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4 @settitle Gnus 5.6.9 Manual
9 @c * Gnus: (gnus). The news reader Gnus.
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262 \gnusauthor{by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen}
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271 Copyright \copyright{} 1995,96,97 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
273 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
274 this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
275 are preserved on all copies.
277 Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
278 manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
279 entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
280 permission notice identical to this one.
282 Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual
283 into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions.
292 This file documents Gnus, the GNU Emacs newsreader.
294 Copyright (C) 1995,96 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
296 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
297 this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
298 are preserved on all copies.
301 Permission is granted to process this file through Tex and print the
302 results, provided the printed document carries copying permission
303 notice identical to this one except for the removal of this paragraph
304 (this paragraph not being relevant to the printed manual).
307 Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
308 manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the
309 entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
310 permission notice identical to this one.
312 Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual
313 into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions.
319 @title Gnus 5.6.9 Manual
321 @author by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
324 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
325 Copyright @copyright{} 1995,96,97 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
327 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
328 this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
329 are preserved on all copies.
331 Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
332 manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
333 entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
334 permission notice identical to this one.
336 Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual
337 into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions.
346 @top The Gnus Newsreader
350 You can read news (and mail) from within Emacs by using Gnus. The news
351 can be gotten by any nefarious means you can think of---@sc{nntp}, local
352 spool or your mbox file. All at the same time, if you want to push your
355 This manual corresponds to Gnus 5.6.9.
366 Gnus is the advanced, self-documenting, customizable, extensible
367 unreal-time newsreader for GNU Emacs.
369 Oops. That sounds oddly familiar, so let's start over again to avoid
370 being accused of plagiarism:
372 Gnus is a message-reading laboratory. It will let you look at just
373 about anything as if it were a newsgroup. You can read mail with it,
374 you can browse directories with it, you can @code{ftp} with it---you can
375 even read news with it!
377 Gnus tries to empower people who read news the same way Emacs empowers
378 people who edit text. Gnus sets no limits to what the user should be
379 allowed to do. Users are encouraged to extend Gnus to make it behave
380 like they want it to behave. A program should not control people;
381 people should be empowered to do what they want by using (or abusing)
388 * Starting Up:: Finding news can be a pain.
389 * The Group Buffer:: Selecting, subscribing and killing groups.
390 * The Summary Buffer:: Reading, saving and posting articles.
391 * The Article Buffer:: Displaying and handling articles.
392 * Composing Messages:: Information on sending mail and news.
393 * Select Methods:: Gnus reads all messages from various select methods.
394 * Scoring:: Assigning values to articles.
395 * Various:: General purpose settings.
396 * The End:: Farewell and goodbye.
397 * Appendices:: Terminology, Emacs intro, FAQ, History, Internals.
398 * Index:: Variable, function and concept index.
399 * Key Index:: Key Index.
403 @chapter Starting Gnus
408 If your system administrator has set things up properly, starting Gnus
409 and reading news is extremely easy---you just type @kbd{M-x gnus} in
412 @findex gnus-other-frame
413 @kindex M-x gnus-other-frame
414 If you want to start Gnus in a different frame, you can use the command
415 @kbd{M-x gnus-other-frame} instead.
417 If things do not go smoothly at startup, you have to twiddle some
418 variables in your @file{~/.gnus} file. This file is similar to
419 @file{~/.emacs}, but is read when gnus starts.
421 If you puzzle at any terms used in this manual, please refer to the
422 terminology section (@pxref{Terminology}).
425 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
426 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
427 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
428 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
429 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
430 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
431 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
432 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
433 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
434 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
435 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
439 @node Finding the News
440 @section Finding the News
443 @vindex gnus-select-method
445 The @code{gnus-select-method} variable says where Gnus should look for
446 news. This variable should be a list where the first element says
447 @dfn{how} and the second element says @dfn{where}. This method is your
448 native method. All groups not fetched with this method are
451 For instance, if the @samp{news.somewhere.edu} @sc{nntp} server is where
452 you want to get your daily dosage of news from, you'd say:
455 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"))
458 If you want to read directly from the local spool, say:
461 (setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool ""))
464 If you can use a local spool, you probably should, as it will almost
465 certainly be much faster.
467 @vindex gnus-nntpserver-file
469 @cindex @sc{nntp} server
470 If this variable is not set, Gnus will take a look at the
471 @code{NNTPSERVER} environment variable. If that variable isn't set,
472 Gnus will see whether @code{gnus-nntpserver-file}
473 (@file{/etc/nntpserver} by default) has any opinions on the matter. If
474 that fails as well, Gnus will try to use the machine running Emacs as an @sc{nntp} server. That's a long shot, though.
476 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
477 If @code{gnus-nntp-server} is set, this variable will override
478 @code{gnus-select-method}. You should therefore set
479 @code{gnus-nntp-server} to @code{nil}, which is what it is by default.
481 @vindex gnus-secondary-servers
482 You can also make Gnus prompt you interactively for the name of an
483 @sc{nntp} server. If you give a non-numerical prefix to @code{gnus}
484 (i.e., @kbd{C-u M-x gnus}), Gnus will let you choose between the servers
485 in the @code{gnus-secondary-servers} list (if any). You can also just
486 type in the name of any server you feel like visiting.
488 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
490 However, if you use one @sc{nntp} server regularly and are just
491 interested in a couple of groups from a different server, you would be
492 better served by using the @kbd{B} command in the group buffer. It will
493 let you have a look at what groups are available, and you can subscribe
494 to any of the groups you want to. This also makes @file{.newsrc}
495 maintenance much tidier. @xref{Foreign Groups}.
497 @vindex gnus-secondary-select-methods
499 A slightly different approach to foreign groups is to set the
500 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} variable. The select methods
501 listed in this variable are in many ways just as native as the
502 @code{gnus-select-method} server. They will also be queried for active
503 files during startup (if that's required), and new newsgroups that
504 appear on these servers will be subscribed (or not) just as native
507 For instance, if you use the @code{nnmbox} backend to read your mail, you
508 would typically set this variable to
511 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnmbox "")))
516 @section The First Time
517 @cindex first time usage
519 If no startup files exist, Gnus will try to determine what groups should
520 be subscribed by default.
522 @vindex gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups
523 If the variable @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is set, Gnus
524 will subscribe you to just those groups in that list, leaving the rest
525 killed. Your system administrator should have set this variable to
528 Since she hasn't, Gnus will just subscribe you to a few arbitrarily
529 picked groups (i.e., @samp{*.newusers}). (@dfn{Arbitrary} is defined
530 here as @dfn{whatever Lars thinks you should read}.)
532 You'll also be subscribed to the Gnus documentation group, which should
533 help you with most common problems.
535 If @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is @code{t}, Gnus will just
536 use the normal functions for handling new groups, and not do anything
540 @node The Server is Down
541 @section The Server is Down
542 @cindex server errors
544 If the default server is down, Gnus will understandably have some
545 problems starting. However, if you have some mail groups in addition to
546 the news groups, you may want to start Gnus anyway.
548 Gnus, being the trusting sort of program, will ask whether to proceed
549 without a native select method if that server can't be contacted. This
550 will happen whether the server doesn't actually exist (i.e., you have
551 given the wrong address) or the server has just momentarily taken ill
552 for some reason or other. If you decide to continue and have no foreign
553 groups, you'll find it difficult to actually do anything in the group
554 buffer. But, hey, that's your problem. Blllrph!
556 @findex gnus-no-server
557 @kindex M-x gnus-no-server
559 If you know that the server is definitely down, or you just want to read
560 your mail without bothering with the server at all, you can use the
561 @code{gnus-no-server} command to start Gnus. That might come in handy
562 if you're in a hurry as well. This command will not attempt to contact
563 your primary server---instead, it will just activate all groups on level
564 1 and 2. (You should preferably keep no native groups on those two
569 @section Slave Gnusae
572 You might want to run more than one Emacs with more than one Gnus at the
573 same time. If you are using different @file{.newsrc} files (e.g., if you
574 are using the two different Gnusae to read from two different servers),
575 that is no problem whatsoever. You just do it.
577 The problem appears when you want to run two Gnusae that use the same
580 To work around that problem some, we here at the Think-Tank at the Gnus
581 Towers have come up with a new concept: @dfn{Masters} and
582 @dfn{slaves}. (We have applied for a patent on this concept, and have
583 taken out a copyright on those words. If you wish to use those words in
584 conjunction with each other, you have to send $1 per usage instance to
585 me. Usage of the patent (@dfn{Master/Slave Relationships In Computer
586 Applications}) will be much more expensive, of course.)
588 Anyways, you start one Gnus up the normal way with @kbd{M-x gnus} (or
589 however you do it). Each subsequent slave Gnusae should be started with
590 @kbd{M-x gnus-slave}. These slaves won't save normal @file{.newsrc}
591 files, but instead save @dfn{slave files} that contain information only
592 on what groups have been read in the slave session. When a master Gnus
593 starts, it will read (and delete) these slave files, incorporating all
594 information from them. (The slave files will be read in the sequence
595 they were created, so the latest changes will have precedence.)
597 Information from the slave files has, of course, precedence over the
598 information in the normal (i.e., master) @code{.newsrc} file.
601 @node Fetching a Group
602 @section Fetching a Group
603 @cindex fetching a group
605 @findex gnus-fetch-group
606 It is sometimes convenient to be able to just say ``I want to read this
607 group and I don't care whether Gnus has been started or not''. This is
608 perhaps more useful for people who write code than for users, but the
609 command @code{gnus-fetch-group} provides this functionality in any case.
610 It takes the group name as a parameter.
618 @vindex gnus-check-new-newsgroups
619 If you are satisfied that you really never want to see any new groups,
620 you can set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil}. This will
621 also save you some time at startup. Even if this variable is
622 @code{nil}, you can always subscribe to the new groups just by pressing
623 @kbd{U} in the group buffer (@pxref{Group Maintenance}). This variable
624 is @code{ask-server} by default. If you set this variable to
625 @code{always}, then Gnus will query the backends for new groups even
626 when you do the @kbd{g} command (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
629 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
630 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
631 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
635 @node Checking New Groups
636 @subsection Checking New Groups
638 Gnus normally determines whether a group is new or not by comparing the
639 list of groups from the active file(s) with the lists of subscribed and
640 dead groups. This isn't a particularly fast method. If
641 @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} is @code{ask-server}, Gnus will ask the
642 server for new groups since the last time. This is both faster and
643 cheaper. This also means that you can get rid of the list of killed
644 groups altogether, so you may set @code{gnus-save-killed-list} to
645 @code{nil}, which will save time both at startup, at exit, and all over.
646 Saves disk space, too. Why isn't this the default, then?
647 Unfortunately, not all servers support this command.
649 I bet I know what you're thinking now: How do I find out whether my
650 server supports @code{ask-server}? No? Good, because I don't have a
651 fail-safe answer. I would suggest just setting this variable to
652 @code{ask-server} and see whether any new groups appear within the next
653 few days. If any do, then it works. If none do, then it doesn't
654 work. I could write a function to make Gnus guess whether the server
655 supports @code{ask-server}, but it would just be a guess. So I won't.
656 You could @code{telnet} to the server and say @code{HELP} and see
657 whether it lists @samp{NEWGROUPS} among the commands it understands. If
658 it does, then it might work. (But there are servers that lists
659 @samp{NEWGROUPS} without supporting the function properly.)
661 This variable can also be a list of select methods. If so, Gnus will
662 issue an @code{ask-server} command to each of the select methods, and
663 subscribe them (or not) using the normal methods. This might be handy
664 if you are monitoring a few servers for new groups. A side effect is
665 that startup will take much longer, so you can meditate while waiting.
666 Use the mantra ``dingnusdingnusdingnus'' to achieve permanent bliss.
669 @node Subscription Methods
670 @subsection Subscription Methods
672 @vindex gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method
673 What Gnus does when it encounters a new group is determined by the
674 @code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} variable.
676 This variable should contain a function. This function will be called
677 with the name of the new group as the only parameter.
679 Some handy pre-fab functions are:
683 @item gnus-subscribe-zombies
684 @vindex gnus-subscribe-zombies
685 Make all new groups zombies. This is the default. You can browse the
686 zombies later (with @kbd{A z}) and either kill them all off properly
687 (with @kbd{S z}), or subscribe to them (with @kbd{u}).
689 @item gnus-subscribe-randomly
690 @vindex gnus-subscribe-randomly
691 Subscribe all new groups in arbitrary order. This really means that all
692 new groups will be added at ``the top'' of the group buffer.
694 @item gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
695 @vindex gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
696 Subscribe all new groups in alphabetical order.
698 @item gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
699 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
700 Subscribe all new groups hierarchically. The difference between this
701 function and @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} is slight.
702 @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} will subscribe new groups in a strictly
703 alphabetical fashion, while this function will enter groups into it's
704 hierarchy. So if you want to have the @samp{rec} hierarchy before the
705 @samp{comp} hierarchy, this function will not mess that configuration
706 up. Or something like that.
708 @item gnus-subscribe-interactively
709 @vindex gnus-subscribe-interactively
710 Subscribe new groups interactively. This means that Gnus will ask
711 you about @strong{all} new groups. The groups you choose to subscribe
712 to will be subscribed hierarchically.
714 @item gnus-subscribe-killed
715 @vindex gnus-subscribe-killed
720 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive
721 A closely related variable is
722 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. (That's quite a
723 mouthful.) If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will ask you in a
724 hierarchical fashion whether to subscribe to new groups or not. Gnus
725 will ask you for each sub-hierarchy whether you want to descend the
728 One common mistake is to set the variable a few paragraphs above
729 (@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method}) to
730 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. This is an error. This
731 will not work. This is ga-ga. So don't do it.
734 @node Filtering New Groups
735 @subsection Filtering New Groups
737 A nice and portable way to control which new newsgroups should be
738 subscribed (or ignored) is to put an @dfn{options} line at the start of
739 the @file{.newsrc} file. Here's an example:
742 options -n !alt.all !rec.all sci.all
745 @vindex gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method
746 This line obviously belongs to a serious-minded intellectual scientific
747 person (or she may just be plain old boring), because it says that all
748 groups that have names beginning with @samp{alt} and @samp{rec} should
749 be ignored, and all groups with names beginning with @samp{sci} should
750 be subscribed. Gnus will not use the normal subscription method for
751 subscribing these groups.
752 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method} is used instead. This
753 variable defaults to @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically}.
755 @vindex gnus-options-not-subscribe
756 @vindex gnus-options-subscribe
757 If you don't want to mess with your @file{.newsrc} file, you can just
758 set the two variables @code{gnus-options-subscribe} and
759 @code{gnus-options-not-subscribe}. These two variables do exactly the
760 same as the @file{.newsrc} @samp{options -n} trick. Both are regexps,
761 and if the new group matches the former, it will be unconditionally
762 subscribed, and if it matches the latter, it will be ignored.
764 @vindex gnus-auto-subscribed-groups
765 Yet another variable that meddles here is
766 @code{gnus-auto-subscribed-groups}. It works exactly like
767 @code{gnus-options-subscribe}, and is therefore really superfluous, but I
768 thought it would be nice to have two of these. This variable is more
769 meant for setting some ground rules, while the other variable is used
770 more for user fiddling. By default this variable makes all new groups
771 that come from mail backends (@code{nnml}, @code{nnbabyl},
772 @code{nnfolder}, @code{nnmbox}, and @code{nnmh}) subscribed. If you
773 don't like that, just set this variable to @code{nil}.
775 New groups that match this regexp are subscribed using
776 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method}.
779 @node Changing Servers
780 @section Changing Servers
781 @cindex changing servers
783 Sometimes it is necessary to move from one @sc{nntp} server to another.
784 This happens very rarely, but perhaps you change jobs, or one server is
785 very flaky and you want to use another.
787 Changing the server is pretty easy, right? You just change
788 @code{gnus-select-method} to point to the new server?
792 Article numbers are not (in any way) kept synchronized between different
793 @sc{nntp} servers, and the only way Gnus keeps track of what articles
794 you have read is by keeping track of article numbers. So when you
795 change @code{gnus-select-method}, your @file{.newsrc} file becomes
798 Gnus provides a few functions to attempt to translate a @file{.newsrc}
799 file from one server to another. They all have one thing in
800 common---they take a looong time to run. You don't want to use these
801 functions more than absolutely necessary.
803 @kindex M-x gnus-change-server
804 @findex gnus-change-server
805 If you have access to both servers, Gnus can request the headers for all
806 the articles you have read and compare @code{Message-ID}s and map the
807 article numbers of the read articles and article marks. The @kbd{M-x
808 gnus-change-server} command will do this for all your native groups. It
809 will prompt for the method you want to move to.
811 @kindex M-x gnus-group-move-group-to-server
812 @findex gnus-group-move-group-to-server
813 You can also move individual groups with the @kbd{M-x
814 gnus-group-move-group-to-server} command. This is useful if you want to
815 move a (foreign) group from one server to another.
817 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
818 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
819 If you don't have access to both the old and new server, all your marks
820 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use the @kbd{M-x
821 gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups} command to clear out all data
822 that you have on your native groups. Use with caution.
826 @section Startup Files
827 @cindex startup files
832 Now, you all know about the @file{.newsrc} file. All subscription
833 information is traditionally stored in this file.
835 Things got a bit more complicated with @sc{gnus}. In addition to
836 keeping the @file{.newsrc} file updated, it also used a file called
837 @file{.newsrc.el} for storing all the information that didn't fit into
838 the @file{.newsrc} file. (Actually, it also duplicated everything in
839 the @file{.newsrc} file.) @sc{gnus} would read whichever one of these
840 files was the most recently saved, which enabled people to swap between
841 @sc{gnus} and other newsreaders.
843 That was kinda silly, so Gnus went one better: In addition to the
844 @file{.newsrc} and @file{.newsrc.el} files, Gnus also has a file called
845 @file{.newsrc.eld}. It will read whichever of these files that are most
846 recent, but it will never write a @file{.newsrc.el} file. You should
847 never delete the @file{.newsrc.eld} file---it contains much information
848 not stored in the @file{.newsrc} file.
850 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-file
851 You can turn off writing the @file{.newsrc} file by setting
852 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-file} to @code{nil}, which means you can delete
853 the file and save some space, as well as making exit from Gnus faster.
854 However, this will make it impossible to use other newsreaders than
855 Gnus. But hey, who would want to, right?
857 @vindex gnus-save-killed-list
858 If @code{gnus-save-killed-list} (default @code{t}) is @code{nil}, Gnus
859 will not save the list of killed groups to the startup file. This will
860 save both time (when starting and quitting) and space (on disk). It
861 will also mean that Gnus has no record of what groups are new or old,
862 so the automatic new groups subscription methods become meaningless.
863 You should always set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil} or
864 @code{ask-server} if you set this variable to @code{nil} (@pxref{New
865 Groups}). This variable can also be a regular expression. If that's
866 the case, remove all groups that do not match this regexp before
867 saving. This can be useful in certain obscure situations that involve
868 several servers where not all servers support @code{ask-server}.
870 @vindex gnus-startup-file
871 The @code{gnus-startup-file} variable says where the startup files are.
872 The default value is @file{~/.newsrc}, with the Gnus (El Dingo) startup
873 file being whatever that one is, with a @samp{.eld} appended.
875 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-hook
876 @vindex gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook
877 @vindex gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook
878 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-hook} is called before saving any of the newsrc
879 files, while @code{gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook} is called just before
880 saving the @file{.newsrc.eld} file, and
881 @code{gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook} is called just before saving the
882 @file{.newsrc} file. The latter two are commonly used to turn version
883 control on or off. Version control is on by default when saving the
884 startup files. If you want to turn backup creation off, say something like:
887 (defun turn-off-backup ()
888 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
890 (add-hook 'gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
891 (add-hook 'gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
894 @vindex gnus-init-file
895 When Gnus starts, it will read the @code{gnus-site-init-file}
896 (@file{.../site-lisp/gnus} by default) and @code{gnus-init-file}
897 (@file{~/.gnus} by default) files. These are normal Emacs Lisp files
898 and can be used to avoid cluttering your @file{~/.emacs} and
899 @file{site-init} files with Gnus stuff. Gnus will also check for files
900 with the same names as these, but with @file{.elc} and @file{.el}
901 suffixes. In other words, if you have set @code{gnus-init-file} to
902 @file{~/.gnus}, it will look for @file{~/.gnus.elc}, @file{~/.gnus.el},
903 and finally @file{~/.gnus} (in this order).
912 Whenever you do something that changes the Gnus data (reading articles,
913 catching up, killing/subscribing groups), the change is added to a
914 special @dfn{dribble buffer}. This buffer is auto-saved the normal
915 Emacs way. If your Emacs should crash before you have saved the
916 @file{.newsrc} files, all changes you have made can be recovered from
919 If Gnus detects this file at startup, it will ask the user whether to
920 read it. The auto save file is deleted whenever the real startup file is
923 @vindex gnus-use-dribble-file
924 If @code{gnus-use-dribble-file} is @code{nil}, Gnus won't create and
925 maintain a dribble buffer. The default is @code{t}.
927 @vindex gnus-dribble-directory
928 Gnus will put the dribble file(s) in @code{gnus-dribble-directory}. If
929 this variable is @code{nil}, which it is by default, Gnus will dribble
930 into the directory where the @file{.newsrc} file is located. (This is
931 normally the user's home directory.) The dribble file will get the same
932 file permissions as the @code{.newsrc} file.
935 @node The Active File
936 @section The Active File
938 @cindex ignored groups
940 When Gnus starts, or indeed whenever it tries to determine whether new
941 articles have arrived, it reads the active file. This is a very large
942 file that lists all the active groups and articles on the server.
944 @vindex gnus-ignored-newsgroups
945 Before examining the active file, Gnus deletes all lines that match the
946 regexp @code{gnus-ignored-newsgroups}. This is done primarily to reject
947 any groups with bogus names, but you can use this variable to make Gnus
948 ignore hierarchies you aren't ever interested in. However, this is not
949 recommended. In fact, it's highly discouraged. Instead, @pxref{New
950 Groups} for an overview of other variables that can be used instead.
953 @c @code{nil} by default, and will slow down active file handling somewhat
954 @c if you set it to anything else.
956 @vindex gnus-read-active-file
958 The active file can be rather Huge, so if you have a slow network, you
959 can set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{nil} to prevent Gnus from
960 reading the active file. This variable is @code{some} by default.
962 Gnus will try to make do by getting information just on the groups that
963 you actually subscribe to.
965 Note that if you subscribe to lots and lots of groups, setting this
966 variable to @code{nil} will probably make Gnus slower, not faster. At
967 present, having this variable @code{nil} will slow Gnus down
968 considerably, unless you read news over a 2400 baud modem.
970 This variable can also have the value @code{some}. Gnus will then
971 attempt to read active info only on the subscribed groups. On some
972 servers this is quite fast (on sparkling, brand new INN servers that
973 support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command), on others this isn't fast
974 at all. In any case, @code{some} should be faster than @code{nil}, and
975 is certainly faster than @code{t} over slow lines.
977 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will ask for group info in total
978 lock-step, which isn't very fast. If it is @code{some} and you use an
979 @sc{nntp} server, Gnus will pump out commands as fast as it can, and
980 read all the replies in one swoop. This will normally result in better
981 performance, but if the server does not support the aforementioned
982 @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command, this isn't very nice to the server.
984 In any case, if you use @code{some} or @code{nil}, you should definitely
985 kill all groups that you aren't interested in to speed things up.
987 Note that this variable also affects active file retrieval from
988 secondary select methods.
991 @node Startup Variables
992 @section Startup Variables
997 @vindex gnus-load-hook
998 A hook run while Gnus is being loaded. Note that this hook will
999 normally be run just once in each Emacs session, no matter how many
1000 times you start Gnus.
1002 @item gnus-before-startup-hook
1003 @vindex gnus-before-startup-hook
1004 A hook run after starting up Gnus successfully.
1006 @item gnus-startup-hook
1007 @vindex gnus-startup-hook
1008 A hook run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1010 @item gnus-started-hook
1011 @vindex gnus-started-hook
1012 A hook that is run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1015 @item gnus-started-hook
1016 @vindex gnus-started-hook
1017 A hook that is run after reading the @file{.newsrc} file(s), but before
1018 generating the group buffer.
1020 @item gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1021 @vindex gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1022 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will check for and delete all bogus groups at
1023 startup. A @dfn{bogus group} is a group that you have in your
1024 @file{.newsrc} file, but doesn't exist on the news server. Checking for
1025 bogus groups can take quite a while, so to save time and resources it's
1026 best to leave this option off, and do the checking for bogus groups once
1027 in a while from the group buffer instead (@pxref{Group Maintenance}).
1029 @item gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1030 @vindex gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1031 If non-@code{nil}, the startup message won't be displayed. That way,
1032 your boss might not notice as easily that you are reading news instead
1033 of doing your job. Note that this variable is used before
1034 @file{.gnus.el} is loaded, so it should be set in @code{.emacs} instead.
1036 @item gnus-no-groups-message
1037 @vindex gnus-no-groups-message
1038 Message displayed by Gnus when no groups are available.
1040 @item gnus-play-startup-jingle
1041 @vindex gnus-play-startup-jingle
1042 If non-@code{nil}, play the Gnus jingle at startup.
1044 @item gnus-startup-jingle
1045 @vindex gnus-startup-jingle
1046 Jingle to be played if the above variable is non-@code{nil}. The
1047 default is @samp{Tuxedomoon.Jingle4.au}.
1052 @node The Group Buffer
1053 @chapter The Group Buffer
1054 @cindex group buffer
1056 The @dfn{group buffer} lists all (or parts) of the available groups. It
1057 is the first buffer shown when Gnus starts, and will never be killed as
1058 long as Gnus is active.
1062 \gnusfigure{The Group Buffer}{320}{
1063 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=tmp/group.ps,height=9cm}}
1064 \put(120,37){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Buffer name}}
1065 \put(120,38){\vector(1,2){10}}
1066 \put(40,60){\makebox(0,0)[r]{Mode line}}
1067 \put(40,58){\vector(1,0){30}}
1068 \put(200,28){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Native select method}}
1069 \put(200,26){\vector(-1,2){15}}
1075 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
1076 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
1077 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
1078 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
1079 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
1080 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
1081 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
1082 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
1083 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
1084 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
1085 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
1086 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
1087 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
1088 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
1089 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
1090 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
1091 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
1095 @node Group Buffer Format
1096 @section Group Buffer Format
1099 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
1100 * Group Modeline Specification:: The group buffer modeline.
1101 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
1105 @node Group Line Specification
1106 @subsection Group Line Specification
1107 @cindex group buffer format
1109 The default format of the group buffer is nice and dull, but you can
1110 make it as exciting and ugly as you feel like.
1112 Here's a couple of example group lines:
1115 25: news.announce.newusers
1116 * 0: alt.fan.andrea-dworkin
1121 You can see that there are 25 unread articles in
1122 @samp{news.announce.newusers}. There are no unread articles, but some
1123 ticked articles, in @samp{alt.fan.andrea-dworkin} (see that little
1124 asterisk at the beginning of the line?).
1126 @vindex gnus-group-line-format
1127 You can change that format to whatever you want by fiddling with the
1128 @code{gnus-group-line-format} variable. This variable works along the
1129 lines of a @code{format} specification, which is pretty much the same as
1130 a @code{printf} specifications, for those of you who use (feh!) C.
1131 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
1133 @samp{%M%S%5y: %(%g%)\n} is the value that produced those lines above.
1135 There should always be a colon on the line; the cursor always moves to
1136 the colon after performing an operation. Nothing else is required---not
1137 even the group name. All displayed text is just window dressing, and is
1138 never examined by Gnus. Gnus stores all real information it needs using
1141 (Note that if you make a really strange, wonderful, spreadsheet-like
1142 layout, everybody will believe you are hard at work with the accounting
1143 instead of wasting time reading news.)
1145 Here's a list of all available format characters:
1150 An asterisk if the group only has marked articles.
1153 Whether the group is subscribed.
1156 Level of subscribedness.
1159 Number of unread articles.
1162 Number of dormant articles.
1165 Number of ticked articles.
1168 Number of read articles.
1171 Estimated total number of articles. (This is really @var{max-number}
1172 minus @var{min-number} plus 1.)
1175 Number of unread, unticked, non-dormant articles.
1178 Number of ticked and dormant articles.
1187 Newsgroup description.
1190 @samp{m} if moderated.
1193 @samp{(m)} if moderated.
1202 A string that looks like @samp{<%s:%n>} if a foreign select method is
1206 Indentation based on the level of the topic (@pxref{Group Topics}).
1209 @vindex gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels
1210 Short (collapsed) group name. The @code{gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels}
1211 variable says how many levels to leave at the end of the group name.
1212 The default is 1---this will mean that group names like
1213 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} will be shortened to @samp{g.emacs.gnus}.
1216 @vindex gnus-new-mail-mark
1218 @samp{%} (@code{gnus-new-mail-mark}) if there has arrived new mail to
1222 A string that says when you last read the group (@pxref{Group
1226 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
1227 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
1228 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
1229 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed a single dummy
1230 parameter as argument. The function should return a string, which will
1231 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
1236 All the ``number-of'' specs will be filled with an asterisk (@samp{*})
1237 if no info is available---for instance, if it is a non-activated foreign
1238 group, or a bogus native group.
1241 @node Group Modeline Specification
1242 @subsection Group Modeline Specification
1243 @cindex group modeline
1245 @vindex gnus-group-mode-line-format
1246 The mode line can be changed by setting
1247 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Formatting Variables}). It
1248 doesn't understand that many format specifiers:
1252 The native news server.
1254 The native select method.
1258 @node Group Highlighting
1259 @subsection Group Highlighting
1260 @cindex highlighting
1261 @cindex group highlighting
1263 @vindex gnus-group-highlight
1264 Highlighting in the group buffer is controlled by the
1265 @code{gnus-group-highlight} variable. This is an alist with elements
1266 that look like @var{(form . face)}. If @var{form} evaluates to
1267 something non-@code{nil}, the @var{face} will be used on the line.
1269 Here's an example value for this variable that might look nice if the
1273 (face-spec-set 'my-group-face-1 '((t (:foreground "Red" :bold t))))
1274 (face-spec-set 'my-group-face-2 '((t (:foreground "SeaGreen" :bold t))))
1275 (face-spec-set 'my-group-face-3 '((t (:foreground "SpringGreen" :bold t))))
1276 (face-spec-set 'my-group-face-4 '((t (:foreground "SteelBlue" :bold t))))
1277 (face-spec-set 'my-group-face-5 '((t (:foreground "SkyBlue" :bold t))))
1279 (setq gnus-group-highlight
1280 '(((> unread 200) . my-group-face-1)
1281 ((and (< level 3) (zerop unread)) . my-group-face-2)
1282 ((< level 3) . my-group-face-3)
1283 ((zerop unread) . my-group-face-4)
1284 (t . my-group-face-5)))
1287 Also @pxref{Faces and Fonts}.
1289 Variables that are dynamically bound when the forms are evaluated
1296 The number of unread articles in the group.
1300 Whether the group is a mail group.
1302 The level of the group.
1304 The score of the group.
1306 The number of ticked articles in the group.
1308 The total number of articles in the group. Or rather, MAX-NUMBER minus
1309 MIN-NUMBER plus one.
1311 When using the topic minor mode, this variable is bound to the current
1312 topic being inserted.
1315 When the forms are @code{eval}ed, point is at the beginning of the line
1316 of the group in question, so you can use many of the normal Gnus
1317 functions for snarfing info on the group.
1319 @vindex gnus-group-update-hook
1320 @findex gnus-group-highlight-line
1321 @code{gnus-group-update-hook} is called when a group line is changed.
1322 It will not be called when @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}. This hook
1323 calls @code{gnus-group-highlight-line} by default.
1326 @node Group Maneuvering
1327 @section Group Maneuvering
1328 @cindex group movement
1330 All movement commands understand the numeric prefix and will behave as
1331 expected, hopefully.
1337 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group
1338 Go to the next group that has unread articles
1339 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group}).
1345 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group
1346 Go to the previous group that has unread articles
1347 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group}).
1351 @findex gnus-group-next-group
1352 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
1356 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
1357 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
1361 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level
1362 Go to the next unread group on the same (or lower) level
1363 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level}).
1367 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level
1368 Go to the previous unread group on the same (or lower) level
1369 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level}).
1372 Three commands for jumping to groups:
1378 @findex gnus-group-jump-to-group
1379 Jump to a group (and make it visible if it isn't already)
1380 (@code{gnus-group-jump-to-group}). Killed groups can be jumped to, just
1385 @findex gnus-group-best-unread-group
1386 Jump to the unread group with the lowest level
1387 (@code{gnus-group-best-unread-group}).
1391 @findex gnus-group-first-unread-group
1392 Jump to the first group with unread articles
1393 (@code{gnus-group-first-unread-group}).
1396 @vindex gnus-group-goto-unread
1397 If @code{gnus-group-goto-unread} is @code{nil}, all the movement
1398 commands will move to the next group, not the next unread group. Even
1399 the commands that say they move to the next unread group. The default
1403 @node Selecting a Group
1404 @section Selecting a Group
1405 @cindex group selection
1410 @kindex SPACE (Group)
1411 @findex gnus-group-read-group
1412 Select the current group, switch to the summary buffer and display the
1413 first unread article (@code{gnus-group-read-group}). If there are no
1414 unread articles in the group, or if you give a non-numerical prefix to
1415 this command, Gnus will offer to fetch all the old articles in this
1416 group from the server. If you give a numerical prefix @var{N}, @var{N}
1417 determines the number of articles Gnus will fetch. If @var{N} is
1418 positive, Gnus fetches the @var{N} newest articles, if @var{N} is
1419 negative, Gnus fetches the @var{abs(N)} oldest articles.
1423 @findex gnus-group-select-group
1424 Select the current group and switch to the summary buffer
1425 (@code{gnus-group-select-group}). Takes the same arguments as
1426 @code{gnus-group-read-group}---the only difference is that this command
1427 does not display the first unread article automatically upon group
1431 @kindex M-RET (Group)
1432 @findex gnus-group-quick-select-group
1433 This does the same as the command above, but tries to do it with the
1434 minimum amount of fuzz (@code{gnus-group-quick-select-group}). No
1435 scoring/killing will be performed, there will be no highlights and no
1436 expunging. This might be useful if you're in a real hurry and have to
1437 enter some humongous group. If you give a 0 prefix to this command
1438 (i.e., @kbd{0 M-RET}), Gnus won't even generate the summary buffer,
1439 which is useful if you want to toggle threading before generating the
1440 summary buffer (@pxref{Summary Generation Commands}).
1443 @kindex M-SPACE (Group)
1444 @findex gnus-group-visible-select-group
1445 This is yet one more command that does the same as the @kbd{RET}
1446 command, but this one does it without expunging and hiding dormants
1447 (@code{gnus-group-visible-select-group}).
1450 @kindex M-C-RET (Group)
1451 @findex gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally
1452 Finally, this command selects the current group ephemerally without
1453 doing any processing of its contents
1454 (@code{gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally}). Even threading has been
1455 turned off. Everything you do in the group after selecting it in this
1456 manner will have no permanent effects.
1460 @vindex gnus-large-newsgroup
1461 The @code{gnus-large-newsgroup} variable says what Gnus should consider
1462 to be a big group. This is 200 by default. If the group has more
1463 (unread and/or ticked) articles than this, Gnus will query the user
1464 before entering the group. The user can then specify how many articles
1465 should be fetched from the server. If the user specifies a negative
1466 number (@code{-n}), the @code{n} oldest articles will be fetched. If it
1467 is positive, the @code{n} articles that have arrived most recently will
1470 @vindex gnus-select-group-hook
1471 @vindex gnus-auto-select-first
1472 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} control whether any articles are selected
1473 automatically when entering a group with the @kbd{SPACE} command.
1478 Don't select any articles when entering the group. Just display the
1479 full summary buffer.
1482 Select the first unread article when entering the group.
1485 Select the most high-scored article in the group when entering the
1489 If you want to prevent automatic selection in some group (say, in a
1490 binary group with Huge articles) you can set this variable to @code{nil}
1491 in @code{gnus-select-group-hook}, which is called when a group is
1495 @node Subscription Commands
1496 @section Subscription Commands
1497 @cindex subscription
1505 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group
1506 @c @icon{gnus-group-unsubscribe}
1507 Toggle subscription to the current group
1508 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group}).
1514 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-group
1515 Prompt for a group to subscribe, and then subscribe it. If it was
1516 subscribed already, unsubscribe it instead
1517 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-group}).
1523 @findex gnus-group-kill-group
1524 @c @icon{gnus-group-kill-group}
1525 Kill the current group (@code{gnus-group-kill-group}).
1531 @findex gnus-group-yank-group
1532 Yank the last killed group (@code{gnus-group-yank-group}).
1535 @kindex C-x C-t (Group)
1536 @findex gnus-group-transpose-groups
1537 Transpose two groups (@code{gnus-group-transpose-groups}). This isn't
1538 really a subscription command, but you can use it instead of a
1539 kill-and-yank sequence sometimes.
1545 @findex gnus-group-kill-region
1546 Kill all groups in the region (@code{gnus-group-kill-region}).
1550 @findex gnus-group-kill-all-zombies
1551 Kill all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-kill-all-zombies}).
1554 @kindex S C-k (Group)
1555 @findex gnus-group-kill-level
1556 Kill all groups on a certain level (@code{gnus-group-kill-level}).
1557 These groups can't be yanked back after killing, so this command should
1558 be used with some caution. The only time where this command comes in
1559 really handy is when you have a @file{.newsrc} with lots of unsubscribed
1560 groups that you want to get rid off. @kbd{S C-k} on level 7 will
1561 kill off all unsubscribed groups that do not have message numbers in the
1562 @file{.newsrc} file.
1566 Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
1576 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current
1577 @vindex gnus-group-catchup-group-hook
1578 @c @icon{gnus-group-catchup-current}
1579 Mark all unticked articles in this group as read
1580 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current}).
1581 @code{gnus-group-catchup-group-hook} is called when catching up a group from
1586 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current-all
1587 Mark all articles in this group, even the ticked ones, as read
1588 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current-all}).
1592 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
1593 Clear the data from the current group---nix out marks and the list of
1594 read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
1596 @item M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1597 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1598 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1599 If you have switched from one @sc{nntp} server to another, all your marks
1600 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use this command to
1601 clear out all data that you have on your native groups. Use with
1608 @section Group Levels
1612 All groups have a level of @dfn{subscribedness}. For instance, if a
1613 group is on level 2, it is more subscribed than a group on level 5. You
1614 can ask Gnus to just list groups on a given level or lower
1615 (@pxref{Listing Groups}), or to just check for new articles in groups on
1616 a given level or lower (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
1618 Remember: The higher the level of the group, the less important it is.
1624 @findex gnus-group-set-current-level
1625 Set the level of the current group. If a numeric prefix is given, the
1626 next @var{n} groups will have their levels set. The user will be
1627 prompted for a level.
1630 @vindex gnus-level-killed
1631 @vindex gnus-level-zombie
1632 @vindex gnus-level-unsubscribed
1633 @vindex gnus-level-subscribed
1634 Gnus considers groups from levels 1 to
1635 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (inclusive) (default 5) to be subscribed,
1636 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (exclusive) and
1637 @code{gnus-level-unsubscribed} (inclusive) (default 7) to be
1638 unsubscribed, @code{gnus-level-zombie} to be zombies (walking dead)
1639 (default 8) and @code{gnus-level-killed} to be killed (completely dead)
1640 (default 9). Gnus treats subscribed and unsubscribed groups exactly the
1641 same, but zombie and killed groups have no information on what articles
1642 you have read, etc, stored. This distinction between dead and living
1643 groups isn't done because it is nice or clever, it is done purely for
1644 reasons of efficiency.
1646 It is recommended that you keep all your mail groups (if any) on quite
1647 low levels (e.g. 1 or 2).
1649 If you want to play with the level variables, you should show some care.
1650 Set them once, and don't touch them ever again. Better yet, don't touch
1651 them at all unless you know exactly what you're doing.
1653 @vindex gnus-level-default-unsubscribed
1654 @vindex gnus-level-default-subscribed
1655 Two closely related variables are @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}
1656 (default 3) and @code{gnus-level-default-unsubscribed} (default 6),
1657 which are the levels that new groups will be put on if they are
1658 (un)subscribed. These two variables should, of course, be inside the
1659 relevant valid ranges.
1661 @vindex gnus-keep-same-level
1662 If @code{gnus-keep-same-level} is non-@code{nil}, some movement commands
1663 will only move to groups of the same level (or lower). In
1664 particular, going from the last article in one group to the next group
1665 will go to the next group of the same level (or lower). This might be
1666 handy if you want to read the most important groups before you read the
1669 @vindex gnus-group-default-list-level
1670 All groups with a level less than or equal to
1671 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level} will be listed in the group buffer
1674 @vindex gnus-group-list-inactive-groups
1675 If @code{gnus-group-list-inactive-groups} is non-@code{nil}, non-active
1676 groups will be listed along with the unread groups. This variable is
1677 @code{t} by default. If it is @code{nil}, inactive groups won't be
1680 @vindex gnus-group-use-permanent-levels
1681 If @code{gnus-group-use-permanent-levels} is non-@code{nil}, once you
1682 give a level prefix to @kbd{g} or @kbd{l}, all subsequent commands will
1683 use this level as the ``work'' level.
1685 @vindex gnus-activate-level
1686 Gnus will normally just activate (i. e., query the server about) groups
1687 on level @code{gnus-activate-level} or less. If you don't want to
1688 activate unsubscribed groups, for instance, you might set this variable
1689 to 5. The default is 6.
1693 @section Group Score
1698 You would normally keep important groups on high levels, but that scheme
1699 is somewhat restrictive. Don't you wish you could have Gnus sort the
1700 group buffer according to how often you read groups, perhaps? Within
1703 This is what @dfn{group score} is for. You can assign a score to each
1704 group. You can then sort the group buffer based on this score.
1705 Alternatively, you can sort on score and then level. (Taken together,
1706 the level and the score is called the @dfn{rank} of the group. A group
1707 that is on level 4 and has a score of 1 has a higher rank than a group
1708 on level 5 that has a score of 300. (The level is the most significant
1709 part and the score is the least significant part.))
1711 @findex gnus-summary-bubble-group
1712 If you want groups you read often to get higher scores than groups you
1713 read seldom you can add the @code{gnus-summary-bubble-group} function to
1714 the @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} hook. This will result (after
1715 sorting) in a bubbling sort of action. If you want to see that in
1716 action after each summary exit, you can add
1717 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank} or
1718 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score} to the same hook, but that will
1719 slow things down somewhat.
1722 @node Marking Groups
1723 @section Marking Groups
1724 @cindex marking groups
1726 If you want to perform some command on several groups, and they appear
1727 subsequently in the group buffer, you would normally just give a
1728 numerical prefix to the command. Most group commands will then do your
1729 bidding on those groups.
1731 However, if the groups are not in sequential order, you can still
1732 perform a command on several groups. You simply mark the groups first
1733 with the process mark and then execute the command.
1741 @findex gnus-group-mark-group
1742 Set the mark on the current group (@code{gnus-group-mark-group}).
1748 @findex gnus-group-unmark-group
1749 Remove the mark from the current group
1750 (@code{gnus-group-unmark-group}).
1754 @findex gnus-group-unmark-all-groups
1755 Remove the mark from all groups (@code{gnus-group-unmark-all-groups}).
1759 @findex gnus-group-mark-region
1760 Mark all groups between point and mark (@code{gnus-group-mark-region}).
1764 @findex gnus-group-mark-buffer
1765 Mark all groups in the buffer (@code{gnus-group-mark-buffer}).
1769 @findex gnus-group-mark-regexp
1770 Mark all groups that match some regular expression
1771 (@code{gnus-group-mark-regexp}).
1774 Also @pxref{Process/Prefix}.
1776 @findex gnus-group-universal-argument
1777 If you want to execute some command on all groups that have been marked
1778 with the process mark, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
1779 (@code{gnus-group-universal-argument}) command. It will prompt you for
1780 the command to be executed.
1783 @node Foreign Groups
1784 @section Foreign Groups
1785 @cindex foreign groups
1787 Below are some group mode commands for making and editing general foreign
1788 groups, as well as commands to ease the creation of a few
1789 special-purpose groups. All these commands insert the newly created
1790 groups under point---@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} is not
1797 @findex gnus-group-make-group
1798 @cindex making groups
1799 Make a new group (@code{gnus-group-make-group}). Gnus will prompt you
1800 for a name, a method and possibly an @dfn{address}. For an easier way
1801 to subscribe to @sc{nntp} groups, @pxref{Browse Foreign Server}.
1805 @findex gnus-group-rename-group
1806 @cindex renaming groups
1807 Rename the current group to something else
1808 (@code{gnus-group-rename-group}). This is valid only on some
1809 groups---mail groups mostly. This command might very well be quite slow
1815 @findex gnus-group-customize
1816 Customize the group parameters (@code{gnus-group-customize}).
1820 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-method
1821 @cindex renaming groups
1822 Enter a buffer where you can edit the select method of the current
1823 group (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method}).
1827 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-parameters
1828 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group parameters
1829 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-parameters}).
1833 @findex gnus-group-edit-group
1834 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group info
1835 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group}).
1839 @findex gnus-group-make-directory-group
1841 Make a directory group (@pxref{Directory Groups}). You will be prompted
1842 for a directory name (@code{gnus-group-make-directory-group}).
1847 @findex gnus-group-make-help-group
1848 Make the Gnus help group (@code{gnus-group-make-help-group}).
1852 @cindex (ding) archive
1853 @cindex archive group
1854 @findex gnus-group-make-archive-group
1855 @vindex gnus-group-archive-directory
1856 @vindex gnus-group-recent-archive-directory
1857 Make a Gnus archive group (@code{gnus-group-make-archive-group}). By
1858 default a group pointing to the most recent articles will be created
1859 (@code{gnus-group-recent-archive-directory}), but given a prefix, a full
1860 group will be created from @code{gnus-group-archive-directory}.
1864 @findex gnus-group-make-kiboze-group
1866 Make a kiboze group. You will be prompted for a name, for a regexp to
1867 match groups to be ``included'' in the kiboze group, and a series of
1868 strings to match on headers (@code{gnus-group-make-kiboze-group}).
1869 @xref{Kibozed Groups}.
1873 @findex gnus-group-enter-directory
1875 Read an arbitrary directory as if it were a newsgroup with the
1876 @code{nneething} backend (@code{gnus-group-enter-directory}).
1877 @xref{Anything Groups}.
1881 @findex gnus-group-make-doc-group
1882 @cindex ClariNet Briefs
1884 Make a group based on some file or other
1885 (@code{gnus-group-make-doc-group}). If you give a prefix to this
1886 command, you will be prompted for a file name and a file type.
1887 Currently supported types are @code{babyl}, @code{mbox}, @code{digest},
1888 @code{mmdf}, @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{clari-briefs},
1889 @code{rfc934}, @code{rfc822-forward}, and @code{forward}. If you run
1890 this command without a prefix, Gnus will guess at the file type.
1891 @xref{Document Groups}.
1895 @findex gnus-group-make-web-group
1900 Make an ephemeral group based on a web search
1901 (@code{gnus-group-make-web-group}). If you give a prefix to this
1902 command, make a solid group instead. You will be prompted for the
1903 search engine type and the search string. Valid search engine types
1904 include @code{dejanews}, @code{altavista} and @code{reference}.
1905 @xref{Web Searches}.
1907 If you use the @code{dejanews} search engine, you can limit the search
1908 to a particular group by using a match string like
1909 @samp{~g alt.sysadmin.recovery shaving}.
1912 @kindex G DEL (Group)
1913 @findex gnus-group-delete-group
1914 This function will delete the current group
1915 (@code{gnus-group-delete-group}). If given a prefix, this function will
1916 actually delete all the articles in the group, and forcibly remove the
1917 group itself from the face of the Earth. Use a prefix only if you are
1918 absolutely sure of what you are doing. This command can't be used on
1919 read-only groups (like @code{nntp} group), though.
1923 @findex gnus-group-make-empty-virtual
1924 Make a new, fresh, empty @code{nnvirtual} group
1925 (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}). @xref{Virtual Groups}.
1929 @findex gnus-group-add-to-virtual
1930 Add the current group to an @code{nnvirtual} group
1931 (@code{gnus-group-add-to-virtual}). Uses the process/prefix convention.
1934 @xref{Select Methods} for more information on the various select
1937 @vindex gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups
1938 If @code{gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups} is a positive number,
1939 Gnus will check all foreign groups with this level or lower at startup.
1940 This might take quite a while, especially if you subscribe to lots of
1941 groups from different @sc{nntp} servers.
1944 @node Group Parameters
1945 @section Group Parameters
1946 @cindex group parameters
1948 The group parameters store information local to a particular group.
1949 Here's an example group parameter list:
1952 ((to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")
1956 We see that each element consists of a "dotted pair"---the thing before
1957 the dot is the key, while the thing after the dot is the value. All the
1958 parameters have this form @emph{except} local variable specs, which are
1959 not dotted pairs, but proper lists.
1961 The following group parameters can be used:
1966 Address used by when doing followups and new posts.
1969 (to-address . "some@@where.com")
1972 This is primarily useful in mail groups that represent closed mailing
1973 lists---mailing lists where it's expected that everybody that writes to
1974 the mailing list is subscribed to it. Since using this parameter
1975 ensures that the mail only goes to the mailing list itself, it means
1976 that members won't receive two copies of your followups.
1978 Using @code{to-address} will actually work whether the group is foreign
1979 or not. Let's say there's a group on the server that is called
1980 @samp{fa.4ad-l}. This is a real newsgroup, but the server has gotten
1981 the articles from a mail-to-news gateway. Posting directly to this
1982 group is therefore impossible---you have to send mail to the mailing
1983 list address instead.
1987 Address used when doing a @kbd{a} in that group.
1990 (to-list . "some@@where.com")
1993 It is totally ignored
1994 when doing a followup---except that if it is present in a news group,
1995 you'll get mail group semantics when doing @kbd{f}.
1997 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you have neither a
1998 @code{to-list} group parameter nor a @code{to-address} group paramater,
1999 then a @code{to-list} group parameter will be added automatically upon
2000 sending the message if @code{gnus-add-to-list} is set to @code{t}.
2001 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
2003 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you don't have a
2004 @code{to-list} group parameter, one will be added automatically upon
2005 sending the message.
2009 If the group parameter list has the element @code{(visible . t)},
2010 that group will always be visible in the Group buffer, regardless
2011 of whether it has any unread articles.
2013 @item broken-reply-to
2014 @cindex broken-reply-to
2015 Elements like @code{(broken-reply-to . t)} signals that @code{Reply-To}
2016 headers in this group are to be ignored. This can be useful if you're
2017 reading a mailing list group where the listserv has inserted
2018 @code{Reply-To} headers that point back to the listserv itself. This is
2019 broken behavior. So there!
2023 Elements like @code{(to-group . "some.group.name")} means that all
2024 posts in that group will be sent to @code{some.group.name}.
2028 If you have @code{(newsgroup . t)} in the group parameter list, Gnus
2029 will treat all responses as if they were responses to news articles.
2030 This can be useful if you have a mail group that's really a mirror of a
2035 If @code{(gcc-self . t)} is present in the group parameter list, newly
2036 composed messages will be @code{Gcc}'d to the current group. If
2037 @code{(gcc-self . none)} is present, no @code{Gcc:} header will be
2038 generated, if @code{(gcc-self . "string")} is present, this string will
2039 be inserted literally as a @code{gcc} header. This parameter takes
2040 precedence over any default @code{Gcc} rules as described later
2041 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
2045 If the group parameter has an element that looks like @code{(auto-expire
2046 . t)}, all articles read will be marked as expirable. For an
2047 alternative approach, @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
2050 @cindex total-expire
2051 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2052 @code{(total-expire . t)}, all read articles will be put through the
2053 expiry process, even if they are not marked as expirable. Use with
2054 caution. Unread, ticked and dormant articles are not eligible for
2059 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
2060 If the group parameter has an element that looks like @code{(expiry-wait
2061 . 10)}, this value will override any @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} and
2062 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} when expiring expirable messages.
2063 The value can either be a number of days (not necessarily an integer) or
2064 the symbols @code{never} or @code{immediate}.
2067 @cindex score file group parameter
2068 Elements that look like @code{(score-file . "file")} will make
2069 @file{file} into the current score file for the group in question. All
2070 interactive score entries will be put into this file.
2073 @cindex adapt file group parameter
2074 Elements that look like @code{(adapt-file . "file")} will make
2075 @file{file} into the current adaptive file for the group in question.
2076 All adaptive score entries will be put into this file.
2079 When unsubscribing from a mailing list you should never send the
2080 unsubscription notice to the mailing list itself. Instead, you'd send
2081 messages to the administrative address. This parameter allows you to
2082 put the admin address somewhere convenient.
2085 Elements that look like @code{(display . MODE)} say which articles to
2086 display on entering the group. Valid values are:
2090 Display all articles, both read and unread.
2093 Display the default visible articles, which normally includes unread and
2098 Elements that look like @code{(comment . "This is a comment")}
2099 are arbitrary comments on the group. They are currently ignored by
2100 Gnus, but provide a place for you to store information on particular
2103 @item @var{(variable form)}
2104 You can use the group parameters to set variables local to the group you
2105 are entering. If you want to turn threading off in @samp{news.answers},
2106 you could put @code{(gnus-show-threads nil)} in the group parameters of
2107 that group. @code{gnus-show-threads} will be made into a local variable
2108 in the summary buffer you enter, and the form @code{nil} will be
2109 @code{eval}ed there.
2111 This can also be used as a group-specific hook function, if you'd like.
2112 If you want to hear a beep when you enter a group, you could put
2113 something like @code{(dummy-variable (ding))} in the parameters of that
2114 group. @code{dummy-variable} will be set to the result of the
2115 @code{(ding)} form, but who cares?
2119 Use the @kbd{G p} command to edit group parameters of a group. You
2120 might also be interested in reading about topic parameters (@pxref{Topic
2124 @node Listing Groups
2125 @section Listing Groups
2126 @cindex group listing
2128 These commands all list various slices of the groups available.
2136 @findex gnus-group-list-groups
2137 List all groups that have unread articles
2138 (@code{gnus-group-list-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used, this
2139 command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default, it
2140 only lists groups of level five (i. e.,
2141 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level}) or lower (i.e., just subscribed
2148 @findex gnus-group-list-all-groups
2149 List all groups, whether they have unread articles or not
2150 (@code{gnus-group-list-all-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used,
2151 this command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default,
2152 it lists groups of level seven or lower (i.e., just subscribed and
2153 unsubscribed groups).
2157 @findex gnus-group-list-level
2158 List all unread groups on a specific level
2159 (@code{gnus-group-list-level}). If given a prefix, also list the groups
2160 with no unread articles.
2164 @findex gnus-group-list-killed
2165 List all killed groups (@code{gnus-group-list-killed}). If given a
2166 prefix argument, really list all groups that are available, but aren't
2167 currently (un)subscribed. This could entail reading the active file
2172 @findex gnus-group-list-zombies
2173 List all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-list-zombies}).
2177 @findex gnus-group-list-matching
2178 List all unread, subscribed groups with names that match a regexp
2179 (@code{gnus-group-list-matching}).
2183 @findex gnus-group-list-all-matching
2184 List groups that match a regexp (@code{gnus-group-list-all-matching}).
2188 @findex gnus-group-list-active
2189 List absolutely all groups in the active file(s) of the
2190 server(s) you are connected to (@code{gnus-group-list-active}). This
2191 might very well take quite a while. It might actually be a better idea
2192 to do a @kbd{A M} to list all matching, and just give @samp{.} as the
2193 thing to match on. Also note that this command may list groups that
2194 don't exist (yet)---these will be listed as if they were killed groups.
2195 Take the output with some grains of salt.
2199 @findex gnus-group-apropos
2200 List all groups that have names that match a regexp
2201 (@code{gnus-group-apropos}).
2205 @findex gnus-group-description-apropos
2206 List all groups that have names or descriptions that match a regexp
2207 (@code{gnus-group-description-apropos}).
2211 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
2212 @cindex visible group parameter
2213 Groups that match the @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} regexp will
2214 always be shown, whether they have unread articles or not. You can also
2215 add the @code{visible} element to the group parameters in question to
2216 get the same effect.
2218 @vindex gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles
2219 Groups that have just ticked articles in it are normally listed in the
2220 group buffer. If @code{gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles} is
2221 @code{nil}, these groups will be treated just like totally empty
2222 groups. It is @code{t} by default.
2225 @node Sorting Groups
2226 @section Sorting Groups
2227 @cindex sorting groups
2229 @kindex C-c C-s (Group)
2230 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups
2231 @vindex gnus-group-sort-function
2232 The @kbd{C-c C-s} (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups}) command sorts the
2233 group buffer according to the function(s) given by the
2234 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable. Available sorting functions
2239 @item gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
2240 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
2241 Sort the group names alphabetically. This is the default.
2243 @item gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
2244 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
2245 Sort the group alphabetically on the real (unprefixed) group names.
2247 @item gnus-group-sort-by-level
2248 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-level
2249 Sort by group level.
2251 @item gnus-group-sort-by-score
2252 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-score
2253 Sort by group score. @xref{Group Score}.
2255 @item gnus-group-sort-by-rank
2256 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-rank
2257 Sort by group score and then the group level. The level and the score
2258 are, when taken together, the group's @dfn{rank}. @xref{Group Score}.
2260 @item gnus-group-sort-by-unread
2261 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-unread
2262 Sort by number of unread articles.
2264 @item gnus-group-sort-by-method
2265 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-method
2266 Sort alphabetically on the select method.
2271 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} can also be a list of sorting
2272 functions. In that case, the most significant sort key function must be
2276 There are also a number of commands for sorting directly according to
2277 some sorting criteria:
2281 @kindex G S a (Group)
2282 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet
2283 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by group name
2284 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
2287 @kindex G S u (Group)
2288 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread
2289 Sort the group buffer by the number of unread articles
2290 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread}).
2293 @kindex G S l (Group)
2294 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level
2295 Sort the group buffer by group level
2296 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level}).
2299 @kindex G S v (Group)
2300 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score
2301 Sort the group buffer by group score
2302 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
2305 @kindex G S r (Group)
2306 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank
2307 Sort the group buffer by group rank
2308 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
2311 @kindex G S m (Group)
2312 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method
2313 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by backend name
2314 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method}).
2318 When given a prefix, all these commands will sort in reverse order.
2320 You can also sort a subset of the groups:
2324 @kindex G P a (Group)
2325 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet
2326 Sort the process/prefixed groups in the group buffer alphabetically by
2327 group name (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet}).
2330 @kindex G P u (Group)
2331 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread
2332 Sort the process/prefixed groups in the group buffer by the number of
2333 unread articles (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread}).
2336 @kindex G P l (Group)
2337 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level
2338 Sort the process/prefixed groups in the group buffer by group level
2339 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level}).
2342 @kindex G P v (Group)
2343 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score
2344 Sort the process/prefixed groups in the group buffer by group score
2345 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
2348 @kindex G P r (Group)
2349 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank
2350 Sort the process/prefixed groups in the group buffer by group rank
2351 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
2354 @kindex G P m (Group)
2355 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method
2356 Sort the process/prefixed groups in the group buffer alphabetically by
2357 backend name (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method}).
2363 @node Group Maintenance
2364 @section Group Maintenance
2365 @cindex bogus groups
2370 @findex gnus-group-check-bogus-groups
2371 Find bogus groups and delete them
2372 (@code{gnus-group-check-bogus-groups}).
2376 @findex gnus-group-find-new-groups
2377 Find new groups and process them (@code{gnus-group-find-new-groups}).
2378 If given a prefix, use the @code{ask-server} method to query the server
2382 @kindex C-c C-x (Group)
2383 @findex gnus-group-expire-articles
2384 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
2385 process (if any) (@code{gnus-group-expire-articles}).
2388 @kindex C-c M-C-x (Group)
2389 @findex gnus-group-expire-all-groups
2390 Run all articles in all groups through the expiry process
2391 (@code{gnus-group-expire-all-groups}).
2396 @node Browse Foreign Server
2397 @section Browse Foreign Server
2398 @cindex foreign servers
2399 @cindex browsing servers
2404 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
2405 You will be queried for a select method and a server name. Gnus will
2406 then attempt to contact this server and let you browse the groups there
2407 (@code{gnus-group-browse-foreign-server}).
2410 @findex gnus-browse-mode
2411 A new buffer with a list of available groups will appear. This buffer
2412 will use the @code{gnus-browse-mode}. This buffer looks a bit (well,
2413 a lot) like a normal group buffer.
2415 Here's a list of keystrokes available in the browse mode:
2420 @findex gnus-group-next-group
2421 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
2425 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
2426 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
2429 @kindex SPACE (Browse)
2430 @findex gnus-browse-read-group
2431 Enter the current group and display the first article
2432 (@code{gnus-browse-read-group}).
2435 @kindex RET (Browse)
2436 @findex gnus-browse-select-group
2437 Enter the current group (@code{gnus-browse-select-group}).
2441 @findex gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group
2442 Unsubscribe to the current group, or, as will be the case here,
2443 subscribe to it (@code{gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group}).
2449 @findex gnus-browse-exit
2450 Exit browse mode (@code{gnus-browse-exit}).
2454 @findex gnus-browse-describe-briefly
2455 Describe browse mode briefly (well, there's not much to describe, is
2456 there) (@code{gnus-browse-describe-briefly}).
2461 @section Exiting Gnus
2462 @cindex exiting Gnus
2464 Yes, Gnus is ex(c)iting.
2469 @findex gnus-group-suspend
2470 Suspend Gnus (@code{gnus-group-suspend}). This doesn't really exit Gnus,
2471 but it kills all buffers except the Group buffer. I'm not sure why this
2472 is a gain, but then who am I to judge?
2476 @findex gnus-group-exit
2477 @c @icon{gnus-group-exit}
2478 Quit Gnus (@code{gnus-group-exit}).
2482 @findex gnus-group-quit
2483 Quit Gnus without saving the @file{.newsrc} files (@code{gnus-group-quit}).
2484 The dribble file will be saved, though (@pxref{Auto Save}).
2487 @vindex gnus-exit-gnus-hook
2488 @vindex gnus-suspend-gnus-hook
2489 @code{gnus-suspend-gnus-hook} is called when you suspend Gnus and
2490 @code{gnus-exit-gnus-hook} is called when you quit Gnus, while
2491 @code{gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook} is called as the final item when
2496 If you wish to completely unload Gnus and all its adherents, you can use
2497 the @code{gnus-unload} command. This command is also very handy when
2498 trying to customize meta-variables.
2503 Miss Lisa Cannifax, while sitting in English class, felt her feet go
2504 numbly heavy and herself fall into a hazy trance as the boy sitting
2505 behind her drew repeated lines with his pencil across the back of her
2511 @section Group Topics
2514 If you read lots and lots of groups, it might be convenient to group
2515 them hierarchically according to topics. You put your Emacs groups over
2516 here, your sex groups over there, and the rest (what, two groups or so?)
2517 you put in some misc section that you never bother with anyway. You can
2518 even group the Emacs sex groups as a sub-topic to either the Emacs
2519 groups or the sex groups---or both! Go wild!
2523 \gnusfigure{Group Topics}{400}{
2524 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=tmp/group-topic.ps,height=9cm}}
2535 2: alt.religion.emacs
2538 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
2540 8: comp.binaries.fractals
2541 13: comp.sources.unix
2544 @findex gnus-topic-mode
2546 To get this @emph{fab} functionality you simply turn on (ooh!) the
2547 @code{gnus-topic} minor mode---type @kbd{t} in the group buffer. (This
2548 is a toggling command.)
2550 Go ahead, just try it. I'll still be here when you get back. La de
2551 dum... Nice tune, that... la la la... What, you're back? Yes, and now
2552 press @kbd{l}. There. All your groups are now listed under
2553 @samp{misc}. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy? Hot and
2556 If you want this permanently enabled, you should add that minor mode to
2557 the hook for the group mode:
2560 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
2564 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
2565 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
2566 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
2567 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
2568 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
2572 @node Topic Variables
2573 @subsection Topic Variables
2574 @cindex topic variables
2576 Now, if you select a topic, it will fold/unfold that topic, which is
2577 really neat, I think.
2579 @vindex gnus-topic-line-format
2580 The topic lines themselves are created according to the
2581 @code{gnus-topic-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
2594 Number of groups in the topic.
2596 Number of unread articles in the topic.
2598 Number of unread articles in the topic and all its subtopics.
2601 @vindex gnus-topic-indent-level
2602 Each sub-topic (and the groups in the sub-topics) will be indented with
2603 @code{gnus-topic-indent-level} times the topic level number of spaces.
2606 @vindex gnus-topic-mode-hook
2607 @code{gnus-topic-mode-hook} is called in topic minor mode buffers.
2609 @vindex gnus-topic-display-empty-topics
2610 The @code{gnus-topic-display-empty-topics} says whether to display even
2611 topics that have no unread articles in them. The default is @code{t}.
2614 @node Topic Commands
2615 @subsection Topic Commands
2616 @cindex topic commands
2618 When the topic minor mode is turned on, a new @kbd{T} submap will be
2619 available. In addition, a few of the standard keys change their
2620 definitions slightly.
2626 @findex gnus-topic-create-topic
2627 Prompt for a new topic name and create it
2628 (@code{gnus-topic-create-topic}).
2632 @findex gnus-topic-move-group
2633 Move the current group to some other topic
2634 (@code{gnus-topic-move-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
2635 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
2639 @findex gnus-topic-copy-group
2640 Copy the current group to some other topic
2641 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
2642 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
2646 @findex gnus-topic-remove-group
2647 Remove a group from the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-remove-group}).
2648 This command uses the process/prefix convention
2649 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
2653 @findex gnus-topic-move-matching
2654 Move all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
2655 (@code{gnus-topic-move-matching}).
2659 @findex gnus-topic-copy-matching
2660 Copy all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
2661 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-matching}).
2665 @findex gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics
2666 Toggle hiding empty topics
2667 (@code{gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics}).
2671 @findex gnus-topic-mark-topic
2672 Mark all groups in the current topic with the process mark
2673 (@code{gnus-topic-mark-topic}).
2676 @kindex T M-# (Topic)
2677 @findex gnus-topic-unmark-topic
2678 Remove the process mark from all groups in the current topic
2679 (@code{gnus-topic-unmark-topic}).
2683 @findex gnus-topic-select-group
2685 Either select a group or fold a topic (@code{gnus-topic-select-group}).
2686 When you perform this command on a group, you'll enter the group, as
2687 usual. When done on a topic line, the topic will be folded (if it was
2688 visible) or unfolded (if it was folded already). So it's basically a
2689 toggling command on topics. In addition, if you give a numerical
2690 prefix, group on that level (and lower) will be displayed.
2693 @kindex T TAB (Topic)
2694 @findex gnus-topic-indent
2695 ``Indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
2696 previous topic (@code{gnus-topic-indent}). If given a prefix,
2697 ``un-indent'' the topic instead.
2701 @findex gnus-topic-kill-group
2702 Kill a group or topic (@code{gnus-topic-kill-group}). All groups in the
2703 topic will be removed along with the topic.
2707 @findex gnus-topic-yank-group
2708 Yank the previously killed group or topic
2709 (@code{gnus-topic-yank-group}). Note that all topics will be yanked
2714 @findex gnus-topic-rename
2715 Rename a topic (@code{gnus-topic-rename}).
2718 @kindex T DEL (Topic)
2719 @findex gnus-topic-delete
2720 Delete an empty topic (@code{gnus-topic-delete}).
2724 @findex gnus-topic-list-active
2725 List all groups that Gnus knows about in a topics-ified way
2726 (@code{gnus-topic-list-active}).
2730 @findex gnus-topic-edit-parameters
2731 @cindex group parameters
2732 @cindex topic parameters
2734 Edit the topic parameters (@code{gnus-topic-edit-parameters}).
2735 @xref{Topic Parameters}.
2741 @subsection Topic Sorting
2742 @cindex topic sorting
2744 You can sort the groups in each topic individually with the following
2750 @kindex T S a (Topic)
2751 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet
2752 Sort the current topic alphabetically by group name
2753 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
2756 @kindex T S u (Topic)
2757 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread
2758 Sort the current topic by the number of unread articles
2759 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread}).
