groups in a @dfn{group info} list.
23087 This list is from three to six elements (or more) long and exhaustively
23088 describes the group.
23090 Here are two example group infos; one is a very simple group while the
23091 second is a more complex one:
23094 ("no.group" 5 ((1 . 54324)))
23096 ("nnml:my.mail" 3 ((1 . 5) 9 (20 . 55))
23097 ((tick (15 . 19)) (replied 3 6 (19 . 3)))
23099 ((auto-expire . t) (to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")))
23102 The first element is the @dfn{group name}---as Gnus knows the group,
23103 anyway. The second element is the @dfn{subscription level}, which
23104 normally is a small integer. (It can also be the @dfn{rank}, which is a
23105 cons cell where the @code{car} is the level and the @code{cdr} is the
23106 score.) The third element is a list of ranges of read articles. The
23107 fourth element is a list of lists of article marks of various kinds.
23108 The fifth element is the select method (or virtual server, if you like).
23109 The sixth element is a list of @dfn{group parameters}, which is what
23110 this section is about.
23112 Any of the last three elements may be missing if they are not required.
23113 In fact, the vast majority of groups will normally only have the first
23114 three elements, which saves quite a lot of cons cells.
23116 Here's a BNF definition of the group info format:
23119 info = "(" group space ralevel space read
23120 [ "" / [ space marks-list [ "" / [ space method [ "" /
23121 space parameters ] ] ] ] ] ")"
23122 group = quote <string> quote
23123 ralevel = rank / level
23124 level = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
23125 rank = "(" level "." score ")"
23126 score = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
23128 marks-lists = nil / "(" *marks ")"
23129 marks = "(" <string> range ")"
23130 method = "(" <string> *elisp-forms ")"
23131 parameters = "(" *elisp-forms ")"
23134 Actually that @samp{marks} rule is a fib. A @samp{marks} is a
23135 @samp{<string>} consed on to a @samp{range}, but that's a bitch to say
23138 If you have a Gnus info and want to access the elements, Gnus offers a
23139 series of macros for getting/setting these elements.
23142 @item gnus-info-group
23143 @itemx gnus-info-set-group
23144 @findex gnus-info-group
23145 @findex gnus-info-set-group
23146 Get/set the group name.
23148 @item gnus-info-rank
23149 @itemx gnus-info-set-rank
23150 @findex gnus-info-rank
23151 @findex gnus-info-set-rank
23152 Get/set the group rank (@pxref{Group Score}).
23154 @item gnus-info-level
23155 @itemx gnus-info-set-level
23156 @findex gnus-info-level
23157 @findex gnus-info-set-level
23158 Get/set the group level.
23160 @item gnus-info-score
23161 @itemx gnus-info-set-score
23162 @findex gnus-info-score
23163 @findex gnus-info-set-score
23164 Get/set the group score (@pxref{Group Score}).
23166 @item gnus-info-read
23167 @itemx gnus-info-set-read
23168 @findex gnus-info-read
23169 @findex gnus-info-set-read
23170 Get/set the ranges of read articles.
23172 @item gnus-info-marks
23173 @itemx gnus-info-set-marks
23174 @findex gnus-info-marks
23175 @findex gnus-info-set-marks
23176 Get/set the lists of ranges of marked articles.
23178 @item gnus-info-method
23179 @itemx gnus-info-set-method
23180 @findex gnus-info-method
23181 @findex gnus-info-set-method
23182 Get/set the group select method.
23184 @item gnus-info-params
23185 @itemx gnus-info-set-params
23186 @findex gnus-info-params
23187 @findex gnus-info-set-params
23188 Get/set the group parameters.
23191 All the getter functions take one parameter---the info list. The setter
23192 functions take two parameters---the info list and the new value.
23194 The last three elements in the group info aren't mandatory, so it may be
23195 necessary to extend the group info before setting the element. If this
23196 is necessary, you can just pass on a non-@code{nil} third parameter to
23197 the three final setter functions to have this happen automatically.
23200 @node Extended Interactive
23201 @subsection Extended Interactive
23202 @cindex interactive
23203 @findex gnus-interactive
23205 Gnus extends the standard Emacs @code{interactive} specification
23206 slightly to allow easy use of the symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic
23207 Prefixes}). Here's an example of how this is used:
23210 (defun gnus-summary-increase-score (&optional score symp)
23211 (interactive (gnus-interactive "P\ny"))
23216 The best thing to do would have been to implement
23217 @code{gnus-interactive} as a macro which would have returned an
23218 @code{interactive} form, but this isn't possible since Emacs checks
23219 whether a function is interactive or not by simply doing an @code{assq}
23220 on the lambda form. So, instead we have @code{gnus-interactive}
23221 function that takes a string and returns values that are usable to
23222 @code{interactive}.
