@c \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
@c Uncomment 1st line before texing this file alone.
@c %**start of header
-@c Copyright (C) 1995, 2001-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+@c Copyright (C) 1995, 2001-2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@c
-@setfilename gnus-faq.info
-@settitle Frequently Asked Questions
+@c @setfilename gnus-faq.info
+@c @settitle Frequently Asked Questions
+@c @include docstyle.texi
@c %**end of header
@c
@email{ding@@gnus.org, ding list}.
@node FAQ - Changes
-@subheading Changes
+@subsection Changes
@end itemize
@node FAQ - Introduction
-@subheading Introduction
+@subsection Introduction
This is the Gnus Frequently Asked Questions list.
@subsubheading Answer
-Gnus 5.10 requires an Emacs version that is greater than or equal
-to Emacs 20.7 or XEmacs 21.1.
-The development versions of Gnus (aka No Gnus) requires Emacs 21
-or XEmacs 21.4.
+Gnus 5.13 requires an Emacs version that is greater than or equal
+to Emacs 23.1 or XEmacs 21.1, although there are some features that
+only work on Emacs 24.
@node FAQ 1-7
@subsubheading Question 1.7
You've got to tell Gnus where to fetch the news from. Read
the documentation for information on how to do this. As a
-first start, put those lines in ~/.gnus.el:
+first start, put those lines in @file{~/.gnus.el}:
@example
(setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.yourprovider.net"))
@node FAQ 3-2
@subsubheading Question 3.2
-I'm working under Windows and have no idea what ~/.gnus.el means.
+I'm working under Windows and have no idea what @file{~/.gnus.el} means.
@subsubheading Answer
possibility to set environment variables. Create a new one with
name HOME and value C:\myhome. Rebooting is not necessary.
-Now to create ~/.gnus.el, say
+Now to create @file{~/.gnus.el}, say
@samp{C-x C-f ~/.gnus.el RET C-x C-s}.
in Emacs.
Of course. You can specify more sources for articles in the
variable gnus-secondary-select-methods. Add something like
-this in ~/.gnus.el:
+this in @file{~/.gnus.el}:
@example
(add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods
and is therefore quite fast. However you might prefer a one
file per group approach if your file system has problems with
many small files, the nnfolder back end is then probably the
-choice for you. To use nnml add the following to ~/.gnus.el:
+choice for you. To use nnml add the following to @file{~/.gnus.el}:
@example
(add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods '(nnml ""))
@end example
@noindent
-Make sure ~/.gnus.el isn't readable to others if you store
+Make sure @file{~/.gnus.el} isn't readable to others if you store
your password there. If you want to read your mail from a
traditional spool file on your local machine, it's
want to send mail via sendmail (or whichever MTA is playing
the role of sendmail on your system), you don't need to do
anything. However, if you want to send your mail to an
-SMTP Server you need the following in your ~/.gnus.el
+SMTP Server you need the following in your @file{~/.gnus.el}
@example
(setq send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it)
to use IMAP like POP3, that means Gnus fetches the mail from
the IMAP server and stores it on disk. If you want to do
this (you don't really want to do this) add the following to
-~/.gnus.el
+@file{~/.gnus.el}
@example
(add-to-list 'mail-sources '(imap :server "mail.mycorp.com"
@subsubheading Answer
-First of all, that's not the way POP3 is intended to work,
-if you have the possibility, you should use the IMAP
-Protocol if you want your messages to stay on the
-server. Nevertheless there might be situations where you
-need the feature, but sadly Gnus itself has no predefined
-functionality to do so.
-
-However this is Gnus county so there are possibilities to
-achieve what you want. The easiest way is to get an external
-program which retrieves copies of the mail and stores them
-on disk, so Gnus can read it from there. On Unix systems you
-could use, e.g., fetchmail for this, on MS Windows you can use
-Hamster, an excellent local news and mail server.
-
-The other solution would be, to replace the method Gnus
-uses to get mail from POP3 servers by one which is capable
-of leaving the mail on the server. If you use XEmacs, get
-the package mail-lib, it includes an enhanced pop3.el,
-look in the file, there's documentation on how to tell
-Gnus to use it and not to delete the retrieved mail. For
-GNU Emacs look for the file epop3.el which can do the same
-(If you know the home of this file, please send me an
-e-mail). You can also tell Gnus to use an external program
-(e.g., fetchmail) to fetch your mail, see the info node
-"Mail Source Specifiers" in the Gnus manual on how to do
-it.