2762 @kindex T S l (Topic)
2763 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level
2764 Sort the current topic by group level
2765 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level}).
2768 @kindex T S v (Topic)
2769 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score
2770 Sort the current topic by group score
2771 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
2774 @kindex T S r (Topic)
2775 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank
2776 Sort the current topic by group rank
2777 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
2780 @kindex T S m (Topic)
2781 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method
2782 Sort the current topic alphabetically by backend name
2783 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method}).
2787 @xref{Sorting Groups} for more information about group sorting.
2790 @node Topic Topology
2791 @subsection Topic Topology
2792 @cindex topic topology
2795 So, let's have a look at an example group buffer:
2801 2: alt.religion.emacs
2804 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
2806 8: comp.binaries.fractals
2807 13: comp.sources.unix
2810 So, here we have one top-level topic (@samp{Gnus}), two topics under
2811 that, and one sub-topic under one of the sub-topics. (There is always
2812 just one (1) top-level topic). This topology can be expressed as
2817 (("Emacs -- I wuw it!" visible)
2818 (("Naughty Emacs" visible)))
2822 @vindex gnus-topic-topology
2823 This is in fact how the variable @code{gnus-topic-topology} would look
2824 for the display above. That variable is saved in the @file{.newsrc.eld}
2825 file, and shouldn't be messed with manually---unless you really want
2826 to. Since this variable is read from the @file{.newsrc.eld} file,
2827 setting it in any other startup files will have no effect.
2829 This topology shows what topics are sub-topics of what topics (right),
2830 and which topics are visible. Two settings are currently
2831 allowed---@code{visible} and @code{invisible}.
2834 @node Topic Parameters
2835 @subsection Topic Parameters
2836 @cindex topic parameters
2838 All groups in a topic will inherit group parameters from the parent (and
2839 ancestor) topic parameters. All valid group parameters are valid topic
2840 parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
2842 Group parameters (of course) override topic parameters, and topic
2843 parameters in sub-topics override topic parameters in super-topics. You
2844 know. Normal inheritance rules. (@dfn{Rules} is here a noun, not a
2845 verb, although you may feel free to disagree with me here.)
2851 2: alt.religion.emacs
2855 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
2857 8: comp.binaries.fractals
2858 13: comp.sources.unix
2862 The @samp{Emacs} topic has the topic parameter @code{(score-file
2863 . "emacs.SCORE")}; the @samp{Relief} topic has the topic parameter
2864 @code{(score-file . "relief.SCORE")}; and the @samp{Misc} topic has the
2865 topic parameter @code{(score-file . "emacs.SCORE")}. In addition,
2866 @samp{alt.religion.emacs} has the group parameter @code{(score-file
2867 . "religion.SCORE")}.
2869 Now, when you enter @samp{alt.sex.emacs} in the @samp{Relief} topic, you
2870 will get the @file{relief.SCORE} home score file. If you enter the same
2871 group in the @samp{Emacs} topic, you'll get the @file{emacs.SCORE} home
2872 score file. If you enter the group @samp{alt.religion.emacs}, you'll
2873 get the @file{religion.SCORE} home score file.
2875 This seems rather simple and self-evident, doesn't it? Well, yes. But
2876 there are some problems, especially with the @code{total-expiry}
2877 parameter. Say you have a mail group in two topics; one with
2878 @code{total-expiry} and one without. What happens when you do @kbd{M-x
2879 gnus-expire-all-expirable-groups}? Gnus has no way of telling which one
2880 of these topics you mean to expire articles from, so anything may
2881 happen. In fact, I hereby declare that it is @dfn{undefined} what
2882 happens. You just have to be careful if you do stuff like that.
2885 @node Misc Group Stuff
2886 @section Misc Group Stuff
2889 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
2890 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
2891 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
2892 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
2899 @findex gnus-group-enter-server-mode
2900 Enter the server buffer (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}).
2901 @xref{The Server Buffer}.
2905 @findex gnus-group-post-news
2906 Post an article to a group (@code{gnus-group-post-news}). If given a
2907 prefix, the current group name will be used as the default.
2911 @findex gnus-group-mail
2912 Mail a message somewhere (@code{gnus-group-mail}).
2916 Variables for the group buffer:
2920 @item gnus-group-mode-hook
2921 @vindex gnus-group-mode-hook
2922 is called after the group buffer has been
2925 @item gnus-group-prepare-hook
2926 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
2927 is called after the group buffer is
2928 generated. It may be used to modify the buffer in some strange,
2931 @item gnus-group-prepared-hook
2932 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
2933 is called as the very last thing after the group buffer has been
2934 generated. It may be used to move point around, for instance.
2936 @item gnus-permanently-visible-groups
2937 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
2938 Groups matching this regexp will always be listed in the group buffer,
2939 whether they are empty or not.
2944 @node Scanning New Messages
2945 @subsection Scanning New Messages
2946 @cindex new messages
2947 @cindex scanning new news
2953 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news
2954 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news}
2955 Check the server(s) for new articles. If the numerical prefix is used,
2956 this command will check only groups of level @var{arg} and lower
2957 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news}). If given a non-numerical prefix, this
2958 command will force a total re-reading of the active file(s) from the
2963 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group
2964 @vindex gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating
2965 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}
2966 Check whether new articles have arrived in the current group
2967 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}).
2968 @code{gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating} says whether this command is
2969 to move point to the next group or not. It is @code{t} by default.
2971 @findex gnus-activate-all-groups
2972 @cindex activating groups
2974 @kindex C-c M-g (Group)
2975 Activate absolutely all groups (@code{gnus-activate-all-groups}).
2980 @findex gnus-group-restart
2981 Restart Gnus (@code{gnus-group-restart}). This saves the @file{.newsrc}
2982 file(s), closes the connection to all servers, clears up all run-time
2983 Gnus variables, and then starts Gnus all over again.
2987 @vindex gnus-get-new-news-hook
2988 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is run just before checking for new news.
2990 @vindex gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook
2991 @code{gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook} is run after checking for new
2995 @node Group Information
2996 @subsection Group Information
2997 @cindex group information
2998 @cindex information on groups
3005 @findex gnus-group-fetch-faq
3006 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
3009 Try to fetch the FAQ for the current group
3010 (@code{gnus-group-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the FAQ from
3011 @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory on a
3012 remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories. In
3013 that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose
3014 between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp} (or @code{efs}) will be used
3015 for fetching the file.
3017 If fetching from the first site is unsuccessful, Gnus will attempt to go
3018 through @code{gnus-group-faq-directory} and try to open them one by one.
3022 @c @icon{gnus-group-describe-group}
3024 @kindex C-c C-d (Group)
3025 @cindex describing groups
3026 @cindex group description
3027 @findex gnus-group-describe-group
3028 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-group-describe-group}). If given
3029 a prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description from the server.
3033 @findex gnus-group-describe-all-groups
3034 Describe all groups (@code{gnus-group-describe-all-groups}). If given a
3035 prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description file from the server.
3042 @findex gnus-version
3043 Display current Gnus version numbers (@code{gnus-version}).
3047 @findex gnus-group-describe-briefly
3048 Give a very short help message (@code{gnus-group-describe-briefly}).
3051 @kindex C-c C-i (Group)
3054 @findex gnus-info-find-node
3055 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
3059 @node Group Timestamp
3060 @subsection Group Timestamp
3062 @cindex group timestamps
3064 It can be convenient to let Gnus keep track of when you last read a
3065 group. To set the ball rolling, you should add
3066 @code{gnus-group-set-timestamp} to @code{gnus-select-group-hook}:
3069 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook 'gnus-group-set-timestamp)
3072 After doing this, each time you enter a group, it'll be recorded.
3074 This information can be displayed in various ways---the easiest is to
3075 use the @samp{%d} spec in the group line format:
3078 (setq gnus-group-line-format
3079 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %d\n")
3082 This will result in lines looking like:
3085 * 0: mail.ding 19961002T012943
3086 0: custom 19961002T012713
3089 As you can see, the date is displayed in compact ISO 8601 format. This
3090 may be a bit too much, so to just display the date, you could say
3094 (setq gnus-group-line-format
3095 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %6,6~(cut 2)d\n")
3100 @subsection File Commands
3101 @cindex file commands
3107 @findex gnus-group-read-init-file
3108 @vindex gnus-init-file
3109 @cindex reading init file
3110 Re-read the init file (@code{gnus-init-file}, which defaults to
3111 @file{~/.gnus}) (@code{gnus-group-read-init-file}).
3115 @findex gnus-group-save-newsrc
3116 @cindex saving .newsrc
3117 Save the @file{.newsrc.eld} file (and @file{.newsrc} if wanted)
3118 (@code{gnus-group-save-newsrc}). If given a prefix, force saving the
3119 file(s) whether Gnus thinks it is necessary or not.
3122 @c @kindex Z (Group)
3123 @c @findex gnus-group-clear-dribble
3124 @c Clear the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-group-clear-dribble}).
3129 @node The Summary Buffer
3130 @chapter The Summary Buffer
3131 @cindex summary buffer
3133 A line for each article is displayed in the summary buffer. You can
3134 move around, read articles, post articles and reply to articles.
3136 The most common way to a summary buffer is to select a group from the
3137 group buffer (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
3139 You can have as many summary buffers open as you wish.
3142 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
3143 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
3144 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
3145 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
3146 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
3147 * Canceling and Superseding:: ``Whoops, I shouldn't have called him that.''
3148 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
3149 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
3150 * Threading:: How threads are made.
3151 * Sorting:: How articles and threads are sorted.
3152 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
3153 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
3154 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
3155 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
3156 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
3157 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
3158 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
3159 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
3160 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
3161 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
3162 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
3163 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
3164 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
3165 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
3166 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer.
3167 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
3168 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
3172 @node Summary Buffer Format
3173 @section Summary Buffer Format
3174 @cindex summary buffer format
3178 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{180}{
3179 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary.ps,width=7.5cm}}
3180 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-article.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
3186 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
3187 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
3188 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
3191 @findex mail-extract-address-components
3192 @findex gnus-extract-address-components
3193 @vindex gnus-extract-address-components
3194 Gnus will use the value of the @code{gnus-extract-address-components}
3195 variable as a function for getting the name and address parts of a
3196 @code{From} header. Two pre-defined functions exist:
3197 @code{gnus-extract-address-components}, which is the default, quite
3198 fast, and too simplistic solution; and
3199 @code{mail-extract-address-components}, which works very nicely, but is
3200 slower. The default function will return the wrong answer in 5% of the
3201 cases. If this is unacceptable to you, use the other function instead.
3203 @vindex gnus-summary-same-subject
3204 @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} is a string indicating that the current
3205 article has the same subject as the previous. This string will be used
3206 with those specs that require it. The default is @code{""}.
3209 @node Summary Buffer Lines
3210 @subsection Summary Buffer Lines
3212 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
3213 You can change the format of the lines in the summary buffer by changing
3214 the @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable. It works along the same
3215 lines as a normal @code{format} string, with some extensions
3216 (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
3218 The default string is @samp{%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-20,20n%]%) %s\n}.
3220 The following format specification characters are understood:
3228 Subject if the article is the root of the thread or the previous article
3229 had a different subject, @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} otherwise.
3230 (@code{gnus-summary-same-subject} defaults to @code{""}.)
3232 Full @code{From} header.
3234 The name (from the @code{From} header).
3236 The name (from the @code{From} header). This differs from the @code{n}
3237 spec in that it uses the function designated by the
3238 @code{gnus-extract-address-components} variable, which is slower, but
3239 may be more thorough.
3241 The address (from the @code{From} header). This works the same way as
3244 Number of lines in the article.
3246 Number of characters in the article.
3248 Indentation based on thread level (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
3250 Nothing if the article is a root and lots of spaces if it isn't (it
3251 pushes everything after it off the screen).
3253 Opening bracket, which is normally @samp{[}, but can also be @samp{<}
3254 for adopted articles (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
3256 Closing bracket, which is normally @samp{]}, but can also be @samp{>}
3257 for adopted articles.
3259 One space for each thread level.
3261 Twenty minus thread level spaces.
3266 This misleadingly named specifier is the @dfn{secondary mark}. This
3267 mark will say whether the article has been replied to, has been cached,
3271 Score as a number (@pxref{Scoring}).
3273 @vindex gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz
3274 Zcore, @samp{+} if above the default level and @samp{-} if below the
3275 default level. If the difference between
3276 @code{gnus-summary-default-level} and the score is less than
3277 @code{gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz}, this spec will not be used.
3285 The @code{Date} in @code{DD-MMM} format.
3287 The @code{Date} in @var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS} format.
3293 Number of articles in the current sub-thread. Using this spec will slow
3294 down summary buffer generation somewhat.
3296 An @samp{=} (@code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark}) will be displayed if the
3297 article has any children.
3303 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
3304 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
3305 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
3306 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed the current header as
3307 argument. The function should return a string, which will be inserted
3308 into the summary just like information from any other summary specifier.
3311 The @samp{%U} (status), @samp{%R} (replied) and @samp{%z} (zcore) specs
3312 have to be handled with care. For reasons of efficiency, Gnus will
3313 compute what column these characters will end up in, and ``hard-code''
3314 that. This means that it is invalid to have these specs after a
3315 variable-length spec. Well, you might not be arrested, but your summary
3316 buffer will look strange, which is bad enough.
3318 The smart choice is to have these specs as far to the left as possible.
3319 (Isn't that the case with everything, though? But I digress.)
3321 This restriction may disappear in later versions of Gnus.
3324 @node Summary Buffer Mode Line
3325 @subsection Summary Buffer Mode Line
3327 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-line-format
3328 You can also change the format of the summary mode bar. Set
3329 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} to whatever you like. The default
3330 is @samp{Gnus: %%b [%A] %Z}.
3332 Here are the elements you can play with:
3338 Unprefixed group name.
3340 Current article number.
3344 Number of unread articles in this group.
3346 Number of unread articles in this group that aren't displayed in the
3349 A string with the number of unread and unselected articles represented
3350 either as @samp{<%U(+%e) more>} if there are both unread and unselected
3351 articles, and just as @samp{<%U more>} if there are just unread articles
3352 and no unselected ones.
3354 Shortish group name. For instance, @samp{rec.arts.anime} will be
3355 shortened to @samp{r.a.anime}.
3357 Subject of the current article.
3359 User-defined spec (@pxref{User-Defined Specs}).
3361 Name of the current score file (@pxref{Scoring}).
3363 Number of dormant articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
3365 Number of ticked articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
3367 Number of articles that have been marked as read in this session.
3369 Number of articles expunged by the score files.
3373 @node Summary Highlighting
3374 @subsection Summary Highlighting
3378 @item gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
3379 @vindex gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
3380 This hook is run after selecting an article. It is meant to be used for
3381 highlighting the article in some way. It is not run if
3382 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
3384 @item gnus-summary-update-hook
3385 @vindex gnus-summary-update-hook
3386 This hook is called when a summary line is changed. It is not run if
3387 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
3389 @item gnus-summary-selected-face
3390 @vindex gnus-summary-selected-face
3391 This is the face (or @dfn{font} as some people call it) used to
3392 highlight the current article in the summary buffer.
3394 @item gnus-summary-highlight
3395 @vindex gnus-summary-highlight
3396 Summary lines are highlighted according to this variable, which is a
3397 list where the elements are of the format @var{(FORM . FACE)}. If you
3398 would, for instance, like ticked articles to be italic and high-scored
3399 articles to be bold, you could set this variable to something like
3401 (((eq mark gnus-ticked-mark) . italic)
3402 ((> score default) . bold))
3404 As you may have guessed, if @var{FORM} returns a non-@code{nil} value,
3405 @var{FACE} will be applied to the line.
3409 @node Summary Maneuvering
3410 @section Summary Maneuvering
3411 @cindex summary movement
3413 All the straight movement commands understand the numeric prefix and
3414 behave pretty much as you'd expect.
3416 None of these commands select articles.
3421 @kindex M-n (Summary)
3422 @kindex G M-n (Summary)
3423 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-subject
3424 Go to the next summary line of an unread article
3425 (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-subject}).
3429 @kindex M-p (Summary)
3430 @kindex G M-p (Summary)
3431 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject
3432 Go to the previous summary line of an unread article
3433 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject}).
3438 @kindex G j (Summary)
3439 @findex gnus-summary-goto-article
3440 Ask for an article number or @code{Message-ID}, and then go to that
3441 article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-article}).
3444 @kindex G g (Summary)
3445 @findex gnus-summary-goto-subject
3446 Ask for an article number and then go to the summary line of that article
3447 without displaying the article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-subject}).
3450 If Gnus asks you to press a key to confirm going to the next group, you
3451 can use the @kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p} keys to move around the group
3452 buffer, searching for the next group to read without actually returning
3453 to the group buffer.
3455 Variables related to summary movement:
3459 @vindex gnus-auto-select-next
3460 @item gnus-auto-select-next
3461 If you issue one of the movement commands (like @kbd{n}) and there are
3462 no more unread articles after the current one, Gnus will offer to go to
3463 the next group. If this variable is @code{t} and the next group is
3464 empty, Gnus will exit summary mode and return to the group buffer. If
3465 this variable is neither @code{t} nor @code{nil}, Gnus will select the
3466 next group, no matter whether it has any unread articles or not. As a
3467 special case, if this variable is @code{quietly}, Gnus will select the
3468 next group without asking for confirmation. If this variable is
3469 @code{almost-quietly}, the same will happen only if you are located on
3470 the last article in the group. Finally, if this variable is
3471 @code{slightly-quietly}, the @kbd{Z n} command will go to the next group
3472 without confirmation. Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
3474 @item gnus-auto-select-same
3475 @vindex gnus-auto-select-same
3476 If non-@code{nil}, all the movement commands will try to go to the next
3477 article with the same subject as the current. (@dfn{Same} here might
3478 mean @dfn{roughly equal}. See @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}
3479 for details (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).) This variable is not
3480 particularly useful if you use a threaded display.
3482 @item gnus-summary-check-current
3483 @vindex gnus-summary-check-current
3484 If non-@code{nil}, all the ``unread'' movement commands will not proceed
3485 to the next (or previous) article if the current article is unread.
3486 Instead, they will choose the current article.
3488 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
3489 @vindex gnus-auto-center-summary
3490 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will keep the point in the summary buffer
3491 centered at all times. This makes things quite tidy, but if you have a
3492 slow network connection, or simply do not like this un-Emacsism, you can
3493 set this variable to @code{nil} to get the normal Emacs scrolling
3494 action. This will also inhibit horizontal re-centering of the summary
3495 buffer, which might make it more inconvenient to read extremely long
3501 @node Choosing Articles
3502 @section Choosing Articles
3503 @cindex selecting articles
3506 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
3507 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
3511 @node Choosing Commands
3512 @subsection Choosing Commands
3514 None of the following movement commands understand the numeric prefix,
3515 and they all select and display an article.
3519 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
3520 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
3521 Select the current article, or, if that one's read already, the next
3522 unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
3527 @kindex G n (Summary)
3528 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-article
3529 @c @icon{gnus-summary-next-unread}
3530 Go to next unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-article}).
3535 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-article
3536 @c @icon{gnus-summary-prev-unread}
3537 Go to previous unread article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-article}).
3542 @kindex G N (Summary)
3543 @findex gnus-summary-next-article
3544 Go to the next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-article}).
3549 @kindex G P (Summary)
3550 @findex gnus-summary-prev-article
3551 Go to the previous article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-article}).
3554 @kindex G C-n (Summary)
3555 @findex gnus-summary-next-same-subject
3556 Go to the next article with the same subject
3557 (@code{gnus-summary-next-same-subject}).
3560 @kindex G C-p (Summary)
3561 @findex gnus-summary-prev-same-subject
3562 Go to the previous article with the same subject
3563 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-same-subject}).
3567 @kindex G f (Summary)
3569 @findex gnus-summary-first-unread-article
3570 Go to the first unread article
3571 (@code{gnus-summary-first-unread-article}).
3575 @kindex G b (Summary)
3577 @findex gnus-summary-best-unread-article
3578 Go to the article with the highest score
3579 (@code{gnus-summary-best-unread-article}).
3584 @kindex G l (Summary)
3585 @findex gnus-summary-goto-last-article
3586 Go to the previous article read (@code{gnus-summary-goto-last-article}).
3589 @kindex G o (Summary)
3590 @findex gnus-summary-pop-article
3592 @cindex article history
3593 Pop an article off the summary history and go to this article
3594 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-article}). This command differs from the
3595 command above in that you can pop as many previous articles off the
3596 history as you like, while @kbd{l} toggles the two last read articles.
3597 For a somewhat related issue (if you use these commands a lot),
3598 @pxref{Article Backlog}.
3602 @node Choosing Variables
3603 @subsection Choosing Variables
3605 Some variables relevant for moving and selecting articles:
3608 @item gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
3609 @vindex gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
3610 All the movement commands will try to go to the previous (or next)
3611 article, even if that article isn't displayed in the Summary buffer if
3612 this variable is non-@code{nil}. Gnus will then fetch the article from
3613 the server and display it in the article buffer.
3615 @item gnus-select-article-hook
3616 @vindex gnus-select-article-hook
3617 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. By default it
3618 exposes any threads hidden under the selected article.
3620 @item gnus-mark-article-hook
3621 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
3622 @findex gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read
3623 @findex gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read
3624 @findex gnus-unread-mark
3625 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. It is intended to
3626 be used for marking articles as read. The default value is
3627 @code{gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read}, and will change the
3628 mark of almost any article you read to @code{gnus-unread-mark}. The
3629 only articles not affected by this function are ticked, dormant, and
3630 expirable articles. If you'd instead like to just have unread articles
3631 marked as read, you can use @code{gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read}
3632 instead. It will leave marks like @code{gnus-low-score-mark},
3633 @code{gnus-del-mark} (and so on) alone.
3638 @node Paging the Article
3639 @section Scrolling the Article
3640 @cindex article scrolling
3645 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
3646 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
3647 Pressing @kbd{SPACE} will scroll the current article forward one page,
3648 or, if you have come to the end of the current article, will choose the
3649 next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
3652 @kindex DEL (Summary)
3653 @findex gnus-summary-prev-page
3654 Scroll the current article back one page (@code{gnus-summary-prev-page}).
3657 @kindex RET (Summary)
3658 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-up
3659 Scroll the current article one line forward
3660 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-up}).
3664 @kindex A g (Summary)
3666 @findex gnus-summary-show-article
3667 (Re)fetch the current article (@code{gnus-summary-show-article}). If
3668 given a prefix, fetch the current article, but don't run any of the
3669 article treatment functions. This will give you a ``raw'' article, just
3670 the way it came from the server.
3675 @kindex A < (Summary)
3676 @findex gnus-summary-beginning-of-article
3677 Scroll to the beginning of the article
3678 (@code{gnus-summary-beginning-of-article}).
3683 @kindex A > (Summary)
3684 @findex gnus-summary-end-of-article
3685 Scroll to the end of the article (@code{gnus-summary-end-of-article}).
3689 @kindex A s (Summary)
3691 @findex gnus-summary-isearch-article
3692 Perform an isearch in the article buffer
3693 (@code{gnus-summary-isearch-article}).
3697 @findex gnus-summary-select-article-buffer
3698 Select the article buffer (@code{gnus-summary-select-article-buffer}).
3703 @node Reply Followup and Post
3704 @section Reply, Followup and Post
3707 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
3708 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
3712 @node Summary Mail Commands
3713 @subsection Summary Mail Commands
3715 @cindex composing mail
3717 Commands for composing a mail message:
3723 @kindex S r (Summary)
3725 @findex gnus-summary-reply
3726 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-reply}
3727 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply}
3728 Mail a reply to the author of the current article
3729 (@code{gnus-summary-reply}).
3734 @kindex S R (Summary)
3735 @findex gnus-summary-reply-with-original
3736 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}
3737 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
3738 original message (@code{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}). This
3739 command uses the process/prefix convention.
3742 @kindex S w (Summary)
3743 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply
3744 Mail a wide reply to the author of the current article
3745 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{wide reply} is a reply that
3746 goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
3747 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers.
3750 @kindex S W (Summary)
3751 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original
3752 Mail a wide reply to the current article and include the original
3753 message (@code{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}). This command uses
3754 the process/prefix convention.
3757 @kindex S o m (Summary)
3758 @findex gnus-summary-mail-forward
3759 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-forward}
3760 Forward the current article to some other person
3761 (@code{gnus-summary-mail-forward}). If given a prefix, include the full
3762 headers of the forwarded article.
3767 @kindex S m (Summary)
3768 @findex gnus-summary-mail-other-window
3769 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-originate}
3770 Send a mail to some other person
3771 (@code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}).
3774 @kindex S D b (Summary)
3775 @findex gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail
3776 @cindex bouncing mail
3777 If you have sent a mail, but the mail was bounced back to you for some
3778 reason (wrong address, transient failure), you can use this command to
3779 resend that bounced mail (@code{gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail}). You
3780 will be popped into a mail buffer where you can edit the headers before
3781 sending the mail off again. If you give a prefix to this command, and
3782 the bounced mail is a reply to some other mail, Gnus will try to fetch
3783 that mail and display it for easy perusal of its headers. This might
3784 very well fail, though.
3787 @kindex S D r (Summary)
3788 @findex gnus-summary-resend-message
3789 Not to be confused with the previous command,
3790 @code{gnus-summary-resend-message} will prompt you for an address to
3791 send the current message off to, and then send it to that place. The
3792 headers of the message won't be altered---but lots of headers that say
3793 @code{Resent-To}, @code{Resent-From} and so on will be added. This
3794 means that you actually send a mail to someone that has a @code{To}
3795 header that (probably) points to yourself. This will confuse people.
3796 So, natcherly you'll only do that if you're really eVIl.
3798 This command is mainly used if you have several accounts and want to
3799 ship a mail to a different account of yours. (If you're both
3800 @code{root} and @code{postmaster} and get a mail for @code{postmaster}
3801 to the @code{root} account, you may want to resend it to
3802 @code{postmaster}. Ordnung muß sein!
3804 This command understands the process/prefix convention
3805 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3808 @kindex S O m (Summary)
3809 @findex gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward
3810 Digest the current series (@pxref{Decoding Articles}) and forward the
3811 result using mail (@code{gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward}). This command
3812 uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3815 @kindex S M-c (Summary)
3816 @findex gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint
3817 @cindex crossposting
3818 @cindex excessive crossposting
3819 Send a complaint about excessive crossposting to the author of the
3820 current article (@code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint}).
3822 @findex gnus-crosspost-complaint
3823 This command is provided as a way to fight back agains the current
3824 crossposting pandemic that's sweeping Usenet. It will compose a reply
3825 using the @code{gnus-crosspost-complaint} variable as a preamble. This
3826 command understands the process/prefix convention
3827 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) and will prompt you before sending each mail.
3831 Also @pxref{(message)Header Commands} for more information.
3834 @node Summary Post Commands
3835 @subsection Summary Post Commands
3837 @cindex composing news
3839 Commands for posting a news article:
3845 @kindex S p (Summary)
3846 @findex gnus-summary-post-news
3847 @c @icon{gnus-summary-post-news}
3848 Post an article to the current group
3849 (@code{gnus-summary-post-news}).
3854 @kindex S f (Summary)
3855 @findex gnus-summary-followup
3856 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup}
3857 Post a followup to the current article (@code{gnus-summary-followup}).
3861 @kindex S F (Summary)
3863 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}
3864 @findex gnus-summary-followup-with-original
3865 Post a followup to the current article and include the original message
3866 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}). This command uses the
3867 process/prefix convention.
3870 @kindex S n (Summary)
3871 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail
3872 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
3873 message through mail (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail}).
3876 @kindex S n (Summary)
3877 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail
3878 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
3879 message through mail and include the original message
3880 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original}). This command uses
3881 the process/prefix convention.
3884 @kindex S o p (Summary)
3885 @findex gnus-summary-post-forward
3886 Forward the current article to a newsgroup
3887 (@code{gnus-summary-post-forward}). If given a prefix, include the full
3888 headers of the forwarded article.
3891 @kindex S O p (Summary)
3892 @findex gnus-uu-digest-post-forward
3894 @cindex making digests
3895 Digest the current series and forward the result to a newsgroup
3896 (@code{gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward}). This command uses the
3897 process/prefix convention.
3900 @kindex S u (Summary)
3901 @findex gnus-uu-post-news
3902 @c @icon{gnus-uu-post-news}
3903 Uuencode a file, split it into parts, and post it as a series
3904 (@code{gnus-uu-post-news}). (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
3907 Also @pxref{(message)Header Commands} for more information.
3910 @node Canceling and Superseding
3911 @section Canceling Articles
3912 @cindex canceling articles
3913 @cindex superseding articles
3915 Have you ever written something, and then decided that you really,
3916 really, really wish you hadn't posted that?
3918 Well, you can't cancel mail, but you can cancel posts.
3920 @findex gnus-summary-cancel-article
3922 @c @icon{gnus-summary-cancel-article}
3923 Find the article you wish to cancel (you can only cancel your own
3924 articles, so don't try any funny stuff). Then press @kbd{C} or @kbd{S
3925 c} (@code{gnus-summary-cancel-article}). Your article will be
3926 canceled---machines all over the world will be deleting your article.
3927 This command uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3929 Be aware, however, that not all sites honor cancels, so your article may
3930 live on here and there, while most sites will delete the article in
3933 Gnus will use the ``current'' select method when cancelling. If you
3934 want to use the standard posting method, use the @samp{a} symbolic
3935 prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}).
3937 If you discover that you have made some mistakes and want to do some
3938 corrections, you can post a @dfn{superseding} article that will replace
3939 your original article.
3941 @findex gnus-summary-supersede-article
3943 Go to the original article and press @kbd{S s}
3944 (@code{gnus-summary-supersede-article}). You will be put in a buffer
3945 where you can edit the article all you want before sending it off the
3948 The same goes for superseding as for canceling, only more so: Some
3949 sites do not honor superseding. On those sites, it will appear that you
3950 have posted almost the same article twice.
3952 If you have just posted the article, and change your mind right away,
3953 there is a trick you can use to cancel/supersede the article without
3954 waiting for the article to appear on your site first. You simply return
3955 to the post buffer (which is called @code{*sent ...*}). There you will
3956 find the article you just posted, with all the headers intact. Change
3957 the @code{Message-ID} header to a @code{Cancel} or @code{Supersedes}
3958 header by substituting one of those words for the word
3959 @code{Message-ID}. Then just press @kbd{C-c C-c} to send the article as
3960 you would do normally. The previous article will be
3961 canceled/superseded.
3963 Just remember, kids: There is no 'c' in 'supersede'.
3966 @node Marking Articles
3967 @section Marking Articles
3968 @cindex article marking
3969 @cindex article ticking
3972 There are several marks you can set on an article.
3974 You have marks that decide the @dfn{readedness} (whoo, neato-keano
3975 neologism ohoy!) of the article. Alphabetic marks generally mean
3976 @dfn{read}, while non-alphabetic characters generally mean @dfn{unread}.
3978 In addition, you also have marks that do not affect readedness.
3981 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
3982 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
3983 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
3987 There's a plethora of commands for manipulating these marks:
3991 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
3992 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
3996 @node Unread Articles
3997 @subsection Unread Articles
3999 The following marks mark articles as (kinda) unread, in one form or
4004 @vindex gnus-ticked-mark
4005 Marked as ticked (@code{gnus-ticked-mark}).
4007 @dfn{Ticked articles} are articles that will remain visible always. If
4008 you see an article that you find interesting, or you want to put off
4009 reading it, or replying to it, until sometime later, you'd typically
4010 tick it. However, articles can be expired, so if you want to keep an
4011 article forever, you'll have to make it persistent (@pxref{Persistent
4015 @vindex gnus-dormant-mark
4016 Marked as dormant (@code{gnus-dormant-mark}).
4018 @dfn{Dormant articles} will only appear in the summary buffer if there
4019 are followups to it. If you want to see them even if they don't have
4020 followups, you can use the @kbd{/ D} command (@pxref{Limiting}).
4023 @vindex gnus-unread-mark
4024 Marked as unread (@code{gnus-unread-mark}).
4026 @dfn{Unread articles} are articles that haven't been read at all yet.
4031 @subsection Read Articles
4032 @cindex expirable mark
4034 All the following marks mark articles as read.
4039 @vindex gnus-del-mark
4040 These are articles that the user has marked as read with the @kbd{d}
4041 command manually, more or less (@code{gnus-del-mark}).
4044 @vindex gnus-read-mark
4045 Articles that have actually been read (@code{gnus-read-mark}).
4048 @vindex gnus-ancient-mark
4049 Articles that were marked as read in previous sessions and are now
4050 @dfn{old} (@code{gnus-ancient-mark}).
4053 @vindex gnus-killed-mark
4054 Marked as killed (@code{gnus-killed-mark}).
4057 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mark
4058 Marked as killed by kill files (@code{gnus-kill-file-mark}).
4061 @vindex gnus-low-score-mark
4062 Marked as read by having too low a score (@code{gnus-low-score-mark}).
4065 @vindex gnus-catchup-mark
4066 Marked as read by a catchup (@code{gnus-catchup-mark}).
4069 @vindex gnus-canceled-mark
4070 Canceled article (@code{gnus-canceled-mark})
4073 @vindex gnus-souped-mark
4074 @sc{SOUP}ed article (@code{gnus-souped-mark}). @xref{SOUP}.
4077 @vindex gnus-sparse-mark
4078 Sparsely reffed article (@code{gnus-sparse-mark}). @xref{Customizing
4082 @vindex gnus-duplicate-mark
4083 Article marked as read by duplicate suppression
4084 (@code{gnus-duplicated-mark}). @xref{Duplicate Suppression}.
4088 All these marks just mean that the article is marked as read, really.
4089 They are interpreted differently when doing adaptive scoring, though.
4091 One more special mark, though:
4095 @vindex gnus-expirable-mark
4096 Marked as expirable (@code{gnus-expirable-mark}).
4098 Marking articles as @dfn{expirable} (or have them marked as such
4099 automatically) doesn't make much sense in normal groups---a user doesn't
4100 control expiring of news articles, but in mail groups, for instance,
4101 articles marked as @dfn{expirable} can be deleted by Gnus at
4107 @subsection Other Marks
4108 @cindex process mark
4111 There are some marks that have nothing to do with whether the article is
4117 You can set a bookmark in the current article. Say you are reading a
4118 long thesis on cats' urinary tracts, and have to go home for dinner
4119 before you've finished reading the thesis. You can then set a bookmark
4120 in the article, and Gnus will jump to this bookmark the next time it
4121 encounters the article. @xref{Setting Marks}
4124 @vindex gnus-replied-mark
4125 All articles that you have replied to or made a followup to (i.e., have
4126 answered) will be marked with an @samp{A} in the second column
4127 (@code{gnus-replied-mark}).
4130 @vindex gnus-cached-mark
4131 Articles stored in the article cache will be marked with an @samp{*} in
4132 the second column (@code{gnus-cached-mark}). @xref{Article Caching}
4135 @vindex gnus-saved-mark
4136 Articles ``saved'' (in some manner or other; not necessarily
4137 religiously) are marked with an @samp{S} in the second column
4138 (@code{gnus-saved-mark}).
4141 @vindex gnus-not-empty-thread-mark
4142 @vindex gnus-empty-thread-mark
4143 If the @samp{%e} spec is used, the presence of threads or not will be
4144 marked with @code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark} and
4145 @code{gnus-empty-thread-mark} in the third column, respectively.
4148 @vindex gnus-process-mark
4149 Finally we have the @dfn{process mark} (@code{gnus-process-mark}). A
4150 variety of commands react to the presence of the process mark. For
4151 instance, @kbd{X u} (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}) will uudecode and view
4152 all articles that have been marked with the process mark. Articles
4153 marked with the process mark have a @samp{#} in the second column.
4157 You might have noticed that most of these ``non-readedness'' marks
4158 appear in the second column by default. So if you have a cached, saved,
4159 replied article that you have process-marked, what will that look like?
4161 Nothing much. The precedence rules go as follows: process -> cache ->
4162 replied -> saved. So if the article is in the cache and is replied,
4163 you'll only see the cache mark and not the replied mark.
4167 @subsection Setting Marks
4168 @cindex setting marks
4170 All the marking commands understand the numeric prefix.
4175 @kindex M c (Summary)
4176 @kindex M-u (Summary)
4177 @findex gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward
4178 @cindex mark as unread
4179 Clear all readedness-marks from the current article
4180 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward}). In other words, mark the
4186 @kindex M t (Summary)
4187 @findex gnus-summary-tick-article-forward
4188 Tick the current article (@code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}).
4189 @xref{Article Caching}
4194 @kindex M ? (Summary)
4195 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant
4196 Mark the current article as dormant
4197 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant}). @xref{Article Caching}
4201 @kindex M d (Summary)
4203 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward
4204 Mark the current article as read
4205 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward}).
4209 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward
4210 Mark the current article as read and move point to the previous line
4211 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward}).
4216 @kindex M k (Summary)
4217 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select
4218 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read,
4219 and then select the next unread article
4220 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select}).
4224 @kindex M K (Summary)
4225 @kindex C-k (Summary)
4226 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject
4227 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read
4228 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject}).
4231 @kindex M C (Summary)
4232 @findex gnus-summary-catchup
4233 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup}
4234 Mark all unread articles as read (@code{gnus-summary-catchup}).
4237 @kindex M C-c (Summary)
4238 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all
4239 Mark all articles in the group as read---even the ticked and dormant
4240 articles (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all}).
4243 @kindex M H (Summary)
4244 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-to-here
4245 Catchup the current group to point
4246 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-to-here}).
4249 @kindex C-w (Summary)
4250 @findex gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read
4251 Mark all articles between point and mark as read
4252 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read}).
4255 @kindex M V k (Summary)
4256 @findex gnus-summary-kill-below
4257 Kill all articles with scores below the default score (or below the
4258 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-kill-below}).
4262 @kindex M e (Summary)
4264 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable
4265 Mark the current article as expirable
4266 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable}).
4269 @kindex M b (Summary)
4270 @findex gnus-summary-set-bookmark
4271 Set a bookmark in the current article
4272 (@code{gnus-summary-set-bookmark}).
4275 @kindex M B (Summary)
4276 @findex gnus-summary-remove-bookmark
4277 Remove the bookmark from the current article
4278 (@code{gnus-summary-remove-bookmark}).
4281 @kindex M V c (Summary)
4282 @findex gnus-summary-clear-above
4283 Clear all marks from articles with scores over the default score (or
4284 over the numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
4287 @kindex M V u (Summary)
4288 @findex gnus-summary-tick-above
4289 Tick all articles with scores over the default score (or over the
4290 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-tick-above}).
4293 @kindex M V m (Summary)
4294 @findex gnus-summary-mark-above
4295 Prompt for a mark, and mark all articles with scores over the default
4296 score (or over the numeric prefix) with this mark
4297 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
4300 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
4301 The @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} variable controls what action should
4302 be taken after setting a mark. If non-@code{nil}, point will move to
4303 the next/previous unread article. If @code{nil}, point will just move
4304 one line up or down. As a special case, if this variable is
4305 @code{never}, all the marking commands as well as other commands (like
4306 @kbd{SPACE}) will move to the next article, whether it is unread or not.
4307 The default is @code{t}.
4310 @node Setting Process Marks
4311 @subsection Setting Process Marks
4312 @cindex setting process marks
4319 @kindex M P p (Summary)
4320 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-processable
4321 Mark the current article with the process mark
4322 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-processable}).
4323 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable
4327 @kindex M P u (Summary)
4328 @kindex M-# (Summary)
4329 Remove the process mark, if any, from the current article
4330 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable}).
4333 @kindex M P U (Summary)
4334 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable
4335 Remove the process mark from all articles
4336 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable}).
4339 @kindex M P i (Summary)
4340 @findex gnus-uu-invert-processable
4341 Invert the list of process marked articles
4342 (@code{gnus-uu-invert-processable}).
4345 @kindex M P R (Summary)
4346 @findex gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp
4347 Mark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
4348 expression (@code{gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp}).
4351 @kindex M P r (Summary)
4352 @findex gnus-uu-mark-region
4353 Mark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-mark-region}).
4356 @kindex M P t (Summary)
4357 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
4358 Mark all articles in the current (sub)thread
4359 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
4362 @kindex M P T (Summary)
4363 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
4364 Unmark all articles in the current (sub)thread
4365 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
4368 @kindex M P v (Summary)
4369 @findex gnus-uu-mark-over
4370 Mark all articles that have a score above the prefix argument
4371 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-over}).
4374 @kindex M P s (Summary)
4375 @findex gnus-uu-mark-series
4376 Mark all articles in the current series (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
4379 @kindex M P S (Summary)
4380 @findex gnus-uu-mark-sparse
4381 Mark all series that have already had some articles marked
4382 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-sparse}).
4385 @kindex M P a (Summary)
4386 @findex gnus-uu-mark-all
4387 Mark all articles in series order (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
4390 @kindex M P b (Summary)
4391 @findex gnus-uu-mark-buffer
4392 Mark all articles in the buffer in the order they appear
4393 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-buffer}).
4396 @kindex M P k (Summary)
4397 @findex gnus-summary-kill-process-mark
4398 Push the current process mark set onto the stack and unmark all articles
4399 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-process-mark}).
4402 @kindex M P y (Summary)
4403 @findex gnus-summary-yank-process-mark
4404 Pop the previous process mark set from the stack and restore it
4405 (@code{gnus-summary-yank-process-mark}).
4408 @kindex M P w (Summary)
4409 @findex gnus-summary-save-process-mark
4410 Push the current process mark set onto the stack
4411 (@code{gnus-summary-save-process-mark}).
4420 It can be convenient to limit the summary buffer to just show some
4421 subset of the articles currently in the group. The effect most limit
4422 commands have is to remove a few (or many) articles from the summary
4425 All limiting commands work on subsets of the articles already fetched
4426 from the servers. None of these commands query the server for
4427 additional articles.
4433 @kindex / / (Summary)
4434 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-subject
4435 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some subject
4436 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-subject}).
4439 @kindex / a (Summary)
4440 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-author
4441 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some author
4442 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-author}).
4446 @kindex / u (Summary)
4448 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-unread
4449 Limit the summary buffer to articles not marked as read
4450 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-unread}). If given a prefix, limit the
4451 buffer to articles strictly unread. This means that ticked and
4452 dormant articles will also be excluded.
4455 @kindex / m (Summary)
4456 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-marks
4457 Ask for a mark and then limit to all articles that have not been marked
4458 with that mark (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-marks}).
4461 @kindex / t (Summary)
4462 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-age
4463 Ask for a number and then limit the summary buffer to articles older than (or equal to) that number of days
4464 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-marks}). If given a prefix, limit to
4465 articles younger than that number of days.
4468 @kindex / n (Summary)
4469 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-articles
4470 Limit the summary buffer to the current article
4471 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-articles}). Uses the process/prefix
4472 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
4475 @kindex / w (Summary)
4476 @findex gnus-summary-pop-limit
4477 Pop the previous limit off the stack and restore it
4478 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-limit}). If given a prefix, pop all limits off
4482 @kindex / v (Summary)
4483 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-score
4484 Limit the summary buffer to articles that have a score at or above some
4485 score (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-score}).
4489 @kindex M S (Summary)
4490 @kindex / E (Summary)
4491 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged
4492 Display all expunged articles
4493 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged}).
4496 @kindex / D (Summary)
4497 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant
4498 Display all dormant articles (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant}).
4501 @kindex / * (Summary)
4502 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-cached
4503 Display all cached articles (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-cached}).
4506 @kindex / d (Summary)
4507 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant
4508 Hide all dormant articles (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant}).
4511 @kindex / T (Summary)
4512 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-thread
4513 Include all the articles in the current thread.
4516 @kindex / c (Summary)
4517 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant
4518 Hide all dormant articles that have no children
4519 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant}).
4522 @kindex / C (Summary)
4523 @findex gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read
4524 Mark all excluded unread articles as read
4525 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read}). If given a prefix,
4526 also mark excluded ticked and dormant articles as read.
4534 @cindex article threading
4536 Gnus threads articles by default. @dfn{To thread} is to put responses
4537 to articles directly after the articles they respond to---in a
4538 hierarchical fashion.
4540 Threading is done by looking at the @code{References} headers of the
4541 articles. In a perfect world, this would be enough to build pretty
4542 trees, but unfortunately, the @code{References} header is often broken
4543 or simply missing. Weird news propagration excarcerbates the problem,
4544 so one has to employ other heuristics to get pleasing results. A
4545 plethora of approaches exists, as detailed in horrible detail in
4546 @pxref{Customizing Threading}.
4548 First, a quick overview of the concepts:
4552 The top-most article in a thread; the first article in the thread.
4555 A tree-like article structure.
4558 A small(er) section of this tree-like structure.
4561 Threads often lose their roots due to article expiry, or due to the root
4562 already having been read in a previous session, and not displayed in the
4563 summary buffer. We then typicall have many sub-threads that really
4564 belong to one thread, but are without connecting roots. These are
4565 called loose threads.
4567 @item thread gathering
4568 An attempt to gather loose threads into bigger threads.
4570 @item sparse threads
4571 A thread where the missing articles have been ``guessed'' at, and are
4572 displayed as empty lines in the summary buffer.
4578 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
4579 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
4583 @node Customizing Threading
4584 @subsection Customizing Threading
4585 @cindex customizing threading
4588 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
4589 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
4590 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
4591 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over... but you were wrong!
4596 @subsubsection Loose Threads
4599 @cindex loose threads
4602 @item gnus-summary-make-false-root
4603 @vindex gnus-summary-make-false-root
4604 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will gather all loose subtrees into one big tree
4605 and create a dummy root at the top. (Wait a minute. Root at the top?
4606 Yup.) Loose subtrees occur when the real root has expired, or you've
4607 read or killed the root in a previous session.
4609 When there is no real root of a thread, Gnus will have to fudge
4610 something. This variable says what fudging method Gnus should use.
4611 There are four possible values:
4615 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{390}{
4616 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-adopt.ps,width=7.5cm}}
4617 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-empty.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
4618 \put(0,400){\makebox(0,0)[tl]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-none.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
4619 \put(445,400){\makebox(0,0)[tr]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-dummy.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
4624 @cindex adopting articles
4629 Gnus will make the first of the orphaned articles the parent. This
4630 parent will adopt all the other articles. The adopted articles will be
4631 marked as such by pointy brackets (@samp{<>}) instead of the standard
4632 square brackets (@samp{[]}). This is the default method.
4635 @vindex gnus-summary-dummy-line-format
4636 Gnus will create a dummy summary line that will pretend to be the
4637 parent. This dummy line does not correspond to any real article, so
4638 selecting it will just select the first real article after the dummy
4639 article. @code{gnus-summary-dummy-line-format} is used to specify the
4640 format of the dummy roots. It accepts only one format spec: @samp{S},
4641 which is the subject of the article. @xref{Formatting Variables}.
4644 Gnus won't actually make any article the parent, but simply leave the
4645 subject field of all orphans except the first empty. (Actually, it will
4646 use @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} as the subject (@pxref{Summary
4650 Don't make any article parent at all. Just gather the threads and
4651 display them after one another.
4654 Don't gather loose threads.
4657 @item gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
4658 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
4659 Loose threads are gathered by comparing subjects of articles. If this
4660 variable is @code{nil}, Gnus requires an exact match between the
4661 subjects of the loose threads before gathering them into one big
4662 super-thread. This might be too strict a requirement, what with the
4663 presence of stupid newsreaders that chop off long subject lines. If
4664 you think so, set this variable to, say, 20 to require that only the
4665 first 20 characters of the subjects have to match. If you set this
4666 variable to a really low number, you'll find that Gnus will gather
4667 everything in sight into one thread, which isn't very helpful.
4669 @cindex fuzzy article gathering
4670 If you set this variable to the special value @code{fuzzy}, Gnus will
4671 use a fuzzy string comparison algorithm on the subjects (@pxref{Fuzzy
4674 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
4675 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
4676 This can either be a regular expression or list of regular expressions
4677 that match strings that will be removed from subjects if fuzzy subject
4678 simplification is used.
4680 @item gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
4681 @vindex gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
4682 If you set @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit} to something as low
4683 as 10, you might consider setting this variable to something sensible:
4685 @c Written by Michael Ernst <mernst@cs.rice.edu>
4687 (setq gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
4693 "wanted" "followup" "summary\\( of\\)?"
4694 "help" "query" "problem" "question"
4695 "answer" "reference" "announce"
4696 "How can I" "How to" "Comparison of"
4701 (mapconcat 'identity
4702 '("for" "for reference" "with" "about")
4704 "\\)?\\]?:?[ \t]*"))
4707 All words that match this regexp will be removed before comparing two
4710 @item gnus-simplify-subject-functions
4711 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-functions
4712 If non-@code{nil}, this variable overrides
4713 @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}. This variable should be a
4714 list of functions to apply to the @code{Subject} string iteratively to
4715 arrive at the simplified version of the string.
4717 Useful functions to put in this list include:
4720 @item gnus-simplify-subject-re
4721 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-re
4722 Strip the leading @samp{Re:}.
4724 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
4725 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
4728 @item gnus-simplify-whitespace
4729 @findex gnus-simplify-whitespace
4730 Remove excessive whitespace.
4733 You may also write your own functions, of course.
4736 @item gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
4737 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
4738 Since loose thread gathering is done on subjects only, that might lead
4739 to many false hits, especially with certain common subjects like
4740 @samp{} and @samp{(none)}. To make the situation slightly better,
4741 you can use the regexp @code{gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject} to say
4742 what subjects should be excluded from the gathering process.@*
4743 The default is @samp{^ *$\\|^(none)$}.
4745 @item gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
4746 @vindex gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
4747 Gnus gathers threads by looking at @code{Subject} headers. This means
4748 that totally unrelated articles may end up in the same ``thread'', which
4749 is confusing. An alternate approach is to look at all the
4750 @code{Message-ID}s in all the @code{References} headers to find matches.
4751 This will ensure that no gathered threads ever include unrelated
4752 articles, but it also means that people who have posted with broken
4753 newsreaders won't be gathered properly. The choice is yours---plague or
4757 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
4758 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
4759 This function is the default gathering function and looks at
4760 @code{Subject}s exclusively.
4762 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-references
4763 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-references
4764 This function looks at @code{References} headers exclusively.
4767 If you want to test gathering by @code{References}, you could say
4771 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
4772 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
4778 @node Filling In Threads
4779 @subsubsection Filling In Threads
4782 @item gnus-fetch-old-headers
4783 @vindex gnus-fetch-old-headers
4784 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will attempt to build old threads by fetching
4785 more old headers---headers to articles marked as read. If you
4786 would like to display as few summary lines as possible, but still
4787 connect as many loose threads as possible, you should set this variable
4788 to @code{some} or a number. If you set it to a number, no more than
4789 that number of extra old headers will be fetched. In either case,
4790 fetching old headers only works if the backend you are using carries
4791 overview files---this would normally be @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool} and
4792 @code{nnml}. Also remember that if the root of the thread has been
4793 expired by the server, there's not much Gnus can do about that.
4795 This variable can also be set to @code{invisible}. This won't have any
4796 visible effects, but is useful if you use the @kbd{A T} command a lot
4797 (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
4799 @item gnus-build-sparse-threads
4800 @vindex gnus-build-sparse-threads
4801 Fetching old headers can be slow. A low-rent similar effect can be
4802 gotten by setting this variable to @code{some}. Gnus will then look at
4803 the complete @code{References} headers of all articles and try to string
4804 together articles that belong in the same thread. This will leave
4805 @dfn{gaps} in the threading display where Gnus guesses that an article
4806 is missing from the thread. (These gaps appear like normal summary
4807 lines. If you select a gap, Gnus will try to fetch the article in
4808 question.) If this variable is @code{t}, Gnus will display all these
4809 ``gaps'' without regard for whether they are useful for completing the
4810 thread or not. Finally, if this variable is @code{more}, Gnus won't cut
4811 off sparse leaf nodes that don't lead anywhere. This variable is
4812 @code{nil} by default.
4817 @node More Threading
4818 @subsubsection More Threading
4821 @item gnus-show-threads
4822 @vindex gnus-show-threads
4823 If this variable is @code{nil}, no threading will be done, and all of
4824 the rest of the variables here will have no effect. Turning threading
4825 off will speed group selection up a bit, but it is sure to make reading
4826 slower and more awkward.
4828 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
4829 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-subtree
4830 If non-@code{nil}, all threads will be hidden when the summary buffer is
4833 @item gnus-thread-expunge-below
4834 @vindex gnus-thread-expunge-below
4835 All threads that have a total score (as defined by
4836 @code{gnus-thread-score-function}) less than this number will be
4837 expunged. This variable is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
4838 threads are expunged.
4840 @item gnus-thread-hide-killed
4841 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-killed
4842 if you kill a thread and this variable is non-@code{nil}, the subtree
4845 @item gnus-thread-ignore-subject
4846 @vindex gnus-thread-ignore-subject
4847 Sometimes somebody changes the subject in the middle of a thread. If
4848 this variable is non-@code{nil}, the subject change is ignored. If it
4849 is @code{nil}, which is the default, a change in the subject will result
4852 @item gnus-thread-indent-level
4853 @vindex gnus-thread-indent-level
4854 This is a number that says how much each sub-thread should be indented.
4860 @node Low-Level Threading
4861 @subsubsection Low-Level Threading
4865 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
4866 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
4867 Hook run before parsing any headers. The default value is
4868 @code{(gnus-decode-rfc1522)}, which means that QPized headers will be
4869 slightly decoded in a hackish way. This is likely to change in the
4870 future when Gnus becomes @sc{MIME}ified.
4872 @item gnus-alter-header-function
4873 @vindex gnus-alter-header-function
4874 If non-@code{nil}, this function will be called to allow alteration of
4875 article header structures. The function is called with one parameter,
4876 the article header vector, which it may alter in any way. For instance,
4877 if you have a mail-to-news gateway which alters the @code{Message-ID}s
4878 in systematic ways (by adding prefixes and such), you can use this
4879 variable to un-scramble the @code{Message-ID}s so that they are more
4880 meaningful. Here's one example:
4883 (setq gnus-alter-header-function 'my-alter-message-id)
4885 (defun my-alter-message-id (header)
4886 (let ((id (mail-header-id header)))
4888 "\\(<[^<>@@]*\\)\\.?cygnus\\..*@@\\([^<>@@]*>\\)" id)
4890 (concat (match-string 1 id) "@@" (match-string 2 id))
4897 @node Thread Commands
4898 @subsection Thread Commands
4899 @cindex thread commands
4905 @kindex T k (Summary)
4906 @kindex M-C-k (Summary)
4907 @findex gnus-summary-kill-thread
4908 Mark all articles in the current (sub-)thread as read
4909 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}). If the prefix argument is positive,
4910 remove all marks instead. If the prefix argument is negative, tick
4915 @kindex T l (Summary)
4916 @kindex M-C-l (Summary)
4917 @findex gnus-summary-lower-thread
4918 Lower the score of the current (sub-)thread
4919 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-thread}).
4922 @kindex T i (Summary)
4923 @findex gnus-summary-raise-thread
4924 Increase the score of the current (sub-)thread
4925 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-thread}).
4928 @kindex T # (Summary)
4929 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
4930 Set the process mark on the current (sub-)thread
4931 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
4934 @kindex T M-# (Summary)
4935 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
4936 Remove the process mark from the current (sub-)thread
4937 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
4940 @kindex T T (Summary)
4941 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-threads
4942 Toggle threading (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-threads}).
4945 @kindex T s (Summary)
4946 @findex gnus-summary-show-thread
4947 Expose the (sub-)thread hidden under the current article, if any
4948 (@code{gnus-summary-show-thread}).
4951 @kindex T h (Summary)
4952 @findex gnus-summary-hide-thread
4953 Hide the current (sub-)thread (@code{gnus-summary-hide-thread}).
4956 @kindex T S (Summary)
4957 @findex gnus-summary-show-all-threads
4958 Expose all hidden threads (@code{gnus-summary-show-all-threads}).
4961 @kindex T H (Summary)
4962 @findex gnus-summary-hide-all-threads
4963 Hide all threads (@code{gnus-summary-hide-all-threads}).
4966 @kindex T t (Summary)
4967 @findex gnus-summary-rethread-current
4968 Re-thread the current article's thread
4969 (@code{gnus-summary-rethread-current}). This works even when the
4970 summary buffer is otherwise unthreaded.
4973 @kindex T ^ (Summary)
4974 @findex gnus-summary-reparent-thread
4975 Make the current article the child of the marked (or previous) article
4976 (@code{gnus-summary-reparent-thread}).
4980 The following commands are thread movement commands. They all
4981 understand the numeric prefix.
4986 @kindex T n (Summary)
4987 @findex gnus-summary-next-thread
4988 Go to the next thread (@code{gnus-summary-next-thread}).
4991 @kindex T p (Summary)
4992 @findex gnus-summary-prev-thread
4993 Go to the previous thread (@code{gnus-summary-prev-thread}).
4996 @kindex T d (Summary)
4997 @findex gnus-summary-down-thread
4998 Descend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-down-thread}).
5001 @kindex T u (Summary)
5002 @findex gnus-summary-up-thread
5003 Ascend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-up-thread}).
5006 @kindex T o (Summary)
5007 @findex gnus-summary-top-thread
5008 Go to the top of the thread (@code{gnus-summary-top-thread}).
5011 @vindex gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject
5012 If you ignore subject while threading, you'll naturally end up with
5013 threads that have several different subjects in them. If you then issue
5014 a command like `T k' (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}) you might not
5015 wish to kill the entire thread, but just those parts of the thread that
5016 have the same subject as the current article. If you like this idea,
5017 you can fiddle with @code{gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject}. If it
5018 is non-@code{nil} (which it is by default), subjects will be ignored
5019 when doing thread commands. If this variable is @code{nil}, articles in
5020 the same thread with different subjects will not be included in the
5021 operation in question. If this variable is @code{fuzzy}, only articles
5022 that have subjects fuzzily equal will be included (@pxref{Fuzzy
5029 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score
5030 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-date
5031 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-score
5032 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
5033 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-author
5034 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-number
5035 @vindex gnus-thread-sort-functions
5036 If you are using a threaded summary display, you can sort the threads by
5037 setting @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, which is a list of functions.
5038 By default, sorting is done on article numbers. Ready-made sorting
5039 predicate functions include @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number},
5040 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-author}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-subject},
5041 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-score}, and
5042 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score}.
5044 Each function takes two threads and returns non-@code{nil} if the first
5045 thread should be sorted before the other. Note that sorting really is
5046 normally done by looking only at the roots of each thread. If you use
5047 more than one function, the primary sort key should be the last function
5048 in the list. You should probably always include
5049 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number} in the list of sorting
5050 functions---preferably first. This will ensure that threads that are
5051 equal with respect to the other sort criteria will be displayed in
5052 ascending article order.
5054 If you would like to sort by score, then by subject, and finally by
5055 number, you could do something like:
5058 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
5059 '(gnus-thread-sort-by-number
5060 gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
5061 gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score))
5064 The threads that have highest score will be displayed first in the
5065 summary buffer. When threads have the same score, they will be sorted
5066 alphabetically. The threads that have the same score and the same
5067 subject will be sorted by number, which is (normally) the sequence in
5068 which the articles arrived.
5070 If you want to sort by score and then reverse arrival order, you could
5074 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
5076 (not (gnus-thread-sort-by-number t1 t2)))
5077 gnus-thread-sort-by-score))
5080 @vindex gnus-thread-score-function
5081 The function in the @code{gnus-thread-score-function} variable (default
5082 @code{+}) is used for calculating the total score of a thread. Useful
5083 functions might be @code{max}, @code{min}, or squared means, or whatever
5086 @findex gnus-article-sort-functions
5087 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-date
5088 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-score
5089 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-subject
5090 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-author
5091 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-number
5092 If you are using an unthreaded display for some strange reason or other,
5093 you have to fiddle with the @code{gnus-article-sort-functions} variable.
5094 It is very similar to the @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, except that
5095 it uses slightly different functions for article comparison. Available
5096 sorting predicate functions are @code{gnus-article-sort-by-number},
5097 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-author}, @code{gnus-article-sort-by-subject},
5098 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-date}, and @code{gnus-article-sort-by-score}.
5100 If you want to sort an unthreaded summary display by subject, you could
5104 (setq gnus-article-sort-functions
5105 '(gnus-article-sort-by-number
5106 gnus-article-sort-by-subject))
5111 @node Asynchronous Fetching
5112 @section Asynchronous Article Fetching
5113 @cindex asynchronous article fetching
5114 @cindex article pre-fetch
5117 If you read your news from an @sc{nntp} server that's far away, the
5118 network latencies may make reading articles a chore. You have to wait
5119 for a while after pressing @kbd{n} to go to the next article before the
5120 article appears. Why can't Gnus just go ahead and fetch the article
5121 while you are reading the previous one? Why not, indeed.
5123 First, some caveats. There are some pitfalls to using asynchronous
5124 article fetching, especially the way Gnus does it.
5126 Let's say you are reading article 1, which is short, and article 2 is
5127 quite long, and you are not interested in reading that. Gnus does not
5128 know this, so it goes ahead and fetches article 2. You decide to read
5129 article 3, but since Gnus is in the process of fetching article 2, the
5130 connection is blocked.
5132 To avoid these situations, Gnus will open two (count 'em two)
5133 connections to the server. Some people may think this isn't a very nice
5134 thing to do, but I don't see any real alternatives. Setting up that
5135 extra connection takes some time, so Gnus startup will be slower.
5137 Gnus will fetch more articles than you will read. This will mean that
5138 the link between your machine and the @sc{nntp} server will become more
5139 loaded than if you didn't use article pre-fetch. The server itself will
5140 also become more loaded---both with the extra article requests, and the
5143 Ok, so now you know that you shouldn't really use this thing... unless
5146 @vindex gnus-asynchronous
5147 Here's how: Set @code{gnus-asynchronous} to @code{t}. The rest should
5148 happen automatically.
5150 @vindex gnus-use-article-prefetch
5151 You can control how many articles are to be pre-fetched by setting
5152 @code{gnus-use-article-prefetch}. This is 30 by default, which means
5153 that when you read an article in the group, the backend will pre-fetch
5154 the next 30 articles. If this variable is @code{t}, the backend will
5155 pre-fetch all the articles it can without bound. If it is
5156 @code{nil}, no pre-fetching will be done.
5158 @vindex gnus-async-prefetch-article-p
5159 @findex gnus-async-read-p
5160 There are probably some articles that you don't want to pre-fetch---read
5161 articles, for instance. The @code{gnus-async-prefetch-article-p} variable controls whether an article is to be pre-fetched. This function should
5162 return non-@code{nil} when the article in question is to be
5163 pre-fetched. The default is @code{gnus-async-read-p}, which returns
5164 @code{nil} on read articles. The function is called with an article
5165 data structure as the only parameter.
5167 If, for instance, you wish to pre-fetch only unread articles shorter than 100 lines, you could say something like:
5170 (defun my-async-short-unread-p (data)
5171 "Return non-nil for short, unread articles."
5172 (and (gnus-data-unread-p data)
5173 (< (mail-header-lines (gnus-data-header data))
5176 (setq gnus-async-prefetch-article-p 'my-async-short-unread-p)
5179 These functions will be called many, many times, so they should
5180 preferably be short and sweet to avoid slowing down Gnus too much.
5181 It's probably a good idea to byte-compile things like this.
5183 @vindex gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy
5184 Articles have to be removed from the asynch buffer sooner or later. The
5185 @code{gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy} says when to remove
5186 articles. This is a list that may contain the following elements:
5190 Remove articles when they are read.
5193 Remove articles when exiting the group.
5196 The default value is @code{(read exit)}.
5198 @vindex gnus-use-header-prefetch
5199 If @code{gnus-use-header-prefetch} is non-@code{nil}, prefetch articles
5200 from the next group.
5203 @node Article Caching
5204 @section Article Caching
5205 @cindex article caching
5208 If you have an @emph{extremely} slow @sc{nntp} connection, you may
5209 consider turning article caching on. Each article will then be stored
5210 locally under your home directory. As you may surmise, this could
5211 potentially use @emph{huge} amounts of disk space, as well as eat up all
5212 your inodes so fast it will make your head swim. In vodka.
5214 Used carefully, though, it could be just an easier way to save articles.
5216 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
5217 @vindex gnus-cache-directory
5218 @vindex gnus-use-cache
5219 To turn caching on, set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{t}. By default,
5220 all articles ticked or marked as dormant will then be copied
5221 over to your local cache (@code{gnus-cache-directory}). Whether this
5222 cache is flat or hierarchal is controlled by the
5223 @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable, as usual.
5225 When re-selecting a ticked or dormant article, it will be fetched from the
5226 cache instead of from the server. As articles in your cache will never
5227 expire, this might serve as a method of saving articles while still
5228 keeping them where they belong. Just mark all articles you want to save
5229 as dormant, and don't worry.
5231 When an article is marked as read, is it removed from the cache.
5233 @vindex gnus-cache-remove-articles
5234 @vindex gnus-cache-enter-articles
5235 The entering/removal of articles from the cache is controlled by the
5236 @code{gnus-cache-enter-articles} and @code{gnus-cache-remove-articles}
5237 variables. Both are lists of symbols. The first is @code{(ticked
5238 dormant)} by default, meaning that ticked and dormant articles will be
5239 put in the cache. The latter is @code{(read)} by default, meaning that
5240 articles marked as read are removed from the cache. Possibly
5241 symbols in these two lists are @code{ticked}, @code{dormant},
5242 @code{unread} and @code{read}.
5244 @findex gnus-jog-cache
5245 So where does the massive article-fetching and storing come into the
5246 picture? The @code{gnus-jog-cache} command will go through all
5247 subscribed newsgroups, request all unread articles, score them, and
5248 store them in the cache. You should only ever, ever ever ever, use this
5249 command if 1) your connection to the @sc{nntp} server is really, really,
5250 really slow and 2) you have a really, really, really huge disk.
5251 Seriously. One way to cut down on the number of articles downloaded is
5252 to score unwanted articles down and have them marked as read. They will
5253 not then be downloaded by this command.
5255 @vindex gnus-uncacheable-groups
5256 It is likely that you do not want caching on some groups. For instance,
5257 if your @code{nnml} mail is located under your home directory, it makes no
5258 sense to cache it somewhere else under your home directory. Unless you
5259 feel that it's neat to use twice as much space. To limit the caching,
5260 you could set the @code{gnus-uncacheable-groups} regexp to
5261 @samp{^nnml}, for instance. This variable is @code{nil} by
5264 @findex gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases
5265 @findex gnus-cache-generate-active
5266 @vindex gnus-cache-active-file
5267 The cache stores information on what articles it contains in its active
5268 file (@code{gnus-cache-active-file}). If this file (or any other parts
5269 of the cache) becomes all messed up for some reason or other, Gnus
5270 offers two functions that will try to set things right. @kbd{M-x
5271 gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases} will (re)build all the @sc{nov}
5272 files, and @kbd{gnus-cache-generate-active} will (re)generate the active
5276 @node Persistent Articles
5277 @section Persistent Articles
5278 @cindex persistent articles
5280 Closely related to article caching, we have @dfn{persistent articles}.
5281 In fact, it's just a different way of looking at caching, and much more
5282 useful in my opinion.
5284 Say you're reading a newsgroup, and you happen on to some valuable gem
5285 that you want to keep and treasure forever. You'd normally just save it
5286 (using one of the many saving commands) in some file. The problem with
5287 that is that it's just, well, yucky. Ideally you'd prefer just having
5288 the article remain in the group where you found it forever; untouched by
5289 the expiry going on at the news server.
5291 This is what a @dfn{persistent article} is---an article that just won't
5292 be deleted. It's implemented using the normal cache functions, but
5293 you use two explicit commands for managing persistent articles:
5299 @findex gnus-cache-enter-article
5300 Make the current article persistent (@code{gnus-cache-enter-article}).
5303 @kindex M-* (Summary)
5304 @findex gnus-cache-remove-article
5305 Remove the current article from the persistent articles
5306 (@code{gnus-cache-remove-article}). This will normally delete the
5310 Both these commands understand the process/prefix convention.
5312 To avoid having all ticked articles (and stuff) entered into the cache,
5313 you should set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{passive} if you're just
5314 interested in persistent articles:
5317 (setq gnus-use-cache 'passive)
5321 @node Article Backlog
5322 @section Article Backlog
5324 @cindex article backlog
5326 If you have a slow connection, but the idea of using caching seems
5327 unappealing to you (and it is, really), you can help the situation some
5328 by switching on the @dfn{backlog}. This is where Gnus will buffer
5329 already read articles so that it doesn't have to re-fetch articles
5330 you've already read. This only helps if you are in the habit of
5331 re-selecting articles you've recently read, of course. If you never do
5332 that, turning the backlog on will slow Gnus down a little bit, and
5333 increase memory usage some.