23224 This function accepts (almost) all normal @code{interactive} specs, but
23229 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbol
23230 The current symbolic prefix---the @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol}
23234 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbols
23235 A list of the current symbolic prefixes---the
23236 @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol} variable.
23239 The current article number---the @code{gnus-summary-article-number}
23243 The current article header---the @code{gnus-summary-article-header}
23247 The current group name---the @code{gnus-group-group-name}
23253 @node Emacs/XEmacs Code
23254 @subsection Emacs/XEmacs Code
23258 While Gnus runs under Emacs, XEmacs and Mule, I decided that one of the
23259 platforms must be the primary one. I chose Emacs. Not because I don't
23260 like XEmacs or Mule, but because it comes first alphabetically.
23262 This means that Gnus will byte-compile under Emacs with nary a warning,
23263 while XEmacs will pump out gigabytes of warnings while byte-compiling.
23264 As I use byte-compilation warnings to help me root out trivial errors in
23265 Gnus, that's very useful.
23267 I've also consistently used Emacs function interfaces, but have used
23268 Gnusey aliases for the functions. To take an example: Emacs defines a
23269 @code{run-at-time} function while XEmacs defines a @code{start-itimer}
23270 function. I then define a function called @code{gnus-run-at-time} that
23271 takes the same parameters as the Emacs @code{run-at-time}. When running
23272 Gnus under Emacs, the former function is just an alias for the latter.
23273 However, when running under XEmacs, the former is an alias for the
23274 following function:
23277 (defun gnus-xmas-run-at-time (time repeat function &rest args)
23281 (,function ,@@args))
23285 This sort of thing has been done for bunches of functions. Gnus does
23286 not redefine any native Emacs functions while running under XEmacs---it
23287 does this @code{defalias} thing with Gnus equivalents instead. Cleaner
23290 In the cases where the XEmacs function interface was obviously cleaner,
23291 I used it instead. For example @code{gnus-region-active-p} is an alias
23292 for @code{region-active-p} in XEmacs, whereas in Emacs it is a function.
23294 Of course, I could have chosen XEmacs as my native platform and done
23295 mapping functions the other way around. But I didn't. The performance
23296 hit these indirections impose on Gnus under XEmacs should be slight.
23299 @node Various File Formats
23300 @subsection Various File Formats
23303 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
23304 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
23308 @node Active File Format
23309 @subsubsection Active File Format
23311 The active file lists all groups available on the server in
23312 question. It also lists the highest and lowest current article numbers
23315 Here's an excerpt from a typical active file:
23318 soc.motss 296030 293865 y
23319 alt.binaries.pictures.fractals 3922 3913 n
23320 comp.sources.unix 1605 1593 m
23321 comp.binaries.ibm.pc 5097 5089 y
23322 no.general 1000 900 y
23325 Here's a pseudo-BNF definition of this file:
23328 active = *group-line
23329 group-line = group space high-number space low-number space flag <NEWLINE>
23330 group = <non-white-space string>
23332 high-number = <non-negative integer>
23333 low-number = <positive integer>
23334 flag = "y" / "n" / "m" / "j" / "x" / "=" group
23337 For a full description of this file, see the manual pages for
23338 @samp{innd}, in particular @samp{active(5)}.
23341 @node Newsgroups File Format
23342 @subsubsection Newsgroups File Format
23344 The newsgroups file lists groups along with their descriptions. Not all
23345 groups on the server have to be listed, and not all groups in the file
23346 have to exist on the server. The file is meant purely as information to
23349 The format is quite simple; a group name, a tab, and the description.
23350 Here's the definition:
23354 line = group tab description <NEWLINE>
23355 group = <non-white-space string>
23357 description = <string>
23362 @node Emacs for Heathens
23363 @section Emacs for Heathens
23365 Believe it or not, but some people who use Gnus haven't really used
23366 Emacs much before they embarked on their journey on the Gnus Love Boat.
23367 If you are one of those unfortunates whom ``@kbd{M-C-a}'', ``kill the
23368 region'', and ``set @code{gnus-flargblossen} to an alist where the key
23369 is a regexp that is used for matching on the group name'' are magical
23370 phrases with little or no meaning, then this appendix is for you. If
23371 you are already familiar with Emacs, just ignore this and go fondle your
23375 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
23376 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
23381 @subsection Keystrokes
23385 Q: What is an experienced Emacs user?
23388 A: A person who wishes that the terminal had pedals.
23391 Yes, when you use Emacs, you are apt to use the control key, the shift
23392 key and the meta key a lot. This is very annoying to some people
23393 (notably @code{vi}le users), and the rest of us just love the hell out
23394 of it. Just give up and submit. Emacs really does stand for
23395 ``Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift'', and not ``Editing Macros'', as you
23396 may have heard from other disreputable sources (like the Emacs author).