+Yes, if the POP3 server supports the UIDL control (maybe almost servers
+do it nowadays). To do that, add a @code{:leave VALUE} pair to each
+POP3 mail source. See @pxref{Mail Source Specifiers} for VALUE.
@node FAQ 4 - Reading messages
@subsection Reading messages
the top of the article buffer?
* FAQ 4-6:: I'd like Gnus NOT to render HTML-mails but show me the
text part if it's available. How to do it?
-* FAQ 4-7:: Can I use some other browser than w3 to render my
+* FAQ 4-7:: Can I use some other browser than shr to render my
HTML-mails?
* FAQ 4-8:: Is there anything I can do to make poorly formatted
mails more readable?
* FAQ 4-14:: I don't like the way the Summary buffer looks, how to
tweak it?
* FAQ 4-15:: How to split incoming mails in several groups?
+* FAQ 4-16:: How can I ensure more contrast when viewing HTML mail?
@end menu
@node FAQ 4-1
@end example
@noindent
-in ~/.gnus.el to load enough old articles to prevent teared threads, replace 'some with t to load
+in @file{~/.gnus.el} to load enough old articles to prevent teared threads, replace 'some with @code{t} to load
all articles (Warning: Both settings enlarge the amount of data which is
fetched when you enter a group and slow down the process of entering a group).
are shown, its value is a regular expression, header lines
which match it are shown. So if you want author, subject,
date, and if the header exists, Followup-To and MUA / NUA
-say this in ~/.gnus.el:
+say this in @file{~/.gnus.el}:
@example
(setq gnus-visible-headers
@end example
@noindent
-in ~/.gnus.el. If you don't want HTML rendered, even if there's no text alternative add
+in @file{~/.gnus.el}. If you don't want HTML rendered, even if there's no text alternative add
@example
(setq mm-automatic-display (remove "text/html" mm-automatic-display))
@node FAQ 4-7
@subsubheading Question 4.7
-Can I use some other browser than w3 to render my HTML-mails?
+Can I use some other browser than w3m to render my HTML-mails?
@subsubheading Answer
Only if you use Gnus 5.10 or younger. In this case you've got the
-choice between w3, w3m, links, lynx and html2text, which
+choice between shr, w3m, links, lynx and html2text, which
one is used can be specified in the variable
mm-text-html-renderer, so if you want links to render your
mail say
@end example
@noindent
-in ~/.gnus.el.
+in @file{~/.gnus.el}.
@node FAQ 4-10
@subsubheading Question 4.10
can set options for the group. At the bottom of the buffer
you'll find an item that allows you to set variables
locally for the group. To disable threading enter
-gnus-show-threads as name of variable and nil as
+gnus-show-threads as name of variable and @code{nil} as
value. Hit button done at the top of the buffer when
you're ready.
:O \-> ... | 115 |Raymond Scholz | 1:24
:O \-> ... | 19 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt |15:33
:O Slow mailing list | 13 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt |Sat 23:49
-:O Re: `@@' mark not documented | 13 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt |Sat 23:50
+:O Re: '@@' mark not documented | 13 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt |Sat 23:50
:R > Re: Gnus still doesn't count messages prope| 23 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt |Sat 23:57
:O \-> ... | 18 |Kai Grossjohann | 0:35
:O \-> ... | 13 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt | 0:56
@end example
@noindent
-in ~/.gnus.el.
+in @file{~/.gnus.el}.
An example might be better than thousand words, so here's
my nnmail-split-methods. Note that I send duplicates in a
@end example
@noindent
+@node FAQ 4-16
+@subsubheading Question 4.16
+
+How can I ensure more contrast when viewing HTML mail?
+
+@subsubheading Answer
+
+Gnus' built-in simple HTML renderer (you use it if the value of
+@code{mm-text-html-renderer} is @code{shr}) uses the colors which are
+declared in the HTML mail. However, it adjusts them in order to
+prevent situations like dark gray text on black background. In case
+the results still have a too low contrast for you, increase the values
+of the variables @code{shr-color-visible-distance-min} and
+@code{shr-color-visible-luminance-min}.