5335 @vindex gnus-keep-backlog
5336 If you set @code{gnus-keep-backlog} to a number @var{n}, Gnus will store
5337 at most @var{n} old articles in a buffer for later re-fetching. If this
5338 variable is non-@code{nil} and is not a number, Gnus will store
5339 @emph{all} read articles, which means that your Emacs will grow without
5340 bound before exploding and taking your machine down with you. I put
5341 that in there just to keep y'all on your toes.
5343 This variable is @code{nil} by default.
5346 @node Saving Articles
5347 @section Saving Articles
5348 @cindex saving articles
5350 Gnus can save articles in a number of ways. Below is the documentation
5351 for saving articles in a fairly straight-forward fashion (i.e., little
5352 processing of the article is done before it is saved). For a different
5353 approach (uudecoding, unsharing) you should use @code{gnus-uu}
5354 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
5356 @vindex gnus-save-all-headers
5357 If @code{gnus-save-all-headers} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will not delete
5358 unwanted headers before saving the article.
5360 @vindex gnus-saved-headers
5361 If the preceding variable is @code{nil}, all headers that match the
5362 @code{gnus-saved-headers} regexp will be kept, while the rest will be
5363 deleted before saving.
5369 @kindex O o (Summary)
5371 @findex gnus-summary-save-article
5372 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article}
5373 Save the current article using the default article saver
5374 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article}).
5377 @kindex O m (Summary)
5378 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-mail
5379 Save the current article in mail format
5380 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-mail}).
5383 @kindex O r (Summary)
5384 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-rmail
5385 Save the current article in rmail format
5386 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-rmail}).
5389 @kindex O f (Summary)
5390 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-file
5391 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article-file}
5392 Save the current article in plain file format
5393 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-file}).
5396 @kindex O F (Summary)
5397 @findex gnus-summary-write-article-file
5398 Write the current article in plain file format, overwriting any previous
5399 file contents (@code{gnus-summary-write-article-file}).
5402 @kindex O b (Summary)
5403 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-body-file
5404 Save the current article body in plain file format
5405 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-body-file}).
5408 @kindex O h (Summary)
5409 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-folder
5410 Save the current article in mh folder format
5411 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-folder}).
5414 @kindex O v (Summary)
5415 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-vm
5416 Save the current article in a VM folder
5417 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-vm}).
5420 @kindex O p (Summary)
5421 @findex gnus-summary-pipe-output
5422 Save the current article in a pipe. Uhm, like, what I mean is---Pipe
5423 the current article to a process (@code{gnus-summary-pipe-output}).
5426 @vindex gnus-prompt-before-saving
5427 All these commands use the process/prefix convention
5428 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). If you save bunches of articles using these
5429 functions, you might get tired of being prompted for files to save each
5430 and every article in. The prompting action is controlled by
5431 the @code{gnus-prompt-before-saving} variable, which is @code{always} by
5432 default, giving you that excessive prompting action you know and
5433 loathe. If you set this variable to @code{t} instead, you'll be prompted
5434 just once for each series of articles you save. If you like to really
5435 have Gnus do all your thinking for you, you can even set this variable
5436 to @code{nil}, which means that you will never be prompted for files to
5437 save articles in. Gnus will simply save all the articles in the default
5441 @vindex gnus-default-article-saver
5442 You can customize the @code{gnus-default-article-saver} variable to make
5443 Gnus do what you want it to. You can use any of the four ready-made
5444 functions below, or you can create your own.
5448 @item gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
5449 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
5450 @vindex gnus-rmail-save-name
5451 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
5452 This is the default format, @dfn{babyl}. Uses the function in the
5453 @code{gnus-rmail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
5454 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
5456 @item gnus-summary-save-in-mail
5457 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-mail
5458 @vindex gnus-mail-save-name
5459 Save in a Unix mail (mbox) file. Uses the function in the
5460 @code{gnus-mail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
5461 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
5463 @item gnus-summary-save-in-file
5464 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-file
5465 @vindex gnus-file-save-name
5466 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
5467 Append the article straight to an ordinary file. Uses the function in
5468 the @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
5469 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
5471 @item gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
5472 @findex gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
5473 Append the article body to an ordinary file. Uses the function in the
5474 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
5475 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
5477 @item gnus-summary-save-in-folder
5478 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-folder
5479 @findex gnus-folder-save-name
5480 @findex gnus-Folder-save-name
5481 @vindex gnus-folder-save-name
5484 Save the article to an MH folder using @code{rcvstore} from the MH
5485 library. Uses the function in the @code{gnus-folder-save-name} variable
5486 to get a file name to save the article in. The default is
5487 @code{gnus-folder-save-name}, but you can also use
5488 @code{gnus-Folder-save-name}, which creates capitalized names.
5490 @item gnus-summary-save-in-vm
5491 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-vm
5492 Save the article in a VM folder. You have to have the VM mail
5493 reader to use this setting.
5496 @vindex gnus-article-save-directory
5497 All of these functions, except for the last one, will save the article
5498 in the @code{gnus-article-save-directory}, which is initialized from the
5499 @code{SAVEDIR} environment variable. This is @file{~/News/} by
5502 As you can see above, the functions use different functions to find a
5503 suitable name of a file to save the article in. Below is a list of
5504 available functions that generate names:
5508 @item gnus-Numeric-save-name
5509 @findex gnus-Numeric-save-name
5510 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
5512 @item gnus-numeric-save-name
5513 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
5514 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
5516 @item gnus-Plain-save-name
5517 @findex gnus-Plain-save-name
5518 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin}.
5520 @item gnus-plain-save-name
5521 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
5522 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.
5525 @vindex gnus-split-methods
5526 You can have Gnus suggest where to save articles by plonking a regexp into
5527 the @code{gnus-split-methods} alist. For instance, if you would like to
5528 save articles related to Gnus in the file @file{gnus-stuff}, and articles
5529 related to VM in @code{vm-stuff}, you could set this variable to something
5533 (("^Subject:.*gnus\\|^Newsgroups:.*gnus" "gnus-stuff")
5534 ("^Subject:.*vm\\|^Xref:.*vm" "vm-stuff")
5535 (my-choosing-function "../other-dir/my-stuff")
5536 ((equal gnus-newsgroup-name "mail.misc") "mail-stuff"))
5539 We see that this is a list where each element is a list that has two
5540 elements---the @dfn{match} and the @dfn{file}. The match can either be
5541 a string (in which case it is used as a regexp to match on the article
5542 head); it can be a symbol (which will be called as a function with the
5543 group name as a parameter); or it can be a list (which will be
5544 @code{eval}ed). If any of these actions have a non-@code{nil} result,
5545 the @dfn{file} will be used as a default prompt. In addition, the
5546 result of the operation itself will be used if the function or form
5547 called returns a string or a list of strings.
5549 You basically end up with a list of file names that might be used when
5550 saving the current article. (All ``matches'' will be used.) You will
5551 then be prompted for what you really want to use as a name, with file
5552 name completion over the results from applying this variable.
5554 This variable is @code{((gnus-article-archive-name))} by default, which
5555 means that Gnus will look at the articles it saves for an
5556 @code{Archive-name} line and use that as a suggestion for the file
5559 Here's an example function to clean up file names somewhat. If you have
5560 lots of mail groups called things like
5561 @samp{nnml:mail.whatever}, you may want to chop off the beginning of
5562 these group names before creating the file name to save to. The
5563 following will do just that:
5566 (defun my-save-name (group)
5567 (when (string-match "^nnml:mail." group)
5568 (substring group (match-end 0))))
5570 (setq gnus-split-methods
5571 '((gnus-article-archive-name)
5576 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
5577 Finally, you have the @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable. If it is
5578 @code{nil}, all the preceding functions will replace all periods
5579 (@samp{.}) in the group names with slashes (@samp{/})---which means that
5580 the functions will generate hierarchies of directories instead of having
5581 all the files in the toplevel directory
5582 (@file{~/News/alt/andrea-dworkin} instead of
5583 @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.) This variable is @code{t} by default
5584 on most systems. However, for historical reasons, this is @code{nil} on
5585 Xenix and usg-unix-v machines by default.
5587 This function also affects kill and score file names. If this variable
5588 is a list, and the list contains the element @code{not-score}, long file
5589 names will not be used for score files, if it contains the element
5590 @code{not-save}, long file names will not be used for saving, and if it
5591 contains the element @code{not-kill}, long file names will not be used
5594 If you'd like to save articles in a hierarchy that looks something like
5598 (setq gnus-use-long-file-name '(not-save)) ; to get a hierarchy
5599 (setq gnus-default-article-saver 'gnus-summary-save-in-file) ; no encoding
5602 Then just save with @kbd{o}. You'd then read this hierarchy with
5603 ephemeral @code{nneething} groups---@kbd{G D} in the group buffer, and
5604 the toplevel directory as the argument (@file{~/News/}). Then just walk
5605 around to the groups/directories with @code{nneething}.
5608 @node Decoding Articles
5609 @section Decoding Articles
5610 @cindex decoding articles
5612 Sometime users post articles (or series of articles) that have been
5613 encoded in some way or other. Gnus can decode them for you.
5616 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
5617 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
5618 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
5619 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
5620 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
5621 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
5625 @cindex article series
5626 All these functions use the process/prefix convention
5627 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) for finding out what articles to work on, with
5628 the extension that a ``single article'' means ``a single series''. Gnus
5629 can find out by itself what articles belong to a series, decode all the
5630 articles and unpack/view/save the resulting file(s).
5632 Gnus guesses what articles are in the series according to the following
5633 simplish rule: The subjects must be (nearly) identical, except for the
5634 last two numbers of the line. (Spaces are largely ignored, however.)
5636 For example: If you choose a subject called @samp{cat.gif (2/3)}, Gnus
5637 will find all the articles that match the regexp @samp{^cat.gif
5638 ([0-9]+/[0-9]+).*$}.
5640 Subjects that are non-standard, like @samp{cat.gif (2/3) Part 6 of a
5641 series}, will not be properly recognized by any of the automatic viewing
5642 commands, and you have to mark the articles manually with @kbd{#}.
5645 @node Uuencoded Articles
5646 @subsection Uuencoded Articles
5648 @cindex uuencoded articles
5653 @kindex X u (Summary)
5654 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu
5655 @c @icon{gnus-uu-decode-uu}
5656 Uudecodes the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}).
5659 @kindex X U (Summary)
5660 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save
5661 Uudecodes and saves the current series
5662 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
5665 @kindex X v u (Summary)
5666 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-view
5667 Uudecodes and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-view}).
5670 @kindex X v U (Summary)
5671 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view
5672 Uudecodes, views and saves the current series
5673 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view}).
5677 Remember that these all react to the presence of articles marked with
5678 the process mark. If, for instance, you'd like to decode and save an
5679 entire newsgroup, you'd typically do @kbd{M P a}
5680 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-all}) and then @kbd{X U}
5681 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
5683 All this is very much different from how @code{gnus-uu} worked with
5684 @sc{gnus 4.1}, where you had explicit keystrokes for everything under
5685 the sun. This version of @code{gnus-uu} generally assumes that you mark
5686 articles in some way (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}) and then press
5689 @vindex gnus-uu-notify-files
5690 Note: When trying to decode articles that have names matching
5691 @code{gnus-uu-notify-files}, which is hard-coded to
5692 @samp{[Cc][Ii][Nn][Dd][Yy][0-9]+.\\(gif\\|jpg\\)}, @code{gnus-uu} will
5693 automatically post an article on @samp{comp.unix.wizards} saying that
5694 you have just viewed the file in question. This feature can't be turned
5698 @node Shell Archives
5699 @subsection Shell Archives
5701 @cindex shell archives
5702 @cindex shared articles
5704 Shell archives (``shar files'') used to be a popular way to distribute
5705 sources, but it isn't used all that much today. In any case, we have
5706 some commands to deal with these:
5711 @kindex X s (Summary)
5712 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar
5713 Unshars the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar}).
5716 @kindex X S (Summary)
5717 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save
5718 Unshars and saves the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save}).
5721 @kindex X v s (Summary)
5722 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view
5723 Unshars and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view}).
5726 @kindex X v S (Summary)
5727 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view
5728 Unshars, views and saves the current series
5729 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view}).
5733 @node PostScript Files
5734 @subsection PostScript Files
5740 @kindex X p (Summary)
5741 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript
5742 Unpack the current PostScript series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript}).
5745 @kindex X P (Summary)
5746 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save
5747 Unpack and save the current PostScript series
5748 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save}).
5751 @kindex X v p (Summary)
5752 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view
5753 View the current PostScript series
5754 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view}).
5757 @kindex X v P (Summary)
5758 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view
5759 View and save the current PostScript series
5760 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view}).
5765 @subsection Other Files
5769 @kindex X o (Summary)
5770 @findex gnus-uu-decode-save
5771 Save the current series
5772 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-save}).
5775 @kindex X b (Summary)
5776 @findex gnus-uu-decode-binhex
5777 Unbinhex the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-binhex}). This
5778 doesn't really work yet.
5782 @node Decoding Variables
5783 @subsection Decoding Variables
5785 Adjective, not verb.
5788 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
5789 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
5790 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
5794 @node Rule Variables
5795 @subsubsection Rule Variables
5796 @cindex rule variables
5798 Gnus uses @dfn{rule variables} to decide how to view a file. All these
5799 variables are of the form
5802 (list '(regexp1 command2)
5809 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules
5810 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules
5812 This variable is consulted first when viewing files. If you wish to use,
5813 for instance, @code{sox} to convert an @samp{.au} sound file, you could
5816 (setq gnus-uu-user-view-rules
5817 (list '(\"\\\\.au$\" \"sox %s -t .aiff > /dev/audio\")))
5820 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
5821 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
5822 This variable is consulted if Gnus couldn't make any matches from the
5823 user and default view rules.
5825 @item gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
5826 @vindex gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
5827 This variable can be used to say what commands should be used to unpack
5832 @node Other Decode Variables
5833 @subsubsection Other Decode Variables
5836 @vindex gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
5838 @item gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
5839 All functions in this list will be called right after each file has been
5840 successfully decoded---so that you can move or view files right away,
5841 and don't have to wait for all files to be decoded before you can do
5842 anything. Ready-made functions you can put in this list are:
5846 @item gnus-uu-grab-view
5847 @findex gnus-uu-grab-view
5850 @item gnus-uu-grab-move
5851 @findex gnus-uu-grab-move
5852 Move the file (if you're using a saving function.)
5855 @item gnus-uu-be-dangerous
5856 @vindex gnus-uu-be-dangerous
5857 Specifies what to do if unusual situations arise during decoding. If
5858 @code{nil}, be as conservative as possible. If @code{t}, ignore things
5859 that didn't work, and overwrite existing files. Otherwise, ask each
5862 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
5863 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
5864 Files with name matching this regular expression won't be viewed.
5866 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
5867 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
5868 Files with a @sc{mime} type matching this variable won't be viewed.
5869 Note that Gnus tries to guess what type the file is based on the name.
5870 @code{gnus-uu} is not a @sc{mime} package (yet), so this is slightly
5873 @item gnus-uu-tmp-dir
5874 @vindex gnus-uu-tmp-dir
5875 Where @code{gnus-uu} does its work.
5877 @item gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
5878 @vindex gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
5879 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} won't peek inside archives
5880 looking for files to display.
5882 @item gnus-uu-view-and-save
5883 @vindex gnus-uu-view-and-save
5884 Non-@code{nil} means that the user will always be asked to save a file
5887 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
5888 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
5889 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default viewing
5892 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
5893 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
5894 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default archive
5897 @item gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
5898 @vindex gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
5899 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will strip all carriage returns
5902 @item gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
5903 @vindex gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
5904 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will mark unsuccessfully
5905 decoded articles as unread.
5907 @item gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
5908 @vindex gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
5909 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will @emph{try} to fix
5910 uuencoded files that have had trailing spaces deleted.
5912 @item gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
5913 @vindex gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
5914 Hook run before sending a message to @code{uudecode}.
5916 @item gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
5917 @vindex gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
5919 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the viewing
5920 commands defined by the rule variables and just fudge a @sc{mime}
5921 content type based on the file name. The result will be fed to
5922 @code{metamail} for viewing.
5924 @item gnus-uu-save-in-digest
5925 @vindex gnus-uu-save-in-digest
5926 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu}, when asked to save without
5927 decoding, will save in digests. If this variable is @code{nil},
5928 @code{gnus-uu} will just save everything in a file without any
5929 embellishments. The digesting almost conforms to RFC1153---no easy way
5930 to specify any meaningful volume and issue numbers were found, so I
5931 simply dropped them.
5936 @node Uuencoding and Posting
5937 @subsubsection Uuencoding and Posting
5941 @item gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
5942 @vindex gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
5943 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ask for a file to encode
5944 before you compose the article. If this variable is @code{t}, you can
5945 either include an encoded file with @kbd{C-c C-i} or have one included
5946 for you when you post the article.
5948 @item gnus-uu-post-length
5949 @vindex gnus-uu-post-length
5950 Maximum length of an article. The encoded file will be split into how
5951 many articles it takes to post the entire file.
5953 @item gnus-uu-post-threaded
5954 @vindex gnus-uu-post-threaded
5955 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will post the encoded file in a
5956 thread. This may not be smart, as no other decoder I have seen is able
5957 to follow threads when collecting uuencoded articles. (Well, I have
5958 seen one package that does that---@code{gnus-uu}, but somehow, I don't
5959 think that counts...) Default is @code{nil}.
5961 @item gnus-uu-post-separate-description
5962 @vindex gnus-uu-post-separate-description
5963 Non-@code{nil} means that the description will be posted in a separate
5964 article. The first article will typically be numbered (0/x). If this
5965 variable is @code{nil}, the description the user enters will be included
5966 at the beginning of the first article, which will be numbered (1/x).
5967 Default is @code{t}.
5973 @subsection Viewing Files
5974 @cindex viewing files
5975 @cindex pseudo-articles
5977 After decoding, if the file is some sort of archive, Gnus will attempt
5978 to unpack the archive and see if any of the files in the archive can be
5979 viewed. For instance, if you have a gzipped tar file @file{pics.tar.gz}
5980 containing the files @file{pic1.jpg} and @file{pic2.gif}, Gnus will
5981 uncompress and de-tar the main file, and then view the two pictures.
5982 This unpacking process is recursive, so if the archive contains archives
5983 of archives, it'll all be unpacked.
5985 Finally, Gnus will normally insert a @dfn{pseudo-article} for each
5986 extracted file into the summary buffer. If you go to these
5987 ``articles'', you will be prompted for a command to run (usually Gnus
5988 will make a suggestion), and then the command will be run.
5990 @vindex gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously
5991 If @code{gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously} is @code{nil}, Emacs will wait
5992 until the viewing is done before proceeding.
5994 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos
5995 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos} is @code{automatic}, Gnus will not insert
5996 the pseudo-articles into the summary buffer, but view them
5997 immediately. If this variable is @code{not-confirm}, the user won't even
5998 be asked for a confirmation before viewing is done.
6000 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos-separately
6001 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos-separately} is non-@code{nil}, one
6002 pseudo-article will be created for each file to be viewed. If
6003 @code{nil}, all files that use the same viewing command will be given as
6004 a list of parameters to that command.
6006 @vindex gnus-insert-pseudo-articles
6007 If @code{gnus-insert-pseudo-articles} is non-@code{nil}, insert
6008 pseudo-articles when decoding. It is @code{t} by default.
6010 So; there you are, reading your @emph{pseudo-articles} in your
6011 @emph{virtual newsgroup} from the @emph{virtual server}; and you think:
6012 Why isn't anything real anymore? How did we get here?
6015 @node Article Treatment
6016 @section Article Treatment
6018 Reading through this huge manual, you may have quite forgotten that the
6019 object of newsreaders is to actually, like, read what people have
6020 written. Reading articles. Unfortunately, people are quite bad at
6021 writing, so there are tons of functions and variables to make reading
6022 these articles easier.
6025 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
6026 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look niced.
6027 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
6028 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
6029 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
6030 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
6031 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
6035 @node Article Highlighting
6036 @subsection Article Highlighting
6039 Not only do you want your article buffer to look like fruit salad, but
6040 you want it to look like technicolor fruit salad.
6045 @kindex W H a (Summary)
6046 @findex gnus-article-highlight
6047 Highlight the current article (@code{gnus-article-highlight}).
6050 @kindex W H h (Summary)
6051 @findex gnus-article-highlight-headers
6052 @vindex gnus-header-face-alist
6053 Highlight the headers (@code{gnus-article-highlight-headers}). The
6054 highlighting will be done according to the @code{gnus-header-face-alist}
6055 variable, which is a list where each element has the form @var{(regexp
6056 name content)}. @var{regexp} is a regular expression for matching the
6057 header, @var{name} is the face used for highlighting the header name
6058 (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}) and @var{content} is the face for highlighting
6059 the header value. The first match made will be used. Note that
6060 @var{regexp} shouldn't have @samp{^} prepended---Gnus will add one.
6063 @kindex W H c (Summary)
6064 @findex gnus-article-highlight-citation
6065 Highlight cited text (@code{gnus-article-highlight-citation}).
6067 Some variables to customize the citation highlights:
6070 @vindex gnus-cite-parse-max-size
6072 @item gnus-cite-parse-max-size
6073 If the article size if bigger than this variable (which is 25000 by
6074 default), no citation highlighting will be performed.
6076 @item gnus-cite-prefix-regexp
6077 @vindex gnus-cite-prefix-regexp
6078 Regexp matching the longest possible citation prefix on a line.
6080 @item gnus-cite-max-prefix
6081 @vindex gnus-cite-max-prefix
6082 Maximum possible length for a citation prefix (default 20).
6084 @item gnus-cite-face-list
6085 @vindex gnus-cite-face-list
6086 List of faces used for highlighting citations (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}).
6087 When there are citations from multiple articles in the same message,
6088 Gnus will try to give each citation from each article its own face.
6089 This should make it easier to see who wrote what.
6091 @item gnus-supercite-regexp
6092 @vindex gnus-supercite-regexp
6093 Regexp matching normal Supercite attribution lines.
6095 @item gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
6096 @vindex gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
6097 Regexp matching mangled Supercite attribution lines.
6099 @item gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
6100 @vindex gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
6101 Minimum number of identical prefixes we have to see before we believe
6102 that it's a citation.
6104 @item gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
6105 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
6106 Regexp matching the beginning of an attribution line.
6108 @item gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
6109 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
6110 Regexp matching the end of an attribution line.
6112 @item gnus-cite-attribution-face
6113 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-face
6114 Face used for attribution lines. It is merged with the face for the
6115 cited text belonging to the attribution.
6121 @kindex W H s (Summary)
6122 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
6123 @vindex gnus-signature-face
6124 @findex gnus-article-highlight-signature
6125 Highlight the signature (@code{gnus-article-highlight-signature}).
6126 Everything after @code{gnus-signature-separator} (@pxref{Article
6127 Signature}) in an article will be considered a signature and will be
6128 highlighted with @code{gnus-signature-face}, which is @code{italic} by
6134 @node Article Fontisizing
6135 @subsection Article Fontisizing
6137 @cindex article emphasis
6139 @findex gnus-article-emphasize
6140 @kindex W e (Summary)
6141 People commonly add emphasis to words in news articles by writing things
6142 like @samp{_this_} or @samp{*this*}. Gnus can make this look nicer by
6143 running the article through the @kbd{W e}
6144 (@code{gnus-article-emphasize}) command.
6146 @vindex gnus-article-emphasis
6147 How the emphasis is computed is controlled by the
6148 @code{gnus-article-emphasis} variable. This is an alist where the first
6149 element is a regular expression to be matched. The second is a number
6150 that says what regular expression grouping is used to find the entire
6151 emphasized word. The third is a number that says what regexp grouping
6152 should be displayed and highlighted. (The text between these two
6153 groupings will be hidden.) The fourth is the face used for
6157 (setq gnus-article-emphasis
6158 '(("_\\(\\w+\\)_" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-underline)
6159 ("\\*\\(\\w+\\)\\*" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-bold)))
6162 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline
6163 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold
6164 @vindex gnus-emphasis-italic
6165 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold
6166 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-italic
6167 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold-italic
6168 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic
6169 By default, there are seven rules, and they use the following faces:
6170 @code{gnus-emphasis-bold}, @code{gnus-emphasis-italic},
6171 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline}, @code{gnus-emphasis-bold-italic},
6172 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-italic},
6173 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold}, and
6174 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic}.
6176 If you want to change these faces, you can either use @kbd{M-x
6177 customize}, or you can use @code{copy-face}. For instance, if you want
6178 to make @code{gnus-emphasis-italic} use a red face instead, you could
6182 (copy-face 'red 'gnus-emphasis-italic)
6186 @node Article Hiding
6187 @subsection Article Hiding
6188 @cindex article hiding
6190 Or rather, hiding certain things in each article. There usually is much
6191 too much cruft in most articles.
6196 @kindex W W a (Summary)
6197 @findex gnus-article-hide
6198 Do maximum hiding on the summary buffer (@kbd{gnus-article-hide}).
6201 @kindex W W h (Summary)
6202 @findex gnus-article-hide-headers
6203 Hide headers (@code{gnus-article-hide-headers}). @xref{Hiding
6207 @kindex W W b (Summary)
6208 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
6209 Hide headers that aren't particularly interesting
6210 (@code{gnus-article-hide-boring-headers}). @xref{Hiding Headers}.
6213 @kindex W W s (Summary)
6214 @findex gnus-article-hide-signature
6215 Hide signature (@code{gnus-article-hide-signature}). @xref{Article
6219 @kindex W W p (Summary)
6220 @findex gnus-article-hide-pgp
6221 @vindex gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook
6222 Hide @sc{pgp} signatures (@code{gnus-article-hide-pgp}). The
6223 @code{gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook} hook will be run after a @sc{pgp}
6224 signature has been hidden.
6227 @kindex W W P (Summary)
6228 @findex gnus-article-hide-pem
6229 Hide @sc{pem} (privacy enhanced messages) cruft
6230 (@code{gnus-article-hide-pem}).
6233 @kindex W W c (Summary)
6234 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation
6235 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation}). Some variables for
6236 customizing the hiding:
6240 @item gnus-cite-hide-percentage
6241 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-percentage
6242 If the cited text is of a bigger percentage than this variable (default
6243 50), hide the cited text.
6245 @item gnus-cite-hide-absolute
6246 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-absolute
6247 The cited text must have at least this length (default 10) before it
6250 @item gnus-cited-text-button-line-format
6251 @vindex gnus-cited-text-button-line-format
6252 Gnus adds buttons to show where the cited text has been hidden, and to
6253 allow toggle hiding the text. The format of the variable is specified
6254 by this format-like variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}). These
6259 Start point of the hidden text.
6261 End point of the hidden text.
6263 Length of the hidden text.
6266 @item gnus-cited-lines-visible
6267 @vindex gnus-cited-lines-visible
6268 The number of lines at the beginning of the cited text to leave shown.
6273 @kindex W W C (Summary)
6274 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups
6275 Hide cited text in articles that aren't roots
6276 (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups}). This isn't very
6277 useful as an interactive command, but might be a handy function to stick
6278 in @code{gnus-article-display-hook} (@pxref{Customizing Articles}).
6282 All these ``hiding'' commands are toggles, but if you give a negative
6283 prefix to these commands, they will show what they have previously
6284 hidden. If you give a positive prefix, they will always hide.
6286 Also @pxref{Article Highlighting} for further variables for
6287 citation customization.
6290 @node Article Washing
6291 @subsection Article Washing
6293 @cindex article washing
6295 We call this ``article washing'' for a really good reason. Namely, the
6296 @kbd{A} key was taken, so we had to use the @kbd{W} key instead.
6298 @dfn{Washing} is defined by us as ``changing something from something to
6299 something else'', but normally results in something looking better.
6305 @kindex W l (Summary)
6306 @findex gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking
6307 Remove page breaks from the current article
6308 (@code{gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking}).
6311 @kindex W r (Summary)
6312 @findex gnus-summary-caesar-message
6313 @c @icon{gnus-summary-caesar-message}
6314 Do a Caesar rotate (rot13) on the article buffer
6315 (@code{gnus-summary-caesar-message}).
6316 Unreadable articles that tell you to read them with Caesar rotate or rot13.
6317 (Typically offensive jokes and such.)
6319 It's commonly called ``rot13'' because each letter is rotated 13
6320 positions in the alphabet, e. g. @samp{B} (letter #2) -> @samp{O} (letter
6321 #15). It is sometimes referred to as ``Caesar rotate'' because Caesar
6322 is rumoured to have employed this form of, uh, somewhat weak encryption.
6325 @kindex W t (Summary)
6326 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-header
6327 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer
6328 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-header}).
6331 @kindex W v (Summary)
6332 @findex gnus-summary-verbose-header
6333 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer permanently
6334 (@code{gnus-summary-verbose-header}).
6337 @kindex W m (Summary)
6338 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-mime
6339 Toggle whether to run the article through @sc{mime} before displaying
6340 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-mime}).
6343 @kindex W o (Summary)
6344 @findex gnus-article-treat-overstrike
6345 Treat overstrike (@code{gnus-article-treat-overstrike}).
6348 @kindex W d (Summary)
6349 @findex gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes
6350 Treat M******** sm*rtq**t*s (@code{gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes}).
6353 @kindex W w (Summary)
6354 @findex gnus-article-fill-cited-article
6355 Do word wrap (@code{gnus-article-fill-cited-article}). If you use this
6356 function in @code{gnus-article-display-hook}, it should be run fairly
6357 late and certainly after any highlighting.
6359 You can give the command a numerical prefix to specify the width to use
6363 @kindex W c (Summary)
6364 @findex gnus-article-remove-cr
6365 Remove CR (i. e., @samp{^M}s on the end of the lines)
6366 (@code{gnus-article-remove-cr}).
6369 @kindex W q (Summary)
6370 @findex gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable
6371 Treat quoted-printable (@code{gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable}).
6372 Quoted-Printable is one common @sc{mime} encoding employed when sending
6373 non-ASCII (i. e., 8-bit) articles. It typically makes strings like
6374 @samp{déjà vu} look like @samp{d=E9j=E0 vu}, which doesn't look very
6378 @kindex W f (Summary)
6380 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
6381 @findex gnus-article-x-face-command
6382 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-command
6383 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly
6389 Look for and display any X-Face headers
6390 (@code{gnus-article-display-x-face}). The command executed by this
6391 function is given by the @code{gnus-article-x-face-command} variable.
6392 If this variable is a string, this string will be executed in a
6393 sub-shell. If it is a function, this function will be called with the
6394 face as the argument. If the @code{gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly} (which
6395 is a regexp) matches the @code{From} header, the face will not be shown.
6396 The default action under Emacs is to fork off an @code{xv} to view the
6397 face; under XEmacs the default action is to display the face before the
6398 @code{From} header. (It's nicer if XEmacs has been compiled with X-Face
6399 support---that will make display somewhat faster. If there's no native
6400 X-Face support, Gnus will try to convert the @code{X-Face} header using
6401 external programs from the @code{pbmplus} package and friends.) If you
6402 want to have this function in the display hook, it should probably come
6406 @kindex W b (Summary)
6407 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons
6408 Add clickable buttons to the article (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons}).
6409 @xref{Article Buttons}
6412 @kindex W B (Summary)
6413 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head
6414 Add clickable buttons to the article headers
6415 (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head}).
6418 @kindex W E l (Summary)
6419 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines
6420 Remove all blank lines from the beginning of the article
6421 (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines}).
6424 @kindex W E m (Summary)
6425 @findex gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines
6426 Replace all blank lines with empty lines and then all multiple empty
6427 lines with a single empty line.
6428 (@code{gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines}).
6431 @kindex W E t (Summary)
6432 @findex gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines
6433 Remove all blank lines at the end of the article
6434 (@code{gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines}).
6437 @kindex W E a (Summary)
6438 @findex gnus-article-strip-blank-lines
6439 Do all the three commands above
6440 (@code{gnus-article-strip-blank-lines}).
6443 @kindex W E A (Summary)
6444 @findex gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines
6445 Remove all blank lines
6446 (@code{gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines}).
6449 @kindex W E s (Summary)
6450 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-space
6451 Remove all white space from the beginning of all lines of the article
6452 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-space}).
6457 @node Article Buttons
6458 @subsection Article Buttons
6461 People often include references to other stuff in articles, and it would
6462 be nice if Gnus could just fetch whatever it is that people talk about
6463 with the minimum of fuzz when you hit @kbd{RET} or use the middle mouse
6464 button on these references.
6466 Gnus adds @dfn{buttons} to certain standard references by default:
6467 Well-formed URLs, mail addresses and Message-IDs. This is controlled by
6468 two variables, one that handles article bodies and one that handles
6473 @item gnus-button-alist
6474 @vindex gnus-button-alist
6475 This is an alist where each entry has this form:
6478 (REGEXP BUTTON-PAR USE-P FUNCTION DATA-PAR)
6484 All text that match this regular expression will be considered an
6485 external reference. Here's a typical regexp that matches embedded URLs:
6486 @samp{<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>}.
6489 Gnus has to know which parts of the matches is to be highlighted. This
6490 is a number that says what sub-expression of the regexp is to be
6491 highlighted. If you want it all highlighted, you use 0 here.
6494 This form will be @code{eval}ed, and if the result is non-@code{nil},
6495 this is considered a match. This is useful if you want extra sifting to
6496 avoid false matches.
6499 This function will be called when you click on this button.
6502 As with @var{button-par}, this is a sub-expression number, but this one
6503 says which part of the match is to be sent as data to @var{function}.
6507 So the full entry for buttonizing URLs is then
6510 ("<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>" 0 t gnus-button-url 1)
6513 @item gnus-header-button-alist
6514 @vindex gnus-header-button-alist
6515 This is just like the other alist, except that it is applied to the
6516 article head only, and that each entry has an additional element that is
6517 used to say what headers to apply the buttonize coding to:
6520 (HEADER REGEXP BUTTON-PAR USE-P FUNCTION DATA-PAR)
6523 @var{HEADER} is a regular expression.
6525 @item gnus-button-url-regexp
6526 @vindex gnus-button-url-regexp
6527 A regular expression that matches embedded URLs. It is used in the
6528 default values of the variables above.
6530 @item gnus-article-button-face
6531 @vindex gnus-article-button-face
6532 Face used on buttons.
6534 @item gnus-article-mouse-face
6535 @vindex gnus-article-mouse-face
6536 Face used when the mouse cursor is over a button.
6542 @subsection Article Date
6544 The date is most likely generated in some obscure timezone you've never
6545 heard of, so it's quite nice to be able to find out what the time was
6546 when the article was sent.
6551 @kindex W T u (Summary)
6552 @findex gnus-article-date-ut
6553 Display the date in UT (aka. GMT, aka ZULU)
6554 (@code{gnus-article-date-ut}).
6557 @kindex W T i (Summary)
6558 @findex gnus-article-date-iso8601
6560 Display the date in international format, aka. ISO 8601
6561 (@code{gnus-article-date-iso8601}).
6564 @kindex W T l (Summary)
6565 @findex gnus-article-date-local
6566 Display the date in the local timezone (@code{gnus-article-date-local}).
6569 @kindex W T s (Summary)
6570 @vindex gnus-article-time-format
6571 @findex gnus-article-date-user
6572 @findex format-time-string
6573 Display the date using a user-defined format
6574 (@code{gnus-article-date-user}). The format is specified by the
6575 @code{gnus-article-time-format} variable, and is a string that's passed
6576 to @code{format-time-string}. See the documentation of that variable
6577 for a list of possible format specs.
6580 @kindex W T e (Summary)
6581 @findex gnus-article-date-lapsed
6582 @findex gnus-start-date-timer
6583 @findex gnus-stop-date-timer
6584 Say how much time has elapsed between the article was posted and now
6585 (@code{gnus-article-date-lapsed}). If you want to have this line
6586 updated continually, you can put
6589 (gnus-start-date-timer)
6592 in your @file{.gnus.el} file, or you can run it off of some hook. If
6593 you want to stop the timer, you can use the @code{gnus-stop-date-timer}
6597 @kindex W T o (Summary)
6598 @findex gnus-article-date-original
6599 Display the original date (@code{gnus-article-date-original}). This can
6600 be useful if you normally use some other conversion function and are
6601 worried that it might be doing something totally wrong. Say, claiming
6602 that the article was posted in 1854. Although something like that is
6603 @emph{totally} impossible. Don't you trust me? *titter*
6608 @node Article Signature
6609 @subsection Article Signature
6611 @cindex article signature
6613 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
6614 Each article is divided into two parts---the head and the body. The
6615 body can be divided into a signature part and a text part. The variable
6616 that says what is to be considered a signature is
6617 @code{gnus-signature-separator}. This is normally the standard
6618 @samp{^-- $} as mandated by son-of-RFC 1036. However, many people use
6619 non-standard signature separators, so this variable can also be a list
6620 of regular expressions to be tested, one by one. (Searches are done
6621 from the end of the body towards the beginning.) One likely value is:
6624 (setq gnus-signature-separator
6625 '("^-- $" ; The standard
6626 "^-- *$" ; A common mangling
6627 "^-------*$" ; Many people just use a looong
6628 ; line of dashes. Shame!
6629 "^ *--------*$" ; Double-shame!
6630 "^________*$" ; Underscores are also popular
6631 "^========*$")) ; Pervert!
6634 The more permissive you are, the more likely it is that you'll get false
6637 @vindex gnus-signature-limit
6638 @code{gnus-signature-limit} provides a limit to what is considered a
6643 If it is an integer, no signature may be longer (in characters) than
6646 If it is a floating point number, no signature may be longer (in lines)
6649 If it is a function, the function will be called without any parameters,
6650 and if it returns @code{nil}, there is no signature in the buffer.
6652 If it is a string, it will be used as a regexp. If it matches, the text
6653 in question is not a signature.
6656 This variable can also be a list where the elements may be of the types
6657 listed above. Here's an example:
6660 (setq gnus-signature-limit
6661 '(200.0 "^---*Forwarded article"))
6664 This means that if there are more than 200 lines after the signature
6665 separator, or the text after the signature separator is matched by
6666 the regular expression @samp{^---*Forwarded article}, then it isn't a
6667 signature after all.
6670 @node Article Commands
6671 @section Article Commands
6678 @kindex A P (Summary)
6679 @vindex gnus-ps-print-hook
6680 @findex gnus-summary-print-article
6681 Generate and print a PostScript image of the article buffer
6682 (@code{gnus-summary-print-article}). @code{gnus-ps-print-hook} will be
6683 run just before printing the buffer.
6688 @node Summary Sorting
6689 @section Summary Sorting
6690 @cindex summary sorting
6692 You can have the summary buffer sorted in various ways, even though I
6693 can't really see why you'd want that.
6698 @kindex C-c C-s C-n (Summary)
6699 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-number
6700 Sort by article number (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-number}).
6703 @kindex C-c C-s C-a (Summary)
6704 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-author
6705 Sort by author (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-author}).
6708 @kindex C-c C-s C-s (Summary)
6709 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-subject
6710 Sort by subject (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-subject}).
6713 @kindex C-c C-s C-d (Summary)
6714 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-date
6715 Sort by date (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-date}).
6718 @kindex C-c C-s C-l (Summary)
6719 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-lines
6720 Sort by lines (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-lines}).
6723 @kindex C-c C-s C-i (Summary)
6724 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-score
6725 Sort by score (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-score}).
6728 These functions will work both when you use threading and when you don't
6729 use threading. In the latter case, all summary lines will be sorted,
6730 line by line. In the former case, sorting will be done on a
6731 root-by-root basis, which might not be what you were looking for. To
6732 toggle whether to use threading, type @kbd{T T} (@pxref{Thread
6736 @node Finding the Parent
6737 @section Finding the Parent
6738 @cindex parent articles
6739 @cindex referring articles
6744 @findex gnus-summary-refer-parent-article
6745 If you'd like to read the parent of the current article, and it is not
6746 displayed in the summary buffer, you might still be able to. That is,
6747 if the current group is fetched by @sc{nntp}, the parent hasn't expired
6748 and the @code{References} in the current article are not mangled, you
6749 can just press @kbd{^} or @kbd{A r}
6750 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-parent-article}). If everything goes well,
6751 you'll get the parent. If the parent is already displayed in the
6752 summary buffer, point will just move to this article.
6754 If given a positive numerical prefix, fetch that many articles back into
6755 the ancestry. If given a negative numerical prefix, fetch just that
6756 ancestor. So if you say @kbd{3 ^}, Gnus will fetch the parent, the
6757 grandparent and the grandgrandparent of the current article. If you say
6758 @kbd{-3 ^}, Gnus will only fetch the grandgrandparent of the current
6762 @findex gnus-summary-refer-references
6763 @kindex A R (Summary)
6764 Fetch all articles mentioned in the @code{References} header of the
6765 article (@code{gnus-summary-refer-references}).
6768 @findex gnus-summary-refer-thread
6769 @kindex A T (Summary)
6770 Display the full thread where the current article appears
6771 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-thread}). This command has to fetch all the
6772 headers in the current group to work, so it usually takes a while. If
6773 you do it often, you may consider setting @code{gnus-fetch-old-headers}
6774 to @code{invisible} (@pxref{Filling In Threads}). This won't have any
6775 visible effects normally, but it'll make this command work a whole lot
6776 faster. Of course, it'll make group entry somewhat slow.
6778 @vindex gnus-refer-thread-limit
6779 The @code{gnus-refer-thread-limit} variable says how many old (i. e.,
6780 articles before the first displayed in the current group) headers to
6781 fetch when doing this command. The default is 200. If @code{t}, all
6782 the available headers will be fetched. This variable can be overridden
6783 by giving the @kbd{A T} command a numerical prefix.
6786 @findex gnus-summary-refer-article
6787 @kindex M-^ (Summary)
6789 @cindex fetching by Message-ID
6790 You can also ask the @sc{nntp} server for an arbitrary article, no
6791 matter what group it belongs to. @kbd{M-^}
6792 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-article}) will ask you for a
6793 @code{Message-ID}, which is one of those long, hard-to-read thingies
6794 that look something like @samp{<38o6up$6f2@@hymir.ifi.uio.no>}. You
6795 have to get it all exactly right. No fuzzy searches, I'm afraid.
6798 The current select method will be used when fetching by
6799 @code{Message-ID} from non-news select method, but you can override this
6800 by giving this command a prefix.
6802 @vindex gnus-refer-article-method
6803 If the group you are reading is located on a backend that does not
6804 support fetching by @code{Message-ID} very well (like @code{nnspool}),
6805 you can set @code{gnus-refer-article-method} to an @sc{nntp} method. It
6806 would, perhaps, be best if the @sc{nntp} server you consult is the one
6807 updating the spool you are reading from, but that's not really
6810 Most of the mail backends support fetching by @code{Message-ID}, but do
6811 not do a particularly excellent job at it. That is, @code{nnmbox} and
6812 @code{nnbabyl} are able to locate articles from any groups, while
6813 @code{nnml} and @code{nnfolder} are only able to locate articles that
6814 have been posted to the current group. (Anything else would be too time
6815 consuming.) @code{nnmh} does not support this at all.
6818 @node Alternative Approaches
6819 @section Alternative Approaches
6821 Different people like to read news using different methods. This being
6822 Gnus, we offer a small selection of minor modes for the summary buffers.
6825 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
6826 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
6831 @subsection Pick and Read
6832 @cindex pick and read
6834 Some newsreaders (like @code{nn} and, uhm, @code{Netnews} on VM/CMS) use
6835 a two-phased reading interface. The user first marks in a summary
6836 buffer the articles she wants to read. Then she starts reading the
6837 articles with just an article buffer displayed.
6839 @findex gnus-pick-mode
6840 @kindex M-x gnus-pick-mode
6841 Gnus provides a summary buffer minor mode that allows
6842 this---@code{gnus-pick-mode}. This basically means that a few process
6843 mark commands become one-keystroke commands to allow easy marking, and
6844 it provides one additional command for switching to the summary buffer.
6846 Here are the available keystrokes when using pick mode:
6851 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-processable
6852 Pick the article on the current line
6853 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-processable}). If given a numerical prefix,
6854 go to that article and pick it. (The line number is normally displayed
6855 at the beginning of the summary pick lines.)
6858 @kindex SPACE (Pick)
6859 @findex gnus-pick-next-page
6860 Scroll the summary buffer up one page (@code{gnus-pick-next-page}). If
6861 at the end of the buffer, start reading the picked articles.
6865 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable
6866 Unpick the article (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable}).
6870 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable
6871 Unpick all articles (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable}).
6875 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
6876 Pick the thread (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
6880 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
6881 Unpick the thread (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
6885 @findex gnus-uu-mark-region
6886 Pick the region (@code{gnus-uu-mark-region}).
6890 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-region
6891 Unpick the region (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-region}).
6895 @findex gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp
6896 Pick articles that match a regexp (@code{gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp}).
6900 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp
6901 Unpick articles that match a regexp (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp}).
6905 @findex gnus-uu-mark-buffer
6906 Pick the buffer (@code{gnus-uu-mark-buffer}).
6910 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-buffer
6911 Unpick the buffer (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-buffer}).
6915 @findex gnus-pick-start-reading
6916 @vindex gnus-pick-display-summary
6917 Start reading the picked articles (@code{gnus-pick-start-reading}). If
6918 given a prefix, mark all unpicked articles as read first. If
6919 @code{gnus-pick-display-summary} is non-@code{nil}, the summary buffer
6920 will still be visible when you are reading.
6924 If this sounds like a good idea to you, you could say:
6927 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
6930 @vindex gnus-pick-mode-hook
6931 @code{gnus-pick-mode-hook} is run in pick minor mode buffers.
6933 @vindex gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read
6934 If @code{gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read} is non-@code{nil}, mark
6935 all unpicked articles as read. The default is @code{nil}.
6937 @vindex gnus-summary-pick-line-format
6938 The summary line format in pick mode is slightly different from the
6939 standard format. At the beginning of each line the line number is
6940 displayed. The pick mode line format is controlled by the
6941 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting
6942 Variables}). It accepts the same format specs that
6943 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} does (@pxref{Summary Buffer Lines}).
6947 @subsection Binary Groups
6948 @cindex binary groups
6950 @findex gnus-binary-mode
6951 @kindex M-x gnus-binary-mode
6952 If you spend much time in binary groups, you may grow tired of hitting
6953 @kbd{X u}, @kbd{n}, @kbd{RET} all the time. @kbd{M-x gnus-binary-mode}
6954 is a minor mode for summary buffers that makes all ordinary Gnus article
6955 selection functions uudecode series of articles and display the result
6956 instead of just displaying the articles the normal way.
6959 @findex gnus-binary-show-article
6960 The only way, in fact, to see the actual articles is the @kbd{g}
6961 command, when you have turned on this mode
6962 (@code{gnus-binary-show-article}).
6964 @vindex gnus-binary-mode-hook
6965 @code{gnus-binary-mode-hook} is called in binary minor mode buffers.
6969 @section Tree Display
6972 @vindex gnus-use-trees
6973 If you don't like the normal Gnus summary display, you might try setting
6974 @code{gnus-use-trees} to @code{t}. This will create (by default) an
6975 additional @dfn{tree buffer}. You can execute all summary mode commands
6978 There are a few variables to customize the tree display, of course:
6981 @item gnus-tree-mode-hook
6982 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-hook
6983 A hook called in all tree mode buffers.
6985 @item gnus-tree-mode-line-format
6986 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-line-format
6987 A format string for the mode bar in the tree mode buffers. The default
6988 is @samp{Gnus: %%b %S %Z}. For a list of valid specs, @pxref{Summary
6991 @item gnus-selected-tree-face
6992 @vindex gnus-selected-tree-face
6993 Face used for highlighting the selected article in the tree buffer. The
6994 default is @code{modeline}.
6996 @item gnus-tree-line-format
6997 @vindex gnus-tree-line-format
6998 A format string for the tree nodes. The name is a bit of a misnomer,
6999 though---it doesn't define a line, but just the node. The default value
7000 is @samp{%(%[%3,3n%]%)}, which displays the first three characters of
7001 the name of the poster. It is vital that all nodes are of the same
7002 length, so you @emph{must} use @samp{%4,4n}-like specifiers.
7008 The name of the poster.
7010 The @code{From} header.
7012 The number of the article.
7014 The opening bracket.
7016 The closing bracket.
7021 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
7023 Variables related to the display are:
7026 @item gnus-tree-brackets
7027 @vindex gnus-tree-brackets
7028 This is used for differentiating between ``real'' articles and
7029 ``sparse'' articles. The format is @var{((real-open . real-close)
7030 (sparse-open . sparse-close) (dummy-open . dummy-close))}, and the
7031 default is @code{((?[ . ?]) (?( . ?)) (?@{ . ?@}) (?< . ?>))}.
7033 @item gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
7034 @vindex gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
7035 This is a list that contains the characters used for connecting parent
7036 nodes to their children. The default is @code{(?- ?\\ ?|)}.
7040 @item gnus-tree-minimize-window
7041 @vindex gnus-tree-minimize-window
7042 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will try to keep the tree
7043 buffer as small as possible to allow more room for the other Gnus
7044 windows. If this variable is a number, the tree buffer will never be
7045 higher than that number. The default is @code{t}. Note that if you
7046 have several windows displayed side-by-side in a frame and the tree
7047 buffer is one of these, minimizing the tree window will also resize all
7048 other windows displayed next to it.
7050 @item gnus-generate-tree-function
7051 @vindex gnus-generate-tree-function
7052 @findex gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
7053 @findex gnus-generate-vertical-tree
7054 The function that actually generates the thread tree. Two predefined
7055 functions are available: @code{gnus-generate-horizontal-tree} and
7056 @code{gnus-generate-vertical-tree} (which is the default).
7060 Here's an example from a horizontal tree buffer:
7063 @{***@}-(***)-[odd]-[Gun]
7073 Here's the same thread displayed in a vertical tree buffer:
7077 |--------------------------\-----\-----\
7078 (***) [Bjo] [Gun] [Gun]
7080 [odd] [Jan] [odd] (***) [Jor]
7082 [Gun] [Eri] [Eri] [odd]
7087 If you're using horizontal trees, it might be nice to display the trees
7088 side-by-side with the summary buffer. You could add something like the
7089 following to your @file{.gnus.el} file:
7092 (setq gnus-use-trees t
7093 gnus-generate-tree-function 'gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
7094 gnus-tree-minimize-window nil)
7095 (gnus-add-configuration
7099 (summary 0.75 point)
7104 @xref{Windows Configuration}.
7107 @node Mail Group Commands
7108 @section Mail Group Commands
7109 @cindex mail group commands
7111 Some commands only make sense in mail groups. If these commands are
7112 invalid in the current group, they will raise a hell and let you know.
7114 All these commands (except the expiry and edit commands) use the
7115 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
7120 @kindex B e (Summary)
7121 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles
7122 Expire all expirable articles in the group
7123 (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles}).
7126 @kindex B M-C-e (Summary)
7127 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles-now
7128 Delete all the expirable articles in the group
7129 (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles-now}). This means that @strong{all}
7130 articles eligible for expiry in the current group will
7131 disappear forever into that big @file{/dev/null} in the sky.
7134 @kindex B DEL (Summary)
7135 @findex gnus-summary-delete-article
7136 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-delete}
7137 Delete the mail article. This is ``delete'' as in ``delete it from your
7138 disk forever and ever, never to return again.'' Use with caution.
7139 (@code{gnus-summary-delete-article}).
7142 @kindex B m (Summary)
7144 @findex gnus-summary-move-article
7145 Move the article from one mail group to another
7146 (@code{gnus-summary-move-article}).
7149 @kindex B c (Summary)
7151 @findex gnus-summary-copy-article
7152 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-copy}
7153 Copy the article from one group (mail group or not) to a mail group
7154 (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}).
7157 @kindex B B (Summary)
7158 @cindex crosspost mail
7159 @findex gnus-summary-crosspost-article
7160 Crosspost the current article to some other group
7161 (@code{gnus-summary-crosspost-article}). This will create a new copy of
7162 the article in the other group, and the Xref headers of the article will
7163 be properly updated.
7166 @kindex B i (Summary)
7167 @findex gnus-summary-import-article
7168 Import an arbitrary file into the current mail newsgroup
7169 (@code{gnus-summary-import-article}). You will be prompted for a file
7170 name, a @code{From} header and a @code{Subject} header.
7173 @kindex B r (Summary)
7174 @findex gnus-summary-respool-article
7175 Respool the mail article (@code{gnus-summary-move-article}).
7176 @code{gnus-summary-respool-default-method} will be used as the default
7177 select method when respooling. This variable is @code{nil} by default,
7178 which means that the current group select method will be used instead.
7182 @kindex B w (Summary)
7184 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article
7185 @kindex C-c C-c (Article)
7186 Edit the current article (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article}). To finish
7187 editing and make the changes permanent, type @kbd{C-c C-c}
7188 (@kbd{gnus-summary-edit-article-done}). If you give a prefix to the
7189 @kbd{C-c C-c} command, Gnus won't re-highlight the article.
7192 @kindex B q (Summary)
7193 @findex gnus-summary-respool-query
7194 If you want to re-spool an article, you might be curious as to what group
7195 the article will end up in before you do the re-spooling. This command
7196 will tell you (@code{gnus-summary-respool-query}).
7199 @kindex B p (Summary)
7200 @findex gnus-summary-article-posted-p
7201 Some people have a tendency to send you "courtesy" copies when they
7202 follow up to articles you have posted. These usually have a
7203 @code{Newsgroups} header in them, but not always. This command
7204 (@code{gnus-summary-article-posted-p}) will try to fetch the current
7205 article from your news server (or rather, from
7206 @code{gnus-refer-article-method} or @code{gnus-select-method}) and will
7207 report back whether it found the article or not. Even if it says that
7208 it didn't find the article, it may have been posted anyway---mail
7209 propagation is much faster than news propagation, and the news copy may
7210 just not have arrived yet.
7214 @vindex gnus-move-split-methods
7215 @cindex moving articles
7216 If you move (or copy) articles regularly, you might wish to have Gnus
7217 suggest where to put the articles. @code{gnus-move-split-methods} is a
7218 variable that uses the same syntax as @code{gnus-split-methods}
7219 (@pxref{Saving Articles}). You may customize that variable to create
7220 suggestions you find reasonable.
7223 (setq gnus-move-split-methods
7224 '(("^From:.*Lars Magne" "nnml:junk")
7225 ("^Subject:.*gnus" "nnfolder:important")
7226 (".*" "nnml:misc")))
7230 @node Various Summary Stuff
7231 @section Various Summary Stuff
7234 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
7235 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
7236 * Summary Generation Commands:: (Re)generating the summary buffer.
7237 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
7241 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-hook
7242 @item gnus-summary-mode-hook
7243 This hook is called when creating a summary mode buffer.
7245 @vindex gnus-summary-generate-hook
7246 @item gnus-summary-generate-hook
7247 This is called as the last thing before doing the threading and the
7248 generation of the summary buffer. It's quite convenient for customizing
7249 the threading variables based on what data the newsgroup has. This hook
7250 is called from the summary buffer after most summary buffer variables
7253 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-hook
7254 @item gnus-summary-prepare-hook
7255 It is called after the summary buffer has been generated. You might use
7256 it to, for instance, highlight lines or modify the look of the buffer in
7257 some other ungodly manner. I don't care.
7259 @vindex gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
7260 @item gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
7261 When Gnus discovers two articles that have the same @code{Message-ID},
7262 it has to do something drastic. No articles are allowed to have the
7263 same @code{Message-ID}, but this may happen when reading mail from some
7264 sources. Gnus allows you to customize what happens with this variable.
7265 If it is @code{nil} (which is the default), Gnus will rename the
7266 @code{Message-ID} (for display purposes only) and display the article as
7267 any other article. If this variable is @code{t}, it won't display the
7268 article---it'll be as if it never existed.
7273 @node Summary Group Information
7274 @subsection Summary Group Information
7279 @kindex H f (Summary)
7280 @findex gnus-summary-fetch-faq
7281 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
7282 Try to fetch the FAQ (list of frequently asked questions) for the
7283 current group (@code{gnus-summary-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the
7284 FAQ from @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory
7285 on a remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories.
7286 In that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose
7287 between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs} will probably
7288 be used for fetching the file.
7291 @kindex H d (Summary)
7292 @findex gnus-summary-describe-group
7293 Give a brief description of the current group
7294 (@code{gnus-summary-describe-group}). If given a prefix, force
7295 rereading the description from the server.
7298 @kindex H h (Summary)
7299 @findex gnus-summary-describe-briefly
7300 Give an extremely brief description of the most important summary
7301 keystrokes (@code{gnus-summary-describe-briefly}).
7304 @kindex H i (Summary)
7305 @findex gnus-info-find-node
7306 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
7310 @node Searching for Articles
7311 @subsection Searching for Articles
7316 @kindex M-s (Summary)
7317 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-forward
7318 Search through all subsequent articles for a regexp
7319 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-forward}).
7322 @kindex M-r (Summary)
7323 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-backward
7324 Search through all previous articles for a regexp
7325 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-backward}).
7329 @findex gnus-summary-execute-command
7330 This command will prompt you for a header field, a regular expression to
7331 match on this field, and a command to be executed if the match is made
7332 (@code{gnus-summary-execute-command}). If given a prefix, search
7336 @kindex M-& (Summary)
7337 @findex gnus-summary-universal-argument
7338 Perform any operation on all articles that have been marked with
7339 the process mark (@code{gnus-summary-universal-argument}).
7342 @node Summary Generation Commands
7343 @subsection Summary Generation Commands
7348 @kindex Y g (Summary)
7349 @findex gnus-summary-prepare
7350 Regenerate the current summary buffer (@code{gnus-summary-prepare}).
7353 @kindex Y c (Summary)
7354 @findex gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles
7355 Pull all cached articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
7356 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles}).
7361 @node Really Various Summary Commands
7362 @subsection Really Various Summary Commands
7367 @kindex C-d (Summary)
7368 @findex gnus-summary-enter-digest-group
7369 If the current article is a collection of other articles (for instance,
7370 a digest), you might use this command to enter a group based on the that
7371 article (@code{gnus-summary-enter-digest-group}). Gnus will try to
7372 guess what article type is currently displayed unless you give a prefix
7373 to this command, which forces a ``digest'' interpretation. Basically,
7374 whenever you see a message that is a collection of other messages of
7375 some format, you @kbd{C-d} and read these messages in a more convenient
7379 @kindex M-C-d (Summary)
7380 @findex gnus-summary-read-document
7381 This command is very similar to the one above, but lets you gather
7382 several documents into one biiig group
7383 (@code{gnus-summary-read-document}). It does this by opening several
7384 @code{nndoc} groups for each document, and then opening an
7385 @code{nnvirtual} group on top of these @code{nndoc} groups. This
7386 command understands the process/prefix convention
7387 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
7390 @kindex C-t (Summary)
7391 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-truncation
7392 Toggle truncation of summary lines
7393 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-truncation}). This will probably confuse the
7394 line centering function in the summary buffer, so it's not a good idea
7395 to have truncation switched off while reading articles.
7399 @findex gnus-summary-expand-window
7400 Expand the summary buffer window (@code{gnus-summary-expand-window}).
7401 If given a prefix, force an @code{article} window configuration.
7404 @kindex M-C-e (Summary)
7405 @findex gnus-summary-edit-parameters
7406 Edit the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
7407 group (@code{gnus-summary-edit-parameters}).
7412 @node Exiting the Summary Buffer
7413 @section Exiting the Summary Buffer
7414 @cindex summary exit
7415 @cindex exiting groups
7417 Exiting from the summary buffer will normally update all info on the
7418 group and return you to the group buffer.
7424 @kindex Z Z (Summary)
7426 @findex gnus-summary-exit
7427 @vindex gnus-summary-exit-hook
7428 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook
7429 @c @icon{gnus-summary-exit}
7430 Exit the current group and update all information on the group
7431 (@code{gnus-summary-exit}). @code{gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook} is
7432 called before doing much of the exiting, which calls
7433 @code{gnus-summary-expire-articles} by default.
7434 @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} is called after finishing the exit
7435 process. @code{gnus-group-no-more-groups-hook} is run when returning to
7436 group mode having no more (unread) groups.
7440 @kindex Z E (Summary)
7442 @findex gnus-summary-exit-no-update
7443 Exit the current group without updating any information on the group
7444 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}).
7448 @kindex Z c (Summary)
7450 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit
7451 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}
7452 Mark all unticked articles in the group as read and then exit
7453 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}).
7456 @kindex Z C (Summary)
7457 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit
7458 Mark all articles, even the ticked ones, as read and then exit
7459 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit}).
7462 @kindex Z n (Summary)
7463 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group
7464 Mark all articles as read and go to the next group
7465 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group}).
7468 @kindex Z R (Summary)
7469 @findex gnus-summary-reselect-current-group
7470 Exit this group, and then enter it again
7471 (@code{gnus-summary-reselect-current-group}). If given a prefix, select
7472 all articles, both read and unread.
7476 @kindex Z G (Summary)
7477 @kindex M-g (Summary)
7478 @findex gnus-summary-rescan-group
7479 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-get}
7480 Exit the group, check for new articles in the group, and select the
7481 group (@code{gnus-summary-rescan-group}). If given a prefix, select all
7482 articles, both read and unread.
7485 @kindex Z N (Summary)
7486 @findex gnus-summary-next-group
7487 Exit the group and go to the next group
7488 (@code{gnus-summary-next-group}).
7491 @kindex Z P (Summary)
7492 @findex gnus-summary-prev-group
7493 Exit the group and go to the previous group
7494 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-group}).
7497 @kindex Z s (Summary)
7498 @findex gnus-summary-save-newsrc
7499 Save the current number of read/marked articles in the dribble buffer
7500 and then save the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-summary-save-newsrc}). If
7501 given a prefix, also save the @file{.newsrc} file(s). Using this
7502 command will make exit without updating (the @kbd{Q} command) worthless.
7505 @vindex gnus-exit-group-hook
7506 @code{gnus-exit-group-hook} is called when you exit the current
7509 @findex gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead
7510 @findex gnus-dead-summary-mode
7511 @vindex gnus-kill-summary-on-exit
7512 If you're in the habit of exiting groups, and then changing your mind
7513 about it, you might set @code{gnus-kill-summary-on-exit} to @code{nil}.
7514 If you do that, Gnus won't kill the summary buffer when you exit it.
7515 (Quelle surprise!) Instead it will change the name of the buffer to
7516 something like @samp{*Dead Summary ... *} and install a minor mode
7517 called @code{gnus-dead-summary-mode}. Now, if you switch back to this
7518 buffer, you'll find that all keys are mapped to a function called
7519 @code{gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead}. So tapping any keys in a dead
7520 summary buffer will result in a live, normal summary buffer.
7522 There will never be more than one dead summary buffer at any one time.
7524 @vindex gnus-use-cross-reference
7525 The data on the current group will be updated (which articles you have
7526 read, which articles you have replied to, etc.) when you exit the
7527 summary buffer. If the @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} variable is
7528 @code{t} (which is the default), articles that are cross-referenced to
7529 this group and are marked as read, will also be marked as read in the
7530 other subscribed groups they were cross-posted to. If this variable is
7531 neither @code{nil} nor @code{t}, the article will be marked as read in
7532 both subscribed and unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}).
7535 @node Crosspost Handling
7536 @section Crosspost Handling
7540 Marking cross-posted articles as read ensures that you'll never have to
7541 read the same article more than once. Unless, of course, somebody has
7542 posted it to several groups separately. Posting the same article to
7543 several groups (not cross-posting) is called @dfn{spamming}, and you are
7544 by law required to send nasty-grams to anyone who perpetrates such a
7545 heinous crime. You may want to try NoCeM handling to filter out spam
7548 Remember: Cross-posting is kinda ok, but posting the same article
7549 separately to several groups is not. Massive cross-posting (aka.
7550 @dfn{velveeta}) is to be avoided at all costs, and you can even use the
7551 @code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint} command to complain about
7552 excessive crossposting (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
7554 @cindex cross-posting
7557 One thing that may cause Gnus to not do the cross-posting thing
7558 correctly is if you use an @sc{nntp} server that supports @sc{xover}
7559 (which is very nice, because it speeds things up considerably) which
7560 does not include the @code{Xref} header in its @sc{nov} lines. This is
7561 Evil, but all too common, alas, alack. Gnus tries to Do The Right Thing
7562 even with @sc{xover} by registering the @code{Xref} lines of all
7563 articles you actually read, but if you kill the articles, or just mark
7564 them as read without reading them, Gnus will not get a chance to snoop
7565 the @code{Xref} lines out of these articles, and will be unable to use
7566 the cross reference mechanism.
7568 @cindex LIST overview.fmt
7569 @cindex overview.fmt
7570 To check whether your @sc{nntp} server includes the @code{Xref} header
7571 in its overview files, try @samp{telnet your.nntp.server nntp},
7572 @samp{MODE READER} on @code{inn} servers, and then say @samp{LIST
7573 overview.fmt}. This may not work, but if it does, and the last line you
7574 get does not read @samp{Xref:full}, then you should shout and whine at
7575 your news admin until she includes the @code{Xref} header in the
7578 @vindex gnus-nov-is-evil
7579 If you want Gnus to get the @code{Xref}s right all the time, you have to
7580 set @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{t}, which slows things down
7585 For an alternative approach, @pxref{Duplicate Suppression}.
7588 @node Duplicate Suppression
7589 @section Duplicate Suppression
7591 By default, Gnus tries to make sure that you don't have to read the same
7592 article more than once by utilizing the crossposting mechanism
7593 (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}). However, that simple and efficient
7594 approach may not work satisfactory for some users for various
7599 The @sc{nntp} server may fail to generate the @code{Xref} header. This
7600 is evil and not very common.
7603 The @sc{nntp} server may fail to include the @code{Xref} header in the
7604 @file{.overview} data bases. This is evil and all too common, alas.
7607 You may be reading the same group (or several related groups) from
7608 different @sc{nntp} servers.
7611 You may be getting mail that duplicates articles posted to groups.
7614 I'm sure there are other situations where @code{Xref} handling fails as
7615 well, but these four are the most common situations.
7617 If, and only if, @code{Xref} handling fails for you, then you may
7618 consider switching on @dfn{duplicate suppression}. If you do so, Gnus
7619 will remember the @code{Message-ID}s of all articles you have read or
7620 otherwise marked as read, and then, as if by magic, mark them as read
7621 all subsequent times you see them---in @emph{all} groups. Using this
7622 mechanism is quite likely to be somewhat inefficient, but not overly
7623 so. It's certainly preferable to reading the same articles more than
7626 Duplicate suppression is not a very subtle instrument. It's more like a
7627 sledge hammer than anything else. It works in a very simple
7628 fashion---if you have marked an article as read, it adds this Message-ID
7629 to a cache. The next time it sees this Message-ID, it will mark the
7630 article as read with the @samp{M} mark. It doesn't care what group it
7634 @item gnus-suppress-duplicates
7635 @vindex gnus-suppress-duplicates
7636 If non-@code{nil}, suppress duplicates.
7638 @item gnus-save-duplicate-list
7639 @vindex gnus-save-duplicate-list
7640 If non-@code{nil}, save the list of duplicates to a file. This will
7641 make startup and shutdown take longer, so the default is @code{nil}.
7642 However, this means that only duplicate articles read in a single Gnus
7643 session are suppressed.
7645 @item gnus-duplicate-list-length
7646 @vindex gnus-duplicate-list-length
7647 This variable says how many @code{Message-ID}s to keep in the duplicate
7648 suppression list. The default is 10000.
7650 @item gnus-duplicate-file
7651 @vindex gnus-duplicate-file
7652 The name of the file to store the duplicate suppression list in. The
7653 default is @file{~/News/suppression}.
7656 If you have a tendency to stop and start Gnus often, setting
7657 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{t} is probably a good idea. If
7658 you leave Gnus running for weeks on end, you may have it @code{nil}. On
7659 the other hand, saving the list makes startup and shutdown much slower,
7660 so that means that if you stop and start Gnus often, you should set
7661 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{nil}. Uhm. I'll leave this up
7662 to you to figure out, I think.