23398 The shift keys are normally located near your pinky fingers, and are
23399 normally used to get capital letters and stuff. You probably use it all
23400 the time. The control key is normally marked ``CTRL'' or something like
23401 that. The meta key is, funnily enough, never marked as such on any
23402 keyboard. The one I'm currently at has a key that's marked ``Alt'',
23403 which is the meta key on this keyboard. It's usually located somewhere
23404 to the left hand side of the keyboard, usually on the bottom row.
23406 Now, us Emacs people don't say ``press the meta-control-m key'',
23407 because that's just too inconvenient. We say ``press the @kbd{M-C-m}
23408 key''. @kbd{M-} is the prefix that means ``meta'' and ``C-'' is the
23409 prefix that means ``control''. So ``press @kbd{C-k}'' means ``press
23410 down the control key, and hold it down while you press @kbd{k}''.
23411 ``Press @kbd{M-C-k}'' means ``press down and hold down the meta key and
23412 the control key and then press @kbd{k}''. Simple, ay?
23414 This is somewhat complicated by the fact that not all keyboards have a
23415 meta key. In that case you can use the ``escape'' key. Then @kbd{M-k}
23416 means ``press escape, release escape, press @kbd{k}''. That's much more
23417 work than if you have a meta key, so if that's the case, I respectfully
23418 suggest you get a real keyboard with a meta key. You can't live without
23424 @subsection Emacs Lisp
23426 Emacs is the King of Editors because it's really a Lisp interpreter.
23427 Each and every key you tap runs some Emacs Lisp code snippet, and since
23428 Emacs Lisp is an interpreted language, that means that you can configure
23429 any key to run any arbitrary code. You just, like, do it.
23431 Gnus is written in Emacs Lisp, and is run as a bunch of interpreted
23432 functions. (These are byte-compiled for speed, but it's still
23433 interpreted.) If you decide that you don't like the way Gnus does
23434 certain things, it's trivial to have it do something a different way.
23435 (Well, at least if you know how to write Lisp code.) However, that's
23436 beyond the scope of this manual, so we are simply going to talk about
23437 some common constructs that you normally use in your @file{.emacs} file
23440 If you want to set the variable @code{gnus-florgbnize} to four (4), you
23441 write the following:
23444 (setq gnus-florgbnize 4)
23447 This function (really ``special form'') @code{setq} is the one that can
23448 set a variable to some value. This is really all you need to know. Now
23449 you can go and fill your @code{.emacs} file with lots of these to change
23452 If you have put that thing in your @code{.emacs} file, it will be read
23453 and @code{eval}ed (which is lisp-ese for ``run'') the next time you
23454 start Emacs. If you want to change the variable right away, simply say
23455 @kbd{C-x C-e} after the closing parenthesis. That will @code{eval} the
23456 previous ``form'', which is a simple @code{setq} statement here.
23458 Go ahead---just try it, if you're located at your Emacs. After you
23459 @kbd{C-x C-e}, you will see @samp{4} appear in the echo area, which
23460 is the return value of the form you @code{eval}ed.
23464 If the manual says ``set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{some}'',
23468 (setq gnus-read-active-file 'some)
23471 On the other hand, if the manual says ``set @code{gnus-nntp-server} to
23472 @samp{nntp.ifi.uio.no}'', that means:
23475 (setq gnus-nntp-server "nntp.ifi.uio.no")
23478 So be careful not to mix up strings (the latter) with symbols (the
23479 former). The manual is unambiguous, but it can be confusing.
23482 @include gnus-faq.texi
23503 % LocalWords: Backend BNF mucho Backends backends detailmenu cindex kindex kbd
23504 % LocalWords: findex Gnusae vindex dfn dfn samp nntp setq nnspool nntpserver
23505 % LocalWords: nnmbox backend newusers Blllrph NEWGROUPS dingnusdingnusdingnus
23506 % LocalWords: pre fab rec comp nnslashdot regex ga ga sci nnml nnbabyl nnmh
23507 % LocalWords: nnfolder emph looong eld newsreaders defun init elc pxref