+
@node FAQ 5 - Composing messages
@subsection Composing messages
messages?
* FAQ 5-3:: How to set stuff like From, Organization, Reply-To,
signature...?
-* FAQ 5-4:: Can I set things like From, Signature etc group based on
+* FAQ 5-4:: Can I set things like From, Signature etc. group based on
the group I post too?
* FAQ 5-5:: Is there a spell-checker? Perhaps even on-the-fly
spell-checking?
@end example
@noindent
-in ~/.gnus.el.
+in @file{~/.gnus.el}.
You can reformat a paragraph by hitting @samp{M-q}
(as usual).
organization, address, name or body. The attribute name
can also be a string. In that case, this will be used as
a header name, and the value will be inserted in the
-headers of the article; if the value is `nil', the header
+headers of the article; if the value is @code{nil}, the header
name will be removed. You can also say (eval (foo bar)),
then the function foo will be evaluated with argument bar
and the result will be thrown away.
@end example
@noindent
-In your ~/.gnus.el, if you prefer on-the-fly spell-checking say
+In your @file{~/.gnus.el}, if you prefer on-the-fly spell-checking say
@example
(add-hook 'message-mode-hook (lambda () (flyspell-mode 1)))
@end example
@noindent
-in ~/.gnus.el. Change "^de\\." and "deutsch8" to something
+in @file{~/.gnus.el}. Change "^de\\." and "deutsch8" to something
that suits your needs.
@node FAQ 5-7
However, what you really want is the Insidious Big Brother
Database bbdb. Get it through the XEmacs package system or from
@uref{http://bbdb.sourceforge.net/, bbdb's homepage}.
-Now place the following in ~/.gnus.el, to activate bbdb for Gnus:
+Now place the following in @file{~/.gnus.el}, to activate bbdb for Gnus:
@example
(require 'bbdb)
entry, @samp{b} to search your BBDB and
@samp{C-o} to add a new field to an
entry. If you want to add a sender to the BBDB you can
-also just hit `:' on the posting in the summary buffer and
+also just hit @kbd{:} on the posting in the summary buffer and
you are done. When you now compose a new mail,
hit @samp{TAB} to cycle through know
recipients.
If you can't use compface, there's an online X-face converter at
@uref{http://www.dairiki.org/xface/}.
-If you use MS Windows, you could also use the WinFace program from
-@uref{http://www.xs4all.nl/~walterln/winface/}.
+If you use MS Windows, you could also use the WinFace program,
+which used to be available from
+@indicateurl{http://www.xs4all.nl/~walterln/winface/}.
Now you only have to tell Gnus to include the X-face in your postings by saying
@example
@end example
@noindent
-in ~/.gnus.el. If you use Gnus 5.10, you can simply add an entry
+in @file{~/.gnus.el}. If you use Gnus 5.10, you can simply add an entry
@example
(x-face-file "~/.xface")
@subsubheading Answer
-Put this in ~/.gnus.el:
+Put this in @file{~/.gnus.el}:
@example
(setq gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news t)
@subsubheading Answer
Since 5.10 Gnus doesn't generate a sender header by
-default. For older Gnus' try this in ~/.gnus.el:
+default. For older Gnus' try this in @file{~/.gnus.el}:
@example
(eval-after-load "message"
@subsubheading Answer
-The message-ID is an unique identifier for messages you
+The message-ID is a unique identifier for messages you
send. To make it unique, Gnus need to know which machine
name to put after the "@@". If the name of the machine
where Gnus is running isn't suitable (it probably isn't
@end example
@noindent
-in ~/.gnus.el. If you use Gnus 5.9 or earlier, you can use this
+in @file{~/.gnus.el}. If you use Gnus 5.9 or earlier, you can use this
instead (works for newer versions as well):
@example
(setq message-user-fqdn fqdn)
(gnus-message 1 "Redefining `message-make-fqdn'.")
(defun message-make-fqdn ()
- "Return user's fully qualified domain name."
+ "Return user’s fully qualified domain name."
fqdn))))
@end example
@noindent
it be much more convenient to have more direct access to
the archived message from Gnus? If you say yes, put this
snippet by Frank Haun <pille3003@@fhaun.de> in
-~/.gnus.el:
+@file{~/.gnus.el}:
@example
(defun my-archive-article (&optional n)
- "Copies one or more article(s) to a corresponding `nnml:' group, e.g.,
-`gnus.ding' goes to `nnml:1.gnus.ding'. And `nnml:List-gnus.ding' goes
-to `nnml:1.List-gnus-ding'.