7665 @node The Article Buffer
7666 @chapter The Article Buffer
7667 @cindex article buffer
7669 The articles are displayed in the article buffer, of which there is only
7670 one. All the summary buffers share the same article buffer unless you
7671 tell Gnus otherwise.
7674 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
7675 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @sc{mime} before reading them.
7676 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
7677 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
7678 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
7682 @node Hiding Headers
7683 @section Hiding Headers
7684 @cindex hiding headers
7685 @cindex deleting headers
7687 The top section of each article is the @dfn{head}. (The rest is the
7688 @dfn{body}, but you may have guessed that already.)
7690 @vindex gnus-show-all-headers
7691 There is a lot of useful information in the head: the name of the person
7692 who wrote the article, the date it was written and the subject of the
7693 article. That's well and nice, but there's also lots of information
7694 most people do not want to see---what systems the article has passed
7695 through before reaching you, the @code{Message-ID}, the
7696 @code{References}, etc. ad nauseum---and you'll probably want to get rid
7697 of some of those lines. If you want to keep all those lines in the
7698 article buffer, you can set @code{gnus-show-all-headers} to @code{t}.
7700 Gnus provides you with two variables for sifting headers:
7704 @item gnus-visible-headers
7705 @vindex gnus-visible-headers
7706 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, it should be a regular expression
7707 that says what headers you wish to keep in the article buffer. All
7708 headers that do not match this variable will be hidden.
7710 For instance, if you only want to see the name of the person who wrote
7711 the article and the subject, you'd say:
7714 (setq gnus-visible-headers "^From:\\|^Subject:")
7717 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
7720 @item gnus-ignored-headers
7721 @vindex gnus-ignored-headers
7722 This variable is the reverse of @code{gnus-visible-headers}. If this
7723 variable is set (and @code{gnus-visible-headers} is @code{nil}), it
7724 should be a regular expression that matches all lines that you want to
7725 hide. All lines that do not match this variable will remain visible.
7727 For instance, if you just want to get rid of the @code{References} line
7728 and the @code{Xref} line, you might say:
7731 (setq gnus-ignored-headers "^References:\\|^Xref:")
7734 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
7737 Note that if @code{gnus-visible-headers} is non-@code{nil}, this
7738 variable will have no effect.
7742 @vindex gnus-sorted-header-list
7743 Gnus can also sort the headers for you. (It does this by default.) You
7744 can control the sorting by setting the @code{gnus-sorted-header-list}
7745 variable. It is a list of regular expressions that says in what order
7746 the headers are to be displayed.
7748 For instance, if you want the name of the author of the article first,
7749 and then the subject, you might say something like:
7752 (setq gnus-sorted-header-list '("^From:" "^Subject:"))
7755 Any headers that are to remain visible, but are not listed in this
7756 variable, will be displayed in random order after all the headers listed in this variable.
7758 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
7759 @vindex gnus-article-display-hook
7760 @vindex gnus-boring-article-headers
7761 You can hide further boring headers by entering
7762 @code{gnus-article-hide-boring-headers} into
7763 @code{gnus-article-display-hook}. What this function does depends on
7764 the @code{gnus-boring-article-headers} variable. It's a list, but this
7765 list doesn't actually contain header names. Instead is lists various
7766 @dfn{boring conditions} that Gnus can check and remove from sight.
7768 These conditions are:
7771 Remove all empty headers.
7773 Remove the @code{Newsgroups} header if it only contains the current group
7776 Remove the @code{Followup-To} header if it is identical to the
7777 @code{Newsgroups} header.
7779 Remove the @code{Reply-To} header if it lists the same address as the
7782 Remove the @code{Date} header if the article is less than three days
7785 Remove the @code{To} header if it is very long.
7787 Remove all @code{To} headers if there are more than one.
7790 To include the four first elements, you could say something like;
7793 (setq gnus-boring-article-headers
7794 '(empty newsgroups followup-to reply-to))
7797 This is also the default value for this variable.
7801 @section Using @sc{mime}
7804 Mime is a standard for waving your hands through the air, aimlessly,
7805 while people stand around yawning.
7807 @sc{mime}, however, is a standard for encoding your articles, aimlessly,
7808 while all newsreaders die of fear.
7810 @sc{mime} may specify what character set the article uses, the encoding
7811 of the characters, and it also makes it possible to embed pictures and
7812 other naughty stuff in innocent-looking articles.
7814 @vindex gnus-show-mime
7815 @vindex gnus-show-mime-method
7816 @vindex gnus-strict-mime
7817 @findex metamail-buffer
7818 Gnus handles @sc{mime} by pushing the articles through
7819 @code{gnus-show-mime-method}, which is @code{metamail-buffer} by
7820 default. This function calls the external @code{metamail} program to
7821 actually do the work. One common problem with this program is that is
7822 thinks that it can't display 8-bit things in the Emacs buffer. To tell
7823 it the truth, put something like the following in your
7824 @file{.bash_profile} file. (You do use @code{bash}, don't you?)
7827 export MM_CHARSET="iso-8859-1"
7830 For more information on @code{metamail}, see its manual page.
7832 Set @code{gnus-show-mime} to @code{t} if you want to use
7833 @sc{mime} all the time. However, if @code{gnus-strict-mime} is
7834 non-@code{nil}, the @sc{mime} method will only be used if there are
7835 @sc{mime} headers in the article. If you have @code{gnus-show-mime}
7836 set, then you'll see some unfortunate display glitches in the article
7837 buffer. These can't be avoided.
7839 It might be best to just use the toggling functions from the summary
7840 buffer to avoid getting nasty surprises. (For instance, you enter the
7841 group @samp{alt.sing-a-long} and, before you know it, @sc{mime} has
7842 decoded the sound file in the article and some horrible sing-a-long song
7843 comes screaming out your speakers, and you can't find the volume
7844 button, because there isn't one, and people are starting to look at you,
7845 and you try to stop the program, but you can't, and you can't find the
7846 program to control the volume, and everybody else in the room suddenly
7847 decides to look at you disdainfully, and you'll feel rather stupid.)
7849 Any similarity to real events and people is purely coincidental. Ahem.
7852 @node Customizing Articles
7853 @section Customizing Articles
7854 @cindex article customization
7856 @vindex gnus-article-display-hook
7857 The @code{gnus-article-display-hook} is called after the article has
7858 been inserted into the article buffer. It is meant to handle all
7859 treatment of the article before it is displayed.
7861 @findex gnus-article-maybe-highlight
7862 By default this hook just contains @code{gnus-article-hide-headers},
7863 @code{gnus-article-treat-overstrike}, and
7864 @code{gnus-article-maybe-highlight}, but there are thousands, nay
7865 millions, of functions you can put in this hook. For an overview of
7866 functions @pxref{Article Highlighting}, @pxref{Article Hiding},
7867 @pxref{Article Washing}, @pxref{Article Buttons} and @pxref{Article
7868 Date}. Note that the order of functions in this hook might affect
7869 things, so you may have to fiddle a bit to get the desired results.
7871 You can, of course, write your own functions. The functions are called
7872 from the article buffer, and you can do anything you like, pretty much.
7873 There is no information that you have to keep in the buffer---you can
7874 change everything. However, you shouldn't delete any headers. Instead
7875 make them invisible if you want to make them go away.
7878 @node Article Keymap
7879 @section Article Keymap
7881 Most of the keystrokes in the summary buffer can also be used in the
7882 article buffer. They should behave as if you typed them in the summary
7883 buffer, which means that you don't actually have to have a summary
7884 buffer displayed while reading. You can do it all from the article
7887 A few additional keystrokes are available:
7892 @kindex SPACE (Article)
7893 @findex gnus-article-next-page
7894 Scroll forwards one page (@code{gnus-article-next-page}).
7897 @kindex DEL (Article)
7898 @findex gnus-article-prev-page
7899 Scroll backwards one page (@code{gnus-article-prev-page}).
7902 @kindex C-c ^ (Article)
7903 @findex gnus-article-refer-article
7904 If point is in the neighborhood of a @code{Message-ID} and you press
7905 @kbd{r}, Gnus will try to get that article from the server
7906 (@code{gnus-article-refer-article}).
7909 @kindex C-c C-m (Article)
7910 @findex gnus-article-mail
7911 Send a reply to the address near point (@code{gnus-article-mail}). If
7912 given a prefix, include the mail.
7916 @findex gnus-article-show-summary
7917 Reconfigure the buffers so that the summary buffer becomes visible
7918 (@code{gnus-article-show-summary}).
7922 @findex gnus-article-describe-briefly
7923 Give a very brief description of the available keystrokes
7924 (@code{gnus-article-describe-briefly}).
7927 @kindex TAB (Article)
7928 @findex gnus-article-next-button
7929 Go to the next button, if any (@code{gnus-article-next-button}). This
7930 only makes sense if you have buttonizing turned on.
7933 @kindex M-TAB (Article)
7934 @findex gnus-article-prev-button
7935 Go to the previous button, if any (@code{gnus-article-prev-button}).
7941 @section Misc Article
7945 @item gnus-single-article-buffer
7946 @vindex gnus-single-article-buffer
7947 If non-@code{nil}, use the same article buffer for all the groups.
7948 (This is the default.) If @code{nil}, each group will have its own
7951 @vindex gnus-article-prepare-hook
7952 @item gnus-article-prepare-hook
7953 This hook is called right after the article has been inserted into the
7954 article buffer. It is mainly intended for functions that do something
7955 depending on the contents; it should probably not be used for changing
7956 the contents of the article buffer.
7958 @vindex gnus-article-display-hook
7959 @item gnus-article-display-hook
7960 This hook is called as the last thing when displaying an article, and is
7961 intended for modifying the contents of the buffer, doing highlights,
7962 hiding headers, and the like.
7964 @item gnus-article-mode-hook
7965 @vindex gnus-article-mode-hook
7966 Hook called in article mode buffers.
7968 @item gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
7969 @vindex gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
7970 Syntax table used in article buffers. It is initialized from
7971 @code{text-mode-syntax-table}.
7973 @vindex gnus-article-mode-line-format
7974 @item gnus-article-mode-line-format
7975 This variable is a format string along the same lines as
7976 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}. It accepts the same
7977 format specifications as that variable, with one extension:
7981 The @dfn{wash status} of the article. This is a short string with one
7982 character for each possible article wash operation that may have been
7986 @vindex gnus-break-pages
7988 @item gnus-break-pages
7989 Controls whether @dfn{page breaking} is to take place. If this variable
7990 is non-@code{nil}, the articles will be divided into pages whenever a
7991 page delimiter appears in the article. If this variable is @code{nil},
7992 paging will not be done.
7994 @item gnus-page-delimiter
7995 @vindex gnus-page-delimiter
7996 This is the delimiter mentioned above. By default, it is @samp{^L}
8001 @node Composing Messages
8002 @chapter Composing Messages
8003 @cindex composing messages
8006 @cindex sending mail
8011 @kindex C-c C-c (Post)
8012 All commands for posting and mailing will put you in a message buffer
8013 where you can edit the article all you like, before you send the article
8014 by pressing @kbd{C-c C-c}. @xref{Top, , Top, message, The Message
8015 Manual}. If you are in a foreign news group, and you wish to post the
8016 article using the foreign server, you can give a prefix to @kbd{C-c C-c}
8017 to make Gnus try to post using the foreign server.
8020 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
8021 * Post:: Posting and following up.
8022 * Posting Server:: What server should you post via?
8023 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
8024 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
8025 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
8026 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
8029 Also see @pxref{Canceling and Superseding} for information on how to
8030 remove articles you shouldn't have posted.
8036 Variables for customizing outgoing mail:
8039 @item gnus-uu-digest-headers
8040 @vindex gnus-uu-digest-headers
8041 List of regexps to match headers included in digested messages. The
8042 headers will be included in the sequence they are matched.
8044 @item gnus-add-to-list
8045 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
8046 If non-@code{nil}, add a @code{to-list} group parameter to mail groups
8047 that have none when you do a @kbd{a}.
8055 Variables for composing news articles:
8058 @item gnus-sent-message-ids-file
8059 @vindex gnus-sent-message-ids-file
8060 Gnus will keep a @code{Message-ID} history file of all the mails it has
8061 sent. If it discovers that it has already sent a mail, it will ask the
8062 user whether to re-send the mail. (This is primarily useful when
8063 dealing with @sc{soup} packets and the like where one is apt to send the
8064 same packet multiple times.) This variable says what the name of this
8065 history file is. It is @file{~/News/Sent-Message-IDs} by default. Set
8066 this variable to @code{nil} if you don't want Gnus to keep a history
8069 @item gnus-sent-message-ids-length
8070 @vindex gnus-sent-message-ids-length
8071 This variable says how many @code{Message-ID}s to keep in the history
8072 file. It is 1000 by default.
8077 @node Posting Server
8078 @section Posting Server
8080 When you press those magical @kbd{C-c C-c} keys to ship off your latest
8081 (extremely intelligent, of course) article, where does it go?
8083 Thank you for asking. I hate you.
8085 @vindex gnus-post-method
8087 It can be quite complicated. Normally, Gnus will use the same native
8088 server. However. If your native server doesn't allow posting, just
8089 reading, you probably want to use some other server to post your
8090 (extremely intelligent and fabulously interesting) articles. You can
8091 then set the @code{gnus-post-method} to some other method:
8094 (setq gnus-post-method '(nnspool ""))
8097 Now, if you've done this, and then this server rejects your article, or
8098 this server is down, what do you do then? To override this variable you
8099 can use a non-zero prefix to the @kbd{C-c C-c} command to force using
8100 the ``current'' server for posting.
8102 If you give a zero prefix (i.e., @kbd{C-u 0 C-c C-c}) to that command,
8103 Gnus will prompt you for what method to use for posting.
8105 You can also set @code{gnus-post-method} to a list of select methods.
8106 If that's the case, Gnus will always prompt you for what method to use
8109 Finally, if you want to always post using the same select method as
8110 you're reading from (which might be convenient if you're reading lots of
8111 groups from different private servers), you can set this variable to
8116 @section Mail and Post
8118 Here's a list of variables relevant to both mailing and
8122 @item gnus-mailing-list-groups
8123 @findex gnus-mailing-list-groups
8124 @cindex mailing lists
8126 If your news server offers groups that are really mailing lists
8127 gatewayed to the @sc{nntp} server, you can read those groups without
8128 problems, but you can't post/followup to them without some difficulty.
8129 One solution is to add a @code{to-address} to the group parameters
8130 (@pxref{Group Parameters}). An easier thing to do is set the
8131 @code{gnus-mailing-list-groups} to a regexp that matches the groups that
8132 really are mailing lists. Then, at least, followups to the mailing
8133 lists will work most of the time. Posting to these groups (@kbd{a}) is
8134 still a pain, though.
8138 You may want to do spell-checking on messages that you send out. Or, if
8139 you don't want to spell-check by hand, you could add automatic
8140 spell-checking via the @code{ispell} package:
8143 @findex ispell-message
8145 (add-hook 'message-send-hook 'ispell-message)
8149 @node Archived Messages
8150 @section Archived Messages
8151 @cindex archived messages
8152 @cindex sent messages
8154 Gnus provides a few different methods for storing the mail and news you
8155 send. The default method is to use the @dfn{archive virtual server} to
8156 store the messages. If you want to disable this completely, the
8157 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable should be @code{nil}, which
8160 @vindex gnus-message-archive-method
8161 @code{gnus-message-archive-method} says what virtual server Gnus is to
8162 use to store sent messages. The default is:
8166 (nnfolder-directory "~/Mail/archive")
8167 (nnfolder-active-file "~/Mail/archive/active")
8168 (nnfolder-get-new-mail nil)
8169 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t))
8172 You can, however, use any mail select method (@code{nnml},
8173 @code{nnmbox}, etc.). @code{nnfolder} is a quite likeable select method
8174 for doing this sort of thing, though. If you don't like the default
8175 directory chosen, you could say something like:
8178 (setq gnus-message-archive-method
8179 '(nnfolder "archive"
8180 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t)
8181 (nnfolder-active-file "~/News/sent-mail/active")
8182 (nnfolder-directory "~/News/sent-mail/")))
8185 @vindex gnus-message-archive-group
8187 Gnus will insert @code{Gcc} headers in all outgoing messages that point
8188 to one or more group(s) on that server. Which group to use is
8189 determined by the @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable.
8191 This variable can be used to do the following:
8195 Messages will be saved in that group.
8196 @item a list of strings
8197 Messages will be saved in all those groups.
8198 @item an alist of regexps, functions and forms
8199 When a key ``matches'', the result is used.
8201 No message archiving will take place. This is the default.
8206 Just saving to a single group called @samp{MisK}:
8208 (setq gnus-message-archive-group "MisK")
8211 Saving to two groups, @samp{MisK} and @samp{safe}:
8213 (setq gnus-message-archive-group '("MisK" "safe"))
8216 Save to different groups based on what group you are in:
8218 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
8219 '(("^alt" "sent-to-alt")
8220 ("mail" "sent-to-mail")
8221 (".*" "sent-to-misc")))
8226 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
8227 '((if (message-news-p)
8232 How about storing all news messages in one file, but storing all mail
8233 messages in one file per month:
8236 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
8237 '((if (message-news-p)
8239 (concat "mail." (format-time-string
8240 "%Y-%m" (current-time))))))
8243 (XEmacs 19.13 doesn't have @code{format-time-string}, so you'll have to
8244 use a different value for @code{gnus-message-archive-group} there.)
8246 Now, when you send a message off, it will be stored in the appropriate
8247 group. (If you want to disable storing for just one particular message,
8248 you can just remove the @code{Gcc} header that has been inserted.) The
8249 archive group will appear in the group buffer the next time you start
8250 Gnus, or the next time you press @kbd{F} in the group buffer. You can
8251 enter it and read the articles in it just like you'd read any other
8252 group. If the group gets really big and annoying, you can simply rename
8253 if (using @kbd{G r} in the group buffer) to something
8254 nice---@samp{misc-mail-september-1995}, or whatever. New messages will
8255 continue to be stored in the old (now empty) group.
8257 That's the default method of archiving sent messages. Gnus offers a
8258 different way for the people who don't like the default method. In that
8259 case you should set @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{nil};
8260 this will disable archiving.
8263 @item gnus-outgoing-message-group
8264 @vindex gnus-outgoing-message-group
8265 All outgoing messages will be put in this group. If you want to store
8266 all your outgoing mail and articles in the group @samp{nnml:archive},
8267 you set this variable to that value. This variable can also be a list of
8270 If you want to have greater control over what group to put each
8271 message in, you can set this variable to a function that checks the
8272 current newsgroup name and then returns a suitable group name (or list
8275 This variable can be used instead of @code{gnus-message-archive-group},
8276 but the latter is the preferred method.
8280 @c @node Posting Styles
8281 @c @section Posting Styles
8282 @c @cindex posting styles
8285 @c All them variables, they make my head swim.
8287 @c So what if you want a different @code{Organization} and signature based
8288 @c on what groups you post to? And you post both from your home machine
8289 @c and your work machine, and you want different @code{From} lines, and so
8292 @c @vindex gnus-posting-styles
8293 @c One way to do stuff like that is to write clever hooks that change the
8294 @c variables you need to have changed. That's a bit boring, so somebody
8295 @c came up with the bright idea of letting the user specify these things in
8296 @c a handy alist. Here's an example of a @code{gnus-posting-styles}
8301 @c (signature . "Peace and happiness")
8302 @c (organization . "What me?"))
8304 @c (signature . "Death to everybody"))
8305 @c ("comp.emacs.i-love-it"
8306 @c (organization . "Emacs is it")))
8309 @c As you might surmise from this example, this alist consists of several
8310 @c @dfn{styles}. Each style will be applicable if the first element
8311 @c ``matches'', in some form or other. The entire alist will be iterated
8312 @c over, from the beginning towards the end, and each match will be
8313 @c applied, which means that attributes in later styles that match override
8314 @c the same attributes in earlier matching styles. So
8315 @c @samp{comp.programming.literate} will have the @samp{Death to everybody}
8316 @c signature and the @samp{What me?} @code{Organization} header.
8318 @c The first element in each style is called the @code{match}. If it's a
8319 @c string, then Gnus will try to regexp match it against the group name.
8320 @c If it's a function symbol, that function will be called with no
8321 @c arguments. If it's a variable symbol, then the variable will be
8322 @c referenced. If it's a list, then that list will be @code{eval}ed. In
8323 @c any case, if this returns a non-@code{nil} value, then the style is said
8326 @c Each style may contain a arbitrary amount of @dfn{attributes}. Each
8327 @c attribute consists of a @var{(name . value)} pair. The attribute name
8328 @c can be one of @code{signature}, @code{organization} or @code{from}. The
8329 @c attribute name can also be a string. In that case, this will be used as
8330 @c a header name, and the value will be inserted in the headers of the
8333 @c The attribute value can be a string (used verbatim), a function (the
8334 @c return value will be used), a variable (its value will be used) or a
8335 @c list (it will be @code{eval}ed and the return value will be used).
8337 @c So here's a new example:
8340 @c (setq gnus-posting-styles
8342 @c (signature . "~/.signature")
8343 @c (from . "user@@foo (user)")
8344 @c ("X-Home-Page" . (getenv "WWW_HOME"))
8345 @c (organization . "People's Front Against MWM"))
8347 @c (signature . my-funny-signature-randomizer))
8348 @c ((equal (system-name) "gnarly")
8349 @c (signature . my-quote-randomizer))
8350 @c (posting-from-work-p
8351 @c (signature . "~/.work-signature")
8352 @c (from . "user@@bar.foo (user)")
8353 @c (organization . "Important Work, Inc"))
8355 @c (signature . "~/.mail-signature"))))
8362 If you are writing a message (mail or news) and suddenly remember that
8363 you have a steak in the oven (or some pesto in the food processor, you
8364 craaazy vegetarians), you'll probably wish there was a method to save
8365 the message you are writing so that you can continue editing it some
8366 other day, and send it when you feel its finished.
8368 Well, don't worry about it. Whenever you start composing a message of
8369 some sort using the Gnus mail and post commands, the buffer you get will
8370 automatically associate to an article in a special @dfn{draft} group.
8371 If you save the buffer the normal way (@kbd{C-x C-s}, for instance), the
8372 article will be saved there. (Auto-save files also go to the draft
8376 @vindex nndraft-directory
8377 The draft group is a special group (which is implemented as an
8378 @code{nndraft} group, if you absolutely have to know) called
8379 @samp{nndraft:drafts}. The variable @code{nndraft-directory} says where
8380 @code{nndraft} is to store its files. What makes this group special is
8381 that you can't tick any articles in it or mark any articles as
8382 read---all articles in the group are permanently unread.
8384 If the group doesn't exist, it will be created and you'll be subscribed
8385 to it. The only way to make it disappear from the Group buffer is to
8388 @c @findex gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft
8389 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Mail)
8390 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Post)
8391 @c @findex gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft
8392 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Mail)
8393 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Post)
8394 @c If you're writing some super-secret message that you later want to
8395 @c encode with PGP before sending, you may wish to turn the auto-saving
8396 @c (and association with the draft group) off. You never know who might be
8397 @c interested in reading all your extremely valuable and terribly horrible
8398 @c and interesting secrets. The @kbd{C-c M-d}
8399 @c (@code{gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft}) command does that for you.
8400 @c If you change your mind and want to turn the auto-saving back on again,
8401 @c @kbd{C-c C-d} (@code{gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft} does that.
8403 @c @vindex gnus-use-draft
8404 @c To leave association with the draft group off by default, set
8405 @c @code{gnus-use-draft} to @code{nil}. It is @code{t} by default.
8407 @findex gnus-draft-edit-message
8409 When you want to continue editing the article, you simply enter the
8410 draft group and push @kbd{D e} (@code{gnus-draft-edit-message}) to do
8411 that. You will be placed in a buffer where you left off.
8413 Rejected articles will also be put in this draft group (@pxref{Rejected
8416 @findex gnus-draft-send-all-messages
8417 @findex gnus-draft-send-message
8418 If you have lots of rejected messages you want to post (or mail) without
8419 doing further editing, you can use the @kbd{D s} command
8420 (@code{gnus-draft-send-message}). This command understands the
8421 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). The @kbd{D S}
8422 command (@code{gnus-draft-send-all-messages}) will ship off all messages
8425 If you have some messages that you wish not to send, you can use the
8426 @kbd{D t} (@code{gnus-draft-toggle-sending}) command to mark the message
8427 as unsendable. This is a toggling command.
8430 @node Rejected Articles
8431 @section Rejected Articles
8432 @cindex rejected articles
8434 Sometimes a news server will reject an article. Perhaps the server
8435 doesn't like your face. Perhaps it just feels miserable. Perhaps
8436 @emph{there be demons}. Perhaps you have included too much cited text.
8437 Perhaps the disk is full. Perhaps the server is down.
8439 These situations are, of course, totally beyond the control of Gnus.
8440 (Gnus, of course, loves the way you look, always feels great, has angels
8441 fluttering around inside of it, doesn't care about how much cited text
8442 you include, never runs full and never goes down.) So Gnus saves these
8443 articles until some later time when the server feels better.
8445 The rejected articles will automatically be put in a special draft group
8446 (@pxref{Drafts}). When the server comes back up again, you'd then
8447 typically enter that group and send all the articles off.
8450 @node Select Methods
8451 @chapter Select Methods
8452 @cindex foreign groups
8453 @cindex select methods
8455 A @dfn{foreign group} is a group not read by the usual (or
8456 default) means. It could be, for instance, a group from a different
8457 @sc{nntp} server, it could be a virtual group, or it could be your own
8458 personal mail group.
8460 A foreign group (or any group, really) is specified by a @dfn{name} and
8461 a @dfn{select method}. To take the latter first, a select method is a
8462 list where the first element says what backend to use (e.g. @code{nntp},
8463 @code{nnspool}, @code{nnml}) and the second element is the @dfn{server
8464 name}. There may be additional elements in the select method, where the
8465 value may have special meaning for the backend in question.
8467 One could say that a select method defines a @dfn{virtual server}---so
8468 we do just that (@pxref{The Server Buffer}).
8470 The @dfn{name} of the group is the name the backend will recognize the
8473 For instance, the group @samp{soc.motss} on the @sc{nntp} server
8474 @samp{some.where.edu} will have the name @samp{soc.motss} and select
8475 method @code{(nntp "some.where.edu")}. Gnus will call this group
8476 @samp{nntp+some.where.edu:soc.motss}, even though the @code{nntp}
8477 backend just knows this group as @samp{soc.motss}.
8479 The different methods all have their peculiarities, of course.
8482 * The Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
8483 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
8484 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
8485 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
8486 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
8487 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
8491 @node The Server Buffer
8492 @section The Server Buffer
8494 Traditionally, a @dfn{server} is a machine or a piece of software that
8495 one connects to, and then requests information from. Gnus does not
8496 connect directly to any real servers, but does all transactions through
8497 one backend or other. But that's just putting one layer more between
8498 the actual media and Gnus, so we might just as well say that each
8499 backend represents a virtual server.
8501 For instance, the @code{nntp} backend may be used to connect to several
8502 different actual @sc{nntp} servers, or, perhaps, to many different ports
8503 on the same actual @sc{nntp} server. You tell Gnus which backend to
8504 use, and what parameters to set by specifying a @dfn{select method}.
8506 These select method specifications can sometimes become quite
8507 complicated---say, for instance, that you want to read from the
8508 @sc{nntp} server @samp{news.funet.fi} on port number 13, which
8509 hangs if queried for @sc{nov} headers and has a buggy select. Ahem.
8510 Anyways, if you had to specify that for each group that used this
8511 server, that would be too much work, so Gnus offers a way of naming
8512 select methods, which is what you do in the server buffer.
8514 To enter the server buffer, use the @kbd{^}
8515 (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}) command in the group buffer.
8518 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
8519 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
8520 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
8521 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
8522 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
8523 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
8524 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
8527 @vindex gnus-server-mode-hook
8528 @code{gnus-server-mode-hook} is run when creating the server buffer.
8531 @node Server Buffer Format
8532 @subsection Server Buffer Format
8533 @cindex server buffer format
8535 @vindex gnus-server-line-format
8536 You can change the look of the server buffer lines by changing the
8537 @code{gnus-server-line-format} variable. This is a @code{format}-like
8538 variable, with some simple extensions:
8543 How the news is fetched---the backend name.
8546 The name of this server.
8549 Where the news is to be fetched from---the address.
8552 The opened/closed/denied status of the server.
8555 @vindex gnus-server-mode-line-format
8556 The mode line can also be customized by using the
8557 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format} variable. The following specs are
8568 Also @pxref{Formatting Variables}.
8571 @node Server Commands
8572 @subsection Server Commands
8573 @cindex server commands
8579 @findex gnus-server-add-server
8580 Add a new server (@code{gnus-server-add-server}).
8584 @findex gnus-server-edit-server
8585 Edit a server (@code{gnus-server-edit-server}).
8588 @kindex SPACE (Server)
8589 @findex gnus-server-read-server
8590 Browse the current server (@code{gnus-server-read-server}).
8594 @findex gnus-server-exit
8595 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-server-exit}).
8599 @findex gnus-server-kill-server
8600 Kill the current server (@code{gnus-server-kill-server}).
8604 @findex gnus-server-yank-server
8605 Yank the previously killed server (@code{gnus-server-yank-server}).
8609 @findex gnus-server-copy-server
8610 Copy the current server (@code{gnus-server-copy-server}).
8614 @findex gnus-server-list-servers
8615 List all servers (@code{gnus-server-list-servers}).
8619 @findex gnus-server-scan-server
8620 Request that the server scan its sources for new articles
8621 (@code{gnus-server-scan-server}). This is mainly sensible with mail
8626 @findex gnus-server-regenerate-server
8627 Request that the server regenerate all its data structures
8628 (@code{gnus-server-regenerate-server}). This can be useful if you have
8629 a mail backend that has gotten out of synch.
8634 @node Example Methods
8635 @subsection Example Methods
8637 Most select methods are pretty simple and self-explanatory:
8640 (nntp "news.funet.fi")
8643 Reading directly from the spool is even simpler:
8649 As you can see, the first element in a select method is the name of the
8650 backend, and the second is the @dfn{address}, or @dfn{name}, if you
8653 After these two elements, there may be an arbitrary number of
8654 @var{(variable form)} pairs.
8656 To go back to the first example---imagine that you want to read from
8657 port 15 on that machine. This is what the select method should
8661 (nntp "news.funet.fi" (nntp-port-number 15))
8664 You should read the documentation to each backend to find out what
8665 variables are relevant, but here's an @code{nnmh} example:
8667 @code{nnmh} is a mail backend that reads a spool-like structure. Say
8668 you have two structures that you wish to access: One is your private
8669 mail spool, and the other is a public one. Here's the possible spec for
8673 (nnmh "private" (nnmh-directory "~/private/mail/"))
8676 (This server is then called @samp{private}, but you may have guessed
8679 Here's the method for a public spool:
8683 (nnmh-directory "/usr/information/spool/")
8684 (nnmh-get-new-mail nil))
8687 If you are behind a firewall and only have access to the @sc{nntp}
8688 server from the firewall machine, you can instruct Gnus to @code{rlogin}
8689 on the firewall machine and telnet from there to the @sc{nntp} server.
8690 Doing this can be rather fiddly, but your virtual server definition
8691 should probably look something like this:
8695 (nntp-address "the.firewall.machine")
8696 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-rlogin)
8697 (nntp-end-of-line "\n")
8698 (nntp-rlogin-parameters
8699 ("telnet" "the.real.nntp.host" "nntp")))
8702 If you want to use the wonderful @code{ssh} program to provide a
8703 compressed connection over the modem line, you could create a virtual
8704 server that would look something like this:
8708 (nntp-address "copper.uio.no")
8709 (nntp-rlogin-program "ssh")
8710 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-rlogin)
8711 (nntp-end-of-line "\n")
8712 (nntp-rlogin-parameters
8713 ("telnet" "news.uio.no" "nntp")))
8716 This means that you have to have set up @code{ssh-agent} correctly to
8717 provide automatic authorization, of course. And to get a compressed
8718 connection, you have to have the @samp{Compression} option in the
8719 @code{ssh} @file{config} file.
8722 @node Creating a Virtual Server
8723 @subsection Creating a Virtual Server
8725 If you're saving lots of articles in the cache by using persistent
8726 articles, you may want to create a virtual server to read the cache.
8728 First you need to add a new server. The @kbd{a} command does that. It
8729 would probably be best to use @code{nnspool} to read the cache. You
8730 could also use @code{nnml} or @code{nnmh}, though.
8732 Type @kbd{a nnspool RET cache RET}.
8734 You should now have a brand new @code{nnspool} virtual server called
8735 @samp{cache}. You now need to edit it to have the right definitions.
8736 Type @kbd{e} to edit the server. You'll be entered into a buffer that
8737 will contain the following:
8747 (nnspool-spool-directory "~/News/cache/")
8748 (nnspool-nov-directory "~/News/cache/")
8749 (nnspool-active-file "~/News/cache/active"))
8752 Type @kbd{C-c C-c} to return to the server buffer. If you now press
8753 @kbd{RET} over this virtual server, you should be entered into a browse
8754 buffer, and you should be able to enter any of the groups displayed.
8757 @node Server Variables
8758 @subsection Server Variables
8760 One sticky point when defining variables (both on backends and in Emacs
8761 in general) is that some variables are typically initialized from other
8762 variables when the definition of the variables is being loaded. If you
8763 change the "base" variable after the variables have been loaded, you
8764 won't change the "derived" variables.
8766 This typically affects directory and file variables. For instance,
8767 @code{nnml-directory} is @file{~/Mail/} by default, and all @code{nnml}
8768 directory variables are initialized from that variable, so
8769 @code{nnml-active-file} will be @file{~/Mail/active}. If you define a
8770 new virtual @code{nnml} server, it will @emph{not} suffice to set just
8771 @code{nnml-directory}---you have to explicitly set all the file
8772 variables to be what you want them to be. For a complete list of
8773 variables for each backend, see each backend's section later in this
8774 manual, but here's an example @code{nnml} definition:
8778 (nnml-directory "~/my-mail/")
8779 (nnml-active-file "~/my-mail/active")
8780 (nnml-newsgroups-file "~/my-mail/newsgroups"))
8784 @node Servers and Methods
8785 @subsection Servers and Methods
8787 Wherever you would normally use a select method
8788 (e.g. @code{gnus-secondary-select-method}, in the group select method,
8789 when browsing a foreign server) you can use a virtual server name
8790 instead. This could potentially save lots of typing. And it's nice all
8794 @node Unavailable Servers
8795 @subsection Unavailable Servers
8797 If a server seems to be unreachable, Gnus will mark that server as
8798 @code{denied}. That means that any subsequent attempt to make contact
8799 with that server will just be ignored. ``It can't be opened,'' Gnus
8800 will tell you, without making the least effort to see whether that is
8801 actually the case or not.
8803 That might seem quite naughty, but it does make sense most of the time.
8804 Let's say you have 10 groups subscribed to on server
8805 @samp{nephelococcygia.com}. This server is located somewhere quite far
8806 away from you and the machine is quite slow, so it takes 1 minute just
8807 to find out that it refuses connection to you today. If Gnus were to
8808 attempt to do that 10 times, you'd be quite annoyed, so Gnus won't
8809 attempt to do that. Once it has gotten a single ``connection refused'',
8810 it will regard that server as ``down''.
8812 So, what happens if the machine was only feeling unwell temporarily?
8813 How do you test to see whether the machine has come up again?
8815 You jump to the server buffer (@pxref{The Server Buffer}) and poke it
8816 with the following commands:
8822 @findex gnus-server-open-server
8823 Try to establish connection to the server on the current line
8824 (@code{gnus-server-open-server}).
8828 @findex gnus-server-close-server
8829 Close the connection (if any) to the server
8830 (@code{gnus-server-close-server}).
8834 @findex gnus-server-deny-server
8835 Mark the current server as unreachable
8836 (@code{gnus-server-deny-server}).
8839 @kindex M-o (Server)
8840 @findex gnus-server-open-all-servers
8841 Open the connections to all servers in the buffer
8842 (@code{gnus-server-open-all-servers}).
8845 @kindex M-c (Server)
8846 @findex gnus-server-close-all-servers
8847 Close the connections to all servers in the buffer
8848 (@code{gnus-server-close-all-servers}).
8852 @findex gnus-server-remove-denials
8853 Remove all marks to whether Gnus was denied connection from any servers
8854 (@code{gnus-server-remove-denials}).
8860 @section Getting News
8861 @cindex reading news
8862 @cindex news backends
8864 A newsreader is normally used for reading news. Gnus currently provides
8865 only two methods of getting news---it can read from an @sc{nntp} server,
8866 or it can read from a local spool.
8869 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @sc{nntp} server.
8870 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
8875 @subsection @sc{nntp}
8878 Subscribing to a foreign group from an @sc{nntp} server is rather easy.
8879 You just specify @code{nntp} as method and the address of the @sc{nntp}
8880 server as the, uhm, address.
8882 If the @sc{nntp} server is located at a non-standard port, setting the
8883 third element of the select method to this port number should allow you
8884 to connect to the right port. You'll have to edit the group info for
8885 that (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
8887 The name of the foreign group can be the same as a native group. In
8888 fact, you can subscribe to the same group from as many different servers
8889 you feel like. There will be no name collisions.
8891 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nntp}
8896 @item nntp-server-opened-hook
8897 @vindex nntp-server-opened-hook
8898 @cindex @sc{mode reader}
8900 @cindex authentification
8901 @cindex nntp authentification
8902 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
8903 @findex nntp-send-mode-reader
8904 is run after a connection has been made. It can be used to send
8905 commands to the @sc{nntp} server after it has been contacted. By
8906 default it sends the command @code{MODE READER} to the server with the
8907 @code{nntp-send-mode-reader} function. This function should always be
8908 present in this hook.
8910 @item nntp-authinfo-function
8911 @vindex nntp-authinfo-function
8912 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
8913 @vindex nntp-authinfo-file
8914 This function will be used to send @samp{AUTHINFO} to the @sc{nntp}
8915 server. The default function is @code{nntp-send-authinfo}, which looks
8916 through your @file{~/.authinfo} (or whatever you've set the
8917 @code{nntp-authinfo-file} variable to) for applicable entries. If none
8918 are found, it will prompt you for a login name and a password. The
8919 format of the @file{~/.authinfo} file is (almost) the same as the
8920 @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file, which is defined in the @code{ftp}
8921 manual page, but here are the salient facts:
8925 The file contains one or more line, each of which define one server.
8928 Each line may contain an arbitrary number of token/value pairs. The
8929 valid tokens include @samp{machine}, @samp{login}, @samp{password}, and
8930 @samp{force}. (The latter is not a valid @file{.netrc}/@code{ftp}
8931 token, which is the only way the @file{.authinfo} file format deviates
8932 from the @file{.netrc} file format.)
8936 Here's an example file:
8939 machine news.uio.no login larsi password geheimnis
8940 machine nntp.ifi.uio.no login larsi force yes
8943 The token/value pairs may appear in any order; @samp{machine} doesn't
8944 have to be first, for instance.
8946 In this example, both login name and password have been supplied for the
8947 former server, while the latter has only the login name listed, and the
8948 user will be prompted for the password. The latter also has the
8949 @samp{force} tag, which means that the authinfo will be sent to the
8950 @var{nntp} server upon connection; the default (i.e., when there is not
8951 @samp{force} tag) is to not send authinfo to the @var{nntp} server
8952 until the @var{nntp} server asks for it.
8954 Remember to not leave the @file{~/.authinfo} file world-readable.
8956 @item nntp-server-action-alist
8957 @vindex nntp-server-action-alist
8958 This is a list of regexps to match on server types and actions to be
8959 taken when matches are made. For instance, if you want Gnus to beep
8960 every time you connect to innd, you could say something like:
8963 (setq nntp-server-action-alist
8967 You probably don't want to do that, though.
8969 The default value is
8972 '(("nntpd 1\\.5\\.11t"
8973 (remove-hook 'nntp-server-opened-hook 'nntp-send-mode-reader)))
8976 This ensures that Gnus doesn't send the @code{MODE READER} command to
8977 nntpd 1.5.11t, since that command chokes that server, I've been told.
8979 @item nntp-maximum-request
8980 @vindex nntp-maximum-request
8981 If the @sc{nntp} server doesn't support @sc{nov} headers, this backend
8982 will collect headers by sending a series of @code{head} commands. To
8983 speed things up, the backend sends lots of these commands without
8984 waiting for reply, and then reads all the replies. This is controlled
8985 by the @code{nntp-maximum-request} variable, and is 400 by default. If
8986 your network is buggy, you should set this to 1.
8988 @c @item nntp-connection-timeout
8989 @c @vindex nntp-connection-timeout
8990 @c If you have lots of foreign @code{nntp} groups that you connect to
8991 @c regularly, you're sure to have problems with @sc{nntp} servers not
8992 @c responding properly, or being too loaded to reply within reasonable
8993 @c time. This is can lead to awkward problems, which can be helped
8994 @c somewhat by setting @code{nntp-connection-timeout}. This is an integer
8995 @c that says how many seconds the @code{nntp} backend should wait for a
8996 @c connection before giving up. If it is @code{nil}, which is the default,
8997 @c no timeouts are done.
8999 @c @item nntp-command-timeout
9000 @c @vindex nntp-command-timeout
9001 @c @cindex PPP connections
9002 @c @cindex dynamic IP addresses
9003 @c If you're running Gnus on a machine that has a dynamically assigned
9004 @c address, Gnus may become confused. If the address of your machine
9005 @c changes after connecting to the @sc{nntp} server, Gnus will simply sit
9006 @c waiting forever for replies from the server. To help with this
9007 @c unfortunate problem, you can set this command to a number. Gnus will
9008 @c then, if it sits waiting for a reply from the server longer than that
9009 @c number of seconds, shut down the connection, start a new one, and resend
9010 @c the command. This should hopefully be transparent to the user. A
9011 @c likely number is 30 seconds.
9013 @c @item nntp-retry-on-break
9014 @c @vindex nntp-retry-on-break
9015 @c If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you can also @kbd{C-g} if Gnus
9016 @c hangs. This will have much the same effect as the command timeout
9019 @item nntp-server-hook
9020 @vindex nntp-server-hook
9021 This hook is run as the last step when connecting to an @sc{nntp}
9024 @findex nntp-open-rlogin
9025 @findex nntp-open-telnet
9026 @findex nntp-open-network-stream
9027 @item nntp-open-connection-function
9028 @vindex nntp-open-connection-function
9029 This function is used to connect to the remote system. Three pre-made
9030 functions are @code{nntp-open-network-stream}, which is the default, and
9031 simply connects to some port or other on the remote system. The other
9032 two are @code{nntp-open-rlogin}, which does an @samp{rlogin} on the
9033 remote system, and then does a @samp{telnet} to the @sc{nntp} server
9034 available there, and @code{nntp-open-telnet}, which does a @samp{telnet}
9035 to the remote system and then another @samp{telnet} to get to the
9038 @code{nntp-open-rlogin}-related variables:
9042 @item nntp-rlogin-program
9043 @vindex nntp-rlogin-program
9044 Program used to log in on remote machines. The default is @samp{rsh},
9045 but @samp{ssh} is a popular alternative.
9047 @item nntp-rlogin-parameters
9048 @vindex nntp-rlogin-parameters
9049 This list will be used as the parameter list given to @code{rsh}.
9051 @item nntp-rlogin-user-name
9052 @vindex nntp-rlogin-user-name
9053 User name on the remote system.
9057 @code{nntp-open-telnet}-related variables:
9060 @item nntp-telnet-command
9061 @vindex nntp-telnet-command
9062 Command used to start @code{telnet}.
9064 @item nntp-telnet-switches
9065 @vindex nntp-telnet-switches
9066 List of strings to be used as the switches to the @code{telnet} command.
9068 @item nntp-telnet-user-name
9069 @vindex nntp-telnet-user-name
9070 User name for log in on the remote system.
9072 @item nntp-telnet-passwd
9073 @vindex nntp-telnet-passwd
9074 Password to use when logging in.
9076 @item nntp-telnet-parameters
9077 @vindex nntp-telnet-parameters
9078 A list of strings executed as a command after logging in
9081 @item nntp-telnet-shell-prompt
9082 @vindex nntp-telnet-shell-prompt
9083 Regexp matching the shell prompt on the remote machine. The default is
9084 @samp{bash\\|\$ *\r?$\\|> *\r?}.
9086 @item nntp-open-telnet-envuser
9087 @vindex nntp-open-telnet-envuser
9088 If non-@code{nil}, the @code{telnet} session (client and server both)
9089 will support the @code{ENVIRON} option and not prompt for login name.
9090 This works for Solaris @code{telnet}, for instance.
9094 @item nntp-end-of-line
9095 @vindex nntp-end-of-line
9096 String to use as end-of-line marker when talking to the @sc{nntp}
9097 server. This is @samp{\r\n} by default, but should be @samp{\n} when
9098 using @code{rlogin} to talk to the server.
9100 @item nntp-rlogin-user-name
9101 @vindex nntp-rlogin-user-name
9102 User name on the remote system when using the @code{rlogin} connect
9106 @vindex nntp-address
9107 The address of the remote system running the @sc{nntp} server.
9109 @item nntp-port-number
9110 @vindex nntp-port-number
9111 Port number to connect to when using the @code{nntp-open-network-stream}
9114 @item nntp-buggy-select
9115 @vindex nntp-buggy-select
9116 Set this to non-@code{nil} if your select routine is buggy.
9118 @item nntp-nov-is-evil
9119 @vindex nntp-nov-is-evil
9120 If the @sc{nntp} server does not support @sc{nov}, you could set this
9121 variable to @code{t}, but @code{nntp} usually checks automatically whether @sc{nov}
9124 @item nntp-xover-commands
9125 @vindex nntp-xover-commands
9128 List of strings used as commands to fetch @sc{nov} lines from a
9129 server. The default value of this variable is @code{("XOVER"
9133 @vindex nntp-nov-gap
9134 @code{nntp} normally sends just one big request for @sc{nov} lines to
9135 the server. The server responds with one huge list of lines. However,
9136 if you have read articles 2-5000 in the group, and only want to read
9137 article 1 and 5001, that means that @code{nntp} will fetch 4999 @sc{nov}
9138 lines that you will not need. This variable says how
9139 big a gap between two consecutive articles is allowed to be before the
9140 @code{XOVER} request is split into several request. Note that if your
9141 network is fast, setting this variable to a really small number means
9142 that fetching will probably be slower. If this variable is @code{nil},
9143 @code{nntp} will never split requests. The default is 5.
9145 @item nntp-prepare-server-hook
9146 @vindex nntp-prepare-server-hook
9147 A hook run before attempting to connect to an @sc{nntp} server.
9149 @item nntp-warn-about-losing-connection
9150 @vindex nntp-warn-about-losing-connection
9151 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, some noise will be made when a
9152 server closes connection.
9154 @item nntp-record-commands
9155 @vindex nntp-record-commands
9156 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nntp} will log all commands it sends to the
9157 @sc{nntp} server (along with a timestep) in the @samp{*nntp-log*}
9158 buffer. This is useful if you are debugging a Gnus/@sc{nntp} connection
9159 that doesn't seem to work.
9165 @subsection News Spool
9169 Subscribing to a foreign group from the local spool is extremely easy,
9170 and might be useful, for instance, to speed up reading groups that
9171 contain very big articles---@samp{alt.binaries.pictures.furniture}, for
9174 Anyways, you just specify @code{nnspool} as the method and @code{""} (or
9175 anything else) as the address.
9177 If you have access to a local spool, you should probably use that as the
9178 native select method (@pxref{Finding the News}). It is normally faster
9179 than using an @code{nntp} select method, but might not be. It depends.
9180 You just have to try to find out what's best at your site.
9184 @item nnspool-inews-program
9185 @vindex nnspool-inews-program
9186 Program used to post an article.
9188 @item nnspool-inews-switches
9189 @vindex nnspool-inews-switches
9190 Parameters given to the inews program when posting an article.
9192 @item nnspool-spool-directory
9193 @vindex nnspool-spool-directory
9194 Where @code{nnspool} looks for the articles. This is normally
9195 @file{/usr/spool/news/}.
9197 @item nnspool-nov-directory
9198 @vindex nnspool-nov-directory
9199 Where @code{nnspool} will look for @sc{nov} files. This is normally
9200 @file{/usr/spool/news/over.view/}.
9202 @item nnspool-lib-dir
9203 @vindex nnspool-lib-dir
9204 Where the news lib dir is (@file{/usr/lib/news/} by default).
9206 @item nnspool-active-file
9207 @vindex nnspool-active-file
9208 The path to the active file.
9210 @item nnspool-newsgroups-file
9211 @vindex nnspool-newsgroups-file
9212 The path to the group descriptions file.
9214 @item nnspool-history-file
9215 @vindex nnspool-history-file
9216 The path to the news history file.
9218 @item nnspool-active-times-file
9219 @vindex nnspool-active-times-file
9220 The path to the active date file.
9222 @item nnspool-nov-is-evil
9223 @vindex nnspool-nov-is-evil
9224 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnspool} won't try to use any @sc{nov} files
9227 @item nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
9228 @vindex nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
9230 If non-@code{nil}, which is the default, use @code{sed} to get the
9231 relevant portion from the overview file. If nil, @code{nnspool} will
9232 load the entire file into a buffer and process it there.
9238 @section Getting Mail
9239 @cindex reading mail
9242 Reading mail with a newsreader---isn't that just plain WeIrD? But of
9246 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
9247 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
9248 * Mail Backend Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
9249 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
9250 * Mail and Procmail:: Reading mail groups that procmail create.
9251 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
9252 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
9253 * Washing Mail:: Removing gruft from the mail you get.
9254 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
9255 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail backends for reading other files.
9256 * Choosing a Mail Backend:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
9260 @node Getting Started Reading Mail
9261 @subsection Getting Started Reading Mail
9263 It's quite easy to use Gnus to read your new mail. You just plonk the
9264 mail backend of your choice into @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods},
9265 and things will happen automatically.
9267 For instance, if you want to use @code{nnml} (which is a "one file per
9268 mail" backend), you could put the following in your @file{.gnus} file:
9271 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
9272 '((nnml "private")))
9275 Now, the next time you start Gnus, this backend will be queried for new
9276 articles, and it will move all the messages in your spool file to its
9277 directory, which is @code{~/Mail/} by default. The new group that will
9278 be created (@samp{mail.misc}) will be subscribed, and you can read it
9279 like any other group.
9281 You will probably want to split the mail into several groups, though:
9284 (setq nnmail-split-methods
9285 '(("junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
9286 ("crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
9290 This will result in three new @code{nnml} mail groups being created:
9291 @samp{nnml:junk}, @samp{nnml:crazy}, and @samp{nnml:other}. All the
9292 mail that doesn't fit into the first two groups will be placed in the
9295 This should be sufficient for reading mail with Gnus. You might want to
9296 give the other sections in this part of the manual a perusal, though.
9297 Especially @pxref{Choosing a Mail Backend} and @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
9300 @node Splitting Mail
9301 @subsection Splitting Mail
9302 @cindex splitting mail
9303 @cindex mail splitting
9305 @vindex nnmail-split-methods
9306 The @code{nnmail-split-methods} variable says how the incoming mail is
9307 to be split into groups.
9310 (setq nnmail-split-methods
9311 '(("mail.junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
9312 ("mail.crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
9316 This variable is a list of lists, where the first element of each of
9317 these lists is the name of the mail group (they do not have to be called
9318 something beginning with @samp{mail}, by the way), and the second
9319 element is a regular expression used on the header of each mail to
9320 determine if it belongs in this mail group. The first string may
9321 contain @samp{\\1} forms, like the ones used by @code{replace-match} to
9322 insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For instance:
9325 ("list.\\1" "From:.*\\(.*\\)-list@@majordomo.com")
9328 If the first element is the special symbol @code{junk}, then messages
9329 that match the regexp will disappear into the aether. Use with
9332 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
9333 called narrowed to the headers with the first element of the rule as the
9334 argument. It should return a non-@code{nil} value if it thinks that the
9335 mail belongs in that group.
9337 The last of these groups should always be a general one, and the regular
9338 expression should @emph{always} be @samp{} so that it matches any mails
9339 that haven't been matched by any of the other regexps. (These rules are
9340 processed from the beginning of the alist toward the end. The first
9341 rule to make a match will "win", unless you have crossposting enabled.
9342 In that case, all matching rules will "win".)
9344 If you like to tinker with this yourself, you can set this variable to a
9345 function of your choice. This function will be called without any
9346 arguments in a buffer narrowed to the headers of an incoming mail
9347 message. The function should return a list of group names that it
9348 thinks should carry this mail message.
9350 Note that the mail backends are free to maul the poor, innocent,
9351 incoming headers all they want to. They all add @code{Lines} headers;
9352 some add @code{X-Gnus-Group} headers; most rename the Unix mbox
9353 @code{From<SPACE>} line to something else.
9355 @vindex nnmail-crosspost
9356 The mail backends all support cross-posting. If several regexps match,
9357 the mail will be ``cross-posted'' to all those groups.
9358 @code{nnmail-crosspost} says whether to use this mechanism or not. Note
9359 that no articles are crossposted to the general (@samp{}) group.
9361 @vindex nnmail-crosspost-link-function
9364 @code{nnmh} and @code{nnml} makes crossposts by creating hard links to
9365 the crossposted articles. However, not all file systems support hard
9366 links. If that's the case for you, set
9367 @code{nnmail-crosspost-link-function} to @code{copy-file}. (This
9368 variable is @code{add-name-to-file} by default.)
9370 @kindex M-x nnmail-split-history
9371 @kindex nnmail-split-history
9372 If you wish to see where the previous mail split put the messages, you
9373 can use the @kbd{M-x nnmail-split-history} command.
9375 Gnus gives you all the opportunity you could possibly want for shooting
9376 yourself in the foot. Let's say you create a group that will contain
9377 all the mail you get from your boss. And then you accidentally
9378 unsubscribe from the group. Gnus will still put all the mail from your
9379 boss in the unsubscribed group, and so, when your boss mails you ``Have
9380 that report ready by Monday or you're fired!'', you'll never see it and,
9381 come Tuesday, you'll still believe that you're gainfully employed while
9382 you really should be out collecting empty bottles to save up for next
9386 @node Mail Backend Variables
9387 @subsection Mail Backend Variables
9389 These variables are (for the most part) pertinent to all the various
9393 @vindex nnmail-read-incoming-hook
9394 @item nnmail-read-incoming-hook
9395 The mail backends all call this hook after reading new mail. You can
9396 use this hook to notify any mail watch programs, if you want to.
9398 @vindex nnmail-spool-file
9399 @item nnmail-spool-file
9403 @vindex nnmail-pop-password
9404 @vindex nnmail-pop-password-required
9405 The backends will look for new mail in this file. If this variable is
9406 @code{nil}, the mail backends will never attempt to fetch mail by
9407 themselves. If you are using a POP mail server and your name is
9408 @samp{larsi}, you should set this variable to @samp{po:larsi}. If
9409 your name is not @samp{larsi}, you should probably modify that
9410 slightly, but you may have guessed that already, you smart & handsome
9411 devil! You can also set this variable to @code{pop}, and Gnus will try
9412 to figure out the POP mail string by itself. In any case, Gnus will
9413 call @code{movemail} which will contact the POP server named in the
9414 @code{MAILHOST} environment variable. If the POP server needs a
9415 password, you can either set @code{nnmail-pop-password-required} to
9416 @code{t} and be prompted for the password, or set
9417 @code{nnmail-pop-password} to the password itself.
9419 @code{nnmail-spool-file} can also be a list of mailboxes.
9421 Your Emacs has to have been configured with @samp{--with-pop} before
9422 compilation. This is the default, but some installations have it
9425 When you use a mail backend, Gnus will slurp all your mail from your
9426 inbox and plonk it down in your home directory. Gnus doesn't move any
9427 mail if you're not using a mail backend---you have to do a lot of magic
9428 invocations first. At the time when you have finished drawing the
9429 pentagram, lightened the candles, and sacrificed the goat, you really
9430 shouldn't be too surprised when Gnus moves your mail.
9432 @vindex nnmail-use-procmail
9433 @vindex nnmail-procmail-suffix
9434 @item nnmail-use-procmail
9435 If non-@code{nil}, the mail backends will look in
9436 @code{nnmail-procmail-directory} for incoming mail. All the files in
9437 that directory that have names ending in @code{nnmail-procmail-suffix}
9438 will be considered incoming mailboxes, and will be searched for new
9441 @vindex nnmail-crash-box
9442 @item nnmail-crash-box
9443 When a mail backend reads a spool file, mail is first moved to this
9444 file, which is @file{~/.gnus-crash-box} by default. If this file
9445 already exists, it will always be read (and incorporated) before any
9448 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
9449 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
9450 This is run in a buffer that holds all the new incoming mail, and can be
9451 used for, well, anything, really.
9453 @vindex nnmail-split-hook
9454 @item nnmail-split-hook
9455 @findex article-decode-rfc1522
9456 @findex RFC1522 decoding
9457 Hook run in the buffer where the mail headers of each message is kept
9458 just before the splitting based on these headers is done. The hook is
9459 free to modify the buffer contents in any way it sees fit---the buffer
9460 is discarded after the splitting has been done, and no changes performed
9461 in the buffer will show up in any files. @code{gnus-article-decode-rfc1522}
9462 is one likely function to add to this hook.
9464 @vindex nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
9465 @vindex nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
9466 @item nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
9467 @itemx nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
9468 These are two useful hooks executed when treating new incoming
9469 mail---@code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook} (is called just before
9470 starting to handle the new mail) and
9471 @code{nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook} (is called when the mail handling
9472 is done). Here's and example of using these two hooks to change the
9473 default file modes the new mail files get:
9476 (add-hook 'gnus-pre-get-new-mail-hook
9477 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 511)))
9479 (add-hook 'gnus-post-get-new-mail-hook
9480 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 551)))
9483 @item nnmail-tmp-directory
9484 @vindex nnmail-tmp-directory
9485 This variable says where to move incoming mail to -- while processing
9486 it. This is usually done in the same directory that the mail backend
9487 inhabits (e.g., @file{~/Mail/}), but if this variable is non-@code{nil},
9488 it will be used instead.
9490 @item nnmail-movemail-program
9491 @vindex nnmail-movemail-program
9492 This program is executed to move mail from the user's inbox to her home
9493 directory. The default is @samp{movemail}.
9495 This can also be a function. In that case, the function will be called
9496 with two parameters -- the name of the inbox, and the file to be moved
9499 @item nnmail-delete-incoming
9500 @vindex nnmail-delete-incoming
9501 @cindex incoming mail files
9502 @cindex deleting incoming files
9503 If non-@code{nil}, the mail backends will delete the temporary incoming
9504 file after splitting mail into the proper groups. This is @code{t} by
9507 @c This is @code{nil} by
9508 @c default for reasons of security.
9510 @c Since Red Gnus is an alpha release, it is to be expected to lose mail.
9511 (No Gnus release since (ding) Gnus 0.10 (or something like that) have
9512 lost mail, I think, but that's not the point. (Except certain versions
9513 of Red Gnus.)) By not deleting the Incoming* files, one can be sure not
9514 to lose mail -- if Gnus totally whacks out, one can always recover what
9517 You may delete the @file{Incoming*} files at will.
9519 @item nnmail-use-long-file-names
9520 @vindex nnmail-use-long-file-names
9521 If non-@code{nil}, the mail backends will use long file and directory
9522 names. Groups like @samp{mail.misc} will end up in directories
9523 (assuming use of @code{nnml} backend) or files (assuming use of
9524 @code{nnfolder} backend) like @file{mail.misc}. If it is @code{nil},
9525 the same group will end up in @file{mail/misc}.
9527 @item nnmail-delete-file-function
9528 @vindex nnmail-delete-file-function
9530 Function called to delete files. It is @code{delete-file} by default.
9532 @item nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
9533 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
9534 If non-@code{nil}, put the @code{Message-ID}s of articles imported into
9535 the backend (via @code{Gcc}, for instance) into the mail duplication
9536 discovery cache. The default is @code{nil}.
9541 @node Fancy Mail Splitting
9542 @subsection Fancy Mail Splitting
9543 @cindex mail splitting
9544 @cindex fancy mail splitting
9546 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy
9547 @findex nnmail-split-fancy
9548 If the rather simple, standard method for specifying how to split mail
9549 doesn't allow you to do what you want, you can set
9550 @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy}. Then you can
9551 play with the @code{nnmail-split-fancy} variable.
9553 Let's look at an example value of this variable first:
9556 ;; Messages from the mailer daemon are not crossposted to any of
9557 ;; the ordinary groups. Warnings are put in a separate group
9558 ;; from real errors.
9559 (| ("from" mail (| ("subject" "warn.*" "mail.warning")
9561 ;; Non-error messages are crossposted to all relevant
9562 ;; groups, but we don't crosspost between the group for the
9563 ;; (ding) list and the group for other (ding) related mail.
9564 (& (| (any "ding@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "ding.list")
9565 ("subject" "ding" "ding.misc"))
9566 ;; Other mailing lists...
9567 (any "procmail@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "procmail.list")
9568 (any "SmartList@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "SmartList.list")
9570 (any "larsi@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "people.Lars_Magne_Ingebrigtsen"))
9571 ;; Unmatched mail goes to the catch all group.
9575 This variable has the format of a @dfn{split}. A split is a (possibly)
9576 recursive structure where each split may contain other splits. Here are
9577 the five possible split syntaxes:
9582 @samp{group}: If the split is a string, that will be taken as a group name.
9585 @var{(FIELD VALUE SPLIT)}: If the split is a list, the first element of
9586 which is a string, then store the message as specified by SPLIT, if
9587 header FIELD (a regexp) contains VALUE (also a regexp).
9590 @var{(| SPLIT...)}: If the split is a list, and the first element is
9591 @code{|} (vertical bar), then process each SPLIT until one of them
9592 matches. A SPLIT is said to match if it will cause the mail message to
9593 be stored in one or more groups.
9596 @var{(& SPLIT...)}: If the split is a list, and the first element is
9597 @code{&}, then process all SPLITs in the list.
9600 @code{junk}: If the split is the symbol @code{junk}, then don't save
9604 @var{(: function arg1 arg2 ...)}: If the split is a list, and the first
9605 element is @code{:}, then the second element will be called as a
9606 function with @var{args} given as arguments. The function should return
9611 In these splits, @var{FIELD} must match a complete field name.
9612 @var{VALUE} must match a complete word according to the fundamental mode
9613 syntax table. You can use @code{.*} in the regexps to match partial
9614 field names or words. In other words, all @var{VALUE}'s are wrapped in
9615 @samp{\<} and @samp{\>} pairs.
9617 @vindex nnmail-split-abbrev-alist
9618 @var{FIELD} and @var{VALUE} can also be lisp symbols, in that case they
9619 are expanded as specified by the variable
9620 @code{nnmail-split-abbrev-alist}. This is an alist of cons cells, where
9621 the @code{car} of a cell contains the key, and the @code{cdr} contains the associated
9624 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table
9625 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table} is the syntax table in effect
9626 when all this splitting is performed.
9628 If you want to have Gnus create groups dynamically based on some
9629 information in the headers (i.e., do @code{replace-match}-like
9630 substitions in the group names), you can say things like:
9633 (any "debian-\\(\\w*\\)@@lists.debian.org" "mail.debian.\\1")
9636 @node Mail and Procmail
9637 @subsection Mail and Procmail
9642 Many people use @code{procmail} (or some other mail filter program or
9643 external delivery agent---@code{slocal}, @code{elm}, etc) to split
9644 incoming mail into groups. If you do that, you should set
9645 @code{nnmail-spool-file} to @code{procmail} to ensure that the mail
9646 backends never ever try to fetch mail by themselves.
9648 If you have a combined @code{procmail}/POP/mailbox setup, you can do
9649 something like the following:
9651 @vindex nnmail-use-procmail
9653 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
9654 (setq nnmail-spool-file
9655 '("/usr/spool/mail/my-name" "po:my-name"))
9658 This also means that you probably don't want to set
9659 @code{nnmail-split-methods} either, which has some, perhaps, unexpected
9662 When a mail backend is queried for what groups it carries, it replies
9663 with the contents of that variable, along with any groups it has figured
9664 out that it carries by other means. None of the backends, except
9665 @code{nnmh}, actually go out to the disk and check what groups actually
9666 exist. (It's not trivial to distinguish between what the user thinks is
9667 a basis for a newsgroup and what is just a plain old file or directory.)
9669 This means that you have to tell Gnus (and the backends) by hand what
9672 Let's take the @code{nnmh} backend as an example:
9674 The folders are located in @code{nnmh-directory}, say, @file{~/Mail/}.
9675 There are three folders, @file{foo}, @file{bar} and @file{mail.baz}.
9677 Go to the group buffer and type @kbd{G m}. When prompted, answer
9678 @samp{foo} for the name and @samp{nnmh} for the method. Repeat
9679 twice for the two other groups, @samp{bar} and @samp{mail.baz}. Be sure
9680 to include all your mail groups.
9682 That's it. You are now set to read your mail. An active file for this
9683 method will be created automatically.
9685 @vindex nnmail-procmail-suffix
9686 @vindex nnmail-procmail-directory
9687 If you use @code{nnfolder} or any other backend that store more than a
9688 single article in each file, you should never have procmail add mails to
9689 the file that Gnus sees. Instead, procmail should put all incoming mail
9690 in @code{nnmail-procmail-directory}. To arrive at the file name to put
9691 the incoming mail in, append @code{nnmail-procmail-suffix} to the group
9692 name. The mail backends will read the mail from these files.
9694 @vindex nnmail-resplit-incoming
9695 When Gnus reads a file called @file{mail.misc.spool}, this mail will be
9696 put in the @code{mail.misc}, as one would expect. However, if you want
9697 Gnus to split the mail the normal way, you could set
9698 @code{nnmail-resplit-incoming} to @code{t}.
9700 @vindex nnmail-keep-last-article
9701 If you use @code{procmail} to split things directly into an @code{nnmh}
9702 directory (which you shouldn't do), you should set
9703 @code{nnmail-keep-last-article} to non-@code{nil} to prevent Gnus from
9704 ever expiring the final article (i.e., the article with the highest
9705 article number) in a mail newsgroup. This is quite, quite important.
9707 Here's an example setup: The incoming spools are located in
9708 @file{~/incoming/} and have @samp{""} as suffixes (i.e., the incoming
9709 spool files have the same names as the equivalent groups). The
9710 @code{nnfolder} backend is to be used as the mail interface, and the
9711 @code{nnfolder} directory is @file{~/fMail/}.
9714 (setq nnfolder-directory "~/fMail/")
9715 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
9716 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/incoming/")
9717 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnfolder "")))
9718 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "")
9722 @node Incorporating Old Mail
9723 @subsection Incorporating Old Mail
9725 Most people have lots of old mail stored in various file formats. If
9726 you have set up Gnus to read mail using one of the spiffy Gnus mail
9727 backends, you'll probably wish to have that old mail incorporated into
9730 Doing so can be quite easy.
9732 To take an example: You're reading mail using @code{nnml}
9733 (@pxref{Mail Spool}), and have set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to a
9734 satisfactory value (@pxref{Splitting Mail}). You have an old Unix mbox
9735 file filled with important, but old, mail. You want to move it into
9736 your @code{nnml} groups.
9742 Go to the group buffer.
9745 Type `G f' and give the path to the mbox file when prompted to create an
9746 @code{nndoc} group from the mbox file (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
9749 Type `SPACE' to enter the newly created group.
9752 Type `M P b' to process-mark all articles in this group's buffer
9753 (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
9756 Type `B r' to respool all the process-marked articles, and answer
9757 @samp{nnml} when prompted (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
9760 All the mail messages in the mbox file will now also be spread out over
9761 all your @code{nnml} groups. Try entering them and check whether things
9762 have gone without a glitch. If things look ok, you may consider
9763 deleting the mbox file, but I wouldn't do that unless I was absolutely
9764 sure that all the mail has ended up where it should be.
9766 Respooling is also a handy thing to do if you're switching from one mail
9767 backend to another. Just respool all the mail in the old mail groups
9768 using the new mail backend.
9772 @subsection Expiring Mail
9773 @cindex article expiry
9775 Traditional mail readers have a tendency to remove mail articles when
9776 you mark them as read, in some way. Gnus takes a fundamentally
9777 different approach to mail reading.
9779 Gnus basically considers mail just to be news that has been received in
9780 a rather peculiar manner. It does not think that it has the power to
9781 actually change the mail, or delete any mail messages. If you enter a
9782 mail group, and mark articles as ``read'', or kill them in some other
9783 fashion, the mail articles will still exist on the system. I repeat:
9784 Gnus will not delete your old, read mail. Unless you ask it to, of
9787 To make Gnus get rid of your unwanted mail, you have to mark the
9788 articles as @dfn{expirable}. This does not mean that the articles will
9789 disappear right away, however. In general, a mail article will be
9790 deleted from your system if, 1) it is marked as expirable, AND 2) it is
9791 more than one week old. If you do not mark an article as expirable, it
9792 will remain on your system until hell freezes over. This bears
9793 repeating one more time, with some spurious capitalizations: IF you do
9794 NOT mark articles as EXPIRABLE, Gnus will NEVER delete those ARTICLES.
9796 @vindex gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
9797 You do not have to mark articles as expirable by hand. Groups that
9798 match the regular expression @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups} will
9799 have all articles that you read marked as expirable automatically. All
9800 articles marked as expirable have an @samp{E} in the first
9801 column in the summary buffer.
9803 By default, if you have auto expiry switched on, Gnus will mark all the
9804 articles you read as expirable, no matter if they were read or unread
9805 before. To avoid having articles marked as read marked as expirable
9806 automatically, you can put something like the following in your
9809 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
9811 (remove-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook
9812 'gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read)
9813 (add-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook 'gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read)
9816 Note that making a group auto-expirable doesn't mean that all read
9817 articles are expired---only the articles marked as expirable
9818 will be expired. Also note that using the @kbd{d} command won't make
9819 groups expirable---only semi-automatic marking of articles as read will
9820 mark the articles as expirable in auto-expirable groups.
9822 Let's say you subscribe to a couple of mailing lists, and you want the
9823 articles you have read to disappear after a while:
9826 (setq gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
9827 "mail.nonsense-list\\|mail.nice-list")
9830 Another way to have auto-expiry happen is to have the element
9831 @code{auto-expire} in the group parameters of the group.
9833 If you use adaptive scoring (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}) and
9834 auto-expiring, you'll have problems. Auto-expiring and adaptive scoring
9835 don't really mix very well.
9837 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait
9838 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable supplies the default time an
9839 expirable article has to live. Gnus starts counting days from when the
9840 message @emph{arrived}, not from when it was sent. The default is seven
9843 Gnus also supplies a function that lets you fine-tune how long articles
9844 are to live, based on what group they are in. Let's say you want to
9845 have one month expiry period in the @samp{mail.private} group, a one day
9846 expiry period in the @samp{mail.junk} group, and a six day expiry period
9849 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
9851 (setq nnmail-expiry-wait-function
9853 (cond ((string= group "mail.private")
9855 ((string= group "mail.junk")
9857 ((string= group "important")
9863 The group names this function is fed are ``unadorned'' group
9864 names---no @samp{nnml:} prefixes and the like.
9866 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable and
9867 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} function can either be a number (not
9868 necessarily an integer) or one of the symbols @code{immediate} or
9871 You can also use the @code{expiry-wait} group parameter to selectively
9872 change the expiry period (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
9874 @vindex nnmail-keep-last-article
9875 If @code{nnmail-keep-last-article} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will never
9876 expire the final article in a mail newsgroup. This is to make life
9877 easier for procmail users.
9879 @vindex gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups
9880 By the way: That line up there, about Gnus never expiring non-expirable
9881 articles, is a lie. If you put @code{total-expire} in the group
9882 parameters, articles will not be marked as expirable, but all read
9883 articles will be put through the expiry process. Use with extreme
9884 caution. Even more dangerous is the
9885 @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups} variable. All groups that match
9886 this regexp will have all read articles put through the expiry process,
9887 which means that @emph{all} old mail articles in the groups in question
9888 will be deleted after a while. Use with extreme caution, and don't come
9889 crying to me when you discover that the regexp you used matched the
9890 wrong group and all your important mail has disappeared. Be a
9891 @emph{man}! Or a @emph{woman}! Whatever you feel more comfortable
9894 Most people make most of their mail groups total-expirable, though.
9898 @subsection Washing Mail
9899 @cindex mail washing
9900 @cindex list server brain damage
9901 @cindex incoming mail treatment
9903 Mailers and list servers are notorious for doing all sorts of really,
9904 really stupid things with mail. ``Hey, RFC822 doesn't explicitly
9905 prohibit us from adding the string @code{wE aRe ElItE!!!!!1!!} to the
9906 end of all lines passing through our server, so let's do that!!!!1!''
9907 Yes, but RFC822 wasn't designed to be read by morons. Things that were
9908 considered to be self-evident were not discussed. So. Here we are.
9910 Case in point: The German version of Microsoft Exchange adds @samp{AW:
9911 } to the subjects of replies instead of @samp{Re: }. I could pretend to
9912 be shocked and dismayed by this, but I haven't got the energy. It is to
9915 Gnus provides a plethora of functions for washing articles while
9916 displaying them, but it might be nicer to do the filtering before
9917 storing the mail to disc. For that purpose, we have three hooks and
9918 various functions that can be put in these hooks.
9921 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
9922 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
9923 This hook is called before doing anything with the mail and is meant for
9924 grand, sweeping gestures. Functions to be used include:
9927 @item nnheader-ms-strip-cr
9928 @findex nnheader-ms-strip-cr
9929 Remove trailing carriage returns from each line. This is default on
9930 Emacs running on MS machines.
9934 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
9935 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
9936 This hook is called narrowed to each header. It can be used when
9937 cleaning up the headers. Functions that can be used include:
9940 @item nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
9941 @findex nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
9942 Clear leading white space that ``helpful'' listservs have added to the
9943 headers to make them look nice. Aaah.
9945 @item nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
9946 @findex nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
9947 Some list servers add an identifier---for example, @samp{(idm)}---to the
9948 beginning of all @code{Subject} headers. I'm sure that's nice for
9949 people who use stone age mail readers. This function will remove
9950 strings that match the @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} regexp, which can
9951 also be a list of regexp.
9953 For instance, if you want to remove the @samp{(idm)} and the
9954 @samp{nagnagnag} identifiers:
9957 (setq nnmail-list-identifiers
9958 '("(idm)" "nagnagnag"))
9961 @item nnmail-remove-tabs
9962 @findex nnmail-remove-tabs
9963 Translate all @samp{TAB} characters into @samp{SPACE} characters.
9967 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
9968 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
9969 This hook is called narrowed to each message. Functions to be used
9973 @item article-de-quoted-unreadable
9974 @findex article-de-quoted-unreadable
9975 Decode Quoted Readable encoding.
9982 @subsection Duplicates
9984 @vindex nnmail-treat-duplicates
9985 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-length
9986 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-file
9987 @cindex duplicate mails
9988 If you are a member of a couple of mailing lists, you will sometimes
9989 receive two copies of the same mail. This can be quite annoying, so
9990 @code{nnmail} checks for and treats any duplicates it might find. To do
9991 this, it keeps a cache of old @code{Message-ID}s---
9992 @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}, which is @file{~/.nnmail-cache} by
9993 default. The approximate maximum number of @code{Message-ID}s stored
9994 there is controlled by the @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length}
9995 variable, which is 1000 by default. (So 1000 @code{Message-ID}s will be
9996 stored.) If all this sounds scary to you, you can set
9997 @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} to @code{warn} (which is what it is by
9998 default), and @code{nnmail} won't delete duplicate mails. Instead it
9999 will insert a warning into the head of the mail saying that it thinks
10000 that this is a duplicate of a different message.
10002 This variable can also be a function. If that's the case, the function
10003 will be called from a buffer narrowed to the message in question with
10004 the @code{Message-ID} as a parameter. The function must return either
10005 @code{nil}, @code{warn}, or @code{delete}.
10007 You can turn this feature off completely by setting the variable to
10010 If you want all the duplicate mails to be put into a special
10011 @dfn{duplicates} group, you could do that using the normal mail split
10015 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
10016 '(| ;; Messages duplicates go to a separate group.
10017 ("gnus-warning" "duplication of message" "duplicate")
10018 ;; Message from daemons, postmaster, and the like to another.
10019 (any mail "mail.misc")
10026 (setq nnmail-split-methods
10027 '(("duplicates" "^Gnus-Warning:")
10032 Here's a neat feature: If you know that the recipient reads her mail
10033 with Gnus, and that she has @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} set to
10034 @code{delete}, you can send her as many insults as you like, just by
10035 using a @code{Message-ID} of a mail that you know that she's already
10036 received. Think of all the fun! She'll never see any of it! Whee!
10039 @node Not Reading Mail
10040 @subsection Not Reading Mail
10042 If you start using any of the mail backends, they have the annoying
10043 habit of assuming that you want to read mail with them. This might not
10044 be unreasonable, but it might not be what you want.
10046 If you set @code{nnmail-spool-file} to @code{nil}, none of the backends
10047 will ever attempt to read incoming mail, which should help.
10049 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
10050 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
10051 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
10052 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
10053 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
10054 This might be too much, if, for instance, you are reading mail quite
10055 happily with @code{nnml} and just want to peek at some old @sc{rmail}
10056 file you have stashed away with @code{nnbabyl}. All backends have
10057 variables called backend-@code{get-new-mail}. If you want to disable
10058 the @code{nnbabyl} mail reading, you edit the virtual server for the
10059 group to have a setting where @code{nnbabyl-get-new-mail} to @code{nil}.
10061 All the mail backends will call @code{nn}*@code{-prepare-save-mail-hook}
10062 narrowed to the article to be saved before saving it when reading
10066 @node Choosing a Mail Backend
10067 @subsection Choosing a Mail Backend
10069 Gnus will read the mail spool when you activate a mail group. The mail
10070 file is first copied to your home directory. What happens after that
10071 depends on what format you want to store your mail in.
10074 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
10075 * Rmail Babyl:: Emacs programs use the rmail babyl format.
10076 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
10077 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like backend.
10078 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
10082 @node Unix Mail Box
10083 @subsubsection Unix Mail Box
10085 @cindex unix mail box
10087 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
10088 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
10089 The @dfn{nnmbox} backend will use the standard Un*x mbox file to store
10090 mail. @code{nnmbox} will add extra headers to each mail article to say
10091 which group it belongs in.
10093 Virtual server settings:
10096 @item nnmbox-mbox-file
10097 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
10098 The name of the mail box in the user's home directory.
10100 @item nnmbox-active-file
10101 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
10102 The name of the active file for the mail box.
10104 @item nnmbox-get-new-mail
10105 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
10106 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmbox} will read incoming mail and split it
10112 @subsubsection Rmail Babyl
10116 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
10117 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
10118 The @dfn{nnbabyl} backend will use a babyl mail box (aka. @dfn{rmail
10119 mbox}) to store mail. @code{nnbabyl} will add extra headers to each mail
10120 article to say which group it belongs in.
10122 Virtual server settings:
10125 @item nnbabyl-mbox-file
10126 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
10127 The name of the rmail mbox file.
10129 @item nnbabyl-active-file
10130 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
10131 The name of the active file for the rmail box.
10133 @item nnbabyl-get-new-mail
10134 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
10135 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnbabyl} will read incoming mail.
10140 @subsubsection Mail Spool
10142 @cindex mail @sc{nov} spool
10144 The @dfn{nnml} spool mail format isn't compatible with any other known
10145 format. It should be used with some caution.
10147 @vindex nnml-directory
10148 If you use this backend, Gnus will split all incoming mail into files,
10149 one file for each mail, and put the articles into the corresponding
10150 directories under the directory specified by the @code{nnml-directory}
10151 variable. The default value is @file{~/Mail/}.
10153 You do not have to create any directories beforehand; Gnus will take
10156 If you have a strict limit as to how many files you are allowed to store
10157 in your account, you should not use this backend. As each mail gets its
10158 own file, you might very well occupy thousands of inodes within a few
10159 weeks. If this is no problem for you, and it isn't a problem for you
10160 having your friendly systems administrator walking around, madly,
10161 shouting ``Who is eating all my inodes?! Who? Who!?!'', then you should
10162 know that this is probably the fastest format to use. You do not have
10163 to trudge through a big mbox file just to read your new mail.
10165 @code{nnml} is probably the slowest backend when it comes to article
10166 splitting. It has to create lots of files, and it also generates
10167 @sc{nov} databases for the incoming mails. This makes it the fastest
10168 backend when it comes to reading mail.
10170 Virtual server settings:
10173 @item nnml-directory
10174 @vindex nnml-directory
10175 All @code{nnml} directories will be placed under this directory.
10177 @item nnml-active-file
10178 @vindex nnml-active-file
10179 The active file for the @code{nnml} server.
10181 @item nnml-newsgroups-file
10182 @vindex nnml-newsgroups-file
10183 The @code{nnml} group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
10186 @item nnml-get-new-mail
10187 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
10188 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will read incoming mail.
10190 @item nnml-nov-is-evil
10191 @vindex nnml-nov-is-evil
10192 If non-@code{nil}, this backend will ignore any @sc{nov} files.
10194 @item nnml-nov-file-name
10195 @vindex nnml-nov-file-name
10196 The name of the @sc{nov} files. The default is @file{.overview}.
10198 @item nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
10199 @vindex nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
10200 Hook run narrowed to an article before saving.
10204 @findex nnml-generate-nov-databases
10205 If your @code{nnml} groups and @sc{nov} files get totally out of whack,
10206 you can do a complete update by typing @kbd{M-x
10207 nnml-generate-nov-databases}. This command will trawl through the
10208 entire @code{nnml} hierarchy, looking at each and every article, so it
10209 might take a while to complete. A better interface to this
10210 functionality can be found in the server buffer (@pxref{Server
10215 @subsubsection MH Spool
10217 @cindex mh-e mail spool
10219 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, except that is doesn't generate
10220 @sc{nov} databases and it doesn't keep an active file. This makes
10221 @code{nnmh} a @emph{much} slower backend than @code{nnml}, but it also
10222 makes it easier to write procmail scripts for.
10224 Virtual server settings:
10227 @item nnmh-directory
10228 @vindex nnmh-directory
10229 All @code{nnmh} directories will be located under this directory.
10231 @item nnmh-get-new-mail
10232 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
10233 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will read incoming mail.
10236 @vindex nnmh-be-safe
10237 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will go to ridiculous lengths to make
10238 sure that the articles in the folder are actually what Gnus thinks they
10239 are. It will check date stamps and stat everything in sight, so
10240 setting this to @code{t} will mean a serious slow-down. If you never
10241 use anything but Gnus to read the @code{nnmh} articles, you do not have
10242 to set this variable to @code{t}.
10247 @subsubsection Mail Folders
10249 @cindex mbox folders
10250 @cindex mail folders
10252 @code{nnfolder} is a backend for storing each mail group in a separate
10253 file. Each file is in the standard Un*x mbox format. @code{nnfolder}
10254 will add extra headers to keep track of article numbers and arrival
10257 Virtual server settings:
10260 @item nnfolder-directory
10261 @vindex nnfolder-directory
10262 All the @code{nnfolder} mail boxes will be stored under this directory.
10264 @item nnfolder-active-file
10265 @vindex nnfolder-active-file
10266 The name of the active file.
10268 @item nnfolder-newsgroups-file
10269 @vindex nnfolder-newsgroups-file
10270 The name of the group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File Format}.
10272 @item nnfolder-get-new-mail
10273 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
10274 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnfolder} will read incoming mail.
10277 @findex nnfolder-generate-active-file
10278 @kindex M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file
10279 If you have lots of @code{nnfolder}-like files you'd like to read with
10280 @code{nnfolder}, you can use the @kbd{M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file}
10281 command to make @code{nnfolder} aware of all likely files in
10282 @code{nnfolder-directory}.
10285 @node Other Sources
10286 @section Other Sources
10288 Gnus can do more than just read news or mail. The methods described
10289 below allow Gnus to view directories and files as if they were
10293 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
10294 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
10295 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
10296 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{SOUP} packets ``offline''.
10297 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
10298 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
10302 @node Directory Groups
10303 @subsection Directory Groups
10305 @cindex directory groups
10307 If you have a directory that has lots of articles in separate files in
10308 it, you might treat it as a newsgroup. The files have to have numerical
10311 This might be an opportune moment to mention @code{ange-ftp} (and its
10312 successor @code{efs}), that most wonderful of all wonderful Emacs
10313 packages. When I wrote @code{nndir}, I didn't think much about it---a
10314 backend to read directories. Big deal.
10316 @code{ange-ftp} changes that picture dramatically. For instance, if you
10317 enter the @code{ange-ftp} file name
10318 @file{/ftp.hpc.uh.edu:/pub/emacs/ding-list/} as the directory name,
10319 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs} will actually allow you to read this
10320 directory over at @samp{sina} as a newsgroup. Distributed news ahoy!
10322 @code{nndir} will use @sc{nov} files if they are present.
10324 @code{nndir} is a ``read-only'' backend---you can't delete or expire
10325 articles with this method. You can use @code{nnmh} or @code{nnml} for
10326 whatever you use @code{nndir} for, so you could switch to any of those
10327 methods if you feel the need to have a non-read-only @code{nndir}.
10330 @node Anything Groups
10331 @subsection Anything Groups
10334 From the @code{nndir} backend (which reads a single spool-like
10335 directory), it's just a hop and a skip to @code{nneething}, which
10336 pretends that any arbitrary directory is a newsgroup. Strange, but
10339 When @code{nneething} is presented with a directory, it will scan this
10340 directory and assign article numbers to each file. When you enter such
10341 a group, @code{nneething} must create ``headers'' that Gnus can use.
10342 After all, Gnus is a newsreader, in case you're
10343 forgetting. @code{nneething} does this in a two-step process. First, it
10344 snoops each file in question. If the file looks like an article (i.e.,
10345 the first few lines look like headers), it will use this as the head.
10346 If this is just some arbitrary file without a head (e.g. a C source
10347 file), @code{nneething} will cobble up a header out of thin air. It
10348 will use file ownership, name and date and do whatever it can with these
10351 All this should happen automatically for you, and you will be presented
10352 with something that looks very much like a newsgroup. Totally like a
10353 newsgroup, to be precise. If you select an article, it will be displayed
10354 in the article buffer, just as usual.
10356 If you select a line that represents a directory, Gnus will pop you into
10357 a new summary buffer for this @code{nneething} group. And so on. You can
10358 traverse the entire disk this way, if you feel like, but remember that
10359 Gnus is not dired, really, and does not intend to be, either.
10361 There are two overall modes to this action---ephemeral or solid. When
10362 doing the ephemeral thing (i.e., @kbd{G D} from the group buffer), Gnus
10363 will not store information on what files you have read, and what files
10364 are new, and so on. If you create a solid @code{nneething} group the
10365 normal way with @kbd{G m}, Gnus will store a mapping table between
10366 article numbers and file names, and you can treat this group like any
10367 other groups. When you activate a solid @code{nneething} group, you will
10368 be told how many unread articles it contains, etc., etc.
10373 @item nneething-map-file-directory
10374 @vindex nneething-map-file-directory
10375 All the mapping files for solid @code{nneething} groups will be stored
10376 in this directory, which defaults to @file{~/.nneething/}.
10378 @item nneething-exclude-files
10379 @vindex nneething-exclude-files
10380 All files that match this regexp will be ignored. Nice to use to exclude
10381 auto-save files and the like, which is what it does by default.
10383 @item nneething-map-file
10384 @vindex nneething-map-file
10385 Name of the map files.
10389 @node Document Groups
10390 @subsection Document Groups
10392 @cindex documentation group
10395 @code{nndoc} is a cute little thing that will let you read a single file
10396 as a newsgroup. Several files types are supported:
10403 The babyl (rmail) mail box.
10408 The standard Unix mbox file.
10410 @cindex MMDF mail box
10412 The MMDF mail box format.
10415 Several news articles appended into a file.
10418 @cindex rnews batch files
10419 The rnews batch transport format.
10420 @cindex forwarded messages
10423 Forwarded articles.
10427 @cindex MIME digest
10428 @cindex 1153 digest
10429 @cindex RFC 1153 digest
10430 @cindex RFC 341 digest
10431 MIME (RFC 1341) digest format.
10433 @item standard-digest
10434 The standard (RFC 1153) digest format.
10437 Non-standard digest format---matches most things, but does it badly.
10440 You can also use the special ``file type'' @code{guess}, which means
10441 that @code{nndoc} will try to guess what file type it is looking at.
10442 @code{digest} means that @code{nndoc} should guess what digest type the
10445 @code{nndoc} will not try to change the file or insert any extra headers into
10446 it---it will simply, like, let you use the file as the basis for a
10447 group. And that's it.
10449 If you have some old archived articles that you want to insert into your
10450 new & spiffy Gnus mail backend, @code{nndoc} can probably help you with
10451 that. Say you have an old @file{RMAIL} file with mail that you now want
10452 to split into your new @code{nnml} groups. You look at that file using
10453 @code{nndoc} (using the @kbd{G f} command in the group buffer
10454 (@pxref{Foreign Groups})), set the process mark on all the articles in
10455 the buffer (@kbd{M P b}, for instance), and then re-spool (@kbd{B r})
10456 using @code{nnml}. If all goes well, all the mail in the @file{RMAIL}
10457 file is now also stored in lots of @code{nnml} directories, and you can
10458 delete that pesky @file{RMAIL} file. If you have the guts!
10460 Virtual server variables:
10463 @item nndoc-article-type
10464 @vindex nndoc-article-type
10465 This should be one of @code{mbox}, @code{babyl}, @code{digest},
10466 @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward}, @code{rfc934},
10467 @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-digest}, @code{standard-digest},
10468 @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs} or @code{guess}.
10470 @item nndoc-post-type
10471 @vindex nndoc-post-type
10472 This variable says whether Gnus is to consider the group a news group or
10473 a mail group. There are two valid values: @code{mail} (the default)
10478 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
10482 @node Document Server Internals
10483 @subsubsection Document Server Internals
10485 Adding new document types to be recognized by @code{nndoc} isn't
10486 difficult. You just have to whip up a definition of what the document
10487 looks like, write a predicate function to recognize that document type,
10488 and then hook into @code{nndoc}.
10490 First, here's an example document type definition:
10494 (article-begin . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n")
10495 (body-end . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n"))
10498 The definition is simply a unique @dfn{name} followed by a series of
10499 regexp pseudo-variable settings. Below are the possible
10500 variables---don't be daunted by the number of variables; most document
10501 types can be defined with very few settings:
10504 @item first-article
10505 If present, @code{nndoc} will skip past all text until it finds
10506 something that match this regexp. All text before this will be
10509 @item article-begin
10510 This setting has to be present in all document type definitions. It
10511 says what the beginning of each article looks like.
10513 @item head-begin-function
10514 If present, this should be a function that moves point to the head of
10517 @item nndoc-head-begin
10518 If present, this should be a regexp that matches the head of the
10521 @item nndoc-head-end
10522 This should match the end of the head of the article. It defaults to
10523 @samp{^$}---the empty line.
10525 @item body-begin-function
10526 If present, this function should move point to the beginning of the body
10530 This should match the beginning of the body of the article. It defaults
10533 @item body-end-function
10534 If present, this function should move point to the end of the body of
10538 If present, this should match the end of the body of the article.
10541 If present, this should match the end of the file. All text after this
10542 regexp will be totally ignored.
10546 So, using these variables @code{nndoc} is able to dissect a document
10547 file into a series of articles, each with a head and a body. However, a
10548 few more variables are needed since not all document types are all that
10549 news-like---variables needed to transform the head or the body into
10550 something that's palatable for Gnus:
10553 @item prepare-body-function
10554 If present, this function will be called when requesting an article. It
10555 will be called with point at the start of the body, and is useful if the
10556 document has encoded some parts of its contents.
10558 @item article-transform-function
10559 If present, this function is called when requesting an article. It's
10560 meant to be used for more wide-ranging transformation of both head and
10561 body of the article.
10563 @item generate-head-function
10564 If present, this function is called to generate a head that Gnus can
10565 understand. It is called with the article number as a parameter, and is
10566 expected to generate a nice head for the article in question. It is
10567 called when requesting the headers of all articles.
10571 Let's look at the most complicated example I can come up with---standard
10576 (first-article . ,(concat "^" (make-string 70 ?-) "\n\n+"))
10577 (article-begin . ,(concat "\n\n" (make-string 30 ?-) "\n\n+"))
10578 (prepare-body-function . nndoc-unquote-dashes)
10579 (body-end-function . nndoc-digest-body-end)
10580 (head-end . "^ ?$")
10581 (body-begin . "^ ?\n")
10582 (file-end . "^End of .*digest.*[0-9].*\n\\*\\*\\|^End of.*Digest *$")
10583 (subtype digest guess))
10586 We see that all text before a 70-width line of dashes is ignored; all
10587 text after a line that starts with that @samp{^End of} is also ignored;
10588 each article begins with a 30-width line of dashes; the line separating
10589 the head from the body may contain a single space; and that the body is
10590 run through @code{nndoc-unquote-dashes} before being delivered.
10592 To hook your own document definition into @code{nndoc}, use the
10593 @code{nndoc-add-type} function. It takes two parameters---the first is
10594 the definition itself and the second (optional) parameter says where in
10595 the document type definition alist to put this definition. The alist is
10596 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
10597 is of @code{mmdf} type, and so on. These type predicates should return
10598 @code{nil} if the document is not of the correct type; @code{t} if it is
10599 of the correct type; and a number if the document might be of the
10600 correct type. A high number means high probability; a low number means
10601 low probability with @samp{0} being the lowest valid number.
10609 In the PC world people often talk about ``offline'' newsreaders. These
10610 are thingies that are combined reader/news transport monstrosities.
10611 With built-in modem programs. Yecchh!
10613 Of course, us Unix Weenie types of human beans use things like
10614 @code{uucp} and, like, @code{nntpd} and set up proper news and mail
10615 transport things like Ghod intended. And then we just use normal
10618 However, it can sometimes be convenient to do something a that's a bit
10619 easier on the brain if you have a very slow modem, and you're not really
10620 that interested in doing things properly.
10622 A file format called @sc{soup} has been developed for transporting news
10623 and mail from servers to home machines and back again. It can be a bit
10626 First some terminology:
10631 This is the machine that is connected to the outside world and where you
10632 get news and/or mail from.
10635 This is the machine that you want to do the actual reading and responding
10636 on. It is typically not connected to the rest of the world in any way.
10639 Something that contains messages and/or commands. There are two kinds
10643 @item message packets
10644 These are packets made at the server, and typically contain lots of
10645 messages for you to read. These are called @file{SoupoutX.tgz} by
10646 default, where @var{X} is a number.
10648 @item response packets
10649 These are packets made at the home machine, and typically contains
10650 replies that you've written. These are called @file{SoupinX.tgz} by
10651 default, where @var{X} is a number.
10661 You log in on the server and create a @sc{soup} packet. You can either
10662 use a dedicated @sc{soup} thingie (like the @code{awk} program), or you
10663 can use Gnus to create the packet with its @sc{soup} commands (@kbd{O
10664 s} and/or @kbd{G s b}; and then @kbd{G s p}) (@pxref{SOUP Commands}).
10667 You transfer the packet home. Rail, boat, car or modem will do fine.
10670 You put the packet in your home directory.
10673 You fire up Gnus on your home machine using the @code{nnsoup} backend as
10674 the native or secondary server.
10677 You read articles and mail and answer and followup to the things you
10678 want (@pxref{SOUP Replies}).
10681 You do the @kbd{G s r} command to pack these replies into a @sc{soup}
10685 You transfer this packet to the server.
10688 You use Gnus to mail this packet out with the @kbd{G s s} command.
10691 You then repeat until you die.
10695 So you basically have a bipartite system---you use @code{nnsoup} for
10696 reading and Gnus for packing/sending these @sc{soup} packets.
10699 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
10700 * SOUP Groups:: A backend for reading @sc{soup} packets.
10701 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
10705 @node SOUP Commands
10706 @subsubsection SOUP Commands
10708 These are commands for creating and manipulating @sc{soup} packets.
10712 @kindex G s b (Group)
10713 @findex gnus-group-brew-soup
10714 Pack all unread articles in the current group
10715 (@code{gnus-group-brew-soup}). This command understands the
10716 process/prefix convention.
10719 @kindex G s w (Group)
10720 @findex gnus-soup-save-areas
10721 Save all @sc{soup} data files (@code{gnus-soup-save-areas}).
10724 @kindex G s s (Group)
10725 @findex gnus-soup-send-replies
10726 Send all replies from the replies packet
10727 (@code{gnus-soup-send-replies}).
10730 @kindex G s p (Group)
10731 @findex gnus-soup-pack-packet
10732 Pack all files into a @sc{soup} packet (@code{gnus-soup-pack-packet}).
10735 @kindex G s r (Group)
10736 @findex nnsoup-pack-replies
10737 Pack all replies into a replies packet (@code{nnsoup-pack-replies}).
10740 @kindex O s (Summary)
10741 @findex gnus-soup-add-article
10742 This summary-mode command adds the current article to a @sc{soup} packet
10743 (@code{gnus-soup-add-article}). It understands the process/prefix
10744 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
10749 There are a few variables to customize where Gnus will put all these
10754 @item gnus-soup-directory
10755 @vindex gnus-soup-directory
10756 Directory where Gnus will save intermediate files while composing
10757 @sc{soup} packets. The default is @file{~/SoupBrew/}.
10759 @item gnus-soup-replies-directory
10760 @vindex gnus-soup-replies-directory
10761 This is what Gnus will use as a temporary directory while sending our
10762 reply packets. @file{~/SoupBrew/SoupReplies/} is the default.
10764 @item gnus-soup-prefix-file
10765 @vindex gnus-soup-prefix-file
10766 Name of the file where Gnus stores the last used prefix. The default is
10767 @samp{gnus-prefix}.
10769 @item gnus-soup-packer
10770 @vindex gnus-soup-packer
10771 A format string command for packing a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
10772 @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupout%d.tgz}.
10774 @item gnus-soup-unpacker
10775 @vindex gnus-soup-unpacker
10776 Format string command for unpacking a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
10777 @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
10779 @item gnus-soup-packet-directory
10780 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-directory
10781 Where Gnus will look for reply packets. The default is @file{~/}.
10783 @item gnus-soup-packet-regexp
10784 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-regexp
10785 Regular expression matching @sc{soup} reply packets in
10786 @code{gnus-soup-packet-directory}.
10792 @subsubsection @sc{soup} Groups
10795 @code{nnsoup} is the backend for reading @sc{soup} packets. It will
10796 read incoming packets, unpack them, and put them in a directory where
10797 you can read them at leisure.
10799 These are the variables you can use to customize its behavior:
10803 @item nnsoup-tmp-directory
10804 @vindex nnsoup-tmp-directory
10805 When @code{nnsoup} unpacks a @sc{soup} packet, it does it in this
10806 directory. (@file{/tmp/} by default.)
10808 @item nnsoup-directory
10809 @vindex nnsoup-directory
10810 @code{nnsoup} then moves each message and index file to this directory.
10811 The default is @file{~/SOUP/}.
10813 @item nnsoup-replies-directory
10814 @vindex nnsoup-replies-directory
10815 All replies will be stored in this directory before being packed into a
10816 reply packet. The default is @file{~/SOUP/replies/"}.
10818 @item nnsoup-replies-format-type
10819 @vindex nnsoup-replies-format-type
10820 The @sc{soup} format of the replies packets. The default is @samp{?n}
10821 (rnews), and I don't think you should touch that variable. I probably
10822 shouldn't even have documented it. Drats! Too late!
10824 @item nnsoup-replies-index-type
10825 @vindex nnsoup-replies-index-type
10826 The index type of the replies packet. The default is @samp{?n}, which
10827 means ``none''. Don't fiddle with this one either!
10829 @item nnsoup-active-file
10830 @vindex nnsoup-active-file
10831 Where @code{nnsoup} stores lots of information. This is not an ``active
10832 file'' in the @code{nntp} sense; it's an Emacs Lisp file. If you lose
10833 this file or mess it up in any way, you're dead. The default is
10834 @file{~/SOUP/active}.
10836 @item nnsoup-packer
10837 @vindex nnsoup-packer
10838 Format string command for packing a reply @sc{soup} packet. The default
10839 is @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupin%d.tgz}.
10841 @item nnsoup-unpacker
10842 @vindex nnsoup-unpacker
10843 Format string command for unpacking incoming @sc{soup} packets. The
10844 default is @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
10846 @item nnsoup-packet-directory
10847 @vindex nnsoup-packet-directory
10848 Where @code{nnsoup} will look for incoming packets. The default is
10851 @item nnsoup-packet-regexp
10852 @vindex nnsoup-packet-regexp
10853 Regular expression matching incoming @sc{soup} packets. The default is
10856 @item nnsoup-always-save
10857 @vindex nnsoup-always-save
10858 If non-@code{nil}, save the replies buffer after each posted message.
10864 @subsubsection SOUP Replies
10866 Just using @code{nnsoup} won't mean that your postings and mailings end
10867 up in @sc{soup} reply packets automagically. You have to work a bit
10868 more for that to happen.
10870 @findex nnsoup-set-variables
10871 The @code{nnsoup-set-variables} command will set the appropriate
10872 variables to ensure that all your followups and replies end up in the
10875 In specific, this is what it does:
10878 (setq message-send-news-function 'nnsoup-request-post)
10879 (setq message-send-mail-function 'nnsoup-request-mail)
10882 And that's it, really. If you only want news to go into the @sc{soup}
10883 system you just use the first line. If you only want mail to be
10884 @sc{soup}ed you use the second.
10888 @subsection Web Searches
10892 @cindex InReference
10893 @cindex Usenet searches
10894 @cindex searching the Usenet
10896 It's, like, too neat to search the Usenet for articles that match a
10897 string, but it, like, totally @emph{sucks}, like, totally, to use one of
10898 those, like, Web browsers, and you, like, have to, rilly, like, look at
10899 the commercials, so, like, with Gnus you can do @emph{rad}, rilly,
10900 searches without having to use a browser.
10902 The @code{nnweb} backend allows an easy interface to the mighty search
10903 engine. You create an @code{nnweb} group, enter a search pattern, and
10904 then enter the group and read the articles like you would any normal
10905 group. The @kbd{G w} command in the group buffer (@pxref{Foreign
10906 Groups}) will do this in an easy-to-use fashion.
10908 @code{nnweb} groups don't really lend themselves to being solid
10909 groups---they have a very fleeting idea of article numbers. In fact,
10910 each time you enter an @code{nnweb} group (not even changing the search
10911 pattern), you are likely to get the articles ordered in a different
10912 manner. Not even using duplicate suppression (@pxref{Duplicate
10913 Suppression}) will help, since @code{nnweb} doesn't even know the
10914 @code{Message-ID} of the articles before reading them using some search
10915 engines (DejaNews, for instance). The only possible way to keep track
10916 of which articles you've read is by scoring on the @code{Date}
10917 header---mark all articles posted before the last date you read the
10920 If the search engine changes its output substantially, @code{nnweb}
10921 won't be able to parse it and will fail. One could hardly fault the Web
10922 providers if they were to do this---their @emph{raison d'être} is to
10923 make money off of advertisements, not to provide services to the
10924 community. Since @code{nnweb} washes the ads off all the articles, one
10925 might think that the providers might be somewhat miffed. We'll see.
10927 You must have the @code{url} and @code{w3} package installed to be able
10928 to use @code{nnweb}.
10930 Virtual server variables:
10935 What search engine type is being used. The currently supported types
10936 are @code{dejanews}, @code{dejanewsold}, @code{altavista} and
10940 @vindex nnweb-search
10941 The search string to feed to the search engine.
10943 @item nnweb-max-hits
10944 @vindex nnweb-max-hits
10945 Advisory maximum number of hits per search to display. The default is
10948 @item nnweb-type-definition
10949 @vindex nnweb-type-definition
10950 Type-to-definition alist. This alist says what @code{nnweb} should do
10951 with the various search engine types. The following elements must be
10956 Function to decode the article and provide something that Gnus
10960 Function to create an article number to message header and URL alist.
10963 Function to send the search string to the search engine.
10966 The address the aforementioned function should send the search string
10970 Format string URL to fetch an article by @code{Message-ID}.
10977 @node Mail-To-News Gateways
10978 @subsection Mail-To-News Gateways
10979 @cindex mail-to-news gateways
10982 If your local @code{nntp} server doesn't allow posting, for some reason
10983 or other, you can post using one of the numerous mail-to-news gateways.
10984 The @code{nngateway} backend provides the interface.
10986 Note that you can't read anything from this backend---it can only be
10992 @item nngateway-address
10993 @vindex nngateway-address
10994 This is the address of the mail-to-news gateway.
10996 @item nngateway-header-transformation
10997 @vindex nngateway-header-transformation
10998 News headers often have to be transformed in some odd way or other
10999 for the mail-to-news gateway to accept it. This variable says what
11000 transformation should be called, and defaults to
11001 @code{nngateway-simple-header-transformation}. The function is called
11002 narrowed to the headers to be transformed and with one parameter---the
11005 This default function just inserts a new @code{To} header based on the
11006 @code{Newsgroups} header and the gateway address.
11007 For instance, an article with this @code{Newsgroups} header:
11010 Newsgroups: alt.religion.emacs
11013 will get this @code{From} header inserted:
11016 To: alt-religion-emacs@@GATEWAY
11021 So, to use this, simply say something like:
11024 (setq gnus-post-method '(nngateway "GATEWAY.ADDRESS"))
11028 @node Combined Groups
11029 @section Combined Groups
11031 Gnus allows combining a mixture of all the other group types into bigger
11035 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
11036 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
11040 @node Virtual Groups
11041 @subsection Virtual Groups
11043 @cindex virtual groups
11045 An @dfn{nnvirtual group} is really nothing more than a collection of
11048 For instance, if you are tired of reading many small groups, you can
11049 put them all in one big group, and then grow tired of reading one
11050 big, unwieldy group. The joys of computing!
11052 You specify @code{nnvirtual} as the method. The address should be a
11053 regexp to match component groups.
11055 All marks in the virtual group will stick to the articles in the
11056 component groups. So if you tick an article in a virtual group, the
11057 article will also be ticked in the component group from whence it came.
11058 (And vice versa---marks from the component groups will also be shown in
11059 the virtual group.)
11061 Here's an example @code{nnvirtual} method that collects all Andrea Dworkin
11062 newsgroups into one, big, happy newsgroup:
11065 (nnvirtual "^alt\\.fan\\.andrea-dworkin$\\|^rec\\.dworkin.*")
11068 The component groups can be native or foreign; everything should work
11069 smoothly, but if your computer explodes, it was probably my fault.
11071 Collecting the same group from several servers might actually be a good
11072 idea if users have set the Distribution header to limit distribution.
11073 If you would like to read @samp{soc.motss} both from a server in Japan
11074 and a server in Norway, you could use the following as the group regexp:
11077 "^nntp\\+some\\.server\\.jp:soc\\.motss$\\|^nntp\\+some\\.server\\.no:soc\\.motss$"
11080 (Remember, though, that if you're creating the group with @kbd{G m}, you
11081 shouldn't double the backslashes, and you should leave off the quote
11082 characters at the beginning and the end of the string.)
11084 This should work kinda smoothly---all articles from both groups should
11085 end up in this one, and there should be no duplicates. Threading (and
11086 the rest) will still work as usual, but there might be problems with the
11087 sequence of articles. Sorting on date might be an option here
11088 (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
11090 One limitation, however---all groups included in a virtual
11091 group have to be alive (i.e., subscribed or unsubscribed). Killed or
11092 zombie groups can't be component groups for @code{nnvirtual} groups.
11094 @vindex nnvirtual-always-rescan
11095 If the @code{nnvirtual-always-rescan} is non-@code{nil},
11096 @code{nnvirtual} will always scan groups for unread articles when
11097 entering a virtual group. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
11098 default) and you read articles in a component group after the virtual
11099 group has been activated, the read articles from the component group
11100 will show up when you enter the virtual group. You'll also see this
11101 effect if you have two virtual groups that have a component group in
11102 common. If that's the case, you should set this variable to @code{t}.
11103 Or you can just tap @code{M-g} on the virtual group every time before
11104 you enter it---it'll have much the same effect.
11107 @node Kibozed Groups
11108 @subsection Kibozed Groups
11112 @dfn{Kibozing} is defined by @sc{oed} as ``grepping through (parts of)
11113 the news feed''. @code{nnkiboze} is a backend that will do this for
11114 you. Oh joy! Now you can grind any @sc{nntp} server down to a halt
11115 with useless requests! Oh happiness!
11117 @kindex G k (Group)
11118 To create a kibozed group, use the @kbd{G k} command in the group
11121 The address field of the @code{nnkiboze} method is, as with
11122 @code{nnvirtual}, a regexp to match groups to be ``included'' in the
11123 @code{nnkiboze} group. That's where most similarities between @code{nnkiboze}
11124 and @code{nnvirtual} end.
11126 In addition to this regexp detailing component groups, an @code{nnkiboze} group
11127 must have a score file to say what articles are to be included in
11128 the group (@pxref{Scoring}).
11130 @kindex M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups
11131 @findex nnkiboze-generate-groups
11132 You must run @kbd{M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups} after creating the
11133 @code{nnkiboze} groups you want to have. This command will take time. Lots of
11134 time. Oodles and oodles of time. Gnus has to fetch the headers from
11135 all the articles in all the component groups and run them through the
11136 scoring process to determine if there are any articles in the groups
11137 that are to be part of the @code{nnkiboze} groups.
11139 Please limit the number of component groups by using restrictive
11140 regexps. Otherwise your sysadmin may become annoyed with you, and the
11141 @sc{nntp} site may throw you off and never let you back in again.
11142 Stranger things have happened.
11144 @code{nnkiboze} component groups do not have to be alive---they can be dead,
11145 and they can be foreign. No restrictions.
11147 @vindex nnkiboze-directory
11148 The generation of an @code{nnkiboze} group means writing two files in
11149 @code{nnkiboze-directory}, which is @file{~/News/} by default. One
11150 contains the @sc{nov} header lines for all the articles in the group,
11151 and the other is an additional @file{.newsrc} file to store information
11152 on what groups have been searched through to find component articles.
11154 Articles marked as read in the @code{nnkiboze} group will have
11155 their @sc{nov} lines removed from the @sc{nov} file.
11158 @node Gnus Unplugged
11159 @section Gnus Unplugged
11164 @cindex Gnus Unplugged
11166 In olden times (ca. February '88), people used to run their newsreaders
11167 on big machines with permanent connections to the net. News transport
11168 was dealt with by news servers, and all the newsreaders had to do was to
11169 read news. Believe it or not.
11171 Nowadays most people read news and mail at home, and use some sort of
11172 modem to connect to the net. To avoid running up huge phone bills, it
11173 would be nice to have a way to slurp down all the news and mail, hang up
11174 the phone, read for several hours, and then upload any responses you
11175 have to make. And then you repeat the procedure.
11177 Of course, you can use news servers for doing this as well. I've used
11178 @code{inn} together with @code{slurp}, @code{pop} and @code{sendmail}
11179 for some years, but doing that's a bore. Moving the news server
11180 functionality up to the newsreader makes sense if you're the only person
11181 reading news on a machine.
11183 Using Gnus as an ``offline'' newsreader is quite simple.
11187 First, set up Gnus as you would do if you were running it on a machine
11188 that has full connection to the net. Go ahead. I'll still be waiting
11192 Then, put the following magical incantation at the end of your
11193 @file{.gnus.el} file:
11200 That's it. Gnus is now an ``offline'' newsreader.
11202 Of course, to use it as such, you have to learn a few new commands.
11205 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
11206 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
11207 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
11208 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
11209 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
11210 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
11211 * Example Setup:: An example @file{.gnus.el} file for offline people.
11212 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
11217 @subsection Agent Basics
11219 First, let's get some terminology out of the way.
11221 The Gnus Agent is said to be @dfn{unplugged} when you have severed the
11222 connection to the net (and notified the Agent that this is the case).
11223 When the connection to the net is up again (and Gnus knows this), the
11224 Agent is @dfn{plugged}.
11226 The @dfn{local} machine is the one you're running on, and which isn't
11227 connected to the net continously.
11229 @dfn{Downloading} means fetching things from the net to your local
11230 machine. @dfn{Uploading} is doing the opposite.
11232 Let's take a typical Gnus session using the Agent.
11237 You start Gnus with @code{gnus-unplugged}. This brings up the Gnus
11238 Agent in a disconnected state. You can read all the news that you have
11239 already fetched while in this mode.
11242 You then decide to see whether any new news has arrived. You connect
11243 your machine to the net (using PPP or whatever), and then hit @kbd{J j}
11244 to make Gnus become @dfn{plugged}.
11247 You can then read the new news immediately, or you can download the news
11248 onto your local machine. If you want to do the latter, you press @kbd{J
11249 s} to fetch all the eligible articles in all the groups. (To let Gnus
11250 know which articles you want to download, @pxref{Agent Categories}.)
11253 After fetching the articles, you press @kbd{J j} to make Gnus become
11254 unplugged again, and you shut down the PPP thing (or whatever). And
11255 then you read the news offline.
11258 And then you go to step 2.
11261 Here are some things you should do the first time (or so) that you use
11267 Decide which servers should be covered by the Agent. If you have a mail
11268 backend, it would probably be nonsensical to have it covered by the
11269 Agent. Go to the server buffer (@kbd{^} in the group buffer) and press
11270 @kbd{J a} the server (or servers) that you wish to have covered by the
11271 Agent (@pxref{Server Agent Commands}). This will typically be only the
11272 primary select method, which is listed on the bottom in the buffer.
11275 Decide on download policy. @xref{Agent Categories}
11282 @node Agent Categories
11283 @subsection Agent Categories
11285 One of the main reasons to integrate the news transport layer into the
11286 newsreader is to allow greater control over what articles to download.
11287 There's not much point in downloading huge amounts of articles, just to
11288 find out that you're not interested in reading any of them. It's better
11289 to be somewhat more conservative in choosing what to download, and then
11290 mark the articles for downloading manually if it should turn out that
11291 you're interested in the articles anyway.
11293 The main way to control what is to be downloaded is to create a
11294 @dfn{category} and then assign some (or all) groups to this category.
11295 Gnus has its own buffer for creating and managing categories.
11298 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
11299 * The Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
11300 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
11304 @node Category Syntax
11305 @subsubsection Category Syntax
11307 A category consists of two things.
11311 A predicate which (generally) gives a rough outline of which articles
11312 are eligible for downloading; and
11315 a score rule which (generally) gives you a finer granularity when
11316 deciding what articles to download. (Note that this @dfn{download
11317 score} is wholly unrelated to normal scores.)
11320 A predicate consists of predicates with logical operators sprinkled in
11323 Perhaps some examples are in order.
11325 Here's a simple predicate. (It's the default predicate, in fact, used
11326 for all groups that don't belong to any other category.)
11332 Quite simple, eh? This predicate is true if and only if the article is
11333 short (for some value of ``short'').
11335 Here's a more complex predicate:
11344 This means that an article should be downloaded if it has a high score,
11345 or if the score is not low and the article is not long. You get the
11348 The available logical operators are @code{or}, @code{and} and
11349 @code{not}. (If you prefer, you can use the more ``C''-ish operators
11350 @samp{|}, @code{&} and @code{!} instead.)
11352 The following predicates are pre-defined, but if none of these fit what
11353 you want to do, you can write your own.
11357 True iff the article is shorter than @code{gnus-agent-short-article}
11358 lines; default 100.
11361 True iff the article is longer than @code{gnus-agent-long-article}
11362 lines; default 200.
11365 True iff the article has a download score less than
11366 @code{gnus-agent-low-score}; default 0.
11369 True iff the article has a download score greater than
11370 @code{gnus-agent-high-score}; default 0.
11373 True iff the Gnus Agent guesses that the article is spam. The
11374 heuristics may change over time, but at present it just computes a
11375 checksum and sees whether articles match.
11384 If you want to create your own predicate function, here's what you have
11385 to know: The functions are called with no parameters, but the
11386 @code{gnus-headers} and @code{gnus-score} dynamic variables are bound to
11389 Now, the syntax of the download score is the same as the syntax of
11390 normal score files, except that all elements that require actually
11391 seeing the article itself are verboten. This means that only the
11392 following headers can be scored on: @code{From}, @code{Subject},
11393 @code{Date}, @code{Xref}, @code{Lines}, @code{Chars}, @code{Message-ID},
11394 and @code{References}.
11397 @node The Category Buffer
11398 @subsubsection The Category Buffer
11400 You'd normally do all category maintenance from the category buffer.
11401 When you enter it for the first time (with the @kbd{J c} command from
11402 the group buffer), you'll only see the @code{default} category.
11404 The following commands are available in this buffer:
11408 @kindex q (Category)
11409 @findex gnus-category-exit
11410 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-category-exit}).
11413 @kindex k (Category)
11414 @findex gnus-category-kill
11415 Kill the current category (@code{gnus-category-kill}).
11418 @kindex c (Category)
11419 @findex gnus-category-copy
11420 Copy the current category (@code{gnus-category-copy}).
11423 @kindex a (Category)
11424 @findex gnus-category-add
11425 Add a new category (@code{gnus-category-add}).
11428 @kindex p (Category)
11429 @findex gnus-category-edit-predicate
11430 Edit the predicate of the current category
11431 (@code{gnus-category-edit-predicate}).
11434 @kindex g (Category)
11435 @findex gnus-category-edit-groups
11436 Edit the list of groups belonging to the current category
11437 (@code{gnus-category-edit-groups}).
11440 @kindex s (Category)
11441 @findex gnus-category-edit-score
11442 Edit the download score rule of the current category
11443 (@code{gnus-category-edit-score}).
11446 @kindex l (Category)
11447 @findex gnus-category-list
11448 List all the categories (@code{gnus-category-list}).
11452 @node Category Variables
11453 @subsubsection Category Variables
11456 @item gnus-category-mode-hook
11457 @vindex gnus-category-mode-hook
11458 Hook run in category buffers.
11460 @item gnus-category-line-format
11461 @vindex gnus-category-line-format
11462 Format of the lines in the category buffer (@pxref{Formatting
11463 Variables}). Legal elements are:
11467 The name of the category.
11470 The number of groups in the category.
11473 @item gnus-category-mode-line-format
11474 @vindex gnus-category-mode-line-format
11475 Format of the category mode line.
11477 @item gnus-agent-short-article
11478 @vindex gnus-agent-short-article
11479 Articles that have fewer lines than this are short. Default 100.
11481 @item gnus-agent-long-article
11482 @vindex gnus-agent-long-article
11483 Articles that have more lines than this are long. Default 200.
11485 @item gnus-agent-low-score
11486 @vindex gnus-agent-low-score
11487 Articles that have a score lower than this have a low score. Default
11490 @item gnus-agent-high-score
11491 @vindex gnus-agent-high-score
11492 Articles that have a score higher than this have a high score. Default
11498 @node Agent Commands
11499 @subsection Agent Commands
11501 All the Gnus Agent commands are on the @kbd{J} submap. The @kbd{J j}
11502 (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-plugged} command works in all modes, and
11503 toggles the plugged/unplugged state of the Gnus Agent.
11507 * Group Agent Commands::
11508 * Summary Agent Commands::
11509 * Server Agent Commands::
11512 You can run a complete batch fetch from the command line with the
11513 following incantation:
11515 @cindex gnus-agent-batch-fetch
11517 $ emacs -batch -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-agent-batch-fetch
11522 @node Group Agent Commands
11523 @subsubsection Group Agent Commands
11527 @kindex J u (Agent Group)
11528 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-groups
11529 Fetch all eligible articles in the current group
11530 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-groups}).
11533 @kindex J c (Agent Group)
11534 @findex gnus-enter-category-buffer
11535 Enter the Agent category buffer (@code{gnus-enter-category-buffer}).
11538 @kindex J s (Agent Group)
11539 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-session
11540 Fetch all eligible articles in all groups
11541 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-session}).
11544 @kindex J S (Agent Group)
11545 @findex gnus-group-send-drafts
11546 Send all sendable messages in the draft group
11547 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-session}). @xref{Drafts}
11550 @kindex J a (Agent Group)
11551 @findex gnus-agent-add-group
11552 Add the current group to an Agent category
11553 (@code{gnus-agent-add-group}).
11558 @node Summary Agent Commands
11559 @subsubsection Summary Agent Commands
11563 @kindex J # (Agent Summary)
11564 @findex gnus-agent-mark-article
11565 Mark the article for downloading (@code{gnus-agent-mark-article}).
11568 @kindex J M-# (Agent Summary)
11569 @findex gnus-agent-unmark-article
11570 Remove the downloading mark from the article
11571 (@code{gnus-agent-unmark-article}).
11574 @kindex @@ (Agent Summary)
11575 @findex gnus-agent-toggle-mark
11576 Toggle whether to download the article (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-mark}).
11579 @kindex J c (Agent Summary)
11580 @findex gnus-agent-catchup
11581 Mark all undownloaded articles as read (@code{gnus-agent-catchup}).
11586 @node Server Agent Commands
11587 @subsubsection Server Agent Commands
11591 @kindex J a (Agent Server)
11592 @findex gnus-agent-add-server
11593 Add the current server to the list of servers covered by the Gnus Agent
11594 (@code{gnus-agent-add-server}).
11597 @kindex J r (Agent Server)
11598 @findex gnus-agent-remove-server
11599 Remove the current server from the list of servers covered by the Gnus
11600 Agent (@code{gnus-agent-remove-server}).
11606 @subsection Agent Expiry
11608 @vindex gnus-agent-expiry-days
11609 @findex gnus-agent-expiry
11610 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-expiry
11611 @cindex Agent expiry
11612 @cindex Gnus Agent expiry
11615 @code{nnagent} doesn't handle expiry. Instead, there's a special
11616 @code{gnus-agent-expiry} command that will expire all read articles that
11617 are older than @code{gnus-agent-expiry-days} days. It can be run
11618 whenever you feel that you're running out of space. It's not
11619 particularly fast or efficient, and it's not a particularly good idea to
11620 interrupt it (with @kbd{C-g} or anything else) once you've started it.
11622 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-all
11623 if @code{gnus-agent-expire-all} is non-@code{nil}, this command will
11624 expire all articles---unread, read, ticked and dormant. If @code{nil}
11625 (which is the default), only read articles are eligible for expiry, and
11626 unread, ticked and dormant articles will be kept indefinitely.
11629 @node Outgoing Messages
11630 @subsection Outgoing Messages
11632 When Gnus is unplugged, all outgoing messages (both mail and news) are
11633 stored in the draft groups (@pxref{Drafts}). You can view them there
11634 after posting, and edit them at will.
11636 When Gnus is plugged again, you can send the messages either from the
11637 draft group with the special commands available there, or you can use
11638 the @kbd{J S} command in the group buffer to send all the sendable
11639 messages in the draft group.
11643 @node Agent Variables
11644 @subsection Agent Variables
11647 @item gnus-agent-directory
11648 @vindex gnus-agent-directory
11649 Where the Gnus Agent will store its files. The default is
11650 @file{~/News/agent/}.
11652 @item gnus-agent-handle-level
11653 @vindex gnus-agent-handle-level
11654 Groups on levels (@pxref{Group Levels}) higher than this variable will
11655 be ignored by the Agent. The default is @code{gnus-level-subscribed},
11656 which means that only subscribed group will be considered by the Agent
11659 @item gnus-agent-plugged-hook
11660 @vindex gnus-agent-plugged-hook
11661 Hook run when connecting to the network.
11663 @item gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
11664 @vindex gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
11665 Hook run when disconnecting from the network.
11670 @node Example Setup
11671 @subsection Example Setup
11673 If you don't want to read this manual, and you have a fairly standard
11674 setup, you may be able to use something like the following as your
11675 @file{.gnus.el} file to get started.
11678 ;;; Define how Gnus is to fetch news. We do this over NNTP
11679 ;;; from your ISP's server.
11680 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "nntp.your-isp.com"))
11682 ;;; Define how Gnus is to read your mail. We read mail from
11683 ;;; your ISP's POP server.
11684 (setenv "MAILHOST" "pop.your-isp.com")
11685 (setq nnmail-spool-file "po:username")
11687 ;;; Say how Gnus is to store the mail. We use nnml groups.
11688 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
11690 ;;; Make Gnus into an offline newsreader.
11694 That should be it, basically. Put that in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file,
11695 edit to suit your needs, start up PPP (or whatever), and type @kbd{M-x
11698 If this is the first time you've run Gnus, you will be subscribed
11699 automatically to a few default newsgroups. You'll probably want to
11700 subscribe to more groups, and to do that, you have to query the
11701 @sc{nntp} server for a complete list of groups with the @kbd{A A}
11702 command. This usually takes quite a while, but you only have to do it
11705 After reading and parsing a while, you'll be presented with a list of
11706 groups. Subscribe to the ones you want to read with the @kbd{u}
11707 command. @kbd{l} to make all the killed groups disappear after you've
11708 subscribe to all the groups you want to read. (@kbd{A k} will bring
11709 back all the killed groups.)
11711 You can now read the groups at once, or you can download the articles
11712 with the @kbd{J s} command. And then read the rest of this manual to
11713 find out which of the other gazillion things you want to customize.
11716 @node Batching Agents
11717 @subsection Batching Agents
11719 Having the Gnus Agent fetch articles (and post whatever messages you've
11720 written) is quite easy once you've gotten things set up properly. The
11721 following shell script will do everything that is necessary:
11725 emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -f gnus-agent-batch >/dev/null
11734 Other people use @dfn{kill files}, but we here at Gnus Towers like
11735 scoring better than killing, so we'd rather switch than fight. They do
11736 something completely different as well, so sit up straight and pay
11739 @vindex gnus-summary-mark-below
11740 All articles have a default score (@code{gnus-summary-default-score}),
11741 which is 0 by default. This score may be raised or lowered either
11742 interactively or by score files. Articles that have a score lower than
11743 @code{gnus-summary-mark-below} are marked as read.
11745 Gnus will read any @dfn{score files} that apply to the current group
11746 before generating the summary buffer.
11748 There are several commands in the summary buffer that insert score
11749 entries based on the current article. You can, for instance, ask Gnus to
11750 lower or increase the score of all articles with a certain subject.
11752 There are two sorts of scoring entries: Permanent and temporary.
11753 Temporary score entries are self-expiring entries. Any entries that are
11754 temporary and have not been used for, say, a week, will be removed
11755 silently to help keep the sizes of the score files down.
11758 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
11759 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
11760 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
11761 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
11762 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
11763 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
11764 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
11765 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
11766 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
11767 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
11768 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
11769 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
11770 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
11771 * GroupLens:: Getting predictions on what you like to read.
11772 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
11773 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
11777 @node Summary Score Commands
11778 @section Summary Score Commands
11779 @cindex score commands
11781 The score commands that alter score entries do not actually modify real
11782 score files. That would be too inefficient. Gnus maintains a cache of
11783 previously loaded score files, one of which is considered the
11784 @dfn{current score file alist}. The score commands simply insert
11785 entries into this list, and upon group exit, this list is saved.
11787 The current score file is by default the group's local score file, even
11788 if no such score file actually exists. To insert score commands into
11789 some other score file (e.g. @file{all.SCORE}), you must first make this
11790 score file the current one.
11792 General score commands that don't actually change the score file:
11797 @kindex V s (Summary)
11798 @findex gnus-summary-set-score
11799 Set the score of the current article (@code{gnus-summary-set-score}).
11802 @kindex V S (Summary)
11803 @findex gnus-summary-current-score
11804 Display the score of the current article
11805 (@code{gnus-summary-current-score}).
11808 @kindex V t (Summary)
11809 @findex gnus-score-find-trace
11810 Display all score rules that have been used on the current article
11811 (@code{gnus-score-find-trace}).
11814 @kindex V R (Summary)
11815 @findex gnus-summary-rescore
11816 Run the current summary through the scoring process
11817 (@code{gnus-summary-rescore}). This might be useful if you're playing
11818 around with your score files behind Gnus' back and want to see the
11819 effect you're having.
11822 @kindex V a (Summary)
11823 @findex gnus-summary-score-entry
11824 Add a new score entry, and allow specifying all elements
11825 (@code{gnus-summary-score-entry}).
11828 @kindex V c (Summary)
11829 @findex gnus-score-change-score-file
11830 Make a different score file the current
11831 (@code{gnus-score-change-score-file}).
11834 @kindex V e (Summary)
11835 @findex gnus-score-edit-current-scores
11836 Edit the current score file (@code{gnus-score-edit-current-scores}).
11837 You will be popped into a @code{gnus-score-mode} buffer (@pxref{Score
11841 @kindex V f (Summary)
11842 @findex gnus-score-edit-file
11843 Edit a score file and make this score file the current one
11844 (@code{gnus-score-edit-file}).
11847 @kindex V F (Summary)
11848 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
11849 Flush the score cache (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}). This is useful
11850 after editing score files.
11853 @kindex V C (Summary)
11854 @findex gnus-score-customize
11855 Customize a score file in a visually pleasing manner
11856 (@code{gnus-score-customize}).
11860 The rest of these commands modify the local score file.
11865 @kindex V m (Summary)
11866 @findex gnus-score-set-mark-below
11867 Prompt for a score, and mark all articles with a score below this as
11868 read (@code{gnus-score-set-mark-below}).
11871 @kindex V x (Summary)
11872 @findex gnus-score-set-expunge-below
11873 Prompt for a score, and add a score rule to the current score file to
11874 expunge all articles below this score
11875 (@code{gnus-score-set-expunge-below}).
11878 The keystrokes for actually making score entries follow a very regular
11879 pattern, so there's no need to list all the commands. (Hundreds of
11882 @findex gnus-summary-increase-score
11883 @findex gnus-summary-lower-score
11887 The first key is either @kbd{I} (upper case i) for increasing the score
11888 or @kbd{L} for lowering the score.
11890 The second key says what header you want to score on. The following
11891 keys are available:
11895 Score on the author name.
11898 Score on the subject line.
11901 Score on the Xref line---i.e., the cross-posting line.
11904 Score on thread---the References line.
11910 Score on the number of lines.
11913 Score on the Message-ID.
11916 Score on followups.
11926 The third key is the match type. Which match types are valid depends on
11927 what headers you are scoring on.
11939 Substring matching.
11942 Fuzzy matching (@pxref{Fuzzy Matching}).
11971 Greater than number.
11976 The fourth and final key says whether this is a temporary (i.e., expiring)
11977 score entry, or a permanent (i.e., non-expiring) score entry, or whether
11978 it is to be done immediately, without adding to the score file.
11982 Temporary score entry.
11985 Permanent score entry.
11988 Immediately scoring.
11993 So, let's say you want to increase the score on the current author with
11994 exact matching permanently: @kbd{I a e p}. If you want to lower the
11995 score based on the subject line, using substring matching, and make a
11996 temporary score entry: @kbd{L s s t}. Pretty easy.
11998 To make things a bit more complicated, there are shortcuts. If you use
11999 a capital letter on either the second or third keys, Gnus will use
12000 defaults for the remaining one or two keystrokes. The defaults are
12001 ``substring'' and ``temporary''. So @kbd{I A} is the same as @kbd{I a s
12002 t}, and @kbd{I a R} is the same as @kbd{I a r t}.
12004 These functions take both the numerical prefix and the symbolic prefix
12005 (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}). A numerical prefix says how much to lower
12006 (or increase) the score of the article. A symbolic prefix of @code{a}
12007 says to use the @file{all.SCORE} file for the command instead of the
12008 current score file.
12010 @vindex gnus-score-mimic-keymap
12011 The @code{gnus-score-mimic-keymap} says whether these commands will
12012 pretend they are keymaps or not.
12015 @node Group Score Commands
12016 @section Group Score Commands
12017 @cindex group score commands
12019 There aren't many of these as yet, I'm afraid.
12024 @kindex W f (Group)
12025 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
12026 Gnus maintains a cache of score alists to avoid having to reload them
12027 all the time. This command will flush the cache
12028 (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}).
12032 You can do scoring from the command line by saying something like:
12034 @findex gnus-batch-score
12035 @cindex batch scoring
12037 $ emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -l gnus -f gnus-batch-score
12041 @node Score Variables
12042 @section Score Variables
12043 @cindex score variables
12047 @item gnus-use-scoring
12048 @vindex gnus-use-scoring
12049 If @code{nil}, Gnus will not check for score files, and will not, in
12050 general, do any score-related work. This is @code{t} by default.
12052 @item gnus-kill-killed
12053 @vindex gnus-kill-killed
12054 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will never apply score files to
12055 articles that have already been through the kill process. While this
12056 may save you lots of time, it also means that if you apply a kill file
12057 to a group, and then change the kill file and want to run it over you
12058 group again to kill more articles, it won't work. You have to set this
12059 variable to @code{t} to do that. (It is @code{t} by default.)
12061 @item gnus-kill-files-directory
12062 @vindex gnus-kill-files-directory
12063 All kill and score files will be stored in this directory, which is
12064 initialized from the @code{SAVEDIR} environment variable by default.
12065 This is @file{~/News/} by default.
12067 @item gnus-score-file-suffix
12068 @vindex gnus-score-file-suffix
12069 Suffix to add to the group name to arrive at the score file name
12070 (@samp{SCORE} by default.)
12072 @item gnus-score-uncacheable-files
12073 @vindex gnus-score-uncacheable-files
12074 @cindex score cache
12075 All score files are normally cached to avoid excessive re-loading of
12076 score files. However, if this might make you Emacs grow big and
12077 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
12078 @file{all.SCORE}, while it might be a good idea to not cache
12079 @file{comp.infosystems.www.authoring.misc.ADAPT}. In fact, this
12080 variable is @samp{ADAPT$} by default, so no adaptive score files will
12083 @item gnus-save-score
12084 @vindex gnus-save-score
12085 If you have really complicated score files, and do lots of batch
12086 scoring, then you might set this variable to @code{t}. This will make
12087 Gnus save the scores into the @file{.newsrc.eld} file.
12089 @item gnus-score-interactive-default-score
12090 @vindex gnus-score-interactive-default-score
12091 Score used by all the interactive raise/lower commands to raise/lower
12092 score with. Default is 1000, which may seem excessive, but this is to
12093 ensure that the adaptive scoring scheme gets enough room to play with.
12094 We don't want the small changes from the adaptive scoring to overwrite
12095 manually entered data.
12097 @item gnus-summary-default-score
12098 @vindex gnus-summary-default-score
12099 Default score of an article, which is 0 by default.
12101 @item gnus-summary-expunge-below
12102 @vindex gnus-summary-expunge-below
12103 Don't display the summary lines of articles that have scores lower than
12104 this variable. This is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
12105 articles will be hidden. This variable is local to the summary buffers,
12106 and has to be set from @code{gnus-summary-mode-hook}.
12108 @item gnus-score-over-mark
12109 @vindex gnus-score-over-mark
12110 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score over the
12111 default. Default is @samp{+}.
12113 @item gnus-score-below-mark
12114 @vindex gnus-score-below-mark
12115 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score below the
12116 default. Default is @samp{-}.
12118 @item gnus-score-find-score-files-function
12119 @vindex gnus-score-find-score-files-function
12120 Function used to find score files for the current group. This function
12121 is called with the name of the group as the argument.
12123 Predefined functions available are:
12126 @item gnus-score-find-single
12127 @findex gnus-score-find-single
12128 Only apply the group's own score file.
12130 @item gnus-score-find-bnews
12131 @findex gnus-score-find-bnews
12132 Apply all score files that match, using bnews syntax. This is the
12133 default. If the current group is @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}, for instance,
12134 @file{all.emacs.all.SCORE}, @file{not.alt.all.SCORE} and
12135 @file{gnu.all.SCORE} would all apply. In short, the instances of
12136 @samp{all} in the score file names are translated into @samp{.*}, and
12137 then a regexp match is done.
12139 This means that if you have some score entries that you want to apply to
12140 all groups, then you put those entries in the @file{all.SCORE} file.
12142 The score files are applied in a semi-random order, although Gnus will
12143 try to apply the more general score files before the more specific score
12144 files. It does this by looking at the number of elements in the score
12145 file names---discarding the @samp{all} elements.
12147 @item gnus-score-find-hierarchical
12148 @findex gnus-score-find-hierarchical
12149 Apply all score files from all the parent groups. This means that you
12150 can't have score files like @file{all.SCORE}, but you can have
12151 @file{SCORE}, @file{comp.SCORE} and @file{comp.emacs.SCORE}.