+ "Copies one or more article(s) to a corresponding ‘nnml:’ group, e.g.,
+‘gnus.ding’ goes to ‘nnml:1.gnus.ding’. And ‘nnml:List-gnus.ding’ goes
+to ‘nnml:1.List-gnus-ding’.
Use process marks or mark a region in the summary buffer to archive
more then one article."
Of course you can also use grep to search through your
local mail, but this is both slow for big archives and
inconvenient since you are not displaying the found mail
-in Gnus. Here comes nnir into action. Nnir is a front end
+in Gnus. Here nnir comes into action. Nnir is a front end
to search engines like swish-e or swish++ and
-others. You index your mail with one of those search
+others. You index your mail with one of those search
engines and with the help of nnir you can search through
the indexed mail and generate a temporary group with all
-messages which met your search criteria. If this sound
-cool to you get nnir.el from
+messages which met your search criteria. If this sounds
+cool to you, get nnir.el from
+@c FIXME Isn't this file in Gnus?
+@ignore
+@c Dead link 2013/7.
@uref{ftp://ls6-ftp.cs.uni-dortmund.de/pub/src/emacs/}
-or @uref{ftp://ftp.is.informatik.uni-duisburg.de/pub/src/emacs/}.
+or
+@end ignore
+@uref{ftp://ftp.is.informatik.uni-duisburg.de/pub/src/emacs/}.
Instructions on how to use it are at the top of the file.
@node FAQ 6-4
@subsubheading Answer
-Say something like this in ~/.gnus.el:
+Say something like this in @file{~/.gnus.el}:
@example
(setq nnmail-expiry-target "nnml:expired")
@uref{http://infa.abo.fi/~patrik/sn/, sn},
of course you can also install a full featured news
server like
-@uref{http://www.isc.org/products/INN/, inn}.
+@uref{http://www.isc.org/software/inn/, inn}.
Then you want to fetch your Mail, popular choices
are @uref{http://www.catb.org/~esr/fetchmail/, fetchmail}
and @uref{http://pyropus.ca/software/getmail/, getmail}.
mail and news and store them on disk for reading them
later when you're offline. It kind of mimics offline
newsreaders like Forte Agent. If you want to use
-the Agent place the following in ~/.gnus.el if you are
+the Agent place the following in @file{~/.gnus.el} if you are
still using 5.8.8 or 5.9 (it's the default since 5.10):
@example
The reason for this could be the way Gnus reads its
active file, see the node "The Active File" in the Gnus
manual for things you might try to speed the process up.
-An other idea would be to byte compile your ~/.gnus.el (say
+An other idea would be to byte compile your @file{~/.gnus.el} (say
@samp{M-x byte-compile-file RET ~/.gnus.el
RET} to do it). Finally, if you have require
statements in your .gnus, you could replace them with
eval-after-load, which loads the stuff not at startup
time, but when it's needed. Say you've got this in your
-~/.gnus.el:
+@file{~/.gnus.el}:
@example
(require 'message)
@subsubheading Answer
A speed killer is setting the variable
-gnus-fetch-old-headers to anything different from nil,
+gnus-fetch-old-headers to anything different from @code{nil},
so don't do this if speed is an issue. To speed up
building of summary say
@end example
@noindent
-at the bottom of your ~/.gnus.el, this will make gnus
+at the bottom of your @file{~/.gnus.el}, this will make gnus
byte-compile things like
gnus-summary-line-format.
then you could increase the value of gc-cons-threshold
@end example
@noindent
-in ~/.gnus.el (thanks to Jesper harder for the last
+in @file{~/.gnus.el} (thanks to Jesper harder for the last
two suggestions). Finally if you are still using 5.8.8
or 5.9 and experience speed problems with summary
buffer generation, you definitely should update to
@table @dfn
@item ~/.gnus.el
-When the term ~/.gnus.el is used it just means your Gnus
-configuration file. You might as well call it ~/.gnus or
+When the term @file{~/.gnus.el} is used it just means your Gnus
+configuration file. You might as well call it @file{~/.gnus} or
specify another name.
@item Back End
projects / gnus / blobdiff