12154 This variable can also be a list of functions. In that case, all these
12155 functions will be called, and all the returned lists of score files will
12156 be applied. These functions can also return lists of score alists
12157 directly. In that case, the functions that return these non-file score
12158 alists should probably be placed before the ``real'' score file
12159 functions, to ensure that the last score file returned is the local
12162 @item gnus-score-expiry-days
12163 @vindex gnus-score-expiry-days
12164 This variable says how many days should pass before an unused score file
12165 entry is expired. If this variable is @code{nil}, no score file entries
12166 are expired. It's 7 by default.
12168 @item gnus-update-score-entry-dates
12169 @vindex gnus-update-score-entry-dates
12170 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, matching score entries will have
12171 their dates updated. (This is how Gnus controls expiry---all
12172 non-matching entries will become too old while matching entries will
12173 stay fresh and young.) However, if you set this variable to @code{nil},
12174 even matching entries will grow old and will have to face that oh-so
12177 @item gnus-score-after-write-file-function
12178 @vindex gnus-score-after-write-file-function
12179 Function called with the name of the score file just written.
12181 @item gnus-score-thread-simplify
12182 @vindex gnus-score-thread-simplify
12183 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, article subjects will be simplified
12184 for subject scoring purposes in the same manner as with
12185 threading---according to the current value of
12186 gnus-simplify-subject-functions. If the scoring entry uses
12187 @code{substring} or @code{exact} matching, the match will also be
12188 simplified in this manner.
12193 @node Score File Format
12194 @section Score File Format
12195 @cindex score file format
12197 A score file is an @code{emacs-lisp} file that normally contains just a
12198 single form. Casual users are not expected to edit these files;
12199 everything can be changed from the summary buffer.
12201 Anyway, if you'd like to dig into it yourself, here's an example:
12205 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" -10000)
12207 ("larsi\\|lmi" -50000 nil R))
12209 ("Ding is Badd" nil 728373))
12211 ("alt.politics" -1000 728372 s))
12216 (mark-and-expunge -10)
12220 (files "/hom/larsi/News/gnu.SCORE")
12221 (exclude-files "all.SCORE")
12222 (local (gnus-newsgroup-auto-expire t)
12223 (gnus-summary-make-false-root empty))
12227 This example demonstrates most score file elements. For a different
12228 approach, see @pxref{Advanced Scoring}.
12230 Even though this looks much like lisp code, nothing here is actually
12231 @code{eval}ed. The lisp reader is used to read this form, though, so it
12232 has to be valid syntactically, if not semantically.
12234 Six keys are supported by this alist:
12239 If the key is a string, it is the name of the header to perform the
12240 match on. Scoring can only be performed on these eight headers:
12241 @code{From}, @code{Subject}, @code{References}, @code{Message-ID},
12242 @code{Xref}, @code{Lines}, @code{Chars} and @code{Date}. In addition to
12243 these headers, there are three strings to tell Gnus to fetch the entire
12244 article and do the match on larger parts of the article: @code{Body}
12245 will perform the match on the body of the article, @code{Head} will
12246 perform the match on the head of the article, and @code{All} will
12247 perform the match on the entire article. Note that using any of these
12248 last three keys will slow down group entry @emph{considerably}. The
12249 final ``header'' you can score on is @code{Followup}. These score
12250 entries will result in new score entries being added for all follow-ups
12251 to articles that matches these score entries.
12253 Following this key is a arbitrary number of score entries, where each
12254 score entry has one to four elements.
12258 The first element is the @dfn{match element}. On most headers this will
12259 be a string, but on the Lines and Chars headers, this must be an
12263 If the second element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{score
12264 element}. This number should be an integer in the neginf to posinf
12265 interval. This number is added to the score of the article if the match
12266 is successful. If this element is not present, the
12267 @code{gnus-score-interactive-default-score} number will be used
12268 instead. This is 1000 by default.
12271 If the third element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{date
12272 element}. This date says when the last time this score entry matched,
12273 which provides a mechanism for expiring the score entries. It this
12274 element is not present, the score entry is permanent. The date is
12275 represented by the number of days since December 31, 1 BCE.
12278 If the fourth element is present, it should be a symbol---the @dfn{type
12279 element}. This element specifies what function should be used to see
12280 whether this score entry matches the article. What match types that can
12281 be used depends on what header you wish to perform the match on.
12284 @item From, Subject, References, Xref, Message-ID
12285 For most header types, there are the @code{r} and @code{R} (regexp), as
12286 well as @code{s} and @code{S} (substring) types, and @code{e} and
12287 @code{E} (exact match), and @code{w} (word match) types. If this
12288 element is not present, Gnus will assume that substring matching should
12289 be used. @code{R}, @code{S}, and @code{E} differ from the others in
12290 that the matches will be done in a case-sensitive manner. All these
12291 one-letter types are really just abbreviations for the @code{regexp},
12292 @code{string}, @code{exact}, and @code{word} types, which you can use
12293 instead, if you feel like.
12296 These two headers use different match types: @code{<}, @code{>},
12297 @code{=}, @code{>=} and @code{<=}. When matching on @code{Lines}, be
12298 careful because some backends (like @code{nndir}) do not generate
12299 @code{Lines} header, so every article ends up being marked as having 0
12300 lines. This can lead to strange results if you happen to lower score of
12301 the articles with few lines.
12304 For the Date header we have three kinda silly match types:
12305 @code{before}, @code{at} and @code{after}. I can't really imagine this
12306 ever being useful, but, like, it would feel kinda silly not to provide
12307 this function. Just in case. You never know. Better safe than sorry.
12308 Once burnt, twice shy. Don't judge a book by its cover. Never not have
12309 sex on a first date. (I have been told that at least one person, and I
12310 quote, ``found this function indispensable'', however.)
12314 A more useful match type is @code{regexp}. With it, you can match the
12315 date string using a regular expression. The date is normalized to
12316 ISO8601 compact format first---@var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS}. If
12317 you want to match all articles that have been posted on April 1st in
12318 every year, you could use @samp{....0401.........} as a match string,
12319 for instance. (Note that the date is kept in its original time zone, so
12320 this will match articles that were posted when it was April 1st where
12321 the article was posted from. Time zones are such wholesome fun for the
12324 @item Head, Body, All
12325 These three match keys use the same match types as the @code{From} (etc)
12329 This match key is somewhat special, in that it will match the
12330 @code{From} header, and affect the score of not only the matching
12331 articles, but also all followups to the matching articles. This allows
12332 you e.g. increase the score of followups to your own articles, or
12333 decrease the score of followups to the articles of some known
12334 trouble-maker. Uses the same match types as the @code{From} header
12335 uses. (Using this match key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT}
12339 This match key works along the same lines as the @code{Followup} match
12340 key. If you say that you want to score on a (sub-)thread started by an article with a @code{Message-ID} @var{X}, then you add a
12341 @samp{thread} match. This will add a new @samp{thread} match for each
12342 article that has @var{X} in its @code{References} header. (These new
12343 @samp{thread} matches will use the @code{Message-ID}s of these matching
12344 articles.) This will ensure that you can raise/lower the score of an
12345 entire thread, even though some articles in the thread may not have
12346 complete @code{References} headers. Note that using this may lead to
12347 undeterministic scores of the articles in the thread. (Using this match
12348 key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT} files.)
12352 @cindex Score File Atoms
12354 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
12355 lower than this number will be marked as read.
12358 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
12359 lower than this number will be removed from the summary buffer.
12361 @item mark-and-expunge
12362 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
12363 lower than this number will be marked as read and removed from the
12366 @item thread-mark-and-expunge
12367 The value of this entry should be a number. All articles that belong to
12368 a thread that has a total score below this number will be marked as read
12369 and removed from the summary buffer. @code{gnus-thread-score-function}
12370 says how to compute the total score for a thread.
12373 The value of this entry should be any number of file names. These files
12374 are assumed to be score files as well, and will be loaded the same way
12377 @item exclude-files
12378 The clue of this entry should be any number of files. These files will
12379 not be loaded, even though they would normally be so, for some reason or
12383 The value of this entry will be @code{eval}el. This element will be
12384 ignored when handling global score files.
12387 Read-only score files will not be updated or saved. Global score files
12388 should feature this atom (@pxref{Global Score Files}). (Note:
12389 @dfn{Global} here really means @dfn{global}; not your personal
12390 apply-to-all-groups score files.)
12393 The value of this entry should be a number. Articles that do not have
12394 parents will get this number added to their scores. Imagine you follow
12395 some high-volume newsgroup, like @samp{comp.lang.c}. Most likely you
12396 will only follow a few of the threads, also want to see any new threads.
12398 You can do this with the following two score file entries:
12402 (mark-and-expunge -100)
12405 When you enter the group the first time, you will only see the new
12406 threads. You then raise the score of the threads that you find
12407 interesting (with @kbd{I T} or @kbd{I S}), and ignore (@kbd{C y}) the
12408 rest. Next time you enter the group, you will see new articles in the
12409 interesting threads, plus any new threads.
12411 I.e.---the orphan score atom is for high-volume groups where there
12412 exist a few interesting threads which can't be found automatically by
12413 ordinary scoring rules.
12416 This entry controls the adaptive scoring. If it is @code{t}, the
12417 default adaptive scoring rules will be used. If it is @code{ignore}, no
12418 adaptive scoring will be performed on this group. If it is a list, this
12419 list will be used as the adaptive scoring rules. If it isn't present,
12420 or is something other than @code{t} or @code{ignore}, the default
12421 adaptive scoring rules will be used. If you want to use adaptive
12422 scoring on most groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
12423 @code{t}, and insert an @code{(adapt ignore)} in the groups where you do
12424 not want adaptive scoring. If you only want adaptive scoring in a few
12425 groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to @code{nil}, and
12426 insert @code{(adapt t)} in the score files of the groups where you want
12430 All adaptive score entries will go to the file named by this entry. It
12431 will also be applied when entering the group. This atom might be handy
12432 if you want to adapt on several groups at once, using the same adaptive
12433 file for a number of groups.
12436 @cindex local variables
12437 The value of this entry should be a list of @code{(VAR VALUE)} pairs.
12438 Each @var{var} will be made buffer-local to the current summary buffer,
12439 and set to the value specified. This is a convenient, if somewhat
12440 strange, way of setting variables in some groups if you don't like hooks
12441 much. Note that the @var{value} won't be evaluated.
12445 @node Score File Editing
12446 @section Score File Editing
12448 You normally enter all scoring commands from the summary buffer, but you
12449 might feel the urge to edit them by hand as well, so we've supplied you
12450 with a mode for that.
12452 It's simply a slightly customized @code{emacs-lisp} mode, with these
12453 additional commands:
12458 @kindex C-c C-c (Score)
12459 @findex gnus-score-edit-done
12460 Save the changes you have made and return to the summary buffer
12461 (@code{gnus-score-edit-done}).
12464 @kindex C-c C-d (Score)
12465 @findex gnus-score-edit-insert-date
12466 Insert the current date in numerical format
12467 (@code{gnus-score-edit-insert-date}). This is really the day number, if
12468 you were wondering.
12471 @kindex C-c C-p (Score)
12472 @findex gnus-score-pretty-print
12473 The adaptive score files are saved in an unformatted fashion. If you
12474 intend to read one of these files, you want to @dfn{pretty print} it
12475 first. This command (@code{gnus-score-pretty-print}) does that for
12480 Type @kbd{M-x gnus-score-mode} to use this mode.
12482 @vindex gnus-score-mode-hook
12483 @code{gnus-score-menu-hook} is run in score mode buffers.
12485 In the summary buffer you can use commands like @kbd{V f} and @kbd{V
12486 e} to begin editing score files.
12489 @node Adaptive Scoring
12490 @section Adaptive Scoring
12491 @cindex adaptive scoring
12493 If all this scoring is getting you down, Gnus has a way of making it all
12494 happen automatically---as if by magic. Or rather, as if by artificial
12495 stupidity, to be precise.
12497 @vindex gnus-use-adaptive-scoring
12498 When you read an article, or mark an article as read, or kill an
12499 article, you leave marks behind. On exit from the group, Gnus can sniff
12500 these marks and add score elements depending on what marks it finds.
12501 You turn on this ability by setting @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
12502 @code{t} or @code{(line)}. If you want score adaptively on separate
12503 words appearing in the subjects, you should set this variable to
12504 @code{(word)}. If you want to use both adaptive methods, set this
12505 variable to @code{(word line)}.
12507 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
12508 To give you complete control over the scoring process, you can customize
12509 the @code{gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist} variable. For instance, it
12510 might look something like this:
12513 (defvar gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
12514 '((gnus-unread-mark)
12515 (gnus-ticked-mark (from 4))
12516 (gnus-dormant-mark (from 5))
12517 (gnus-del-mark (from -4) (subject -1))
12518 (gnus-read-mark (from 4) (subject 2))
12519 (gnus-expirable-mark (from -1) (subject -1))
12520 (gnus-killed-mark (from -1) (subject -3))
12521 (gnus-kill-file-mark)
12522 (gnus-ancient-mark)
12523 (gnus-low-score-mark)
12524 (gnus-catchup-mark (from -1) (subject -1))))
12527 As you see, each element in this alist has a mark as a key (either a
12528 variable name or a ``real'' mark---a character). Following this key is
12529 a arbitrary number of header/score pairs. If there are no header/score
12530 pairs following the key, no adaptive scoring will be done on articles
12531 that have that key as the article mark. For instance, articles with
12532 @code{gnus-unread-mark} in the example above will not get adaptive score
12535 Each article can have only one mark, so just a single of these rules
12536 will be applied to each article.
12538 To take @code{gnus-del-mark} as an example---this alist says that all
12539 articles that have that mark (i.e., are marked with @samp{D}) will have a
12540 score entry added to lower based on the @code{From} header by -4, and
12541 lowered by @code{Subject} by -1. Change this to fit your prejudices.
12543 If you have marked 10 articles with the same subject with
12544 @code{gnus-del-mark}, the rule for that mark will be applied ten times.
12545 That means that that subject will get a score of ten times -1, which
12546 should be, unless I'm much mistaken, -10.
12548 If you have auto-expirable (mail) groups (@pxref{Expiring Mail}), all
12549 the read articles will be marked with the @samp{E} mark. This'll
12550 probably make adaptive scoring slightly impossible, so auto-expiring and
12551 adaptive scoring doesn't really mix very well.
12553 The headers you can score on are @code{from}, @code{subject},
12554 @code{message-id}, @code{references}, @code{xref}, @code{lines},
12555 @code{chars} and @code{date}. In addition, you can score on
12556 @code{followup}, which will create an adaptive score entry that matches
12557 on the @code{References} header using the @code{Message-ID} of the
12558 current article, thereby matching the following thread.
12560 You can also score on @code{thread}, which will try to score all
12561 articles that appear in a thread. @code{thread} matches uses a
12562 @code{Message-ID} to match on the @code{References} header of the
12563 article. If the match is made, the @code{Message-ID} of the article is
12564 added to the @code{thread} rule. (Think about it. I'd recommend two
12565 aspirins afterwards.)
12567 If you use this scheme, you should set the score file atom @code{mark}
12568 to something small---like -300, perhaps, to avoid having small random
12569 changes result in articles getting marked as read.
12571 After using adaptive scoring for a week or so, Gnus should start to
12572 become properly trained and enhance the authors you like best, and kill
12573 the authors you like least, without you having to say so explicitly.
12575 You can control what groups the adaptive scoring is to be performed on
12576 by using the score files (@pxref{Score File Format}). This will also
12577 let you use different rules in different groups.
12579 @vindex gnus-adaptive-file-suffix
12580 The adaptive score entries will be put into a file where the name is the
12581 group name with @code{gnus-adaptive-file-suffix} appended. The default
12584 @vindex gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit
12585 When doing adaptive scoring, substring or fuzzy matching would probably
12586 give you the best results in most cases. However, if the header one
12587 matches is short, the possibility for false positives is great, so if
12588 the length of the match is less than
12589 @code{gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit}, exact matching will be used. If
12590 this variable is @code{nil}, exact matching will always be used to avoid
12593 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
12594 As mentioned above, you can adapt either on individual words or entire
12595 headers. If you adapt on words, the
12596 @code{gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist} variable says what score
12597 each instance of a word should add given a mark.
12600 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
12601 `((,gnus-read-mark . 30)
12602 (,gnus-catchup-mark . -10)
12603 (,gnus-killed-mark . -20)
12604 (,gnus-del-mark . -15)))
12607 This is the default value. If you have adaption on words enabled, every
12608 word that appears in subjects of articles marked with
12609 @code{gnus-read-mark} will result in a score rule that increase the
12610 score with 30 points.
12612 @vindex gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words
12613 @vindex gnus-ignored-adaptive-words
12614 Words that appear in the @code{gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words} list
12615 will be ignored. If you wish to add more words to be ignored, use the
12616 @code{gnus-ignored-adaptive-words} list instead.
12618 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table
12619 When the scoring is done, @code{gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table} is the
12620 syntax table in effect. It is similar to the standard syntax table, but
12621 it considers numbers to be non-word-constituent characters.
12623 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-minimum
12624 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} is set to a number, the adaptive
12625 word scoring process will never bring down the score of an article to
12626 below this number. The default is @code{nil}.
12628 After using this scheme for a while, it might be nice to write a
12629 @code{gnus-psychoanalyze-user} command to go through the rules and see
12630 what words you like and what words you don't like. Or perhaps not.
12632 Note that the adaptive word scoring thing is highly experimental and is
12633 likely to change in the future. Initial impressions seem to indicate
12634 that it's totally useless as it stands. Some more work (involving more
12635 rigorous statistical methods) will have to be done to make this useful.
12638 @node Home Score File
12639 @section Home Score File
12641 The score file where new score file entries will go is called the
12642 @dfn{home score file}. This is normally (and by default) the score file
12643 for the group itself. For instance, the home score file for
12644 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} is @file{gnu.emacs.gnus.SCORE}.
12646 However, this may not be what you want. It is often convenient to share
12647 a common home score file among many groups---all @samp{emacs} groups
12648 could perhaps use the same home score file.
12650 @vindex gnus-home-score-file
12651 The variable that controls this is @code{gnus-home-score-file}. It can
12656 A string. Then this file will be used as the home score file for all
12660 A function. The result of this function will be used as the home score
12661 file. The function will be called with the name of the group as the
12665 A list. The elements in this list can be:
12669 @var{(regexp file-name)}. If the @var{regexp} matches the group name,
12670 the @var{file-name} will will be used as the home score file.
12673 A function. If the function returns non-nil, the result will be used as
12674 the home score file.
12677 A string. Use the string as the home score file.
12680 The list will be traversed from the beginning towards the end looking
12685 So, if you want to use just a single score file, you could say:
12688 (setq gnus-home-score-file
12689 "my-total-score-file.SCORE")
12692 If you want to use @file{gnu.SCORE} for all @samp{gnu} groups and
12693 @file{rec.SCORE} for all @samp{rec} groups (and so on), you can say:
12696 (setq gnus-home-score-file
12697 'gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file)
12700 This is a ready-made function provided for your convenience.
12702 If you want to have one score file for the @samp{emacs} groups and
12703 another for the @samp{comp} groups, while letting all other groups use
12704 their own home score files:
12707 (setq gnus-home-score-file
12708 ;; All groups that match the regexp "\\.emacs"
12709 '(("\\.emacs" "emacs.SCORE")
12710 ;; All the comp groups in one score file
12711 ("^comp" "comp.SCORE")))
12714 @vindex gnus-home-adapt-file
12715 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file} works exactly the same way as
12716 @code{gnus-home-score-file}, but says what the home adaptive score file
12717 is instead. All new adaptive file entries will go into the file
12718 specified by this variable, and the same syntax is allowed.
12720 In addition to using @code{gnus-home-score-file} and
12721 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file}, you can also use group parameters
12722 (@pxref{Group Parameters}) and topic parameters (@pxref{Topic
12723 Parameters}) to achieve much the same. Group and topic parameters take
12724 precedence over this variable.
12727 @node Followups To Yourself
12728 @section Followups To Yourself
12730 Gnus offers two commands for picking out the @code{Message-ID} header in
12731 the current buffer. Gnus will then add a score rule that scores using
12732 this @code{Message-ID} on the @code{References} header of other
12733 articles. This will, in effect, increase the score of all articles that
12734 respond to the article in the current buffer. Quite useful if you want
12735 to easily note when people answer what you've said.
12739 @item gnus-score-followup-article
12740 @findex gnus-score-followup-article
12741 This will add a score to articles that directly follow up your own
12744 @item gnus-score-followup-thread
12745 @findex gnus-score-followup-thread
12746 This will add a score to all articles that appear in a thread ``below''
12750 @vindex message-sent-hook
12751 These two functions are both primarily meant to be used in hooks like
12752 @code{message-sent-hook}.
12754 If you look closely at your own @code{Message-ID}, you'll notice that
12755 the first two or three characters are always the same. Here's two of
12759 <x6u3u47icf.fsf@@eyesore.no>
12760 <x6sp9o7ibw.fsf@@eyesore.no>
12763 So ``my'' ident on this machine is @samp{x6}. This can be
12764 exploited---the following rule will raise the score on all followups to
12769 ("<x6[0-9a-z]+\\.fsf\\(_-_\\)?@@.*eyesore.no>"
12773 Whether it's the first two or first three characters that are ``yours''
12774 is system-dependent.
12778 @section Scoring Tips
12779 @cindex scoring tips
12785 @cindex scoring crossposts
12786 If you want to lower the score of crossposts, the line to match on is
12787 the @code{Xref} header.
12789 ("xref" (" talk.politics.misc:" -1000))
12792 @item Multiple crossposts
12793 If you want to lower the score of articles that have been crossposted to
12794 more than, say, 3 groups:
12796 ("xref" ("[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+" -1000 nil r))
12799 @item Matching on the body
12800 This is generally not a very good idea---it takes a very long time.
12801 Gnus actually has to fetch each individual article from the server. But
12802 you might want to anyway, I guess. Even though there are three match
12803 keys (@code{Head}, @code{Body} and @code{All}), you should choose one
12804 and stick with it in each score file. If you use any two, each article
12805 will be fetched @emph{twice}. If you want to match a bit on the
12806 @code{Head} and a bit on the @code{Body}, just use @code{All} for all
12809 @item Marking as read
12810 You will probably want to mark articles that has a score below a certain
12811 number as read. This is most easily achieved by putting the following
12812 in your @file{all.SCORE} file:
12816 You may also consider doing something similar with @code{expunge}.
12818 @item Negated character classes
12819 If you say stuff like @code{[^abcd]*}, you may get unexpected results.
12820 That will match newlines, which might lead to, well, The Unknown. Say
12821 @code{[^abcd\n]*} instead.
12825 @node Reverse Scoring
12826 @section Reverse Scoring
12827 @cindex reverse scoring
12829 If you want to keep just articles that have @samp{Sex with Emacs} in the
12830 subject header, and expunge all other articles, you could put something
12831 like this in your score file:
12835 ("Sex with Emacs" 2))
12840 So, you raise all articles that match @samp{Sex with Emacs} and mark the
12841 rest as read, and expunge them to boot.
12844 @node Global Score Files
12845 @section Global Score Files
12846 @cindex global score files
12848 Sure, other newsreaders have ``global kill files''. These are usually
12849 nothing more than a single kill file that applies to all groups, stored
12850 in the user's home directory. Bah! Puny, weak newsreaders!
12852 What I'm talking about here are Global Score Files. Score files from
12853 all over the world, from users everywhere, uniting all nations in one
12854 big, happy score file union! Ange-score! New and untested!
12856 @vindex gnus-global-score-files
12857 All you have to do to use other people's score files is to set the
12858 @code{gnus-global-score-files} variable. One entry for each score file,
12859 or each score file directory. Gnus will decide by itself what score
12860 files are applicable to which group.
12862 Say you want to use the score file
12863 @file{/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE} and
12864 all score files in the @file{/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score} directory:
12867 (setq gnus-global-score-files
12868 '("/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE"
12869 "/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score/"))
12872 @findex gnus-score-search-global-directories
12873 Simple, eh? Directory names must end with a @samp{/}. These
12874 directories are typically scanned only once during each Gnus session.
12875 If you feel the need to manually re-scan the remote directories, you can
12876 use the @code{gnus-score-search-global-directories} command.
12878 Note that, at present, using this option will slow down group entry
12879 somewhat. (That is---a lot.)
12881 If you want to start maintaining score files for other people to use,
12882 just put your score file up for anonymous ftp and announce it to the
12883 world. Become a retro-moderator! Participate in the retro-moderator
12884 wars sure to ensue, where retro-moderators battle it out for the
12885 sympathy of the people, luring them to use their score files on false
12886 premises! Yay! The net is saved!
12888 Here are some tips for the would-be retro-moderator, off the top of my
12894 Articles heavily crossposted are probably junk.
12896 To lower a single inappropriate article, lower by @code{Message-ID}.
12898 Particularly brilliant authors can be raised on a permanent basis.
12900 Authors that repeatedly post off-charter for the group can safely be
12901 lowered out of existence.
12903 Set the @code{mark} and @code{expunge} atoms to obliterate the nastiest
12904 articles completely.
12907 Use expiring score entries to keep the size of the file down. You
12908 should probably have a long expiry period, though, as some sites keep
12909 old articles for a long time.
12912 ... I wonder whether other newsreaders will support global score files
12913 in the future. @emph{Snicker}. Yup, any day now, newsreaders like Blue
12914 Wave, xrn and 1stReader are bound to implement scoring. Should we start
12915 holding our breath yet?
12919 @section Kill Files
12922 Gnus still supports those pesky old kill files. In fact, the kill file
12923 entries can now be expiring, which is something I wrote before Daniel
12924 Quinlan thought of doing score files, so I've left the code in there.
12926 In short, kill processing is a lot slower (and I do mean @emph{a lot})
12927 than score processing, so it might be a good idea to rewrite your kill
12928 files into score files.
12930 Anyway, a kill file is a normal @code{emacs-lisp} file. You can put any
12931 forms into this file, which means that you can use kill files as some
12932 sort of primitive hook function to be run on group entry, even though
12933 that isn't a very good idea.
12935 Normal kill files look like this:
12938 (gnus-kill "From" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
12939 (gnus-kill "Subject" "ding")
12943 This will mark every article written by me as read, and remove the
12944 marked articles from the summary buffer. Very useful, you'll agree.
12946 Other programs use a totally different kill file syntax. If Gnus
12947 encounters what looks like a @code{rn} kill file, it will take a stab at
12950 Two summary functions for editing a GNUS kill file:
12955 @kindex M-k (Summary)
12956 @findex gnus-summary-edit-local-kill
12957 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-local-kill}).
12960 @kindex M-K (Summary)
12961 @findex gnus-summary-edit-global-kill
12962 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-global-kill}).
12965 Two group mode functions for editing the kill files:
12970 @kindex M-k (Group)
12971 @findex gnus-group-edit-local-kill
12972 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-local-kill}).
12975 @kindex M-K (Group)
12976 @findex gnus-group-edit-global-kill
12977 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-global-kill}).
12980 Kill file variables:
12983 @item gnus-kill-file-name
12984 @vindex gnus-kill-file-name
12985 A kill file for the group @samp{soc.motss} is normally called
12986 @file{soc.motss.KILL}. The suffix appended to the group name to get
12987 this file name is detailed by the @code{gnus-kill-file-name} variable.
12988 The ``global'' kill file (not in the score file sense of ``global'', of
12989 course) is just called @file{KILL}.
12991 @vindex gnus-kill-save-kill-file
12992 @item gnus-kill-save-kill-file
12993 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will save the
12994 kill file after processing, which is necessary if you use expiring
12997 @item gnus-apply-kill-hook
12998 @vindex gnus-apply-kill-hook
12999 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored
13000 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file
13001 A hook called to apply kill files to a group. It is
13002 @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file)} by default. If you want to ignore the
13003 kill file if you have a score file for the same group, you can set this
13004 hook to @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored)}. If you don't want
13005 kill files to be processed, you should set this variable to @code{nil}.
13007 @item gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
13008 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
13009 A hook called in kill-file mode buffers.
13014 @node Converting Kill Files
13015 @section Converting Kill Files
13017 @cindex converting kill files
13019 If you have loads of old kill files, you may want to convert them into
13020 score files. If they are ``regular'', you can use
13021 the @file{gnus-kill-to-score.el} package; if not, you'll have to do it
13024 The kill to score conversion package isn't included in Gnus by default.
13025 You can fetch it from
13026 @file{http://www.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/ding-other/gnus-kill-to-score}.
13028 If your old kill files are very complex---if they contain more
13029 non-@code{gnus-kill} forms than not, you'll have to convert them by
13030 hand. Or just let them be as they are. Gnus will still use them as
13038 GroupLens is a collaborative filtering system that helps you work
13039 together with other people to find the quality news articles out of the
13040 huge volume of news articles generated every day.
13042 To accomplish this the GroupLens system combines your opinions about
13043 articles you have already read with the opinions of others who have done
13044 likewise and gives you a personalized prediction for each unread news
13045 article. Think of GroupLens as a matchmaker. GroupLens watches how you
13046 rate articles, and finds other people that rate articles the same way.
13047 Once it has found some people you agree with it tells you, in the form
13048 of a prediction, what they thought of the article. You can use this
13049 prediction to help you decide whether or not you want to read the
13053 * Using GroupLens:: How to make Gnus use GroupLens.
13054 * Rating Articles:: Letting GroupLens know how you rate articles.
13055 * Displaying Predictions:: Displaying predictions given by GroupLens.
13056 * GroupLens Variables:: Customizing GroupLens.
13060 @node Using GroupLens
13061 @subsection Using GroupLens
13063 To use GroupLens you must register a pseudonym with your local Better
13065 @samp{http://www.cs.umn.edu/Research/GroupLens/bbb.html} is the only
13066 better bit in town at the moment.
13068 Once you have registered you'll need to set a couple of variables.
13072 @item gnus-use-grouplens
13073 @vindex gnus-use-grouplens
13074 Setting this variable to a non-@code{nil} value will make Gnus hook into
13075 all the relevant GroupLens functions.
13077 @item grouplens-pseudonym
13078 @vindex grouplens-pseudonym
13079 This variable should be set to the pseudonym you got when registering
13080 with the Better Bit Bureau.
13082 @item grouplens-newsgroups
13083 @vindex grouplens-newsgroups
13084 A list of groups that you want to get GroupLens predictions for.
13088 That's the minimum of what you need to get up and running with GroupLens.
13089 Once you've registered, GroupLens will start giving you scores for
13090 articles based on the average of what other people think. But, to get
13091 the real benefit of GroupLens you need to start rating articles
13092 yourself. Then the scores GroupLens gives you will be personalized for
13093 you, based on how the people you usually agree with have already rated.
13096 @node Rating Articles
13097 @subsection Rating Articles
13099 In GroupLens, an article is rated on a scale from 1 to 5, inclusive.
13100 Where 1 means something like this article is a waste of bandwidth and 5
13101 means that the article was really good. The basic question to ask
13102 yourself is, "on a scale from 1 to 5 would I like to see more articles
13105 There are four ways to enter a rating for an article in GroupLens.
13110 @kindex r (GroupLens)
13111 @findex bbb-summary-rate-article
13112 This function will prompt you for a rating on a scale of one to five.
13115 @kindex k (GroupLens)
13116 @findex grouplens-score-thread
13117 This function will prompt you for a rating, and rate all the articles in
13118 the thread. This is really useful for some of those long running giant
13119 threads in rec.humor.
13123 The next two commands, @kbd{n} and @kbd{,} take a numerical prefix to be
13124 the score of the article you're reading.
13129 @kindex n (GroupLens)
13130 @findex grouplens-next-unread-article
13131 Rate the article and go to the next unread article.
13134 @kindex , (GroupLens)
13135 @findex grouplens-best-unread-article
13136 Rate the article and go to the next unread article with the highest score.
13140 If you want to give the current article a score of 4 and then go to the
13141 next article, just type @kbd{4 n}.
13144 @node Displaying Predictions
13145 @subsection Displaying Predictions
13147 GroupLens makes a prediction for you about how much you will like a
13148 news article. The predictions from GroupLens are on a scale from 1 to
13149 5, where 1 is the worst and 5 is the best. You can use the predictions
13150 from GroupLens in one of three ways controlled by the variable
13151 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring}.
13153 @vindex gnus-grouplens-override-scoring
13154 There are three ways to display predictions in grouplens. You may
13155 choose to have the GroupLens scores contribute to, or override the
13156 regular gnus scoring mechanism. override is the default; however, some
13157 people prefer to see the Gnus scores plus the grouplens scores. To get
13158 the separate scoring behavior you need to set
13159 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring} to @code{'separate}. To have the
13160 GroupLens predictions combined with the grouplens scores set it to
13161 @code{'override} and to combine the scores set
13162 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring} to @code{'combine}. When you use
13163 the combine option you will also want to set the values for
13164 @code{grouplens-prediction-offset} and
13165 @code{grouplens-score-scale-factor}.
13167 @vindex grouplens-prediction-display
13168 In either case, GroupLens gives you a few choices for how you would like
13169 to see your predictions displayed. The display of predictions is
13170 controlled by the @code{grouplens-prediction-display} variable.
13172 The following are valid values for that variable.
13175 @item prediction-spot
13176 The higher the prediction, the further to the right an @samp{*} is
13179 @item confidence-interval
13180 A numeric confidence interval.
13182 @item prediction-bar
13183 The higher the prediction, the longer the bar.
13185 @item confidence-bar
13186 Numerical confidence.
13188 @item confidence-spot
13189 The spot gets bigger with more confidence.
13191 @item prediction-num
13192 Plain-old numeric value.
13194 @item confidence-plus-minus
13195 Prediction +/- confidence.
13200 @node GroupLens Variables
13201 @subsection GroupLens Variables
13205 @item gnus-summary-grouplens-line-format
13206 The summary line format used in GroupLens-enhanced summary buffers. It
13207 accepts the same specs as the normal summary line format (@pxref{Summary
13208 Buffer Lines}). The default is @samp{%U%R%z%l%I%(%[%4L: %-20,20n%]%)
13211 @item grouplens-bbb-host
13212 Host running the bbbd server. @samp{grouplens.cs.umn.edu} is the
13215 @item grouplens-bbb-port
13216 Port of the host running the bbbd server. The default is 9000.
13218 @item grouplens-score-offset
13219 Offset the prediction by this value. In other words, subtract the
13220 prediction value by this number to arrive at the effective score. The
13223 @item grouplens-score-scale-factor
13224 This variable allows the user to magnify the effect of GroupLens scores.
13225 The scale factor is applied after the offset. The default is 1.
13230 @node Advanced Scoring
13231 @section Advanced Scoring
13233 Scoring on Subjects and From headers is nice enough, but what if you're
13234 really interested in what a person has to say only when she's talking
13235 about a particular subject? Or what if you really don't want to
13236 read what person A has to say when she's following up to person B, but
13237 want to read what she says when she's following up to person C?
13239 By using advanced scoring rules you may create arbitrarily complex
13243 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
13244 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
13245 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
13249 @node Advanced Scoring Syntax
13250 @subsection Advanced Scoring Syntax
13252 Ordinary scoring rules have a string as the first element in the rule.
13253 Advanced scoring rules have a list as the first element. The second
13254 element is the score to be applied if the first element evaluated to a
13255 non-@code{nil} value.
13257 These lists may consist of three logical operators, one redirection
13258 operator, and various match operators.
13265 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
13266 one that evaluates to @code{false}, and then it'll stop. If all arguments
13267 evaluate to @code{true} values, then this operator will return
13272 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
13273 one that evaluates to @code{true}. If no arguments are @code{true},
13274 then this operator will return @code{false}.
13279 This logical operator only takes a single argument. It returns the
13280 logical negation of the value of its argument.
13284 There is an @dfn{indirection operator} that will make its arguments
13285 apply to the ancestors of the current article being scored. For
13286 instance, @code{1-} will make score rules apply to the parent of the
13287 current article. @code{2-} will make score rules apply to the
13288 grandparent of the current article. Alternatively, you can write
13289 @code{^^}, where the number of @code{^}s (carets) says how far back into
13290 the ancestry you want to go.
13292 Finally, we have the match operators. These are the ones that do the
13293 real work. Match operators are header name strings followed by a match
13294 and a match type. A typical match operator looks like @samp{("from"
13295 "Lars Ingebrigtsen" s)}. The header names are the same as when using
13296 simple scoring, and the match types are also the same.
13299 @node Advanced Scoring Examples
13300 @subsection Advanced Scoring Examples
13302 Let's say you want to increase the score of articles written by Lars
13303 when he's talking about Gnus:
13307 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
13308 ("subject" "Gnus"))
13314 When he writes long articles, he sometimes has something nice to say:
13318 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
13325 However, when he responds to things written by Reig Eigil Logge, you
13326 really don't want to read what he's written:
13330 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
13331 (1- ("from" "Reig Eigir Logge")))
13335 Everybody that follows up Redmondo when he writes about disappearing
13336 socks should have their scores raised, but only when they talk about
13337 white socks. However, when Lars talks about socks, it's usually not
13344 ("from" "redmondo@@.*no" r)
13345 ("body" "disappearing.*socks" t)))
13346 (! ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen"))
13347 ("body" "white.*socks"))
13351 The possibilities are endless.
13354 @node Advanced Scoring Tips
13355 @subsection Advanced Scoring Tips
13357 The @code{&} and @code{|} logical operators do short-circuit logic.
13358 That is, they stop processing their arguments when it's clear what the
13359 result of the operation will be. For instance, if one of the arguments
13360 of an @code{&} evaluates to @code{false}, there's no point in evaluating
13361 the rest of the arguments. This means that you should put slow matches
13362 (@samp{body}, @samp{header}) last and quick matches (@samp{from},
13363 @samp{subject}) first.
13365 The indirection arguments (@code{1-} and so on) will make their
13366 arguments work on previous generations of the thread. If you say
13377 Then that means "score on the from header of the grandparent of the
13378 current article". An indirection is quite fast, but it's better to say:
13384 ("subject" "Gnus")))
13391 (1- ("from" "Lars"))
13392 (1- ("subject" "Gnus")))
13397 @section Score Decays
13398 @cindex score decays
13401 You may find that your scores have a tendency to grow without
13402 bounds, especially if you're using adaptive scoring. If scores get too
13403 big, they lose all meaning---they simply max out and it's difficult to
13404 use them in any sensible way.
13406 @vindex gnus-decay-scores
13407 @findex gnus-decay-score
13408 @vindex gnus-score-decay-function
13409 Gnus provides a mechanism for decaying scores to help with this problem.
13410 When score files are loaded and @code{gnus-decay-scores} is
13411 non-@code{nil}, Gnus will run the score files through the decaying
13412 mechanism thereby lowering the scores of all non-permanent score rules.
13413 The decay itself if performed by the @code{gnus-score-decay-function}
13414 function, which is @code{gnus-decay-score} by default. Here's the
13415 definition of that function:
13418 (defun gnus-decay-score (score)
13419 "Decay SCORE according to `gnus-score-decay-constant' and `gnus-score-decay-scale'."
13422 (* (if (< score 0) 1 -1)
13424 (max gnus-score-decay-constant
13426 gnus-score-decay-scale)))))))
13429 @vindex gnus-score-decay-scale
13430 @vindex gnus-score-decay-constant
13431 @code{gnus-score-decay-constant} is 3 by default and
13432 @code{gnus-score-decay-scale} is 0.05. This should cause the following:
13436 Scores between -3 and 3 will be set to 0 when this function is called.
13439 Scores with magnitudes between 3 and 60 will be shrunk by 3.
13442 Scores with magnitudes greater than 60 will be shrunk by 5% of the
13446 If you don't like this decay function, write your own. It is called
13447 with the score to be decayed as its only parameter, and it should return
13448 the new score, which should be an integer.
13450 Gnus will try to decay scores once a day. If you haven't run Gnus for
13451 four days, Gnus will decay the scores four times, for instance.
13458 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
13459 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
13460 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
13461 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
13462 * Windows Configuration:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
13463 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
13464 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
13465 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
13466 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
13467 * Buttons:: Get tendonitis in ten easy steps!
13468 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
13469 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
13470 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
13471 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
13472 * XEmacs Enhancements:: There are more pictures and stuff under XEmacs.
13473 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
13474 * Thwarting Email Spam:: A how-to on avoiding unsolited commercial email.
13475 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
13479 @node Process/Prefix
13480 @section Process/Prefix
13481 @cindex process/prefix convention
13483 Many functions, among them functions for moving, decoding and saving
13484 articles, use what is known as the @dfn{Process/Prefix convention}.
13486 This is a method for figuring out what articles the user wants the
13487 command to be performed on.
13491 If the numeric prefix is N, perform the operation on the next N
13492 articles, starting with the current one. If the numeric prefix is
13493 negative, perform the operation on the previous N articles, starting
13494 with the current one.
13496 @vindex transient-mark-mode
13497 If @code{transient-mark-mode} in non-@code{nil} and the region is
13498 active, all articles in the region will be worked upon.
13500 If there is no numeric prefix, but some articles are marked with the
13501 process mark, perform the operation on the articles marked with
13504 If there is neither a numeric prefix nor any articles marked with the
13505 process mark, just perform the operation on the current article.
13507 Quite simple, really, but it needs to be made clear so that surprises
13510 Commands that react to the process mark will push the current list of
13511 process marked articles onto a stack and will then clear all process
13512 marked articles. You can restore the previous configuration with the
13513 @kbd{M P y} command (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
13515 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
13516 One thing that seems to shock & horrify lots of people is that, for
13517 instance, @kbd{3 d} does exactly the same as @kbd{d} @kbd{d} @kbd{d}.
13518 Since each @kbd{d} (which marks the current article as read) by default
13519 goes to the next unread article after marking, this means that @kbd{3 d}
13520 will mark the next three unread articles as read, no matter what the
13521 summary buffer looks like. Set @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} to
13522 @code{nil} for a more straightforward action.
13526 @section Interactive
13527 @cindex interaction
13531 @item gnus-novice-user
13532 @vindex gnus-novice-user
13533 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you are either a newcomer to the
13534 World of Usenet, or you are very cautious, which is a nice thing to be,
13535 really. You will be given questions of the type ``Are you sure you want
13536 to do this?'' before doing anything dangerous. This is @code{t} by
13539 @item gnus-expert-user
13540 @vindex gnus-expert-user
13541 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you will seldom be asked any
13542 questions by Gnus. It will simply assume you know what you're doing, no
13543 matter how strange.
13545 @item gnus-interactive-catchup
13546 @vindex gnus-interactive-catchup
13547 Require confirmation before catching up a group if non-@code{nil}. It
13548 is @code{t} by default.
13550 @item gnus-interactive-exit
13551 @vindex gnus-interactive-exit
13552 Require confirmation before exiting Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
13557 @node Symbolic Prefixes
13558 @section Symbolic Prefixes
13559 @cindex symbolic prefixes
13561 Quite a lot of Emacs commands react to the (numeric) prefix. For
13562 instance, @kbd{C-u 4 C-f} moves point four charaters forward, and
13563 @kbd{C-u 9 0 0 I s s p} adds a permanent @code{Subject} substring score
13564 rule of 900 to the current article.
13566 This is all nice and well, but what if you want to give a command some
13567 additional information? Well, what most commands do is interpret the
13568 ``raw'' prefix in some special way. @kbd{C-u 0 C-x C-s} means that one
13569 doesn't want a backup file to be created when saving the current buffer,
13570 for instance. But what if you want to save without making a backup
13571 file, and you want Emacs to flash lights and play a nice tune at the
13572 same time? You can't, and you're probably perfectly happy that way.
13574 @kindex M-i (Summary)
13575 @findex gnus-symbolic-argument
13576 I'm not, so I've added a second prefix---the @dfn{symbolic prefix}. The
13577 prefix key is @kbd{M-i} (@code{gnus-symbolic-argument}), and the next
13578 character typed in is the value. You can stack as many @kbd{M-i}
13579 prefixes as you want. @kbd{M-i a M-C-u} means ``feed the @kbd{M-C-u}
13580 command the symbolic prefix @code{a}''. @kbd{M-i a M-i b M-C-u} means
13581 ``feed the @kbd{M-C-u} command the symbolic prefixes @code{a} and
13582 @code{b}''. You get the drift.
13584 Typing in symbolic prefixes to commands that don't accept them doesn't
13585 hurt, but it doesn't do any good either. Currently not many Gnus
13586 functions make use of the symbolic prefix.
13588 If you're interested in how Gnus implements this, @pxref{Extended
13592 @node Formatting Variables
13593 @section Formatting Variables
13594 @cindex formatting variables
13596 Throughout this manual you've probably noticed lots of variables called things like @code{gnus-group-line-format} and
13597 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}. These control how Gnus is to
13598 output lines in the various buffers. There's quite a lot of them.
13599 Fortunately, they all use the same syntax, so there's not that much to
13602 Here's an example format spec (from the group buffer): @samp{%M%S%5y:
13603 %(%g%)\n}. We see that it is indeed extremely ugly, and that there are
13604 lots of percentages everywhere.
13607 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
13608 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
13609 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
13610 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
13613 Currently Gnus uses the following formatting variables:
13614 @code{gnus-group-line-format}, @code{gnus-summary-line-format},
13615 @code{gnus-server-line-format}, @code{gnus-topic-line-format},
13616 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format},
13617 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format},
13618 @code{gnus-article-mode-line-format},
13619 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format}, and
13620 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format}.
13622 All these format variables can also be arbitrary elisp forms. In that
13623 case, they will be @code{eval}ed to insert the required lines.
13625 @kindex M-x gnus-update-format
13626 @findex gnus-update-format
13627 Gnus includes a command to help you while creating your own format
13628 specs. @kbd{M-x gnus-update-format} will @code{eval} the current form,
13629 update the spec in question and pop you to a buffer where you can
13630 examine the resulting lisp code to be run to generate the line.
13634 @node Formatting Basics
13635 @subsection Formatting Basics
13637 Each @samp{%} element will be replaced by some string or other when the
13638 buffer in question is generated. @samp{%5y} means ``insert the @samp{y}
13639 spec, and pad with spaces to get a 5-character field''.
13641 As with normal C and Emacs Lisp formatting strings, the numerical
13642 modifier between the @samp{%} and the formatting type character will
13643 @dfn{pad} the output so that it is always at least that long.
13644 @samp{%5y} will make the field always (at least) five characters wide by
13645 padding with spaces to the left. If you say @samp{%-5y}, it will pad to
13648 You may also wish to limit the length of the field to protect against
13649 particularly wide values. For that you can say @samp{%4,6y}, which
13650 means that the field will never be more than 6 characters wide and never
13651 less than 4 characters wide.
13654 @node Advanced Formatting
13655 @subsection Advanced Formatting
13657 It is frequently useful to post-process the fields in some way.
13658 Padding, limiting, cutting off parts and suppressing certain values can
13659 be achieved by using @dfn{tilde modifiers}. A typical tilde spec might
13660 look like @samp{%~(cut 3)~(ignore "0")y}.
13662 These are the valid modifiers:
13667 Pad the field to the left with spaces until it reaches the required
13671 Pad the field to the right with spaces until it reaches the required
13676 Cut off characters from the left until it reaches the specified length.
13679 Cut off characters from the right until it reaches the specified
13684 Cut off the specified number of characters from the left.
13687 Cut off the specified number of characters from the right.
13690 Return an empty string if the field is equal to the specified value.
13693 Use the specified form as the field value when the @samp{@@} spec is
13697 Let's take an example. The @samp{%o} spec in the summary mode lines
13698 will return a date in compact ISO8601 format---@samp{19960809T230410}.
13699 This is quite a mouthful, so we want to shave off the century number and
13700 the time, leaving us with a six-character date. That would be
13701 @samp{%~(cut-left 2)~(max-right 6)~(pad 6)o}. (Cutting is done before
13702 maxing, and we need the padding to ensure that the date is never less
13703 than 6 characters to make it look nice in columns.)
13705 Ignoring is done first; then cutting; then maxing; and then as the very
13706 last operation, padding.
13708 If you use lots of these advanced thingies, you'll find that Gnus gets
13709 quite slow. This can be helped enormously by running @kbd{M-x
13710 gnus-compile} when you are satisfied with the look of your lines.
13711 @xref{Compilation}.
13714 @node User-Defined Specs
13715 @subsection User-Defined Specs
13717 All the specs allow for inserting user defined specifiers---@samp{u}.
13718 The next character in the format string should be a letter. Gnus
13719 will call the function @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where
13720 @samp{X} is the letter following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed
13721 a single parameter---what the parameter means depends on what buffer
13722 it's being called from. The function should return a string, which will
13723 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
13724 specifier. This function may also be called with dummy values, so it
13725 should protect against that.
13727 You can also use tilde modifiers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting} to achieve
13728 much the same without defining new functions. Here's an example:
13729 @samp{%~(form (count-lines (point-min) (point)))@@}. The form
13730 given here will be evaluated to yield the current line number, and then
13734 @node Formatting Fonts
13735 @subsection Formatting Fonts
13737 There are specs for highlighting, and these are shared by all the format
13738 variables. Text inside the @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} specifiers will get
13739 the special @code{mouse-face} property set, which means that it will be
13740 highlighted (with @code{gnus-mouse-face}) when you put the mouse pointer
13743 Text inside the @samp{%[} and @samp{%]} specifiers will have their
13744 normal faces set using @code{gnus-face-0}, which is @code{bold} by
13745 default. If you say @samp{%1[}, you'll get @code{gnus-face-1} instead,
13746 and so on. Create as many faces as you wish. The same goes for the
13747 @code{mouse-face} specs---you can say @samp{%3(hello%)} to have
13748 @samp{hello} mouse-highlighted with @code{gnus-mouse-face-3}.
13750 Here's an alternative recipe for the group buffer:
13753 ;; Create three face types.
13754 (setq gnus-face-1 'bold)
13755 (setq gnus-face-3 'italic)
13757 ;; We want the article count to be in
13758 ;; a bold and green face. So we create
13759 ;; a new face called `my-green-bold'.
13760 (copy-face 'bold 'my-green-bold)
13762 (set-face-foreground 'my-green-bold "ForestGreen")
13763 (setq gnus-face-2 'my-green-bold)
13765 ;; Set the new & fancy format.
13766 (setq gnus-group-line-format
13767 "%M%S%3@{%5y%@}%2[:%] %(%1@{%g%@}%)\n")
13770 I'm sure you'll be able to use this scheme to create totally unreadable
13771 and extremely vulgar displays. Have fun!
13773 Note that the @samp{%(} specs (and friends) do not make any sense on the
13774 mode-line variables.
13777 @node Windows Configuration
13778 @section Windows Configuration
13779 @cindex windows configuration
13781 No, there's nothing here about X, so be quiet.
13783 @vindex gnus-use-full-window
13784 If @code{gnus-use-full-window} non-@code{nil}, Gnus will delete all
13785 other windows and occupy the entire Emacs screen by itself. It is
13786 @code{t} by default.
13788 @vindex gnus-buffer-configuration
13789 @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} describes how much space each Gnus
13790 buffer should be given. Here's an excerpt of this variable:
13793 ((group (vertical 1.0 (group 1.0 point)
13794 (if gnus-carpal (group-carpal 4))))
13795 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
13799 This is an alist. The @dfn{key} is a symbol that names some action or
13800 other. For instance, when displaying the group buffer, the window
13801 configuration function will use @code{group} as the key. A full list of
13802 possible names is listed below.
13804 The @dfn{value} (i.e., the @dfn{split}) says how much space each buffer
13805 should occupy. To take the @code{article} split as an example -
13808 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
13812 This @dfn{split} says that the summary buffer should occupy 25% of upper
13813 half of the screen, and that it is placed over the article buffer. As
13814 you may have noticed, 100% + 25% is actually 125% (yup, I saw y'all
13815 reaching for that calculator there). However, the special number
13816 @code{1.0} is used to signal that this buffer should soak up all the
13817 rest of the space available after the rest of the buffers have taken
13818 whatever they need. There should be only one buffer with the @code{1.0}
13819 size spec per split.
13821 Point will be put in the buffer that has the optional third element
13822 @code{point}. In a @code{frame} split, the last subsplit having a leaf
13823 split where the tag @code{frame-focus} is a member (i.e. is the third or
13824 fourth element in the list, depending on whether the @code{point} tag is
13825 present) gets focus.
13827 Here's a more complicated example:
13830 (article (vertical 1.0 (group 4)
13831 (summary 0.25 point)
13832 (if gnus-carpal (summary-carpal 4))
13836 If the size spec is an integer instead of a floating point number,
13837 then that number will be used to say how many lines a buffer should
13838 occupy, not a percentage.
13840 If the @dfn{split} looks like something that can be @code{eval}ed (to be
13841 precise---if the @code{car} of the split is a function or a subr), this
13842 split will be @code{eval}ed. If the result is non-@code{nil}, it will
13843 be used as a split. This means that there will be three buffers if
13844 @code{gnus-carpal} is @code{nil}, and four buffers if @code{gnus-carpal}
13847 Not complicated enough for you? Well, try this on for size:
13850 (article (horizontal 1.0
13855 (summary 0.25 point)
13860 Whoops. Two buffers with the mystery 100% tag. And what's that
13861 @code{horizontal} thingie?
13863 If the first element in one of the split is @code{horizontal}, Gnus will
13864 split the window horizontally, giving you two windows side-by-side.
13865 Inside each of these strips you may carry on all you like in the normal
13866 fashion. The number following @code{horizontal} says what percentage of
13867 the screen is to be given to this strip.
13869 For each split, there @emph{must} be one element that has the 100% tag.
13870 The splitting is never accurate, and this buffer will eat any leftover
13871 lines from the splits.
13873 To be slightly more formal, here's a definition of what a valid split
13877 split = frame | horizontal | vertical | buffer | form
13878 frame = "(frame " size *split ")"
13879 horizontal = "(horizontal " size *split ")"
13880 vertical = "(vertical " size *split ")"
13881 buffer = "(" buffer-name " " size *[ "point" ] *[ "frame-focus"] ")"
13882 size = number | frame-params
13883 buffer-name = group | article | summary ...
13886 The limitations are that the @code{frame} split can only appear as the
13887 top-level split. @var{form} should be an Emacs Lisp form that should
13888 return a valid split. We see that each split is fully recursive, and
13889 may contain any number of @code{vertical} and @code{horizontal} splits.
13891 @vindex gnus-window-min-width
13892 @vindex gnus-window-min-height
13893 @cindex window height
13894 @cindex window width
13895 Finding the right sizes can be a bit complicated. No window may be less
13896 than @code{gnus-window-min-height} (default 1) characters high, and all
13897 windows must be at least @code{gnus-window-min-width} (default 1)
13898 characters wide. Gnus will try to enforce this before applying the
13899 splits. If you want to use the normal Emacs window width/height limit,
13900 you can just set these two variables to @code{nil}.
13902 If you're not familiar with Emacs terminology, @code{horizontal} and
13903 @code{vertical} splits may work the opposite way of what you'd expect.
13904 Windows inside a @code{horizontal} split are shown side-by-side, and
13905 windows within a @code{vertical} split are shown above each other.
13907 @findex gnus-configure-frame
13908 If you want to experiment with window placement, a good tip is to call
13909 @code{gnus-configure-frame} directly with a split. This is the function
13910 that does all the real work when splitting buffers. Below is a pretty
13911 nonsensical configuration with 5 windows; two for the group buffer and
13912 three for the article buffer. (I said it was nonsensical.) If you
13913 @code{eval} the statement below, you can get an idea of how that would
13914 look straight away, without going through the normal Gnus channels.
13915 Play with it until you're satisfied, and then use
13916 @code{gnus-add-configuration} to add your new creation to the buffer
13917 configuration list.
13920 (gnus-configure-frame
13924 (article 0.3 point))
13932 You might want to have several frames as well. No prob---just use the
13933 @code{frame} split:
13936 (gnus-configure-frame
13939 (summary 0.25 point frame-focus)
13941 (vertical ((height . 5) (width . 15)
13942 (user-position . t)
13943 (left . -1) (top . 1))
13948 This split will result in the familiar summary/article window
13949 configuration in the first (or ``main'') frame, while a small additional
13950 frame will be created where picons will be shown. As you can see,
13951 instead of the normal @code{1.0} top-level spec, each additional split
13952 should have a frame parameter alist as the size spec.
13953 @xref{Frame Parameters, , Frame Parameters, elisp, The GNU Emacs Lisp
13954 Reference Manual}. Under XEmacs, a frame property list will be
13955 accepted, too---for instance, @code{(height 5 width 15 left -1 top 1)}
13958 Here's a list of all possible keys for
13959 @code{gnus-buffer-configuration}:
13961 @code{group}, @code{summary}, @code{article}, @code{server},
13962 @code{browse}, @code{message}, @code{pick}, @code{info},
13963 @code{summary-faq}, @code{edit-group}, @code{edit-server},
13964 @code{edit-score}, @code{post}, @code{reply}, @code{forward},
13965 @code{reply-yank}, @code{mail-bounce}, @code{draft}, @code{pipe},
13966 @code{bug}, @code{compose-bounce}, and @code{score-trace}.
13968 Note that the @code{message} key is used for both
13969 @code{gnus-group-mail} and @code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}. If
13970 it is desirable to distinguish between the two, something like this
13974 (message (horizontal 1.0
13975 (vertical 1.0 (message 1.0 point))
13977 (if (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer)
13982 @findex gnus-add-configuration
13983 Since the @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} variable is so long and
13984 complicated, there's a function you can use to ease changing the config
13985 of a single setting: @code{gnus-add-configuration}. If, for instance,
13986 you want to change the @code{article} setting, you could say:
13989 (gnus-add-configuration
13990 '(article (vertical 1.0
13992 (summary .25 point)
13996 You'd typically stick these @code{gnus-add-configuration} calls in your
13997 @file{.gnus.el} file or in some startup hook---they should be run after
13998 Gnus has been loaded.
14000 @vindex gnus-always-force-window-configuration
14001 If all windows mentioned in the configuration are already visible, Gnus
14002 won't change the window configuration. If you always want to force the
14003 ``right'' window configuration, you can set
14004 @code{gnus-always-force-window-configuration} to non-@code{nil}.
14007 @node Faces and Fonts
14008 @section Faces and Fonts
14013 Fiddling with fonts and faces used to be very difficult, but these days
14014 it is very simple. You simply say @kbd{M-x customize-face}, pick out
14015 the face you want to alter, and alter it via the standard Customize
14020 @section Compilation
14021 @cindex compilation
14022 @cindex byte-compilation
14024 @findex gnus-compile
14026 Remember all those line format specification variables?
14027 @code{gnus-summary-line-format}, @code{gnus-group-line-format}, and so
14028 on. Now, Gnus will of course heed whatever these variables are, but,
14029 unfortunately, changing them will mean a quite significant slow-down.
14030 (The default values of these variables have byte-compiled functions
14031 associated with them, while the user-generated versions do not, of
14034 To help with this, you can run @kbd{M-x gnus-compile} after you've
14035 fiddled around with the variables and feel that you're (kind of)
14036 satisfied. This will result in the new specs being byte-compiled, and
14037 you'll get top speed again. Gnus will save these compiled specs in the
14038 @file{.newsrc.eld} file. (User-defined functions aren't compiled by
14039 this function, though---you should compile them yourself by sticking
14040 them into the @code{.gnus.el} file and byte-compiling that file.)
14044 @section Mode Lines
14047 @vindex gnus-updated-mode-lines
14048 @code{gnus-updated-mode-lines} says what buffers should keep their mode
14049 lines updated. It is a list of symbols. Supported symbols include
14050 @code{group}, @code{article}, @code{summary}, @code{server},
14051 @code{browse}, and @code{tree}. If the corresponding symbol is present,
14052 Gnus will keep that mode line updated with information that may be
14053 pertinent. If this variable is @code{nil}, screen refresh may be
14056 @cindex display-time
14058 @vindex gnus-mode-non-string-length
14059 By default, Gnus displays information on the current article in the mode
14060 lines of the summary and article buffers. The information Gnus wishes
14061 to display (e.g. the subject of the article) is often longer than the
14062 mode lines, and therefore have to be cut off at some point. The
14063 @code{gnus-mode-non-string-length} variable says how long the other
14064 elements on the line is (i.e., the non-info part). If you put
14065 additional elements on the mode line (e.g. a clock), you should modify
14068 @c Hook written by Francesco Potorti` <pot@cnuce.cnr.it>
14070 (add-hook 'display-time-hook
14071 (lambda () (setq gnus-mode-non-string-length
14073 (if line-number-mode 5 0)
14074 (if column-number-mode 4 0)
14075 (length display-time-string)))))
14078 If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the default), the mode line
14079 strings won't be chopped off, and they won't be padded either. Note
14080 that the default is unlikely to be desirable, as even the percentage
14081 complete in the buffer may be crowded off the mode line; the user should
14082 configure this variable appropriately for her configuration.
14085 @node Highlighting and Menus
14086 @section Highlighting and Menus
14088 @cindex highlighting
14091 @vindex gnus-visual
14092 The @code{gnus-visual} variable controls most of the Gnus-prettifying
14093 aspects. If @code{nil}, Gnus won't attempt to create menus or use fancy
14094 colors or fonts. This will also inhibit loading the @file{gnus-vis.el}
14097 This variable can be a list of visual properties that are enabled. The
14098 following elements are valid, and are all included by default:
14101 @item group-highlight
14102 Do highlights in the group buffer.
14103 @item summary-highlight
14104 Do highlights in the summary buffer.
14105 @item article-highlight
14106 Do highlights in the article buffer.
14108 Turn on highlighting in all buffers.
14110 Create menus in the group buffer.
14112 Create menus in the summary buffers.
14114 Create menus in the article buffer.
14116 Create menus in the browse buffer.
14118 Create menus in the server buffer.
14120 Create menus in the score buffers.
14122 Create menus in all buffers.
14125 So if you only want highlighting in the article buffer and menus in all
14126 buffers, you could say something like:
14129 (setq gnus-visual '(article-highlight menu))
14132 If you want highlighting only and no menus whatsoever, you'd say:
14135 (setq gnus-visual '(highlight))
14138 If @code{gnus-visual} is @code{t}, highlighting and menus will be used
14139 in all Gnus buffers.
14141 Other general variables that influence the look of all buffers include:
14144 @item gnus-mouse-face
14145 @vindex gnus-mouse-face
14146 This is the face (i.e., font) used for mouse highlighting in Gnus. No
14147 mouse highlights will be done if @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
14151 There are hooks associated with the creation of all the different menus:
14155 @item gnus-article-menu-hook
14156 @vindex gnus-article-menu-hook
14157 Hook called after creating the article mode menu.
14159 @item gnus-group-menu-hook
14160 @vindex gnus-group-menu-hook
14161 Hook called after creating the group mode menu.
14163 @item gnus-summary-menu-hook
14164 @vindex gnus-summary-menu-hook
14165 Hook called after creating the summary mode menu.
14167 @item gnus-server-menu-hook
14168 @vindex gnus-server-menu-hook
14169 Hook called after creating the server mode menu.
14171 @item gnus-browse-menu-hook
14172 @vindex gnus-browse-menu-hook
14173 Hook called after creating the browse mode menu.
14175 @item gnus-score-menu-hook
14176 @vindex gnus-score-menu-hook
14177 Hook called after creating the score mode menu.
14188 Those new-fangled @dfn{mouse} contraptions is very popular with the
14189 young, hep kids who don't want to learn the proper way to do things
14190 these days. Why, I remember way back in the summer of '89, when I was
14191 using Emacs on a Tops 20 system. Three hundred users on one single
14192 machine, and every user was running Simula compilers. Bah!
14196 @vindex gnus-carpal
14197 Well, you can make Gnus display bufferfuls of buttons you can click to
14198 do anything by setting @code{gnus-carpal} to @code{t}. Pretty simple,
14199 really. Tell the chiropractor I sent you.
14204 @item gnus-carpal-mode-hook
14205 @vindex gnus-carpal-mode-hook
14206 Hook run in all carpal mode buffers.
14208 @item gnus-carpal-button-face
14209 @vindex gnus-carpal-button-face
14210 Face used on buttons.
14212 @item gnus-carpal-header-face
14213 @vindex gnus-carpal-header-face
14214 Face used on carpal buffer headers.
14216 @item gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
14217 @vindex gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
14218 Buttons in the group buffer.
14220 @item gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
14221 @vindex gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
14222 Buttons in the summary buffer.
14224 @item gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
14225 @vindex gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
14226 Buttons in the server buffer.
14228 @item gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
14229 @vindex gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
14230 Buttons in the browse buffer.
14233 All the @code{buttons} variables are lists. The elements in these list
14234 are either cons cells where the @code{car} contains a text to be displayed and
14235 the @code{cdr} contains a function symbol, or a simple string.
14243 Gnus, being larger than any program ever written (allegedly), does lots
14244 of strange stuff that you may wish to have done while you're not
14245 present. For instance, you may want it to check for new mail once in a
14246 while. Or you may want it to close down all connections to all servers
14247 when you leave Emacs idle. And stuff like that.
14249 Gnus will let you do stuff like that by defining various
14250 @dfn{handlers}. Each handler consists of three elements: A
14251 @var{function}, a @var{time}, and an @var{idle} parameter.
14253 Here's an example of a handler that closes connections when Emacs has
14254 been idle for thirty minutes:
14257 (gnus-demon-close-connections nil 30)
14260 Here's a handler that scans for PGP headers every hour when Emacs is
14264 (gnus-demon-scan-pgp 60 t)
14267 This @var{time} parameter and than @var{idle} parameter work together
14268 in a strange, but wonderful fashion. Basically, if @var{idle} is
14269 @code{nil}, then the function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
14271 If @var{idle} is @code{t}, then the function will be called after
14272 @var{time} minutes only if Emacs is idle. So if Emacs is never idle,
14273 the function will never be called. But once Emacs goes idle, the
14274 function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
14276 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is a number, the function will
14277 be called every @var{time} minutes only when Emacs has been idle for
14278 @var{idle} minutes.
14280 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is @code{nil}, the function
14281 will be called once every time Emacs has been idle for @var{idle}
14284 And if @var{time} is a string, it should look like @samp{07:31}, and
14285 the function will then be called once every day somewhere near that
14286 time. Modified by the @var{idle} parameter, of course.
14288 @vindex gnus-demon-timestep
14289 (When I say ``minute'' here, I really mean @code{gnus-demon-timestep}
14290 seconds. This is 60 by default. If you change that variable,
14291 all the timings in the handlers will be affected.)
14293 @vindex gnus-use-demon
14294 To set the whole thing in motion, though, you have to set
14295 @code{gnus-use-demon} to @code{t}.
14297 So, if you want to add a handler, you could put something like this in
14298 your @file{.gnus} file:
14300 @findex gnus-demon-add-handler
14302 (gnus-demon-add-handler 'gnus-demon-close-connections 30 t)
14305 @findex gnus-demon-add-nocem
14306 @findex gnus-demon-add-scanmail
14307 @findex gnus-demon-add-rescan
14308 @findex gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps
14309 @findex gnus-demon-add-disconnection
14310 Some ready-made functions to do this have been created:
14311 @code{gnus-demon-add-nocem}, @code{gnus-demon-add-disconnection},
14312 @code{gnus-demon-add-nntp-close-connection},
14313 @code{gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps}, @code{gnus-demon-add-rescan}, and
14314 @code{gnus-demon-add-scanmail}. Just put those functions in your
14315 @file{.gnus} if you want those abilities.
14317 @findex gnus-demon-init
14318 @findex gnus-demon-cancel
14319 @vindex gnus-demon-handlers
14320 If you add handlers to @code{gnus-demon-handlers} directly, you should
14321 run @code{gnus-demon-init} to make the changes take hold. To cancel all
14322 daemons, you can use the @code{gnus-demon-cancel} function.
14324 Note that adding daemons can be pretty naughty if you overdo it. Adding
14325 functions that scan all news and mail from all servers every two seconds
14326 is a sure-fire way of getting booted off any respectable system. So
14335 @dfn{Spamming} is posting the same article lots and lots of times.
14336 Spamming is bad. Spamming is evil.
14338 Spamming is usually canceled within a day or so by various anti-spamming
14339 agencies. These agencies usually also send out @dfn{NoCeM} messages.
14340 NoCeM is pronounced ``no see-'em'', and means what the name
14341 implies---these are messages that make the offending articles, like, go
14344 What use are these NoCeM messages if the articles are canceled anyway?
14345 Some sites do not honor cancel messages and some sites just honor cancels
14346 from a select few people. Then you may wish to make use of the NoCeM
14347 messages, which are distributed in the @samp{alt.nocem.misc} newsgroup.
14349 Gnus can read and parse the messages in this group automatically, and
14350 this will make spam disappear.
14352 There are some variables to customize, of course:
14355 @item gnus-use-nocem
14356 @vindex gnus-use-nocem
14357 Set this variable to @code{t} to set the ball rolling. It is @code{nil}
14360 @item gnus-nocem-groups
14361 @vindex gnus-nocem-groups
14362 Gnus will look for NoCeM messages in the groups in this list. The
14363 default is @code{("news.lists.filters" "news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins"
14364 "alt.nocem.misc" "news.admin.net-abuse.announce")}.
14366 @item gnus-nocem-issuers
14367 @vindex gnus-nocem-issuers
14368 There are many people issuing NoCeM messages. This list says what
14369 people you want to listen to. The default is @code{("Automoose-1"
14370 "rbraver@@ohww.norman.ok.us" "clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca"
14371 "jem@@xpat.com" "snowhare@@xmission.com" "red@@redpoll.mrfs.oh.us
14372 (Richard E. Depew)")}; fine, upstanding citizens all of them.
14374 Known despammers that you can put in this list include:
14377 @item clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca;
14378 @cindex Chris Lewis
14379 Chris Lewis---Major Canadian despammer who has probably canceled more
14380 usenet abuse than anybody else.
14383 @cindex CancelMoose[tm]
14384 The CancelMoose[tm] on autopilot. The CancelMoose[tm] is reputed to be
14385 Norwegian, and was the person(s) who invented NoCeM.
14387 @item jem@@xpat.com;
14389 John Milburn---despammer located in Korea who is getting very busy these
14392 @item red@@redpoll.mrfs.oh.us (Richard E. Depew)
14393 Richard E. Depew---lone American despammer. He mostly cancels binary
14394 postings to non-binary groups and removes spews (regurgitated articles).
14397 You do not have to heed NoCeM messages from all these people---just the
14398 ones you want to listen to. You also don't have to accept all NoCeM
14399 messages from the people you like. Each NoCeM message has a @dfn{type}
14400 header that gives the message a (more or less, usually less) rigorous
14401 definition. Common types are @samp{spam}, @samp{spew}, @samp{mmf},
14402 @samp{binary}, and @samp{troll}. To specify this, you have to use
14403 @var{(issuer conditions ...)} elements in the list. Each condition is
14404 either a string (which is a regexp that matches types you want to use)
14405 or a list on the form @code{(not STRING)}, where @var{string} is a
14406 regexp that matches types you don't want to use.
14408 For instance, if you want all NoCeM messages from Chris Lewis except his
14409 @samp{troll} messages, you'd say:
14412 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" ".*" (not "troll"))
14415 On the other hand, if you just want nothing but his @samp{spam} and
14416 @samp{spew} messages, you'd say:
14419 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" (not ".*") "spew" "spam")
14422 The specs are applied left-to-right.
14425 @item gnus-nocem-verifyer
14426 @vindex gnus-nocem-verifyer
14428 This should be a function for verifying that the NoCeM issuer is who she
14429 says she is. The default is @code{mc-verify}, which is a Mailcrypt
14430 function. If this is too slow and you don't care for verification
14431 (which may be dangerous), you can set this variable to @code{nil}.
14433 If you want signed NoCeM messages to be verified and unsigned messages
14434 not to be verified (but used anyway), you could do something like:
14437 (setq gnus-nocem-verifyer 'my-gnus-mc-verify)
14439 (defun my-gnus-mc-verify ()
14447 This might be dangerous, though.
14449 @item gnus-nocem-directory
14450 @vindex gnus-nocem-directory
14451 This is where Gnus will store its NoCeM cache files. The default is
14452 @file{~/News/NoCeM/}.
14454 @item gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
14455 @vindex gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
14456 The number of days before removing old NoCeM entries from the cache.
14457 The default is 15. If you make it shorter Gnus will be faster, but you
14458 might then see old spam.
14462 Using NoCeM could potentially be a memory hog. If you have many living
14463 (i. e., subscribed or unsubscribed groups), your Emacs process will grow
14464 big. If this is a problem, you should kill off all (or most) of your
14465 unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Subscription Commands}).
14472 It is very useful to be able to undo actions one has done. In normal
14473 Emacs buffers, it's easy enough---you just push the @code{undo} button.
14474 In Gnus buffers, however, it isn't that simple.
14476 The things Gnus displays in its buffer is of no value whatsoever to
14477 Gnus---it's all just data designed to look nice to the user.
14478 Killing a group in the group buffer with @kbd{C-k} makes the line
14479 disappear, but that's just a side-effect of the real action---the
14480 removal of the group in question from the internal Gnus structures.
14481 Undoing something like that can't be done by the normal Emacs
14482 @code{undo} function.
14484 Gnus tries to remedy this somewhat by keeping track of what the user
14485 does and coming up with actions that would reverse the actions the user
14486 takes. When the user then presses the @code{undo} key, Gnus will run
14487 the code to reverse the previous action, or the previous actions.
14488 However, not all actions are easily reversible, so Gnus currently offers
14489 a few key functions to be undoable. These include killing groups,
14490 yanking groups, and changing the list of read articles of groups.
14491 That's it, really. More functions may be added in the future, but each
14492 added function means an increase in data to be stored, so Gnus will
14493 never be totally undoable.
14495 @findex gnus-undo-mode
14496 @vindex gnus-use-undo
14498 The undoability is provided by the @code{gnus-undo-mode} minor mode. It
14499 is used if @code{gnus-use-undo} is non-@code{nil}, which is the
14500 default. The @kbd{M-C-_} key performs the @code{gnus-undo} command
14501 command, which should feel kinda like the normal Emacs @code{undo}
14506 @section Moderation
14509 If you are a moderator, you can use the @file{gnus-mdrtn.el} package.
14510 It is not included in the standard Gnus package. Write a mail to
14511 @samp{larsi@@gnus.org} and state what group you moderate, and you'll
14514 The moderation package is implemented as a minor mode for summary
14518 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-moderate)
14521 in your @file{.gnus.el} file.
14523 If you are the moderator of @samp{rec.zoofle}, this is how it's
14528 You split your incoming mail by matching on
14529 @samp{Newsgroups:.*rec.zoofle}, which will put all the to-be-posted
14530 articles in some mail group---for instance, @samp{nnml:rec.zoofle}.
14533 You enter that group once in a while and post articles using the @kbd{e}
14534 (edit-and-post) or @kbd{s} (just send unedited) commands.
14537 If, while reading the @samp{rec.zoofle} newsgroup, you happen upon some
14538 articles that weren't approved by you, you can cancel them with the
14542 To use moderation mode in these two groups, say:
14545 (setq gnus-moderated-list
14546 "^nnml:rec.zoofle$\\|^rec.zoofle$")
14550 @node XEmacs Enhancements
14551 @section XEmacs Enhancements
14554 XEmacs is able to display pictures and stuff, so Gnus has taken
14558 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what your reading.
14559 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
14560 * Toolbar:: Click'n'drool.
14561 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
14574 So... You want to slow down your news reader even more! This is a
14575 good way to do so. Its also a great way to impress people staring
14576 over your shoulder as you read news.
14579 * Picon Basics:: What are picons and How do I get them.
14580 * Picon Requirements:: Don't go further if you aren't using XEmacs.
14581 * Easy Picons:: Displaying Picons---the easy way.
14582 * Hard Picons:: The way you should do it. You'll learn something.
14583 * Picon Useless Configuration:: Other variables you can trash/tweak/munge/play with.
14588 @subsubsection Picon Basics
14590 What are Picons? To quote directly from the Picons Web site:
14599 @dfn{Picons} is short for ``personal icons''. They're small,
14600 constrained images used to represent users and domains on the net,
14601 organized into databases so that the appropriate image for a given
14602 e-mail address can be found. Besides users and domains, there are picon
14603 databases for Usenet newsgroups and weather forecasts. The picons are
14604 in either monochrome @code{XBM} format or color @code{XPM} and
14605 @code{GIF} formats.
14608 @vindex gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
14609 If you have a permanent connection to the Internet you can use Steve
14610 Kinzler's Picons Search engine by setting
14611 @code{gnus-picons-piconsearch-url} to the string
14612 @file{http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/search.html}.
14614 @vindex gnus-picons-database
14615 Otherwise you need a local copy of his database. For instructions on
14616 obtaining and installing the picons databases, point your Web browser at
14617 @file{http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/ftp/index.html}. Gnus expects
14618 picons to be installed into a location pointed to by
14619 @code{gnus-picons-database}.
14622 @node Picon Requirements
14623 @subsubsection Picon Requirements
14625 To have Gnus display Picons for you, you must be running XEmacs
14626 19.13 or greater since all other versions of Emacs aren't yet able to
14629 Additionally, you must have @code{x} support compiled into XEmacs. To
14630 display color picons which are much nicer than the black & white one,
14631 you also need one of @code{xpm} or @code{gif} compiled into XEmacs.
14633 @vindex gnus-picons-convert-x-face
14634 If you want to display faces from @code{X-Face} headers, you should have
14635 the @code{xface} support compiled into XEmacs. Otherwise you must have
14636 the @code{netpbm} utilities installed, or munge the
14637 @code{gnus-picons-convert-x-face} variable to use something else.
14641 @subsubsection Easy Picons
14643 To enable displaying picons, simply put the following line in your
14644 @file{~/.gnus} file and start Gnus.
14647 (setq gnus-use-picons t)
14648 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-display-picons t)
14649 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-picons-article-display-x-face)
14652 and make sure @code{gnus-picons-database} points to the directory
14653 containing the Picons databases.
14655 Alternatively if you want to use the web piconsearch engine add this:
14658 (setq gnus-picons-piconsearch-url "http://www.cs.indiana.edu:800/piconsearch")
14663 @subsubsection Hard Picons
14671 Gnus can display picons for you as you enter and leave groups and
14672 articles. It knows how to interact with three sections of the picons
14673 database. Namely, it can display the picons newsgroup pictures,
14674 author's face picture(s), and the authors domain. To enable this
14675 feature, you need to select where to get the picons from, and where to
14680 @item gnus-picons-database
14681 @vindex gnus-picons-database
14682 The location of the picons database. Should point to a directory
14683 containing the @file{news}, @file{domains}, @file{users} (and so on)
14684 subdirectories. This is only useful if
14685 @code{gnus-picons-piconsearch-url} is @code{nil}. Defaults to
14686 @file{/usr/local/faces/}.
14688 @item gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
14689 @vindex gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
14690 The URL for the web picons search engine. The only currently known
14691 engine is @file{http://www.cs.indiana.edu:800/piconsearch}. To
14692 workaround network delays, icons will be fetched in the background. If
14693 this is @code{nil} 'the default), then picons are fetched from local
14694 database indicated by @code{gnus-picons-database}.
14696 @item gnus-picons-display-where
14697 @vindex gnus-picons-display-where
14698 Where the picon images should be displayed. It is @code{picons} by
14699 default (which by default maps to the buffer @samp{*Picons*}). Other
14700 valid places could be @code{article}, @code{summary}, or
14701 @samp{*scratch*} for all I care. Just make sure that you've made the
14702 buffer visible using the standard Gnus window configuration
14703 routines---@pxref{Windows Configuration}.
14705 @item gnus-picons-group-excluded-groups
14706 @vindex gnus-picons-group-excluded-groups
14707 Groups that are matched by this regexp won't have their group icons
14712 Note: If you set @code{gnus-use-picons} to @code{t}, it will set up your
14713 window configuration for you to include the @code{picons} buffer.
14715 Now that you've made those decision, you need to add the following
14716 functions to the appropriate hooks so these pictures will get displayed
14719 @vindex gnus-article-display-hook
14720 @vindex gnus-picons-display-where
14722 @item gnus-article-display-picons
14723 @findex gnus-article-display-picons
14724 Looks up and displays the picons for the author and the author's domain
14725 in the @code{gnus-picons-display-where} buffer. Should be added to the
14726 @code{gnus-article-display-hook}.
14728 @item gnus-picons-article-display-x-face
14729 @findex gnus-article-display-picons
14730 Decodes and displays the X-Face header if present. This function
14731 should be added to @code{gnus-article-display-hook}.
14735 Note: You must append them to the hook, so make sure to specify 't'
14736 for the append flag of @code{add-hook}:
14739 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-display-picons t)
14743 @node Picon Useless Configuration
14744 @subsubsection Picon Useless Configuration
14752 The following variables offer further control over how things are
14753 done, where things are located, and other useless stuff you really
14754 don't need to worry about.
14758 @item gnus-picons-news-directories
14759 @vindex gnus-picons-news-directories
14760 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picons-database} for
14761 newsgroups faces. @code{("news")} is the default.
14763 @item gnus-picons-user-directories
14764 @vindex gnus-picons-user-directories
14765 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picons-database} for user
14766 faces. @code{("local" "users" "usenix" "misc")} is the default.
14768 @item gnus-picons-domain-directories
14769 @vindex gnus-picons-domain-directories
14770 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picons-database} for
14771 domain name faces. Defaults to @code{("domains")}. Some people may
14772 want to add @samp{"unknown"} to this list.
14774 @item gnus-picons-convert-x-face
14775 @vindex gnus-picons-convert-x-face
14776 If you don't have @code{xface} support builtin XEmacs, this is the
14777 command to use to convert the @code{X-Face} header to an X bitmap
14778 (@code{xbm}). Defaults to @code{(format "@{ echo '/* Width=48,
14779 Height=48 */'; uncompface; @} | icontopbm | pbmtoxbm > %s"
14780 gnus-picons-x-face-file-name)}
14782 @item gnus-picons-x-face-file-name
14783 @vindex gnus-picons-x-face-file-name
14784 Names a temporary file to store the @code{X-Face} bitmap in. Defaults
14785 to @code{(format "/tmp/picon-xface.%s.xbm" (user-login-name))}.
14787 @item gnus-picons-has-modeline-p
14788 @vindex gnus-picons-has-modeline-p
14789 If you have set @code{gnus-picons-display-where} to @code{picons}, your
14790 XEmacs frame will become really cluttered. To alleviate this a bit you
14791 can set @code{gnus-picons-has-modeline-p} to @code{nil}; this will
14792 remove the mode line from the Picons buffer. This is only useful if
14793 @code{gnus-picons-display-where} is @code{picons}.
14795 @item gnus-picons-refresh-before-display
14796 @vindex gnus-picons-refresh-before-display
14797 If non-nil, display the article buffer before computing the picons.
14798 Defaults to @code{nil}.
14800 @item gnus-picons-display-as-address
14801 @vindex gnus-picons-display-as-address
14802 If @code{t} display textual email addresses along with pictures.
14803 Defaults to @code{t}.
14805 @item gnus-picons-file-suffixes
14806 @vindex gnus-picons-file-suffixes
14807 Ordered list of suffixes on picon file names to try. Defaults to
14808 @code{("xpm" "gif" "xbm")} minus those not builtin your XEmacs.
14810 @item gnus-picons-display-article-move-p
14811 @vindex gnus-picons-display-article-move-p
14812 Whether to move point to first empty line when displaying picons. This
14813 has only an effect if `gnus-picons-display-where' has value `article'.
14815 @item gnus-picons-clear-cache-on-shutdown
14816 @vindex gnus-picons-clear-cache-on-shutdown
14817 Whether to clear the picons cache when exiting gnus. Gnus caches every
14818 picons it finds while it is running. This saves some time in the search
14819 process but eats some memory. If this variable is set to @code{nil},
14820 Gnus will never clear the cache itself; you will have to manually call
14821 @code{gnus-picons-clear-cache} to clear it. Otherwise the cache will be
14822 cleared every time you exit Gnus. Defaults to @code{t}.
14833 @subsection Smileys
14838 \gnusfig{-3cm}{0.5cm}{\epsfig{figure=tmp/BigFace.ps,height=20cm}}
14843 @dfn{Smiley} is a package separate from Gnus, but since Gnus is
14844 currently the only package that uses Smiley, it is documented here.
14846 In short---to use Smiley in Gnus, put the following in your
14847 @file{.gnus.el} file:
14850 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-smiley-display t)
14853 Smiley maps text smiley faces---@samp{:-)}, @samp{:-=}, @samp{:-(} and
14854 the like---to pictures and displays those instead of the text smiley
14855 faces. The conversion is controlled by a list of regexps that matches
14856 text and maps that to file names.
14858 @vindex smiley-nosey-regexp-alist
14859 @vindex smiley-deformed-regexp-alist
14860 Smiley supplies two example conversion alists by default:
14861 @code{smiley-deformed-regexp-alist} (which matches @samp{:)}, @samp{:(}
14862 and so on), and @code{smiley-nosey-regexp-alist} (which matches
14863 @samp{:-)}, @samp{:-(} and so on).
14865 The alist used is specified by the @code{smiley-regexp-alist} variable,
14866 which defaults to the value of @code{smiley-deformed-regexp-alist}.
14868 The first item in each element is the regexp to be matched; the second
14869 element is the regexp match group that is to be replaced by the picture;
14870 and the third element is the name of the file to be displayed.
14872 The following variables customize where Smiley will look for these
14873 files, as well as the color to be used and stuff:
14877 @item smiley-data-directory
14878 @vindex smiley-data-directory
14879 Where Smiley will look for smiley faces files.
14881 @item smiley-flesh-color
14882 @vindex smiley-flesh-color
14883 Skin color. The default is @samp{yellow}, which is really racist.
14885 @item smiley-features-color
14886 @vindex smiley-features-color
14887 Color of the features of the face. The default is @samp{black}.
14889 @item smiley-tongue-color
14890 @vindex smiley-tongue-color
14891 Color of the tongue. The default is @samp{red}.
14893 @item smiley-circle-color
14894 @vindex smiley-circle-color
14895 Color of the circle around the face. The default is @samp{black}.
14897 @item smiley-mouse-face
14898 @vindex smiley-mouse-face
14899 Face used for mouse highlighting over the smiley face.
14905 @subsection Toolbar
14915 @item gnus-use-toolbar
14916 @vindex gnus-use-toolbar
14917 If @code{nil}, don't display toolbars. If non-@code{nil}, it should be
14918 one of @code{default-toolbar}, @code{top-toolbar}, @code{bottom-toolbar},
14919 @code{right-toolbar}, or @code{left-toolbar}.
14921 @item gnus-group-toolbar
14922 @vindex gnus-group-toolbar
14923 The toolbar in the group buffer.
14925 @item gnus-summary-toolbar
14926 @vindex gnus-summary-toolbar
14927 The toolbar in the summary buffer.
14929 @item gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
14930 @vindex gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
14931 The toolbar in the summary buffer of mail groups.
14937 @subsection Various XEmacs Variables
14940 @item gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
14941 @vindex gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
14942 This is where Gnus will look for pictures. Gnus will normally
14943 auto-detect this directory, but you may set it manually if you have an
14944 unusual directory structure.
14946 @item gnus-xmas-logo-color-alist
14947 @vindex gnus-xmas-logo-color-alist
14948 This is an alist where the key is a type symbol and the values are the
14949 foreground and background color of the splash page glyph.
14951 @item gnus-xmas-logo-color-style
14952 @vindex gnus-xmas-logo-color-style
14953 This is the key used to look up the color in the alist described above.
14954 Legal values include @code{flame}, @code{pine}, @code{moss},
14955 @code{irish}, @code{sky}, @code{tin}, @code{velvet}, @code{grape},
14956 @code{labia}, @code{berry}, @code{neutral}, and @code{september}.
14958 @item gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
14959 @vindex gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
14960 A glyph displayed in all Gnus mode lines. It is a tiny gnu head by
14974 @node Fuzzy Matching
14975 @section Fuzzy Matching
14976 @cindex fuzzy matching
14978 Gnus provides @dfn{fuzzy matching} of @code{Subject} lines when doing
14979 things like scoring, thread gathering and thread comparison.
14981 As opposed to regular expression matching, fuzzy matching is very fuzzy.
14982 It's so fuzzy that there's not even a definition of what @dfn{fuzziness}
14983 means, and the implementation has changed over time.
14985 Basically, it tries to remove all noise from lines before comparing.
14986 @samp{Re: }, parenthetical remarks, white space, and so on, are filtered
14987 out of the strings before comparing the results. This often leads to
14988 adequate results---even when faced with strings generated by text
14989 manglers masquerading as newsreaders.
14992 @node Thwarting Email Spam
14993 @section Thwarting Email Spam
14997 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
14999 In these last days of the Usenet, commercial vultures are hanging about
15000 and grepping through news like crazy to find email addresses they can
15001 foist off their scams and products to. As a reaction to this, many
15002 people have started putting nonsense addresses into their @code{From}
15003 lines. I think this is counterproductive---it makes it difficult for
15004 people to send you legitimate mail in response to things you write, as
15005 well as making it difficult to see who wrote what. This rewriting may
15006 perhaps be a bigger menace than the unsolicited commercial email itself
15009 The biggest problem I have with email spam is that it comes in under
15010 false pretenses. I press @kbd{g} and Gnus merrily informs me that I
15011 have 10 new emails. I say ``Golly gee! Happy is me!'' and select the
15012 mail group, only to find two pyramid schemes, seven advertisements
15013 (``New! Miracle tonic for growing full, lustrouos hair on your toes!'')
15014 and one mail asking me to repent and find some god.
15018 The way to deal with this is having Gnus split out all spam into a
15019 @samp{spam} mail group (@pxref{Splitting Mail}).
15021 First, pick one (1) valid mail address that you can be reached at, and
15022 put it in your @code{From} header of all your news articles. (I've
15023 chosen @samp{larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no}, but for many addresses on the form
15024 @samp{larsi+usenet@@ifi.uio.no} will be a better choice. Ask your
15025 sysadm whether your sendmail installation accepts keywords in the local
15026 part of the mail address.)
15029 (setq message-default-news-headers
15030 "From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no>\n")
15033 Then put the following split rule in @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
15034 (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}):
15039 (to "larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no"
15040 (| ("subject" "re:.*" "misc")
15041 ("references" ".*@@.*" "misc")
15047 This says that all mail to this address is suspect, but if it has a
15048 @code{Subject} that starts with a @samp{Re:} or has a @code{References}
15049 header, it's probably ok. All the rest goes to the @samp{spam} group.
15050 (This idea probably comes from Tim Pierce.)
15052 In addition, many mail spammers talk directly to your @code{smtp} server
15053 and do not include your email address explicitly in the @code{To}
15054 header. Why they do this is unknown---perhaps it's to thwart this
15055 twarting scheme? In any case, this is trivial to deal with---you just
15056 put anything not addressed to you in the @samp{spam} group by ending
15057 your fancy split rule in this way:
15062 (to "larsi" "misc")
15066 In my experience, this will sort virtually everything into the right
15067 group. You still have to check the @samp{spam} group from time to time to
15068 check for legitimate mail, though. If you feel like being a good net
15069 citizen, you can even send off complaints to the proper authorities on
15070 each unsolicited commercial email---at your leisure.
15072 If you are also a lazy net citizen, you will probably prefer complaining
15073 automatically with the @file{gnus-junk.el} package, availiable FOR FREE
15074 at @file{<URL:http://stud2.tuwien.ac.at/~e9426626/gnus-junk.html>}.
15075 Since most e-mail spam is sent automatically, this may reconcile the
15076 cosmic balance somewhat.
15078 This works for me. It allows people an easy way to contact me (they can
15079 just press @kbd{r} in the usual way), and I'm not bothered at all with
15080 spam. It's a win-win situation. Forging @code{From} headers to point
15081 to non-existant domains is yucky, in my opinion.
15084 @node Various Various
15085 @section Various Various
15091 @item gnus-home-directory
15092 All Gnus path variables will be initialized from this variable, which
15093 defaults to @file{~/}.
15095 @item gnus-directory
15096 @vindex gnus-directory
15097 Most Gnus storage path variables will be initialized from this variable,
15098 which defaults to the @samp{SAVEDIR} environment variable, or
15099 @file{~/News/} if that variable isn't set.
15101 Note that Gnus is mostly loaded when the @file{.gnus.el} file is read.
15102 This means that other directory variables that are initialized from this
15103 variable won't be set properly if you set this variable in
15104 @file{.gnus.el}. Set this variable in @file{.emacs} instead.
15106 @item gnus-default-directory
15107 @vindex gnus-default-directory
15108 Not related to the above variable at all---this variable says what the
15109 default directory of all Gnus buffers should be. If you issue commands
15110 like @kbd{C-x C-f}, the prompt you'll get starts in the current buffer's
15111 default directory. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
15112 default), the default directory will be the default directory of the
15113 buffer you were in when you started Gnus.
15116 @vindex gnus-verbose
15117 This variable is an integer between zero and ten. The higher the value,
15118 the more messages will be displayed. If this variable is zero, Gnus
15119 will never flash any messages, if it is seven (which is the default),
15120 most important messages will be shown, and if it is ten, Gnus won't ever
15121 shut up, but will flash so many messages it will make your head swim.
15123 @item gnus-verbose-backends
15124 @vindex gnus-verbose-backends
15125 This variable works the same way as @code{gnus-verbose}, but it applies
15126 to the Gnus backends instead of Gnus proper.
15128 @item nnheader-max-head-length
15129 @vindex nnheader-max-head-length
15130 When the backends read straight heads of articles, they all try to read
15131 as little as possible. This variable (default 4096) specifies
15132 the absolute max length the backends will try to read before giving up
15133 on finding a separator line between the head and the body. If this
15134 variable is @code{nil}, there is no upper read bound. If it is
15135 @code{t}, the backends won't try to read the articles piece by piece,
15136 but read the entire articles. This makes sense with some versions of
15137 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs}.
15139 @item nnheader-head-chop-length
15140 @vindex nnheader-head-chop-length
15141 This variable (default 2048) says how big a piece of each article to
15142 read when doing the operation described above.
15144 @item nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
15145 @vindex nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
15147 @cindex invalid characters in file names
15148 @cindex characters in file names
15149 This is an alist that says how to translate characters in file names.
15150 For instance, if @samp{:} is invalid as a file character in file names
15151 on your system (you OS/2 user you), you could say something like:
15154 (setq nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
15158 In fact, this is the default value for this variable on OS/2 and MS
15159 Windows (phooey) systems.
15161 @item gnus-hidden-properties
15162 @vindex gnus-hidden-properties
15163 This is a list of properties to use to hide ``invisible'' text. It is
15164 @code{(invisible t intangible t)} by default on most systems, which
15165 makes invisible text invisible and intangible.
15167 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
15168 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
15169 A hook called before parsing headers. It can be used, for instance, to
15170 gather statistics on the headers fetched, or perhaps you'd like to prune
15171 some headers. I don't see why you'd want that, though.
15173 @item gnus-shell-command-separator
15174 @vindex gnus-shell-command-separator
15175 String used to separate two shell commands. The default is @samp{;}.
15184 Well, that's the manual---you can get on with your life now. Keep in
15185 touch. Say hello to your cats from me.
15187 My @strong{ghod}---I just can't stand goodbyes. Sniffle.
15189 Ol' Charles Reznikoff said it pretty well, so I leave the floor to him:
15195 Not because of victories @*
15198 but for the common sunshine,@*
15200 the largess of the spring.
15204 but for the day's work done@*
15205 as well as I was able;@*
15206 not for a seat upon the dais@*
15207 but at the common table.@*
15212 @chapter Appendices
15215 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
15216 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
15217 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
15218 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
15219 * A Programmers Guide to Gnus:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
15220 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
15221 * Frequently Asked Questions:: A question-and-answer session.
15229 @sc{gnus} was written by Masanobu @sc{Umeda}. When autumn crept up in
15230 '94, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen grew bored and decided to rewrite Gnus.
15232 If you want to investigate the person responsible for this outrage, you
15233 can point your (feh!) web browser to
15234 @file{http://www.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/}. This is also the primary
15235 distribution point for the new and spiffy versions of Gnus, and is known
15236 as The Site That Destroys Newsrcs And Drives People Mad.
15238 During the first extended alpha period of development, the new Gnus was
15239 called ``(ding) Gnus''. @dfn{(ding)} is, of course, short for
15240 @dfn{ding is not Gnus}, which is a total and utter lie, but who cares?
15241 (Besides, the ``Gnus'' in this abbreviation should probably be
15242 pronounced ``news'' as @sc{Umeda} intended, which makes it a more
15243 appropriate name, don't you think?)
15245 In any case, after spending all that energy on coming up with a new and
15246 spunky name, we decided that the name was @emph{too} spunky, so we
15247 renamed it back again to ``Gnus''. But in mixed case. ``Gnus'' vs.
15248 ``@sc{gnus}''. New vs. old.
15250 The first ``proper'' release of Gnus 5 was done in November 1995 when it
15251 was included in the Emacs 19.30 distribution (132 (ding) Gnus releases
15252 plus 15 Gnus 5.0 releases).
15254 In May 1996 the next Gnus generation (aka. ``September Gnus'' (after 99
15255 releases)) was released under the name ``Gnus 5.2'' (40 releases).
15257 On July 28th 1996 work on Red Gnus was begun, and it was released on
15258 January 25th 1997 (after 84 releases) as ``Gnus 5.4''.
15260 If you happen upon a version of Gnus that has a prefixed name --
15261 ``(ding) Gnus'', ``September Gnus'', ``Red Gnus'', ``Quassia Gnus'' --
15262 don't panic. Don't let it know that you're frightened. Back away.
15263 Slowly. Whatever you do, don't run. Walk away, calmly, until you're
15264 out of its reach. Find a proper released version of Gnus and snuggle up
15268 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
15269 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
15270 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
15271 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
15272 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
15273 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
15274 * Newest Features:: Features so new that they haven't been written yet.
15281 What's the point of Gnus?
15283 I want to provide a ``rad'', ``happening'', ``way cool'' and ``hep''
15284 newsreader, that lets you do anything you can think of. That was my
15285 original motivation, but while working on Gnus, it has become clear to
15286 me that this generation of newsreaders really belong in the stone age.
15287 Newsreaders haven't developed much since the infancy of the net. If the
15288 volume continues to rise with the current rate of increase, all current
15289 newsreaders will be pretty much useless. How do you deal with
15290 newsgroups that have thousands of new articles each day? How do you
15291 keep track of millions of people who post?
15293 Gnus offers no real solutions to these questions, but I would very much
15294 like to see Gnus being used as a testing ground for new methods of
15295 reading and fetching news. Expanding on @sc{Umeda}-san's wise decision
15296 to separate the newsreader from the backends, Gnus now offers a simple
15297 interface for anybody who wants to write new backends for fetching mail
15298 and news from different sources. I have added hooks for customizations
15299 everywhere I could imagine it being useful. By doing so, I'm inviting
15300 every one of you to explore and invent.
15302 May Gnus never be complete. @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-emacs} and
15303 @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-xemacs}.
15306 @node Compatibility
15307 @subsection Compatibility
15309 @cindex compatibility
15310 Gnus was designed to be fully compatible with @sc{gnus}. Almost all key
15311 bindings have been kept. More key bindings have been added, of course,
15312 but only in one or two obscure cases have old bindings been changed.
15317 @center In a cloud bones of steel.
15321 All commands have kept their names. Some internal functions have changed
15324 The @code{gnus-uu} package has changed drastically. @xref{Decoding
15327 One major compatibility question is the presence of several summary
15328 buffers. All variables relevant while reading a group are
15329 buffer-local to the summary buffer they belong in. Although many
15330 important variables have their values copied into their global
15331 counterparts whenever a command is executed in the summary buffer, this
15332 change might lead to incorrect values being used unless you are careful.
15334 All code that relies on knowledge of @sc{gnus} internals will probably
15335 fail. To take two examples: Sorting @code{gnus-newsrc-alist} (or
15336 changing it in any way, as a matter of fact) is strictly verboten. Gnus
15337 maintains a hash table that points to the entries in this alist (which
15338 speeds up many functions), and changing the alist directly will lead to
15342 @cindex highlighting
15343 Old hilit19 code does not work at all. In fact, you should probably
15344 remove all hilit code from all Gnus hooks
15345 (@code{gnus-group-prepare-hook} and @code{gnus-summary-prepare-hook}).
15346 Gnus provides various integrated functions for highlighting. These are
15347 faster and more accurate. To make life easier for everybody, Gnus will
15348 by default remove all hilit calls from all hilit hooks. Uncleanliness!
15351 Packages like @code{expire-kill} will no longer work. As a matter of
15352 fact, you should probably remove all old @sc{gnus} packages (and other
15353 code) when you start using Gnus. More likely than not, Gnus already
15354 does what you have written code to make @sc{gnus} do. (Snicker.)
15356 Even though old methods of doing things are still supported, only the
15357 new methods are documented in this manual. If you detect a new method of
15358 doing something while reading this manual, that does not mean you have
15359 to stop doing it the old way.
15361 Gnus understands all @sc{gnus} startup files.
15363 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
15365 @cindex reporting bugs
15367 Overall, a casual user who hasn't written much code that depends on
15368 @sc{gnus} internals should suffer no problems. If problems occur,
15369 please let me know by issuing that magic command @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}.
15373 @subsection Conformity
15375 No rebels without a clue here, ma'am. We conform to all standards known
15376 to (wo)man. Except for those standards and/or conventions we disagree
15383 There are no known breaches of this standard.
15387 There are no known breaches of this standard, either.
15389 @item Son-of-RFC 1036
15390 @cindex Son-of-RFC 1036
15391 We do have some breaches to this one.
15396 Gnus does no MIME handling, and this standard-to-be seems to think that
15397 MIME is the bees' knees, so we have major breakage here.
15400 This is considered to be a ``vanity header'', while I consider it to be
15401 consumer information. After seeing so many badly formatted articles
15402 coming from @code{tin} and @code{Netscape} I know not to use either of
15403 those for posting articles. I would not have known that if it wasn't
15404 for the @code{X-Newsreader} header.
15409 If you ever notice Gnus acting non-compliant with regards to the texts
15410 mentioned above, don't hesitate to drop a note to Gnus Towers and let us
15415 @subsection Emacsen
15421 Gnus should work on :
15426 Emacs 19.32 and up.
15429 XEmacs 19.14 and up.
15432 Mule versions based on Emacs 19.32 and up.
15436 Gnus will absolutely not work on any Emacsen older than that. Not
15437 reliably, at least.
15439 There are some vague differences between Gnus on the various
15440 platforms---XEmacs features more graphics (a logo and a toolbar)---but
15441 other than that, things should look pretty much the same under all
15446 @subsection Contributors
15447 @cindex contributors
15449 The new Gnus version couldn't have been done without the help of all the
15450 people on the (ding) mailing list. Every day for over a year I have
15451 gotten billions of nice bug reports from them, filling me with joy,
15452 every single one of them. Smooches. The people on the list have been
15453 tried beyond endurance, what with my ``oh, that's a neat idea <type
15454 type>, yup, I'll release it right away <ship off> no wait, that doesn't
15455 work at all <type type>, yup, I'll ship that one off right away <ship
15456 off> no, wait, that absolutely does not work'' policy for releases.
15457 Micro$oft---bah. Amateurs. I'm @emph{much} worse. (Or is that
15458 ``worser''? ``much worser''? ``worsest''?)
15460 I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Academy for... oops,
15466 Masanobu @sc{Umeda}---the writer of the original @sc{gnus}.
15469 Per Abrahamsen---custom, scoring, highlighting and @sc{soup} code (as
15470 well as numerous other things).
15473 Luis Fernandes---design and graphics.
15476 Erik Naggum---help, ideas, support, code and stuff.
15479 Wes Hardaker---@file{gnus-picon.el} and the manual section on
15480 @dfn{picons} (@pxref{Picons}).
15483 Kim-Minh Kaplan---further work on the picon code.
15486 Brad Miller---@file{gnus-gl.el} and the GroupLens manual section
15487 (@pxref{GroupLens}).
15490 Sudish Joseph---innumerable bug fixes.
15493 Ilja Weis---@file{gnus-topic.el}.
15496 Steven L. Baur---lots and lots and lots of bugs detections and fixes.
15499 Vladimir Alexiev---the refcard and reference booklets.
15502 Felix Lee & Jamie Zawinsky---I stole some pieces from the XGnus
15503 distribution by Felix Lee and JWZ.
15506 Scott Byer---@file{nnfolder.el} enhancements & rewrite.
15509 Peter Mutsaers---orphan article scoring code.
15512 Ken Raeburn---POP mail support.
15515 Hallvard B Furuseth---various bits and pieces, especially dealing with
15519 Brian Edmonds---@file{gnus-bbdb.el}.
15522 David Moore---rewrite of @file{nnvirtual.el} and many other things.
15525 Kevin Davidson---came up with the name @dfn{ding}, so blame him.
15528 François Pinard---many, many interesting and thorough bug reports, as
15529 well as autoconf support.
15533 This manual was proof-read by Adrian Aichner, with Ricardo Nassif, Mark
15534 Borges, and Jost Krieger proof-reading parts of the manual.
15536 The following people have contributed many patches and suggestions:
15545 Jason L. Tibbitts, III,
15549 Also thanks to the following for patches and stuff:
15568 Massimo Campostrini,
15573 Geoffrey T. Dairiki,
15579 Michael Welsh Duggan,
15582 Enami Tsugutomo, @c Enami
15586 Nelson Jose dos Santos Ferreira,
15591 Arne Georg Gleditsch,
15593 Michelangelo Grigni,
15596 Kenichi Handa, @c Handa
15598 Hisashige Kenji, @c Hisashige
15603 François Felix Ingrand,
15604 Ishikawa Ichiro, @c Ishikawa
15606 Iwamuro Motonori, @c Iwamuro
15614 Peter Skov Knudsen,
15615 Shuhei Kobayashi, @c Kobayashi
15616 Thor Kristoffersen,
15618 Seokchan Lee, @c Lee
15634 Morioka Tomohiko, @c Morioka
15635 Erik Toubro Nielsen,
15642 Masaharu Onishi, @c Onishi
15646 Jens-Ulrik Holger Petersen,
15648 John McClary Prevost,
15651 Lars Balker Rasmussen,
15656 Christian von Roques,
15663 Philippe Schnoebelen,
15664 Randal L. Schwartz,
15691 Katsumi Yamaoka, @c Yamaoka
15693 Shenghuo Zhu. @c Zhu
15695 For a full overview of what each person has done, the ChangeLogs
15696 included in the Gnus alpha distributions should give ample reading
15697 (550kB and counting).
15699 Apologies to everybody that I've forgotten, of which there are many, I'm
15702 Gee, that's quite a list of people. I guess that must mean that there
15703 actually are people who are using Gnus. Who'd'a thunk it!
15707 @subsection New Features
15708 @cindex new features
15711 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
15712 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.3/5.3.
15713 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
15714 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6.9.
15717 These lists are, of course, just @emph{short} overviews of the
15718 @emph{most} important new features. No, really. There are tons more.
15719 Yes, we have feeping creaturism in full effect.
15723 @subsubsection (ding) Gnus
15725 New features in Gnus 5.0/5.1:
15730 The look of all buffers can be changed by setting format-like variables
15731 (@pxref{Group Buffer Format} and @pxref{Summary Buffer Format}).
15734 Local spool and several @sc{nntp} servers can be used at once
15735 (@pxref{Select Methods}).
15738 You can combine groups into virtual groups (@pxref{Virtual Groups}).
15741 You can read a number of different mail formats (@pxref{Getting Mail}).
15742 All the mail backends implement a convenient mail expiry scheme
15743 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
15746 Gnus can use various strategies for gathering threads that have lost
15747 their roots (thereby gathering loose sub-threads into one thread) or it
15748 can go back and retrieve enough headers to build a complete thread
15749 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
15752 Killed groups can be displayed in the group buffer, and you can read
15753 them as well (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
15756 Gnus can do partial group updates---you do not have to retrieve the
15757 entire active file just to check for new articles in a few groups
15758 (@pxref{The Active File}).
15761 Gnus implements a sliding scale of subscribedness to groups
15762 (@pxref{Group Levels}).
15765 You can score articles according to any number of criteria
15766 (@pxref{Scoring}). You can even get Gnus to find out how to score
15767 articles for you (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
15770 Gnus maintains a dribble buffer that is auto-saved the normal Emacs
15771 manner, so it should be difficult to lose much data on what you have
15772 read if your machine should go down (@pxref{Auto Save}).
15775 Gnus now has its own startup file (@file{.gnus}) to avoid cluttering up
15776 the @file{.emacs} file.
15779 You can set the process mark on both groups and articles and perform
15780 operations on all the marked items (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
15783 You can grep through a subset of groups and create a group from the
15784 results (@pxref{Kibozed Groups}).
15787 You can list subsets of groups according to, well, anything
15788 (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
15791 You can browse foreign servers and subscribe to groups from those
15792 servers (@pxref{Browse Foreign Server}).
15795 Gnus can fetch articles, asynchronously, on a second connection to the
15796 server (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
15799 You can cache articles locally (@pxref{Article Caching}).
15802 The uudecode functions have been expanded and generalized
15803 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
15806 You can still post uuencoded articles, which was a little-known feature
15807 of @sc{gnus}' past (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
15810 Fetching parents (and other articles) now actually works without
15811 glitches (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
15814 Gnus can fetch FAQs and group descriptions (@pxref{Group Information}).
15817 Digests (and other files) can be used as the basis for groups
15818 (@pxref{Document Groups}).
15821 Articles can be highlighted and customized (@pxref{Customizing
15825 URLs and other external references can be buttonized (@pxref{Article
15829 You can do lots of strange stuff with the Gnus window & frame
15830 configuration (@pxref{Windows Configuration}).
15833 You can click on buttons instead of using the keyboard
15839 @node September Gnus
15840 @subsubsection September Gnus
15844 \gnusfig{-28cm}{0cm}{\epsfig{figure=tmp/september.ps,height=20cm}}
15848 New features in Gnus 5.2/5.3:
15853 A new message composition mode is used. All old customization variables
15854 for @code{mail-mode}, @code{rnews-reply-mode} and @code{gnus-msg} are
15858 Gnus is now able to generate @dfn{sparse} threads---threads where
15859 missing articles are represented by empty nodes (@pxref{Customizing
15863 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
15867 Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server
15868 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
15871 Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
15875 Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions (@pxref{GroupLens}).
15878 Picons (personal icons) can be displayed under XEmacs (@pxref{Picons}).
15881 A @code{trn}-like tree buffer can be displayed (@pxref{Tree Display}).
15884 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
15888 An @code{nn}-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
15889 buffers (@pxref{Pick and Read}).
15892 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
15896 In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode (@pxref{Binary
15900 Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy (@pxref{Group
15904 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
15908 Gnus can re-send and bounce mail (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
15911 Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
15912 is possible (@pxref{Group Score}).
15915 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
15919 Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
15920 groups of groups (@pxref{Marking Groups}).
15923 Caching is possible in virtual groups.
15926 @code{nndoc} now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews
15927 news batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything
15928 else (@pxref{Document Groups}).
15931 Gnus has a new backend (@code{nnsoup}) to create/read SOUP packets
15935 The Gnus cache is much faster.
15938 Groups can be sorted according to many criteria (@pxref{Sorting
15942 New group parameters have been introduced to set list-addresses and
15943 expiry times (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
15946 All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used
15947 (@pxref{Formatting Fonts}).
15950 There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on process
15951 marked articles on the @kbd{M P} submap (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
15954 The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
15955 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
15956 bound to keys on the @kbd{/} submap (@pxref{Limiting}).
15959 Articles can be made persistent with the @kbd{*} command
15960 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
15963 All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
15966 Article headers can be buttonized (@pxref{Article Washing}).
15969 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook
15970 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
15974 All mail backends support fetching articles by @code{Message-ID}.
15977 Duplicate mail can now be treated properly (@pxref{Duplicates}).
15980 All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
15981 buffer (@pxref{Article Keymap}).
15984 Frames can be part of @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} (@pxref{Windows
15988 Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process (@pxref{Daemons}).
15991 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=tmp/fseptember.ps,height=5cm}]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/fseptember.ps,height=5cm}}
15996 Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to weed out spam (@pxref{NoCeM}).
15999 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
16003 Groups can be made permanently visible (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
16006 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
16010 Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
16013 Gnus respects the @code{Mail-Copies-To} header.
16016 Threads can be gathered by looking at the @code{References} header
16017 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
16020 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
16021 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
16025 Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
16026 refetching (@pxref{Article Backlog}).
16029 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
16033 A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
16034 buffer to allow easier treatment.
16037 Gnus can suggest where to save articles (@pxref{Saving Articles}).
16040 Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving (@pxref{Saving
16044 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
16048 @code{gnus-uu} can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
16049 articles (@pxref{Other Decode Variables}).
16052 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
16056 Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text
16057 (@pxref{Article Washing}).
16060 Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
16061 cited text to hide is now customizable (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
16064 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
16068 Boring headers can be hidden (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
16071 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook
16072 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers t)
16076 Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
16079 Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
16085 @subsubsection Red Gnus
16087 New features in Gnus 5.4/5.5:
16091 \gnusfig{-5.5cm}{-4cm}{\epsfig{figure=tmp/red.ps,height=20cm}}
16098 @file{nntp.el} has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
16101 Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
16102 Gnus (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
16105 Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like @code{and},
16106 @code{or}, @code{not}, and parent redirection (@pxref{Advanced
16110 Article washing status can be displayed in the
16111 article mode line (@pxref{Misc Article}).
16114 @file{gnus.el} has been split into many smaller files.
16117 Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID can be done
16118 (@pxref{Duplicate Suppression}).
16121 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
16125 New variables for specifying what score and adapt files are to be
16126 considered home score and adapt files (@pxref{Home Score File}) have
16130 @code{nndoc} was rewritten to be easily extendable (@pxref{Document
16131 Server Internals}).
16134 Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics (@pxref{Topic
16138 Article editing has been revamped and is now actually usable.
16141 Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions
16142 (@pxref{Article Signature}).
16145 Summary pick mode has been made to look more @code{nn}-like. Line
16146 numbers are displayed and the @kbd{.} command can be used to pick
16147 articles (@code{Pick and Read}).
16150 Commands for moving the @file{.newsrc.eld} from one server to
16151 another have been added (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
16154 There's a way now to specify that ``uninteresting'' fields be suppressed
16155 when generating lines in buffers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting}).
16158 Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with @kbd{M-C-_}
16162 Scoring can be done on words using the new score type @code{w}
16163 (@pxref{Score File Format}).
16166 Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis
16167 (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
16170 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
16174 Scores can be decayed (@pxref{Score Decays}).
16177 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
16181 Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The Date is
16182 normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first (@pxref{Score File Format}).
16185 A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
16186 the native server (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
16189 A new command for reading collections of documents
16190 (@code{nndoc} with @code{nnvirtual} on top) has been added---@kbd{M-C-d}
16191 (@pxref{Really Various Summary Commands}).
16194 Process mark sets can be pushed and popped (@pxref{Setting Process
16198 A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post even when the NNTP
16199 server doesn't allow posting (@pxref{Mail-To-News Gateways}).
16202 A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
16203 (@dfn{DejaNews}, @dfn{Alta Vista}, @dfn{InReference}) has been added
16204 (@pxref{Web Searches}).
16207 Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard sorting
16208 functions, and each topic can be sorted independently (@pxref{Topic
16212 Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently (@code{Sorting
16216 Cached articles can be pulled into the groups (@pxref{Summary Generation
16220 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=tmp/fred.ps,width=3cm}]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/fred.ps,width=3cm}}
16225 Score files are now applied in a more reliable order (@pxref{Score
16229 Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated (@pxref{Splitting
16233 More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk from incoming
16234 mail before saving the mail (@pxref{Washing Mail}).
16237 Emphasized text can be properly fontisized:
16240 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-emphasize)
16247 @subsubsection Quassia Gnus
16249 New features in Gnus 5.6.9:
16254 New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
16255 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See
16256 @pxref{Gnus Unplugged} for the full story.
16259 The @code{nndraft} backend has returned, but works differently than
16260 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the @code{nndraft}
16261 group, which is created automatically.
16264 @code{gnus-alter-header-function} can now be used to alter header
16268 @code{gnus-summary-goto-article} now accept Message-ID's.
16271 A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
16272 outside the region: @kbd{C-c C-v}.
16275 You can now post to component group in @code{nnvirtual} groups with
16279 @code{nntp-rlogin-program}---new variable to ease customization.
16282 @code{C-u C-c C-c} in @code{gnus-article-edit-mode} will now inhibit
16283 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
16286 New element in @code{gnus-boring-article-headers}---@code{long-to}.
16289 @kbd{M-i} symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
16290 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
16293 @kbd{L} and @kbd{I} in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
16294 @kbd{a} to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
16297 @code{gnus-simplify-subject-functions} variable to allow greater
16298 control over simplification.
16301 @kbd{A T}---new command for fetching the current thread.
16304 @kbd{/ T}---new command for including the current thread in the
16308 @kbd{M-RET} is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
16311 @samp{\\1}-expressions are now valid in @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
16314 The @code{custom-face-lookup} function has been removed.
16315 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
16316 rewrite them to use @code{face-spec-set} instead.
16319 Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
16320 @kbd{a} forces normal posting method.
16323 New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper
16327 For easier debugging of @code{nntp}, you can set
16328 @code{nntp-record-commands} to a non-@code{nil} value.
16331 @code{nntp} now uses @file{~/.authinfo}, a @file{.netrc}-like file, for
16332 controlling where and how to send @sc{authinfo} to @sc{nntp} servers.
16335 A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
16339 A history of where mails have been split is available.
16342 A new article date command has been added---@code{article-date-iso8601}.
16345 Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
16346 @code{gnus-score-thread-simplify}.
16349 A new function for citing in Message has been
16350 added---@code{message-cite-original-without-signature}.
16353 @code{article-strip-all-blank-lines}---new article command.
16356 A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
16360 A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
16361 @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} variable.
16364 The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
16365 updated by the @code{gnus-start-date-timer} command.
16368 Web listserv archives can be read with the @code{nnlistserv} backend.
16371 Old dejanews archives can now be read by @code{nnweb}.
16376 @node Newest Features
16377 @subsection Newest Features
16380 Also known as the @dfn{todo list}. Sure to be implemented before the
16383 Be afraid. Be very afraid.
16385 (That a feature appears in this list doesn't necessarily mean that I've
16386 decided to actually implement it. It just means that I think it sounds
16389 (Yes, this is the actual, up-to-the-second todo list.)
16394 Native @sc{mime} support is something that should be done.
16397 Really do unbinhexing.
16400 I would like the zombie-page to contain an URL to the source of the
16401 latest version of gnus or some explanation on where to find it.
16404 A way to continue editing the latest Message composition.
16407 http://www.sonicnet.com/feature/ari3/
16410 facep is not declared.
16413 Include a section in the manual on why the number of articles
16414 isn't the same in the group buffer and on the SPC prompt.
16417 Interacting with rmail fcc isn't easy.
16422 <URL:http://www.falch.no/people/pepper/DSSSL-Lite/archives/>
16423 <URL:http://www.eit.com/software/hypermail/hypermail.html>
16424 <URL:http://homer.ncm.com/>
16425 <URL:http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/HTML_Converters/>
16426 http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/9610/index.html
16427 <URL:http://union.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HyperNews/get/www/html/converters.html>
16428 http://www.miranova.com/gnus-list/
16433 @samp{^-- } is made into - in LaTeX.
16436 gnus-kill is much slower than it was in GNUS 4.1.3.
16439 when expunging articles on low score, the sparse nodes keep hanging on?
16441 starting the first time seems to hang Gnus on some systems. Does
16442 NEWGROUPS answer too fast?
16444 nndir doesn't read gzipped files.
16446 FAQ doesn't have an up node?
16448 when moving mail from a procmail spool to the crash-box,
16449 the crash-box is only appropriate to one specific group.
16451 `t' `t' makes X-Faces disappear.
16453 nnmh-be-safe means that crossposted articles will
16454 be marked as unread.
16456 Orphan score entries dont show on "V t" score trace
16458 when clearing out data, the cache data should also be reset.
16460 rewrite gnus-summary-limit-children to be non-recursive
16461 to avoid exceeding lisp nesting on huge groups.
16463 expinged articles are counted when computing scores.
16465 implement gnus-batch-brew-soup
16467 ticked articles aren't easy to read in pick mode -- `n' and
16468 stuff just skips past them. Read articles are the same.
16470 topics that contain just groups with ticked
16471 articles aren't displayed.
16473 nndoc should always allocate unique Message-IDs.
16475 implement gnus-score-thread
16477 If there are mail groups the first time you use Gnus, Gnus'll
16478 make the mail groups killed.
16480 no "no news is good news" when using topics.
16482 when doing crosspost marking, the cache has to be consulted
16483 and articles have to be removed.
16485 nnweb should fetch complete articles when they are split into several
16488 scoring on head immediate doesn't work.
16490 finding short score file names takes forever.
16492 canceling articles in foreign groups.
16494 nntp-open-rlogin no longer works.
16496 C-u C-x C-s (Summary) switches to the group buffer.
16498 move nnmail-split-history out to the backends.
16500 nnweb doesn't work properly.
16502 using a virtual server name as `gnus-select-method' doesn't work?
16504 when killing/yanking a group from one topic to another in a slave, the
16505 master will yank it first to one topic and then add it to another.
16509 warn user about `=' redirection of a group in the active file?
16511 really unbinhex binhex files.
16513 take over the XEmacs menubar and offer a toggle between the XEmacs
16514 bar and the Gnus bar.
16517 push active file and NOV file parsing down into C code.
16518 `(canonize-message-id id)'
16519 `(mail-parent-message-id references n)'
16520 `(parse-news-nov-line &optional dependency-hashtb)'
16521 `(parse-news-nov-region beg end &optional dependency-hashtb fullp)'
16522 `(parse-news-active-region beg end hashtb)'
16527 nnml .overview directory with splits.
16531 postponed commands.
16533 the selected article show have its Subject displayed in its summary line.
16535 when entering groups, get the real number of unread articles from
16538 sort after gathering threads -- make false roots have the
16539 headers of the oldest orhpan with a 0 article number?
16541 nndoc groups should inherit the score files of their parents? Also
16542 inherit copy prompts and save files.
16544 command to start up Gnus (if not running) and enter a mail mode buffer.
16546 allow editing the group description from the group buffer
16547 for backends that support that.
16549 gnus-hide,show-all-topics
16551 groups and sub-topics should be allowed to mingle inside each topic,
16552 and not just list all subtopics at the end.
16554 a command to remove all read articles that are not needed to connect
16555 threads -- `gnus-summary-limit-to-sparse-unread'?
16557 a variable to turn off limiting/cutting of threads in the tree buffer.
16559 a variable to limit how many files are uudecoded.
16561 add zombie groups to a special "New Groups" topic.
16563 server mode command: close/open all connections
16565 put a file date in gnus-score-alist and check whether the file
16566 has been changed before using it.
16568 on exit from a digest group, go to the next article in the parent group.
16570 hide (sub)threads with low score.
16572 when expiring, remove all marks from expired articles.
16574 gnus-summary-limit-to-body
16576 a regexp alist that says what level groups are to be subscribed
16577 on. Eg. -- `(("nnml:" . 1))'.
16579 easier interface to nnkiboze to create ephemeral groups that
16580 contaion groups that match a regexp.
16582 allow newlines in <URL:> urls, but remove them before using
16585 If there is no From line, the mail backends should fudge one from the
16588 fuzzy simplifying should strip all non-alpha-numerical info
16589 from subject lines.
16591 gnus-soup-brew-soup-with-high-scores.
16593 nntp-ping-before-connect
16595 command to check whether NOV is evil. "list overview.fmt".
16597 when entering a group, Gnus should look through the score
16598 files very early for `local' atoms and set those local variables.
16600 message annotations.
16602 topics are always yanked before groups, and that's not good.
16604 (set-extent-property extent 'help-echo "String to display in minibuf")
16605 to display help in the minibuffer on buttons under XEmacs.
16607 allow group line format spec to say how many articles there
16612 support qmail maildir spools
16614 `run-with-idle-timer' in gnus-demon.
16616 stop using invisible text properties and start using overlays instead
16618 C-c C-f C-e to add an Expires header.
16620 go from one group to the next; everything is expunged; go to the
16621 next group instead of going to the group buffer.
16623 gnus-renumber-cache -- to renumber the cache using "low" numbers.
16625 record topic changes in the dribble buffer.
16627 `nnfolder-generate-active-file' should look at the folders it
16628 finds and generate proper active ranges.
16630 nneething-look-in-files-for-article-heads variable to control
16631 whether nneething should sniff all files in the directories.
16633 gnus-fetch-article -- start Gnus, enter group, display article
16635 gnus-dont-move-articles-to-same-group variable when respooling.
16637 when messages are crossposted between several auto-expirable groups,
16638 articles aren't properly marked as expirable.
16640 nneething should allow deletion/moving.
16642 TAB on the last button should go to the first button.
16644 if the car of an element in `mail-split-methods' is a function,
16645 and the function returns non-nil, use that as the name of the group(s) to
16648 command for listing all score files that have been applied.
16650 a command in the article buffer to return to `summary' config.
16652 `gnus-always-post-using-current-server' -- variable to override
16653 `C-c C-c' when posting.
16655 nnmail-group-spool-alist -- says where each group should use
16658 when an article is crossposted to an auto-expirable group, the article
16659 should be marker as expirable.
16661 article mode command/menu for "send region as URL to browser".
16663 on errors, jump to info nodes that explain the error. For instance,
16664 on invalid From headers, or on error messages from the nntp server.
16666 when gathering threads, make the article that has no "Re: " the parent.
16667 Also consult Date headers.
16669 a token in splits to call shrink-window-if-larger-than-buffer
16671 `1 0 A M' to do matches on the active hashtb.
16673 duplicates -- command to remove Gnus-Warning header, use the read
16674 Message-ID, delete the "original".
16676 when replying to several messages at once, put the "other" message-ids
16677 into a See-Also header.
16679 support setext: URL:http://www.bsdi.com/setext/
16681 support ProleText: <URL:http://proletext.clari.net/prole/proletext.html>
16683 when browsing a foreign server, the groups that are already subscribed
16684 should be listed as such and not as "K".
16686 generate font names dynamically.
16688 score file mode auto-alist.
16690 allow nndoc to change/add/delete things from documents. Implement
16691 methods for each format for adding an article to the document.
16693 `gnus-fetch-old-headers' `all' value to incorporate
16694 absolutely all headers there is.
16696 function like `|', but concatenate all marked articles
16697 and pipe them to the process.
16699 cache the list of killed (or active) groups in a separate file. Update
16700 the file whenever we read the active file or the list
16701 of killed groups in the .eld file reaches a certain length.
16703 function for starting to edit a file to put into
16704 the current mail group.
16706 score-find-trace should display the total score of the article.
16708 "ghettozie" -- score on Xref header and nix it out after using it
16709 to avoid marking as read in other groups it has been crossposted to.
16711 look at procmail splitting. The backends should create
16712 the groups automatically if a spool file exists for that group.
16714 function for backends to register themselves with Gnus.
16716 when replying to several process-marked articles,
16717 have all the From end up in Cc headers? Variable to toggle.
16719 command to delete a crossposted mail article from all
16720 groups it has been mailed to.
16722 `B c' and `B m' should be crosspost aware.
16724 hide-pgp should also hide PGP public key blocks.
16726 Command in the group buffer to respoll process-marked groups.
16728 `gnus-summary-find-matching' should accept
16729 pseudo-"headers" like "body", "head" and "all"
16731 When buttifying <URL: > things, all white space (including
16732 newlines) should be ignored.
16734 Process-marking all groups in a topic should process-mark
16735 groups in subtopics as well.
16737 Add non-native groups to the list of killed groups when killing them.
16739 nntp-suggest-kewl-config to probe the nntp server and suggest
16742 add edit and forward secondary marks.
16744 nnml shouldn't visit its .overview files.
16746 allow customizing sorting within gathered threads.
16748 `B q' shouldn't select the current article.
16750 nnmbox should support a newsgroups file for descriptions.
16752 allow fetching mail from several pop servers.
16754 Be able to specify whether the saving commands save the original
16755 or the formatted article.
16757 a command to reparent with the child process-marked (cf. `T ^'.).
16759 I think the possibility to send a password with nntp-open-rlogin
16760 should be a feature in Red Gnus.
16762 The `Z n' command should be possible to execute from a mouse click.
16764 more limiting functions -- date, etc.
16766 be able to limit on a random header; on body; using reverse matches.
16768 a group parameter (`absofucking-total-expiry') that will make Gnus expire
16769 even unread articles.
16771 a command to print the article buffer as postscript.
16773 variable to disable password fetching when opening by nntp-open-telnet.
16775 manual: more example servers -- nntp with rlogin, telnet
16777 checking for bogus groups should clean topic alists as well.
16779 cancelling articles in foreign groups.
16781 article number in folded topics isn't properly updated by
16784 Movement in the group buffer to the next unread group should go to the
16785 next closed topic with unread messages if no group can be found.
16787 Extensive info pages generated on the fly with help everywhere --
16788 in the "*Gnus edit*" buffers, for instance.
16790 Topic movement commands -- like thread movement. Up, down, forward, next.
16792 a way to tick/mark as read Gcc'd articles.
16794 a way to say that all groups within a specific topic comes
16795 from a particular server? Hm.
16797 `gnus-article-fill-if-long-lines' -- a function to fill
16798 the article buffer if there are any looong lines there.
16800 `T h' should jump to the parent topic and fold it.
16802 a command to create an ephemeral nndoc group out of a file,
16803 and then splitting it/moving it to some other group/backend.
16805 a group parameter for nnkiboze groups that says that
16806 all kibozed articles should be entered into the cache.
16808 It should also probably be possible to delimit what
16809 `gnus-jog-cache' does -- for instance, work on just some groups, or on
16810 some levels, and entering just articles that have a score higher than
16813 nnfolder should append to the folder instead of re-writing
16814 the entire folder to disk when accepting new messages.
16816 allow all backends to do the proper thing with .gz files.
16818 a backend for reading collections of babyl files nnbabylfolder?
16820 a command for making the native groups into foreign groups.
16822 server mode command for clearing read marks from all groups
16825 when following up mulitple articles, include all To, Cc, etc headers
16828 a command for deciding what the total score of the current
16829 thread is. Also a way to highlight based on this.
16831 command to show and edit group scores
16833 a gnus-tree-minimize-horizontal to minimize tree buffers
16836 command to generate nnml overview file for one group.
16838 `C-u C-u a' -- prompt for many crossposted groups.
16840 keep track of which mail groups have received new articles (in this session).
16841 Be able to generate a report and perhaps do some marking in the group
16844 gnus-build-sparse-threads to a number -- build only sparse threads
16845 that are of that length.
16847 have nnmh respect mh's unseen sequence in .mh_profile.
16849 cache the newsgroups descriptions locally.
16851 asynchronous posting under nntp.
16853 be able to control word adaptive scoring from the score files.
16855 a variable to make `C-c C-c' post using the "current" select method.
16857 `limit-exclude-low-scored-articles'.
16859 if `gnus-summary-show-thread' is a number, hide threads that have
16860 a score lower than this number.
16862 split newsgroup subscription variable up into "order" and "method".
16864 buttonize ange-ftp file names.
16866 a command to make a duplicate copy of the current article
16867 so that each copy can be edited separately.
16869 nnweb should allow fetching from the local nntp server.
16871 record the sorting done in the summary buffer so that
16872 it can be repeated when limiting/regenerating the buffer.
16874 nnml-generate-nov-databses should generate for
16877 when the user does commands in the group buffer, check
16878 the modification time of the .newsrc.eld file and use
16879 ask-user-about-supersession-threat. Also warn when trying
16880 to save .newsrc.eld and it has changed.
16882 M-g on a topic will display all groups with 0 articles in
16885 command to remove all topic stuff.
16887 allow exploding incoming digests when reading incoming mail
16888 and splitting the resulting digests.
16890 nnsoup shouldn't set the `message-' variables.
16892 command to nix out all nnoo state information.
16894 nnmail-process-alist that calls functions if group names
16895 matches an alist -- before saving.
16897 use buffer-invisibility-spec everywhere for hiding text.
16899 variable to activate each group before entering them
16900 to get the (new) number of articles. `gnus-activate-before-entering'.
16902 command to fetch a Message-ID from any buffer, even
16903 starting Gnus first if necessary.
16905 when posting and checking whether a group exists or not, just
16906 ask the nntp server instead of relying on the active hashtb.
16908 buttonize the output of `C-c C-a' in an apropos-like way.
16910 `G p' should understand process/prefix, and allow editing
16911 of several groups at once.
16913 command to create an ephemeral nnvirtual group that
16914 matches some regexp(s).
16916 nndoc should understand "Content-Type: message/rfc822" forwarded messages.
16918 it should be possible to score "thread" on the From header.
16920 hitting RET on a "gnus-uu-archive" pseudo article should unpack it.
16922 `B i' should display the article at once in the summary buffer.
16924 remove the "*" mark at once when unticking an article.
16926 `M-s' should highlight the matching text.
16928 when checking for duplicated mails, use Resent-Message-ID if present.
16930 killing and yanking groups in topics should be better. If killing one copy
16931 of a group that exists in multiple topics, only that copy should
16932 be removed. Yanking should insert the copy, and yanking topics
16933 should be possible to be interspersed with the other yankings.
16935 command for enter a group just to read the cached articles. A way to say
16936 "ignore the nntp connection; just read from the cache."
16938 `X u' should decode base64 articles.
16940 a way to hide all "inner" cited text, leaving just the most
16941 recently cited text.
16943 nnvirtual should be asynchronous.
16945 after editing an article, gnus-original-article-buffer should
16948 there should probably be a way to make Gnus not connect to the
16949 server and just read the articles in the server
16951 allow a `set-default' (or something) to change the default
16952 value of nnoo variables.
16954 a command to import group infos from a .newsrc.eld file.
16956 groups from secondary servers have the entire select method
16957 listed in each group info.
16959 a command for just switching from the summary buffer to the group
16962 a way to specify that some incoming mail washing functions
16963 should only be applied to some groups.
16965 Message `C-f C-t' should ask the user whether to heed
16966 mail-copies-to: never.
16968 new group parameter -- `post-to-server' that says to post
16969 using the current server. Also a variable to do the same.
16971 the slave dribble files should autosave to the slave file names.
16973 a group parameter that says what articles to display on group entry, based
16976 a way to visually distinguish slave Gnusae from masters. (Whip instead
16979 Use DJ Bernstein "From " quoting/dequoting, where appliccable.
16981 Why is hide-citation-maybe and hide-citation different? Also
16984 group user-defined meta-parameters.
16988 From: John Griffith <griffith@@sfs.nphil.uni-tuebingen.de>
16990 I like the option for trying to retrieve the FAQ for a group and I was
16991 thinking it would be great if for those newsgroups that had archives
16992 you could also try to read the archive for that group. Part of the
16993 problem is that archives are spread all over the net, unlike FAQs.
16994 What would be best I suppose is to find the one closest to your site.
16996 In any case, there is a list of general news group archives at
16997 ftp://ftp.neosoft.com/pub/users/claird/news.lists/newsgroup_archives.html
17004 From: Jason L Tibbitts III <tibbs@@hpc.uh.edu>
17005 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook
17007 (gnus-group-add-parameter group
17008 (cons 'gnus-group-date-last-entered (list (current-time-string))))))
17010 (defun gnus-user-format-function-d (headers)
17011 "Return the date the group was last read."
17012 (cond ((car (gnus-group-get-parameter gnus-tmp-group 'gnus-group-date-last-entered)))
17017 tanken var at når du bruker `gnus-startup-file' som prefix (FOO) til å lete
17018 opp en fil FOO-SERVER, FOO-SERVER.el, FOO-SERVER.eld, kan du la den være en
17019 liste hvor du bruker hvert element i listen som FOO, istedet. da kunne man
17020 hatt forskjellige serveres startup-filer forskjellige steder.
17024 LMI> Well, nnbabyl could alter the group info to heed labels like
17025 LMI> answered and read, I guess.
17027 It could also keep them updated (the same for the Status: header of
17030 They could be used like this:
17034 `M l <name> RET' add label <name> to current message.
17035 `M u <name> RET' remove label <name> from current message.
17036 `/ l <expr> RET' limit summary buffer according to <expr>.
17038 <expr> would be a boolean expression on the labels, e.g.
17040 `/ l bug & !fixed RET'
17043 would show all the messages which are labeled `bug' but not labeled
17046 One could also immagine the labels being used for highliting, or
17047 affect the summary line format.
17051 Sender: abraham@@dina.kvl.dk
17053 I'd like a gnus-find-file which work like find file, except that it
17054 would recognize things that looks like messages or folders:
17056 - If it is a directory containing numbered files, create an nndir
17059 - For other directories, create a nneething summaru buffer.
17061 - For files matching "\\`From ", create a nndoc/mbox summary.
17063 - For files matching "\\`BABYL OPTIONS:", create a nndoc/baby summary.
17065 - For files matching "\\`[^ \t\n]+:", create an *Article* buffer.
17067 - For other files, just find them normally.
17069 I'd like `nneething' to use this function, so it would work on a
17070 directory potentially containing mboxes or babyl files.
17073 Please send a mail to bwarsaw@@cnri.reston.va.us (Barry A. Warsaw) and
17074 tell him what you are doing.
17077 Currently, I get prompted:
17081 decend into sci.something ?
17085 The problem above is that since there is really only one subsection of
17086 science, shouldn't it prompt you for only decending sci.something? If
17087 there was a sci.somethingelse group or section, then it should prompt
17088 for sci? first the sci.something? then sci.somethingelse?...
17091 Ja, det burde være en måte å si slikt. Kanskje en ny variabel?
17092 `gnus-use-few-score-files'? SÃ¥ kunne score-regler legges til den
17093 "mest" lokale score-fila. F. eks. ville no-gruppene betjenes av
17094 "no.all.SCORE", osv.
17097 What i want is for Gnus to treat any sequence or combination of the following
17098 as a single spoiler warning and hide it all, replacing it with a "Next Page"
17104 more than n blank lines
17106 more than m identical lines
17107 (which should be replaced with button to show them)
17109 any whitespace surrounding any of the above
17113 Well, we could allow a new value to `gnus-thread-ignore-subject' --
17114 `spaces', or something. (We could even default to that.) And then
17115 subjects that differ in white space only could be considered the
17116 "same" subject for threading purposes.
17119 Modes to preprocess the contents (e.g. jka-compr) use the second form
17120 "(REGEXP FUNCTION NON-NIL)" while ordinary modes (e.g. tex) use the first
17121 form "(REGEXP . FUNCTION)", so you could use it to distinguish between
17122 those two types of modes. (auto-modes-alist, insert-file-contents-literally.)
17125 Under XEmacs -- do funny article marks:
17128 soup - bowl of soup
17129 score below - dim light bulb
17130 score over - bright light bulb
17133 Yes. I think the algorithm is as follows:
17138 show-list-of-articles-in-group
17139 if (key-pressed == SPACE)
17140 if (no-more-articles-in-group-to-select)
17141 if (articles-selected)
17142 start-reading-selected-articles;
17143 junk-unread-articles;
17148 else if (key-pressed = '.')
17149 if (consolidated-menus) # same as hide-thread in Gnus
17150 select-thread-under-cursor;
17152 select-article-under-cursor;
17156 if (key-pressed == SPACE)
17157 if (more-pages-in-article)
17159 else if (more-selected-articles-to-read)
17166 My precise need here would have been to limit files to Incoming*.
17167 One could think of some `nneething-only-files' variable, but I guess
17168 it would have been unacceptable if one was using many unrelated such
17171 A more useful approach would be to, in response to the `G D' prompt, be
17172 allowed to say something like: `~/.mail/Incoming*', somewhat limiting
17173 the top-level directory only (in case directories would be matched by
17174 the wildcard expression).
17177 It would be nice if it also handled
17179 <URL:news://sunsite.auc.dk/>
17181 which should correspond to `B nntp RET sunsite.auc.dk' in *Group*.
17186 Take a look at w3-menu.el in the Emacs-W3 distribution - this works out
17187 really well. Each menu is 'named' by a symbol that would be on a
17188 gnus-*-menus (where * would be whatever, but at least group, summary, and
17189 article versions) variable.
17191 So for gnus-summary-menus, I would set to '(sort mark dispose ...)
17193 A value of '1' would just put _all_ the menus in a single 'GNUS' menu in
17194 the main menubar. This approach works really well for Emacs-W3 and VM.
17198 nndoc should take care to create unique Message-IDs for all its
17201 gnus-score-followup-article only works when you have a summary buffer
17202 active. Make it work when posting from the group buffer as well.
17203 (message-sent-hook).
17205 rewrite gnus-demon to use run-with-idle-timers.
17208 * Enhancements to Gnus:
17212 * gnus-servers (gnus-start-server-buffer?)--enters Gnus and goes
17213 straight to the server buffer, without opening any connections to
17216 * gnus-server-read-server-newsrc--produces a buffer very similar to
17217 the group buffer, but with only groups from that server listed;
17218 quitting this buffer returns to the server buffer.
17221 add a command to check the integrity of an nnfolder folder --
17222 go through the article numbers and see that there are no duplicates,
17226 `unsmileyfy-buffer' to undo smileification.
17229 a command to give all relevant info on an article, including all
17233 when doing `-request-accept-article', the backends should do
17234 the nnmail duplicate checking.
17237 allow `message-signature-file' to be a function to return the
17238 value of the signature file.
17241 In addition, I would love it if I could configure message-tab so that it
17242 could call `bbdb-complete-name' in other headers. So, some sort of
17245 (setq message-tab-alist
17246 '((message-header-regexp message-expand-group)
17247 ("^\\(To\\|[cC]c\\|[bB]cc\\)" bbdb-complete-name)))
17249 then you could run the relevant function to complete the information in
17253 cache the newsgroups file locally to avoid reloading it all the time.
17256 a command to import a buffer into a group.
17259 nnweb should allow fetching by Message-ID from servers.
17262 point in the article buffer doesn't always go to the
17263 beginning of the buffer when selecting new articles.
17266 a command to process mark all unread articles.
17269 `gnus-gather-threads-by-references-and-subject' -- first
17270 do gathering by references, and then go through the dummy roots and
17271 do more gathering by subject.
17274 gnus-uu-mark-in-numerical-order -- process mark articles in
17275 article numerical order.
17278 (gnus-thread-total-score
17279 (gnus-id-to-thread (mail-header-id (gnus-summary-article-header))))
17283 sorting by score is wrong when using sparse threads.
17286 a command to fetch an arbitrary article -- without having to be
17287 in the summary buffer.
17290 a new nncvs backend. Each group would show an article, using
17291 version branches as threading, checkin date as the date, etc.
17294 http://www.dejanews.com/forms/dnsetfilter_exp.html ?
17295 This filter allows one to construct advance queries on the Dejanews
17296 database such as specifying start and end dates, subject, author,
17297 and/or newsgroup name.
17300 new Date header scoring type -- older, newer
17303 use the summary toolbar in the article buffer.
17306 a command to fetch all articles that are less than X days old.
17309 in pick mode, `q' should save the list of selected articles in the
17310 group info. The next time the group is selected, these articles
17311 will automatically get the process mark.
17314 Isn't it possible to (also?) allow M-^ to automatically try the
17315 default server if it fails on the current server? (controlled by a
17316 user variable, (nil, t, 'ask)).
17319 make it possible to cancel articles using the select method for the
17323 `gnus-summary-select-article-on-entry' or something. It'll default
17324 to t and will select whatever article decided by `gnus-auto-select-first'.
17327 a new variable to control which selection commands should be unselecting.
17328 `first', `best', `next', `prev', `next-unread', `prev-unread' are
17332 be able to select groups that have no articles in them
17333 to be able to post in them (using the current select method).
17336 be able to post via DejaNews.
17339 `x' should retain any sortings that have been performed.
17342 allow the user to specify the presedence of the secondary marks. Also
17343 allow them to be displayed separately.
17346 gnus-summary-save-in-pipe should concatenate the results from
17347 the processes when doing a process marked pipe.
17350 a new match type, like Followup, but which adds Thread matches on all
17351 articles that match a certain From header.
17354 a function that can be read from kill-emacs-query-functions to offer
17355 saving living summary buffers.
17358 a function for selecting a particular group which will contain
17359 the articles listed in a list of article numbers/id's.
17362 a battery of character translation functions to translate common
17363 Mac, MS (etc) characters into ISO 8859-1.
17366 (defun article-fix-m$word ()
17367 "Fix M$Word smartquotes in an article."
17370 (let ((buffer-read-only nil))
17371 (goto-char (point-min))
17372 (while (search-forward "\221" nil t)
17373 (replace-match "`" t t))
17374 (goto-char (point-min))
17375 (while (search-forward "\222" nil t)
17376 (replace-match "'" t t))
17377 (goto-char (point-min))
17378 (while (search-forward "\223" nil t)
17379 (replace-match "\"" t t))
17380 (goto-char (point-min))
17381 (while (search-forward "\224" nil t)
17382 (replace-match "\"" t t)))))
17387 (add-hook 'gnus-exit-query-functions
17389 (if (and (file-exists-p nnmail-spool-file)
17390 (> (nnheader-file-size nnmail-spool-file) 0))
17391 (yes-or-no-p "New mail has arrived. Quit Gnus anyways? ")
17392 (y-or-n-p "Are you sure you want to quit Gnus? "))))
17396 allow message-default-headers to be a function.
17399 new Date score match types -- < > = (etc) that take floating point
17400 numbers and match on the age of the article.
17403 gnus-cacheable-groups
17407 > > > If so, I've got one gripe: It seems that when I fire up gnus 5.2.25
17408 > > > under xemacs-19.14, it's creating a new frame, but is erasing the
17409 > > > buffer in the frame that it was called from =:-O
17411 > > Hm. How do you start up Gnus? From the toolbar or with
17412 > > `M-x gnus-other-frame'?
17414 > I normally start it up from the toolbar; at
17415 > least that's the way I've caught it doing the
17420 all commands that react to the process mark should push
17421 the current process mark set onto the stack.
17424 gnus-article-hide-pgp
17425 Selv ville jeg nok ha valgt å slette den dersom teksten matcher
17427 "\\(This\s+\\)?[^ ]+ has been automatically signed by"
17429 og det er maks hundre tegn mellom match-end og ----linja. Men -det-
17430 er min type heuristikk og langt fra alles.
17433 `gnus-subscribe-sorted' -- insert new groups where they would have been
17434 sorted to if `gnus-group-sort-function' were run.
17437 gnus-(group,summary)-highlight should respect any `face' text props set
17441 use run-with-idle-timer for gnus-demon instead of the
17442 home-brewed stuff for better reliability.
17445 add a way to select which NoCeM type to apply -- spam, troll, etc.
17448 nndraft-request-group should tally autosave files.
17451 implement nntp-retry-on-break and nntp-command-timeout.
17454 gnus-article-highlight-limit that says when not to highlight (long)
17458 (nnoo-set SERVER VARIABLE VALUE)
17464 interrupitng agent fetching of articles should save articles.
17467 command to open a digest group, and copy all the articles there to the
17471 a variable to disable article body highlights if there's more than
17472 X characters in the body.
17475 handle 480/381 authinfo requests separately.
17478 include the texi/dir file in the distribution.
17481 format spec to "tab" to a position.
17484 Move all prompting to the new `M-n' default style.
17487 command to display all dormant articles.
17490 gnus-auto-select-next makeover -- list of things it should do.
17493 a score match type that adds scores matching on From if From has replied
17494 to something someone else has said.
17497 Read Netscape discussion groups:
17498 snews://secnews.netscape.com/netscape.communicator.unix
17501 One command to edit the original version if an article, and one to edit
17502 the displayed version.
17505 @kbd{T v} -- make all process-marked articles the children of the
17509 Switch from initial text to the new default text mechanism.
17512 How about making it possible to expire local articles? Will it be
17513 possible to make various constraints on when an article can be
17514 expired, e.g. (read), (age > 14 days), or the more interesting (read
17518 New limit command---limit to articles that have a certain string
17519 in the head or body.
17522 Allow breaking lengthy NNTP commands.
17525 gnus-article-highlight-limit, to disable highlighting in big articles.
17528 Editing an article should put the article to be edited
17529 in a special, unique buffer.
17532 A command to send a mail to the admin-address group param.
17535 A Date scoring type that will match if the article
17536 is less than a certain number of days old.
17539 New spec: %~(tab 56) to put point on column 56
17542 Allow Gnus Agent scoring to use normal score files.
17545 Solve the halting problem.
17554 @section The Manual
17558 This manual was generated from a TeXinfo file and then run through
17559 either @code{texi2dvi}
17561 or my own home-brewed TeXinfo to \LaTeX\ transformer,
17562 and then run through @code{latex} and @code{dvips}
17564 to get what you hold in your hands now.
17566 The following conventions have been used:
17571 This is a @samp{string}
17574 This is a @kbd{keystroke}
17577 This is a @file{file}
17580 This is a @code{symbol}
17584 So if I were to say ``set @code{flargnoze} to @samp{yes}'', that would
17588 (setq flargnoze "yes")
17591 If I say ``set @code{flumphel} to @code{yes}'', that would mean:
17594 (setq flumphel 'yes)
17597 @samp{yes} and @code{yes} are two @emph{very} different things---don't
17598 ever get them confused.
17602 Of course, everything in this manual is of vital interest, so you should
17603 read it all. Several times. However, if you feel like skimming the
17604 manual, look for that gnu head you should see in the margin over
17605 there---it means that what's being discussed is of more importance than
17606 the rest of the stuff. (On the other hand, if everything is infinitely
17607 important, how can anything be more important than that? Just one more
17608 of the mysteries of this world, I guess.)
17616 @section Terminology
17618 @cindex terminology
17623 This is what you are supposed to use this thing for---reading news.
17624 News is generally fetched from a nearby @sc{nntp} server, and is
17625 generally publicly available to everybody. If you post news, the entire
17626 world is likely to read just what you have written, and they'll all
17627 snigger mischievously. Behind your back.
17631 Everything that's delivered to you personally is mail. Some news/mail
17632 readers (like Gnus) blur the distinction between mail and news, but
17633 there is a difference. Mail is private. News is public. Mailing is
17634 not posting, and replying is not following up.
17638 Send a mail to the person who has written what you are reading.
17642 Post an article to the current newsgroup responding to the article you
17647 Gnus gets fed articles from a number of backends, both news and mail
17648 backends. Gnus does not handle the underlying media, so to speak---this
17649 is all done by the backends.
17653 Gnus will always use one method (and backend) as the @dfn{native}, or
17654 default, way of getting news.
17658 You can also have any number of foreign groups active at the same time.
17659 These are groups that use non-native non-secondary backends for getting
17664 Secondary backends are somewhere half-way between being native and being
17665 foreign, but they mostly act like they are native.
17669 A message that has been posted as news.
17672 @cindex mail message
17673 A message that has been mailed.
17677 A mail message or news article
17681 The top part of a message, where administrative information (etc.) is
17686 The rest of an article. Everything not in the head is in the
17691 A line from the head of an article.
17695 A collection of such lines, or a collection of heads. Or even a
17696 collection of @sc{nov} lines.
17700 When Gnus enters a group, it asks the backend for the headers of all
17701 unread articles in the group. Most servers support the News OverView
17702 format, which is more compact and much faster to read and parse than the
17703 normal @sc{head} format.
17707 Each group is subscribed at some @dfn{level} or other (1-9). The ones
17708 that have a lower level are ``more'' subscribed than the groups with a
17709 higher level. In fact, groups on levels 1-5 are considered
17710 @dfn{subscribed}; 6-7 are @dfn{unsubscribed}; 8 are @dfn{zombies}; and 9
17711 are @dfn{killed}. Commands for listing groups and scanning for new
17712 articles will all use the numeric prefix as @dfn{working level}.
17714 @item killed groups
17715 @cindex killed groups
17716 No information on killed groups is stored or updated, which makes killed
17717 groups much easier to handle than subscribed groups.
17719 @item zombie groups
17720 @cindex zombie groups
17721 Just like killed groups, only slightly less dead.
17724 @cindex active file
17725 The news server has to keep track of what articles it carries, and what
17726 groups exist. All this information in stored in the active file, which
17727 is rather large, as you might surmise.
17730 @cindex bogus groups
17731 A group that exists in the @file{.newsrc} file, but isn't known to the
17732 server (i.e., it isn't in the active file), is a @emph{bogus group}.
17733 This means that the group probably doesn't exist (any more).
17736 @cindex activating groups
17737 The act of asking the server for info on a group and computing the
17738 number of unread articles is called @dfn{activating the group}.
17739 Un-activated groups are listed with @samp{*} in the group buffer.
17743 A machine one can connect to and get news (or mail) from.
17745 @item select method
17746 @cindex select method
17747 A structure that specifies the backend, the server and the virtual
17750 @item virtual server
17751 @cindex virtual server
17752 A named select method. Since a select method defines all there is to
17753 know about connecting to a (physical) server, taking the thing as a
17754 whole is a virtual server.
17758 Taking a buffer and running it through a filter of some sort. The
17759 result will (more often than not) be cleaner and more pleasing than the
17762 @item ephemeral groups
17763 @cindex ephemeral groups
17764 Most groups store data on what articles you have read. @dfn{Ephemeral}
17765 groups are groups that will have no data stored---when you exit the
17766 group, it'll disappear into the aether.
17769 @cindex solid groups
17770 This is the opposite of ephemeral groups. All groups listed in the
17771 group buffer are solid groups.
17773 @item sparse articles
17774 @cindex sparse articles
17775 These are article placeholders shown in the summary buffer when
17776 @code{gnus-build-sparse-threads} has been switched on.
17780 To put responses to articles directly after the articles they respond
17781 to---in a hierarchical fashion.
17785 @cindex thread root
17786 The first article in a thread is the root. It is the ancestor of all
17787 articles in the thread.
17791 An article that has responses.
17795 An article that responds to a different article---its parent.
17799 A collection of messages in one file. The most common digest format is
17800 specified by RFC1153.
17806 @node Customization
17807 @section Customization
17808 @cindex general customization
17810 All variables are properly documented elsewhere in this manual. This
17811 section is designed to give general pointers on how to customize Gnus
17812 for some quite common situations.
17815 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
17816 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
17817 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
17818 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
17822 @node Slow/Expensive Connection
17823 @subsection Slow/Expensive @sc{nntp} Connection
17825 If you run Emacs on a machine locally, and get your news from a machine
17826 over some very thin strings, you want to cut down on the amount of data
17827 Gnus has to get from the @sc{nntp} server.
17831 @item gnus-read-active-file
17832 Set this to @code{nil}, which will inhibit Gnus from requesting the
17833 entire active file from the server. This file is often v. large. You
17834 also have to set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
17835 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make sure that Gnus
17836 doesn't suddenly decide to fetch the active file anyway.
17838 @item gnus-nov-is-evil
17839 This one has to be @code{nil}. If not, grabbing article headers from
17840 the @sc{nntp} server will not be very fast. Not all @sc{nntp} servers
17841 support @sc{xover}; Gnus will detect this by itself.
17845 @node Slow Terminal Connection
17846 @subsection Slow Terminal Connection
17848 Let's say you use your home computer for dialing up the system that runs
17849 Emacs and Gnus. If your modem is slow, you want to reduce (as much as
17850 possible) the amount of data sent over the wires.
17854 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
17855 Set this to @code{nil} to inhibit Gnus from re-centering the summary
17856 buffer all the time. If it is @code{vertical}, do only vertical
17857 re-centering. If it is neither @code{nil} nor @code{vertical}, do both
17858 horizontal and vertical recentering.
17860 @item gnus-visible-headers
17861 Cut down on the headers included in the articles to the
17862 minimum. You can, in fact, make do without them altogether---most of the
17863 useful data is in the summary buffer, anyway. Set this variable to
17864 @samp{^NEVVVVER} or @samp{From:}, or whatever you feel you need.
17866 @item gnus-article-display-hook
17867 Set this hook to all the available hiding commands:
17869 (setq gnus-article-display-hook
17870 '(gnus-article-hide-headers gnus-article-hide-signature
17871 gnus-article-hide-citation))
17874 @item gnus-use-full-window
17875 By setting this to @code{nil}, you can make all the windows smaller.
17876 While this doesn't really cut down much generally, it means that you
17877 have to see smaller portions of articles before deciding that you didn't
17878 want to read them anyway.
17880 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
17881 If this is non-@code{nil}, all threads in the summary buffer will be
17884 @item gnus-updated-mode-lines
17885 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not put information in the buffer mode
17886 lines, which might save some time.
17890 @node Little Disk Space
17891 @subsection Little Disk Space
17894 The startup files can get rather large, so you may want to cut their
17895 sizes a bit if you are running out of space.
17899 @item gnus-save-newsrc-file
17900 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never save @file{.newsrc}---it will
17901 only save @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
17902 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
17905 @item gnus-save-killed-list
17906 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not save the list of dead groups. You
17907 should also set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{ask-server}
17908 and @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} if you set this
17909 variable to @code{nil}. This variable is @code{t} by default.
17915 @subsection Slow Machine
17916 @cindex slow machine
17918 If you have a slow machine, or are just really impatient, there are a
17919 few things you can do to make Gnus run faster.
17921 Set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
17922 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make startup faster.
17924 Set @code{gnus-show-threads}, @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} and
17925 @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{nil} to make entering and exiting the
17926 summary buffer faster.
17928 Set @code{gnus-article-display-hook} to @code{nil} to make article
17929 processing a bit faster.
17933 @node Troubleshooting
17934 @section Troubleshooting
17935 @cindex troubleshooting
17937 Gnus works @emph{so} well straight out of the box---I can't imagine any
17945 Make sure your computer is switched on.
17948 Make sure that you really load the current Gnus version. If you have
17949 been running @sc{gnus}, you need to exit Emacs and start it up again before
17953 Try doing an @kbd{M-x gnus-version}. If you get something that looks
17954 like @samp{Gnus v5.46; nntp 4.0} you have the right files loaded. If,
17955 on the other hand, you get something like @samp{NNTP 3.x} or @samp{nntp
17956 flee}, you have some old @file{.el} files lying around. Delete these.
17959 Read the help group (@kbd{G h} in the group buffer) for a FAQ and a
17963 @vindex max-lisp-eval-depth
17964 Gnus works on many recursive structures, and in some extreme (and very
17965 rare) cases Gnus may recurse down ``too deeply'' and Emacs will beep at
17966 you. If this happens to you, set @code{max-lisp-eval-depth} to 500 or
17967 something like that.
17970 If all else fails, report the problem as a bug.
17973 @cindex reporting bugs
17975 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
17977 If you find a bug in Gnus, you can report it with the @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}
17978 command. @kbd{M-x set-variable RET debug-on-error RET t RET}, and send
17979 me the backtrace. I will fix bugs, but I can only fix them if you send
17980 me a precise description as to how to reproduce the bug.
17982 You really can never be too detailed in a bug report. Always use the
17983 @kbd{M-x gnus-bug} command when you make bug reports, even if it creates
17984 a 10Kb mail each time you use it, and even if you have sent me your
17985 environment 500 times before. I don't care. I want the full info each
17988 It is also important to remember that I have no memory whatsoever. If
17989 you send a bug report, and I send you a reply, and then you just send
17990 back ``No, it's not! Moron!'', I will have no idea what you are
17991 insulting me about. Always over-explain everything. It's much easier
17992 for all of us---if I don't have all the information I need, I will just
17993 mail you and ask for more info, and everything takes more time.
17995 If the problem you're seeing is very visual, and you can't quite explain
17996 it, copy the Emacs window to a file (with @code{xwd}, for instance), put
17997 it somewhere it can be reached, and include the URL of the picture in
18000 If you just need help, you are better off asking on
18001 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}. I'm not very helpful.
18003 @cindex gnu.emacs.gnus
18004 @cindex ding mailing list
18005 You can also ask on the ding mailing list---@samp{ding@@gnus.org}.
18006 Write to @samp{ding-request@@gnus.org} to subscribe.
18010 @node A Programmers Guide to Gnus
18011 @section A Programmer@'s Guide to Gnus
18013 It is my hope that other people will figure out smart stuff that Gnus
18014 can do, and that other people will write those smart things as well. To
18015 facilitate that I thought it would be a good idea to describe the inner
18016 workings of Gnus. And some of the not-so-inner workings, while I'm at
18019 You can never expect the internals of a program not to change, but I
18020 will be defining (in some details) the interface between Gnus and its
18021 backends (this is written in stone), the format of the score files
18022 (ditto), data structures (some are less likely to change than others)
18023 and general methods of operation.
18026 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
18027 * Backend Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
18028 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
18029 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
18030 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
18031 * Group Info:: The group info format.
18032 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
18033 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
18034 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
18038 @node Gnus Utility Functions
18039 @subsection Gnus Utility Functions
18040 @cindex Gnus utility functions
18041 @cindex utility functions
18043 @cindex internal variables
18045 When writing small functions to be run from hooks (and stuff), it's
18046 vital to have access to the Gnus internal functions and variables.
18047 Below is a list of the most common ones.
18051 @item gnus-newsgroup-name
18052 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-name
18053 This variable holds the name of the current newsgroup.
18055 @item gnus-find-method-for-group
18056 @findex gnus-find-method-for-group
18057 A function that returns the select method for @var{group}.
18059 @item gnus-group-real-name
18060 @findex gnus-group-real-name
18061 Takes a full (prefixed) Gnus group name, and returns the unprefixed
18064 @item gnus-group-prefixed-name
18065 @findex gnus-group-prefixed-name
18066 Takes an unprefixed group name and a select method, and returns the full
18067 (prefixed) Gnus group name.
18069 @item gnus-get-info
18070 @findex gnus-get-info
18071 Returns the group info list for @var{group}.
18073 @item gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
18074 @findex gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
18075 Adds the current buffer to the list of buffers to be killed on Gnus
18078 @item gnus-continuum-version
18079 @findex gnus-continuum-version
18080 Takes a Gnus version string as a parameter and returns a floating point
18081 number. Earlier versions will always get a lower number than later
18084 @item gnus-group-read-only-p
18085 @findex gnus-group-read-only-p
18086 Says whether @var{group} is read-only or not.
18088 @item gnus-news-group-p
18089 @findex gnus-news-group-p
18090 Says whether @var{group} came from a news backend.
18092 @item gnus-ephemeral-group-p
18093 @findex gnus-ephemeral-group-p
18094 Says whether @var{group} is ephemeral or not.
18096 @item gnus-server-to-method
18097 @findex gnus-server-to-method
18098 Returns the select method corresponding to @var{server}.
18100 @item gnus-server-equal
18101 @findex gnus-server-equal
18102 Says whether two virtual servers are equal.
18104 @item gnus-group-native-p
18105 @findex gnus-group-native-p
18106 Says whether @var{group} is native or not.
18108 @item gnus-group-secondary-p
18109 @findex gnus-group-secondary-p
18110 Says whether @var{group} is secondary or not.
18112 @item gnus-group-foreign-p
18113 @findex gnus-group-foreign-p
18114 Says whether @var{group} is foreign or not.
18116 @item group-group-find-parameter
18117 @findex group-group-find-parameter
18118 Returns the parameter list of @var{group}. If given a second parameter,
18119 returns the value of that parameter for @var{group}.
18121 @item gnus-group-set-parameter
18122 @findex gnus-group-set-parameter
18123 Takes three parameters; @var{group}, @var{parameter} and @var{value}.
18125 @item gnus-narrow-to-body
18126 @findex gnus-narrow-to-body
18127 Narrows the current buffer to the body of the article.
18129 @item gnus-check-backend-function
18130 @findex gnus-check-backend-function
18131 Takes two parameters, @var{function} and @var{group}. If the backend
18132 @var{group} comes from supports @var{function}, return non-@code{nil}.
18135 (gnus-check-backend-function "request-scan" "nnml:misc")
18139 @item gnus-read-method
18140 @findex gnus-read-method
18141 Prompts the user for a select method.
18146 @node Backend Interface
18147 @subsection Backend Interface
18149 Gnus doesn't know anything about @sc{nntp}, spools, mail or virtual
18150 groups. It only knows how to talk to @dfn{virtual servers}. A virtual
18151 server is a @dfn{backend} and some @dfn{backend variables}. As examples
18152 of the first, we have @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool} and @code{nnmbox}. As
18153 examples of the latter we have @code{nntp-port-number} and
18154 @code{nnmbox-directory}.
18156 When Gnus asks for information from a backend---say @code{nntp}---on
18157 something, it will normally include a virtual server name in the
18158 function parameters. (If not, the backend should use the ``current''
18159 virtual server.) For instance, @code{nntp-request-list} takes a virtual
18160 server as its only (optional) parameter. If this virtual server hasn't
18161 been opened, the function should fail.
18163 Note that a virtual server name has no relation to some physical server
18164 name. Take this example:
18168 (nntp-address "ifi.uio.no")
18169 (nntp-port-number 4324))
18172 Here the virtual server name is @samp{odd-one} while the name of
18173 the physical server is @samp{ifi.uio.no}.
18175 The backends should be able to switch between several virtual servers.
18176 The standard backends implement this by keeping an alist of virtual
18177 server environments that they pull down/push up when needed.
18179 There are two groups of interface functions: @dfn{required functions},
18180 which must be present, and @dfn{optional functions}, which Gnus will
18181 always check for presence before attempting to call 'em.
18183 All these functions are expected to return data in the buffer
18184 @code{nntp-server-buffer} (@samp{ *nntpd*}), which is somewhat
18185 unfortunately named, but we'll have to live with it. When I talk about
18186 @dfn{resulting data}, I always refer to the data in that buffer. When I
18187 talk about @dfn{return value}, I talk about the function value returned by
18188 the function call. Functions that fail should return @code{nil} as the
18191 Some backends could be said to be @dfn{server-forming} backends, and
18192 some might be said not to be. The latter are backends that generally
18193 only operate on one group at a time, and have no concept of ``server''
18194 -- they have a group, and they deliver info on that group and nothing
18197 In the examples and definitions I will refer to the imaginary backend
18200 @cindex @code{nnchoke}
18203 * Required Backend Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
18204 * Optional Backend Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
18205 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
18206 * Writing New Backends:: Extending old backends.
18207 * Hooking New Backends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
18208 * Mail-like Backends:: Some tips on mail backends.
18212 @node Required Backend Functions
18213 @subsubsection Required Backend Functions
18217 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-headers ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FETCH-OLD)
18219 @var{articles} is either a range of article numbers or a list of
18220 @code{Message-ID}s. Current backends do not fully support either---only
18221 sequences (lists) of article numbers, and most backends do not support
18222 retrieval of @code{Message-ID}s. But they should try for both.
18224 The result data should either be HEADs or NOV lines, and the result
18225 value should either be @code{headers} or @code{nov} to reflect this.
18226 This might later be expanded to @code{various}, which will be a mixture
18227 of HEADs and NOV lines, but this is currently not supported by Gnus.
18229 If @var{fetch-old} is non-@code{nil} it says to try fetching "extra
18230 headers", in some meaning of the word. This is generally done by
18231 fetching (at most) @var{fetch-old} extra headers less than the smallest
18232 article number in @code{articles}, and filling the gaps as well. The
18233 presence of this parameter can be ignored if the backend finds it
18234 cumbersome to follow the request. If this is non-@code{nil} and not a
18235 number, do maximum fetches.
18237 Here's an example HEAD:
18240 221 1056 Article retrieved.
18241 Path: ifi.uio.no!sturles
18242 From: sturles@@ifi.uio.no (Sturle Sunde)
18243 Newsgroups: ifi.discussion
18244 Subject: Re: Something very droll
18245 Date: 27 Oct 1994 14:02:57 +0100
18246 Organization: Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
18248 Message-ID: <38o8e1$a0o@@holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no>
18249 References: <38jdmq$4qu@@visbur.ifi.uio.no>
18250 NNTP-Posting-Host: holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no
18254 So a @code{headers} return value would imply that there's a number of
18255 these in the data buffer.
18257 Here's a BNF definition of such a buffer:
18261 head = error / valid-head
18262 error-message = [ "4" / "5" ] 2number " " <error message> eol
18263 valid-head = valid-message *header "." eol
18264 valid-message = "221 " <number> " Article retrieved." eol
18265 header = <text> eol
18268 If the return value is @code{nov}, the data buffer should contain
18269 @dfn{network overview database} lines. These are basically fields
18273 nov-buffer = *nov-line
18274 nov-line = 8*9 [ field <TAB> ] eol
18275 field = <text except TAB>
18278 For a closer look at what should be in those fields,
18282 @item (nnchoke-open-server SERVER &optional DEFINITIONS)
18284 @var{server} is here the virtual server name. @var{definitions} is a
18285 list of @code{(VARIABLE VALUE)} pairs that define this virtual server.
18287 If the server can't be opened, no error should be signaled. The backend
18288 may then choose to refuse further attempts at connecting to this
18289 server. In fact, it should do so.
18291 If the server is opened already, this function should return a
18292 non-@code{nil} value. There should be no data returned.
18295 @item (nnchoke-close-server &optional SERVER)
18297 Close connection to @var{server} and free all resources connected
18298 to it. Return @code{nil} if the server couldn't be closed for some
18301 There should be no data returned.
18304 @item (nnchoke-request-close)
18306 Close connection to all servers and free all resources that the backend
18307 have reserved. All buffers that have been created by that backend
18308 should be killed. (Not the @code{nntp-server-buffer}, though.) This
18309 function is generally only called when Gnus is shutting down.
18311 There should be no data returned.
18314 @item (nnchoke-server-opened &optional SERVER)
18316 If @var{server} is the current virtual server, and the connection to the
18317 physical server is alive, then this function should return a
18318 non-@code{nil} vlue. This function should under no circumstances
18319 attempt to reconnect to a server we have lost connection to.
18321 There should be no data returned.
18324 @item (nnchoke-status-message &optional SERVER)
18326 This function should return the last error message from @var{server}.
18328 There should be no data returned.
18331 @item (nnchoke-request-article ARTICLE &optional GROUP SERVER TO-BUFFER)
18333 The result data from this function should be the article specified by
18334 @var{article}. This might either be a @code{Message-ID} or a number.
18335 It is optional whether to implement retrieval by @code{Message-ID}, but
18336 it would be nice if that were possible.
18338 If @var{to-buffer} is non-@code{nil}, the result data should be returned
18339 in this buffer instead of the normal data buffer. This is to make it
18340 possible to avoid copying large amounts of data from one buffer to
18341 another, while Gnus mainly requests articles to be inserted directly
18342 into its article buffer.
18344 If it is at all possible, this function should return a cons cell where
18345 the @code{car} is the group name the article was fetched from, and the @code{cdr} is
18346 the article number. This will enable Gnus to find out what the real
18347 group and article numbers are when fetching articles by
18348 @code{Message-ID}. If this isn't possible, @code{t} should be returned
18349 on successful article retrieval.
18352 @item (nnchoke-request-group GROUP &optional SERVER FAST)
18354 Get data on @var{group}. This function also has the side effect of
18355 making @var{group} the current group.
18357 If @var{FAST}, don't bother to return useful data, just make @var{group}
18360 Here's an example of some result data and a definition of the same:
18363 211 56 1000 1059 ifi.discussion
18366 The first number is the status, which should be 211. Next is the
18367 total number of articles in the group, the lowest article number, the
18368 highest article number, and finally the group name. Note that the total
18369 number of articles may be less than one might think while just
18370 considering the highest and lowest article numbers, but some articles
18371 may have been canceled. Gnus just discards the total-number, so
18372 whether one should take the bother to generate it properly (if that is a
18373 problem) is left as an exercise to the reader.
18376 group-status = [ error / info ] eol
18377 error = [ "4" / "5" ] 2<number> " " <Error message>
18378 info = "211 " 3* [ <number> " " ] <string>
18382 @item (nnchoke-close-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
18384 Close @var{group} and free any resources connected to it. This will be
18385 a no-op on most backends.
18387 There should be no data returned.
18390 @item (nnchoke-request-list &optional SERVER)
18392 Return a list of all groups available on @var{server}. And that means
18395 Here's an example from a server that only carries two groups:
18398 ifi.test 0000002200 0000002000 y
18399 ifi.discussion 3324 3300 n
18402 On each line we have a group name, then the highest article number in
18403 that group, the lowest article number, and finally a flag.
18406 active-file = *active-line
18407 active-line = name " " <number> " " <number> " " flags eol
18409 flags = "n" / "y" / "m" / "x" / "j" / "=" name
18412 The flag says whether the group is read-only (@samp{n}), is moderated
18413 (@samp{m}), is dead (@samp{x}), is aliased to some other group
18414 (@samp{=other-group}) or none of the above (@samp{y}).
18417 @item (nnchoke-request-post &optional SERVER)
18419 This function should post the current buffer. It might return whether
18420 the posting was successful or not, but that's not required. If, for
18421 instance, the posting is done asynchronously, it has generally not been
18422 completed by the time this function concludes. In that case, this
18423 function should set up some kind of sentinel to beep the user loud and
18424 clear if the posting could not be completed.
18426 There should be no result data from this function.
18431 @node Optional Backend Functions
18432 @subsubsection Optional Backend Functions
18436 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-groups GROUPS &optional SERVER)
18438 @var{groups} is a list of groups, and this function should request data
18439 on all those groups. How it does it is of no concern to Gnus, but it
18440 should attempt to do this in a speedy fashion.
18442 The return value of this function can be either @code{active} or
18443 @code{group}, which says what the format of the result data is. The
18444 former is in the same format as the data from
18445 @code{nnchoke-request-list}, while the latter is a buffer full of lines
18446 in the same format as @code{nnchoke-request-group} gives.
18449 group-buffer = *active-line / *group-status
18453 @item (nnchoke-request-update-info GROUP INFO &optional SERVER)
18455 A Gnus group info (@pxref{Group Info}) is handed to the backend for
18456 alterations. This comes in handy if the backend really carries all the
18457 information (as is the case with virtual and imap groups). This
18458 function should destructively alter the info to suit its needs, and
18459 should return the (altered) group info.
18461 There should be no result data from this function.
18464 @item (nnchoke-request-type GROUP &optional ARTICLE)
18466 When the user issues commands for ``sending news'' (@kbd{F} in the
18467 summary buffer, for instance), Gnus has to know whether the article the
18468 user is following up on is news or mail. This function should return
18469 @code{news} if @var{article} in @var{group} is news, @code{mail} if it
18470 is mail and @code{unknown} if the type can't be decided. (The
18471 @var{article} parameter is necessary in @code{nnvirtual} groups which
18472 might very well combine mail groups and news groups.) Both @var{group}
18473 and @var{article} may be @code{nil}.
18475 There should be no result data from this function.
18478 @item (nnchoke-request-update-mark GROUP ARTICLE MARK)
18480 If the user tries to set a mark that the backend doesn't like, this
18481 function may change the mark. Gnus will use whatever this function
18482 returns as the mark for @var{article} instead of the original
18483 @var{mark}. If the backend doesn't care, it must return the original
18484 @var{mark}, and not @code{nil} or any other type of garbage.
18486 The only use for this I can see is what @code{nnvirtual} does with
18487 it---if a component group is auto-expirable, marking an article as read
18488 in the virtual group should result in the article being marked as
18491 There should be no result data from this function.
18494 @item (nnchoke-request-scan &optional GROUP SERVER)
18496 This function may be called at any time (by Gnus or anything else) to
18497 request that the backend check for incoming articles, in one way or
18498 another. A mail backend will typically read the spool file or query the
18499 POP server when this function is invoked. The @var{group} doesn't have
18500 to be heeded---if the backend decides that it is too much work just
18501 scanning for a single group, it may do a total scan of all groups. It
18502 would be nice, however, to keep things local if that's practical.
18504 There should be no result data from this function.
18507 @item (nnchoke-request-group-description GROUP &optional SERVER)
18509 The result data from this function should be a description of
18513 description-line = name <TAB> description eol
18515 description = <text>
18518 @item (nnchoke-request-list-newsgroups &optional SERVER)
18520 The result data from this function should be the description of all
18521 groups available on the server.
18524 description-buffer = *description-line
18528 @item (nnchoke-request-newgroups DATE &optional SERVER)
18530 The result data from this function should be all groups that were
18531 created after @samp{date}, which is in normal human-readable date
18532 format. The data should be in the active buffer format.
18535 @item (nnchoke-request-create-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
18537 This function should create an empty group with name @var{group}.
18539 There should be no return data.
18542 @item (nnchoke-request-expire-articles ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FORCE)
18544 This function should run the expiry process on all articles in the
18545 @var{articles} range (which is currently a simple list of article
18546 numbers.) It is left up to the backend to decide how old articles
18547 should be before they are removed by this function. If @var{force} is
18548 non-@code{nil}, all @var{articles} should be deleted, no matter how new
18551 This function should return a list of articles that it did not/was not
18554 There should be no result data returned.
18557 @item (nnchoke-request-move-article ARTICLE GROUP SERVER ACCEPT-FORM
18560 This function should move @var{article} (which is a number) from
18561 @var{group} by calling @var{accept-form}.
18563 This function should ready the article in question for moving by
18564 removing any header lines it has added to the article, and generally
18565 should ``tidy up'' the article. Then it should @code{eval}
18566 @var{accept-form} in the buffer where the ``tidy'' article is. This
18567 will do the actual copying. If this @code{eval} returns a
18568 non-@code{nil} value, the article should be removed.
18570 If @var{last} is @code{nil}, that means that there is a high likelihood
18571 that there will be more requests issued shortly, so that allows some
18574 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
18575 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
18577 There should be no data returned.
18580 @item (nnchoke-request-accept-article GROUP &optional SERVER LAST)
18582 This function takes the current buffer and inserts it into @var{group}.
18583 If @var{last} in @code{nil}, that means that there will be more calls to
18584 this function in short order.
18586 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
18587 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
18589 There should be no data returned.
18592 @item (nnchoke-request-replace-article ARTICLE GROUP BUFFER)
18594 This function should remove @var{article} (which is a number) from
18595 @var{group} and insert @var{buffer} there instead.
18597 There should be no data returned.
18600 @item (nnchoke-request-delete-group GROUP FORCE &optional SERVER)
18602 This function should delete @var{group}. If @var{force}, it should
18603 really delete all the articles in the group, and then delete the group
18604 itself. (If there is such a thing as ``the group itself''.)
18606 There should be no data returned.
18609 @item (nnchoke-request-rename-group GROUP NEW-NAME &optional SERVER)
18611 This function should rename @var{group} into @var{new-name}. All
18612 articles in @var{group} should move to @var{new-name}.
18614 There should be no data returned.
18619 @node Error Messaging
18620 @subsubsection Error Messaging
18622 @findex nnheader-report
18623 @findex nnheader-get-report
18624 The backends should use the function @code{nnheader-report} to report
18625 error conditions---they should not raise errors when they aren't able to
18626 perform a request. The first argument to this function is the backend
18627 symbol, and the rest are interpreted as arguments to @code{format} if
18628 there are multiple of them, or just a string if there is one of them.
18629 This function must always returns @code{nil}.
18632 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "You did something totally bogus")
18634 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "Could not request group %s" group)
18637 Gnus, in turn, will call @code{nnheader-get-report} when it gets a
18638 @code{nil} back from a server, and this function returns the most
18639 recently reported message for the backend in question. This function
18640 takes one argument---the server symbol.
18642 Internally, these functions access @var{backend}@code{-status-string},
18643 so the @code{nnchoke} backend will have its error message stored in
18644 @code{nnchoke-status-string}.
18647 @node Writing New Backends
18648 @subsubsection Writing New Backends
18650 Many backends are quite similar. @code{nnml} is just like
18651 @code{nnspool}, but it allows you to edit the articles on the server.
18652 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, but it doesn't use an active file,
18653 and it doesn't maintain overview databases. @code{nndir} is just like
18654 @code{nnml}, but it has no concept of ``groups'', and it doesn't allow
18657 It would make sense if it were possible to ``inherit'' functions from
18658 backends when writing new backends. And, indeed, you can do that if you
18659 want to. (You don't have to if you don't want to, of course.)
18661 All the backends declare their public variables and functions by using a
18662 package called @code{nnoo}.
18664 To inherit functions from other backends (and allow other backends to
18665 inherit functions from the current backend), you should use the
18671 This macro declares the first parameter to be a child of the subsequent
18672 parameters. For instance:
18675 (nnoo-declare nndir
18679 @code{nndir} has declared here that it intends to inherit functions from
18680 both @code{nnml} and @code{nnmh}.
18683 This macro is equivalent to @code{defvar}, but registers the variable as
18684 a public server variable. Most state-oriented variables should be
18685 declared with @code{defvoo} instead of @code{defvar}.
18687 In addition to the normal @code{defvar} parameters, it takes a list of
18688 variables in the parent backends to map the variable to when executing
18689 a function in those backends.
18692 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
18693 "Where nndir will look for groups."
18694 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
18697 This means that @code{nnml-current-directory} will be set to
18698 @code{nndir-directory} when an @code{nnml} function is called on behalf
18699 of @code{nndir}. (The same with @code{nnmh}.)
18701 @item nnoo-define-basics
18702 This macro defines some common functions that almost all backends should
18706 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
18710 This macro is just like @code{defun} and takes the same parameters. In
18711 addition to doing the normal @code{defun} things, it registers the
18712 function as being public so that other backends can inherit it.
18714 @item nnoo-map-functions
18715 This macro allows mapping of functions from the current backend to
18716 functions from the parent backends.
18719 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
18720 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
18721 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0))
18724 This means that when @code{nndir-retrieve-headers} is called, the first,
18725 third, and fourth parameters will be passed on to
18726 @code{nnml-retrieve-headers}, while the second parameter is set to the
18727 value of @code{nndir-current-group}.
18730 This macro allows importing functions from backends. It should be the
18731 last thing in the source file, since it will only define functions that
18732 haven't already been defined.
18738 nnmh-request-newgroups)
18742 This means that calls to @code{nndir-request-list} should just be passed
18743 on to @code{nnmh-request-list}, while all public functions from
18744 @code{nnml} that haven't been defined in @code{nndir} yet should be
18749 Below is a slightly shortened version of the @code{nndir} backend.
18752 ;;; nndir.el --- single directory newsgroup access for Gnus
18753 ;; Copyright (C) 1995,96 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
18757 (require 'nnheader)
18761 (eval-when-compile (require 'cl))
18763 (nnoo-declare nndir
18766 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
18767 "Where nndir will look for groups."
18768 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
18770 (defvoo nndir-nov-is-evil nil
18771 "*Non-nil means that nndir will never retrieve NOV headers."
18774 (defvoo nndir-current-group "" nil nnml-current-group nnmh-current-group)
18775 (defvoo nndir-top-directory nil nil nnml-directory nnmh-directory)
18776 (defvoo nndir-get-new-mail nil nil nnml-get-new-mail nnmh-get-new-mail)
18778 (defvoo nndir-status-string "" nil nnmh-status-string)
18779 (defconst nndir-version "nndir 1.0")
18781 ;;; Interface functions.
18783 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
18785 (deffoo nndir-open-server (server &optional defs)
18786 (setq nndir-directory
18787 (or (cadr (assq 'nndir-directory defs))
18789 (unless (assq 'nndir-directory defs)
18790 (push `(nndir-directory ,server) defs))
18791 (push `(nndir-current-group
18792 ,(file-name-nondirectory (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
18794 (push `(nndir-top-directory
18795 ,(file-name-directory (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
18797 (nnoo-change-server 'nndir server defs))
18799 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
18800 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
18801 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
18802 (nnmh-request-group nndir-current-group 0 0)
18803 (nnmh-close-group nndir-current-group 0))
18807 nnmh-status-message
18809 nnmh-request-newgroups))
18815 @node Hooking New Backends Into Gnus
18816 @subsubsection Hooking New Backends Into Gnus
18818 @vindex gnus-valid-select-methods
18819 Having Gnus start using your new backend is rather easy---you just
18820 declare it with the @code{gnus-declare-backend} functions. This will
18821 enter the backend into the @code{gnus-valid-select-methods} variable.
18823 @code{gnus-declare-backend} takes two parameters---the backend name and
18824 an arbitrary number of @dfn{abilities}.
18829 (gnus-declare-backend "nnchoke" 'mail 'respool 'address)
18832 The abilities can be:
18836 This is a mailish backend---followups should (probably) go via mail.
18838 This is a newsish backend---followups should (probably) go via news.
18840 This backend supports both mail and news.
18842 This is neither a post nor mail backend---it's something completely
18845 It supports respooling---or rather, it is able to modify its source
18846 articles and groups.
18848 The name of the server should be in the virtual server name. This is
18849 true for almost all backends.
18850 @item prompt-address
18851 The user should be prompted for an address when doing commands like
18852 @kbd{B} in the group buffer. This is true for backends like
18853 @code{nntp}, but not @code{nnmbox}, for instance.
18857 @node Mail-like Backends
18858 @subsubsection Mail-like Backends
18860 One of the things that separate the mail backends from the rest of the
18861 backends is the heavy dependence by the mail backends on common
18862 functions in @file{nnmail.el}. For instance, here's the definition of
18863 @code{nnml-request-scan}:
18866 (deffoo nnml-request-scan (&optional group server)
18867 (setq nnml-article-file-alist nil)
18868 (nnmail-get-new-mail 'nnml 'nnml-save-nov nnml-directory group))
18871 It simply calls @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} with a few parameters,
18872 and @code{nnmail} takes care of all the moving and splitting of the
18875 This function takes four parameters.
18879 This should be a symbol to designate which backend is responsible for
18882 @item exit-function
18883 This function should be called after the splitting has been performed.
18885 @item temp-directory
18886 Where the temporary files should be stored.
18889 This optional argument should be a group name if the splitting is to be
18890 performed for one group only.
18893 @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} will call @var{backend}@code{-save-mail} to
18894 save each article. @var{backend}@code{-active-number} will be called to
18895 find the article number assigned to this article.
18897 The function also uses the following variables:
18898 @var{backend}@code{-get-new-mail} (to see whether to get new mail for
18899 this backend); and @var{backend}@code{-group-alist} and
18900 @var{backend}@code{-active-file} to generate the new active file.
18901 @var{backend}@code{-group-alist} should be a group-active alist, like
18905 (("a-group" (1 . 10))
18906 ("some-group" (34 . 39)))
18910 @node Score File Syntax
18911 @subsection Score File Syntax
18913 Score files are meant to be easily parsable, but yet extremely
18914 mallable. It was decided that something that had the same read syntax
18915 as an Emacs Lisp list would fit that spec.
18917 Here's a typical score file:
18921 ("win95" -10000 nil s)
18928 BNF definition of a score file:
18931 score-file = "" / "(" *element ")"
18932 element = rule / atom
18933 rule = string-rule / number-rule / date-rule
18934 string-rule = "(" quote string-header quote space *string-match ")"
18935 number-rule = "(" quote number-header quote space *number-match ")"
18936 date-rule = "(" quote date-header quote space *date-match ")"
18938 string-header = "subject" / "from" / "references" / "message-id" /
18939 "xref" / "body" / "head" / "all" / "followup"
18940 number-header = "lines" / "chars"
18941 date-header = "date"
18942 string-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
18943 space date [ "" / [ space string-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
18944 score = "nil" / <integer>
18945 date = "nil" / <natural number>
18946 string-match-t = "nil" / "s" / "substring" / "S" / "Substring" /
18947 "r" / "regex" / "R" / "Regex" /
18948 "e" / "exact" / "E" / "Exact" /
18949 "f" / "fuzzy" / "F" / "Fuzzy"
18950 number-match = "(" <integer> [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
18951 space date [ "" / [ space number-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
18952 number-match-t = "nil" / "=" / "<" / ">" / ">=" / "<="
18953 date-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
18954 space date [ "" / [ space date-match-t ] ] ] ] ")"
18955 date-match-t = "nil" / "at" / "before" / "after"
18956 atom = "(" [ required-atom / optional-atom ] ")"
18957 required-atom = mark / expunge / mark-and-expunge / files /
18958 exclude-files / read-only / touched
18959 optional-atom = adapt / local / eval
18960 mark = "mark" space nil-or-number
18961 nil-or-number = "nil" / <integer>
18962 expunge = "expunge" space nil-or-number
18963 mark-and-expunge = "mark-and-expunge" space nil-or-number
18964 files = "files" *[ space <string> ]
18965 exclude-files = "exclude-files" *[ space <string> ]
18966 read-only = "read-only" [ space "nil" / space "t" ]
18967 adapt = "adapt" [ space "ignore" / space "t" / space adapt-rule ]
18968 adapt-rule = "(" *[ <string> *[ "(" <string> <integer> ")" ] ")"
18969 local = "local" *[ space "(" <string> space <form> ")" ]
18970 eval = "eval" space <form>
18971 space = *[ " " / <TAB> / <NEWLINE> ]
18974 Any unrecognized elements in a score file should be ignored, but not
18977 As you can see, white space is needed, but the type and amount of white
18978 space is irrelevant. This means that formatting of the score file is
18979 left up to the programmer---if it's simpler to just spew it all out on
18980 one looong line, then that's ok.
18982 The meaning of the various atoms are explained elsewhere in this
18983 manual (@pxref{Score File Format}).
18987 @subsection Headers
18989 Internally Gnus uses a format for storing article headers that
18990 corresponds to the @sc{nov} format in a mysterious fashion. One could
18991 almost suspect that the author looked at the @sc{nov} specification and
18992 just shamelessly @emph{stole} the entire thing, and one would be right.
18994 @dfn{Header} is a severely overloaded term. ``Header'' is used in
18995 RFC1036 to talk about lines in the head of an article (e.g.,
18996 @code{From}). It is used by many people as a synonym for
18997 ``head''---``the header and the body''. (That should be avoided, in my
18998 opinion.) And Gnus uses a format internally that it calls ``header'',
18999 which is what I'm talking about here. This is a 9-element vector,
19000 basically, with each header (ouch) having one slot.
19002 These slots are, in order: @code{number}, @code{subject}, @code{from},
19003 @code{date}, @code{id}, @code{references}, @code{chars}, @code{lines},
19004 @code{xref}. There are macros for accessing and setting these
19005 slots---they all have predictable names beginning with
19006 @code{mail-header-} and @code{mail-header-set-}, respectively.
19008 The @code{xref} slot is really a @code{misc} slot. Any extra info will
19015 @sc{gnus} introduced a concept that I found so useful that I've started
19016 using it a lot and have elaborated on it greatly.
19018 The question is simple: If you have a large amount of objects that are
19019 identified by numbers (say, articles, to take a @emph{wild} example)
19020 that you want to qualify as being ``included'', a normal sequence isn't
19021 very useful. (A 200,000 length sequence is a bit long-winded.)
19023 The solution is as simple as the question: You just collapse the
19027 (1 2 3 4 5 6 10 11 12)
19030 is transformed into
19033 ((1 . 6) (10 . 12))
19036 To avoid having those nasty @samp{(13 . 13)} elements to denote a
19037 lonesome object, a @samp{13} is a valid element:
19040 ((1 . 6) 7 (10 . 12))
19043 This means that comparing two ranges to find out whether they are equal
19044 is slightly tricky:
19047 ((1 . 5) 7 8 (10 . 12))
19053 ((1 . 5) (7 . 8) (10 . 12))
19056 are equal. In fact, any non-descending list is a range:
19062 is a perfectly valid range, although a pretty long-winded one. This is
19069 and is equal to the previous range.
19071 Here's a BNF definition of ranges. Of course, one must remember the
19072 semantic requirement that the numbers are non-descending. (Any number
19073 of repetition of the same number is allowed, but apt to disappear in
19077 range = simple-range / normal-range
19078 simple-range = "(" number " . " number ")"
19079 normal-range = "(" start-contents ")"
19080 contents = "" / simple-range *[ " " contents ] /
19081 number *[ " " contents ]
19084 Gnus currently uses ranges to keep track of read articles and article
19085 marks. I plan on implementing a number of range operators in C if The
19086 Powers That Be are willing to let me. (I haven't asked yet, because I
19087 need to do some more thinking on what operators I need to make life
19088 totally range-based without ever having to convert back to normal
19093 @subsection Group Info
19095 Gnus stores all permanent info on groups in a @dfn{group info} list.
19096 This list is from three to six elements (or more) long and exhaustively
19097 describes the group.
19099 Here are two example group infos; one is a very simple group while the
19100 second is a more complex one:
19103 ("no.group" 5 (1 . 54324))
19105 ("nnml:my.mail" 3 ((1 . 5) 9 (20 . 55))
19106 ((tick (15 . 19)) (replied 3 6 (19 . 3)))
19108 ((auto-expire . t) (to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")))
19111 The first element is the @dfn{group name}---as Gnus knows the group,
19112 anyway. The second element is the @dfn{subscription level}, which
19113 normally is a small integer. (It can also be the @dfn{rank}, which is a
19114 cons cell where the @code{car} is the level and the @code{cdr} is the
19115 score.) The third element is a list of ranges of read articles. The
19116 fourth element is a list of lists of article marks of various kinds.
19117 The fifth element is the select method (or virtual server, if you like).
19118 The sixth element is a list of @dfn{group parameters}, which is what
19119 this section is about.
19121 Any of the last three elements may be missing if they are not required.
19122 In fact, the vast majority of groups will normally only have the first
19123 three elements, which saves quite a lot of cons cells.
19125 Here's a BNF definition of the group info format:
19128 info = "(" group space ralevel space read
19129 [ "" / [ space marks-list [ "" / [ space method [ "" /
19130 space parameters ] ] ] ] ] ")"
19131 group = quote <string> quote
19132 ralevel = rank / level
19133 level = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
19134 rank = "(" level "." score ")"
19135 score = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
19137 marks-lists = nil / "(" *marks ")"
19138 marks = "(" <string> range ")"
19139 method = "(" <string> *elisp-forms ")"
19140 parameters = "(" *elisp-forms ")"
19143 Actually that @samp{marks} rule is a fib. A @samp{marks} is a
19144 @samp{<string>} consed on to a @samp{range}, but that's a bitch to say
19147 If you have a Gnus info and want to access the elements, Gnus offers a
19148 series of macros for getting/setting these elements.
19151 @item gnus-info-group
19152 @itemx gnus-info-set-group
19153 @findex gnus-info-group
19154 @findex gnus-info-set-group
19155 Get/set the group name.
19157 @item gnus-info-rank
19158 @itemx gnus-info-set-rank
19159 @findex gnus-info-rank
19160 @findex gnus-info-set-rank
19161 Get/set the group rank (@pxref{Group Score}).
19163 @item gnus-info-level
19164 @itemx gnus-info-set-level
19165 @findex gnus-info-level
19166 @findex gnus-info-set-level
19167 Get/set the group level.
19169 @item gnus-info-score
19170 @itemx gnus-info-set-score
19171 @findex gnus-info-score
19172 @findex gnus-info-set-score
19173 Get/set the group score (@pxref{Group Score}).
19175 @item gnus-info-read
19176 @itemx gnus-info-set-read
19177 @findex gnus-info-read
19178 @findex gnus-info-set-read
19179 Get/set the ranges of read articles.
19181 @item gnus-info-marks
19182 @itemx gnus-info-set-marks
19183 @findex gnus-info-marks
19184 @findex gnus-info-set-marks
19185 Get/set the lists of ranges of marked articles.
19187 @item gnus-info-method
19188 @itemx gnus-info-set-method
19189 @findex gnus-info-method
19190 @findex gnus-info-set-method
19191 Get/set the group select method.
19193 @item gnus-info-params
19194 @itemx gnus-info-set-params
19195 @findex gnus-info-params
19196 @findex gnus-info-set-params
19197 Get/set the group parameters.
19200 All the getter functions take one parameter---the info list. The setter
19201 functions take two parameters---the info list and the new value.
19203 The last three elements in the group info aren't mandatory, so it may be
19204 necessary to extend the group info before setting the element. If this
19205 is necessary, you can just pass on a non-@code{nil} third parameter to
19206 the three final setter functions to have this happen automatically.
19209 @node Extended Interactive
19210 @subsection Extended Interactive
19211 @cindex interactive
19212 @findex gnus-interactive
19214 Gnus extends the standard Emacs @code{interactive} specification
19215 slightly to allow easy use of the symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic
19216 Prefixes}). Here's an example of how this is used:
19219 (defun gnus-summary-increase-score (&optional score symp)
19220 (interactive (gnus-interactive "P\ny"))
19225 The best thing to do would have been to implement
19226 @code{gnus-interactive} as a macro which would have returned an
19227 @code{interactive} form, but this isn't possible since Emacs checks
19228 whether a function is interactive or not by simply doing an @code{assq}
19229 on the lambda form. So, instead we have @code{gnus-interactive}
19230 function that takes a string and returns values that are usable to
19231 @code{interactive}.
19233 This function accepts (almost) all normal @code{interactive} specs, but
19238 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbol
19239 The current symbolic prefix---the @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol}
19243 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbols
19244 A list of the current symbolic prefixes---the
19245 @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol} variable.
19248 The current article number---the @code{gnus-summary-article-number}
19252 The current article header---the @code{gnus-summary-article-header}
19256 The current group name---the @code{gnus-group-group-name}
19262 @node Emacs/XEmacs Code
19263 @subsection Emacs/XEmacs Code
19267 While Gnus runs under Emacs, XEmacs and Mule, I decided that one of the
19268 platforms must be the primary one. I chose Emacs. Not because I don't
19269 like XEmacs or Mule, but because it comes first alphabetically.
19271 This means that Gnus will byte-compile under Emacs with nary a warning,
19272 while XEmacs will pump out gigabytes of warnings while byte-compiling.
19273 As I use byte-compilation warnings to help me root out trivial errors in
19274 Gnus, that's very useful.
19276 I've also consistently used Emacs function interfaces, but have used
19277 Gnusey aliases for the functions. To take an example: Emacs defines a
19278 @code{run-at-time} function while XEmacs defines a @code{start-itimer}
19279 function. I then define a function called @code{gnus-run-at-time} that
19280 takes the same parameters as the Emacs @code{run-at-time}. When running
19281 Gnus under Emacs, the former function is just an alias for the latter.
19282 However, when running under XEmacs, the former is an alias for the
19283 following function:
19286 (defun gnus-xmas-run-at-time (time repeat function &rest args)
19290 (,function ,@@args))
19294 This sort of thing has been done for bunches of functions. Gnus does
19295 not redefine any native Emacs functions while running under XEmacs---it
19296 does this @code{defalias} thing with Gnus equivalents instead. Cleaner
19299 In the cases where the XEmacs function interface was obviously cleaner,
19300 I used it instead. For example @code{gnus-region-active-p} is an alias
19301 for @code{region-active-p} in XEmacs, whereas in Emacs it is a function.
19303 Of course, I could have chosen XEmacs as my native platform and done
19304 mapping functions the other way around. But I didn't. The performance
19305 hit these indirections impose on Gnus under XEmacs should be slight.
19308 @node Various File Formats
19309 @subsection Various File Formats
19312 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
19313 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
19317 @node Active File Format
19318 @subsubsection Active File Format
19320 The active file lists all groups available on the server in
19321 question. It also lists the highest and lowest current article numbers
19324 Here's an excerpt from a typical active file:
19327 soc.motss 296030 293865 y
19328 alt.binaries.pictures.fractals 3922 3913 n
19329 comp.sources.unix 1605 1593 m
19330 comp.binaries.ibm.pc 5097 5089 y
19331 no.general 1000 900 y
19334 Here's a pseudo-BNF definition of this file:
19337 active = *group-line
19338 group-line = group space high-number space low-number space flag <NEWLINE>
19339 group = <non-white-space string>
19341 high-number = <non-negative integer>
19342 low-number = <positive integer>
19343 flag = "y" / "n" / "m" / "j" / "x" / "=" group
19346 For a full description of this file, see the manual pages for
19347 @samp{innd}, in particular @samp{active(5)}.
19350 @node Newsgroups File Format
19351 @subsubsection Newsgroups File Format
19353 The newsgroups file lists groups along with their descriptions. Not all
19354 groups on the server have to be listed, and not all groups in the file
19355 have to exist on the server. The file is meant purely as information to
19358 The format is quite simple; a group name, a tab, and the description.
19359 Here's the definition:
19363 line = group tab description <NEWLINE>
19364 group = <non-white-space string>
19366 description = <string>
19371 @node Emacs for Heathens
19372 @section Emacs for Heathens
19374 Believe it or not, but some people who use Gnus haven't really used
19375 Emacs much before they embarked on their journey on the Gnus Love Boat.
19376 If you are one of those unfortunates whom ``@kbd{M-C-a}'', ``kill the
19377 region'', and ``set @code{gnus-flargblossen} to an alist where the key
19378 is a regexp that is used for matching on the group name'' are magical
19379 phrases with little or no meaning, then this appendix is for you. If
19380 you are already familiar with Emacs, just ignore this and go fondle your
19384 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
19385 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
19390 @subsection Keystrokes
19394 Q: What is an experienced Emacs user?
19397 A: A person who wishes that the terminal had pedals.
19400 Yes, when you use Emacs, you are apt to use the control key, the shift
19401 key and the meta key a lot. This is very annoying to some people
19402 (notably @code{vi}le users), and the rest of us just love the hell out
19403 of it. Just give up and submit. Emacs really does stand for
19404 ``Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift'', and not ``Editing Macros'', as you
19405 may have heard from other disreputable sources (like the Emacs author).
19407 The shift keys are normally located near your pinky fingers, and are
19408 normally used to get capital letters and stuff. You probably use it all
19409 the time. The control key is normally marked ``CTRL'' or something like
19410 that. The meta key is, funnily enough, never marked as such on any
19411 keyboard. The one I'm currently at has a key that's marked ``Alt'',
19412 which is the meta key on this keyboard. It's usually located somewhere
19413 to the left hand side of the keyboard, usually on the bottom row.
19415 Now, us Emacs people don't say ``press the meta-control-m key'',
19416 because that's just too inconvenient. We say ``press the @kbd{M-C-m}
19417 key''. @kbd{M-} is the prefix that means ``meta'' and ``C-'' is the
19418 prefix that means ``control''. So ``press @kbd{C-k}'' means ``press
19419 down the control key, and hold it down while you press @kbd{k}''.
19420 ``Press @kbd{M-C-k}'' means ``press down and hold down the meta key and
19421 the control key and then press @kbd{k}''. Simple, ay?
19423 This is somewhat complicated by the fact that not all keyboards have a
19424 meta key. In that case you can use the ``escape'' key. Then @kbd{M-k}
19425 means ``press escape, release escape, press @kbd{k}''. That's much more
19426 work than if you have a meta key, so if that's the case, I respectfully
19427 suggest you get a real keyboard with a meta key. You can't live without
19433 @subsection Emacs Lisp
19435 Emacs is the King of Editors because it's really a Lisp interpreter.
19436 Each and every key you tap runs some Emacs Lisp code snippet, and since
19437 Emacs Lisp is an interpreted language, that means that you can configure
19438 any key to run any arbitrary code. You just, like, do it.
19440 Gnus is written in Emacs Lisp, and is run as a bunch of interpreted
19441 functions. (These are byte-compiled for speed, but it's still
19442 interpreted.) If you decide that you don't like the way Gnus does
19443 certain things, it's trivial to have it do something a different way.
19444 (Well, at least if you know how to write Lisp code.) However, that's
19445 beyond the scope of this manual, so we are simply going to talk about
19446 some common constructs that you normally use in your @file{.emacs} file
19449 If you want to set the variable @code{gnus-florgbnize} to four (4), you
19450 write the following:
19453 (setq gnus-florgbnize 4)
19456 This function (really ``special form'') @code{setq} is the one that can
19457 set a variable to some value. This is really all you need to know. Now
19458 you can go and fill your @code{.emacs} file with lots of these to change
19461 If you have put that thing in your @code{.emacs} file, it will be read
19462 and @code{eval}ed (which is lisp-ese for ``run'') the next time you
19463 start Emacs. If you want to change the variable right away, simply say
19464 @kbd{C-x C-e} after the closing parenthesis. That will @code{eval} the
19465 previous ``form'', which is a simple @code{setq} statement here.
19467 Go ahead---just try it, if you're located at your Emacs. After you
19468 @kbd{C-x C-e}, you will see @samp{4} appear in the echo area, which
19469 is the return value of the form you @code{eval}ed.
19473 If the manual says ``set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{some}'',
19477 (setq gnus-read-active-file 'some)
19480 On the other hand, if the manual says ``set @code{gnus-nntp-server} to
19481 @samp{nntp.ifi.uio.no}'', that means:
19484 (setq gnus-nntp-server "nntp.ifi.uio.no")
19487 So be careful not to mix up strings (the latter) with symbols (the
19488 former). The manual is unambiguous, but it can be confusing.
19491 @include gnus-faq.texi